For The Love of Comics

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Remember when I did a review on Necessary Evil Issue 1? I still haven’t found a copy of the second issue, but the guys behind the Necessary Evil comic have released a webcomic written by Joshua Williamson and drawn by Jason Ho to promote the book.

Desperado Publishing will release Issue 3 on January 3rd, 2008 and, judging from the trouble that I’ve had finding a copy of Issue 2, I think it’s in your best interests that you ask your local comics retailer to order a copy for you.

Issue 1: AUG07 3547
Issue 2: SEPT07 3555
Issue 3: OCT07 3436
Issue 4: NOV07 3493

tag: comics, Desperado Publishing, Jason Ho, Joshua Williamson, Necessary Evil, villainy, webcomic, villains

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Image from Wikipedia

I suck.

I had this reasonably good review of Powers #26 written up. I had a nice breakdown about the story so far, why it was necessary to have a recap because of the months between issues, and all that. I was smart, witty, concise… I was awesome, people.

And then I somehow deleted it. Then I cried. Then I decided I did not have the energy to do it again, so now you just get my argument for why Hulk is totally justified in killing the entire Illuminati. I hope you’ll survive the disappointment.

Iron Man and his cronies decide that, through accidents and collateral damage, The Hulk is responsible for far too many deaths. They then formulate a plan to trick the Hulk into getting into a spacecraft and then sending him, against his will, to another planet.

Transporting a person against their will is known as kidnapping, by the way.

When the Hulk arrives on the - admittedly wrong - planet, he is beaten, enslaved, and forced to engage in fights to the death. Through skill, cunning, and exemplary leadership, the Hulk escapes his slavery and leads an army of former slaves to overthrow a tyrannical dictatorship and unite an entire planet in peace.

At the moment Hulk has finally attained the peace that he has sought his entire existence, the ship that the Illuminati used to abduct him explodes, not only killing his wife and unborn child, not only the residents of the city around him, but killing the ENTIRE PLANET.

Let me repeat that. They didn’t blow up a town the size of… I don’t know, let’s say Stamford, CT. They ANNHILATED AN ENTIRE PLANET!

The Hulk may have been responsible for alot of deaths, but I’m fairly certain he never destroyed an entire planet.

That’s not mass genocide, people. There’s not even a word for the scale of massacre for which Tony Stark is responsible.

Considering what was done to the Hulk because of the deaths he caused, considering the regulations that have been put on the entire superhuman community as a result of Stamford, is it even possible to go “too far” to punish the people that have done this to the Hulk and his people?

I’ve heard the argument that the Illuminati didn’t intend for the Hulk to end up on that planet or for the ship to blow up. The Hulk didn’t intend the deaths he caused. Robbie Baldwin and the New Warriors didn’t intend for the children in Stamford to die.

In fact, let me give you a scenario here. A bank robber is leaving the scene of a crime and hits a woman and her baby, killing both. Is that bank robber responsible for those deaths? I think we’d all agree that he is. So why would the Illuminati be any less responsible for the deaths caused by their kidnapping of the Hulk?

They’re not.

The Hulk may be unreasonable, he may even be a monster, but he admits that.

Tony Stark is an even bigger monster who tries to hide behind “The Public Good.”

Just another Lex Luthor who needs a beat down.

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I’m a few weeks behind, so I only finished the first issue of Necessary Evil, from Desperado Publishing, a few days ago. I’m always interested in stories told from a villain’s perspective, especially the recent ones like Villains United or the recent issues of JLA and Green Lantern from DC or the How To Succeed in Evil podcasts (and future comic!) from Patrick McLean that explore what it would be like if villains ever got smart and started working together, so Necessary Evil was in as soon as I realized what it was about.

The main characters are Miller and Jacob, twin sons of the woman who was once “The Greatest Supervillain who ever lived”, until she was killed by a superhero during a bank robbery. The boys grow up in foster homes, hating superheroes and wanting revenge, though one is a lot more zealous than the other. They presumably did get to stay together, since they both receive the same invitation to join the Necessary Evil Academy, a school for supervillains, which is the basic plot of the first issue. There appear to be aspiring villains from every type of background – legacy villains and prospective villains sponsored by corporations and countries, so this comic has definite potential.

Since this was mostly just a set-up issue, Joshua Williamson doesn’t have a lot of room to shine, but he does a good job of setting up the plot and intrigue, more than enough to keep me coming back. I don’t really focus too much on art, but I know what I like, and this book looks very nice.

In short, I like this book and I imagine I’ll be sticking around for the entire run.

Continuing in the villainy vein, I also just finished Abyss, from Red 5 Comics and the creators of Troops and Star Wars: Tag and Bink, which are both basically comics featuring behind the scenes characters from Star Wars full of in-jokes and general goofiness, I think. I hate to admit it, but I haven’t read either of those comics.

If anyone knows where I can get them in trade, send me an email, would ya?

Anyway, Abyss is about the unwitting son of an evil genius who inherits all of his father’s wealth and extensive holdings, including his evil lair, when his father “dies”. When he discovers that his father was a supervillain, he tries to undo his evil schemes.

With hilarious results.

The comic is full of little in-jokes, as you would expect. I won’t ruin any of them, because discovery is half the fun, but I will tell you to pay close attention to the backgrounds.

I’ll be honest, this comic is not usually my thing. Deadpool even gets old to me sometimes, but I really enjoyed this issue. Since it’s only 4 issues, I think I’ll definitely be riding this series out.

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