written by Margaret Stohl
penciled by Carlos Pacheco
inked by Rafael Fonteriz
colored by Marcio Menyz and Federico Blee
flashback sequences illustrated by Marguerite Sauvage
Following the release of the Captain Marvel trailer a couple of months ago, I was unable to get a copy of The Life of Captain Marvel #4, and so, irritatingly, I missed a significant chunk of the story, which may or may not have affected how I appreciated this final issue of what has been billed to be Carol Danvers' definitive, if retrofitted, origin story.
Issue #3 ended with the bombshell that Carol's mother Marie Danvers, previously believed to be an ordinary earth woman, was a Kree warrior, and issue #5 begins with a flashback to the time Carol worked with the late Mar-Vell, her predecessor in the mantle of Captain Marvel, and then segues to a drawn-out fight between Carol and her newly-revealed warrior mother on the one hand, and the Kree warrior known only as the Kleaner on the other, with the fate of Joe Danvers Jr., Carol's brother, and the whole town, basically hanging in the balance. Mayhem ensues, and as the fight ends, Carol's life is forever changed for the new knowledge she has gained.
As retconned origins go, this wasn't bad, though really, it pales next to some of the best examples of this somewhat dubious form of storytelling, with my favorite still being how they retconned Bucky from being a Robin knock-off to one of the most interesting characters in the Marvel printed universe. I regret having missed issue #4 of this series as it contains the meat and potatoes, the secret origin of Marie Danvers, aka Kree Captain Mari-Ell, but this issue should be judged on its own merits, and if I'm honest, it's a somewhat disappointing ending to a series that showed genuine promise at one point. Sure, it's got a fair share of action, but not only does it end on a sour note, it ends on a distinctly anti-climactic note with Carol going into "Binary" mode and never even getting the opportunity to really cut loose on her enemy.
As has often been the case with this miniseries, the saving grace is the art, with Carlos Pacheco and his collaborators Rafael Fonteriz, Marcio Menyz and Federico Blee as well as Marguerite Sauvage delivering when Stohl's script doesn't.
Based on what I've read about the last issue, I really missed out, but really, overall, this series has had more downs than ups, and that's kind of sad considering that this miniseries is most likely the means by which a lot of new readers are going to get acquainted with Carol Danvers. Maybe they could have gotten G. Willow Wilson, whose done a bang-up job scripting Ms. Marvel for the last five years, to do the writing instead.
6.5/10
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
And Finally, The Plot is Revealed: A Review of Captain America #6 (SPOILERS)
written by Ta Nehisi Coates
penciled by Leinil Francis Yu
inked by Gerry Alanguilan
colored by Sunny Gho
Following the revelation of the identity and motivations of the previously mysterious Alexandra Lukin last issue, Ta Nehisi Coates unveils her sinister plans for Captain America, which involve a lot more than just generic murder and mayhem. Her husband may be back from the dead, courtesy of some black magic, but what she has in store for Cap and his friends involves a lot more than just magic tricks or the usual punch-ups, and with the last few pages of the issue, it becomes clear just how serious her plans are as a major character is found murdered, and a certain star-spangled Avenger is the main suspect.
As I said in my review of the last issue, it was fairly clear that Coates was not going to neatly wrap up his story arc as we were just getting to know his main antagonist but rather was setting up his next big, status quo shattering arc, and he makes his play here. This isn't a bad thing, but Coates suddenly goes heavy on the exposition, as Alexandra meets up with her mentor, who turns out to be no less than a fictionalized version of the infamous Grigori Rasputin and seeks his help in carrying out her plan to destroy America. Coates goes a bit heavy-handed on the allegory, but given how he sets up with one shocking death the trajectory of the next story arc, I can almost forgive him this indulgence. Almost.
What works against Coates here is the fact that readers have only just been through a storyline which has left Cap's reputation in tatters, and in fact Cap is still reeling from the HYDRA takeover of America that he himself, or a shadow of him, spearheaded. The onus is now on Coates to show how his plan to ruin Cap's life is going to be even more hard-hitting than Nick Spencer's, WITHOUT feeling redundant.
Unfortunately, Coates will no longer be joined by his ace collaborators Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan and Sunny Gho, who, per Marvel's solicitations, are ending their tenure on this title with this issue, which is a shame because they've really been consistently good all throughout. Even in this issue, which is basically a bunch of talking heads, they've managed to produce topnotch art. It's just too bad Coates couldn't have his run with them end on a more action-packed note, especially considering the somewhat anticlimactic showdown of last issue, but I get what Coates is going for, even though I don't necessarily agree with it.
