What I Bought 4/14/2021 - Part 3

It snowed yesterday while I was out in the field. In the middle of April. Lovely. A complication I did not need, to be sure. But whatever, here's a couple of first issues. Well, one is a first issue, the other is a one-shot.

Darkhawk: Heart of the Hawk, by Danny Fingeroth, Dan Abnett, Kyle Higgins (writers), Mike Manley, Andrea Di Vito, Juanan Ramirez (artists), Le Beau Underwood (inker for Di Vito), Chris Sotomayor, Sebastian Cheng, Erick Arciniega (colorists), Travis Lanham (letterer) - They didn't have that cover at the store, but it was the one I liked best.

Three stories in this. Fingeroth, Manley, and Sotomayor set one sometime in the first year of Darkhawk's ongoing, where he briefly tries chatting up the daughter of the crimelord he was feuding with for information, then ends up fighting a crooked cop in a super-suit out to kill her. It's fine. Fingeroth works in a lot of angst for Chris about his mother and his little brothers, about trying to do the right thing but really hating Bazin. Sotomayor's coloring makes Manley's artwork look smoother than it did on Darkhawk back in the day. Less heavy on the shading and blacks, bit less of a gritty texture to things. 

Which is interesting. I'm just going off memory but I feel like the title had the look and feel of something closer to a street-level crime book, at least initially. Closer to JRJR on Daredevil than most Spider-Man titles of the time. Which makes sense, given it was mostly about Chris wanting to bring down a particular crime boss, but running into all this other increasingly crazy crap on the way.

The second story, by Abnett and Di Vito is set after Thanos Imperative, with Chris out in space trying to help people. In this case, by killing a bunch of Brood that were trying to set up in a rebuilding settlement. Chris wipes them out, but the locals prove being ungrateful shits isn't exclusive to Earth in the Marvel Universe and complain because the bar got destroyed. Cheng's coloring on the first page looks different from all the others. Almost bright to the point things look washed out. I mostly only noticed because it made Di Vito's work look a bit softer than normal, blunted some of the lines on faces. But it's only on the first page. Otherwise, it looks pretty much as Di Vito's work always does.

 

Higgins and Ramirez wrap things up with a five-part teaser for something. Chris is in the future, getting ready to send back his amulet with all his memories and experiences in the hope someone can stave off the "shadow war" that's about to destroy the universe or something. Oh joy, another one. The common thread between all three stories is Chris trying to figure out who he is. What does being Darkhawk mean to him, what is he wanting to accomplish, and what is he willing to do? I guess by the third story he's figured it out, but it's too late to help.

Locust #1, by Massimo Rosi (writer), Alex Nieto (artist), Mattia Gentili (letterer) - Great, more snow. Can't get away from that stuff.

The story moves back and forth between the present, where a lone man named Max is searching for a child taken by some religious wackjobs, and two years earlier. In the past, he worked on a fishing boat when the first reports of a new disease started to surface. The next time we see the past, he's at his mother's rest home, which has been fortified. But not fortified enough, as one of his childhood friends crawls in, rapidly turning into a giant bug. 

In the present, Max shoots a couple dogs to lure their owner into a trap. Where he dumps some toxic waste on the guy and his remaining dogs, then starts hacking pieces off with a machete to get what he wants. Delightful.

So the first issue sets up a search, as well as the question of how Max got from caring for his mother to seeking this child. I suppose you could add the question of why this happened, but Max feels too far removed from that to find answers. I suspect the "why" doesn't matter much to him, anyway.

 

Nieto's characters all have an aged and well-won look to them. Bags under the eyes, scraggly beards and unkempt hair. The end of civilization doesn't seem to change much for Max in that regard. he might look a little wilder, Nieto might shift perspective to let him loom over someone occasionally, face in shadow, but much the same beyond that. 

The cities, even before the plague, all depicted as dark and quiet. Even the shot of New York City in the past is done from a remove, where the lights on the buildings are so subdued you could easily miss them. Nieto favors overhead shots or long shots, where people are either small or can't be seen at all. It makes everything seem empty, even if it reasonably can't be. Max talks in a flashback about moving his family out of the city, away from the crush and demands, so it seems like he got at least part of his wish. The cities are much quieter now.

