This is post-Thanksgiving review spread, and I'll try to get through it as quick as possible. As always, reviews were up at my Examiner link below on time.
http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-...v-25th-2009--Overstuffed-Thanksgiving-Edition
As always, rants and spoilers below.
Dread's BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 11/25/09:
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #30: As the cover shows, Nightmare fights everyone. Those who claim covers aren't accurate anymore to interiors have to be happy here. In fact this is among one of the most accurate covers of the last few issues. Now, the funny thing is that every time someone asks someone at Marvel about whether or not they "overdo" some characters by having them appear a gazillion places. Lord knows Iron Man was done to death during Civil War/Initiative, and Osborn & the Dark Avengers during Dark Reign, as well as Spidey and Wolverine since forever. This month, apparently, it is Nightmare. He's shown up in DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #899 and DOCTOR VOODOO within the last 4 weeks, and this is apparently his third appearance. Usually when some non X, Spidey, or Avengers villain shows up a lot, it is Dr. Doom (such as in THOR or CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN). Still, he's one of the more potent members of Dr. Strange's rogues gallery, and since Dr. Strange himself has been demoted, virtually stripped of all magical power and saddled babysitting some desperate Sister Grimm wanna-be at a baseball field, now is the time.
In proper Christos Gage fashion on this title, this is the culmination of one arc while seeming to start onto the next, which will tie into SIEGE. For the last few issues, Trauma has been placed under the strain of keeping Penace in "fighting shape" for Taskmaster and Hood, although without actually helping his psychosis. Still a mess from where he was left off by Paul Jenkins and Warren Ellis, Penance barely remembers anything about his past (such as his real name or his friends or family), and for the sake of his mother's care, Trauma has obliged. Unfortunately, Terry Ward is the son of Nightmare, and his distress allows Nightmare to take command of his power and power, to basically effect the living world as if it was a dream. This comes to a head just as the Avengers Resistance are raiding Camp HAMMER to save Night-Thrasher (who may or may not have sold them out as a last stab effort to resurrect his brother) and are facing down Osborn's Initiative members, including Penance (who is their old ally, Speedball, once upon a time when Marvel comics could unclench). Molina takes over for Sandoval on art again, although the latter does draw the cover.
It's the usual solid issue, loaded with characters who all get their own distinct moments, from Tigra's leadership to Slapstick's TICK inspired nightmare to Taskmaster proving himself more of a man than Hood is. The focal points of the issue are Terry and Penance. Nightmare allows Penance to fully remember his past as Baldwin/Speedball as well as the Stamford disaster. Now, Penance as an end to Speedball is a dead end, and an overly emo one; I am presuming that Gage wants to rehabilitate the character without, say, some "it was a Skrull" style retcon, which is fine - a step in the proper direction for him. The Avengers Resistance get to rescue Thrash, and it seems Penance is taking the first steps to redeem himself. Diamondback, who Constrictor is dating, ends up being "the mole" in Taskmaster's squad, despite him having pegged Cloud 9 for it. Past stories with Cloud 9 or even Johnny Guitar are referenced with Nightmare's illusions, and are a good way to summarize how far everyone has come.
Ironically, unlike the last NEW WARRIORS which barely featured any of the actual New Warriors, this AVENGERS series, especially since Dan Slott left regular writing chores, has heavily relied on prior New Warriors as stars, such as Justice. Tigra, left as a whimpering victim by Bendis and dismissed as a "sexy furry" by many other writers, has really come into her own on this title as a leader figure (being the only Avenger on the title with the most experience).
