They didn't exactly answer the question...

From Catwoman: Secret Files and Origins #1, "Why Holly Isn't Dead" Written by Ed Brubaker, art by Eric Shanower.

Holly and Catwoman aren't the last characters I'd expect to be breaking the fourth wall, but, well, they're up there. I don't know if I've ever seen a character complain so much about being not killed off as Holly there; although my wife would agree "If they're going to have continuity, they should at least take it seriously." The link there attempts to justify it as post-Zero Hour changes; but I'm 90% sure Brubaker just wanted to use the character and ran with it.

This wasn't a bad pickup from the dollar bin: Ed Brubaker writes most of the issue, with art by Michael Avon Oeming and Cameron Stewart as well.
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More like TRADE-tradewaiting, at this point.

I read Ed Brubaker's Captain America for a long time, from his first issue up to around issue #600...which isn't as long as that sounds, thanks to the vagaries of Marvel's numbering. I think I fell off partially from cost-cutting, but I don't remember the book being particularly satisfying in single issues--not an uncommon problem for Marvel at the time. Which makes me wonder why books "written for the trade" bother me when Marvel does it, but Hellboy and B.P.R.D. have been like that for ever and I'm fine with it: maybe because Marvel used to come in readable chunks and was moving away from that, while the Mignola books had almost always been trade-written. Anyway, today we'll take a gander at a Cap trade that still manages to feel like an issue written for a bigger trade: From my post-Black Friday pickup at Hastings, Captain America: Prisoner of War. Written by Ed Brubaker, with art by Mike Deodato, Jackson Guice, and more.

After "the Trial of Captain America," Bucky was found guilty of murders committed while he was the brainwashed Soviet assassin Winter Soldier, and was thrown into a Russian gulag. Due to a deal with the State Department, Bucky can't simply break out, or he would be a criminal in America as well; and he's forced into prison fights with former Soviet heroes and operatives like Ursa Major and the Titanium Man. But his captors have a bigger plan in mind...

Meanwhile, the recently returned original Cap was in Commander Rogers mode, trying to do Nick Fury's job; and wondering how to get Bucky out without causing an international incident. Nick Fury makes a brief appearance, to help out and to needle Steve a bit about picking up the shield again. Everyone, the readers included, knows Steve is going to be Captain America again at some point, but he seems surprisingly reluctant to do so. And the Black Widow revisits her home turf and "goes rogue" (to give Steve deniability) to break Bucky out, but he's way ahead of her.

I bought this for about the price of a single issue, but somehow, it feels like a single issue! Too much is unresolved, or rather set up for later books: the larger plan of Bucky's captors, and whether or not Steve would be Cap again. The latter is teased for Fear Itself, I think the former wrapped up in Winter Soldier: the Longest Winter. Still, there's some nice back-up stories at the end of this one, including a Howard Chaykin one; so reckon this was worth the three bucks then.

(No scans today--out of the office!)
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Slim, but a good-looking trade.

I did have time to read this trade the other day: on the cover, it just says "Captain America," which is a little less than helpful. It's Captain America by Ed Brubaker volume 3, at least according to Hastings. But...it's the 2011 Cap series, the last nineteen issues of Brubaker's run! Here we've got Captain America #11-14, "Shock to the System" with art by Patch Zircher and Mike Deodato. (There's also a reprint of Captain America #328 from Mark Gruenwald, Paul Neary, and Vince Colletta; which makes sense if you know who Scourge is...)

It's a pretty good story, with a new Scourge murdering super-villains in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secret super-witness protection program. Diamondback--a former super-villain herself, and old flame of Cap's--recognizes Scourge, but is injured and put into a coma before she can tell anyone. This is a middle chapter of a larger storyline involving "Bravo and his queen," but still reads well, even if Scourge turns out to be...well, I won't say. Google your own spoilers!

I don't usually take off the dust jackets, but it's a nice looking book. Better than it deserves, though? Mmmmaybe.
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"The End" Week: Two sort-of kinda but not really ends from Mighty Marvel!

Last year, I could've done a full "The End" week on the last issues created before the DC 52 relaunch; and this year I could've done much the same for Marvel pre-Marvel Now! We are going to glance at a couple "last issues" that are only last issues in name--of course they're being relaunched--but are an ending: both end long runs from popular writers: Ed Brubaker, ending his 100+ issues of Captain America with ...Captain America #19 (Thanks, Marvel numbering!) and Jonathan Hickman wrapping his Fantastic Four tenure with Fantastic Four #611.

We'll start with the better of the two, the Cap issue. I read Brubaker's Cap run for a long time, but I think I fell off around Reborn; but this is a good capper and a good single issue. At a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. hospital, Steve Rogers visits the injured William Burnside, a.k.a. the Captain America from the 1950's. Steve tells his life story to William, since he knows William knew the myth of Captain America, but perhaps not the sad facts. Steve had just wanted to do the right thing, which snowballed into him becoming a national symbol, and he couldn't let the people down. Steve knows the mission will never end; and if he isn't Cap, someone else would have to be. It's a melancholy end, but a great finish to a great run.

On the other hand, I had only been reading Hickman's Fantastic Four sporadically, and hadn't read FF...and this issue seems more like FF, since it's mostly about Valeria Richards. And Dr. Doom. Previously, the multiversal Council of Reed Richards had lobotomized most of their universes Dr. Dooms; but our world's Doom got his hand on another universe's Infinity Gauntlet. Taking that blank canvas of a universe as his own, Doom creates his own, in his own image. Unfortunately, Doom's kind of a bastard. (And sadly, even Doom knows it.) The future Valeria, Reed, and Nathaniel Richards rescue Doom, who may or may not have learned anything.

This is continued in the last issue of FF; but it didn't really do much for me. I get tired of Franklin being used as deus ex machina, and Valeria appears to be following in her brother's footsteps; only perhaps a bit more manipulative. And then I don't see the point of a redemption storyarc for Doctor friggin' Doom: not only will some later writer inevitably turn him back into a card-carrying villain, but it's a redemption storyarc for someone who killed an old girlfriend and wore her skin as armor. Yeah, I don't really see coming back from that.

Still, this doesn't mean I didn't like all of Hickman's run; just not as good of a closer as Brubaker's.

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And now, deleted scenes from Ed Brubaker's Uncanny X-Men: Fall and Rise of the Shi'ar Empire:

Click for readable size...

OK, it's not really. But during the year long storyline, every time something happened back on earth, in other Marvel comics; I kept thinking Xavier and his crew were in for a big surprise when they returned. Then half of them didn't come back...



I started writing this, or at least the general idea, way back when; so I'm playing pretty loose with the continuity--just like real Marvel! All of the events alluded to on the messages are vaguely concurrent, or close enough for our purposes. I did want to have a long tangential message from Spider-Man, thanking the Professor for not revealing his secret; but I couldn't quite get it to work.

Another joke that missed the cut, for some reason: Rouge, nattering on about how her team of X-Men was going to be the bestest ever, and how no one would ever betray her...when she started with what, Mystique, Sabertooth, Lady Mastermind, and a Sentinel?

I'm having entirely too much fun with these. Hopefully next week: The One Problem with Grant Morrison's JLA...if I can find a Total Justice Superman figure.




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Most would agree that Daredevil has a interesting, but not deep, rouges' gallery: DD has some classic, A-list villains like Kingpin, Bullseye, Elektra. I would add Typhoid Mary to that list, some might add Gladiator; a few might consider the Punisher a Daredevil villain, since they've had more than a few great fights.

But unlike Spider-Man, the Flash, or Batman; Daredevil doesn't have the deep roster, or B-list villains. Where Batman can sometimes get a good story out of second-stringers Black Mask or Killer Croc, Daredevil gets re-occurring punching bags the Owl, the Jester, or Stilt-Man. Well, you can't use the Kingpin every story, or least you shouldn't; and for a writer there has to be a little challenge to trying to get a good story out of say, Death-Stalker. (Well, I thought he looked cool.) Characters usually aren't fully realized from their first appearances. For example Bullseye's first appearances were terrible, yet he eventually became a classic.

This may explain why Mr. Fear keeps getting brought back: even though he's had several returns, I think he's still behind Leap-Frog in number of appearances and general name recognition. Moreover, a lot of blogs, and even Wikipedia's DD entry, dog out Mr. Fear as stealing Batman villain the Scarecrow's gimmick: fear gas. In Mr. Fear's defense, it seems fair since gas is inherently scary. (Imagine someone lobbed a grenade of mysterious gas into your room completely out of the blue. Seems like most of Scarecrow/Fear's job is already done, doesn't it?)

