My thoughts on comics this week can be pretty easily summed up:
I'm dropping Thor for the first time in 7 or 8 years if Fraction's next issue is as utterly detestable as this week's.
Wow. I'd say I am with you, but I can say that the JMS run of THOR was the first time I'd actually paid to read THOR (my mother had a subscription to THOR in the 80's and 90's, but I rarely read it). I certainly won't miss it much.
Anyway, Avengers Academy was good. It made me love Tigra more than I ever have before. Those kids are total d-bags. I was disappointed in Veil going along with that s***. I liked her. But I guess I can understand her reaction. Regardless, it should be interesting to see how things pan out next issue. I hope Striker's ass gets booted out for good, but I know from solicitations that he's sticking around.
Christos Gage has long displayed a fondness for Tigra. She started getting more to do in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE once he started co-writing it by issue #7 or #8, and she became one of the main stars once he took over solo duties on it when DARK REIGN started. He's been the only writer in recent memory who wanted to do more with her than offer cheesecake or "furry" fetish fuel. He has treated her like a strong heroine for at least the past 1-2 years. He's taken her victimization at the hands of Hood (and Bendis) and really turned it into story fuel. That's the way to do it.
To be fair, not ALL the kids went after Hood. To a degree it isn't like they're completely without a point. They're about to enter the hero game, and if villains feel they can simply waltz into a hero's home, smack them around and threaten their family, well, THEIR lives are in peril. They have been involved in battles against villains with grudges against Hank Pym, like Whirlwind, who are willing to hurt the kids just to get at him. To them, it may seem like the adults' way of doing things doesn't work and it's time to do something else. Of course, it isn't exactly the right thing to do, and as Tigra said, it's just being a bully. She did similar things herself for a bit, but now admits it was wrong and "an over reaction". She also is apparently the first of the adult heroes in that group who publicly admitted she needs help. Speedball has been burying it for a while, and Hank Pym needed a full intervention to try to get over Jan.
I am curious about where Gage will go with Taskmaster and Finesse next issue. Given his own mini, Tony Master could have easily had a kid and totally forgotten about her. The irony? Taskmaster, despite having some similarities to Wolverine (a killing machine with amnesia issues who has terrible secrets), he's suddenly become a lot more sympathetic to me.
I just hope Gage is actually allowed to, one day, have a final showdown type battle involving the Hood that really counts. It's unlikely because Bendis has used him as the New Avengers' exclusive nemesis for about 3 years now.
Except that'll never happen. Fraction has whatever Bendis has--no matter how terrible his comics are, people buy them in droves.
Not as much as you'd think. If you think the Fraction/Ferry run on THOR has outsold Gillen's, the numbers say you're wrong. The lowest that any issue of Gillen's 11 issue run on THOR sold was just over 51k (his final issue sold over 53k). Fraction's THOR was selling at 51k by his second issue on it, and by November, it was selling at 49k. His THOR ended 2010 with just over 45k sales. Technically, his THOR has remained a Top 25 book, but the Top 100 in general has been seeing diminishing sales. I mean, these were months where the #1 seller didn't sell 100k, and for some, Marvel's top seller didn't even hit 89k - numbers that ICV2 have claimed are the lowest since 2001 (when all comics were no higher than $2.99 and many were still $2.50 or $2.75). The fact that Fraction's THOR is being relaunched in April 2011, after only 8 issues, is a sign that Marvel is aware that sales are dwindling on his watch, so they're trying the only trick they know, a retitle/renumbering relaunch, to spike them, if only for a couple months (or less).
As for INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, sales on that book have fallen about 33% over the last year, including a 23% drop in the last 6 months. Fraction has been unable to keep Iron Man's core title selling above 50k for a very long time, and by November it was down to 40k (December saw a slight climb back to 41k, and I am sure issue #500 will see a spike due to collectors and variant covers).
My point is that comparing him to Bendis is a little absurd in terms as numbers go. Bendis' NEW AVENGERS and AVENGERS, as well as virtually all of Marvel's comics, have seen horrible sales drops in the final quarter of 2010, but Bendis' comics seem to outsell Fraction's by over 20k. If we're looking at raw sales, Dan Slott's ASM and Ed Brubaker's SECRET AVENGERS outsell Fraction's comics on a usual basis.
Gillen is taking over for Fraction on UXM, and you'll notice not a soul online is complaining. Marvel is expecting sales spikes for FEAR ITSELF, but to be blunt, I'd say that expecting that to match SIEGE's peak of some 135k or so sales might be expecting too much. Outside of comic sales, Marvel is better than it has ever been, but in terms of comic sales, things are looking like 2001 again. And Fraction's lost far more readers on THOR than Gillen did; the numbers don't lie. The drop from November to December alone was over 10%.
I like Ferry's art but not on Thor. I'd welcome the return to Coipel if Fraction weren't attached to it. But Braithwaite is awesome as well. I hope he's the regular artist on JiM and not just a one-off. His art style suits Thor's world really well.
I actually like Ferry's art on THOR, but he's drawn for some dodgy stuff lately. He drew an arc of Ellis' ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR (or was it Mike Carey, I forget) about alternate realities that was nearly incomprehensible.
Lost interest in
USM around the first Carnage arc and never looked back.
Secret Invasion followed the pattern of all of Bendis' other arcs: lots of build-up to a thoroughly unsatisfying conclusion.
