Spoilers ahead, let's get it on.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 2/23/11:
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #655: This week is a week of mourning dead Marvel characters, and it looks like the next issue or two of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN will continue along that route. While the biggest death in Marvel is the demise of Johnny "Human Torch" Storm from the Fantastic Four, there has been an additional death that has hit Peter Parker home in his own title. Both this and FANTASTIC FOUR #588 (see below) have a similar style. Both mourn a dead character as the story focus, and both use the motif of having most of the issue have no dialogue. In the case of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, there isn't a line of dialogue nor even a narration panel until a third of the way through the issue. This naturally allows artist Marcos Martin (DOCTOR STRANGE: THE OATH) to ply his craft with the panels and layouts. He is the third regular artist in rotation for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN under the solo Dan Slott era, after Humberto Ramos and Stefano Caselli. Muntsa Vicente provides the colors, and this time Slott doesn't need Fred Van Lente's help on the script to meet deadline.
This issue takes place after issue #654.1, although since that was mostly a prelude to the relaunch of VENOM, this is really more of the continuation of the last proper issue, #654. Marvel has claimed in their promotion for their .1 issues that they are intended as "jumping on points" for ongoing series; in practice, these extra issues seem to be treated as annuals (providing a fill in story) or to promote other material, such as new mini series or spin off series set to launch. At the end of the last major arc, former Daily Bugle head and current NYC mayor (at least in Marvel land) J. Jonah Jameson became a widower for the second time in his life - his longtime wife Marla sacrificed her life to save Jonah from a villain's attack, and Spider-Man was unable to save her. For all intents and purposes, she is dead, and buried. Both Peter and Jonah attend her funeral, and both appear to be shell shocked by the loss, going through the motions of life. While the reason is obvious for Jonah, for Peter it is all about responsibility - namely, him feeling responsibility for everyone he fails to save. Most of the issue is an extended dream sequence featuring the tired trope of a flashback to Peter letting the burglar go free, but also an appearance by every major supporting character who has ever died on Peter's watch - and even some of the villains and minor characters. Even a character from that WOLVERINE VS. SPIDER-MAN one shot from the 1980's who has often been ignored despite the impact it should have had. Spider-Man's Avengers allies, and quite a few enemies, return in the dream. Stories such as THE GAUNTLET (from prior issues of ASM), SIEGE, and even WOLVERINE: ENEMY OF THE STATE are referenced. Dan Slott displays a deep knowledge of the long term and recent past of Spider-Man and while the dream is intended to play out all of Spidey's guilt issues in psychedelic fashion, it does have moments of dark humor in certain points. Most of it, however, is a showcase for Martin's art, which is as amazing as the title. His style bares some similarities to that of Silver Age master Steve Ditko, who was the former regular artist and co-creator of Spider-Man as well as Dr. Strange. Martin has drawn both characters, and there is even a slight reference to another character Ditko created, the Question (for Charlton Comics, which DC later bought out). There is a simplicity as well as a complexity to every panel of Martin's work, and he handles trippy dream sequences to hostage scenes with the same stroke.
It isn't an issue in which one could say very much happened. There was a funeral, a dream sequence and a final two page cliffhanger, essentially. The dream sequence is well written, and Martin's artwork is incredible - so much so, that it needed 30 pages to contain it. A longer lead story takes the place of a back-up strip this week, and this has been the fourth week in which ASM has shipped this month - making up for only one issue shipping in December. Perhaps the only quibble is that the change in colorists from issue to issue sometimes effects the colors of some characters hair - Peter's girlfriend Carlie Cooper has her hair change from blond to very, very light brown depending on the colorist. The major boon of the issue is the detailing of mood, mourning and some character development for the lead hero. FANTASTIC FOUR #588 attempts something similar, but this issue did it better, and thus it takes the top spot of the week. This is a simple, somber issue, well executed in both story and art.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #615: This is the fifth part of "The Trial Of Captain America" and while it feels very much like a climax, and Brubaker has written arcs on this title that were 4-5 issues long, we apparently have another chapter to go. It is one of those climaxes, much like SECRET AVENGERS #10 this week, in which the heroes fight actual villains and you almost wish every issue could be this satisfying. Still, there are some of Brubaker's tropes. The villain, a Skull, escapes in the end. The battle was merely some part of a longer, far ranging scheme that went off without a hitch and was all part of the chess game. Brubaker did this for 5 years with his last Red Skull plot, and he did it with his Zemo arc. It is amazing how brilliant his villains tend to be; they almost seem like D&D villains that a "Dungeon Master" doesn't want to see lose because then he or she'd have to come up with a new one sooner than expected - so there is always a back door or something or whatnot.
Last issue, Barnes went against the wishes of Rogers, Bernie Rosenthal and virtually everyone else to respond to Sin's challenge. She's captured Falcon and Black Widow (Barnes' girlfriend) and threatened to blow up both them and the Statue of Liberty if he didn't show. Not one to sit back and let allies save those he cares about, he escaped from custody thanks to Dr. Fautus and headed over to confront Red Skull's daughter. While some minions get thrashed and the heroes are saved, turns out Sin merely wanted to give liberty a "black eye" - by making Barnes torpedo his own legal defense. Ironically, the majority of the explosives were not set, and likely only one would been had Barnes NOT been impulsive and listened to Rogers and company - I recall some readers considering Barnes "selfish" last issue and I am curious how this detail sits with them.
