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 #7
Scripted by Tom DeFalco
Plotted and Illustrated by Ron Frenz
Finished by Al Milgrom
Colored by Bob Sharen
Lettered by Jim Novak
This is it, folks!! The moment that DeFalco has built up to for so long: Who is Mainframe? First, DeFalco makes the classic Claremont approach of always setting up a mystery in the background to ensure the story doesn’t feel stagnant, as we touch on the mysterious force that Crimson Curse was sensing in the last issue. This malignant energy seems to have caused some of the team to hallucinate personal trauma and, in addition to finding the crazed Hercules, is the crux of the team now wanting to find out what happened to the original Avengers. It adds a layer of mystery and conspiracy to the regular superhero affair, which is so enticing and works well in a timeline relatively unmapped. Frenz and Milgrom do some good work while the team is still in the basement of the mansion, using silhouettes and shadows to feed this intriguing tone. Eventually, the team decides to ask the most reliable and immediately accessible member of the original team: none other than Edwin Jarvis himself.
In the meantime, we see yet another unknown shadowy figure command a brand new villain, the charismatic Ion Man. Whether or not this adversary is tied to the monster in the Avengers’ basement is unclear, though an interesting tidbit is that she sends Ion Man out to hunt Cassie Lang and not her secret identity stinger. DeFalco is going ham on the non-linear and layered storytelling here but the whole product still feels tight and in control. Frenz and Milgrom’s design of Ion Man is super slick and fun. The character is an energy-based being that is able to shoot away at light speed and have its lower body turn into laser-like speed lines. They work with this in mind, having all of Ion Man’s distinguishable costume shading on the upper half of his body, so that he still looks himself mid-flight. Sharen also paints him a sickening, almost radioactive green that works within the classic tradition of supervillain color coding
Jarvis tells all that he was privy to about the Avengers’ final mission. It seemed like a pretty standard affair, even with Captain America referring to the confidential threat as wielding “far greater power than all the Avengers combined!”, setting an ominous scene. DeFalco has a good voice for Jarvis here, as he talks about trying to preoccupy himself by nervously cleaning the mansion in the team’s absence. The team finally returns, but with a few members missing who died in action, leaving the remaining roster traumatized and upset regardless of their alleged victory. Frenz and Milgrom render the characters absolutely soaking in tragedy and milks the scene for everything they have. Hercules is maddened and bloodthirsty, Hawkeye is bandaged and being supported by an equally tattered Scarlet Witch, and Iron Man is cradling a broken Wasp, it’s a harrowing scene! Ultimately, Jarvis doesn’t know too much about the specifics of the threat, just that it sapped the team of the ability to confidently work as a team for the next year or so before disbanding.
With all this out of the way, we finally get back to the meat of the issue as Mainframe confronts Cassie Lang, apologizing for being so vague and alienating about his identity. Before Mainframe gets a chance to express himself, Ion Man arrives on the scene and we get a hefty superhero beat-em-up that wouldn’t feel amiss in a classic eighties “Iron Man” issue. DeFalco has Ion Man deliver some scathing yet hilarious lines to Cassie and Mainframe that punctuate each blow he delivers, which feel more conversational than the usual purple villain speak. Ultimately we see Ion Man attempt to claim victory as he tears Mainframe in half, revealing yet another remote-pilot suit. However, the mystery is deeper than it seems!
DeFalco drags this scene out so much that we start to feel an emotional connection to how much Mainframe is giving it his all. every time Ion Man destroys a Mainframe armor, another arrives to sub in, but we can hear the wear and tear as Mainframe commits less and less to the banter. Frenz and Milgrom do an excellent job at portraying this fight. Each time Ion Man destroys armor, it’s brutal and visceral. However, we really see the weight on the Mainframe’s struggle, encapsulated perfectly in a panel of the two tech-based characters fighting atop a pile of broken Mainframe armor, not unlike a mountain of corpses. It’s a brutal scene but it’s a great final straw as Mainframe tips over the edge and literally blasts Ion Man into the atmosphere to disperse. DeFalco has the mechanical hero at his last breath reveal that he has no secret identity: he’s the program that Tony Stark created in the wake of the disaster to ensure there would always be an Avengers team. It’s a poignant end that resolves just enough to feel like a satisfying end to this issue, yet still set up enough to explore later in the series, and I can’t wait to get there!
