Marvel Universe Avengers Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #1

June 15, 2012

Title: Enter the Mandarin

Writer: Christopher Yost
Pencils: Chris Jones
Inks: Victor Olazaba
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Colors: Sotocolor
Editor: Stephen Wacker
Publisher: Marvel Comics

It’s the first issue of the new comic with a remarkably unwieldy title, based on the hit cartoon show recently cancelled by Disney XD! Which kind of makes the whole thing seem futile, actually, which is a shame as it’s a really good series and a pretty solid comic book. In this first story, the Mandarin attacks, sending a dragon in to attack Stark Tower. As the Dragon causes chaos, Iron Man leads the Avengers to take the fight straight to the source.

This is a good story – quick, but classic in the style and format. Jones – who similarly is doing really good work over on DC’s Young Justice comic book – does a very good job of imitating the style of the show while still giving us the sort of dynamic comic book storytelling that you want in a book of this nature.

Title: The Fury Files: Iron Fist

Adapted By: Chris Eliopoulos

The second feature in this issue shows Nick Fury’s file on a new hero, not (yet, at least) a member of the Avengers: Iron Fist. Eliopoulos uses stills from the cartoon itself to show off who Iron Fist is, both as a character, and his capabilities as a superhero. For a young fan who may not be reading the other comics, it’s a good introduction to the character.

Title: Assembly Line

Writer: Christopher Yost
Pencils: Adam DeKraker
Inks: Terry Pallot
Letters: Joe Caramagna
Colors: Sotocolor
Editor: Stephen Wacker

The second full story focuses on Maria Hill and Agent Coulson, reviewing some of the Avengers’ recent cases to determine their worth as a fighting unit. This one is definitely for fans of the show, showing the episodes where the battled Graviton, Wonder Man, the Leader and Kang, showing the introduction of Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Panther to the team… basically giving a rundown of all of Season 1 from Hill’s perspective. It doesn’t necessarily give us any new information, but it’s a good way to give a different angle on the events we’re already familiar with.

Shame the TV show is already on the chopping block. It’s a good half-hour of action and this comic is a worthy adaptation of it.

Rating: 7/10

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

Somebody’s First Comic Book: What If? (1989 Series) #108

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

TITLE: The Greatest Sacrifice

CREDITS:

Writer: Tom DeFalco
Pencils: Sergio Cariello
Inks: Keith Champagne
Colors: Kevin Tinsley
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Frank Pittarese
Cover Art: Sergio Cariello
Publisher: Marvel Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: The Avengers… they’ve got that movie coming out, right? And… I guess Spider-Man is one of them, too?

IMPRESSIONS: Maybe not… the story kind of starts in the middle, with the Avengers (Captain America, Thor, Iron Man and three people I don’t know) throwing down against Spider-Man’s enemy Carnage, who somehow has taken possession of the Silver Surfer. (Wait – Silver Surfer… wasn’t he in the Fantastic Four movie?) Evidently, we learn later, Carnage is some sort of alien slime that has been bonded to a serial killer, but left the killer and possessed the Silver Surfer.

We also find out, somehow, that these guys aren’t technically Avengers, but that they’re about to pick a new team. I’m not sure exactly how this works, but I like to imagine it’s like gym class, with Captain America and Iron Man taking turns picking from a line and the last one (I’m guessing the dude called “Justice”) being stuck with whoever picked second. Anyway, “Cosmic Carnage” nearly destroys the Avenger called the Vision and whips up on the rest of them until Spider-Man decides to clue them in that the monster is usually vulnerable to loud noises and fire, and maybe this girl called Firestar could do something? In the end, though, all she does is weaken the alien enough for the Surfer to exert control, fly into space, and kill himself and, presumably, the alien too.

I’m… lost here. The story itself is kind of straightforward, but what on Earth are they talking about – they’re not “really” the Avengers, they went and killed the surfer, and… and the title of this book. “What If?” Is that supposed to tell us that this is a “fake” story? It didn’t really happen? And if that’s the case, why the hell am I reading it?

GRADE: C-

[Meta-Note: I’m going to drop the usual pretense of this feature for a moment here to explain my commentary. The old Marvel What If? series, for a long time, was hosted by the Watcher, who explained that what we were seeing was a story set in a world very similar to the “real” Marvel Universe, but where something happened differently and the whole world changed as a result. Kind of a superhero version of Ray Bradbury’s Butterfly Effect theory. At some point, they dropped the Watcher as the narrator and, not being a regular reader of that book at that time, I didn’t really think much of it. Looking back for the sake of “Somebody’s First Comic Book,” I realize the lack of explanation makes this confusing as hell.

