Off to the races with massive epic spoilers!
Dread's Bought/Thought for 1/26/11: Part 1
GUARDING THE GLOBE #3: Like most of Robert Kirkman's Image titles, this mini series has been running exceptionally behind schedule; the second issue shipped back in the middle of October, and even that issue was weeks late. To recap, this series centered around the superhero team who operated on the side lines of INVINCIBLE, Guardians of the Globe. Because Invincible himself is off in space, and because BRIT no longer has his own ongoing series, this series operates to flesh out a lot of long term supporting characters of INVINCIBLE as well as introducing new ones. As the cover notes, Wolf-Man of the recently ended ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN shows up, if only to settle the cliffhanger that his ongoing series ended with. The final member of the team, the sexy speedster Outrun, joins the team and fleshes out the roster's wider, more internationally represented team. While the team still has more representation by Americans than any other nation, it has at least one representative hero from Britain, Mexico, Asia, South Africa, Australia, and even the planet Mars. After a potentially awkward meeting at a nude photography expo (that turns out to not be nearly as awkward for Outrun), the finally fully assembled team helps Wolf-Man and his werewolf tribe against the giant monster Gorgg. In between tying up loose plot threads of prior Kirkman stories, the super-villain mafia, the Order, fully assemble on their own to get things rolling. Given that this is intended to be a six to eight issue series, it might seem odd to take three issues to assemble the team and get the proper plot rolling, the effect is that the reader has started to really get to know these characters. Given that some of these characters, like Bulletproof and Shapesmith, have been hovering around the back panels of INVINCIBLE for at least four or five years, it is good to finally get to know them as full characters. The newer heroes are also proving to be interesting, although Yeti and Brit get the lion's share of the focus.
The artwork by Ransom Getty remains as excellent as usual; the inks are done by two people, which was apparently the cause of some of the delay. Now, a regular inker has been found (Russell Jackson), and future issues should ship more often. Thomas Mason and Rex Stabbs (who has a great last name) handle the color work. The end of the comic has a double page splash with a lot of villain introductions, the sort of old school thing that will appeal to some, by the head of the Order, whose design screams "90's Image". Despite not always known for superhero comics, Image has produced many terrific ones in recent years, and Robert Kirkman remains it's main architect.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #614: This is the penultimate chapter of “The Trial of Captain America” from longtime franchise writer Ed Brubaker and artist Butch Guice. The general gist of the story is that the new Captain America, James “Bucky” Barnes, has been exposed as having once been the Russian operative Winter Soldier, and must legally answer for those crimes. Those include very recent domestic terror acts and assassinations. As long time readers know, Barnes himself was not responsible for these actions; he was hopelessly brainwashed. In fact, only the Cosmic Cube – Marvel’s long time Maguffin device – was responsible for erasing said brainwashing. Unfortunately, proving that in a court of law isn’t exactly a slam-dunk, especially when villains such as Baron Zemo and the new Red Skull, Sin (daughter of the original) exploit the media to leak damaging footage and/or testimony. Fortunately, Steve Rogers’ old friend Bernie Rosenthal is legally representing Barnes at trial (because other Marvel lawyer characters were too busy). This issue features a lot of interesting legal drama as Rosenthal picks apart the prosecution’s evidence – apparently relying on ex-KGB stooges or even the insane Norman Osborn for witness testimony is a stretch to credibility. Former enemy (and brainwasher) Dr. Faustus has even agreed to be a defense witness.
Fortunately, it isn’t all “LAW AND ORDER: CAPES AND MASKS DIVISION”. Sin’s new flunky Master Man suckers Falcon and Black Widow into a trap to force Barnes to escape from custody to try to rescue them. Rogers insists that he stays put, but with Dr. Faustus manipulating him and with his morals a bit more gray than Rogers, can Barnes put aside emotion? Unfortunately, every time Black Widow dates a superhero, it seems she instantly becomes bait for no end of traps; she used to get kidnapped and captured on a fairly regular basis back when she was Daredevil’s partner (in more ways than one) in the 70’s and 80’s. The next issue promises a shocking conclusion (aren’t they all) that no one expects.
