Countdown on the Road to "Secret Wars"

 

I've dropped the ball on this one a bit, I admit, but the responsible part of me actually understood that getting my candidacy exams written had to take precedence over commentary on the road to the Marvel U event this summer.

We'll ignore that responsible part for a bit now.

The final part of my summary will be brief. What we have in the countdown section is a pretty well-laid out reading order, with one or two exceptions. Hickman and Marvel have been pretty good at making explicit the order one reads Avengers/New Avengers in, most obviously from publishing schedule, but there's always a glitch or two.

I'll give the brief list of the reading order I've followed, and then some of my thoughts about this part of the road.

Avengers v.5 #35

New Avengers v.3 #24

Avengers v.5 #36

Avengers v.5 #37

New Avengers v.3 #25

Avengers v.5 #38

New Avengers v.3 #26

New Avengers v.3 #27

Avengers v.5 #39

New Avengers v.3 #28

Avengers v.5 #40 (ostensibly the first inkling we have of what the countdown is heading toward - the banner at the top now reads "In 4 months...Time Runs Out! Secret Wars."

New Avengers v.3 #29

Avengers v.5 #41

New Avengers v.3 #30

Avengers v.5 #42

New Avengers v.3 #31

New Avengers v.3 #32

Avengers v.5 #43

New Avengers v.3 #33

Avengers v.5 #44

( I just had one of those moments where I typed the word "Avengers" so much that it started to look completely wrong."

And that's it. I have to imagine that Hickman will not be continuing on with the Avengers after Secret Wars, and I'd honestly be surprised if he continued on at Marvel, at least for a little while after the event. He's literally torn the whole damned thing down and it telling what I'm pretty sure is one of the most searching and interesting stories about these characters that we've ever seen.

I know, 2.5 issues in, it's really hard to say that. But now coming to an understanding of what's constituting the "Secret Wars," the levels of the factions involved, the fact that it's Doom, because of course it's Doom (Secret Wars might make an interesting contrast to Waid and Kitson's Empire at this point. Fodder for a later date.)

But what about the countdown to the event itself? Much like the build to his climactic Fantastic Four story, things start off a bit slowly in this run of issues. It's 8 months later, so we have to play catch up a bit. But once the lay of the land has been established, once the players have been outlined, things kick into a particularly high gear. I'm sure one day I'll go back and re-read all these again, when I've a bit more time, but the overwhelming sense I took away from the countdown was of futility, of a group of characters who have never faced something that they couldn't stop facing something that they cannot stop. There's a particularly beautiful moment just at the end of the last run (the "Detours) in New Avengers where the Illuminati basically just walk away and decide that they can't stop the end of the world, so they should accept it. Then the Cabal happens, of course, and things get bad.

I will admit that the thing that saddens me is the rift between Captain American and Iron Man. I have loved their relationship in the Avengers comics for a long time. They represent, for me, the two poles around which the team vacillates, and when that vacillation is harmonious, we see the pantheonic inflection on the Avengers that reflects that same sort of mythic state as the JLA. But when acrimonious, things fall apart quickly. I'll be interested to see how these characters are taken up in Secret Wars.

So that's done. I highly recommend, if you haven't read them, reading all of Hickman's run on the Avengers titles. Actually, all of his Marvel output has been stellar thus far. Secret Wars is two and a half issues in (you did get the Free Comic Book Day prologue, right?), and it's really, really good so far.

I guess I'll see you further on up the road. I'm sure the Secret Wars will give us all a lot to talk about.

Detours on the Road to "Secret Wars"

It's been a while, but the Secret Wars are almost upon us. So let's move along the road the Jonathan Hickman's been navigating.

I call this section detours because, for me, it's the least coherent section of the Avengers titles run. It's sandwiched between the intensity of "Infinity" and the countdown issues that jump us 8 months into the future, and while the stories it tells do have resonances to the larger arc, they somehow don't catch one's attention quite so much. Perhaps it's just me.

Avengers v.5 #24 (24.Now, to be specific, though it also sports a giant "#1" at the top of the cover)(??) - A perfect jumping on point for new readers! I hate when they say things like that, especially with a comic like Avengers. Also, no it's not, so the #1 on the cover is super-disingenuous. The story within is not bad at all, though. A rogue planet heads for Earth, an Iron Man from the future comes back to warn everyone at a barbeque, and Tony Stark gets told that he won't be able to keep his secret much longer. Good foreshadowing, and the planet does get put to good use....eventually.

