Batman: White Knight Presents Von Freeze #1: It's hard to critique a comic that the author says resulted in him crying hysterically over his estranged relationship with his parents at brunch with an artist who he idolized. In other words, I'll try to be gentle.
This issue isn't terrible by any stretch of the imagination, but it confuses me. First, we learn that it fits between "Batman: Curse of the White Knight" issues #6 and #7, even though DC hadn't yet published issue #5 at this point. I'm left to assume that Dr. Fries will become more relevant and, presumably, tragic by issue #8. I only vaguely remember him from the first series, making this issue feel all the more unmoored from the main story that Murphy is telling.
But, even if I read it in the proper sequence, I'm not sure that it would improve my understanding of why it exists. Virtually the entire issue is exposition, as Fries describes his family's past to Thomas Wayne. It doesn't help that the reason they're in this situation is ridiculous. Martha is pregnant with Bruce, and Thomas brought her to see Fries' lab, which he's funding. Martha has a complication with the pregnancy, forcing Fries to use his cryogenic equipment to freeze her until such a point when they can address the problem. Fries is telling Wayne his story to keep his mind off Martha and the baby. Sure, OK. A good Holocaust story always cheers up a man worried his wife and child are going to die.
It's also hard to tell what Murphy wants us to feel about Victor's father, Baron von Fries. He joins the SS as a way to continue his research, even though he's hiding his Jewish partner and his partner's extended family in their joint lab. At several points throughout the story it seems clear that the Baron doesn't have his partner's best interests at heart, but Victor's recollections often portray him as always trying to do right by his partner. I get that it might just be a son's skewed memories, but Murphy doesn't do anything to convey that. I'm just connecting the dots that Murphy himself left unconnected.
Honestly, given the struggle that I'm already having with the main series, I feel like Murphy might have been better served spending more time tightening up that story rather than taking us on this journey that we didn't really ask to take.
The Weatherman, Vol. 2 #5: Christ on the cross, Kathleen. This issue is insane, and I mean that in the best possible way. It's actually very straightforward for how significant it is. But it's one of the wildest rides that I've ever taken in a comic.
It turns out Nathan didn't become a biophagus construct. At the last minute, he decided not to sacrifice himself to the biophagus mob. Instead, he stole the soldiers' ship at Syngen Station and flew to Dr. Argus' lab to pick up his lab assistant, Regi. (Before they left, they apparently had milk and cookies, which excited Nathan greatly). Regi then assumed Nathan's form upon arriving at Skyborough and starts taking down Skyborough's soldiers.
In the present, Kestrel's assistant/lover Vager wants to evacuate her, but she refuses. She tells him to exterminate the construct (i.e., Regi) since they've only survived this long through keeping the biophagus on the surface; if it comes to Skyborough, they're all dead. Speaking of the surface, the rest of the team gets loaded onto the next transport to feed the biophagus before Nathan can board. Nathan wonders what Cross would do when he notices their ship in Skyborough's hanger.
On Mars, the president had a director stage the terrorist attack, using already dead bodies (presumably of people they didn't kill explicitly for the attack...) instead of living people. They've captured Jenner's agent, Djinn, and she confirms that Jenner has a psychic, explaining why Jenner has successfully rooted out Arcadia's attempts to infiltrate his operation. Unfortunately, Djinn has resisted their probes; they just learned that Jenner is somewhere on Venus. The President is discouraged and tells Councilman Cyrus that they can resume thermal drops but she first asks a favor as she looks at Cross' image.
On Earth, the team lands and starts to run from the biophagus, but it looks grim. However, Nathan hits a bunch of buttons on the ship and it turns out the ship is a Transformer. He's now basically Voltron and saves the day! Woot! White Light takes the controls as Nathan explains to Cross how he got there, as described above. (Earlier, he commented to himself as he struggled to fly the ship that it's much harder than it looks and he now understands why White Light acts like she's surrounded by idiots.) White Light destroys a few large constructs only for the kid from last issue to unleash his bomb aboard one of the transport ships, sending it straight at Voltron.
On Skyborough, Kestrel realizes that the biophagus will attack the station given the kid's action have destroyed half its food. She tells Vager to evacuate the city because it's over and they share a kiss. The biophagus forms essentially an enormous Mothra and starts tearing through Skyborough. White Light docks with a burning Skyborough, and Cross attempts to depart the ship to retrieve Ian Black's memory drive. Oddly, Nathan is the voice of reason, convincing her that it's hopeless. He promises her that they'll find Jenner another way. Tellingly, Cross listens to him, a sign that Nathan is becoming less of a jester as the story advances.
On Skyborough, Kestrel straps on a bunch of guns to fight the biophagus, telling it that she's been waiting for this moment her whole life. She then sees Mero in the construct, and she's frozen in grief as the construct crashes over her. Dr. Argus emerges from the crowds fleeing to the escape transports, and Cross pulls him onto their ship. Argus offers his hand to Regi, telling him that he could save humanity. Regi simply comments, "'I know this hurts'" (echoing Dr. Argus from issue #2), and Regi explodes with Skyborough as Argus screams in fury. The ship then closes its doors and departs.
Whoa. I assume that we're going to Venus in volume 3 to get Jenner, since Cross no longer needs Black's memory drive to find him. But, man, I'm going to need a few months before I can handle that story. I'm just afraid what LeHeup is going to do to us next issue!
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Monday, May 4, 2020
Not-Very-New Comics: The November 13 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Detective Comics #1,015: I enjoy the idea of a revived Nora Fries turning on Victor, deciding that she wants to be her own woman and to exert power over other people for a change. No one ever thought Victor's dream would, to use the cliché, become his nightmare, but here we are. Tomasi also does a good job of keeping the focus on Victor's commitment to Nora; throughout the issue, Fries says that he regrets his life of crime, seeing it solely as a means to an end (i.e., resurrecting Nora). Nora's refusal to travel to Alaska with him as he researches how to heal them fully is all the more of a blow. The serum that Lex gave Fries is clearly altering not just her physiology but her psychology. It helps make Nora's actions more believable, though it was already pretty believable that she'd be disoriented after so long on ice. My only problem with this issue is that Bruce and Fries' confrontation on the GCPD rooftop feels rushed. If Tomasi had taken more time, we could've really dug into Fries' psyche, with Batman pushing against his assertion that it was all for Nora. Instead, we have to take that assertion for granted so they can move through the trust exercises necessary to establish their temporary partnership. Again, it isn't terrible, it just feels like a somewhat wasted opportunity.
Invaders #11: I'll forgive Zdarsky for putting Roxxon's research compound on the same island where Namor and Steve are stranded, since it makes sense that the Roxxon ship that they attacked last issue would be coming from said island. The real question is whether Steve's almost childish devotion to Namor is merited. After all, Namor lets the scientists' experiments kill them here. Steve is enraged, but he's still trying to convince Namor not to be the kind of man who they've always fought, who thinks that he can impose his will on other people. (Has he met Namor?) Steve tries to convince Namor that, if he accepts that Machan didn't do anything that he wouldn't do, he has a responsibility, as a king, to correct his mistake. Zdarsky has Steve throw a minor tantrum when Namor (like everyone else) accuses him of only seeing black-and-white. Steve insists that he sees grey, but I feel like maybe here he's seeing too much grey? It's getting harder and harder to see Namor as redeemable here, as his actions in the lab prove, as he himself says in this issue, that Machan didn't do anything that he wouldn't have done. I don't see how Cap accepts anything other than Namor standing trial if he's going to uphold his ideals, black-and-white they may be.
Star Wars #74: This issue is great. I've rolled my eyes for most of Luke's story as his dedication to Warba seemed like yet another example of his child-like naïveté. But, Warba does arrive in the nick of time to save Luke after previously abandoning him, allowing him to fend off the Stormtroopers intent on attacking the Rebel base. (The "desert mangler-mounted" Stormtrooper patrol is definitely one of the most unexpectedly cool moments in this run. It's hilarious and deadly all at once, to see Stormtroopers on top of basically desert Tauntauns.)
