Force Works #6: Review

Dec 1994

Andy Lanning, Dave Taylor

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::

Story Name:

Goodbye Hong Kong

Review & Comments

Rating:

Force Works #6 Review by Rob Johnson (February 19, 2019)

Comments: “Hands of the Mandarin Part 1 of 6.”--Cover. Scripted by the team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. First appearance of Suzi Endo. Credited first appearance of the Avatars (they were seen in shadow in WAR MACHINE #8 and IRON MAN #310. MARVEL COMICS PRESENTS has short tie-in stories to this issue; MCP #169 shows the Force Works/Avatars battle from Century's point of view, #170 from Suzi Endo's POV, and #171 from Recorder's.

Review: The crossover event gets off to a good start with a lot of action and violence, clearly laying out the guidelines for the upcoming duel and showing are heroes are overmatched (though the baddies' powers seem a bit generic, except for Butterfly). That's the way to get a reader interested. And I usually don't like the scratchy and overcrowded art style that was popular in the 1990s but here it suits the mood of the tale and is quite effective. And there's a nifty cliffhanger—surely the two heroes couldn't be disintegrated (gulp), can they???

From Our Blog:

Gwen Stacy, beauty queen of Standard High School, was Peter Parker's (alias Spider-Man) first great love.

Gwen Stacy: Classic Beauty

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Force Works #6 Synopsis by T Vernon

Story continues from IRON MAN #310.

The Mandarin's Avatars are wreaking havoc in Hong Kong. They are Q'Wake (earthquake power), Deluge (water power), Butterfly (bad luck power), Foundry (fire power), and Lich (super-strength but he looks like a decaying corpse). Suzi Endo, head of Stark Enterprises Far-East Division, sends out a call for help that is picked up by Force Works. Meanwhile, Bethany Cabe is also calling FW about the sudden disappearances of Iron Man and War Machine (at the end of IRON MAN #310). The team scrambles for action: Scarlet Witch, Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter), U.S. Agent, and Century while their AI P.L.A.T.O. wonders why he didn't pick up the chaos alert. As they board their jet for Hong Kong, Recorder RE-404 insists on joining them....

Meanwhile Iron Man and War Machine are prisoners of the Mandarin who has teleported them from Stark Enterprises to his lair in China. He reveals that he has created an aura around his castle within which all technology ceases to function, including the heroes' armors. The villain gloats and decides to start his revenge with WM, unmasking him first and then electrocuting him, non-lethally....

Force Works arrives in Hong Kong and immediately attacks the Avatars, the two teams closely matched in power—until Century's staff Parallax detects something odd about Q'Wake's energy signature and he decides to follow it up, vanishing from the melee....

At the Mandarin's lair, Iron Man pleads for mercy on Rhodey's behalf and the Mandarin refuses. Then Century teleports in, seeking the Ten Rings. As he goes to Rhodey's aid, Mandarin lashes out and disintegrates both of them, leaving only a pile of dust and Century's staff....

Story continues in WAR MACHINE #9.

::: click cover to ENLARGE it :::