Fantastic Four Visionaries - John Byrne vol 4. - In my previous column, I reviewed two other John Byrne Fantastic Four trades. My complaints about the previous volumes of this series still hold. When John Byrne is being himself the book flows at a natural pace. When Byrne is trying not to be himself it loses its way. There are a lot of interesting stories going on here. You have the growing (quite rapidly I might add) relationship between Johnny and Alicia, She-Hulk trying to find her place on the team and lots giant alien monsters. There are a few weaker stories here. While normally Ben Grimm is my favorite member of the Fantastic Four and I loved Marvel Two In One, something about The Thing's solo comic just didn't work for me. Ben is a great character but he's also a character known for his banter. He needs somebody to play off of. Putting him alone on a deserted planet doesn't allow opportunity for snappy repartee. The book closes out with a Hugh Hefner/Stan Lee amalgam selling an issue with paparazzi photos of She-Hulk sunbathing nude. I am not making this up. It's actually one of the highlights of Byrne's run on Fantastic Four. At five bucks- and three good Fantastic Four stories and two better than average, I'm give this one a "I got what a paid for."
Thor Visionaries - Walter Simonson vol 4. - This trade's title is somewhat misleading. There are eight issues reprinted in this book and Thor is only in four of them. The first half collects the Baldur the Brave miniseries which explains why Baldur wasn't at Odin's side in a key battle. The events of this miniseries are a key part of Simonson's Thor saga and should have been reprinted. I'm uncertain as to whether a Thor trade was the proper place for them. As for the other stories, it includes the return of the possesses you and makes you spit out rats when he leaves your hollowed out corpse villain called Zaniac, a time travelling Judge Dredd spoof and the two issues are the tie ins to The Mutant Massacre. Which means I have those two issues of Thor in not one, not two, but three trades. (They are also in Essential X-Men volume 6 and Essential X-Factor vol 1.) That would have been well and good but the time travel story took the "bad stuff happened so we changed the past in last year with three pages" route. So no, even at $7 I did not get what I paid for.
Incredible Hulk Visionaries - Peter David vol 6. - Anyone who knows me says my reviewing this book is a complete waste of time. All you have to say is 'A Hulk story by Peter David' and it is pretty much a given that I will like it. Why? Because almost everyone else who let ink lay to paper with that character made him such a one trick pony. There were a few oddball stories here and there, but Mr. David added depth, thought and humor to a character who was basically dry, brainless and about as funny as a measles outbreak. It includes a Skrull invasion, the Crazy Eight story from my article on best one issue stories plus the introduction of the fused mind Hulk (who later writers called "The Professor'), plus the arc in which Hulk joins The Pantheon. Plus a story people aren't supposed to admit to liking: Christmas with The Rhino. It is this part of Mr. David's ten year run about halfway through that is the most fondly remembered and with good reason. Even at a whomping $10 this one was worth it.
Fantastic Four Visionaries - Walter Simonson vol 1. - At the high point of this book it is hysterical, but at its low point it is a bunch of cheap tricks. On the one hand the "Act of Vengeance" issues with the Fantastic Four going to Congress about registration and having it constantly interrupted by bottom of the barrel villains was quite amusing in an almost DeMatteis and Giffen sort of way. The time travel epic which takes up the second half of the book starts out strong. The last three chapters there are a bunch of surprise twists and in spite of there being no hint to the audience at all Reed just magically "knows' things, not once, not twice but four times. It gets aggravating. Then there is the good punch line of arriving home on a parallel 1990 where Dan Quayle is President and the United States is at Defcon one. I still have to say: no. I did not get my $7.50. Though had it been five dollars my answer might have been different.
Spider-Man/Doctor Strange: The Road to Dusty Death - At his best, nobody spins a continuity twisting or correcting yarn the way Roy Thomas does. That guy is willing to draw material going back a million years if it helps the story. This story builds on several of Stan Lee, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway's previous Spider-Man and Doctor Strange team ups. While Doctor Strange's and Spider-Man's thoughts and dialogue are spot on, it doesn't quite seem right. The plot seems to scream creepy moody mystical Lovecraftian tone with moments of pure horror but it gives us a light hearted action comedy with a couple of flashes of confusion. The demon imposters of Uncle Ben and Gwen Stacy that Spider-Man encounters should be disgusting, horrific and terrifying but they just don't work. Even at $3.50, I'm not happy about this one.
The Essential X-Factor vol 1 - Call me nostalgic, but to me the 80s were amongst the best eras for the X-books. Which is strange since I didn't start reading the X-Books until around 1992 or 93. Still most of the ones I liked were out of quarter bins. The Bob Layton issues, with lead ins by Roger Stern amd feature the return of Jean Grey and the original X-Men into the core team are a nice set up. The one problem I have is the pacing. While the individual stories move fast enough but during the whole trade almost nothing happens on the Scott/Jean/Maddie story which is a major plot point for the first thirty some odd issues of X-Factor. It is something I didn't notice when I originally read these as individual issues when I was teenager but becomes clear in the trades. Much like the Thor book, it takes a hit for having the Mutant Massacre issues but only because I already have (and have read) Essential X-Men Volume 6. It is a little more palatable (even though it reprints more duplicates than the Thor book) because you get those issues from another direction. Plus- I paid $7 dollars for a Thor book of eight issues with two duplicates and $5 for an X-Factor trade with 24 issues in it, six of which were duplicates. That still means 3/4 of the book I didn't have copies of in anything resembling readable condition and I picked up the book for 1/3 the cost of the book. Or even less than what I would have paid to get better copies of the issues in a cheap box. I got my money's worth here.
Spider-Man and The Black Cat - The Evil That Men Do - I think anyone who comes into a Kevin Smith written super hero comic and expects to get stories about a woman making love to corpse in the restroom of a Quick Stop are going to be somewhat disappointed. Sure there is a fair amount of perversion but by that point, the story does not treat it as a laughing matter. Luckily, one thing does remain constant; Kevin Smith writes some of the most realistic dialogue around. His Spidey banter was just great. The powers of the villains were interesting as well, especially Brownstone. Some people criticize Smith's use of rape as plot device. Yes, it is a cheap way to make you hate your villains. Given his own cycle of abuse you also feel sorry for one of them. I found it added a new dimension to the Black Cat. Before she was just somebody who decided to be a thief because that's what her father did. Even in terms of comic book logic, it doesn't make a lot of sense. Then she became a hero because Spider-Man wanted her to be. Again, doesn't make much sense. It would have been a cheap way to make you feel compassion for your femme fatale, only here that wasn't what did that for me. It was that instead of turning that anger into vengeance- Felicia offered compassion and redemption to Brownstone's brother. As for the art, I've have the same complaint about Terry Dodson's art that I do with George Perez: No matter how geeky and mousy looking the women are supposed to be, they all look incredibly hot. Yes, even at $10 I got my money's worth. After all that a pretty good price for a hardcover. (I have since seen the softcover for $7.)
Marvel Europe - This is a small print run collection of translations of stories Marvel did for the European Market. The Wolverine story is somewhat run of the mill. The art has some nice little quirks to it. The Captain America and Daredevil team up was really interesting from a story from early in Frank Miller's run. I especially liked the art during the battle with Deathstalker in the grave yard when Daredevil gets his "vision" back. The Spider-Man and Captain Britian second first meeting story was short and somewhat annoying. The Atlas of Marvel Universe Europe will be very useful when running my Marvel Super Heroes RPG. Though over all, I did not get my money's worth. That doesn't mean I think Marvel should shut down such projects in the future. Without Marvel and DC's previous European programs, comics might have gone without people like Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Garth Ennis.
House of M: Spider-Man - House of M itself in general suffers from what many alternate (or in this case altered) reality themed crossover stories do; mediocre link up book with some horrible tie ins and some that are just great. Mark Waid's Spider-Man is twisted. Peter Parker is constantly bashing J. Jonah Jameson in media. All his "villains" are bodyguards and professional wrestling buddies. Peter is married to Gwen Stacy. It's a truly deranged who done it. It also manages to pull off being metafiction. Plus art by Salvador Larocca doesn't hurt. While the story isn't in the same class as Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt or The Wedding Annual, it is still a worthwhile read from a five dollar box.
Mrs. Marvel: The Best of the Best - In spite of how various writers and editors have mucked up the character, she began to grow on me when I got the Essential Mrs. Marvel in trade a year or so ago. I had heard good things about the new series. I bought this trade way back in March of this year but since it is more recent in continuity than many other trades I've bought since then, I waited and waited. This trade is fun. A little light on dialogue at times but there are other issues where nobody, not even the cat, will shut up. The series is an effective action comedy without quite going into the area of the truly absurd, which was She-Hulk's domain at the time. (I've heard they do less of this now, which if true is a shame.) There is some nice use and abuse of the events of House of M. I got my five bucks worth and I'm interested in reading more. Luckily, I bought volume two in hardcover for $2 on the same trip.
Mrs. Marvel: Civil Wa - This one wasn't quite as funny but it did some good things with the Registration concept. For one thing- it kept a fair and balanced approach. It avoided stereotypes. Not all pro registration people were Rush Limbaugh imitating monkeys with sticks so high up their butts that they're coming out their throats. Not all the anti-registration people were dope smoking vegans. (A liberal stereotype that I do not meet. I can't stand coffeehouses either.) That made the use of the themes of Civil War a much better read than some of the others. Oh sure, some of the stuff with Arana was rather amusing. The sense of humor returned in the story arc about the two Carol Danverses. It was nice to see Mrs. Marvel team up with Rogue and Carol's former Avengers teammate Beast. There was some nice character moments between the three of them at the end. Then the final story was fun. Writer Brian Reed acknowledges just how messed up Carol Danvers has been over the years and introduces a character who could very easily make her head pop up out of a jack in the box sometime in her future. For $2, yeah it was worth it.
Heroes for Hire: Civil War - Here, however is the prime example of the wrong way to do a Civil War tie in: throw together some 70s and 80s characters people barely remember, some one shot gag villains and the Black Cat to try to draw in the Spidey fans. Kevin Smith got me to actually care about Felicia Hardy. She almost had a big place in the Marvel Universe. In this book however, already crammed full of morally ambivalent femme fatales, they could have put Black Widow, Spider-Woman or Lady Octopus and it would have been the same story. I remember at one point in time Colleen Wing and Misty Knight had distinctive personalities, but you don't see that here. While this was supposed to be their book it spends almost as much time with Civil War's ongoing battle between Iron Man and Captain America. Reed Richards also probably gets more dialogue in some chapters than the supposed stars of the book. This is not a good thing. The only bright spot of the book was the use of the forgotten Spider-Man foe Humbug. He was slightly upgraded from "joke villain" to a poor man's Ted Kord. The Skrull subplot was mildly interesting and could have made a nice bridge between the Civil War and Marvel's next big event- Secret Invasion. It kind of just fizzled. There isn't enough going for it to justify it as a miniseries, let alone an ongoing book. My only wish was that the used book store whore I bought this burning dog poop in a bag didn't have a buy one get one free deal. I had already bought a volume of Essentials for a friend's Christmas present and that was the more expensive book. I didn't pay for this one so I guess theoretically I have to say I got my money's worth though I'm still tempted to ask for a refund.
Universe X vol 1 - My mom always said "Don't judge a book by it's cover." This holds especially true if that cover is done by Alex Ross. Where did it go wrong? Do you like many hundred page outlines with almost nothing but narration that create nonsensical connections between characters in the space of one issue alone? Even in the fast paced Stan and Jack days, it would have taken a decade to tell. This goes on for six issues and two specials. Or total rewrites of a characters origin for no apparent reason? Well, if you do, you'll love Universe X. Where was the editor during all this? Don't they have a job to do? I like alternate universe stories, but usually ones that have a recognizable divergence point. All of this whole mess would have been excusable had one thing held true, if Alex Ross had painted the insides as well as the cover. Words do not exist to describe how painful I found this book. Furthermore, it is my most sincere belief that Sheryl would not allow me to use them even if they did.
Essential X-Men Vol 9. - I remember getting a lot of these in single issues and the story taking forever to go anywhere. It is amazing how much better Chris Claremont's run on Uncanny X-Men reads in Essentials. Perhaps because he plots two to three years at a time, it takes story threads that make up the book about one book of essentials to begin to really come together. Seeing as how his run on X-Men was one of the first series to get the Essential treatment, it begs the question: Are Essentials roughly 15-30 issues long because that's how long Claremont takes to get through an arc or do Essentials only collect roughly one Claremont story because they collect 15-30 issues?. Here you get the X-Men picking up the mess of Inferno, fighting the Reavers, some choosing a better life beyond the Siege Perilous, a lost and rudderless Wolverine, Storm becoming a child, the introduction of Jubilee, a hallucinating Wolverine, yet another all-new all-different X-Men plus the build up to things that will make up volume 10, 11 and 12 when they eventually come out.
Deadpool Classics Vol 2 - I have one word to describe Joe Kelly's first few issues of Deadpool and that word is: alchemy. While previous Deadpool series started the process- they were still hindered by the creative input of Rob Liefeld. Once freed of that hindrance, the character and stories go off in wild, unpredictable and extremely entertaining directions. Deadpool evolves over the course of this trade from a rather generic assassin character into the wise cracking merc with a mouth. A character who should be by all means unlikable becomes more like a playful child. It's worth the $10 bucks I paid just to watch $#*! be spun into gold.
Avengers: Illuminati - Brian Bendis's work has always been sort of mixed with me. I liked Breakout, was bored with the ninjas stuff, liked the Spider-Woman stuff. Sentry annoys me but I enjoyed most of Civil War. This miniseries really represents the flip-flopping effect on a microscopic scale. The Skrull homeworld series was good. The Beyonder story was a little confusing. The bit about talking to Clea was enjoyable. It seemed every other issue or two went from great to horrible. For the ten dollars I paid for the hardcover, I'd say skip it. If I had seen it for five on the softbound, I might have made another call here.
The New Avengers: Secret Invasion Book One and Two - When the Secret Invasion issues originally ran, one of my esteemed colleagues said that the stories were boring and there were no Avengers. That was the basis for his bad review. I agree on the Avengerless Avengers thing being a problem. Most of the issues on the Skrull homeworld could have (and should have) been done in Secret Invasion or as its own series. The story about Jessica Drew could have been a Spider-Woman limited series. I disagree about the boring part. I really enjoyed the Jessica Jones story. Jessica is married to Luke Cage. He's an Avenger. It is a logical place to continue the story. I thought that issue was fantastic. It felt like a missing issue of Jessica Jones: Alias, the one Bendis series I've ever read that never failed to grab me. It was a homecoming. It was Bendis doing what Bendis does best. There were some amusing moments with Spider-Man and Kazar in the Savage Land as well. I'd say at $14 together they were worth my money even for Avengersless Avengers.
Onslaught Vol 1-4 - This book manages to repeat the origin of Onslaught more times than almost any other crossover I've ever seen. Then again, it was written right near the beginning of the trade paperback era and covers such a wide array of titles ranging from Marvel mainstays like Fantastic Four, X-Men and Hulk, to the gone but not forgotten like Excalibur, Spectacular Spider-Man to the barely there Green Goblin. The whole idea of Dark Xavier is a good one, though it is made less so by saying he was "contaminated by the psi-remains of Magneto." If you want to write Xavier going off the rails- do it. I think this a serious case where they put "the franchise" ahead of telling a good story. This set also takes a hit for not quite living up to its title. While all the Onslaught related titles are reprinted, not all of them are reprinted in their entirety. An example: some issues of Spider-Man where there are just a few pages with Sentinels in them only have those pages reprinted but not the rest of the issue. One of the saving graces of this are the X-Men issues and The Hulk. But alas, even the presence of Peter David is not enough to save this set. With $8 dollars spent on volume one and $12 apiece spent on volumes 2-4 there is no way in hell I can justify it. Unless of course you, like myself, like watch the comic book equivalent of a car wreck.
New X-Men: Imperial - Grant Morrison is an interesting character in the comics industry. While he occasionally journeys off into the completely incomprehensible, he has a real knack for revitalizing dead franchises. Most writers of the previous decade had turned the X-Men into a parody of themselves. Morrison's new weird approach was just the revitalization the franchise needed, in much the same way Len Wein and Chris Claremont were back in the decade before my birth. This book itself is still focused mainly on the X-Men as they attempt to discover what is killing Xavier and just who or what Cassandra Nova really is. They also have to prevent the human race from being wiped off the planet by the Shi'ar. In other words, a rather slow day. Morrison takes joy in pushing buttons with Cyclops, Emma, Jean and Logan. Beast has his sense of humor restored for the first time in about ten years. I paid six bucks for this one and boy, was it worth it.
New X-Men: Riot at Xavier's - I put down Imperial and went back for more. (I eventually want to go back and reread Morrison's run in order.) This story really surprised me. Morrison is the first writer to really explore the non-spandex wearing mutant community. He developed a whole underground subculture for homo superior. It gives the book an entirely new perspective on the X-Men as a metaphor for cultural tolerance. Mutant designers, mutant specialty drugs and even mutant street gangs. The plot is a little bit cliched and mildly stereotyped view of the bullied teen turns bully theme, redeemed by the fact that the characters involved were introduced slowly from the start of Morrison's run. As much as I didn't want to like Angel when she first appeared, she began to grow on me. At $5 this one was worth a look.
New X-Men: Assault on Weapon Plus - This book was where Morrison began to lose me somewhat. Once pocket timelines and other dimensional beings were introduced to the Weapon X program's back story, I got mildly annoyed. Though, Fantomex could still be lying. It wouldn't be the first time somebody did that to Wolverine. On the other hand, it also had some great moments with Scott, Emma, Jean and Logan that had been brewing since Morrison started his run. There were some other great side stories with the Stepfords, Beak, Angel and Xorn's team. At $8 it was still worth the purchase.
X-Men: Day of the Atom - I bought this one on a dare. I looked inside and saw the name Chuck Austen. My friend said: "It's five bucks! You have to buy it." I tried to explain my reaction to other Austen books I've read and his response was: "I know. That's why you have to buy it. You're writing that review column of every trade you read, right?" I said: "Yeah, so?" His ultimate response was: "Your complementary reviews are glowing and sappy as hell. People stop by hoping you'll rip it to shreds. Do it and I'll give you a twinkee." Well, I hate to disappoint but this was't as bad as could have been. It was only slightly more painful than being hit by a speeding taxi cab and I know whence I speak. For most of the book but it seemed to lack the "I'm having all of my body hair removed with a pair of needle nose pliers by a fat and cheerful Belgian Postage Inspector" feeling that most of Austen's work seems to induce in me. Maybe because after the first half of the Nurse Annie debacle, Austen was being kept on an invisible dog leash that would have given him a small electric shock if he tried his usual garbage. Or maybe it had to do with the fact that I was reading Universe X Volume Two and was still running off the endorphin. On the plus side, the Christmas story at the end is written by a true master of X-books, the often imitated never duplicated Chris Claremont. Why, oh why, godlessness couldn't he have written the whole thing? Even if it had the same plot, the dialogue wouldn't be anywhere near as bad. I definitely did not get my money's worth and considering that the last story had a shot of Kitty Pryde in a very tight elf costume in a quasi fanservicing position is saying quite a bit.
Universe X vol 2 - Oh wacky retcons, oh how I miss you. This one crosses the line from painful and stupid to painful, stupid and repetitive. "Oh no look! It's Wendigo- oh wait that's just a self-cannibalizing Madrox." "Look out! It's Belasco... no wait- that's just Nightcrawler." "Oh took that's Thanos- no it's a Skrull." "No wait it is Thanos and he's been a Skrull the whole time!' Really, what the smegging hell kind of story telling is that? What a really fine waste of Canadian timber. Did they really have to use glossy printing here? I like to get some reuse out of my books but that thicker stuff really doesn't flush well.
District X - In New York City's war on crime the people are protected by two separate but equally important groups: the police who investigate crime and the X-Men who blow the living $#*! out of the offenders. These are their stories. When Grant Morrison introduced Mutant Town, it was only a matter of time before things started to happen there. David Hine's use of the Law and Order approach really works to get people into that part of the city. Bishop is an almost ideal choice of characters to be the token mutant placed in the police department. Though it is Ortega, his human partner, that is really the point of view character. That allows for the audience to be taken in by strangeness. It is a typical who done it. Still it is entertaining and I'll give it my money's worth. Even after reading the next book on the route.
Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl? - If District X is the "Law and Order" of super hero comics then Powers is "The Wire." Complete with Bendis's penchant for foul language, mild violence and really dirty jokes coming from an eight year old girl. The tone of Powers is a lot less super heroish and much more in tune with film noir. It's dark. It's perverse and at times incredibly funny. Of course, it is possible that I just have a really sick sense of humor. That being said, I still have to send this one back to Amazon. Not because I didn't like it but because Santa sent me a copy with torn pages in the back. This book is on par with "Alias" and that's only at the get go. I eagerly await more Powers.
The Mighty Avengers: Secret Invasion Book 1 and 2 - I have nothing against Brian Bendis as a writer, (See review above) it's just that sometimes he misses the mark. While Avengerless Avengers didn't bother me so much in New Avengers, here I found it grating. What did I get? Two good Hank Pym replacement stories. Hank is an Avenger, so those fit. Then I had a two or three issue testing ground for Nick Fury and the Secret Warriors which made me wonder why they didn't start that series during Secret Invasion. It could be that starting a book on anything that slow would be the kiss of death. In today's comics market, it would be cancelled before anything happened. The Civil War escapee Captain Marvel being a Skrull tries to redeem that plot thread and the book but it doesn't quite do it. I did not get my money's worth.
