(w) Dan Slott
(a) Giuseppi Camuncoli (pencils) John Dell (inks) Antonio Fabella(colors)
After three issues spent setting up Spider-Man's new, somewhat more brutal status quo, writer Dan Slott (sort of) wades into the decidedly murkier question of how far Spider-Man is ready to go to take down criminals. This arc sees the return of Massacre, a villain whose sole power over Spider-Man is his utter lack of human compunction, who breaks out of Ravencroft the mental institution in which he is confined, and in fact kills someone who has been a pretty important supporting character in the last several years. Otto Octavius/Spider-Man tracks him down with the help of one of his fellow employees at Horizon Labs, child prodigy Uatu Jackson who has developed facial recognition software which Otto then plugs into his spider-bots. Massacre, meanwhile, has made a deal with a software magnate to kill while wearing the logo of the company's rival, all for a fee, of course. The stage is set for a very bloody showdown that will put the new Spider-Man's moral compass to the ultimate test.
What makes Spider-Man's new adventures so engaging to read these days is Otto Octavius' markedly different approach to fighting crime from the one Peter employed, which is, in many respects, better. It's a tad more devious in some respects, but thinking about it, Otto's using his resources at work to make robotic spiders isn't any less ethical than Peter's using his employer's tech to build himself spider-armor, especially considering that they both serve the same purpose: to fight crime. There's more to Otto's methods than just thinking like a bad guy; he is actually more pragmatic in several respects than Peter ever was, and the fun is in noticing these little details so I won't spoil them for anyone who may yet read this book. Apart from the fact that, as a Spider-Man fan for the better part of three decades, I can attest that Peter has never adopted these methods, I have noticed that Slott seems to be very good with his Spider-Man lore, so I can more or less take him at his word that this is all very new for Spidey.
This is actually why I found myself disappointed with how the story panned out.
It's been quite clearly established in the first few issues that the current status quo, however long it may last, is ultimately a temporary one. One may argue that this was done to reassure fans that their beloved Peter Parker will be back swinging webs eventually. The reason I'm on board for this is I want to see how Slott is able to develop Otto as he walks the proverbial mile in Peter's shoes, and I have, save for a few niggles here and there, actually been pretty happy with the balance Slott has struck between Otto's egomania and villainous tendencies and his redeeming qualities, which could not have been the easiest stuff to write. It would really have been interesting to see him develop as a character before having to confront the really heavy stuff, such as the question of whether Otto is capable of killing in the name of crime fighting, something Peter was never willing to do.
How Otto makes his decision is something I will not spoil, and to be perfectly clear it is not even 100% clear how the story turns out, but suffice it to say the fact that he was confronted with the situation so early in his tenure as Spider-Man was what disappointed me, and to make the catalyst for this event a villain as dull as Massacre, who is basically a one-trick pony, makes the narrative decision all the more grating.
What was surprisingly easy on the eyes, though, was Camuncoli's art. The only other time I've ever seen Camuncoli was when did some last minute subbing for Steve McNiven over on Captain America last year, and I have to say I was not thrilled. I kind of groaned when I saw his name on the previews, but he turned in some rather solid work here. He's also got a pretty good handle on how to draw Spider-Man. Also, his cleaner line work, abetted by John Dell's inks, is a welcome break from Ryan Stegman's scratchy work over the last three issues.
What ultimately irks me about these two issues is that it feels like Slott is peaking way too soon here. He could have had Otto-Spidey dish out his slightly edgier brand of crime-fighting for a few issues more before tackling the deeper, stickier issue of how far he is prepared to go, which would have made for some pretty interesting reading down the line. As of now, he has put him on a collision course with several of his fellow heroes, something which Marvel has already been hyping for months. Sales on this title have been good, so really,I don't see any reason for Marvel to go rushing back to their former status quo just yet. I honestly hope Slott has more up his sleeve, and will take his time with the current situation.
To be quite fair, though, for all their flaws, the issues were still pretty readable.