As Luke prepares to depart Sergia, he asks the Rebels to take Warba to the next safe planet. Warba tells Luke that she isn't a Jedi: she just repeated whatever she heard the believers on Jedha say. Luke buys it for a moment, but then he tells her that she's more than she thinks. Earlier, he compared her to Han Solo (who also keeps insisting that he's leaving once the job is done), and his belief in the truth of that comparison shines in his eyes. Warba is the lone figure left standing on Sergia's desert as the Rebels and Luke go their separate ways, and something about the way Noto portrays it -- with the wistful desert sky beyond her - makes you wonder if she doesn't believe Luke a little.
Meanwhile, Threepio confesses to the Kakrans that Chewie and he set bombs on the planet before they realized that intelligent life lived there. The elder Kakran tells Threepio that they can disable "the flesh's" machines, and Threepio realizes that they can generate electricity. When the elder Kakran notes that they'll take out "Brother Ore" as well, Threepio tells "Brother Stone" to do it, so he can be helpful. Threepio, man. Luke arrives on K-43 just in time for the emp blast to disable Artoo and his ship. It sets up one of the best scenes of this series, as Vader emerges from the rubble and makes his way toward Luke, his plan realized. However, he hadn't planned on Chewie knocking him over the head with a boulder. Chewie vs. Vader, next issue! I can't wait!
Star Wars: Target Vader #5: I'm not quite sure I follow what Vader wants here. As Beilert notes, Vader tortures him for no real reason, since Vader just shows him a holomap of Hidden Hand outposts that both he and Beilert know that Vader has already destroyed. So why show him them?
Anyway, the journey into Beilert's history is much more interesting, and the art for certain segments is less bracing (in a good way), making Beilert less grotesque than he's appeared on the covers. We learn that Beilert is from a mining planet named Chorin, which he leaves for a better future. After the events of "Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet," he became a grunt (as we knew). The rest of his body (beyond his eye, which he lost in "Imperial Cadet") was burned in a battle where he lead his soldiers to safety after the Empire refused them air support. A former commander intervened to make sure that the Empire didn't just let him die, pulling strings to have him built into a cyborg. Upon returning home to Chorin, he discovered that his father and fellow minters were dead. He learns from his lost love, Yura, that they died after the Empire withdrew once the mines ran dry. "Raiders" then overtook Chorin, and Beilert leaves Yura to find them.
In the present, Beilert breaks off his arm to escape the Imperials, but it's a trap that Vader set for him. Vader brings him to Chorin where he tells Beilert that the "raiders" who overtook Chorin became the Hidden Hand. Vader then welcomes Beilert back to the Empire, threatening the rest of Chorin if he doesn't cooperate. (Couldn't he just revealed this plan from the start and save everyone time? Why the torture charade? Isn't Vader busy?) Beilert then finds his Rebel contacts, telling them that they need weapons and he needs the Hidden Hand. But, isn't the Rebellion the Hidden Hand? I don't get that part either. Vamos a ver.
X-Men #2: Whereas Hickman's emotionless and stilted dialogue was a poor fit for the New Mutants, it works quite well for the Summers family. Even Scott's attempts at bonding with his children sound like someone delivering a PowerPoint presentation, which is totally in line with Scott's personality. It also fits Nate's personality, as his arrogance on display as he frequently refuses to spend too many words discussing his mistakes. Hickman needs to turn over "New Mutants" to Kelly Thompson and focus exclusively on the Summers family.
The premise of this issue is that Arakko is apparently on Earth now. This surprise, combined with the revelation that someone assassinated Xavier in "X-Force" #1, leaves me feeling somewhat confused from the start. At this point, I'm getting half the new series: "Marauders," "New Mutants," and "X-Men." I'm not getting "Excalibur," "Fallen Angels," or "X-Force," and it obviously means that I'm getting an incomplete view of the "Dawn of X." But, I don't really plan on changing my subscriptions, so I'm going to have to roll with these punches. At any rate, we learn that Arakko appeared 100 miles off Krakoa and Krakoa is heading toward it quickly. Scott takes Rachel and Nate within him on a recon mission after Aurora and Northstar observed some pretty large monsters on "the other place we don't normally speak of" (i.e., Arakko).
Meanwhile, at the heart of a volcano called the Arak Maw (it has glowing white tentacles emerging from it, just to make it extra creepy), we learn more about Arakko. We're introduced to a shock white boy with bleeding black eyes (similar to the girl we encountered last issue) conversing with his mother, War. We learn that the boy and his siblings were raised constantly engaged in some sort of war, presumably the one that Apocalypse left War and the other Horsemen to fight. An interstitial page tells us that Arakko has a legion of Summoners who've protected Arakko from the "land beyond the wild borders of Otherworld" through summoning demons. It's all pretty grim.
After the Summers family defeat a carnivorous squid (and Rachel and Nate enjoy some banter), the team encounters the boy. However, they don't speak the same language; he hears the Summers speaking in grunts, and they hear him as singing. Nate gives him a thermal grenade as a gift, and the boy accidentally detonates it, leading him to interpret (understandably) that the Summers mean him harm. He then summons three demons (making him a High Summoner, based on what the interstitial page showed us). The fact that these demons all have names (which the boy uses when "introducing" them to the Summers), implies to me that we're going to learn a lot about whatever corner of Hell (or maybe the Otherworld) the Arakkans control. Scott eventually suggests that Rachel download Krakoan into the boy's brain, allowing them to converse. Nate apologizes to the boy ("Can we agree that I've made some poor choices today and just move on?"), and Scott asks why Krakoa is headed to Arakko. Hilariously, the boy asks Scott if he loves someone, and he responds, "Complicated question," with a hilarious tight smile. (All the funnier? He adds, "But for the sake of expedience let's just say yes. I love a single someone." Oh, Scott. Who knew you, of all people, would get the ladies?) We then witness Krakoa and Arakko "merging." The boy comments that he lives "here" now because "he" lives here. War encouraged the boy to find "him" earlier in the issue, and it seems clear that it's the same person: Apocalypse. The boy tells Apocalypse that Arakko will soon fall, though his children do their best to hold off the enemies. Apocalypse embraces him, telling him that he saves all his children. Dun-dun-DUN!
Again, Scott has all sorts of bon mots here, from telling Rachel to throw the book at him because he's a guilty man (for letting Cypher go to the Shi'ar Imperium, denying the X-Men the only person who can communicate with Krakoa) to covering up Nate's eyes while the islands "merge" and telling him, "Well, son, I think that's how all my best mistakes happened." I also enjoyed him telling Nate that he's spent more time in the cockpit than in therapy and that he has "done the work." I am totally here for this Scott Summers, and I hope Jonathan Hickman continues writing him this way for a long, long time.
Also Read: The Batman's Grave #2
Invaders #11: I'll forgive Zdarsky for putting Roxxon's research compound on the same island where Namor and Steve are stranded, since it makes sense that the Roxxon ship that they attacked last issue would be coming from said island. The real question is whether Steve's almost childish devotion to Namor is merited. After all, Namor lets the scientists' experiments kill them here. Steve is enraged, but he's still trying to convince Namor not to be the kind of man who they've always fought, who thinks that he can impose his will on other people. (Has he met Namor?) Steve tries to convince Namor that, if he accepts that Machan didn't do anything that he wouldn't do, he has a responsibility, as a king, to correct his mistake. Zdarsky has Steve throw a minor tantrum when Namor (like everyone else) accuses him of only seeing black-and-white. Steve insists that he sees grey, but I feel like maybe here he's seeing too much grey? It's getting harder and harder to see Namor as redeemable here, as his actions in the lab prove, as he himself says in this issue, that Machan didn't do anything that he wouldn't have done. I don't see how Cap accepts anything other than Namor standing trial if he's going to uphold his ideals, black-and-white they may be.
Star Wars #74: This issue is great. I've rolled my eyes for most of Luke's story as his dedication to Warba seemed like yet another example of his child-like naïveté. But, Warba does arrive in the nick of time to save Luke after previously abandoning him, allowing him to fend off the Stormtroopers intent on attacking the Rebel base. (The "desert mangler-mounted" Stormtrooper patrol is definitely one of the most unexpectedly cool moments in this run. It's hilarious and deadly all at once, to see Stormtroopers on top of basically desert Tauntauns.)
As Luke prepares to depart Sergia, he asks the Rebels to take Warba to the next safe planet. Warba tells Luke that she isn't a Jedi: she just repeated whatever she heard the believers on Jedha say. Luke buys it for a moment, but then he tells her that she's more than she thinks. Earlier, he compared her to Han Solo (who also keeps insisting that he's leaving once the job is done), and his belief in the truth of that comparison shines in his eyes. Warba is the lone figure left standing on Sergia's desert as the Rebels and Luke go their separate ways, and something about the way Noto portrays it -- with the wistful desert sky beyond her - makes you wonder if she doesn't believe Luke a little.
Meanwhile, Threepio confesses to the Kakrans that Chewie and he set bombs on the planet before they realized that intelligent life lived there. The elder Kakran tells Threepio that they can disable "the flesh's" machines, and Threepio realizes that they can generate electricity. When the elder Kakran notes that they'll take out "Brother Ore" as well, Threepio tells "Brother Stone" to do it, so he can be helpful. Threepio, man. Luke arrives on K-43 just in time for the emp blast to disable Artoo and his ship. It sets up one of the best scenes of this series, as Vader emerges from the rubble and makes his way toward Luke, his plan realized. However, he hadn't planned on Chewie knocking him over the head with a boulder. Chewie vs. Vader, next issue! I can't wait!
Star Wars: Target Vader #5: I'm not quite sure I follow what Vader wants here. As Beilert notes, Vader tortures him for no real reason, since Vader just shows him a holomap of Hidden Hand outposts that both he and Beilert know that Vader has already destroyed. So why show him them?
Anyway, the journey into Beilert's history is much more interesting, and the art for certain segments is less bracing (in a good way), making Beilert less grotesque than he's appeared on the covers. We learn that Beilert is from a mining planet named Chorin, which he leaves for a better future. After the events of "Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet," he became a grunt (as we knew). The rest of his body (beyond his eye, which he lost in "Imperial Cadet") was burned in a battle where he lead his soldiers to safety after the Empire refused them air support. A former commander intervened to make sure that the Empire didn't just let him die, pulling strings to have him built into a cyborg. Upon returning home to Chorin, he discovered that his father and fellow minters were dead. He learns from his lost love, Yura, that they died after the Empire withdrew once the mines ran dry. "Raiders" then overtook Chorin, and Beilert leaves Yura to find them.
In the present, Beilert breaks off his arm to escape the Imperials, but it's a trap that Vader set for him. Vader brings him to Chorin where he tells Beilert that the "raiders" who overtook Chorin became the Hidden Hand. Vader then welcomes Beilert back to the Empire, threatening the rest of Chorin if he doesn't cooperate. (Couldn't he just revealed this plan from the start and save everyone time? Why the torture charade? Isn't Vader busy?) Beilert then finds his Rebel contacts, telling them that they need weapons and he needs the Hidden Hand. But, isn't the Rebellion the Hidden Hand? I don't get that part either. Vamos a ver.
X-Men #2: Whereas Hickman's emotionless and stilted dialogue was a poor fit for the New Mutants, it works quite well for the Summers family. Even Scott's attempts at bonding with his children sound like someone delivering a PowerPoint presentation, which is totally in line with Scott's personality. It also fits Nate's personality, as his arrogance on display as he frequently refuses to spend too many words discussing his mistakes. Hickman needs to turn over "New Mutants" to Kelly Thompson and focus exclusively on the Summers family.
The premise of this issue is that Arakko is apparently on Earth now. This surprise, combined with the revelation that someone assassinated Xavier in "X-Force" #1, leaves me feeling somewhat confused from the start. At this point, I'm getting half the new series: "Marauders," "New Mutants," and "X-Men." I'm not getting "Excalibur," "Fallen Angels," or "X-Force," and it obviously means that I'm getting an incomplete view of the "Dawn of X." But, I don't really plan on changing my subscriptions, so I'm going to have to roll with these punches. At any rate, we learn that Arakko appeared 100 miles off Krakoa and Krakoa is heading toward it quickly. Scott takes Rachel and Nate within him on a recon mission after Aurora and Northstar observed some pretty large monsters on "the other place we don't normally speak of" (i.e., Arakko).
Meanwhile, at the heart of a volcano called the Arak Maw (it has glowing white tentacles emerging from it, just to make it extra creepy), we learn more about Arakko. We're introduced to a shock white boy with bleeding black eyes (similar to the girl we encountered last issue) conversing with his mother, War. We learn that the boy and his siblings were raised constantly engaged in some sort of war, presumably the one that Apocalypse left War and the other Horsemen to fight. An interstitial page tells us that Arakko has a legion of Summoners who've protected Arakko from the "land beyond the wild borders of Otherworld" through summoning demons. It's all pretty grim.
After the Summers family defeat a carnivorous squid (and Rachel and Nate enjoy some banter), the team encounters the boy. However, they don't speak the same language; he hears the Summers speaking in grunts, and they hear him as singing. Nate gives him a thermal grenade as a gift, and the boy accidentally detonates it, leading him to interpret (understandably) that the Summers mean him harm. He then summons three demons (making him a High Summoner, based on what the interstitial page showed us). The fact that these demons all have names (which the boy uses when "introducing" them to the Summers), implies to me that we're going to learn a lot about whatever corner of Hell (or maybe the Otherworld) the Arakkans control. Scott eventually suggests that Rachel download Krakoan into the boy's brain, allowing them to converse. Nate apologizes to the boy ("Can we agree that I've made some poor choices today and just move on?"), and Scott asks why Krakoa is headed to Arakko. Hilariously, the boy asks Scott if he loves someone, and he responds, "Complicated question," with a hilarious tight smile. (All the funnier? He adds, "But for the sake of expedience let's just say yes. I love a single someone." Oh, Scott. Who knew you, of all people, would get the ladies?) We then witness Krakoa and Arakko "merging." The boy comments that he lives "here" now because "he" lives here. War encouraged the boy to find "him" earlier in the issue, and it seems clear that it's the same person: Apocalypse. The boy tells Apocalypse that Arakko will soon fall, though his children do their best to hold off the enemies. Apocalypse embraces him, telling him that he saves all his children. Dun-dun-DUN!
Again, Scott has all sorts of bon mots here, from telling Rachel to throw the book at him because he's a guilty man (for letting Cypher go to the Shi'ar Imperium, denying the X-Men the only person who can communicate with Krakoa) to covering up Nate's eyes while the islands "merge" and telling him, "Well, son, I think that's how all my best mistakes happened." I also enjoyed him telling Nate that he's spent more time in the cockpit than in therapy and that he has "done the work." I am totally here for this Scott Summers, and I hope Jonathan Hickman continues writing him this way for a long, long time.
Also Read: The Batman's Grave #2
Sunday, May 3, 2020
Not-Even-Remotely-New Comics: The November 6 Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Die #9: This issue is reminiscent of the journey through 1914 of issue #3. Instead of J.R.R. Tolkien, we learn that Angria's master is Charlotte Brontë. It's less crazy than it sounds.
We begin the issue with everyone in dangling glass cages, presumably because Isabelle announced to the assembled Angrians last issue that they destroyed Glass Town. Chuck didn't come with Isabelle and the Angrians took Matt's sword and gagged Ash, so they're in a bit of a pickle. As they're dangling there, Isabelle realizes that Sol is Fallen, and Angela explains that they learned that the Fallen are people who die on Die. Except...Isabelle calls bullshit, because they were the first people to come to Die and the Fallen were already here.
I love this part. I honestly can't recall the last time that someone questions an assertion that the author originally presented to us, the reader, as fact. It isn't even meta commentary. It's just someone bringing up evidence that questions an assertion. Even though it happens all the time in the real world, it rarely happens in comics, mostly because authors don't really have time for it. I love that Gillen does it here, making this completely unreal situation feel all the more real.
Sol acknowledges the disconnect, and their jailor says that she knows the answer. Isabelle then recognizes her as Brontë. Gillen informs us non-English majors that Charlotte and her siblings created Angria, Glass Town, and Gondol after their father gave her brother a dozen toy soldiers after their two elder sisters died. The Brontë siblings became obsessed with the soldiers and created stories related to a shared world throughout their adolescence. But, when Charlotte sees her Zamorna one day in a vision, she is spooked. Later, she tries to summon her Angrian visions, and she's left almost literally petrified. Remembering her sister's chilled bodies, she realizes that the stories are consuming them. Branwell refuses to stop writing the stories and descends into alcoholism. Emily said that she had given up her Gondol stories, but Charlotte found new stories she wrote right before she died. Anne died later and, when Charlotte died, she awoke as a Fallen in Die.
