Review – Thor #1 (2014)
Allow me to be blunt. This is a comic book where on the second page the words “Activating Attack Sharks” is uttered with not a single hint of irony. Yes, in this issue of Thor, a deep ocean sea-lab run by the Roxxon corporation features a defense system consisting of what appear to be technologically enhanced super-sharks, who eventually engage in underwater combat with an army of invading Frost Giants from Jotunheim.
So, in short, it’s pretty much par for the course when it comes to a Thor comic.
The big hullabaloo about this issue has been that the fellow we have come to know and love as Thor is no longer going to be the titular character of the series. In the wake of the crossover event Original Sin, He is unworthy to wield mighty Mjolnir, the hammer that serves as the symbol of his power. Fans fearing that Thor would simply be discarded to make way for a new character will be relieved however, as this first issue in a new series spends a good majority of its time with Thor Classic.
New Thor does not show her face until the final page of the issue. In many ways, the storytelling structure of this issue of Thor is the polar opposite of something like Ms. Marvel # 1. While that issue and series has been a huge success for Marvel, the baseline of the narrative utilized by writer G. Willow Wilson would not suit the type of story that Jason Aaron is attempting to tell here. By the time the first issue of Ms. Marvel came around, the namesake had been vacant for a while as Carol Danvers had transitioned into being Captain Marvel for a bit by that point. The story was able to focus on Kamala Khan taking up the mantle and the circumstances that surrounded her beginning the hero’s journey. With Thor, Aaron seems to be setting up a dual track that will focus on the way that Thor Classic deals with his fall as much as the exploits of whoever it is that takes up the hammer now.
So, does the issue work?
I would say that overall it is a very interesting Thor book. However, I will also admit that I have no connection to the new “Thor” because no attempt has been made to make her anything more than a mystery at this point. At the end of the first issue in this series, ostensibly her series, she is no more fleshed out than she was before the series hit stands. There is no change in my view of her as a concept. As a debut issue in that regard, the book falls short. The book should have given me a reason to stay on board. It should have made a connection between the reader and our new protagonist. If the series is to succeed based on the merit of this new character, shouldn’t we get some inkling of who this new character is as a person? If this book is supposed to center around her, and we are to accept her as our new Thor, making her a side element in the first issue of her own series is not the boldest move to take. Perhaps taking the time to do more setup in the previous volume or even giving the issue the double-sized treatment might have solved some of these problems.
The book is worth a read if you’re a Thor fan. If you were hoping to find something akin to Ms. Marvel, with a fleshed out new female character that sticks the landing on its first issue, this might not be your best bet. For that reason I’m grading it on two separate scales. For longtime Thor fans, this is a solid 8/10. It plays with the lore, we get familiar faces and the best elements of a Thor book are there. For Marvel fans looking to jump on board, it falls closer to a 5/10. The artwork and writing are excellent but the enjoyment you get out of it is qualified by how intrigued you are by Thor and his mythos.
Here’s to hoping issue number two makes significant strides with regards to setting up the titular character.
Review – Wolverine # 1 (2014)
I want to readily admit that I did not read the last volume of Wolverine. I just sort of missed out on it while it was going on. When I saw that they were relaunching the book, along with a host of others I thought I would give it a try because aside from Wolverine and the X-Men by Jason Aaron I haven’t been following a Wolverine-centric title in a while. Paul Cornell is always a competent writer and I figured it might be interesting to see where his take on the character has wandered.
The book picks up with a depowered Wolverine, stripped of his immortality and made vulnerable to all manner of hurt and injury. He’s sporting some heavy armor to protect himself from the elements of danger that being a superhero will put him in and he’s npw teamed up with a shady character called “The Offer.” This guy from my deductions is some sort of Vito Corleone “makes you a deal you can’t refuse” sort of fellow and he has tasked Wolverine with breaking someone out of a highly guarded facility with the aid of a couple of other folks that I didn’t recognize offhand. The issue focuses mainly on this little mission but there is some flashback to Wolverine’s conversations with Storm regarding the loss of his healing factor that helps put us in Logan’s headspace a little more firmly, or so we are led to believe.
Wolverine is a character that has gone through a number of different looks, personas, and interpretations. Everyone seems to fall back on the outsider/wandering samurai motif but sometimes it is fun to explore other options. Here we get something more akin to the stories of when he was a mercenary. A rogue agent who hadn’t yet found his true affiliation. This time he has some true friends to guide him along, as a scene with Black Widow is particularly effective in showing how he plans to cope with his new situation. The thing that strikes me about this issue, and this iteration of Wolverine, is that the focus seems to be on telling a fun, action oriented story that focuses less on the mysteries of Logan’s past and how it currently affecting him. In fact, the book seems heavily focused on showing Wolverine as a blank slate and the primary directive of the narrative is driven from where he could go in the future.
The ending of the book is supposed to be a shocker but based on context clues within the issue we could have seen it coming. The resolution of that climax however, could go in any number of ways and I’m interested in seeing how Cornell moves forward on the book.
Rating: 3.5/5
Review – Ms. Marvel # 1 (2014)
I really am not the person who needs to be writing this review. There are many people who have more right to tell you why this book existing is good for Marvel, good for comics, good for diversity, good for female readership, just plain good. I am not the person who should be typing these words. I am a straight, white, male. There are plenty of books on the shelves for me. I can read just about any mainstream title and enjoy a sort of wish-fulfillment fantasy by swapping myself out with the title character. I could be Batman. I could be Captain America. I could be Peter Parker or Tony Stark. I could be Bruce Banner or Wolverine or Superman or Cyclops. The generic template for the superhero is one of the straight white male. We are the default, the blank slate. The starting point for 99.99% of mainstream comic characters. There are some wonderful characters that are more diverse and I am sure they are inspirations to the younger generation of readers discovering comics in this sort of geek renaissance that we are experiencing, but the comic book world needs and deserves more. As a white straight male I understand this. I know that seeing the same white straight male characters ad nauseum gets repetitive and boring. I myself am guilty of being repetitive and boring. I imagine that folks who do not identify as straight white males find it frustrating, to say the least, that there aren’t a greater number of characters out there for them to identify with. Marvel seems to be attempting to rectify that by not only developing new characters that stand apart from their white male brethren, but giving them real focus in their own books. We’re getting a Latino Ghost Rider solo book soon, people. Sit and think on that for a minute.
So Ms. Marvel is indeed a refreshing book. We have a female lead, still a teenager dealing with school and family issues in the tradition of great Marvel heroes like Peter Parker. We have a character who is of Pakistani descent living in New Jersey in a post-9/11 world, dealing with the ramifications of her own culture as it relates to her social life or lack thereof. If anything, this book is one of the most honest looks at the perception of “the foreign other” in the high school structure that I can remember in recent memory. I had a good friend in high school who went through much of the same struggle that our protagonist, Kamala, goes through in this issue; the balance of faith and family with school and societal norms. Kamala is a very realized character. She wears her inner conflict on her sleeve. Who she is and who she wants to be are at odds with each other in a way that feels very human and real. She is a teenage girl dealing with serious issues, the escapism that she seeks through writing Avengers fan-fiction is a solid indicator of what Kamala truly is like as a person. She longs for power as a means of control, not of others but of herself. She sees strength in The Avengers and admires it.
From a writer’s standpoint the issue is quite strong. We are introduced to the character and we organically learn her motivation. We take the journey with her and we can empathize with her because even if everyone reading the book isn’t Muslim, we all can sympathize with being a teenager and disagreeing with our parents over the level of trust and responsibility we were mature enough to bear. That is why it is so important to have books and characters like these, because there is an across the board connection that we can feel with the character regardless of our race or upbringing. There is a universal quality to any character in a comic book. We can relate to a talking raccoon and his sapling BFF so we should easily be able to identify with another human being, regardless of their nationality or heritage. But it is important that these characters exist for that one comic reader who is the real-life iteration of Kamala who wants to be represented in graphic fiction. She deserves this character. We all deserve this character.
Artistically speaking the book is an A-plus effort. Adrian Alphona puts some gorgeous artwork on display. It takes me back to the days when Runaways was still being published and makes me wish there was more stylistically emboldened artwork like this on more titles. The colors and the expressiveness of the characters blend together to make a truly astonishing debut issue that sets it apart from the myriad other first issues that hit the stands on any given week. Honestly, the book is simply gorgeous.
