The Hunter Returns: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #79 and #80

 written by Cody Ziglar

drawn by Michael Dowling

colored by Jesus Aburtov

And just like that, three months into the new, "Beyond" status quo, Marvel has amassed six issues, enough to fill a decent-sized trade paperback (though one wonders if they might go for eight, instead).

For the first time since Nick Spencer's meandering slog "The Hunted" Kraven the Hunter briefly returns to Spider-Man's life, even though it's a different Spider-Man he's facing this time, and again, Ben Reilly finds both himself and the resources of the Beyond Corporation put to the test as he has to contend not just with the murderous hunter but with the potent hallucinogens he unleashes upon Ben.

I have to say, six issues in, that this particular approach to storytelling appears to be working pretty well. These stories have been pretty well-curated, and quite notably, I am happy to see that even though there have been three different artists in as many months working on this title, there is a remarkable consistency to the aesthtic that's being employed here. Relative newcomer Michael Dowling employs an art style which is notably consistent with those of both Sara Pichelli and Patrick Gleason, even as it retains its own distinct identity. That, and the fact that TV writer Cody Ziglar turns in another solid, complete mini-story, makes this an enjoyable read which ends on a cliffhanger showing Beyond planning its next move. 

I wasn't particularly thrilled to see Kraven against so soon after Nick Spencer's messy "Kraven's Last Hunt" sequel, but seeing Dowling render Ben Reilly's trippy hallucinations was a visual treat reminiscent of the work of Bill Sienkiewicz and so, if nothing else, this two-issue mini story was quite pretty to look at. I also found Jesus Aburtov's color palette to be particularly vibrant as well, so even though Cody Ziglar story basically had the character treading water as we move ever closer to finding out what the Beyond Corporation is really up to, it was still worth checking out. 

At this point it's worth pointing out that "Nextwave" was already halfway through its overarching narrative six issues in, given how wonderfully packed full of content each issue was. In contrast, Spider-Man's Beyond era has given up precious little.  Apart from seeing Reilly fight a new villain every other issue, and the occasional glimpse at the malevolence of Maxine Danger, we're not getting nearly as much as readers of "Nextwave" had at this point in that book's life cycle. I'm guessing that Marvel plans to stretch this particular story out to far longer than just twelve issues, but I'm still hoping for meatier stories than what I've been getting so far. 

I've genuinely enjoyed these past six issues, but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't getting impatient for something bigger to happen to Ben Reilly and even Peter Parker. 

7.5/10  

Mutilating Sony's Future Franchise Star: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #78

written by Kelly Thompson

  drawn by Sara Pichelli with James Towe

 colored by Nolan Woodard, Rachelle Rosenberg

Once upon a time, Marvel Comics published a comic book that was just so bold, so out there, so uncompromising and so unlike anything else that it was publishing at the time that it left an indelible mark on its fans and has since become a genuinely revered part of its vast catalog of works. 

That work was Nextwave,  by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen, and it is on the goodwill of that truly unique twelve-issue story that the current team behind The Amazing Spider-man are banking to propel their "Beyond" story arc.

After having been bitten in the neck by longtime Spidey foe Michael Morbius, Ben Reilly, aka Spider-Man breaks free of the vampire's grasp and comes up with a way to deal with Morbius a way that is both creative and downright gruesome. Afterwards, as Ben's paymasters at the Beyond Corporation attend to his injuries from his latest encounter, the big boss at Beyond, Maxine Danger contemplates the unthinkable. Meanwhile, a comatose Peter Parker shows signs of movement upon receiving a visit from former flame Felicia Hardy. 

With this issue, Marvel wraps up another two-issue mini arc, this one by writer Kelly Thompson and artist Sara Pichelli (with a little helping hand from James Towe) and now have nearly enough issues for the series' first collected edition of stories.  It's still too early to say if this "Beyond" era is a success, and the test of the pudding, for me, will be how far they can take Beyond's pretty obvious villainy. We got the briefest glimpse of it in this issue, with the Beyond boss briefly considering letting Ben Reilly suffer the effects of Morbius' bit to see how his spider-altered blood would react to the bite, but there's definitely a lot more to come from this storyline than just teases and hints. I'm patient enough to wait, and to be fair, Thompson took over storytelling duties pretty seamlessly from Zeb Wells.

Another things that makes it easier to wait to see Marvel unveil Beyond's grand plan is Sara Pichelli's art, which, as always, is easy on the eyes.  It's a departure from Patrick Gleason's art, to be sure, but there's still an aesthetic consistency.

In a way, the "Beyond" era of The Amazing Spider-Man seems to be taking a page directly out of Ellis and Immonen's storytelling approach to "Nextwave" which was basically to tell stories in two-page miniarcs while tying everything together in a bigger narrative.  This, for me, works a lot better than the sprawling, often chaotic approach to storytelling that ultimately ruined Nick Spencer's three-year, eighty-odd issue run on the book. The stories may not (as yet, anyway) be as strong as some of Spencer's best, or even those of Dan Slott before him, but I'm enjoying the format they've been presented in so far, as strange as this may sound.

Also, considering that Morbius is about to appear in his very own feature film, it's quite interesting to see what the Spider-Man brain trust allowed to happen to him this issue, even though it's almost a given that it won't be a permanent condition. 

8/10

Remembering the Broccoli Men: A Review of the Amazing Spider-Man #77

 written by Kelly Thompson

drawn by Sara Pichelli

colored by Nolan Woodard

With Ben Reilly/Spider-Man having dispatched the U-Foes off-panel after last issue's conclusion, this new issue finds him training with his colleagues Colleen Wing and Misty Knight, getting a dressing down from one of his handlers at the Beyond Corporation regarding his behavior, and being sent on a new mission to take down an old foe, Morbius the living vampire. In the meantime, Peter remains comatose as Mary Jane and Aunt May watch over him. 

It's still too early to give a meaningful assessment of this "Beyond" mega-story arc, but this strategy of two issue mini-arcs could work, especially if Marvel is able to maintain the quality of creators working on the stories. Kelly Thompson takes the baton from Zeb Wells and runs with it pretty well.  She captures  Ben's inner conflict within a limited number of pages and finally alludes to the Beyond Corporation's sinister, and satirical origins in Warren Ellis and Stuard Immonen's "Nextwave."  As someone who collected all twelve of Ellis and Immonen's gloriously irreverent series, I really appreciated mention of the broccoli men, which basically removed any doubt that the Beyond Corporation of this story might not be the same entity as the one Monica Rambeau and her friends faced off against a decade and a half ago. It was just the slightest tease, but I'm grateful to Thompson for having made it. This book just got a whole lot more interesting.  

Also, making her long overdue debut on the main Amazing Spider-Man book years after her first real breakthrough ten years ago as the co-creator of Miles Morales, Sara Pichelli brings her A-game to the book. Her art is crisp and dazzling and her storytelling chops are even better than when she first started drawing Ultimate Spider-Man. It's nice of Marvel to lead with such strong artists like with Patrick Gleason and now with Pichelli. There seems to be more method to their approach this time rather than the Frankenstein-ish mix-and-match of different artists within a single story arc, and I am liking this so far. 

And I'm still loving these Arthur Adams covers. It may be too much to ask, but I sincerely hope he illustrates at least an annual or one-shot before Marvel wraps up the Beyond story arc for the next big thing.  Right now, it's too early to declare that Marvel are dragging this out the way Nick Spencer dragged his stories out, so I remain cautiously optimistic. 

8/10

The Beyond Era Continues: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #76

 written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Patrick Gleason

colored by Marcio Menyz

After the U-Foes put Peter Parker in the hospital with radiation poisoning during his team-up with Ben Reilly last issue, a conscience-stricken Ben defies his paymasters at the Beyond Corporation and pays Peter a visit to do the one thing he arguably should have done in the first place; he asks for Peter's blessing to be Spider-man, and not a moment too soon.

After providing a fairly substantial story in the oversized last issue, Marvel disappoints with a story that, as I've just shown, can literally be summed up in one paragraph.  To be fair, Patrick Gleason positively owns this issue with some great linework and character rendering, but Zeb Wells' threadbare script is clearly designed to let on as little as possible about this new status quo and what "Beyond" is really all about. As a result, it left me feeling more like I had just read a five-page bonus story at the back of an anniversary issue than an actual twenty-page story,  This is the difference between someone writing a story for the sake of telling a story and someone writing as part of a bigger committee.  

