Bought/Thought May 12th, 2009

[CaptainCanada]

Part I: More Moore

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (v3): Century: 1910

Well, well, here we go again. After The Black Dossier, which I found tremendously disappointing after so long a wait (v2 itself having been a bit of a let-down from the preceding one), Moore and O'Neill's famous Victorian adventure heroes return for an adventure with an actual plot. The first of three 'graphic novellas' (it's basically just a slim graphic novel) telling the story of an overarching plot in the 20th century, the events of this one were alluded to in the Dossier.

Moore said he wanted this to function both as part one of three and as a story in its own right, hence the decision to abandon the more traditional 22-page single-issue format of previous installments in favour of larger bundles. In that sense, he has succeeded. 1910 has both an internal narrative arc and an ending that augurs future plot developments. On the question of how compelling this story is by itself, I would say reasonably so, moreso than either The Black Dossier or League v.2, though many of my problems with this property remain.

As alluded to in The Black Dossier, this story picks up in 1910, with the League consisting of old standbys Mina Murray (not yet a blonde), Allan Quatermain ("Junior"), Thomas Carnacki (from W. H. Hodgson's The Casebook of Carnacki the Ghost Finder, originally serialized in The Strand), A. J. Raffles (another magazine serial character, created by Arthur Conan Doyle's brother-in-law, E. W. Hornung), and a male Orlando (Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name; a major figure in The Black Dossier). The reign of Edward VII has ended, and the inauguration of George V is impending, with the Great War that will bring to a definitive end this period in world history whispering on the horizon. Our crew is following Carnacki's premonitory dreams which involve the moon-child cult of Oliver Haddo (Aleister Crowley's Moonchild) and the return to town of Jack MacHeath. Meanwhile, in a separate plot, Janni, the daughter of Captain Nemo, arrives in London hoping to escape her father's wish for her to succeed him.

Sexual perversion and violence against women has been a recurring theme in Moore's work (in his early classic, Watchmen), and repeatedly throughout the League books Moore seems to be depicting the nature of Victorian society (he did something similar in From Hell, which also featured Jack the Ripper, though in a very different light to how he's shown here). Moore has taken some criticism for his use of rape as a plot device in the past, so those critics will find more to criticize here, as the poor Janni, violated by some wharfside scum, summons her father's men to wreak deadly vengeance on the waterfront before assuming her father's identity as Nemo. It's certainly not an act portrayed lightly, of course (and never was in his work), but as a plot element it can perhaps get a bit tiresome. Moore has already done many stories about how, as he ends here, human civilization runs on "monstrous deeds".

From a narrative perspective, this story repeats some of the problems I had with earlier iterations of this group: the main characters don't do or accomplish much in the course of the story, there's little character development (only, really, in Janni's case, and that's a fairly standard story that Moore doesn't add anything new to here), or any of the things that make Moore's best work special. The most notable feature is probably Moore's extensive use of written music, as both MacHeath and a seaside madame named Suki spend more or less all their screentime 'singing' (which comes across to the reader as rhymed narration or monologues). This is a unique use of the comic book format that I'm not sure would really work in a visual medium, given the time that passes between panels of the song. As with Moore's From Hell, there's a great deal of criticism of Britain's class structure here, and the hypocrisy of the upper class of this era. Kevin O'Neill's art is customarily good.

This is probably the best whole installment of the League franchise since the original volume in 1999. All the same, I cannot escape the feeling that there are more interesting things Moore could be doing with his time.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

The Young Avengers Dark Reign mini started off pretty badly IMO. The dialogue is just weird, Enchantress' speaking is EXTREMELY annoying, and I don't care about any of them besides Egghead. Here's hoping it gets better or at least sells well enough that Marvel realizes the franchise is alive and well

 

[Tron Bonne]

Anybody else pick up The Unwritten, I hope a lot of you did because it was only a buck.

Overall, it was pretty good. I can't say I was as pulled in as the last two Vertigo series I picked up, Madame Xanadu and Young Liars, but I'm more then interested enough to keep going with it to see where it goes.

I also picked up 1910 but have to say CaptainCanada's review is less then stellar lol. I picked it up without reading any of the previous installments. I wasn't going to, but I went ahead and picked it up because of the reputation of the series. Hopefully I'll enjoy it

 

[Specter313]

I'd say that the return in the new issue of X-Factor was certainly unexpected.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Sure was, forgot that guy was still alive.

 

[Specter313]

Well, when no one does a damn thing with him since Civil War, and even then he wasn't very memorable, it's not hard to forget about 'em.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Part II: Marvel

All-New Savage She-Hulk #2

Lyra's jaunt to the present-day continues. Van Lente's got a split-narrative going here, with her journey through the present (which, in this issue, consists of a lenghty fight with She-Hulk, and the promise of a brawl with Iron Patriot and the Dark Avengers next time) set beside the slow reveal of exactly why she's back here, using the future segments. Since she's looking for 'ol Norman, and based on the nature of the five male tribes in the future, it seems clear that something the Dark Avengers do causes a planet-wide catastrophe. Bringing She-Hulk on-stage to meet Lyra undoubtedly caused some fans to fret they'd have her get owned just to make Lyra look cool, but the fight is basically a draw, with Sentry intervening to toss She-Hulk away (I'm assuming she'll be back, otherwise that's a bit awkward). The future segments are fairly enjoyable, mixing weird tech with some good exploration of the atmosphere that shaped Lyra's personality. Great art from Peter Vale (who continues to do the present-day sequences) and Michael Ryan (the future ones), linked by fantastic colouring. Nothing really revelatory here, but it's fun.

Captain Britain and MI13 #13

"Vampire State" continues apace; if we're comparing this to Mark Millar's "Grand Theft America" in Ultimates 2 (the current reigning champion for the fall of a sovereign nation), this is the part where the Liberators are at their peak. The issue ends with the rather striking image of Dracula holding the ceremonial mace on the floor of the House of Commons, surrounded by slaughtered MPs. And, in an earlier confrontation between MI13 and Dracula's hordes (led by a now fully vampiric Spitfire), Faiza, Black Knight, and Wisdom all seemingly go down for the count, with Captain Britain being cast into exile and Blade, the lone survivor still in the fight, fleeing north, the last remaining unconquered part of the island. Of course, there's no chance that things actually happened the way they're narrated to Dracula at the end. I could accept Faiza dying, since she's Cornell's character, but wiping out half the cast in the space of a few pages, including two longstanding characters? Nuh-uh. Based on the fact that they knew Spitfire's ambush was an ambush, I'm going to guess they pulled some kind of switcheroo, or else (or possibly also) Spitfire wasn't completely under his control.

Either way, you should be buying this, if you aren't.

Dark Reign: Young Avengers #1

Ah, my old friend, we meet again. It's been a good few years since we got a real team story starring the Young Avengers. Young Avengers Presents took a one-shot character approach, which, while admirable in guaranteeing every character a reasonable amount of face-time (except Speed, I suppose), was I think a mistake. Even if the series couldn't radically affect the status quo, it would have been better to do a story about the team together. This series takes that approach, though it adds an additional wrinkle in the form of the team's first rogues, and this first issue is told from their perspective, something that I hadn't expected, but which is effective in getting us acquainted with everybody before they meet their more established doubles next issue. The title of this arc is "Young Masters", and it's obvious where these guys are going to end up, so it's interesting to examine the degrees of preexisting immorality. Being self-styled heroes of the Osborn era, they're already rather immoral, if mostly in a petty (such as theft) and not especially malicious way (though they're excessively violent). Melter is the most earnest in his desire to be a hero of the classic mold, so he's going to end up the most evil and messed up by the end, one expects. Enchantress' hilariously awful "Olde English" dialogue is a great running joke. I do wish Mark Brooks could do a few more different facial types, though. Good intro, I think.

 

[Dread]

A bit of a small week in terms of comics. Marvel released two event tie-in books, although DARK REIGN is shaping up to be more of an umbrella theme for many titles rather than an event proper right now, taking the place of THE INITIATIVE in 2007.

Full spoilers ahoy.

Dread's Bought/Thought for 5/13/09:

Movie Ticket for X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE: I actually saw this on the 12th. My expectations were low, and I was hardly surprised on the way out. I haven't typed up some long review on SHH somewhere (yet), although if I do and someone wants a link, I'll give it. But the short answer is that if you want to spend about $13 better, find the no frills version of the HULK VS. animated DVD at Best Buy or Amazon, and buy that. HULK VS. WOLVERINE is a better film, and it's only 35 minutes. Hell, they could have aired the first two episodes of the 90's X-MEN's third season, "Out Of The Past" and it would have been a better movie. It's not as bad as drivel like STEEL, CROW: CITY OF ANGELS or even PUNISHER: WAR ZONE, but it's not very good at all. It insults your intelligence and is really just Fox's second most blatant cash grab of the year; the first being their lawsuit to leech 8.5% of WATCHMEN's grosses. I had to watch IRON MAN again last night just to clean that taste out of my eyes. Every bad thing you may have heard in a review is true. Almost no character is done well, the action is mediocre, and it has more holes than Charlie Brown's Halloween costume. Skip it.

BOOSTER GOLD #20: Keith Giffen comes in as "guest writer", but the rest of the credits are a little murky. Pat Olliffe is in as "guest penciler" with Rapmund on inks, but Dan Jurgens and Rod Ramos are credited on art and inks for the "bookend sequences". Is that the first and last few pages? Least the cover is clearly Jurgens.

In terms of sales, BOOSTER GOLD is still losing about 3-5% of it's readers a month, and for a title that is about two years old, that isn't terribly good. That said, it's still selling about double what DC's cancellation rate is, and for all we know could pick up some of BLUE BEETLE's 10,000 or so readers when the back up strips start. DC's trigger finger is slower than Marvel's on cancellations, likely because DC's sales expectations aren't as high. I wouldn't be surprised to see this series make it to issue #35 or so, or at least another year. This is a fun title, one of DC's better books right now, but if it has any flaw, it is that it usually is a series without an agenda. Some writers, like Johns, Katz, Dixon (now departed) and Jurgens himself will have a storyline or agenda, but the writers in between usually don't, and then you get filler. Not to say that said filler isn't entertaining and worth your $3 every month; it usually is. But there's no denying what it is.

Last issue, Booster Gold had to resolve the fallout of his last major adventure, foiling the scheme of Rex Hunter, who had become pure chronal energy. That included plucking a months-younger version of himself from about issue #7 or so to help, and then fixing stuff so that "Past Booster" wouldn't remember dangerous data, like his sister being saved. Michelle, meanwhile, had learned that she had been "fated" to die, and zapped Skeets before vanishing to parts unknown. If you were expecting a development along that subplot, then this issue isn't for you. If you don't mind a random adventure with Booster Gold meeting Team X circa 1952 bred out of a fixation on "The Fonz" from HAPPY DAYS, then this is the story for you.

