Fallen Son--Crestfallen Friends

In mid-2007, Captain America was dead. Killed by what many believed to be a hidden assassin.

The X-Man and New Avenger known as Wolverine wasn't buying it. Relying on Dr. Strange to both transport him to the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier and keep him from being detected (which Strange emphasized could be no more than ten minutes), Logan's mission is two-fold, albeit not completely to either Strange or Daredevil, who accompanies him: interrogate Crossbones, the alleged killer held in confinement, and use his senses to ascertain whether the body of Captain America is indeed a corpse. In regard to Crossbones, Logan learns that he fired on Cap that day but wasn't the person who made the kill shot. But as for Cap, the evidence is what can best be described as inconclusive, as presented by writer Jeph Loeb in the pages of Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America, a five-issue limited series that must keep mum on the subject presumably for the sake of capitalizing on continued sales pursuing the story. For his part, however, Logan appears to be convinced (repeat: appears to be).

The confrontation, then, opens the door to a series which acts as an elegy to Cap's death:

...and, consequently, can only hang like a dark cloud over

Quod Sum Eris

We're hip deep in a story by Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi that has Wolverine seeking out the meaning behind surfacing memories which appear to involve not only Victor Creed, a.k.a. the bloodthirsty Sabretooth, but also a new evolutionary species known as the Lupine. Part 1 saw that mystery bringing Logan and Creed to Wakanda, where it appears the Black Panther and his consort, Storm, are pursuing similar leads on the Lupine thanks to archaeological findings in an elephant graveyard. Creed, who hasn't been exactly forthcoming with any information which might help Logan decipher the meaning of it all, has at least acknowledged a latin phrase which appears to be at the root of the mental turmoil which Logan has experienced of late--Quod sum eris, "I am what you will be," a taunting statement from Creed that "the stretch of road ahead of you ends up lookin' like this" (meaning, himself). It's a claim that Wolverine understandably rejects outright.

But what of this bizarre collage of flashbacks that have been triggered by Logan's encounters with Creed? Behind them seems to be the most elusive key of all--a man named Romulus, a hulking, formidable figure whom Logan has "remembered" from a Colosseum setting and appears to be thousands of years old. And there will be more links to the answers he seeks as this story continues.

Wolverine vs. Sabretooth: The Final Battle!

Much is usually anticipated about the fierce and decidedly bloody clashes between Wolverine and Victor Creed, the man known as Sabretooth, even though these men are arguably two sides of the same coin. Each of them has deadly claws that rend and draw blood; each has a generous amount of fear and intimidation working for them; each has a healing factor that prevents them from being mortally wounded (eventually reaching preposterous levels of effectiveness); and each has killed and will kill if the situation calls for it. Yet there are differences, as well: Logan's skeleton, as well as his claws, are made of the unbreakable metal known as adamantium; and while there have often been instances where he's been shown to be merciless, he's not nearly as sadistic as Creed, who will not hesitate to kill even when there is no reason for it. Perhaps the difference that keeps us engaged, however, is the fact that, while crusty and irascible even on the best of days, Logan isn't volatile--and rather than looking for a fight, he'll often look to avoid one (though he's certainly no slouch at provocation). Creed, put bluntly, is a monster, who will gut innocents with little thought or consideration beforehand, depending on his mood or what message he wants to send.

Yet, character differences aside, when these two are locked in battle, what can come of it, given that the most they can do is slash and maim? A chance to see how their artist will handle their match, no doubt--and a great deal of posturing and threats on both their parts, to be sure. But since there's little to no chance of one dealing fatally with the other, their clash often comes down to a battle of wills, and essence. We know we can expect little more than sadism from Creed; but from Logan, his anger and trademark fierceness (and yes, bloodletting) are channeled into stopping Creed's killing spree and ending his threat, while hopefully coming out of it without seeing more of Creed in himself than he'd like. And that's essentially the approach in their early appearances in Uncanny X-Men--where it's probably no coincidence that these particular two characters are unleashed against each other just when Marvel's books have taken a sharp turn toward bringing more graphic violence into their pages with the appearance of the Marauders and the wholesale slaughter of innocent men, women, and children.

The Man And The Monarch!

