(w) Jason Aaron
(a) Adam Kubert (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)
Two posts ago, I reviewed the first five issues of Brian Bendis' and Stuart Immonen's All New X-Men series, and one of my comments was how silly I find time-travel stories in general because of how messy they can get and how hard it eventually becomes to keep track of everything. It was gratifying, therefore, to read a story that not only acknowledges but actually embraces how ridiculous time-travel stories can get in this collected edition of the six-issue miniseries starring Spider-Man and Wolverine that came out around two or three years ago.
After trying to stop what appears to be a simple bank robbery, Spider-Man and Wolverine find themselves bouncing through different times, including the beginning of the world and its impending end. Apparently, some mysterious diamonds which were being stolen during the robbery are the objects responsible for the pair's time jumping woes, many of which encrust the baseball bat of a mysterious new character named Czar, who seems to know a lot more about the predicament of Spidey and Wolvie than he is about to let on, and who seems to have the whole time travel thing very much under control. Czar, however, is not the real threat, and the whole reason why Spider-Man and Wolverine are now trapped out of their time is that they are being manipulated by a familiar behind-the-scenes villain.
Before reading this, I was not all that familiar with Jason Aaron's work, though I had read at least one Wolverine one-shot he wrote some years back in which, oddly enough, Wolverine was more a supporting character, playing second-fiddle to an incorrigible criminal whose ultimate fate was to end up as shish kebab on Wolvie's adamantium claws. His work here was definitely more entertaining than the somewhat somber (and bloody) sort-of-Wolverine story, and while I wasn't always "down" with his characterization of Spider-Man, he wrote him well enough, and in any case Aaron kept things moving fast enough that I did not have to dwell too much on characterization. I was also not fond of the new villain Czar, who can either be viewed in two ways, neither of them particularly positive: he can be viewed either as an utterly forgettable character or as an arguably racist caricature. There was one amusing moment, late in the storyline, involving versions of himself from different eras, but little else that would justify him appearing again in another story. If nothing else, though, he serves this story well enough. The behind-the-scenes villain whose identity I will not spoil here is always a fun character when written well, and much to Mr. Aaron's credit he definitely did him justice here.
Most importantly, Aaron has handled the time travel aspect of the story, always somewhat tricky business, rather skillfully, and I could almost hear him saying, between the lines, that if something seemed ridiculous about the story, it's probably because it was. I won't exactly be emptying the back-issue bins in search of his work from now on, but he's definitely a writer whose work I can categorically say I enjoy.
For me, however the main selling point of this collected edition was the art of Adam Kubert, whose work I have been acquainted with for a while but who only really popped up on my radar when he illustrated Dan Slott's "Dark Reign" one-shot starring Spider-Man, as his take on the character was, to my mind, anyway, something quite special. Kubert delivers here in a big way; his take on Spider-Man is the most dynamic I have seen since the days of Todd McFarlane. I say this as a fan of several other artists who have drawn Spidey since McFarlane left Marvel in the 1990s to found Image Comics, including John Romita, Jr., Steve McNiven, Chris Bachalo, Joe Quesada, Stefano Caselli and (sometimes) Humberto Ramos. In short, for me, Kubert's take on Spider-man is one of the best I have seen in years. His other figures and faces, including his take on Peter Parker, still have that sketchy quality to them that has characterized not only his work but that of his equally renowned brother Andy, but in drawing the web-slinger in action he is simply in another realm of artistry altogether. Part of me cannot help but wonder how long Kubert has wanted to illustrate Spider-Man given the attention he has lavished onto his artwork here. To be fair, there's a lot to love here apart from Kubert's depiction of Spider-Man, but for me that's easily the highlight.
The events of this series are of more consequence for Wolverine than they are for Spider-Man, again for reasons I will not spoil, but overall the series was a genuinely fun and engaging read. It's exciting and urgent but still light and enjoyable reading, and in an era where premium seems to be placed on shattering the status quo it was nice to read a meaty volume (originally having been six issues) in which the creators were simply focused on telling an entertaining story.
4.5/5
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Trying It Before I Knock It: A Review of Superior Spider-Man issues #1 to #3
(w) Dan Slott
(a) Ryan Stegman (line art) Edgar Delgado (color art)
I always knew that Marvel's act of replacing Spider-Man's consciousness with that of his arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus was a stunt, and felt a little insulted when Marvel insisted that the change was permanent. I understood the rather obstinate misdirection of course; it was only by selling the storyline as a permanent alteration of the status quo that they could get the attention that they did.
I wasn't initially interested in seeing this story play out (I was willing to wait until Peter came back, and in any case I stopped collecting The Amazing Spider-Man on a regular basis some time ago). When I leafed through an issue, though, I decided to give the first few issues a shot.
Superior Spider-Man is basically the story of Doctor Octopus occupying Peter Parker's body, and with the first conclusion of the first three-issue storyline, it is my honest opinion that Dan Slott has made a pretty convincing case for this radical, albeit temporary shift in status quo.
