S.W.O.R.D. #1
Nov. 17th, 2009 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakThey who whine at their friends' list long enough shall be rewarded by comics which make them very happy indeed.
First of all, the art for Hank is bad, but all is forgiven because the story is such fun and reads as if someone has accessed my personal wish list: follow-up for Abigail Brand on a) being half alien and b) not having prevented the Skrull Invasion in the post-Invasion climate? Check. More of her background? Check. Beast/Brand interaction, saving the world together? Check. And they threw in bonus Lockheed and Sydren, and follow-up on Kitty's fate. Finding out Brand did her best and is still working on helping Kitty makes me feel especially happy because I had written a story in which she does just that a good while ago. Always good to know your characterisation and the pro writers' characterisation agrees. :)
Lockheed demanding SWORD support for Kitty and getting drunk in the bar: win. Sydren (aka Deanna Troi in alien male shape) defending Brand to the staff in his, err, own way ("that's COMMANDER Queen of all Bitches to you"): also win. Abigail having a no-good rogue archaelogist/artifact stealing half brother in trouble, pursued by a bounty hunter: more win. Of course she has. Also interesting because now we see what her father's species looks like. Despite the fact I'm not crazy about the drawing of Hank, I do appreciate the attention to detail because near the end of Unstoppable we had the Beast/Brand exchange where, wondering how she could be attracted to him, he pointed out his looks and she said something along the lines of colour aside, her father looking quite similar, and lo and behold, the art for Lothi does pay attention to that. Though I'm curious about one thing: whom did Abby inherit her heat-dispensing ability from? Because it doesn't look as if her brother has it.
Henry Gyrich scheming to keep Brand away from the conference and then pulling out all the anti-alien stops kicks off what looks like the major arc in a suitable dastardly-but-not-stupid way. (Plus you can see where he's coming from: even more than Tony Stark and SHIELD, Brand and SWORD are the most logical choice to blame for the not-prevention of the Skrull Invasion. Which I also speculated about in fanfic.) Now, considering that Brand is the lead of the series and Lockheed and Sydren hardly got reintroduced just to be written off, she'll obviously somehow manage not to get fired and banished and hold on to at least some of her alien staff, but I bet it's going to be difficult, and there are some obvious parallels the comics could draw with this whole enforced "repatriation" thing. Not to mention that under these circumstances, Abigail herself might find holding on to Earth loyalty increasingly difficult.
So much for the serious stuff. Now for some more shallow squeeing: the panels where Hank tells Abigail to relax because they're good at the whole saving gig and actually makes her smile are adorable. So is the fact he brought her muffins, never mind that she didn't have time to eat them.
First of all, the art for Hank is bad, but all is forgiven because the story is such fun and reads as if someone has accessed my personal wish list: follow-up for Abigail Brand on a) being half alien and b) not having prevented the Skrull Invasion in the post-Invasion climate? Check. More of her background? Check. Beast/Brand interaction, saving the world together? Check. And they threw in bonus Lockheed and Sydren, and follow-up on Kitty's fate. Finding out Brand did her best and is still working on helping Kitty makes me feel especially happy because I had written a story in which she does just that a good while ago. Always good to know your characterisation and the pro writers' characterisation agrees. :)
Lockheed demanding SWORD support for Kitty and getting drunk in the bar: win. Sydren (aka Deanna Troi in alien male shape) defending Brand to the staff in his, err, own way ("that's COMMANDER Queen of all Bitches to you"): also win. Abigail having a no-good rogue archaelogist/artifact stealing half brother in trouble, pursued by a bounty hunter: more win. Of course she has. Also interesting because now we see what her father's species looks like. Despite the fact I'm not crazy about the drawing of Hank, I do appreciate the attention to detail because near the end of Unstoppable we had the Beast/Brand exchange where, wondering how she could be attracted to him, he pointed out his looks and she said something along the lines of colour aside, her father looking quite similar, and lo and behold, the art for Lothi does pay attention to that. Though I'm curious about one thing: whom did Abby inherit her heat-dispensing ability from? Because it doesn't look as if her brother has it.
Henry Gyrich scheming to keep Brand away from the conference and then pulling out all the anti-alien stops kicks off what looks like the major arc in a suitable dastardly-but-not-stupid way. (Plus you can see where he's coming from: even more than Tony Stark and SHIELD, Brand and SWORD are the most logical choice to blame for the not-prevention of the Skrull Invasion. Which I also speculated about in fanfic.) Now, considering that Brand is the lead of the series and Lockheed and Sydren hardly got reintroduced just to be written off, she'll obviously somehow manage not to get fired and banished and hold on to at least some of her alien staff, but I bet it's going to be difficult, and there are some obvious parallels the comics could draw with this whole enforced "repatriation" thing. Not to mention that under these circumstances, Abigail herself might find holding on to Earth loyalty increasingly difficult.
So much for the serious stuff. Now for some more shallow squeeing: the panels where Hank tells Abigail to relax because they're good at the whole saving gig and actually makes her smile are adorable. So is the fact he brought her muffins, never mind that she didn't have time to eat them.