The Stan Lee Meets... series from 2006 was, in Marvel's promotional words, "a series of stand-alone specials celebrating the 65th Anniversary of Stan Lee's employment at Marvel!" Perhaps "association with" should be substituted for "employment at," since I'm not sure if Stan was actually drawing a paycheck from Marvel Comics for 65 years (though feel free to fact-check me on that); nevertheless, the series was a nice set of stories that gave readers one of their last looks at Stan's wise-cracking style of relating to (and, in this case, interacting with) Marvel's characters. We've already seen that style on display to some degree in the Doctor Strange and Silver Surfer installments of the series--yet with Doctor Doom having been featured prominently in the PPC as of late, it seemed appropriate* to give the man his due with "The Man."

*In fact I'd almost use the word "urgent." I can't explain this sudden anxiety I feel on the matter--but, judging by the limo with Latverian plates that's been passing in front of my home recently, I can't shake the feeling that a certain doctor feels that I've waited too long as it is.

These "meet and greet" stories are really more like brief chats between Lee and his host, which seems to be intentional in order to avoid saddling him with a full issue of scripting in what amounts to a six-issue commitment; consequently, there are other segments in these issues scripted by other writers, but which still provide the full flavor of Lee's presence as he takes us through different avenues of Marvel and its characters. In this particular issue, for instance, Lee is there as a character in his own right, as he defends his treatment of Doom in past stories; yet in the story that follows, Lee is still present (in a manner of speaking) as writer Jeph Loeb follows up on Doom in the aftermath of his battle with the Thing during the time that he'd seized the Baxter Building.

But we begin, of course, with Lee's personal meeting with Doom, at the, uh, request of a representative from Doom's court who shows up on Lee's doorstep and doesn't take no for an answer. The next thing Lee knows, he's halfway across the world standing in front of a most imposing edifice, and its even more imposing master.

Knock Yourself Out

Since Thor was recently shown to be soundly walloped by the Red Hulk, the time has come for a little payback--not just from Thor, but also from the green Hulk, who returns in the next issue of Hulk after having been decisively defeated by his crimson foe before Thor made the scene.

I don't know how many readers are rooting for the green Hulk at this point--or even any Hulk, since writer Jeph Loeb has inundated this comic recently with enough hulking characters and guest-stars to make you wonder if the simple-minded Hulk would ever be able to reclaim his own mag. Assuming that's still even feasible. World War Hulk may have taken us to the point of no return in that respect, having Bruce Banner (as the Hulk) assert his place in the world and burning a lot of bridges in the process. Can this title and its main character go back to the way they were--and would readers want them to? With the extent this story focuses on the green Hulk and portrays him as the "last Hulk standing" when the dust settles, you would think that's where we're headed. But you'd have to invest in many more issues and wade through many more guest-stars before finding out for sure.

For now, Iron Man (along with others present) has offered the Hulk assistance in battling the Red Hulk, though the Hulk is reacting as if he's being confronted because of all the damage done to the area. And Ares, as Namor notes, isn't helping matters:

I'm not entirely up on these issues of Hulk, since World War Hulk soured me on reading anything further having to do with this character--but it seems here that either something has happened to downgrade the Hulk's former hatred of Bruce Banner to mere annoyance, or Loeb is working to veer us in that direction for reasons yet to be revealed. Even She-Hulk seems to think that it's highly unusual for the Hulk to think of himself as only the Hulk:

Eventually, though, the Hulk leaps off to find his red target, leaving everyone else to deal with damage control in San Francisco. And it doesn't take long for Loeb to bring us to this issue's main event:

With Hammer In Hand

Riding on the coattails of the World War Hulk event was the 2008 series featuring the "Red Hulk"--a savvy, aggressive new manifestation of the Hulk who began a rampage of destruction and attacked and defeated a number of powerful Marvel characters (as well as destroying the SHIELD helicarrier) before finally being brought down. I remember thumbing through the first couple of issues at the store and putting them back on the rack, finding little at first glance to hold my interest. The art placed a great deal of emphasis on the new Hulk's over-proportioned physique (complete with bulging veins), while the stories seemed focused on destruction for the sake of destruction and didn't appear to contain much depth otherwise.

The hook of the series ended up being, "Who IS the Red Hulk?" (or "Rulk," a groan-worthy amalgam of the words that the stories made every attempt to have catch on, but thankfully never really did), a mystery which probably did more to sell the issues than the actual stories. It wasn't until two years later that the Red Hulk's identity was revealed to be "Thunderbolt" Ross; and just to prove how bad bad can get, there was also a "Red She-Hulk" on the scene--none other than the General's daughter, Betty. Eventually, the green Hulk returns, as well. And you thought the heated arguments at your Thanksgiving table were off the scale--I imagine the Banner/Ross sit-down must be close to nuclear.

