Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge: Black and White

A superhero book.

Publication year: 2009
Format: print
Page count: 451
Publisher: Piatkus

Iridium and Jet were best friends when they were in the Corp-Co’s Academy for teenaged extrahumans, training to be superheroes. But five years later, they are sworn enemies. Jet, who has Shadow powers, is New Chicago’s most celebrated heroine, the Lady of the Night, and Iridium, who has light powers, is a supervillain and running the city’s underworld.

Jet has to participate in a media event with the mayor but she’s just looking for an excuse to blow it off. And she gets it, when a call comes in that Iridium has been spotted. Unfortunately, Jet loses the fight and later, she botches up her appearance on a talk show. Then her mentor, Night, tells her that the mayor and the city’s media are mad at her. To get herself back to their good graces, Jet starts to investigate the disappearance of an investigative journalist, Lynda Kidder. Kidder had written a series of articles criticizing the extrahuman heroes and their supporter, the Corp company. Jet also has to deal with her new assistant who is very handsome and charming and flirting like mad.

Meanwhile, Iridium is trying to sabotage Corp and their extrahuman activities. Her father, who is a supervillain and in prison, has found a way to contact someone who could get Iridium inside info. Also, a new vigilante has come to Iridium’s turf. Iridium confronts him only to find out that the vigilante, Taser, hates Corp, too, and would like to help Iridium. Taser has electrical powers and flirts with Iridium every chance he has.

Black and white has a great superhero feel. It’s not too gritty, like Watchmen and the Batman movies, but it’s also not a parody or a comedy. It incorporates the current media and commercial cultures with superheroes. All heroes in New Chicago (and possibly in America) go through training in Corp-Co’s Academy and the company seems to be some sort of parental unit to the extrahumans. There’s a mention that for the under aged students, they can’t refuse medical treatment which the Corp as assigned to them. All of the heroes have to get a rich company to sponsor them, otherwise they are stuck on monitor duty. This means that the heroes will have to do commercials and media events and also live by rules set by the Corp and presumably the sponsor. Corp’s marketing department designs their costumes and decides their code names. They don’t have secret identities.

The book switches between the story of “now” when Jet and Iridium are enemies, and “then” when Jet and Iridium are at the Academy. The “then” parts cover their five years in the academy in short chapters. In the academy parts, Jet and Iridium become fast friends despite their differences: Iridium has a devil-may-care attitude and she’s quick to take offense and fight, when necessary. Jet is shy and introverted. She’s also afraid of her powers because she has seen her own father become crazy and kill her mother right before her eyes when she was a little girl. Also, she hears whispering voices from the shadows, urging her to kill and maim, and that terrifies her. It’s common knowledge that all Shadow powered people go mad eventually. Jet and Iridium have also things in common: they are both ostracized by most of the other students: Iridium because her father is a villain and Jet because of her “dirty” Shadow powers. Thus proving that no matter how much the youngsters are training to become heroes, most of them are typical teenagers. The Academy is also aggressively homophobic.

The personality of Jet in the early Academy years is quite different from the adult Jet. She has gained confidence and life experience during her Academy and hero years. She’s also made doing her heroic duty the primary and only goal in her life. Iridium is still much the same, except that the adult Iri has a burning hatred towards the Corps and wants to bring it down, while the adolescent Iridium has only suspicions and seems to be contrary because life has treated her like shit, and not because of anything specific the Corps has done to her.

Most of the humans seems to adore their heroes but some hate them: the Everyman Society. The Society thinks that extrahumans want to rule all others and want to get rid of them. They don’t consider extrahumans to be humans, but freaks. The police loath the heroes, too.

The story is supposedly set in the year 2112 but it doesn’t feel futuristic to me, but rather an alternate now. The characters watch reality shows on 3D-TV and fly in hover cars but otherwise, the technology doesn’t seem hugely different and Night says that during his active years, 20 years ago? 10 years ago?, they didn’t even have earpieces with the direct link to the operations center. This doesn’t feel like a world which has had iPhones for a hundred years.

I found it a bit curious that Iridium would trust the vigilante so quickly. She doesn’t know anything about him and yet she brings him to her hideaway and tells him about her big plans against the Corp. Similarly, Jet’s new assistant gained her trust a bit too easily.

I would have also liked more descriptions. Most of the places are described only briefly and the characters hardly at all; I think the writers are relying on the reader being familiar with the genre and supplying the descriptions from familiar comic books. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make the setting memorable and I think it could have been. For example, a couple of times there’s a mention of a pollution layer above New Chicago and I’d love to hear more about it. I would have also loved to have more desciptions of the powers and their use. Now, that’s kept to a minimum.

This is first in a planned series but only the second book has come out so far. It doesn’t end in a cliffhanger but the world has changed and is ripe for new adventures.

