I’ve discussed comics based on video games before. Many of them aren’t very good. There are exceptions to the rule out there, like the UDON Street Fighter series. That is, if you can get past the horrid delays and the lack of anything of importance happening in most issues. The Darkstalkers comic wouldn’t have been all that bad had it lasted more than six issues and actually went somewhere.

The subject today is Marvel Nemesis: The Imperfects, based on the similarly named videogame Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. This review is going to be a little different, as I’m going to try and lead you through the process of me reading this series. The experience of reading these issues when they came out is worlds different than if I were to be reading them for the first time now.

The news first hit that Electronic Arts would be releasing a Marvel fighting game. The place-holder of a name “Marvel vs. EA” was the popular term for this new project and immediately, we were lambasted with awful joke after awful joke. As a comedic writer, something that annoys me is when somebody makes an obvious joke that half of the hemisphere had already made and acts like they’re a comedic genius. The kind of people who make jokes about Mr. Fantastic stretching his wang. Anyway, for months on end, everybody chimed in with the same played out “Spider-Man vs. Madden” or “Wolverine vs. Gandalf” punchline. It was really sad.

Over time, details about the game, such as the actual title, were announced. The first footage of the game featured Spider-Man, Wolverine, the Thing and two EA-created characters Johnny Ohm and Brigade. Artist Jae Lee had a major role in the art direction of the game and made the character select images. He would also draw the cover art for the comic miniseries. Mark Millar was brought in for character designs and backstories. The creative team for the six-issue miniseries would be writer Greg Pak and artist Renato Arlem. I was unfamiliar with Pak at the time, so I had no idea that this was a really good thing. Renato’s art style shares similarities with Jae Lee’s style, so that’s also a big plus.

The cover features a foreground shot of the story’s villain, Niles Van Roekel. Behind him are Spider-Man, Wolverine, Elektra and Thing, all infected with some kind of green goop nastiness. Thing is what it looks like when you chew Fruity Pebbles and then open your mouth and stick out your tongue.

Alien genius Niles Van Roekel, who appears human, experiments with some creatures as his spaceship is under attack by his race’s mortal enemy, in the form of armored, green, alien monsters. There are many casualties, but Van Roekel calmly escapes and ponders more about his chemical parasite. Whenever he uses it on a creature, it makes them stronger and more aggressive, but it usually causes them to break down physically. He tells his underling that they need to find a species with stronger stock. A more war-based walk of life. On the scanners, they pick up footage of Roman warriors in the midst of a huge battle. Van Roekel folds his hands and deems this world perfect.

A couple millenniums pass and we see the Thing walking around, having one of his bad days. Due to Reed putting him to work, he’s been forced to stand up Alicia for a date. It’s raining and he fumbles around to pay a guy on the street for a pizza. To make matters worse, a bunch of comic nerds are in a nearby store arguing over whether or not Colossus can take the Thing. They at least agree that Thing is the second tier of strength, bowing down to the likes of Hulk, Thor and Abomination. Thing argues with them about how great he really is, but they don’t buy it.

Something that bothers me here is the art of one of the three nerds. Here are all four of his panels:

Is it that hard to just draw a face?

Thing goes into a classic mope about how he’ll always be second place. He stops and looks up to see a white light shining down onto him.

A few blocks away, Wolverine dukes it out with Elektra on a rooftop. They both know that on paper, Wolverine should win this fight due to being stronger and faster, among other things. Yet the truth is, Elektra’s playing with him like a toy. She says it’s based on compassion, as she’s lost much of hers. The two lunge at each other once more, only to be taken away by a UFO.

Because they’re trying to be really gritty with the design here, Wolverine’s in full street-clothes mode and at no point in the story or game wears the tights. Similarly, Elektra doesn’t wear her classic ninja-gypsy ensemble.

Van Roekel gives an order to recall their scout ships stationed over the world. In one page, we see three vertical panels that suggest what we’re to expect from the EA side of the roster. We see a half-naked girl in a tree, carrying a bow and arrow. The next shows an aged man balled up in a prison cell. The third shows a platoon of marines working together.

