The Marvel 52, Part Five: Marvel Heroes

Sorry for the silence the last couple of days. Busy busy. I'll have to do a project update sooner or later. Kill All Monsters is coming along nicely and I've been working on a short, prose story about an old, pulp character named The Purple Scar, but I could give you some more details about both of those.

Anyway, the last twelve titles in my Marvel 52 are the big guns.

12. The Liberators by Gail Simone and Colleen Coover



The Lady Liberators were introduced way back in Avengers #83 as a team of villains (of course) to fight those poor boys of the Avengers. They made sort of a comeback in recent years though as a heroic group when She-Hulk formed an informal team of superwomen to fight the chauvinistic Red Hulk in Jeph Loeb's Hulk. Then they got together a couple of other times after that in She-Hulk and The Mighty Avengers.

I'm all about the female superheroes, so it would be awesome to have a book where they could team up regularly. Maybe have a core team of She-Hulk, Valkyrie, Black Widow, and Hellcat with other women coming on for particular missions. Since that's sort of Marvel's version of Birds of Prey, it's unoriginal, but entirely appropriate to have Gail Simone writing it. And Colleen Coover draws Marvel women (and men, for that matter) like nobody else.

11. Valkyrie by Paul Cornell and Jill Thompson

I know there's a bona fide female version of Thor, but Valkyrie's been around a lot longer and has the benefit of not being exactly a female version of Thor. She has the whole, cool Viking thing going on without just copying him. I know Paul Cornell could do awesome things with that and Jill Thompson's got a great, fantasy style that would suit very well.

10. Runaways by Brian K Vaughan and Ben Caldwell

Vaughan has said that he always wanted Runaways to be a series that other creative teams could pick up and run with; that he wanted it to be sort of his legacy at Marvel. But though other creators have done pretty well with the concept, unfortunately no one's doing anything with it now. I'd correct that and bring back the writer who started it all. Ben Caldwell has a great, manga-esque style that's perfect for books about (and targeted to) younger kids.

9. Agents of Atlas by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk



Quite simply the most definitively awesome team book anyone's ever made in the history of comics. It was Jeff Parker's baby, so no one else can touch the writing, and though there have been a few excellent artists working with Parker on it over the years, Leonard Kirk was the first. I'd want that dream team back on it again.

8. Spider-Man by Phil Hester and Pia Guerra

Spidey is a character that I haven't been excited about since the '70s. Phil Hester could change that by bringing the same mix of high adventure and everyman troubles that he put into Firebreather. As for Pia Guerra (Y: The Last Man)... Why, oh, why isn't she drawing a monthly comic book right now?

7. The Fantastic Four by Brian Clevinger and Darwyn Cooke



Brian Clevinger's proven that he's not about to run out of wacky science stories for Atomic Robo anytime soon, so why not share some of that with everyone's favorite family of super scientists? And you know you want to see Darwyn Cooke cut loose on a series like that.

6. Pet Avengers by Evan Dorkin and Katie Cook

Evan Dorkin can write a damn good animal story. Not just a cute, funny animal story (though they are that, too), but a real story about animals you care about. I sort of want his Beasts of Burden partner Jill Thompson on this one, but I'm trying not to be completely unoriginal and Katie Cook's not only awesome, she also has a thing for Marvel and pets.

5. Young Avengers by Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung



Okay, maybe I am totally unoriginal. But in my dreamworld, Heinberg would have time to write a monthly series about these characters he and Cheung made up. I loved it when they were on the book, but in other hands the characters haven't been as exciting.

4. Iron Man by James Turner and Nicola Scott

If I can't have Robert Downey Jr play Tony Stark right there in my comic, something else that could get me to buy it would be to have James Turner (Rex Libris, Warlord of Io) write it. Like all my favorite writers, Turner has an insane imagination and unrestrained abandon about letting it spill out of his head and onto the page. And he's hilarious. I'm not saying that it hasn't been this way lately, because I haven't read Iron Man in years, but in general the character needs some craziness. It should be a scifi/superspy comic and I'd love to see Nicola Scott ground something like that in reality.

3. Thor by Neil Gaiman and George O'Connor



I went back and forth about whether I'd prefer to have George O'Connor (Olympians) write and draw this one by himself. He's certainly got the ability to tell fun stories about mythological characters.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized how amazing it would be to see Gaiman make Asgard as huge and epic as the Dreaming.

