Front Lines - Avengers Standoff & DC Rebirth

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Submitted by Critical Blast Staff on Wed, 02/24/2016 - 07:19

Avengers Standoff Welcome To Pleasant Hill #1 by Nick Spencer and Mark Bagley

Summary: This comic starts with Bucky Barnes. Since Original Sin, Bucky has been in space as “The Man on the Wall” protecting Earth from alien threats. But a cosmic level threat has brought him back to Earth. He slips into a secure SHIELD facility using Steve Rogers access codes. He plays a holographic video. We see a SHIELD lab where something goes wrong and an explosion kills everyone. There is a little girl hiding in the lab. She seems to see Bucky, even though she’s supposed to be a recording. She tells him “want to be safe. Just want to be happy.” SHIELD troops arrive, blasting Bucky.

Recap page: “Six months ago, a mysterious hacker know as The Whisperer leaked files about a top secret SHIELD security protocol codenamed Kobik, which would allow authorities to use cosmic cube fragments to make changes in the fabric of reality without public knowledge.”

We meet a young blond man named Jim. He has memories of Captain America and World War 2. He wakes up in a forest, confused and not remembering much else. A woman finds him and brings him back to the nearby town of Pleasant Hill. He is taken to the doctor’s office and examined. He overhears the doctor and nurse talking about the “program” and some kind of glitch making it so Jim lost his memories. Jim tries to escape, but he’s subdued by SHIELD troops.

Jim wakes up in bed. He tries to steal a car and escape. He’s driven off the road and runs into a force field. He sees a small generator labelled Stark. Again, his knocked out by SHIELD troops.

He wakes up tied to the bed. The Doctor and Nurse tell him he will grow to love it here. A few weeks later, he seems to be trying to fit in. He’s asked what changed. About a week before, he was walking in the woods and encountered the little girl Bucky met earlier in the issue. She is staring at a dead bird. She talks to Jim about helping people find their purpose. She brings the bird back to life. Jim suddenly believes he has a purpose here too. This place is special and important.

A few days later, Jim sees a house on fire. He rushes in to save a baby from the fire. He hears someone else in there and rushes back in. He finds a masked stranger who says he started the fire to get Jim’s attention. This place is all an illusion. He tells Jim that he can show him the truth. He gives Jim the location of a safe place to meet.

The next day, Mayor Hill comes to give Jim an award for his heroism. She wants to know who the mysterious figure was in the house. Jim claims there was no one else there. Hill doesn’t believe him. She tells him to take the night to think about it, come back tomorrow and tell her the truth.

Jim sneaks off to meet the masked man, who is revealed to sort of look like Tony Stark. He tells Jim, “We have had our differences over the years, but I knew you could free us.” Goatee reveals that he was brought here a while ago to start a new life as a guy named Phil. But he started to build devices that were far more complicated than he should have been capable of building. Including a machine that restored his memories.

Goatee shows Jim a SHIELD training video about a town called Pleasant Hill where mind wiped villains could be locked away and no longer be threats. The video also warns SHIELD troops stationed there about the little girl. If she is seen unmonitored, tell a superior immediately.

The man uses his device to restore Jim’s memories. Jim is really Baron Zemo. Goatee is The Fixer. Zemo decides they need to free more villains and turn this place into a SHIELD graveyard. And they need to find this girl.

Mike Maillaro: So Matt and Grey read this one before I did. They both told me this issue had a huge swerve in the end. As as was reading the comic, I was enjoying it, but getting annoyed at them. It seemed obvious to me that Jim was Bucky (Bucky’s real name is James Barnes after all)...but nope, there is a huge and brilliant swerve here!

Matt Graham: I thought Jim was Steve once the Pleasant Hill sequence started. He had blonde hair and blue eyes, the flashback narration leading up to it could have been for either, and I didn’t put stock in the name. I know Marvel has already ruined their fallout from the event before it even began, and with the Cosmic Cube involved I was prepared for a time warped or alternate universe Steve. Maybe the good part about not following all the news or reading all the books is I only have a semi-jaded imagination about these events.

I picked up on something being amiss from that first Pleasant Hill page with the sheriff. I hazarded it would be a prison of sorts. I was wrong about the execution, but here’s how my mind worked reading this issue:

Someone did something with Steve Rogers. Were they cloning him via the Cube? Trying to create a “Best Of” Steve with the Cube in the beginning? They tip their hand very early on that Pleasant Hill is a facility. It’s a purposeful tip to mislead you with false clues. When Dr. Bruce shows up, I thought I had it.

This is a prison where Maria Hill is using the Cube to cordon off the players she doesn’t like and keep them off the world stage. After all, here was Dr. Banner aka The Hulk. I haven’t seen him since the relaunches. He’s someone who can’t be controlled. Clearly Jim wasn’t supposed to be there or acting like they expected, so maybe he was an accident. Then someone else shows up who could be Tony Stark. Has Maria had enough of his swagger? Has SHIELD gone too far into controlling who should be allowed to play the hero?

I was close. I did not see that reveal coming and like all good twists, it clicked into place as you reviewed the story. Blonde hair and blue eyes. Of course Zemo is an Aryan. The dark haired man who likes to build things was shown building firearms. Not the first thing I’d think Tony would subconsciously construct.

That’s how the swerve got me. I’m always working to outthink stories and Nick Spencer gave me enough rope to work with while still hanging me.

Grey Scherl: I seriously only bought this because my shop didn’t get any copies of Squadron Supreme delivered to them, and every Amazing Spidey was horribly damaged. Best impulse buy in ages. Spencer had been using the Cube project as a background story in Captain America to explain Sam’s split from Steve and SHIELD, but for some reason I never expected them to be creating an amnesiac prison town for super villains.

My best guess, while reading the issue, is that something went horribly wrong and now all of the Avengers are around but with no knowledge of who they were. I figured that Nick was Bucky thanks to the opening pages, I figured his bearded tech genius buddy was Tony, and figured Dr. Bruce was Banner, and that Maria Hill was Maria Hill not knowing what was up, or at the very least playing the role of Terrence Howard on Wayward Pines.

Now I understand the upcoming All New All Different Avengers solicit that talks about how they don’t remember who they are anymore. At some point in this crossover that I now am wayyyyy more into than I expected to be, we’re going to see an Avengers team get put in the jail as prisoners.

Matt: Is this the first time we’ve seen Erik Selvig in the non-Cinematic world?

Grey: I think so.

Mike: Wiki says yes! My colleagues basically said everything I wanted to say about this one. Nice surprise for the first issue. We knew Thunderbolts were returning soon, but this was a brilliant way to launch that series. If the first issue is any indication, Avengers Standoff could be a great story. I wonder if this starts the ball rolling for Civil War 2. It seems like an actual real issue that superheroes could fight over, the proper treatment of supervillain prisoners. It’s something comic fans have talked about for years (WHY DOESN’T BATMAN KILL JOKER?).

Score 5 (out of 5)

DC REBIRTH

DC has unveiled its slate of titles launching as part of its "Rebirth" initiative. Of the 32 ongoing titles announced, 15 will ship twice monthly, while the remainder will ship once a month. In addition, DC will publish a number of "Rebirth" one-shots focusing on specific characters. The price point for all of DC's books for "Rebirth" is, according to the publisher, hard-set at $2.99. DC released a video hosted by Geoff Johns previewing this event/initiative:

June:

Rebirth Specials:

AQUAMAN REBIRTH #1
BATMAN REBIRTH #1
THE FLASH REBIRTH #1
GREEN ARROW REBIRTH #1
GREEN LANTERNS REBIRTH #1
SUPERMAN REBIRTH #1
TITANS REBIRTH #1
WONDER WOMAN REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):

AQUAMAN #1
BATMAN #1
THE FLASH #1
GREEN ARROW #1
GREEN LANTERNS #1
SUPERMAN #1
WONDER WOMAN #1

New Issues (Shipping twice monthly):

ACTION COMICS #957
DETECTIVE COMICS #934

July

Rebirth Specials:

BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY REBIRTH #1
HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS REBIRTH #1
THE HELLBLAZER REBIRTH #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE REBIRTH #1
NIGHTWING REBIRTH #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):

HAL JORDAN & THE GREEN LANTERN CORPS #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE #1
NIGHTWING #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly):

