I'll get to WAR OF KINGS #2 in due course.
Meanwhile...
DESTROYER #1: Logically, it would be best to trade-wait on this one; it is a 5 issue MAX mini, and while Robert Kirkman is shilling it in INVINCIBLE letters pages, he had that very public spat about "big two" comics a few months ago and many saw it as a bridge burning gesture as he is married more to Image and his original creations there. It certainly is where his work is usually better (two years on ULTIMATE X-MEN was the closest Kirkman has done to a strictly continuity heavy piece, and it was a misfire at best). There is little chance this will see a sequel or an ongoing if it sells well, which no MAX series has so far. But I am impatient, and it has Cory Walker on art. Aside for ULTIMATE X-MEN, I have enjoyed Kirkman's Marvel work, so I bit.
I hear that this is basically BRIT, only at Marvel, but I don't read BRIT although from his guest stints on INVINCIBLE I get that he is basically a long lived "old guy" with super-powers who is surly and nigh-invulnerable. Essentially, Keene Marlow, the original Destroyer, is the same. Or at least he is now.
This series in a way also fulfills the frustration many fans of VERTIGO have with MAX. Basically, that unlike DC's VERTIGO, which usually is not involved in many DCU properties, all Marvel MAX basically does is the same sort of projects that could be done in any other Marvel imprint, just with a (then) higher price, and more blunt acceptance and encouragement of crude language and gorey violence. Considering that "mainstream" Marvel comics "censor" curses that any 12 year old will be able to figure out and can be fairly gorey themselves, some cases can be made for many MAX projects having been regular Marvel stuff with only slight editing. DESTOYER one could say fits that description. It's very violent, and has some strong PG-13 language. Combined with the gore, it would be R if it were a movie or animated DTV.
The other issue is that I can see what Kirkman is going for, using a Golden Age but barely used character as his hero so he can add in many elements of his own, which is how Kirkman is at his best. The problem is that the Keene Marlow Destroyer is very, very obscure and there is zero recap in this issue for anyone who isn't me with a geeky memory of Marvel Handbook Bio's or past comics. In interviews, Kirkman has claimed that he has imagined Marlow never being canceled, so this is "issue #701-705 of his series". But this is an error; especially for a Marvel MAX book for a MAX line that hardly anyone who analyzes data on sales can imagine is profitable. Instead it seems as if Kirkman is going for a niche right at the start, and that isn't always necessary.
For those not in the know, Keen Marlow/Destroyer was one of Marvel's WWII era superheroes from the 40's, but his history got complicated with the INVADERS series in the 70's that gave Destroyer a different alter ego altogether. The 1989 Marvel Handbook cleared it up, and it goes something like this. In the 40's during World War Two, American reporter Keene Marlow is captured by the Nazi's and a fellow POW happens to be a European scientist who had a variant of the super-soldier serum used on Captain America. He gave a sample to Marlow, who broke free and became a costumed crime fighter and soldier for the Allies, Destroyer. Sometime in Europe, Marlowe ran into Brian Falsworth, and allowed the German to use his costumed identity in Europe while he returned to the U.S. Basically, the theory was that two men running around as Destroyer would confuse the Nazi's. Brian, however, quickly ran into Roger Aubrey (secretly his lover) and became Union Jack, while Aubrey became the Destroyer. That's Three thus far, Shooter. Confused as **** yet? It gets worse when you realize that Aubrey was the one who got the most focus; Falsworth would eventually die in battle, while Roger worked for the V-Battalion that showed up in THUNDERBOLTS about ten years ago (when Hawkeye led them, and Mark Bagley was still on art), but has "retired".
The other problem is that while Destroyer had enhanced, even low level superhuman strength, speed, and stamina, the Destroyer that Kirkman has is virtually invulnerable, a power he has grown to over-rely on with his characters. Invincible, Omni-Man, Monstro, Brit, even to a degree Wolf-Man. It is to him what Healing Factors are to Rob Liefield. Destroyer has gone from being "around" Captain America's power class to being resistant to high level explosions and tearing metahumans in half.
