A Very Corpulent Bought/Thought Thread for 09/22/10 - SPOILERS!

[Jay Faerber]

Thanks for the support, guys. While Dynamo 5's numbers could always stand to improve, the book is NOT going away. We're doing a Holiday Special in December, and then another mini-series sometime in 2011. We won't schedule it until we have a healthy amount done, which lets us actually hit our ship date -- something we've managed to do so far with this mini, which wasn't always the case with the ongoing. Obviously, we'd love to do a straight ongoing and have it come out on time each month. But since that doesn't seem possible, we're opting for the mini-series route. You don't get 12 issues a year, but you DO get the issues when they're solicited.

Again -- thanks for the support!

~ Jay

 

[WOLVERINE25TH]

Any Dynamo 5 is good Dynamo 5. You keep producing, me and Dread'll keep buying!

 

[hippie_hunter]

Doesn't Val know deals with Doom rarely end well? I also have to say, for a guy who doesn't like his kids, a super-genius and a reality warper, playing in his lab, maybe he shouldn't rig the genetic scanner to ONLY activate for Richards bloodline DNA. How about just HIS DNA? Maybe? Do I need a 12th level intellect to figure that out? I understand maybe wanting to allow them potential access during a crisis but...Val's about six. Franklin's probably not even twelve yet.

Valeria is different. While he would be totally willing to screw over the rest of the Fantastic Four, Doom has a soft spot for Val. She's also under the royal protection of Latveria.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Kristoff is back? No way! I really liked him back in the 90's when he was Reed's replacement on the team. Now I hope someone runs with the old plot of how he had a thing for Cassie Lang. I'd love to see that nowadays now that they're older.

 

[Hound55]

SHADOWLAND: MOON KNIGHT #2: Gregg Hurwitz and Bong Dazo continue on with their SL tie in, which reads more like additional issues of their canceled VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT title than in a mini series to the event. Marvel likely figured they'd make more dough selling the next three issues of Moon Knight as a side mini rather than keeping it around and having the final three issues tie into SHADOWLAND, likely due to the higher price. I'm enjoying it as additional Moon Knight material, which is going in a definite direction for the character rather than simply offering team-up stories. The only dilemma is that even the darkness is a bit predictable. Once Marlene revealed she was pregnant last issue, one could almost count the panels before something horrible happened.

While Spector has been busy trying to figure out what's going on in Shadowland, a new and crazier Shadowknight has arrived, only this time he has super-powers (borrowed from Cyclops - energy beams from the eyes). Found and manipulated by the Profile (on the request of Daredevil), he is seeking to goad Moon Knight into a showdown to get him out of DD's hair. The moon god Khonshu, irked that Spector has refused to kill in his name or obey his commands, has merrily allowed it to happen and may have even had a hand in manipulating it's events. Fortunately, Marlene survives Shadowknight's attack on their new home. Unfortunately, their unborn fetus does not. Only Luke Cage is allowed to successfully breed these days.

Spector has a brief fight with Daredevil, and much like Iron Fist & Shang Chi, realizes that he is not himself (he is being possessed by "the Beast", a demon that a cult of Hand ninja worship). "The Beast" even seeks to possess Spector, but Khonshu is not finished with him yet. A magical talisman/Maguffin is quickly introduced and is claimed to be the only way to defeat Daredevil now; I am curious whether it actually will be a big thing in SHADOWLAND proper or if it is just to keep Moon Knight busy. At any rate, Specter is pushed to the edge to find Marlene's attacker, and the issue ends with their furious battle starting. Who Shadowknight is, though, is surprising.

