Well, I'm still not 100%, but I went to work today, so that's something...
After yesterday's movie watching sick day, I'd planned a post about Cary Grant, and how he reminds me of Alan Moore's
Miracleman (really!), but after reading this week's new comics, I've decided to hold off on Grant-Fest '07, and talk about the same thing everybody else is...
CAPTAIN AMERICA # 25
(Oops,wrong one... sorry.)
(Hmmm... still not it.)
(Dammit! One more time...)
(Okay, there we go.)
Normally I'd work in a *SPOILER* header, or something, but since Marvel let the cat out of the bag Tuesday night, I'm not going to worry about it.
The short version: Cap's on his way to being arraigned for his "crimes" during Civil War, when an assassin working Dr. Faustus and the Red Skull/Lukin takes a shot at him.
The assassin turns out to be Crossbones, who's quickly dealt with by the Winter Soldier and Falcon (nice moment, BTW... two of Cap's boys teaming up).
Meanwhile, down at the hospital, Cap dies off panel. Shortly after that, Sharon Carter is cleaning herself up in the hospital washroom, when she's confronted by Sin (the Skull's daughter) and told to "Remember."
So she does... seems that during the assassination attempt on Cap's life, somehow Faustus took control of Sharon and had her plug three bullets into Cap's gut, making Sharon his true killer.
All in all, I thought the issue worked well - the retrospective at the beginning was nice, and Steve Epting's art has never looked better. I like Brubaker's work (with the exception of his Uncanny X-men work... can't get into it, sorry) and think he's got a pretty good grasp on the Marvel heroes. And for that reason, I just assumed he didn't come up wiith this story on his own, and that it was editorially mandated, but not so much, it seems... here you'll find Bru taking credit for the idea.
I think it's safe to say that the death of Captain America is to Civil War, what 52 is to Infinite Crisis... albiet, in a single issue, but you get my point. It's what I'm coining right here and now as the "second wind trend", the "just when you thought it was over" moment, and maybe it's just cause I'm such a Marvel junkie lately, but I kind of happy to get it.
What didn't thrill me about this weeks books was Civil War: The Initiative. Interesting little experiment, but that's about all I've got in it's favor. My biggest complaint with it being, if you read it before Cap #25 (which I did), it spoils the ending... and not exactly in the way you're thinking.
And surely I couldn't have been the only one to catch this, but who introduces the new Omega Flight? Context would lead me to believe that it's Sasquatch showing the Collective the new team, but Sasquatch is in the picture, and so's the new Guardian... who's supposed to be the Collective.
The Thunderbolts bit was completely useless. As much as I like Ellis, he's completely getting these characters wrong, and neither he or anybody else seems to care. Thunderbolts reeks of a paycheck book, and that's a shame - if only Ellis would try and write it like it was something real, but no... instead he's giving us a bunch of sadist nymphos beating people up.
Then we come to Ms. Marvel running into Spider-woman, and giving her a lecture about not registering, but ultimately letting her go, because, well... they're pals?
Also read Fantastic Four, which I was happy with - really liked the Sue and Reed scene. I trust McDuffie to do a bang up job, and can't wait to see what he's cooking up.
Read Mighty Avengers, too... and I think my boy Tug put it best tonight when he called it "agonizingly difficult, but slightly enjoyable", or something like that. I said it was pretty to look at, but nobody acted like they had any good sense.
Until we get a little deeper into the "new" status quo, I'm going to try and hold off on talking about Marvel books so much, and see what happens. I'll admit to not having high hopes.
Starting sometime this weekend, I plan to kick off a series of posts that focus on the increasing level of violence seen in DC comics post Infinite Crisis.
This week's issue of Justice League of America alone has enough to fill up a whole week...
"Watch those arms, boys and girls - Grundy's hungry!"
