Immortal Iron Fist 22-27 - This is the fourth Marvel title I've covered so far that was canceled this year, and it won't be the last. Danny Rand and the Immortal Weapons found the 8th City, learned the horrible secret behind the people trapped there, and tried to do the right thing. Also, HYDRA destroyed Danny's company, and he proposed to Misty Knight, who is pregnant.Duane Swierczynski wrote all the issues, and Travel Foreman was the primary penciler in all of them except #24. Issue 24 focused on Li Park, the pacifist Iron Fist, and was drawn by Kano (the artist for Beta Ray Bill: Godhunter). Other than issue 22, Foreman shared penciling duties with other artists in every issue, starting with Tonci Zonjic and Timothy Green II in #23, Juan Doe in #25 and 26, and David Lapham and Timothy Green in #27.
High Point: #24, the story of Li Park and his fanciful vision. It was interesting to read about a reluctant Iron Fist, one whose inclination was to settle things without fighting. It's a bit sad he wasn't able to be successful that way, but it was still a nice story, and illustrated another use for the Iron Fist, though I'm guessing he's the one who Orson Randall adopted the hypnosis trick from. Plus, I like Kano's art more than Travel Foreman's.
Low Point: The final issue, I suppose. I enjoyed all the stories Swierczynski wrote during his tenure on the book, but the art tended to frustrate me, and in this issue, it was especially irritating. The art seem undetailed, like Foreman and Lapham were rushed to finish, and the colorist tried to help by making backgrounds shadowy blobs.
Immortal Weapons 1-5 - The mini-series that immediately followed the cancelation of Immortal Iron Fist, each issue focusing on a different one of the other Weapons, with a short story about Danny Rand and one of his students searching for her brother serving as a backup feature in each issue.
Swierczynski wrote each part of the backup, and Foreman drew two of them, but then it switched to Hatuey Diaz for the last three parts. Not sure why. Diaz prefers larger panels and more closeups on characters than Foreman, though they both seem to favor using lots of little lines, but their styles don't seem that similar. As for the main features, Fat Cobra was written by Jason Aaron, with Mico Suayan, Stefano Gaudiano, Roberto De La Torre, Khari Evans, Victor Olazaba, Michael Lark, and Arturo Lozzi on pencils. Cullen Bunn wrote the Bride of Nine Spiders story, with Dan Brereton on pencils (and 3 inkers scattered throughout). Rick Spears wrote of Dog Brother #1, with Timothy Green II on pencils. Swierczynski and Khari Evans covered Tiger's Beautiful Daughter, and David Lapham teamed with Arturo Lozzi to teach us a bit about the Prince of Orphans.
High Point: Maybe I'm a sucker for Timothy Green's art, which I enjoy even though he also uses many little lines, but the Dog Brother #1 story was my favorite. Part of it might be its grounding in historical events, or the clarity of his purpose. With the other weapons, its less clear what their purpose is, beyond serving their particular city. This gave Dog Brother #1 something beyond that, and in general his seems a different Weapon from the others. The Fat Cobra story was more amusing, but on the whole, I'll stick with Dog Brother.
Low Point: I was disappointed in the Bride of 9 Spiders story. The art didn't help. I thought maybe everything looks skewed because the characters are hallucinating throughout, but even before all that starts, the characters look odd. I guess if the goal is to keep the Bride a figure whose motivations are a mystery it works, but if that's the case, I don't think the art helped, because she wasn't drawn as being mysterious, more as an odd woman.
Marvel Adventures Avengers 36 - Tigra releases a genie at a swap meet, and the genie wants revenge on the Hulk for something he hasn't done yet. Tigra struggles with the temptation to try and wish the problem away, based on her fear the wish will go awry. Paul Tobin writes it and Jacopo Camagni handles the art, and it was kind of fun. I didn't laugh, but it was nice to see Tigra have a good showing.
Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular 2 - The tag is a bunch of assistant editors can't get their bosses to listen to their ideas so they get together in an elevator to pitch their ideas to each other. It wasn't as funny as I hoped, though Luke Cage crying over the closing of the neighborhood Cuban sandwich shop was a little amusing. Wyatt Cenac and Todd Nauck handled that story. Adam Warren and Hector Sevilla Lujan gave us a story about Galactus' mostly benevolent daughter living on Earth. Chris Yost and Joh James handled a quick monster battle starring Elsa Bloodstone.
Moon Knight 26-30 - And here's the 5th title I was buying this year that was canceled (OK, I think this is the last one). If it hadn't been canceled, I would have dropped it anyway, as the last arc left a bad taste in my mouth with its ending. Mike Benson and Jefte Palo handled all 5 issues.High Point: There's a scene in #29 involving Russian mobsters, who are in Mexico to establish a business relationship. They're relaxing in their suite, complaining about the lack of girls, their disinterest in the local girls and local food, when a housekeeping lady comes in with more drinks. One of the mobsters decides to grab her rear, and compliments her on it. Then he dies, because it was actually the Punisher in a wig, and he's a Russian mobster, and shooting Russian mobsters in the head is what Frank Castles do the best.
Low Point: Issue #30. Moon Knight is going after Alcantra, the guy who tried to use him to get his daughter out of police protection so she could be killed before she turned evidence against her dad. However, by the time he gets their, most of the guards are dead. The Punisher is there, helping himself to Alcantra's booze, but he didn't do it. Moonie reaches Alcantra, and on the ceiling is the one who did, the Toltec, who likes to chop Alcantra's soldiers up. He and Moon Knight eye each other, and Moon Knight leaves so Toltec can do as he pleases. That's it. Moon Knight does nothing to Alcantra, and there's no big showdown with the Toltec. I felt completely hoodwinked. Boo!
Nova 21-32 - The Worldmind set up shop on Ego, the Living Planet. This didn't end well. It also started mass recruitment of people for the Nova Corps, then immediately threw them into War of Kings. That didn't end well either. Richard had the Nova Force taken from him, and learned without it, he was going to die. Wendell Vaughn let him borrow the Quantum Bands until Rich could get the Nova Force back and fix the Worldmind. So now the Nova Corps is rebuilding, slowly. They've run into Monark Starslayer, and now Nova and Darkhawk have to contend with the Sphinx.Like Guardians of the Galaxy, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning handle all the writing chores. Wellinton Alves drew #21, Kevin Sharpe handled #25, 29, and 30, and Andrea DiVito penciled the rest. By the by, when Kevin Sharpe penciled Nova #25, he was the 8th different penciler the title had - in its first 25 issues. That's Supergirl level artist turnover, and I didn't even include the two other pencilers used on Nova Annual #1 in early 2008.
High Point: Moment of badass comes from #26. The Worldmind's been offline, leaving the rookie Centurions on their own, and they're in trouble, calling for help. Imperial Guardsman Warstar tears through the hull of the wrecked ship they're hiding in and proclaims 'Warstar is here to snap your neck in the name of Emperor Vulcan.' From off-panel comes 'Authorize lethal force', and Warstar's done. Nova Prime is back on the field, ladies and gentleman. Other moment is from #28, as Nova smooth-talks King Blastaar into letting Nova leave with his injured brother and some prisoners. This scene added Nova to the list of cosmic heroes that riled Blastaar in 2009.
Low Point: There wasn't an issue I particularl didn't like, but in general, I was overjoyed when Nova got back into space. I was really tired of him being on Earth, and was glad he escaped before the book could get sucked into Dark Reign bullshit. Yeah, slapping Dark Reign on the cover would probably briefly help sales, but that doesn't mean it would be better to read. So let's say #23, since that was the last issue before he received the Quantum Bands and had a way to get away from Earth.
Patsy Walker: Hellcat 5 - It's kind of a bummer this mini-series ended back in February, since that means it'sbeen so long I've kind of forgotten how much I enjoyed it. Of course, if it stayed on schedule, it would have finished in 2008, and I could have raved unreservedly about it then. Oh well. Hellcat gets Ssangyong to go home, gets Ssangyong's dad to quit running away, and gets the girl's mothers to ease up on her a little. Patsy may have developed the ability to use maigc, rather than just sense it. Kathryn Immonen and David LaFuente handled writing and penciling duties, just as they did for the first four issues.
Phantom: Generations 5 - Like that Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth issue, I didn't order this, but it did show up in my shipment when I was out in the boonies, so here we are. It was a bit different, as the art and writing weren't combined. There would be one page with story (Written by Martin Gately), and the opposite page was a single drawing depicting something described on the story page (drawn by Enrique Alcatena). This was the story of the Phantom pursuing a crazed pirate from the Mediterranean all the way to the Sherwood Forest, all as the pirate grows steadily madder. Throw in some released jungle critters, and it's not going to be easy for the Phantom.
All right, that does it for today! Since tomorrow is New Comic Day, I'll be holding off until Friday for Part 4. It's going to be a lot like Part 1 was, I think, with lots of titles, most of which won't have very many issues.
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