Saturday Splash Page #14

 

"Please Wait While System Updates", in X-Men '92 (vol. 2) #3, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Alti Firmansyah (artist), Matt Milla (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

As discussed last week, the X-Men '92 mini-series tapped into sufficient nostalgia to get an ongoing series greenlit. Which ended after 10 issues, but that's how things go with Marvel in the 2010s, isn't it? 

Picking up sometime shortly after the mini-series, with Jean and Scott on a honeymoon (which turns into a time-traveling jaunt to the future to deal with Mr. Sinister), while Storm, Beast and Xavier act as the heads of the school. Which is back to being a real school, with dozens of students if not more roaming the halls.

The first arc involves vampires, I'm guessing because Chris Sims couldn't pass up the chance to use Dracula in an X-Men comic. The second arc starts with a local concert involving Lila Cheney, shifts to an encounter with a bunch of mutant Brood and the Imperial Guard, and ends with the Earth being threatened by a rogue Celestial. Sims and Bowers pull out the end of that one Grant Morrison JLA story for that one. Rock of Ages, I think. And during all that, you've got Jean and Scott's honeymoon as a time-travel disaster.

So the book is all over the place. Sims and Bowers pull in all sorts of stuff, although a lot of it doesn't get much time to go anywhere. They start a version of that plotline from the '90s about the Upstarts having some kind of contest to earn "points", by defeating certain characters, but that gets abandoned in the rush of the quick cancelation. While the X-Men are halfway across the galaxy (teaming up with Death's Head and Agent Brand while they're at it), X-Factor shows up at the concert and gets into a fight with a group of mutants lead by Adam-X the X-Treme, who is played as a loud joke, basically.

I will say there's not a lot of time wasted on mutants moping or being depressed. No time for that shit.

Alti Firmansyah draws issues 1-4 and 6-9, with Corey Hamscher handling the other two issues. Hamcher is close to Koblish in style. A heavy line, with a grittier texture to it. Guess it fits for his issues being set in crappy future timelines. Firmansyah's work is closer to the cartoon's look. Not simple, but but not nearly as many little shading lines all over the place like there are with Hamscher's. Both artists are able to handle the seemingly constant crowd scenes all the fights between large groups demand, and Firmansyah can manage the exaggerated expressions for the more comedic parts. Hamscher doesn't really get those opportunities, but he does give Cable an exaggerated and ridiculous looking firearm when he shows up.

Saturday Splash Page #13

"The Darkest Timeline of All," in X-Men '92 (vol. 1) #1, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Scott Koblish (artist), Matt Milla (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer)

Jonathan Hickman's Secret Wars started from the point where all the universes were destroyed, after Earth's heroes failed utterly to prevent this. Doom was able to destroy the Beyonders, because Doom is goal-oriented like that, and made himself god of a single surviving world, cobbled from pieces of those destroyed universes. Like Crisis on the Infinite Earths, but a lot less stuff salvaged, and much more messily pieced together.

Yes, even messier than Hawkman.

Marvel decided to lean into this by at least temporarily canceling all their ongoing titles. In their place, we got a bunch of four-issue mini-series, set in different zones of Doom's world. This is probably the oddest of those, considering it's playing off the early Nineties X-Men cartoon, of all things. Well, sort of. Sims and Bowers bring in characters that were not part of that cartoon, as part of what is a weird story.

The X-Men get an invite to a rehabilitation clinic supposedly helping violent mutants set aside their destructive and self-destructive impulses. A clinic run by Cassandra Nova, who in this reality is a clone body of Xavier's (made by Apocalypse, I do not remember that plotline) that is possessed by the Shadow King. Nova has some weird plan to smooth out the X-Men's rough edges and neuroses, to make them into bland, pleasant sorts, presented as making them "BSP Approved", meaning Broadcasting Standards and Practices. 

