current / archive / issues / faq / RSS feed / twitter /
The Sign Of The Skull!
| < previous | next > |
It's been at least three issues since we last had a "Dynamic New Direction" for this series, so thank goodness this one starts off with the promise of exactly that!
Another recurring theme at the moment is chucking the reader into what appears to be a different comic to the one advertised on the cover. This one starts with Captain America in action and a note at the bottom of the page promising that "We'll explain as we go along pilgrims - hang in there!"
In the previous comic, Avengers #156, we saw Cap wander off to investigate something, with a promise that we'd find out what in Super-Villain Team-Up #11, yet here we are in Super-Villain Team-Up #10 with him telling (not showing) his colleagues that he went off and followed a trail from Hydrobase to the Latverian Embassy in New York. It's all a bit confusing, especially if you're reading these comics as a continuous block, rather having a month's gap in between!
The first four pages here see Captain America fighting his way through the Latverian Embassy's defences (apparently unconcerned about the non-aggression pact his country recently signed with Latveria) until he finds... Doctor Doom!
Captain America is surprised because he was expecting to find the Red Skull (though he never mentions him by name), and presents Doom with a sceptre that he found back on Hydrobase.
We then cut away to Namor, who has returned to Atlantis to find some miners about to destroy the city under the orders of the mysterious "Orbiter". All we know about this person is that "he's working out of some third-world country called - Latveria!"
I don't think Eastern Europe is, techically, the third world, but we all make mistakes when being violently threatened by undersea monarchs. We then head over to Latveria itself, where The Shroud and Rudolfo are leading a pack of peasants through the castle. Rudolfo is in disguise as Doctor Doom, and is finding it all a bit too warm.
Unluckily for him, a bunch of guards burst in at that exact moment and a fight breaks out - or, as The Shroud calls it "a good old American Free-For-All".
Latveria isn't in America either - Bill Mantlo's geography is all over the place! During the fight the pair make their way into Doom's throne room and are attacked by a Mysterious Figure.
Bob Hall's art is great throughout this issue, but it seems like a very odd decision to keep the Mysterious Figure's face in shadow, especially when the edges are coloured red, his voice is so accented... and The Red Skull is on the front cover!
Meanwhile Doom and Captain America are on their way back to Latveria in a Doomjet, which Captain America is very impressed by. Doom, however, is unmoved.
I do like this characterisation - he understands that a compliment is being given, but refuses to take it because it's so foolish.
The issue comes to an end with the ship being hit by "the rainbow missile", and then a cut back to Latveria where the villian is revealed as... The Red Skull! Just as promised on the cover! Characters have studiously avoided mentioning his name throughout, but still, it's hardly a surprise, nor is the fact that Doom is announced as returning in the next issue.
I'm not sure why this is called "a dynammic new direction", as it continues the previous storyline with one of the regular writers, but it's been enjoyable nonetheless, even with one such as I who has the incredible detective skills needed to work out who the baddy's going to be!
link to information about this issue
posted 4/9/2019 by Mark Hibbett
| < previous | next > |
Comments: