Spider-Man: Blue-review

Spider-Man:  Blue

Marvel Comics

2011 edition

168 pages $20

This is the second of the “color books” from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale I have read, the first being the wonderful Daredevil: Yellow.  I can’t say I liked this one as much as that volume, but this is still a strong entry.  The 2011 collected volume contains the six issue series from 2002 and some bonus material in the form of notes and sketchbook pages.

Many people who I have asked expressed a preference for the Spider-Man book, which puzzles me a bit.  I think they generally feel closer to this material because it’s Spidey.  He is the more familiar character to even the most casual fan, and more people have a reference point with the MJ and Gwen Stacy characters than Karen Page from DD.  This book is more immediately accessible than the DD one for many reasons, but it is not a better book, just different.

The first thing that strikes you about this volume compared to the Daredevil one is the look of the book.  DD was a much more “designed” book and had a slicker look.  The art and page design here is much cleaner and less busy.  This is not a knock on either of these fine volumes, just a comparison.  The Spider-Man pages and panels are closer to a minimalist style that suits Spidey well.  Daredevil SHOULD feel busy.  Fill his world with texture and form, while Peter Parker’s environment should be free of clutter.  He is a very flexible character in many ways, and this book continues that, but it is contrasted by a static looking world that he inhabits.  More tight close-ups and a personal feel to the panels makes you identify more with Peter and his friends.  I have heard the Flash Thompson part of this story by many different writers and artists, but this is the first time he seemed human to me instead of just a caricature.  I never was all that familiar with the Gwen Stacy character before.  I had read the “death of…” story, but that was it, this story is a complete work as far as the Gwen character is concerned.  She is interesting and rich here just like Karen in Yellow.  You feel a strong affection for the character, just as you are supposed to.  The Mary Jane of this book seems less interesting and more like a pest, but the last few pages of this story are a good MJ moment and pull you right over to her side.

This Spider-Man is less the jokester than in the current books and more of a sad figure.  His life at this stage in his history was not fun and this story emphasizes that strongly.  Also powerfully done is the conflict of emotions he feels about Gwen and MJ’s interest in him.  His inexperience with women is obvious, but it is not played for anything other than realism here.  There is emotional and personal depth in this whole story that was not here in the first telling.

Like Yellow, this book is telling a story we have all heard before, and like that volume, it takes the form of a letter to someone lost to us.  This is an old storytelling device, but in this medium, heavy with first person narration, it works nicely.  The sadness and regret of the failure of the hero to save someone close to him is immediate and painful to read, though I didn’t feel the strong emotional pull as easily with this book as I did with Yellow.  By the time I finished reading it though, this was a complete experience.  Loeb is a writer that has begun to impress me.  Since much of his work I have been exposed to I have not cared for, I have avoided these books and other “big” ones in his career.  I still have not read The Long Halloween, and I still don’t plan to.  Not soon anyway.  I need to back away and assess what I like in his work and decide from there which ones I will try next.  Hulk: Grey seems the next most obvious choice, but I may change my mind on that.

This is a special book.  Any book that can revitalize one of the classics and make it relevant for a modern audience is good, but Spider-Man: Blue is, along with Daredevil: Yellow, something everyone that wants engaging characters and a well written book over huge breasts and fisticuffs should be reading.

 

 

Daredevil by Mark Waid (mostly) vol 3

Daredevil

Marvel Comics

2012

160 pages  $20

I am beginning to get a little irritated by these volumes.  Volume 1 was outstanding, but 2 & 3 have issues.  True the art team has changed and is very uneven at times, but there are other issues here.  Literally.

This book reprints issues 11 through 15 of the monthly DD title by Mark Waid, but also reprints a 2 issue story from one of the Spider-Man titles and a Punisher book.  Like the previous volume, they are more or less “value added” material, but they distract from and are not done like the main title.  They are a decent story; they are just not what I signed on for.  These are written by Greg Rucka, and I like them, but I really only want the Waid stories.  Value added material isn’t really a value, at least not in this context.  These issues make this a 7 issue collection, so the cost is most definitely passed on to the buyer for these extra 2 issues.  If they only have a 5 issue arc, then just do a 5 issue collection!  DC appears to be slowly figuring this out, and they are still not succeeding all the time, but Marvel just sort of seems to tell the readers that they will like it and buy it or not.

The art is another issue.  While not actually bad, it is NOT as good as the first volume’s wonderful art by Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera.  Volume 2 had art by Khoi Pham and Emma Rios in addition to Rivera, thanks to the extra issues inserted into the book.  There at least, everything was written by Waid.  In this volume, the stories by Rucka are drawn by Marco Checcetta.  Waid does appear to have at least co-written some of these but Rucka is the style you feel and the art follows suit.  The regular DD issues are drawn by Pham, Checcetta and Chris Samnee.  They are all well done, but Marvel, and to a lesser extent DC, just don’t seem to care that changing artists like this has an adverse effect on the flow of the narrative no matter how good the art is in each issue.  They must not care, because the alternative is that they don’t realize it, and that is just not likely with all the genuinely talented artists and designers there.  Getting the book out on time is just more important.  I tend to be less interested in who is drawing the book than who is writing.  I buy this for the Waid stories and will continue to do so.  But the art can drive me away from a well written book if it is distracting enough.

As for the actual Waid issues, other than the art jumping around too much, I have nothing but good things to say.  Waid continues to put Matt Murdock into new situations or at least new twists on the same old situations.  It is interesting that Dr. Doom can be in a Daredevil story only by implication.  He never actually appears, but you always feel the threat and presence of the Monarch of Latveria, which is even more effective than his actually being in the story.  This is a tough trick to pull off, but since Doom is nowhere near as interesting these days as the legend of Doom, this is the way he needs to appear more often.  He was overused for a while, and now when I see him on a cover, my first inclination is to pass on it, but that part of this arc is outstanding.  The overdue resolution of the Omega Drive arc is not as satisfying, only because it all seems born of a fairly stupid but completely reversible choice by our hero.  The story is easily an issue too long, and the eventual resolution is obvious and leaves you with the thought, “well why didn’t you do that 2 issues ago, you doofus?”  It is clearly to show how fallible Matt is, and generally works to that end.  It is just a little longer than I would have liked.  Fortunately, the real reason to read Waid’s DD is for the characterization and style of storytelling.  Waid makes you interested in even the most mundane situations very easily.  We care about Matt and Foggy and the rest of the cast.  It is interesting that the supporting cast is only important when they need to be.  When they are they to simply move the other plot along, they are almost ephemeral, even appearing as off panel voices.  They never distract from the point, and are only there as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern type placeholders.  They are completely interchangeable unless they are needed for a character specific function, which is rare.  Waid is an economical writer, and in the restrictive format that the high-profile success of this title has created, even more so.  I know some people don’t like the sparser, stripped down style he uses here.  Many people prefer the excessive and wordy style of a Millar or Bendis, but those are the junk food of comics, and that is SAYING something.  In a medium where junk seems to be preferred over the real substance of good writing, it is amazing to me that Waid’s run on this books has been popular.  You can usually do much more with less and Waid and this fantastic run has been proof of that.  While this volume has its flaws, they are not Mark Waid’s fault.  I am sticking with it for at least one more arc.  Hopefully so will most of you.

Not really all THAT incredible…

The Incredible Hulk

2012

Marvel Comics

176 pages $20  Hardcover

I was warned off this one.  Several people said that there were piles of promise here for something special and it didn’t deliver.  I decided to give it a try for myself.  There is much here to like, and just as much to be disappointed in.

This volume reprints the first 7 issues of the newest volume of The Incredible Hulk’s eponymous title, and is everything I was told to expect, just a bit better than most had told me it would be.  The story concerns Hulk and Banner, now separated into 2 beings, and the issues this causes for them both.  Jason Aaron is a writer I have recently begun to enjoy and I had hopes for this book.  Aaron is an economical writer.  He tends not to waste dialog (like a Bendis), or just allow the art to do all the heavy lifting (Millar).  In this book, like much of his other work, he gives us what is needed and not much else.  Unfortunately that does not amount to much either.  There is a lot happening here that does not pay off in this volume, and this book is the worse off for it.  The book is noisy like a Hulk book should be, but there is not much story behind this.  I think this would have been better served had they waited for a few more issues and done a larger collection, but the sales on this title have not been as strong as Marvel had hoped.  There have been some unavoidable issues creeping into the production.

Without blaming anyone for issues beyond their control, Artist Marc Silverstri was unable to continue on the book and only contributed to most of the first 3 issues.  This hurts the book.  There is really no way to say it nicer.  Silvestri and Aaron was a bankable team and when Marc was gone, fans started dropping the book despite Wilce Portacio doing a pretty good job of filling in.  Portacio is good, but he is no Silversrti.  My pet peeve with artists that choke the page with too much detail at the cost of the story does not extend to Marc Silverstri.  Yes, his pages are FULL of detail, most of it superfluous, but he is a capable storyteller and his work on the printed page in the last several years has been really something to behold.  Portacio simply cannot keep up.

The story of the conflict between Banner and the Hulk never really gets out of the gate.  There is so much more they could have done here, but it feels a bit like something changed behind the scenes that caused a shift in the direction of the story.  If this is NOT the case, then editorial dropped the ball.  This is a good enough book that I want to try the next volume to see where it is heading.  The Hulk is not an easy character to write and be interesting, and Aaron is giving it his best shot.  I think it is worth more fan support.

The Man Without Fear is Yellow!

Daredevil Yellow

Marvel Comics

2002

$15 trade paperback

This is one of the books that is considered by many to be essential reads for all comic readers that I have never gotten around to reading.  It has always been on the list, just never got around to it.  To be fair, it is a big list, varies by who is making it, and I HAVE read a lot of it.  What has always slowed me down on this one, Like Spider-Man Blue and Hulk Grey, is that I am not much of a fan of Jeph Loeb or Tim Sale.  Loeb has never been a favorite and Sale is a very talented artist that I have always been lukewarm on.  I really enjoyed his run on Matt Wagner’s Grendel, but since then I have struggled to find something in his work for me.

This book has given me reason to rethink that for both of these creators.  The volume I read was the slightly longer Hardcover version from 2002.  It is getting very pricy to find in HC so I recommend finding the still in print trade edition.  This volume reprints the six-issue series from 2001 and is a really good read.  Like many books that seek to revisit/re-tell the origin story in a modern context, this could have just been revisionist, but there is very little that is actually changed here.  Like all the best retellings, this book is more interested in the color behind the static story we all know.  The origin has been more fleshed out than changed in any meaningful way, and the story is told in the form of a letter to Karen Page.  A letter that will never be sent.  The covers of the individual issues are a clue to the story structure.  They show DD looking in or looming above the main focus of the story.  This is entirely a flashback story, and is never meant to be something new to the myth.  It tells a story we mostly know, and does it in a fresh way.  We care almost immediately about Matt and Foggy.  Anyone that has never read DD or only knows the Miller stories will be fine here.  The Elektra thing is avoided completely as it should be.  Those familiar with the Bendis and the more modern “Matt has a gun barrel in his mouth” (borrowed that line from Mark Waid) type hellscape that Daredevil’s life had become before Mark Waid revitalized things last year, may have a harder time. More modern readers used to the darker stories tend to forget that even under Miller, DD was not in constant misery.  If you have enjoyed Waid’s run, this is a book more your speed.

Tim Sale’s art here is the bonus I didn’t expect.  While I don’t always care for his faces, as they are quite heavy and iconic rather than more realistic, the art as a complete work is beautiful.  There is a delicacy to his line that is not immediately obvious and it is only really evident when you look at the entire page as a unit.  I often gripe about artists that are all about pin ups or cramming a panel and page with as much detail as possible to the detriment of the storytelling.  Here the storytelling is effortless and seems organic to the art.  Loeb and Sale have worked together a lot and it shows.  The meshing of the 2 aspects of the story is seamless.  The words are a part of the visuals and the art never distracts or confuses the narrative.  Sale has been doing this a while now, and he is a master storyteller.  Any complaints I may have about his drawing style tend to be entirely on my side.  It has just been my personal tastes.  These tastes may be changing.  It looks like I may have to give the other two “color books” a try.

We have always been each other’s greatest nemesises? Nemisi? Nemises?

Nemesis review

2012 Icon/Marvel

100-ish pages $15

This book got lots of hype when it was initially released, with the premise somehow being the big deal.  It was basically:  What if Bruce Wayne were a villain?  What if the main character of a book has the wealth, intellect and drive of Batman, but with The Joker’s desire for mayhem?  Not the most original premise, but it has been fertile ground both recently and in the past for telling some very good stories.  The best of these have been by the likes of Mark Waid in Irredeemable, but this was more of an exception than the rule.  Another book that comes to mind when I read this one is Mat Wagner’s Grendel.  The sections of that series referred to as “The Incubation Years” and what came after seems very heavily borrowed from by the time you finish reading this book.

This volume collects the four issue series by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven from 2010 and it is one of the fastest reads I have ever experienced, and not in a particularly good way either.  The above outlined premise is all you need to know about the story except that this is a fairly violent book.  That is not a problem for me or the book itself, but the action and violence in this story does not really do much of anything FOR the story.  In Millar’s Wanted, a much better book to be sure, everything fit together very well.  The violence served the story and the story needed the violence for impact and much of the narrative flowed around the violence.  Here the violence just seems to fill pages space and make the book read faster.  Again, not in a good way.  The master storytellers in comics control the pace and manipulate the reader to create the feel of a book and force the reader to keep up.  In Nemesis the story is fairly shallow and the characters are underdeveloped, so using them to flesh out the story is not an option.  The bulk of this book is action and it is not impactful violence.  They could have easily replaced all the action scenes with blank pages and text describing the action like a movie script and that would have been more exciting and interesting.

McNiven’s art is decent, but he has had much better books.  The Old Man Logan book being my personal favorite.  The art here is just not very strong in a storytelling sense.  Millar has had some great comics; this just isn’t one of them.  The first issue is pure set up, the second more set up really, just telling us what a bad ass everyone is.  It was not until the third part that things got even a little interesting.  Here we begin to see the real threads of the plan.  Some of what we are shown is misdirection, and all of it feels a bit forced. The final revelations lead very nicely into the second series, coming out currently.  There is enough here to make me want to read the next volume, but unless there is considerably more substance to that volume I doubt it will hold me for very long.  Currently in development as a film, directed by Joe Carnahan (A-Team), this might make a decent action film, as the less substance in a story, the better basis to start from for modern films.

This is a fairly thin review of a fairly thin book.  When the review takes longer to write than the source material, that is never a great sign.  There is a fair bit of smoke here, but not much fire.  As the first part of a greater story, this might be worth it, but as a stand alone story, there is nothing here to be all that interested in.

Oh pleaseopleaseohpleeeeeaaseeee!!!!

There has been movement in the ongoing saga of Miracleman/Marvelman…

With the abandoning of the Miracleman trademark by Todd McFarlane and the registering of the Marvelman trademark by Marvel, there has been a glimmer of hope that this character may return to the pages of a comic book in new stories. 

A bit of history for those not in the know.  The sad thing is that I have followed this since the 80s, and it has only gotten worse up to this point. 

In the mid-50s Fawcett stopped publishing Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family books in response to the completion of the DC copyright infringement lawsuit.  Claiming that the Big Red Cheese was a Superman clone, DC forced them to stop publishing.  That and the drop in sales made them decide that the book was not worth the effort.  In Great Britain, they needed something to fill the void, so Mick Anglo came up with a less than original idea for the Marvelman Family.  Jiggering the origin of the main character some, there was almost no difference in the new books.  Even the art style was a pretty loose copy of the Captain Marvel books.  Much of this material has since been reprinted by Marvel.  The new books were even more popular with the British fans and the books lasted for nearly a decade, ending in 1963. 

The characters lay dormant until 1982, when Warrior magazine started running an updated version of the character by Alan Moore.  It is these stories that have kept the industry interested in the character.  Without Alan Moore, Marvelman would be no more remembered than The Green Llama and other Golden Age has beens.  The Moore version of the character kept almost every part of the stupid 50’s origins and folded them into a much richer and more intelligent tapestry that made sense of the ideas and poked fun at them at the same time.  Complex and powerful serialized stories in Warrior continued until issue 21, when they stopped without completing the story.  Creative issues between Moore and artist Alan Davis coupled with the problems within Warrior cause then end of the series, until 1985 when Eclipse comics started reprinting the Warrior stories, with the name changed to Miracleman to avoid the wrath of Marvel.  They repackaged the stories to fit in a monthly book and MM was suddenly a major title in the US.  Moore’s run ended with number 16, his run completed (new stories continuing where the Warrior ones left off started at issue 7) and now one arc in 3 books. 

Neil Gaiman and Mark Buckingham took over with issue 17, getting all the way up to issue 24 before Eclipse’s financial issues caused the end of publication.  I remember a signing where I met Neil Gaiman.  It was during the Kindly Ones run on Sandman, he and artist Jill Thompson were at a comic shop in Wisconsin.  This was a few months after the last issue had come out and the full picture had not emerged publicly about Eclipse.  When I asked Neil about it, his response was that they were still going to do them as soon as Eclipse started paying them again.  Then that was it.  It was not long after this that the legal issues began to crop up.

The ownership of the character has always been muddled.  When Warrior started the Moore run, everyone thought the rights were fine.  Moore and his artists had a share in ownership and that was that.  But Warrior never owned it officially and Mick Anglo continued to dispute it.  Once Eclipse had it, they too thought they had all the legal bases covered.  They didn’t.  Todd McFarlane bought all of Eclipse’s assets at auction for a song in the hopes of getting MM back in print and creating new stories.  But his engulf and devour style pissed off everyone.  Neil Gaiman sued, and then Marvel got involved on Gaiman’s side. (This partnership gave us the amazing series 1602)  Now mixed up in the legal issues surrounding Spawn and some of the characters Gaiman created for that book, things got even messier. 

Now the status appears to be the above mentioned trademarks, apparently resolved.  Marvel bought the rights to the classic stories, characters and some of the Moore stuff.  The artists still hold the rights to their work.  This may end up being an even bigger issue if Rick Veitch and others choose not to work with Marvel.  So it APPEARS that the main legal hurdles are cleared at this point.  It is just a matter now of getting everyone together.  Gaiman and Buckingham are willing to finish their story.  After that Marvel could have it’s very own Superman in Marvelman.  They need to do whatever they can to make this happen.   Even if they botch up new stuff, the Gaiman run completed will sell HUGE for them.

My main concern if these do see print again is that they are old.  They have been copied and ripped off for decades no.  What was once Alan Moore at the top of his game with a groundbreaking and original story may seem to a younger, more cynical reader to be just more of the same thing that they have seen for years.  Much of what Image and Wildstorm did in the 90s was a rip off of these stories, some blatantly so.  Presented correctly, I think these older stories will be fresh and powerful to new readers, but that is a big IF.  Marvel is not very good at this sort of thing. 

So here’s hoping that the last few cogs in the machine fall into place and get things moving forward.  This is one of those stories that the industry needs to have in print, if only to be able to put it behind them and say that it was resolved for the better.

Daredevil vol 2 by Mark Waid review

Daredevil vol 2 by Mark Waid

Marvel comics 2012

136 pages

$20 cover price

Having previously read, loved and put up a review for volume one of the Mark Waid run on the re launched Daredevil series, I was really looking forward to this second volume collecting issues 7-10, 10.1 and Amazing Spider-Man #677. 

As it stands, every time Waid gets to work on an established book, he makes it his own, usually revitalizing it in the process.  Daredevil though, has to be a high point even in that list.  The story is easily the best that this title has seen in decades, particularly if you are tired of Marvel treating poor Matt Murdock like a punching bag.  Waid himself has said that he fully expected to see a gun in Matt’s mouth at some point, given the way it has gone.  This series under Waid and artist Paolo Rivera has brought the character back into the light.  The book is fun and still exciting; there are just no ninjas and demons, which were getting to be a bit much. 

This volume does not flow as well as the first, partly because the artists change.  Rivera gives way in the Spider-Man issue to Emma Rios and to Koi Pham in another.  The artist switch up can be jarring at the best of times, but with Rios employing a very rough line style here, it is doubly so.  The single issues are a bit choppier here than in the first volume, mostly, I think because Waid is less interested in writing for the trade than he is in putting out a good book every month.  That emphasis on a good month to month book is the idea, of course, but the collections do not always work as well because of it.  There are times when it seems as though some of the things done are a bit obligatory.  Captain America in the first volume and Spidey and the Black Cat in this one seem as though they were put in to cross market.  Marvel is very often and historically guilty of this, more so than most other publishers.  As a result, even when that is not really what is happening, it very often FEELS like it. 

These are minor quibbles though.  They are things to be expected from modern mainstream comics, and are nothing new.  The high mark set by volume one has just spoiled me.  Where that book was really special, this one is just very good.  That still makes it the best book Marvel is putting out with the exception of the Hickman FF titles.  If you enjoyed the first book, you will enjoy this too.  Rivera and Waid are a great team, and if they can stay together on this book, with as few fill in issues as possible, I see no reason that Daredevil will come off my pull list any time soon.

 

PunisherMAX by Jason Aaron & Steve Dillon review

PunisherMAX volumes 1-4

Marvel Comics

2010 – 2012

Reprints all 22 issues of the monthly series.

With all the talk of super hero films, I keep remembering the Punisher.  Starting with one of the worst films adaptations in history the Dolph Lundgren version was nearly as bad as the Nick Fury movie.  Thomas Jane gave it a good try in the next installment, but ultimately the film missed the mark.  Ray Stevenson and the rest of the cast in the most recent version, Punisher: War Zone were perfect.  The film was the closest yet to what a Punisher film could be.  It was only let down by attempts at dark humor that played as silly, and a pair of villains that just didn’t work on film.  Everyone involved in that movies did great work, but sometimes that is not enough.  I hope if they try again that they let Stevenson wear the skull, he IS the Punisher on film, as far as I am concerned

The next best thing is the Punisher series that Marvel has done under the MAX imprint.  Garth Ennis had an amazing run on the book and now Jason Aaron has put his stamp on the character.  While the Ennis run was good, the only concession it made to reality was that Frank Castle was as old as he should be, and there were no superheroes or super villains of any kind.  The version of the story that Aaron and artist Steve Dillon have created is darker even than that, but the attempt here is to make this feel a little closer with the mainstream Marvel U version, while making it as real and believable as possible.  Since most of the people who are old enough to read this mature readers series will remember the classic Punisher, having this story touch on some of the other characters, like Bullseye is a very effective way to create an emotional resonance with Frank and the others here.  The origin of Frank is essentially the same, the motivations and the deeper events and attitude surrounding it have changed, making all the difference.  It puts you in a position where the very black and white version you are used to, even in the Ennis version, is viewed through a different lens.  It is hard to like Frank Castle here, but is equally hard to condemn him or his actions, or find the motivations for them unbelievable.  Everyone in comics likes to think that if they were in the position that our heroes are in, that they would do the same.  We would all like to create a fantasy where we avenge the wrongs in the world.  This Punisher though, is punishing everyone, including himself.

As the series progresses, every attempt is made by the writer to cut him open and expose him to both the reader and all the players in the story.  The fact that he has been waging his war on crime for 35 years without ever examining why is the point.  Sure he is avenging his family, but why is he still doing it?  Batman is another character that needs to ask this question, and some writers have touched on it.  One very effective version was Brad Meltzer’s run on the Justice League.  While only briefly hinted at, it is made clear that with Bruce Wayne it is his fear of change, and more significantly his overwhelming fear of loss.  He will force the world into his vision of it so it never changes and no one else will have to lose what he lost.  Not so with the Punisher.  Frank Castle never really felt more alive than when he was killing, be it in the war or as the Punisher.  Even that is not enough for Aaron, though.  That motivation is far too simple and shallow, and what he adds to the story over the run of these 4 volumes (or 22 issues) is flawless.  You believe every beat and don’t ever really start to question it as things are revealed.

The inclusion of MAX versions of the Kingpin, Bullseye and even Elektra work very well here, and I found them to be plausible and even sympathetic at times.  What struck me here in particular was the use of the Kingpin’s wife, Vanessa.  In the regular 616 universe, she was never much more than the MacGuffin.  She is this person that seems to motivate the Kingpin to do whatever he is doing at the moment.  Here she is her own force, and not someone who just sits idly by and has things happen to her.  The only character here that is not very well served is Elektra.  While this may be my own prejudices at work, I don’t think so.  I stopped caring about Elektra the instant Frank Miller was no longer writing her.  He created a deep and interesting person in the pages of Daredevil that you cared about from the very start.  Everyone since, without exception has failed to do anything interesting with her, and most were doing nothing more than bending her over for their own enjoyment, sometimes literally.  Here she is not much more than an obstacle for Frank and her deeper role in the story is never given.  There are hints, but she is not really there as anything other than something to keep Frank busy.  The Kingpin is the real antagonist here, and even Bullseye cannot steal the spotlight away.  Wilson Fisk as written by Aaron and drawn by Dillon is the most interesting character in the series.  His story is told in great detail, and it is far more interesting than anything that has gone before in the main Marvel U.  Both the hero and villain here spend a lot of time in their own heads, but the trip Wilson takes is the road less traveled by the reader, and is a more interesting one.  While Castle’s trips into his memories are filled with new depth and meaning to a story we already know well, the Kingpin’s memories are largely new to the reader.  They show what he has gained and lost on his very brief rise to power, and what he is willing to do to keep it.  The version here is one of the more interesting and surprising I have ever seen.

PunisherMAX is hard stuff.  It is not a happy read or a forgiving one.  It is NOT for younger readers, and the “explicit” tag on the cover should be a warning to anyone paying attention.  What it is most of all though, is the best and most realistic look at a Marvel hero I have ever seen.  That is not always an easy thing to read, but it is well worth the effort.

Not a review of the Avengers film

There is no point in adding my 2 cents to the pile on this film, except to say, “WOW!”  This was far more fun, silly and action packed that I could have ever hoped for.  Go see it.  I don’t care if you don’t like comics, go see it.  You will have fun, and that is all that matters with a film like this.  I never thought this would be a failure, but I never expected it could be this good, or this successful at the box office.  With an opening weekend of $207 million (blowing past HP 7 pt 2), it will be a hard opening weekend to beat.  This movie is almost certainly going to hit half a billion dollars in domestic box office, and could challenge Avatar if it doesn’t falter too much in the next two weeks.  Not likely, but it is possible.

The real reason for this Avengers related post, is to do what comic book movies almost always fail to do.  I want you to read more comics, so I will mention a few Avengers comics that people who enjoyed the film might like.  This will be more or less divided into 2 groups, modern and classic.  The division is because the classic stuff, while a great read, is very dated and comes off as a bit silly at times.  While well written for comics of the day, these books just don’t pack the serious tone and darker, more realistic style of the newer ones.  Many modern readers will just not be able to connect with them as they will seem trite and simplistic, with too much over written dialog.

Cover to the Kree/Skrull Trade Collection

One of the more interesting classic books was The Kree/Skrull war, available as a trade or hardcover collection, the Chitauri of the film are a different version of the Skrulls.  Written by Roy Thomas and drawn by John and Sal Buscema and Neal Adams, this was the first really good cosmic Avengers story.  There are a few beats from this that ended up in the film.

Another classic story would be the Korvac Saga, written by Jim Shooter.  While not one that ages well, it is a decent story that showcases the team dynamic well.

The last of the great classic stories on my list, and one that is unfortunately not collected in any form yet is the runs of (primarily)writers David Micheline and Roger Stern.  With art by George Perez, this was the run of stories that really defined the title in the 1980’s and is still my favorite run on the book.  Now if Marvel would just get it into a reprint volume that would be great.  This run was from the 180’s to the early 200’s and also featured art by John Byrne, among others.

Staying with John Byrne as we go into the transition years where the stories started to develop the more modern sensibility, is Byrne’s run on a couple of Avengers titles.  The better, more noteworthy run is on the West Coast Avengers book where he redefined the Scarlet Witch and the Vision characters.  This run really pissed off some fans who didn’t like that Byrne upset the apple cart so dramatically, destroying a much-loved romance between these two characters that had lasted for over a decade.  The Darker than Scarlet and Vision Quest storylines have  been collected in trade format, and are well worth the read.

Then things went into the crapper in the 1990’s.  Lack of good stories and no real editorial direction lead to some pretty awful books.  The sales went so low as to allow Marvel to essentially hand the books over to the Image guys to revamp.  It was awful.  Many attempts are made to modernize comics for a new audience, but only a few succeed.  The Heroes Reborn books are available in trade collections if you want to see how NOT to reboot a classic title.  The Heroes Return books that came after and reset things to pre Reborn run continuity was a much better storyline by Kurt Busiek and George Perez, and is also available in trade and hardcover collections.

In 2004 the Avengers Disassembled story destroyed the team, literally.  Killing off several members, incapacitating others and destroying the team’s long time HQ, this story was designed to rip the concept to its’ foundations so it could be rebuilt.  Another run that really upset long time fans, this was the book that made the Avengers a top seller again for the first time in many years.  They essentially gutted the team like a fish and started over with a new mission and a new lineup.  One of the places they went was The Mighty Avengers by Brian Micheal Bendis.  The first arc, The Ultron Initiative drawn by Frank Cho is the best of the bunch and is a great look at defining a villain that is particularly hard to write well.

The hot new book is AvX, which is not what I call great, but it is selling well and will be the story that sets the status quo for the Avengers and the X-Men for the next couple of years.

There are also a number of good runs highlighting the Avengers from the movie in solo adventures.  One of the best is Captain America: The New Deal and The Extremists arcs written by John Ney Rieber.  A very modern take on Cap and Nick Fury and how they would function in a post 911 world.  Very powerful stuff, that takes a look at the very normal and human side of the living legend of WW2.  There is also an amazing run on the Thor solo book that is not dated at all.  Walt Simonson turned everything on its head with the Beta Ray Bill story line that started in #337 of the Thor monthly book.  Lots of thees and Thous and cosmic action, with a fair splash of humor, make this book exciting for all ages.  The Iron Man Extremis story by Warren Ellis and Adi Granov is also one of the more interesting attempts to modernize a classic character, and while it is not for everyone, this was a compelling book to read and a strong entry into the mythos.

Lastly there are The Ultimates books.  This is where the Nick Fury look you saw in the movie came from and a few other similarities such as the use of the Chitauri.  This is in a different continuity from the above books, and take a more modern approach in telling the Avengers stories right from the beginning.  The first 3 Ultimates trades are excellent versions of the characters and bear some definite similarities to the version you see in the films.  Fury, Hawkeye and the Black Widow in the movie are very much drawn from these volumes.

While this is by no means a comprehensive list, it is the list of books I have most powerful memories of reading in the 30+ years I have been reading comics, and they give a good snapshot of some of the best (or at least most popular) Avengers stories.  There are many others, but these would be a good place to start for anyone that liked the movie and may want a little more.

Strange–the Doctor is Out: review

Strange–the Doctor is Out

Marvel Comics 2010

104 pages

cover price $15

I really don’t like negative reviews, but there is really no way to sugar coat this and I said I’d review it when I finished it.  This was not a great book.  Sorry, it just was not an enjoyable read.  There is a lot here that started to be good, but just as each chapter got interesting, someone pulls the rug out from under the story.

Doctor Strange is like Daredevil in one very important way.  Every writer given a chance to write the book has a wildly different interpretation from every other writer that has written the book.  Many writers have tried to put a unique stamp on both characters, and some even succeed.  On Daredevil there was Frank Miller and Bendis and not very many others.  Mark Waid is writing the best Daredevil arc in 25 years and he wrote this version of Doctor Strange.  As the mighty Catfish Hunter said when asked why he was never able to duplicate his perfect game a second time, “the sun don’t shine on the same dog’s ass all the time”.  Waid is one of the best and most consistent writers in the industry, but even he can’t be great every time.  This book, like so many others about Marvel’s second string heroes, just never finds itself.  The character has never had a strong writer on the title for very long, and he continues to be plagued by stories that try to reinvent, redefine or reboot him.  The second stringers never really just have good stories.  There is an ongoing attempt to revitalize or change them.  It fails here, or rather the attempt to tell a good story within the current continuity fails here.

Waid has a very good premise and a strong first chapter (the book reprints the Limited Series Strange 1-4) but gets lost very quickly.  The story feels very much like an attempt to create the basis for another ongoing series for Doctor Strange, and as a result never really is a good book in its own right.  The art is another issue.  I have nothing against Emma Rois, but I will say for the record, that I do not like Manga or even fake Manga.  The very nature of the form means that only the very best can do it well, and when you are just aping a style as here, it rarely works.  There are some really great artists doing Manga influenced stuff, Amy Reeder comes screaming to mind, and Rios has done some very nice work, this just is not one of those.  The art is very hard to follow at times, and is very often off model.  The characters do not always look like themselves, and more often than not they look far too young, a style of Manga, I know, just not appropriate here.  Colors are rich and vibrant, but the art seems better suited to a black & white presentation.  I would love to see the uncolored original art.

I just cannot recommend this book.  It is sometimes close to being interesting, but it just misses the mark.  Combine that with a highly unsatisfying ending (the thought that there may have been more of a continuing series planned here came back to me) and this book is worth a look to only the most die-hard completest or devoted Doctor Strange fan.