Another anthology mag. Sighs heavily.
There are stories about Iron Man and Daredevil, who have solo books so…Why? Iron Man is working on a space craft and there’s sabotage. This happens a lot in his own comic already. Daredevil’s tale is a Matt Murdock “adventure” where the lawyer investigates a child abuse case and finds out that the kid has needles ‘cause mommy is a diabetic. Seriously. That’s a comic book story.
Next is Speedball, who is continually featured in these kinds of books for reasons I can’t fathom. He couldn’t carry his own solo title, he brings down the New Warriors. Maybe it’s because Steve Ditko wants to draw it and, let’s face it, Marvel owes him a debt they can never repay. Or more precisely that they could have repaid with money but instead kept throwing him bones like letting him draw comics nobody gave a shit about. Red Wolf also gets a story. Like Speedball, there has never been a good solo story about Red Wolf.
Rogue is also a team-player, and she gets a solo story from back in her white-on-top mullet-hair day, where she takes on her mommy issues with Mystique.
The best of the lot features Tigra, who currently can’t be seen anywhere. And it starts as a character piece, with her going to visit her dying father. Now we’re talking. She looks and act feral, and nearly kills some thugs who attack her dad in his hospital bed. We learn they were trying to protect corporate secrets because her father is dying from cancer due to exposure to something at his job site. Tigra investigates, finds the cure, and steals it—leaving the company’s owner, who also has the exposure disease, without a cure to die.
Of course, in keeping with how she is constantly portrayed as a sex object, there’s some bondage.
This is a good short story. It has a point, means something in the life of an underused character, and features a nice ironic twist. Well done. (Although having FOUR creators on a 10-page story seems like overkill.)
Finally, Falcon, fights a bunch of Iron Man wannabes who rob a local youth center. The big turning point occurs when one of the youth center kids steps into the battle to help Falcon, and gets killed by the bad guys. I do like when there are bystander consequences in comics, even if this is pretty much a by-the-numbers story.
At least all of these are short stories.
Creators and grades:
Iron Man: Bob DeNatale, Larry Alexander. Grade: D
Rogue: Sue Flaxman and Lou Manna. Grade: D
Speedball: Hollis Bright, Steve Ditko. Grade: F
Tigra: D.G. Chichester, Margaret Clark, Dennis Mallonee (script and plot), Chuck Patton. Grade: C+
Falcon: Danny Fingeroth, Javier Saltares. Grade: C-