Once again, Isabelle points out this story makes no sense. Charlotte claims that Die had to consume all six children to become real, but Isabelle observes that her two eldest sisters died before the rest of the siblings created Angria and Gondol. Isabelle wonders if it's a trick, and Charlotte says that it's all a trick: she's "a person made of a person," a literary concept. Although she's a master, she doesn't think that Die really has masters, but she protects who she can. At this point, Zamorna arrives in mist form, and Isabelle announces that they need to take over Angria to save Die. Zamorna frees Ash from her gag, and she commands Charlotte to free her. Ash asks Isabelle if she really trusts Zamorna, but she correctly asserts that they don't really have a choice: after all, an angry crowd took away Augustus as they arrested Ash and company. Angela begs Ash not to help, and Ash leaves her and Matt in jail so they can't stop them. Ash repeats something she said at the start of the issue, about how Isabelle defeated them not through weaponry but through guile: "This is how you fight in Angria." Indeed.
New Mutants #1: It took me a while to read this issue, because I was so excited about it that I was worried that I would be disappointed. Unfortunately, I was right.
I love the New Mutants. "Amazing Spider-Man" and "New Mutants" were my gateway drugs into comics as a kid, and I've followed them ever since. The problem is that we get old Hickman here; everyone sounds like robots reciting a script instead of people engaging in conversation. For example, Hickman starts the issue with Dani and Roberto reciting mutant history to each other as they walk through the Sextant, the area of Krakoa where the younger mutants live. Dani literally says things like, "And then came those like Xavier and Magneto -- elders of a more modern time -- and after that came the first wide-scale emergence of mutants" and "And then after that the mutant population exploded. Both exponentially and globally." People don't talk this way, particularly to life-long friends with the same shared experience.
It isn't just a dialogue problem, but a characterization problem. For example, Corsair and Hepzibah seem annoyed that Cyclops asked them to take the New Mutants to see Cannonball, because it brings them near the Shi'ar space. But, Roberto notes that Corsair told Cyclops that they were headed that way anyway. Corsair confirms that they were, that they're pirates who laugh at danger. So, he isn't annoyed then? When the team arrives at a space station called Benevolence, Corsair lies to the team about the Starjammer's plans. Moreover, he expects them to stay on board the ship despite telling them all about the innocent and tortured people who live under a religious cult's thumb on the station. Has he not met his son and his friends? Even more unbelievably, when the team comes under fire from Shi'ar troops as they try to free the prisoners, Corsair abandons them. I'm sure that'll ingratiate him to Cyclops next times he goes for a barbecue. Moreover, Hickman ignores the maturity that Sunspot has exhibited in other series, reducing him to the carefree playboy who he was at 13 years old. I originally thought that Bobby was taking everyone to see Sam just to visit and let him know that mutantdom is (allegedly) safe now. Instead, he seems to want to convince him to leave his wife and child. It doesn't say a lot about Bobby as a man.
The only interesting parts of this issue relate to Krakoa. First, Cypher has Mondo try to bond with Krakoa to learn more about him, but he infuriates Krakoa in so doing. Second, on board the Starjammer, the Krakoa flower that Cyclops gave Corsair is slowing killing the plants that Ch'od has planted, raising interesting questions about what Krakoa is doing to the Earth. It sets up the dropping shoe that we all know is coming as a result of Krakoa's sudden manifestations on Earth. But, I'm not sure if it's interesting enough to outweigh the other problems. If everyone is going to sound like exposition robots at worst or their teenage selves at best, I can't find a lot of reason to hang in here. These characters might in theory be the ones that I love, but until they start acting like the characters I know they're just lines on a page.
Also Read: Amazing Spider-Man #33
We begin the issue with everyone in dangling glass cages, presumably because Isabelle announced to the assembled Angrians last issue that they destroyed Glass Town. Chuck didn't come with Isabelle and the Angrians took Matt's sword and gagged Ash, so they're in a bit of a pickle. As they're dangling there, Isabelle realizes that Sol is Fallen, and Angela explains that they learned that the Fallen are people who die on Die. Except...Isabelle calls bullshit, because they were the first people to come to Die and the Fallen were already here.
I love this part. I honestly can't recall the last time that someone questions an assertion that the author originally presented to us, the reader, as fact. It isn't even meta commentary. It's just someone bringing up evidence that questions an assertion. Even though it happens all the time in the real world, it rarely happens in comics, mostly because authors don't really have time for it. I love that Gillen does it here, making this completely unreal situation feel all the more real.
Sol acknowledges the disconnect, and their jailor says that she knows the answer. Isabelle then recognizes her as Brontë. Gillen informs us non-English majors that Charlotte and her siblings created Angria, Glass Town, and Gondol after their father gave her brother a dozen toy soldiers after their two elder sisters died. The Brontë siblings became obsessed with the soldiers and created stories related to a shared world throughout their adolescence. But, when Charlotte sees her Zamorna one day in a vision, she is spooked. Later, she tries to summon her Angrian visions, and she's left almost literally petrified. Remembering her sister's chilled bodies, she realizes that the stories are consuming them. Branwell refuses to stop writing the stories and descends into alcoholism. Emily said that she had given up her Gondol stories, but Charlotte found new stories she wrote right before she died. Anne died later and, when Charlotte died, she awoke as a Fallen in Die.
Once again, Isabelle points out this story makes no sense. Charlotte claims that Die had to consume all six children to become real, but Isabelle observes that her two eldest sisters died before the rest of the siblings created Angria and Gondol. Isabelle wonders if it's a trick, and Charlotte says that it's all a trick: she's "a person made of a person," a literary concept. Although she's a master, she doesn't think that Die really has masters, but she protects who she can. At this point, Zamorna arrives in mist form, and Isabelle announces that they need to take over Angria to save Die. Zamorna frees Ash from her gag, and she commands Charlotte to free her. Ash asks Isabelle if she really trusts Zamorna, but she correctly asserts that they don't really have a choice: after all, an angry crowd took away Augustus as they arrested Ash and company. Angela begs Ash not to help, and Ash leaves her and Matt in jail so they can't stop them. Ash repeats something she said at the start of the issue, about how Isabelle defeated them not through weaponry but through guile: "This is how you fight in Angria." Indeed.
New Mutants #1: It took me a while to read this issue, because I was so excited about it that I was worried that I would be disappointed. Unfortunately, I was right.
I love the New Mutants. "Amazing Spider-Man" and "New Mutants" were my gateway drugs into comics as a kid, and I've followed them ever since. The problem is that we get old Hickman here; everyone sounds like robots reciting a script instead of people engaging in conversation. For example, Hickman starts the issue with Dani and Roberto reciting mutant history to each other as they walk through the Sextant, the area of Krakoa where the younger mutants live. Dani literally says things like, "And then came those like Xavier and Magneto -- elders of a more modern time -- and after that came the first wide-scale emergence of mutants" and "And then after that the mutant population exploded. Both exponentially and globally." People don't talk this way, particularly to life-long friends with the same shared experience.
It isn't just a dialogue problem, but a characterization problem. For example, Corsair and Hepzibah seem annoyed that Cyclops asked them to take the New Mutants to see Cannonball, because it brings them near the Shi'ar space. But, Roberto notes that Corsair told Cyclops that they were headed that way anyway. Corsair confirms that they were, that they're pirates who laugh at danger. So, he isn't annoyed then? When the team arrives at a space station called Benevolence, Corsair lies to the team about the Starjammer's plans. Moreover, he expects them to stay on board the ship despite telling them all about the innocent and tortured people who live under a religious cult's thumb on the station. Has he not met his son and his friends? Even more unbelievably, when the team comes under fire from Shi'ar troops as they try to free the prisoners, Corsair abandons them. I'm sure that'll ingratiate him to Cyclops next times he goes for a barbecue. Moreover, Hickman ignores the maturity that Sunspot has exhibited in other series, reducing him to the carefree playboy who he was at 13 years old. I originally thought that Bobby was taking everyone to see Sam just to visit and let him know that mutantdom is (allegedly) safe now. Instead, he seems to want to convince him to leave his wife and child. It doesn't say a lot about Bobby as a man.
