January Picks

In 2009, January will be Secret Invasion month! No less than five SI-related tpb's are coming out, and with all the other interesting stuff also on the way, this month looks like it'll be an expensive one for me. Why don't you just skip all the irrelevant side stories? you ask. Well, I'm a sucker for cross-overs, and even though I know half of it (or more, WWH...) will disappoint me, I still crave it all.

So lets get started. The five SI titles are: Secret Invasion, Secret Invasion: Captain Marvel, Secret Invasion: Home Invasion , Secret Invasion: War Machine and Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four. I remember reading through all of Civil War was pretty exhausting, and it looks like SI will about as long. The Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. - With Iron Hands TPB is also coming out in January, but it doesn't seem to carry a SI label. There's probably a skrull or two in there anyhow. The Knauf's run is over, so I don't know what to expect from this one.

Also from Marvel is the Agents of Atlas tpb. Rumors has it that there will be an Agents of Atlas ongoing, so I'll just check out this one, to see what it's all about. Annihilation: Conquest Book 2 is also coming out. I have a review coming up for the first Annihilation series, so stay tuned. I'm not sure what to think about X-Force Vol. 1: Angels and Demons. I don't particularly like 'dark and violent', but it does seem to have some nice art and I quite liked Messiah Complex. I'll get it as a try-out. Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 3: The Book of the Iron Fist is definitely on my list, although I have yet to read the second volume of that series, and that's about it for Marvel books in January. Whew...

To give the false impression that I'm not a drooling Marvel zombie I've also included two non-Marvel books. Yea! The first one is Rasl by Jeff Smith, and anyone who have read Bone should understand why this looks interesting. The other one is Pax Romana by Jonathan Hickman. Hickman is an unturned leaf for me, but the Internet says it's good, so why not give it a try? It's supposed to be on the wordy side, and I'm a bit worried about that, because books with lots of words in them tend to make my head hurt, but maybe it'll be a nice change of pace to SI. At least there won't be any skrulls in it...

X-Men: Messiah Complex

Collects the X-Men: Messiah Complex one-shot written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Marc Silvestri, Uncanny X-Men #492-494 written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Billy Tan, X-Men #44-46 written by Mike Carey and drawn by Chris Bachalo, New X-Men #44-46 written by Craig Kyle & Chris Yost and drawn by Humberto Ramos and X-Factor #25-27 written by Peter David and drawn by Scot Eaton.

Before getting to the meat of this review, I will just provide a link to a former post where I aired my opinions on Marvel's policy of pushing back the publication date of tpb's that are also published as HC's, in effect messing up the publication order of tpb's. Grr, I'm still angry...

Ok, happy I got that off my chest (again). So, was Messiah Complex worth the wait? Yes, I think it was. X-Men have been keeping a high level of quality lately, in the sense that I got what I expected and a little bit more from books such as Rise And Fall Of The Shi'ar Empire, Supernovas and Endangered Species. Obviously, Astonishing has been in a league of it's own here, so I'll keep it out of the equation in this context. Messiah Complex ties up all the recent story lines of the various X-books (sans Astonishing), and makes way for a new beginning for them all.

The big X-issue since M-Day has been the lack of any new mutant appearances. As was made very clear in Endangered Species: the mutants are a dying breed. So when a new mutant birth suddenly takes place, several groupings suddenly find themselves hot on the heels of each other in pursuit of this mutant baby. As if having to deal with the Marauders and the Purifiers wasn't enough, several key members of the X-Men also turn out to have their own agendas, and, to no one's surprise, the whole shebang ends in a giant no-holds-barred all-against-all old fashioned fisticuffs. Is it formulaic? Yes, it is. Is it entertaining? Hell yes, it is. This book, and the books that lead up to it, shows the effectiveness of the X-Men formula: convoluted plot lines with multiple back-references spiced up with a huge gallery of characters, some time traveling, lots of action and regular surprises to keep the reader on the edge of the seat.

One of the things I particular liked about this crossover, is that each involved series is dedicated to the same degree. You may be reading an issue of X-Factor or you may be reading an issue of Uncanny X-Men, but you won't notice, because during the crossover they're virtually the same. Each team (X-Men, X-Factor, New X-Men) are equally featured in all chapters, and the same goes for the numerous subplots. Essentially, each monthly series was put out of effect during this crossover, giving way for a more unified story. This goes against the idea of several parallel monthly series, but works perfectly well in the tpb format, and goes to show what a powerful storytelling format this really is.

What makes it all work is how well coordinated the whole thing is between the writers. Not only are the events of the story well coordinated, care has also been taken to not have the characters act differently depending on who was writing a particular chapter. The main X-books (X-Men, Uncanny X-Men) does not give much room for individual expression on the part of the writer, and some may think of this as a bad thing. But this book is a good showcase of why this can also be a good thing. In any case, a series like Astonishing X-Men perfectly makes up for this.

Unlike the writing, the art of Messiah Complex is very heterogeneous. Bachalo's and Ramos' styles may have some likenesses, but throw in Tan and Eaton in the mix and you have a book with very differing visual styles. The cohesiveness of the book does take a hit on this account, one only has to look to Endangered Species to see how this could have been done better, but on the other hand, each of the four main artists does such a good job individually that it becomes a minor point. Even Billy Tan, whose work on Rise And Fall... didn't impress me, seems to have improved massively since then, and delivers some really good work in this book. I also want to point out the great covers by David Finch, who shows off what he can do without the time constraints of 24 pages per month, wow... It's a shame someone decided it was a good idea to slap Silvestri's cover to the one-shot on the cover of the tpb as well, because it is not only boring, it is vastly inferior to any of the covers done by Finch. Sometimes I just don't know what those Marvel guys are thinking...

Messiah Complex is by no means perfect. A lot of loose ends are left dangling, and I assume they will be dealt with in Divided We Stand and later. I would like to have seen the motivations of the X-traitor (whose name shall remain unrevealed here) explored more thoroughly, and maybe a little cohesiveness between the sub plots would have been nice. But at the end of the day, Messiah Complex delivers a very entertaining story, and if the X-books can keep up this level of quality, I would say the future for the mutant race looks bright.

Btw, if you want to read Messiah Complex, but haven't read X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, X-Factor and New X-Men for the last four to five years, I suggest you also pick up the X-Men: Divided We Stand tpb, which includes X-Men: Messiah Complex - Mutant Files #1 in which you will find explanations for most of the madness in the story.

7/10

New Avengers Vol. 7: The Trust

Collects New Avengers #32-37 written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Leinil Yu and New Avengers Annual #2 written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by Carlo Pagulayan.

Marvel's next big event, Secret Invasion, is moving nearer and nearer and this book is pretty much a prologue to that event. I guess the prologue really started in the previous New Avengers book, in which it was revealed that (now deceased) Electra was a skrull! The New Avengers quickly conclude that Earth is invaded by skrulls and there's really no one they can trust. And thus trust becomes the major theme of this book, can they trust each other, can they trust other heroes and can they even trust the villains to be just ordinary super villains and not skrulls? At the same time, a subplot that will be picked up after Secret Invasion, in Dark Reign, is introduced here and actually occupies most of the book.

Dark Reign, as I understand it, and the going ons in this book fit well with Bendis' vision of the Marvel Universe. The quality of his stories vary, but I have to say that I like the overarching ideas he has. Although Secret War, Avengers: Disassembled, Civil War etc. may not have been without their faults, the whole idea that there is always something going on behind the scenes, something that keeps the reader alert to new developments is a breath of fresh air in the MU (remember when Secret Wars was a huge thing?). And the pace at which these developments have been introduced, Secret War is from 2004, has been pretty good, although there has been signs of 'event fatigue' along the way (just not in the sales numbers...).

I remember being a little disappointed with the previous New Avengers book, Revolution, but this book gets the series back on track. With a bunch of guest appearances (among them Mighty Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.) and plenty of classic villains this book is certainly right in the eye of the storm of the Marvel Universe. In fact, I think this is a common trait for all the Avengers books (New, Mighty and Initiative) and that has really revived my joy of reading Avengers. In this book the reader is also treated to some pretty interesting character moments, e.g. Luke Cage getting increasingly paranoid and starting to suspect Jessica Jones of being a skrull. Bendis lets each character react in their own way to the new situation, and it adds a level of credibility to the characters as well as to the whole scenario.