To be blunt, Marvel has a “CAPTAIN AMERICA” movie coming in July that certainly will not star James Barnes behind the mask. While Marvel perhaps surprised people by keeping Steve Rogers dead for over two years, they stunned more people by resurrecting him and not immediately having him become Capt. America again – instead allowing his revived sidekick retain the mantle that he’d claimed in the wake of Rogers’ death. While both Barnes and Rogers were dressed as Captain America during last year’s SIEGE event, by and large Rogers has merely acted as director of “I Can’t Believe It’s Not SHIELD” and leader of a squad of Secret Avengers. This has allowed Marvel to sell comics featuring both without having two men in masks and offering different adventures and perspectives. To a degree Rogers is a difficult star because his status as a perfect, iconic hero can make him a dull leading man for character stories. Barnes, who has a dark past, crimes to answer for and has feet of clay, has become a more dynamic and interesting Capt. America – one who isn’t perfect but strives for the ideal of the original. To a slight degree, Brubaker has fallen into a rut with Barnes’ stories; CAPTAIN AMERICA has become more of an ensemble book with Rogers, Falcon, and Widow sharing a lot of focus, and with two or three stories nearly in a row stories revolving around Barnes being captured and escaping some enemy who doesn’t quite want to kill him. Many are predicting that Marvel will want to get Rogers back behind the mask by the time the film hits theaters – perhaps with a relaunch of the title (which is still selling well, but has fallen since 2006). The question is; does this mean that Barnes is slated to die once more – only this time it won’t be in a flashback scene in AVENGERS? Will he return to being a noble fugitive like he was during CIVIL WAR? Or will Marvel defy expectations and retain some integrity? Only time will tell.
Sean McKeever and Filipe Andrade contribute the usual NOMAD back-up strip, which is concluding it’s own storyline. Rikki Barnes (who is the female Bucky from the Heroes Reborn universe, mostly abandoned since the 90’s) has teamed up with Black Widow to shut down yet another evil corporation that is secretly doing evil things. In many ways it settles some dangling plot threads that were left over from the NOMAD: GIRL WITHOUT A WORLD mini series – the dilemma is that more people read CAPTAIN AMERICA (and thus the back-up) than read that series. Rikki learns that while Black Widow acts cold to her often times, she was responsible for her career as Nomad and actually sees a bit of herself in her. The strip may wrap up next issue; after which, both writer and artist combine for an ONSLAUGHT UNLEASHED mini series in which Rikki’s team the Young Allies meet with the Secret Avengers to battle a villain whose fashion sense was a definition of the 90’s (armor, spikes, shoulder-pads, big muscles). McKeever is a solid writer, but it is a shame he has parted ways with artist David Baldeon, as Andrade’s artwork takes getting used to for the series. Imagine Humberto Ramos, only with less anatomy and realism, and one is close. If CAPTAIN AMERICA loses the NOMAD strip, will the price fall back to $2.99? Or will a new strip replace it? Comics that are $3.99 that at least have a back-up strip to deliver 30-32 pages of story are better than ones that are priced that high for no reason other than “it is important and we like money”.
A solid issue overall of CAPTAIN AMERICA, as most of them have tended to be for years.
CHAOS WAR #5: This is the grand finale to writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente's take on a Hercules saga, which was covered in the ongoing series INCREDIBLE HERCULES and then the two mini series HERCULES: FALL OF AN AVENGER and HEROIC AGE: PRINCE OF POWER. In actuality, things don't completely end here; the pair will re-unite on a new ongoing featuring Hercules in April. If anything, this is a bit of a season finale before the next major story is told. This is perfectly fine, as the union of Pak and Ven Lante on the character of Hercules, as well as his "side-kick" Amadeus Cho, has produced some of the best Marvel comics for the last 3-4 years. This is the end of CHAOS WAR as one of Marvel's "mini events". While not as large a "mini event" as SHADOWLAND, it still involved more installments than MAXIMUM CARNAGE did in the 90's. Artist Khoi Pham, who was the first regular artist of INCREDIBLE HERCULES (and drew the character when he was part of Dan Slott's MIGHTY AVENGERS) and thus brings things to a proper book end. The colors are by Sunny Gho with two inkers along for the ride. While the previous issue stumbled a bit until the finale, this issue gets things off and delivers on a proper finale.