The only interesting parts of this issue relate to Krakoa. First, Cypher has Mondo try to bond with Krakoa to learn more about him, but he infuriates Krakoa in so doing. Second, on board the Starjammer, the Krakoa flower that Cyclops gave Corsair is slowing killing the plants that Ch'od has planted, raising interesting questions about what Krakoa is doing to the Earth. It sets up the dropping shoe that we all know is coming as a result of Krakoa's sudden manifestations on Earth. But, I'm not sure if it's interesting enough to outweigh the other problems. If everyone is going to sound like exposition robots at worst or their teenage selves at best, I can't find a lot of reason to hang in here. These characters might in theory be the ones that I love, but until they start acting like the characters I know they're just lines on a page.
Also Read: Amazing Spider-Man #33
Saturday, May 2, 2020
Undiscovered Country #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
I could write pages and pages about this issue, but I'll try to keep it short(-ish). Snyder and Soule uses two premises ripped from the headlines as this series' backbone. Over the past few months since this issue was published, I have to say that both scenarios unbelievably became more likely.
The first premise is somewhat obvious. We learn from an information page at the back of the issue that the United States began declining when China called in its outstanding U.S.-currency debt, pushing the United States into a recession. Eight years later, the United States suddenly closed off itself from the rest of the world, using "Air Wall" force-shield technology that DARPA developed. In the ensuing 30 years, no one has heard from America at all. This premise is obviously an extrapolation of the Trump administration's policies, from building the infamous wall with Mexico to the trade war with China. It also isn't that much of a stretch. It injects the series with some serious energy as you're reading about something that could possibly happen in some form in your lifetime (regardless of how unlikely).
But, it's the second premise that went from probably feeling like a remote likelihood in November 2019 when this issue was published to feeling like cinéma vérité in May 2020. The issue opens with a team in a helicopter approaching America's famous Air Wall. Although America has allegedly invited the team to come (more on that later), they're still nervous, since, after all, no one has gotten into America in 30 years. The team is there because the United States offered the Alliance Euro-Afrique and the Pan Asiatic Prosperity Zone a cure for the Sky Plague, which is ravaging both areas. I'm reading this issue under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. This part of the plot obviously takes on more urgency.
We learn more about the Sky Plague in a flashback where someone named Colonel Bukowski recruits a doctor named Claire Graves to join the eventual team. At the time, she's working at a refugee camp in Athens delivering, as Bukowski calls it, highly impressive but highly illegal palliative care. Claire is in the process of trying to save a patient when helicopters spray vapor on the camp, allegedly to help the residents though they all assume (probably rightly so) that it's poison meant to kill everyone before they spread the disease. Claire is annoyed at Bukowksi's interruption and wonders if Bukowski is really there for her brother, though we don't yet know why he would be. But, her patient dies, and she agrees to follow Bukowski after he tells her that America has contacted them about a cure.
In a command center somewhere, the Alliance and Zone are hosting a meeting to show Claire and others experts America's message, from a man calling himself Dr. Samuel Elgin. He says that America is ready to serve as a shining beacon again, and he offers the cure. He offers that the Plague will wipe out everyone in six months, and Claire tells the meeting's participants that she agrees with that timeline. Claire also vaguely recognizes the man, saying that he seems like someone who came to their house a few times when she was a child. She asks her also-present brother, handsome Major Daniel Graves, if he remembers, but he can't remember any more details either. Daniel is there because he's the only person who's ever come close to infiltrating America. We learn that he and Claire's parents sent them outside America when they were children.
The Alliance and the Zone plan to send a joint team to negotiate with the Americans for a care. Joining Bukowski, Claire, and Daniel at the table and on the mission are: Ace Kenyatta, an expert on American society to serve as a cultural translator; Valentina Sandoval, a journalist to record the mission; and Chang Enlou and Janet Worthington, senior diplomats from the Zone and the Alliance. (We learn that the two groupings hate each other so much that Janet notes the fact that she and Enlou hadn't poisoned the other rone within minutes is a sign how seriously they're treating the issue.)
It's this team on the helicopter that approaches America in the first few pages...and promptly gets shot down. Claire convinces an always-skeptical Daniel to take the group to a flashing light that Valentina's drone saw while Bukowski tries to fix the helicopter. The group finds the light is coming from an old TV, and Daniel isn't sure if it's a lure or a warning. Either way, we start to get the real story when they look over the cliff and see...chaos. It's a Mad Max-esque gathering of possibly mutated humans wrapped in thermal-shielding bandages accompanied by definitely mutated animals. The team watches in horror as some mutants drag Bukowski before their leader, who looks like a mummy riding a mutated bison. He orders the bison to bite off Bukowski's feet as, in an inverse black-and-white speech bubble, he declares, "no foreign boots shall ever set foot on American soil." The team flees to the other side of the ridge, only to discover an even larger flotilla of mutants coming their way. (The flotilla flies the same flag Ace noted when they first saw the mutants on the other side of the ridge, a red-and-blue "X.")
Someone dressed in an outfit reminiscent of the Young Avengers' Patriot then appears and offers to lead them to safety. Daniel is skeptical until the guy shows a patch of the real American flag. He informs the team that the Destiny Man is behind the flotilla; his lieutenant was the mummy who ordered Bukowski's feet eaten. The team follows him into his underground bunker where they see other humans like him. The man knows who Claire and Daniel are and brings them into a smaller cave alone. He jokingly calls it his Oval Office and shows them a map of America. He says they'll go on the "Spiral Walk" and reveals that he knows their names because the prophecy told him about them. (Uh-oh.) When they ask about the message that America sent, he says that he doesn't know anything about it, which is troubling because he reveals that he's Sam Elgin and he wants you (them) to save America.
Snyder and Soule are obviously engaged in a serious world-building experiment here, so I'm going to give them a lot of time to do it. But, they also engage in a lot of character establishment as well, a sign of Soule's presence on this team, to my mind. In terms of America's decision to close its borders, I'd say the only real question is how the President (assuming that it was the President) got the government's other senior leaders, particularly in the Congress, to agree. But, the fact that Ellis' map shows America divided into zones makes it clear that it might not exactly have been a consensus decision. It's also interesting that no one knows: when the team is discussing the fact that they don't even know if America has a President anymore, Snyder and Soule are making it clear that America was really that isolated. I am definitely intrigued to see where we go from here. At the very least, this series has Netflix series written all over it.
The first premise is somewhat obvious. We learn from an information page at the back of the issue that the United States began declining when China called in its outstanding U.S.-currency debt, pushing the United States into a recession. Eight years later, the United States suddenly closed off itself from the rest of the world, using "Air Wall" force-shield technology that DARPA developed. In the ensuing 30 years, no one has heard from America at all. This premise is obviously an extrapolation of the Trump administration's policies, from building the infamous wall with Mexico to the trade war with China. It also isn't that much of a stretch. It injects the series with some serious energy as you're reading about something that could possibly happen in some form in your lifetime (regardless of how unlikely).
But, it's the second premise that went from probably feeling like a remote likelihood in November 2019 when this issue was published to feeling like cinéma vérité in May 2020. The issue opens with a team in a helicopter approaching America's famous Air Wall. Although America has allegedly invited the team to come (more on that later), they're still nervous, since, after all, no one has gotten into America in 30 years. The team is there because the United States offered the Alliance Euro-Afrique and the Pan Asiatic Prosperity Zone a cure for the Sky Plague, which is ravaging both areas. I'm reading this issue under lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. This part of the plot obviously takes on more urgency.
We learn more about the Sky Plague in a flashback where someone named Colonel Bukowski recruits a doctor named Claire Graves to join the eventual team. At the time, she's working at a refugee camp in Athens delivering, as Bukowski calls it, highly impressive but highly illegal palliative care. Claire is in the process of trying to save a patient when helicopters spray vapor on the camp, allegedly to help the residents though they all assume (probably rightly so) that it's poison meant to kill everyone before they spread the disease. Claire is annoyed at Bukowksi's interruption and wonders if Bukowski is really there for her brother, though we don't yet know why he would be. But, her patient dies, and she agrees to follow Bukowski after he tells her that America has contacted them about a cure.
