Some thoughts on some recent comics

[laughing_tree]

All-New, All-Different Avengers #15, by Mark Waid and Adam Kubert. The story presents itself as the first meeting between the original Avengers (plus Captain America) and Dr. Doom? Can that really be right. Surely some other come somewhere already depicted a first meeting between Doom and some of them? I suspected it'd turn out to be Doombot here, as some loophole around that. ("Ah, see, so it makes sense that they acted like they never met in Avengers #Whatever.") But nope.

Then again, Spider-Man and Dr. Strange didn't have their first (retroactively inserted) meeting until the 90s, in UNTOLD TALES OF SPIDER-MAN. Before that, every encounter between them depicted them as already knowing each other. So maybe there's similar leeway here.







The New Avengers #17, by Al Ewing and Paco Medina. Now that it's all wrapping up, what surprises is how little play the New Revengers actually got. After Ewing worked so hard to make each member a counterpart to a New Avenger, their role in the story is really minor. Each maybe gets one or two brief moments where they're actually distinct instead of just a generic, interchangeable villain presence, and then they're taken out of play. I wonder if, originally, the plan was for them to have bigger roles.







Deathstroke #5, by Christopher J. Priest and Joe Bennett. It's interesting how super-intelligence is the one power writers consistently depict as not actually super. By which I mean, while nobody would ever write a regular human character as being able to match the speed of someone with super-speed, writers consistently write 'regular' geniuses like Mr. Fantastic or Dr. Doom or, here, Batman as being able to match folks whose intelligence is actually part of their powers, like Deathstroke with his "enhanced intellect." In fact you get the sense that most writers would balk at the idea of a story establishing someone, anyone, is smarter than Doom or Batman.

I imagine this has to do with how society views intelligence as intrinsically tied to strength of character in a way it doesn't for more physical traits.

Comments

[nyadnar17]

I love how Thor is all "come on dude, do me a solid in front of boys?!"

[janegray]

Same. The "*sigh* very well" made me chuckle :)

[thanekos]

" It's not how many plans, schemes, and fake-outs you have, Maker. It's whose book it is. "

[scorntx]

-"This damned reality"-
Heh.
Poor Reed "Helmet Hair" Richards.
He just doesn't seem to get how crazy the Marvel Universe can be.

Mind, that is pretty typical of any Reed.
Even one who's willing to wear that helmet day-in, day-out.

[shakalooloo]

So, when the Avengers 'first meet' Doom, they are aware that he is the ruler of Latveria. He'd been ruling from behind the scenes with a Prime Minister as the public face until Fantastic Four Annual #2, which was published the same month that the Avengers first met Kang.

I presume some time must have passed between Doom transitioning from being a shadowy power behind the throne to a public figure launching attacks on other countries, so the Avengers met Kang before they met Doom.

It isn't until two years after that that the Avengers originally first met Doom, only it's Cap's Kooky Quartet that does so, when Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver visit their Latverian aunt.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I like how Maker still has the Ultimate universe font.

And I dig that new Batmobile.