I shouldn’t be the one saying this but everyone should buy this book. It is an important book. But it is also a good book. Sometimes we have to suffer through importance but this time around we actually get to enjoy it. So please take the time to do so.
Rating: 5/5
Marvel Bombshell – Charles Soule Replacing Matt Fraction on INHUMAN
Following up on the news that Inhuman would be getting delayed by months, Bleeding Cool is reporting a major bombshell that Matt Fraction will no longer be writing the title citing “creative and editorial differences.” The book was meant to be a reintroduction of the Inhumans in a big way to the Marvel universe under Fraction’s direction but he has been replaced on the title by writer Charles Soule, who is coming up in a big way at the moment penning books like Superman/Wonder Woman, Letter 44, as well as Marvel’s upcoming She-Hulk # 1.
I don’t want to speculate about what sort of creative decisions may have been made with regard to the series that would have caused Fraction to walk, but I’ll stake my reputation on it being Marvel not wanting to dedicate a six issue arc to Chip Zdarsky’s experiences with the terrigen mists that gave him the power to ink and color his own artwork with lavish strokes of his genitals. [*please note that I do not actually believe this except I sort of do and will not redact it until Chip Zdarsky releases a statement otherwise.]
Amazing Spider-Man 2 Trailer
I liked the first Amazing Spider-Man quite a bit. Everything I have been seeing about the second installment makes me dubious. This trailer has some high points and some low points but I do think that within the world they are building a lot of what they are doing makes sense. Would I prefer a more classic take on Rhino and Electro? Sure. But I think I’ll give this a shot before I tear it apart.
Marvel Postpones Fraction/Madureira INHUMAN # 1
Shockingly, the news has broken that the Matt Fraction penned and Joe Mad illustrated Inhuman # 1 originally slated for a January release will be postponed to a later date (Update: We’re hearing now issue one will ship in April with issue 2 to follow in MAY). All orders for the issue have been cancelled by Diamond Comics Distributors. Considering I recently made a post about how Sandman Overture being late over at DC was a remarkable blunder, I have to reiterate that idea here as well for Marvel. Inhuman spins out of the Inhumanity one shot moving into a full series and rumors have been swirling that it is the blueprint for how Marvel can have “mutant” style characters in their cinematic universe while not stepping on Fox’s toes. Fox’s film rights to the mutant characters are solid and unflinching, so it is not surprising that Marvel might want to have an equivalent in their cinematic world.
The book being late has further repercussions as the Inhumanity tie-ins are already starting to trickle in. Avengers Assemble hits stores today with that branding at the top of the cover. If the book ships that much later than expected it could affect other books in the process. I think that a good portion of people expected this to happen when they saw Joe Madureira’s name on the solicit, but it is still a disappointment that such a hyped event is allowed to ship late.
Daredevil Returns in March 2014 with All New # 1, All Same Team
The folks over at Nerdist broke the news today that Daredevil, previously reported to be ending with issue thirty-six, will be getting an all-new # 1 issue in March with the creative team of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee handling Daredevil’s move to the west coast, San Francisco to be precise. Longtime readers of Daredevil will note that Matt Murdoch spent some time in the city back in the seventies running around town with Black Widow.
I am personally relieved that Mark Waid and Chris Samnee are sticking around, as they have made Daredevil one of Marvel’s best, most consistent titles and I would have been weeping tears of nerdly sadness if they left the book after such a short run. Here’s hoping they get 100 collective issues together before they’re through. I don’t care how many new issue ones it takes.
Court Rules Superman Belongs To Warner Brothers
The character rights to Superman have been in dispute for some time now. The court case between Warner Brothers and the Siegel and Shuster families has raged for quite some time. An original deal was made with the Shuster family and Warner Brothers in the early nineties that would allow payments throughout their lifetime for the use of Superman. A similar deal was supposedly reached with the Siegels in the early 2000s as well. Those deals notwithstanding, both families have been embroiled in legal battles with Warner Brothers over ownership rights. Close to a year ago the Siegel family lost their final appeal and this week the same court that shut down that case ruled against the Shusters as well, securing all rights to Superman and any characters derived from his use for Warner Brothers.
With talks of copyright extension in the news it is interesting to take a look at this case and see how different and yet the same things are within the comic book industry when it comes to the handling of work for hire. DC Comics does have a fairly decent track record as of late. Talks of royalty checks showing up in Chuck Dixon’s mailbox when The Dark Knight Rises hit theaters for his contributions to creating Bane got a lot of press. Apparently DC has no incentive to do this, but did so for reasons nobody can truly fathom. Creator rights seem to be a very broad spectrum from case to case. I think everyone is quite aware of how Marvel treated Jack Kirby and Joe Simon regarding their contributions to the Marvel universe.
Most people who do work for hire understand the ramifications of that. Look at Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker and their reactions to the Jim Gordon TV show announcement and the use of The Winter Soldier. They know that Marvel is well within their rights to use those characters and ideas because that was in the terms of their contract with the company. Most creators are realistic when it comes to how their work-for-hire output is utilized and what expectations they should have regarding compensation. Siegel and Shuster were in a very different boat when they made their deal with DC comics in the early twentieth century. They tried to secure a fair shake for their involvement when they were alive and their family continued that fight after their deaths.
The world of copyright and creator rights is an ever shifting landscape. The comics industry should certainly treat their creators with more respect. The people in charge would not have these characters without the creative types doing their job. Royalties for new creations shouldn’t be such a stumbling block. I don’t work for any of the major companies so I don’t want to overstep my bounds. But I don’t think I’m going out on too far of a limb to say that I support creators and creator rights and think that its not bad business to support the people who keep your enterprise alive.
Humphries’ Uncanny X-Force Coming To An Uncanny End
Sam Humphries made the announcement on his Tumblr page that his run on Uncanny X-Force will be coming to an end with issue number 17 early next year. This comes as sad news to me, who only yesterday started reading the series on the suggestion of my co-worker who praised it as the best X-book on the stands right now. I am currently loving all the x-books and think everyone working on those titles are doing a bang-up job, with major props to Brian Wood and Brian Bendis for revitalizing the line after my own interest had started to flag a little bit.
Uncanny X-Force is indeed every bit as good as my cohort describes. If you aren’t reading it you should definitely give it a read. It has a very distinct voice when coupled with all the other X-books. Humphries instills characters like Psylocke and Storm with a boldness and unique voice that I personally feel they have sorely lacked in the past. Also, anybody who has the good sense to realize that Puck deserves to get some of the spotlight from time to time deserves a whole heap of praise.
Humphries and Garney put together a truly special x-book that I am sad to see go. I wish I would have been able to go along for the ride from the beginning. I’ll follow through with it to the end now, though. I hope I’m not alone.
Cataclysm – The Ultimates’ Last Stand # 1 Review
Last week I reviewed the 0.1 issue of Cataclysm that set the stage for what would come in the event series that, supposedly, will herald the end of the Ultimate Universe. This week I took a look at the first issue of the series, based almost entirely off of the fact that Brian Michael Bendis was on scripting duties with Mark Bagley handling the art. These are the guys who defined the Ultimate Universe, for me at least, and seeing them pal back up to possibly bring it to a close put a measure of confidence in the project for me on a personal level. Bendis feels like the person who should be writing this. As much as Millar and Hitch shepherded The Ultimates through two volumes and revolutionized comics in a very substantial way, Bendis sustained Ultimate Spider-Man as the tentpole of the universe and that book is, to many (myself included) the heart and soul of the Ultimate universe.
So how does the book measure up?
Like I admitted last week, I haven’t been knee deep in the Ultimate Universe for a while. I fell of off Ultimate Spider-Man around the third arc of Miles Morales’ time as the ultimate webspinner, and I’m only remotely aware of the goings on in the rest of the line. If we look at the book as a real game changer for the universe, even if it isn’t meant to be the end of the line, it holds up quite well. Compare it to say, Ultimatum, and you notice right away that the character beats of the book hold up much better. The action is a bit understated, considering that it is Galactus essentially destroying New Jersey, but the reaction of Miles Morales to such an overwhelming threat is in line with what you expect a young hero to exude during a crisis.
