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Your Weekly Dose of Awesome- April 15th, 2009  Captain America #49 There’s very little I can say about this issue that hasn’t already been said many times before. Ed Brubaker’s Captain America run is consistently one of Marvel’s best books, seamlessly blending super-heroics with classic espionage, alternating between high-octane action scenes and quiet character-driven moments. This comic has transcended the trappings of a simple superhero book; in fact, Cap never even appears in this issue. Instead, Brubaker spends this month’s twenty-two looking at how the death of the original Captain America had on his lover and unwilling (brainwashed) assassin, Sharon Carter. A subplot also sees The Falcon trying to track down the insane “Bad Cap”, Steve Rogers’ unbalanced replacement from the 1950s. It’s a testament to Brubaker’s writing that he has taken characters like the usually uninteresting Carter and overly wooden Falcon and made them compelling enough to carry the book on their own. If you’re not reading Captain America right now, simply put, you’re missing out.
 Ender's Shadow: Battle School #5 I read all of Orson Scott Card’s Ender books several years ago, under the recommendation of my mother of all people. Our tastes in entertainment rarely match (other than a mutual love of Neil Gaiman novels), and I actually shelved the copy of Ender’s Game she gave me for several months before deciding to give it a shot. Surprisingly, I loved it. Though the direct sequels eventually started to lose my attention, Ender’s Shadow- a retelling of the first book, from an alternate perspective- ended up being my favourite of all of Card’s books. The Marvel Comics adaptation of Ender’s Game has been hit or miss for me- I don’t like the art, and the pacing seems to be poorly thought out. This series however, is pitch perfect. Mike Carey does a great job adapting the story of Bean, an undersized but incredibly intelligent urchin from the mean streets of Rotterdam. Carey’s script is perfectly matched by Sebastian Fiumara’s rough and gritty artwork, a refreshing change of pace from the gaudy and sterile pencils you see in most science fiction comics. Ender’s Shadow: Battle School isn’t for everyone, but if you’re familiar with Card’s books or your tastes lean towards sci-fi, give it a shot.
 Punisher #4 Once again, I’m on the fence about Rick Remender’s Punisher. On the one hand, it features Frank Castle wisecracking as he kills a small army of criminals disguised as SWAT officers, a midget in devil pajamas and one of the most mind-blowingly awesome splash pages in recent memory, in which Frank shows off some of his new “toys”. On the other hand, the story just hasn’t clicked with me yet, and the last page reveal is a real turn-off. Basically, Remender’s Punisher is nowhere as good Garth Ennis’ Marvel Knight’s run (or his MAX run for that matter), but it’s better than most Punisher comics from a decade or so before Ennis came along. Part of the problem may be that by inserting the Punisher into the middle of Marvel’s “Dark Reign” event, it adds a level of inevitability to the title. When the Punisher is going up against Ma Gnucci or Elite, there’s no guarantee about what’s going to happen. On the other hand- of course he’s not going to kill the Hood or Norman Osborn- putting aside the fact that both characters are simply too important to die in a random issue of a B-list monthly book, they’re also each appearing concurrently in at least a dozen other ongoing stories right now. The Punisher has less chance of taking out the Green Goblin than he had of killing off Archie Andrews back in 1994.
