Quick-Hit Reviews: Week of Jan. 26, 2011

Got-dang! There were a lot of comics that came out last week!  Even with all the reviewers at WCBR burning the midnight oil, it’s not always possible to get a full review up on everything when Marvel decides to release all of their Avengers and X-books in one week.  Sheesh!  But, still, we endure….

Uncanny X-Men #532 – We begin the handoff of Uncanny from Matt Fraction to Kieron Gillen.  Fraction had his high moments with the Utopia and Second Coming events, but the rest of his run was pretty uneven and this issue illustrates a lot of the problems that I have.  There are three story lines in this issue, but none feel very important.  First you have Emma, Fantomex & Kitty Pryde fighting with Sebastian Shaw.  I’m very unclear on what this story is supposed to do.  It isn’t interesting and if they just wanted Shaw back in circulation (which is a good idea), there surely are more entertaining ways to do it than this.  Two, we have Lobe and the Sublime Corp who have engineered mutant pills so that regular joes can gain mutant powers.  That just isn’t interesting or threatening and it has a lot of the pseudo-science that Fraction likes to use, but doesn’t pull off very well.  It’s very much what happens when someone who doesn’t know science tries to write something that is very hip about current science topics.  Three we have this Collective Man story that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  Unclear why this title can’t copy the formula that makes Uncanny X-Force so kick ass.  And Greg Land’s art is just bad.  I don’t mind his art the first few times I see it, but he’s been on this title for a while and we know his tricks now.  Marvel would be best served to just rotate him around their titles.  Grade: D — Dean Stell

2nd Opinon: There’s a clever idea to be found in the character of Lobe, but I’m not sure that it’s being used to it’s full potential.  A character who genuinely doesn’t hate mutants but merely wants to exploit an untapped natural resource is a nice change of pace, but the entire melodramatic quarantine gambit and the cookie-cutter personalities of his wannabe X-Men are somewhat sabotaging a story with lots of potential.  Throw in the obvious space-filler of the Collective Man sub-plot and the going-on-way-too-long side-plot concerning Emma Frost’s mission to disappear Sebastian Shaw (I’mnotgoingtopickontheGregLandartI’mnotgoingtopickontheGregLandart…) and I unfortunately found myself with a strong urge to go reread this week’s issue of Uncanny X-Force. Grade: C- — Joe Lopez

Ultimate Spider-Man #152 – Bendis continues his great second wind on this title this month as we simultaneously discover just what Black Cat was doing during his battle with Mysterio many months ago and , in the present day, watch as Iron Man nearly outs Peter’s secret identity to all of Forest Hills, Queens.  There are plenty of standout moments in this issue, ranging from Aunt May’s reaction to Stark’s entrance gaff to the “Amazing Friends'” reunion with the just-returned Gwen Stacy.  Peter’s conversation with Gwen was particularly touching and felt honest and real in a way that most complicated relationships in fiction fail at.  While I do have to admit to being slightly annoyed that after three months of teasing, we still haven’t seen any actual super-hero schooling, Bendis hits the rest of the notes wonderfully and has gotten me one more invested in this comic’s cast.  Extra kudos have to go to penciller Sara Pichelli whose work here has improved greatly.  I’m not sure if it’s just a matter of her having become comfortable with the characters and their world, but this felt like an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man in a way that is usually reserved for one produced by a more regular artist.  Great stuff.  Grade: A — Joe Lopez

Thunderbolts #152 – This has been a superstar of a title over the last year.  Jeff Parker always keeps the title clicking along at a swift pace.  No drawn out, overly long 6 issue story arcs from Parker.  Here the action builds on a storyline that has been in Hulk (also by Parker) having to do with some mega-monsters that are escaping from a MODOK island and wreaking havoc on Japan.  I love how the Tbolts are all such a neat team, yet you never know when one of them might turn on the others.  Great action in this one as they fight the mega-monsters and deal with a new threat form Hyperion.  Kev Walker’s art is really tight too and perfect for this book with lots of oversized, hulking characters. Grade: B+ — Dean Stell