Still, this is only a problem if you're a nerd like me who actually knows this stuff. If you're not, then Destroyer is simply an old-man superhero who is surly, violent, and virtually indestructable, at least in theory. While he can tear through terrorists working for "Horde" and shrug off a building-destroying explosive without a scratch (while making macho-man quips in the process; my favorite is of course, "Guns are for P*****s!" as he impales a thug on his rifle), we learn that Marlow is dying. He has had two prior heart attacks, and a third may come at any time and kill him if he doesn't relax, and may even be inevitable if he does. The man is in his 70's at least, after all. He has a wife named Harriet, who lost an arm in an "accident" that Keene has guilt over, and a daughter named Felecia (and a son-in-law) named Darius, all African American. I thought that was a nice touch considering that Keene was a crusty Golden Age hero who not everyone would have assumed would have been keen on interracial marriage, even when it wasn't in or even legal. He lies to his wife about his mortality, seems to hint at some envy over Darius' youth, and decides to spend whatever time he has left taking out "high level threats".
That includes his brother Richard (or "Dicky"), a super-villain in a maximum security prison. After a tense meeting, it is obvious that Keene is there to kill his brother, but wants to give him a "fair fight". After a scuffle for a few pages, all of which was apparently approved by the warden, Keene tears out his brother's heart through the throat of his bro's superhuman form, and boasts that it wasn't a "fair" fight at all due to his own physical superiority. It's very bloody and well drawn by Walker, as well as colored by Staples. The color work is especially good here.
Contrast this with TERROR, INC, the last MAX mini I went with. The writer of that knew damn well how obscure a character they had, so the first issue was spent going over their interpretation of the origin, which did have some changes or altered bits of focus, but overall worked well with the theme of their story. DESTROYER, though, gives you little about the history of the character and assumes that a reader will be interested enough in what is presented, the hints and the violence, to continue. It seems obvious this will be an "old hero's final adventure(s)" style story, which was rather cliche even before ALL-STAR SUPERMAN. The problem is that this Destroyer is an old hero at the end of a journey where few have seen the start, and there is no idea of what the middle was. Apparently Destroyer is a hero who is so in bed with the government, or so legendary, that he gets his own tactical support, and prison wardens allow him to murder inmates whenever he asks. That's a bit extreme considering hardly anyone in the audience has heard of him before.
Don't get me wrong. This isn't a "bad" comic, or even a bad first issue. Kirkman and Walker have another four and I am sure many of this backstory will get fleshed out. I'm a reader who generally likes Kirkman's takes on superhero stories, even when I am getting the same thing from him over and over and over again (I shelled out for TECH JACKET and CAPES, and neither of those were lost Eisner winners if you're not into the genre or Kirkman). Taste and quality are not the same things; I can enjoy something even if I know the quality may not be up to par; THE LAST DRAGON is a ridiculous, stupid movie, but it's quite fun for me, for instance. But I am very curious if someone who isn't already a Kirkman fan, or isn't a Kirkman-on-superheroes fan, will bother with the second issue of this. It can be hard for some to get invested in seeing the final days of an old hero in a first issue that barely hints at his past, and sometimes can almost make you wonder if there was some past DESTROYER series that this is the sequel to. Some people adore the idea of jumping into a franchise comic blind, knowing nothing, and looking up stuff on Wikipedia or waiting for references from upcoming issues to piece the plot and the character history together; I mean, how else does anyone get on board a DC comic book these days? Many other readers don't, though. Right now, while Keene's family life is interesting and quite humanly presented (the fact that he can't tell his wife that he is dying, and feels guilt about her losing her arm is good stuff, executed well), and he's an efficient hero, but right now he is a cipher, and anyone who isn't already a Kirkman fan may not be willing to pay another $4 for a cipher.
The next four issues may be much better than this one. But a debut issue that isn't as perfect as it can be doesn't inspire confidence. I don't mind another helping of the same Kirkman steak that he serves in other titles, but those who aren't may not be impressed. Corey Walker's artwork is terrific, though, and his redesign of Destroyer is interesting, even if he looks like he raided the closets of Norman Osborn and Frank Castle (he pre-dates both, but not everyone knows that). Considering MAX books are usually lucky to sell 9,000 copies a month, I don't think cementing this as a niche title right from the start was wise. For me it is good violent geezer hero fun, but maybe that is because I don't read BRIT, which is probably better. Even if I did, I wouldn't mind reading another version of it; I'm a Kirkman fan. Anyone else, though, may not be as easily swayed into investing $20 on this.
