Large side of average quantity for the week, but a rock solid one. As always, my review post at Examiner.com via the link in my signature will be up before my SHH ones, since I'm paid to type for Examiner and this is for hobby purposes. Still, I do try to make both sets of reviews distinct. I can cuss here, for one.
As always, spoilers ahoy.
Dread's Bought/Thought for 9/23/09:
INVINCIBLE #66: After 58 issues of Ryan Ottley "filling in" for him, series co-creator Corey Walker returns to INVINCIBLE to draw this issue and the next, a two part "prelude" to the next arc alongside writer Robert Kirkman. They were recently reunited in Marvel MAX's DESTROYER, and it is good to continue that trend on the title they both created and launched in 2003. To be honest, it is almost strange not seeing Ottley's art anywhere on this title, but I imagine the two month break will be good for him, especially as he'll supposedly be involved with HAUNT, too. To say that Walker's art style has improved since 2003 is an understatement. He was always good, but naturally he is better now than he was six years ago; that's to be expected of most professional artists not named Chris Bachelo. Still, the last INVINCIBLE themed art he did was a Science Dog back-up for issue fifty and covers for ATOM EVE, so this is nice.
This two part story focuses on Allen and Nolan, giving Mark and company a break after fighting CONQUEST. While the cover dress almost is an homage to Marvel's INFINITY WAR style crossovers in the 90's, it really is advancing a story that has been cycling through the book for ages now; the Viltrumite Empire's quest to take over the Earth. Nolan expresses in detail exactly why there are only fifty "pure blood Viltrumites" left in the universe (more like 49 since Conquest bit it; he appears in flashback here), and why some of them bare cybernetic parts (again, like Conquest, or that general dude who hangs around Aynssa). A biological virus created by their enemies wiped out large scores of Viltrumites and those it didn't kill, it weakened for periods of time. This led to the Viltrumites to adopt a more long range goal of taking over the universe, sending only one or two to take over a given planet. As the CONQUEST arc was meant to show, of course, is that even one Viltrumite could ravage a planet easily, no matter how many heroes it had. Nolan also mentions that Earth is of utmost importance as humans are 100% compatable with Viltrumite DNA; i.e. Viltrumites breeding with humans will have offspring of pure blood power, unlike Oliver with the Mantis people. Allen finally gets to reunite with his hot momma of an alien girlfriend and introduces Nolan to his boss of the cosmic anti-Viltrumite alliance, himself an aged Viltrumite. Stocking up on weapons with new costumes and armed with data from Nolan's books (scanned maybe 2-3 years ago, but who is keeping score?), they go off to find the first; the gun from a space hunter called Space Racer. I believe Space Racer was first drawn in the first or second HC, so we're talking back in 2003-2004 or so. At any rate, it seems even buried in rocks for about a century wasn't enough to kill Space Racer, and he's back for blood.
Kirkman seems to be advancing his "Viltrumite War" story, in which Nolan, Mark and their allies have to have a showdown against the Viltrumite empire once and for all. Allen of course is one of the book's standout supporting characters so giving him solo or near solo issues every year or so is always fine. Walker's artwork is fine and as always, Kirkman mixes his talent for huge dumps of exposition with some comedic banter. Abnett & Lanning are a little better at that sort of thing in GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, but Kirkman's been at that sort of thing in INVINCIBLE back when they were still fringe novelists. At any rate, another "all awesome" issue and a solid return for the original co-creator. Still, despite his "founding" status, this book still is an Ottley book, much the same way people often feel that Vision or Hawkeye were more long lasting Avengers than founders like Hulk or even Thor. Walker's return is cool but still a bit of a lark, at least until he ever gets around to penciling, gasp, a 12th issue.
There's not a lot of action, but that's fine as the book needs some time to breath after issues 60-64. The story moves forward and shows that this really is a little universe in one title, as the titular hero can take a few issues off and things move smoother than ever. Beyond a few brief mini's to flesh out origins, that is what keeps INVINCIBLE pure; it reminds you of those great old franchises of old, before they really became franchises and got bogged down with about a dozen spin off titles and whatnot. Always a pleasure.
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #28: I actually do "Book Of The Week" style stuff at Examiner now, and this was mine. It was a tough week as quite a few books were excellent and worthy of focus, but even in a week with NOVA, GOTG, and INVINCIBLE, I think this one rocked my eyeballs the best, if only because I didn't expect it. It gets tougher every week to say it, being that I am a huge Dan Slott fan, but this book has gone from good to terrific since he's left and Gage has gotten more time to play around with it. To use a basketball analogy, Slott was the star player who excelled on a team for much of a season before being paired in plays with a newly traded player towards the end of the season. When Gage was feeding Slott assists, Slott was scoring easy baskets or even slam dunks. But now that Slott has gone, though, Gage is shooting three pointers...and landing most of them. It speaks to Slott's ability to lay in a foundation and work alongside a talent, and it speaks to Gage's talent for being able to stand tall after he gets the gig solo. This is why December's solicit of Gage writing MIGHTY AVENGERS solo that month has me elated rather than worried.
