To be fair to Bendis, I think Dark Avengers and New Avengers are going to be worth checking out at least.
Marvel is pretty much telling us that the Dark Avengers aren't the Avengers but awful people like Bullseye, Ares, and Daken who are using and sullying the Avengers name and are the "official" Avengers team simply because of Norman Osborn.
New Avengers is more along the lines of the anti-Osborn team with Spider-Man, Luke Cage, and Ms. Marvel in the ranks.
The true Avengers team will clearly be Slott's Mighty Avengers.
Truly.
I just...I'm just tired of reading Bendis team comics. Very, very tired. Half of why I would read them was to find a reason to ***** about them, and I always could, 95% of the time. Even in decent issues there was always some screw up, or thing that made no sense, or some annoying line or sequence. I am tired of that, and especially at $4 an issue. It isn't like there is some drought of good Marvel material, either. There are plenty of genuinely good Marvel books out there. Just this week I caught up on another,
INCREDIBLE HERCULES. There's no need, or at least less justified need, to venture into Bendis Land anymore.
Slott better turn his classic Avengers dial up to 11 on Mighty Avengers, is all I'm saying. It's been about 5 years since any Avengers fans had a proper Avengers comic that they could be proud of. I think we're due.
Agreed.
Onto more B/T!
INCREDIBLE HERCULES: SECRET INVASION and
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #120-123: This concludes my "catch-up" portions of INCREDIBLE HERCULES; from here on out it will be all monthly. Pretty much everything that most posters say about the series is true; it is loaded with continuity, yet takes the characters in directions that suit them. It plays with Marvel Greek Mythology that can be altered or tweaked, but such are not done in shocking or illogical ways. It often has great art and as much of a sense of humor as it does a sense of adventure. Hercules has never been this cool or readable before.
The only caveat is that modern method of spitting out HC's instead of trades merely serves to make trade waiters pay an extra $5 for nothing. The HC for IH:SI offers no extras; nothing to make it worth an extra $5 for the five issues within (cover price would be about $14.96) aside for maybe a summary and bits about the authors on the jackets, which isn't really a must. It simply is a place-holder for the trade, which Amazon claims will come in March, 2009. With a book like INCREDIBLE HERCULES, or any Marvel title really, readers should not be encouraged to wait another 4-5 months for a better priced trade. I get the impression this is done to edge out trade waiters or milk them as much as the monthly fans get milked, but both are "dare ya to bail on Marvel" type strategies in the wake of a recession. Marvel may still put out great books like this one, but knowing they couldn't care less about how much money such books cost you every paycheck takes some oomph out of the Mighty Marvel Manor. Marvel simply assumes their fans are so ravenous that they'll eat an extra buck for books or an extra five to read trades within a half a year. It's all very cynical.
Granted, with my 10% discount at the shop, most of these extra costs were eliminated so I only paid maybe a nickel more than cover price. But I was just saying.
What isn't cynical, of course, is INCREDIBLE HERCULES. It's a fast paced action filled tale of myth, magic, war and friendship. The addition of Fred Van Lente helped the book greatly after issue #112 and the last eight issues have been among the best yet. Greg Pak's solo issues before (or alongside Jeff Parker) during WWH were fine adventure tales, but the humor angle increased with Van Lente and the focus shifted of course frm Amadeus Cho to Hercules, who has become quite a character. Sure, he's a brawler, superhero, and eternal playah, but he's also more complex at times and has some private tragedies.
The SECRET INVASION arc from #116-120 naturally covers the tie in with the event and as usual it was better than the event proper. Considering the large impact, it is surprising that it was not promoted more. After meeting up with Hercules' sister Athena, the Goddess of Wisdom, Herc is mistaken for Gilgamesh the Forgotten One, a dead member of the Eternals and former Avenger, by Thena and Ikaris of the Eternals in California. After a quick fight, though, everything is resolved, in time for Athena to meet with a squad of gods about the upcoming Skrull war with Earth. Noting that the end of Earth would lead to their end as well, she implores the Gods to send forth fighters to aid in the struggle. Hercules is miffed that Athena never warned him of such a burden, especially as she wants HIM to play leader of the so-called "God Squad". Sent forth are Snowbird of ALPHA FLIGHT, Ajak of the Eternals, Demogorge (who eats Gods whenever there's an "end of times"), and Amatsu-Mikaboshi of Japan, and the ARES trade. Demogorge of course is there as a "shepard" who tends to a flock before slaughtering them; Amatsu for his vile tricks, and so on. Cho of course plays the token mortal. Snowbird was especially cool to see, given she refuses to join Michael Pointer's Omega Flight and actually has some dignity. Plus, it was good to see her in an adventure where she wasn't guest starring in WOLVERINE or something. She still has survivor's guilt, which Nightmare later exposes. The group is sent to battle the Skrull Gods Kly'bn and Sl'gur't by accessing the Dream World, which of course leads to a showdown with Nightmare. It exposes all of their unique fears, which Hercules manages to overcome with some luck and guile. Making the wolf cub a Skrull spy was a bit sudden, but more of a plot convenience.
