The first week of the new decade and I was hardly besieged with titles. See what I did there? I'll be here all week, folks! Tip your waitress!
To be honest, this wasn't a week where there were so many good books that picking 3 to review at Examiner was a chore; this was those OTHER kinds of weeks, when out of 4 books maybe one, at best, is a 7 out of 10 and one has to amp the hell out of it to seem positive. Full reviews are always at Examiner first, and pure spoilers/rants are below.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 1/6/10:
HAUNT #4: The funny thing is how similar this premise is to DOCTOR VOODOO, that it debuted around the same time as Marvel's launch, and it's actually outsold it every issue. That's rare from an Image comic these days. At any rate, this is still very much a comic by committee; Robert Kirkman writes the monthly scripts, while Greg Capullo lays out the pencils, Ryan Ottley finishes the pencils, Todd McFarlane inks (and somewhat edits, if past editorial pages are to be believed; nothing Kirkman writes per issue will fly if Todd himself doesn't approve), and FCO colors. The book debuted at about 45-50k but sales for later issues have fallen at least 50% after the five printings #1 had; still, it should probably still be the best selling Image title besides WALKING DEAD and SPAWN as of this writing. How long that lasts doesn't negate the fact that combining Image's current star with their star of their founding era has produced their best launch in years. Old fading talent mixed with the current whiz kid; this is the buddy cop movie of creative teams.
This issue, things seem to start shifting to reflect more of Robert Kirkman's personal tics. There is some more dark humor, more banter with, and amung, the government agents. The brothers Kilgore (Daniel the live one, Kurt the dead one) continue to merge as the superhuman Haunt, although quite why is still not entirely explained. This issue we learn that the effect is a strain on Daniel's body, and transforming once per issue has left him physically weakened by the end. This is good, considering the character is seemingly immune to small arms gunfire and most knives. Speaking of knives, we also see a rematch between Haunt and a character who is definitely in McFarlane's wheel-house; Cobra, a knife carrying soldier assassin guy who has absolutely nothing to do with cobras, unless you count his poisoned knife gimmick. Haunt gets to save Kurt's wife (and Dan's former love) from Cobra, and we see more of the big boss man who is working behind the scenes at the heart of the matter. We also see the femme' fatale who stole Kurt's notebook and all but caused these chain of events to occur.
The artwork is still alright; different and darker than Ottley's INVINCIBLE pencils, which is good because this is a darker story. This title has improved a little since the start and I must say a re-read of prior issues didn't hurt it. The only dodgy aspect remains the design of Haunt himself. He has a mystical spandex design and nothing in the story lends itself to expect that. We know vaguely what a "Haunt" is, but we don't know exactly way it bestows so much power, or why it makes one look like a superhero vaguely inspired by Venom, complete with similar abilities. The next issue promises to answer that, although the story might linger a while. Overall, this isn't as good as ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN, but it still entertains me. Now, if this was $3.99, I probably would have dropped it; it isn't so awesome that it is worth $4 an issue. But for $3, it entertains me just fine and I'll likely stay aboard unless things take a turn into dire territory, like ULTIMATE X-MEN did. There are better Kirkman comics out there I guess, but this is much better than something McFarlane could have done entirely alone. It still reads almost more like a "hey cool!" type of stunt than a viable premise, but Brother Voodoo's "merging with dead brother for powers" gimmick hasn't been nearly as run into the ground as other super powers, so there is a place for it. A solid B grade comic.
MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN #1: This made "book of the week" at my Examiner article site, which is more of a testament to how modest a week it was as opposed to how brilliant this is. It still is good, although for a Jeff Parker debut issue I have read better. The artwork by Felix Ruiz doesn't do the story any favors; it's a bit rough and sketchy, and I don't think that fits the tone or premise of the story well. The colors by Val Staples certainly help. Still, it's not bad art at all. The premise is to retell Bob Grayson's origin from the retcon circa 2005's AGENTS OF ATLAS mini. In that, it erased his "death" in 70's era FF comics as an "impostor" and added a bit to his 1951 origin. Considering the gap of time between that mini and new Agents stuff, the time might be right to retell the origin however Parker wants it. So in this issue, we have Grayson landing on Earth in 1950 as a deligate from Uranus, out to make an impression and fight evil. Unfortunately this is the height of Cold War era paranoia, so he is promptly arrested by the military and set up for a date at the operating table. Fortunately Grayson escapes and flees to New York.
