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Cable & Deadpool: Living Legends

Phah! I wanted a simple harmless little fun story about Cable taking over a country and Deadpool being funny and killing people and instead i get some crazy retcons about Apocalypse getting his powers from nannites in Cable's blood.

Apocalypse: ancient immortal mutant who found and rebuilt an abandoned Celestial ship - cool.

Cable: bitter old soldier who found a way to come back in time so that he could lead mutants in battle to prevent his timeline from happening to us - pretty cool.

This story ruins a lot of that for me.


By fnord12 | September 18, 2006, 10:18 PM | Comics | Comments (3)| Link



Annihilation #2

Issue(s): Annihiliation #2
Published Date: Nov 06
Title: N/A
Credits:
Keith Giffen - Writer
Andrea Devito - Penciler
N/A - Inker
Andy Schmidt5 - Editor
Joe Quesada - EIC

Review/plot: Serviceable war story, i guess. Moving a little to slow for my tastes, but not really taking the "decompressed" approach and doing a great job with character development either. Feeling a bit pointless but OK for what it is. There's been some really odd choices in terms of characters to include througout this crossover. This issue has one of the Mad Thinker's robots and the wierd Infant Terrible / Elan creature that appeared in like one issue of the FF and later in Power Pack. It's fine to dreg up old characters if you've got something interesting to do with them, but using them as second rate goons for one of Annihilus' goons doesn't make a ton of sense. I suppose i could take a 'wait and see' approach, but at the pace this is moving i don't feel like it deserves the benefit of the dobut (plus i'm cranky from working long hours). Despite all my complaints, it works fine as a basic war/action story. Quality Rating: B-

Historical Significance Rating: Too soon to rate. Most likely minimal but could have some impact on Nova's status quo, and the revelations about Galactus' peers from the Silver Surfer prologue could still potentially go somewhere.

Chronological Placement Considerations:
Pretty self-contained once you get everyone here.

Characters Appearing: Whoo-boy: Nova, Ronan The Accuser, Drax The Destroyer, Cammi, Star-Lord, Gamora, Annihilus, Ravenous, Thanos, Skreet, Galactus, Silver Surfer, Captain Marvel (IV? V? Phyla), Moondragon, Praxagora, Super-Skrull (dead?), Paibok, Infant Terrible (now Delinquent), Terrax (dead?), Morg (dead?), Red Shift, Stardust, The Centurians

References: Comics from this time period do not make explicit references.

Cross-over: Annihiliation

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: N/A


By fnord12 | September 18, 2006, 8:17 PM | Comics | Comments (6)| Link



Beyond #3

The good thing about this Civil War delay and 1 comic a week is i can do a more detailed analysis. The bad thing is... 1 comic book a week.

Issue(s): Beyond #3
Published Date: Nov 06
Title: Dead Man Walking
Credits:
Dwayne McDuffie - Writer
Scott Kolins - Penciler
None - Inker (see interview link below)
Tom Brevoort - Editor
Joe Quesada - EIC

Review/plot: Starts out with an awesome extended fight against Dragon Man. I always like it when these classic characters are shown as the real bad-asses they ought to be. Deathlok's internal diaglogue with his computer is always enjoyable. Medusa has been shown to be really powerful throughout this series. Here she takes out Dragon Man's knee with a giant boulder. It's funny that i just read this in an old FF issue when Medusa was a member:

Dear Marvel, Did you know that a single strand of a woman's hair can support about a quarter of a pound, and that her whole shock of hair should be able to support 12.5 tons? So why is it that you are always showing Medusa lifting only feather weight stuff compared to her potential? An ordinary woman's scalp probably couldn't take that sort of pressure, but Medusa is an Inhuman. How about it?

Tom Melichiorre from Chester, PA, i guess Dwayne McDuffie has heard you.

Then after some great dialogue with dead-on characterization, there's the big reveal that potentially solves any issues around how this story fits into the current MU situation re: Civil War and Spider-Man. What's funny (again) is that just last week Wayne read Avengers #2 and we were talking about the Space Phantom. And now here he is. I think Marvel's got our living room bugged.