2. Captain America by Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegener

If there's something else Clevinger appears to like as much as superscience, it's WWII history. Not only could he tell some fantastic flashback stories to Cap's adventures in those days, he's also a guy who - like Brubaker - can let that time period continue informing the personality and choices of the modern Captain America. And why not let Clevinger's Atomic Robo cohort, Scott Wegener be in charge of bringing it to life?

1. The Avengers by Paul Tobin and Cliff Chiang



Paul Tobin's already been writing the best Avengers comic around for the Marvel Adventures line, so he should get his shot at the main book with one of the best superhero artists working today.

Valkyries; hold the Cruise

Lady Liberators, Line Up!

Valkyrie illustration by Grant Gould, who also shows you how he made it. One of these days he's going to do a whole set of these and I'm gonna buy 'em.

Secret Wars on Infinite Earths has a nice summary of the Lady Liberators' background as well as reviews of various comics featuring those characters.

There's also a list of the "Top 25 Liberating Ladies," though the title is used loosely. The list includes not only women who were never on one of the Lady Liberators teams, but also DC and other superheroines.

Here's the Top Five:

1. Invisible Woman
2. Wonder Woman
3. Catwoman
4. Storm
5. Sonya Blade (from Mortal Kombat)

Not sure what the list's criteria were and I'm really not sure that I agree with the rankings, but it's still a cool checklist of Action Girls.

All the Windwracked Stars

Elizabeth Bear's new book is a science fantasy featuring human-animal hybrids, giant steam-powered warhorses, and a huge helping of Norse mythology including a Valkyrie as the main character. Sounds promising, eh?

Publishers Weekly gives it an encouraging if not glowing review: "Readers will be captivated by Bear's incredibly complex, broken characters; multilayered themes of redemption; and haunting, world-breaking decisions. While stilted prose slows the beginning of the tale, its finale is both rewarding and compelling."

The Lady Liberators vs. Myanmar

In She-Hulk #s 34-36, She-Hulk and the team she put together in Hulk #s 7-9 go up against a fictional version of a real-world issue. Things have slowed down in the bounty hunter business and She-Hulk has gotten enough confidence back about her calling as a super-hero that when she sees a news report about some people in need, she calls the Lady Liberators together and springs into action.

It's not the full team that appeared in Hulk, but it's a lot of them. Thundra and Valkyrie are back of course, and they're also joined by Invisible Woman. And She-Hulk's best friend Jazinda (who disguises herself so the other Liberators won't know she's one of those Secretly Invading Skrulls).



Spoiler for Jeph Loeb's Hulk series below

I don't know what to make of Thundra's being there. Over in Hulk, Thundra was invited by the Red Hulk to join him in whatever scheme he had going. We didn't get to hear her answer, but she sure didn't say "no" right away either. Writer Peter David gives nothing away in She-Hulk, but I'm not sure if he's being sneaky or if he just didn't know about the Hulk developments when he started this story. Continuity between Hulk and She-Hulk has been very loose and David's admitted that there hasn't been a lot of communication between the editors and creators of the two series.

Regardless of whatever's going on behind the scenes though, Thundra seems perfectly willing to continue working with the Liberators, which means one of two things. Either she turned down Red Hulk, or she's working with him in secret and wants to keep an eye on the Liberators. Though She-Hulk has been canceled after the next couple of issues, I expect we'll see more of the Liberators in Hulk and learn Thundra's answer over there. In the meantime, there's no reason for David not to use them here, and I'm glad he has. It's a cool team.

(By the way, he reveals that Valkyrie's horse is indeed still named Aragorn and not what She-Hulk called it in Hulk. Also, in spite of whatever other criticisms I'm about to offer, I've got none against David's portrayal of Valkyrie. She's awesome.)

End of spoiler.



I'm generally of the feeling that corporate-owned superhero comics should stay away from real-world problems like genocide. What's going on in this story is that there's been an earthquake in the fictional country of Marinmer, but the government is refusing to let foreign aid get to its citizens who need it. She-Hulk and the Liberators fly over to Marinmer to distribute the aid themselves, but Marinmer has ties with Russia who quickly sends in the Winter Guard to stop the effort.

