A rare "short" week in which I only got my "average" alotment of comics, 5 books. Granted, one of these was double-sized (ULTIMATE X-MEN #75). Still, a much needed breather for the wallet, and a solid week all around. Two Marvel events, one the biggie and the other the neglected stepchild, go head to head here with their A-games. And Marvel tries, for a 4th time, to make an "Ultimate event mini-series" actually work both in quality and sales projections.
Merely as a reply, while I didn't like DEADLY GENESIS enough to bother with Brubaker's UNCANNY run, especially since Vulcan both bored and irked me as a character, the Shi'ar are annoying, and the X-Men go into space more often than EVERY incarnation of the starship Enterprise (which, while once a lark, has now dominated their franchise to the point where no progress on the fundamentals can ever be made. Make the X-Mansion a school full of deformed mutants? Erase it with M-Day. Send the X-Men into space to fight aliens, a purpose they weren't made for? Repeat, ad nausem. It makes no damned sense)...all that aside, I'll agree that Darwin was cool, what little I saw of him, anyway. He's basically "mutant Metamorpho", but he works.
As always, unfiltered spoilers abound.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 10/11/06:
52 WEEK #23: After last week, which had the Dr. Magnus story hit the head, we finally get some payoff to the "mad doctor abduction" plotline, even if it was one I didn't care for. It seems that someone has gathered all of DC's leading supervillian scientists and stashed them on an island to ply them with drugs, women, and resources, to go about their research unmolested. Granted, this usually results in just building big robot monsters and so forth. Dr. Magnus is there, of course, as the creator of the Metal Men (another dopey DC franchise I didn't care for, and I doubt I am alone). Dr. Morrow is there for the tour, but alas, their paticipation is hardly volentary. The question is naturally, who is behind it? The easy answer would be "Luthor", but we'll wait and see. Elsewhere on more interesting territory, Question & Montoya find an Intergang reprogramming camp filled with animal-man, Whisper A'dare, and Isis' missing sibling. Question keeps Montoya from blowing their cover when the boy gets tortured, but they're found out anyway, rendering the action pointless. Fortunately, Black Adam and Isis come to the rescue and Black Adam basically has to give him the "Capt. Marvel Jr." treatment, sharing his power with the lad, who becomes Osiris. I wonder if it really is original with basically having Black Adam go about the same exact thing Capt. Marvel did (build a family of same-powered hangers on), but Adam's become far more interesting to me than Marvel ever did, so it's not a problem. Meanwhile, Question steals Intergang's religious tome. The point of it is that Black Adam now has a family to share his life and power with, and his edges are softening. I suppose he's becoming yet another anti-hero out of the shell of a good villian, but DC actually still has plenty left (unlike Marvel, who relies on about 20 ad nausem) and I don't mind the ride. The next week promises more of "Super Chief", the upteenth "stereotypical American Indian warrior dude" whose design makes him look like Bitey of Brockenwood (DC hopes no one else goes to NEWGROUNDS.com). I have no interest there, either. Wildcat's origin is given, and he's still two-fisted coolness. They neglect to mention his "mystical 9 lives" though (of which he's gone through a few). Anyway, The Black Adam family is off for China, and while he's morphed into DC's version of Namor within 52, he's become far more interesting than Namor has been in ages, frankly. Perhaps because a power base in the Middle East is more realistic and relatable than "unda da sea". Yes, DC did something more realistic than Marvel. Death to company stereotypes!
ANNIHILATION #3: I'm not the guy who gives a "pick of the week" or number/letter grades to book. I just give my opinions and usually you can tell if I liked something or hated it, because I'll say so (and negative reviews are ALWAYS longer). But if I did give a pick of the week, it'd be this, easy. While CIVIL WAR struggles with portraying characters properly, everyone in ANNIHILATION acts to form, from Nova to Thanos. While CIVIL WAR is deathly afraid of having villians act badly and heroes act of high moral character, ANNIHILATION revels in such distinctions. And while CIVIL WAR at times becomes lost in trying to tell us, for the 100th billionth time, how horrible America is, was, and will always be so long as Bush and the Republicans are in power, ANNIHILATION is just high space hero drama at it's finest. You don't need to be a space buff to enjoy this, and you needn't have even read every one of the last mini's; the NOVA CORPS FILES should fill you in enough. Basically, if you're bloody tired of CW, ANNIHILATION is the sugar that helps the medicine go down. Hate seeing Speedball become a pariah? Revel in Nova's rise to manhood. Think Wolverine is a bad-ass? Watch Drax fight an entire PLANET full of bugs, moments before it explodes. Hate bad art? Divito turns in his best, even better than his runs on YA and THING.
