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Solo Avengers #17Issue(s): Solo Avengers #17 Hawkeye Sub-Mariner Gregory Wright - Managing Editor Review/plot: ![]() The goal is to capture Madame Menace (aka Sunset Bain) during an arms trade with Doctor Octopus. ![]() The weapons include a bunch of super-science stuff, including Paste-Pot Pete's glue gun, and a floating Kirby-esque robotic hand that i'm sure i should recognize. ![]() The problem is that Silver Sable only wants Madame Menace captured, but Hawkeye can't accept letting Doctor Octopus go free with the weaponry. ![]() "Welcome to the Sandbox" shouldn't sound threatening, but coming from the Sandman it does. Madame Menace previously appeared in DeFaclo-written issues of Machine Man, but it's still cool for him to be using existing characters instead of creating more horrible new characters like Bullet Biker and Blind Justice (about both of which there are complains in the lettercols). Unfortunately there are some connections regarding Doctor Octopus that DeFalco misses or chooses to ignore, like Sandman's previous inclusion in the Sinister Six or Hawkeye having battled against Doc Ock in Secret Wars (so he shouldn't have to be referring to secondhand reports). ![]() ![]() Sandman does initially refuse to go up against Ock, but that's just because he's sticking to his assignment, not because of any old loyalties (or fears)... ![]() ...and the two do wind up fighting. ![]() Hawkeye's hearing problems again turn out to be a blessing. ![]() Here's that robot hand again. ![]() In the end, both Doctor Octopus and Madame Menace manage to get away. I like the Milgrom/Heck combination here, and i have been forced to admit that the writing is improved when Ralph Macchio is scripting over DeFalco. I also tend to like stories featuring the Sandman. So this was fun. The second story follows up on the Sub-Mariner and also references one of the weirder aspects of Secret Wars II (yes, i said that). Namor is still searching for Marrina's children, who he now confirms are not his children. ![]() Instead, he finds a family of humans that are in danger at sea in a tiny boat. he brings them home and gives them some gold that he intended to use to pay off his legal debts. ![]() Of course, Namor can always find more gold. And indeed, while searching a trench near Puerto Rico, he discovers that it's full of pieces of a gold building. It's Power Man and Iron Fist's former building, which was turned to gold by the Beyonder and subsequently dumped here to avoid a world-wide economic collapse. ![]() He's detected by a submarine and ordered on board. There he finds Charles Anderson (who was in the Spider-Man stories about the gold building), who is apparently permanently stationed here. What a crappy job. ![]() Namor tells him that he has no interest in the gold, and leaves. But as he's leaving the area, he notices Goldbug, in a ship that is invisible to Anderson's radar. Namor initially decides not to get involved... ![]() ...especially after Anderson's pissy attitude, but then he remembers the poor fishermen that he saved and decides to stop Goldbug after all. So he manages to chase away Goldbug, who really has no recourse against a guy as powerful as Namor. ![]() Anderson, of course, saw none of this, so he gets suspicious about Namor again. ![]() In the end he decides that maybe they ought to move the gold somewhere else. I assume it's still out there somewhere, waiting for some writer to remember it and include it in a future plot. There's obviously been a catastrophic art mix-up, because Kim DeMulder has been paired up with Dave Cockrum when he should have been paired up with Don Perlin for last issue's Defenders reunion. Quality Rating: C Chronological Placement Considerations: The MCP has this between West Coast Avengers #40-42. References:
Crossover: N/A Continuity Insert? N My Reprint: N/A Inbound References (1): showCharacters Appearing: Charles Anderson, Doctor Octopus, Goldbug, Hawkeye, Madame Menace (Sunset Bain), Sandman, Sub-Mariner Comments"Namor is still searching for Marrina's children, who he now confirms are not his children." Posted by: Michael | September 14, 2014 2:38 PM Michael, maybe Namor is deceiving himself. Posted by: fnord12 | September 14, 2014 2:52 PM We learn in the upcoming Namor series, near the end of its run, that as a hybrid Namor is sterile, and he knows it. So he probably assumes he couldn't be father to Marrina's children. But then, since Plodex reproduction is nothing like human reproduction, he could be wrong about that and may be the genetic pattern Marrina was transcribing onto her offspring. But i doubt Marvel editorial intended any of that at the time, and the facts about Namor's kid-free philandering won't see print for about five years. Posted by: Walter Lawson | September 14, 2014 10:21 PM Fun Hawk-eye team up with Sandman. This should have been a regular thing. I love them arguing into the sunset. The Namor story is a fun bit of continuity clear-up. It's also fun to see a powerful hero against a weaker villain for a change. The Goldbug really gets around. I know he started as a Cage villain but its really hard to judge who his actually nemisis is. He's one of those villains who feels like hes had a go at everybody. A true shared universe villain. Posted by: kveto from prague | September 15, 2014 3:39 PM Comics Interview #72(6/89) published a Mike Zeck panel from a "Sandman limited series". I have no idea if an actual Sandman series ever got published or even announced, though. Posted by: Mark Drummond | February 24, 2015 6:09 PM Just out of curiosity, whatever happened to the gold building in current continuity? I feel like it hasn't been mentioned in years. Posted by: Jeff | May 29, 2015 2:38 PM Two fun stories. I really liked Sandman's redemption and he worked as a perfect foil for Hawkeye. Every story with him in it tended to be more enjoyable. As for Goldbug, he's one of those villains that I didn't realize had existed before (like Orb who will show up in this series soon), although I guess he did have a reference that I had missed reading it in real-time. Posted by: Erik Beck | August 24, 2015 12:23 PM More panels from the proposed Mike Zeck-drawn Sandman mini appeared in Comics Interview #106. Posted by: Mark Drummond | September 11, 2015 5:09 PM Possibly the robotic hand is from one of the Shogun Warriors, but if so it should really be much bigger. Posted by: Luke Blanchard | September 17, 2017 12:02 PM Comments are now closed. |
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