The Mast Reviews: Thursday's Comics (3/12/2009, Pt. 2).

Kapow!

Welcome to a review I've waited to do for a LONG time, of a comic I've wanted for a LONG time.

Not so much the first one, but the second. Regardless, thanks for sticking with the blog and I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed reading the comics.

Let's do this.


Dark Avengers Annual #1.

I'm pretty into ANYTHING Dark Reign right now, and as Siege approaches, I'm grabbing up anything that may be necessary.

Dark Avengers Annual #1 tells the tale of Noh-Varr's desertion. Noh-Varr was the Dark Avengers' Captain Marvel to coincide with his former identity as Marvel Boy. Upon realising that they were not the true roster of The Avengers, he fled, angry at Norman Osborn for having manipulated him. This occured back in Dark Avengers #6 and he hasn't been seen since.

This issue fills us in on what he has been up to during and after Utopia, right up until now. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere, though it's a nice issue...and then the last page happens.

Noh-Varr has spent his absense trying to contact his Kree homeworld in an attempt to find out his purpose on Earth. Frustrated by the lack of response, he takes a walk and begins monologuing etc. He has a chat with a girl at N.Y.U. one day while he is walking around, asking her about a fight she just had with her boyfriend. Before they can finish talking, Sentry shows up and tells Noh-Varr that Osborn requests his presense.

A fight breaks out in which Sentry naturally holds back, but the young Noh-Varr doesn't shy away. It's at this point that Bendis makes his goals for Noh-Varr much clearer; he is entering a stage in his life not unlike Spider-Man. Noh-Varr had been warned before that if he didn't grow up, bad things would happen and he seems to be heeding those words in this issue.

During the fight, the girl Noh-Varr was speaking to manages to reach into one of the bags he dropped. She pulls out a blaster and nails Sentry with it (Bit of a ridiculous excuse to push the plot along, but whatever). Fed up, Sentry flies off while Noh-Varr heads back to his own place where he finally receives contact from the Kree Empire. They inform him that his new purpose is to be protector of Earth and to understand humanity by studying under its great, most learned people.

He receives a more advanced version of Mar-Vell's nega bands (Former Captain Marvel) and transforms into a suited protector of Earth, complete with new uniform. Despite this uniform making him look like an idiot, it's nice to have another power player in this saga.

The Dark Avengers arrive at the scene of the fight and express disappointment of having lost Noh-Varr, who reappears in an alleyway not far from where they are. He meets the MacGuffin N.Y.U. girl again and tells her not to worry; they cannot trace him now that he is "changed". He thanks her for her help and she says that he should return sometime for companionship. This didn't need to be in the comic, it was pointless and a bit dumb; c'est la vie.

The next shot is of Noh-Varr being watched through goggles in a first-person view as he disappears. A voice says something about him being different or more powerful than intel suggested. This is when the big reveal happens, so SPOILER ALERT IF YOU WISH TO NOT READ THIS.

We see Captain America and a blond guy standing atop a roof. Captain America refers to the blonde guy as STEVE. This is Steve Rogers, the original Captain America...and he's NOT in uniform; Bucky is...still. Despite the fact that I am very puzzled by Marvel's decision to bring Steve Rogers back from the dead before Captain America: Reborn is finished, I am THRILLED at the hint that Bucky will remain as Captain America; at least I hope he will. All signs suggest that, in or after Siege, Steve will become Cap again and Bucky will be out on his ear. I really hope they just give Steve a place at S.H.I.E.L.D. and let Bucky stay as Cap though. It's time for a change, it really is.

It's been revealed in solicits - ones I accidentally read because forum idiots don't know how to use spoiler tags - that Steve DOES become Cap at some point during Siege, but whether he remains as Cap or not will have to be seen.

It's an ok issue; pretty middle-of-the-park Bendis fare. Not his best work, but again, I suppose it does what it needs to. I really do feel Dark Reign would have sucked and Siege wouldn't be as awaited as it is if he were not writing. This all depends on your perspective of Dark Reign ANYWAY. If you think it sucks then feel free to post a comment telling me why. It's all relative.

This brings me...pleasurably...to my final review of the weekend:


Siege: The Cabal.

Here it is! The first part of the Siege arc. The prologue that is Siege: The Cabal (Are you finding yourself asking what The Cabal is? See my Dark Reign Retrospective).

Man, oh man. When an issue opens with Osborn talking to someone who is convincing him to kick the Asgardians off Earth now that he's in power, and it's NOT Loki, you know something is off. When you see that it's him talking to himself, whilst looking at the Green Goblin mask...well, you start thinking: "Bendis may pull this shit off.".