Yeah, I don't know. It feels like meta-commentary, but it isn't like the cartoon wasn't in some ways nerfed by the BSP back in the day. We didn't see Wolverine violently carving people up, just robots. Same for Bishop and Cable shooting things with their giant firearms. Nor was there much suggestion anybody was getting any, but Nova apparently felt there was just too much tension and innuendo going on between Gambit and Rogue. And this is all part of a plan to make sure Robert Kelly (who is Doom's "baron" in this sector) gets killed by some Frankensteined mega-Sentinel, so Nova can take his place. It doesn't work, thanks to an assist from a bizarre X-Force squad. Having Bishop and Cable on the same team seems like it would violate some limit on the number of firearms you can carry.

I think this comic must have been released digitally first, because some of the panel layouts are just bizarre if it was designed for print. Not at all what Koblish's layouts look like on anything else I've seen of his, or anything else I've seen that Bowers and Sims wrote. Pages with lots of empty black space and only one or two panels (like the page up above). I assume those were meant to read like you swipe and the next panel pops up, closer to a still in an animated feature. There are voice balloons where Nova says one thing, and there's a big red "X" stenciled over it and a little note saying it's inappropriate, with different, less suggestive dialogue in another balloon nearby. That said, the psychic battle between Xavier and Nova has some neat bits in it, with Xavier's consciousness being scattered into a bunch of little orbs that look very freaked out. I don't buy the Shadow King, Xavier body or no, can overcome the Phoenix, though.

As far as the four Secret Wars mini-series I've actually read, I'd probably rank this third, although I haven't re-read Master of Kung-Fu in a while.

Sunday Splash Page #170

 

"Never Tell Him the Odds," in Down, Set, Fight!, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Scott Kowalchuk (artist/colorist), Josh Krach (letterer)

Released early in 2014, Down, Set, Fight! is the story of former football player Chuck Fairlane, who was banned from the game for punching out a mascot who chose to taunt him at the wrong moment. Settled into life as a high school football coach, Chuck gets attacked by a mascot one day. It turns out there's been a string of these attacks on famous athletes, and that there's a lot of betting on them going on. Which means someone's orchestrating it, and Chuck has a good idea who.

I think this whole thing was based around the idea of athletes fighting mascots, which is not entirely unheard of here in the States. I think Brook and Robin Lopez in the NBA have (mock)terrorized mascots for years. Chuck's also dealing with a manipulative, abusive creep of a father. He hates the guy, but his father consistently finds ways to make sure that Chuck winning helps him win, too. Which is why he originally punched out the mascot. His dad just had to let him know that he'd goaded Chuck into winning a game he was ready to give up on. That's an ugly feeling, when you can't even enjoy your successes because the worst person possible also benefited.

There's a high school football player Chuck tries to encourage in good ways, and an FBI agent who seems to be there for exposition and when the plot requires a way for Chuck to avoid legal repercussions for the stuff he does. But really, this is Chuck and his dad's story.

Kowalchuk's art has a heavy line, and he soften it with his color work, or make it heavier when necessary. Sometimes I see a bit of Keith Giffen in his characters' faces (though this is definitely not a comic that goes in for 9-panel grids), other times a bit of Rich Burchett. The fights have an old-school superhero style to them. Heavy impacts, big feats of strength (I almost went with the page of Chuck suplexing one of those Chinese New Year dragons full of people) but the violence isn't graphic or anything. A bear mascot slashes Chuck across the chest, but there's no blood. That kind of thing.

What I Bought 7/11/2018 - Part 1

A day after I put up that post about Parks and Rec, I got to an episode where Ben ending up spending his wedding anniversary with Larry instead of Leslie and they got along. Then a couple of episodes later, Ben decided Larry was actually a decent guy and tried to get the rest of the characters to acknowledge that. It ended badly but at least it was something.

Domino #4, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Well, know I know Greg Land can draw unconscious people who don't look terrifying now. They are unconscious, right? Shang-Chi wouldn't straight murder them, or let Domino do so, right?

We get a flashback that explains the connection between Topaz and this Desmond fellow, and now I understand the connection between his problems and Domino's powers a little better. Diamondback and Outlaw, having figured out Domino suspects one of them, try to hunt the villains down, but that doesn't seem to be going well. Domino is trying to learn from Shang-Chi, which mostly seems to involve her getting beat up. They do take a break, but they're going to be attacked by some of Shang's old enemies.

I think one of my favorite bits from this issue is Deadpool giving Outlaw and Diamondback a heads up on where to find Topaz and Desmond, and wanting to go along. Even though Topaz could shut Wade's healing factor off. Not that possibly dying is a thing that's going to deter Wade at the best of times, but it's nice to see Deadpool wanting to help his friends, and those people worrying about his well-being.

I'm less sure about how silly or flip Domino seems to be acting. Maybe that's a consequence of having a power that makes everything work out for you, or it's just meant to be her covering her fear. But the thing this arc has kept hammering is how spooked Topaz and Desmond have her, how concerned she is about being reliant on a power she can't control. She was ready to beat Topaz to death with her bare hands last issue.

Maybe the more manic, silly tone suits Baldeon's art better. I think he can handle quiet moments fine, the brief dance scene with Domino and Shang is nice. There's a part where he does a close-up on both their eyes when she fails to shoot him, then a callback later in this issue when she successfully lands a punch. But he draws a lot of people with outsized emotions on display. Big scowls or signs of exertion, yelling or looking really angry. It works for what's happening. Topaz and Desmond really seem to enjoy hurting people, Outlaw and Diamondback are pissed these two are wrecking their team. "Subdued" isn't really on the menu.

Infinity Countdown Darkhawk #4, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - In case you thought I was joking about the giant Darkhawk mecha last issue.

There's a lot of fighting. Nova shows up, trying to track down his brother, who he doesn't realize is hosting a giant space bird in his body. Nova and Darkhawk keep getting in each other's way, and did Nova get a serious power downgrade? I don't think a bunch of Darkhawks should be able to do this well against a guy who killed Annihilus. Chris kills Rich's brother, so Rich is pissed at him. Chris returns to Earth, and then Sleepwalker shows up to segue into another tie-in mini-series.

Chalk this up as a poor buying decision on my part. It seemed like a good idea in theory, but in practice, no. For as much as I thought Sims and Bowers (Sims, mostly) kept up on continuity, they don't know Death's Head already tried to kill Richard Rider once, so they'd know each other? It was in a comic that came out a year ago, it's not that far back. Whatever, minor thing, just annoyed me a little. I don't really get where Nova's coming from exactly in his reactions towards Darkhawk. Maybe it's just that he's stressed because his brother's involved and he feels guilty. Most of what I'm basing Nova and 'Hawk's relationship on is their interactions in the Abnett/Lanning era, and I feel like that's what Sims and Bowers are using also. But it also feels like they're either drawing on something else as well, or they interpreted things differently from how I did.

The issue is basically one big fight scene, and it doesn't seem to play to Lim's strengths. Drawing mostly characters encased entirely in armor, with no facial expressions can't make things easy, but the art is stiff and characters posed. A lot of the time it doesn't feel as if things are flowing naturally from one panel to the next, characters don't sell the force of a blow or the amount they're exerting themselves with their posture. You can tell what's happening, but it feels less like we're seeing the progression of events, and more like we're catching a brief glimpse. Character was there, now character is here. You can infer what happened in between, so it still works, I guess. But it's nothing that gets me enthused about it.

Man, even the sound effects bug me. The lettering style and shades of color used don't feel like they fit with the tone of the art. Make the "CHOOM" a more noticeably bigger, or make the edges of it more jagged or something! Yes, I know, they're in space, there shouldn't be sound effects anyway. But there are, so we might as well assess them.

What I Bought 6/27/2018

One thing I find frustrating about drawing is my brain continually pictures the things I want to draw from angles and perspectives I am not actually capable of drawing. The part coming up with ideas does not communicate with the part responsible for carrying out those ideas.

Ms. Marvel #31, by G. Willow Wilson, Saladin Ahmed, Rainbow Rowell, Hasan Minhaj (writers), Nico Leon, Gustavo Duarte, Bob Quinn, Elmo Bondoc (artist), Ian Herring (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - Striped pants is an interesting look. I guess if you can make it work for you.

Kamala's sleepover with Nakia, Zoe, and Mike is interrupted by several things requiring Ms. Marvel's attention, which makes Kamala increasingly frustrated. So she decides to just come clean and reveal her secret identity to her friends. Who admit they already knew, because she's not good at maintaining a secret identity. Ouch.

I'm a little disappointed by the dull thud of "Yeah, we already knew you were a superhero," if only because Kamala's been intermittently stressing over keeping secrets from Nakia since her earliest issues. It doesn't feel like a great payoff for what seemed to be played up as such a big decision for Kamala. I suppose it's part of her personality to stress out over things too much. See also her recent freakout over kissing Red Dagger. The alternative was probably a lot of melodrama of her friends freaking out over being kept in the dark. So this is probably better.

The distractions - each of which is written and drawn by a different art team - are a mixed bag. Lockjaw's arrival is funny, if a bit random. Duarte's art is a different style than the book normally sees, closer to Skottie Young than Alphona or Nico Leon's. But it works for the more silly, madcap aspect of his section. Ian Herring goes with a much different color palette than he normally does, to the point I wondered if he even did the color work for those pages. Then Herring switches to a more faded color scheme for Elmo Bondoc's pages, closer to what Herring used when Adrian Alphona was still drawing the book. Bondoc's art is a little shaky, Miles Morales' head is oddly shaped in more than a few panels. Bob Quinn's was probably closest to Nico Leon's; the linework is heavier, he doesn't showcase that knack for a simplified style for more humorous effect Leon has, but the scene didn't call for it.

As special 50th issues go, this one was solidly fine.

Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk #3, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Not sure why Evil PhoenixHawk stole the fur trim from Kraven the Hunter's vest, but wannabe cosmic beings are odd like that.

I figured it's only two more issues, might as well stick around for the finish. The spirit of Powell's suit returns to explain the true origin of all those amulets, which involves the Elders of the Universe. The point to all this is to make Powell embrace the true potential of the power he has, somehow, pull himself together, and pursue the other Raptors before they get to Earth. Death's Head is still alive and tagging along, figuring there'll be a big bounty for a giant space bird. Good luck with that.

So much for my prediction on how the story was going to go. I figured Powell's "pattern" was lurking inside the amulet ripped from Darkhawk's chest, and he would be stirred to seize control from Robbie Rider when they attack New York, because the invaders always head for New York, and he sees his fiance running for her life. Darkhawk unlocking true potential and summoning a Darkhawk Gundam was not something I expected.

So in addition to try to connect Darkhawk to the Phoenix, know we're tying his origin to one of the Elders of the Universe. And how did the Primitive Skrull and Shi'ar find their way to Null Space, or the Darkforce Dimension, whichever? This is a lot of needless complication, and it's also resulting in a lot of exposition in this 4-issue mini-series. I like that the Kree Commander briefly mentions they've run into trouble hunting for Infinity Stones, since you could be forgiven for wondering what the hell any of this mini-series has to do with that.

I was going to say Lim drew the Skrulls without wrinkly chins, but I guess we could argue this was far enough back they hadn't evolved that feature. The Shi'ar are almost entirely covered with feathers at this stage, so it's a while ago. There's a few panels in here I can't tell what Lim's going for. On the page where the first Raptor appears, he looks at the other Shi'ar in one panel, then at a bare patch of ground at his feet, then at his arm, then the Skrulls. What's he looking at in the second panel? If it's his feet, then angle needs to be different. We also can't see his head at all, so we can't even try to gauge by an expression. There are a couple others like that, where a different view, or pulling further back might have clarified things. On the other hand, the full-page splash of the Anti-Phoenix looked pretty cool, as enormous birds made of space go.

What I Bought 6/13/2018 - Part 1

Well, I found three of the seven comics coming out this week I wanted. Which is how I figured it'd go. If I go to Columbia this weekend, I might find some more. Also, my Internet is down until probably Monday afternoon. Hooray.

Domino #3, by Gail Simone (writer), David Baldeon and Anthony Piper (artist), Jesus Aburtov (colorist), Clayton Cowles (letterer) - Oh no, Greg Land is trying to draw people with happy smiles. It's one of the most horrifying things in the universe.

Domino tries to take revenge for her presumed dead friends, but screws it up because she wants to "make it hurt" and so uses fists rather than guns. So the villains escape again. At least her friends aren't really dead. Amadeus Cho suspects Diamondback is the traitor, but Domino doesn't want to believe it. Rather than confront her friend, or try to gather more evidence, she decides to go learn to control her power, after lying poorly to her friends. And she's going to learn control from Shang-Chi. Sure, why not? That dude needs to loosen up. But where is his monkey pal? C'mon on Gail Simone, respect CM Punk's very enjoyable story.

It is interesting to see Domino hanging out with this wider cast of characters. I've always associated her pretty strongly with Cable and X-Force. Deadpool, if he happens to be around. She was part of the X-Men while they lived on that island off San Francisco, but I usually forget that. But now we've got her palling around with Amadeus Cho, looking for Shang-Chi, forming a merc team that includes a former member of the Serpent Society/one of Captain America's ex-girlfriends. She's a little more spastic than I'm used to, but I'm used to her hanging around teenagers Cable's leading by the nose, or else Deadpool. She had to be a serious adult in those situations because there weren't any other good options.

The issue has a few flashbacks, colored various shades of grey, of Domino's time as a child being experimented on by creepy doctors trying to bring out her powers. They're surprised when that gets one of them killed. There isn't much to either of them - and we'll see if Topaz is connected to them in some way - but that might be the point. Who cares what their motivations are? They're experimenting on kids, fuck their rationalizations. Jesus Arbutov draws those pages, and it's a very straightforward style. There's bit of someone's style in there I can't place; Cameron Stewart maybe, or Darwyn Cooke. A lot fewer lines than in Baldeon's work on the remainder of the issue, but it's a much quieter setting. Domino's trying to keep herself emotionless, to give the doctors nothing, and the doctors' cheerful or collegial attitudes are fake. Some the emotions aren't real, or are hidden, and the expressions, and colors, are muted.

Baldeon's work, on the other hand, has a lot of emotion. Topaz has an intense scowl on her face in every panel. Domino looks alternately enraged, or depressed, or whatever to an extreme degree. Outlaw is stunned when Domino lies badly about going on a solo mission. The emotions are all BIG emotions. Baldeon draws dark rings around big eyes, which amplifies the emotion, or else a lot of little lines radiating outward.  And it gets the point across; I buy in totally that this Topaz despises Domino, and that Domino is desperate and furious and spooked by all this.

Infinity Countdown: Darkhawk #2, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - What will Darkhawk do without his nightlight?

Chris Powell is, like Domino, not the best at planning. He lets Death's Head fake-capture him and haul him into space to turn over to the Raptors. The Raptors betray Death's Head and blow up his ship. Powell thinks these guys will be pushovers like in that one-shot last fall, but they aren't, and he gets his ass kicked. The lead Raptor unveils some spiel about how the Raptors were originally an artificial version of some cosmic being meant to prey on the Phoenix Force?! Powell's peculiar situation is the perfect opportunity to create that being for real. They rip the amulet from Darkhawk's chest, and give it to Nova's brother Robbie, who eagerly accepts this gift pulled from the dead chest of his brother's friend and teammate, and they head for Earth. I mean, look at that nonsense.