Still, the cover to issue #5 managed to grab my attention:

Thor had also returned with new stories, his well-written issues a stark contrast to the Red Hulk books--and I had to admit to being curious about another Hulk/Thor match-up, particularly with a reputedly more powerful version of the Hulk on the scene and a new no-nonsense Thor ready to cut loose.  So against all better judgment, I decided to bite the bullet and pick up this battle issue.

I should caution you beforehand by reminding you that this is 2008, where issues with prolonged battles generally have their artwork carry the day and only bring in dialog on an as-needed basis--so the battle isn't going to be enhanced to any degree by the insertion of characterization along with the swinging arms and the bold you-will-fall! declarations. That's not to say you won't find the fight entertaining--but you may reach the end of it wishing that writer Jeph Loeb had put in considerably more effort on the script.

We start soon after the Red Hulk had just decisively put the smack-down on his green counterpart in a destructive battle in San Francisco. Loeb is writing this series with something of a revolving door style, with a new challenge to the Red Hulk ready to step in before the dust has settled on the last one:

Hero, Reborn

I stopped reading Captain America with issue #418 in late 1993--a story which featured Cap in a minor sub-plot tending to Diamondback, while the bulk of the issue focused on Dennis Dunphy, otherwise known as D-Man.

A Captain America issue, starring D-Man. Need I say more.

I had stuck with the book for as long as possible, giving it as much of a chance to turn around as I could, before finally realizing it was no great loss to stop collecting this title, and how silly it was to throw good money after bad. Coincidentally, in that very issue, the following letter was printed in the letters page from another reader who seemed to be of like mind regarding the downturn of the book:

And penned by a member of the military, at that. But I couldn't afford to give much weight to the response: "We think you're going to be happy with developments brewing in these pages real soon...!" Well what else could they say? "It may take awhile for story quality to become better, and we're not quite sure what to do at this point--but we'll get there!"

The title ended its run nearly three years later--and judging by the last few issues, the stories did actually rise to the occasion and allowed the good Captain to end on a reasonably high note. But then the "Onslaught" event occurred, effectively putting an end to a number of flagship titles and placing their characters in alternate tales for roughly the next year. It was almost as if we were getting a trial run of the Ultimates format, where the characters were given histories that deviated significantly from the ones we were familiar with. "Heroes Reborn," the banner under which these stories were grouped, acted as a reset button for Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Captain America, The Avengers, and Thor, titles which had all reached unmanageably high issue numbers and were arguably, for want of a better phrase, burned out.

In the case of Captain America, his "rebirth" in an alternate reality would be handled in late 1996 by artist/writer Rob Liefeld, who had already worked with Marvel on the closing issues of New Mutants (which spun off into the new series X-Force, also handled by Liefeld) and Cable, and whose studio would be contracted to handle the new stories of both Captain America and The Avengers. It was during this time that I decided to give Captain America another try--and while "Heroes Reborn" as a whole didn't exactly set the world on fire for me, I was surprised by how much I liked the new direction for and handling of Cap. Liefeld and scripter Jeph Loeb (yes, that Jeph Loeb, scripter of the "red Hulk" issues that threw in practically every guest star combination you could think of, with Hulks falling out of the woodwork) brought a lot of patriotic flair back to Cap, while giving this "new" character some interesting history and compelling sub-plots.

But more than that, the issue as a whole is put together with great care. Liefeld, who is credited with not only pencils but also the story and editing, has obviously given considerable thought to its presentation, and certainly demonstrates a feel for the character both in and out of costume. "Heroes Reborn" no doubt stunned many readers who weren't quite sure what was going on with Marvel. The company seemed in disarray, having lost its sense of direction with its own characters and seemed to be starting over and reinventing them on a clean slate. This issue of Captain America, at least, felt like a port in a storm. Cap, unlike the other characters caught up in the new line of books, needed no makeover in either appearance or concept. His familiar costume and shield comes across on the printed page as boldly as ever; and the principles and standards by which he's guided simply needed dusting off and a jolt of reaffirmation.

And so, rather than begin with any elements of the story, Liefeld opens the issue by presenting its best selling device front and center, with all due fanfare: