BATTLEWORLDBATTLEWORLD

ROUND 2, BATTLE 5

Follow the bracket here!

FUTURE IMPERFECT #1-2

VS

GIANT SIZE LITTLE MARVEL: AVX #1-2

Round One of this tournament, which is a bunch of first issues fighting each other, is all about setting up the novelty, if not the storyline of each different title. This is fine, but then we NEED to get some sort of stakes in the second issues. I know it seems like the stakes should be set up immediately, or at least by the end of the first issue, but I’m being a little more forgiving here for a couple of reasons. One, every first issue is not only establishing an entire new world, but a new world inside a larger new world. That’s a lot to do. On top of that, comic book writers, especially the ones that work for Marvel and DC, are used to having their stakes built in. They are typically working with characters who have been in the middle of their Act 2’s since the early sixties. This comes with its own inherent stakes, and fans that have a pretty good idea of what’s going on with the characters, but it might take them a minute to figure out the short-form world building of the Battleworld books. So, it’s OK if the first issues of each story sell us on the world, and the second issues let us know why we should care. Or, in Battleworld terms, issue one is “DOOM IS GOD,” and issue two is “ACTUALLY, YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCK DOOM.” Now that more and more second issues are coming out, and based on what’s going on in the main Secret Wars book, it seems like God Doom is going to have his hands full pretty soon, not just with the characters that escaped the 616 unscathed, but also the citizens of a lot of the worlds he created.

This is how the first two issues of Future Imperfect work. They throw us into a world based on an event of the past. They show who is down with Doom. Then they show how us how no one is. And then they begin to work their way towards what will most likely be an anti-climactic showdown, thanks to too many books over too long a time putting too much pressure on the finale. But in addition to that, Future Imperfect is mostly OK on its own, too. It plays around with a smart Hulk. It shines a new light on the Thing/Hulk battle that has been raging for 50 years now.  And it tells the story of how hard it is to be an asshole when there’s a bigger asshole standing in your way. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” is a tired cliche, but it gets more interesting when people go against some of their beliefs in order to stop something that is against more of their beliefs. It’s not totally clear yet why Hulk and Thing would put aside their fundamental differences in order to take down Doom, or even how exactly they can help each other. But that’s OK. That’s what issue threes are for. That’s the kind of conversation that can fuel how compelling this book can be, while attaching it to the larger Secret Wars world. Right now, that’s all you need to make it into Round 3.

Sometimes, however, books can start to feel like the whole Battleworld event was set-up so the publisher could tell their writers and artists “Hey, do whatever you want with whichever characters you want.” I loved Giant Size Little Marvel: AVX. It wasn’t just the nice vaycay from the rest of what Marvel was doing, nor was it just the opportunity – any opportunity – to get some more of Skottie Young’s cartooning. It was the perfect blend of world introduction and forward progression, and all of that came to a screeching halt with issue two. After this latest one, it seems more like Marvel would have been better suited putting one-page stories about this world in the back of every Battleworld issue, as opposed to dedicating an entire title to it. It’s still a lot of fun, and the art will always be worth the price of admission alone, but this far into the event, we need some sort of hook to get us to keep buying. There are so many titles. It’s exasperating, and I can imagine that even readers who don’t have to write about every book that comes out are looking for any reason to cull their lists. GSLMAVX finds itself stuck in some sort of purgatory between telling a long-form story and a bunch of tiny skits. Neither one is working right now. The end of this issue finds two twins (basically Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver) watching the Avengers and the X-Men fighting over which team they are going to be on (Get it? It’s like Fox and Marvel Studios). The two try and predict who will win one of the battles, one predicts wrong, and then it ends. It’s weird, and abrupt, and highlights what it’s missing. It’s missing the thing that I think the stories need at this point: the reason, either on a micro or macro level, to get us to keep tuning in. Future Imperfect has a long road ahead of it if it wants to take this whole tournament down, but the first two issues begin a story that can stand alone AND connect itself to the bigger world. That’s going to be one of, if not the, secret to winning.

– Ryan Haley

COME BACK MONDAY FOR MORE ROUND ONE ACTION!

RED SKULL! 1872! AGE OF APOCALYPSE! CIVIL WAR!