Issue #128

January 21st, 2008

This odd thing happened to me yesterday. I read a comic and I found myself excited about the Marvel U.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve enjoyed several Marvel titles over the last few years. Books like (but not limited to) Agents of Atlas, Omega the Unknown, Immortal Iron Fist, Next Wave, X-Factor, and early Runaways , were really top-notch reads. But, even with larger arcs like Planet Hulk and Annihilation being examples of reads I’d put in a similar category, I have found that my interests in the real moving and shaking in the Marvel Universe to be rather low since Civil War*. Somebody like a Brubaker gets a lot of credit (rightly so) for numerous things about his run in Captain America, but the true genius has been the dexterity in his side-step to semi-autonomy in keeping such a central character (or mantle of ) in the greater fabric of current Marvel Universe happenstance much to himself. It’s why that book was (to me) able to maintain a high level while still being intrinsic in greater Marvel events.

This is relevant as lately my stance with Marvel has been to try to identity and find quality reads occurring in the shadows of, around, or nowhere near wherever the Flagship Avengers happens to be. Even as a SF fan (and huge Marvel cosmic fan), the entire notion of the Skrull’s invasion really didn’t hold my interest. Too pat, and too easily identifiable as a reunification device. Beyond all the ‘how we got here’ (which DC had to go through recently with its Countdown fiasco), after reading this issue, I’m on board – even if the phrase is followed with a tentative “for now”. I perfectly understand that the comic medium lends itself to – and is completely unique – because of being able to go from one major change to another with no change in cost. That said, as somebody trying to get back into the Marvel-mainstream that Bendis is very much the pilot of, I find myself looking for something other than what I identify as nomadic writing**. I don’t think there is any doubt that Bendis is a quality writer, but I can never shake the feeling that on some level the practice of the idea that creating situations is funner that truly experimenting situations. It’s like Legos. Don’t we all like building? But once we get done, we aren’t long to tear it down and build something else. That’s great fun if you are the builder (or of chaos), but as a reader who has other comics, novels, short fiction, and non-fiction to read, I have to be selfish and emphasize substance or resonance over just the promise of even conceptually sound novelty. This isn’t ‘event backlash” from me as I think each issue of any comic, whether branded as such or not, should be an event. We are coming of an event that literally felt like we were just invaded by an alien army for 5 minutes, which belied Marvel’s admirable marketing efforts of the event itself, and the frame and groundwork that Bendis apparently – we were told – put in place to bring it into fruition. Simply put, getting there and leaving should never be construed as the party itself. We get promise; we get aftermath, but we rarely get down anymore.

What makes Dark Avengers#1 feel different?

A healthy amount of wide-eyed wishful thinking coupled with that we’ve constantly heard that it is this that Quesada was really excited about getting to. That, and it’s just a surprisingly compelling issue that wastes little space, and offers a full thought with promise for more (not the opposite, which seems to be vogue with first issues now). I can take on the admittedly necessary guise of gullibility to buy Osborn’s ascension. I can also appreciate the simple symbolism of him seeming to prefer to have a god walk with him where he goes. There is also an economy to the thought process of Osborne that is satisfying – Bendis didn’t go to left field. As the reader thinks, “well just go find Stark’s armor stash”, he DOES. There is also even within what on the surface would seem like a drastic new order, a beautiful going back to core, fundamental concepts. We’ve seen Namor in the build-up to this – and it doesn’t get more O.G in Marvel than Namor – and this issue hearkens to those fun, first issues when we used to see teams formed in single issues – and Dark Avengers #1 does this very well. Not too long ago, I mentioned how completely uninteresting the character Daken is on all levels, and Bendis’s sheer audacity in threatening to make him relevant is at the very least slightly intriguing. Venom is horrific, and in some ways gets what the symbiote always wanted. Bullseye is in that perpetual chill mode that still seems to promise impending violence – but even he is shocked by Norman. The next two, were the ones I really enjoyed. The Noh Varr moment had gravity but not an unwanted extravagance. Moonstone is just nice, and Sentry . . . well Sentry is still a bitch. You throw in Norman in an ultimate love/hate, disturbing, man-crush move, and you have your Dark Avengers. You look at this issue and even before it, the thought strikes you that this could just be the Thunderbolts given more authority, but then you see an ad for the new Thunderbolts in the issue, and it now looks completely different. Not to mention, rather bad-ass. We can talk about the premise of the Thunderbolts all we want, but it’s not the same even when the difference we are highlighting is aesthetic – no matter what preceded the this is the Avengers. Take it like this – we wouldn’t be especially mad if Ghost Rider, Wolverine Spiderman and Hulk sucked in their own team-up miniseries– it’s worth noting because they sucked as/in the Fantastic Four for a time. Dark Avengers #1 is a no-frills issue, and sometimes that’s used to describe the hated ‘set-up’ of an initial issue, but it’s actually quite effective, and accomplishes in one something it seemed like a Meltzer (a writer that has given us cause to admire him on several other occasions) wanted to try to take a half-dozen to do with his relaunch of JLA. I also think it speaks volumes that few if any of the line-up I mentioned above was a surprise to anybody, yet the issue and the formality of the reveals was still faustian fun. It’s not groundbreaking, but it is solid ground.

There has been discussion of the art leading up to this issue (by Maleev), but Deodato is on point here; great, moody, art that doesn’t lose its identity as a major title coming from Marvel. Bendis has been a part of a number of solid duos in the same circumstance, and Deodato seems not at all interested in taking a back seat– the issue is nice to look at, and the feeling that a shadow is creeping over in every panel over the Marvel U. itself is not lost on any reader. Heroes versus Heroes and Villains and Heroes versus common foe, while dramatic, I found doesn’t strike quite the cord that seeing these usurpers cheesing do. That these pretenders are heavyweights themselves rubs it in our face even more. We witness the launch of a team book bearing the name “Avengers”, and we see charlatans; dangerous charlatans, and while not part of the issue itself, there is a preview for Secret Warriors Declaration #1 that actually adds a nice foil to the contents of the issue. It’s almost cheating in that they were essentially able to slip Captain America into the title itself. The contrast of seeing these ‘Dark’ Avengers posing for cameras just pages before, countered with the visions of Captain America fighting a real war, being a real inspiration, and also of a monument where another warrior honors him adds even more to our distaste for the façade.

It is my hope that this façade lasts long enough to be able to be something that we can call or more importantly feel real, so that when it is overthrown, its absence means something, and has impact beyond the pages it occurs in. I’m choosing to stand close to what is with little doubt not far from the next epicenter of the Marvel Universe for the first time since Grant Morrison was writing X-Men. Let something grow before you tear it down; just building it isn’t good enough, and we actually get a rather effective brief moment in-story that illustrates what I speak of.

Go with Doom.

_{*I cut a good paragraph that meanders more than usual. I didn’t enjoy, but cannot deny or fail to admire its bottom line effectiveness.
** I want to note that I don’t think imply that this is a Bendis practice. It’s more of an assertion that it’s a Marvel practice, and even more aptly, a Big II practice in general as of late. Indeed, it may not be a ‘practice’ at all and may just be ‘policy’. It was probably dumb for me to mention it.}

_{Jan-ken-pon is the time traveling, force-walking, multiverse crossing column of Jay Tomio, owner of 1/3 of everything you see currently on screen and the editor of Heliotrope. He sells bootleg Bendis Tapes to afford his pull list. Some call him the Bodhisattva.}