Sam Wilson
06-14-2006, 02:37 PM
Sam Wilson’s Reviews
Well, my writing partner and brother wktf is off with his family driving to Denver. Yeesh, hopefully he’ll come back in one piece. He still managed to leave us with a tpb review of Tarzan, a hardcover collecting the years Joe Kubert was the sole creative force behind that book. Also this week we have a special guest reviewer, jdh.goodgrief, whom you may know from his dope cartoons “Year One” and “Busted” (http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=20115, and http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=16912, prospectively) and our semi-regular “ask a British dude” review (again, featuring jdh.goodgrief). Stay tuned this week for a special focus on Marvel’s Civil War crossover and my personal pick of the week, Squadron Supreme. I love that Gary Frank guy (Who is also a Brit. Great things come from across the pond. Jdh, Gary Frank, Kate Beckinsale, and Bass Ale, not really that important, but I felt the need to extrapolate). That being said, on to the reviews…
Civil War issue #2
Marvel Comics
Written by: Mark Millar
Drawn by: Steve McNiven
Alternate Cover by: Michael Turner
I thought I’d kick off this week’s review of “Civil War” with our semi-regular “Ask a British Dude” segment, featuring jdh.goodgrief, statue forum Moderator and Cartoonist, two time European Scrabble Champion and a part time florist. So jdh, what do you think of Marvel’s “Civil War” crossover?
Those who felt that last year’s ‘event’ series, House of M, got off to a slow start (followed by a slow middle, and…) should be pleased with Civil War – but then how could a series that actually does start with a bang disappoint on the action front? With all the set-up neatly out of the way in various titles and the Illuminati special, Millar can swiftly cut to the chase – and what a chase it is for Cap. The writer deftly sets up the conflicts to follow for the Marvel Universe, superbly illustrated by McNiven, whose always impressive art seems more dynamic and story-driven than before. There’s an undeniable ‘old school’ flavour to the series, with conflict between heroes and a cohesive sense of a universe key to what made so many fans Marvel Zombies in the first place. The advance blurb promised that Civil War would restore some of that feeling, and so far it looks like delivering. It has been too long since a really enjoyable, high calibre story featuring the rich cast of Marvel heroes – for this reader, it has probably been since Secret Wars, two decades ago. Just like that series brought about major changes to the Fantastic Four, Civil War looks set to achieve the same, with the public’s most popular superheroes dealt the most stark warning of how the political landscape has changed. But it is sure to be the Avengers where this series’ impact will be most keenly felt. Millar is mining the rich seam of ideological discord between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, which has inspired great stories throughout Marvel history. With action, surprises and a premise that looks set to actually deliver on the all-too-oft promised ‘things will never be the same again’ front, Civil War looks like a winner. All this and Speedball too, finally having the world-changing impact that any good Ditko hero should have. If you want to know where the Marvel Universe is heading, this is the one to get.
Thanks jdh, and now I’ll give my own two cents on “Civil War”, specifically the second issue…
Hmph. “Civil War” #2, not much can be said that hasn’t been spoiled by a dozen sources already, but rather than talk about that, a lot of other things happened as well. Captain America has gotten his resistance group off and running, recruiting the Young Avengers and having good old Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon, at his side once again. We get a glimpse of some of the other members (including Dagger, from “Cloak and Dagger) and we also have a look into what’s happening on Tony Stark’s side. Reed Richards is fully on board with Stark’s plan, and I find his enthusiasm towards it a little disturbing to say the least, as does Sue Richards (or so it seems). I’m a little bummed to see She-Hulk with Tony, but who knows how steady that alliance will remain. All in all “Civil War” has me nervous, not in a bad way but nervous with anticipation, especially after the big event at the end of issue two. Issue three will hopefully come full bore, and I have to say, this new “event” kicks “House of M’s” a$#. Word.