As an interesting twist, he falls in with a comic book promoter, who by 1950 would have been desperate as the superhero genre was waning in that era. He suggests a line of comics based on the hero to better allow the public to accept him; a comic within a comic. It works well enough, as Bob settles on calling himself, "Marvel Boy", which seems more timely than "the Uranian". Parker still deserves props for seriously toying with a superhero from Uranus without making it the butt of jokes. See, the butt of jokes?
As a bonus, you get a colored reprint of a Marvel Boy story from 1951. Those stories are usually goofy, and part of me wonders if Marvel seriously wants to make this AGENTS OF ATLAS franchise catch on, maybe making a spin-off to a low selling series as expensive as possible isn't the best strategy. Even at only 3 issues, retailers would have ordered more copies at $3 than $4. But what do I know? I'm only a comic reading fan, who doesn't use success and arrogance to shield me from reality. I'm clearly not as smart as editorial wizards.
At any rate, a brief mini series that seeks to flesh out one of the key members of the AGENTS OF ATLAS; no more, no less. I'm not sure if anyone who wasn't already an Atlas would especially enjoy this, but if you are one like me, you'll enjoy it. Especially this week.
SIEGE #1: Or, "BENDIS EVENT III #1" of four. Although THE SIEGE: THE CABAL for all intents and purposes was SIEGE #1-A of this series. Still, even with that included, at 5 chapters this would be the shortest major Marvel event mini in years. HOUSE OF M and SECRET INVASION were both 8 issues, a number that some Marvel execs seem to now quietly concede was too long. On the other hand, sales talk, and I imagine they were more than one factor in expanding CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN to six issues instead of five (that and BLACKEST NIGHT doing so well). If SIEGE #1 moves like 300k, will Bendis be handed an extra issue? Is money green?
The long and the short of this is that it isn't bad at all. Throw in solid artwork by Oliver Coipel, who last worked on an event comic with Bendis for HOUSE OF M, and it's actually above average, a 6 out of 10. The question is it worth $3.99 just for a glossy cover, an extra page of story (23 pages total), and 3 pages of script noting a Dark Avengers security meeting, shamelessly expanded to 4 by repeating Page 1, with extra pictures? Not entirely. But it's an event, and few of us really expect them to be great as stories. In fact this is only the second Bendis comic I have read in a year. And in all fairness, Bendis events are rarely rubbish at the start. They merely devolve into rubbish by about the middle and then collapse into overrated buffalo feces by the finale, which is almost always either an anti-climax or a non-ending everyone saw coming, which Bendis treats as if it was told to him by a Burning Bush and usually explains better on Newsarama than in the pages within.
More happens here than in THE CABAL one shot, although the problem is that most of what happens was more or less stated in the 6 page preview, and in various solicitations and interviews. The usual, a surprise event that surprises no one. Volstagg causes a ruckus trying to fight crime, and a fight against the U-Foes (who are technically federally sanctioned superheroes) destroys Soldier Field in Chicago (no, not the Cubs!). This gives Osborn all the opening he needs to declare war on Asgard in Oklahoma and launch a full Dark Avengers attack on it to improve his standings with the public and media. The President is against it, but Osborn naturally doesn't heed him, and only seems to heed Loki. As usual, Loki is playing Iron Goblin like a fiddle.
Bendis adds Balder to his list of, "what figures written above most common people can I depict in a state of undress in mid-sexual intercourse" beside Dr. Doom and Dr. Strange as the attack begins. Also note that for all his faults, not even Bendis makes Balder as much of a gullible chump as JMS did on THOR; he immediately suspects Loki's hand in the attack, nor believes Loki's lies to the contrary. This book is a little ahead of THOR, which still has most of the Asgardians in Latveria as Thor and his chums attack Dr. Doom, but it isn't as bad as the whole REBORN debacle. In fact it does tie in quite well with INVINCIBLE IRON MAN, in which Donald Blake and Maria Hill are still watching over a comatose Tony Stark when the spit hits Asgard.
It says a lot about Thor's status on Marvel's totem pole of 100 ton tankers when the moment I saw Thor fly onto the scene, I literally thought, "oh, Bendis is going to have him get TKO'd like a wuss in 5 pages or less", and lo and behold, that is precisely what happens. While Thor doesn't get taken down as easily as, say, Colossus of the X-Men usually does, he's still nowhere near as tough as Hulk or, of course, Wolverine. You'd never see Wolverine get ***** slapped in the opening issue of a line wide crossover mini. The last time I saw Hulk get spanked this quickly, also by the U-Foes, was the Ostrander/Ferry debut issue of HEROES FOR HIRE in the mid 90's, and good LORD did WIZARD magazine throw a hissy fit about that one. Yes, I know it showed Ares' strategy; the "throw everything and the kitchen sink at Thor immediately or we're all dead" ploy. But, again, I can't think of anyone other than Colossus or Sentry who would fall that quickly when it counted, and that stinks. I've seen Luke Cage take WAY more than that. Hell, Luke Cage made Electro pass out just with a sneer; when the hell has Thor been allowed such a moment? Least one not written by Kieron Gillen?