There are definitely indications here that things are changing for the New Avengers. The heroes are having arguments among themselves, one of them announces his retirement from the group and another one of them even betrays them. This means there will be changes in the lineup, but I guess this comes as no surprise. Lineup changes is an Avengers tradition and with Spider-Man: Brand New Day on the shelves, we knew that at least one character would be taken out of the series.

This book introduces a new villain, The Hood, who is trying to organize the baddies based on the observation that when they operate on their own, they tend to get their butts handed to them in the end. I guess we will see a lot more of this guy later on, but I have to say that I think his appearance in this book is a little weak. I think it's that his powers, he has a demonic hooded cape that gives him various powers, are never really justified, why does he need them? Yes, he fights the Avengers, but his main purpose is organizing the baddies, so why not let it be at that? I guess we'll have to see how this character develops during or after Secret Invasion.

I like the art in this book, but I also realize that Yu's artwork is a matter of taste. It can seem a little quirky, and you might argue that it's better suited for different kinds of books, but his layouts are solid, his backgrounds detailed, his splash pages striking etc. so I'm very happy with him on this book. New Avengers deserves a top notch artist, and Yu fulfills that role very well. The only little complaint I have is that he draws all women's breasts insanely large, but I may be in the minority here...

If you're planning on reading Secret Invasion you should definitely consider starting here. New Avengers is really where all the seeds to Secret Invasion have been planted and that really shows in this book. You should, however, be aware that this is not a standalone book that you can just read and then let it be at that. It's connected to a bunch of other books and you will want to read those as well to get the most out of it.

7/10

Daredevil: The Devil Inside And Out Vol. 2

Collects Daredevil #88-93 written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Michael Lark, except for #88 which is drawn by David Aja.

This is the second Daredevil book of Brubaker's run, which by the way is still going strong. The first book, which sets up the story in this book, was reviewed in glowing terms here.

Matt is out of prison, but now he has to deal with the twin problems of being on the run and solving the murder of his best friend and colleague Foggy Nelson. The trail sends him on a trip to Europe, but the case is all but simple and he ends up going from one country to another like a euro rail bum. During his trip he runs into several local personalities and also a few from his past. The most interesting of these is Lily, a true femme fatale with the add-on ability to fool Daredevil despite all his lie-detection capabilities. I won't spoil anything here, let's just say that although the person behind it all is not a total surprise, the ending of the book is a bit of a shocker.

Brubaker is certainly not being nice to Daredevil here. Not only does he have to deal with the (apparent) death of Foggy, his encounter with Lily also brings back memories of lost desires that forces him to question his own feelings towards some people very close to him. In short, Brubaker drags him through his own inner hell in best Daredevil tradition.

Brubaker builds this story like a classic noir crime drama. In fact, you could say that this story is so conventional in terms of it's noir influences and how they're applied, that it's almost unusual of Brubaker. But he does pull out a couple of jokers along the way. The most obvious one is the location, but what really pulls the story home and makes it a good Daredevil story is the use of familiar characters to play the archetypes in the story. Besides the familiar faces, again, no spoilers here, Brubaker also introdudes the character Lily. She is a multi-faceted character with unclear motives, and this book will not be the last we have seen of her.

The art is dark and moody and really quite fantastic. With these two books, Lark has established himself among the heavyweight Daredevil artists, up there with Miller and Mazzucchelli. Aja's single issue is also a real gem artistically (although the story is among Brubaker's less interesting work), his artwork reminds me of Miller is terms of the iconography and expressiveness. Whew, difficult words... Finally I want to mention the covers by Lee Bermejo which are absolutely stunning and among some of the most memorable Daredevil images that I can think of.

This is another solid book in what promises to be a very strong series. I can't wait to get to the next book, but with so much going on in the world of Marvel these days, it'll have to wait in line.

8/10

Spider-Man: Brand New Day Vol. 1

Collects Amazing Spider-Man #546-548 written by Dan Slott and drawn by Steve McNiven, Amazing Spider-Man #549-551 written by Marc Guggenheim and drawn by Salvador Larroca, Spider-Man: Swing Shift (from Free Comic Book Day 2007) written by Dan Slott and drawn by Phil Jimenez and a story from Venom Super Special #1 written by Dan Slott and drawn by Mark Bagley. Also includes three three-page teaser stories by Marc Guggenheim/Greg Land, Bob Gale/Phil Winslade and Zeb Wells/Mike Deodato.

Spider-Maan, Spider-Maan, spins his web like no one caan, duu-du-duuh, here comes the Spider-Maaan!!! I have been waiting for this book ever since I heard the first rumors of Spider-Man getting a makeover and going weekly! I liked some of the Straczynski stories, especially the early ones, but I am in that particular camp where people believe that Spider-Man had moved too far away from the core of what was originally Spider-Man and therefore I wholly applaud the idea of a reboot. Although I do consider continuity important, I think the integrity of a series is more important, and that was exactly what I felt was missing. I liked Straczynski's early stories exactly because they felt like a new beginning, but the more magic stuff and totems was introduced during the run, the less I felt like I was actually holding a Spider-Man comic in my hands. Straczynski had some interesting ideas, but they just didn't fit well with the core of what makes Spider-Man. Granted, Straczynski had been given a difficult job getting the series back on track after a decade of Spider-tragedies best left forgotten, and his was actually some of the better stories of that period.

So if you're in the opposite camp where people have a hard time forgetting Peter's and MJ's marriage, and want grown up Peter back, chances are you will disagree with this review. Ok, now don't say you weren't warned!

Included in the back of this book is a text titled 'Spider-Man Manifesto' written by Spider-Man executive editor Tom Brevoort, detailing his thoughts on what Spider-Man should be like after the relaunch and this is interesting reading. The original idea was to return Spider-Man to what originally made the series back in the late 60's/early 70's, which is considered by many the golden age of Spider-Man, so great, but modernize the setting, characters and concepts so as to not fall into the trap of simply copying what had been done before.

A main concern of Brevoort's has been to have Peter Parker take center stage again, and let Spider-Man come second, which means incrementally rebuilding the whole cast of (civilian) characters and reestablishing his secret identity. It also means that Peter Parker is now 25 years old, and a lot less 'established' than he was in recent stories. Spider-Man has once again become a coming-of-age story, and I was personally thrilled to see him trying to get a birthday cake to his aunt May, taking pictures for the Bugle, having girl trouble and cursing his Parker luck...ah, just like the old days...

But at the same time it feels new. Spider-Man of 2008 (well, 2007...) is set firmly in the Marvel Universe of that same year. He isn't registered and therefore the police is constantly after him. The baddies are somewhat more ruthless than they were 40 years ago. The dialogues are certainly updated, and the stories are that bit more suspenseful and edgy in the way that people have come to expect from the top creators of today. I guess you could say that the campiness is gone, but I think that is part of what makes it feel new.

And Marvel has certainly committed themselves to this project in bringing in the big canons, both script- and art-wise, and making the book (almost) weekly. The fact that it's published three times every month, means there will be a new tpb out every two months or so. Can you see the distinction between traditional comic books and tpb's fading like I do? I really hope this goes well, and I also hope that similar plans will be introduced for other of Marvel's major titles like X-Men and Avengers.

There's tons of other stuff I could comment on here, but I suggest you read the book yourself and see what you think. I haven't even commented on the stories themselves, don't get me wrong, they're good and makes you want for more, but the essence of this book is that Spidey is back and this time it feels right!

9/10

Annihilation Book 2

Collects Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1-4 written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Renarto Arlem, Annihilation: Super Skrull #1-4 written by Javier Grillo-Marxuach and drawn by Gregory Titus and Annihilation: Ronan #1-4 written by Simon Furman and drawn by Jorge Lucas.

This is the second book in the Annihilation event, the first book of which was reviewed here.

The Annihilation Wave thunders on through the galaxies, destroying everything on it's way, and three of the Marvel Universe's space born heroes and villains get caught up. The three stories in this book takes place right after each other, but there is no connection between them as such, except for the Annihilation Wave showing up in all three. Presumably, the loose ends that this books creates, will be dealt with in the central Annihilation storyline, which is included in the third and last book. Not much is learned about the Annihilation Wave as such, rather the stories focus on the main characters and setting them up for the final book.

In terms of plot, the Silver Surfer story comes off a little slow, but Giffen does manage to bring it home. This is certainly a setup story, in the sense that after reading it, you will have to read what comes after. The story deals with entities going back to the beginning of the MU, and yes, Galactus is in it too. The art is good, although the lack of backgrounds in outer space makes it a little boring in the long run.

