Marvel Meltdown: July '10

[Stephanie]

Welcome to an all-new Marvel Meltdown, true believers! Each month we’ll select three upcoming Marvel comic books and let you know whether or not they’re worth buying. This time we'll flip through the pages of Daredevil #508, tell knock-knock jokes with the Wade Wilson in X-Men Origins: Deadpool #1, and start a cat fight in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #12.

Daredevil #508

Something smells in Hell's Kitchen, and the Man without Fear knows all about it. By commanding the ninja armies of the Hand, Matt Murdock hopes to convert the organization to one that pursues justice and peace. In the process, he has rejected Master Izo's sensei guidance and shut out his worried friends. Killing long-time foe Bullseye only aggravates their concerns that the Hand has corrupted the city's blind avenger, whose influence over the organization is slipping fast. The five clans have deployed White Tiger, a double agent bent on executing the Hand's true wishes: to turn Daredevil to their way of thinking.

Daredevil #508 continues into Shadowland #1, a reference to the fortress Murdock has erected over Hell's Kitchen. While his ninjas prowl the streets, fear replaces crime for those still living there. As Foggy Nelson and Dakota North enter the ninja hot spot, they find waiting for them not Daredevil, but rather White Tiger ... and a little car trouble. Meanwhile, Izo calls upon someone who could snap Daredevil out of his current lapse in judgment.

Roberto De La Torre's moody art combined with Matt Hollingsworth's striking colors serve "Shadowland" well. Andy Diggle and Antony Johnston have little room to maneuver each issue, tucking bits of plot development between the seams, but the dialogue holds as slim and interesting.

X-Men Origins: Deadpool #1

Marvel teases their eventual Deadpool blockbuster with a comic that ... pokes fun at their eventual Deadpool blockbuster? Next week's X-Men Origins: Deadpool #1 anticipates the action flick by heading straight to the mouth of the merc himself.

Ahead of the superhero curve, Deadpool starts indulging his movie star curiosity. After interviewing several deadbeat directors, he finally meets one with a genuine interest ... sort of. This first issue recounts Wade Wilson's cancer-stricken days, which led him toward the Weapon X program and turned the good but dying mercenary for hire into an unbeatable killing machine. Wade even pulls on the heartstrings, discussing his childhood relationship with his joke-cracking father. The emotional current strengthens this surprisingly enjoyable comic, but when Hollywood plugs one too many explosions and sappy Celine Dion songs into the true Deadpool story, a humiliated and angry merc abandons the media scene and tracks down a face more familiar than his own.

Thankfully, writer Duane Swierczynski (and publisher Marvel) doesn't sugarcoat the possible crash-and-burn of the upcoming Origins movie, instead focusing on the character's side of the story. Leandro Fernandez splashes decent artwork onto the page, but a few panels end up looking silly. X-Men Origins: Deadpool #1 hits its mark otherwise, but unfortunately, the one-shot is cut short from the mini-series expansion it deserves.

Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #12

Rooming with Johnny Storm and Bobby Drake ought to keep temperatures fluctuating enough for one household, but when Peter Parker and his ex-girlfriend Mary Jane visit the Daily Bugle to report mutant Kitty Pryde's recent school "expulsion" of sorts, an impostor imitating J. Jonah Jameson overpowers the high school age Peter. Walking in Peter Parker's shoes, though, presents more of a challenge than this unassuming masquerader realizes.

For the real Peter Parker, holding a relationship with girlfriend Gwen Stacy, saving New York as the web-slinging Spider-Man, and juggling a part-time job while squeezing in time for homework was a tough task already without an overly curious stranger meddling in his life. In "Tainted Love: Part Four," the false Peter manages to upset MJ, spoil Gwen's trust, and offend his friends and Aunt May in a few hours' time. What's worse, Peter's identity is now in danger, and the real hero—and his old boss—are still out cold.

Brian Michael Bendis pens a comic that, despite its teenage melodrama and lightweight read, makes for an altogether interesting and well-written issue. Plus, David Lafuente draws one sinister Peter Parker wannabe.

Good or bad, you can find these and lots of other Marvel comics over at the Impulse Creations shop.