New Avengers v.3 #13 - 15 - three very, very grim issues of the series. We've heard for a year now that other Earths are being destroyed one by one across the Multiverse. These issues give us a look at the alternative versions of the Illuminati and how they failed, and against whom. There's also some interesting back story on the Black Swans, and though I feel I may have missed it, I'm still not entirely sure of their role in this whole saga. Perhaps that'll come to light some time in the next month or so. Or it's come to light, and I've just been reading too many comics to keep track. Also, Doctor Strange finally goes totally darkside, and it's pretty great to consider the ramifications. Oh, and shades of the Cabal at the end of issue 15.

Avengers v.5 #25 - 28 - An interesting counterpoint to the dying Earths in the New Avengers, here we see A.I.M. pulling an alternate team of Avengers from their world just as it is destroyed. They're almost spitting images of the very early Avengers, both in appearance and line-up, but, as often happens with these parallel dimension alternates, they're evil. It's almost like a Crime Syndicate version of the Avengers, which is ironic considering the New Avengers storyline that follows this one. I will admit that when it came down to the two versions of Banner here, I got confused both times I read it. And again, as with the rogue planet, there are ramifications that ramifications here that have only recently been picked back up as the titles come to their climaxes. I noted above that I feel like these stories are less coherent than those that have preceded and those that follow, and I think it's because some of them feel like they could have taken half as much time as they have. But, if we consider that "Secret Wars" is dropping at the same time as Avengers: Age of Ultron, perhaps the editorial powers that be dictated that these issues needed to be here. I could be being cynical there, but I prefer to think of it as being realistic.

New Avengers v.5 #16 (.Now, with the #1 at the top, just as disingenuous as the other one) - okay, I'll admit, the run of New Avengers that follows this one is really amazing. We're introduced here to the Great Society, a.k.a. The Justice League. I love stories like this that take barely-concealed versions of the characters from "the distinguished competition" and tease out the ramifications of conflict between Earth-Marvel and Earth-DC. Squadron Supreme leaps immediately to mind, but there have definitely been others. So this is our intro to the Society, and I think, of these detours, this is my absolute favourite story. But, fair warning, it's not a happy story.

Avengers v.5 #29 - part of the "Original Sin" crossover, though I really don't see how this and the stories that follow have anything to do with that event series (which, I'll admit, I read 3 issues of and then lost interest). But sin is the order of the day here. Captain America finally remembers the events of the very beginning of this saga, from New Avengers 1-3, and he and a remarkably impressive array of Avengers go to have a "chat" with Tony Stark. Who, it must be admitted, manages to hold his own against them for a bit, which really lets you know what a force to be reckoned with Stark really is. And then the lost Time Gem returns, and throws everyone into the future....but first, the Illuminati have some business to attend to.

New Avengers v.3 #17 - 21 - this is just such a great story. I'm not going to say much about it, because honestly of all the stories in these runs, this is the one I'd hate to spoil. Yes, the Illuminati fights the JLA, but they also talk to them. Hickman here deploys what are ostensibly the greatest and smartest heroes on Marvel and DC Earth, and pits them against the death of the Multiverse. Beautiful and tragic, just as you can imagine a story like this would be. More shades of the Cabal when a decision is made, finally. Again, though I call these stories detours (and, much as I like it, I think this story could have taken up a couple less issues), this story is not simply filler (and nor are any of them), but a meditation on how great heroes can often have come from remarkably different points of view.

Avengers v.5 #30 - 34 - the "Original Sin" issues of Avengers, in which Captain America's team that confronted Tony Stark is catapulted into various distant futures. There are a couple of things I want to say about this run of Avengers. The first is that Lenil Yu's art is terrible. Sorry, I know that's a really big thing to say, to completely disparage an artist's output, but I've never liked anything he's done, and for some reason he's still put on relatively large titles. What is it about him that makes him a superstar artist? Okay, I'll relent. His art is perhaps not terrible. But I don't like it. The other thing I'd like to say about this run is that grown-up Franklin Richards comes back! One of the greatest parts of Hickman's Fantastic Four run was the interaction between little Frank and older Frank. So to see him return, even for just a little while, is a treat. The time-travel story is cool, and gives us some notion of the future of the Avengers. We understand that with the destruction of the Multiverse, the Avengers are fighting to stop things from their present, but these issues also drive home the notion that it's the future they're trying to save as well.