The Super Skrull story is the weakest of the bunch. Grillo-Marxuach tries to tell the story of the Super Skrull as seen from the viewpoints of the Skrulls, i.e. as a hero, but still wants to expose his villainous character traits. It never really feels right. In this story Super Skrull goes to the Negative Zone to find the inventor of a big world eater weapon the Annihilation Wave has brought along. While there he frees some prisoners and they become his army. Felt a bit too much like a compressed World War Hulk story for my taste. The art is so-so, one problem being that I didn't like the way Super Skrull himself is drawn. His chin is too pointy and he doesn't feel as powerful as he should.

In Annihilation Book 1 we saw Ronan accused of treachery and as a consequence he is banished from the Kree empire. In this story he finds himself on a small planet where strange things are going one. The story seems a bit confusing at first, with lots of people fighting for apparently no reason, but about halfway through things start to make sense, and at the end of the day it actually comes out as a pretty decent story. The Annihilation Wave is employed here as a mechanism for moving the story along, and thus never really takes center stage. The art is good, although I think it would have been better suited for black/white publication. Lucas obviously takes a lot of inspiration from European sf comics artists such as Moebius, and that's a perfect fit for this story.

Those who don't know much about Marvel's intergalactic characters and races, and that includes myself, will be relieved that a lot of information is provided in the form of OHOTMU-style descriptions. Still, I do sit back with the distinct feeling that the book would have been more enjoyable if I'd read stuff like Starlin's Thanos Quest and Infinity Gauntlet/War/Crusade/Abyss series, but I guess that goes for the whole Annihilation event.

All in all a decent book that moves the event along and sets up for what should be an interesting finale. One thing I like about this event so far, is that it does succeed in making the characters that appear feel less like b-rate second-string characters and more like a-rate MU characters. It brings the Universe back in the MU, one might say. Hehe, that was a good one, hehe...

5/10

Mike Lindal’s December Picks

TpbReviewer asked me to write a supplement to his December picks, which sounded like a cool idea, so here it is. Christmas can be a pain to get through, but luckily there are a few goodies coming out this month to get you through the shopping, the consumerism, the nagging uncles and aunts and the coldness of winter.

Yes, I AM the Grinch. Deal with it.

This is why I’m going to start my December picks by warning you about a comic that you should NOT buy. Then again, it’s one of Marvel’s dreaded Premiere Hardcovers (why, oh why, is it not oversized!) so the tradepaperback audience will probably stay away anyway. But Jeph Loeb’s Ultimates 3 is just so plain evil that I have to warn people about it as early as possible. After Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s legendary run on the series everything came crashing down with this third volume. Gone is everything that was good about the Ultimates and all that’s left is… well, I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s BAD. Avoid at all costs!

But enough negativity from me. Let’s get on with the good stuff. First up is Transhuman from Image. It is written by the amazing Jonathan Hickman with art by JM Rinquet. I loved Hickman’s The Nightly News, which I found to be one of the most amazing reads in a long time. Hickman brought something fresh and original to the comic book medium, so I look forward to reading this. I guess the fact that Hickman is not the artist on this means that we might get something very different from The Nightly News, but that just makes me more curious. Apparently it’s a mockumentary about genetic engineering. It sounds very cool.

Oni Press hit pay dirt with Bryan Lee O’Malley’s soon-to-be-classic series about Scott Pilgrim, which might be my favourite book from the last five years. It’s like crack. Only you only get to do it once a year. But before creating the martial arts fighter/gamer/musician/slacker character that is Scott Pilgrim, O’Malley did a little, melancholic book called Lost at Sea. Oni Press is putting out a new edition. It’s a strange little tale about a girl who is convinced that she has no soul and thus cannot make friends. She goes on a road trip with a group of people she hardly knows and has a lot of time to think about things. So it’s a real action packed story. Move over Secret Invasion. Okay, not really. But this is a beautiful, little graphic novel that has a certain poetry about it. It is nothing like the fast, fun and wonderful Scott Pilgrim, but that just makes Lost at Sea even better. So if you like your comics to be about actual things (other than Skrulls) then you should try this little gem out.

Now, TpbReviewer mentions Runaways: Dead End Kids in his December picks, but I seem to feel a bit of negativity coming from him. Being the ray of sunshine that I am, I feel like I have to defend this book a little. It’s… quite good. I admit to being a bit of Whedonite (Buffy is my religion), but even I have to admit that Vaughan’s run on Runaways (oh dear… bad pun) was miles ahead of Whedon’s. But that actually says more about Vaughan’s brilliant run than Whedon’s. Dead End Kids is a fun, fast and action-packed story about time travel. Whedon’s dialogue is as crispy as ever and he seems a perfect fit for this book, which has a lot more in common with Buffy than Astonishing X-Men. A shame he only wrote a single story arc. But then again, I really don’t mind him focusing most of his attention on doing the best damn Buffy monthly he possibly can. All hail the Mighty Slayer of the Vampires!

So merry Christmas. I hope you all survive it.

Tpb Reviewer's December Picks

Jingle bells, jingle bells...if you still have any money left after buying Christmas presents, why not spend them on comic books! That way you have fewer spending decisions to make and something to do with all the extra time you get from not having to decide on how to spend your money. Okok, on to the picks...

The first I want to point out is the two books by David Lapham coming out: Silverfish and Young Liars Vol. 1. David who? you say. Well, if you haven't read anything by mr. Lapham yet, you should stop reading this right now and hurry out and find the collected editions of his stellar Stray Bullets series published by his own label El Capitan. I cannot think of a better comic book (published in the US that I have read) since Watchmen. Unfortunately, since most comic book readers (yes, you and you) are ignorant drooling swine that will not recognize genius when it is served right in front of their eyes on a silver platter, mr. Lapham has had to stall the series due to low sales and resort to hired work for the Big Two. Silverfish and Young Liars are the latest outcomes of this, so while waiting for Stray Bullets to come out again, I will certainly accept this as something to kill time with. Btw, I should mention that Young Liars is an ongoing from Vertigo and Silverfish is an original graphic novel also published by DC. You can read an interview with Lapham right here: http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=110197

Marvel has a couple of interesting things this month, although it seems that they're gearing down a bit before unleashing the tpb version of Secret Invasion on the world in January.

First up is Captain America: The Chosen written David Morrell who you might know as the guy who wrote First Blood aka. Rambo I. Captain America done Rambo-style you say? Well, I'm intrigued and since the art is handled by Mitch Breitweiser, who also did the Drax the Destroyer story in Annihilatin Book 1, I will probably check this out. You can find a lengthy interview with Morrell here about the book: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=11191

Then, of course, there's Spider-Man: Brand New Day Vol. 2. I just love the fact that there's a new Spider-Man book coming out every second month now. They should just publish the series as tpb's straight away if you ask me, but I guess it'll be a while before that happens.

Just barely interesting enough to mention we find Cable Vol. 1: Messiah War. The thing is I never really found Cable to be a very interesting character, with all the big guns and crazy 90's style cyborg thingies. He just reeks of Liefeld. What this book may have going for it is that is seems to be a direct continuation of Messiah Complex and the art looks pretty sweet as evidenced by this interview with the writer, Duane Swierczynski.

Finally, there's Runaways: Dead End Kids. Now, this is the Marvel series that was awarded with one industry award after another, and this particular book is written by Joss Whedon, you know, the guy who wrote Astonishing X-Men. But, the parts of the series that were awarded were written by Brian K Vaughan and also, the issues of this book experienced several delays and after Whedon finished the book a new creative team took over. So I have a distinct feeling that it might not be as good as it sounds. In any case, the new creative team consists of Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos, so I might get those anyway, so why not try it out. As you may sense, I still haven't completely decided on this one...

Ok, that's it for this month. As usual, the solicitations were provided by Collected Comics Library (sorry for forgetting to mention that last month!). January is Secret Invasion month, so do stay tuned!

Northlanders vol 1: Sven the Returned

Collects Northlanders 1-8
Written by Brian Wood
Artwork by Davide Gianfelice

Review by Michael Lindal

I might be Danish, but I’m not really into Viking stories. They seem too distant from my own life and the world, I live in, which may sound silly as they are very much a part of my cultural heritage. But I admit it: I can be quite narrow minded sometimes. So sue me.

