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The Order (2007) (Collected Editions)
The Order, Vol. 1: The Next Right Thing
A team of long-dormant Soviet super-weapons is awake, angry, and heading straight at the heart of Los Angeles ready to finish World War III The front line of defense is a team that's been together since just before nine this morning The queen of PR starts her spin A dead body hides more than just a murder mystery And-and-and - a super-sex tape What on earth could justify the use of that many exclamation points? Surely, it could only be The Order, the newest ongoing series written by Matt Fraction (Immortal Iron Fist, Punisher War Journal) and with art by the amazing Barry Kitson.
Collecting: The Order 1-6
Collecting: The Order 1-6
144 pages, Paperback
First published March 5, 2008
3 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
About the author
Matt Fraction
1,220 books1,865 followers"How he got started in comics: In 1983, when Fraction was 7 years old and growing up in Kansas City, Mo., he became fascinated by the U.S. invasion of Grenada and created his own newspaper to explain the event. "I've always been story-driven, telling stories with pictures and words," he said.
Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.
"My mother was not happy about that," he said.
But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.
Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.
Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."
Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.
- 2009. Alex Pham. Los Angeles Times.
Education and first job: Fraction never graduated from college. He stopped half a semester short of an art degree at Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri in 1998 to take a job as a Web designer and managing editor of a magazine about Internet culture.
"My mother was not happy about that," he said.
But that gig led Fraction and his co-workers to split off and launch MK12, a boutique graphic design and production firm in Kansas City that created the opening credits for the James Bond film "Quantum of Solace."
Big break: While writing and directing live-action shoots at MK12, Fraction spent his spare time writing comics and pitching his books each year to publishers at Comic-Con. Two books sold: "The Last of the Independents," published in 2003 by AiT/Planet Lar, and "Casanova," published in 2006 by Image Comics.
Fraction traveled extensively on commercial shoots. Then his wife got pregnant. So Fraction did what any rational man in his position would do -- he quit his job at MK12 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time comic book writer.
Say what? "It was terrifying," said Fraction, who now lives in Portland, Ore. "I was married. We had a house. We had a baby coming. And I just quit my job."
Marvel hired Fraction in June 2006, thanks largely to the success of his other two comics. "I got very lucky," he half-joked. "If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to move back in with my parents.
- 2009. Alex Pham. Los Angeles Times.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 21, 2018
3.5
So, this was a short lived series. I can sort of understand why because it reminds me of Gail Simone's the Movement in that Fraction created a team with only one established Marvel character (Pepper) and the rest appear to be brand new. The bad guys are bland and unmemorable. The dialogue for Becky, the Texan, was painful at times. I still don't know all of their names and alter egos. That being said, there's still a lot to love here.
Henry. I ADORED Henry Hellrung. He's a recovering alcoholic and he helped get Tony clean when he hit rock bottom. He used to play Tony in a TV show and he received some of the same hero worship Tony received from kids that looked up to him before his addiction ruined his career. Now he's just trying to lead this Initiative approved team and protect California and that's very honorable.
I adored Magdalena Marie as well (that name aside). She was also an actress. She knows martial arts and protects children and orphans.
I really liked Calamity or James, as well. He lost his legs in a drunk driving accident and the science behind the Initiative made him a speedster.
I loved Kate Kildare and her effiiciency and straightforwardness. She reminds me a lot of the Pepper I'm used to. While I have some appreciation for Fraciton's run of Iron Man, I've always kind of squinted as him version of Pepper. She's either passive or unnecessarily petty to me. Here, she's just a bystander for most of it. Weird.
Those were the characters I loved and remembered. This team is one of the more diverse teams which is part of why I'm so bummed it didn't last longer. There's a woc, 2 moc and a wlw in this book. That's a rarity for any Marvel book, lets be real. I will admit, the plot was boring, I side eyed quite a bit of these names for villains and heroes but at the heart of it, this was an interesting book. I like the team and concept behind it. I loved Henry struggling to be a leader and calling Tony for advice. The last 2 issues of this book are very solid and I enjoyed reading it.
3.5 stars.
So, this was a short lived series. I can sort of understand why because it reminds me of Gail Simone's the Movement in that Fraction created a team with only one established Marvel character (Pepper) and the rest appear to be brand new. The bad guys are bland and unmemorable. The dialogue for Becky, the Texan, was painful at times. I still don't know all of their names and alter egos. That being said, there's still a lot to love here.
Henry. I ADORED Henry Hellrung. He's a recovering alcoholic and he helped get Tony clean when he hit rock bottom. He used to play Tony in a TV show and he received some of the same hero worship Tony received from kids that looked up to him before his addiction ruined his career. Now he's just trying to lead this Initiative approved team and protect California and that's very honorable.
I adored Magdalena Marie as well (that name aside). She was also an actress. She knows martial arts and protects children and orphans.
I really liked Calamity or James, as well. He lost his legs in a drunk driving accident and the science behind the Initiative made him a speedster.
I loved Kate Kildare and her effiiciency and straightforwardness. She reminds me a lot of the Pepper I'm used to. While I have some appreciation for Fraciton's run of Iron Man, I've always kind of squinted as him version of Pepper. She's either passive or unnecessarily petty to me. Here, she's just a bystander for most of it. Weird.
Those were the characters I loved and remembered. This team is one of the more diverse teams which is part of why I'm so bummed it didn't last longer. There's a woc, 2 moc and a wlw in this book. That's a rarity for any Marvel book, lets be real. I will admit, the plot was boring, I side eyed quite a bit of these names for villains and heroes but at the heart of it, this was an interesting book. I like the team and concept behind it. I loved Henry struggling to be a leader and calling Tony for advice. The last 2 issues of this book are very solid and I enjoyed reading it.
3.5 stars.
August 23, 2020
I wasn't too fond of the whole Civil War storyline (I'd sooner see the heroes fight villains rather than each other), and its attendant fallouts (in the wake of which this book is firmly set), but this one isn't bad. It's well written by Matt Fraction, not as good as his runs on Hawkeye or Defenders but not bad, and Barry Kitson's art complements it pretty well. The big drawback is that too many new characters are introduced too swiftly, but I suppose there was no help for that. The only familiar continuing character is Pepper, and she seems way too young to be realistic. The individual issues are framed with introductory interviews with individual characters and those are particularly well done. There's an anorexic/bulimic character who saves the day by eating a nuclear bomb, so I gave it an extra star for her. 'Nuff said.
July 24, 2015
nothing earth-shaking here but if you write a comic book that has 1) a sober lead character 2) quotes from mike davis, john mcphee, and suisho tobita in it i will come on here and give you five stars
September 17, 2017
Interesting concept, but also the framing of the interviews is a good device for moving the story along.
June 20, 2023
For reasons that don't need exploring at this juncture, I needed to find out more about the Marvel Comics minor character Henry Hellrung, an actor who played Tony Stark on an Avengers TV show who later becomes Tony's AA sponsor. I figured that the best place to start would be the series that introduced him, The Order. This was a ten-issue series that was part of the post-Civil War branding The Initiative; The Order was California's team. It had what I thought was a pretty fun premise, which was that none of them were superheroes before this. They were all celebrities who were given superpowers that were specially chosen for them, and so in addition to defeating villains they had to manage public relations and generally deal with the nature of fame. And Henry Hellrung was the leader of the Order, reporting to Tony, now retconned in as Tony's AA sponsor and so on.
Interesting premise? I thought so. Then I read it. Wow, was that a mistake.
I should probably preface this by saying that I really hate Matt Fraction's Iron Man run. I really, really, really hate it. So I probably should have taken this into account. But I figured that Tony probably wasn't going to be in this all that much (he does have a few cameos), and that the premise, first couple issues, and structure were interesting. Every issue is structured as an interview with a different team member, and the action scenes have interesting relevant quotes in them, and unlike Fraction's Iron Man run, this run did not seem to be exuding depression, humiliation, and self-loathing. Tony is actually way more functional here than in Fraction's IM run, which is a little weird because in other books of this era Tony is lying on the floor sobbing more than once. Anyway. So it was actually okay at the beginning. Then it got weird.
