Bought/Thought 10/31/07

[PhotoJones]

I'm pretty sure he was all, "I gotta go punch Annihilus in the face, but we'll talk later."

 

[TheCorpulent1]

He said maybe they'd meet later. As in, he doesn't know if he's coming back or not, but he's died a bunch of times already, so nothing's impossible.

 

[PhotoJones]

He'll be back. When Phyla's got her back against the wall in AC and she needs a burst of confidence, Wendell'll be there.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

That'd be cool.

But I still hope the dude on the cover of AC #3 is Genis.

 

[PhotoJones]

Could be. Maybe he's the "true" villian Marvel's been hinting at.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

No, no villain. Genis is a hero working for redemption, damn it.

 

[PhotoJones]

Tell that to Marvel.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I will. I'm gonna write a letter.

 

[PhotoJones]

No, you won't.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I know, but it feels good to say it.

 

[PhotoJones]

It feels good to lie to yourself?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Avengers Classic #5
This came out last week or the week before, but I just read it on my lunch break. The main story is one of those weird stories you just shrug and think, "Oh well, it was the Silver Age," but the back-up story was great. Cap finds some soldier who survived an attack from a giant wolf, investigates, and pretty much almost dies before Thor appears, declares that the wolf, Fenris, needs to go back to his cage, beats the living crap out of him, and then teleports back to Asgard.

The artist had some wonky inconsistencies in his portrayal of the characters from panel to panel, probably because he appeared to be desperately trying to ape Kirby and failing miserably, but the couple pages with Thor are awesome. He does a great job of conveying how awe-inspiring Thor must've appeared to the human soldier, Cap, and Bucky, with lightning dancing all around him and a larger-than-life presence.

I liked that the writer included the little brackets to show that Thor wasn't quite in the habit of speaking English just yet, and the fact that he appeared to know what was going on with the humans and was content to leave them to it--I suspect because this story probably took place after that one time Thor was duped into helping the Nazis against the Invaders.

 

[PhotoJones]

Who was the artist?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Huh, it was Jorge Lucas. I liked his art quite a bit on Iron Man, but it looked really, really inconsistent and weird here.

 

[PhotoJones]

Jorge Lucas is usually really good. His Ronan work was top notch, as was what I saw of his Ripclaw story. No more Oeming backups?

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I don't know. This particular one was by Michael Bair and Jorge Lucas, but Marvel's website still says McDuffie and Oeming. Maybe it'll be back to them next issue.

 

[Themanofbat]

Also picked up Mouse Guard: Winter of 1152 #2 and The Secret History #3-4. Those are examples of those quality books that Dread knows nothing about. I savor those on the weekends.

I've been getting Secret History since #1 came out.. it's ^%#$ing awesome!!!

 

[Bubonic]

Namors a badass.
Nuff said.

But he mentioned that it was the first time he'd been "defiled" in such a manner, and it doesn't seem like they're gonna grow back.

 

[GNR]

holy crap,I heard about Secret History months back,I didn't know you guys were talking about that series

what's the american price tag?I heard these were going for quite a lot

 

[PhotoJones]

I've been getting Secret History since #1 came out.. it's ^%#$ing awesome!!!

Word.

holy crap,I heard about Secret History months back,I didn't know you guys were talking about that series

what's the american price tag?I heard these were going for quite a lot

I dunno...$4-5 an issue? It's well worth it, in my opinion.

 

[Dread]

Jury duty postponed the usual review for a while, and it seems that Halloween has scared off some companies, because it was a small week. Not a bad week, just a small one to finish off October.

As usual, full spoilers.

Dread's Bought/Thought for 10/31/07:

DYNAMO 5 #8: The start of a brand new storyline at a brand new price! Of course, some nitpickers could still say it is somewhat overpriced, $2.99 for 20 pages of story with zero ads, but I don't, and I am glad that the book is selling well enough that Image feels the need to lower the price. Really, how often does that happen? I don't see Marvel lessoning NEW AVENGERS, the best selling ongoing title in the biz right now, by any amount (would Marvel really go broke if NA was $2.75 or somethinG?). Having survived The Chrysalis Affair, the Dynamo 5 team is still doing what they do, which is defend the city in the absence of their father, only the team is splintered a bit. Gage/Scatterbrain is still in a coma from last issue's psychic effort, and Hector/Visionary is grounded for being away from home so much, although he hasn't told his mother about his exploits. Myraid is tasked by Scrap & Slingshot to use his shapeshifting powers to cover for Gage, a feat that he finds more daunting than even many superhero battles, and I liked his "outsider coming in" take on Gage's "white Texan" lifestyle. The question has been raised by some as to how the families of Dynamo 5 haven't figured out that their children are superheroes, and I can come up with some explainations. Capt. Dynamo may have had some affairs outside of his costume, so his connection to some of the children is unknown to their families. Secondly, their parents that had said affairs may have kept it quiet, and in fact some of the kids (at least one that I recall) is a product of foster care and was adopted, and that sort of data would be lost. But as far as genre expectations are, it isn't anything that is terribly distracting, especially as the final page promises that such questions WILL come home to roost for these teammates (or at least Hector). The villian-of-the-month is Bonechill, a rather cool (pun intended) ice-manipulating crook, who'd been ICING his backstabbing cohorts in crime before being halted by Scrap & Slingshot, who need help from a mother/daughter team of heroes, The Firebirds, to win. Faerber is launching those two as a one-shot, BTW. Asrar's art is still great and Riley's colors are fitting for it, as they have been all along. Upon a read of the letters page, I see I am far from alone for why I like this book. It offers good superhero escapism that is well written and has a lot of drama, yet isn't as bleak and grim as many comics on the market from the Big Two. It STILL is mind boggling to a 90's fan that Image of all places would become the place for by-the-book superhero comics, when Marvel & DC sometimes feel like apologizing for it in some stories. The action was good and I liked how Voltage seemed to meet Bonechill from prison; super-villain teams are inevitable, so it is about time they started mobilizing on Maddie & the kids. I wonder when Capt. Dynamo's ex sidekick will return to the fold; he could make a decent ally for the team if he managed to stay sane. It was the best book I read this week and quickly becoming one of my favorites overall. It is always a pleasure to read. I haven't read any of Faerber's other superhero Image work, most notably NOBLE CAUSES. Maybe if/when they make a hardcover of those.

ANNIHILATION CONQUESTION: QUASAR #4: Some people may have considered this "average" work from Gage, but to me it still is aces better than plenty of comics or writers who claim to be at their peak. Maybe it helps that my knowledge of Phyla & Moondragon is moderate at best and if he misses subtle nuances or whatnot, I don't notice or care. WRAITH was my least favorite AC mini, but I feel NOVA and STARLORD were way better (or at least more entertaining) than QUASAR, so call it the middle child of AC's four tie-in's. The middle chapters may have been slower than the beginning & end, but isn't that true of many 4 part stories? I'm not terribly keen on Moondragon being an actual dragon, though; it seems like a weak attempt to shoehorn in some cliche fantasy elements to the space adventure and the occasional reminders of love between the two characters unfortunately invite too many images of fan-fics or hentai. Still, Gage delivers on some solid action and on making hay with a bad guy like Super-Adaptoid, actually giving him something to stand for or with aside for beating the Avengers. The "savior" at the end is Adam Warlock, but unfortunately that was spoiled for me days earlier by the OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE MARVEL UNIVERSE A-Z UPDATE #4, where Supreme Intelligence's bio gives it away. But, really, it makes sense and Warlock was pretty much the guess du jour last month. He was the last "major" old school Marvel space hero who hadn't seen any action in the Annihilation revamp, so his return is welcome (he was the central figure in the 90's). Lilly does some good work here, although some panels seem to show some sign of rush, and his Warlock looks cool; my only quibble is: WHERE IS HIS SOUL-GEM? It usually is right on his forehead. Least we heard of, he still had it. ILLUMINATI's Gem-snatching was supposed to have taken place shortly after INFINITY GAUNTLET and Warlock had his gem for years after that. It is possible that some locks of hair obscured it from view (some artists depicted it as being smaller than an eyeball), or it is also possible that the reason he was recovering in the first place is because a Phalanx attack had taken the gem. In any case, hopefully the event mini gets into it because that is a major thing for the character. Like Hawkeye without his arrows, or Spider-Man unable to shoot webs. Warlock's last stab at a return wasn't anything that caught my attention and if anyone needs some cool-moment coming, it is him. I did like how Phyla defeated S-A and that Wendall did return to purge the bands of their evil influence, and an eventual return is inevitable (Quasar mentions how he'd died before and returned a few times). The Bands themselves are still used as a Marvel version of a Green Lantern ring, making hard light energy shapes based on imagination. For someone like me, that is fine, but for a more hardcore fan who likes some of the band's other powers or feels that merely copying the GL trend isn't the best angle, you may be miffed. Still, I enjoyed the series, considering I never cared for the title characters before, and hopefully Adam Warlock gets some good "holy ****" moments out of the actual mini. He could use one. It has been, what, a decade since his prime?

X-MEN: MESSIAH COMPLEX: CHAPTER ONE: After a year and a half, the X-editorial board is now seriously grappling with the ramifications of M-Day, and not just in random mini's or side books like X-FACTOR, but in their core books across the line (save for AXM, which exists in it's own universe). This was my second exposure to Brubaker on X-Men since his disasterous DEADLY GENESIS, and I must say it was better, likely because it played to his strengths (harsh warzones, brutality in combat, etc) without things feeling as tacked on as they were in DG. However, even having an outsider's view of post M-Day X-Books, my interest is not very high. M-Day has completely gutted the franchise. It eliminated many of their cultural connections to race relations which barely were starting to get explored in a modern way post-Morrison, and removed many of the bad guy from the shelf, save for the same handful that have been overexposed ad infinitum (Magneto, Sinister, Apocalypse, ee-eye-ee-eye-Oooohhh). Furthermore, all X-stories are either side tails that ignore M-Day, like a year of space stories from many books, or stories that deal with trying to reverse it. There is really not much else, at least outside X-FACTOR. This event deals with the idea of there finally being the birth of a new mutant after "years" of there being none. Even with M-Day, that seems weird to me. Sure, the majority of mutants manifest at puberty and most named ones were in that range, but still, there should have been a few mutant babies born and then depowered in the cradle; it may have been "years" in real time since 2004's DECIMATION started, but in "Marvel time" this hasn't been a year yet. Maybe it just is Brubaker's incistance on trying to make time pass in comics, when Marvel mostly has a "Neverland" thing going. That said, the plot is straightforward and meant to drag in people like me who probably haven't been reading X-books for a while. An eclectic band of X-Men (Cyclops, Emma, Wolverine, Angel, Nightcrawler, with Beast & Xavier in the Mansion) investigate the birth of a new mutant, who is apparently so powerful that his/her X-Gene is detectable and powerful simply from being born. There seem to be bands of those interested in the last few mutants for their own purposes; Mr. Sinister's eternally cloneable Mauraders, who have included to their ranks some Acoltyes and X-Men like Gambit, and Purifiers, zealots out to kill mutants in the name of god and products of Marvel's belated attempt to milk GOD LOVES MAN KILLS of details to tie in conviently around when X2 was in theatres. The result is a wasted town, with the X-Men saving the survivors and realizing the Purifiers went so far as to slaughter every child they saw, even newborns, in their attempt to wipe out this mutie newborn, which is actually plenty disturbing. Silvestri's art seems a bit out of place here, but that may be because he is one of those types eternally linked to the over-the-top 90's, like Jim Lee. It sets up the crossover storyline and offers the "buy now!" obligatory checklist, and a few files from Cyclops' POV that show just how bleak the X-Universe is now. It was always bleak, but this takes bleakness to a new level. WIZARD used to joke that considering how horrible every X-alternate future is, why the X-Men didn't simply commit mass suicide; with events like this, I wonder this as well. It was an effective one-shot, although the current bleakness plus my own wish not to buy a crap-ton of books may cause me to sit it mostly out. Brubaker still seems more obligatory on the X-Books than he does in CAPTAIN AMERICA or IMMORTAL IRON FIST, where he may have more creative freedoms.

ULTIMATE POWER #8: No, after over a year, this latest Ultimate mini-series event that has turned into a creative and sales dud due to some spotty writing and no end of shipping delays STILL is not completed. The idea at the time was to create an Ultimate event while trying to cash in on the fading star of SUPREME POWER. In the end, it is basically a straight-forward "Ultimates vs. Squadron Supreme in a misunderstanding battle before the true threat is exposed" story that was done many times in 616, so it makes some sort of sense that it occurs in Ultimate. The problem is that this story has been drug on far, far too long. Those old stories were fun for maybe 1-4 chapters, at best; this is more than TWICE that length and I always seriously question editorial decisions on any stories given more than 6 chapters in this day and age. Most stories, to begin with, are not rich enough for 6 chapters to not have one dragging chapter; but beyond 6 and stories usually are glacial, where the same scenes last for 3+ issues at a time. In addition, Marvel decided to have a round's robin of A-Listers, starting from JMS, to Bendis, to now Loeb, last and perhaps least. Loeb's not offensive but his installment has cluttered and muddled matters by throwing in what appears to be the ACTUAL Squadron Supreme due to Ultimate Wanda's chaos magic. So that means we have the Squadron Supreme, and the Supreme Power incarnation, in Ultimate Marvel; characters from THREE seperate universes that are not 616, putting to bed Joe Q's utterly brain dead and hilariously ignorant stance on Marvel having no alternate earth's. I wonder how many arguements the man loses to his wife at home at this rate. Greg Land's art is what it always is; you either love it or hate it, but it doesn't gell well with action. Dr. Doom here also turned out to be a robot, and while that explains things as the actual Doom was last seen in the Marvel Zombies universe (yet ANOTHER Marvel "alternate earth", hence why 616 is named, Joe Q you stupid jackass), it feels a tad anti-climatic as he was the core bad guy. The Hulk is thrown into the mix and the attempt to throw in every Ultimate hero aside for Hawk-Owl & Woody feels more obligatory than seamless, like MARVEL ULTIMATE ALLIANCE with none of the charm (kind of like SPIDER-MAN FRIEND OR FOE, natch). We still have a lot of fists flying and exposition and whatnot and some of the lines are amusing, but this story has run it's course and I will gladly await the finale and then probably never touch the back issues again. There is a simple slobber-nocker appeal to this, it simply has been stretched far beyond what the plot could endure. In terms of sales, this has to be underwhelming for Marvel. It outsells ULTIMATE X-MEN & ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR, but not USM, and it is simply another sign of the lag that the Ultimate line as a whole has, in terms of sales and creativity. The cover boasts of yet another mix-up on the line, and I sincerely hope the next bit tries to account for this dilemma. Ultimate has outlived it's core purpose and while allowing a place with less rules for creators, it is past it's prime and has been strip mined of any innovation years ago, with most books making due with B-List casts and sales that are too high to cancel, but lower than Ultimate did as recently as 3 years back. Ultimate was my first major foray back into comics in 2000-2001 after high school because of less continuity that I'd missed, but the titles are lagging. My desire to get more Ultimate XM past the next issue will really rely on Kirkman convincing me his direction there is grand, which I doubt. UFF I geniunely enjoy, but more for escapist formula than anything else. USM I ditched ages ago and I am partican on ULTIMATES 3. It would be a good idea, as the next event may suggest, to offer a bookend to the universe and then take some time to creatively regroup and rediscover why to publish these with 616 being the core investment now, but I doubt that will happen. Yes, as I am sure no end of people will tell me, 'cause of a lock step audience like your's truly who buys 'em. The dud of the week. I didn't hate it like a Bendis book, it just is forgetable.

 

[PhotoJones]

X-Men: Messiah Complex - I finally got my hands on a copy of this and wasn't shocked to see that it nothing major really happened. Like the Endangered Species one-shot before it, it serves primarily as a setup issue. And by setup issue, it's basically: here are the characters, here is the plot, here is the checklist for the next 3 months. It's exactly what I expected.

Funny thing is, is that it's not that bad. What's even funnier is that I like the art. I am not a fan of Silversti's current style but in this issue nostalgia kicked in hardcore and him doing Kurt, Logan, Scott and Warren made me smile despite the horrific subject matter. Even D'Armata's muddied and dreary colors seemed to work. Somehow. I'm an X-Men fan in my heart, and this was a good waste of $4 for me. My only real complaint is that I wish there was some mention of Warren's time with the Renegades. Other then that, I'm looking forward to the rest of the crossover, even if I won't be picking up the New X-Men issues. It should be a fun ride.

 

[CaptainCanada]

Lilly does some good work here, although some panels seem to show some sign of rush, and his Warlock looks cool; my only quibble is: WHERE IS HIS SOUL-GEM? It usually is right on his forehead. Least we heard of, he still had it. ILLUMINATI's Gem-snatching was supposed to have taken place shortly after INFINITY GAUNTLET and Warlock had his gem for years after that. It is possible that some locks of hair obscured it from view (some artists depicted it as being smaller than an eyeball), or it is also possible that the reason he was recovering in the first place is because a Phalanx attack had taken the gem. In any case, hopefully the event mini gets into it because that is a major thing for the character.

Actually, New Avengers: Illuminati took place after an arc of Slott's She-Hulk that saw Titania wield the Power Gem; She-Hulk gave the gem to Reed for safe-keeping, which is what prompted the whole venture. So Warlock's disappearance and Reed's possession of the Soul Gem are almost certainly linked.

 

[Dread]

Actually, New Avengers: Illuminati took place after an arc of Slott's She-Hulk that saw Titania wield the Power Gem; She-Hulk gave the gem to Reed for safe-keeping, which is what prompted the whole venture. So Warlock's disappearance and Reed's possession of the Soul Gem are almost certainly linked.

I see. Admittedly I tend to forget most of ILLUMINATI issues after I read them, despite it being the best thing Bendis writes these days (due to Brian Reed co-writing). Sure, there's MIGHTY AVENGERS, but with the premise on bombastic action with little brains, frankly any writer could write that title with good art and come away with a readable epic.

I don't like the idea of Reed having stolen Adam Warlock's Soul Gem, and it that did happen, it needs to be stated, explained, and dealt with. It was his core weapon for ages, and losing it and his connection to the Soul Realm should effect the character. He can fight without it, but it is as I said, like Spider-Man without his webbing.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Maybe he ate it.

What? Drax ate his.