[comics] Fantastic Four: Marvel super-prison protocol

Not to rag on the same book all over again, but this page is from Fantastic Four #558 (written by Mark Millar, drawn by Bryan Hitch), and it's a shining example of a weird, annoyingly-common phenomenon in superhero comics. Click it and take a look at the full size version.

Doctor Doom is being held (according to the next page), at the Raft, a prison facility for superhuman offenders. And, for some reason, the people running this place let him keep his goddamned armor. You know, with the lasers and the forcefields and maybe a fucking time machine, for all I know. I'm sure he'd pitch a serious fit if they tried to take it away from him--especially since he's so nuts about keeping his scarred face covered up--but I kinda think it'd be worth the trouble. Hell, even if they think they've removed all the weapons from his getup, I can't imagine it'd really be safe to leaving the evil genius walking around in a whole pile of electronic scrap.

And, of course, superhero comics do this shit all the time. And, of course, we all know why: character recognition. If a supervillain isn't wearing his brightly-colored tights, how are the readers supposed to know who he is? Well, okay, maybe through the dialog. Or even a narration box. But how are potential readers just flipping through a book to see if it contains something of interest supposed to recognize the dude? I guess that's what it's really about.

Still. I'd call this kind of a special case, here. Why not show Victor von Doom without his armor and cape and such, but with his mask? It's enough to make him recognizable, and it'd slightly imaginable that he'd be allowed to keep something he's got such a psychological dependency on. Also, he'd present a much more interesting visual, wearing just the mask with an orange prison jumpsuit.

Anyway. This silliness aside, it's a good issue. Looks like the start of a very interesting arc. Just hope it ends better than the last one did.

[comics] Avengers: The Initiative: Oh, snap!

Okay, as long as I'm talking about comics, I might as well say some nice stuff. In Avengers: The Initiative #13 (written by Christos N. Gage, drawn by Steve Uy), lame flash-in-the-pan character Prodigy lays this awesome dis on lame perennial character Henry Pym. I just love it when characters (and writers) in comics actually remember shit like this: Hank smacking the crap out of his wife in The Avengers #213 (writer: Jim Shooter, penciller: Bob Hall). (Damn, can you believe this dude is back is to wearing his costume from 1981? Wow. Whose idea was that?)

There's a contingent of nerds out there who are quick to point out the fact that the infamous panel was an isolated incident that was intended to be seen as wildly at odds with Pym's established personality, and turned out to be the result of some kind of manipulation by some forgettable (and, indeed, forgotten) character called Egghead (not making this up, serious), and I guess they've got a point. But I don't think the dude was actually being mind controlled or anything, so I figure he still deserves to get abused for the incident. Also, it achieved LOL, and that's all the justification need.

So, yeah, I'm kinda digging The Initiative. I even really like their quasi-costume of a pair of camo pants and a shirt with an individual logo on it . . . but it really gets pretty lame when they start with an existing costume and just add the pants to that.


Prodigy, you fuckin tool. (To be fair, his costume is the source of his powers, but in that case, they really oughta waive the pants and boots.)

[comics] Fantastic Four: Oh, man, I did not read that.

From Fantastic Four #557, written by Mark Millar and drawn by Bryan Hitch. This is Reed Richards, here, turning down some old girlfriend who just tried to get him to leave his wife for her. Earlier in this issue he managed to figure out she was still in love with him in what I'd call a moment of wildly uncharacteristic social sensitivity (for fuck's sake, this is dude who basically has the assburgers). And now he brings out a cheesy-ass Hollywood line like this? Millar, you are fucking fired.

[comics] The Order: Is this a retcon?

Right, so is anybody else reading Marvel's "The Order" series? I've been looking around, but I can't find any real discussion of the book. So I'm wondering if anybody else noticed what I think I noticed.

I'm gonna skip explaining the background on this book. Interested parties can ask Wikipedia, as always. Suffice it to say that it's a superhero book, and it includes this dude they call Heavy.

When he first shows up, he looks like this:


Rockin the Stratos look.

Then, next issue, he gets shot in the face by some Cold-War-era supervillain. He goes "blurgle" and is thoroughly out of commission.


But he's back an issue later, apparently wearing a bacta tank on his head. So we--okay, I--assume this is part of his shot-in-the-face-by-a-Soviet-relic treatment plan. Naturally.


But he keeps running abound in a helmet full of blue fluid. For a whole mess of issues.


Finally, the most recent issue (the ninth of the series) explains Heavy's background in a flashback sequence (which is something this book does for a different character each issue, which is awesome, and would be worth talking more about if I didn't have a different topic, here). It turns out that he was actually horribly injured well before his superhero career started, and was confined to an iron lung. And the fluid inside his costume is apparently a fix for that pre-existing condition.


...So what the hell was he doing running around without his blue goo in the first and second issues?

So has this character's background been changed significantly just eight issues after he first appeared? I'd assume this was either a deliberate or accidental retcon by a new writer but, no, Matt Fraction's been writing the book the whole time. Hell, it's been pretty much the same story arc throughout all nine issues, even. There doesn't seem like room for retcon here, or time for a good writer (and Fraction is a good writer) to forget major details about a character.

Is there something here I'm just wildly misinterpreting? Was there a mask full of fluids in the first two issues that the inker and colorist just didn't pick up on? I don't get this.