Hurwitz has a good sense of Moon Knight's history and knows how to play with it. Beforehand, the scene with Marc's father confronting him in the boxing ring was shown before, but Hurwitz knows how to make all the rights beats with it. The issue moved at a brisk pace, and Dazo's art was pretty good. I'm interested in the conclusion, and even if this may be it for Hurwitz on Moon Knight for now, at least the fist of Khonshu will be floating around SECRET AVENGERS, which sells more than triple what this does. It is a shame that Hurwitz hasn't had as long on Moon Knight as the prior volume, as I believe he has a decent handle on the character, even if some of his stories did fall into a bit of routine by the end of the last ongoing. Still, Marvel's hardly ignoring the character, so I'll just see where the next issue leaves him and follow along on SECRET AVENGERS, for now.

See I'm the opposite. As much as I saw Benson's run as a decline (which got deeper and deeper the longer it went) I feel Hurwitz has only a very tenuous grasp of the character at all.

I also loathe retcons at almost any time (although I understand that the origin of the character himself needed to be retconned) and I'm curious to see how [BLACKOUT]ShadowKnight/Randall Spector[/BLACKOUT] is anything but a retcon of some quality history, because I don't see how he could logically fit in without some of his history being re-written. I think it could be salvaged, but at this point I don't feel it has been explained enough (of course it WAS the big reveal... but I find the more faith I've put in Hurwitz the more he's disappointed me).

 

[Dread]

Thanks for the support, guys. While Dynamo 5's numbers could always stand to improve, the book is NOT going away. We're doing a Holiday Special in December, and then another mini-series sometime in 2011. We won't schedule it until we have a healthy amount done, which lets us actually hit our ship date -- something we've managed to do so far with this mini, which wasn't always the case with the ongoing. Obviously, we'd love to do a straight ongoing and have it come out on time each month. But since that doesn't seem possible, we're opting for the mini-series route. You don't get 12 issues a year, but you DO get the issues when they're solicited.

Again -- thanks for the support!

~ Jay

Good to hear that there'll be more DYNAMO 5, especially before 2011 and after this mini concludes in October. I have liked getting the issues on a more timely basis, since they're in the can at a proper schedule. Keep 'em coming, and I'll keep on readin' 'em.

Valeria is different. While he would be totally willing to screw over the rest of the Fantastic Four, Doom has a soft spot for Val. She's also under the royal protection of Latveria.

True. Dr. Doom did save her life and name her. Of course, he's also been willing to manipulate and use her. He's not the best uncle.

Kristoff is back? No way! I really liked him back in the 90's when he was Reed's replacement on the team. Now I hope someone runs with the old plot of how he had a thing for Cassie Lang. I'd love to see that nowadays now that they're older.

Technically, he isn't back - he's just been mentioned. Which is still better than nothing.

Hopefully, if he does appear, Hickman recalls that Kristoff was supposed to be the same age as Cassie Lang, who is around 15 now.

See I'm the opposite. As much as I saw Benson's run as a decline (which got deeper and deeper the longer it went) I feel Hurwitz has only a very tenuous grasp of the character at all.

I also loathe retcons at almost any time (although I understand that the origin of the character himself needed to be retconned) and I'm curious to see how [BLACKOUT]ShadowKnight/Randall Spector[/BLACKOUT] is anything but a retcon of some quality history, because I don't see how he could logically fit in without some of his history being re-written. I think it could be salvaged, but at this point I don't feel it has been explained enough (of course it WAS the big reveal... but I find the more faith I've put in Hurwitz the more he's disappointed me).

The problem with Moon Knight is he has very few villains, and whatever few of his decent ones were killed. Midnight/Midnight Man was one example from the Husten run. Randall Spector is another; to be honest, the idea of Marc's brother being axe-killer (literally) who dresses like him makes for a great conflict, and I'd argue he shouldn't have been killed in the first place. Besides, if Khonshu does have a hand in it, he may have resurrected Randall at one point as he has with Marc (twice, at least). For me it's a retcon that is working for me, but that's always a subjective thing.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Kristoff is back? No way! I really liked him back in the 90's when he was Reed's replacement on the team. Now I hope someone runs with the old plot of how he had a thing for Cassie Lang. I'd love to see that nowadays now that they're older.

Vision, Jr.'s gonna have to have a talk with him, if that's the case.

 

[Hound55]

The problem with Moon Knight is he has very few villains, and whatever few of his decent ones were killed. Midnight/Midnight Man was one example from the Husten run. Randall Spector is another; to be honest, the idea of Marc's brother being axe-killer (literally) who dresses like him makes for a great conflict, and I'd argue he shouldn't have been killed in the first place. Besides, if Khonshu does have a hand in it, he may have resurrected Randall at one point as he has with Marc (twice, at least). For me it's a retcon that is working for me, but that's always a subjective thing.

Agreed, we've discussed this previously in the MK thread too.

I agree that Randall as Hatchetman was a huge lost opportunity, but I think it would have been a more fitting retcon to have a scene where Profile is getting together with the same assemby who resurrected Bushman to raise Randall from the dead. It makes more sense than the way they've gone about it. For what has happened to make sense, Randall would have to not only not be dead, but overlook his desire to off Marc enough to get his own mind back together to go off on his own as a mercenary for years (the timeline doesn't work out for Randall to have been in the Marines all these years...)

There's just a lot of loose threads that I can see that'll have to be answered in the third issue, plus the conflict itself... It's a bit of a mess to me.

 

[Dread]

Agreed, we've discussed this previously in the MK thread too.

I agree that Randall as Hatchetman was a huge lost opportunity, but I think it would have been a more fitting retcon to have a scene where Profile is getting together with the same assemby who resurrected Bushman to raise Randall from the dead. It makes more sense than the way they've gone about it. For what has happened to make sense, Randall would have to not only not be dead, but overlook his desire to off Marc enough to get his own mind back together to go off on his own as a mercenary for years (the timeline doesn't work out for Randall to have been in the Marines all these years...)

There's just a lot of loose threads that I can see that'll have to be answered in the third issue, plus the conflict itself... It's a bit of a mess to me.

The problem with that is that Bushman was resurrected by the Hood, who was being empowered by various things, during Osborn's administration. Now, there's no Osborn and no Hood; they're both in federal lock-up.

Some things are a mess, though. I get the feeling this might have been Hurwitz's next arc if he knew he'd have had, say, 16 issues of Moon Knight instead of the 10 he got. But he didn't, so part of me thinks he did 3 team-up stories to try to boost sales, and then crammed this arc into the SL crossover whether it fit or not. And I really don't see the need to have given Randall eye-beam powers.

And to be fair, VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #10, with the Secret Avengers, did boost sales as it got a reprint.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Vision, Jr.'s gonna have to have a talk with him, if that's the case.

Kristoff in a newer young Doom armor vs the new Vision for the love of Stature...

I'm loving the idea myself. I hope after Children's Crusade they finally give the reigns to someone else to run with, as there's still so much potential Young Avengers story.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, well, we'll have to wait another year and some change for that regardless. Thanks again, Heinberg and Marvel!

 

[Hound55]

The problem with that is that Bushman was resurrected by the Hood, who was being empowered by various things, during Osborn's administration. Now, there's no Osborn and no Hood; they're both in federal lock-up.

Some things are a mess, though. I get the feeling this might have been Hurwitz's next arc if he knew he'd have had, say, 16 issues of Moon Knight instead of the 10 he got. But he didn't, so part of me thinks he did 3 team-up stories to try to boost sales, and then crammed this arc into the SL crossover whether it fit or not. And I really don't see the need to have given Randall eye-beam powers.

And to be fair, VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #10, with the Secret Avengers, did boost sales as it got a reprint.

Yes, it wouldn't be possible NOW because of the lack of the Hood, but if it were a retroactive scene which took place around the same time as Bushman's resurrection it would fit. Just to resurrect him and shelve him because they have things planned in case of Bushman's failure... Still makes more sense to me than Randall-Cyclops.

