Post of the year, folks. Look how much thought and effort was put into those two words. Hey Zeus must have been so exhausted that he didn't even put a full stop at the end. Someone give this guy a medal.
In other news, Ultimate Comics Spider-man and Ultimate Comics Avengers have finally been announced in the August solicits (and thankfully, no New Ultimates). I'm looking forward to see how these books turn out. Also of note, a cover for Ultimate Avengers depicts Nick Fury, Captain America, Iron Man and Hawkeye.
I don't think Spider-Man died in the explosion though it has left it in the air as to who has. You are right however that it is a complete tangent and we wouldn't be any worse for it having been written into the Ultimatum saga. _________________ Pro Massacre Boy!
I spent the last few minutes deciding the best way to react to Raien last comment. In another post I apologised for a misunsdertanding between us, clarified my point and wished him the best, then I saw his childish post about my off hand comment
and i just couldnt decide the best way to react
the first and most obvious way to react would have been to insult his penis size and call him a pigfuck (thanks for telling me that insult bats its great )
the second would have been to send him 2000 private mesaages with full stops in them
the third would have been to react like Catfang has, bemoaning the way this good forum has descending in to child like bickering and generally giving a level headed response to what people have said
the fourth would have been to have had a reasoned debate about the merits of my post and its lack of punctuation
Instead I am going to leave it, wish Raien the best of luck in his reviews and in his future posts. I have no ill will towards you and i hope we can leave this behind us.
P.S Thanks Catfang for adding some kind of rationality in to the whole affair
I'm sorry I'm late with this review, but despite my enjoyment of Marvels, I found it frustratingly difficult to write about. At least there's a nice bonus to make up for time wasted.
Marvels Review
Marvels was a four-issue mini-series released in 1994, written by Kurt Busiek and painted by Alex Ross (yes, this comic is actually painted). Set in the Marvel universe from the 1940s to the 1970s, Marvels tells the story of freelance photographer Phil Sheldon, who finds himself enthralled by the appearance of superheroes and their impact on society and politics. Everyone's favourite Marvel heroes appear and we get to see an in-depth look at the so-called Golden Age of Marvel, the era before upstarts like Spider-man and the X-Men became the face of the company.
At first glance, Marvels sounds like the sort of book that only people interested in the Marvel universe would enjoy, and yet I feel this setting is really irrelevant to what makes the book so engrossing. Marvels is really an examination of how society reacts to life-changing events, and this could be done just as effectively with real events, such as 9/11 or the 1960s American civil rights movement. What Marvels really proves is Kurt Busiek’s incredible ability to deconstruct society and write characters as real, believable people in the face of momentous change. The structure of Marvels constantly shifts between a documentary about the superheroes and the more conventional story of Phil Sheldon as his career and family life are affected by his obsession with superheroes. The two elements are intertwined in such a manner that feels incredibly natural and I honestly wasn’t aware of the changes when they took place. The flow of the story was consistently steady, never breaking until the end of a chapter.
Now despite my earlier statement, I can’t deny that the presence of superheroes defines Marvels as a piece of literature. Despite that they speak very little, offering next to nothing of their own personal opinions, it is actually this distance between the superheroes and the “everyman” that makes them feel particularly real, compared to the traditional adventures we see them in. A fight between Namor the Submariner and the original Human Torch takes on completely new meaning through the eyes of the “everyman” who simply cannot predict what will come about from the battle. In addition to this, Kurt Busiek offers some fresh perspectives on important events in the Marvel universe, such as invasion of Galactus or the celebrity marriage of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman. But two events particularly stand out in my mind. The first event is the initial wave of paranoia against mutants. The rioting and the mobs make this a very human story, touched with a particular sadness as Sheldon discovers that his daughters have been hiding a mutant girl from the mob in his basement. Having been unable to understand how mutants saw themselves in society, this event is an eye-opener for Sheldon and helps define the development of his character. The second event is the death of Gwen Stacy, a character famous in comics for being Spider-man’s girlfriend. It was quite a surprise to see Gwen Stacy play such a fundamental role in Marvels because I had never once associated her with the “everyman”. I find Gwen an interesting demonstration of how one character can blur the line between our perception of the real and of the imaginary.
As a side-note, it’s interesting that the chronology of Marvels stops just short of having to explain why the Marvel characters don’t age with time. This decision is perfect for securing the illusion of Marvels as a story set in the real world. Even knowing how later Marvel stories would play out, it’s easy to imagine that the superheroes would be getting older within the context of Marvels.
