Sam Wilson’s Reviews
An excellent week this week, starting out with two excellent “One Year Later” books,
Birds of Prey and
Nightwing, the final issue of
Punisher vs. Bullseye, the continuation of an early, early Nick Fury tail in
Fury: Peacemaker and
my pick of the week,
Ultimate Extinction. Word. That being said, on to the reviews…
Fury: Peacemaker #2 of 6
Marvel Knights
Written by: Garth Ennis
Drawn by: Darick Robertson
For the second Time Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson tack the legendary Marvel Character Nick Fury (the first time being in the often overlooked Marvel MAX series
Fury), but instead of his modern adventures they take him back, all the way back. They take him to a time before he even hooked up with the “Howling Commandos” (no, not that lame werewolf title, you know, the “Howling Commando’s”: Gabe, Dum Dum, etc), back to when he was just an infantry SGT in the United States Army during World War Two. If you have ever read any of Ennis’s “War Story” books from Vertigo, you know the man has an affinity for the genre, and who better to script Nick Fury’s pre-Howling Commando WW2 adventures?
Peacemaker opens with Fury and his unit in North Africa. Relatively new to the war, they are currently getting their keisters handed to them by the Germans. The combat is unlike anything he was prepared for and a lot of people die and Fury is pushed and pushed hard. He see’s all his men killed before him due to faulty intelligence and the negligence of his superiors, and in issue two a small regimen of British soldiers find him wandering aimlessly, shell shocked and despondent over his roll in the war. Lucky for Nick these British soldiers happen to be part of Her Majesties Special Air Services (SAS, British Commandos), and they take Nick in and teach him an entire new way to wage war, and let’s just say issue two is pretty much the opposite of issue one and you’re going to have to check it out for yourself to see what I mean. The title for this issue could have been “Fun With Tracer Rounds” or “Getting to Know Your .50 Caliber”…
Honestly, I would love to see this series spin off into a new “Nick Fury and his Howling Commando’s” series with Garth Ennis at the helm. Who knows? If this book sells well, it may. Is it good? Hell yeah, even though this series got off to a slow start, issue two hits its stride perfectly. I will be seeing this series out, and I hope it is successful.
Ultimate Extinction #3 (of 6)
Marvel Comics
Written by: Warren Ellis
Drawn by: Brandon Peterson
Ultimate Extinction is the third part in Warren Ellis’s “Ultimate Trilogy”, which is all about the coming of Gha Lak Tus (that’s Galactus for you regular Marvel U folks). The first part, Ultimate Nightmare, was about the X-men and the Ultimates tracking down an alien distress signal from the dead of Siberia, they soon found out this beacon came from the “Ultimate Vision”, whose alien android body was being used by the Russians for all kinds of cold world nastiness. Sam Wilson (the “Ultimate Falcon”), who was on the recovery team is also a scientist, and Nick Fury charges him with figuring out what exactly this “Vision” was sent to Earth for. The second part, “Ultimate Secret”, I actually will review later in the tpb, so I guess you can just read that for a recap/review of that storyline. Then as a back up story in recent “Ultimate Marvel” books, the story of the Vision is told (who turns out to be a she). The Vision is on Earth to warn it’s populace of Gha Lak Tus, the world destroyer, she was created by one of the worlds he destroyed and then sent out into space to warn other worlds of his coming. Apparently there is nothing you can do to stop the coming of Gha Lak Tus, and she suggests to Sam Wilson the populace of Earth get out while the gettings good, which brings us to the last part of the trilogy,
Ultimate Extinction.
