This was a mercifully short week, and it would have been shorter had I not been a sucker. At any rate, spoilers ahoy.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 6/8/11 - Marvel Edition
ANNIHILATORS #4: This is the finale of "cosmic" writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning on their latest mini series for Marvel's line of space heroes. It is a $4.99 an issue series which has offered 42-44 pages of content; both the main ANNIHILATORS story and then the superior ROCKET RACCOON & GROOT series as a back up strip (which often is two pages longer). The ANNIHILATORS strip have seen Quasar trying to fill in for the loss of Nova and Star-Lord's Guardians of the Galaxy by assembling his team of "space bad asses" in Gladiator, Beta Ray Bill, Ronan and Silver Surfer. They have been joined by the Spaceknight Ikon, who provided the role of "token girl" as well as central to the plot. They have become involved in a story that has sought to tie up some dwindling plot points left behind by, amazingly, the end of the 1980's cult series ROM THE SPACEKNIGHT as well as SECRET INVASION from 2008-2009. Given that the Dire-Wraiths, the arch enemies of the Spaceknights, were a mystical, demonic sub-class of the Skrull alien race, it does make some sense to link them in an aftermath story. However, an appearance by Immortus and his time-flung army in Limbo seems to exist to provide artist Tan Eng Huat (as well as inker Victor Olazaba and colorist June Chung) extra battle sequences to draw. The story wraps up fairly neatly, although a teaser image at the end implies that the next mini series will bring these characters to earth for an adventure. I wonder how that can work; if cosmic heroes go to earth, then by being on earth they're not "cosmic" for a while. On the other hand, it could connect with FF's subplot with the reborn Annihilus, and Earth has escaped a slew of space threats aside for the Skrull Invasion over the years. Technically, the characters hanging out at Project PEGASUS (Robbie Rider, Namorita and Darkhawk) never left earth.
In the Rocket & Groot story, another loose end from the 1980's or 90's, Star-Thief, is wrapped up as well as Rocket's current character being bridged to his past from the 80's. The story mostly exists as a showcase for the artwork of Timothy Green II, and the colors of Nathan Fairbain. The story has become more bogged down in retreading old continuity in it's later half than the manic energy of the first two issues, but has a very exciting and successful conclusion. The dilemma of this series is that it seems mundane coming off of THANOS IMPERATIVE and involves the writers handling characters they are less strong with than in NOVA or GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. Their familiarity with Rocket was often why that strip seemed to have more energy; ANNIHILATORS in comparison was often a simple Saturday morning adventure. While Marvel's "space audience" are not large enough for Marvel to have sold these as two mini-series, they are loyal and consistent enough at about 24,000 readers that Marvel will continue to give "DnA" work on the cosmic titles - especially as HEROES FOR HIRE sadly nears cancellation range. This has been a perfectly serviceable and exciting space saga series, even if it isn't up to the snuff of this writing duo's prior work.
FEAR ITSELF: FEARSOME FOUR #1: I was initially planning to buy this mini series due to the bizarre line up of B and C-List characters, then decided Id rather save the three bucks. But when push came to shove, my small local shop had reserved it for me, so I felt bad leaving it behind, since they may not sell it it IS a spare FEAR ITSELF mini series with a low level creative team and characters. Having read this, my second guess was right. This issue is, in fact, very close to a poster child of spare event mini-series that really have no right to exist other than to sucker in more dollars from
suckers. You win this round, Marvel. That isnt to say that this work is bad; there are far worse comics out there; FEAR ITSELF #3 is far more irritating a comic as this is. It simply is a bit tedious, uneven, and mundane. Its a dud, plain and simple.
