A heavy wallet buster week for me. Open the spoiler-gates!
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 5/16/12:
SAGA #3: As Image Comics celebrates its 20th anniversary, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples have chosen this time to release their critically acclaimed creator owned project, SAGA. It debuted in March to much fanfare, and proved to be the top selling "indie" comic that month, landing in the Top 40 and even outselling that month's issue of WOLVERINE. Considering that the first issue has seen at least three reprints and the second issue will likely see a few as well, Vaughan's first major return to monthly comics since he ended EX MACHINA in the twilight days of the WILDSTORM imprint has thus proved to be just as critically acclaimed as his prior works. This series tells the tale of two literally star crossed lovers Marko and Alanna as they attempt to flee from their interplanetary enemies for the crime of not only treason against their own respective species, but in siring a "mixed breed" child, Hazel. This is Vaughan's first foray into a space "saga", although his strengths remain his incredible imagination as well as his handling of character dialogue. Staples' artwork continues to be a major boon as well as a signature on the series as well.
As this issue opens, things seem bleak. Alanna has insisted that she and Marko follow a strange map they found in the debut issue to get to a "Rocketship Forest" to escape the planet they have become stranded in. Marko has been mortally wounding in a battle against the first intergalactic bounty hunter sent after them, the spider-woman Stalk. Alanna and Hazel thus find themselves surrounded by mythical forest monsters called Horrors. It turns out that the "horrors" are in fact the spirits of the youths who have died during the war between planets. Alanna ends up making a deal with one of the ghosts named Izabel to allow her to leave the planet by "attaching" to Hazel as a ghostly "babysitter" in exchange for safe passage through the forest to get to an area with snow to allow for one of Marko's healing spells. In the meantime, Prince Robot IV interrogates a prisoner about our leads and the Stalk attempts to form an alliance with another bounty hunter, "The Will", which proves difficult since they are ex-lovers.
A review of an issue of SAGA is difficult to formulate because this is a series which is best enjoyed by experiencing it. Vaughan's dialogue is both crisp and realistic, with appropriate curse words, and each issue seems to create more of this "universe" around the character without clogging fans in the sort of dense techno-babble which puts off some from STAR WARS and STAR TREK. Fiona Staples continues to be able to go to town on her exceptional artwork, being a master of backgrounds, facial expressions and all sorts of bizarre alien characters. Ghosts can often be corny, but these "horrors" seem fresh and new. Like with many "saga" style stories, a cast of supporting heroes often revolve around our stars, and Izabel becomes one of them. Hazel, presumably as an adult, continues to narrate the story which naturally means she eventually lives long enough to grow up, but that still leaves things in the air for the leads.
SAGA is one of those series which to some can border on being "over rated". At least in terms of these three issues, readers have great reason to believe the hype. This series offers two creators at the top of their game creating an entire universe one issue at the same time as it builds intriguing within it. Fans of great comic books shouldn't pass it up.
AVENGERS VS. X-MEN #4: Issues of SAGA are called "chapters", because it is a flowing narrative; issues of AVX are "rounds", as it is a mindless brawl. That alone should be all one needs to know about this Marvel mega-event. With a story planned by Marvel's top five writers, this issue sees the bottle spin towards Jonathan Hickman, who scripts this issue. John Romita Jr. continues on his art chores with Scott Hanna on inks and Laura Martin on colors. In previous issues, the Avengers and the X-Men have gone to war over the mutant girl Hope, who was raised by Cable in the future and is destined to become the next host of the powerful Phoenix Force. The Avengers see it (and thus Hope) as a hostile force to be detained; the X-Men (led by Cyclops) see it as the last savior to be defended. Wolverine, who has opened his own school and sided with the Avengers, seeks to go about his usual solution to the problem - killing someone. That didn't sit well with Capt. America, who dumped Logan off into Antarctica.