Squadron Supreme #4
Marvel Knights
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Drawn by: Gary Frank
Squadron Supreme is the Marvel Knights relaunch of JMS’s Marvel MAX series Supreme Power. Supreme Power is a modernization of Mark Gruewald’s Squadron Supreme, a story about an alternate Earth’s superhero’s and how they got tired of regular folk fu$#ing up the planet, so they decided to take it over and become it’s rulers. Kinda like JLA’s Earth 2 Justice League, another old story that was recently revisited in the JLU animated series. Yes, superheroes going nutty is a popular topic, such the thing being centerpiece to the Batman “Gang War” storyline, the current OMAC storyline and let’s not forget the classic Alan Moore story The Watchmen. Marvel comics has kept it’s mainstream heroes under lock and key, for now. Anyway, enter J. Michael Stracynski, he had his own foray into the “superhero’s going crazy and taking over” genre with his Rising Stars series, which was chronically late and to my knowledge is still not really finished. Meh, it’s all for the best, because I believe JMS is getting the chance to tell the story he really wanted to tell with Marvel MAX’s Supreme Power (and now in Squardron Supreme under the Marvel Knights banner).
To catch everyone up to speed thus far, Supreme Power centers on Mark Milton. He’s an alien who crashed to Earth a long time ago and was found by the United States government. It was soon found he had really nifty super powers and he was quite possibly the most powerful being on the planet, so they decided to make him their’s mind body and soul. He was given fake parents and raised to be a patriot, no one ever told him who he really was or where he came from. Everyone around him was a government employee, even his classmates and his friends. He was kept in a fake reality bubble so he would grow up to be loyal to the Unites States. Along with Mark Milton, who came to be a hero known as Hyperion, a few other “special” types showed up. The costumed vigilante Nighthawk, an extreme personality who makes Batman seem calm and rational. The Blur, a corporate superhero, Dr. Spectrum aka army corporal Joe Ledger and his strange fish lady friend (aka Amphibian) and finally Zarda. Zarda is like Wonder Woman after a few drinks and with no moral compass. Then Hyperion, Mark, finds out it was all a lie and he is from space. Yeah, the sh$# hits the fan.
After much destruction and lashing out we get to issue #18. The government realizes there is no physical way they can try and harm Mark (they already tried nuking him, it didn’t work). So they go after him the old fashioned way, they attack his person. The government leaks to the media that Mark is from space and has now gone rogue, the president makes a speech for all people with special powers to sign up for their team or be hunted like Mark is. Of course the other heroes grow uneasy and Mark is backed into a corner. The first issue of Squadron Supreme picks up where issue #18 of Supreme Power left off. The military has forced Mark Milton back into service and are running their propaganda machine overtime to make him look not so “alien”, but what they don’t realize is that Mark has learned a lot and can play the same games they do. As it turns out, there are a lot of superhumans running around Earth, and the government has assembled them into two teams, one public and one covert. Both teams consist of a few new characters (Inertia, Tom Thumb) and characters that have been introduced in “Supreme Power” and the “Hyperion” limited series (Hyperion, Dr. Spectrum, Blur, Power Princess, Emil Burbank, Amphibian, Arcanna, Shape and Nuke). At the onset of their first mission each team member starts to develop his or her own idiosyncrasies: Zarda (Power Princess) is kinda crazy, Dr. Spectrum is way to much in love with the fishy chick, Blur is the moral compass of the team, and so on and so on. Also in their first mission we found out Emil Burbank, the so-called “smartest man alive” apparently had contingencies should his teammates ever turn on him and he almost ends up killing Amphibian. She is saved by other members of the team, but Dr. Spectrum is pretty PO’d by the whole thing. Issue four starts out with a new mission for the team, this time in the Middle East. More important than the mission though is the origin story we get for Edith Frieberg, aka Inertia. When we were first introduced to her she was a super-strong invulnerable soldier with a severe discipline problem and a penchant for mental illness (or so it seemed). In issue four we find out exactly why she is the way she is and it is nothing short of tragic and heartbreaking.
Not only is the story the best thing JMS has done in comics since his Dr. Strange series, we have Gary Frank on the art, and damn if his art isn’t, well, sexy. Dead freakin’ sexy. So pick this book up, pick up some of the trades of Supreme Power for the backstory, there is an oversized HC collecting the first 12 issues, and a few other sc tpb’s collecting the same issues plus some more. Damn if this isn’t a fine book and you are doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t reading it.