BATGIRL #1
BATGIRL & THE BIRDS OF PREY #1
THE HELLBLAZER #1
RED HOOD & THE OUTLAWS #1
THE SUPER-MAN #1
TITANS #1

Fall

Rebirth Specials:

BATMAN BEYOND REBIRTH #1
BLUE BEETLE REBIRTH #1
CYBORG REBIRTH #1
DEATHSTROKE REBIRTH #1
EARTH 2 REBIRTH #1
SUICIDE SQUAD REBIRTH #1
SUPERGIRL REBIRTH #1
TEEN TITANS REBIRTH #1
TRINITY REBIRTH #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping twice monthly):
CYBORG #1
DEATHSTROKE #1
HARLEY QUINN #1
JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA #1
SUICIDE SQUAD #1

New #1 Issues (Shipping monthly):

BATMAN BEYOND #1
BLUE BEETLE #1
EARTH 2 #1
GOTHAM ACADEMY: NEXT SEMESTER #1
SUPERGIRL #1
SUPERWOMAN #1
SUPER SONS #1
TEEN TITANS #1
TRINITY #1

Matt: Going down the line here:

I’ll check out the Aquaman, Green Arrow, Titans, Batman and Wonder Woman Rebirth shots.

There’s word of Tom King on Batman and I like that. I enjoy the majority of what Snyder has done with Batman, but my biggest criticism would be that it felt very removed from the rest of DC. I was reading great Batman comics and it made me feel like a kid discovering ‘92 animated series again. Like that series, however, it felt like Gotham was in a bubble. During the 52 relaunch this kept me invested in Batman but less interested in checking out other titles. It was completely different world from the other titles and stories going on.

Geoff Johns talked about Legacy and a more cohesive universe going forward during his reveal. That appeals to me. DC has some of my favourite characters but is not my favourite company. I tend to stick to the corners of the universe I like its a shared universe aspect in any company or medium that gets me interested in leaving my comfort zone.

Once the first run of Wonder Woman ended I stayed with Batman and Suicide Squad, only venturing out for titles like Black Canary - a character I liked and the only chance I had to see them.

I have heard that Marguerite Bennett will be handling Wonder Woman. I haven’t kept up with Wonder Woman regularly since the Cliff Chiang and Brian Azzarello run outside of Renae De Liz’s Legend of Wonder Woman side title, and Bennett is the writer who can draw me back.

If my comic shop gave me this list and asked for pulls based solely off of what we have here, then I would play it safe:

Batman
Batgirl and the Birds of Prey
Green Arrow
Suicide Squad
Supergirl
Wonder Woman

Titans, Teen Titans, and Harley will get chances to woo me as I have a sense they’re what I’d want. The rest really need to hook me with a creative team or pitch.

Mike: There is a lot of good to talk about here, but first I do want to complain a little. In their rush to push their big licenses, they seemed to have gotten rid of a lot of their more unique series. Starfire, Secret Six, Justice League 3001, Black Canary, Prez, We are Robin, and Robin: Son of Batman all failed to make the cut here. And a lot of those are my favorite DC titles.

I do like that Batman Beyond is still around, and I am glad that Blue Beetle is getting another shot. After Convergence, I was hoping we would get a new Booster Gold series, but that hasn’t appeared yet either. And still no Shazam, Legion or Justice Society. I am hoping there will be some more announcements down the road, but this seems like DC isn’t taking a lot of risks here, and that is a bit of a shame.

I am also surprised that we didn’t get anything Milestone or Wildstorm in these announcements. It seems like DC is really just trying to focus on a few core lines. I am not sure that is the right approach, but I am willing to wait and see before I really get down on this. I actually enjoyed most of the New-52.

I am really curious about the two Titans teams. Titans Hunt has made it clear that Nightwing and company did have a version of the Teen Titans at some point, though someone wiped their memories of it. I am hoping that we will get to see these guys teamed up again. Teen Titans has been kind of creatively bankrupt during New-52, so I am hoping they can find a creative team that can give it a boost.

Grey: Teen Titans has been creatively bankrupt since Geoff Johns left about a decade ago. DC missed the boat by not letting Q or Fabian handle it.

