Bullet Points (2007)

Stop him, sir? Perhaps I wasn't clear. [...] No one has ever stopped him.

This book collects issues 1 - 5 of the Marvel mini-series. It was written by J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of the great Babylon 5 who now seems to have moved into comics writing with stints on Marvel characters such as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and Thor and DC characters such as Wonder Woman and Superman as well as creating his own titles such as Rising Stars. The art was by Tommy Lee Edwards who has also worked on various Marvel and DC titles.

This is an alternative history of the Marvel universe. The premise is that the doctor who was due to administer the super-soldier serum to Steve Rogers is assassinated by a Nazi fifth columnist before he can do it. A soldier who was protecting him, Ben Parker, is also killed and these two deaths have a rippling effect that fundamentally changes the course of some of the characters in the Marvel universe. So as no one else can administer the serum Steve Rogers volunteers instead for the army's back up plan the Iron Man project. With no father figure after the death of his parents, Peter Parker becomes a disaffected youth and wanders into the testing range just as the gamma bomb is to be tested becoming the Hulk. Reed Richards delays his space mission to look after the health of Steve Rogers but when the mission takes finally takes place it is sabotaged and he is the only survivor and becomes the head of SHIELD. Bruce Banner, wracked with guilt at the fate of Peter Parker, tries to find a cure and is bitten by an irradiated spider. And finally when Galactus turns up with the Silver Surfer there is no Fantastic Four to thwart him and so it falls to all the superheroes and villains to do their bit in the struggle to save Earth. And it falls to the most despised of these to turn the tide.

An interesting story from Straczynski with a fresh look at some old characters. Of course he is selective in how the effects of that one bullet ripple through time and there are holes in the plot you could drive a bus through at times - such as how did a surly teenager manage to find himself in the middle of a military testing range. But if you can put that aside it is an entertaining ride with cameo shots of lots of different Marvel heroes and villains, in the climatic battle, that I have not seen for a long time such as Tigra, the Scorpion and Cloak and Dagger to name a few. I have to say that I was not a great fan of the art on this one - it comes across as very crude at times - which surprises and disappoints me as Edwards has some lovely examples of his work on his web site.

First published on RevolutionSF on Tuesday May 17, 2011