Six books this week, which is about the large side of "average" for me many weeks. Next week we go back to about half that, in the "feast or famine" publishing schedule. As always, full spoilers. Shorter, faster reviews are at the Examiner page in my signature for impatient folks.
Dread's Bought/Thought for 10/14/09:
ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN #19: For the first time, Robert Kirkman's "On time in '09" vow for his Image ongoings, at least the two (of four) that I read was broken; this book skipped September so technically this issue is at least a fortnight late. Granted, after THOR or DYNAMO 5, or heck, THE TWELVE (soon to go a year between issues), or even PLANETARY (ending about seven years behind schedule), this is small fish and not worth griping about. It's nothing compared to the "barely bi-monthly" schedule of the first 6-8 issues. At any rate, Kirkman has a story that reminded me a little of his last issue of DESTROYER for Marvel MAX; a storyline is ended via a big fight against a big monster. Of course Kirkman is no stranger to having heroes fight giant monsters, as they're a genre tradition dating back to the Silver Age, but DESTROYER was recent. For WOLF-MAN, it represents a change of pace to the current arc and was a pleasant diversion.
Wolf-Man has just broken out of prison (where he was wrongly convicted for the murder of his wife, a conviction shady government man Cecil is seeking to correct) alongside enemies Eruptor and Construct, led by The Face, this weird psychic bigot with two heads. Also along for the ride is robot heroine Mecha-Maid, the only member of the Actioneers superhero team not turned into a vampire by Zechariah (since she's a robot after all). Convinced by Wolf-Man, who she hardly trusts, to play along, she is an uneasy ally as Gary secretly keeps Cecil in the loop and hopes to thwart Face's big plan from within. Said plan is reviving a monster trapped in Stonehenge (the rock formation is apparently the top of his head) that only Face can hear - "Gorgg" (a classic Lee/Kirby style monster name). The monster promptly eats Face and goes on a rampage towards New York City. Wolf-Man and Mecha-Maid have to team up to stop him, and that is where the issue shines. Without any of the gore from CONQUEST, Kirkman and artist Jason Howard pace a thrilling fight sequence. Mecha-Maid even turns into battle-armor to help Wolfy in the quest. Who knew? Just the IDEA of a robot/werewolf romance is weird enough to be awesome.
Although only Elvis could pull off wearing pink and still look like a man. Wolf-Man comes close, though. This series straddles the line between horror and superhero stuff, much as many of Marvel's supernatural comics of the 1970's did; such as GHOST RIDER and of course WEREWOLF BY NIGHT. A few times I have called this series "Werewolf By Night done right", and it continues to be so. It also was a good reminder of what Kirkman can do without McFarlane's influence (as HAUNT last week was perfectly fine, but nothing extraordinary). The ending is upbeat, which is rare for WOLF MAN and I don't expect it to last, but some change of pace would be nice. Out of many of Kirkman's books, this one has usually burned through status quo's rather quickly so I am curious how long this one will last. Still, solid issue of a series that was missed for it's "skip month".
BOOSTER GOLD #25: Newsarama considered this a milestone since the last Booster Gold ongoing series in the 80's didn't last beyond 25 issues. Granted, a few issues were renumbered (such as BG #0 and BG #1,000,000), so technically this would be issue #27. At any rate, though, getting any new launch to last over two years is an accomplishment for the big two. Granted, DC is more willing to allow a low selling series such as this than Marvel; if BG still sells in the Top 100, it's by a thread right now. Considering DC seems willing to allow an ongoing series to slip to about 13-14k sales (about what Kirkman's Image titles sell), though, I suspect BG should see at least a 30th issue. In a way I feel bad for it; it's a solid book that doesn't get enough attention, but every time it comes out, I seem able to find 3-4 books I also got that week that were better and thus more worthy of covering at Examiner.
The lead story wraps up the current arc, in a way, about Booster trying to save Batman from being wiped from existence by saving Dick Grayson. He prevails, but still has to go back to the Batcave to reclaim the photos of him going back in time to prevent Barbara Gordon from being crippled by Joker. This time he's caught in the act by Damien instead of Batman and has to explain things fully. Grayson naturally understands and is willing to keep Booster's secret. They have a decent conversation and Booster drops Grayson off back in time to watch what I assume is the last Christmas he had with his folks before they died in the circus. It's a sweet moment but at the same time a bit stock, and harmed by the fact that no one, not even DC themselves, believes this status quo will last forever, that Grayson will always be Batman. Granted, perhaps because DC has admitted it, it's going down better than some of the "shock and angst" revolving around CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN and Bucky Barnes being demoted. Marvel, in contrast, has contempt for their audience and lies to them at every turn. Granted, considering this is the same audience that allows books like CAPTAIN BRITAIN and AGENTS OF ATLAS to die, I suppose I can't blame them. Black Beetle's "master" is revealed by Rip Hunter, but it's an afterthought.
The back up, er, "second feature" (the one thing I love about the 21st century is the PC, B.S. terminology that is created to say what something is while trying to deny it; phoniness in society is the new black) strip with Blue Beetle in a way got more of a thrill out of me. Jaime takes on Black Beetle, who claims to be an evil, future version of himself. Or he could be lying. At any rate, Jaime's scarab goes berserk and he does a proper job of scaring his friends and family trying to protect them, and his little sister gets hurt in the melee. She seems to have recovered fine at the hospital, but there really is no way of telling, for now. Mike Norton's art continues to be excellent for the series and Matt Sturges continues to kick rear on BLUE BEETLE; a shame it's not 22 pages a month anymore. I do like that both strips are sharing the same villain for some cohesion. The only question is what happens to Blue Beetle when BOOSTER GOLD is inevitably canceled for low sales (which it will be, maybe not for another year or so but it will be)? At any rate, the $4 pricetag will offset the low sales in terms of dollars outright in the short term, at least. I hear the back-up strips in DOOM PATROL are better than the lead ones as well, and while that's not always true with BOOSTER GOLD, it was at least for this issue. That didn't make the Booster story bad by any way, and this is still an exceptional package from DC.
INCREDIBLE HERCULES #136: Cho's story may be tying into the overall arc more so than Herc's, but who needs storyline when you have two gods fighting like THIS! Easily my Book Of The Week at Examiner, this issue is the real deal. It's the funniest thing you'll read this week, and it's very close to being the meaning of life. From the sensational lines from Grek Pak and Fred Van Lente to exceptional artwork by Reilly Brown, who excels at drawing physical comedy (likely why he drew CABLE & DEADPOOL for a while), to the hilarious sound effects for the Battle to End All Battles, this issue has it all. If you don't read INCREDIBLE HERCULES, buy it, catch up on back issues, go buy some trades and HC's, and come back to me.
One supposes I can't stop a review here. The recap page, often the funniest in the biz on this book, maintains that fact with Thor dropping some insults about Hercules in their rivalry. Speaking of Thor, considering this is a rare issue that actually came out a few weeks after an issue of THOR (since that rarely ships), it was interesting comparing how Pak & Van Lente write Thor compared to JMS. Imagine...Thor has a sense of humor! Who knew? He's still stiff compared to Hercules, but in the end is able to share some mead with him and offer some quips here and there of his own. Over in THOR, the Odinson would make PRINCE VALIANT look like Jim Carrey. Thor also fights something/someone...which hasn't happened in THOR for about 3 issues, or about half a year. After that length of time, sometimes one can be forgiven for forgetting that Thor actually can fight, instead of moan to Donald Blake while Bill gets in all the action.
Gee, my contempt for the overrated THOR is showing. I'll add "overselling", too. There is no way THOR issues deserve to outsell INCREDIBLE HERCULES about 4:1, especially since IH actually sees fit to ship more often. There is no way JMS would be selling that well if he wasn't on THOR and if THOR hadn't been dead for four years to build demand. He's given the god of thunder all the pacing of a melting snail. Herc's the Marvel God for me. After all, he didn't need Bendis to rejoin a team of Avengers, and HIS team is actually cool.
Onto better topics (namely this issue), Thor has been brought to Asgard to clean up the mess that Hercules has made in his name. In Herc's defense, he was genuinely tricked by Malekith into posing as "Thor" to stop the elf queen Alfyse from making a war, only to succumb to lust and end up giving her legal grounds to launch said war. The Warriors Three decide turnabout is fair play, and Thor pretends to be "Hercules" to stop the madness. This results in a showdown between the two, made classic not only by the lines and sound effects but the artwork and the fact that they are posing as each other and thus forced (usually) to fight as each other would. Which means Thor has to play dirty to win, and while Hercules has to inevitably "throw" the match, he lands some good digs upon Thor and in the end, a new legend of "Hercules beating Thor in Asgard" must be told, even if it isn't technically true. Malekith makes his play to kill both at the end, but Lil' Zeus takes care of it. This issue's a classic. Just don't ask what the "elven tickler" is.
Given that an "event" style one-shot is due to launch and the AGENTS OF ATLAS are due to join the title as a "second feature" once they're done fighting the X-Men, INCREDIBLE HERCULES can only get better. The only downside to this title is the haphazard sales of it. Even shipping bi-weekly has not stopped the loss of readers every issue. The Cho issues have seemed to sell less than the ones that actually star HERCULES, which is a positive sign. Another is that sales have only fallen about 11% within the last 6 months; some titles have seen a quarter of their sales drop in half a year. Variant covers still seem able to add an extra 1,000-3,000 sold copies of this title, while they have less effect on some other books. The book still sells within the Top 70-80, above MS. MARVEL and even often some of the space books like NOVA. At any rate, the next arc is in the pipeline and this soft launch has given us a longer lasting series than a #1 would have given. Still, as with many books of the time, one wishes it sold better.
Nothing else to say but terrific issue, more of the same please.
MARVELS PROJECT #3: While CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN is excelling in sales over this title (that is still selling at over 125k in August), this title had an excellent launch considering it's cast (issue one sold at over 89k; it is worth noting that JMS' THE TWELVE only debuted around 30k or under), which has led me to believe that if Barnes does leave CA and gain his own title, it could actually sell so long as it is hyped and Brubaker is involved in writing. While CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN is a sloppy, borderline brain-dead event that even people in twenty year comas can see coming every step of the way, despite Brubaker's excellent execution of it, MARVELS PROJECT is the real deal. It's a story, about something, with a theme. Imagine that!
This issue remains in 1940, playing with quite a few characters who only got maybe one or two issues back then, and little else, such as the Ferret and John Steele (yes, he did pre-date Capt. America in print). While the Angel investigates the death of Phantom Bullet (who didn't have many issues either; not everyone back then sold as well as Torch and Namor), and Nick Fury chats with his superior, the Ferret takes on a missing person's case and Namor & Torch head into their first showdown. The Torch, a robot, seeks to make up for his damages and better understand humanity by becoming a police officer. Namor, his underwater kingdom destroyed by Nazi's, wants to destroy humanity and picks a summer night at Coney Island to start. This leads to their first of many battles against each other. In the meanwhile, Steele is freed from his Nazi tube to fight a new war, and Erskine uses what he learned to work on his super soldier serum.
Many feared retcons, but nothing that has been learned in this series has greatly impacted anything major. The biggest revelation was that Erskine and the Nazi's experimented on Atlantian corpses and John Steele (who for all we know is a mutant, as his origin was always vague) to work towards a super-soldier process, which really doesn't change a whole lot. Rogers still was given the serum and the vita-rays treatment in the end, or will be. If anything, this series is a love letter to the Golden Age and trying to give the gazillion characters that debuted then more of a sense of cohesion within the same universe, whether they be the big names like Torch, Namor, and Angel, or small ones like Phantom Bullet or Ferret who may have only had 1-5 comic appearances (Mister E has more stories in THE TWELVE than he had in 1940). Epting as usual does an excellent job on art and Stewart's color work is exceptional, particularly with Torch's flaming effects.
While at eight chapters it may seem overlong (and to be honest there is a slow build between issues two and three), I haven't felt bored or cheated at all. Much as in CAPTAIN AMERICA, enough happens in every issue that it always feels worth the page count. Plus, as someone who just finished reading Marvel's MARVEL MYSTERY HANDBOOK with most of their 1940's heroes covered in it (even Namor), it's a thrill to see Brubaker handle everything as well as he has. If anyone can give the foundation of Marvel's superheroes a spit shine, it's Brubaker.
NOMAD: GIRL WITHOUT A WORLD #2: Still a pleasant surprise and a return to form from Sean McKeever, leaving behind some dodgy work in TEEN TITANS. Now that he is no longer a DC exclusive, one wonders when or if he will get a chance to write about a character he co-created, Gravity. Dwayne McDuffie played with him for a few years in BEYOND! and FANTASTIC FOUR, but more or less returned him to normal and he's with the GLA now. I mean who thought Rikki Barnes would get a four issue mini; it's not like ONSLAUGHT REBORN sold THAT well. In a way it is a spin off of CAPTAIN AMERICA, which also helps. CA didn't used to be strong enough to support any.
Given a new costume as "Nomad" by an unknown force (probably Nick Fury, but it could be Barnes himself, for all we know), Rikki continues her new life in this dimension. Washing dishes for cash, fighting crime occasionally, and attending high school. She's attached herself to John, who is the 616 counterpart of her older brother, only isn't Neo-Nazi and evi...yet. Unfortunately, she hasn't gotten around to trying to explain herself to John, who thinks she's in love with him. When she all but literally gives him the "you're just a friend/like a brother" speech (which no man in any universe wants to hear from a girl), she may have inadvertently drove this version of John to evil as well. It's tragic but still very human. How could she have possibly explained things to John beforehand? Slipped him a note at Dr. Powers' class reading, "FYI, I'M YOUR SISTER FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE"?
(Granted, considering the Marvel Universe is a world where virtually any power is possible, including the ability to return from death, such an explanation should go down smoother than in our real world, but civilians are usually shallow uncreative simpletons in Marvel; why else would they embrace Norman Osborn?)
If there is any flaw in the book, it is that Rikki really has no reason to fight crime other than idle boredom and habit. She WAS Captain America's partner in her universe, but he usually fought terrorists, not crime. This is also New York, where you can't throw a dead cat without hitting a vigilante. But one supposes that is shown by how quickly Rikki has rubbed up against other heroes; last issue was Black Widow, and this issue, as shown on the cover, is Falcon. Unlike Widow, he seems friendlier and more willing to chat with her after a victory over Flag-Smasher. Only Flag-Smasher isn't the only D-List villain dusted off from a Handbook. Mad-Dog, Hellcat's ex-husband, is back and furrier than ever, still working for the Secret Empire (one of Marvel's 52,000 evil organizations). The SE appears to be behind the rise to power of Dresmund Daniels at Rikki's high school, gaining teenagers as loyal followers. Teens are easy to lead around like zombies with a few catch phrases and speeches; who knew?
Things are going to end in tragedy between Rikki and John, but at four issues at least one rarely feels this story has been stretched beyond a natural length. The artwork by Baldeon & Sotomayor is excellent and I enjoy all of the old school villains being dusted off. The Nomad guise doesn't look back on Rikki, either. To be honest she would make a solid Young Avenger, if anyone besides Heinberg was allowed to write them for long. Surprisingly fun little mini here.
). While I think Marvels Project will be a great read in a single setting, this monthly format is just making me not care about the book. I'm not excited for it whatsoever. And while I wanted to buy Web of Spider-Man for the Kaine story (and for that alone) I still hate the idea of buying Spider-Man post-OMD and I just couldn't justify spending $4 on this one issue. Maybe another time, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. I'm not even sure I"m going to buy the rest of the Ben Reilly arc in Amazing. The first issue did nothing for me so I may be back on the no-Spider-Man path. My 'clone saga related' exception hasn't really panned out for me. We'll see if I get more of the Clone Saga mini as well. I haven't decided.