Last issue had Sam Wilson, Captain Marh-vell and Reed Richards briefing Nick Fury on how exactly Gha Lak Tus is going to destroy the Earth. It wasn’t pretty. Meanwhile, Misty Knight was just hired to find a rich dude’s wife who was apparently skirted away by a charismatic leader of a money-hungry cult. Misty tracks down said wife, but finds a weird silvery naked dude has taken her (hmmm…). Then there is a gun battle and a bald chick. Which leads us to issue two, Fury and Richards are butting heads, Cap is coming to grips with his mortality and Misty Knight and Captain Jean DeWolff (fresh from the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man) are hot on the trail of the bald chick (who we find out is named Heather Douglas, aka Heather Moon. Hmm…). Misty Knight gets a visit from the silvery dude, and the sh$# hits the fan, Captain America is alerted by the battle and speeds off to fight something he can finally get his hands on, and Sam Wilson (aka the Ultimate Falcon) ditches the lab coat to join him and in issue three they are jumping out of a SHIELD helicopter to put foot to a$# on said silvery dude. Cap lands shield first on the beyotch and Falcon swoops down on him and lays into him with TWO FULL MAGAZINES FROM THE TWO MP5’s HE’s CARRYING DUAL HANDED CHOW YUN FAT STYLE WORD. Yeah, I was a little excited by the opening of issue three; and of course there is more techy stuff with Reed Richards and company, Professor X makes mental contact with Galactus and then things go real bad, and then we see another silvery dude? Oh yeah, and there is hints of an “Ultimate Weapon” to be used, hmmm…
The “Ultimate Trilogy” kicks a$# in my humble opinion. It is the first big crossover of the Ultimate Universe; we got the Fantastic Four, the Ultimates, and the X-men. Captain Mahr-vell, Carol Danvers, Misty Knight, yeah, things are cooking in the Ultimate Marvel U. Cap and Falc are teaming up (did I say WORD?). Yes, there are plenty of Ultimate haters out there, fine, hate away, but this is seriously some of the best stuff to come from the house of ideas in a long, long time, and if you don’t want to pick it up, well, that’s your prerogative, but I for one will be buying every issue, and the trades, and will enjoy every minute of it.
Birds of Prey # 92
Written by: Gail Simone
Drawn by: Paulo Siqueira and Robin Riggs
Cover by: Rachel and Terry Dodson
When
Birds of Prey first hit the racks it was a series of quarterly specials featuring Oracle aka the original Batgirl, information guru to the DC Universe. She decided to strike out on her own as a crime stopper and employed Black Canary, who at the time wasn’t doing a whole lot, as her # one agent and go to girl. Every once in awhile Oracle would call on other agents, usually female, including Huntress, Power Girl and even Catwoman, but her #one and only real full-time “agent” was good ol’ Dinah Lance. My how things have changed over the years. Now
Birds of Prey is a regular ongoing series and Dinah Lance is back amongst the A-listers in the DC Universe, and the Birds have broken free of their Gotham confines (since the “Gang War” fiasco) and have relocated to Metropolis, and Oracle has also expanded their full time membership to include Huntress and Zinda Blake, aka Lady Blackhawk. Having taken on organized crime, murderous cults, Deathstroke and the rest of the bad guy union formed during “Infinite Crisis”, the ladies have made quite a name for themselves in the DCU. So where are the “Birds” one year later, aka post “Infinite Crisis”?
Issue #92 opens with Oracle communicating with Dr. Crime, the Dr. to the DCU’s criminal community and he is tired of the life and wants to defect over to the good side, the only problem is he’s in neck deep with the Secret Society of Super-Villians and well, blood in, blood out I guess. They send Killer Croc, the Ventriloquist (and Scarface) and Clayface after him. He’s been badly wounded, but it’s aiight. Oracle has the Birds on the case, and shortly to the rescue is the Huntress and umm, ahhh, Jade Canary. Yes, I said that right. Jade Canary aka Lady Shiva, the most deadly martial artist in the DCU, and sometime martial arts mentor to Black Canary, aka Dinah Lance. Oh yeah, Lady Blackhawk also shows up and some weird yet foxy stealth chic, and I think Dinah Lance (in a side story) is being sold into some type of martial arts slavery in the Far East. Yeah.
So I was little surprised, but not really at Lady Shiva joining up with the Birds (she appeared in several previous story arcs. I have no idea what is going on with Dinah, and I miss the Jim Lee Huntress costume, but damn if the girls aren’t back to form and kicking butt, and both new storylines are intriguing. Yes, they are back, even though there are some questions that need answering this is still the #one girl book on my reading list. Word.
Wktf’s Reviews
Not as slow a comics week for me as last week and one highlighted by Dark Horse Comics’ 10th tpb volume of Marvel’s
Conan the Barbarian comics reprints! In addition, one of the comics I was most anticipating is one I haven’t yet read: the
Infinite Crisis Secret Files written by Marv Wolfman, he of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths fame, which promises to connect the dots regarding Earth 2 Superman, Earth 2 Lois, Superboy Prime and Alex Luthor from the end of the 1986 mega Crisis story to today’s
Infinite Crisis!
Superman/Shazam: First Thunder #4 of 4
DC Comics
Written by: Judd Winick
Drawn by: Joshua Middleton
I’ve been tracking this series since the beginning and my inference from the cover of this issue was that we were finally going to see what I was praying would not happen and was grateful had not been part of this series thus far: a superiority-proving slug fest between Superman and Captain Marvel. Some match ups are just best left unexplored. A few years back, in a recent
Hulk Annual, The Hulk and Thor slugged it out across the entire over sized issue. It ended with the appropriately ambiguous while still frustrating conclusion that Thor was more powerful but that The Hulk was stronger. Now with this issue, where these two pillars of the DC mega powered heroes are concerned, could even Superman match up to someone with the magic-based strength of Hercules, the power of Zeus’ thunderbolts, the stamina of Atlas, the invulnerability of Achilles and the speed of Mercury (mixing our Greek and Roman pantheons, there)? Thankfully, Winick and Middleton give us a far more intelligent and powerful story than this contrived confrontation would make.
After three issues of semi-benign side-by-side monster and demon fighting and some good natured conversing with and learning about each other, our story dramatically shift gears 180 degrees from this fun but harmless story telling. Lex Luthor had gifted a super powered spy to Dr. Silvana, Captain Marvel’s equivalent arch villain, to uncover the Big Red Cheese’s secret identity. And at the end of the last issue, we found young and homeless Billy Batson and his equally juvenile homeless friend, Scott, staring down the barrels of an army of soldiers. With this issue those soldiers open fire and, while we can be fairly assured of Billy’s survival, the unintended impact of this attack drives Captain Marvel to behave in ways we’d never expect from this traditionally goofy character. His anger and rage are wholly justified and, despite the cover image, there’s no Big Blue to stop his ensuing rampage and near murderous revenge. What does happen, though, bring the two heroes, who are so similar in abilities yet so different in experience and temperament, closer together. Their coming-to-terms over Marvel’s actions actually is a bit heart rending as we are reminded, again, that it is the psyche of a child that exists in this body of a god. The scene between Superman and with Wizard Shazam wherein Superman confronts the elemental Wizard leads to these heroes’ final, most interesting meeting of the series, one wherein their relationship evolves to a more appropriate level and which we are told is “The end of the Beginning.” One can only hope so, and hope that Winick and Middleton reunite to continue the development of Captain Marvel’s and Superman’s friendship. Highly recommended. Pick up the eventual trade if you haven’t been following these issues.
Superman #650
DC Comics
Written by: Kurt Busiek & Geoff Johns
Drawn by: Pete Woods
The Adventures of Superman has regained its original mast head! Could this be a sign?
Superman is in my top three favorite comic book heroes and I’ve been reading Superman comics for several decades; however, a few years back, I dropped all of them altogether. There were too many titles, the stories became horribly convoluted and, worse, the editors were taking the ultimate superhero archetype and turning him into, well, Peter Parker: confused, insecure, unsure of himself, a follower rather than a leader. While this was happening I also dropped all the Batman titles I’d been reading. The Batman’s transformation into the a$$hole of the DCU was getting just plain one-dimensionally dull. Nothing could have made me happier than the fantastic “1 Year Later” beginning for Batman in the recent
Detective Comics, even though we still can’t be sure it’s Bruce under that cowl. And while I’m a little baffled about what’s going on with Superman in this issue, what we have here is an exciting and intriguing story that looks like, though I have no idea how, it’s going to restore the “Umph!” to the Man of Steel. This book is
my pick of the week.