On a more amusing note, the letters page for this issue features letters for issue #105, the first appearance of Spider-Girl. The letters absolutely gushed over the comic, although the editor answering the letters initially says “Every story is only meant to be a glimpse into that particular reality. So don’t count on any more trips to see Spider-Girl!” Ah, hindsight.]

Fear Itself #7

November 6, 2011

Title: Thor’s Day

Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist: Laura Martin
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Cover Artist: Steve McNiven
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The Asgardian siege of Earth is reaching its Climax. Captain America has led a contingent of ordinary Americans to take up arms against Sin, while Iron Man has managed to outfit the Avengers with the most incredible weapons any of them have ever had, and Thor stands ready to face his destiny. And in the end… eh, it’s okay. The problem isn’t so much that the issue is bad – there’s a lot of good stuff to it, really – but it feels somewhat anticlimactic. The ending of this issue was telegraphed at the beginning of the miniseries. A good writer can make that work, mind you, but it all comes down to the execution – if you’re going to tell me what happens, at least find an unexpected way to make it happen. But it doesn’t, really, it doesn’t surprise at all. There is the requisite major character death at the conclusion, but it’s hard to take it seriously here. The character in question died not very long ago, came back not very long ago, and has a pretty big media presence for Marvel Comics at this point. It’s hard to imagine he’s not going to be back before the Avengers movie comes out next summer, and that sucks some of the drama from it. The best stuff here, truly is Matt Fraction’s treatment of Captain America. He really does nail Steve Rogers, having him step up and act the hero he’s supposed to be, every inch a warrior, every inch an Avenger. I’d gladly read a Captain America series written by Fraction, even if the rest of the book is kind of so-so. Immonen and Von Grawbadger continue to deliver on the artwork – gorgeous pages, a couple of full-page and double-page spreads that I’d love to have as a poster. It just looks great. If it read as well as it looks, it’d be one of Marvel’s finest crossovers. As it is, it’s just better than the last few.

Rating: 7/10

Ultimate Spider-Man #70

December 16, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Strange

Peter gets a night out with Mary Jane after a hard day on the job.

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

This issue starts out simply enough, with Peter Parker sitting down for a well-deserved dinner with Mary Jane, but the dinner quickly takes a back seat to his story of a long day in the webs. He helped out the Ultimates only to get nothing to show for it, then wound up stumbling into a confrontation with Dr. Strange that wound up being a lot weirder than it seemed.

This is the first appearance (to my knowledge) of Dr. Strange outside of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, and unlike some of the characters who appeared in that series, this issue seems to harken back to it, although not to such a degree that people who didn’t read it will be lost. In fact, the issue gives us a perfect recap of Strange’s origin, which fans of the main Marvel Universe will find familiar, but with a clever twist.

The ending of this book is a clever twist too. Just as we’re getting to the end of what seems like a relatively quiet done-in-one issue, we get blown out of the water by a last-second surprise. With these three guest-star story arcs, Bendis has finally gotten away from drawn-out, overly padded stories and is telling quick arcs with either a lot of action, a lot of character development, or both.

Bagley has gotten to branch out with this arc, doing as good a job with the Ultimates as he does regularly with Spidey, and pulling out some nice mystical visuals for the scenes with Dr. Strange. Some of the early pages are a little awkward, as the flashback begins with Bendis’s semi-regular trick of having wordless panels with a running commentary down the side of the page, then he switches to more conventional storytelling a few pages in, and the flow is disrupted.

Overall, a good issue. I’ve really enjoyed the last couple of months of Ultimate Spider-Man. I just hope the creators can keep up the momentum once the book goes back to longer story arcs.

Rating: 8/10

Super Hero Squad Online: Hero Up #1

July 28, 2011

Title: Send in the Clone-Bots                                                              

Writer: Todd DeZago
Art: Leonel Castellani
Colorist: Sotocolor        
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Jordan D. White   
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Marvel put out this 50-cent special a few months ago to coincide with the launch of the Super Hero Squad Online video game. Not having played the game, I’m not really sure if the story here has anything to do with the game’s story. Take as a simple 50-cent special, it’s worth the price, but it wouldn’t have been worth too much more.

