Another week, another seven comics, some more spoilers and long text.
Dread's Bought/Thought for 11/10/10 - Part One:
BOOSTER GOLD #38: Giffen & DeMatteis FINALLY end their "not quite book of destiny" plot as well as their revisit of the JLI era and come up with another plot. That isn't to say I didn't have some laughs with the latest Booster/Beetle team up or the nostalgia trip, but I did think it'd gone on too long. It seems Booster doesn't do a whole lot of defending the time stream anymore as he does of cleaning up his own messes to it, or so on. While the Dan Jurgens era probably got too much mileage out of the Rex Hunter stuff, the lack of any sort of outside threat to the time stream has made this run seem more obligatory. Yes, in theory Booster is looking for something to prove Max Lord's existence, but does that mean time is perfectly stable during this period?
Still, there is a bit of positive to focus on. As usual, part of that is the artwork by Chris Batista and colors by Rich Perrotta. And the change of scenery is nice. While the last arc has finally be wrapped up, Booster has another crisis of his own making to mop up. Rani, the girl Booster saved from the future has taken one of Rip's "time bubble" machines and vanished into the past - to 1943 to be specific, smack in the middle of WWII. Unfortunately, DC doesn't have Captain America, so Booster is stuck running into General Glory and his petrified sidekick, Ernie. He's delightfully insane, and hilarious. Booster naturally finds Rani and makes sure the time line is as it should be, and I did like how he uses his time-technology for some clever tactics in this issue. And naturally we got to see more of Booster's present cast, such as Michelle and Rip.
But in the end, the same problem with this run remains. It feels more like a sketch comedy show than a series that is about anything. There's no driving story, no antagonist to fight, nothing but seeing what time line Booster goes into and seeing what jokes arise from it. Don't get me wrong; for $2.99, I never feel cheated. Maybe years of seeing Fred Van Lente (alone or with Greg Pak) do that as well as being able to have serious drama, and a serious antagonist, and even some far ranging subplot to work with, have risen my standards for the "I Can't Believe DC Got This To Last 40 issues" crew. There are those who love absurd humor, but frankly there are books that offer more of that than this one. I guess I just miss the days when there was any serious threat or any suspense with this title, that Jurgens and Johns were able to deliver with (while still offering up some funny). I did think the Jurgens run by the end had gotten too serious, but this run seems to have gone too far in the other direction. Almost like when ACADEMY X just needed a slight kick in the rear to be more than a teen soap, and then Kyle & Yost turned it into SEVEN HOSTEL SAW X. At any rate, at least it seems everyone working on this book is having a good time, and that does translate. Maybe in a DC universe where superheroes shoot up on drugs and fight people with dead cats to feel "important", this is a breath of fresh air.
ANT-MAN & WASP #1: This is a pleasant surprise. Tim Seeley, of HACK/slash, does the art and writing chores for this one, and this is his first Marvel work that I am reading. Val Staples does colors and Vic Olazaba does the inks, and while I was impressed by Seeley in a NEWSARAMA interview enough to try this, this rose above my expectations. That's good, since next month when Pym no longer is Wasp, it will be irrelevant. Marvel editors, why don't you talk to each other? I swear, drug dealers in the ghetto do a better job at coordination than the House of Ideas.
At any rate, Hank Pym is the "Troy McClure" of superheroes, the guy we might remember as another identity. He's running his Academy, and half of the cast from that are also in this issue (Tigra, Veil, Mettle, Striker, and Finesse all appear). He's working on more far out science ways to make up for his past mistakes, such as opening a domestic violence center in Janet's name and literally building Bill Foster's brain patterns a "heaven" in an artificial gadget. But my major surprise was how Eric O'Grady was handled. I have to say, I think Seeley is the one writer who has come the closest to capturing the voice for the character that Robert Kirkman had two years ago in his debut series. Plus, Seeley remembered that O'Grady is supposed to have red sideburns thick enough to win the Banshee Seal Of Approval. He's an Avenger and trying to be a better man, but he's still exploiting his status to nail cheap women, and is still best friends with Black Fox, a long time thief. Unfortunately, he's set up by Fox and AIM into helping another of their agents, a female Sleepwalker, to steal one of Pym's gadgets. Sure, he hits on jailbait and drinks himself to sleep; he also does want to prove he's a better man to Abigail (who he met during his brief tenure at Damage Control, Inc) and help Pym stop the AIM plot.