In his first few days as Spider-man, Otto Octavius goes about the business of being a superhero, determined to be a better Spider-Man than Peter Parker was. In some ways, he actually is, using his skills with technology and the resources at his disposal courtesy of Peter's job at Horizon Laboratories to broaden his reach; who needs to listen to police scanners when dozens of robot spiders are all over the city watching out for crime, after all? In the course of the first three issues, the new, "superior" Spider-Man takes on a new iteration of the Sinister Six and a more heavyweight Spider-Man villain, the Vulture, and for a change, wins, a rather pleasant feeling for Octavius.
He is considerably less successful, however, at living out Peter's personal life; Otto spends issue #2 making advances on Mary Jane, only to be frustrated at every turn. Interestingly enough, though, Otto makes a decision that is surprisingly selfless at the end of the issue.
One part of his personality that Octavius cannot seem to unlearn, however, is the brutality with which he dispatches his foes. Although he does not kill anyone, by the end of issues #1 and #3 he actually comes pretty close, and the latter does not go unnoticed by Peter's ex-girlfriend Carlie Cooper, who also happens to be a policewoman.
(mild spoiler alert)
Of course, another complication to the story is that Peter Parker is apparently not as dead as people thought he was at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #700; he lurks somewhere in the back of his old body's mind, and manifests as a "ghost" beside Octavius. He actually stops Octavius from killing a supervillain, though Otto is not aware that his old enemy is still around. It's an amusing and encouraging story device, as it is through this that Marvel establishes that at some point, Parker will be wearing the webs again, though it is overplayed from time to time.
(end spoiler alert)
When Marvel Comics unmasked Spider-Man at the end of Civil War #2 then-editor Axel Alonso boasted that they had something like two years' worth of stories to tell with an unmasked Spidey, but by the time they hit the "reset" button called One More Day, they had only told a little over one year worth of stories.
Truth be told, with well over a year between now and the premiere of the next "Amazing Spider-Man" movie, I'm hoping Marvel actually shows some balls and sticks to this current status quo for awhile before returning Peter Parker to his body in a grand, lavishly-illustrated six-issue story arc or something like that. Slott is off to a pretty good start, and it would be a shame if they called it a day too quickly. There's something fascinating about looking at Spider-Man's life from a supervillain's point of view. Octavius is clearly still an egomaniac, but not only is Slott letting us see another side of him; he's actually showing us readers why Doc Ock would actually make a very effective Spider-Man, and the reasons are entirely consistent with the things Ock has done as a character over the last several decades. In some ways, it actually plays out like an extended What If? issue, and is actually a lot of fun when appreciated that way.
The weak link, unfortunately, is artist Ryan Stegman, whose scratchy line work, as hard as this may be to believe, actually made me miss Humberto Ramos (who will be taking up the art duties for issues #7 and 8) and definitely made me miss Stefano Caselli, who has long since moved on from the webslinger. Stegman is a competent artist; he tells the story well enough, and there's even a hint of J. Scott Campbell in some of his characters, but his work just doesn't sing to me. Still, Slott could have done a lot worse in terms of choosing his collaborator.
I doubt I'll stick around for the entire "Doc Ock as Spider-Man" storyline, whether it lasts a year or five, but I can at least say now that I gave Slott the benefit of the doubt, and will probably stick around for a few issues more. Much to Slott's (and Marvel's) credit; what they've done here is something unique. Plenty of superheroes have died, from Jean Grey to Superman to the Human Torch, only to come back eventually, and Spider-Man himself has been replaced by his clone, but this is a first; outside of the odd What If? or Elsewords issue I don't think this particular plot twist has ever played out for this long. It will inevitably get old, of course, as all gimmick-based status quos tend to do (and as will Brian Michael Bendis' "original X-Men out of time" shtick), but what's worth following is how well Slott plays it out, and if the first three issues are any indication, the Spider-Man fans who came back after the dust settled from the furor kicked up by The Amazing Spider Man #700 should be in for a treat.
4/5
(a) Ryan Stegman (line art) Edgar Delgado (color art)
I always knew that Marvel's act of replacing Spider-Man's consciousness with that of his arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus was a stunt, and felt a little insulted when Marvel insisted that the change was permanent. I understood the rather obstinate misdirection of course; it was only by selling the storyline as a permanent alteration of the status quo that they could get the attention that they did.
I wasn't initially interested in seeing this story play out (I was willing to wait until Peter came back, and in any case I stopped collecting The Amazing Spider-Man on a regular basis some time ago). When I leafed through an issue, though, I decided to give the first few issues a shot.
Superior Spider-Man is basically the story of Doctor Octopus occupying Peter Parker's body, and with the first conclusion of the first three-issue storyline, it is my honest opinion that Dan Slott has made a pretty convincing case for this radical, albeit temporary shift in status quo.
