dark side of the moon

drive-by readings

Shadowland: Moon Knight #1 (Marvel) "Shadowknight" Gregg Hurwitz Bong Dazo Jose Pimentel Matt Milla/Chris Sotomayor Joe Caramagna

what we learned: its too much to put in one issue, but anyway, Daredevil apparently "wants" Moon Knight (who's just minding his own business; its Daredevil's fault he didn't accept Avengers membership), so he puts into motion an alleged acolyte of Konshu to recruit another psycho to be the god's avatar. bad news for Jake/Steve/whoever he is this week, because he has to face this challenge but at the same time consider that Marlene is pregnant and they're engaged.
oh shit moment: did i just say he has to protect his back?
what's next: crazy versus crazy. i'll bet on crazier.


never get on Big Bird's bad side - Sesame Street will never be the same.

drive-by readings: Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth #1

Deadpool: Merc With A Mouth #1 (Marvel) "Head Trip, Part 1 of 6" Victor Gischler Bong Dazo Jose Pimentel Matt Milla Jeff Eckleberry Arthur Suydam (cover) Ed McGuiness (variant cover)

wasn't it just recently that Deadpool had a new series? now we get a new one? looks like a marketing push to capitalize on the residue hype from X-Men Origins: Wolverine and the announced solo 2011 Deadpool movie. crime novelist Victor Gischler takes on the reins, and he does a passable impression of the broken Fourth Wall comedy that the character is noted for. this time we find 'Pool being hired by A.I.M. to retrieve a valuable object from the Savage Land and beat Hydra to it. of course, that means a Ka-Zar sighting. and some tribes. and eventually dinosaurs. the cover already tells you what that object is (nice Heisman trophy pose). i am ambivalent about Dark Horse veteran Bong Dazo's art - on one hand, he seems to have a wide variety of styles. on the other hand - he has a wide variety of styles. hope this gets consistent in the long run. i still feel 'Pool is getting too much ink and paper, while other topnotch books like Captain Britain & MI:13 and Nova/Guardians of the Galaxy are getting canceled or threatened to be canceled.

Chris Powell needs Akeelah

except his spelling skillz, apparently.

wait, does spelling in thoughts count?
(so we can lay that on C.B. Cebulski or Cory Petit.)

and what does this have to do with War of Kings?
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from War of Kings: Darkhawk #1

first blood

with the Inhuman king Black Bolt returning home after being replaced by/tortured by/rescued from the Skrulls, there's no other time but payback time. its kinda how abused boys could eventually become serial killers when they grow up. you can't hold back that kind of thing.

"i don't wanna ... talk about it."

breaking out a cache of banned weapons, Blackagar pulls up his race's roots and heads off into space (i assume at some point, that massive liftoff from the moon will be noticed by the guvmint scientist types on earth?) to pursue (and terminate with extreme prejudice, natch) the remaining Skrulls, which is just the short-term goal. in pursuit of this goal, they encounter three Sh'iar (ex-pals of our merry mutants) warships who do not take kindly to this chase across their territory. Blackagar, already the most powerful weapon in the universe and connected to an asskicking amplifier musicians would kill for, has only one response.

"fuck you, Simon Cowell ... i can sing!"

so now you understand why during the opening salvo of World War Hulk, Black Bolt couldn't rip the Hulk to shredded green wheat - that was the Skrull-Black Bolt and it was faking his powers. the real deal can obliterate starships at the minimum, as experienced by the Sh'iar military and the fugitive Skrulls.

Cowell, Abdul and the rest of the AI judges get blown away

short term goal accomplished. now for the long-term: the Inhumans have been weapons created by the Kree (those trigger-happy humanoid aliens), but were left ignored and unused. now the weapons have come back to take over the whole Kree race. easily getting past their defenses, the Inhumans confront Ronan Keating, who was planning to put back Boyzone for a new tour. sorry, i meant Ronan the Accuser, who's currently the caretaker of his race because no one wants to.

Medusa actually insults Ronan with both the American and British variations of the finger

Ronan just actually wants to accuse; that's his day job. no more administration shit. hell, yeah, let's give it to the Inhumans.

and thus Blackagar consolidates his position in the universe.

end of story?


nope, you're forgetting the three Sh'iar warships obliterated during the course of these goals.

when Ed Brubaker crystallized the "third Summers brother" three years ago, we didn't think the character would become the "most annoying Summers brother ever" (and that includes Shatterstar, nyuknyuknyuk). Vulcan, currently in charge of the Sh'iar in his demented quest for revenge and is really the biggest asshole in the galaxy now that the Skrulls, Annihilus and the Ultron/Phalanx are gone, is quite bored with being emperor just presiding on colloseum games. he needs a challenge, and he's found one.

kudos to DnA for cranking out terrific space opera within the Marvel Universe, which had gone stale prior to 2006's Annihilation.


ok, let's say after this War of Kings, the Inhumans/Kree come out on top (and that's assuming even the Guardians of the Galaxy or Nova won't be able to get everybody to smoke the peace pipe), will war against Earth be next? hmmm ...

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Secret Invasion: War of Kings one-shot