boy vs. world

Marvel Boy #2: It's all about revenge!

Well, Noh-Varr is still kind of pissed. And he's decided to take it out on New York. Which pretty much everyone in the Marvel Universe does when they're mad.

As thousands flee in terror, buildings crash in a sight that would make Captain America have a fainting spell(I'm not over Civil War #7, I know). Noh-Varr is in phase one of his plan to correct our barbarous world, by ironically, blowing things up. Still, Noh-Varr isn't completely heartless. He has his Plex keep the populace distracted and out of his way.

SHIELD is assessing the situation and finds that no teams are in the area to handle the boy marvel's rampage, so they sendTHE BANNERMEN

Weird combinations of Captain America and some dude named 'Banner', apparently, these new war toys are pressed into service against the Kree supersoldier. But Noh-Varr isn't impressed, he has a pocket battleground in which nothing behaves as it should and up is down, reggae is polka, etc. I think it may be called a Haneycube, but I'll have to check Wiki. Anyway, the boy marvel quickly takes out two of the Bannermen who can't cope with the world being topsy turvey, leaving the last Bannerman to show how he got his name.

The gamma steroid case proves a more formidable challenge for Noh-Varr, but if there's one thing a hyperactive, ultraviolent soldier has a problem dealing with, it's civilians. As his programming is geared toward winning hearts and minds, the surge of omniwave-controlled civilians causes an mental shutdown, and a loss of rage that sends the Bannerman back to normal size against a mob.

Noh-Varr finishes his project and SHIELD gets an eyeful of how Noh-Varr feels. More of a literal version of what he gave Midas last issue. And yeah, that's Director Dum Dum Dugan. Afterwards, Noh chills out in front of the coolest entertainment set in any reality.

When I first read this book, I had only just started getting back into comics after a drought while attending college. I was still a fan(atic), mind you, but not reading most of what was coming out at the time, I had no real idea what was going on in comics. Still, I knew gamma-irradiated supersoldiers and cityblock sized expletives weren't normal fare.

I know now what Morrison is capable of, the concepts that invoke these type of reactions. But in this story, a high concept action tale, Morrison's ideas are like gravy on a honey smoked turkey. Not necessary to enjoy the meat, but damn if it doesn't add to the taste.