New Avengers (2010 Series) #24

April 14, 2012

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Mike Deodato, Will Conrad
Letters: Joe Caramagna
Colors: Rain Beredo
Cover Art: Mike Deodato
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This issue takes place between panels of Avengers Vs. X-Men #1. In that moment between Captain America calling the Avengers down to face Cyclops and their leap from the SHIELD Helicarrier, Luke Cage flashes to the day before. As his wife, Jessica Jones, returns to the mansion, the two of them get into a pretty intense discussion about the wisdom of raising a child in Avengers Mansion.

A valid argument, to be certain. The Avengers lead dangerous lives, after all. But am I the only one who thinks they should have had this conversation a long time ago? When the baby was born, perhaps, or before they moved into Avengers Mansion and Luke agreed to lead his own squad? Not only does it feel like a case of too little, too late, but even worse it removes us from the focus of the issue for a huge portion of it. I got this book because it’s an AVX crossover. Instead, I got pages of angst that don’t really have anything to do with the main story.

It gets better when Captain America calls the team together. There’s a bit of a surprise when we’re all reminded that Storm has joined the Avengers just in time for her to walk out on the team, then Cap gives one of his trademark rousing speeches. It’s okay stuff, but in the end it feels like a largely inconsequential issue.

Mike Deodato does some good work here, and that helps, but there’s only so far even the best artist can take you. If you’ve been with this series for a while it’s probably not bad. If you’re getting it just for the crossover, you can pass.

Rating: 6/10

Avengers (1963 Series) #221

February 4, 2012

Title: New Blood

Plot: Jim Shooter
Writer: David Michelinie
Pencils: Bob Hall
Inks: Brett Breeding
Letters: Janice Chiang
Colors: Christie Scheele
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Publisher: Marvel Comics

If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s an old-fashioned “Who’s going to join the Avengers?” issues, and this is a really fun one. Following some dastardly doings by Moondragon, the Avengers are down to four members. Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the Wasp each set out to look for recruits to join the ranks of Earth’s mightiest heroes.

Shooter and Michelinie really used the personalities of the Avengers they had well here, picking the new members based largely on how the others would go about finding them. Cap and Iron Man attempting to bring back Hawkeye makes sense, as does the Wasp throwing a garden party of sorts to invite some super-powered femmes who may be ripe for membership. The only thing that feels a little off is Thor’s attempt to recruit Spider-Man, but even that is easily justified with a quick conversation with Jarvis, who inadvertently points Thor in that direction.

Bob Hall and Brett Breeding do distinctive 80s art – the textures on the floors of Avengers mansion, the decorations at the Wasp’s house, the clothing and hairstyles of the characters involved… it’s all the sort of thing that you only saw in comic books of this particular time period. The book is quite a nostalgia trip for me as a reader.

The resulting team isn’t necessarily one of the legendary line-ups, but all six of the Avengers we’ve got at the end of the issue are characters who really define the team. Each of them feels like a classic Avenger, and four of them are actually going to be in the upcoming movie. What’s really amusing to me, though, is the list of “potential” Avengers we see on the cover (many of whom don’t appear in the issue at all). Of these 15 characters, only two of whom had previously been members of the team, eleven of them have been Avengers at some point in the 30 years since this issue was published. Funny how the Marvel Universe works, isn’t it?

Rating: 8/10

The Iron Age: Alpha #1

February 4, 2012

Title: The Iron Age: Alpha

Writer: Rob Williams
Art: Rebekah Isaacs
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Colors: Andres Mossa
Cover Art: Ariel Olivetti
Editor: Thomas Brennan
Publisher: Marvel Comics

While attending a reception for a library he helped fund, Tony Stark is abducted by a squad of robots, and not even Luke Cage and Iron Fist can save him. Spirited away, he finds himself in the clutches of an old villain he fought once, years ago, who has a new agenda. The Phantom wants to end the world, and all he’ll need to do it is Dr. Doom’s time machine and one of the most powerful threats the Marvel Universe has ever faced.

Rob Williams kicks things off with an interesting concept – a villain who uses time travel to destroy the world, and Iron Man tossed back in time with a chance to prevent it. The format is rather odd – why this was structured as a three-issue miniseries with two “Alpha” and “Omega” bookends rather than just a five-issue miniseries is beyond me. But it’s easy enough to forget about that and just get into the story. Considering what Marvel was working on when this was released last summer, one has to wonder if the reintroduction of Dark Phoenix in this time-travel story wasn’t a warm-up of sorts for Avengers Vs. X-Men. It doesn’t necessarily feel that way, at least not in this first issue, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t weighing on the minds of the creators when they put this book together.

