Written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning
Illustrated by Renato ArlemALL-NEW, ALL-EVIL TEAM! If the story starts with bionic detective Misty Knight uniting heroes Black Panther, Paladin and Silver Sable to halt a heist, why will she then cross the line and hire those she once fought? Enter a world of treachery, double-crosses and death when you hear: “Hello, Villain…are you for hire?”
I’ve never read Heroes for Hire from DnA, but something was a draw to me about this book. I couldn’t resist the opportunity for a review, so check out my thoughts about this book after the jump.
Abnett and Lanning’s Heroes for Hire title was one that I heard a lot of really positive things about, but for some reason I steadily resisted. I couldn’t even tell you why…it was just something that never ended up coming home with me even when Marvel printed the first issue in the back of another comic for free.
Reading this issue of Villains for Hire made me wish that I hadn’t been so foolish, as this book is a very, very solid effort from DnA with high quality art from Renato Arlem.
In what basically amounts to an issue of Heroes for Hire, Abnett and Lanning have their core squad of team leader Misty Knight, Paladin, Black Panther, Silver Sable and Daimon Hellstrom getting involved in job they’d been hired for that ultimately brings them to a new, underground villain railroad of sorts for the purpose of getting illegal goods in and out of New York City. The story itself is fairly average in these parts – not exactly revelatory plotting, just effective for the purpose of demonstrating each character’s skill set – but where the book really comes to life is in the characterization.
In particular, I found Daimon Hellstrom very, very funny and charming, in particular due to his form of payment from Misty Knight. DnA are given a lot of opportunity with these characters because they simply aren’t doing anything else, so they have the right to do pretty much anything they want with them. With a cast of characters that is predominantly C List, DnA can take someone Hellstrom and make him ridiculous enough to take tears of a virgin as payment from Misty and it still makes sense for the character and the narrative.
Then, there’s little things like taking renowned merc and perpetual punching bag Paladin and making him someone I can quickly invest in and find myself liking for pretty much the first time ever. With good characters like Misty Knight, they make them great. But with lower tier characters like Paladin or Hellstrom, they can push the characters in new directions that won’t affect the Marvel universe but will make for a far better narrative.
Throw in an appearance by a certain purple villain as well as the revelation of his grand plan and you’ve got a solid issue from the written standpoint.
Renato Arlem isn’t someone whose work I am very familiar with, but it’s good work with clean lines and a lot of visual panache (I particularly enjoyed Hellstrom’s handling of the big monster hanging with the Moloids underground), and in many ways a perfect fit for this book. It’s great to see a newer talent like him land a decent book, and here’s hoping he can build off this release and keep up the quality going forward. He’s an interesting prospect.
So overall I found this book to be a solid enough adventure and a bit of a surprise success. Sure, it’s not going to reinvent the wheel or blow your mind or anything, but there is something to be said about being a solid and cohesive story. Way to go team. I’ll be back for the first real issue next month.
Final Verdict: 8.0 – Buy
