snap judgments no, really, there are some comics you really should read

Paying Penance

Okay, we've all read Civil war: Frontline #10, right?

Well, none of you have been reading it like a friend of mine. The moment Civil War hit the stands, I wanted to make a condolence call for the character assassination that was about to take place and boy howdy, that is not a metaphor this time.

Speedball is dead. Now, we have Penance, or as Dorian delightfully puts it, "Dark Speedball". Because YOU demanded it!

I know a Speedball fan. Oh, they are out there, trust me. All of them wide eyed as a masochistic torture device is strapped on to what once was a fun, happy-go-lucky character. And for really no good reason, other than to show how tough things are these days and how 'stupid' characters can totally go edgy and dark and wow, it's a leather costume! That's hip these days right?

To my poor friend, I can say only this: Honey, I'm not joking, I really did weep for you when I read through CW:FL #10. I want to send a condolence card. To you and many other people who got hooked on to Marvel comics thanks to the very human characters and how much fun being a good guy could be.

Now, I adore Paul Jenkins, but it just looks like his powers were used for evil throughout Frontline's run. The backup stories trying to compare Marvel's Civil War to real historical events were contrived and inaccurate and The Pulse's crew just seem to be running around with little to show for it. Sure, this issue's plot with them was mostly filler (gosh, Thanks Tom Brevoort for your hard work keeping these books on schedule, guy!), but this revelation better be good because this issue's was heart-wrenching.

The guy who designed Penance's costume ('Penance', Christ, it didn't work for Generation X...), Marko Djurdjevic, did some work for things like Hellgate: London and whatnot and it shows. The new costume looks like something out of a Heavy Metal mag and nothing that would come from a Marvel comic.

Take that as you will.