Coipel as usual turns in a good art chore, although even at only 4 issues of relatively average comic length I wonder if he will be entirely on time. He couldn't handle more than 2 issues of THOR monthly and he ran late on HOUSE OF M. Still, reading this next to, say, an issue of anything Ed Brubaker writes revolving around Captain America and you really see that Bendis has no talent for pacing a fight and relies entirely on his artist to do that. And Coipel is hardly George Perez in that regard. Thor gets in a few hits with Sentry, energy blast, down. Bendis relies on TELLING you that Thor is going down, rather than really showing it well. WORLD WAR HULK was a big Greengasm, but at least Greg Pak and John Romita Jr. could pace some hellish fights. At any rate, the issue ends with Steve Rogers, who watches TV in his Captain America uniform, stand in surprise. Well, watching one of his old buddies get spanked would likely incite Rogers into action. Anyway, can you tell REBORN is running late?
The "board meeting" at the end is interesting in that without art and with sheer script reading, I had no idea who was usually speaking beyond Ares and Sentry, and even when I knew, Gargan as Spidey sounded the same as Parker under Bendis. I could swap Bullseye's creepy cynicism with most of Bendis' Logan or Clint lines and I doubt anyone would notice. Remember how in SUPER FRIENDS, everyone talked alike and without the voice actors, it all would have read the same? Bendis is like that, only snarkier and bleaker. He's the ANTI-SUPERFRIEND. I also could imagine that with better scripting, Bendis could have gotten 10 pages of art around those 3 pages of text talking. And that's disgusting.
No, SIEGE #1 wasn't bad. But is "not bad" the best we can expect of Marvel's Number One writer? It is, and that always is annoying. Bendis events always start out as good as they're going to get and go downhill from there. I'm only here because of morbid curiosity and because this is the "it" Marvel book of 2010. I hardly expect a miracle. I do expect side titles doing tie-ins, such as AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE, MIGHTY AVENGERS, or THUNDERBOLTS, to get a lot out of this, just as everyone but Bendis worked SECRET INVASION better.
Some are predicting the Marvel universe to swing back into "not as bleak" territory after SIEGE. Politically, with Bush out of office almost a year now, it's about time considering Marvel's about as left as a turn signal. But with a Bendis event, I expect nothing but overrated gibberish unless proven wrong. Still, considering my 12 month break from Bendis, he hasn't completely displeased me. From him, "average" is better than expected.
SIEGE: EMBEDDED #1: I didn't plan on buying this all until yesterday when I read it was from Brian Reed and not Paul Jenkins. I decided impulsively to give it a try, and I regretted it. This isn't worth $4 a pop. It isn't bad, but the definition of "meh", and a waste of Samnee's pencils. As well as a waste of shelf space, paper, and my time. It should simply be called "SIEGE: SOMETHING ELSE FOR FOUR BUCKS, SUCKA".
Phil Urich teams up with another reporter guy to follow Volstagg back to Oklahoma and report on SIEGE. Because conservatives are evil, an obvious metaphor station for Fox News is 100% behind Osborn and being set up to preach his propaganda. Because, y'know, news stations that lean left never, ever, EVER report anything that nears propaganda for Democrats. The art is probably the highlight, and a lot of the story washes over like rain, and is forgotten as soon as one is inside. I'd say political stories that still rail against conservatives when they are out of majority power is much like kicking someone when they're down to an audience that is too busy being hysterical to notice, but no matter.
This wasn't even worth sticking around for $3, much less $4. But, I knew better, and didn't listen to myself, because I was once impressed with Reed's CAPTAIN MARVEL, and him getting something almost decent with Bendis in some issues of THE ILLUMINATI. My fault. The art by Samnee was probably the highlight. Now HE should have drawn MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN!
. And even though I know Cap alone wouldn't do anything to turn the tide of this fight, seeing him pissed off on that last page was freakin' awesome. I smell some assembling in the near future 
I did like the first issue of the series, it seemed to flow quite easily from the regular Thor ongoing and I had no trouble following it along. 
