The third issue of Deadbox never came out in November, which may have settled whether I'm going to bother buying it, and Giant-Size Black Cat got shoved back to at least next week, so I got a grand total of 4 comics for the last three weeks of November. These crap months are getting on my nerves. They might make me do something rash like start buying Spider-Man comics again!
Ben comes home from a fishing trip to find himself all alone. Johnny's off at a car rally, Reed and Sue are at a scientific conference. Alicia's off at a gallery showing with some guy who wants to have an exhibit on her sculptures. Ben shows up, makes an ass of himself, gets maced, wrecks a car while flailing blindly and winds up in some special cell with Hercules. When he gets out, he finds out Alicia's ending their engagement, but there's a little pixie thing offering him a chance to utilize their matchmaking service. Oh Ben, don't trust fairies, they're jerks. But he does, and they connect him with a dancer, who seems to have a jealous, super-strong fan, who is being manipulated by a shadowy figure Ben saw in a dream (and that Herc can see looming over Ben's shoulder.)
This feels like it's going to be one of those stories where the larger fundamental forces use the main character as a pawn in one of their disagreements. You know, "I say all humanity is irredeemable!" "I say every person has good in them!" That sort of thing. I don't know exactly which fundamental forces Ben's getting jerked around by, but maybe hope and despair? The shadowy figure reaches into people's chests and turns their hearts black. Shows Ben a vision of everyone dead (are Celestials normally that much larger than Galactus? I guess I remember a Thor story where one of them is described as being over 20,000 feet tall, so maybe so.) Seems significant.
Not sure how the dating service thing fits in. Ben has to show he's willing to not just wallow in his loneliness. Live up to his description of his greatest strength (and greatest weakness) as never giving up.
Reilly's Ben Grimm is big (it's weird to see panels of the early FF and realize Kirby drew him as shorter than Reed Richards. It's like every time Ben gets cured, then turns back to the Thing, he gets larger), but expressive. The slump of his shoulders or the angles of his eyebrow ridge-thing says a lot. Although there are panels, especially when Reilly draws Ben's face from a three-quarters view, where it looks like his face is awkwardly stapled to his head. Like it's the face mask on Iron Man's armor, but it didn't seal properly. Might the way he inks along Ben's cheekbones.
I like the sound effects. The fonts, the placement. Don't know if they're Reilly's work or Sabino's, but either way.
Reese's friend Terry shows up at the Mission, telling Marc he's figured out who is sending people after Moon Knight. Soldier, the guy who came for help dealing with the janitor with mind-control sweat (gross). Marc roams about, looking for Soldier and ultimately finds him in his own office, chained up with a bomb somewhere nearby. He's not the mysterious villain, and the real mysterious villain wants to see what Moon Knight will do. Cut and run? Or try to save a guy who used to be in HYDRA?
At the end, we learn who the mysterious villain is. It's not Bullseye, or anybody else I would have ever suspected. I'm not clear on how this guy works enough to know what this is going to be like. There was a villain with this name that fought Ghost Rider in the '90s, but also another one who had his own mini-series during Fear Itself (does anyone even remember Fear Itself?) I'm guessing this guy is more like the latter than the former, but what that means I'm unsure about.
Marc also has another therapy session where his doc calls him out on only giving her surface answers to her questions. He goes into a bit about his faith, or lack thereof. His frustration with how Judaism seemed to him about just persevering while the entire world lined up to dump shit on you. I did not know Marc Spector was Jewish, but it is makes for an interesting conflict, him turning away from it and embracing an Egyptian god at the moment he was about to die. Given the whole, "enslaved by the pharaohs" aspect of history. To me, it says Marc's a survivor, and he latches onto what can keep him going. Right now, trying to use being Khonshu's fist as a force to help people, rather than Khonshu, is the thing he's holding tight to.
I'm curious to know what the mystery villain actually wants Moon Knight for. When the issue ends, he's got him over a barrel, could probably kill him easily enough. But I doubt that's what he's after, so what is he going to do with this opportunity?
3 comments:
I think, if I remember my Marvel Top Trumps correctly, Ben is 6' exactly and Reed, because he has to be better, is 6'1".
What always struck me about the Thing's height is that he's a good 13 inches shorter than the Hulk but it never seems to be drawn that way when they're together.
That matches my Marvel Series 1 & 2 trading cards. Ben's 6', Reed's 6'1" (he probably cheats and stretches himself.) They've got the Hulk at 7' even, though, and he's over 1,000 pounds, while Ben's at 500.
But I feel like at some point, people definitely started drawing Ben a lot. Like, Wieringo's Ben Grimm seems taller than 6 foot. I guess they want it to not seem like such a mismatch when he fights Hulk?
Ah, I have the Hulk as 7'1" in my Top Trumps. Still, what's an inch between friends?
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