This is going to sound bizarre if you're not into comics, but you know how sometimes you read a character who was created by a particular writer and it feels like their own character that they made is acting out of character? Henry Hellrung is like that. He's Tony's AA sponsor. He should be supportive. He is occasionally supportive. Then he is occasionally cruel, because everyone in this book is occasionally viciously cruel.
Like everyone else on The Order (other than Pepper, who isn't in the field, and yes, of course Henry hits on Pepper) he has no superheroing experience and appears to have gotten to be team leader via nepotism. He is better at admin than in the field -- at one point early on he makes a bad move in combat that Pepper chews him out for -- and other than the occasional vicious cruelty should probably have the organization job and not the battlefield job, but very few of Marvel's teams (other than early 90s Avengers) run separate field and admin leaders.
He and Tony have this extremely weird dynamic where Tony is his boss and he's Tony's AA sponsor so he calls Tony up to beg for advice on how to run a team and then harangues him about going to AA meetings. The Order gets kicked out of their old HQ because their landlord doesn't like the property damage so Tony wants to buy them a new HQ farther away from civilians and Henry doesn't like the new building and keeps complaining about it while they're touring it and Tony keeps telling him to shut up un a way that reads as extremely mean and not at all jocular.
The villains keep getting piled on way too fast. There is a final villain by the end of the run, but for most of it it feels like they're fighting four people at the same time. There are lizards and zombie homeless people and a government agent who wants to kill Henry and and and--
The characters are fine. I liked them. Maggie was introduced as someone complaining that no one ever pronounces her surname right (it's German) and her explanation of how to pronounce it was wrong. So that was a little weird.
The other character-related plot in this half of the run was with Becky, the hero who is a child celebrity now in her late teens. There's a plot involving a sex tape of her potentially getting leaked, and Kate, the Order's PR person, has to figure out how to stop it. She discovers that Becky was actually underage then and lied about it. So you might think, okay, now we will concern ourselves with potential trials for child porn and so on and so forth. Clearly if we're focusing on sexualization and exploitation, that's what's important. Nope! See, what actually matters is that her father who is her manager has his life ruined because that means that if she lied about her age some of her pageant wins are invalidated. How in the world do you write this plot and try to figure out what element is most important in its wrongness and not pick "the fact that there is now child porn circulating?"
Anyway.
That's #1-5! I've got more to say about #6-10 as soon as I find the entry for the TPB about that.
Interesting premise? I thought so. Then I read it. Wow, was that a mistake.
I should probably preface this by saying that I really hate Matt Fraction's Iron Man run. I really, really, really hate it. So I probably should have taken this into account. But I figured that Tony probably wasn't going to be in this all that much (he does have a few cameos), and that the premise, first couple issues, and structure were interesting. Every issue is structured as an interview with a different team member, and the action scenes have interesting relevant quotes in them, and unlike Fraction's Iron Man run, this run did not seem to be exuding depression, humiliation, and self-loathing. Tony is actually way more functional here than in Fraction's IM run, which is a little weird because in other books of this era Tony is lying on the floor sobbing more than once. Anyway. So it was actually okay at the beginning. Then it got weird.
This is going to sound bizarre if you're not into comics, but you know how sometimes you read a character who was created by a particular writer and it feels like their own character that they made is acting out of character? Henry Hellrung is like that. He's Tony's AA sponsor. He should be supportive. He is occasionally supportive. Then he is occasionally cruel, because everyone in this book is occasionally viciously cruel.
Like everyone else on The Order (other than Pepper, who isn't in the field, and yes, of course Henry hits on Pepper) he has no superheroing experience and appears to have gotten to be team leader via nepotism. He is better at admin than in the field -- at one point early on he makes a bad move in combat that Pepper chews him out for -- and other than the occasional vicious cruelty should probably have the organization job and not the battlefield job, but very few of Marvel's teams (other than early 90s Avengers) run separate field and admin leaders.
