Alright, I have a confession to make. I bought GTA4 yesterday and I think that is excuse enough for any possible delays or lackluster updates for the next, oh, 3 years or so. Just a heads up in case I ever need an excuse for delayed postings.Pretty light week for me, as I said in my previews yesterday, but some noteworthy releases, nonetheless. The new Iron Man book was an interesting take and should be a great alternative to the excellent Knauf's offering if you dislike it for some reason or supplement for current readers of said book. No worries of forced crossovers or need to buy both titles so far.
Secret Invasion #2 came out and I was a little disappointed by the non-fight they had broken up by a freaking dinosaur, but the series is looking up with the Skrull invasion in full force by the end of the issue.
Nova was amazing, as usual, but I focused on other titles for today's reviews. Action Comics Annual was lackluster, either do to subpar art, considering the time frame, or disinterest from the huge delays or even just a rushed ending. Not sure which.
Most everything had something I enjoyed about it, though, so I wasn't unhappy with any of the purchases in the grand scheme of things. Good week overall. Hit the jump for the reviews.
ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #11Written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner
Art by Adam Kubert
I'm at a loss as to how to treat this book. I felt the same way as I did when Ultimates 2 finally ended or any other random oft-delayed title finishes up a story after months and months of void. It's hard not to be bitter over the delays and at the same time I'd like to at least judge the book on its own merits before harping on the lateness.
In the end, I can't help but feel underwhelmed, even without the delay. First off, the art is subpar, by Kubert's standards. The colouring and inking help it a lot, but backgrounds are completely barren at times. Off the top of my head, when Clark rescues Lois, it's just ground and a blue background for every panel on the page. Maybe a little bit of generic crystal slapped in for posterity. It's not a major character moment or artistic decision either.
One double page splash with Superman and Lex talking consists of the same background copy and pasted in about a dozen or so separate panels. It's just rushed and / or lazy work. Also, many of the buildings seem like they were either "referenced" or digitally coloured over pictures of New York or any other real life city. The striking difference between them and the colouring of the characters really pulled me out of any images with them in it. Superman has like two blue and two red colours used for his costume and its shading, making him look pasted on the background instead of a part of it. Is it the artist's fault or the colourist's? I'm not sure, but I think it's whoever did the backgrounds and that's probably Kubert.
There are many pages like this and seeing that the delays are all Kubert's fault, seeing the art turn out like this is a disappointment. At least Ultimates always looked fantastic, despite the huge delays by Hitch. Note, the characters look fine, but it's almost like he drew the images and a ghost writer (ghost artist?) came in and did his backgrounds for him.
As for the story, I'm left a little unimpressed by its conclusion, but, for the most part, enjoyed it. We get the prerequisite brawl between the Superman Revenge Squad and Zod's army and Superman and Zod's fight has a lot of impact, but the ending just fizzles with most of the Kryptonians coming off as cannonfodder, even though they have the powers of Superman, and instead of any resolution, everyone just gets dumped back into the Negative Zone by Lex Luthor's tinkering with an escape pod and a random "reverse propolsion whiplash effect" that pulls anyone that was in the NZ back into it at the push of a button.
The things I did like, though, were mostly concerning Lex Luthor. This, and I don't recall him being written like this in the regular DCU before (I didn't read the One Year Later stuff if he began acting like this there), was basically an All-Star Superman version of Lex and I loved it. He's usually much less entertaining than seen here and his early verbal sparring match with Superman was great. Later, he has a similar chat with Lois concerning her choice in husbands that was great. Finally, I loved his "doing this for humanity" excuse and motivation for his hatred of Superman and some of his points about Superman not inspiring humanity to be better, but to only rely on his godly powers makes sense if you think about it. The last pages with Christopher Kent getting the credit for saving everyone instead of Luthor and his reaction to reading the article was great as well.