Snowbird finds comfort in Hercules' arms (of course; Clint Barton WISHES he got as much tail) and they rally to defeat the Skrull gods, although it seemingly costs Demogorge his life. Cho fakes his death to get Hercules riled enough, and Snowbird seemingly sacrifices herself to get past some minions before saving him. Having the Skrulls start to lose the war, even having Mr. Fantastic escape the moment they die, at least leads some reason as to why the Skrulls seemed to go down a bit like idiots in the final act. The fight was pretty good and the art by Rafa Sandoval was top notch; the Romita Jr. covers were also great. I like how they have a taste of how Hercules should fight, using either Greco-Roman wrestling or axe-handle smashes.
The next arc of course still has two chapters left and is called WAR AND LOVE, from issues #121-123 so far. In it the tone gets somewhat more comical as "love is in the air" of spring (as groans Ares at SILLY'S GREEK DINER) as Hercules and Cho go on holiday at an island near Namora's section of the sea, where the two rekindle their flirting from the WWH affair. Of course, Herc faked drowning to get to first base with Namor's sultry cousin, and even has time to retell his Atlas adventure to mock her organization's name (The Agents of Atlas), as well as wrestle with her. Naturally they come off as, erm, "Warriors with Benefits" but it is possible there could be more, although who knows what Hercules thinks sometimes. The holiday is soon interupted by an attack by Amazons in their Princess' quest to have access to the mythical Axis Mundi to gain revenge against man's world. Cho is kidnapped and tricked into recoding at Atlantian document, and they even have to rescue the god Poseidon. Namor also doesn't quite take to Herc's persona; I like the humor with the sound effects, especially the KRAKKAJAMMA! sound of Herc punching Namor into the ocean at one point. It is good to see Namor somewhere where he isn't acting like Norman Osborn is a force that endangers him.
The Atlantians are connected to the mythology very well so of course that gives the thing with Namora more weight. It helps flesh her out between Jeff Parker AGENTS stories and between MIGHTY AVENGERS and AGENTS OF ATLAS, there may be a Triforce of Hercules going on at Marvel.
The Queen of the Amazons is killed by her overzealous daughter, and the Princess even kills a Gorgan girl for making out with Cho, and yes, that goofy "Thumb's Up" that Hercules gives Cho when he thinks he's about to score is pretty damned priceless.
Anubis has had it as his avatar for months and it still was friggin' hilarious. The art this time is by Clayton Henry, who has toiled on some X-books and a few random one-shots (like WHAT IF: WOLVERINE VS. SPIDER-MAN from last year) and his art really shines in INCREDIBLE HERCULES. The title seems to change artists about every 5 issues but I hope Henry can stick around a bit. Although if he and Sandoval are going to rotate every arc, that might be fine, too.
In some ways, the book reminds me of a more grown up version of MIGHTY MAX, in which a young teenage adventurer who almost is as smart as he is cocky is paired with an immortal warrior who encourages and inspires him. Only, of course, instead of being focused on Max, it is focused on Norman. And there are no bird-characters that talk. But there is that sense of adventure and character depth & interaction.
The cliffhanger at the end of the last issue has Pluto and Athena planning on taking over the Greek God Pantheon with Zeus' death and of course uniting to kill Hercules and Athena, an act that Ares may or may not aid in. I like how the series is able to keep Ares as a foil of Hercules while noting that he is now an official Avenger too. If anything, that adds to the tension.
I won't lie and say INCREDIBLE HERC is my absolute favorite book from Marvel; that Top Slot is spared for a CAPTAIN AMERICA/NOVA tie. But it would be tied with GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY for very, very Close Second. In fact with more thought I think it may be a smidge more enjoyable than GOTG. Which means it naturally adds to the Mighty Marvel Goodness in my pull list. $55 well spent. Naturally I can't wait for more, which is how it should be.
Nevermind.
The only SNES RPG I've played is Chrono Trigger, which I admit is the best RPG ever made, but I've never been into Final Fantasy. Every version I've played of it has bored me to tears, and that includes FFVII. I tend to favor Western RPGs and hate pretty much everything about JRPGs at this point.
All it needs is for the ending music track to be, "CCRRRAAAWWLLLING IIINNNN MYYYY SKKKIIIIIIINNNNN!"
t:
