You're falling for the classic Bendis bait and switch. Ask Dread. He endured years of storylines that started great and ended with someone discovering USpidey's id.
I certainly have. That's why he never gets the benefit of any doubt anymore, and I only buy his books when I feel I absolutely must. His execution always stumbles, especially when it counts. He seems to be one of many Marvel writers and editors who feel a good beginning and middle is worth more than a good finale.
I digress.
It's the start of August and the period some call "the dog days of summer". Once upon a time (2008, and even first quarter 2009), seven comics was considered the high point of "average" for a week, and could be had for, on average, $21 before any in store discounts. Nowadays, thanks to (usually) Marvel pricing, that same allotment now costs about $26. I know no one is holding a gun to anyone's head, but it is the sort of thing even small or midcard collectors like me notice. The sheer amount of comics Marvel releases in a month has increased, and their cover prices have followed suit as the economy worsens. Eventually, this has to catch up. It has to. Unfortunately, I believe it is usually the smaller books that suffer.
As always, full spoilers and rants ahead.
Dread's Bought/Thought for 8/4/10 - Part 1:
CAPTAIN AMERICA #608: One of the ever diminishing number of $3.99 ongoing titles that actually still has a back-up strip, and at least some legitimate reasoning for the price besides the one usually used for Avengers, Wolverine, or X-Men titles (which is, "fans are suckers, let's rook 'em"). I actually didn't notice that this title apparently skipped July, but that probably was because issue #607 came out towards the very end of June, and the week after due to the holidays, comics were a day late. Penciler Butch Guice has two inkers and three colorists credited with aiding in the art, and usually when an art committee works on a title, it is a sign of rush (especially in a rare chapter of a Brubaker story in which there are no flashback sequences). Not that it effects the art in a negative way; it still works very well. At Examiner this was my BOOK OF THE WEEK and it's an issue that reminded me of why Brubaker won an Eisner this year. Enough happens that it feels like a progression of the story while it also sets up the next chapter well. There's plenty of action to start as Barnes & Widow take on the new Beetle, as well as suspense and crime-drama style interrogation bits.
Despite it only being her "first day", the new Beetle apparently has enough training with her armor to give New Cap & Widow some run for their money, although even without his shield, it's nothing they can't handle. Naturally, the part where Barnes monologues about why pedestrians "never run away anymore" is hilarious. Especially since, this being the Marvel Universe, the average Marvel citizen stands around during a fire fight between supers to tape the action, then whines, sues, and joins the lynch movement if they get injured in the middle of it. Plus, it reminds me of all those arcade shooting video games like LETHAL ENFORCER where civilians would dive in the middle of fire fight. At any rate, while Beetle is arrested, she doesn't spill anything about Zemo, besides that whoever's in charge wants to ruin Cap's life. It's Natasha who actually is clever enough to assume it's Baron Zemo. Unfortunately, Zemo's leaked to the media information (and evidence) that Barnes used to be the Winter Soldier, which is definitely a PR nightmare that, logically, will lead into the "on trial" arc that comes next. That's organic.
I'm in a unique position as some have claimed that Brubaker's treatment of Zemo is a U-Turn from the last decade or so of comics, and the only way one could avoid that is if they hadn't read THUNDERBOLTS until, pretty much, the start of CIVIL WAR. I didn't read that title until Jeff Parker got aboard at the end of DARK REIGN. I never liked the idea of Baron Zemo or most of the decent Masters Of Evil becoming immaculate super heroes in T-Bolts, because it removed villains from the board who, even to this date, have NEVER been effectively replaced (which is why, suddenly, the Wrecking Crew and Rhino had to fight everyone). I did have concerns about Brubaker writing Zemo like a cartoon at first, but fortunately he isn't building a death ray atop a castle and cackling. I sort of see it as shifting him into Dr. Doom territory, where he has an end goal, but it doesn't always seem clear. He's not out to kill Barnes, or even Falcon or other heroes; he could have by now, and has deliberately avoided it. Instead he seems out to "destroy Captain America", and I believe he seeks to either test or destroy the mantle itself. He never could do so with Steve Rogers, because he was perfect and immaculate who never had one mistake on his record. James Barnes, on the other hand, has that big glaring Winter Soldier angle to exploit. Zemo has sought to make the PR disaster worse by drugging Barnes last issue to "trick" him into attacking some cops on film, but the leak about the Winter Soldier is, technically, true. He's simply manipulated affairs so that it has the worst maximum effect. One could argue that when you make an ex-Cold War hit man who WAS active very recently and committed terrorist acts on U.S. soil (including kidnapping and killing SHIELD agents), that was some sort of info that was going to come out and ruin a heroic reputation eventually. I could imagine that if Zemo had not organized this, if some other reporter like, oh, Sally Floyd had stumbled upon it, it would have also hit the news. For all we know, Zemo's scheme could in the end to see if the mantle of Captain America, especially the person wearing it now, can STILL overcome a hurdle as huge as the public and legal system turning on him.
