It’s the summer of supervillains headlined by Marc Guggenheim’s Bring on the Bad Guys, and this week, Abomination takes center stage. An often underutilized and some might say simplistically depicted villain, Phillip Kennedy Johnson and Sergio Davila craft a story well worth reading. Plus, Guggenheim and Michael Sta. Maria continue to reveal Sister Sorrow’s origins.
Kicking things off is “Well of Ages,” a one-shot tale that opens on Wakanda. There are archaeologists investigating ruins, but they come across something just outside their dig that’s far older and, unfortunately for them, far more dangerous. Enter an investigator who realizes Abomination, now imprisoned by the Wakandans, is their best hope to figure out what is going on inside a mysterious well.
Johnson does a good job setting up this story as he takes a different direction than in previous Bring on the Bad Guys stories. Here, we don’t know how Mephisto plays into things, raising your anticipation for the eventual twist. Meanwhile, Abomination is well written, and we get a nice reminder of his own origins and how he’s far more complex than many give him credit for.
He kinda has a giant fish-man look, right?
Credit: Marvel
Abomination is a great villain for this story, as he’s not even as grotesque as the enemy he discovers in the well. That said, his monstrousness can relate to it, even after he pounds it and rips it apart in a well-crafted fight scene. The final scenes are a good shock and further evidence that Abomination is one of the most evil villains out there.
Davila leans into the gore and monster madness of the villain with some truly icky gross-out visuals. Meanwhile, Davila is great at capturing the size and scale of the Abomination to the point where he appears too big and strong for this mysterious supernatural mission.
Closing out the issue is another chapter in “Deal with the Devil,” picking up with Sister Sorrow still human, but tempted to make a deal with Mephisto. These backups do well to show the complexities of this character, making her far more interesting in the process. While the deal she makes, and how it plays out, is rather easy to see coming, it still shows she has good reason to turn on Mephisto if she were ever to get the chance.
Bring on the Bad Guys: Abomination is a thrilling monster-horror tale that proves Abomination is more than just Hulk’s shadow; he’s a true villain in his own right. With sharp writing and gruesomely fun visuals, this one-shot stands out as one of the stronger entries in Marvel’s summer villain series.
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