Wolverine: Origins #3
Marvel Comics
Written by: Daniel Way
Drawn by: Steve Dillon
Covers by: Joe Quesada and Simone Bianchi
For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, “Wolverine: Origins” stems from the events of the “House of M” crossover. During “House of M” all but 198 mutants lost their powers. Wolverine was one of the mutants who kept his powers, but he suddenly found himself with something else as well, all his memories from his entire life, restored (about 100 years worth, give or take). So yeah, all the “Wolverine man of mystery” stuff we’ve been fed since the early Byrne/Claremont days in “Uncanny X-men” is a mystery no more. Now that Wolverine has all of his memories back he is pissed off. Most of his life he has been screwed over by one government or another doing unspeakable, unforgivable things, and the only thing he has left is revenge, revenge against those who wronged him. So Wolverine starts out his journey by knocking on the Silver Samurai’s door, cutting his hand off and taking his Muramasa Blade for his own (this happened in “Wolverine” #40) For those of you who care, the Muramasa Blade is a legendary Japanese Kantana sword; once drawn it has to draw blood before it is returned to its scabbard and creates a bloodlust in those who wield it. Yeah, maybe not the best thing for a guy prone to berserker rages, but it sounds really awesome. Anyway, Muramasa Blade in hand and ‘80’s brown costume as the uniform of the day, at the onset of “Origins” our boy Logan seeks to kick some a$# and probably cut some mofo’s quite severely.
Issue one opens with a ruckus at the White House and Wolverine threatening the Secretary of State with a simple message, “I remember everything and I’m coming for you”. Yeah. In issue two the President isn’t to happy about that, so he sends in the most serious covert weapon at his disposal to take care of Wolverine, and that weapon would be Nuke. For those of you who may not be familiar with the works of Frank Miller, specifically his famed second (albeit brief) run on Daredevil spanning from issues #226 to #232 (with David Mazuchelli of “Batman: Year One fame handling the art, the famous “Born Again” storyline) Nuke was the crazed government killing machine a desperate Kingpin sicked on Daredevil towards the end of the story. Other than being a pill-popping unstoppable killing machine, Nuke also had a telling tattoo of the American Flag on his face. C’mon now, how many of us old guys remember, “Gimmie a red…”. Okay then, moving right along it turns out Nuke didn’t die at the end of that “Daredevil” arc and he’s actually alive and better. He is no longer dependant on pills and has an extra heart that pumps control drugs throughout his system. Issue two also gives us a glimpse into the history between Nuke and Wolverine, and issue three goes waaay back to baby Nuke and how he became big bad pill popping Nuke. Oh yeah, Wolverine was around back then too. Also in issue three we get more gov’t stuff (apparently one of the presidents advisors has the Wolvering situation “under control”) and a really cool guest star (who makes me think this book’s events take place before the “Civil War” crossover).
This book is definitely a pleasant surprise; Daniel Way has proven himself to be white-hot with “Bullseye vs. Punisher” and the new “Planet Hulk” storyline. Steve Dillon of course is dependable as always, a truly underrated artist whose recent Marvel work in the “Ultimates Annual” and “Punisher” proves he still has it. For those of you fed up with the overabundance of mediocre mutant books, “Origins” is just the thing to put your faith back in the “X”, so check it out, you’ll be surprised.
DMZ #8
DC/Vertigo Comics
Written by: Brian Wood
Drawn by: Riccardo Burchelli
To catch up those who haven’t checked out this book yet: our story opens five years into the second American Civil War. The conflict is between the United States of America and the “Free States”. According to the White House, these “Free States” Soldiers are “thugs and murderers”, and they are indiscriminate and uncivilized when it comes to warfare in civilian areas. As far as New York City goes, the “Free States” control New Jersey and the inland, and they are amassing at the banks of the Hudson River. The United States of America has Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island and is well dug in on the coastline, with Manhattan Island caught in-between in the “DMZ”. The thing is, there are still people living on Manhattan Island, and even though there has been a formal ceasefire in effect from the last three days (when the story opens) the reality of life there consists of looters, gangs, local militias, insurgents and contract killers. All a day in the life in the DMZ.