I tend to prefer books (be that both comic books and “real” books) about the world we all live in. I like stories to say something profound and intelligent about the state of the modern world and the human condition in general, which is probably why I think Brian Wood is one of the best writers in American comic books at the moment. Books like DMZ, Demo, Supermarket and Local all tell stories about social issues, the complexity of modern (geo)politics as well as emotionally profound stories about the individual and communities. Woods characters are complex and realistic and he knows more about the modern world, than I will ever know. He gets it.

So it was quite a surprise, when it was announced that Wood’s new book would be a Viking book. I honestly couldn’t picture it, but I decided that the guy had more than earned the benefit of my doubt. And indeed, I was rewarded. Northlanders is a great book!

The first volume in the series is called Sven the Returned and it more than delivers as a Viking story. Battles, violence, hard men and rough landscapes. It’s all there. But this first volume is about so much more than that. It’s about a small community’s place in an increasingly globalized world. It’s about the clash of cultures and it’s about politics. In other words: It’s a real Brian Wood book.

Wood doesn’t spend his time getting tangled up in historical details. He just tells his story. Another thing that sticks out during the first couple of pages is the rather modern dialogue, which (as with most Vertigo books) drops its fair share of F-bombs. This is not Thor from Marvel and there is no “I SAY THEE NAY” type dialogue. Which is quite refreshing.

Wood is at his best when he tells small stories. Both Demo and (the AMAZING) Local did single issue stories and even the ongoing DMZ is composed of small stories from the war zone, even if they are parts of a larger narrative. It seems that Northlanders doesn’t tell stories in single issues, but in story arcs. This tradepaperback IS a story in itself. And it seems that the next story arc will be about entirely different characters. Unfortunately this also means that the artist will change from arc to arc. Which is a shame as the artwork by Davide Gianfelice is rather amazing. Detailed, rugged, subtle and realistic. The colouring also deserves a special mention. A very nice job.

I do look forward to Ryan Kelly’s artwork on a future story arc, but that’s because I love anything to do with Local. It will be interesting to see this artist, who is so good at drawing the modern world, try something completely different.

Northlanders is another home run from both Brian Wood and Vertigo. The fact that Wood is doing BOTH Northlanders AND DMZ (best book on the stands) is rather incredible.

8/10

Immortal Iron Fist Vol. 1: The Last Iron Fist Story

Collects Immortal Iron Fist #1-6 plus the 'Choosing Sides' story from Civil War: Choosing Sides #1, all written by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction and drawn by David Aja.

If people are getting tired of me reviewing Brubaker books, I can understand that. But the truth is, I think that Brubaker is responsible for some of the best (current) Marvel books that money can buy, and missing out on those would be foolish for anyone with the slightest interest in the Marvel Universe. On this book he shares the writing credits with Matt Fraction, and rumor has it that Fraction actually is doing most of the work, especially with the later issues. But this book does show off some of the characteristics that other Brubaker books have, especially in the areas of conceptualization (out-of-date character given an update) , structure (long story lines as opposed to self-contained stories) and tone (somewhat dark, although this time with room for humor). Brubaker's main trademark, though, is simply solid storytelling, and this book has that in ample amounts.

Having been brought up mainly with 80's Marvel, I don't know that much about Iron Fist aka. Danny Rand, except that he's a pastiche of 70's kung fu movies. Ahh, to have lived in the 70's... Anyway, since then he has only rarely surfaced, although his pal, Luke Cage, has seen a bit of a renaissance lately, especially in the hands of Brian Micael Bendis over in New Avengers. This series was originally planned as a mini to rectify that, but was turned into an ongoing due to popular demand, as they say.

Brubaker and Fraction reinvents Iron Fist by adding to his origin. He is now the latest to wield the power of the Iron Fist in a long line of Iron Fists, and this implicates him in a tournament that somehow involves both weird gods and Danny's father. But first he must face hostile takeover atttempts of his corporation as well as attacks of the somewhat more physical kind by Hydra and a contendor to the title of Iron Fist, who is somehow linked to Iron Fist's past. All the while, we are given details of some of the historical Iron Fists, adding depth to the character while moving the plot along. The plot delivers just enough twists and surprises to keep the reader glued while leaving room for some crazy ass kung fu action.

Aja has received loads of praise for his work on this title, and I can certainly understand why. He commands a broad palette of visual storytelling techniques here. Some of the page layouts will move the reader's eyes across the page in ways that will make the characters and action really come to life, while the shadow-heavy style adds to the dark content of the story.

All I can say is that this is yet another gem from (at least partly) the mind of Brubaker. Fans of same should not miss out, and I recommend those yet to be converted to definitely check out either this one, or his work on Captain America or Daredevil. When that is said, Fraction and Aja on their own are in fact reason enough to get this book. If Marvel keeps attracting talent like this, the future of men in tights looks bright indeed.

8/10

Annihilation Book 1

Collects Drax the Destroyer #1-4 written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Mitch Breitweiser, Annihilation Prologue written by Keith Giffen and drawn by Scott Collins (with Arial Olivetti) and Annihilation: Nova #1-4 written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning and drawn by Kev Walker.

I've never been much into the intergalactic corner of the Marvel Universe, but I heard a lot of good stuff about this one, so I decided to give it a try. Also, it's a Marvel Universe crossover, and who can resist those? Not me it seems... This one is a bit different from the other crossovers. It's not part of Bendis' big Scheme of Things, and it only involves Marvel's space resident super heroes such as Nova, Quasar and Silver Surfer. Well, Silver Surfer only shows up on the cover and one interior page of this book, but hey, there's still two books to go!

The first part of this book sees Drax the Destroyer on Earth as the prison space ship carrying him crash lands outside a small American village. He is not alone though, and soon the few prisoners that survived starts enslaving the humans nearby in an attempt to repair the space ship. I'm a little unsure about the purpose of this story, because nothing much really happens here. It does however set the mood for the rest of the book very well and it introduces some of the characters that are likely to play major roles later on. On its own the story is a bit weak, but it does serve as a good pre-prologue, so to speak. The art is good, reminiscent of Cassaday, but not quite there, but I guess that is really an unfair comparison.

The second part is the actual prologue. It brings together Nova and Drax (now no longer the Destroyer) as the Annihilation Wave, a massive force of destruction moving at the speed of light, announces its presence by destroying Xandar, the home world of the Nova Corps and killing all of the Corps except one. Yes, they do mean business. This part establishes the scale of the story in a very convincing manner. The reader is left with no doubt that what is going on here is big, and the big guns are out. The commander of the Annihilation Wave is revealed to be Annihilus, but Thanos also makes a brief appearance in the very beginning, and it probably isn't his last in this context... Meanwhile, a few seeds are planted for some of the future story lines of the Annihilation crossover. The art is good, what I like best about it is the way it manages to capture the scale of the story. There are battle scenes with literally hundreds of space ships flying around and huge explosions. Also, Kolins is great at drawing mechanics and futuristic cityscapes, and that makes this an entertaining read. A good beginning for the story.

The last part of this book sees Nova and Drax team up with Quasar to save the next world that lies in the path of the Annihilation Wave. They're running out of time however, and the ending sees the first stand off with Annihilus as the heroes desperately attempt to halt the incoming invasion. Surprisingly, as the two first parts were written by Giffen, this part has the most humor in it. It also has the first death of a major hero in the story. This part was my favorite part of the book. Not only does it have the best art, Walker's art is both dynamic and atmospheric (am I the only one who is reminded of 80s Mignola here?), it is also the most well written. The characters seem a little more fleshed out here, although this could be due to the reader being more familiar with them by the end of the book, and the story stands pretty well on it's own.

All in all this is a pretty good start for the Annihilation crossover, although the reader is left with the feeling that the best has yet to come. It is definitely a beginning, and works well as such. Even though I had virtually no emotional attachment to the characters in this story before reading it, I was drawn into the story and was left wanting for more. It is space opera on a huge scale, and there is no doubt that big things will happen. The art is generally good, and the artists are well suited for this kind of story. I also like the fact that Marvel has managed to produce a crossover that feels very cohesive. Nothing here feels really unnecessary, unlike some of the crossovers they have put out in recent years (coughCivilWarcough). Recommended.

7/10

Daredevil: The Devil Inside And Out Vol. 1

Collects Daredevil #82-87 written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano.

The first book of Brubaker and Lark's popular Daredevil run starts right where Bendis left the blind crime fighter. Matt Murdock is in prison, it's a little fluffy of what exactly he stands accused, but the implication is that someone knows that he is Daredevil and that someone is out to put him away for good. It's become a household tradition within Marvel to have Daredevil ride an emotional roller coaster once in a while and this is certainly no exception to that rule. Matt/Daredevil is as hard bitten and imposing as ever, and yet he seems strangely in control, which is kind of scary. This is only made worse when Foggy Nelson is stabbed to death during a visit to the prison. After this, Matt, as well as his allies outside of prison - Ben Urich and private detective Dakota North, investigate Foggy's killing as well as the mysterious Daredevil impostor making head lines in the news papers.

This is classic Daredevil, and yet Brubaker makes it feel refreshingly new. Maybe because we haven't seen Daredevil this good since Miller? (I haven't read Bendis' run). Brubaker sure knows his Daredevil, all the usual suspects are there: Kingpin, Turk, Urich, Jameson, Gladiator, Bullseye, Punisher etc. (even Tarantula!), and this makes this feel like a real Daredevil story. But some of them are a little different from what we're used to. Kingpin is now a manipulator in prison clothes, far removed from his tower of power. Bullseye is a full blown psychopath, who is brought into the prison Hannibal Lecter-style. It is as if each character seems a little more real than what we're used to. And the villains seem a little more dangerous than what we're used to. I attribute this to Brubaker's excellent sense of dialogue and Lark's darkly expressive character drawings. The contrast between how well Kingpin is depicted here as opposed to the chickenshit Kingpin of Spider-Man: Back in Black, in which Spider-Man beats the crap out of him in the same prison, is striking. Brubaker shows both deep knowledge and respect for the characters he is writing.

What also makes this feel like a classic Daredevil book is the theme of Matt slowly breaking down psychologically. This is the kind of a story to which Daredevil will always return, like Spider-Man will have to prove his sense of responsibility again and again. Brubaker equips Matt with a little more edge than usual, although he is breaking down on the inside, he keeps a tough facade and only lets go when it's to his own advantage. And when he lets go, those who stand in the way pay for their follies with broken bones and blood flowing.

Matt's mental health is not the only thing keeping the reader glued, though. All the way through a plot against Daredevil is unfolding and this is what keeps the story going. This storyline does not end in this book, and thus we are treated to another of Brubaker's signature long running storylines. Just my cup of rum!

There's not much to complain about here. I have to admit I thought the Punisher's appearance was a little weak and uncalled for. But that's about it. There's not much of Hell's Kitchen, but for obvious reasons. Probably this will be redeemed later in the series, but I happen to know that in the next book Daredevil goes to Paris.

Lark's artwork is in the category I like to call darkly realistic. If I were to compare him to other artists, I would probably put him stylistically somewhere in between Sean Phillips and Steve Epting. But Lark needs no comparing, he is formidably skilled and a perfect choice for Daredevil.

If you like classic Daredevil (Miller), I think you will like Brubaker's Daredevil as well. And if you haven't read much Daredevil, now is a perfect time to head into the darkest corner of the MU. Just be aware that the story in this book comes without an ending, you'll have to get the next book in the series for that. I know that I am certainly on for the ride.

8/10

Captain America: Winter Soldier Vols. 1 + 2

Collects Captain America #1-7 (vol. 1) and #8-9 and #11-14 (vol. 2) written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Steve Epting, Michael Lark, Mike Perkins and John Paul Leon.

I don't usually review more than one book at a time, but in this case the titles do sort of indicate that they belong together. They also do read very much like one long story line, and could just as well have been packaged into one book. I do prefer this format, however, twice a year is a nice pace for an ongoing series.

Comic book marketing theory has it that there are basically two ways two get a book with dwindling sales numbers back on track. The first is to kill off a character from the cast (max effect is achieved by killing the main character, but this is usually only in the short run...), the second is to revive a popular character that was previously killed. The shock and awe that these turns of events will provoke will bring sales numbers soaring, and can in some cases save a book from early retirement. In any case, it'll bring in some $$$ in the short run which makes investors clap their hands.

In this, the beginning of his still-going-strong Captain America run and his first major work for Marvel, Brubaker does both. In the very first issue he kills off the Red Skull with a sniper's bullet and a couple of issues later it is revealed that the sniper was none other than Bucky, Cap's long thought dead sidekick. With a plot like this, the outcome can only go really well or incredibly bad. Unless you've only just discovered the Internet you will probably already know that consensus has it that Brubaker's Captain America is pretty much the best thing since three-layered toilet paper, and I pretty much agree with this (I know, what a shock, me liking a Brubaker book...).

Winter Soldier is plotted as a good old fashioned espionage thriller with plenty of action and character based subplots. Instead of the Reds we have an old Russian general running an international corporation and buying high tech weaponry from AIM, the leading weapons dealer for advanced terrorists. Also, they made the Cosmic Cube, so that plays a part here as well. This is not the MU we grew up with, here the heroes and villains kill each other and the bad guys are not afraid to take out a building full of civilians to obtain their goal. A lot like the real world, you say? Well, maybe... There are men in tights in this story, but most of the time they don't take center stage, and when they do, it's to make a point.

The overwhelming thing that people will talk about regarding this book is the return of Bucky, the one Marvel character that people thought would never be revived. I mean, what's next, Uncle Ben? The thing is, Brubaker brings him back with style. He does this by retconning the relation between Bucky and Cap, while still paying respect to what's been told so far. All the stories where Bucky was mentioned still hold true, that version of Bucky is simply what was told to the public by US Army propaganda. Like Cap, he did not die on that day, but was picked up by the Russians, who brainwashed and trained him to be their assassin. S.H.I.E.L.D. has heard rumors of this, but has not been able to confirm them until now. The tough and gloomy Bucky that Brubaker reintroduces is a very different sort than the merry teenage sidekick from the 50s, and this reflects very well the change of perception that has occurred since that time. No longer is anything black and white, and no longer are there any good wars. Winter Soldier is a product of the dark aspects of our time, just as Bucky was of his.

Brubaker has proven on numerous occasions that he is a master of making characters come to life in his stories, of infusing them with a voice of their own, and this book is no exception. Cap and Bucky are obvious examples, but I also enjoyed his take on Nick Fury who plays an important role in the book. Fury is here portrayed as cynical secret agent who manipulates the people around him. Surely, his intentions are good, but his actions can seem questionable at times. I hope the new Nick Fury series takes a cue from this!

The artists are well picked to match the story. There is a heavy emphasis on shadows and the coloring is dark and moody. There are very few massively muscled men, and this contributes to the realistic feel. Most of the artwork is handled by Epting with the numerous flashbacks by Lark, so the art is cohesive throughout. Epting style is perfect for Captain America, it has a classic feel to it and he is a master visual storyteller.

The only complaint I have on this story is that the ending does not feel as climactic as I think it was intended to. Maybe spending another issue on this would have been appropriate, but really, this is just nitpicking.

All in all I recommend this to anyone looking for a good comic book. Brubaker and co. succeeds in reviving Captain America as a very relevant book, while grounding it in its classic roots. And besides that, it's a damn good story! Also, Brubaker is still writing the book after almost four years, so I think there is reason to believe that more goodness is still to come. The next two books in the series are called Red Menace, so maybe the Red Skull is not as dead as appearances would have it?

8/10

November picks

November is almost here, so it's time to see what is on offer for those of us who just like to sit indoors and read comic books while the raining is pouring down on the poor souls lost in the fall darkness. Unfortunately, November is a pretty bad month for so-conservative-it's-almost-fascist Marvel zombies such as myself. In fact, I only managed to find three books that I find vaguely interesting, and none of them are really must-buys. I guess I'll be catching up on some of the stuff I haven't read yet like Annihilation and Iron Fist this month.

The first book is Avengers: The Initiative Vol. 2. I recently reviewed the first book in this series, and if the second book keeps up the quality while answering some of the questions asked in the first book, it should be pretty good.

Young X-Men Vol. 1: Final Genesis will be a try-out for me. Marvel has released a lot of titles featuring young and original characters in the last couple of years, Avengers: The Initiative being an example of this, and I think they've had a pretty good track record so far.

Finally we have X-Men: Legacy - Divided He Stands, which is a tie-in to Messiah Complex, so I guess I'm getting this. Oh God, I'm a sucker for these things...

I should also point out the Daredevil by Frank Miller TPB. Miller's Daredevil is still one of my favorite comic book runs ever, his sense of visual storytelling reached fantastic heights during this run. Too bad that's all gone now... I have the original issues, but those who don't have these in any format should definitely put it high on the list.

