(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
No comments:
Post a Comment