Part II - Make Mine $3.99!
CAPTAIN AMERICA #609: In order to make up for skipping July, this is the second issue this month. If only more titles made up for schedule slips that way. Ed Brubaker writes, Butch Guice draws, and helps two other inkers ink the thing, and Paul Mounts colors. It's part 4 of 5 of this "No Escape" arc, but like many readers I find myself wanting to skip ahead to the next arc. Hence the dilemma of advance solicitations. Still, this issue is another solid installment of this arc, pitting Barnes against Baron Zemo (Jr.) for the first time. This issue certainly has quite a lot of action; Barnes vs. Zemo while Falcon, Widow, and Rogers take on the "Iron Hand". It turns out Natasha can easily drop kick someone in the eyes, and that the "Iron Hand" is more like an "iron glove". I definitely got a sense of some Jack Kirby style with some of the panels with Rogers in action, which I doubt is coincidental.
As for Barnes vs. Zemo, it is also well paced but ends as far too many initial duels between Barnes and a named enemy go; he loses. Brubaker is at risk of becoming as predictable as a wrestling promoter. It seems all Barnes seems to do is waste mooks, then walk into a trap, lose to the arch nemesis, get captured, and then either need to escape or be saved (or some element of both) before finally winning when it counts. At least against Grand Director or Crossbones. It is helped somewhat by the fact that Falcon and Rogers seem aware enough of Barnes' reckless pattern enough to joke with him about it, or try to warn him against taking reckless actions (which he usually ignores). One could even wax philosophical and say how it makes sense that Barnes does this. When he was experimented on and frozen, he was a young adult, and was only thawed out every few years for a hit. Therefore, for his age, he's missed years of development and would logically be somewhat immature, while still having enough experience to be a standard hero. Plus, Barnes was a sidekick, and "be reckless, walk into a trap, get captured, lose to big villain" is pretty much the stock in trade for sidekicks. That's all Robin did for about 30 years at one point. Just because Barnes has the mantle now doesn't mean those habits of tactics are hard to break. He's just lucky he always fight enemies who are willing to take live captives, rather than someone who might just kill him. Those are still amazingly rare for villains in comics, yet in real life even the common gang banger or street mugger would rather leave a dead witness than a live one.
Zemo's lackey gives a hint about what Zemo's scheme is all about. The goon at least felt it wasn't "fair" that Barnes got to have an ugly, war-era past and had it swept under a rug of ignorance to be a hero. After, the Winter Soldier wasn't just a Cold War figment. He killed American citizens and even performed an act of terrorism very recently. Given that anyone "who was once a Nazi is always a Nazi" lives with that, one can understand the feeling. Zemo himself tried being a hero, but he could never escape the shadow of his father's legacy or his own misdeeds, and neither did the world. Had Osborn not been a lunatic, perhaps that may have changed, but with Osborn proving no better than his past, Zemo probably figures there's no way he'd be accepted now. Why should Barnes have the benefit that Zemo and others never had? Of course, that's just rantings from a minion, and who knows if that is Zemo's motivation yet. Next issue will have the conclusion at the place where the first Zemo started Bucky off on this course, and I expect a lot of conversation and some more fists flying next issue.
Although after the trial arc, it would be nice if Barnes could win a fight in his own comic what it counts. I mean he's not as useless as Ultimate Spider-Man is yet (who'd need help from a harem of women to survive a battle with a white collar criminal armed with a staple gun), but he's starting to bump that door. I imagine it is easy to slip into ruts or patterns with details of stories when one's been on a series for as long as Brubaker has, but that's no excuse to not try a little harder. I can accept it to a degree as Barnes is still "new" at this despite having all that WWII experience, but only for so long. If in four years Bucky is still walking into a trap set up by Spot and Hypno Hustler and being captured, then I'll groan. I mean he couldn't even beat the Wrecking Crew; Aunt May with a wet mop can beat the Wrecking Crew! Barnes gets captured and chained up almost more often than Wonder Woman used to. While Brubaker is still good at pacing a fight with his artists, I would hope not to see the patterns of it so clearly. Would it have been better to just have Barnes confront Zemo at the right location and have scimmed an issue off this arc? Who knows, yet.
Sean McKeever and Filipe Andrade continue the NOMAD strip as a back-up, with the plot revolving around Steve Rogers finding Rikki and wanting to help her out. This is a bit of "the angst phase" of the story, in which Rikki and Rogers both split up and think about the offer. Rogers doesn't want to put any limitations or conditions to his offer to "help" Rikki, but feels that he can't ensure her safety if she continues to go out as Nomad (and he's still dead set against teenage partners). Rikki, for her part, has figured she would be set up with a foster family and likely move away from that area, and while she lives in, basically, an abandoned tenement, she is at least used to going to school with Arana. Nomad tracks down the gang of anti-gay bigots who she tangled with last strip, and if not for Steve Rogers' help, she would have been killed. Even with it, she gets careless being around him again after so long, and gets sucker-punched by a mook.
Overall, it's fine. I prefer Baldeon on the art, but with him drawing regular art for YOUNG ALLIES I see how that is impossible, and I was amazed he managed to draw 30-40 pages of material a month for as long as he did. The "indecision" moments feel fine, and it's okay for an 8-10 page strip. That said, there is a part of me rolling my eyes at how slow to learn Steve Rogers is with teenage heroes. They're NEVER going to quit just because you say it is unsafe. They never have and never will. I mean how did Rick Jones treat not being allowed to be Bucky? By running off with THE HULK. How the **** is that safer than just being Bucky? During a lot of material for CIVIL WAR, I read a lot of hand wringing from Rogers and Stark about how foolish they were to not take these kids under their wing and mentor them, instead of basically letting the New Warriors or the Pride or the Young Avengers run wild. Yet every single damn time a teen hero or heroes show up, the adults keep making the same bloody mistakes. If you want to support them, SUPPORT THEM! Give them housing, training, mentoring. Accept it that they're always going to do it, and decide it is safer alongside a guardian than alone. I know it's done because Marvel is very much anti-sidekick, but I'd like a better in story reason than "adults are stubborn". Finally, I did wonder why Rikki seemed more scared of a room full of armed humans than she was of facing off against the Bastards of Evil. I'd rather fight a half dozen armed humans than, say, one person who SHOOTS FIRE and someone else who is LIVING GRANITE or something. But maybe I'm funny like that. It's like watching some spazz out about jumping across a rooftop. That's like walking down a street in a comic book.
Overall, pretty good issue, but not flawless. Still enjoying the run, though.
FANTASTIC FOUR #582: To be honest, this issue all but lost me in a sea of time technobabble that I'd need five Vulcans and a Rigellian to figure out. The art by Neil Edwards is fine, but I can't wait for Epting to start drawing next month. Marvel is starting to promote the next arc so much that this one feels very obligatory. Maybe it was a bad idea to do a lot of middling for a year and watch sales drop to pre-2005 levels and THEN get to the important stuff? Maybe? What do I know, right?
Jonathon Hickman is in some ways a lot like Reed himself. In that he has a vast, hyperactive imagination, but sometimes needs someone to go, "Yo, Stretch! Get to the point already!" He doesn't have that as a solo writer, and I think at times that can be a problem. After all, without the other Four, Reed would babble endlessly to the point where he'd put even the Watcher to sleep. Hickman has been doing a slow-burn build up to his big arc, but issues like these make me wonder if he couldn't have sped it up a little, added some extra kick. This story has little. Of course Nathanial won't be killed by his double. Of course Young Reed, Ben, and Victor live unscathed. That was obvious last issue, so much so that I wonder why we needed the song and dance. It also ties into Hickman's SHIELD, which I am not reading.
It's a bit of a deck clearing exercise to get Nathanial Richards out of the time stream a while so that his meddling doesn't effect things anymore than it already has. But...wasn't Nathanial already in limbo for about 10 years before Hickman started using him again, and making him the creative force behind EVERYTHING?