Rebekah Isaacs and Andres Mossa are a good art team, telling the story easily enough and finding ways to visually distinguish between “present” Tony and “past” Tony. All in all, it’s a good set-up. I look forward to reading the rest.

Rating: 7/10

Marvel Treasury Edition #8

December 23, 2011

This is one of two “Giant Superhero Holiday Grab-Bag” editions of the Marvel Treasury series. Both issues were full of reprints wrapped in a Christmas cover, but at least some of the interior content was holiday-related. I was fortunate enough to snag them both a few weeks ago, so let’s take a look at them, shall we?

Title: Twas the Night Before Christmas (Reprinted from Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #10)

Writer: Gary Friedrich
Pencils: Frank Springer
Inks: Johnny Craig
Letterer: Artie Simek
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Marvel Comics

On Christmas Eve, Nick Fury is summoned to stop the Hate-Monger, a nasty Nazi remnant who has a plan to cleanse the Earth of “inferior” races, unless Nick can stop him. Fury being very much a World War II holdover himself, this sort of story was par for the course for him at this time period. The story itself was fine, but I wasn’t terribly impressed with Gary Friedrich’s script – clunky dialogue like “Save the sobs, sister! I ain’t dead yet!” permeate the story. The artwork isn’t the best either – odd poses and weak faces throughout. But at least this was a Christmas story… not the case with the next one.

Title: Spider-Man Goes Mad (Reprinted from Amazing Spider-Man #24)

Writer: Stan Lee
Art: Steve Ditko
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Publisher: Marvel Comics

In this early Spider-Man tale, J. Jonah Jameson gets the idea to start running anti-Spider-Man testimony from the man on the street, thus removing himself from the equation and making his paper’s bias against the webslinger seem more legitimate. (It just goes to show you the media hasn’t really changed that much in the last 45 years.) When the stories appear, a psychiatrist offers Jameson a medical analysis that says Spider-Man is going mad… and to make matters worse, Spidey starts to believe it. Nice, classic tale from the Lee/Ditko era, fun to read, if not one of the greatest.

Title: Jingle Bombs (Reprinted from Luke Cage, Hero For Hire #7)

Writer: Steve Englehart
Art: George Tuska & Billy Graham
Letterer: John Costanza
Colors: David Hunt
Editor: Roy Thomas
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Set in the days before he partnered up with Iron Fist, on Christmas Eve Luke cage runs into a trio of odd types with a pretty violent vision of Christmas. When Cage stands up to each of them, he discovers a different kind of villain is really behind the whole thing. The story is pretty good here – it’s a different kind of story, not just another Christmas Carol redux, as it seemed it would be. As he often did, though, Steve Englehart got a little preachy with the message of the story. Overall, though, it wasn’t bad, and it was a decent fit for Cage.

Title: Heaven is a Very Small Place (Reprinted from Incredible Hulk #147)

Writer: Roy Thomas
Art: Herb Trimpe
Inks: John Severin
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This story, on the other hand, is just… weird. On one of his many self-imposed exiles in an effort to be just left alone, the Hulk sees a strange little town appear out of the ether. At first, it seems like a paradise, like a place where he could finally be treated like everyone else, but as he continues his journey through the town, things turn out to not be what they seem. It sounds like the set-up for a Christmas story but it isn’t, it’s just plain confusing. Some very nice Herb Trimpe artwork helps, but this is definitely not one of the best efforts from the great Roy Thomas.

Title: Eternity! Eternity! (Reprinted from Doctor Strange #180)

Writer: Roy Thomas
Art: Gene Colan
Inks: Tom Palmer
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Editor: Stan Lee
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This is a much better Thomas story. On New Year’s Eve, Stephen Strange has a strange vision of Eternity, embodiment of the universe, locked in battle against the maniacal entity called Nightmare. He shrugs it off and tries to ring in the new year with Clea, but it soon becomes apparent that his dream was much more than that. It’s a good story with great art, but it ends on a cliffhanger. Considering the stories in this book that had nothing to do with the holidays, one really has to wonder why Marvel didn’t cut those and finish this story.

Overall it’s not a bad little collection, but it could have been better.

Rating: 7/10

House of M: Avengers #4

January 29, 2008

Quick Rating: Good
Rating: T+

Will a war destroy Sapien Town?

Writer: Christos N. Gage
Art: Mike Perkins
Colors: Raul Trevino for Protobunker Studio
Letters: Rus Wooton
Editor: Bill Rosemann & Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Mike Perkins
Publisher: Marvel Comics

With the Punisher safe in Wakanda, he starts feeding Luke Cage’s “Avengers” information about Magneto’s plans to wipe out the remaining human forces. Meanwhile, the Kingpin’s tenuous partnership with Thunderbird’s forces snaps, and the war for Sapien Town promises to be as bloody as anything that could happen in Wakanda.

While this premise – heck, this entire universe – still isn’t one that holds much appeal for me, Christos Gage is probably one of the few writers working for Marvel that could keep my attention this long. While I still don’t feel any particular affinity for any of the characters, the situation itself is turning out to be pretty interesting. It’s something of a political chess match, with the different factions trying to make alliances or trying to fight back against mutual enemies, with everyone trying to figure out exactly who is on who’s side.

Mike Perkins’s art, as usual, is very good, particularly on the sequence towards the end where we see three different battles going on at once. He and Trevino do a great job of differentiating between the three battlefields, and they pack a lot of action into a few panels.

This isn’t too bad. It’ll never make a “favorite” list for me, but it’s at least interesting.

Rating: 7/10

New Avengers/TransFormers #3

September 11, 2007

Quick Rating: Bad
Rating: T+

With Latveria and Symkaria on the brink of war, the Decepticons attack!

Writer: Stuart Moore
Pencils: Tyler Kirkham
Inks: Sal Regla
Colors: Annette Kwok
Letters: Todd Klein
Editor: Bill Rosemann
Cover Art: Ed Mcguinness
Publisher: Marvel Comics/IDW Publishing

The first issue of this crossover was just kinda mediocre. The second issue was lousy. With this third issue, I officially throw my hands in the air and give up. I can’t even tell what’s going on anymore. After last issue’s plot device wore off, the Avengers and the Autobots team up to take down the Decepticons and Dr. Doom, who have a giant force field over their lair where Spider-Man is being held captive. For some reason, which completely escaped me and I’m not masochistic enough to look for, if they don’t get in there and stop the bad guys, Europe will be plunged into war.

I’ll give the book this much – this really is an equal-opportunity crossover. Everyone is written poorly. From the silly sniping between Ratchet and Prowl to the terrible dialogue from Captain America and Luke Cage, it’s pretty much equally bad. Iron Man might tip the scale with the introduction of a giant (read: Transformer-sized) suit of armor he just happened to have built for just such an occasion, but somehow neglected to provide an adequate power supply for. (Here’s a hint, Tony – call up those Sentinel O*N*E guys and ask what they’re using.)

Tyler Kirkham’s artwork is still adequate. He actually does quite a good job with the TransFormers, and his Avengers aren’t bad. He just doesn’t have much to work with.

Stuart Moore has done much, much better work than this in the past. The whole book has the feel of a story slapped together in committee and rushed into production to take advantage of the TransFormers’ movie buzz. As this issue proves, that’s just not the way to make a comic book.

Rating: 2/10

Avengers/Invaders #1

May 6, 2008

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Old Soldiers, New Wars
Rating: T+

The Invaders of World War II are wrenched through time – can they survive in 2008?

Writers: Alex Ross & Jim Krueger
Pencils: Steve Sadowski
Colors: inLight Studios
Letters: Todd Klein
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Cover Art: Alex Ross
Publisher: Marvel Comics/Dynamite Entertainment

As the Invaders take on yet another European battlefront during World War II, most of the team is enveloped in a bizarre green mist. When the mist dissipates, they find themselves back in New York, but flung forward to the year 2008, in the middle of the Thunderbolts’ effort to bring the unregistered hero Spider-Man to justice.

As confused as the Invaders are, Spider-Man and the Thunderbolts are just as confused to see the dead Captain America burst back onto the scene, with the World War II versions of his old teammates by his side. The time-tossing rings right up to the highest offices in the superhero world – specifically, to the director of SHIELD.

This isn’t a bad book. The idea of the current Avengers being contrasted with the classic Invaders is one with real merit. The characterizations are good, and Steve Sadowski brings a really good style to the event. The book looks quite good.

Most of the problems I have are really little things. It kind of bugs me, for example, that none of the lesser-known Invaders seem to have been pulled along for the ride, or that there doesn’t appear to be any recognition between Spidey and the Thunderbolts, most of which he’s fought with (or even fought alongside) in the past. The modern scenes feel like they’re at a slight tangent to continuity as well – the story seems to be clearly pre-Secret Invasion, but with a 12-issue series, the Skrull saga will be long over before this concludes.

Like I said, these are all relatively minor things, but together they add up enough for me to knock half a point from the overall rating. It’s a good book, but there are just a few things that I feel could have been tweaked a bit better.

Rating: 7/10

House of M: Avengers #2

December 4, 2007

Quick Rating: Fair
Rating: T+

Cage’s crew faces Shang-Chi.

