 |
| It's the end! Complete with technical issues and poor grammar! |
There are times in life when you finish
a work of fiction be it television, film, or literature and the
results leave you awestruck, filled to the brim with new ideas and
concepts, a whole new outlook which seemed foreign to you just hours
before. Then there's times when you finish something like The
Crossing which leaves you cross eyed, achy, and seeking the comfort
of pudding. Under normal circumstances those feelings would have been
dealt with in part 5 coinciding with the defeat of the villains and
the rise of a new Iron Man, but this is the crossing bitches! Normal
story structure means nothing here. Instead of cutting their losses
and ending this mess Marvel pumped out four more issues in an attempt
to tie up some loose threads while creating a few more. Now sit back
and watch this narrative sweater unravel.
Force Works #21
It's a somber day at Force Works HQ as
the team views a holographic message from the formerly living Tony
Stark. He's got some basic platitudes about believing in the cause
and how the future is always bright and full of possibilities.
Doesn't seem like much of the team buys into it since the final week
of his life involved multiple homicide.
The next order of business is much
more interesting/confusing. Remember Suzi Endo? The pretty Asian lady
who moonlights as cybermancer and turned out to be Tony's evil
henchman while also somehow being locked inside a cryogenic chamber?
Well she's still around....both of her. Apparently Tony had his own
gateway for dimensional/time travel and he employed the Suzi Endo of
another time and or place to do some of his dirty work. I can hear
you asking, “why did he bother inviting regular/good Suzi to join
the team then?” Good question. I initially though we might have a
situation where good Suzi was the one who created the tech which
would have forced Tony to take her captive in order to gain a power
suit for his Suzi. I was giving the story far too much credit as the
actual answer is that the suit was made by bad Suzi as well, they
just invited the regular one over so they could freeze her, thous
keeping her from screwing up the dastardly plan. Why they didn't just
kill her instead of bothering with refrigeration bills, we'll never
know.
Elsewhere in the building, love is in
the air as we learn that Century has fallen for Scarlet Witch.
Normally I wouldn't think of a fictional character as lucky but our
gray alien friend hit the jackpot when he slipped into obscurity
before his dream girl went all crazy pants. Trust me buddy, that's
one honey pot you don't want your paws in. Spider-Woman and the teams
tech guy, Fisher share a few knowing glances of their own. Now this
guy has realistic goals. Single mothers in spider tights make for
achievable love affairs.
Eventually all this lovey dovey stuff
gets kicked to the curb as Stark's magic doorway opens, allowing two
intruders to bust into the joint. One is a bio-organic and somewhat
nice version of Ultron and the other is an extra douchy version of
Wonder Man, the regular version of which was apparently dead at the
time. All these future people claim that horrible war and destruction
await us in the future but of course it's all just as vague and
meaningless as Kang's talk of a greater threat. Force works tussles
with these intruders who eventually free their Suzi. In the
confusion, nobody notices that the time gate starts pulling our
universe into it. Yeah, it's that kind of party.
Force Works #22
The final issue of Force Works is a
tad messy. It kicks off with the team trying to figure out the whole
reality eating time gate issue while a trio of temporal intruders run
around the base looking for the cybermancer suit. A good deal of this
first chunk revolves around developing these misplaced folk. In
particular we get the quite unique version of Ultron that's more of a
wise cracking sidekick. Guy cares about the environment for some
reason and we even see him fear for his life at one point, and
rightfully so since his people start to fade from existence. Best
guess is that their time-line is being destroyed by.....let's say
salamanders (it's more answer than we get in the story), and the trio
vanishing like a bad flashback is a side effect. The Force Works team
tries to save them, after assaulting them, that is.
Sadly everyone's efforts amount to
nothing as the time travelers are scrubbed from reality. The portal
they used to enter our world however continues to grow in strength
until regular Suzi Endo launches the cybermancer suit into it.
Seriously, that was it. They just needed to throw stuff back into the
time gate until it went boom. With all that out of the way, the team
sits down for coffee (cause that's what heroes do in the crossing)
and discuss their future plans. Everyone decides to take a break and
maybe reform Force Works later . Spoiler alert! They never do.
