House of M: Avengers #1

November 13, 2007

Quick Rating: Average
Rating: T+

The origin of Luke Cage’s Avengers.

Writer: Christos N. Gage
Art: Mike Perkins
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Rus Wooton
Editor: Bill Rosemann & Tom Brevoort
Cover Art: Mike Perkins
Publisher: Marvel Comics

I make absolutely no secret of my disappointment with the whole House of M event. I thought it was boring, overlong and ultimately a waste of time and money, and that includes most of the crossover chapters. So when I heard Marvel was going to do a series of mini-series revisiting the event, you can imagine how excited I was.

This miniseries focuses on the group of human and non-mutant heroes assembled by Luke Cage to act as a resistance against Magneto’s ruling house, coincidentally called “The Avengers,” and specifically, this issue acts as a sort of origin story for the team. We see Cage’s origin in this other universe and, more importantly, how he began drawing the other heroes to him.

Technically, there’s not really anything wrong with this story. Gage has become one of my favorite writers to come on the scene in the last few years, and his skills are enough to make this a far more readable comic than most of the ones that accompanied House of M the first time around. The real problem here is one of significance. We’re seeing the history of an alternate reality that was wiped out of existence and (if there’s a merciful higher power) we’ll probably never see again, so does it really matter?

(This was also my big problem with most of the original House of M books, but I digress.)

Mike Perkins and Laura Martin’s artwork is pretty good. They tell Cage’s story fairly well, the figures are clear and easy to distinguish, and like with the writing, there are no real problems to speak of.

In short, this isn’t a bad story so much, it just feels like a pointless one. I’ve got to wonder if even Gage is a good enough writer to make me care about a story I didn’t like two years ago that technically never happened anyway.

Rating: 5/10

Black Panther (2005 Series) #28

June 26, 2007

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Hell of a Mess Part 1
Rating: Parental Advisory

The new Fantastic Four faces the Marvel Zombies!

Writer: Reginald Hudlin
Pencils: Francis Portela
Inks: Francis Portela
Colors: Val Staples
Letters: Cory Petit
Editor: Axel Alonso
Cover Art: Arthur Suydam
Publisher: Marvel Comics

After the Black Panther’s magic golden frogs shunt the Fantastic Four into another dimension, they find themselves facing off with a swarm of Marvel Zombies sharing the power of Galactus!

That may be the single silliest sentence I’ve ever typed.

Despite that, the issue isn’t bad. For fans of the first Marvel Zombies miniseries, this story picks up right where that left off, with the Zombies descending on a Skrull planet with the intention of devouring the population. Hudlin taps into a few of the more logical questions one would have to ask with such an existence, although the dialogue for some of the Zombies (particularly Luke Cage) goes beyond being charmingly campy to being outright ridiculous.

On the other hand, he’s doing a fairly good job dealing with the new team, and taps into several facets of Fantastic Four history in the process. In fact, it would be quite easy to forget that this is ostensibly the Black Panther’s solo title – this reads much more like an issue of Fantastic Four, and fans of the Panther by his lonesome may be upset by that.

Francis Portela’s artwork is good – his style with the Zombies is nicely evocative of Sean Phillips’s work in the miniseries, and meshes just fine with his work on the FF and the Skrulls.

This book may be a disappointment for Panther fans, but if you’re reading it because you like the Fantastic Four or the Marvel Zombies, you should be satisfied.

Rating: 7/10

Thunderbolts #147

September 6, 2010

Title: Scared Straight

Writer: Jeff Parker
Art: Kev Walker
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Albert Deschesne
Cover: Marko Djurdjevic
Editor: Bill Rosemann
Publisher: Marvel Comics

As a tie-in to Avengers Academy #3, the Avengers are bringing some of their young students to the Raft to hopefully shock them out of their more villainous tendencies. When an electromagnetic pulse hits the prison where the Thunderbolts are housed, some of the Avenger Academy kids set out to get revenge against their former torturer, Norman Osborn. As they hunt down the former Green Goblin, Luke Cage sets free the Thunderbolts to keep the rest of the inmates in check.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been a regular reader on this title. Marvel lost me at the same time that the book became part of Norman Osborn’s Initiative and most of the original cast departed, and in fact I only got this book because of its tie-in to the excellent Avengers Academy series. As it is, it’s okay. The book seems to have gotten back to its roots in a way, it’s once again about villains trying to find redemption of a sort. The Juggernaut actually works pretty well as a member of the team, although it’s hard to figure out why anybody would trust Moonstone again in such a capacity, and I’ve got no clue what Man-Thing is doing in this book. It is nice, though, to have original Thunderbolts Songbird, Mach-V and Fixer back in this title.

Kev Walker’s artwork is pretty good. A bit overly-detailed, like he’s trying to do a Leinil Yu riff, but he tells his story well, so I’ll nod and give a thumbs up.

I wish I could say this issue made me want to run out and start buying this comic again, as Thunderbolts was once my favorite Marvel title for a time, but it really is just “okay.” And just “okay” isn’t good enough for a comic book to make it to my pull folder.

Rating: 7/10

Daredevil (1998 Series) #60

Rating: May 16, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: The King of Hell’s Kitchen Part Five

Daredevil and his crew make a final stand to clean up Hell’s Kitchen.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Alex Maleev
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Cory Petit
Editor: Joe Quesada
Cover Art: Alex Maleev
Publisher: Marvel Knights

This storyline has been mostly about establishing a new status quo after the tumultuous events of Daredevil #50. This issue, Bendis seems to have finally settled things down, and the book is ready to move on to a grand new level. To cement his hold as the new kingpin of Hell’s Kitchen, Daredevil has rounded up his buddies Spider-Man, Luke Cage and Iron Fist to wipe out the Yakuza.

The book starts off with a great fight scene. We already know Bendis can write a great Spider-Man, but this issue he shows he can do a pretty good team dynamic as well. Daredevil gets the lion’s share of the attention, of course, but it’s clear that none of the heroes are slouches.

Some of the best scenes in the issue come after the fight, though, as Matt Murdock goes home to face not only his wife, but his own demons as well. The last few pages wrap up this storyline and give you a feeling that things have settled into a new life for Daredevil, even if it’s not a happy one. It’s the one he’s chosen, and he’s got to live with it.

Alex Maleev’s artwork continues to impress. He does a great gritty crime saga (I’d love to see him do an arc of Gotham Central, and he proves that he can do a great big superhero battle as well. He has striking poses and a great action dynamic, and an early two-page spread of our four heroes charging into battle is one of the best such shots I’ve ever seen.

Now that this issue has established the new milieu of the title, it’s time to sit down and start telling stories there. There’s a lot of room to play in this new world, and it’ll be great to see where Bendis takes it next.

Rating: 8/10