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The MC2 Presents: Secret Warriors, Week 3

By | June 5th, 2015
Posted in Columns | % Comments

Welcome back to the MC2, Multiversity’s column of noted Marvel experts. The three of us (Mc3 sounded weird) are covering Marvel’s straight up CALVACADE of “Secret Wars” tie-ins! This week, we tackle “Years of Future Past”, “Future Imperfect”, and more whilst giving up our own thoughts! Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments and let us know what you think about Marvel’s latest crossover. Spoilers below!

Micro-Reviews

Years of Future Past #1
Written by Marguerite Bennett
Illustrated by Mike Norton
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

I’m not very nostalgic. There are a lot of comics I’ve read from the past that I love to re-read but I’m all about forward progress and doing new things. Then this week came and “Years of Future Past” #1 came out and nostalgia hit me hard. “Years of Future Past” sucked me in completely. The Claremont era of X-Men was the first X-Men stuff I got into and it’s what hooked me into the world of the mutats. Like many of the other “Secret Wars” tie-ins, this has nothing to do with what’s happening in the bigger plot but does prove to be a really enjoyable issue that longtime X-Men fans will surely enjoy.

Set farther into the future of the now classic “Days of Future Past” timeline, mutants are suffering more than ever. There are almost no mutants left and those that are still alive, are depowered and living as prisoners. The focus of this issue is Christina, the daughter of Kate Pryde and Colossus. The now President Robert Kelly is trying to get the Mutant Control Act renewed as it’s come up for vote again. Kate, Colossus, Magneto, Wolverine, his son Cameron, Rachel Grey and Christina are like a family and together they are working to disarm their dampening collars. Kelly however has other plans and wants to trap the mutants in a no win situation to prove how dangerous they still are.

The Claremont era of X-Men is the best era of X-Men and it’s the era that I have the biggest connection with. “Years of Future Past” fits into that timeline and era very well and it gave me nostalgic warm fuzzies. Chrissie, as Wolverine likes to call her, is a well written character. Bennett writes her very similar to a younger Kitty Pryde with a little Colossus thrown in for good measure. She’s intelligent, brave and idealistic like her mother but she’s also physically a force to be reckoned with like her father. Bennett has this character set up to be the savior of mutant kind through the plot but it’s her personality that makes you root for her. She’s in a dark world but her bright personality and outlook feels refreshing. Bennett shows that you can tell a story in a bleak world without going into the depressing grimdark place that so many writers find themselves in. The dialogue is really forward and on the nose and that fits with the Claremont era so well.

Bennett really approaches this with the mindset that this miniseries needs to work with an established world. I complained last week that the titles many tie-ins have are misleading. “Years of Future Past” isn’t one of those. You actually feel transplanted back into “Days of Future Past” and if you’re like me, it’s a nice era of stories to come back to.

Mike Norton’s pencils are really good because he, like Bennett takes care with the sandbox he’s playing in. Chrissie visually looks exactly like her mother when she young but it’s the details like the costumes that I liked most. The scrubs and Wolverine’s look are perfectly done. What’s weird are the costumes you see later on. It’s a weird mix of new and old but it’s not overly distracting. There’s a real 80’s vibe with this issue and I credit that to colorist FCO Plascencia. He uses a very muted style of coloring to add a more dystopic feeling but the simplicity in the color choices screams retro.

“Years of Future Past” definitely thrives on the nostalgia factor and I don’t think you could fully enjoy this if you’ve never dived deep into this era of the X-Men. If your exposure to the X-Men has been only the last 10-15 of stories, you may not feel as connected to this despite it being a well done issue.

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Final Verdict: 8.5 – This is now my favorite of the tie-ins so far.

Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1
Written by Dan Slott
Illustrated by Adam Kubert
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

As someone whose first foray into the world of Spider-Man comics was thanks to J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita Jr., my first reaction to this book was that I was glad that Marvel finally taking the chance to explore that era of Peter Parker’s life once more after erasing it with “One More Day”. As someone who hasn’t been able to stand Dan Slott’s writing of Spider-Man in the slightest, I went into this book expecting to hate it. Instead, I ended up with the safest, least risk-taking book I could have possibly hoped for.

With the canvas of Battleworld to play in and with Peter Parker having a wife and a daughter as the basis of your story, I’m very surprised that Slott and Kubert went the route they did which feels like a very generic Spider-Man vs. villain fight. I won’t spoil who the villain is, just in case, but if you were to guess well known Spider-Man villains who could show up for this issue, this one is no real surprise. That makes this issue feel, sadly, pretty generic. Other than the gimmick of Peter being married as opposed to whatever was going on with his crapsack life prior to “Secret Wars”, this feels like it could be just any other Spider-Man book.