3.5/5
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The Adventures of Kid Loki and Friends: A Review of Young Avengers #1 and #2
(w) Keiron Gillen
(a) Jamie McKelvie w/ Mike Norton (line art) Matthew Wilson (colors)
In 2005, writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung surprised people with the original new series Young Avengers, a title which was originally believed to be a poorly-conceived spin-off of Marvel's most popular property at the time, New Avengers but which turned out to be so much more in terms of narrative heft and overall quality. Heinberg's characters were utterly compelling to read, and Cheung's art was A-list quality. Notwithstanding decent sales, though, and a pretty positive impact among readers, the series did not last more than twelve issues before it went on what was described as a "hiatus" apparently due the fact that writer Heinberg's many other writing commitments prevented him from getting the book out on a regular basis. Heinberg was later able to get enough scripts together for the mammoth miniseries Avengers: The Children's Crusade, which reunited him with artist Cheung about two years back, but between those two series the Young Avengers have been little more than supporting players in other Marvel characters' books, with the occasional appearance in the pages of Marvel's "events" like Secret Invasion or Siege. After Children's Crusade wrapped, it looked as though the Young Avengers having their own adventures in their own book was going to be a thing of the past.
Fortunately, however, Marvel had other ideas, and as a result, last month the Young Avengers, albeit with a tweaked roster, started appearing in their own monthly book once more.
Of the original Young Avengers, only Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye (a redundant name if ever there was one, and one I sincerely hope Marvel changes, if not now then eventually), Billy Kaplan aka Wiccan, and Teddy Altman aka Hulkling remain, though they have been joined by new members Noh-varr, or the Kree warrior formerly known as Marvel Boy/Captain Marvel/The Protector, Miss America, a fledgling powerhouse of a superhero, and most significantly, Kid Loki, the actual god of mischief who has cheated the death that he apparently suffered in the Siege storyline, only to be transformed into a child.
Issue #1 begins with Kate Bishop apparently just having enjoyed a roll in the proverbial hay with Noh-Varr (the hay actually being his orbiting spaceship), shortly after which they are attacked by Skrulls. Meanwhile, Teddy and Billy are having issues; Teddy has resumed superhero work on the sly despite the team resolving at the end of the cataclysmic events in Children's Crusade to hang up their tights for good. Billy finds out, and they fight, with Teddy reminding Billy of all they have lost. Teddy reminds Billy of how lucky he is to still have parents considering that the Skrull who raised him, the only mother he knew, was killed. Feeling guilty for giving Teddy a hard time, Billy decides to do what any good boyfriend would do and raise Teddy's mother from the dead by pulling her out of one of the universe's many time streams at the moment before she was evaporated by the Super Skrull.
Meanwhile, Loki, who is apparently freeloading at a diner, senses that Wiccan is about to cast a spell and, appearing on top of the apartment building where Billy and Teddy live with Billy's parents, tries to counteract it before he is interrupted by Miss America, who is about to pummel him when he magically slips away from her grasp, but not before their fight attracts Teddy's attention.
The spell works, with Teddy's mother apparently very much back from the dead, but it is not without its consequences.
In issue #2, Wiccan and Hulkling learn that the latter's apparently resurrected mother is not quite what she seems, with dire consequences for them both. Not even the Avengers are able to bail them out of this situation, and they find themselves imprisoned in a curious fashion. Of all people, it's kid-Loki who bails them out, ostensibly because he wants to help them, but at least partially because he needs someone to settle his considerable tab at the diner. Wiccan and Hulkling, who somehow feel Loki has had a hand in their predicament, then apparently decide that the best thing to do with Loki is take him to Asgardia, which is basically the rebranded Asgard, floating over Oklahoma.
Gillen won me over with his run on Thor, which I recently picked up in collected form, and when I found out he was writing the further adventures of Loki and that the Young Avengers were finally coming back to their own regular series, albeit without series creators Heinberg and Cheung, picking up the new series was an easy decision.
For the most part, I was happy with issue #1, though there were some details that stifled my enjoyment the tiniest bit.
For one thing, the depiction of Wiccan in particular was a bit of departure from the way he was written by Heinberg and drawn by Cheung. I always found him a well-written character, and having him recite Gillen's dialogue here was quite a treat, save for the fact that he's gone from being a superhero who happened to be gay to being, to paraphrase Nathan Lane's character from The Birdcage, a bit of a screaming queen, from his flamboyant hair to his mannerisms. Heinberg didn't make a big thing of this when he was writing the book, despite the fact that he himself is openly gay. This little storytelling tic doesn't detract significantly from his character, but it distracts from what matters most to the story. Another very minor niggle I had was with the notion that Kate Bishop's parents would be fans of sixties music considering that, considering Kate's age, they would probably more likely have grown up with the likes of the Bangles and the Go-gos (80s music) than the Ronettes (60s music). That's an even more minor concern than my objections to Billy's characterization, but it was still a slight distraction, though the action sequence that followed it was incredible. The overall issue was pretty solid.
Issue #2 was a bit more problematic for me. It was a lot of fun seeing kid-Loki interact with Wiccan and Hulkling, with the scene in which he frees them from their magical prisons being a visual treat and his dialogue with the two of them in the diner being particularly amusing, especially his dig at Wiccan's codename, which made me wonder if Loki even knew that Wiccan originally called himself "Asgardian." However, Wiccan's and Hulkling's eventual decision to haul Loki off to Asgardia doesn't make the most sense to me, because even though it is suggested that they believe he is behind their woes I still got the impression they were going off half-cocked instead of having a real plan. Well, they are teenagers, after all, and they may have made a mistake they may yet live to regret.
As Gillen's writing goes, however, the pacing here feels a tad slower than the stuff he had going on during his run on Thor. I breezed through these issues with the impression that little had happened, although of course, the twist at the end of issue #1 was still a doozy. Also, although all of the characters to be featured in the book have already shown up, it appears that I may yet have to wait for at least another issue or two for them to get together as a team, assuming it even happens within this story arc. There's arguably something very deliberate to Gillen's pacing, and it does seem on the one hand like he's lining things up for a big payoff later in the arc, or in the series, but considering that my first exposure to his writing was his Thor stint, which had several explosive three issue-arcs (and a couple of one-shots at that) contained in one big volume, his work here still feels relatively static. Still, his gift for lively and compelling dialogue still shines through here. Gillen, I would like to point out, writes an exceptional Loki.
Another truly exemplary aspect of this new series is the work of Jamie McKelvie, aided in some capacity by Mike Norton. While McKelvie is probably mostly responsible for Billy's new look that I kind of find a little too "beauty parlor gay" his character work is otherwise beyond reproach, as are his panel layouts, which I first glimpsed in the Siege: Loki one-shot reprinted in the aforementioned Thor volume. In particular, when the battle between Noh-Varr and the Skrulls breaks out in the first couple of pages, McKelvie's depiction of the action is pretty outstanding. I wasn't too thrilled with Matthew Wilson's palette of colors, though, considering I'm a bigger fan of the more "showy" colorists like Laura Martin and Morry Hollowell. Overall, though, the art is one of this book's strongest points.
Reservations about Gillen's pacing aside, this is a very engaging book and compares decently enough to the other titles in the Marvel NOW! line, even though it is not my favorite. Still, it is the only book Marvel has right now featuring Loki, and after reading Gillen's take on him over in Thor I can say with certainty that this is a book I want to follow.
3.5/5
(a) Jamie McKelvie w/ Mike Norton (line art) Matthew Wilson (colors)
In 2005, writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung surprised people with the original new series Young Avengers, a title which was originally believed to be a poorly-conceived spin-off of Marvel's most popular property at the time, New Avengers but which turned out to be so much more in terms of narrative heft and overall quality. Heinberg's characters were utterly compelling to read, and Cheung's art was A-list quality. Notwithstanding decent sales, though, and a pretty positive impact among readers, the series did not last more than twelve issues before it went on what was described as a "hiatus" apparently due the fact that writer Heinberg's many other writing commitments prevented him from getting the book out on a regular basis. Heinberg was later able to get enough scripts together for the mammoth miniseries Avengers: The Children's Crusade, which reunited him with artist Cheung about two years back, but between those two series the Young Avengers have been little more than supporting players in other Marvel characters' books, with the occasional appearance in the pages of Marvel's "events" like Secret Invasion or Siege. After Children's Crusade wrapped, it looked as though the Young Avengers having their own adventures in their own book was going to be a thing of the past.
Fortunately, however, Marvel had other ideas, and as a result, last month the Young Avengers, albeit with a tweaked roster, started appearing in their own monthly book once more.
Of the original Young Avengers, only Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye (a redundant name if ever there was one, and one I sincerely hope Marvel changes, if not now then eventually), Billy Kaplan aka Wiccan, and Teddy Altman aka Hulkling remain, though they have been joined by new members Noh-varr, or the Kree warrior formerly known as Marvel Boy/Captain Marvel/The Protector, Miss America, a fledgling powerhouse of a superhero, and most significantly, Kid Loki, the actual god of mischief who has cheated the death that he apparently suffered in the Siege storyline, only to be transformed into a child.