I really enjoyed Black and White, and I can’t believe it’s been in my TBR for over a year!

 

Essential X-Men Vol. 4

Uncanny X-Men #162-179, Annual #6; X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills

Writer: Chris Claremont
Artists: Paul Smith, Dave Cockrum, John Romita Jr., and Brent Anderson

This is a collection full of classic storylines and characters who are affecting stories even today.

The collection starts with the Brood space adventure storyline. This story is darker than most of the previous ones because the queen of the insect like aliens has infected the X-Men with her eggs. When the eggs hatch, the host will die and the new alien has all of the host’s abilities. Often enough the X-Men face a possible death or injury in battle but this time they have time to think about things and know that there’s no escape. Wolverine even contemplates killing all of his team mates to spare them the agony of what’s to come. Wolverine’s healing powers were able to destroy the egg inside him so he’s the only one without an egg. Colossus, Storm, Kitty, Nightcrawler, Cyclops, and Lilandra have all been affected. However, the group is given a chance to fight for life; instead of just destroying the Brood Queen in a suicide mission, they can save the huge aliens, the Acanti, whom the Brood are enslaving as their living ships. Also, Storm has elemental powers in space!

This story is a milestone also for other characters: Carol Danvers (former Ms. Marvel, the future Warbird of the Avengers) gets Binary powers and joins the Starjammers, and the New Mutants make their first appearance in the X-Men comic although the apparently already had their own comic. When the X-Men are away from Earth, Xavier has recruited another team of young mutants: Cannonball, Karma, Psyche, Sunspot, and Wolfsbane.

Kitty’s pet dragon Lockheed is also introduced.

In issue 168, the Morlocks are introduced. While Caliban made an appearance in an earlier issue, he seemed lonely and not part of a group of mutants. Here, he’s part of the Morlocks, who are deformed mutant who live underground in the sewers, and resent the X-Men for looking like humans and so being able to live in the sunlight. Storm has to fight their leader Callisto for Angel’s freedom and has to face the changes in her since she took over as the team leader.

Madelyne Pryor is introduced and Xavier accepts Rogue into the team.

In retrospect, I find it quite curious that Xavier lets Rogue into the X-Men as soon as he accepts her as his patient. He does this despite the fact that the core X-Men say that they can’t trust the former criminal. That could be a dangerous element in a fight where the team mates have to rely on each other all the time. Not to mention, that Rogue herself doesn’t appear too stable. From a writing point of view, her addition is great; the X-Men have become such a close-knit group of loyal friends that they need a disruptive element. Wolverine used to be such and Kitty to extend is still, because of her inexperience, but they have both already proven themselves reliable.

Then, the X-Men head to Japan to Wolverine’s and Lady Mariko Yashida’s wedding. A mysterious villain stalks them with hints that the Phoenix might be returning while the Silver Samurai and the Viper try to kill Lady Mariko so that the Samurai can become the head of the powerful Yashida clan.

In the final issue Kitty has to face Caliban again and the promises she made in the earlier Morlock adventure.

Storm goes through huge chances here. Throughout the first half of the collection she has to make bitter decisions both as the team leader and as an individual. She vowed long ago that she would never kill but she has to kill the Brood egg inside her and the make the decision to oppose the Brood to the death. Later, she fights a duel with Callisto and essentially kills her. She’s questioning her beliefs and her place in the X-Men, and that also affects her powers and her connection of the Earth. Her feelings affect the weather around her and so she has to keep them under tight control and that’s chafing. Then she meets Yukio in Japan. Yukio is carefree and Ororo envies her. In the end, Ororo decides to stay with the X-Men and accept the changes in her.

Cyclops also goes through changes. He finds out that he’s not an orphan but has a father and grandparents. However, that isn’t explored much, in the end. He has a fling with a sea ship captain and then meets Madelyne Pyror, his future wife and Jean Grey look-a-like.

Kitty is just fourteen at the start of this collection and already she has to face death when the Brood egg hatches. She grows up a lot as is seen in the last issue.

I enjoyed this collection hugely. Because of the way that the Finnish edition of the X-Men was published, I didn’t read these stories first. My first X-Men stories are in the next collection, in the Claremont/ John Romita Jr. era, so I got to see the consequences of some of these stories first; reading Inferno before the first appearance of Pryor.

 

Carolyn Crane: Head Rush

The third book in the urban fantasy trilogy with superheroes.

Publication year: 2012
Format: Audio
Publisher: Audible
Narrator: Rebecca Wiscoky
Running Time: 10 hrs and 47 minutes

Justine Jones is a hypochondriac; she’s convinced that a vein in her head is going to burst and kill her. After all, her mother died of a vein star syndrome. However, she’s found a way to make her fears work for her. For a while she was a ember of the Disillusionists, a group of people who can manifest their fears into other people and hopefully make them reform their lives. Unfortunately, their handsome but manipulative leader Sterling Packard turned out to be a cold-blooded murderer and now he’s on the run.

