Until the
relaunch last year, I hadn't read a single issue of this one! And I still don't have anywhere near a full set, but here's one: from 1990,
Damage Control #4 (volume 2) "The Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Affair" Written by Dwayne McDuffie, pencils by Ernie Colón, inks by Stan Drake and Marie Severin.
I read a lot of crossover books in 1990, so I'm a little surprised I slept on this; the last chapter for
Acts of Vengeance! Large chunks of NYC had been trashed through a ton of super-hero fights, but the restoration firm of Damage Control was on strike! Both Wilson Fisk and Tony Stark had sold their shares of the company, when owner Mrs. Hoag was leaving to take a position in Washington D.C. on the Commission on Superhuman Activities. (Seen in a ton of issues of
Captain America, among others.) Fisk and Stark both claim they weren't sure the company would survive without her; and Tony hadn't been keen on being in business with Fisk anyway. But Fisk had another reason...In Washington, shape-changer "
Dittomaster" knocks out Henry Gyrich, then plans to force Mrs. Hoag to rubberstamp the majority report for the Super-Hero Registration Act: instead, she kicks the shape-changer's ass, since she's working with Nick Fury to retake her company! (Fury knew her when she was younger, and still seems taken with her; which is probably the most likeable he would be for most of that decade!)
Meanwhile, the Punisher was still watching current D.C. head Robin Chapel, since he had thought she was working for the Kingpin. Comptroller Albert Cleary, rightfully pissed at his new parent company, has worked out what their plan had been and how to counter it: they had bought the company, with a loan from Fisk, who was now squeezing them. Cleary offers them an out: sell Damage Control to Mrs. Hoag and S.H.I.E.L.D. for a bit of a loss, or explain things to the Securities and Exchange Commission
and Fisk. Chapel confronts Fisk, severing his association with Damage Control, and unknowingly clearing her with the Punisher, who had her bugged. Probably the broadest joke in this one is towards the end, when they haul off the gaudy skyscraper that had been built over their headquarters in the
Flatiron Building; as a certain comic book company was flush with money the summer of 1990 and wouldn't even have to change the initials on the building...
Weirdly, I don't think I've ever come across a full stack of any of these mini-series in the cheap bins: maybe people are hanging on to it. I even forgot there was a
third miniseries in 1991--aw, Kyle Baker art in that one!
7 comments:
Cute DC gag by McDuffie there. VERY timely. I wonder why he was drawn to doing a book like Damage Control in the 1st place. I'm guessing it was the human element of non-superheroes & showing the real consequences of superhero/villain battles that did it.
I feel like a big part of it was rectifying some inconsistencies he perceived from Marvel's history, and having a concept that can go almost anywhere is useful for that. Doctor Doom seems to be the one that tends to come up most often.
I was hoping that was the real Gyrich getting beat up in that panel before I got to the paragraph where Googum explained it was an imposter.
The thing I like about McDuffie's Damage Control work is it can be funny, and he pokes a bit at superheroes, but you can tell he likes superhero comics. It's not mean-spirited. Damage Control feels like, as Mr. Morbid suggested, showing the world of superheroes from a ground-level, Average Joe perspective, but by having a bit of fun explaining why New York isn't just a big pile of rubble by now.
I only watched a couple of episodes of Ms. Marvel on Disney+, but it looked like Damage Control was some private company that hunted superhumans with drones and jackbooted thugs. Yeesh, there must have been some equivalent concept in Marvel they could have used the name of for that.
Unfortunately @CalvinPitt that's the new direction they seem to be taking with the Damage Control name & concept, moving in it away from what it was. That sucks and feels overly cliche.
@CalvinPitt- I think there is, actually. It's Code Blue or something like that. They only showed up a couple of times in the 90's though, so that explains why nobody seems to remember them.
Awww Code Blue. They never did last long past Tom DeFalco's involvement with them. Wonder if they'll ever be brought back. Same for the Ghost Rider Task Force from the Howard Mackie GR days.
I seem to recall a bunch of Marvel novels had something called SAFE...like SHIELD, but without spies?
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