Issue #1 begins with Kate Bishop apparently just having enjoyed a roll in the proverbial hay with Noh-Varr (the hay actually being his orbiting spaceship), shortly after which they are attacked by Skrulls. Meanwhile, Teddy and Billy are having issues; Teddy has resumed superhero work on the sly despite the team resolving at the end of the cataclysmic events in Children's Crusade to hang up their tights for good. Billy finds out, and they fight, with Teddy reminding Billy of all they have lost. Teddy reminds Billy of how lucky he is to still have parents considering that the Skrull who raised him, the only mother he knew, was killed. Feeling guilty for giving Teddy a hard time, Billy decides to do what any good boyfriend would do and raise Teddy's mother from the dead by pulling her out of one of the universe's many time streams at the moment before she was evaporated by the Super Skrull.
Meanwhile, Loki, who is apparently freeloading at a diner, senses that Wiccan is about to cast a spell and, appearing on top of the apartment building where Billy and Teddy live with Billy's parents, tries to counteract it before he is interrupted by Miss America, who is about to pummel him when he magically slips away from her grasp, but not before their fight attracts Teddy's attention.
The spell works, with Teddy's mother apparently very much back from the dead, but it is not without its consequences.
In issue #2, Wiccan and Hulkling learn that the latter's apparently resurrected mother is not quite what she seems, with dire consequences for them both. Not even the Avengers are able to bail them out of this situation, and they find themselves imprisoned in a curious fashion. Of all people, it's kid-Loki who bails them out, ostensibly because he wants to help them, but at least partially because he needs someone to settle his considerable tab at the diner. Wiccan and Hulkling, who somehow feel Loki has had a hand in their predicament, then apparently decide that the best thing to do with Loki is take him to Asgardia, which is basically the rebranded Asgard, floating over Oklahoma.
Gillen won me over with his run on Thor, which I recently picked up in collected form, and when I found out he was writing the further adventures of Loki and that the Young Avengers were finally coming back to their own regular series, albeit without series creators Heinberg and Cheung, picking up the new series was an easy decision.
For the most part, I was happy with issue #1, though there were some details that stifled my enjoyment the tiniest bit.
For one thing, the depiction of Wiccan in particular was a bit of departure from the way he was written by Heinberg and drawn by Cheung. I always found him a well-written character, and having him recite Gillen's dialogue here was quite a treat, save for the fact that he's gone from being a superhero who happened to be gay to being, to paraphrase Nathan Lane's character from The Birdcage, a bit of a screaming queen, from his flamboyant hair to his mannerisms. Heinberg didn't make a big thing of this when he was writing the book, despite the fact that he himself is openly gay. This little storytelling tic doesn't detract significantly from his character, but it distracts from what matters most to the story. Another very minor niggle I had was with the notion that Kate Bishop's parents would be fans of sixties music considering that, considering Kate's age, they would probably more likely have grown up with the likes of the Bangles and the Go-gos (80s music) than the Ronettes (60s music). That's an even more minor concern than my objections to Billy's characterization, but it was still a slight distraction, though the action sequence that followed it was incredible. The overall issue was pretty solid.
Issue #2 was a bit more problematic for me. It was a lot of fun seeing kid-Loki interact with Wiccan and Hulkling, with the scene in which he frees them from their magical prisons being a visual treat and his dialogue with the two of them in the diner being particularly amusing, especially his dig at Wiccan's codename, which made me wonder if Loki even knew that Wiccan originally called himself "Asgardian." However, Wiccan's and Hulkling's eventual decision to haul Loki off to Asgardia doesn't make the most sense to me, because even though it is suggested that they believe he is behind their woes I still got the impression they were going off half-cocked instead of having a real plan. Well, they are teenagers, after all, and they may have made a mistake they may yet live to regret.
As Gillen's writing goes, however, the pacing here feels a tad slower than the stuff he had going on during his run on Thor. I breezed through these issues with the impression that little had happened, although of course, the twist at the end of issue #1 was still a doozy. Also, although all of the characters to be featured in the book have already shown up, it appears that I may yet have to wait for at least another issue or two for them to get together as a team, assuming it even happens within this story arc. There's arguably something very deliberate to Gillen's pacing, and it does seem on the one hand like he's lining things up for a big payoff later in the arc, or in the series, but considering that my first exposure to his writing was his Thor stint, which had several explosive three issue-arcs (and a couple of one-shots at that) contained in one big volume, his work here still feels relatively static. Still, his gift for lively and compelling dialogue still shines through here. Gillen, I would like to point out, writes an exceptional Loki.