The other stuff you're saying fits and makes sense to me... I do think Hurwitz was trying... I just don't think he got the character that well, but he did get him back to the position he was supposed to be at, I suppose, so I will give him that much.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Wow! Great to hear from Jay. Met him at Jet City on Saturday, and he's just a great guy. I probably had a good 20 comics for him to sign, and he was more than happy to do so and appreciates his fans very much. I wish I didn't always get tongue-tied when meeting people; but, I'm much more verbose on these threads than in real life.

Anyway, more reviews. I really should get to my comics more; but, I've been reading three books at the same time as I'm trying to read them. (The books are The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone...to my daughter, who's totally into Harry Potter right now...and, Game Of Thrones...AGAIN. With that book being turned into a miniseries next year on HBO, I wanted to revisit the characters and give an attempt to read more of those books.)

Oh, yeah...a few reviews.

Project Superpowers #12

JH pretty much hit this one on the head, and it's nice to see that he agrees with me on every concern I had with the issue. 1) Way too many characters; and, that just led to very little character development. They're all pretty two-dimensional, and I get very little humanity from them. 2) Leading up to this conclusion, there were some great storylines that were converging...and, I felt that it was all quickly swept under the rug, as we saw the many different heroes fighting two gigantic villians. It didn't help that both of them were similiar in stature; and, even with the many deaths of human lives in this final issue, it lacked emotion. 3) Building up issue after issue of this series, I had grown to really like certain characters...but, they just seemed to disappear into the background.

I was surprised that they didn't all end up back in the urn, as that was the direction things seemed to be heading. (Was it just me, or did that whole plotline seem to disappear in the final issue??) I'm hoping the writer realizes that he needs to focus his attention to fewer characters next time around; or, at least have a few minis that can just focus on the more interesting characters. Also, please give them a hint of humanity. Beyond having powers, we know very little about each of them.


Ok, so two big titles with new writers this week: Hulk #25 and Thor #615. I'm not surprised by the end results, as I'm a huge Parker fan (yeah, yeah, except for my complaints about Atlas...but, let's not get back into that) and just a so-so Fraction one.

Jeff Parker does it again, by taking Loeb's creation and making it ten-times better! I loved how right at the beginning, he takes the last line of the last issue (Red Hulk saying, "I knew you'd get around to asking for my help.") and throwing back into Rulk's face. Parker makes Banner and Cap-Steve's breaking of Thunderbolt Ross believable...and, better yet, he takes away the unbeatable powers that Loeb gave him. The story was good, and it made me super-interested in getting my hands on the next issue. Sad to say, though, the second feature with A-Bomb stunk. I am biased, for sure. I hate that character, and just wish Rick would go back to his old self again. At this point, I'd pay Bendis to off him.

Thor. (sigh) Ya know, this book was FINALLY getting back to the Thor I knew and loved. But, Marvel HAD to put a big name on this book, and drop the excitement all us devoted fans were feeling. (Kind of reminds me back in the day when they took Waid off of Captain America to do the whole Heroes Reborn thing.) Sure, the portion of the book where the invading forces destroy Alfheim looked beautiful and got me a bit interested....but, we then went right back to more of Fraction's "More Talk, Less Action" style of writing.

I read Thor for a reason...and, all the great stories and minis have had certain elements that have been seriously lacking from this dragged out, talky-talky storytelling. I understand a writer has to do what his heart tells him; but, you also have to understand what your fans want and what's worked so well in the past. We want warrior-action! Hell, I want Odin to come back, put Asgard back in it's rightful place, and have some great barbarian-style fighting with Ice Giants or sullen Ogres.

for Hulk.
for Thor.

Kato Origins #4

Not as good as the previous three issues; but, still "ok." I'm hoping the storyline ends next issue, as I'm seriously cutting back on my Green Hornet buying. Dynamite (in a totally ridiculous move) has pushed this character onto the comic public...and, from what my LCS is saying, it's not being received very well. I'd even bet that it's cutting down sales on their two best books, Kevin Smith's Green Hornet and Matt Wagner's Green Hornet Year One.