In the first of two stories, “Send in the Clone-Bots,” Doctor Doom has created robot duplicates of members of the Super Hero Squad to try to take down the heroes. The robot Hulk throws down with the real Iron Man, Thor, and Wolverine, prompting the squad to assemble and seek out the villains. The story, honestly, isn’t that great. Part of it is the general weakness of the concept – these heroes all palling around the Helicarrier together doesn’t make a lot of sense and is frequently dependent on just ignoring their established characterization, creating dull, bowdlerized versions of the heroes. The best stuff is in Todd DeZago’s script, including some fairly funny moments when the real Hulk discovers the disembodied head of his robotic duplicate and makes a pretty hilarious assumption. That leads to some good comedic segments, which the book needs. It’s particularly weak in the depiction of the villains. Dr. Doom here isn’t only ineffectual, he comes across like the version of himself in that internet meme where he’s swarmed by puppies. It just falls flat.

Fortunately, the second story is at least a bit better.

Title: Flame On! And On! And On! And On!

Writer: Todd DeZago
Art: Marcelo Dichiara
Colorist: Sotocolor        
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Jordan D. White

This second story isn’t actually about the Human Torch – don’t let the title fool you. Instead, we’re treated to the space-faring adventures of Fin Fang Foom, who winds up with a terribly destructive case of the hiccups. He intends to go to Earth to recruit a “big brain” to cure him, but winds up locked in heated battle with a Skrull invasion force. The Skrulls mistake Fin Fang Foom as a weapon from Earth, and the Super Hero Squad is called in. This story is funnier, and the characters feel a bit more true to themselves, although the story is briefly derailed when Iron Man starts explaining why they don’t need space suits once they reach the Skrull spaceship. Aside from a good fourth wall-breaking line, the explanation doesn’t make any sense, which is actually more distracting than it would have been if they’d just ignored the whole concept and gone ahead with it.

It’s an okay issue, but it’s not a great one. Kids may like it, but there are definitely better products out there for them.

Rating: 6/10

Thor (2007 Series) #4

November 13, 2007

Quick Rating: Good
Title: No Borders
Rating: T+

A journey to Africa sends Don Blake into the hands of more lost Asgardians.

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: Oliver Coipel
Inks: Mark Morales
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Warren Simons
Cover Art: Oliver Coipel
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This issue Donald Blake joins the ranks of Doctors Without Borders, an international relief organization who sends medical assistance to the harshest places on Earth. As luck would have it, his first assignment in Dabran, Africa brings him near some of the lost Asgardians that his alter-ego, Thor, is seeking across the globe.

The cover somewhat gives away the identity of just who Thor finds in this remote part of Africa, but the story is still strong enough to get us there, and the characters are old favorites, so seeing them again is certainly a treat. Straczynski takes an approach here that almost feels like it would fit in with his Squadron Supreme, applying his superheroes to a real-world situation and actually putting them to use in a way we don’t often see in mainstream comics.

The only real problem here is the question of how long Straczynski can keep this up. The whole angle of seeking lost Asgardians can only last so long. Fortunately, by the end of this issue it seems like he may have fond a different angle to take, which will hopefully work out for the story.

Oliver Coipel’s artwork really is impressive here. He manages to drop Thor and the other Asgardians in the middle of Africa without making them look particularly out-of-place. (Well, no more out of place than a Norse god would look anywhere in the 21st century.) Also – in case I hadn’t mentioned it before – I really like his redesign of Thor’s costume. His nose is a bid odd – a bit bulky – but other than that, he looks good.

Decent issue, with no real complaints.

Rating: 7/10

Fear Itself #3

June 2, 2011

Title: The Hammer That Fell on Yancy Street

Writer: Matt Fraction
Pencils: Stuart Immonen
Inks: Wade Von Grawbadger
Colorist: Laura Martin with Larry Molinar
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Tom Brevoort       
Cover Art: Steve McNiven
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Earth is being showered by Asgardian Hammers sent down by the Serpent and Sin, daughter of the Red Skull. So far the Juggernaut, Absorbing Man, Titania, the Hulk, and Attuma have each grasped a hammer, turning them into unstoppable juggernauts. This month, Captain America leads the Avengers into battle against Sin, while the Thing finds yet another Hammer, and Thor tries to return to Earth before it’s too late.

This series has been kind of scattershot. The hammer story doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with “fears,” which are ostensibly the driving force behind the storyline. The action scenes help the issue considerably, really. The scene with Red She-Hulk throwing down with the Hulk in his transformed state looks just very good, and the reimagined version of the Thing is cool as hell. (For an evil Ben Grimm, that is.) Bucky’s throwdown with Sin is pretty powerful, and while the last page is the kind of thing that you expect to see in a crossover of this nature, it’s handled well. Stuart Immonen is carrying the comic at this point. It looks fantastic, but although Matt Fraction is a good artist, I don’t necessarily feel like this comic is telling the story it set out to tell.