Fortunately by happenstance, that's where Hope had chosen to hide out, and she arranges a meeting with Wolverine to offer a truce; at least allow her to merge with Phoenix and see if she can control it (as Rachel Summers did for years) before killing her. Wolverine agrees, only to go back on his word while she slept and call the Avengers. All of this is the bookend for a lot of brawls which AVENGERS VS. X-MEN: VERSUS will embellish, and ends with a showdown on the "blue area of the moon" which has a stable atmosphere. It is hilarious that the heroes feel taking the battle to the moon is safer, yet damage to the moon could vastly harm life on earth. The same Cap who considered Logan an unstable lone wolf last issue is now perfectly willing to accept his intelligence. In past stories, Beast has often invented some anti-Phoenix containment gizmo which never works, and this time Iron Man is making such a gadget that probably won't work. While Hickman does write some decent dialogue, this issue seems like more running in place with battles filling the pages. As with many Marvel events, this is an editorial promotional brawl more than a story, and it acts very much as such.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: ENDS OF THE EARTH #1: This is the lone tie-in one shot which is supposed to attach to "ENDS OF THE EARTH" running through AMAZING SPIDER-MAN; the only other crossover issue will be AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #8. This is a 28 page tale written by Rob Williams (last seen in CIRCLE OF FOUR over in VENOM) and Brian Clevinger with Thony Silas on art, Victor Olazaba on inks and Wil Quintana on colors. It focuses on all of the international heroes that Spider-Man rallied to his cause to help take out Dr. Octopus' global warming satellite network, and the roster is truly eclectic: Union Jack, the heroic Kangaroo, Sabra, Titanium Man, and Japan's Big Hero 6. Out of all these groups, Union Jack and Big Hero 6 have sold in mini series in recent years, while the others are C and D-Listers. They were heroes chosen by Dan Slott, and naturally these two writers have the task of embellishment; Williams covers the first segment which covers UJ, Kangaroo, TM, and Sabra while Clevinger covers the Big Hero 6. The first segment mostly focuses on Union Jack and his determination to prevail despite being a low powered hero in big hero situation (see what I did there). Kangaroo and Sabra fail, but Union Jack winds up accomplishing his mission and stopping one of things. In fact, both of the others appear to be killed, which is odd since I thought Sabra was bullet-proof yet she appears to be felled by a sniper round from Crossbones. Sabra did have the task of being Israel's only superhero and it would be cruel for her to be murdered by a neo-Nazi of all villains. On the other hand, Lady Deathstrike guts Kangaroo and I doubt he will be missed. For me the real meat of the issue is the Big Hero 6 segment, if only because it follows up well from the underwhelming mini series that Chris Claremont wrote a few years back. It is a high octane sequence with a lot of action and the team's trademark extreme characters. I didn't mind this one-shot although I wouldn't consider it essential for anyone who isn't a major ASM or obscure character fan.
AVENGERS ACADEMY #30: While writer Christos Gage has long made a habit of producing lemonade from the lemons he is handed in terms of crossover tie-in stories, this time around the title seems to be too crammed full of characters for him to get much traction. This is a slow build set-up issue which merely serves to get the escaped Sebastian Shaw - whose switch has been flipped back to "evil" after a round of amnesia - past the adults running the Academy and near the kids which he seeks to slaughter out of spite. Characters do a lot of talking and Hazmat, Finesse, and X-23 get the most to do this issue, even if a lot of is chatter about which side they're on and some exposition about the event. The subject of one of the Academy kids controlling a Sentinel comes up and it goes about as poorly as one would expect, while X-23 ultimately sides against Wolverine and feels it is wrong to contain anyone for what they "might" do. Alas, little of that will matter as the kids will be set to battle a villain next issue who seems to effortlessly absorb every attack and seems all but invincible - akin to Hybrid a few issues ago, Korvac even earlier, and even Exodus over in Gage's X-MEN LEGACY. He seems to enjoy pile-on battles against lone mega-villains it seems. I didn't read the X-Men stories where Shaw had amnesia and his memories were restored; I assume it is a leftover subplot from GENERATION HOPE that Gage has the task of sewing up. One thing I don't understand if that Shaw can absorb the kinetic energy of blows and even the magical energy of Hercules' sword, why can't he absorb the force of the pressure from Tigra's choke hold? It did seem as if it was thrown in to make Tigra seem more clever since Gage is fond of her, which I don't entirely mind because I've grown to like her more through his handling of her. Tom Grummet does the art and as usual he has a slew of characters to draw. I did like Ricochet getting the first dialogue he's had in years, though. The next issue with the actual battle should be stronger than this one; while this is still good, I do feel it has peaked some time ago and the upcoming arc after the crossover dealing with the Briggs subplot will be far better.