In his first few days as Spider-man, Otto Octavius goes about the business of being a superhero, determined to be a better Spider-Man than Peter Parker was. In some ways, he actually is, using his skills with technology and the resources at his disposal courtesy of Peter's job at Horizon Laboratories to broaden his reach; who needs to listen to police scanners when dozens of robot spiders are all over the city watching out for crime, after all? In the course of the first three issues, the new, "superior" Spider-Man takes on a new iteration of the Sinister Six and a more heavyweight Spider-Man villain, the Vulture, and for a change, wins, a rather pleasant feeling for Octavius.
He is considerably less successful, however, at living out Peter's personal life; Otto spends issue #2 making advances on Mary Jane, only to be frustrated at every turn. Interestingly enough, though, Otto makes a decision that is surprisingly selfless at the end of the issue.
One part of his personality that Octavius cannot seem to unlearn, however, is the brutality with which he dispatches his foes. Although he does not kill anyone, by the end of issues #1 and #3 he actually comes pretty close, and the latter does not go unnoticed by Peter's ex-girlfriend Carlie Cooper, who also happens to be a policewoman.
(mild spoiler alert)
Of course, another complication to the story is that Peter Parker is apparently not as dead as people thought he was at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #700; he lurks somewhere in the back of his old body's mind, and manifests as a "ghost" beside Octavius. He actually stops Octavius from killing a supervillain, though Otto is not aware that his old enemy is still around. It's an amusing and encouraging story device, as it is through this that Marvel establishes that at some point, Parker will be wearing the webs again, though it is overplayed from time to time.
(end spoiler alert)
When Marvel Comics unmasked Spider-Man at the end of Civil War #2 then-editor Axel Alonso boasted that they had something like two years' worth of stories to tell with an unmasked Spidey, but by the time they hit the "reset" button called One More Day, they had only told a little over one year worth of stories.
Truth be told, with well over a year between now and the premiere of the next "Amazing Spider-Man" movie, I'm hoping Marvel actually shows some balls and sticks to this current status quo for awhile before returning Peter Parker to his body in a grand, lavishly-illustrated six-issue story arc or something like that. Slott is off to a pretty good start, and it would be a shame if they called it a day too quickly. There's something fascinating about looking at Spider-Man's life from a supervillain's point of view. Octavius is clearly still an egomaniac, but not only is Slott letting us see another side of him; he's actually showing us readers why Doc Ock would actually make a very effective Spider-Man, and the reasons are entirely consistent with the things Ock has done as a character over the last several decades. In some ways, it actually plays out like an extended What If? issue, and is actually a lot of fun when appreciated that way.
The weak link, unfortunately, is artist Ryan Stegman, whose scratchy line work, as hard as this may be to believe, actually made me miss Humberto Ramos (who will be taking up the art duties for issues #7 and 8) and definitely made me miss Stefano Caselli, who has long since moved on from the webslinger. Stegman is a competent artist; he tells the story well enough, and there's even a hint of J. Scott Campbell in some of his characters, but his work just doesn't sing to me. Still, Slott could have done a lot worse in terms of choosing his collaborator.
I doubt I'll stick around for the entire "Doc Ock as Spider-Man" storyline, whether it lasts a year or five, but I can at least say now that I gave Slott the benefit of the doubt, and will probably stick around for a few issues more. Much to Slott's (and Marvel's) credit; what they've done here is something unique. Plenty of superheroes have died, from Jean Grey to Superman to the Human Torch, only to come back eventually, and Spider-Man himself has been replaced by his clone, but this is a first; outside of the odd What If? or Elsewords issue I don't think this particular plot twist has ever played out for this long. It will inevitably get old, of course, as all gimmick-based status quos tend to do (and as will Brian Michael Bendis' "original X-Men out of time" shtick), but what's worth following is how well Slott plays it out, and if the first three issues are any indication, the Spider-Man fans who came back after the dust settled from the furor kicked up by The Amazing Spider Man #700 should be in for a treat.
4/5
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Douchebags with Super Powers: A Review of Supercrooks
(w) Mark Millar
(a) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Sunny Gho (colors)
The irksome thing about much of Mark Millar's earlier creator-owned work published under Marvel Comics' Icon imprint was how much of what he did was basically a riff on existing superhero conventions; Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of which bears the tagline "with no power comes no responsibility," is Spider-Man with a twist. Superior, which features a nigh-invincible superhero with a frail alter-ego, is basically an amalgam of Superman and DC Comics' Captain Marvel, but with a twist. Nemesis was marketed as having the premise of a character who was as smart as Batman but as evil as the Joker. Of course, there was a twist to this, too, and a bit of misdirection involved.
Supercrooks Millar's second collaboration with Leinil Francis Yu after Superior is refreshing in that it hearkens back to Millar's earlier creator-owned work like Wanted. It's not quite as original as either of those two (as a couple of reviewers have said, it's basically Ocean's Eleven but with superpowers, extreme violence, and lots of swearing) but it seems to rely a lot less on shock value than work like Kick-Ass, with its foul-mouthed, mass-murdering 11-year-old girl, or Nemesis, the marketing of which apparently got the hackles of some folks at DC Comics up because it seemed like Millar was using Batman to plug a book that basically had nothing to do with him. This is a more pure Mark Millar at work here; one who seeks more to entertain than to offend.