Rating: 7/10

Thor (2007) #3

September 11, 2007

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Everything Old is New Again
Rating: T+

Thor faces Iron Man in the “ruins” of New Orleans.

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Pencils: Olivier Coipel
Inks: Mark Morales
Colors: Laura Martin
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Warren Simons
Cover Art: Olivier Coipel
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Before I even begin this review, I’ve got to admit a major bias on my part that deeply colors my feelings about this book. In case you didn’t know, I’m a Louisiana boy. Born and bred not 30 minutes from the heart of New Orleans, and a Katrina evacuee at that. So when a comic book (or any popular entertainment) decides to use what happened in Katrina as its backdrop, as J. Michael Straczynski does in this issue of Thor, I’m considerably more sensitive to how that story is told than the average reader. So, bias admitted, I looked at this story, and I find it somewhat wanting.

Thor begins his quest for the missing Asgardians this issue, and decides the appropriate place to start is the city that was destroyed by the power of a storm during his absence. Okay, fair enough so far. The problem comes when Thor gets to a New Orleans that doesn’t so much come from reality, but from any number of lazy stereotypes. If the creators of this book had shown just how much the city has recovered before they went to a straight-out-of-CNN “disaster area,” I could have forgiven it. If they had shown so much as a construction site, I may have been okay. But without a single pit stop to indicate that – hey, maybe we’re NOT a total wasteland – Thor goes straight to the most horrifically run-down area in town. A place that apparently was hit so badly that even two years after the hurricane, there is still standing water on the ground, and a dozen people living in a dilapidated house that in the real world would be condemned and sealed off, not used as habitation. And again, based on this issue, it would seem this is indicative of the entire city. Even the sole sign of civilization in the book — a skyline in the background of the first page — is inaccurate; peppered with buildings far higher than anything that actually exists in the city of New Orleans. It’s a mishmash of conjecture and assumptions, and I don’t like it in the slightest.

There, got that off my chest. On to the story at hand. While visiting the Big Easy, Thor faces his former friend, Iron Man. Apparently, he’s had time to catch up on the news. He knows what happened in the Civil War, and he ain’t happy. Last week, I gave Straczynski credit for actually writing Iron Man in character in Amazing Spider-Man. This week, while not going as far into the cartoon supervillain territory as some writers, he still has Tony make some fairly stupid moves – I can’t imagine a single logical scenario where Tony would approach Thor the way he does this issue. It just doesn’t make sense.

The conclusion isn’t bad, and it begins to move the plot forward. But it’s a frustrating issue for me, one that I can’t just forget about. I intentionally gave this book a higher rating than I’m inclined to, simply because I know my history makes me judge it harsher than most people will, but I have to put that on the table.

Rating: 6/10

Somebody’s First Comic Book: Thor-The Mighty Avenger #8

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

TITLE: The Man in the Iron Mask

CREDITS:
Writer: Roger Langridge
Art: Chris Samnee
Colors: Matthew Wilson
Letters: Rus Wooton
Editor: Sana Amanat & Nathan Cosby
Cover Art: Chris Samnee & Matthew Wilson
Publisher: Marvel Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Thor was the god of thunder, right? And on the cover… it looks like he’s fighting… Iron Man?

IMPRESSIONS: As the story opens up, it looks like Thor has been caught by some evil robots, so his friend Jane calls up another superhero for help. “Doctor Pym” (dude in a red suit with a funky helmet) is busy, so he gives a call to his buddy, Tony Stark, better known to moviegoers everywhere as Robert Dow—um… as Iron Man.

The bad guys seem to want to study Thor and his magic hammer, and Iron Man comes in for the rescue wearing a much bigger and bulkier suit of armor than I remember from the movies. (Even the first one.) Thor manages to bust out on his own, though, and winds up fighting Iron Man, whom he assumes is one of the robots. (Which, to be honest, is fair enough.) Then there’s the team-up and, in the end, Thor actually does something productive that could help humankind. I didn’t know superheroes were allowed to do that…

Wow, I really liked this book. Thor is easy enough to grasp, and although Iron Man isn’t exactly the way he was in the movies, he’s close enough that I didn’t have any trouble figuring out what was going on. The story was cool too – a lot of fighting, but nothing that didn’t make perfect sense in context. I got the impression this was the first time these two characters met each other, which makes the misunderstanding much more reasonable. And the artwork is great – I loved the designs for the robots, and the old-school Iron Man armor looked really cool.

This was awesome. Just full of coolness and fun. In fact, I’m really looking forward to getting the next issue of Thor: The Mighty Avenger!

What’s that you say? Last issue?

Aw… nertz.

GRADE: A