The Source has been running the Adam Kubert covers for Grant Morrison’s upcoming Batman series the Return of Bruce Wayne or whatever it’s called – and as much as I’m not that interested in Bruce coming back, I have to say these are pretty damn good looking – and when you see them together there’s a nice little backdrop…
Click to embiggen!
Not entirely unexpected that Clint Barton should be returning to his classic Hawkeye costume in order to redeem it after Bullseye’s actions in it, or that Clint will be on the team, given his recent prominence in New Avengers…
…but somewhere, Kate Bishop is weeping.
Secret Warriors wants to be a good book. Marvel wants it to be one of those books which, like the Bendis-penned Avengers titles, really ‘matters’ in the shared universe. Jonathan Hickman appears to want it to be a Nick Fury book.
And you know what?
If it was a pure Nick Fury book, I’d be more into it. Even with the ‘everything you know is wrong’ approach of the book – S.H.I.E.L.D. has always been an arm of Hydra! The Contessa is part of the group that controls Hydra! Fury has a network of ‘caterpillars’ waiting to be activated! Fury, Contessa, Strucker and a bunch of others are all part of the Zodiac! – it could be a good book, if that was what it was sold as.
But no, it was sold as a book about Fury’s team of ‘caterpillars’ and now, nine months in, we still don’t have much of an idea who these characters are and why they’re willing to throw their lives away following Fury. The exception to this are Daisy, who seems to fill the role previously held by Maria Hill – ie, be shouted at, have short hair and serve as exposition – and Phobos, who provides a convenient tie to Osborn’s Dark Avengers team through his father.
The other guys? I really have no idea – I can’t even remember their names, truth be told.
The fact is, no matter how much back matter and diagrams Hickman throws in the back, this is not a particularly good book. Sure it’s ‘integral’ to the Marvel Universe but it’s dull and more than a little smug. Back matter and what I’m sure is a well-plotted arc doesn’t make up for the fact that the comic itself does a poor job of (a) selling its characters and (b) explaining the plot in the pages of the comic itself.
The murky coloring of the art doesn’t help either.
I had high hopes for the book but frankly, it’s a stinker.
Nice covers, though.
Over on his blog, Joe Bloke posted the first issue of Atlas/Seaboard’s The Scorpion -
Does the Scorpion look familiar at all?
I immediately posted on the blog that he looked a hell of a lot like Marvel’s Dominic Fortune -
- only to discover that Howard Chaykin created the Scorpion, quit the book two issues in apparently as he lacked creative control (it was canceled after the third issue), then used the Scorpion as the basis for Dominic Fortune.
I always liked Fortune – although my knowledge of the character was based entirely on the non-Chaykin written (Danny Fingeroth actually wrote them) Web of Spider-Man and Iron Man stories from the 80s.
I know that Chaykin’s got a Dominic Fortune MAX series at the moment (which I also haven’t picked up) – but I wonder; why take a character to a company like Marvel after walking away from a similar character because you lack control over it?
Makes no sense to me.
Ah well, learn something new every day!
I was using www.stashmycomics.com last night – see, www.collectorz.com, that’s what you get when you won’t release a mac version of your comic collecting software and I need to transfer all the info from my PC! -and I came across Ladronn’s Cable run.
I’d forgotten how great a lot of these covers were – Ladronn seems to channel Kirby in places, especially when it comes to the perspective applied to characters jumping with their hands thrown forward.
See?
It’s a shame that, as great as the art was in these books, the stories – by James Robinson and Joe Casey – sometimes didn’t quite measure up. The late 90s were a dark time for a lot of Marvel’s mutant line, and poor old Nathan Summers was no exception.
Even so, for the art alone these books are worth picking up cheap. I don’t think they’ve ever been collected, so back issue bins at cons or ebay may be your best bet – I can’t imagine they go for much over a buck a book these days.
At this point I’m just rambling to break up the pretty pictures a bit, but you probably figured that out already.
But they are pretty, aren’t they?