When Rip Hunter's time machine literally "stalls" in the middle of time, he's faced with trying to repair it while Booster is annoying him out of sheer boredom. Desperate to relieve the situation, Hunter offers to let Booster cool his heels in another time for a while, and Booster selects 1952 out of pure TV nostalgia. While he doesn't know it at first, it naturally turns out to become a small "mission" unto itself, as most things with Rip turn out to be. Winding up in the middle of nowhere in Nevada, Booster is quickly spotted and naturally as this was the era of McCarthyism, when the JSA chose to retire in disgrace rather than unmask and "capes" were not taken kindly by the feds. He ends up embroiled and even blackmailed into a mission by Team X, the "Suicide Squad" of the era to gather evidence on a Soviet spy who is very close to launching a rocket into space, sooner than Booster knows history recorded. Booster trades quips with Rock, Hughs, and Grace, who diss his name, and waxes and wanes from being clever to seeming incompetant. He gets his job done, though, and ports back home. He later learns that events didn't play out as cleanly as anyone thought, and at the end of it eventually birthed Rocket Red, Booster's old JLI ally. Rocket Red is kind of like DC's Crimson Dynamo or Titanium Man, only heroic.

The issue ends with Booster trying to imitate the Fonz on a whim, which is cute but not the greatest bit the book's ever had. The art's pretty good although not as good as some of the Jurgens solo issues. Giffen's on his B game rather than his A, but that still means you get a perfectly fine comic with some sharp banter and a few good jokes in between, that doesn't take itself uber seriously. Essentially, what BOOSTER GOLD does best. Still, from the bold, dramatic cover, I expected a little more action than, "Booster zaps rocket, end of adventure". Perfectly entertaining, though, even if a bit forgettable.

UMBRELLA ACADEMY: DALLAS #6: The second UB story from Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba' wraps up and it is likely inevitable there will be a third so long as the creative team is game. While not selling quite as well as APOCALYPSE SUITE did, it still was a steady Top 100 seller for DARK HORSE, which for a non BUFFY/STAR WARS/HELLBOY connected series, is pretty good. This story was a bit more conveluted than the first, involving around the time travelling Number Five and the JFK assassination. Basically, Five's Future Self goes rogue after performing time travel hits for years and travels back to prevent Kennedy from dying, although the Younger Five knows that JFK has to die in order to save the timeline. So he recruits Rumor and a puppy to aid him, while his older half has essentially round up the rest of the Academy, including an overweight Spaceboy, a Seance who was returned from the dead, and a Vietnam-era Kracken.

Time travel stories almost always get sordid and conveluted after a while, and if one forgets even the slightest detail between months, the rest usually doesn't make sense. That is often why I don't usually care for time travel stories. In some ways UB is unable to buck this trend; this story seems more bogged down once it got into the time travel stuff whole hog midway through. What does work is Ba's quirky art and Way's even quirkier style of "Venture Bros. meets Monty Python" style humor. Several shoot-outs, a gorilla-man stand-off and a swallowed gold-fish later, JFK ends up dead thanks to a repowered Rumor (posing as Jackie Oh) and that means the Earth doesn't get to explode. Ice cream for everyone! Trust me, no review can be as exact as actually reading it.

Way and Ba' claim in the letters page to begin work on a third go as soon as possible, which sounds great to me. UMBRELLA ACADEMY, while not quite as spellbinding as some of Grant Morrison's reviews on some of the covers, is still among one of the best new team launches in recent years, especially from a company that isn't Marvel. Part of me wonders if we'll ever get to see more of "The Horror", who died in the set-up and has a monument. The second trade is coming soon, and I'd recommend both to those waiting for it. A spunky, innovative and often darkly hilarious team venture to clean one's taste in between "big two" books sometimes.

CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13 #13: Surviving past the one year mark and due to last until about issue #15 at least, this is a title in serious trouble. After a hiccup of a rebound, sales are down to about 17-18k an issue and still slipping. While DC would usually keep a book selling at that level around another half year, Marvel usually isn't as patient. July has both a regular issue and a one-shot being released to settle the storyline, and than I would expect a relaunch at best. Not even the quietly canceled MOON KNIGHT was selling quite this badly. Which is a shame, as Cornell & Kirk really have something wonderful here.

Still, and I say it all the time, at least this series will have outlived THE THING and THE ORDER, two other great books dead in their prime.

There appears to have been a rush to complete the issue on time, as Leonard Kirk is aided on art by Ardian Syaf, and there being two inkers credited. The interior art is still rock solid and up to the standards of the rest of the series. The only quibble is the cover is awfully generic looking, reminding me of some of those covers for ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN the first three years or so.

Despite the hum-drum cover, "Vampire State" reaches it's third chapter as Dracula seems to be on a winning run as things go "pear shaped" for our titular heroes. Alongside Captain Fate, Lilith, Baron Blood and a coerced Spitfire, Dracula launches his invasion fleet towards Britain, which he has slated to claim for his "landless vampire nation". While Captain Britain and MI-13 manage to slaughter a few vampires at the start, they accomplished their goal of shattering Qunicy Harker's enchanted skull, which was keeping vampires from invading in hordes into Britain. Tensions inside MI-13 start to crack; Faiza mourns for the fate of the father, kidnapped by Dracula and due to become a vampire in 48 hours. Union Jack blames the entire situation on Blade, and the two of them come to blows. Captain Britain also is aware that Dracula knows the secrets of his new empowerment, and how to weaken him. Pete Wisdom tries to seek international aid, but Norman Osborn refuses to intervene, and the Mighty Avengers discover that Britain is literally being closed in a magic sphere, so despite "Scarlet Witch's" involvement, they cannot intervene. It was a clever cameo, since the Mighty team is more international than the other two Avengers teams right now, although I do wonder why "Wanda" would want to intervene at all. Isn't Dracula working with Doom, who is "Wanda's" ally now? Granted, Doom never officially accepted Dracula's offer, given that he didn't feel Dracula was in a position to bargon about treaties with him, yet. The only one who can exit the barrier is Braddock, but once he does, he may not be able to enter again.

The plot twists when Spitfire seemingly finally becomes enthralled by Dracula's aura after being unable to combat his will anymore, and takes her angle of his plan. Luring the British heroes into a trap, she attacks them with a horde of vampires. Despite a struggle, Faiza, Whitman, and Wisdom are seemingly slain, with Captain Britain blasted outside the barrier via Lilith's spell-blast, with only Blade free to mount a resistance. Dracula now seemingly rules the nation after slaughtering all of Parliament.

Given that Cornell created Faiza and is free to kill her as he sees fit, I might have been willing to buy that she was in fact killed by Spitfire, but with Dane and Wisdom dying off with about 2-3 issues of material left, I don't quite buy it right now. If Spitfire is the one giving Dracula the "battle report" at the end of the issue, then she or whoever that figure is could be lying to Dracula. After all, the rule in comics is if you never see a body, it's not dead. Faiza's throat was torn into on panel, though. Granted, between magic and hi tech medical stuff, it could have been a mortal wound. I am not about to panic quite yet. Part of me imagines that issue #14 has a lot of British hero cameo's as part of Blade's resistance, and then issue #15 has the "whoops, some of us aren't dead, Drac!" moment and a final showdown. That isn't to say that I am complaining; such a sequence will be perfectly fine if well executed, which Cornell and Kirk have always done on this title. It just seemed like an easy hint that Dracula's "aide" outright stated that accounts of the deaths of heroes are sometimes exaggerated or don't last. Captain Britain himself seemingly died during the Skrull Invasion, only to be revived by Merlyn when it mattered most in the first 4 issues. The Ebony Blade may not be willing to "let" Dane die quite yet, anyway. So I won't be convinced unless the next two issues go by and still nothing.

That said, it is of course an effective cliffhanger, nearly all of the team being killed or knocked out of the battle arena, with Dracula having taken over Britain. It certainly is quite a status quo change, and a step up from when Dracula was usually just Blade's sparring partner, or obsessing over Storm. This story has positioned him as a mega threat, which is more than appropriate and fitting for the Marvel Universe version. A superhero adventure story is moot if you can see how it ends, and while I may anticipate some future beats, the ending of the story is still up in the air, which is exactly as it should be.

Going by the cover of issue #14, which has a slew of U.K. heroes on the cover laid out at Dracula's feet, it should be quite a hectic issue, and I anticipate it fondly.

Such a shame that so many mainstream readers are ignoring this title to go buy HULK at some 70,000 copies a month or more. Still, for those who waited, this should make quite a hardcover by the end of the year. Definitely the best arc of the title so far out of the three that have been done. If this is to be Cornell & Kirk's last on this incarnation of the title, than at least it is assured they will go out with a bang.

Coming Up: DARK REIGN: YOUNG AVENGERS #1 & WAR OF KINGS: ASCENSION #2.

 

[Dread]

Dread's Bought/Thought for 5/13/09 Part Two:

DARK REIGN: YOUNG AVENGERS #1: The annual Young Avengers mini of the year starts, and to think, ever since their last ongoing wrapped it's "first season" back in 2005 or so, this is only the second Young Avengers mini that doesn't also co-star the Runaways. At this point it is fair to say that the YA franchise is a franchise that has been in flux for Marvel for years. This is clearly a case of the creator dictating the format here. If series creator and launch writer Allen Heinberg was more relibale for scripts; i.e. that he didn't consider comics a "paid hobby" compared to his TV "day job" like many other Hollywood writers, the YOUNG AVENGERS would not have been in this state. It would have had another 6-12 issues and all would be well. The problem was that Heinberg is not reliable for that, as DC learned later with WONDER WOMAN. After about two years of doing themed event mini's co-starring the RUNAWAYS and keeping the team alive with guest stints, it took Marvel into 2008 to decide to do something long term with the characters. To that end we had YOUNG AVENGERS PRESENTS, 6 issues devoted to actually trying to flesh out the core team members rather than just having them bump into the Runaways and fight someone. Each issue was written and drawn by a different creative team, and to be fair, it didn't sell especially well; about half what YOUNG AVENGERS used to average in their last ongoing and in mini's alongside Runaways (whose star has also faded without creator Brian K. Vaughan around, but Marvel has been far more willing to allow the ongoing to continue and to stick other writers on that franchise long term).