Enter rich white-kid Matthew Rose, new intern to Nobel Prize winning journalist Viktor Ferguson. Rose gets a job as his intern on the day Ferguson is supposed to head into combat to do a story on the residents of the DMZ, a “day in the life” kind of thing. To say the least Matthew is caught a little off guard. He finds himself in charge of multi-million dollar equipment and placed in personal (unpaid mind you) servitude to a less than humble journalist who is about to make history with a story that takes them to the very heart of danger. Things soon go to sh$#, Ferguson and his military escort are taken out by enemy combatants, and Matthew finds himself alone, stranded in the DMZ with a crapload of news equipment he is technically responsible for. Soon enough though Matthew finds himself playing the role of an imbedded journalist, not really taking any sides, just trying to report what he sees in what’s becoming a fairly ugly 2nd American Civil War. Issue six is the start of a new five-part storyline “Body of a Journalist” and opens with a brutal suicide bombing in the middle of a hot summer day in little Italy. Matthew does what he does and plays the unbiased reporter, but the stress of war is starting to get to him (and the New York summer isn’t helping). Things don’t get better for Matt when he has a run in with a group of soldiers he has crossed paths with before. It turns out Matthew’s old boss Viktor Ferguson wasn’t killed by the “enemy” and the resistance (the “free states”) are holding him captive. Why? In issue # seven Matt crosses the Manhattan bridge back into Brooklyn and is immediately taken in by the regular military. They want to send Matt back in to find out why Ferguson is being held captive, and since Matt has become a semi-celebrity with his frontline reports, they figure he is just they guy. Issue eight opens with Matt presenting the Free States terms to the government for the safe return of Ferguson. The demands are completely unreasonable and of course the army refuses, but then they pretty much fu$# Michael over and the story takes a dangerous turn…
I met Brian Wood at the NYC comic con and asked him a few questions about DMZ, specifically if there were any personal political feelings that went into this book, and he said no, it was more or less a general dig at the current political climate we find ourselves in the middle of. After reading the first six issues of this book, I would have to say I agree with that statement, and I would also have to say I now would consider myself a fan of DMZ (earlier I had stated I was “on the fence”). If you have been staying away from this book out of fear of its political leanings, don’t, Wood isn’t really taking any sides (like his main protagonist Matthew Rose). If you are interested in seeing a different and chilling take on modern warfare, check this book out.
Well, my writing partner and brother wktf is off with his family driving to Denver. Yeesh, hopefully he’ll come back in one piece. He still managed to leave us with a tpb review of Tarzan, a hardcover collecting the years Joe Kubert was the sole creative force behind that book. Also this week we have a special guest reviewer, jdh.goodgrief, whom you may know from his dope cartoons “Year One” and “Busted” (http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=20115, and http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=16912, prospectively) and our semi-regular “ask a British dude” review (again, featuring jdh.goodgrief). Stay tuned this week for a special focus on Marvel’s Civil War crossover and my personal pick of the week, Squadron Supreme. I love that Gary Frank guy (Who is also a Brit. Great things come from across the pond. Jdh, Gary Frank, Kate Beckinsale, and Bass Ale, not really that important, but I felt the need to extrapolate). That being said, on to the reviews…
Civil War issue #2
Marvel Comics
Written by: Mark Millar
Drawn by: Steve McNiven
Alternate Cover by: Michael Turner
I thought I’d kick off this week’s review of “Civil War” with our semi-regular “Ask a British Dude” segment, featuring jdh.goodgrief, statue forum Moderator and Cartoonist, two time European Scrabble Champion and a part time florist. So jdh, what do you think of Marvel’s “Civil War” crossover?
Those who felt that last year’s ‘event’ series, House of M, got off to a slow start (followed by a slow middle, and…) should be pleased with Civil War – but then how could a series that actually does start with a bang disappoint on the action front? With all the set-up neatly out of the way in various titles and the Illuminati special, Millar can swiftly cut to the chase – and what a chase it is for Cap. The writer deftly sets up the conflicts to follow for the Marvel Universe, superbly illustrated by McNiven, whose always impressive art seems more dynamic and story-driven than before. There’s an undeniable ‘old school’ flavour to the series, with conflict between heroes and a cohesive sense of a universe key to what made so many fans Marvel Zombies in the first place. The advance blurb promised that Civil War would restore some of that feeling, and so far it looks like delivering. It has been too long since a really enjoyable, high calibre story featuring the rich cast of Marvel heroes – for this reader, it has probably been since Secret Wars, two decades ago. Just like that series brought about major changes to the Fantastic Four, Civil War looks set to achieve the same, with the public’s most popular superheroes dealt the most stark warning of how the political landscape has changed. But it is sure to be the Avengers where this series’ impact will be most keenly felt. Millar is mining the rich seam of ideological discord between Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, which has inspired great stories throughout Marvel history. With action, surprises and a premise that looks set to actually deliver on the all-too-oft promised ‘things will never be the same again’ front, Civil War looks like a winner. All this and Speedball too, finally having the world-changing impact that any good Ditko hero should have. If you want to know where the Marvel Universe is heading, this is the one to get.
