Comic Review: X-Men - X-Tinction Agenda

PUBLISHER: MARVEL (1990-1991)
WRITERS: CHRIS CLAREMONT, LOUISE SIMONSON
ARTISTS: JIM LEE, ROB LIEFIELD, JON BOGDANOVE

This is it, the progenitor, the prototype, the big daddy - the first real mutant crossover, the harbinger of "X-Cutioner's Song", "Fatal Attractions", "Age of Apocalypse" and "Onslaught". Marvel's mutant titles had done events before, starting with "Fall of the Mutants" in 1988 and "Inferno" the following year but for those each title had remained relatively self-contained. But 1990's "X-Tinction Agenda" featured a full flow of three issues of the three books with a constantly shifting cast; if you didn't buy all nine issues involved you would not have a clue what was happening and while each title would subtly focus ever so slightly on the home team it was only as part of an ongoing plot.

Comic Review: Heroes Reborn Part 10 - Heroes Reunited

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1997
WRITERS: JIM LEE, BRANDON CHOI, WALT SIMONSON, JEPH LOEB
ARTISTS: RON LIM, BRETT BOOTH, MICHAEL RYAN, ANTHONY WYNN, ED BENES, TERRY SHOEMAKER, MIKE MILLER, JOE BENNETT

Much of the second half of the Heroes Reborn titles (especially Fantastic Four) were given over to the build-up to the arrival of Galactus and the twelfth issue of the four titles, all 48 pagers, covered this in "Heroes Reunited". As the name suggested this saw the Fantastic Four, the Avengers and the various supporting characters from Iron Man and Captain America all muck in against the big purple planet eater. The odd thing is, though, that it's an anti-crossover in a way - each title effectively has its' own crack.

In the first three instances the heroes lose, the sole survivor being a time-jumping Victor von Doom who works out what's needed by trial and error. It's an interesting approach for sure, and in Fantastic Four #12 at least has some shock value as people start dying. After that it gets a bit predictable and the Avengers & Iron Man instalments especially feel like treading water now the format's been blown but the creative teams all take some pleasure in killing off everyone else's characters early doors (the Fantastic Four getting ICBM'd about a quarter of the way through the Avengers #12 is the peak).

The non-central cast only really get a workout in their own books - the Inhumans are only really seen in Fantastic Four (and then briefly, certainly not enough to justify the time wasted introducing them), the full Avengers roster (including a repaired Vision) only gets much to do in their own book, Iron Man #12 is the only one to pretend that the Hulkbusters are in on this and Captain America #12 is the only one to bring Falcon and Bucky into things.

The final issue featured Doom's time travel equipment damaged, making the fourth attempt all or nothing. Convenient, that. After a promising start the finale is weak, the Silver Surfer being persuaded to fight against Galactus entirely by Bucky being stupid and then defeating him fairly easily before some wrap-up stuff for Cap's solo storylines, making for an underwhelming conclusion.

While it's a marked improvement on Industrial Revolution it's another weak crossover, this time due to a botched format experiment that isn't without promise but only works once rather than the three times it's actually used. It ensures that the last real event of the Heroes Reborn universe is as much of a failure as everything else.

Comic Review: Heroes Reborn Part 8 - Iron Man #7-11

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1997
WRITERS: SCOTT LOBDELL, JEPH LOEB, JIM LEE
ARTISTS: RYAN BENJAMIN, WHILCE PORTACIO 

The dash towards the end of Heroes Reborn produced some very poor comics but once again Iron Man came through relatively well due to the writers opting to concentrate on their own ideas instead of just cramming cameos in. Jeph Loeb does wash up as writer but he's largely working from Scott Lobdell's plotting and doesn't do too much harm while intermittent pages from Whilce Portacio not only add a little visual continuity but also mean it comes closest to keeping its' superstar artist.

This means that the issues we get aren't wasting time undermining previous work. There's a nice organic plot featuring the return of Rebel Reilly, the believed-dead original armour test pilot. He comes back initially as a catspaw of Hydra, who are working really for the Mandarin who in turn is really a front for Victor von Doom. It flows better than it sounds, trust me. There are inevitably heavy references to the main Marvel Universe, notably a trip through famous classics courtesy of von Doom's time travel equipment and references to how Rebel (created for the Heroes Reborn universe) always felt like he didn't belong. Uatu then turns up and says as much.

Pepper takes a relative back seat which is a shame, while Happy gets some panel time only to die almost immediately. Maybe; he's upgraded to alive out out of nowhere in the closing issues or no readily apparent reason. While it gets off relatively lightly for cast congestion there is a predictable return from the dead for Bruce Banner while Jasper Sitwell's torture of Doc Samson with gamma radiation turns the good doctor into the Abomination, though only for a few frames before some handwaved blood transfusion with Jennifer Walters leaves him as a ripped green-haired version of his human self and her as She-Hulk, the trio forming the Hulkbusters on the last page of #11.

In among all of this Tony Stark comes through quite well, as does von Doom. It is not a great comic, nothing compared to most of the title's back catalogue or much of what was to come. However there aren't a great many of occasions when you feel like punching yourself in the balls for reading it. 

Comic Review: Heroes Reborn Part 6 - Fantastic Four #7-11

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1997
WRITERS: JIM LEE, BRANDON CHOI
ARTISTS: BRETT BOOTH, RON LIM

Post-'Industrial Revolution' it was clear the Heroes Reborn universe would be rejoining the main Marvel universe to some extent sooner rather than later; solid reasons why are hard to find from credible sources during a time of considerable upheaval for the House of Ideas. It might have been that new management felt such big properties should be in-house, that sales were disappointing, that the critical backlash had an effect,, that it was a short-term plan to generate publicity or none of those things or all of them.

The decision was made to have the last two issues of each Heroes Reborn title be a crossover, with the dangling possibility floated that the universe would be actually destroyed by Galactus. Thus there was effectively five issues of each to get from the state of affairs seen in the 'Industrial Revolution' crossover in the sixth issue of each to the 'Heroes Reunited' storyline in the twelfth.

This halfway point saw many of the creative teams reorganised; Fantastic Four would continue with storylines plotted by Wildstorm founder Jim Lee and writer Brandon Choi but Lee stopped contributing interior art. Brett Booth, best known for his work on the early issues of Stormwatch alongside Lee, comes in and does a decent replica job for a few issues before handing over to cosmic crossover specialist Ron Lim.

Plotwise it's the same breathless stream of introductions as the first chunk of issues but here it seems masochistic, like Wildstorm want to do their version of the Negative Zone (and Burstaar), the Inhumans (overkill as only Crystal was actually brought into the universe) and the Heralds of Galactus. None of this gets much development; the Negative Zone serves the narrative purpose of allowing a few fun flashbacks to earlier adventures (including mention of Franklin Richards) and showing the growing realisation of the characters that something is badly amiss with the universe. 

After that it's a rush off to Attilan to meet the Inhumans and another predictable "fight through misunderstanding then all become friends" story. Interspersed with all of this are introductions to three of the Heralds - Firelord, Plasma and Terrax, who turns up to fight the group and deliver official notice of Galactus' imminent arrival. All of which is overcomplication as the already-established Silver Surfer and maybe Terrax could have covered most of what they add to the plot advancement; they just take up pages. It might have made sense if Jim Lee was still drawing and wanted to put his stamp on the characters but as it is it's just bizarre; the Inhumans will also make minimal impact on the later crossover despite foreshadowing Galactus and you're left wondering why we need a remake of how they met the F4 at this juncture.

The Four themselves are reduced to a bunch of stock phrases with the odd bit of soap opera thrown in (Sue's inexplicably pregnant! Johnny and Crystal fall in love immediately) and by now there's basically no point in them being separate from their regular incarnations - Sue's business position or Johnny's casino antics aren't mentioned, for example. They're just the first family of superheroes like they were six months before.

Comic Review: Heroes Reborn Part 5 - Industrial Revolution

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1997
WRITERS: JIM LEE, BRANDON CHOI, JEPH LOEB, SCOTT LOBDELL
ARTISTS: JIM LEE, ROB LIEFIELD, RYAN BENJAMIN

The sixth issue of each of the heroes reborn titles saw a crossover drawing all the characters together - although there had already been some overlap. So it's a bit of a damp squib anyway even before the scant content. The storyline tentatively starts in Fantastic Four #6 but really it concerns tidying up the whole Latveria Doctor Doom/Silver Surfer/Super Skrull storyline - including linking the four's powers to those of the surfer and the first glimpse of this universe's galactus. Then at the end they're alerted to a situation brewing at Avengers Island.  

 

There the gamma reactor used for whatever the avengers need power for that requires a gamma reactor being built under a superhero base is going critical in their tussle with the Hulk. The Four and Iron Man head in to help - requiring Hawkeye and the Swordsman to be invalided out of the plot. Everyone meets up, speaks platitudes to each other and then Bruce Banner sacrifices himself (or likely not) for the second time in seven issues trying to save the ever-imperiled Eastern seaboard from gamma meltdown. Avengers Island still gets wasted but without any other casualties, the reactor being saved even if the team's base in trashed. Apart from maybe Hellcat, who Lobdell loses track of, and the Scarlet Witch, who's involved in some posession subplot that doesn't seem to be going anywhere good. And there's no mention of Hank Pym or the Vision either. There is a fleeting hallucination of Onslaught in the island's reactor, however, the first real glimpse that how the Heroes got where they are might be a plot point.
 

That just about stretches to filling Avengers #6 and Iron Man #6, so there's still Captain America's contribution. Occe again the dynamic team of Loeb and Liefield manage to drop the standard because most of it is a random battle aboard the SHIELD helicarrier between AIM, Modok and Zemo on one side with Cap and Cable on the other. Yeah, Cable, Liefield's creation from the main Marvel Universe turning up somehow thanks to time travel magic to big Cap up for 18 pages of awful splash pages while Bucky inexplicably tells everyone she just had a piss. Cable's snapped away at the end, realising the Heroes are still alive and needs to find out where. Which is a nice plot avenue that doesn't really ring true as it's hard to imagine Cable giving much of a toss about Iron Man or the Human Torch. The dialogue and actual plotting meanwhile are so bad; it's just a random fight scene with Cap spouting catchphrases about stopping Nazis like he's in a first gen licensed tie-in game while Cable creams at how inspiring he is. Oh and in the last couple of pages someone reminds him it's part of the crossover and the Avengers and Iron Man materialise in Nick Fury's office to tell him Tony Stark will be taking over the team. In a splash page.
 

Not only could this huge plot point have taken up page space otherwise used establishing that Bucky needs to read a sign to remind her to wash her hands after a slash but it also reverts much of the setup to pre-Onslaught formatting, making the first arcs of three of the books totally pointless. An apt summary for a poor crossover even on charitable relative terms.

Comic Review: Heroes Reborn Part 3 - Iron Man #1-5

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1996
STORY: SCOTT LOBDELL & JIM LEE
ART: WHILCE PORTACIO (#1-3), RYAN BENJAMIN (#4-5)

Aside from scribbling an outline Jim Lee had little input into the second title Wildstorm handled during Heroes Reborn; instead it benefited from the presence of an actual proper comic writer in the form of the underrated (and I will fight anyone who thinks otherwise) Scott Lobdell while art was handled, initially at least, by Whilce Portacio, who joined up with Image along with the others but not as a partner. Like The Avengers, Iron Man was not in a good place when it was 'cancelled'; the series had slumped into a series of regurgitated plots in the nineties, with Tony Stark becoming an alcoholic, Tony Stark faking his death, Tony Stark getting Rhodey to be Iron Man, Tony Stark turning out to be a secret villain, Tony Stark getting killed off, Tony Stark being replaced by a teenage version of himself, etc, etc and so on.

Heroes Reborn allowed something of a rollback with the same revised origin as before as cold calculating business bastard adult Tony Stark gets injured by some shrapnel to the heart and becomes Iron Man to save himself, simultaneously having something of an epiphany and deciding to be less of an arsehole. There are some interesting tweaks here, though - one of the Heroes Reborn event's neater ideas is that Tony, Reed Richards, Victor von Doom, Bruce Banner and one Rebel Reilly were college buddies, styling themselves the Knights of the Atomic Round Table before various circumstances derail them from their utopian vision. Tony's fall was largely precipitated by fall-out from the death of the aforementioned Rebel (made up for these stories) while testing the Promethium armour Stark then dons as Iron Man, which is a better explanation for the guy having a battle suit floating around than having built one in a cave.

Another fun addition is Bruce Banner as a supporting character; the Hulk split in two during the closing moments of the Onslaught event, Bruce throwing himself in after the Avengers while the Hulk was left in the main Marvel universe as a bestial nutcase without Banner's personality elements, his title continuing. The Reborn versions of Leonard Samson, Betty Ross and Thunderbolt Ross are all in the cast, along with forgotten Iron Man regulars Pepper Potts (smack bang back in the middle of the story), Happy Hogan and Jasper Sitwell are also in the mix. However, Lobdell is a master of this sort of thing and most of them get some meat on the bones. Iron Man is kept largely clear of the Avengers at this stage as well.

The primary villains are Hydra, whose assault on Stark International gives Tony his heart injury and also sees Bruce - part of SI, constantly trying to find some conscience in his old friend - seemingly sacrifice himself keeping a government-backed gamma bomb out of their hands and getting turned into the Hulk for his trouble. Additional appearances come from a guesting Fantastic Four, a victim of Stark's corporate raiding who turns himself into the new Living Laser and then dies almost immediately and Whirlwind, who Stark doesn't even bother to armour up for. If there's a weak point it's the antagonists.

Portacio's art is as highly stylised as ever, all long necks and hanging locks of hair. It's not the prettiest of styles but it's easy to follow what's going on even if the early issues feature a lot of guys with longish black hair in suits, while I've always liked the armour redesign. Ryan Benjamin follows the style more or less with maybe less overt distortion but overall it's only behind Jim Lee's work on F4. Or only ahead of Liefield's on everything else if you're half-glass full.

The first chunk of Iron Man is no classic but to be the best start to a Heroes Reborn title it doesn't have to be, really. It's an entertainingly different start to Iron Man, a decent modernisation with a lot going on, even if that means by law of averages a couple of bits are silly.

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Comic Review: Heroes Reborn Part 1 - Fantastic Four #1-5

PUBLISHER: MARVEL, 1996
PLOT & PENCILS: JIM LEE
SCRIPT: BRANDON CHOI

In the mid-1990s Marvel had a bit of a problem; anything X-Men and Spider-Man related was selling well, anything else really wasn't. The Avengers and its' satellite titles - Captain America, Iron Man, Mighty Thor and several smaller series - weren't selling well at all and neither was the venerable Fantastic 4. Part of the problem was a sequence of ever-convoluted storylines and retcons, most notably The Crossing event which saw Tony Stark outed as a bad guy, killed off and replaced by an alternate reality teenage version - this being in the days when Marvel would actually keep stupid ideas like that it continuity rather than the current method of just pretending they didn't happen.

The solution was a pair of publicity stunts; these groups would be tied into the gigantic X-Men led Onslaught crossover and 'killed off' - and by killed off it means shunted into a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards, though this precise revelation would at least be teased out. In the meantime for part two of the event their old ongoings were cancelled (with the exception of Thor's book, which returned to the name Journey into Mystery and covered other Asgardian happenings) and the books were relaunched with a new #1, always Marvel's default idea for anything in 1996.

For further attention the books were 'outsourced' - while still actually remaining under Marvel branding the actual content was handed to former employees at Image, in the form of Jim Lee's Wildstorm and Rob Liefield's Awesome Comics, for 12 months. This was a smart idea; regardless of the merits of either both were sales gold at the time and embracing big name creators rather than losing talent was something of a new direction for Marvel, who had a rigid structure and was still overrun by long-serving staffers.

Wildstorm took over production of Fantastic Four and Iron Man and the decision was made to do a new if not fresh origin for each group. Fantastic Four benefited from the pencils of Jim Lee himself, who also laid down the framework for the altered reality. Much of the basics are the same; like the later Ultimate universe it's more of an update as once again a situation is contrived to get scientist Reed Richards, his squeeze Susan Storm (here a high ranking executive in the Storm Foundation business empire), her brother Johnny (who handles the Foundation's casino in Las Vegas) and their broken down pilot friend Ben Grimm into a spacecraft in time to get a healthy dose of cosmic radiation - thus ending up with Fantastic powers.

The leaden dropping of the word fantastic, the characters' self-selected superhero names, the ease with which they deal with their transformations, Sue creating the team logos out of electrical tape and the general lampshading of the situation makes you wonder why they bothered with an origin story instead of starting up with the Four in full flow after a brief summary or even just handle it in flashbacks and dialogue, such is the level of discomfort in meshing the Silver Age cheese and modern trappings.

Still, once that's done Lee and Choi don't hang around, rapidly introducing us to the pocket universe's versions of Mole Man the Black Panther, the Silver Surfer, Doctor Doom and the Super Skrull across six issues - not to mention Alicia Masters and Wyatt Wingfoot, plus Namor. An odd thing that would run across all four titles is that not all of these were actually swallowed up by Onslaught, which can be explained by Franklin drawing on his knowledge of the heroes to fill out the world but does also somewhat go against the spirit of things.

The flow and speed actually helps and once again harks back to the Silver Age when in the early issues Fantastic Four really was like that with a future legend debuting every issue or so. It's not a bad read, it's just not an especially good one either, with the price of the brake-neck speed being an abundance of infodump speeches and busy frames packed with narration boxes. Jim Lee's work is similarly adequate, though I've never personally considered him much more than a good superhero artist rather than a genuine great. He doesn't do a bad job or anything but there's nothing to get excited about here.

Comic Review - Stormwatch Volume 2: Lightning Strikes

The second volume of Warren Ellis' excellent Stormwatch run contains arguably the weakest set of stories from the first volume. This is relative, of course, and it's still good stuff. The first three episodes focus almost entirely on single characters.