Category: Szymon Kudranski

Best of Marvel: Week of February 26th, 2020

Best of this Week: Avengers #31 (Legacy #731) – Jason Aaron, Various Artists, Rachelle Rosenberg and Joe Caramagna 

Tony Stark is Iron Man.

What makes him Iron Man isn’t just the suits, but the brilliant mind capable of forging them. Tony’s been flung a million years into the past and, lacking the proper equipment to either build a new suit or time machine, has to fend for himself until he finds a way back home or dies. Along the way, he staves off both his past and futures as madness and hopelessness begin to seep into his mind, but being the resilient bastard that he is, we all know that he can do it.

The issue begins with a flashback sequence to Tony using one of his first inventions, some X-Ray contacts, to spy on a seedy meeting that his adoptive father, Howard Stark, holds with some horrifying implications. Howard’s “goodness” in the Marvel Universe has flip flopped many a time throughout the years with the most recent being a swing towards good through Jonathan Hickman’s S.H.I.E.L.D., but this flashback peels back some layers on what Howard’s always been about. Through Geraldo Borges, we get a scene similar to Eyes Wide Shut and Rachelle Rosenberg contrasts the light that Tony thought his father was, with his immense darkness.

We then cut to the future…or the past rather, with Tony sitting in the same cave that he and T’Challa found the calcified remains of Tony’s armor a millennia later and he’s grown a sick beard and wears the pelts of various things he’s killed while trying to preserve his vibranium energy. Gerardo Zaffino takes over the art for this section and, per his amazing issues of Conan, continues to do an amazing job in portraying the wilderness as dark, cold and ravenous. There’s a black madness behind Tony’s eyes after being stuck for so long.

Soon after Aaron Zaffino, and Rosenberg show us just how Tony wound up in the predicament that he’s in with only half functioning armor. Zaffino shows The Ghost Rider, Starbrand, Odin and Phoenix of the era fighting the metal man from the future. It’s intense as he staves off the intense, orange fire from the Rider’s mammoth, takes a brutal shot on the chin from the Hulk-Brand, stops the buzzing blue lightning from Odin wielding Mjolnir and tries to reason with the Phoenix before she shoots him back to the ground. Her colors are striking with intense particle effects as she tells him to “Remember the face of the Devil.”

Throughout the issue, we get Tony’s narration of the whole situation and he’s so very hopeful in the beginning up until the offerings start coming in. It starts off with just one woman bringing him some cave grog and then more and more start pouring in. Aaron starts spreading the seeds of temptation as Tony bemoans the nights getting “lonelier and thirstier” and Zaffino shows these busty cave babes kneeling with their grog skins towards Tony. As time goes on, the men of the cave come with clubs and grogs in an attempt to force Tony to drink and Tony is forced to drive them away again and again.

He’s starting to lose things and get angry before a silver tongued snake appears in his helmet with Joe Caramagna giving him a voice through familiar red lettering and bubbles. The snake mentions Howard’s name, saying that his adoptive father paid some sort of price and Tony lifts his helmet, thinking to slam it down on the snake before realizing it’s just another temptation. It’s almost horrific and really sells just how much this time period and everything is getting to him.

At the same time, the Devil doesn’t like being denied, so it sends a monster after Tony, the Gorilla wielding the Power Stone from Avengers #13! It’s a short and one sided fight as Szymon Kudranski steps in and shows the Gorilla savagely beating Tony. Rosenberg’s purple background and debris signals us to the Power (wink wink) of the stone and the intensity of the splash page itself is immense as the Gorilla whips Tony around, smashing rocks and Tony’s bones while he’s powerless to do anything except yell and think. It’s not long before it leaves Iron Man for dead and allows him time to form a plan.

Tony does his best when he’s trying to not die, in his words, so the wheels of his mind begin turning as he sets traps outside of his cave as various snakes begin to appear outside and are skewered by his spikes. Oscar Bazaldua does an AMAZING job as he introduces us to his “Ice Age Man” design with Tony wearing a suit made out of hardened ice and powered by the last of his Vibranium energy. It’s very reminiscent of his Mk. I Armor and even has blades similar to Baraka from Mortal Kombat coming out of its forearms.

I love this design because it’s gaudy, retro and bulky all at once and made even better by the stark white, the fur on Tony’s neck and the stippling shading that I do love so much. Bazaldua even gives Tony the classic pose as he confronts the Devil at his door. It turns out that the figure is… *gasp* Howard Stark in the red cloak from Tony’s initial flashback. Tony knew that the man behind the Devil Mask was his father in that cult meeting because of the X-Ray contacts and had been scared since.

