Somebody’s First Comic Book: The Fly (1991 Series) #3

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

TITLE: Metal Heads

CREDITS:

Writer: Len Strazewski
Penciller: Mike Parobeck
Inker: Paul Fricke
Letterer: Bob Pinaha
Colorist: Rick Taylor
Editor: Bryan Augustyn
Publisher: DC Comics/Impact Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: None. Looks like Spider-Man, but with a different bug. Yes, I know spiders aren’t bugs. Don’t lecture me.

IMPRESSIONS: Our hero, presumably the fly, crash-lands in a backyard and turns into a kid named Jason Troy. He passes out just in time for us to cut to a couple of bad guys. The boss is a pudgy little dude named Arachnus, who thoughtfully takes the time to give us their origins. Seems a bit odd, as the person he’s talking to most definitely should know the story already, but it certainly helps the reader.

Seems like Jason is suffering the problems of a double life. School and social life are suffering because he’s spending too much time as a superhero, and his mom is worried, but that doesn’t stop him from going into action the next day when some guys in armor attack the mayor at a parade. (Wow, the Mayor is actually wearing a sash that says “MAYOR.” I didn’t think that happened outside of The Simpsons.)  There’s a fight scene, and we find out a couple of other guys in different armor are watching the whole thing. They seem to be happy about it, though. (Well, two out of three of them do.)

Not bad. The book doesn’t really tell us much about the Fly or where he comes from (except for what appears to be a magic amulet he uses to turn his powers on), but you don’t really need that to understand what’s happening here. Arachnus and his henchman don’t seem to factor into the rest of the issue, though, and the guys in yellow armor at the end are out of nowhere. I’m going to guess that both of those are setting up things for the next issue. You understand what’s going on, but you definitely get the feeling that this is only part of a story.

GRADE: B-

Ultimate Spider-Man #55

March 27, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Hollywood Part Two

Who’s madder about Spider-Man: The Movie than Peter Parker? Dr. Octopus…

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Art Thibert
Colors: J.D. Smith
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Cover Art: Mark Bagley
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Although the sudden appearance of Dr. Octopus in this title, Spectacular Spider-Man and, by my count, three miniseries, is most certainly driven by the upcoming movie, Brian Michael Bendis is most certainly putting him to better use than almost anyone has in many years. This issue the good doctor, having escaped from prison, is setting up shop in his plans to destroy the film that is slandering his good name. Meanwhile, Peter has his own issues to deal with, such as a movie about his life that he never authorized and the fact that Gwen Stacy is using the film to lash out at Spider-Man, whom she still blames for the death of her father.

One of my favorite things about this series is how Bendis brings in the bits and pieces of the mainstream Marvel universe that he finds necessary, but twists them slightly. The original Gwen also blamed Spider-Man for her father’s death, but in that case her anger was a wedge preventing Peter from fully opening up to the woman he loved. In this version, theirs is a platonic, almost sibling love, and Peter’s pain comes merely from seeing the pain of his friend and holding himself partially responsible, even though it was someone else wearing his costume that caused Capt. Stacy’s death.

We don’t see quite as much of the actual movie production this issue that we did last issue, although the sudden appearance of a mainstream Marvel villain is quite humorous, and we get to see more of Peter’s classmate Kong, who is desperate to get into the movie. There’s a lot of character and plot development in this issue, with the action reserved for the very end and a great cliffhanger.

Mark Bagley continues to be the hardest-working penciller in the business, and one of the best. He puts so much emotion into his faces — Gwen’s pain, Peter’s confusion and the myriad of emotions that go through Dr. Octopus as he talks to himself, or to his arms, as the case may be. He makes Octopus looks as menacing as he ever has, and the last few pages give us the promise of a fantastic action-packed issue next time around.

People love Ultimate Spider-Man. Who can blame them? It’s a great comic book, and this storyline in particular has been even better than usual. Although I’m still wary that Marvel’s decree that this issue will come out 21 times a year will seriously overexpose the book, if there’s any creative team who could do it with that consistency and still keep it good, it’s this one.

Rating: 8/10

Outsiders (2003 Series) #6

November 18, 2003

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Pandora’s Box (Brothers in Blood Part Three)

The two Green Arrows join the Outsiders as they face down Brother Blood at the Slab.

Writer: Judd Winick
Pencils: Crisscross
Inks: Sean Parsons
Colors: Gina Going
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Michael Golden
Publisher: DC Comics

As closely as this book and the new Teen Titans have been linked with their launch, it makes you wonder how Winick and Geoff Johns wound up using virtually the same cliffhanger before six months had passed – a character getting shot on the last page, leaving you to wonder for a month if he’ll pull through.

At the end of last issue Arsenal was shot in battle against Brother Blood’s minions. As he clings to his life in a hospital bed, the Outsiders and the two Green Arrows (Ollie Queen being Arsenal’s surrogate father as much as Connor Hawke is a brother) head to the rebuild Slab prison in Antarctica, where the nastiest, most powerful villains in the DC Universe are incarcerated.

Brother Blood’s plot is fairly generic as far as supervillain plots go – he’s positioned a million sleeper agents around the globe who, when activated, will kidnap a million infants to begin his own cultish nation. Exactly what he needs the villains at the Slab for this isn’t entirely clear, and in fact, it almost appears as though there are missing word balloons on the slash page that would clarify this.

As Winick also writes the regular Green Arrow series, he has a good grasp of that character as well as the stars of this book. The selling point here isn’t the plot, it’s the characterization. The heroes interact well and everyone is written in-character – even the robot Indigo is starting to show a little personality, she almost seems to enjoy annoying Grace. The new incarnation of Metamorpho remains the most interesting character in the book as he deals with his amnesia, and although the cliffhanger that ends this issue isn’t entirely unexpected, it does open a lot of interesting possibilitites.

It’s always a treat to see Chriscross’s pencils – he’s one of the most solid superhero artists in comics these days, and it’s just a shame that most of the villains in the Slab were in their prison grays and he didn’t get a chance to cut loose.

I’m not quite as pleased with this title as I was after the first story arc, as it does seem to be drifting into generic superhero territory, but it’s still clever enough to keep me interested and see where it’s going next.

Rating: 7/10