Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Secret Invasion: Requiem
Okay, so I guess this actually cost 33 cents or something, but close enough.
This is, like a number of recent Marvel comics, actually a couple of old stories that have been recoloured. Plus a new framing sequence drawn by Khoi Pham (whose art I really liked on Hercules, but who didn't impress me that much here).
The framing sequence is really just there to introduce the other comics though, so it's not really Pham's fault as he wasn't given the most interesting stuff to work with. The other comics are there to show that Ant Man (Henry Pym) has always been a jackass. The first story (by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) is the first appearance of the Wasp, and also features Ant Man's origin. Which is that his wife, who was a Soviet defector, got killed when they went back to the Soviet Union for a holiday. WTF? Is that still in continuity?
So Pym is doing ant science in his lab, when another scientist shows up and asks him to help with his gamma ray beam. To the other scientist's great shock and annoyance, Pym tells him that he doesn't know anything about that field. I kind of love that, this guy shows up at Pym's house to ask him for help, yet doesn't even know what type of science he does. He even mentions that Pym is a famous scientist (for what, I don't know). The real reason this scientist is in the story is to introduce his daughter! Janet Van Dyne. Who apparently looks exactly like Pym's ex-wife. Except they look nothing alike at all. Pym is just crazy.
To add to this, when Van Dyne becomes the Wasp, Pym decides to give her completely untested powers that he hasn't even tried on himself. "Here, let me implant these wings and antenna under your skin." Then they fight a monster. And Van Dyne is all like "Oh Hank Pym, you are so dreamy."
(So this comic was lying on a table at the house I'm staying at, and one of my friends picked it up and started looking through it and said he was amazed at how good the art looked in the first story. He was shocked when I told him that art was from the '60s. Colouring is so important.)
And then! We have the famous issue where Ant Man hits the Wasp. And is just generally insane (he builds a robot to attack the Avengers so that he can then defeat it).
I think one of the most hilarious things about this issue is that apparently the other Avengers are so used to the Wasp's terrible wardrobe (that purple thing!), that when she shows up to a meeting in a turtleneck, coat, and sunglasses (to hide the beating Ant Man gave her), nobody says a word about it until she takes her sunglasses off and they see her black eye.
After both the reprints, we get a couple more new pages and see that Hank Pym has decided to become a new the Wasp, in order to honour the one that just died in Secret Invasion. Ultimately, all this comic does is make me wish that it was Hank Pym (a character who has apparently always been an insane idiot) was the one who had died instead of the Wasp (one of the oldest female superheroes the Marvel universe has). Oh well, I'm sure she'll be back eventually.
But really, this comic was worth the price I paid for the three pages showing every costume/outfit the Wasp has ever worn. Holy shit! I bet that took way too long to put together.
This is, like a number of recent Marvel comics, actually a couple of old stories that have been recoloured. Plus a new framing sequence drawn by Khoi Pham (whose art I really liked on Hercules, but who didn't impress me that much here).
The framing sequence is really just there to introduce the other comics though, so it's not really Pham's fault as he wasn't given the most interesting stuff to work with. The other comics are there to show that Ant Man (Henry Pym) has always been a jackass. The first story (by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby) is the first appearance of the Wasp, and also features Ant Man's origin. Which is that his wife, who was a Soviet defector, got killed when they went back to the Soviet Union for a holiday. WTF? Is that still in continuity?
So Pym is doing ant science in his lab, when another scientist shows up and asks him to help with his gamma ray beam. To the other scientist's great shock and annoyance, Pym tells him that he doesn't know anything about that field. I kind of love that, this guy shows up at Pym's house to ask him for help, yet doesn't even know what type of science he does. He even mentions that Pym is a famous scientist (for what, I don't know). The real reason this scientist is in the story is to introduce his daughter! Janet Van Dyne. Who apparently looks exactly like Pym's ex-wife. Except they look nothing alike at all. Pym is just crazy.
To add to this, when Van Dyne becomes the Wasp, Pym decides to give her completely untested powers that he hasn't even tried on himself. "Here, let me implant these wings and antenna under your skin." Then they fight a monster. And Van Dyne is all like "Oh Hank Pym, you are so dreamy."
(So this comic was lying on a table at the house I'm staying at, and one of my friends picked it up and started looking through it and said he was amazed at how good the art looked in the first story. He was shocked when I told him that art was from the '60s. Colouring is so important.)
And then! We have the famous issue where Ant Man hits the Wasp. And is just generally insane (he builds a robot to attack the Avengers so that he can then defeat it).
I think one of the most hilarious things about this issue is that apparently the other Avengers are so used to the Wasp's terrible wardrobe (that purple thing!), that when she shows up to a meeting in a turtleneck, coat, and sunglasses (to hide the beating Ant Man gave her), nobody says a word about it until she takes her sunglasses off and they see her black eye.
After both the reprints, we get a couple more new pages and see that Hank Pym has decided to become a new the Wasp, in order to honour the one that just died in Secret Invasion. Ultimately, all this comic does is make me wish that it was Hank Pym (a character who has apparently always been an insane idiot) was the one who had died instead of the Wasp (one of the oldest female superheroes the Marvel universe has). Oh well, I'm sure she'll be back eventually.
But really, this comic was worth the price I paid for the three pages showing every costume/outfit the Wasp has ever worn. Holy shit! I bet that took way too long to put together.
Labels: comics, I will spend 25 cents on anything, Marvel
# posted by tomorrowboy 2.9 @ 11:46 pm 
