The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

This is Propaganda, I’m Richard Bruton and this is what I’ve been reading lately:

Secret War

Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Gabriele Dell’Otto, published by Marvel

The darkest chapter in Marvel Universe History. Or so it says on the back cover blurb.

When Nick Fury discovers that all of Marvel’s high-tech supervillains are being secretly funded through a foreign government, he does what any good little soldier would do and takes his intelligence to the Government. But unfortunately for Fury this state sponsored terrorism is coming from a close ally of the United States and embarrassingly, most of the money being used to fund this super-terrorism is actually US aid dollars.

So big government, being a small and cowardly thing, sends Fury away with a promise that something shall be done, but through diplomatic means. And Big Government knows, just as Fury does, that they’ll not do anything at all and more people will die through their refusal to act.

(events begin to go pear-shaped for our heroes in Bendis’ Secret War, art by Gabriele Dell’Otto, (C) Marvel)

But Fury decides he’s not going to allow the terrorist nation to get away with it and in a piece of glorious forced logic decides that the best solution to the problem would be to assemble a rag-tag team of superheroes and go play at forced Regime change;

“All that mattered was that this had to be stopped… But I couldn’t use S.H.I.E.L.D. materials… What I wanted to do wouldn’t mean half as much if I had used my own men. They wanted to punish us by funding our criminal…. So I had to use our heroes.”

Like I said, forced logic at play there for a reason to commit his very own act of global terrorism.

And this team of Fury, Captain America, Black Widow, Wolverine, Daredevil, Luke Cage and Spider-Man quickly and effectively do the job they want to do. But the problems don’t stop once the country is toppled. In fact, the story opens up one year after the mission with Luke Cage ending up in hospital and the other heroes coming under attack from forces unknown.

From here Bendis jumps forward and back in time between the events of now, with our heroes under attack for what they did and the events of a year ago, where they acted as a small invasion force to topple a country. But the problem for them in the now is that none of them remembers taking part in Fury’s Secret War. They’re being attacked and they appear to have no idea why. It seems Fury was very determined to keep the Secret War secret – even from the participants.

(the Cap suspects Nick Fury ain’t been playing him fair in Secret War; art by Gabriele Dell’Otto, (C) Marvel)

Now I’ve always loved Nick Fury; perhaps more so than any of the proper superheroes. I can remember my first introduction to the character; in the old Titans magazine with that wonderful landscape format where Marvel UK published two US comic pages side by side in eye straining A5 size. After that I saw the wonderful and insane artwork by Jim Steranko that I fell in love with. Indeed, two of the covers are framed above my desk and have been for many years.

So the idea of Bendis covering Fury was really appealing; after all, his Daredevil was a quite wonderful example of great superhero comics. But no matter how good the story concept was, the actual execution didn’t live up to it. This is not to say that there was anything particularly wrong with Secret War – it was a well written, typically Bendis-like book; good dialogue, good characterisation – but sadly, it’s just not as good as it could have been. Indeed it’s not as good as it should have been. Brian Bendis had a really interesting idea; using Marvel’s heroes as extensions of Fury’s S.H.I.E.L.D. super-spies in the very literal sense. But in the end he went more for playing the heroes as heroes rather than playing them as super-spies under Fury’s command, which is really what I was hoping for.

I guess I’ll just have to stick to my copies of the Nick Fury Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. collections if I want my fix of the greatest super- spy around.

And whilst we’re talking about disappointments, here’s the final volume of Mark Millar’s Ultimates.

I loved The Ultimates. I still think that the first two volumes (Superhuman and Homeland Security) are absolutely marvellous. Mark Millar completely nailed the idea of widescreen superheroes and totally reinvented the Marvel heroes concept in the process. Of course, it helped that Bryan Hitch was producing the best artwork of his life, out-widescreening Millar’s writing with ease.

Take the Avengers concept and give it a modern makeover. Instead of well intentioned super types saving the world for kicks, make it more realistic; a state-sponsored, highly paid super-team. You’ve got Samuel L Jackson as Nick Fury, masterminding the show, Tony Stark as half Bill Gates, half international playboy, Hank Pym (Giant Man) with serious inferiority issues, Janet Pym (Wasp) as his not so dependable wife, Bruce Banner as a repressed scientist with violent tendencies, Thor the new age, eco-friendly God of Thunder and Captain America, recovered from 1945, a naive super-soldier out of time and space.

With Millar and Hitch at the controls this book was as much fun as it sounded; Millar’s crisp, funny, inventive dialogue made the book the perfect high octane, check the brain at the door, sit back and enjoy it blockbuster. Hitch added to the potent mix with superb action packed visuals that make every page a delight to look at.

The first book, Super-Human, covers the formation of the team, Captain America’s recovery, the Hulk taking out Manhattan and much more. The second book, Homeland Security, expands on the story, bringing in more old favourites and continuing to amaze us with jaw-dropping special effects you’ll never see in films.

(the Cap tells it like it is in Ultimates: Homeland Security, art by Bryan Hitch, (C) Marvel)

This was the perfect example of how interesting superhero comics could be if written with a bit of talent, style and cheek. By the end of Homeland Security Millar had wrapped up pretty much everything he’d started in Superhuman. Two volumes of the perfect superhero book. To be honest he should have left it there.

But eventually Volume 3: Gods And Monsters came out (or, following the stupid labelling system Marvel decided it should have – The Ultimates 2: Volume 1: Gods and Monsters). And now we have Volume 4: Grand Theft America.

(panel from Ultimates Volume 2: Homeland Security, art by Bryan Hitch, (C) Marvel)

And sadly for us, Millar seems to have completely run out of ideas at this point. The ideas go stale and the originality and sense of wonder has gone. It has the feel of a horribly forced sequel. Bryan Hitch is still producing some stunning work, but even that lacks the wonder and punch it had in the first two volumes as if he’s reflecting Millar’s writerly fatigue in his artwork.

So, the answer is quite obvious. If you fancy reading one of the best examples of modern superhero fiction, with a cracking story and gorgeous artwork I can heartily recommend you pick up The Ultimates Volume 1 and 2. In fact I’m going to insist that if you’re in anyway a superhero fan you pick these two books up. They form a self contained story that gives you the start, middle and end of everything you want to know about the Ultimates.

After that, I’m pretending that there are no Volumes 3 and 4. I suggest you all do the same.