I seem to recall Ladronn working on an Inhumans mini as well – that’s probably worth tracking down too. Hmm…there’s an idea…
Not sure what Ladronn is up to these days, but he should be doing more mainstream US comics work – if only because that’s probably the only way that I’m going to see his stuff!
The reason that I started this series of posts on the past week’s comics was because of Guardians of the Galaxy #19. While any deaths in a comic that has been featuring time travel as heavily as this has in recent issues are obviously suspect – especially when for some of these characters it’s not the first time that they’ve died.
Even so, the wholesale – well, I guess the word is slaughter – that happens in this book happens so quickly that it took me by surprise.
I’m not sure Cliff Roberts’ stylized artwork was the best way to show this but I have to admit that it’s grown on me these past few issues.
Anyway, for those keeping score, the Guardians who were skipping through the timestream arrived just in time to stop Phyla, former Captain Marvel, former-Quasar and current Martyr, from killing Adam Warlock, not knowing that this was actually to prevent Warlock from changing into the Magus, his supremely powerful evil future self.
The non-time-traveling Guardians with the exception of Moondragon teleport over – and then Magus rises and all hell breaks loose.
It starts going wrong when Mantis and Cosmo (awesome telepathic Russian spacecop dog) try to use their telepathy.
And just like that, two of the Guardians are down.
Rocket Racoon’ attack doesn’t do much, but it gives Phyla the opportunity to move in for the kill with her supersword again -
And that’s three down.
While Gamora – also wielding a sword – attacks her former teammate, Vance Astro hurls his shield at Magus, hoping to catch him by surprise.
It doesn’t go so well.
That’s four – until Magus gives Astro his shield back.
Make that five.
Finally, after Drax tries – and fails – to stop Magus (but at least he survives) , Starlord manages to use the cosmic cube that Kang gave him (told you there was time travel in here) to put a whammy on the villain -
- and then, at Warlock’s urging, makes it six members of the team down in the space of about seven pages.
When the team come home to Moondragon – well, Drax puts it best.
Sure, the Punisher got cut to pieces, Donna Troy crushed her dead baby’s skull, and Cypher tore Warlock’s head off (that’s the other Warlock), but it’s without doubt this issue that made me put it down, then pick it up and reread it straight away.
And that almost never happens.
If you’re not reading this book, you damn well should be.
Newsarama posted a preview of the upcoming Fall of the Hulks: Alpha earlier –
- and although I’m sure this will be the equivalent of a Michael Bay movie, what with Loeb on board, I can’t help but think, ‘I like Michael Bay movies, they’re awesome.’
So, yes, I’ll be picking this up in spite of the Purge.
Plus, homage cover to one of my favorite non-crossover crossovers ever, so bonus there.
I’m never entirely comfortable when the Punisher operates in the Marvel U proper; I think he’s usually diminished somewhat. After all, he can’t really kill too many well known characters and he’s completely outclassed when he goes after the real villains of the MU.
Rick Remender’s current series kind of underlined that, and had Frank tooling up against the Hood and his back-from-the-dead minions using a bunch of leftover Marvel weaponry. Fortunately, for the Dark Reign: The List: Punisher one-shot, most of the outlandish weaponry is ditched and it’s just Frank against Daken.
And, well, it’s brutal – and when you’ve got John Romita Jr on his game, it’s really brutal.
Once Daken cuts Frank’s throat, you know he’s in trouble – but (if you haven’t been paying attention to solicits) just how bad that trouble is may come as a shock to you.
Damn. And that was his gun hand too.
Thing is, and this is Frank to a tee, that just means he’s going to use a knife with his other hand.
Although that may not turn out too well.
Crap. Two arms gone. Could things get worse for Frank?
Well…yes.
There’s a bit more, as Daken kicks what’s left of Frank off the roof into the alley below, and all his body parts pile in a heap, just in case you want to get a bit of closure.
The Punisher is a marquee character for Marvel. A name that a lot of non-comics people know – and they just had the lookalike of another big Marvel name cut him, literally, to pieces. I know this is comics, I know that Frank’s coming back as a Frankenstein-style character (and god knows why they think this is a good move for him), but still…
It doesn’t get much more brutal than this in a mainstream Marvel U comic.
