Fluit Notes

What Age Is It Now Anyway?

I’ve been talking about the ages of comics for the past three columns (if you think I’m being long-winded, you should see all of the stuff I left out).  Either way, I appreciate your perusal and participation.  So far, I’ve speculated as to whether or not Brightest Day and Heroic Age will launch a new age, sided with the broad consensus that there is such a beast as a Bronze Age, and struck out on my own to propose a Fourth Age from 1987-1996.  That leaves the issue of what do we do with the last dozen years or so.  Is it another age? 

If you’ve been reading along, then you already know that my answer is “Yes.”  However, I’ll readily admit that this is my own opinion rather than a widely-accepted theory.   

 There are two major arguments against this being a fifth age.  The first is “everything since **** is just one big age.”  There is some validity to that argument.  Indeed, every new age has had to overcome that perception. 

 Jeff-of-Earth-J had a great quote in response to the first column: "Modern Age" is a term I use for whatever the current age which has not yet been defined. For example, I used to say "Golden Silver and Modern," but now I say "Golden, Silver, Bronze and Modern." 

 This shows that, despite initial resistance, the idea of a defined age of comics can gain acceptance.  The argument would have been at one time, “everything since 1970 (the end of the Silver Age) is just one big age.”  Now, it’s more likely to be “everything since 1986 (the end of the Bronze Age) is just one big age.”  

 However, I argued that the years 1987 to 1996 have all of the features and characteristics of an age, with one notable exception- a widely agreed-upon name.  However, if we were to insert one of the suggested names, we would have Golden, Silver, Bronze, Iron and everything after.  In other words, “everything since 1996 (the end of the Iron Age) is one age.”  

 I’m glad to say that I’m not the only one who has considered this.  In 1997 and ’98, Wildstorm Studios produced a crossover between the X-Men and their own Wildcats.  The story would span several eras of time, reflecting the different ages of comics.  The four issues were the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Dark Age (one of the other suggested names for the Fourth Age) and the Modern Age. 

 The second major argument against this being a fifth age has to do with sales.  Figserello wrote, “Sales follow successful new storytelling fashions, so the two are interlinked.”  Indeed, the earlier ages are defined not only by peaks in creative output, but also by spikes in sales. 

 That causes a problem for the current age.  After all, current comic book sales pale in comparison with earlier ages.  The best-selling comics of today would be mid-level performers in the ’80s or in danger of cancellation in the ‘60s. 

  However, I don’t think that necessarily precludes the possibility of a fifth age.  For one thing, an age is not necessarily a direct comparison between peaks.  By that definition, the Silver Age wouldn’t count as an Age either.  After all, the sales of the Silver Age were one-fifth of the sales of the Golden Age.  Similarly, the Bronze Age peak may not have been as high as the peak of the Silver Age but it was still a peak compared to the years that had come between.   

On the other hand, the last fifteen years have given us a valley and a peak that help shape the ages of comics.  The years of 1997-99 had the lowest comic book sales in history.  They’re so low that I wouldn’t even include them in an age.  They’re kind of like the years between the Golden and Silver Ages (which saw great sales in other genres but the near-extinction of superheroes) and the years between the Silver and Bronze Ages (according to some definitions).  In contrast, the years 2000-2007 saw seven straight years of growth.  That’s something that hadn’t happened since the Golden Age (the Silver Age’s best stretch was 4 years).

 Another issue is that sales contrasts across eras are not apple-to-apple comparisons.  Silver Age numbers are based on the number of issues printed for returnable newsstand distribution and could be double the number of issues actually sold.  Current numbers are based on issues sold to the direct market- while ignoring subscriptions, newsstand distribution and international sales- and could be half of the actual number of issues sold.  I’m not saying that current comics sell as well as Silver Age comics.  They don’t.  But the gap isn’t as great as some observers would have you believe.  Plus, modern comics are also sold in trade paperbacks, a secondary market that extends shelf-life and raises readership. 

 The current age may not be as commercially successful as the Silver Age, but that doesn’t have to mean it’s not an age at all.

 I think it is.  I think the sales are part of the story (including the seven straight years of growth that I mentioned previously).  I think the expansion of the market is part of the story.  Comics have expanded into new genres, new formats and new territories.  The last decade has seen the explosion of manga, trade paperbacks and bookstore sections devoted to comics.  You can even buy comics in airport terminals. 

 Of course, it’s not only about sales.  It’s also about style. 

 Luke Blanchard asked (yes, I’m quoting Luke again; sorry, Luke), “Is there the same kind of contrast between superhero comics of today and of fifteen years ago as there was between the superhero comics of the mid-70s and those of the early 60s?”

 I think so.  Modern comics have very different features than Iron Age comics.  Comics of the early ‘90s were often fast-paced, action-packed affairs.  An actual story sometimes took back-seat to a sequence of fight scenes.  Comics of the mid-aughts were slow-paced.  They were deconstructed and fans would sometimes wait four to six issues for a big fight. 

Compare Jim Lee’s first issue of Wildcats in 1992 with Joe Casey’s first issue of Wildcats 3.0 in 2002.  Compare the “Reign of the Supermen” in 1993 with “World without a Superman” this past year.  Compare Joe Madureira’s X-Men in 1994 to Grant Morrison’s New X-Men in 2004.  They’re completely different animals. 

 And I’m not the only one who’s noticed.  John Dunbar made a good point when he discussed the history of Marvel comics in terms of its chief editors.  The comic books from the Joe Quesada era are as different from the Tom DeFalco era as the Jim Shooter era is from the Stan Lee era. 

 So yeah, I think we’re in the fifth age of comics.  Call them what you like: Chromium and Platinum (I haven’t given up on them yet), Dark and Prismatic (with a tip of the cap to Figserello), Iron and Modern.  But I think that they’re two very distinct and different ages, rather than one big “everything after.”

 And, yeah, I’m worried that we’re actually at the end of the fifth age of comics.  After the highs of 2007 (the best-selling year since the pre-crash days of ’95), we’ve seen two years of slight decline.  The industry isn’t back to the lows of 1997-’99.  At least, not yet. 

 Which brings me back to the subject that started this all.  I sincerely hope that DC’s Brightest Day and Marvel’s Heroic Age can reverse the trend.  I hope that new technology like Apple’s iPad can be a jump-start for the industry the way that the direct market was at the beginning of the Bronze Age.  I think things have been pretty good for the past decade.  And I’d like to see it keep going. 

 Thanks for listening, everyone.  The End. 

What Comes After the Bronze Age?

For the past two weeks, I’ve written articles about the various ages of comics.  It’s an admittedly academic topic, but one which fascinates me (and interests quite a few readers, judging by the number of comments generated by the past two columns).  The first column speculated as to whether or not DC’s Brightest Day and Marvel’s Heroic Age are the start of a new age (probably not, but I hope they at least lead to a resurgence in the current age which is beginning to stall).  The second column defended the existence of a Bronze Age, a term used to describe the third comic book boom.

In discussing the existence of a Bronze Age, I neglected to define it.  Happily, the Legion of Superfluous Heroes (otherwise known as the members of the Captain Comics Message Board) took up the task.  The discussion centered on two main theories.  The first is that the Bronze Age lasted from 1970-1986, starting with Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (sometimes in conjunction with other key issues of ’70-’71).  The second theory is that the Bronze Age lasted from 1975-1986, starting with the introduction of the all-new X-Men in Giant-Size X-Men #4 (with 1970-1974 serving as either a period between ages or a proto-Bronze Age).  Both theories shared a common end-date of 1986- the year that the Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Secret Wars II brought significant changes in both tone and continuity.  Those weren’t the only theories- there are still those who reject the concept of a Bronze Age and others who offer a different end-point- but they seem to be the main ones. 

 This week, I want to move beyond that part of the discussion.  What comes after the Bronze Age? 

  One major view is that nothing comes after the Bronze Age.  Luke Blanchard wrote, “The last twenty years seem to me one long period.”  Jeff-of-Earth J described the ages of comics as “Golden, Silver, Bronze and something else.”  Wikipedia- a reflection of popular consensus- agrees.  It follows entries for Golden, Silver and Bronze Ages with one for a Modern Age, encompassing everything from 1987 until now. 

 I’m on record with another view.  I admit that I’m probably departing from the majority on this one.  But I think that the past twenty-five years contains at least two distinct ages, bringing us to a total of five. 

 I see several different factors contributing to the beginning of the Fourth Age (which, for now, will remain nameless).  One is the change in tone initiated by Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns.  Those two stories led comics to a different approach that was clearly distinct from the comics that came before.  Story-telling was darker and more mature, which is why one of the most popular names for this period is the Dark Age (a quick aside: those two features are not always the same thing though they’re often treated that way).  Those two works paved the way for other successful properties such as Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and DC’s Vertigo imprint. 

 Luke Blanchard is right when he writes, “I don't know that the post-Crisis DCU immediately got darker.”  It didn’t.  But the Silver Age didn’t happen over-night either.  The new Flash debuted in 1956.  Superman and Wonder Woman didn’t enter the Silver Age until 1958.  Green Arrow and Aquaman entered the Silver Age in different years despite co-starring in the same title.  Some people even argue that Batman didn’t enter the Silver Age until his “New Look” in 1964. 

  Another factor giving rise to the Fourth Age is the change in continuity.  This was especially apparent at DC.  Fans even developed a new lexicon of “pre-Crisis” and “post-Crisis” to refer to the many changes wrought by that series.  This became particularly evident to me when I recently read the trade collection of Superman: Man of Steel.  The changes to the character, the cast and the universe were far-reaching.  The changes were so significant that the editorial and accounting departments actually credited the writers with creating new characters (Marv Wolfman mentioned in a preface that he receives royalty checks for creating a new version of Lex Luthor).  In its way, the introduction of a new Superman in Man of Steel is as significant as the introduction of a new Flash in Showcase #4.  This time, the new Superman was followed by a new Wonder Woman, a new Justice League and a new Flash.  In a couple of years, Marvel followed with new titles for Spider-Man and X-Men. 

That leads us to several more factors.  The previous ages were all defined, in part, by an expansion of new characters, new titles and new companies accompanied by a noticeable increase in sales.  Well, that is certainly true of the Fourth Age.  The Fourth Age brought Dark Horse (1986), Malibu (1987), Valiant (1991), Image (1992), Topps (1992) and Malibu’s Ultraverse (1993).  Marvel and DC also expanded rapidly.  The result is that the early 1990s saw more new companies and more new characters than any era since the Golden Age.  Did all of these characters and companies succeed?  No.  But that was also true of the Golden Age.  Most of those characters were canceled quickly as well.  On the other hand, many characters from this period achieved popularity, longevity or jumped to other media (a category that includes Cable, Deadpool, Spawn, Hellboy, Witchblade, Static and Hitman). 

  The early ‘90s can also boast of publishing the most titles since the pre-Comic Book Code 1950s and achieving the highest individual sales since WWII.  Yes, you read that right.  The early ‘90s beat the Silver Age on several (though not all) peak markers.  I know that many older fans don’t want to give this era the status of an official age, but objectively, it stands out as much as the Silver Age did.

 Of course, all of this could be true and we’d still be dealing with only one post-Bronze Age era if not for another factor.  There is a very clear end-point.  In the first article, I mentioned that previous ages were characterized- not by the cancellation of one title such as Captain Marvel or X-Men- but by the cancellation of many titles and even the cessation of multiple publishers.  This was true of the Golden Age.  This was true of the Silver Age.  This was partially true of the Bronze Age.  And this was dramatically true of the Fourth Age. 

 The comic book market, propped up by speculator and investment buyers, collapsed in 1996 and 1997.  Almost all of the aforementioned companies went out of business or were sold.  Even Marvel, the biggest publisher in the industry, declared bankruptcy.  And both Marvel and DC slashed their titles until they were publishing between one-third and one-half of their peak numbers.  The shock to the industry was so significant that George cites it as the end of the Bronze Age (which didn’t have the cataclysmic ending of earlier ages).  And even Luke Blanchard seems to agree with me (phew! I didn’t want to disagree with Luke on everything) when he writes, “I suppose the speculator boom was a distinct period, since it brought with it new companies and characters which were wiped out when the boom collapsed.”

 That’s a beginning, a middle and an end.  That looks like an Age to me- the Fourth Age of comics. 

 

Is There a Bronze Age of Comics?

Last week, I wrote about the possibility of Marvel’s Heroic Age and DC’s Brightest Day ushering in a new age of comics.  Along the way, I discussed the previous ages of comics, the eras by which many categorize its history.  I received some excellent feedback and I’d like to respond in this follow-up column.

 

First of all, let me say thanks for the compliment, Jeff of Earth-J; the thoughtful reply, Luke Blanchard; and the exceptional reference, Turning Point.

 

Luke Blanchard wrote, “I'm always uncomfortable with attempts to continue "age" periodisation down to the present.”

 

You're not the only one, Luke.  Besides Turning Point (who posted in response to the initial column), there's also Maggie Thompson, the editor of Comics Buyer's Guide.  When they had their Bronze Age issue, she commented that she didn't believe in the existence of a Bronze Age.  As far as she was concerned, there's the Golden Age, the Silver Age and everything after (that’s a paraphrase, not a direct quote).

 

However, I think there are a couple of problems with that stance. 

 

The first problem is that the ship has already sailed.  Bronze Age has entered common usage.  I mentioned eBay in the first article; I recently typed “Bronze Age comics” into eBay and it came back with 2,253 results.  That’s more results than “Golden Age comics” and within a 1000 results of “Silver Age comics.”  I tried Google and got over 800,000 results including a very lengthy description on Wikipedia and several blogs that specifically focus on Bronze Age comics.  Retail sites use the term as well.  Capital Comics and House of Comics have entire Bronze Age sections (in addition to Golden and Silver Age sections).  The term exists and it’s here to stay. 

 

The second problem is what to use instead.  No offense intended, Luke, but I think your post illustrates this.  You rejected a historical categorization of comic books based on capital- “A” Ages but you then proceeded to discuss the history of comics based on a different set of ages.  It’s just that you used decades rather than the metallic nomenclature of Golden, Silver and Bronze Age.  Are decades the best way to categorize and understand the history of comics?  Maybe they are.  We certainly use decades for other facets of pop culture, especially music.  But maybe they aren’t.  A comic book in 1983 has a lot more in common with a comic in 1977 than it does with one in 1989.  The beginning and end-points of some movements coincide with the beginning or end of a decade, but not always.

 

On the other hand, I think there are advantages to using Age categorizations to comics. The main one is that it does a better job of reflecting the periodic nature of comics and conveying the movements within that history.  The history of comics isn’t a steady march over time, as a decade-by-decade survey might suggest, but a story of rises and falls. 

 

Some of the best evidence for the existence of a Bronze Age comes from people who don’t use the term, including those who were involved or who were there.  Mike Richardson, publisher of Dark Horse Comics, doesn’t subscribe to the notion of a Bronze Age.  But in his book, Comics between the Panels, he writes about a “creative revival” in the late ‘70s with Claremont and Byrne on Uncanny X-Men, Frank Miller on Daredevil and Walt Simonson.  Jon Cooke, the editor of Comic Book Artist, refers to Marvel’s “Second Wave” in the ‘70s including the origin of the new X-Men, Jim Starlin’s cosmic books and Mike Ploog on Ghost Rider.  Actually, many issues of Comic Book Artist are celebrations of the Bronze Age, despite the fact that Cooke doesn’t use the term himself. 

I wish I had the reference handy, but one of the creators of the time (I think it was Walt Simonson) even called the late ‘70s and early ‘80s “Marvel’s Silver Age” (Marvel’s real Golden Age being the Lee/Kirby/Ditko years upon which most of the company was built).  In addition to the previously mentioned creators, there was also Shooter and Perez on Avengers and Roger Stern’s Spider-Man. 

 

Then, there’s the 1981 article from Amazing Heroes that Turning Point posted for us.  The “Third Wave” that Michael Catron writes about is what we now call the Bronze Age.  He got a few things wrong.  He anticipated the possibility that DC’s Third Wave would inspire their main competition at Marvel to follow suit, as had happened in the early Silver Age when Marvel responded to the success of JLA with Fantastic Four.  But he didn’t notice that the tables had turned and that DC’s Third Wave was coming in response to Marvel’s Second Wave (as coined by Jon Cooke).  Specifically, the New Teen Titans were a response to the Uncanny X-Men.  However, he also got a few things right. He noticed that the advent of new publishers like Eclipse and Pacific were indicators that a Third Wave was already underway.  Indeed, Pacific and Eclipse (as well as other companies like First and Comico) played a similar role in the Bronze Age that secondary superhero publishers Archie, Charlton and Tower played in the Silver Age.  They were part of the creative resurgence that contributed new titles and new characters. 

 

Richardson’s Revival, Cooke’s Second Wave, Simonson’s “Marvel’s Silver Age” and Catron’s Third Wave are all terms for the same time period.  It’s the Bronze Age.  You don’t have to embrace the term in order to notice that there was a creative, cultural, and consumer ascendance.  The Bronze Age is a handy term for describing it.

 

 

 

The Stars of the Spanish American Style Part Three: A New Millennium

The X-Men’s loss was all of comics’ gain.  By the late ‘90s, Joe Madureira, Chris Bachalo, Carlos Pacheco and Salvador Larroca were all finding better or more interesting work outside of the confines of the X-Men family of titles.  Salvador Larroca’s stint on the Heroes Return mini-series had led to a regular spot on Fantastic Four Vol. 3 starting in 1998 (although, with Chris Claremont as writer, some fans were decrying the FF as an X-Men title in disguise).  Joe Madureira was a self-employed star, whose Battle Chasers was burning up the charts that same year.  Carlos Pacheco was gaining critical and additional fan acclaim as the artist on Kurt Busiek’s Avengers: Forever, also in 1998.  Chris Bachalo was the last to leave the X-Men but by 1999 he was working on another Vertigo book (the Witching Hour mini-series).  And in 2000 he followed Joe Madureira to Image’s Cliffhanger line with his own creator-owned series, Steampunk.

At this point, their career paths really began to diverge.  The success of Battle Chasers led to additional opportunities for Joe Madureira outside of comic books.  He got caught up in the video game industry and disappeared from comics for a little while.  He did conceptual art and design for Dragonkind, Trade Wars and Dungeon Runners.  He finished up Battle Chasers in 2001.  And in 2007-08, Madureira returned to comic books as the artist on Marvel’s Ultimates Vol. 3.

Meanwhile, Carlos Pacheco’s star kept rising.  The success of Avengers Forever presented Carlos Pacheco with the chance to choose his own projects.  He took over Fantastic Four as both writer and artist (following in the footsteps of Salvador Larroca again; their careers just keep crossing).  He stayed on the title for twenty-one issues, including an annual.  He also wrote an Inhumans mini-series.

In 2002, DC wooed Pacheco away from Marvel.  His first project for DC was a big one: he drew the JLA/JSA hardcover Virtue and Vice, working with writers David Goyer and Geoff Johns.  He then reunited with Avengers writer Kurt Busiek on the fantasy title Arrowsmith and teamed with writer Jeph Loeb for an arc on Superman/Batman.  The high profile projects at DC just kept coming.  Carlos Pacheco drew the first three issues of the new Green Lantern title, one of the biggest hits of the decade.  He then joined Kurt Busiek again on Superman, drawing the epic Camelot Falls story.  Finally, he pitched in on the company-wide event, Final Crisis, giving regular artist JG Jones a break by drawing issues 4 and 6. 

After drawing half of DC’s major characters, Carlos Pacheco was finally brought back to Marvel.  He’s currently the artist on Ultimate Avengers, the title that took over for Joe Madureira’s Ultimates Vol. 3. 

While Madureira and Pacheco were finding success in video games and at DC, the other two artists found themselves back in the X-Men fold.  Salvador Larroca returned in the year 2000.  He had developed a good working relationship with Chris Claremont on Fantastic Four and so he followed Claremont to Uncanny X-Men in 2000 (drawing most of the issues from #384-395) and X-Treme X-Men in 2001 (drawing the first 24 issues, plus an annual).  Then, when Claremont returned to Uncanny for the third time, Larroca was switched up to work with Chuck Austen on New X-Men in 2004. He was the primary artist with Austen and then Peter Milligan from issue #155 to 187 in 2006.  He returned Uncanny X-Men in 2007, working with writer Ed Brubaker on issues 487-491.  Finally, Larroca got to try his hand at a fourth X-Men title when he teamed with Robert Kirkman for an arc of Ultimate X-Men (issues 88-93, 2008).

Unlike most of the other artists, Larroca worked quickly.  He was often able to handle a second assignment at the same time.  So even as he contributed regularly to one of four X-titles, he also drew six issues of Namor in 2003, the four-issue Ultimate Daredevil and Elektra mini-series, the five issue Ultimate Elektra sequel in 2004 and six issues of Newuniversal for writer Warren Ellis in 2006.  After spending most of the decade drawing the X-Men, Larroca finally moved on to other Marvel stars.  He was one of the initial artists on Amazing Spider-Man’s Brand New Day and he’s now the regular penciller on Invincible Iron Man.

Chris Bachalo followed Salvador Larroca back to the X-Men.  He was the guest artist for two issues of Ultimate X-Men in 2002 (#18-19).  He drew the “Assault on Weapon Plus” arc of New X-Men in 2003 (issues 142-145).  He revisited the Age of Apocalypse in 2005, drawing the 10-year anniversary mini-series X-Men: Age of Apocalypse.  He returned to Uncanny X-Men that same year, drawing issues 464-468.  Then, he took over for Larroca on adjective-less X-Men with issue 188 in 2006.  Though he didn’t draw every issue, Bachalo remained the primary artist until issue 207.

Of course, it wasn’t all X-Men all the time for Bachalo.  He contributed six issues of Captain America in 2003.  Plus, like Larroca, he was one of the four initial artists named to helm Spider-Man’s Brand New Day in 2008.  Most recently, he’s worked on New Avengers and Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man. 

Those are the primary artists of the Spanish American style.  I won’t claim to have bought everything they’ve drawn.  Yet they were some of the main artists who drew me back in as a comic book collector.  I always try to keep an eye on what they’re working on.  And I generally enjoy what they’re doing. 

   

 

 

A Matter of Timing

Marvel Comics recently announced the cancellation of one of my favorite new titles: SWORD.  I’m not angry about it.  I saw the sales numbers and knew it wasn’t long for this world.  But it’s still a little disappointing. 

              There are a number of reasons why SWORD didn’t garner a larger audience.  For example, it didn’t have a high profile creative team.  It didn’t spin out of a major crossover.  And it’s not part of a hot property (the X-Men aren’t as strong right now as Green Lantern or the Avengers).  Yet I think that one of the underestimated reasons for its failure is timing.

              SWORD’s biggest star is Beast, former Avenger and X-Man.  It paired him with Agent Abigail Brand, introduced by Joss Whedon in the pages of Astonishing X-Men.  And it included a number of aliens as co-stars, including Lockheed the Dragon. 

              Over the past year or two, X-Men fans have watched as Beast became increasingly frustrated with his fellow X-Men.  He went on his own personal journey to find a cure for the sudden decrease in the mutant population.  He confronted Cyclops and Emma Frost concerning some of the choices they were making as leaders.  He increasingly withdrew from active participation and threatened to leave on several occasions.  It was pretty clear that Beast was going to quit.  It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when.

              And that brings us to the matter of timing.  Beast finally quit the X-Men in issue #519, which reached stores on Dec. 23, 2009.  Unfortunately, Beast’s debut in SWORD #1 arrived in comic book shops in November.  Even the second issue of SWORD was out before Beast officially quit his other team. 

              That means that X-fans ignored SWORD as just another X-Men spin-off.  But if the timing was different, SWORD could have been promoted as Beast’s new team title.  It would be like Batman and the Outsiders or Hawkeye and the West Coast Avengers.  It wouldn’t be a guarantee of success.  But it would have increased the possibility of success. 

              Imagine this scenario: Beast finally quits the X-Men as he’s been threatening to do for nearly two years.  He walks out at the end of issue #519.  On the next page, the reader sees an ad for SWORD.  “Follow Beast into his new title, SWORD, coming this March from Marvel Comics.  Spinning out of the pages of Astonishing X-Men and Uncanny X-Men, Abigail Brand, Beast and the agents of SWORD defend Earth from alien threats and galactic danger.” 

              I think that more fans would have been inclined to pre-order issues of SWORD in that scenario.  It still might not have succeeded.  They may not have liked its quirky tone or its odd guest-stars.  I found it intriguing but I understand that it might not have been for everyone.  However, the audience would have at least been there to give SWORD a chance.  It would have stood or fallen on its own feet, instead of being almost immediately destined for cancellation. 

I knew that SWORD was already in sales trouble when I read Uncanny X-Men #519.  That’s when I realized that SWORD had simply debuted too soon.  It would have had a much better chance of surviving had it come out in March.  It was a matter of timing.  Marvel’s rush to publish SWORD may have doomed it to failure.

This isn’t the only example.  Marvel has done a good job of debuting some other titles, such as giving Madrox and Pete Wisdom mini-series that served as introductions for X-Factor and Captain Britain and MI:13 (it was a good move, even though it didn’t work in the latter example).  But in other cases, they’ve simply brought out books too quickly.  That was one of the factors in the quick cancellation of Jeff Parker’s Exiles as well.  It’s too bad.  These were good books that I would have loved to keep reading.  And with a little better timing, I might have been able to.

 

 

New Year Wishes

1. A year-long Wonder Woman epic by Jim Lee  

 

It worked for Batman and Superman.  Lee contributed to a Batman modern classic with “Hush.”  His Superman story (“For Tomorrow”) was also something worthwhile, even if it didn’t quite measure up to “Hush.”  It’s time to give Wonder Woman the same star treatment.  His work on other titles (including the Just Imagine Stan Lee creating Wonder Woman one-shot) shows that he would be a great fit.  Apologies to Gail Simone who has turned in occasionally interesting work on Wonder Woman for the past couple years.

 

2. A DC team title worth reading

 

I have several longboxes full of DC superhero teams.  Justice League of America.  The New Teen Titans.  Legion of Super-Heroes.  JSA.  Right now, they’re relics of the past.  Crossover complications, bad story-telling choices and just plain old mediocrity have knocked the DC team titles off of my pull list.  But these are characters that I care about.  And I’d like to care about them again.  So here’s hoping for a resurgence, a renaissance on the DC team titles.

 

3. More Jay Faerber

 

For the past couple of years, Jay Faerber has been one of my favorite comic book writers.  But, right now, I’m not getting a regular Faerber fix.  Noble Causes has concluded.  Dynamo 5 is on hiatus while they switch to a new regular penciler.  And the Pilot Season title Urban Myths has yet to appear again, despite assurances from Top Cow that they had plans for the concept.  I mostly want Dynamo 5 back and at its best or Urban Myths, but I’ll take a new addition to the Faerber-verse as well.

 

4. Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine

 

Buffy’s Season Eight is winding up with issue 40.  Joss Whedon’s experiment- continuing a television series as a comic book- has been so excellent that I want more.  A lot more.  I realize this wish is pretty close to happening but I’m spending an official wish on it anyway.  I also realize it’s probably more of a wish for 2011, as season eight will last into the fall.  While I’m at it, I wish for great things from Bill Willingham’s tenure on the Angel comic, more Spike mini-series, a Faith spin-off, a Dr. Horrible sequel (which I understand to be in the planning stages) and Fox to change their minds and renew Dollhouse anyway. 

 

5. A new New X-Men/Young X-Men comic

 

It may be too soon.  The poorly received Marc Guggenheim comic was canceled just this past year.  But, as great as it’s been to see these characters in supporting roles in the main X-book, I’d love to see them in their own title again.  Pixie.  Anole.  Armor.  Blindfold.  Rockslide.  Gentle.  These are cool characters and great additions to the X-mythos and they deserve their own spotlight, not the side of the stage in someone else’s show.

 

6. The end of Norman Osborn as the central figure in the Marvel Universe

 

I am so sick of this story.  I’ve done my best to avoid it, but it keeps bleeding over into other titles that I follow and otherwise enjoy, like Uncanny X-Men, Amazing Spider-Man and Mighty Avengers.  I just want it to go away.  Preferably, with precious few Siege crossovers in the titles on my pull list.

 

7. A new kids book for A, my 8-year old daughter

 

She was a huge fan of Marvel’s Power Pack series of mini-series.  Honestly, so was I.  But Marvel decided that they had run out of stories for the family, after teaming them up with the X-Men, the Fantastic Four (twice), the Avengers, the Hulk and Iron Man, plus a showdown with the Skrulls and a Year One origin story.  Now, with Power Pack gone, we’re struggling to find a new title for her.  The new X-Babies mini-series shows promise, but it’s not as good as Power Pack had been.  Come on, Marvel (or DC), give me something I can enjoy handing to my daughter.

 

8. Comebacks from the titles I listed in my “comics that should make a comeback” series of articles

 

That would be Generation X, Martian Manhunter and Star Wars: Empire/Rebellion for those who missed the articles in question. 

 

 

Mark Waid’s Ten Best Books

Last week, I wrote about one of my favorite comic book writers, Kurt Busiek.  This week, I’m going to write about another favorite, Mark Waid.  Waid has been every bit as important to me as Busiek.  The two of them are like twins in my mind- drawing me into comics in the mid-‘90s and giving me endless hours of enjoyment in the time since.  So, once again, here’s a happily random celebration of Mark Waid, in order of appreciation.  

 

10. JLA: Year One

 

Mark Waid is insulted by his detractors for being too much of a fan.  He knows the ins and outs of comic book history as well as anyone.  However, that doesn’t have to be an impediment.  And it can be an asset.  In Year One, Waid wrote a new origin for the Justice League.  After all, their history was no longer coherent due to the many revisions that had taken place over the years.  But this was no mere exercise in history.  Waid gave interesting personalities to his key characters.  Aquaman was truly a fish out of water.  Black Canary was competent and charming.  Martian Manhunter was humble and secretive.  And the Green Lantern and the Flash became fast friends.  Waid wove known events and new ones into one coherent narrative, showing the foundation and formation of the greatest team of superheroes ever assembled.  Plus, he and artist Barry Kitson brought in the guest stars by the bushel full.

 

9. Crux

 

Mark Waid took a short sojourn as a staff writer for CrossGen and while he may want to forget his experiences there, his books are unforgettable.  Crux was the closest CrossGen had to a superhero team yet they were also something incredibly different.  The cast was made up of Atlanteans who each had special powers, such as shape-shifting or speed.  But they were no team.  They were thrown together by fate, wondering why they were the last survivors of their people and trying to figure out what went wrong.  The real draw, however, was the interaction between the characters.  There was a sibling rivalry and a love triangle.  There was friction with the youngest- and smartest- of the group.  And, as the series progressed, there were plenty of difficulties and shifting allegiances with new characters.

 

8. Ka-Zar

 

Ka-Zar is an underappreciated classic.  Mark Waid teamed with Andy Kubert on this short-lived title.  Waid came up with the brilliant idea of reversing the standard Ka-Zar story.  Usually, Ka-Zar stories are about Ka-Zar or other heroes travelling to the Savage Land and experiencing the jungle in its full force.  But for this series, Waid brought Ka-Zar and the Savage Land to a very different jungle: New York.  We saw how Kevin Plunder (Ka-Zar) and Shanna dealt with the modern world in different ways.  And we got to experience the thrill of watching sabretooth tigers and tyrannosaurus rexes run around the streets of Manhattan.

 

7. 52

 

It’s hard to know how much credit to give to Mark Waid as this title was written by four writers working in conjunction.  But it would be an even bigger mistake to leave 52 off of the list.  With Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns and Greg Rucka, Waid helped put together one of the comics’ great epics.  52 featured interweaving stories focusing on some of DC’s lesser known characters like the Elongated Man, the Question, Will Magnus, Steel and Starfire.  It had plenty of classic moments, like “the rain of the supermen” and featured the full range of superhero comics.  It was simply a great read. 

 

6. Captain America

 

Captain America was one of the first ongoing titles to really be associated with Mark Waid.  He had two tenures on the title.  The first was with Ron Garney.  It had critical acclaim and growing sales as Waid re-examined what it meant to be a patriotic hero while also taking Cap’s powers away.  Unfortunately, the title was canceled to make room for Marvel’s Heroes Reborn launch.  When that was done, Mark Waid came back for a second stint and showed that you can go home again.  He matched Captain America up with classic villains like the Red Skull and the Skrulls and gave Cap fans something to cheer about.  He even made me, who wasn’t a Cap fan at the time, a reason to pay attention.   

 

5. Flash

 

This is the other ongoing title that really raised Mark Waid’s profile.  Waid identified with Wally West and poured himself into the title.  It was as if Waid was writing himself and the readers responded.  Wally West soon became the most popular Flash, winning fan polls as the best Flash ever ahead of his mentor Barry Allen.  Waid built a huge supporting cast of fellow speedsters: Jessie Quick, Max Mercury (who used to be Quality Comics’ Quicksilver) and his own creation Impulse.  He brought in guest stars and friends like Nightwing.  And he gave Wally a significant love interest, Linda Park.  Waid would leave Flash and come back for a second run that wasn’t as well-received as his first.  But that initial run made stars out of both Mark Waid and Wally West.

 

4. Ruse

 

Mark Waid has a reputation as a superhero writer.  But, like Kurt Busiek in last week’s list, Mark Waid has shown that he’s a great writer even when he switches genres.  One of Waid’s best books is the mystery title, Ruse.  Mark Waid introduced detective Simon Archard and his plucky assistant, Emma Bishop.  Their interaction was brilliant.  Simon was caustic and sarcastic.  Emma was hopeful and bright.  Together, they solved crimes that had mystical trappings but usually turned out to be surprisingly mundane.  Emma developed a rivalry with the baroness Miranda Cross, Simon relied on a rogue’s gallery of unlikely assistants and they both matched wits with Simon’s mentor turned villain Simon Lightbourne.  Ruse was a consistently entertaining and excellent book. 

 

3. JLA

 

Mark Waid followed Grant Morrison on JLA.  Morrison’s run was great and is rightly lauded, but Waid’s run is also great and is criminally ignored.  He started with an over-sized special, Heaven’s Ladder, with artist Bryan Hitch before taking over the regular title.  Mark Waid pulled from his interest in modern science, telling stories of time and space and atoms.  He pulled from his interest in fable and mythology, introducing the Queen of Fables as a new villain and Santa Claus as a new teammate.  He broke the team apart and put them back together again.  He exposed their weaknesses in order to showcase their strengths.  It was a tight, action-packed and often intense superhero story. 

 

2. Kingdom Come

 

Kingdom Come is one of the greatest stories in comic books.  Artist Alex Ross had the initial idea and Mark Waid developed it into a classic.  It’s a glimpse of a possible future in which the good heroes have given way to anarchy.  It’s the call of hope as the classic heroes come back to save the world they once abandoned.  It’s the clash of ideas as some who claim to be humanity’s saviors jealously protect their world from this superhuman help.  It’s a literary masterpiece, with Biblical allusions and prophetic foreshadowing, but also a comic book extravaganza with hundreds of heroes both new and old.  It’s a story that I re-read almost every year.  Thanks, Alex and Mark.

 

1. Fantastic Four

 

This is the book Mark Waid was born to write.  He poured himself into Reed Richards the way he once poured himself into Wally West.  He understood Reed better than any other writer, including his creators Stan and Jack.  He gave Reed a credible motive.  He gave the team a new modus operandi as imaginauts, adventurers of the imagination.  He took them to space, microspace, Heaven and Hell.  He wrote the greatest Dr. Doom story I’ve ever read in “Unthinkable.”  He had Johnny Storm grow up, while staying youthful.  He wrote a masterful tribute to Ben Grimm, and to Ben Grimm’s creator Jack Kirby.  He wrote one of the best comics ever.  Period. 

 

And that’s my list of the best Mark Waid books.  Of course, half the fun of writing a top ten list is finding out where others differ.  So go ahead and tell me what you think I got right and what books you think I should have included.

 

Creating Conflict: X-Men Utopia and Justice Society of America

The key to any story is conflict.  Without conflict, there’s no drama.  Without conflict, there’s no action.  Without conflict, there’s no story.  However, saying that every story needs conflict is easier than creating that conflict.  Sometimes, the conflict is over-simplified.  That’s why many critics deride the basic conflict of good vs. evil.  Sometimes, the conflict is forced.  That’s why readers will lament that a character is acting, well, out of character.  And yet, sometimes conflict is crafted well.  When that happens, it’s appropriate to point to out and congratulate it.

 

I read two comics in the last couple of weeks that did an especially good job of creating conflict.  The first is the introductory chapter to the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men crossover Utopia.  The basic conflict begins with Simon Trask.  Trask is part of a family that is long known for opposing mutants.  He is currently the leader of an organization called Humanity Now! which advocates against mutant rights.  In the recent past, the number of mutants around the world has been greatly diminished by a magical event.  Trask sees an opening.  He actually has the opportunity to end mutantkind within his own lifetime.  Trask may be evil, but he is not stupid.  He knows that Americans won’t condone concentration camps or mass extermination.  Therefore his organization promotes the idea of sterilization- protecting humanity by preventing mutant population growth in a safe and humane way.  In order to spread his message and garner support for it, Trask organizes a march from the California state capital of Sacramento to the current mutant haven of San Francisco.  Again, Trask is not stupid.  He files all of the necessary paperwork for permits to assemble and march.  And he contacts the media so that the march will be filmed. 

 

Naturally, the mutant population is appalled by Trask’s proposal.  They completely oppose the idea of being forcibly sterilized.  A number of mutants decide to stand in Trask’s way.  They are led by Beast and Northstar and their numbers include students Anole, Glob Herman, Hellion, Pixie, Rockslide and one of the Stepford Cuckoos. The mutants take up position in the street, blocking Trask’s progress.  Northstar accuses Humanity Now! of spreading hate.  Beast tells them to go around. 

 

Simon Trask, however, does not do what we might expect of a villain.  He’s civil and rational.  He points out that they have filed the proper papers and that the X-Men have no legal grounds to stand in their way.   He insists that the X-Men end their illegal action and step aside. 

 

This infuriates the students.  Hellion, who has always been a bit of a hothead, leads a charge.  He becomes the aggressor and the previously peaceful marchers respond in kind.  The result is a full-blown riot between Humanity Now! and those who favor mutant rights, including mutants and mutant supporters. 

 

This is a wonderful set-up and a tricky conundrum.  The X-Men are morally right.  It is despicable that anyone should advocate forced sterilization.  Yet Humanity Now! is technically right.  They have the proper legal standing and the X-Men do not.  This little twist changes the traditional good vs. evil dynamic.  When it comes to the riot, the X-Men are to blame, not the hate-filled members of Humanity Now!  Pretty clever.

 

The Utopia crossover is an example of an external conflict: the X-Men vs. Humanity Now!  Yet some of the most interesting conflicts are internal in nature.  Since the days of Stan Lee, fans have been fascinated by teams that don’t get along with one another.  Whether it’s Johnny and Ben squabbling like siblings, Hawkeye challenging Captain America’s authority to lead the Avengers or Angel and Cyclops competing for Marvel Girl’s attention, internal conflicts have become key ingredients in most team titles.  This can be done well, as in the examples just given.  Or this can be done poorly, as former friends are forced into heated arguments for little reason (see Geoff Johns’ and Chuck Austen’s Avengers). 

 

Recently, I read a comic that did this well.  The second example of crafting a good conflict comes from Justice Society of America #30.  This is only the second issue by the new writer, Bill Willingham.  He had inherited a huge cast and a huge team.  In the past year, the team had already divided once over the question of whether or not to support the self-proclaimed god Gog.  That rift had apparently been healed.  However, there was some room to stir things up again.

 

The Justice Society was attacked by the combined forces of a new Injustice Society.  The bulk of the team went out to fight these villains.  However, a few stayed behind: new members who weren’t considered ready and former team leader Mr. Terrific who wanted to study some things in the lab.  The external conflict itself was fairly interesting as the Injustice Society was able to take down most of the JSA before the Flash brought in Dr. Fate as a ringer. 

 

But it was after the Injustice Society was defeated that things got interesting.  Some of the heroes suggested that they should track down the retreating villains and capture them so that they wouldn’t be able to wreak more havoc in the future.  Other heroes insisted that they needed to return to headquarters and tend to their own wounded.  Power Girl, as team leader, made the call.  She split the team into two.  Several of them, including Wildcat, Flash and Dr. Fate, would escort the wounded.  The others, including Power Girl and Magog, would go after the villains. 

 

Neither mission was successful as one would have hoped.  The proactive heroes were able to capture a few more of the villains, but not all of them.  Magog was especially upset that so many had evaded capture.  He blamed the other heroes, arguing that if everyone can come on this mission, they would have been much more successful.  Meanwhile, the returning heroes discovered that they were not coming back to a safe haven.  The headquarters had been attacked while they were gone.  The big fight was a distraction.  And Mr. Terrific had paid the price.  He was shot while everyone else was out.  Both Flash and Wildcat were upset with themselves for not getting back sooner.

 

The other group of heroes returned home, while Dr. Mid-Nite operated on Mr. Terrific.  Up to this point, Bill Willingham had been sowing the seeds of discord.  We saw that Flash and Wildcat were emotionally upset.  We saw that Magog was ready to point the finger of blame.  It was like watching two trains heading toward each other on the same track.  You knew that it was going to result in an explosion.  And it did.  Magog accused the other heroes of being amateurs for abandoning the mission.  Wildcat told Magog that he was new to the hero business and didn’t know what he was talking about.  The argument proceeded from there, and on the last page, the two heroes came to blows. 

 

This was a great example of a natural and understandable disagreement between two people.  It was true to both of their characters- opinionated, emotional and a little belligerent.  It was believable as a source of disagreement.  It’s likely that even the readers were divided in their opinions as to which side was right.  There was a great set-up and a great pay-off.  For me, this compares to the great internal conflict during Bob Harras’ Avengers when the team split over the decision to kill the Kree Supreme Intelligence.  It’s internal conflict at its best.

 

 

 

 

  

The Many Paths of George Perez, Part One

I. The Early Years (1974-75)

 George Perez broke into the comic book industry in the summer of 1974 (which also happens to be the season and the year I was born) but his story begins a little bit before that.  Perez had graduated from high school and was working as a bank teller in 1972 and ’73 when a high school friend brought him to a comic book convention.  Perez describes himself as a self-taught artist, but he brought his portfolio along with him anyway.  He showed it to several editors and companies and received some fairly harsh criticism.  Marv Wolfman, then an editor a Marvel, said that he didn’t know anatomy or perspective.  Neal Adams, the head of Continuity Studios, told him to quit inking his own work because he obviously didn’t know how. ₍₁₎             

 Perez went home with the expressed purpose of proving his critics wrong.  He could draw anatomy.  He did know how to ink.  But by trying to prove them wrong, he ended up proving them right.  His anatomy, perspective, inking, everything improved as he worked harder on his craft. 

Meanwhile, at least one other person showed some faith in him.  Marvel artist Rich Buckler had also seen George Perez’s portfolio and remembered the young artist.  When he needed help on a project, he gave Perez a call.  George Perez completed two pages of a Deathlok story for Astonishing Tales #25, which was published with a cover date of August, 1974.  Buckler was happy with how that project turned out and continued to throw small jobs Perez’s way.  Perez even worked as an uncredited assistant for Buckler on Giant-Size Fantastic Four #3, which was published in November of that same year.  Perez describes that Fantastic Four story as his big break into the industry. ₍₂₎

Even though he didn’t receive a credit for the Fantastic Four story, Perez did garner the notice of the editors at Marvel Comics.  He was soon receiving work on his own merit.  Superheroes were in a bit of a slump at the time, and other genres like monster stories and kung fu were on the rise.  Perez got to do a bit of both.  He was assigned “The Sons of the Tiger” back-up feature in “Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu” beginning in issue 6 (November, 1974) and then the Man-Wolf series in “Creatures on the Loose” (starting with #33, January 1975).  Since one story was a back-up feature and the other title was bi-monthly, Perez was able to work on both series at the same time. 

 

II. The Marvel Years (1975-1980)

 After working as a professional artist for a year, George Perez received no less than three new assignments.  All of them happened to be team books, cementing Perez’s reputation.  His bi-monthly Inhumans series debuted in October 1975 and he took over both of Marvel’s preeminent team books, Avengers and Fantastic Four, in November (issues 141 and 164, respectively).  Perez also picked up a nickname, “Pacesetter,” due to his heavy workload.  The name appeared in Bullpen Bulletin pages, credit boxes and letter pages. 

 Despite his new nickname, Perez couldn’t keep up the pace.  He dropped Inhumans from his schedule after five issues (the first four and #8) and he needed fill-in artists on both Avengers and Fantastic Four by their fifth issues (March, 1976).  Marvel and Perez made the necessary adjustments.  Though he remained the regular artist on both of the big team books until the first half of 1978, he worked on a somewhat more relaxed schedule.  Perez would draw two or three issues in a row and then contribute covers for a couple of issues while other artists gave him a break. 

 George Perez became a comic book superstar.  In 1977, he and writer Jim Shooter presented classic Avengers stories in which the team fought Ultron and Count Nefaria.  Then, in 1978, they delivered one of the Avengers’ greatest epics, “The Korvac Saga.”

By the end of the decade, George Perez transitioned to more of a free agent than a team player.  Marvel temporarily pulled him off of his team books in order to draw Logan’s Run (January-May 1977), the comic version of the movie that they thought would be a big hit.  He finished up his earlier Man-Wolf story in Marvel Premiere #45-46 (December 1978 and February 1979).  He took a turn on Marvel Two-in-One, the team-up title featuring the Thing, for four issues in 1979 and two more in 1980 (56-60, 64-65).  He took a shot at Marvel’s newest and now greatest team with X-Men Annual 3 in 1979.  He even came back to the Fantastic Four for a pair of annuals (#14 and 15 in ’79 and ’80) and to the Avengers for a second run (issues 194-202 from April to December, 1980). ₍₃₎

George Perez was now Marvel’s go-to guy and jack of all trades.  Marvel’s editors and fans weren’t the only ones who had noticed.  In 1980, Marvel’s rival, DC Comics, came calling and Perez’s career took a new turn.

 

III. The Titans Years (1980-1985)

DC had big plans for George Perez.  The editors wanted him to work on two team titles for them, as he had earlier for Marvel.  One, they would assign.  The other, he would be allowed to choose for himself.  Unsurprisingly, they assigned him their flagship team, the Justice League of America.  Perez debuted as the regular penciler on that title with issue 184 in November of 1980 and would stay on, with built-in breaks, until issue 200 in March of 1982. 

However, George Perez surprised everyone with the team he chose for his second title.  Marv Wolfman had approached Perez with an idea.  The two were now friends from having worked together at Marvel on books like Fantastic Four Annual #14.  Wolfman was a fan of the Teen Titans and suggested that the two of them work on a revival.  Perez agreed and they approached the DC editors with their idea.  Their bosses were skeptical.  The title was considered a failure, as several earlier re-launches had already fizzled out.  But they had agreed to let Perez pick one of his own titles and reluctantly gave the go ahead.

 Wolfman and Perez’s “New Teen Titans” debuted with a cover date of November, 1980 (the same as Perez’s first issue of Justice League).  The new title was like lightning in a bottle.  By focusing on the character’s personal lives as well as their superhero adventures, the Titans became the new standard for story-telling.  It was compared favorably to the Uncanny X-Men, Marvel’s biggest title.  And it quickly grew into one of DC’s best-selling and most critically-acclaimed books.  DC dedicated their company calendar to the Titans in 1982.  Amazing Heroes named it one of the top ten books of that same year.  Britain’s Eagle Awards named it the best team book of 1984. ₍₄₎

 George Perez was on top of the world.  However, with the Titans’ incredible success assured, his attention started to wander.  While continuing to work on the Titans, he began to dabble in side projects.  He made a brief return to Marvel, drawing a Black Widow story for Marvel Fanfare #10-13 in 1983 and ’84.  He drew a couple of short stories for Pacific Comics’ Alien Worlds and Vanguard Illustrated.  And he contributed covers and half of the interior pencils to a revival of Wally Wood’s Thunder Agents in 1985.  It looked like he was on his way back to becoming a jack of all trades, as he was in his later days at Marvel.  But DC came up with a new project for Perez that would be one of the biggest challenges of his career.

 

IV. Crisis on Infinite Earths! (1985-1986)

DC had plans for a huge story that would cross over into every title and re-write their entire history.  There was only one artist for such a project, especially with Marv Wolfman also attached as the writer.  In 1985, George Perez began work on his magnum opus: Crisis on Infinite Earths.  He would draw all 12 covers as well as every single interior page.  He would even contribute extra illustrations for an inside cover and a letters page.

The story, co-plotted by Wolfman and Perez, has been accused of being shock and awe with little substance.  But the art was phenomenal, if not seminal.  Perez played with panel height and depth in a way that hadn’t been seen since Winsor McCay had been working on “Little Nemo in Slumberland.”  And he crammed more characters and more details into every panel than a fan could have imagined or hoped for.  Ron Goulart even held up Perez’s work on Crisis as the epitome of modern style in his book “The Great History of Comic Books,” also published in 1986. ₍₅₎ 

Perez finished up his work on Crisis with the two part “History of the DC Universe.”   He had already established himself as a star with his work on The Avengers and The New Teen Titans.  Now, he was the biggest artist in the industry.  The only question remained, “What next?”

 

V. The Wonder Woman Years (1987-1991)

 Whenever he was given the choice to decide the direction of his own career, George Perez always made surprising choices.  No one would have predicted The New Teen Titans to become a success, let alone DC’s biggest title.  In 1987, fresh off of Crisis on Infinite Earths, George Perez did it again.  Told that he could pick any title he wanted, George Perez asked for Wonder Woman.  It was a shocking request.  As comics had retreated to the predominantly male direct market, Wonder Woman’s sales had shriveled.  There were even rumors that the only reason DC was still publishing the title was to prevent the character rights from reverting to the William Moulton-Marston estate.  (That was only true of the Legend of Wonder Woman mini-series by Trina Robbins and Kurt Busiek that was published to fill in the gap while waiting for Perez’s Amazon revival.)  But Perez had a self-acknowledged feminist streak.  He wanted to prove that Wonder Woman could be a great title once again.  And, once again, his bosses at DC agreed to his wishes.  This time, however, Perez would be the writer as well as the artist.

 The new Wonder Woman debuted in February 1987.  The gamble paid off.   With Perez’s name attached, Wonder Woman became a big seller.  Its success was mentioned in house ads promoting other revivals, such as one for the Atom.  George Perez picked up an Eagle Award for his Wonder Woman cover art.  ₍₆₎  And Trina Robbins dedicated an entire section to the revival in her history book “The Great Women Superheroes.” ₍₇₎

 Yet George Perez couldn’t stand pat.  He was in too much demand.  And he was interested in too many other opportunities.  He continued as the writer and cover artist of Wonder Woman until January of 1992.  But he slowly stepped back from other parts of the book.  He initially drew complete pencils.  In 1988, he was often credited with contributing breakdowns that other artists finished.  By issue 25 (January 1989), he had fully passed off the penciling chores. 

  Meanwhile, he was lending his talents to DC’s other superstars.  He spent a short stint on a Superman title, drawing 9 of 10 issues of Action Comics from 643 to 652 (July 1989-April 1990).  He drew an arc of Batman, “A Lonely Place of Dying,” in issues 440-442 (July-September 1989).  And he made a triumphant return to the Titans, becoming the regular penciler for New Titans issues 50 through 61 (December 1988 to December 1989).  There was even a Secret Origins annual focusing on the Titans (#4, 1989) and the plans for a Titans Graphic Novel.  Finally, he was the driving creative force behind DC’s big crossover of 1991.  Spinning out of events from Wonder Woman’s own title, George Perez was the writer and artist of War of the Gods (Sept.-Dec. 1991).  ₍₈₎

 

George Perez was again manifesting the wanderlust that had marked the end of his Marvel years and his first Titans tenure.  This time, it would take him to entirely new places. 

(1): Sketch Magazine No. 10, November, 2001, George Perez: The Ultimate Team-Up, p. 4. 

(2): Comic Book Marketplace No. 86, October 2001, The Best of All Worlds, Part One: George Perez Interview, p. 20.

(3): The Perez Archives, by Andy Mangels, 2001, pp. 4-24. 

(4): The Eagle Awards web-site, Previous Winners: 1984, (http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/previousyears.aspx?YEAR=1984)

(5): Ron Goulart, The Great History of Comic Books: The Definitive Illustrated Edition from the 1890s to the 1980s, January 1986.

(6): The Eagle Awards web-site, Previous Winners: 1987, (http://www.eagleawards.co.uk/previousyears.aspx?YEAR=1987)

(7): Trina Robbins, The Great Women Superheroes, Kitchen Sink Press, April 1997.

(8): The Perez Archives, by Andy Mangels, 2001, pp. 30-68.

Images from Comicvine.com: http://www.comicvine.com/george-perez/26-2913/

The Best X-Men Stories of the ‘60s and ‘70s Part II

It’s time for more X-Men. This is the second installment of best X-Men stories of the ‘60s and the ‘70s, at least as far as I’m concerned as someone who came along some time later. I wasn’t even born yet for the stories that were covered in part one. But I was at least a toddler for most of the stories in part two, though I’m not claiming I was able to read them at the time. But that’s enough about me. It’s time to talk about the X-Men instead.

 “Where No X-Men Has Gone Before”- the Sentinels and the Phoenix, Uncanny X-Men #98-101, 1976: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby told their Sentinel epic back in 1965 in issues 14-16. Roy Thomas and Neal Adams told their Sentinel epic back in 1969 in issues 57-59. But my favorite Sentinel story from this era is easily the one done by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. They build on what has come before, but add some surprising new twists that make this story really stand out. For one thing, they start by having the Sentinels attack the X-Men during their Christmas celebration, bringing that little bit of extra despondency right from the beginning. Then, they have the Sentinels based in outer space, with the result that the X-Men have to borrow a rocket and blast off into space themselves. Then, they throw in a twist for the anniversary issue by having the new X-Men square off against the original team. Then, they come up with one of the most memorable victories over the mutant-hunting robots as an entire squad of Sentinels flies into the sun. And, finally, in a coda to the main story, they tell a great story around a crash-landing back on earth. The last issue, 101, not only includes the crash landing, it also introduces Jean Grey’s Phoenix powers and sends the X-Men off to Cassidy Keep in Ireland for their next adventure. It’s a great pivot issue between two great stories, but the crash-landing from outer space is a good enough reason to include it here.

“Where No X-Men Has Gone Before”- the Starjammers and the Imperial Guard, Uncanny X-Men #105-108, 1977: This is the culmination of the first Chris Claremont/Dave Cockrum run on Uncanny X-Men and it’s something magical. The story starts with a sinister Erik the Red. It features a shaky Professor X disturbed by dreams he’s having of an alien arrival. It flips to a big battle between Phoenix and Firelord, the former herald of Galactus. And then it turns into an epic outer space adventure with the Shi’ar, introducing Cyclops’ father Corsair and the Starjammers as well as the Imperial Guard, patterned after the Legion of Super-Heroes- another team book that Cockrum had been associated with. Once again, this story has a little bit of everything. There’s the great twist at the beginning, with an actual Erik the Red (Cyclops had impersonated him the first time around). There’s the wonderful revelation that the approaching alien Professor X had feared is actually the beautiful Lilandra. There’s a powerful individual clash between Phoenix and Firelord. And, off-setting that, there’s the biggest battle in X-Men history to date as the X-Men and the Starjammers square off against the Imperial Guard. The climactic battle itself is mind-blowing. Plus, there are the great personal moments and winks to the readers, such as the moment when Wolverine’s costume is destroyed and he “borrows” another one from Fang, the Imperial Guard member based on Timber Wolf. And, oh yeah, there’s a mad emperor, a crystal that can change reality, oddball guardians of the crystal and a climax in which the X-Men save the galaxy. This is the story that sets the standard for X-Men epics.

Mindgames and Magneto, Uncanny X-Men #111-113, 1978: In Part One, I complimented Arnold Drake for being one of the best X-Men writers for including twists in the story. While Chris Claremont is more noted for his driving action, this story shows that he knows how to include a good twist from time to time. The story starts with a simple, peaceful introduction as the Beast goes to the circus. But, once there, he discovers that his fellow X-Men are trapped in the sideshow. To make matters worse, none of them even remember who they are. The Beast manages to save his friends only to have the entire group whisked off into space in a circus wagon. It’s one of the most surprising moments in X-Men history. Even without looking at the issue, I can visualize the scene in which they’re hanging onto the side of the wagon looking down at the world far below them. Having barely escaped one trap, the X-Men now face Magneto in space. They fight him at his asteroid and lose, continuing the new X-Men winless streak against the master of magnetism. They wake up to find themselves imprisoned. Storm shows a surprising side of herself when she relies on her youth as a thief on the streets of Cairo rather than her powers to facilitate their escape. And then, the X-Men get to fight Magneto for a second time in one of their most desperate battles. Twists, mindgames, classic battles, surprising character moments- this is another story that seems to have everything in it.

The Savage Land Reprise, Uncanny X-Men #114-116, 1978: Hot on the heels of Mindgames and Magneto comes after X-Men classic. The Magneto story was full of great twists, but the biggest twist was to come. The second battle against Magneto took place in a base in the heart of a volcano. Once the X-Men finally defeat Magneto, the base and the volcano came crashing down around them. The result is two more great stories in this sequence. First, there’s a harrowing escape through the Antartic wastelands for Beast and Phoenix in issue 114. It’s a classic stand-alone story in which the heroes face off against only the elements. There’s a simple way of describing plots as Man vs. Man, Man vs. Himself and Man vs. Nature. This issue is a classic example of the third plot as the Beast trudges through the snow carrying a semi-conscious Phoenix. But it’s also a great example of the second plot as Beast’s sorrow for his fallen friends, whom he believes to be dead, is as likely to defeat him as the weather. However, unbeknownst to the Beast, his friends aren’t dead. They escaped to the Savage Land for a story reminiscent of the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams run. In clear homages, the X-Men befriend Ka-Zar once more and fight Sauron once again. Yet Chris Claremont and John Byrne make sure to add a few elements of their own. They spend more time with the natives of the Savage Land, even giving Colossus a lover. And they add a new Savage Land villain in Garokk, the Petrified Man. Garokk is powerful enough that he’s been able to keep Ka-Zar at bay and he even captures a couple of the X-Men in the course of the adventure. With the previous trilogy, Claremont one-upped Arnold Drake in terms of twists. With this trilogy, Claremont one-ups Roy Thomas in terms of ongoing and overlapping adventures.

Alpha Flight, Uncanny X-Men #120-121, 1979: So far, I’ve picked a lot of epics for the best all-new X-Men stories of the ‘70s. However, one of my favorite stories from this decade is actually one of their smaller tales. While returning from Japan, the X-Men stop over in Canada. While there, they’re caught in a blizzard. More importantly, they’re caught by Canada’s national heroes, Alpha Flight. The X-Men had previously tangled with Guardian as he tried to bring Wolverine back into Canadian service. Now, we see that Guardian is just one member of a full team. This story just has a solid set-up. There are two sets of heroes in this story, both acting honorably within their agenda- bring a rogue agent back into the fold for Alpha Flight, stand by a teammate for the X-Men. Plus, the Alpha Flight heroes are interesting characters in their own right. They have a good mix of backgrounds and powers. Plus, this story is made even more interesting by the growth of Wolverine. When Guardian first tries to take Wolverine away, there’s some question as to whether or not the X-Men should just let him. After all, Wolverine hasn’t exactly been playing well with others. But, even one year later, Wolverine is becoming more and more of a teammate. His loss would really hurt the team which makes the reader emotionally invested in the outcome.

And that’s it: ten more reasons why the X-Men are the best team ever, in any decade. Of course, I’m never one to stop at ten. Come on back one more time for some honorable mentions.

The Best X-Men Stories of the ‘60s and ‘70s

I’m back!  After having previously recounted the best X-Men stories of the ‘90s and then of the ‘80s, I figured I’d keep working my way back in time to the ‘70s and the ‘60s.  However, the X-Men didn’t have as many stories in either of those decades as in the later ones- they didn’t start until 1963 and didn’t go monthly until late in ’65, and they weren’t featured in new stories from 1970 to ’75- so I decided to combine their first two decades into one big column.  Or, series of columns, as the case may be.

 

The Juggernaut! X-Men #12-13, 1965: I know that there’s a lot of love for the one-and-done comic nowadays but for me the X-Men didn’t really get going good until they started expanding into longer stories.  This Juggernaut story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby is the first real two-parter in the series and it’s one of my favorites.  There have been plenty of better Juggernaut covers over the years (Juggy’s kind of small in the first one; and only in profile in the second) but I’m not sure he’s been in any better stories than his first one.  The X-Men weren’t exactly mutant powerhouses in those days.  They usually had to outsmart their opponent rather than overpower them.  So it was a real test for them to go up against an unstoppable force like the Juggernaut.  Making the story even tenser is the fact that they don’t actually beat the Juggernaut the first time.  They really have to overcome the odds and their own fears that they might not be good enough to beat this bad guy in order to win.  Plus, making the story even more engaging is the fact that this is the first personal villain for the X-Men as Juggernaut is revealed as Professor Xavier’s step-brother.  There’s the feeling that Juggernaut should be one of them, and would’ve been if his relationship with Charles had been different when they were children.   Finally, a guest appearance by the Human Torch in the second issue is just an added bonus.

 

The Mimic as a Member, X-Men #27-29, 1966: Roy Thomas is sometimes accused of merely mimicking Stan Lee, but these three issues of X-Men show that he didn’t mind mixing it up a little.  The Mimic had been previously introduced by Stan Lee in his final issue (#19).  Now, Roy Thomas brings him back but in a new and interesting way.  Lee had created the Mimic to be a natural foe for the X-Men, someone who combines all of their powers and can use those powers against them.  Thomas turns the story around.  He brings the Mimic in as an ally, asking if he can join the team.  This causes a few unintended consequences for the team.  They’ve never had a new member before and there’s a bit of a strain on the team dynamic.  Plus, Mimic is easily the most powerful member on the team, leaving the founders feeling like second-class citizens.  For one of their first missions, Thomas sends them out against the Banshee, showing he can create new characters as well.  And again, Thomas shows that a villain just might have a ray of good inside of him.  Then, Thomas pits the Mimic against his own perfect foe- the Super-Adaptoid, a robot capable of mimicking the powers of the Avengers.  The Mimic’s departure feels a little forced.  Perhaps Thomas felt like he didn’t have the authority to add a new permanent member yet.  But even as a temporary member, the Mimic made for some memorable stories. 

 

The Mutant-Master, X-Men #37-39, 1967: This is just a great X-Men epic by Roy Thomas and Don Heck.  The story sets up the Mutant Master as a formidable nemesis for the team.  Almost all of the X-Men’s former foes are either captured by the Mutant Master or working for him.  There’s the Blob, Unus, the Changeling, the Vanisher and even the Juggernaut.  Once again, the X-Men are facing almost impossible odds.  Yet this story also marks a great step forward.  By the end of the story, Banshee is working with the good guys instead of against them.  And this is the story that hints that the Changeling could be an ally someday down the road as well.  It’s also a step forward for those already on the team.  They abandon their school uniforms and take individual costumes.  They’re no longer students; they’re heroes in their own right and their costumes show it. The combination of overwhelming odds and positive developments makes this a story to remember.

 

Lorna Dane and Mesmero, X-Men #49-52, 1968: Arnold Drake is pretty much ignored as a writer of the X-Men.  And it’s understandable.  Certainly, his short run doesn’t have the momentous impact on the team’s history of the original Stan Lee issues or Roy Thomas’ larger contributions.  Yet Drake managed to turn in at least one great epic during his time on the title.  He creates a new love interest for Iceman in Lorna Dane.  Then he gives her powers as Polaris.  He creates a new enemy in the Demi-Men.  Then he pulls a switch on you to reveal that the real enemy is actually Mesmero.  He keeps the heroes, villains and readers guessing with the introduction of Erik the Red.  Then he reveals that Erik the Red is actually Cyclops.  He even brings in Magneto for some great confrontations concerning whether or not Lorna Dane is actually his daughter.  Perhaps more than any other X-writer, Arnold Drake knows how to twist the reader around in a way that makes for a great story.  Plus, these issues feature some stunning covers by Jim Steranko and even some Steranko interior art in issue 51.      

 

Havok, Sentinels and the Savage Land, X-Men #54-63, 1969:  I could’ve broken this selection up into several different entries, but the Roy Thomas/Neal Adams run hangs together as a unit so well that I chose to keep it together.  It starts with the Alex Summers/Living Monolith trilogy in issues 54 to 56.  It continues with a Sentinels trilogy from issues 57 to 59.  And it culminates with a four-part tale that shifts from Sauron to the Savage Land to Magneto from issues 60 to 63.  Yet the stories overlap and intersect in interesting ways.  The first section may deal with Scott’s discovery of his younger brother Alex and their battle against the Living Pharaoh in Egypt, but Alex’s true emergence as Havok actually takes place in the midst of the Sentinels story.  Plus, Thomas and Adams do a great job of splitting the X-Men up into smaller teams so that some of them can get started on the next adventure while others are finishing up the previous one.  And the transition from a Sauron to a Savage Land to a Magneto story is so seamless that it feels like one big story.  There are just so many great things going on in these ten issues.  Foremost, there’s the incredible Neal Adams art.  From the phenomenal covers- such as the one in which the Living Monolith crushes the logo in his hands- to the interesting lay-outs- such as the sharp angular panels- to the beautiful line-work, Neal Adams does an incredible job.  His depictions of Havok, Sauron and Ka-Zar are especially strong.  Then, there are the great big story elements, and the great little story elements.  Roy Thomas quickly creates a love triangle between Polaris, Havok and Iceman- a nice addition after finally letting Cyclops and Marvel Girl come together as a couple.  You feel a real friendship between the X-Men, especially Angel and Beast.  And the relationships within the Trask family are more nuanced than in any earlier- or later- Sentinel stories.  As for the big moments, how about the Living Pharaoh turning into the Living Monolith, the sudden attack of the Sentinels, Sauron’s long fall into the Savage Land or Magneto’s unmasking?  This run had pretty much everything you would want in a comic book.  And it still holds up today.

 That’s part one.  And that’s a pretty good list of stories for a comic that was canceled.  Come back next time as I look at the best X-Men stories of the ‘70s, after the team was restarted with an almost all-new line-up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best X-Men Comics of the 80's Part III

Part Three- Honorable Mentions

When you're having fun, you never want the fun to end.  And in this case, it doesn't have to.  At least, not yet.  After two rounds of the best X-Men stories of the 1980s, it's time for honorable mentions.  Once again, I'll be going through the list in chronological order.  Enjoy the ride!

Kitty's Fairy Tale, Uncanny X-Men 153 (1982): At this point in his career, Dave Cockrum seems more comfortable with fun tales like this than with battle books like the fight against Magneto in issue 150.  He even follows up on this story with an excellent Nightcrawler mini-series.  The premise is pretty simple.  The X-Men are cleaning up after a recent battle and Kitty is put in charge of putting the younger Illyana Rasputin to bed.  Illyana is still scared after the recent battle, so Kitty tells her a bed-time story.  Kitty's plot borrows from the Dark Phoenix story, but everything else is vastly different.  She and Colossus are buccaneers.  Wolverine is a gruffer version of the Tasmanian Devil and Nightcrawler a lecherous version of the Smurfs.  It's fun, light and amusing and it's just what the X-Men need.  Even Cyclops is able to smile, despite the reminder of his former lover Jean Grey.  Plus, the story gives us some remarkable insights into Kitty and her views of the rest of the X-Men.  Most notably, her story lets us know about the progression of her crush on Colossus.   

Dark Phoenix Returns, Uncanny X-Men 174-175 (1983):  The X-Men stories of this era have started what will become an annoying trend- repeatedly referencing and retelling old stories.  However, while Chris Claremont and company may go back to the well too many times in this way, there are examples in which this approach works.  Chief among them is the return of the Dark Phoenix in these two issues.  Cyclops has long left the X-Men behind.  He's found and lost love in Lee Forrester and found it again in Madelyne Pryor, who just happens to be the spitting image of his first love, Jean Grey.  In the first issue, Cyclops proposes to Madelyne while the two of them are vacationing at a cottage.  Soon after, however, Cyclops starts seeing visions of the Dark Phoenix.  Frightened, he rushes off to find the rest of the X-Men.  In the anniversary issue, 175, the X-Men face off against the Dark Phoenix in a vivid battle.  Unfortunately, they aren't fighting the Dark Phoenix at all.  Yes, an X-Men villain has returned.  It's just not Dark Phoenix.  It's Jason Wyngarde, Mastermind, and he's manipulating the X-Men into seeing their worst fears.  The X-Men manage to turn the tide and defeat Mastermind in what turns out to be a great tease of a story.  At the end, Scott Summers and Madelyne Pryor get married, causing further consternation to Wolverine over his own aborted wedding.  Rich with emotion, full of action, and portrayed by the beautiful art of Paul Smith, the Dark Phoenix Returns was a strong contender for one of the best stories of the decade.  Even as a sequel, it's definitely worth an honorable mention.

Barfight—"He'll Never Make Me Cry," Uncanny X-Men 183 (1984):  It's hard to fit a small one-part story into a "best of" list.  But that's what an honorable mention list is for.  This is one of my favorite single issue stories from this era.  The X-Men have recently returned from another planet, as depicted in the big crossover Secret War.  While there, Colossus fell in love with a native, only to lose her before the X-Men returned home.  Still wounded by grief, Colossus is cruelly brusque with Kitty Pryde, whom he now considers to be too young and immature for him.  The other X-Men are upset with Colossus' behavior and Wolverine comes up with a plan.  He invites Nightcrawler and Colossus out for a night on the town.  After all, Colossus is an adult now.  Or so he claims.  While out, Wolverine gives Colossus a hard time about the way he's treated Kitty.  And, since this is a superhero comic, they just happen to be at the same bar as the Juggernaut.  Colossus gets into a fight with Juggernaut.  Nightcrawler moves to intervene but Wolverine stops him.  If Colossus wins, he'll have gotten some of the anger and grief out of his system.  And if he loses, he'll have deserved it for the way he was rude to Kitty.  I just love the way that Wolverine addresses a problem. He's direct about it.  And he knows that there are worse things in life than to lose a fight.  It's a great character issue, for Colossus, for Wolverine, for Kitty and for Storm as she comforts her younger teammate.  It's a touching tale of lost love, lost innocence and lost youth.  And it's one of the reasons why the X-Men were one of the best of the soap opera superhero titles.

Lifedeath I and II, Uncanny X-Men 186 and 198 (1984 and '85): Barry Windsor-Smith was brought in as a guest-artist for these very special tales.  Now, I realize that the description "very special tale" can carry some negative connotations.  There's a reason why Seinfeld rebelled against that type of story.  And there are plenty of '80s comics with all the subtlety of an after-school special.  These aren't "very special tales" like that.  Rather, they're stories that show just how deep and personal and introspective a comic can be.  Storm has lost her powers.  And now, she's wondering if life is even worth living.  In the first story, Forge- the man who created the weapon that cost her powers- is the one who tries to convince her.  As they work through depression and anger and grief, they eventually find love.  There are no bad guys, no world-shattering threats.  There are incredible pictures as Forge uses his holographic transmitters to create incredibly beautiful landscapes.  And there are intensely emotional scenes as Storm rails against life, Forge and everything.  In the second story, Storm travels to her native land in Kenya.  She looks for meaning to her life in the land she came from, and in the life she partially remembers from the time before she knew she was a mutant.  She finds beauty.  She finds people who remind her of her parents.  And she finds that she's more than her powers.  She's a person and her life is worth living, even loving.  There is a reason why Chris Claremont gains a reputation for depicting women.  It's usually though to be because he writes strong women.  But it's more than that. It's because he writes women who are strong even when they're weak, as displayed poignantly in these two issues.

 Phoenix/Hellfire Club/Nimrod, Uncanny X-Men 207-209 (1986): For me, this is the real highlight of the first John Romita Jr. run on this title.  These three issues feature one classic fight after another.  First, there's the showdown between two X-Men.  Rachel Summers, aka Phoenix II, has stormed off to the Hellfire Club to kill Selene.  Wolverine has raced off after her because X-Men don't kill and while he may have broken the rule in the past, he doesn't want Phoenix to have to live with the guilt of her actions.  The result is a stand-off over Selene's bed in which Wolverine finally stabs Phoenix.  Next, there's a showdown between the X-Men and the Hellfire Club.  Naturally, the Hellfire Club isn't too impressed that a member of the X-Men broke into their building and tried to assassinate one of their members, even if another X-Man stopped her.  The Hellfire Club pours out of their building in order to seek vengeance on the X-Men and the result is a huge battle in Central Park.  The battle itself has some great moments, especially featuring Harry Leland's powers to affect mass.  Finally, there's the third showdown in which both the Hellfire Club and the X-Men fight Nimrod.  Nimrod is a super-advanced Sentinel who is programmed to kill all mutants.  The battle in Central Park draws his attention and he jumps in to destroy both teams.  Neither team is in much of a position to fight Nimrod, having already taken casualties against each other.  It's no sure thing that they'll be able to win, even if they join forces.  This stretch of issues marks a great mini-run, in which one great battle keeps being topped by the next. 

Wolverine Crucified, Uncanny X-Men 251-253 (1989): This is one of the most powerful moments in the life of Wolverine.  Perhaps even more significant than the later episode in which Magneto rips the adamantium from his body.  Unbeknownst to Wolverine, the X-Men have disbanded.  Their numbers depleted, they called it quits with the remaining members of the X-Men stepping through the Siege Perilous in order to start a new life.  Wolverine had been off on a solo adventure at the time but he returns in this issue.  He finds the team's Australian headquarters abandoned by the X-Men, but not empty.  The Reavers have taken it back, and now Wolverine is suddenly thrown into a fight for his life.  Taken by surprise, Wolverine loses.  The Reavers drag him out into the Outback and crucify him on an X cross.  Hanging in the sun, Wolverine hallucinates that his other enemies have come back to taunt him.  Then, Jubilee pulls Wolverine down from his cross.  She'd been hiding in the headquarters for a little while, known to the readers though not to the X-Men.  She rescues Wolverine and drags him across the desert to safety, trying to avoid the Reavers as they hunt down their quarry and trying to keep Wolverine alive.  It's a great moment for Jubilee and a great introduction as a hero.  And it's a memorable moment for Wolverine.  It's hard to forget the Marc Silvestri cover with Wolverine hanging on an "X," or the relief you feel as a reader when Jubilee finally pulls him down.  

And that's it.  If you haven't figured it out by now, I'm a pretty big X-Men fan.  I won't say I was tempted to pick every story.  There are a few I don't like.  But it was close.  I hope you've had as much fun reading about them as I have recalling them. 

The End

The Best X-Men Comics of the 80's Part II

Part Two

Welcome back. Last week, I looked at the best X-Men stories of the ‘80s. Though I cut the list down to a top ten, I didn’t want to have to rank these stories against each other so I’ve been running through them chronologically. I’m up to 1986. So, without further ado, here are the best X-Men stories of the latter half of the decade.

“I’ve Gone to Kill the Beyonder,” Uncanny X-Men 202 (1986): I realize that this issue might not make a lot of “best of” lists, but it makes mine. Mostly, that’s because this issue has such a personal place in my own story. It’s one of the first comic books I ever owned. It’s my introduction to the X-Men and to superheroes in general. And it blew my young mind. So I have a nostalgic affinity for this comic book that others might not. Yet, even without that nostalgic affinity, I think that this issue holds up as one of the best. The main story is Rachel Summers’ (aka Phoenix II) plan to kill the Beyonder. She rushes off to confront him on Alcatraz. In order to have an uninterrupted conversation, the Beyonder sends a squad of Sentinels after the rest of the X-Men. Then, he gives Phoenix the power to kill him. But, if she uses that power, she won’t be able to save the X-Men from the Sentinels. She has a choice: kill the Beyonder and lose her friends, or save her friends and let the Beyonder live. The moral dilemma isn’t the only great thing about this issue. The battle between the X-Men and the Sentinels is a great one. Magneto is still trying to fit in as Professor X’s replacement. Colossus throws Wolverine at the Sentine ls in a classic “fastball special.” Rogue is thrown into a crowd of bystanders and nearly loses herself to all of the thoughts that she absorbs. And Storm flies an unarmed Blackbird against the Sentinels, refusing to be defeated even if she’s de-powered. Plus, there’s great art by John Romita Jr. who’s especially good at drawing super-machines such as Sentinels.

The Morlock Mutant Massacre (1986): The Massacre is the first-ever X-Men crossover running through issues 210-213 of Uncanny X-Men, also featuring multiple issues of both X-Factor and the New Mutants, and even spilling over into Thor and Power Pack. So it’s big. It’s also great. The X-Men have been antagonists, allies and even friends with the Morlocks, a group of mostly misshapen mutants who hide out in the sewers under New York. Suddenly, the Morlocks are under attack. The Marauders are acting like hunting parties, tracking down the Morlocks and viciously killing them without apparent cause. The X-Men and other heroes rush in to help stop, or at least, slow the slaughter. But this is no easy fight. Shadowcat, Nightcrawler and Colossus take serious injuries while Angel of X-Factor experiences the agony of having his wings impaled by harpoons. Even the kids are caught up in the mess. The young wards of X-Factor have ties to the Morlocks, the X-Men can’t completely shelter the New Mutants from harm, and Power Pack accidentally wanders into the fray. It’s a brutal, senseless tragedy and none of the teams emerge unscathed. There are also some great figh ts and great moments. Wolverine and Sabretooth have a pair of classic bouts, setting up what will become one of comics’ classic rivalries. And Thor uses his powers to wash out the tunnels, in one of those moments that remind you that he is indeed the god of thunder. The Morlock Mutant Massacre is the first X-Men crossover, and one of the best.

  Dazzler vs. Juggernaut, Uncanny X-Men 217 (1987): This is probably another surprise choice for the list, but it remains one of my favorites for the decade. After the events of the Morlock Mutant Massacre, the X-Men needed to fill out their ranks and replace injured members. They brought in former X-Man Havok, as well as new X-Men Longshot, Psylocke and Dazzler. Often when a new member joins a team, the series will feature that member in a solo story, showing the new member’s aptitude in a glorious victory. Indeed, Kitty Pryde was featured in that kind of a story in “Demon,” as mentioned in part one. This story is different. Dazzler is indeed given a solo story. But it isn’t a glorious victory. She happens to spot Juggernaut as he’s out and about. He’s not robbing a bank or doing anything. He’s even wearing civilian clothes. But Dazzler recognizes him. She figures that she can impress her new teammates and prove her worth to them if she can take Juggernaut down by herself. So she attacks. Juggernaut, meanwhile, happens to be a big fan of her music. He tries not to fight her, and even asks for an autograph. But Dazzler will not be deterred. Finally, Juggernaut decides that he has to defend himself. He fights back brutally and Dazzler is defeated. Filled with remorse and thinking h e’s killed her, Juggernaut gives Dazzler a proper burial. Dazzler, however, isn’t dead. She wakes up in a grave. And this is how she proves her worth. She slowly seeks out sounds that she can convert into energy. She recharges and is able to free herself. Shamefaced, she returns to the X-Men, still unproven and still desperate to succeed. It’s such a wonderful small story. It completely overturns our expectations and ends up being an excellent examination of both Juggernaut and Dazzler. And it’s a great fight as well.

Broodfall, Uncanny X-Men 232-234 (1988): This is the best Brood story ever, bar none. While all of the earlier Brood stories featured the X-Men going into space and facing the Brood out there, this story features the Brood coming to earth. That means that if the X-Men lose, the Earth loses. That makes the stakes a lot bigger and much more personal than in previous Brood stories. Furthermore, in this story, the Brood infect Wolverine with one of their seed. Wolverine has often been the focus of stories in which he has to battle his own inner demons. This time, he has to battle an inner demon that isn’t his own. This leads to one of my all-time favorite scenes in which the Brood-infected Wolverine stumbles into a revival meeting. Most of the congregation flees in panic. But not the revival preacher. He reaches out to Wolverine in compassion. Most readers remember the evil preacher Rev. Stryker from “God Loves, Man Kills.” I remember this counter-point, this moment of grace, and it’s a big reason why this is one of my favorite stories. Of course, there are also big battles, panic in the streets to make even Japanese monster movie enthusiasts happy, Brood beasts throwing cars around and more superhero action than you can shake a stick at (though why you’d shake a stick at it, I don’t know). This is definitely the highlight of the Marc Silvestri era of the X-Men.

Acts of Vengeance, Uncanny X-Men 256-258 (1989): Yup, I’m picking “Acts of Vengeance.” The main crossover is admittedly pretty awful but it resulted in some great tie-in stories, especially in the X-Men titles. There’s a really good Tigershark appearance in Wolverine, a Celestial epic in X-Factor and a Mandarin plot here in Uncanny X-Men. At this point in X-Men history, the team has disbanded and the various heroes are scattered around the globe. The Mandarin takes advantage of the situation and kidnaps Psylocke. He brainwashes her, body-switches her and transforms her into his assassin. And it’s up to Wolverine to stop her and save her. But this isn’t Wolverine at his best. This is a Wolverine, still reeling from his recent crucifixion. And this isn’t Wolverine with the X-Men at his back. He has a little bit of help from Jubilee, but otherwise he’s on his own against Mandarin, the Hand and a host of ninja assassins. It’s a great kung fu action story, with one hero facing impossible odds and the other hero the unwilling pawn of the enemy. Plus, the story serves as Jim Lee’s introduction to the X-Men. I know that a lot of X-Men fans don’t like this story. And I have a theory about that. They don’t like that the previously pretty in pink Psylocke was transformed into an Asian ninja assassin. And since they don’t like the result, they don’t like the story that brought it about. I tend to look at things from a different angle. I like the story. It’s tense, quick-moving and full of action. And, since I like the story, I therefore also like the result. Plus, I didn’t have a huge affinity for the pink Psylocke in the first place. So while this story may mark the “end of the good X-Men” for ‘80s X-Men fans, it serves as a wonderful fulcrum from me transitioning from one favorite era to another.

God Loves, Man Kills (1982): This is another X-Men story that is widely considered to be a classic. Like “Dark Phoenix” and “Days of Future Past,” you can hardly create a “best of” list without including it. And yet, I nearly did just that for the simple reason that I had never read it until recently. I was afraid that “God Loves, Man Kills” would have the intense earnestness that crosses the line into sappiness as so often happens with comics which deal with important topics. And, as a Christian and then a pastor, I wasn’t sure I wanted to read a story in which a minister is the bad guy. I shouldn’t have worried or waited so long. Yes, “God Loves, Man Kills” is emotionally charged. Young kids are murdered. Mutants are persecuted. But artist Brent Anderson does a great job of using images to allude to historical events without becoming heavy-handed. Writer Chris Claremont does a great job of using crowd reactions to show that the issue may be more complicated than either Rev. Stryker or the X-Men are willing to admit. The real heroes of this story are actually two normal cops who don’t know who to believe but who still do their duty. Plus, the looks into Rev. Stryker’s background show that he’s a much more complex character than I was initially led to believe. His belief in the inhumanity of mutants led him to murder his own wife and child. He’s sacrificed more for his cause than anyone knows, and he’s gone too far down this path to back down now. If he admits that there’s a place in the world for mutants, then he’s also admitting that he killed his wife and child for no reason and it’s simply too difficult for him to admit that kind of mistake. “God Loves, Man Kills” is a powerful story resonating with all kinds of persecuted minorities such as African-Americans, Jews and homosexuals. It’s also surprisingly personal, emotionally complex, beautifully rendered and well deserving of a place on this list.

Those are the best X-Men stories of the ‘80s. Of course, there were more than eleven good stories in the decade. Stay tuned for honorable mentions and more mutant goodness.

The Best X-Men Stories of the 1980s

Part One

A couple of months ago, I wrote a four-part piece about the best X-Men stories of the 1990s. I’m a big fan of the era and I had a great time describing the action, the tragedy and the humor of the epics, the crossovers and the short stories. Now, it’s time to go back in time. It’s time for the best X-Men stories of the 1980s. Enjoy!

The Dark Phoenix Saga, Uncanny X-Men #129-138 (1980): This is it. This is the big one. Written by Chris Claremont and drawn by John Byrne, this is the story that shows up on lists of the best comic book stories of all-time. And it deserves it. Reportedly, Claremont and Byrne had observed that over the years, a number of villains had reformed and become heroes but we’d never seen a comic book hero fall and become a villain. They decided to tell the untold tale and they chose beloved ingénue Jean Grey, aka Marvel Girl, for the role.

The Dark Phoenix Saga is one of comics’ great tragedies. It explores the axiom that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Slowly, Jean Grey, now known as Phoenix, begins to flex her powers in ways that the readers and her teammates find morally questionable. Yet, the fall is made even more tragic by the involvement of the Hellfire Club. Jason Wyngarde, aka Mastermind, manipulates her mind and her emotions which makes Jean Grey a victim of tragic circumstances as much as of her own power. Uninhibited by any morality, Phoenix eventually uses a sun to replenish her powers, causing the sun to go supernova and killing billions of inhabitants of that solar system. That crime brings Phoenix to the attention of the Shi’ar Empire, now set on capturing and executing her for mass murder. The tragedy is further deepened when Jean Grey is apparently “cured” of the Phoenix power before she stands trial meaning that the Shi’ar are convicting the innocent ingénue rather than the powerful Phoenix. The X-Men, despite their earlier reservations, stand by Jean Grey only to watch her sacrifice herself in order to save the rest of the team.

As if the tragedy wasn’t enough, the Dark Phoenix issues include numerous other classic X-Men moments. There’s the introduction of Kitty Pryde (issue #129), a guest appearance by Dazzler (130), Nightcrawler abandoning his image inducer because he no longer wants to hide the fact that he’s a mutant (130), John Byrne’s beautiful Victorian costumes thanks to Jason Wyngarde’s illusions, Wolverine unleashed against the Hellfire Club (133) and Cyclops quitting the team in mourning (138). These issues have everything. No wonder the Dark Phoenix saga is considered to be a comic book classic.

Days of Future Past, Uncanny X-Men 141-142 (1981): This is another of the classic X-Men stories. It doesn’t hold up quite as well as “The Dark Phoenix Saga” but it’s hard to hold that against the original story. It’s just that it’s been copied, imitated, parodied and revisited so often that it doesn’t seem as original as it would have at the time. It’s kind of like the original Terminator movie that way. But if you can shut out the extraneous noise, you can still enjoy this stunning two-part tale: a graying Wolverine, an adult Kitty Pryde, a dystopic future ruled by mutant-hunting Sentinels, the death of the X-Men and a time travel story before they’d become routine. It’s said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The sheer number of imitators should show you how much of an impact this story had upon the imagination of its readers.

Demon, Uncanny X-Men 143 (1981): If it seems like I’m picking every issue from the classic Chris Claremont/John Byrne run, well, there’s a reason why it’s considered a classic. This issue is a real change of pace. It shows that Claremont and Byrne can tell not only the epic tragedy of a Dark Phoenix Saga but they can also showcase a smaller story such as this one. It’s Christmas and the X-Men are all off on a mission. Everyone that is, except for the newest, youngest member Kitty Pryde who’s been left behind at the mansion. Drawing from horror movie situations, Kitty Pryde discovers that a demon has infiltrated the mansion. From there, the story evolves into a cat and mouse came between Kitty and the demon. She hides. The demon finds her. And again. Quickly, Kitty realizes that the only way she’ll survive until the X-Men return is to destroy the demon herself. She leads the demon in a deadly game of hide’n’seek bringing it through the Danger Room, the hangar and other super-hero features of the school. And yes, Kitty proves her resourcefulness by killing the demon. The issue ends with a nice surprise when the rest of the X-Men return home to a badly damaged mansion. Joss Whedon has claimed that every young boy fell in love with Kitty Pryde. This issue is one reason why.

Wolverine’s Wedding, Uncanny X-Men 172-173 (1983): First off, I love the Paul Smith cover to issue 172. It features an invitation to the wedding of Lady Mariko and Logan. But the added details are what make it great. There’s a little note from Logan reminding Nightcrawler to bring the beer. And there’s this big ol’ knife stabbed into the invitation, letting you know that the wedding isn’t going to go as smoothly as Wolverine might hope. Furthermore, the story delivers on the big promise of the cover. There is the beautiful romance between Wolverine and Lady Mariko, and the surprising revelation of a tender side to the X-Men’s resident berserker. There are the great character moments, including the friendship between the Nightcrawler and Wolverine and the continuing distrust of the newest X-Man, Rogue. And yes, the wedding doesn’t go off smoothly. Lady Mariko and the X-Men are poisoned. Only Wolverine and Rogue prove immune to the effects. They go off together in order to find out who was trying to kill Wolverine’s bride. The pairing continues the character growth for Wolverine, as he starts to take on the role of mentor to Kitty Pryde and now Rogue. As for the assassination plot, Wolverine discovers that Lady Mariko’s family is caught up in the Japanese mafia, the Yakusa. Shamed by her family, Mariko calls off the wedding. It’s a powerful story of love lost, even more heart-breaking because it happened to Wolverine.

