Gambit 10
Asmus (w) and C. Mann w/ Kirk and S. Mann and Leisten (a) and Rosenberg (c)
Gambit and Fence make a plan with Joelle to get to the secret HYDRA base that, according to information from an ex-HYDRA officer, was used by Baron Von Strucker to defeat death. Joelle's stated plan is to find whatever serum or formula HYDRA came up with and use it on her dying daughter. Gambit and Joelle travel to the base, a skull-shaped snow base in Canada, and use the access codes the ex-HYDRA officer gave them (or rather, the ones Gambit stole when he got involved at the villain club last issue). The deeper they go into the base, they begin to realize that their HYDRA officer wasn't exactly the highest-ranking, so his codes stop working at a certain point and leave Gambit and Joelle fighting their way through horrible defensive abominations. They make their way to the serum, take it, and manage to escape by snowmobile. After camping out in the snow together overnight, Gambit and Joelle wake up to find Rogue standing over them. Meanwhile, Tombstone has tracked down Fence and demanded the whereabouts of Joelle and Gambit. Fence tries, to his credit, to get Tombstone to back off, citing Joelle's daughter. Tombstone reveals that Joelle is not what she claims to be.
This was a fun issue, sure, with all the staples of Gambit books so far. There's a bit of repetition throughout that gets a little stale (Gambit constantly reminds everyone that he's been in situations like this before, and he and Joelle constantly affirm that they're trusting each other in this) but overall the book's enjoyable enough. Tombstone seems intent on bringing us somewhere in this Joelle storyline, which is something of a relief. I'm interested to see how the introduction of Rogue to this story will play out. Frankly there's not much else to say about the issue. It reads like every other issue of Gambit so far, which is neither a bad thing nor a particularly ringing endorsement. The book has been fun so far but ten issues that feel like they're spinning their wheels a bit makes you worry about the longevity of a title like this. I'm on its side, though, for now. It's a fun book with an interesting main character, though Gambit books don't have a history of lasting. We'll see how the next few issues shape up.
Thunderbolts 7
Way (w) and Noto (a) and Guru eFX (c)
The key to this book, at least in my mind, is the team itself. When the first issue came out, I absolutely picked it up because of the team presented on the cover. I was very interested in this black-and-red team because it was so clearly not a team. Everyone in the book is used to working by him or herself primarily (with the possible exception of Flash, but Venom tends not to get along with people). The first arc was interesting because it took that team and physically divided them while creating emotional divides between them. We left the first arc with no one trusting team leader Red Hulk, Deadpool angry with Punisher for his fling with Elektra, Punisher angry at Red Hulk for bringing Leader on to the team, and Venom particularly angry with their time in Kata Jaya. Issue seven takes a well-planned turn by putting the team in the same place again and making that place a submarine. Is there still a story happening here? Sure. But I don't really care about it, not yet anyway. Deadpool has an uncomfortable exchange with Elektra, which leads to Deadpool assuming her relationship with Punisher has continued though it hasn't (or at least, not by way of an actual relationship). As a result, Deadpool has spent time in the not-Danger Room (pretty much just a Danger Room) killing Punisher 300 times, according to Red Hulk. Meanwhile, Red Hulk has to deal with a mutiny as the rest of the team gets sick of his lies and one another. He handles it easily enough and explains the coming plot; the transport that left Kata Jaya just before them was carrying the materials, Ross explains, for a Gamma bomb. He has Leader looking over the schematics in the hopes that he'll be able to prove or disprove his theory. This is all going on with the backdrop of a CIA issue wherein a terrorist cell they didn't know existed seems to have blown itself up or, as they privately suspect, was dismantled by something (there's a great appearance by the Uncanny Avengers as the CIA tries to figure out who was responsible. "Look at what I'm carrying...does it
look like a broom to you?" Captain America says, holding his shield. "Clean up your own mess." He then returns to fighting AIM, riding giant, rocket-propelled gorillas. THAT'S the story I want to read). Leader bursts in to Ross' briefing saying that it's not a bomb they're building; it's a battery. Enter gamma-powered robotic suits as the upcoming villains.
I like the way this book has been structured, especially as the pieces start to come together on the heels of the first arc. I think, looking back, that I got a little dismayed by how little the team, which had interested me in the book in the first place, was interacting with one another. Have faith though, says Daniel Way. We simply went through all of that to make it more important for the team to be trapped in a submarine together. Good issue and the foundations are all there for a good book. I have to say, too, I was a big fan of the Noto art over the Dillon art. I could stand to look at the characters' faces.
Fury MAX 10
Ennis (w) and Parlov (a) and Loughridge (c)
I like the Fury MAX book because it feels like an indie comic with the backdrop of a "normal" Marvel world. It's nice to occasionally pull back from the capes of the superhero world and read a book about a mostly normal (though pretty darn crafty) guy somewhere in the espionage world. I do think that there's too much swearing.
Let's step back and take a look at that line real quick, shall we? It occurs to me that I've complained about swearing in several books. I complain about excessive swearing in books where excessive swearing appears, I've complained about Bendis' fake swears in Guardians of the Galaxy, I've complained about Humphries' black-box swearing in Uncanny X-Force, etc. I'm not opposed to swears. I'm not on some campaign to remove swears from modern day society. I swear somewhat frequently myself. I don't do it in this blog so much because it's typically not necessary and usually sloppy writing. There are typically better words to use. I think it's fair to toss it into fiction occasionally because you're creating human characters and humans swear. I don't really like it when people swear non-stop in fiction because I tend not to run into people who swear that much and it takes me out of the book when you throw that many unnecessary words at me. Swears don't upset me. Bad writing does. Let's head back to Fury MAX 10.
So a problem with the MAX line is the ability to swear pretty much at will. I can usually get past that but by and large I find it overdone. Still, there's an interesting story happening here, and one that's not so outrageous you have to suspend disbelief. I love comics (obviously) and I love superhero comics, but clearly you go in with a level of suspended disbelief. It's nice occasionally to have a story that seems like it might be real. In this case, Fury is recounting his time surveying an American armed support group in Nicaragua in 1984. The questions and plot mostly revolve around whether or not the American forces are getting into the drug-dealing game with material from Nicaragua. It's a compelling story that seems to be going in a very interesting place as a captain on the base has just been found dead, holding a gun in front of a pile of cocaine. It's a compelling story set in a compelling world that isn't particularly foreign to readers (unless it's a child reading, in which case STOP READING THE MAX LINE). Good place to start this arc.
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