Matt: Now that you mention it, Mike, I am perplexed at no Wildstorm or Milestone. My gut reaction is that what made the cut may be influenced by who made the cuts and what they were fans of. There’s a lot of classic DC here, some spread across a few titles. DC was pretty bold about integrating them for the New 52. Did the other lines fizzle and underperform to justify being shelved?

Johns mentioned in the announcement that Rebirth was for lapsed readers (like myself). Perhaps the feeling in the sales room is the unique titles turned off the old fans and didn’t attract new ones. The focus on core lines is tent poled by DC’s most famous faces and titles with branches of old favourites and safe bets. As a reader who routinely lapses on Marvel and DC these days, I feel like these plans always miss the mark while annoying the current readers.

I’ve said it about Marvel before: It’s not that the characters or titles aren’t interesting. It’s the creative teams or events or editorial direction. Soft resetting a title or an entire line won’t get me back in any faster if I still don’t like what’s happening, and meanwhile the faithful lose what they like.

Grey: The problem with other lines, integrated or not, is that they’re always seen as secondary. Look at the Wildstorm integration into the New 52, they started strong with Stormwatch, Grifter, and Voodoo; they even had Hellspont show up in Superman. Then sales took the dip that tends to come when a book is being treated like a fourth tier book by a fourth tier creative team, and DC quickly ditched all the plots. They put out Team 7, it was awesome, and then they bailed on that too. Look at Static and it was clearly a book thrown together at the last minute, and it never had a chance. It’s like Vince McMahon booking WCW workers, yeah, they’re good and they deserve the push, but he’s always going to yo-yo them or pull the rug out early because they weren’t his creations and thus don’t matter as much.

Which is a shame, because if you own the imprint, and there’s money to be made, there’s no mature and adult reason to bury the potential in favor of trying to push a less popular product that just happened to be your own brainchild.

Then again, there’s always the risk of trying too hard to make something into a thing and totally botching it, like Marvel with every 1602 story to come out after Gaiman did the original.

Mike: You make a lot of valid points. For now, I have to admit, I am waiting to hear creative teams or at least see some solicits before I set up a pull list. But I am hoping there are some real gems here. DC seems dedicated to trying and put some fresh new energy into the line. I am especially curious about The Super-Man, Super Woman, and Super Sons. I can’t even speculate what any of those books might be about, but I am definitely intrigued.

Grey: I’ve got a Super Sons theory. You know that teaser image with the shadowed out characters that, while looking familiar, are rocking brand new costumes? I think it’s a book in some future with the kids of the Justice League teaming up to form a Next Gen Justice League.

Super Woman and Super-Man both had their solicits revealed on BC during the initial announcement. Super-Man is Brian Azzarello writing a super powered Lex Luthor trying to prove that he’s the true hero of Metropolis while still being Luthor, and Super Woman is New 52 Lois with the powers of Pre-FP Superman, while Pre-FP Lois tries to do something about it.

Nope, never mind, BC retracted it and called it a hoax, but I’m totally leaving that there in case Rich got swerved.

Mike: I did forget the one really cool thing about this announcement! DC once again announced they are holding the line at $2.99. Look, I know we’ve had a few DC books creep higher than that, but all in all, DC has done a far better job at Marvel in keeping their prices down, and that seems to be continuing. Even if 75% of their books manage to stay at 3 bucks, they would continue to be the most reasonably priced comic company around.

Grey: I wouldn’t mind the $3.99 books if they came with digital codes, but four bucks with no digital copy for a standard page count? Fuck that noise.

Mike: I am actually surprised that digital codes are not just standard these days. I sort of get that there is a market for these codes and the comic companies aren’t necessarily making sales because of them, BUT, that does bring more eyes to the comic. There are many, many series that I have been hesitant to take a risk on at $4-$5 an issue, but if I was able to buy a digital code for $1 or so, if I like the series, then I will support it in the future.

Grey: The guys at my LCS understand how I do my buying these days, I get Marvel in print because the codes give me the second digital copy, and everything else is digital because I spend more time on my tablet than I do going through longboxes. If DC were to put in the digital codes, I’d likely go back to buying their stuff in print.