Saturday Splash Page #240

"Rocket into Danger," in Warlock #1, by Louise Simonson (writer), Pascual Ferry (penciler), Mark Morales (inker), Steve Oliff (colorist), John Costanza (letterer)

And we're on to the second of the three "Marvel Tech" line books. Doug Ramsey died in New Mutants, then Warlock died 30 issues later, presumably to make way for the kewl X-Force era. Some strange hybrid appeared years later, dubbed "Douglock," but turned out to just be Warlock with some of Doug's memories from those times they bonded.

After being used to create the Phalanx - oops - and being used by the Red Skull to take over that Helicarrier that X-51 got blown up stopping from crashing, Warlock's free and on a mission: Seek out and absorb all traces of the Phalanx on Earth. Unfortunately, he soon comes in contact with Esperanza (or Hope), a young girl who seems outwardly fine, but can infect others with the transmode virus. There's also a transmode-infected monkey that Hope befriends and protects from Warlock's half-hearted attempts to absorb him.

The trio face threats on two fronts. On one side, a person called Mainspring, a withered-looking grey guy with a big cranium and what look like camera lens or something fused into his skin. He ran the organization that was experimenting on the Phalanx traces, in some idea of advancing humanity through technology. To them, Hope is a great potential tool, especially when she proves able to infect inanimate objects, which, I guess was not considered possible previously? I don't know, I avoided the Phalanx stuff like a techno-organic plague. Warlock is interfering by denying them the material they desire.

On the other side, a group calling themselves Psi-Cops, led by a woman named Psiren, who Ferry draws as basically Amanda Waller if she shaved her head. Simonson gives her a fair amount of Waller's stubborn attitude and self-righteousness, though lacking the Wall's biting sense of humor. The Psi-Cops run around in white spandex and use various mental powers to destroy techno-organic beings and those who'd use them to endanger Earth. That Warlock also wants to remove all traces of the Phalanx, or that Hope didn't ask to be infected, is irrelevant. They have the potential to create more techno-organic monsters, so they need to be destroyed.

Ultimately, Psiren's younger brother, Psimon, disagrees and helps Warlock and Hope escape. After issue 3, they're on the run from both sides, with Psimon also using his telekinetic powers to help Hope learn to control her transmode abilities. Hope works on not letting her emotions get control of her, Psimon works on his confidence, on not comparing himself to his sister, and pushing his limits. Warlock struggles with guilt over being responsible for the Phalanx that infected Hope, and his own emotions around her and Psimon's friendship. Then Hope gets jealous when first Shadowcat, and then Wolfsbane show up, and Warlock starts acting different (presumably due to the aspects of Doug that imprinted on him.)

Simonson largely avoids jealous spats between the various girls, despite issue 7's cover implying Rahne and Hope were going to fight over Warlock. Kitty's just happy to see Warlock's still alive, and written as old enough to probably not see any rivalry between her and Hope, while Rahne's empathetic enough and open enough with herself to break down Hope's barriers (and also provide a nudge that helps Hope evolve her abilities in important ways.)

Simonson brings in Psycho-Man for one issue because Hope's power is messing with the Microverse somehow, to make everyone work on emotional control (with an assist from special guest-star Spider-Man!) Although Simonson's Psycho-Man is a lot more empty bombast than I was used to. More like a petulant child at times, but maybe the point is he never learned to control his emotions, because his machines do it for him.

Although Hope internal monologues at one point that Warlock barely changed shape once they ran into Shadowcat, it's a matter of degrees. Ferry's artwork is wildly different from Sienkiewicz's. Much rounder, much softer-looking characters, especially Warlock. There are no jagged projections of tiny metal bits jutting off at right angles. Instead, Ferry's Warlock is like a living toon. Highly malleable and using the ability almost constantly. Blimps with hands and feet, a T-Rex, puffing himself up with a Superman-style physique and chest symbol. Even when maintaining the form Hope describes as a 'boring old boy,' he'll still project a fluid-looking tendril from his forehead to interface with a computer.

Simonson keeps the threats coming. Mainspring finds Bastion's (siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh) severed, damaged head in the desert, and after a battle in the New York sewers where it had seized control of one of his robots, Mainspring strips away all the outer layers of programming to get to the core. And that's how I learned Bastion was the result of the amalgamation of Master Mold and Nimrod going through the Siege Perilous back in the Outback era of Uncanny X-Men. I had no idea, and didn't really care, but just throw it on the pile of things I learned I wish I hadn't.