Thing, Wolverine and Elektra find themselves strapped onto tables in the space ship. Spider-Man’s there too, because it’s a crossover and that’s his thing. The three men of the group speak with each other in an attempt to figure out what’s going on. Van Roekel has his trademark green goop injected into their necks, filling them with pain. Wolverine knows that this is about to get worse and Thing verifies that by pointing out that the goop is talking to him.

Van Roekel releases the four and allows them to fight it out, cliffhangering the story. In the next issue, Van Roekel shows that these aren’t the only heroes in his collection as an evil-looking Storm with green lightning arrives, joined by a green-flamed Human Torch. It becomes a full-on melee, with Thing punching Human Torch across the “arena”. Storm’s indoor rain puts Johnny’s flame out pretty quickly and Spider-Man holds his fist to his chin, claiming, “I’m gonna kill you, Johnny Storm,” as the green, parasitic goop eggs him on.

Thing and Storm, the two most powerful in this situation, take the fight to each other, while Wolverine and Elektra have yet to take a glance away from their own duel.

Van Roekel takes a break from watching the action to deal with two of his superpowered underlings. He refers to them by their real names, but later we’d recognize them as the Wink and Hazmat. Hazmat, despite his hideous and sinister appearance, comes across as a meek and polite man, as Wink seems vain, despite her shadowed-out face. Van Roekel tells them that he’s experimenting on these heroes to make Hazmat and Wink stronger, but Wink suggest that he may have just been doing the opposite all along.

Spider-Man struggles with himself until finally deciding that he really doesn’t want to kill Human Torch. He removes a lot of the green goop from his body, manually and returns to normal. Torch flames on again and tries to take advantage of Spider-Man’s crisis of conscience. Spider-Man talks him down and gets him to fight the mind-control. With a yell of, “Flame on!” Torch burns away the newfound power.

Wolverine’s body rejects the goop due to his own healing factor. He cuts it out of Elektra’s body, making her angry, as she really, really digs the stuff. She escapes as Wolverine, Spider-Man and Human Torch take on the rampaging Thing. Somehow, Spider-Man extracts the goop from his system (this sounds really gay, but it isn’t!), returning Thing to normal, though really, really frustrated in both his loss and himself. Storm is the only one left empowered, but turns her attentions to Van Roekel, who she realizes is using her.

Van Roekel presses a button that sends everyone back to Earth. Storm flies through New York, back to normal. Whether she powered out of the mind-control or Van Roekel removed it isn’t really clear. Whatever it is, she, Thing and Elektra seem to be the most flustered from this experience.

Van Roekel discusses his findings with Hazmat and Wink. While these heroes make for good test subjects, they reject the green extract. If Van Roekel is going to get some good hosts, he’s going to need some test subjects like Hazmat and Wink, who need this power and have no choice but to accept it. On the nearby monitors, we see the prisoner and marines from the last issue, only we also see a teenage girl in a hospital bed and a nondescript woman mopping a floor. More and more, we’re getting hints at who will be opposing the Marvel heroes in the upcoming game.

To add to this, the soldiers are shown gagging and going into convulsions for some unknown reason, as Van Roekel calmly tells his people, “Send out the ships.”

We go to the cell of the prisoner, John Savage, also known as Johnny Ohm. He’s been in prison for decades, but lawyer Matt Murdock believes that Ohm is innocent.

Matt flies back to New York and quietly thinks to himself. When he returns to his office, Foggy is on the phone, finding out that Johnny Ohm had hung himself in his cell. Matt is in no way distraught at hearing this. More cynical than anything.

Johnny Ohm comes to on the spaceship, along with a girl in a wheelchair and a young, Asian woman. The three have little time to access the situation before the Wink appears and injects the green goop into their necks. It isn’t enough to empower them, but it is enough to get in their heads and under their skin. Enough to get them addicted.

