The X-Axis – 20 June 2010
The Film Festival is on at the moment, on top of which it’s a podcast week, so it’s been a busy weekend. Which means we’ve reached Sunday night, and I’ve read the X-books and a not a huge amount else.
Check a couple of posts down for this week’s House to Astonish, with reviews of Young Allies, Meta 4 and the Joker’s Asylum: Mad Hatter one-shot. And otherwise…
Amazing Spider-Man #633-634 – Yes, two issues in the same week. That’s what happens when a book scheduled for ship three times a month falls behind schedule.
Issue #633 is the final part of “Shed”, Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo’s revamp of the Lizard. Now at first glance, killing off the Lizard’s son looks like it could be cheap shock tactics. But then again, Lizard stories have fallen into a well-worn formula, and maybe the character could do with a wrench to move him on to something else. Wells is still interested in the core ideas of the character – intellect versus buried instinct – he just wants to cut away some of the clutter, and he does that pretty effectively here. As for Chris Bachalo, he gets to draw lizard people, and he’s good at that.
The long-trailed “Grim Hunt” story begins in issue #634. This is supposed to be the plot that all those “Gauntlet” arcs were building to. Supposedly the point of the Gauntlet was that the Kravinoffs were throwing major villains at Spider-Man in order to wear him down, although to be honest, most of the stories actually seemed to involve them showing up in a plot that was happening without them anyway. Regardless, this arc is by Joe Kelly and Michael Lark, and it sees the Kravinoffs going after anyone vaguely spider-related in an attempt to revive Kraven the Hunter. Of course, once you’ve committed to using all of the spider-related characters, you’re stuck with a bunch of guys like Kaine and Arachne who aren’t especially interesting in their own right, and kind of feel like they’re clogging up the story here. I’m not quite sure about this one yet – Lark’s art is great, but it all feels a bit bogged down in continuity and people I’m not desperately interested in, and I really hope it’s heading somewhere more interesting than just the return of an old villain.
Black Cat #1 – Or Amazing Spider-Man Presents Black Cat, to give it the full official title. But they’re not using his name on the cover. This is a vague Grim Hunt tie-in, which is to say that the Kravinoffs are in this one too. The Black Cat steals something which seems to be an ancestral heirloom. And at the same time, somebody’s trying to frame her for some badly botched thefts. Which wouldn’t be a problem but… well, she’s got her reputation to think of. It’s by Jen van Meter and Javier Pulido, and it’s actually quite good – it’s got the right tone for a Spider-Man project, inverting things so that she’s the lead and he’s the supporting character, but with the sort of good clear storytelling that Amazing has been delivering lately. This would be perfectly at home on the main title, but for the understandably low Spider-Man content.
Dark Wolverine #87 – This is a filler issue between the Wolverine: Origins crossover and the Frankencastle crossover. Daken’s sad about having those claws cut out of him last issue – the point, by the way, being that those were the claws that he’d coated with the Muramata blade so that they could be used to kill Wolverine. Which I completely missed, but then I don’t recall anyone mentioning that plot point in months. Perhaps they raised it in passing during the crossover, I don’t know.
Anyway… this issue, Daken wanders around Rome, meets a couple of petty criminals and mostly gazes at them. Also, he delivers cryptic moral homilies. It’s the sort of story that devotes a splash page to the title character looking moody in front of a landmark. Somewhere in here, there’s a vaguely interesting idea about Daken’s attitude to these people. He looks down on them on grounds of power, but not morality. But it’s terribly, terribly laboured, and comes off as thuddingly “meaningful”. Not great.
New Avengers #1 – The relaunched New Avengers turns out to be basically West Coast Avengers, only on the east coast. It’s a second Avengers team, for those heroes of a stubbornly individualist bent, who stuck out the last few years as a renegade Avengers team, and aren’t too keen about meekly going back to hook up with Steve and Tony again. So it’s basically most of the cast of New Avengers – Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Mockingbird – plus Ms Marvel and, weirdly, the Thing. And they’re back in Avengers Mansion, which has apparently been rebuilt between issues or something.
