Solo: The One Man War on Terror

Solo (2016) #1-5

by Gerry Duggan

Solo goes solo! That's right - Merc For Money James Bourne is out on his own, right where he belongs! And the "One Man War on Terror" will get the job done! Deadly alien weapons are making their way into the hands of ordinary thugs - and Solo is going undercover to locate the source. But when things start to heat up, he might just wish he had some backup! Alone in the heart of a dangerous biker gang, Solo had better watch his back, because someone might already be onto his secret! Deadpool was just the beginning. You haven't seen anything until you've gotten to know Solo!

COLLECTING: SOLO 1-5

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels

112 pages, Paperback

Published June 13, 2017

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad at all but nothing spectacular either. An entertaining little story with some funny lines and a pretty good ending.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story is pretty funny and the dialogue is very light-hearted too. More than anything, this comic feels like a parody with spies and futuristic guns. While Solo has some skill and considers himself the best at what he does (oops, wrong character, snikt!), he often escapes hairy situations through dumb luck. Even during missions he calls up his far more professional ex-wife whose recommendations are often better than anything Solo can come up with.

Dum-Dum Dugan of SHIELD hires Solo to rescue an undercover agent from a gang that is selling extraterrestrial weapons. He botches the infiltration and gets the agent killed, but isn't discovered yet. He uses an image inducer to convince the two gang leaders to fight each other and finds the man behind the weapons: a villain named Egghead. Dum Dum captures Egghead who is in reality a bit innocent of gunrunning. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Solo tries to fool the gang that he is one of their leaders and fails again, but manages to kill them and then meets the alien suppliers. One bumbling mix-up after another and he destroys their ship, killing them and putting an end to their smuggling. Fairly good show! He reunites with his family in the end, so this is one lucky guy.

[Michael Galarneau · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was introduced to the character Solo through the original Marvel table top RPG. He seemed interesting as a slightly different take on the Punisher motif. They originally had very similar origin stories (although Marvel has slightly altered Solo's over the years to help make him less of a Punisher knock off). The two main differences being that Solo's family was killed by terrorists instead of the mob, and solo has the ability to teleport.

This collection represents Marvel's second go at giving Solo a mini series. Unlike the first mini series that relied a lot on the use of Spider-man to help draw in readers, this series does not share the spot light with any A-line Marvel character. That is not to say that a few well know characters don't make an appearance, it is just that this mini series gives greater focus to Solo. While Solo does kill a lot of terrorists in this series, he does seem a lot less blood thirsty than his earlier appearances in the Marvel Universe.

I still play that table top Marvel RPG from time to time, and Solo is a character I like to use. This series has given me some good ideas for character advancement in the future, as it introduces a few new gadgets and talents that his original Marvel character profile did not have. They should help give greater versatility to his playability.

[Adan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was more fun than it had any right to be, but Solo is still a pretty obnoxious character. He's ridiculously arrogant, but still somehow manages to get out of the scrapes he causes, which is more infuriating. Catita is clearly the audience surrogate as she has also had it up to here with James Bourne.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

The backbone of this book feels pretty blah. Some of the villains' characterizations and designs are a little interesting. And Duggan does a good job being consistent about how holographic disguises work.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting shoot it up with a new to me, and likely many others, hero with his own hang-ups, baggage and quirks which help you feel connected to him.

[Shantal Murillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad... I like it more when he was part of the original mercs for money group

[Hunter Lambright · Rating 2 out of 5]

The continuity freak inside me has no idea what to do with that Yondu appearance.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solo goes......solo. Ugh, that lame. Regardless, Solo takes a mission to get in the good graces of S.H.I.E.L.D. and then hi-jinks ensue. I wasn't expecting to like this but it was good. The humor was there, as expected from Duggan. It does read as Deadpool-lite which is a drawback because if I wanted to read Deadpool, I would. The art by Paco Diaz was really good. Overall, a decent book but nothing new.