Dread's Bought/Thought for 3/17/10 Part II:
MARVEL BOY: THE URANIAN #3: The second bit of Jeff Parker material this week, and also related to the AGENTS. This mini has sought to flesh out Bob Grayson, one of the AGENTS as sometimes he gets lost in the series proper. Felix Ruiz does the artwork and I am not sure his sketchy style was the best for a 1950's sci fi story such as this. He would seem more at home in horror or some sort of urban noir tale. Val Staples does the color work and he does a lot to make the art work better and to keep all the tones appropriate. Ruiz's art isn't bad, I just am not convinced it was the most appropriate for the story, which is bad when I'm at the end and still unsure. At any rate, it covers some of the gaps in Grayson's origin as well as sets up that his bretheren back on Uranus are hardly as good intentioned as he or his father were, wanting to return to Earth and "evolve" them, whether the Earthlings want it or not. It was good seeing some of Bob's early adventures but I am not sure I know more about him as a character than I did before. It was good seeing him get a girlfriend in the past (before he seemed to get weird in the present), and the bit where he worked with his 50's comic book artists and writers was a fun twist. Still, I may have a hard time remembering details after a while.
The reprints of actual MARVEL BOY comics in the back are interesting as historical stuff. Parker does have a handle on Grayson's earnest genius hero demeanor, although Grayson is older and acts somewhat more refined in the present. There was one bit in a comic where Grayson goes on a long lecture to himself (and the reader) exposing the hypocrisy of Communists, which is interesting for the time. Nowadays, the only times when a comic story stops so a character can give a political lecture, it is usually to tell the reader how conservative viewpoints are always irredeemably evil. It is quaint to see when such things happened to warn us of the evils of communism. Beyond that, it's standard late Golden Age stuff. Not the silliest of stuff, but still a bit goofy by today's standards.
NOVA #35: This here is the ****. This week a lot of people will likely either like GOTG or HERCULES: FALL OF AN AVENGER better, and those are perfectly reasonable opinions because both thos books were also very good this week. But me? I went with NOVA, which was my Book Of The Week over at Examiner. Why? Because Nova is the frickin' man. Hercules is the man, and many of the Guardians are awesome. But Nova's like the Optimus Prime of space right now, which is as geeky a comparison as it gets. He's taken down Annihilus, and taken down Ego, and even Gladiator's Supergirl Lite cousin. Now, he flirts with taking down the greatest challenge he has ever faced -- Mark Millar. In the process, Abnett & Lanning have done a great job dusting off Nova's old 1970's nemesis the Sphinx (who last popped up during the Erik Larson series) and given him a great new design and made a worthy threat of him. The only reason REALM OF KINGS is involved is because the Fault is central to the story. Although, I suppose Sphinx is a "king" if you want to get technical. Considering he pre-dated Apocalypse by years, I thought it was a good thing to amp him up a bit. Mahmud Asrar, co-creator of Image's DYNAMO 5 has filled in for Andrea DiVito and I do like his work more than Kevin Sharpe. This issue shows some signs of rush at times but otherwise is very solid. Hanna and Hang do inks and colors and as usual knock it out of the park.
This is it, the finale to the whole arc. The Sphinx has utilized the nature of The Fault, where the rules of space and time do not apply, to fight his younger self to gain two Ka Stones, and each is a powerful enough artifact to influence reality. It all comes down to one hero tough enough to try to beat Sphinx before he's mastered the stones enough to basically unmake the rest of the "positive" universe outside the Fault. There is a bit of techno-babble exposition but it boils down to Sphinx specifically making an "impossible" world where he could achieve the impossible, and then he wants to master it so he can unmake the "possible" universe outside the Fault. One highlight is easily when Richard utilizes the full Nova Force and gushes about being able to hold off a god-blast. In a way, opening a stargate has been Richard's method of dispatching with quite a few threats lately, but it all comes down to pace, and I think Abnett, Lanning, and Asrar paced it all very well.
The best was yet to come, though. Sphinx's magical world comes crashing down, and everyone who was pulled through time starts to vanish, either back to their own period or possible non-existence. And that is when Richard apparently was too tempted from two issues back to let go of Namorita when he had the chance. I certainly didn't expect Nova to actually save Namorita, and Darkhawk even calls on how Richard likely pulled some space/time lever and something bad will come of it. But Richard decided it was worth that because Namorita deserved the same second chance at life as Norman Osborn, Colossus, Captain America, Magneto, Red Skull, Baron Zemo, and other figures have gotten. It actually opens up a lot of possibilities for next issue and the future. Will this be like Booster Gold wanting to save Ted Kord, and that one act unravels the entire time line? Will this version of Namorita act as if she is a parallel version from the past, and she'll still be "dead" on Earth unless Namorita chooses to take her counter-part's place? Or will this Namorita somehow gain all the knowledge from her counter-part in this time, including that she should be dead?