So, great story, and i really like the art. The storytelling is great (the fight scene with Dragon Man is totally clear, very specific, and action packed, for example), the facial expressions are really good (there's some interesting close-ups of Firebird reacting to overhearing Jan and Hank discussing their relationship which is really good), and there's a lot of detail in terms of backgrounds. There's a sketchy quality to it as well, but i like the style. Wayne has some issues with the coloring, but i think it works. Here's a good interview with the artist. No spoilers beyond issue 3. Quality Rating: B+

Historical Significance Rating: Too soon to rate. Could be a 1 if it ends in a mind-wipe. Could be higher if there are important revelations about the Beyonder or the original Secret Wars story.

Chronological Placement Considerations:

  • Taking Spider-Man out of the picture removes any serious continuity concerns (Slight issue with the Space Phantom as a continuity save: when he takes over a person, he's supposed to actually displace them into Limbo. Which means if he's been posing as Spider-Man, Spider-Man should have been in Limbo at the time. So technically that means that this story has to take place at a time where Spider-Man looks and acts like the Space Phantom's version. But that's not a big deal. What's a slightly bigger deal is that i still have to go back and determine if at this point everyone knows that Spider-Man is Peter Parker. Even then certain characters (Kraven, Venom) already know, and others (Medusa, Firebird) probably don't care and wouldn't react if, for example, Venom referred to Spider-Man as "Parker" in issue 1, but it's worth a re-read before placement.)
  • Jan and Hank refer to not having talked "since London" but that may be an 'off camera' reference.
  • This will have to be placed some time after the last Deathlok (and possibly Dragon Man) appearances, but that shouldn't be a problem.

    Characters Appearing: Gravity, Firebird, Henry Pym, Wasp, Medusa, Kraven The Hunter II, The Hood, Deathlok, Dragon Man, The Space Phantom

    References: Comics from this time period do not make explicit references.

    Cross-over: N/A

    Continuity Implant? N

    Reprinted In: N/A


By fnord12 | September 9, 2006, 10:37 AM | Comics | Comments (1)| Link



Cable & Deadpool #31

Since i've only got one comic this week, i'm gonna use my new template that i'll be using to log my comics for my chronology project:

Issue(s): Cable & Deadpool #31
Published Date: Oct 06
Title: Casualties Of War
Credits:
Fabian Nicieza - Writer
Staz Johnson - Penciler
Klaus Janson - Inker
Nicole Boose - Editor
Joe Quesada - EIC

Review/plot: Starts off with a good fight between Deadpool and some of the on-the-run heroes. Deadpool is defeated by Cable, who is exhibiting much higher telekinetic power levels than i recall him having (not a surprise that things have changed; i started this series on #29). After a funny scene with Deadpool duct-taped to a chair, Cable returns from a Civil War battle (seems to be the end of Civil War #3) to untie Deadpool and teleport them both to the White House. Cable argues with a president very similar to Bush II. Cable is not necessarily against super-human registration, but opposes the "50 State Initiative" which would place super-human soldiers in every state. Not sure that the 50 State Initiative is being referenced outside of Cable & Deadpool. Hokey: Cable can access the "Infonet", which allows him to download the Library of Congress into White House secret service operatives' brains. Issue ends with the President ordering Deadpool to arrest Cable. The book is funny, has some good action scenes, and is relevant enough to the Civil War plot to justify the crossover, but i feel like the main plot started in #29 (Cable trying to be a good ruler of a country) is basically on-hold for this. The art is good in the action/super-hero scenes, but the President is drawn inconsistently. Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: Too soon to rate but probably a 3 due to the Civil War crossover.

Chronological Placement Considerations: The big fight at the end of Civil War #3 seems to take place in the middle of this issue. Cable references Thor killing someone on Cap's side. Continuing from last issue, the person dressed as Daredevil is not Matt Murdock.

Characters Appearing: Captain America, Falcon, Goliath, Hercules, Daredevil (Iron Fist),

References: Comics from this time period do not make explicit references.

Cross-over: Civil War

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: N/A


By fnord12 | September 4, 2006, 8:23 PM | Comics | Comments (2)| Link



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