Well Luke . . . this is what you get for making a deal with the devil. Really though, the only thing I didn't like about this issue was how easily this whole situation was taken care of. Last issue Luke and Jessica found out that Jarvis had taken off with their baby, and Jarvis was a Skrull. With the disbanding of the Avengers . . or at least Tony's lack of involvement with it now . . they were left wondering what to do. Out of desperation . . he goes to Norman Osborn. Norman agrees to help him because he knows what an advantage it would be to have someone like Luke on his side. Even if he's being forced to do so. So this issue Norman starts twisting some screws with the Skrulls . . mainly through intimidation. He lets them watch while Venom eats 'em one at a time. Anyways, eventually one of 'em gives up their safe-house. It's that warehouse where they met the Queen to get her plans, and somehow when they needed to be transported off planet that's where they went. Anyways, they stake out the safe-house and eventually . . sooner, rather than later . . the Jarvis Skrull shows up. And as luck would have it . . he was carrying the baby. The whole thing is rather confusing to Luke, but the Skrulls only reason is . . "Your wife gave her to me." Luke talks to him for a little why, the Skrull gives up the baby . . . and then Bullseye puts a bullet through his head. All of this was done and taken care of by page 9. Kind of anti-climatic, if you ask me. Luke spends the next few pages letting Norman know in no uncertain terms that he has no intention of ever working for him. After beating up the Thunderbolts and crashing out of Stark Towers . . . I wonder what Norman's going to call it now . . Norman looks out the broken window and says . . "Guess who just made the list." Back at Captain America's pad, where the New Avengers are starting to call home, they see the unveiling of Norman's Avengers on TV. To say that they're a little pissed about him dressing up the Thunderbolts in their costumes would be an understatement. Especially Clint. "Every time the world has gone to hell someone takes advantage of it. Stock market crashes and some dirt-bag parachutes out with a billion dollars. Country goes to war, the mob has a field day . . now this? This? And dressed in our uniforms? Representing something we've dedicated our lives to? Twisting it into something they can sell? No! NO! We don't wait for them to show their true colors . . we know their true colors. We go there and we stop this before it all goes to hell again. We go there and we take back the Avengers from the hands of the Green Goblin maniac! We're the Avengers We take it back!" So it looks like issue #50 is going to be an all out war. This should prove interesting. Anyways, I thought Brian Bendis' story was . . ok. I really enjoyed Billy Tan's pencils. I thought they were terrific. Like I said, my only complaint is about this whole thing with the baby. How do they know it's not a Skrull? What was the point of the whole thing? It just didn't make a lot of sense. But I still liked the book.
I agree totally. This issue could have been accomplished in like 10 pages or so. The stuff with Skrull Jarvis was done so quickly. Since the end of Secret Invasion, Luke is looking for Skrull Jarvis, and in a few pages he finds him and Skrull Jarvis just hands the baby over? Why even bother with Skrull Jarvis taking the kid at all? It really led to nothing.
ReplyDeletePlus, the scene with Luke and the Thunderbolts was equally baffling. Norman Osborn is supposed to be just about the most powerful man in America now, and he just let's Luke stroll away after Luke basically betrays him and beats up the T-Bolts? I guess Brian wanted to wrap up the Skrull Jarvis/Luke Cage/Norman Osborn storyline before issue #50, but like you said, everything just seemed so anti-climatic.