“There’s No Place like Home”—Adventures in Asgard, New Mutants Special Edition & Uncanny X-Men Annual 9 (1985): Uncanny X-Men is well-known for the number of great artists who worked on the series: Dave Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith and so on. However, some other great artists have contributed to the X-Men lore without working on the main title as a regular artist: Brent Anderson, Barry Windsor-Smith and Art Adams. Adams is the artist on this annual and it’s a work of beauty. The X-Men and the New Mutants are transported to Asgard in order to square off against Loki. But the story is much more than that. Art Adams is allowed to let his imagination run wild. Amara (aka Magma) becomes a fairy. Sam (aka Cannonball) becomes a knight. Dani (aka Moonstar) becomes a valkyrie. Adams gets to draw elaborate headdresses for Hela and Illyana, devise Nordic dress for the New Mutants and depict werewolves, flying horses and even the USS Enterprise from Star Trek thanks to the shape-shifter Warlock. It’s a beautiful and wonderful romp through a magical land. The X-Men of this era are well-known for their tragedies, but this annual proves that they can play the part in a fun fantasy as well.

That’s part one. And that’s five reasons why the X-Men ruled the decade of the ‘80s. Come on back for part two next week.

Brand New Day

I finally took it out for a spin.

I’ll admit it. I was one of those fans who claimed to have no interest in the “Brand New Day” Spider-Man. If I wanted to read about a young, single, swinging Spidey, then I could always go back and read the comics I grew up with- the great ‘80s runs by Peter David, Tom DeFalco and Roger Stern. I didn’t need to add a new title to my reading list, let alone a title that would come out three times a month.

But, week after week, I’d see these great covers in house ads and on the stands.There was that great Chris Bachalo cover with Spider-Man and Wolverine and the villains in black and white. There was that great Mike McKone cover with Spider-Man racing away from a trio of bad guys in bumper cars. There was that great Phil Jimenez cover with what appears to be Peter Parker wearing Daredevil’s costume. My resolve weakened. I’d flip through an issue here or there. I’d see new characters and villains like Screwball and Paper Doll. I’d see great, fun interior art by new favorites like Marcos Martin and Paulo Siqueira. My will to resist dissolved. And, thanks to a friend, I was finally given the chance to read the first “Brand New Day” hardcover. It included the original Free Comic Book Day story, the first two arcs from issues 546 to 551, a couple of back-up stories and even the Tom Brevoort Spider-Man manifesto.

So what did I think? Did the new Spider-Man overcome my well-developed sense of skepticism? Did I miss the Straczynski Spider-Man, accepted and accomplished as he was? Read on, True Believer, and find out…

Starting Over

I’m not Spider-Man’s biggest fan. I’ve only been a regular reader of his adventures twice in my life. The first time was when I was but a whipper-snapper reading the previously mentioned comics of the mid-‘80s. The second time was more recently when I got into the J. Michael Straczynski/John Romita Jr. run. I really enjoyed that latter run. I liked that Aunt May knew about Peter’s other life and I loved the way that she responded to it. I thought that JMS did a great job of capturing the love between Peter and MJ. I liked seeing Peter “grow up” and become a science teacher at his old school. And, in the larger Marvel Universe, it was nice to see Peter Parker treated as a respected peer, even joining the New Avengers.

The JMS run didn’t hold up after John Romita Jr. left the title, but for a time it was a great book. So I disagreed with Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada when he said that Spider-Man had gotten away from his roots as a character. I thought that you could tell great stories about a married Peter Parker and a Spider-Man who was part of the established superhero community. Plus I could point to JMS’ early run as proof of my position. And yet, looking back, it seems that JMS took that concept about as far as it could go. There were no more hurdles for Peter to jump, no more mountains for Spidey to climb. It was like his story was over, as if he already had his happy ending. There’s a reason why the MC2 universe has a happy Peter Parker as a supporting character while it focuses on the next generation of heroes.

So, despite my earlier objections and reservations, I admit that it was a good idea to start over. Spider-Man had reached the end of that particular road. At that point, it’s almost necessary to start down another road. Of course, if you’re going to start over with any character, you have to make sure that you do it the right way. What is it that makes Spider-Man Spider-Man? What is it that makes stories about Spider-Man different than stories about Captain America or Superman?

Fun and Funny

For starters, Spider-Man is supposed to be funny. There’s the well-known line by writer Mark Waid that if you can’t write a Spider-Man who makes humorous quips, then you should be writing something else like Thor. Editor Tom Brevoort says the same thing in his manifesto, “If you don’t have at least one funny line or exchange or situation from Spidey in your issue, then you’ve done something wrong.” I agree. Peter Parker is a comedian- though not always a good one. He should be cracking wise, making jokes, and poking fun at the villains, the situation, the person he’s saving, and even himself.

The new Spider-Man stories are funny. Peter is back to making jokes. He does it so often that another hero, Jackpot, even complains about it. “Is everything a joke with you?” she asks. “Not everything,” Spidey replies, “I make puns, too.”

But there’s more to being funny that just writing jokes. It’s not enough to force a one-liner or two into the midst of a serious situation. That’s not entirely inappropriate- as humor is a defense mechanism- but it’s not enough. Spider-Man stories aren’t just funny. They should also be fun. That means writing entire scenes and situations that are fraught with humor. And that’s something that the new creative teams are doing, and doing well. It’s one of the things that drew my attention to the new stories- Spider-Man in a bumper car shows that the entire story is going to be good for laughs. The cover blurb of “the wall-crawler vs. the web-slinger” was good for another smile. It was one of the best titles since Peter David named his Spidey book “Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.” Even the editorial blurbs are humorous, such as the one telling you not to read the last issue recap and then cutting itself off in order to get to this issue’s exciting new story.

So I’m surprised that the new Spider-Man isn’t being embraced by more fans. Isn’t this what we say we want? How many times have I read articles or posts decrying the lack of fun in today’s comics? Well, the Spider-Man brain trust has heard the cries and is giving us the book we claimed we wanted. There’s a fun book out there again and it’s named Amazing Spider-Man.

The Hard Luck Hero

Another thing that makes Spider-Man Spider-Man is that he’s the hard luck hero. If he didn’t have bad luck, he wouldn’t have any luck at all. That’s why the readers can relate so readily to Spider-Man. That’s what makes him an everyman. The new Spider-Man stories remember this. In this way, they’re a very direct contrast to the previous stories by J. Michael Straczynski. And, as much as I enjoyed the early JMS run, I have to admit that I like the way the new stories play off against him. One of my favorite scenes was the one in which Peter Parker went looking for a job. He was rejected as a photographer (“there’s no design- it looks like you left your camera on a ledge and walked away”), as a teacher (“there’s no way I can hire you after you missed so many days without explanation in your previous job”) and as a scientist (“you were brilliant in high school but what have you done since then?”).

The hard luck hits Spider-Man every bit as much as it hits Peter Parker. He’s thanked by mobsters. He’s mistaken for a murderer. The current situation in the Marvel Universe adds to the story in this way as well. As an un-registered hero, Spider-Man finds himself being chased by the cops. Plus, he’s embarrassed when they defer to new and obscure heroes like Jackpot and Blue Shield, just because they’re registered and he’s not.

Mechanical Web-Shooters

One aspect of the restart is that Spider-Man once again has mechanical web-shooters. Within fandom, it was a pretty controversial choice for director Sam Raimi to give Spider-Man organic web-shooters in the movie rather than devices that he invented himself. I was always on Raimi’s side on this one. I had no problem with Spidey’s web-shooters being part of his natural power set along with super-strength and stickiness. And I didn’t find the “running out of web fluid” scenario so compelling that I missed it in any way. Quite the opposite, it was often a hackneyed and clichéd way to limit Spider-Man’s effectiveness. So, this is one aspect of the new Spider-Man that didn’t need to be made for me.

Even so, I don’t consider the change to be a total loss. First, it’s not a big deal to me either way. I prefer the natural web-shooters but it’s not like the presence of mechanical ones is going to prevent me from enjoying a good story. Second, I can appreciate that this is another way in which Marvel is trying to listen to the voice of the fans with their revamp. Fans say they want fun stories? Let’s give them what they want. Fans say they like mechanical web-shooters? Let’s give it to them. Third, I judge the web-shooters on whether or not they’re used effectively. I thought that Dan Slott did a great job with them in the first story. He has a mugger still one of Peter’s web-shooters, thinking it’s a watch. That means that Peter is running around for most of the story with only one shooter, limiting what he can do in some situations and running out of fluid earlier than he would have expected. I think it was a bit much to have the lack of web fluid be a major impediment in the second story, as well. It was redundant. But, it was at least a different scenario (Peter couldn’t afford the chemicals he needed to make the fluid), did a good job of limiting his effectiveness especially in the eyes of the new hero Jackpot, and gave him motivation to make some money.

Supporting Cast

Of course, there’s more to any title than just the featured character. Any lead needs a strong supporting cast around him. This is a complaint that has dogged Spider-Man for decades. As Brevoort notes in the manifesto, most of his original supporting characters were turned into villains, killed off or rendered useless. JMS did a good job with Mary Jane and Aunt May- he was arguably one of the best at handling them- but didn’t really establish a supporting cast beyond those two. Peter’s fellow teachers and students were mostly a nameless crowd.

The new Spider-Man stories are clearly working at rebuilding a supporting cast for Spider-Man. Peter Parker’s best friend Harry Osborn returns “from Europe” and reinserts himself into Peter’s life. Harry also brings along a couple of other characters, his girlfriend Lily and her roommate Carlie. I know that some fans complained that the new Spider-Man was given a love interest so quickly. Yet I didn’t see it that way. Yes, Peter was set up on a double date with Carlie but it didn’t work out that well. And Carlie stayed in the story as a police officer/morgue technician rather than as a love interest. I’m not saying that Peter and Carlie won’t date at some point. But I can see the story going in a different direction. And, if they do date, it seems like it will be an organic development rather than a rushed relationship in the first story arc. My complaint isn’t about Lily and Carlie. It’s about Harry. I just don’t find him interesting or, dare I say it, nice. I liked the way that James Franco played Harry in the movies but I don’t like Harry in the comics.

Anyway, I like how the supporting cast is being built up. Aunt May has a new side interest in her volunteer work at a soup kitchen. Betty Brant is becoming a trusted friend and helper. And, as much as I don’t care for Harry Osborn, he’s getting involved in local politics on behalf of his girlfriend which sets up some future possibilities for Spider-Man stories. The second story arc didn’t do much with any of these characters, but the first arc did a good job of setting some things in motion.

New Characters and Villains

This is another thing that I like about the new Spider-Man. It’s one of the things that drew my attention to the title in the first place. And it’s another way in which Marvel appears to be responding to fan complaints. Spider-Man is running into a whole host of new villains and new foils.

I’ve read a lot of articles and posts complaining about the lack of new characters in comic books. Well, once again, Spider-Man is the answer. There’s Swing Shift and Overdrive and Screwball and Paper Doll and Jackpot and Mr. Negative. Some of those characters don’t appear in this first volume. The creative teams do a better job of spreading out the introductions than that. But we do get new villain Mr. Negative in the first arc and new foil Jackpot in the second. Personally, I like Mr. Negative. I like the name and the look. And I like that Peter makes fun of him anyway. I’m not as fond of Jackpot. I thought that she was one of the best things about the first story from Free Comic Book Day when it was teased that she was Mary Jane. But she didn’t work quite as well in Marc Guggenheim’s arc. As a fan of those old ‘80s comics, I can appreciate that they’re going for a bit of a Black Cat vibe with her. Even so, I’m not sure that the Mary Jane/Black Cat comparisons help her at this point.

Not Just Nostalgia

Perhaps it’s unfair for me to disparage Jackpot for not being Mary Jane (maybe) or Black Cat. Yet that’s one of the tricks of a restart of this nature. The restart can’t help but elicit comparisons to earlier versions. It’s one of the things that has dogged the Ultimate Universe, as it often retells old stories or introduces new versions of old heroes. So I was pleased to read Tom Brevoort’s manifesto in which he insisted that they can’t just rely on the nostalgia factor. It was the reason why he argued against bringing back Gwen Stacy- it would be too much like 1968 all over again.

I think that the new Spider-Man does a good job of walking this tightrope. It recaptures what worked in the past while also telling new stories. One of the ways it does this is by using new villains, heroes and supporting characters. Yet it also does this by setting up new situations. The big one for me happens to be the changes to the Daily Bugle. While J. Jonah Jameson is in the hospital recovering from a heart attack, the Daily Bugle is bought out by a media mogul. The result is a big upheaval at work and a new philosophy. They’re now the “new DB!”- a playful dig at recent events and the distinguished competition’s parent companies.

That’s the big one. But there are plenty of other pieces to remind you that this story is very much taking place now. There are the references to Marvel’s superhero Civil War and the registration act and real-life New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. There are situations that you wouldn’t have seen in earlier incarnations of Spider-Man, such as inter-racial dating. And there are all of the gadgets that we now take for granted that weren’t around even ten or twenty years ago like personal computers, cell phones and email addresses. All of which makes Peter Parker seem younger and hipper than he was even a year ago, despite still being the downtrodden, hard-luck everyman we know him to be. There’s even a real world antecedent as Sting went from being an English teacher in a boys’ school to a rock star.

Amazing, Amazing, Amazing

Obviously, I enjoyed what I read of “Brand New Day.” It was fun, well-crafted, exciting and fresh. It was everything I would have wanted it to be. And yet, there’s one other aspect of the new Spider-Man that helps make the revamp a success. And it’s a factor that I think is unappreciated. Rather than starring in three or four separate monthly titles, Spider-Man now appears in one title that comes out three times a month. And that scheduling change has had a profoundly positive impact on the stories.

As part of the thrice-monthly scheduling, the creative teams are also given exactly three issues in which to tell a story. That’s not quite the done-in-one model of the ‘60s. But that style of story-telling was already out by the time of the stories I grew up reading in the ‘80s. It is, however, the end of the decompressed story that has been a big part of this past decade. There’s no stretching each story into six issues so as to be more easily packaged in a trade paperback. These three issue stories strike just the right balance. They’re quick-paced instead of drawn-out. Yet the art still has room to shine with only four or five panels per page instead of the eight or ten of yesteryear. Plus, each story has a clearly defined opening, middle and final act. It’s amazing to think that a scheduling change could have so much of an effect on the contents of the book. Yet that’s exactly what’s happened with Spider-Man.

If you’re looking for fun stories as an antidote to the decompressed titles of the past few years, then I heartily endorse “Brand New Day.” And I’m surprising even myself by saying so.

Why Is Bishop a Bad Guy?

About a year ago, I wrote an article stating that Juggernaut should be a villain. Consider this the flip-side of that article. I think that Bishop should be a hero, and I’m somewhat chagrined that he’s not.

At one point, it used to be common for villains to turn into heroes. Villains would realize the fruitlessness of their endeavor- they’d realize that crime doesn’t pay. Or they’d realize that they just didn’t have it in them to commit crimes. Or they’d become friends with the hero, and sometimes even fall in love with the hero, and be wooed to the side of the good guys. Villains would reform. They’d be redeemed. And it was a good thing.

I liked what it said about humanity. That even the worst villains can have some good in them and can be brought over to the side of good. I liked what it said about heroes. That there was something even better than defeating your own opponent; there was the possibility of bringing your opponent over to your side. For those and many other reasons, I’ve always loved stories of redemption.

I liked seeing former villains Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch welcomed into the Avengers and become some of that team’s most steadfast members. Chris Claremont has a reputation for turning his villains into noble heroes- as he did most notably with Magneto- but the Avengers have the X-Men beat in this regard. Besides those first three, the Avengers also brought Black Widow, Wonder Man and Sandman into the fold. The Justice League of America didn’t have as good a track record, though Ice Maiden and Major Disaster would both become members. However, Justice Leaguer the Flash helped reform former Rogues like Pied Piper and the Trickster.

This isn’t just a comic book phenomenon either. I like that Buffy: The Vampire Slayer saw former foes Anya, Faith and Andrew become allies and even members of the team. My daughters love to remind me that Luke Skywalker knew there was still good in his dad Darth Vader. Even the bumbling fools of the Police Academy were able to convince their original nemesis, played by Bobcat Goldthwait, to stand on the side of law and order.

Yet lately, the direction seems to have been turned around. Instead of villains reforming and becoming heroes, we’re watching as heroes fall and become villains. The trend was started by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. They had noticed that villains had become heroes but never the reverse and set out to tell the story that had never been told. The result was the classic Dark Phoenix Saga, though it wasn’t yet the beginning of a trend.

The subsequent years saw a trickle of heroes falling into villainy. Yellowjacket fell out of favor after hitting his wife and staging an attack on the Avengers. Quicksilver spent some time as a bad guy again, even facing off against two teams of Avengers in a pair of Annuals. Even the Titans saw one of their own turn evil as Jericho was corrupted by the soul of Trigon and led the Titans Hunt. And, in perhaps, the most-reviled example, Green Lantern Hal Jordan went crazy when his hometown was demolished and destroyed the Green Lantern Corps. The hero-turned-heel was becoming a well-known trope, though it certainly hadn’t replaced the redemption story.

Yet, in recent years, I’m starting to wonder if maybe it has. And I’m not referring to the actions of Tony Stark and Zatanna. Though the actions themselves have been less than heroic, the stories have been more about exploring the moral choices that heroes have to make, and sometimes make incorrectly. They may have become anti-heroes, but they aren’t out and out villains.

However, that’s exactly what’s happened to Bishop. He’s an out and out villain. He’s the big bad guy in the new Cable series the way that Apocalypse was in earlier Cable stories or that Fitzroy had been in Bishop’s own series. He’s the person who shot Xavier. And now he’s trying to assassinate an infant. I could maybe accept it if we had been witness to a big Bishop-falls-from-grace story. But we haven’t been given that. It seems like one day Bishop was one of the good guys and then pow! he was one of the bad guys. It just doesn’t make sense.

And he’s not the only one. Scarlet Witch suddenly turned multiple-e eeeevil for Disassembled and House of M with nary an explanation. There are hints that Barry Allen is coming back as the bad guy for Final Crisis.

I don’t like it. I don’t like losing heroes I once looked up to and cheered for. And I don’t like what it says about humanity- that evil is more likely to overcome good than good is to overcome evil. I don’t mind the occasional fall-from-grace story. It is a part of the human existence after all- which is probably why I never had a problem with Hal Jordan as a bad guy. Whether or not the story was well-written, there was at least a story. But absent a story, or even a reason, I don’t like Bishop as a bad guy. It doesn’t make sense to me. And I want my hero back.

500!

With the current countdown to Uncanny X-Men #500, I thought it would be fun to take a look at Marvel’s previous 500^th issues for Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four and the Avengers.

Amazing Spider-Man #500

by J. Michael Straczynski, John Romita Sr. and John Romita Jr., December 2003

I really liked this comic book. I think it had some nice moments. And I think it accomplished exactly what it set out to do.

A lot of that has to do with me. In 2003, I was not a regular reader of Spider-Man. For that matter, I don’t know that I’ve ever been a regular reader of Spider-Man but I hadn’t even been an irregular reader of Spider-Man since I was a youth in the mid-‘80s. So I happily ignored the Clone Saga and John Byrne’s Chapter One and all of the bad stories that Spider-Man struggled through. And I blissfully ignored the early stories by Straczynski and Romita. However, I did notice that their run was causing a lot of discussion. Some Spider-Man fans seemed to hate it. They hated that there were new characters and supernatural guest-stars and a potentially new mystical origin for Spider-Man. From my perspective, it seemed that they hated that it was new. Meanwhile, other Spider-Man fans seemed to love it. They waxed eloquently about the dialogue and the characterization and the art. And the fans who seemed to love the new Straczynski Spider-Man were fans whose opinions I respected. My blissful ignorance was beginning to become slight curiosity.

And then Amazing Spider-Man #500 arrived on the stands. It was an anniversary issue with a lot of promotion behind it. There were a lot of issues lying around and it seemed like a good jumping-on point. Plus, there was the awesome J. Scott Campbell cover with Spider-Man and Mary Jane swinging over the heads of a whole host of villains. I’ve loved Campbell’s work before and his Joker cover had even enticed me into buying an issue of Batman’s No Man’s Land. That Campbell cover became the final enticement I was looking for. I bought Amazing Spider-Man, the first issue of Spider-Man that I had bought in over 15 years.

The issue opens with two scenes being told concurrently. The one scene is of Spider-Man standing off against a squad of police officers in full riot gear. The other scene is Peter Parker’s recollections of his start as Spider-Man. It’s a nice scene, re-telling Spider-Man’s origin while keeping some tension in the present. The scene then transitions into a battle between Spider-Man and the swat team. While Spider-Man’s body fights on, his mind is brought on a journey of discovery, remembering significant fights from the past. We’re treated to quick scenes in which Spider-Man squares off against the Sandman, the Vulture, the Lizard and Electro. Spider-Man relives other important moments in his life, such as the time that he was trapped under a great weight by Doctor Octopus and the death of his first love Gwen Stacy. The mental/mystical journey finally brings Spider-Man into a great battle with all of his former villains at once.

Now, remember, I’m not a life-long Spider-Man fan who’d been reading the title for decades. I have never read The Master Planner Saga or the Death of Gwen Stacy. I was aware of both of those stories thanks to fan discussions and “best of” lists, but that was about it. So those scenes didn’t appeal to me on a nostalgia level as they may have for some other readers. But I enjoyed them even without that. The scenes were constructed well enough, and tied together fluidly enough, that I didn’t need the nostalgia buzz in order to appreciate them. On the other hand, I wasn’t exactly a new reader to comics. I’d been reading comics for years and was well familiar with Spider-Man’s history and origin. So it wasn’t like I needed a primer on who he was or where he came from. Yet, even though I didn’t need a re-telling of Spider-Man’s origin, I enjoyed it as I read it. It wasn’t presented as something you needed to know. It was presented as something that Peter Parker was thinking about and reflecting on during an important time in his life. So I neither felt talked down to nor taken for granted. I found that to be a pretty compelling- and rare- balance.

And all of that led to four moments that were truly excellent. The first is the aforementioned battle against all of Spider-Man’s former villains at once. It’s simply a great double splash page, intentionally cluttered and rich with images to look at. I remember poring over it for a long time, trying to see how many of these villains I actually knew. That double-splash page was immediately followed by another great moment. Spider-Man has often been presented as a lone hero, who lacks the adulation of the public and the respect of his peers. That’s not the case here. Iron Man, Mr. Fantastic, the Thing and Thor show up to help put an end to things. And when they do, they listen to Spider-Man, take his lead, and treat him as an equal. It was an especially gratifying scene after the opening stand-off with the police.

Both of those scenes were about Spider-Man- his relationship with villains and with other heroes. But the true star of Spider-Man is not the guy in the mask. It’s Peter Parker. The closing two moments were about Peter and they were even better than the ones about Spidey. The third excellent moment was a gift from Dr. Strange in which the master of mystical arts gave Peter the opportunity to spend five minutes with his deceased uncle Ben. It was a truly touching scene in which they talked about guilt, forgiveness and responsibility. And it’s a scene that has always defined Spider-Man for me. I’ve heard writers and editors explain that Spider-Man is motivated by guilt over the death of his uncle. But I agree with Straczynski: Uncle Ben isn’t a source of shame for Spider-Man he’s a source of inspiration. Spider-Man isn’t being driven by guilt into doing the right thing, he’s inspired to use his power responsibly because that’s the kind of person his uncle raised him to be. Finally, having said good-bye to his uncle, Peter Parker returns to his apartment and says good-night to his wife. Straczynski and Romita Sr. give us a short scene, only two panels long, which sums up their relationship and their love. It’s a great moment to end on as Peter professes his love for Mary Jane and she professes her love for him. Gwen Stacy may have been his first love, as we were reminded in montage of past moments, but MJ is his true love, his wife and his best friend.

This was a great issue. I liked it at the time and I think it’s even better flipping through it now, years after the fact. Plus, it did what it set out to do. It convinced me, somebody who didn’t read Spider-Man on a regular basis, to start. I bought the following issues and soon went back and bought trade collections of earlier issues.

Fantastic Four #500 by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo,

September 2003

For Fantastic Four, Waid and Wieringo took a different approach than that of JMS and JRJR on Amazing Spider-Man. The 500^th issue is the culmination of “Unthinkable.” Rather than trying to create an intentional jumping-on point for new readers, Waid and Wieringo aimed for crafting a classic conclusion to an epic story. New readers and returning readers, who tend to pick up anniversary issues like this, are entering in the middle of the story. But they’re entering into the middle of a story that is epic, tragic and dynamic. And that may be a better way of presenting a series that slowing down to get new readers up to speed.

“Unthinkable” is the story of Doctor Doom. Long the chief foe of the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom “has recently abandoned his technological prowess for the study and mastery of witchcraft.” Or, so says the summary at the beginning of the issue. Doom, driven by his rivalry with Reed Richards as well as his own pride and jealousy, has finally admitted that he can’t beat Reed’s technological know-how and scientific savvy with his own. So Doom has traded it all in that he might beat Reed in other arena, one in which Reed has no expertise: magic. What the summary didn’t mention is that in order to initiate this change, Doom had to sacrifice the one woman he had ever loved. The story started several issues ago with Doom murdering his former love in exchange for sorcerous powers. Doom’s thirst for vengeance has now reached the point at which he is willing to sacrifice everything he is and everything he’s ever cared about in order to beat Reed. It was a jaw-dropping moment that kicked off one of the best Fantastic Four stories ever.

But that was just the start of the story. In part three, Doom won his victory over Reed Richards. He imprisoned Reed in an arcane library and banished Reed and Sue’s son Franklin to Hell. Literally, Hell. The two cliffhangers at the end of issue 499 were so incredible that, even though I was on a family vacation and well away from my usual comic book store, I had to go out and buy a copy of issue 500. I simply couldn’t wait to find out what happened until I got back home. “Unthinkable” was a better blockbuster than any summer movie I saw that year. And I read the final part in issue 500 in my hotel room. And then I read it again.

Now that I’ve told you how much I loved it, and how good it is, I should probably tell you a little bit about it. The issue opens with a scene in which Dr. Strange attempts to free Reed Richards from his prison but fails. Reed quickly realizes that Strange can reach him but not free him and comes to the solution for his situation. He asks Dr. Strange to teach him to be a sorcerer. It’s a quick and powerful scene, showing two reasons why Reed is better than Doom. He actually has friends and loved ones who care about him and are willing to risk their own lives to free him. And he’s willing to admit that there’s something that he doesn’t know. He’s willing to learn. That’s why Reed has always been the better scientist than Doom. His pride doesn’t prevent him from assuming his own brilliance. It doesn’t stand in the way of him exploring the unknown. Writer Mark Waid has understood Reed Richards better than any other writer, including his own creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and that deep understanding is on display here.

Next up, Waid and Wieringo showcase the villain. Doom has defeated the other members of the Fantastic Four. He’s busy torturing them, while also holding Reed and Sue’s youngest daughter Valeria as a hostage. Then, we return to Reed Richards in action. He learns what he needs to, and as much as he distastes magic, Mr. Fantastic manages to free himself. He then begins a quest to find out what Doom has done to the rest of his team and his family, which are one and the same. There are two kinds of action: twisting and driving. Twisting action involves unexpected changes to the story, things you didn’t see coming. Twisting action can be thrilling. But there’s also driving action. Driving action is heading towards an ending that you can see coming, and it is the anticipation of that event that carries tension and emotional resonance. In the previous issues, Mark Waid gave us plenty of twisting action, particularly with the human sacrifice that started the story and the banishment of Franklin Richards to Hell. This issue is all about driving action. From the moment that Reed asks Dr. Strange to teach him sorcery, we know that we’re heading towards a confrontation between Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom. Every scene with one or the other increases our tension and anticipation. It’s like sitting on a hill watching two trains approach each other head on while on the same track. You see it coming. You know what’s going to happen. That’s what makes it incredible. And that’s Fantastic Four #500.

In order to up the stakes, half-way through the issue Waid has Dr. Doom defeat Dr. Strange and remove Reed Richards’ only ally. Now, it really is going to be a confrontation between the two of them alone. As we get closer to that confrontation, artist Mike Wieringo starts to draw the story bigger. He uses bigger panels, seemingly spilling over the side of the pages. He draws closer close-ups, so that we can see the resolve on Reed’s face and the anger in Doom’s eyes. The colors get bolder, as well with bright pinks and reds and vibrant greens. And then, Waid gives us the twist. Reed doesn’t use his new-found sorcerous powers to attack Doom. He uses them to free his family, once again reminding us of why Reed and Doom are different and why Reed will always be better than Doom.

The Fantastic Four fight Doom together. It’s a great battle, with some huge splash pages by Mike Wieringo and some great lines by Mark Waid, including Sue Storm-Richards’ adamant declaration, “GIVE ME MY SON!” We see the F.F. work together as a team, as a family. When one falls, another is immediately there to defend them or take their turn on the offensive. And finally, when it seems like Doom might still win after all, Reed Richards is able to free himself and deliver the finishing blow. It’s the moment we’ve been waiting to see all issue. For that matter, we’ve been waiting to see it since the start of the story. Let’s be honest, some fans have been waiting for that moment since the early ‘60s.

With Dr. Doom defeated, Reed and the rest of the Fantastic Four move on to the more pressing issue of freeing Franklin from Hell. Yet such an accomplishment doesn’t come without a price. The denizens of Hell won’t give Franklin up so easily, putting Reed in the position in which he must allow the demons to take Doom in Franklin’s stead. It’s a weighty decision, yet one that Reed makes justly. And this is the moment at which epic becomes tragic. Doom stretches out from Hell while Reed watches, touches him and uses his sorcery to disfigure Mr. Fantastic. The Fantastic Four emerge victorious, but not unscathed. And, we’ll learn in future issues, that Mr. Fantastic’s physical disfigurement are nothing compared to Franklin’s emotional scars after spending so much time in Hell.

Fantastic Four is truly a fantastic issue. Everything a great conclusion should be: epic, dynamic, tragic and not easily forgotten.

Avengers #500 by Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch,

September 2004

About a year after the success of Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-Man #500, Marvel Comics had the opportunity to celebrate another 500^th issue: The Avengers. While Fantastic Four #500 was the finale in a four-part epic, Avengers #500 would be the first-part in a new four-issue tale called alternately “Disassembled” or “Chaos.” The issue would also feature the debut of a new creative team, Brian Michael Bendis and David Finch. And, unknown to most readers at the time, Bendis and Finch’s duty would be to take apart the current Avengers team in order to make room for a re-launch of the title as New Avengers.

The issue opens with a quiet scene as the Avengers enjoy a meal together. They banter over their food, displaying the quick dialogue that Brian Michael Bendis is famous for. They tell stories about former foes, interjecting into each other’s speeches and finishing each other’s lines. The quiet scene doesn’t last long. By the bottom of the second page, the red lights come on and the mansion’s automatic defenses alert the  team to a security breach. The breach is quickly identified: former Avenger Jack of Hearts, thought to be dead has returned. Current Avenger Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man goes out to investigate. Jack of Hearts has survived. But he’s been badly injured. And apparently, he’s no longer able to contain his explosive powers. The quiet scene is now most definitely over. Jack of Hearts explodes. The mansion is destroyed. The grounds are on fire. The Avengers pick themselves up out of the rubble. They quickly discover that Jack’s explosion has killed Ant-Man as well.

From that opening tragedy, the story then shifts to other Avengers who weren’t at the mansion at the time. First, there’s Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, who suddenly finds himself drunk while addressing the United Nations despite not having had a drink in years. The Black Panther and Yellowjacket are both witnesses and targets of his rage before the Scarlet Witch steps in. The confrontation is set aside when they both receive the Avengers alarm.

The story returns to the mansion where Captain America has arrived to help coordinate the relief effort. Unfortunately, he can only watch as a quinjet approaches and is crashed into the already burning mansion by the Vision. At the time, the scene seemed fairly well-constructed with alternating panels between the quickly-approaching quinjet and close-ups of Captain America as he watches it come down before treating us to a big explosion on a two-page spread. Unfortunately, as beautiful as the scene may be to look at, it also exposes a flaw in the story that will become more and more evident as the story progresses: these Avengers don’t know how to respond to a disaster. We had already caught a brief glimpse of this flaw earlier as the Avengers who had been present at the mansion pulled themselves out of the rubble. The Wasp tried to give them instructions, but the others were sarcastic or slow to respond. It seemed forgivable, in light of the very recent explosion. But in this scene, Captain America seems to be paralyzed in the face of a threat. When he notices the crashing quinjet, he even begins to give an instruction before trailing off. He doesn’t bark out, “Everyone get down!” as someone with his leadership and experience would be likely to do. He simply stares, and does nothing. Even after the crash when other Avengers ask him for direction, Captain America says and does nothing. It’s always dangerous to tell an author how a story should have been written. Yet these are the Avengers, veterans of 500 issues, and they’ve faced disaster a time or two before. They’ve lost headquarters before, such as the barge that they lived on for a time. They’ve responded to disasters before. They’ve been attacked before. Though they may be dazed at first, they should know how to respond. They’re professionals. They’re the best. Yet, in this story, the Avengers are incompetent. Instead of a disaster forcing them to draw together, it causes them to squabble. Instead of responding quickly and decisively, they pause, they hem and haw. This level of incompetence will become ridiculous before the story is out. Here in issue #500, it’s already noticeable and a reason for concern.

Back to the story: The Vision steps out of the burning wreck of the quinjet. He gives a short speech- while the Avengers wait him out, of course- and then falls apart. Five Ultrons emerge from his collapsing body, and finally the Avengers attack. It’s actually a decent scene as the Avengers discuss strategy and wonder whether or not these disparate events- the Jack of Hearts explosion and the Ultron invasion- might somehow be connected. The scene takes an interesting turn, however, when She-Hulk begins to lose control of her powers and her faculties. She begins to “hulk out” as her cousin the Incredible Hulk used to do and in her rage, she pulls the Vision apart, destroying him. The other Avengers are in shock, allowing the She-Hulk to quickly defeat them. And the story ends as it began, with the death of an Avenger.

There is one last scene, however. A quick coda in which apparently two people are talking to each other about whether or not they should simply kill the Avengers or continue to toy with them as they’ve been doing.

Honestly, it’s not as bad an issue as I remember. There are the bookends of death which, although I may not like that favorite characters are being killed off, is an effective story-telling device. Furthermore, though the transformations of Iron Man and She-Hulk are unexplained, that’s intentional at this point. That’s the mystery, the hook to get the reader to want to buy the issue. There are enough hints that there’s a reason for these transformations- becoming drunk without drinking, and becoming a raging She-Hulk- that at this point, most readers would be content to let the mystery play out. Plus, the art is pretty good. David Finch provides us with several big explosions. He handles large settings like the interior of the U.N. He does a good job of varying the angle of view during the Ultron fight so that it seems frenetic as a fight should. And quite a few of his panels do a good job of capturing emotion, including one of Tony’s rage and another of a soldier’s shock at the death of the vision.

There’s a reason why I was excited to read issue 501, despite the few flaws in issue #500. The real problem with “Disassembled” is not the opening issue. Rather, the problem is that the flaws in the opening issue, which are minor at first, become more and more significant as the story goes along. We could forgive a temporarily stunned Captain America if he was competent from here on out. But, instead of overcoming this obstacle, Captain America becomes less competent as the story continues. The mystery behind the transformations is never explained satisfactorily. And the connection behind all of these events- a possibility that is suggested in this issue- is unsatisfactory as well. “Disassembled” is a bad story. But issue #500 is not a bad opening act.

And that’s it for the five hundreds. There was a Thor #500 as well, though the current Marvel regime doesn’t count it- probably because it happened before their watch, but possibly because Thor inherited it’s numbering from Journey into Mystery so there haven’t actually been 500 issues of Thor. I didn’t include it simply because I haven’t read it. But I did include the ones I have read: one great, one very good, and one better than I remembered.

The End.

More Recent Reviews: Wonder Woman, Wildguard and more…

Wonder Woman #21
By Gail Simone and Aaron Lopresti

I love this title. And I love Gail Simone. She “gets” Wonder Woman in a way that few others have gotten a character. It reminds me of Mark Waid’s take on Reed Richards. Unfortunately, while Gail “gets” this character, I didn’t exactly “get” this story. I talked to my wife about it after reading it and realize that I had almost no idea what was going on. I knew that Wonder Woman had teamed up with Beowulf and some claw guy, but I still wasn’t sure why or what they were trying to accomplish. I didn’t even realize that this was supposed to be one of DC’s alternate earths, with stand-ins for Batman, Robin and Oracle. I’m sure that was mentioned, or at least hinted at in the previous issue but it just didn’t sink in. So I had pretty much no idea what was going on. I liked the barbarian fights though, even without context. The good part of this issue was actually the sub-plot. Back on the regular earth, Diana Prince’s partner Nemesis has been given a new job- to spy on her. He’s supposed to find out what her connection is to the Amazons and if the Amazons intend any future hostilities. It’s a nice little maze to give to a secondary character. And I like the way that Gail is using the stories that came before her tenure to create interesting situations instead of just ignoring them, even though those stories were pretty awful. I was also amused in the way that Nemesis’ assignment eventually led him into a surprise confrontation with the sentient apes who have been allies of Wonder Woman. That’s where the interesting stuff is happening and I’m ready for Wonder Woman to be done with this other adventure so she can get back to it. With two more issues to go in the Beowulf story, that’s not exactly a good sign.

Wildguard Insider #2

By Todd Nauck

There are three main pieces to Wildguard Insider #2. The first is a short story featuring Lily Hammer, one of the heroes who made the Wildguard team at the end of the first mini-series. The second is a continuing series of comic strips that was originally published online. The third is a pair of “Where Are They Now?” profiles telling us about some of the heroes who didn’t make the cut during Wildguard: Casting Call. The first story is fairly decent. I enjoyed Lilly Hammer’s banter with the late night host and her attempts to get rid of her accent. I was intrigued by the ghosts that only she could hear. And I liked that she fell back into her Scandinavian accent once she started fighting and lost control of her emotions. Plus, to my surprise, I didn’t even mind that it was all a dream, as it showed us a very strong glimpse of Lilly’s hopes and fears. The strips were pretty good as well. There’s not a lot of action in them. It’s mostly a behind-the-scenes look at Wildguard as heroes deal with fan mail, angry fans who don’t think they deserved to be on the team and fines. We certainly learn a lot about Four- both her heroic past and her managerial style. As for the “Where Are They Now?” features, I enjoyed the Astro Girl story with Ray Height art. It had a lot of action and a really good pace to it. The Power Temp story wasn’t quite as strong, but with the rest of the issue as good as it was, I’m willing to give a two-page tale at the end a bit of a pass.

The Twelve #6

By J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston

Straczynski has taken a lot of flack for his work on established characters like Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. I’ll admit that I’ve dished some of it out, too. However, when JMS gets to work on characters he’s created he’s once again one of the best writers around. The Twelve aren’t exactly his own inventions. They’re obscure heroes from the Golden Age of comics, which means that most fans had never even heard of them before. I hadn’t even heard of some of them, and I’m a Golden Age history buff. And that means that JMS gets to put his own stamp on them, updating them and giving them characteristics and inconsistencies and personalities and depth. So far, it’s been a wonder to behold. Each issue reveals a new layer for at least one of the characters. In this issue, we see further progress for the Laughing Mask- arrested for a crime he committed back in the ‘40s- and the Black Widow- as the original goth vixen. But the big changes are reserved for Rockman and the Phantom Reporter. The Phantom Reporter has been our narrator and our point-of-view character for the story so far. With this issue, we see him continue to struggle to adapt to his new surroundings and finally decide that the only way he can fit in is through his costumed identity. As for Rockman, we are finally told the truth about his origin. It’s a sad story, full of sorrow, and his superiors decide that he’s actually better off not knowing. Chris Weston is the perfect artist for this story, as well. He does a great job of drawing faces, differentiating them from one another and depicting a variety of emotions. And he’s able to bring intensity to every scene, even those that don’t feature fights or costumes or capes- even those that feature the Phantom Reporter slumped over his typewriter with writer’s block. So far, The Twelve measures up to JMS’ other original takes on superheroes, Rising Stars and Supreme Power.

Madman Atomic Comics #9

By Mike Allred

Madman has been maddeningly inconsistent. Mike Allred has intentionally turned Madman into an experimental comic. Some of the experiments have been admirable, such as the issue in which he drew every panel in the different style of artists he admired. Some of the experiments have failed fairly spectacularly. A few of the storytelling choices have been misguided- such as combining Madman’s first love and It! Girl into one person so that he can love two women at once. I think it was supposed to be romantic, but I found it to be revolting. However, a few of the issues have been, well, genius and that’s how I would describe this particular issue. The basic story is surprisingly simple. Madman, Mr. Gum and It! Girl are fighting these weird creatures from another dimension that look like windsocks with Rolling Stones lips on one end. It! Girl is knocked out on the first page and the other two heroes are left scrambling to fight the monsters and rescue the girl. Eventually, the other Atomics enter the story- some zooming in on a flying saucer and others walking home with the groceries. So it’s not that this is an amazing story. It’s that it’s told in an amazing way. I’m not sure I can even describe it in a way that does it justice. Basically, the story progresses in three different ways: the art depicting the action, dialogue of running commentary between Madman and Mr. Gum, and boxes of Madman’s thoughts. Each of these progresses the story in a different way. You can read just the dialogue and understand the story on one level. You can read just the inner monologue and understand the story on a different level. Or you can jump back and forth to get an even richer story. The art is as full of depth as the words. Each page is a double splash and the stores in the background show us how the fight is progressing down the street. There are full figures in action in the foreground, with usually multiple images of Madman and a wildly contorted Mr. Gum. And there are Easter Eggs in the background as Mike Allred pays homage to friends and stores. I found it to be an incredible issue, engaging on so many levels. But you do have to be in the right frame of mind for it. I talked to my wife about it and she complained that she wasn’t willing to work that hard to make sense of the story. Madman has become an experimental comic. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. And sometimes it works for one person while not working for another. This issue, however, worked wonders for me.

Invincible #50

By Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley and Cory Walker

Another wow! Robert Kirkman has been building up to this issue for a long time and it was worth it. I’m blown away. This is what comic books are supposed to be about. Okay, enough gushing. What was so great about it? Well, there are the moments that make you gasp in fear, such as the scene in which Clarence Steadman turns off the subterfuge setting on the white room and Invincible sees that he’s up against an armada of undead soldiers. There are the moments that make you want to cheer, such as the scene in which Invincible flies away as fast as he can in order to get out of the range of the transmitter that’s messing with his inner ear equilibrium. There are the moments when the art takes your breath away and you just want to savor it, such as the scene in which Clarence Steadman uses the teleportation door to follow Invincible across the country. There are the moments that make you smile, such as Invincible’s declaration of romantic feelings for Atom Eve. And there are moments that make you laugh, such as Invincible’s half-brother’s reaction to that same kiss. “Gross!” Plus, there’s so much more that makes this issue great. Clarence Steadman has been like a father figure to Invincible ever since he own father was forced to leave the planet. Now, Invincible has to fight another father and you can tell that it hurts him. Then there’s the back-up story telling you the origin of Clarence Steadman. Kirkman makes you hate him and feel sorry for him in the same issue. That’s pretty impressive. And of course, there’s a Science Dog back-up story which is just plain ol’ fun. I just don’t have enough superlatives for this issue. But I do know that I can’t wait to read the next issue. And I also know that I want to read this one all over again.

Green Lantern Corps #25

By Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

Unlike some of the other comics I read this past week, I don’t have much to say about Green Lantern Corps. It was just a good solid story. There was a lot of great action, as the Lanterns fight off the Black Mercy plants. There were a couple of nice twists. First, as Mother Mercy reveals herself and explains the origin and the purpose of these plants. And second, as Mongul makes his move against the Lanterns. The origin story gives you an entirely different perspective on the Black Mercy. You suddenly understand why these plants would exist in the first place, and how they were designed for good before Mongul misused them for evil. And the fight does a great job of demonstrating the resolve of the different Lanterns. Almost every Lantern gets a page or a scene which highlights them- Arisia, Soranik Natu, Kyle Rayner, and so on. It’s simply an exceptional use of an ensemble cast and an action story that’s well worth reading.

Chuck #1

By Peter Johnson, Zev Borow and Jeremy Haun

Almost every year, I find that one new show that becomes an immediate favorite. In 2004, it was Lost. In 2006, it was Heroes. And in 2007, it was Chuck. So I was pleased when I discovered that DC had obtained the license to publish Chuck comics through their Wildstorm imprint. This first issue was decent but not great. Some of the good stuff: there was an amusing opening in which Chuck dreamed that he and his friends were the cast of Gilligan’s Island. The writers did a good job of capturing the annoying yet amusing chatter of Chuck’s co-workers. The artist did a good job of capturing the feel of the tv show- as with Sarah’s sunny entrance- while also using the strengths of a comic book- such as showing a cross-section of the secret base. And they did a great job of making this a big story, by having several of Chuck’s former adversaries all escape prison together. Yet it wasn’t a perfect comic. The artist didn’t always do a good job of capturing facial likenesses, and I found myself occasionally confused as to whether I was looking at a spruced-up Chuck or his rival Blaine. Chuck’s almost precognitive flashes as the Intersect are a big part of the television show and they didn’t really capture the feel of that for the comic book. And I don’t think that the writers did a good job of showing the relationship between Chuck’s sister and her boyfriend “Awesome” in the limited time that they were shown. It made me feel like the understood some of the characters, but not all of them. Chuck #1 was a decent comic, but not a great one and not quite as good as I would want it to be.

Booster Gold #10

By Geoff Johns, Jeff Katz and Dan Jurgens

Put this in the same category as Green Lantern Corps. Good fun, plenty of action, solid story-telling, decent characterization- only good things to say but not a lot to say other than that. This issue is part of the “Blue and Gold” story in which Booster Gold uses his newfound access to time-travel to go back and save his best friend, Blue Beetle, from his death at the hands of Max Lord. The rescue hasn’t gone as planned. He saved Blue Beetle, sure, but now the two of them are flitting through time fleeing from both their allies and their enemies. Rip Hunter is still trying to track down Booster Gold for interfering with the time stream. And several time-travelers are trying to kill Blue Beetle, including Despero and a Blue Beetle dressed in black. The cover teases us that somebody will successfully kill Blue Beetle but we won’t be able to guess who it is. I did guess actually. I knew that Blue Beetle is basically a decent guy and he would sacrifice himself to save the time stream if that’s what was needed. And, not surprisingly to me, that’s exactly what happens near the end of the issue. However, that’s not quite the end of the story as Booster Gold is pulled one million months into the future in the wake of the Blue Beetle’s death. So I guess I did have something bad to say about this issue, after all: I guessed the ending based on the cover. But I really enjoyed the story that got us to that point. And truthfully, I had a feeling we were eventually going to have to get to that ending from the moment that Booster Gold first saved Blue Beetle several issues ago. So it’s not as if this issue failed to deliver on a surprise so much as it is fulfilled the story you knew it had to tell from the beginning.

Angel: After the Fall #8

By Joss Whedon, Bryan Lynch and others

I was really looking forward to the “First Night” issues- the three issues that would tell us what happened on the first night after the end of Angel season five and how the various characters came to be in the places they were in at the beginning of Angel: After the Fall. Unfortunately, the sum total of these issues has been disappointing. There have been a few gems in there, such as John Byrne’s story in rhyme of Lorne’s founding of a new sanctuary. But mostly, they’ve just been vignettes. Even though they’re short stories, I would have still liked each story to have a beginning, a middle and a end. Also unfortunately, the quality of each issue has been less than the one before. Which means that this third issue was the worst of the three. The art on the “Gwen” story was bad- Gwen looked different depending on the angle. The art on the “civilians” story was even worse. At least the art on the “Gunn” story at the end was decent, but it was still of “fill-in” quality rather than the excellence that we had been seeing earlier in the series. The stories didn’t have much meat to them either. Gwen almost makes out with a guy- who is supposed to be drawn as if the part was being played by Nathan Fillion, but Fabio Mantovani’s Nathan Fillion is drawn even more inconsistently than his Gwen. Then Gwen doesn’t make out with him. Then she gets her powers back. Then she accidentally kills him. The story explains how Gwen got her powers back, but not why she’s now one of the good guys. The civilian story is supposed to be a love story in the midst of the apocalypse. I would’ve liked for it to work, but it didn’t. Neither character is sympathetic enough for us to really care whether or not they find love. Again, the Gunn story is the best. We see how Gunn became a vampire. And we see that Gunn still hates other vampires despite being one of them. It’s a good, but not great, beginning for him. But it’s not enough to carry the issue on its own and would’ve been one of the weaker stories in the first issue. Oh well. Next issue brings us back to the story we started with, and hopefully the quality we started with as well.

Recent Reviews: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Justice Society of America and more…

It’s been a while since I reviewed a batch of new comics (since February, to be precise). So it’s about time I do it again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #15
by Drew Goddard and Georges Jeanty:

Wow. Issue fifteen is the excellent conclusion to the “Wolves at the Gate” story by Drew Goddard. It has pretty much everything you would want. It opens with a death scene shown from the perspective of the person who’s dying and the unspoken declaration of love for Xander by Renee. As a Buffy fan, you feel great remorse for Xander. This isn’t the first time that he’s lost someone he loves to this crusade. There’s also a big fight scene between a cadre of slayers and an army of vampires. Goddard and Jeanty do a great job of balancing the big fight with individual battles within the larger melee, especially focusing on more familiar characters like Willow. So, yeah, there’s a witch fight between Willow and Kumiko which is probably the best magic-on-magic fight I’ve seen since the wizard’s duel in “The Fellowship of the Ring.” There’s another great fight between giant Dawn and Mecha-Dawn. Hey, if you’re going to Tokyo, you might as well have a scene that pays homage to Godzilla. That particular scene is made even better by the supportive commentary from Andrew, whose entire life has been leading up to this moment. Besides the great fights, there’s also plenty of humor and subtle character moments. My one complaint is that it was occasionally difficult to distinguish between Dracula and Twilight. Considering that one is the chief villain and the other a temporary but untrustworthy ally that was a significant detail. Even so, with all of the other good stuff going on in this issue, the best was probably the relationship between Dracula and Xander. We see that Dracula really does care for Xander. And we see Xander grow in his relationship with Dracula, finally standing up to him. Buffy is a great series and this was a great issue.

Justice Society of America #16
by Geoff Johns and Dale Eaglesham

I had been looking forward to the Kingdom Come story-line but lately, JSA has seemed a little slow. I suppose you could accuse this issue of being slow as well as the story isn’t progressed that far in the issue. But in this case, that’s not a problem as the issue itself is so well done. The basic plot is pretty simple. Magog has just been killed and in his place stands Gog. The Justice Society doesn’t know quite what to do. The real story is in their reaction. Some call Gog “a god.” Others are in disbelief. They follow Gog around as he gives gifts of life to the African natives. The heroes aren’t sure if they should stop him or help him. There are some great scenes including a stand-off between Mr. Terrific and Amazing Man as they debate the value of the scientific approach and the approach of faith. Yet the surprising heart of this story has to do with Damage. Johns opens the issue with a quick run-down of Damage’s life from his own point of view. We discover that Damage’s name is more than just a description of his powers. It’s also an apt description of Grant himself. He’s been damaged by a life history filled with abandonment and abuse. So it’s not surprising that Damage is one of the heroes most skeptical of Gog. It is surprising how Gog reacts to Damage: smiling and then healing him outside and in. There’s no big fight in this issue of JSA. But it’s a very good issue anyway, raising questions and issues in a way that is neither one-sided nor trite. And it’s definitely an issue that makes you want to come back for the next one, just to see how it will all work out in the end.

Noble Causes #34
by Jay Faerber and Yildiray Cinar

Noble Causes continues its excellent return from a planned hiatus with this issue. There’s a big battle with a giant Pharaoh. But the real battle is the inter-family squabble as the team is torn apart by the accusation that Frost tried to rape Surge’s girlfriend Amy. The argument shows the rifts that already exist in the family- that Surge has never really felt that he fits in, and that many of the others don’t really trust Celeste who’s proven to be unfaithful in her relationships in the past. Of course, that’s just the argument on the table. Jay Faerber lets the audience in on even more secrets. So while we’re captivated by the current arguments, we’re also salivating at the thought of future arguments that will occur when other secrets get out- especially the arrangement between Doc’s current wife Olympia and his former wife Gaia. There are a couple of other nice features worth mentioning. For one, Yildiray Cinar continues to show his flexibility as an artist, drawing intimate family fights with close-ups and impersonal fights verse villains from afar, and even mixing in a flashback scene with a real Bronze Age feel to it. The other nice feature was the way in which Jay Faerber is building his own little world. He’s previously brought Venture and the Firebirds into Noble Causes. Now, he builds connections to his other title Dynamo 5 by including Captain Dynamo in the flashback and featuring Dynamo 5 villain Bonechill.

Wolverine: Dangerous Games
By Simon Spurrier and Ben Oliver, and Rick Remender and Jerome Opena

I’ve been getting into Wolverine quite a bit recently so I’ve started ordering a lot of these extra one-shots without reading the solicitation information. I found out from X-Axis that this particular issue was going to involve fox-hunting. While Paul O’Brien of that site was pretty cynical about the likelihood that this would be more treatise than story, I was still willing to give the issue a chance. Unfortunately, O’Brien was right. There are plenty of tidbits explaining to us why fox-hunting is unfair, wrong and evil. The hunters are shown to be either stupid or evil. Even the dogs are drawn in a way that makes them look like demons. Spurrier does try to give us a couple of twists to make the story worthwhile. The main hunter had actually planned to get Wolverine involved because he thought that Logan would be a more compelling prey than the foxes. And the hippy who first gets Wolverine involved in the protest turns out to be a traitor working for the hunter. But while that does give the story something more to go on, it doesn’t elevate it above its trite roots as a treatise against fox-hunting. The quote by Oscar Wilde at the end of the story only confirms that this is little more than a morality play. The one good thing is the Ben Oliver art, which has a crisp Carlos Pacheco-like look to it. The back-up is a little bit better. Wolverine is in Thailand, protecting a monastery from a crime syndicate. There’s a glimpse of romance and a brutal battle. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, but that set-up usually works for Wolverine and it does here as well. My complaint this time is that Wolverine is again shown to be a remorseless killer. I think that particular characterization is off. He does have honor and remorse, even if he has to occasionally set them aside in order to get the job done. He’ll kill when he must, but he doesn’t take glee in it (as he did in the fox-hunt story). As he was once known to say, what he does isn’t very pretty and he’s at least aware of it.

Rann/Thanagar Holy War #1
By Keith Giffen and Ron Lim

I enjoyed the first Rann/Thanagar War, which was depicted in one of the mini-series leading up to Infinite Crisis. Despite my growing disinterest in DC comics right now (or should that be decreasing interest?), I went ahead and picked this up hoping to be able to recapture some of the enjoyment I felt a couple of years ago. The issue certainly started out okay. Katar Hol, aka Hawkman, is infiltrating his own people of Thanagar. He opposed the earlier war and is afraid the religious undercurrents of his society might lead to a second war. Adam Strange, the human who has relocated to Rann, is Hawkman’s ally in this. However, Adam Strange has discovered something sinister on Rann. Whereas Rann had always been a society centered on science, after the last war the Rannians have begun to embrace religion. Hawkman and Strange worry that the two fundamentalist viewpoints will lead to another war. This is the point at which I started to have my first problem with this comic. The Rann/Thanagar conflict had previously been used as a metaphor for the wars between science and religion. While I don’t think that particular conflict needs to exist in the way that it does, I at least have to admit that it does exist. However, now the Rann/Thanagar war is being shown as a battle between two religions. Again, there is both historical and current precedent for that situation. But I don’t really appreciate that religion is being shown as an entirely insidious force while all of the science-minded people are shown to be both rational and ethical. It’s a little too narrow a viewpoint, even for comics. I much prefer the openness I saw in JSA. I wouldn’t write this series off just for that. After all, it’s early and the conflict may yet twist into something else. But I am admittedly leery at this point. That concern was joined by another as the story seemed to stall as it continued. Keith Giffen is working with a large cast. After introducing Hawkman, Adam Strange and the current conflict, he then proceeds to introduce the new Captain Comet (just “Comet,” sorry), Tigorr of the Omega Men, Prince Gavyn of Throneworld (Starman III) and others. Not all of these characters tie into the story immediately, though I suspect they will at some point. However, that made the issue a series of introductions rather than a story. Giffen would have been better off holding back on some of those introductions until the second issue so that more of the story could have been played out in this one. I did enjoy aspects of this comic. I liked the Ron Lim art and it certainly started out well. But I’m not sure I enjoyed enough of this issue to pick up the second one.

Star Wars: Rebellion 14
By Jeremy Barlow and Colin Wilson

At one point, Rebellion was the weakest of the Star Wars titles. That’s no longer the case. The current arc, “Small Victories,” has been the best of this title so far and one of the better Star Wars stories of the year. This conclusion continues the quality. The issue opens with an opportunity for Colin Wilson to show off. Being a Star Wars artist requires the ability to draw technology. Wilson does a great job here depicting multiple Star Destroyers in the midst of evasive maneuvers, a collision and a crash. Later on, Wilson will get another shot with a beautiful B-wing splash page followed by a second space battle. The story is just as strong. Luke, Leia and the other members of the Rebellion strike team are desperate to get off of the planet now that their main objective has been achieved. And there’s a tense moment as they debate whether or not to look for Deena Shan before they depart. As one pilot notes, they don’t even know if she’s alive or dead. Deena has become a real star in this story and Barlow and Wilson do an incredible job of portraying her. Wilson draws her with blood and tears while Barlow gives her dialogue with a powerful mix of tenacity and resignation. We know that the budding romance between Deena and Luke won’t work out, but it’s fun to see it start to blossom anyway.

Captain Britain and MI:13 #2
By Paul Cornell and Leonard Kirk

After an excellent first issue, the second issue of Captain Britain and MI:13 is a bit of a step backwards. That’s not to say that it isn’t a good issue. It just isn’t as great as the first. The Leonard Kirk art is occasionally breath-taking. I loved the splash page of the Skrull armada and the picture of the Black Knight’s body being split apart. Plus, there are some great story moments. Faiza Hussain is turning into an interesting character. With Faiza in this book and Dust in Young X-Men, Marvel is creating a couple of very strong Muslim characters. And I appreciated that none of the current heroes were able to pull the sword from the stone. It was a good twist on the usual tale, and it fits what we know of Pete Wisdom and “John Lennon.” Unfortunately, the story does get a little complicated at points. Tink comes out of nowhere in this story and I’m not entirely sure how Oberon is supposed to fit in with Otherworld (the home of the Captain Britain corps currently being invaded by Skrulls). It’s possible these things make sense to people who have read Cornell’s “Wisdom” mini-series but they’re a little confusing here. However, the first issue was strong enough and there are enough good moments here that I’ll definitely be back for another issue. Plus, how could I pass up getting a chance to read about a super Skrull magical monster with all of earth’s mystical items at his disposal?