The art is fine, and it has some action and a few notable lines and moments. But I'm already thinking to the next arc, which makes this one one to skip for me. People complain about how condensed stories were in the old days, when sweeping origins and exposition were shoved into a 10 panel page. With everything Marvel does leading to a $3.99 comic, I wouldn't mind a little condensation now and again. I could also argue that while the covers are technically accurate, they are about as shamelessly embellished as a used car ad that reads, "car has seat,belts" rather than "seat belts" so the seller isn't lying when you find out the belts are broken, right? The covers seem to promise a present day adventure with Nathanial, Mr. Fantastic, Thing, and Dr. Doom, and that is entirely what doesn't happen. Imagine if I had a cover that had Ghost Rider and Spider-Man on it, and in the story within it was just a pre-bite Peter watching a pre-demon Blaze's father's stunt show on TV and doing hand wringing about their futures. You'd feel just a tad gypped, right? There's a lot to like about Hickman's run on FF, but this issue had very little of it.
PRINCE OF POWER #4: Ol' reliable triumphs again with this conclusion. Sales for this are dreadful, but that only matters if you study sales charts or worry about your shop under ordering CHAOS WAR stuff. Some people were a bit dismayed about this finale, but I thought it was very enjoyable, more so than anything else I read this week, even INVINCIBLE. It's the conclusion of this mini but it leads into the next rather bluntly. Some could say it is typical of many Marvel stories, with a conclusion that attempts to sell you something else rather than provide an ending. I would disagree, though, as I still found this to reach an end (of sorts), the lead isn't the same as he was in issue one, and it was a damn fun ride. While it doesn't have the laughs of last issue, it does have time for plenty of them, even a "FLASH GORDON" reference (circa 1980). I started out not caring for Amadeus Cho, but Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente have created a character since who I can see star in a mini like this and be entertained with. Reilly Brown does most of the art, although he is helped out for a few pages by Adam Archer. It's all inked and colored by the same people, although Brown is the superior artist, so I could usually tell the shift every time. It wasn't anything dramatic, but noticeable.
Cho and Vali have been chasing their components for their "god making juice" for four issues, and Vali's been a step ahead of the game every time. In the realm of the Hindu pantheon, Vali is on the verge of the final ingredient, and while Cho's motives are noble, Vali's are not. Thor also puts an end to his alliance with Cho, wanting to stop either from gaining godly omnipotence. You can't zap Cho with the same attack twice, and Thor learns that the hard way. While Thor was "owned" a bit this, I wasn't aggravated by it. He got to beat Cho down pretty soundly in issue two. He got in a lot of action in issue three, and Cho would not have survived the mission without him. Thor's action in fact proved VITAL for giving Cho enough power to even challenge Vali. Thor was still more vital to the plot and treated better during these four issues than Nova was in the first four issues of SECRET AVENGERS (or even, for that matter, any of the Secret Avengers not Rogers, O'Grady, or Beast). I can accept Cho coming up with a technological way of absorbing and redirecting Thor's power than, say, Rulk just clobbering him and lifting his hammer. I mean Hank Pym could effortlessly imprison Loki in MIGHTY AVENGERS last year, how is this any different?
You have Cho vs. Vali going down at the same time as Delphyne vs. Atalanta, which is paced pretty well and converges into one scene nicely. One has to wonder whether Athena knew full well that revealing what she knew about Amadeus' love for Delphyne would get her to properly fight alongside him again, which proved vital. The two finally get back together again after what seems like ages of gods and mortals keeping them apart. Cho attains godhood for a moment, but realizes Thor was right, that he doesn't deserve it so best not to use it for anything more than the tasks at hand. Vali is banished, Thor and all the items returned, and Hercules is returned. I honestly forget that Athena technically had Zeus' thunderbolt, and there's no way she would relinquish it to a clod like Hercules, not when she thinks that a "hero of the mind" is the modern way. So this was about as good a means to get Hercules to "Power Up" shy of kicking any blue pigs. The ending is abrupt, but intentionally so; what, was Hercules supposed to have tea and cookies with Cho upon magically learning that the Chaos King was coming? It isn't like Cho will be forgotten with the next God Squad. This was only a 4 issue arc, when most writers would have stretched it to six. I can be patient.
