TERROR, INC.: APOCALYPSE SOON #1: Back in 2007, Dave Lapham and artist Patrick Zircher launched one of the few Marvel MAX titles I bothered with for long, TERROR, INC., a five issue mini starring "fan favorite" (Comic Book Owellian for "little known, unable to support an ongoing, barely sells 10k a month") character from 70's horror comics, Mr. Terror, a 1500+ year old rotting corpse unable to die who has settled on being a mercenary for hire for a great deal of time. Lapham fleshed out Terror's past quite well while adding new supporting characters, especially his gal friday, Miss Primo. In effect something like what Kirkman is doing on DESTROYER, only with more care to actually merge the old origin with new material. It was quite violent as expected, but amazingly not as much as Kirkman's DESTROYER would later be. While no Eisner material, I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected (really only caring for Terror after he popped up at the tail end of Kirkman's MARVEL TEAM UP run a few years ago), and while MAX titles always sell poorly, I secretly hoped for another five issues. So when a new mini was solicted a while ago, I was a lock.
Much like AGENTS OF ATLAS, this issue starts with an extended flashback that is eventually supposed to lead back to the present story; considering Terror is 1500 years old, it stands to reason that he would have a lot of stories to tell. Apparently he usually meets with his "face" Miss Primo at fancy restaurants and regales her with stories of his past to try to woo her to bed, which may work for Wolverine, but apparently not for Terror, being a walking corpse and all with parts from different people. This time Koi Turnbull is on art, and it seems to work quite well for the take, even if maybe not quite the same as Zircher's art was. Djurdievic still does magic on the covers.
While Mr. Terror may make a living with violence, and often indulges on a mission, what Lapham managed to do in his first TERROR, INC. mini was present Terror as being sympathetic. He may be a monster who literally needs to tear fresh body parts from others to keep himself from rotting, he stumbled into the curse in a past era, and he literally carries the arm of the only woman he ever loved inside a metal casing (even if, in the last series, she turned out to be a megamaniacal witch). The flashback does much the same; in 1348 Spain, during the height of "The Black Death", Terror was tasked on his first "merc" mission under the hire of the dying Dutchess, who has been mortally wounded by the Duke once he wanted to quickly divorce her to wed another woman (with her minor signs of the plague being a minor excuse). Literally wearing her face to instill terror into the Duke, Terror storms the guaranteed area where her children are, and allows them to see their mother one last time before the plague took them. However, much to Primo's chagrin, Terror put off killing the Duke himself for four years to take part in his orgy (albeit by accident).
In present day, it seems plagues can continue in new ways. Isreal has tasked Terror with raiding a terrorist lab, blowing it up and getting a sample of a new biological virus they are hatching up, before it spreads. When Terror gets to said base, he discovers that the scientists have complicated matters by storing poor people at the bottom floors; actually a realistic development as terrorists in real life often purposefully store themselves in impoverished areas to force authorities to risk killing civilians to get at them, often playing media sympathy against them. Terror finds "patient zero" but his sympathy keeps him from killing him as the Isrealis expected him dead, and he manages to encourage the "human shields" to flee before destroying the base and taking some body parts from the scientists. Lapham, knowing he has an obscure character, makes sure to remind us of his powers, noting that Terror gains the skills, memories, and emotions (good or bad) of the people whose parts he takes. Taking the boy to a hospital, Terror is stunned to realize that he can seemingly transfer the virus at will, and may be doing it on purpose. It could be that the boy simply cannot stop the spread without a "box" around him, but that will have to wait until issue #2. Turnbull's art is effective and while there is some swearing and gore here, it isn't taken to an extreme.
Much like the last TERROR, INC. series, this is one little MAX title that is worth your while if you enjoy some monster action akin to ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN or so on. The Terror has a unique angle and Lapham manages to work it quite well into his TERROR, INC. stories. While he is a monster who can get quite ruthless, Mr. Terror is a sympathetic one who does want to do some good, he just enjoys being paid to tear "terrorists" or other bad guys apart, and has for a very long time. While $4 books are always a tough sell, MAX titles have been for a while, and this is one I would recommend. Nabbing the trade of the first mini would be recommended, though.