It’s one year after
Infinite Crisis and Superman, apparently, has not been seen in all that time. While many in Metropolis, possibly most especially young Jimmy Olsen, miss their favorite son it seems life has gone on just fine without him. There’s a documentary type retrospect being shown in Metropolis Park and it’s sparsely attended. In attendance, though, are Lois and Clark. If Clark’s there, how come Superman’s been missing for a year? In this issue we see Clark going about his reporter’s life, wearing his Smallville High jacket, getting yelled at by Perry and tracking down interviews for a story about Luthor. Speaking of Luthor, we also see him back in a suit promising to regain the reigns of his beleaguered company now that…well, I probably shouldn’t reveal too much. Needless to say, though, Lex has a serious mad-on for Clark, and for good reason given his goals, and confronts him in a way that causes our heads to shake further in confusion. In addition, there’s a super powered menace that surfaces in this issue but, despite Clark’s presence, no Superman to confront it. So, what the hell’s going on? Well, the very first line of this issue’s very first page may yield some clues that relate back to Infinite Crisis. You’ll have to buy it and read it for yourself. But it looks to me that there’s more than just the original title’s return to this comic and the title of this arc, “Up, Up, and Away!” that promises a return to greatness for the Man of Steel. We should expect no less from this pair of famous writers but the real surprise, for me anyway, is the truly outstanding art by Pete Woods. Has Superman, in fact, returned to greatness? Up, up, and away!
X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula #2 of 4
Marvel Comics
Written by: Frank Tieri
Drawn by: Clayton Henry
I recognize that I’m in the minority, not being a big Apocalypse fan. This is at least partially due to my sheer
X-Men exhaustion when the big guy reared his ugly face against the over exposed mutant team. I’ll pick up nearly any title that has Dracula in it, though, and so begrudgingly picked up the first issue of this mini series last month only to have my interest piqued. It turns out, from the first issue, that Apocalypse and Vlad Dracul faced each other during the Crusades and, though he fought like no other before to have faced Apocalypse, the mortal Dracula was slain by Apocalypse on that field of battle. Flash forward to the late 1800s London and, apparently, Apocalypse has a line of descendants all of whom, to one degree or another, are gifted with elements of his strange powers. They’ve formed their own society called the Clan of Akkaba which is led by anyone who proves himself the fittest to lead. However, they now find themselves under attack by a foe they can’t fathom, one who drains its victims dry of blood. Why is this happening to them, who’s the perpetrator, and how can they fight it? The Clan does not know the answers to any of these questions but Slade, their leader, leaves them to search for the killer and subsequently disappears for three full days. Is it a coincidence that three days is the time it takes for a vampire’s victim to rise from the dead? Hmmm….
In this second issue two critical events take place. The Clan awakens their lord to help them root out and extinguish this plague on their order and Professor Abraham Van Helsing, the man who led the band of vampire hunters in Bram Stoker’s famous novel, forces his way into the Clan to divulge the origin of their troubles for, of course, Van Helsing knows full well who it is that’s picking off the Clan’s members. And, as powerful as Apocalypse is, this issue proves beyond a doubt that he is neither all-wise or all-powerful and that he needs help from this strange man who, we are informed, he has met before. In fact the old boy appears slightly afraid. The Lord of Vampires has yet to strike directly at Apocalypse; however, the last page of this issue shows us just how he’s planning to make his move. Though it seems like Apocalypse should be able to handle this undead menace, it appears that he may be in for some serious trouble from this powerful being who’s looking to exact some centuries-old revenge. I’m having a lot of fun already with this mini series and am look forward to the next issue.
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