In a command center somewhere, the Alliance and Zone are hosting a meeting to show Claire and others experts America's message, from a man calling himself Dr. Samuel Elgin. He says that America is ready to serve as a shining beacon again, and he offers the cure. He offers that the Plague will wipe out everyone in six months, and Claire tells the meeting's participants that she agrees with that timeline. Claire also vaguely recognizes the man, saying that he seems like someone who came to their house a few times when she was a child. She asks her also-present brother, handsome Major Daniel Graves, if he remembers, but he can't remember any more details either. Daniel is there because he's the only person who's ever come close to infiltrating America. We learn that he and Claire's parents sent them outside America when they were children.
The Alliance and the Zone plan to send a joint team to negotiate with the Americans for a care. Joining Bukowski, Claire, and Daniel at the table and on the mission are: Ace Kenyatta, an expert on American society to serve as a cultural translator; Valentina Sandoval, a journalist to record the mission; and Chang Enlou and Janet Worthington, senior diplomats from the Zone and the Alliance. (We learn that the two groupings hate each other so much that Janet notes the fact that she and Enlou hadn't poisoned the other rone within minutes is a sign how seriously they're treating the issue.)
It's this team on the helicopter that approaches America in the first few pages...and promptly gets shot down. Claire convinces an always-skeptical Daniel to take the group to a flashing light that Valentina's drone saw while Bukowski tries to fix the helicopter. The group finds the light is coming from an old TV, and Daniel isn't sure if it's a lure or a warning. Either way, we start to get the real story when they look over the cliff and see...chaos. It's a Mad Max-esque gathering of possibly mutated humans wrapped in thermal-shielding bandages accompanied by definitely mutated animals. The team watches in horror as some mutants drag Bukowski before their leader, who looks like a mummy riding a mutated bison. He orders the bison to bite off Bukowski's feet as, in an inverse black-and-white speech bubble, he declares, "no foreign boots shall ever set foot on American soil." The team flees to the other side of the ridge, only to discover an even larger flotilla of mutants coming their way. (The flotilla flies the same flag Ace noted when they first saw the mutants on the other side of the ridge, a red-and-blue "X.")
Someone dressed in an outfit reminiscent of the Young Avengers' Patriot then appears and offers to lead them to safety. Daniel is skeptical until the guy shows a patch of the real American flag. He informs the team that the Destiny Man is behind the flotilla; his lieutenant was the mummy who ordered Bukowski's feet eaten. The team follows him into his underground bunker where they see other humans like him. The man knows who Claire and Daniel are and brings them into a smaller cave alone. He jokingly calls it his Oval Office and shows them a map of America. He says they'll go on the "Spiral Walk" and reveals that he knows their names because the prophecy told him about them. (Uh-oh.) When they ask about the message that America sent, he says that he doesn't know anything about it, which is troubling because he reveals that he's Sam Elgin and he wants you (them) to save America.
Snyder and Soule are obviously engaged in a serious world-building experiment here, so I'm going to give them a lot of time to do it. But, they also engage in a lot of character establishment as well, a sign of Soule's presence on this team, to my mind. In terms of America's decision to close its borders, I'd say the only real question is how the President (assuming that it was the President) got the government's other senior leaders, particularly in the Congress, to agree. But, the fact that Ellis' map shows America divided into zones makes it clear that it might not exactly have been a consensus decision. It's also interesting that no one knows: when the team is discussing the fact that they don't even know if America has a President anymore, Snyder and Soule are making it clear that America was really that isolated. I am definitely intrigued to see where we go from here. At the very least, this series has Netflix series written all over it.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Not-Even-Remotely New Comics: The October 23 and 30 Marvel Edition (HERE BE SPOILERS!)
Amazing Spider-Man #32: Given I started this blog as essentially a Miguel O'Hara tribute site, I'm obviously so fucking excited about this event.
First, let's talk about the Peter parts of this issue. Spencer does a lot to secure Peter in his new status quo here, in important but not overly obvious ways.
We begin with Peter daydreaming during his group-exercise meeting, prompting his two partners, Kel and Derrick, to lay into him. They both focus on the fact that Dr. Connors got him readmitted to the Ph.D. program, with Derrick calling him Connors' "pet" after T.A.ing for him "back in the eighties or something" and Kel assuming that the Lizard almost ate him. Kel says that he was probably just bored because he's a "big shot who had his own crash-and-burn start-up." As Derrick's laying into Peter about plagiarism, a guy named Jamie saves him. Jamie reveals that he turned an old WebWare watch into an early-warning device for large-scale emergencies. Jamie also lauds Peter's attempt to provide free high-speed internet to everyone worldwide, whereas he notes that Google keeps rejecting Kel and Derrick is a patent troll. In other words, Spencer repositions Peter not as a failure but as a doer. Jamie (and likely others) see his failure as a totally acceptable setback given what Parker Industries accomplished (or tried to accomplish). Spencer also doesn't drop the plagiarism angle here. But, when Peter suggests a way to solve the problem the professor assigned the group, Kel acknowledges that it's a good idea. In other words, Spencer is setting up Peter's academic redemption since it's clear that he can get a Ph.D. on his own merits.
But, perhaps the best part of this issue is Gleason. Teresa pulls a fire alarm to get Peter's attention, and they head to a meeting between the Chameleon and the Foreigner. This Foreigner seems new (and hot), and the Chameleon is selling him Infiniti Formula from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "going-out-of-business" sale. Gleason is on fire during the entire confrontation between the Foreigner and Spidey. The Foreigner looks like an action hero in a suit, rolling up his sleeves like he's Henry Cavill in "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol." Spidey is lithe in contrast, prancing around the Foreigner while delivering quips. Spidey's head tilt here somehow accentuates how happy-go-lucky he is, particularly in contrast to the Foreigner's more serious mien. (It reminds me of "Avenging Spider-Man" #5, where Spidey looks like a gawky teenager next to Cap.) They're small things, but they really sum up the characters (and the differences between them) perfectly. The scene is also bathed in a red light as they're confronting each other right in front of a car shining its break lights, making the entire sequence even more arresting.
Moreover, the Miguel part of the issue is also pretty on point. He arrives in the present falling onto a burning oil platform that Roxxon owns. Roxxon retrieves his unconscious body, and its scientists have him under observation at their headquarters, where the suits delight in the technology that they can steal from him. He awakens groggy but manages to break free. However, he's still disoriented and his powers aren't working. We only know that he's escaping the "end of everything" in his future, desperately looking for Peter. But, he falls several stories when he forgets how to glide, landing on a taxi. It's an inauspicious start for our man, Miguel.
All in all, it's a strong start and I'm needless to say, excited about this event.
King Thor #2: Aaron is as good as he's ever been here, as each character plays his role perfectly. We learn that Loki resurrected the God Butcher not to kill Thor, but to kill him. Loki himself wanted to kill Thor, but knew that, after eons of trying, he didn't have the courage to kill himself. He needed Gorr to do that. Aaron even manages to inject some humor here, with Loki scoffing that he's been killing gods since Gorr was in short pants and he's offended at the implication that he needed help killing Gorr. Aaron and Ribic pull out all the stops in showing these final moments. Loki derides a human as he prays to Thor. The human is confused, wondering if he's praying wrong since he never had to pray before: Thor always provided. Loki tells him that they're all going to die and that no eternal reward is forthcoming. As other humans gather with him, the human simply says that he'll pray for Loki then, too. The issue ends with Thor and Loki dying in Gorr's goo, with Thor telling Loki that he lied when he said earlier (I think in issue #1) that Freyja gave up hope for him. He reveals that her last words were: "Never let go of your brother. And someday he'll save us all." Ribic uses a different style here, with Renaissance-inspired pencils, to show the "dying of the light," as Loki's hand, initially far from Thor's, clasps it. Earlier, Thor told Loki that -- after Gorr took his arm and eye -- they still had Thor's strength and Loki's brain. Loki refused to tell Thor how to defeat Gorr, saying it was impossible. But, in this last moment, does Loki give Thor what he needs? It's amazing after all this time that Aaron can conjure these sorts of emotional moments, keeping us on the edges of our seats waiting to see who Loki really is.
Marauders #1: This issue is spectacular. It's everything I hoped that I could have in an X-Men comic. I've always liked Duggan; his run on "Uncanny Avengers" was on my favorites. But, he really outdoes himself here.
