S.W.O.R.D. #3

I know I have raved in this column about the relaunch of the old heroes such as those featured in Project Super-Powers from Dynamite, and the return of the Red Circle heroes in the DCU, but I fail to attain the same level of enthusiasm about The Marvels Project. I thoroughly enjoyed Avengers/Invaders, and also The Twelve, but I cannot help feeling with the Marvels Project that I have read this all before. Several times.

In and of itself, I suppose it is not a bad thing, it introduces many younger/newer readers to the rich history of Marvel, and fleshes out some more the stories of World War II. In my opinion, I always thought that DC did a better job of chronicling its World War II, but then they were actually publishing in those days, and Marvel did not really exist.

However, I find myself asking what about the Marvels Project is different to the original (and classic) Marvels by Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, which really innovated a revolutionary form of comics. The viewpoint obviously, this story is not told by the innocent bystander, although using the rather obscure original Angel as the centre character does attempt to imitate that. Yet it fails, resulting in pieces of story we have seen a thousand times before.

That’s not to say it is not an enjoyable read, but somewhere in my mind I demanded far better. If anything, it is reminiscent of Conspiracy, a good idea but certainly after the age of Avengers: Illuminati and Secret Invasion, one that has been done to death.

Todd McFarlane’s recent offering of Haunt, written by the fabulous Robert Kirkman (of Invincible and The Walking Dead) does excite. My reaction to this is curious, it excited me in ways that the early issues of Spawn never did. It was not until the second issue had hit the stands that I decided to give the title a go, as the art did not excite me. After innumerable McFarlane covers of Spawn, Spider-Man or Venom, I thought I knew what to expect within the pages, and I am happy to report that I was wrong.

One caveat here. As Spawn progressed, the title went from strength to strength. The early issues did little to impress me however, and I cannot uite put my finger on why. Haunt is a different kettle of fish, still dominated by the super-natural, but with elements of intelligence work battling immoral arms-dealers. Sounds like standard fare eh?

Except it’s not. In Kirkman’s capable hands, you see all of the standard elements of a good superhero origin, but somehow it is more engrossing. I won’t say that I deeply care about the characters yet, but I do feel that I like them. They seem more three-dimensional than archetypal, and I want to get to know them better.

One of my readers pointed out that I had missed out one very important recommendation for this week, that of S.W.O.R.D. #3, and I totally agree. You could say it was a spin-off of Astonishing X-Men but that does not do the title justice. Neither unfortunately do the sales figures, so let me just say – YOU ARE MISSING A GEM HERE PEOPLE!

Written by Kieron Gillen, the title stars Abigail Brand; the Beast and Lockheed, who has finally revealed his beer-swilling and potty-mouthed self. Maybe he had been spending way too much time with Wolverine, although I rather think that it is more likely that Kitty has a ‘type’ with her friends.

More importantly, we see what Henry Peter Gyrich is doing during the Dark Reign. We know Gyrich is a patriot, a bigoted xenophobic patriot, but a patriot nonetheless, and we see the bone that Osborn has thrown him to chew on to keep him out of the way. After all, if he can’t pick on the mutants or the super-heroes, then who better to oppress than the aliens?

There are points of wit in Kierons writing that are not reliant upon vast knowledge or familiarity with the characters, but I cannot deny it is a richer read if you are a long-time follower. And who can turn down appearances of the one, the only original Freelance Peacekeeping Agent – Death’s Head?

Tags: Marvel, SWORD, Beast, Image, Haunt, The Marvels Project

I had totally forgotten that S.W.O.R.D. #1 was coming out last week, and so it was a pleasant surprise when I found it. When I first saw the advert for it, I thought ‘Hmm, that sounds ok’, not really expecting a lot. The art seemed alright, nothing special, but Kieron Gillen’s ‘words’ as attributed in the credits touched parts of my inner geek that other comics haven’t reached. (Words? WORDS? What happened to plot? Script? Writer? I know Marvel can be patronising, but still…….!)

The issue starts with our beloved Henry Peter Gyrich being his usual paranoid, xenophobic manipulative self, trying to usurp Agent Brand simply because she is half alien. I’m sure that the fact she is sleeping with a mutant doesn’t help either. You know, I do remember the odd Avengers story where Gyrich had a good side, his own moral code of right or wrong, however twisted he may be. I can’t see him viewing Norman Osbourne as anything other than another freak, just like the Avengers or the X-Men.

However, Gyrich’s usual antics are not what arose my geek, but the appearance of a character who has been away for far too long. Preeeeeeeeeee-senting…

S.W.O.R.D. #1

Now Death’s Head I has a rather convoluted history. I missed his first appearances in Strip, but rather first encountered him in the Transformers UK comic (which is a different timeline to Marvels US published Transformers, long story but has a little to do with Spider-Man among other folk). Then, as here, he appears in gigantic form, pursuing Galvatron, the future (erm, that would be past now, surely? 2006?) form of Megatron.

Subsequent to this, he was shrunk to human size by the Doctor. Yes, that Doctor, in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine. But in this issue, I don’t think that has happened yet, if at all. However in the pages of the Official Handbooks, Marvel do now seem to recognise published history for characters they no longer have the license for, such as Rom, Micronauts and more importantly here, Transformers and Doctor Who, both now living at IDW.

On that note, how is Bug still in Marvel and a member of the Guardians of The Galaxy? Can anyone tell me? What on Earth went on with the licensing there?

Death’s Head irreverent nature make him an extremely annoying character in his own strip, but when juxtaposed with other characters I think he is a lot of fun, and a welcome return to the Marvel Universe. IMHO, he performs the role so much better than Deadpool does.  I wonder if he came through The Fault? The return of Monarch Starstalker shows that The Fault can now help throw strict continuity to the wind, and return to fun continuity. Lords knows, as good as Dark Reign is, it was well named, and Marvel needs a bit of fun. And may Stan Lee wash my mouth out, I no longer mean X-Babies.

Speaking of The Fault, this week we see Realm Of Kings #1, and Realm Of Kings:Inhumans #1. Let’s see what other rabbits can be pulled out of the hat.

With this cool umbrella from Think Geek though, I think that geek or not, any person would not hesitate to use one. I was already smitten at the moment I laid my eyes on the umbrella with a samurai sword handle, but the fellas at Think Geek outdid themselves in writing the description. They even have a haiku for it!

The rain falls softly.
The samurai draws his sword.
Look, an umbrella.

Either we just made it up, or that Haiku dates to around the 14th century. It is a little known fact that Samurai also carried umbrellas. Much as they later had to disguise their swords as canes, so they disguised their umbrellas as swords. In fact, there was one skilled umbrella maker who all the Samurai relied on for their Sword Handle Umbrellas. His name has been buried in the sands of time, but his plans have been preserved. And now, it is with great pleasure that we offer to you, the Samurai Sword Handle Umbrella.

Now I don’t know about that story, but I do think that $30 for this thing is not a bad price to pay. How cool is it?