Secret Avengers #9 – While the kung-fu pulp element is dialed way down this month, this issue is solid if only because it’s one where the Secret Avengers live up to their namesake.  It’s shadowy superhero covert ops stuff with Steve Rogers and John Steele dueling one another.  In other words, it’s a pretty good time.  There’s even a superhero trade that almost seems like a spy-swap of sorts.  More than that though, Rogers looks particularly clever this month and truly feels like the leader of a covert squad.  If anything, the superspy tone makes for an Avengers book that has its own clear identity and, in some ways, it’s own little corner of the Marvel Universe.  It’s a unique read with solid writing and solid art.  The only thing wrong with it is that I’m finding John Steele a bit bland in concept and appearance as a bad guy.  There’s really just not that much to the guy, and certainly not much at all that we haven’t seen before.  Max Fury is far more compelling.  Grade: B — Alex Evans

Chaos War #5 – Review

By: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), Khoi Pham (pencils), Thomas Palmer & Bob McLeod (inks), Sunny Gho (colors), Simon Bowland (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Time for the final throwdown battle between Herc and the Chaos King!

What’s Good: This Herc storyline wrapped up in a really nice and fun way.  As one would expect, the supporting cast gets relegated to… well… supporting roles to make way for Herc and his buddy Cho to save the day.  In the end, it is a combination of Cho’s genius and Herc taking a heroic turn that defeat the Chaos King.

Van Lente and Pak have come up with some neat ideas in their time as collaborators, but the resolution that Cho comes up with the beat the Chaos King is one of their best.  There is really no way to discuss it without SPOILING it, so you’ve been warned…  As the issue unfolds, things look pretty bleak for the heroes, but just as things look their darkest, Cho and Galactus collaborate to form a pocket universe into which the humans of Earth can be evacuated.  Only there isn’t going to be anywhere near enough time to get everyone out (since even a powered-up Herc is able to do little more than delay Chaos King).  Suddenly it dawns on Cho to just toss the Chaos King into the pocket universe.  There he can be happy with his entropy and life can return to normal in the Marvel U.  The end!  How cool is that?

This story also has some fallout.  Herc powered up greatly during the course of this story, but let’s just say that he is NOT the same at the end.  Oh, and a certain team of superheroes made famous by John Bryne seems to still be alive at the end of the issue.  Cool!

The art in this issue does a solid job with the story telling and that is what art really needs to do in a comic.  Good story telling is preferable to the occasional artistic flourish that sacrifices the story.  The layouts are impeccable and Pham does a great job of conveying the epic scale of a battle between Gods.

Chaos War: Dead Avengers #3 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Tom Grummett (pencils), Cory Hamscher & Terry Pallot (inks), Andy Troy & Matt Milla (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Will the Dead Avengers be able to withstand the final assault by the Grim Reaper and save the Comatose Avengers.

What’s Good: This has been the best of the Chaos War tie-ins by a long way.  It has felt very connected with the main Chaos War story and it also just makes sense as a story.  The credit for that (I assume) goes to writer, Fred Van Lente.  Mr. Van Lente is also writing Chaos War proper (thus the congruence with the main event) and generally hasn’t written a bad story in quite a while.  I’m always impressed by his ability to make just about any comic scenario interesting.

This issue has a high degree of difficulty too.  The general premise is that since “death” has been destroyed by the Chaos King (and all mortal humans have been tossed into a coma), some Dead Avengers are back and take it upon themselves to make sure that some Dead Villains (notably The Grim Reaper) don’t kill Spidey, Bucky Cap, Spiderwoman, et al while they’re flopped out on the floor.  The trouble for Van Lente is that he needs to have most of his toys put away by the end of this issue because you just know that the end result of Chaos War isn’t going to be that all the Dead Avengers are alive again.  Maybe one or two, but not all.  So, Van Lente sets about writing an entertaining and well-paced story under this constraint.  Most of the toys are put away by the end of the issue and a few others look to have roles to play in the finale of Chaos War proper.

