What I Bought 2/14/2024 - Part 1

I saw the trailer for Deadpool 3. Not enthused at more multiverse stuff, but I will probably see it in theaters. Unless I forget (or subsequent trailers end up putting me off.) But that's months away, so for now, let's look at a first issue.

Night Thrasher #1, by J. Holtham (writer), Nelson Daniel (artist), Matt Milla (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Dwayne adopted Night Thrasher after realizing Night Window Cleaner just didn't fit his approach.

Dwayne Taylor returns to New York for the funeral of his old mentor Chord. That's rough, killing the surrogate father figure right out of the gate. But Dwayne's also there to close down the Taylor Foundation, to the consternation of several people, including Silhouette and a local councilman who was hoping the foundation could help revitalize Harlem while staving off gentrification.

Dwayne's set to tell the councilman tough luck until a bunch of kids rob a store and Dwayne realizes one fights like he does. The kids all work for some mysterious guy called "The O.G.", so maybe it's time for some night thrashing.

That's definitely someone getting thrashed. The one doing the thrashing is former Avenger and New Warrior, Rage. Maybe it's just from re-reading Suicide Squad lately, but Daniel's art reminds me of Luke McDonnell's in places. Not so much in the use of shadows, but in square-offed jaws and the slightly rough pencil lines. That's more at a distance. In the close-up panels, it's got a strong Sal Buscema vibe to it. A little more fluid in the characters' movements, not as over-the-top in the action sequences. Nobody goes flying across a room after a huge uppercut, but in the faces, there's a lot of excited, shouting expressions.

Holtham spent most of the issue with Dwayne trying to walk away from his past. New York's his past, Silhouette's his past (albeit a part he's not entirely willing to let go of), the Taylor Foundation is his past. So Rage, who Dwayne not only trained, but I think legally adopted at one point, is another part of that past. One Dwayne hasn't seen in a while, I'm guessing. My impression is, not since Dwayne's death in Civil War (an editor's note explains Dwayne came back in the Contest of Champions mini-series during Hickman's Secret Wars, which is one way to do it.)

Anyway, it's been a while. And Rage is using what he learned to train kids to push back against what they see as forces encroaching on the neighborhood. They're trying to make the place unprofitable for forces they think don't belong. The store owners are pushing back with the cops, violently no doubt.

I don't really understand why, if Dwayne admits Sil and the others made the Foundation what it was always meant to be, he doesn't just leave it in their hands rather than shuttering it. It would still let him put it in the rearview. I guess he plans to use the money to do something similar, but better right from the start. That feels like that's going to be a big part of this, Dwayne thinking it's better to just start clean, but realizing there's no way to start from 0 any longer. All he can do is improve things from where they are (which would tie in with the councilman doing his best to preserve the Harlem that's there.)