New Thunderbolts #6

March 12, 2005

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: City of Heroes?

The new Thunderbolts are New York’s only hope to be saved from Hydra!

Writer: Fabian Nicieza
Co-Plotter: Kurt Busiek
Pencils: Tom Grummett
Inks: Gary Erskine
Colors: Chris Sotomayor
Letters: Albert Deschesne
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Tom Grummett
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Hydra’s plans become clear as the terrorist army overruns a New York without Avengers to protect it. Although may of the second-string heroes come out of the woodwork, only the Thunderbolts have the inside knowledge to save the day – because Baron Strucker has been bankrolling them from the beginning.

Considering the nature of this title, I’m really rather surprised at how many of the ongoing subplots are resolved this issue. Granted, most of then are resolved in a fashion that leaves more questions, but a lot of them are resolutions that leave more questions. Nicieza manages to pack an incredible amount of story into what’s basically an all-action issue, but he doesn’t make it seem crammed or bloated. Throughout the battle, stories and ideas are ticked off one at a time, adding up to the final package. We get the truth about Speed Demon, about Joystick, and about Captain Marvel, and despite some of the complaints I really don’t have any problem with his new status quo, although I must admit I don’t quite grasp the reasoning behind it. (There’s something bizarrely Freudian going on there, and I really hope Nicieza is planning to give us more of an explanation later on.)

Some of the stuff, such as Songbird’s actions in this issue, aren’t that surprising, but at the same time they work for her and show how far the character has come. The same goes for Mach-IV, still stuck in his old Beetle armor, but still displaying the true hero he’s become.

Tom Grummet again does a solidly entertaining job with this issue. He’s got some of the most action to draw that I’ve ever seen in a single issue, not just a fight scene but a city-wide fight scene involving hundreds of enemy agents and cameos from a lot of heroes outside of the main cast. This is the sort of thing that you usually have to see in a big summer crossover. He also gets points for a knockout cover – imagine, a cover that actually invokes the events of the issue. I’m amazed that Marvel let this get to the printer.

This book wraps up a lot of things, but there’s still plenty out there to keep us occupied. I can’t wait to see where it’ll go next.

Rating: 8/10

Amazing Spider-Girl #5

February 11, 2007

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Priorities
Rating: A

On the day of her big debate, Mayday and Mad Dog get called back into action!

Writer: Tom DeFalco
Pencils: Ron Frenz
Inks: Sal Buscema
Colors: Gotham
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Molly Lazer
Cover Art: Ron Frenz
Publisher: Marvel Comics

After her last encounter with Mad Dog, the reality show bounty hunter, Mayday is looking forward to a relatively normal day at school… at least, as normal as she can get on the day of her big debate for the Student Council President election. Problem is, it seems nobody is happy with her – her best friend and campaign manager Davida thinks she’s not spending enough time on the campaign. Her boyfriend Gene Thompson thinks she’s spending too much time there. And of course, her parents don’t know she’s been spending her nights out as Spider-Girl again.

As always seems to happen to those Parkers, danger rears its head just when she really needs to be somewhere else, and she winds up fighting alongside Mad Dog again. I really do enjoy stories like this one – it’s these tales where Spider-Girl most feels like the early, classic Lee/Ditko Spider-Man tales. Mayday’s got so much in common with her father that any longtime fan of the Spider-Family should get pulled right along and enjoy this.

Personality-wise, May is Peter’s daughter as well. The solution she comes to at the end is quite simple, and while I’m not sure that the paperwork involved in most high schools would actually allow such a thing, I’m willing to suspend that disbelief for the purposes of the story because it really is a very in-character, very elegant way to tie off one of our subplots.

The artwork suffers a bit in this issue, particularly in the fight scene. Mad Dog’s gimmick is that he arms himself with weapons he (supposedly) confiscates from the villains he’s captured, so having a varied arsenal is perfectly logical, but the artwork simply doesn’t flow. Weapons appear and disappear completely between panels – and I don’t mean small things that could simply be tucked into a pocket, I’m talking about giant apparatuses like Stilt-Man’s legs or the Beetle’s sucker-tipped gauntlets, things that don’t appear particularly collapsible, but pop in and out regardless. It really pulls the reader out of the scene when he has to start asking, “Wait, where did that come from?”

So this issue has its faults with the artwork, but the story fortunately carries the day.

Rating: 7/10