First, we start with a great premise: Kitty Pryde can't use the Krakoa gates. On the first page, Nightcrawler and Storm deliver a rousing speech in Central Park to a group of mutant refugees seeking to use the gates, about how they're going home and leaving behind their old life. Telling Kurt and Ororo that she'll see them on the island, Kitty walks into the portal...and busts her nose on it. It's particularly funny given her power: she can phase through walls, but she's the only mutant who can't use the portal.
With few options, she steals a sailboat and makes her way to the island with Lockheed, who's having a spectacular time eating all the fish and seagulls that he can find. (Can I just say how happy I am to see Lockheed again? In these dark times, we need more Lockheed.) Kitty arrives to Bobby welcoming her on the beach. When he asks whether she still can't use the gates, she tells him that "top men" are working on it. Bobby quips that he'd like to meet these "top men." Duggan! How risqué! In the same panel as the one where Bobby makes this comment, we see a quotation bubble from an off-panel person shouting, "Did you get it?!?" The next panel reveals that it's Logan theoretically yelling about where Kitty got the supplies that he asked her to bring (mainly BBQ and whisky). But, Duggan really uses it to draw a line under Bobby's joke. Moreover, Logan's note to Kitty about the supplies, presented in one of the interstitial pages, itself is hilarious, particularly his "tell no one" instructions about his "dapper dude" pomade. This entire sequence alone made me loves this book. But, wait, there's more!
Bobby bids Kitty adieu as he explores why no one has used a certain portal. Kitty is then called to a telepathic meeting with Emma Frost, who calls her Kate. Kitty is on the defensive throughout this interaction, behaving more insecure than we usually see her. But, Duggan uses that insecurity to show the respect that Emma has for her, not only because she calls her Kate but because, as she explains: "You've been fighting your whole life against impossible odds, and you never once gave someone an extra shot in the ribs simply because they deserved it." I have to say that it's the perfect description of what makes Kitty special, and it's why Emma offers Kitty a job. She wants Kitty to take command of a large ship that helps mutants who can't use the portals for a variety of reasons, mostly because they're guarded by anti-mutant nutjobs. Kitty hilarious remarks, "Ororo said 'No,' huh?", to which Emma responds, "Before I could finish my pitch -- but darling, you will be grand!"
I read a review somewhere in which the reviewer sagely noted that some authors are going to ignore the new status quo to their detriment and some authors are going to lean into it to great success. Duggan happily takes the latter route here. On the very first page when I saw Kurt and Ororo leading the kids to the gates, I wondered about whether every gate would be so easy to access. Duggan wanted me to think exactly that in order to set up where he goes here. Moreover, Emma seems to be offering Kitty the Red Queenship, which, OMG, yes! Duggan didn't have to make Kitty unable to use the portals, but, by doing so, we're not getting some random team whose entire roster will change by issue #6 and whose orienting mission will change by issue #8. Kitty is front and center here as she has to be: her inability to use the portals means that the ship is her only option. As Emma says, she might as well use that opportunity.
Meanwhile, Bobby goes through the portal and is immediately attacked by one of the aforementioned anti-mutant nutjobs, a Russian solider wearing a power-eliminating suit of armor (proving why the Marauders are needed). We are then treated to an underwear-clad Bobby leaping back through the portal to a whisky-swilling Kitty. I mean, what more could you want? Kitty recruits Storm for the boat and away we go. On board is also the old Pyro, seemingly to Bobby's dismay, given his previous sexy time with new Pyro. The team arrives at the portal and the solider takes out Bobby and Ororo's powers quickly. But, they were a distraction, as Kitty uses her powers to disrupt the armor. Bobby and Ororo go to free the imprisoned mutants, and Duggan and Lolli go to town in showing Kitty ruthlessly making her way through the attacking soldiers by her own damn self. (Phasing the gun into the legs of two of the soldiers was...brutal.) Pyro exults as Lockheed provides him dragonfire, and the rest of the soldiers retreat. One of the refugees is recording the scene as they're freed, and Kitty announces to the interwebs that they're the Marauders and they'll bring any mutant who can't get to Krakoa "home." The issue ends with the team agreeing to stay with Kitty and her asking them to call her Kate. (Well, it really ends with the Red Diamond saying that Kate was actually Emma's third choice, but whatever.)
Elsewhere in the issue, Bishop is investigating an anti-mutant activist in Taiwan named Mrs. Zhao who claims that her husband disappeared when he touched the gate. Bishop confronts her, informing her that they don't have any record of her husband, and she departs with an insult. Interesting.
All in all, I just can't describe how happy I am. First, the mission is great. It's like X-Force without the brutality. As Storm says, how could she turn her back on mutants who need them the most? But, most importantly, the cast is great. Bobby, Kate, and Storm are three of my favorite X-Men. Seeing them galavanting around the world together on a ship with booze, guys, and quips? Pinch me.
Star Wars #73: Like any good "Star Wars" story, everything goes from bad to worse here. After torturing Han, Carpo releases him to Leia and Dar's reconnaissance so the three of them can attack the regional governor. (I now realize that Dar didn't intentionally set up Han, which sucks, because it would've been easier not to like him as much as I do.) Leia and Dar have to explain to Han that the only reason that Carpo thinks the governor is attacking is because they changed the plan. Of course, Han notes that, instead of Carpo dying in their plan, they will. (He ain't wrong.) Han realizes that they don't have any hope of breaking into an Imperial Star Destroyer, so he plans on brining them to K-43 because, "the more, the merrier." Of course, he still thinks that Chewie and Threepio are planning to blow up K-43, taking said Star Destroyer with it. Meanwhile, Chewie rescues Threepio from Vader's grasp after Vader catches Threepio lying that the Kakrans were under his thrall. Chewie tells Threepio that he only managed to disable half the detonators, so Threepio calls Luke for help. But, Luke has to protect the Rebel base, though he may actually convince Warba to help. As Carpo says, so complicated!
Also Read: Conan The Barbarian #10; Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Allegiance #3 and #4
First, let's talk about the Peter parts of this issue. Spencer does a lot to secure Peter in his new status quo here, in important but not overly obvious ways.
We begin with Peter daydreaming during his group-exercise meeting, prompting his two partners, Kel and Derrick, to lay into him. They both focus on the fact that Dr. Connors got him readmitted to the Ph.D. program, with Derrick calling him Connors' "pet" after T.A.ing for him "back in the eighties or something" and Kel assuming that the Lizard almost ate him. Kel says that he was probably just bored because he's a "big shot who had his own crash-and-burn start-up." As Derrick's laying into Peter about plagiarism, a guy named Jamie saves him. Jamie reveals that he turned an old WebWare watch into an early-warning device for large-scale emergencies. Jamie also lauds Peter's attempt to provide free high-speed internet to everyone worldwide, whereas he notes that Google keeps rejecting Kel and Derrick is a patent troll. In other words, Spencer repositions Peter not as a failure but as a doer. Jamie (and likely others) see his failure as a totally acceptable setback given what Parker Industries accomplished (or tried to accomplish). Spencer also doesn't drop the plagiarism angle here. But, when Peter suggests a way to solve the problem the professor assigned the group, Kel acknowledges that it's a good idea. In other words, Spencer is setting up Peter's academic redemption since it's clear that he can get a Ph.D. on his own merits.
But, perhaps the best part of this issue is Gleason. Teresa pulls a fire alarm to get Peter's attention, and they head to a meeting between the Chameleon and the Foreigner. This Foreigner seems new (and hot), and the Chameleon is selling him Infiniti Formula from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s "going-out-of-business" sale. Gleason is on fire during the entire confrontation between the Foreigner and Spidey. The Foreigner looks like an action hero in a suit, rolling up his sleeves like he's Henry Cavill in "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol." Spidey is lithe in contrast, prancing around the Foreigner while delivering quips. Spidey's head tilt here somehow accentuates how happy-go-lucky he is, particularly in contrast to the Foreigner's more serious mien. (It reminds me of "Avenging Spider-Man" #5, where Spidey looks like a gawky teenager next to Cap.) They're small things, but they really sum up the characters (and the differences between them) perfectly. The scene is also bathed in a red light as they're confronting each other right in front of a car shining its break lights, making the entire sequence even more arresting.
