Week of 10/28/09 – Secret Warriors #9
Forget Kratos, this is the REAL God of War, Ares. Lately Ares, who inexplicably has been taking orders from Norman Osborn, has been butting heads with just about everyone including Nick Fury’s Secret Warriors. Among those warriors is Phobos the God of Fear AKA Ares’ very own son. This is Ares after a secret base just self-destructed on top of him. Christmas is going to be awkward on Olympus this year.
Ares has really gotten around since Tony Stark tapped him to be part of the Might Avengers where he was famously referred to as “A Wolverine AND a Thor”. He’s fought about 17 different Avengers teams, tackled all kinds of global threats, attacked Nick Fury’s team, aided Nick Fury’s team, and is even training his own special ops squad called The Shades. Not bad for a guy that was working construction a year ago. Artist Alessandro Vitti does a great job filling in on the title. This is how Ares should look, no question.
(A note about the Axes of Ares. Just about every artist that has tackled the god over the last couple of years has had his own take on the giant axe that Ares carries. I sort of like Vitti’s take on the axe: almost impossibly huge. It’s exactly what an arrogant God like Ares would wield.)
Honorable Mentions
The Ultimate line of comics had some very strong entries this week. In Ultimate Avengers #2 Captain America is still on the run and as Nick Fury meets his new team of Avengers, Iron Man 2, or “War Machine”, tries to capture Cap on a crowded street. Apparently War Machine is translated as Transformer in the Ultimate Universe now:
Introducing Nerd Hulk. He’s been cloned and engineered from Hulk cells to have the big guy’s brawn and Banner’s brains. This is pretty stupid. How long before this goes wrong? Two issues? And why is his scalp cut open:
So what’s Iron Man 1 doing then? Well in Ultimate Armor Wars #2 Tony goes after the bad men who stole his Iron Man technology and after nearly a decade of existence the Ultimate Universe gets its first palm-mounted Iron Man repulsor gun. Just like the 616, because NO ONE asked for it! Here’s are the results of the first field use:
No, I haven’t been ignoring DC this week. In Superman Secret Origin #2 a young Clark Kent is visited by the Legion from the 30th century. A splash page ensues:
In Dark Reign The List: Punisher, Daken goes after Frank Castle and wins? The issue ends with Daken dismembering Castle and kicking his remains off a building. Seriously. I guess this is setting up this absolutely ridiculous FrankenCastle story coming up. His right arm goes first:
Finally, my love for Nate Bellegarde just won’t quit. Atom Eve and Rex Splode #1 dropped this week and the secret origin of Rex, while visited in the past, is fully revealed. Specifically how he completely duplicates Gambit’s power set. Minus the stupid accent. Surgical implants:
