Global Dictatorship, Marvel Style: A Review of One World Under Doom

 written by Ryan North

drawn by R.B. Silva

colored by David Curiel

It's not as hard to imagine an authoritarian running the world these days as it would have been around sixteen years ago, which was the last time Marvel Comics introduced a story in which the bad guys were "in charge."  Back then, after Norman Osborn ended the Secret Invasion storyline by shooting the Skrull queen, Veranke in the head, he was basically named the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., and along with his supervillain cohorts plunged the world into a form of dystopia until the heroes kicked them out of power.

In 2025, Marvel Comics launched a slightly "refreshed" version of this concept, except instead of Skrull invaders, it was vampires threatening the world in the "Blood Hunt" event, and instead of Norman Osborn blowing someone's brains out, it was instead Doctor Doom who, as Sorceror Supreme, defeated the vampire  scourge.  Except this time around, Doom doesn't settle for running S.H.I.E.L.D.; he becomes Emperor of the World.  He does this not through subjugation, but somehow, through global consensus.

This is, of course, completely illogical to the world's heroes, who, knowing Doom as they do, instantly suspect that he has an angle somehow, with the prevailing theory being some form of mind-control, and so the Avengers, X-Men and Fantastic Four join forces to ferret out the truth, and figure out a way to take Doom down. The reality they discover, however, is far different from anything they could have imagined, and not only do they realize that defeating Doom will be far more challenging than they anticipated, but they actually find themselves asking: do they actually want to beat Doom this time?

This isn't quite a new story, having been published from 2024 to 2025, but I only just recently got my hands on the collected edition so I wanted to share my thoughts on it.  As much as I appreciate the craft and earnestness on display here, I do confess that, having read the book and thought about it at length, I have some mixed feelings about the story. It's far from the staightforward, old-fashioned superhero yarn one hopes for from a book featuring the X-Men, Avengers and Fantastic Four taking on one of the Marvel Universe's biggest bad guys, which is a good thing. That said, even though, as political allegory it works a bit better than the controversial "Civil War" storyline did 20 years ago, it still doesn't quite capture what's particularly disturbing about the way so much of the world has embraced authoritarian rule. Writer Ryan North clearly tries his level best to lay the basis for a world that would accept Doom and to be fair, a lot of the beats ring true. For example, when Doom argues that a lot of the heroes opposing him are actually villains in their own right, like Reed Richards who hoards his intellectual property instead of using it to cure cancer, or Tony Stark, who using his vast fortune and intellect for machines or war rather than ending world hunger, he actually makes a bit of sense.

For me, though, the allegory falls a bit short.  In most situations, authoritarian rulers don't actually make life better for great masses of people like Doom does here. They don't solve all of society's problems at some hidden, unspeakable cost (which is revealed later in the story, spoiler alert) but rather, they identify a problem and sell themselves as the solution, creating a narrative that, in the beginning at least, they are able to to control.   This problem is usually identified as an "other" whom the authoritarian seeks to eliminate. It's a playbook we've seen played out quite a lot over the last decade or so, with very unfortunate results, like mass murder and human rights violations.   The worst part is that this has widespread buy-in from the population, something not discussed enough in the story. Still, this is a superhero book so I can grudgingly allow North his creative liberty.  Also, R.B. Silva's lavish artwork makes this story go down so much easier that it would with a lesser artist.  This is some really extraordinary work on display across all nine volumes. I applaud Silva for not only his exquisite linework and storytelling, but for finishing the entire series without any fill-in artists. It's sad that this even has to be mentioned, but it is what it is.

From a superhero story standpoint, it's a little harder to swallow the insane amount of plot armor bestowed on Doom here. I acknowledge that Doom is canonically one of the most formidable villains in the entirety of the Marvel Universe, but even then, the way he takes on basically all of the big superhero teams in the Marvel Printed Universe is somewhat...hamhanded.   There are a number of Omega class mutants in that lineup who could have easily handed him his ass if we were to go into a whole power-scaling discussion, but clearly the story imperatives here were...different. Doom's definitely lucky that Magneto wasn't among the masses of superheroes that he had to face. I accept that it's at least debatable that Doom is capable of the power he puts on display here, but personally, I don't buy it.  

