Daredevil 30
Waid (w) and Samnee (a) and J. Rodriguez (c)
Somehow, in my
pre-game this week, I forgot that Silver Surfer was co-starring in this Daredevil issue, making it
even more appealing to me. I know! And I love that cover so I really don't understand how I forgot! Look, it's in the past, forget about it. Anyway, an alien claiming he's being unfairly hunted by Silver Surfer appears in Matt's office as Matt is talking to new temporary-replacement-Foggy Kirsten McDuffie, who has just decided she's taking the job fresh off losing her job as assistant DA. Matt rushes to his own office to learn about Ru'ach, his new alien visitor, who pleads to him about Silver Surfer's wrong persecution against him and begs to tell the Avengers his story. Surfer bursts into the office after searching around outside for a bit and instantly attacks, forcing Matt to tackle him out of the office and go full Daredevil in mid-air (rad, leaves some questions about what become of his suit). Surfer calms down pretty quickly, blaming Ru'ach for his aggression, and explains the problem with Ru'ach and his people, the Achian, who are masters of persuasion and deceit. Had he been brought to the Avengers, Surfer reveals, he would play them for all their worth and learn their greatest secrets, ready to take down the organization from inside. Daredevil agrees this would be bad and rides with Surfer (drives, actually, Silver Surfer allows him to pilot his surfboard because he has trouble seeing Ru'ach) to Stark Tower, where they find Ru'ach begging for an audience with Stark himself. They attack him and put him down. Surfer takes him and they part ways as Daredevil deals with some troubling words Ru'ach whispered to him before being knocked out.
Guys, I really like Silver Surfer. He's well-written and exceptionally-drawn (no surprises there as Chris Samnee continues to be exceptional) and his presence makes sense given the threat Ru'ach poses and the nature of his being. It's a nice team-up as Silver Surfer can't really see either; he relies on viewing a person's "inner light" to guide him. That make Ru'ach nearly invisible to him so the team-up makes sense, as does Daredevil getting to drive the board (nice to be able to justify things we want to see happen anyway). It's a really fun issue with a solid emotional core as Kirsten McDuffie comes back into Matt's life after a particularly confusing and abruptly ended relationship. Is Ru'ach capable of telling the truth? If so, what do his final words to Matt mean for our hero? All that and more, maybe next time!
Indestructible Hulk 12
Waid (w) and Scalera (a) and Staples (c)
Hulk is in the 1800s squaring off against dinosaurs alongside Marvel Western heroes Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid and the Two-Gun Kid. But who is behind all of this? Apparently new villain Tok Baltusar, a criminal scientist from the 23rd century, has been manipulating the time stream, including going back in time to nab up some dinosaurs to fight for his cause and also to infect a silver mine in Arizona to create an alloy that can power time travel on a massive scale. With the time stream broken, Banner's consciousness (in the time-traveling robot that accompanies Hulk) informs us that any changes are permanent, that the time stream won't auto-correct anything it recognizes as out of place. So on top of Tok's sinister designs for the future he's planning that involves time travel on a massive scale, anything that happens in this version of Arizona happens in Arizona
for the rest of time. That means if the radiation needed to change the mountain doesn't get shut down somehow, this whole area will be uninhabitable. Hulk's mission, along with the other heroes, is to stop Tok and send him out of this time (much like a video game bad guy, he has big blinking lights to show where to shoot him) and to seal and bury the source of this radiation. Good luck, Hulk! Good luck Kids Colt, Rawhide, and Two-Gun!
The issue is almost non-stop action, dropping Hulk right into the thick of a fight with a dinosaur to kick the book off and ending with a massive explosion and another displacement in time with mostly action in-between. This post didn't even
mention Tok's deputies, three enhanced soldiers with Gatling guns. Well now it did. Anyway, it's mostly action with a fair amount of plot spread in. One of the things Waid has been good at with this series has been giving us the action that a Hulk book needs to sustain (and any superhero comic, really) while also re-envisioning Banner in a more interesting capacity. Here Banner gets his kicks out of keeping Hulk angry (if Hulk reverts back to Banner, the two will almost certainly die) by teasing him and being kind of a jerk to him. The only real complaint I have here is that there's a little too much summarizing (I know, that's pretty hypocritical coming from me but I'm just TRYING to summarize, you guys). Tok feeds us back the idea of the breaking down timelines well after Banner (and the summary page, for that matter) has told us about it already. Banner himself tells us about the implications of these problems several times, as if to make sure we know how raised the stakes are. Otherwise, a pretty fun book and well-paced, giving us a fair amount of plot embedded into solid action.
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