From the "Stature & Vision" issue of YAP come Cornell, fresh from CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13, and Mark Brooks, who at least is no longer saddled on the Ultimate line. The cover is a clear homage to Cheung's for YOUNG AVENGERS #1 and the story is titled, "The Masters". Cribbing from Heinberg's notes it seems, Marvel has gone forward with some of his ideas, from having Billy & Tommy start to investigate their "mother" in past issues to now doing a young version of the Masters of Evil. Renaming the team "The Masters" would be fine, as "Masters of Evil" is an outdated name. I hate to quote Bendis, but he is usually right on one point; absolutely no one but the repentant or the hopelessly insane consider themselves "evil". In fact, not only does this arc feature the Young Masters, the first issue stars them exclusively, with the titular team only showing up in the finale page, as if by obligation.

I am of two minds on this. On the one hand, it is smart to try to focus on your "antagonists" to get the audience into their heads a bit, to see their POV so that they understand where they are coming from. On the other hand, despite being in circulation for about four years now, and having maybe two years worth of material written about them, many of the Young Avengers themselves still need more fleshing. Out of the core team, Patriot, Hawkeye, and Wiccan have gotten the most focus either with their titles or other books, with Stature & Vision graduating to Mighty Avengers. Hulkling got some focus with Skrull Invasion, and Speed is still very much a cipher of "Young Quicksilver" basically (hell, Pietro started out a teenager in the 60's, so in effect Tommy is a rerun so far). Given that, I am unsure whether forcing the Young Avengers to basically struggle for room in their own series for their only mini of the year may not be wise.

The Masters are in effect a squad of fledgling young "heroes" in their own right, born in the post-Osborn and HAMMER era. The twist I suppose is that despite their best attempts to be heroes, they really are only trouble-makers trying to play at being heroes, and usually failing. The problem I have is that all or most of the team are literally named after famous super-villains, so really, what the **** do they or the reader expect? It's like, was it REALLY any surprise that Phil Urich would eventually go insane and attack some heroes after only naming himself the Green Goblin for a while? In this case, the team are basically a bunch of kids taking the names of Melter, Executioner, and Egghead, with Coat Of Arms and Big Zero rounding out the team. The biggest mystery is Enchantress, who talks in annoyingly overdone ye olde Englishe, ye peasante, and I am unsure whether this is really supposed to be THE Enchantress who is posing as a teenager for some reason (as she was herself in THOR: GOD SIZE) or whether this is her daughter. After all, I am sure Enchantress likely seduced no end of mortals to get some stuff she wanted. While the Melter tries the hardest of the lot to be a genuine hero, he doesn't have a handle on his "melting" powers yet, and nearly caves in a subway tunnel fighting some thugs (before accidentally splattering an old lady he tries to help later on). Executioner sees himself as a young version of the Punisher, willing to gun down even the pettiest of criminals. Egghead is basically a robot with a white color motif, and Big Zero is a female white supremecist, who reprograms and "dates" Egghead to her whims. Coat Of Arms seems to have...a weird Captain America fetish, according to her painting. While she acts like a ditz, Enchantress is secretly running the show, allowing Melter to lead and the team to exist and avoid detection, as well as being kicked out of local bars for being underage. The issue ends with the "real" Young Avengers leaping out of a portal to fight them.

Cornell makes some effort to portray the Masters as not all inherently evil per say, although Big Zero seems to be a typical "angry bigot" character (with Egghead her hapless tool), and Coat Of Arms clearly has damage. The Melter sees himself as a hero, although his powers still may not be under his control, and he seems to endanger people without meaning to. Executioner sees himself as a "lethal vigilante", in the mold of Punisher or Wolverine (Coat of Arms notes that even Captain America killed people now and again). Enchantress, again, is a mystery right now. She is either a total ditz with a demigod's power, or she is playing them all for her suckers. Her speech patterns did get annoying, but I was willing to let it slide for now to see where Cornell goes with this. The intent of the team is supposedly to reflect what heroes stand for in Osborn's era, a point that is literally told to the reader. The problem is that there are other books that are also doing that, such as DARK AVENGERS or even MS. MARVEL. Granted, I don't read those, so this is perfectly fine for me in this mini. This works by taking that angle and applying it to younger metahumans. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE may be going along that route, but they haven't yet.

Mark Brooks' art is as good as expected; he has a lot of energy and is at home with younger heroes. He may only be able to draw a few distinct faces, but you could say the same of Mark Bagley. It is always a pleasure to see Julia Strain doing colors again after RUNAWAYS and WORLD WAR HULK, and as usual she knocks this issue out of the park.

Ancedotal evidence from some of my local shops seems to be steering in the direction of this launch selling better than the last YA mini did, or at least moving from the shelves at a faster rate, which means that hinging YOUNG AVENGERS mini's with an event header may be more effective in terms of sales than just YA material proper. My point is that if the YOUNG AVENGERS franchise has lost some "buzz" since 2005, Marvel have only themselves to blame for allowing it. They're moving ahead editorially now, but is it too little, too late for the franchise to ever get another ongoing? Is this mini a try-out book for Cornell to get the nod, since his CAPTAIN BRITAIN AND MI-13 seems to be on the verge of cancellation?

Considering the theme of the book with the cast of wanna-be Young Avengers presented here, I am also curious if Cornell has realized that Speed is the weakest link of the YA in terms of characters and sees this story as a way to flesh him. After all, Tommy Shephard was literally freed from prison to be a part of the YA. He's damaged the United Nations in a battle and was hardly apologetic. He's openly tried to mack with Kate Bishop despite her clearly dating Eli/Patriot. My point is that ideally, Speed's morals are grayer than those of his teammates, and in effect are close to some of these featured Masters. Could this story be a vehicle for giving Tommy a sort of character conflict, allowing him to figure out what he stands for now? If that is where Cornell is heading, it could be very interesting. If not, it seems like a missed opportunity, even if Cornell is more than capable of executing things well and fleshing out a team of characters.