WAR OF KINGS #3: We reach the midway point of the core event mini, although considering we still have a month's worth of tie in issues via NOVA, GOTG, and ASCENSION, the event itself may not have reached the midway point exactly. At any rate, Abnett & Lanning continue on with their latest "space event" and sequel to their last, ANNIHILATION CONQUEST (itself a sequel of Keith Giffen's ANNIHILATION, and so on). While I enjoyed CONQUEST, the pair, "DnA", showed some inexperience with juggling so many characters, and chose to focus as leads in that story Phyla Vell and Adam Warlock, who lacked a bit of charisma beyond basic FINAL FANTASY type motions. With a year to hone their craft and have more experience with essentially the entire realm of "Marvel Space" (beyond SKAAR, which is essentially HULK JR. anyway), WAR OF KINGS has even at this point worked out better. Merging into the space realm the STARJAMMERS mini's and "Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" arc from UXM as well as the Inhumans and bouncing off SECRET INVASION, this event so far has been a bit better. DnA manage to juggle the characters more and seem to have more charismatic leads, if you can even find a core "lead". The characters that do the bulk of the narration are Gladiator and Crystal, who are about as close to leads as you can get. Being as they are from two opposing sides, it does add a bit of spark to it. Even still, beyond narration and a few pages they usually share issues with all 1200 other characters involved.
This issue not only clearly takes place after WAR OF KINGS #2, but also after GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #13. It is a bit of a loose assumption that most readers are reading these together. However, WAR OF KINGS #1 sold more than twice what GOTG or NOVA average. While I read all of them so my perspective is different, someone who is just reading the core WOK mini shouldn't be too lost from how issue #2 ended. It just meant a few extra characters for the later half of the book. But, to be fair, CIVIL WAR expected a lot more involvement of the audience to understand half that stuff. Paul Pelletier left doing regular art on GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY to focus on this title, and the results, paired with Magyar & Quintana's ink and color work, are always dynamic and stunning. And while the tone of WAR OF KINGS is often serious, Abnett & Lanning know well enough to insert appropriate comic relief to keep things from reaching SECRET INVASION levels of pretentiousness, either with certain characters like Rocket Raccoon and even a running gag; namely, that Smasher is to the Imperial Guard what Grasshopper was to the GLA.
To the surprise of no one, Vulcan is talked down from murdering Lilandra in a blind rage after he lost a war fleet to the Starjammers by his advisor and even Gladitor himself, in a mild way, thus ensuring that one more boring female character survive in Marvel. Agreeing with Ka'ardum's assertation that killing Lilandra in such way would only create a marytr and inspire more rebel factions, Vulcan goes for the favorite option of tin-pot dictators; the mock trial via a kangaroo court. This at least grants Lilandra a stay-of-execution for the moment. Gladiator's narration of course notes of his personal conflict, noting that Vulcan is reckless and over-extends his army, as well as perhaps provoking the Inhumans & Kree into staging better tactics as the war rages on. By this point many readers may be wondering when exactly Gladiator will get on with turning on Vulcan, and at least DnA know when to not daudle too long on the obvious, something Bendis and other writers could learn. It only took them 3 issues to provide an obvious story turn; for Bendis it takes about 6, and the execution is usually miserable.
On what is left of Hala, Crystal is keeping the hospitalized Ronan abreast of the war effort, and the two are slowly starting to bond. It is revealed that Ronan agreed to hand over reign to Black Bolt not only seeking new leadership blood for the Kree, but also their idea to "evolve" the Kree further with their Terrigen Mists. Unfortunately, this process is not only being delayed by the war effort (to Maximus' manic chagrin), but Karnak notes that the Kree simply are not responding to the mists well anyway. Medusa continues her usual self in this mini, which is basically being brash, impulsive, and more willing to talk big than to carry it out, with Crystal seeming much more worldly and experienced in comparison. Black Bolt, silent as always, just seems weary. It is about time be beat something.
The latter half of the issue focuses on the meat of the action, the joint Starjammer and Guardians rescue attempt of Lilandra. Pelletier as always delivers on these sequences and virtually every character gets a moment to shine, from Havok blasting Gladiator through a wall (and taking out two Shi'ar guards while doing so) to Marvel Girl & Rocket keeping him at bay with a very convincing, De Palma homaging illusion for a while, to even Major Victory getting to put someone down. Groot puts down Electron to save Shi'ar Cloud Strife Sword Man, and Drax gets in a hilarious smashing of, er, Smasher. The worm turns at least twice in the end, when Gladiator realizes his pain is merely an illusion, and when he finally decides to stand up for what he believes in at the end, murdering Smasher and siding with Lilandra.