Another truly exemplary aspect of this new series is the work of Jamie McKelvie, aided in some capacity by Mike Norton. While McKelvie is probably mostly responsible for Billy's new look that I kind of find a little too "beauty parlor gay" his character work is otherwise beyond reproach, as are his panel layouts, which I first glimpsed in the Siege: Loki one-shot reprinted in the aforementioned Thor volume. In particular, when the battle between Noh-Varr and the Skrulls breaks out in the first couple of pages, McKelvie's depiction of the action is pretty outstanding. I wasn't too thrilled with Matthew Wilson's palette of colors, though, considering I'm a bigger fan of the more "showy" colorists like Laura Martin and Morry Hollowell. Overall, though, the art is one of this book's strongest points.
Reservations about Gillen's pacing aside, this is a very engaging book and compares decently enough to the other titles in the Marvel NOW! line, even though it is not my favorite. Still, it is the only book Marvel has right now featuring Loki, and after reading Gillen's take on him over in Thor I can say with certainty that this is a book I want to follow.
3.5/5
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Preparing the Way for Marvel Studios' Next Big Thing: Guardians of the Galaxy .1
(w) Brian Michael Bendis
(a) Steve McNiven (pencils) John Dell (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)
After playing coy for a few months following the explosive success of The Avengers at the global box-office, Marvel Studios has announced that the next property they plan to launch will be based on their long-running title Guardians of the Galaxy. In support of this effort, Marvel's publishing arm has recruited two of their top talents, writer Brian Michael Bendis (New Avengers) and artist Steve McNiven (Civil War) to reboot the comic-book series of these characters and, Marvel hopes, raise their profile a bit in time for the movie's 2014 release date.
Guardians of the Galaxy #.1 is the origin of Peter Quill, aka Star Lord. It begins thirty years before the present, around the time of his conception.
His mother Meredith Quill is living by herself somewhere in rural America, having apparently just broken up with her boyfriend or husband, when a spaceship crash-lands, and the lone occupant, a human-looking man, crawls out. He later wakes up in Meredith's house and introduces himself as J'son of Spartax, a king from outer space. As he spends the following days repairing his ship, he and Meredith fall in love, and from their romantic encounters Meredith conceives a child. Unfortunately, J'son has to return to his planet of origin, where he is fighting a fierce war which, he claims, the earth is not ready for, and for which reason he cannot take Meredith with him. After J'son takes off, leaving Meredith only a space-gun and their child to remember him by, Peter is born and grows up without a father, and all of the resentment that comes with that. Fortunately, however, as he grows it becomes clear that he has an innate spunk and an inclination to help the helpless. Unfortunately, when he's ten years old, the aliens at war with his father come back to his mother's house with something very nasty in mind for him and his mom.
Considering that this issue is meant to kick off a series designed to elevate a B-list (or arguably even C-list) Marvel property to the A-list, I was somewhat disappointed to see A-list creators Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven doing the comic-book equivalent of phoning in their performances.
Bendis' script starts off with some promise, with a lonely but spunky Meredith Quill talking to her mother on the phone, then interacting with J'son of Spartax, first with alarm, then trepidation, then finally affection. Their conversation when J'son eventually returns to his intergalactic war is written well-enough, and to me there was some genuine emotion there.
Ironically enough, it's when their son, Peter, supposedly the main character of this new series, is born, that the story starts to go downhill.
Bendis comes out strong with some nice character-defining dialogue for Meredith Quill, who is portrayed as an emotionally-strong woman, who is capable of recovering from a bad relationship and holding a gun to an alien, but one who is not beyond starting up a relationship with the same alien she has nursed back to health. Of all the characters depicted in this issue, her arc was easily the most interesting, and that could have rubbed off on Peter had Bendis' script had them interacting more. Then again, while Bendis is easily one of Marvel's most talented writers, he has had his low points and oddly enough it's on the "tentpole" books that the quality of his writing tends to dip. Had he written this book the same way he did his run on Daredevil I would probably have enjoyed this issue much more than I did, but apart from those brief, well-rendered character vignettes with Meredith Quill, Bendis seems too preoccupied with the notion that he's setting up Marvel's next big thing to really shine here.