Bagley’s art is what we have come to expect from him, though it looks more finely finished than when he was working on Ultimate Spider-Man on a monthly basis. There is definition and scale that really works in the book’s favor.
I wasn’t entirely sold on the event based on last week’s debut, but this issue has me intrigued and I truly do want to see where things go. Right now I don’t have the slightest clue. Just a bunch of wild speculations bouncing around in my brain.
Rating: 4/5
Comic Review – Ultimate Comics Cataclysm #0.1
I have to admit that I stopped reading the Ultimate line a while ago. After the second arc of Miles Morales’ turn as Spider-Man, I believe. I just lost interest because the line didn’t seem to grab me the way it did when it was first launched. I think it was a steady roll to apathy that began with Ultimatum. I don’t have any investment in the universe as a whole anymore so Cataclysm is an outlier for me. It is something that catches my eye because it is supposedly going to be the end of the Ultimate universe, though that isn’t totally confirmed, and that as a concept seems like something I would be interested in seeing executed well.
The problem then, at least for me, is that there is no attachment to the characters and their universe when I picked up this issue. For current fans of the Ultimate universe, I feel the book might resonate a bit better than it did with me. But the attitude on display here seems self-referential, like Marvel is aware of the fact that the Ultimate Universe expirement has run its course and needs to come to an end. There is a point where the 616 version of Galactus states emphatically that “this universe is broken.” While the Ultimate Vision pleads that it can be saved. I think the crux of the book falls in that simple argument; is the Ultimate Universe worth keeping around?
Aside from Ultimate Spider-Man and perhaps Brian Wood’s Ultimate X-Men, the ultimate titles are mostly stagnant at the store which employs me. Some titles have a core following, but not like they did half a decade ago.
Perhaps it is time to bury this universe. The question is whether or not this event will do it in a manner befitting one of the only alternate universe lines not to immediately tank itself.
Rating: 3/5
Days of Future Past Trailer Online Now (Online Then?) *I Hate Time Travel **But Love Doctor Who ***That Is A Paradox ****Which Is One Of The Things I Hate About Time Travel
And that my friends is the sound of a lonely Bishop fan fist-pumping the air.
All-New Marvel Now Includes Relaunched She-Hulk Title
As I type this I am staring at the ten volumes of the last volume of She-Hulk sitting on my shelf, begging me to re-read them. I consider the run to be the pinnacle of Dan Slott’s career. (Let’s not make this a Superior Spider-Man debate. That book is more of a punchline than anything now, regardless of quality) Well it seems that Chris Soule is stepping up to the plate to take his own swing at writing Jen Walters exploits as the All-New Marvel Now initiative that I mentioned a little while ago is now slated to include new She Hulk series written by the Superman/WonderWoman scribe and pencilled by Javier Pulido. Soule is a good fit for the title considering he ACTIVELY PRACTICES LAW IN NEW YORK CITY.
*Ahem*
Anyway, he had this to say about the series;
“One of the things I want to explore is the fact that she wants to be exceptional at everything she does, but that’s not always possible. You can spread yourself too thin. She’ll be out on her own, without much of a support group at first, a total underdog trying to make good. I love stories like that — Jen’s going to be very easy to root for.”
And now I’m excited and have another book to add to the pull-list. Good job Marvel.
Review – Marvel Comics : The Untold Story
I have been a comics fan for a long time. I’ve worked in a comic book store off and on since 2006. I like to think I know a little bit about the industry and the community that surrounds it, but the extensive research on display within the pages of this book is so expansive and all-consuming that I found myself completely lost in the information being spilled onto the page. The revolving doors of Marvel’s management, the rise and fall of its star writers and artists, the trials and tribulations of those crushed under the restrictions of work-for-hire agreements; it is all spelled out in meticulous detail.
Author Sean Howe presents a look into the evolution of the comics business in a way that is equal parts documentary and sensationalized narrative. The people who built Marvel; Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Gene Colan, Gerry Conway, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Jim Shooter, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Avi Arad, Joe Quesada…all these names come with preconceived baggage for the established comic fan. Within the pages of the book they come to life as if you worked in the bullpen right along with them. The book feels like Mad Men: Marvel Edition at times. As a reader, you get drawn in and start to become emotionally invested in these people, even if you might already know where their story ends.
I cannot recommend this book enough to comic fans, I recommend it equally to anybody who is a fan of detailed history as well. This is just as interesting as any other book chronicling a decades long timeline of a niche element. Culturally speaking, Marvel’s influence is so far-reaching that I cannot imagine anyone not being enthralled by this particular book.
The book also has an internet supplement on Tumblr with pictures and references galore. I would classify Marvel Comics : The Untold Story as a potential rabbit hole that is easy for anyone to tumble down.
Joss Whedon Tinkers With Thor
We’ve heard about reshoots on the set of Thor : The Dark World, and now we’re hearing via SFX magazine that Joss Whedon has been brought in by Marvel to toy around with certain parts of the film in the hopes of bettering the finished product. They seem to be playing it up as the architect of the Marvel cinematic world lending his golden touch but does it spell larger problems for the Norse sequel? Director Alan Taylor had this to say about the situation;
“Joss came in to save our lives a couple of times,” laughs the director. “We had a major scene that was not working on the page at all in London, and he basically got airlifted in, like a SWAT team or something. He came down, rewrote the scene, and before he got back to his plane I sort of grabbed him and said, ‘And this scene and this scene?’ And he rewrote two other scenes that I thought had problems. Then finally we let go of him, he took off again, and we shot the scenes; and they were just much better and much lighter on their feet. Much more fun, much more surprising than what we had been trying to do. I can relate to guys who come out of the TV world, since that’s where I come from. And being able to land and work and solve a problem quickly… I really was grateful.”
It seems like Marvel wants to do anything they can to make their Phase 2 films work. It feels like they aren’t putting much stock in the creative teams they’ve hired from the outset and prefer to tinker after the fact, which might spell trouble down the line. Let’s hope we don’t hear of the need for similar fixes for Captain America : The Winter Soldier. The last thing we need is a visible pattern.
I Guess The 90’s Are Back – Marvel Brings Back The Acetate Cover
DC set the comic retailing world on fire with their 3D covers for villains month. The demand outweighed the supply and left speculators frustrated and store owners angry that they couldn’t milk more money from the situation. Well Marvel looks like it wants to get into the game of wacky covers yet again as they will be running Acetate covers for Wolverine Origin II, written by Kieron Gillen and due out later this year.
Set a few years after the events of Origin, Origin II finds James Howlett running with the wolves…until something unexpected brings him back into the world of men! Follow the first “X-Man” as he finds his way back to civilization and falls afoul of someone Sinister, who’s just discovering mutantkind and the horrors he can visit on them. Written by comics superstar Kieron Gillen and drawn by industry legend Adam Kubert, Origin IIcontinues the proud tradition of revealing Wolverine’s shocking history in the highest quality possible!
Acetate covers, for those who don’t quite remember are a slick, shiny plastic sheet. The best example would be Marvels or going further back The Last Avengers Story. So far only Origin II is slated for an acetate cover. No word on if holograms, die-cuts, and randomized trading cards are going to make a comeback as well.
Weekly Comic Reviews – 9/12/2013
Hey everybody, it’s time for that all important time of the week where I run down a number of comic books and tell you whether they make the grade. Last week was uncharacteristically downbeat, with The Star Wars being the one bright spot in an otherwise grim slate. But the thing about comics is that there is so much on the rack that if you wait a week you might just strike gold. There were a number of books this week that I sat down and read in the hopes of giving you guys a greater variety in terms of recommendations so without further ado, let’s go ahead and get this show on the road.
Action Comics 23.2 – (General Zod)
Written by: Greg Pak
Art by: Ken Lashley
Cover by: Gene Ha
Color/B&W: Color
Page Count: 32
U.S. Price: 3.99
On Sale Date: Sep 11 2013
General Zod storms into The New 52! Witness the origin of this genocidal maniac, and learn how far he will go to destroy those who oppose him!