What I Bought 7/11/2018 - Part 1

A day after I put up that post about Parks and Rec, I got to an episode where Ben ending up spending his wedding anniversary with Larry instead of Leslie and they got along. Then a couple of episodes later, Ben decided Larry was actually a decent guy and tried to get the rest of the characters to acknowledge that. It ended badly but at least it was something.

Domino #4, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Well, know I know Greg Land can draw unconscious people who don't look terrifying now. They are unconscious, right? Shang-Chi wouldn't straight murder them, or let Domino do so, right?

We get a flashback that explains the connection between Topaz and this Desmond fellow, and now I understand the connection between his problems and Domino's powers a little better. Diamondback and Outlaw, having figured out Domino suspects one of them, try to hunt the villains down, but that doesn't seem to be going well. Domino is trying to learn from Shang-Chi, which mostly seems to involve her getting beat up. They do take a break, but they're going to be attacked by some of Shang's old enemies.

I think one of my favorite bits from this issue is Deadpool giving Outlaw and Diamondback a heads up on where to find Topaz and Desmond, and wanting to go along. Even though Topaz could shut Wade's healing factor off. Not that possibly dying is a thing that's going to deter Wade at the best of times, but it's nice to see Deadpool wanting to help his friends, and those people worrying about his well-being.

I'm less sure about how silly or flip Domino seems to be acting. Maybe that's a consequence of having a power that makes everything work out for you, or it's just meant to be her covering her fear. But the thing this arc has kept hammering is how spooked Topaz and Desmond have her, how concerned she is about being reliant on a power she can't control. She was ready to beat Topaz to death with her bare hands last issue.

Maybe the more manic, silly tone suits Baldeon's art better. I think he can handle quiet moments fine, the brief dance scene with Domino and Shang is nice. There's a part where he does a close-up on both their eyes when she fails to shoot him, then a callback later in this issue when she successfully lands a punch. But he draws a lot of people with outsized emotions on display. Big scowls or signs of exertion, yelling or looking really angry. It works for what's happening. Topaz and Desmond really seem to enjoy hurting people, Outlaw and Diamondback are pissed these two are wrecking their team. "Subdued" isn't really on the menu.

Infinity Countdown Darkhawk #4, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - In case you thought I was joking about the giant Darkhawk mecha last issue.

There's a lot of fighting. Nova shows up, trying to track down his brother, who he doesn't realize is hosting a giant space bird in his body. Nova and Darkhawk keep getting in each other's way, and did Nova get a serious power downgrade? I don't think a bunch of Darkhawks should be able to do this well against a guy who killed Annihilus. Chris kills Rich's brother, so Rich is pissed at him. Chris returns to Earth, and then Sleepwalker shows up to segue into another tie-in mini-series.

Chalk this up as a poor buying decision on my part. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but in practice, no. For as much as I thought Sims and Bowers (Sims, mostly) kept up on continuity, they don't know Death's Head already tried to kill Richard Rider once, so they'd know each other? It was in a comic that came out a year ago, it's not that far back. Whatever, minor thing, just annoyed me a little. I don't really get where Nova's coming from exactly in his reactions towards Darkhawk. Maybe it's just that he's stressed because his brother's involved and he feels guilty. Most of what I'm basing Nova and 'Hawk's relationship on is their interactions in the Abnett/Lanning era, and I feel like that's what Sims and Bowers are using also. But it also feels like they're either drawing on something else as well, or they interpreted things differently from how I did.

The issue is basically one big fight scene, and it doesn't seem to play to Lim's strengths. Drawing mostly characters encased entirely in armor, with no facial expressions can't make things easy, but the art is stiff and characters posed. A lot of the time it doesn't feel as if things are flowing naturally from one panel to the next, characters don't sell the force of a blow or the amount they're exerting themselves with their posture. You can tell what's happening, but it feels less like we're seeing the progression of events, and more like we're catching a brief glimpse. Character was there, now character is here. You can infer what happened in between, so it still works, I guess. But it's nothing that gets me enthused about it.

Man, even the sound effects bug me. The lettering style and shades of color used don't feel like they fit with the tone of the art. Make the "CHOOM" a more noticeably bigger, or make the edges of it more jagged or something! Yes, I know, they're in space, there shouldn't be sound effects anyway. But there are, so we might as well assess them.