I loved seeing O'Grady's supporting cast, who have dropped off panel since 2008, be part of his life again. I also felt that Seeley has a good voice for Hank and the other characters as well. It is nice seeing another of the Sleepwalker race, and AIM are always good for far out stuff. Plus, at three issues, this series likely won't overstay it's welcome. It isn't trying to remake the wheel, but is out to have fun and be good at what it does. It is good seeing O'Grady try to be a better guy, but if he becomes TOO good, well, he'll lose his distinction; without being a bit of a selfish, womanizing jerk, there's not much to him. Ant-Men can blur too much together unless care is taken to make them distinct. At any rate, great start to this mini.
AVENGERS: THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE #3: Take heart, this series won't be finished until October 2011. Yay?
This issue was an improvement from the last for me, but it still has some awkward character writing from Allen "Grey's Agony" Heinberg. The artwork by Jim Cheung, along with the inks and colors by Morales and Ponsor, is good, and I have gotten over the fact that Rogers' costume is off and the Avengers line up is clearly set in the 2005-2006 era of NEW AVENGERS. Stuff I can't get over, and this is awkward to say, is how poorly Wolverine is being written. He is acting like he has an obsessed blood feud with Wanda AND Wiccan and no option but the brutal murders of both are satisfactory to him. While most of the other Avengers tip-toe about the idea they may have to kill Wanda, or are even unsure, Logan is all but literally sharpening his claws over the pleasure. I've never seen Logan so eager to kill a teenager before who wasn't a villain; even Ultimate Wolverine once expressed more regret with "having" to kill a mutant teen who killed everyone he encountered. Given that Wanda basically unlocked his memories for HOUSE OF M, it comes off as Logan is simply eager to vent his frustration at the fact that he got what he always wanted, only to learn that, basically, amnesia was the best thing that happened to him, because he'd been such a colossal *****e. At this point all that separates Logan from Creed pre-Weapon X is Logan was nicer to women, and didn't betray EVERYONE he worked with, and that's it. But, what about Wiccan? Just being close enough to Wanda is enough. Logan's quest to find inner peace has been long gone, but this is almost 1970's era Wolverine who was still fairly "undomesticated". On the bright side, Wonder Man is dusted off and I do think this was probably one of his best uses in years. He's the one Avenger who doesn't want to fight Wanda, and it makes sense for him to feel that way.
The big reveal was the Wanda of Wundagore was a Doombot. Magneto, Quicksilver, and the YA have a big talk about it. Quicksilver isn't convinced that Magneto's intentions are genuine. Magneto bleats about how all he wants is to find Wanda. And while Wiccan and Speed want to find her as well, the rest of their team don't want to be reckless about it. Hulkling in particular is afraid Wiccan will go in too deep trying to play lone hero (which he does). The idea of why Dr. Doom hasn't tried to exploit Wanda's power to alter the world to his wishes, like Pietro once did, is brought up, but not explained in this issue, beyond the fact that Dr. Doom wants to marry her, for some reason. His biological clock is ticking? He can't bargain a marriage to Mephisto in exchange for his mother's soul if he's not married? That'll have to wait for January's issue.