The bigger disappointment, for me, was easily Steve McNiven's artwork. I have been a fan of this guy since I first saw previews of his work on the defunct series Marvel Knights: 4. I bought up back issues of the long-gone Crossgen series Meridien on account of his work. This guy is one of my favorites, and yet, for all of my adoration of his work, it really falls flat here. I could blame inker John Dell, but it isn't just down to sloppy inking here; to me McNiven's pencils look nowhere near their best. I've seen his art looking off before, but as near as I can recall this was when he was under the duress of deadlines; this series kicked off his run (unless it was belatedly prepared after the real issues of the series were in the can) so I can't understand why he starts off his new series so weakly.
The book is not without its pluses; with 31 pages of story it's a good 10 pages thicker than the usual comic-book these days, and even McNiven on an off-day is still better than most other artists at full-strength.
The thing is, this issue was meant to introduce a new series that has been billed by Marvel themselves as "the year's biggest book," so I can't help but feel underwhelmed by what I actually read. I can only hope things will pick up when the book starts in earnest with issue #1.
3/5
(a) Steve McNiven (pencils) John Dell (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)
After playing coy for a few months following the explosive success of The Avengers at the global box-office, Marvel Studios has announced that the next property they plan to launch will be based on their long-running title Guardians of the Galaxy. In support of this effort, Marvel's publishing arm has recruited two of their top talents, writer Brian Michael Bendis (New Avengers) and artist Steve McNiven (Civil War) to reboot the comic-book series of these characters and, Marvel hopes, raise their profile a bit in time for the movie's 2014 release date.
Guardians of the Galaxy #.1 is the origin of Peter Quill, aka Star Lord. It begins thirty years before the present, around the time of his conception.
His mother Meredith Quill is living by herself somewhere in rural America, having apparently just broken up with her boyfriend or husband, when a spaceship crash-lands, and the lone occupant, a human-looking man, crawls out. He later wakes up in Meredith's house and introduces himself as J'son of Spartax, a king from outer space. As he spends the following days repairing his ship, he and Meredith fall in love, and from their romantic encounters Meredith conceives a child. Unfortunately, J'son has to return to his planet of origin, where he is fighting a fierce war which, he claims, the earth is not ready for, and for which reason he cannot take Meredith with him. After J'son takes off, leaving Meredith only a space-gun and their child to remember him by, Peter is born and grows up without a father, and all of the resentment that comes with that. Fortunately, however, as he grows it becomes clear that he has an innate spunk and an inclination to help the helpless. Unfortunately, when he's ten years old, the aliens at war with his father come back to his mother's house with something very nasty in mind for him and his mom.
Considering that this issue is meant to kick off a series designed to elevate a B-list (or arguably even C-list) Marvel property to the A-list, I was somewhat disappointed to see A-list creators Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven doing the comic-book equivalent of phoning in their performances.
Bendis' script starts off with some promise, with a lonely but spunky Meredith Quill talking to her mother on the phone, then interacting with J'son of Spartax, first with alarm, then trepidation, then finally affection. Their conversation when J'son eventually returns to his intergalactic war is written well-enough, and to me there was some genuine emotion there.
Ironically enough, it's when their son, Peter, supposedly the main character of this new series, is born, that the story starts to go downhill.
Bendis comes out strong with some nice character-defining dialogue for Meredith Quill, who is portrayed as an emotionally-strong woman, who is capable of recovering from a bad relationship and holding a gun to an alien, but one who is not beyond starting up a relationship with the same alien she has nursed back to health. Of all the characters depicted in this issue, her arc was easily the most interesting, and that could have rubbed off on Peter had Bendis' script had them interacting more. Then again, while Bendis is easily one of Marvel's most talented writers, he has had his low points and oddly enough it's on the "tentpole" books that the quality of his writing tends to dip. Had he written this book the same way he did his run on Daredevil I would probably have enjoyed this issue much more than I did, but apart from those brief, well-rendered character vignettes with Meredith Quill, Bendis seems too preoccupied with the notion that he's setting up Marvel's next big thing to really shine here.
The bigger disappointment, for me, was easily Steve McNiven's artwork. I have been a fan of this guy since I first saw previews of his work on the defunct series Marvel Knights: 4. I bought up back issues of the long-gone Crossgen series Meridien on account of his work. This guy is one of my favorites, and yet, for all of my adoration of his work, it really falls flat here. I could blame inker John Dell, but it isn't just down to sloppy inking here; to me McNiven's pencils look nowhere near their best. I've seen his art looking off before, but as near as I can recall this was when he was under the duress of deadlines; this series kicked off his run (unless it was belatedly prepared after the real issues of the series were in the can) so I can't understand why he starts off his new series so weakly.
The book is not without its pluses; with 31 pages of story it's a good 10 pages thicker than the usual comic-book these days, and even McNiven on an off-day is still better than most other artists at full-strength.
The thing is, this issue was meant to introduce a new series that has been billed by Marvel themselves as "the year's biggest book," so I can't help but feel underwhelmed by what I actually read. I can only hope things will pick up when the book starts in earnest with issue #1.
3/5
Friday, March 1, 2013
Uncanny Avengers #2 to #4
(w) Rick Remender
(a) John Cassaday (line art) Laura Martin (colors)
I feel a little remiss at not having reviewed issues #2 and #3 of this series when I got them, but I guess I was just too busy at the time. In any event, with all four issues in my hands it was easy to read them and appreciate the story as a whole, and even the individual chapters on their own merit.
In issue #2, Avengers Captain America and Thor review the carnage wrought by the mutant Avalanche on a large portion of New York City, though their newest recruit, Alex Summers aka Havok was able to help save lives during the confusion. Part-time Avenger and X-Man Wolverine expresses displeasure with Captain America's decision to recruit Havok as the face of the mutant/superhero cooperative effort, but Havok then has a "hallmark" moment with a civilian who expresses gratitude for saving his life, and it becomes clear that Cap made the right call. Meanwhile, Rogue and the Scarlet Witch remain captives of the Red Skull and his crew of S-Men. Red Skull uses his newly-acquired telepathy to enthrall the Scarlet Witch, while Rogue attempts to escape.
In issue #3, the Red Skull's war on humanity, which he attempts to package as humanity's war on mutants, kicks into high gear as he, now wielding the power of the late Charles Xavier's brain, troops his S-Men into New York City, together with Rogue and the Scarlet Witch (neither of whom escaped, obviously). It is here that they find themselves doing battle with Captain America, Thor, Wolverine and Havok. Red Skull and his S-Men may prove too much for them to handle, especially considering Red Skull's new skill set.
In issue #4, the slugfest between Captain America and his Avengers on the one hand and the Red Skull and his S-Men on the other amid the telepathically-induced attempt at genocide in New York comes to a head, and though the battle may be over, it is clear that the war has only just begun.
In my review of the first issue of this series, I said that, not having read Avengers vs. X-Men I wasn't entirely sure where these characters were coming from, and I can the best praise I can give these issues is that four issues later, the merging of two distinct groups of Marvel characters is starting to make more sense. The intermingling, though, does not feel quite as organic as writer Rick Remender and the rest of Marvel would no doubt like it to be. I suppose it made perfect sense to them to put Captain America's archenemy in this book and give him an anti-mutant agenda so that he would become as terrifying to the X-Men as he is to the Avengers, but to me the connection still feels a tad forced (almost as forced as shoving Wolverine into the Avengers' roster nearly ten years ago just to propel sales upward did).
Speaking of Wolverine, apart from some face time in issues #1 and #2 and some brooding moments he actually takes the backseat as far as character moments go, with Havok being the lead mutant character in this particular story. Remender seems to enjoy playing Captain America off Havok in this series, whether it's in the more sedate moments or during the times when Cap finds himself subtly influenced by the Red Skull's telepathy, and even though Cap himself handpicked Havok to be on his team one wonders where Remender will take this potential rivalry down the line. It was gratifying to see the reasonably well-written storyline end in four issues contrary to the six-or-eight issue trend that seems to dominate lately, but apart from a few skirmishes, a major plot development or two, and one big throwdown at the end, it does not feel quite as significant as the events taking place in what has been billed as the flagship book of the Marvel NOW! era should. This feels like a waste of a golden opportunity to make a splash of a new series which merges two of the publisher's most popular properties.
What is not wasted at all, though, is artist John Cassaday's stunning art, which is well-complemented by Laura Martin's lush palette of colors. While some fans and reviewers have expressed displeasure with the redesign of Havok's head gear, I personally did not mind all that much, although his superhero tights appear to have been redesigned to accommodate a pair of baggy trousers. I'm not really sure. It was a delight, though, to see Cassaday work on Captain America for over four issues, which is the longest he's worked on the character since relaunching his solo title over 11 years ago with writer John Ney Reiber. The character has never looked better. Unfortunately, this book was fraught with delays, apparently to give Cassaday time to turn in his stellar work and so as not to delay publication further he will be spelled by artists Olivier Coipel and Daniel Acuna, assuming he even comes back to the book eventually. Now, I am a fan of both these artists, but I will most definitely miss Cassaday's work.