It should be interesting to see where the story goes from here, and I hope that Coates can sustain what has, for the most part, been a fairly decent standard of storytelling over these last four issues.
6.5/10
penciled by Leinil Francis Yu
inked by Gerry Alanguilan
colored by Sunny Gho
Following the revelation of the identity and motivations of the previously mysterious Alexandra Lukin last issue, Ta Nehisi Coates unveils her sinister plans for Captain America, which involve a lot more than just generic murder and mayhem. Her husband may be back from the dead, courtesy of some black magic, but what she has in store for Cap and his friends involves a lot more than just magic tricks or the usual punch-ups, and with the last few pages of the issue, it becomes clear just how serious her plans are as a major character is found murdered, and a certain star-spangled Avenger is the main suspect.
As I said in my review of the last issue, it was fairly clear that Coates was not going to neatly wrap up his story arc as we were just getting to know his main antagonist but rather was setting up his next big, status quo shattering arc, and he makes his play here. This isn't a bad thing, but Coates suddenly goes heavy on the exposition, as Alexandra meets up with her mentor, who turns out to be no less than a fictionalized version of the infamous Grigori Rasputin and seeks his help in carrying out her plan to destroy America. Coates goes a bit heavy-handed on the allegory, but given how he sets up with one shocking death the trajectory of the next story arc, I can almost forgive him this indulgence. Almost.
What works against Coates here is the fact that readers have only just been through a storyline which has left Cap's reputation in tatters, and in fact Cap is still reeling from the HYDRA takeover of America that he himself, or a shadow of him, spearheaded. The onus is now on Coates to show how his plan to ruin Cap's life is going to be even more hard-hitting than Nick Spencer's, WITHOUT feeling redundant.
Unfortunately, Coates will no longer be joined by his ace collaborators Leinil Yu, Gerry Alanguilan and Sunny Gho, who, per Marvel's solicitations, are ending their tenure on this title with this issue, which is a shame because they've really been consistently good all throughout. Even in this issue, which is basically a bunch of talking heads, they've managed to produce topnotch art. It's just too bad Coates couldn't have his run with them end on a more action-packed note, especially considering the somewhat anticlimactic showdown of last issue, but I get what Coates is going for, even though I don't necessarily agree with it.
It should be interesting to see where the story goes from here, and I hope that Coates can sustain what has, for the most part, been a fairly decent standard of storytelling over these last four issues.
6.5/10
Monday, December 3, 2018
So This is How Daredevil Dies: A Review of Daredevil #612
written by Charles Soule
drawn by Phil Noto
This is the issue that's been hyped considerably for the last several months. Daredevil kicks his war against the Kingpin, the mayor of New York, into high gear, and into the court, where Matt is king.
At the end of the day, though, the entire story arc is called "the Death of Daredevil" and in that respect, this issue delivers, though I dare not go into how.
Suffice it to say, though, that ordinarily, I would utterly despise the story device that Soule employs in this issue and yet, for some reason, thanks to the wild ride that he and Phil Noto have taken me on for the last several issues, it proves surprisingly easy to forgive him his self-indulgence. One of the reasons it goes down surprisingly easily is the fact that looking back, there were several clues in the storytelling that suggested that this was what was going on; sort of like how a moviegoer looks back at scenes from The Sixth Sense, and realizes that the twist in the end was hinted at several times throughout the movie.
Yeah, Soule's stunt feels a little cheap (and no, I still won't spoil what happens) but in honesty, I kind of found it fun, and that a different conclusion would have been a bit too, well, obvious. As much as I enjoyed Mark Waid's run, the manner in which he concluded it felt a little too neat for me, just as Bendis' run ended on a note that was way too dark for me to really appreciate. Soule, in ending his three-year run, leans a little more towards Bendis than he does towards Waid, but there's such a sense of mischief in what he does that, even though there's a part of me that's sincerely annoyed, another part of me genuinely had fun with this little twist. And Noto's picturesque art really makes everything easier to look at.
I'll end this review before I spoil things, but suffice it to say that, while this could have ended better, I was honestly expecting something a lot worse based on the marketing of this issue, and so I actually managed to enjoy myself, all things considered.
7.5/10
drawn by Phil Noto
This is the issue that's been hyped considerably for the last several months. Daredevil kicks his war against the Kingpin, the mayor of New York, into high gear, and into the court, where Matt is king.
At the end of the day, though, the entire story arc is called "the Death of Daredevil" and in that respect, this issue delivers, though I dare not go into how.