What I Bought 6/27/2018

One thing I find frustrating about drawing is my brain continually pictures the things I want to draw from angles and perspectives I am not actually capable of drawing. The part coming up with ideas does not communicate with the part responsible for carrying out those ideas.

Ms. Marvel #31, by G. Willow Wilson, Saladin Ahmed, Rainbow Rowell, Hasan Minhaj (writers), Nico Leon, Gustavo Duarte, Bob Quinn, Elmo Bondoc (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Striped pants is an interesting look. I guess if you can make it work for you.

Kamala's sleepover with Nakia, Zoe, and Mike is interrupted by several things requiring Ms. Marvel's attention, which makes Kamala increasingly frustrated. So she decides to just come clean and reveal her secret identity to her friends. Who admit they already knew, because she's not good at maintaining a secret identity. Ouch.

I'm a little disappointed by the dull thud of "Yeah, we already knew you were a superhero," if only because Kamala's been intermittently stressing over keeping secrets from Nakia since her earliest issues. It doesn't feel like a great payoff for what seemed to be played up as such a big decision for Kamala. I suppose it's part of her personality to stress out over things too much. See also her recent freakout over kissing Red Dagger. The alternative was probably a lot of melodrama of her friends freaking out over being kept in the dark. So this is probably better.

The distractions - each of which is written and drawn by a different art team - are a mixed bag. Lockjaw's arrival is funny, if a bit random. Duarte's art is a different style than the book normally sees, closer to Skottie Young than Alphona or Nico Leon's. But it works for the more silly, madcap aspect of his section. Ian Herring goes with a much different color palette than he normally does, to the point I wondered if he even did the color work for those pages. Then Herring switches to a more faded color scheme for Elmo Bondoc's pages, closer to what Herring used when Adrian Alphona was still drawing the book. Bondoc's art is a little shaky, Miles Morales' head is oddly shaped in more than a few panels. Bob Quinn's was probably closest to Nico Leon's; the linework is heavier, he doesn't showcase that knack for a simplified style for more humorous effect Leon has, but the scene didn't call for it.

As special 50th issues go, this one was solidly fine.

Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk #3, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Not sure why Evil PhoenixHawk stole the fur trim from Kraven the Hunter's vest, but wannabe cosmic beings are odd like that.

I figured it's only two more issues, might as well stick around for the finish. The spirit of Powell's suit returns to explain the true origin of all those amulets, which involves the Elders of the Universe. The point to all this is to make Powell embrace the true potential of the power he has, somehow, pull himself together, and pursue the other Raptors before they get to Earth. Death's Head is still alive and tagging along, figuring there'll be a big bounty for a giant space bird. Good luck with that.

So much for my prediction on how the story was going to go. I figured Powell's "pattern" was lurking inside the amulet ripped from Darkhawk's chest, and he would be stirred to seize control from Robbie Rider when they attack New York, because the invaders always head for New York, and he sees his fiance running for her life. Darkhawk unlocking true potential and summoning a Darkhawk Gundam was not something I expected.

So in addition to try to connect Darkhawk to the Phoenix, know we're tying his origin to one of the Elders of the Universe. And how did the Primitive Skrull and Shi'ar find their way to Null Space, or the Darkforce Dimension, whichever? This is a lot of needless complication, and it's also resulting in a lot of exposition in this 4-issue mini-series. I like that the Kree Commander briefly mentions they've run into trouble hunting for Infinity Stones, since you could be forgiven for wondering what the hell any of this mini-series has to do with that.

I was going to say Lim drew the Skrulls without wrinkly chins, but I guess we could argue this was far enough back they hadn't evolved that feature. The Shi'ar are almost entirely covered with feathers at this stage, so it's a while ago. There's a few panels in here I can't tell what Lim's going for. On the page where the first Raptor appears, he looks at the other Shi'ar in one panel, then at a bare patch of ground at his feet, then at his arm, then the Skrulls. What's he looking at in the second panel? If it's his feet, then angle needs to be different. We also can't see his head at all, so we can't even try to gauge by an expression. There are a couple others like that, where a different view, or pulling further back might have clarified things. On the other hand, the full-page splash of the Anti-Phoenix looked pretty cool, as enormous birds made of space go.