I will give this to North; he doesn't try to change Doom from villain to misunderstood hero or antihero. His Doom is just as vain, narcissistic and frankly evil as he has ever been.  Sure, there's a glimpse of his humanity at the end, but at no point did I ever root for him, even when I found myself agreeing with some of his points.  North doesn't shy away from this being a story centered around the bad guy, and whatever my qualms with the overall story may be, this key aspect of the story ensures its narrative integrity. 

8/10 

Comfortably Old School: A Review of Batman/Wonder Woman: Truth

written by Jeph Loeb

drawn by Jim Cheung

colored by Jay David Ramos

Oversized one-shots from mainstream comic book companies are a tragic rarity nowadays, in the age of compressed storytelling and anthologies taking the place of series when it comes to major events. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that DC Comics was publishing this title, so much so that I was actually ready to pick up each of the issues before I learned my joyous surprise, that it was a one-shot. I have long been a fan of Jim Cheung, going all the way back to his Young Avengers days in 2004. I have collected quite a few of his works for Marvel since then, like Avengers: Children's Crusade, New Avengers: Illuminati and Spider-Man: Clone Conspiracy.  I've enjoyed his work so much, in fact, that I regretted missing his runs on titles such as Justice League and even Spawn, so when I found out that he'd be working on something I had a chance of picking up, I decided to go for it. 

It's a properly fun little story. 

Bruce Wayne and Diana Price (aka Batman and Wonder Woman) hold a gala event at which to launch the display of Wonder Woman's single most remarkable possession: the Lasso of Truth. No sooner, however,  does Bruce place the lasso in its protective case, than it is stolen by none other than Batman's ex-fiancee, Catwoman. As Batman and Wonder Woman give chase, Catwoman manages to give them the slip, only to have the lasso taken from her by Harley Quinn.  As it turns out, Batman had requested Catwoman to steal the lasso to test Wayne's security system (spoiler alert: the system failed the test).  Harley Quinn's intervention, however, was unexpected, and where Harley Quinn is, Joker can't be far behind. Will Batman be able to keep his feelings for his ex in check, and will Wonder Woman and Catwoman be able to set aside their differences long enough to recover the Lasso of Truth?

I admit to being a little surprised that the story, apart from being self-contained, wasn't some status-quo shattering event but just a fun little done-in-one that contains some pleasant character vignettes, some decent action and some nice money shots for Cheung to showcase his stellar art.  This is the kind of comic book we don't quite get enough of these days.  

As I write this, the comic book community has marked the anniversary of Dwayne McDuffie's death. For those who don't know, McDuffie, was an extremely prolific television and comic book writer who co-created well-known properties like Static Shock and Damage Control and who wrote several episodes for beloved series like Justice League and Ben 10.  McDuffie excelled at creating rich compelling stories that could be consumed in 22 minutes and which didn't talk down to their audience. I can give no higher form of praise that to say that this is the kind of story Dwayne would have written.   

10/10

An Interesting New Direction: A Review of Daredevil #1

 written by Stephanie Philips

drawn by Lee Garbett

colored by Frank Martin

I was not a fan of the last run on Daredevil by Saladin Ahmed and a rotating gaggle of artists.  It started off strong, with Ahmed and (then) regular artist Aaron  Kuder, working with an interesting premise; having come back from the Hell where he appeared to have been trapped at the end of Chip Zdarsky's run, Matt became a Catholic priest. As the series progressed, though, the storytelling started to come apart at the seams, with Ahmeed's "seven deadly sins" storyline becoming a lot more bloated than it initially appeared to be, and with Marvel seemingly unable to keep their pool of artists to fewer than five.  It actually ended on an interesting note but I wasn't sorry to see it end.

This new direction and creative team of Stephanie Phillips and Lee Garbett, however, looks promising.  Matt Murdock has taken a job teaching law at Empire State University, even though he's no longer a licensed attorney. By night, of course, he's still fighting crime as Daredevil, but he gets a nasty surprise when a new, unknown supervillain appears at Murdock's apartment, telling Daredevil that Matt Murdock in going to die.  It's not exactly new to Matt, but the fact that this new threat completely plays havoc with his enhanced senses and seems to anticipate his every move means that this isn't just another every day threat for Matt but could be someone genuinely dangerous.