In fact if I have one criticism, it is that the turn of Gladiator is something that, while obvious, seems to be some bold dramatic moment, and while it still is, some of the pacing seems a little awkward. He basically doesn't decide to side with Lilandra over Vulcan until he has already pummeled all of her rescuers, and part of me wonders whether this was really required. While he has had his doubts about Vulcan for three months now, those doubts have been the same until now. Lilandra gives a nice little speech about how dangerous Vulcan is for the empire, but that's been stated and shown several times now. Smasher was ordering the immediate executions of the Starjammers, but Gladiator should know full well of the ruthlessness encouraged by Vulcan. Just in issue #1 he was killing Kree at a wedding, and knocking their new king into a glacier. Gladiator already knew Vulcan was willing to unleash terrible criminals of the Shi'ar as lackies since KINGBREAKER, and still stuck around. Just last issue of NOVA, he was willing to kill at least one Nova Centurian to quell their defense of a Kree planet, and took their Prime as a POW (granted, it was his cousin who ordered the execution of the captured Corps, and likely carried much of it out). Hell, Gladiator was even more than aware of Vulcan's intentions to kill Lilandra since KINGBREAKER. While his change of sides was inevitable, my question was, "Why now?" Lilandra couldn't change his mind when she was nearly making out with him in his bedroom in KINGBREAKER, and the speech she gives here is hardly the epiphany of speeches. I suppose you could argue that Gladiator has usually battled with more restraint than many of his allies under Vulcan. Beyond occasionally killing hapless grunts of the Kree or Nova Corps in the heat of battle, he has sought to TKO enemies rather than kill them if possible, from Black Bolt himself to even the Nova Prime in NOVA; he could have killed Centurian Suki, but instead merely mangled her arm to keep her from attacking him; his cousin was the one who murdered her. While Rachael feared that Kallark would murder everyone, it seems he merely just brained everyone. Perhaps if anything, it was Smasher's ranting about executing enemies who were already defeated that pushed Kallark over the edge into Lilandra's arms. You could argue he was nearly ordering Gladiator to kill them.
It just seemed a little more choppy than it had to be. Still, I will absolve this criticism if in issue #4, or in the next GOTG issue, we get a bit such as Rocket or Drax holding an ice-pack over their head and mumbling, "It's great that you decided to switch sides, Gladiator, but couldn't you have done it BEFORE GIVING ALL OF US CONCUSSIONS!?" or something like that.
It certainly makes things more interesting, having Gladiator switch sides midway through. Part of me is curious if Lilandra really will get to rule again or if Abnett & Lanning really do kill her off and have Gladiator pull a Ronan, the loyal soldier turned ruler of the Shi'ar. Given that Gladiator and Crystal have had the lion's share of focus in the mini here, part of me is also fearful of one of them getting to defeat Vulcan, when that moment should be Havok's for the emotional punch. Having Kallark do it would be a bit of a classical, "Et tu, Kallark?" kind of moment, and I suppose either Crystal or Black Bolt himself could REALLY use a victory over, well, anyone really, but the struggle between Alex and Vulcan has gone on for over two years now, and it seems to me that it will be hard for WAR OF KINGS #6 to have a solid ending without delivering on that. It's akin to cheating Cyclops out of his moment with Mr. Sinister in INFERNO. While I have faith in Abnett & Lanning's execution, part of me does fear they will overthink the audience here and not want to deliver an "obvious" ending. What I am saying is, obvious can be the best satisfying if executed well. It was obvious that Hot Rod would be empowered by the Matrix and defeat Unicron & Galvatron in TRANSFORMERS THE MOVIE from friggin' 15 minutes in, but it was still satisfying as hell. While I am sure if Abnett & Lanning have planned an ending where Bolt, Gladiator or Crystal take Vulcan down that it will be executed well and will show up in one of those "Holy ****" moment topics, it won't be NEARLY as satisfying or impactful to me, and probably others, than Havok landing that final blow with a "This is for Christopher Summers!" type line, his Richard Rider moment. Hell, the fact that Giffen GAVE Richard such a moment is why we can talk about it like that now, years later. Don't let Havok become a withering puss like poor Colossus has become in battle. Let him have his moment, I say! Let Havok get his cool splash page! He's only waited about 40 years for it.
But that is all hand wringing for the future. Right now issue #3 kicked rear. Good plot, more character moments than I can put in a review, big or small, lot of action, and at least a sign that while Abnett & Lanning are full of ideas, they know how to get to the point already with something obligatory and still execute it decently. That in and of itself is why they are excellent writers, and what separates them from the pack. Execution is everything. Which is why WAR OF KINGS is actually fit for one.