There is something quite sad about how the affair ends for Baldwin. "I can't. They know me as Speedball. Happy...funny...I...I just can't. Not like this." It was pretty potent, even if it does remind me about the Slott & FabNic GLA/DEADPOOL one shot from a few years ago in which Squirrel Girl debunks all of Penance's reasons for being an emo psycho within about 4 panels. "Hawkeye's impulsive and reckless, everyone loves Hawkeye. Kang killed hundreds of people in Washington and the Avengers didn't all slit their wrists", basically. Still, it seems as if Gage is treating the story seriously, while looking for an objective at the end of the tunnel for Baldwin, and that is the best way to do it. Issue after issue, AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE continues to be terrific and essential reading for lovers of good superhero adventure stories, winding subplots, and B and C listers treated with dignity and respect while still going somewhere in a story. This is sadly the first AVENGERS title to slip below the Top 50 sales chart in years, but it should see through to it's third year and hopefully continue onward. It's good stuff, too often ignored or taken for granted.
Now here, at least, I also didn't mind Neils.
FANTASTIC FOUR #573: I wanted to like this issue, I really did. It was the first issue of the Johnathan Hickman era to not exclusively star Reed Richards. It stars Ben, Johnny, Franklin, and Val as they try to have a vacation on Nu-Earth, left over from Millar's run (and from the abysmal mini, FANTASTIC FORCE). Naturally, things go horribly wrong and Hickman essentially closes the door on Nu-Earth in all but a panel. It seems this new "perfect dimension" isn't so perfect after all, as a black hole opens nearby and has caused time to move unnaturally fast there. Years have passed in months, and the Fantastic Force have essentially become tyrants, oppressing the 8 billion refugees from the future that are home there. Or at least half of them. Lightwave and Psionics rule over the land, with Ultron ultimately turning on them, Banner Jr. serving self-imposed imprisonment until the end, and Wolverine nowhere to be seen.
Ben and Johnny stumble into the adventure and ultimately aid in overthrowing the Force, with Val fixing the portal back to 616 and Franklin summarizing the adventure with his mother. It seemed to be an attempt to bookend the whole "Future Defenders" story but it seemed a bit rushed. One could imagine a whole new universe should be more interesting and imaginative than this.
To be honest, this issue seemed like filler in between Reed's chapter and the upcoming arc about Franklin's birthday. Which is exactly what it is, but it shouldn't seem so obvious. Ben and Johnny deserve better. They're all but pedestrians in this story.
The cover by Alan Davis is nice, and the fill in art by Neil Edwards is good. It's hardly a bad issue, but it lacked some of the spark of prior issues, and as rare as it seems, was rushed. Considering we got 4-7 issues out of a "Reed once again learns that his family is more important than science", a plot like this probably could have been stronger with two issues.
There are some good lines and moments between the characters, and to be honest I haven't seen any writer besides Bendis be as willing to just stomp on something Mark Millar created to move onto something else in a great long while. Still, a bit of a let down after last issue, and part of me is thinking that it could have been skipped. Even the worst issue of Dan Slott's THE THING series was better than this. And I honestly couldn't pick one of those 8 issues that was the worst, because they were all great. I suppose it fits the theme of Fantastic Four going on episodic sci-fi adventures, but this issue didn't click with me too well. It could be due to my little invested interest in Nu-Earth.
GIANT SIZE THOR FINALE #1: Or, essentially, THOR #603 A. Considering than next week's issue of THOR technically ships in December, for the life of me I don't know why this couldn't have shipped as an issue of THOR. Was editorial that fearful that it would miss this ship date? Did they seek to avoid another fiasco like issues of WOLVERINE shipping out of order? At any rate, Marvel has risked this finale of the JMS run selling lower than usual because one-shots of ongoings haven't sold as well as regular issues in, oh, about 10 years. But the great thing about the Joe Q era is that simple realities of the business that are obvious to any pedestrian who examines the biz for five minutes are akin to superhuman ephiphanies for editorial. What any layman could figure out usually takes Marvel 2-4 years to execute, at swiftest. And this is a company that would publish comics criticizing slow politicians.
