By: Too many to list—check out the review.
The Story: You know what they say: beware a redheaded woman with assassin’s credentials.
The Review: You can always count on Nick Spencer to deliver an engaging, enjoyable read, even if the actual substance of the writing isn’t always what it should be. That’s not to imply this Iron Maiden story arc has been superfluous or anything, but with this arc decompressed to the max, it gets a little harder to remember why you’re invested in this story with every passing issue. The events in themselves work and rarely fail to garner your interest, but the sluggish pacing often defeats whatever excitement the story generates.
The culprits can only be the flashback sequences, which serve strictly as expositional vehicles. And by far it’s the 60s “back-up” feature that takes up the most time and space for the least value. While Spencer is to be congratulated for channeling that Silver Age style and continuity with accuracy, the material has for a while become less cute and more tiresome, especially here, where it reveals almost nothing new or useful to the story.
Even the 80s sequence, which usually plays a pretty big role in the issue, seems unusually slow and redundant. Since we already knew the original Dynamo would break a deal to free his wife and daughter, and any such deal requires a hefty price, we also already knew Len would be the one to pay it. His final epistle to Iron Maiden is predictably touching, but gives us a poor gauge of their love, as the letter mostly reveals her ball-busting (“…there’s no use yelling at me, Red.” “I know you never thought I was the brightest man to walk the earth…”) attitude.
While we have every indication that I. Maiden was truly in love with Dynamo, we can also safely conclude he may have been the only individual for whom she had any real feeling. Just look at her taking her sweet time painting her lips while the girls she collected on her payroll get mowed down. Keep in mind she also abandoned Colleen at some point, possibly implying any affection for her daughter was tangentially derived from that for her husband.
The proof may be in the merciless beatdown Iron Maiden gives Colleen (who, by the way, proves herself as all kinds of awesome fighting her way through her mom’s base). Neither woman minces words or messes around in their mother-daughter battle royale, but Colleen has nothing on her mom, who unhesitatingly attempts to shoot her point-blank after putting her down, in a very trashy kind of way, too: “You’ve got your father for brains, you know that?”
The metal-clad lady can scoff her family’s intellect all she wants, but as Colleen proves quite spunkily this issue, I. Maiden can’t really count herself as a genius now, can she? Our red-headed heroine may have inherited her mom’s deadliness, but she also has her dad’s emphasis on teamwork, finally bringing in the Agents she took such pains to gather early on for their first official mission—to take effect next issue.
Again, Mike Grell and Val Staples, and Nick Dragotta and Lee Loughridge do terrific period pieces—nothing more to say than that, really. While Dan Panosian’s work improves somewhat, especially in the pacing and POV of Colleen and Iron Maiden’s rumble, his battle choreography still looks posed and awkward. No matter how often I see it, I still think it’s really weird to portray women getting shot by having them arch their bodies like go-go dancers.
Conclusion: Despite barely scraping in any new information, Spencer has enough technical skill to deliver a fairly intriguing issue, though it’s a huge relief this arc finally wraps up next issue.
Grade: B-
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – Apparently, all that mail armor is purely decorative, as Colleen’s able to take a shard of glass and pierce right through it.
– Again, it sucks to be a red shirt in the T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents world.
Grade
Conclusion