Avengers: The Initiative #5

August 26, 2007

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Secret Weapons (A World War Hulk tie-in)
Rating: T+

With the Initiative kids MIA, the Shadow Initiative has to break them out!

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

The Initiative members sent into Manhattan for crowd control instead decided to throw down with the Hulk themselves, and got captured. Now, to keep them from becoming another “New Warriors” incident, Gyrich sends in his secret strike force of Initiative members to break them out.

This issue succeeds on several levels. First of all, we’ve established the second major faction of our cast – finding a home for Trauma and Bengal works nicely, and I simply love the fact that Slott is carrying over the Constrictor’s storyline from his own deeply-missed Thing series. We get a few more clues about the mysterious Mutant Zero, and the Scarlet Spiders show what their purpose is. All in all, everything fits together extremely well.

The final confrontation with the Hulk is equally strong. While this storyline really serves only as a sidebar to the main World War Hulk plot, it advances the storylines of this title significantly, using the crossover mainly as a background. The changes to Trauma, the continued problems Cloud 9 is having, and the introduction to the second team all works well. Plus, Slapstick gets the best line of the series thus far.

Caselli’s artwork seems to be drawing some real division amongst fans, which surprises me, as I think it’s a perfect fit. He’s got a really good handle on all the kids, placing a ninja-like character such as Bengal next to a goofy hero like Slapstick, with neither of them looking out of place. His fights are dynamic, and Mutant Zero’s big scene comes off perfectly.

This continues to be a surprisingly strong comic, and it works wonderfully with the entire World War Hulk crossover.

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

Avengers: The Initiative #2

May 3, 2007

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Hero Moment
Rating:T+

The kids’ first mission is as big as it gets – save the President from Hydra!

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

As the new Initiative recruits try to recover from the shock of watching MPV die in training, their own training has to continue, because Gauntlet isn’t about to go easy on them. Another incident on the training course, however, makes it clear that Trauma is going to need some additional training to keep his powers under control. Things get worse, though, when the call goes out that the kids are needed already – to save the President of the United States from an invading Hydra army!

This series, just two issues in, has already done volumes to convince me that the really engaging storytelling to come out of Civil War is going to come through the newer characters in the Marvel Universe. These kids are new and vulnerable, and I already care more about what happens to them than I do any of the decades-old heroes being showcased in the other two Avengers titles. It’s also nice to see them go into action so early. This little adventure demonstrates a lot of things, including the partnership between the various teams that comprise the Initiative and how the kids will factor into their battles, even though they haven’t actually “graduated” yet.

I’ve only got a couple of problems with this book, and all of them minor. First, should the Gargoyle really be in with the recruits? He’s been a superhero for years, he was a Defender – sure, he never had any official training either, but as nice as it is to see him, it’s weird to see him with the recruits. The other thing is something that’s been Marvel policy for years, but has always kind of bugged me – using real-life political figures in the story. I understand the reasoning behind it, they want to make the books seem more grounded in the real world. But we live in a climate where trade paperback collections, books that will be sold for years, are becoming more and more important in the comic book market. This issue works just fine right now, but in a few years it’s going to become as dated as old issues of Marvel Team-Up that took place maybe five years ago in Marvel time, but have Jimmy Carter’s face interacting with Nick Fury.

Stefano Caselli and Daniele Rudoni’s artwork is very strong. It’s not easy to do an exciting aerial battle sequence in a comic book, but they do a great job with all facets – the action itself and the more personal moments, just as Cloud 9’s horror when she realizes that a real fight isn’t the romanticized lifestyle she’d imagined.

This is a completely different Dan Slott than we see on the more lighthearted books he’s known for. It’s a major feather in his cap that he can do a book so different than what people expect and do it so incredibly well.

Rating: 8/10

Avengers: The Initiative #1

April 6, 2007

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Happy Accidents
Rating: T+

With new heroes registering every day, who’s going to train them?

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

Fans expecting the lighthearted, funloving Dan Slott of She-Hulk and The Thing are going to be quite startled by this comic book. This book is anything but lighthearted, and the laughs are few and far-between. But that’s not important, because it’s still one of the strongest launches from Marvel in a very, very long time.

With the Civil War over, the Initiative kicks into high gear. Its purpose is simple – round up all of the registered super-powered kids. Train them. Wash out those who can’t make the cut, license the rest as super-heroes, and recruit the best of the best to be part of the fifty official superhero teams being established across the United States. The book follows two casts of characters – a group of new young heroes (at least, I’ve never heard of any of them before) recruited for the training program and the established heroes running the show. Both casts are intriguing. We don’t really get any insight into how the newbies got their powers, which are actually pretty interesting (Trauma in particular), but we get a great grasp on who they are from a personality standpoint. As for those in charge, it’s nice to see Justice and War Machine being put to such good use, and the drill sergeant (a concept Slott is borrowing from She-Hulk) is pitch-perfect. We also get cameo appearances by several previously-established young heroes, but thus far they don’t really factor into the story. Still, it’s nice to see Rage again, and anybody who puts Slapstick into a comic book this serious and makes him work perfectly is my personal hero.

Slott is also doing something remarkable with this book, the very thing that Civil War failed the most at – balance. In a single scene, he both demonstrates exactly why The Initiative is such a good idea, then turns right around and shows us exactly why people may have a right to be suspicious of it, and both sides of the token are perfectly valid.

Like New Avengers, though, this doesn’t really feel like an Avengers title (even though a great many of the cast have been Avengers at one point or another). It feels like a different breed entirely – an excellent breed, one I’m anxious to keep reading, but a different one.

Stefano Caselli’s artwork is okay. Some of the scenes (such as the “shower scene”) have a bit more of a Manga flavor than I really liked, and in a few scenes Cloud 9’s arms looked… well… odd. Daniele Rudoni’s colors add quite a bit to the book, though, giving the comic a dusty, militaristic feel.

Overall, I was highly impressed by this comic book – perhaps the single best thing to come out of Civil War. The “superhero in training” subgenre has been covered by everything from New X-Men to PS 238, but I’ve never read anything like this before. Dan Slott has hit another home run.

Rating: 8/10