Anyway, this picks up right where #2 left off, with Nova's alliance facing down the dreadnought of the Annihilation Wave. Just when they almost...ALMOST had a shot at containing it, a squad of N-Zone metahumans come in to overwhelm them (aside for Drax, who naturally kicks booty). And then Thanos & Annihilus, experimenting on Galactus to find a key to accessing "Power Cosmic", basically turn him into a planet-destroying weapon. The only good news is the energies released by the battle between Ravenous, Ronan, and Firelord have, somehow, resurrected Super-Skrull. And Terrax appears to be totally posessed by Delinquent, all but begging Gamora to finish him off (but she is whisked away by Stardust before she can). The main characters all escape the destruction, but lose much of their fleet, and the alliance crumbles. Ronan, Prax, and Super-Skrull team up to take down the rest of the current Kree regime. Gamora suggests that the only way Nova's resistance against Annihilus can thrive is as a perennial gurellia effort before splitting, as if they never slept together. And the Wave is about 3 months from reaching Earth, which they seem poised to destroy if given the chance. A comment is made of "even if all of Earth's superhumans were actually united, they couldn't beat the wave", or words like it, which was an ironic comment given that CW has divided them all but completely. And Nova, obviously frustrated, vows to "kill the head" of the wave and take out Annihilus once and for all (not mentioned is avenging Quasar, who Annihilus killed before Nova's eyes in his mini). And Drax seemingly sacrifices himself so Cammi and the others can escape the wave. ANNIHILATION is easily the STAR WARS trilogy for Marvel, and it's not overblown and behind schedule like CW became. Before this I barely cared about Marvel's space genre but by the end I may be a devoted fan. Basically, I think at this point, if Nova actually kills Annihilus, he may only be doing Thanos a favor, and I doubt Drax is dead (as Kr'lt proved, as this issue says, death may be overrated in space). As it is, Thanos seems merely to be serving Annihilus because he probably falls in step with Thanos' own death-worshipping plans. Anyway, very awesome issue this week. I really can't wait for the next one, as it should be. A shame CW is taking all of the attention, because ANNIHILATION is a winner. Considering Joe Q has admitted to "not getting the space thing" as a genre, he should get credit for getting it out, even if he's done nothing to promote it for a year. Don't let ANNIHILATION slip you by.
FRONTLINE #7: Reminding us that on Earth, a Civil War has divided heroes and villians alike over something that's hardly as pressing as the Annihilation Wave (all it took to brake the Earth MU was a school explosion; entire PLANETS have blown up in ANNIHILATION and everyone's not as whiney). This is another solid issue by Jenkins as the past plot elements start to come together, and even some of the "chapters" of each book start to share plot points. Urich lifts the lid on the "Green Goblin" story (to which Iron Man is mum about), but it gets a lot of attention. Over in Wonder Man's chapter, it seems Simon was keeping an eye on the Atalantian faction just fine until Greeny firebombed them all to hell. And a mysterious man with a jacket and a blue garment gives Norman Osborn something that can, of course, in predictable fashion, overcome Stark's much ballyhooed nanobots to allow him free reign, but only when this man wants. Who is this man? My guess is Mr. Fantastic, but I could be wrong. And Sally Floyd meets the only Pro-SHRA politician who isn't a thug, an idiot, or a bigot. In fact, he all but makes her overzealous liberal paranoia seem dumb and predictable. An honest criticism of a liberal? Get a good look, it'll never happen again. Over in Speedball's chapter, he appears mortally wounded and his life flashes before his eyes, and he finally cops to some responsibility over his lot in life, Stamford, and the deaths of the New Warriors. Unfortunately, his powers started flaring up and may have caused the ambulance to crash, possibly killing more civilians, and thus proving the "Speedball was a ticking time bomb" theory true. Much as with issue #2, all I am waiting for is Speedball to murder an innocent puppy, on panel, for his image-destruction to be complete. While it made for a rivetting read, it is a shame that a once energetic, fun-loving hero has, once again, become a poster child for violence and post-modern cynicism. Comic books at no point in history have been as grim, as self important, and as divoid of anything that isn't dark. They almost seem afraid of a character whose function is life is something other than violence or angst (or sex appeal). And I didn't bother with the last 2 pages, and that was for the best. I guess Frontline now has to take a break, as the 2 issues meant to be after CW #4 have now shifted and they have to wait until Nov. for CW #5, but that's not so bad. I can use the breather.
ULTIMATE POWER #1: They say "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result". Well, then, is another Ultimate event mini-series insanity? None of the past ones have either sold to expectations (that usually were unrealistic anyway), or have also had quality art & story to match the hype. The Ultimate universe in a way acts as a microcosm of the rest of the MU and what made it great; it works as a short list of semi-interrelated solo titles that all have a defined purpose. When you attempt to make overblown, overrated events, they backfire. But Marvel's a slow learner so only a few months after Ellis' ULTIMATE SLOWNESS SAGA finished, we have ULTIMATE POWER. No one writer is good enough, no, Bendis, JMS, and no doubt others are set to write this. We have Greg Land's porn-pin-up art. And a staggering 9 chapters, so you KNOW it's going to be decompressed as all hell. And it's going to be a crossover with Supreme Power, because Joe Q doesn't want to admit that the sales for the MK version of that book have started tanking, thus proving that yanking it from MAX to "draw a bigger croud" has utterly failed. But when has Joe Q ever actually admitted a mistake? He has psychic insight on pointing out the mistakes of past EIC's, past events, past relaunches, but under his watch? Suddenly he seems bedoggled for an answer. Of course, Joe. Just don't print comics that bash the administration when, frankly, you're regime is just as pig-headed about things on a smaller level. There, I said it.