4/5
(a) John Cassaday (line art) Laura Martin (colors)
I feel a little remiss at not having reviewed issues #2 and #3 of this series when I got them, but I guess I was just too busy at the time. In any event, with all four issues in my hands it was easy to read them and appreciate the story as a whole, and even the individual chapters on their own merit.
In issue #2, Avengers Captain America and Thor review the carnage wrought by the mutant Avalanche on a large portion of New York City, though their newest recruit, Alex Summers aka Havok was able to help save lives during the confusion. Part-time Avenger and X-Man Wolverine expresses displeasure with Captain America's decision to recruit Havok as the face of the mutant/superhero cooperative effort, but Havok then has a "hallmark" moment with a civilian who expresses gratitude for saving his life, and it becomes clear that Cap made the right call. Meanwhile, Rogue and the Scarlet Witch remain captives of the Red Skull and his crew of S-Men. Red Skull uses his newly-acquired telepathy to enthrall the Scarlet Witch, while Rogue attempts to escape.
In issue #3, the Red Skull's war on humanity, which he attempts to package as humanity's war on mutants, kicks into high gear as he, now wielding the power of the late Charles Xavier's brain, troops his S-Men into New York City, together with Rogue and the Scarlet Witch (neither of whom escaped, obviously). It is here that they find themselves doing battle with Captain America, Thor, Wolverine and Havok. Red Skull and his S-Men may prove too much for them to handle, especially considering Red Skull's new skill set.
In issue #4, the slugfest between Captain America and his Avengers on the one hand and the Red Skull and his S-Men on the other amid the telepathically-induced attempt at genocide in New York comes to a head, and though the battle may be over, it is clear that the war has only just begun.
In my review of the first issue of this series, I said that, not having read Avengers vs. X-Men I wasn't entirely sure where these characters were coming from, and I can the best praise I can give these issues is that four issues later, the merging of two distinct groups of Marvel characters is starting to make more sense. The intermingling, though, does not feel quite as organic as writer Rick Remender and the rest of Marvel would no doubt like it to be. I suppose it made perfect sense to them to put Captain America's archenemy in this book and give him an anti-mutant agenda so that he would become as terrifying to the X-Men as he is to the Avengers, but to me the connection still feels a tad forced (almost as forced as shoving Wolverine into the Avengers' roster nearly ten years ago just to propel sales upward did).
Speaking of Wolverine, apart from some face time in issues #1 and #2 and some brooding moments he actually takes the backseat as far as character moments go, with Havok being the lead mutant character in this particular story. Remender seems to enjoy playing Captain America off Havok in this series, whether it's in the more sedate moments or during the times when Cap finds himself subtly influenced by the Red Skull's telepathy, and even though Cap himself handpicked Havok to be on his team one wonders where Remender will take this potential rivalry down the line. It was gratifying to see the reasonably well-written storyline end in four issues contrary to the six-or-eight issue trend that seems to dominate lately, but apart from a few skirmishes, a major plot development or two, and one big throwdown at the end, it does not feel quite as significant as the events taking place in what has been billed as the flagship book of the Marvel NOW! era should. This feels like a waste of a golden opportunity to make a splash of a new series which merges two of the publisher's most popular properties.
What is not wasted at all, though, is artist John Cassaday's stunning art, which is well-complemented by Laura Martin's lush palette of colors. While some fans and reviewers have expressed displeasure with the redesign of Havok's head gear, I personally did not mind all that much, although his superhero tights appear to have been redesigned to accommodate a pair of baggy trousers. I'm not really sure. It was a delight, though, to see Cassaday work on Captain America for over four issues, which is the longest he's worked on the character since relaunching his solo title over 11 years ago with writer John Ney Reiber. The character has never looked better. Unfortunately, this book was fraught with delays, apparently to give Cassaday time to turn in his stellar work and so as not to delay publication further he will be spelled by artists Olivier Coipel and Daniel Acuna, assuming he even comes back to the book eventually. Now, I am a fan of both these artists, but I will most definitely miss Cassaday's work.
4/5
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