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The Order
tl;dr A promising new series written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Barry Kitson.
Character Designs/DescriptionsAfter the devastating events of Civil War, a new super hero team has been formed by Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) in accordance with his Fifty-State Initiative. Rising superstar writer Matt Fraction and acclaimed artist Barry Kitson introduce THE ORDER; the premier team of Director Stark’s post-war agenda.
Based in Los Angeles, California’s THE ORDER is comprised of a carefully selected group of actors, athletes, and models imbued with incredible powers to become the First Super Hero Team of Tomorrow™. Don’t let the glamorous title fool you, THE ORDER will have to face a demanding boss in Stark and the challenge of being scrutinized celebrities while fending off villains who don’t realize that in Hollywood, the good guys always win!
Even if they manage to survive, there’s a catch: mandatory retirement after one year. Can these young super heroes wield such tremendous powers under even more tremendous pressure? And just what is Tony Stark’s mysterious agenda? Meet the men and women of THE ORDER — they’ve got a year to save the world and you better not get in their way!
So this is Mulholland. Her parents are famous, but dead, rock stars, and she spent a good part of her adolescence in foster homes and on the streets and beaches of L.A. It gives her a unique link to the city itself that that big-ass hammer of hers helps to unlock. For her queen-of-the-trash-heap look, we referred to Taiyo Matsumoto's BLACK AND WHITE. (Also? her placeholder name was the embarrassing URBANE, hence the name of the file. as this was my first superhero book, certain finer points-- names, storylines, powers, etc-- tended to go through a lot of workshopping. THIS IS NO WAY TO RUN A RAILROAD.)
This is our field leader Henry Hellrung, or ANTHEM. We wanted the costumes to reflect the armor fashion of pro motocross athletes, but still have the elegant lines of a traditional superhero costume. Also you can see the remnants of the Champions "C" on his chest. Switching over to an O for "The Order" won't be too difficult-- we wanted to work the logo in as a design motif. Trying to nail his look, too-- classic Hollywood face. Cary Grant, you know? The whole team has an air of fabulousness to them, men and women alike.
Yay Becky! This girl is a teen pop idol to millions of girls, and has the abilities to shift her shape into whatever she wants. I love that Barry draws her as this wide-eyed and smiling California blonde but then she warps into some of the most weirdly hideous comic book monsters you've ever seen. I tend to write her with a southern drawl, so in my head she's a Carolina blonde that went west and not a native valley girl. On the surface she's a robo-Britney-bot bimbo but, when you've got a character whose whole gimmick is to manipulate her surface, who can say what's really going on underneath? We call her Aralune.
The one character whose name has always been in place and will always be in place-- "Calamity" James Wa was a college baseball sensation that lost his legs below the knees. That's not what makes him a hero, though-- after his injuries, he became an engineer that designed prosthetic lower-legs based on the design of a cheetah's, and gave extreme mobility back to thousands of amputees that though they'd never run again. He's the team speeder, with that lean runner's body and, hopefully, all the good jokes. I love speedster characters, and always wanted to write one. I think there's something fun, visually and narratively, about that power set. The stuff you can get away with... there's a reason why John Broome and Gardner Fox wrote such great FLASH comics.
Magdalena Marie is called Veda, although for like two minutes she was Madre and then I thought that, hey, maybe calling the Hispanic woman whose powers involve her birthing golems out of organic material all around her "Madre" is a little too on the nose. So Veda it is-- a kind of fabulous diva that's done loads of global charity work AND is like the biggest action star in the world. Since it's the California team, and they're L.A.-based-- at least at first-- we wanted everyone to have an "aspirational" look to them. That's the word ad agencies use to describe actors and actresses that look waaaay better than you and me ever could, but still aren't supermodels. "Aspirational." I hate advertising.
SolicitsYay Supernaut! Playing around with the scale here, too. Supernaut's the giant robot guy on the team, obviously, piloted by a decorated War vet that became a paraplegic in a violent protest. AND he loves Black Sabbath, so it's all good. We wanted to infuse the flavor of some Japanese mecha design, just to get away from both the guy-dipped-in-metal school of Iron Man and the guy-in-box design of... oh, hell, what was his name. Red Rocket? Whatever. Boxy was bad. And it's fun to see Barry play around with a character like this.