This is actually the second FEAR ITSELF mini series to feature characters who would be quite at home in a relaunch of DEFENDERS. There is FEAR ITSELF: THE DEEP which features Dr. Strange and Namor teaming up, and THIS series features Nighthawk, She-Hulk, Howard the Duck, and the Frankenstein Monster going up against a berserk Man-Thing. Sounds interesting as a solicit, right? Thats about the best it manages. It is written by Brandon Montclare, best known as editor of DCs newest Vertigo classics such as SWEET TOOTH and BANG TANGO, along with MADAME XANADU and a run on HELLBLAZER. Given that Axel Alonso, former Vertigo editor turned Marvel editor-in-chief, is now in such a position, it is little surprise that some of Vertigos stable would come to the House Of Ideas. The dilemma is that perhaps Montclare is not quite a home writing a superhero team-up book, especially one on the fringes of an event. Being that this is $2.99, this means it only has 20 pages of story; despite that, the issue has the efforts of three artists at the helm Michael Wm Kaluta, Ryan Bodenheim and Simon Bisley, with two colorists in tow. While the final reality warping sequence at the end benefits from a dramatic shift in art via Bisley, the rest of the issue does sometimes feel as if there was a rush to deadline, because Marvel would implode if it had one less FEAR ITSELF series ship in June.
Premise? Man-Thing is a monster who is literally attracted to fear, and any who know it burn at his touch no end of narrations since the 1970s have told us this. Because the acts of FEAR ITSELF are spreading panic across America and the globe, this has caused Man-Thing to become overwhelmed with fear-energy and start on a mindless rampage, which even results in a double murder. Howard the Duck, who was brought to earth by Man-Thing and has considered him an ally many times in the past, wants to track the muck-monster down and either save him, or be the one to put him down. To this end hes recruited She-Hulk, and Nighthawk and the Frankenstein Monster literally run into them as they go. One can imagine this could be a fun pulp adventure, but instead Montclare plays it very straight, which is a mistake. Without much humor or irony, the story reads more generic than it could otherwise. It doesnt help that while Howard is seen meeting up with She-Hulk, and Montclare feels the need to summarize Nighthawks latest continuity in an extended, and awkwardly drawn, brawl sequence with some muggers, the Frankenstein Monster quite literally just walks into the story. Howard The Duck, the comedy creation of Steve Gerber, does not work without some more humor attached much as Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have some fun with characters such as Rocket Raccoon, Groot, and the psychic dog Cosmo in their space stories.
While the artwork by Bodenheim is quite capable, it is the pages by Kaluta that make things look awkward. While Kaluta does well with Man-Thing, his human figures look very sketchy, and his sequence with Nighthawk versus some muggers features some of the most awkward pacing for a fight I have read in some time. It doesnt help that Montclare has written a normally generic hero like Nighthawk as a borderline deranged lunatic of a vigilante. And while were at it, I should say that neither Howard or the Frankenstein Monster look at all like the cover within, which is a good thing. On the cover, Howard looks like a Disney character, and Franky looks like he is some long lost cousin of Lion-O from THUNDERCATS.
Jeff Parker, the current THUNDERBOLTS writer, has already lost Juggernaut as one of his regular cast to FEAR ITSELF, since he is one of The Worthy. That is understandable. Man-Thing is another of his regulars on THUNDERBOLTS and if Parker loses access to him for the next four months simply so he can appear in a story as mundane, pointless, and average as this, it will be quite upsetting and unfortunate. This mini series actually highlights one flaw of Matt Fractions FEAR ITSELF narrative, in that how exactly fear is spread over the world is left a bit ambiguous. FEAR ITSELF was sold via images that showed Marvel heroes literally facing their fears as some put it in interviews including bits like Cyclops wearing Magnetos costume, Iron Man seeing his armor mass produced, Hulk losing control and Captain Americas shield breaking. While this has come to pass to some degree with Hulk and Steve Rogers, the story is not about heroes facing their own fears. The main villain in FEAR ITSELF, an exiled Norse god called the Serpent, supposedly sows fear in humans and uses that fear to grow stronger. How does he set about doing so? While some lines imply that the Serpents mere presence sows fear, in execution the Serpent accomplishes this by throwing hammers at selected superhumans (the Worthy), which possess them and make them break things while screaming a lot. While a worldwide crusade of blunt terror by hammer-carrying superhumans is quite a terrible thing, the fact that it seemingly causes crowds to people to go berserk as if hallucinating is awkward at best. The Sinister Six have come up with better and more complicates attempts to dominate the world than the Serpent.
