written by Jason Aaron
penciled by Ed McGuinness
inked by Mark Morales
colored by Justin Ponsor and Erick Arciniega
For the second issue running, the title characters are conspicuously absent from their own monthly book, although this time writer Jason Aaron tells the story of one of the actual Avengers, albeit an extremely peripheral one, namely Kenneth Hale, aka Gorilla Man.
Life should be good for Ken Hale; having been tapped by no less than T'Challa, the Black Panther and current leader of the Avengers, to work as one of the Agents of Wakanda, he's basically in the big leagues. His duties include getting updates from T'Challa's vast network of spies, including those in the unlikeliest of places, and safeguarding Avengers Mountain, the current headquarters of the Avengers carved from the giant carcass of a Celestial. Today, though, his role as Chief of Security will be put to its greatest test yet as the forces of Malekith lay siege to the mountain, with the intent to slaughter the millions of New Yorkers taking refuge inside. People's lives are on the line, and while it's up to Ken to save them, what nobody but Ken knows is that, having lived with the curse of the immortal Gorilla Man for what feels like far too long, Ken is not only willing but is actually hoping to lay down his life for everyone else.
This is the second consecutive done-in-one Aaron and Ed McGuinness deliver and like last issue, it's a satisfying read, even as it teases at something bigger down the line. While I was still vaguely annoyed that, with the exception of Black Panther, most of the Avengers basically make cameo appearances in their own book, at least they actually show up, unlike last issue. Also, Gorilla Man's own story is a pretty involving one. The last time I saw McGuinness draw a gorilla was Gorilla Grodd for a three-issue Justice League arc many years ago, and it's a nice change that it's a sympathetic character he's drawing, for a change.
I have to say, though, I still have no intention of picking up the individual issues of "War of the Realms" so Aaron's sneaky trick of restricting the Avengers' presence to his event (which he's writing) isn't going to work. I'm glad he at least put some effort into writing some decent supporting stories like this one, and am interested to see how it pays off in the long run.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to pay my respects to colorist Justin Ponsor, who recently passed away from cancer, and to extend my condolences to his loved ones, if ever they should read this. You were one of the pillars of this industry with your amazing work, and you will be missed.
8.5/10
Monday, May 27, 2019
Monday, May 20, 2019
Daredevil...Retiring? Yeah, Sure: A Review of Daredevil #5 (SPOILERS)
written by Chip Zdarsky
drawn by Marco Checchetto
colored by Sunny Gho
Chip Zdarsky's inaugural arc on Daredevil reaches its conclusion, with a battered Matt Murdock making yet another ill-advised decision to take on Leland Owlsley's newly burgeoning operations. Owlsley's hired some cybernetically-enhanced muscle, which nearly overwhelms Matt until a few friends of his step in. Barely escaping with his life, Matt, a lifelong Catholic struggling to reconcile his faith with his violent vigilante lifestyle, finally comes to a momentous decision.
Really, Zdarsky's first five-issue storyline could not have ended any other way given the set-up he'd created. Matt, who essentially comes to terms with the fact that, however unintentionally, he has actually killed someone, finally starts to feel the weight of that death on his conscience, and this shapes the decision he makes at the end of the issue to hang up his mask. It's a logical conclusion to what Zdarsky started, and clearly he's far from done with this character, but I confess I was hoping for something a little more splashy. Still this issue is a decent recovery from the last one, which featured, for the umpteenth time, a confrontation between Daredevil and the Punisher, the only real innovation of which was that Daredevil ended up wearing Frank's shirt.
Checchetto's work is a bit better than it's been in the last couple of issues, though I still have an issue with the fact that Daredevil's pants are as baggy as they are. It's admittedly a more realistic take on the costume but it just looks weird, if I'm honest. I mean, he's done DD's tights thing just fine in his previous work on this book, and a brief appearance by no less than Spider-Man shows that Checchetto doesn't have any qualms about drawing tights in general, so I wonder what influenced his artistic decision this time around. I know Matt's lost quite a bit of weight with all his recent hospitalization, but is he really this scrawny? With Checchetto's tenure on the book apparently over (at least for the next few issues) I confess I'm a bit disappointed overall in the work he's turned in for this story.
