This
issue, we get to learn a bit more about everyone’s favorite angry prince of
Atlantis, Namor. Last issue, when we
learned about the Fantastic Four and what became of Marvel’s first family (long
before they were destroyed by Fox) we learned that Franklin, in essence, set
half of Namor on fire as penance for killing Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. This origin story just lays out the bare-bones
of Namor’s origin, aspects everyone already knows, such as the fact that he is
half human/half Atlantean (hence the fact that he needs both air and water to
survive and remain sane) as well as his early interactions with both the
Invaders and the Fantastic Four. 
We then
quickly transition to the “present day” which sees Cap and Redwing in
California, more specifically standing in front of the Hollywood sign. Even without the exposition it is apparent
that Cap has reached California and Leon does a great job of showing that with
just a few lines. The detail that he
puts into the train station on the same page is incredible. While I realize that it is a fairly desolate
book in general, it would have been nice had colorist Matt Hollingsworth made a
bit more of an effort to vary the tones instead of making everything just
another shade of grey. That would have
turned a good panel into a great one. 
The
Iron Maiden and Namor get into a fight as it rains fish down on everyone and
Cap has a discussion with Redwing about freedom (of course he does). Back in New York, Fat Spider-Man tries to
talk his daughter, May (who’s suit is a symbiote apparently) out of being a
superhero. May obviously doesn’t see eye
to eye with him and leaves. We now move
to Latveria and the home of Mr. Fantastic in his guise as Dr. Doom (it’s always
Halloween in Latveria!). The Inhumans
have come to visit Reed as well, and Reed begins the whole visit by basically
telling Medusa how hot she is…
…awkward.
Reed
then give the Inhumans a history lesson about how he was able to harness the
power of vibranium, but that it got away from him and turned the whole
population into, for lack of a better term, mutants. Medusa then tells Reed of the Inhumans
finding people, who she suspects are the Eternals, coated in Vibranium,
floating through space as the planet that housed them blew up. Krueger does a great job here of deepening
the mystery without revealing everything yet (we’re only in issue three, after
all).
Back in
California, Namor continues to do crazy Namor things until the Red Skull shows
up and takes control of his mind. Leon
does a great job of not only using MODOK’s body/chair (pour one out for MODOK!)
to frame the Skull, but also show him higher than Namor, further showing
Namor’s subservience. Leon is killing it
on this book.
We take
a brief history lesson about a few characters like Sandman, X-Force and the
Wizard (while I understand why their existence was relegated to footnote
status, seriously, who cares about those guys at all) we wrap things up
speaking of a global food crisis as Russia is the only country that really has
the capability to farm much anymore, it seems.
Next Issue: Do we get
to meet more of the Skull’s elite squad of forgotten Marvel characters? We’ll see!
No comments:
Post a Comment