Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: Warriors: Part 5
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencilled by: Mark Bagley
Inked by: Scott Hanna
Colored by: J.D. Smith
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics/ Ultimate Marvel
In this one issue alone we have: Hammerhead, The Enforcers, Jeanne DeWolfe, Moon Knight, Elektra, Iron Fist, Shang-Chi, and Black Cat. It’s packed to the rafters, and that often can mean a scatterbrained comic that tries to be everything and ends up achieving nothing. While the jury is still out on if this arc will be a success, Bendis’ focus on the personalities of three of the characters grounds the book and largely combats the “too many characters ruin the soup” phenomenon.
Peter and Mary Jane broke up a few months back (our time) when Peter decided that he could no longer ensure MJ’s safety and that she did not realize how serious the dangers to her life was, simply being close to him. It was a decision, clearly, that neither was thrilled about. The thread of that is picked up here as the former couple share a conversation over lunch. Bendis wonderfully portrays the fact that neither of them are pleased with the current situation (being apart) and that both of them want the same thing (to be together). The solution would seem obvious, but the script does a good job of making it clear that regardless of their hearts’ desires, Peter’s dedication to Spidey and “power and responsibility” is a wall between them that cannot be leveled by just the force of their feelings for one another. It is yet another installment in an ever increasing volume of Peter/MJ moments that Bendis absolutely nails.
The third character that is nicely illuminated is Moon Knight. In the main, regular, traditional, or 616 (use the term you prefer!) Marvel U., Moonie’s multiple identities have been portrayed any number of ways; the range ran from something as harmless and simple as just another “mask” to wear to gain information and avoid exposure, all the way to a dangerous fissure of the psyche that might make him just as dangerous as the costumed criminals he would call his enemies. Here, in the confines of the Ultimate-verse, Bendis is freed from the need to pussyfoot around the subject and goes right for the jugular to deliver overwhelming evidence that Moon Knight is a man who suffers from a disassociative disorder. He is not a man whose personalities are out of control and threatening to consume his life, but he is also not a man for whom driving a cab as Steven Grant or running a boardroom as Marc Spector is a simple matter of acting. He does not play those people, he truly is all of them. In about three pages, Bendis made more sense out of Moon Knight’s state of mind then I have seen anyone do with his “traditional” counterpart in years.
Sadly, the action sequences do not yet live up to the character pieces. This time out, it amounts to a page long montage of feet and hands that is not even perpetrated by our hero. There’s a lot of potential in this type of story (a gangwar), and within these characters (propulsive/explosive action sequences) but there has yet to be a set piece to rise to the challenge of either to date. Bagley is his reliable ol’ self, but he has yet to be given a true chance to cut loose with these characters in this situation. The last page, however, does offer the promise that this is a problem soon to be rectified.
