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!
A-Next #3
Scripted by Tom DeFalco
Plotted and Illustrated by Ron Frenz
Finished by Brett Breeding
Colored by Bob Sharen
Lettered by Jim Novak
After last week’s lackluster installment, I didn’t have the highest hopes for this series going forward. To make the same mistakes twice in a row in the first two issues just felt like too much of a stumble to me. Thankfully, DeFalco kicks things right into gear with issue #3, giving us a perfect formula for making this series great: give us futuristic glimpses of past characters, nurture and develop the new characters you have too, too, and have fun riffing on older Marvel continuity.
This issue’s whole deal is to do a Marvel Comics 2 (or MC2, as this futuristic setting is affectionately called) update on the bronze age Avengers v Defenders story. The opening page is a great title card for the battle to come. Frenz and Breeding have the readers face-on with an elder Doctor Strange, who’s cast in shadow with sunken eyes, foreshadowing forces “fatal and mundane” and the reformation of the anti-team, the Defenders. To add even more scene-setting, Strange is framed by the roster of both teams, depicted with headshots glaring each other down from either side of the page. The creative team channel big-time wrestling announcer energy and I’m here for it.
From there, the story becomes almost mythic in how it is crafted. The new Sorceror Supreme of this timeline, the angsty yet well-meaning Doc Magus, challenges Strange’s Minority Report-esque ideals. DeFalco deftly weaves each magical hero’s quest for champions together for the next part of the story. Strange hops around to Namor and Hulk’s skulking grounds, giving us just enough page real estate to see what each of them has been up to. Hulk’s story is the most potent at showing how far Strange’s ideals have twisted, as the sorcerer uproots the now-peaceful retiree from his family to tragically transform him into the raging beast we’re all familiar with. Novak does a great job lettering this page, making the text bigger and strained as Banner is clearly trying to resist Hulking out.
Once the teams are assembled, the narrative starts to tangle and collide further. Magus and Strange give the low-down to their associated superhero teams, with the narrative swerving between their perspectives as each sorcerer discusses their motivations. Before long, however, it’s fightin’ time and DeFalco gets things going perfectly. The Defenders are ruthless and experienced, whilst the Avengers look upon them with awe and fear, with Stinger commenting that this is the new team’s true “baptism by fire”. Through this fight scene, we finally get to spend a little time with each new character of the Avengers, and how they react to fighting these legendary heroes. Naturally, J2 and Hulk are paired up, which young Zane is a little hesitant about, but is aided with a stun assist from Stinger. The whole visual team has fun here, Novak using dynamic sound effects to show Stinger buzzing into the Hulk’s ear, and Frenz and Breeding have J2 clobber the Hulk out of frame with a dynamite slug. With his success, Zane becomes giddy with child-like glee before the Hulk takes advantage of this to hit him back tenfold, which is a great little character beat.
The fight continues, but DeFalco really throws a spanner in the works when Hulk and Namor literally rip Mainframe in half. But everything’s okay folks! It turns out this Mainframe is a remote-controlled suit, which adds another layer to the mystery of Mainframe’s identity, showing DeFalco playing the long game. However, the rest of the team doesn’t notice this little detail. Thunderstrike doesn’t see this detail and is spurned into a bloodthirsty rage at the death of his comrade, whilst J2 panics and flees the scene. It’s a great way to show how greener superheroes might react in different ways to tragedy, another point to DeFalco with this added character nuance. The art team steps things up as suddenly the heroes aren’t just fighting on the ground, they’re rocketing across the page streaked with fury. Colorist Bob Sharen drops the background coloring to a stark white, drawing more focus to these characters processing their emotions through battle.
The climax of this issue is Thunderstrike laying a hefty beatdown on Namor whilst also engaging in a moral debate. It’s dialogue-heavy bu the dialogue is punchy and fueled by enough passion and emotion that you barely feel the drag. DeFalco clearly understands what makes these older characters tick, by having Thunderstrike deliver the insult AND injury to Namor. The line that really brought it home for me was Thunderstrike shouting “Look at what hatred has done to you! You were once a king — but now you’re only a lousy leg-breaker for Doctor Strange!”. Frenz and Breeding are able to powerfully show just how much this has cut beneath Namor’s skin, showing a close-up on his face that expresses anger at this “whelp” for insulting him, yet for the fact that he’s right, too.
The fighting slowly disperses after that, as the Defenders come to realize their faults. For a comic that is so intent on harkening back to classic Marvel storytelling, it keeps things fresh by having the newer heroes inspire the older generation to heroism once again. DeFalco wraps up the issue by addressing that Mainframe clearly has some secrets to unfurl in later issues, and by showing that Sharon Carter, who was earlier recruited for the back end of the Avengers team, is secretly a double agent – but who is the mysterious, shadowy organization she’s working for? All in all, this was a much tighter and more focused issue than the last, nailing the formula that I mentioned at the start whilst seeding future subplots. I hope the momentum established here is sustained!
