BATTLEWORLDBATTLEWORLD

ROUND 1, BATTLE 22

Follow the bracket here!

 SEIGE

VS

STARLORD AND KITTY PRIDE

Okay, down and dirty plot dump for those who haven’t read these books. In Starlord and Kitty Pride, 616 Peter Quill was separated from the other survivors from REAL Marvel and is hiding out in Black Bolt’s swanky nightclub as a lounge singer (where he passes Disney songs as originals, making him famous). Kitty Pride is an agent of Doom, and has no recollection that a version of her was engaged to Quill, but does realize he shouldn’t exist. Screwball antics to ensue, as the book ends with them handcuffed together and running out of the club. Seige follows Abigail Brand (leader of S.W.O.R.D. and another in the long list of Z-list characters to get her own book in Battleworld) as she leads the forces on the Shield. The Shield is to Battleworld what the Wall is to Game of Thrones, keeping out Ultrons, Zombies, and giant bugs from destroying everything Doom worked so hard to create. Except he created them too, so that’s weird.

So…not a benevolent GodDoom?

 Visually, both books hit their tone perfectly. Starlord and Kitty Pride is a silly romantic romp, and the bright colors and cartoonish expressions painted Alti Firmansyah bring that to life. Whether it’s the swank of the bar, or the goof/suave combo of Peter Quill, the art team hits the notes they need to. It’s easy to see the manga-influences throughout this book, and while that works for the most part, there are times where it goes full-blown anime in a jarring way that doesn’t line up with anything else in the book.

No.  

You can be cartoonish and silly and still stay true to not only the world you’re creating, but to overarching world you’re playing in. On the flipside, Siege art team lead by Filipe Andrade also crushed the tone of their book. The visuals look like watercolors, but gritty and dark, expressive and fantastical, which all fits at the bottom of the world where heroes fight unending death. This is one of the most gorgeous mainstream books I can remember, and the renditions of familiar characters in Andrade’s style are where that differentiation really pops.

Yes. 

Both books also have a sense of humor. Siege it sparingly, coming out in dry quips from Brand and others. They’re grim, battle-hardened characters and goofiness has no place on the Shield. The downside is if several of the characters have the same rhythm of sarcasm, it A- loses it’s effect and B- shines a light on the writers style more than you’d want. Thankfully it’s not too aggressive, but there are definitely a few times where 3 of the 6-8 characters we meet could almost be interchangeable in their responses. SL&KP handles the humor with a far defter hand that separates the characters: Peter Quill is quippy but cool, Kitty Pride is dry, Drax is boisterous and leans towards dumb, Gambit thinks he’s suave but is a pompous ass. The jokes comes from these variations bouncing off of one another, and in this book- silliness fits fine. As long as it’s not fucking hearts surrounding someone’s head.

This is how you silly. 

Because both books know what they’re trying to do, and are trying to accomplish such different stories, it can be difficult to figure out a winner. That is, until we look as the DNA of Battleworld itself. At this point, it’s become clear there’s an edit from the Marvel Bullpen that every #1 should be treated like it’s a readers first entry. This makes sense, because A- that’s been Marvel’s (at least stated) code since the beginning, and 2- they’re trying too hook new readers runoff from the MCU looking for more. Catering to new readers is fine if you’re sound separate stories all in on shared world, like the normal 616. But this is one shared world that also happens to be even wonkier than a normal comic universe, and the writers don’t have enough faith that the single page bullet points explaining the rules will inform all of their readers.

They think their readers are idiots and need more than this. 

 So what do they do? What’s occurring most often is the protagonist explaining the situation. So we have Peter Quill straight up explaining what’s going on in Battleworld, who he is, and why he’s not with the main book crew any longer, but in a self-aware Ferris Bueller the cartoon way. It’s pure exposition, with the faint attempt to hide that by marrying the narration with shots of the club and Peter singing the most famous Disney songs. The only part of this narration that worked was Quill’s explanation that Battleworld has no Disney movies (shocking GodDoom wasn’t a fan of Aladdin and company). It was solid joke that landed amidst a bunch of boring set up that didn’t build character or stakes in any way. Pure info dump.

Pure Chipotle dump. 

Abigail Brand’s handling of exposition works far more smoothly. It’s a journal entry, which is a cheat, but expository introductions are a cheat no matter what, so get on the fucking train and shut up. Within the entry, we get to know who Brand is, and what’s driving her, as well as the setup of Battleworld in general. It’s also coupled with the dialogue of the panels in a balanced way where they build on each other, rather than echo or completely ignore one another. There’s a good chance the character work is woven in because Keiran Gillen is well aware there’s not a giant movie fanbase who loved this book’s protagonist’s wacky antics last summer. But it’s the character work that’s important, and you can’t rely on Chris Pratt’s characterization to push your book forward. His Quill is not the book Quill, and I’d much rather see you build him up than for the fucking 1837342th time hear how Doom created the world in his blah blah blah blah blah blah.

It’s obvious all of the books were being written at the same time, and there’s no way the different teams can learn from the mistake of other books before writing theirs, but just in case, follow these tips comic writers and storytellers: Get out of your own way. Trust your readers. Get to the story. Shut up and play the hits–and by hits I mean original stories not to bogged down by past bullshit.-MG