Alex Ross’s artwork is a perfect accompaniment to Kurt Busiek’s writing, not only in the quality of the painted panels, but in the choice of painting from photographic references. As a technique that I often see employed by artists who want to capture important historical events, the use of it here only further develops the sensation that Marvels captures something real and significant to human interests. As much as I would normally prefer the presence of pencils in comic books, I do not think pencilled artwork would have the same impact on Marvels as Alex Ross’s paintings.
Overall, Marvels is a fantastic book that delves into the everyman’s perspective of the incredible and provides a good alternative history of the Marvel universe to boot. It should be in everyone’s collection.
Astro City: Life in the Big City – Follow-up Review
I bought this book for one reason alone, that it was proclaimed to be the spiritual sequel to Marvels written once again by Kurt Busiek. In that context, I found myself very disappointed by Astro City. It’s partly due to the fact that it emulates the DC universe, which I find to be a much more unbelievable setting than Marvel. But it’s also partly due to the choice of perspectives, with one notable exception. A quick initiation to begin; the titular Astro City is essentially this book’s version of Metropolis, featuring a variety of heroes based on DC (and sometimes Marvel) icons. The Samaritan is based on Superman, Jack-In-The-Box is based on Batman, Winged Justice is based on Wonder Woman, the First Family are based on the Fantastic Four, etc. Each chapter in the book is told from a different perspective, either a superhero or an “everyman” character.
The first chapter of the book explains the daily life of the Samaritan, and this is the exception to my disappointment with Astro City because it allowed me to finally “get” the appeal of Superman. In the same way that courage has always been defined as the facing of one’s fears, heroism is in many respects idealised as a sacrifice of personal freedom. But while Spider-man has always flaunted his sacrifices, defining him as the relatable superhero, Superman has never been given any obvious sacrifice to contend with. It’s the lack of self-interest that makes Superman less relatable as a character, and Busiek does the most ingenious thing by making that lack itself the personal sacrifice. When the Samaritan sleeps, he dreams of flying; the obvious metaphor for personal freedom. Of course, if Superman had that dilemma, it’s unlikely that any reader would want to be Superman. I certainly wouldn’t. But in this case, the Samaritan highlights the importance of self-sacrifice and thus the importance of Superman.
Right, that’s enough praising. Now for the remaining disappointment that is the next five chapters. To go back to Marvels for a moment, at no point did “everyman” Phil Sheldon ever speak to, or directly interact with, a superhero. That’s what made him so relatable, because of course meeting a superhero is a very rare event, an exception. So when every “everyman” in Astro City directly interacts with superheroes, the ability to relate disappears. Chapter Four features a woman talking about threats and rules and talismans, but I can’t relate to her because she lives in a small part of town where apparently werewolves, vampires and other demons stalk the night. As possibly the most realistic character in the book, her situation makes her perspective quite alien to me, and I have no emotional reaction to her. How can I? She protects herself from monsters. For the other “everyman” stories in Astro City, they’re the sorts of things we’ve seen many times before in comics and television. Batman: The Animated Series is a good example of a series that repeatedly introduced new everyman characters that through circumstance became involved with Batman and his rogues. Astro City offers nothing really deeper than those stories.
I don’t want to go any further than that, but aside from the first chapter, I don’t understand what people find so special about Astro City. It’s not especially original or especially relatable as Marvels was.
I don't get along very well with the X-Men. I want to enjoy it, but the series has become so expansive, with a million different stories being told, it's so hard to find something I consistently like. I hate the convoluted packaging of the current X-Men universe, with several on-going titles and a truckload of mini-series (most of which belong to Wolverine). I hate the convoluted nature of the stories, which are often too detached from reality to be emotionally relatable, not helped by constant time travel/dimension travel storylines.
Ultimate X-Men was a nice breath of fresh air. Just one on-going series to read, with Mark Millar and Brian Bendis both doing a good job of keeping the series grounded in reality. But since that series (and the general Ultimate universe) came crashing down, Marvel saw fit to find a replacement in the form of X-Men Forever. X-Men Forever is another alternate universe story that, unusually, takes place shortly after an old 1990s X-Men series that was cancelled after just three issues. (Fun Fact: The first issue of this trilogy is the highest selling comic of all time to date).
Chris Claremont wrote those original three issues and returns to write X-Men Forever, telling us in an interview that the new series will delve deeply into political stories, and that characters will age in real time. When characters die, they will never ever be resurrected. So the concept of this series sounds very promising, despite the bad things I've heard about Claremont's recent X-Men work. So with fingers crossed, I delved into the Alpha issue, which reprints the original 1990s trilogy.