 Uncanny X-Men #508 In this issue, mutant mercenary and Pete the Pup lookalike Domino hangs out in Akihabara, Tokyo, because “it’s where the cosplay kids come to hand out and just be...I fit right in”. And that’s a good way to sum up why I love Matt Fraction’s run on Uncanny X-Men- he takes characters that on their own are more than a little ridiculous but finds a way to make them work in a realistic world. Let’s face it- the X-Men have a lot of baggage. Despite being one of the Marvel Universe’s younger franchises, the merry mutants have a history of oversaturation, and any writer who tackles them has to deal with the albatross of crushing continuity. Grant Morrison found success with New X-Men by tossing out all but the bare essentials, and more or less recreating the franchise according to his own vision. Joss Whedon returned the characters to their roots in Astonishing X-Men, channeling all the best elements of the Byrne/Claremont run that defines the heroes. Now, Fraction is bringing the X-Men into the current day- they are teachers, soldiers, heroes and community leaders. Plus, one of my all time favourite characters, Northstar, rejoins the team- and unlike most roster shakeups, this one happens for a plausible reason. As Wolverine puts it, the X-Men “got [their] asses handed to [them] by a twenty-year-old kid on a Ducati bike because [they] didn’t have any speed and power on the ground,” and Northstar was the most logical choice to fix a tactical weakness. It’s a small detail, but one of the kind that really makes the difference between a good comic and a great one. |
Featured Article
Number 250- Wolverine (vol. 3) #6
So, This Priest... begins with Wolverine on a serious bender, as he attempts to drown his sorrows in the bottom of a beer glass. For once, he’s not alone- Logan is joined by his friend and X-Men teammate Nightcrawler (Kurt Wagner). Though never known for being approachable even at the best of times, Logan is even more abrasive than usual; his self-loathing leads him to subconscious attempt to alienate Kurt even as he silently reaches out to him. Despite Logan’s best attempts to alienate him, Kurt presses him to talk about what is clearly bothering him so much; the truth leaves Kurt dumbstruck- three days earlier, Logan had slaughtered over two dozen men. A young woman named Lucy Braddock, fearing for her life, had sought out Logan for protection. He failed her. Despite his best efforts, Lucy was murdered by agents of the Brothers of the New World, a cult of militant extremists that had taken control of a small town, and was ruling it with an iron fist. Driven by a cold rage and a thirst for vengeance, Logan launched a violent assault on the Brothers, and in the span of less than an hour, twenty-seven men laid dead at his hands. Having once again succumbed to his own bestial rage, Logan is now left questioning if he can even call himself a man anymore, or if he is nothing but a soulless killer, or worse, a blood-thirsty animal. Though Wolverine is arguably Marvel’s most popular hero, he can also be a difficult character to take seriously. Between his grim-and-gritty teeth gnashing, and his oft-spouted catchphrases, Wolverine stories can quickly fall into the realm of cliché, or even unintentional self-parody. In So, This Priest however, Rucka strips Logan down to his core essentials- a killer, whose inherent nobility clashes with his amoral violence, desperately clinging to the last fading vestiges of his own humanity. The choice of Nightcrawler as a foil is equally inspired. While both heroes share a certain roguish charm, Kurt Wagner boats a strength of moral belief and a love of life that Logan simply doesn’t possess. Nevertheless, at the time of this story’s publication, Kurt and Logan were walking parallel paths, as Kurt suffered through a crisis of faith brought on by the recent death of a close friend. As a result, the two men help bring about catharsis in one another. Kurt’s faith is strengthened by the clarity in which he sees Logan’s place in the world; at the same time, Kurt offers Logan a measure of absolution, despite the fact that deep down, Logan just doesn’t believe that he deserves forgiveness. For that matter, maybe he doesn’t- the moral ambivalence which Rucka ascribes to Wolverine’s actions leaves the matter open to the reader’s interpretation. This comic is one of the rarest of beasts- a Wolverine story in which no punches are thrown, no costumes are worn, and no street punks, ninjas or cackling megalomaniacs ever appear. Instead, we get twenty-odd pages of quiet introspection about the nature of heroism and humanity, and the Wolverine series is all the richer for it. | ||||
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Latest Capsule Summaries  (Mid-November 1989)
Meanwhile, Captain America and the Symkarian mercenary Silver Sable travel to Mexico, Sabretooth's last known location. Cap and Sable "convince" a local bandito to take them to the mutant killer, but when their cover is blown, Sabretooth flees into a ruined temple, with Sable in hot pursuit. Quickly outclassed, Sable is beaten and bloodied by Sabretooth, until she tricks him into charging into an unstable wall; it collapses onto Sabretooth and seemingly kills him- yeah, right. Having reached an uneasy truce, Spider-Man and Solo finally locate their target, an agent named Toler Weil. Though Weil is nearly killed by an explosion that blows him off a skyscraper's roof, Spider-Man manages to save his life with a desperate dive and a quick web-line. Solo sets his sites on Spier-Man and demands that he let Weil die, but Spider-Man refuses. Solo uncharacteristically backs down, allowing Weil to live, for the greater good. They aren't out of the woods yet- Symkaria has broken off all diplomatic ties with the United States, vowing that vengeance will be had, through the retaliatory assassinations of American officials.