Granted, that would mean that Dwayne and Microbe (and Speedball's character) were the only New Warriors who stayed dead after Stamford, but I don't think the audience really wanted the New Warriors to all get blown to bits. And it wasn't as if Namorita wasn't dead for longer than Steve Rogers was. Why do A-Listers only get the "get out of death free" card? If she actually could return for real in NOVA, it would do a great deal to say that this book, as well as the space ones, matter. It certainly opens up a world of possibility. It might make Namora a bit happier; she's lost her cloned daughter and Hercules in a very short span of time. While there is a part of me that things this may be a Ted Kord like situation, where Richard will have to let Namorita go, but it certainly would be interesting if it wasn't, if the impossible bent a little for the good guys for once, rather than allowing some villain an upteenth excuse to cheat death for franchise reasons. The Breakworld decided that Colossus shouldn't die for completely horrible reasons; Rich is only acting out of love and regret, after all.
Opens up a world of possibilities that don't include death, which is why it is my top book of the week. That, and Nova kicks ass.
SIEGE #3: If you have never read a Bendis story before, this isn't so bad. Even if you have, it's not a below average issue or series so far to be honest. The problem is that it succumbs to Bendis' particular tics while also showing that he apparently didn't get the memo about him not having 6-9 issues to resolve this. He shouldn't need that many, but he has gotten used to dragging out the most mundane act to 6 issues. Now he has 4 (5 if you include THE CABAL one shot), and this issue it seems to be crunch time.
The whole "two people talk in narration boxes all important like while chaos fights in the panels" has been done by Bendis before in other events, and other stories. NEW AVENGERS, HOUSE OF M, SECRET INVASION. In fact, don't a lot of his stories devolve into "everyone is in a sea of combat, swinging at each other" with no pacing or purpose? SECRET WAR, HOUSE OF M, even SECRET INVASION. I swear he did a sequence very close to this in USM once. This time those talking are the President and one of his chief's, but it could have been Nick Fury and Maria Hill, or Hill and the President, or two SHIELD agents, or Moe and Curly. He obviously thinks these royal rumble battles are awesome, but they become hard to follow even without a sea of gibberish text clouding stuff. Brubaker can pull off battle pacing. Bendis can't, at least not for long. Ares fought Sentry for 7 pages last issue, but Thor barely gets 4 here. It is as if Bendis always knows where he is going, and always has an idea, his eternal dilemma is the how and why, the execution.
Last issue, the story demanded Thor escape Osborn, and that Maria Hill save him. Rather than use some bit of espionage or trickery, she just blasts in with a yokel and they drag him off. Just as this issue is basically, "everyone fights until Osborn loses", and next will be "everyone fights until Void loses, and probably at least one of them dies". The problem is it should not be so mind glaringly obvious. This is Marvel's #1 writer on their top selling event of the year and he can't telegraph drama any better than whoever writes those BK KIDS CLUB flyers at BURGER KING. He uses dialog or chaotic fight art to distract you from the sense that this sandwich has some expensive bread and an ocean of mayo, but absolutely no meat.
There is one moment where Taskmaster runs into Captain America and all I could think of was, "Wow, I can't wait to see Christos Gage make that into 5-10 pages in AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE and make it awesome". I also imagined Gillen making Thor's fight with Sentry in THOR seem more epic. There is another moment where Osborn tells Rogers he is under arrest, and Rogers says he was about to say the same thing, and I thought...do EITHER of them have the authority to make an arrest? Rogers was pardoned in WHO WILL WIELD THE SHIELD #1, but that doesn't mean he is a cop or agent who can arrest people; if anything he told the President he was retired, unless the President drafted him (an offer you never would have heard Rogers say during the Bush years, but we're past that now). Technically Rogers has entered this situation rogue, leading around heroes who have blatantly ignored the SHRA or working with Nick Fury, who was considered an enemy. Osborn technically is the Sec. of Defense and can arrest people, but has been declared a rogue. So we have a vigilante who was pardoned for past vigilante action taking on a rogue agent. I'm probably over-thinking that moment, but that's when Bendis stories do. Without any good meat in there, I have no choice but to examine the bread and dressings. What else is there, the plate?
I can also see why JMS jumped ship to DC; I cannot imagine he was thrilled with the idea of his year and a half on THOR becoming meaningless for a spring event. Personally I didn't mind the angle of Asgard being over Oklahoma and I know destroying it is just there for an explosion. Still, again, a good writer would provide the Obligatory Cheap Explosion and not make it FEEL like an Obligatory Cheap Explosion. Bendis doesn't, and hasn't in a lot of his work for a long, long time. Maybe he relates to Sentry. A boss put him in charge of everything and he has no choice but to go loose, and damn the consequences. Joe Q knew Bendis' niche was urban pulp but has tasked Bendis to write everything from team comics to wedding invitations and Bendis isn't about to say no. Speaking of Sentry, has there ever been a more one-note Heel's Berserk Henchman in comics in a good long time than Sentry? He's basically Bebop (or Rocksteady) with the Power Cosmic and less dialog. Bendis fails to understand how EVERY READER WHO HAS EVER LIVED can predict where he is going, but he treats every mundane turn or no-brainer twist as some Agatha Christie masterstroke. And why the hell are the Hood and his gang of mobster villains there!? To provide fodder for the tie-in's? To rob Tigra of her deserved victory over Parker in A:TI? If anyone deserved to beat Hood like a rag doll and throw him in the clink, it was/is Tigra.