The Situation Has Not Improved

I was never a fan of the Fraternity of Raptors retcon to Darkhawk's origin. I'm not opposed to the concept of the Raptors themselves. "Secret group working behind the scenes to guide the course of the Shi'ar Empire" is fine. Adding in that they were out of commission for a long time and have reemerged with a kind of "What the fuck happened? We gotta this back on track attitude," attitude isn't a bad touch.

That doesn't mean it was necessary to link Darkhawk's origin to them. I definitely don't think tying him to the same cosmology as the Phoenix is necessary. One thing I enjoy about Marvel's cosmic setting is all the strange and disparate parts moving around out there in the same ballpark. That shared sandbox, all the different creators with different ways of thinking about things put their ideas in the same pot and they more or less coexist.

You got your various star-spanning empires, which are of course all hostile to each other. You have your embodiments of various cosmic concepts. You have your space police force guys. A living planet, complete with facial hair. A group of insane hobbyists who brag about being the last members of their respective species. An entire planet acting as an insane asylum, staffed by talking animals. Inscrutable space gods with heads shaped like coffee mugs. Space truckers, ebings made of pure energy, whatever stuff you want to pull from the '50s sci-fi/horror comics, on and on.

They don't have to be connected to each other. They can be, but it isn't necessary for them to interact. It's a big universe; there's plenty of room for unusual stuff to simply be its own thing. You can get a lot out of taking two characters or settings that occupy different niches and playing them off each other. The dynamics vary depending on what you're combining. Rocket Raccoon is going to interact with that space truck differently than Ronan the Accuser, and they're both going to respond differently to the Phoenix, or Galactus showing up on their doorstep.

Darkhawk's original origin was that the suit was one of five a interstellar gangster press-ganged some scientists into making for him. It's perhaps not the origin you'd expect for a strange amulet that lets you control a powerful suit of armor, but it's not a bad one. There are still criminals in space; they will want ways to deal with enemies or protect themselves from threats. Not all of them are going to go to the trouble of hiring Technet or Death's Head to do it for them. There are countless worlds in the Marvel Universe that have been inhabited, with their own ideas and technologies. Even if they're abandoned now, all their people dead and gone, the things they created might persist. They might be just drifting through space, and every so often, one is going to fall into someone else's hands.

And that's fine. They can just be their own thing, a reminder that there's all sorts of mysteries and secrets out there yet to be discovered. And they aren't always going to be connected to something we already know about.

What I Bought 6/13/2018 - Part 1

Well, I found three of the seven comics coming out this week I wanted. Which is how I figured it'd go. If I go to Columbia this weekend, I might find some more. Also, my Internet is down until probably Monday afternoon. Hooray.

Domino #3, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Anthony Piper (artist), Jesus Aburtov (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Oh no, Greg Land is trying to draw people with happy smiles. It's one of the most horrifying things in the universe.

Domino tries to take revenge for her presumed dead friends, but screws it up because she wants to "make it hurt" and so uses fists rather than guns. So the villains escape again. At least her friends aren't really dead. Amadeus Cho suspects Diamondback is the traitor, but Domino doesn't want to believe it. Rather than confront her friend, or try to gather more evidence, she decides to go learn to control her power, after lying poorly to her friends. And she's going to learn control from Shang-Chi. Sure, why not? That dude needs to loosen up. But where is his monkey pal? C'mon on Gail Simone, respect CM Punk's very enjoyable story.

It is interesting to see Domino hanging out with this wider cast of characters. I've always associated her pretty strongly with Cable and X-Force. Deadpool, if he happens to be around. She was part of the X-Men while they lived on that island off San Francisco, but I usually forget that. But now we've got her palling around with Amadeus Cho, looking for Shang-Chi, forming a merc team that includes a former member of the Serpent Society/one of Captain America's ex-girlfriends. She's a little more spastic than I'm used to, but I'm used to her hanging around teenagers Cable's leading by the nose, or else Deadpool. She had to be a serious adult in those situations because there weren't any other good options.

The issue has a few flashbacks, colored various shades of grey, of Domino's time as a child being experimented on by creepy doctors trying to bring out her powers. They're surprised when that gets one of them killed. There isn't much to either of them - and we'll see if Topaz is connected to them in some way - but that might be the point. Who cares what their motivations are? They're experimenting on kids, fuck their rationalizations. Jesus Arbutov draws those pages, and it's a very straightforward style. There's bit of someone's style in there I can't place; Cameron Stewart maybe, or Darwyn Cooke. A lot fewer lines than in Baldeon's work on the remainder of the issue, but it's a much quieter setting. Domino's trying to keep herself emotionless, to give the doctors nothing, and the doctors' cheerful or collegial attitudes are fake. Some the emotions aren't real, or are hidden, and the expressions, and colors, are muted.

