November 2008 Archives

You have to hand it to Jeff Loeb: he crafts a story that is really simpatico with the artists that he is working with.  In the case of Hulk #7-9, he’s got two artists to please, Arthur Adams and Frank Cho.  Adams gets monsters aplenty to draw, with an army of Wendigos, and a little cheesecake in the form of Ms. Marvel.  Frank Cho gets to draw just about every hot superbabe in the Marvel Universe.  If having She-Hulk, Thundra, and Valkyrie in mortal combat with the Red Hulk didn’t score high enough on the cheesecake scale, having Spider-Woman, Sue Richards, Tigra, Storm, Black Widow, and Hellcat appear will make it fly off the charts.

Even better is one of the covers for Hulk #9, showing the return of the Lady Liberators.  “All right, girls, that finishes off this male chauvinist pig!”  This is all a wink and a nod back to the classic Marvel of the 1970s era…

Avengers #83 was Roy Thomas’ nod to the burgeoning Women’s Liberation movement.  He had Valkyrie, Scarlet Witch, Black Widow, the Wasp, and Medusa team up to kick butt.  Of course, they were manipulated into attacking their team-mates by the evil Enchantress.  At the end of the story, Wanda says to Clint Barton: “One of these days, the Liberators will stage a comeback!”  Indeed, they have, almost 40 years later.  Nuff said.

Captain Britain and MI-13 has quickly become one of my favorite Marvel titles, after I caught up with the first seven issues.  I think the title may be the worst thing about the series, it really does not accurately convey the fact that this book is really a great a superhero team book.  It feels like “British Avengers” to me, and that’s a great compliment.  While I’ve waited a while for Captain Britain to get some love since Alan Moore and Alan Davis stopped working with him, it’s the secondary characters in this series that really makes it special.

The other characters are Black Knight, Pete Wisdom, Spitfire, and Blade.  Yes, that Blade, he was born in England, even if we don’t recall that and think only about Wesley Snipes!  He’s really a strange character to throw into a team book, but it works, just like those odd team mashups we used to see in The Defenders.  He’s a great contrast to Spitfire.  Spitfire is another one of these Marvel characters with ties back to World War II and the Invaders, but she hasn’t had much development over the past two decades.  I dimly remembered something about Spitfire getting bitten by the vampire called Baron Blood, but I didn’t remember those details until I saw her rip out a Skrull’s throat in issue #1.  When Blade finally meets Spitfire in issue #5, what does he do?  He stakes her, of course!

Dane Whitman, aka the Black Knight, makes a welcome return in this series as well.  He seems a bit more happy-go-lucky here than he has been in the past, when he’s suffered from the curse of the Ebony Blade.  There’s a bit of a mystery around that in issue #7, but Whitman has a charming relationship with a brand new character, Dr. Faiza Hussain.  Hussain has this unique power that allows her to tear apart people and put them back together again.  Later, she becomes the new wielder of Excalibur and joins the team.

Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk are doing outstanding work on this new title.  Cornell’s always had a wonderful way of constructing stories and adding a bit of humor, but there’s a tremendous amount of widescreen action added in here as well.  The first four issues deal with the Skrull invasion of the UK and there are many amazing battle scenes during this arc.  Kirk has really outdone himself with the artwork and storytelling.  I encourage everyone who likes the Avengers to pick up this series.  Nuff said.