In the end, though, I never really felt any emotion or impact from this. I'm not sure if it's because of the writing or if I should blame the complete distatchment on the months since I last read this storyline and how my excitement for this issue coming into it was almost zero. For something as Earth shattering as a Kryptonian army invading and conquering the world, imprisoning all its heroes and destroying all human based resistence, this story had no impact on anything and makes the supposed threat seem laughable in comparison to how they try to build it up. Add in the ineffective Superman-like army that gets taken down by scrubs like Parasite and Metallo in seconds and how there is no actual conclusion to this fight other than everyone getting put back in the Negative Zone and it's as if this story, which could have easily been a major event for DC, is barely worthy of a footnote.
Verdict - Check It. It's not a bad issue, but not worth the huge delay either. Add an indecisive conclusion and it's really only worth picking up if you absolutely must read how this storyline finishes. Maybe it'll read better in trade or for people less jaded over delays.
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #1Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Salvador Larroca
However, if you absolutley love the current title, don't feel pressured to pick this book up, as it has no ties, whatsoever, to the current book. Where some people might view this as a Mighty Avengers style addition to the Iron Man: Director of SHIELD's New Avengers, it couldn't be any further from the truth. Where those are different, yet basically the same, Invincible and DoS are on completely different ends of the writing and story focus spectrums. Similarly, if you loathe the current title, you probably owe it to yourself to give this one a shot, as it might be right up your alley if you dislike the political, noir thriller stlye the Knauf's are employing.
Alright, now that I've laid some groundwork, how was the book? To be frank, I'm not sure. Did I like it? Yes, I'm pretty sure I enjoyed it. At least, enough to come back next month for more. But was it a great book? I can't really say. It has the markings of a great book with beautiful art and great writing from Fraction, but I found the pacing a little off and, considering this isn't a new character or anything, it seemed like there was a little too much handholding in terms of story and plot development and more focus on explaining Iron Man and Tony Stark to people. This isn't an origin rehash issue by any means, but there's a lot of inner monologue text boxes giving us insight into who Tony is, what his fears are, what makes Iron Man what he is and so on that frame the story.
Basically, there's a rather strange set of suicide bombers in an African village. The three men had movie Tony Stark-like glowing circles on their chests and all started glowing before exploding in the equivilent of nuclear bombs without the fallout in this small area. The rest of the issue deals with the slow paced narrative on Tony Stark, his reactions to the bombings and fears of the Iron Man tech being outdated or becoming easily reproduced so that anyone with the money can practically use it.
The only other thing of note is Ezekiel Stane. He's been seen in the now defunct Fraction-written The Order, but now seems to be set up as the main villain for this title by Fraction. He was the one behind the new weapons used by the suicide bombers and has, himself, developed new weapons that seem to be variations of Extremis, in that they are organic based and allow him to generate repulsor-like blasts from his finger tips, survive falling out of a building and so on.
It's hard to describe what happened in this issue, as it's very much a talking heads story with little to no action or noteworthy developments other than the initial bombings and Stane's brief appearance, but I am intrigued and want to see more. I get the feeling this is so slow due to the whole fitting the trade sized stories, but will wait a few issues before judging it as such. For now, it's a new and very different Iron Man book compared to Director of SHIELD and I believe it's something everyone will have to check out themselves to decide if it's for them or not. Don't worry about having to buy two Iron Man books a month to understand what's going on or anything like that, as this stands on its own and as different as night and day to the current book. Right now, my money is on DoS as the better book, but I'll give this a few issues before making any official statements.
Verdict - Check It. I think some will love it and some will hate it. It's a very slow paced first issue, but has the makings of being a great title. However, time will tell.
MIGHTY AVENGERS #13Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alex Maleev
To be honest, I don't feel like I got 22 pages of story here. It's basically four or five 2-3 page vignettes as Daisy, or, as I call her, Earthquake Girl, goes about recruiting Nick Fury's new Howling Commandos. We don't really get any idea who these people are, any reason to care about them, one way or the other, and very vague, if any, explanation of their power sets. In fact, after reading it, I couldn't honestly tell you the names of any of them other than one was Ares' son and Layla Miller rejected them. Basically, I care as little about them now as I did before reading this issue, which is to say, I don't care who they are. Not a good thing.