Picking up from the last issue, Hercules has finally embraced all of the powers of his father Zeus and become the "high father" of the gods. After a last minute assist from Gaia, the goddess of the earth, he's powered up and ready to have a fight for creation against the Chaos King. It is quite literally a fight; Hercules and Chaos King duking it out in space as giants. Isn't that how the fate of all reality should be determined? In the meanwhile, all of the gods and heroes who was left on what was left of the earth do what they can to pitch in (such as the Hulks, Thor, Alpha Flight, Silver Surfer, the rest of the God Squad, and whatever Dead Avengers who aren't dead). In the end, it's a combination of Hercules' muscle and Amadeus Cho that saves the universe - isn't that how it usually is? There are panels that allude to other tie-ins and side material for this series, but for the most part one won't be lost if one hasn't read the spare one-shots or the INCREDIBLE HULKS crossover. The universe is saved and, unlike the Fantastic Four this week, no major character dies. It's a rare upbeat ending, while it is still an ending in which there has been a dynamic change in one of the key cast.
The artwork for this finale is quite good; Pham seemed to save some of his best pencils for this issue, and Gho's colors have remained consistently brilliant. There are quite a few single page and double page splashes, but they are used to highlight big time, godly action so they don't feel like slow moments.
This is a simple finale, but an effective one. Hercules and Cho will take a few months off before their next try at an ongoing series - which to be fair, has been well over a year. In a way it is odd that Marvel once made a big push to convince readers that CHAOS WAR was more than "just another INCREDIBLE HERCULES arc with a new title", then abandoned the finale to fend for itself against the FANTASTIC FOUR death issue. That would be a shame, especially since this is a finale that doesn't involve any media propoganda or a needless character sacrifice. The sales for INCREDIBLE HERCULES petered out towards the end of it's run, especially since the price rose by a dollar - hopefully the next series in April improves from there, and isn't insanely overpriced.
FANTASTIC FOUR #587: Unless one has avoided TV, newspapers, and the internet for the past 24-48 hours, you know the major moment of this issue already; Johnny Storm/Human Torch dies. The rest of the subplots of "Three" are tied up, but the death of Johnny gets all of the attention, as it deserves. To be fair to writer Jonathan Hickman, until he and Marvel leaked the spoiler to the media, Hickman had done a fair job of making it difficult to tell which of the Four was due to die. I thought Reed would bite the dust again, but the Torch is the one member of the team who has never left the team or seemingly died for an extended period before. During the "Three" arc, the Four had been properly set up by a series of subplots that inconveniently came to a head at once. Sue was busy trying to properly organize an underwater meeting between the Lost Kingdoms of Atlantis and the hot-headed Namor. Reed was busy trying to save the citizens of Nu-Earth after Galactus decides to feed on the other dimensional earth. And Johnny was stuck holding down the fort with Ben (who was in the midst of one of his brief powerless phases), Franklin and Valeria Richards, Alex Power (of the Power Pack), and the rest of the kids from the Future Foundation (Reed's think tank for super smart, skilled, or weird kids) against the insect hordes of Annihilus.