He and Tony have this extremely weird dynamic where Tony is his boss and he's Tony's AA sponsor so he calls Tony up to beg for advice on how to run a team and then harangues him about going to AA meetings. The Order gets kicked out of their old HQ because their landlord doesn't like the property damage so Tony wants to buy them a new HQ farther away from civilians and Henry doesn't like the new building and keeps complaining about it while they're touring it and Tony keeps telling him to shut up un a way that reads as extremely mean and not at all jocular.
The villains keep getting piled on way too fast. There is a final villain by the end of the run, but for most of it it feels like they're fighting four people at the same time. There are lizards and zombie homeless people and a government agent who wants to kill Henry and and and--
The characters are fine. I liked them. Maggie was introduced as someone complaining that no one ever pronounces her surname right (it's German) and her explanation of how to pronounce it was wrong. So that was a little weird.
The other character-related plot in this half of the run was with Becky, the hero who is a child celebrity now in her late teens. There's a plot involving a sex tape of her potentially getting leaked, and Kate, the Order's PR person, has to figure out how to stop it. She discovers that Becky was actually underage then and lied about it. So you might think, okay, now we will concern ourselves with potential trials for child porn and so on and so forth. Clearly if we're focusing on sexualization and exploitation, that's what's important. Nope! See, what actually matters is that her father who is her manager has his life ruined because that means that if she lied about her age some of her pageant wins are invalidated. How in the world do you write this plot and try to figure out what element is most important in its wrongness and not pick "the fact that there is now child porn circulating?"
Anyway.
That's #1-5! I've got more to say about #6-10 as soon as I find the entry for the TPB about that.
October 6, 2022
You know, it's a shame that this is such a short lived series because it really does feel like the perfect move for Marvel at the post-Civil War juncture. It's a nice little character-focused piece, and most of those characters get to shine as a result. It might be a little overcrowded, when the initial Order pops into frame and it's like 8 people I was like, "Ugh, should I even bother?" And the overarching story is blah, so much so that Fraction feels the need to undercut it constantly by hanging a lantern on how generic it is. But, I'm glad I stuck with it anyway.
February 21, 2008
This was a pleasant surprise. A superhero book with impossible powers, implausible physiques, costumes for all, massive battles, and yet none of it felt cheesy. These trademark elements of the superhero comic were filtered through real human problems (love, alcoholism, paralysis) and parallels to real events (international military crises, media sex scandals), and all filtered down into some interesting personalities. The Order is very much a personality book, with each chapter focusing one on potential candidate for heroism, from their motivation and personal conflicts, how they came to public works and how they figure into the "team." The characters are often more interesting than the events, though early curveballs (like who gets fired from the government-sponsored Order) make it more interesting to follow. Considering almost everyone who appears here is a new creation of Matt Fraction, new readers can jump in here with ease.
The art style is also quite fun to look at. It's pretty detailed for a Marvel publication, and the coloration, while not truly dark, is dimmed and dulled at certain points to prevent the pictures from being cloyingly bright.
The art style is also quite fun to look at. It's pretty detailed for a Marvel publication, and the coloration, while not truly dark, is dimmed and dulled at certain points to prevent the pictures from being cloyingly bright.
May 7, 2008
In the wake of Civil War, Iron Man created a bunch of new superhero teams. One is The Order, in which regular folk get superpowers, but just for just one year. The first volume is barely tied to Marvel's characters (Pepper Potts is a character and Iron Man has a few cameos) and doesn't create very compelling original heroes. But, with a team of largely disposable heroes, that's kind of the point.
Matt Fraction's story format--where each issue starts and ends with characters' job interviews--is interesting, and a quick way to develop backstory and characters' voice. The team's adventures just aren't that gripping. They fight a bunch of "Zobos" (zombie hobos) and also have to deal with a secret military team that's set up to be their ongoing nemesis.
The book feels simultaneously hip (thanks to Fraction, who comes out of the Warren Ellis school of neat ideas) and quotidian.
As for the art, Barry Kitson's been around a long time, and does suitable work. The colors are far too dark, though, especially with a team of unfamiliar heroes.
Matt Fraction's story format--where each issue starts and ends with characters' job interviews--is interesting, and a quick way to develop backstory and characters' voice. The team's adventures just aren't that gripping. They fight a bunch of "Zobos" (zombie hobos) and also have to deal with a secret military team that's set up to be their ongoing nemesis.
The book feels simultaneously hip (thanks to Fraction, who comes out of the Warren Ellis school of neat ideas) and quotidian.
As for the art, Barry Kitson's been around a long time, and does suitable work. The colors are far too dark, though, especially with a team of unfamiliar heroes.
August 4, 2016
One of Marvel's post Civil War titles. I suspect the title died on the vine, but I could be wrong about that.
After the Superhero Registration Act went into effect. Iron Man set about creating legal, government regulated super teams for all 50 states. The Order is his flagship new group and represents California. It is a team made up entirely of new superheros. They are all highly trained, normal humans, briefly given superhuman abilities for a year long term of service.
The premise is solid, the dialogue snappy, the art serviceable, but the characters are paper thin, and the antagonists are uninteresting and eminently forgettable. I enjoyed the examination of Marvel Universe politics and celebrity culture, and the title (if it survived) seems like it would have been capable of examining these issues to a much greater degree than any other regular Marvel title.
Altogether, my enthusiasm is lukewarm, and I would not be following this title even if I were still in my obsessive comic collector mindset.
After the Superhero Registration Act went into effect. Iron Man set about creating legal, government regulated super teams for all 50 states. The Order is his flagship new group and represents California. It is a team made up entirely of new superheros. They are all highly trained, normal humans, briefly given superhuman abilities for a year long term of service.
The premise is solid, the dialogue snappy, the art serviceable, but the characters are paper thin, and the antagonists are uninteresting and eminently forgettable. I enjoyed the examination of Marvel Universe politics and celebrity culture, and the title (if it survived) seems like it would have been capable of examining these issues to a much greater degree than any other regular Marvel title.
Altogether, my enthusiasm is lukewarm, and I would not be following this title even if I were still in my obsessive comic collector mindset.
July 20, 2016
The Order: The Next Right Thing is an interesting graphic novel that focuses on a team of celebrity superheroes that are given powers by Iron Man and Stark Industries. The team must deal with interpersonal conflicts, external challenges, and numerous super-powered enemies. The graphic novel works primarily because of the distinct voices that Matt Fraction imbues in each of his characters. They all feel like real people in extraordinary situations. However, some of the traditional superhero antics feel a bit forced, it seems the writer was more interested in character-building than action. The art by Barry Kitson and Khari Evans is excellent, both artists are top-notch. However, the graphic novel leaves the reader wondering if the traditional superhero art of Kitson and Evans was the right choice for the book. A more avant-garde style of art would have fit Fraction's themes as a writer a bit better. As it stands, The Order Volume 1 is flawed but fascinating; it is certainly worth a read.
October 23, 2015
The setup is pretty typical, a new team of young celebrities given superpowers, but Fraction makes it engaging. The powers they're given are a little different, I like the idea of a whole organization hiring and firing the superheroes (in the wake of Civil War), and the script makes each character seem interesting and significant. The whole "pantheon" approach is totally irrelevant, but I got invested in each individual character, and especially like the team leader. He was a body double (?) for Tony Stark, went through AA with him, and is now the "Apollo"-style leader of the team, although he does more leading than superpowering (which I like)! There are also some cool women on the team. I feel like their powers are a little gendered, but not condescendingly so -- if there's enough attention to those arcs, it could say something about women rather than just make assumptions about them.
March 5, 2023
Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 24
I liked this one much more than I probably should have.
But in this day or "concept-shattering" superhero story-arcs and serious, heartwrenching, ultra-personal indie comics -- it's nice be reminded from time to time that some comics are simply balls-out fun.
I'm not a fan of what little Civil War-era Marvel I've read, nor its effect on the overall Earth 606 universe. The Tony Stark Initiative (a plan to give each state it's own team of highly trained superheroes) was bound to fail, on its own epic scale if nothing else; but at least The Order that briefly came of all of it was enjoyable.
It's not great.
It's just fun.
I liked this one much more than I probably should have.
But in this day or "concept-shattering" superhero story-arcs and serious, heartwrenching, ultra-personal indie comics -- it's nice be reminded from time to time that some comics are simply balls-out fun.
I'm not a fan of what little Civil War-era Marvel I've read, nor its effect on the overall Earth 606 universe. The Tony Stark Initiative (a plan to give each state it's own team of highly trained superheroes) was bound to fail, on its own epic scale if nothing else; but at least The Order that briefly came of all of it was enjoyable.
It's not great.
It's just fun.
September 1, 2010
Slightly irreverent, sometimes funny, solid modern superhero stories, but somehow... lacking. Don't know what's missing, but if I didn't know going in that this was written by Matt Fraction I'd have figured it was some noob who still didn't know what their voice was. Great, smooth art with clean lines and clear staging, so we got great support or what we hope will be something more remarkable. Mostly I want to read more because I'm hoping beyond hope that future issues will be more "Fraction".
July 3, 2012
I purchased this book at a used book store. The names of Matt Fraction and Barry Kitson are more than enough to earn my support, however one aspect of the book I did not enjoy was how on multiple occasions the page layout would match the next page in a double page spread, tiered in three different ways, but the reader was supposed to read the entire page one before the reading the matching grid on page two. Other than that, this was a decent effort of new or established D-list like characters. I will gladly read the next volume.
May 22, 2008
Very much a superhero soap opera and highly appropriate for L.A.'s first super team (ignoring West Coast Avengers). This is the first Matt Fraction comic I've read and I see why he's so popular. His grasp of dialog and character is top notch and I can easily see him in the ranks of Warren Ellis and Greg Rucka.
August 31, 2008
Reprints The Order #1-5. The first line-up for the Order is fired and a new team is brought in to replace them. I can see where the Order is trying to go but it doesn't quite seem to make it over the hump. It feels like a Planetary or a much less extreme version of X-Statix. That being said, it isn't bad but it doesn't feel quite like a really good book.
January 3, 2011
Very interesting take on a super-team, though some details were unfortunately close to things we'd written in our original comic scripts. Good characters and great book formats. The plots left something to be desired for a non-comic fan like me. Didn't love the art - too much gratuitous T&A for a book that otherwise treated women pretty well.
January 5, 2017
Really a 3.5 but closer to a 4 than a 3.
This is a fun mix of the celebrity superhero hijinks of X-Statix and the "people with other jobs becoming superheroes" concept of Global Frequency. The superhero designs themselves are a bit bland and the first issue is boilerplate, but after that we're off to the races with slick characterization and polished art.
This is a fun mix of the celebrity superhero hijinks of X-Statix and the "people with other jobs becoming superheroes" concept of Global Frequency. The superhero designs themselves are a bit bland and the first issue is boilerplate, but after that we're off to the races with slick characterization and polished art.
February 17, 2012
Second string set of artificially created superheroes for the initiative to put a superhero team in every state. Fascinating characterization. I'm not crazy about the art, but at least you can tell most of the characters apart.
September 18, 2014
The Civil War series dealt with terrorism in a balanced and interesting way, and this series was apparently Marvel's attempt to represent the military propaganda side of it, which I have no interest in.
March 31, 2008
There's a review here: http://shazhmmm.blogspot.com/2008/03/...
June 16, 2011
I don't quite see why this book made such a splash. It's a fine read - mostly interesting characters, competent art, nice layouts - but ultimately doesn't stand out from other decently written books.
July 3, 2013
Not as good as some of Fraction's later work, but these are some interesting characters who I'm liking getting to know.
September 26, 2013
Shame this series didn't continue. It's brilliant super hero soap opera
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews