The late nineties of superhero comics have always been such a fascinating wild west to me. I know so little about this period that is building off the industry’s most significant recession. With so few eyes drawn to it, it’s ripe for uncovering fascinating hidden gems or unreadable stinkers. This year I’ve dug up the series and burgeoning franchise “A-Next” to sink my teeth into. Which category will this spinoff-of-a-spinoff fall in? Let’s find out together, dear readers!
What If #105
Scripted by Tom DeFalco
Plotted and Illustrated by Ron Frenz
Finished by Bill Sienkiewicz
Colored by Matt Webb
Lettered by Chris EliopoulosA-Next #1
Scripted by Tom DeFalco
Plotted and Illustrated by Ron Frenz
Finished by Brett Breeding
Colored by Bob Sharen
Lettered by Jim Novak
I’ve included the “What If?” issue that introduces the team for reference. It’s a great issue to check out, with surprising lush inks for superstar Bill Sienkiewicz. However, the A-Next team literally only appears for one panel for proof of existence, before they are quickly shuffled off the board in favor of Spider-Girl. The fact that this team was introduced initially as Easter Eggs in another series doesn’t bode well for them, but let’s withhold judgment at this early stage.
All that aside, holy cannoli, friends, check out “A-Next #1”, the comic that was secretly made for me! Tom DeFalco is a writer whose work I’ve read surprisingly little of, but I’ve always been aware of his status as a solid house writer that is well-embedded in continuity. Nowhere is that more evident than in this issue. This book has all the trappings of a superhero comic unashamed of its genre, leaning heavily into campy, bantering action right from the word go. The comic drops us in media res with our unknown heroes battling an army of Asgardian Rock Trolls.
Ron Frenz lays out a delightfully frantic splash page to showcase everyone present from the second page, which has a great wave-like reading flow that introduces everyone present with a snappy bit of dialogue. This isn’t a rigid, supermodel comic of the Image Comics-era, Frenz and finisher Brett Breeding go to great lengths to feature everyone in motion. There are a bunch of familiar faces here including Jubilee, Speedball (who brings a delightful early-90s “New Warriors” vibe to the book), and relative Marvel newcomer Jolt, plus a bunch of new legacy heroes like Thunderstrike, Mainframe, Stinger, and J2. They’re all riffs on the original team, except for the surprising entry of J2 who is the latest wielder of the Juggernaut armor in an interesting twist. Frenz and Breeding draw each of them in their element, from the Iron Man-like Mainframe ripping through the sky and blasting trolls with beams, to Speedball practically bouncing off the page with glee.
The general plot rundown is pretty simple, with DeFalco cleverly opting to echo the very first Avengers issue by using Loki as a secret grand villain. Loki is manipulating the Rock Trolls to help him steal away the Thunderstrike hammer, once owned by Eric Masterson and now passed on to his son Kevin by Avengers butler Jarvis. Having Kevin as the point of view character is smart since he clearly has a lust for following in his father’s footsteps, so we get to experience this futuristic Marvel universe via his unprecedented awe. Once he’s attacked by the trolls, all the other Avengers are alerted via the mysterious, onlooking Mainframe. DeFalco dedicates a short intro scene for each of these heroes out of costume. The standouts are easily Speedball who’s in the middle of suit shopping with his mother as a grown man, and Stinger, whose alter-ego is a grown-up Cassie Lang gleefully using her father’s new armor to assist the newly formed team.
Once the initial rough-and-tumble settles, Loki is revealed. Frenz and Breeding introduce him in a strong vertical half-page splash, combining the sheer power of Jack Kirby’s take on the character with the costume intricacies that Walt Simonson brought in. From here, we get a few more artistic flairs as Loki holds a ritual to extract power from Thunderstrike. Frenz and Breeding command a great crowd scene here, which is punctuated by eerie green and yellow colors from Bob Sharen that set the mood. Once Kevin recaptures the mallet and undergoes his first transformation, however, the real showstopper here is DeFalco’s narration. The speech is punctuated by the finishing line “…Kevin Masterson reaches such a critical juncture – A defining moment which, as fate would have it, is heralded by a brilliant explosion of celestial luminance – and the sound of thunder!”. Novak paces this speech out perfectly in multiple narration boxes, ensuring that each line hits as hard as the hammer itself and steadily emboldening the font as it escalates.
Once everything is said and done, our team is formed, with a guest appearance from an older Lord Thor to boot. However, it feels like as the issue is preparing to go out on a high, half of the team’s best characters are wiped away with barely a thought. Speedball declares himself a solo act, Jubilee says her duties to the “X-People” are too important, and Jolt states that she considers herself “semi-retired” – leaving us just with the new characters. It’s a bold move to take away the crutch of so many already interesting and established characters so early on in the run. However, it does bring the roster to a more condensed point, perhaps working to tell more character-focused stories in the future. I can only hope that this decisive clearing of the table works out for the best!