Inkers make a big difference.  I should know better since I collect original comic art, but I often gloss over inkers in doing reviews because it is just hard to distinguish (at least for me) how much is inker and how much is penciler.  What we get in this issue is still some very classic Tom Grummett super-heroes, but the fact that we have two inkers on this issue allows me to appreciate inker Cory Hamscher too.  A lot of that classic goodness in the past couple issues of Dead Avengers was his work.  Let me also take a minute to talk about an artistic subject that has been bugging me recently: Noses!  There is a current trend with some of our younger artists (many of whom I LOVE) to shade noses such that it looks like they have a Breathe-Right Nasal Strip on their snout.  I think that some of these younger artists (who have worked largely in the B&W world previously) are used to letting colorist highlight that nose for you.  I draw your attention to how Grummett and Hamscher draw noses on the Vision in this book.  Perfect!  No weird shading!  Young artists should take note of this!

Chaos War: X-Men #1 – Review

By: Louise Simonson & Chris Claremont (writers), Doug Braithwaite (art), Dave Sharpe (letters), Rob Schwager (colors) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Some dead X-Men find themselves brought back to life and thrust into the Chaos War.

What’s Good: The art looks very nice.  If you’re not familiar with Doug Braithwaite, he’ll remind you a little of Alex Ross.  He definitely falls into the more realistic school of art and what strikes you most about his linework is how anatomically correct his characters are.  All of the muscles, contours, facial wrinkles, etc. are all as they’d appear on real humans.  Then he combines that with a very nuanced inked shading.  These inks combine with Schwager’s colors to give some pages an almost painted look.  The end result is very nice.

What’s Not So Good: This issue is credited to Claremont, Simonson & Braithwaite without any indication as to who wrote and who handled art duties.  I’m assuming that means that Braithwaite had some input on the story and that one or the other of Claremont and Simonson only helped in the most conceptual manner.  But, it could also be that no one really wanted to take credit for this story because it is not very good.

The general concept of Chaos War is that the Chaos King has destroyed death.  This allows all of the dead to come back to life.  At the same time, the Chaos King has struck down all mortal heroes into a coma of sorts.  So, while the godly characters of the Marvel U are fighting the Chaos King in the main part of the event, some of these back-from-the-dead heroes are trying to do little bits to help here on Earth.  This formula has given us a really good Dead Avengers miniseries and a fun Alpha Flight one-shot.  But, that magic was missing from this issue.

Chaos War: Dead Avengers #2 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Tom Grummett (pencils), Cory Hamscher (inks), Andy Troy & Sotocolor (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: The Dead Avengers continue in an attempt to protect the current/living/comatose Avengers from a “back from the dead” Grim Reaper.

What’s Good: This is a great little tie-in series to the Chaos War event for a few reasons, a) it makes sense with the overall story and doesn’t seem forced, b) it is not essential to your enjoyment of Chaos War proper, c) it adds to your enjoyment of the overall event if you read it and d) it is not causing any continuity problems.

The basic story is that the Chaos King has put all mortal humans on Earth into a coma and brought all of the dead back to life.  Only, they aren’t ghoulish zombies…. they’re just who they were before they died, with all their memories, motives, etc. intact.  Oh, and the bad guys seem to be really powered up.  So, when a group of Dead Avengers is revived and finds current Avengers flopped around comatose with a revived Grim Reaper trying to kill them, they leap into action.

What is great is that writer Van Lente is spending a little bit of time showing the back story of each of the Dead Avengers.  That’s appreciated because some of these characters have been out of comics for a long time.  He also gives each of them a unique voice and motivation for wanting to help out.  And, in true Van Lente fashion, there are a couple of “panels of the week candidates” that make you snicker as you read (loved the Swordsman coming on to Yellowjacket and explaining that he can’t help it because he is French).  Van Lente is one of the real stars at Marvel and why they haven’t locked him up with an “exclusive” deal is beyond me.  His comics are always entertaining and even when I don’t think I’ll enjoy the subject matter (i.e. Dead Avengers) I find myself having a great time reading.  I think his secret is that he’s using just the right about of continuity to “matter” but not so much that the story is bogged down.