The story of X-Men Forever Alpha is that Magneto has abandoned the fight between humans and mutants to live alone in his sanctuary, Asteroid M, but the two warring sides won't leave him alone because of his murderous past. A militant mutant group called the Acolytes encourages Magneto back to fight, and so the X-Men are forced to challenge Magneto on Asteroid M. While the writing is by no means subtle, it is in my opinion, handled very well. The characters all come through nicely, particularly Magneto, who finds himself torn between his belief in protecting mutants from humankind and his exasperation at the aggression towards him as an individual. In this light, the discussion of X-Men philosophy feels particularly appropriate for the nature of this story. Woven into the book is a subplot where Magneto discovers that scientist Moira McTaggart had previously used genetic engineering to manipulate his personality. This was a good avenue to see a man already on the edge of sanity driven over into madness, and made for some compelling confrontations between Magneto and McTaggart.
Jim Lee's pencils look fantastic for a 1990s comic, and the added cover/poster art is a nice addition. However, it suffers from a problem that I notice appeared in a lot of comics in the 1990s. It's far too "busy". There's so much detail on the page that it can be difficult to make out who's speaking and what's happening. This could be just a colouring problem though, and I think a modern colouring would do wonders for the effect of this book. But even so, the original artwork is still strong enough that it doesn't bring the book down too far. The character expressions are captured well, and the action is typically epic for X-Men.
In addition to the 1990s issues, there is a preview of the first "proper" issue of X-Men Forever. The writing looks just as good as the Alpha issue did, so that's got my hopes up. Wolverine dies, so that's another good sign. And the artwork looks up-to-date and top notch. So overall, if X-Men Forever Alpha is any indication of the rest of this series, then it looks like it will be a solid replacement for Ultimate X-Men.
Here's the new Fables review that I have written to replace the original review in my first post (which I have since edited out as well).
Fables - Vol. 1-3 Review
Had I read one less volume of Bill Willingam’s Fables, I would have said this series was one of the worst I’d read since Ultimates 3. I can think of no better example of how important first impressions are to a reader’s involvement with a new story than with Fables. Thankfully, the series does redeem itself in the third volume, and while I still don’t think Fables is to my personal taste, I can’t fault the writing for that.
The premise of Fables is that fairytale characters (the titular “Fables”) have been driven out of their storybook lands by an unnamed “adversary” and are forced into hiding in America. The human Fables live in a district of New York City (dubbed “Fabletown”), and the inhuman Fables live hidden on farmland further out. The series focuses on the human Fables, introducing us to classic characters such as Snow White, Big Bad Wolf (disguised as a human called “Bigby”), Old King Cole and Captain Bluebeard. While I have to admit that this is a fascinating concept, my initial reaction upon reading the book was that the two settings (fairytale and contemporary) clashed rather than complimented each other.
My main problem is with the characters. Willingham’s idea was that with a contemporary setting, the Fables should have contemporary personalities and lifestyles, and so everyone has been re-characterised. For example, Snow White is now a government official responsible for running Fabletown and Prince Charming is now a womaniser who takes money from the women he sleeps with. I can see why some people would find these changes fascinating, but it just disconnects me from the concept. With faces that only look in passing like the fairytales they represent, dressed and speaking in a fashion that doesn’t relate to who these characters used to be, I simply fail to believe that these characters are the fairytales they say they are. With that said, how well do these characters stand on their own merits? Well, without development, they come across as little more than one-note stock characters. There’s an art to making simplistic characters interesting and Willingham clearly just didn’t have it. But even with development, there are only a few characters that I would call compelling. I feel there’s a lot to be desired from Fables’ characters in general.
In the first volume of Fables, Willingham uses a “whodunit” murder mystery (which turned out to be a hoax, surprise surprise) as an excuse to meet all the characters, but this was horribly executed. Not only did it not do a good job of introducing the characters, but the entire thing made no sense whatsoever. For example, Bigby manages to acquire cartloads of blood and has some other characters re-create the “murder scene” to see if a human body could contain that much blood. I’m not joking; this piece of complete stupidity actually happened in the book, and with Bigby already having worked out at this point that the scene was faked. And then at the end of that story, Willingham forces a party of people to gather round to hear the big reveal Poirot-style, despite that nearly everyone at the party had nothing to do with the case. Then Willingham has Bigby justify the gathering by spending a page telling Snow White how he always wanted to do it, and she didn’t think to correct him on how dumb the idea actually was. In short, the first volume is moronic in every sense of the word.
The second volume introduces us to the non-human Fables at the farm, and as such was a much better demonstration of the unique concept of Fables than the first volume. The story pays homage to the novel “Animal Farm”, in which the non-human Fables violently revolt against their forced seclusion. It was much more logical than the first volume (and overall much better), yet I feel that the violence of it was excessive, as if it were just for the sake of being dark. This book also continues and emphasises another problem with the first volume; expositional writing. There is very little dialogue here (until toward the end of the book) that felt natural or believable. Instead, it felt like the characters were just relaying plot points to the reader, and undermined what was going on in the story. Thankfully, Volume Three has neither of the above two volumes’ faults. Combining two separate stories, one of which sees romance bloom between the characters, Bigby Wolf and Snow White, the book is not only much more engrossing but much better written to boot. We see a more dynamic interaction between the human and non-human Fables for one thing, which does a lot to make the world of Fables an engrossing place to see. The idea of tiny policemen riding talking mice as spies was a particularly novel idea. It feels like this book is where Fables should have started, and I’m honestly tempted to say skip the first two volumes (Wikipedia explains it all anyway).
So overall, if you have an interest in fairytales and a lot of patience, you could find Fables a rewarding experience. But otherwise, it’s hard to really recommend Fables in place of other comic book series. While the story is good, I didn’t feel that it had the passion or flare that has made other series so memorable.
Before I get this review underway, I'd just like to say that the two new issues of Amazing Spider-man (American Son Pt.1 and The Short Halloween) are the best stories for this comic I've read since I started reading it. Joe Kelly's scripting is tight and pitch-perfect character design, and The Short Halloween is a great comedy alternative to the standard stories. Pick both up!
Superman: For Tomorrow - Vol. 1 Review
Well, this was certainly the biggest disappointment I've experienced in a long while. There aren't many books that I've stopped reading due to sheer boredom, but For Tomorrow is now added to the list. Which is a shame, because it promised the super team-up of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Jim Lee. And while Jim Lee was certainly up to his usual high standard, trying to figure out how the writer of "100 Bullets" could go so wrong in so many ways is quite a mystery.
The story begins with a quirky exchange between a priest and a cop. I found both characters to be immediately interesting because they both exuded a sense of self-confidence that you rarely see from characters in their position (because most writers like to believe that priests are weak, humble characters who make long moralising speeches and quote the Bible in every other sentence). Then Superman appeared before the priest and poured his heart about the depressing nature of the world and his job. The very idea of the god-like Superman confessing emotional weakness to a stranger is a very powerful statement and I closely anticipated the fulfilment of that potential.
But no, it turns out we weren't seeing a revelation of emotional weakness. This was, in fact, an attempt by DC to make Superman a darker, brooding character in order to appeal to the teenage/adult audiences (I presume they had a case of selective amnesia and forgot all about the 1990s). There was no hope to brighten Superman's character in For Tomorrow, or even a mask of happiness for the public eye, and so Superman was turned into a bland cliche. If you just read the dialogue without knowing who was speaking, then it could belong to any dark, brooding superhero. It's as if the very characteristic of "dark/brooding" robs a character of his uniqueness and charm.
But this isn't the only problem with Superman's conversation with the priest. Quite simply, I can't make sense of what the characters are saying to each other. Sometimes it tries to be humorous banter and sometimes it appears to be conveying a moral message, but when the direction of the conversation changes, I'm left scratching my head as to what brought about the change. It feels like the dialogue could be fantastic if it made sense, and I honestly don't know what's making it such a difficult read.
Thankfully, Superman's account of past events is much simpler. A million people mysteriously disappear off the face of the Earth while Superman was out in space, and Lois Lane is among the missing. Superman locates the source of energy signals in a wartorn Middle-eastern country, at which point Superman appears to drop the investigation entirely in order to involve himself in the conflict. This is where the story dies. Apart from a rehashed "war is bad" theme, there is absolutely nothing of substance to this new development, and it feels abrupt when it begins. It feels like an excuse to throw in some fights with an original villain called Equius, yet Equius has to be the most unoriginal Superman villain created this decade. There is nothing compelling about him.
Superman then gets the device that caused the Vanishing, and the next few issues devolve into a vague cliche conspiracy theory narrative (tip to Azzarello: it wasn't original in 100 Bullets either) and random fighting. The book peters out with nothing of interest accomplished and nothing of interest to look forward to in the second volume (which I consequently will not be reviewing).