In conclusion? This isn't bad, per say. The rest of the YA are really just here, and the focus is mainly on Wiccan, Speed, and Hulkling, as it has mostly been for the last two issues. The artwork and colors are great, even if the costumes are outdated. The main failing is the writing. Marvel put this once-hot franchise into a freezer for half a decade waiting for Heinberg's personal touch, and from what I read here, it was totally not worth it. Any one of the writers who handled some of their previous mini's, such as Zeb Wells, Chris Yost, or Paul Cornell could have handled an like this which surely has some editorial notes from it and at LEAST come up with something of this "quality". Whatever magic touch Heinberg had on this series in 2005 is not here now. If anything, Heinberg has played Marvel for suckers so he'd have a job as soon as Grey's Anatomy wrapped, and Marvel played along because Marvel doesn't have much more respect for themselves than they do for their fans. I dare say half of the writers on fan-fiction.net could have come up with a story this "good". And that's not enough for someone of Heinberg's caliber, who was been awaited for so long. Especially with a character like Wanda who seriously needs some major rehab so she can rejoin the Avengers and finally officially end the M-Day story at the X-Books once and for all so they can have a future that isn't rotting to death on the "Island Of Misfit Metahumans" as Imitation Inhumans.
This is a frustrating series. It's overpriced, comes out too slowly, and isn't worth the extensive wait. But it's the first "important" story to happen to the Young Avengers in years, and always has good moments, solid art, and some good scenes and conversations. The banter between Magneto, Pietro, Speed and Wiccan is good stuff. It just doesn't come together as a whole or justify the long gap.
I AM AN AVENGER #3: The second issue of this anthology mini series (that takes over for AGE OF HEROES on the schedule). It is at least as good as issue two was, and has one story that continues from the last issue. The lead story is an 11 page tale starring Nova and Spider-Man by the NOVA and THANOS IMPERATIVE duo of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (see above), with artwork by Todd Nauck (YOUNG JUSTICE for DC, WILDGUARD for Image, and FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN and SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA for Marvel) with colors by Wil Quintana. It turns out to be a prelude for SECRET AVENGERS #1, detailing Nova and Spider-Man tag-teaming to thwart a bank robbery that turns out to be more "cosmic" than expected. The characters have often been associates as heroes and the topic at hand, Nova being invited by Steve Rogers to join the Avengers and feeling awe struck despite his own impressive resume, allows for a good dialogue between the two. The secondary story, that is a serial tale from issue two, is a Justice & Firestar story by Sean McKeever (who writes the latter in YOUNG ALLIES, which has since been canceled) with art by Mike Mayhew and colors by Rain Berado. The gist is that Justice and Firestar have been thrown into a time paradox where they are battling their former selves (from the Kurt Busiek/George Perez AVENGERS era of about 10-12 years ago) due to Loki's magic. There is a two page Stingray story that is more notable for the art by Antonio Fusio than the narration by Marc Sumerak, in which the title hero saves some divers from a mechanical HYDRA shark. The last one page comic, a Hulk one by Katie Cook, is more cute than amusing, if that makes sense. This series is 2 for 3 right now, which isn't a bad hit ratio, and continues Marvel's current mastery of anthology series, that they had bungled in recent relaunches of MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS and ASTONISHING TALES. Sales are dwindling since AGE OF HEROES, though, so this five issue one could be the end for a while.
The NOVA story was very bittersweet given how THANOS IMPERATIVE ended this week.
INVADERS NOW! #3: This is the middle chapter, so naturally things get moving. Alex Ross gets top billing (and does the covers), but Christos Gage likely does the lion's share of the script writing, while art is done by Caio Reis with colors by Vinicious Andrade. The Invaders, who are either all alive at this point in time, or in the case of Union Jack, have a legacy member filling in, have arrived at the place where they were forced to kill an entire town that had been infected by Arnim Zola's virus. Only the "Uberkommandoes" are waiting for them. While they have some new members, they also have their share of old ones, such as U-Man, and new legacy members, like the latest Master Man. However, as Vision notes, there is strange magic at work that is effecting the entire town and making the older members of the Kommandoes virtually impossible to defeat.
Turns out the sole survivor of the 40's massacre is performing an arcane ritual for Shuma Gorath to resurrect all of his town members at the cost of the Invaders' lives, who he sees as killers. While the Invaders triumph, Union Jack is mutated by the virus and Rogers offers up quite an ultimatum; the Invaders will gladly sacrifice their lives to undo what had to be done, but only if the survivor allows them to at least try to cure the virus with modern science. Of course, if the sacrifice doesn't go as planned, one can imagine Shuma Gorath will not be pleased, and there's no Sorcerer Supreme to stop him this time.
This isn't the best thing Gage has written, but it still is a solid adventure story. I always felt that Marvel could use a JSA type team of Golden Agers alongside some newer legacies, and the Invaders do fill that gap (even if the name is outdated). Shuma Gorath is getting around lately, but it looks like he'll be popping up later in the series, which raises the stakes greatly. The action was pretty good, and how can you hate some Neo-Nazi stompin'?
THOR #617: This is the third issue of the new creative run of Matt Fraction (INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, UNCANNY X-MEN) and Pasqual Ferry (HEROES FOR HIRE, ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR), with colors by Matt Hollingsworth. In theory one might expect that to mean that we are halfway through the first arc of the run, but Matt Fraction (or his editors) see six issues for most stories as too short; only the first arc of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN was that long, and I have little faith that this story will go anywhere in less than about eight or nine issues, which is Fraction’s average these days. Fortunately, the pace of this issue is faster than the last, which is easily noticed by the fact that no page has fewer than three panels, and most have four to six. Despite that, and despite this being a better issue than the last, one still cannot shake the feeling that Fraction’s pace is a pace that is always twenty miles below the speed limit, even with no traffic ahead. He is never in a rush to finish a story in six issues when he can take twelve. At the very least, this makes his run similar to that of J. Michael Straczynski who launched this volume of THOR (and has since shocked the world, or at least DC’s sales department, with SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE).
As such, things that were told in issue #616 or #615 are still the same now. Asgard, in Oklahoma, is still in rubble. The mysterious “red invaders” who are storming across the nine realms of reality where Asgard used to be are still slaughtering any in their path, only this issue they, gasp, kill some troll-like-dwarves instead of elves. Dr. Eric Solvang is still mumbling a lot of sci-fi techobabble about the incoming threat that no one seems willing to listen to. Balder is still whining a lot. And Thor seems to be interested in his own whims than leading his people or hanging around Oklahoma for long. The main plot that was introduced at the start of the run hasn’t advanced a step in two issues. This is a problem for the “red invaders” since they are the incoming threat, yet the reader has no idea of what they are like or why they should be feared besides the fact that they have some nasty character designs and kill anything in their path. That may be enough for an immediate threat, but one should desire that the villains for an entire opening arc have more fleshing out that a natural disaster in a TV movie.
Things do pick up from last issue, at the very least moving from stationary to snail’s pace. Dr. Solvang is able to get through to Iron Man, who rockets into the rubble of Asgard to carry the message, only to learn that Balder apparently feels that things can’t get any worse. All he needs at this point is a black hoodie, some nail polish and an iPod full of LINKIN PARK tracks to be completely “emo”. One supposes they can’t blame Balder for being down; not only is his home in ruins, but Thor, who is actually his brother these days, doesn’t bother trying to connect to him at all, and has instead settled on resurrecting Loki. The Odinson misses him, and feels only a brother can relate to him. Rather than try to get closer to Balder, he’s decided to revive his long time step-brother and constant menace. This time, Loki returns to life as a child who makes a living cheating people with three card monte in Paris, France. Thor arrives, and not as Donald Blake, to find him and “zap” some godly memories into him.
INCREDIBLE HERCULES did something similar in the recent past, reviving Zeus as a child to tag along with Hercules, which was amusing but brief. This time, Loki is revived as a teenager, and is perhaps the same “youth” that Thor recalls growing up with so fondly that it is worth forgiving Loki’s later centuries of sin and evil. Will Loki ultimately go bad? Of course; he has to. Heck, the next issue promises Odin’s return, and Thor DOES have a film coming up. Aside for the potential psychological hints of Thor reviving his idealized version of Loki to satisfy himself, this is quite obligatory.
Still, the artwork is lovely, and Fraction’s dialogue is often effective. Fans of Straczynski’s Thor should find themselves in familiar territory, warts and all. Anyone else will have to decide whether this is enough for $3.99 an issue.
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