In fact, it then becomes a problem in the "shared universe" format that I imagine New Cap will still be merrily running around as a sun drenched hero in AVENGERS, but CA has often been apart from the Marvel Universe since CIVIL WAR. Then again, Techno/Fixer is secretly working for Baron Zemo while also being part of the critical staff under Luke Cage's incarnation of the Thunderbolts, and in theory Jeff Parker should bring that to a head eventually. At the very least, it made Fixer's recent "test" impersonation of Zemo ironic. I'm enjoying this arc quite a bit, although my position is a minority one. Baron Zemo being a hero to me works about as well as a heroic version of Green Goblin; it's been a villain identity for so long, no writer or character can completely swallow it forever, so it's inevitable that they slide back a little. I mean, how often has Magneto went from school teacher to violent fanatic? Of course, it could be Zemo's insane idea of a test. Before, Barnes was hiding his Winter Soldier past behind them; he was brainwashed after all, and it was conveniently unknown. Now, at the very least, it's out. Can the mantle survive? It does feel like a natural consequence, manipulated to the fore by someone who's hardly the pope, and that works for me.
There is also the NOMAD strip, which is pretty good. It's the first so far that isn't drawn by David Baldeon, but it was inevitable that he'd be unable to handle a workload of 30-40 pages a month (a back up in addition to a monthly ongoing series AND a one off anthology tale). Sean McKeever is naturally the writer and Chris Sotomayor is still coloring. Filipe Andrade does the pencils, and it is a tad jarring at first, but I can bare with it for a back up strip. This strip often works well alongside YOUNG ALLIES (which covers Rikki as part of a team cast), and when the two come out the same week, it's even better. In a bit of a rarity, what was promised last issue actually happens; Rikki meets Steve Rogers (who appears suddenly to help her beat some street punks). They basically talk in a diner and it ends with a hug. In theory, if this is legit, Rogers should hopefully be able to hook her up with an apartment somewhere. There is always the chance that this is a scheme by the Secret Empire (who unmasked Rikki in NOMAD and have been able to lure her into a trap once before). But there is also the chance that McKeever is settling that subplot before it wares too thin. He at least remembers the angle that when the heroes returned to the 616 universe from HEROES REBORN, their memories were "merged" with those from that alternate universe, so Rogers really should recall something about his time with her there. I did think that McKeever made Rogers sound a bit softer than he usually is, but I suppose it works because he's not trying to be a super soldier here. More successful than the last strip. It is worth noting that while, in theory, 50k-60k readers a month read CAPTAIN AMERICA and by virtue, NOMAD, barely 1 in 3 of those readers are interested in YOUNG ALLIES, which is a spin off of NOMAD (an ongoing series spinning off from a poor selling mini and a back-up strip). It makes one think that the CA readers are steady enough to just swallow the extra buck and not let the strip motivate their additional dollars in the slightest. Which is a shame. I'd rather get a strip for my extra buck than nothing (or a random reprint).