You also have to love how other heroes watching on TV smugly act as if it was so obvious that Osborn was a raging lunatic who never should have been put in so much power. Gee, if THEY saw that, how the **** does anyone think us readers have examined the situation for nine bloody months!? Having characters within a story acknowledge how ludicrous a certain twist is can work to deflect responsibility or blame to a point, but do it too often like Mark Millar, and it almost seems like a writer's subconscious screaming at them. Yes, Johnny Storm. The concept of a convicted serial killing terrorist who even personally executed reporters being drafted to be the Sec. of Defense without one reasonable explanation to do away with his prior convictions is literally more unbelievable than radioactive spider-bites. But who cares about the hows or whys, right? How many characters are complaining about seeing things coming? How do they think we feel?
Still, there are good moments. Oliver Coipel's art is good as always. The inks and colors are also good. It was good to see Norman Osborn get beat up a bit, for Iron Man to return, and even for Spider-Man to land the final punch at the end. I was actually pleased to see Thor not exactly get mopped around as if it was the Shocker (even if, for the guy who has faced down Surtur and the Midguard Serpent, he looked like he was pissing himself when Sentry got all Void on him). I suppose some may say, "well, Dread, if you read Bendis' other 2-3 books this week/month, it all makes sense", but why should it take 2-3 issues to cover what I have seen better writers handle well in a 10 page back up strip? Why does Bendis always get a pass because he is #1? If anything, that pedestal should raise the bar, and in my opinion he has rarely matched his pedigree. If you charge $200 for a steak and say you are a 5 star joint, it had damn well better be a ****ing great steak. You can't charge $4 for a $1 story and expect us not to be irked (technically the issue was 23 pages rather than the usual 22 - go "extra sized"). There are quite a few cool splash pages, though, and some people love that glossy paper.
There is an ad for X-MEN: SECOND COMING that is literally a one page banner for everything wrong with American comics. It proudly vows, "Many will Fall. Some will Die". Do they not realize they do this every year, and fans have gotten wise about it?
Also, if you made a drinking game every time someone says, "Oh, come on" like it was the most original line ever uttered, you'd be wasted before USM #50, much less this.
No, so far SIEGE isn't quite as terrible as HOUSE OF M or SECRET INVASION, but is this the measure of the greatest writer in comics right now? "His latest **** isn't as bad as his past ****?" That is talent? That is why countless rookie writers will never be close to the biz unless they drive themselves to poverty making indie's no one will ever read? To be dwarfed by a guy who can't even write a royal rumble properly? For every Lee O'Malley or Peter Laird there will be thousands who never get beyond flipping burgers trying to make it in the biz, and Bendis makes reaching the highest position in comics look like nothing but a joke. People sigh when a Bryne or a Claremont can't reach prior heights, and Bendis' best is so small compared to them. You usually need to be good for a decade before people will swallow you stinking up the joint for a decade. Bendis didn't have that.
SIEGE isn't bad. But if it truly is the worst selling "big event" of the last 5 years (at best it debuted at 130k), I can't say I feel much pity. Marvel and Bendis think SIEGE is the best story on the face of the globe, seven years in the making (even if 7 years ago was 2003 and Bendis was not on Avengers yet, but what do you expect of a company that cannot count to 600?), but the rest of us are just waiting for it to finish so we can move on to better stuff.
VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #6 Hurwitz and Opena finish their first arc of this Moon Knight relaunch, and it has outlasted books like DOCTOR VOODOO and SWORD, although with sales at 19k, it likely won't last past issue 10 or 12. At any rate, Moon Knight has his latest showdown with Bushman, who was resurrected by Hood. Things get very bloody but he manages to resist his own dark impulses, as well as the dark temptations of Khonshu. The Moon God is getting impatient that Spector now refuses to kill in his name. Specter thinks he has things under control for now, but of course the Profile goes digging for dirt, and all will not stay well. The next two issues will see Deadpool show up, because Marvel decided he was in too few books. Hardly even see the guy!
Opena's artwork has been a major draw for me here. Aside for one awkward moment the battle between Moon Knight and Bushman is well paced and exciting. It isn't anything Eisner worthy, but for what it is, it's solid stuff. Part of me thinks Moon Knight at this stage may be more fun on a team book than in a solo, but this has been a better volume than a lot of his last. I honestly think Marvel should have waited to relaunch Moon Knight if they wanted sales to improve (2-3 months wasn't enough), but I haven't regretted it so far.