Issue(s): Wonder Man #7
Cover Date: Mar 92
Title: "Shared space"
Credits:
Gerard Jones - Writer
Jeff Johnson - Penciler
Dan Panosian - Inker
Evan Skolnick - Assistant Editor
Fabian Nicieza - Editor

Review/plot:
Of all the Avengers books participating in Operation: Galactic Storm, Wonder Man is the least "straight". It's a much more whimsical book, sometimes veering into pure comedy. So it's a tough balancing act for Gerard Jones and Jeff Johnson. The book has a certain tone, and theoretically you'd want to maintain that tone. On the other hand, the book has to serve the plot of the crossover, and on top of that you don't want to give readers coming in from the other books whiplash. But you do want to attract them to your (new, and presumably lower selling) book, and be honest about what the book is about. My feeling is that the creative team does a very good job with that difficult challenge for this issue, much less so for the remaining two contributions to the crossover.

This issue has a few things going for it. First of all, it takes place while the Avengers are still on Earth, and in fact Wonder Man is back at his place in Hollywood, so we can see some of his regular supporting cast. On top of that, Rick Jones is guest starring, and his snark fits the tone of this book nicely. And thirdly, the scenario in this issue has Rick and Captain Atlas continually switching places, leaving Wonder Man unable to have a proper fight with Atlas, and that lends itself well to comedy.

We left off with Captain Atlas banging together the Nega-Bands, and suddenly Rick Jones was in Captain Marvel's tomb with Quasar. At the same time, Captain Atlas has popped up at Wonder Man's apartment.

And so we have a lot of this.

Atlas quickly adapts and starts using the timing to his advantage, knowing that Wonder Man can't punch him full force for fear of hitting Rick. But Wonder Man eventually figures out Atlas' rhythm and develops a knock-out blow.

Rick is then sent back to the Pantheon.

And Wonder Man tells his supporting cast he's going to be away for a while.

In other developments, the Supreme Intelligence summons the Demon Druid, aka Ultimus, who we learn is a Kree.

And the solar flares get worse and threaten to engulf Starcore One.

It's a fun issue. Definitely lower in content than the other parts we've seen so far; this issue is basically just a big fight. But that's fine. Rick Jones actually comes across more whiney and mean than i would have expected (he and Wonder Man make up at the end, and that's Scarlet Witch coming to Simon's defense).

I guess it's more in line with the character's long history than the way he's been written recently in Peter David's Hulk.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating:

Chronological Placement Considerations: This is part four of Operation: Galactic Storm. It continues in Avengers #345.

References:

• A footnote to the Kree trying to kidnap Rick Jones as part of "a space-war in the making" points to Quasar #32, which isn't strictly correct (the kidnapping happened in the two parts earlier than that), but i guess it was in Quasar that we learned it was part of a space war.

Crossover: Operation Galactic Storm

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

this was one of two Galactic Storm comics I had (the other was THOR) and I got to say I LOVED this and I thought the timing of Wonder Man counting down to knock out Capt. Atlas was really clever, this def had an interesting plot and I give them a lot of credit.

Yep, this issue does a solid job of still being a Wonder Man issue despite being a part of a large crossover.

Can't remember the next issue, but the one after that with Vision struggles due to the absurd shift of tone. From a light-hearted entertaining battle with Captain Atlas to a serious debate about genocide between two "brothers".

I said on another page the Wonder Man/Vision thing was inevitably going to be done yet again in a Wonder Man issue, so at least they got it out of the way using a part of the crossover for it.

In a vacuum that issue is fine, and as part of Galactic Storm it's fine, but when it's put next to all the other Wonder Man issues and nothing else it stands out as being grimly serious.

Never read this but the Atlas-Rick Jones switching places thing seems cute enough, could be a fun read.

I don't follow why they decide Rick can go back to the Pantheon? Obviously the Pantheon is a pretty safe place for Rick too, but since that had already been overruled, why do the Avengers change their mind here? Do they know Rick is no longer at risk?

Jonathan, it isn't really debated, so the reasong for the reversal isn't explicit. I would guess that now that the Psyche-Magnetron and Nega-Bands have both already been raided, the reasoning is that the Shi'ar and Kree won't need Rick anymore. But that's not actually said. The most we get is Captain America saying that due to the escalating conflict, Wonder Man will be needed for more than bodyguarding.

Cheers, Fnord.