Subsequent issues seem to imply that reality will warp around the four characters as Man-Things madness effects the nexus of realities that he protects. This screams of being an issue filling device which will have trippy art and strange things happen for no reason. Given that Man-Thing can endlessly reform himself from swamp-muck, the odds of him being permanently destroyed here are nil.
In conclusion, with Marvel spitting out a dozen (give or take) spare FEAR ITSELF mini series, each has to be taken with a grain of salt. While THE HOME FRONT is a hit-or-miss anthology, and YOUTH IN REVOLT had a great debut, FEARSOME FOUR is a dud, best avoided. One supposes the other 75% of it could be stronger, but after this debut, I wont be along to see.
MYSTERY MEN #1: To paraphrase Prince, let's party like it's 1999. No, this comic has nothing to do with the 1999 Universal Studios film "MYSTERY MEN" that starred Ben Stiller, William H. Macy, Hank Azaria, and Geoffrey Rush (among others), which was itself based on a comic book series created by Bob Burden of similar name (MYSTERYMEN), which itself a spin off of his FLAMING CARROT comics (circa 1984). This is the debut of a five issue mini series from Marvel Comics written by David Liss, a novelist who has been writing BLACK PANTHER: MAN WITHOUT FEAR lately, and artist Patrick Zircher, a "journeyman" artist best known for extended runs on NEW WARRIORS, THUNDERBOLTS, IRON MAN and CABLE & DEADPOOL (as well as NIGHTWING for DC Comics). The premise is to introduce the first group of "modern era" Marvel superheroes via retroactive continuity, or at the very least untold revelations. To a degree this holds some water; virtually all of Marvel's superhero characters of the Golden Age debuted after 1940, many of which were patriotic heroes intended to fight in WWII as well as have zany adventures - Captain America being the most well known. Namor the Sub-Mariner and the android Human Torch were the only ones who debuted before 1940. However, even those two first appeared in 1939, with WWII already well underway in Europe. This series takes place in 1932, during the heart of the Great Depression before such things. While ALPHA FLIGHT once introduced a team of "cave man superheroes" who existed in ancient times, and no end of tales of mythical heroes abound, as well as an entire stable of 19th century "wild west" masked heroes, the era before 1939 has been mostly untouched. No doubt Marvel sees the successful sales of THE MARVELS PROJECT by Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting as well as the initially decent sales of the unfinished THE TWELVE by J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston as motivation to delve even further for Golden Age era stories. Perhaps the "CAPTAIN AMERICA" film will get some readers in the mood for a period piece. The difficulty in terms of promotions remains this being released in the middle of a FEAR ITSELF vs. DC's FLASHPOINT market. Frankly, no matter how good it is, if this debuts above 25,000 copies, someone at Marvel won a bet.
The other interesting quirk about this series is not only the title, but even the tag line of this debut issue and series - "Who Are The Mystery Men?" (
http://www.flamingcarrot.com/MM/index.html) Bob Burden trademarked both the FLAMING CARROT and MYSTERYMEN names in the mid 1980's. While Universal Studios has had a cozy relationship with Marvel in the recent decade (the 2003 "HULK" film by Ang Lee being one, as well as Marvel characters appearing in their theme parks), this likely will become less so as Marvel and Disney becomes more of one entity since the start of 2010. Thus, if Burden and/or Universal sought a lawsuit in terms of improper copyright infringement, they could have a case. Burden himself has been sporadic with FLAMING CARROT/MYSTERYMAN comics, especially since the end of the 90's; both Dark Horse and Image Comics have had publishing rights to the material. Considering Marvel have lost virtually every copyright infringement legal battle they have ever been involved in (including against Rob Liefield's AWESOME comics line when his Fighting American seemed a virtual clone of Capt. America), this mini series curiously tempts a bout they may not seek to engage in even with Disney's high priced lawyers. One supposes Marvel would argue that their MYSTERY MEN have a space in the middle and thus do not infringe on Burden/LBG, LLC.'s MYSTERYMEN. If that happened, then, would Marvel have to accept a comic published by another company called Spiderman? Or X_Men? Is this the sort of thing they wish to tempt? This is a company, as recently as 2008, that were unaware of being unable to use music tracks without the consent of the label/band and had to take down a trailer for "WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN" featuring Foo Fighters music that was improperly obtained - thus, a company worth over four billion dollars made the same rookie mistake as a greasy teenager making YouTube tribute videos in a dank room.
