written by Dan Slott
drawn by Stuart Immonen (p) Wade Von Grawbadger (i)
colored by Marte Gracia
As "Going Down Swinging" nears its climax, Norman Osborn, aka the Red Goblin, armed with his Carnage symbiote, takes on virtually Spidey's entire supporting cast, including Miles Morales Spidey, Cindy Moon aka Silk, Clayton Cole aka Clash, and Flash Thompson now known as Anti-Venom with Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch thrown in for good measure. Given Osborn's current power levels and the fact that there's a super-sized issue left to go, the outcome is fairly predictable. In the meantime, Harry Osborn, his ex-wife Liz and their children scramble to escape Norman, with a similarly predictable result.
I get that the main purpose of this issue is to ramp up the threat, to show how dangerous Osborn has become, and to set up a slam-bang finale, but to be honest, I leafed through the issue with some impatience, and ended it not so much pumped for the finale as I was annoyed that there was still a full issue to go. Yes, it was action-packed. No, it wasn't a waste of panel space full of talking heads.
I guess my biggest problem with the issue was Peter's nemesis: Norman Osborn himself.
Truth be told, I've hated Osborn ever since he was brought back to life 22 years after his death as a half-baked solution to the problem of what to do with Ben Reilly, and he's gone from one awkward, annoying storyline to another, including my all-time "favorite," the loathsome "Sins Past" which, as of writing, STILL has not been retconned out of existence.
I am not spoiling ANYTHING by expressing my sincere hope that "Going Down Swinging" refers squarely to Osborn himself, who has been due back in his grave for the last couple of years now, perhaps even as early as the end of the Siege storyline nine years ago. As ridiculous as this sounds, post-resurrection Osborn has been around longer than he was before Gerry Conway killed him back in 1974, and he has, to my mind at least, more than worn out his welcome.
I know that, even if Osborn does die, nothing is to stop some smart-ass editor or writer from bringing him back X years from now, but in truth Marvel has, for the most part, been unable to tell a really compelling story with him at the forefront anyway, so if he does die, I think they'd be hard-pressed to find any compelling reason to bring him back, considering that there are plenty of people in Spidey's rogues gallery who could fill the void. I never quite bought him as the "big bad guy" of the Marvel U during the "Dark Reign" storyline; he always just seemed like a pathetic wannabe rather than an actual menace, and it's largely because, as opposed to the likes of Doctor Doom or Kang the Conqueror, he always felt like small potatoes.
Slott has spent most of his run with Stuart Immonen (who shines here as usual, by the way) trying to "big up" Osborn and set up some kind of climactic finale between him and Peter. Well, considering that Slott's already "killed" Peter once in the last five years, it's hardly likely he'd go for the same trick twice, and so it's fairly clear to me who's going to be left standing when the dust from issue 800 settles, and who won't be.
I just hope that, however, big a bang Osborn goes out with, he takes the "Sins Past" storyline with him, once and for all.
7/10
Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Friday, April 13, 2018
King Cap: A Review of Captain America #700
written by Mark Waid
drawn by Chris Samnee
colored by Matt Wilson
back-up story scripted by Waid from a plot by Stan Lee
drawn by Jack Kirby (!) and Frank Giacoia
colored by Wilson
Having deposed King Babbington, Cap sets out to restore some semblance of sanity to America, only to find out, the hard way, that by creating a power vacuum, he's pretty much caused everyone and his brother to descend on the country. He rushes to defuse one military crisis after another, even as he must deal with a massive food shortage. In short, he learns that running a country, especially one that's in shambles, is no easy task, though there could yet be a way out, as Bruce Banner has fashioned a time machine of sorts. Cap finds himself facing a dilemma: should he stay and try to salvage the present, or go back and try to prevent this nightmare from ever happening?
After stuttering out of the gate with a couple of issues that were surprisingly short of the standard of quality that I, as a long-time fan, had come to expect from these two, Mark Waid and Chris Samnee delivered a pretty good riff on "The Most Dangerous Game" before plunging Cap into this dystopia that is basically a thinly-veiled shot at the state of things in America right now. The quality of Waid's scripting has been surprisingly erratic, but the good news is that he finishes his story off quite strongly here. Given that the arc only lasted six issues, I feel Waid could have spent more time setting up the dystopia, and perhaps introducing readers to his villain Babbington before dropping Cap into the hellscape that America became. Issue #696, for example, was pure filler and really did no favors at all for the run on the whole. Still, this was a well-written issue, even if the overall arc still disappointed, given the caliber of the writer involved.
Samnee, in contrast to Waid, has delivered consistently stunning work all throughout this brief six-issue run, with perhaps his relatively weakest issue being #696, and he finishes off his run in fine style, though I must say I was slightly peeved that, even though they appear on the cover, neither the Hulk nor the Thing appears in the book itself, though Bruce Banner has a pivotal role in how things play out in the end. Still, that was all about the marketing and editorial; Samnee just delivers thirty glorious pages of his trademarked knock-out art, with able assistance from colorist Matt Wilson. There's something distinctly saddening about knowing that this is the last work Samnee will be doing for Marvel for the immediate future; I've adored this man's work since I first picked up Captain America and Bucky back in 2011. At a time when I'd suffered from "event fatigue" and had lost interest in much of Marvel's printed output (as opposed to their movies), Samnee brought back a great deal of joy into reading comic books, which are a visual medium, after all. Sure, it helped that he worked with great writers like Ed Brubaker and later Mark Waid, but having tracked down a lot of his other Marvel work like collected editions of Thor: the Mighty Avenger (written by Roger Langridge) and the Siege crossover side-story Embedded (written by Brian Reed) I can say with some certainty that Samnee elevates whatever book he's working on, regardless of the writer. I don't know where he'll end up next (and he's been quite tight-lipped about it), but I'm almost certain that I'll pick it up in one form or another, even as I hope that he one day returns to Marvel.
Incidentally, this issue also features a charming short-story based on an old plot treatment by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, featuring some pretty stunning art by Kirby. Because it was only available in plot form, Waid provides the script, which, to my mind, was actually pretty good.
Waid has one story arc left before Ta Nehisi Coates and Leinil Yu take over, and I'm still on board for that especially after Waid's strong finale to his big story.
Again, thanks very much Chris! Hope to see you again in these pages someday!
8/10
Back up story 8/10
drawn by Chris Samnee
colored by Matt Wilson
back-up story scripted by Waid from a plot by Stan Lee
drawn by Jack Kirby (!) and Frank Giacoia
colored by Wilson
Having deposed King Babbington, Cap sets out to restore some semblance of sanity to America, only to find out, the hard way, that by creating a power vacuum, he's pretty much caused everyone and his brother to descend on the country. He rushes to defuse one military crisis after another, even as he must deal with a massive food shortage. In short, he learns that running a country, especially one that's in shambles, is no easy task, though there could yet be a way out, as Bruce Banner has fashioned a time machine of sorts. Cap finds himself facing a dilemma: should he stay and try to salvage the present, or go back and try to prevent this nightmare from ever happening?
After stuttering out of the gate with a couple of issues that were surprisingly short of the standard of quality that I, as a long-time fan, had come to expect from these two, Mark Waid and Chris Samnee delivered a pretty good riff on "The Most Dangerous Game" before plunging Cap into this dystopia that is basically a thinly-veiled shot at the state of things in America right now. The quality of Waid's scripting has been surprisingly erratic, but the good news is that he finishes his story off quite strongly here. Given that the arc only lasted six issues, I feel Waid could have spent more time setting up the dystopia, and perhaps introducing readers to his villain Babbington before dropping Cap into the hellscape that America became. Issue #696, for example, was pure filler and really did no favors at all for the run on the whole. Still, this was a well-written issue, even if the overall arc still disappointed, given the caliber of the writer involved.
Samnee, in contrast to Waid, has delivered consistently stunning work all throughout this brief six-issue run, with perhaps his relatively weakest issue being #696, and he finishes off his run in fine style, though I must say I was slightly peeved that, even though they appear on the cover, neither the Hulk nor the Thing appears in the book itself, though Bruce Banner has a pivotal role in how things play out in the end. Still, that was all about the marketing and editorial; Samnee just delivers thirty glorious pages of his trademarked knock-out art, with able assistance from colorist Matt Wilson. There's something distinctly saddening about knowing that this is the last work Samnee will be doing for Marvel for the immediate future; I've adored this man's work since I first picked up Captain America and Bucky back in 2011. At a time when I'd suffered from "event fatigue" and had lost interest in much of Marvel's printed output (as opposed to their movies), Samnee brought back a great deal of joy into reading comic books, which are a visual medium, after all. Sure, it helped that he worked with great writers like Ed Brubaker and later Mark Waid, but having tracked down a lot of his other Marvel work like collected editions of Thor: the Mighty Avenger (written by Roger Langridge) and the Siege crossover side-story Embedded (written by Brian Reed) I can say with some certainty that Samnee elevates whatever book he's working on, regardless of the writer. I don't know where he'll end up next (and he's been quite tight-lipped about it), but I'm almost certain that I'll pick it up in one form or another, even as I hope that he one day returns to Marvel.
Incidentally, this issue also features a charming short-story based on an old plot treatment by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, featuring some pretty stunning art by Kirby. Because it was only available in plot form, Waid provides the script, which, to my mind, was actually pretty good.
Waid has one story arc left before Ta Nehisi Coates and Leinil Yu take over, and I'm still on board for that especially after Waid's strong finale to his big story.
Again, thanks very much Chris! Hope to see you again in these pages someday!
8/10
Back up story 8/10
The Battle is Joined: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #798
written by Dan Slott
illustrated by Stuart Immonen (p) and Wade von Grawbadger (i)
colored by Marte Gracia
Dan Slott's swansong on The Amazing Spider-Man, "Going Down Swinging" continues as Norman Osborn, having freed himself of the nanites that suppressed his ability to ever become the Green Goblin again and armed with the Carnage symbiote, tracks down Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man at the Daily Bugle, bearing a bomb made from tritium. Meanwhile, Flash Thompson a.k.a. Anti-Venom, after losing the tritium the issue before during a raid by the now-deceased Hobgoblin, works to track it down, only to find the murdered Phil Urich and the imprisoned Jonah Jameson. Meanwhile, the nanny of Harry Osborn's kids, who is secretly on Norman's payroll, makes her move. Things are about to come a head really soon, but perhaps not in the way that Norman Osborn thinks.
I confess, I don't quite understand how Slott plans to stretch out this story over one more issue before getting to the oversized finale in the landmark 800th issue of the book. It seemed (to me at least) that with this issue he's already effective lyset up a climactic confrontation for next issue, especially if it's extra-sized. Still, Slott's done pretty well with his multi-issue arcs; they never feel stretched too thin, so if he needs an extra issue to get to his finale, chances are it'll be a good one. In that, he's quite unlike Brian Bendis, whose habit of stretching out stories gave "decompressed" storytelling the bad reputation it "enjoys" today. I suppose he has a bombshell or two lined up for next issue before the final confrontation, like, for example, a revelation by Osborn that the "Sins Past" storyline was basically him delivering an epic mind-f**k by making Peter (whose identity he now knows again, with J. Jonah Jameson having spilled the beans) believe that he'd boned Gwen Stacy. The undoing of that narrative abomination would be worth its very own issue, really.
Going back to this issue, though, while I still have some qualms about how slowly Slott is allowing his narrative to unfold, I did enjoy how the various narrative threads played out here, from Flash investigating Urich's theft to the development with the kids to the main narrative involving Peter's first encounter with the "Red Goblin." Of course, all of this works even better thanks to Stuart Immonen and his crew being at the absolute top of their game.
This story really has me optimistic for a grand finale for this creative team.
8.5/10
illustrated by Stuart Immonen (p) and Wade von Grawbadger (i)
colored by Marte Gracia
Dan Slott's swansong on The Amazing Spider-Man, "Going Down Swinging" continues as Norman Osborn, having freed himself of the nanites that suppressed his ability to ever become the Green Goblin again and armed with the Carnage symbiote, tracks down Peter Parker a.k.a. Spider-Man at the Daily Bugle, bearing a bomb made from tritium. Meanwhile, Flash Thompson a.k.a. Anti-Venom, after losing the tritium the issue before during a raid by the now-deceased Hobgoblin, works to track it down, only to find the murdered Phil Urich and the imprisoned Jonah Jameson. Meanwhile, the nanny of Harry Osborn's kids, who is secretly on Norman's payroll, makes her move. Things are about to come a head really soon, but perhaps not in the way that Norman Osborn thinks.
I confess, I don't quite understand how Slott plans to stretch out this story over one more issue before getting to the oversized finale in the landmark 800th issue of the book. It seemed (to me at least) that with this issue he's already effective lyset up a climactic confrontation for next issue, especially if it's extra-sized. Still, Slott's done pretty well with his multi-issue arcs; they never feel stretched too thin, so if he needs an extra issue to get to his finale, chances are it'll be a good one. In that, he's quite unlike Brian Bendis, whose habit of stretching out stories gave "decompressed" storytelling the bad reputation it "enjoys" today. I suppose he has a bombshell or two lined up for next issue before the final confrontation, like, for example, a revelation by Osborn that the "Sins Past" storyline was basically him delivering an epic mind-f**k by making Peter (whose identity he now knows again, with J. Jonah Jameson having spilled the beans) believe that he'd boned Gwen Stacy. The undoing of that narrative abomination would be worth its very own issue, really.
Going back to this issue, though, while I still have some qualms about how slowly Slott is allowing his narrative to unfold, I did enjoy how the various narrative threads played out here, from Flash investigating Urich's theft to the development with the kids to the main narrative involving Peter's first encounter with the "Red Goblin." Of course, all of this works even better thanks to Stuart Immonen and his crew being at the absolute top of their game.
This story really has me optimistic for a grand finale for this creative team.
8.5/10
Missed Issues: Capsule Reviews of Marvel Two-in-One #s 3, 4 and 5
written by Chip Zdarsky
illustrated by Valerio Schiti
colored Frank Martin
I would have been happy to buy and review these issues when they came out, but unfortunately I neglected to put them on my regular "pull" list and had to hunt them down in back-issue bins. Anyway, I quite enjoyed them so, even if it's several months late I'd like to weigh in on them.
Ben and Johnny, having found the Multisect, the dimension-hopping device left behind by Reed Richards in issue #2, begin their quest to find Reed, Sue and the kids (which, as Ben knows, is simply a quest to keep exploring, considering that, as far as he knows, Reed and Sue are gone for good). In issue #3 they try to address the issue of Johnny's fading superpowers by visiting a specialist who "treated" a similar problem for the Avenger Hercules in the past, a reclusive scientist named Rachina Koul, who was actually introduced in issue #1. Rachina's diagnosis of Johnny's problem is that his power may be fading because Reed and Sue are gone and his powers are actually somehow tethered to theirs. The fact that Ben's strength appears to be waning may bear this theory out. The solution: use the Multisect and find them.
In issue #4, Ben, Johnny and Rachina use the Multisect and land in a reality that looks very much like their own, only it isn't, and Ben and Johnny learn to their horror just how different things are when they meet the Reed of that world and he tells them exactly what has happened. The Ben of this world has been killed, and Johnny is basically a shell of a man, all in a vain effort to stop Galactus from destroying that particular Earth. Only Doctor Doom stopped him by doing the unthinkable, but was able to save the earth from extinction, although that may not be the case for very long.
In issue #5, Ben and Johnny decide to take action against Doom/Galactus and his heralds, who are now on the verge of extinguishing the very earth that Doom promised to save from Galactus. Seeing the FF together again, the remaining heroes rally, although even that may not be enough.
I started this series because of Jim Cheung, but I have to say that, even in his absence, Zdarsky and fill-in artist Valerio Schiti have managed to continue to make this book readable, and in fact, now that Marvel's finally announced the impending return of the FULL Fantastic Four, I read these issues with renewed interest, wondering out loud if the whole family would be back or if this "alternate universe" Reed and Sue would take the place of the lost ones. It's unlikely, I suspect, but it might be an interesting take on the characters.
I'll be happy to see Cheung back next issue for the end of this particular story, but these issues were worth the effort it took to hunt them all down.
8/10 (all three issues)
illustrated by Valerio Schiti
colored Frank Martin
I would have been happy to buy and review these issues when they came out, but unfortunately I neglected to put them on my regular "pull" list and had to hunt them down in back-issue bins. Anyway, I quite enjoyed them so, even if it's several months late I'd like to weigh in on them.
Ben and Johnny, having found the Multisect, the dimension-hopping device left behind by Reed Richards in issue #2, begin their quest to find Reed, Sue and the kids (which, as Ben knows, is simply a quest to keep exploring, considering that, as far as he knows, Reed and Sue are gone for good). In issue #3 they try to address the issue of Johnny's fading superpowers by visiting a specialist who "treated" a similar problem for the Avenger Hercules in the past, a reclusive scientist named Rachina Koul, who was actually introduced in issue #1. Rachina's diagnosis of Johnny's problem is that his power may be fading because Reed and Sue are gone and his powers are actually somehow tethered to theirs. The fact that Ben's strength appears to be waning may bear this theory out. The solution: use the Multisect and find them.
In issue #4, Ben, Johnny and Rachina use the Multisect and land in a reality that looks very much like their own, only it isn't, and Ben and Johnny learn to their horror just how different things are when they meet the Reed of that world and he tells them exactly what has happened. The Ben of this world has been killed, and Johnny is basically a shell of a man, all in a vain effort to stop Galactus from destroying that particular Earth. Only Doctor Doom stopped him by doing the unthinkable, but was able to save the earth from extinction, although that may not be the case for very long.
In issue #5, Ben and Johnny decide to take action against Doom/Galactus and his heralds, who are now on the verge of extinguishing the very earth that Doom promised to save from Galactus. Seeing the FF together again, the remaining heroes rally, although even that may not be enough.
I started this series because of Jim Cheung, but I have to say that, even in his absence, Zdarsky and fill-in artist Valerio Schiti have managed to continue to make this book readable, and in fact, now that Marvel's finally announced the impending return of the FULL Fantastic Four, I read these issues with renewed interest, wondering out loud if the whole family would be back or if this "alternate universe" Reed and Sue would take the place of the lost ones. It's unlikely, I suspect, but it might be an interesting take on the characters.
I'll be happy to see Cheung back next issue for the end of this particular story, but these issues were worth the effort it took to hunt them all down.
8/10 (all three issues)
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