The set-up is odd – two more or less separate Avengers teams in the same city? – but you can see the publishing logic in keeping together the majority of a successful team. Plus, after all those years of hiding in warehouses and the like, they do actually deserve a run as a “proper” Avengers team. The first storyline takes us back to magic, as Bendis evidently isn’t finished yet with Dr Voodoo. It’s a serviceable enough plot, and at least it means that Stuart Immonen gets to draw fun stuff. (And there’s some great unconvincing dialogue from a possessed character near the end.) Basically it’s the sort of thing Bendis was doing in this book already, but without the “heroes on the run” element overshadowing things. I thought Avengers #1 was stronger, but an okay story and good art means this isn’t bad either.
New Mutants #11 – Well, officially it’s an issue of New Mutants. In fact it’s chapter 11 of “Second Coming”, and the New Mutants don’t put in much of an appearance. What does happen: Legion is enlisted to help out; the X-Men and co fight off the Sentinels in San Francisco; Hope decides it’s time she did something constructive; and in the future, X-Force attack an end of level boss. As I said last week, “Second Coming” is all about ratcheting up the tension from week to week. As long as it still feels like it’s building to something big, it’s working. This sort of story doesn’t really play to Zeb Wells’ strengths (on top of which he’s working with a horde of fill-in artists), but at least he gets to make something of Legion’s oddball assault. Not a classic issue in its own right, but it’s not really meant to be, and the overall story is ticking over nicely.
X-Factor Forever #4 – Still something of a guilty pleasure for me. It’s very eighties indeed – Louise Simonson really wants to explain a big idea about the origin of the mutant race and whether they’re the future of humanity at all, but in true period style, she’s arranged matters so that the exposition takes place in the course of a lot of running around and fighting. I do like her take on Apocalypse – the mainstream version of the character ended up as a sort of all-purpose nihilist dictator, while her interpretation is more of an “ends justify the means” type reverting back to the original idea of somebody who thought he was improving matters in the long run. Dan Panosian’s art doesn’t have much in common with the original series, but it’s genuinely striking, not to mention endearingly over the top at times, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this on the right project.
In Avengers #1, within the first 10 pages, play “Spot the artist mistake!” On some pages, you have Ronin unmasked. In others, you have Hawkeye in an all-gold costume.
There’s even one page where he’s Hawkeye in one frame and Ronin the exact next frame.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t something like half the members of the “New Avengers” also the on the plain old boring old regular “Avengers”? Is Bendis so enamored of Spider-man, Wolverine, and Hawkeye that they have to make up half the cast of both of his Avengers teams?
I thought it was interesting that Deadpool is being solicited as Pulp rather than Noir. I think that the current Iron Man Noir is quite a good title, but it would have fit better under the pulp moniker. It’s style is definitely more in keeping with the pulp mentality. If this is the new direction Marvel is taking with their bizarre sub-line of 1930’s characters then I say bring on the Fantastic Four.
Those notorious loners Spider-Man, Wolverine and Hawkeye.
You are correct Moose N Squirrel, I was just going to say that both teams have those guys (possibly Mockingbird too). Also at the end of her series, Ms. Marvel announced she was retiring as a hero, yet here she is with Cage’s team. Plus, Cage is also moonlighting as the Thunderbolts boss.
Yeah okay, I can see why the shared members – Wolverine & Spider-Man are big attractions, helps keep a bit of continuity between the Avengers teams, and it helps not make ‘New Avengers’ look so much like the B-Book. But a bit of variation would be nice. Although Bendis probably already has a crossover between the two titles planned, which would be handily enough written given the rosters.
In fairness though it was a pretty fine first issue. Pacing was grand, set up an curious enough villian, and the direction with Victoria Hand should be interesting.
But, the same usual Bendis-Avengers related problems will probably crop-up. If I were to continue collecting either of those books then it would be in trades, and only after really good reviews.
Fantastic Four Pulp? Shirtless Doc Fantastic? Sue in Jodhpurs? Tousel-haired Johnny? A rockless Ben as, I dunno, some kind of palooka?
Nah. Fantastic Four VERNE. Fantastic Four WELLS. That is where it’s at. Oh, Child!
//\oo/\\
Oh yeah forgot to say, really enjoyed Stuart Immonen’s artwork. He is so rock solid and his work always has a nice energy to it.
What it this week’s Avengers books where Wolverine makes the joke about how many teams he is on now?
Re: Paul C’s comment “at the end of her series, Ms. Marvel announced she was retiring as a hero, yet here she is with Cage’s team.”
Wasn’t her “retirement” just a quip from Spidey while Ms M summed up her new philosophy of being the best she could be, inspired by Captain Marvel? Perhaps I read it wrong… I remember her flying off into the skies followed by a rather left-field back-up feature (“hey, he travelled through time… the end”).
And, yup – Cage also leading Thunderbolts. (vaguely spoiler-ish, maybe –>) Seeing him alive here rather takes the wind out of the sails of the T-bolts’ cliffhanger a couple of weeks ago, doesn’t it?
Considering that the expectations on Second Coming are that it will reveal Hope’s backstory, reverse M-Day, give some closure on Cyclops and X-Force, as well as eliminate Bastion, I’m not sure that I feel all that’s going to be accomplished in the final three chapters. They’re going to have to move a lot faster than they have been.
@Rik: I dug out the issue and yeah I think you may be right enough there. Though it did suggest that she would be taking some sort of sabbatical at the very least.
@odessa steps magazine: Aye.
“Multitasking. It’s my mutant power.”
I think the unsung headline of the past couple years is just how the hell Dan Panosian managed to metamorphose from one of the absolute worst Liefeld clones of the early 90s to an extremely good cartoonist whose work shows nary a trace of early 90s-itis.
I really enjoyed New Avengers. Stuart Immonen is one of my favorite artists right now, and I always enjoy Bendis’ dialogue. That being said, I also have to wonder why so many of these characters have to be used in multiple titles – and when you look at this line-up, it is (and has been) seriously lacking in fire power. Remember the days where the Avengers had a variety of power on the team – Cap, Iron Man, Thor, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wasp, Yellowjacket, Beast – the power set was all over the place. But for a while, this group has been all been basically strength and agility – only one member can fly! You would think if you could pick your own roster, you would want to mix it up a bit to be better prepared for what might come up. At the very least, Steve Rogers should have brought up what a lack of depth in power the group has.
Spider-man: Punches people
Luke Cage: Punches people
Thing: Punches people
Hawkeye: Shoots people
Mockingbird: Punches people
Ms. Marvel: Flies and punches people
Wolverine: Stabs people.
Variety!
Let’s be fair, Michael. Ms. Marvel also *blasts* people!
Yeah, Ms. Marvel’s got radiant energy blasts and energy absorption (and is definitely this team’s most powerful member). Spider-man swings around and shoots webs and shit. Mockingbird… also shoots people.
Slightly more diverse than that.
Hey, I always like Spider-Woman II. (Arachne’s a stupid name.) And Kaine, well,… I guess he wasn’t the *worst* thing to come out of the Clone Saga. Was a little surprised to see Ezekiel, though. I thought he was dead.
Anyway, I liked both ASM issues this week, but reading these so close together just made me realize how grim (for lack of a better word) this title’s been recently. I know, that’s the point, but I hope we get some lighthearted stuff after Grim Hunt is over.
I thought both of Bendis’ new Avenger books got off to a decent start, but the casting is absolutely ridiculous. There’s no reason anyone needs to appear in both books. Hopefully one or both books will have a line-up shake-up soon. Get some variety; there’s a whole universe to choose from. (cf, Secret Avengers)
‘New Avengers’ read like Steve Rogers just wanted to humor Luke Cage by giving him his own team so he could feel special. And he threw in the mansion just for kicks. Like your dad giving you his old Fiero not because he trusts you with the car and because he’s so proud you can drive now, but more because maybe now you’ll stop bitching and he was just going to have it towed anyway.
