No Dini on DETECTIVE for the next 2 months, so it was an all Marvel week. Although I did look at that LONE RANGER trade for a few minutes. I usually don't read Westerns, but I've heard good things. Maybe for the future, much like that ad for the CAPTAIN AMERICA OMNIBUS due in Sept. 2007. August starts out with a bang with another installment of World War Hulk, as well as other solid titles.
As always, full spoilers ahoy.
Dread's BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 8/1/07:
WORLD WAR HULK #3: Wasn't it a mere two weeks since the last installment? The cynic in me is baffled at the quick speed of this series, having gotten used to CIVIL WAR like delays. The pessimist in me is waiting for some shoe to drop, some announcement like, "issue #5 will be late" and then this will all make sense. But so far, that hasn't happened. The buzz for this event is much more positive than it was for CW around the midway point. Even among supporters of CW, you could sense the positive reviews shifting once Clor showed up and then the disappointment at the end. None of that this time around. Of course, it helps that WWH had more direct, yet subtle, build-up over time, and that most of the characters are acting relatively in-character. And it delivers good action without Millar's pretentious tone. Anyway, I usually review comics in alphabetical order, but since this is THE book of the week, figure to get it out of the way first.
Some events tend to work like rollar coasters, some installments are smashes and others sort of mull. WWH in some ways has been more even handed. The first issue provided the most bang, IMO, but that is expected of a first issue. However, #2-3 have hardly been lulls. In this installment, longtime Hulk-foe Gen. Thunderbolt Ross has been given Presidential orders to take out his nemesis now that the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, as well as several heroes in-between (Doc Samson is part of neither team) have been defeated by Hulk & the Warbond. And so he goes forth with bombs, bullets, and missles all loaded with gamma-flesh rending adamantium. I did have some sort of power level quibble over this; in #2, Hulk got hit with a combination attack of Human Torch's "Nova Flame", which can get hotter than the sun itself, along with Storm's thundercrash without so much as superficial marks, but overglorified shrapnel makes him bellow in pain? I guess Hulk gets a +50 DEF against explosions or something. While the salvo goes on, Ross gives his opinion on the whole Hulk mess from his POV, and it doesn't come off as terribly unreasonable; he feels the superheroes and the rest of the world have coddled Hulk for too long, and now everything has come to pot. What is amazing is how WWH is a much simplier event in terms of moral dilemmas than CW was, yet Pak shows a much more even hand with portraying POV's than 75% of the writers who handled CW. He presents enough motive for Hulk's attack, especially for those who read PLANET HULK, yet he doesn't make Hulk appear immaculate, or without sin. In fact, in many instances he portrayes how unstable and unreasonable Hulk is, and this issue is one of those. Ross' attack might not have lasted as long if Dr. Strange did not magically enter Hulk's psyche to try to settle the battle. Of course, Dr. Strange could magically kill Hulk, but as he has stated here and before, Banner has been his friend (hell, Hulk served the Defenders for years and they all used to be pals to a point), using magic to kill is a path a Sorceror Supreme cannot trend lightly, and lastly, fighting the Hulk usually just makes him stronger & madder. Unfortunately, this sequence perhaps shows how far gone Banner & Hulk are. Strange was being reasonable and Hulk essentially suckerpunches him, and mangles his hands. This sequence sort of shows just how more dangerous the Hulk may be now; not only can't he be outfought (until it is convient to the plot; Black Bolt and Ares shouldn't have gone down so easily), but no one can reason with him. Not even Rick Jones can get through to him. The Warbond make their way through what is left of the New Avengers (Iron Fist, Ronin, and Echo), and aside for Iron Fist managing to actually stun Hiroim with his "iron fist" attack, the battle ends rather quickly. Once freed from Dr. Strange's magics, Hulk naturally tears through the military like he always does, and it appears Ross may have met his end, but the old rascal went down shooting, in an enjoyable sequence. The comic ends with the Hulk placing inhibitor discs on his heroic captives and forcing them to battle for his bemusement (as well as the entertainment of the hundred or so supporters he seems to have), and considering this is written by Pak, the same guy who did PLANET HULK, I think his message is deliberate. The Hulk, despite his best intentions, is becoming very much like the Red King. What did the Red King do to people he conquored? Had them battle to the death for his amusement. He was simularly unreasonable and impulsive. The Hulk may have been fairer to the people of Sakaar but he's showing no mercy to his enemies beyond giving Manhattan 24 hours to evacuate. The Hulk also has zero proof that the explosion that destroyed his people was caused by the Illuminati directly, and at this point likely doesn't care, because he's had issues with the superheroes his entire existance. Not even appealing to Banner helps because Banner is essentially in agreement to the Hulk, or at least has surrendered his will to him. The old addage of whether "Banner became the Hulk, or Hulk became Banner" comes in. You can't outfight him and you can't reason with him.
The only major problem that persists is the Sentry, who is a walking, talking plot device and I doubt that will ever change. His truckload of mental issues prevent him from being able to instantly settle any superhero problem until he is "ready", which means sitting on the couch for another issue. Pak isn't the only writer who uses this to his benefit; Bendis used it once or twice to explain why Sentry couldn't instantly cut loose or win a battle. Perhaps in the original mini and all this, Sentry had a point, but now even in capable hands he is little more than a plot device. He has the power to take out any threat, but he can't use it until the plot says he can. Any character is like this, but Sentry is the most transparent about it. Such a shame that Thor is busy building a kingdom in Oklahoma to finally have a definitive showdown with the Green Goliath and shut up many of the fanboys in VS. debates. Thor wasn't nearly as crippled by mental hang-ups and didn't need to be coddled into action like some fickle puppy.
Still, Hulk's forced gladiator pits should suffice to provide fare for the next issue before the climax in #5. The end still should result in the Hulk either being defeated or appeased, and at this point aside for putting money on Sentry beating him or Betty being resurrected I am not sure what will happen. Would even a revelation that one of his Warbond rigged the explosion work? And I'd never bet on Sentry for ANYTHING, he's become one of the most inconsistant and useless "megaton tankers" in Marvel. Sure, Colossus may go down in the first round to Hulk, but at least he wasn't a sissy about action, you didn't have to go, "Good boy, Sentry, you didn't wet the carpet, care to step out and save the world today? No? Okay, we have a nice coloring book for you" or something. Sentry's issue isn't entirely Pak's fault, it's been years of treatment in NEW AVENGERS and so on that led to this.
Naturally, Romita Jr.'s art is great and speedy, although some panels and figures seemed rushed, especially his Death's Head troopers. But compared to other pencillers who take almost 3 months to do an issue, and it's more than reasonable. Romita Jr. doing A- is more than sufficient for me and everyone else. WWH is shaping up much better than I originally expected and I am glad I got aboard. Marvel needs something like this, a series with near universal approval that isn't being horribly overtaxed (although most of the tie-in's seem superficial). All it needs is a strong finish that doesn't disappoint, and hopefully Pak has it in him. He is using continuity very well, further proving that writers who feel it isn't important are simply either too lazy or egotistical to get it right; he gets the team rosters right and even is trucking out an old demon like Zom from the 60's to give Dr. Strange some sort of boost without working hands. Who'd have thunk, though, that a guy like Pak would be doing the Marvel Event of the year a mere 1-2 years ago? It is good to see some writers moving up through the ranks and getting a chance to shine so that the era of Bendis/Millar didn't stifle everything too much. Slott is becoming A-List, Zeb Wells is getting a shot, Pak on the Marvel Event, Brubaker's never been hotter, and so on. Marvel 2007 has been looking very sweet once CW ended at the tip of it, and a knockout punch from WWH #5 would be the best way to cement that. My fingers are crossed.
FANTASTIC FOUR #548: The battle with the new Fightful Four continues, and if this story proves anything, it is that Wizard is a strategic idiot. He makes one good play with capturing Sue Richards with a trap and then after blowing up Reed's ship, totally lost all efficiency. Black Panther proves his cunning (noting Reed was too emotional about Sue to have checked his ship himself) and McDuffie inserts his usual amusing dialogue that won his scripts fans back in his JLU days. In a way, though, in going over Wizard's motivation, it exposed how simplistic the villain is; through irrational belief that the achievements of others make his less so, he's squandered his skill at creating advanced technology into a life of crime in lavender armor. Of course, Trapster has been argued to have even less motivation (Commie sympathizer, then became too mixed up with crime to do anything else) and with all the months of CW in which heroes were made to be villains, I don't mind some good & evil simplicity. As Batman said in JUSTICE, crime is always a choice. Wizard comes across as vicious and petty, which may be fine enough. The New FF, plus Reed, battle Wizard and the rest of his team, and manage to overcome them before the issue is done before Wizard exposes his trump card; Klaw. But, really, why didn't he release Klaw at the start of the battle so that his team would have been even numerically (5 on 5) and possibly even won with Sue incapacitated? Even his minions stated his plan of "wait for Reed to attack" was flipping stupid. Normally I wouldn't raise a fuss, especially since I reed stuff like X-MEN: FIRST CLASS where things are rather simple, but Wizard is one of those longtime rogues who I feel could be so much more, if someone found some angle that worked beyond the same old thing. Still, this is what it is, a Fantastic Four vs. the Frightful Four (or Five) conflict, and for what it is, it works well. The action is nice to look at, the lines enjoyable, and Pelletier's art pretty as ever. It's working out much better than the last arc was, with Surfer grapplings and all (I'm surprised Black Panther didn't whip up some hologram of Spider-Man to scare Titania or something; she has a phobia of the web-slinger). Speaking of which, at least McDuffie pays attention to continuity, hinting that Titania was working for Wizard in exchange for his aid in beating She-Hulk, and one wonders if Hydro-Man may not have had a simular deal for Spider-Man. In your superhero food chain, this may be fast food, but it has been enjoyable fast food so far. The worst part is Reed's face on the cover, which looks like he left his rear in Iowa and is too stretched to poo. Despite what some say, I'm enjoying this run so far.
IRREDEEMABLE ANT-MAN #11: Alas, the cover blurb about Eric being "the most unlikeable hero" proved true, as sales tanked and this book has been axed, thus sleepwalking to #12. Still, despite the quality of the book, I can't imagine someone at Marvel didn't see this coming; despite crossover tie-in's with Initiative and WWH late in the game, Ant-Man is not a hot franchise and aside for MARVEL ZOMBIES as a fluke hit, Kirkman is a B-List writer in terms of buzz, the majority of his Marvel titles besides the aforementioned and ULTIMATE X-MEN falling from the Top 100 like balloons tied to bricks. And it is a damned shame because this was among his best Marvel work yet, creating a legacy character who is so unlike most who show up, and yet in his way more "realistic" than many heroes. Let's face it, most people despite good intentions are pricks, who look out for themselves. In this issue, Eric wakes up from a beating by the Hulk in the worst circumstance; stripped of his costume, physically helpless and at the mercy of Mitch Carson, who has been stalking him since the beginning of the series. Mitch's past is revealed and he stands exposed as a ruthless, sadistical man who happened to find the perfect job to soothe his bloodlust and for whom bending the rules to his liking isn't uncommon. His past poker games, having low rank-agents cover for him, and now private torture sessions with Eric. It reminded me of something Kirkman said in interviews at the start of the series, "No one's hand's are clean". Eric may not be the best example of humanity, but Mitch's probably worse. Eric doesn't get off on hurting/killing people. Fortunately, Eric is saved by Iron Man, and after which he feeds the Invincible Avenger lines of either half truths or complete lies, and things end as they began. Or have they? At least Eric likely will live out the end of the series, and Kirkman obviously has a competant ending planned. Black Fox, unfortunately, is sucked in by Eric's efforts to save himself, showing that perhaps he is incapable of befriending anyone enough that he won't sell them out in a panic to save himself. Of course, deep down, he actually did love Visioneer. The letters page sort of show Kirkman's frustration at the cancellation of his series, and he even mentions it to a "trade-waiter", a trend that hurts small books the most. The irony is the books that can most afford to trade-wait, the 60-100k sellers, are so "hot" that few do, and yet the small quality books that literally need every 100 readers or so, often fall at the mercy of it. Trade-waiting argueably killed the first volume of SHE-HULK. However, trade popularity also led to a new lease on life for SHE-HULK, as well as RUNAWAYS. Hopefully, that happens with this. This is a no-brainer for some hardcover treatment for all 12 issues, so if you missed it thus far, I implore you to buy the HC. Ant-Man's a great addition to the MU and it would be a shame to lose him, or at least put him at the mercy of other writers wanting to fill team roster spots, like Bendis. Books like this are great because they deviated from the norm, Ant-Man was so unlike most Marvel "heroes" and Kirkman as always had his quirky take on C & D-Listers, the ability to create a little universe with Damage Control, and a sense of continuity. Not only did he create Eric, but also Mitch, Monstro, Visioneer, etc. He carried over stuff from MTU, too, as a thanks for the people who actually read that fun book. And I hate that his worst work, Ultimate X-Men, sells the best because it has that "built in" audience that would sell in the Top 30 even if a computer program wrote it. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Marvel gave everyone the chance to read a year of this, just a shame to see it all end. And as always, Hester rocks. If Marvel hasn't gotten him signed exclusive, they should.
