Mindless: The End

Like Tyson Ritter said, it ends tonight.

As Noh-Varr and Oubliette take on the Mindless One, Midas, the man who unleashed to beast has emerged from The Marvel's cosmic engine a new man. Imbued with the combined powers of the Fantastic Four, with a little Cosmic Awareness thrown in, Midas has redubbed himself 'The Cosmic Man'. And now he wanted the secrets the Plex held.

Using his new abilities, he hacks into the Plex's brain and learns of the multiple universes the 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt have been to, which he sees as the profiteering opportunity of a lifetime. Of course, Noh-Varr takes exception to Mid-, uh, Cosmic Man's plans. Leaving the Mindless One to Oubliette's expertise, Noh rushed to save is ship from Mida-, Cosmic Man's clutches. But him being all Super Skrull and all, Noh has his work cut out for him. Good thing he's triple jointed.

And that Oubliette's very good at what she does.

Yes, she's using the head of the Mindless One to shoot her father. And between Noh and Oub with her Mindless head, Cosmic Man is vaporized by the beams of the Mindless One. Well, not vaporized exactly. He gets pushed into the Mindless One's dimension.

Now that Mid-, uh, dammit, Cosmic Man is gone, Noh-Varr and Oubliette have a chance to process patricide and finally being free of the Midas touch. That is, until SHIELD shows up. Oubliette makes a slip and starts a revolution, while Noh-Varr is sent to The Cube, a prison designed to hold Doctor Doom. While we know what happens to Noh after this, look at that tag at the end. How cool would it have been to see Morrison take another crack at Marvel Boy, with a prison break and all kinds of anarchy? Fuckin' sweet, is what it would have been. Can't be too mad though.

Grant was too busy doing this.

Zero Zero:Year of Love

Got a little sidetracked yesterday, what with going to the comic store and falling asleep when I got home. As the old saying goes, "DON'T JUDGE ME!" Anyway, it's time for Marvel Boy #5, where Noh-Varr and Midas' daughter have a nice talk.

No, really. They talk. After Noh-Varr gets treatment for the beatdown Midas & Co. gave him last issue.

Noh-Varr goes first. Midas has been feeling his only offspring of Noh's people being intergalatic insectile mass murderers. Using Plex, Noh-Varr shows Midas' daughter that he is the last of the 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt, insect DNA enhanced heroes who travel the cosmos and dimensions in their dimension-schooner "The Marvel". The fought weird Galatus clones, evil versions of themselves and of course, The Authority. And it all ended when Midas shot down their ship on their way home.

Midas' daughter has a very different origin. Her mother was basically a vessel for her unique upbringing. She actually was conceived in a human woman, but Midas pumped the woman with "information-rich toxins" to accelerate her development. It succeeded, seeing as she remembered her birth, which was Midas digging her out of her mother's poisoned body. I would but up pictures but this is a really dialogue-y issue, and while still well drawn and engaging, no picture really stands out as "Hey, look at this!"

Midas raised his daughter as a killer of all manner of creatures, and she has hunted vampires, unicorns, Kibbler elves, and a bunch of different nasties. He named her "Oubliette" and he told her to never remove her mask (don't know whether he suggested the dominatrix outfit, rather leave that area untouched), but it was too scarred for anyone to accept her. He lied.

Having shared thier pain, Noh-Varr lets Oubliette onto his plan to terraform Earth into a new Hala, giving humans a paradise whether they want to or not. And Oubliette wants in. Just in time to have Midas invade The Marvel and destroy Plex. Midas is here not for his daughter, really, he wants The Marvel's cosmic engine, so he can bathe in the cosmic radiation and become empowered like the Fantastic Four. As he walks into the engine, he has his men send the "Un-entity" after the young rebels. Told you this issue had the coolest use of a thought balloon.

I would sing praise upon this issue, but I just remembered last Wednesday was Ennis Week. And I must say he has a romantic side most people don't see. It's heartwarming.

Exterminatrix!

This is the chase issue. There are so many things going on I don't know where to start.
Take a look.

619!!

And you thought Power Girl was the first to have tread sole, heel boots

And just when you think it can't get worse...

It doesn't...

Seems Midas' daughter is taken with the boy marvel and is none too pleased with being her father's assassin, leading to the most romantic stroll I've ever seen.

Don't count Midas out yet. Remember:

With only two issues left, Morrison has only next issue's look into the life of Midas' daughter before the final battle between Noh-Varr and Midas himself. Really, if you take a long at this issue, in its entirety, you would crap yourself with joy. It's that good. And next issue has the most inventive use of a thought balloon ever.

Stay tuned.

DIGITAL KONCENTRATION KAMP ONE

First, there was It, The Living Colossus

Then there was Ego, The Living Planet

Next there was Morbius, The Living Vampire

And now, Morrison brings us HEXUS, THE LIVING CORPORATION

A sentient idea that Noh-Varr's team held in the concept-dungeons of The Marvel, Noh's ship. Hexus is a parasite, using sophisticated advertising to make people believe it has want they want, then employing them to expand and dominate the world. When all the planet's resources are used up, Hexus sends out it's mind drones out to find a new world to take over. No one realizes what Hexus really is, because to the general populace, it's just a successful corporation.

Leaving Noh-Varr the only one capable of saving the world and people he hates.

Noh-Varr finds the office where Hexus started, but it's upgraded and shed that small office like a dead skin. So, Noh decides to launch a strike against Hexus corporate offices. He causes quite the disturbance, and manages to reach Mr. Greepy, the CEO of Brand Hex. But he's just a figurehead for Hexus, and when Hexus uses up Creepy's body heat for eyeblasts, it just promotes another figurehead and then another.

With no real body to strike, it is seemingly futile for Noh-Varr to keep going on. But see the computer on the desk Noh's ducking behind? The Plex has hacked into Brand Hex's files and downloaded every trade secret of Brand Hex to it's competitors worldwide. The boy marvel just saved the world via corporate espionage.

That and a cosmic bullet.

Spent, injured and having damaged the enhancements of his suit, Noh-Varr fell to ground and is rousted by the local authorities. Before they can go all First Blood on him, a gold Cadillac pulls up and now Midas' daughter wants to finish Noh-Varr off.

While it is a diversion from the main story, this issue is pivotal to the character, showing Noh-Varr has a sense of duty and responsibility, the traits Marvel likes it's heroes to have. Noh-Varr wants revenge for Midas killing of his crew, but when push came to shove, he stepped up to save the morons, uh, people of the world. An important note if Marvel Boy was to be continued as a series.

And seriously, who doesn't think corporations are just a little evil?

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.