Still...it is hard to take the Melter's angst seriously since he has chosen to name himself after a villain, yet wonders why his attempts to be a hero aren't working. It's like if a very large kid named himself the Kingpin and then was shocked, SHOCKED, to find himself at home strangling people and engaging in loan shark schemes. Heavens! If you don't want to become a villain, don't name yourself after one. The only time where that rule didn't apply was with Omega Flight, so far. Otherwise, we'd be aflush in superheroes named, oh, Crimson Hitler Hussein. Especially since the cover brags, "they're exactly what you think!" If so, why am I supposed to be shocked by Melter's conflict of conscience? I probably found Executioner more interesting in his position; we're in a Marvel where superheroes who used to never kill or enjoy heroes who did suddenly trading quips as they watch or help slaughter minions in group battles. Wolverine has long since abandoned any attempt to overcome his rage or have remorse for enemies, and even Cyclops is into ordering teenagers to murder villains now. Spider-Man used to be repulsed by Punisher or Wolverine for their tactics; now he jokes with them and is even in awe of them sometimes when they save his rear in battles. Even the original Captain America was willing to utilize the Punisher when it was convenient. With many heroes getting "grayer" by the month, Executioner's P.O.V. is hardly as dastardly as, say, Big Zero, who is all into squashing minorities, literally.

Beyond that, an effective first issue and hopefully the next few don't marginalize the Young Avengers in their own mini, since most of them have gotten little change at growth elsewhere and deeply rely on the annual mini series for development every year, if any. I am curious where Cornell is going with this on a few angles, though, which is what a debut issue should do. Mission accomplished, thus far.

Next and Last: WAR OF KINGS: ASCENSION #2.

 

[Red]

Dammit, I want a full review of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE Dread!

 

[Ikaris-Eternal]

Secret Warriors #4 - this is starting to bring the heat. Howling Commandos? the real Howling Commandos? and an appearance by Gateway introducing a new character* ? There's going to be an all-out war against Hydra and HAMMER? dope.

*(about whom admittedly i'm on the fence)

 

[moraldeficiency]

Did dark young avengers remind anyone else of The Boys?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I missed it at my shop.

I've only read Captain Britain and MI-13 so far. It was pretty awesome, although I'm wondering what the catch was on the cliffhanger. Obviously the whole team isn't dead, but I wonder how they managed to trick Dracula. The Avengers' cameo was cool too.

 

[moraldeficiency]

They have Temugin on the team now? Damn, almost enough to make me pick that up. How did that happen?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Who has what on the who now?

 

[moraldeficiency]

Caught a preview of the next issue with NA vs. MI-13 and they've got the mudge (Mandarin's son, you'll know him from such works as Iron Man, Modok's 11 and such films as "I Remember Temugin" and "Driving Miss Daisy 2: Cruise Control") with them. I was wondering how that happened.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I think you're thinking of the Agents of Atlas. Temugin's there as a possible replacement for Jimmy Woo if Mr. Lao deems Woo's loyalty to the Atlas Foundation compromised.

 

[moraldeficiency]

That's what I was thinking off, got them confused. I actually do that alot for some reason.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Well, they're both awesome teams.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

One thing to look 4ward to about the YA mini out, the racist chick "Big Zero" is def gonna get into it w/ Patriot. Can't wait to hear the slurs she calls him and to see him flip out.

 

[Themanofbat]

Slow week...

I only picked up House of Mystery #13...

I need to get caught up on the series...

 

[Fenryr]

I'm going to say something I never thought I'd say about The Walking Dead.

Issue 61 was not very good. There were plenty of interesting bits here and there, but the issue felt incredibly disjointed and the jumps through time were erratic. I don't know why one of the twins killed the other, and I'm not entirely sure Kirkman does either. Speaking of, his constant fan-******* of Y: The Last Man in the letter column, which truly is a masterpiece, started off as something sincere, and then quickly devolved into something seemingly less-than. Not impressed, buddy. Not at all.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1 was as wonderful as I'd hoped. It made me smile many times and made me giggle like a child a few times as well. Niels is great, Lockheed has some genuine pathos going on over Kitty's death, Throg is as bold and over-the-top a personality as you'd expect from a critter patterned on a god, Redwing's a total elitist *****e, and Ms. Lion's just irritating enough to be funny without really becoming irritating. My only quibble is that Lockjaw himself never speaks, which is odd since literally all the other animal characters do and no reason is ever given for his silence. Aside from that minor point, though, the issue was lots of fun and the art was fantastic. Can't wait for the next issue.

 

[Dread]

Dammit, I want a full review of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE Dread!

You'll probably get one. I've got a bit to vent about X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE. It's the last bad comic movie I've seen since PUNISHER: WAR ZONE and at least that was amusing in a "it's so bad, it's hilarious" way. I'll provide a link when I type up something for you.

One thing to look 4ward to about the YA mini out, the racist chick "Big Zero" is def gonna get into it w/ Patriot. Can't wait to hear the slurs she calls him and to see him flip out.