Master Mold of course slips his leash, requiring help from the Avengers, but enough transmode-ing takes place to signal the Technarchy, so Warlock finishes his series - at 9 issues, shortest of the 3 M-Tech books - with a rematch against his father for the fate of the Earth. He wins, with a lot of help from Hope and even the Psi-Cops, and the trio (plus Rhane and the little monkey) decide to stick together and help Warlock remove more Phalanx infection stuff. Which was probably never referenced by any later writers. I don't even know if Warlock showed up in anything between this book (which concluded summer of 2000) and his appearance in the Abnett/Lanning Nova run in 2008, where he'd returned to the Technarchy homeworld (and where Paul Pelletier used Warlock's more classic look.)

Sometimes a Symbol's What My Mind (Makes Up) Of It

I mentioned in Monday's post that I thought some of Ferry's page layouts were kind of odd, and possibly were done to represent symbols or something that might relate to tabletop games, since the cast were stuck in one.

Kelvin asked if I could post an example, since I went with the enjoyable sight of Clea walloping Mordo mid-villainous spiel, rather than actually showing the thing I spent a paragraph of the review discussing.

I don't want to post too much stuff from a comic that came out just last week. Don't need to get Peter David on my case like he was after scans daily back in the day. So we'll stick to the page I mentioned first, seen above. This is the one that made me wonder if Ferry was making deliberate reference to something, because it really feels like something I've seen before. Circle atop three narrow (I suppose the middle one isn't so narrow) panels, though the image I see in my mind may have wings on either side of the circle.

None of the others produced as strong a reaction as this one, but that could just be a product of my upbringing, assuming there's anything to any of this. Or I could just be seeing things.

What I Bought 4/3/2024 - Part 1

My weather luck when I need to go into the field isn't terrible, but when it's bad, it decides to be bad in unique ways. Snow in April, 50 mph winds in December, what's supposed to be 1 hour of rain turns into 5 hours of intense thunderstorms.

Doctor Strange #14, by Jed MacKay (writer), Pasqual Ferry (artist), Heather Moore (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Oh, don't give the Black Cat boob armor, Ross. She can't hide any tools in that!

Mordo's got the enchanted, living game book, so he's in charge. Strange draws the dragon away, seeing it as more than just something Mordo's using to destroy them. Which leaves the rest of his Secret Defenders to contend with Mordo. Hunter's Moon and Taskmaster are swept up in a scenario where they're leaders of opposing factions, who will ultimately fight to the death. It seems like a game with limited room for creativity, or maybe it just plays into their respective approaches.

Ferry lays out all the pages in curiously shaped panels that feel like they're meant to be symbols, but I have no idea of what. Circle atop three tall, narrow panels. Circle spilling off the left side of the page, on top of a wide panel with a little hill in the middle, on top of another circle spilling off the right side of the page.

But while Mordo's enjoying the show, he forgot about the thief. Felicia may not be into tabletop gaming, but she understands swiping the special book. So she does. Ferry drops the odd panel layouts, so I guess they were meant to reflect being in a game scenario, but it almost feels like the panels should be more rigid, because the game has set rules and only so many locales and creatures. 

Strange returns, having reached an accord with the book's intelligence. Mordo get punched out by Clea, Strange offers the book to I think an evil doppleganger of himself that is living in his house, and Mordo gets chucked in a crypt with the ghost dog and the snakes.

I am unclear if the dog and snakes wandered in by mistake and are now stuck - as Strange doesn't seem to know where they are - or if someone else (Clea, the general) chucked them in as part of a move against Strange, or if they have their own plans to harm Mordo. And then the last page is the start of the vampire event thing I'm going to try very hard to avoid the next few months.

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #4, by Jed MacKay (writer), Alessandro Cappuccio (artist), Rachelle Rosenberg (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - At least Hunter's Moon is a doctor. He surely knows a treatment for crescent-axe-in the pectoral.

It's Dr. Badr's turn on the sofa. He doesn't seem as bothered by Marc's death, as he is by the imposter. Well, that and the fact that with Khonshu sealed up, there won't be anymore Fists of Khonshu after the next time Badr dies. None except the imposter, and that's not OK with him. I think Cappuccio draws Badr as more physically expressive in his civilian duds than his costume.

