COMICS ROUNDUP: A LOOK AT SOME HEROES AND VILLAINS

by AJ Jazzy D

A few week’s ago, we got two interesting types of stories in four issues.  Following Secret Six two books the New Avengers and Thunderbolts played the super-villain team-up card, not a rare move, but rarely done this well.  We also got Amazing Spider-Man and Ms. Marvel with the very rare--even rarer in apolitical issues as these seem to be--no tights, no flights war stories.  And there will be spoilers.

Bring on the bad guys:

Most might have the reaction to the newest issue of New Avengers:  remember when the Avengers were in that book?  But look beyond that valid point for a second and see a well paced story with actual reveals.  This might be the case where you can judge a book by its cover, or actually the cover it’s rifting on.  Bring On the Bad Guys was a Marvel 1976 fireside book with cover by John Romita, Sr. retelling the origins of Marvel’s greatest villains thought Magneto seems to have not made the cut.  Here comes Junior doing the Skrull version and struggling to fit all the old-school villains on the page.  So, the poses aren’t exactly “the Marvel Way” and the characters are drowned in orange light and Dormammu’s flaming head squeezes in causally.  Which is interesting considering Dormammu has been revealed at the end of the issue as the power behind the Hood’s cloak. Wow, Marvel actually paid off that story point!  The issue is a Shield agents are going to pull Madam Masque’s mask off, no, the Hood kills them all, no, they were all Skrulls!  You know fast paced, remember what that was like?  The best part is when the Hood tries to detect Skrulls among them.  He gives the all clear, turns away, and then whirls back and executes the very skrully “the Slug.”  Cool, and the whole issue his gang is pointing out all the stupidity of the Hood’s organization, which doesn’t make it make anymore sense, but at least it had the ring of truth.  You kind of need this issue to explain why the villains show up in Central Park for Secret Invasion number 7’s all-battle panels slugfest (which Secret Invasion: Amazing Spider-Man’s epilogue seems to completely spoil).

Thunderbolts was always an interesting idea, but with Norman Osborn, Venom, and Bulls-eye the book has become just more fun.  We kind of get a rehash of battle panels at the end, but the fun part is in the conniving.  Osborn strikes fast, leaping in front of the TV cameras and proclaiming Os-corp tech safe from the Skrull attack that has taken out Stark tech.  He beautifully makes the Thunderbolts the heroes of the Invasion.  There’s a suggestion that Osborn might get Stark’s job, which frankly is a little too tongue in cheek—he’s the Green Goblin, come on!  Frankly, one scene sums up this issue.  As news crews proclaim them selfless heroes Osborn boards his ship with Venom.  Venom turns to Osborn, “Brains?”  Osborn hisses a “shut-up!” through gritted teeth, shoving the idiot in the ship while smiling and waving to the cameras.  Funny and crazy, almost making up for the somewhat wonky artwork (what is up with new Cap’ on that splash page?).

War Heroes:

Flash Thompson is kind of a whipping boy and a flat, standard bully character.  Amazing Spider-Man’s last issue (complete with 70’s looming Spidey face and 80’s G.I. Joe soldiers patrolling) focuses on Flash’s last battle in Iraq.  Flash got it in a bad way while saving a buddy and he’s up for the Medal of Honor.  So, we get a nice little run down of his life, and frankly there a lot of beating up on him.  His prowess is questioned, his father beat him; Dr. Doom kicked him around.  Readers might half expect his heroics to be lie and further discredit him.  But also he tells about how Spider-Man showed him what being a hero is all about and is revealed to have given his all for his pals.  In an issue dedicated to our fighting men and women, it seems a little odd to have their stand in be an ester while jerk and inspired by a comic book hero.  But it works for the story and, heck, it’s nice to see the soldiers getting props.  It’d be nice if Marvel just left it as is, but history shows they’ll dust off Flash in the future and stick him in some super-soldier program.  The real criticism might be that Flash’s non-super powered actions were kind of the most inspiring heroics we’ve seen in Marvel since, well, hmmmm, umm, years?  It can’t have been years, can it?

Wait, Ms. Marvel’s jet fighter callsign was “Cheeseburger?”  That has to be dirty but you’ll be up all night trying to figure out how and never get there.  Oh well, at least she’s kind of tough in this one.  Last issue of Ms. Marvel took us back to before she got cosmic and before she became a blathering psychopath (with a weird non-standard nose in some issues).  Seriously, she’s like super tough and then she’s cracking like a 14 year old girl.  Also, Ms. Marvel has been able to keep her healthy frame so far, rather than becoming yet another impossibly thin elf-thing like the rest of comic women save WW, and this issue has a strong, sane Ms. Marvel crashing in Afghanistan and being tortured.  Yeah, a lot of torturing people in comics these days (and vague and not so vague references to sexual assault), but she takes it like a champ (the torture) even though some injuries she survives seem pretty improbable—even for comics.  It’s nice to see her all Sarah Connor again rather than teen-angsty or, as in Avengers Giant-Size, covered in an incredibly suggestive goo—snake slime, sure, from a fight with the B.A.D. girls, whatever.  But “Cheeseburger?”

Bottom line:
Ultimately, these different books from the average issues; not perfect, but nice to see the outside of the box get some thinking.  The US military as good guys?  Bad guys actually doing more than playing inconsistent, dumb as posts plot devices?  Now that is rare.