Van Roekel promises more, but first he just needs to alter them a bit.

Taking a step back from the comic, I should go back into my point of view from when this came out. Back then, I had faith in the game and the readability of this comic fed into that. What was cool was how characters were revealed as being playable. We only knew about a handful of heroes as being confirmed. Seeing Matt Murdock in Johnny Ohm’s cell or an infected Iron Man on a solicited cover revealed more and more about the game. The little pieces of the new characters added to the mystery, with their parts fully realized once game sites (namely IGN) would reveal their profiles.

By the end, the game would have ten Marvel characters and eight EA characters. On the Marvel side, it was Wolverine, Spider-Man, Thing, Daredevil, Elektra, Human Torch, Storm, Iron Man, Venom and Magneto. Captain America and Dr. Doom were missing from the main consoles, but playable on the PSP. Of the EA characters, obviously Niles Van Roekel would be included in some fashion. Six of the others were named the Imperfects. Here’s the gist of what they’re about.

Johnny Ohm

A southern boy with a chip on his shoulder, John Savage was convicted for a murder that he didn’t commit. He was given the death sentence, but strangely survived it. He endured the electric chair twice and right before the third time could happen, a lightning bolt hit the facility and caused a blackout. Soon after, the death penalty was banned in the state and he was tossed back to prison to spend the rest of his life.

Van Roekel took notice of his talent and had him removed from prison with the public left to believe that Savage had hung himself. With attachments added to Savage’s body, he honed the ability to control electricity as Johnny Ohm.

Brigade

Sergeant Rick Landau and his platoon of 100 marines were sent to Iraq for an important mission. It was all a setup, put together by Van Roekel. The men were exposed to a deadly nerve agent that wiped them all out. Van Roekel had the remnants of the marines cut up and patched together, like some kind of modern-day Frankenstein monster. As one, the pieces of humanity become Brigade, with the strength and minds of 100 men. Landau tries to hold control over his men, but is prone to horrible mental breakdowns and personality disorders.

The Wink

Benedetta Gaetani was the daughter of one of Italy’s greatest illusionists. After the death of her mother, Benedetta became the assistant in her father’s act. Her role was to vanish during his routine, an act so impressive that her father began to wonder if Benedetta was actually teleporting for real. Her father’s fame went to his head and got him very out of favor with the mob. After one of the shows, they barged into the trailer, scarred up Benedetta’s face (acid in the game’s version of the story, razor in the comic’s) and murdered her father. Benedetta vanished and escaped her would-be killers.

Van Roekel got wind of this and sought out the girl. He found her working as a fortune teller with a veil over her face. They struck a deal, where Van Roekel would give her safety and more control over her power in exchange for some compliance.

Hazmat

Dr. Keith Kilham worked for the government, dedicating himself to curing all disease. He had worked on various untested vaccines based on countering ebola, anthrax and many others. During a terrorist attack, Kilham knew that these diseases he was working on were going to be exposed to the facility and likely the public at large. Working fast, he injected himself with all of his untested vaccines and exposed himself to the different diseased substances before successfully securing them from the terrorists.

Time passed and Kilham’s body broke down. He’s become a living mutation and was soon adopted into Van Roekel’s control. As Hazmat, he still hopes to both cure himself and continue his earlier work for the good of mankind.

Fault Zone

Maria Petrova was a great ballerina in Russia, garnering international attention for her agility and grace. An earthquake caused a car crash that killed her parents and crippled her. Her experiences made her cold and angry at the world. Van Roekel took advantage of her pain and promised her the ability to walk if she were to join him. Becoming Fault Zone, Maria gains cybernetic attachments that allow her to both dance and cause her own little earthquakes.

Solara

Reiko Kurokaki was born out of an affair. Her mother’s husband was a member of the yakuza and had their house burned to the ground. Miraculously, Reiko survived. The housekeeper smuggled her away to her sister’s care, where Reiko was raised with no mention of her true heritage. She became interested in quantum physics and was quite the genius. Her findings led to an experiment that was sabotaged and burned down her university. Many were killed, such as her adopted parents, but yet Reiko was again unscathed.

Disgraced by her failure, she became a cleaning woman. Van Roekel picked her as one of his Imperfects based on her resistance to fire. With her permission, he transformed her into a human kiln, allowing her to harness fire instead of being cursed by it.

The final character spot, I’ll get to later.

One of the more interesting things about the comic is the way Greg Pak plays with continuity. On paper, these six issues are meant to be a prequel to the game’s storyline. Not exactly the case. The game’s plot takes place prior to Avengers Disassembled. The Avengers Mansion is part of the story and Eddie Brock is Venom. The comic here takes place after the New Avengers have been established, screwing up the timeframe. There are even references to incidents that were very recent to Marvel at the time, like Spider-Man revealing his identity to Human Torch (one of my favorite issues of any comic) or that really horrible Marvel Knights story where Spider-Man thought Wolverine was trying to steal Mary Jane away.

So the tie-in comic isn’t part of the game’s continuity, yet it’s part of 616 continuity. Strange, but better off.

The next issue is more of a breather. Reed Richards, despite not being part of the videogame, studies the green extract and repeatedly deems it “fascinating”. This annoys Thing to the point that he gets to a rooftop and summons Storm for a heart-to-heart about their experience. Both admittedly wish they still had that green stuff in them, as it makes them feel like gods.

We see the Imperfects getting their surgery. Some messed up stuff, especially when it comes to seeing Brigade being stitched together.

There’s a subplot where those sinister, green aliens from the beginning of the story invade the Amazon, looking for something. This is Maya’s neck of the woods. She’s that half-naked huntress from the first issue. She eludes the creatures and is ready to kill them, but another from her tribe forbids her.

The main story of the issue centers on Daredevil and Elektra. Murdock returns to Johnny Ohm’s cell to figure out what really happened to him.

He finds some of the green goop on the wall, verifying his idea that something’s wrong. Returning to his apartment, he finds Elektra waiting for him, lying on his couch. She’s addicted to the extract and wants Matt’s help in finding Van Roekel so they can stop him. She knows around where his hideout is in the sewers, but needs Daredevil’s super-senses to help pinpoint its exact location. Daredevil plays along.

Once they do find where Van Roekel is hiding, Elektra turns on Daredevil for the sake of getting her fix. Matt’s love interests have a habit of doing that. Right after Elektra leaves Daredevil in the dust, the complex – the UFO – flies off into the sky. Van Roekel accepts Elektra into his inner circle and rewards her with some more of the extract.

This, plus their brand new powers, drives the Imperfects into a frenzy. Well, all but Hazmat. He remains mild mannered. Van Roekel calmly zaps them all with a device, causing them to fall to their knees in pain. He tells them not to worry, as they’ll all be able to show off their newfound powers soon enough.

Issue #4 is based on two things. First, the Marvel heroes involved with the game get together and try to seek out Van Roekel’s spaceship. This doesn’t work and Daredevil reveals that Storm and Wolverine are both still hankering for some of that green perfection. Storm and Wolverine have their own little freak-outs and get over them, but the others don’t show that much trust in them, nor Thing.

Van Roekel sends his Imperfects to the Amazon to fight off his alien enemies as a battle exercise. It goes pretty badly. Nobody can see eye-to-eye. The only one in there with a sense of teamwork is Brigade, and his own insanity works against him. To make matters more complicated, the jungle natives are in the middle of fighting those aliens. Maya shows the most skill of her tribe and kills off a couple of them. This gets Van Roekel’s attention.

To keep the Comics Code off Marvel’s back, there is always a supply of leaves falling whenever the loincloth-clad Maya has to flip around.

Maya herself is another mismatch of continuity between comic and game. While here, she lives in the present, the game’s story is very different. Van Roekel discovered her centuries ago and deemed her the perfect warrior. He captured and froze her. The plan was to use his Imperfects as stepping stones into fully exposing Maya’s full potential via his technology.

