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U.S. WAR MACHINE #2
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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Marvel Comics/MAX Comics
Writer: Chuck Austen
Artist: Chuck Austen, Wild and Wooly Press, and NIC Entertainment
Layouts: Victor Lopez
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Price: $1.50 US |
In light of last week's
events, the notion of battlesuits being used to fight a bloody war on terrorism
is a little more uncomfortable than enjoyable right now. Leaving aside my
reaction to it in this particular climate, though, I do think that what Austen
is doing here is something different enough to warrant being part of Marvel's
new line, and it's certainly an enjoyable take on the concepts of battlesuits
and their use for military rather than super-heroic purposes. This issue mostly
sees the transition of Rhodey from his old job into his new, with a stopover
into a past rivalry, and it has a lot of humor and some great visuals to go with
it.
Despite running short on page count due to
the format of the book, Austen manages to pack a lot into this issue,
considerably more than the first issue of the book. There's a tense standoff
between Stark and Rhodes, a nice bit of casual conversation with a security
guard and a battle in Rhodes's apartment, all of which move the story or
characters forward a bit. While Austen's dialogue is sometimes a bit stiff, he
gets his points across well. I particularly enjoyed the realistic sense of
discomfort that the security guard had when trying to be politically correct
around Rhodes.
The bitter humor in Rhodes's voice is what
made a lot of this book so enjoyable to me. His conversations with Tony and
Parnell are laced with a bitter, tired wit that made for quite a few funny
moments. Rhodey seems to be channeling his obvious pain over the events of last
issue into a disdain for the less-than-perfect people around him as well, seeing
failure everywhere. He doesn't so much chastise Parnell for being a stupid
mercenary as for living down to the same level that he has fallen into after the
tragedy last issue.
We're also introduced to Austen's version
of SHIELD, and having read an advanced copy of the third issue I know that it
gets even better from here. Even the brief glimpse we get of them in this issue
is intriguing. Rhodes's casual greeting of the SHIELD strike team was worth a
good chuckle, and the introduction of the Helicarrier was a stunning moment,
reminding the reader that while Marvel Universe readers may be jaded to the
concept, the Helicarrier is really a pretty impressive idea.
It doesn't hurt that Austen's work is at
its best when he's dealing with machinery and scenery. His work on people is
decent enough, but often stiff and a little unexpressive. But the machinery,
whether it's the grand view of the Helicarrier or the shots of the Stark
building, is always impressive. Austen is also doing some nice work on the
action sequences, with a pretty decent cramped fight sequence inside Rhodes's
apartment.
Email Randy Lander comments about this review. |
