Heroes for Hire #14

[Mikl C]

Brood queen got knocked up by Miek.
Humbug agrees to be the human host for her eggs!

The h4h get kicked off the warbound's ship, and go to SHIELD to get the location of the catacombs so they can save Colleen and Tarantula.

Who are being tortured by nerve maggots! Looks painful.

Scorpion tells the h4h to go away, and reveals she killed Paladin.
Black Cat starts a bitchfight with her! She lurrves Paladin.

They find the non-dead Paladin in an alleyway though, and Misty cuts a deal with him- if he takes them to the catacombs he can have all the money they were gonna get for Moonboy.
$10 million actually, P was trying to screw them over :p

In a SHIELD tank, they reach the catacombs, and everyone is gunning for Humbug.
Black cat knocks his mask off, revealing his face has half turned into a bug!
Gasp!

AWESOME Issue! And the art is phenom!
4.5/5!

[drwho]

This is a great issue I'm just waiting to see if this thing is truly canceled next issue, or what is supposed to be going on with this. Loved Paladin being an s.o.b and Misty being a female dog right back at him.

[CMBMOOL]

Why do I get the feeling that Scorpion will try and leave S.H.I.E.L.D once she finds out that Paladin is alive ? :(

[Young Avenger]

While I was reading the issue I found it weird that Shang-Chi looked like Ryu from UDON's Street Fighter series. I check the issue credits and saw that Alvin Lee was co-artist and everything made sense.

Very good issue. Wells is hitting his strive on the book with this WWH tie-in. I hope that cancellation rumors are untrue.

[Stewy4429]

I really enjoyed the issue too!

I was wondering why Humbug let himself be turned into a follower of the Bruid Queen, I mean I know she told him he would be welcome and bla bla bla, but I really didn't see him dipping this low -I mean now all he is is a freaky host bug body... weird.

I love Scorpion! I think she is really cool, and I had never really seen her in anything before this.

Do you think they will be able to save Tarantula and Colleen in time? It seems like a substantial amount of time had passed since they got put into the maggot room and when the H4H arrived to get them....

I will be so upset if this series gets cancelled. Does anybody know if it's sales are actually that bad??

[MNM]

I really enjoyed the issue too!

I was wondering why Humbug let himself be turned into a follower of the Bruid Queen, I mean I know she told him he would be welcome and bla bla bla, but I really didn't see him dipping this low -I mean now all he is is a freaky host bug body... weird.

I love Scorpion! I think she is really cool, and I had never really seen her in anything before this.

Do you think they will be able to save Tarantula and Colleen in time? It seems like a substantial amount of time had passed since they got put into the maggot room and when the H4H arrived to get them....

I will be so upset if this series gets cancelled. Does anybody know if it's sales are actually that bad??

It hasnt been solicitiated beyond the next issue, so probably is cancelled.

Scorpion rocks. Marvel need to do something with her. One of the best new characters created in decades isnt a regular in any book, it's shocking.

[thronzeblast]

It hasnt been soliciated beyond the next issue, so probably is cancelled.

Scoropion rocks. Marvel need to do something with her. One of the best new characters created in decades isnt a regular in any book, it's shocking.

Yeah i like her as well would like to see more of her and for them to address whether she is bruce's daughter or not.

[Kage Kisaragi]

I think its more because its hard to find a place to put her.

Her character seems developed in the since that shes supposed to be an assassin. Assassins don't really fit on any team roaster, even if try to regulate them as changed, or stealth/espionage, there main strength is straight killing and Scorpion is no exception. While she can control her abilities it seems kind of timid to just all of a sudden drop the push for her to be lethal just to make her pal around with a team and to get into goofy hi-jinks.

If Marvel had a book where the only purpose was for the people in it were to kill super criminals, she'd be a must have for it. If she were a lot older (+10 years) you could work her as some kind of super spy, who is figuring out plots and secret agendas from both her employers and the people she was contracted to take down. However right now, outside of more teenage coming of age angst, and a mysterious family tree. We don't have much to go on with her.

I also hope heroes for hire isn't cancelled as I started reading it some time back around issue 3, and I enjoyed it. I hope some of the characters can find screen time in other books. Especially Tarantula and Misty. I'm not worried about Black Cat finding another book to appear in, with Spider-man possibly becoming freed up of marriage, I'm almost certain she'll appear regularly in his books again. Colleen, well I don't know, maybe she could join shield as a field agent. Shang Chi? With all this talk about losing balance, you'd expect him to disappear into China or something and appear at some monastery with monks training and searching for enlightenment.

[Young Avenger]

I think its more because its hard to find a place to put her.

She could be a regular feature in Marvel Comics Presents.

[Volk1]

One of the best series Marvel is publishg right now.

Wells and Man are an all-star team. :)

I love Black Cat's crush on Paladin.:) I love both these characters. I love Humbug's turn around.

And Misty's shady deal was awesome.

Great team dynamics here. Solid writing and excellent art.

They better not cancel this. :(

[Zel]

I think its more because its hard to find a place to put her.

Her character seems developed in the since that shes supposed to be an assassin.


She's not an assassin. The whole point of her backup story has been that to test whether she could bring herself to use lethal force at all.

She's a superhero-y Shield agent, and was recruited before the Registration Act.

Before Civl War, that was actually kind of a unused niche, super hero working directly for a government agency. Aside from Cap getting Shield help here and there. (but he was mostly a free agent due to his status as a living legend). Now she's just one of many supers working for the man.

Maybe she'll find out about the test, get pissed off and join HfH. Otherwise not sure why she's getting so much pagetime in an already crowded book. Not that I mind, loved her intro series in Amazing Fantasy and would love to see her in a monthly.

[jigrig]

Brood queen got knocked up by Miek.
Humbug agrees to be the human host for her eggs!

The h4h get kicked off the warbound's ship, and go to SHIELD to get the location of the catacombs so they can save Colleen and Tarantula.

Who are being tortured by nerve maggots! Looks painful.

Scorpion tells the h4h to go away, and reveals she killed Paladin.
Black Cat starts a bitchfight with her! She lurrves Paladin.

They find the non-dead Paladin in an alleyway though, and Misty cuts a deal with him- if he takes them to the catacombs he can have all the money they were gonna get for Moonboy.
$10 million actually, P was trying to screw them over :p

In a SHIELD tank, they reach the catacombs, and everyone is gunning for Humbug.
Black cat knocks his mask off, revealing his face has half turned into a bug!
Gasp!

AWESOME Issue! And the art is phenom!
4.5/5!

WORLD WAR MOONBOY!
PAYBACK MOONBOY!
A MOONBOY & HIS DEVIL DINOSAUR!
MILLION DOLLAR MOONBOY!
DESTROY ALL HEROES FOR HIRE!
RESIDENT MOONBOY!
MOONBOYS REVENGE!
REVENGE OF THE MOONBOY!
VENGENCE IS A DISH BEST SERVED BY MOONBOY!
GODZILLA VS. THE GANG THAT SCREWED OVER MOONBOY!
MOONBOY, BEYOND CONVERSATION!
I should never leave My medication where I can find it.

[dabig2]

Miek's an idiot. That's why you always wear protection. So the crazy bitch isn't all "oh yeah, I'm pregnant and so we're going to be a big family, yay!".

**** that. Waging war and **** and just got done feeding some human flesh to pain-eating maggots and you're talking about a family and fatherhood and all that bull****? Brood best hope that she avoids those stairs in that stadium. Oh wait, I guess it should actually be Humbug that watches for the steps.

And on a related note, nice ass shots of the ladies in this issue. Ahhh, Black Cat and Hulk's bastard daughter (maybe, maybe not). Good action.

[jackolover]

This is again, one of the best issues to come out on WWH. I just love Manns art, and Zeb Wells strengthens the tension each issue.

So this issue. Colleen and Tarantula are dead. Either that, or their lives and bodies are getting eaten away, and we can ony hope, maybe, there is an antidote. But both girls will have been covered in maggots, and have their flesh eaten away. I don't think anybody will have time to save them, now, after this issue. It is quite a punishment that Miek has come up with, and he had the stomach to carry it out.

That bastard Paladan delayed all the rescue effort of the HFH with his bull**** mercinery habits, making Misty basically beg him to help them out. I wouldn't be surprised if Misty snaps his neck after the caper, when Paladan wants to collect on Moon Boy.

And what is that with Humbug having his body used to deposit Brood eggs? Is that like sex, or something different? And I don't know if Humbugs face breaking out in mandibals is from the Broods 'deposit', or, he is transforming because of what happened to him in the Savage Land, when the bugs initiated him into the hive.

Black Cat is a slut. First she sleeps with Puma in the CW Friendly SM series. Then she's in bed with some other dude, in some other book, and now she is sniffing around Paladan trying to get him to take her to bed. She has lost control, and some writer needs to address this 'habit' Black Cat has gotten into. And Paladan just plays Cat , demeaning her in front of everyone, when Cat goes ballistic on Scorpion, after Scorp admits she thinks she's killed Paladan. Black Cat might as well put a collar on, with a chain, and hand it to Paladan, because she's wearing it now, in spirit.

Disappointed in both Scorpion and Khanata, the Wakandan securty attache. Both characters refused to help find Colleen and Tarantula, even after Misty explained the predicament. I would visit both Scorp and Khanata after this for some private payback. This is not how people with hero status (Scorp and Khanata) should behave, and it's just another indictment on the Initiative for the loss of moral fibre that it institutes.

It seems the games are over, that we saw in WWH #4, because when the HFH invaded the colliseum, the place was deserted, and Miek and the Hivelings were just loitering, after witnessing the maggot infestation of the two white females. I was certain Humbug was mounting a rescue effort for Colleen and Tarantula, but his hesitation after his arrival says he isn't. I think Humbug is too late, and I think Misty has the sweet opportunity to get her revenge on him by telling Miek, Humbug lied, and it was Humbug who killed the Hiveling, so Miek will kill Humbug. That's what I'd do after seeing him again.

Overall, this is the most terrifying issue of the run so far. Why would Zeb Wells write the disgusting manner of Colleen and Tarantulas demise, like this. It sickens me. There was no last minute rescue. There was pitiful screams from both the women. Zeb Wells is determined to violate our senses by putting mercinerys through the worst kinds of payback, then, slamming Paladan in our faces for good measure. A superb fist of writing characters he took over just recently, and these event tie-ins just keep pushing the writers into unkown territories making their work collectors items.

[Mikl C]

I think the "black cat as nympho" plot is actually rather interesting.
Wasn't she raped in the past? There are definitely some complex psychological issues to explore with Felicia.

[worstblogever]

I think the "black cat as nympho" plot is actually rather interesting.
Wasn't she raped in the past? There are definitely some complex psychological issues to explore with Felicia.

Kevin Smith did, in between GOD-AWFUL long delays on Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do.. The villain, who ended up deciding to be Mysterio #3 or 4 to go after Spider-Man at the end... was raped by his drug dealing-kingpin brother on a regular basis through most of his life. (Exactly what a Spider-Man book needs for that light-hearted, web-slingin' mood: Incestuous Rape.) He had the ability to teleport (he was descended from a Holocaust survivor who Mengele experimented on... supposedly the origin of his mutation), including teleport heroin directly into someone's blood stream. When he takes down Black Cat via teleport-H, his brother was all... "Chick in spandex! I'm gonna get my rape on!" and Soon-to-be-extraneous-Mysterio couldn't let his brother do it to her. (Moral Conscience, or Jealousy? You be the judge.)

I forget a lot of what happens after that, but "Don't Rape Me Bro" Guy is really mentally imbalanced, and trying to free Black Cat from prison for his brother's murder, but not take the blame himself. Spidey gets Daredevil in to help, and Nightcrawler (teleporter expert. But yay for a Nightcrawler appearance). While they rush in to save the damsel-in-distress, the Black Cat was already getting the villain to empathize, telling him of her own experience of when she was raped.

Of course, they're trying to explain a lot of Felicia's problems in her personal life via-psychological trauma from the rape. If the villain wasn't so convoluted, and overpowered (I think he might have been a telepath, too.), it might have worked.

It was like a Stan Lee meets David Lynch meets after-school special mini-series. The one plus is that Dodson's art, particular on Black Cat was awesome. It's the first time I really felt not everything in comics that Kevin Smith touches will turn to gold.

Hope that clarifies? (Although, it's kind of too convoluted to clarify anything)

[Arilou]

I think the "black cat as nympho" plot is actually rather interesting.
Wasn't she raped in the past? There are definitely some complex psychological issues to explore with Felicia.

Let's just say that a lot of people really did not like that particular story, and so it tends to end up in the dis-continuity pile.

Rape-as-motivation is horribly overdone.

Black Cat is a slut. First she sleeps with Puma in the CW Friendly SM series. Then she's in bed with some other dude, in some other book, and now she is sniffing around Paladan trying to get him to take her to bed.

Well, Felicia has always been like that. No control whatsoever. Do what looks like fun at the time and damn the consequences. She has a huge devil-may-care attitude. Her mantra is basically "Damn the consequences, they happen to other people." And they usually do, because by the time her latest heist or failed relationship or whatever implodes she's long gone and planning something new.

[Stewy4429]

Nympho or not, I really enjoy having Black Cat in the story, I think it is great to have the semi-immoral Paladin, Tarantula, and Black Cat all mixed up with Colleen and Shang-chi. Misty is somewhere in the middle: enough moral standards to do the right thing, but enough bad-ass attitude to do it in a "bad" way. I love the team, I just wish they weren't all being killed off (I don't see how Colleen and Tarantula can be saved from the maggots either, although hopefully they will be).

[Stewy4429]

sorry double post

[worstblogever]

Let's just say that a lot of people really did not like that particular story, and so it tends to end up in the dis-continuity pile.

Rape-as-motivation is horribly overdone.

Well, Felicia has always been like that. No control whatsoever. Do what looks like fun at the time and damn the consequences. She has a huge devil-may-care attitude. Her mantra is basically "Damn the consequences, they happen to other people." And they usually do, because by the time her latest heist or failed relationship or whatever implodes she's long gone and planning something new.