As for the rest of the rather convoluted story, it has the common trapping of many Spider-Man stories of the day, namely that Spidey comes across as a sidekick in his own flagship book. In addition to Solo, Captain America, Silver Sable, ULTIMATUM and Sabretooth, The Assassin Nation Plot also saw appearances by Paladin, and the revelation of yet another mysterious villain who had been running things behind the scenes all along. This proliferation of guest-stars greatly dilutes the ordinarily entertaining Amazing Spider-Man, especially the rather one-dimensional anti-heroes Solo, Sable and Paladin. They're also a rather eclectic group, to say the least; it feels as if the character in this storyline were chosen by picking names out of a hat. Additionally, the characters in this story just behave...well, wrong. In addition to Spidey playing buddy-buddy with a psychotic murderer, he also spends half the storyline moping about how little faith he has in America. Sabretooth first runs away from a fight he ordinarily would gleefully engage in, then he's defeated by something that would normally barely phase him, let alone leave him without a pulse. Immediately afterwards, Captain America starts behaving just as oddly- not only does he actually think Sabretooth is death, he leaves the body behind and goes on his merry way. It's just sloppy writing- rather than come up with a plot that allows the characters to behave according to their established personalities, Michelinie dumbs everyone down to cover up his plot-holes. It should be noted that the pencils for this issue were provided by Erik Larsen, whereas the other five parts to The Assassin Nation Plot were all drawn by regular artist Todd MacFarlane. MacFarlane would leave the title he made his name on shortly afterwards, with Larsen eventually becoming his full-time replacement. Though this was unpopular with many fans, who loved MacFarlane with an almost cult-like adoration, I actually preferred Larsen's run.
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Latest Encyclopedia Entry  X-Treme, also known as Adam-X or Adam-X the X-Treme, is a Marvel Comics superhero. He was originally planned to be the rumored "third Summers brother" to siblings Cyclops and Havok, but that potential plot-twist was dropped when his creator, Fabian Nicieza stopped writing X-Men in 1995.
Adam Neramani is the son of the former emperor of the Shi'ar, D'Ken Neramani, and an unidentified non-Shi'ar woman. His mother is strongly believed to be human, and it has been suggested that she may have been Katherine Summers, the mother of the X-Men Cyclops and Havok, and wife of Corsair. After his birth on the Shi'ar world Ch'ylaritha, Adam was subjected to heavy genetic engineering to increase his physical potential to near superhuman levels, and to unlock his latent X-Gene. Under unrevealed circumstances, Adam was brought to the planet Ch'reesharaa, where he was left in the care of a farmer named Jonath; he grew into a young man, unaware of his parentage.
Adam Neramani's recent activities remain mostly unrevealed, other than one instance in which he teamed with Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell) in a battle with the Shi'ar agent Eric the Red and a squad of Sidri hunters. During the battle, Eric informed Adam of his true parentage, and declared that as D'Ken's son, Adam was the true destined ruler of the Shi'ar Empire. Adam rejected this though, and used his mutant powers to apparently kill Eric. Adam and Genis parted ways as allies, and Adam presumably returned to exploring his history by roaming the Earth. More... |
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