Comic Review: Heroes Reborn Part 11 - World War 3

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1997
WRITER: JAMES ROBINSON 
ARTISTS: MIKE WIERINGO, MICHAEL RYAN, LARRY STROMAN, RON LIM

With the 12-issue contract with Image (or more Wildstorm by this stage) done with and a glorious return to in-house at Marvel ready to go the Heroes Reborn universe seemed to have ran its' course. However, a 13th issue of each title still came out, a crossover with Wildstorm's superhero books. Why I'm not sure - maybe as a thanks to the company for stepping in, maybe as a contractual thing, maybe as a last-minute fill-in. There's a certain oddness to the way it's presented in that each issue has nothing on the cover really announcing the presence of the Wildstorm heroes, depending on readers recognising the likes of Maul and Burnout, so it doesn't seem to be to give the Image studio a big money-spinning golden handshake.

The rub is that via the Negative Zone an alliance of Doctor Doom, the Skrulls and the Daemonites have been able to bind the Wildstorm universe and the Heroes Reborn universe together through a dimensional lock and the resulting alliance is winning the battle for Earth. It's really just an excuse for some smashing mix-up team line-ups - the Fantastic Four consist of Reed, Sue, Maul and Burn-Out; the Avengers of Captain America (actually Hadrian from WildCATs), the Scarlet Witch, Thor, Hellstrike, the Swordsman, Freefall and Brass; Stormwatch are Battalion, Hawksmoor, Fuji, Fairchild, Winter, Jenny Sparks, the Vision and Triton of the Inhumans; Wetworks consist of Dane, Jester, Mother-One, Pilgrim and Hawkeye; WildCATs are made up of Lord Emp, Zealot, Goliath, Gorgon, Grifter, Warblade and Void. Iron Man, the Thing, the Human Torch, Namor, Deathblow and the Hulk among those already MIA, Captain America is off being Nomad and Nick Fury's just died, replaced by Jeremy Stone as head of SHIELD - whose main weapon is Dane Whitman's Black Knights. No, Dane didn't get Onslaughted but there he is.

Now, if that's all got your eyes rolling this isn't for you. But I love this kind of mash-up and the writer is the superlative James Robinson, who turns in an 88-page action thriller full of everything you want from a crossover. There are deaths galore, big action set pieces, minimal plot intrusion, smart lines and a general "deal with it" attitude. There's also lots of detail thrown in that makes this amalgamated universe feel more natural than it should and each issue manages a great "oh shit" moment. Most of the Wildstorm characters get short shrift surprisingly though it's not really a story where characterisation is the aim of the game anyway, more just increasingly violent deaths as the combined heroes realise Doom's game and try to separate the universes as much as possible.

It's arguable that part of the success is that the basis in Heroes Reborn is only really recognisable due to a few design choices (like the Iron Man armour) and a few cast choices (fair play to Robinson for remembering the Swordsman when most of the Avengers writers didn't). It all makes for some good balls-to-the-wall comic book fun, something lacking over the preceding year. Sadly, with the copyright situation of the Wildstorm characters now being owned by DC and World War 3 being so minor league a reprint looks unlikely and it does deserve better than that.

Comic Review: Heroes Reborn, Part 9: Captain America #7-11

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1997
WRITER: JAMES ROBINSON
ARTIST: JOE PHILLIPS, TRAVIS CHAREST, AL RIO, JOE BENNETT

While the second halves of Fantastic Four, The Avengers and Iron Man declining in quality, albeit only slightly for the latter, the surprise of the second half of Captain America is a drastic improvement even with a dodgy ending. The key factor is not only the binning of Rob Liefield but also the brief stint of the excellent James Robinson. He came on board when the title was reassigned to Wildstorm and purposefully takes Cap out of the mass of jangled plotlines and on a bike ride to get back in touch with the country. It's an old device that won't be to the taste of anyone who doesn't like Captain America comics anyway but it brings it more in line with Mark Waid's pre-Onslaught work.

Naturally rather than getting to meet the backbone of America he runs into racial supremacy group Sons of the Serpent. Thus follows a few issues of subterfuge and commando raids with Cap being unflappable, firm and principled but not a flt platitude-spouting poser like in the Loeb/Liefield material, with some sharp dialogue and crisp, clean art from Joe Bennett.

However, someone must have told Robinson there were some regulations that required stuffing up any perfectly sensible story. Nick Fury is rapidly revealed to be the head of the Serpent Society, except that he's really not, it's an L.M.D. and the real thing has been in a cell on the Helicarrier since long before the start of the series. This seems to be a response to a belief that Nick wouldn't have done some of the incredibly dicey stuff he does in the series, once again filing any edges that set the Heroes Reborn version out from the Marvel Universe version right off. And it plain doesn't make any sense either, as the real Fury immediately knows everything that's happened since his imprisonment.

Add in a belated appearance by Sam Wilson as the Falcon and Rikki Barnes' rarely-glimpsed Bucky and the last couple of issues are a same. As for the rest while its not bad it falls into the same trap as the good segments of Fantastic Four and Iron Man, in that it's not significantly better than any old run on their normal comics anyway.

Comic Review - Airboy

How to adapt a dated public domain character from a largely obsolete genre? Well, if you're James Robinson and Greg Hinkle you make a comic about how difficult it is to adapt Airboy. Airboy - as the gloriously catty dialogue covers - was a Golden Age pilot title produced by Hillman. Thirty years after they folded and the copyright lapsed serial cheapskates Eclipse picked him up and gave him to Chuck Dixon for a series that developed a solid following before the usual Eclipse nonsense of over saturation killed it.

The Image revival takes the odd for of co-starring semi-fictionalised versions of Robinson and Hinkle looking for inspiration through a drug fuelled bender. Robinson basically has a midlife crisis on the page, some stark self evaluation being laid out with Hinkle as a vaguely disapproving foil. Both get caught up in an orgy of debauchery before a shared drug hallucination sees Airboy pulled into their world,  much to his disgust.

The result is an unusual postmodern comic that's as much about its burnt out writer as about it's nominal star but strangely not in an obnoxious look-at-me way. It's not for all tastes and at times you do feel like you'd rather be reading something more straightforward but it is undeniably a  true original. 

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