I forgot to mention the little GLA sequence in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #19 was cute.
Onward!
Dread's Bought/Thought for 12/17/08: Event Mini's and a Surprise!
X-MEN: KINGBREAKER #1: This is the first major prelude mini to WAR OF KINGS, which is coming next year from Abnett & Lanning. I haven't read any of the INHUMANS stuff or the past Brubaker UXM run with Vulcan and the Starjammers, or even the EMPEROR VULCAN stuff. The gist of what I know is from various Handbooks and whatnot. The gist is that after Vulcan was retconned into being in the horrid DEADLY GENESIS and killed Banshee for no reason, he went after the Shi'ar to get revenge on them for killing his mother and enslaving him. But somewhere along the lines he decided to conquer them and rule them, and marry Deathbird...just 'cause. He always was an erractic, plot convenient power moder more than a character. Several of the X-Men: B-Listers like Havok, Polaris, and Marvel Girl - went into space to team up with the Starjammers and got involved in the ordeal. Somewhere along the line, Corsair (Havok's father) was killed and half of the Starjammers were taken prisoner by Vulcan, who is now Emperor of the Shi'ar by marriage to Deathbird.
Honestly, I never liked DEADLY GENESIS, Vulcan, or the Shi'ar for that matter. The Shi'ar as an alien race seem far past their prime and I usually find them a tedious distraction for the X-Men's central theme. Vulcan is a flat villain character who seems to exist for raw power and anger and little else. Some might see a truly empty soul who lived only for revenge and now has become just as bad if not worse than those he sought vengeance against, but I just see yet another near-omnipotent mutant villain with little to seperate himself from others like him aside for the Shi'ar angle. The Shi'ar just seem more like Klingon cyphers than ever most times. At the very least, though, space is a landscape where X-Men like Havok could shine.
X-MEN KINGBREAKER doesn't exactly recap all that, but it serves up the status quo fairly plainly that someoen who has a modest recollection of the Marvel universe and the X-Men after DEADLY GENESIS will know what is going on. I wasn't lost at all. Basically, Vulcan and his Imperial Guard are spreading onto other alien races to conquer, this time the Breakworld...oops, I mean the Z'Nox. Amazing how I'd get those two confused. Both are stock warlike reptile aliens with advanced technology and no sense of mercy or the simple comradrie needed for inventing advanced technology. Still, it was a nice nod to the past. I can't remember the last time the Z'Nox showed up. Havok, Polaris, Ch'od and Raza have been captured, and Vulcan keeps wanting to find ways to break them down, especially his brother Havok. He's also earned a nasty scar. The rest of the Starjammers (Lilandra, Marvel Girl, and Korvac, who stole his weapon from Cloud Strife) are busy reclaiming their ship from the Shi'ar grunts and planning to rescue their allies. Standard set up stuff for a first issue. I honestly have no clue how the hell Korvac sheathes a sword that is bigger than he is without elastic limbs; one friend told me the blade sort of vanishes like a light saber, but it still looks a bit awkward.
Chris Yost is providing the story and hasn't killed anyone on panel yet, which for fans of his NEW X-MEN, is a shocker. But he also managed RUNAWAYS/YOUNG AVENGERS SI fine and has written other decent work for comics and TV. Dustin Weaver provides the art and I hadn't ever heard of him before, but his art immediately made an impression, and in a good way. I hope to see more from him in the future; space isn't the easiest genre to get. It includes having to draw a lot of funky designs and locals while having everything flow well and be believable and easy to follow, and Weaver gets it. The issue ends with some of the remaining reps from other planets growing concerned about the Shi'ar's conquest, especially as they're the only major space power now, and Havok managing to store some energy after all. As someone who feeds on cosmic energy for power, space is his playground.
Space has had a knack in recent years for making characters who otherwise were being forgotten kick ass, and Havok certainly could use that. Vulcan is also a perfect villain for an ANNIHILATION style event; he's angry and has a messload of energy powers. Looks like a fine mini so far, and a good start.
WORLD WAR HULK: INCREDIBLE HERC and INCREDIBLE HERCULES: AGAINST THE WORLD: After about a gazillion recommendations from Hypers, I decided that "getting around to Incredible Herc eventually" meant starting this week. I'm wacky and random like that. So one hectic afternoon across Brooklyn and $54 later, I have all three collections of past stories as well as the last three issues to catch up on; nearly two years worth of stories. These two trades cover INCREDIBLE HULK/HERCULES #106-115 as well as the HULK VS. HERCULES: WHEN TITANS COLLIDE one shot.
First off, I have to say that Marvel a lot of times isn't pricing their trades very well. Some of these trades have 5 or less issues in them for $14.99, which is actually about 4 cents more expensive than 5 regular issues would be. Less than 5 issues for that price is friggin' inflated. But perhaps the most appalling is the HC edition of the SECRET INVASION arc that I haven't gotten to yet. Five issues for $19.99. And there's NO cheaper trade option for that arc because Marvel is holding off on the trade for the SI Herc arc until sometime in the spring or something, so if you want to catch up, you either need to hunt down back issues, or pony up an extra $5 for no reason other than zero ads and a hard cover. It almost feels like a double whammy considering the increasing prices of Marvel's mini's and Avengers titles will likely cause a few more people to "trade wait", and now it seems like Marvel is doing everything possible to nickel and dime the trades, too! What a great way to irritate fans who have half a brain and look at prices; guess Marvel dislikes smart customers. Fortunately, my shop offers 10% off on trades. Amazon would have been way cheaper, but I would have had to wait and possibly then visit one of the Seven Circles of Hell, the Post Office. I'm fine with supporting my local shop with buying trades, but does Marvel need to make them a buck or more expensive than they have to be? Marvel's done that "overpriced small HC first, then like half a year for the trade" baloney with other critically acclaimed arcs like CAPTAIN AMERICA. Apparently, the moral is either to screw your LCS and buy online, wait longer to hop on (maybe for the Omnibus), or eat extra cash. Make Mine Marvel!
