TheCorpulent1 said:
One other issue I was curious about is that it seems like Danny is the only bloody weapon who's not like 100 years old or older. Fat Cobra and Dog Brother are both super-old and the Bride of Nine Spiders seems positively ancient. What's up with that? Is the Iron Fist the only Immortal Weapon who's not actually immortal?
I believe the chi energy they all use allows them to live for long periods of time. Orson Randall was old enough to have fought in World War I yet was still vital enough to fight in modern day, only being killed when slain outright by Davos. Assuming Danny doesn't get himself killed he likely could live well over 100 years.
Besides...only Mister Immortal is truly immortal.
Bought/Thought for 9/23/09 Part 3: Return of the Centurions!:
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #135: Angstom Levy crosses over from Image to take on Amadeus Cho! Well, not really. Technically Invincible crossed over into Marvel in the last MARVEL TEAM UP series, but this is "Dr. Japanazi" in part two of Cho's side quest story, running bi-weekly with Hercules'. While it isn't bad, it's clearly of lessor quality than Herc's and a bit too weird for my liking with the brain stuff. Not to say it's bad; even lessor efforts by Pak & Van Lente are still head and shoulders above most of Marvel's output. Art is by Rodney Buchemi and the cover naturally alludes back to pulp comics of the Golden Age.
I enjoyed this issue more than Cho's last, if only because I have run tabletop RPG campaigns with players in real life as well as online, so I caught many of the references, like save rolls and bickering and whatnot. The recap page, as usual, was hilarious. Cho is caught in the mental illusion of his rival Pythagoras Dupree. Rather than outright kill Cho, he sees him as an amusing challenge, so he sets up this illusionary adventure casting Cho as Mastermind Excello from the 1940's (the one who is in THE TWELVE, which as of this post is ten months late, soon to be eleven). He has to breach "Japanazi's" castle and rescue his ally agent Sexton. No matter how hard Cho plans, it seems Dupree is always one step ahead of him until Cho realizes that they are equals in brain power, and he can alter the landscape just as Dupree can on a whim (essentially, that the player is just as smart and crafty or will powered as the Dungeon Master, essentially). Naturally he overcomes Dupree and saves the lady (part of his hero's journey). The revelation that Sexton was in fact Athena the entire time isn't as shocking as it perhaps should have been, but I didn't mind it as it connects everything Cho has been through, and doesn't make his alliance from Hulk to Hercules random at all. It was also rather cool to see that while Cho was always smart, he learned cool confidence and experience from his travels with Hercules.
In the meanwhile, Hebe is becoming a sort of queen figure to New York's homeless after Hera punted her from the Olympus group, and has met Aunt May. Spider-Man will be showing up later in the year for the big Olympus showdown and Van Lente has written for ASM, so it makes sense to start connecting stuff. Besides, it isn't as if Spider-Man isn't an Avenger and/or hasn't teamed up with Hercules before. Heck, Swarm was technically a CHAMPIONS enemy before he moved to Spidey's rogues gallery. I still am bemused that more superheroes will care about the affairs of the Greek gods than care about the recent turmoil of the still worshipped Judeo-Christian god in GHOST RIDER (only the Riders and Hellstorm, a DEFENDERS B-Lister, give a damn about ol' Yahweh). At any rate, it looks to be an incredible Herc-event to close out the year right. Buchemi's art is quite good, as usual.
Still, I am more interested in the Herc-as-Thor story, and therefore will be more excited when it ships in a fortnight.
NOVA #29: The cover proudly proclaims the return of Monark Starstalker, which is appropriate since this is only his second appearance in a Marvel comic since Howard Chaykin created him in an issue of MARVEL PREMIERE back in 1976 (a year before STAR WARS). Much as with AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, I like when writers pluck a forgotten character from obscurity, dust him or her off and use 'im in bold and exciting ways. Abnett and Lanning prove no exception here. All that 1976 story set up was a design and a basic character outline; they are free to work in the rest. Besides, if DOMINIC FORTUNE can keep coming back (another Chaykin creation), why not this guy? For the record, his main gimmick is that his nervous system is housed/shared in his robotic bird Ulysses, with which he can withstand attacks and better control space vehicles. That is similar to Grant Morrison's gimmick with Fantomex a few years ago, only over thirty years sooner. Starstalker's adventure took place in another universe, but that isn't a problem with The Fault, a big tear in space/time/reality, existing as a plot point.
A Xanadarian ship from 35 years ago has drifted from the Fault, and Richard is leading his new Centurion cadets, demoted to red uniforms and two star status, to investigate it once a life sign is found on it. Yes, the star headlights on Irani's breasts are amusing; Lloyd Christmas from DUMB AND DUMBER would approve. The life sign they detected belongs to a time lost Centurion named Philo, an alien with three arms, one of them cybernetic. Unfortunately, also on board is Starstalker, a Han Solo style bounty hunter from the alternate dimension they floated from. It seems Philo has captured one of the Black Hole Sons, sort of like alien gangsters, and Starstalker wants the bounty on it. His main weapon is his "Vortex Pistol", a gun that targets the nervous system and can disable almost any living being with one zap (of which Monark is immune to, via his robot bird). Starstalker gets into a fight with the Novas until the Black Hole Sons stage an attack. As it turns out, they're a band of Mindless Ones, who are naturally tough enough to give the Hulk pause.
Starstalker is a little bit of a cliche, although to be fair Abnett & Lanning really haven't had a space bounty hunter involved in their sagas for long; or at least a character who still engages in such activity. Many of the new Guardians used to and are now a team for higher causes, but Monark still cares about the cash in the end. Philo for a new character made a pretty good first impression on me and he has a unique design (as well as being an alien who isn't recognizable, like a Rigellion is). Monark's ability to jam nearly everything with nanobots was a bit of a stretch, especially as Nova had come out of the Phalanx war and that was their bread and butter, but apparently being from another universe helps. Having a new character make an impression by "schooling" all the members of a book's cast is very old hat and it isn't always a hat I am keen on, as it's simple wrestling writing logic (and more often than not it makes that new character just look like a one hit wonder who never approaches that level of threat again since there is no way to top it; DC examples are Bane and Prometheus, who started out beating Batman and the JLA, respectively, and have gone on to absolutely nothing noteworthy ever since, because they peaked too soon), but considering the issue ends with them all having to join forces, at least for a while, I can live with it. But maybe it's only because being beaten by someone who dresses as ridiculously as Monark does has to look bad. Purple capes are for Elvis, not bounty hunters.
The art is by Kevin Sharpe, who apparently fills in for Andrea DiVito after every three issues, as he did in NOVA #25. His art is perfectly fine, but it isn't quite as good as that of DiVito or even Alves who DiVito replaced as regular artist (and to be fair, Alves didn't need a break as often as DiVito did). But I'd rather Sharpe than missing NOVA for a month, and he's fine. Bruno Hang's color work as usual is spot on.
Ko-Rel is proving herself a better Worldmind than Worldmind was, at least to read, nearly every panel she speaks. I also liked the scene back at the base where Robert keeps Tre and Lindy from breaking protocol, like he did. Nova apparently is being fair and keeping all of the new recruits the same rank, even if I would say that the five that Worldmind recruited probably have more experience than Tre or Lindy or even Robert, but that's a minor quibble. The red suits take some getting used to but I got accustomed to it after the end of the issue. It's good to see Richard taking charge as Nova Prime and for him to not only have a supporting cast, but to have a TERRIFIC supporting cast. It's taken almost three years, but it was worth it.
It wasn't quite the book of the week for me, but as always NOVA is a pleasure and one of my favorites from Marvel, as well as one of the best.