While promotion for the next arc has begun in earnest (and Marvel's belief that spin-offs to INCREDIBLE HERCULES will sell well even as one shots is downright insane), it didn't diminish this arc for me at all. It still was exciting, often hilarious, and hit all the proper notes well. It makes excellence look easy and absurd stuff digestible with tongue in cheek when warranted and getting serious when warranted. It's time for the end game in October, and I both hate to see it end, yet am excited to see the epic in store.
SHADOWLAND: MOON KNIGHT #3: For all intents and purposes, this is VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #11, with an extra dollar in price and a shorter title. The same writer, Gregg Hurwitz, is aboard for the writing and while this issue ties in with SHADOWLAND #2, it really continues along where Hurwitz was going on his canceled ongoing. Marvel believes canning it, just to give it another three issues as a crossover tie in will net them more dollars than if they let the title continue until issue #13, and they're probably right. It was a positive sign that VOTMK #10, the issue that was basically a lost SECRET AVENGERS issue, starring Moon Knight, warranted a reprint.
Bong Dazo is aboard for the artwork, to continue the trend of a new artist for every arc. Jose Pimentel is on inks with two colorists (Matt Milla and Chris Sotomayor, of NOMAD and YOUNG ALLIES fame). And much like much of the second half of Hurwitz's run on the main title, it's good but just a touch shy of great. The biggest problem here is Hurwitz overplays his hand with this issue. It is probably being done because he only has 3 issues, when the last time he did a long arc on the character, he knew he'd have at least six. The premise is actually not too bad. The Profile is tasked with once again trying to find a means to get rid of Moon Knight. It's by Daredevil, but if this was still an ongoing and SHADOW LAND wasn't happening it could have been anyone, really. Profile decides the best way to mess with the Knight is to make him think he's been replaced, and by seeking out a bigger nutjob to take his place. The catch is that the god Khonshu himself is losing patience with Specter, and could secretly be behind this entire farce, influencing things as gods tend to do.
All that is fine and dandy. The part where Hurwitz overplays is by having Marc/Jake or whoever seem to be on top of the world, where nothing seems happier. Sure, Marlene has no idea what to call him anymore, as he has so many identities, but she's amazingly cool about that (and even seems to enjoy the thrill). He has enough cash to be able to buy up a mansion at above the asking price, in cash. He's on a big Avengers team and is putting down the street criminals without giving in and maiming them - in fact he seems to not even be tempted to do so in this issue. But that's not enough. Marlene has to go and merrily announce being pregnant. It gets laid on so thick that Marc/Jake embraces her after and literally says, "I've never been so happy." C'mon, do I even need to tell you what happens? You can't guess what's about to happen? The same thing that happens every time Daredevil or any of the X-Men ever seem even remotely happy. Something tremendously, horribly, utterly violent. It's like a soap opera; every time a heroine announces a wedding, a pregnancy, or both, you know that's code for something rotten about to happen to her. Naturally, that's where Hurwitz goes, but even within one issue, it's laid on so thick that when it does, I'm almost rolling my eyes. Poor Marlene will be lucky to survive 'til next issue. Being the girlfriend of a super hero, especially a pregnant one, not written by Brian Bendis, is akin to asking for death in comics, but there are times I do tire of that cliche.
The perpetrator of that is a new Shadow Knight, the identity that Specter's crazy brother Randall used to use. Profile finds a broken down ex-soldier who seems to have been mutated and can now shoot energy beams out of his eyes. The guy is easily manipulated into seemingly "serving" Khonshu and brutalizing people. But is it all just Profile pulling the strings, or is Khonshu doing so from above? Indirectly, Daredevil has now become Bullseye, ruining the life of a fellow street vigilante just when it was looking up. Overall, a solid issue, which could have been helped with a little less overdose on the "top o' the world" set up and maybe some attempt to not be as by-the-numbers. It's executed fine, and it could have been handled in a far more "grim-dark" manner, but it was just missing that extra spark into greatness. Still, at least this isn't just a random team-up story, and genuinely feels like a Moon Knight arc again.