Supercrooks is the story of a down-on-his-luck supervillain, Johnny Bolt, who has just done five years in prison after a superhero named Gladiator foiled his attempt at a robbery, when he is approached by a friend of his, Carmine, who is in a bind; he tried to trick the casino of a supervillain by employing a psychic accomplice, only to have the whole plan backfire, with the supervillain, a character named the Salamander, not only killing Carmine's psychic sidekick but telling Carmine to pay him $100 million in a month or forfeit his life. Johnny then hatches a plan for a heist that will not only pay Carmine's debts but will make him and whoever helps him very rich men. His girlfriend and one-time partner-in-crime Kasey protests that he will probably just go to jail again considering that there is a proliferation of superheroes ready to kick the crap out of him if he tries yet another heist, but Johnny counters that the main reason for all his failures is that his planned heists have all been in America, which has the highest concentration of superheroes in the world. His solution, then is to pull a job in Spain instead, where there are no superheroes. He gets his old gang of supervillains together, but the target of the planned heist may be too much for even a whole team of supervillians to handle; Johnny has set his sights on the nest egg of a retired uber-villain, the nastiest in the business, called The Bastard, who has as his bodyguard an ex-superhero with something like twenty-seven different superpowers called the Praetorian. Johnny's got a plan for every contingency, though, and in this case it helps that one of his recruits, a rather unlikely choice, is keeping a nasty little secret. Still, the idea of stealing nearly a billion dollars from a guy who can explode people's heads with his mind does not exactly inspire confidence, and Johnny and his crew may yet find themselves in way over their heads.
It's a pity that Millar has garnered a bit of a reputation for saying or writing things meant to shock people for shock's sake, as he is a genuinely talented writer. The good news is that with this story, his proclivity for shock value takes a back seat to his storytelling skill. This story really is Ocean's Eleven with superpowers, and though it's got a somewhat familiar storytelling cadence and some elements of predictability to it, it's a lot of fun to read. It helps that Millar has created a solidly scripted leading character. Johnny really is a likable rogue, even though, when he's getting his teeth knocked in during one sequence late in the story, it's hard to argue against his deserving the beating. His supporting cast, while nowhere near as well-developed as he is, are colorfully scripted, and not just because of the four-letter words that come out of their mouths. Particularly noteworthy are the Diesel brothers, a pair of nigh-indestructible supervillians capable of growing back just about any appendage that is ripped from their body. Their ability provides the basis for the book's single most graphic sequence and it's a doozy. It's the closest Millar comes to writing for shock value in this book, but it's played mostly for laughs and as far as I'm concerned it works like a charm.
One minus for me here, though is some really unimaginative code names for some of the characters. Carmine, a supervillain in his youth, was called "The Heat," another crew member who can turn intangible is called "The Ghost," while the big-time supervillain Johnny and his crew plan to rip off is called "The Bastard." This isn't exactly the first time Millar's come up with some really lame-ass code names; in Wanted, the lead character was called "The Killer," after all. One might argue he's doing it on purpose, but to what end, I really don't know. He almost makes up for it with a really cool name for a superhero like "Gladiator" but when another superhero is named "Praetorian," which is only a hop and a skip away in terms of theme, even if he is Gladiator's ex-teammate, it just feels a little bit like Millar skimped on the effort in thinking up really cool codenames.
Like fellow Ultimate Marvel architect Brian Michael Bendis, Millar has an almost preternatural ability to attract some of the most talented artists in the comics industry to work on his books, including Civil War collaborator Steve McNiven, Marvel Comics legend John Romita Jr., and the artist of this work, the inestimable Filipino artist Leinil Yu, who brings along with him another of my favorite Filipino artists, Gerry Alanguilan, and Indonesian colorist Sunny Gho. There's a crispness to Yu's work here that I haven't seen anywhere else. His linework has always been amazing, but the first couple of issues of this story, to me anyway, showcase his talent working on a level even higher than his norm. Maybe there's something to be said about the way Millar plays to his artist's strengths. Whatever the reason, Yu and his co-artists Alanguilan and Gho are really firing on all cylinders here. Also, it's thanks to the participation of my two countrymen that there's a lovely little Easter Egg for all the Filipino comic book readers at the end of the comic book in which a Filipino casino attendant speaks in Tagalog. It's good for a nice hearty laugh.
Overall, Supercrooks is a very entertaining read. It's not something destined to turn the industry on its head or break the internet in half, and it doesn't quite stand on par with Millar's best like his first run on The Ultimates, but it's a memorable read nonetheless and definitely worth adding to the collection.
