Sunday, November 13, 2022

Sunday Splash Page #244

 
"Easy Rider," in Heroes for Hire (vol. 3) #2, by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (writers), Brad Walker (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Jay David Ramos (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer)

The second volume of Heroes for Hire started during Civil War and ended in 15 issues. It was most notable for the cover to issue #13, with Misty Knight, Colleen Wing and the Black Cat shackled and menaced by dripping tentacles. Because that's what I'd think of when you say, "World War Hulk tie-in". Yeesh.

Three years went by before Marvel tried again, this time with the Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning writing team, fresh off the conclusion of Thanos Imperative, largely concluding their 4-year stretch writing a lot of Cosmic Marvel stuff. They took a somewhat different approach to the "heroes for hire" concept. 

Rather than the public hiring the heroes, Misty Knight, as the Oracle-like "Control", would hire heroes to carry out operations for her, receiving something in return. In some cases, such as Silver Sable's, that was money. For Moon Knight, it might be information on another problem. I'm not clear what Misty was offering Ghost Rider. It allowed for a rotating cast, with only Misty and Paladin of all characters, as central cast.

Misty had been revealed to be pregnant at the very end of Immortal Iron Fist, but somewhere in the 18 months between that title ending and this one starting, that got handwaved to a phantom pregnancy. This was played as part of Misty's decision to stay out of the spotlight, acting as more of a puppet master than field operative. Not only due to physical recovery, but an attempt to exert control, keep things distant. Of course, not everything was what it seemed.

Brad Walker drew most of the series, although Kyle Hotz drew the 3-issue Fear Itself tie-ins. Walker tries to inject a lot of energy into a book that often has an action movie feel to it. Inset, close-up panels of faces or just eyes and mouths, combined with a lot of slanting or diagonal panels for the fighting that slash across the page. Most of the issues revolve around superheroic twists on more ordinary crime: Drug trade, but Atlantean drugs. Gun dealing, but demonic guns that feed on souls. Slave trade and illegal animal trade, but from the Savage Land. Walker does well at mixing the elements. The base human impulses and the fantastic elements they want to exploit.

Sadly, the book ended one month after the aforementioned Fear Itself tie-ins, only lasting 12 issues. Abnett and Lanning did teams up with Renato Arlem on a 5-issue Villains for Hire mini-series that followed on from this, but Arlem's art was depressingly stiff after Walker's and I didn't really care for the story, so we won't be seeing that in Saturday Splash page.

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