He gives the order to bring her in alive, but things get even crazier. The only reason the Imperfects get out alive is because Solara loses control of her flames and burns a big chunk of the rainforest. The other Imperfects are spared.

Since Elektra is competent and willing, Van Roekel surgically inserts a green crystal that gives her full-on taste of Van Roekel Brand Perfect Juice ™. The fifth issue has her go around killing those aliens and keeping an eye on Maya. With the six Imperfects all unconscious, Van Roekel gives all of them injections of the extract at the same time. Whether it just be a coincidence or a plan by Van Roekel to make them a better team, the act forces all six of them to see each other’s painful memories.

Fault Zone is insulted that she feels sorry for Wink. Hazmat and Solara bond over the realization that they’re both doctors. Even Johnny Ohm and Brigade get along, thanks to this new feeling of familiarity. With Elektra leading them, the Imperfects are sent back into the Amazon to find a certain treasure before their alien enemies can. First they have to deal with the heroes, so as Elektra and Ohm search, the others split up and try to keep the rest busy with non-violence.

Thing finds Fault Zone and Brigade. Brigade stands down and Fault Zone convinces Thing to help her smash some nearby rocks for fun. Iron Man and Storm discover Hazmat sitting quietly. Once he hears he’s being taken into custody by an Avengers/X-Men/Fantastic Four joint task force, he excitedly mentions his hopes that Reed Richards is directly involved, as they once served at a panel together a couple years back. Human Torch is taken aback by both Solara’s appearance and fiery powers. Solara asks him to tell her how to control her abilities.

In a temple ruin, Elektra finds what they were looking for: a big, green crystal, which they can use for a lot more of that goop. Maya and her tribe come to stop them from stealing it. Then all the Imperfects and heroes get over there for one big rumble. Plus Iron Man and Storm have been infected with the goop. So sucks for the good guys.

That’s the end of issue #5. At the end of this, I was excited. This comic is pretty good. While the science bits of storytelling are a little hard to understand here and there, it’s far better than what you’d expect from a simple videogame tie-in. I couldn’t wait to not only read the final issue, but play the upcoming fighting game, Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects.

That game, as it turned out, was a gigantic piece of shit. Oh my God, it was bad. Sloppy, ugly, buggy, lazy and somehow a level under bare-bones. The game actually advertised the lack of a one-player tournament mode. Doing that for a fighting game is like bragging that your DVD release lacks menus and chapter skips. Similarly, the game’s opening intro makes a big deal out of how Captain America, Hulk and Punisher aren’t in it as if that’s a good thing to point out.

I could go on, but this article is long enough as is. I had fun at parts, yes, but after the second day of playing it, I went back to EB and traded it in for X-Men Legends 2. I think that a vastly improved sequel could have been quality, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

For these first five issues, I was so eager. I was enthusiastic to see what was next. Now I was grossly underwhelmed and annoyed at my own actions. Three weeks after the game arrived, issue #6 came out.

I really couldn’t care less by that point.

That would be a lousy way to end this article, so I’ll just keep going with the big finale.

The infected Iron Man and Storm fight against their friends because Van Roekel’s mind control demands it. The same goes for the Imperfects, as some of them, like Solara, don’t really want to fight the heroes. Elektra – who is still filled with that green crystal and therefore should be nigh unstoppable against fellow humans – is challenged by Maya’s efforts. The fact that Maya can keep up with her makes Van Roekel believe that she’s a keeper. Again, he gives orders to have her taken in.

Iron Man and Storm show that they have merely been playing along. Iron Man’s armor and Storm’s will have allowed them to shrug off most of the extract’s effects and they only pretended to be under Van Roekel’s control. Iron Man scrambles the signal that causes the mind control, thereby giving the Imperfects their freedom. Solara talks everyone down, saying that they shouldn’t do Van Roekel’s dirty work. Van Roekel is going to mutilate this innocent woman Maya and force her to kill anyone he wants. It’s wrong.

