Friday, September 11, 2015

Quake: SHIELD 50th Anniversary #1

   It's interesting to watch the impact the movies and TV shows based on Marvel Comics have on the actual comic books.

   Some of the film and TV versions are pretty close to the original (Iron Man and Captain America, for example), so no real tweaking is necessary.

   But others have little in common, with perhaps the biggest "offender" being the characters depicted in the Agents of SHIELD TV show.

   Mockingbird is very different from the TV character, and so is Quake (Daisy Johnson) - who is nothing like the character Skye in the show.

   But to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the creation of SHIELD, Marvel's releasing a series of one-shots starring different characters, so here we get a closer look at the comic book version of Quake.

   It's a pretty solid comic, depicting a past event where Quake actually worked with the Avengers. Here she's depicted as unsure of herself, not feeling prepared to work with the top-tier of superheroes - and since most of them are depicted herein as jerks or monsters, she has good reason to feel that way.

   But at least she gets a chance to have some heroic - and human - moments.

   But she really is nothing like the TV character. This Quake has usually been depicted as extremely capable and a natural leader, unlike the rookie superhero (and somewhat reluctant SHIELD agent) presented on TV.

   This is a pretty solid adventure, with good art and a strong story - we can even forgive the badly-placed ad page that disrupts the layout for one splash page.

   Presumably, they're not going to try to rewrite this Daisy's somewhat-sketchy past to line it up with the TV show. It's just as well - there's plenty of room for both, and no need to tie one or the other character up in knots to try to make sense of it.

Grade: B+

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