[New Title Pending]: Rapid Rack Reads 2

Dark Avengers #2:

In which the team wastes half an issue shooting the shit before rushing in to save Dr. Doom from bitter ex-girlfriend Morgan Le Fay. Cue Sentry doing something ultra-violent, which in a neat change of pace, doesn’t work! So next issue, we’ll see the real fight.

You know, I just don’t know what to think of this book. It’s Bendis sticking to formula and he’s on rather good form here. The Deodato art is wonderful as always; the layouts are eye-catching. And yet, taken within the context of the entire Marvel Universe, this book feels…well, wrong. The climactic event where the Sentry ends it by ripping off Morgan Le Fay’s head is a cool scene, but when you think about it, you realize this action doesn’t remotely befit his character (and the whiny “Did I do good or bad” line made Sentry look pathetic not conflicted). It would have made more sense for Ares (a violent war god) to deliver the blow without equivocation (which would have built on his bad-ass attitude established in Mighty Avengers). Or the scene between Moonstone (Ms. Marvel) and Daken (Wolverine) where she says “I have no idea who the %*&^ you are.” Surface thought: clever. But upon deeper inspection Moonstone (as a trained psychiatrist) is never that blunt and Daken (a young powderkeg) would be much more offended at that statement. Or even the Bullseye joke about killing his mom. Sure, he has a sick sense of humor but the lines don’t jive with his temperament at all. The man’s homicidal, not matricidal. These characters don’t sound like themselves; they sound like snarky football players toweling off after defeating their rivals. And the Morgan/Doom fight was rather boring and poorly plotted. Generic purple blasts equals yawn. I feel conflicted because there’s some wonderful potential here and a gold mine of character conflicts that could be set up but the dimensionality of this team isn’t there. The story’s not bad but I just don’t see why I should care. 3 Cs out of 7.

X-Force #11:

In which we find out the motivations of Eli Bard, New Resident Bad Guy, as Warpath tells the team of Eli’s past as a shamed patrician/general in the Roman Empire who Selene (yay!) manipulates into falling in love with him. This ends badly when poor old Eli effs up Selene’s spell to steal all the souls of Rome. A pissed-off Selene curses him with eternal life and spurns him for centuries. But now he’s back to make good on stealing a bunch of souls for her…from dead mutants. Or techno-zombies. Or something.

I honestly have no grounding in this new X-Force and I only picked it up for Selene. The backstory itself was interesting and sad. I mean this guy basically got shit on his whole life and is cursed with immortality and an undying love for a psycho witch. An issue-long set-up for a major villain seems a bit much but the art (especially the past scenes) and the dialogue make it a nice read. Plus, it features a back-to-basics approach with Selene as a covetous demi-god wanting power for power’s sake and pulling the strings of “mere mortals” behind the scenes, which was always one of the stronger aspects of her character. I’m not too thrilled by Eli; he hasn’t shown any other sides of himself beyond lovesick lap-dog. But we’ll see what happens, and hopefully there’ll be some betrayal or triple-cross or something. Overall, a good story arc intro. 5 Cs out of 7.