A busy middle-week as I got at least 8 items and I would have gotten more (like SPIDER-MAN FAMILY) if my wallet didn't give out. Some unexpected CW goodness and a late DC book are amung the items here. Oh, and Bendis also proves that he is far more efficient at one-shot stories than long, drawn out arcs.
As always, spoilers are unlimited.
And it seems I missed ANNIHILATION #1. Damn it.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 8/9/06:
52 WEEK #14: Definately a little slower than the previous issue, and picking up along different plot elements. The chapters seem to weave back and forth between their many plotlines without rhyme or reason, which at least makes it unpredictable. Despite the cover, Steel's story is the B-plot, as much of the issue deals with Montoya and Question (or "Charlie") as they flew to Kahndaq to investigate their Intergang lead. The place they go wounds up slaughtered and they're picked up by BA authorities. Steel, meanwhile, talks with his doctor while building his niece a new suit of armor, which he feels is "too little, too late" as his strong ethics led her into the arms of Luthor. Oh, and Doc Magnus recovers the secret to animating his Metal Men, a property I have no interest in. I like the Question stuff, so that's fine. These issues are like links in a chain, and some are better than others. Not as good as the last issue but still enjoyable. There's supposed to be a death next issue (WIZARD alluded to it), and naturally the guessing game can begin. The cover implies Booster Gold, but that may be too obvious. Obvious is Bendis' word for "mystery", but Waid, Rucka, Johns, Morrison & Giffen may have other ideas. The Intergang story has linked up to Black Adam's, so some of the others may start to intermingle too.
SECRET SIX #3: Yet another DC book that is so late that you have to go to the official boards to figure out when it is shipping (like with ALL-STAR sometimes). The book is still a high octane ride with it's criminal stars, and reads like a sort of superhero OCEAN'S 12 as the covert squad of anti-heroes is now embroiled in a plot by their enemies in the Society to do them in. It reminds me a little of GOLGO 13: THE PROFESSIONAL ( an anime none of you know) in which you root for the crooked hero because he's being hunted by more powerful, ruthless crooks. In this case, Dr. Psycho planted a hyponotic suggestion into Ragdoll, turning him against the team. Walker's art wasn't bad in this issue, and Simone's dialogue is incredibly good. Even while the action is intense, some of the lines are amusing, especially Ragdoll's. Mad Hatter still seems to be the weakest link, although his insanity is great fodder for dialogue (like his obsession with hats and not even noticing that Knockout is naked because she's not in one). The main twist is that visions of her immortal father Vandal Savage have appeared to Scandal in dreams, and he's urging her to sire him an heir (since lesbians can't make kids) with Catman. Yikes, that guy's become hot stuff lately, hasn't he? Few years ago he was a joke and now a few DC femmes are out to mate with him (Chesire, Scandal, etc). The lateness hurts the book as it makes the chapters seem slower than they are.
BEYOND! #2: This fun MU romp with an eclectic band of characters by McDuffie and Kolins continues, although due to Marvel's brilliant strategy of revealing spoiler-filled solicts and covers when the first issue of a series starts, we already know that "Spider-Man" is really a Space Phantom. This probably would have been a major shock had Marvel not pulled out the rug. Thanks, guys, really. Although to be fair, as Spider-Man couldn't REALLY die in this title and they needed some big thing to revive him, it works. Plus, it allows us to focus on the smaller stars of this epic, which reads like MTU back when Kirkman was on his A-game with a solid story and solid art. Medusa violently reacts to Venom's actions by attempting to kill him, which has the other heroes interfere. Venom brakes lose and rips through it's machinery, causing it to crash onto their intended destination (maybe Battleworld, or A Battleworld). Dr. Pym is back to his 90's power levels of having access to his shrinking technology for not just himself, but all his toys so he can pull out an endless supply of items from his back, like Link from LEGEND OF ZELDA, a concept that I always felt worked. Why just stick to one theme when you can just use it for a variety of things? The Hood provides the brief narration and some amusing lines, Kraven is still spouting Hollywood one-liners and Firebird continues to be generic (although at least she is depicted praying in one panel; McDuffie knows she's a Catholic). They meet up with "Micheal" from issue one, who turns out to be Deathlok (a character McDuffie wrote shortly during the 90's). And Venom apparently isn't the only villian brought on by "Beyond", because Dragon-Man is also there! Right now I love BEYOND! because its a feel-good superhero adventure that has a bunch of random characters fighting baddies, brushing each other the wrong way and isn't mired in cynical political darkness like the rest of 616 is now during CW. For anyone who likes the sort of superhero action in THE THING or MTU, I recommend this series. It's a mini, but it's not like you can get Gravity, Hood, or Kraven III anywhere else. Kolin's art is at it's usual peak. It did seem strange that Medusa would react so violently to Spider-Man's death, but they're implying that it is because of her rigid Inhuman code of ethics, which may not believe in stuff in "jail" and "no eye for an eye". The explaination as to why her hair-whips hurt was decent. I'm liking all the characters in this bizarre opus, except for Firebird, because she's generic. She barely speaks and her only lines have almost no life to them. Maybe I'll have to wait until she narrates for an issue. Plus, for those who whine about "how Spidey and Wolverine are in everything", it looked like Spidey was only here so he could sell the cover for #1 and he's being written out (although "Spidey" was able to get up and stagger away at the end); that is, not the star at all. Considering that Marvel does even less to promote non-event mini's than they do for a new series, expect sales for BEYOND! to drop like a stone, so enjoy it while it lasts.
FRONTLINE #5: Some could call this "a poor man's 52 for CW" I guess, but I still enjoy it, although this issue seemed slower than the last few and as usual, the liberalism reaches a favor pitch by the end. Urich tries to get JJJ to believe that Norman Osborn (as Green Goblin) threatened him and the paper, but Jonah does nothing, and eventually fires him for his "rantings". Urich claims he knows it was Osborn "from the eyes", but the feds say he's been in his cell. Are the feds lying? Of course they are, because this is Bush America, and Bush America is the most evil thing the world has ever known. When people preach to a choir, their points become repeated and exaggerated, and the choir eventually goes deaf. Sally is spoken to by a member of the "real" resistance (or the Punisher), but before she can get a handle on it, soldiers show up and arrest her and her paper's chief for aiding in the rogue factions (by reporting their side of the story), yet more paranoia over the current times. Newspapers, in the real world, can print front page articles detailing programs that exist only to thwart terrorists that no actual law abiding citizen would ever be effected by, and it is near impossible to stop it or arrest anyone. If anything, the fact that much of the news media has a liberal bias is a poorly kept secret. The second story has the feds all but blackmail Wonder Man into tracking down the "Atlantian spy", which seems an awkward choice as Wonder Man is hardly a detective; it'd be like asking Shang Chi to go into space and fight Kree. The last story has Speedball being rounded up to a prison that is being made for anti-registered super-beings, which is called "Fantasy Island" and built/run by robots in the Negative Zone. I wonder if these were some of the plans Reed has stashed away in some F4 issues lately. So, you're willing to send prisoners to the same zone that has monsters like Blastaar and Annihilus? How compassionate. The last story is more "beating a dead horse" gibberish about comparing Marvel's CIVIL WAR to the historical Civil War, which is tedious because the very title makes that point clear. At 70 chapters and with us nearing the midway point, I am already getting tired of the drumbeating of the ideals here. Why can't Marvel find a middle? The problem with HOM was that the moral dilemma was ignored in favor of pointless violence and scenery gazing. CIVIL WAR's problem is that it BOMBARDS you with the same moral dilemmas and points on both sides over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, and over some more, until you're BEGGING for violence and scenery gazing. Find a damned middle, man. At the very least, while A-listers are written as fanatical children who overreat, C and lower listers are getting a chance to shine, and the core titles are more thrilling than the plodding uselessness of HOM. The fun of rock bottoms are that anything else is an improvement.
MS. MARVEL #6: I didn't plan on getting this CW tie in, as I haven't been getting all of them (skipping CABLE/DEADPOOL and THUNDERBOLTS basically, and I don't plan to get HEROES FOR HIRE and am 50/50 on WAR JOURNAL), but I flipped through the pages and decided to buy it when I saw one of my favorite D-Listers inside; The Shroud. Basically, he's a loosely vieled ripoff of The Shadow who usually operated in LA and posed as a villian in under to dismantle organized crime from within. In modern times, a lot could be done with him if you took a Micheal Mann, HEAT/MIAMI VICE (the recent film) approach to him. And I was glad I bought this because I enjoyed the tie-in issue, probably a little more than some of the ASM or F4 issues I've read. Reed writes it well and Torre has great art, what's to go wrong? Ms. Marvel is naturally one of the registered heroes alongside Iron Man, Wonder Man, Tigra and many other past Avengers, and as such Reed manages to depict Iron Man and the registered types as not being fascist jerks, which is a nice breather even if we know their cause is morally wrong (as Frontline made apparent, the SHRA is basically a metahuman draft bill with no room for middleground or dissent). Ms. Marvel is on a squad with Wonder Man and Arachne (Julia Carpenter, not wanting to call herself Spider-Woman because "so many others have that name", or, "Bendis has the name and anyone who steps on his toes at Marvel gets nailed to a cross, except for Joe Q, who happily exposes plot points to USM to fans at cons while in other interviews bemoaning how 'the internet kills spoilers' while doing everything possible to ENSURE it"). When I first saw Carpenter in the BUGLE SPECIAL I felt she fit into the role of pro-SHRA well as that she is, as far as I can recall, the only registered hero aside for Spider-Man who actually has longtime civilian family members to care about and protect (in this case her daughter, who was "made" in the 80's and is now 9, which is as old as Franklin Richards is, and he showed up in the late 60's). But lo and behold, there's a twist; she's actually DATING ant-SHRA figure Shroud, and decides to escape with him when Prowler surrenders them to avoid having his wife locked up. The climax leaves Marvel and Williams about to run into the heroine they were sent to detain, Arana (who is looking like a female Guyver, a look I don't mind as I liked Guyver).
ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #2: The last annual from Bendis was his best work of 2005, and while I won't make that same statement here, this story is rather sweet. Amazingly, he is able to avoid a lot of the predictable cliches that bog him down on longer arcs, and he seems to do better with oversized one-shot stories like NEW AVENGERS SPECIAL or ILLUMINATI than he's done on longer arcs in years. There is a lesson there, but he never learns it. It's another lost issue of ULTIMATE MARVEL TEAM-UP, a title Bendy claimed sunk due to "lack of stories" and not tanking sales, yet why does he wish to subject us to more stories from it? Oh, well, this one is good as it follows up on WARRIORS. There is another team up with Daredevil with Punisher shooting in the middle, with Moon Knight thrown in. The twist of DeWolfe being a dirty cop working for the Kingpin AND used to manuver Spider-Man as an unwitting accomplish is one of Bendy's better USM plot points in years, which comes to a head here. DeWolfe sends Spidey on a tip to take out Kangaroo, this oversized bruiser who is horning in on Kingpin's protection rackets. Daredevil, Punisher, and Moon Knight all show up in the middle of this big brawl. The "wacky Bendis logic" moment is Daredevil screaming at Spidey for being "a child", yet his first reaction to his impromptu arrival was to hit him and throw him out a window, which was an almost toddler-ish overreaction. Spidey's webbing also seems to be made of silly putty as nearly anyone can seem to rip it off in this story, even Punisher from his damned face without any hinderances (I remember when Sabretooth tried that in the 80's and nearly tore his face off). If it is that useless, why bother? Despite all that, it is a gritty action issue with Punisher offing DeWolfe and DD telling Spider-Man that she was a "deep dirty" cop (which Castle in Ultimate has a rep as, even though his family was offed because he wasn't being dirty). Kingpin doesn't seem nearly as happy in his victory as Murdock thinks, and DD and Moon Knight seem to forge an alliance against Kingpin. Bendis' take on Ultimate MK is pretty cool, although Huston's better on the core title in 616. He's going with the "psycho" approach since "magic" is a 5 letter word in Ultimate, never to get in the way of the post-modern grime, politics, over-realism and black leather (with zippers, pockets, buttons, and pockets with zippers and buttons on them). Brooks' art is also terrific, he's the only guy I could see replacing Bagley on the core title if Bags ever wanted to leave. Once again, Bendy is far stronger for a "done in one" than a 4-7 issue arc. I wish he'd just use this fact efficiently more often before I die of old age, but so long as he sells gangbusters and is surrounded by yes-men, that'll never happen.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #73: The Magician storyline reaches it's "prenultimate" chapter as his ploys are revealed; Magician's parents are alive and he used his reality warping powers to dupe the X-Men into making him their #1 member, something he always wanted. He was also going to use his powers and influence to make them "media darlings" again. Upon finding out that they were manipulated, the X-Men confront him and naturally a battle ensues. I liked seeing Cyclops finally have some CAJONES again after he's spent so long knowtowing to Logan during Bendis' and Vaughan's arcs. However, the logic seemed a little flawed; if Elliot wanted to be an X-Man, why did he have to lie his way into it? They'll take any dope with powers who wanted to play along. And if the X-Men insist on fighting him to "keep him off-balence enough to leave their minds alone", then why are they ordered to hold back to keep from hurting him if he can alter reality and is basically unbeatable unless you TKO him (or worse)? You'd think they'd have learned from Proteus. It ends with Magician with the upper hand and being confronted by Jean/Phoenix. Magician turing out to be a villian was hardly an unexpected turn here, and I would buy it more if he was just being malicious or was "feeding on their energies" or something. But if the statements made here follow through, than he's just an idiot, which makes me feel dumb for reading this far. Not every villian needs to be sympathetic, and Kirkman of all people should know that, having written some cool but generic baddies for MTU. Kirkman's manning the title fine, but he's not nearly as innovative as Vaughan was, and I hope the last issue redeams this, which has become a mismatched 6-7 issues.
I forgot ANNIHILATION #1, which I will get ASAP. I also got THE NOVA CORP FILES but didn't read it yet.
) reviews like Dread.