Spider-Woman wants to check in with her boyfriend from another time
line, she doesn't. Century wants to travel, he disappears into comic
book limbo. Fisher wants to test out some new technology, also in
limbo. Scarlet Witch wants to check in with the Avengers, only to
immediately forget this team and cause lots of trouble. U.S. Agent
would go on to a few more books over the years and eventually lose an
arm...I think...he might have gotten it back. The team never reforms
properly but at the very end they run off together to take on one
final threat while the A.I. Plato comments on how they'll be better
than okey. Poor bastard doesn't realize no one's coming back for him.
War Machine #24
Those of you with good memories might
recall several cutaways to a side story about one of Rohdey's lady
friends suddenly aging. Guess the writers thought it was finally time
to do something with that particular plot thread. Here's the details
in short. Before the crossing began, James and Sheva were caught up
in something called a time quake which left them both with temporal
tissue damage. Cause, ya know, that's a real thing. Said damage has
left Sheva in a state of rapid aging. Doctors try to figure out why
Rhodes shows zero signs of the condition and he's apparently being
safeguarded by his fancy new alien technology. While all this is
going on, Sheva has flashbacks like when she first encountered War
machine. An event which gives us one final ass shot for the feature,
huzzah!
Another woman named Rae who I guess
was in a romance with James shows up to check on their aging friend
but doesn't miss the opportunity to nag our hero. In the process she
drops the bomb that while she was visiting his racist parents they
revealed that James has a son with an old girlfriend. He takes the
news like a champ.
Sheva magically returns to her actual
age long enough for Jim to take his shirt off for her. Then she
suddenly ages even more than before and eventually croaks. Oh and
Shield wants a piece of the warware suit.
War Machine #25
For a final issue of both a series and
an event, this is one sparse little tale. War Machine smacks down the
Shield agents who are trying to take his technology, says goodbye to
his job and coworkers, hooks up with Rae, packs his bags, beats down
Shield agents again, then drives off into the sunset with his lady.
Naturally there are a few more details than that but it doesn't
matter as all this was soon pushed to the side and forgotten. Gotta
point out my favorite bit though where Jame's decides that he can't
go in search of his possible son until he finds himself. Guy must
have never found himself cause that kid's still waiting for a daddy.
I keep forgetting to note that at some
point in the story, think it was back in Stark's Satellite, James
learned that he was bonded with the warware until death. Felt that
worth mentioning since it didn't take long for him to be free of it
and he's still alive & well.
So yeah, that's it. The crossing is an
interesting specimen not only for it's poorly plotted antics but for
it's historical context as well. In an effort to boost the sales of
Avengers and Iron Man titles, Marvel made a mess so bad that the
clean-up operation was almost immediate. Force Works wrapped up with
little fanfare. That team has never seen a resurgence with several
members still floating in the comic either. War Machine faded into
the background of other books eventually losing the space armor and
never bothering to look up his kid. Teen Tony only lasted for about
half a year before the events of Heroes Reborn returned an adult
Stark to the pages. Wasp got to be a human once again in just over a
year I think. Many of the small support characters like Tuc or
Deathunt were never heard from again. As if all that wasn't bad
enough, Avengers Forever did it's damnedest to reduce these events to
the level of a fever dream.
Seeing as I've labeled these articles
as a review, I suppose it's only fair to comment on whether or not
any of you should spend your time seeking it out. Depending on your
tolerance for stupidity I'd say maybe give it a shot. There are lots
of bad comics, and plenty of shitty comic events to choose from, but
the The Crossing is special in how it blends greed and laziness
together. The majority of it can be blamed on Bob Harris who was
Marvel's editor-in-chief for some of their worst years, currently he
holds the same position for DC (poor bastards). Terry Kavanagh works
with him and as a team write like drunken children. Abnet and Lanning
have their parts to play as well but it frequently feels like they're
just along for the ride. There's so much melodrama and silly plotting
that could still be delved into so if you find my recaps to be
entertaining, the real experience will prove to be absolutely
fascinating.
I recently got a trade that collects
the Iron Man and Avengers issues that follow this mess. We'll be
taking a look at those fairly soon in preparation for something much
bigger. Soon after the crossing failed, Marvel attempted another
rotten cash crab with an event called Onslaught. And wouldn't ya know
it's getting an omnibus this summer and I can not wait! Of course
recaps will be in order though I plan to do them in smaller, more
frequent chunks. Stay tuned folks. The Crossing may finally be over,
but we're on this train for the long haul.
No comments:
Post a Comment