Moreover, the Miguel part of the issue is also pretty on point. He arrives in the present falling onto a burning oil platform that Roxxon owns. Roxxon retrieves his unconscious body, and its scientists have him under observation at their headquarters, where the suits delight in the technology that they can steal from him. He awakens groggy but manages to break free. However, he's still disoriented and his powers aren't working. We only know that he's escaping the "end of everything" in his future, desperately looking for Peter. But, he falls several stories when he forgets how to glide, landing on a taxi. It's an inauspicious start for our man, Miguel.
All in all, it's a strong start and I'm needless to say, excited about this event.
King Thor #2: Aaron is as good as he's ever been here, as each character plays his role perfectly. We learn that Loki resurrected the God Butcher not to kill Thor, but to kill him. Loki himself wanted to kill Thor, but knew that, after eons of trying, he didn't have the courage to kill himself. He needed Gorr to do that. Aaron even manages to inject some humor here, with Loki scoffing that he's been killing gods since Gorr was in short pants and he's offended at the implication that he needed help killing Gorr. Aaron and Ribic pull out all the stops in showing these final moments. Loki derides a human as he prays to Thor. The human is confused, wondering if he's praying wrong since he never had to pray before: Thor always provided. Loki tells him that they're all going to die and that no eternal reward is forthcoming. As other humans gather with him, the human simply says that he'll pray for Loki then, too. The issue ends with Thor and Loki dying in Gorr's goo, with Thor telling Loki that he lied when he said earlier (I think in issue #1) that Freyja gave up hope for him. He reveals that her last words were: "Never let go of your brother. And someday he'll save us all." Ribic uses a different style here, with Renaissance-inspired pencils, to show the "dying of the light," as Loki's hand, initially far from Thor's, clasps it. Earlier, Thor told Loki that -- after Gorr took his arm and eye -- they still had Thor's strength and Loki's brain. Loki refused to tell Thor how to defeat Gorr, saying it was impossible. But, in this last moment, does Loki give Thor what he needs? It's amazing after all this time that Aaron can conjure these sorts of emotional moments, keeping us on the edges of our seats waiting to see who Loki really is.
Marauders #1: This issue is spectacular. It's everything I hoped that I could have in an X-Men comic. I've always liked Duggan; his run on "Uncanny Avengers" was on my favorites. But, he really outdoes himself here.
First, we start with a great premise: Kitty Pryde can't use the Krakoa gates. On the first page, Nightcrawler and Storm deliver a rousing speech in Central Park to a group of mutant refugees seeking to use the gates, about how they're going home and leaving behind their old life. Telling Kurt and Ororo that she'll see them on the island, Kitty walks into the portal...and busts her nose on it. It's particularly funny given her power: she can phase through walls, but she's the only mutant who can't use the portal.
With few options, she steals a sailboat and makes her way to the island with Lockheed, who's having a spectacular time eating all the fish and seagulls that he can find. (Can I just say how happy I am to see Lockheed again? In these dark times, we need more Lockheed.) Kitty arrives to Bobby welcoming her on the beach. When he asks whether she still can't use the gates, she tells him that "top men" are working on it. Bobby quips that he'd like to meet these "top men." Duggan! How risqué! In the same panel as the one where Bobby makes this comment, we see a quotation bubble from an off-panel person shouting, "Did you get it?!?" The next panel reveals that it's Logan theoretically yelling about where Kitty got the supplies that he asked her to bring (mainly BBQ and whisky). But, Duggan really uses it to draw a line under Bobby's joke. Moreover, Logan's note to Kitty about the supplies, presented in one of the interstitial pages, itself is hilarious, particularly his "tell no one" instructions about his "dapper dude" pomade. This entire sequence alone made me loves this book. But, wait, there's more!
Bobby bids Kitty adieu as he explores why no one has used a certain portal. Kitty is then called to a telepathic meeting with Emma Frost, who calls her Kate. Kitty is on the defensive throughout this interaction, behaving more insecure than we usually see her. But, Duggan uses that insecurity to show the respect that Emma has for her, not only because she calls her Kate but because, as she explains: "You've been fighting your whole life against impossible odds, and you never once gave someone an extra shot in the ribs simply because they deserved it." I have to say that it's the perfect description of what makes Kitty special, and it's why Emma offers Kitty a job. She wants Kitty to take command of a large ship that helps mutants who can't use the portals for a variety of reasons, mostly because they're guarded by anti-mutant nutjobs. Kitty hilarious remarks, "Ororo said 'No,' huh?", to which Emma responds, "Before I could finish my pitch -- but darling, you will be grand!"
I read a review somewhere in which the reviewer sagely noted that some authors are going to ignore the new status quo to their detriment and some authors are going to lean into it to great success. Duggan happily takes the latter route here. On the very first page when I saw Kurt and Ororo leading the kids to the gates, I wondered about whether every gate would be so easy to access. Duggan wanted me to think exactly that in order to set up where he goes here. Moreover, Emma seems to be offering Kitty the Red Queenship, which, OMG, yes! Duggan didn't have to make Kitty unable to use the portals, but, by doing so, we're not getting some random team whose entire roster will change by issue #6 and whose orienting mission will change by issue #8. Kitty is front and center here as she has to be: her inability to use the portals means that the ship is her only option. As Emma says, she might as well use that opportunity.
Meanwhile, Bobby goes through the portal and is immediately attacked by one of the aforementioned anti-mutant nutjobs, a Russian solider wearing a power-eliminating suit of armor (proving why the Marauders are needed). We are then treated to an underwear-clad Bobby leaping back through the portal to a whisky-swilling Kitty. I mean, what more could you want? Kitty recruits Storm for the boat and away we go. On board is also the old Pyro, seemingly to Bobby's dismay, given his previous sexy time with new Pyro. The team arrives at the portal and the solider takes out Bobby and Ororo's powers quickly. But, they were a distraction, as Kitty uses her powers to disrupt the armor. Bobby and Ororo go to free the imprisoned mutants, and Duggan and Lolli go to town in showing Kitty ruthlessly making her way through the attacking soldiers by her own damn self. (Phasing the gun into the legs of two of the soldiers was...brutal.) Pyro exults as Lockheed provides him dragonfire, and the rest of the soldiers retreat. One of the refugees is recording the scene as they're freed, and Kitty announces to the interwebs that they're the Marauders and they'll bring any mutant who can't get to Krakoa "home." The issue ends with the team agreeing to stay with Kitty and her asking them to call her Kate. (Well, it really ends with the Red Diamond saying that Kate was actually Emma's third choice, but whatever.)
Elsewhere in the issue, Bishop is investigating an anti-mutant activist in Taiwan named Mrs. Zhao who claims that her husband disappeared when he touched the gate. Bishop confronts her, informing her that they don't have any record of her husband, and she departs with an insult. Interesting.
All in all, I just can't describe how happy I am. First, the mission is great. It's like X-Force without the brutality. As Storm says, how could she turn her back on mutants who need them the most? But, most importantly, the cast is great. Bobby, Kate, and Storm are three of my favorite X-Men. Seeing them galavanting around the world together on a ship with booze, guys, and quips? Pinch me.
Star Wars #73: Like any good "Star Wars" story, everything goes from bad to worse here. After torturing Han, Carpo releases him to Leia and Dar's reconnaissance so the three of them can attack the regional governor. (I now realize that Dar didn't intentionally set up Han, which sucks, because it would've been easier not to like him as much as I do.) Leia and Dar have to explain to Han that the only reason that Carpo thinks the governor is attacking is because they changed the plan. Of course, Han notes that, instead of Carpo dying in their plan, they will. (He ain't wrong.) Han realizes that they don't have any hope of breaking into an Imperial Star Destroyer, so he plans on brining them to K-43 because, "the more, the merrier." Of course, he still thinks that Chewie and Threepio are planning to blow up K-43, taking said Star Destroyer with it. Meanwhile, Chewie rescues Threepio from Vader's grasp after Vader catches Threepio lying that the Kakrans were under his thrall. Chewie tells Threepio that he only managed to disable half the detonators, so Threepio calls Luke for help. But, Luke has to protect the Rebel base, though he may actually convince Warba to help. As Carpo says, so complicated!
Also Read: Conan The Barbarian #10; Journey to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Allegiance #3 and #4
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