Greg Pak is a writer who I tend to enjoy. I think a lot of that is holdover good will from Planet Hulk. I’ve talked to him at conventions and he seems to be a pretty cool dude as well. I picked this issue up based more on the fact that his name was in the writing credits than any loyalty to the character of Zod. I’m not sure which incarnation of Zod DC planned on utilizing this time around. I remember there being a great deal of confusion regarding Zod from his previous uses in the Our Worlds at War crossover only to be re-imagined a few years later with Brian Azzarello’s For Tomorrow storyline just to be re-purposed by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner for Last Son. This issue gives us a Zod that doesn’t really line up with any of those, and delves into an origin story for the character that allows us to start from scratch and accept this version of Zod as one that has no conflicts with previous iterations of the character.
Our Zod is one who had to survive a harsh environment in his youth, losing his emotionless parents to a savage attack by alien beasts and eventually being stranded in that hostile locale until he is rescued by the house of El almost a decade later. That time trapped in the wilderness turned him into an embittered, sci-fi version of Green Arrow. He harbors aspirations of vengeance against the alien race responsible for wiping out his family and at the same time rises through the ranks of the Kryptonian military.
Only the ending of his story, being shunted off into the Phantom Zone, the one constant that never seems to change in his narrative, seems familiar. Zod’s motivations don’t seem reminiscent of any version of the character that I can remember, although I am sure there are through-lines that I’m just missing out on. The fact that we are getting a definitive take on the character for the new 52, working from a blank slate, makes the book interesting to read because the expectations of the reader should be equally as open.
Another nice surprise was the inclusion of Faora, who stole the show in Man of Steel this summer. Hopefully the folks at DC plan to utilize her effectively, as the DCU could always use some well-written female antagonists. She gets little face time here but it is Zod’s name on the cover after all. I’ll keep my eyes out for future appearances.
All in all, a better issue on all counts than last week’s Cyborg Superman issue, which I did not cotton to at all.
Rating: 3 and 1/2 out of 5
Batman 23.2 – The Riddler
Written by: Scott Snyder and Ray Fawkes
Art by: Jeremy Haun
Cover by: Guillem March
Color/B&W: Color
Page Count: 32
U.S. Price: 3.99
On Sale Date: Sep 11 2013
I pretty much eviscerated the 23.1 Joker issue last week. I felt like it was a harbinger of much worse things to come. After all, if the highest profile Batman villain in the bunch couldn’t get a decent issue, what chance did anyone else stand? The Joker isn’t a hard character to wrap your mind around creatively if you approach it from the correct angle. Giving insight into a tortured childhood isn’t the way to go. The fact that we get abusive parent back-stories for Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn as well just goes to show that applying the same wrote, hack writing tricks to a character like the Joker just isn’t going to fly and that is why the issue failed on the whole.
The Riddler is a hard character to get into as well. For my money nobody writes the guy as well as Paul Dini, though I admittedly liked the turn Jeph Loeb gave him in The Long Halloween and Hush. Scott Snyder and Ray Fawkes take on the character here and the take is one that works. In order to understand the Riddler you need to understand narcissism and self-importance. I am surprised that so many writers have such a hard time empathizing with such emotions because as a writer you have to tell yourself constantly that you are the most talented person in the room, you’re smarter than everyone around you, and your work should stand on its own merit by virtue of escaping from the confines of your imagination. The Riddler deals in similar themes. It comes through very vividly in this issue, where he systematically bypasses each and every security measure in Wayne Tower, returning for the first time since the events of Zero Year.
Riddler matches wits with the head of Wayne’s security, who also used to be a guard he crossed paths with during a stay at Arkham Asylum. This man’s downfall is that, unlike the reader and, especially the writers of this issue, he doesn’t realize that the Riddler is more than a simple criminal. He fails to empathize and it ensures his demise. The Riddler is always three steps ahead of those he feels are below him, which is simply everyone. Riddler is the green-tinted flipside of Batman without the grace of humility. Snyder and Fawkes realize this and write him as such. The issue plays out wonderfully, especially the climax which demonstrates that the entirety of the Riddler’s mission was for a singular purpose that I won’t spoil here, but it renders the rest of the issue in a light that makes perfect sense in regards to character motivation and seals the deal that these guys know what the Riddler is all about.
This is definitely the high bar for the villains month so far. Which, given Snyder’s previous work with Batman, is not at all surprising.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Detective Comics 23.2 – Harley Quinn
Written by: Matt Kindt
Art by: Neil Googe
Cover by: Chris Burnham
Color/B&W: Color
Page Count: 32
U.S. Price: 3.99
On Sale Date: Sep 11 2013
If Dr. Harleen Quinzel wasn’t crazy when she fell for The Joker at Arkham Asylum, she sure was messed up afterwards! Find out more from Harley’s time with her beloved Mr. J. and see what got her into so much trouble that she was “recruited” for the Suicide Squad!
I haven’t been keeping up with Suicide Squad or paying much attention to Harley Quinn. She doesn’t resemble the character I fell in love with back in the early nineties watching episodes of Batman : The Animated Series. There is a cynicism to this version of the character that I don’t identify with. This issue gives us a beat by beat origin story for Harley, where we see that some of the elements of her original incarnation still live on. She was brilliant and became a psychiatrist, then wound up at Arkham hoping to truly challenge herself by helping the worst of the worst of the criminally insane only to be sucked into the Joker’s world. She posed as an inmate to get closer and wound up getting a little too close. That all works and doesn’t rub me the wrong way that much.
The rest of the issue does have flaws. I was not a fan of the fact that we got a beat-by-beat rundown of how she acquired pieces of her uniform. It seemed forced. And maybe I am just off base but the violence of the issue didn’t sit well with me either. There is no comedy to her rampage, just ruthlessness. I suppose that’s just the tone the character has now, but fans of the old Harley probably won’t enjoy this particular take on her. The word I used earlier was forced and that seems to be the whole issue with this revamp of Harley. They’re trying to make her something she isn’t and it simply doesn’t work. It’s not Harley. The tone is all wrong and you can’t fit a square peg in a round hole this way. I’m sure there are fans of this take, and I don’t begrudge them that, but my feelings are that such a revamp of her character makes her indistinguishable from other hyper-violent creations with no sense of irony or fun. It is a bleakness that simply does not jibe with pre-established notions of the character.
I’m probably just being stubborn, but there wasn’t much for me to enjoy here. I think I’m just not the target audience.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Eternal Warrior # 1
Writer: Greg Pak
Penciler: Trevor Hairsine
Colorist: Brian Reber
Cover Artist: Clayton Crain, Trevor Hairsine, Dave Bullock, Patrick Zircher
Price: $3.99
Pages: 32
On Sale: September 11, 2013
New York Times best-selling writer Greg Pak (Batman/Superman, Planet Hulk) and superstar artist Trevor Hairsine (X-O Manowar, X-Men: Deadly Genesis) launch a brand new campaign for Valiant’s immortal champion, the Eternal Warrior, in an all-new monthly series!
Across ten millennia and a thousand battlefields, Gilad Anni-Padda has traversed the darkest, most mysterious corners of history. But the horror and bloodshed of constant warfare has finally taken its toll on the man myth calls the Eternal Warrior…and he has abdicated his duties as the Fist and the Steel of Earth for a quiet life of seclusion. But when a blood vendetta from the distant past suddenly reappears in the modern day, he must decide if he will return to the ways of war…for the child who betrayed him thousands of years ago…
I went into this COMPLETELY blind. I had no idea what to expect. I just saw the cover and thought it would be worth reading. I guess the logline for the story could be Conan the Barbarian meets Highlander. We open on the brink of a massive battle in olden times. Gilad, the Eternal Warrior, an immortal but not entirely invulnerable mass of muscle and sinew, is preparing for a war against a horde of enemies who worship a god of death. Gilad forbids his daughter, Xaran, from involving herself in the battle. So opposed to her involvement is Gilad that he gives her a closed fist smack to the jaw, then rides into battle with his son, Mitu. What follows is a betrayal and a slaughter, then the passage of thousands of years, to a time when the Eternal Warrior is living Wolverine-style as a hermit with only a dog for companionship when the source of his betrayal returns.
