Fear Itself: Youth in Revolt #1

June 18, 2011

Title: Youth in Revolt Part One

Writer: Sean McKeever
Art: Mike Norton
Colorist: Veronica Gandini
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover: Giuseppe Camuncoli & Paul Mounts
Editor: Lauren Sankovitch          
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The Gravity creative team of Sean McKeever and Mike Norton reunite for this Fear Itself spin-off. With the Raft split open and Hammers falling to Earth, the Avengers are being stretched to the limits. So Steve Rogers recruits Prodigy of the Slingers to lead a team of former Initiative members to help keep the peace.

There’s a good line-up in this book – Red Nine and Stunt-Master aren’t all that well known, but having Gravity and Firestar back in action is always good, and mixing up Thor Girl, Ultragirl, Komodo and Cloud 9 with Hardball creates some definite tension. Although Prodigy is our viewpoint character for most of the issue, it’s Thor Girl who really gets the best stuff, falling headfirst into one of the worst situations a hero – especially a young hero – could possibly get into during the thick of all this.

The story’s solid, but Mike Norton’s artwork is just great. I really love seeing him on these characters, particularly returning to Gravity. As he’s proven on multiple projects over the years, he has a knack for these young characters that few other artists can match.

I liked this book. It’s a nice side-angle to the whole Fear Itself storyline that shows off some characters we haven’t seen in a while, and a few others who recently lost their spotlight. I want to see more of them, and this is a good start.

Rating: 8/10

Avengers: The Initiative #3

May 5, 2007

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Bug Hunt
Rating: T+

Trauma gets a tutor, Hardball gets some downtime, and Komodo gets her first mission.

Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Stefano Caselli
Colors: Danielle Rudoni
Letters: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Jim Cheung
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Returning triumphant from their mission in Washington, Komodo accidentally lets a big secret slip to Hardball. Trauma, meanwhile, meets the special tutor the Initiative recruited to help him get a handle on his powers. The tutor is probably the most logical person in the Marvel Universe for the job, and hopefully will be at least a semi-regular part of the cast. Of all the Initiative kids, Trauma is definitely the one I find the most interesting.

But this is really Komodo’s issue. Having proven herself in the field, the top brass gives her a new assignment – help them subdue the fugitive Spider-Man. It’s a little hard to accept that they would give a job this important to such a greenhorn (no pun intended), but once you get past that, the story is quite effective. Slott carries over a plot device from his own She-Hulk for use in the story, which again is the logical way this would play out in a shared universe, and we even discover that the Initiative has a contingency plan in place to fill the void once they take Spider-Man down.

Hardball gets an interesting scene in here as well, where we actually get to see the reaction of the Stamford community to having the Initiative training camp in their backyard. That’s one of the big strengths in fact – Slott is using the book to bring some unity to the various sections of the Marvel Universe and carrying the assorted plot threads to their logical conclusions.

What’s also astonishing to me is how much has already happened in this book. We’ve introduced an entire cast, had the requisite early death to show how difficult the program is, fended off a full-scale invasion by Hydra, shown several training sequences and now launched one of our characters on their own storyline, all in just three issues. This book is the answer to decompression. If there’s anything that we haven’t seen that I want, I can sum it up in two words: more Slapstick!

Stefano Gaudiano’s art still works for me. I like his designs for the newbies, his fight scenes work well, and the sequence of Komodo and War Machine racing through New York is particularly good.

By the third issue, this is definitely one of the best books in Marvel’s stable.

Rating: 8/10