At any rate, the legal battle takes a bit of a twist towards the end, and just when it seems that the worst is over, in comes a new wrinkle. Given that art for a future issue involves Barnes in prison fighting with another villain, perhaps this has been given away a bit. The pencils are by Butch Guice who does his usual solid job; he's backed up on inks by two others, with Bettie Breitweiser alone on colors. Naturally, thanks to that one issue of DEADPOOL, I can't look at another "Black Widow hostage" scene without knowing in the back of my head that she enjoys it "a little". Given how often it happens to her, especially during the years when she dated Daredevil, I suppose it was inevitable. At any rate, solid issue on a title Brubaker has made a franchise run on and has overall been more consistently good than most of his other Marvel work.
The NOMAD back up strip isn't promoted on the cover, for once, and is actually kind of bland. It is apparently the final one that Sean McKeever will write for the title; whether this means the price will thus go down a dollar, or if new back-up strips will replace it (much as ASM has them), or if Marvel will go, "**** 'em, we like money" and keep it at $3.99 for no reason like AVENGERS, SECRET AVENGERS, NEW AVENGERS, THOR, INVINCIBLE IRON MAN and too many other books, is unknown. I suppose you could see this as a bookend Nomad strip, but it comes off a bit generic. Nomad narrates who she is and where she is going, as she takes down some gang members in the rain. It isn't a bad piece of work, and it perhaps does show that Rikki is more used to this universe than she was last year. With only 8 pages and this being the last strip, I suppose there is only so much one could do. The art was what impressed me the most; Pepe Larraz handles it, and alongside Chris Sotomayor's colors, he does a bang up job. I'd argue this was the best art on this strip since David Baldeon stopped drawing it; I've just never adjusted to Filipe Andrade's scratchier style. I kind of wish Larraz and now Andrade was on ONSLAUGHT UNLEASHED. The only oddity was Rikki was wearing one of those odd otaku hats that have cat-ears; usually only Molly Hayes from RUNAWAYS wears hats like that.
CA #616 is a $4.99 anniversary issue, but I am curious where the price will go after that.
FANTASTIC FOUR #588: Much like this week's issue of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, this is a wordless mourning issue. This is billed as the "final issue" of FANTASTIC FOUR, but anyone with a moderate knowledge of Marvel's strategies can be skeptical at least. This title is precisely 12 months away from a 600th issue. Marvel has never allowed a triple digit anniversary pass them by for a chance to offer an expensive anniversary issue to boost sales for precisely that week. The issue ends with a merry advertisement for FF #1, which continues the story and technically stands for Future Foundation, the team that what is left of the Fantastic Four (or Three) shifts to. It is as if UNCANNY X-MEN ended and Marvel claimed the series was done forever, only to promote for the next month a series called "UXM" and it stood for Uncanny X-Treme Mutants. At any rate, future editorial plans aside, this is an effective mourning issue from writer Jonathon Hickman and artists Nick Dragotta and Mark Brooks (who draws a back up story). Unlike AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, aside for captions to note the passing days, there is no dialogue or sound effects until the last page of the 22 page lead in story. As featured in last month's highly promoted story, Johnny Storm has been killed by the hordes of Annihilus in the Negative Zone, sacrificing his life for the lives of his niece and nephew in particular, and the earth in general. The immediate reactions of Ben, Sue, and Reed are all shown, and the funeral of the Torch naturally attracts a slew of superheroes - even Psylocke (who has the most random appearance at a superhero funeral in years)! I mean, everyone else at the funeral I sort of understand, but why out of all the other X-Men, Psylocke!? It also was a little awkward having Wolverine seemingly yelling at the heap of them immediately after, given he was once the guy who sliced Ben's face in half in a fit of rage. Ah, forced fictional acceptance of a popular real life character - creating awkward moments for 15 years.
As for the scene with Reed and "young Annihilus", I imagine Reed was confronting him about either confirming Johnny's death and/or wanting his body so they had something to bury. After all, in real life, having something of a deceased relative to bury is something families want even as a symbolic gesture, and why the families of 9/11 victims, many of whom were literally vaporized and left nothing beyond but some DNA cells on a girder somewhere, have that extra emotional burden. Little Annihilus produced the costume, which was presumably the only scrap the bugs left behind. Does that do anything to make it more permanent? No. But then again, Steve Rogers was SHOT POINT BLANK BY A HANDGUN and his body was visibly shown and buried, and his super soldier serum even deactivated because he was dead, yet he's back 2 years later. This is a death that so obviously can't last forever, that I actually don't mind Hickman avoiding the game of writing himself into a corner by making it seem "definitive" with a chewed up cadaver or something. That doesn't mean it can't result in some good short term stories.