I really enjoyed this issue. I like the concept, and Greg Pak brings the action in a way that recalls his time spent writing The Incredible Hulk all those years ago. Fans of books like Conan should give this one a read. I haven’t been following any of the new Valiant comics but this one was rewarding and a surprise pick of the week for myself. It runs a little short because so much of the issue is spent dedicated to action scenes, but overall the series shows tremendous promise. I’ll definitely be picking up issue two.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Infinity : The Hunt
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Steven Sanders
Price: 3.99
Release Date: Sept. 11, 2013
Hank Pym, Wolverine, and She-Hulk bring the students of the Marvel Universe together to announce a new CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS!This CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS pits the super students of schools all over the Marvel U (including some you’ve never seen before) against each other.However, the Contest is interrupted when Thanos’ forces descend on Earth. What do they have to do with the young heroes?
Man, oh man. Big event crossover tie-ins, right? Why do they even bother anymore. But hold your horses there, Mr. Cynic. This issue is something a little different. Feeling more like a companion piece to Avengers Arena and other books featuring the next generation of Marvel heroes, almost none of the issue feels like a cash-grab tie-in to Infinity. In fact, were it not for the Infinity title on the front cover, you would never know this is related to that event. The book feels more like a crash course intro into different corners of the youth oriented Marvel Universe. Characters from the Future Foundation, Avengers Academy, Jean Grey School, and more are assembled for a gathering that will put them to the test and determine which school for gifted youngsters is producing the most viable talent.
The majority of the issue, as I said, is introducing us to the concept of the book and the characters that will populate it. Only in the end are we treated to a cliffhanger that will set events into motion. I find myself marveling at how adeptly the book was able to draw me in. I don’t read any of the books involving the characters who populate the issue and yet I found myself sucked in. The script is tight and flows from panel to panel fairly effortlessly. If there is one flaw in the book it is that people who are familiar with these characters my grow easily bored with the exposition heavy element of the first issue. As it stands, I appreciated the time spent to set things up and explain everything because if there is one thing I hate it’s not being able to follow a story with characters I don’t know for a tie-in book I shouldn’t have been reading in the first place.
Rating: 3 and 1/2 out of 5
Mighty Avengers # 1
Writer: Alasdair David Ewing
Artist: Greg Land
Price: $3.99
Published: September 11, 2013
The Avengers are light-years away in space, contending with the Builders! Thanos’ marauders ransack the Earth, doing as they please! Who will stand in defense of mankind?Luke Cage! The Superior Spider-Man! Spectrum! The White Tiger! Power Man! And a mysterious figure in an ill-fitting Spider-Man Halloween costume! These unlikely heroes must assemble when no one else can—against the unrelenting attack of Proxima Midnight!
I won’ speak to Greg Land’s art. Let’s ignore that at the moment because I know it’s a deal-breaker for a lot of people. The writing of the issue works. It practically sings. Power Man (the new one, not Luke Cage) is a character I want to read more of. His voice is fun and vibrant, and his interactions with Luke Cage make for enjoyable reading. The interplay between Cage and Spidock-terman is fun and lively. Of course, this is a tie-in to Infinity and spins out of that event. If you’re not reading Infinity, it doesn’t really matter because all you need to know is explained in a matter of pages. All you need to know is that the Avengers are off-world so Thanos wants to break Earth in twain while it is undefended. Luke Cage ain’t gonna let that happen. Oh, sweet Christmas, it ain’t gonna happen.
I don’t know who Alasdair David Ewing is. I haven’t read anything with his name on the cover. This is my introduction to his work. I have to say I’m impressed. The team is filled with characters I enjoy, and something has to be said about the diversity of the team with Luke Cage, White Tiger, Power Man, Spectrum and some new guy called Spider-Hero who is an enigma and a non-entity at the moment. This is the most diverse team I can think of at either of the major publishers, something that will likely get a lot of press given how the diversity in comics debate is starting to really become the major issue of the industry at the moment.
You know what, I’ve gotta say something about Greg Land. Yes, the art is dry and terrible. I’ve seen these same traced facial expressions more times than I can count. I’m just going to leave it at that. Everyone knows Greg Land refuses to advance himself as an artist. I would say stop buying his books but he seems to land (ha!) books that are worth buying, this one included. It’s a book with a diverse cast by a new writer who seems eager to prove himself and it’s likely Land won’t be on the title forever. Do yourself a favor and get the book and try to ignore how the art is trying its damndest to give you eye herpes.
Rating: 4 out of 5
All-New Marvel Now To Begin This January
Marvel Now! is apparently Marvel Then, because All-New Marvel Now is set to debut this January, giving us a second wave of relaunched titles and characters in the wake of Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity mega-event. Thankfully, running titles don’t seem destined for a relaunch. Currently published titles will get .NOW issues to lead into the new wave. Marvel released a full-page press release to CBR hyping up the event.
The most popular characters. The most acclaimed creators. The most ambitious stories. This is the recharged All-New Marvel NOW!.
This Winter, the Marvel Universe heads in an exciting all-new direction, as the industry’s top creators like Brian Michael Bendis, Rick Remender, Dan Slott, Jason Aaron, Kieron Gillen & more, join the top Super Heroes– Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man, Wolverine and other Marvel heroes– to deliver the best comics on the market with all-new ongoing series, AND must-read .NOW entry #1 issues for all readers!
It all starts in December with Avengers #24.NOW(=Avengers #1 in All-New Marvel NOW!), from the blockbuster creative team of Jonathan Hickman (Infinity, Avengers) and Esad Ribic (Thor: God Of Thunder, Uncanny X-Force), leading the Marvel Universe in a bold new direction by launching new series—often more than one—every week with unique mission statements, epic scales, and bigger conflicts than ever before.
Marvel then goes on to talk up some of their new titles, including a relaunched Invaders book and Matt Fraction’s long-gestating Inhuman title;
Then in January, All-New Marvel NOW! heads to the battlefront with All-New Invaders #1! From Eisner Award-Winning writer James Robinson (Starman, Earth 2) and red-hot artist Steve Pugh (Animal Man) comes a bold reimagining of your favorite Marvel Heroes. Brothers-in-arms Captain America, The Winter Soldier, Namor, and the Original Human Torch re-band for an all-new, all-different kind of war! But when the Kree Empire discovers a way to weaponize Norse Gods, can these timeless allies survive the deadly cosmic trenches? Find out as Marvel’s most enduring icons take to the stars in All-New Invaders #1!
But the start of the new year only gets bolder, as All New Marvel NOW! asks, “Are You Inhuman?” with Inhuman #1! Superstar creators Matt Fraction (Hawkeye, Invincible Iron Man) and Joe Maduiera (Avenging Spider-Man, Savage Wolverine) thrust the Inhumans into the spotlight as the newest power players in the entire Marvel Universe! Unfolding out of the cataclysmic events of Infinity, new Inhumans spring up around the globe forcing the once-secret society of Inhumans out into civilization! With Avengers-level powers and abilities, will they chose to stand with Earth’s Mightiest…or against them? As the chaos consumes the globe, discover the fate of King Black Bolt and his royal family as the world becomes Inhuman!
Sounds interesting to me, but even more interesting seems to be how hard Marvel is hammering their digital output. They’re running heavy with the digital codes, this time with an added twist;
Every FIRST ISSUE bearing the All New Marvel NOW! branding includes a code for a free digital copy of that same comic on the Marvel Comics app for iOS and Android devices. But that’s not all! Select .NOW! titles will also come with a digital code for the entire first collection of that series ABSOLUTELY FREE!
That’s right, buy the .NOW title and you could get a code to download the first collection of that series to boot. That’s an incentive that I can see driving more than a few people to pick up some titles they otherwise might skip. It’s a smart move by Marvel, one that pushes their digital presence and gives incentives to try out new books readers hadn’t previously thought of reading. Bravo, Marvel. You done good on this one.
Weekly Comic Reviews – 7/31/2013
Today was my first day back in the comic shop since 2010. It felt a bit odd, to be honest. I can tell you the most vivid thing that I did not forget was the smell, that unmistakable smell of abundant paper. It was somewhat like coming home again after a long vacation. There is something warm and inviting about that place. A lot of it has to do with the people. I’m happy to be in my element again. I do not know for certain how long I’ll be there. I’d love to stay for a good long while, as it is familiar and comforting to me. If nothing else, I got to sit down and read some new comics today, which I haven’t done in a while and I’ve got some opinions you guys might be interested in hearing.