Grummett’s pencils are also really sweet.  He’s a veteran of comic art and for some reason his style has kinda fallen out of favor, but I don’t know why.  Perhaps it is because his characters look like they conform to more of a “house style” and artists today have to be individuals?  But, this is just flat out nice artwork in a very throwback way (i.e. is faithful to human muscle groups).  And, for this type of story, dealing with mortal danger, this sort of classic, super-hero art is more appropriate than a more cartooning style.  Also kudos to the rest of the art team.  Nice inks, pretty colors and even some creative lettering.

Chaos War: Thor #2 – Review

By: J.M. Dematteis (writer), Brian Ching (pencils), Rick Ketcham (inks), Rob Schwager (colors), Simon Bowland (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: An amnesiac Thor, in Donald Blake form, does battle with Glory while protecting a comely widow.

What’s Good: The art is pretty good in this tie-in to Chaos War.  Brian Ching is given lots of opportunities to draw Glory.  This isn’t the normal version of Glory, but a demonic looking thing that has fallen to Earth after being smote by Thor in Chaos War: Thor #1.  This demon looks very…well…demonic and Ching draws him really well.  The art tells the story very effectively and coloring is right on point too.  He even gets in a few very nice pages of Thor once Don Blake get’s his mojo back.

Chaos War #4 – Review

By: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writer), Khoi Pham (pencils), Thomas Palmer (inks), Sunny Gho (colors), Simon Bowland (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Now that the Chaos King has given the beat-down to just about the entire Marvel U., how is anyone going to stand up to him?

What’s Good: This issue becomes much more of a Hercules story than a Marvel U. story.  If you’re a Herc fan, you’ll love it because all of the other Marvel characters who have played roles in Chaos War thus far kinda fade to the side.

The central problem is that Herc’s God Squad and all other forces standing against the Chaos King have been pretty thoroughly trounced and they’ll either have to flee (which leads to a neat Galactus/Cho moment) OR someone is going to have to seriously level-up.  I’ll let you guess what is probably going to happen as the issue ends on a note that makes me excited for issue #5.

Pham, Palmer and Gho continue to do a nice job on the art.  A special kudos needs to go to colorist Sunny Gho.  Colors are really important to making cosmic or godly events seem…well…cosmic and godly.  And he does a very nice job.  Also, I usually don’t care about cover art at all, but Dan Panosian’s cover is really nice.  Note, I’m giving the kudos based on the art being a pin-up and I’ll discuss the dictated content below.

Chaos War: God Squad #1 – Review

By: Marc Sumerak (writer), Dan Panosian (art), Antonio Fabela (colors), Dave Sharpe (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: A bunch of neither God, nor mortal heroic types battle the forces of Chaos.

What’s Good: This is a comic you buy if you’re into a couple of the characters OR are buying the whole Chaos War event (like me).  The story focuses on Daimon Hellstrom, Sersi, Silver Surfer & Venus.  How’s that for an odd team?  Probably most Marvel fans will be interested to read about one or two of those characters.  For me, the highlights are the Surfer and Venus.  Although Venus’ joke of signing some appropriate (yet oddly inapt) song to solve a problem is not a new joke, it really never gets old.  It is one of those story devices where you can just tell that every Marvel writer has “the song” that they’re going to have Venus sing if they ever get to writer her.  I love reading a comic that contains that sort of enthusiasm from the creators.  Do you doubt that some Marvel writer has a plan to have Venus sing “Baby got back” someday?

In an oddly good moment for an event tie-in, this issue actually expands the Chaos War event a little bit by explaining why these four characters are important to defeating the Chaos King.  Here’s a hint: The name “God Squad” is actually kinda a misnomer for them, but only “kinda”.  This was a neat concept and I hope it is explored a little more in the Chaos War proper.

Panosian’s art is mostly excellent.  There were pages in here where I said, “Ohhh.  I like that.  I wouldn’t mind having that framed on my wall.”  That doesn’t happen in every comic.  This issue also has a lot of cosmic vibe to it that allows Fabela’s colors to shine.

Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1 – Review

By: Jim McCann (writer), Reilly Brown & Terry Pallot (art), Val Staples (colors) & Dave Sharpe (letters)

The Story: A resurrected Alpha Flight gets summoned into the war with the Chaos King.

What’s Good: This is going to be a “must read” for fans of Alpha Flight because it feels an awful lot like those early 1980’s John Bryne Alpha Flight issues that a lot of comic fans are so nutso about.  It isn’t the best comic book story ever, but it hits the appropriate notes, explains who the various characters are and uses the “great beasts” mythology of Alpha Flight in a way that makes sense with Chaos War.

In some ways, it is actually hard to review this comic on its stand-alone merits because McCann leaves the team in a pretty tantalizing place: Marvel could totally bring this team back if they wanted to.  Considering the number of “meh” characters/teams that they’ve tried to give ongoing series to, why not just have Fred Van Lente write an Alpha Flight ongoing now that his time with Hercules is wrapping up?  I know Agents of Atlas is probably a bad example since it got canceled, but Alpha Flight would have to sell better than Atlas, right?

The art is serviceable and captures all the characters looking as they are supposed to.  The only quibble was that in a few panels Guardian looked a little too short and squat, but that’s a minor quibble.  Overall, I liked the art.

Chaos War: Dead Avengers #1 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Tom Grummett (pencils), Cory Hamscher (inks), Andy Troy (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: The Chaos King has struck all living mortal heroes dead/comatose, so it falls upon a group of dead Avengers to save innocent civilians and the helpless Avengers.

What’s Good: How many truly interesting superhero characters actually stay dead for very long?  The answer is “not many”, so if you want to do a “dead heroes” issue like this one, you have a challenge as a writer because the only dead heroes are so boring that no one has tried to bring them back. This was a problem that killed the X-Necrosha event last year: Who cared about these dead mutants?  We were glad they were dead and didn’t like being reminded of them!

So Van Lente faced a big obstacle to making this an interesting book.  But the cool thing is that I would totally read an ongoing series written by Van Lente featuring these characters: Vision, Yellowjacket, Swordsman, Dr. Druid, Mar-Vell & Deathcry.  That in itself should make you appreciate what a nice job of writing this is!  Van Lente does a solid job of laying out the scenario that these “dead Avengers” face, who they are and what they can do (coupled with a few origin style flashbacks).  The storytelling is nice and tight and leaves us with a satisfying cliffhanger that makes one anticipate next month’s issue.

Chaos War: Chaos King #1 – Review

By: Brandon Montclare (writer), Michael William Kaluta (art), Brad Anderson, Nathan Eyring & Jim Charlampidis (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: The Chaos King turns his sights on new targets including Zenn-la, Earth & the devil himself.

What’s Good: Holy cow can Mr. Kaluta draw!  That isn’t exactly a news flash, but I’d had a bad experience with my Chaos War tie-in last week and had considered avoiding the tie-ins this week until I saw that Kaluta was drawing this issue.  With his name attached, I almost cease to care what the story is because I’m willing to plunk down my $3.99 to buy it as a picture book.  There aren’t many artists who hit that level of excellence and virtually none who work in modern monthly comics (JH Williams, III is the closest).

This story is very much written to Kaluta’s strengths.  He really excels at large spreads showing godly or demonic images where you have swirling mists or flames and angels/demons swooping about.  I can’t emphasize enough how visually stunning the comic is.  This review is actually taking an overly long time to write because I keep flipping through the issue again to marvel at the pretty pictures.  Just buy it!

The story is almost incidental (for me).  But, it does what event tie-ins should.  It adds extra flavor to the event without being required reading.  The second and third parts of the story where the Chaos King encounters Impossible Man (which is an interesting concept) and the devil are much stronger than the first chapter.

Chaos War: Thor #1 – Review

By: J.M. DeMatteis (writer), Brian Ching (pencils), Rick Ketcham (inks), Rob Schwager (colors), Simon Bowland (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Thor engages in cosmic-level battle with Oblivion before falling to Earth as an amnesiac Donald Blake and being taken in by a beautiful widow.  Together they will find healing.

What’s Good: If you feel like Thor is too strong to be on Earth because he would break things if he really unloaded with his full might, you’ll probably enjoy the first part of this issue.  Here we see Thor as his cosmic best, doing battle with Oblivion, a cosmic entity who is in league with the Chaos King.  This portion of the issue is really good cosmic action.  It has BIG scenes, bright colors and Thor standing alone against a real heavy hitter.  It also allows the art team to shine, especially the colors from Schwagner.  Cosmic action is all about the colors.  Just think how nice these comics will look digitally instead of printed on cheap paper!

