Front Lines - Secret Wars (Week of May 27)

Front Lines: By Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

Secret Wars Journal #1

The Arrowhead by Pru Sgen and Ramon Bachs

Summary:  In King Jame’s England, a thief called the Arrowhead has stolen jewels from the Duke of Westchester.  The Arrowhead’s first victim was Kate Bishop, who seems to be trying to track him down with her allies Teddy and Billy.  Meanwhile, the Sherrif’s Punisher claims to have a magic orb which will help find the Arrowhead.  Kate and her allies head to get the orb...because she’s really the Arrowhead.  But it’s a trap.  Kate rushes the guards, giving Billy and Teddy the chance to escape.  Lady Kate will appear again in Siege.

We Worship What We Don't Understand by Matthew Rosebnurh and Luca Pizzari

Summary: In Egyptia, several mutants are conspiring to kill Khonshu, a alleged god who has enslaved all mutantkind.  Logan, Shadowcat, Nightcrawler, and Colossus seek out Moon Knight,  who can show them how to find Khonshu.  In Egyptia, it is forbidden to go out at night.  We find that this is because the land is haunted by werewolves.  The mutants fight there way through the werewolves to get to Khonshu.  They say they no longer want to be slaves.  Khonshu ends up marked the mutants as her own.  They are convinced the current order is best, and they are now werewolves themselves.

Mike Maillaro: Both of these stories seemed based around really cool ideas, but the writing on both seemed determined to tell them in the least interesting way possible.  I was pretty sure Kate was the Arrowhead from pretty much the first panel.  It was cool to see Hulkling and Wiccan with her, but unless you are a Young Avengers fan, that probably went right past most people.

I also am not quite sure what the purpose of this book was.  It seems like last week’s Battleworld is already there to tell random stories from around Battleworld.  And those stories were much better than these.  I really feel like I got two badly told stories with a ton of untapped potential here.  

Score: 2/5

M.O.D.O.K. Assassin #1 by Christopher Yost and Amilcar Pinna

Summary: M.O.D.O.K.’s computer mind won’t let him accept the idea that Doom is a God who created this entire Battleworld.  Meanwhile, the Assassin’s Guide has sent Bullseye to kill a scietnts named Otto Octavius.  MODOK kills Bullseye.  And then kills Octavius.  Octavius had stolen Sentinel technology from AIM...illegal technology.  Baron Mordo and Clea arrive to confront MODOK, warning him that he need’s to obey Doom’s law or it will end badly for him.

MODOK heads back to his region, Killville.  Remy Lebeau, a mutant from the Monarchy of M, escape Sentinel Territory by slipping into Killville.  MODOK destroys the Sentinels...and then kills Remy for good measure.  Then Angela (one of Doom’s Thor Corps) comes crashing down.  MODOK’s programming is conflicted.  He wants to kill a Thor...but he also finds her quite lovely.

Gina Maillaro: MODOK Assassin gives a good look at the layout of Battleworld, taking the time to explain exactly what domains surround Killville.  The concept of Killville was interesting for a one-shot, but I can’t see it being maintained all that long.  MODOK’s incessant monologuing, while interesting in showing us the understanding of Battleworld lacks the cleverness and wit of Spider-Man, which he seemed to be going for.   3/5

Old Man Logan #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Andrea Sorrentino

Summary: This issue starts with a few thugs sitting around playing cards wearing costumes of dead heroes like Daredevil and Iron Man.  They are talking about rumors of someone killing the Hulks.  A stranger enters and accuses they of stealing and selling kids.  It’s Old Man Logan!  He slices them up, freeing their victims. But the victims seem to have some Stockholm Syndrome and no idea what to do with themselves now.  One of the kids pulls a gun on Logan for killing his “paw.”  He promises to kill Logan when he grows up.  

Logan returns home and tells Dani Cage that he keeps feeling something is wrong with the world and he intends to find out what it is.  He rides into a town called Hammer Fallls carrying an Ultron head he found in the desert and finds Emma Frost dying from gunshots from a gang called the Punishers.  Logan decides to climb over the Shield Wall to see if he can find answers there.