Oh, I don't LIKE that story at all. The villain was lame. I bought it for Spidey/Felicia flirting and get my brother did me in the bum and I got date-raped at college. The only plus was the Nightcrawler cameo, and that was brief.

Any character who ends up having their entire personality revolved around rape is not going to win a lot of fans. As a victim, anyway. We all remember that Bueno Excellente in Hitman proved the only exception as an entertaining rapist.

[thronzeblast]

Let's just say that a lot of people really did not like that particular story, and so it tends to end up in the dis-continuity pile.

Rape-as-motivation is horribly overdone.



Well, Felicia has always been like that. No control whatsoever. Do what looks like fun at the time and damn the consequences. She has a huge devil-may-care attitude. Her mantra is basically "Damn the consequences, they happen to other people." And they usually do, because by the time her latest heist or failed relationship or whatever implodes she's long gone and planning something new.



Well remember she didnt love peter parker at first she was in love with spiderman she didnt even want him to take his mask off.

[jackolover]

Nympho or not, I really enjoy having Black Cat in the story, I think it is great to have the semi-immoral Paladin, Tarantula, and Black Cat all mixed up with Colleen and Shang-chi. Misty is somewhere in the middle: enough moral standards to do the right thing, but enough bad-ass attitude to do it in a "bad" way. I love the team, I just wish they weren't all being killed off (I don't see how Colleen and Tarantula can be saved from the maggots either, although hopefully they will be).

I love their dark morals too, but Zeb Wells has this fetish for killing mercenaries. I just hope he find some Dues Ex machina for the girls, like he did for Paladan. I like the cloudy morals of the characters, and that puts them into lots of trouble situations, and the Stone Ship disaster was just the best example. I think the Black Cat likes the bad-boy image of Paladan, who had the balls to arrest Captain America. Cat was not impressed with Cap, so any man who takes Cap down, has to be good.

[worstblogever]

Well remember she didnt love peter parker at first she was in love with spiderman she didnt even want him to take his mask off.

She just needs some healthy sexual roleplaying. One night, she needs to let some guy pretend to be Iron Man, and she can be Maria Hill learning to like the touch of men. Something kinky like that.

[Joe-Dono]

I am really enjoying this title, I might keep buying it after WWH

[Young Avenger]

I love their dark morals too, but Zeb Wells has this fetish for killing mercenaries. I just hope he find some Dues Ex machina for the girls, like he did for Paladan. I like the cloudy morals of the characters, and that puts them into lots of trouble situations, and the Stone Ship disaster was just the best example. I think the Black Cat likes the bad-boy image of Paladan, who had the balls to arrest Captain America. Cat was not impressed with Cap, so any man who takes Cap down, has to be good.

Really? What other stuff has Wells written that he kill enough mercenaries it would be considered a fetish? Wells didn't write the back-up stories with Paladan and Scorpion.

[CMBMOOL]

I think the "black cat as nympho" plot is actually rather interesting.
Wasn't she raped in the past? There are definitely some complex psychological issues to explore with Felicia.

Well there is no wall crawler to help her out this time. :(

[jackolover]

Really? What other stuff has Wells written that he kill enough mercenaries it would be considered a fetish? Wells didn't write the back-up stories with Paladan and Scorpion.

I wasn't aware that Wells didn't write the backup stories, but even that story fitted with Wells approach.

It's just the recent HFH stuff where Colleen and Tarantula are supposedly offed, Humbug being taken by the bugs in the Savage land, and again by the brood in the last issue.

Edit: And Wells offed Orca

I am continuing lamenting the demise of this book. Shang Chi has never been more interesting than here. He has revealed a dark side; he has a romantic trigger to his violence, and his fixation with Tarantula looks like getting him into danger. Things like Paladans whimsical conscription of the HFH to get Moon Boy, when he knew the girls wanted to pound him for his capture of Cap, just shows how Wells can enliven characters, and put a dynamic into a group that started out as a non-powered chic book, and has ended up a very edgy male/female soap opera, with deadly consequences. The Colleen/Moon Boy, Colleen/Humbug, Tarantula/Shang, Black Cat/Paladan complications make the book more than a hero book, and puts it into the class of the Civil War tie-ins, because people with emotions, work better than costumes and beat downs. It's going to be a shame when Marvel cuts these characters. There's so much that hasn't been explored yet.

[myslead]

dude, it's Paladin, not Paladan.

that is all.

[Jimmy Holograph]

They wont kill Colleen off. Brubaker uses her in Immortal Iron Fist.

Tarantula is another story...

[Sanlear]

Any comic with Shang Chi in it gets the 'ol thumbs up from me.