4/5
(a) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Sunny Gho (colors)
The irksome thing about much of Mark Millar's earlier creator-owned work published under Marvel Comics' Icon imprint was how much of what he did was basically a riff on existing superhero conventions; Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of which bears the tagline "with no power comes no responsibility," is Spider-Man with a twist. Superior, which features a nigh-invincible superhero with a frail alter-ego, is basically an amalgam of Superman and DC Comics' Captain Marvel, but with a twist. Nemesis was marketed as having the premise of a character who was as smart as Batman but as evil as the Joker. Of course, there was a twist to this, too, and a bit of misdirection involved.
Supercrooks Millar's second collaboration with Leinil Francis Yu after Superior is refreshing in that it hearkens back to Millar's earlier creator-owned work like Wanted. It's not quite as original as either of those two (as a couple of reviewers have said, it's basically Ocean's Eleven but with superpowers, extreme violence, and lots of swearing) but it seems to rely a lot less on shock value than work like Kick-Ass, with its foul-mouthed, mass-murdering 11-year-old girl, or Nemesis, the marketing of which apparently got the hackles of some folks at DC Comics up because it seemed like Millar was using Batman to plug a book that basically had nothing to do with him. This is a more pure Mark Millar at work here; one who seeks more to entertain than to offend.
Supercrooks is the story of a down-on-his-luck supervillain, Johnny Bolt, who has just done five years in prison after a superhero named Gladiator foiled his attempt at a robbery, when he is approached by a friend of his, Carmine, who is in a bind; he tried to trick the casino of a supervillain by employing a psychic accomplice, only to have the whole plan backfire, with the supervillain, a character named the Salamander, not only killing Carmine's psychic sidekick but telling Carmine to pay him $100 million in a month or forfeit his life. Johnny then hatches a plan for a heist that will not only pay Carmine's debts but will make him and whoever helps him very rich men. His girlfriend and one-time partner-in-crime Kasey protests that he will probably just go to jail again considering that there is a proliferation of superheroes ready to kick the crap out of him if he tries yet another heist, but Johnny counters that the main reason for all his failures is that his planned heists have all been in America, which has the highest concentration of superheroes in the world. His solution, then is to pull a job in Spain instead, where there are no superheroes. He gets his old gang of supervillains together, but the target of the planned heist may be too much for even a whole team of supervillians to handle; Johnny has set his sights on the nest egg of a retired uber-villain, the nastiest in the business, called The Bastard, who has as his bodyguard an ex-superhero with something like twenty-seven different superpowers called the Praetorian. Johnny's got a plan for every contingency, though, and in this case it helps that one of his recruits, a rather unlikely choice, is keeping a nasty little secret. Still, the idea of stealing nearly a billion dollars from a guy who can explode people's heads with his mind does not exactly inspire confidence, and Johnny and his crew may yet find themselves in way over their heads.
It's a pity that Millar has garnered a bit of a reputation for saying or writing things meant to shock people for shock's sake, as he is a genuinely talented writer. The good news is that with this story, his proclivity for shock value takes a back seat to his storytelling skill. This story really is Ocean's Eleven with superpowers, and though it's got a somewhat familiar storytelling cadence and some elements of predictability to it, it's a lot of fun to read. It helps that Millar has created a solidly scripted leading character. Johnny really is a likable rogue, even though, when he's getting his teeth knocked in during one sequence late in the story, it's hard to argue against his deserving the beating. His supporting cast, while nowhere near as well-developed as he is, are colorfully scripted, and not just because of the four-letter words that come out of their mouths. Particularly noteworthy are the Diesel brothers, a pair of nigh-indestructible supervillians capable of growing back just about any appendage that is ripped from their body. Their ability provides the basis for the book's single most graphic sequence and it's a doozy. It's the closest Millar comes to writing for shock value in this book, but it's played mostly for laughs and as far as I'm concerned it works like a charm.
One minus for me here, though is some really unimaginative code names for some of the characters. Carmine, a supervillain in his youth, was called "The Heat," another crew member who can turn intangible is called "The Ghost," while the big-time supervillain Johnny and his crew plan to rip off is called "The Bastard." This isn't exactly the first time Millar's come up with some really lame-ass code names; in Wanted, the lead character was called "The Killer," after all. One might argue he's doing it on purpose, but to what end, I really don't know. He almost makes up for it with a really cool name for a superhero like "Gladiator" but when another superhero is named "Praetorian," which is only a hop and a skip away in terms of theme, even if he is Gladiator's ex-teammate, it just feels a little bit like Millar skimped on the effort in thinking up really cool codenames.