New Avengers v.3 #22 - 23 - the shattering of the Illuminati. What rises in their place, over the course of the 8 hours that these two issue encompass, is probably the baddest of badass villain teams to have ever been presented in a Marvel comic. Any team that counts Thanos as a member is pretty heavy. But that's not the best part. The best part is the Illuminati surrendering to the workings of fate, the ways in which they all face what they've come to see as inevitable. And then their defiance in the face of that inevitability. Over the course of New Avengers, it's easy to forget that these characters are actually superheroes. Issue #23 reminds us of this, just before time starts to really run out.

The countdown begins next.

Walking the Shadowline Introduction: Out of the Darkness

The Shadow Dwellers
"They were almost human.
Their evolution paralleled ours, though they evolved swifter and a great deal better.
Individually, they were superior but they were no match for the great tide of humankind that came in time to rule the Earth.
So they became a shadow race, living among us, speaking our languages, but secretly, eternally apart. Sometimes as protectors, sometimes as predators.

Over the centuries, they became the stuff of our legends and our myths. Sometimes heroes. Often monsters.

But as the Twentieth Century moved nearer and nearer its close, the world had shrunk to the point that there was little room for living in secret and the power of humankind had grown to doomsday proportions. There was a more pressing need than ever to emerge, to make themselves felt; to influence, to control the destiny of the planet they shared with us.Scattered over the Earth, separated from each other by centuries of secrecy and hiding, torn by their own feuds and personal strife, the need to emerge was answered in ways as varied as the people of the shadows themselves varied. But it was answered. Cautiously, recklessly, with responsibility and without, they entered into the mainstream of human life.

Sometimes heroes. Often monsters."

April 1988 saw the publication of the first title in Epic Comics' short-lived "Shadow Line Saga." Written by D.G. Chichester and Margaret Clark, the inside cover, quoted in full above, left no doubt in anyone's mind that this was going to be a very dark look at the superhero. I was 14 when it came out. I'd never read Watchmen, though vaguely knew of it. I'd read the first issue of The Dark Knight Returns, but never bothered getting the rest. In '88, I was reading The Uncanny X-Men, The Avengers, The New Mutants. Good comics, but certainly not serious. But there was always something to the idea of being one of the first people to read a particular hero, as there must have been for the likes of Superman, or Spider-Man. I'd tried it a couple of years before, with Marvel's "New Universe," but there were a lot of comics in that line, and I just couldn't keep up. And, to be honest, some of them really weren't great. Here were four (maybe five) heroes, only three titles, and, from the get-go, intimate intertwining in each others' stories. It also came out bi-monthly, so it wasn't a huge financial burden.

And did I mention how dark it was?

And I'll be perfectly up front about my reasons for posting about the Shadow Line right now, and that's that they've shown up on a preview of the cover of the upcoming Marvel mega-event, or whatever they're calling it, "Secret Wars." Right down the center, Zero, Powerline, St. George. And I think that's Nightmask I see near them. Cool. But if I hadn't seen that picture, it might have been years, or decades, before I came back to them.

So what went wrong? Each of the Shadow Line titles lasted only 8 issues, though given their bi-monthly schedule, that stretched over a year and a half from April 1988 to August 1989. There had been teases in the later issues for an upcoming event, "Critical Mass," but then issue #8 of Doctor Zero shipped with the words "Final Issue" emblazoned on the front. Inside was an editorial citing dwindling sales as having caused the cancellation of each title. But all was not lost. The aforementioned "Critical Mass" was instead going to become the series Critical Mass. Published monthly from January to July, 1990, the series, which I'll talk about in a subsequent post, consisted of two chapters, each devoted to one of the main characters (Zero, Powerline, St. George), and shorter "forewords" or "interludes," devoted to a minor character from another series.

And then they disappeared. Back into the shadows.