Meanwhile, Justine is engaged to the man of her dreams. She’s happily, if nervously, planning their wedding but something doesn’t seem quite right.

Head Rush starts immediately after the shocking ending of Double Cross. All of the familiar cast returns, well, the live ones, anyway. We also get to meet Justine’s dad who was a great character. He has a phobia about germs and Justine is afraid that he’ll go the church in his Hazmat suit.

The first half of the book focuses on Justine trying to figure out a mystery which the reader already knows. The book also focuses on the romantic aspect more than the previous books. Unfortunately for me, I don’t really care for the romantic lead and I’m not romance reader. However, the rest of the cast are very entertaining and Justine is a hilarious narrator, when she isn’t angsting.

Still, Head Rush is far more predictable than the previous two books because certain things have to happen to get a romantic happy ending. However, it ties up the plot lines satisfyingly.

Recently, I found out that there are two novellas in the series, but with different point-of-view characters. I’ll probably get them.

The first chapter is available on the author’s site for free.

 

Essential X-Men Vol. 3

Collects Uncanny X-Men #145-161 and Annual 3, 4 and 5

Writer: Chris Claremont
Artists: Dave Cockrum, Joe Rubinstein, Bob McLeod, Bill Sienkiewicz, & Bob Wiacek

This a collection of classic Claremont tales. Most of the stories span a couple of issues and some subplots even five issues.

The collection starts with the X-Men confronting Doctor Doom for the first time. Arcade’s assistant Miss Locke has kidnapped all of the X-Men’s loved ones: Nightcrawler’s girlfriend Amanda, Jean Grey’s parents, Colossus’ little sister Illyana, Angel’s girlfriend Candy, Banshee’s wife Moira MacTaggert, and Kitty’s dance teacher Stevie Hunter. Apparently, Dr. Doom has kidnapped Arcade and Locke wants the X-Men to free him or she will kill the hostages. But Storm has a plan: she recruits old X-Men: Ice Man, Havok, Polaris, and Banshee. The active X-Men (Nightcrawler, Colossus, Storm, Wolverine, and Angel) head over to Doom’s palace and the other team tries to locate and free the hostages.

Dr. Doom captures one team and the other falls victim to Arcade’s Murderworld but of course, the teams manage to fight their way free. Doom encapsulates Storm into solid chrome. Unfortunately, she suffers from claustrophobia and this treatment makes her panic. Her mind gathers up elemental powers while she’s immobile inside the chrome. When she’s freed from the chrome, she almost destroys the palace and everyone in it before Colossus can talk her out of it. Dr. Doom and Ororo are attracted to each other but nothing comes out of it. This seems to be a recurring element in Claremont’s writing; later Ororo is attracted to Arkon and Dracula. Another recurring element is that Ororo misplaces her uniform and is wearing a lot less.

Meanwhile, Cyclops and her new employer/love interest Aleytys Forrester, a ship captain, have been washed overboard during a storm. They wake up on a new island which they explore for a few issues. Then they find out that they are on Magneto’s island. He has simply made the island rise from the sea.

In issue 148 Dazzler makes a brief appearance and Storm and Spider-Woman battle Caliban who is just looking for other mutants. Angel leaves the group because he can’t tolerate Wolverine and Banshee finds out that he has a grown daughter. This issue is quite melancholy.

In issue 149 Xavier sends the group to Magneto’s old base and they are attacked by Garokk who bears a grudge against Ororo. Kitty is ordered to stay behind but she sneaks aboard the Blackbird and is quite useful.

The next issue centers on Magneto. He gives the world powers an ultimatum to surrender, which they don’t do, of course, and the X-Men journey to his island. They unite with Cyclops and Lee. However, for the first time, we’re told about Magneto’s past as a Holocaust survivor and he starts to see that he’s becoming similar to the men whom he hates to much. This is a turning point to Magneto.

Next is a two-issue story arc which shows the true colors of Emma Frost. Kitty’s parents send her to school which is run by Frost and her cronies. Ororo takes Kitty to the new school and Frost take advantage of that; she switches her mind to Ororo’s body intending to infiltrate the X-Men. Meanwhile, Ororo is in Frost’s body. Interestingly, their powers remain with their bodies so Frost can now control weather and Ororo has telepathy which she isn’t used to.