I don't mean facial expression, since we can't see that under the mask, but his hands are more active in the conversation with the doctor. In costume, his arms are either at his sides, or in front of him, like he's guarding his heart. In civilian garb, he gestures a lot more. When describing how this fake Moon Knight fights, he moves his arms more than he does while actually fighting. Fidgets with his glasses, tents his fingers, puts his hand to his head. Maybe he's more relaxed around Sterman, or more controlled when on the job.

When not with Dr. Sterman, the rest of the issue is Tigra and Badr hitting the new guy where he lives. Which is where Marc died. Great strategy to keep anyone from looking for you, but not great in that it pisses off a tiger-woman once she's found you. And Badr has figured out some of the imposter's identity as a result of those past Khonshu Fist memories.

I like that, if MacKay's going to go the "long and storied" tradition route with Moon Knights, he picked something to differentiate it from other of the other, similar lineages. Iron Fists may have a book about them, but that's not the same as being able to relive their experiences.

Anyway, they unmask the guy, and hey, I was right, it's the Shroud. Sweet, I'm now 8-for-873 on predictions on this blog! Go me!

What I Bought 3/6/2024

We're at the part of the NBA season where everyone is agog at the Boston Celtics' regular season success and proclaiming them a nigh-unstoppable juggernaut rolling towards a title. Ignoring, of course, the fact they said the same thing the last two seasons, only to watch the Celtics bumble their way through multiple lengthy playoff series against allegedly inferior teams, before eventually NOT winning the title.

Just a couple of night ago they were outscored - the entire team - in the 4th quarter by Dean Wade, a guy best known for NBA writer Zach Lowe saying his name makes it sound like he's an accountant. 'Dean Wade, for your company's accounting needs. Dean Wade!' I'm supposed to take that bunch of bumblefucks seriously? Get the hell out.

Doctor Strange #13, by Jed MacKay (writer), Pasqual Ferry (artist), Heather Moore (color artist), Cory Petit (letterer) - Taskmaster out here like, "How about this? Good pose, right? Lifted it from the last Arkon flick. Piece of shit movie, but good visuals."

So there's a D&D style game that's actually real. Kids start playing it, and it begins to establish itself in their world, branching out and gaining a stronger grip on reality. To beat it, Strange says you have to play by its rules, so that means gathering a party. That's about half the issue, Strange making various pitches to the Black Cat, Hunter's Moon, and Taskmaster. Tasky's in it for money, Felicia so the Doc doesn't snitch to Spidey about nearly dooming Manhattan, Hunter's Moon because Moon Knight owed the Doc a favor.

Into the game they go, complete with new duds. Taskmaster and Hunter's Moon's outfits feel like they match their regular aesthetics pretty well, the Black Cat's not so much. Maybe it's all the lavender, or just the helm with the little cat ears. One montage of various perils defeated or circumvented later and they've found the kids. Unfortunately, Baron Mordo found the game book first, so now he's running this clown show. Next issue, dragon fight!

MacKay has some fun with the banter between Strange and his party, most of whom he doesn't seem very fond of (he admits that's why he picked Taskmaster as the meat shield), but I would have liked a little more of things not going the way the party expects, or the characters less used to this stuff being more confused by it. But Taskmaster just sees it as an excuse to chop things up, and it's probably not that weird for the others, so I guess I can see it.

Moore's colors help solidify Ferry's art more than I remember it looking in the past. It's been a while, but I remember when he was drawing Ultimate Fantastic Four, the colors made everything look like it was shot through a Vaseline-smeared lens. Kind of ephemeral. They save that here for when they find the bubble with the kids in it, playing what they think is just a game, while it rewrites reality around them.

Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #1, by Iman Vellani and Sabir Pirzada (writers), Scott Godlweski (artist), Erick Arciniega (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - All X-Men must do dramatic posing in a sewer, it's in the curriculum.

Kamala's back in Jersey City, but Jersey City's not so friendly to Ms. Marvel. Her list of problems is lengthy, and includes half the people who used to love her no being suspicious because of the affiliation with the X-Men, including Nakia and Zoe. In their defense, they've been made to forget Kamala was Ms. Marvel, but not that Ms. Marvel died, so they aren't sure this is the same person. Nobody loves clones!