Philips and Garbett make for a good creative team, but I refuse to sing their praises too effusively until they've finished at least one five-issue story arc without another artist stepping in to substitute for him. They're not exactly reinventing the wheel with Matt's profession, which was what made Ahmed's run so appealing in the beginning, but as was the case with Peter Parker's teaching career years ago, I think they could go interesting places with this. This is a surprisingly muted issue #1 considering it practically coincided with the second season of the Disney+ show Daredevil: Born Again, but I don't really mind. Splashy first issues are overrated, in my opinion, and what matters most for serialized storytelling is consistency in quality. This new team is off to a pretty solid start, so I hope they're able to keep it up. 

8.5/10

A Heck of a Story to Adapt: A Review of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

 written by Tom King

drawn by Bilquis Evely

colored by Matheus Lopes

In a couple of weeks, audiences will be treated to the first "Supergirl" movie in 42 years. That's how badly the box office failure of 1984's Supergirl scared off anyone from bringing her back to the big screen.  DC Studios, under the leadership of James Gunn, hopes to exorcise the memory of that failure with a highly-promising movie from director Craig Gillespie starring Milly Alcock.  After the first trailer dropped, I confess I grew interested n the story that the film was adapting, an eight-part 2021 miniseries titled "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow."  DC Comics made the sage decision to reprint the story in a compact, affordable collected edition and so picking it up at a bookstore was a no-brainer.

Having read it, I cannot imagine a better way to introduce Supergirl to noobs like myself.

This story begins in a distant galaxy, where a young girl named Ruthye, whose father has been stabbed to death by stone-cold killer Krem of the Yellow Hills, is wandering around her world looking to hire someone who will kill him. She offers, as payment, the valuable sword Krem left lodged in her father's chest, but when a bounty hunter she has hoped to hire tries to make off with the sword, she gets an unexpected hand from someone she least expects: Supergirl, who, traveling with her dog Krypto, is celebrating her 21st birthday in a galaxy with a red sun so that she can actually get drunk.   Ruthye attempts to hire Supergirl to take out Krem, and while Supergirl is politely refusing her, they are attacked by Krem and the bounty hunter whom Supergirl thrashed. She's more than strong enough to take them on, even in her weakened state, but when Krem shoots Supergirl and Krypto with poisoned arrows and makes off with her spaceship, she finally agrees to accompany Ruthye on her quest to take Krem down as it's the only way to get the antidote to the poison in Krypto's veins. Will they succeed in time?  

Like many folks out there, I only know Supergirl as Superman's cousin Kara Zor-el from Krypton, sent to Earth to protect the infant Kal-el, only to discover that he's an adult and hardly needs protection. I know her story has been retooled over the years but this seems to be the prevailing canon. Writer Tom King revisits and expands this origin considerably, which provides a very effective introduction to this character. He is helped along by absolutely superlative artwork by Brazilian illustrator Bilquis Evely, who lavishes the entire eight-issue story with exquisitely detailed illustrations that are both unique and yet vaguely evocative of art deco stylings of the 1920s. Supergirl and Ruthye, in particular, have a very "roaring twenties" aesthetic to their faces. The art is just pure eye-candy, especially helped along by Matheus Lopes' rich colors.  

 More than just the (very) pretty pictures, though, I admit one thing about this book that deeply impressed me was how Tom King was able to strike a balance between the extraordinarily dark tone of the story's subject matter and Supergirl's ultimately hopeful characterization. She is, after all, Superman's cousin, and not exactly a super-powered Punisher. King doesn't hold back; there's plenty of mention of violent death, mass murder and even borderline genocide as Supergirl remembers the death of both Krypton, and later, of the community of survivors who managed to escape it for a while. Krem allies himself with a group of brigands famous for traveling the stars to murder people for kicks, and while their acts of depravity aren't explicitly depicted, King doesn't shy away from describing them vividly.  Supergirl goes up against some very evil people in this book, but King still manages to remind the reader that even after all of this, the rays of hope still manage to shine through. That's all the description I'll give to avoid any spoilers.

Between the extraordinary story and artwork, I honestly had to struggle to not finish this book in one sitting; I always make it a point to stretch out books, be they prose novels or graphic novels for as long as I can and this book is a great example. I hope that the Supergirl movie cleans up at the box office when it comes out in a few weeks' time, and I hope that after watching it, people go their bookstores  or comic books stores and check out this fantastic, character-defining story. 

10/10

Marvel's Deep Bench: A Review of Wonder Man

 Showrunners: Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest

I was pleasantly surprised to read about how good this series was, considering that, when it was announced, I was at best mildly interested.  I was slightly worried that it would a bit like HBO's old show Entourage with superheroes, but fortunately, my fears were completely misplaced, and instead, Marvel, through showrunners Destin Daniel Cretton and Andrew Guest have brought us something really special in these eight compact episodes.

Wonder Man is the story of struggling actor Simon Williams (Yahya Abdul-Mateen), who's hiding a terrible secret that could sink his career before it even starts; he has extremely destructive super powers that get triggered when he is under extreme stress.  He's also somewhat obsessive in terms of how he approaches the characters he plays (mostly bit roles) which makes it challenging for him to hang on to a job for more than a few days.   However, a chance meeting with Trevor Slattery (Ben Kingsley), once known for playing the terrorist The Mandarin years earlier, may change Simon's life forever as he may get the chance to play the role of a lifetime, that of superhero Wonder Man, in a remake of a movie that Simon loved as a child. A friendship is struck as the pair of them audition for the roles of Wonder Man and his best friend Barnaby, but what Simon doesn't know is that Trevor still has a secret that he's keeping to himself.  

It is a testimony to how well Marvel Studios has handled the vast majority of its characters that it is able to turn to another D-list character for some quality stories. For the uninitiated, Simon Williams aka Wonder Man is actually an ex-villain co-created by Stan Lee and Don heck who turned good and actually joined the Avengers, of whom he has been a member since the 70s.  He's been around for quite some time, in short, but has never really been regarded as an A-lister. I'd argue that made him an ideal candidate for this adaptation because it meant minimal noise from the gatekeeping community.  To the best of my knowledge, the depiction of Simon's powers is comic-book accurate: he basically manipulates ionic energy to perform a number of superhuman feats such as displays of superhuman strength and others. 

In truth, we barely get to see any feats of superhuman derring-do, and yet it is utterly compelling. The way the super stuff is framed is actually quite fascinating; when Simon's powers show up, it's bad news for him, which kind of flips the whole super narrative on its head, and even makes for some pretty harrowing moments.  In one episode Simon and Trevor chase down a kid who has captured footage of Simon using his powers to take out thugs.   The show's greatest strength is the utterly magnetic performances by Abdul-Mateen as Simon and Kingsley as Trevor as well as their chemistry as student and mentor. It's a really great buddy comedy, and apart from the two leads there are some brilliant supporting turns from Zlatko Buric as the Oscar-winning director of Wonder Man Von Kovac, MCU veteran Arian Moayed who reprises his role as Damage Control's Agent Clearey which he first played in Spider-Man: No Way Home, and X Mayo as Janelle Jackson, Simon's beleaguered agent. There are also some hilarious performances from Joe Pantoliano and Josh Gad, who play some really unpleasant versions of themselves.

I love how this show introduces deep universe characters like Wonder Man and his brother Eric, who in the comics is known as the supervillain Grim Reaper, and even Doorman, an obscure 80s character created by John Byrne when he was writing the West Coast Avengers book.  It's interesting seeing someone struggle with super powers as opposed to reveling in them, or using them to do the more "traditional" superhero thing. The Doorman episode, apart from being laugh-out-loud funny for its depiction of Josh Gad as a complete jackass, is particularly instructive as it explains the "Doorman clause" that makes it impossible for a super-powered individual to get work in the MCU's version of Hollywood.    I still have my thoughts on the kind of projects Marvel should pursue, for both the big and small screen, and this show reaffirms my belief that they can do great things if they're willing to step outside of their Avengers/Spider-Man comfort zone.   