As I said, the story is Daisy recruiting people for Fury's new Commandos. We opened up with Daisy meeting up with Fury, who's in disguise as a black Nick Fury in a jumpsuit, eyepatch and all, which I found funny for the world's greatest super spy, but I digress. She's a little pissed at being left out to dry when he disappeared, which I found odd, as she disappeared in Secret War with him, or so I recall, and I thought she was always his second hand man with his new underground role. Anyways, she doesn't hold a grudge and goes on a trip to find everyone for him.
Turns out, Fury kept a secret file that no one else has ever seen about a bunch of humans with the potential to be powerhouses that he could use as tools if he ever needed to. That makes them perfect now that he doesn't know who to trust and this is why he's recruiting them.
The ragtag group consisted of, as I said, Ares', of Mighty Avengers' fame, son, who has never shown any signs of powers that I know of, who is now the God of Fear, Phobos. He can make anyone afraid by looking at them. Another is a Puerto Rican girl named Yo Yo Rodriguez. I'm not sure what her power is. She ran really fast after a theif, blew past him and then slingshotted back to her starting spot against her will. Some kind of time manipulation thing that causes her to snap back or actual Flash-like speed? Not sure why she slingshotted back. Next up was a guy named J.T., who is the grandson of the original Ghost Rider, Phantom Rider, and he can turn chains (or everything?) into flaming chains. Good stuff.
After that, we get the best part of the story with Layla Miller. She knows stuff, in case you didn't know. She acts like Layla, asking and answering Daisy's questions before she gets a chance to and tells her that if she joins, they will fail and that without her, they won't. She also has to deal with mutant stuff, which I assume was Messiah Complex, since this is set in the past.
Finally, we have a Dr Strange-seeking magic guy and some huge, freaking guy that specializes in serial crushing. Okay, I made that last one up, but there is a huge guy that's in jail who Daisy bails out and erases all his criminal records. Don't know his power either, but I suspect it's hitting stuff real good like. Issue ends with Fury telling them he owns them all now for the rest of their lives and they will always do what he says and they will make the world a better place to live in. But first, they have to train. He begins by asking if they know what a Skrull is.
Verdict - Check It. It was a pretty generic introduction to a bunch of generic people. I have no idea who they are, what their powers are and don't really care either. Just looks like they'll be knock off Avengers. However, they'll play an important role in Secret Invasion, so I guess it's worth checking out if you want some clue as to who they are, but it'll be just that, a clue. Nothing really revealed here.
SECRET INVASION #2Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Leinil Francis Yu
Again, we get a whole bunch of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The big standoff from last issue with our heroes vs. the 70's Skrull versions? Uh, it happens, sort of. Add some random "who's a Skrull?" innuendo and that's all folks.
Let's start with the big brawl we were promised. Our Luke Cage gets skittish and throws the first punch for no real reason other than to start a super-hero fight, but that's fine, everyone loves those, right? Well, not so fast. This fight consists of a splash page and then a focus on the freaking Vision Skrull telling Sentry he's the Void and he caused all this, making Bob run off like a crying little girl, just like every other goddamn Sentry appearance ever.
After this, we get some random pages showing one or two punches, Ms. Marvel flying Tony off to that delapatated building they were once held captive in, where he builds stuff from scrap, and then a dinosaur breaks up the party, ending the so-called "fight".
Thankfully, the T-rex squashed Spider-Man and Hawkeye, revealing both to be Skrulls, but Mockingbird sticks around to cry over it and insists she's the real deal. Ronin, who's Hawkeye, in case you've been living under a rock, asks her about October 12th and she's shocked he knows about it until he reveals who he is. She tells him it's the expected birthdate of a baby they both would have had if it hadn't been miscarried.
Okay, this automatically proves, without a shadow of a doubt, she's the real deal, as neither one has told anyone about this before. Ever. Seeing as there are no telepaths in the Marvel Universe, I could see how this would be impossible information for the Skrulls to gather. Oh wait, there's telepaths EVERYWHERE and the Skrulls even have their own. My guess? Both are Skrulls and it's a cover story to try and prove they both aren't and cause more confusion.
Anyways, Mockingbird tells them all Cap is the real deal, too, because he's the one that got them all back home. Righttttt. Cap got them all back home and the Skrull invasion just happened to start as soon as they landed. No way he's a Skrull.
Finally, we see why the heroes were lured to the Savage Land as the Skrull armada arrives in New York and goes all Independance Day on a bunch of buildings as everyone watches the Baxter Building blowing up for the 20th time. This is followed up by an army of Super Skrulls version 2.0 being teleported down to start, I don't know, killing people or something. They look pretty badass though and are nothing like the Skrullektra or Blackbolt versions or even the recent one that tried to replace Echo. I loved Mr Fantastic Strangebolt, as I call that amalgamated Skrull. The One-Eyed Wolverlossus (that would be a great porn name) was neat as well. Cudos to Yu for the great designs all around on these guys.
Verdict - Check It. I was a little disappointed at the cop out T-rex fight stopper in the Savage Land and not much else happened, but I'm actually a bit excited by the final splash page with the Skrulls.
8 comments:
I enjoyed Iron Man. It was well written and showed that Fraction got Iron Man and Tony Stark as a character. I think the reason it felt like a intro to Iron Man because Marvel is betting new readers will pick this up due to the movie and needs to introduce readers to the comic version.
MA was a nice build to Fury's new team. I assume they will be further be fleshed out in the next issue.
SI was okay. I glad the plot is finally going somewhere. I assume the Avengers will be stuck in the Savage Land for most of the crossover. Yu's art gets better with each issue and there army of Super Skrulls looked awesome indeed.
re: MA the Girl's name is Yo Yo. She goes somewhere and then bounces back. Don't particularly see how it's useful, but whatever.
Are there any trades out for the Knauf's Iron Man run?
I picked up the first couple issues and then dropped it, but I love what they've been doing.
HI. I'M DAISY.
On SI:
1. I liked how Ares wasn't just a smaller Hulk, but picked up on the Skrull's strategy.
2. If Ms. Marvel gets the Initiative, and Trauma fights the Skrulls...does he become Galactus? Please?
I swear, if they mess about with my beloved Sentry this time, I will not be impressed.
Mockingbird indisputably and irrefutably died in AVENGERS WEST COAST #100, so the Mockingbird in SI #2 can’t be real. The miscarriage that Mockingbird and Barton talk about never happened in published stories. Fabricating a miscarriage as plot material is evidence that Bendis doesn’t understand either of the characters. Neither of them was interested in becoming parents, IIRC, during the days of the West Coast Avengers.
How Bendis got the idea that a virus would damage computer hardware and other equipment to the extent that Stark had to restart from “scratch” is beyond me, unless he really doesn’t understand how a virus works.
I also wonder how Bendis got the idea that DNA is the basis for one’s sorcerous abilities, unless he started out with the (false) idea that DNA enabled Wanda to “alter reality,” aka “abuse magics,” and then extended that reasoning to Dr. Strange, and then to Dr. Druid’s (nonexistent) son.
The last two pages of SI #2 and the entirety of NEW AVENGERS #40 show the extent to which ‘Secret Invasion” is dependent on the retconned idiot plot of ILLUMINATI #1. If the Illuminati don’t act like blustering buffoons, there’s no SI storyline.
SRS
Your Boondock Saints reference made laugh.
And I was completely underwhelmed by Action Comics as well and at a loss as to who, precisely, to blame for the entire thing.
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