Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "last-hero-standing"

Last Hero Standing Tpb by Tom DeFalco

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Marvel's tradition of big universe-wide team up stories dates back to Secret Wars and finally this tradition comes to the MC2 Universe when heroes start disappearing. (Note this began in Spider-girl #86 and #87 which have yet to be collected with the disappearance of Wolverine and a Lady Hawk.) The situation escalates as Peter Parker is taken along with the Thing. Whose behind it.

Spider-girl's Avenger status is activated as an aging Captain America leads the team. The Captain is aging and at last, starting to lose a step, and he's also unsure of the new heroes having been absent from the MC2 reality fighting alongside the sun of Thunderstrike in another dimension. Doubts are cast aside as he leads one last mission and this is a big one as they face an old malevolent foe.

I'm not a usual fan of the giant battles as they're usually just an excuse for copious amounts of gratuitous violence. This one is too, but it's different. The plot of the story goes to the heart of what it means to be a hero. It's about inter-generational relations and how heroes of the MC2 Universe relate to those who blazed the trail before them. Plus, the results do matter and the book doesn't just represent a continuation of the status quo.

Without giving it away, the end is moving and well-done. More than One well-known Marvel character takes an apparent permanent exit. In addition, at five issues in length, the story is far tighter than your average big Marvel epic, which means it avoid the bloating that makes so many of them not even worth reading.

It was a little weird when they group ended up in Asgard and Thor welcomed the explorters to his "humble kingdom." (Really?) But these are minor points. It's a worthwhile story otherwise.



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