The War Begins

     So, the long-solicited War of the Marvels begins in the latest Ms. Marvel issues.  The mysterious energy beings come together, and they reveal to Wolverine and Spider-Man that they are, in fact, Ms. Marvel.  And by that, I mean the real Ms. Marvel, not Moonstone.  Norman Osborn yells at Moonstone about Deadpool’s attack on Thunderbolts Mountain, and she chases Deadpool, leading to a somewhat lame fight in Los Angeles.  Moonstone tosses Deadpool away and stumbles upon the New Avengers and the Ms. Marvel energy beings fighting in an A.I.M. base.  Then, according to the Storytellers’ instructions, Spider-Man sets up something that reconsitutes Ms. Marvel as a single being.  Then, she and Moonstone throw it down in a huge way, trashing a lot of Los Angeles.  Ms. Marvel yells at Moonstone for being nothing more than a fake and a murderer, and Moonstone claims that the mantle of Ms. Marvel is hers now.  In the end, Moonstone tosses Ms. Marvel into an airplane’s propellers, and there’s an explosion.  Sentry saves the plane and relays Osborn’s orders for Moonstone to head back to New York.  Elsewhere, a woman named Catherine Donovan, which is a former alias of Ms. Marvel’s, claims that she is the real Ms. Marvel.

     Ultimately, the Storytellers are nothing more than a massive deus ex machina with no other purpose than to bring Ms. Marvel back from the dead.  Or maybe she’s not Ms. Marvel.  It’s not really clear, though that’s Brian Reed’s purpose in introducing Catherine Donovan.  However, Moonstone is still the hero of this book, and Reed has yet to make her a sympathetic character at all.  Now, as people like Gail Simone and Warren Ellis have proven, it’s not actually impossible to make a complete and total asshole a sympathetic and interesting character.  It’s very possible.  But Brian Reed is just such a mediocre writer that even his best efforts fall flat.  The dialogue is pretty bad, since it is often nothing more than, “I’m Ms. Marvel, not you!” or “It would explain your weak-ass attack.”  My favorite is “go be dead some more.”  It sounds like we’re supposed to find it funny, but it’s while Moonstone and Ms. Marvel beat the crap out of each other.  Not very appropriate.  And the Wolverine, Deadpool, and Spider-Man cameos were absolutely pointless, as I said before.  Instead of feeling natural, they feel like attempts to increase readership.  Both Sergio Ariño and Sana Takeda are mediocre artists, though the former is definitely better than the latter.  As you can see on one of Sana’s covers, Wolverine’s muscle is so big that he just looks misshapen.  Don’t get me wrong.  This is a somewhat readable series.  This work is even a tad better than what we’ve gotten recently from the title.  But if you’re looking for anything satisfying, anything other than something good for a long trip or a quick bit of entertainment, this is not your series.

Plot: 4.9      Art: 5.6      Dialogue: 3.5      Overall: 4.6

Now to Solve Everything

     For a while now, I’ve felt like Dark Reign: Fantastic Four is the real series, and the normal Fantastic Four series is either a What If or something that will just get the crap retconned out of it in a short while, since it’s so terrible.  Jonathan Hickman has a much better grasp on the characters and the dynamics of the F4 than Mark Millar, though he does struggle with Millar’s one lasting and interesting contribution to the title, which is Valeria’s intelligence.  In the last issue of the miniseries, the F4 face down Norman Osborn as he threatens to shoot Franklin and Valeria.  The Invisible Woman deals with him and his reinforcements, and when he pulls a gun on Mr. Fantastic (which I’m not sure would even actually hurt him, on account of the rubber body), Franklin shoots him.  With a toy gun.  Methinks Valeria did some tinkering with that.  Mr. Fantastic intimidates Osborn until he leaves, and the Invisible Woman asks him if all the crap they just went through in alternate universes was worth the trouble.  We find out that Mr. Fantastic met all these other Reeds who built similar machines too.  Sue tells him to dismantle the machine, and Reed says he’ll do so piece by piece.  But then he builds it right back up again.  And he decides that he must use it and the knowledge he gains from his alternate selves to solve all the problems of the world, since he’s that smart and he must.

     I love that Hickman has finally decided to have Reed truly realize how great his intelligence is.  Reed’s faux-humility has always been annoying, and although it makes sense, it’s about time that we had some development on that front.  I also love that Franklin got his moment to shine.  Sure, he shot someone.  With a toy gun.  But he stood up to Norman Osborn, who most people in the U.S. are running away from or bowing down to.  Except Namor.  And Loki.  And Dr. Doom.  And the Mighty Avengers.  Well, okay, there’s a lot of superhumans who aren’t bowing down to him.  But I like seeing the F4 as a family stand up to him.  It really gets to the root of their dynamic in a way that Mark Millar just doesn’t get.  And I have the same complaint about Sean Chen that I always had.  Good artist, but he doesn’t fit with the series.  And actually, he’s not so good at drawing the Thing.  That especially shows here.  Now, I’m really looking forward to Hickman’s run on the main series.  I am a bit worried, from what I’ve seen, that Dave Eaglesham’s Mr. Fantastic will look too much like Hawkman and Green Lantern (Alan Scott).  You know, too buff and regal looking.  But that’s a minor beef.  Hickman is going to save the F4 from one run of mediocrity (Dwayne McDuffie) and one run of crap (Millar).  If he doesn’t, then there is no hope for this series in the modern day.

Plot: 8.8      Art: 8.3      Dialogue: 8.6      Overall: 8.7