The first title to return to this column is Cable. I reviewed issue #87 back in the second column of "In My Not So Humble Opinion." In a way, this can be seen as a follow-up piece, as it serves to demonstrate writer Robert Weinberg's strengths while writing a self-contained story arc, as opposed to a chapter in a multi-book crossover, as he was with Cable #87.
The second review is a look at the Scion trade paperback from CrossGen Comics. I reviewed another of their books in just my last column, and already my attention has returned to them. I definitely think they are a company worth keeping an eye on, as they show much promise. Hopefully they will be successful in the long run. I would hate to see them go the way of Malibu and Valiant.
Cable #s 93-94, $2.25 US, published by Marvel Comics
Writer: Robert Weinberg; Pencils: Tom Derenick & Michael Ryan; Inks: Pertzborn & Candelario
Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars
Since reviewing Cable #87 late last year, I have purchased and read all the preceding issues of Robert Weinberg's run. I've also picked up the issues that came afterwards. The majority of Weinberg's issues have been well done, and I now rather regret that I didn't read his work on Cable from day one. Although I did manage to get a few of the back issues from before #87 for much lower than cover price, which wasn't at all bad!
This brings us to the current issues of Cable, as Nathan Summers is in the midst of a battle against a globe-spanning hi-tech mystical conspiracy known as the Dark Sisterhood. Weinberg informs us that the Sisterhood has managed to infiltrate every major government, law enforcement organization and organized crime enterprise in existence. They are in the midst of a scheme they call "The Sixth Progression," which they believe will enable them to seize control of the globe. And now that Cable has learned of their existence and ambitions, the Sisterhood has set out to destroy him and his allies. Using their vast influence, they have framed Cable for terrorist activities, sent his confident Irene Merryweather on the run for her life, attempted to kill Cable's mentor Blaquesmith, caused his longtime ally SHIELD agent G.W. Bridge to be transferred to a remote outpost in Alaska, and destroyed many of his safehouses. Issue #s 93 and 94 continue Cable's war with the Dark Sisterhood. Cable and Irene finally uncover the secrets of the Dark Mother, the mysterious leader of the Sisterhood, and learn exactly what "The Sixth Progression" is.
Cable's response to the threat of the Dark Sisterhood is not to retreat or hide, but to strike back at them as hard and fast as possible. Faced with the Sisterhood's thousands of fanatical members, Cable hatches a ruthless scheme. He infiltrates their own organizations or lures them into traps, and then completely wipes their memories back to the age of seven. At the site of each encounter, he leaves the Biblical quote "You have been judged and found wanting." Cable does this to over a hundred of the Sisterhood. It is an unnerving action on his part. He has gone into these women's minds and wiped them clean, destroyed their very identities. Certainly it is morally ambiguous. But, on the other hand, Cable recognizes that he is one man fighting an entire organization. He feels this is the most effective way to stop them. And, if we look at the alternatives, it seems he is right. If Cable merely beats up the Sisterhood's various agents and leaves them to be arrested, they will be back on his trail in no time, as the Sisterhood would use its connections to ensure their release. The only other alternative is to kill them all, and Cable does not want to do that. However morally questionable it is to wipe their memories, at least it allows Cable to leave his enemies alive, with a second chance at life, this time hopefully free from the Dark Mother's influence. Cable sees war as something where unfortunately it is impossible to adhere to strict morality or maintain an inflexible code of "heroism" if he hopes to win.
Weinberg's writing is entirely in keeping with the nature of the character. When Cable first appeared back in 1989, he was incredibly ruthless. Too ruthless, actually. He was a one-dimensional entity who made up for a lack of characterization by carrying around huge guns, shooting at most everything in sight, and wearing an eternal grimace. In the mid-1990s, his character was finally broadened and given a more interesting personality. He also softened up, becoming less violent, but eventually ended up going to the other extreme. He lost his edge and became just another member of the X-Men. Former series writers James Robinson and Joe Casey managed to finally achieve a balance between these two, having Cable regain some of his ruthlessness without losing the important development that had been done with his character. Weinberg is definitely continuing on that path, distancing Cable from the X-Men and their methods, having him strike out at the Sisterhood swiftly and brutally. As Weinberg writes in #90, "Cable is the personification of war."
At first, I was a bit incredulous with aspects of this storyline. I found it hard to swallow that the Sisterhood had spheres of influence in every major organization on Marvel Earth, but no one had ever even heard of their existence before this story. Not the Avengers, or Professor Xavier, or SHIELD, or the Hellfire Club, or the Kingpin, or Hydra, or Doctor Strange… well, you get the idea.