BATMAN ANNUAL #2
Written by: Scott Snyder
Pencilled by: Wes Craig
Inked by: Craig Yeung, Drew Geraci
Cover by: Jock
Color/B&W: Color
Page Count: 48
U.S. Price: 4.99
On Sale Date: Jul 31 2013
A special ZERO YEAR tie-in! Bruce Wayne’s first year as the Dark Knight has just barely begun…and already dangerous elements are coalescing, leading Bruce toward his final destiny.
I’m still a month or so behind on my regularly scheduled Batman reading but this Annual issue is enough of a standalone story that I didn’t feel lost. If following the narrative is a concern for you, breathe a sigh of relief because it would take a lot of effort to be confused by this particular issue. Here we are presented with a one-off story where Batman is brought in to Arkham Asylum by the powers that be to test out a new high-security section of the prison called the “Tartarus Wing.” It has been specifically designed to hold the most dangerous of Gotham’s rogues gallery and the folks running the asylum figure that if Batman can’t get past the defenses, nobody can. Batman’s arrival coincides with that of a new orderly by the name of Eric Border, a fresh-faced young idealist who is straight off the bus from Metropolis. He’s the sort of guy who believes that the work done within the walls of Arkham Asylum can benefit those incarcerated there and the world outside. From the reader’s perspective, we are meant to read him as a naive simpleton. He is a foil to Batman’s philosophy and obvious parallels to Superman’s handling of Metropolis with Bruce’s handling of Gotham can be drawn.
While Batman is defeating the defenses of the new wing, Border embarks on a B-plot expedition that finds him encountering the earliest patient to be committed to Arkham, a character going by the name of the Anchoress, whose backstory is that she willingly locked herself away at the Asylum to truly rehabilitate herself. Her name is derived from the Anchorites, who were penitents who would lock themselves away after recognizing the damages of their crimes. The Anchoress speaks about the difference between the Asylum as she entered it, several generations of Arkham ago, and where it is currently, as a simple repository for evil. You can guess who she blames for the shift in atmosphere.
The Annual is much in line with what these Annuals are usually like, that is to say it is competently written and this particular one makes some interesting comments on Batman and the Asylum, whether he does any good locking his foes away at Arkham and whether their incarceration furthers the escalation of violence in Gotham. It isn’t entirely new ground, but it is handled well enough to make it worth reading, especially if it ties into Zero Year as heavily as the front cover implies. As I admitted earlier, I’m a little behind so I can’t speak to its relevance in that arena.
Rating: 3 out of 5
SUPERMAN ANNUAL #2
Written by: Scott Lobdell, Frank Hannah
Art by: Pascal Alixe
Cover by: Andy Kubert
Color/B&W: Color
Page Count: 48
U.S. Price: 4.99
On Sale Date: Jul 31 2013
What repercussions lurk beneath the surface from Brainiac’s first attack—and how does it all set the stage for the battle of Metropolis? Plus, how can the Man of Steel fight something he can’t physically stop!
I may be behind on Batman but I haven’t broken the cover of a Superman book in well over a year. I sorta gave up on all Superman related books around the same time and just never found the time or energy to check up on them. This issue begins Sunset Boulevard style with Lois lying on the sidewalk narrating her own near-death experience. We find out that Clark is off doing the whole internet blogger thing while Lois stays at the Daily Planet, preferring the dying journalism industry because she feels it gives her the power to speak the truth the most loudly.
One night while working late Lois encounters a woman who begs for help, her head is swollen and resembling the appearance of Brainiac. As if on cue, we are flashed back to the first Braniac invasion detailed in the early launch of the new-52. What follows is a mystery without a mystery because the “who” element is already answered with no sense of drama. There are twenty people who have been reported missing since the Brainiac attack and, surprise, they all are connected somehow. The writing in this issue isn’t great as there is no rise or fall to the narrative, simply a progression. In the last page it becomes clear why; this is only the first part of a puzzle that will be answered in the pages of Action Comics and Superman in a crossover called Psi-War, which I was unaware of because I am out of the loop.
Compared to the Batman annual, out on the same day, this issue seems to be lacking all around. The artwork is quite good and seems more polished than I expected for the issue, but Lobdell’s writing does nothing for me. It doesn’t stick the landing as a lead-in to a crossover and misses the mark by a wide margin as a standalone issue, which I feel an Annual should be able to manage.
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Wolverine – In The Flesh # 1
Written by: Chris Cosentino
Art by: Dalibor Talajic
Cover by: Tim Seeley
Color/B&W: Color
U.S. Price: 3.99
On Sale Date: Jul 31 2013
Reality star Chris Cosentino tells a tale about Wolverine and food like only a Top Chef Master can! Adamantium claws meet steel kitchen knives in a culinary caper staring your favorite costumed Canadian!
Oh boy, where do I start with this one. Firstly, I don’t know who Chris Cosentino is because I’m not a fan of Top Chef. I’m more of a Chopped guy. So I only read this issue because of the novelty in a celebrity chef writing himself into a Marvel comic. One which I assume is canon. It’s glorious fan-fic given total validation by the publisher. Long story short, I love the premise and I wish they would do more with it. I’d read a book about Peter Parker taking a cooking class from Giada DiLaurentis. I would pay good money for a story where Deadpool tries to kill Gordon Ramsay but then they team up to fix a terrible restaurant. I don’t care that its ludicrous. I like ludicrous. Is the book any good?
Well, it’s entertaining to say the least. A couple of bike riders find a corpse that is apparently the work of a serial murderer known as the Bay Area Butcher. Logan finds out about it and after taking a look at the bodies he calls in his good friend Chris Cosentino, celebrity chef and master of “offal cuisine” dishes, which are prepared with ingredients normally tossed aside when an animal is butchered. Logan and Chris come to the conclusion that whoever this killer is, he must have some culinary or butchery experience.
And so the team up begins!
Really, I don’t want to give anything away because the book is crazy in a way you have to experience for yourself. Seriously, if you’ve got some spare cash and need to pick something up that will make you ask yourself if you truly read what you think you did, please pick up this book. Everyone needs to be exposed to this madness. It’s the best kind of madness I’ve had the pleasure of indulging in a long while. Honest to blog.
Rating: 3 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars
Review – Hawkeye # 1
I really enjoyed the last Hawkeye series with Mockingbird. I’m not a huge fan of the character and so I don’t mind seeing different takes on him from different writers. I’m certainly not going to pitch a bitch about the way Marvel used him in The Avengers on YouTube the way some people did. I will admit that the current re-design of his costume strips him of some of what makes him visually unique, but his costume is systemic of the current trend in comics where a stripped down sense of utilitarian design work is en vogue. However, a costume does not make the character. So is the book focused on a character worth reading about?
Yes.
Matt Fraction and David Aja reteam and bring back some of the magic they worked with Immortal Iron Fist on a character who needs a steady hand more than just about any solo character in Marvel’s stable. With his profile raised considerably because of his appearance in The Avengers Hawkeye needs to validate his own existence somewhat. He isn’t a particularly interesting character most of the time. He’s a side dish to the main entree in team books. He’s someone who is born to share the spotlight. Fraction luckily is one of those writers who really knows how to dig deep and find the things that work about a character and this is one of his strongest debut works since Iron Fist or Invincible Iron Man. I personally have been enjoying the majority of his work but will admit that he can fall into a little bit of a lull sometimes. His Uncanny X-Men run was about 50/50 and Fear Itself had none of his usual flair.
With Hawkeye, Fraction seems to get back to the nitty gritty. We get maybe a page and a half of Barton in costume and the rest of the issue follows his exploits while he’s not on duty. That doesn’t mean that it isn’t a hero story. It isn’t about him going to pick up milk or wash his car. Instead we get a closer look at how Barton views himself; in the context of his role as an Avenger, in the shadow of Captain America, and as a simple man without powers standing next to men who can shatter planets. Fraction utilizes the first issue to tell a stand-alone story that explains why Barton does the things he does and where his moral code comes from. And Fraction tells us more about Barton through the way he treats a simple dog than most writers do with an entire series worth of heroic exploits. I know some might say its a cheap trick to play the wounded animal card, but Fraction nails it and nobody can really deny how effective the issue is.
