In The Late '90s, You Took Whatever Heroes Were Available

Besides some issues of Hitman and Chase, one of the other series I looked into was Heroes for Hire. Not that one from a couple of years ago with the regrettable tentacle cover for its World War Hulk tie-in issue. The one from the late '90s, that was written by John Ostrander, which explains why I looked into it.

I wasn't able to get every issue of it, either. The shop was missing Heroes for Hire #10, which prominently features Deadpool on the cover. I have to figure that's why it was the only issue of which there were no copies available. I've found it kind of a nifty series. I'm not always sold on Ostrander's dialogue for Iron Fist, as Danny seems to shift between more natural, everyday conversing, and a more abrupt style, usually pronouncements about honor or seeing a job through. Maybe the bold pronouncements are an attempt at inspiring confidence in his team, but they read differently in my mind. I definitely approve of the way Ostrander approaches Danny's friendship with Luke Cage, though. A fair bit of the series seems to be about the bonds between people. Danny and Luke, the Black Knight and Sersi, several others to varying degrees.

One thing that's interesting about the series is what it tells me about what was happening with Marvel at the time. It came out in the late '90s, when I basically wasn't buying any comics. So I didn't know the Black Knight fought Magneto's old right-hand man, Exodus, back in the 11th Century or something like that. I had suspected they'd met there, because they crossed paths in the Bloodlines crossover* and the Knight was sure he'd met Exodus somewhere before. I don't know if he didn't remember the specifics because Exodus looked very different in the present from how he did during the Crusades, or if it was because he hadn't made the trip into the past yet, so he couldn't remember it, even though it happened centuries ago.

There's other things. I didn't recall Quicksilver having his own ongoing, one which lasted at least a year. I remembered Iron Fist's company being bought by Namor's, but not that with Namor off being amnesiac, the original Human Torch, Jim Hammond, was running the show. With that being the case, I'm a little disappointed they never had an old-school Invaders reunion mission, maybe throw Cap in there**. Namor does show up, and it's nice to see him interacting pleasantly with an old friend. He even laughs out loud at some point, and not in a derisive manner! I know, shocking, but true.

The book ends with the team sort of being dismantled, but it's already falling apart prior to that. I think the return of the Avengers accelerated the problem, but people were starting to think of their own agendas, and following divergent paths. It reminds me of Marvel Knights series Chuck Dixon wrote a few years later, which ended after only 15 issues ("H4H" as the narration boxes described it, lasted 19, plus an Annual, though it was also a Quicksilver Annual). That team was dissolved by the guy who originally put it together, but it was falling apart even before that, with some people deciding it put too big a target on their heads, and others deciding they were putting the others in danger. Maybe that's a common fate for teams comprised of, well, "street-level" might be the wrong phrase for a team that consisted of folks like Hercules and She-Hulk at different times, and certainly they fought plenty of weird stuff, but that's still the feel I had for the book. Probably because several of the core members weren't all that powerful.

* Earlier in the '90s. X-Books and Avengers, trying to help a war-torn Genosha. Fabian Cortez - running from Exodus for what Cortez did to Magneto - tries to make Crystal and Pietro protect him by holding their daughter hostage. Except that's exactly the sort of thing guaranteed to anger Exodus even more, since Luna is Magneto's granddaughter and all. Guess Cortez figured Exodus couldn't kill him anymore than he was already planning to.

** The Avengers were off in that Heroes Reborn world for most of the series, but near the end there's a story where the team's calling in anyone they can because most of their roster is off responding to some Avengers call. I'm guessing it was that Morgana le Fay story Busiek and Perez started their run with. Then again, Cap might not approve of charging for their heroic services, but the money goes to charity, so it's not a terrible thing.