Damage Control #4: The Incident of the Hamster in New Jersey

If you’re interested in reading a frothy melange of madness and continuity deep cuts, this is the story for you. In this issue, on again, off again pseudovillain Eugene Strausser tries and fails to woo our luckless protagonist to the dark side with a series of horrible (already taken) codenames and interviews with some of the best (and best-forgotten) baddies the Marvel universe has to offer. Everyone from Loki to Red Hood right down to the Wrecking Crew shows up for a sight gags or a sentence, and all of it is glorious.

The best thing about this series is that it lovingly remembers every single golden age quirk, every sliver of silver age insanity, and uses it to highlight how stupid it all is once you take it out of context. Marvel stories are great because of the emotional connection that readers form with the characters. If you focus solely on the Macguffins, what you’re left with is comedy.

This series pulls every single fandom quibble out of the shadows and mocks it soundly. From the evil-people-only ‘Who’d Win In A Fight’ club (where Juggernaut is set to lose because he’s recently been a good guy) to the roll call of horrible, almost forgotten 1970’s codenames, to resurrecting The Raft (a supermax for Supervillains), this series dusts it off and sets it loose.

Nathan Stockman’s art is nothing short of brilliant. It’s appropriately cartoonish, but so detailed and jam-packed with sight gags that it rewards rereading. Ruth Redmond’s colors are absolutely phenomenal. She doesn’t neglect a single character or background.