And the same way you go out and race the car up and down the road and almost get in an accident, thereby proving how immature you are and making your dad roll his eyes and wonder if you’ll ever grow up, Luke Cage went and picked Ben Grimm for his new very own super-team.
To be fair, most of these characters bring more to the table than punching.
Something I’d like to know is why Jessica Drew is on Avengers instead of this team.
“To be fair, most of these characters bring more to the table than punching.”
Like what? Witty banter?
None of those characters are tactical leader types. None of them are inventors (okay, Peter Parker built his own webshooters and . . . what else?). None of them are business savvy or political savvy.
I mean, what does Wolverine actually bring to the Avengers? Why would anyone need him?
OK, I’m really enjoying Second Coming – hope it has a stronger ending than Utopia.
One thing, though – is dropping Legion into the Golden Gate Bridge battle really the best use of his abilities? Why not find out if one of his personalities is a teleporter? Or why not use his time travel powers to escape or join X-Force in the future?
The Lizard arc in Spider-Man is called “Shed”? I must have it in my head that Paul is a Scot when I start reading, because I read that word as a noun, rather than a verb. Oh no, the Lizard needs more storage space!
“Like what? Witty banter?”
You could argue that Ms. Marvel, Wolverine, and Mockingbird have a degree of tactical leadership skills since all three come from a military/SHIELD background.
Iron Fist owns the RAND Corporation, so while not as business savvy as Iron Man, he could fill that role.
And I’d consider Victoria Hand or Jessica Jones as somewhat political savvy.
Although, let’s be honest, this team makes as much sense as the original team of Avengers did. They were composed of people who punch things and a girl who shrank.
“Was a little surprised to see Ezekiel, though.”
WHAT.
//\Oo/\\
Let’s be honest about the Ms. Marvel book, no one at Marvel paid attention to it. She was alive all throughout her “death” story arc, was she not? Not one single person has made use of Brian trying to force Ms. Marvel and Spidey together, have they? They treated Brian and his Ms Marvel book like a red-headed step child… with good reason for the most part. I mean, that development with Moonstone and what she is every else in Marvel is one of the most jarring things about that book.
I thought New Avengers was just OK. I wish Bendis didn’t rely on magic so much for all his Avenger story lines. Seriously, all three of his books heavily involve magic. I also think that one of the books he’s writing should have been given to someone else just so Marvel could attempt to appease all the fans: Classic, “Nu” New, Secret, Academy, and Young… all different writers… all different teams… all different tones and styles. Having Bendis on three books with all the same characters in play is a bit ridiculous, especially when New Avengers is so very close to Avengers in tone, style, and dialog. (I hate how he wrote Thing, btw… and why is Thing annoyed by the fan4? He could have devoted more time to that little recruitment).
And the dynamic between Tony and Cap seems to shift in every book, proving to me that Prime should have just been a one shot. Side note: can someone tell me if Tony is rich again or still poor with only a few assets to his name? Fraction and Bendis seem to be on two completely different wave lengths.
I don’t know that she was seen alive during her death story, seeing as New Avengers issues coming out at the time seemed to mostly happen soon after Secret Invasion. So reading other Marvel titles you pretty much had to take it that there was then quite a time gap where the NA weren’t doing very much, then Siege. I’d put the Ms Marvel isues in that gap, along with Reborn, Assault on New Olympus, and a few others – so I guess they were doing plenty, just not in New Avengers. You can say Reborn and New Olympus were post-‘death’.
Was there any point taking Iron Fist out of New Avengers when they did?
@Mike: “You would think if you could pick your own roster, you would want to mix it up a bit to be better prepared for what might come up.”