What follows is a standard superhero fight only with lots of preaching by She-Hulk and some questioning amongst the Winter Guard about what's the right and moral thing to do. There's also preaching and frantic pleas for help by distraught earthquake victims. And if I sound kind of callous towards earthquake victims or those who would help them, I deeply apologize because that's not my intent. My heart aches for the real-world sufferers of the tragedies that this story is based on, but the She-Hulk comic fails to honor them in a meaningful way. It tries - it tries hard - but it's not up to the task and the endeavor ends up feeling kind of tasteless.



I don't know for sure what could have been done differently, which is a major reason I question whether this kind of thing should be attempted at all. I respect David's wanting to address it, and I understand that he's confined in his attempt by the genre he works in, so I actually rooted for him to succeed. Unfortunately, I was unmoved by the scenes of mothers crying over the corpses of their children. Crap, if anything should be able to move me, it's that.

Maybe if there had been a different art team. I like the anime-influenced work of Pasquale Qualano, Vincenzo Acunzo, and Barbara Ciardo in principle. I think it's a cool, different look for the book. And they're not inept at depicting emotions through facial expressions and body language. Yet, for most of the story, Valkyrie has all the expression of a Barbie doll, even when she's weeping.



And on the other end of the pendulum, the grieving mother is so melodramatic that she seems unreal. We're not watching a grieving mother; we're watching a bad actress portray a grieving mother.



Likewise, She-Hulk's posture doesn't always match up with what she's saying. Her words may be calmly accepting an invitation to dinner, but her pose looks like she's about to leap into battle. I get that she's angry, but wouldn't an upright pose with balled fists and a defiant, dangerous stare be just as effective and more appropriate given the dialogue? Because of all that, I'm really reluctant to blame David's script for the failure here.



I'd like to forget about the "ripped-from-the-headline" part of the story and judge it based just on the superhero aspects, but that's actually pretty mediocre too. The villain is a good one in the sense that he's smart, despicably evil, and has powerful weapons, but his master plan is essentially to kill some innocents in the most passive way imaginable and to rape some Liberators along the way. That triggers an interesting conflict in She-Hulk, but the resolution of that conflict is rather lame.

Another spoiler warning

She-Hulk really wants to kill this guy and I don't blame her. For all the story's flaws, portraying She-Hulk's anger at the villain is not one of them. I was absolutely convinced that she wanted him dead and I was rooting for her to do it. I don't know if it's because "superheroes don't kill" or what, but she ends up not killing him. Instead, she and Jazinda fake his death and exile him to the Australian outback. Meanwhile, the new leader of Marinmer promises to be just as corrupt as his predecessor.

End spoiler warning.

The point being that nothing changes and that superheroes are ineffectual in real-world crises. Which a) I already knew, and b) is a pretty bleak message for a superhero book. Leaving me once again to wonder what the reason for this exercise was. The only real lesson I've learned from it is that it shouldn't be tried again.

The Lady Liberators vs. Red Hulk

I got a little behind on my comics reading, so I've just now caught up with what's going on in Jeph Loeb's Hulk. I have reservations about it, but I'm enjoying it in general. I'd much rather read something by Jeff Parker, Greg Pak, or Fred Van Lente, but between the silly, trying-too-hard wackiness of Loeb and all the talking and off-panel fighting that Bendis and Millar crank out, I'll take Loeb without even having to think about it. It's obvious that he's having a blast writing this stuff and it's infectious enough that I'm enjoying it too.

What I just read was Hulk #s 7-9. I think it's very cool that they're splitting up each issue between the Green Hulk and the Red Hulk (I refuse to refer to him by the stupid codename they give him in the comic; one of those reservations I was talking about). It took some getting used to, but if that's what it takes to get a monthly (or so) dose of Art Adams and Frank Cho interior art, I've got zero complaints. These guys are fantastic artists, but notoriously slow. Letting each of them draw half a comic a month was a genius move. Someone deserves a raise for that.



I'm going to focus mostly on the Red Hulk story here because that's the one that features She-Hulk and she's the reason I'm writing this post. But the Green Hulk story deserves mentioning if for no other reason than Art Adams is drawing it and holy crap it's good to see that. Again, Loeb wants so badly to be awesome that he throws all kinds of things into the story (like Joe Fixit, mutated Wendigos, Moon Knight, etc.), but he does so mostly without any credible reason. That's where he falls short of the Parkers, Paks, and Van Lentes. Those guys bring the awesome, but their stories still make sense at the same time.

But, back to the Red Hulk. In issues 1-6 of the series, S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to bring down the Red Hulk and threw everyone they could think of against him, including Thor and She-Hulk. The Red Hulk's tough though and was able to beat them all. Difference between Thor and She-Hulk is that Thor was able to shrug off the defeat and go about his day as long as Red Hulk was ultimately defeated (which he was, temporarily, by Green Hulk). She-Hulk, on the other hand, let her smack-down eat at her, so when Red Hulk went missing again, she volunteered to go after him and deliver some payback.

Thing is, she knew from experience that she couldn't deliver it by herself, so she pulled out her Rolodex and started calling every other female superhero she knew. This is where it starts to get good. Or at least interesting. No, that's not fair; it's good. Wait and see.



A lot of the girls were busy with other things, so She-Hulk ends up with just Thundra and Valkyrie. Not too shabby, but not exactly an army either. Calling themselves the Lady Liberators (after an old Marvel team that Valkyrie sort-of-but-not-really used to belong to), they catch up to Red Hulk at Mount Rushmore and fight him.

There's some silly stuff like our supposing to think that She-Hulk's in danger because Red Hulk wraps a chain around her neck and dangles her over a cliff. Please. If She-Hulk's neck-muscles can't deal with hanging... Fortunately, Valkyrie and Thundra put a stop to it before we have to think about it too hard.

Then Valkyrie has her winged horse rescue She-Hulk from the drop and She-Hulk calls it the wrong name.



(I know, nice gratuitous crotch shot. Sigh.)

Anyway, I'm not up on current Valkyrie continuity, so maybe she's got a new horse, but her mount used to be named Aragorn. Maybe that's not as cool as it once was now that everyone knows where Marvel stole the name from (possibly why Sauron doesn't menace the X-Men much anymore either?). I choose to believe that She-Hulk either didn't know the horse's real name or forgot it in her panic over falling. Where's my No-Prize? Or am I just behind and the horse really is called Pegasus now?

There's some more fighting and Red Hulk looks like he's about to win, but at the end of issue #8 the cavalry arrives in the form of most of the women She-Hulk initially called to help her out. They've cleared their schedules and are here to - as She-Hulk says - "spank some red ass."



I'll try not to spoil anything more except to say that we're reminded that a) Red Hulk is actually a pretty smart guy and b) one of the Lady Liberators has a background as a villain. I'll probably say more about that second one when I talk later about what's going on in She-Hulk. But for now I just want to point out a couple of things about She-Hulk and what this story says about women super-heroes (and women) in general.

First, She-Hulk does a lot of whining in this story. She complains way past the point of annoyance about how infuriating it was to get beat up by Red Hulk. Seriously, I just wanted her to stop. Getting Valkyrie and Thundra to join her was all so she could pay Red Hulk back for defeating her. Except, how much payback is it when you have to call in help to deliver it? How is that satisfying on a personal level? Stay with me here, because there's an answer and - I'm pleased to say - Loeb is the one who supplies it.

She-Hulk has a voiceover at the beginning of issue #9's installment that lets us know that this isn't a matter of personal pride for her. It's a gender issue.




As someone who likes reading about women heroes, I hadn't really questioned why all the people She-Hulk called were female. I figured it was just about Loeb's having a cool idea and running with it as usual. But this time there's a real reason. Red Hulk isn't just an evil strongman; he's a misogynistic pig. Loeb goes out of his way to show that over and over again. Of course he's infuriating to She-Hulk. Of course she's pissed off that she can't physically make him stop. Of course she's going to call in her badass girlfriends to teach this scumbag a lesson.

I'm starting to like Red Hulk now. I didn't at first. I thought he was another of Loeb's crazy, half-formed ideas and I was ready to move past his story. But the longer he stays around, and the more infuriating he gets, and the more it becomes clear that he's really not going to go down easily; the more I absolutely hate him. And I've realized that I love hating him.



I'm not going to insult women by saying that a male writer has taught me to finally see the world through women's eyes, but I will say that I get now - in a tiny, tiny way, but in a way I never thought much about before nonetheless - why a lot of women I know are so frustrated by the imbalance of power between the genders. These characters (fictional and scantily clad as they are) are strong characters, physically and - for most of them anyway - in other ways as well. It's maddening that they can't seem to get the upper hand on this guy who hates them because they're women (or at best, only sees worth in them as objects for his sexual gratification).

I feel like I need to apologize for giving this much credit to a super-hero story, but screw it. It made me see something in a way I hadn't before and - for all its flaws - that's pretty cool. I'm not going to take that away from it.