That isn’t to say it’s necessarily bad, though. Dan Slott’s writing here is much more tolerable than it has usually been and even though there are one or two moments that really took me out of the story (why would Captain America ignore a prison breakout at Ryker’s in order to go beat up a guy he thinks is the bad guy?), it was pretty solid across the board. Adam Kubert, meanwhile, does a great job with the issue and makes the quiet domestic scene that opens the book just as interesting as the knockdown brawl that closes it thanks to a focus on characters. This might be one of the best looking Spider-Man books in a long time and Kubert is an artist definitely well suited to the character.

Overall, this still just felt like it could have been a Spider-Man story that could have taken place in any universe. Nothing about this book screamed the epic, world-changing, “You’ve never seen this before!” style that, for better or worse, “Secret Wars” tie-ins have employed and in a week full of surprisingly good tie-ins, this just doesn’t stand out.

Final Verdict 5.5 – I can’t really recommend picking this up out of anything more than pure curiosity, but there’s also no reason not to read it. Pretty much just an average Spidey story.

Armor Wars #1
Written by James Robinson
Illustrated by Marco Takara
Reviewed by James Johnston

One trend you’re probably noticing among all our thoughts on “Secret Wars” is that we sometimes don’t get what the “point” of a tie-in is. Sometimes that means we don’t know what the title’s relevance is to the main storyline (if any) and other times it means we don’t know why it exists. “Armor Wars” #1 falls into that second category, as it presents a futuristic city full of scientific wonder and absent of any intrigue.

“Armor Wars” #1 takes place in the region of Technopolis where everyone has to wear Iron Man’s armor to survive. Before I dig into why I don’t like this issue, I want to establish that I really dig the idea of Tony Stark being faced with a healthcare problem in his region and fixing it by making metal suits. His version of the Affordable Care Act is a fusion reactor and rocket gauntlets. Anywho, one of the city’s armored heroes the friendly neighborhood SPYDER-MAN gets offered in pursuit of some TRUTH and it’s up to Iron Man to fill a bunch of pages before we pick that plot point up again.

Overall, “Armor Wars” presents some cool ideas for its domain. James Rhodes is Technopolis’s Thor and wears an appropriate Thor mecha suit to operate. Weird implications about the one non-Aryan Thor being made to huff it in a metal suit aside, it’s bits like that which flesh out the concept of a city where everyone has to wear armor. Yet instead of delve into that mystery, “Armor Wars” concerns itself with some conflict with Iron Man 2020 and Spyder-Man’s murder. Both are likely tied into the city’s condition, but that connection is not made unclear. Of all the details at play here, you’d think “WE WILL ALL DIE IF WE DO NOT PUT ON IRON MAN ARMOR” would be top priority. It’s like you’re at a party and someone introduces themselves and you chat a bit. They talk about heir interests, pro wrestling and fishing, but also about how they’ve been dead for years and then go right back into trout and John Cena. There’s kind of one topic you really want to follow up on, you know?

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And without a hook, “Armor Wars” struggles to find a particularly compelling hook. The art is great, especially Takara’s vision for Spyder-Man’s chase through the city. He’s got clear design for the type of flow that makes Spydey(?) work that it’s a shame the action slows to a crawl for the rest of the issue. He’s not helped by the city’s Blade Runner vibe which is being done in about forty other “Secret Wars” tie-ins. You can only make 2019 Los Angeles interesting so many times. By not focusing on the whole armor schtick, it feels like Technopolis loses its place among the 2099’s and Infernos.

Final Verdict: 4.2 – “Armor Wars” #1 features some cool flow and the sparsest grains of a story but it really is our definitive “What’s the point?” comic thus far. Even going beyond the exhausted metafictional dialogue of which tie-ins are “relevant” or not, “Armor Wars” doesn’t do much to stand out from the crowd.

X-Tinction Agenda #1
Written by Marc Guggenheim
Illustrated by Carmine Di Giandomenico
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

“Years of Future Past” was full of marquis names like Kitty Pryde, Magneto and Colossus. “X-Tinction Agenda” #1 is sort of the opposite of that as this is really an X-Factor book. This revisits a storyline in the same vein that “Years of Future Past” #1 did and but falters in character development and in doing something new.

After Cameron Hodge was defeated on Genosha, Havok, Wolfsbane, Rictor and a few others decide to stay and take care of the Mutates that are left on the island. Years later, the island is in total chaos. The Mutates are sick, hungry and because of this, chaos has taken over the island. They are using Mystique pretending to be Charles Xavier to help keep the peace but their real goal is to get Triage (new character created during Bendis’ run on X-Men) to the island to heal the Mutates. After being rejected by Baron Grey, they decide to take matters into their own hands.

This isn’t a terrible comic book but I don’t think there was enough here to make a connection with the reader. It relies on the reader already coming into the series knowing a lot about the X-Men featured heavily in “X-Factor”. It’s a fair expectation but it did keep me from connecting with the characters. I wasn’t familiar with their personalities or relationships with each other. Many characters showed up and didn’t do very much at all. Most of the development was saved for Havok who did have an interesting and compelling enough crisis with making a huge decision. The X-Men not on Genosha don’t come off very good either and it’s a little tough to get past. They come off like straight up villains who don’t care about their fellow mutants. There’s always been strife between the community but they always bonded over wanting to help mutantkind as a whole. It really goes against one of the core concepts of this franchise.

Carmine Di Giandomenico’s art is pretty solid. It’s definitely a different look for the X-Men than I’m used to but it does work for the most part. The character designs are very good with Rahne (Wolfsbane) coming off very menacing at times but also “human” when the moment calls for it. The costumes for those at Genosha are military-esque and that fits the storyline very well. I liked the facial expressions throughout. The angles used on some of the panels are a little disorienting though. I found myself wondering why we were looking at people talking in a room from such a low vantage point. Nolan Woodard’s coloring is really, really cool. He bounces back and forth between a lot of different color schemes and adds a lot of depth to the pencils.

“X-Tinction Agenda” #1 is just okay and does have plenty of room to get better. The plot does continue the classic storyline in a decent way but I do want to care about these characters a bit more than I do right now.

Final Verdict: 6.0 – Could be worse but could be a whole lot better.

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Future Imperfect #1
Written by Peter David
Illustrated by Greg Land
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

Wow. The award for most surprisingly enjoyable “Secret Wars” tie-in for this week goes to… probably the Blade/Howard The Duck team-up in “Battleworld” now that I think about it, but this is a close second. Peter David returns to the character of Maestro, originally an alternate future Hulk who combined the intelligence of Banner with the Hulk’s rage at being mistreated, with Greg Land as they chart the realm of Dystopia. Gee, I wonder if that’s a nice place to live…

The beauty of “Future Imperfect” #1 is that it’s built around a mid-issue swerve that took me completely by surprise. This isn’t because I just didn’t guess the twist, but that Peter David writes the set-up for the issue’s story so well that I didn’t even think there would be a twist. I don’t want to spoil the twist and I kind of feel bad for even mentioning it, so I’m going to move on and hope you forget it by the time you read the issue. “Future Imperfect” also prescribes to the notion that the more self-contained the story of the tie-in is, the better it’ll be and Peter David ensures that this is a story that can be enjoyed without ever reading what Hickman and Ribic are doing over in the main title while keeping it feeling unique and interesting.

Now, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but Greg Land does a really good job on this issue. Land is pretty infamous for cutting corners in his art and can leave it feeling pretty rushed and same-y, but here it feels like he’s actually trying. The layouts of the pages are clear and the storytelling is crisp and characters actually feel like characters instead of awkwardly posed cardboard cutouts. I initially let out a groan and prepared for the worst when I saw Land’s name on the credits of this issue, but I was very pleasantly surprised.

“Future Imperfect” is likely a book that has no right to be as good as it is, but thanks to a perfectly constructed twist, interestingly written characters and refreshingly enjoyable art from an artist notorious for unenjoyable art, this might just be the most unexpectedly good “Secret Wars” tie-in we’ve seen so far.

Final Verdict: 7.0 – Even if you initially wrote this one off, it’s definitely worth a look.

Battleworld #2
Written by David F. Walker and Donny Cates
Illustrated by J.J. Kirby and Marco Turini
Reviewed by Jess Camacho

Like “Secret Wars Journal”, “Battleworld” is an anthology that features more action heavy stories set in the Battleworld. Last week, I wasn’t crazy about “Secret Wars Journal” but “Battleworld” #2 I liked. This is some fun comic booking featuring two writers I’m really high on who are going to be big.

The first story, “A Monster So Fowl” is written by David F. Walker (“Shaft”) with art by J.J. Kirby and colors by Matt Milla. In this part of the Battleworld, Blade is a vampire slayer right out of the 1970’s and his prey this night is a duck vampire named Drakula. In this world, walking and talking humanoid ducks are totally normal, so it comes as no surprise when Howard the Duck makes an appearance when Blade and Drakula end up in the bar he’s at. Walker’s script is incredibly funny and the dialogue is pretty spot on for the most part. I chucked many times throughout because the premise is so over the top silly and that’s really why it works. Walker really takes it to the silliest places he can and he’s helped in the aspect so much by artist J.J. Kirby. Kirby really hams it up with the character designs by getting as crazy as he can. Drakula, for example, looks like Howard the Duck and Count Chokula had a baby. The lines are really bold and dramatic adding a really cartoony flair to the mini story. It’s a really solid, comedic short story that doesn’t hold back on the action.

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The second story “Ross Against The Machine” is written by Donny Cates (“The Ghost Fleet”) with art by Marco Turini and colors by Frank D’ Amarta. This short story is a mirror image of the first one in terms of tone. This is dark but very well executed. General “Thunderbolt” Ross is basically the Terminator and he battles in what is very similar to the Roman Colosseum. The fights are sanctioned by the government and Ross does this primarily to get revenge on those who killed his daughter. Cates does a really good job with world building in such a short amount of space. You get a very good feel for how this system works and how the fighters are treated in a very short time through the beginning with Nico. Ross’ story is emotional and Cates conveys that to us very well. Turini’s art is solid throughout. Ross’s design is very well done as it comes off menacing but also depressing as this is a man who’s more machine than anything else. Some of the body poses are a little off. There’s one scene were a grizzled Captain America is trying to grab Nico away from Taskmaster and it doesn’t really look like he’s holding at all. It’s a small thing but definitely noticeable.

Of the two stories, I found myself wishing “Ross Against the Machine” was expanded a bit more. I think there’s a lot there that could be told and that’s both the good and bad part of something like “Battleworld”. You’re only getting a snippet of something and it’s a tough sell to someone on a budget. I do think this is the best of all the anthology like issues so far so that’s saying something.

Final Verdict: 7.5 – Not required reading but both stories are very enjoyable for very different.

Giant Size Little Marvel: AvX #1
Written and Illustrated by Skottie Young
Reviewed by James Johnston

Anyone else find it freaky that one of Marvel’s few constants since its first of forty mini-reboots is Skottie Young’s Little Marvels? Every title gets one of his adorable variants. Even “Thanos Rising” and that mini-series was literally “My Friend Dammer” in space. So really, it’s not that much of a surprise that “Little Marvel” would find its way into an atrociously titled tie-in. Less so that it would be based off the event these designs came from.

A lot of this book’s appeal comes from your own willingness to like adorable stuff which is why I’m not too terribly hot on it. I’m not cynical enough to think something like “I’d rather be reading a Mark Millar” book right now, but just enough to feel like this book isn’t my kind of scene. But while I can’t say this is the type of comic you’d find me reading on the daily, there is no world in which I can knock Skottie Young’s capabilities as a storyteller. If you want to know why Little Marvel’s been such a hit for the company, it’s because it pokes fun at all of comics’ ridiculous tropes bu with a heartfelt sincerity that can’t come off as anything close to mean. Take for instance, Cable and Bishop screaming “I’M FROM THE FUTURE!” while firing laser tag guns. In another comic, that might come off as self-deprecation to the point that it becomes a disservice to the characters of Bishop and Cable, who still have to carry other comic books after this joke. Here though, the childish figures roaming about lets the reader know this is just fun.

That’s not to say Young only draws cute stuff, like some ragamuffin selling puppy paintings on the side of the road. No, he also has the penchant for drawing well-executed battle scenes and expertly timed comedic back segments. The last one’s important, especially in a scene where the Avengers and X-Men compete over who has the better food stand. It’s a back and forth battle culminating in a gigantic splash page that caps off the scenario. Though there’s relatively little plot, instead vignettes connect the days of young Marvel characters playing and fighting with each other, “Little Marvel” is crafted with a level of professionalism that can’t be denied.

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Final Verdict: 7.8 – This might sound like an insult but I swear it’s not: this would be the perfect comic for a young kid. It’s funny, age-appropriate, and introduces them into the Marvel Universe in a very fun way. Some cynics (myself included) may not be completely sucked in by the comic’s cutesy nature, but it’s still an objectively well made funny book.