Mike Maillaro: Two things up front:

1. This was one of the few Secret Wars tie-ins that took the time to give us some exposition in the summary page to explain the world.  That was definitely appreciated. I have never read Old Man Logan, and I immediately felt more comfortable about what to expect.

2. I can’t help but wonder why Doom included the worlds he did in his Battleworld.  I understand it from a creative and sales perspective, but when I look at it “kayfabe,” there are some damn strange choices here.  This one included.

Grey: Dude, go read my copy of Old Man Logan, it’s the best non-Ultimates thing Mark Millar did for Marvel. But yeah, the worlds are pretty much a crap shoot of what writers wanted to deal with, which has led to a giant grouping of realities that are clearly handled by marketing and editorial. I mean, for fucks sake, the AoA AND House of M are getting Battleworld sections.

Mike: I actually was kind of hoping they got Millar back for this.  Bendis did a pretty good job here (though Bendis’s obsession with Emma, who makes no sense for this story, is a little creepy), but so many of Bendis’s books read exactly the same.  

Grey: I call shenanigans that an Emma who is bleeding out that heavily can maintain any sort of telepathic illusion.

Mike: Yeah, that whole thing felt real strained.  And it made no sense in terms of the story.  Wolverine is looking for Ultrons...so stops in a town wiped out by The Punishers...who don’t even appear in this issue… to find Emma who is already dead.  And then Wolverine decides to go climb up the Shield Wall.  Uhm...okay. Good luck with that.  As usual, Wolverine proves why he was never the leader of the X-Men when there were better options around.

Grey: That’s kinda what Old Man Logan was. He went on a road trip and it was just random shit after random shit to show you how messed up the world was.

I’m really interested to see how Marvel intends to work him in post Secret Wars, because everything I’m hearing says he’s joining Miles in the list of characters making the move to the mainstream universe.

Mike: It seems like Logan (like the Spiders in Spider-Verse) have a strong sense that something is off with the current state of the world.  Maybe whatever he finds over the Shield Wall will allow him to stay around after this Secret Wars mess finishes up.  I actually think that would work real well. A grizzled Wolvie, finally showing his age.  This way Marvel gets Wolvie back, and doesn’t have to give us a ridiculous resurrection story.  

And like Miles, this would be a different Wolverine than the one we knew and love all those years.  He can hang out with old, cranky Steve Rogers.  They can be “Hard of Hearing Travelling heroes.”

Grey: I’m going to have to assume that Wolverines doesn’t end with Wolverine returning. I mean, it should end with X-23 becoming Wolverine, because she’s awesome and deserves it, but what’s the point of Wolverines if he doesn’t come back?

Mike: I like Charles Soule, but I was so burned out by Death of Wolverine I just couldn’t bring myself to buy Wolverines or even care.  Uncanny Avengers already seems to claim Sabretooth is the new Wolverine...but it’s probably best to just forget that book even exists…

Grey: I read Wolverines long enough to realize I’d wasted over twenty dollars reading it.

Mike: I have to go with a 3.5/5 for this one.  Like a lot of the Secret Wars books, I mostly enjoyed it, but it just feels like it’s not quite hitting the right mark for me.

Grey: I’ll second the 3.5/5, though I’m close to bumping it to a four. I love the art, like, absolutely love it. But, I mean, I loved it when Andrea was drawing Green Arrow, too.

The Infinity Gauntlet #1 by Dustin Weaver and Gerry Duggan

Summary: We meet a family living like refugees in a bombed out city.  Some kind of bugs ravaged this place, and it’s uncertain if there are any other survivors. Novas tried to stop them (including the mother of the family), but they were defeated, presumed dead.  The bugs return, and the family is forced to scatter to survive. The youngest daughter ends up stumbling into one of the bugs’ nests.  Pissed at her mother and the bugs, the girl manages to kill a bug with her bare hands.  Inside the bug is a glowing blue rock (presumingly the Mind Gem).  Suddenly a streak of light appears overhead.  It’s her mother returned to save the day.  As they reunite, Thanos watches from a distance, clutching an orange glowing stone of his own (presumingly the Time Gem).

