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| SECRET WARS No. 6, December 2015 |
It is genuinely hard not to come away from reading one of
the best-selling comics of October 2015 without a sense of bitter
disappointment. For whilst Jonathan Hickman’s script is engaging enough in its
portrayal of the God Emperor Doom’s medieval dictatorship unravelling around
him, there really isn’t all that much for the title's devotees to get excited about.
Certainly nothing that makes good upon the promising Alex Ross cover
illustration, which shows a beleaguered Thanos being swamped by a shambling horde
of super-villainous Marvel Zombies. Indeed such a mouth-watering confrontation doesn’t even
occur within this periodical’s twenty-five pages, as Jim Starlin's creation is instead
consigned to just a handful of panels depicting him goading an ‘incarcerated’
Benjamin Grimm into seeking revenge upon the “petty usurper of powers” who
fooled The Thing into leaving “the only family he ever had behind.”
Just as frustrating is the fact that this particular
instalment of the “Marvel Worldwide” mega-event takes place three whole weeks
after the previous issue’s cliffhanger ending and thus deprives its audience of
Valeria’s entire “search for the rebels who killed Stephen Strange”, Apocalypse’s
“stumbling” upon Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, as well as Black Swan’s
apparent betrayal of the Cabal and suspiciously earnest subservience to the “Ruler of
Battleworld”; any one of which would have been infinitely more action-packed
than the dialogue-heavy scenes involving the adolescent Head of the Foundation
and two surviving “Spider-Men”.
Admittedly Hickman’s storyline does still contain a small
number of ‘stand-out’ moments, such as the Black Panther’s discovery of the
Infinity Gauntlet hidden within the Sanctum Sanctorum. But sub-plots such as
Captain Marvel's apparent ‘conquest’ of Mister Sinister’s kingdom being simply
passed over in favour of laboriously lengthy conversations between Reed
Richards and his ‘Ultimate’ self, The Maker, are surely wasted opportunities?
As a result the highlight of “We Raise Them Up…
Just So We Can Pull Them Down” is undoubtedly Esad Ribic’s captivating and wonderfully coloured artwork. Though sadly even this appears
uninspiringly subdued in places… Doubtless on account of the Croatian penciller
having little material, other than characters ‘waxing lyrical’, with which to
work with.
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| The regular cover art of "SECRET WARS" No. 6 by Alex Ross |
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