Iron Man & Ms. Marvel did this when ‘Mighty Avengers’ launched. It had varying degrees of success in that it got Ares over a major-ish character (though he is now dead) and sadly it continued Bendis’ hard-on for The Sentry (he is also dead). (Come to think of it, The Wasp was also on that team and she has been deceased for a while now)
However it only lasted for 2 story arcs (11 issues) as the book had to make way for Secret Invasion and all the flash-back stories.
@Michael Aronson: Why, Wolverine is obviously the token mutant of the group. Now that the mutantkind is down to mere three digits, it’s his duty to his species to represent his kind positively to the world. And what better way to do this than being part of the world renown Avengers while at the same time also acting as a member of a secret murder squad run by the X-men?
Be careful what you wish for: Bendis and Way might be building to a storyline where they reveal that Romulus and the Cabal have secretly been creating an army of Wolverine clones to destabilize the world’s superhero community.
Re: Wanderer (comment 25) – “Let’s be honest about the Ms. Marvel book, no one at Marvel paid attention to it. She was alive all throughout her ‘death’ story arc, was she not?”
Surely Dark Avengers paid attention to the death, what with replacing “Ms Marvel-Carol” with “Ms Marvel-Moonstone”. Wasn’t that the (continuity) reason that Ms M had to temporarily die/disburse into energy, so that we could have another Ms Marvel in Dark Avengers? The death wasn’t played for any great emotional resonance within the book itself, and I got the impression Carol was off the scene for all of maybe a week in Marvel time, so presumably most people thought she was off planet fighting the Badoon or something. Meanwhile, Dark Avengers seemed to turn up everywhere* with their Moonstone Ms Marvel (* AKA the other Marvel book I read), so it seemed like the “death”, such as it was, was pretty much referenced throughout the Marvel U in as much as a new Ms Marvel took centre stage.
But, admittedly I’d not been reading many Marvel books over the period, so I could be wrong.
Actually, Norman has a confrontation with Carol Danvers in Dark Avengers #1 right before giving her codename to Moonstone. Plus, he demanded the Ms. Marvel costume from Ultra-Girl in the The Initiative even before that issue came out. I never saw it referenced anywhere at all.
Also strange is that Brian Reed tried to set Carol up with Spider-man, Bendis’ last New Avengers story involved Spider-woman having a crush on Spider-man as well, and meanwhile, his own book has him dating Carlie Cooper and Black Cat with neither of these characters in sight.
Lambnesio is correct. Ms. Marvel and Moonstone crossed paths a few times before she “died” and then “split into two.” They had a rivalry over the name. No, it was not referenced anywhere else (Dark Avengers didn’t reference anything outside of its own time jumps). The biggest indication that no one was paying attention to Brian Reed’s work IS Moonstone. She developed differently in that book than she developed in Dark Avengers (where she was mostly a whore an cameo fodder for the majority of its run). Moonstone went through some sort of redemption that culminated in Carol teaching her a lesson and Karla considering changing her ways… and then the book jumped into the finale arc featuring Mystique, which was ridiculous, so I won’t talk about it. That stuff with Moonstone, her brief loss of power, and her experience with Carol that could have made her a rounder character and much more likely to end up on the current Tbolts hasn’t been addressed elsewhere at all. Instead, she was flying around making quips and sleeping with all the men on the Dark Avengers. Only her appearances in Dark Wolverine attempted to flesh her out more.
Thanks for the clarifications, Wanderer and Lambnesio. As I mentioned, I’d not followed much Marvel during this period – besides Ms Marvel the only other title I regularly picked up was Hercules so I didn’t see much of the Dark Avengers.
I liked the way Brian Reed played Moonstone, there was a sense of character growth there.
I also enjoyed Spidey and Ms M’s date, despite the issue involving three uncoordinated artists. It’s a shame to hear it had no impact anywhere else, particularly as Ms M was edited by Spidey’s Stephen Wacker for those stories. But maybe the whole thing was played out in Ms M’s book… they went on one disastrous date, they stayed friends, what else was there to say about it?