GORILLA-MAN #2: This is a spin off mini series to a low selling ongoing series that has been canceled five issues into a second (or third) volume suffice it to say, it doesn't sell well. Shops in Brooklyn usually ordered maybe a handful, literally, of this title, so I did have to chase it a bit like I usually have to do for issues of DYNAMO 5. It is a shame, as Gorilla-Man is among the most entertaining of the AGENTS OF ATLAS cast, and Marvel seems to agree. I mean, he'll be having a team up with DEADPOOL soon! You're no one until you've teamed up with Deadpool these days. This story fleshes out more of Ken Hale's back story as well as deals with an adventure in the present, and while this issue probably has more flashbacks than present action (the opposite of last issue), it is still enjoyable. Jeff Parker teams with artist Giancarlo Caracuzzo (and colorist Jim Charalampidis) for this tale of jungle action, flashbacks, and adventure. Before he slew the mystical gorilla, Hale was a scrappy kid in the Great Depression hired by a reclusive tycoon with a weird cane to be his assistant and ultimately general action man. As an adult, Hale acted as a soldier of fortune for the man, going on Indiana Jones style adventures to claim artifacts for him. During one quest to claim a golden statue from a volcano, Hale is betrayed by Bastoc (not to be confused for Batroc the Leaper), who was seemingly left for dead as the volcano explodes.
Hale quit service for the old man to fight in WWII, and when he returned, the guy's hot daughter was running the business. The cane is apparently a magical artifact, and Bastoc's death was exaggerated. Hale is also fighting alongside Banda, another ATLAS soldier, and as usual Parker is excellent with banter. The artwork is pretty good, with action and laughs coming along. There is also another page of Hale having a Twitter chat with new ATLAS agents that, as with last issue, is funny enough to be worth the extra buck by itself. There is also the reprint of another 1950's Gorilla Man, this time TALES TO ASTONISH #28. It's your usual terrible end of Golden Age science tale.
As always with ATLAS material, the craft and the dialogue is quite good, and it is easy to enjoy the characters. The adventure itself is really just an excuse to have them do something, but isn't that true of many stories? I'm enjoying this a lot more than the NAMORA one shot or the URANIAN series (which for Parker was actually a little mundane). As the months tick down until the end of ATLAS as a series, it is good at least to get extra material like this.
IRON MAN LEGACY#5: While this is the secondary Iron Man book that is set in the past (a format that always lasts), it showcases how well Fred Van Lente can pace a book. This arc has run for five issues, and out of that maybe the second was the slowest. Such a story in INVINCIBLE IRON MAN would have been ten issues, at best, to cover half the material. This is the conclusion of Iron Man's Serbian War era quest to keep his technology out of the hands of evil. He fights an army of Iron Doombots alongside Radioactive Man and new versions of Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo. The Doombot in charge is vanquished, Dragana from a few issues ago saves her people, Dr. Doom shrugs off the inconvenience of the affair, and the title for the series becomes apparent.
Steve Kurth does the artwork, and the inks and colors are solid, too. The cover art seems to show that cover artists seem to rarely be told much about the script (Iron Man seems to be fighting robot bug men), but aside for that, this is a good alternative to people who are dumping the main Iron book. Unlike that book, Fred Van Lente has a faster pace (even if this probably could have been four issues, but even that's debatable), a logical sense of history and the Marvel universe, and, above all, a sense of humor. Not that INVINCIBLE IRON MAN is humorless, but it also takes itself very seriously as the main Iron Man title. This series has hilarious schtick about Titanium Man being completely automated by Commie computers; a pilot is merely along for the ride for propaganda purposes ("you can't pin a medal to a computer" basically). Plus, Iron Man can tell when a Dr. Doom isn't real just by sight and sound, which is impressive. The finale gives the sense that while Fred Van Lente has some fun with it, he does have a longer term motif in mind for Iron Man.
Some may dismiss this as the B-title, but it has proven quickly to be action packed and entertaining without a story that isn't serious or relevant as well. Marvel fans should be sufficiently entertained by it if they give it a chance.
t:
Anyway, I'll be glad to just get into Bucky's trial and put Zemo's whole involvement in this series behind me.
He puts in a few ingridiants at a time and then allows it to simmer for a while ! The payoff will come but not for a a while as he is looking longer term. He has stated in interviews he maps out begin, middle and end in detail.