The subplot with Sue takes a very interesting twist (or counter-twist from the previous issue) which ends with Sue actually having more responsibility as well as proving that she's more than a match for Namor. Reed's subplot finally seems to wrap up the leftover scraps of the Nu-Earth story from the Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch run on the series (which had resulted in a FANTASTIC FORCE mini series that nobody bought). Most of the extra sized issue (28 pages) focuses on the conflict against Annihilus, as one would expect given who has to die at the end. Given the amount of media hype as well as the loss of the major surprise, it would be easy to hate this story or attempt to nit pick it from all angles. While it is far from a perfect story, Johnny's death scene is executed in a proper manner. He is given a chance to step up and make a final stand to save Ben and his niece and nephew, along with their friends and New York in general. Often written as aloof at best and pathologically immature and moronic at worst by other writers, Hickman seems to have pegged that Johnny has been a superhero since 1961 and thus may as well be competent at it. Ben's reaction to the death as well as the final page of resolution helps sell it tremendously. Most of the action is kept off panel and there is no gore - in a way it is easy for a cynic to see how Hickman can work his way out of it in perhaps a year's time. Superheroes have recently come back from far more grisly, definitive deaths - if not for the hype, text, and reactions, it would be difficult to tell that Johnny was dead and not merely knocked out. Plus, this is a team that literally stormed heaven to get a member back once.
Still, it is hardly the sort of "random sacrificial lamb" death that Brian Bendis has written in such tales as DISASSEMBLED, HOUSE OF M, SECRET INVASION, or even his run on ULTIMATE X-MEN way back. Mark Millar teased about killing Sue during his run on the Four, but couldn't bring himself to ice any of the Four. The artwork is by regular artist Steve Epting as well as frequent collaborator Mike Perkins (the two used to share duties on CAPTAIN AMERICA for years) and Nick Magyar, with dazzling colors by Paul Mounts. The next issue will be a bit of a "wake" issue and then the series as FANTASTIC FOUR will end (for now), and be replaced by a series titled "FF" by the same creative team. Make what you will of the marketing and editorial strategy, but the story isn't half bad. Johnny, a hero who is often written as a child, at least died like a man. It will be surprising if he is still dead by the end of 2012, however. FANTASTIC FOUR #600 is due March 2012 (assuming Marvel counts up FF issues into that tally), and it would seem daft to commission that without a reunion of the full team. The death of a long running team member is usually a sign the writer is out of ideas on the Four, which is why it seems to happen once or twice every decade; at the very least, this has been effectively executed. It isn't perfect. We could all nitpick about how Johnny could have battled better and all that, but I liked Ben's reaction to it and that final panel of him crumbled on the floor with the kids is good stuff. Even if Val is still a complete cold snob, and I wouldn't mind if Dr. Doom made him his familiar again.
The real challenge I think comes out of how Marvel sells the mourning. For at least half of the past decade, Johnny was written as a moron, a fop, a hero with ADHD who was the weakest link of his team. People have been joking that he could be replaced by Jim Hammond or Toro right now (thanks to INVADERS NOW!) because of this. It is akin to killing Iceman in X-Men; literally any other character with similar abilities would be able to replace him because he's usually "the funny idiot" character. Reasonably, you would expect these characters to grow and mature, perhaps as the Wally West Flash did, but Marvel has been less consistent about that sort of thing than DC. Part of me fears that everyone will treat Johnny like Steve Rogers when in many stories he was akin to a TMZ celebrity with super-powers - famous for getting into jams almost as much as being a hero. And the shame of it isn't Johnny's fault, or even Hickman's fault - he did his best to not write Johnny that way. I imagine we'll see this loss the worst through the eyes of Franklin and Sue (and to a degree, Ben).
Is Johnny coming back? Of course. In a way I wasn't too miffed that the death itself wasn't grisly because I have no doubt he'll be back by about March 2012 or soon after; why write yourself into a corner by showing him get drawn and quartered when you'll only have to undo it later anyway? If you want a comedic take on the many options for resurrecting him, I did an entire Sprite Comic slideshow about it at Examiner here:
http://www.examiner.com/comic-books...uman-torch-back-a-sprite-comic-series-picture . I didn't think Marvel was bold enough to off Johnny and then try to build him up and act like he was important to them, but they are. Spider-Man may join the Four and that would be great next to BIG TIME. Some good stories may come out of it; the Four don't have much else to do. I say bring it on.
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