War Machine - First Arc

Recently, Marvel's new War Machine title finished its first arc, and I thought I'd post some thoughts on how I think it went.

Overall, very good. In this story Rhodes starts his mission to take out the worlds untouchable bad guys by "Killing the **** out of them" My first gripe was that this was a far cry from the War Machine we knew and loved who did question the ethics of killing, but Jim's been through a lot since then, and indeed there isn't much left. In fact the reason he's picked up a bloodthirsty streak was even better explained. Now that he is a cyborg he can't forget, ever, anything. Every killing, atrocity and genocide, he remembers.

There have been a few changes to the general gist set up in the War Machine: Weapon of Shield story in iron man. Suzi Endo left in disgust of Jim's killing, to be replaced in issue 1 with his old friend Parnell. He also now has a ground crew in the form of Bethany cabe. He also has a new ability, to incorporate any technology into his armour automatically. This leads to some rather bizarre armour configurations later in the story.

The story itself sees Jim head out to the nation of Aquaria, to kill the CEO of arms company Eaglestar, and rescue Parnell's wife and Jim's old school crush Glenda. On the way he runs into Ares, God of war, which actually provides some of the story's finest points, the interplay between War Machine and Ares is top stuff. Ares admires Jim's work and forces him to take a good long look at how much of his humanity he has given up. At the end of the story Ares refers to War machine as his champion, hopefully a plot thread that will be followed up.

The art was good, not fantastic but good, grimy and muted. It suited the mood of the book. A particularly nice touch was when we see things from War Machine's POV, the chaotic mass of data really gives a good impression of how he sees the world.

So, at the end Osbourne has the newly cloned body for Jim, and indeed offers everyone a reward, but Jim has other ideas. It looks like he has a nice supporting cast, with the possible love triangle between Jim, Glenda and Parnell plus Bethany Cabe, Suzi Endo (Cybermancer from Force Works, yes, I remember Force Works) and new character Jake Oh, Ex SHIELD agent and medic. I'm genuinely interested to see where this is going.

Ok, so any war machine story is a soft sell on me, and it really would have had to have been utter drivel for me to hate it, but I like the characters, enjoyed the story and want to see where it is going next. War Machine is back.*

*Unless Marvel have cancelled the book by the time this gets posted

Marvel Knights, Where Are they now #2

Punisher

Punisher was actually considered one of the poorest of the Marvel Knights launch titles by fans and critics alike, in its first 4 issue mini they re-jigged Marvel's most psychotic Vigilante into becoming a warrior of heaven with a celestial armoury. They may have been aiming for a preacher feel and truth be told I liked it, but it is usually a bad idea to give characters who are so defined by their lack of powers supernatural abilities.

Punisher had a second 4 issue mini called Revelation where he teamed up with Marvels busiest mutant, Wolverine. Again, the angelic powers were a turnoff for fans. However this run of poor luck was soon to change. Marvel hired Preacher writer Garth Ennis to take over punsiher. He did It in style, unceremoniously dumping the supernatural elements he took Frank back to basics, taking down the Ganucci crime family in a story called "Welcome back Frank"

Under Garth Ennis Punisher was great, sick, funny and generally warped. When Marvel launched its MAX line for adults only titles, it took a while, but eventually Punsiher shifted over there. Ennis took a different direction, blacker humour and real dark gritty stories really made Punisher a must read title.

During Civil war, Punisher was so popular there was an attempt to re-introduce him to the mainstream Marvel-U. This was in Punsiher: War Journal by Matt Fraction, it wasn't his best work.

Nowadays however Punisher is in rude health, Still running two titles Punisher is mainstream Marvel currently running its Dark Reign plots, and there is still a MAX title as well. It is almost opposite to Black panther, It started shakily but is now a solid title.

As for teh angelic powers, I'd like to see them return, not in Punisher, but it was a neat power set, and I liked the idea of him being a crusader for the underdogs. Perhaps a new hero?

Not another Star Trek Review

Saw the new JJ Abrahms Star Trek Relaunch, and it is gooooood.

I was going to open with a jokey fanboy type jibe of how it was a travasty and a slap in the face to all "Real" fans, but you know what, forget that. It is brilliant. There is fun, there is sadness there is action. Pine carries Kirks swagger with charm, Quinto really manages to bring Spock's inner conflict to screen and Urban's Dr McCoy is the best thing in a film filled with best things.

Criticisms, Abrahms coudl have cut down on the lens flare effect, it got a little annoying, and the Enterprise is still pretty duff, but these are small niggles in an otherwise storming film.

Trek is back. Oh yes.