Captain America #12: OMG, viva Gruenwald! When we last left D-Man, as far as I'm aware, he was part of Wonder Man's "Revengers" team in the "Avengers"/"New Avengers" Annuals cross-over event. Before that, we saw him in "New Avengers" #7, where he auditioned to be the Cage-Jones' nanny. In both appearances, he was hurt that Captain America no longer spent time with him (in addition to seeming a few sandwiches short of a picnic). Although his appearances in these issues were in all likelihood meant to be jokes by the authors, they actually contributed to me feeling like D-Man was a logical choice for the new Scourge. First, it's part of the Gruenwaldmania! that Brubaker has embraced over the last few issues. But, most importantly, it's probably going to have a pretty profound impact on Cap that a former friend, who's pretty clearly been in need of a little help lately, has been turned to the Dark Side (if you will), so much so that he was willing to beat Diamondback into a coma. Given the death of Nomad and the loss of Bucky, in addition to the constant barrage of psychological warfare from Codename Bravo and Queen HYDRA recently, I wonder if Brubaker isn't setting up this reveal to be the one that totally pushes Steve over the brink. (The arc is called "Shock to the System," after all.) You can see throughout this issue how on edge Cap is. He delights in the prospect of beating some information from HYDRA agents, lets them know that he and Dum Dum Duggan are coming when they invade their base, and smashes his fist through the Helicarrier's monitors when he realizes that HYDRA has turned Gyrich into its tool. Losing D-Man, no matter how much of a joke that he's become, to HYDRA is probably going to have some impact on Cap. I can't wait to see what it is.
Captain America and Hawkeye #631: For the fact that this story is about Cap and Hawkeye fighting a breed of creatures that formed when dead saurians merged with Dire Wraiths, Bunn does a remarkably good job of making it easy to follow. Last issue, I thought that the symbiotes were something independent from the dinosaurs. But, now, we discover that the symbiotes happened when Stegron attempted to revive the dead saurians, because they had been infected by the genetic code of the Dire Wraiths, the race that originally killed them. Suddenly, BOOM, dino-wraith-iotes! With this mystery resolved, Bunn turns to the other mystery, namely who employs Kash and what it wants with the symbiote. I'm guessing that we'll get an answer to that question next issue. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy the fact that a story about Cap and Hawkeye fighting a group of dino-wraith-iotes is as good as one would hope it would be!
No comments:
Post a Comment