I had a brief Twitter conversation recently about how absolutely perfect the characterization of Banner is in the current run of Incredible Hulk, but on retrospect I don’t so much think it’s a perfect representation of who the character has been in the past; moreover I think it more accurately reflects who the character has become over the past five years or so since Greg Pak started writing him.
Since Greg Pak took over, Banner has been shot into space, seen Hulk claw his way to power on Sakaar and return to Earth for revenge but, more significantly, he’s been okay with it. Banner reached an understanding with the Hulk – and his bride, Caiera – that he’s never had before. It wasn’t the uneasy detente of Peter David’s run, it was a full fledged complicity in Hulk’s actions – and it’s revealed aspects of Banner’s character that has been dormant for far too long.
Banner’s a genius, yes. But the shroud of social incompetence he used to wear has been shrugged off; he’s cold, calculating and brutal. He’s now taken to training up his son, Skaar, to be able to kill the Hulk when he inevitably re-emerges – or at least that’s what he’s leading everyone to believe.
He’s willing to go to extraordinary lengths to protect his son as well. Take this most recent issue, which culminated in Daken using that claw with the ability to block healing abilities (apparently) to gut Skaar; Banner doesn’t hesitate to pull an old-power-powered gun on Wolverine.
Problem is, Daken doesn’t believe he’ll use it and he’s not the only one.
And that’s when Banner talks about his past; his killing of his abusive father was established in Peter David’s run and there, if I remember correctly, it seemed that the Hulk had more problems coming to terms with it than Banner did. 
Of course, some people still need convincing…
…and convince them he does. Here’s the thing, though, it was originally suggested that the Hulk was basically born of the guilt from Banner’s act of patricide – and Pak here takes it one step further. Here, Banner suggests that the Hulk isn’t Banner’s repressed violent side; it’s his outlet to protect the world from Banner. He can’t be Banner while he’s Hulk – which means that Banner can’t plan.
It’s a great take on the character, and elevates him to a level that we haven’t seen before.
Also, Bendis’ thing about the Hulk killing people in his rampages? Gone forever, apparently – and good riddance.
Oh, Karla…
I always liked her. Admittedly, not so much when she was a member of the Masters of Evil, wore a dorky white helmet, tried to play Baron Zemo and then got her neck broken because she forgot not to fly head-first into a wall…but aside from that, since she came back as Meteorite – and then Moonstone again, and now Ms Marvel – in Thunderbolts, she’s been one of those characters that was fun to watch as she slowly, inexorably, completely against her will, got dragged to the good side of the street.
She was always out for yourself, of course, but it was falling for Clint Barton – man, that guy gets around, doesn’t he? – that really set her on course for becoming a hero. Even if, along the way, she had a tendency to be a complete cow.
And then flamin’ Warren Bloody Ellis went and devolved her back into being a total self-centered bitch, even trying to kill teammates, when he took over Thunderbolts. And that was okay, that was fine – and then Bendis took the characterization, ran with it and threw her into bed with Kid Captain Marvel or whatever he’s called –
- and I thought, okay, that’s fine. But now…
…Bullseye?
Really?
Bullseye? Mr Gut-you-for-breakfast?
And then it becomes clear.
It’s all about Clint.
Man, when that gut hits his mark, it stays hit, doesn’t it?
And who knew that was a two-piece?
But here’s the thing: I have nothing against strong sexual characters, be they male or female – but unless Bendis has a very definite masterplan at work here regarding Karla’s motivations and goals, then this feels like sleaze for the sake of sleaze.
Karla, like Emma Frost both use their sexuality as a weapon. And not a subtle weapon; it’s more of a blunt instrument, smacking other characters – and the reader – in the face with it.
I’m not sure why, but that just makes me a little uncomfortable. I suspect that’s because I like to live in the fantasy that there are still kids reading these comics, and that they see role models in these characters.
Anyway. Nice art, I guess.
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