The next scene does NO harm to the hype. Osborn gathers what's left of The Cabal and The Hood insists they press on with business instead of waiting for an apparantly late guest; this guest is Dr. Doom. Immediately he seethes that Osborn has bothered him again, and asks who the fiend is at the table. Already they're at each others' throats, it's so epic; you can just sense such a meltdown. Osborn tells him that it's Taskmaster (Deadpool villains represent!), a man in charge of one of his H.A.M.M.E.R. training camps, and that he is to replace Namor and Emma Frost due to their betrayals.

Doom snaps back and accuses Osborn of removing people that simply won't bend to his wishes, and replacing them with those that will. As soon as he said that, I was ready for shit to go down; Bendis is mouth-wateringly on-point with his dialogue here. After Doom accuses Osborn of holding them close just to pick them off, he says he is doing the opposite. While Osborn speaks his piece he reminds Doom that he helped him get Latveria back, and now wishes to do the same for Loki (Also attending, a member of The Cabal). He wishes to overthrow Asgard for Loki so that it can be removed from Earth. Feeling the hype yet, folks?

Doom says, in no uncertain terms, that he wants Namor brought to him alive and that Osborn must cease his pursuit of him (He and Namor made a deal in Dark Reign: The Cabal), to which Osborn denies. Doom says that he wasn't asking, he was telling. Osborn threatens Doom and Doom does likewise, telling him: "Bring Namor to me and I WON'T kill you.". At this point Osborn says to "bring him in", but it's not Namor, it's a silhouetted figure. He offers Doom once last chance, who says that he'd rather die than give in. Osborn gives the order to kill Doom and he is promptly blasted through a wall. Upon returning fire, he is blasted again by this mystery assailant before Osborn orders him to stop.

During this skirmish, Loki tells The Hood to get out of the building and that it's not his time yet; The Hood obliges and says that he's only doing so because Loki asked. I was wondering when they'd touch on the Loki/The Hood dynamic. A few issues ago in The New Avengers, Loki gives The Hood - a.k.a. Parker Robbins - some Asgardian runes in an attempt to help him get away from Dormammu (The evil entity who powered him/used him as an avatar before). At least that's what it seemed to be. I don't think it has been explained just what consequences this has had yet, but I'm betting it's going to be revealed here.

Anyway, on close examination of the robotic corpse it's revealed that it was not Doom, but a Doombot sent in his stead. The bot explodes and sheds millions of mechanical bugs that begin trying to wipe out the tower. Osborn's shields (He is in his Iron Patriot armour by the way) begin to fail as the tower is evacuated, but Sentry destroys the Doombot completely, rendering the bugs useless. Grabbing a mic-fitted bug off the floor, Osborn states that he knows Doom can hear him, scalding him for making such an arrogant and dumb mistake. He tells Doom that he has just declared war on a country many times the size of his, and that he'll regret it.

Ever the assured and captivating tyrant, Doom asks Osborn how many unwinnable wars he thinks he can win at once. In what was such a great piece of dialogue, Doom follows up and ends with: "You learned a lesson today; you do not lay hands on Victor von Doom. Next time you do I will not be so forgiving, to you OR your son.".

"...or your son."?! Whoa. If that's what I think it means, whoa.

In the next scene Osborn is seen trying to get permission to invade Asgard from the President, but he is denied. Failing this he asks Loki for permission, only to be countered with a proposition that sets Siege up in even more of an awaited, anticipated manner than before:

Loki: The superhuman civil war; do you know how it started?
Osborn: The registration bill passed through congress, lines were drawn...
Loki: No. No, there was an incident; an inciting incident. It could have happened anywhere to anyone, but it happened at a school. Children died, THEN lines were drawn.
Osborn: So, we need an incident. An Asgardian incident...
Loki: ...and THAT could be arranged.

All I'm going to say is that if you're even remotely interested in what I've been posting lately regarding Dark Reign...then you have ONE MONTH to catch up before what could be Marvel's best event in a long, long, LONG time.

If they fuck Siege up, it will be a monumental failure. If they succeed? Well, guess.

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Seriously, get on that shit.

The next post should be after Monday sometime; definitely not until Monday at the earliest. Though I am considering writing out a massive Dark Reign checklist for people who want to acquire all the necessary reading material in time for Siege, it won't be a review.

Again, much love to you all for following my blog and thank you for reading about this passion of mine.

Until next time, peace.

-The Mast