Suffice it to say, though, that ordinarily, I would utterly despise the story device that Soule employs in this issue and yet, for some reason, thanks to the wild ride that he and Phil Noto have taken me on for the last several issues, it proves surprisingly easy to forgive him his self-indulgence. One of the reasons it goes down surprisingly easily is the fact that looking back, there were several clues in the storytelling that suggested that this was what was going on; sort of like how a moviegoer looks back at scenes from The Sixth Sense, and realizes that the twist in the end was hinted at several times throughout the movie.
Yeah, Soule's stunt feels a little cheap (and no, I still won't spoil what happens) but in honesty, I kind of found it fun, and that a different conclusion would have been a bit too, well, obvious. As much as I enjoyed Mark Waid's run, the manner in which he concluded it felt a little too neat for me, just as Bendis' run ended on a note that was way too dark for me to really appreciate. Soule, in ending his three-year run, leans a little more towards Bendis than he does towards Waid, but there's such a sense of mischief in what he does that, even though there's a part of me that's sincerely annoyed, another part of me genuinely had fun with this little twist. And Noto's picturesque art really makes everything easier to look at.
I'll end this review before I spoil things, but suffice it to say that, while this could have ended better, I was honestly expecting something a lot worse based on the marketing of this issue, and so I actually managed to enjoy myself, all things considered.
7.5/10
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Capsule Review: The Amazing Spider-Man #9 and #10
written by Nick Spencer
penciled by Humberto Ramos (with Michele Bandini)
inked by Victor Olazaba
colored by Edgar Delgado (with Erick Arciniega)
After shrouding his "Thieves' Guild" in a whole lot of mystery in issue #8, Nick Spencer makes an obligatory, multi-page exposition dump in issue #9, without explaining just how the guild managed to literally teleport the gear of all the major heroes and keep it hidden from them, and then wraps things up in issue #10 with a solution which, I suppose, is intended to be funny but which comes across as just a little bit lazy. It's really kind of a pity that these last three issues were as lackadaisical as they were because I really enjoyed the two Boomerang-centric issues that preceded them. Spencer hasn't exactly squandered the goodwill he's earned with me with his first story arc and even his two-issue mini-arc, but this is definitely the weakest story he's turned in so far in the six months since he's taken over this book.
Issues #9 and #10, however, do have one saving grace, and it's the surprisingly moving subplot featuring Mary Jane, who is now very much Peter's squeeze again, Avengers butler Edwin Jarvis, and a support group whom Jarvis has organized for the significant others of superheroes. It's a simple but brilliant concept, and plays out quite well. Michele Bandini illustrates this story and does a pretty good job of it, though to be fair Ramos recovers from a wobbly first issue of the story (issue #8) and delivers decent art in both issues #9 and #10. Of the stories being told here, though, I easily gravitated more towards MJ's.
Finally, as the issue ends, one of the running story threads resumes on the very last panel, and I gotta say, even though Spencer may have stumbled a bit with this arc, he's still got me hooked for what comes next.
7/10 (both issues)
'
penciled by Humberto Ramos (with Michele Bandini)
inked by Victor Olazaba
colored by Edgar Delgado (with Erick Arciniega)
After shrouding his "Thieves' Guild" in a whole lot of mystery in issue #8, Nick Spencer makes an obligatory, multi-page exposition dump in issue #9, without explaining just how the guild managed to literally teleport the gear of all the major heroes and keep it hidden from them, and then wraps things up in issue #10 with a solution which, I suppose, is intended to be funny but which comes across as just a little bit lazy. It's really kind of a pity that these last three issues were as lackadaisical as they were because I really enjoyed the two Boomerang-centric issues that preceded them. Spencer hasn't exactly squandered the goodwill he's earned with me with his first story arc and even his two-issue mini-arc, but this is definitely the weakest story he's turned in so far in the six months since he's taken over this book.
Issues #9 and #10, however, do have one saving grace, and it's the surprisingly moving subplot featuring Mary Jane, who is now very much Peter's squeeze again, Avengers butler Edwin Jarvis, and a support group whom Jarvis has organized for the significant others of superheroes. It's a simple but brilliant concept, and plays out quite well. Michele Bandini illustrates this story and does a pretty good job of it, though to be fair Ramos recovers from a wobbly first issue of the story (issue #8) and delivers decent art in both issues #9 and #10. Of the stories being told here, though, I easily gravitated more towards MJ's.
Finally, as the issue ends, one of the running story threads resumes on the very last panel, and I gotta say, even though Spencer may have stumbled a bit with this arc, he's still got me hooked for what comes next.
7/10 (both issues)
'
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