Jim Lemoine
Mar 10, 2002, 11:18 pm
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/citv-everlast1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/citv-everlast1t.jpg" align=left alt="Citizen V & The V-Battalion: The Everlasting #1"></a>Reviewer: Jim Lemoine, darkkelf@earthlink.net
Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Time Enough For Living
Written by: Fabian Nicieza
Cover by: Mike Deodato Jr
Pencilled by: Lewis LaRosa
Inked by: Jim Royal
Lettered by: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colored by: Angelo Tsang (UDON)
Assistant Editors: Marc Sumerak & Jeff Youngquist
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
As a huge fan of the Thunderbolts, I’ve been looking forward to the new Citizen V series for a while. The first mini-series was an above-average adventure tale that really paid off at the end when we all learned that our suspicions were true; that the new Citizen V was none other than the nefarious Baron Helmut Zemo. I admit to being a bit disappointed when I heard that this series would feature a new Citizen V (who used to be a Citizen V, but isn’t the original Citizen V, and has the body of the last Citizen V, and… oy, this gives me a headache). Still, the V-Battalion remains a fascinating concept, and I was willing to give this new Citizen V a chance, just like I’ve given chances to the last three CV’s.
For those not in the Thunderbolts know, Citizen V was a Golden Age hero who fought alongside folks like the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. After he was killed by the first Baron Zemo, many others have taken on the mantle. All of these used the name to continue the fighting spirit and nobility of the original… which the exception of one Baron Helmut Zemo, who took on the identity to fool the world into believing him a hero. Zemo’s twin stints as V have been highly enjoyable, but other V’s (notably, the female Citizen V who served between Zemo’s roles) have been something less than fascinating.
The V-Battalion, on the other hand, is constantly engaging, and remains so in this issue. A group of Golden Age heroes and their descendants, the V-Battalion’s mantra is World Peace, no matter what the cost. When we were first introduced to the group in the pages of Thunderbolts, readers as a whole weren’t all that impressed. After all, comic book universes seem to be filled with hundreds of mysterious covert organizations with either world peace or world war as their goal. Here, though, writer Fabian Nicieza has turned the V-Battalion into something very different from standard comic-book fare. You’re never quite sure if this group is the “good guy” or the “bad guy”, and that makes for fantastic reading. They don’t provide as much flash and fanfare as popular comic-book-types like Amazing Spider-Man or Elektra, but the mature reader looking for intriguing themes and wonderful characterization will find both here in full force.
The issue opens with a flashback to 1953, and the funeral of the original Union Jack. We see several members of the V-Batallion in their (relative) youth, and most of the conversation is centered on the activities and future of the then-fledgling covert group. Of much more interest to me than any of that, though, is a hint that Nicieza drops in an apparent social misspeak. It seems that the man in charge of the V-Battalion, Roger Aubrey, may have had a homosexual relationship with Union Jack. Wow… there’s a side of our Golden Age Destroyer I never thought I’d see. Kudos, Fabian. Now that you’ve brought it up, yes, I could believe that.
The scene swiftly switches to the Citizen V of the 1950’s, Paulette Brazee. Brazee is on the trail of a fugitive Nazi scientist, and we see that the V-Battalion’s operations were shady even then, forty years ago, as she offers the scientist a job with the Battalion instead of jail time. Before he can answer, though, he’s shot and killed by an oddly-dressed man wielding some kind of energy bow. CV shoots and kills him (as opposed to the more politically correct methods employed by today’s heroes), learning only that he calls himself “the Everlasting.”
Throughout the scene, Nicieza provides captions detailing Brazee’s feelings about her job and her misgivings about raising her son. These few pages as a whole are extremely well-written and give us a wonderful though brief insight into the second Citizen V. The fact that she actually shoots her opponent, instead of going to the trouble of knocking him out in an overly elaborate fashion, has this reality-in-comics lover happy.
We switch back to the present now, with a beautiful full-page pin-up of the new CV, John Watkins, III, standing over the Everlasting just as his grandmother did 40 years ago. While the art is very nice, I was a little bothered by the redesign of the CV costume. The cape just doesn’t seem flowing enough, and the extra spikes on the mask minimize the whole “V” motif. Still, it does stand to reason that Watkins would want to use a different design than Zemo, so it’s understandable. But still, he may have been evil, but that Zemo was a snappy dresser!
Backstory and illumination follow as we’re returned to the V-Batallion’s flying headquarters, the Vanguard, and we receive the standard role-call of the organization’s High Council. I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t very impressed with the art at all during these sequences. Believe it or no, it’s possible to draw older people without making them look very, very ugly. It should also be possible to tell them apart in the art, but for the life of me I had trouble telling the difference between the former Destroyer, and the former Bucky. While the technology was drawn very well, all of the humans on the Vanguard, with the exception of CV himself, were rendered very poorly.
The art may have disappointed, but the story remained fascinating. Aubrey is still depressed and seems almost psychopathic. The rest of his council still follows his lead, often reluctantly. The captions here are provided by the resident kidnapped psychiatrist, Andrea Sterman, who does a good job of breaking down the inner workings of Aubrey. It was a bit confusing, though, having the caption perspective change in the middle of the story.
The V-Batallion follows the Everlasting to China, where we’re told by Citizen V that “Everyone in China is dead!” This he says in the final pages of the book as we’re treated to a striking double-spread of CV flying over the country, with hundreds of dead people lying prone on the ground. Here, I’m going to flip-flop my comments: good art, bad story. While I understand Nicieza’s need to give us a suspenseful wrap-up to the first chapter, saying that everybody in China is dead pushes the envelope on believability and credibility, even in the Marvel Universe. It’s also mildly disturbing that our hero, John Watkins III, is so quick to jump to this conclusion… and, to judge from his body language and speech, all those deaths don’t bother him that much.
All in all, The Everlasting is not only a must-read for the hardcore Thunderbolts fan, but also a surprisingly solid read for the mature superhero enthusiast, providing a realistic look at aging heroes and their view on the world. The art quality is fairly poor throughout most of the book (any part that has a human face, in particular), but Nicieza crafts such an outstanding story, you can see past that. It’s got a little bit of action and adventure to satisfy the younger reader, but where this book really shines is its somewhat disturbing look into the psyches of our heroes.
Awesome cover, too, by Mike Deodato, Jr. However, since I can’t judge a book’s art by its cover, I’ll have to give it….
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!
Quick Rating: Good
Story Title: Time Enough For Living
Written by: Fabian Nicieza
Cover by: Mike Deodato Jr
Pencilled by: Lewis LaRosa
Inked by: Jim Royal
Lettered by: Richard Starkings & Comicraft
Colored by: Angelo Tsang (UDON)
Assistant Editors: Marc Sumerak & Jeff Youngquist
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
As a huge fan of the Thunderbolts, I’ve been looking forward to the new Citizen V series for a while. The first mini-series was an above-average adventure tale that really paid off at the end when we all learned that our suspicions were true; that the new Citizen V was none other than the nefarious Baron Helmut Zemo. I admit to being a bit disappointed when I heard that this series would feature a new Citizen V (who used to be a Citizen V, but isn’t the original Citizen V, and has the body of the last Citizen V, and… oy, this gives me a headache). Still, the V-Battalion remains a fascinating concept, and I was willing to give this new Citizen V a chance, just like I’ve given chances to the last three CV’s.
For those not in the Thunderbolts know, Citizen V was a Golden Age hero who fought alongside folks like the Sub-Mariner and Captain America. After he was killed by the first Baron Zemo, many others have taken on the mantle. All of these used the name to continue the fighting spirit and nobility of the original… which the exception of one Baron Helmut Zemo, who took on the identity to fool the world into believing him a hero. Zemo’s twin stints as V have been highly enjoyable, but other V’s (notably, the female Citizen V who served between Zemo’s roles) have been something less than fascinating.
The V-Battalion, on the other hand, is constantly engaging, and remains so in this issue. A group of Golden Age heroes and their descendants, the V-Battalion’s mantra is World Peace, no matter what the cost. When we were first introduced to the group in the pages of Thunderbolts, readers as a whole weren’t all that impressed. After all, comic book universes seem to be filled with hundreds of mysterious covert organizations with either world peace or world war as their goal. Here, though, writer Fabian Nicieza has turned the V-Battalion into something very different from standard comic-book fare. You’re never quite sure if this group is the “good guy” or the “bad guy”, and that makes for fantastic reading. They don’t provide as much flash and fanfare as popular comic-book-types like Amazing Spider-Man or Elektra, but the mature reader looking for intriguing themes and wonderful characterization will find both here in full force.
