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Magazines, novels, articles, poetry, interviews or other textual (and sometimes illustrated) media that's currently caught the mind of Adam Creighton ...

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Thor

Ah, Thor #3.

What response should you get from a God of Thunder with new clarity of who he is and what that means when he runs into Tony Stark, the guy who fought a war while non-powered people suffered, who violated the brothers-in-arms code, and stole and cloned Thor's DNA?

Word-wise, you should get:
"You defiled my body, desecrated my trust, violated everything I am. Is this
how you define friendship? Is it? IS IT?"
Action-wise, I won't spoil it, but it is exactly the way I think a throwdown between Thor and Iron Man should go down.

J. Michael Stracynski, Olivier Coipel, and Mark Morales?

Thank you.

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posted by Adam @ 5:40 PM

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Avengers Classic

I just pawed through issue 1 of Avengers Classic, and while really good, I'm reserving judgement until issue #2.

I'm a big fan of Classic X-Men, have that whole run, and the bar's set pretty high from that series.

For those not familiar with the gimmick, the "Classic" iteration reprints original comics -- in this case, starting with Avengers #1. What hopefully sets this apart from just being another way for Marvel to milk the franchise, or a retread of the Marvel Masterworks or (a more expensive version) of the Essential trades, is the new, extra stories at the end of the book.

Classic X-Men, with original stories from Chris Claremont and John Bolton, really exploded the X-Men mythos for me. There's a particular Magneto story that first woke me up to the viability of comics as high art.

But like I said, the bar's been set pretty high. The backup stories in this issue #1 are good -- but they're tongue-in-cheek fun, which isn't what I want. Fortunately for me, according to the explanation from editors Andy Schmidt and Mark D. Beazley in the back of the book, the non-serious take is just for issue one, and more serious stories and character exposition, a la Classic X-Men, will be the norm.

The regular backup team will be writer Dwayne McDuffie (who I borderline worship, but who never returns my Emails), and artist Michael Avon Oeming, whose new painted style needs to grow on me.

And let's face it, it's the backup stories that need to sell the book, since the original issues are available six ways to Sunday (not least of which is in a DVD of virtually all scanned Avengers issues with original adds and letters -- albeit often from nasty looking copies -- from Graphic Imaging Technologies). These stories need to rock, because having the original issue's cover and 12-cent price on the flip side of a $4 book is a bit painful (starting with issue #2, the price should drop to $3).

But the other big selling point? Like Classic X-Men, covers by Arthur "Art" Adams. That may be worth the price of admission by itself.

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posted by Adam @ 12:49 AM

Monday, May 14, 2007

A darker Marvel Universe ...

(If you're waaay behind in comic reading, the below may have spoilers. You've been warned.)

The Marvel Universe has become a darker place.

I'm a reading a slew of comics, but we're coming out Marvel's "Civil War" cross-over arc, which split super-teams, family, and friends, and pitted them against each other.

It's culminated with Captain America being shot and killed. This is a big deal to me.

And the repercussions have made the Marvel Universe tougher, more cynical, more dangerous.

To be frank, I'm glad.

I've just worked through a ton of books, and three of them punctuate the new flavor of my favorite comic book universe:
  • Amazing Spider-Man
  • Punisher War Journal
  • World War Hulk
Amazing Spider-Man -- Spidey's got some charm. A big part of that is the everyman underdog who can't seem to catch a break, despite his gifts. Part of it has to do with his glib nature.

I was getting tired of the glib nature.

I mean, I like it, but it was becoming a schtick. Let's face it, Peter's life sucks. And people he loves keep dying. That's gotta get old.

Then, a big-time, old-time baddie arranges a hit on the Wallcrawler, and Aunt May takes the bullet. And doesn't look like she's going to make it.

Peter is done. He's back in the black costume. He's done with the kid gloves. He wants revenge, he's ready to kill, and he's OK with that.

Not since the Mike Zeck "Kraven's Last Hunt" arc have I cared about reading the Spider-Man titles this much. It feels more "real" (it's all relative).

Punisher War Journal -- I got into the Matt Fraction relaunch early on, and I'm glad I did. Turns out Frank Castle's got a thing for Captain America (not like that; perv), and he's not taking his assassination lightly. And when a new Hate Monger comes onto the scene in a costume that's a rip-off of Captain America, The Punisher takes him on, in a Punisher-meets-Cap costume version of his own.

OK, that mixed costume is hokey to me (The Punisher wouldn't do that). But everything else works.

Like Fraction doing a good job with dialog.

And the new Hate Monger? They're actually making him a racist hate monger, and showing that (and telling us a little too much, but I forgive it). Marvel's finally nutting up to showing swastikas (that's long been taboo). And it roots this bad guy as a really bad guy.

And there's also humor in the Hate Monger costume, since it's a version of the Rob Liefeld, "Heroes Reborn" Captain America revisionist travesty that was a part of the near death of Marvel in the 1990s. That's meta funny.

World War Hulk -- If you've been out of the loop, here's a quick summary. Turns out there's a group of the brightest in the Marvel U. acting secretly in concert, orchestrating events for years. They're called the Illuminati, and they include Iron Man, Reed Richards, Professor X, Black Bolt, Namor, and Dr. Strange. They, in their infinite wisdom, decided the Hulk was too dangerous, tricked him into a spaceship, and shot him into space.

The Green Goliath crashes into a distant, waring world, quickly ascends as a warrior king, integrates his intellect with his power, chooses a queen, and has a baby on the way.

Things are looking good for Green Gums until the ship that brought him to the planet explodes, killing this wife and unborn baby.

Now, he's coming back to earth. And he's pissed. He's coming back to kill the Illuminati. Not just smash them. Kill them.

Seems appropriate for a betrayed teammate who's now a childless widower.

All this to say there's an organic nature to the whole darkish universe, and it seems to fit. Writers and editors need to be careful not to make it angsty and whiny boring, but things are looking good so far.

And I've long said I suspect the rift caused by the Civil War may well be healed as people come together to stop the Hulk.

But if it's done right, it'll actually further fracture relationships, as I suspect a number of folks will side with the Hulk.

"It's gonna be dark, dark, dark, violent day ..."

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posted by Adam @ 8:40 PM

Monday, March 12, 2007

Captain America #25

Brubaker, I'm just asking you do something important with this.

It's a strong issue on it's own. And because it's you (Daredevil, Criminal, etc.) writing this (rather than detractors like Austen or Jenkins), I'll give you time to do something more with it.

Just, please, do something meaningful.

And thank you, New York Times, for ruining the issue for me last week during my morning coffee, before it even hit the streets.

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posted by Adam @ 1:32 PM

Friday, February 23, 2007

Civil War #7

This is the last of the Civil War core story arc.

I'm not happy with this issue, or how the Civil War "ended". It feels faxed off and not at all organic to what the rest of the arc did.

There's some stuff outstanding, so maybe the Civil War: Initiative series will fix some stuff (great, another non-core series on which to spend my ducats).

And I have a nagging suspicion this summer's Hulk War epic will heal the Marvel U.

We'll see.

Not happy right now. Time to read something good. Like Elephant Men ...

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posted by Adam @ 8:52 AM

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