Heroes to Order

[stubbleupdate]

It's hopefully well know that I'm pretty much the number one cheerleader for Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson's series The Order, a ten issue book that looked at California's 41 team of everyday heroes given superpowers. After the series ended, The Order made a few dotted appearances in the Marvel Universe, with a fleeting showing in the Initiaitve's Secret Invasion and leader Henry Hellrung joining in with Iron Man: Most Wanted. There's also this little look at them in San Francisco based Eternals

This issue features Maggie Veda Neuntauben (action star and mass adopter of orphans, with the superpower of creating golems), Sgt. Michael Supernaut Fields (paralysed veteran with a big fuck off robot exo-skeleton) and James Calamity Wa (ex-baseball player, now engineering graduate who built his own legs after a car crash and now has the superpower of superspeed).

Plus there's some Eternals or something. I don't know.

And you're right, the lighting on the preview panel IS amazing.






Yes, the Order got chumped, and I feel kind of like I did for buying a book for 2 pages of my heroes, but... never mind. They do look lovely in it, especially Veda. I could probably submit her for the Best Costume It's a shame that Fraction's star has risen to high that we'll likely never get to see any more of The Order, since he's playing with Thor, The X-Men and Iron Man now.

Comments

[vitruvian23]

No reason he can't make good use of them in one or more of those titles, if he feels like it. For that matter, I'm stumped as to why they never interacted more with the X-Men while they were based in San Fran, prior to Utopia, and why they weren't deployed to stop the 'mutant riots' during that whole mess.

[stubbleupdate]

On a storyline level, the mayor who was so excited about getting The Order in was also the one who invited the X-men to San Fran. I'm sure that there's a scene with Angel talking about the deal.

On a publishing level, people don't buy X-men to read about minor cancelled heroes.

[darkblade]

The Order was supposed to be stationed in LA. I always felt that they let a major oppurtunity slip by never pitting them against the Runaways.

The contrast between some kids who had the hero life forced upon them by circumstance and a distrust of authority and a bunch of well meaning adults taking up powers willingly as a government sanctioned program could have been very well done.

It's not like the Runaways were doing anything worth while at the time anyways.

[kerithwyn]

Yeah, I loved The Order. And hell yeah, Matt Fraction, for using them when he can. Kind of like how Kurt Busiek would drop in appearances by the (also dearly missed) Power Company where he could. Won't sell the book, maybe, but a nice nod to faithful readers.

Hells yeah, The Order

[jazzypom]

Loved that book, and still loving Henry Hellrung. Hoping for the best, expecting the worst. Oh, Henry.

Re: Hells yeah, The Order

[stubbleupdate]

I actually use that as one of my personal mantras. That and "Zobo! Coming to getcha!"

[jlroberson]

Maybe, but he also still does things like FIVE FISTS OF SCIENCE(which along with CASANOVA, also resuming, is worth all his Marvel work put together). Fraction strikes me as the type who uses this kind of visibility and track record not so much as a means of rising higher as a writer of company-owned character as a means of gaining the clout and freedom to do his own projects eventually, much as Warren Ellis is now.

[q99]

Weren't the Order's powers temporary and thus, the original batch'd all be gone by now? (at least as Supers)

[stubbleupdate]

They were depowered and the survivors were given their powers back, with Aralune and Supernaut separated from each other.