That sounds like a lock. While Speed was the focus of a lot of my review, you could argue Patriot would also have something to relate to this new squad. After all, while he wanted to be a hero and honor his grandfather, he took illegal MGH to do so for quite a while, which included needing to knock over pushers on the streets. That's a bit of a gray territory, too. Just compared to Speed, he's had a few Brubaker one-shot stories, while Tommy is more of a cipher, and needs the fleshing more. While Eli was willing to do something illegal to empower himself to be a hero, Tommy was an outright juvenile criminal who was busted out of jail and told, basically, "Hey, we need an extra Young Avenger, come be a hero" and he's apparently decided he likes it. There's more room for character growth for him in this story, it seems.

And...waitaminute....LOCKJAW AND THE PET AVENGERS literally has MS. LIONS!? That annoying dog from SPIDER-MAN AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS!? One of the most annoying animal sidekick characters known to man, who usually made Snarf look like an Alan Moore chunk of brilliance!? Sweet Jesus, and people wonder why I avoided that book (to say the least). I'd probably happily pay $4 just to see Vermin eat that mutt.

Moving on.

Dread's Bought/Thought for 5/13/09: Last Part

WAR OF KINGS: ASCENSION #2: The issue in which Darkhawk realizes his entire origin was a dream. Trust me, it reads a lot better than that, but that is essentially what happens.

For those who follow my review about this series, I have been lamenting about Abnett & Lanning acknowledging Chris Powell's past "revelations" as they go about retconning them, and they do. Essentially how I suggested, spending about a page and a few lines debunking it. See, you can do this sort of thing and do it well without abandoning the past completely. I'll get more into it later. There are other bits about the issue to discuss, too. Mostly that Wellington Alves is rocking on the art; as the last regular artist on NOVA before DiVito was tapped, he's had experience drawing Darkhawk and no end of alien menaces and battles, and continues on his good stuff here. Two inkers are credited, although not on the cover, though, which implies a sort of rush to deadline usually. Alves usually made his on NOVA, though, so I'm not concerned.

Last issue, we found that the "Fraternity of Raptors", a centuries old alien organization that empowers it's agents, called "Raptors", with bio-mechanical body armor that can "reconfigure" into bigger armors when needed and is fed a "datasong" from "The Null Source" tasked with seemingly "influencing the societies of the universe", according to Chris Powell, are bad guys. They go on war-mongering raids, they kidnap and even murder. This revelation was all a ploy from Talon, who used a bit of a song and dance to lure Darkhawk away from his family and cushy PEGASUS job (although he likely would have been fired like Dr. Necker by HAMMER a week later anyway, if not taken down by force by the Thunderbolts or Dark Avengers) only to seemingly erase his consciousness from the armor and revive the dormant Raptor persona, Razor.

The names here aren't terribly inspired for my liking, but then again neither was stuff like "Evilhawk" or "Overhawk", so to each their own I guess. At least Razor and Talon have a theme, apparently that Raptors are named after pointed or sharp objects. Will others be named Blade, Spike, Claw, or Sword?

Talon is naturally glad to see his ally Razor back after about 6100 years and not having to argue with "the anomaly", their endearing term for the human Chris Powell. At this point it may be safe to assume that Talon has suppressed the Skrull general's personality that formed his current host form. The pair go about completing their breach of the Negative Zone castle of one of the minor lords of the defeated Annihilus Wave, a giant bug named Catastrophus. He is quickly decapitated and it is revealed that the object of the Raptor's desire, the Cosmic Control Rod, was being used to stunt the growth of a new Annihilus, thus ensuring Catastrophus a long reign in power. Talon spares Annihilus' life and attempts to forge a future alliance with the warlord by cementing the statement that he owes the Fraternity of Raptors for his life, which is how they roll apparently. They help certain forces in the cosmos to victory in conflicts, and then draw favors with said forces. The two Raptors later form an alliance with Blastaar at Prison 42, giving him the prime object of his desire, the Cosmic Control Rod. That certainly will make things interesting for WAR OF KINGS. Could he be a baddie out of nowhere? The question for next issue will be how loyal Blastaar is to the Raptors now that he has gotten his phyllic power boost; he could simply do the "thanks, now I'll reward you with destruction!" bit like most villains do. The Raptors are later seen in previews of WAR OF KINGS #4 aiding Vulcan against the Inhumans' Sentry robots, so it seems clear which side they are taking in the conflict. Apparently they aid the sides they see as strongest or most aggressive, which usually are the least noble.

Meanwhile, Chris Powell is stuck in the Null Space and in some ways Abnett & Lanning trend familiar territory. By that I mean that some of the sequences with Chris are close to some stuff they've done with Richard Rider/Nova a few times in NOVA. Floating around naked in a dream-state, going over the origin sequence while adding stuff, needing a sort of strong mental anchor to literally explain stuff to them, that sort of thing. That isn't to say that it isn't handled well, it is just something they have done before. In some ways Chris' journey has been like a darker version of Richard's. He was an Earthling who was empowered by alien technology and energy by sheer accident; they fortunately turned out to be a squad of peace-keepers for Xanadar and later the extended universe, who welcomed Richard into their ranks and allowed him to become one of their greatest Nova's. Chris, on the other hand, was empowered by accident to a race that is far less benevolent, that now sees him as a virus to be purged from the system. The amulets basically seek out host bodies for the armor, but then delete the personalities of them and install their own Raptor personalities, which seem ageless. There's no Worldmind or Dey to help Chris, and no fellow members of the Raptors who want to. Razor keeps trying to destroy Chris, but naturally Earthlings are extra stubborn about that sort of thing, it seems.