10/10

*SPOILER ALERT: Close to Home: A Review of Daredevil: Born Again

created for television by: Dario Scardapane, Matt Corman, Chris Ord

showrunner: Dario Scardapane

Since the original Daredevil show on Netflix ended in 2018, Daredevil: Born Again was something that I, like many fans of the original Netflix show, had hoped for but remained unsure of ever getting.  When Season 1 finally debuted last year I was able to watch two episodes before tuning out due to the demands of the  real world.  I meant to get back to it but then Disney Plus lapsed, and it would be a while before I reupped it.

Well, having bulldozed through the remaining episodes of Season 1 and all of Season 2 in a week, I have this to say: nice save, Marvel.

Yes, DBA S1 quite violently kicks off with a shocking death at the hands of notorious assassin Bullseye (Wilson Bethe) and Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) getting his vengeance by throwing Bullseye off a roof, four stories to the pavement.  Years later, Matt has gone full time in legal practice, having retired his superhero alter ego and is shocked to discover that his old nemesis Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) has not only managed to stay out of jail after the events of Season 3 but is actually running for Mayor of New York.  Fisk wins, much to the chagrin of people who know who he really is. Of course, a leopard will never change its spots, and the newly-elected Mayor Fisk trains his sights on vigilantes, forming a task force full of cops with anger and disciplinary issues and giving them carte blanche to solve the "vigilante problem."  The emergency of a new serial killer, the gruesome Muse who drains his victims' blood and paints with it, complicates things further for Matt, who has sworn off being Daredevil but cannot continue to the cry for help to deal with this killer, even with the Anti-Vigilante Task Force keen to claim vigilante scalps.  It doesn't help that apart from targeting vigilantes, Fisk has other, more sinister plans that might even have something to do with why Foggy was killed in the first place.

In Season 2, Matt stumbles on Fisk's plans to smuggle guns through his Red Hook property, which protected from scrutiny by a little known, archaic charter, and has to brainstorm with Karen to stop him, all while Fisk and his bloodthirsty Anti-Vigilante Task Force are gunning for them both. Will they run out of time, or will they be able to turn the tables on the once-and-forever Kingpin of Crime?

To be clear, the Netflix Daredevil series which ran for three seasons was far from perfect. Season 1 was sublime, Season 2 was a hot mess, and Season 3, while a conspicuous improvement, still didn't quite match the magic that Steven S. DeKnight and Drew Goddard had woven with that magical first season. But overall it was a really satisfying adaptation, especially when compared to the disastrous 2003 movie. It was a really high bar for Born Again to clear, so to my mind, so it was almost inevitable that it would fall short. That said, by the send of Season 2 they had really reestablished the quality for which this series was well-known when it bowed out in 2018.

There's a lot I like about this series, including some new characters introduced. I didn't quite care for Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), the therapist who goes from Matt's frustrated girlfriend in Season 1 to full-on antagonist in Season 2, with a still bigger role planned for Season 3, but I liked the other new characters like Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini) the ultimate Fisk yes man with a surprisingly moving story arc, Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), Fisk's Chief of Staff, Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki James), Matt's new law partner, Cherry (Clark Johnson) an ex-cop who helps Matt and Kirsten out with as their investigator, BB Urich (Genneya Walton) the niece of the late Ben Urich who's followed in his footsteps as a guerrilla journalist, and Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan) as Fisk's deadly right hand.  Of course, it was a treat to Cox return as the character for which he will undoubtedly be best remembered, and D'Onofrio as his nemesis. It was also nice seeing old favorites from the old series like Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson, Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page and Wilson Bethel as Bullseye, even though they sat out most of Season 1.  I admit to being mildly disturbed that at one point I was actually cheering Bullseye on (there is a context for it).  There's a nice walk-on from Jon Berthnal as the Punisher but it is regrettably brief, and quite clearly just as setup for his one-shot special Punisher: One Last Kill, which in turn will lay the groundwork for his appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. 

The writing and character work take a while to find their footing, but the acting, particularly from Cox and D'Onofrio is very much on point all throughout both seasons, as is the incredible fight choreography, though wonky swinging CGI makes an unfortunate (but thankfully, rare) appearance.  This is still a Marvel production, after all, so action is very much a cornerstone of the storytelling, though, it does veer into the silly fairly often, between Wilson Fisk's superhuman strength and Matt Murdock's apparent ability to shrug off gunshot wounds as if he were Wolverine or Deadpool.

More than just fisticuffs, though, Daredevil: Born Again hit close to home for me with its disturbing themes on gross abuse of authority, which as outlandish as some of the storytelling can be, is actually one of the more plausible aspects of the series.  If the first season back in 2015 contained a story like this, with Kingpin basically taking over New York with a violent good squad, I would have dismissed the writing as utterly implausible, but unfortunately, these days, it feels all too real. 

Overall, Marvel have, to my mind at least, successfully transitioned Daredevil into the larger MCU (where he was supposed to be in the first place, given that the very first season referenced the alien attach from the Avengers), which was the main mission, and have expanded on the character's lore in pretty memorable fashion.  The setup for Season 3, which is currently being filmed, is pretty darned tantalizing, and I've certainly enjoyed this series enough to say for sure that I will definitely be back for more in 2027. 

8.5/10 

The Very Best for Last: A Review of Spider-Man/Superman #1

written by Brad Meltzer (main story), Dan Slott, Joe Kelly, Geoff Johns, Louise Simonson, Stephanie Phillips, Brian Michael Bendis, Jason Aaron, Jeph Loeb

drawn by Pepe Larraz (main story), Marcos Martin, Humberto Ramos, Gary Frank, Todd Nauck, Phil Noto, Sara Pichelli, Russell Dauterman, Jim Cheung

colored by Matt Wilson (main story and one back-up story), Muntsa Vicente, Edgar Delgado, Brad Anderson, Rachelle Rosenberg, Phil Noto, Federico Blee, Jay David Ramos

lettered by Clayton Cowles (main story), Joe Caramagna

Well, Marvel actually went and did it. They took this expensive anthology format in which all of the recent Marvel/DC crossovers have been published and produced a book that, in my humble opinion, at least, deserves a perfect ten.  I didn't think it possible, but I'm happy to have been proven wrong. 

The main story, featuring Spider-Man and Superman, opens with our heroes caught in an apparent death trap set by Lex Luther and Green Goblin, and with a big chunk of Kryptonite having incapacitated Superman, Spider-Man struggles to keep the death trap, from crushing them. Not all is as it seems, however, and the plan hatched by the villainous purple-and-green clad duo may prove to be even more catastrophic than Peter Parker and Clark Kent could have imagined! Will the red-and-blue clad pair of heroes manage to save the day?

Backing up this absolute gem of a story are some really fun stories of varying lengths, including a retro adventure featuring Spider-Man Noir and 1938 Superman, an entertaining conversation between Gwen Stacy and Lana Lang, a Thing/Superman story, a Supergirl/Ghost-Spider team up, a meet-up between Superman from his trunks-less, New-52-era and Miles Morales, and many more.   

Every single story has A-list caliber talent working on it. I know I said something similar about the DC published Superman/Spider-Man, but in the case of that book some of the talents were clearly outshone by the others, and the score I gave the book was mainly on the strength of the main story by Mark Waid and Jorge Jimenez and the novelty of seeing Jim Lee draw Spider-Man. 

Brad Meltzer, a DC superstar whose only previous work on Marvel that I know of was a brief Spider-Man story in the Marvel #1000 anthology from a few years back, and his collaborator Pepe Larraz, the current main artist on The Amazing Spider-Man, are still very much the stars of the show.  Their story has action, humor, and some nice character moments between Peter and Clark.  Mild spoiler alert: I really like Meltzer's somewhat novel take on why Peter does what he does, basically taking the trope that Peter acts purely out of guilt and chucking it out the window. Meltzer, in my humble opinion has just made the case for a regular gig writing The Amazing Spider-Man; he truly gets the character in a way quite a few writers and more than a few editors over the last few years have failed to do.  His pairing with the outstanding Larraz was inspired, and I will grudgingly give it to Marvel editorial for making that call. Also, this story is a couple of pages longer than the main DC story, which gives it yet another advantage. 

The backup stories are uniformly excellent, with highlights for me being the story by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank featuring the Fantastic Four's Thing and other Marvel and DC heroes who team up to rein in an out-of-control Hulk. It was a short but sweet story about finding civility in a world eternally at conflict, and Johns and Frank, who actually worked on an Avengers story over two decades ago, made more than a few fans, myself included, wistful for their return to the House of Ideas. I for one, would love to see them do a run on the Fantastic Four monthly book.  They captured the essence of Ben Grimm in their brief story, and given that the Thing is often the beating heart of the team, I think they'd do a bang-up job on Marvel's First Family. There are plenty of other treats, like Dan Slott's and Marcos Martin's 1930s noir caper, and Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman's lavishly illustrated Jane-Foster-Thor and Woman Woman team-up.  Like I said; every back-up story has A-list quality, which is not something I could honestly say about the stuff over in the DC counterpart.  

With this, I'm guessing Marvel and DC are done with crossovers for the time being (maybe), but even though I preferred oversized, prestige format works like the mammoth Justice League/Avengers crossover, for the most part, I quite enjoyed this latest batch of company crossover comics. While I think they got off to a sluggish start with Deadpool/Batman, at least Marvel finished off on a nice, strong note with this modern classic. 

10/10

A Wonderful Confection: A Review of Superman/Spider-Man #1

written by Mark Waid (main story), Tom King, Christopher Priest, Sean Murphy, Matt Fraction, Jeff Lemire, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone (back-up stories) 

drawn by by Jorge Jimenez (main story), Jim Lee and Scott Williams, Daniel Sampere, Sean Murphy, Steve Lieber, Rafa Sandoval, Nicola Scott, Belen Ortega (back-up stories)

colored by Tomeu Morey (main story), Alex Sinclair, Alejandro Sanchez, Simon Gough, Nathan Fairbairn, Ulises Arreola, Marcelo Maiolo, Jordie Bellaire

So far, I have had mixed feelings about this new wave of DC/Marvel crossovers. I hated last year's Deadpool/Batman published by Marvel, but enjoyed the DC-published counterpart, Batman/Deadpool.

Well, so far, the third crossover book, Superman/Spider-Man, is the very best of the bunch.

The main story features Clark Kent aka Superman, and Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, going up against their long-time foes Braniac and Doctor Octopus, who have teamed up to help Braniac unload corrupted code from his system into the brains of humanity.   Doc Ock has agreed to help Braniac in exchange for the chance to travel to worlds that will appreciate his genius. The plan to dump this toxic code into people's brains, of course, will have catastrophic consequences for humanity, and must be stopped. Can Supes and Spidey save the day?

As main stories go, this one is as strong as it gets, with a tight, entertaining script by Mark Waid, who knows his way around both Marvel and DC characters, but also with some astonishing art by Jorge Jimenez, who has, in my opinion, just made the case for a regular gig drawing Spider-Man, assuming DC ever lets him go. Even though I've kept abreast of the emergence of new artistic talent over the years, Jimenez has flown under my radar for a while since he's done mainly DC stuff, while I'm mostly a Marvel guy. Like his fellow DC exclusive artists Dan Mora and Sean Murphy, this is someone I would love to see working on a Marvel book in the future.     

The back-up stories, ranging from four to nine pages, also feature Superman and Spider-Man and their supporting cast, like Mary Jane Watson, Lois Lane, J. Jonah Jameson, Perry White, Jonathan Kent, Ben Parker, Jimmy Olsen, Superboy Prime, variants of the characters like Spider-Man 2099 and Batman Beyond, other characters like Power Girl and the Punisher, and even villains like High Evolutionary and Carnage.  There's even a walk-on from arguably one of the most hated characters in Spider-Man's history, Paul Rabin. While some stories are better than others, there is not a single lemon among any of these stories.  Every single one is worth reading. 

It should be emphasized that none of these stories, main or backup, are canonical, which, as I understand it, is in keeping with the very first crossover back in 1976 (50 years ago now). There's no effort to explain how these characters occupy the same universe, which was done rather laboriously in the 1990s DC vs Marvel crossover and the JLA/Avengers crossover in the early 2000s.  Non-canonical, to my mind, is the way to go.   One story in particular (no spoilers, I promise) really runs with this non-canonical premise and delivers a tongue-in-cheek shocker that I'm frankly kind of amazed DC editorial greenlit (you'll know which one it is when you see it).

