Tuesday, July 14, 2020
Yes, I bought the second issue again; it's just easier, all right?
I wonder where I bought it, but three years back we checked out the second issue of this; and last week we found the whole series for $2.50! From 2004, Identity Disc, written by Rob Rodi, pencils by John Higgins, inks by Sandu Florea. (Today's scans are from the fourth issue.)
A.I.M. has the titular disc at their secret rocket base in Manhattan, and the guys' infiltration has not gone well: Vulture had put up quite a fight to disable the power, so Juggernaut, Sabretooth, Deadpool, and Bullseye could get past a retina scan; but the base commander wasn't fooled. While in the middle of a mighty rant, he's interrupted by massive explosions: Vulture warns that A.I.M. shot up their generator shooting at him, and the whole place could go up. Sabretooth wants to push on to the disc, apparently unwilling to risk being blackmailed, while Vulture attempts a break for it.
Swarmed by A.I.M. troops, Deadpool plays decoy, to give the rest time to get to the elevator. Sabretooth heads down, while Juggernaut and Bullseye argue who should hold the line: Bullseye judo-flips Juggernaut down the shaft, where he lands on Sabretooth, flattening him like a cartoon character. Juggernaut pushes on to the disc, then checks to see if it's real--and is shot in the mouth by "You! You're the one behind this!" Whatever he was shot with, Juggernaut goes down, as explosions destroy the base.
Outside, one survivor makes his way out: a wounded Vulture crashes, immediately swarmed by cops. He was kind of the whipping boy/low man on the totem pole most of this series: After Sandman is seemingly killed, Sabretooth sneeringly tells Vulture he doesn't have his "boy toy" to protect him; and Deadpool is pretty disparaging of him too. But will the proverbial worm turn in the last issue?
So I looked up the spoilers on wikipedia as to who the mystery assailant who gassed Juggy was. If you didn't already, you can look it up too, but it was fairplay the writer who Chekov Gun'd that situation in the beginning. I just remember this whole thing as a petty jab by Marvel at DC's Identity Crisis, and now look at them; neither has aged well at all. Only IC's remembered, but for all the wrong reasons.
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