So what happened? They are, as you can see from these covers, very stylish. The five main characters across the series (Doctor  Zero; Lenore Castle, Victor Guilliermos, Ripley Weaver [Powerline]; Michael Devlin [St. George]) are engaging, very different from the superheroic norm at that time. Vertigo Comics was still 5 years off when the Shadow Line started. There really was nothing like it coming from a major publisher at the time. But until a couple of weeks ago, I would not have been able to tell you the proper names of any of the main characters, nor really what happens to them over the course of their adventures. I stopped buying them at the age of 15, with the final issue of St. George in 1989, and only ever thought fleetingly about Critical Mass, and what might have happened to those characters. Two years ago, having moved to Calgary, I found a great warehouse-style comic store (the sadly defunct Dark Phoenix Comics retail location) and came across all seven issues of Critical Mass. I immediately bought them, thought for a while about reading them, and then filed them in my collection. Until that picture.

They are dated. Let's make no mistake about that. They are mired in Reagan-era politics, Nicaragua, characters whose inner-monologues are short, chopped sentences. Very grim.

But they're also very good. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to talk a bit about the good, the bad, and the simply inscrutable. The next two posts will look at half a year each of the original run. Though going through some jarring artistic changes, the vision of the entire line is very clear. After that I'll look at the Critical Mass series, and talk about where our heroes(?) end up, and what the change to prestige format may have helped and hindered with the series. In the interim I'd urge anyone intrigued by who those characters were on the "Secret Wars" preview picture, or anyone who likes obscure little corners of the superhero field, to seek these out and give them a read.

The Infinte Road to "Secret Wars"

I feel like this is a bit of a cop-out post, since there are sooooo many reading order lists for the "Infinity" event. Also, because there's actually an official reading order at the back of all of the comics, at least for the two Avengers series and the main Infinity series. So instead of doing a similar post as the last two "Secret Wars" posts, I'm just going to list the reading order, and do a general musing on the event.

Infinity #1, Avengers #18, New Avengers #9, Infinity #2, Avengers #19, New Avengers #10, Infinity #3, Avengers #20, Infinity #4, Avengers #21, New Avengers #11, Infinity #5, Avengers #22-23, Infinity #6, New Avengers #12.

Overall, I enjoyed the crap out of Infinity. It puts a nice cap on the Builders story that Hickman has introduced throughout his run, it shows us how the Illuminati deal with a major crisis even as they're dealing with a MAJOR major crisis, and it puts the Avengers into the kind of cosmic struggle that previously only a team like the JLA might have handled. I've said it before, and I'll repeat it now: the Avengers are the Marvel equivalent of the JLA, and should absolutely be treated as such. I think Bendis did a nice job of balancing the cosmic Avengers stories in the main title with more down-to-Earth stories in New Avengers, but Hickman has thrown that out, and put the Avengers, new, old, or illuminated, on the cosmic playing field. Where, IMHO, they belong.

This is a war story. We see Captain America really (really!) shine here, which nicely reminds us that he was, in the Marvel U, a lynch pin in World War II. As we are told in the film, the super soldier serum doesn't just enhance physical attributes, but mental ones as well. Cap is the ultimate strategist. Which, I suppose, could forgive my one little quibble with this story: its humano-centrism. I know this is a symptom of us reading stories about beings ostensibly the same as ourselves. It would be difficult to enjoy the story quite as much if the Avengers were simply cannon fodder, and the Shi'ar or Skrull were the focal characters. But this privileging of humanity as somehow much more capable and magnificent than any other species in the galaxy is stretching things a bit. If you have to ask the question "Where would everyone in the galaxy be without the inhabitants of Earth?", you're giving us, and our superheroic counterparts, way too much credit.

But that's a minor quibble, because, like all of you, I like to feel special too!

The Earth-bound part of this story I enjoyed slightly less. I'm not sure of why Thanos is doing what he's doing, and the inclusion of the Earth invasion really just seems to be a set-up for the "Inhumanity" event and to place Thanos and his lieutenants on Earth in order that they eventually join the Cabal. But I feel like that could have been incorporated somehow into the main Builder storyline more fluidly. That whole writer versus editor thing comes to mind here.

So, that's Infinity. From here on out, things get crazy. Crazier?

