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Power Man & Iron Fist #121Issue(s): Power Man & Iron Fist #121 Review/plot: Bobby Wright (who, remember, is a child who transforms into the adult Captain Hero but will later be revealed to actually be the Super-Skrull) breaks out of Project Pegasus when he learns that his disease is fatal and uncurable (note him discovering that he can become invisible, nicely fitting the Super-Skrull retcon). ![]() The Falcon alerts Power Man and Iron Fist (apparently he's their liaison to SHIELD) just after they discover that their building has been replaced by a parking lot. ![]() After his trials in K'un-Lun, Iron Fist is wearing a red costume and speaking High Speak. ![]() Before the situation with Bobby can be acted upon, the Beyonder shows up and whisks them all to his new headquarters, where they learn that he's got the NSA beat by 30 years. ![]() Falcon decides he needs to tell SHIELD about this, but Dark Danny likes what the Beyonder is doing so he decides to go with the Falcon to speak on the Beyonder's behalf. ![]() Meanwhile, Luke Cage tries to keep the Beyonder distracted by taking him out for soul food. ![]() ![]() We've already seen the Beyonder eating plates, learning how to go to the bathroom, and taking heroin, so i don't know if it's possible to qualify anything as "the craziest" thing we've seen the Beyonder do, but ripping off scenes from Airplane! practically verbatim has to be towards the top of the list. ![]() The Beyonder (understandably!) upsets some local patrons, but after that fight is settled, Captain Hero shows up to alert Cage that Iron Fist is on the Beyonder's platform. And soon an overzealous SHIELD agent attempts to bomb the base. Captain Hero and Iron Fist attempt to stop the missiles, but in the end the Beyonder decides that if he leaves the base intact, SHIELD and others will just continue to attack it so he might as well let it get destroyed. ![]() The story ends with Bobby at a local hospital instead of Project Pegasus and then a scene with Misty Knight not being able to contact Danny to tell him that she's now dating Tyrone King (a conversation she's been trying to avoid anyway) and then Danny's boss, Maxine Walters of CCI, showing up at his house with a change of clothing. ![]() It's amazing how many people in this story are not what they appear to be. Iron Fist is really a H'ylthri doppelganger. Bobby Wright/Captain Hero is really Super-Skrull. Tyrone King is really Master Khan. Add in the fact that the Beyonder is really half a baby Cosmic Cube and it's an impressive array of Who's Not Who. But none of that has anything to do with Priest and Bright's intentions for this issue. The issue does manage to be a lot of crazy fun despite some serious stuff (like Bobby's illness, whatever's happening with Danny, Danny and Misty's relationship, and a lurking Chiantang in the background). Certainly as a Secret Wars II tie-in this doesn't help make the threat of the Beyonder seem any more serious, but that monkey's already out of the barrel. Secret Wars aside, this is a build-up issue and Priest and Bright were definitely doing a great job doing the building, but unfortunately no one at the time was interested (relatively speaking; it was selling at 100,000+ copies, but that was low for the time) and the book will be cancelled in just a few more issues. Quality Rating: B+ Chronological Placement Considerations: This is a tie-in with Secret Wars II #6. The Beyonder gets rid of his headquarters in the Atlantic this issue. Also, this is the first time that Luke and Danny are seeing that their office building is missing; it was turned to gold in Secret Wars II #2 (which they appeared in but were plucked out of time for that issue) and has now been replaced with a parking lot. Luke and Danny have mainly been in K'un-Lun since then (although i also have Luke in the Emperor Doom graphic novel where he was mind-controlled and we don't see their building). It seems (per the Reference below) that the Beyonder returned the duo to Earth off panel some time, but i'm allowing some time to have passed before they attempted to reconvene at their building. I should note that if Luke and Danny really were meant to be returned behind the scenes during Secret Wars II #6, i have a conflict because i have Luke appearing in Emperor Doom prior to that. But since we don't actually see the return, i'm fine with saying that the Beyonder did it some time between SW II #5-6. Issue #122 still has Maxine at Danny's house, so it most likely takes place within 24 hours. References:
Crossover: Secret Wars II Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (4): showCharacters Appearing: Beyonder, Chiantang, Falcon, Guardsman II (Michael O'Brien), Iron Fist H'ylthri Imposter, Luke Cage, Master Khan, Maxine Walters, Misty Knight, Nick Fury, Super-Skrull CommentsThe problem with placing this issue is that SHIELD has a helicarrier in this issue. The SHIELD helicarrier was destroyed in the Sensational She-Hulk Graphic Novel. In FF 289, She-Hulk implies that she didn't think SHIELD had a new helicarrier and SHIELD is based in a space station in that story. So does this story take place before the Sensational She-Hulk Graphic Novel or did SHIELD have a spare helicarrier that was somehow destroyed in an untold story before FF 289? (The complicating factor is that FF 285 references the She-Hulk Graphic Novel in a footnote.) Posted by: Michael | October 24, 2013 7:51 PM Thanks for reminding me, Michael. You left a comment about this on the She-Hulk entry but with my Great Back Issue Add it's been so long i had forgotten about it. I'll look at FF #289 more closely but after a quick scan it doesn't seem that Fury confirms that the helicarrier is still destroyed or that they haven't built a new one. Unless there's a subsequent issue showing it getting rebuilt? The other possibility is that there was a similar situation between Godzilla #3 and Hulk #219 where it was revealed that the one destroyed in Godzilla was actually a "mini-carrier", something that wasn't clear by the script or the art in the Godzilla issue. So maybe the helicarrier shown here is another "mini-carrier" or maybe they now even keep a full-sized helicarrier in reserve after that incident. I'd hate to try to push this before the She-Hulk GN due to the dependencies of both this issue and FF #285 on Secret Wars. Posted by: fnord12 | October 24, 2013 8:57 PM Here's the thing- in 1989, during Acts of Vengeance, Alexander Pierce mentions the budget for building the new helicarrier and in subsequent issues of SHIELD, they rebuild the helicarrier. I don't remember the helicarrier appearing between this issue and 1989. (I think they were salvaging the helicarrier in 1988's Nick Fury vs. SHIELD.) It's something to keep an eye on- did SHIELD wait until 1989 to rebuild the helicarrier?) Posted by: Michael | October 24, 2013 10:49 PM Well this really cheered me up on a bad day!With the SHEILD helicarrier, perhaps SHIELD had been building a new improved helicarrior when the old one was destroyed. This is that, but analysis of it's performance showed serious problems with it resulting in it being grounded while redesign work took place. That would account for it showing up so soon after the She Hulk GN and then SHEILD not having it for a long time. Posted by: Benway | April 12, 2016 5:58 PM Comments are now closed. |
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