The issue opens with a flashback to 1953, and the funeral of the original Union Jack. We see several members of the V-Batallion in their (relative) youth, and most of the conversation is centered on the activities and future of the then-fledgling covert group. Of much more interest to me than any of that, though, is a hint that Nicieza drops in an apparent social misspeak. It seems that the man in charge of the V-Battalion, Roger Aubrey, may have had a homosexual relationship with Union Jack. Wow… there’s a side of our Golden Age Destroyer I never thought I’d see. Kudos, Fabian. Now that you’ve brought it up, yes, I could believe that.
The scene swiftly switches to the Citizen V of the 1950’s, Paulette Brazee. Brazee is on the trail of a fugitive Nazi scientist, and we see that the V-Battalion’s operations were shady even then, forty years ago, as she offers the scientist a job with the Battalion instead of jail time. Before he can answer, though, he’s shot and killed by an oddly-dressed man wielding some kind of energy bow. CV shoots and kills him (as opposed to the more politically correct methods employed by today’s heroes), learning only that he calls himself “the Everlasting.”
Throughout the scene, Nicieza provides captions detailing Brazee’s feelings about her job and her misgivings about raising her son. These few pages as a whole are extremely well-written and give us a wonderful though brief insight into the second Citizen V. The fact that she actually shoots her opponent, instead of going to the trouble of knocking him out in an overly elaborate fashion, has this reality-in-comics lover happy.
We switch back to the present now, with a beautiful full-page pin-up of the new CV, John Watkins, III, standing over the Everlasting just as his grandmother did 40 years ago. While the art is very nice, I was a little bothered by the redesign of the CV costume. The cape just doesn’t seem flowing enough, and the extra spikes on the mask minimize the whole “V” motif. Still, it does stand to reason that Watkins would want to use a different design than Zemo, so it’s understandable. But still, he may have been evil, but that Zemo was a snappy dresser!
Backstory and illumination follow as we’re returned to the V-Batallion’s flying headquarters, the Vanguard, and we receive the standard role-call of the organization’s High Council. I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t very impressed with the art at all during these sequences. Believe it or no, it’s possible to draw older people without making them look very, very ugly. It should also be possible to tell them apart in the art, but for the life of me I had trouble telling the difference between the former Destroyer, and the former Bucky. While the technology was drawn very well, all of the humans on the Vanguard, with the exception of CV himself, were rendered very poorly.
The art may have disappointed, but the story remained fascinating. Aubrey is still depressed and seems almost psychopathic. The rest of his council still follows his lead, often reluctantly. The captions here are provided by the resident kidnapped psychiatrist, Andrea Sterman, who does a good job of breaking down the inner workings of Aubrey. It was a bit confusing, though, having the caption perspective change in the middle of the story.
The V-Batallion follows the Everlasting to China, where we’re told by Citizen V that “Everyone in China is dead!” This he says in the final pages of the book as we’re treated to a striking double-spread of CV flying over the country, with hundreds of dead people lying prone on the ground. Here, I’m going to flip-flop my comments: good art, bad story. While I understand Nicieza’s need to give us a suspenseful wrap-up to the first chapter, saying that everybody in China is dead pushes the envelope on believability and credibility, even in the Marvel Universe. It’s also mildly disturbing that our hero, John Watkins III, is so quick to jump to this conclusion… and, to judge from his body language and speech, all those deaths don’t bother him that much.
All in all, The Everlasting is not only a must-read for the hardcore Thunderbolts fan, but also a surprisingly solid read for the mature superhero enthusiast, providing a realistic look at aging heroes and their view on the world. The art quality is fairly poor throughout most of the book (any part that has a human face, in particular), but Nicieza crafts such an outstanding story, you can see past that. It’s got a little bit of action and adventure to satisfy the younger reader, but where this book really shines is its somewhat disturbing look into the psyches of our heroes.
Awesome cover, too, by Mike Deodato, Jr. However, since I can’t judge a book’s art by its cover, I’ll have to give it….
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/xnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://www.x-worldcomics.com/x/bstore/newbooksmain.html) and save!