Further On Up The Road to "Secret Wars"

Let me just say up front that, much as I am reading Mr. Hickman's run on the Avengers titles in order that I'm completely up to date and ready for the Secret Wars in May, re-reading his work is always, always, a pleasure. His facility with dialogue, with pacing of story beats is of the highest calibre. He's been paired with some stellar visual storytellers as well, so this run of comics has been just wonderful. There were a couple of moments in "Infinity" that gave me absolute goosebumps all over my body. Thor's "surrender" to the Builder on Hala springs immediately to mind. So, moving on....

Avengers v.5 #10 - 11 - a couple of standalone stories that deal with the fallout of Ex Nihilo's origin bombs. It's nice to see a fair and un-caricatured depiction in #10 of Canada and our superhero program. Don't get me wrong: it's horrendous what happens to all the poor Canadians at the end of the issue, but it's lovely to see them playing a major role in Hickman's every expanding world-ending tale. I do worry that there's some strangely imperialist subtext going on with the Canadian government having to call Captain America in for a rescue mission, but there's also this idea that I've had for a long time about Cap that he's more a spirit of the idea of America than of the geophysical location. Though if I'm learning one thing while studying for my exam, it's that the geophysical and the spiritual are fundamentally linked in American cultural thought. Maybe that's fodder for another paper. #11 is a fun little piece of espionage writing, sort of demonstrating that the main Avengers team can also function on a more subtle level, closer to the covert machinations of their Illuminati counterparts. It's a good story, but not a great one, and I have to say that the best part of the whole comic for me is the cover, where we get a thoroughly Manga'd Avengers. Sailor Spider-Woman is my favourite.

New Avengers v.3 #7 - a brief interlude with the Illuminati. One of the great subtextual stories in this series is the conflict between Namor and T'Challa that spins out of the Avengers vs. X-Men series. Again, Hickman's writing meshes the feelings of hatred, respect, and necessity that these two characters feel for one another quite beautifully. The head to which this story has built of the past few recent issues is just great. Also in this issue is a lovely little interlude where Dr. Strange, Mr. Fantastic, and Dr. Doom have dinner together, and Reed's almost casual dismissal of Victor at the end of it shows us just how far the experience of the Incursions has pushed Reed Richards. Doom used to be a threat. Now he is simply something in the way of Reed solving this problem, and, as the dismissal suggests, Doom has nothing of any value to contribute to the solution. I'm not sure I'd agree, and it's strange that Doom wasn't a member of the Cabal.

Avengers v.5 #12 - 17 - a good long stretch of the main team here. Before the chaos of the "Infinity" storylines, we have an interlude in the Savage Land focusing on the "Zebra children" left behind by one of the origin bombs. I wouldn't quite call it a filler story, but it's more a character building piece than a story building piece. One of the great joys of Hickman's main Avengers title is the relationship that develops between Hyperion and Thor. They are both, fundamentally, gods, and their quiet dialogues musing on the way they perceive experience and life, in contrast to the way their teammates do, are just lovely. The High Evolutionary part of this story I can take or leave, but the interactions of these two entities is some sublime writing. Issue #14 - 17 are the "Prelude to Infinity" issues, which I find to be a bit of a misnomer. The prelude sections, which really could have probably filled 6 or so pages at the beginning of Infinity proper, are background to another tale of A.I.M., who've become a far more interesting organization over the last few  years. The ramifications of the A.I.M. story play out in the Hickman/Spencer-scripted Avengers World, which I've not included on my reading order. While the stories are good (and my understanding is that Nick Spencer's solo stuff is pretty good too), they don't really lead us toward the Secret Wars. At least, not that I can tell. I guess my problem with calling these issues(and the next New Avengers issue) "preludes" is that it seems to cast the stories are somehow secondary to the tale that's coming up. And I think the story of the signal and the A.I.M. superweapon is a really good one that shouldn't be asychronously overshadowed.

New Avengers v.3 #8 - another prelude story, all about Black Bolt and Maximus. This one really isn't a prelude at all, but a fundamental part of the Infinity storyline. We need to see the Maximus/Black Bolt plots to even remotely be prepared for the final events of Infinity, and we even get a view of the invasion at the very end of the comic. This is more an expository piece of Infinity than a prelude, but I guess it gets us where we need to be in order for the great event.

