(w) Dan Slott
(a) Giuseppi Camuncoli (pencils) John Dell (inks) Antonio Fabella(colors)
After three issues spent setting up Spider-Man's new, somewhat more brutal status quo, writer Dan Slott (sort of) wades into the decidedly murkier question of how far Spider-Man is ready to go to take down criminals. This arc sees the return of Massacre, a villain whose sole power over Spider-Man is his utter lack of human compunction, who breaks out of Ravencroft the mental institution in which he is confined, and in fact kills someone who has been a pretty important supporting character in the last several years. Otto Octavius/Spider-Man tracks him down with the help of one of his fellow employees at Horizon Labs, child prodigy Uatu Jackson who has developed facial recognition software which Otto then plugs into his spider-bots. Massacre, meanwhile, has made a deal with a software magnate to kill while wearing the logo of the company's rival, all for a fee, of course. The stage is set for a very bloody showdown that will put the new Spider-Man's moral compass to the ultimate test.
What makes Spider-Man's new adventures so engaging to read these days is Otto Octavius' markedly different approach to fighting crime from the one Peter employed, which is, in many respects, better. It's a tad more devious in some respects, but thinking about it, Otto's using his resources at work to make robotic spiders isn't any less ethical than Peter's using his employer's tech to build himself spider-armor, especially considering that they both serve the same purpose: to fight crime. There's more to Otto's methods than just thinking like a bad guy; he is actually more pragmatic in several respects than Peter ever was, and the fun is in noticing these little details so I won't spoil them for anyone who may yet read this book. Apart from the fact that, as a Spider-Man fan for the better part of three decades, I can attest that Peter has never adopted these methods, I have noticed that Slott seems to be very good with his Spider-Man lore, so I can more or less take him at his word that this is all very new for Spidey.
This is actually why I found myself disappointed with how the story panned out.
It's been quite clearly established in the first few issues that the current status quo, however long it may last, is ultimately a temporary one. One may argue that this was done to reassure fans that their beloved Peter Parker will be back swinging webs eventually. The reason I'm on board for this is I want to see how Slott is able to develop Otto as he walks the proverbial mile in Peter's shoes, and I have, save for a few niggles here and there, actually been pretty happy with the balance Slott has struck between Otto's egomania and villainous tendencies and his redeeming qualities, which could not have been the easiest stuff to write. It would really have been interesting to see him develop as a character before having to confront the really heavy stuff, such as the question of whether Otto is capable of killing in the name of crime fighting, something Peter was never willing to do.
How Otto makes his decision is something I will not spoil, and to be perfectly clear it is not even 100% clear how the story turns out, but suffice it to say the fact that he was confronted with the situation so early in his tenure as Spider-Man was what disappointed me, and to make the catalyst for this event a villain as dull as Massacre, who is basically a one-trick pony, makes the narrative decision all the more grating.
What was surprisingly easy on the eyes, though, was Camuncoli's art. The only other time I've ever seen Camuncoli was when did some last minute subbing for Steve McNiven over on Captain America last year, and I have to say I was not thrilled. I kind of groaned when I saw his name on the previews, but he turned in some rather solid work here. He's also got a pretty good handle on how to draw Spider-Man. Also, his cleaner line work, abetted by John Dell's inks, is a welcome break from Ryan Stegman's scratchy work over the last three issues.
What ultimately irks me about these two issues is that it feels like Slott is peaking way too soon here. He could have had Otto-Spidey dish out his slightly edgier brand of crime-fighting for a few issues more before tackling the deeper, stickier issue of how far he is prepared to go, which would have made for some pretty interesting reading down the line. As of now, he has put him on a collision course with several of his fellow heroes, something which Marvel has already been hyping for months. Sales on this title have been good, so really,I don't see any reason for Marvel to go rushing back to their former status quo just yet. I honestly hope Slott has more up his sleeve, and will take his time with the current situation.
To be quite fair, though, for all their flaws, the issues were still pretty readable.
3.5/5
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The Adventures of Kid Loki and Friends: A Review of Young Avengers #1 and #2
(w) Keiron Gillen
(a) Jamie McKelvie w/ Mike Norton (line art) Matthew Wilson (colors)
In 2005, writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung surprised people with the original new series Young Avengers, a title which was originally believed to be a poorly-conceived spin-off of Marvel's most popular property at the time, New Avengers but which turned out to be so much more in terms of narrative heft and overall quality. Heinberg's characters were utterly compelling to read, and Cheung's art was A-list quality. Notwithstanding decent sales, though, and a pretty positive impact among readers, the series did not last more than twelve issues before it went on what was described as a "hiatus" apparently due the fact that writer Heinberg's many other writing commitments prevented him from getting the book out on a regular basis. Heinberg was later able to get enough scripts together for the mammoth miniseries Avengers: The Children's Crusade, which reunited him with artist Cheung about two years back, but between those two series the Young Avengers have been little more than supporting players in other Marvel characters' books, with the occasional appearance in the pages of Marvel's "events" like Secret Invasion or Siege. After Children's Crusade wrapped, it looked as though the Young Avengers having their own adventures in their own book was going to be a thing of the past.
Fortunately, however, Marvel had other ideas, and as a result, last month the Young Avengers, albeit with a tweaked roster, started appearing in their own monthly book once more.
Of the original Young Avengers, only Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye (a redundant name if ever there was one, and one I sincerely hope Marvel changes, if not now then eventually), Billy Kaplan aka Wiccan, and Teddy Altman aka Hulkling remain, though they have been joined by new members Noh-varr, or the Kree warrior formerly known as Marvel Boy/Captain Marvel/The Protector, Miss America, a fledgling powerhouse of a superhero, and most significantly, Kid Loki, the actual god of mischief who has cheated the death that he apparently suffered in the Siege storyline, only to be transformed into a child.
Issue #1 begins with Kate Bishop apparently just having enjoyed a roll in the proverbial hay with Noh-Varr (the hay actually being his orbiting spaceship), shortly after which they are attacked by Skrulls. Meanwhile, Teddy and Billy are having issues; Teddy has resumed superhero work on the sly despite the team resolving at the end of the cataclysmic events in Children's Crusade to hang up their tights for good. Billy finds out, and they fight, with Teddy reminding Billy of all they have lost. Teddy reminds Billy of how lucky he is to still have parents considering that the Skrull who raised him, the only mother he knew, was killed. Feeling guilty for giving Teddy a hard time, Billy decides to do what any good boyfriend would do and raise Teddy's mother from the dead by pulling her out of one of the universe's many time streams at the moment before she was evaporated by the Super Skrull.
Meanwhile, Loki, who is apparently freeloading at a diner, senses that Wiccan is about to cast a spell and, appearing on top of the apartment building where Billy and Teddy live with Billy's parents, tries to counteract it before he is interrupted by Miss America, who is about to pummel him when he magically slips away from her grasp, but not before their fight attracts Teddy's attention.
The spell works, with Teddy's mother apparently very much back from the dead, but it is not without its consequences.
In issue #2, Wiccan and Hulkling learn that the latter's apparently resurrected mother is not quite what she seems, with dire consequences for them both. Not even the Avengers are able to bail them out of this situation, and they find themselves imprisoned in a curious fashion. Of all people, it's kid-Loki who bails them out, ostensibly because he wants to help them, but at least partially because he needs someone to settle his considerable tab at the diner. Wiccan and Hulkling, who somehow feel Loki has had a hand in their predicament, then apparently decide that the best thing to do with Loki is take him to Asgardia, which is basically the rebranded Asgard, floating over Oklahoma.
Gillen won me over with his run on Thor, which I recently picked up in collected form, and when I found out he was writing the further adventures of Loki and that the Young Avengers were finally coming back to their own regular series, albeit without series creators Heinberg and Cheung, picking up the new series was an easy decision.
For the most part, I was happy with issue #1, though there were some details that stifled my enjoyment the tiniest bit.