Of course, the big question is why review this book at all? It's clearly mediocre, unimportant and destined to fall into a sea of crappy comic books. I haven't seen a single good review for it since putting it down. Quite simply, I'm reviewing this because DC thought it good enough for an Absolute Edition. After all, wasn't the point of releasing Absolute Editions to highlight the very best of DC-owned storytelling? It certainly tricked me into reading this crap. Maybe it's just to showcase Jim Lee's artwork again, but really, DC. Charging over £50 for a book this bad? You have no shame.
Kingdom Come was a critically acclaimed limited series released in 1998 by writer Mark Waid and painter Alex Ross of Marvels fame. As an Elseworlds tale, Kingdom Come spans the entire DC universe and tells us what could happen if the old heroes were shunned by a public that wanted darker, ruthless superheroes. It's clearly a poke at the 1990s trend of dark superhero comics, and it unfortunately doesn't make sense in any other context except that. Why would any sane person want darker superheroes in real life? Thankfully the concept has another angle, that the superheroes have lost sight of saving people and are just fighting for thrills, which does a much better job of carrying the story.
So the story begins with a forced Biblical angle, as a pastor is brought to bear witness on the events of Kingdom Come by a mysterious Angel of Death... or something like that. I admit that I find Biblical references hard to grasp generally, but I really didn't understand what Mark Waid was trying to get at with this in Kingdom Come. Apparently the pastor was supposed to pass judgement on Superman at some point, but when the moment came, I swear that nothing actually happened. The moment passed without comment, and I was just left confused by it.
But anyway, the story goes that a new superhero called Magog kills the Joker and is praised by the general public. Superman loses faith in justice and hides in the Fortress of Solitude for ten years. Wonder Woman appears and reveals that the new superheroes are killing people with their excessive fighting, culminating in Magog getting the entire state of Kansas destroyed in a nuclear explosion. So Superman gets the old Justice League back together in order to recruit the new heroes under traditional morals and bring peace back to the world.
But Superman has a problem. Wonder Woman wants to be forceful and militant against the heroes that stand against Superman, and she encourages the building of a prison to hold the rebels until they accept Superman's rules. Batman, on the other hand, believes that excessive force won't change minds, and that patience and methodical movement is the only solution. But since Batman refuses to return to the Justice League, Wonder Woman has her way, which almost leads to disaster.
I have to say, Mark Waid does a really good job of getting us feeling the oppressive nature of this new world of ruthless dominance and fighting from superheroes. The atmosphere is a pitch perfect demonstration of why Superman decided to leave humanity in the first place. The characterisations of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman is equally top-notch. Their emotions are relatable, their personalities are distinct and you can practically feel the friction as they exchange ideologies with each other. The story in general does a really good job of exploring new philosophical territory and how the DC superheroes react under extreme pressure.
However, the Biblical angle comes back to bite and an already complicated moral dilemma is made even further complicated by a series of false dilemmas. For example, we're supposed to believe that if the superheroes fight each other, the result will be Armageddon. Umm... why doesn't it just end like every other superhero team-up fight? Why are there no third options? The problem here is that when every character talks about dire consequences like this, it feels like an overexaggeration to play into the Biblical abstracts, when it should be a realistic threat that can be solved with a bit of common sense. As such, I found Kingdom Come to be headache-inducing at times because the story didn't make much real sense.
It's funny that Alex Ross's artwork seems to reflect Mark Waid's writing in every way. The characters are incredibly detailed in their design, the location scenes capture the mood of the scenes perfectly; everything about it just oozes quality. You can turn any panel into a poster and it would look just as good as a stand-alone image. It's fascinating to see so many DC heroes rendered in this realistic painted style, and I even found an easter egg in the form of characters from Monty Python's Life of Brian. But just like Waid's writing, Ross's artwork at times suffers from overcomplication. Namely in the action scenes, where multiple characters are fighting in a single panel and it's hard to tell which way is supposed to be "up", Ross's lack of distinct outlines makes it difficult to see what exactly's happening in the panel and it can be headache-inducing at times. It's a general criticism I have of 1990s comics, where the panels are simply too busy, but I never thought I'd see it in an Alex Ross book.
So in conclusion, Kingdom Come showcases some very strong performances from both Mark Waid and Alex Ross, but in general suffers from a severe case of TOO MUCH! I still think the book's strengths far outweigh the flaws, but I can't help but think how good this book could have been with streamlining.
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