Writer: Christos N. Gage
Pencils: Mike Perkins
Inks: Drew Hennessy & Mike Perkins
Colors: Raul Trevino
Letters: Rus Wooton
Editor: Bill Rosemann & Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Mike Perkins
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Luke Cage’s crew, planning a subtle revolution against the House of M, tries to forge an alliance with Shang-Chi’s gang, but Shang wants nothing of it. Meanwhile, an ex-Marine named Frank Castle is about to go on the most disastrous picnic of his life.

I give Gage a lot of credit for finding a different way to handle the Punisher than the obvious route, although what happens to him afterwards isn’t really too engaging to me. The broad strokes of this series as a whole aren’t really that well defined – other than a general sense that the Sapiens are fighting the mutants (speaking of which, since when is Taskmaster a mutant?) I don’t feel a real direction here. The smaller bits, the character beats, are considerably stronger – Cage’s explanation for his “Christmas!” exclamation, for example. I don’t know if that’s something Gage pulled from canon or if it’s a new beat he came up with, but either way, it helps rationalize a rather annoying character trait from the past.

Mike Perkins’s art is pretty strong. He’s got a good feel for street-level fighting, and Raul Trevino’s colors help. The daytime scenes aren’t quite as strong as nighttime, though, with a color palette a bit too yellow, giving the comic a washed out feeling.

This isn’t a bad book, but Gage is fighting an uphill battle, at least with me. It’s not bad, but it’s not good enough to get my interest.

Rating: 6/10

New Avengers/TransFormers #2

August 7, 2007

Quick Rating: Below Average
Rating: T+

The Avengers throw down with the TransFormers!

Writer: Stuart Moore
Pencils: Tyler Kirkham
Inks: Sal Regla
Colors: Annette Kwok & Blond
Letters: Todd Klein
Editor: Bill Roseman
Cover Art: Jason Pearson
Publisher: Marvel Comics/IDW

Spurred on by the “aggression wave” that is covering Latveria, the Avengers leap into battle with the Autobots against all boundaries of logic and common sense.

I’m trying to make allowances here. Okay, the Avengers aren’t in their right minds. They’re oh-so mad. But except for maybe Luke Cage and Warbird, there’s nobody on this team who could logically give a TransFormer a scratch in combat. What’s more, the Aggression Wave (not to mention the device that can free the Avengers from it) feels like a poorly plotted fanfiction that will stoop to any level to force a confrontation between the heroes.

That’s the main problem with the story, really – it feels terribly formulaic. The story could be told just as easily without the Aggression Wave forcing a fight between the heroes, but the dictates of the crossover seem to mean we’ve got to see Captain America (out of his mind) trying to beat up Optimus Prime. I love Cap as much as the next guy, but come on.

The artwork is okay, but nothing special, and the cover makes Wolverine look like an overinflated Thanksgiving balloon. I was skeptical when this crossover was announced, and I’m starting to feel my fears justified.

Rating: 4/10

Immortal Iron Fist #2

December 26, 2006

Quick Rating: Good
Title: The Last Iron Fist Story Part 2
Rating: T+

When Danny goes down, he gets help from an old friend.

Writers: Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction
Art: David Aja, Travel Foreman & Derek Fridolfs, John Severin
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth, Dean White
Letters: Dave Lanphear
Editor: Warren Simons
Cover Art: David Aja
Publisher: Marvel Comics

When Danny Rand takes a nasty fall, he summons help in the form of Night Nurse and his old partner, Luke Cage. Luke’s got bad news about other people using their old “Heroes For Hire” name, but Luke has bigger problems – someone else appears to be using the power of the Iron Fist. Perhaps more than one someone.

Iron Fist is one of those characters I’ve only had the briefest association with in the past. I don’t know too much about his past or the nature of his powers, other than the idea that he runs on his “Chi” somehow. This book doesn’t clue new readers in on too much about how his power works, but the implication is clear – the Iron Fist isn’t something that originated with Danny Rand, and apparently it’s only supposed to be wielded by one person at a time. New or not, this is an interesting angle. The book does feel like a Daredevil spin-off, though, using Danny’s recent spotlight as Matt Murdock’s replacement as a launching pad for this book. There’s plenty of Brubaker-esque introspective scenes while he warms up, and there are a few other great sequences showing other characters using the power.

David Aja handles the main artwork, and his style is similar enough to Alex Maleev and Michael Lark to continue casting this title as Torchwood to Daredevil’s Doctor Who. It’s good, don’t misunderstand, but it’s more of the same. Travel Foreman and Derek Fridolfs handle the opening scene with a more traditional style, and John Severin does a fantastic job on an unexpected World War II sequence. He’s one of my favorite classic artists, and it’s nice to see him being put to such good use.

This is kind of a weird little title, and it’s hard to know exactly what to make of it yet. But that may turn out to be a strength of the series, if Brubaker and Matt Fraction can handle it right.

Rating: 7/10