THE CHAMPIONS #1
Written by MATT FRACTION
Pencils and Cover by BARRY KITSON
Variant Cover by STEVE MCNIVEN
THE CHAMPIONS introduces the all-new and Los Angeles-based crown jewel in Tony Stark’s FIFTY-STATE INITIATIVE. A team of Stark-branded and created super heroes, these young actors, athletes and models are infused with tremendous powers and even more tremendous fame, reborn as the First Super Hero Team of Tomorrow™ -- THE CHAMPIONS. Here the same ol'-same ol' means hooking up at the Standard, drinks at SkyBar and a death-duel on Sunset Blvd. against some villain too stupid to realize that, in Hollywood, the good guys always win. The catch: you can be fired at any point along the way. And every inch of your life will be subjected to intense public scrutiny. And if you survive all that for a whole year, you'll face mandatory retirement. And there's no guarantee you'll live to see that retirement. If you had one year to save the world, what would you do?
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99
THE ORDER #2
Written by MATT FRACTION
Pencils and Cover by BARRY KITSON
A team of long-dormant Soviet super-weapons is awake, angry and heading straight at the heart of Los Angeles ready to finish World War III! The front line of defense is a team that’s been together since just before nine this morning! The queen of PR starts her spin! A dead body hides more than just a murder mystery! AND AND AND -- a super-sex tape! What on earth could justify the use of that many exclamation points? Surely, it could only be the second sensational issue of the yet to be named new ongoing series written by Matt Fraction (IMMORTAL IRON FIST and PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL) and with art by the amazing Barry Kitson
(Legion of Super-Heroes, JLA: Year One).
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99
THE ORDER #3
Written by MATT FRACTION
Pencils & Cover by BARRY KITSON
You are a member of the Order. You've been given extraordinary powers and a mandate to save the world. You've got one year. What do you do? "Calamity" James Wa was a baseball player with his whole future bright and perfect in front of him, when a drunk driver took it all away. What does HE do with extraordinary powers and a mandate to save the world? He goes looking for a little payback. Also: They're half zombie! Half hobo! ALL TERROR! The ZOBOS run roughshod on Rodeo Drive! Celebutantes and debutards beware–Botox is like ketchup to these flesh-eating, homeless weirdos, and they find your waxed and tanned skin DELICIOUS! Somebody call THE ORDER!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99
tl;dr A promising new series written by Matt Fraction and drawn by Barry Kitson.
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Reading the character descriptions only makes more excited
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Like girl with hammer, though.
Goddammit monies, why must you leave my hands so quickly.
FFBE: 838,975,107
Dokkan: 1668363315
I will be waiting for your impressions before I buy.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
What's an anime?
It's really not the same when the girl isn't really that little and it's a sledgehammer that'll probably hurt people for real.
same thoughts here. im not really impressed. i like the idea of the 1 year retirement, but the other stuff ive seen too much of lately.
His visual style is already the most boring for the group, hopefully his powerset doesn't elicit the same reaction.
FFBE: 838,975,107
Dokkan: 1668363315
Although the second issue's cover seems like he'll have energy/sound/telekenetic powers.
The ladies faces have that shocked/pornstar "OH" look going on...
Maybe I just have a dirty,dirty mind.
Iron Fist? Matt. Punisher War Journal? Matt. Cassanova? Matt.
Endowing your robot zombies with fully functional penises shows an astonishing lack of foresight on the part of any mad inventor.
I'm also strangely annoyed by big hammer girl's lack of a uniform.
I mean, I'm all for uncostumed heroes. But when everyone else on the team has one...
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
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That's kind of what X-Force/X-Statix was.
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Have you read anything by Matt Fraction before?
Do it now, because life is short!
i actually don't like cassanova much. i picked up the first two or three issues and thought it was mostly boring
edit- wait, last of the independents fucking kicked ass too. i'm pretty sure there's more behind him than just war journal and cassanova, i just can't remember what
The Initiative is written by a talented guy in Slott.
The Losers... not so much.
because if you are, you're all getting banned
That's their name, right?
I typed while reading Sax's post. So clearly its his mistake.
Lemme see, there was Rex Mantooth: Kung Fu Gorilla, The Five Fists of Science, and that 30 Days of Night spinoff about Juarez. And some columns for CBR.
If the reason you're not going to pick up a comic by a proven great writer is because one of the characters "looks too anime-y" despite the fact that they don't look anime-y at all then you probably deserve to miss out.
Andy Diggle's The Losers could be made into the best videogame ever.
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