Although Marvel were always transparent that "Beyond," like Nick Spencer's massive, multi-part storyarcs before it, was going to be one big arc, this never meant that they couldn't do mini-arcs within it. Zeb Wells, when writing back in the 2008 "Brand New Day" era, knew how to tell compact, satisfying stories with A-listers like Chris Bachalo, including a memorable, if slightly disturbing story in which the Lizard ate his own son.   With an artist of Gleason's caliber Wells could definitely come up with some decent stuff if only the "brain trust" would let him off the leash a bit.  He still could, theoretically, if he had one more issue, but in this very issue Marvel has stated that they're already handing off the baton to another creative team in the next issue, which was a big enough pet peeve of mine with rotating artists. Now they have rotating WRITERS before the storyline even ends. 

Bottom line: Wells and Gleason know how tell a decent, satisfying story even with very few pages to do so, which means that the fact that this story has feels like padding has the distinct feel of an editorial mandate. 

6/10

Doctor Strange May Be Dead: But Doctor Strange: Surgeon Supreme is LIFE!

written by Mark Waid

drawn by Kev Walker 

colored by Java Tartaglia

A few years ago, I bought a reprint of the seminal 2006 Doctor Strange story "The Oath" which is so well-regarded that a character introduced in that series actually had a fairly prominent role in the 2016 feature film adaptation. Because it was an old and quite popular story, I decided against reviewing it. 

It did however, inspire me to pick up a few more volumes of Doctor Strange stories, including his team-up with Doctor Doom from the 1990s by comics legends Roger Stern and Mike Mignola, and compilations of much more recent runs by Jason Aaron and Chris Bachalo...and most recently Mark Waid and Jesus Saiz. I'm a little embarrassed to say that, for all of the hundreds of reviews I've posted on this blog, I haven't reviewed any of those volumes, even though most of them were very good reads.

Well, I intend to remedy that now.

In "Surgeon Supreme," Stephen Strange works part time as a surgeon at McCarthy Medical Institute, having regained the use of his hands.  He is only called in for the most complicated of cases, which only he can handle with his surgeon's skills.  His administrator, Doctor Hagen, respects his other duties as Sorceror Supreme, but also requires that Strange keep magic out of the operating theater, an arrangement with which he has no problem.  A serious problem does arise, however, when mysterious attacks start taking place in New York with villains wielding powerful magical weapons which appear eerily familiar to Strange. To get to the bottom of this mystery, Strange may need the help of another of his colleagues at the hospital, Dr. Anthony Ludgate, aka Doctor Druid. 

As someone who grew up reading mostly Spider-Man, Hulk and Daredevil comics, I confess I never really encountered Doctor Strange unless he showed up in any of those books.  He featured quite prominently in J. Michael Straczynski's run on The Amazing Spider-Man, including, most infamously, the hated "One More Day" storyline,  and had, before that, appeared in Kevin Smith's well-regarded "Guardian Devil" storyline in the pages of Daredevil. In both cases, Doctor Strange  was less of a character and more of a plot device, a means for the lead character to access magic that he would need to advance the story.  About the only Dr. Strange-centric story that I read before finally picking up "The Oath" was the Strange miniseries by Straczynski, Samm Barnes and Brandon Peterson, intended as a soft-reboot of his origin, which read like a TV pilot or a bad Matrix knockoff. Whatever the flaws of the 2016 film, at least it avoided the pitfalls of this miniseries, which is best forgotten.

When Mark Waid took over writing the main Doctor Strange title a few years back I found his take on the character instantly engaging. He struck a fine balance between the supreme self-confidence (often bordering on arrogance) for which Strange is known as well as his extensive experience as one of the Marvel Universe's most enduring characters.  It's easy to see the similarities between this Doctor Strange, and Benedict Cumberbatch's widely-known version from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. I quite enjoyed the first two volumes by Waid, in which he is joined by supremely talented artists like Jesus Saiz and Javier Pina.

In this new volume, I really enjoyed this new milieu for Strange. He's no longer the arrogant surgeon he was before his life-changing accident, but he still has all of the skills his patients desperately need. This is a very nice status quo for the character, though one that's already been upended as of writing with the whole "death of Doctor Strange" storyline. 

In veteran artist Kev Walker, Waid has an extremely capable collaborator quite notably different in art style from Jesus Saiz, but whose art looks astonishing just the same.  His work both manages to both evoke the work of past artists like Kevin Nowlan and Chris Bachalo, even as it stands out on its own merits. It is pure joy to behold, especially since Walker illustrates all six issues.  This is in contrast to his brief stint as one of the rotating artists of The Amazing Spider-Man, for which he could never draw more than a few pages for any given issue.  I'd love to see more of this guy's art.

I don't necessarily buy into the motives of the big baddie who's revealed near the end of the story, but the script seems credible enough and really kept me engaged all the way to the last issue. 

I'll definitely check out and review "The Death of Doctor Strange" once the arc has been completed and collected, but for now, I am extremely satisfied with what Mark Waid and Kev Walker have done. 

9/10

Gleason Unleashed: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #75

 written by Zeb Wells

drawn by Patrick Gleason

colored by Marco Menyz

With the conclusion of Nick Spencer's three-year run on Marvel's flagship book, The Amazing Spider-man, a new "brain trust" kicks off the "Beyond" era for the wall-crawler with a visually-striking first issue that, more than almost anything that was produced during Spencer's run, really showcasees Patrick Gleason's artistic chops. 

Following the gut-wrenching conclusion of Peter Parker's confrontation with Kindred, Peter finds himself struggling to deal with the death of Harry Osborn. Wanting to clear his head, he goes out webslinging, only to find another Spider-Man swinging around too. Peter is unable to catch this seeming impostor, but shortly after this encounter, he is approached by an old "frenemy," his clone Ben Reilly, who for the first time since his resurrection a few years back is sporting blond hair and the Spider-Man identity again.  The twist this time, however, is that Ben has adopted the Spider-Man identity as an employee of the Beyond Corporation, a company that has bought the exclusive right to use the identity, along with other assets of Parker Industries, the company that Otto Octavus founded while he was possessing Peter Parker's body, and which Peter has since run into the ground.  Ben then drops a bombshell on Peter: he cannot legally use the Spider-Man identity anymore. When the U-Foes threaten Empire State University, however, Peter suits up, only to find that Ben is already on site. Will the two Spider-Men team up or face off? 

Marvel's been teasing this new status quo for some time with some glorious cover art by the legendary Arthur Adams, and I have to say, it's off to a pretty good start.  The script by Spidey veteran Zeb Wells almost immediately gets right into the meat of what's going on, with a talking-heads scene between Peter and Ben setting the stage for the next big storyline, and there's some pretty glorious webswinging art courtesy of Gleason, who seems to have stepped up his game a bit since working wth Nick Spencer,

 It's fairly obvious right out the gate that Ben Reilly's stint as Spider-Man will be temporary, unlike his ill-fated stint as the wallcrawler in the 90s which was originally intended to be a permanent status quo which Marvel walked back after fan outrage compelled them to do so. I mean, Beyond Corporation (or at least, a company sharing its name) was last seen in the pages of Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen's Nextwave making evil broccoli men and basically trying to take over the world. Having them manage Spider-Man is unquestionably bad news. I just hope this doesn't end with Ben dying again. 

As single issues go, this one is a strong one, with a tight script and great art, and sets up the storyline pretty effectively, with a heck of a cliffhanger ending the main story. There are a few throwaway stories featuring Misty Knight and Colleen Wing and one featuring Ashley Kafka doing something at Ravencrot, but nothing to really write home about, even though they're meant to somehow justify the six dollar cover price. The main story is good enough, and if the Spider-Man "brain trust" can keep churning out this level of quality week after week, this storyline may yet live up to the hype.  

8.5/10

Why One Major Retcon Was Undone...But Not Another (MAJOR SPOILERS FOR AMAZING SPIDER MAN #74)

This post talks about developments in The Amazing Spider-Man #74. Anyone who has not read this comic book and plans to do so should stop reading this now.

(SPOILER ALERT)

 And with the conclusion of Nick Spencer's run on The Amazing Spider-Man he has officially excised from canon the 2004 story by J. Michael Stracyznski and Mike Deodato, "Sins Past," which retconned into Spider-Man's history a sexual tryst between Norman Osborn and Peter's then-girlfriend Gwen Stacy, the way a skilled surgeon might extract a tumor.  This risible tale was a story that had stood as part of Spider-Man canon for seventeen years, with editors and writers refusing to touch it because of how intricately the retcon had been woven into the history; apparently people simply lacked the imagination needed to make it work...until Nick Spencer came along.

As gratifying as it was, however,  Spencer stopped short of undoing arguably the one Spider-Man story more widely loathed than "Sins Past," namely the 2007 story "One More Day," in which Peter Parker quite literally sold his marriage to the devil to save Aunt May's life.  It was honestly a crying shame, because Nick Spencer would have gone down in history as a legend.  He had already undone the resurrection of Kraven the Hunter in a misguided but well-intentioned sequel to "Kraven's Last Hunt" and with "Sins Past" he had managed to show just how serious he was about righting wrongs that had been done to Spider-Man's history.  Undoing "One More Day" would have been his crowning achievement, the story that would have sealed his place in the firmament of truly great Spider-Man writers like Stan Lee, Gerry Conway, Roger Stern and J.M. DeMatteis, to name but a few. 

So why didn't he?

It's simple, but worth stating anyway.   "Sins Past" may created a headache that proved too complicated for Marvel editorial to undo for years, but it was also a completely unnecessary evil that touched on a character who had been dead at the time for thirty-one years. There had been no new Gwen Stacy stories from the time she had died in 1973.  Her story had been told and was a cherished part of Spider-Man's history, right up until its bitter ending.  Retconning it with "Sins Past" was completely pointless as it added nothing to the character, or to Peter Parker, and had proved to be far more trouble than whatever "benefits" Marvel editorial imagined they had gained from the brief moment of notoriety.  Marvel didn't see any value in keeping this story canon; the fact that it was ignored by almost every writer after Straczynski showed how deeply they wanted to bury it. A few writers and fans have said Marvel were just better off pretending it never happened, but I beg to disagree.

Fortunately, so did Nick Spencer, who had both the imagination and the balls think of a story that would undo "Sins Past."  Sure, he had to think out of the box, tapping into a storyline that took place at a time when Norman Osborn was supposed to be dead, but he made it work. Bottom line, Spencer did Marvel a huge favor, and it's highly doubtful that any writer or editor would ever want to restore this abomination to canon. Straczynski himself, who has long denounced "Sins Past" as a complete distortion of what he wanted to write, has given his seal of approval. 

Now, "One More Day" was a similarly detestable storyline, but it achieved an important goal for Marvel which they had been working towards for quite some time.

It's no secret that Marvel had been trying to undo Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson's marriage for several years prior to "One More Day." The infamous "Clone Saga" which introduced Ben Reilly and even attempted to retcon him as the "true" Peter Parker was actually Marvel's first high-profile attempt to make Spider-Man single again, which ended in catastrophic failure and Ben Reilly's (ultimately temporary) death, but it would not be the last.  In the early noughties, Marvel made an attempt to kill off Mary Jane that ended up being so half-assed that they coudn't even keep her dead for a year. She and Peter ended up separating, which didn't last very long either.  Then, "One More Day" was hatched, and the rest is history.

Reinstating Gwen Stacy's squeaky clean, all-American girl image was hugely beneficial to Marvel, especially since they're now actively promoting an alt-universe version of her as one of their heroes. In contrast, the benefits of reinstating a married Peter and Mary Jane are debatable at the very least, especially considering the trouble that Marvel's editorial had gone through for years to get to this point. I imagine it's not an ordeal editorial would want to repeat, so even if Spencer had pitched it to them, they must have ultimately said no.

I'd argue that Marvel has even come full circle, with Ben Reilly (who got better) about to resume his duties as the main Spider-Man again, though I'm sure this is but a temporary status quo. Rather than regret what they didn't do, though, I prefer to just bask in what they actually did. 

Harry's Redemption: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #74 (Mild Spoilers)

 written by Nick Spencer and Christos Gage

drawn by Marcelo Ferreira, Mark Bagley, Ze Carlos, Dio Neves, Carlos Gomez, Ivan Fiorelli and Humberto Ramos

colored by Andrew Crossley, Edgar Delgado, Alex Sinclair

After three years, seventy-five issues, and a whole bunch of somewhat convoluted storylines, Nick Spencer finally brings his run on The Amazing Spider-Man to a close.

To make a long (and it has been VERY long) story short, the saga of Kindred comes to an end. As Spider-Man faces off with Kindred one final time, Mephisto and Doctor Strange engage in a high-stakes game of chance, the prize in the balance being the soul of Harry Osborn himself.  The revelation last issue that Kindred was actually two people, Gabriel and Sarah Stacy, and that the two of them were not actually Norman Osborn's children by Gwen Stacy but were actually just clones that were a part of Harry Osborn's scheme to exact revenge on his father, also seees its ultimate resolution here.  Also, we readers get a glimpse into why Mephisto was so keenly interested on ending Peter Parker's marriage to Mary Jane Watson.

For those that have been following--nay, enduring--Nick Spencer's seemingly endless story in the keen hope, like I have, that his endgame was the undoing of the deplorable plotline "Sins Past," the biggest payoff was last issue, but this issue serves as an effective denouement, and like I said in my review of the last issue (#73) it provided me with a retcon that I never even knew I needed: the redemption of Harry Osborn. 

It's hard to go into detail about what I liked about this issue without spoiling key plot points so I'll end my plot synopsis there, but to be perfectly honest, for an issue that's nearly a hundred pages long, surprisingly little happens, apart from a lot of punching and a little last minute exposition between Mephisto and Doctor Strange. The last issue, for all its flaws, had more going on.  Still, I did appreciate how Spencer wrapped everything up quite neatly, leaving the little mini stories at the end to lay the ground for the "Beyond" era that's set to follow his run.

As is the usual malaise of Spider-Man comics these days, the issue has too many artists to maintain any kind of visual consistency. I understand that with the new status quo they'll go back to single artists being able to illustrate whole story arcs as opposed to this utterly ridiculous "jam" approach to art.  Hell, I'd even take (some) of Humberto Ramos' issues over this unmitigated chaos. The real shame is that some of these artists seem genuinely talented, with Ze Carlos in particular standing out somewhat. I had to Google-search to find out which one he was, incidentally; apart from Mark Bagley and Humberto Ramos, whose styles, for better or worse, are instantly recognizable, it's hard to identify these new artists who have yet to leave their mark on this title, especially since Marvel isn't really giving them the chance to do so.  

It's a shame that Spencer's run, which started out quite strongly with a topnotch creative partner in Ryan Ottley, ended on such a messy, if auspicious note. Had it been better curated, the "Kindred" Saga could have gone down as a genuine epic, a fresh, tall glass of lemonade made from the lemons known as "Sins Past."  As it was, with its battalion of rotating artists and its sprawling, unreasonable length, it became a real chore to sit through.  I'm just glad the story managed to end on a satisfying note, because at one point I would have just been happy to see it end.   

Still, Spencer deserves kudos for having the balls to tell the stories that Dan Slott and the other Spider-Man brain trust from 2008 to 2018 (the post Stracynzki era) couldn't, so I can't be all mad at him.   

6.5/10 (Main story)

I enjoyed the mini stories, from Christos Gage and Todd Nauck's poignant tale in which Peter learns of one more life that his Uncle Ben touched in his life, to the entertaining two-page recap of Spidey's history from Sean Ryan and Gustavo Duarte, to the enticing sneak peek, courtesy of Zeb Wells and Ivan Fiorelli, at the return of Ben Reilly to the Spider-Man mantle, as told from the perspective of Janine Godbe, Ben's brief squeeze in the largely forgotten "Spider-Man: The Lost Years" miniseries from the mid-90s.  It's common practice to tease a new status quo with side-stories in an oversized "conclusion" issue, like how Ben Reilly's new status quo was teased in the epilogue of "The Clone Conspiracy," and as teases go, this was a pretty good one. 

7.5/10 (Extra stories)

So, How About Those Twists? (Sinister War Edition - SPOILERS GALORE)

 It's been a while since I've written a post like this; I used to make them a lot for my movie blog, back when I was still watching movies in the theater, especially the big Marvel tentpole films. It's fitting, then, that I repurpose this post for this blog as I discuss the twists that have characterized the latest issue of "The Amazing Spider-Man," namely Vol. 5. No. 73 (or No. 874 in "Legacy" terms for those keeping count).  Given that it's only twenty pages of story, there's not THAT much to unpack, but the three main story developments are well-worth revisiting, to my mind.

1. SINS PAST IS GONE, FOR GOOD

I find it immensely satisfying that a number of comics news writers have basically bannered their stories on this issue with variations on the theme "Marvel rewrites its creepiest story ever." There's no mincing of words, and no pulling of punches, just a descripton of befitting a truly despicable story.

I may be in the minority (or not, actually) but I think I'm one of the people who actually hated "Sins Past" more than "One More Day," and not quite for the reasons that one might think.

Truth be told, I didn't actually grow up with Gwen Stacy. The character was killed off from the Amazing Spider-Man series two years before I was even born, and I didn't exactly seek her out when I started reading comics in the mid to late eighties. I grew up with Mary Jane, and the first few Spider-Man issues I started collecting actually featured a happily married Peter and Mary Jane.

Why then, was I somehow less uncomfortable with Marvel literally using demonic magic to undo Peter's marriage to Mary Jane while their act of retconning Gwen's one-night-stand stuck in my craw so badly? I mean, I didn't even know Gwen as a character.

Here's the thing, though; Gwen and her storied love affair with Peter were one of his most cherished memories, which very much formed a part of who he was as Spider-Man and, like Uncle Ben's death, kind of defined him as a character.  That was what Gwen represented to me, since I had not met her as a character: she was someone who brought out the best in Peter.  This was best exemplified in Jeph Loeb's and Tim Sale's "Spider-Man: Blue."

That J. Michael Straczynski and the Marvel "brain trust" behind "Sins Past" saw fit to not only keep Gwen dead and buried but also to tarnish that memory of her by essentially having her cheat on Peter with a middle-aged Norman Osborn just completely confounded me. It added nothing to the character; it didn't enrich her history in any way. It was like digging up someone's rotting carcass and defacing it, somehow.  

Make no mistake, I think "One More Day" is a truly wretched story, but I got the imperative behind it, as misguided as I think Peter's supernatural divorce was.  In contrast, I never understood why they felt the need to do what they did to Gwen Stacy, and why they saw fit to take a giant shit on one of the most beloved characters in Spider-Man canon. 

What also rankled about "Sins Past" was how seemingly untouchable it was as canon. For the longest time various writers and editors who handled the character refused to undo this blighted storyline. Longtime writer Dan Slott famously declared at a comics convention that he would "never" touch upon "Sins Past" which was especially annoying when Norman Osborn suddnely became the big bad guy near the end of Slott's run. Was it because he couldn't figure out how to undo that piece of crap or because editorial had not given him the green light? We'll probably never know, but for all of his stories, some of them actually very good, Slott will now go down in my memory as the writer who could not undo "Sins Past" despite having nearly a decade to do so. 

That's kind of a shame, because in my opinion, at least, Slott gave us some really good stories, and even undid at least one big mistake on his own by bringing back a fan-favorite character in Ben Reilly. By and large, however, Slott's run was characterized by supposed "game changing" stories that never really made any lasting impression on the status quo. Peter loses his Spider-sense? He gets it back in the next few issues. Doc Ock takes over Peter's body? Peter gets it back in a little over a year.  Peter becomes a billionaire CEO?  Just wait until it all comes crashing down. Doc Ock gets a new, superior clone body so that he's no longer a schlub with a bowl cut? Don't count on that lasting very long. Norman Osborn loses his mind and forgets Peter's secret identity? Puh-LEAZE.  Flash Thompson dies? Shhyeah right. That's probably what's really sad about Slott's writing, whether it's by his own design or that of his editors: so much of it is disposable.

Spencer, for all of his flaws, will be remembered for stories that will last. His effort to restore the grim effects of "Kraven's Last Hunt" while ultimately blunted by the need to keep an incarnation of Sergei Kravinoff alive, was still valiant and is unlikely to be retconned away.  His undoing of "Sins Past" will stand through the ages, and I cannot think of ANYONE who would want to reinstate as canon one of the most hated Spider-Man stories in the history of the title.  THIS new status quo is going to STICK, and all future Marvel writers and editors will owe Spencer a debt of immense gratitude.  

If Nick Spencer manages to undo "One More Day" as well, he will be a hero for all the ages, whatever the flaws of his individual stories may be. 

What makes Spencer's tale-weaving remarkable was how deep he dug into Spider-Man's history to find just the right story to retcon the retcon, and he found an unlikely but brilliant candidate in the "Lifetheft" saga of 1993, a time when, as far as the readership was concerned, Norman Osborn was still dead and buried.  Spencer basically folded Harry's long-term revenge scheme against Norman into his revenge scheme against Peter, which helped explain the admittedly convoluted way in which he manufactured the fake Osborn/Stacy progeny Gabriel and Sarah. 

How did Spencer address the fact that, when Harry actually hatched the scheme back then, Norman was supposed to be dead? Simple: "I knew you'd come back."  It was succinct, and oh-so-true to the spirit of Marvel Comics, in which death is basically a revolving door.

But that brings us to the second twist...

2. HARRY OSBORN REALLY DIED.

My younger sister doesn't read comics.  Like most of the world, she watched Avengers: Endgame and even watched Spider-Man: Far From Home with me and my family with a casual fan's understanding of the lore. I don't mind, it just wasn't her thing, that's all. 

But when she read J.M. DeMatteis and Sal Buscema's "Spectacular Spider-Man"  #200 sometime in the 1990s, despite never even having been introduced to Harry Osborn prior to that issue, it brought her to tears. That was how powerful and effective DeMatteis' storytelling was back then; a first-time reader, right off the bat, was emotionally affected by a single issue.   Harry Osborn's death, in my humble opinion was one of the best-written moments in all of Spider-Man canon, and it redeemed a character who had undergone a truly dark journey dating all the way back to before I'd even been born. 

There was something distinctly "meta" about how Norman Osborn revisited that moment in The Amazing Spider-Man #73.   We had already seen the series' artists recreating Sal Buscema's deeply moving rendition of Harry's death, but Osborn verbalized it beautifully: "You died a hero! You died loved."  Norman may have addressed this to an artificial intelligence construct of Harry who had been uploaded years before (and whom I think was originally just written as a recording), but it distinctly felt as though Norman spoke with Spencer's voice, addressing the numbskulls who had undone one of the more poignant moments in Spider-Man's history.  Harry had managed to come into his own just before he died. 

Harry's abrupt resurrection in the post-"One More Day" status quo was emblematic of how much contempt Joe Quesada and Marvel editorial had for the last couple of decades of storytelling that they had callously undone.  Not only did Quesada want to transplant Peter back into an updated version of the swinging sixties, he also wanted to bring along his spoiled, ne'er-do-well bestie and all of his daddy issues.  The annoying retcon of Norman stealing Harry's body from the morgue went further towards cheapening what was a landmark moment in Spider-Man's history, and coupled with the fact that Norman had (or thought he had) two other children to carry on his "legacy," it made Harry seem even more pathetic. Fortunately, we've now learned that the whiny millennial who's been posing as Harry Osborn since 2008 is actually someone else. 

Spencer didn't just restore Harry's death; he restored his dignity as a character. 

Also, given the heavily supernatural component of the story, it would appear that Harry's death is not at all permanent, which brings us to the third twist that I'd like to revisit...

3. NORMAN'S FAUSTIAN BARGAIN

When it comes to making deals with the devil, why should Peter Parker have all the fun? Norman Osborn's deal with Mephisto, in which he obtains fame and fortune at the cost of his son's soul, is the retcon I never knew I needed. 

Similar to the case of Gwen Stacy, I only really got to know Norman as a character after his resurrection by Howard Mackie and John Romita Jr. back in 1996, but the notion of him selling his son to the devil seems entirely in line with the character as he has been written since his return from the dead: vain, superficial, and utterly self-centered. Of course he'd sell his son to the devil to benefit himself! It makes so much more sense than Peter selling his marriage to the devil!

Sure, Spencer gives him a dose of much-needed humanity in these last few issues of his run, but he makes it clear that Osborn is finally paying the price for his many, many sins, and not just by having Volstagg smack him in the face. 

There was something distinctly repetitive about how Dan Slott wrote Norman Osborn stories, which he did for the better part of a decade, longer even than Norman's original life-span in the Stan Lee (and later Gerry Conway) comics. I kid you not.  He'd come up with some scheme, Peter would thwart him, and Norman would suffer humiliation and anguish and then just come back again, meaner and more powerful than ever. It's one of the reasons why Slott's writing felt so disposable, even when he was backed up by sublime collaborators like Stuart Immonen. 

Spencer's writing feels different, though; this story is not even about Norman's dynamic with Peter. I'll admit it's a little too early to call this, with one issue yet to go, but it genuinely feels, in light of everything that's come before, that there will be lasting consequences for Norman following the culmination of Harry's grand plan from beyond the gate of Hell itself. 

Does it mean Norman will die? No, and even if he does, that's the easiest thing to undo in comics. It does feel, though, like nothing will ever be the same with him again. 

All of that in one issue. Wow.

Also, having Carlie Cooper, a cast member introduced in the post-"One More Day" status quo, discover the true Harry's corpse along with ersatz Harry, neatly ties past together with present, and establishes that Spencer is firmly taking this book into the future. 

For better or worse, Nick Spencer may not be remembered as the best Spider-Man writer of all time, but he will be remembered as the guy who fixed a LOT of the book's problems. 

Nick Spencer, You are My Hero: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #73 (HEAVY SPOILERS)

 written by Nick Spencer

drawn by Ze Carlos, Carlos Gomez and Marcelo Ferreira

colored by Alex Sinclair

Spider-Man goes to confront Kindred one last time, while Mary Jane Watson and Norman Osborn, who have gone to meet with the mysterious villain ahead of Peter, are confronted with some shocking truths. Meanwhile, Carlie Cooper and Harry Osborn make an equally startling discovery in the morgue. 

It was a decent enough issue, and that's all I'll say for those wanting to avoid spoilers.  For those who want to know more, read on...

(SPOILERS BEGIN)

And with one issue, Nick Spencer almost manages to atone for three years of the often insufferable build-up and filler he stuffed my reading list with to get to this very moment. 

This is the moment that the Kindred Saga comes to its head, in which Spencer reveals that "Sins Past," the widely-despised 2004 story in which Marvel's "brain trust" retconned into Spider-Man canon a sexual affair between a middle-aged Norman Osborn and a teenaged Gwen Stacy, was nothing but an elaborate hoax perpetrated by Harry Osborn, acting in conspiracy with Mysterio and Mendel Stromm, on his dad Norman.  Not only that, but Mary Jane, who was actually the one who revealed the affair to Peter back then, learns that she was a victim of the hoax too, courtesy of "therapy" sessions with Mysterio masquerading as a psychiatrist. 

For a good chunk of the issue, Norman talks to what appears to be an artificial intelligence version of Harry, who tells his "dad" that the elder Osborn never had sex with Gwen, and that he did not father children by her.  The entire thing was basically a memory implanted by hypnosis and hallucinogens courtesy of Mysterio and Stromm, who were working under orders that the actual Harry Osborn had given them just before his death in 1993's Spectacular Spider-Man #200. 

Thus is the second bombshell dropped in less than five pages: Harry's resurrection from the dead, which was retconned into canon shortly after the events of the similarly-reviled "One More Day," has also been undone. It turns out that the real Harry has spent the last several years either as wormfood or burning in hell while an AI version of him who's been around since the 1990s (our time, not theirs) has been carrying out a really elaborate, long-term revenge plan on both Peter and Norman.    Why has Harry been in hell? Well, in yet another retcon, apparently Norman sold Harry's soul to Mephisto when he was just a kid in exchange for fame and fortune.

This is the issue that, for the last seventeen years,  I have been pining for, and more recently, since Dan Slott started focusing on Norman Osborn as Peter Parker's biggest of baddies in the last year or so of his run on The Amazing Spider-Man.  This is the issue that neither Slott nor Marvel's editorial brain trust during his run had the balls or the storytelling chops to pull off.

As much as I love to take potshots at Spencer's writing, for the remainder of the series I will lay off, because he has done exactly what I have been hoping he would do from the moment it became clear that he had big plans for Norman Osborn in his run.  When he undid Slott's silly, hackneyed, "secret identity amnesia" which was never going to last, it became increasingly clear that Spencer had something big planned, especially after his big Kraven arc played out.  When he actually NAMED one of his mini story arcs "Sins Past," it was definitely a huge wink and nod to that 2004 clusterfuck, but apparently no one picked up on because they all thought it was a reference to Sin Eater, who was front and center in that story, and because everyone else was obsessed with the notion that Marvel was working up to undo "One More Day" instead.

So no matter how big a headache this issue may be for anyone who isn't familiar with the last three decades of lore, I'm really happy that Spencer pulled the trigger on this audacious retcon of a retcon. 

I'd be happier if the art wasn't the usual mashup of several disparate art styles that has been the norm on this book for the last year or so, but given that Marvel has granted one of my most ardent wishes for this title, I have little reason to complain.

There's actually a more than even chance that Spencer could, with his valedictory issue, undo "One More Day" as well, given Mephisto's heavy involvement in this story, but at this point this would just  be icing on the cake for me. 

8.5/10

 

My Thoughts on Marvel's "Sinister War" and Their Annoying New Habit

 Sinister War

Written by Nick Spencer

Drawn by Mark Bagley and too many other artists.

I'll be honest; I was skeptical of the storytelling merits of "Sinister War" when it was announced. I know that as an entertainment company, basically Marvel is all about cash grabs, but this one felt a little more gratuitous than usual. It wasn't unlike the manner in which Marvel, especially during Spencer's run, has made a habit of swelling up his storylines with extra issues during which parallel stories run right alongside the main one as not quite necessary reading but definitely as an important supplement.  They did this with the godawful Kraven story, as well as the Sin-Eater/Kindred story.

"Sinister War" had a different feel to it, and from a pure story perspective, I feel it actually worked better than a lot of the other "parallel" stories Marvel has put out as companion pieces to "The Amazing Spider-Man." 

The premise is simple: Kindred, whom we thought was Harry Osborn but apparently isn't (as is disclosed over in the main title), has made a deal with five different supervillain teams: kill Spider-Man, or face an eternity of damnation.  Spidey is basically in for the fight of his life, but may yet find some unexpected help along the way.  Also, in the background, a mysterious conversation takes place between Doctor Strange and Mephisto.

I guess Marvel figured that people were getting sick of this "plus" style of storytelling, so they packaged this latest batch as a miniseries to change the marketing angle a little bit. That said, "Sinister War" reads pretty well on its own.  Rather than shed light on the backstory of Kindred, which is still being teased agonizingly slowly in the main title, the story stays focused on Peter's battle royale with three dozen supervillains, and it's a brisk and decent, if slightly insubstantial read.

The only thing I truly disliked about this was the irritating "jam" style art. The story was drawn mostly by legendary Spider-Man artist Mark Bagley (who's probably a bazillionaire owing to the fact that his art has adorned Spider-Man merch for a good portion of the 21st century) but unlike the good old days in which he drew Ultimate Spider-Man all by himself for Brian Michael Bendis for a record-setting number of issues, for some reason he needs  an army of backup artists filling in random pages for just four issues of story.  While I patiently sat through this format for something like two years, it's no longer fun, whether it's here or over in the main title, and makes for a distinctly unpleasant reading experience. Bring back John Romita, Jr. for gosh sakes.

As Nick Spencer wraps up his run, which I thought started so strongly back in 2018, I can't help but have mixed feelings about the stories he produced.  He set out, for example, to undo the resurrection of Kraven the Hunter, which essentially invalidated the modern classic "Kraven's Last Hunt" story, only for editorial to allow him some half-assed compromise in which Kraven is killed but survived by his clone. His buddy-comedy storyline involving Boomerang becoming Spider-Man's roommate was, oddly enough, one of his more solid pieces of narrative, with the most genuine emotional resonance and the best artwork, courtesty mainly of Ryan Ottley and Patrick Gleason, and it has a tragic footnote right  here in "Sinister War."  

The centerpiece of Spencer's run appears to be this meandering mess involving Kindred, which is either an attempt to undo the infamous "One More Day" or, given the heavy involvement of Norman Osborn, a revisiting (and hopefully eradication) of his retconned sexual affair with Gwen Stacy, the abhorrent "Sins Past."  While I'd be happiest if it was the latter, at this point I really just want it to be over, whatever the outcome.

And with two more issues two go for Spencer's run, I'm about to get my wish.

In the meantime, though, "Sinister War" was a decent enough distraction, muddled art notwithstanding. 

6.5/10

Kevin Smith's Clumsy, "Bait and Switch" Writing Is NOT a New Thing

 Much has been written and posted on Youtube about how filmmaker Kevin Smith has desecrated one of the sacred cows of 1980s pop-culture, He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, with his new Netflix series, Masters of the Universe: Revelations.  I would even go as far as to argue that the firestorm of controversy that this series has kicked up has gotten Smith more exposure than he has had in some time, and that's bearing in mind his stature within the geek community.  I've already weighed in on the series itself here, so I won't be reviewing this series in this blog post.

What I would like to point out, though, for the angry fans, is that, unfortunately, this is not the first time that Smith has hijacked a story which was supposed to feature a beloved character in order to hamhandedly push some clumsy advocacy.  We comic book fans experienced this from him some time ago, long before the hotly-debated topic of "woke culture" was even a thing.

In 2002, Smith and artist Terry Dodson launched a mini-series that featured Spider-Man, then white-hot thanks to the record-breaking success of his first-ever feature film, and his ex-girlfriend and on-again, off-again ally Felicia Hardy, aka the Black Cat, in a series title "Spider-Man and Black Cat: the Evil that Men Do."  Smith's stock among comic-book fans was soaring at the time; he had already completed the eight-part Daredevil epic "Guardian Devil" which was one of the flashpoints that brought about Marvel's renaissance at the turn of the millennium, following a truly disastrous period for the company in the 1990s, and had also just finished a highly-successful run on "Green Arrow" over at DC Comics.   

The first three issues of the series shipped one after the other, and offered an intriguing, brand new villain who had both telepathic and teleportation abilities. It was fairly clear why Spider-Man and Black Cat needed to team up to take this bad guy down, and yet, by the end of the third issue, readers were left with a cliffhanger as the bad guy had mentally paralyzed Felicia and looked, from all indications, like he was  about to rape her.

And then, for nearly three years, the miniseries went on hold as Smith stopped writing to take care of...stuff. It was one of a pair of embarrassments for Marvel as Smith had actually launched two miniseries that year, the other one being "Daredevil: Target" with Glenn Fabry, which, incidentally, was cancelled after one issue because Smith simply couldn't get his act together. 

When the story was finished in 2005, things had taken a turn for the ridiculous as the Black Cat was in jail for the killing of the guy who had been poised to rape her at the end of the last issue, and suddenly the focus of the entire story was on Felicia's sudden, weird bond with the brother of the villain (and eventual villain himself), who had barely uttered any dialogue during the first three issues, but who turned out to be similarly superpowered, and a victim of rape growing up, something Felicia connected to as Smith had retconned a date-rape into her history as well.

Sound familiar, He-Man fans?  Yup, Spider-Man had become a guest star in his own fucking book.  There were a couple of gratuitous cameos by Daredevil and Nightcrawler, but the effect was still the same; Spider-Man was sidelined.

It didn't even bother me that Black Cat was the focal point of the remainder of the series; at least her name was in the title. No, what really got my goat was how hard Smith pimped his new villain, trying in the course of a few issues to both build him a backstory and make him formidable, and by the end actually made him the new Mysterio.  A few years earlier, Smith had made Quentin Beck, the original Mysterio, blow his own brains out in the pages of "Daredevil."  It felt somewhat presumptuous that Smith could just slot some "rando" into the bubble helmet and green tights after Beck had spent decades becoming an iconic villain, but, well, Smith presumed to do just that.  And as one might expect, this new character didn't take at all; within less than two years, Beck was brought back from the dead--from Hell, in fact--and Smith's creation Francis Klum was killed off in the pages of another Spider-Man book and never heard from again.  Similarly, Kevin Smith never wrote a book for Marvel again.

I don't really know if it's any consolation for disgruntled He-Man fans to know that Smith has done crap like this before, but, well, he has, and unlike Masters of the Universe, which has at least one more season to wrap up its obvious cliffhanger, that Spider-Man miniseries came to a most unfortunate  conclusion. 

One can hope, though, that Mattel has learned the same lesson that Marvel did and will never put Smith in charge of one of their most beloved properties again. 

 

Xavier's School for Gifted Students...But for WIZARDS!: A Review of Strange Academy Volume I

 written by Skottie Young

drawn by Humberto Ramos

colored by Edgar Delgado

I'm not the biggest Harry Potter fan. I stopped reading the series after the fifth book, content to just finish the overarching seven-part story by watching the movies, not all of which I even enjoyed. Nor, for that matter, am I the biggest fan of the "magic" corner of the original, printed Marvel Universe. I was always more of a "traditional" superhero fan, and so apart from a handful Doctor Strange trade paperbacks, I don't have much by way of "magic" Marvel stories. 

What drew me to Marvel's relatively new book, Strange Academy, therefore, was an interesting creative team in Skottie Young (Rocket Raccoon), and Humberto Ramos (Champions).  Also, I have almost invariably enjoyed Humberto Ramos' work whenever he has worked on "kids' team" books like Runaways or Champions.  I'm happy to say, my curiosity was satisfied. 

As the title suggests, Strange Academy is a school for budding magic wielders, i.e. wizards or sorcerors, in the same way that Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Children (or the Jean Grey school...whatever they're calling it now) is a school for mutants, with one significant difference being that this school accepts students from other worlds like Asgard or Jotunheim, or even other dimensions, like the Dark Dimension. Told mainly from the point of view of Emily Bright (a new character introduced in this series), the first six issues focus mainly on the various students getting together and (of course) getting into some pretty hairy misadventures, often with pretty serious consequences. 

Generally, the book, as befits a story about children, is light-hearted in tone, though it does have its moments of darkness, as is also apropos for a story featuring, among others, the son of Dormammu.  On that note, I'll run through the cast very quickly, apart from the main character (and reader avatar) Emily Bright, the cast of students who form the book's core group is actually surprisingly big; there's (deep breath) Doyle Dormammu (yes, the son of that Dormammu), fairy Shaylee Moonpeddle, voodoo sorceress Zoe Laveau, twin Asgardian brothers Iric and Alvi Brorson, Frost Giant Guslaug, Despair the Demon from Limbo, Toth from Weirdworld, and "regular" kids Calvin Morse, whose jacket is apparently a magical being attuned only to him, and German Aguilar, who has the magic power to conjure up just about any animal. Of course, the faculty roster is a who's who of magical heavyweights in the Marvel Universe, including Scarlet Witch, Doctor Voodoo, Magik, Damion Hellstrom, Sister Grimm and the Ancient One, to name a few, with Doctor Strange popping up time and again for good measure.  

Notwithstanding his surprisingly large cast, Skottie Young navigates his story quite ably, crafting a pretty satisfying romp that spans the first six issues, even as he obviously teases more to come. There are some tropes, sure, but I quite like the way Young gave distinctive voices to each of these young characters. I don't quite appreciate his attempt to flip the bully-hero dynamic, i.e. Dormammu is the sympathetic character while one of the Asgardian twins is a bully, mainly because it feels heavy-handed at times, but on the whole the characters feel authentic and relatable.  Also, I know there's a certain tongue-in-cheekery going on here, but I really feel that the alliterative "Doyle Dormammu" feels a bit much. Would the Lord of the Dark Dimension really call his kid "Doyle?" 

Another thing I'd like to praise is the choice of location. I really, really liked that the story was set in New Orleans, not because I have any particular affinity for the place but because it was really refreshing that they didn't set it in New York or any other "traditional" superhero hub like a big, bustling metropolitan city. A mystically-concealed mansion in the midst of Big Easy seems just like the right place for powerful young wielders of the mystic arts to truly master their abilities. 

Speaking of young characters, this series features Humberto Ramos very much in his element. I know I've been quite vocal about how he was a poor fit for Nick Spencer's sequel to Kraven's Last Hunt over in The Amazing Spider-Man a few years back, but this is the kind of book in which Ramos truly shines; it's like he was born to draw teen team books, whether it's Runaways, Champions or this.  It's particularly helpful that all of these kids are original characters, so Ramos doesn't have to deal with the baggage of living up to someone else's designs, even though several of the Strange Academy students have obvious visual ties to the realms from which they hail, whether it's Doyle Dormammu's flaming head or Despair's cloven hooves. Ramos really stamps his signature on these characters and it's really pleasant to behold. 

The volume neatly wraps up its story arc, even as it ends on an obvious cliffhanger, but I don't mind; given how much I've enjoyed this series so far, I'm more than willing to indulge Young and Ramos their tropes. 

Bring on Volume 2!

8.5/10

The Apocalypse Through the Eyes of an Innocent: A Review of Sweet Tooth

 created for television by 

Jim Mickle

based on the DC Vertigo Series by 

Jeff Lemire

As someone who quite faithfully followed The Walking Dead television series for six whole years up until the time that Glenn Rhee, the character played by Steven Yeun who first appeared in Season One and who was a mainstay of the show, died brutally at the hands of Jeffrey Dean Morgan's evil-yet-charismatic Negan, I can say with some confidence that I know a little about shows set in the apocalypse, and what makes them work well as narrative and what doesn't.   No matter how cool the zombie makeup may be or how gratuitous the gore, it's always the human element that will keep the series going, and when Glenn, the single most prominent avatar of the human element in TWD was taken out of the cast, I just completely lost interest in the show. 

Sweet Tooth marks my return to serialized post-apocalyptic narrative since I quit watching The Walking Dead nearly half-a-decade ago, and while it's definitely got its own issues, I really appreciated it as something hearkens back to the days when I still senjoyed The Walking Dead.  

Long story short, this series takes place in an apocalypse that has followed a global pandemic (sound familiar) but this one hasn't resulted in any zombies, just as disease called--prosaically enough--"the sick" and, coincidentally or not, the sudden birth of babies that are part human, part...animal.

The main character, Gus, or "Sweet Tooth" as he is dubbed by another character, is one such hybrid. Played by newcomer, Christian Convery, he is both a boy on a mission to find his mother and a fugitive, sought after by the "Last Men" the soldiers of the shadowy quasi-government that has sprung up from the ashes of a collapsed civilization. Fortunately for Gus, he has ex-Last Man and enormous former NFL player Tommy Jepperd (Nonzi Anozie) watching his back. Still, it may not be enough.

There's a lot going on in this series, even with only eight episodes. Running parallel to Gus's story is that of Dr. Adityah Singh (Adeel Akhtar) a doctor whose wife (Aliza Vellani) has the Sick, and for whom he would do anything, even things that go against his very vows as a physician, as well as that of Aimee (Dania Ramirez) a former couples' therapist who had decided to live out the apocalypse alone, until a hybrid baby was dropped off at her doorstep. All of these stories tie together by the eighth episode.

As I said, earlier, I really quite liked this series. I liked how it juxtaposed the darkness of humanity against the light, and the innocence of Gus and the other hybrid children against the murderous intent of those who view them as nothing more than puzzles to be dissected in the relentless quest for a cure for the Sick. There are no zombies here, but humanity is arguably much, much scarier. It just makes for really compelling storytelling at this stage. 

That  said, I have to be frank; as charming as Convery is as Gus, I don't see the storytellers sustaining this dynamic of wide-eyed innocence versus the evils of humanity for more than a couple of seasons at most. From a story perspective, it simply isn't possible to keep beating the same drum without eventually sounding monotonous, but from a casting perspective, it's even more complicated.

Christian Convery works as Gus because, well, he's a cute kid who effectively conveys Gus' utter guilelessness. The thing is, he will grow up, the same way The Walking Dead's Chandler Rigg did. That wasn't much of a problem from a narrative perspective considering that the focus was ever and always on the adult characters like Rick, Daryl, Michonne at al, but considering that the title character is a young child, whose cuteness and charm were an integral part of the narrative for the first season, I can't help but think that a surly, hulking teenager is going to be a lot less charming than a kid, and Convery's growth spurt can't be more than a season or two away.

So either the story has to reflect his growth and somehow keep up with it, or they'll have to recast him, or, in true Netflix fashion, the showrunners will have to end the show after a few seasons.

Whatever they ultimately decide, I've been won over by this season and I hope they get at least one more.  

8.5/10

The Gentleman Burglar: A Review of Lupin (Part 2)

 developed for television by 

George Kay

Francoi Uzan

Before the popular Netflix series Lupin dropped earlier this year I had no real idea who the character was and had only ever associated him with a popular Japanese anime series, Lupin III, which featured a gangly gentleman burglar sporting sideburns and his high-tech crew. It was popular enough here to warrant a live-action, localized adaptation and big enough in its native Japan to earn a computer-generated film update. 

I was genuinely surprised to learn, then, that Lupin was actually a popular French pulp hero whose origings date back to the early 20th century, when he was created by Maurice LeBlanc, a sort of "anti-Sherlock Holmes," and that the anime was derived from that work. 

The live-action Netflix series starring charismatic French actor Omar Sy isn't quite a reimagining of the story of Arsene Lupin, but rather the story of Assane Diop (Sy), a man so inspired by his pulp adventures as a gentleman burglar that he has emulated his lifestyle as a thief and a bit of a grifter.  There's more to Diop's motivations, however, than just boosting rich people's valuables; he's a man on a mission, and that is to uncover the truth behind the unjust imprisonment of his father, Babakar Diop (Fargasse Assande) who was framed for the theft of a valuable necklace by his employer Hubert Pelligrini (Herve Pierre) who faked the theft to claim the insurance money. Using his consummate skill and planning, the younger Diop actually steals the necklace, which belonged to the infamous French Queen Marie Antoinette and sets in motion a whole chain of events which, he hopes, will bring justice to his father after two and a half decades. It won't be easy, though, as Pelligrini has considerable resources at his disposal, including a police captain (Vincent Garanger) in his pocket, as well as a couple of armed goons, including the lethal Leonard (Adama Niane) and Pascal (Nicolas Wanczycki) to do his dirty work. And naturally, having actually stolen a necklace, whatever his ulterior motives may be, Diop has also got cops hot on his trail, especially fellow Lupin devotee Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab).  Things get really serious when Pelligrini has Leonard kidnap Lupin's son Raoul (Etan Simon) much to Lupin's consternation and that of his ex-girlfriend Claire (Ludivigne Sagnier). 

It won't be easy to take down Pelligrini, but with the help of his trusty sidekick Benjamin (Anthony Guoy), and Pelligrini's own daughter Juliette (Clotilde Hesme), Diop may yet prevail. 

I'm not reviewing "Part I" of the series but rather the last five episodes, or Part II, which came out a little under a month ago on Netflix.  "Part I" featured episodes directed by Now You See Me helmer Louis Letterier and as a result had the distinct heist movie vibe, like a French Ocean's Eleven.  I enjoyed most of the first five episodes quite a bit, especially as the storytellers revealed Diop's backstory bit by tantalizing bit.  Unfortunately, near the end, the series suffered from a serious case of plot-driven storytelling, in which the consummately crafty Diop basically forgot he had a brain and did something really careless to help move the story forward. 

I mention this because I'm quite relieved to report that there's no such storytelling faux pas here in Part II.  The storytelling is straightfoward and doesn't rely on any cheap, character-destroying tropes, and the cast execute their roles perfectly, especially Sy, who truly carries the series from the first episode down to the last, helped along qutie well by Mamaidou Hadara, who plays the fifteen-year-old version of him. Leterrier doesn't come back to direct any more episodes, but the remaining five still have that fantastic heist movie verve.  I was able to predict one of the twists (and I don't dare reveal which one it was) but I still thoroughly enjoyed the series.  Sure, if one really tried one could probably pick apart the logic of how the story played out, but as is the trademark of Lupin, the name of the game here is sleight of hand, and the way that the writers and directors keep the story moving along is just so clever that I really couldn't be bothered to think of any way that the plot make sense.

Given Netflix's proclivity for giving its series the axe, I'm really happy that Lupin is easily one of their most-watched series and sincerely hope it gets more seasons in the future.

 

9/10

The Filipino Komiks Adaptation We've Long Been Waiting For: A Review of "Trese"

 developed for the screen by Budjette Tan and Kajo Baldissimo, based on their comics series

When I first read the black-and-white issues of Budjette Tan's and Kajo Baldissimo's brand new comics series Trese back in 2005, I was hooked. The story of a detective, Alexandra Trese, taking on supernatural mysteries of the underworld armed was immensely appealing and for issue after issue Tan and Baldissimo just kept the compelling stories featuring creatures from Filipino mythology coming.  

This was long before the days of such sprawling comics adaptations as the Marvel Cinematic Universe but I already knew I wanted to see this series adapted into another form somehow. 

Therefore, when it was announced sometime during coronavirus pandemic (I don't remember exactly when anymore; time kind of lost all meaning then) that Netflix would be adapting this series into an anime, I was greatly enthused. Animation was, to my mind, the perfect vehicle as the storytellers wouldn't have to worry about finding the budget for special effects to render the supernatural aspect of the narrative. I only wondered how they would manage the comics' English dialogue with its smattering of Filipino. A Western voice cast would simply not do this series justice, I felt.

It's been nearly two weeks since all six episodes of Trese dropped on Netflix, and having seen them all twice over I'm happy to say I wasn't at all disappointed. The series boasted topnotch animation, tight scripting, and an incredibly atmospheric feel that accurately captured the uniquely Filipino sensibility of the show. 

In the show, as in the comics, Trese (voiced in the English dub by Shay Mitchell and in the Tagalog dub by Liza Soberano) is a private detective who investigates, with the help of her supernatural muscle the Kambal and her trusty man Friday Hank , crimes of a paranormal nature. More than being just an investigator, she is essentially a warrior-shaman, a "babaylan" of exceptional ability and, courtesy of her late father Anton, with extensive training in the arcane arts. She maintains a tenuous balance established by her father between the world of humanity and that of the many supernatural beings that live just beyond human sight. With the sudden uptick in horrific crimes perpetrated by denizens of the underworld, however, Trese fears that this fragile balance may soon be destroyed, 

I've already waxed lyrical about this show in a Youtube video but I still have other thoughts on this series that I didn't get to articulate on in the video, which was bit more free-flowing and extemporaneous than my written reviews tend to be. 

As an adaptation of the first six issues of the series, Trese works like a charm. Inevitable liberties may have been taken, but they are surprisingly few and none deviating in any substantial way from Budjette Tan's and Kajo Baldissimo's original vision, and the writing team captured the very best part of the comic: the incredible world-building.

I love the character of Trese, how she bears a terrible burden along with her responsibilities but isn't terribly emotional about it, until the weight of her burden starts to get too heavy. She's believably deadpan, but every now and again her very human fragility shines through. Both the writing and the animation work together wonderfully to bring this to life. More importantly, though, they introduce the viewer to Filipino folklore in one of the canniest ways possible: they tease it, bit by bit, episode by episode, and draw the viewer in with each new glimpse of this fantastical world and the creatures that inhabit it. 

My two beefs, however, are with the voice acting, particularly in the English track, and specifically with the Filipino accents, which, to my mind, worked on a 50/50 basis. Some of them were knocked right out of the park, but others came across as more Latin American than Filipino. Regardless of whether the actors' accents constitute their real-life Filipino accents in America or Canada, they owed it to authenticity to give genuine Filipino accents and not merely Fil-Am or Fil-Canadian accents. At least half of the cast got it right, but others rather notably didn't. 

This latter half, unfortunately, includes lead voice actress Shay Mitchell, who gave Trese her English voice. Mitchell is a capable actress and I thought she nicely captured Trese's inner strength and the conflict bubbling within her, but whenever she spoke Tagalog I basically cringed. She could get away with the relatively short phrases, but as the spells she recited got longer and longer her Tagalog made me shrink deeper into my chair.  All I can say here, as I did in my video review, is that she needs a full-time dialect coach, and not just the producer giving her notes, which, based on the "behind the scenes" special that Netflix aired, appears to be what happened. If she had a dialect coach for the first season, then she needs a better one next time, hopefully one from Manila and not LA.  

This quibble notwithstanding, I still enjoyed the series quite a bit.

I also enjoyed the Tagalog dub, which I watched on my second viewing, and I have to respectfully disagree with the critiques of Liza Soberano, who dubbed Trese in the Tagalog language version. She has widely been accused of being "wooden" but in truth, she was being true to Trese's deadpan nature, which dates all the way back to her appearances in the comics. I'm no Liza fan, and in truth I couldn't even listen to her speak during the "making of" special as I fast-forwarded through all her parts, but her voice acting was not a problem, nor was that of any of the other Filipino actors in the Tagalog dub.

What I did find problematic, though, was an abrupt and ridiculous exposition dump that took place in the first third of the very last episode, the kind of monologue that would put even some of the more exposition-indulgent Japanese anime to shame. The story, which had been moving along with a nice, brisk pace at that point ground to a halt, and in an oddly "meta" moment, the setting literally went from day to night in the course of the speech. It was not a shining moment for anyone involved. 

My issues with accents and last-minute exposition aside, though, I am very much a fan of this show and I dearly hope it has a future with Netflix, who are notorious for giving even popular shows the chopping block. The production value of this show is right up there with any other anime Netflix has produced, and it deserves to live to see another day.  

8/10

Netflix Does Superheroes: A Review of Jupiter's Legacy

created for TV by Steven DeKnight

from the comic books by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely

I have to be honest: I have mixed feelings about a lot of the work of famed comic-book writer Mark Millar. Apart from his early stuff for Marvel, including his phenomenal first run on The Ultimates which has explicitly been acknowledged as a huge influence on the Marvel Cinematic Universe in general and on The Avengers films in particular, and a yearlong run on Spider-Man that I genuinely enjoyed, his work has been somewhat hit-or-miss for me. I definitely had issues with the original  Civil War comics and I enjoyed the movie far more, and I have also had my share of issues with his original work, of which I have read a smattering, like Chosen , Supercrooks and Kick-Ass.  What irks about Millar's work is that too often, it feels like it's written primarily for the shock value, or is nothing more than shock for shock's sake. 

That's not always the case, though; some of his original work stems from his genuine love of the superhero genre that he grew up with, and feels like an attempt to put his own spin on it, for better or worse.

Jupiter's Legacy, the recently released Netflix adaptation of one of Millar's original creations, which, I'll wager, was created with either the big or small screen already firmly in mind, strikes me as one of the latter kind of original work. 

For eight episodes, showrunner Steven DeKnight and his team of writers and directors guide cast members of Josh Duhamel, Leslie Bibb, Ben Daniels and Matt Lanter, among others, through an engaging tapestry of stories that mix golden age superheroics and a more cynical, modern -day superhero narrative. 

Duhamel and Bibb play spouses Sheldon and Grace, better known to the world by their superhero aliases the Utopian and Lady Liberty, who, together with Sheldon's brother Walter (Daniels), his friend George (Lanter) and a couple of other people founded the superhero team the Union of Justice in the 1930s. Nearly a hundred years after they first received their superpowers, the couple, having aged more slowly than most people but having aged nonetheless, find themselves grappling not only with a resurgent supervillain threat but with their own somewhat difficult, super-powered children, son Brandon aka Paragon (Andrew Horton) who is eager to follow in his parents' footsteps but is somewhat headstrong about doing it his own way, and Chloe (Elena Kampouris), who has turned her back on superheroing altogether for the fast-paced,drug-fueled life of a supermodel. When a new type of ultra-violent supervillain kills members of their team and forces Brandon to do the unthinkable, Sheldon and Grace find themselves confronted with difficult choices on how to proceed, and Sheldon finds himself looking back to where it all began: in the Great Depression, when he and his brother Walter were struggling to keep their father's flailing steel company alive. 

I'll admit that the intertwining narrative of past and present was sometimes a chore to sit through, and that it isn't always smoothly handled, but all told, I sincerely liked this approach to superhero storytelling, not only marrying the Golden Age narrative with the more modern, darker take on the subject matter but making this marriage one of the central sources of conflict.

One of the main drivers of conflict in the story is the "code" of the Union of Justice, which really boils down to one simple rule: no killing. It's not the newest subject of debate in superhero storytelling; DC and Marvel have been pretty much doing it for years, but I really enjoyed the presentation of the characters' journeys from the Great Depression to nearly a century later. 

It also turned the narrative on its head a bit; rather than the 30s era superhero being deprived of his virtuous parents, Sheldon instead discovers that his late father, who killed himself when his company went belly-up, isn't quite the hero he imagined him to be, which makes his journey as the scion of a failed steel tycoon one of redemption rather than revenge. I appreciated that it was this journey towards becoming a superhero that shapes his values, which eventually form the Union's code. Duhamel's committed performance makes it work.  His code isn't born out of idealism, but out of the knowledge of what it means to live without a code, and I liked that. Duhamel, Bibb, Daniels and Lanter are at the heart of the story, and their synergy makes even the more out-there aspects of the narrative work, because they really give it a human core. 

Given that this is a TV series, the seams in the visual effects tend to show fairly often. The super-speed and flying effects often made me wince. The production value on the whole is decent at best, and certainly nowhere near the much slicker Netflix offerings like Altered Carbon, but considering how Netflix has spent big and lost before, I get where they're coming from.

Jupiter's Legacy is a long way from being one of my favorite superhero stories, but it is a welcome distraction in these times and something decent to pass the time until the stuff I'm really looking forward to, like Trese and Lupin: Season 2 finally hit Netflix. 

7/10