After thinking about it for a while, though, I just shrugged and decided it wasn't a big deal. Really, Marvel continuity hasn't been cohesive since the late 1960s, when Stan Lee stopped writing practically ever title the company published. Since then, world-threatening menaces have routinely sprung up on a regular basis in the majority of Marvel titles, with little or no mention made in other books. It used to drive me crazy, I admit. For instance, when the X-Men and other mutant teams were battling the Phalanx to prevent the extinction of all life on Earth, I remember angrily uttering "Well, if the Phalanx are sooooo damn dangerous, then why the hell don't the X-Men just call in the Avengers?!?" Even most recently, with storylines in Black Panther and Avengers that were supposedly affecting the entire world, but receiving no mention in any other actual titles, I was getting rather frustrated.
But finally I'm able to just shrug at it. It's foolish to let such trivial concerns interfere with my enjoyment of these stories. It's best to take each title and each story arc as a self-contained entity set within a fictional reality that will always end up having some discongruity to it. So I have decided to just read the books I enjoy, and leave my worrying to more importing things like relationships, credit card bills, and the rent.
The pencils on issue #94 are provided by the ever-reliable Michael Ryan, and he delivers his usual quality work. The preceding issue has fill-in pencils by Tom Derenick. Oddly, the first few pages of #93 seem to be shot directly from Derenick's uninked pencils. It's an unusual contrast to the rest of the issue's inked art. However, the scene it depicts is Cable using his telepathy to infiltrate the Dark Sisterhood via illusions and to wipe the memory of one of its high-ranking members. The uninked pencils do give this opening section a bit of a feeling of disconcerting unreality that is quite appropriate. And the page four splash, with its inked figures and background, shows the uninked figure of Cable striding forward, away from the scene of his psychic sabotage, emphasizing just how disconnected he can be from the normal world, and giving him a shadowy, dangerous aura.
Michael Ryan's cover to #93 is rather mundane, showing the Dark Mother posed with some sort of energy scythe. Issue #94 is much better, with a gun-wielding Cable grimly making his way through the flames of a burning American flag, perfectly representing the events of the issue.
Scion: Conflict of Conscience trade paperback, $19.95 US, published by CrossGen Comics
Writer: Ron Marz; Pencils: Jim Cheung & Rick Leonardi; Inks: Don Hillsman II & Karl Kesel; Cover: Adam Hughes
Rating 4 out of 5 stars
Conflict of Conscience reprints the first eight issues of the ongoing Scion series from CrossGen. The book is set on the world of Avalon, a place where high technology and mystical creatures exist side by side. The planet is divided up between the Heron and the Raven Dynasties. The human population of Avalon has genetically created the so-called "Lesser Races" to take on manual tasks. In the Heron lands, the Lesser Races are used as servants, while the Ravens brutally enslave them. Both governments view the Lesser Races as exactly that, as below humanity, substandard. A rare exception to the rule is the series' protagonist, Ethan, a prince of the Heron Dynasty. Ethan regards his aide Skink, a member of the Lesser Races, as a friend and confidant.
For centuries an uneasy peace has existed between the two dynasties, with all conflicts settled in arena tournaments. But the current leadership of the Ravens is secretly building up their military, waiting for an excuse to once again resume open warfare. That excuse is inadvertently provided by Ethan who, on his twenty-first birthday, enters the arena to duel with the ruthless Prince Bron. Prior to the tournament, a mysterious being brushes up against Ethan, secretly causing a mysterious mark to appear on his arm. This is unnoticed by Ethan, and he enters into the duel with Bron. During the combat, the mark causes Ethan to unwittingly channel a burst of power through his sword, making it powerful enough to pierce Bron's energy armor and gouge out his eye. The Ravens accuse Ethan of cheating, and threaten to launch a full-scale war. Ethan, despite the fact he did not intend for these events to occur, takes full responsibility, and selflessly surrenders himself to the Ravens in the hope of restoring peace.
Ethan and Skink are taken to the Eastern Lands of Avalon, home to the Raven Dynasty, and tossed in a dungeon. They are scarcely there before being rescued by the mysterious and beautiful Ashleigh. A member of an underground movement to free the Lesser Races, Ashleigh hopes to recruit Ethan to the cause. But Ethan's main concern is to prevent war between the Herons and Ravens, and he attempts to surrender himself to the Raven search party on his trail. He quickly discovers that the revenge-obsessed Bron would rather see him dead, and is glad to use Ethan's "escape" to start the war. Fleeing from Bron's forces, Ethan and Skink attempt to escape from the Eastern Lands and return back home, to warn of the Ravens' intentions and secret rearmament.
Eventually, though, events do build up to open warfare between the Herons and Ravens. Ron Marz writes the first battle with a sense of both drama and tragedy. It is a chaotic, bloody engagement. War is hell. People die. I have never enjoyed seeing war sanitized, much less glorified, whether it be in movies, television, or comic books. Fortunately, Marz writes war as it really is, as something that is not glorious or exciting, but as a tragedy that inevitably claims lives of both sides of the conflict.
Marz also deftly handles the political intrigues of the story. Although ostensibly an adventure/action story, I think Scion is as much about power-brokering and manipulations, and how these affect both individuals and entire societies. The Ravens are quick to use the accidental scarring of Bron to advance their agenda of conquest by providing them with a clear justification. This opportunity is quashed by Ethan's selfless surrender to them. But after Ethan's rescue by Ashleigh, the Ravens once again see the opportunity to claim they have been wronged and force conflict. Efforts by Ethan to surrender to the Ravens again are deliberately thwarted by Bron because it would not suit their purposes.
It not just the Ravens that work at manipulation. In the aftermath of the first battle, Ethan's father, the monarch of the Heron Dynasty, simultaneous rallies his people to the war effort and demonizes the Ravens by emphasizing the casualties the Herons have endured. "Today we bury our dead," the king proclaims to his subjects, "tomorrow we turn our thoughts to vengeance and victory!" Later, in private, the king admits to his son that, as distasteful as it is to use the deaths of his subjects to foster patriotism, it is something he felt had to be done to rally the peoples of a nation that has not experienced warfare in their lifetimes.
And, on a larger scale, the entire course of events of Scion is a result of manipulation. In the prologue, we see Avalon observed from space by unseen, apparently god-like, beings. Discussing the state of affairs on Avalon, one of the beings remarks "Their mock combat needs to be hammered into the steel of war. Their old hatreds need to burn again." And these beings achieve just that by surreptitiously wielding onto Ethan the mark on his arm, the "sigil" that grants him powers which unwittingly cause him to scar Bron, thus starting the chain of events that lead to full-fledged war. In the end, the scheming of the Ravens and Herons unwittingly serve to advance the agenda of the cosmic-powered entities who seek to reshape Avalon to fit their mysterious plans.
The artwork on this book is superb. Jim Cheung's pencils in these stories are highly effective. He successfully depicts the exotic locales and fantastic inhabitants of Avalon. Cheung's work is slightly cartoony, yet at the same time realistic. In his rendition of Ethan, Cheung captures both his youthful innocence and his honor-driven determination to do what is right. Cheung manages to effectively demonstrate the effects of Ethan's labors on him, and he is often depicted with a weary expression, the sweat, grime, and bruises of his struggles etched onto his face and clothes. This makes the character all the more real and, indeed, all the more human amidst the fantastical settings and events of the story. Filling in for Cheung on the final chapter of Conflict of Conscience is Rick Leonardi, whose somber, moody style perfectly suits the grim aftermath of the battle.
The trade paperback format is definitely advantageous, as it enables the entire opening arc of Scion to be read in one sitting, rather than over a period of months. The story is much more effective and powerful this way. The production values for the book are top-notch. The $19.95 price may be a bit steep, but in the end its worth it. The only real reservations I had about the TPB were the cover and the chapter introductions.
The cover is a painted piece by Adam Hughes. It is nice enough in its own right, but as the cover for this collection, I feel it is somewhat inappropriate. Hughes' ultra-detailed, realistic style is completely different from Cheung's. Hughes depiction of Ethan on the cover makes the character look at least a decade older, and bears more of a resemblance to Fabio than the youthful, still-maturing twenty-one year old of the actual story. Conversely, the rendition of Ashleigh on the cover seems to de-age the character, making her look to be in her teens, rather than in her late twenties, which is the age she seems to be in Cheung's artwork.
As for the various chapter intros between the reprints of the issues, with their commentary by Marz, Cheung, and others, they are very informative. Unfortunately, each text piece gives away too much detail about the issue that immediately follows it. After reading the first couple of chapter intros, and having things revealed, I skipped the rest, and then went back and read the text pieces once I was done with the entire book. I guess this TPB can be likened to a DVD release of a movie, with commentary by the creators. Looking at it that way, it seems ill-timed to have that commentary in the middle of the stories, as the equivalent would be the director and actors interrupting the movie every twenty minutes to tell the audience how they filmed the next scene. I know it probably would not have been a good idea to put all the chapter intros together into one long piece at the end of the book, as that might have been a plodding read. The best alternative would probably have been to put the text pieces after each chapter.
Despite a couple of poor choices on specific aspects of the Scion trade paperback, the material it reprints is of a very high quality. The story is well written, certainly the best work I have ever seen from Ron Marz. And the artwork by Cheung & Hillsman is stunning. Hopefully Scion will finally garner Cheung the attention he deserves as a talented artist. Overall, this is a book that receives a high recommendation.