Kamala can't bring herself to stop trying to help people, even when the X-Men encourage her to focus on living her life, which feels true to the character. She gets overwhelmed at times, but she always seems determined to try and do all she can. Unfortunately, her body is acting up when she uses her powers. Godlewski draws it almost like little explosions are going off inside her.

The Hordeculture, who show up trying to abduct some mutant kid crook with plant powers, claim to know what's going on, but didn't feel like sharing. Kamala does save the kid from capture and eventual dissection by the creepy grannies, which is really nice after he dissed her codename. Not a bad design, lots of room for different looks as he mimicks characteristics of different plants, and the sweatpants emphasize the cobbled together, low-budget crook he's meant to be.

At any rate, Lila Cheney shows up and teleports Kamala to one of her concerts. That's where the issue ends, which is a weird place to leave it. Lila's watching the fight from the shadows, and Godlewski keeps her in shadow when she announces her presence. Then Kamala's in the crowd at a concert and just starts cheering wildly once Lila walks up on stage and begins to play.

So, why the mystery of her identity? Or, conversely, why have Lila essentially abduct Kamala because she needs X-Men, but then not speak to her about it at all. It seems like the cliffhanger ought to be Kamala materializes in a strange place full of aliens, and then next issue figures out it was Lila who did it and why. Or, have Lila approach her and at least make some cryptic and suspenseful or misleading statement to close the issue on. Like, "Ms. Marvel, you're killing it," or "I need you to have my baby, Ms. Marvel." OK, those are shit examples, but you get what I mean.

Saturday Splash Page #110

 

"Sodium Bash", in Superboy (vol. 3) #85, by Joe Kelly (writer), Pascual Ferry (penciler), Keith Champagne (inker), Jason Wright (colorist), Comicraft (letterer)

I've read a couple of the early issues of '90s Superboy, when it was written by Karl Kesel and drawn by Tom Grummett. Mostly though, I've seen him in team books (Young Justice), or guest appearances (The Ray.) As for this issue, I have it solely because it's the starting point for the brief Superboy/Batgirl romance, and I was curious how that got going.

The answer is, Superboy comes to Gotham to bug Robin (and avoid his problems), and gets mixed up in something involving people being experimented on and, well I'm not sure. Robin says their blood is pure sodium, but it looks more like their entire bodies are sodium. Either way, Batgirl notices Superboy has found a clue, they try to investigate, get captured, nearly die. Early 2000s Dickhead Batman starts in with, "I told you not to associate with metahumans, Batgirl," and Superboy insists it was as much his (Superboy's) screw-up as hers.

That's pretty much it. There's a bit when they're about to die where she asks him to talk, but that seems to be him just pouring out all the crap he didn't want to discuss, and Cassandra's using it to focus through the drugs enough to put an escape into action.

There's a background subplot about his powers acting up, a well different writers went to. Reading descriptions of some of the earlier issues, he had a stretch where his body started breaking down, the resolution of which meant he wouldn't age. Which seems to have been quietly discarded somewhere along the way. Certainly Geoff Johns and subsequent Teen Titans writers kept playing with the notion Conner would grow up to be Superman (usually a morally questionable one in an authoritarian timeline).

Sunday Splash Page #243

 

"Wild Party", in Heroes for Hire/Quicksilver '98, by John Ostrander (writer), Paschalis Ferry (penciler/inker), Jamie Mendoza, Harry Candelario and John Floyd (inkers), Joe Rosas, Lysa Kraiger, and Mike Rockwitz (colorists), Jon Babcock (letterer)

For whatever reason, in 1998 Marvel decided their Annuals would be mash-ups of two different titles. I think the most well-known is Joe Kelly's Daredevil/Deadpool which revolves around both characters' complicated relationships with Typhoid Mary, but there's also this, the conclusion of the 5-part "Siege of Wundagore" story that ran between Heroes for Hire and Quicksilver. While the latter title started out written by Tom Peyer, Ostrander had taken over, co-writing with Joe Edkin, in issue 7.

It's basically one huge fight, with shifting loyalties constantly. The High Evolutionary's gone mad with power, amped up on something called "Isotope E", which is contained in the glowy green thing Pietro's holding. He was fighting Exodus and thee Acolytes for control of the mountain, but there's also his traitorous creation the Man-Beast lurking around. The Heroes for Hire keeping sliding around on the evolutionary scale, from apes to humans and back. The Acolytes decide to help the H4H, following Quicksilver's lead. Exodus, Thena and Man-Beast combine mental powers to down the Evolutionary, though White Tiger nearly kiboshes the thing trying to fulfill her purpose and kill Man-Beast. The Black Knight and Exodus have it out, because Dane was Exodus' friend at some point centuries ago, when he inhabited an ancestor's body.

