Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato, Jackson Guice, & Chris Samnee
June 2011
***
A triptych of plots to spring Bucky from a gulag, where he’s pitted against ex-Soviet super-agents in death matches. Guice gives his plot a superb sense of place & atmo, while Samnee’s pages look snazzy. In that, Steve Rogers works w/ DC pols in a realistic cloak’n’dagger plot—till robots attack!
also indexed for Jun. ’11
Annihilators #2 of 4
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5 of 9
FF #2
Secret Avengers #12
Ed Brubaker // Will Conrad with Mike Deodato
June 2011
**
Bru, foreshadowing his Fatale in 2012, unmasks the mag’s villains as a Lovecraft cult. He also links them to John Steele, a creation in the same pulp mode as his Iron Fist. But #12 will be his Secret Av swansong. No great loss, but it’s notable how he abandons it mid-plot. Editorial conflicts?
last issue: Secret Avengers #11
next issue: Secret Avengers #13
also indexed for Jun. ’11
Annihilators #2 of 4
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #5 of 9
Captain America #617
FF #2
A-story: Ed Brubaker // Ed McGuinness
B-story: Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
C-story: Howard Chaykin
D-story: Cullen Bunn // Jason Latour
E-story: Mike Benson // Paul Grist
F-story: Frank Tieri // Paul Azaceta
G-Story: Kyle Higgins & Alec Siegel // Pepe Larraz
May 2011
A-story: ***
B-story: ***
C-story: ****
D-story: ****
E-story: **
F-story: ***
G-Story: ***
Double-sized to celebrate Cap’s debut in May ’41. True Cap gets the A-plot, New Cap gets the B. Narrative gravity starts to pull Rogers back into action, Bru’s chance to indulge a Batman brood. The tone clashes w/ McGuinness’ helium style. Deodato’s noirish shadows fit Bucky’s tale better, tho’ his he-man physiques grate. The non-Brubaker back-ups are good too, esp. a Chaykin period piece!
last issue: Captain America #615.1
next issue: Captain America #617
also indexed for May ’11
Annihilators #1 of 4
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade: Young Avengers #1 of 1
Captain America #615.1
FF #1
Secret Avengers #10
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato & Will Conrad
April 2011
**
In this arc’s climax, Steve & co foil the resurrection of Fu Manchu. Somehow this manages to be a dull outcome. Avengers, Agents of SHIELD reads like it’s a chore for Brubaker to write. He’s fine with Bucky (& this John Steele), but maybe he has no more stories to tell about Steve Rogers.
last issue: Secret Avengers #9
next issue: Secret Avengers #11
also indexed for Apr. ’11
Captain America #615: Bucky Barnes
The Fantastic Four #588
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato & Will Conrad
March 2011
**
Hostage exchanges & nighttime meetings lead to a fight scene. Deo isn’t bad per se, but his ’90s testosterone & photoref settings gild the mag’s over-serious tone. Bru’s phoning it in, aside from his ‘original supersoldier.’ With Superman’s 1938 powers, John Steele functions as a father figure for Cap.
last issue: Secret Avengers #8
next issue: Secret Avengers #10
also indexed for Mar. ’11
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #4 of 9
Captain America #614: Bucky Barnes
The Fantastic Four #587
The Thanos Imperative: Devastation #1 of 1
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
February 2011
**
To resurrect Fu Manchu (who’s never called that, oddly), the cabal in the shadows must capture his son Shang-Chi. So they take Agent 13 hostage. Really, a damsel-in-distress plot? The widescreen art complements the ossified plotting; Brubaker must think poorly of Hollywood-style superheroics.
last issue: Secret Avengers #7
next issue: Secret Avengers #9
also indexed for Feb. ’11
Captain America #613: Bucky Barnes
The Fantastic Four #586
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
January 2011
**
Brubaker weaves dangling threads from his other mags into his Steve Rogers epic. He adds Marvel Project’s ‘original super-soldier’ and an Immortal Weapon from his Iron Fist collab. But all eyes are on Fu Manchu, right? Mostly tho, #7 is more told-not-shown characters & poses-as-panels.
last issue: Secret Avengers #6
next issue: Secret Avengers #8
also indexed for Jan. ’11
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #3 of 9
Captain America #612: Bucky Barnes
The Fantastic Four #585
The Thanos Imperative #6 of 6
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
December 2010
**
Deodato is proving a terrible fit for poor Brubaker—too much machismo! It augers badly that Mike D does such clumsy work on the martial arts, since this arc looks to focus on the kung-fu of Shang-Chi. It gives Cap the chance face the original supervillain: the Yellow Peril, Fu Manchu himself!
last issue: Secret Avengers #5
next issue: Secret Avengers #7
also indexed for Dec. ’10
Captain America #611: Bucky Barnes
The Fantastic Four #584
Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #4 of 4
The Thanos Imperative #5 of 6
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
October 2010
*
There’s the germ of a cool Brubaker story here, with Cap & co investigating the Martian scheme of a Halliburton-type corp. But that’s lost as Deo draws the super-fisticuffs exceptionally poorly (when he’s not photo-reffing). Btw this & his X-run, should EB steer clear of super-team SF?
last issue: Secret Avengers #3
next issue: Secret Avengers #5
also indexed for Oct. ’10
Captain America #609: Bucky Barnes
The Fantastic Four #582
Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #2 of 4
The Thanos Imperative #3 of 6
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
September 2010
***
Those expecting more spy-fi from Brubaker will get wrongfooted by his b-mag. Instead he sends his ‘proactive Avengers’ to a Barsoom-like Mars, a onetime battleground to elder gods and Kirby bashers. The swerve could work except that Deodato, a ’90 veteran, can’t break from his cinematic style.
last issue: Secret Avengers #2
next issue: Secret Avengers #4
also indexed for Sept. ’10
Captain America #608: Bucky Barnes
Fantastic Four #581
Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #1 of 4
The Thanos Imperative #2 of 6
Young Avengers #1
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
August 2010
**
Spelunking on Mars, the team uncover a dig excavated by mind-controlled humans & directed by Lovecraft aliens. Sadly, the fashionable creative team plays to their weaknesses: a cast of spandex physiques all speak in the same square-jawed monotone as they hustle around generic hi-tech bases.
last issue: Secret Avengers #1
next issue: Secret Avengers #3
also indexed for Aug. ’10
Captain America #607: Bucky Barnes
Fantastic Four #580
The Thanos Imperative #1 of 6
Ed Brubaker // Mike Deodato
July 2010
***
Marvel effectively gives Brubaker a Cap team title. Steve Rogers, now head of SHIELD & in a Kirby-inspired uni, foils super-terrorism w/ a ’90s-style strikeforce. There’s just enough plot to bait the hook: the Roxxon Corp, owning the mining rights to Mars, has exhumed a Lovecraftian serpent crown!
continued from Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield #1 of 1
next issue: Secret Avengers #2
also indexed for Jul. ’10
Captain America #606
The Fantastic Four #579
Secret Avengers #1
The Thanos Imperative: Ignition #1 of 1
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
August 2008
***
The creative team stages a trad grand finale—punching, zapping, & quipping. Ellis, at least, has a touch of wit, but action is not Deodato’s forte. Still, the duo have established a v.g. status quo for this mag, by writing Songbird well &, even better, by casting Osborn as a neocon supervillain.
last issue: Thunderbolts #120
next issue: Thunderbolts #122
also indexed for Aug. ’08
Guardians of the Galaxy #2
The Immortal Iron Fist #16
Nova #14
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
July 2008
****
A quartet of telepaths have lain waste to the psyches of this unbalanced team—a turn of events that’s sent Norm Osborne for his Green Goblin mask! His psychotic willingness to commit violence has deliberate echoes of Rumsfeld’s self-justifying rants, & he’s played (via photoref) by Tommy Lee Jones.
last issue: Thunderbolts #119
next issue: Thunderbolts #121
also indexed for Jul. ’08
Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 of 1
Guardians of the Galaxy #1
The Immortal Iron Fist #15
Nova #13
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
May 2008
***
The base is on lockdown: a super-jail whose prisoners incl a cell of telepaths w/ radical politics. Our title team is ripped by factions, as a Nazi aristo (Swordsman), attempts a coup w/ his suborned guard of redshirt soldiers. At the climax, he faces a monstrous Venom—staged as a St. George moment!
last issue: Thunderbolts #118
next issue: Thunderbolts #120
also indexed for May ’08
Annihilation: Conquest #5 of 6
The Immortal Iron Fist #13
Nova #11
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
February 2008
***
A central part of Busiek’s original T-bolts, which Ellis has revived, is the sense that the status quo is unsustainable. The team starts to tear apart—but this is too soon, due to decompressed pacing. Ironically, the best moment has Songbird & Rad-Man cooperate to douse a flaming jet in its hanger.
last issue: Thunderbolts #117
next issue: Thunderbolts #119
also indexed for Feb. ’08
Annihilation: Conquest #2 of 6
The Immortal Iron Fist #12
Nova #9
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
December 2007
***
Doc Samson takes the tough-love approach to a shrink session w/ castmember Speedball. The doc is Ellis’ surrogate in rehabilitating this broken character, once a goofball & now a super-masochist in an iron maiden! Deo often puts together dandy layouts, tho’ his photo-reffed actors are wooden.
last issue: Thunderbolts #116
next issue: Thunderbolts #118
also indexed for Dec. ’07
Annihilation: Conquest: Quasar #4 of 4
Annihilation: Conquest: Star-Lord #4 of 4
Annihilation: Conquest: Wraith #4 of 4
The Immortal Iron Fist #10
Nova #7
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
October 2007
****
T-bolts effectively goes bimonthly for the rest of this revisionistic run. Ellis takes a ’90s-style strikeforce of black hats & uses it as a vehicle for W. Bush-era commentary. The dark side of the post-Civil War: a crackdown on civil rights, as the team’s base is an overcrowded black site prison.
last issue: Thunderbolts #115
next issue: Thunderbolts #117
also indexed for Oct. ’07
Astonishing X-Men #22
Annihilation: Conquest: Quasar #2 of 4
Annihilation: Conquest: Star-Lord #2 of 4
Annihilation: Conquest: Wraith #2 of 4
The Immortal Iron Fist #8
Nova #5
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
August 2007
***
The field op is a failure, although the T-bolts capture their man (a Spidey wannabe). A second exception: during the chaos, Songbird takes the opportunity to strike Bullseye from the team. Ellis works excellently in the moral shadows, but Deodato’s photo-referencing can make the actors seem stiff.
last issue: Thunderbolts #114
next issue: Thunderbolts #116
also indexed for Aug. ’07
Annihilation: Conquest: Prologue #1 of 1
The Immortal Iron Fist #7
Nova #3
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
July 2007
***
A super-rumble in downtown Phoenix has a trio of ‘undocumented’ superheroes undaunted by the title team’s surprise attack. A slightly subpar issue, partly cuz it’s so decompressed. Deodato quits the grid layout to imply the dynamism of battle, but he loses a sense of space and slows the pacing.
last issue: Thunderbolts #113
next issue: Thunderbolts #115
also indexed for Jul. ’07
The Immortal Iron Fist #6
Nova #2
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
June 2007
****
Several subplots are converging on Phoenix AZ: a querulous strike team of psychopaths & a trio of naïve super-types just trying to avoid the Marvel überplot, a super-draft (AKA the Initiative) & do the right thing. Deodato’s faces are very expressive, due to painterly contouring by his colorist.
last issue: Thunderbolts #112
next issue: Thunderbolts #114
also indexed for Jun. ’07
The Immortal Iron Fist #5
Nova #1
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
May 2007
****
The team’s a vivid array of luridly damaged psyches. Norman Osborne finally justifies his Clone-era resurrection, but it’s Moonstone & Songbird who stand out (as they had in Busiek’s T-bolts). The women butt heads over the leadership role in a scene out of a military briefing in the Iraqi Green Zone.
last issue: Thunderbolts #111
next issue: Thunderbolts #113
also indexed for May ’07
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus #2 of 2
Astonishing X-Men #21
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
April 2007
****
Norm Osborne, on antipsychotics, leads a federal team of superconvicts. Here, they arrest one of Captain America’s protégés with extreme force & revolting machismo. This new take on the T-bolts does what Civil War didn’t: use a superhero idiom to take a timely stand against domestic policing.
last issue: Thunderbolts #110
next issue: Thunderbolts #112
also indexed for Apr. ’07
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus #1 of 2
The Immortal Iron Fist #4
Warren Ellis // Mike Deodato
March 2007
****
A marquee creative team revamps this mag superbly. In Ellis’ hands, the T-bolts are a variation on Suicide Squad, but w/ a strong satiric take on his übermenschen in The Authority as informed by Homeland Security. Deodato, in the cinematic mode-of-the-monent, has the virtue of being a very good DP.
last issue: Thunderbolts #109
next issue: Thunderbolts #111
also indexed for Mar. ’07
Annihilation #6 of 6
Nextwave, Agents of HATE #12
Index Indigo 