To make up for my pitiful ignorance regarding non-Marvel publications, I have asked my friend Michael Lindal to tell about his picks, and here's what he has to say:

Buffy the Vampire Season 8 is of course executive produced and sometimes written by the TV-shows mastermind and Eisner Award winner Joss Whedon. It’s the official continuation of the show and is easily one of the most enjoyable reads on the stand at the moment. The third volume is called Wolves at the Gate and is written by Drew Goddard (Buffy, Lost, Cloverfield). Buffy and Dracula go to Japan. And if that doesn’t excite you, then nevermind. There is also a stand-alone story written by Whedon. Series regular Georges Jeanty provides artwork.

Also from Dark Horse is The Umbrella Academy written by Gerard Way with masterful artwork by Gabriel Ba. This highly original and quirky superhero book has been out in trade paperback for a while now, but November sees the release of the insanely tricked out hardcover edition. If you like that sort of thing. Umbrella Academy is worth it.

Warren Ellis has, along with artist Paul Duffield, created a weekly web comic called Freakangels and it’s actually rather good. You can read it on the web for free, but if you like your books to be, well, actual books, then you’re in luck as Avatar is now publishing the first volume. You could also just click here and read it for free.

http://www.freakangels.com/

November is of course the month before Christmas (seriously, it is. Look it up in a calendar or on Wikipedia) and while most record companies are putting out vast numbers of Greatest Hits collections, the comic book publishers are dusting off several classics and releasing them in juicy, tasty hardcovers. This blog might be called tpbreviewer, but sometimes a hardcover is the way to go. Neil Gaiman’s classic Sandman finishes its series of Absolute Editions with the fourth volume. The first three volumes were beautiful, so this should be a safe bet. DC is also releasing a Deluxe Hardcover of Camelot 3000 by Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland, which is a good old fashioned fun comic book. Also from DC is a new hardcover edition of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen. This will probably be the first of many reprints of this masterpiece in the near future. There is even a rumour of a reprint of the insanely gorgeous Absolute Edition sometime next year. So deck the halls and start buying. ‘Tis what Christmas is all about.

Ultimate Power

Collects Ultimate Power #1-9 written by Brian Michael Bendis (#1-3), J. Michael Straczynski (#4-6) and Jeph Loeb (#7-9) and drawn by Greg Land.

This is the first crossover involving all major Ultimate titles and I'm assuming that what happens in this book will have some sort of influence on this year's big Ultimate crossover, Ultimatum, written by Jeph Loeb.

While the FF are minding their own business, the Squadron Supreme shows up out of nowhere and accuses Reed for unleashing a weird organism on their universe that is killing millions of people. They take it out on the street and a big battle ensues, over the course of which Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Ultimates join in. The battle ends as the Squadron escapes with Reed as their prisoner. The Ultimate heroes, not taking no for an answer, follows the Squadron in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier and another big battle ensues. After lots of battling, a Squadron Supreme from a third reality shows up and joins the melee. After lots and lots of battling it is revealed that the culprits behind the whole affair is not Reed Richards, but rather some Emil Burbank (of the Supreme Universe) and Nick Fury and the Ultimate heroes all agree that they didn't really like Mr. Fury in the first place, and so decide to hand him over to the Squadron Supreme to do with him whatever they like. Even though his involvement really didn't have anything to do with the killer organism, but hey, who's to know?

I should note that this book is my first encounter with the Squadron Supreme, and I know absolutely nothing about them. I've read and thoroughly enjoyed the two Ultimates series, and they were basically the reason I decided to get this one.

This book actually starts out pretty well. The story is interesting and draws the reader in as more and more is revealed and the art is absolutely gorgeous, although there's a bit much posing for my tastes. But it seems that as the story progresses, in fact each time a new writer takes over, the story drops a notch or two in quality and the level of the art slowly degrades as well. When we get to Loeb's part, we're pretty much left with a mess of a run of the mill superhero megabattle that's far too confusing to let the actual plot get anywhere. There's page and page of brutes in capes and babes in bikinis taking it out on each other, and all of a sudden it's all over and everybody shake hands and go home. After finishing it I was surprised of how little plot the three writers managed to squeeze into 9 issues of comic books! The art, although showing a drop in quality throughout the book, never gets worse than good, and so the book does have that going for it at least.

With two and a half super star writers (I don't personally consider Loeb a super star writer, but I know the industry does) and a super star artist, I would say that I had expected more. The Ultimates is some of the best Marvel I've read in recent times and, although Ultimates was written by Mark Millar, I guess I expected something similar to that, but Ultimate Power is nothing like Ultimates. It just features the same characters.

So if you're in the mood for a well drawn and really long super hero battle, this might just be the book for you. But if you're looking for something similar to the Ultimates don't bother. In my opinion the story never really gets better than average, and considering the creators, that is a shame.

5/10

Criminal Vol. 3: The Dead and the Dying

Collects Criminal Vol. 2 #1-3 written by Ed Brubaker and drawn by Sean Phillips. This is a review of the edition published in England by Titan Books, which should be completely identical to the American edition published by Marvel.

In this, the latest addition to Brubaker and Phillips' dark crime series, the reader is offered three tales of death, drugs and desperation intertwined to tell a complete story from the perspectives of three of the people involved. We have the criminal turned boxer, the vet returned from the war and the beautiful drug addict. There are no happy beginnings here so don't expect to see any happy endings either.

The story is set in an unnamed American city in the 70's. The free love and rock'n'roll of the 60's have been replaced with war, drug addiction and depression. There are elements of classic noir here, the guys are tough and the dames are dangerous, but the setting is different from that genre. Brubaker and Phillips basically grabs the themes of noir and injects it into a more modern setting, and you could argue that this is the binding concept of the series. It is a concept that has proven to be a great vessel for telling some really good and touching stories so far, and this time is no exception.

The concept of telling the same story from the different perspectives has been seen before, but in this case it is more a case of telling different parts of the story from different perspectives. This means that there is little overlap, and the individual stories complement each other very well. Once again, Brubaker excels at creating interesting characters that feel real and he seems to have no issues hurling them into desperate situations with no chance of salvation. Compared to the two other books in the series (the second reviewed here), the individual characters seem a bit more shallow and clichèd this time around, the focus seems to be more on the story and how it is told, and it may also be a consequence of less pages per character due to there being three main characters. But this is more a testament of how good the previous books are, because Brubaker again manages to bring forth characters that are many times more interesting that what you'll see in most other comic books out there.

Phillips' art is dark and gritty as always. I have always liked his art, and I will restate that I think this kind of book is perfect for him. The art seems a little less tight in this book, but again, even when Phillips is not doing his best work, it's still damn good. Each page is divided into three rows of frames of differing widths, and this gives an almost claustrophobic feeling when reading the story. A feeling that there really is no way out, and this is only strengthened by the story.

People who have not read any of the Criminal books yet should hurry on to their favorite comic book pusher and get them right away. People who have already read the previous books, can rest assured that they won't be disappointed by this one. You don't have to read the previous books to read this one, but they are even better, so you are advised to do so. Of course, the best thing to do would be to read all of them! Although this book contains only three original issues, each issue is pretty long, so the book is a normal size tpb.

7/10

Avengers: The Initiative vol. 1 - Basic Training

Collects Avengers: The Initiative #1-6 written by Dan Slott and drawn by Stefano Casselli (#6 drawn by Steve Yu).

When I first heard about this book it didn't really strike me as very interesting, but then I read the two issues that were in World War Hulk: X-Men, and I was immediately impressed, so I decided to try it out anyway. Avengers: Initiative is the direct product of many of the major developments in Civil War, and many of the themes of that event are carried over into this book. It's a book that does not want to be it's own niche, it involves the rest of the MU to a very high degree with appearances by many major Marvel characters such as Hank Pym, Henry Peter Gyrich, War Machine, Beast, the Thing, Spider-Man etc. and references to events such as the Stamford incident, NW tags and World War Hulk. As such, this series starts out by placing itself smack in the middle of the MU, thus strengthening the Avengers franchise's position as the pillar of said universe.

