Fans who miss the Mystique series might want to give Amazing Fantasy #7 a try, as the new Scorpion fits nicely into that espionage within the Marvel Universe niche that Mystique carved out for itself. Like Mystique, Amazing Fantasy seems perhaps a little too closely inspired by Alias, but the classic Master of Kung-Fu started out as a way to capitalize on the popularity of Bruce Lee, so really, this sort of imitation is comics industry standard practice and sometimes yields positive results. The key question here is whether or not Van Lente and company have created an interesting new protagonist with ties to the Marvel Universe, and the answer is a definite yes. By playing around with the fringes of the Marvel Universe, using things like Madripoor and A.I.M., the creators give the new Scorpion the feel of being something wholly new, even while wrapping her in the Marvel Universe familiarity that seems necessary to sell fans on a new concept these days.
Though it's labelled issue seven, this is actually a first issue for all intents and purposes, and it's a pretty good first issue. Van Lente introduces the main character, the concept and several mysteries, showing off an economy of storytelling unusual at Marvel these days. There's a lot going on in these pages, but Van Lente doesn't try to pack too much in, and so we get a good (but brief) tour of Carmilla Black's past and her hometown before diving into her future, which is going to be considerably more dangerous and exciting.
Van Lente is playing around in some of my favorite territory, the same territory covered by Marvel titles like Runaways and Livewires. That is to say, aside from recycling a Spider-Man villain's name, Carmilla Black is a new character, but she is very much grounded in the Marvel Universe. Van Lente makes use of island kingdom Madripoor for Black's original birthplace, uses A.I.M. as the bad guys instead of a more realistic (and most likely, boring) terrorist organization, and throws Black in with S.H.I.E.L.D. instead of the CIA. These are all cosmetic trappings for the most part, but they're important trappings, setting the character firmly in a superheroic universe, which gives the book an unusual flavor that helps it rise above the obvious Alias comparisons.
The key here, though, is not just in concepts but in characterization, and Van Lente does a really good job of building Carmilla Black into a character the reader can care about. Sure, she's got a little bit of that cliched teen angst, but she's got a right to it given the life she's had, and through the use of well-written narration and dialogue, Van Lente makes Carmilla smart as well as sarcastic, tough as well as kind of confused and surprised by the change in her circumstances. He also builds up a good supporting character in the Wakandan (see, another Marvel Universe reference) S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Khanata, whose cold professional demeanor could make for some interesting conflicts down the road.
It doesn't hurt at all that the artwork on this issue is very good, and Leonard Kirk turns in an unsurprisingly professional and energetic performance. His design for Carmilla has all the trappings of a tough punk chick, but she retains a youthful innocence, and we get the sense of a disappointed girl, someone whose good life turned to crap and she responded by putting up a tough facade, although the more innocent real person remains a part of her. I'll confess to a fondness for A.I.M.'s admittedly ugly yellow beekeeper suits, but Kirk does a pretty good redesign on them for their assault units, although I'll hold out hope that the original outfits remain in use for their scientific personnel because of their distinctive look. These new suits look good, but they are also a little generic, and could easily pass for any good guy or bad guy suit of armor as a result.
This could easily have been an unmitigated disaster, but Van Lente and company have come up with a pretty solid new entry into the Marvel Universe. It's not wholly original, wearing its influences on its sleeve, but it's much more original than a lot of the revamps of classic characters, which often wind up trashing a beloved favorite to create a lesser substitute. I question the wisdom of using the Scorpion name, if only because that character has plenty of life left in him as a Spider-Man villain (even if he's currently decked out in Venom's duds), and this is strong enough on its own that it doesn't need the tangential connection to a familiar name. 7/10
