Time and Time Again

Secret Avengers #20

The latest Secret Avengers op has gone bad, leaving Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter, and War Machine dead, and Black Widow using an untested “escape hatch” teleporter to escape to… five years in the past? Turns out the “escape hatch” is a wrist-mounted time machine with a few serious limitations — events that have already happened still have to happen, so she can’t just timejump to five minutes before the end of the mission and wipe out the bad guys. This leads to a great deal of jumping back and forth through time, learning about how time travel works, financing a genius to get him to build a wrist-mounted time machine, getting weapons engineers to build weapons that won’t actually kill her teammates and making sure those weapons are in the hands of the bad guys. But will all this time travel actually save the Secret Avengers?

Verdict: Thumbs up. This was actually the first of Warren Ellis’ “Secret Avengers” comics that really felt like a Warren Ellis comic. It’s high concept, packed full of action, and insanely complicated, but it’s still very, very human. I loved all the scenes with Count Khronus and Kongo, especially the art shifts that accompanied their first appearance.

Static Shock #5

Static escapes from the watery grave Piranha threw him into. The Slate Gang loses their security contract with the criminal organization, and Piranha takes it over on a probationary basis. The crooks say they can’t find any civilian identity for Static — not even Virgil Hawkins has the same DNA. And they kidnap Virgil’s sister, Sharon — or one of them, since they’re perfect clones. Guilotina tries to make friends with Sharon, and Static tries to track down where Piranha is taking Sharon.

Verdict: Thumbs down. Too much confusion. Why can’t the bad guys tell that Static is Virgil Hawkins, and if they don’t think he’s Static, why do they kidnap his sister? What’s with the threatening note left for Virgil at home? About the only part of this that I enjoyed was the retelling of Static’s origin. Other than that, wow, what a colossal mess.

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January 10, 2012 · Filed under Secret Avengers, Static

4 Comments

  1. Ouroboros Said,

    January 10, 2012 @ 10:42 am

    I enjoyed Secret Avengers #20, but when I finished reading it, I thought “now I need to find an exegesis online”.

    However, was Sharon Carter ever shown in this issue? I got that she’s mentioned in the dramatis personae, but I don’t recall seeing her, or anyone speaking to her.

  2. scottslemmons Said,

    January 10, 2012 @ 10:51 am

    Sharon does appear, I think, but not for very long. I’m fairly sure she’s the person who Natasha speaks to the most at the end. But I don’t have an issue of the comic here to check, so I may be wrong…

  3. Maxo Said,

    January 10, 2012 @ 12:26 pm

    Damn, that’s disappointing to hear about Static Shock. I’ve really been hoping this would be a second chance for a great character, but it sounds as if they don’t know what to do with him.

  4. scottslemmons Said,

    January 10, 2012 @ 1:03 pm

    What really bugs me about “Static Shock” is that they’re doing a really great job of writing the books subplots — I’m freakin’ desperate to find out more about Sharon and her clone — I just don’t give a damn about anything having to do with the book’s lead character… :/