Aaron portrays him as an evil bastard that wants to have Tony cast away his future and rule the world as Father and son, only for Tony to send a spike through his head, “killing him.” Unfortunately for him, the body rises and reveals himself to be MEPHISTO and he absolutely launches himself at Tony and uppercuts the hell out of him. Robert Gill takes over the art here and shows parts of Tony’s being smashed off before Mephisto hammer fists Iron Man in the chest. It’s fast and intense to a point where the speed lines are almost nauseating.

The Avengers One Million look on at the fight and ponder if Tony’s strong enough to hold out against Mephisto alone. It’s a tough fight because Tony’s running out of energy, his suit is melting and the Devil has far more power than he can handle, so he makes one final hail mary upon seeing that Mephisto has the Time Stone. As he denies the offers Mephisto makes, one last time, and blasts the stone full of his last reserves of energy.

It’s a beautiful set of shots with Gill giving Tony a dynamic pose as the armor cracks off of him, shattering into pieces as he expels a beautiful beam of blue and white light thanks to Rachelle Rosenberg.Tony’s unkempt hair flies out and looks amazing as it flows out of the cracked half of the helmet and the wires dangle back. Mephisto lets the energy hit the stone and looks on with his evil grin and blasts Tony back with Time energy.

Throughout the book, Joe Caramagna has been providing excellent lettering and placement, filling the empty space and hinting at the villain throughout. He does this to great effect when Tony is flung back to his normal future, but has to witness other possible futures. Caramagna spaces each of the thought bubbles, grouping them based on the image in the background and spacing them out as to draw attention to Tony words and the corresponding panel of horror.

The question is, what was this experience meant to teach? 

In many ways, it could be seen as a way to strengthen him against the coming threats that Mephisto has coming and that’s doubly true since Arno Stark has resurrected his father in the pages of Iron Man 2020 and he could be used against Tony again. On the other hand, as Mephisto says in the final pages by Mattia de Iulis, he’s sown fear and doubt in the heart of Tony. Tony does some pretty dumb things when he’s afraid and wh’s to say that this won’t create a new ripple among the Avengers becaue of it?

Overall, I enjoyed this issue! While not all of the artists were to my liking, the story made up for the pages that I wasn’t enamored with. I really enjoyed seeing how Tony would find a way out of the mess and I do enjoy when Mephisto is being used well. Jason Aaron is doing his best to pace out the story and weave pieces into place for the Mephisto Event that we’ve been waiting for since it was revealed that he was the Avenger’s true threat.

The various artists did well, of course there were a few that I didn’t enjoy as much as others, but everyone has their tastes. Rachelle Rosenberg stunned with her amazing colors on every page and Joe Caramagna made it all possible through his lettering. This book was cohesive and a lot of fun throughout, but the price and the fact that this was more of an annual kinda story drags it down just a bit. 

For the most part, however, it’s a high recommend.

Best of Marvel: Week of November 13th, 2019

Best of this Week: Fallen Angels #1 – Bryan Hill, Szymon Kudranski, Frank D’Armata and Joe Sabino

She is a butterfly.

Kwannon had been living in silent darkness for almost thirty years, trapped inside of her mind  while Betsy Braddock occupied her body (Uncanny X-Men #256, 1989). That changed in Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor #4 (2018) when Betsy psychically reconstructed her original body, allowing Kwannon to reclaim hers and make sporadic appearances in Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men (2018/2019), mostly serving as Wolverine’s back-up. Of course, things have changed significantly since then and now.

This book opens with a young girl standing on a train while Kwannon narrates in the background. It’s mostly vague as Kwannon refers to a mysterious “she” that she hoped was happy and free during the time that she was locked in her own body. The little girl puts on some sort of tech apparatus on her head which, upon activation, causes her eyes to turn blck as she begins to tear through the pedestrians on the train. It’s savage as she rips a handrail out of place and starts beating people with it. Eventually, she makes it to the train operator’s room, knocks him out and derails the train. Presumably everyone is killed in the horrific accident and the only word on her lips before it happens: Apoth.

Kwannon, now choosing to go by Psylocke as she sees her former name as a shackle to a horrible life of torment and pain, is meditating and enjoying the peace of Krakoa. The first panels are set up very well with many close up shots to Psylocke basking in nature, even pricking her finger and bleeding on a flower to show that blood can even bring new life as it blooms. Frank D’Armata makes excellent use of color as the flower and a butterfly appear purple, Psylocke’s signature color. It’s beautiful, especially as we get to a beautiful shot of Psylocke, in peace, floating as purple butterflies swarm around her.

