Open Mike Night: Black Knight #1/Incredible Hulk #264/265

by Mike Maillaro & Mike Weaver

Black Knight (2015) #1

Written by: Frank Tieri
Art by: Luca Pizzari
Colored by: Antonio Fabela
Lettered by: VC’s Joe Sabino

Published by: Marvel

Cover Price: $3.99

Weaver: The Black Knight is on his own in Weirdworld...well, at least on his own insomuch as he’s the only hero there.  Dane has set himself up as king (reluctantly) of a small area of Weirdworld, dealing with enemies native to the area.  He’s also checking out anything that ends up coming into Weirdworld via reality portals, most recently a WWII era submarine.  He takes a bunch of knick knacks from anything that reminds him of home to place in a great storehouse.  One of his ancestors suggests that the Ebon Blade is taking Dane over, shown in his execution of the former king, but Dane doesn’t agree because he felt the former king deserved death.

A lot of things happened in this issue...but also, pretty much nothing happened.  Much of it was fighting against the Fangs of the Serpent and firebreathing rock trolls, but I never felt really invested in those battles, especially as they were clearly only there as a background for an info dump so that it wasn’t a pure wall of text.  

Maillaro: My biggest problem with this issue was that you basically could have swapped any other character into the book, and it basically would have been exactly the same comic.  Hell, you could have created a new character.  It’s not like Black Knight has huge name recognition or a following.  I actually did enjoy this book for the most part, but I kept find myself thinking, “Why did they pick Dane for this story?”  The only answer I kept coming up with is that Frank Tieri must have been a fan.

Actually, this story might have made more sense if they just called it Weirdworld, and featured Black Knight with other characters.  Including Arkon who was featured in the Secret Wars Weirdworld series.  I also kept wondering, “How did Dane end up here?”   It’s suggested that it should be a one way trip, but the Uncanny Avengers show up at the end with no real issue, as far as we can tell.

Weaver: I took that as them saying that Dane couldn’t leave for some kind of Dane related purposes, not that it was impossible to leave.  And when you’re dipping into Avengers guest spots by issue 2 to get sales, you know Marvel doesn’t have a lot of faith in this series.

The only part that needed to be Dane was the discussion of the Ebon Blade...but even then, every hero has moral dilemmas.  That could have just as easily been Spidey imagining he’s talking to Uncle Ben.  Why, then, use a relatively obscure character when you could really use anyone?  Probably because there isn’t as much risk removing them from the main Marvel universe.

Maillaro: It just bugs me because I actually liked Black Knight.  He was an Avenger when I started reading comics, and his unique look always stuck out for me.  Though I never quite understood the rocket powered robot horse he used to use. He started to get a little focus again in Avengers World, even heading up his own team of heroes, Euroforce.  It was heavily suggested then that Dane was losing his mind, so I wonder if that ties into this.  

The sad part is that the Uncanny Avengers are the lame Avengers.  If they wanted to impress me, they would have used the All-New, All-Different Avengers.  That seems like it should be Marvel’s flagship team these days anyway.  

Honestly, there was nothing glaringly wrong with this issue.  Just a lot of little things that made me wonder why they even published it.   I just can’t see this book as having a lot of appeal or staying power, especially in the light of all the big relaunches going on at Marvel.  

Weaver: That’s exactly where I am, too.  I wonder if they’re just tossing out a lot of titles that they know won’t do really well in the hopes that one or two become critical darlings and start selling copies.  

This wasn’t a bad issue, I’m not upset about reading it, but I do feel that it’s a story that didn’t need to be published.  Maybe that’ll change down the line, but I’m not sticking around to find out.

I agree, by the way, on ANAD Avengers.  That team should be the one that’s used to anchor everything else around, and yet...this crap.

Maillaro: Uncanny Avengers vol. 2 was so awful that the book might not even be salvageable.  I have tried the new Uncanny Avengers series, and so far it’s just been there.  The only real good issue was the Annual, which was by a different creative team and had nothing to do with the ongoing series.

What do you got for scores?

Weaver: I want to give it a pair of 3’s.  I felt it was underwhelming in both art and story, but not so much that I’d consider it below an acceptable level (which is kind of what I’m saying when I give a 2.5).

Maillaro: I will go with a 3 for the story, but I actually liked the art a lot.  Between the lizard men, the giant fire breathing rock trolls, and all the detail in Dane’s “collection” I thought the artist had a lot to juggle and for the most part, he pulled it off real well.  I would go a 3.5 for the art.

Incredible Hulk #264+265

Written by: BIll Mantlo
Art by: Sal Buscema
Colored by: Bob Sharen
Lettered by Rick Parker, Albers, and Simek
 

Published by: Marvel
Cover Price: 50 cents each

Maillaro: In these issues, a mysterious figure named the Corruptor is looking to put Hulk under his control. In order to do that, he sends Night Flyer to attack Hulk.  In the battle, Betty is badly hulk, sending Hulk into an uncontrolled rage.  Hulk destroys Night Flyer’s hang glider...which has a symbiotic link with Night Flyer.  This causes Night Flyer to die...more or less.  Hulk’s uncontrolled rage allows Corruptor to take him over.  