Baldeon's work, on the other hand, has a lot of emotion. Topaz has an intense scowl on her face in every panel. Domino looks alternately enraged, or depressed, or whatever to an extreme degree. Outlaw is stunned when Domino lies badly about going on a solo mission. The emotions are all BIG emotions. Baldeon draws dark rings around big eyes, which amplifies the emotion, or else a lot of little lines radiating outward.  And it gets the point across; I buy in totally that this Topaz despises Domino, and that Domino is desperate and furious and spooked by all this.

Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk #2, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - What will Darkhawk do without his nightlight?

Chris Powell is, like Domino, not the best at planning. He lets Death's Head fake-capture him and haul him into space to turn over to the Raptors. The Raptors betray Death's Head and blow up his ship. Powell thinks these guys will be pushovers like in that one-shot last fall, but they aren't, and he gets his ass kicked. The lead Raptor unveils some spiel about how the Raptors were originally an artificial version of some cosmic being meant to prey on the Phoenix Force?! Powell's peculiar situation is the perfect opportunity to create that being for real. They rip the amulet from Darkhawk's chest, and give it to Nova's brother Robbie, who eagerly accepts this gift pulled from the dead chest of his brother's friend and teammate, and they head for Earth. I mean, look at that nonsense.

I'm sure Powell is fine. Death's Head, too. It can't be the first time someone betrayed him, although I imagine no one does so twice. The Raptors are headed to Earth, Powell's pattern should still be inside the amulet, his fiance is on Earth, it'll be fine.

I've never thought the "let the bad guys capture you" plan was particularly bright. I suppose if your enemy can be anywhere in the universe it's the simplest way to get them to you, but just based on sheer numbers it seems stupid.

Lim's art is like it was in the first issue. It's very pretty - the panels where Darkhawk spreads his wing, he looks very shiny and cool - but the fight scenes still lack something. The Raptors are beating Darkhawk soundly, but it doesn't really come off from the art. Maybe because it happens so quickly. Once he realizes what he's up against, he gets brought down within a couple of panels, and one of those is a close-up on his face as the visor is cracking (although the glowing eyes just reminded me of ROM as much as anything). Maybe a few less panels of Miri freaking out over Chris bad plan, or less banter between him and Death's Head would have allowed more panels of him getting thoroughly trounced, and that might have helped. Or maybe not.

What I Bought 5/23/2018

Was on the road all week. Just got back a few hours ago. I did, while out and about, manage to find one book from this week at a comic store I found along the way.

Infinity Countdown Darkhawk #1, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) – Yet another artist fails to make that redesigned look work.

Chris Powell spends some time at Project PEGASUS figuring out the limits of his armor’s new situation. Namely, no more switching back and forth to repair damage to himself or the suit. Now he wants to go into space to fight the Fraternity of Raptors, and all he needs is a ship from his old pal Nova. Who says no, because he’s busy fighting the Raptors, who now include his little brother Robbie. As Chris debates his next move, he’s attacked by Death’s Head, who mostly does not use that particular speech pattern I see most people write him with. That sort-of Yoda thing? Although he does end questions with ”Yes?” a lot. 

The only connection I saw to any Infinity Anything was Nova made a reference to everyone being after the Gems as why he hasn’t already taken care of the Raptors. But then, despite being busy trying to keep the universe from the brink of war, he won’t let Chris handle the Raptors. Well, Richard never was the intelligent Rider brother, although neither is Robbie, if he’s running with the Raptors. And he’s wearing Mar-Vell’s Nega-Bands now?  So the issue is largely focused on establishing the current status quo. The deal with Chris’ armor, as well as what’s going on in space. Which is handy for someone like me, who stopped paying attention to Cosmic Marvel the minute it fell from Abnett and Lanning’s hands into Bendis’.