And, yes that final Mystique story started with an interesting idea then seemed to just change midway through to something entirely illogical with what had been set up.
I haven’t read the Ms. Marvel issues, but is it possible that her development in that title leads to her being considered a good candidate for the Thunderbolts? Jeff Parker seems like the type to know what’s going on with his characters.
Matthew Craig: Yeah, Ezekiel. Go figure.
Black Cat being a (vague) Grim Hunt tie-in isn’t going to work too well. I just realised Grim Hunt will be over before Black Cat #2 (of 4) comes out. And the solicit for the final issue says “With Spider-Man tangled in the web of The Grim Hunt…”.
“I also think that one of the books he’s writing should have been given to someone else just so Marvel could attempt to appease all the fans: Classic, “Nu” New, Secret, Academy, and Young… all different writers… all different teams… all different tones and styles. Having Bendis on three books with all the same characters in play is a bit ridiculous, especially when New Avengers is so very close to Avengers in tone, style, and dialog.”
Bendis is only writing “classic” Avengers and “nu” New Avengers. Secret Avengers is written by Ed Brubaker, Academy is written by Christos Gage, and Young Avengers has “always been” written by Alan Heinberg.
@ComicZoneAndy
Bendis has three books. You’re leaving out the Prime mini. :P. I think it’s a mistake for him to write New Avengers and Classic not only because he’s using some of the same characters in each book, but also for the fact that his writing style isn’t dynamic enough for those books to read drastically differently.
“One thing, though – is dropping Legion into the Golden Gate Bridge battle really the best use of his abilities? Why not find out if one of his personalities is a teleporter? Or why not use his time travel powers to escape or join X-Force in the future?”
Didn’t consider that. Interesting point. But it’s also true that the X-Men are increasingly overwhelmed at this point, and there’s probably no time to step aside and have a meeting (which applies more to this week’s issue than last week’s, since pretty much everyone is involved at that point).
I was actually really interested by the scene (in this week’s X-Men: Legacy issue, so this is a spoiler if you haven’t read that yet) where one of the Nimrods snaps you-know-who’s arm. Just never really considered that possibility, I guess. Yikes.
So I read Avengers #2 today, and I actually really enjoyed, which was nice because I didn’t really like the first issue. But then Wonder-man showed up, and even though he’s on the cover, I had forgotten that was going to happen because that is a plot I’m really not interested in, and I guess I blocked it out.
Partly, it’s probably because I’ve never been a huge Wonder-Man fan. I wasn’t really reading Avengers during his heyday. I’ve read issues where he’s more or less a standard hero or very powerful (like Kang War), I’ve read issues where he’s a total dick (like when he refused to let his brainwaves be imprinted for the Vision, and suggested in narration it was because he was into Wanda), and I’ve read other books where he failed to do much for me (Mighty Avengers, Ms. Marvel, the recent-ish PAD limited).
On the other hand though, this just seems like an inorganic and silly development for this character, and actually reminds me of Bishop’s recent turn, only with dramatically less motivation.
Anyway, how do you guys feel about that storyline so far?
Not a huge fan of Simon as a character, but I thought it was kind of obvious that his weird aggressive attacks were more due to some malignant manipulating force as opposed to being some kind of character development.
I thought the storyline was ridiculously slow paced. 10+ pages just to get the characters to look into the future and figure out Kang was lying is ridiculous. The Bendis dialogue was unbearable to me at certain parts (saying variants of “broke” over 10 times in a few pages), and I find it amazing that I had to rely on those colored balloons in the beginning to figure out who was talking. Everyone seemed to be out of character and very similar in linguistic ability at least once throughout the book (like Maria calling Bucky “Bucky-Cap,” the same name Bendis had Bucky declare to hate). Everyone. I also kept wondering why all these villainous elements kept popping up when the actual starting villains haven’t been expanded on. The Simon part was just like the Kang surprise from issue 1, imo.
However, I found the art more of an issue. It looked rushed, and I hated to see any panel with Simon because he looks like a monster or something. Overall, I was just let down, but I think the book could be very salvageable if JR jr.’s work didn’t looked so rushed and Bendis tamed some of his bad habits, focused his plots, and paid attention to other people’s work. The way he wrote Tony in this issue is jarring. He’s not rich anymore, and he’s not such an arrogant jerk. He also changed the name of his company to Stark Resilient, so I need Bendis to actually give Invincible Ironman a glance and respect his fellow writers enough to use their developments as they do his work.
I did take issue with that. Stark is definitely acting like a rich man, and I reacted badly when he said “Stark Industries” as well.
Particularly because Invincible Iron Man is a way more successful book than this one.
… He’ll probably always be kind of an arrogant jerk though. Iron Man is just the book where we see his most personal and intimate moments, so he comes off a little better there than here.
I am wondering why he’s acting like team leader, and where their actual team leader Maria Hill is half the time.
John Romita Jr. under a deadline tends to become an abstract parody of himself. The Thanos storyline of Dan Jurgens’s THOR run was a great example of that. His AMAZING SPIDER-MAN run’s a good example of when he’s truly bringing all his talent to bear.
I haven’t understood the praise for his art on this series in particular. Look at the standard cover to, say, the second issue… That’s not “A” work.
That said, I still think he’s the perfect artist for the sort of knock-down, drag-out fight between extremely powerful characters I’m hoping we’re going to get with Apocalypse and his horsemen. Few depict “raw power” in action better than JRR.
I know this is sort of a stock argument, but if Tony’s company is being called one thing in one book and something else in another book, isn’t that more the fault of the editor than the writer? I know in a perfect world a writer would have to have read all the appearances of a given character before they could use them (or at least all their origin, all their “iconic” storylines, and all their recent appearances) but if there’s anyone whose actual job description involves policing continuity, shouldn’t it be the editors?
(I don’t mean to sound like a Bendis apologist, but one my biggest pet peeves at my job is people who call me about something one of my co-workers did, and when I tell them I’m not the person they need to talk to, I get “but don’t you work there?” as if the entire company was a hive mind or something.)
For that matter, considering that the name “Stark Industries” is plastered all over all the promotional materials and Web site for the new Iron Man movie, I don’t think it would be too disrespectful of Bendis to think maybe someone could have notified him when they changed the name of the company. Unless the editors want to get a lot of sarcastic “I’m going to have someone call Iron Man ‘Tony’ – you haven’t changed his first name recently, have you?” phone calls.
(By the way, I wasn’t being sacrastic with the “in a perfect world” bit. When I was a kid, I just assumed that was the way it actually worked, and as an adult I think that the fact that it doesn’t work that way is more a necessary concession than a desirable state of affairs.)
Since we’re talking about the next week’s books now, spoilers for newest ASM:
Well, that explains Ezekiel’s appearance. The big question is, how did Mama Kraven, et al, find out about the whole Spider-totem thing. Madam Webb, I suppose…
I seriously doubt they’re fooling anyone with the ending.
Well, Bendis and Fraction are very close friends. And at any rate, it was Bendis himself who wrote Secret Invasion, in which Stark Industries collapsed utterly, so he knows that something is up at least.
Even if the Stark Industries reference was substituted with the name Stark Resilient though, we’d still have Tony telling Noh-Varr he wants to give him a warehouse to work in even though he has almost no employees, very few resources and no money at all.
how did Mama Kraven, et al, fid out about the whole Spider-totem thing.
Haven’t read any of the last few Spideys yet, but Sergei was tapping into the totemic power of Eating A Tonne Of Spiders back before he died.
…hm. You know, Black Tarantula should really be part of all this funky jazz, as well.
//\Oo/\\
Have I missed something, or is Jessica Drew just being left out?
(There’s also one of those Scarlet Spiders left from Avengers: The Initiative, although I definitely wouldn’t blame anybody for leaving him out.)