The story assumes the disguise of an army story, but at it's heart, it is a good old super hero book. Yes, we have the drill sergeant, meaner than a pit bull, and the top secret projects that only commanding officers can know about, but that's about it. The rest is super heroics with elements of 'coming of age' and 'team building', both classic super hero themes. Plot wise, there's a lot of balls being thrown into the air at the same time and the reader is not likely to be bored. There's a constant buildup to something, a certain feeling that the people in charge have a lot of skeletons in their closets and that things are not as they seem. Nothing is revealed here, however, and if I had to point to something, that is probably the biggest weakness of the book. It builds up to something, it doesn't stand on it's own. This is not a major issue, however, and it certainly shouldn't stop anyone from buying it, just remember to put money aside for the next book as well (solicited to come out by the end of this month).

The book is loosely structured in three parts. In the first part we are introduced to the main characters as they are getting used to their new home and get into their first battles. The second storyline is the World War Hulk tie-in. I'm impressed with how smoothly Slott manages to tie the series into the WWH event. Often when a series is tied into an event it feels a little tagged on, but Slott comes up with a story that makes perfect sense in the context of both Avengers: Initiaive and WWH and even manages to move the book ahead. The last part is a single issue suspense/crime story that sets up the scene for the next book. In the course of the story Slott comes up with several plot twists that really keeps the reader glued, and the last scene is quite a shocker, it made me say out 'Holy Sh*t' in a half whisper!

I must not forget to mention the art which is excellent and only gets better as the book progresses. Caselli is good at infusing his characters with personality, and this is especially important in a book featuring so many characters that readers won't be familiar with. I also want to praise the coloring by Daniele Rudoni, I'm not sure how to describe it, you might say it has a warm almost animation-like quality to it. In any case it is really good, and the combination of Caselli and Rudoni makes for a great looking book. Steve Yu, who handles the art of the last issue, has a somewhat quirky style and I suspect not all readers will enjoy it as much as the rest of the book, but I thought it was pretty good and went well with the story.

This is a good beginning for a new series, and I will definitely be getting the next book as well. It features less known characters but at the same time it is deeply rooted in the MU, and if this sounds interesting to you, I suggest you try it out. You should, however, be aware of two things: two of the issues contained in here are also in the WWH: X-Men book, and the book doesn't read that well on it's own, it is only the beginning. Lets hope the series can keep up the quality!

7/10

Iron Man: Extremis

Collects Iron Man 1- 6 written by Warren Ellis with artwork by Adi Granov

According to British writer Warren Ellis his job at Marvel consists of being the mad scientist in the basement messing around with things and reinventing them. He took a number of D-list characters and created the brilliant Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. (love that title!) and he was also the writer behind the recent shake-up in Thunderbolts. He states that his job isn’t creating anything new, as he has other outlets for that. This also means that he only works on titles for very limited runs as was indeed the case with Thunderbolts and even more so with his brief six issue run on Iron Man a few years back.

Iron Man needed to be brought into the 21st century and since Ellis is the King of Technobabble (not necessarily a bad thing) he was the natural choice for the job. As a result Iron Man: Extremis feels a bit like a pilot episode for a TV-series more than its own entity. Ellis is planting the seeds for future Iron Man stories and he does a very good job at it, but there really isn’t much of a story here.

But Ellis does manage to reinvent Iron Man in a big way. No longer is Tony Stark the Bruce Wayne of the Marvel Universe, as he is now the proud owner of actual superpowers! And that is quite a big thing for Iron Man. Some people might argue that it’s too big a departure from the original concept as Tony was always a real human being with flaws, trying to atone for past sins. In Ellis’ version he is a futurist trying to control the escalating evolution of technology, which has in some ways become a danger in itself. Caught between the military and the corporations (which may be the same thing in the world of today) it’s a constant struggle for the future and his own soul.

It’s heavy stuff.

The story is very simple: A domestic terrorist is injected with the latest in nano-tech turning him into a virtually unstoppable super soldier. As the mad man is heading for Washington to get his revenge, Iron Man has to stop him. In order to do this Tony has to make a tough choice. But we all know that Tony Stark is the one man in the Marvel Universe who is not afraid to make the hard decisions! And this time it changes him forever! No really. It does.

I imagine that this story would have felt rather decompressed in single issues, but it flows nicely in a trade. As a superhero story it never gets terribly exciting, but as a smart, modern, contemporary science fiction story it works like a charm. It feels a bit like a short story by William Gibson, which in my opinion is also a good thing as he has an uncanny understanding (and fascination) of the shadowy side of the corporate world and the dangers of technology. And so does Ellis. If you watch JJ Abrams TV-show Fringe you might recognize certain themes similar to the ones in Extremis in the show: Technology is growing at a dangerous rate and people have become mere ants compared to the corporate leviathan.

So the themes of Extremis are very clever and topical, but what keeps the book from being more than “just a good read” is the lack of an actual storyline. Ellis seems content with reinventing Tony Stark and Iron Man while hinting at certain themes. Which is why the book reminds me of a pilot for a TV-show: It is only the beginning and meant as a teaser. Only Ellis never follows up on it himself.

The artwork from Adi Granov is very good. The action scenes seem a bit static, but he handles atmosphere and talking head scenes brilliantly. The characters do seem a bit passionless, but that might come from Ellis’ script and be the intended tone of the story. The story is hardcore science fiction and about Tony Stark becoming part machine, so the coldness of the dialogue and artwork works nicely with the overall theme of the story. Granov is also the artist behind the forthcoming trade paperback Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas written by Jon Favreau, the director of the wonderful Iron Man movie. I assume that will be a more colourful and silly read, which should put Granov’s ability to draw human emotions to the test.

The colouring is also very good and deserves a special mention.

Overall Iron Man: Extremis is not the best thing since the iPod, but it is an interesting new beginning for the character. The other guy writing reviews for this blog (apparently it’s “his blog”. Whatever!) seems to love the run by the Knaufs which followed directly after this “Pilot episode”. I will have to give it a go.

Rating: 6/10

Review by Michael Lindal (self-proclaimed fill-in artist)

Iiiiiintroduciiiing!!!!!!!!!!

Having realized that I can't possibly keep up with the merciless demands of the Internet when it comes to frequency of posting only by myself, I have begged and begged my comic book reading friends to chip in once in a while, and lo and behold, one of them fell for it! Michael aka.
zombie.ghost.thing, whom some of you may know from the comments section of the reviews on this blog, has promised to contribute a review once in a while, and that should help keeping the flow of reviews steady. The great thing about Michael is that he has a much better taste in comics than I have, so he might even review some non-Marvel books once in a while! Although his first review will be a Marvel book... Lets give a Michael a big welcome (clapclapclap).

At the same time I want to extend an invitation to anybody else who wants to try their hands at reviewing tpb's. This blog was always intended to be a community thing, and the more we are, the merrier. Just send a review you've written to tpbreviewer@gmail.com, and we'll see if can work something out.

Iron Man: Hypervelocity

Collects Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1-6 written by Adam Warren and drawn by Brian Denham.

I will admit that I bought this book by mistake. I saw Adam Warren's name on the cover and figured 'I haven't seen anything drawn by that guy in a while, he should be interesting on Iron Man, I remember that Teen Titans thing he did, that was pretty good' and quickly put it into my virtual shopping cart. The word to hang onto here is 'drawn', because Iron Man: Hypervelocity isn't drawn by Adam Warren, it is written by him. And although I have enjoyed his Dirty Pair stuff (and that Teen Titans thing) I don't remember liking it particularly because of the writing, rather I was impressed with his manga-inspired yet very personal art. If I'm not mistaken, he was also one step ahead of the pack when it came to utilizing computer graphics in comics, I remember his Teen Titans as a good example of this.

But this is a review of Iron Man: Hypervelocity, and unfortunately I cannot offer the same kind of praise for this book. But first things first. Iron Man: Hypervelocity originally came out in the beginning of 2007, and it takes place before Iron Man: Extremis, but was actually published after. Go figure, smells like editorial shuffling around if you ask me. The gist of the story is that Tony is attacked and badly wounded by unknown baddies, but in preparation for just such a situation, he has managed to make a software copy of his own mind and uploaded this into a new version of the armor, enter Tony Stark 2.0. I kind of like the idea of the story this far. But then it turns out that the baddies are a group of angry mecha, the cyborg remains of some evil experiment, who are now dedicated to getting back at the world when they're not busy having mecha rave parties in sunken ships. And then the story sort of falls apart.