I'm sure Powell is fine. Death's Head, too. It can't be the first time someone betrayed him, although I imagine no one does so twice. The Raptors are headed to Earth, Powell's pattern should still be inside the amulet, his fiance is on Earth, it'll be fine.

I've never thought the "let the bad guys capture you" plan was particularly bright. I suppose if your enemy can be anywhere in the universe it's the simplest way to get them to you, but just based on sheer numbers it seems stupid.

Lim's art is like it was in the first issue. It's very pretty - the panels where Darkhawk spreads his wing, he looks very shiny and cool - but the fight scenes still lack something. The Raptors are beating Darkhawk soundly, but it doesn't really come off from the art. Maybe because it happens so quickly. Once he realizes what he's up against, he gets brought down within a couple of panels, and one of those is a close-up on his face as the visor is cracking (although the glowing eyes just reminded me of ROM as much as anything). Maybe a few less panels of Miri freaking out over Chris bad plan, or less banter between him and Death's Head would have allowed more panels of him getting thoroughly trounced, and that might have helped. Or maybe not.

What I Bought 5/23/2018

Was on the road all week. Just got back a few hours ago. I did, while out and about, manage to find one book from this week at a comic store I found along the way.

Infinity Countdown Darkhawk #1, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Gang Hyuk Lim (artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) – Yet another artist fails to make that redesigned look work.

Chris Powell spends some time at Project PEGASUS figuring out the limits of his armor’s new situation. Namely, no more switching back and forth to repair damage to himself or the suit. Now he wants to go into space to fight the Fraternity of Raptors, and all he needs is a ship from his old pal Nova. Who says no, because he’s busy fighting the Raptors, who now include his little brother Robbie. As Chris debates his next move, he’s attacked by Death’s Head, who mostly does not use that particular speech pattern I see most people write him with. That sort-of Yoda thing? Although he does end questions with ”Yes?” a lot. 

The only connection I saw to any Infinity Anything was Nova made a reference to everyone being after the Gems as why he hasn’t already taken care of the Raptors. But then, despite being busy trying to keep the universe from the brink of war, he won’t let Chris handle the Raptors. Well, Richard never was the intelligent Rider brother, although neither is Robbie, if he’s running with the Raptors. And he’s wearing Mar-Vell’s Nega-Bands now?  So the issue is largely focused on establishing the current status quo. The deal with Chris’ armor, as well as what’s going on in space. Which is handy for someone like me, who stopped paying attention to Cosmic Marvel the minute it fell from Abnett and Lanning’s hands into Bendis’.

Lim’s art is generally fine, although the big fight happens in an entirely empty section of New York City. There’s a few cars, but no other people. Also, I would never have recognized Robbie Rider, who is pretty much always shown wearing glasses with floppy hair, if he hadn’t told the Raptors his name, because he’s drawn like some pointy-haired anime protagonist. “Pretty” is probably the best descriptor. Everyone is very attractive, and all the armor looks very shiny. Lim went back to the more classic look, with the long silver wings, which I consider an improvement over the one on the cover. Lot of computerized effects for energy blasts and stuff like that, which isn't bad, but isn't great. On the other hand, Lim draws Death’s Head’s head like it’s an actual organic skull, like Ghost Rider, rather than a robot head, which is what I thought it was. That's how I've seen it draw by everyone else I've ever seen draw Death's Head. Death's Head II is another matter, but that's neither here nor there.

So there are some parts in here I find interesting, or that might lead somewhere good, but the issue is still mostly treading water on my residual fondness for Darkhawk.

What I Bought 12/6/2017 - Part 2

My neighbor downstairs I complained about last month came up last week and apologized. Turns out it really was the people in the apartment behind me who were the problem. Will wonders never cease? For today's post, we've got the first issue of a mini-series, and the last one of those three Marvel Legacy books I wanted to try. Will the mini-series fare better with me than Ragman did?

