Mighty Avengers #9

[skemono]

Boom.






Meanwhile...



"Say my name."

(It's Blade, by the way. Not Beyoncé)

Question for those playing along at home: the Blue Marvel is written as someone who's been around all this time but we just didn't know about it. Many of the people of the Marvel Universe recognize him and talk about him as if they have a history with him: Uatu, Reed Richards, Kaluu, Blade, Spider-Ock said he was a fan of his scientific work, Adam himself said he knew Luke Cage's father, and so on. My question to you all: does this make Blue Marvel the Sentry? If so, is he the Sentry done right? done wrong? done the same?

Comments

[terrykun]

I wonder if Jen needed a smoke after that....

[donnblake]

I certainly hope that's not the intended reading, given that the last thing she says on the subject is "I don't think this is a good idea."

[thehood]

Monica also did that with Danvers, no?

[gtrout]

I just cannot get past the art. Cannot. So porny. So LAAAAND.

[skemono]

I'm no fan of Land, but his work on this title hasn't been bad. When I first saw scans I had to have it pointed out in the comments that the art was Land, because it didn't look like it. So... which panels are porny, exactly? (I sure hope it's not the two-page spread--I don't want to know what porn looks like that)

[gtrout]

The panels that set off the reaction for me were in the Shulkie/Photon exchange, particularly the one of wide-stance-Jennifer mopping her brow, after which point several of the faces in the Blue Marvel sequence did it as well.

It's entirely possible that I have a lower threshold for "Pornface, aargh" in a Land page than I do for most artists' work. For which I totally blame Land.

[lilacsigil]

Blue Marvel's face in the top of the three-panel page? Jen's flat-on-her-back position in the first of the three vertical panels?

For me it's more that his female faces look different every panel and look creepily alike. Monica doesn't have the African-American features she usually has, for example.

[skemono]

Yeah, that's certainly a problem. I recall one post here where I was surprised to see one of the characters was White Tiger because I could not tell the difference between her and Monica.

[quatoria]

*Not* the first fucking time I have seen that happen when Land depicts Monica. I hate, just *hate* the way he draws her.

[q99]

Even with Land not being porny, I'm not a fan of Land's art on the book.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm getting it anyway 'cause the writing! But I'm not a fan of a lot of the little aspects of his art. Like this post, the faces and 80% of the expressions. Just look at Luke's faces on the last pages!

[strangerdan]

I like how body language and a black trenchcoat made this the most transparent Ronin identity yet. It probably wouldn't have taken me very long to figure it out even if there wasn't that absent minded action figure leak months ago. So points to Land for that.

[skemono]

I like how body language and a black trenchcoat made this the most transparent Ronin identity yet.

Cage even points out his trademark trenchcoat back in issue 4. "You know, if you don't want folks knowing who you are, you need to stop wearing the same nasty-ass coat every day."

[freezer]

" ...is he the Sentry done right? done wrong? done the same?"

Done without the ridiculous Silver Age vibe? Without being stupidly strong, yet equally stupidly easy to take out of a fight? With a personality that doesn't start and end with "Has issues?"

I vote "done right."

[skemono]

equally stupidly easy to take out of a fight?

He was? I didn't read anything with him outside of the original mini, so I really don't know. How did they manage that?

[freezer]

The Sentry had a raft of mental issues as his Achilles' Heel, that could be triggered almost as random. Emma Frost made him a flee a battle with a thought, literally.

[md84]

The Sentry's weakness was that all of his godlike power was tied to an unstable violent junkie. The guy was afraid of doing anything without someone else telling him to do it. He wouldn't even leave his own home without his computer telling him to go save people. It's not really surprising that Norman Osborne was able to make him his pawn so easily. At least until the Void -- the part of the Sentry that embodied the rather awful person he was before he got his powers -- came out to play.

[jlbarnett]

basically Sentry sucked because of what they did with him AFTER his mini

[q99]

I think he's better as a character, but I don't get what's supposed to have kept him out of action for so long (haven't read the whole story).

[drexer]

Racial segregation. The miniseries "Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel " which introduced the character was basically an exploration of that concept where a Superman-type superhero worked as such up until 1962 when Kennedy asked him to retire after having been revealed he was African-American. He was then pretty much erased from the history books and most people preffered to forget about him in a show of good old discrimination.

It's basically a series which works pretty well as an analogy with society's history and dives pretty well into silver-age like storytelling at times.

[q99]

I can get that to an extent, but with his power it still strikes me as odd to not show up during the world-threatening stuff.

[thehood]

Actually, this very issue shows that he was still active, just not as Blue Marvel. He and his son with on many Johnny Quest style science adventures. basically, he saved the world behind the scenes.

[q99]

Ah, that's cool :)

[jlbarnett]

seems to me that would have worked better in the 40's. In the 60's it seems like people would have been back to talking about him within a year or two

[quatoria]

Yeah, uh, I can think of a LOT of folks in the 1960s who would not have been fucking down with forgetting a black superman existed.

[halloweenjack]

Ditto.

[crinos]

"Ninja Were snakes. Yes, Ninja Were Snakes."

I love that even the comic has to step back and assure us that its being serious.

[skemono]

For certain values of "serious".

But yes, the captions are great. I'm particularly fond of one in the most recent issue: "Don't say we're not good to you."

[beyondthefringe]

Have you seen the latest issue?
FIRE-BREATHING WERE-ROOSTERS.
YES.
THIS IS A THING.
I AM SO EXCITED I CANNOT STOP TALKING IN CAPS.
-ahem-
Sorry.

I fucking love Ewing. He has a nice handle on the serious and the sublime and the outright ridiculous. And yet he makes it work.

I'm willing to accept the Blue Marvel because he's played much straighter than the Sentry ever was. He was a powerful hero in the '60s. He gave it up because he basically bowed to external pressures. He's regretted it ever since. Now he's older and wiser and has returned to the public eye. But it's not hard to believe in a quiet under-the-radar career for him.

It's like... The Blue Marvel is Marvel's answer to Superman. Simple, to the point. A powerful hero who stands for truth and justice.

The Sentry was Marvel's attempt to recreate Miracleman, with all the attendant confusion, drama, retcons, psychological complexity, combined with the Silver Age goofiness of the Alan Moore version of Supreme... and done ALL WRONG. (It's really sad when you start with Superman and Captain Marvel, distill them through Rob Liefeld and Alan Moore, and completely miss the point on every possible level...)

[bruinsfan]

While the absurdist whimsy is clearly reason enough on its own, I have to wonder if some part of the rationale for Ewing's approach isn't "All right Land, let's see you find photo references for this!"

At his core Blue Marvel has a lot of similarities to the Sentry as a Silver Age Superman expy that the world has forgotten, but Ewing has been writing him in a way that makes him interesting rather than cringeworthy. I think focusing on him as a scientist with family issues (elements of the character that don't directly parallel Superman) is the right way to go. It also helps that he's not everyone's best friend that they've forgotten about.

[thehood]

The Were Roosters were basically Blazikens, which is why i love them.

[thezmage]

Does anyone know what the "overseas work" Blade refers to was?

[skemono]

It's a reference to his appearance in Deadpool #27, but I haven't read the issue so I don't know more than that.

[espanolbot]

I was tempted to say his stint with MI-13, but that series seems to be mostly be ignored by everyone except it's creator Paul Cornell and that one Gambit issue that had the titular character punch Faiza Hussain in the stomach so he could steal Excalibur for some racist dude.

[akodo_rokku]

Blade appeared in Deadpool: The Gauntlet, trying to kill Shiklah so Dracula couldn't marry her.