Always interested when I see anthologies from the either of the Big II, and Dark Reign: The Cabal seven more intriguing due to the obvious relationship or proximity with the current major storylines in the Marvel U. Expectation is heightened, because you see the roster of talent involved writing these 5 stories. With Hickman, Fraction, Milligan, Remender, and Gillen, excluding one (excellent) veteran you have represented in The Cabal a very nice group of (relatively) young, talented writers who have notable, even essential titles like The Nightly News, Pax Romana, Fear Agent, Casanova, and Phonogram to their credit.
– Dr. Doom: . . .And I’ll Get the Land by Jonathan Hickman and Adi Granov
Lots of talented writers at a ton of publishers, and many more representing indie style, but Hickman is a guy that if you’re a DC you have to feel kind of like a jackasess for not grabbing this guy and instantly making one of your eternally popular symbols relevant. What questions were there after Nightly News? I love DC, but Hickman has for me become this prime example of the kind of talent that Marvel seems to be able identify and put to work immediately (ala a Fraction, Swierczynzski, and more recently Remender). In my interview with Matthew Sturges we talked a bit about how very difficult to make what is essentially a sequential-short story work. Hickman just kicks off The Cabal like this is just what he does every day of the week. Hickman’s story plays off of the central Dark Reign story, and current New Avengers storylines involving the Hood. It shows a Doom that is in possession and donning an uncharacteristic red cape. We speak of the first family, and we know that to be the Fantastic Four, but when we talk villains, especially considering the Cabal dynamic – it is Namor and Doom who could lay claim to similar vintage, being key, iconic, characters – and yes villains – in the single digit Fantastic Four issues that were the harbingers of the Marvel Age.
“But my allegiance lies with Doom”
There is certainly some history on the other side of the table, but sitting across from Namor and Doom anybody would be marginalized. Hickman’s tale takes us a year forward from the first meeting of the Cabal and shows a coup by the two mega-icons. The story works because as a reader you wouldn’t mind that the occurrences in this story represented a true outcome. Perhaps it does, but parting words by Namor – and this is not his story – opens the possibility that this is merely an enactment of one of Doom’s many dreams.
With Doom – somebody who has gone beyond the Beyonder and has harnessed the power cosmic – dreams are closer to realistic plans than for any other being in the Marvel U. A man who says, “They are where they belong” (great scene) with the sense of dogmatic certainty that Doom does, has a vision of his own place that doesn’t suffer from ambiguity.
– Emma Frost: How I survived Apocalyptic Fire by Matt Fraction and Daniel Acuna
As somebody who doesn’t follow the X-Men, and having nothing beyond peripheral knowledge of the current happenings in those titles, I was surprised at just how in-tune this story was to what I knew before as a fan of franchise in the early 90’s and prior. For this reason I find its summation and (for me) revelation to be pleasant, but equally a bit unnecessary because of that very familiarity. That said, sometimes unnecessary is actually worse than simply being of low quality, but this isn’t one of those cases. It’s a solid story, but I just tend to view platform like the short form (in a variety of mediums) to further or present something, to cut into something, and not so much be recap. I fully admit, that I could be unable to appreciate this story’s true measure due to the aforementioned gap in my own knowledge, but as is it just didn’t feel needed. I will get into this more below, but more than any of the stories the art in this story really through me off, which is surprising for me because I loved Acuna on Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. In the end this story felt like more of an extended flashback you could find in a regular issue of a standard title, not something that had life of its own. It felt rather un-Fraction, which is disappointing as I would have guessed he would have brought something to the table with this format.
– The Hood: Family Trust by Rick Remender and Max Fiumara
A very recognizable story, but still well executed by a very solid writer in Remender. We know what’s going to happen; we’ve seen the blueprint before. What I do like here is that Hood’s eulogy goes slightly beyond regurgitating standard mob doctrine, and takes on of a spiritual and religious sermon. This is a tormented soul, and as I mentioned with Bendis in my review of New Avengers#52, it causes me to fondly remember the seminal work by Brian K. Vaughan with the character. A solid addition to the Hood mythos.
– Namor, the Sub Mariner: The Judgment of Namor by Kieron Gillen and Carmine Di Giandomenico
For some reason when I saw the first page I thought of Keith Giffen’s Trencher, which I haven’t laid eyes on in probably 15 years. As much as I value Giffen’s career as a storyteller, that’s not an initial reaction that should be viewed as a compliment. The title reveals the basic idea. Excluding acting as a supporting story to give more depth to the man who would side with Doom, I found this piece rather valueless on its own. It’s essentially a story that reveals nothing by being told; nothing that the title wouldn’t have anyone guess to begin with.
– Loki: Dinner with Doom by Peter Milligan and Tonci Zonjic
Again, a retelling of an almost archetypical story with no deviation excluding that they are employing Marvel characters. I’m a big fan of Milligan, and while there are some interesting bits like Doom’s home being full of portraits of himself, but in cases like this I’m exercising an almost too aggressive opposite of nitpicking. The choice of having Doom in this story threatens to drown Loki out, as the same presence that makes Hickman’s story work has a diminishing effect on a story that (one surmises) is supposed to be about Loki. While I certainly don’t forward the notion that a characters has to be the master of their stories, Doom seems to loom large in this issue as a whole, even if indirectly.
If you’ve read other editions of Jan-ken-pon you may know that I’m a pretty forgiving comic book fan when it comes to art. Sure, I do have those artists that I really LOVE, but for the most part you’ll find that I don’t talk a lot about the art in reviews. I’m not trained in any of the mediums used to bring the images to comics so I don’t have much to say about the technical aspect(s) an artist/colorist/inker may employ (for positive or negative), and I just tend to be a comic reader whose primary doesn’t focus on art, and initially I only notice it under extreme condition as long as it’s not so jarring that it takes me out of my process of reading the story. Because I’m a pushover, it’s rather amazing that an issue like a Dark Reign: The Cabal#1 can exist. It features 5 stories, by 5 different artists, and I wasn’t really feeling any of the art. It’s one of those deals where I don’t know what ‘this’ is (or ‘these’ are)– I just know that I didn’t dig it at all. I do get the desire to differentiate each arc visually in an anthology but I think it might have been over-considered. Beyond an aforementioned bondage scene, at its heights the art in this issue is passable, which would be an absolutely fine for a reader like me, but these are rare instances, and I found myself getting thrown out of the story by having to note and remark upon the art. It’s not at all a coincidence that the least obtrusive for me visually came from the story that I felt was decisively the most enjoyable of the issue (Hickman and Granov’s).
While Hickman is able to make something happen, I think conceptually Dark Reign: Dark Cabal became a project that would have difficulty in ever truly being of interest to me– a too pat, too unabashed, Marvel character plug-in and parallel to fundamental stories we’ve seen before. I noticed that with the 5 stories, 5 writers, and 5 artists, were also 5 editors. It’s my assumption that they were all on-board to keep stories straight with related material (X-Men, Thor, Avengers, The Hood Dark Reign mini etc), but a part of me wonders what this issue would have been like if it was more concerned with its self. Then again, the nature of the Dark Reign tag precludes that, it still would be interesting to see a project with these types of writers assembled. As is the issue rightfully wows via the names attached, but 4 of the 5 stories could have been written by anyone. Thus, the talent level actually lends in escalating disappointment, causing The Cabal to come off as something just packaged to move – and not to move.
- Jay Tomio
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. Some call him the Bodhisattva.
