War of Kings: Ascension #3 Review

WAR OF KINGS: ASCENSION #3
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Wellinton Alves

While I think this was the best issue so far for War of Kings: Ascension, I still can't get past the idea that I hate the main character and almost every scene he is in is a negative to me. I'm not sure what it is about Chris Powell that grates on me, but I he's just not someone I want to read about for extended periods of time.

Now, that doesn't mean I don't like what Abnett and Lanning are doing in this issue or series. Far from it. I actually quite enjoy everything they've done with the Fraternity of Raptors and Talon and Razor, especially when combined with their dealings with Vulcan over in the main event book.

Both Talon and Razor are interesting variables that I would love to see explored more, but we've been treated to only the merest cameos of each in every issue so far in favour of showing what I consider to be a poor comic book trope - the inner mind struggle for dominance on the part of Darkhawk to wrest back control of his armour.

Speaking of which, he does just that in this issue. Shortly after Razor kills Lilandra (repeated from War of Kings), Darkhawk retakes control of his suit just in time to be faced with the grim reality that Gladiator is about to kill him for what Razor just did. It was a good spot to retake control from a storytelling standpoint, but the whole inner struggle trope practically screams out for these things and makes for predictable and a tad lazy storytelling in my opinion and is one of the reasons I really dislike this type of plot.

Verdict - Check It. Talon's and Razor's parts are still quite entertaining and worth checking out, but I'm not feeling anything that has to do with the actual main character of the book.

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War of Kings: Ascension #2 Review

WAR OF KINGS: ASCENSION #2
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Wellinton Alves

Much like last issue, the best parts of this one are when the main character isn't on screen. Chris Powell, formerly Darkhawk, is one of the least interesting characters I've ever had the misfortune of reading and he sucks the life out of every panel he's in. It's sad when I'm actually glad his armour and body were taken over by a member of an evil fraternity dedicated to sowing chaos and discontent throughout the universe just so I won't have to listen to his whining or put up with his crappy origin story and cliched internal battles with himself nonsense.

Annoyances over the main character aside, this issue is actually much better than the first one. With the reveal that the Fraternity of Raptors and Darkhawk suits are actually evil, Abnett and Lanning have added a nice twist to this storyline and it immediately started paying dividends with the duo of Talon and Darkhawk quickly taking out Catastrophus and claiming his Cosmic Control Rod for themselves.

Why didn't Catastrophus use the rod on the two Raptors? Well, he was actually using it to suppress Annihilus's growth and couldn't use it for himself without allowing Annihilus to awaken. That answers the question of whatever happened to Annihilus after he was reborn at the end of Annihilation. The two Raptors actually leave Annihilus alive as it will only further help their cause in the long run by having someone like Annihilus alive and in their debt.

Once the duo acquired the Cosmic Control Rod, they went on to request an audience with King Blastaar, who had taken up residence in Prison 42. Instead of using the rod themselves, they actually give it to Blastaar in good faith in hopes he'll aid their goals with regards to the War of Kings.

The remainder of the issue was devoted to Chris Powell, who was ousted from his Darkhawk armour and left in a limbo of sorts. DnA attempt to clear up his previous origin, which revolved around the Darkhawk armour being created by intergalactic mobsters and what not, by blaming it on Chris's mind not being able to handle the armour and datasong from the Fraternity and, thus, creating fake memories to help him cope.

I see what they attempted to do by going to the trouble of explaining his origin and retconning parts of it away, but I don't understand why they even bothered since the character is hardly well known or popular and barely qualifies as a Z-lister. For the amount of time they are spending on forcing the character into their storyline, they could have just as easily made a new one up and avoided the clutter and bullshit backstory and inner turmoil nonsense we've been subjected to so far.

Verdict - Check It. If I could gut the middle parts of this story dealing with Chris Powell's origin and innerself nonsense, I'd probably rate this issue an easy Must Read. Those parts are really dragging this miniseries down.

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War of Kings: Ascension #1 Review

WAR OF KINGS: ASCENSION #1
Written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning
Art by Paolo Pantalena & Harvey Tolibao

War of Kings: Ascension is an entertaining, yet flawed comic. Abnett and Lanning do an excellent job of filling us in on who these two characters are and try their best to make us care about them or their mission, but they never really reach their goal.

If I had to pick the biggest flaw of the issue, it is that I still don't have a clue what the miniseries is about, who or what the Fraternity of Raptors are (or if they actually exist), why they're in the Negative Zone or even why they bothered to tell this story, the latter of which is one of my bigger pet peeves. If a book can't even justify its own existence through the actions of the characters, either progressing an event or story or by giving new insight or growth to a character, I end up feeling disappointed with the purchase.

That said, this issue wasn't a complete waste either. Most of it was dedicated to bringing people up to speed on the recent Darkhawk miniseries, answering basic questions like who Darkhawk is and what's he doing with this new Talon character off in the Negative Zone. Of note was the "origin" of Talon, which amounted to showing a Skrull survivor of Black Bolt's attack from the Secret Invasion: War of Kings one-shot floating in space and coming across the blue Darkhawk gem that Talon has on his chest.

When not recounting who people were, the issue revolved around Talon "teaching" Darkhawk how to use his powers. This involved fighting back against Annihilus' remaining forces stationed in the Negative Zone, which brought the two to one of Annihilus' lieutenant's, Catastrophus, base of operations. It was shown that Catastrophus somehow had Annihilus' Cosmic Control Rod and Talon wanted Darkhawk to help him liberate it, which I assumed would be the core plot of this first issue or miniseries.

However, after entering Catastrophus' base, Talon quickly abandoned Darkhawk in an attempt to make him call on higher functions of his Darkhawk armour and further bond with it. After bonding with it, Darkhawk saw the truth from the suit's databases that the Fraternity of Raptors were actually the badguys, responsibe for kidnappings and murders throughout the ages, and Talon revealed his true colours by somehow banishing Darkhawk's mind from the armour, replacing it with someone called Razer.

What's interesting about this final reveal requires a little knowledge of Darkhawk, which we weren't given. Previously, it was revealed that his body physically swapped locations with the armour and he controlled it remotely from what I believe is the null space they reference here. It could be just that Darkhawk's mind has been shunted off into null space along with his human body and that this Razer persona actually existed there previously. Also, it looks like the Skrull that was inhabiting the Talon armour was more than likely taken over in much the same way as Darkhawk was when Razer replaced him here. The only question remaining at the end of the issue is if Razer and Talon will remain in control for the duration or if it'll end up being some form of cliched mental battle for control of the Darkhawk persona over the course of this mini.

Verdict - Check It. I wasn't blown away by it, but I'm willing to give Abnett and Lanning the benefit of the doubt here. Talon revealed as a bad guy was fairly predictable, but I'm curious enough about the Darkhawk / Razer dichotomy to stick with this miniseries.

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