Fear's latest shot is courtesy of Ed Brubaker, and if anyone can make him a name, he could. In Daredevil #100, "Without Fear, part one," Fear has the classic Spider-Man goons the Enforcers as backup, for his latest attempt at revenge. He's a little fed up that Matt gets to hit the proverbial reset button and get his life back (over and over) while Mr. Fear is a snook who can't even use his real name anymore. It's an OK start to the storyline, although after Fear hits DD with his "new improved gas" most of the rest of the issue is hallucinations, but you get art from Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano, Marko Djurojevic, John Romita Sr. and Al Milgrom, Gene Colan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Maleev, and Lee Bermejo.

Funny, I had thought Mr. Fear had shown up again sometime before this--my Daredevil issues are all over the damn place, so I wasn't sure, and I was thinking he was the bad guy for a spinoff like those Spider-Man/Daredevil limiteds or some such. So, we're all the way back to Daredevil #375, "With a Little Help from my Friends" Written by Joe Kelly, with an assist from Chris Claremont; art by Cary Nord, Mark Lipka, Ariel Olivetti, Pier Birto, John Paul Leon, Tom Lyle, Robert Jones, Brian Denham, Chris Carlson, Rick Leonardi, and Scott Hanna. (I like issues with lots of artists like this, even if this one is a little disjointed.)

This was the conclusion of a plotline Joe Kelly had been simmering for a while, and also his last issue. (Daredevil was less than a year away from a new number one and Kevin Smith.) Matt's girlfriend Karen Page was framed for the murder of a cop, who was secretly a serial killer and the pawn of Mr. Fear. During the trial, Fear continues pulling the strings and quickly has Murdock on the ropes, since he can cheat. Fear has stacked the deck by intimidating several witnesses (though that isn't immediately clear), and leads off by throwing another body into the courtroom during Matt's opening remarks. That's a bit of a cheat, since the 'body' isn't dead, but remains in a coma as to not contradict the evidence against Karen: it casts doubt on the cop being the serial killer Karen claimed he was.

As his case goes south, Matt has visits from Elektra, the Black Widow, and his mom (maybe); none of whom can help him directly. He refuses Elektra's help since she was a known killer, but Daredevil's morality seems overzealous later, when Karen asks if she gets convicted, would he spring her:

Sniff. Smell that dickery. Let's forget about the multitude of crimes DD's committed in the past when he's needed to. Pretty sure he had broken himself out of jail before then, as well...

Eventually, Daredevil figures out Fear's secret hideout is an unused law library at Columbia University. Interesting, but would a school like that have an abandoned space that bored students wouldn't use for um, hijinks? If I was an aspiring super-villain, the last thing I'd want is a lair that co-eds use for hookups...DD also wisely brings a gas mask, rendering Fear virtually helpless, unless DD loses it somehow in the space of three panels.

Daredevil ditches the gas mask because:
A. He's not Batman, it's not like DD has a bigass belt to carry all that crap.

B. The mask, um, ruined the lines of his costume. Appearance is everything.


C. You can't see it from this angle, but Mr. Fear was flapping his arms and making 'bawk-bawk!' noises until DD took it off.

D. It smelled like the Golden Age Sandman in there.

Mr. Fear, who looks really, really buff for a law professor; sets off the explosives he planted in his hideout...does anyone else think like that? Is there a Self-Destruct aisle at Home Depot?...and throws the evidence Matt needs into the fire, giving himself time to escape as Matt grabs it. Beaten, Fear is forced back to his day job: legal pundit, making increasingly snide commentary on Karen's case. That's great, but, um, Daredevil knows Mr. Fear's secret identity. Wouldn't be too hard to track him down. Well, Fear quits in a little hissy fit when Karen's acquitted.

There's a few little subplots, like the cops at the women's prison conspiring for Karen to have a little 'accident,' the cops getting foiled by a disguised Elektra, and the Kingpin returning to New York to block Fear's jury-tampering: "Someone was playing in my sandbox...and no one gets to break you but me." And then there's a non sequitur 'Or is it?' style ending with the Triple Threat serial killer (that Karen had allegedly killed), being dug out of his grave. Did Joe Kelly think Triple Threat was going to be a reoccurring villain, the next Bullseye? He wasn't even the next Surgeon General... Read more!