I was planning on giving the series a pass entirely but the first issue was good enough that I can see myself following it through. I know for a fact that there are less deserving books that I’ve stuck with for the duration. I figure this one isn’t going to disappoint me anytime soon.
Comic Review Double-Shot
I haven’t done day-and-date reviews for individual comics in a while. I get my books mail-0rder nowadays for financial and convenience reasons and I only rarely will pick up a book off of the rack. Usually it’s when I have some spare cash laying around and want to give something different a chance. Today I got some issues that I initially passed on because I didn’t have the cash for them in my budget at the time.
AVENGING SPIDER-MAN # 9
STORY BY Kelly Sue DeConnick
ART BY Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson
COLORS BY Edgar Delgado
LETTERS BY VC – Joe Caramagna
COVER BY Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson
PUBLISHER Marvel Comics
COVER PRICE:$3.99
Next week sees the first issue of Carol Danvers’ turn as Captain Marvel. This week gives us a sort of primer as she teams up with Spider-Man in a fun little issue written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, who will be handling the ongoing series as well. I have said that while I don’t consider myself one of those “shipper” fans, I would totally support Peter Parker and Carol Danvers as a couple. Their banter and flirtations are often a delight to read, especially if they’re written by someone who gets the voice of those characters individually. Kelly Sue does. She’s one of the writers at Marvel who can seemingly write any character with ease and put them into a story that is fun and breezy in a more classic tradition that eschews the post Bendis style that seems to find its way into every book no matter who is actually penning it.
Avenging Spider-Man # 9 feels like a classic issue of Marvel Team-Up in all the right ways. The story centers around Peter and Carol going for a flight in Carol’s new junker of a plane when they find themselves caught in a dispute between a young lady who has had a brush with the law and a private security firm trying to bring her in. It is a fun read and a welcome change from what I’ve been reading from Marvel at the moment. I’m hoping that trend continues with the ongoing series. Kelly Sue has set the stage for something that could easily be just as good or better than the last volume of Ms. Marvel which I enjoyed from end-to-end.
REVIVAL # 1
STORY BY Tim Seeley
ART BY Mike Norton
COVER BY Jenny Frison, Craig Thompson
PUBLISHER Image Comics
COVER PRICE:$2.99
SYNOPSIS: For one day in rural central Wisconsin, the dead came back to life. Now it’s up to Officer Dana Cypress to deal with the media scrutiny, religious zealots, and government quarantine that has come with them. In a town where the living have to learn to deal with those who are supposed to be dead, Officer Cypress must solve a brutal murder, and everyone, alive or undead, is a suspect. A beautiful “farm noir” that puts a new twist on the zombie genre, created by NYT Bestselling author TIM SEELEY and acclaimed artist MIKE NORTON.
Tim Seeley has made a name for himself on Hack/Slash and I bought this based off of that reputation alone. I haven’t been following his run on Witchblade, but this seemed more up my alley. Revival seems like it fits more into the mold of Image comics like The Walking Dead in that there is definitely a lot of world building being done but the core of the series is going to be centered around the interactions of our main characters. The danger with something like that is that you have to give people something to like. I wouldn’t say that Seeley’s character work is the best thing about Hack/Slash. The characters there are somewhat thin but the reader is still able to connect. In this series, Seeley has severely stepped up his game. Right off the bat we are given small looks at Dana and her personal life that make her immediately relate-able. She has family issues aplenty as well as personal issues relating to her own personal successes. This is one of the best first issues of a new comic I have read since Chew with regards to getting a sense of character.
Revival is definitely worth a look. It isn’t just another zombie book. To even use that term in association with it is somewhat misleading. This is a horror book, to be sure. I’ll even admit that parts gave me goosebumps. It’s been a while since I’ve read something that did that. Aside from the character work, Seeley has done a great job setting the mood here. Mike Norton’s illustration of the gore really hammers it home as well. I think this one could very well be one of the best things to come out of Image in a good long while.
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So there you are. Go buy those things. You won’t regret it.
Weekly Comic Reviews
I know these are becoming completely random and in no way weekly but I feel compelled to write them when I get a chance. Hopefully someone will make a choice based on my recommendation and validate the miniscule bit of effort I put into updating this site every so often. There were plenty of books to choose from this week, so let’s get to it.
AVENGERS X-SANCTION (MARVEL COMICS) # 1
Oh Jeph Loeb, we meet again. This time he managed not to make my eyeballs bleed with rage, so let’s chalk that up as a win. I was fully expecting Red Hulk to sodomize Cable or something equally batshit insane to happen. I know that he doesn’t have the same leeway with the 616 characters that he did when he wrote Ultimatum but I still can’t get that out of the back of my mind when I pick up one of his books.
This issue seemed a little light for the first issue of a major event comic, but that having been said it is the sort of style folks have come to associate with Loeb following his Hulk run, which had a similar sort of pacing and tone. The McGuiness art certainly doesn’t help to distance the two. I feel like this is going to ultimately be an utterly disposable piece of event overload but seeing how it’s only going to be four issues long I can’t complain too much. Fear Itself seemed to last forever so a quick little mini-event might be refreshing in the end. I can’t say. Maybe I’ve just been bludgeoned by Marvel’s books so effectively that my brain has turned to mush and I’ll just buy whatever they tell me to.
Me am Marvel Zombie. Take my money. *sigh*
DOCTOR WHO (IDW) # 12
There really isn’t much to say about this particular issue other than it features the art talents of Mr. Paul Grist of Jack Staff fame and the result is a charming almost entirely dialog free story featuring the eleventh Doctor making the Christmas rounds with Santa in the Tardis. It’s cute, it’s breezy and I enjoyed the heck out of it. If you’re a Who fan it’ll probably hit you right where it needs to. I would recommend it to anyone looking for something as a stocking stuffer for younger kids looking to get into comics or sci-fi. It’s just plain nice.
I really don’t know what else I can say about the book. It’s a little on the light side but that is just part of the charm. I hope you’ll give it a try.
THE RAY (DC COMICS) # 1
I was going to pass this one up. I won’t lie, it didn’t seem like anything that begged to be read. That seems to run counter to my usual feelings about the Palimiotti/Gray writing team but there was a feeling of generic blandness to it in the previews I had come across and so I had planned to let this one pass me by. But the thing is, I DO know that Palmiotti and Gray rarely turn in merely passable work and I owed it to myself to read the book because if nothing else it filled a niche that the new DC lineup seemed to have missed out on. I’m certainly glad I did for a myriad of reasons. First and foremost, the writing team has given us a hero who is aware of hero tropes in a way that makes for quite a refreshing read. The inner voice of this new character doesn’t seem like any other hero on the stands. There is a uniqueness to him that I have to applaud, especially considering that I was afraid the title would exemplify the polar opposite. Some of that has to be due to the fact that he’s not another anglo-saxon hero living in a major metropolis. Here we get a Korean-American dating a Hindu woman who works as a lifeguard while living with his hippie flower-power parents who has his powers thrust upon him and deals with it in a way that seems utterly realistic and runs organically with the rest of the narrative.
The art by Jamal Igle is quite good, as it usually is, and readers should find themselves pleasantly surprised by how good this book is. It really does come out of left field and shatter expectations. Please go give this one a shot. It will send a message to DC that these types of stories still have an audience. People on the ‘net beg for books like these and yet the numbers never seem to add up. Hopefully this time around we can mark one in the win column for b-list heroes with stellar writing.
SACRIFICE # 1
Sam Humphries is something of an indy darling right now. His previous one-shot “Our Love is Real” made a real splash earlier this year and he’s following it up with a self-published book that has been garnering the same level of buzz. The book tells the story of a young man with some psychological issues (for lack of a better term) finding himself in the ancient Aztec world and caught up in the middle of a power dispute over the proper religious teachings that the Aztec people should follow. He also doesn’t want them to wind up getting slaughtered by the incoming Spanish, so he’s got that going for him.
The book is a complex and interesting read. I admit that I had to read it twice to get the flow of information down, but seeing how the version I read was digital and I don’t have a whole lot of experience reading in that format there may have been a bit of a learning curve element to it.
I would advise giving it a shot. This may be your chance to see the breakthrough work of an artist poised to really break out in 2012. I get a similar vibe from what I got off of Fraction during Casanova here and if that’s any indication of things to come Humphries is going to wind up on top sooner rather than later.
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That’s it for this week. Hopefully you will find something to enjoy there. I should have a review of Sherlock Holmes : Game of Shadows for you as well this weekend. That should be exciting.
Film Review – Captain America : The First Avenger
Did you guys see Jurassic Park III? You know the guy who directed that also helmed this. He was also responsible for The Wolfman last year. Though that won an Academy Award, so I won’t be cruel to that one. Plus, much like Captain America, the best part of that film was Hugo Weaving straight up chewin’ scenery. My point is that Joe Johnston was a bold choice to direct what would be the final piece in Marvel’s film-puzzle before The Avengers hits next may. At the same time, much as Kenneth Branaugh was an inspired choice to take up Thor Johnston is one of those directors who, when on his game, would be perfect for something like Captain America. The number one reason that people have been giving since the day he signed on the dotted line was the fact that he directed The Rocketeer which shares some similar themes as well as the “period piece” setting. Well, Captain America is decidedly better than The Rocketeer. Though to be honest I’d love to see Timothy Dalton hamming it up against Hugo Weaving. That would be golden.
The film begins in the present day, where a team of scientists drilling in the arctic find something unusual. The story is familiar to anyone who has a basic knowledge of Captain America beyond “he fights Nazis.” From there we fade back to World War II, where we meet up with Hugo Weaving’s Johann Schmidt laying siege to a village in Norway hoping to obtain some ancient Norse artifact supposedly taken from Odin’s throne-room. At this point we must accept that if you’re not seeing every Marvel Studios film you’re not getting the full experience. The item in question is of course the Tesseract, or the cosmic cube, which was actually glimpsed by keen eyed viewers in Thor earlier this year. We’ve finally reached the point where everything has come together and while if you missed Thor you can still enjoy Captain America, the sense of connectivity will be an added bonus for fans who have been following the buildup since Iron Man.
I have to say that this is probably the best origin story comic adaptation to date. Only Iron Man really comes close. There have been some complaints that Steve Rogers doesn’t really have a character arc, he just has a physical transformation. Those people clearly missed the point of the film. Steve was always a good man. His discussion with why he was chosen to be a super-soldier with Stanley Tucci’s Abe Erskine (another standout among many) touches on this quite effectively. Steve’s real arc doesn’t get a chance to begin until he reaches the future. With this being a true origin story, we don’t get to deal with that yet. A good portion of that will be dealt with in The Avengers I would assume. And that is the only downside to Marvel’s interconnected universe. There will always be things that get lost in the shuffle. In a movie like this you can’t get everything in a two hour time-span.
But they do manage to work in a good number of things that work, a truly epic villain who isn’t afraid to go big in a way that most villains have been lacking for a while on screen now for one. Hugo Weaving is perfect as the Red Skull and it’s good to see a true, and pardon the term, “comic-bookey” villain on screen and done well. He’s what the scenery chewing villains of the 90’s Batman franchise aimed for but missed entirely. Much credit must be given for making a character that could have been hokey and downright lame into a memorable character.
Chris Evans also does a good job portraying Steve Rogers. He’s almost too likeable. He brings that sense of honor and duty that Steve Rogers has always had as well as a truly great degree of charm. After seeing him in the role I’m not sure if any of the other names on the shortlist to play the character would have worked out near as well. This is the first time where I watched Chris Evans and didn’t see Chris Evans. I saw Captain effing America. As much as I enjoyed him in Fantastic Four, his Johnny Storm was much like the wise-cracking characters he had played in other films. In Scott Pilgrim, I got a feeling he was mostly just Chris Evans making fun of Chris Evans trying not to be Chris Evans. Here, he was Steve Rogers. The earliest parts of the movie where they used all the CGI left in the universe to make him a skinny little runt seemed to distract from the fact that this was an actor playing a part. I was greatly impressed.
But one of the things that truly stunned me, especially coming off of something like Thor, is that the romance element of the story was handled organically and sincerely. Hayley Atwell, who will likely become a lot of young men’s new celebrity crush after this film, plays a fully developed character in her own right whose relationship with Rogers is given time to shift and grow in a way that feels very real and genuine. Compare this to Chris Helmsworth’s attraction to Natalie Portman in Thor that was basically boiled down to “She’s Pretty, He Has Muscles.” Granted sometimes that’s how real relationships do happen but it doesn’t make for the most satisfying cinematic experience. The Rogers/Carter romance is definitely more interesting. Steve’s jealousy of the attention Tony Stark’s dad keeps throwing her way over the course of the film is one of the more entertaining aspects and shows that even though Steve is a good man at heart, he’s just like you. He hates it when good lookin’ dudes start eyeballin’ your girl.
Personally, this is my favorite of the Marvel Studios entries. I’m a big Cap fan and I feel they nailed it with this one. Iron Man comes very very close. But there was something about this film that just felt more like a Marvel comic come to life than any of the previous entries. Iron Man II attempted that feeling but in the wrong manner. Cameos out the wazoo do nothing. But capture the tone and feel of the page and translate it to screen, and you’ll get something truly special, which Captain America is. I plan on seeing it again very very soon.
Timely Review Is Timely – Captain America # 1
WARNING! REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR FEAR ITSELF # 3/4
The regular ongoing Captain America series, which has been damned amazing since Brubaker came on board with # 1 a few years back has become Captain America & Bucky, and will retain its original numbering, focusing on the pair of heroes and their numerous adventures under the watchful eye of a new creative team. A brand new Captain America # 1 hit stands last Wednesday, again under the direction of Ed Brubaker with art by Steve McNiven, he of Civil War and Old Man Logan fame. It marks a new chapter for the Captain America saga. One that builds off of Brubaker’s already elaborate work and provides a new jumping-on point for new readers as well. It’s a strategy that has worked well for other books in the past, with Invincible Iron Man under Fraction and The Mighty Thor under…Fraction again.
The book begins in a cemetery where Cap is mourning the loss of an old friend. If you’ve been reading Fear Itself, you’re almost immediately convinced that it’s (**spoiler alert**) the recently deceased Bucky Barnes. But that’s not the case at all. In fact this introductory issue doesn’t address Bucky at all. Brubaker instead hits the ground running and plunges us into the story that, in a manner consistent with the rest of his run, is tied heavily to Steve’s adventures in World War II. The interplay between the past and the present is a defining element of Brubaker’s run. The Winter Soldier storyline would have had no impact if Ed and company hadn’t been able to skillfully craft the narrative in such a way that all the pieces fit like a jigsaw puzzle. Steve remarks that he sometimes still has trouble reconciling the fact that even after all these years he is still a man out of time. He’s displaced. Despite being the representation of America itself, the modern landscape is never fully going to be his home. While some writers take this and run with it in precisely the wrong direction, as was the case with Civil War Frontline, Brubaker’s Steve Rogers is a character who always tries to retain the elements of himself that shine brightest while trying to evolve to fit into a world that, quite frankly, does not deserve a hero of his caliber.
Some fans will be put off by the fact that the manner in which Steve becomes Captain America once again is not immediately addressed, but this is just as much a book for new converts from the film as it is for longtime fans. Brubaker is not one to ignore those elements, but they will have to be introduced organically over time so that everyone feels at ease. This is a very classically written book in that regard. Half of the fun will be having answers revealed over time as it is appropriate. Brubaker’s crime-fiction background shows heavily in his writing here. Little snippets surface to make the big picture appear clearly but they don’t come at you on every panel. Brubaker is a master of the slow burn, if his prior work on the title has shown us anything. I would expect that tradition to carry over here.
As for McNiven’s art, it’s as clean and crisp as ever and I can only hope that he’s got the issues finished because I would weep at the thought of a fill-in artist. He draws Cap with amazing skill and his artwork matches the tone of the book perfectly. You couldn’t ask for a better artist, though many in his caliber have worked with Brubaker on Cap in the past and I’m hoping that Steve Epting and Michael Lark get their turns on the new title as well. Rotate them all through the different arcs and you’d have as close to a perfect Captain America title as could be managed.
I strongly advise picking this up. Captain America is and has been one of Marvel’s best properties for quite some time now and this issue seems to indicate that’s not changing anytime soon.
Comics Con Queso 