This is a somewhat low-key end to what's been a pretty tumultuous story so far, which has featured Daredevil even getting into a fistfight with a cop, of all people, but Zdarsky has definitely founded it on an interesting idea, and while this mini arc didn't quite take off (for me at least), I remain interested to see where he plans to take DD from here. After all, this is the guy who made Marvel Two-In-One such a pure pleasure to read. I'm sure he's got something good up his sleeve.
7.5/10
drawn by Marco Checchetto
colored by Sunny Gho
Chip Zdarsky's inaugural arc on Daredevil reaches its conclusion, with a battered Matt Murdock making yet another ill-advised decision to take on Leland Owlsley's newly burgeoning operations. Owlsley's hired some cybernetically-enhanced muscle, which nearly overwhelms Matt until a few friends of his step in. Barely escaping with his life, Matt, a lifelong Catholic struggling to reconcile his faith with his violent vigilante lifestyle, finally comes to a momentous decision.
Really, Zdarsky's first five-issue storyline could not have ended any other way given the set-up he'd created. Matt, who essentially comes to terms with the fact that, however unintentionally, he has actually killed someone, finally starts to feel the weight of that death on his conscience, and this shapes the decision he makes at the end of the issue to hang up his mask. It's a logical conclusion to what Zdarsky started, and clearly he's far from done with this character, but I confess I was hoping for something a little more splashy. Still this issue is a decent recovery from the last one, which featured, for the umpteenth time, a confrontation between Daredevil and the Punisher, the only real innovation of which was that Daredevil ended up wearing Frank's shirt.
Checchetto's work is a bit better than it's been in the last couple of issues, though I still have an issue with the fact that Daredevil's pants are as baggy as they are. It's admittedly a more realistic take on the costume but it just looks weird, if I'm honest. I mean, he's done DD's tights thing just fine in his previous work on this book, and a brief appearance by no less than Spider-Man shows that Checchetto doesn't have any qualms about drawing tights in general, so I wonder what influenced his artistic decision this time around. I know Matt's lost quite a bit of weight with all his recent hospitalization, but is he really this scrawny? With Checchetto's tenure on the book apparently over (at least for the next few issues) I confess I'm a bit disappointed overall in the work he's turned in for this story.
This is a somewhat low-key end to what's been a pretty tumultuous story so far, which has featured Daredevil even getting into a fistfight with a cop, of all people, but Zdarsky has definitely founded it on an interesting idea, and while this mini arc didn't quite take off (for me at least), I remain interested to see where he plans to take DD from here. After all, this is the guy who made Marvel Two-In-One such a pure pleasure to read. I'm sure he's got something good up his sleeve.
7.5/10
Sunday, May 12, 2019
Noble Intentions, Simplistic Presentation: A Review of Agents of Atlas #1
written by Greg Pak
drawn by Gang Hyuk Lim
colored by Federico Blee
As an Asian, and more specifically a Filipino, who has been reading comic books, most of them published by Marvel Comics, for three-fourths of my worldly existence, it was a treat for me to finally see Marvel debut a Filipino superhero, an aquatic superheroine named Pearl Pangan and codenamed Wave...or at least, a Filipino superhero who gets to actually do something other than get blown up in less than two pages (more on that in a minute). Designed by Filipino artist Leinil Yu, Wave opens this issue in a brief, and less-than-congenial encounter with an also-debuting Chinese superhero named Aero before both of them get taken out by demons of Muspelheim. This is, after all a "War of the Realms" crossover.
Meanwhile, the main story of the issue sees longtime Agents of Atlas leader Jimmy Woo assemble a new lineup of Asian heroes who include Shang-Chi, Amadeus Cho or the hero-formerly-known-as-Hulk-now-named-Brawn, and Cindy Moon aka Silk to deal with the threat of Muspelheim which has emerged in South Korea. As it turns out, however, a team of Korean superheroes is already on the scene, though even their combined strength may not be enough to push back against the threat of Queen Sindr.
Rather than simply present a straight-up action story, writer Greg Pak (who wrote the cliche-ridden but entertaining Planet Hulk, and the equally cliche-ridden, not-so-entertaining World War Hulk), gets right up on a soapbox and starts preaching about "unity," first by having a Chinese and Filipino hero clash in the sea and fall prey to a common enemy, and then by having Jimmy Woo pose a question to his team members of various nationalities that starts an argument about a pear.
While I often enjoy socially-conscious comic books, or at least, stories that attempt to do more than just deliver the punch-up of the week, it really annoys me when the stories are this heavy-handed, or border on being on the nose. Not only that, but writer Pak's "take" on the tensions between China and the Philippines is either utterly insensitive or a ridiculously simplistic way of describing a neo-imperialistic superpower's ambitions which have placed it at odds not only with the Philippines, but with Vietnam, Indonesia and India. Resolving this issue isn't just about "putting aside our differences" because that's just a cop-out from addressing the fact that someone is right and someone is wrong.
I know Pak isn't going for some deep commentary here, but I definitely feel he hasn't given this issue the gravitas it deserves, and his cornball "united we stand, divided we fall" theme is, of course full of noble intentions, but just feels so clunkily executed that I could never really get into it. Also, Brawn's bickering with Ms. Marvel early in the issue feels a little off-putting; essentially, it seems to suggest that he's on the Agents of Atlas because he was kicked, albeit temporarily, off the Champions, and given that Brawn was a founding member of that group it seems like a badly-conceived excuse for Woo to draft him. Pak can be a decent writer when he's on his game, so the lack of quality of his work here is somewhat regrettable.
Fortunately for Pak, artist Gang Hyuk Lim saves the day with some really, really strong artwork. He pretty much ticks all the boxes, from clean linework, to storytelling ability, to a nice eye for detail. Federico Blee contributes some nicely vibrant colors as well. I confess I was a little disappointed to learn that variant cover artist Mico Suayan didn't contribute any interiors, but seeing Lim's work pretty much banished any misgivings I may have had over the art.
Pak's missteps notwithstanding, the issue is a decent setup for the inevitable team-up of this ragtag new team that will follow, and while this infusion of Asians into Marvel's still mostly Caucasian-populated universe is still most welcome, Pak will definitely have to raise his game as this series goes on because we need good stories, not just hamhanded displays of tokenism. Diversity is a very good thing, but for it to be more than just a slogan, it should be married to the engaging storytelling that has made Marvel one of the most beloved pop-culture properties in the world.
6.5/10
As a post-script, I'd like to add that whatever my feelings about this issue, I remain extremely glad and grateful for the introduction of Wave. I still remember with some bitterness how Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca introduced the Triumph Division, a whole team of Filipino superheroes, back when they were doing Invincible Iron Man, only to literally blow them up on the first page of their appearance, and worse still, how that was basically the last time we even saw a Filipino superhero up until this issue. I hope Wave carves a position of prominence for herself in the months to come.
drawn by Gang Hyuk Lim
colored by Federico Blee
As an Asian, and more specifically a Filipino, who has been reading comic books, most of them published by Marvel Comics, for three-fourths of my worldly existence, it was a treat for me to finally see Marvel debut a Filipino superhero, an aquatic superheroine named Pearl Pangan and codenamed Wave...or at least, a Filipino superhero who gets to actually do something other than get blown up in less than two pages (more on that in a minute). Designed by Filipino artist Leinil Yu, Wave opens this issue in a brief, and less-than-congenial encounter with an also-debuting Chinese superhero named Aero before both of them get taken out by demons of Muspelheim. This is, after all a "War of the Realms" crossover.
Meanwhile, the main story of the issue sees longtime Agents of Atlas leader Jimmy Woo assemble a new lineup of Asian heroes who include Shang-Chi, Amadeus Cho or the hero-formerly-known-as-Hulk-now-named-Brawn, and Cindy Moon aka Silk to deal with the threat of Muspelheim which has emerged in South Korea. As it turns out, however, a team of Korean superheroes is already on the scene, though even their combined strength may not be enough to push back against the threat of Queen Sindr.
Rather than simply present a straight-up action story, writer Greg Pak (who wrote the cliche-ridden but entertaining Planet Hulk, and the equally cliche-ridden, not-so-entertaining World War Hulk), gets right up on a soapbox and starts preaching about "unity," first by having a Chinese and Filipino hero clash in the sea and fall prey to a common enemy, and then by having Jimmy Woo pose a question to his team members of various nationalities that starts an argument about a pear.
While I often enjoy socially-conscious comic books, or at least, stories that attempt to do more than just deliver the punch-up of the week, it really annoys me when the stories are this heavy-handed, or border on being on the nose. Not only that, but writer Pak's "take" on the tensions between China and the Philippines is either utterly insensitive or a ridiculously simplistic way of describing a neo-imperialistic superpower's ambitions which have placed it at odds not only with the Philippines, but with Vietnam, Indonesia and India. Resolving this issue isn't just about "putting aside our differences" because that's just a cop-out from addressing the fact that someone is right and someone is wrong.
I know Pak isn't going for some deep commentary here, but I definitely feel he hasn't given this issue the gravitas it deserves, and his cornball "united we stand, divided we fall" theme is, of course full of noble intentions, but just feels so clunkily executed that I could never really get into it. Also, Brawn's bickering with Ms. Marvel early in the issue feels a little off-putting; essentially, it seems to suggest that he's on the Agents of Atlas because he was kicked, albeit temporarily, off the Champions, and given that Brawn was a founding member of that group it seems like a badly-conceived excuse for Woo to draft him. Pak can be a decent writer when he's on his game, so the lack of quality of his work here is somewhat regrettable.
Fortunately for Pak, artist Gang Hyuk Lim saves the day with some really, really strong artwork. He pretty much ticks all the boxes, from clean linework, to storytelling ability, to a nice eye for detail. Federico Blee contributes some nicely vibrant colors as well. I confess I was a little disappointed to learn that variant cover artist Mico Suayan didn't contribute any interiors, but seeing Lim's work pretty much banished any misgivings I may have had over the art.
Pak's missteps notwithstanding, the issue is a decent setup for the inevitable team-up of this ragtag new team that will follow, and while this infusion of Asians into Marvel's still mostly Caucasian-populated universe is still most welcome, Pak will definitely have to raise his game as this series goes on because we need good stories, not just hamhanded displays of tokenism. Diversity is a very good thing, but for it to be more than just a slogan, it should be married to the engaging storytelling that has made Marvel one of the most beloved pop-culture properties in the world.
6.5/10
As a post-script, I'd like to add that whatever my feelings about this issue, I remain extremely glad and grateful for the introduction of Wave. I still remember with some bitterness how Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca introduced the Triumph Division, a whole team of Filipino superheroes, back when they were doing Invincible Iron Man, only to literally blow them up on the first page of their appearance, and worse still, how that was basically the last time we even saw a Filipino superhero up until this issue. I hope Wave carves a position of prominence for herself in the months to come.
Sunday, May 5, 2019
Her Father's Daughter: Unstoppable Wasp Unlimited Vol. I: Girl Power
written by Jeremy Whitley
art by Gurihiru
The adventures of the late Hank Pym's daughter Nadia continue as she, her adoptive mother Janet Van Dyne, and her friends and colleagues, the agents of the Genius In action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.) find themselves facing off against longtime Marvel bad guys Advanced Idea Mechanics or (A.I.M.), who also happen to be in league with some mysterious, and distressingly powerful young women as well. Will Nadia's smarts and skills as a Red Room alumna be enough to counter this threat? Also, given Nadia's obsessive as possibly destructive behavior, which may even be the same bipolar disorder that afflicted her father, is she even really ready to take the fight to A.I.M.?
I encountered this character a few years back when creator Mark Waid introduced her in the pages of the All New Avengers, which he was writing at the time, and while I found her likable, she honestly didn't connect with me the way Ms. Marvel or Spider-Gwen did, and as a result I didn't make it a point to pick up her series, which launched a year later.
In fact, I would have overlooked this series altogether if it weren't for the fact that my daughter was captivated by Gurihiru's vibrant art on the cover of the first issue. I ended up getting the first two issues, but gave up with the floppies after they sold out far faster than I could get my hands on them.
For the most part, I enjoyed the book; Whitley writes engaging characters, each with her own voice, whether it's the main character Nadia or her cohorts from G.I.R.L., and he's also got a good grasp on classic characters like Janet Van Dyne and Bobbi Morse a.k.a. Mockingbird. Unfortunately, like many collected editions these days, this story ends on a distinctly anticlimactic note, as it is basically part of a larger, mega arc. Still a lot of writers are able to write a mini-arc with finesse even as they leave the bigger conflict unresolved for the next few issues. Whitley simply doesn't pull it off here, and while I appreciate the efforts of the smaller arc to deal with a serious mental illness, the entire five-issue structure simply doesn't hold up that well and the story feels like a distinct cliffhanger, which in this case doesn't really feel like a good thing.
Luckily for Whitley, though, he's got the ultra-talented duo of Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano, collectively known as Gurihiru illustrating his story. In general (with some exceptions), and my fondness for Boom! Studios' Fence notwithstanding, I'm not a huge fan of manga or manga-style illustration, especially when used to render non-Japanese stories like this one, but these two have completely won me over. Their linework and color palette (the team divide the work along those lines) really just pop, and they rely more on actually rendering their characters' expressions than resorting to cheap manga tropes like "deformed" or "chibi" characters. It really is such a pleasure to turn the pages with art this nice. It's just a pity the story it's propping up is as anticlimactic as it is.
There's one more volume left before Whitley's story wraps up, and fortunately, his compelling characterization of Nadia, as well as Gurihiru's stunning art, will definitely have me come back to see how this all ends.
7/10
art by Gurihiru
The adventures of the late Hank Pym's daughter Nadia continue as she, her adoptive mother Janet Van Dyne, and her friends and colleagues, the agents of the Genius In action Research Labs (G.I.R.L.) find themselves facing off against longtime Marvel bad guys Advanced Idea Mechanics or (A.I.M.), who also happen to be in league with some mysterious, and distressingly powerful young women as well. Will Nadia's smarts and skills as a Red Room alumna be enough to counter this threat? Also, given Nadia's obsessive as possibly destructive behavior, which may even be the same bipolar disorder that afflicted her father, is she even really ready to take the fight to A.I.M.?
I encountered this character a few years back when creator Mark Waid introduced her in the pages of the All New Avengers, which he was writing at the time, and while I found her likable, she honestly didn't connect with me the way Ms. Marvel or Spider-Gwen did, and as a result I didn't make it a point to pick up her series, which launched a year later.
In fact, I would have overlooked this series altogether if it weren't for the fact that my daughter was captivated by Gurihiru's vibrant art on the cover of the first issue. I ended up getting the first two issues, but gave up with the floppies after they sold out far faster than I could get my hands on them.
For the most part, I enjoyed the book; Whitley writes engaging characters, each with her own voice, whether it's the main character Nadia or her cohorts from G.I.R.L., and he's also got a good grasp on classic characters like Janet Van Dyne and Bobbi Morse a.k.a. Mockingbird. Unfortunately, like many collected editions these days, this story ends on a distinctly anticlimactic note, as it is basically part of a larger, mega arc. Still a lot of writers are able to write a mini-arc with finesse even as they leave the bigger conflict unresolved for the next few issues. Whitley simply doesn't pull it off here, and while I appreciate the efforts of the smaller arc to deal with a serious mental illness, the entire five-issue structure simply doesn't hold up that well and the story feels like a distinct cliffhanger, which in this case doesn't really feel like a good thing.
Luckily for Whitley, though, he's got the ultra-talented duo of Chifuyu Sasaki and Naoko Kawano, collectively known as Gurihiru illustrating his story. In general (with some exceptions), and my fondness for Boom! Studios' Fence notwithstanding, I'm not a huge fan of manga or manga-style illustration, especially when used to render non-Japanese stories like this one, but these two have completely won me over. Their linework and color palette (the team divide the work along those lines) really just pop, and they rely more on actually rendering their characters' expressions than resorting to cheap manga tropes like "deformed" or "chibi" characters. It really is such a pleasure to turn the pages with art this nice. It's just a pity the story it's propping up is as anticlimactic as it is.
There's one more volume left before Whitley's story wraps up, and fortunately, his compelling characterization of Nadia, as well as Gurihiru's stunning art, will definitely have me come back to see how this all ends.
7/10
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