The back up strip features Spider-Man discussing the Torch's death with Franklin, and is a simple but effective piece. In hindsight, this and ASM #655 shipping the same week does seem repetitive. There also is a change to the regime of Latveria with a new Doom taking the throne, and it is a character not seen since SPIDER-MAN AND THE FANTASTIC FOUR #4 from last year (and this story even flows well after that one). For an end issue to this series - at least until about March 2012 in all likelihood - this was a somber and emotional way to handle it. Next month will come a relaunch and a more optimistic acceptance phase. It will remain to be seen if relaunching FANTASTIC FOUR as a technically differently named title during their 50th anniversary will bare fruit in terms of sales. The previous "death bag" issue, which topped the sales charts in January, also shipped a reprint this week.
IRON MAN/THOR #4: Running at least 3 weeks behind schedule for each of the last two issues, this ends what was technically Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's first non-space Marvel work in years (as this mini debuted before HEROES FOR HIRE did). To say that this was their "safe picture" compared to HEROES FOR HIRE being their "creative picture" is an understatement. The best thing I can say about this series was that it was inoffensive and perfectly alright for a spare action piece featuring two heroes who hardly need extra material. The worst thing I can say is that while Abnett & Lanning may rarely produce a story that is below average, this isn't too far above average either. The two heroes on the title battle villains from both of their rogues galleries over a Maguffin, and in this issue they finally win, because the plot has to end somewhere. Given that the pages, drawn by Scot Eaton (inked by Jaime Mendoza and colored by Veronica Gandini), rarely had more than 3 panels per page and there were almost a needless amount of splash pages used throughout this story, it does smack of a story that was needlessly stretched beyond 2 or 3 issues, likely because these two aren't ANT-MAN & THE WASP. Yet did it sell vastly better? No. The market can only take so much Thor and Iron Man stuff.
Still, if you like a popcorn action story, especially after years of Thor doing a lot of things in his title BUT fighting villains, this may be a pleasant diversion. In fact, the last time Thor fought two actual villains of his own who weren't family members or other "Asgardian oddities" in his regular title, it was during the Gillen run when he fought Dr. Doom, Ragnarok, and matched wits with Mephisto. Diablo has tricked High Evolutionary, which is either great for him or crappy for HE, and seemingly attained godhood. That leaves Thor and Iron Man to stop him before he becomes omnipotent, and they do. With a lot of blasting and smashing. Yeah, this was hardly a highly metaphorical or subtle series; last issue even had the heroes fight for some near needless reason. This wasn't a mini I was majorly displeased with, but I was underwhelmed. I barely remember what happened in it, and I'll likely never think about it again. Part of me imagines that when Abnett & Lanning made their pitch to editorial for HEROES FOR HIRE, a series that thus far has starred only Misty Knight and Paladin as regular characters, editorial demanded something "safe" in return, and faced with either this or a Wolverine/Deadpool mini series in which the two would have to fight Skrull vampire ninjas, they chose this.
POWER MAN AND IRON FIST #2: This is the second issue of this five issue mini series that shipped this month, and apparently shipping two issues within four weeks stretched the art team to the brink. The overall quality of the issue is actually quite good, but the artwork is very much a collaborative effort. Wellington Alves is the regular pencil for this series, but he is aided in either pencils or inks by Nelson Periera and Pere Perez, and Bruno Hang is backed up by a second colorist. Issues with that much variety in the art credits can look like a mess, but everything in this issue ties together so well that only the sharpest eye will notice. The writer for the series remains Fred Van Lente, who continues from the last issue with putting fledging hero Victor Alvarez (the new Power Man) and his mentor Danny Rand (Iron Fist) smack in the middle of a murder mystery revolving around an old rival from Rand's past - Crime-Buster. The two meet a team of European assassins (the "Commedia Dell'Morte" - the Comedy Of Death, who dress in Victorian era masked garb) who are also interested in the deceased party, but for an unexpected reason (and who are led by a guy who is a dead ringer for Capt. Spaulding from "THE DEVIL'S REJECTS" and "HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES").
Victor has a new mystery lady in his life who happens to be a member of his high school class (as always), while Rand investigates the murder using more subtle means, and attempts to come to grips with being the mentor of a brash and powerful kid. The story continues well from where SHADOWLAND: POWER MAN left off, and while it isn't as great as previous works like TASKMASTER or INCREDIBLE HERCULES material, this is still an excellent mini series that features both quirky old and new characters. It offers an old school "urban" story only with some modern twists, all while being unashamed of some of the conventions of Marvel superhero comics. Priced the same as many ongoing series (and cheaper than some), there is no reason not to give this kung fu tag team a try.
I couldn't figure that part out. The scene with the Thing, the Hulk, and Thor was nice, but I honestly don't know why Thor was there. He and the Thing have no rivalry, and Hickman seemed to understand that since Ben did his rage-cry against the Hulk alone... so why put Don and Thor in the scene in the first place? But that's a minor nitpick. Valeria's scary as s***. The backup with Spider-Man and Franklin was kind of sweet. I hope they explore Franklin's guilt over Johnny's death a bit more in FF.
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