Corruptor wants Rick Jones to summon the Avengers, who are his real target,  Rick hesitates, but with Betty and the new “Teen Brigade” at risk, Rick tries to do as Corruptor asks.  BUT, Corruptor’s base ends up limiting the range of Rick’s call...so instead of calling the Avengers, he ends up calling a lesser known group of heroes called the Rangers.  Red Wolf, Firebird, Texas Twister, Shooting Star, and Night Rider.

In the end, it’s not the Rangers, but Rick Jones himself who saves the day, managing to talk the Hulk down from his rage.  

Weaver: These somewhat random issues are some of the more memorable ones from my childhood love of Hulk comics.  The cover of the first one, with Hulk saying, “You hurt children, you hurt girl...now Hulk will hurt you!” was pretty much my favorite cover, which is kind of odd in retrospect because of how minimalist it is.

I believe that there was an attempt to make the Rangers into a supergroup that appeared in their own comic, but that never came to fruition.  During this era, many efforts were made to start up a group of heroes outside New York, with the Champions of Los Angeles being one of the more notable ones, but it never quite worked until West Coast Avengers since all the other teams were comprised of random cast-off characters without a big following.  Like the Rangers, for example.

I was reminded of this issue when we reviewed Avengers #1 last week, since it has the same “bunch of people respond to a Hulk related distress call and form a superteam” idea.  Clearly, though, Red Wolf and company are no Thor and Iron Man.  Rick Jones ends up with the win, but the Rangers settle for the knowledge that even slowing the Hulk down long enough for Rick to work it out was kind of impressive for a bunch of people that had combined showed up in maybe a dozen issues of comics over a decade or so before this story.

Maillaro: And probably after this story as well.  Maybe I just have a twisted sense of humor, but I couldn’t help but wonder, “What was going to happen if NO ONE showed up?”  Corruptor didn’t seem to accept the idea that there was a communications error here.  

I also thought it was a little strange that the new Youth Brigade were all the younger siblings of the original Youth Brigade...even though Rick Jones himself doesn’t seem to have aged all that much in the 18 or so years between Avengers 1 and Hulk 264.  And Night Flyer is an odd choice for a villain.  Imagine a guy who dies when his hang glider gets trashed?

By the way, NONE of these things took away from my enjoyment of the story.  You can tell the creative team was just having a lot of fun, throwing in a bunch of characters that don’t normally get much attention.  Marvel has been doing some of that lately with Spider-Woman and Ant-Man, giving obscure villains and heroes a bigger spotlight. And nothing will top Armadillo’s appearance Scarlet Spider, which we covered a while back…  

Weaver: Oddly appropriate because of the rodeo related themes in this book, too.  

Yeah, this was a pretty crazy bunch of random stuff thrown together, baked 30 minutes at 350, then served for dinner.  The Night Flyer was used, I think, because nobody cared if he died, since he was already dead (and they even acknowledge that he was dead, yay continuity).  He was basically Corruptor’s short term solution, but I still wonder...if you could get any body from a SHIELD morgue, would Night Flyer even be in your top 50?  Random Hydra Agent #250 seems a better choice to me.

We also have good old 80’s “racial slurs gone wild” in here, with the non-white Rangers calling the Texans “anglos” (I was disappointed Firebird didn’t get to say “gringo”), and the white Rangers calling Red Wolf “redskin.”  Every.  Time.  Man, that’s kind of awkward reading it now, but also kind of funny since it’s so hamfistedly stuck in.  Also, the first issue uses the word “fiend” almost every other sentence, which made me feel like the writer was engaging in a drinking game.

All that aside, yeah, this comic was a ton of fun, so even though I see all these kind of annoying issues with it, the whole is much more than the sum of its parts.  The story was paced well and gave you a pretty complete story (in each issue), and didn’t lack for action or information.  Reading the second issue, I was thinking about halfway through that it probably didn’t finish by the end of the issue, because if it was done today, that story would have been at least four issues.  It did, though, and didn’t feel like a rush to the end at all.

Maillaro: Four to six issues, and they would attempt to launch three spin-off titles off of it (Spider-Woman, Spider-Gwen, Silk, Web Warriors, etc etc.).  

As wacky as this issue is, I still enjoyed it a lot.  I would actually go 4 for the writing.  I was thinking 3.5, but I don’t mind bumping the score up a little on this one.  The art wasn’t particularly memorable, but it was still good.  3.5 there.

Weaver: I think those are very fair.  I had some issues with the writing...but in the end, it did everything I wanted it to and more, so I can’t complain very much.  I’ll agree.

Maillaro: For me, fun factor definitely gets weighed in heavily.  And this comic was just a ton of fun.

Maillaro: I will be up in the mountains for the holiday, so I assume we’re taking next week off.   To my brother Weaver and all the readers, have a great Thanksgiving if you celebrate it.  If not, well, then just have a great Thursday!

Weaver: Yeah, I’ll need the week off too.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Final Scores