DAREDEVIL #13: Mark Waid continues his noteworthy run on DAREDEVIL, this time joined by the artist from the Point One issue, Khoi Pham. While I don't dislike Pham's art as much as some people do, and it is well inked and colored here, it is more "generic" alongside some of the exceptional artists this series is known for attracting, so that alone causes this issue to go down in quality slightly. The story seems to put a exclamation point around the Omega-Drive/Megacrime plot for good, in a way which seems so tidy that one wonders why Daredevil didn't think of it several issues ago. Perhaps because that'd have made the recent crossover moot? At any rate, having incited the various super criminal/terrorist organizations such as AIM, HYDRA, Black Spectre and the Secret Empire over his Omega Drive of data on them, he gets his allies in the New Avengers to concoct a ruse in the middle of an expected battle in Time's Square to get the target lifted from him once and for all. Meanwhile, Foggy seems to have found something in Murdock's desk which fazes him, and he isn't taking Murdock's optimistic new demeanor well at all. The cliffhanger to the issue was probably better than half the issue itself, teasing of an improbable battle against Dr. Doom. Between this and WINTER SOLDIER, he seems to be cropping up a lot lately. At any rate, a solid issue although with more generic art than this run is known for.
FANTASTIC FOUR #605.1: A strange issue, this. It tells the origin not of the Fantastic Four we know, but of one from an alternate reality Specifically, the reality where the Reed who ultimately decided to found the cross-dimensional "COUNCIL OF REEDS" from Jonathan Hickman's run on FANTASTIC FOUR and FF came up with. This Reed hailed from a world where the Nazi apparently won WWII and remained in power, and is so ruthless he literally transplanted some of Doom's brain matter into his own to grow smarter. Here Johnny and Sue are two ruthless Nazi soldiers while Grimm is a Jew from a concentration camp, who Reed manipulates into helping him stage a coup to remove Hitler from power. Thus, the "Reed" who founded the Council was a cosmic empowered Nazi. Mike Choi does the artwork and it is good, although this does feel very much like a spare annual kind of tale.
I may as well take this moment to mention the hypocritical hilarity that the Avengers fret so much about "dangerously unstable mutants who can alter reality" like Scarlet Witch and now Hope Summers, yet don't care one wit about Franklin Richards. How powerful is he? Galactus himself fears him, and in a few thousand years the devourer of worlds will be FRANKLIN'S herald. Franklin's only created his own universe...twice. He can bring Celestials - the gods of the cosmos itself - to oblivion if he gets angry enough. Is it because they trust Reed Richards to take care of him? The same Reed, who as this this tale demonstrates, is evil in virtually every other reality that exists? Hell, evil parallel world versions of Reed have popped up before Hickman's run, such as the Brute in the 70's and the Dark Raider in the 90's. Reed's pursuit of science is something he considers to be above the law at times (such as when he took his crew to space in the first place) and even above morality when he saved Galactus' life to ensure more worlds would be destroyed (sure, Eternity told a space court it was for the good of the cosmos, but there's no way Reed knew that). Reed was at least 1/3rd responsible for Clor, yet neither Thor or Goliath's nephew ever seem to call him on that. Reed's literally called a room full of scientists cowards because they couldn't count on endless resurrections like superheroes could and thus had a fear of death. Thus, it does get hard for me to take the paranoia of the Avengers and other forces seriously so long as the world seems to collectively forget that the Fantastic Four have a mutant child who is arguably the most powerful there is in their midst.