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.