Lim’s art is generally fine, although the big fight happens in an entirely empty section of New York City. There’s a few cars, but no other people. Also, I would never have recognized Robbie Rider, who is pretty much always shown wearing glasses with floppy hair, if he hadn’t told the Raptors his name, because he’s drawn like some pointy-haired anime protagonist. “Pretty” is probably the best descriptor. Everyone is very attractive, and all the armor looks very shiny. Lim went back to the more classic look, with the long silver wings, which I consider an improvement over the one on the cover. Lot of computerized effects for energy blasts and stuff like that, which isn't bad, but isn't great. On the other hand, Lim draws Death’s Head’s head like it’s an actual organic skull, like Ghost Rider, rather than a robot head, which is what I thought it was. That's how I've seen it draw by everyone else I've ever seen draw Death's Head. Death's Head II is another matter, but that's neither here nor there.

So there are some parts in here I find interesting, or that might lead somewhere good, but the issue is still mostly treading water on my residual fondness for Darkhawk.

What I Bought 12/6/2017 - Part 2

My neighbor downstairs I complained about last month came up last week and apologized. Turns out it really was the people in the apartment behind me who were the problem. Will wonders never cease? For today's post, we've got the first issue of a mini-series, and the last one of those three Marvel Legacy books I wanted to try. Will the mini-series fare better with me than Ragman did?

The Demon: Hell is Earth #1, by Andrew Constant (writer), Brad Walker (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - It's never a good thing when both Etrigan and Jason Blood are smiling. If they're actually agreed upon a course of action, the title will be extremely accurate.

Jason's been having nightmares of a young girl, which have brought him to Death Valley. The young girl is on a vacation with her family, also plagued by the nightmares. Madame Xanadu is charging in on a motorcycle, hoping to avert whatever is about to happen. And then a test missile crashes in the desert, with a real warhead. A warhead of something unconventional.

Don't think I've read anything drawn by Brad Walker in a while. His Jason Blood looks fairly haggard, his Etrigan has a bit of that Kirby style, which I mostly notice in the Demon's hands. The squared off nails, the thick fingers that almost look like he's carved from rock. I guess most artists hew to the original design, but I've grown used to John McCrea's almost skeletal, oddly proportioned Etrigan. Anyway, Walker's Etrigan is a hulking wall, an almost solid mass, looming over everyone else. Even in panels that are supposed to focus on Blood, Etrigan barges he way in, either physically or via internal narration.

The idea of Blood floating about offering commentary on Etrigan's actions isn't that novel to me, I assumed since Etrigan could do so to him that it worked both ways, but I am curious what the deal is with the little girl, and how they're going to keep Etrigan involved in this story, since it's hard for me to see him objecting to Hell being unleashed on Earth.

Darkhawk #51, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Kev Walker (artist), Jeff Tartaglia (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Chris Powell looks awfully young there, unless it's meant to be a flashback to when he found the amulet.

Chris is a rookie cop now, trying to be the man he thought his father was (before he learned he was dirty). The amulet hasn't worked in a year, which hasn't stopped two of the Fraternity of Raptors from coming for the amulet. I didn't remember the suits having their own kind of sentience, but apparently Powell had an impact on his, and it had been trying to disconnect the member of the Fraternity from their access to the suits. He and Powell come to an understanding and prepare to head into space to contend with the Raptors. Issue end.

Of the three of these I bought, this is the one I feel like spends the most time recapping origin stuff, but also the one trying most seriously to set up something in motion for future stories. I wonder if Sims and Bowers could have gotten things to where they wanted without quite so much rehashing old stories, some of it feels unnecessary. I think it's meant to bring Powell back to the start before taking the first step on a new beginning. So make him a cop like his father, but making the choice to be a clean cop. Send him back to where he first got the amulet, give him a choice to keep it or not, accept the challenge or not, this time with a better sense of what that means.  And this is the one I'd most want to see going forward, if only out of some vain hope I'd get to see all the stuff I wanted from the Abnett/Lanning cosmic run.

When Powell accepts the amulet again, Kev Walker gives it a new design, and I'm not a fan. Remember how in the new 52, Jim Lee gave a bunch of heroes needlessly busy costumes, with seams on them suggesting interlocking armor pieces? That's kind of what Walker goes for here, in addition to even bigger shoulder pads than Darkhawk's traditionally had. And I know a belt may seem a strange accessory for a partially sentient armor, but I think the new look could use it. Compared to how the old armor looks when he draws it, I can't consider it an improvement.

All that said, Walker uses the jagged, broken panels he favors to good effect here. During the fight in the House of Mirrors, where the way the panels are set up combines with the reflections of the characters to be almost disorienting, and plays into Powell's confusion with everything that's going on. And during the reveal of what the suit has been up to while away from Powell, where you figure we're only catching glimpses of what's being revealed to Chris, or that this is how it gets processed by him - brief flashes, only barely connected by the spiel he's getting from the suit. And there's one panel of Chris reflecting on his past in the rain where I just really like the lighting and shadows Tartaglia gives it. Powell looks so much older and more thoughtful in those panels, at the moment he's going to be presented with a decision about who he wants to be.

So, They're Adding Those Amulets To The List?

The last page of Nova #33 had the younger Sphinx deciding the best way to counteract the old, crippled Sphinx' army of catspaws (Nova, Namortia, Black Bolt, and Mr. Fantastic) was to summon a team of his own. So he dusted off Man-Wolf, Moonstone, Ulysses Bloodstone*, and the Basilisk. Oh, and the evil Darkhawk that ambushed Nova at the beginning of this arc.

The first four all have something in common, with each other and the Sphinx. At least, they do if what I read in Thunderbolts #46 is still in continuity. That comic taught me that the stone that gave then Thunderbolt Meteorite (aka, Moonstone, aka Norman Osborn's Ms. Marvel), was a shard of some gem that was part of a 'lifestone tree' created by a group of advanced species. The plan was the gems would empower members of each of those species, and they'd serve as Guardians of the Galaxy**. It worked for awhile, until all the members were retired, dead, or whatever. The species decided to send the gems away someplace they'd be safe, which naturally didn't work. The ark was attacked, damaged and the gems were scattered and broken, with a bunch of shards just happening to land on Earth. Funny how that works out.

Point is, Moonstone, Man-Wolf, Basilisk, and Bloodstone all apparently derive their powers from shards of those various stones, whose abilities they've unlocked in different ways and to different extents. For that matter, the Sphinx' Ka Stone is also a shard of one of those gems***. So I'm guessing those four being summoned by the Sphinx is not a conincidence.

What about Evil Darkhawk? Back in the day, Darkhawk's amulet wasn't included in the list of shards which empowered humans. Of course, that was when the Darkhawk armor was still something designed originally for an interstellar crime boss. The origin's a bit different now, so Abnett and Lanning could be adding those amulets to those list. It would sort of fit. The Fraternity of Raptors was created to serve the Great Purpose, protect the Shi'ar Empire, which is sort of related to the original purpose of the Lifestone Tree (and the Shi'ar were involved in its design).

Or, Evil Darkhawk just tagged along. For some reason, Darkhawk's been invisible to the Sphinx and generally immune to the forces in play. Something to do with his amulet. Presumably, the same would apply for his counterpart. The Raptors have access to that Datasong, which seems to enhance their level of perception, so maybe Evil Darkhawk saw he hadn't killed Chris Powelll and Nova as he hoped, and saw that Young Sphinx was going to recruit some allies to help him accomplish that end, and so Evil Darkhawk got him/her/itself in the right place at the right time to hitch a ride to the big fight.

* Father of NextWave member Elsa Bloodstone.

** I think that was the job description, not the team name, but who knows? Maybe we'll learn that some iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy from the 30th Century went way back in time and inspired those various races to undertake the project.

*** Which considering his abilities to warp reality, makes you wonder how powerful the complete gems were. The Sphinx is strong enough that Reed Richards once asked Galactus to come to Earth and save them from Sphinx, and he just has a little piece of it.

I'm Guessing It's A Big Picture Retcon

While I was in Marvels and Legends this week, I flipped through War of Kings: Ascension #2. So let me see if I have this straight: Chris Powell hallucinated Evilhawk, the character he fought in issues #24 and 25 of his original series. The Evilhawk armor did exist, but Chris was the one inside it, not an intergalactic gangster who wanted to transfer his mind out of the armor and into an organic body (namely, Chris').

Furthermore, the Darkhawk and Evilhawk armors weren't constructed under orders of aforementioned intergalactic gangster. All of that was conjured up by Chris' mind to cope with the data flow he received from the amulet. "Evilhawk" was actually Chris in a different armor he summoned without realizing it, running amok while Chris was blacked out or something*. Chris' seeing some hideous, mishapen thing every time he took off his helmet was just another hallucination as well, which I guess means he actually just looked like himself all along. Is that the gist of it?