Mercy Thompson: Moon Called #1

Another get from Dynamite's buying-out of Dabel Bros., and this really feels like Dabel was trying to fill a hole they lost when Marvel aquired Anita Blake from them. Sadly, Mercy Thompson is no Anita Blake. Good news, though, is it's not important to read that first miniseries to get right into this first issue relaunch. Instead of vampires, we get werewolves with Mercy; and, the book begins with the main character taking a young werewolf teen under her wing, as she must protect him from rival werewolves. This book gets right to the action, unlike Anita Blake, which has much more dialogue. It's a quick read, and unlike Anita, I don't have any real longing to check out the Mercy Thompson novels. It's ok...but, I'm also thinking it's not worth my money when I get so little for such a high price.

Green Lantern Corps #52

I'm glad this storyline has come to an end, and I'm a bit in the middle of the two sides who say they either loved this book or are losing interest in it. I think the problem lies with the main villian: Cyborg Superman. Aren't we all just tired of this guy??!!?? He's dead, he comes back to life, he's dead again, he comes back to life again. I think DC just needs to finally end his life..or, the very least, just give him a rest for about a good five years. One time..WAY back during the Death Of Superman era, the character was interesting. Now, he just excites a yawn to come out of my mouth.

What made Green Lantern Corps interesting was the focus on various members of the Corps that we didn't see that much of. All the focus on the various ring colors...the black lanterns...and, now Brightest Day and Ganthet has taken all that great early-issue fun away. Still, I have faith in that Bedard might turn things around...unless DC has some direction they insist these books go in.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Just some more VERY quick reviews before I hit the sack. (Went to Qwest Field to see my Seahawks beat the Chargers today. AWESOME game!!!)

Streets Of Gotham #16

I'm realizing two things with this title: 1) Hush is an extremely boring character that DC writers feel they must shove down our throat. (Seriousy??!!?? How is this character even in the league with any of Batman's classic villians??) and 2) If I dropped this title, I wouldn't miss it one bit.

One good part of this issue, though, that I must point out. Two-Face fans should read the back-up story, because Harvey Dent's character just got a major character change! I wasn't seeing that ending...and, ya know...it kind of makes sense. I hope a good writer gets to run with this very soon; because, it could make for one great storyline. for the first part, but a for that final page of the Harvey Dent storyline.

Supergirl #56

Maybe I should drop this title, too. For awhile, Supergirl became an important comic to buy, since it tied in with Action Comics and Superman. But, since DC dropped those triangle-numbering tie-ins again, it's a book that can stand...or fall...on it's own.

What's bad about this storyline is Gates cannot stay consistent with those traits we know a Bizarro should have. He tries to explain it on one page, saying that not all Bizarro's now speak in opposite terms; but, his characters go in and out of that talk constantly. There is a small part of me that's a little interested in this storyline...but, a bigger part of me is thinking I can save 3 bucks on my spending if I drop it.

Justice Leagure Of America #49

I dropped this title...but, the owner of my LCS will put varient covers in my box, knowing I cannot pass them up. (Hence, even though I shouldn't have gotten the last three issues, I'm still getting this book.)

This is just a throw-away story. The newly formed Justice League is quickly forgotten, and we get a solo story featuring Donna Troy with a touch of Jade. It just reinforces why I dropped all Justice books, except for Generation Lost.