The Demon: Hell is Earth #1, by Andrew Constant (writer), Brad Walker (penciler), Andrew Hennessy (inker), Chris Sotomayor (colorist), Tom Napolitano (letterer) - It's never a good thing when both Etrigan and Jason Blood are smiling. If they're actually agreed upon a course of action, the title will be extremely accurate.

Jason's been having nightmares of a young girl, which have brought him to Death Valley. The young girl is on a vacation with her family, also plagued by the nightmares. Madame Xanadu is charging in on a motorcycle, hoping to avert whatever is about to happen. And then a test missile crashes in the desert, with a real warhead. A warhead of something unconventional.

Don't think I've read anything drawn by Brad Walker in a while. His Jason Blood looks fairly haggard, his Etrigan has a bit of that Kirby style, which I mostly notice in the Demon's hands. The squared off nails, the thick fingers that almost look like he's carved from rock. I guess most artists hew to the original design, but I've grown used to John McCrea's almost skeletal, oddly proportioned Etrigan. Anyway, Walker's Etrigan is a hulking wall, an almost solid mass, looming over everyone else. Even in panels that are supposed to focus on Blood, Etrigan barges he way in, either physically or via internal narration.

The idea of Blood floating about offering commentary on Etrigan's actions isn't that novel to me, I assumed since Etrigan could do so to him that it worked both ways, but I am curious what the deal is with the little girl, and how they're going to keep Etrigan involved in this story, since it's hard for me to see him objecting to Hell being unleashed on Earth.

Darkhawk #51, by Chad Bowers and Chris Sims (writers), Kev Walker (artist), Jeff Tartaglia (colorist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - Chris Powell looks awfully young there, unless it's meant to be a flashback to when he found the amulet.

Chris is a rookie cop now, trying to be the man he thought his father was (before he learned he was dirty). The amulet hasn't worked in a year, which hasn't stopped two of the Fraternity of Raptors from coming for the amulet. I didn't remember the suits having their own kind of sentience, but apparently Powell had an impact on his, and it had been trying to disconnect the member of the Fraternity from their access to the suits. He and Powell come to an understanding and prepare to head into space to contend with the Raptors. Issue end.

Of the three of these I bought, this is the one I feel like spends the most time recapping origin stuff, but also the one trying most seriously to set up something in motion for future stories. I wonder if Sims and Bowers could have gotten things to where they wanted without quite so much rehashing old stories, some of it feels unnecessary. I think it's meant to bring Powell back to the start before taking the first step on a new beginning. So make him a cop like his father, but making the choice to be a clean cop. Send him back to where he first got the amulet, give him a choice to keep it or not, accept the challenge or not, this time with a better sense of what that means.  And this is the one I'd most want to see going forward, if only out of some vain hope I'd get to see all the stuff I wanted from the Abnett/Lanning cosmic run.

When Powell accepts the amulet again, Kev Walker gives it a new design, and I'm not a fan. Remember how in the new 52, Jim Lee gave a bunch of heroes needlessly busy costumes, with seams on them suggesting interlocking armor pieces? That's kind of what Walker goes for here, in addition to even bigger shoulder pads than Darkhawk's traditionally had. And I know a belt may seem a strange accessory for a partially sentient armor, but I think the new look could use it. Compared to how the old armor looks when he draws it, I can't consider it an improvement.

All that said, Walker uses the jagged, broken panels he favors to good effect here. During the fight in the House of Mirrors, where the way the panels are set up combines with the reflections of the characters to be almost disorienting, and plays into Powell's confusion with everything that's going on. And during the reveal of what the suit has been up to while away from Powell, where you figure we're only catching glimpses of what's being revealed to Chris, or that this is how it gets processed by him - brief flashes, only barely connected by the spiel he's getting from the suit. And there's one panel of Chris reflecting on his past in the rain where I just really like the lighting and shadows Tartaglia gives it. Powell looks so much older and more thoughtful in those panels, at the moment he's going to be presented with a decision about who he wants to be.