A-Next: Second Coming

Collects: A-Next #1-6 (1998-9)

Released: August 2006 (Marvel)

Format: 144 pages / color digest / $7.99 / ISBN: 0785121315

Of all the M2 digests published so far, A-Next: Second Coming is the weakest.

Why? Well, for a variety of reasons. Like all the M2 series, A-Next is generational, telling of the formation of a new group of Avengers after many years without them. But whom does Tom DeFalco choose to center the new Avengers around? Kevin Masterson, son of the minor ‘90s Avenger Thunderstrike. The other heroes are somewhat less than inspiring as well, given Spider-Girl and the Fantastic Five’s forebears: J2 (son of Juggernaut), Cassie Lang (daughter of the second Ant-Man), and Mainframe (a seeming robot with much in common with Iron Man). Mostly second stringers there; later American Dream (spiritual descendant of Captain America), Freebooter (Swordsman knockoff), Bluestreak, and Crimson Curse join up. And along the way, they run into the sons of Bill Foster (Black Goliath), Black Panther, and Hercules … not exactly the most inspiring.

But DeFalco and penciller / co-plotter Ron Lim have to keep the major players unfettered because the book ends with a major question: what happened to the original Avengers? That’s the strong point of the book, the hints of what happened between the divergent point of the “normal” Marvel Universe and the M2 Universe; wars between Namor and Dr. Doom, Dr. Strange being stripped of his role as the Sorcerer Supreme, how Bruce Banner got the Hulk under control. It’s a lot of intrigue for six issues.

This is another digest whose art is affected by the reduction in size. The reproduction makes the lines of the inking seem sketchy, and there are quite a few times the art looks like Lim hasn’t seen a person with Asian features before. Other than that, the art is competent is unexceptional, perhaps a little scratchy.

DeFalco’s presence on all the M2 titles can be seen as a positive, but here it seems like a liability. The characters in A-Next sound like those in J2 and Spider-Girl; they even react to each other in the same ways, filling the same roles. It overwhelms the intriguing points of the past and makes the book a little dull.

Rating: (2 of 5)

Juggernaut Jr., v. 1: Secrets and Lies

Collects: J2 #1-6 (1998-9)

Released: March 2006 (Marvel)

J2 was part of the short-lived M2 line, which showed the next generation of heroes in the Marvel Universe. As in most future timelines, the legacies of previous (read: current, for readers) heroes dominate the surroundings. In the M2 line, it was the very real legacy of the heroes, usually their offspring. The M2 line was headlined by Spider-Girl, the lone survivor of the line, now limping toward its 100^th and final issue.

In fact, the full title of this book is Spider-Girl Presents Juggernaut Jr: Secrets & Lies. Unwieldy at best. In any event, Juggernaut Jr. (or J2) is Zane Yama, the son of Juggernaut and a district attorney. Juggernaut cleaned up his act, became a hero, and started a family, but he disappeared suddenly when Zane was a young boy. In high school now, Zane finds he has the ability to become a juggernaut himself, although his invulnerability isn’t on par with pappy’s.

Tom DeFalco writes a book that hearkens back to Silver Age Marvel, a simpler time when the landscape wasn’t so cluttered, when every idea and character was new. Unfortunately, Defalco, who is a good writer when in his element, is no Stan Lee, and artist Ron Lim is neither Steve Ditko or Jack Kirby. (Too ‘90s, for one thing.) The gold standard for this title, the one it’s really aiming to emulate / exceed, is Amazing Spider-Man. But with J2’s struggles with school bullies in his geeky alter ego, romance, and keeping his identity secret from loved ones, the parallel is a bit too on the nose, and J2 suffers in comparison. (J2 is better liked than Spider-Man; one story has everyone looking at the positive side of the destruction J2 has wrought and applauding the new hero). His personal life barely moves, and the only personal subplots that get any play are Zane’s search for his father and his mother’s attempts to discover J2’s connection to the original Juggernaut. Only the second plot really moves.

Instead, J2 seems to function as an “explore the M2 universe” book. We see the original Defenders fighting the new Avengers; Jubilee and the Uncanny X-People; Wild Thing, daughter of Wolverine and Elektra (hunh?); Magneta, Mistress of Magnetism; and Doc Magus, who possesses the Eye of Agamotto. Each issue contains two or three stories, and with J2 also appearing in A-Next, DeFalco was freed to push aside of how other heroes looked at J2.

But the stories also lack substance, with J2 usually fighting the villain du jour and having to use his brain to overcome him / her. Nice twist, but it’s hardly inventive enough to hold the readers’ attention forever. DeFalco and Lim just don’t pluck enough thematic chords to make the book resonate: What is J2’s place in the M2 world, literally and metaphorically? He can’t be the Spider-Man unsure hero; that’s Spider-Girl, the daughter of Spider-Man. An early issue makes it obvious he’s not like the Hulk other than his brawn. He doesn’t have to clear his name. The only tragedy in his life is the disappearance of his father, and Zane does pursue that, but with all the short stories in Secrets & Lies, those stories seem watered down by all the other stories, and they don’t have the length or strength to withstand the dilution.

Secrets and Lies turns out to be faux-Silver Age fluff. Amusing fluff, at times, but fluff nonetheless.

Grade: B-