Cable and X-Force 4, Fury MAX 9

Cable and X-Force 4
Hopeless (w) and Larroca (a) and D'Armata (c)

I hadn't read anything by Dennis Hopeless before Marvel NOW! (I don't think, I could have read singles here and there that I'm not remembering), but boy has he won me over. Avengers Arena has exceeded all expectations and kept me very interested and involved while overcoming my objections and my lack of prior knowledge. Cable and X-Force did the same. I had more prior knowledge about these characters and fewer objections, but I was wary of any book titled X-Force on the heels of Remender's tremendous series, not to mention the fact that there was ANOTHER X-Force book slated for Marvel NOW! This one obviously is a few issues further along than Sam Humphries' X-Force entry, but so far this book has been nothing but delightful.

First and foremost with me, I like the characters and their interactions a whole lot. There are already some alliances here from the past (Cable and Domino, Cable and Forge, Domino and Colossus, etc.) that Hopeless is leaning on and building on and give a sense of friendliness to the team (which I think is probably the wrong word but it's the word I'm choosing anyway). There are also newer dynamics, like that of Dr. Nemesis and anybody because I really love Dr. Nemesis so I don't care what the justification is. On top of all of these good characters, we're getting complicated plots with complicated solutions that are getting more and more complicated as time goes by. HOWEVER, they don't bog you down. You don't get to a point with all of these complications and say "geez, they lost me." If you ever do that, it's because the team is lost too. When Deathlok appears and disappears in this issue, the team is just as unsure as you are what role he's playing. But otherwise, we're largely seeing compelling but easy to understand plots complicated by the ramifications of their outcomes.

This issue also brings in the focus of what this group is willing to do. On the one hand, they're willing to stop a giant threat to humans and mutants alike at all costs, exploring non-lethal methods first and, upon exhausting them, eventually moving to those more devastating solutions. This decision weighs on everyone but we particularly see Colossus' trouble dealing with it. He knew some of the innocent men who died after getting caught up in everything through no fault of their own. On top of that, he knew they were just trying to lead innocent lives, like he's been trying to find since AvX. It's heart-wrenching to watch him watch them fail. A lot of really good things to look for in here. If you're looking for an X book that's a little outside the mainstream and a little less convoluted than bringing past X-Men to the present, you should check this book out. Can't go wrong with it so far.

Fury MAX 9
Ennis (w) and Parlov (a) and Loughridge (c)

I considered not reviewing this issue. I considered it for a number of reasons. For one, it's in the MAX line, which is Marvel's way to take itself really seriously. Not that I don't take Marvel seriously, but MAX is the way they can do it with swearing and excessive violence and sex. It only works for some characters so they only really put some characters up for the MAX line, including Fury and Deadpool. I guess there are some benefits to it, but they're typically not benefits I read comics for so I tend not to give too much credence to them. Another reason I almost didn't review this was that I hadn't read any of this series prior. In fact, I think one issue of this has come out since I started this blog and I missed that one entirely and pretended it didn't exist. On the other hand, if I want to make a blog about Marvel comics, it feels weird to be so selective about what I feel Marvel should do. And, at the end of the day, I love comics. I'd read it anyway, probably, I might as well say some things on it.

Like I said, I've never read Fury MAX before, so I only have Fury's regular style history and my knowledge of the MAX line to go on coming in. Not necessarily awful. I don't hate the MAX comics, I just tend to disregard them. This issue didn't totally REQUIRE the MAX identifier on it; except for a couple swears and maybe a tiny bit more blood than usual (though I can't be sure), it felt like it could have fit any where in the regular Universe. I've seen Deadpool MAX issues that are just a free-for-all of swears and gore and sex, so this was a relatively tame one. It also happens during the Vietnam War, which leads you to believe there will be some blood. Fury and Frank Castle are teamed up to assassinate a Vietnamese leader who has evidence of illicit activities taking place fairly high up in the American government. If that evidence were to come to light, it could effectively end the war and destabilize America. When Fury eventually does get to the Vietnamese leader, he's asked why he would want to stop the evidence from getting out. After all, it would end this horrible war. The Vietnamese leader indicates that he's done many things for love of his country; this is just another of those. Castle still shoots him from the window and Fury torches the place. They get out right before the Air Force air strikes the place, in case Fury and Castle failed. Upon his return home, Fury meets with a conniving senator whose wife has a relationship with Fury and is told that the senator did everything he could to try to call off the air strike. The audience knows it's not true (we saw him earlier obstinately not doing anything) and probably Fury knows. He's left with the idea that his actions only protected people who don't deserve protecting and prolonged a war that maybe he's ill-prepared to stop fighting (like Punisher in War Zone and Nightmare; the war never leaves the soldier). Pretty interesting stuff. Compelling. I'm sad it has to be in the MAX area because I think readers might treat it like I do, even though I think Ennis has smart things to say. Who knows though, I certainly don't slog through Marvel's sales reports. Maybe it's doing just fine. Fury-based books never seem to last without that MAX tag, so maybe this one will break that mold. Good luck to it.