A Month Of Comics: Part 3

Finally, I get to wrap things up in my review of five weeks of comic book purchases. Too much work, going away for the weekend, then no internet connection really gets in the way of blogging, you know? So, time to discuss the remaining books, with no particularly linking theme.

Usagi Yojimbo #112 – the second part to ‘Sakura’, there’s funny banter between Usagi and Gen, they help out Sakura and a child against Boss Kaneko, there’s adventure and sword-fighting and justice. How does Sakai do it? Month in, month out, he produces quality work that is not only beautiful and expertly conceived but is also thoroughly engaging and absorbing. It’s an amazing achievement, one for which he deserves a lot more credit – a creator-owned character being told continuously for over 20 years and is still brilliant (and no bizarre misogynistic philosophies). Simply superb.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #15 – the final part of Wolves at the Gate, bringing things to a rousing and satisfying conclusion. Drew Godard, long-time writer of the television series, does effortlessly good banter, and the Xander/Dracula relationship is fantastic (spin-off series, anyone?). It’s fun, despite the seriousness and death that is innate to the series – a giant dawn fighting a giant robot in the streets of Tokyo brings a smile to your face. Even with the introduction of Bisexual Buffy (hello, Googlers!), this has been good stuff.

Fables #73 – the first part of War and Pieces, as the Fables go to war with Gepetto. Blue takes us around the various locations in the war, allowing us to see everybody and assess the situation, and written in an entertaining way. Willingham has created a wonderful world in which to tell stories, which he also does extremely well – I hope he keeps up the good work.

All Star Superman #11 – Morrison and Quitely continue their delightful exploration of Superman, with lots of background stuff for long-time fans, and introducing Luthor with superpowers while Superman fights Solaris – this is what superhero comics are all about.

Final Crisis #1 & 2 – I don’t see what the problem people are having with this series. Morrison is writing a big story, about evil winning and the good guys having to fight back, with a mystery and drama, and JG Jones draws it in his beautiful style – this is good comics by anybody’s standards. The only things I don’t get are the DC references, but that’s what Douglas Wolk’s Final Crisis Annotations are for. Could this be the crossover at DC that people can actually read and enjoy?

Immortal Iron Fist #15 & 16 – the swansong for Fraction/Brubaker on their deliriously good updating of Daniel Rand and the Iron Fist mythos. The first is a Legends of the Iron Fist story, which is a fun little tale, but it is issue #16 that is the perfect way to say goodbye – Fraction tells a strong story and Aja brings his pencil magic (he is the current standard artist for Iron Fist for me). He even draws a cameo for Fraction and Brubaker. Fraction sets things up for the next writer by having Danny become a philanthropist, giving his money away (but it will take time, what with having billions), reuniting with Luke Cage and Misty Knight (albeit in slightly different ways), teaching kung fu to kids, and discovering that something happens to Iron Fists in their 33rd year, on the day of his 33rd birthday. This has been a great run – who would’ve have thought Iron Fist would be a successful and brilliant comic in 2008?

Ex Machina #37 – this continues the good writing, good art and good concept of Ex Machina, but also continues the lack of that distinct something that means that stories don’t linger. I can’t put my finger on it, but it doesn’t stop me from enjoying the comics in the moment.

What if this was the Fantastic Four – seriously, just buy this comic and feel good about yourself – it’s a fun little story with the last Mike Wieringo art, and there’s art from a host of talented artists (Art Adams, Alan Davis to name but two): a lovely tribute and all for a good cause.

And there you go – all the comics I've bought in the past five weeks. This doesn't include any trades I've purchased recently, which usually get a separate entry when I get round to it, but it provides a snapshot of my tastes at this moment in time, and let's you know which books I buy in the singles and which I save for the trade (such as Whedon's Astonishing X-Men and Brubaker's Daredevil).

A Month Of Comics: Part 2

Today’s batch of comics is made of up my Warren Ellis obsession and the Mature Reader books. It’s not necessarily a sensible way to split up my haul of books, but I never promised Aristotlean classification here.

No Hero #0 – Ellis and his Black Summer collaborator Juan Jose Jyp (another monthly book I’m enjoying) start another ‘serialised graphic novel’ with Avatar. This time, the theme is stated on the cover: How much do you want to be a superhuman? Warren also discusses it at the back of the book, just in case you missed that. This is a short teaser to the world in which the story will happen – Carrick Masterson is the only man with the system to create super humans, and he introduces them in San Francisco in 1966 as The Levellers. They become The Front Line in 1977, to match the mood of the country. The story picks up in 2011, where one of the superhumans has been found ambushed. This is a nice taster for the rest of the book, just enough to intrigue. Obviously I will be buying the remainder of the series.

Doktor Sleepless #7 – I can’t help but think of Spaced when I see the title, because I remember Tim telling Daisy about his supervillain creation, Doktor Mandrake, with the extra emphasis on the ‘k’. Maybe that’s just me … Anyway, although this series hasn’t quite captured the energy of other Ellis works, I’m enjoying the way Ellis seems to be thinking out loud with this character and addressing themes in which he is interested (the future, technology, global connection, etc.) and it’s turning into an interesting experiment in serial comic books. Ivan Rodriguez’s art is coming as well, after a bit a of a shaky start, and it looks like the next issue will see a lot of things happen that have been leading to. The only thing that annoys me are the double spaces that crop up in the lettering in the word balloons – this is a stupid thing, I know, but it bothers me that something like that wasn’t captured in production.

Anna Mercury #2 – the first impressions of this book were changed at the end of the first book, and this issue expands on it – with talk of ‘nine half-constructed worlds hanging in invisible orbit around earth’ and secret agents and briefing prime ministers. Wonderfully bizarre stuff from Ellis, and Facundo Percio (a great name) provides detailed yet light almost cartoony art for the book, although I still don’t get why Anna’s hair has to be some enormous. The book feels empty without the back matter of Sleepless, but entertaining nevertheless.

newuniversal: shockfront #2 – the first six issues of this revamp of the New Universe was good stuff, with strong ideas and strong art from Salvador Larroca (even if characters looked a little too much like the film stars Larroca referenced). However, all the momentum has been lost since then, and this storyline has to work hard to regain it. Apart from the two pages of a character expositing on the alternate history that this universe has, the book is mostly small character stuff. I think this suits the new artist for this series, Steve Kurth, who has a Vertigo feel to his artwork (not a style to my tastes, but his characters are individuals and can tell the story). I think this will be a story that will work better as a trade, but Ellis still gives us cliffhanging endings so he is aware of the remit of providing an entertainment in a single issue. However, I don’t get the same buzz from this yet that I did from the first series.

100 Bullets #92 – Johnny Bacardi reviews this series best at this juncture – each issue is well done, it’s good stuff for those who are currently reading but not for those new to the series. It’s coming to the end and things are drawing to their conclusions – Azzarello draws specific parallels between two different stories this issue, and Risso keeps up the consistently high quality of art throughout the entire series. Can’t wait to see how it all ends, and then I’ll read the whole thing again and see if I can understand it all …

The Boys #19 – Ennis provides background information on the world of The Boys, as Hughie visits The Legend for a briefing on Vought-American and The Homelander, while Butcher has a meeting with The Homelander about the current state of affairs. Robertson, whose art I will always associate with Transmetropolitan, brings his clear yet dirty feel to the book, perfectly in tune with the vibe of the story from Ennis. I’m really looking forward to where Ennis is going with this, because it looks like he’s really thought things through.

Criminal 2 #3 – I think that anyone who reads comic book blogs will be aware of how good Criminal is. Brubaker and Phillips bring their best work to this title, and you can really feel the noir on your fingers and your soul after you read each story. Exquisitely constructed and told in the poetic hard-boiled style, these are good comics, packed with extras like Brubaker talking about writing and an essay on a noir film. You should really be buying the singles if you aren’t already.

Tomorrow I’ll finish off my huge haul of books with the final reviews of the books with no connection.

A Month Of Comic Books: Part 1

I’ve had to take some time away from the blog due to family matters, which have also impacted my purchasing of comic books. When I went in to pick up my stash, I had five weeks of floppies waiting for me. Therefore, I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some mini-reviews, to give a taste of what I'm buying on a regular basis at the moment. I’ll split them into three posts (because there are 24 books to discuss): today will be Mostly Marvel.

Secret Invasion #3 – I’m really enjoying this crossover as it comes out. I was already buying New Avengers and Mighty Avengers, so I had been enjoying the build up, but Bendis is doing a great job of telling a big job with a theme (the trust/identity idea, so recently used to good effect in Battlestar Galactica). Things happen in the book (Young Avengers fighting the Skrull army in New York, joined by members of the Initiative; the Skrull Queen as Spider-Woman messing with Tony Stark – or is she?) and there is a great final page reveal. This is what I want from a big crossover event, including great art from Yu.

New Avengers #41 – note that issue 42 didn’t arrive in the UK yet, so this is very old, occurring between Secret Invasion #1 and #2. This is Bendis providing back story, via Ka-zar and Shanna in the Savage Land, harking back to the first New Avengers storyline. Tan provides some nice art, even if he does suffer from having to do constant butt shots of Shanna, and Bendis makes it entertaining as well as filling the gaps.

Mighty Avengers #15 – this is also back story to Secret Invasion: namely, what happened to Henry Pym and how he was Skrullified. John Romita Jr provides some old-skool stylings, and Bendis continues putting all his pieces on the table.

ClanDestine #5 of 5 – I’ll do a separate review of this mini-series later, if just to prove that I was one of the few who actually read the book as it came out (sales dropped from 20K to 12K – see Paul O’Brien’s analysis). Even though I thought Alan Davis made a rare misstep in issue 4, he still brings it all together in a satisfying climax, enhanced by his beautiful artwork. He even leaves the suggestion of the next storyline – the return of Vincent – on the last page, but I can’t see him being given the opportunity to continue based on sales. What a shame.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #2 – ‘When Captain Britain died, the British felt it in their chests.’ Cornell continues the good work from the first issue, linking back to his Wisdom mini-series with the arrival of Tink and her powerful father, and cameos from the magic of Britain (the Lady of the Lake, the Green Knight, Excalibur the sword), all drawn in superlative style by Leonard Kirk. He even provides another last page cliffhanger, with the Skrulls obtaining all the magic of Britain for themselves. Now that’s the way to get people to come back for more …

X-Factor #32 – firstly, it has to be said that the Glenn Fabry covers for this book are godawful and should be stopped now. He is a completely inappropriate artist for the job and they should change cover artists immediately. The interior art is rather nice in contrast, but it is the story that is the main draw, as Peter David stays true to form by shaking up the status quo of an ongoing book he is writing. From the various changes on The Incredible Hulk (Mr Fixit in Las Vegas, combined Hulk in the Pantheon, etc.) to cutting off Arthur’s hand in Aquaman, you can expect David to do the unexpected, which he does here: X-Factor move out of Mutant Town (because of Val Cooper and O*N*E) and move to Detroit, with the last pages being ‘Five months later’. This unbalancing can have a distracting affect – you know you’ve read a good story but you feel slightly disconnected from the characters. However, I’m still reading and enjoying the book, despite the interference of recent X-crossover …

Runaways #30 – oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Well, that was pretty awful, wasn’t it? Despite the occasional flash of Whedon dialogue magic, the storyline was completely pointless and the only feeling one is left with is disappointment. And, after the hype of bringing Whedon onto the title after the departure of creator Brian K Vaughan, it takes them a year to tell a 6-issue story and completely throw away any momentum the low-selling title had. What a waste.

Next time, we'll have Warren Ellis and the mature books, and then the other books for which I can't find a catchy theme.

From A Library: Punisher War Journal (Civil War)

Punisher War Journal #1–4 by Matt Fraction, Ariel Olivetti and Mike Deodata

First off – this trade is a complete swizz: four issues and then a repeat of the first issue but in black and white. That’s not on, Marvel; if it wasn’t so enjoyable, it would be a complete rip-off.

The first three issues (‘How I Won The War’) are the story of the Punisher during the early issues of Civil War. We meet him when he is killing Stilt Man and a kiddie porn mob guy, avoiding SHIELD, finding the Tinkerer and hooking up with Stuart Clarke (aka Rampage) who has a small coterie of Iron Men robots that are the cutest thing in the world – Clarke gives Frank him a machine that detects supervillain tech. This leads him into issue three of Civil War, where he kills the guys beating on Spider-Man and joins up with Captain America’s side.

The scene where he saves Spidey has a great exchange:
Spider-Man: I can’t pay your fare.
Frank: You don’t have to pay me, jackass.
Spider-Man: Oh, awesome. Action is my reward, too.

This is just an example of Fraction’s great flair with dialogue – ‘My favourite sound in the world is the silence after a gunshot.’ He has a great handle on Frank Castle, getting the balance between the psychosis and the black humour that is required for the Punisher to work. He is matched with the heightened reality created by the exaggerated cartoony art of Ariel Olivetti. He gives Frank excessive muscle that mixes realism with the cartoon strip, as well as an extreme widow’s peak. It’s interesting, with hints of Bill Sienkiewicz in mainstream mode and the British artist Colin MacNeil. He also includes nice touches, such as the SHIELD logo on bullet casings when they eject from the gun. A very nice mix.

The second issue sees Frank providing an alternative point of view in the anti-registration team, a great exchange with Captain America (until Cap punches him through a wall). Then they go to work, Cap and Frank working on missions together: ‘Good work, soldier’, as he salutes Frank after a successful mission. The next crossover with issue four of Civil War sees Frank killing the supervillains who want to hook up with Cap’s team. Issue three is the punishment of Frank from Cap – but Frank won’t hit back (providing us with a flashback to Frank as a marine before Punisher, where he wouldn’t hit Cap when he was being trained). So Frank has to leave, causing him to go back to Clarke for tech – this sees Castle staring down the Rhino and shooting him in the face, and then punching him with Satan’s Claw: ‘Tell them all I’m back.’

Issue four (Small Wake For A Tall Man) sees Fraction have fun with Marvel villains as they gather to mourn the loss of Stilt Man, who is laid out across pool tables in a bar. Someone has even organised a Doombot (‘Kneel before Doom!’) to make him look big among the fraternity. They drink, tell war stories, get drunk, fight (‘Oh, it is on.’). Then Spider-Man shows up to pay his respects, and has to take them down a peg for fighting at the wake. For his trouble, Stilt Man’s wife pukes up in front of him – didn’t his Spidey sense tingle? Then the punchline – Frank was the bartender and he’s poisoned them all. Coldblooded. This story has a nice mix of Garth Ennis and someone who actually likes superheroes – Fraction has the Punisher down to perfection and he has a lot of fun with the supervillains of the Marvel universe. Deodata joins him on art duties for this issue, doing his usual thing with a bit more shadow and darkness.

Four issues of Fraction’s Punisher returning to the Marvel universe isn’t enough, hence my annoyance with the trade – a larger collection is definitely warranted. This is enjoyable stuff and shows that Frank Castle can be used in the modern Marvel universe, after the definitive feel that Ennis has stamped on the character. This is helped by the funky art style of Olivetti, which gives the book a unique feel.

From A Library – Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again issues #1–3 by Frank Miller

Frank Miller is undoubtedly one of the few big creators in the world of comic books. Whether or not he has created anything of note that hasn’t descended into unironic self-parody is another question. Although The Dark Knight Returns is a seminal piece of work in the transition of the superhero into the modern world in the mid-1980s, the same level of history will not be applied to its sequel. The only question to ask now is whether it’s entertaining.

The comic starts with one of Miller’s loves: television screens. He plasters the page with them, full of chat shows, news programmes, vox box, adverts, the easiest way to discover that the world of this comic book has gone to hell – no superheroes, the world controlled by the government but with the illusion of choice, and Superman is still working for the man. So Batman has to return. He rescues the Atom, we see the Question, Batman rescues the Barry Allen Flash (who is being used to power the east coast of America). There is some nice prose, as Catgirl talks about the Atom: ‘There’s laughter in his voice. not a trace of fear.’ Combined with some nicely constructed action scenes, and this is shaping up to being quite interesting. Admittedly, Miller’s art is gone beyond even the extremes of his Sin City style and the characters can look quite ugly, but the page composition compensates for this.

Back in the world, we discover that Hal Jordan left Earth, and that Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel are still around but working for the man – who turns out to be Lex Luthor and Brainiac, who have taken over the USA and keep Superman hostage with the threat of what they will do to the millions of inhabitants of the Bottle City of Kandor (they do similar with Mary Batson and Captain Marvel, and Themyscira and Diana). They order Superman to stop Batman – which goes spectacularly badly for Superman (seemingly because Miller really, really doesn’t like him) as Bruce gives him a beating in the Bat Cave (with a little help from the Atom and the Flash).

Book two starts with more television screens, followed by three completely unnecessary double-page spreads to show Bruce attacking Luthor and the men of his administration, having the time of his life: ‘Life doesn’t get any better than this. God, I love my job.’ While smacking him about, Bruce tells him that he has destroyed all the databases that let him blackmail and terrorise the people who would oppose his hostile takeover of planet Earth. This is then followed by five splash pages of Clark and Diana shagging in the sky – you stay classy, Frank Miller: ‘The Earth moved. I’m pregnant again.’

With the aid of Elongated Man, Batman rescues Plastic Man from Arkham Asylum (Miller describes him: ‘He could kill us all, for him, it’d be easy.’ – this is very weird for Miller, talking about Plastic Man in this way; is he taking the piss out of superheroes?). I’m not sure why he did this, other than to allow Miller to draw Plastic Man in assorted shapes. Meanwhile, someone who looks like the Joker kills Guardian and the Creeper, the Question finds Martian Manhunter, and we discover that Diana and Clark have a daughter, Kara, who they have kept secret from Luthor, who now returns to help Clark in his time of need. At the same time, after a message from Bruce, Hal Jordan returns (on hearing the message, he says: ‘And he looks happy. That can’t mean anything good.’).

Book three is a huge mess of stuff – Kara and the Atom rescue the inhabitants of Kandor, who kill Brainiac. The Joker is revealed as Robin, who has been genetically altered so he can’t die after Batman gave him the boot. Catgirl nearly dies, Hal arrives to save the day, the son of Hawkman and Hawkwoman kills Luthor and everything is back to normal. It’s a hodge-podge and even uglier and messier than the rest of the book. The art is even blockier than Sin City, with the only the attempt at iconic imagery saving the visual style of the book. But it’s not pretty and extremely inconsistent – it starts out in an interesting way but gets lost in Miller’s personal fetishes and issues to grind. He does a good, tough Bruce Wayne, enough to match the hard-boiled dialogue (‘Striking terror. Best part of the job.’) but it doesn’t blend well with the superheroics and especially the classic characters. I can understand why this isn’t mentioned in the same breath as his original take on the character. God help when he gives us the Batman versus al-Qaeda …

From A Library: Agents of Atlas

Agents of Atlas #1–6 by Jeff Parker and Leonard Kirk

The spy, the spaceman, the goddess, the robot, the gorilla. Aren’t comics cool? FBI agent Jimmy Woo, Bob ‘Marvel Boy’ Grayson, the goddess Venus, M-11 the human robot, Ken Hale the Gorilla Man, brought together in 1958 to save President Eisenhower from the Chinese villain Yellow Claw. Cut to the present day, Woo is working for SHIELD, investigating the Atlas Foundation. Ken works for SHIELD’s Irregular Ops section, and rescues a comatose Woo from SHIIELD with the aid of M-11 and Marvel Boy (and his spaceship). They proceed to bring Jimmy back to life using Marvel Boy’s alien machinery but it is the younger version of him (based on the last time he physically contacted Grayson) with no memories of the past 50 years. And so the team needs to be reformed to investigate the Atlas foundation again …

Behind the haunting and funky covers by Tomm Coker, the clean soft lines of Kirk’s extremely pleasing artwork combine with the loving and funny writing of Parker. Some example dialogue between Derek Khanata, Wakandan SHIELD agent, and his boss Dum Dum Dugan: Derek – I slipped up and let a double agent infiltrate our Mojave vase … and I’m being promoted. Dugan – Welcome to America.

Woo gets the team together, which allows us to learn their origins, and collect Namora so that they can fight the Atlas Foundation assets, with the Yellow Claw appearing along the way. The final issue is the reveal (which is really cool, so I won’t spoil anything) but it turns things around by not being a big fight (of which we have had plenty throughout the rest of the story): it’s a conversation about the lineage of Genghis Khan and the Atlas Foundation. This is very different from the normal Marvel comic; as Ken says, ‘This is not how I managed all this going down.’ We even learn the origin of M-11.

This is an utterly charming book, completely out of place with current Marvel and using old Marvel history in such a fabulous way. Added to this, the hardback is a thing of beauty – the back-up material includes sketches and profiles (from a CBR news item) and the first appearances of the characters from old Marvel comics (and it is very old-school Marvel comics). Also, there is the ‘What If’ story of the 1950s Avengers (Venus, M-11, Marvel Boy, Jimmy Woo, Gorilla Man and 3-D Man – glad they didn’t use 3-D Man in this update, because he is a bit naff). Even though I’m not a great fan of the old stuff, it is still nice to see; it completes the nostalgia history of the group and shows the love that has gone into this package. Top marks all around.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #1

By Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk

I’m not trying to turn this into a blog solely about Captain Britain, after the previous two posts, but I had to talk about the first issue of the new series starring Marvel’s idea of the equivalent of Captain America.

First off – is it ‘MI13’ (without the colon), as on the cover, or ‘MI:13’ (with the colon) as on the legal box on the first page? The MI5 website doesn’t have a colon, and I guess this is supposed to be the equivalent. I’ve gone with the colon because it looks tidier (the I and the 1 looking too similar), but I need to know.

Secondly – the font for the title. It’s not very … interesting, is it? Rather dull, it isn’t punchy or visually intriguing. The font doesn’t say ‘British’, it’s just non-descript and modern. The logo is okay, but the colours don’t blend with the cover, which makes it seem out of place.

Thirdly – is it me or is the cover rather bland? It is Bryan Hitch, isn’t it? Is he embarrassed because the Captain is so associated with Alan Davis, the man he based his career on in the early days? The soft inks on the faces in the background washes them out, making them less distinct and thereby subduing the power of the image, which is not a good thing.

Fortunately, the inside art is sharp (although Delperdang’s inks fluctuate from sharp to hazy on some pages) – Kirk has a good handle on all the characters and is able to draw the talking heads and action with aplomb.

I have a slight issue with the use of ‘Britain’ as in ‘Why are they hitting Britain this hard?’ because people don’t say that. Cap wouldn’t refer to his country in that way – was it a suggestion from the American editors? Or just to keep consistency with the title? Maybe it’s just me.

The story is straightforward and a good introductory first issue: the UK is under attack from the super-powered Skrulls (they had infiltrated MI:13 through its head, Grimsdale) and MI:13 is the forefront of defence. Peter Wisdom is made head of MI:13, although he seems to be hearing a chanting voice in his head. We are introduced to the characters who will be playing a part in the book: Wisdom, Cap, John the Skrull, Black Knight, Spitfire and Dr Faiza Hussain – she must be somebody because she has a surname (I've included links to the CBR profiles of each character, just in case you needed more introducton). There is a specific threat – the Skrulls are after The Seige Perilous, where Captain was given his powers and is the gateway to Otherworld: the Skulls want the magic. So the team has to stop them, which gives us the action scenes (including the ‘punching a Skrull’s head off’. And then it ends on a cliffhanger – good comics.

I really hope that this book does well (Cornell talks about the comic selling well in the UK so that’s a good sign) but it’s still a risky proposition. Fortunately, it’s off to a flying start, with good writing and good art. I’m looking forward to the next issue.

Comic Book Review - Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four: Silver Rage

Collection of issues 1–4 by Jeff Parker and Mike Wieringo

I bought this collection because it was the last work by the sorely missed Mike ‘Ringo’ Wieringo, an artist whose work I really enjoyed. He was taken from us too soon, and it’s a shame to think of all the work we won’t get – he was supposed to be working on a project with Warren Ellis, which sounds like a crazy combination …

As expected, Ringo’s art on this book is a joy to behold – the blend of cartoony yet sleek and dynamic is a delight. Playful yet serious, imaginative yet grounded in reality, he is a perfect choice for Spidey and the FF, characters he was very familiar with after two long runs on their books in his career. And he works his magic on Impossible Man so beautifully (cowboy, Galactus, Silver Surfer, Demi Moore pose, even Spider-Man and his Spidey mobile), it’s as if he was born to draw him.

Impossible Man has come to Earth to warn our heroes of an invasion by the H’Mojen, spearheaded by The Imperator (who seemingly destroys Impy). Spidey tells the Fantastic Four (after we see a lovely joke by Ben on Johnny), while Reed and Sue are on holiday, but they can’t stop The Imperator.

The second issue has The H’Mojen taking over the human population. (In all of this, Parker still adds nice human touches, such as Reed and Sue telling their kids they only get one cartoon, and Spidey’s reaction to the Fantastic Four’s home, ‘Wow, sweet widescreen’; Ringo keeps things real by drawing women anatomically correct – what a novelty). The H’Mojen are grafting themselves onto all humans, because they are a symbiotic species, but they don’t take over everyone (they will be ‘relocated’) – anyone who has DNA which is different (e.g. the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man) cannot be grafted onto (unfortunately, the likes of Captain America and Doctor Strange are not immune). This is the perfect threat for the FF and Spidey – it’s a huge threat, but Spidey keeps it on the human level (Mary Jane and Aunt May have been changed).

There is a lot of good humour in this book: Spidey saying, ‘"Johnny Storm" and "fact-finding mission" just don’t ever get near each other in my head somehow.’ Or Reed giving Spidey a Fantastic Four ‘4’ badge, to which he replies, ‘I don’t know what to say.’ to which Ben says, ‘Aw, he slapped that thing on Lockjaw last time Susie went outta town.’

Reed travels to other planets that have been used by the H’Mojen, looking for answer, while Ben, Johnny and Spidey are avoiding the clutches of the H’Mojen, who want to remove people who are not allowing themselves to change. After a fight, Sue rescues them and they fly to Wundagore mountain for answers from the High Evolutionary (who gives them a machine that will stop the aliens) and then to Latveria for help from Doctor Doom (they get through his pride by fibbing, telling him that Reed couldn’t make the machine work, which is a nice touch.).

In the final issue, Reed returns from hyperspace, which disrupts the Imperator’s technology, allowing the FF to fight him. He fights back using huge animals made of different DNA – things look tricky until these creatures are eaten by Impossible Man or, rather, the entire Poppupian race (‘The Body Conglomerate’), who have been regurgitated by Spidey. They can remove the H’Mojen from human race, but this will kill the H’Mojen, which is not something the FF want. The Imperator takes back the H’Mojen but the 9 billion Poppupians want to stay on Earth – so Spidey asks if the Imperator can contain them, and so they combine the two alien species in the final great merge on an empty planet Reed found on his trip.

This is an old-fashioned tale told in a thoroughly charming manner – Parker has a lightness of touch to his scripting and his fondness for the characters shines through in his dialogue. Matched with Ringo’s ebullient art, and you have pure, fun, entertaining superhero comics.

Star Trek: The Manga

Shinsei Shinsei by various

Is it manga if it calls itself ‘Japanese-style sequential art’? I don’t know, but I was sufficiently intrigued to have a look. One thing I found difficult in the reading was the different fonts used for no reason, the different sizes used to fit the too-small word balloon – it makes you appreciate the usually unrated skill of a good letterer.

‘Side Effects’ is a lot of shouting and artwork with Japanese calligraphy. It’s made worse by the fact that it is an attempt to be an ‘origin’ story for the Borg queen.

‘Anything But Alone’ feels like an old Star Trek story you’ve seen before, bbut updated with reference to nano-technology, with a surviving member of a colony recreating the rest of them from his memories, to obviously catastrophic results.

‘’Til Death’ (written by Mike W Barr) is hard to read due to the very idealized art – if somebody hadn’t called him Captain, I wouldn’t have recognised Kirk, and Uhura is draw as white (so I’m guessing the artist wasn’t a Trek fan). Barr plays with his usually idea of the male/female divide (due to the presence of sarcophagi on the ship, men and women can’t get on, so the crews are split up, leading to an almost civil war when the sarcophagi open to reveal a man and woman who say they will lead each of the fractions) but it’s all rather silly.

‘Oban’ has very cute art indeed, but again with hardly any similarity to the actual actors. Oban is a cute lizard recreated by one planet of war to promote peace, which is being transported by Enterprise – Oban’s pheromones make the crew happy. They are also transporting the Weave, which is the offering of the other planet – this turns out to be a weapon that changes Oban into a violent creature, which they have to eventually kill.

‘Orphans’ is the final tale, which has even cuter art, but has some inherent silliness – why would an alien race flip the bird to the Enterprise? Basically, this is kids in giant robots in space being taught the power of love. Dear lord, but that’s just embarrassing …

There’s also a prose story to round things out, which sort of defeats the point of a manga Star Trek if you ask me. This is a very strange collection, and it doesn’t make me want to see anymore, even if Wil Wheaton writes a story in the next one.

From A Library – Superman: Camelot Falls (part one)

Superman #654–658 by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco

Busiek and Pacheco are a good team (see Avengers Forever or Arrowsmith), so I was keen to see what they would do with the big blue boy scout. The accepted aspect is the lovely art – if you have a first page where Lois is in skimpy knickers and a t-shirt and it doesn’t look cheesy but actually sexy (because Pacheco does classy European scantily clad women), you know you are in good hands. Everyone looks good in a Pacheco book, even the ugly people. Oh, and Lois at the end of the first issue in negligee and high heels? Droooooool. Ahem. He also does the other stuff well: Superman fighting or Clark Kent in the Daily Planet office, it’s all under control.

The first issue is a nicely packaged story – a typical Superman day, mixing journalism with crimefighting (showcasing all the strange villains in Metropolis). The second issue has a cover of the first issue from the Back In Action storyline in Action Comics, which is a cute touch. There are several nice touches, such as Superman reading science textbooks in microdots hidden in trashy novels because his memory capability has improved. Clark is off to Kazakhstan to see Dr Callie Llewellyn, an old friend, where he meets Subjekt 17, an alien who had been imprisoned there for a long time. Naturally, he and Superman fight. Subjekt 17 was a baby of an alien who crash-landed, and he was experimented on by the Russians, so he was bound to be angry. The fight is stopped by the arrival of Arion of Atlantis with a warning of the future from the past.

The next issue is the future – a destroyed Metropolis with Lois and Jimmy Olsen still alive with the help of a hero called Sirocco (who? What is it with all of these DC heroes I’ve never heard of?), Lex Luthor and Rudy, a purple-skinned alien. Arion is showing Superman the danger that lies ahead – a villain called Khyber, who makes alliances with villains to destabilize the powerful nations of the world, causing the world to erupt into war. Superman fights him but Khyber wins and throws him at the Earth from space, causing the world to shatter as if hit by an asteroid – tsunamis, earthquakes and a nuclear winter. The villains fight over the remaining places (except for Metropolis, which is defended by Lex) but they all fall to Khyber. Survivors gather at Luthor Mountain, including old man Wally West and Hal Jordan’s daughter as a Green Lantern, for The Last Battle. In which Superman comes back from the dead (who says there is any Jesus connection to the Superman mythos?) but he can’t kill Khyber – that falls to Sirocco. But the Earth still dies – all because of Superman. So Arion tells him: ‘You must let civilization fall.’ Which is a good way to end a story to ensure the reader comes back for the rest of the story – even if they don’t mention it anywhere until the end. Even though I am a sucker for dystopian futures (it comes from reading the X-Men when I was younger), this is still good comics – Busiek does a great job with all aspects of the story and Pacheco matches with superlative art.

From A Library – Superman: For Tomorrow

Volumes 1 & 2 by Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee

I try to be rational and reasoning when talking about books I read, but WTF? How can these two creators produce something as bizarre as this? Long dull chats with a priest, ‘real life’ fighting in a Middle Eastern county, people ‘vanishing’ – Azzarello seems on full pretentious mode, which is part of him I haven’t seen from reading 100 Bullets. Although even 100 Bullets has an effect on this: the story has Clark and Lois make love, with the after monologue from Lois, ‘Incredible. Just as mind-numbingly incredible as the first time.’

As I’ve mentioned before, I like Jim Lee’s art, a perfect modern-day superhero artist. His Superman is good and it gets better throughout the book, as would be expected from drawing a character continuously for a year; his Batman looks equally good when he appears, having just finished drawing him for a year as well. He does a particularly good J’onn J’onzz, making him look powerful and alive. However, his women don’t seem to come across as well, and his Lois doesn’t feel quite like Lois to me, but I’m not a big Superman reader.

From what I can gather from reading the book and trying not to fall asleep, the Vanishing is Superman’s fault, due to a machine made by his father, which transports people to a dimension of the Phantom Zone, already containing Zod. But this only becomes apparent much later in the series, perhaps even the second volume: it must have been hellish to read this in the monthly format. There is a priest in it who talks a lot with Superman who gets turned into monster by covert ops people after being diagnosed with cancer – why? There are even references to the famous Michaelangelo painting of God and Adam – to quote Superman: ‘What does it mean?’ Not recommended.

Comic Book Review - Moon Knight: The Bottom

Moon Knight #1–6 by Charlie Huston and David Finch

For a change, I thought I would talk about a book that I have actually purchased, rather than borrow from the library. Having enjoyed his Joe Pitt novels, I was interested in Charlie Huston’s updating of Moon Knight. I’ve no personal infection for the character, and I’m only vaguely aware of his history (mostly Sienkiewicz’s artistic development from Neal Adams clone to his own unique style); however, a combination of the cool and gritty prose stylings of Huston and the muscular artwork of Finch suggested a risk work taking (bearing in mind that I didn’t read any reviews, including the biggest fan of the series Greg Burgas).

First off: The Bottom is a really bad title. Not only does it say, ‘Moon Knight is an arse’, but it also has unfortunate connotations with the reveal that the Frenchie character is gay (which I believe is a retcon).

The story starts off promising. Finch brings his ‘superhero noir’ stylings to the action scenes (i.e. it’s not really noir but spandex in the night and the rain). Marc Spector, Moon Knight, is dispensing justice and Huston lays down the tough guy dialogue: ‘I don’t wear white to hide myself. I wear it so they’ll see me coming.’ The reveal is that it is our hero remembering – he is in fact in a wheelchair and just wants his old life back again. He had his legs broken, turned to pills and turned on everyone who was close to him.

The second issue reveals why – a fight with Bushman caused the leg damage and Moon Knight carves Bushman’s face off. This is a bit much, but Bushman did bite his mask off … Crawley arrives with Spector’s prescription and informs him that Frenchie said hello and that he is in trouble. This causes Spector to go out of his home for the first time in ages – cut to a red-hue office, ‘Asset Prime is moving’, and an oleaginous suit being analysed by another man (in a panel that is very reminiscent of Sienkiewicz).

The third issue is the background on Spector, as presented by The Profile, so we know everything pertinent about him, intercut with his meeting with Frenchie (where Frenchie reveals his secret). An aside: Finch reuses a panel of an old man dining at a table – seems a bit poor. For those of us who don’t know, we learn that Bushman killed Spector before, at the first visit to the tomb in the Valley of the Kings (where Khonshu, the Egyptian god of the moon, first brought Spector back to life as his avatar on earth). The Profile has analysed Spector and set up a contingency plan to get him to work for The Committee; however, one of the stupid members did it too early (assaulting Frenchie), meaning Spector has been given a lifeline to return to the thing he loves doing: being a hero. The Committee brings in Taskmaster to tidy up and deal with Spector, who they wanted to turn into an assassin for them, something which their fathers in The Committee couldn’t do. A bit of a silly justification, but this is only superhero comics …

Meanwhile, Spector hallucinates Khonshu talking to him again, which brings him back. Marlene returns and the Taskmaster crashes in … He delivers a video message from The Committee, before talks about how he is going to kill him and all his friends, only for Marlene to defend herself and the butler, Samuels, defends himself (while Taskmaster has some fun, snappy dialogue). They drive back to the old Batmansion, I mean, Moon Mansion, to fix up Spector. He gets suited up in the old white costume and goes to The Committee in one of his Moon jets.

He fights the Taskmaster and The Committee (but lets them live), meaning he can get his life together (sharing, being nice to people, etc.) It turns out that the plot is a bit like the Neil Gaiman novel American Gods – Khonshu needs to get Spector to believe in him again and start spilling blood in sacrifice for him again.

This isn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be, especially compared to the exhilarating thrill of Huston’s novels. Finch does his usual stylish, overly ornate, muscular job to good effect, with some nice camera moves in his panel composition, but it’s not serving an engrossing story. I think that bringing back Moon Knight to noir trappings is a good idea (Batman isn’t working in that territory anymore, so it distinguishes the characters I guess), but the story never quite comes together.

From A Library – Superman: Back In Action

By Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods

This trade collects the three issues of Action Comics that returned Superman to the DC universe after the events of Infinite Crisis (which I have yet to read). As such, it is a slight excuse for a trade paperback, so it is filled out with stories from DC Comics Presents that have Superman team ups, in keeping with the concept of the main story. This is a bit of a swizz, even with introductions to the back-up material from Busiek.

To the main stories: it feels a little old-fashioned, as Superman is back after a year but nobody trusts him, even when he is helping out. The villain of the piece is the Auctioneer, who is stealing various things, including super-powered individuals, and selling them off around the universe. An aside: the bidding chatter and talk among his operatives is rather annoying, so it’s a shame they keep going back to it. Of course, Superman is stolen, so he has to save the day with the aid of a rag-tag collection of DC heroes (Skyrocket [from Busiek’s Power Company], Bluejay, Livewire, Nightwing, Firestorm, the new Aquaman and Veteran – somebody I’ve never heard of and can’t find even on DC Comics website). In the process, he proves that he really is Superman, and all is right with the DC universe again.

The story is a fun if slight tale; it does what it sets out to do in a clear and efficient manner but without anything else to recommend it. Woods has a nice clean art style (slightly reminiscent of Steve McNiven, perhaps), with people who look like individuals rather than generic men and women, and a clear storytelling ability. The face he gives to Superman can occasionally look odd, but not enough to ruin the book. This might appeal to the hardcore DC fan but not me – I didn’t even read the back-up stories: God, I’m a philistine.

From A Library: Batman and The Mad Monk

Batman and The Mad Monk Issues #1–6 by Matt Wagner

(I'm exhausted after the bank holiday weekend, Iron Man and the site redesign. A short post only today)

Matt Wagner is a fantastic visual stylist; he draws a great Batman in the black and grey, a solid figure yet fluid, and the covers for this series are beautiful (which is a shame that the first interior page of each issue is a close-up of a human face that doesn’t look very good in comparison). He has also written some great stories (Mage, Grendel, Sandman Mystery Theatre). However, this tale feels fleshed out and rather thin – a man who seems to be a vampire (an actual vampire, while a thematically natural choice for Batman, doesn’t feel right in the Batman world, especially written and drawn by Wagner – the early scenes with narrative from Gordon watching Batman in action really captures the power of the idea of the Dark Knight, of a man who has made himself into the ultimate crime fighter). Mix this ‘villain’ with the continuation from the previous storyline to do with Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend and her father getting drawn into this arc, and this suffers from the accusation of ‘writing for the trade’. The action scenes are superb and superbly drawn but it doesn’t really engage. Apart from the technical excellence of Wagner’s craft, it makes you think there should be a moratorium on Year One tales.

From A Library – Wolverine: Enemy Of The State

Wolverine #20–25 by Mark Millar & John Romita Jr

Here’s the thing: I think JRJr is a great artist but I think his art can be really ugly sometimes. I know that sounds contradictory, and I can’t fully explain or produce examples – it’s just a feeling. This is one of those occasions. There is spectacular action, superbly staged and choreographed, and excellent storytelling. But I don’t like the details of the artwork. It just doesn’t look appealing. Obviously, there is something wrong with me, but there you have it.

This is blockbuster comics – things don’t necessarily make sense but you go with the flow and enjoy the ride. Wolverine has been captured by Hydra and brainwashed into a double agent sent to kill … well, everyone. Nick Fury and Elektra are on the case, and we get to watch all the fights that occur: versus Elektra, versus an entire SHIELD aircraft carrier, versus sharks (sharks?! Are people just writing stuff for Chris Sims?), versus the Fantastic Four. All this to get new superagents for Hydra so they can be killed by the Hand and revived in a brainwashed capacity. Surely there are easier ways? (Although, the Miller quote suggests there is plenty of material: ‘Official SHIELD estimate is 4,700 costumes in the US as of last summer.’)

Being the best he is at what he does, he kills lots of people – Hornet of the Slingers is killed off panel (which is a little harsh), served up to the gods of ‘this is serious; look, we’ve killed a named hero’. Throughout, all the characters talk the same, which is typical Millar tough guy dialogue – Elektra doesn’t sound the tortured soul where are accustomed to – but it’s all part of the style and you roll with it. You let him do the nice jokes, such as the conversation between Kitty Pryde and Emma Frost: Kitty – ‘Are you talking telepathically?’ Emma – ‘Sorry. Touch of laryngitis.’ Kitty – ‘Maybe you should cover up a little more.’

The bizarre aspect is with the villains behind Baron von Strucker – his third wife, Elspeth: 175 years old, fourth richest person in the world and a satanist. It’s very silly, even for a comic. Anyway, Logan goes to get Matt Murdoch (with some funny jealousy monologue about how he can’t understand how Murdoch gets all the ladies), and they fight, but it’s all a front so that Gorgon can kill Elektra (again – she has the most pitiful, turntable, revolving existence she has in the Marvel universe).

Finally, Logan fights the X-Men (because everyone else has been in the series, so they have to make an appearance) and he gets to kill Northstar before he gets beaten down by Captain America (with the line, ‘Heal this.’ – were all people in the 1940s so quippy or is it just his Captain America?). And so the this first six issues ends satisfactorily but it sets it up for the next six issues – entertaining comic books in the hands of people who know what they are doing.

From A Library: Eternals

Eternals #1 – 7 by Neil Gaiman and John Romita Jr

Well, I say that the book is by the two artists, but the hardcover title seems to suggest it was only Neil Gaiman responsible for it. Ah well, marketing types know what they are doing, right?

JRJr is a very important contributor to the book – just look at pages 2 and 3 of the first issue, a double-page spread of the Celestials: a fantastic sense of the cosmic, the size, the dimension. It must be hard to follow Kirby on a Kirby creation, with all the devotion people have to him, but JRJr brings his own sense of the idea of Kirby’s grandiose, larger than life art – it is still Romita’s work but it is bigger in scale and idea, which is the whole point. Be inspired but don’t imitate.

Romita is a strange mix – he is undoubtedly a talented comic book artist: his sense of page composition, panel choice, movement, anatomy and storytelling are all top notch. However, to me, there is a ‘compository’ quality to his figures – you can almost see the circles/cylinders/guidelines that people starting out use to guide their drawings. His faces have a similar shape to them; kid’s eyes and heads are huge; the men have the same tubular shape to their limbs. However, here this fades into the background and the storytelling takes over, which is perfect for this story, alternating between big and small, cosmic and human scale.

Mark Curry is an ER doctor in training; Ike Harris tells him he is an Immortal being put there to safeguard the Earth; Sersi is a flaky party planner; Thena works on weapons for Tony Stark. What is it that connects these characters? Ike gets beaten and blown up, and ends up in the hospital where Mark works. He tells Mark a story – about the Celestials, giant cosmic beings who may have seeded the Earth with life, and took proto-humans and used them to create the 100 Eternals and the countless Deviants (who bred into the millions and took over the world). The Eternals had to stop the Deviants – luckily, the Eternals can’t be killed and have superpowers, which is handy. There were too many, however, so they called the Celestials back (the Second Horde), who killed the Deviants except for a few survivors. Eternals then helped humanity to grow but, about 30 years ago, the Third Horde returned to judge humanity – and that’s when things start to get cloudy for Ike …

Mark allows people who he thinks are doctors to take Ike away – they turn out to be Deviants who try lots of different methods of killing Ike. Mark meets Sersi and feels a connection, and starts to feel some sort of connection to Ike, who he hears asking him for help. Sersi invites him to a party for Druig, the Deputy Prime Minister of Vorozheika (fictional former Russian state) where he has secretly organised a hostage situation only for it to go wrong – this causes Mark to move at hyperspeed to save the hostages, triggering a reappraisal of Ike’s story. He goes to see Sprite, a child television and film star who Ike said was also an Eternal. (There is also a nice nod towards the Civil War situation, as Iron Man, who helped deal with the hostage situation, recognises Sersi, a former Avenger, and confronts her on registration, something she knows nothing about.) Meanwhile, Druig discovers he is aware of the vulnerable spot of everyone around him, something he uses to find out why his junior betrayed him and to find the kidnapped scientists from the party.

Sprite has tricked Mark into running into the Dreaming Celestial (there is some nice Kirby crackle on the two-page spread of the Dreaming Celestial) – Sprite is revealed as the villain of the piece: being: being eleven years old for a million years has messed him up (even inspiring JM Barrie to write Peter Pan wasn’t a positive) and he wants to finally be an adult. His power of illusion, amplified by the unconscious Celestial, caused the Eternals to believe that they were human.

Another Eternal, Ajak finds Zuras, the leader of the Eternals, but now a tramp, and explains the situation – under orders of Zuras, he had hired Deviants to kill Ikaris to help him, and to wake the Dreaming Celestial, which will bring the Horde to cleanse life from the galaxy. So Ikaris, Thena and Sersi go to the Dreaming Celestial – who turns golden: Uatu can’t watch and even Galactus feels afraid. They can’t stop it, and the Dreaming Celestial awakes, in yet another phenomenal double-page spread from Romita. Ikaris, Zuras, Ajak and Druig form the Uni-Mind, but the Celestial turns it off; instead, he talks to Makkari (the Celestial states that he created Makkari specifically), telling him to let the humans, Eternals and Deviants know that the Celestial will wait, listen, absorb and judge before the Horde returns, which will be some time yet.

The final issue, which happens after all this, feels tacked on – the Deviants come to Olympia in Antarctica (home of the Eternals) but they don’t fight because they believe that Makkari is a prophet of the Celestials, who they treat as gods; Zuras kills Sprite for his own benefit; the scene is set for a future ongoing series by having Ikkaris and Makkari searching for the remaining 90 Eternals who are still in human form before the Celestial Horde returns. The only problem is that isn’t going to happen – the series only existed, and did well, because Neil Gaiman wrote it. And he certainly isn’t going to do an ongoing series of any sort anymore. So, the reader is left with part of a story and the promise of more, but no author is going to touch it after Gaiman has been there. (Well, except for the news ongoing series they've decided upon.)

This is an enjoyable story, especially for an almost superhero story from Gaiman. Admittedly, there is a very mythological feel to the whole concept, which is perfect for Gaiman. He does a great job of integrating the story with the Marvel Universe, both previous and current, and, except for the extra endings, it is a satisfactory narrative. It was so good, it made me forget about Kirby (philistine that I am, I am not a fan) and think that the Eternals are not just an embarrassing Kirby remnant.

Comic Review: Secret Invasion #1

By Brian Michael Bendis and Leinil Yu

I know I'm rather late to proceedings, but that has never stopped me before. This week, I have been posting my thoughts on recent books from the library written by Bendis, in roughly chronological order (apart from my review of the first New Avengers trade here, showing that I’ve been interested since the beginning), which supposedly lay down the groundwork for Secret Invasion, according to the Cup O’ Joe at the back of this first issue. I know I didn't pick up on any clues in those books, but I can see that Bendis has been plotting this for a long time, so this isn’t just a quick idea for a crossover miniseries – it's the end result of meticulous clue-dropping and the climax of the reason behind a lot of the books that he has been writing.

What he has also been doing is learning – he learnt his lesson from House of M (which was a slow approach to storytelling where nothing happens in the first issue) and applies it here. Stuff happens in this issue. The plot advances. The invasion begins. And shocks occur. This is the way to start a mini-series and an event story.

The story starts with some beautiful alien world artwork from Yu – he is a very snazzy artist, and I’m glad he’s getting the chance to shine on a big book – before returning to the present day, and Tony Stark telling Reed Richards and Hank Pym the biggest secret in the world: the Skrulls are living among us now, undetectable (in the presence of the naked Elektra Skrull – and we all know what sort of invasion they’re thinking about …). Then, Tony gets word that a Skrull ship has crash-landed in the Savage Land. He calls the Avengers; Jessica Drew is the only one there. She is told to gather the troops and head out. She calls Luke Cage and the other Avengers and lets them know what’s going on. So, they do the natural thing and steal a Quinjet. They fly down to the Savage Land and arrive at the ship at the same time as the ‘real’ Avengers. And that’s when things kick off, but not in the hero vs hero manner: A Skrull Dum-Dum Dugan blows up the orbiting headquarters of SWORD; a Skrull Jarvis downloads a virus into Tony Stark (he should really get a better firewall …), which is also going throughout all related Stark Enterprises, including SHIELD, and the Raft maximum security prison for supervillains; and a Skrull Sue Storm breaches the Negative Zone in the Baxter Building. With all the Skrulls intoning, ‘He loves you.’ as they act.

Didn’t I tell you stuff happens? This is a packed issue. Yu is up to the task of handling the visuals, sleek and muscular and rugged, and Bendis slots everything into place so you don’t know who to trust or what will happen next. And the double-page reveal of the contents of the Skrull ship is great – and the final page is a cracker. This is entertaining comics. The only caveat is that highlighted by Kevin Church’s amusing review of this issue: this is not an issue you can come to without knowledge of what has gone before. It’s great if you’ve been reading New Avengers and Mighty Avengers and The Illuminati but it would be almost impossible to derive as much entertainment if you haven’t. Nonetheless, I’m happy – enjoyable stories based on years of build up.

From A Library: House of M

House of M #1–8 by Brian Michael Bendis & Oliver Coipel

A series where I knew the result (‘No more mutants’) without reading the actual comic books themselves, I wanted to read this because I enjoy Bendis’ work and I quite like alternate timeline stories. Now that I’ve read it, I realised I didn’t need to read it; the end result is the same.

The book collects eight issues, but you get the feeling that it didn’t need them. Accusations of ongoing series padding out the story for the trade don’t seem appropriate for a mini-series, but this collection d-r-a-g-s: the first issue takes the entire length to get round to the point (namely, Wanda changing the universe with her reality-altering powers after the events of the Avengers: Disassembled storyline).