The best thing about this issue is the art.  It is really nice.  It is just a shame that the story isn’t better.

Chaos War #3 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente & Greg Pak (writers), Khoi Pham (art), Sunny Gho (colors) & Simon Bowland (letters)

The Story: The Chaos King ramps up his attack on the godly realms.

What’s Good: If you were not a religious Hercules reader (and perhaps even if you were), Chaos War #1 was pretty uneven.  After reading it, you couldn’t help but think that Marvel had screwed the pooch by having FOURTEEN tie-in issues (one-shots & minis) associated with this event.  “Those aren’t going to sell at ALL”, thought this reviewer.  But then Chaos War #2 was quite good and now Chaos War #3 is seriously excellent.  Those tie-ins are looking very purchasable right now!

This comic is everything you could want in a big event comic: the stakes feel very large and it has big action.  And I mean BIG action…..like Zeus punching Galactus in the face!

Catching up on the story, the Chaos King, in the form of Amatsu-Mikaboshi (Wiki it if you’re confused) has laid waste to the planes of Hell and now is turning his attention on the various realms of “heaven” leaving nothing but Herc and his God Squad to save the universe.  It is very good and has lots of big, “hell yeah” or “Oh no!” scenes as well has some trademark Van Lente humor (Amadeus and Thor getting a little friendly when Venus sings a love song).

This was Pham’s strongest issue of the series thus far and there are a few really spectacular splash pages (i.e. you don’t feel ripped off that you sacrificed an entire page of story for that).  He and Palmer give this comic an almost throw-backy feel with all the cross-hatching as contrasted with the heavy shadow we see in so many Marvel books these days. But, it is throw-back with modern sensibilities in terms of panel construction, perspective and coloring.  It is very nice.

Chaos War #2 – Review

By: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente (writers), Khoi Pham (pencils), Thomas Palmer (inks), Sunny Gho (colors) & Simon Bowland (letters)

The Story: The Chaos King continues his assault, taking on underworld as Herc tries to raise a squad of immortals to defend the universe.

What’s Good: There was just something wrong with Chaos War #1.  If you were not following the overall Hercules story for the last couple of years, you felt a little like being at a cocktail party where you don’t know anyone and no one is really making an effort to include you in the conversation.  BUT, after reading through this issue #2, you feel like you know everyone and that this is a party that you won’t mind hanging out at too much.

It was just a lot of fun seeing Herc trying to raise a team of gods to do battle with the Chaos King.  Of course, he’s going to get Thor and that’s kinda fun because neither of them is the sharpest tool in the shed (moreso Herc).  And there is a fun little scene of Venus trying to revive the fallen mortals by singing Bob Marley (“Get up, stand up…” it must be a LOT of fun to pick these slightly inappropriate songs for Venus).  But from there the fun really begins as Herc starts using his new supergod powers to summon a raft of big-time powerful folks to help in his battle against the Chaos King and they’ll need it because the Chaos King has some serious firepower on his side too (as if he needs it).  This issue just clicked in a way that the first one did not, so if you were really down on the first issue understand that you might want to give it another chance.

Chaos War #1 – Review

By: Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente (writers), Khoi Pham (penciller), Tom Palmer (inker), Simon Bowland (letterer)

The Story: Hercules returns from a death that never really happened, gets made fun of by the heroes of the Marvel U, fights with them needlessly and then uses his apparent semi-omnipotence to bring them along to fight generic monsters.

What’s Good: Pham and Palmer put some pretty attractive art onto the page. Pham’s got the creativity to make the alien come alive and I’ve always thought that Palmer makes any artist’s work look more fluid. They both create some nice textured effects, especially in the opening scene with the weird backgrounds of Nightmare’s realm. King Chaos’s appearance is very dynamic and Nightmare’s emotive face is almost all we need to tell the story. I’ve never had strong feelings about letterers before, but I really feel this issue would have worked better if Bowland had used invisible ink for this issue; that would have kept the writing from sinking this battleship.