That all said, this issue actually wasn't half bad, if only because Bendis was capable of having an entire plot happen in one issue. This is, like, a power he usually reserves for annuals or rare "one-shot stories to make a trade break". And he also had characters speak and not have them all sound like immature, sexually stunted 12 year olds; Reed actually sounded like...a smart person. I could actually tell the difference between some characters by dialogue alone. Man, I hope Bendis drinks some of that QUALITY JUICE more often. After a battle with the porn-tastic Serpent Society (in which half the Four all but gush about groping; gotta love macho heroes), Thing's skin starts to flak off bit by bit, and Reed starts diving into wanting to cure him again/ Didn't this almost end the world in their own title? Ah, well. So he asks Fury to authorize scimming other alternate realities for data, and he says no, so Reed does it anyway. Yes, this is Reed Richards directly OPPOSING authority for the sake of what he believes is moral, and for the sake of his beloved friends/family. I know some of you might be shocked to see any version of Reed do that after CW, but that actually is his CHARACTER. Glad to see Ultimate at least hasn't forgotten the core values of their cast. At the end of the issue, however, this action has seemingly drawn the Squadron Supreme into Ultimate-Land. Expect a few issues of punching and angst. An enjoyable issue, but a story has to be damned interesting to be worth a whopping 9 issues these days, and I fail to see the point of this. Why does Ultimate have to crossover with Supreme Power? Sales? Let's hope the rest of it can carve out a niche simular to X-MEN: FIRST CLASS; a pointless overextention of a franchise's line based solely on cynical, shameless greed and milking of the audience...but still fun.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #75: In which for the second time in a few months, a single mutant breaks into the X-Mansion and instantly pwn's the entire team, except for Wolverine. Even worse, it's Cable, one of the X-Men's biggest cliches throughout the 90's. No, I was not looking foward to the arrival of Ultimate Cable, namely because he is responsible for the "overly militaristic" designs of the 90's and because calling him a "character" is almost a exaggeration, he's so simple. He makes Lobo look deep most times. The cover is pretty and Oliver's art didn't look too terrible, but we'll have to see if it still looks as shiney when he gets in a rush in a month or two. Kirkman has a good handle on writing the characters interacting in the Mansion, but when it comes to the plot itself, he's not been too stable, a situation that reminds me of JMS' ASM run (at least until CW came along and served as a distraction to the inevitable for a good year). There may be a coloring error, as Piotr seemingly punches Cable in his "fleshtones" and seems surprised that his punch has no effect; it seemed that he was perhaps meant to be in metal form for that? And maybe the X-Men would stop getting whipped if they actually fought like a TEAM, instead of just one-by-one, kung fu style. Much like USM being inept, after 75 issues, inexperience gets old, FAST. So, not a bad issue, but I'm just not feeling where it may be going. Barring a last minute change, this may be drawing in Time Travel to the Ultimate X-Men, which doesn't work. UXM works best when it doesn't succumb to the genre distractions that have all but OVERWHELMED the 616 X-Men, which include time travel, space aliens, and alternate realities. If UXM succumbs to the shame X-Distractions, then it'll have become utterly worthless.
Ironically, the back-up story (to justify the pricetag for the 75th issue, because lord knows Cable ain't worth $3.99) features Doug Ramsey and Emma's New Mutants students trying to be vigilantes, and seemed stronger. Mark Brooks' art was dead on, further proving what a great fit he'd be to replace Mark Bagley on USM. He's the logical, rational choice to match the feel. But he's been revealed as NOT being Bagley's replacement by Joe Q at Newsarama. Because Joe Q is too smart to be logical or rational. If it's because Brooks can't match Bagley's output, I'd buy it. But few artists can. Hell, you're lucky for 4 issues a year, on time, for some, much less 18. So I just wonder who'll be up after Bags and wonder why not Brooks. If Joe Mad can take up after Hitch, then Joe Q feels matching the "look" of a past penciller to keep the feel of a book is folly. Then, I guess, John Romita Sr. coming onto ASM to try to match Ditko's style was dumb, too. What cavemen Stan & Co. were, right, Joey? Who wants a logical transfer? No, being different is key, so let's switch Hitch for Mr. Manga and not expect fans to go "WTF?" at the shift. Who can predict those wacky fans, right?
So to end on a positive note, buy ANNIHILATION.
I love how Marvel's "lesser" event (or both of its "lesser" events, if the Planet Hulk fans are to be believed) is about a thousand times better than its big one.