Which I'll talk about next time.

On the Road to "Secret Wars"

In anticipation of the Marvel summer event this year, I've decided to dive back into Jonathan Hickman's run on the Avengers titles.
I could try to give an exhaustive background on the things that take place over the course of this (so far) two and a half year run, but I honestly don't have the time for that right now. Here's some links that will give some background on the stories Hickman is drawing upon to craft his Avengers opus:

Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars
The Beyonder
Marvel "New Universe"
The Beyonders
(Also, I just noticed that Dr. Zero is in that Secret Wars picture up there, which is amazingly amazing. So here's this: The Shadowline Saga)

There. That should give some background. Just don't read too far into the articles, as they do deal with events that take place in Hickman's Avengers. Oh, and there will be spoilers in this post. If you just want my read order, don't read the stuff that I write next to it.

I don't have too much to say right now, having just started the re-read. While the stories are extremely well-crafted, and the two titles play into the action and espionage genres while also retaining the "Holy Crap! It's the end of world!" types of stories that the superhero genre is so adept at, this run is still no Fantastic Four. The scope is the same, perhaps even more grand, but FF had so much heart, evoked so many feelings. The Avengers titles are plumbing the depths of morality, of law, of what it means to be heroic, but it's missing that family feeling that Fantastic Four, when well-written, has in droves. But that's okay, because the Avengers are not a family, at least not in this incarnation. They are soldiers.

I'll have more to say, I'm sure. But for now, here's a beginning of my reading order. I'll update in this post whenever I finish another stack of the story. Some bits get a bit convoluted (like should Bendis' Age of Ultron be in here somewhere, considering the time travel stuff that happens in the Original Sin crossovers?), but this is the order that seems to make sense to me.

New Avengers v.3 #1 - 3 - these issues take place before Avengers v.5 #1, as in the opening pages of that issue, Captain America has a dream/memory of events that take place in NA #3. Also, he is wearing the old-style costume that he eschews at the end of v.5 #1.

Avengers v.5 #1 - 6 - the first three issues are the story of the garden on Mars, and introduce Abyss, Ex Nihilo, and Aleph, all of whom become major players later in the series. Following these three issues are stand-alone "origin" issues, sort of, featuring Hyperion, Smasher, and Captain Universe. A good idea, these three, as they are the characters with whom even long-time Marvel readers might be the least familiar. On a personal note, putting Hyperion on the team is awesome, since he's basically Superman, and has now not only been displaced from his own planet, but from his own universe. And Smasher is Dan Dare's granddaughter.

New Avengers v.3 #4 - 6 - a brief storyline that pushes the Illuminati into the place they thought they could avoid, and much sooner than they expected. We also see the beginnings here of a group that is currently playing a major role in the Avengers titles, The Cabal. What New Avengers does really well is to show these extraordinary beings engaged in conflicts the size of which mere mortals would have trouble even conceiving. The heroes of the DC Universe are very often put into universe-altering conflicts, but the Marvel heroes are not often let loose on that scale. Yes, there's the occasional intergalactic war or something, but only very rarely do we see the nature of their very reality being threatened. It is cool to see Marvel heroes interacting on the god level of their universe.

Avengers v.5 #7 - 9 - A WHITE EVENT!!! I thought I was the only one who enjoyed Marvel's failed first try at a "more realistic" universe, the "New Universe." But here's Hickman re-introducing elements and making them frickin' awesome. The introduction of Nightmask and Starbrand here have vast consequences, and Starbrand's origin in particular really does play into the ramifications of the superheroic on the mundane. Also shades of Civil War here. The end of this story does present a continuity problem, as Starbrand and Nightmask are relegated to the Dyson sphere that Iron Man is constructing, the existence of which was previously only known to Stark, Reed Richards, and Hank McCoy. Does this mean that the newly-brain wiped Captain America knows of the sphere, or just that he trust Stark enough to allow him to sequester these two superbeings without knowing where they are? That doesn't seem like Cap to me.

So that's it for now. I'll update as I go, and as I figure out the storylines. Any suggestions for ancillary reading, or for changes to the order are more than welcome.