G.I. Combat featuring The Haunted Tank One-Shot

An ok story, but not one I'd recommend being worth $3.99. It's nothing but a big DC rip-off.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Odin is coming back, but I'm dreading it terribly. Odin reduces the other Asgardians to adult-shaped kids. There's much less of a sense of serious stakes when daddy's right there with the power and inclination to make everything better. His constant plotting and testing of Thor got tiresome too. "Thor arguing with dad" accounts for like half of the arcs the character's ever had at Marvel. Jurgens made a fantastically bold move by killing him off and, 3 writers and about 6 years later, I was starting to think that it might actually stick. But he's in the movie, so of course they have to get him back in the books and remove all of the juicy court politics that have improved Thor's series since his death.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Yeah, I'd rather have Odin stay dead. Though personally, I think I would rather have Thor as King of Asgard than Balder.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I love making Balder king of Asgard, myself. Either he or Heimdall are the perfect fit, and Balder makes more sense since Heimdall already has an important purpose and JMS did the big reveal that Balder's secretly Odin's son. It frees Thor up to do the adventuring and it gives Balder more of a purpose than just "that other Asgardian dude who shows up now and then but isn't Thor or the Warriors Three, who actually do stuff."

Even Balder being a s***ty leader is kind of cool because it disabuses the other Asgardians of this notion that their kings--first Odin, who's routinely called "omnipotent" and "all-knowing," and then Thor, who's basically the all-star MVP of Asgard--are perfect, opening the way for more politics and intrigue. For Asgard is actually touching on that with a much younger and more arrogant Thor, but I'd love to see some Asgardian splinter groups or protesters or even a full-on coups in the main series.

Although, now is really the time to start showing Balder as a better leader so it doesn't become a running gag about how terrible he is. I was disappointed to see him moping about feeling sorry for himself in Fraction's first issue. Cowboy the hell up already, Balder.

 

[Phaedrus45]

Balder as King could have worked much better, if not for the execution of stories that followed it. Banishing Thor from Asgard was a bit ridiculous, especially as most stories still had him somewhat involved with those guys. It felt like we got very little adventuring, and more of Thor being involved in whatever event was currently happening, too. (Kind of like these small events, like Shadowland, now. It gives the regular books a chance to do their own things...hopefully...apart from them. Well, except with Shadowland, it's bleeding into Thunderbolts. But, the idea is there.)

I'm just hoping with the return of Odin and putting Asgard back in it's original space that we can maybe get back to those old style adventures.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

We probably will, but that was never contingent on Odin's return. That's more JMS' fault for throwing his hissy fit about Siege and phoning in everything after the big Bor fight. Gillen gave us a couple of great, adventurous arcs featuring Doom's wannabe-Destroyer and the Disir. Granted, the former involved a lot of tying up JMS' loose ends and the latter sprang from Siege, but both could still be appreciated as just cool Thor adventure stories with lots of action.

 

[Hush]

I do hope that Fraction gives us ALOT of action as that is what i read comics for, this past issue was a tad wordy for my taste.

 

[mjdiddy1]

Thanks for the support, guys. While Dynamo 5's numbers could always stand to improve, the book is NOT going away. We're doing a Holiday Special in December, and then another mini-series sometime in 2011. We won't schedule it until we have a healthy amount done, which lets us actually hit our ship date -- something we've managed to do so far with this mini, which wasn't always the case with the ongoing. Obviously, we'd love to do a straight ongoing and have it come out on time each month. But since that doesn't seem possible, we're opting for the mini-series route. You don't get 12 issues a year, but you DO get the issues when they're solicited.

Again -- thanks for the support!

~ Jay

I never really read Dynamo 5 until this mini and I'm actually loving it. So I'll be purchasing the Holiday Issue and the next mini as well as the trades of the ongoing.

 

[Dread]

I agree about Odin. Character franchises have to be allowed to move on and evolve to a degree. After all, the entire industry relies not on newer fans, but older ones. The fans who have been buying for years, and usually over a dozen books a month. If they twig that nothing they read counts because it is undone, combined with ever increasing prices, many of them may leave and never return. Which is what has happened; modest figures show that at least 10% of the regular comic buying audience have left and not returned within about the last 5-7 years. It likely is higher, but 10% is what I've seen in print, and seen companies and big creators tout around. New readers won't make up that gap.