(I recall when USM trades used to be about $1-$3 cheaper than buying the solo issues combined every arc, so it was once worth it)
But in all honesty, that's just me fishing for something to complain about to make myself feel whole. Halfway through with the Herc run so far and I have to say that it was worth recommending and is pretty enjoyable. I suppose a short reaction would be, "It's like THOR only STUFF HAPPENS!"
The first part that leads into Herc taking over the title was the WWH tie in on INCREDIBLE HULK, that introduced the Renegades as a group of heroes siding with Amedous Cho in trying to help the Hulk. Greg Pak writes most of these issues solo, although Jeff Parker is credited with some of it in the interiors. Considering Jeff came up with the AGENTS OF ATLAS, it makes more sense when Namora, who he resurrected, shows up fairly quickly. Hercules and Angel, two former members of the defunct Champions of L.A. seek to attone for their past misunderstandings with Hulk in giving him the benefit of the doubt now. However, it becomes clear that Cho is seeing the Hulk with rose colored glasses and while he had many points about how often Hulk has been manipulated, provoked, or attacked, he also fails to see many of the Hulk's downsides until it is too late. A few people recommended skipping this trade to save $15, but I am glad I went with it. It provided good context for what was to come, such as the formation of the team up of Herc & Cho and Herc's meeting with Namora. Plus, Angel actually is pretty cool here; he rarely gets things to do outside of the X-Men, whereas back in the old days he was forming all sorts of teams like the Champions or the Defenders.
Amadeus Cho is one of those brainiac kids who sort of jumps back and forth between awesome and annoying, between funny and irritating. His super-intelligence (the fact that he is "The 7th Smartest Mind on the Earth" is stated more often than Brainiac-5 usually mentions his "12th Level Intellect") allows him to pretty much magically solve any jam with just a well times throw of a pebble or hacking any software. To be fair, many other genuis characters do this, we just had 30-40 years to get used to it. Balancing him out is Hercules, who isn't usually that bright and is more of a brawler than a superhero, even though he has been both. He is among the most flawed of the gods, but that is why he is interesting. While I read Herc a few times here and there in Avengers reprints, as a kid my first exposure to him was probably in the HEROES FOR HIRE series of the 90's in which he was a founding member of Rand's outfit, providing the core muscle even when Luke Cage eventually joined. Probably the highlight of the WWH issues was the end when the Renegades have to help Wong stop an escaped Zom from destroying NYC. The lowlight was issue #108, which is basically filler between Rick Jones and Miek.
Of course, the title soon changed to INCREDIBLE HERCULES and for all intents and purposes is a Hercules title with issue #113. This is a curious strategy since this sort of thing hasn't been in vogue in comics for decades. However, in October after 10 issues under the format, the book is still selling at 42k within the Top 60, which is probably better than a regular HERCULES title relaunched with a #1 earlier in the year would have sold.
Once the format changed, Greg Pak gained a co-writer in Van Lente, who usually toils on thankless Marvel Adventures stuff but also did SUPERVILLAIN TEAM-UP: MODOK'S 11 a while back. The shift in the tone is easy to notice. While not a comedy, the book doesn't take itself as seriously. Most importantly, Hercules becomes a more focused and well rounded character. While still funny and full of those things we attribute him to (booze, flirting, and recklessness), there also is a side to Hercules that is aware of his faults and genuinely wants to be a hero that sets some sort of example for this brainiac kid he is stuck protecting. The stories of ancient Greek mythology and intertwined with currect actions and also are given twists to make a point in the story. Hercules goes from being a sort of punch-line side Avenger to being fascinating and enjoyable enough to be more than worthy of his own ongoing title, even if he had to piggy-back Hulk's to do so. He is a character with a lot of history, tragedy, and pathos, both during ancient and modern times, and Pak & Van Lente capture that marvelously. Cho also takes a little more of a back seat to Hercules and isn't as omnipotent as in the WWH story, which is also good so he doesn't get played out, and we still remember he is still a kid. Attempting to attone for their errors in WWH, Hercules and Cho find themselves on the run from SHIELD and especially from a vengeful Ares. Honestly, this is the best use of Ares since he joined the MIGHTY AVENGERS and even his wonky behavior is explained as a "phase of the planet Mars" and it makes sense. There also is plenty of action and it is a series that isn't nearly as pretentious or slow paced as THOR sometimes is. The artwork is also consistently good from a variety of artists.
While I am hardly about to crown this my favorite Marvel book above CAPTAIN AMERICA or NOVA, it definitely is worthy of my pull list and investing in the time and money to catch up on. I should be done with the next eight issues or so in short order. Add INCREDIBLE HERCULES to another one of Marvel's successful relaunches.
