Book of Doom:
War of Kings #1

First off, many apologies for the tardiness of this week’s Book of Doom. I had in-laws in town this weekend and completely spaced it until I was already in bed last night.

So as for War of Kings #1, we’ve got the Starjammers on Hala for the wedding of Crystal and Ronan. For some reason, this wedding was a surprise to me. I don’t remember if I misread something from the preview issue that came out not long ago or maybe forgot reading something else, but I thought there had been a mention of them once being engaged, but that it had been called off. Maybe it had just been put off. No matter, because it didn’t take long to realize that what I had thought was either wrong or irrelevant, for there was a couple to be wed (and that big softie Ronan got his heart broken too).

Back in Shi’ar land, Vulcan is planning to wipe out the Kree because he wants to. Thankfully for the Shi’ar, the Kree have all of their defenses coordinated from a single tower easily infiltrated by a shape-shifter, so that when said shape-shifter suicide-bombs the tower, the defenses are down and the Shi’ar can invade. That seemed a little too easy to me.

I can think of absolutely zero examples, but for some reason the concept of “Tragedy at a wedding” seems like a cliche. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but if it is, it makes good sense. You increase the sense of tragedy, because the victims are there to celebrate love but fall by war. You also clearly establish who the bad guys are, by pointing out these sneaky Shi’ar scumbags would attack people who are in no position to fight back. (Now that I think about it, recalling Abnett & Lanning’s previous efforts at comparing the Skrull invasion to “jihad,” maybe wedding attacks seem familiar because of attacks in real life.)

This issue leaves us with a bloody wedding scene filled with casualties and Medusa declaring the Shi’ar “shall pay in blood.” So now we have two alien races the Inhumans have declared war on. Given the preview issue was the Inhumans declaring war on the Skrulls, I’m a little puzzled as to why that was a one-shot and this was issue #1. I think it would’ve been fine to have that be issue #1 and this be issue #2. Not that any of that really matters. As far as stages being set, this still looks like a good one.

Here’s what Doomsday Spa thought about the issue:
At the old Doomsday Spa, I found myself fairly unfamiliar with the cosmic events occurring in the Marvel Universe. With the exception of Secret Invasion, Planet Hulk, and World War Hulk, I was basically in the dark. Since the “Book of Doom” this week was War of Kings, I scrambled to at least get the storylines and basic plot of the Annihilation and Annihilation: Conquest down so I could try and get up to speed on events and general information for this newest cosmic collision.

So the premise of War of Kings is the culmination of several different events and plots involving the Inhumans, the Kree, the Shi’Ar, the Starjammers, and the Summer’s long lost brother, Vulcan. Get all that? Me either, so bare with me.

We begin with the preparation of a cosmic wedding of the Inhuman’s Crystal and Ronan the Accuser. It’s clear that this is not a wedding of love, but one of royal duty. As most comic book weddings go, it is typical and a little bit un-original, as enemy forces appear and ruin ceremony and the wedding cake. The ultimate result is the bride crying, and swearing vengeance on her enemies and the wedding coordinator who charged two times the original quoted price. On top of this, Crystal’s father missed the first dance with the bride and didn’t witness the bouquet toss.

Actually, the action for this issue was intense! A little bit of blood, a few lives lost, a defeated Black Bolt, and a pissed off bride with tussled up hair. There wasn’t a lot of quiet moments in this book, and as a new reader, I was ok with this. The action pulled me in and makes me want to know what happened to set these events in motion?

Ok, I admit, I was overwhelmed with fear that this story would alienate me as someone who was new to Marvel Cosmic. I’m pleased to say, that was not the case. I didn’t need to know much about previous events at all. I did find the concept of how the Starjammers came to attend the wedding as very amusing. Surprisingly, I found a lot of this book fairly accessible for me. I may have been more entertained and onboard if I had read the entire Annihilation set up and following books, but I didn’t feel like it was a requirement.

The best part of this book for me easily was the artwork of Paul Pelletier. I’ve not seen his drawn pages since his days of Green Lantern and Superboy and the Ravers. I must say, he’s evolved into an awesome artistic voice. The full page with Crystal in her wedding dress is pin-up worthy. I hope Paul goes onto a regular title after this. I’d collect this book for the art alone.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I feel compelled to pick up the next few issues, in hopes that this will make more sense to me, but I can’t wait to see what happens for round 2. I also felt like something big and exciting was about to occur. But it occurs to me that I’m like someone who missed half a season of Lost. If you’ve been up to speed, and have the complete collection, I’ll bet this book rocks!

And to wrap up, here is Doom Fritter:
War of Kings, on its own, is part of the mega-gut-buster epic crossover-hangover that Marvel has been afflicting itself with ever since its peak in Civil War, and its start in House of M years before that. Truly, this company needs an intervention by now; the crossover corpse is getting a bit rotten, and the upcoming summer sun is only going to make things smell a whole lot worse.

That said, the War of Kings one-shot was a reasonably good kick-off, and thank god it’s only a one-shot at that. The Guardians of the Galaxy team took on the creative duties, and they’re pretty solid to begin with. I’m a little behind in that book at the moment, so I’m not sure how this will affect that series, but having the team work on Kings helps to give it an edge. They’re not at their peak, no, but Pelletier’s reputation as a solid artist is not in question here.

The story, about the vengeance of The Inhumans in the aftermath of Secret Invasion, was decent. The build-up to Black Bolt’s command to obliterate the fleeing skrull armada was actually pretty intense. Crystal, one of the Inumhans’ number and the lens through which the story was told, had the most even-handed temperament amongst the crew, but still had a lot of inner turmoil that betrayed her thoughts. She wants the Inhumans to reach out and unite with other races, but when they finally do pack up and move, it is to destroy instead. “We are all we have. Always moving on to seek the next shadow. Not so much nomads as perpetual exiles. I believe Black Bolt is going to take us of of the shadows. And the thought terrifies me.”

I don’t know too much about Marvel’s sci-fi series and characters, but I know enough to know that the obliteration of the skrulls and the climax with Ronan the Accuser are kinda big deals—kinda—so it looks like War of Kings will have some lasting, if fairly minor, impact.

So the art is decent, and the story is okay. As far as tie-ins go, I’ll call that a success. If you’re at all interested in keeping up with Kings, and putting Marvel under the tires of the crossover van yet again, you’ll probably at least break even with this issue.