With the long-running ‘War on Kings’ event now wrapped up, the cosmic corner of the Marvel Universe continues to tick merrily away, putting out a series of reasonably solid but undeniably antiquated adventures. This issue of Nova is a good example. On paper, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning continue to do everything right, with foreground action backed up by low-key ongoing plot development and an intriguing scenario linked across all of the sub-lines’ array of books. The implausibility of the situation, however, threatens to sink the entire venture.

The Sphinx’ self-improvement drive continues, but his younger self stands poised to resist his retconing. It’s up to the schizophrenic villain’s appointed champions to decide the day, but a rogue element looks set to be the deciding factor. The overwhelming feeling of the tale is artificiality, with the ritualise magic deployed being presented as an excuse for a tag-team “contest of champions” which would have appeared clichéd back in the early eighties. The florid dialogue adds to time impression of a forgotten backwater of the Marvel Universe. Reed Richards is particularly poorly-served, being happy to deploy a stratagem “if it means your munitions miss me”.

In many ways, Mahmud Asrar’s art is emblematic of the entire venture. He’s able to command attention during the big moments, despite some slightly clichéd character posing, but the end product fails to gel. The bold signature images and smaller pieces of storytelling are both sound of themselves, but there’s no link between the two. The irritations keep mounting up, with expressions miserably failing the match the dialogue, and some extremely shoddy anatomy drawing. With the comics line firmly established, Nova’s position appears secure, but he won’t be bringing many new recruits to his Corps without a serious increase in quality.

Realm of Kings is, essentially, a bookend to Marvel’s latest cosmic event. I dip in and out of this side of the Marvel universe, and while I recognise that the line, as a whole, has undergone a surprising return from the backwaters of continuity, I just can’t find it in myself to get invested in it. Realm of Kings is the perfect example of why.

The thing about Realm of Kings is that if you haven’t been following the Cosmic Marvel books, finding the nuance and meaning in the characters and plotting is very difficult. Perhaps this is what people feel if they come to superhero comics fresh. What I know is this: At the end of the previous crossover, a Terrigen bomb detonated, ending the titular “War of Kings” – but it also tore  fabric in space. In this issue, Quasar goes to investigate and discovers something rather horrible on the other end on it.

As a plot, there’s little wrong with that. Indeed, there’s a lot right with it – a universe-bending threat is shown through the perspective of one man, giving it relatable meaning. The alternate universe is both striking and threatening, even though alternate realities are ten a penny in the Marvel Universe. Leonard Manco’s art is particularly good at evoking the sheer horror of a Universe that’s close to being burnt out, and the design of the twisted, occult-themed Avengers is immediately iconic and recognisable where too many artists would have delivered startlingly generic visuals.

However – this is the kind of story that is actively hurt by its presence in the Marvel Universe. However negative the effects of the dimensional tear, or the evil universe duplicates, I know it’s not going to get to the point where it interferes with, say, Spider-Man – and a decade plus of comic reading has trained me to know that if it doesn’t get a mention in Spider-Man, The Avengers or an X-Book, then it’s not a significant story. That means my interest is drawn solely based on the appeal of the characters – but Quasar, Starlord, the Micronauts… they’ve never interested me. I want to care, but perhaps I need a gateway book – something that can help me relate these characters to the ones that I am familiar with.

It’s a good start to a story that will no doubt please those already invested in the cosmic Marvel books, to the extent that I almost wish I was able to get on board. Indeed, if Realm of Kings was going to be an arc in one series, this one-shot would almost certainly have be enough to interest me – but ultimately, the knowledge that it’s going to be a sprawling, multi-book epic means that however intriguing the approach, I’m going to have to give it a miss.

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have obviously worked out how to give a varied tone to a title set in a dreary and depressing setting. After an opening few issue which established the team’s new setting, last month saw the close of a more upbeat arc that improved the team’s lot while including a heavier emphasis on action. This month brings something stranger, with a fantasy setting allowing the writers to evoke more of the book’s old character.

Midnighter isn’t alone in his cricket & warm beer pocket dimension for long, with the remainder of the field team soon joining him in time for the series’ first all-out super-powered battle. There’s a feeling of the book being on holiday here, with a short-lived return to the sort of overblown fights against high-concept opponents that the book enjoyed in its more high-profile days. It’s not quite a return to old times, though, as the team set about reducing their enemy to a bloody pulp with only a trace of the cheery banter that once typified the title’s action sequences. ‘Team Unicorn’ and their powers appear to be based solely around their joke names, but there’s more than a hint of Captain Britain & MI13 in the attitudes of the Authority’s temporary opponents, reminding the reader of the Wildstorm team’s new status as a London-based operation. Unicorn’s gentlemanly commander, Charles, isn’t quite as interesting a figure, although Simon Coleby’s Dali-inspired depiction of his battle form suggests that the creative team have something very specific in mind for the character’s powers. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, Coleby deserves credit for being able to produce this standard of work, particularly as the title had been entirely devoid of art fill-ins throughout its history. Even in an issue rather light on plot, the Authority offers solid entertainment.