The Best X-Men Stories of the 1990s, Part 4- Honorable Mentions, continued

 We’re not done yet! At least, I’m not. After three columns and sixteen great X-Men stories from the 1990s, I still have a few more to go.

X-Babies, X-Men #46-47, 1995: Before he became a writer for the X-Men, Scott Lobdell was a stand-up comic. This story is a reminder why. It’s hilarious, with a great situation, great comedic characters and some great lines. The basic story features the X-Babies, miniature versions of the X-Men who are creations of Mojo made to entertain his television audience empire. However, the X-Babies escape from Mojo’s world and wind up in New York. They’re kids. But they’re immensely powerful kids who think they’re adults. And that makes them a big nuisance. The X-Men are brought in to control the chaos. Meanwhile Mojo’s minions Gog and Magog are sent in to bring his entertainment slaves/stars back into the fold which means that there’s a genuine threat in addition to the kiddie chaos. 

The kiddie chaos is great with some of the X-Babies spouting lisps and all of them getting into trouble of one kind or another. The genuine threat is pretty good, too. Mojo may be an overused villain by this point, but Gog and Magog are fairly new, interesting and powerful. Plus, this issue features some great characterization for the actual X-Men. Bishop had always been suspicious of Gambit, thinking that the Cajun would become a traitor to the X-Men. But in this issue, they start to hang out together in an odd-couple buddy-movie pairing that really works well. It works so well that they’re later given a mini-series together. That relationship really starts here, right in the midst of what is probably the funniest X-Men story ever written. Humor, action and great characterization: it’s hard to ask for more than that.

Warriors of the Ebon Night/Quest for the Crimson Dawn, Uncanny X-Men #329-330, 1996: I’m a big fan of the Joe Madureira run on Uncanny X-Men. There are a lot of good stories in there, several of which already made the top ten. One of my other favorites is this little two-parter. In the previous story, Psylocke was injured by Sabretooth as he escaped from the mansion. In this story, Wolverine and Archangel set off on a mystic quest to find a potion that will heal her. It’s a simple enough story, but it’s all of the extras that Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira throw in there that makes it so much fun. Wolverine fights ninjas, which is always fun. Dr. Strange shows up as a guest-star. There’s a great new character in Gomurr the Ancient- a small, elderly man who also happens to be an excellent martial artist. And even Angel gets into the swing of things with some open hand combat himself. Plus, there are the great visuals. Madureira gets to draw a ninja made of steam. The way that the light shimmers off of this ninja looks almost electric. It’s masterful. It’s not a big epic, but it’s beautiful to look at and fun to read which is why Ebon Night/Crimson Dawn remains one of my favorite X-Men stories of the decade.

Know Thy Enemy, Uncanny X-Men #337, 1996: It seems like the worst crossovers have the best epilogues. That was true of “X-Tinction Agenda” which was immediately followed by the excellent “Too Many Mutants” (Uncanny X-Men #273). It was true of “X-Cutioner’s Song” which was followed by “Song’s End.” And it’s true of “Onslaught” which was followed by “Know Thy Enemy” and “Man.” This particular issue, “Know Thy Enemy,” focuses on the team as they pick up the pieces after the disastrous events caused by Onslaught. There’s a scene in which Wolverine gives advice to Charles Xavier, a wonderful reversal of their usual roles. There are scenes with J. Jonah Jameson, Graydon Creed and Bastion, setting up some of the stories for the coming year. But the heart of the issue is a simple scene in Scott and Jean’s home, which had been converted from a boathouse into their private living quarters. The scene takes place in the kitchen as Jean prepares breakfast. Slowly, other members of the team wander in. Some, like Quicksilver, are planning to say good-bye. Others, like Psylocke, are simply looking for company. As the teammates slowly gather together, they begin to talk about their experiences. They talk about missing teammates. They talk about their feelings- why Joseph doesn’t want to be called Magneto, how Psylocke is still afraid after her earlier injuries, and so on. But more important than any one question or any one conversation is the fact that the X-Men are simply spending time together. They’re friends. They’re family. And, despite all of the dangers they’ve faced, they enjoy each other’s company and a bit of normality over a plate of pancakes.

Operation: Zero Tolerance, Uncanny X-Men #346 and X-Men #65-69, 1997: The X-Men crossovers tend to be stories that I either love or loathe. They’re either among my favorites- such as “Fatal Attractions,” “The Phalanx Covenant” and “The Age of Apocalypse” all of which made my list of the top stories of the decade- or else I think they’re awful- such as “X-Tinction Agenda” and “X-Cutioner’s Song.” “Operation: Zero Tolerance” is one of the few crossovers that holds the middle ground. It’s very good, but not quite good enough to make the top ten. Similar to “The Phalanx Covenant,” the main X-Men are taken out of the picture and “Operation: Zero Tolerance” focuses on lesser characters. In this case, the X-Men are quickly captured by Bastion’s Sentinels and Iceman- who escaped the initial onslaught- is forced to try and put a new team of X-Men together. I really like the band of oddball mutants that he gathers together. Spider-Man, in a nice guest-appearance to start the story, urged Marrow to seek out the X-Men in Uncanny #346. So that’s one. Iceman finds another in Cecelia Reyes, a doctor who wants to be doctor and not a mutant on the run. Unfortunately for her, Bastion’s Sentinels don’t give her that choice. Iceman, often the least-respected X-Man, rescues her and convinces her to help at least temporarily. And finally, there’s Maggott, who doesn’t have as much as role in this story as the other two. I think it’s great to read about Iceman and Cecelia on the run from Bastion. And I think it’s great to read about Marrow’s quest to find the X-Men in order to ask them for help after having earlier sworn to kill them. I’m a big fan of redemption stories and “Operation: Zero Tolerance” represents Marrow’s first step down that path. The tie-ins in Wolverine and Generation X are pretty good too. Wolverine features the captured X-Men attempting to escape and Generation X first shows Jubilee in captivity and then the rest of the kids on their own after the adult X-Men are defeated. My complaint, and the reason why this story stayed out of the top ten, is that the overall story seems a little drawn out. The covers illustrate my point: issues 66, 67 and 69 all feature a variation of the same scene in which Iceman faces off against Bastion. I really like the characters spotlighted, both the old ones like Iceman and the new ones like Marrow. And I like the story. I just wish it was a little tighter.

Reunion/The Sky is Falling, Uncanny X-Men #356-357, 1998: The Chris Bachalo run on Uncanny X-Men was remarkably short. He drew only 11 issues on the title, in just over a year. But as a big fan of his work on Generation X and on this title, I had to include at least one of his stories. This little two-parter is probably his best. I think that Bachalo must have really liked to draw the X-Women. His work seemed to especially shine on stories that featured Rogue or Phoenix. This particular tale is actually a reunion of the five original X-Men, called in to investigate a disturbance in a small town in Alaska. Another thing that I really liked about Bachalo’s work was the way in which he would use specific images to create a visual theme and unity for an issue. Writer Steven Seagle gave him the perfect opportunity with this story, featuring a Native American Crow God as the tormentor of the town. Bachalo had previously drawn birds for the Rogue-centric story “Blackbirds” in issue #353. Now, he had the opportunity to do it all over again, plastering the pages with crow creations. It was a visual smorgasbord. Steven Seagle’s story was pretty fun, too, with a Scooby-Doo type mystery and the old gang back together again.

Children of the Atom, Uncanny X-Men #360 and X-Men #80, 1998: My fondness for this two-part crossover is based mostly on my memory of anticipation. This was a story that promised big things. It featured the return of Colossus, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat to the regular team after their years of service on Excalibur. It featured a brand new set of villains. These villains had interesting appearances, conceived mostly by regular artist Carlos Pacheco. They had interesting and powerful abilities. They even claimed to be the real X-Men. And though the X-Men could deny it, they couldn’t deny that these new villains seemed to have a connection to the team. Each of these mutants seemed to bear a remarkable similarity to one of the X-Men. Several even seemed to be the combination of current or former X-Men. So there was a cool mystery- who are these new X-Men, where did they come from and what is their connection- if any- to the real team? And there was a really cool fight between two equally matched sides. X-Men #80 featured one of the best team vs. team fights since the X-Men went up against the Marauders in the late ‘80s. Yet despite the excellence of these two issues, the story always reminds me more of unfulfilled promise. Some of that has to do with my own expectations. I was disappointed that Excalibur was canceled in order to facilitate the return of the three X-Men to the main title. After this reintroduction story, the Excalibur trio ends up being underused in Uncanny X-Men except for a few Alan Davis stories in 1999. Plus, the new X-Men never become the rivals I wanted them to be. In fact, they’re never used again. That’s probably because the end of the mystery is slightly confusing. It seems like the enemies were constructs created by Cerebro. But how Cerebro was able to create constructs outside of the confines of the Danger Room is never really answered. And why Cerebro decides to test the team in this manner is unanswered as well. Perhaps those questions would have been answered had the titles not shifted creative teams later that year. As it is, the story promises a lot- the return of several X-Men, the introduction of a new team of villains- and even delivers in the short-term. But the title is unable to follow through on the promise in the long-term, leaving this story short of the greatness that would’ve gotten it into the top ten.

 

And that’s going to have to be it. I could have probably included even more stories but I had to draw the line somewhere. Besides, twenty-two stories including honorable mentions, makes for a fairly sufficient list of the best X-Men stories of the 1990s.

The End.

Going Back to the Golden Age

Written by Chris Fluit

Friday, 24 August 2007

It’s not unusual for two people to have the same idea at the same time.  Nikola Tesla and Guigliemo Marconi worked on their wireless radios contemporaneously.  What’s true in science is also true in entertainment.  Volcano and Dante’s Peak both appeared in theatres in 1997.  Antz and A Bug’s Life entered theatres within a month of each other in 1999.  In comics, friends Len Wein and Roy Thomas created separate swamp creatures Swamp Thing and Man-Thing in 1971.  And now, it seems like everybody has the same idea again: let’s resurrect some Golden Age characters.  This summer, three separate companies announced upcoming titles featuring Golden Age characters. Admittedly, it’s not unusual for comics to star Golden Age characters.  At DC, Superman and Batman star in multiple titles while Wonder Woman is one of their longest-running heroes.  The Justice Society of America is one of their biggest team books and it features several characters who debuted in the Golden Age plus others who have ties to the Golden Age.  SHAZAM, formerly of Fawcett, starred in two new mini-series this year.  Even Marvel plays with some of their Golden Age characters.  They made big news earlier in the year by killing off Captain America.  And Sub-Mariner is starring in his own mini-series while also appearing in other series such as Avengers: Illuminati.  Many Golden Age characters are still around and are active, major figures in the current comic book universes.  And yet, the new titles that were announced this summer are unusual.  They aren’t going to feature long-running and still popular Golden Age characters.  Instead, they’re each going to resurrect Golden Age characters which have been dormant for a long time.  Many of these characters have fallen outside the lines of copyright protection and are now in the public domain.  Indeed, that’s a big reason why the current companies are going to tell stories with the older characters: because they can.  Some of the characters haven’t seen publication since the 1940s.   But I guess the time is right to bring them back.  Why else would three separate groups at three separate companies all come up with such similar ideas? SUPERPOWERS by Alex Ross, Jim Krueger and Dynamite Of the three projects, this is the one that I’m most excited about.  This isn’t Alex Ross’ first crack at a nostalgia book.  Indeed, from Marvels to Justice to covers for Battle of the Planets and Space Ghost, Ross’ career seems to be defined by looking backwards.  And personally, I have no problem with that.  With the notable exception of Kingdom Come (which did have some nostalgic elements, as well), I’ve always preferred Ross’ backward looking books than his forward looking works like Earth X.  You can feel the passion in the pages.  And Ross does a great job of bringing the readers along with him.  The early artwork looks powerful.  It features some of the most popular characters of the era like the original Daredevil, now renamed The ‘Devil so as to avoid confusion (and lawsuits) with Marvel’s current star.  There’s also the Black Terror, one of the Nedor heroes who most recently appeared in Alan Moore’s America’s Best Comics titles Tom Strong and Terra Obscura.  There’s the Flame, one of Fox’s “big three” characters who somehow didn’t manage the second life of other characters such as his housemate the Blue Beetle.  There’s the Mask and Masquerade (the new name for Miss Masque).  There’s the Green Lama, the Yellow Claw and a whole lot more.    I’m actually a big of a Golden Age buff.  I’ve got history books about the era.  I’ve got reprint books featuring these characters.  I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for them.  And I’m eager to see a story that looks to be both exciting and respectful. The Next Issue Project by Erik Larsen and Image Of the three projects, this is the one I’m most likely to pass on without even trying it.  The basic premise is this: Erik Larsen and other Image creators will create the “next issue” of a canceled Golden Age comic whose characters are now in the public domain.  For example, we’ll get a peak at Shock Comics #45 featuring Shock Gibson, Crack Comics #63 featuring Captain Triumph and the Clock and Fantastic Comics #24 featuring Samson, the third of Fox’s “big three.” My interest level could change depending on the announced creative teams.  The cover to Crack Comics appears to be drawn by Mike Allred and if he’s contributing more than a cover, I could be convinced to give it a try.  But if it’s primarily an Erik Larsen project, then I’m not that interested.  I’m not a big Erik Larsen fan in the first place.  I’ve enjoyed his work here on there.  I liked the early Savage Dragon and his Aquaman work wasn’t bad- it just seemed that way because he followed Peter David on the title.  However, I haven’t enjoyed Erik Larsen’s work when he’s gone for nostalgia.  For example, I didn’t enjoy his Defenders work with Kurt Busiek at all.  He brought such a strong ‘70s sensibility to the project that it had the tendency to exaggerate the stylistic flaws of the time.  It may have been meant as a tribute, but it came off more like an unintentional parody.  And I’m concerned that he would do the same thing here.  He would try to make it too Golden-Agey.  It wouldn’t actually be true to the Golden Age.  Instead, it would be an exaggerated Golden Age, one that would appeal to neither modern fans nor real Golden Age buffs.  At least, that’s my fear.  I’d be happy to have Erik Larsen prove me wrong.   The Twelve by J. Michael Straczynski, Chris Weston and Marvel   I won’t say that I’m excited about this project.  But I am intrigued by it.  I’ve had some problems with Straczynski’s work over the past couple of years.  He doesn’t seem to be able to work well with other people’s creations.  He updates them or gives them new voices which are inconsistent and sometimes outright contradictory to what’s gone before.  So I don’t really trust JMS to tell me a good story with someone else’s characters.  However, I’m willing to make an exception for something like the Twelve.  In this case, JMS is supposed to update the characters.  And they don’t need to be completely consistent with the Golden Age originals- most of those old Marvel characters didn’t have much in the way of distinctive characteristics anyway.  Furthermore, I don’t have as much of an objection to radical updates of characters that have been out of print for so long as opposed to characters that I’ve been currently following.  Alan Moore’s version of the Nedor heroes that appeared in Tom Strong and Terra Obscura had some pretty modern takes on the characters and I didn’t mind one bit.  And finally, I really enjoyed JMS’ work on Supreme Power for the first year and a half.  That seems pertinent as that was another case of JMS putting his own spin on a pre-existing set of characters, but doing so in a brand new environment. I could be up for a modern take on obscure Golden Age characters, if it’s done well.  It’s a much more intriguing idea than what Image is doing.  But it’s also a much bigger risk than what Alex Ross is doing.  I’m excited about Ross’ respectful take, but JMS’ update could be the best of the bunch.  If its not the worst.  Anyway, it looks to be a great year for Golden Age characters.  Some of them are about to see publication for the first time in more than 60 years.  And with three very different takes, there should be something for everyone, even if you don’t own the same history books I do.     Which of these projects sparks your interest? Come discuss it at the Captain Comics Message Board: Fluit Notes

Last Updated ( Thursday, 23 August 2007 )

 

Trade Paperback Reviews: Conan, Wildcats and Wolverine

Thursday, 09 August 2007

It’s a testosterone trifecta.  This week, I’m reviewing three trade paperbacks.  Two of them feature strong, muscular men who like to get into scraps: Conan the Barbarian and Wolverine the occasional berserker.  The third features a team known for getting into a few scrapes of their own, Wildcats, and a woman who’s willing to give these boys a run for their money.  So get some popcorn ‘cause the fists, claws and swords will be flying, slicing and dicing.    The Chronicles of Conan, Volume 12: The Beast King of Abombi: by Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Ernie Chan I’m a big fan of these chronicles, collecting the original Marvel series from the ‘70s.  I was downright distraught a year or so ago when it looked like Dark Horse might end the project with volume 10 instead of continuing to the end of Roy Thomas’ run.  Fortunately for me, Dark Horse has come back with volumes 11 and 12, while a 13th is on the schedule for November. I knew going in that I was probably going to enjoy this book, yet I wasn’t sure how much.  In the last volume, I had started to tire of the relationship between Conan and the She-Pirate Belit.  Although I wouldn’t go so far as to call him “domesticated,” Conan was at least starting to feel a little tied down.  To my surprise, “The Beast King of Abombi” became one of my favorite volumes in the entire series. It actually didn’t start out that well.  For a long time, Belit had talked about her desire to return to Asgalun, to claim the throne that was rightfully hers and to seek vengeance on the man that killed her father.  Finally, the time had come.  Belit was ready to go home and Conan was ready to go with her.  This promised to be a big story but it started out badly.  Roy Thomas spent so much time explaining the various factions that the story became bogged down in the minutiae of intrigue.  In his after-word (almost worth the price of admission on its own), Thomas admits as much.  He was trying to reconcile his own earlier depictions of Asgalun with a version written by L. Sprague de Camp.  The result was a story heavy-handed on exposition and full of confusion with little action or pace.  The flaws were corrected in the second part of the story.  Thomas made up for the lack of action in the first part with plenty in the second: swordfights, shifting allegiances and betrayals.  This is the kind of stuff I want to see in a Conan comic.  Even better, Thomas gave us a surprising conclusion.  Having achieved her vengeance and won her crown, Belit realized that she really only wanted the former.  She handed the crown off to a cousin and returned to her life at sea.  It was a surprising moment and easily one of Belit’s best scenes.  I had thought I was getting tired of the character but Thomas showed me there was something yet to see. From there, Roy Thomas moved on to a four-part tale- a fairly lengthy epic for comics of the day.  The story set Conan and Belit up against the aforementioned Beast King of Abombi.  This was one of the best Conan stories I’d ever read.  We see villages devastated and deserted.  We learn the origin of Ajaga, a man who had conquered Abombi due to his ability to talk to all manner of beasts and get them to do his bidding.  We follow Conan into battle.  We see Belit become captured.  We read as Conan finds a former ally in the black lion he had met in an earlier tale.  We watch Belit plan her own escape while Conan recklessly fights his way to her.  The heroes are constantly put into peril and there’s a real sense that one or the other might actually get hurt in one of these imbroglios.  Yet as much as Roy Thomas deserves credit for this particular tale, the real star is artist John Buscema.  He manages to capture the likeness of a wide variety of beasts- not only baboons, lions and snakes but also a velociraptor years before Jurassic Park made that particular species famous. There’s even one great scene in The Long Night of Fang and Talon Part One (the third part of the story) in which Conan fights a leopard.  Buscema strips away the backgrounds, and even the panel borders, so that we can see the full fury of the fight.  After that, we’re given a bit of a break with a one-part tale: Sea-Woman.  The Sea-Woman in the title is pretty much a siren straight out of Homer, though in this case the siren comes onto the ship instead of trying to woo the sailors from afar.  And again, the real star of the series is John Buscema.  In the afterword, Thomas mentions that Buscema always preferred drawing sensual women to warrior women like Red Sonja or Belit.  In this story, he gets to draw both: the alluring sea-woman and the forceful Belit.  Though the two women share many features in common, Buscema shows that he can draw women who are either soft or strong. Next up is a pretty bad story: Devil-Crabs of the Dark Cliffs.  Thomas even admits that it’s not very good so we’ll just move along to the story from the 100th issue super-sized spectacular: Death on the Black Coast.  Roy Thomas had already written several winners for this volume- the second part of the Asgalun tale, the Beast King epic and the Sea Woman solo story- but this might just be the best of the bunch.  It’s like Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” but with sorcery and swords. Belit decides to sail up a dangerous river because she believes there’s a city hidden inland.  Conan, as always, agrees to go.  The crew, despite their fears, stay by Belit’s side.  They survive giant snakes and the general dangers of the jungle.  Yet as they approach the hidden city, Belit becomes almost fanatical- willing to sacrifice the lives of her sailors for the promise of treasure within.  As the pirates begin to carry the jewels through the jungle back to the boat, Conan succumbs to the sleep of the lotus flower (for a pair of Homer references in the space of three issues).  He has a horrible dream about a race of winged men who devolve into demons.  When he awakes, he realizes that the dream was real.  The entire crew is slain.  Belit herself has been hung by a jeweled necklace that she had found in the treasure.  Conan, morose and sullen, seeks vengeance for his beloved.  He confronts a pack of hyenas, an earthquake and finally, the last of the demons.  He is victorious, but he has still lost more than he cares to lose.  He has lost the love of his life.  Conan places Belit on her boat and turns it into a funeral bier for her.  He watches it burn, then sink. And Conan, the manliest of men, sheds a tear.  It’s a powerful story.  My summary doesn’t come close to doing it justice.  It gives Conan depth that is rarely attempted, and rarely achieved.  Yet it manages to do this without skimping on the sorcery or the swordsmanship.  With a finale like that, it’s easy to see why the Beast King of Abombi is one of my favorite volumes in this series.   Wildcats: Nemesis By Robbie Morrison, Horacio Domingues Talent Caldwell and Matt “Batt” Banning   I tend to be picky when it comes to the Wildcats.  I like them as an action team, as first depicted by Jim Lee and then Alan Moore.  I’m not as thrilled with the noir version as depicted by Joe Casey.  That’s why I was reluctant to pick up this series when it first came out in single issues.  I wasn’t quite sure which version of the team I’d be getting.  I wasn’t quite sure if it would be any good.  So I resisted buying this trade for a long time.  Eventually I saw a copy in a 50% off box.  I couldn’t pass it up at that price.  And I’m glad I didn’t.  But I don’t mean to get ahead of myself.  This story is about a woman named Nemesis and her conflicts with the Wildcats over the years and in the present.  The story is told through two alternating lenses.  One is set in the present as Nemesis seems to be intent on kidnapping a young girl.  The other is set in the past, showing us important moments in Nemesis’ life from the past millennia. But again, I don’t mean to get ahead of myself. Nemesis’ name is Charis.  As revealed through the back-story segments, Charis was a member of the lower caste of Khera (the world from which the Wildcats hail).  Due to a heroic rescue on her part and some liberal ideas of Majestic’s about breaking down caste borders, she was the first lower caste member to ever be given a place in the Coda Sisterhood.  Majestic may have been able to place her in the Coda but he couldn’t make the Sisters like her.  She was ostracized.  In spite of that, she proved to be an exceptional warrior.  Charis was included in the task force sent to fight a Daemonite cell on Earth.  However, a member of the Brotherhood of the Sword betrayed the other Kherans (including the Wildcats) to the Daemonties.  Even worse, he framed Charis for her crimes.  Believed to be a traitor by her own people, Charis was forced to go underground.  Yet her new position gave her knowledge of Daemonite plots and schemes, allowing her to become a one-woman avenger: hence the name Nemesis.  Of course, the Wildcats don’t know her side of the story.  They consider her a traitor and a mass murderer.  And they want her stopped, especially when she apparently tries to kidnap and kill a little girl.  After thousands of years, a simple explanation isn’t going to stop anything.  And so we follow Nemesis as she fights both the Wildcats and the Daemonites, while trying to protect the little girl that everyone thinks she’s trying to kill.  Wildcats: Nemesis is a great fast-paced story.  It’s also one full of intrigue.  We don’t know Charis’ full history when this story begins.  There are plenty of times during the tale when we think that Zealot and Majestic may just be right and Nemesis is a mass murderer.  Williams does a great job of pacing the back-story segments so that Nemesis’ true nature and real mission are slowly revealed.  Instead of being interruptions, they prove to be essential to the present day situation, giving background to the battle and depth to all of the characters involved including many of the Wildcats. The use of two artists, one for the present day (Caldwell) and another for the past (Domingues) was also a smart move.  Both sections end up being beautiful in their own way.  Caldwell does a great job with the big action scenes.  Domingues does a great job with some of the softer scenes from the back story.  Yet each is able to handle the other side just as well.  Domingues gets fewer big battle scenes but still makes them work.  And Caldwell draws a touching scene between Nemesis and the young girl in her custody.  Of course, this is a Wildstorm title so there’s a little bit of cheesecake, but I prefer that to the ugliness that passes for art in a lot of other titles.   And that’s Nemesis- a mini-series I nearly overlooked but one that turned out to be one of the best Wildcats stories I’ve ever read.   Wolverine: Blood Hungry By Peter David and Sam Kieth   I’ve been enjoying collecting the trades of the Wolverine stories from Marvel Comics Presents.  These are stories I missed the first time around so they’re new to me, yet they’re also from the time that I started reading comics so they have a welcome, familiar feel.  This isn’t actually a Marvel Comics Presents volume, but it does feature a Wolverine story from later in the series.  It had been reprinted on the strength of two names: Peter David and Sam Kieth. Sam Kieth was probably the bigger star at the time.  In this story, he’s allowed to cut loose.  The people have exaggerated proportions, the panels are drawn from obscure angles and the art feels like it wants to burst right off of the page.  This is the Sam Kieth that I know from “The Maxx.”  For the most part that’s a good thing, but Kieth’s eccentricities sometimes turn into amusing quirks.  This is the infamous story in which Wolverine’s costume becomes so torn and frayed that it looks like he has telephone cords dangling from his arms.   Peter David seems to just be along for the ride.  There’s not much of a story here.  Wolverine is in Madripoor.  Cyber comes to Madripoor.  They fight.  Cyber poisons Wolverine.  Wolverine has a weird dream sequence.  Wolverine recovers.  They fight again.  Wolverine wins.  I’d guess that Kieth had a big hand in the plotting of this story which means that David’s main contribution is the dialogue.  That’s sometimes a good thing.  And it’s sometimes a bad thing.  In this case, it’s more of the latter as Peter is at his pun-iest for this tale.  There are some real doozies in here that seem to be taken straight from an Airplane movie or an episode of Cheers. Blood Hungry is a fun time capsule with art that’s bursting from the scenes.  I had a good time, laughing with the jokes, groaning at a few others.  But it’s more psychedelic than action-packed.  That’s okay if you like that sort of thing, but it’s certainly not an essential Wolverine story and it’s not as good as the other books reviewed in this column.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 09 August 2007 )

The Best of July (2007)

Written by Chris Fluit 
Wednesday, 25 July 2007
                                  Captain America 28

from Marvel, by Ed Brubaker, Steve Epting and Mike Perkins

I saw a recent headline that declared “Captain America Still Dead.”  Yup, Captain America died a couple of issues ago and his title has continued on without him.  And it’s still one of the best superhero comics on the stands today.

This issue intercuts between several storylines, giving us glimpses of each and moving them all along.  Two of those stories follow the three characters that are now at the heart of this book: Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier, Sharon Carter and Sam Wilson aka the Falcon.  These three characters are the people who knew Captain America the best and the story is about how they’re dealing with the after-effects of this tragedy.  The Winter Soldier is in his own story, trying to track down those responsible for Cap’s death and kill them.  Currently, he’s blaming Tony Stark aka Iron Man and that’s who he’s tracking down in this issue.  Sharon and Sam are the other central characters.  They’re still working for SHIELD and the Initiative, but they’re reluctant about it.  They want to find whoever’s responsible for Cap’s death but they’re not quite willing to go rogue in order to do it.  So instead of going after SHIELD, which is what the Winter Soldier appears to be doing, they decide to go after the Red Skull who was mixed up in all of this as well.

Besides the three central characters, we end up following a couple of other characters in sub-plots.  The first is Tony Stark, the former Iron Man and the current Director of SHIELD.  It makes sense that we spend time with Tony in two ways.  One, he was Captain America’s opposite during the Civil War and two, the Winter Soldier is currently trying to kill him.  We get some interesting scenes featuring Tony, especially one in which he gets into a bit of an argument with Professor Charles Xavier.  The other sub-plot features the villainous Sin. She’s the daughter of the Red Skull and had appeared earlier in this series with her boyfriend Crossbones.  Now, Sin is ready for a larger role and she starts to gather a new Serpent Society around her.

 Issue 28 is very much a transition issue yet it’s done so well that we don’t mind.  We want to know what’s going to happen next.  We want to know if Winter Soldier will be able to get close enough to Tony Stark.  We want to know what Sin is going to do next.  And we want to know how Sharon and Sam are going to take down the Red Skull.  It’s amazing that a book which has lost its lead character can be this good.  Amazing, yet true. 

 

Dynamo 5 #5

from Image, by Jay Faerber and Mahmud A. Asrar
 
This book is often compared to Noble Causes- which is understandable, given that they’re both written by Jay Faerber.  But I think the better comparison is another Image book: Invincible.  Really, it’s that good.  And I say this as someone who enjoys Noble Causes quite a lot and has even championed it over the years.  Dynamo 5 is better. 

Invincible is a book about a teenaged superhero and, as such, has been compared to the teenaged superhero by which all others are mentioned: the original Spider-Man.  Dynamo 5 is about a family bound by circumstances as much as by blood.  They’re a family, but not in the traditional sense.  And just as Invincible is the modern heir to Spider-Man, Dynamo 5 has the potential to be the modern heir to the Fantastic Four.  Honestly, it’s that good.  
 
