Writer: Charles Soule and more
Art: Paulo Siqueira, Oren Junior, Frank D’ Armata, VC’s Joe Caramagna, Alessandro Vitti, Rod Reis, Arthur Adams
Price: $4.99
Release Date: July 31st, 2019
Marvel continues the celebration of its 80th anniversary in issue #7 of Marvel Comics Presents. In this issue, we get three short stories featuring Wolverine, Iron Man, and The Winter Soldier. Let’s see what happens.
Wolverine: The Vigil part 7
In part seven we’re in the decade of the 2000s and Logan is on the hunt. On the hunt, because sometime within the decade of it’s last appearance the demon, the Truth, would make another appearance at a time of despair and darkness in the world. He’s searching for his daughter, who also appears every decade, but her purpose it to save the world and banish the Truth.
He tracks his daughter and the Truth down in Mumbai in 2008 and watches from the shadows as his daughter banishes the Truth for another decade. His daughter reveals that she, in fact, is NOT his daughter. Logan reveals that he wasn’t hunting his daughter, but hunting the Truth and that together they were going to kill it. To be continued…
Marvel Age Iron Man: Market Correction
In this story based on real-life events that happened in the 2000’s we focus on the housing market crash of 2007-2008.
Iron Man is fighting the “Subprime Mortgage Man”. He ends up “underwater” like the millions of people who lost everything in the housing crash.
Tony wakes up and realizes that the whole fight was a dream. He discusses with Jarvis his failed attempts at making a difference and doing the right thing by testifying in court against “Chuck” who was behind some particular mortgage scams.
Tony then decides that the only way to get justice is for Chuck to put on some Iron Man armor and the two of them battle it out…..The end.
Winter Soldier: Sine eo alia essent visibilia omnia
In the Marvel Spotlight story, we focus on a tale of redemption of a World War Two hero who was turned into a Cold War assassin after his death. Bucky Barnes, the Winter Soldier.
In New York City in 1968 the Winter Soldier is chasing down a Soviet defector. The defector escapes as the Winter Soldier’s gets into an accident as he avoids hitting some kids playing in the street. He yells to them to play somewhere else, but they respond that the can’t. Commissioner Spyten has condemned a whole lot in order to build roads there.
After the Winter Soldier completes his “hit”, he stops at the commissioner’s house and forces him to change his building plans to include places for kids to play.
Then we flash forward, and as Bucky walks by a baseball field he gets a sliver of a memory of his past life…The End.
I, along with others who have reviewed Marvel Comics Presents am really glad Marvel brought this series back. It’s been missing from the line for over 10 years or so. I like the concept of 3 short stories. It introduces you to characters that you possibly wouldn’t normally read. That’s the case for me with the Iron Man story. Let’s briefly break down each story.
The Wolverine story was my favorite by far. I worry about over saturation of certain characters. Wolverine and Deadpool seemingly are everywhere. But, if the stories are good then I’m all for it. This story is a fantastic concept. To have a demon that shows up every 10 years, and then having a mutant that is basically immortal trying to hunt it down is really fun. The fact that the demon only shows up at the absolute worst times in the decade adds a lot to the story also. This issue just drips of symbolism, imagery, and even some irony. Logan is a vastly flawed character, but the first page shows his sorrow of not only people he’s lost but of the people that lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks. We also see him saving lives in Katrina in 2005. If a good writer gives the artist the freedom to tell the story with little to no words, I’m all in. The creative team does this and does it very well. This whole concept of the Truth demon, Logan, and his “daughter” really could be an ongoing series.
The Iron Man story didn’t work so well for me. I interpreted it as Tony doing everything he could the right way, then basically throwing a temper tantrum and acting like a child and forcing Chuck to fight him both as Iron Men. I would have preferred more of Tony fighting Subprime Mortgage Man.
The Winter Soldier story was really good too. I liked the glimpses of Winter Soldier doing good things even though he was on a “hit”. It worked well.
Final Thoughts:
The strength of the fabulous first and third story featuring Wolverine and Winter Soldier make up for a second story that didn’t quite hit the mark. I highly recommend this issue nonetheless.
8/10