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Review: A-Force #2

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af002bThe Secret Wars universe has been a strange playground for the creative minds behind Marvel Comics.  While some series are tied to the comic book crossovers which inspired them, some are free from such restraints and get to become essentially whatever they want and thus to establish some interesting scenarios that we have never seen before.  One series that has thus not really suffered has been A-Force, the assembly of Marvel’s best superheroines into one place on one team.  Although this is not really the first time that this has been attempted, it is a fairly big application of the concept to the overall story of Secret Wars.

Thus far the story has to deal mostly with the characters trying to deal with portals and what comes from them and what is not allowed to go beyond.  After the loss of America in the last issue another heroine was found, this one with no name, but evidently one which Nico could make a fast friend with.  This issue, which is relatively heavy on action, deals with what this stranger brings, both the good and the bad, and the team’s reaction to her.  This series has been one which has focused more than the others on the politics of Doom’s Battleworld, and while this might not have worked so well in the first issue, its place here is a bit more substantive, which gives overall better weight to the entire series thus far.

The idea of an all-female superhero team, essentially a female Avengers, is one which appealing to many, enough to make this series one which will be revamped beyond the end of the crossover.  In the meantime this second issue salvages and reuses what seemed a bit stunted in the first issue and gives it a new direction.  It is maybe not as imaginative as the creative team could have gotten with these characters, but this is still a necessary series for the wider story arc, one which explains the inner workings of the system which will presumably be quickly torn down.

Story: Marguerite Bennett and G. Willow Wilson  Art: Jorge Molina
Story:  8.4 Art: 8.4  Overall: 8.4  Recommendation: Buy

Review: A-Force #1

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af001It would seem as there is only one way to incorporate alternate universes together in comic book multiverses – make them fight!  Although the history of such occurrences are rare, this still seems to be the only manner in which the melding together of different universes is done.  It started with Crisis on Infinite Earths, and continued once again a lot later with Flashpoint.  Now concurrently there are both Convergence at DC and Secret Wars at Marvel, both of which are using the same concept to destroy and build new worlds, mostly by pitting heroes against one another to figure out who will still be standing in the end to claim their existence as the only successor moving forward.

This story focuses on Arcadia, a land on Doctor Doom’s protected planet which is inhabited by normal people but protected by Marvel’s greatest superheroines.  Somewhat surprisingly much of this first issue deals with the group of heroes in battle with a giant shark, not necessarily the most engaging plot line in modern comics.  In the process the reader is introduced to the characters who act as champions for this small piece of the larger world, with She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Dazzler, Medusa, Spider-Woman, Nico, a female Loki and Miss America among the more prominent, as well as some of the bizarre politics which exist within this world.

The story ends up being interesting in its own way, but also begs a few questions.  Is battling it out the only way to incorporate universes together?  Also after the confusing reboot of Spider-Woman into Spider-Verse, is launching a new concept into a crossover a good idea?  Whatever it is that those answers are it is evident that this series while passable in a sense, is also a bit of a letdown.  The choice of She-Hulk as the leader of this team is among one of the more interesting and has potential for growth, but there are few other decisions such as this in this title so far.  The medium of comics has been screaming for a concept like this for a long time, as a changing fan base seeks out more well written female characters, but this does not seem to be the vessel in which to do it.  It is fun, but it also feels like a lot of what has come before it.

Story: Marguerite Bennett and G. Willow Wilson  Art: Jorge Molina
Story:  7.8 Art: 7.8  Overall: 7.8  Recommendation: Read