DARK REIGN: FANTASTIC FOUR #2: Having little to do with Dark Reign so far, it may as well be called, "Five Issue Preview of the Next FF Ongoing Writer", which is Johnathon Hickman. Sure, some HAMMER agents storm the Baxtor Building and essentially cause the trouble that is happening, but it is a bit of a standard FF plot that really just needed any contrivence to happen. Franklin and Val confront and bluff off the HAMMER agents within about three pages and then set out to fix the loss of power, hoping it doesn't make their father's experiment go any worse. Franklin is still playing the "normal" kid to his super-intelligent little sister, and it speaks volumes about current media's current overreaction to past eras of sexism, which has been to emasculate male characters whenever possible (Bendis' ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, the wussiest, sissiest superhero ever put to fiction, is a prime example; I swear USM couldn't punch a fly without crying). After 41 years and so many aborted attempts at making Franklin Richards super-powered or more directly involved with the Four, he now is the Ron Stoppable to his kid sister's Kim Possible. Were the sexes reversed, it would never stand. It just is a shame that we couldn't find a middle ground between the era of when men had to be superhumanly macho, to now when they are rewarded for being, essentially, cowards. Can't they BOTH be super-kids? Can't an elder brother not automatically be the fop to a kid sister?
That experiment of Mr. Fantastic's is "The Bridge", a device that allows Reed to view millions of alternate realities in the multiverse at once to answer his question, or rather solve the problem that he has, which for now is to fix the world and make his family's life less chaotic. Basically, the same thing it has been for about 45 years, just now Civil War and everything since serves as a catalyst. Reed is analyzing realities where things turned out better, or where strife was limited or ended quickly, and found that in all of them, he had acted alone, instead of in tandum with Stark or "Pym". A problem is that Reed treats the "Pym" that aided in Civil War as the genuine article, when we all know by now that he was a Skrull, having impersonated Pym for at least a year in Marvel Time. You would think if Hickman recalled that, it would be enough of a reason for Reed, eh? The Skrulls didn't cause Civil War, or World War Hulk, or even M-Day, but they helped those events occur, pushed them along. But that would ruin the theme of the story, so, hush.
The rest of the Four, who were trying to ward off the HAMMER agents, are now stuck in shifting realities; one moment fighting dinosaurs, the next being the royal family to a Middle Ages style world where an alternate Iron Man is sparking a rebellion. Once the Richards kids fixe the power, that changes and now Ben, Sue, and Johnny are super-pirates. While all this lets Sean Chen have fun on art, and the art here is very good, it doesn't do much for the story as a whole but to break up Reed's meta-analysis.
This is a bit of a middling issue, and while Hickman impressed me with his debut, this issue isn't as strong. I think my biggest problem is I am growing frustrated with no one having anything new to say about any of these characters, and about Franklin Richards devolving after being around almost as long as Fidel Castro. Mark Waid found some new stuff to do, but after that neither of the last 2-3 writers have found a better voice. The big solution that Reed is looking for is for him to be more pro-active, and to not trust Tony Stark, but these don't seem like as big a deal as they should to me. It isn't helped by the fact that Reed siding with the Pro-SHRA side in CIVIL WAR was BLATANTLY out of character (especially as he was the one who proved to Congress why a similar law during the ACTS OF VENGEANCE was wrong about 15 years earlier) on so many levels that neither JMS or McDuffie could explain it properly without it collapsing. A solution of, "you were a dip**** in Civil War, so turn off your dip**** button" wouldn't work, after all. That is the problem of glaring character errors; even years later, they are hard to work with. Hickman is paying for Millar's gaffe.
Not a bad issue, but not as good as the first for me. Chen's artwork is great, and I appreciate a mini that isn't shamelessly $4 these days. Hickman may have more to say about the Four, and he at least knows how they all tick and interact well enough. This issue just didn't dazzle me. Many mini's these days are at least one issue too long, and this issue may be one of those issues that prove that argument. I am hopefull that Hickman will do better with the rest of the mini, and once he is on the FF title proper. I would just like more out of the Four rather than spin cycle sometimes.