Next to the main story, which I absolutely loved and give a full 10/10, the other highlight of this anthology is some very nice wish fulfillment that's been decades in the making for me: I finally get to see Jim Lee drawing a Spider-Man story, which is something for which I have been pining since he  broke out in the 90s, even before his Image and DC-exclusive days. Sure, it's only nine pages long and doesn't have any real money shots like a two-page spread of Spidey swinging or anything like that, but at least it's an itch scratched after a really long time.  It's also worth noting that in the Tom King/Jim Lee story, Mary Jane is wearing what clearly looks like a wedding ring on a necklace, which means that in that little pocket universe, Peter and MJ are still married, so it's wish-fulfillment in more ways than one.  On that note, the brief Paul Rabin appearance (in the Power Girl/Punisher backup) is just as insulting and demeaning as it needs to be.

Comic books being as pricey as they are nowadays, it's hard to recommend to people to go out and buy one, but in my humble opinion, this one is definitely worth the money. 

9.5/10

 

Hickman's Brilliance: A Review of Ultimate Spider-Man Issues #18 to #24

 written by Jonathan Hickman

drawn by David Messina and Marco Checchetto

colored by Marcio Menyz

It's been challenging to pick up comics in the last year or so, but of the backlog I've accumulated, easily the best issues to read have been the remainder of Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man, which wrapped up its first mega-arc with issue #24.

So to make a long story short, Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, and his family have survived attempts on their lives by the likes of Ultimate Kraven and Ultimate Sandman, and Peter, his son Richard and Richard's new female friend Felicia Hardy, are now ready to take the fight to the architect of all their misery, the lethally dangerous crime boss Wilson Fisk (aka the Kingpin), who is now allied with the equally deadly Martin Li (aka Mister Negative). Will Peter and his family prevail, or will the combined might of the Kingpin and Mister Negative prove too much, even for Spider-Man and his allies like Harry Osborn, Mysterio and Otto Octavius?

This series has gotten a great deal of hype mainly for its depiction of a Peter Parker who, unlike his mainstream 616 counterpart, is happily married with two children. To my mind, that feels a little reductionist; there's a lot more to Hickman's take on Spider-Man than this. At the same time though, the character is a little hamstrung by the fact that unlike his 616 counterpart, this Spider-Man picks up his powers in his mid-thirties and basically has to take a crash course in being Spider-Man so that the story can wrap up in two years. While there are admittedly some stories that don't need retreads, it's fairly clear that this particular Spider-Man is quite distinct from his 616 counterpart in that, while he is motivated by a deep sense of responsibility, he is NOT motivated by guilt, because Uncle Ben is very much alive here, with Aunt May having died through no fault of Peter's.  It's a completely different dynamic that makes the character worth exploring, which I'm sure Hickman and Marvel plan to do now that the take on the character is an established success. 

All of that said, I don't agree with all of the narrative choices that were made, such as the notion that Peter knocked up Mary Jane and dropped out of college of be a dad, which doesn't quite feel in keeping with 616 Peter's scholastic dedication. Still, Hickman has managed the difficult task of a truly fresh take on an iconic character.  It's even better still that Marvel has let this iteration of the character grow up with his readership, keeping him relatable.

It's also gratifying to see Hickman's take on Peter's supporting cast, in particular the now living Uncle Ben, who's a touch more Ben Urich than Ben Parker here, and Jonah Jameson, who is much more of a hard-boiled journalist here than he has been throughout a lot of his 616 tenure. MJ is also a markedly different character from her 616 iteration, but these have clearly been shaped by her life's experience as a thirtysomething mother. Also, this is an MJ who clearly loves Peter, and who has, fortunately, not been forced to apart from him by some hamhanded editorial mandate. There's a lot left to explore with these characters so I imagine Hickman's got a few stories left to tell.  Well, with these twenty-four issues, he was off to a very good start. 

It helps, of course, that he Hickman some truly capable artists illustrating his work, namely Marco Checchetto and David Messina.  Checchetto's considerably more experienced when it comes to drawing the webhead, but Messina holds his own whenever he takes over, and even though their art styles are visibly distinct from one another they still manage to complement each other pretty well.

I do confess that I am curious to see where Marvel takes this character next!

9/10