That peace is soon interrupted as she’s bombarded with a psychic attack by an unknown entity telling her that she has to kill a God, she has to kill Apoth. After the vision, she goes to visit Magneto, still “mourning” the death of Charles Xavier (X-Force #1, 2019). She tells him what she saw and requests to leave Krakoa to investigate. Initially, he denies her request, citing the most recent attack that left Xavier dead as the reason no one is able to leave the island. She responds in fury, trying to assure him that what she saw wasn’t just a dream. 

These pages are strange as they also utilize a bunch of close-ups, focusing on their mouths. It gives the conversation a close and shadowy feel as they’re also shrouded in heavy inks. Magneto urges her to see Mister Sinister, saying that he might find her visions interesting. When she questions him about this, he explains that his grief over Xavier’s death makes him forget conversations (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). She then goes to visit the Evil Eccentric, who also doesn’t seem interested until Psylocke talks about her experience being trapped, showing her ferocity when he asks her how she’d kill Betsy if she could. Satisfied with her answer, he helps her out and asks that she gathers a team.

We then cut to X-23 and Kid Cable (I will never refer to him as just Cable) as they stand around one of the many fires made in celebration of peace and safety. Kid Cable sees Laura not enjoying her time and asks her how she likes to dance, then they have a small fight that Laura wins. She comments that she doesn’t feel anything because everything on Krakoa is safe and “safety sucks.” I like this characterization of Laura so much better than what she had been doing with her plucky, child sidekick, Gabby. It reminds me of both her time in X-Force and the beginning of All New, All Different Marvel when she was ultra violent and reckless. Psylocke tries to recruit the both of them, but Laura convinces her that Kid Cable deserves the peace that Krakoa provides and the two leave the island together.

The pair travel to Tokyo and meet a former contact of Kwannon’s. She informs them of a new designer drug created by Apoth called Overclock that seems to affect people’s mind states, causing them to murder others while the drug is killing them as they get super high. As Psylocke and X-23 watch the video of the train accident, Psylocke has a flashback to her days as a Hand assassin and we earn that she had a daughter that was taken from her. Her daughter was given a tattoo of a butterfly, same as the girl in the train derailment. Whether or not this is her daughter is unknown to us, but it is a possibility. 

The video sends Psylocke into a rage and she demands answers, grabbing the woman and threatening her with mind scrambling via psyblade. When the woman refuses and says that Apoth will kill her, Psylocke plunges her psychic dagger into her mind as Laura takes out her guards. The best things about these pages are that they’re all coated in a tint of purple, alluding to the fact that this somehow all ties back to Psylocke/Kwannon somehow. There are threads here that only she can follow because of her ruthlessness and it all feels so very personal.

Psylocke rips the information from her contact’s mind and travels to the location that she found. There, she encounters a shack full of children under the influence of Overclock and Apoth has taken one of them to speak through. The rest of the children die while he warns Psylocke and X-23 to return to the safety and seclusion of Krakoa while he evolves the world. Apoth seems like an interesting villain as he mentions how hard it is to kill children and yet does it anyway. He claims that what he’s doing is evolving humanity and the person who gave Psylocke the vision referred to him as a new God. What is his power and how is he able to control people’s bodies and create such a deadly and advanced drug?

If I were to have any complaints, it would have to be that sometimes the inks are so dark and prevalent that they can start to feel overbearing. There are a lot of good colors used and D’Armata’s signature style is there, they can sometimes feel drowned out by Kudranski’s inks. When they work together, they produce amazing panels, but when they don’t, they produce odd looking shapes and poses. One in particular after Laura is given the knowledge about Psylocke’s daughter and then she’s hunched over like Quasimodo, that’s more so for Kudranski’s posing, but that darkness doesn’t help.

This first issue of Fallen Angels was very interesting to say the very least. I love the idea of getting to know a new and reformed Kwannon as Psylocke given she hasn’t been a character of her own since the 80s and that small time she was resurrected in the mid-2000s. She seems focused and yet still maintains the deadly edge that served her so well as an assassin. I also like that she doesn’t want to be reminded of her time in the darkness, even dismissing Betsy when she presumably wants to talk about everything between them. I don’t know if its anger or contentment with her new life that lets her walk away from Betsy, but it kinda feels liberating in a way.

I’m actually very excited to see where things go from here, so far I love Psylocke’s new direction as she seems to be slowly turning into a teacher for people like X-23 and Kid Cable. Throughout the book there had been flashbacks showing Psylocke’s past and the abuse she went through to become one of the Hands deadliest assassins, so it’s very likely she’ll be similar but better to those two. She will turn them into butterflies. The most perfect versions of themselves.