Afterthought: I don’t normally pass comment on the bonus stories that Wildstorm include in their WSU titles, but some mention of the abysmal nature of “Defile” must be made. A cunning combination of a terminally dull lead character, and art that bears only a passing acquaintanceship with sequential storytelling, leaves me considering ripping the last four pages from the issue.

After five issues of bleakness, things are starting to look up for Wildstorm’s apocalypse survivors, with combining the Authority and Stormwatch’s forces bearing fruit far sooner than expected. It’s an interesting and plausible tale, which might perhaps have benefited from a more leisurely pace. The story feels like an entire arc compressed into a single issue- the spectacle is impressive, but at times it feels like more narration than storytelling.

To the writers’ credit, the arrival of the Post Human World strikeforce’s arrival feels more like an inevitable consequence of the World’s End setting than an artificial money-spinning event, and Wildstorm should be commended for not taking over the cover to promote the teams’ meeting. The two causes for concern are the pace of the tale and the partial abandonment of the novel aspects of the book’s concept. It’s too early to make a call on the latter, but part of the appeal of the Authority compared to the other World’s End titles was the more limited resources that the team had at their disposal. The former, however, is more of a concern. It’s still unclear whether the partial resurrection of the Carrier at this stage was part of the long-term plan for the book or is an accelerating of the story, but the compression of events is detrimental to the title. There’s only room for one character moment, with King’s attempt at a rousing speech falling flat as he underestimates the changes that have occurred in his audience. The conclusion of the issue is slightly contrived, but provides a good microcosm for the events documented.

The most impressive aspect of the book remains its organic structure. Instead of being clearly split into arcs, the story follows the flow of everyday life. The Rendlesham/ Sliding Albion story which looked set to provide the next big plot element is instead kept simmering, until events next cause it to cross paths with the main characters. The writers’ superb work with the title to date should inspire confidence, but it’s hard not to be a little uneasy at the dismissal of some of the elements that made the book unique.

Capsule reviews from the Comics Daily team, including The Authority #5, Cable #9, Marvel Zombies 3 #3 and X-Infernus #1 (continue reading…)

This is easily the weakest issue of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s Authority, but paradoxically give renewed hope for the series as whole. While the main story is an inconsequential run-around, the cliff-hanger revelation underlines both the creative team’s understanding of the book they inherited and how to tell a story in this unusual setting.

With Swift cornered by the remains of the British military, much of the issue is devoted to showing the Engineer’s ongoing scavenging in the derelict Carrier. There’s little character progression here aside from a brief moment of resolve by Jack Hawksmoor, and the re-cycling of the Warhol Virus from the first issue adds to the feeling that the action outside of Rendlesham is merely padding. Simon Coleby deserves credit for keeping to a monthly schedule with no sign of a dip in quality, but not even he can make Angie’s temporary opponent a source of interest. The end of the issue, however, takes a sharp turn leftfield, adding some much-needed intrigue to the post-apocalyptic world. The inclusion of an extra-dimensional “Door” in the final splash page is a sensible inclusion, given that some readers may not immediately recognise the figure revealed.

Given that successive writers have strip-mined Warren Ellis’s twelve issues on the title, it’s odd that the most perfect concept for further exploration has been ignored until now. First Mark Miller seized on the Jenny Quantum thread, before Winter was prised out of the sun by Robbie Morrison and Ed Brubaker built an entire maxi-series out of Henry Bendix’s temporary resurrection. Since Grant Morrison brought back Kaizen Gamorra in the pages of Wildcats, he’s become one of the Wildstorm universe’s foremost villains. Until now, however, Sliding Albion has been left untouched. The psuedo-British imperial aliens featured in Ellis’s second arc, before being dealt a heavy blow at the hands of Jenny Sparks and the Doctor. Their inclusion here makes perfect sense, with the Wildstorm Earth being exactly the sort of weakened target that would attack their attention, but more importantly, the concept itself still crackles with potential. It seems likely that Albion will be the permanent opposition in the book, providing structure to the threats to the team’s protectorate. Although the amount of plot filler in this instalment rankles, it’s hard not to look forward to the next issue.