written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage
drawn by Mike Hawthorne (p) Terry Pallot and Cam Smith (i)
colored by Erick Arciniega
"Red Threat" concludes and sets the stage for Dan Slott's farewell arc "Go Down Swinging" as Norman Osborn grapples with the Carnage symbiote for control, while Hobgoblin (Phil Urich) makes a move on Alchemax's store of precious tritium. Fortunately, Peter Parker and his science team for the Daily Bugle happen to be covering the story, and in any case Alchemax boss Liz Osborn has already hired Flash Thompson as security, so Spider-Man and Anti-Venom get to tag team against the Hobgoblin and his gang. Meanwhile, things are looking very grim indeed for Spidey as Norman and the Carnage symbiote look to become something more powerful than anything he's seen before from either of them. Oh, and Peter and MJ hook up.
I get that we're basically just on the countdown to the historic 800th issue of The Amazing Spider-Man. I get that superstar artist Stuart Immonen, who will be back next issue, needed some time off. I get that Dan Slott wants to set up his big throw down.
For all of that, though, this lead up to that climactic story not only feels weak, but redundant as it follows a familiar, Spidey-just-happens-to-be-on-the-scene-when-a-crime-happens formula that Slott's been applying since he gave Peter his new job. I'll grant that if one were to review the over fifty years of Spider-Man comic books that have ever been printed one would probably find a degree of repetitiveness to much of the storytelling, but as a reader of this title for over 30 years I have to say that this story feels distinctly so. Mike Hawthorne's art is even plainer than it was last issue, which at least had Loki to liven things up, and the story just feels so by-the-numbers that part of me wonders if Slott and Gage didn't just dust off an old script and tweak it here or there.
I hope things get better with "Going Down Swinging."
5/10
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
The (Relative) Calm Before the Storm: A Review of Daredevil #599
written by Charles Soule
drawn by Ron Garney
colored by Matt Milla
New York Mayor Wilson Fisk's decision to send policemen after the Inhuman vandal/serial killer Muse has predictably tragic results, but Fisk, using the magic of fake news, basically uses the tragedy to fuel his campaign against costumed vigilantes. Matt Murdock, who knows both what Muse is like and what Fisk's nefarious plans are for the city, starts putting his own plan in motion, while his one-time protege Blindspot has plans of his own for Muse. Things are just about to come to a head.
This arc, overall, has been a great follow-up to Soule's engaging courtroom drama "Supreme" and while I was a little jarred by the shift in artists, it's still been a pleasurable read. I quite appreciate how, as he did in "Supreme," Soule uses the multiple issues of the arc to build up terrific tension, and how parsimonious he is with the details of things like Matt's plan. I appreciate the way he patiently lays everything in place, setting everything up for the big throwdown next issue.
Garney does great work here, but I have to say, seeing Daredevil back in his black uniform before switching back to his classic red costume at the end, that part of me wishes Garney would stick to the black costume, which he renders much better than he does the red one. He also does a properly menacing Kingpin, something that wasn't quite highlighted upon his return last issue, and this is what he definitely has over Stefano Landini. I have to say I'm curious to see what kind of work cover artist Dan Mora would do if he were unleashed on the interiors of this book.
Clearly, with Marvel's "Fresh Start" initiative we'll be seeing a new #1 for this series not too long after the 600th issue, and quite possibly a new creative team as well, but whatever happens, for the most part I think Charles Soule's tenure has been good for this character.
On to #600!
8.5/10
drawn by Ron Garney
colored by Matt Milla
New York Mayor Wilson Fisk's decision to send policemen after the Inhuman vandal/serial killer Muse has predictably tragic results, but Fisk, using the magic of fake news, basically uses the tragedy to fuel his campaign against costumed vigilantes. Matt Murdock, who knows both what Muse is like and what Fisk's nefarious plans are for the city, starts putting his own plan in motion, while his one-time protege Blindspot has plans of his own for Muse. Things are just about to come to a head.
This arc, overall, has been a great follow-up to Soule's engaging courtroom drama "Supreme" and while I was a little jarred by the shift in artists, it's still been a pleasurable read. I quite appreciate how, as he did in "Supreme," Soule uses the multiple issues of the arc to build up terrific tension, and how parsimonious he is with the details of things like Matt's plan. I appreciate the way he patiently lays everything in place, setting everything up for the big throwdown next issue.
Garney does great work here, but I have to say, seeing Daredevil back in his black uniform before switching back to his classic red costume at the end, that part of me wishes Garney would stick to the black costume, which he renders much better than he does the red one. He also does a properly menacing Kingpin, something that wasn't quite highlighted upon his return last issue, and this is what he definitely has over Stefano Landini. I have to say I'm curious to see what kind of work cover artist Dan Mora would do if he were unleashed on the interiors of this book.
Clearly, with Marvel's "Fresh Start" initiative we'll be seeing a new #1 for this series not too long after the 600th issue, and quite possibly a new creative team as well, but whatever happens, for the most part I think Charles Soule's tenure has been good for this character.
On to #600!
8.5/10
Monday, February 19, 2018
How the Success of Black Panther is About to Expose a Big Problem in the Marvel Printed Universe's Lineup
Black Panther has just proved that a superhero movie starring an almost entirely black cast can make a ton of money all around the world.
Marvel's parent company Disney will almost certainly want more diversity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because at the end of the day the color that matters most is green (though not the Hulk's green). Inevitably, they will turn to the source material, i.e. the comic book universe, look at what they've got by way of "person-of-color" superheroes, and they'll realize that apart from the guys they've either already put in the movies as sidekicks/peripheral characters or relegated to their television universe (Falcon, War Machine, Luke Cage, Deathlok, Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru, Bill Foster, Misty Knight), they have precious little by way of characters who are persons of color.
Off the top of my head, the only fairly prominent, as-yet unused characters of color I could think of are Rage (whose story is sort of like a superhero version of the Tom Hanks movie Big, but with toxic waste and urban violence), Monica Rambeau (who I think is appearing in next year's Captain Marvel movie), Shang Chi (who, if I'm not mistaken, was created following the whole Bruce Lee craze), Australian Aborigine Manifold (an interesting prospect for a film, if I'm honest) and 3-D man (who is probably best forgotten). Of course, the black X-men like Storm and Bishop are off the table until Disney's deal with Fox is done, and besides, they've already appeared on film, as peripheral characters.
Sure, the once-controversial black Spider-Man, Miles Morales, has his very own animated movie coming out later this year, and hooray for that, but really, the breakout success of Black Panther only highlights how few non-white superheroes there are, not just on the big screen, but in the comics from which they came.
To their credit, Marvel spent the better part of the 2010s trying to rectify this disparity by introducing not only the aforementioned Spider-Man, but a Pakistani-American Ms. Marvel in Kamala Khan, a Latin-American Nova in Sam Alexander, and a Korean American Hulk in Amadeus Cho, but they were basically raked over hot coals by (presumably) right-wing fans for their "PC brigade" or "SJW" characters. A bigger problem, to my mind, was that rather than create all new characters with new origins and powers, Marvel basically slotted persons of color into known superhero identities, which felt like lazy pandering at its worst. And don't even get me started on Marvel's attempts to pander to LGBT readers by retroactively making the X-Man Iceman gay after he was straight for over fifty years in print. Don't get me wrong; I collected most of Miles Morales' Spider-Man issues before he was integrated into the "616" Marvel Universe and I still pick up Ms. Marvel trade paperbacks, but as far as ORIGINAL POC characters is concerned, Marvel's lineup remains to be severely wanting. Oh, and despite the fact that some of the most illustrious comic book creators of the last several years hail from the Philippines, there isn't a single active Filipino Marvel superhero to date. There was one team, the Triumph division, that appeared briefly in the pages of Invincible Iron Man back in 2008, who were unfortunately blown to pieces by Ezekiel Stane's disciples. They didn't even last a whole issue.
For me the last truly original, interesting minority characters introduced into the Marvel Universe were Nico Minoru, Alex Wilder and Victor Mancha in the Runaways book. Two out of three of them have already appeared on Hulu's Runaways TV series, and while Victor's eventual appearance there is probably a foregone conclusion, I really wouldn't mind if Kevin Feige made the move to bump him up to the MCU. Maybe they could retcon his creation into the MCU canon by saying that, on the way to Korea, Ultron experimented a little bit in Mexico (given that, in the comics, Mancha really is a creation of Ultron made from his own mechanical design and spliced with the DNA of his human mother). Recently, Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos introduced an interesting Latin American character, The Red Locust, in the pages of their Champions book, so maybe there's some promise yet.
I suppose a prime candidate for a film adaptation is Sam Alexander's Nova, considering that the original Nova of the comics, Richard Rider, is a fairly generic white dude whose origin story is uncomfortably similar to that of Green Lantern. Also, Sam's story of his father disappearing into space is the stuff of some pretty good drama. I don't know how they'd work that out considering that the Nova Corps has already been introduced, and none of them fly around thanks to magical helmets, but I'm sure Marvel could figure something out if they wanted to.
I hope Marvel the publisher's takeaway from the runaway success of Black Panther is that audiences will voraciously consume product regardless of the skin color of the protagonists, for as long as the stories are good.
Marvel's parent company Disney will almost certainly want more diversity in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, because at the end of the day the color that matters most is green (though not the Hulk's green). Inevitably, they will turn to the source material, i.e. the comic book universe, look at what they've got by way of "person-of-color" superheroes, and they'll realize that apart from the guys they've either already put in the movies as sidekicks/peripheral characters or relegated to their television universe (Falcon, War Machine, Luke Cage, Deathlok, Alex Wilder, Nico Minoru, Bill Foster, Misty Knight), they have precious little by way of characters who are persons of color.
Off the top of my head, the only fairly prominent, as-yet unused characters of color I could think of are Rage (whose story is sort of like a superhero version of the Tom Hanks movie Big, but with toxic waste and urban violence), Monica Rambeau (who I think is appearing in next year's Captain Marvel movie), Shang Chi (who, if I'm not mistaken, was created following the whole Bruce Lee craze), Australian Aborigine Manifold (an interesting prospect for a film, if I'm honest) and 3-D man (who is probably best forgotten). Of course, the black X-men like Storm and Bishop are off the table until Disney's deal with Fox is done, and besides, they've already appeared on film, as peripheral characters.
Sure, the once-controversial black Spider-Man, Miles Morales, has his very own animated movie coming out later this year, and hooray for that, but really, the breakout success of Black Panther only highlights how few non-white superheroes there are, not just on the big screen, but in the comics from which they came.
To their credit, Marvel spent the better part of the 2010s trying to rectify this disparity by introducing not only the aforementioned Spider-Man, but a Pakistani-American Ms. Marvel in Kamala Khan, a Latin-American Nova in Sam Alexander, and a Korean American Hulk in Amadeus Cho, but they were basically raked over hot coals by (presumably) right-wing fans for their "PC brigade" or "SJW" characters. A bigger problem, to my mind, was that rather than create all new characters with new origins and powers, Marvel basically slotted persons of color into known superhero identities, which felt like lazy pandering at its worst. And don't even get me started on Marvel's attempts to pander to LGBT readers by retroactively making the X-Man Iceman gay after he was straight for over fifty years in print. Don't get me wrong; I collected most of Miles Morales' Spider-Man issues before he was integrated into the "616" Marvel Universe and I still pick up Ms. Marvel trade paperbacks, but as far as ORIGINAL POC characters is concerned, Marvel's lineup remains to be severely wanting. Oh, and despite the fact that some of the most illustrious comic book creators of the last several years hail from the Philippines, there isn't a single active Filipino Marvel superhero to date. There was one team, the Triumph division, that appeared briefly in the pages of Invincible Iron Man back in 2008, who were unfortunately blown to pieces by Ezekiel Stane's disciples. They didn't even last a whole issue.
For me the last truly original, interesting minority characters introduced into the Marvel Universe were Nico Minoru, Alex Wilder and Victor Mancha in the Runaways book. Two out of three of them have already appeared on Hulu's Runaways TV series, and while Victor's eventual appearance there is probably a foregone conclusion, I really wouldn't mind if Kevin Feige made the move to bump him up to the MCU. Maybe they could retcon his creation into the MCU canon by saying that, on the way to Korea, Ultron experimented a little bit in Mexico (given that, in the comics, Mancha really is a creation of Ultron made from his own mechanical design and spliced with the DNA of his human mother). Recently, Mark Waid and Humberto Ramos introduced an interesting Latin American character, The Red Locust, in the pages of their Champions book, so maybe there's some promise yet.
I suppose a prime candidate for a film adaptation is Sam Alexander's Nova, considering that the original Nova of the comics, Richard Rider, is a fairly generic white dude whose origin story is uncomfortably similar to that of Green Lantern. Also, Sam's story of his father disappearing into space is the stuff of some pretty good drama. I don't know how they'd work that out considering that the Nova Corps has already been introduced, and none of them fly around thanks to magical helmets, but I'm sure Marvel could figure something out if they wanted to.
I hope Marvel the publisher's takeaway from the runaway success of Black Panther is that audiences will voraciously consume product regardless of the skin color of the protagonists, for as long as the stories are good.
Friday, February 16, 2018
Mark Waid Takes on Trump's America: A Review of Captain America #698
written by Mark Waid
drawn by Chris Samnee
colored by Matt Wilson
After three self-contained issues of more traditional superhero stories, which ended with Captain America getting frozen in a block of ice yet again, Mark Waid and Chris Samnee plunge Cap (and readers) into a disturbing future dystopia in which America is now ruled by a king and most people live in squalor. The real shock, though, hits cap when he learns that unlike the last time, he wasn't actually frozen for very long, and that it took America a distressingly short amount of time to reduce the entire country to a shambles. Alongside a bunch of ragtag rebels, he decides to fight back.
While I'm sure Marvel's right-wing readership will roll their eyes at Waid waving his "social justice warrior" flag in this issue and this story arc, I'm not so sure his "SJW" brigade of readers will exactly embrace this story. I mean, Waid has gone for a fairly broad allegorical approach here (though I wonder if the fact that "Rampart" the name of the evil organization responsible for all this, sounds vaguely like "Trumptard" is a coincidence), and God knows the criticism he is leveling against the current administration is valid, but with characters named "Liang" and a character named "Dinesh" dying violently, Waid is displaying all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and I worry that he might be putting more emphasis on his messaging than his storytelling. I rather prefer Soule's approach over in "Daredevil," which strikes a better balance.
Also, given that the story is set in a scenario so far removed from Marvel's current status quo, the story feels inconsequential, i.e. that it will be undone and forgotten within a few issues. It could also be interpreted as a retread of Rick Remender's and John Romita Jr.'s "Castaway from Dimension Z" only this time with an explicitly political message. Essentially, once it's wrapped up, it seems that Cap will be plunked back into whatever constitutes the Marvel Universe status quo and will go on to another adventure. While I'm not really an advocate of status quo shattering, Mark Waid does a pretty good job of it, as he and Chris Samnee showed in their run on Daredevil.
Speaking of Samnee, he turns in excellent work for this issue and basically saves the day, considering Waid's gone a bit off the rails this time. I've sung paeans to this artist time and time again, so I don't know that I have anything new to write in praise of him, but suffice it to say he delivers the goods yet again.
Things should get interesting next issue as Cap is joined by two other iconic superheroes.
7.5/10
drawn by Chris Samnee
colored by Matt Wilson
After three self-contained issues of more traditional superhero stories, which ended with Captain America getting frozen in a block of ice yet again, Mark Waid and Chris Samnee plunge Cap (and readers) into a disturbing future dystopia in which America is now ruled by a king and most people live in squalor. The real shock, though, hits cap when he learns that unlike the last time, he wasn't actually frozen for very long, and that it took America a distressingly short amount of time to reduce the entire country to a shambles. Alongside a bunch of ragtag rebels, he decides to fight back.
While I'm sure Marvel's right-wing readership will roll their eyes at Waid waving his "social justice warrior" flag in this issue and this story arc, I'm not so sure his "SJW" brigade of readers will exactly embrace this story. I mean, Waid has gone for a fairly broad allegorical approach here (though I wonder if the fact that "Rampart" the name of the evil organization responsible for all this, sounds vaguely like "Trumptard" is a coincidence), and God knows the criticism he is leveling against the current administration is valid, but with characters named "Liang" and a character named "Dinesh" dying violently, Waid is displaying all the subtlety of a sledgehammer and I worry that he might be putting more emphasis on his messaging than his storytelling. I rather prefer Soule's approach over in "Daredevil," which strikes a better balance.
Also, given that the story is set in a scenario so far removed from Marvel's current status quo, the story feels inconsequential, i.e. that it will be undone and forgotten within a few issues. It could also be interpreted as a retread of Rick Remender's and John Romita Jr.'s "Castaway from Dimension Z" only this time with an explicitly political message. Essentially, once it's wrapped up, it seems that Cap will be plunked back into whatever constitutes the Marvel Universe status quo and will go on to another adventure. While I'm not really an advocate of status quo shattering, Mark Waid does a pretty good job of it, as he and Chris Samnee showed in their run on Daredevil.
Speaking of Samnee, he turns in excellent work for this issue and basically saves the day, considering Waid's gone a bit off the rails this time. I've sung paeans to this artist time and time again, so I don't know that I have anything new to write in praise of him, but suffice it to say he delivers the goods yet again.
Things should get interesting next issue as Cap is joined by two other iconic superheroes.
7.5/10
Wednesday, February 14, 2018
That's How You Wrap Up a Storyline: A Review of Runaways #6 (mild spoilers)
written by Rainbow Rowell
drawn by Kris Anka
colored by Matt Wilson
Having determined that Molly Hayes needs to be freed from her grandmother who, while initially benevolent, has shown her dark side, the rest of the Runaways, Nico Minoru, Chase Stein, Karolina Dean and Victor Mancha's head storm Dr. Hayes' house, where Molly, Gert Yorkes and Old Lace have been staying, and a frenetic fracas involving telepathic cats and a surprise blast from the team's past ensues.
As obvious as it was where this story was heading, I really have to give kudos to Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka for sticking the proverbial landing. It has happened in the past that such promising arcs falter, either in terms of the writing or in the art, but here the two of them went from strength to strength and basically saved the very best they had for last.
Sure, there are some intriguing threads leading to further stories that are peppered throughout the last six issues but, in stark contrast to the unconscionably anti-climactic sixth issue of "Astonishing X-Men" this particular story ends quite definitively and on a very satisfying note. It does get prosaic at times with Molly's grandma basically acting like the misguided bad guy we all knew she was from the moment she showed her face, and with lines like "this ends now!" punctuating the action, but considering that Rowell is new to this genre of storytelling I'm more than willing to cut her some slack. This book was a superb read and even though it may have stalled a little bit out of the gate, Rowell really finished her maiden story arc on this book very strongly.
I gotta say that, as much as I've enjoyed his work throughout most of this new series, Kris Anka really takes things up a notch here and delivers a really special finale. As someone who's read every issue of Brian K. Vaughn's original series, I can say without reservation that this is the best the book has ever looked.
Rowell's script is remarkable in how it really captures the essence of this "non-superhero" team, which I find remarkable because of how very idiosyncratic this particular group of characters is. Marvel could not have hoped for a better pair of creators to bring the Runaways back to the printed page.
9/10
drawn by Kris Anka
colored by Matt Wilson
Having determined that Molly Hayes needs to be freed from her grandmother who, while initially benevolent, has shown her dark side, the rest of the Runaways, Nico Minoru, Chase Stein, Karolina Dean and Victor Mancha's head storm Dr. Hayes' house, where Molly, Gert Yorkes and Old Lace have been staying, and a frenetic fracas involving telepathic cats and a surprise blast from the team's past ensues.
As obvious as it was where this story was heading, I really have to give kudos to Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka for sticking the proverbial landing. It has happened in the past that such promising arcs falter, either in terms of the writing or in the art, but here the two of them went from strength to strength and basically saved the very best they had for last.
Sure, there are some intriguing threads leading to further stories that are peppered throughout the last six issues but, in stark contrast to the unconscionably anti-climactic sixth issue of "Astonishing X-Men" this particular story ends quite definitively and on a very satisfying note. It does get prosaic at times with Molly's grandma basically acting like the misguided bad guy we all knew she was from the moment she showed her face, and with lines like "this ends now!" punctuating the action, but considering that Rowell is new to this genre of storytelling I'm more than willing to cut her some slack. This book was a superb read and even though it may have stalled a little bit out of the gate, Rowell really finished her maiden story arc on this book very strongly.
I gotta say that, as much as I've enjoyed his work throughout most of this new series, Kris Anka really takes things up a notch here and delivers a really special finale. As someone who's read every issue of Brian K. Vaughn's original series, I can say without reservation that this is the best the book has ever looked.
Rowell's script is remarkable in how it really captures the essence of this "non-superhero" team, which I find remarkable because of how very idiosyncratic this particular group of characters is. Marvel could not have hoped for a better pair of creators to bring the Runaways back to the printed page.
9/10
Monday, February 12, 2018
A Mediocre Story for A Mediocre Character: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man: Venom, Inc.
written by Dan Slott and Mike Costa
drawn by Ryan Stegman and Gerardo Sandoval
colored by Brian Reber and David Curiel
It should be said that as a rule, I really do not care for crossover events, especially those that involve picking up multiple titles just to follow one story. Exceptions to the rule would be when the story is done by a fixed set of creators, like the fabled "Kraven's Last Hunt" which, though it cut through THREE Spider-Man titles for two months back in 1987, was solely the work of writer J.M. DeMatteis and artists Mick Zeck and Bob McLeod, and even the infamous "One More Day" which was also the work of one team, namely J. Michael Straczynski, Joe Quesada and Danny Miki, even though it cut across titles. In the case of the latter, as reviled as the story was, at least it was tonally consistent.
This story, unlike the "Astonishing X-Men" book I despise, is limited to two creative teams, but it's not particularly enjoyable anyway.
Former military-man-turned-crime-lord Lee Price obtains a symbiote from ex-Venom Flash Thompson's protege Andi Benton, aka Mania, and sets his sights on using the symbiote, which he can actually use to possess people, to conquer New York's underworld. It falls to Spider-Man, Flash, and the original Venom himself, Eddie Brock, to stop Price and his growing army of symbiote-possessed thugs, who include such heavyweight Spider-Man bad guys as Hammerhead, the Scorpion, and Spidey's former-flame-turned-crimelord the Black Cat. Will even their combined strength be enough?
As someone who followed Venom from his creation in late '80s, I was never a fan of the character himself; I just wanted to see how Spidey would beat him, AND I was a fan of then Spidey artist Todd McFarlane. Todd moved on to break down walls for comic book creators with Image and his Spawn series, and Marvel managed to stretch the Venom character more thinly than I could have imagined possible. I didn't stick around for the creation of a character than only children of the 90s could love, the paper-thin symbiote-infused-psychopath Carnage, nor was I around for the whole "Lethal Protector" nonsense where Venom went from being a one-note Spidey villain to some kind of twisted antihero.
I did note, though, that the character of Eddie Brock was so shallow and that Venom's appeal was so dependent on the symbiote that Marvel was even able to swap out the human host for several years, with the symbiote bonding with known Spidey villain Mac Gargan, aka the Scorpion, and later with double-amputee war veteran Flash Thompson, and the character was none the worse for it. There was some narrative merit to giving Eddie cancer a few years back as it infused him with some needed pathos and made him more sympathetic, but for me he never really felt like more than flesh to fill out the suit.
Now that Sony's finally making its long ballyhooed Venom spinoff movie with Tom Hardy, Marvel seems keen to give the character even more exposure than he's already had over the years, flooding the market with everything from Venom variant covers to storylines in which popular Marvel characters ranging from the Hulk to Spider-Gwen are "venomized." This clunker of a story is the latest such attempt to help spread awareness of the character in time for the movie, and it's really quite a forgettable one. Crime boss stories, even in Spidey's corner of the Marvel Universe, are old hat and this one really has nothing to distinguish it from its forbears except for an abundance of symbiotes, which don't make it particularly interesting. Lee Price is also a pretty lame bad guy, especially when compared to the likes of Kingpin (originally a Spidey baddie) and even the much more recent Mr. Negative.
About the only thing the story has going for it is some pretty, if somewhat generic art by Ryan Stegman, but because he only illustrates about half the story the quality is compromised by the scratchy, mostly unattractive artwork of Joe Madureira wannabe Gerardo Sandoval.
This is hardly the way to promote a character with an upcoming solo film, but then, given how utterly generic the recently-released trailer looks, maybe it's entirely appropriate.
5/10
drawn by Ryan Stegman and Gerardo Sandoval
colored by Brian Reber and David Curiel
It should be said that as a rule, I really do not care for crossover events, especially those that involve picking up multiple titles just to follow one story. Exceptions to the rule would be when the story is done by a fixed set of creators, like the fabled "Kraven's Last Hunt" which, though it cut through THREE Spider-Man titles for two months back in 1987, was solely the work of writer J.M. DeMatteis and artists Mick Zeck and Bob McLeod, and even the infamous "One More Day" which was also the work of one team, namely J. Michael Straczynski, Joe Quesada and Danny Miki, even though it cut across titles. In the case of the latter, as reviled as the story was, at least it was tonally consistent.
This story, unlike the "Astonishing X-Men" book I despise, is limited to two creative teams, but it's not particularly enjoyable anyway.
Former military-man-turned-crime-lord Lee Price obtains a symbiote from ex-Venom Flash Thompson's protege Andi Benton, aka Mania, and sets his sights on using the symbiote, which he can actually use to possess people, to conquer New York's underworld. It falls to Spider-Man, Flash, and the original Venom himself, Eddie Brock, to stop Price and his growing army of symbiote-possessed thugs, who include such heavyweight Spider-Man bad guys as Hammerhead, the Scorpion, and Spidey's former-flame-turned-crimelord the Black Cat. Will even their combined strength be enough?
As someone who followed Venom from his creation in late '80s, I was never a fan of the character himself; I just wanted to see how Spidey would beat him, AND I was a fan of then Spidey artist Todd McFarlane. Todd moved on to break down walls for comic book creators with Image and his Spawn series, and Marvel managed to stretch the Venom character more thinly than I could have imagined possible. I didn't stick around for the creation of a character than only children of the 90s could love, the paper-thin symbiote-infused-psychopath Carnage, nor was I around for the whole "Lethal Protector" nonsense where Venom went from being a one-note Spidey villain to some kind of twisted antihero.
I did note, though, that the character of Eddie Brock was so shallow and that Venom's appeal was so dependent on the symbiote that Marvel was even able to swap out the human host for several years, with the symbiote bonding with known Spidey villain Mac Gargan, aka the Scorpion, and later with double-amputee war veteran Flash Thompson, and the character was none the worse for it. There was some narrative merit to giving Eddie cancer a few years back as it infused him with some needed pathos and made him more sympathetic, but for me he never really felt like more than flesh to fill out the suit.
Now that Sony's finally making its long ballyhooed Venom spinoff movie with Tom Hardy, Marvel seems keen to give the character even more exposure than he's already had over the years, flooding the market with everything from Venom variant covers to storylines in which popular Marvel characters ranging from the Hulk to Spider-Gwen are "venomized." This clunker of a story is the latest such attempt to help spread awareness of the character in time for the movie, and it's really quite a forgettable one. Crime boss stories, even in Spidey's corner of the Marvel Universe, are old hat and this one really has nothing to distinguish it from its forbears except for an abundance of symbiotes, which don't make it particularly interesting. Lee Price is also a pretty lame bad guy, especially when compared to the likes of Kingpin (originally a Spidey baddie) and even the much more recent Mr. Negative.
About the only thing the story has going for it is some pretty, if somewhat generic art by Ryan Stegman, but because he only illustrates about half the story the quality is compromised by the scratchy, mostly unattractive artwork of Joe Madureira wannabe Gerardo Sandoval.
This is hardly the way to promote a character with an upcoming solo film, but then, given how utterly generic the recently-released trailer looks, maybe it's entirely appropriate.
5/10
Sunday, February 11, 2018
A Little Mischief Goes A Long Way: A Review of The Amazing Spider-Man #795
written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage
drawn by Mike Hawthorne (p)Terry Pallot (i)
colored by Marte Gracia
For the second installment of "Threat Level Red" his prelude to his swan song, "Going Down Swinging" Dan Slott, writing with Christos Gage and joined by fill-in artist Mike Hawthorne delivers yet another amusing done-in-one, this one starring none other than Loki. The Asgardian god of mischief summons the down-on-his-luck Peter Parker to offer him a long-owed favor (one owed as far back as Straczynski's run, if I'm not mistaken): he proposes to turn back time so that Peter can evade all of the misfortune that is currently his lot in life. Things are particularly bad now; between the last issue and this one, Pete's broken up with his girlfriend Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, with whom he had a relationship and at whose place he was staying, and is basically out of money until payday. His problems notwithstanding, Peter angrily refuses Loki's offer, and accidentally smashes a jar that contains deadly mystical creatures that he now needs Loki's help to chase down. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn uses the artifact he purloined last issue with terrifying effects. Things are about to get nasty for Peter Parker.
As much as I liked the way Slott wrote Loki, I had issues with the slightly contrived nature of the script, which works on the presumption that Peter would be stupid enough to lash out and punch things in other people's houses with his super strength, and that his Spider sense wouldn't tell him that the contents of the jar were extremely dangerous. I'm also not a big fan of how Dan Slott basically had Peter and Bobbi break up between issues; it highlights that theirs was a throwaway relationship in the first place, and if I'm honest that's not particularly flattering to Peter's character. Pre-One More Day, the guy was a devoted husband, and during the course of Slott's run he's gone from one failed relationship to another. It's not the kindest portrayal, really.
Also, I found myself sorely missing Stuart Immonen in this issue. While I understand that Stuart will be drawing issues #797 all the way until the mammoth 800th issue and therefore needs the rest, I feel a tinge of regret that I couldn't have seen him drawing a Spidey adventure featuring no less than Loki, one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's breakout stars. Mike Hawthorne is certainly a competent artist in his own right, but Immonen's a superstar.
We continue with the preliminaries for one more issue, after which the march to 800, and Slott's swansong, begins in earnest.
6.5/10
drawn by Mike Hawthorne (p)Terry Pallot (i)
colored by Marte Gracia
For the second installment of "Threat Level Red" his prelude to his swan song, "Going Down Swinging" Dan Slott, writing with Christos Gage and joined by fill-in artist Mike Hawthorne delivers yet another amusing done-in-one, this one starring none other than Loki. The Asgardian god of mischief summons the down-on-his-luck Peter Parker to offer him a long-owed favor (one owed as far back as Straczynski's run, if I'm not mistaken): he proposes to turn back time so that Peter can evade all of the misfortune that is currently his lot in life. Things are particularly bad now; between the last issue and this one, Pete's broken up with his girlfriend Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, with whom he had a relationship and at whose place he was staying, and is basically out of money until payday. His problems notwithstanding, Peter angrily refuses Loki's offer, and accidentally smashes a jar that contains deadly mystical creatures that he now needs Loki's help to chase down. Meanwhile, Norman Osborn uses the artifact he purloined last issue with terrifying effects. Things are about to get nasty for Peter Parker.
As much as I liked the way Slott wrote Loki, I had issues with the slightly contrived nature of the script, which works on the presumption that Peter would be stupid enough to lash out and punch things in other people's houses with his super strength, and that his Spider sense wouldn't tell him that the contents of the jar were extremely dangerous. I'm also not a big fan of how Dan Slott basically had Peter and Bobbi break up between issues; it highlights that theirs was a throwaway relationship in the first place, and if I'm honest that's not particularly flattering to Peter's character. Pre-One More Day, the guy was a devoted husband, and during the course of Slott's run he's gone from one failed relationship to another. It's not the kindest portrayal, really.
Also, I found myself sorely missing Stuart Immonen in this issue. While I understand that Stuart will be drawing issues #797 all the way until the mammoth 800th issue and therefore needs the rest, I feel a tinge of regret that I couldn't have seen him drawing a Spidey adventure featuring no less than Loki, one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's breakout stars. Mike Hawthorne is certainly a competent artist in his own right, but Immonen's a superstar.
We continue with the preliminaries for one more issue, after which the march to 800, and Slott's swansong, begins in earnest.
6.5/10
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