Master Of Kung-Fu #2
Written by Haden Blackman
Illustrated by Dalibor Talajic
Reviewed by Alice W. Castle

Our first follow-up to a “Secret Wars” tie-in and I am glad to report that “Master Of Kung-Fu” is getting even better as it progresses. Thankfully, it had a very solid foundation to work on as the first issue was one of the most enjoyable issues of the first week. For those of you who missed it, “Master Of Kung-Fu” is taking many of the martial arts influenced Marvel characters (as well as some characters not at all related to martial arts, but who still seem to fit into the world) and throwing them into one big blender of a story as Shang-Chi, the disgraced and drunk son of the Emperor of K’un-Lun must challenge his father for the right as Emperor.

The first issue of the series was burdened with introducing the realm of K’un Lun as it exists on Battleworld and the new history of the characters, especially Shang-Chi. With that out of the way, now Blackman and Talajic can delve into the world and flesh out the history and psychology of the characters. This mostly focuses on Shang-Chi this issue as he wrestles with his promise to the Morlocks to help them fight back against the Emperor with his want to wallow in his own misery.

It paints an interesting picture of a character who has usually been portrayed as very stoic and noble when he spends most of this issue drunk on his own regrets. We also get to see the other side of the story as Blackman and Talajic explore the Emperor’s motivations in the story and I can honestly say, I think this is the most interesting Battleworld Realm we’ve seen thus far.

Dalibor Talajic’s art continues to impress as he once again opens the issue with a history flashback framed as an ancient tapestry which brings a lot of weight to the aesthetic of K’un Lun. His style is heavily inked with very clear, heavy lines and the ink washed colours by Miroslav Mrva bring depth to the page. Talajic’s storytelling is impeccable too as he is able to bring the fast-paced action of martial arts fighting to life in only a short series of images.

Final Verdict: 8.2 – “Master Of Kung-Fu” is simply fantastic and I sincerely hope that it goes down as one of the best stories to come out of this event.

Third Week Thoughts

Alice: Now, this is what I’m talking about. This is the kind of quality I want from this event. There was not a single book this week that made me question our endeavour to cover all these books after I had finished reading it. In fact, some of this week’s issues are ones I’d count as the best so far. Certainly this week’s issue of the main series by Hickman and Ribic offered a look into what the actual plot of the series will be and gave us a few surprises here and there, but the biggest surprise was how good all this week’s tie-in issues were.

Sure, I still am not jazzed about “Renew Your Vows” and “Armor Wars” simply isn’t my thing, but they weren’t bad books they just weren’t for me. Then you have books like “Years Of Future Past” and “Master Of Kung-Fu” that are taking the established lore of the old Marvel Universe and are reshuffling it in very interesting ways.

If the rest of this event can keep up this kind of quality on an at least semi-regular basis, this might turn out to be not that bad.

James: I might say this event could be… good… I think we’re entering this sort of period for Marvel and DC where they know their tie-ins won’t matter to the main story so they’re just letting them go all out. And honestly, that seems like the best decision for all parties. It’s not often that you get a chance to publish something like “Years of Future Past” or “Future Imperfect” and I’m glad Marvel’s giving their creators space to do this kind of work. It might be a little infuriating to the fan who has to have everything connect, butI imagine a lot of people will be having fun with this crossover. Some books are hit or miss, but like you said they’re not aggressively bad – the creators themselves are on point – they just don’t click.

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Jess: I went into this week officially giving up on trying to figure out how these tie-ins matter to the bigger storyline. I found myself enjoying the madness of the tie-ins a lot more because of this. I was proven even more right about this decision after reading “Secret Wars” #3. That issue was fantastic and had a lot of huge revelations that have me really excited for what comes next. However, it did prove that that is the series where the major action is going to go down. Which, duh, makes a lot of sense. “Years of Future Past” made me actually appreciate the feeling of nostalgia in comics and I could read a series like that forever. I have no idea what the future holds for the X-Men at Marvel but I’m going to soak in how good that issue was for as long as I can. I like that both the X-Men titles seemed to actually continue the plot from the series they’re titled after. That was a big complaint I had last week because I felt it was a bit misleading. Oh and that Skottie Young book was the most fun thing to happen this week. Even if you’re not reading “Secret Wars” I would suggest that. It was so silly.

And so concludes our first week of “Secret War” tie-ins. Feel free to drop a comment below, let us know what tie-ins you did like, and how Skottie Young is all kinds of adorbs. Plus, keep an eye out for our Secret Wars Service column covering issue #3 later today.


//TAGS | The MC2

James Johnston

James Johnston is a grizzled post-millenial. Follow him on Twitter to challenge him to a fight.

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