Tag: Avengers

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 June 26th, 2019

Runner Up: Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #20 (Legacy #720) – Jason Aaron, Ed McGuinness, Mark Morales, Jason Keith and Cory Petit

I love She-Hulk.

She’s always been a fun, sexy character that’s easy for me to project my McMahon-esque muscle fetish on and this issue deconstructs that in the most brutal way that needed to be acknowledged. 

Starting off with a trial of the She-Hulks, Attorney She-Hulk accuses current She-Hulk of flushing Jen’s reputation as the jolly yet sassy, beautiful She-Hulk down the drain after her powers were enhanced by the Celestials in the first arc of this Avengers series.

Effectively, Killing the Fun. Current She-Hulk objects and the two get into a fist fight as we cut back to reality and see that it’s just Jen giving herself some therapy to control her powers.

But the theme of “No Fun” runs throughout the issue almost to a maddening degree. It’s the name of this chapter, Jen makes nods to it and even wears a shirt with the saying on it. I don’t take this to mean that Aaron dislikes the old She-Hulk, but that the objectification that came with her was not fun or good at all and that is a strong stance to take.

Sensational She-Hulk was an amazing series, not only for the writing and art, but also because of those spectacular pin-up covers. She-Hulk has been one of Marvel’s top tier sex symbols for decades almost to the point where it overshadowed a complex character with a fantastic personality and maybe more heroic deeds than her cousin, especially as he’s a Horrifying Gamma Monster now and she’s an Avenger saving the world.

Through the book, Jen tells us how villains would make crude jokes at her old form, grope her during fights and just in general not take her seriously. As she fights Ulik, King of the Trolls (a title that doubles as a use against some fans that didn’t accept Jane Foster Thor as he makes a comment about Thor being a name and not a legacy to pass on) he asks her to marry him as she beats his ass to a pulp. This, though contrary I think to the point that only her slim form got this kind of harassment, is the objectification and invalidation of her character. 

Deadpool, for whatever reason, suddenly appears. He asks her why she stopped being funny. She replies so that she’s free to be ugly, to which Deadpool replies as she jumps away, “Can’t you do both?” This gets expanded on as Jen monologues of a conversation that she and Bruce had, where he said that he was envious of her Hulk looking the way that she did and that people didn’t run away in fear of her. 

Of course, we then learn that she’s been hit on during team ups, groped, had topless pictures taken of her while she was in the Fantastic Four and just had horrible stuff happen to her that would never happen to Bruce. She thinks that being an “ugly monster” sounds good sometimes.

This book was powerful in exploring why Jen doesn’t necessarily miss being The Sensational She-Hulk. Even after that’s what it seemed like she was going back to after Mariko Tamaki’s Hulk series, I can see how Aaron feels about her character and the respect he has for her. She’s still not as strong as Bruce, but goddamn if she isn’t still one of the strongest Avengers.

And now to ruin any good will and intent I had with this review by gushing and arguing against the “Ugly Monster” statement with my own personal opinion. 

Ed McGuinness has a very cartoony and exaggerated style of drawing and I absolutely love it, especially when it comes to heavily muscled characters. Back when he was doing pencils for every Hulk series, McGuinness always drew the She-Hulks exquisitely and now that Jen Walters She-Hulk has taken on a more JACKED look, she’s only gotten better.

Jen knows her Hulk form to be ugly and that gives her all of the validation and strength that she needs. I, HOWEVER, see “ugly” and all I can ask is WHERE? 

In ny OH SO HUMBLE OPINION, this Hulk design is one of her best and most appealing. I loved the design of the “Broken” She-Hulk from Mariko Tamaki’s run with the character and McGuinness’ design builds on that with AN EVEN BIGGER FRAME and the MUSCULATURE to carry it.

Jen’s biceps and triceps are so large that both Scott Steiner and Hulk Hogan would blush and cower in fear. Her hands are boulder hard and could easily crush ANYONE with no effort. Her shoulders are wide and imposing in a way that should strike fear into even Mephistos heart.

Her legs and abs ripple with the strength to RIP KICK CELESTIALS APART and DO CRUNCHES WITH THEIR MASSIVE REMAINS as weight. Her chiseled jaw and face of anger make her a FORCE to be reckoned with. Any coward that runs away in terror of the sight may be justified, but anyone who sees this is as “Ugly” does not deserve the gift of being crushed under the weight of any of these muscles.

This She-Hulk is TOP THREE in most beautiful HULK designs and it takes up all three spots. Maybe this issue was directed at me, in regards to undue comments about Jen Walters appearance, but to mirror Ulik’s statement – Marry Me tho.