Marvel Comics 2016
Written by David Walker
Illustrated by Sanford Greene & Flaviano
Coloured by John Rauch
Letters & Production by VC’s Clayton Cowles
The battle over predictive justice came to Danny and Luke when reformed criminals and their families sought protection from preemptive strike, a group of vigilantes using the mysterious software Agnitus to hunt anyone with a criminal record, and some people without one, when preemptive strike raided H4H headquarters. The police intervened, in the confusion, Danny kicked an officer who was pinning a client, and he was taken to Ryker’s Prison. Now Luke’s in hiding, getting fed up with inaction and Ulysses just had a vision of a jailbreak.
There’s something inherently interesting about the way David has been writing this series. I like the street level focus of the book and that they aren’t into the whole Avengers scenario as it were. I’m not a fan of company wide tie-ins it takes away from the real story that should be happening within the pages. This whole Civil War II is something i’ve given a hard pass to and that I have to see things in this issue that doesn't make sense to me being here is a disappointment.
The introspective parts about the boys pasts, being accused of crimes they didn’t commit and having served time unjustly are great points and very on topic with today’s world and I wish that hadn’t felt detracted from by the appearance and Carol and her crew. The characterisation of Luke and Danny here is being handled wonderfully by David and you feel like they get these folks whom they are trying to help. They relate on a level so few of us can actually identify with that it really has that emotional impact in his writing.
At first I wasn’t the biggest fan of the interior artwork but I have to admit it’s got a great amount of gritty charm to it. I’ve come to really enjoy the look, tone and feel of the series. While I am a big advocate of using backgrounds I would definitely appreciate seeing more of them put into use here to flesh out the bigger picture. The are important for many reasons and should be used to help set the right stage is it were.
I like that the guys aren’t up there with the “big guns” and are doing there own thing now if the rest of the Marvel U would stay out of their business unless asked for help i’d be even happier. This is definitely a situation where a company mandate for a crossover appearance hurts rather than helps a series. I read so few Marvel books anymore and mucking about with what’s interesting, different and fresh as this series is by forcing it into the melee between Carol and Tony just feels unnatural.