Then starts a longer storyline. Shi’ar’s Empress Lilandra has been kidnapped and the clues point to Earth. Starjammer’s leader Corsair races to the X-Mansion to warn the X-Men. The Shi’ar give an ultimatum to the X-Men to find the Empress or the Earth will be ravaged. The Empress has been really taken by Deathcry and the Brood, and the X-Men will have to fight a lot of enemies, including the Imperial Guard, to assure Earth’s safety. However, Xavier falls into a coma. Scott finds out that Corsair is his father and learns more about his parents.

With issue 158 starts a string of one-shot issues. First, the X-Men decide to erase all knowledge of themselves from Pentagon’s files. Carol Danvers helps them get access but they run into Rogue and Mystique who are on their own mission in the Pentagon. However, Carol manages to erase all information about the team and about herself, too. Interestingly, Rogue is depicted here as an older woman with crow’s feet around her eyes and her two white streaks look like graying hair rather than the fashion statement they look like later.

The next issue is somewhat cheesy confrontation between the X-Men and Dracula. The famous vampire bites Ororo and tries to seduce her into a vampire. However, he respects Storm’s bravery, strength and beauty too much to force her to become a vampire. Yup, reads like a love letter to the wind rider.

The next issue, 160, is a classic. X-Men meet the demon Belasco for the first time. The demon kidnaps Illyana into his dimension where time moves differently and Illyana grows into a teenager until our heroes can rescue her. Belasco gives her an amulet with places for five stones and says that she will reach her destiny when all five are in place. 13-year-old Illyana returns with three in place and the X-Men don’t know how or with whom she’s spent her time in Limbo. However, Peter is still happy to get his sister back even though she’s clearly changed. I really enjoyed this issue because we get a glimpse of the X-Men from a different time line where they didn’t manage to flee from Belasco’s dimension.

The last issue centers on Xavier. He’s still in the coma and is dreaming about his past. Twenty years ago he encountered Magneto but knew him as Magnus. Together they fought the rising powers of Hydra. The issue also sets up the long Brood space adventure (one of my favorites).

Annual 4 explores Kurt’s past. In the middle of Kurt’s 21st birthday celebration, a strange statue explodes on his face and he seems dead. However, Xavier calls on Doctor Strange who confirms that the Nightcrawler’s soul has been taken. When Strange is scanning Kurt, his kidnapper appears: Margali of the twisting ways. She kidnaps the rest of the X-Men to Dante’s hell where the team has to fight a whole hell of horrors.

In Annual 5 the Fantastic Four investigate an alien woman who seems to shoot at nothing in the middle of New York. However, she’s a Shi’ar scout fighting against the reptilian aliens called the Badoon who wear invisibility suits. The Badoon ambush the FF, kill the Shi’ar, and kidnap Reed, Ben, and Johnny. Susan goes to the X-Men for help. Before she died, the Shi’ar managed to say “Arkon” and “Lilandra in danger”. So, the X-Men and the Invisible Girl travel to Arkon’s world. There they find out that the Badoon have taken over the world and the people need their help. Apparently, Ororo and Arkon are in love but decide to part ways because of their different duties. Arkon is quite a lover; when the Avengers visit his dimension, he and Wanda are attracted to each other and later he marries Thundra (so it’s not jut the women who are constantly in one romance or another).

This is an enjoyable collection of stories. However, they aren’t quite as good or memorable as the ones in the previous collection.

 

Avengers Forever by Busiek, Stern, and Pacheco

Collects issues 1-12 of the Avengers Forever series.

Writers: Kurt Busiek and Roger Stern
Artist: Carlos Pacheco and Jesus Merino
Publisher: Marvel

Rick Jones is critically ill and the Avengers travel to the Moon to get help from the Kree Supreme Intelligence. The Intelligence agrees to help him. For Rick and seven Avengers picked from different places in the Avengers time line, this is the start of an awesome adventure through time and different realities, and through Avengers’ history.

The seven Avengers are: the Wasp and the Giant-Man from the then current Avengers continuity: the Wasp is the leader of the group and takes command naturally. Three from the past: Hawkeye from the time just after the Kree-Skrull war and Yellowjacket at the eve of his and Janet’s wedding, when he is out of his mind. A super-strong Captain America who has just witnessed his beloved government at its lowest point and is demoralized. And two from the future who hadn’t joined the Avengers yet: Songbird the former criminal and a bitter Captain Marvel, the son of the original. The latter two are pretty much unknowns and Yellowjacket brings in a lot of conflict, so the team is quite interesting to follow and not too united.

Circumstances force the team to ally themselves with their old enemy: Kang the Conqueror who is searching for a way to avoid becoming Immortus, whom Kang despises. During their travels, the Avengers witness how, and eventually why, Immortus has manipulated the team pretty much from the start. Busiek and Stern explain the various inconsistencies in some of the team history, including the origin of the Vision and the various versions of Kang, and my hat is off to them for even attempting it.

