Who IS the Munson?

Good Tuesday to you all, as we take a look today at part one of the Shadow War crossover- Hardware #11!  This book should serve as a lesson to any company, big or small, that wants to do an full line crossover.  First, Milestone started with their covers and they got Walter Simonson to draw all six of the covers for the crossover, hoping his legendary artistic status would bring new readers to the dance.  They made sure each of the covers (as you will see all week) had the title characters of the book in a dynamic pose, and combined it with a logo and slogan for the crossover itself to lure the reader in.  Trust me when I say that this tactic worked, because this crossover was where I started collecting the books in the first place.

Second, they provided information that the potential new reader would find essential to the story in two different ways. They opened each issue with a two to three page look at what each book was about,  as viewed through the eyes of an until now unseen member of the Dakotaverse, a seer named Dharma.   This story device gave the new reader a very brief mission statement of sorts for each comic’s main characters and it let the new reader just dive in and start drinking in the great art and story.  However, for those craving more information they added a little bonus.,  Their version of the old Bullpen Bulletins “The Company Line” took two pages in the book and recapped the contents of EVERY MILESTONE COMIC THUS FAR.   The included key story beats for each issue, including first appearances/ origins of key characters and how they all tied into the Dakotaverse.

Thirdly, and perhaps most important (especially these days) they made sure that the regular creative team for each book did their part of the crossover.  No fill-in artists here folks, just the regular talent you would expect from Milestone on a monthly basis (which would probably explain why a lot of the books leading up to this crossover had fill-in creative teams).   For Hardware, this team is Dwayne “Milestone Mastermind” McDuffie on the words and Denys Cowan on the pictures.  But enough about this stuff, lets get to the story shall we?

This issue opens with the aforementioned Dharma exploring the motivations of Hardware, as he ruminates on the fact that his mission began as one of vengeance but now has become one of justice!  Our hero is where we last left him; fighting for that same justice against a drug dealers henchman who was so callously dispatched by a new entrant into the battle, a woman named Transit.  Transit has “disintegrated” Harm, or so Hardware believes, and she seems to be looking to do the same to him.  Hardware and Transit do battle which ends up showing the true nature of her powers, as she manages to finally lay a hand on Hardware teleporting him through a portal that leads to another dimension.  Hardware is floating in this dimension as he becomes briefly disoriented by his bitter cold and bleak new surroundings,.  He reacts accordingly though, and clears his mind so that he can use his amazing technology as a solution:

Talk about anchoring yourself in reality!  Meanwhile, Transits first “victim” shows up at his destination as Harm tumbles out of a portal and into the headquarters of Transit’s allies. Harm is disoriented as he is introduced to a man calling himself the Headmaster, who informs him that Transit sent him there through “a bordering dimension where distances are much shorter than in our own, and unfortunately temperatures are much lower.”  The Headmaster introduces the rest of the group there (which include Holocaust) as recruits to a cause:

There you have it folks, two organizations: one good, one evil.  Both looking to get the same object before the other one can get it.  Sounds like the basis for a good crossover event huh?  Harm reacts as his character should react to being thrust into this situation, he tells the Headmaster that he has the wrong guy, that he is certainly no hero!  Headmaster tells Harm that he knows precisely what he is, and that if he helps the Star Chamber in their mission then both Harm’s identity and his true motives will stay a secret.  Harm seeing this to be mutually beneficial, agrees to help the Chamber against the Shadow Cabinet.  The reader however is left with a very important question, what kind of a heroic group would go after Holocaust (a man of dubious morality) and reduce itself to blackmail to get someone to work for them?  Is Harm not getting the true story?

We then return to Hardware and Transit, as the young female is looking to get the mechanical hero to the Chambers headquarters before Hardware can use his whip to pull himself out of the portal.  She believes she has the answer as she hopes that teleporting his whip away from his grasp will get him to the destination she chose for him.  As she touches the whip, Hardware sends an electric current through it, shocking Transit into unconsciousness.  This enables Hardware to more easily pull himself through the portal, where he finds not just an unconscious Transit but yet another newcomer:

This metallic angel, informs our hero that she is there representing an organization known as…. yup you guessed it The Shadow Cabinet.  The Cabinet “serves humanity on those occasions where humanity fails to serve itself.” and also gives Hardware the exact opposite song and dance that Headmaster gave Harm.  She tells him they have been observing him for sometime, and that the Cabinet cannot hope to keep the Star Chamber from possessing the terrible weapon “that if used would change the face of the world forever.”  She also lets slip the nature and origin of her powers, she has control over the all metal such that she can turn any metal to melted slag with but a thought.  These powers were the result of her being experimented on years ago, and that many died in these experimentations through the years.  She joined the Cabinet to help them make sure that what she went through would never happen to anyone else, and would giver her life and Hardware’s for that matter to make the world a better place.

Hardware is moved by her words, and vows to help in her quest.  Realizing that if he is to undertake such a mission, he may just need to get his own affairs in order, he tells Iron Butterfly that he will meet her in an hour and flies to the home of the only person who knows of his double life, Barraki Young.  As the issue closes, he makes a startling confession to her:

This is a huge development in the life of Hardware, as Curtis Metcalf has spent 10 issues wrestling with the feelings he have or may not have for Barraki.  McDuffie’s story perfectly sets the stage for the Shadow War by introducing the two groups pivotal to the Shadow War, and what he really accomplishes is getting the reader to wonder just who is truly on the side of the angels in this conflict, The Chamber or the Cabinet?  Cowan’s pencils look great in this issue, and as I have taken issue with them in past columns, this is saying something.  Iron Butterfly, for example, is a picture of both beauty and terror with her metallic armor and scar over one eye offsetting her obvious attractive features. 

Part one of this ambitious crossover ends with some of the pieces of the chess game making some opening moves, and raising some questions as to their true motives.  As the next issue information indicates on the last page, The Shadow War Continues in Icon #9!, which is where we will pick up on Wednesday so join me then for the next chapter in Milestone history!

Posted on October 2nd, 2007 by Munson
Filed under: Milestone Mondays