Like fellow Ultimate Marvel architect Brian Michael Bendis, Millar has an almost preternatural ability to attract some of the most talented artists in the comics industry to work on his books, including Civil War collaborator Steve McNiven, Marvel Comics legend John Romita Jr., and the artist of this work, the inestimable Filipino artist Leinil Yu, who brings along with him another of my favorite Filipino artists, Gerry Alanguilan, and Indonesian colorist Sunny Gho. There's a crispness to Yu's work here that I haven't seen anywhere else. His linework has always been amazing, but the first couple of issues of this story, to me anyway, showcase his talent working on a level even higher than his norm. Maybe there's something to be said about the way Millar plays to his artist's strengths. Whatever the reason, Yu and his co-artists Alanguilan and Gho are really firing on all cylinders here. Also, it's thanks to the participation of my two countrymen that there's a lovely little Easter Egg for all the Filipino comic book readers at the end of the comic book in which a Filipino casino attendant speaks in Tagalog. It's good for a nice hearty laugh.
Overall, Supercrooks is a very entertaining read. It's not something destined to turn the industry on its head or break the internet in half, and it doesn't quite stand on par with Millar's best like his first run on The Ultimates, but it's a memorable read nonetheless and definitely worth adding to the collection.
4/5
Monday, February 18, 2013
All New X-Men #1 to #5
Writer: Brian Bendis
Artists: Stuart Immonen (pencils) Wade Von Grawbadger (inks) Marte Garcia (colors)
It gets harder and harder these days to review individual comic books. Between my schedule, the "decompressed" nature of many comic-book storylines and the fact that comic books nowadays contain only twenty pages of story, reviewing a single issue is starting to feel a little tedious, considering that my reviews may even contain more text than the comic books themselves.
Still, the beauty of the "decompressed" era of comics is that by waiting for several issues to pass before posting a review I find myself able to better appreciate how the individual issues fit as parts of a whole.
Brian Michael Bendis, in particular, writes this way and as a result it is easier to review his new series, All New X-Men, in clusters rather than as individual issues.
All New X-Men, which takes place in the wake of the cataclysmic events that occurred in the Avengers vs. X-Men miniseries, in which founding member of the X-Men, Cyclops, acting under the influence of the Phoenix Force, murdered the founder of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier. The X-Men are divided into two camps, basically Cyclops' group of X-Men and Wolverine's, with the former espousing a revolutionary, somewhat violent agenda.
Desperate to stop him, the Beast/Henry McCoy comes up with a bold idea: to bring the five original X-Men forward in time so that young Scott can confront his older counterpart and, Beast hopes, bring some sense back into him. Of course, as with all the best laid plans, things go amiss, and the X-Men from the past are, in a word, appalled. Of course, apart from his depression at the way things have ended up, Beast has other problems to wrestle with as well; apparently he's mutating yet again, and he fears that this time the mutation may kill him.
In the course of the issues, two crucial things happen to the original X-Men that pretty much change them forever; they encounter Cyclops and his new teammates, who include their archnemesis Magneto, and the teenaged Jean Grey not only sees into the mind of the future version of her boyfriend, thereby knowing for certain that he killed the X-Men's mentor, but also sees her entire, tragic future, courtesy of the older version of Hank McCoy's memories.
Now, to be clear I am not a fan of time-travel stories because of how hard it is to keep track of the rules, but as time-travel stories, go, the premise of this one is particularly hard to swallow because by moving the original X-Men forward in time, Hank McCoy has basically ensured that, unless and until they go back, they will not be around for any of the things that happened to them between the past and the present, a situation which should have catastrophic consequences considering how many times the X-Men saved the world. Hank McCoy's solution seemed short-sighted and rather unlike something that someone as smart as he's supposed to be would devise.
As difficult as the premise is to accept, though, Bendis' script is still pretty entertaining, and even though his usual dialogue seems rather ill-fitting for the original mutant team at times, the story still flows well enough.
The series is basically propelled by its "teens out of time" element, and in this aspect Bendis excels. While I could never put aside my problem with the repercussions of the X-Men being removed from their time, I was entertained by seeing their reaction to being in a future far removed from the world they knew.
Bendis has always had a good eye for collaborators and this talent is exemplified here by his choice of veteran artist Stuart Immonen. Immonen, whose work I have followed since he teamed up with Warren Ellis on Ultimate Fantastic Four and later, the well-regarded Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., is quite arguably one of the most capable storytellers in the business, even if he isn't always the flashiest artist around. For one thing, I can categorically say that his characters are hands down some of the most expressive in all of comics. This is crucial when depicting the emotional wringer that the main characters in this book are going through. Truth be told, for me, Immonen was the main selling point of this series, and the icing on the cake is that he's going to be spelled by David Marquez, whose art I also enjoy immensely.
Still, this book hinges largely on a story device that has to be resolved eventually because obviously, the X-Men cannot spend too much time OUT of their time and for that I fault Bendis, who clearly came up with the idea. It's an engaging book in its own right but one wonders how sustainable it will be without this conceit of the X-Men being "out of time" or even how quickly this novel story premise will get old.
3.5/5
Artists: Stuart Immonen (pencils) Wade Von Grawbadger (inks) Marte Garcia (colors)
It gets harder and harder these days to review individual comic books. Between my schedule, the "decompressed" nature of many comic-book storylines and the fact that comic books nowadays contain only twenty pages of story, reviewing a single issue is starting to feel a little tedious, considering that my reviews may even contain more text than the comic books themselves.
Still, the beauty of the "decompressed" era of comics is that by waiting for several issues to pass before posting a review I find myself able to better appreciate how the individual issues fit as parts of a whole.
Brian Michael Bendis, in particular, writes this way and as a result it is easier to review his new series, All New X-Men, in clusters rather than as individual issues.
All New X-Men, which takes place in the wake of the cataclysmic events that occurred in the Avengers vs. X-Men miniseries, in which founding member of the X-Men, Cyclops, acting under the influence of the Phoenix Force, murdered the founder of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier. The X-Men are divided into two camps, basically Cyclops' group of X-Men and Wolverine's, with the former espousing a revolutionary, somewhat violent agenda.
Desperate to stop him, the Beast/Henry McCoy comes up with a bold idea: to bring the five original X-Men forward in time so that young Scott can confront his older counterpart and, Beast hopes, bring some sense back into him. Of course, as with all the best laid plans, things go amiss, and the X-Men from the past are, in a word, appalled. Of course, apart from his depression at the way things have ended up, Beast has other problems to wrestle with as well; apparently he's mutating yet again, and he fears that this time the mutation may kill him.
In the course of the issues, two crucial things happen to the original X-Men that pretty much change them forever; they encounter Cyclops and his new teammates, who include their archnemesis Magneto, and the teenaged Jean Grey not only sees into the mind of the future version of her boyfriend, thereby knowing for certain that he killed the X-Men's mentor, but also sees her entire, tragic future, courtesy of the older version of Hank McCoy's memories.
Now, to be clear I am not a fan of time-travel stories because of how hard it is to keep track of the rules, but as time-travel stories, go, the premise of this one is particularly hard to swallow because by moving the original X-Men forward in time, Hank McCoy has basically ensured that, unless and until they go back, they will not be around for any of the things that happened to them between the past and the present, a situation which should have catastrophic consequences considering how many times the X-Men saved the world. Hank McCoy's solution seemed short-sighted and rather unlike something that someone as smart as he's supposed to be would devise.
As difficult as the premise is to accept, though, Bendis' script is still pretty entertaining, and even though his usual dialogue seems rather ill-fitting for the original mutant team at times, the story still flows well enough.
The series is basically propelled by its "teens out of time" element, and in this aspect Bendis excels. While I could never put aside my problem with the repercussions of the X-Men being removed from their time, I was entertained by seeing their reaction to being in a future far removed from the world they knew.
Bendis has always had a good eye for collaborators and this talent is exemplified here by his choice of veteran artist Stuart Immonen. Immonen, whose work I have followed since he teamed up with Warren Ellis on Ultimate Fantastic Four and later, the well-regarded Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., is quite arguably one of the most capable storytellers in the business, even if he isn't always the flashiest artist around. For one thing, I can categorically say that his characters are hands down some of the most expressive in all of comics. This is crucial when depicting the emotional wringer that the main characters in this book are going through. Truth be told, for me, Immonen was the main selling point of this series, and the icing on the cake is that he's going to be spelled by David Marquez, whose art I also enjoy immensely.
Still, this book hinges largely on a story device that has to be resolved eventually because obviously, the X-Men cannot spend too much time OUT of their time and for that I fault Bendis, who clearly came up with the idea. It's an engaging book in its own right but one wonders how sustainable it will be without this conceit of the X-Men being "out of time" or even how quickly this novel story premise will get old.
3.5/5
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
And Now...Venom. A Review of Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #s 19 and 20
(w) Brian Michael Bendis
(a) Sara Pichelli (line art) Justin Ponsor (colors)
After the six-issue crossover with the other "Ultimate" line titles, the Ultimate Marvel universe version of Spider-Man, Miles Morales, is back to his own adventures, this time facing off against a character who's been a Spider-Man staple since he was first introduced in the late '80s: Venom. While Venom's appearance in this title was teased in issue 16.1, it's only now that we readers get to see him in his full frightening glory.
In issue #18, Miles runs out of web fluid and turns to his friend Ganke to unlock the secret of the formula that the late Peter Parker has left behind. In the meantime, Detective Maria Hill investigates the death of Betty Brant (as detailed in the aforementioned UCSM 16.1) by interviewing Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and Venom wreaks havoc on the now derelict Oscorp Industries facilities. Miles' dad Jefferson, on the other hand, is reaping the unwanted consequences of having fought HYDRA during the "Divided We Fall" storyline.
Issue #19 features an extended throw-down between the new Spider-Man and Venom, with some rather shocking though not entirely unexpected collateral damage resulting.
Brian Michael Bendis does not waste a whole lot of time leading into the Venom confrontation; the issue spent on setup is well-judged, with plot developments from the last story arc being nicely followed up, such as the question what would happen to Miles once he runs out of webs (i.e. will it be that simple to recreate the fluid from Peter's formula? The answer is amusing), and what is the backlash of things like Betty Brant's death and Jefferson Davis' actions? Issue #18 touches on these issues quickly and judiciously, with two of them, Brant's death and Davis' fate, left as questions to be resolved in the issues to come.