Mike Maillaro: This was a very different story than anything we had seen in Secret Wars so far.  I really loved having this more human perspective of what it’s like when aliens or super villains cause damage.  The characters were deep and well realized considering we won’t likely see most of them ever again.  I did like a lot of this issue, but it really could have used a little more specifics.  Where did these bugs come from?  Assuming this is one of the regions of Doomworld, it seems strange that these bugs destroyed the city, and no Thors showed up to protect it.  And I hate this new look for Thanos and the Infinity Gems inspired by the movies.  Thanos and The Infinity Gauntlet were huge for me when I started reading comics, and I definitely didn’t like these changes.

Grey: I LOVED this book. I mean, it had no real purpose until the end, and was full set up, but I loved the art, loved the idea of the Annihilation Wave crushing Earth, and I even loved Thanos in his Wild West duster. Really fun issue that I almost skipped entirely.

Maillaro: ::Smack forehead:: I didn’t make the Annihilation Wave connection at all.  I kept thinking “What’s with all these damn bugs??”

Grey: Yup, it’s the section of Battle World where the wave slaughtered the Nova’s and got to Earth.

Maillaro: Now I feel like an idiot.  See, this is why Marvel needs to do a better job explaining what each world is all about.  They did it in Old Man Logan...but that was about it.  I still can’t figure out if Arcadia (A-Force) is supposed to be Themyscira...and if so, what’s Namor doing there…

Grey: A world full of women and you’re asking why Namor is there? Come on, bro, that’s obvious.

Maillaro: My score for this one is 3.5/5.

Grey: 4.5/5 for me, broski. You know my love of Annihilation.

Secret Wars 2099 #1 by Peter David and Will Sliney

Summary:  In 2099, a team of Avengers assemble.  We get Hercules and 2099 versions of Hawkeye, Iron Man, Captain America, and Black Widow.  They stop a gang from stealing some gems.  These Avengers are all in the employ of Alchemax...which is being run by Miguel STONE!  It seems in this version of 2099, Miguel O’Hara has embraced his lineage (though he still seems to hate his father).  These Avengers are all flawed characters.  Black Widow seems to be a cannibal. Hercules is a drunk who makes unwanted advances on women.  Iron Man is a dwarf outside of the armor.  Captain America seems hypnotised and has no idea she’s Cap when she takes the costume off.  

At the end of the issue, Iron Man consults Vision, an oracle, who predicts the Avengers are about to face powerful new enemies called the Defenders.

Mike Maillaro:  I actually was a huge 2099 fan in the day and I was really looking forward to this one.  Unfortunately, instead of using the familiar 2099 characters, Marvel decided to once again completely try to recreate 2099.  I hated when they did it with Marvel Knights 2099, and I hated it here.   They could have called this book anything, but by choosing 2099, it gave me certain expectations that just weren’t fulfilled.

I also thought this issue has some odd redundancies. They gave Hawkeye wings...and then later we find out that Captain America has Falcon’s wings too.   There just seemed no point to that.   I did like the idea that Miguel is called Stone here, but there wasn’t a lot about this issue that grabbed me beyond that.  

Grey: Literally the only thing I liked about this issue was Sleeper Agent Cap. I mean, cool concepts and all, but nothing really happened outside of Miguel using his dad’s last name, and Sleeper Agent Cap.

Score: 2.5/5

Where Monsters Dwell #1 by Garth Ennis and Russ Braun

Summary: In a primitive village, the Princess worries because she was impregnated by an outsider named Karl Kaufmann.  Karl promises to ask her father’s permission for marriage.  Karl races off in his plane as she starts to plan the wedding.  

Later, Kaufmann tries to convince a mechanic to fix his plane and allow him to pay later, but the guy knows Karl is a scam artist and refuses.  They are interrupted by the arrival of a woman named Clementine Franklin-Cox looking for directions to the newest train or boat.  She seems to be a rich air head, and Karl convinces her to pay him to fly her to catch up to her husband in Signapore.  As they are about to head out, a horde of horsemen led by a man called No Balls Tong charge them. Apparently, something Kaufmann did caused this poor bastard to lose his junk, so he had reason to be pissed.  They just barely escape, killing Tong in the process. They get caught in a storm and blow off course.  They up end in a herd of Pterodactyls, which damages the plane.  The plane has to make a forced landing Clementine’s airhead routine seems to be fake and she seems to know a lot more about what’s going on here than Karl does.  Karl leans up against what he thinks is a tree….but it’s the leg of a dinosaur.