Thanks jdh, and now I’ll give my own two cents on “Civil War”, specifically the second issue…
Hmph. “Civil War” #2, not much can be said that hasn’t been spoiled by a dozen sources already, but rather than talk about that, a lot of other things happened as well. Captain America has gotten his resistance group off and running, recruiting the Young Avengers and having good old Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon, at his side once again. We get a glimpse of some of the other members (including Dagger, from “Cloak and Dagger) and we also have a look into what’s happening on Tony Stark’s side. Reed Richards is fully on board with Stark’s plan, and I find his enthusiasm towards it a little disturbing to say the least, as does Sue Richards (or so it seems). I’m a little bummed to see She-Hulk with Tony, but who knows how steady that alliance will remain. All in all “Civil War” has me nervous, not in a bad way but nervous with anticipation, especially after the big event at the end of issue two. Issue three will hopefully come full bore, and I have to say, this new “event” kicks “House of M’s” a$#. Word.
Squadron Supreme #4
Marvel Knights
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Drawn by: Gary Frank
Squadron Supreme is the Marvel Knights relaunch of JMS’s Marvel MAX series Supreme Power. Supreme Power is a modernization of Mark Gruewald’s Squadron Supreme, a story about an alternate Earth’s superhero’s and how they got tired of regular folk fu$#ing up the planet, so they decided to take it over and become it’s rulers. Kinda like JLA’s Earth 2 Justice League, another old story that was recently revisited in the JLU animated series. Yes, superheroes going nutty is a popular topic, such the thing being centerpiece to the Batman “Gang War” storyline, the current OMAC storyline and let’s not forget the classic Alan Moore story The Watchmen. Marvel comics has kept it’s mainstream heroes under lock and key, for now. Anyway, enter J. Michael Stracynski, he had his own foray into the “superhero’s going crazy and taking over” genre with his Rising Stars series, which was chronically late and to my knowledge is still not really finished. Meh, it’s all for the best, because I believe JMS is getting the chance to tell the story he really wanted to tell with Marvel MAX’s Supreme Power (and now in Squardron Supreme under the Marvel Knights banner).
To catch everyone up to speed thus far, Supreme Power centers on Mark Milton. He’s an alien who crashed to Earth a long time ago and was found by the United States government. It was soon found he had really nifty super powers and he was quite possibly the most powerful being on the planet, so they decided to make him their’s mind body and soul. He was given fake parents and raised to be a patriot, no one ever told him who he really was or where he came from. Everyone around him was a government employee, even his classmates and his friends. He was kept in a fake reality bubble so he would grow up to be loyal to the Unites States. Along with Mark Milton, who came to be a hero known as Hyperion, a few other “special” types showed up. The costumed vigilante Nighthawk, an extreme personality who makes Batman seem calm and rational. The Blur, a corporate superhero, Dr. Spectrum aka army corporal Joe Ledger and his strange fish lady friend (aka Amphibian) and finally Zarda. Zarda is like Wonder Woman after a few drinks and with no moral compass. Then Hyperion, Mark, finds out it was all a lie and he is from space. Yeah, the sh$# hits the fan.