The second issue is setting up the alternate world, which is the fun part: Steve Rogers is an old man, a war veteran; Scott Summer and Emma Frost are happily married; Alison Blaire is a TV chat show host; Simon Williams is a film star; Carol Danvers is the most popular superhero; Kitty Pryde is a teacher; Sam Wilson is a cop; Luke cage is an underworld boss; Stephen Strange is a psychologist; Piotr Rasputin is a Russian farmer; Hank McCoy and Hank Pym are scientists for Tony Stark, who is the only non-mutant industrialist; Janet van Dyne is a fashion designer; Logan, who has stupid hair, is a top agent of SHIELD, who has Rogue, Kurt Wagner and Jessica Drew as part of his team (for more characters see this page, which provides more background information not in the book). It is Logan who kickstarts actual plot: he remembers not only everything but also the fact that this mutant-utopia is not the real universe – he jumps off the SHIELD aircarrier (in a rather cool shot) to land in Manhattan below.

In the third issue, Logan tries to find Xavier but can’t find him, so goes to see Stark, only to be jumped by his own SHIELD team. He is rescued by Cloak under instruction from Luke Cage, and we see an alive Clint Barton. The fourth issue sees Logan explain everything and we learn about Layla, who not only remembers as well but also has the ability to restore people’s memories. The fifth issue is Layla restoring the memories of Scott, Peter Parker (who is angry to discover the fallacy of his existence, especially the happiness of it), Strange, Kitty, Danvers, Stark, Matt Murdoch, Jennifer Walters, Rogue, Kurt and Jessica Drew.

The sixth book sees them go to Genosha, home of Magneto’s House of M, getting into a fight as a distraction for Layla to restore Charles Xavier’s memory, except he is dead. There is more fighting in the seventh issue, and it is revealed that it was Pietro, not Magnus, who persuaded Wanda to change the world to what they always wanted. Magnus kills Pietro when he finds out, which causes Wanda to snap – she revives Pietro and says the words, ‘No more mutants’. The final issue sees the result of this: the world is back to normal and there are only 10% of the previous number of mutants – the rest are sapien, including Bobby Drake and Magneto. Only the people in the psychic shield of Dr Strange remember the events of the House of M (and there is a two-page set-up for really quite dire The Collective storyline in The New Avengers, which was really a misfire from Bendis).

The trouble with the story, apart from the slow pace, is that it feels like it was a story needed to accomplish a dictate, namely the reduction of mutant numbers (it has to be said that mutants were becoming increasingly common, rather than the actual minority they were supposed to be). Interviews with Bendis about House of M suggested that it was an outgrowth of the Wanda story in the Avengers that was going to occur in The New Avengers, but it doesn’t feel organic. This leaves a sour taste in the mouth – you feel as if you’ve read eight issues of troubleshooting/tidying up of the Marvel Mutant Universe.

This is not to say it is all bad – Bendis as ever has a nice touch with dialogue, with a natural feel that stays true to the character, and he has put a lot of thought into the alternate universe: there has been a lot of research and there are plenty of Easters eggs (a cameo for Gambit and lots of mutant names are overheard in the radio chatter on the SHIELD air carrier, such as Garrison Kane). The story is well constructed, although it helps to read in one sitting – it would have driven me crazy to wait eight months for events to unfold – but it all connects and reflects character choices within the narrative.

Coipel’s art is good superhero work, even if some of the inkers don’t quite fit his style – the middle chapters of the story are slightly off). He has a strange width to his male characters – he has increased the classical anatomical proportions so that the chest/shoulder/legs are stretched width-wise, which makes them more heroic. He has a funky angular quality to his figures, and he moves the action around interestingly, keeping the camera set ups visually engaging. As I’ve said about other superhero artists in other reviews recently, he suffers from the malaise of over-sexualisation of female characters – in his case, it is an obsession with breasts: he has Emma Frost’s breasts falling out of the shirts she wears, and there is a double-page spread of the attack on Genosha where She-Hulk’s breast has escaped from a badly zipped top. It’s a shame because his work is enjoyable otherwise (and his art is superior to the rather dull and flat covers that accompanied the book).

I don’t want to seem like a grouchy old comic book fan, but the Marvel obsession with huge crossovers (there were over a dozen mini-series and tie-in books to the main event) is very tiring. What happened with just telling a good story? I’m glad to have read the book, but I’m also glad that I didn’t let my fondness for Bendis’ work compel me to buy this as it came out at the time. Not a satisfactory reading experience. And surely there is no connection to Secret Invasion here?

From A Library – Avengers: Disassembled

Avengers #500–503 and Avengers: Finale by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch

This collection of comic books would probably mean more (or anger me) if I was an Avengers fan of old; I’m not and therefore have no link to these characters as a team. The history is nothing me. So, I hope I come to it with a fresh eye.

This story is firmly in the territory of ‘blockbuster’ comics – a page or two of Bendis dialogue, then straight into the action: Jack of Hearts (who?) walks into the Avengers mansion and blows himself up, killing Scott Lang (Ant-Man). Meanwhile, Tony Stark acts like a twat at the United Nations, threatening the Latverian representative. Back at the mansion, the Vision crashes the Quinjet into the mansion, before vomiting out five Ultrons. She-Hulk goes beserk and rips apart the Vision (fortunately, Iron Man knocks her down – well, I say ‘her’, she looks more like a man by the end of the hulking out).

An aside: a direct quote from Clint to Tony provides the basis for the first story of the Mighty Avengers, ‘[Ultron] could be alive in you armor for all you know.’

The second issue is the pause in the blockbuster – the dialogue scenes that Bendis does well – time for the emotion: the double-page spread of the former Avengers in front of the mansion. Then the action returns in the third issue with an alien invasion (Kree soldiers attack the Avengers) where Clint dies heroically. The invading army disappears before Dr Strange arrives in time for the fourth issue – the explanation: Wanda Maximoff, the Scarlet Witch.

Going back to the John Byrne run on the West Coast Avengers, when it was revealed that the two children of Wanda and the Vision were not real, they were created by Wanda’s Hex power to will them into existence. As Dr Strange says, ‘There’s no such thing as Chaos magic.’ (Sorry, Kurt Busiek.) This is the important part of the story – the reason behind all this has be sound and logical (well, within the realms of comic books) and I do believe in the justification. I also like the double-page spread of the old pictures of Wanda, indicating a nice sense of history. It has been thought through and presented with a feeling for the stories that led up to it.

The Avengers go to Wanda, who tries to stop them, but Strange takes them down. Then Magneto comes to take her away (and set up for House of M). As a breakdown story, this is robustly constructed narrative. Bendis slots the plot mechanics together solidly and is ably supported by Finch, bringing his Michael Bay style of modern superheroics and the action and spectacle (except for his drawing Ms Marvel’s bottom whenever he can – some sort of fetish he has, constantly showing her with the costume up her crack).

The finale is the multi-artist jam clip show, which can be basically summed up as ‘Weren’t the Avengers great?!’ This seems a little sad, not in a good way, even if the artists bring some great work to the ‘story’. It feels a little false and a bit forced, but perhaps it means more to an Avengers’ fan. I have enjoyed the New Avengers mostly (with the exception of The Collective story, obviously) so this story had to happen but this isn’t a great story. It sets up things by closing things down in an adequate fashion but nothing special. But is there a connection to Secret Invasion?

From A Library: Secret War