Digressions aside, Liss and Zircher, alongside colorist Andy Troy, manage to craft a very classy and engaging comic here. In fairness, this is a sort week for comics, and this comic probably has the pleasure of being king of a small hill, but it is what it is. As the cover suggests, there will be five Mystery Men who are all seemingly men, in keeping with the sexist themes of the era. However, Liss is no fool and does not shove all of them at the reader immediately; issue one only introduces two of them. Most of the issue focuses on Dennis Piper, a wealthy socialite in 1932 who moon-lights as "The Operative", a masked thief who robs from the wealthy or greedy and seemingly returns the spoils to the poor - we never see this actually happen, but it is implied. This is naturally an era before there were basic worker or tenant rights and in which business owners could get away with far more open graft and robbery, with police officers seeming to be endlessly corrupt. Piper's existence is interrupted when his Broadway actress girlfriend Alice Starr (who would've been a "star", for some heavy handed naming) is murdered by a general who serves as a sort of taskmaster for the corrupted elite as well as a demonic entity called "Nox". Mentioned as a "fear lord", this entity could very well be the same Nox who appeared in DOCTOR STRANGE #31, circa 1991 - if so, this is a wise way to play up a figure who was "yet another demonic entity" who hasn't been over-used to death like Mephisto or even Satannish. Piper is very quickly set up as a patsy for Alice's murder, which leaves him having to escape from corrupt cops and run into Alice's near identical sister Sarah as well as the mysterious vigilante Revenant. Revenant is a "person of color" in an era in which segregation and open racism in business and society were the rule of the day, who appears to be akin to many of the "crime fighting magician" type heroes who occupied many 1940's comics. In battle, he deploys one defensive technique against bullets that Sho'Nuff from "THE LAST DRAGON" would appreciate.
Zircher's artwork looks much different here than it has in some of his previous work, especially due to Troy's colors. It does appear as if it is inspired by Epting's work in THE MARVEL'S PROJECT, which is no bad thing. It fits the tone of period piece urban noir. Liss manages to capture the spirit of the era well, and Piper seems to be set up as a proper point-of-view character, especially since he has no actual super-powers. Revenant remains a mysterious figure and it is unknown what ethnicity he is (other than he's non-Caucasian), which both is a good idea in terms of diversity as well as a bad idea that tempts a stereotype of a "magical dark skinned character who helps a white character" that Spike Lee often bemoaned. However, Revenant may turn out to be the first 20th century American hero who deployed inhuman powers (or magic). However, the next issue should hopefully flesh him out more. The lack of a female member could be a stumbling block (the X-Men have long held female members, after all), but Sarah Starr is stated as a scientist and a pilot, which are skills that should prove useful as the story moves along. Plus, Marvel are wise to sell this for $2.99 an issue, considering this is a lesser known creative team creating brand new characters (much as Christos Gage and Mike McKone did in AVENGERS ACADEMY).
This may not be the best new mini series ever, but it is the best comic this reader read this week. If you like pulp heroes and period pieces, as well as new characters, this should be a safe bet. Unlike THE TWELVE, this story should actually see completion.
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