After much destruction and lashing out we get to issue #18. The government realizes there is no physical way they can try and harm Mark (they already tried nuking him, it didn’t work). So they go after him the old fashioned way, they attack his person. The government leaks to the media that Mark is from space and has now gone rogue, the president makes a speech for all people with special powers to sign up for their team or be hunted like Mark is. Of course the other heroes grow uneasy and Mark is backed into a corner. The first issue of Squadron Supreme picks up where issue #18 of Supreme Power left off. The military has forced Mark Milton back into service and are running their propaganda machine overtime to make him look not so “alien”, but what they don’t realize is that Mark has learned a lot and can play the same games they do. As it turns out, there are a lot of superhumans running around Earth, and the government has assembled them into two teams, one public and one covert. Both teams consist of a few new characters (Inertia, Tom Thumb) and characters that have been introduced in “Supreme Power” and the “Hyperion” limited series (Hyperion, Dr. Spectrum, Blur, Power Princess, Emil Burbank, Amphibian, Arcanna, Shape and Nuke). At the onset of their first mission each team member starts to develop his or her own idiosyncrasies: Zarda (Power Princess) is kinda crazy, Dr. Spectrum is way to much in love with the fishy chick, Blur is the moral compass of the team, and so on and so on. Also in their first mission we found out Emil Burbank, the so-called “smartest man alive” apparently had contingencies should his teammates ever turn on him and he almost ends up killing Amphibian. She is saved by other members of the team, but Dr. Spectrum is pretty PO’d by the whole thing. Issue four starts out with a new mission for the team, this time in the Middle East. More important than the mission though is the origin story we get for Edith Frieberg, aka Inertia. When we were first introduced to her she was a super-strong invulnerable soldier with a severe discipline problem and a penchant for mental illness (or so it seemed). In issue four we find out exactly why she is the way she is and it is nothing short of tragic and heartbreaking.
Not only is the story the best thing JMS has done in comics since his Dr. Strange series, we have Gary Frank on the art, and damn if his art isn’t, well, sexy. Dead freakin’ sexy. So pick this book up, pick up some of the trades of Supreme Power for the backstory, there is an oversized HC collecting the first 12 issues, and a few other sc tpb’s collecting the same issues plus some more. Damn if this isn’t a fine book and you are doing yourself a disservice if you aren’t reading it.
Wolverine: Origins #3
Marvel Comics
Written by: Daniel Way
Drawn by: Steve Dillon
Covers by: Joe Quesada and Simone Bianchi
For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, “Wolverine: Origins” stems from the events of the “House of M” crossover. During “House of M” all but 198 mutants lost their powers. Wolverine was one of the mutants who kept his powers, but he suddenly found himself with something else as well, all his memories from his entire life, restored (about 100 years worth, give or take). So yeah, all the “Wolverine man of mystery” stuff we’ve been fed since the early Byrne/Claremont days in “Uncanny X-men” is a mystery no more. Now that Wolverine has all of his memories back he is pissed off. Most of his life he has been screwed over by one government or another doing unspeakable, unforgivable things, and the only thing he has left is revenge, revenge against those who wronged him. So Wolverine starts out his journey by knocking on the Silver Samurai’s door, cutting his hand off and taking his Muramasa Blade for his own (this happened in “Wolverine” #40) For those of you who care, the Muramasa Blade is a legendary Japanese Kantana sword; once drawn it has to draw blood before it is returned to its scabbard and creates a bloodlust in those who wield it. Yeah, maybe not the best thing for a guy prone to berserker rages, but it sounds really awesome. Anyway, Muramasa Blade in hand and ‘80’s brown costume as the uniform of the day, at the onset of “Origins” our boy Logan seeks to kick some a$# and probably cut some mofo’s quite severely.
Issue one opens with a ruckus at the White House and Wolverine threatening the Secretary of State with a simple message, “I remember everything and I’m coming for you”. Yeah. In issue two the President isn’t to happy about that, so he sends in the most serious covert weapon at his disposal to take care of Wolverine, and that weapon would be Nuke. For those of you who may not be familiar with the works of Frank Miller, specifically his famed second (albeit brief) run on Daredevil spanning from issues #226 to #232 (with David Mazuchelli of “Batman: Year One fame handling the art, the famous “Born Again” storyline) Nuke was the crazed government killing machine a desperate Kingpin sicked on Daredevil towards the end of the story. Other than being a pill-popping unstoppable killing machine, Nuke also had a telling tattoo of the American Flag on his face. C’mon now, how many of us old guys remember, “Gimmie a red…”. Okay then, moving right along it turns out Nuke didn’t die at the end of that “Daredevil” arc and he’s actually alive and better. He is no longer dependant on pills and has an extra heart that pumps control drugs throughout his system. Issue two also gives us a glimpse into the history between Nuke and Wolverine, and issue three goes waaay back to baby Nuke and how he became big bad pill popping Nuke. Oh yeah, Wolverine was around back then too. Also in issue three we get more gov’t stuff (apparently one of the presidents advisors has the Wolvering situation “under control”) and a really cool guest star (who makes me think this book’s events take place before the “Civil War” crossover).