He has good ideas but I just can't stand his writing style. Besides the aforementioned (major) pacing issue, his dialogue just annoys the hell out of me and unnecessarily decompresses his already-decompressed storytelling style even further. It doesn't need to take a full page of "ums" and "uhs" and back-and-forth monosyllabic banter for Spider-Man to communicate to Captain America that a bad guy is escaping, for example.
But to each his own.
I stayed on USM until the end of the Clone Saga, which was worse than the 90's version (due to having hindsight) and never looked back. At the time, the most harsh reviews of anything I'd ever reviewed on SHH were for that. At one point I recall writing something to the effect of, "I hope every copy of this sells just so they can all be piled onto a bonfire so it's atoms can be wiped from the earth" or something. It was 2006 I think; I was still in college.
His whole Charlie Huston and David Finch run was really, really weird. I could not for the life of me figure out what was going on. But after Huston left, MK had some pretty good runs that really explored his insanity and self conflict. I feel like MK is one of those characters that has an untapped potential that no writer has seemed to bring out yet.
The Huston run on MOON KNIGHT started dark and then went absurdly dark and I left after issue #19 or so. I tried Hurwitz' VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT run, and while it was far from perfect, it was an improvement. Moon Knight barely had a 3-4 month break between launches now, so I think it is wise of Marvel to try to give him a little rest before the Bendis/Maleev run.
I'm with you on this one! Thor is the first comic I've ever read. Fraction's image of Thor is pretty horrendous! I could understand Thor feeling sad about Loki being dead but come on! Loki has been the cause of many horrible things to happen to Asgard and it's people!
Fraction is just not doing it for me!!! I can't wait for his run end! Also I am not a fan of Ferry's and Hollingswoth's artwork! It just screams coloring book to me
I like the artwork, but, yes, it's the script that isn't doing it for me on THOR. To be honest I might have dropped it this week, but it was a slow week and I need at least 3 comics to review at Examiner. My shop didn't have YOUNG JUSTICE #0; if it had, I may have tried that.
The sad part about the Loki thing is that it would've been perfectly fine if Thor hadn't resurrected Loki himself. I can understand Thor, in the wake of his brother's death, remembering and dwelling mostly on the good parts of Loki and then rushing to protect the kid version who embodies all of those good parts again. But leaping to resurrect Loki himself after everything he did is a step too far. It just doesn't make sense. Thor has a lot of much more pressing problems than just missing his bro.
Meanwhile, emo/suicidal Balder is just pathetic and totally wrong for that character.
I agree here. Loki coming back as an 11 year old itself isn't a bad idea. But having Thor revive him AS that idealized brother he imagined is, well...you could say neurotic at best. The sort of thing Hercules would scream at Zeus for doing.
Now more than ever, Hercules is coming off as the god who has half a brain. He's never done stuff as stupid as Thor has done the last few months.
Fraction's actually a great writer, one of the best of the new crop of writers I think. His Casanova series is probably the best series to come out in the last decade. Five Fists of Science is damn good, too. Unfortunately, it looks not to have translated to his superhero work, outside IIF.
To be fair, Fraction translated to superhero work fine with THE ORDER, which ran for 10 issues before INVINCIBLE IRON MAN launched. Because it was good, it sold poorly, and he ended it before it would have been canceled, essentially. It's a shame because he hasn't written anything better for Marvel solo; IMMORTAL IRON FIST still was alongside Brubaker. Since THE ORDER, it's been all downhill for Fraction in terms of solo superhero work. Which is a shame because THE ORDER was very good; it did what Gage is doing with AVENGERS ACADEMY now, only a few years earlier.
It seems any writer who does critically acclaimed work who suddenly enters the big leagues at Marvel suddenly has their work suffer. It sure did with Bendis. Brubaker has had his stumbles since he's gotten higher books, like an Avengers one. And now Fraction. What's the common thread? The editorial team. Whatever they're doing, they're stifling whatever talent the big guys have when they reach that level. It isn't deliberate but I don't think it is a coincidence anymore. Now that Axel Alonso has more official power over that stuff, I am curious if this may change or remain the same.
On the other hand, it seems all the writers who work through "the minor leagues" of the Marvel Adventures line for years before slowly moving up seem to have done better. Jeff Parker, Fred Van Lente, Sean McKeever, Paul Tobin, etc. Christos Gage is an exception, but there always are. I always feel Gage still doesn't get enough credit around the Internet; he's every bit as reliable for quality as Jeff Parker and Fred Van Lente are. AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE became a markedly better book once Gage took it over solo, and I in no way mean that as an insult to Dan Slott, who is another terrific writer who launched that book and did great work on it; Gage's game was just better on it. When Gage and Slott double-team for a story, it's always great. Gage's AVENGERS ACADEMY is the best Avengers book on the racks, bar none. He's also written for TV, but doesn't treat comic book work as any sort of second class gig, unlike some other TV writers I could mention.
Dan Slott's been in the industry for a very long time and I have to say he's lived up to BIG TIME on ASM; if he hadn't I wouldn't be on it now. I gave it a chance for that promotion and I haven't regretted it. His MIGHTY AVENGERS, while not perfect, was still one of the best runs on Avengers since 2004. He and Gage have sort of worked off each other with a lot of Avengers stuff and it's paid off.
It is weird, though, that you have a class of writers who have done exceptional work, but once they enter the Executive Bathroom level, the quality seems to stagnate (at best), while you have another class of writers who may not quite be there yet or are close and they're the ones hitting quality grand slams. And to me that means something in editorial is happening, or NOT happening.
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