The mecha baddies fool Shield into thinking that the Iron Man armor has gone rogue, so it can only sit down for very few moments at a time. When things are at their worst, the armor is hacked by the leader of the mecha, a weird chick cyborg that goes by the name Absynthe, and the armor has to come up with one clever trick after another to survive while having drawn out virtual conversations with the Absynthe chick. I guess this could have made for a good story, but the execution just isn't there. It took me a long time to get through this, it simply wasn't entertaining enough to keep my attention.

I have several issues with this book. The story is messy and far, far too wordy. Warren uses lots of fancy tech terms, which can make a setting seem well developed when used with care, but here it's just too much for my taste. And robot rave parties, come on... The art is not very good. For a story like this they could at least have found someone good at drawing mechanics, but Denham seems to prefer just covering every single piece of machinery with as much shadow as he can get away with. Even the baddies are just dark human silhouettes with shiny characters on them. Some of his human characters show a lot more promise, but not enough to save the book. And then there's the little things, like the page where the editor has obviously asked someone to draw in a seat belt in the picture of the Iron Man armor driving a car. Yes, I understand that people should be wearing seat belts in their cars, but this is an Iron Man armor! Stark isn't even inside the armor!!! Jeez...

In the end Tony Stark 2.0 is blown to atoms by a massive nuclear device, and that pretty much sums up this book. I am left with the feeling that it would have been much better if Warren had drawn it himself, and this is substantiated by the page layouts by Warren at the end of the book. As it turns out, the pages by Denham are simply copies of these layouts with nothing added or removed, and if you ask me they should just have had someone ink these pages and used those instead. If you're looking for some good Iron Man, I suggest you try the Knauf's excellent run. If you're looking for good Adam Warren stuff, I suggest you try his Dirty Pair or maybe some of his newer stuff like Livewires or Empowered, although I haven't read this. Meanwhile, I suggest you just forget about this book.

2/10

Silver Surfer: Requiem

Collects Silver Surfer: Requiem #1-4 written by Michael J. Straczynski with painted art by Esad Ribic.

This is the story of the death of the Silver Surfer. He does not die in intergalactic battle nor does he perish at the center of an expanding super nova or imploding black hole. He dies from (space) cancer. Well the actual word 'cancer' isn't to be found in the book, but lets just say that the symptoms are close enough. After examining him, Reed Richards gives the Silver Surfer aka. Norrin Radd a couple of weeks left to live. So what does a being in possession of the Power Cosmic do, when he only has a couple of weeks left to live? Well, he doesn't go to Disneyland. He says his farewell to his friends on Earth and head towards his home planet Zenn-La, where he reunites with his love Shalla-Bal. And then he dies. Yes, I'm not kidding, the Silver Surfer dies.

The structure of the book is loosely based on the Catholic ritual Requiem, and each of the four chapters (Kyrie - Lord, Sanctus - Holy, Benedictus - Blessed, Agnus Dei - Lamb of God) are named after a part of the ceremony. I'm not Catholic, I just looked this up in wikipedia, so there may be some mistakes here. In any case, this book does carry some strong religious overtones, in particular regarding the Silver Surfer and what he represents. Strazcynski is not trying to introduce Christianity into the MU as yet another pantheon, thank God, he is simply drawing on established symbolism to paint the picture of the Silver Surfer that he wants to present to the reader.

The title of the last chapter gives a good indication of what it is Straczynski wants to convey. Agnus Dei, the lamb of God refers to Jesus and him being sacrificed to atone for the sins of Man. This refers both to Norrin Radd sacrificing himself (to Galactus, remember?) so that his planet may survive, but also to his spiritual role in a larger context. Silver Surfer has been surfing the galactic winds freed of the coils of mortal man, and this has elevated him to a being of higher sophistication. As he sees things from a different perspective, without all the petty details, he understands the Truth. And the Truth is that the road to happiness lies not in strife, but in appreciating the enormity and beauty of the universe and being content with that.

Silver Surfer: Requiem is a pretty good science fiction story, although at times it does seem a little bit contrived. E.g. before leaving earth he lets Mary Jane Parker borrow the surf board and a bit of the power cosmic for a little while, as a personal favor to Spider-Man. Sure, Straczynski is trying to make a point here, but still... The third chapter reads very much like a classic science fiction novel, but it feels a little disconnected from the rest of the book. The strongest point of the book is Stracsynski's characterization of the Silver Surfer. It's one interpretation for sure, but it's pretty spot on.

After reading the book, however, I still don't know why Silver Surfer suddenly had to die, and if it was the consequence of some other story such as Annihilation. I like the Silver Surfer, but I can live with it. It just seems to be a bit of a shame to let a good character go, just to tell one story.

Ribic's art is good as usual, he excels at grand imagery and magnificent scenery, and some of the splash pages with the Surfer are definitely poster material. It's not quite as good as the work he did on Loki, however, and especially the faces of people seem to be a little rushed at times. Nevertheless, the art in this book is way more beautiful and eye pleasing than what you'll see in most other contemporary comic books.

If you like science fiction stories with spiritual themes or if you're just really into the Silver Surfer, you should give this book a try. It is by no means a standard super hero story, it is a story that wants to be more. It doesn't quite achieve what it's trying, but it does manage to deliver a pretty decent comic book.

6/10

Iron Man: Haunted

Collects Iron Man #21-28 written by Daniel and Charles Knauf with art by Roberto de la Torre, Butch Guice and Carlo Pagulayan & Jeffrey Huet and Iron Man: Director of Shield Annual #1 written by Christos Gage and drawn by Harvey Tolibao.

This is the third book in the Knauf's Iron Man run which so far has been an interesting take on what may be the most powerful super hero in the MU right now. This run has been tightly focused on portraying Tony Stark as a human being, that is bringing to the fore his personal problems while also crafting stories about international terrorism, science and money gone wild and the return of an old arch-villain, the Mandarin. The plot has been carefully planned since day one, and the quality of the stories have been getting better and better.

Haunted is a super hero action thriller in eigth chapters which starts out as a New Jersey murder mystery and develops into an international terrorist crisis. In this book we finally get to learn what exactly the Mandarin has been scheming all this time, and we're also presented with a very satisfying showdown in the end. In this book less pages are spent on Stark's mental health, and more pages on minor characters and plot. I am impressed with how well the genre transition is handled here, the change feels completely natural, although I must say I enjoyed the first part of the book the most. The small time Initiative super heroes that are entangled in the murder mystery are really well portrayed and give the story an extra level of depth. They feel as if they were taken straight out of a 'super heroes in the real world' setting, and in certain ways that part of the book reminded me a little bit of the Watchmen, at least in terms of atmosphere.

The Knauf's writing is good, they handle both plot, characterization and dialogue really well, and seem to be very conscious of the direction they're taking the book. In Haunted I especially enjoyed the way minor characters, such as the Initiative heroes mentioned above, Dr. Samson, Maria Hill, Duncan etc., are portrayed. The mood of the book is also very consistent, and somewhat darker than most other Marvel books. I think this is keeping in tradition with former Iron Man runs, especially his periods of drunken misbehavior, while also giving the book a modern feel.

The artists do their part to create a story with well portrayed emotions and dramatic action while packaging the whole thing in a somewhat dark and moody, and entirely fitting, atmosphere. Although a lot of ink is spent on shadows, we are blessed with the absence of violent cross hatching that some artists like to put all over the page. The outcome is a lot more realistic look than what you see in most other super hero books. The visual cohesiveness of the book is not really hurt despite the artwork being done by three (four) different artists. Part of this may be due to the colors being excellently handled by the same person, Dean White, all the way through.

The annual is a somewhat different beast than the main story. This story, which is about Stark dealing with Madame Hydra in Madripoor, is a much more lighthearted fare. It's actually ok in it's own right, although it is standard super hero fare, which I think exactly was the purpose with this story. Annuals come out during the summer holidays, and sometimes it's nice to read a story that you can enjoy without exercising your brains cells too much. I think what I remember this story best for, is that it contains an incredible amount of boobs and butts even for a Marvel book, but I guess this just cements Stark's status as the playboy of the MU.

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I would say it is the high mark of the Knauf's run so far. I would recommend it to anyone with a taste for dark stories, where dark doesn't mean lots of senseless killing but dark in the sense of mature storytelling with elements of suspense and drama and with a focus on atmosphere and characters that are not always either happy or angry. Come to think of it, this book really isn't very kid friendly, maybe that's why I like it. If you choose to read it, you should definitely read the two other Knauf books, Execute Program and Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., first, as they are all pretty tightly connected.

8/10