5 books, which is roughly an average week for me. Prefer these to the wallet busters. Spoilers engaged!
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 7/11/12:
CAPTAIN AMERICA #14: This is the finale to the four part "Shock To The System" arc as well as the beginning of franchise writer Ed Brubaker's final stretch on the character after a run of some seven years. Cap comes into conflict with the newer and deadlier Scourge, who is his former friend and comrade D-Man, to protect the life of an ex-villain in witness protection. D-Man has been brainwashed by Codename Bravo and his new HYDRA cell into poking at some of the moral dilemmas of current society and twisting them into attacks against the country. Is it worth using taxpayer money to aid and protect turn-coat criminals in the middle of a historic recession with many law abiding citizens starving on the streets? That's a complex question without an easy answer, which continues to fuel Cap's frustration and doubt about current times. His lover and frequent mission partner Sharon Carter is forced to make a life ending decision to save Cap's life, and this arc very much seems to be fuel for the fire for an ultimate conclusion. CAPTAIN AMERICA has been announced as canceled at the end of the year, although it seems likely it would be relaunched once Marvel can figure out who will lead the franchise once Brubaker departs. While some of Brubaker's stories for this volume have been off his peak, this one has taken an upswing in quality in playing to Brubaker's strengths. It also helps that he is matched by artist Patrick Zircher, who seems to be more in synch with him than more "over the top" artists like Alan Davis were. Mike Deodato also tags in for some pages, with Paul Mounts on colors. Considering that Brubaker's extended Red Skull arc was once drug along for some 4-5 years, it is probably good that this long term subplot is aiming for a conclusion this year. It will be hard to imagine CAPTAIN AMERICA without Brubaker's influence, and his run on the franchise has been a commercial and critical success. Hopefully his final arc goes out with a bang.
DARK AVENGERS #177: This time both of this series' regular artists, Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey, tag team to handle this story by Jeff Parker which seeks to begin the attempt to merge the divided cast of this series. His former Thunderbolts cast are still in the midst of their cross time caper, seeking to escape the forces of Dr. Doom after they made the mistake of rescuing him from the past (where he was sent by Mark Millar's retcon mentor of his, the Muppet Of Deforestation). Doom has captured their time-tower and used it to bring himself back to Latveria, and set it to zap itself to the future. Meanwhile, the new cast of Dark Avengers are being led by Luke Cage into what seems to be the ashes of one of Parker's arcs on HULK involving yet another made up country and a power mad tyrant. The issue mixes action with exposition and naturally is swimming in characters, although this time it works a little better than similarly crammed issues did during the pre-FEAR ITSELF era. We see a peek of the "dark future" where it seems the Punisher has become Judge Dredd, which is an interesting satire. At any rate, I doubt the re-title will buy the book many sales but I do think it is on an upswing and seems headed for a conflict, of which I am interested in the outcome.
DEFENDERS #8: Matt Fraction continues to steer his very odd relaunch of this often odd franchise, this time alongside a new regular artist James McKelvie (who apparently has Mike Norton on either inks or finishes), with colors by Dommo Aymara. The Maguffin of the piece remains the Concordance Engine, this strange Kirby-esque device which has power over time, imagination, and reality. The mysterious John Aman has pledged himself to protect it against all comers, and he has done so for a century. The city-state of Z'Gambo is literally built on the bones of his adversaries, and his recent victims appear to have been the other Immortal Weapons besides Iron Fist and the cult fave Fat Cobra, and most absurdly, Black Panther. This book doesn't jive with FANTASTIC FOUR right now at all; classic Marvel editors at work! At any rate, this issue sees the Defenders have another rematch with Aman while Black Cat has been hired by an oddball collective to steal other Maguffins from Aman. This time the battle appears to go better for the Defenders, if only because the Silver Surfer seems to get the upper hand this time, and it appears as if Black Cat has stumbled onto the team's roster by chance. She likely fills the "obligatory female feline character" spot which is usually filled by Hellcat on this team. Aman mumbles stuff such as the Engine being the only weapon to save reality from the Death Celestials, and I wonder if this series is steering towards an inferior version of a plot Jonathan Hickman just finished in FANTASTIC FOUR which also involved evil Celestials. A lot of it lost in techno-babble, honestly. The art is for the most part good but there are odd panels, such as Shuri's panther-mask suddenly seeming like face paint and Iron Fist launching the strangest looking jump kick I have ever seen. Then there's a panel where Aman grabs Felicia and aims two fingers at here and I expected one of those martial arts technique panels to arise that read, "THE EYE POKE OF THE STOOGES". He was about to moida her! While I appreciate that Fraction has embraces the historical weirdness of the Defenders rather than just play them as any generic superhero team, this remains a very uneven read from issue to issue and sometimes page to page. Some moments are awesome and others are baffling or lame. Given how low the sales are - this book is almost selling below the Top 100 - I doubt that even Fraction can keep this book in print past issue 12 or whenever he wraps his arc, whichever comes first. I get the feeling that Fraction had this very weird story to do with Iron Fist and the Immortal Weapons and he worked backward to spin it off from FEAR ITSELF and team up other heroes. I regret that the other Immortal Weapons have been wasted in such a manner (even by their co-creator) and I doubt heavily that Marvel would allow T'Challa to die for real in a book as trivial as this. While I hope the ending will be worth it, cancellation for this title seems inevitable and I doubt I will miss it much.
