Face front, true believers! The Marvel Rundown is back this week with a look at the latest Marvel Event, Avengers Armageddon #1. In the Rapid Rundown, we take a look at Bishop #1, Jay and Silent Bob: Jays of Future Past, and Star Wars: Shadows of Maul #4. Buckle up because the Rundown begins now!
Avengers Armageddon #1
Avengers Armageddon #1 Cover Art By Dike Ruan & Moreno Dinisio
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artists: Delio Diaz & Frank Alpizar
Color Artist: Jesus Arburtov
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
Cover Artist: Dike Ruan & Moreno Dinisio
Fresh from the fallout of One World Under Doom comes the latest Marvel Summer Event- Avengers Armageddon. If you told me last year that Red Hulk would be one of the most consequential comics from One World Under Doom, I would have been in disbelief. It was a good comic and one of my favorites of the event, but I didn’t expect it to have lasting impact. Writer Chip Zdarsky picks up on that one plot thread, alongside the plotlines he has been building up in his current Captain America run and Wolverine Weapons of Armageddon mini-series, and builds it all up into this organic follow up to One World Under Doom.
Art by Delio Diaz & Frank Alpizar
The issue is admittedly a lot of set up as Zdarsky takes the time to put all the various plot lines into motion for the reader, new and established. Marvel’s seems to be putting in a lot of effort into making sure this comic is new reader friendly given the amount of marketing via either the Avengers Armageddon countdown banner, the free comic book day book, or the Magic the Gathering Marvel Superheroes expansion promo variant. There is sense of urgency coming from Marvel with this series. They are losing ground to DC and there has been a lot of turnovers in the C-suite. I think this combined with Zdarsky’s deft writing skills lends to this book feeling like a bigger deal than previous world ending threats or political commentary.
Art by Delio Diaz & Frank Alpizar
As for the actual issue, it is mostly setting the board for the events to play out. There is a strong line of political commentary in the form of General Thunderbolt Ross attempting to bring his brand of “democracy” to the world, by force if necessary. It is very much an indictment of the Neo-conservative mindset and foreign policies of the last several decades. Ross loves freedom so much he will kill for it. Then there’s the Captain America of the 2000’s, David Colton, who Zdarsky sets up as very much the soldier who was sold a dream and only received the nightmare, a representation of the soldiers who enlisted post-9/11. The set up and commentary is accented by Zdarsky’s great handle on the characters and dialog. I love his pairing of Namor and Bucky Barnes as the weary warriors from days long passed. I appreciate that Zdarsky goes through great lengths to include various aspects of the Marvel world including the X-Men. I am curious to see how this unfolds given the Avengers #1 solicits from this past week.
Art by Delio Diaz & Frank Alpizar
The art by Delio Diaz & Frank Alpizar is high quality house style. The page compositions are tight and the action is clear. There’s a lot of care put into giving the characters their proper spotlight. The amount of weight put behind Ross’s Red Hulk monstrous form for example. Diaz and Alpizar do great work making the issue feel alive and kinetic despite largely being a talking heads issue with people debating UN security clearances and stuff, but when the action hits it carries the full force of a gamma bomb.
Overall, Avengers Armageddon #1 is an interesting start to a promising event. For me, Armageddon has more going for it than One World Under Doom ever did. It feels like an earnest effort from Marvel to right the ship after years of being a drift. However, only time will tell if this will be the case. For now, I am liking where it is going.
Art by Delio Diaz & Frank Alpizar
Final Verdict: BUY IT
The Rapid Rundown
- Bishop #1
- Bishop is back with a new series, and I am very happy to see that. It’s been a while since we’ve seen Bishop. He’s currently renovating a home in Brooklyn, a site of his mutant concentration camp from his dark future and effectively laying low seemingly feeling down on himself. As the anniversary of Shard’s death approaches, Bishop seeks guidance from his old friends on how to let go of grief and guilt. This is of course until the future comes back to haunt him once again. Writer Saladin Ahmed does a stellar job threading all of Bishop’s origin into this issue in a way that feels organic for readers who haven’t read the various Bishop mini-series throughout the 90’s. I like his take on Bishop. He feels less like a mutant cop but instead a mutant protector, which feels more like his original intent. Theres some great chemistry between Bishop and Storm that Ahmed calls upon and it works great here. I love seeing Storm outside of mythological heavy solo series, even if I do love that book. Artist Mario Santoro does a great job in this issue with the energy of the layout and character work. Bishop has a bit of swagger to him at times when confronting the would-be muggers that I love to see, and the way Santoro flips the switch mid page to a more burdened Bishop is masterful. Colorist Fedrico Blee does a phenomenal job with vibrant color palate, and I am always a sucker for a color hue change for flashback scenes. Such a simple way to convey a flashback but it works perfectly. Check out this book, people!
- Jay and Silent Bob: Jays of Future Past #1
- I am a millennial of a certain age and my affection for Kevin Smith is startingly higher than most. That said, his comic work is a bit more of a mixed bag for me. This surprisingly wasn’t the case here. I loved this dumb comic that features Doom trying to kill Silent Bob because his recently cultivated strain of pot was too good that it would bring about world peace. This is very much Jay and Silent Bob vs the Marvel Universe and it was lot of fun if you are into the Kevin Smith films with callbacks to Clerks, Mallrats, and Dogma. The humor is very sophomoric, and a lot of the weird character beats can be handwaved as Jay’s fantastical retelling. Artist Giuseppe Camuncoli takes up the herculean task of drawing the majority of the Marvel Universe and keeping the humor flowing and punchlines landing. This comic is very niche and goofy, but as someone who loved Jay and Silent Bob Strikes Back, it was fantastic.
- Star Wars: Shadow of Maul #4
- Writer Benjamin Percy and artist Madibek Musabekov are back to craft another chapter for one of Star Wars’ coolest looking characters, Darth Maul. They deliver on the drama that makes for a prequel, but this book is ruined by its scheduling, as the animated series was completed before the book gets to pass that baton. If you haven’t seen the series, then you’re lucky enough to fully enjoy the comic before settling in for a great show. In a previous review, I wrote that this setting of Janix was like a future Gotham City on meth, something that Percy and Musabekov really get to play with, building up the character of Captain Brander Lawson, a cop with a very shady and dubious past, and laying the groundwork for Maul’s return. In a twist of revisionist history, Percy brings back the infamous pod racers from The Phantom Menace as a cool easter egg and plot device that brings Lawson closer and closer to Maul. As for Maul, he is a surprisingly absent character, but even in that absence, like Lawson, we know something bad is just around the corner. On its own, this is an enjoyable space-noir story and a great lead-in to a dark corner of the Star Wars Universe, but it has been wasted because of mismanaged scheduling. It is a disservice to the talent, the story, and the character. – GC3
Read past installments of the Marvel Rundown here!
And check out the Beat’s other recent comics reviews!