To give credit, while some people mock the practice of offering reprints into some title's to justify the $4 price tag, in a way it was wise to reprint DARKHAWK #1-2 circa 1991 in the last mini series of his, since it would have refreshed some of that origin for readers less familiar with Darkhawk. A wise move since DH is definitely a D-List character. While the part about finding the amulet in the abandoned fun-house while trying to save his brothers from Bazin's thugs is still accurate, what isn't is a lot of the revelations that came after. Apparently, the entire business with Bokk and the alien scientists and mobsters was apparently a dream, a way of Powell's mind to try to cope with the complex Datasong that it couldn't understand. In some ways Powell is also a bit like the Sentry; his empowerment drove him insane, and he even got his own "dark personality" that ran amok when he lost control (Evilhawk acting as Darkhawk's version of The Void apparently). The explanation is at least reasonable; the armor was never built for humans to inhabit, thus it makes sense that it would have wiggy side effects. It even plays with the long abandoned subplot of never seeing Darkhawk's "face" under the helmet of the battle-suit. While it was horrendous enough to scare some adversaries, Abnett & Lanning make it seem more psychological for Powell, as if a sign of the truth.

Now, of course, this is an obvious retcon. It's a sweeping one that literally pulls into question a good chunk of Darkhawk's original 90's series, which ran for fifty issues. Virtually any story where he was either interacting with someone from the amulet's origin or essentially anyone who wasn't an established hero or villain outside of the Null origin could be dismissed as a hallucination. That was maybe a third of those fifty issues, at least. That's par for the course for retroactive continuity, of course, sweeping years of material under a rug to replace it with new stuff. While I wanted this series to include or navigate a way around that 90's history, rather than just ignore it like some writers do with retcons, I was never a big fan of the 90's revelations. The stuff with Bokk, the scientists, and so on was very complicated, like many things were in the 90's. Bums with alien personalities, stuff like Overhawk, and so on were all very complicated and many writers ignored a lot of that stuff later on. The major way to judge the effectiveness of a retcon is if it leaves the affected subject better or worse than before. Claiming Thor was in fact a god transforming into a mortal, rather than the other way around, was a retcon for it's time, but one that made THOR much better as a character. While the origin that Abnett & Lanning are recreating for Darkhawk isn't as simple as a bug bite, it is a lot less choppy and awkward than some of the 90's stuff, and I think leaves Powell in a better place because it cements that things were not as easy for him as they were for other heroes. The armor literally gave him anger issues that alienated him from friends and family, and have now even effected bits of his sanity. Chris has no mentors to turn to for aid, because the Raptors just see him as a nasty staff infection basically. And rather than being empowered by space G.I. JOE, he has instead found himself accidentally empowered by COBRA. Bits of the Bokk origin had that sort of theme, but this newer story makes it work a lot better. Although I must say, that Datasong must be some intense stuff to process if that cluster**** with Bokk was considered an EASIER story to wrap a mind around.

In essence this series is a bit of a cautionary tale for a hero to be careful what they ask for. Darkhawk secretly wished for an "upgrade" to get to Nova's new level, to go from D-List has-been to a new cosmic demigod, without quite realizing that such journeys always involve having to be broken down and surviving by luck or pluck. Nova's journey was more physical, while Chris may have a bit of a metaphysical path ahead of him, which is all the more challenging as he has anger management issues, to the point where he is mumbling therapy exercises in the midst of it. He's going to have to overcome the Null Source, including their beastly guardians of that realm, and an alien consciousness that is older than most of modern civilization on Earth to get his body and armor back.

Still, despite having his moments of insanity it seems, Chris/Darkhawk has been a hero before. He had to battle some nasty customers early on in his career, such as Hobgoblin and Tombstone. He's been a New Warrior and an Avenger, and even Zarrako the Tomorrow Man was wary of his power (and that's a guy who duels Thor on his weekends). He even pummeled the crap out of Venom at the peak of his popularity. He's overcome a lot and just usually doesn't realize it. Just rather than a physical altercation, Chris has a mental one, not his strong suit.

Now that my main criticism and concern for the series has been dealt with, and with less fuss than many other writers usually make about having to work with continuity, that means there's little else to complain about. Not quite on the level of NOVA or GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY yet, but "DnA" are definitely trying to reform Darkhawk for a winning run, and that is commendable. I eagerly look forward to the rest of the series, and to see where Darkhawk goes from here, and what he contributes to the war.

Although Havok still needs to be the one who takes Vulcan down.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers #1 was as wonderful as I'd hoped. It made me smile many times and made me giggle like a child a few times as well. Niels is great, Lockheed has some genuine pathos going on over Kitty's death, Throg is as bold and over-the-top a personality as you'd expect from a critter patterned on a god, Redwing's a total elitist *****e, and Ms. Lion's just irritating enough to be funny without really becoming irritating. My only quibble is that Lockjaw himself never speaks, which is odd since literally all the other animal characters do and no reason is ever given for his silence. Aside from that minor point, though, the issue was lots of fun and the art was fantastic. Can't wait for the next issue.

Yeah, I was kind of wondering that myself. I thought it was Frog Thor reading their thoughts, but I'm pretty sure the mouths were moving. Maybe Lockjaw is just a dog of action and not words