If Slott's skill was taking forgotten characters and excelling with them, than Gage has surpassed it, or at least is capable of surpassing it when he's on, as he has been on this book since about when Humberto Ramos left for Rafa Sandoval on art. Last month's issue with Johnny Guitar really impressed me, and this one impressed me even more. In fact the only negative is that without Slott, the book's sales are starting to fall out; in August it was outside of the Top 50 for the first time since launch; it usually never was outside of the Top 35. Granted, there were about five 100k sellers that month, but still. At any rate, I imagine this book will be fine sales wise until about issue #35 or #36 if things don't get stable, but to be frank, a launch that lasts 3 years is about the long side of average these days. Very few Marvel books last that long and even fewer go beyond it without a relaunch, a "break mini" or whatnot. But that's all in the future.
The now is that this is a book for the fan who loves seeing forgotten or overlooked or even mishandled characters shine, even if they only get one page or so. This issue features many characters advancing their storylines or doing something interesting or cool, from Justice to even Boomerang, but the star of the issue is easily Prodigy, who has likely gotten the most page time of his SLINGERS cohorts. Hornet was killed by Wolverine years ago off panel, Ricochet only does stuff in LONERS features, which are few and far between, and Dusk even fewer; she was a sex slave a year or so back on MS. MARVEL and that's been it. Prodigy, though, got attention by being taken down by Iron Man in FRONTLINE and has gotten modest appearances in this title since. Justice shares the issue spotlight in a way and the two are similar in some fashion; they're both jock-esque heroes with borderline generic names and costumes who keep trying to live up to the ideal of a hero. While Justice has succeeded more or less, Prodigy has often cut bad deals. He was the most loyal to Black Marvel back in SLINGERS, who had been hopelessly manipulated by Mephisto. He was the hardest to work with out of the four. He joined the Initiative to get out of prison after the Civil War incident, but despite fighting the Skrulls was treated no better than genuine ex-criminals like Sunstreak. He agreed to side with Osborn's administration more out of being opportunistic than genuine. This issue that comes to a head and he draws the line. Apparently, ex-merc/hit man Boomerang, now exploiting his heritage as the hero Outback (no word on whether he had an endorsement deal with a certain franchise steak-house), was stealing money on the sly from the casino that their Nevada team is based in, and blaming it on critical speedster Nonstop. While part of me wonders if Prodigy would have been willing to stand up to Outback without a news camera there, he still does so.
This naturally gets the "Avengers Resistance" up in gear as they seek to protect him as well as see if he could be recruited to their own little team. In the meanwhile, Justice and Ultra-Girl hash over what is left of their relationship (which I still see as a "rebound" for Vance she he only started dating her after he and Firestar broke their engagement), and there's even some reference to NOVA when the three of them all had pizza. Justice notes how most of his fellow Warriors founders are dead, retired, or AWOL and that a nation that turns against Captain America and in which Osborn can so quickly and easily amass control is, at least, hard to figure out how to be heroic for. I still say that if any fictional Earth deserved to be enslaved MATRIX style by some nefarious force, it's Marvel's Earthlings; they're even more coddling to evildoers than people in the real world are, which is saying a damn lot. But, I digress.
Naturally, Osborn is seeking to handle the Heavy Hitters situation competently while exploiting P.R. as well. This includes throwing in at least one team assembled during Stark's administration, which includes Prodigy's fellow recruit Sunstreak. The only quibble is I honestly wonder if a time flung 1941 vigilante hero like The Challenger who used to challenge and even murder mobsters and corrupt figures would so blindly side with Osborn, but who knows; that could be addressed next issue for all we know. At any rate a monster brawl ensues, but Prodigy refuses to run when given the option, wanting to atone for siding with Osborn in the first place. This naturally means taking the mother of all beatings from the assembled forces, who merrily oblige. It was a good redemption for a character who could easily just have been a face in the crowd.
Plenty of other characters get moments. Cloud 9, who started out a cherubic novice and has become a war hardened sniper willing to kill HYDRA terrorists and Skrulls alike, shows some sign of moral backbone and "misses" a kill shot against Night-Thrasher deliberately. Unfortunately, Taskmaster doesn't, and it leads to Gage even showing he paid attention to that last NEW WARRIORS series as Donyell is offered his heart's desire by Osborn in an infirmary. Stories about Penance and Trauma start to come to a head, too. Hopefully Gage can rehab Penance/Baldwin into a less emotastic retch in time. All the while Gage continues Tigra's shift from victim to experience hardened commander, which is appropriate. Only a shame Moon Knight isn't allowed to pitch in too. They were West Coast Avengers and they sided with Mockingbird when she let Phantom Rider die for raping her. One would think Specter would be all over the Avengers Resistance. I guess it's better to just keep him a Batman cipher in his own book.
Butterball, seen on the cover, is in the issue, but only for a panel. That's hardly a problem, though. He's a pawn for the bad guys, but at least it's because he is genuinely naive and not because he is compromising. Even the idea of Boomerang trading in his outfit and codename for another one, capitalizing on the trend of flag-wearing by heroes with international identities (Captain Britain, Union Jack, Shamrock, hell, even Silver Samurai and Sunfire to a degree) is a good one. This is the poorest selling Avengers title right now, even if it's outlasted a few of them so far and remains one of the best. It's the total package.
FANTASTIC FOUR #571: It is good news when the debut issue of Hickman & Eaglesham saw a sales boost of some 15,000-20,000 copies from where Millar & Hitch left things on their run; the question is how long that lasts, and whether the inevitable drop remains at normal FF numbers (which are 40-49k about) or sinks lower. This issue, though, unfortunately retrends some ground from the past run, and it isn't too intentional. We once again have a big deal of an alternate universe Galactus being killed, and are still dabbling with alternate universes. McDuffie's run had that before Millar's and Millar went whole hog on it. The problem is most audiences see them as vehicles for things that don't matter, which is why EXILES ran it's course (albeit after over eight years in print). This is unintentional and it isn't Hickman's fault that McDuffie and Millar ran that angle into the ground the past two years, but it is the book he has taken over, and it will make the task of selling his arc harder.
This issue, like the last, still reads as REED RICHARDS, GUEST STARRING THE OTHER THREE, which is good or bad depending on your taste. I finally have a good comparison for how Eaglesham draws Reed; he reminds me very much of how Tom Strong often looked in ABC Comics. Smart with the grayed temples and whatnot but still usually rugged looking despite being a "scientist". You could go back even further to the pulp hero Doc Savage of the 1930's and 40's. Kirby often drew Reed in that light and I don't mind that returning. Besides, Reed is elastic; he can be as buff as he wants. Again, a story that focused on Reed delving too far into super science and losing sight of the family that matters would read better if Millar didn't also do that, and if it hadn't been run into the ground. That isn't to say that I don't like Hickman's execution; I do. I think he has a more classical kind of style than Millar did. But an old story told well is still an old story, and I can't help like feeling I've already read this.
In fact the highlight for me was the breakfast scene with everyone. Torch and Franklin comparing notes about Spider-Man, remembering that they actually were friends with the Power family (of Power Pack fame) way back when to invite him to Franklin's birthday party (he should be at least 11-12 by now but Hickman is wise and keeps it vague). Not for nothing, Johnny Storm looked pretty damn buff, too. Usually he's drawn as being as lean as Spider-Man by some actors, but if any of the Four would want to work on their abs and biceps, it'd be Johnny. The family scene is quite good and shows that Hickman has a grasp of the history of the characters and how to write them as being a little prone to bickering, but not to the level of being dysfunctional. Reed is a borderline jack*** in this issue to Susan, but to her credit she avoids being the screeching housewife she can at times be written as, and instead is firm but patient.
Reed has been working with a league of counterparts from across the Multiverse that he's found with The Bridge from DARK REIGN: FF and that Susan forbade him to use. The squad collectively seeks to literally "fix everything" not just in their own realities but in as many as possible, from killing off versions of Galactus to lobotomizing versions of Doom from other worlds to saving suns from exploding via "dark matter" or cultivating entire planets as farms for starving galaxies. While, yes, this is a retrend of stories done by McDuffie and Millar, Hickman's execution of it is superior to both. It's not on the level of Morrison ALL STAR SUPERMAN science, but it wants to be, and ambition is good. Considering that Reed literally saved the life of his world's Galactus, it was a bit odd to see him aid in killing a version from "Universe 2012", but he was still conflicted about it. In the end Reed seems to agree to leave his family behind to join this group, only for them to come under the attack of the Celestials, who are apparently angered that they are playing at their racket of being Gods of the cosmos. That, and dressing snazzier without buckets on their heads.
Eaglesham's art is excellent and while the other characters shine when they have a moment, Hickman continues the Mark Waid trend of making Reed the star of the book after many years of it seeming to be Johnny or Thing (the only one who has been able to support his own series, whether called MARVEL TWO IN ONE or THE THING). The only downside is even excellent execution can't hide the fact that it's going over old ground with Mr. Fantastic, but as far as downsides go it isn't the worst one to have. I still have a lot of faith in this run, so long as Hickman can come up with more original concepts and stretch his focus a bit to other characters.
Still to Come: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #18, IMMORTAL WEAPONS #3, INCREDIBLE HERCULES #135 & NOVA #29.