At any rate, this is the 17th issue of the JMS launch of THOR that now concludes, after about two years. I suppose that's fine in terms of Joss Whedon publishing standards, but surely Marvel expected this to be a faster book. JMS only agreed because he wanted at least 8 issues on his own without crossover tie-in's, and by and large Marvel more than doubled his request. When JMS leaves a book, he usually leaves it in three ways: hanging without a conclusion, in utter shambles, or unfinished. While such practices would have gotten him fired in the TV biz, Marvel editorial is a desperate sucker, willing to be endlessly stood up on proms by Allen Heinberg, so JMS has nothing to fear - and to be fair, DC is little better. For THOR, JMS delivers an exciting final issue for his run, which in usual fashion casts Thor as a supporting guest character, and has a lot of action. But it is not a conclusion. It merely sets up the next chap, K. Gillen, to maybe get around to a conclusion. It passes the buck, which for an A-List writer is not the best finale. The art is done by Djurdevic, who has proven slightly more reliable than the old regular artist, Oliver Coipel. He will be drawing SIEGE, and if Marvel editorial seriously believes that they can get 4 monthly issues out of him without one delay, then they either have given him considerable lead in time (like about a quarter of a year) or they're delusional beyond all hope of therapy. Every regular assignment he has had that was beyond one issue has run late after a while, two issues max.
"William the Warrior" becomes "William the Corpse" in a few pages (within the 5-6 page online preview of the issue, in fact), and while it is a powerful sequence and send-off for Bill, it comes with the idea that Balder the Brave needs the help of a half-dead mortal with a magical sword in order to defend himself from three random Asgardians. He also needs Bill to literally tell him what the plot of this series has so obviously been for 12 issues now under his dying breath. Balder, at best, has been a chump in this run, and this issue does nothing to change that. Balder declares that he'll actually, maybe, almost do something, while Kelda grows some stones and declares revenge against Loki for Bill's death. Her fate, which is revealed in the 5 page preview for THOR #604, is hardly pretty (Doom basically kills her in a few pages). There's a nice send-off for Bill, but if you read THOR for Thor and not the adventures of a fry-cook, you might grow impatient.
The climax of the issue are the attack squad of "Anti-Thor Doombots" flying into Oklahoma in Loki's desperate attempt to kill Donald Blake to eliminate any threat of Thor messing with his plans. Because lord knows if I was the God of Lies and was able to easily trick Thor into handing his entire kingdom into my hands, moving it into the lair of the worst villain Midguard has ever had, and successfully walked around in the corpse of his beloved for about a year, I CERTAINLY would reveal my hand in so crude a fashion as to send a fleet of ****ing robots to kill him. And in due fashion, Thor barely shows up in the fight. The man of the hour is Valstagg, who finally does something besides be the butt of fat jokes. It's an epic moment for ol' Valstagg the Mighty and he probably hasn't had a moment that cool in, well, ever. The art for this moment is well paced and it was executed well. It was the highlight of the $4 issue.
The rest, though, is a bit middling. Blake is blasted by the robots before he can summon Thor, and, hey, turns out his mortal form is crippled again and needs the "staff" to walk. Wow, that was worth four bucks. And nothing has been resolved. Thor is still exiled. Asgard in Oklahoma is still empty, and Sif and the Warrior's Three are still working in the diner. Doom and Loki are still laughing it up in Latveria, chopping up Asgardians for experimental purposes. I suppose with SIEGE what it is, there was no way JMS could have done a proper finale, and to be fair this issue was better than some of his last. But a run has to seem like it accomplished something, and outside of the first few issues, it accomplished little besides make Thor a guest star in his own book, make Balder look like a gutless, clueless putz, and make Loki even more invincible and unbeatable than the Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT. There were many solid and even epic moments, but even the worst issue of the Pak & Van Lente HERCULES outdoes this run by a mile. JMS stretched an 8-9 issue story way too far and than has left a proper resolution to the next guy; passing the buck as it were. The fact that Gillen is willing to gracelessly kill off Kelda in his first issue perhaps vents the frustration of being tasked by some hot shot writer to finish HIS story for him. I tear into Joss Whedon a lot for his slow-shipping runs on RUNAWAYS and ASTONISHING X-MEN, but to give credit, he always finished his runs.
THOR's an alright book. Nothing in it is unreadable or horrendous. But it will likely become very overrated, and it proves that the only A-List writer that Marvel has that actually delivers A-grade work on a regular basis is Ed Brubaker. Jeph Loeb has quickly devolved into a clueless hack who seems to care more about a monthly deadline than writing a cohesive, readable story, and monthly produces overpriced work that flat-out insults the intelligence of the fans. Bendis has been an overrated hack for several years now, incapable of writing any character differently from the next and needing 7 issues to make the most mundane event happen, and treating every mundane, no brainer story twist as some Agatha Christy style ****ing masterpiece (all while writing characters poorly and killing off ones he doesn't like for shock value). Mark Millar waxes and wanes between "fun popcorn blockbuster" to "overrated preachy explosive Socialist drivel". Finally, JMS, who is DC's problem now, still has quite a lot of talent and a flair for dialogue and scene writing, but he drags things out too bloody long and then fails to really deliver the goods when it counts. THOR should have been a big event style book, but instead it was an over-budget high school play that took entirely too long to get to a middling conclusion. Not only is INCREDIBLE HERCULES a better Marvel god title, but THOR offers it little competition. I'll be fair and give Gillen a chance to wrap things up, but the writer after him may have to be terrific for me to remain. I've "fallen out of love" with this book a great deal within the last year.
A reprint of Thor's debut story and a 5 page preview that could easily be found on the internet are needed to pad out the price to $4. The next issue of THOR returns to $3, because apparently Gillen isn't worth the extra buck, or Marvel knows they can't suck an extra dollar from his readers. At any rate, JMS leaves the title he relaunched, and I won't miss him. Or at least, I hope I don't. Don't screw up, Gillen.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #20: Continuing with more REALM OF KINGS hyjinks, it turns out that the cast members offed by Magus last issue are, sniffle still dead. Even if Gamora's death makes no bloody sense. The woman survived being on a planet being blown up by a sun! How in the hell does Magus kill her just by snapping her neck? That's like Wolverine surviving an atomic bomb to the forehead, only to be killed by razor wire. At any rate, this leaves Moondragon as not only the resident psychic of the team, but also in the exact same place that Phyla was in at the end of ANNIHILATION CONQUEST. Before she can have time to mourn, she is tested by having to psychically relay thoughts from Drax and Rocket as they investigate the Fault, and end up bringing one of their LOVECRAFT-style monsters back to Knowhere. Just as they manage to defeat that monster, Peter Quill asks Moondragon to aid him in a council meeting where the other residents of Knowhere basically want to be kept in the loop of how things are run.
Cosmo isn't there to keep the peace as well as advocate for the Guardians anymore, and some of the Magus-worshipping Priests of Pama are rooming at Knowhere. The Luminals continue on their quest to beat the Shi'ar in the realm of alien dipstickery, and one of them goes beserk after being infested by another crittter from the Fault.
Moondragon ends her issue by having a vision about something being reborn from one of Adam Warlock's coccoons. That guy resurrects himself more often than Jean Grey does.
Brad Walker returns to pencils, and he was missed a bit. The story moves along rather well as a beginning chapter to greater stuff. Yes, Groot's slogan gets old, but it's been old for about two years now, and at least Abnett & Lanning are sticking to their story. The cast needed to be trimmed down; Major Victory really wasn't needed by the end, but it is a shame to have lost Mantis and Cosmo. Then again, Moondragon was dead for a while only to come back, so never say never with "DnA". Future solicitations seem to claim that Magus will return, so there is some hope for the rest of the crew. It will also mean that the remaining members will have to step up more like Moondragon tried to, and it should be interesting seeing how that occurs, especially for Jack Flag, who still dislikes "cosmic stuff" and offers great deadpan punchlines.
Not the best issue of the series, but still quite good as usual for GOTG and continues their realm of excellence. I know, that was bad. But the book sure isn't.
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