This is aimed at the team’s old fans who know the back story and have read it, and those of us who love alternate histories and futures. I really enjoyed this one and it’s probably my favorite Busiek Avengers story. Kang is one of my favorites and here he gets a whole issue to himself to clear up his history and to see things from his perspective. The collection even has a handy guide at the back: a list of comics from where all the references are from.

Definitely not the place to start reading Avengers!

 

Avengers: The Kree-Skrull War

Collects Avengers vol. 1 #89 – 97 (June 1971 – March 1972).

Writer: Roy Thomas
Artists: Sal Buscema, Neal Adams, Tom Palmer, John Buscema

This classic Avengers story has several story lines and is a clear inspiration to Busiek’s work. In addition to being a super hero adventure ins space, it’s a commentary on the Cold War.

The story starts with the Kree warrior Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell. The Avengers (the Vision, Quicksilver, and the Scarlet Witch) are trying to capture him and succeed. He has a link to Rick Jones who is a young rocker kid here. They can change places so that the other is in the Negative Zone while the other is on Earth. Rick has concentrated on his coming career and left Mar-Vell to the Zone. Not surprising, Mar-Vell is unhappy about it and finds a way to return through the Fantastic Four’s Negative Zone device. However, because of his long stay on the Zone, he’s suffering from Nega radiation poisoning. The Avengers and Rick capture him and try to treat him.

Meanwhile, in the Kree home world, Ronan the Accuser is after his hated enemy Mar-Vell. Ronan usurped the leadership of the mighty star spanning empire, the Kree. He activates a Sentry robot on Earth. It captures Mar-Vell and bring him to the Kree base on Alaska. The Avengers, with Goliath, the Wasp, and the Yellowjacket, follow the Sentry there and battle it. However, the battle is near US science station and even though the three scientist at first agree to keep silent about the matter, they end up telling to the media that hostile aliens are on Earth. This starts a witch hunt spearheaded by Senator H. Warren Craddock. He even unleashes Mandroids against the Avengers because the heroes refuse to give up Captain Marvel. The Avengers stand by their friends and don’t give in to threats.

Much of the action is on Earth against various enemies until the last two issues. However, pretty early on, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are kidnapped and taken to the Skrull throneworld, so they are out of the action for most of the story. Later, the Avengers travel to the Kree home world and confront the Kree Intelligence Supreme.

Unfortunately, the writing shows its time. At the start of the story there are two active women Avengers, the Scarlet Witch and the Wasp, who, alas, aren’t very effective members. They tend to state the obvious and play peace maker. Even though they need to be protected in battle, they are often captured and used as hostages or bait for the other heroes. In the second issue Yellowjacket has disappeared and all the Wasp can do, is tearfully beg for Goliath to come rescue him. When the Yellowjacket retires from the team, the Wasp immediately does the same. This story also introduces the Vision/Scarlet Witch romance. However, later both Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are kidnapped by the Skrulls and used as hostages. The Wasp retires in the third and Wanda is soon kidnapped so for most of the story the Avengers have an all male (and white except for the red skinned android) team: the Vision, Thor, Captain America, Iron Man, and Goliath.

Quicksilver shows appalling sexism by telling Wanda “it ill becomes you to flaunt your carefully acquired colloquialism at your male betters”. And a couple of pages later he tells the Vision not to insult his sister!

However, the story introduces Carol Danvers as the head of security at Cape Canaveral. Nobody questions her right for the job and she’s a very no-nonsense woman. But she’s seen only briefly.

The other signs of the times is the pretty pompous dialog and the chatty narrator.

If you can stomach the sexism, this is great early super hero adventure.

 

Avengers: The Kang Dynasty

Collects Avengers vol. 3 #41–55 (Vol. 1 #456–470), and Annual 2001
Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artists: Alan Davis and Mark Farmer (issues 41-43), Manuel Garcia and Bob Layton (issues 44-47), Kieron Dwyer and Rick Remender (issues 48-55), and Patrick Zircher and Scott Koblish (issue 55).

The final Busiek run! He goes out with a bang.
I consider this one of the best Avengers space adventures and also one of the best Kang adventures ever. As a time traveler, Kang is notoriously hard to write but Busiek manages.

Kang and his son the Scarlet Centurion have been watching Avengers for a some issues now and in issue 41 they finally attack from their sword shaped space station the Damocles Base.

In the next issue Kang shows the Avengers various futures where Earth’s fate is bleak: humanity will fall from various attacks. Kang offers to save the Earth from all of them – after he has conquered the whole planet, of course. Earth, in the person of UN’s Secretary-General, refuses. However, Kang has a ploy up his sleeve; he has broad casted an offer to everyone: anyone who will help subdue Earth will have a place in Kang’s new order. Not surprising, various groups take up on that offer. Avengers and various governments are plagued by attacks ranging from supervillains to the Deviants. The stage is set for multi-issue story lines.