SCARLET SPIDER #7: TV and DVD animation writer Chris Yost has steered this second major AMAZING SPIDER-MAN spin off beyond half a year and has gained a small but stable audience of over 30,000 readers in due course. This issue marks not only the start of a new story arc, but the first issue of the series drawn by the new regular artist, Khoi Pham, who is best known for INCREDIBLE HERCULES and CHAOS WAR. Pham replaces Ryan Stegman, who drew five of the last six issues as well as a prelude strip from POINT ONE #1 last year. In due course Yost has managed to make a series which is titled after a character best known from the 90's and starring an anti-hero most known for the CLONE SAGA of that era stand out by quickly establishing a cast in a different city than most superheroes star in. Kaine has been cured of his physical deterioration, although his mind and conscience are still slowly recovering from his past while he seeks to find his future. Kaine has found himself in Houston, Texas playing local superhero despite his often cranky attitude as well as taking care of a mysterious psychic youth and aiding a local cop, doctor, and bartender/rocker chick. Unfortunately, Kaine's enemies such as the Assassin's Guild and the Kravenoff family have followed him to Texas, and he's still out of his element.
This arc sees the evil corporation ROXXON, which has long been Marvel's metaphor for southern based corporations of nefarious intent, become the catalyst for a new plot. Notice the similarity for Exxon, which in the 80's was infamous for a major oil spill? The story starts off with a British Petroleum style disaster at a drilling rig as an explosion at a Roxxon high rise manages to hook Kaine into a plot involving a ruthless tycoon and his attention seeking (and explosive utilizing) daughter, Zoe. While Kaine seeks to get the bottom of what exactly Roxxon is trying to drill for which sparked the entire incident, when he finds himself set upon by the official superhero team of Texas, the Rangers (who are not to be confused with the MLB team of the same name). This is a fascinating potential conflict because it will allow fans to see Scarlet Spider, a new hero for a modern Texas, battle against Texan heroes created decades ago who are very much walking stereotypes. Their leader is named Texas Twister and is dressed like a cowboy, for instance. It also sets up Roxxon and the tycoon Mr. Walsh as a similar adversary as Lex Luthor or even Wilson Fisk as someone who does dirty deeds but can't be attached to them legally. As usual, Yost has a flair for having Kaine do impulsive things (such as sleep with someone he just rescued without thinking twice) and using that to lead him into deeper plots. Pham's artwork is often hit or miss and usually relies on the strengths of the inks and colors alongside them; for instance when Pham inks his own work, the quality often suffers. Thankfully, Tom Palmer's inks and Edgar Delgado's colors are exceptional enough to make Pham's artwork pop more than usual. There are some fans who are wary of Pham's work, and to them one could say that this is the best that Pham's work has looked in some time.
For the moment SCARLET SPIDER has been a rare title which is unique despite being a spin-off of a major franchise as well as being allowed to stand on it's own. As the "Marvel NOW!" news seems to illustrate, many Marvel comics have ceased to be unique entities and usually tell the same editorial narrative from different angles half the year, every year, since 2004. There has been a tease for a story called MINIMUM CARNAGE in October which could drag Kaine into at least a small crossover, such as OMEGA DRIVE between DAREDEVIL and PUNISHER. It would be a shame to see this simple-yet-effective solo superhero series bogged down in crossovers, although perhaps the exposure would also help things along. Regardless, for the moment SCARLET SPIDER is a book which proves detractors wrong every issue and proves that any character - even one best known for a terrible 90's story line - can be as good or bad as the creative team handling them.
VENOM #20: Writers Rick Remender (who launched the series) and Cullen Bunn continue the "SAVAGE SIX" story arc alongside artists Lan Medina and Robert Atkins as well as two artists and colorist Chris Sotomajor. Remender will be leaving the title after this arc, and as the recent news noted, his next assignment will be to write UNCANNY AVENGERS in October. The gist of this arc is that Flash Thompson has sought to confront his enemy Crime-Master, who has threatened the lives of his family and ex-girlfriend Betty Brant as well as blackmailed Thompson to run errands for him as Venom. So far Thompson's plans have backfired and instead he has earned the wrath of Crime-Master's team of villains, called the Savage Six, against those he cares about most. In the previous issue, Flash narrowly managed to save Betty's life and begrudgingly revealed his identity as the new Venom to her. Unfortunately, in saving his sister he was unable to protect either Betty or his mother from landing into the hands of the criminals. This issue mostly features a battle between Venom and Death-Adder, one of the Six and a spare member of the Serpent Society. Meanwhile, Betty finds herself in the clutches of Crime-Master and he reveals his identity to her, which proves that not even characters axed off in 1964 are seemingly safe from resurrections. In fairness, it is quite a twist and it will be curious seeing how Remender and Bunn explain it. The tension for this arc has ramped up to high levels as Remender looks to end his run with a bang, and the spectacle looks to be very pleasing to fans of this successful relaunch.