It would be easy to dismiss issue #19 as nothing more than a slugfest, but to my mind the context for it was pretty well-established in what was basically a talking-heads issue. One could say that Bendis got all of the talky-talky stuff out of the way so that he could focus on the battle. Not only that, but there are plenty of fun vignettes in the Venom fight, such as the results of Ganke's first attempt to produce web fluid, Miles' attempt to disguise his voice from his parents and his attempts as well to remember how Peter Parker beat Venom previously. There is quite a bit going on in the course of the fight.
And what a fight it is, courtesy of returning artist and Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli. I was already a fan of Pichelli's when she took time off from this book to draw the Spider-Men miniseries, but what was immediately apparent to me upon seeing her return to these pages was that she has significantly stepped up her game, perhaps in response to the favorable response her substitute artist, David Marquez, got during his stint on the book. Her signature style is still very much intact, but the level of detail packed into the two issues, especially her frightening depiction of the very well-known Venom, is simply on another level compared to her previous work. Her action sequences always had a nicely dynamic quality to them, but here, they couldn't jump off the page any more if the comic book was printed in 3-D format with glasses to boot. This is wonderful stuff. I really hope Pichelli sees this storyline through to its conclusion, because she is a huge part of what makes this confrontation as engaging as it is.
Soon I will have been following UCSM for two years, which is the longest consecutive streak of single-issue comic book collecting I have done since I stopped collecting regularly in 2006. While the last story arc was a little bit of a hiccup in terms of the storytelling quality, I have to say that on the whole Brian Bendis has really pulled me in with this particular vision for Spider-Man.
4.5/5
(a) Sara Pichelli (line art) Justin Ponsor (colors)
After the six-issue crossover with the other "Ultimate" line titles, the Ultimate Marvel universe version of Spider-Man, Miles Morales, is back to his own adventures, this time facing off against a character who's been a Spider-Man staple since he was first introduced in the late '80s: Venom. While Venom's appearance in this title was teased in issue 16.1, it's only now that we readers get to see him in his full frightening glory.
In issue #18, Miles runs out of web fluid and turns to his friend Ganke to unlock the secret of the formula that the late Peter Parker has left behind. In the meantime, Detective Maria Hill investigates the death of Betty Brant (as detailed in the aforementioned UCSM 16.1) by interviewing Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson, and Venom wreaks havoc on the now derelict Oscorp Industries facilities. Miles' dad Jefferson, on the other hand, is reaping the unwanted consequences of having fought HYDRA during the "Divided We Fall" storyline.
Issue #19 features an extended throw-down between the new Spider-Man and Venom, with some rather shocking though not entirely unexpected collateral damage resulting.
Brian Michael Bendis does not waste a whole lot of time leading into the Venom confrontation; the issue spent on setup is well-judged, with plot developments from the last story arc being nicely followed up, such as the question what would happen to Miles once he runs out of webs (i.e. will it be that simple to recreate the fluid from Peter's formula? The answer is amusing), and what is the backlash of things like Betty Brant's death and Jefferson Davis' actions? Issue #18 touches on these issues quickly and judiciously, with two of them, Brant's death and Davis' fate, left as questions to be resolved in the issues to come.
It would be easy to dismiss issue #19 as nothing more than a slugfest, but to my mind the context for it was pretty well-established in what was basically a talking-heads issue. One could say that Bendis got all of the talky-talky stuff out of the way so that he could focus on the battle. Not only that, but there are plenty of fun vignettes in the Venom fight, such as the results of Ganke's first attempt to produce web fluid, Miles' attempt to disguise his voice from his parents and his attempts as well to remember how Peter Parker beat Venom previously. There is quite a bit going on in the course of the fight.
And what a fight it is, courtesy of returning artist and Miles Morales co-creator Sara Pichelli. I was already a fan of Pichelli's when she took time off from this book to draw the Spider-Men miniseries, but what was immediately apparent to me upon seeing her return to these pages was that she has significantly stepped up her game, perhaps in response to the favorable response her substitute artist, David Marquez, got during his stint on the book. Her signature style is still very much intact, but the level of detail packed into the two issues, especially her frightening depiction of the very well-known Venom, is simply on another level compared to her previous work. Her action sequences always had a nicely dynamic quality to them, but here, they couldn't jump off the page any more if the comic book was printed in 3-D format with glasses to boot. This is wonderful stuff. I really hope Pichelli sees this storyline through to its conclusion, because she is a huge part of what makes this confrontation as engaging as it is.
Soon I will have been following UCSM for two years, which is the longest consecutive streak of single-issue comic book collecting I have done since I stopped collecting regularly in 2006. While the last story arc was a little bit of a hiccup in terms of the storytelling quality, I have to say that on the whole Brian Bendis has really pulled me in with this particular vision for Spider-Man.
4.5/5
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