Mike Maillaro: I absolutely loved this comic!  Ennis has always been one of my favorite writers, and this really was good.  One thing Secret wars has done real well is creating a wide playground for creators to play in.  This was basically a rogue adventurer story in the vein of something like Uncharted or Allan Quartermain, and it worked perfectly.  I had no idea what to expect from this title...I basically only picked it up to be sure we covered all the Secret Wars books. Real glad I did!  5/5

Inferno #1 by Dennis Hopeless and Javier Garron

Summary: Four years ago, Limbo rose up and took Manhattan.  The X-Men there failed to protect the city, and were forced into the Outer Boroughs.  N’astrh has taken Magik to the top of the Empire State Building.  Once a year, on the anniversary of this defeat, Colossus leads a team of X-Men to try and rescue his sister. This time they manage to reach Illyana, though Cyclops is badly wounded in the process.  Illyana has been turned into a demon called Darkchylde.  The X-Men are defeated once more.

A year later, Colossus plans to try again.  Cyclops, now in a wheelchair, refuses.  They have failed too many times and lost too much.  Nightcrawler convinces Cyclops to give them one more try.  Colossus is allowed to take a small team with him consisting of Domino, Nightcrawler, and Boom Boom.  Boom Boom is killed, and Nightcrawler ends up captured by Magik. Dominos is being overwhelmed, but is rescued by the arrival of the Goblin Queen (Madelyne Pryor) and her concubine, Alex Summers.

Gina Maillaro: I thought Inferno was a great concept, but not sure I would have included it in Battleworld.  If this was a self-contained comic, it could have been real good.  But if Doom’s overarching desire was to create his ideal world, why would he care about X-Men and demons?  It also seemed real arbitrary for Colossus to attack exactly once a year...you’d think the demons would see it coming at some point.  Maybe I am just mean, but I thought it was terribly characteristic that Scott would be willing to keep throwing X-Men at the problem...until he himself was injured and then suddenly it occurs to him, “This is too dangerous!  We have to stop!” And yet in universe after universe they keep making him leader of the X-Men.  All in all, this book should be a good read, with or without it’s connection to Secret Wars.  4/5

X-Men ’92 #1 by Chad Bowers, Chris Sims, and Scott Koblish

Summary: Far from Doom’s castle is the domain of Westchester.  In Westchester, the X-Men no longer have to worry about hatred between mutants and humans. Robert Kelly is the baron of this domain. The issue starts with a group of X-Men having a training session in a laser tag arena (Wolverine had damaged the danger room).  Two teams of X-Men face off, but Jubilee enters as a wild card and shoots all six of them with no problem.  Cyclops seems to be taking this all too seriously, so Wolverine decides to get out of there, heading out into the mall to do some shopping.  Suddenly Sentinels arrive to attack the X-Men.  The Sentinels seem to be on the verge of winning before Wolverine returns to turn the tide in the X-Men’s favor.  Baron Kelly arrives in a flying chariot being pulled by Warwolves to say that he was not responsible for this attack.  These were freerange Sentinels that had not been shut down after the “Westchester Wars.”   We also find out that Magneto had been killed a while back and all “evil” mutants had been sent to someplace called the Clear Mountain Institute for rehabilitation.  The X-Men tell Xavier about this facility, and Xavier decides they should go check it out.  Cyclops seems willing to believe the government is on the up and up…and after this mission, he plans on leaving the X-Men.  The X-Men head to the facility and meet it’s director, Cassandra Nova.

Mike Maillaro:  I honestly have no idea what to make of this comic.  I was a huge fan of the X-Men Animated Series back in the 90’s and it was definitely the gateway to me becoming interested in X-Men.  I get that some of the overblown exposition was intentional to keep it in the spirit of the cartoon, but it still came off as annoying at times.  And the art was real inconsistent.  Sometimes it was great, sometimes it wasn’t.  I definitely liked the intent of this comic, but the execution just didn’t quite make it.  BUT, it was only 2 bucks, and I definitely felt like I got my money’s worth out of it, so that should count for something.

Score: 3/5