The team features five half-siblings.  They share a common father, the great superhero Captain Dynamo, but they all have different mothers.  For some of the characters, the revelation isn’t that big a deal.  In fact, it’s kind of cool if you’re living in a foster home to find out that your dad is Captain Dynamo.  For others, the revelation is shocking, even devastating.  They had dads that they thought were their real fathers.  And now they know that their mothers weren’t faithful to their husbands. 

Issue 4 took a break from the action to give us a glimpse into those relationships and situations.  Issue 5 brings us back to the action, but not in the same way we had seen in the first three issues.  In those issues, the team had been gathered and mentored by Maddie Warner, Captain Dynamo’s widow.  She had proven to be a tough leader, setting aside her own grief at her husband’s death and her own shame at his infidelity.  But in this issue, she’s confronted with the possible return of Captain Dynamo.  And that means that she isn’t there for the team of teenagers as she was in their initial adventures. 

Suddenly, the kids are on their own.  It’s a necessary step.  We see which kids have already established a loyalty to Maddie.  We see which kids are ready to step up as leaders.  And, naturally, we see that not everything is at it seems. Captain Dynamo hasn’t returned.  Rather, he has at least one other child that Maddie didn’t know about and her mother just happens to be a super-villain.  Yup, things are getting pretty complicated. 

Dynamo 5 has it all: archetypical powers assigned to atypical characters, family connections and complications, plot twists, dynamic superhero action and astoundingly beautiful art.  This is the next Invincible and it’s new enough that it’s not too late to get on board at the beginning.  

 

GI Joe: America’s Elite 25

from Devil’s Due, by Mark Powers and Mike Bear

I’ll admit it: I was looking forward to this issue more than anything else in July.  That could’ve been a bad thing.  My expectations could’ve been so high that any book would’ve actually been a disappointment.  And while this issue wasn’t exactly what I expected, it also wasn’t a disappointment. 

This is the first part of a year-long epic called World War III.  At the end of the previous issue, Cobra Commander was in possession of all of the secrets of GI Joe and all of the military power of Destro.  And he was ready to wage war.  So I expected this issue to be the opening salvo of a war.  I expected attacks and explosions and things blowing up.  But that’s not what we got.  We did get the opening salvo of a war, just a different kind of war.

The issue opens with a couple of Joes taking out some Cobra snipers in Dagestan.  It then shifts back to headquarters for a great scene between General Joe Colton (the Joe in GI Joe) and one of his information guys running down the threat board.  It reminds me of the issue of Avengers in which Alan Davis joined Kurt Busiek on the title.  It’s a fanboy’s dream, seeing all of the villains up on a computer screen. 

From there, we jump to Darfur where a former Army Ranger is meeting with Cobra Commander.  We don’t know what’s going on quite yet, though the Commander talks about bringing justice into a region that the world has ignored.  And then, we’re on the move again, checking in on the sniper situation in Dagestan before moving to Scotland and the hand over of MARS (Destro’s military headquarters) to Cobra.  These opening pages are dizzying, but in a good way.  It feels like so much is going on and we’re flitting from one place to another.  And every scene brings something exciting and new, or potentially terrifying.  

The issue just keeps getting better from there.  Eventually, we learn what Cobra Commander is up to.  He isn’t planning to hit the Joes directly.  At least, not yet.  Instead, he’s arming factions in every conflict around the globe: in Dagestan, in Darfur, in Chechnya, in any place where people are ready to take up weapons.  But Cobra isn’t interested in outcomes.  He’s interested in chaos.  He’s arming both sides of the conflicts.  He’s inflaming the trouble spots around the world.  And he’s forcing GI Joe to spread itself too thinly around the globe even as they’re trying to expand and strengthen their presence at home.  Sound familiar, at all?  Yup, there are some interesting real-world parallels to this story, though Powers does a great job of not letting his fictional conflict become a direct analogy for the real world. 

While it wasn’t the explosive beginning that I had expected, it was still a great issue, building tension to a slow boil rather than starting out with a bang.  Plus, there are some great fan extras.  The cover features every single Joe to ever appear in comics, on TV or as a toy.  There’s a second copy inside, complete with an index.  And there’s an “identified threat matrix” in the back: five pages of entries regarding every Joe enemy ever used in the comics, complete with status updates such as deceased, in custody and at large.  The fan in me was drooling at the extras even as I was enjoying the story as a reader. 

Green Lantern 21

from DC, by Geoff Johns, Ivan  Reis and Oclair Albert

 I wasn’t always a Green Lantern fan.  From his appearances on SuperFriends, in Justice League of America and Justice League Europe, I always found Hal Jordan kind of boring.  I liked Kyle Rayner a lot better and would pick up the occasional issue of Green Lantern while he was the lead but I still didn’t collect the title on a regular basis.
 
Geoff Johns and Green Lantern: Rebirth changed my mind.  That was one of the best superhero stories I’d ever read.  And now, the Rebirth team is back together bringing us the next big epic in the Green Lantern saga.  So far, it’s shaping up to be every bit as good as that earlier story.

The basic premise is simple: Sinestro, the Green Lantern’s greatest foe, is putting together a corps of his own made up of those who cause great fear.  We’ve seen the gathering of the Sinestro Corps in back-up features for several months.  We’ve seen their spies at work in Green Lantern Corps.  And they finally initiated the war in the Sinestro Corps special, which would have been included in a Best of June column had I written one. 

Now, we get to see how the Green Lanterns react.  It’s not going to be easy.  They’re bandaging the wounded.  They’re replacing the fallen.  And they’re bickering with one another.  Some Lanterns still don’t trust Hal Jordan.  Some Lanterns are blaming each other for what’s happened.  Even the Guardians are divided with two of them breaking off from the rest.  The Green Lanterns would have their hands full with the Sinestro Corps even if they were at peak efficiency.  In their current state, they barely have a chance. 

Which is great story-telling.  We love to root for the underdog.  The Green Lantern Corps is so powerful that it’s hard to cheer for them in that way.  They have 7200 members, each of whom has an all-powerful weapon.  They should never lose.  But Geoff Johns has taken the Corps’ strength and turned into a weakness and in so doing he’s taken the concept’s weakness and turned it into a strength. They’re actually facing a foe stronger than they are.  They’re being forced to fact their greatest fears.  For the Green Lanterns to win, they’re going to have to overcome the very things they’re afraid of and come together as a team.

I can’t wait to see what happens next.  It was amazing just catching the opening of the story.  Now, we’ve gotten flashbacks as to Hal Jordan’s greatest fear and a cliffhanger ending in which we discover that Kyle Rayner has been co-opted onto Sinestro’s side.  It doesn’t get much better than this.

 

Spike: Shadow Puppets 2

from IDW, by Brian Lynch and Franco Urru

 The new Buffy: The Vampire Slayer series from Dark Horse is one of the year’s biggest hits, averaging more than 100,000 copies sold per issue.  That’s a good thing.  Of course, that has a lot to do with the fact that Joss Whedon- the creator of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer- is actually writing the comic book.  However, there’s another book out there that’s every bit as good as Buffy.  It’s not actually written by Joss, but it does feature his characters. And it’s so well Lorne that you can visualize it as an episode of an actual Joss-produced TV show.  It’s Spike: Shadow Puppets.

 I’ll admit that this is my first go at a Spike comic book so I don’t know if all of the earlier attempts are this good.  But I do know that this is one great comic.  Brian Lynch has the Joss patter down.  He’s got the quirky dialogue that we know and love from the tv show.  And all of the characters have their own distinct way of talking.  Spike “sounds” like Spike.  Lorne talks like Lorne. Lynch even goes so far as to have other characters make fun of Spike’s British lingo.  It’s great fun and it gives exactly the right feel to the book.
 
Furthermore, this mini-series is a sequel of sorts to one of the best episodes of the Angel TV show.  Smile Time was an episode in which some demons possessed the puppets of a children’s TV show and used their ratings to suck the life energy out of the kids’ who were watching.  Angel eventually shut down the operation, but not before being turned temporarily into a puppet himself.  It was a great episode, rich with humor and a little bit of pathos.

This mini-series is that good.  Smile Time is back.  They’re now big in Japan.  Lorne has gotten wind of it through his entertainment contacts and he’s asked Spike to go and check it out.  Which they do.  The first issue was a great buddy-movie as Lorne and Spike traveled to Japan.  It made me long for Spike to have a TV show of his own and I speculated about who would be in his supporting cast.  With this issue, Lynch begins to build a supporting cast around Spike.  He adds Beck, a pyrokinetic that Spike had previously saved from a monster asylum, George, a protoplasmic fish and the kind of character that’s a lot easier to do in comics than in TV and Tok Shinobu, a ninja. 

Of course, by the end of this issue, Lynch turns both Spike and Lorne into puppets.  We knew it was going to come, but Lynch manages to make it fun and unexpected anyway.  He hits all of the right beats.  He keeps the action going.  He lets the one-liners fly while he’s doing so.  And he adds quirky supporting characters and villains at every turn. 

Plus, Francisco Urru does a great job as the artist.  He manages to convey the likeness of the characters without being slavish to photo-realism, kind of like Georges Jeanty on the current Buffy comic.  And he does a great job with some of the action scenes, especially the opening one in which hundreds of felt ninjas doggy-pile on Spike.  This issue was great fun.  I only wish more people were checking it out.

 

Star Wars: Legacy 14

from Dark Horse, by John Ostrander, Jan Duursema and Dan Parsons

I’ve written about this series often, and it’s sometimes hard to think of new things to say.  But I still had to include it in this column because if I’m writing about “the best,” than Legacy qualifies.  This is a great title.  It’s set about 100 years after everything else in the Star Wars world, which puts it about 125 years after Return of the Jedi.  The world of Star Wars is already a rich one, yet Legacy takes it even further.  This is no simple line between the good guys and the bad guys.  Instead, Ostrander and Duursema have introduced multiple factions.  The Sith rule the galaxy openly.  Yet a faction of the Imperial nobility and military have rejected Sith rule.  That’s right, it’s the Empire vs. the Empire.  Meanwhile, the Jedi have been broken and are either in hiding or on the run.  One Jedi-in-training, has even become a smuggler.  Cade Skywalker, the heir to the great Skywalker legacy works on the wrong side of the law.

This issue furthers Cade Skywalker’s story.  He feels bad that he had betrayed a Jedi healer at one point.  And so he decides to break into the Sith prison on the capital planet of Coruscant and free the healer that’s been imprisoned in his place.  It’s not that Cade has embraced his lineage.  Rather, he simply doesn’t like having anyone own him, or having to owe anyone.  The issue gives us glimpses of the ruling Sith, the soldiers that fight for them and the seedy under-belly of Coruscant.  It’s almost like a Blade Runner take on Star Wars.

The Sith remain distant yet fascinating creatures.  Duursema has given them some great looks, from the leaders’ skull helmet to Darth Talon’s red skin and tattoos to Darth Nihl’s pale face and penetrating eyes.  These are some villains you can be afraid of.  Even the minor villains look good.  It’s amazing what blood red skin can do for a bad guy.

It’s also interesting to visit Coruscant’s criminal quarter, to see villainous versions of familiar races like Wookiees and to have the protagonist of our story deal with a Hutt on friendly terms. 

Plus, the art is beautiful.  I just can’t say enough about how rich and textured this book looks.  Duursema draws handsome men, beautiful women and incredible aliens.  She knows how to handle the quiet negotiations as well as the vivid light-saber duels.  I admire the art so much that I tend to read this book more slowly than others. 

Finally, there’s a great ending to this issue.  In some of the previous issues, there have been some hints that Cade might be ready to reclaim his Jedi heritage and forsake his criminal behavior.  But any hint that this book was about to transition to a traditional hero book was an intentional misdirection.  Cade’s rescue fails.  He manages to free the healer from his prison cell, but he’s caught trying to leave the compound.  And Cade may be a Skywalker but he hasn’t worked with a light-saber in years.  He’s defeated and we’re left with the sense that he’s about to become a pawn of the Sith.  This is another book that has it all: beautiful art, a rich universe, intriguing characters and a true sense that you have no idea what’s going to happen next.

 

Y: The Last Man 57

from Vertigo, by Brian K. Vaughan, Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr.

There may be some people who think that Y: The Last Man is a book about a specific science-fiction situation: the last man on earth.  It’s about a mystery: what killed all of the other men?  It’s about politics: what happens when all of the men are dead.  And, yes, Y: The Last Man deals with all of those things.  But like all great works of literature, it’s not really about those things.  It’s about the characters.  It’s about the characters living in that situation.  It’s about how they deal with it, how they respond, how they cope.

Over the past year, that has become clearer and clearer in terms of Y: The Last Man.  The previous arc answered all of the big mysteries and conspiracies.  We know why all of the other men died.  We know why Yorick survived.  We’ve got the answers.  But that’s not the end of the series because this series isn’t about the mystery.  It’s about the characters.  And while the questions may have been answered, the characters aren’t done dealing with it.  The mystery is solved, but their stories aren’t done. 

This is a great character issue.  It opens with Agent 355 and a scene which clearly indicates that she’s finished her mission and is ready to move on with the next stage of her life.  She buys a dress.  No more work clothes for her.  And since she doesn’t have any currency, she gives away her gun in exchange.  Yet even though the main mystery has been resolved, Vaughan knows that he has to give us a bit of tension to see us through to the end of the series.  In this case, that means we also catch a glimpse of an Israeli agent who is tailing 355.

Next up, is the title character and his long, lost love.  Yorick and Beth were reunited last issue in a scene that fans have been waiting to see for more than four years.  At first, things seem to be going well.  They’re having great sex.  But there are other, deeper issues that they haven’t addressed.  Yorick had proposed to Beth before the cataclysm and had never gotten an answer.  Beth finally answers.  She tells him, “Yes.”  However, while doing so, she also mentions that she had been planning to break up with him before the cataclysm.  Suddenly, Yorick is confronted with a truth that other people have been telling him for years: that the real Beth may not match the idealized version of Beth he’s been carrying around in her head. 

Beth was breaking up with Yorick because he was content with his life and unadventurous.  Now, with all that he’s been through in the past four years, Yorick has grown a lot.  He’s become the man that Beth always wanted him to be.  But that’s not what Yorick hears.  He hears that he wasn’t good enough when there were billions of guys to choose from, but that he’s good enough now that he’s the last man on earth.  Yorick gets dressed and storms off in anger.  It’s an incredible scene, full of emotional twists and turns.  It also demonstrates how nudity can be used to indicate emotional vulnerability instead of titillation. 

Finally, Beth has one more scene with Yorick’s sister Hero and the other Beth. She’s just revealed her secrets to Yorick and now discovers that Yorick hasn’t revealed all of his secrets to her. It’s a great conclusion, fracturing Beth’s illusions about Yorick just as she had previously shattered Yorick’s illusions about her.  Even though we know that there are Israeli agents about, the real tension that has to be resolved in the final three issues is this relationship.  Will Beth and Yorick be able to reconcile, now that their secrets are out in the open?  Or will they go their separate ways after years of searching for each other?  Sure, there are some plot points yet to go, but it’s the character questions that are really carrying us forward to the finish line. 

Discuss this article at the Captain Comics Message Board: Fluit Notes Last Updated ( Friday, 27 July 2007 )

JLA, Justice and the Art of Nostalgia

“The Golden Age of Comic Books is 12.” That’s a proverb I first heard from Captain Comics, though he credits it to Maggie Thompson, who may have picked it up in turn from someone else. There’s truth to that proverb. All of us carry with us nostalgia for the comics of our youth, for the comics that we read first, for the comics that came out when we were 12. That’s true of fans, which I doubt surprises any of us. Yet it’s also true of those who eventually become professionals. While fans may indulge their nostalgia to whatever level they desire, professionals are necessarily held to a different standard.

But should they be? Should professionals be held to a different standard than the fans? Should professionals be prevented from indulging their own nostalgia? Some observers seem to insist that the answer to both of those questions should be “yes.” Yes, professionals should be held to a different standard. Yes, professionals should be prevented from indulging in nostalgia.

I've noticed this attitude applied most specifically to writers of the Avengers. When Kurt Busiek was the writer of The Avengers in the late ‘90s, his work included a lot of references to the Avengers of the late ‘70s, the comic books that would have been published when Kurt was a teenager. He brought villains of that era back to prominence, such as Count Nefaria, the Taskmaster and the Scarlet Centurion. His Avengers line-up was very similar to the line-up of those years, including key roles for heroes like Hawkeye and the former Ms. Marvel. Anyone familiar with the Avengers of the late ‘70s could see  Busiek’s high regard for those comics.

When Brian Michael Bendis took over as writer of the Avengers, we saw a similar  phenomenon.  However, Bendis is 7 years younger than Busiek so his Avengers paid tribute to a later era- the Avengers of the mid-80s. Bendis has been very open about that, admitting that the line-up for New Avengers was based in part on the cover of Avengers 221 from 1982 and Scarlet Witch’s madness was based in part on the cover of Marvel Fanfare 6 from 1983.
 
Now, some fans complained about Busiek’s Avengers nostalgia during his run. And some fans complained about Bendis’ Avengers nostalgia during his run. Maybe it was the same set of fans in each instance. Maybe certain fans don’t want any hint of nostalgia in new comics and resent any of it. But it seemed to me that it wasn’t the same fans complaining in each instance. Rather, it seemed to be some of the younger fans who disliked Busiek’s work as it contained homages to comics from before their time. And it seemed to be some of the older fans who disliked Bendis’ work as it contained homages to comics after their time. Yet each group in its turn seemed to be insisting that comics professionals shouldn’t be allowed to express their own nostalgia.

I would disagree with that. I would agree that comic book professionals should be held to a different standard than fans. After all, fans only have to worry about pleasing themselves. If they want to indulge their nostalgia, or if they don’t, that’s up to them. However, professionals have a much greater responsibility. They do have a duty to please more than themselves. They have a duty to please others, to please a wider audience. Not that any professional will be able to please every fan every time out. There is the other proverb that says “you can’t please all of the people all of time.” Though it’s impossible to please everyone, the professional still has to try and please a larger audience. Therefore, a professional must be held to a higher standard. A professional can’t simply indulge every nostalgic whim that comes his way. The professional must tell stories that engage a wider audience. And that wider audience will include people who weren’t born at the same time, who don’t have the same experiences and who don’t have nostalgia for the same things.
 
But does that mean that a professional can never engage their own sense of nostalgia? I don’t think that the answer to that question is as clearly a “Yes.” I would agree that a comic book creator shouldn’t indulge their nostalgia, in the self-indulgent understanding of the word. But a comic book creator should be able to engage their own sense of nostalgia. They should be allowed to refer to the stories of their youth as long as the new stories aren’t dependent upon knowledge of the old. They should be allowed to be inspired by the stories of their youth as that has the tremendous possibility for making the new stories better. The love for the old stories can truly have a positive impact on the new ones. However, the comic book creator must engage his own sense of nostalgia in such a way that readers of different ages and experiences are brought along for the ride.

In order to illustrate the difference between “engaging” and “indulging,” I’d like to turn to two recently completed stories: Alex Ross’ limited series Justice and Brad Meltzer’s crossover The Lightning Saga.

Alex Ross is actually younger than Brian Michael Bendis (which means he’s quite a bit younger than Kurt Busiek) yet his tastes seem to skew older. It’s obvious from a number of Ross’ works that he harbors a soft spot for the comics of the Silver Age and a little bit into the early ‘70s. On some projects, Ross isn’t allowed to engage his nostalgia all that much. However, on his recent series Justice, he was allowed to let his nostalgic preferences shine through. Ross created a Justice League of

America

that clearly belongs to the late Silver Age and the early ‘70s. The line-up includes the original members plus those who joined throughout the ‘60s like Hawkman, Atom, Elongated Man and Metamorpho. The last inductees in Ross’ Justice are Red Tornado and Zatanna. Red Tornado began hanging around with the team in 1968 and finally joined officially in 1973. Zatanna also worked with the team on earlier occasions before officially joining in 1978. Ross also includes other heroes of the DC Universe as allies for the Justice League. Yet again, these other heroes and allies are characters who all debuted in 1970 or earlier. There are the Teen Titans and the Doom Patrol, but the most recent hero to appear in the series is John Stewart, who first appeared in real life in 1970. And as with his first appearance in real life, John Stewart is not yet a full-fledged Green Lantern but only a potential and a reserve. Ross leaves out heroes who came along later than that. The Titans don’t have Cyborg or Raven. The Justice League doesn’t include Firestorm. The list of other heroes doesn’t include Black Lightning. That doesn’t mean that the Justice universe is entirely identical to DC’s Silver Age. Ross goes ahead and incorporates both Plastic Man and the Captain Marvel family into the story, older characters from other companies who weren’t a part of DC’s continuity at the time. Yet even with those slight alterations, it’s obvious that as far as the limited series Justice goes, the DC universe stopped around 1970.

 

I don’t share Ross’ high estimation for that time period. I came of age a little later and I don’t hearken back to comics that   were made before I was born as Ross seems to do. Yet that difference in tastes didn’t prevent me from enjoying Ross’ series. Rather, I found it to be warmly engaging, rewarding of multiple readings and well worth my time. I suspect that if I shared Ross’ fondness for that era, I’d have enjoyed the story even more than I did.  

What made it work is that Ross’ story didn’t require the reader to love that era the same way that he did. We didn’t have to love all of the old stories. Rather, he did his best to make us love the new story he was telling right now. He introduced many of the characters as if they were new to us. His co-writer Jim Krueger artfully used different narrators for each issue as a way to help the reader understand different characters throughout the story. Ross created profile pages for the back of the book that would give us background and pertinent information for the prominent heroes and villains featured in that issue. The world that Ross and Krueger created included enough differences from the actual Silver Age to include fans of other eras. I already mentioned the incorporation of both Plastic Man and the Marvel Family into the Justice League, a nod to the one continuity world that DC introduced after Crisis on Infinite Earths. Also, the villains, although all dating from the Silver Age or earlier, banded together in a group that clearly referenced the Legion of Doom from the television series Challenge of the Super-Friends. Older fans should have been engaged by the older characters. Younger fans could have been engaged by the newer developments. Ross’ story had appeal for everyone, not just those that shared his sense of nostalgia. I don’t share the same nostalgia as Ross, yet I was still able to enjoy the story in its own right.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t as true of Brad Meltzer’s The Lightning Saga in Justice League of

America

. Meltzer is actually the same age as Ross; they were both born in 1970. Yet while Ross appears to yearn for the comics that were made before he was born, Meltzer takes the more common route. His stories have clearly been influenced by the comics of the early to mid-‘80s, the comics that would have come out when he was an adolescent and a teenager. His earlier story, Identity Crisis, had clear references to Justice League stories that were published between 1979 and 1981 when Meltzer would have been a pre-teen. That story did a great job of referencing those earlier works without relying on a comprehensive knowledge of them. That story engaged nostalgia without indulging it.

That isn’t the case with The Lightning Saga. The inspiration for this more recent story can be traced to a similar time period. In the Lightning Saga, Meltzer has a team from the Legion of Super-Heroes come back in time to our current era. The Legion team is clearly based on the line-up that was featured around 1980, including prominent characters of that time like Dawnstar and Wildfire while other characters like Dream Girl are wearing the costumes of that era. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As I’ve stated earlier, it should be okay for a comic book creator to engage their own sense of nostalgia. However, in this case, Meltzer forgot to include the audience. The Legion characters weren’t introduced well; some weren’t named at all. That forced the audience to rely on their own knowledge of the characters in order to understand who they were- a knowledge that isn’t universal. I suspect that Meltzer intended for this to be intriguing and mysterious. After all, the Legionnaires were acting a little oddly. But it didn’t come off as intriguing and mysterious. Readers unfamiliar with this version of the Legion wouldn’t know that these  characters were acting oddly. They would simply find them odd. Many readers were left confused. Unlike Ross and Krueger in Justice, Meltzer didn’t do the work necessary to make us know who these characters are or why we should care about him.

Also, while Ross’ Justice story was clearly influenced by one time period, it had enough facets of other time periods to appeal to a wider audience. Meltzer’s Justice League story featuring the Legion did not. I, at least, got the feeling that this was the one, true version of the Legion and all others that came before or after were somehow not as good. And that’s a problem.

I actually come pretty close to sharing Meltzer’s nostalgia. I’m only a couple of years younger than he is and the stories that serve as inspiration fit into my own personal Golden Age. I like this line-up of the Legion. But even as someone who has a similar sense of nostalgia, I felt left out of this story. I like more than just this line-up of the Legion. I want to feel engaged by the characters based on what they’re doing in this story, not based on how I might have felt about them 20 years ago. I can only imagine how somebody significantly older or younger must have felt. In this case, I think Meltzer went too far in engaging his nostalgia crossing over into self-indulgence.

Professionals should be held to a different standard than fans. After all, they have to get the fans to engage in their stories as well. This doesn’t mean that comic book creators can’t be influenced by the comics of their youth. But they must try to do so in a way that includes the wider audience. Busiek’s Avengers, Bendis’ Avengers, Ross’ Justice and even Meltzer’s Identity Crisis are all examples of how this can be done well. Unfortunately, Meltzer’s Lightning Saga is an example of how this can be done poorly.

The End.   

Discuss the Art of Nostalgia at the Captain Comics Message Board: Fluit Notes

Originally Published on July 20, 2007

An Anniversary Smash: A Page-by-Page Response to X-Men 200

Mike Carey has been the regular writer on “X-Men” for just over a year now. His first six-issue arc, “Supernovas” was a pretty good start. He set up a nice rogue squad of X-Men led by Rogue and introduced a fairly interesting new team of villains in The Children of the Vault. After that, though, his run went quickly downhill with two bad three-parters. “Primary Infection” and “Red Data” were each confusing, featuring poorly conceived (or at least poorly communicated) villains, inscrutable plots and haphazard art. So there was some question in my mind about X-Men #200. Would we get the good Mike Carey that we saw in his first six issues or the bad Mike Carey that we saw in the last six issues?  The “Endangered Species” one-shot seemed to indicate that the good Mike Carey was back.

Pages One and Two: A prelude featuring two seemingly new characters. One is the hunted. The other the hunter. It’s a nice quick teaser that gets you into the story. We don’t know who either of the characters are. The victim mentions his name- “Quiet Bill”- and a ‘guild,’ indicating that he might be associated with either the Thieves or the Assassins Guilds, two organizations that have had many dealings with Gambit. The killer is revealed later in the issue: he’s Riptide, a member of the Marauders. But even new readers know all they need to: someone is hunting people down and killing them.

Page Three: Rogue leads her squad of X-Men to her childhood home in

Caldecott County

,

Mississippi

as a place of refuge after their recent battles. Rogue is still unstable after the events of “Primary Infection.” 

Page Four: The squad includes Cannonball, Iceman, Mystique, Lady Mastermind and Omega Sentinel. The fact that the last two are still around indicates to me that they’re more than temporary allies. They’ve got to be full-fledged X-Men by now. This fact is confirmed by the pin-ups in the back- one which features every member of the X-Men and the other which features the current members of the X-Men, New X-Men and X-Factor. Personally, this makes me happy. I kind of like seeing new   members added to a team. Darwin and possibly Hepzibah are pretty good additions to the Uncanny team. Lady Mastermind and Omega Sentinel aren’t quite as cool as those two, but I’m glad that they’re sticking around.

Pages Seven and Eight: A romantic interlude between Iceman and Mystique. I have to admit that I’m intrigued by this pairing. I’m glad that Iceman and Polaris are no longer an item as they were during Peter Milligan’s run. I’ve long thought that Iceman and Rogue would make for an interesting pair, the foundations of which were laid during Scott Lobdell’s run in the mid-‘90s. However, Rogue isn’t exactly in a position to start a relationship so I find it interesting that Iceman is running into Mystique while on the rebound. 

Page Nine: Cable back on the

island

of

Providence

cleaning up after the damage of “Red Data.” He is not alone. He is also drawn by Chris Bachalo. I kind of like the art pairing on this issue. Humberto Ramos has been handling the main story of Rogue and her team in

Mississippi

. Chris Bachalo is handling the prologue and interludes. The two artists are close enough in style that there are smooth transitions from one to the other. Plus, they’ve each pulled in on their extreme styles so that this issue has much better story-telling than we’ve seen recently.

Page Ten and Eleven: The villain cover has shown Lady Mastermind and Omega Sentinel on the same side as the Marauders. Lady Mastermind made sense to me. She’s always been presented as someone who would betray the X-Men if given half a chance. But Omega Sentinel surprised me. She has a truly heroic heart. Now, I know why she’s on the villain cover. In these pages, a computer virus takes control of Omega Sentinel. She’s about to become a bad gal but not of her own volition. The virus happens to be the former Marauder Malice, as shown in the final panel of page eleven and stated clearly later in the issue.

Page Twelve: The killer from the opening scene makes another appearance. However, he’s no longer alone. There are at least three others working with him now as they kill their second victim. We still don’t know who these mysterious killers are yet, though long-time X-fans will recognize them as Arclight, Scalphunter and Vertigo, three more of the Marauders.  

Pages Thirteen and Fourteen: Back to Cable for one of the big revelations of this issue: the   return of Gambit! This isn’t exactly a surprise as advanced solicitations have been hyping this fact, but it’s still well-handled within the issue itself. Plus, I personally consider this a great thing. Gambit has long been one of my favorite X-Men. I know that he isn’t popular with the older fans but to me he’s a noble rogue, not unlike Han Solo.

Page Fifteen: “Penny for ‘em.” “What?” “Your thoughts. Usual market price.” I just like that exchange. It feels Whedonesque, which is a good thing.

Page Eighteen: And another former X-Man makes a return: Sunfire. Carey is doing a great job of jerking us around. When we last saw Gambit, he had been conscripted by Apocalypse as one of his Horsemen. Gambit brushes that aside by mentioning that he had dropped his “new look.” So it seems that Gambit is back with the good guys. However, he sets up Cable to get taken down by Sunfire and Sunfire was also last seen as a Horseman of Apocalypse. So are they good guys or bad guys? We don’t know. Some people may not like the ambivalence, but I find it intriguing. I want to keep reading. I want to know more.