Odin's death allowed the potential for a lot of growth and new story dynamics in THOR. The fact that few of them have been capitalized upon or executed properly doesn't mean it should be negated entirely - that was the mistake the X-Men books made at the end of the Grant Morrison era, and I believe they've regretted it. Balder as King in theory should be interesting and free up Thor - the problem is that JMS had him as a patsy, and that can't be ignored. I suppose you could have internal political strife with the Asgardians, but the problem is most writers only write the regular supporting cast and treat the Asgardians by and large as those stock Vikings who stand in the background and only appear for bar scenes or battle scenes. They're a people who have no voice and the reader is assumed to not care about their opinion. The populaces of the Shi'ar were usually treated this way, and it never helped the Shi'ar feel like a "real" society. Unfortunately, waiting for a writer to handle what seems obvious to us is a lot like waiting for the government to do what seems obvious to voters - an exercise in futility.

Fraction's first issue was good. Not great but good. It had moments of brilliance and moments of boredom. Ferry's artwork was lovely, though, and at least he's never "photorealistic" - he actually DRAWS, not traces from GQ or porn.

Part of me fears that the price for maintaining the Steve Rogers/James Barnes status quo in spite of the film is resetting Thor.

Yes, it wouldn't be possible NOW because of the lack of the Hood, but if it were a retroactive scene which took place around the same time as Bushman's resurrection it would fit. Just to resurrect him and shelve him because they have things planned in case of Bushman's failure... Still makes more sense to me than Randall-Cyclops.

The other stuff you're saying fits and makes sense to me... I do think Hurwitz was trying... I just don't think he got the character that well, but he did get him back to the position he was supposed to be at, I suppose, so I will give him that much.

I think it would have worked out better if Khonshu had simply resurrected Randall and steered him elsewhere, just in case Marc needed some "incentive" or whatnot, given how crafty the god has been lately. In fact that could be where this is heading, just the Profile/DD stuff had to be in it because Hurwitz had to give it some trappings of being a SL story.

I did like that Hurwitz didn't bog Moon Knight down into being as grim and sadistic as the prior volume. I even like his angle that Marlene is turned on by the crazy man enough that she makes jokes about not knowing who he is that day as foreplay. Still, Hurwitz has had some awkward moments. The eye-beam stuff with Shadow-Knight seemed tacked on. Once Marlene said she was pregnant, I didn't even need to skip ahead to imagine something horrible happening (I'm pleased she survived).

It is a bit wonky that Marvel is so obsessed with Black Panther that they're having him fill in for Daredevil at the end of SHADOWLAND despite him having no role in the series up until that point. You'd think if anyone could fill in for DD, it would be Moon Knight. But, if you asked most Marvel executive editors, "Do you have any sense?", the reply is usually, "No, just bills and a credit card."

Least he'll still be in SECRET AVENGERS after this mini is over. He fits the whole black ops theme that Brubaker is going for more than, say, War Machine or Nova do, and he technically got more development in the first arc than both of them.

 

[BlackSymbiote]

It is a bit wonky that Marvel is so obsessed with Black Panther that they're having him fill in for Daredevil at the end of SHADOWLAND despite him having no role in the series up until that point. You'd think if anyone could fill in for DD, it would be Moon Knight.

You know, if it was Moon Knight, I might have continued picking it up. As is DD 512 is my last issue of Daredevil because if I wanted to read Black Panther I would buy Black Panther. I did the same thing with Incredible Hercules. I bought Incredible HULK.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Same here. I'd have considered if it were Moon Knight but I won't be bothering with Black Panther. I figure I'll skim a couple issues and if it starts to sound important to the Daredevil franchise I'll get the back issues, but until then I don't plan on messing with it.

 

[Dread]

You know, if it was Moon Knight, I might have continued picking it up. As is DD 512 is my last issue of Daredevil because if I wanted to read Black Panther I would buy Black Panther. I did the same thing with Incredible Hercules. I bought Incredible HULK.

Hey now, INCREDIBLE HERCULES was pretty good.