Issue 41, “High Ground”, sets up several subplots: Hank (who is still the fake Hank) suffers from sudden seizures and a small group of Avengers (Thor, Cap, the Black Knight, Firebird, and the Quicksilver) head out to Siberia to investigate alarming reports of high radiation levels. Meanwhile Wanda and Simon are taking a small vacation and Simon tells that he’s heading out to L.A. Wanda doesn’t want to leave her position as the deputy leader of the Avengers and so they depart. It’s not hard for either of them even though earlier they were professing love stronger that death. Also, in the middle of fighting the Avengers in front of the UN building, the Scarlet Centurion feels powerfully attracted to Warbird. All of these will have consequences in coming issues.

Then the Avengers start the fight in several fronts and a lot of reserve Avengers are called in.

In addition to Kang and his army, the Avengers have to deal with the Presence and his “mate” Starlight who are turning people into radioactive zombies, a surge of various groups who want to get to Kang’s good side, the Triune Understanding’s endgame, and the Master of the World. So their hands are more than full.

The Triune Understanding is waiting for a Triple Evil to come from space and they have built a space ship to fight against it. We get to finally know the whole story behind Triune’s leader Tremont and the whole movement. Triathlon’s connection to the 3D-Man is also revealed. I thought the storyline was ended well here.

Yet, Busiek has time to do characters stories, as well. Thor loses his temper big time when he sees that Captain America has become one of the radioactive zombies and only Starlight’s interference stops Thor from killing the Presence right there. Later, Thor realizes that he’s become too close to the mortal Avengers and wants to leave when the Kang situation is under control. However, Firebird had once again inexplicably survived damage that should have killed her and Thor remarks that she might be immortal, too. Firebird wants to convince Thor to stay on the team and says that the fleeting relationship are all the more precious because we know that some day they will be gone.

Carol gets a lot of screen time. The Scarlet Centurion is apparently attracted to her and Carol suspects from the start that he’s Marcus; the man who mind controlled her to leave the Avengers and did some pretty hideous things to her. One of the issues (47) is dedicated to telling us the Scarlet Centurion’s back story and circumstances force Carol and the Centurion to work together. Carol remains suspicions of him the whole time. Later, she also kills a villain in desperation and demands that she be court-martialed over it.

Issue 49 is written without any dialog. Considering that the issue has a crucial turning point to the story, it works amazingly well.

The last issue is dedicated to the aftermath and we find out about a surprising casualty.

I thought this was a very good story with several story lines. Considering how much is going on, it’s perhaps a bit surprising but this is probably the best album for new readers to get. There’s not much back story about the members to know about, and Carol’s and Marcus’ history is retold.

 

Carolyn Crane: Double Cross

The second book in the Disillusionists super hero trilogy.

Publication year: 2010
Format: Audio
Publisher: Audible
Narrator: Rebecca Wiscoky
Running Time: 10 hrs and 19 minutes

Justine Jones is a hypochondriac but thanks to Sterling Packard she can now project her fears into other people (this is called a zing). Packard is the handsome leader of the Disillusionists, a group of neurotics whom Packard has given the ability can project their fears into other people. Packard chooses villains who have hurt other people as the targets. Justine is still not happy about twisting other people’s minds that way but she has grown to accept it when the targets are hurting other people.

Justine’s newest target is Ezmerelda, a woman who can invade other people’s dreams and make them do things while sleepwalking. Years ago before she was unofficially imprisoned, she made other people into cannibals. Justine has to touch Ez in order to zing her and now Ez has a channel to Justine’s dreams. And Packard’s. However, Justine isn’t convinced that Ez was behind the cannibal attacks and wants to be sure that she’s guilty.

At the same time, three people are shooting highcaps, the people with super powers. Even the highcaps don’t know each other so Packard and the city’s new mayor Otto Sanchez are very interested in stopping the shooters. The trio (called Dorks because the mayor doesn’t want the press giving them cool names: I loved that!) have some way to shield themselves against the highcaps’ powers.

The Disillusionists have their work cut out for them but then Justine suspects that something else is also going on. The plot is quick with a lot of twists and the ending is a real surprise and promises interesting and dramatic things for the last book.

Unfortunately, Justine’s love life is still rather confused. Previously, she was hesitating between two men, Packard and Otto, and chose Otto. However, she’s still very much attracted to Packard and her new relationship with Otto isn’t on solid ground. She makes the mistake of not telling crucial things to Otto and she angsts about it. This is my least favorite aspect of the series. Packard can read psychology and he profiles other people quickly. However, Justine is convinced that he’s wrong about her. In the previous book Packard lied to her and manipulated her coldly, and Justine can’t trust him.

