To me, Mark Gruenwald should be hailed as one of the great Cap writers, alongside Mark Waid and Ed Brubaker. His run (alongside the MCU movies), made Cap one of my favorite characters. Gruenwald's years with the comic was a time that I don't think is talked about very much. It's a shame, as I think it's a great run for the First Avenger. So, I thought I'd highlight some of it a bit. Also, I wanted to talk about a storyline that I consider rather underrated: The Bloodstone Hunt. So with that, let's look at Captain America #357!
This cover is really neat Kieron Dwyer piece. You got Baron Zemo holding up a piece of a skeleton in triumph, and his three lackeys looking on in shock, like they just realized that Zemo has gone crazy. I also like how the Captain America masthead is incorporated into the logo for the storyline. Also, in the corer, there appeared to be a deaged Captain America cowering from some hands. I also have to give love to the corner logo. You got a masked woman staring at Cap adoringly with a broken heart above her. I find it very amusing when comics have fun with cover logos, as I said with my reviews of The' Nam #52 and #53.
"The Bloodstone Hunt: Prologue"
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciler: Kieron Dwyer
Inker: Al Milgrom
Colorist: Gregory Wright
Letterer: Jack Morelli
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco
The story begins with a prologue. The time: Nighttime. The place? The American Museum of Natural History in New York City. A trio of men have broken into the museum, in search of something. They find their quarry in a crate. They grab the crate and get ready to leave, but a night watchman discovers them. Who are these three men?
Meet Batroc's Brigade! From left to right: Machete (Ferdinand Lopez), Batroc the Leaper, and Zaran. Zaran and Machete injure the night watchman with their blades, but Batroc refuses to let them finish him off. Machete reminds Batroc that the watchman will be able to identify them. He'll be able to identify you, Machete. Zaran and Batroc wear masks. Besides, Batroc loves the spotlight.
The three mercs load the crate into a waiting truck, who has a mysterious person riding on top of it. The truck heads to a funeral home in uptown New York City. The three mercenaries take the crate to Baron Helmut Zemo, who demands it be opened. What's in the crate?
The skeletal remains of the legendary immortal monster hunter and adventurer Ulysses Bloodstone. First appearing in Marvel Presents #1 (October 1975), Bloodstone was created by Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, and John Warner. He was a short-lived character, being killed off not very long after he was created. He's more known these days for being the father of Elsa and Cullen Bloodstone. Zemo also has another man in his hire.
Meet Tristram Micawber, psychic detective. Basically, he has psychic powers and uses them to solve crimes. I can imagine in the Marvel Universe, that's a legit career path for certain people. Micawber has the power of psychometry. He touches something, and he can psychically learn about it. In the real world, there's no scientific evidence of psychometry existing. But in the Marvel Universe...it can be a legit superpower. Just ask Longshot of the X-Men.
This is a clever way to recap who Ulysses Bloodstone was as well as recap the few adventures the comics revealed at the time. 20,000 years ago, Bloodstone was a caveman. A caveman with a particular talent for hunting wooly mammoths. One night, a meteorite fell from the sky and crashed into the Earth. The future Bloodstone investigated and discovered the meteorite was actually a spaceship.
The alien occupant had a large red gemstone, the future namesake of the caveman. The alien and the caveman fought, the fight resulting in the gem shattering. The explosion killed the caveman's tribe, but Bloodstone himself survived. A piece of the gem got embedded in his sternum. Over time, the caveman would discover the gem in his chest would grant him superhuman physical abilities, certain psychic abilities...and would make him...immortal. Cue the Queen!
Over the centuries, Ulysses Bloodstone would live many lives, slaying many monsters. A few years before the events of this comic, occurred the events of Rampaging Hulk #8 (April 1978). Bloodstone was captured by a group known only as the Conspiracy. Not much of a name, I know. An insane surgeon who was part of the group removed the stone from the monster hunter's chest. This would result in the creation of a crystal monster. Bloodstone would stop the monster, but then collapsed and died of extreme old age.
After the events of that story, the police took his remains into custody and turned them over to the museum. After all, Bloodstone was an example of early man. As for the gem pieces...they vanished to the four corners of the Earth. Micawber believes he can find them. As such, Baron Zemo offers the three mercenaries a choice, either each accept $10,000 for the skeleton retrieval...or get $100,000 for every piece of the Bloodstone that they help him recover. Being mercenaries, they go for the option that'll net them the most cold hard cash.
Zaran notices someone watching them, and tosses a pair of daggers at them.
Say hello to Rachel Leighton, aka Diamondback. At the time, she had a bit of a thing for Captain America, and would help him out on adventures. Leighton tries to flee him, but is ambushed by Batroc the Leaper. Micawber reveals with his psychometric powers that she had followed them, likely to steal the Bloodstone shards from them, likely to give to the other members of the Serpent Society.
There is something Zemo has to do before they deal with Diamondback. Using Machete's namesake weapon, he removes a part of Ulysses Bloodstone's ribcage, where his chest stone was in life. Micawber is able to use the bone as a divining rod to find five Bloodstone fragments, presumably the parts of the bloodstone in his chest.
With that, there's still Rachel Leighton to get rid of. They dump her in the box with the rest of Ulysses Bloodstone's remains, nail the box shut, and dump it into a pit.
This story is pretty good. It's basically a bit of setup, but I enjoyed it. I do have to admit something, though. Like with my review of Captain America #400, this was only part of the comic. When I look at comics for this blog, more often than not, I use trades. And sometimes, trades do not collect complete issues. The trade I used was the 2010 trade paperback Captain America: The Bloodstone Hunt. It only collected the story that was relevant to the storyline. I get why they did that, but a part of me is annoyed by it a little bit. The main story focused on Captain America battling a group called the Sisters of Sin. I would have liked it to be included for the sake of completeness.
As such, I don't have a lot to say. This is a good setup, though. I do like that we get a recap of who Ulysses Bloodstone was, as he likely even back then was not a well-known character, and it sets up his posthumous importance to this story. I wish I could have also reviewed the main story. But I did enjoy what I had to work with. It set up an exciting adventure, and we got a little bit of action.
I highly recommend tracking down the trade that collects this story. Bloodstone Hunt is a great story that has an old-school adventure vibe to it. If you like superheroes and Indiana Jones, this storyline is for you. Maybe I will look at the next issue in the future. You HAVE to read this storyline! It is criminally underrated in my opinion.
Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, spread it around! And I'm hoping to find a new way for all of you to provide further support for this blog in the future. I want to look at the next issue of this storyline in the future, but first, we have some monthly business in Battleworld to return to. So join me next time when the Secret Wars rage on...
No comments:
Post a Comment