[Dread]

Heftier week than expected to close out June, but that is only because two unofficial "bi-month" titles, DYNAMO 5 from Image and THOR from Marvel decided to ship; both are $3.50 or over in price. Still, eight books isn't a massive week, just a larger than average week (my average is about 5-7 books a week). A few DARK REIGN mini's launched, but I didn't touch them. We also have one book about to swap from ongoing to "haitus mini" to charge an extra buck.

As always, rants and spoilers fly faster than clay in a THREE STOOGES short 'round here.

Dread's Bought/Thought for 6/24/09:

DYNAMO 5 #22: This and THOR have found themselves on the same schedule; both having last shipped issues in April and having become notorious for running months behind. I probably have more sympathy for D5 here, though. It only sells 13k or less a month when it ships, for one. Furthermore, it finds a middle-ground in price between $2.99 and $3.99, sporting a $3.50 price for 20 out of the last 22 issues. The book was $2.99 for two issues after the first arc, and issue 0 was 99 cents. Of course, most issues are about 20 pages, with ads in the back. With NOBLE CAUSES having ended after issue fifty and the GEMINI mini having fallen WAY off schedule, this is Jay Faerber's only title at the moment. Part of me wonders if he is pondering a return to Marvel; he did make his rep there, writing NEW WARRIORS years ago (among other work). His co-creator on D5 and regular artist Asrar has been getting sporadic work at Marvel's space division; in fact that is why Cinar has had to come in for the last two issues and contribute heavily to pencils (he draws 6 pages this issue). Despite that, the two artists' work gell, and don't feel jarring. It's not like, say, Ramos and Hitch drawing an issue.

This issue continues more of what Faerber has usually done well with this franchise. DYNAMO 5 isn't a work that reinvents the wheel of team superhero comics; it merely accepts what it is, and does it quite well. It doesn't shy away from obligatory fight sequences yet always has enough character development among the five half-siblings that one rarely feels cheated. This issue continues from a subplot last issue of Maddie investigating the disappearances of an old associate's husband. It turns out they all worked for the same lab, and five scientists are missing. Maddie stumbles upon a hulking creature with five brains, dubbed Brain Trust. It's a cheesy name, but it works. He's a massive guy powered with the psychic powers of five brains and apparently has a huge body to match. One of them, Frank, is the weakest link of the group, being most eager to return to his body and not be violent; the other four are far less merciful. Maddie summons the D5 and the battle takes up most of the issue.

Another of Capt. Dynamo's children, Synergy, who has all of his combined powers, is working with the malicious Father Gideon and planning some attack on the Five, having just stolen a "Dynamo Gun" to even the odds.

The questionable subplot is one similar to Heinberg's on his run on YOUNG AVENGERS (what feels like ten years ago), is having the obligatory black guy on the team be a drug user, specifically steroids. It is a bit of a cliche that even the TEEN TITANS cartoon got into with a Cyborg episode. Granted, Spencer/Myraid is a bit more complicated, being half White Male Metahuman, and Half Alien, who chooses the form of a black man as his base look; but the effect is still the same. The story isn't a deal-breaker, but is a bit of a tired cliche of a subplot that is playing out exactly as you would imagine it would (Myraid is relying on the drug, called Flex, more and more in battle to boost his physique, but of course he OD's and turns into a monster, in this case Whiplash, the Lizard cipher), and it is a bit tired. I suppose it would have been an equal cliche to have Gage/Scatterbrain be the user since he's the jock, but can't there be another way? Women never use steroids? Faerber usually has a way of living up to genre expectations and cliches while putting his own tweak on them, but this subplot is strictly by the numbers. I wouldn't have minded a tweak on it, or someone other than exactly the member of the team you would expect to be using.

The issue also introduced Sgt. Flagstone, who is apparently a Captain America type figure, crossed with a bit of Sgt. Rock and the Thing. It's only two pages but he looked cool. Unlike Marvel, Image isn't afriad of smokers; the guy sports a stogie even while fighting Nazi's in newsreels.

Aside for the subplot, a fine issue. The action is well paced, some amusing lines, the team's defined and Brain Trust is a decent new villain. While this is a hard title to recommend, I will say that some readers miffed at Kirkman's forways into darkness in INVINCIBLE might be worth giving the trades a try. It's a team superhero book executed well without trying to be more than it is, and really should sell better than it does. No way is it worse than ULTIMATUM.

AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #25: The end of Christos Gage's first arc as solo-writer as well as Humbert Ramos' run as artist concludes without a hitch. While this title wasn't Slott's best work, I often defended it from detractors and enjoyed it, and while I mean the man no offense, but Gage has seemed to really run with it since Slott's left, executing stories and characters he created or helped build up but in ways that flow better. That isn't to say this book written and co-written by Slott wasn't awesome, it was. This is just slightly more awesome.

Decompression detractors rejoice, Gage maintains the memo of having a lot happen in most of his issues, and a lot happens here. It is basically a summary of the last 4-5 issues, an epilogue of sorts but also builds towards where the book is going now that Dark Reign is here. It still has a lot of life yet even without the Initiative being canceled, at least in Iron Man's eyes. Osborn is running the show and remodeling the program from the ground up, choosing Taskmaster as his man to run "Camp HAMMER" as well as train his army of crooks to "pretend" to be heroes for the public.

The New Warriors return the original MVP's body to his mourning father, who not only is saddened by the loss of his son, but how the government exploited and cloned him, then lied about it. He agrees to allow the clone "most" like his son remain with him, which can't be the best mental health option for him (just look at how "well" Pym is getting over Janet with Jocasta), but still human, although it leaves the last "Scarlet Spider" (or Patrick; his brothers Michael and Van being killed) alone and without a home. The New Warriors agree to let him stay, but have to go underground as Osborn has spun them as the cause of Camp Hammond's destruction by Ragnarok/Clor.

Taskmaster suggests needing "legit" heroes along for their ride to better convince the public, and the first order of business is rehabilitating Penance, a.k.a. "Emoball" or "The Hero Formerly Known as Speedball", who is a psycho mockery of himself. Metaphorically, he is probably Osborn's version of Mutant Zero (Typhoid Mary, then working for Stark's Shadow Initiative). Paul Jenkins left nothing to do with the whack-job he created, so I commend Gage for at least trying to go through the work of rehabbing Baldwin. Diamondback and Prodigy agree to remain on hand for Osborn's camp, the latter because Osborn's treated him better than Stark did. Trauma is blackmailed by Hood into remaining as therapist for Osborn's platoon of freaks, as Hood knows about his father being Nightmare, and his mother being insane. Gravity has been demoted as leader of Nevada's Heavy Hitters and assigned to his home state of Wisconsin, where he is greeted by the Great Lakes Champions (Ramos mangles Squirrel Girl a little, but otherwise it is hilarious; Gravity is actually a competent hero). This of course leaves Tigra and Gauntlet to decide their fate; stay or go?

Both quickly find themselves with their backs against the wall by Osborn. Tigra is gung ho until Osborn not only reveals his order that Tigra have an abortion of her "Skrull fetus" so it can be experimented on, but that The Hood is working with him and is in overall command of the new Camp. Gauntlet, meanwhile, is left without options when Osborn displays his wish to sever him from his Gauntlet, even at the price of Green's life. While Tigra's reaction was expected, it is interesting to see Gauntlet the military man actually working against his command for once, even for a greater good (or at least survival). He was a horrible jerk in past issues but since Gage has taken over Green has become a lot more rootable. He regrets his mistakes and just doesn't want to abandon his mates. I loved how Tigra managed to escape from Moonstone/Ms. Marvel and the tower. Gage is doing awesome by her as well; Tigra doesn't need a mini, just to be handled efficiently over a period of time. Gage has been doing that. Playing off her experiences as Avenger, solo heroine and even cop, Tigra vows to make Hood pay for his crimes. The duo make allies of each other as they flee from Osborn's flunkies (Griffen, Living Laser, Scorcher, and Razor-Fist) in the sewers, and quickly find themselves saved by the New Warriors. Tigra quickly realizes that she is among fellow C-List Avengers Justice and Rage, proclaiming them as "Avengers Resistance". Gauntlet, of course, notes the irony of how he used to use the words "New Warriors" as a slur to encourage rookie heroes to do better, and now he's running with them. Granted, I would expect the long-ago revealed subplot of Slapstick having once beaten Green into a coma for doing so to come up.

Yeah, lot of stuff happened. Other figures revealed as with Osborn on the final page besides the aforementioned figures are the U-Foes, the Brothers Grimm, Komodo, and Cutthroat.

