AXIS: Hobgoblin #1

Like Elektra in a post from the week before last, Hobgoblin is a character whose origin traces to the early 1980s, a period by which time I had left comic books behind.

A recent Wednesday evening when I went into my local comic shop to pick up my titles for the week the proprietor suggested that I read AXIS: Hobgoblin #1. He was captivated and amused by Kevin Shinick's send-up of TED Talks, infomercials and the hackneyed Tony Robbinsesque motivational speech. I said I would.

The following week when I went into the comic shop, he tried to sell me the comic book all over again. I told him I had picked it up the prior week but I hadn't gotten around to it yet. I told him I would. Last weekend I did.

And he is right. AXIS: Hobgoblin #1 is a pleasure. It is going to tie in somehow with AXIS, the newest Marvel crossover event featuring Red Skull juiced up with the dead Professor X's brain, spreading hate telepathically across the planet. The storyline, by the great Rick Remender, has been burbling along in the pages of Uncanny Avengers.  And make no mistake, Rick Remender is a radical.

When my last relationship imploded and I returned to comic books in search of some form of ideational terra firma, one of the first things that jumped out at me was an idea for a superlative feature.

Why not build a title around one of the tertiary supervillains, like Razorback (seen in the last scan, on the right-hand side)? It would be a thoroughly adult tale of regret and suffering and poisonous ego addiction, petty triumphs and huge defeats. I would read that comic book.

AXIS: Hobgoblin broaches some of these ideas. The art by Javier Rodriguez is crisp and articulate. See for yourself. Below are ten scans: the cover page followed by the splash and then the eight interior pages that begin the issue.