GLA #2 Review

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Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: Dismemberment Drive

Writer: Dan Slott
Penceller: Paul Pelletier
Inker: Rick Magyar
Colorist: Wil Quintana
Letterer: Dave Lanphear
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The darkest day of the Avengers has happened. Not only is Hawkeye, Scott Lang, and the Vision dead, but the Avengers have thrown up their hands and chosen to be done with that whole heroing business. They can’t save themselves, so how can they save the world? While they are reforming quietly amongst themselves (See New Avengers) there are teams that want to fill that void. The Young Avengers are trying to be like the grown-up counterparts – the Thunderbolts are trying to find the shining light in the darkness.

The Great Lakes Avengers are trying to become the superheroes that they’ve failed at being so many times before.

Sadly, they really aren’t good at it.

STORY!

Dinah Saur is dead. Former girlfriend of Mr. Immortal, and member of the Great Lakes Avengers. The team mourns her in the opening scenes of the comic, but right from the beginning we can see all is not normal in the world of the GLA. Mr. Immortal is seeing a shadowed creature in a cape that has been haunting him since he was a child. This creature, named D’Urge, is an embodiment of death that removes the lives of those Mr. Immortal loves.

Doorman and Flatman watch on as Mr. Immortal slowly goes crazy, and decides they need to take things into their own hands. Where can a supergroup trying to find the greatet superheroes in the world? New York! The GLA have been around for years, so they start at the top of the heap – Spiderman. He’s kind of busy. Wolverine – he’s a loner. Daredevil – a bit too public for him. Slott then gives us two pages of Bendis like ‘No’s’ from everyone across the Marvel U. Heroes, Mutants, Spidey-clones, and Inhumans all say (or gesture) that they don’t need the GLA, no matter how much the GLA needs them.

That’s when they find their salvation. A man who looks as if he personifies the HERO persona. Flying through the town on boots of steel and a mask that should strike fear into anybody…. HE IS THE GRASSHOPPER! Not only do they find the Grasshopper, but the new sexpot of the Marvel Universe – the girl who will take us into the new millenia, Squirrel Girl (and her sidekick Monkey Joe… another squirrel).

Just like the tagline of this series promises, someone dies. We’re then given a flashforward. It seems the GLA are in for – something that seems of interdimensional proportions.

The charm of this series is now starting to appear. The GLA aren’t the lords of the world that the Avengers were. They aren’t even hated and feared like the X-Men. They are just ignored, and they know it. With no severe meat to the team, just a bunch of heroic cast-offs, and Dan Slott is the man to write them. He’s already given She Hulk an amazing treatment, and now he is taking the worst of the Marvel worst and not making them seem more than they’ve ever been. How he will tie this entire series together is beyond me, but it’s ability to parodize the current Marvel is fun to watch.

ART!

What is an interesting note about the GLA is that the art doesn’t need to fit. If this book was to be bright, shining, and adorable – it would be accepted. If the art was dark, moody, bland, and severe – it would be accepted. With it’s comedic and dark duality, it will hold strong in either format. The style that has been chosen is fairly standard, which is a bit upsetting. It’s not flawed by any means, and each of the oddball deviant characters that the GLA gives us look perfect. Hell, pay attention to Squirrel Girl’s cheeks – they’re perfect. I just think that I might have been ready to accept something a bit more striking and small than something that felt as much of a comic as any issue of Spider-Man.

OVERALL!

I would love to hear what Slott’s opinion on Bendis is. I’ve heard bunches of people comment that this is Slott’s little ‘F YOU!!one!11!’ to Bendis’ Avengers. I think Slott just likes parodizing it, as would any upstanding writer who likes to crack a joke. This book isn’t throwing the Avengers into a negative light, but making light of the entire state of comics. Between DC and Marvel, there has been more death and destruction than any year I can think of. It’s an easy mark to make fun of, and thank god it’s someone with a sensability about him doing it.