Gage does well not to pigeon-hole himself into too much of a political agenda. While it is hard not to assume this is more Bush/Cheney commentary when Osborn says things like, "you'd be surprised the leeway I get in the interests of national security", then Osborn drops his "abortion by order" bit, and a storyline where a date-rape victim (which is almost what Tigra was, having slept with Pym's Skrull impostor for months) decides against all odds to actually keep her child is very clearly not something George Soros would approve of. Gage thus works better at making the story not seem one-sided than other writers. A subplot like Tigra's is intense without calling too much attention to itself yet, but it's worked in LAW AND ORDER: SVU after all.

Ramos' pencils are what they are. The more inhuman the character, the better they usually look under him. Honestly considering I didn't care for his RUNAWAYS art, his run on this book hasn't been so bad. His art mostly worked.

In fact my only reservation has nothing to do with this book, but it's place in Marvel as a whole. We have all these figures going after Osborn in various ways, from Spider-Man to Moon Knight to the Agents of Atlas and now the New Warriors, but obviously not a one of them can succeed in any meaningful way unless it happens under Bendis' pen in either NEW WARRIORS or whatever mini is inevitable to wrap the story. If the Hood is going to be taken out, it won't be in a 40k seller like this, it'll be in NEW AVENGERS, and that sense of real-world-ism is a distraction to Gage's convincing narrative of Tigra wanting her groove back, much as the only downside to AGENTS OF ATLAS is that in no way will they take Osborn down, either. On the other hand, if Marvel really wanted to propel some of these lower selling B and C list titles, they would hype up something important happening in them, and then actually allow it. Instead Marvel usually allows writers to go about their merry ways and while they may write fine stories, they may not matter as much to the cohesive event subplot. Invest 2-4 months of heavy hype into Hood getting his "for real" comeuppance in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE and it might see a sales spike. Lord knows Tigra could use the boost.

In conclusion, much like INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, this is a book that has gotten better with DARK REIGN, although it was an above average book to begin with. Gage is hitting a stride with all of these characters and while, yes, the premise of Osborn's rise to power and his media domination is ridiculous, but the aftermath is having a better foil than Iron Man. We wanted genuine bad guys to fight our heroes, and regardless of a whale of a premsie, that's what we have. I've never enjoyed the title more than I am now; in the last quarter it has quickly become one of my favorites. You get a lot of bang and characters for your three bucks, and some damn fine writing too!

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #15: Abnett & Lanning continue their WAR OF KINGS tie in as well as launch on this series, with Brad Walker seemingly being the regular artist lately. Which is fine, his stuff is good and works for the series. The best word to describe the situation the GOTG find themselves in is cluster****. The team's attempt to reason with both parties of the war have gone wrong, and has led to Warlock being on the run from the Imperial Guard for his fight against Vulcan, while Phyla has found herself taking Crystal hostage to try to force the Inhumans to cease their role in the war. This all leads to a massive battle on Knowhere between the GOTG, the Inhumans and the second stringers of the Imperial Guard (fellows like Mentor, Hussar and Fang).

The result are many pages of splendid battle drawn by Walker and a lot of memorable moments from Abnett & Lanning. Cosmo meeting Lockjaw! Jack Flag fighting for Cleveland! Mantis taking out Karnak before she would have lost to him! Phyla calling Crystal a "hottie"! And of course, Warlock showing off his inner Magus. Yeah, I am starting to really wonder if this is Adam at all. Magus could simply be his dark side, akin to a Hulk if you will for Banner, or the real Adam Warlock is still in his coccoon, with the Universal Church of Truth.

At any rate, Starkhawk takes the opportunity to teleport half the team elsewhere, just as the squad from the Starjammer mission return and school the rest of the Guard, forcing a retreat. Rocket SO gave Mentor space-rabies. Drax is awesome, and "I AM GROOT!" is still getting old, even if Major Victory tries to make it work. It appears the Abnett & Lanning solution to making a team with some fourteen active members work is to constantly split them up into two or three squads either as tactics or circumstance. I suppose that's the best way to do it, so everyone isn't short changed.

And the Celestial head that is Knowhere has just come to life.

This here is some fine space comic, grade A prime rib quality. I personally like NOVA just a bit more on average, but both are great books with terrific characters and sequences. It seems the universal threat that the Guardians are trying to prevent is rearing it's ugly head no matter what, and I am thrilled to see where things go from here. Not much else to type beyond another good effort. Further proof that it's all in the execution, that anything can be readable. Assuming whatever is executed is your taste.

Still to come: IMMORTAL IRON FIST #27, INCREDIBLE HERCULES #130, NOVA #26, TERROR, INC: APOCALYPSE SOON #3 & THOR #602.