This book is definitely a pleasant surprise; Daniel Way has proven himself to be white-hot with “Bullseye vs. Punisher” and the new “Planet Hulk” storyline. Steve Dillon of course is dependable as always, a truly underrated artist whose recent Marvel work in the “Ultimates Annual” and “Punisher” proves he still has it. For those of you fed up with the overabundance of mediocre mutant books, “Origins” is just the thing to put your faith back in the “X”, so check it out, you’ll be surprised.
DMZ #8
DC/Vertigo Comics
Written by: Brian Wood
Drawn by: Riccardo Burchelli
To catch up those who haven’t checked out this book yet: our story opens five years into the second American Civil War. The conflict is between the United States of America and the “Free States”. According to the White House, these “Free States” Soldiers are “thugs and murderers”, and they are indiscriminate and uncivilized when it comes to warfare in civilian areas. As far as New York City goes, the “Free States” control New Jersey and the inland, and they are amassing at the banks of the Hudson River. The United States of America has Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island and is well dug in on the coastline, with Manhattan Island caught in-between in the “DMZ”. The thing is, there are still people living on Manhattan Island, and even though there has been a formal ceasefire in effect from the last three days (when the story opens) the reality of life there consists of looters, gangs, local militias, insurgents and contract killers. All a day in the life in the DMZ.
Enter rich white-kid Matthew Rose, new intern to Nobel Prize winning journalist Viktor Ferguson. Rose gets a job as his intern on the day Ferguson is supposed to head into combat to do a story on the residents of the DMZ, a “day in the life” kind of thing. To say the least Matthew is caught a little off guard. He finds himself in charge of multi-million dollar equipment and placed in personal (unpaid mind you) servitude to a less than humble journalist who is about to make history with a story that takes them to the very heart of danger. Things soon go to sh$#, Ferguson and his military escort are taken out by enemy combatants, and Matthew finds himself alone, stranded in the DMZ with a crapload of news equipment he is technically responsible for. Soon enough though Matthew finds himself playing the role of an imbedded journalist, not really taking any sides, just trying to report what he sees in what’s becoming a fairly ugly 2nd American Civil War. Issue six is the start of a new five-part storyline “Body of a Journalist” and opens with a brutal suicide bombing in the middle of a hot summer day in little Italy. Matthew does what he does and plays the unbiased reporter, but the stress of war is starting to get to him (and the New York summer isn’t helping). Things don’t get better for Matt when he has a run in with a group of soldiers he has crossed paths with before. It turns out Matthew’s old boss Viktor Ferguson wasn’t killed by the “enemy” and the resistance (the “free states”) are holding him captive. Why? In issue # seven Matt crosses the Manhattan bridge back into Brooklyn and is immediately taken in by the regular military. They want to send Matt back in to find out why Ferguson is being held captive, and since Matt has become a semi-celebrity with his frontline reports, they figure he is just they guy. Issue eight opens with Matt presenting the Free States terms to the government for the safe return of Ferguson. The demands are completely unreasonable and of course the army refuses, but then they pretty much fu$# Michael over and the story takes a dangerous turn…
I met Brian Wood at the NYC comic con and asked him a few questions about DMZ, specifically if there were any personal political feelings that went into this book, and he said no, it was more or less a general dig at the current political climate we find ourselves in the middle of. After reading the first six issues of this book, I would have to say I agree with that statement, and I would also have to say I now would consider myself a fan of DMZ (earlier I had stated I was “on the fence”). If you have been staying away from this book out of fear of its political leanings, don’t, Wood isn’t really taking any sides (like his main protagonist Matthew Rose). If you are interested in seeing a different and chilling take on modern warfare, check this book out.