Even the wackos like Fault Zone and Brigade agree. Johnny Ohm would agree, but with Elektra’s sai to his throat, he figures he’ll do what she says instead. Elektra, still giving in to the extract’s hold on her, rambles on about how Maya is the perfect warrior and that Van Roekel has been searching centuries for one like her. Her speech is interrupted by an ambush. Those crazy aliens have returned out of nowhere for one final go.

This time, everybody fights together. The heroes, the Imperfects and Maya all take apart these aliens. Mutual respect is gained throughout.

When things seem to be going good, there’s an explosion in the distance. Maya’s entire village goes up in flames. She begins crying, but then becomes confused. Those aliens didn’t have a chance to get so far. She looks over and sees Van Roekel, standing in front of his spaceship.

“Hello, Maya. Your line had to be eliminated, or the enemy could have replicated the conditions which created you, which would have entirely undermined my advantage in collecting you.”

Maya runs screaming and crying at Van Roekel. The Imperfects, angry and disgusted, follow. Van Roekel calmly holds his hand up and a white light erupts. Once it dies down, he, his ship, Maya and the Imperfects are all gone. Wolverine talks down at Elektra, who seems to accept that she fucked up big time.

Later, back at the Baxter Building, Johnny mopes about their failure. Thing tries to cheer him up by pointing out that they gave the Imperfects hope. Elektra, now back to normal and with her regular skin tone, enters the room and says that for that hope, the Imperfects have a reason to hate the heroes forever. Thanks to them, the Imperfects only got a taste of freedom before having to endure a lifetime of slavery. Johnny tosses back that Solara isn’t a killer, but it’s not Solara that Elektra is worried about.

Back at Van Roekel’s lab, he has the Imperfects join him to watch over Maya’s transformation into the ultimate weapon. Johnny Ohm looks at Maya, now known as Paragon, and describes her as being perfect.

Not a bad final issue, even if I get so goddamn tired of “perfect” being used for every other word. Wait, where have I seen that before?

The final issue sets up the game’s story. In it, Paragon escapes captivity and wanders through New York City. To flush her out, Van Roekel sends his forces into the Big Apple, invading the hell out of it. The heroes run around trying to make sense of things while duking it out with the Imperfects, who otherwise don’t do anything. By the end of the game, Paragon returns to Van Roekel’s stronghold and fights him one-on-one. Van Roekel fights in a suit of armor like Iron Man’s, to make up for his noted complete lack of aggression.

Paragon kills Niles Van Roekel. In his final moments, the mad genius explains his motives in this whole mess. Though he appears more or less human, his true form is some kind of alien jellyfish. His people are peaceful and non-aggressive, but a war-loving race came to their planet and enslaved it. Van Roekel is one of the few rebels to escape. He’s been trying to find a way to emancipate his people for centuries no matter what the cost, including unlearning his sense of compassion. All these horrible acts of his were an “ends justifying the means” type of thing.

The final scene of the game is a pretty badass shot of Paragon leading the Imperfects on a rooftop, though their future is in question.

And that’s the story of the Imperfects. A game that was far worse than it should have been, juxtaposed with a comic far better than I could have expected. Granted, it was a bit overly dreary and had its flaws, but even on this second reading, it comes across as quality stuff. At the same time, Marvel was releasing a Peter David-penned comic to go with their Hulk: Ultimate Destruction videogame that was also pretty rad. It made fun of Bruce Jones!

I remember IGN suggesting that Marvel owned the rights to the Imperfects, giving them the option of using them in future stories. Since they’ve all yet to be mentioned in any way since then, I’m guessing that’s a load of crap, putting them in the same licensed cage as Rom, NFL Superpro, the Micronauts, the Transformers and Ron Simmons. It’s a shame, since I thought Johnny Ohm could support his own title.

Dude’s got style.

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Posted in comic books, Game-Based Comics, reviews by Gavok |