On the other hand, Otto is committed to keeping Midcity’s population safe. He’s also a hypochondriac and his fear is the same as Justine’s. Otto seems quite heroic compared to Packard but they share a dark history. In the previously book Otto was the police chief and he has been elected mayor since then.

The Disillusionists squad is just as entertaining as before. They are all neurotic and that of course colors everything they do and say. They often go undercover to meet their targets and zing them with a fear. This creates great comedic moments. For example, Justine pretends to be a nurse and she can push her fear of diseases into the targets. During the book, the group has to make interesting moral choices. Simon, one of the neurotics, calls the team “reverse emotional vampires”, which amuses me greatly.

The book is written in first person and present tense.

 

Avengers: Above and Beyond

Collects Avengers vol. 3 #36–40, 56, Avengers: Ultron Imperative, and Annual 2001

Writer: Kurt Busiek
Artists: Steve Epting, Al Vey, Alan Davis, Mark Farmer, Yanick Paguette, Ray Snyder, Ivan Reis, Scott Hanna

Issues 36 and 37 have a two issue story where our heroes deal with two threats.
“No Rest for the Weary” starts with Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, and the Vision dealing with the aftermath of Maximum Security, in other words, a high powered alien who is still loose on the Earth. Hank is testing Wonder Man but he can’t find a way to protect Simon from being taken over by Neferia again. Wanda doesn’t like the way that Hank is all cold and scientific about it, and then Jan talks to Hank about the same thing; about how withdrawn Hank has been lately. Also the Triathlon/Triune Understanding subplots are developed. 3-D Man’s wife comes to the Mansion and accuses the Triune of doing something horrible to her husband because Triathlon has the 3-D Man’s powers and uses his symbol. However, Triathlon hasn’t heard about that hero but promises to look into it.

Then both Pagan and Lord Templar attack. Apparently, Lord Templar has turned Pagan into his disciple and is convinced that the Avengers are all that stand on the way of Lord Templar’s plan to bring peace on Earth. Guest stars Photon and Jack of Hearts join the fray. Then Cap calls and says that he needs help in Slorenia. And Yellowjacket Hank kidnaps Giant-Man Hank!

In “Scorched Earth” Cap, Wanda, Simon, Monica, and Tony are trying to figure out to a way to battle the Bloodwraith who is connected to all the dead souls in Slorenia whom Ultron killed in earlier issues. Bloodwraith is in unidentified energy form and he intends to punish the whole world for their deaths. Meanwhile, in New York Pagan and Lord Templar are tearing the Mansion apart while the Wasp, the Vision, Triathlon, Ms. Marvel, and Jack of Hearts are battling them. Giant-Man joins the fight and his mood has improved a lot – of course, because he’s an impostor!

I enjoyed the divided team but there’s so much going on that the latter issue is starting to feel crowded. However, both of the threats are old Avengers business coming to bite them again. Not surprisingly, Cap feels frustrated about the situation in the end.

In “Above and Beyond” the Avengers expand their teams and the way they’ve operated so far. For starters, Cap and the Wasp are now co-leaders. Instead of responding to threats, which they also do of course, they send a team (the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Triathlon, Ms. Marvel, and Wonder Man) after the Taskmaster’s training groups. They also have an early warning platform in space which is manned by Quasar and the Living Lighting with Photon popping in every now and then. The Black Knight and Firebird are in Slorenia looking into Bloodwraith’s situation. Carol and Vision go finally on a date. And then the government liaison contacts the Avengers: a horde of Hulks is decimating a small Greek village.

Oh, and Wanda gets a new costume. It’s much more practical than the flowing skirts.

In “Condition: Green” and “Thoom!” the main Avengers team (Cap, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, the Wasp, Giant-Man, the Vision, Iron Man, and Ms. Marvel) battle the many Hulks in Greece. Dr. Banner also shows up to help. Meanwhile, the villain responsible for the Hulks, the Wizard, is skulking around near the Avengers’ Mansion and Silverclaw confronts him. Later, Wonder Man and Triathlon help her.

This was just cheesy fun and I really enjoyed these two issues! Silverclaw gets to really shine with her shape shifting abilities against the Wizard and she has a lot of courage to take on such a long-time villain. On the other hand, I didn’t really care for the way that the (fake!) Hank took over leading the Avengers by not telling his plans to the Wasp before executing them. The Wasp is supposed to be the team leader, after all. She was curiously hesitant around him and unfortunately it also felt weird, or should I say dumb, that she didn’t suspect that Hank had been replaced or mind controlled or from another universe or something.

Issue 56 “Lo, there shall be an… accounting” might be worth a few giggles but it’s otherwise quite forgettable. A couple of accountants from the Maria Stark Foundation are quizzing various Avengers about a case they had because the accountants have to know if all the destruction (and so the use of money) was necessary. One of the accountants is new and apparently would prefer for the Avengers to retire and let Kang or Thanos or somebody to rule the world instead. The other one is more experienced, though. Thor, She-Hulk, the Beast, USAgnet, Cap, and Jack of Hearts tell their own sides of the case.

Annual 2001 solves the two Hank Pyms plot line. Yellowjacket-Hank collapses and is turning translucent. The Avengers’ regular doctor, Dr. Foster, can’t do anything about it. Hank tells Jan about the other Hank who is being kept as a prisoner in The Horner Hideaway, right on the Avengers’ front yard. Triathlon suggests that Hank has been split into two (instead of being a doppelganger or alternate universe double or… Good guess!) and that the Triune Understanding’s Tremont can heal them into one man again. Janet is out of options and so she asks Tremont for help. He agrees. We get to see the two Hanks talking through their issues in some sort of mental space.

Meanwhile Photon and Triathlon bond. Triathlon still feels out of place because he’s the new guy while the others are old friends and Photon, who has been the new member once, too, tells him that in time he will fit in just fine. They also talk about being black in a white man’s world.

Photon also finds out that Justice and Firestar aren’t on vacation but undercover at Understanding. They’ve found out that the Understanding is waiting for some great evil to come from space and they are building a spaceship which will either work on brain energy or kill everyone. They are concerned.

The Hank plot line is solved here with three Hanks merging into one. Hopefully, Hank’s behavior will be less erratic in the future.

The annual also had short story “House Cleaning” where Jarvis answers queries from the government (actually from the readers, presumably). The three Tony Starks plot line, which emerged right before Onslaught is explained; apparently, the Tony who killed three women doesn’t really exist anymore even though the current Tony has some memories of the time. Also, Janet turning into a giant insect right before Onslaught but returning as regular Janet was explained; Franklin Richards recreated the heroes from his memories which “fixed” Janet – and Clint’s hearing problems, too.

(Yep, a bit a of cop out for Marvel dropping plots without any awkward consequences.)

The Annual tied up the Hank plot line and I really enjoyed the many Hulks story (in fact, I’ve used it in a table-top role playing game and we had a blast). However, I was less thrilled with the way that Janet, the presumed team leader was sidelined.

The collection is a continuation of previous story line and not a good place to start for new readers.

 

Avengers/Thunderbolts Volume 1: The Nefaria Protocols

Writers: Kurt Busiek and Fabien Nicieza
Artists: George Perez, Dick Giordand, Al Vey, Mark Bagley, Al Milgrom

Collects Avengers vol. 3 #31–34, Thunderbolts #42–44
Publisher: Marvel
Publication date: 2004

This collection deals with Madame Masque and her father Count Nefaria who is one of the Avengers’ most powerful enemies. It deals with a lot of back story for Iron Man and his relationship with Madame Masque so it’s not a good starting place for new readers, at all. Busiek’s stories often use Avengers’ rich history but these issues use it even more. Furthermore, all of the issues also continue story lines from both Thunderbolts and Avengers so unfortunately the collection doesn’t really work on its own.

Avengers issue 31 starts with the Vision’s return. He’s been absent from the Avengers for several issues. The Vision asks the team to help with Maggia because his “brother” the Grim Reaper is involved with it and the team agrees. During the battle, Madame Masque’s head seems to explode but Iron Man is convinced that she isn’t dead. He’s right, of course.

Meanwhile, Hank Pym is going through tests because his Giant-Man powers were in a flux in the previous adventure. They seem to be okay now but Iron Man is concerned over Hank’s mental health. We’re also shown who is the mysterious figure who has been following the Avengers: Yellowjacket alias Hank Pym! The Avengers’ main computer also recognizes him as Hank. He’s shown in later issue just having fun (drinking and brawling which is very unHank like behavior) and plotting something but that isn’t resolved in this collection.

In the Thunderbolts 42, Simon attacks the ionic powered Thunderbolt Atlas. However, most of the issue deals with Dallas Riordan whose mystery has been confusing the Thunderbolts for quite a while. Unfortunately, this is pretty irrelevant to anyone not already familiar with the comic.

The rest of the collection reveals Madame Masque’s secrets and the Thunderbolts (minus Moonstone who is having her own issues in a subplot) and the Avengers (together with reservists She-Hulk, the Black Widow, and Cap) unite against Count Nefaria and his pawns Wonder Man and Atlas. The two teams part as grudging allies which isn’t a huge surprise.

Unfortunately, this collection feels disjointed with various unresolved subplots from two different comics and lot of back story from Iron Man. Starting with Avengers 32, Paul Vey’s style is taking over the art and George Perez left the book with Avengers 34. He’s a great artist and I’ll miss his style.