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Marvel’s The Order

posted by Matt Knicl at 8:00 pm.

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Not What The Doctor Ordered.

Media Credit:
Photo Courtesy of
www.marvel.com

Marvel’s new 12-issue maxi-series The Order by Matt Fraction (The Immortal Iron Fist, Punisher War Journal) represents several things that are wrong with comics today.

Part of the post-Civil War Initiative, The Order focuses on California’s super hero team. The purpose of the Initiative was to station one super team of registered super humans in each of the 50 states.

The team was originally supposed to be modeled after the short-lived Champions series of the 70’s. A west coast version of the Avengers, the team was made up of Hercules, Ghost Rider, Black Widow, X-Men Ice Man and Angel. But, due to copyright issues, the Champions name was under claim by Heroic Publishing, so the team was changed to The Order.

The team is made up of twelve individuals with super powers who will be on the team for one year and then have their powers deactivated.

The series represents the worst trends in modern day comics, and DC and Marvel fall into this trap.

1) Too Many Characters!
This team is made up of 12 heroes, and other than Pepper Potts and Iron Man, all of these characters are new. This means 10 civilian identities and hero monikers to memorize. Not only that, but several characters introduced in the first issue are quickly replaced.
Each issue focuses on a character’s past in an interview/flashback format, but still, there is a lot going on. I understand that I am making a contract with the writer when I read a comic book to pay attention to his little universe when I read the title, but I get 15-20 comics a week. Most comic readers do too. This is a team book, but these are generated characters.
When the X-Men as we know them today were formed, the team was made up of already existing characters from other Marvel titles. They had a past. Not these characters - they’re just names on a page.


Media Credit:
Photo Courtesy of
www.marvel.com

2) Instant Heroes: Just Add Water
The majority of The Order’s heroes were given their powers. A giant suit or a scientific process makes the heroes these days. Instead of fate, or luck, or even an origin story, writers these days manufacture powers in characters due to technology.
This is like Lex Luthor’s Everyman Project in 52. Heroes are no longer born, they’re made. Any character can be made into a hero with a pseudo-scientific write off. If I lived in the Marvel Universe, the government could inject me with nanites and I’d have super strength and the ability to fly.
With so many heroes created hastily, the classic heroes like Spider-man or Daredevil are lost in a distilled continuity of false heroes.
In The Order #4 the team tries to figure out who is attacking them with zombies. Pepper Potts lists some of the possible villians, like M.O.D.O.K., Doctor Doom, Red Skull, and Apocalypse.
Really?
Why would the most powerful forces of evil in the Marvel Universe even care about attacking these random, new faces?

3) Who Do You Call? S.H.I.E.L.D.!
Why even bother with heroes? The folks at the international organization S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage and Logistics Directorate) have enough jet-packs and technology that each footman is as equipped as a super hero. In fact, The Order calls upon the group for back up.
And don’t get me started on Marvel’s portrayal of an international U.N. chartered group that is supposed to be all over the world, yet for some reason has become the U.S. military - recruiting American heroes with the American Super Human Registration Act.

I have to say, for me, the only saving grace about the series is how Iron man, though showing up in passing, is characterized as a slipping alcoholic. The book tells us about Tony Stark’s character in a way other series might not.

But, when the waiter brings me this Order, I’ll ask them to take it back.

Matt Knicl: My name is Matt Knicl. I'm a U of I alumn and one of those unemployed English majors Garrison Keillor likes to make fun of. I've been reading comics since high school and one day I would like to write them. My goal is to expose readers to what is out there in the world of comics and using my English powers, show what is worth reading or not. I can be reached at buzz.comics@gmail.com.