Shades & Comanche: Don’t Make Me Take Off My Stunners
May 11th, 2010 by david brothers | Tags: fred van lente, mahmud asrar, power manNewsarama has an interview with Fred Van Lente about Shadowland: Power Man. A new Power Man is spinning out of Shadowland, the big crossover where Daredevil turns into Donald Rumsfeld and waterboards and then kills Bullseye, or something. I’m kinda ehhh on Daredevil at the moment (hey how much worse can his life get oh is that so), so I was gonna skip Shadowland. But, Fred Van Lente has a good track record, and I liked the Scorpion he introduced in addition to several dozen of his comics, so I read the interview to see what was up.
And I mean, I’m still sorta skeptical. Daredevil is a Debbie Downer, Shadowland sounds kinda silly, and do we really need a new Power Man? But FVL has done stories with Scorpion and the Savage She-Hulk that I dug a lot, he wrote the best story to come out of Marvel last year, and he included Rocket Racer in Modok’s 11. I’m not too fond of Incredible Herc, but FVL’s overall track record seems to be “Writes comics specifically for David Brothers.”
So it sounds interesting, but I’m kinda like “Maybe I’ll catch the trade.” Except:
Van Lente: One of the things I love about this series is, to me it proves that you can have “street characters” where it’s not dark and foreboding. It can be fun. And “urban setting” doesn’t mean it has to be a grim, noir sort of setting.
Yes, it does have a very youthful feel to it. You have a kid acquiring superpowers and donning a costume and going out there and kicking ass, and making some good money for it. It certainly beats delivering pizzas as an after-school job. His powers, like all classic Marvel characters, are rooted in tragedy. And what that tragedy is, and how it’s affected his family, and how it connects to Bullseye will be explicated as the series goes along.
and
If you were looking for the return of Comanche and Shades, you need go no further than Shadowland: Power Man. And Cottonmouth, another one of my Luke Cage faves, is coming back. I have an inexplicable fondness for Discus and Stiletto, and let us not forget the greatest Luke Cage villain of all time, Cockroach Hamilton, with his six barrel shotgun.
Shades & Comanche in comics again after all these years?
Similar Posts:
- On Shadowland: Power Man 2
- Black History Month ’09 #09: Shakey Dogs
- Know the Ledge: Verisimilitude, Race, & Comics
- Black History Month 2011: Billy Graham
- 4 Elements: Thunderbolts 144
Fred Van Lente is making me suspicious, what with his magical powers of writing what seems like everything and doing it well.
Good .gif
“I’m not too fond of Incredible Herc”
*gasp*
David, you refuse to find out who MacGruber is, yet you make a goddamn Debbie Downer reference. What gives, man?
@Gavok: I had no idea Debbie Downer was an SNL thing. Way to be a Harold Harasser!
David brothers tragically put down after a night of making nonstop Andy Sanberg jokes
TWO STUPID DOGS~!!!
*Ahem* Also, after reading the interview with FVL, I’m pretty excited about the new Power Man. Marvel’s “legacy” character kick baffles me sometimes, but this one seems pretty A-OK…
I’m looking forward to this.
(And the idea of someone not liking The Incredible Hercules is just…man, I don’t even know what to do with that. It’s like hearing someone doesn’t like puppies, or nice days, or fun. If it’s okay with you, I’m just going to assume that you’ve decided to distance yourself from Hercules rather than read it and end up feeling bad about how most of the other titles on your pull list aren’t quite as entertaining. Because that’s just easier for me to understand.)
@Trilobite: I’m gonna personally pretend I didn’t hear anything to avoid going insane
““legacy” character”
To be fair, it’s more like “copyright defender” character than anything else. Understandable, if a little sad.
The choice of words there in that quote David’s taken from the NA interview…”kicking ass.” Interesting.
The design is a bit rubbish, though. Why does his neck need treads? And which 2000AD character is going to sue for the rights to those kneepads?
(seriously, I think Johnny Alpha’s going to go sneck-crazy over this)
//oo/\
See, I much preferred his treatment of Nightshade in Modok’s 11. Rocket Racer he wrote as a stuttering villainous Peter Parker (though the last time I saw him, in the early 2000s, he was pretty much a self-confident adult and actually alerted the cops when a pretender stole his equipment and costume). Nightshade was developed beyond ‘That Chick Who Turned Captain America Into A Werewolf That Time”, showing a streak for redemption and a nice sense of camaraderie with the other non-traitor members of the team. Plus, she got to wield half of the Mandarin’s rings, and that’s always a cool sight.
@Trilobite: Tried it, didn’t like it. C’est la guerre.
@Stig: Nightshade was pretty good, yeah, but I’ve always liked Rocket Racer and Hypno Hustler. The portrayal didn’t bother me at all.
@david brothers: C’est la guerre is right :argh:
Also is this why you and Sims never do anything together on CA 😉
Shades and Comanche — did they wear ripped t-shirts or wifebeaters with a big block letter of their initial on them?
–I think I had one of their comics, back near the dawn of time
hza
Any statement that starts with “the greatest Luke Cage villain of all time” and does not end with “Mister Fish” loses all credibility with me.
And now that I’ve visited that interview about the new Power Man, I have to say that I love the costume. Nice nods to Luke’s tiara days, but with modern flair. I’m going to have to check this out – thanks for the heads-up on this, David!
This may be my favorite post of yours ever, simply for the 2 Stupid Dogs .gif.
“I’m not too fond of Incredible Herc…”
I used to think you were cool.