COMIC REVIEWS!
This week we travel to 1872 to check in on the Wild West Marvel-style, and Deathstroke’s battle against a Greek God reaches it’s final battle!
1872 #3 (Marvel Comics)
1872 has been one of the stranger Secret Wars tie-ins, but it’s also one of the ones with the most charm too. Seeing Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and other Marvel mainstays through the prism of the old West has been really interesting, and Gerry Duggan’s script has had a lot of fun playing in this world. While 1872 has seemed like it’s been on the outskirts of Marvel’s massive event, with this issue it’s starting to show that it may have a larger role in the future of the Marvel universe than we originally thought.
This latest issue finds the town of Timely dealing with the death of their Sheriff Steve Rogers by Wilson Fisk. Stepping in to fill the void is Red Wolf, who’s now teamed up with Natasha Barnes, who’s also known as “The Widow” and plans on avenging the death of her husband, Bucky. As Red Wolf plots to ensure that Fisk’s dam isn’t built, he sends Natasha and Dr. Bruce Banner to go after Fisk. Of course, things don’t go quite as planned when Fisk’s hit man Lester enters the fray.
As I mentioned before, Gerry Duggan’s script is a ton of fun. Seeing him put the well-known Marvel characters into the world of Westerns is very cool, and he constantly surprises me with who shows up where. There’s an awesome twist with Bruce Banner, which leads to a last page that has me clamoring for more. Duggan also builds Red Wolf into an awesome hero, and if he’s half as cool in his solo series as he is in this, we’re in for a treat.
Nicole Virella’s art is a little loose for my tastes, but I still really enjoyed it. Virella brings a nice sense of realism to the proceedings in this issue, but her art also doesn’t shy away from the crazy aspects of the Marvel Universe that show up in this story. Virella’s action scenes are awesome too, with a great sense of fluidity and grace to the violence.
1872 concludes next issue, and it’s one Secret Wars tie-in that I’m really going to miss. It may not matter much when it comes to the overall Secret Wars event, but Gerry Duggan and Nicole Virella’s Western take on the Marvel universe is pretty cool, and one that I’d be more than happy to revisit in the future.
Deathstroke #10 (DC Comics)
At long last, Deathstroke reaches the conclusion of “Godwar”; a storyline that seems like it’s been going on for far longer than it actually has. Tony Daniel’s storyline started with Slade Wilson being tasked with taking out the titan Lapetus, but it’s quickly blown up with appearances from Wonder Woman, Superman, a pantheon of Gods, and whole armies of miscellaneous Greek soldiers and monsters.
Tony Daniel’s script promises a lot of awesome fight scenes, and while Slade and Lapetus do throw down, it’s over pretty quickly. They square off for a little bit, but once they lock swords, Slade figures out the secret of his weapon and the fight’s over. Honestly, the fight is over way too quickly for a build up that’s taken three issues and an oversized annual to get to. Even Superman and Wonder Woman barely make an impact after being the focus of previous issues.
Tyler Kirkham handles the art, and while it’s a bummer that Tony Daniels isn’t penciling this one, Kirkham is more than able to step up to the plate, delivering some pretty crazy violence in the fight scene. It’s so good that it almost makes up for it being so short.
Deathstroke is still a pretty fun, if dumb, comic. It doesn’t take itself very seriously, and pretty much exists for Deathstroke to fight people. Usually that makes for a good time, but the conclusion to this storyline was pretty lackluster. Despite this, the final page of the first issue is ridiculously awesome, and the next issue should be pretty cool.
Jonwahizzle is a comic book slinger for Jetpack Comics. Find him on PSN (Jonwahizzle), follow him on twitter and check out his blog, The Collective: Examples of Nerdery for more