Snarky footnotes notwithstanding, I'm not really here to ridicule this new origin, even if I do hate this type of "Everything you knew about X is wrong!" style of stuff. So maybe I am here to ridicule it, I haven't decided yet, so I'll just play the rest of the post by ear, see how it goes. I don't know, the Darkhawk armor having been designed to help a space gangster consolidate his power, but winding up with a teen who uses it for good seems like a decent idea. The overall theme doesn't really seem to have been changed by the startling revelation. Whatever grand design this Heirarchy of Raptors subscribe to does not seem to be a good one, given the fact they provided Blastaar with a freaking Cosmic Control Rod**. So it's still a case of an Earth teen lucking into a weapon that was usually bent towards ill purposes, only he used it for good. The difference is the weapon was tied into something a little larger than the pursuit of ill-gotten gains.

I guess it would have been harder to get Chris into War of Kings with the gangster origin. It might have been interesting for Chris to be perceived as the gangster because he was using the Darkhawk armor, and then see Chris try and deal with that. Some folks might be after him for the gangsters past misdeeds, others might want to curry favor with him, out of fear or greed, and Chris could see if he couldn't use that to his advantage. Though that would be treading on Agents of Atlas territory, wouldn't it? It can still work similarly with the Heirarchy of Raptors, but I would think an obscure group with vague goals nobody's seen in milennia wouldn't have much of a following, or much recognition.

* Were I a petty man, I'd point out that in Darkhawk #24, when Chris is fighting Evilhawk in an old amusement park, a member of Code B.L.U.E. shouts 'Freeze! Both of you!' Which wouldn't seem to make sense if Chris was actually in the Evilhawk armor and just hallucinating that he was still Darkhawk fighting Evilhawk, meaning there was only one person to have freeze. Good thing I'm not a petty person.

** Should we figure that the sudden emergence of the Raptors are some many years is some universal response to the forces of Life being stronger than ever? Are they agents of Death like Thanos, but not as high on the totem pole?

Here I Go, Being Suspicious Again

I didn't read War of Kings: Darkhawk #1, but based on #2, it seems as though this Raptor fellow showed up, with the large Hunter Drone right on his/her tail. What I'm wondering is why that Drone showed up now.

It's supposedly sent by enemies of this Fraternity of Raptors, but why didn't it find Talon (the more experienced Raptor) sooner? He/she said they'd been dormant for thousands of years, which is pretty much the definition of "sitting duck". Why didn't the drone attack Talon then? I thought perhaps it was because Talon was dormant, and so not giving off an energy signature for the drone to track, but 2 questions arise from that:

1) If the drone needs an active suit to track, then why had it never found Darkhawk? He's been a character since 1991, which is closing in on 20 years in our time, which has to be at least 3 or 4 for in Marvel-Time. So that wasn't long enough for the drone to find him, but this Talon had awoken just recently and the drone found it already?

2) Talon said it and Chris are the only two left, and no Raptor has been active in millennia. So either all the other Raptors were killed before they stopped being active, or they went into dormancy and were destroyed. In which case, it raises the question, again, of why the drone couldn't find Talon and destroy him/her before it got up and running again*.

Basically, I'm suspicious of this Talon. It's awful convenient how Talon and the drone arrive at Chris' house at the same time (or if theyw ere already fighting, that neither one was able to destroy the other before they reached the house). Talon says the Raptors are supposed to safeguard galactic culture, and that things are now badly off-course. So why did they go dormant in the first place? If they'd been active, they could have stopped things from going askew when they started, rather than trying to act now. Plus, there's the vagueness of the term 'galactic culture'. Whose culture? Everyone's? The Kree, the Shi'ar, the Badoon, Earthlings, the Xandarians?

Also, there's the solicitations for the Ascension mini-series that suggest Talon's going to do something severely morally questionable, and Chris is going to be left taking the fall, which gives me the sense the Fraternity of Raptors are a lot like the Second Foundation: Things are only OK if they're going the way the Raptors want, and if not, then everyone's expendable to get things back on the path they want. Poor Darkhawk.

* I guess I could accept the "space is really large" explanation, but then I wonder why you only use one Hunter Drone, isntead of sending massive swarms of them out.