NEW AVENGERS: ILLUMINATI #4: I've said before that this title is the best thing Bendis writes, and I stand by it. At this point it would be naive to not attribute part of that to Reed co-writing, further proving my theory that it isn't Bendis' ideas that are the problem, it is his execution. If only he had gotten a co-writer for USM, that title might not have spun into a repetitive cycle of emasculation that led to the demonic fecal matter that was Ultimate Clone Saga. Naturally, Reed is a solid writer in his own right, effective with action, character, and continuity; his MS. MARVEL CW issues that I read were excellent and I regretted that I wasn't interested enough in Ms. Marvel to stay on that book. Despite the cover, only one of those women appears within the pages, the others are there "in spirit" as the first 4th of the book is spent with the Illuminati talking about their love lives. This naturally gives Bendis and his dialogue a moment to shine, however, the one quibble is that as always, some lines come off as incredible immature and juvenile, and one can't imagine uber-genuises like Mr. Fantastic, Dr. Strange and Iron Man uttering them. On the plus side, Bendis' Namor utterly rocks, and if he ever wrote or co-wrote a NAMOR ongoing, I could see it working (and TELL ME it wouldn't sell like hotcakes). Bendis writes Namor as an unrelenting, arrogant bad-ass and that is precisely what he should be. The core mission is the Illuminati using magic and telepathy to try to convince Noh-Varr, then being kept in the Cube, not to engage in war with the Earth, and try to pre-empt a future threat (especially in Kree/Earth affairs). This actually is an effective issue and effort. The only flaw is that, of course, we know how it turned out. In Zeb Wells' YA/RUNAWAYS, Noh-Varr was brainwashed by the Cube's sadistic Warden and used as a pit bull against his enemies, with the teens freeing Varr from control and having the Cube's agents at his heels. The odds of Noh-Varr being a hero after all that are rather low. He wasn't a hero in Morrison's original mini and wasn't a hero there. So despite their efforts, the Illuminati will end up failing at their mission, which is what they always do, and what Bendis appears to be making a career of; writing stories in which the title heroes lose or fail, all the time, forever, by design. And when they do win, the victory is pyrric. I can't think of any writer who felt the genre was so self-defeating and downtrodden, and it proves that at heart Bendis is a crime noir writer who is out of his depth with superheroes a lot. Still, despite all that, this is a solid issue with nice visuals, a solid story, and effective dialogue. Namor's statement to Reed and Stretcho's subsequent actions were the icing on the cake. The fact that the stories are fairly self-contained help the book overcome the fact that it ships every 2-3 months, sort of like ALL-STAR SUPERMAN most times. I am looking forward to the finish and suggest that Reed co-write New Avengers, pronto.
Meanwhile, Jubilee is showing her experience chops with the New Warriors, leading training sessions and pointing out failings. Beak's new armored codename is Blackwing, instead of War-Hawk, which is good because that doesn't rip off JLU/BATMAN BEYOND. Even if, erm, there is technically a villain named Blackwing, and hopefully no heroes get confused. We also got to see the entire team assembled and a few of them named; Decibel, who fires sonic waves and is attempting to look like a legacy hero from Banshee, but may likely be Chamber. Also, Skybolt (armored man who fires "TURBO Missles", reminding me of the aforementioned Turbo, who technically is "retired" but still hanging around LONERS), and Tempest. Ironically, they trained against Nimrod, who was the villain in the NXM arc that Paco Medina drew before hitting this book. Sophia watches things and talks with Jubilee, but still isn't convinced, noting how Jubes isn't as "giggly" as she used to be that that Night-Thrasher's mystery act may be worth looking into. Wolverine also shows up and talks to Jubilee about the dangers of wanting to replace one's lost mutant gifts, as he did when he spent 6 years without adamantium. Of course, he got it back thanks to being taken in by Apocalypse and made into his umpteenth Horseman of Death. While not the best place, Logan's rarely cried about it. But in a way I like Jubilee/Wondra here so far and figure it is a good use of the character; she's not being used as a mallrat cliche anymore and she's not being a sacrificial lamb for some story. She is using her experience to grow up and be a more competant heroine. The story ends with Officer Sykes going over her past, and Night-Thrasher seemingly shrinking them in the car lot. Sykes' motivation is simular to some mentioned during CW, even if it seems she learned the exact opposite lesson from what happened to her, sort of like Reed and his McCarthy-Witch-hunted uncle. She and her father were saved by Spider-Man from a thug, but instead all she can think about are the hypothetical "what if's" about it. I could use that same logic to make policework seem fruitless. Still, it is realistic for people to do that; how often to people react logically to a life event, and not emotionally? Blackwing also shows more hair on the covers than interiors. The concept of the NW's not entirely trusting the shadowy Night-Thrasher is also something that harkens to the original run, where NT recruited them and kept to himself a lot, with his past often biting them in the rear. Not much more to say here; effective mystery and plot, good art, and good dialogue/writing. A solid superhero title here, even if it may rely too much on some leftover X-Men. But at the very least, it makes some good use of them.
. I just wish they could have kept Blake out of it. He didn't have much of a part in Thor's end, and really shouldn't be in his beginning although that's how they explain the storyline.
