What does a Smasher do? Smaaasshh
I’ve been enjoying this series it definitely isn’t the best of Marvel Now! But it still has a lot of potential and I’m going to stick with it for a while to see what happens.
Plot
In outer space the Shiar are under attack on one their planets the Smasher is sent flying through space and dies on earth where Izzy Dare finds his visor. She returns home and puts it on and then flies to the Shiar Throne world.
Tony Stark is examining Ex Nihilo’s Adam and begins to understand his language.
Review
This issue is a marked improvement on the last issue which I thought was pretty average but I hoped this would be better and it is though it’s still not by any means perfect. This is probably out of the origin stories that Hickman was doing the one I was most interested in as well Hyperion is an established character and there have been other Captain Universes but I don’t think there has been a Smasher before and I was interested to see what Hickman did. What I liked about last issue was how it wasn’t all about Hyperion it had developments with the rest of the team and there was another plot going along with the Hyperion story and it actually made sense with the origin as Hyperion was saved by AIM and the villains in the issue are AIM and it made it a lot more interesting and this happens again in this issue but more on that later.
Hickman tells an interesting origin story it is very compelling, not all the details are given in it but some aren’t necessary and it would probably just drag down the quality of the book if they were included. It is a very compelling origin with the inclusion of one of Izzy Dare’s family has Emphysema (for those of you who don’t know it’s caused by smoking) and well you feel for Izzy and what she’s been through and it makes her very interesting. This does eventually lead to her becoming Smasher and her journey to meet the Imperial guard while these scenes aren’t as interesting they are necessary and they aren’t paticuarly boring as some of the dialogue Hickman uses makes it more interesting and makes everything sound as if it is important.
There are also a few developments with the Adam that Ex Nihilo created in the first arc I like how Hickman is continuing with these concepts such as last issue with the gardens created by Ex Nihilo and now Adam it is an interesting part of the issue it only lasts for a page but the developments are interesting and I’m interested to see what happens next.
While we get the origin of Izzy with the Imperial guard they also appear in another plot in this issue in the present and well they get beaten up or some of them do. It isn’t as interesting as the origin story which definitely steals the show in this issue, yet this is fun and I like the short conversation between Smasher and Hulk, also we see some of Smasher’s powers shown and we needed that as it hasn’t been properly shown in this series and while the extent isn’t shown we get a rough idea. This fight just sort of ends though and it’s nothing truly special but it is still fun yet I think the ending was a bit sudden and anticlimactic. Yet it then leads on to a very touching scene with a flashback of Izzy and her grandfather and well it was nice to see and the current scene was fairly touching also the developments with Izzy and it was nice to see what she achieved.
There is a short part at the end of this issue with the Shiar and well it is very interesting as it was a surprise and I believe it is referencing (spoiler) Ultron and this got me very interested in the event and it built up suspense for it and it kind of implied how powerful he is now.
Adam Kubert’s art has improved but that is because of the new colourist Frank Martin Jr who adds whose colours are a little darker than Frank D’Armata’s and it definitely improves the look but Adam Kubert still needs an inker it still looks a bit too rough in places and not as good as we have come to expect from Kubert but it looks better than last issue and I hope it stays like this.
Verdict
This is a definite improvement from the last issue but the art still isn’t perfect and the fight ended a bit quickly but this was a great origin and I’m happy to see this series back and its original quality.
4 stars