For one thing, the depiction of Wiccan in particular was a bit of departure from the way he was written by Heinberg and drawn by Cheung. I always found him a well-written character, and having him recite Gillen's dialogue here was quite a treat, save for the fact that he's gone from being a superhero who happened to be gay to being, to paraphrase Nathan Lane's character from The Birdcage, a bit of a screaming queen, from his flamboyant hair to his mannerisms. Heinberg didn't make a big thing of this when he was writing the book, despite the fact that he himself is openly gay. This little storytelling tic doesn't detract significantly from his character, but it distracts from what matters most to the story. Another very minor niggle I had was with the notion that Kate Bishop's parents would be fans of sixties music considering that, considering Kate's age, they would probably more likely have grown up with the likes of the Bangles and the Go-gos (80s music) than the Ronettes (60s music). That's an even more minor concern than my objections to Billy's characterization, but it was still a slight distraction, though the action sequence that followed it was incredible. The overall issue was pretty solid.
Issue #2 was a bit more problematic for me. It was a lot of fun seeing kid-Loki interact with Wiccan and Hulkling, with the scene in which he frees them from their magical prisons being a visual treat and his dialogue with the two of them in the diner being particularly amusing, especially his dig at Wiccan's codename, which made me wonder if Loki even knew that Wiccan originally called himself "Asgardian." However, Wiccan's and Hulkling's eventual decision to haul Loki off to Asgardia doesn't make the most sense to me, because even though it is suggested that they believe he is behind their woes I still got the impression they were going off half-cocked instead of having a real plan. Well, they are teenagers, after all, and they may have made a mistake they may yet live to regret.
As Gillen's writing goes, however, the pacing here feels a tad slower than the stuff he had going on during his run on Thor. I breezed through these issues with the impression that little had happened, although of course, the twist at the end of issue #1 was still a doozy. Also, although all of the characters to be featured in the book have already shown up, it appears that I may yet have to wait for at least another issue or two for them to get together as a team, assuming it even happens within this story arc. There's arguably something very deliberate to Gillen's pacing, and it does seem on the one hand like he's lining things up for a big payoff later in the arc, or in the series, but considering that my first exposure to his writing was his Thor stint, which had several explosive three issue-arcs (and a couple of one-shots at that) contained in one big volume, his work here still feels relatively static. Still, his gift for lively and compelling dialogue still shines through here. Gillen, I would like to point out, writes an exceptional Loki.
Another truly exemplary aspect of this new series is the work of Jamie McKelvie, aided in some capacity by Mike Norton. While McKelvie is probably mostly responsible for Billy's new look that I kind of find a little too "beauty parlor gay" his character work is otherwise beyond reproach, as are his panel layouts, which I first glimpsed in the Siege: Loki one-shot reprinted in the aforementioned Thor volume. In particular, when the battle between Noh-Varr and the Skrulls breaks out in the first couple of pages, McKelvie's depiction of the action is pretty outstanding. I wasn't too thrilled with Matthew Wilson's palette of colors, though, considering I'm a bigger fan of the more "showy" colorists like Laura Martin and Morry Hollowell. Overall, though, the art is one of this book's strongest points.
Reservations about Gillen's pacing aside, this is a very engaging book and compares decently enough to the other titles in the Marvel NOW! line, even though it is not my favorite. Still, it is the only book Marvel has right now featuring Loki, and after reading Gillen's take on him over in Thor I can say with certainty that this is a book I want to follow.
3.5/5
(a) Jamie McKelvie w/ Mike Norton (line art) Matthew Wilson (colors)
In 2005, writer Allan Heinberg and artist Jim Cheung surprised people with the original new series Young Avengers, a title which was originally believed to be a poorly-conceived spin-off of Marvel's most popular property at the time, New Avengers but which turned out to be so much more in terms of narrative heft and overall quality. Heinberg's characters were utterly compelling to read, and Cheung's art was A-list quality. Notwithstanding decent sales, though, and a pretty positive impact among readers, the series did not last more than twelve issues before it went on what was described as a "hiatus" apparently due the fact that writer Heinberg's many other writing commitments prevented him from getting the book out on a regular basis. Heinberg was later able to get enough scripts together for the mammoth miniseries Avengers: The Children's Crusade, which reunited him with artist Cheung about two years back, but between those two series the Young Avengers have been little more than supporting players in other Marvel characters' books, with the occasional appearance in the pages of Marvel's "events" like Secret Invasion or Siege. After Children's Crusade wrapped, it looked as though the Young Avengers having their own adventures in their own book was going to be a thing of the past.
Fortunately, however, Marvel had other ideas, and as a result, last month the Young Avengers, albeit with a tweaked roster, started appearing in their own monthly book once more.
Of the original Young Avengers, only Kate Bishop aka Hawkeye (a redundant name if ever there was one, and one I sincerely hope Marvel changes, if not now then eventually), Billy Kaplan aka Wiccan, and Teddy Altman aka Hulkling remain, though they have been joined by new members Noh-varr, or the Kree warrior formerly known as Marvel Boy/Captain Marvel/The Protector, Miss America, a fledgling powerhouse of a superhero, and most significantly, Kid Loki, the actual god of mischief who has cheated the death that he apparently suffered in the Siege storyline, only to be transformed into a child.
Issue #1 begins with Kate Bishop apparently just having enjoyed a roll in the proverbial hay with Noh-Varr (the hay actually being his orbiting spaceship), shortly after which they are attacked by Skrulls. Meanwhile, Teddy and Billy are having issues; Teddy has resumed superhero work on the sly despite the team resolving at the end of the cataclysmic events in Children's Crusade to hang up their tights for good. Billy finds out, and they fight, with Teddy reminding Billy of all they have lost. Teddy reminds Billy of how lucky he is to still have parents considering that the Skrull who raised him, the only mother he knew, was killed. Feeling guilty for giving Teddy a hard time, Billy decides to do what any good boyfriend would do and raise Teddy's mother from the dead by pulling her out of one of the universe's many time streams at the moment before she was evaporated by the Super Skrull.
Meanwhile, Loki, who is apparently freeloading at a diner, senses that Wiccan is about to cast a spell and, appearing on top of the apartment building where Billy and Teddy live with Billy's parents, tries to counteract it before he is interrupted by Miss America, who is about to pummel him when he magically slips away from her grasp, but not before their fight attracts Teddy's attention.
The spell works, with Teddy's mother apparently very much back from the dead, but it is not without its consequences.
In issue #2, Wiccan and Hulkling learn that the latter's apparently resurrected mother is not quite what she seems, with dire consequences for them both. Not even the Avengers are able to bail them out of this situation, and they find themselves imprisoned in a curious fashion. Of all people, it's kid-Loki who bails them out, ostensibly because he wants to help them, but at least partially because he needs someone to settle his considerable tab at the diner. Wiccan and Hulkling, who somehow feel Loki has had a hand in their predicament, then apparently decide that the best thing to do with Loki is take him to Asgardia, which is basically the rebranded Asgard, floating over Oklahoma.
Gillen won me over with his run on Thor, which I recently picked up in collected form, and when I found out he was writing the further adventures of Loki and that the Young Avengers were finally coming back to their own regular series, albeit without series creators Heinberg and Cheung, picking up the new series was an easy decision.
For the most part, I was happy with issue #1, though there were some details that stifled my enjoyment the tiniest bit.
For one thing, the depiction of Wiccan in particular was a bit of departure from the way he was written by Heinberg and drawn by Cheung. I always found him a well-written character, and having him recite Gillen's dialogue here was quite a treat, save for the fact that he's gone from being a superhero who happened to be gay to being, to paraphrase Nathan Lane's character from The Birdcage, a bit of a screaming queen, from his flamboyant hair to his mannerisms. Heinberg didn't make a big thing of this when he was writing the book, despite the fact that he himself is openly gay. This little storytelling tic doesn't detract significantly from his character, but it distracts from what matters most to the story. Another very minor niggle I had was with the notion that Kate Bishop's parents would be fans of sixties music considering that, considering Kate's age, they would probably more likely have grown up with the likes of the Bangles and the Go-gos (80s music) than the Ronettes (60s music). That's an even more minor concern than my objections to Billy's characterization, but it was still a slight distraction, though the action sequence that followed it was incredible. The overall issue was pretty solid.
Issue #2 was a bit more problematic for me. It was a lot of fun seeing kid-Loki interact with Wiccan and Hulkling, with the scene in which he frees them from their magical prisons being a visual treat and his dialogue with the two of them in the diner being particularly amusing, especially his dig at Wiccan's codename, which made me wonder if Loki even knew that Wiccan originally called himself "Asgardian." However, Wiccan's and Hulkling's eventual decision to haul Loki off to Asgardia doesn't make the most sense to me, because even though it is suggested that they believe he is behind their woes I still got the impression they were going off half-cocked instead of having a real plan. Well, they are teenagers, after all, and they may have made a mistake they may yet live to regret.
As Gillen's writing goes, however, the pacing here feels a tad slower than the stuff he had going on during his run on Thor. I breezed through these issues with the impression that little had happened, although of course, the twist at the end of issue #1 was still a doozy. Also, although all of the characters to be featured in the book have already shown up, it appears that I may yet have to wait for at least another issue or two for them to get together as a team, assuming it even happens within this story arc. There's arguably something very deliberate to Gillen's pacing, and it does seem on the one hand like he's lining things up for a big payoff later in the arc, or in the series, but considering that my first exposure to his writing was his Thor stint, which had several explosive three issue-arcs (and a couple of one-shots at that) contained in one big volume, his work here still feels relatively static. Still, his gift for lively and compelling dialogue still shines through here. Gillen, I would like to point out, writes an exceptional Loki.
Another truly exemplary aspect of this new series is the work of Jamie McKelvie, aided in some capacity by Mike Norton. While McKelvie is probably mostly responsible for Billy's new look that I kind of find a little too "beauty parlor gay" his character work is otherwise beyond reproach, as are his panel layouts, which I first glimpsed in the Siege: Loki one-shot reprinted in the aforementioned Thor volume. In particular, when the battle between Noh-Varr and the Skrulls breaks out in the first couple of pages, McKelvie's depiction of the action is pretty outstanding. I wasn't too thrilled with Matthew Wilson's palette of colors, though, considering I'm a bigger fan of the more "showy" colorists like Laura Martin and Morry Hollowell. Overall, though, the art is one of this book's strongest points.
Reservations about Gillen's pacing aside, this is a very engaging book and compares decently enough to the other titles in the Marvel NOW! line, even though it is not my favorite. Still, it is the only book Marvel has right now featuring Loki, and after reading Gillen's take on him over in Thor I can say with certainty that this is a book I want to follow.
3.5/5
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Preparing the Way for Marvel Studios' Next Big Thing: Guardians of the Galaxy .1
(w) Brian Michael Bendis
(a) Steve McNiven (pencils) John Dell (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)
After playing coy for a few months following the explosive success of The Avengers at the global box-office, Marvel Studios has announced that the next property they plan to launch will be based on their long-running title Guardians of the Galaxy. In support of this effort, Marvel's publishing arm has recruited two of their top talents, writer Brian Michael Bendis (New Avengers) and artist Steve McNiven (Civil War) to reboot the comic-book series of these characters and, Marvel hopes, raise their profile a bit in time for the movie's 2014 release date.
Guardians of the Galaxy #.1 is the origin of Peter Quill, aka Star Lord. It begins thirty years before the present, around the time of his conception.
His mother Meredith Quill is living by herself somewhere in rural America, having apparently just broken up with her boyfriend or husband, when a spaceship crash-lands, and the lone occupant, a human-looking man, crawls out. He later wakes up in Meredith's house and introduces himself as J'son of Spartax, a king from outer space. As he spends the following days repairing his ship, he and Meredith fall in love, and from their romantic encounters Meredith conceives a child. Unfortunately, J'son has to return to his planet of origin, where he is fighting a fierce war which, he claims, the earth is not ready for, and for which reason he cannot take Meredith with him. After J'son takes off, leaving Meredith only a space-gun and their child to remember him by, Peter is born and grows up without a father, and all of the resentment that comes with that. Fortunately, however, as he grows it becomes clear that he has an innate spunk and an inclination to help the helpless. Unfortunately, when he's ten years old, the aliens at war with his father come back to his mother's house with something very nasty in mind for him and his mom.
Considering that this issue is meant to kick off a series designed to elevate a B-list (or arguably even C-list) Marvel property to the A-list, I was somewhat disappointed to see A-list creators Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven doing the comic-book equivalent of phoning in their performances.
Bendis' script starts off with some promise, with a lonely but spunky Meredith Quill talking to her mother on the phone, then interacting with J'son of Spartax, first with alarm, then trepidation, then finally affection. Their conversation when J'son eventually returns to his intergalactic war is written well-enough, and to me there was some genuine emotion there.
Ironically enough, it's when their son, Peter, supposedly the main character of this new series, is born, that the story starts to go downhill.
Bendis comes out strong with some nice character-defining dialogue for Meredith Quill, who is portrayed as an emotionally-strong woman, who is capable of recovering from a bad relationship and holding a gun to an alien, but one who is not beyond starting up a relationship with the same alien she has nursed back to health. Of all the characters depicted in this issue, her arc was easily the most interesting, and that could have rubbed off on Peter had Bendis' script had them interacting more. Then again, while Bendis is easily one of Marvel's most talented writers, he has had his low points and oddly enough it's on the "tentpole" books that the quality of his writing tends to dip. Had he written this book the same way he did his run on Daredevil I would probably have enjoyed this issue much more than I did, but apart from those brief, well-rendered character vignettes with Meredith Quill, Bendis seems too preoccupied with the notion that he's setting up Marvel's next big thing to really shine here.
The bigger disappointment, for me, was easily Steve McNiven's artwork. I have been a fan of this guy since I first saw previews of his work on the defunct series Marvel Knights: 4. I bought up back issues of the long-gone Crossgen series Meridien on account of his work. This guy is one of my favorites, and yet, for all of my adoration of his work, it really falls flat here. I could blame inker John Dell, but it isn't just down to sloppy inking here; to me McNiven's pencils look nowhere near their best. I've seen his art looking off before, but as near as I can recall this was when he was under the duress of deadlines; this series kicked off his run (unless it was belatedly prepared after the real issues of the series were in the can) so I can't understand why he starts off his new series so weakly.
The book is not without its pluses; with 31 pages of story it's a good 10 pages thicker than the usual comic-book these days, and even McNiven on an off-day is still better than most other artists at full-strength.
The thing is, this issue was meant to introduce a new series that has been billed by Marvel themselves as "the year's biggest book," so I can't help but feel underwhelmed by what I actually read. I can only hope things will pick up when the book starts in earnest with issue #1.
3/5
(a) Steve McNiven (pencils) John Dell (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)
After playing coy for a few months following the explosive success of The Avengers at the global box-office, Marvel Studios has announced that the next property they plan to launch will be based on their long-running title Guardians of the Galaxy. In support of this effort, Marvel's publishing arm has recruited two of their top talents, writer Brian Michael Bendis (New Avengers) and artist Steve McNiven (Civil War) to reboot the comic-book series of these characters and, Marvel hopes, raise their profile a bit in time for the movie's 2014 release date.
Guardians of the Galaxy #.1 is the origin of Peter Quill, aka Star Lord. It begins thirty years before the present, around the time of his conception.
His mother Meredith Quill is living by herself somewhere in rural America, having apparently just broken up with her boyfriend or husband, when a spaceship crash-lands, and the lone occupant, a human-looking man, crawls out. He later wakes up in Meredith's house and introduces himself as J'son of Spartax, a king from outer space. As he spends the following days repairing his ship, he and Meredith fall in love, and from their romantic encounters Meredith conceives a child. Unfortunately, J'son has to return to his planet of origin, where he is fighting a fierce war which, he claims, the earth is not ready for, and for which reason he cannot take Meredith with him. After J'son takes off, leaving Meredith only a space-gun and their child to remember him by, Peter is born and grows up without a father, and all of the resentment that comes with that. Fortunately, however, as he grows it becomes clear that he has an innate spunk and an inclination to help the helpless. Unfortunately, when he's ten years old, the aliens at war with his father come back to his mother's house with something very nasty in mind for him and his mom.
Considering that this issue is meant to kick off a series designed to elevate a B-list (or arguably even C-list) Marvel property to the A-list, I was somewhat disappointed to see A-list creators Brian Michael Bendis and Steve McNiven doing the comic-book equivalent of phoning in their performances.
Bendis' script starts off with some promise, with a lonely but spunky Meredith Quill talking to her mother on the phone, then interacting with J'son of Spartax, first with alarm, then trepidation, then finally affection. Their conversation when J'son eventually returns to his intergalactic war is written well-enough, and to me there was some genuine emotion there.
Ironically enough, it's when their son, Peter, supposedly the main character of this new series, is born, that the story starts to go downhill.
Bendis comes out strong with some nice character-defining dialogue for Meredith Quill, who is portrayed as an emotionally-strong woman, who is capable of recovering from a bad relationship and holding a gun to an alien, but one who is not beyond starting up a relationship with the same alien she has nursed back to health. Of all the characters depicted in this issue, her arc was easily the most interesting, and that could have rubbed off on Peter had Bendis' script had them interacting more. Then again, while Bendis is easily one of Marvel's most talented writers, he has had his low points and oddly enough it's on the "tentpole" books that the quality of his writing tends to dip. Had he written this book the same way he did his run on Daredevil I would probably have enjoyed this issue much more than I did, but apart from those brief, well-rendered character vignettes with Meredith Quill, Bendis seems too preoccupied with the notion that he's setting up Marvel's next big thing to really shine here.
The bigger disappointment, for me, was easily Steve McNiven's artwork. I have been a fan of this guy since I first saw previews of his work on the defunct series Marvel Knights: 4. I bought up back issues of the long-gone Crossgen series Meridien on account of his work. This guy is one of my favorites, and yet, for all of my adoration of his work, it really falls flat here. I could blame inker John Dell, but it isn't just down to sloppy inking here; to me McNiven's pencils look nowhere near their best. I've seen his art looking off before, but as near as I can recall this was when he was under the duress of deadlines; this series kicked off his run (unless it was belatedly prepared after the real issues of the series were in the can) so I can't understand why he starts off his new series so weakly.
The book is not without its pluses; with 31 pages of story it's a good 10 pages thicker than the usual comic-book these days, and even McNiven on an off-day is still better than most other artists at full-strength.
The thing is, this issue was meant to introduce a new series that has been billed by Marvel themselves as "the year's biggest book," so I can't help but feel underwhelmed by what I actually read. I can only hope things will pick up when the book starts in earnest with issue #1.
3/5
Friday, March 1, 2013
Uncanny Avengers #2 to #4
(w) Rick Remender
(a) John Cassaday (line art) Laura Martin (colors)
I feel a little remiss at not having reviewed issues #2 and #3 of this series when I got them, but I guess I was just too busy at the time. In any event, with all four issues in my hands it was easy to read them and appreciate the story as a whole, and even the individual chapters on their own merit.
In issue #2, Avengers Captain America and Thor review the carnage wrought by the mutant Avalanche on a large portion of New York City, though their newest recruit, Alex Summers aka Havok was able to help save lives during the confusion. Part-time Avenger and X-Man Wolverine expresses displeasure with Captain America's decision to recruit Havok as the face of the mutant/superhero cooperative effort, but Havok then has a "hallmark" moment with a civilian who expresses gratitude for saving his life, and it becomes clear that Cap made the right call. Meanwhile, Rogue and the Scarlet Witch remain captives of the Red Skull and his crew of S-Men. Red Skull uses his newly-acquired telepathy to enthrall the Scarlet Witch, while Rogue attempts to escape.
In issue #3, the Red Skull's war on humanity, which he attempts to package as humanity's war on mutants, kicks into high gear as he, now wielding the power of the late Charles Xavier's brain, troops his S-Men into New York City, together with Rogue and the Scarlet Witch (neither of whom escaped, obviously). It is here that they find themselves doing battle with Captain America, Thor, Wolverine and Havok. Red Skull and his S-Men may prove too much for them to handle, especially considering Red Skull's new skill set.
In issue #4, the slugfest between Captain America and his Avengers on the one hand and the Red Skull and his S-Men on the other amid the telepathically-induced attempt at genocide in New York comes to a head, and though the battle may be over, it is clear that the war has only just begun.
In my review of the first issue of this series, I said that, not having read Avengers vs. X-Men I wasn't entirely sure where these characters were coming from, and I can the best praise I can give these issues is that four issues later, the merging of two distinct groups of Marvel characters is starting to make more sense. The intermingling, though, does not feel quite as organic as writer Rick Remender and the rest of Marvel would no doubt like it to be. I suppose it made perfect sense to them to put Captain America's archenemy in this book and give him an anti-mutant agenda so that he would become as terrifying to the X-Men as he is to the Avengers, but to me the connection still feels a tad forced (almost as forced as shoving Wolverine into the Avengers' roster nearly ten years ago just to propel sales upward did).
Speaking of Wolverine, apart from some face time in issues #1 and #2 and some brooding moments he actually takes the backseat as far as character moments go, with Havok being the lead mutant character in this particular story. Remender seems to enjoy playing Captain America off Havok in this series, whether it's in the more sedate moments or during the times when Cap finds himself subtly influenced by the Red Skull's telepathy, and even though Cap himself handpicked Havok to be on his team one wonders where Remender will take this potential rivalry down the line. It was gratifying to see the reasonably well-written storyline end in four issues contrary to the six-or-eight issue trend that seems to dominate lately, but apart from a few skirmishes, a major plot development or two, and one big throwdown at the end, it does not feel quite as significant as the events taking place in what has been billed as the flagship book of the Marvel NOW! era should. This feels like a waste of a golden opportunity to make a splash of a new series which merges two of the publisher's most popular properties.
What is not wasted at all, though, is artist John Cassaday's stunning art, which is well-complemented by Laura Martin's lush palette of colors. While some fans and reviewers have expressed displeasure with the redesign of Havok's head gear, I personally did not mind all that much, although his superhero tights appear to have been redesigned to accommodate a pair of baggy trousers. I'm not really sure. It was a delight, though, to see Cassaday work on Captain America for over four issues, which is the longest he's worked on the character since relaunching his solo title over 11 years ago with writer John Ney Reiber. The character has never looked better. Unfortunately, this book was fraught with delays, apparently to give Cassaday time to turn in his stellar work and so as not to delay publication further he will be spelled by artists Olivier Coipel and Daniel Acuna, assuming he even comes back to the book eventually. Now, I am a fan of both these artists, but I will most definitely miss Cassaday's work.
4/5
(a) John Cassaday (line art) Laura Martin (colors)
I feel a little remiss at not having reviewed issues #2 and #3 of this series when I got them, but I guess I was just too busy at the time. In any event, with all four issues in my hands it was easy to read them and appreciate the story as a whole, and even the individual chapters on their own merit.
In issue #2, Avengers Captain America and Thor review the carnage wrought by the mutant Avalanche on a large portion of New York City, though their newest recruit, Alex Summers aka Havok was able to help save lives during the confusion. Part-time Avenger and X-Man Wolverine expresses displeasure with Captain America's decision to recruit Havok as the face of the mutant/superhero cooperative effort, but Havok then has a "hallmark" moment with a civilian who expresses gratitude for saving his life, and it becomes clear that Cap made the right call. Meanwhile, Rogue and the Scarlet Witch remain captives of the Red Skull and his crew of S-Men. Red Skull uses his newly-acquired telepathy to enthrall the Scarlet Witch, while Rogue attempts to escape.
In issue #3, the Red Skull's war on humanity, which he attempts to package as humanity's war on mutants, kicks into high gear as he, now wielding the power of the late Charles Xavier's brain, troops his S-Men into New York City, together with Rogue and the Scarlet Witch (neither of whom escaped, obviously). It is here that they find themselves doing battle with Captain America, Thor, Wolverine and Havok. Red Skull and his S-Men may prove too much for them to handle, especially considering Red Skull's new skill set.
In issue #4, the slugfest between Captain America and his Avengers on the one hand and the Red Skull and his S-Men on the other amid the telepathically-induced attempt at genocide in New York comes to a head, and though the battle may be over, it is clear that the war has only just begun.
In my review of the first issue of this series, I said that, not having read Avengers vs. X-Men I wasn't entirely sure where these characters were coming from, and I can the best praise I can give these issues is that four issues later, the merging of two distinct groups of Marvel characters is starting to make more sense. The intermingling, though, does not feel quite as organic as writer Rick Remender and the rest of Marvel would no doubt like it to be. I suppose it made perfect sense to them to put Captain America's archenemy in this book and give him an anti-mutant agenda so that he would become as terrifying to the X-Men as he is to the Avengers, but to me the connection still feels a tad forced (almost as forced as shoving Wolverine into the Avengers' roster nearly ten years ago just to propel sales upward did).
Speaking of Wolverine, apart from some face time in issues #1 and #2 and some brooding moments he actually takes the backseat as far as character moments go, with Havok being the lead mutant character in this particular story. Remender seems to enjoy playing Captain America off Havok in this series, whether it's in the more sedate moments or during the times when Cap finds himself subtly influenced by the Red Skull's telepathy, and even though Cap himself handpicked Havok to be on his team one wonders where Remender will take this potential rivalry down the line. It was gratifying to see the reasonably well-written storyline end in four issues contrary to the six-or-eight issue trend that seems to dominate lately, but apart from a few skirmishes, a major plot development or two, and one big throwdown at the end, it does not feel quite as significant as the events taking place in what has been billed as the flagship book of the Marvel NOW! era should. This feels like a waste of a golden opportunity to make a splash of a new series which merges two of the publisher's most popular properties.
What is not wasted at all, though, is artist John Cassaday's stunning art, which is well-complemented by Laura Martin's lush palette of colors. While some fans and reviewers have expressed displeasure with the redesign of Havok's head gear, I personally did not mind all that much, although his superhero tights appear to have been redesigned to accommodate a pair of baggy trousers. I'm not really sure. It was a delight, though, to see Cassaday work on Captain America for over four issues, which is the longest he's worked on the character since relaunching his solo title over 11 years ago with writer John Ney Reiber. The character has never looked better. Unfortunately, this book was fraught with delays, apparently to give Cassaday time to turn in his stellar work and so as not to delay publication further he will be spelled by artists Olivier Coipel and Daniel Acuna, assuming he even comes back to the book eventually. Now, I am a fan of both these artists, but I will most definitely miss Cassaday's work.
4/5
Saturday, February 23, 2013
Tripping Through Time: Astonishing Spider-Man and Wolverine
(w) Jason Aaron
(a) Adam Kubert (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)
Two posts ago, I reviewed the first five issues of Brian Bendis' and Stuart Immonen's All New X-Men series, and one of my comments was how silly I find time-travel stories in general because of how messy they can get and how hard it eventually becomes to keep track of everything. It was gratifying, therefore, to read a story that not only acknowledges but actually embraces how ridiculous time-travel stories can get in this collected edition of the six-issue miniseries starring Spider-Man and Wolverine that came out around two or three years ago.
After trying to stop what appears to be a simple bank robbery, Spider-Man and Wolverine find themselves bouncing through different times, including the beginning of the world and its impending end. Apparently, some mysterious diamonds which were being stolen during the robbery are the objects responsible for the pair's time jumping woes, many of which encrust the baseball bat of a mysterious new character named Czar, who seems to know a lot more about the predicament of Spidey and Wolvie than he is about to let on, and who seems to have the whole time travel thing very much under control. Czar, however, is not the real threat, and the whole reason why Spider-Man and Wolverine are now trapped out of their time is that they are being manipulated by a familiar behind-the-scenes villain.
Before reading this, I was not all that familiar with Jason Aaron's work, though I had read at least one Wolverine one-shot he wrote some years back in which, oddly enough, Wolverine was more a supporting character, playing second-fiddle to an incorrigible criminal whose ultimate fate was to end up as shish kebab on Wolvie's adamantium claws. His work here was definitely more entertaining than the somewhat somber (and bloody) sort-of-Wolverine story, and while I wasn't always "down" with his characterization of Spider-Man, he wrote him well enough, and in any case Aaron kept things moving fast enough that I did not have to dwell too much on characterization. I was also not fond of the new villain Czar, who can either be viewed in two ways, neither of them particularly positive: he can be viewed either as an utterly forgettable character or as an arguably racist caricature. There was one amusing moment, late in the storyline, involving versions of himself from different eras, but little else that would justify him appearing again in another story. If nothing else, though, he serves this story well enough. The behind-the-scenes villain whose identity I will not spoil here is always a fun character when written well, and much to Mr. Aaron's credit he definitely did him justice here.
Most importantly, Aaron has handled the time travel aspect of the story, always somewhat tricky business, rather skillfully, and I could almost hear him saying, between the lines, that if something seemed ridiculous about the story, it's probably because it was. I won't exactly be emptying the back-issue bins in search of his work from now on, but he's definitely a writer whose work I can categorically say I enjoy.
For me, however the main selling point of this collected edition was the art of Adam Kubert, whose work I have been acquainted with for a while but who only really popped up on my radar when he illustrated Dan Slott's "Dark Reign" one-shot starring Spider-Man, as his take on the character was, to my mind, anyway, something quite special. Kubert delivers here in a big way; his take on Spider-Man is the most dynamic I have seen since the days of Todd McFarlane. I say this as a fan of several other artists who have drawn Spidey since McFarlane left Marvel in the 1990s to found Image Comics, including John Romita, Jr., Steve McNiven, Chris Bachalo, Joe Quesada, Stefano Caselli and (sometimes) Humberto Ramos. In short, for me, Kubert's take on Spider-man is one of the best I have seen in years. His other figures and faces, including his take on Peter Parker, still have that sketchy quality to them that has characterized not only his work but that of his equally renowned brother Andy, but in drawing the web-slinger in action he is simply in another realm of artistry altogether. Part of me cannot help but wonder how long Kubert has wanted to illustrate Spider-Man given the attention he has lavished onto his artwork here. To be fair, there's a lot to love here apart from Kubert's depiction of Spider-Man, but for me that's easily the highlight.
The events of this series are of more consequence for Wolverine than they are for Spider-Man, again for reasons I will not spoil, but overall the series was a genuinely fun and engaging read. It's exciting and urgent but still light and enjoyable reading, and in an era where premium seems to be placed on shattering the status quo it was nice to read a meaty volume (originally having been six issues) in which the creators were simply focused on telling an entertaining story.
4.5/5
(a) Adam Kubert (pencils) Mark Morales (inks) Justin Ponsor (colors)
Two posts ago, I reviewed the first five issues of Brian Bendis' and Stuart Immonen's All New X-Men series, and one of my comments was how silly I find time-travel stories in general because of how messy they can get and how hard it eventually becomes to keep track of everything. It was gratifying, therefore, to read a story that not only acknowledges but actually embraces how ridiculous time-travel stories can get in this collected edition of the six-issue miniseries starring Spider-Man and Wolverine that came out around two or three years ago.
After trying to stop what appears to be a simple bank robbery, Spider-Man and Wolverine find themselves bouncing through different times, including the beginning of the world and its impending end. Apparently, some mysterious diamonds which were being stolen during the robbery are the objects responsible for the pair's time jumping woes, many of which encrust the baseball bat of a mysterious new character named Czar, who seems to know a lot more about the predicament of Spidey and Wolvie than he is about to let on, and who seems to have the whole time travel thing very much under control. Czar, however, is not the real threat, and the whole reason why Spider-Man and Wolverine are now trapped out of their time is that they are being manipulated by a familiar behind-the-scenes villain.
Before reading this, I was not all that familiar with Jason Aaron's work, though I had read at least one Wolverine one-shot he wrote some years back in which, oddly enough, Wolverine was more a supporting character, playing second-fiddle to an incorrigible criminal whose ultimate fate was to end up as shish kebab on Wolvie's adamantium claws. His work here was definitely more entertaining than the somewhat somber (and bloody) sort-of-Wolverine story, and while I wasn't always "down" with his characterization of Spider-Man, he wrote him well enough, and in any case Aaron kept things moving fast enough that I did not have to dwell too much on characterization. I was also not fond of the new villain Czar, who can either be viewed in two ways, neither of them particularly positive: he can be viewed either as an utterly forgettable character or as an arguably racist caricature. There was one amusing moment, late in the storyline, involving versions of himself from different eras, but little else that would justify him appearing again in another story. If nothing else, though, he serves this story well enough. The behind-the-scenes villain whose identity I will not spoil here is always a fun character when written well, and much to Mr. Aaron's credit he definitely did him justice here.
Most importantly, Aaron has handled the time travel aspect of the story, always somewhat tricky business, rather skillfully, and I could almost hear him saying, between the lines, that if something seemed ridiculous about the story, it's probably because it was. I won't exactly be emptying the back-issue bins in search of his work from now on, but he's definitely a writer whose work I can categorically say I enjoy.
For me, however the main selling point of this collected edition was the art of Adam Kubert, whose work I have been acquainted with for a while but who only really popped up on my radar when he illustrated Dan Slott's "Dark Reign" one-shot starring Spider-Man, as his take on the character was, to my mind, anyway, something quite special. Kubert delivers here in a big way; his take on Spider-Man is the most dynamic I have seen since the days of Todd McFarlane. I say this as a fan of several other artists who have drawn Spidey since McFarlane left Marvel in the 1990s to found Image Comics, including John Romita, Jr., Steve McNiven, Chris Bachalo, Joe Quesada, Stefano Caselli and (sometimes) Humberto Ramos. In short, for me, Kubert's take on Spider-man is one of the best I have seen in years. His other figures and faces, including his take on Peter Parker, still have that sketchy quality to them that has characterized not only his work but that of his equally renowned brother Andy, but in drawing the web-slinger in action he is simply in another realm of artistry altogether. Part of me cannot help but wonder how long Kubert has wanted to illustrate Spider-Man given the attention he has lavished onto his artwork here. To be fair, there's a lot to love here apart from Kubert's depiction of Spider-Man, but for me that's easily the highlight.
The events of this series are of more consequence for Wolverine than they are for Spider-Man, again for reasons I will not spoil, but overall the series was a genuinely fun and engaging read. It's exciting and urgent but still light and enjoyable reading, and in an era where premium seems to be placed on shattering the status quo it was nice to read a meaty volume (originally having been six issues) in which the creators were simply focused on telling an entertaining story.
4.5/5
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Trying It Before I Knock It: A Review of Superior Spider-Man issues #1 to #3
(w) Dan Slott
(a) Ryan Stegman (line art) Edgar Delgado (color art)
I always knew that Marvel's act of replacing Spider-Man's consciousness with that of his arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus was a stunt, and felt a little insulted when Marvel insisted that the change was permanent. I understood the rather obstinate misdirection of course; it was only by selling the storyline as a permanent alteration of the status quo that they could get the attention that they did.
I wasn't initially interested in seeing this story play out (I was willing to wait until Peter came back, and in any case I stopped collecting The Amazing Spider-Man on a regular basis some time ago). When I leafed through an issue, though, I decided to give the first few issues a shot.
Superior Spider-Man is basically the story of Doctor Octopus occupying Peter Parker's body, and with the first conclusion of the first three-issue storyline, it is my honest opinion that Dan Slott has made a pretty convincing case for this radical, albeit temporary shift in status quo.
In his first few days as Spider-man, Otto Octavius goes about the business of being a superhero, determined to be a better Spider-Man than Peter Parker was. In some ways, he actually is, using his skills with technology and the resources at his disposal courtesy of Peter's job at Horizon Laboratories to broaden his reach; who needs to listen to police scanners when dozens of robot spiders are all over the city watching out for crime, after all? In the course of the first three issues, the new, "superior" Spider-Man takes on a new iteration of the Sinister Six and a more heavyweight Spider-Man villain, the Vulture, and for a change, wins, a rather pleasant feeling for Octavius.
He is considerably less successful, however, at living out Peter's personal life; Otto spends issue #2 making advances on Mary Jane, only to be frustrated at every turn. Interestingly enough, though, Otto makes a decision that is surprisingly selfless at the end of the issue.
One part of his personality that Octavius cannot seem to unlearn, however, is the brutality with which he dispatches his foes. Although he does not kill anyone, by the end of issues #1 and #3 he actually comes pretty close, and the latter does not go unnoticed by Peter's ex-girlfriend Carlie Cooper, who also happens to be a policewoman.
(mild spoiler alert)
Of course, another complication to the story is that Peter Parker is apparently not as dead as people thought he was at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #700; he lurks somewhere in the back of his old body's mind, and manifests as a "ghost" beside Octavius. He actually stops Octavius from killing a supervillain, though Otto is not aware that his old enemy is still around. It's an amusing and encouraging story device, as it is through this that Marvel establishes that at some point, Parker will be wearing the webs again, though it is overplayed from time to time.
(end spoiler alert)
When Marvel Comics unmasked Spider-Man at the end of Civil War #2 then-editor Axel Alonso boasted that they had something like two years' worth of stories to tell with an unmasked Spidey, but by the time they hit the "reset" button called One More Day, they had only told a little over one year worth of stories.
Truth be told, with well over a year between now and the premiere of the next "Amazing Spider-Man" movie, I'm hoping Marvel actually shows some balls and sticks to this current status quo for awhile before returning Peter Parker to his body in a grand, lavishly-illustrated six-issue story arc or something like that. Slott is off to a pretty good start, and it would be a shame if they called it a day too quickly. There's something fascinating about looking at Spider-Man's life from a supervillain's point of view. Octavius is clearly still an egomaniac, but not only is Slott letting us see another side of him; he's actually showing us readers why Doc Ock would actually make a very effective Spider-Man, and the reasons are entirely consistent with the things Ock has done as a character over the last several decades. In some ways, it actually plays out like an extended What If? issue, and is actually a lot of fun when appreciated that way.
The weak link, unfortunately, is artist Ryan Stegman, whose scratchy line work, as hard as this may be to believe, actually made me miss Humberto Ramos (who will be taking up the art duties for issues #7 and 8) and definitely made me miss Stefano Caselli, who has long since moved on from the webslinger. Stegman is a competent artist; he tells the story well enough, and there's even a hint of J. Scott Campbell in some of his characters, but his work just doesn't sing to me. Still, Slott could have done a lot worse in terms of choosing his collaborator.
I doubt I'll stick around for the entire "Doc Ock as Spider-Man" storyline, whether it lasts a year or five, but I can at least say now that I gave Slott the benefit of the doubt, and will probably stick around for a few issues more. Much to Slott's (and Marvel's) credit; what they've done here is something unique. Plenty of superheroes have died, from Jean Grey to Superman to the Human Torch, only to come back eventually, and Spider-Man himself has been replaced by his clone, but this is a first; outside of the odd What If? or Elsewords issue I don't think this particular plot twist has ever played out for this long. It will inevitably get old, of course, as all gimmick-based status quos tend to do (and as will Brian Michael Bendis' "original X-Men out of time" shtick), but what's worth following is how well Slott plays it out, and if the first three issues are any indication, the Spider-Man fans who came back after the dust settled from the furor kicked up by The Amazing Spider Man #700 should be in for a treat.
4/5
(a) Ryan Stegman (line art) Edgar Delgado (color art)
I always knew that Marvel's act of replacing Spider-Man's consciousness with that of his arch-nemesis Doctor Octopus was a stunt, and felt a little insulted when Marvel insisted that the change was permanent. I understood the rather obstinate misdirection of course; it was only by selling the storyline as a permanent alteration of the status quo that they could get the attention that they did.
I wasn't initially interested in seeing this story play out (I was willing to wait until Peter came back, and in any case I stopped collecting The Amazing Spider-Man on a regular basis some time ago). When I leafed through an issue, though, I decided to give the first few issues a shot.
Superior Spider-Man is basically the story of Doctor Octopus occupying Peter Parker's body, and with the first conclusion of the first three-issue storyline, it is my honest opinion that Dan Slott has made a pretty convincing case for this radical, albeit temporary shift in status quo.
In his first few days as Spider-man, Otto Octavius goes about the business of being a superhero, determined to be a better Spider-Man than Peter Parker was. In some ways, he actually is, using his skills with technology and the resources at his disposal courtesy of Peter's job at Horizon Laboratories to broaden his reach; who needs to listen to police scanners when dozens of robot spiders are all over the city watching out for crime, after all? In the course of the first three issues, the new, "superior" Spider-Man takes on a new iteration of the Sinister Six and a more heavyweight Spider-Man villain, the Vulture, and for a change, wins, a rather pleasant feeling for Octavius.
He is considerably less successful, however, at living out Peter's personal life; Otto spends issue #2 making advances on Mary Jane, only to be frustrated at every turn. Interestingly enough, though, Otto makes a decision that is surprisingly selfless at the end of the issue.
One part of his personality that Octavius cannot seem to unlearn, however, is the brutality with which he dispatches his foes. Although he does not kill anyone, by the end of issues #1 and #3 he actually comes pretty close, and the latter does not go unnoticed by Peter's ex-girlfriend Carlie Cooper, who also happens to be a policewoman.
(mild spoiler alert)
Of course, another complication to the story is that Peter Parker is apparently not as dead as people thought he was at the end of Amazing Spider-Man #700; he lurks somewhere in the back of his old body's mind, and manifests as a "ghost" beside Octavius. He actually stops Octavius from killing a supervillain, though Otto is not aware that his old enemy is still around. It's an amusing and encouraging story device, as it is through this that Marvel establishes that at some point, Parker will be wearing the webs again, though it is overplayed from time to time.
(end spoiler alert)
When Marvel Comics unmasked Spider-Man at the end of Civil War #2 then-editor Axel Alonso boasted that they had something like two years' worth of stories to tell with an unmasked Spidey, but by the time they hit the "reset" button called One More Day, they had only told a little over one year worth of stories.
Truth be told, with well over a year between now and the premiere of the next "Amazing Spider-Man" movie, I'm hoping Marvel actually shows some balls and sticks to this current status quo for awhile before returning Peter Parker to his body in a grand, lavishly-illustrated six-issue story arc or something like that. Slott is off to a pretty good start, and it would be a shame if they called it a day too quickly. There's something fascinating about looking at Spider-Man's life from a supervillain's point of view. Octavius is clearly still an egomaniac, but not only is Slott letting us see another side of him; he's actually showing us readers why Doc Ock would actually make a very effective Spider-Man, and the reasons are entirely consistent with the things Ock has done as a character over the last several decades. In some ways, it actually plays out like an extended What If? issue, and is actually a lot of fun when appreciated that way.
The weak link, unfortunately, is artist Ryan Stegman, whose scratchy line work, as hard as this may be to believe, actually made me miss Humberto Ramos (who will be taking up the art duties for issues #7 and 8) and definitely made me miss Stefano Caselli, who has long since moved on from the webslinger. Stegman is a competent artist; he tells the story well enough, and there's even a hint of J. Scott Campbell in some of his characters, but his work just doesn't sing to me. Still, Slott could have done a lot worse in terms of choosing his collaborator.
I doubt I'll stick around for the entire "Doc Ock as Spider-Man" storyline, whether it lasts a year or five, but I can at least say now that I gave Slott the benefit of the doubt, and will probably stick around for a few issues more. Much to Slott's (and Marvel's) credit; what they've done here is something unique. Plenty of superheroes have died, from Jean Grey to Superman to the Human Torch, only to come back eventually, and Spider-Man himself has been replaced by his clone, but this is a first; outside of the odd What If? or Elsewords issue I don't think this particular plot twist has ever played out for this long. It will inevitably get old, of course, as all gimmick-based status quos tend to do (and as will Brian Michael Bendis' "original X-Men out of time" shtick), but what's worth following is how well Slott plays it out, and if the first three issues are any indication, the Spider-Man fans who came back after the dust settled from the furor kicked up by The Amazing Spider Man #700 should be in for a treat.
4/5
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Douchebags with Super Powers: A Review of Supercrooks
(w) Mark Millar
(a) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Sunny Gho (colors)
The irksome thing about much of Mark Millar's earlier creator-owned work published under Marvel Comics' Icon imprint was how much of what he did was basically a riff on existing superhero conventions; Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of which bears the tagline "with no power comes no responsibility," is Spider-Man with a twist. Superior, which features a nigh-invincible superhero with a frail alter-ego, is basically an amalgam of Superman and DC Comics' Captain Marvel, but with a twist. Nemesis was marketed as having the premise of a character who was as smart as Batman but as evil as the Joker. Of course, there was a twist to this, too, and a bit of misdirection involved.
Supercrooks Millar's second collaboration with Leinil Francis Yu after Superior is refreshing in that it hearkens back to Millar's earlier creator-owned work like Wanted. It's not quite as original as either of those two (as a couple of reviewers have said, it's basically Ocean's Eleven but with superpowers, extreme violence, and lots of swearing) but it seems to rely a lot less on shock value than work like Kick-Ass, with its foul-mouthed, mass-murdering 11-year-old girl, or Nemesis, the marketing of which apparently got the hackles of some folks at DC Comics up because it seemed like Millar was using Batman to plug a book that basically had nothing to do with him. This is a more pure Mark Millar at work here; one who seeks more to entertain than to offend.
Supercrooks is the story of a down-on-his-luck supervillain, Johnny Bolt, who has just done five years in prison after a superhero named Gladiator foiled his attempt at a robbery, when he is approached by a friend of his, Carmine, who is in a bind; he tried to trick the casino of a supervillain by employing a psychic accomplice, only to have the whole plan backfire, with the supervillain, a character named the Salamander, not only killing Carmine's psychic sidekick but telling Carmine to pay him $100 million in a month or forfeit his life. Johnny then hatches a plan for a heist that will not only pay Carmine's debts but will make him and whoever helps him very rich men. His girlfriend and one-time partner-in-crime Kasey protests that he will probably just go to jail again considering that there is a proliferation of superheroes ready to kick the crap out of him if he tries yet another heist, but Johnny counters that the main reason for all his failures is that his planned heists have all been in America, which has the highest concentration of superheroes in the world. His solution, then is to pull a job in Spain instead, where there are no superheroes. He gets his old gang of supervillains together, but the target of the planned heist may be too much for even a whole team of supervillians to handle; Johnny has set his sights on the nest egg of a retired uber-villain, the nastiest in the business, called The Bastard, who has as his bodyguard an ex-superhero with something like twenty-seven different superpowers called the Praetorian. Johnny's got a plan for every contingency, though, and in this case it helps that one of his recruits, a rather unlikely choice, is keeping a nasty little secret. Still, the idea of stealing nearly a billion dollars from a guy who can explode people's heads with his mind does not exactly inspire confidence, and Johnny and his crew may yet find themselves in way over their heads.
It's a pity that Millar has garnered a bit of a reputation for saying or writing things meant to shock people for shock's sake, as he is a genuinely talented writer. The good news is that with this story, his proclivity for shock value takes a back seat to his storytelling skill. This story really is Ocean's Eleven with superpowers, and though it's got a somewhat familiar storytelling cadence and some elements of predictability to it, it's a lot of fun to read. It helps that Millar has created a solidly scripted leading character. Johnny really is a likable rogue, even though, when he's getting his teeth knocked in during one sequence late in the story, it's hard to argue against his deserving the beating. His supporting cast, while nowhere near as well-developed as he is, are colorfully scripted, and not just because of the four-letter words that come out of their mouths. Particularly noteworthy are the Diesel brothers, a pair of nigh-indestructible supervillians capable of growing back just about any appendage that is ripped from their body. Their ability provides the basis for the book's single most graphic sequence and it's a doozy. It's the closest Millar comes to writing for shock value in this book, but it's played mostly for laughs and as far as I'm concerned it works like a charm.
One minus for me here, though is some really unimaginative code names for some of the characters. Carmine, a supervillain in his youth, was called "The Heat," another crew member who can turn intangible is called "The Ghost," while the big-time supervillain Johnny and his crew plan to rip off is called "The Bastard." This isn't exactly the first time Millar's come up with some really lame-ass code names; in Wanted, the lead character was called "The Killer," after all. One might argue he's doing it on purpose, but to what end, I really don't know. He almost makes up for it with a really cool name for a superhero like "Gladiator" but when another superhero is named "Praetorian," which is only a hop and a skip away in terms of theme, even if he is Gladiator's ex-teammate, it just feels a little bit like Millar skimped on the effort in thinking up really cool codenames.
Like fellow Ultimate Marvel architect Brian Michael Bendis, Millar has an almost preternatural ability to attract some of the most talented artists in the comics industry to work on his books, including Civil War collaborator Steve McNiven, Marvel Comics legend John Romita Jr., and the artist of this work, the inestimable Filipino artist Leinil Yu, who brings along with him another of my favorite Filipino artists, Gerry Alanguilan, and Indonesian colorist Sunny Gho. There's a crispness to Yu's work here that I haven't seen anywhere else. His linework has always been amazing, but the first couple of issues of this story, to me anyway, showcase his talent working on a level even higher than his norm. Maybe there's something to be said about the way Millar plays to his artist's strengths. Whatever the reason, Yu and his co-artists Alanguilan and Gho are really firing on all cylinders here. Also, it's thanks to the participation of my two countrymen that there's a lovely little Easter Egg for all the Filipino comic book readers at the end of the comic book in which a Filipino casino attendant speaks in Tagalog. It's good for a nice hearty laugh.
Overall, Supercrooks is a very entertaining read. It's not something destined to turn the industry on its head or break the internet in half, and it doesn't quite stand on par with Millar's best like his first run on The Ultimates, but it's a memorable read nonetheless and definitely worth adding to the collection.
4/5
(a) Leinil Francis Yu (pencils) Gerry Alanguilan (inks) Sunny Gho (colors)
The irksome thing about much of Mark Millar's earlier creator-owned work published under Marvel Comics' Icon imprint was how much of what he did was basically a riff on existing superhero conventions; Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of which bears the tagline "with no power comes no responsibility," is Spider-Man with a twist. Superior, which features a nigh-invincible superhero with a frail alter-ego, is basically an amalgam of Superman and DC Comics' Captain Marvel, but with a twist. Nemesis was marketed as having the premise of a character who was as smart as Batman but as evil as the Joker. Of course, there was a twist to this, too, and a bit of misdirection involved.
Supercrooks Millar's second collaboration with Leinil Francis Yu after Superior is refreshing in that it hearkens back to Millar's earlier creator-owned work like Wanted. It's not quite as original as either of those two (as a couple of reviewers have said, it's basically Ocean's Eleven but with superpowers, extreme violence, and lots of swearing) but it seems to rely a lot less on shock value than work like Kick-Ass, with its foul-mouthed, mass-murdering 11-year-old girl, or Nemesis, the marketing of which apparently got the hackles of some folks at DC Comics up because it seemed like Millar was using Batman to plug a book that basically had nothing to do with him. This is a more pure Mark Millar at work here; one who seeks more to entertain than to offend.
Supercrooks is the story of a down-on-his-luck supervillain, Johnny Bolt, who has just done five years in prison after a superhero named Gladiator foiled his attempt at a robbery, when he is approached by a friend of his, Carmine, who is in a bind; he tried to trick the casino of a supervillain by employing a psychic accomplice, only to have the whole plan backfire, with the supervillain, a character named the Salamander, not only killing Carmine's psychic sidekick but telling Carmine to pay him $100 million in a month or forfeit his life. Johnny then hatches a plan for a heist that will not only pay Carmine's debts but will make him and whoever helps him very rich men. His girlfriend and one-time partner-in-crime Kasey protests that he will probably just go to jail again considering that there is a proliferation of superheroes ready to kick the crap out of him if he tries yet another heist, but Johnny counters that the main reason for all his failures is that his planned heists have all been in America, which has the highest concentration of superheroes in the world. His solution, then is to pull a job in Spain instead, where there are no superheroes. He gets his old gang of supervillains together, but the target of the planned heist may be too much for even a whole team of supervillians to handle; Johnny has set his sights on the nest egg of a retired uber-villain, the nastiest in the business, called The Bastard, who has as his bodyguard an ex-superhero with something like twenty-seven different superpowers called the Praetorian. Johnny's got a plan for every contingency, though, and in this case it helps that one of his recruits, a rather unlikely choice, is keeping a nasty little secret. Still, the idea of stealing nearly a billion dollars from a guy who can explode people's heads with his mind does not exactly inspire confidence, and Johnny and his crew may yet find themselves in way over their heads.
It's a pity that Millar has garnered a bit of a reputation for saying or writing things meant to shock people for shock's sake, as he is a genuinely talented writer. The good news is that with this story, his proclivity for shock value takes a back seat to his storytelling skill. This story really is Ocean's Eleven with superpowers, and though it's got a somewhat familiar storytelling cadence and some elements of predictability to it, it's a lot of fun to read. It helps that Millar has created a solidly scripted leading character. Johnny really is a likable rogue, even though, when he's getting his teeth knocked in during one sequence late in the story, it's hard to argue against his deserving the beating. His supporting cast, while nowhere near as well-developed as he is, are colorfully scripted, and not just because of the four-letter words that come out of their mouths. Particularly noteworthy are the Diesel brothers, a pair of nigh-indestructible supervillians capable of growing back just about any appendage that is ripped from their body. Their ability provides the basis for the book's single most graphic sequence and it's a doozy. It's the closest Millar comes to writing for shock value in this book, but it's played mostly for laughs and as far as I'm concerned it works like a charm.
One minus for me here, though is some really unimaginative code names for some of the characters. Carmine, a supervillain in his youth, was called "The Heat," another crew member who can turn intangible is called "The Ghost," while the big-time supervillain Johnny and his crew plan to rip off is called "The Bastard." This isn't exactly the first time Millar's come up with some really lame-ass code names; in Wanted, the lead character was called "The Killer," after all. One might argue he's doing it on purpose, but to what end, I really don't know. He almost makes up for it with a really cool name for a superhero like "Gladiator" but when another superhero is named "Praetorian," which is only a hop and a skip away in terms of theme, even if he is Gladiator's ex-teammate, it just feels a little bit like Millar skimped on the effort in thinking up really cool codenames.
Like fellow Ultimate Marvel architect Brian Michael Bendis, Millar has an almost preternatural ability to attract some of the most talented artists in the comics industry to work on his books, including Civil War collaborator Steve McNiven, Marvel Comics legend John Romita Jr., and the artist of this work, the inestimable Filipino artist Leinil Yu, who brings along with him another of my favorite Filipino artists, Gerry Alanguilan, and Indonesian colorist Sunny Gho. There's a crispness to Yu's work here that I haven't seen anywhere else. His linework has always been amazing, but the first couple of issues of this story, to me anyway, showcase his talent working on a level even higher than his norm. Maybe there's something to be said about the way Millar plays to his artist's strengths. Whatever the reason, Yu and his co-artists Alanguilan and Gho are really firing on all cylinders here. Also, it's thanks to the participation of my two countrymen that there's a lovely little Easter Egg for all the Filipino comic book readers at the end of the comic book in which a Filipino casino attendant speaks in Tagalog. It's good for a nice hearty laugh.
Overall, Supercrooks is a very entertaining read. It's not something destined to turn the industry on its head or break the internet in half, and it doesn't quite stand on par with Millar's best like his first run on The Ultimates, but it's a memorable read nonetheless and definitely worth adding to the collection.
4/5
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