There's a lot going on, but other than the White Tiger thread, very little of it relates to the Heroes for Hire. The main thing for Pietro is he rejects both the power Isotope E grants him, and the Acolytes' offer to follow him, in one of his periodic, "I am not my father" phases. Father, in this case, being Magneto. I forget who Marvel (was it Remender in Uncanny Avengers?) changed it to a few years ago. The Evolutionary?

Having four inkers on a single issue is rarely a good sign, and Ferry's art varies as wildly as you'd expect from that. Especially when White Tiger is fighting Man-Beast, it gets hard to tell which is which in the panels of their faces, and Tiger looks a lot more like a gorilla than something evolved from a tiger should. It's interesting to see how he draws Quicksilver, though, because sometimes Pietro's running, and other times he tucks his legs into his chest like he's doing a cannonball and sort of zips along a couple of feet above the ground. Not sure how that works, and I've never seen any other artist do that with a speedster.

Sunday Splash Page #242

 

"H4H Is Blowing Up," in Heroes for Hire (vol. 1) #3, by John Ostrander (writer), Pascual Ferry (penciler), Jamie Mendoza (inker), Joe Rosas (colorist), Jonathan Babcock (letterer)

"Heroes for Hire" was originally a sub-title for Power Man and Iron Fist, and didn't become the main title of a book until 1997, when John Ostrander wrote a team book in the aftermath of Onslaught.

With most of the heroes gone, and the U-Foes assisting a mysterious mastermind in a breakout from the Vault, Iron Fist decides to use his company's resources to put together a team of, well, anybody he can find. Hercules joins briefly, then departs to get his shit together. Black Knight tags in (with a new sword and potential role), as does Scott Lang. After some reluctance, so do Luke Cage and She-Hulk. Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch is helping to run things, and Ostrander gives us a few scenes during the series of him and Namor being chummy. Always weird to see Namor being relaxed and pleasant. Ostrander also adds in a new White Tiger, a woman who actually transforms into a white tiger if she loses control.

The book doesn't ever really offer a sense that the available heroes are stretched thin with the Avengers and FF "dead" and the X-Men on the run. The first year is the team dealing with various threats, with Ostrander ranging far and wide, like the U-Foes and Nitro. They get tangled up with the Thunderbolts (still pretending to be heroes) and Silver Sable. A couple of issues deal with Sersi popping up after she and Black Knight got separated at some point, which drags the team into fighting the Deviants. All the while, the mastermind is moving in the background.

Ostrander does a bit of a dive into Luke and Danny's friendship. The different ways they see things, the different ways they respond to problems. Danny thought the world needed some symbol of hope, some reason to think things weren't falling apart, and he took certain steps. Big, idealistic, poorly thought steps. Luke's more cautious, more capable of being sneaky or deceitful if he thinks it's necessary.

Most of the rest of the series is a crossover with Quicksilver, which I think Ostrander was also writing. The heroes get caught in the middle of a struggle for control of Wundagore between the High Evolutionary and Exodus, and . . .look, I'm pretty close to ride or die for John Ostrander, but even he can't make me give a shit about the High Evolutionary or the Acolytes.

Pascual Ferry draws most of the 19 issues of the book, and he uses a much stiffer, harder line here than he would show in the 2000s. Compared to his art here, his work on Ultimate Fantastic Four had an almost ethereal look to it. Pretty stylized, exaggerated proportions. White Tiger's legs seem to go on forever, so maybe there's some Jim Lee influence in there? Not sure. 

But Ferry's very good at laying out panels and pages, and he gets a lot of fight scenes to draw and illustrates them well. Sometimes he'll go move-by-move, and other times he focuses on the big moments. Ostrander adds some humor occasionally, not a lot, but enough to keep things from getting grim, and Ferry does alright with that. Luke gets an updated costume, brings back the tiara they ditched in his '90s Cage series, but stays away from canary yellow clothing. Scott Lang got a more armored look when he was in DeFalco's FF run, but Ferry brings him back to a more classic Ant-Man costume.

The book got canceled after 19 issues, which is still the longest any book titled Heroes for Hire has lasted.