The Unstoppable Juggernaut faces off with one of his oldest rivals, the Immortal Hulk, in Juggernaut #2 from Fabian Nicieza, Ron Garney, Matt Milla, and Joe Sabino!
Tony Thornley: TONY SMASH. TONY ANGRY! YOU NOT LIKE TONY WHEN HE’S ANGRY!
Justin Partridge: OH NO IT’S THE BIG GUY! But bits aside, this issue…like…ruled? And showed a level of introspection and heart that a lot of the “monsters” throughout comics rarely get outside of prestige miniseries and arcs? I was truly taken by it. In a way I definitely wasn’t with the opener.
But since we have a head of steam going, let’s just roll on through it.
CAIN SMASH!
TT: Oh wow did this issue ever get brutal. So the issue just starts with a slobberknocker of a right hook. I did not realize how much I missed Garney drawing the Hulk (and I read only a couple issues of his Hulk run). Seriously, this spread was incredible, and it was just two goliaths punching each other!
JP: ABSO-bloody-LUTELY. After a rather striking “previously on” page, containing a tight bit of copy about both Cain and the Immortal Hulk (encased in a searing neon green color scheme) [Ed. note: also using the font “Impact”, you know, the one from memes], Nicieza, Garney, Milla, and Sabino drop us right in the middle of the teased fight between Juggernaut and the Immortal Hulk AKA the Devil Hulk (the main alter of the new “system” of Hulks that has emerged from the depths of Al Ewing’s twizted mind).
But just beyond how out and out COOL this all is (not to mention kinda cheeky, played up further by the issue’s title “How Green Is My Valley” and the “previously on” copy), I think this opening and the subsequent flashbacks to before this moment speak to a full on style and point of view the series seems to be developing. Tony, please talk a bit more about these said flashbacks.
TT: I really thought the flashback after the splash page was interesting. As D-Cell makes her pitch to Cain for beating up the Hulk from her hospital room, someone is watching…
It looks like it’s Cain’s bosses from Damage Control. Is D-Cell working for Damage Control, or did they install hidden cameras to keep an eye on her while she recovers? I’m torn on which I think is more likely. What do you think?
JP: I think it may be a bit of both! We get a sense that, while the operation with D-Cell was largely a failure, they still have Cain somewhat on the hook for more jobs. Which D-Cell then somewhat takes advantage of, playing up her injuries slightly to allow her to tag along, thus allowing her more blessed content documenting their showdown with the Devil Hulk.
I have to say, D-Cell is very quickly growing on me, both as a fun foil for Cain (who is Not A Mutant, as we are explicitly reminded in this issue, but more on that later) and a co-lead of this book. Which AGAIN, really finds itself here in the second issue.
It’s funny, this whole issue is sold as a “fight issue” and largely it is, with Nicieza and the art team pinging back and forth from the action in the “now” during the fight and then weeks and months before in flashbacks. But the texture AROUND that fight is so freaking engaging and fun to read while also being genuinely effective as character work, both for Cain and D-Cell. I was very impressed with it all.
TT: Oh exactly. The only characters in this book that AREN’T engaging are the Damage Control goons and after this issue I feel like that’s a matter of giving them time. I really don’t LIKE D-Cell here, but she’s definitely intended to evoke that sort of reaction to her. This is not a pleasant human being, and I’m glad she’s had two very different reactions from the two of us. She’s brash, she’s obnoxious, she’s self-absorbed, and I like every one of those things about her. I just don’t like her as a person.
She’s kind of a reaction to influencer culture, I think. Here’s this social media and technology savvy young woman, but she’s doing these things at the detriment of those around her. She doesn’t even really gets to know Cain before she drives him into this, ending up with the realization that there’s more to her meal ticket than she thought, and she might have dived into this adventure too soon. She’s like the Paul brothers… except not as awful.
Nicieza immediately gets the Devil Hulk too. This isn’t the Hulk of old, and he leans into that. It’s not quite on the level of Ewing’s work with him, but it doesn’t need to be. This just needs to be the set-up for the more emotional confrontation to come. But holy cow, does it ever look great.
JP: Yeah, big time. The double edged sword with something as good as Immortal Hulk is, is that now every time the Hulk pops up in a book, he HAS to be a big deal. Even more so than he already was in regards to when he pops in stuff like the Fantastic Four or the Avengers. Complicating the matter is now the super unique tone and voice the Hulk now has thanks to Immortal and the “systems” Ewing has set up.
But I think Nicieza kinda nails it. Both in the plotting and voice of this issue. The concept of having to capture the Hulk for a bunch of normal people to yell at him about how he has directly affected them is very good. As is the terse, slightly haughty way that Nicieza delivers Devil Hulk dialogue, which he THEN uses to turn around on Cain, who is also a pretty established “monster” of the 616 and he doesn’t even have the luxury of blaming it on another persona or alternate personality.
As the Hulk points out, he was out of control. Cain was always IN control. During his tenure with the Brotherhood AND as an independent villainous contractor. It is heavy stuff for sure, but Nicieza and the art team really deliver it deftly. It was a wonder to read.
Guilt
TT: WOW. After that brawl of a fight, the scene that followed… just WOW. This is good writing. D-Cell mentioned in that early flashback that she had a connection to a Hulk Trauma Support Group. I did not expect what we got here.
JP: ABSOLUTELY! So, as we see in the issue, the fight itself was really just a set up for Damage Control to CAPTURE the Hulk momentarily and set him up in the town hall of a neutral location, so that the aforementioned Trauma Support Group can allow him to “feel their anger”. Meaning they get to talk about their stories and how he had directly impacted their lives while Cain, D-Cell, and Damage Control keep watch over the proceedings.
AGAIN, just such a SUPER cool and fun idea for a random one-off superhero comic AND a prime breeding ground for all sorts of amazing character beats! Like the ones the team starts dealing out one by one! I feel like, in our opening column, I was a bit down on this book. If not down, maybe a bit dismissive and “it’s fine” about the whole deal.
I am happy to say this second issue, staring with the tremendous fight sequence and the unexpectedly hard turn it takes into character building (using the Hulk as a weird plot whetstone to which to hone the narrative against), has shaken me fully from my apathy about this particular book while also charming the fuckin’ socks right off of me.
TT: Agreed. This wastes no time in reminding us that Cain is not a good person. I kind of like that this is almost an anti-redemption tale. Yes, Cain is trying to make good, but all he’s doing to get there is working a decent 9-to-5 and going after a monster that he was told is bad. He’s not doing any of the real work to redeem himself. Because after everyone unloads on the Hulk, he decides he’s done, breaks free and points out everything they said about him?
Well, it can all be said about the Juggernaut.
And that lands like a ton of bricks on Cain Marko’s shoulders. It works SO WELL too. It is a gut punch to end gut punches. Poor Cain is floored, and rightfully so.
JP: ABSOLUTELY. And all of this just speaks to the convalescing point of view and direction that’s emerged in this second issue.
The first issue was a lot of finely rendered shoe leather about how Cain has armor again and this current occupation. But I feel like this issue is the real display of the kind of emotions and loneliness Nicieza and the art team really want to play around with. Tempered with a hefty dose of real deal character moments. It’s all pretty tremendous.
Fetch Quest
TT: So our flashbacks go back to Cain’s return to Earth… and it’s not what I expected to happen. The last flashback in #1 showed Cain traveling through a crossroads demon. I thought he was headed straight to Cyttorak, not back to Earth. But here we see a barely alive Cain in the hospital, powerless and having a heart to heart with Xavier.
JP: So this stuff is VERY interesting to me. As this is our first real and explicit contact with an Xavier “family member” post-DOX. Beyond that, there is also the added wrinkle of Charles expressly telling Cain he is NOT welcome on Krakoa, what with the whole “not a mutant” thing despite being largely counted as an X-character pretty much from his creation up until NOW.
TT: I thought this was REALLY interesting, because we know that some humans are allowed- Brain Braddock and Northstar’s husband Kyle have both been seen on Krakoa- but Charles explicitly telling Cain “NO” is sort of expected and sort of not. I’m really curious if this will have ramifications down the road. Is it just Cain he’s saying no to?
JP: The real “meat” of this scene is obviously in the exchange between Charles and Cain. Nicieza handles this very matter-of-factly and somewhat coldly on Charles’ part, but you also understand his pragmatism in the decision. Though it’s heartbreaking, Krakoa is ONLY for mutants and though mutants have made up the majority of his found families and team-affiliations for years (hell, he was even ON an Uncanny team under the pen of Chuck Austen), Cain Marko is NOT a Mutant and therefore, has no place on Krakoa.
We are also given the sense that this was the push he so needed in order to reseek out Cyttorak and his blessed daemonic armor, maybe in a way to “prove” himself worthy of the birthright of Krakoa or maybe just to reclaim his powers on his OWN terms? But either way, it’s another dark bolt of emotions for this second issue. One that I am very much here for and eager to see it fleshed out a bit more.
TT: Which is what we see in the last flashback scene of the issue, as Cain seeks out Cyttorak, in a set of spooky catacombs full of arcane carvings! I think this plotline is turning out to be more interesting than I expected!
X-Traneous Thoughts
- Best line of dialogue of the issue: “Ow.”
- Similarly awesome is the return of the effect D-Cell has on lettering balloons in the Devil Hulk’s W-H-A-T?! That effect is really, really freaking cool. Major props to Sabino there!
- Black Tom Watch: Still 0.
- But that also raises another good question. Do any of Cain’s other former mutant teammates know that he’s back? Did Charles make anyone aware of his return and if so, does anyone care? It would be very interesting to see another point of view on Cain’s exploits from a Krakoan perspective. Maybe Pixie subscribes to D-Cell’s channel or something.
Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.