Page Twenty-One: A great panel by Humberto Ramos. Emma Frost has entered Rogue’s mind and it looks like a picture out of Dante’s “Inferno” or something by Hieronymous Bosch.

Page Twenty-Three: Another nice touch by Ramos. It’s not easy to tell Emma Frost and Lady Mastermind apart as they’re both beautiful blondes. He has to rely on the colorist to give Lady Mastermind a slightly richer color to her hair. Then, he has Lady Mastermind give us a look that indicates she might be ready to finally betray the team. This is getting good.

Page Twenty-Six: The third big explosion that Chris Bachalo gets to draw for us. I think he’s having a lot of fun with Sunfire.

Pages Twenty-Eight and Nine: And here’s the big betrayal. Omega Sentinel turns on one group of X-Men and quickly takes down Emma Frost. Then, Lady Mastermind tricks another group of X-Men allowing the full team of Marauders to get close without being noticed. Hoo boy! This is getting really good!

Pages Thirty and Thirty-One: Not the best big spread I’ve ever seen. The coming to blows between the X-Men and the Marauders should be bigger than this. It’s kind of funny: usually Ramos gets the big stuff right but not all of the little details but this time around, I’m more impressed with his little details than his big stuff.

Something else to note: I’m really happy to see the return of the Marauders. They were the big villains in the Morlock Mutan t Massacre, one of the first and best crossovers. They were pretty much overused for a while after that and I, at least, got a little tired of that. But I don’t think we’ve even seen them in a flashback since Uncanny X-Men 350. By now, I’m more than ready to run into some classic foes and this is a pretty triumphant return. I’m also amused that Brubaker is bringing back the Morlocks in Uncanny X-Men while Carey is bringing back their killers at the same in X-Men. I wonder if that’s a coincidence or if this was planned and it’s heading somewhere. I’m hoping for the latter.

Finally, as the fight goes against them, Iceman voices what we’re all thinking: someone must have betrayed the X-Men. They have the traitor. The issue has been setting us up in such a way that we naturally think of Gambit. After all, he’s worked with the Marauders before. He’s betrayed the X-Men before. It’s got to be Gambit, right?

Page Thirty-Four: I thought we’d already seen all of the betrayals that we were going to see for one issue. I was wrong. Carey throws us one last curve. Mystique takes down Scalphunter just before he shoots Rogue. But she doesn’t do it to save Rogue. No, she does it because she wants to be the one to shoot Rogue. And then she does it. Mystique shoots Rogue! Wow, I didn’t see that one coming. Not with the burgeoning relationship between Mystique and Iceman. Not with all of the hints that it had to be Gambit. Well-played, Mr. Carey, well-played!

 

Endangered Species back-up feature, Part 1

 

Pages One through Three: A nice summation of “House of M.” I hadn’t that story and this summary gave me all of the background I needed to move forward. 

Page Four: I know that some reviewers have complained that the main X-titles haven’t done enough with the Decimation events. Well, complain no longer. It looks like X-Men is about to tackle the issue head-on.  Also, I liked the depictions of the mutants who had lost their powers. I’m pretty sure that Blob was one of the former mutants featured in Generation M, though we’ve seen him more recently in X-Factor. Magma lost her new boyfriend to the volcano in the first issue of The 198. And Dani Moonstar was kicked out of the X-mansion in the pages of New X-Men (a turn of events that still doesn’t make sense to me but I’m glad to see it referenced here).

 

Page Five: Loved this sequence of events. It’s nice to see Hank McCoy consult with Reed Richards, Tony Stark and the other Hank (Pym) about his research. And was that Rictor lying on the examining table in the background of panel three? If so, it’s a nice touch.

Page Eight: What a great cliffhanger. I thought that Beast had only been talking to one other person. I love that he was making his pitch to nine super-villain scientists. It doesn’t entirely work in that some of his earlier remarks had been mutant-specific and some of the people he’s addressing aren’t mutants (like MODOK and Dr. Doom). But I’m willing to forgive the lapse if it results in a surprise this good. 

As recently as a couple of weeks ago, I was ready to drop X-Men from my regular reading list. I had a few preordered issues to go and then I was most likely done. Now? Not so fast. Mike Carey has got me excited about both the main story and the back-up. My curiosity is piqued. How does Gambit fit in with all of this? Who will take Hank McCoy up on his research? What do the Marauders have planned next? I want to know. But this is about more than just idle curiosity. I enjoyed this issue. A lot. I want to see where we’re going and for the first time in a while, I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to enjoy the drive there.

Let me know what you think about X-men 200 at the Fluit Notes forum  in the Captain Comics Message Board!

Originally Published on July 13, 2007

Why Juggernaut Should Be a Villain

I believe in redemption. I like it when villains find a brighter side or a better path. I like it when villains forego their criminal ways and join the ranks of the good guys. I’ve felt that way since I was a young lad and Magneto first started fighting alongside the X-Men. I’ve enjoyed it when I’ve come across earlier stories featuring reforming villains such as the Avengers and “Cap’s Kooky Quartet.” And I’ve enjoyed more recent series that have focused on this theme as well. All those who thought that Kurt Busiek’s Thunderbolts was about villains were wrong. It wasn’t about villains. It was about redemption. More specifically, it was about former villains seeking redemption. As such, it spoke deeply to me and some of those characters- Songbird and Atlas in particular- became personal favorites

I know that not everybody feels the way I do. For some, it may be that they don’t actually believe in redemption. They don’t believe that a bad guy can become good, any more than a leopard can change its spots. For some, it may just be that the find the villains more interesting. I recall other fans mentioning that they always liked the Sandman as a villain more than as an Avenger.

For a long time, I just didn’t understand that sentiment. Why would anyone want to see someone- even a fictional someone- revert to a life of crime after becoming a hero? But more recently, I think I’ve started to understand that point of view. And if I have, it’s because I’ve found my exception.  

It’s Cain Marko- the Juggernaut. And despite my personal and professional beliefs in the possibility of redemption, the Juggernaut should be a villain.  

The Juggernaut first appeared in X-Men 12 and 13 in 1965. He was one of the pre-eminent X-Men villains from the beginning for a number of reasons. One, he was introduced in a two-part story, one of the few multiple part stories in the series so far. That put the Juggernaut in select company, with the likes of Magneto and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Two, he was Charles Xavier’s step-brother. That meant that we the readers knew that Juggernaut was Cain Marko. And, thanks to flashbacks, we knew what he was like as a boy. That gave the readers an extra connection to Juggernaut and Juggernaut an extra connection to the X-Men. He may not have been one of them but he was related to their leader. Three, he truly was unstoppable. The Blob may have been immovable. Magneto may have been more menacing. But the Juggernaut was truly unstoppable.  The X-Men weren’t exactly the strongest team in the world, and they were certainly no match for someone like the Juggernaut. The X-Men couldn’t beat him. They certainly couldn’t fight him. They had to outthink him. They had to outwit him. And they had to work together in order to get it done.   

When I met Juggernaut, many years later, the situation was quite different. The X-Men had been expanded to include more powerful members like Colossus, Phoenix and Storm. The personal connection that Juggernaut had to the team wasn’t as strong either- not with Professor X absent from the team, and not compared to other personal connections such as relationship between Rogue and the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. The Juggernaut wasn’t the biggest foe anymore. He wasn’t the most intimate enemy anymore. He was just a big, dumb lug who used to be unstoppable.

 

As happens with many characters, Juggernaut’s reputation was tarnished in order to make others look better. Juggernaut is supposed to be unstoppable. But what does that make someone like Nimrod who was able to beat even the Juggernaut? It makes Nimrod truly unbeatable, doesn’t it? Naturally, Nimrod becomes the real threat. And each time this happens, the Juggernaut becomes less and less of a menace to either the X-Men or the world at large. 

It was at this point that Chris Claremont wrote one of my all-time favorite Juggernaut stories. Dazzler had recently joined the X-Men and  although she had defeated some pretty big heavy-weights in her own title, she was still being treated like a light-weight by the team she had just joined. Then, she happened to spot the Juggernaut just chilling in his civilian clothes. Dazzler was well aware that the Juggernaut’s reputation wasn’t what it once was. She figured she could take him down all by herself and prove to the team that she was someone worth reckoning with. Unfortunately for Dazzler, it didn’t work out that way. The Juggernaut didn’t want to fight. He actually wanted an autograph. But when finally pushed into it, the Juggernaut proved to be as unstoppable as his name suggests. Dazzler was in over her head and defeated quite badly. But the Juggernaut didn’t gloat. He didn’t crow about his evil plans. Instead, he showed true remorse. He hadn’t even wanted to fight in the first place let alone kill one of his idols as he thought had happened. Again, the Juggernaut was shown to be not that a great menace. But this time, it wasn’t because he was weak. It was because he was misunderstood.
 

That issue, Uncanny X-Men #217 remains one of my personal favorites. It’s the issue that first got me thinking that the Juggernaut might be able to reform. He could be one of the good guys if he could only stop retreating to the life of crime that he knew so well. He could be a hero if they would only give him a chance. 

In 1995, it looked like that just might happen. Marvel bought out Malibu. In order to shore up the Ultraverse, Marvel lent some of their characters to the other line. Black Knight joined Ultraforce. And Juggernaut joined the All-New Exiles. It wasn’t exactly the best title I’ve ever read, but I did like the depiction of Juggernaut. He was unstoppable in a fight- a loose cannon- but fiercely loyal to his friends. Here, he had his chance to start over and he was trying, both generally and genuinely, to do what was right.

Of course, it didn’t last for long. Marvel closed the Ultraverse down and returned Juggernaut to their own universe. He came back to the same old roles- the former unstoppable foe defeated by the new big bad in order to make the new big bad look even bigger and badder. I didn’t mind. Juggernaut hadn’t been much of a threat for as long as I’d been reading comics. Plus, after losing to Onslaught, Juggernaut allied himself with the X-Men. They offered him protection and he offered them aid. It seemed like Juggernaut was finally ready to fully join the good guys, something I’d wanted for almost a decade.

 

It wasn’t to be. After Onslaught was defeated, Juggernaut went back to his villainous ways. While I may have been disappointed that he hadn’t reformed, I couldn’t deny that he had become powerful in his return to the role. After flirting with redemption, Juggernaut had once again become unstoppable. Well, no villains are really unstoppable in superhero comics, but about as close as a villain could come. But what really convinced me that Juggernaut could be a great villain again were the powerful and iconic covers. Juggernaut menaced people. He smashed through things. He looked like he could tear down walls. I may not have gotten what I wanted, but at least I got a powerful and interesting villain instead.  

Yet again, it wasn’t to be. Much to my surprise, someone else had the idea of reforming Juggernaut: Chuck Austen. I’ll admit that Chuck Austen isn’t one of my favorite writers. But his handling of Juggernaut was one of the bright spots during his run. Every once in a while, a writer will identify strongly with a certain character and in turn infuse that character with so much personality that the readers identify with him as well. I’ve seen it happen with Mark Waid and Wally West, and then with Reed Richards as well. And it happened here with Chuck Austen. For some reason, Austen identified with the misunderstood half-brother. He  crafted part of his own story onto Juggernaut. Austen had been abused as a child. He gave Juggernaut the same background. And it made Cain a much richer character. Suddenly, we realized why he was such a jerk to Charles when they were both boys. Suddenly, we realized not only why he had turned to crime but why he was so often half-hearted about it. He simply didn’t know how to make any other choices. Under Austen’s guidance, the Juggernaut became a truly interesting character. He joined the X-Men. The adult members of the team never fully trusted him, so he befriended and mentored some of the children instead. This was the misunderstood Juggernaut that I had always glimpsed but never fully seen.  

When Chuck Austen left the X-Men, Juggernaut also left the team. I guess the new members didn’t want to deal with him. However, he wasn’t done. He was reformed. And while he was still mistrusted, Juggernaut was a hero. So he joined New Excalibur as it reformed. In fact, he seemed to be the most eager person to join. Most of the others fell into the team or had to be coerced. But not Juggernaut. He wanted to be there. He wanted a chance to prove himself as a hero. 

Unfortunately, all he’s really proved is that he’s better as a villain. At least, that’s what I think. There are two reasons why I prefer Juggernaut as a villain at this point. One, as a hero, he’s degenerating into the generic strong guy. Every team needs its strong guy. The Fantastic Four have the Thing. The X-Men have Colossus. Even X-Factor has a strong guy in, um, Strong Guy.  But there doesn’t seem to be a lot more going on with Juggernaut than that. At least, not in New Excalibur. He could be a strong guy with a shady past. He could be a strong guy trying to prove himself. But that’s not really what’s going on. Instead, he’s just a strong guy. And frankly, it hasn’t been that interesting. Cain Marko was much more interesting as a bad guy who happened to fall into a life of crime than as a hero who doesn’t know what he’s doing. 

And that brings us to the second, more serious, problem. The Juggernaut isn’t a very good strong guy. Now, that could be an interesting angle to take. But it doesn’t seem as if it’s being done intentionally. The best example comes from New Excalibur #16. That issue opens with a hostage situation in a major bank. The villains are making their demands when suddenly, Juggernaut smashes through a wall with several other members of Excalibur behind him. So far, so good, except that on the next page one of the villains shoots Juggernaut with a good so hard that Juggernaut is thrown back out of the building. This is supposed to be the unstoppable Juggernaut? After being helped up, Juggernaut goes back into the building to find that Dazzler and Nocturne have pretty much finished mopping up the bad guys.  

Admittedly, this is pretty typical of Chris Claremont’s work. The guys look weak and the women look strong. But in the case of Juggernaut, there’s a certain sub-text that I can’t quite ignore. Juggernaut was strong when he was bad. Now, that he’s good, he’s weak. And frankly, I don’t like that suggestion, even if it’s an unintentional sub-text. I don’t like the idea that being good makes you weak. It’s not that Juggernaut can’t be  weak in other ways. He is new to this hero biz and he should be unsure of himself. I’d be okay with that kind of weakness. After all, he’s always been morally and mentally weak. That’s how the X-Men have defeated him so many times over the years. But he’s not just morally weak, or mentally weak. He’s now physically weak as well. The same Juggernaut who used to be able to wade through an entire team of X-Men and throw them around like rag-dolls now gets his lunch handed to him by a bunch of robbers with guns. He’s that kind of weak.  

It was that scene that made me think to myself, “I wish Juggernaut was a villain again. He was a lot more powerful and a lot more interesting when he was a villain.” I’m amused that the same writer who first made me think that Juggernaut could be a great hero is the same writer who made me more recently decide that Juggernaut should be a villain. Maybe he could be a hero, and be a good one. But it seems like the Juggernaut is only a hero in books that aren’t written well and he’s a villain in the ones that are. I can’t speak for everyone, but I’d rather have an interesting and powerful Juggernaut as a villain in a well-written book than a weak and dull Juggernaut as a hero in a poorly-written book.
 

For now, at least, the Juggernaut should be a villain.

The End.

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Originally Published at CaptainComics.us, June 22, 2007

Random Musings on New Numbers for Graphic Novels

Recently, I happened to look at the sales charts for graphic novels for April 2007 (courtesy of icv2.com ). I don’t do this every month, but I like to check in from time to time to see how the industry is doing. I find it helps to have facts in order to fend off the Chicken Littles and other dark prophets of doom. I found this month’s sales chart to be particularly interesting and I thought I’d share a few thoughts with the rest of you. 

 

Civil War

The big news this month is Civil War. Marvel wrapped up their big crossover in March and started releasing Civil War-related trade paperbacks in April. And Civil War dominated. The main trade, Civil War itself, brought in 19,215 sales for the month. That makes it not only the biggest graphic novel in April, but it also makes it the biggest debuting graphic novel of the year by nearly 10,000 copies. For the sake of comparison, the top-selling trades in January, February and March were Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3, Civil War: Road to Civil War and 300 with sales of 8.874, 9,340 and 8,726 respectively. It’s safe to say that Civil War killed the competition.

However, the good news for Marvel doesn’t stop with the main title. The Civil War tie-ins and related books took the top four spots and six of the top eight in April. Thanks mainly to the many Civil War books released, April 2007 experienced a whopping 44% growth over the sales of April 2006.

I think this underscores a point I’ve made often over the years: single issue comics and trade paperbacks are not in competition with each other; instead, they are complementary pieces of the same market. The biggest selling single-issue comic of 2006, Civil War, becomes the biggest selling trade paperback of 2007. The sale of singles drives the sale of trades.

This isn’t unusual. We see similar things in the music industry, in which musicians with the best-selling singles are often the same musicians with the best-selling albums. We see similar things in the movie industry, in which the biggest blockbusters in theatres also become the best-sellers in video rentals and DVDs. Admittedly, there’s not a perfect correlation. Some artists sell comparatively better in singles than they do in albums. Some movies, especially family films, sell better in the secondary market of DVD sales than in the primary market of the theatre. But there is a high correlation- the best-selling singles come from the best-selling albums, the best-selling DVDs come from the best-selling movies.

And the same is true in comics: the best-selling comics make for the best-selling trades. There’s not a perfect correlation. But it’s close enough to show that the singles market is capable of driving the trade market and to show that the two formats work together in a complementary fashion, rather than work against each other competitively.

Manga

After a top four filled with Civil War related titles, the next two trades were All-Star Superman Vol. 1 and Fruits Basket I don’t have anything interesting to say about All-Star Superman right now, except to note that it’s another title that does well in single issues before doing well in trades. However, I was intrigued by the presence of Fruits Basket, which happened to be the highest-selling Manga of the month. Vol. 6.

A number of years ago, Manga titles were selling at an exponential rate and some observers predicted that Manga would completely overtake superhero comics. It hasn’t happened yet. Manga is a strong presence -after all, Fruits Basket was the sixth best selling trade of the month- but it isn’t the dominant presence it was predicted to be. There were six Manga titles in the top 50, ranking from Fruits Basket at #6 to Inu Yasha Vol. 29 at #45. We see a similar picture in January, with 7 Manga titles in the top 50, in February with 5 and in March with 4 (although 2 more charted at #51 and #53). Some titles, like Death Note, are growing in sales from one volume to the next. Others, like Inu Yasha and Battle Club, are experiencing small declines. Manga is a steady seller, but it no longer appears to be growing exponentially.

Of course, that’s only looking at the sales charts for the direct market and Manga is a much bigger presence in the bookstores than it is in the local comic shop. I’m certainly not the expert in this area but, thankfully, I don’t have to be. Brian Hibbs, a retailer and columnist at Newsarama has already done the research. The best-selling Manga title of 2006 was Naruto Vol. 9, which sold 101, 457 copies. That’s pretty impressive. It’s even more impressive to know that the 12 volumes of Naruto ranked 1-11 and 16 for the year (the final volume was released in December and ranked 16^th with only one month’s worth of sales). The 12 volumes combined to sell 917,115 trades or an average of 76,426 per volume. That’s some pretty hefty sales.

However, it still doesn’t match the best-selling comic book. The seven issues of Civil War have combined to sell 2,154,641 copies so far. That’s an average of 307,805 copies per issue. Now, that’s not the complete picture. We didn’t look at how well Naruto sold in comic book shops. And we aren’t able to know how well Civil War sold via newsstands. But the partial picture we have shows us this: Civil War sold better in comic book shops than Naruto  sold in bookstores.

I didn’t write this to denigrate Manga. I have nothing against Manga and I hope it continues to sell well. But the idea that Manga sales completely outstrip superhero sales is not borne out by the numbers. Manga outsells comic books in bookstores. Comic books outsell Manga in comic book stores. And, currently, comic books sell better in comic book stores than Manga sells in bookstores. Yet, I think that’s okay. Once again, I don’t think that superhero comic books and Manga are competing with each other. They’re part of the same medium, and what’s good for one isn’t automatically bad for the other. After all, the period of exponential growth for Manga happened to coincide with a period of sustained growth for comic books. They can both be healthy at the same time.

Runaways

Earlier I noted that single issue sales tend to drive graphic novel sales. However, I will readily admit that there isn’t a perfect correlation. Some titles simply sell proportionally better in trade paperbacks and digests. Exhibit A is Runaways. The #5 trade in April was All-Star Superman which sold 6,675 copies. The #9 trade (and the third non-Civil War trade) was Runaways which sold 5,420 copies. In single issues, All-Star Superman averages sales of about 110,000 copies. Runaways averages about 25,000 copies. Yet despite that large difference in single issue sales, the All-Star Superman trade sold only 1,255 more copies than the Runaways trade.

Admittedly, that number is misleading. For one thing, this is the $20 hardcover of All-Star Superman and the $8 digest of Runaways so we’re not exactly comparing apples to apples. Presumably, All-Star Superman will sell some more copies of a soft-cover trade somewhere down the line (I know I’m waiting for one). And, presumably, not as many people would have shelled out $20 for a Runaways hardcover as were willing to shell out for an $8 digest. However, it does show that certain titles have a stronger secondary market presence than others. Runaways is one of them. Looking further down the list, the Runaways digest outsold a volume of Batman: Detective and Wolverine: Origins despite selling significantly fewer copies of single issues.

 

The Walking Dead

The next thing to catch my eye was barely in the top half of the sales charts. It was the 43^rd best selling comic of the month: Walking Dead Vol. 6. What is noteworthy is not that Walking Dead Vol. 6 was sitting at #43, but that Walking Dead Volumes 1, 5 and 2 were also on the chart at numbers 65, 80 and 96. And it wasn’t just April. I looked at the earlier sales charts as well. Volumes 1, 3, 4 and 5 all charted in January and again in March. Volumes 1 and 5 both charted in February. Somewhat quietly, Robert Kirkman’s Walking Dead has become one of the most consistent selling trades in the market.  

These trades aren’t simply selling in the first month of their release, and maybe the second, before fading away from the charts. No, they’re charting again and again, selling more than 1,000 extra copies month after month. I have seen this before. I have seen series that would ship multiple volumes month after month after month, but they were series like Swamp Thing and Sandman Now, apparently, the Walking Dead has entered their ranks. Furthermore, the Walking Dead is currently outdoing them as no other series- Swamp Thing, not Sandman is shipping multiple volumes month after month. There are some other consistent sellers, but they’re Manga or single volume trades like The Watchmen or 300. Even so, it’s almost odd to think of the Walking Dead as a title that sells as consistently as The Watchmen and 300. 

I mentioned in my last column that I had grown bored with The Walking Dead. I may not be reading the title anymore, but I can't help but be impressed by its success.

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Originally Published at  CaptainComics.us, on June 1, 2007

All of April (plus a little bit more from May and March

Here it is: a huge column reviewing seven weeks worth of comics including the entire month of April Due to work and travel, I hadn’t been to the comic store in that amount of time. And since I haven’t reviewed new comics since February, it seemed like the big pile of comics would be great fodder for a big column about comics. So hold on to your capes, it’s a quadruple-sized installment of Fluit Notes.

52 #47, 48, 49, 50, 51 and 52: And it’s done! I honestly enjoyed 52 and I’m glad I stuck it out all the way to the end. There were a few bumpy spots along the way. The art was inconsistent. For example, I didn’t really care for Giuseppe Camuncoli’s work on issue 47 or Darick Robertson’s work on issue 48, but I really liked the work of Joe Bennett, Justiniano and Eddy Barrows on the final issues. Barrows is much better here than he is on the Atom. Also, the story got spread a little thin in the middle, but they more than made up for it with some great story conclusions starting with the “Rain of the Supermen” at the beginning of this year. This set of issues had one ending that didn’t work so well for me. I just didn’t care for the Bruno/Batwoman stuff at all, especially as Bruno re-entered the story so near to the end. near to the end. But I did like the end of the Will Magnus story. I liked how he turned on Sivana, how he saved T.O. Morrow and how he used his own insanity in his favor. I just wish that he had shot all of the Metal Men out of a gun, as he does on the cover, instead of only Lead. The Black Adam conclusion was also momentous, even if it was padded by the unnecessary World War III mini-series. And I enjoyed the big Booster Gold conclusion. I wasn’t clamoring for the return of the multiverse but I still liked how the story was told.

 

Action Comics 847 and 848: Some fill-in stories are truly filler. Others, however, become classics. I’d put issue 847 in the latter. Dwayne McDuffie uses Jonathan Kent as a vehicle to tell a story out of Superman’s past. It’s a wonderful use of Clark's parents and an engaging tale in its own right.  Plus, Renato Guedes’ art is reminiscent of Tony Harris’ work on Ex Machina. Unfortunately, issue 848 is of the former category. Fabian Nicieza tries to tell a tale that raises questions of religious fervor and faith but it’s not as mysterious or as engaging as it’s supposed to be.

 

Amazing Spider-Man Free Comic Book Day Special: Spider-Man was one of the titles that I used to read in the ‘80s. When I get nostalgic for the comics I read when I was kid, I go back and read them. But I guess I just don’t need today’s Spidey to be the Spidey of yesterday. This issue simply didn’t scratch a nostalgia itch. I don’t think I even had a nostalgia itch for it to scratch. And without that, this is a pretty boring book.

 

Atom 10 and 11: This was a decent story. Eddy Barrows is getting a better handle on the art though I’m still looking forward to Mike Norton’s return. And I like how Gail Simone played with clichés. Ryan Choi finds his childhood love, only to discover that she’s not quite a lovable as he thought when he was a teenager. Plus, there’s a nice development in the relationship between Ryan and his father.

 

Astounding Wolf-Man 1: Free Comic Book Day Special:  I’m a huge fan of Invincible. I enjoyed The Walking Dead for a couple of years before getting bored. And I’ve even liked some of Kirkman’s lesser known works such as Tales of the Realm and Techjacket. So I was hoping for something really good. But this wasn’t it. It just wasn’t original at all. We’ve got the yuppie, workaholic dad who gets mauled by some kind of animal. We’ve got a few mysterious disappearances before the character figures out he’s a werewolf. And we’ve got a mysterious mentor who offers to help, and who happens to be a vampire. The text page hints that there’s a great mystery to this vampire and interesting questions to be asked about the characters but we don’t get that sense from the story. There’s just no hook here to make me want to read more.

 

Astro City: The Dark Age Book Two #3: After all of the recent complaints about books like All-Star Batman and  Ultimates that are interminably late, here’s an irregularly scheduled book that does it right. Kurt Busiek knows that Astro City doesn’t come out that often. He knows his readers may not remember every detail from the previous issue. But he doesn’t expect them to.  Throughout this issue, there are little lines of expository dialogue to remind you of the pertinent events. Royal is working for the Platypus. Charles is trying not to take graft while also trying not to tell Internal Investigations that his partner is corrupt. Charles’ wife left him. The Street Angel has gotten darker. And so on. Exposition can be overdone- it can weigh down a story- but that’s not the case here. Instead, it keeps the reader from constantly wondering what’s going on so that we get down to simply enjoying the story. And it is mostly enjoyable, though not entirely. As I feared, the Dark Age is a little too dark for what I want from Astro City. But there’s still the sense of wonder that I want to see combined with the average person on the street’s view of great events. It’s that combination that has made Astro City  and earlier works like Marvels so special.  As long as that’s here,  a book well worth reading. 

 

Avengers: Initiative 1: For a while, I was giddy happy while reading this book. I felt the same kind of joy reading that Cloud 9 felt when she was flying. I liked the new characters. I liked the older characters, like Justice and Yellowjacker. And I was having a great time with some apparently old-fashioned superhero action. And then MVP got his head blown off. I’ll admit that it was a shock, but that’s more because it was so out of tone with the rest of the story. It was also a blatant rip-off of Starship Troopers. I might be back for the second issue but I’m much more interested in the “new heroes trying to make it” than I am in “government cover-up” angle.

 

Batman 664: There’s some good stuff in here: the portrayal of Bruce Wayne as an international playboy who pretends to be James Bond, the Andy Kubert art, Batman’s compassionate offer of a Waynetech job to a prostitute, and the clarification that the Batman who dumped the Joker into a dumpster was an impersonator. I guess some people do miss the Bat-psycho and they’re living in Gotham. But there’s some stuff that doesn’t work as well such as Batman’s inner monologue in the closing sequence and the fact that it’s taken us this long to know for sure that Batman is being impersonated.

 

Birds of Prey 105: The awful Colossus mini-series from a couple of years ago turned me off of any Rasputin stories so this issue got off on the wrong foot with me. At least, Birds of Prey is starting to concentrate on a slightly smaller team. Plus, it was nice to see both the Secret Six as antagonists and Tora Olafsdottir as a central plot device. This wasn’t the best issue of Birds of Prey, but it was still okay.

 

Brave and Bold 3: This is what Mark Waid was afraid of: Brave and Bold is fun, but it’s also inconsequential. Any character development is done in the character’s own titles. Any tension is reserved for the big event books. So what’s left is a mostly gentle romp through the DC Universe featuring favorite characters in exotic locales. It’s fun. And George Perez is still a master artist. But it’s not exactly a riveting read. Plus, some of the connections feel a little forced (Supergirl’s intergalactic guide is Lobo?) and the title is starting to feel a little crowded. It’s not a bad book, but neither is it a “must-read.” 

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2 and 3: A lot of titles are in contention as the best book of the month. This is one of them. Georges Jeanty has really grown as an artist from his days on Bishop and Gambit. He does a great job of capturing the character’s likenesses without being photo-realistic. And he does a great job of capturing facial expressions, which is crucial to this kind of book. But of course, the real star is writer Joss Whedon. Buffy is his creation after all. And Joss is having a fun time with the comic, giving us the kind of situations and scenes that a special-effects budget would not have permitted on TV. We get an overgrown Dawn, zombies storming a castle in issue 2, and an all-out witch battle in issue 3. Plus, we get the return of a few familiar characters such as Ethan Rayne, Amy and another that I don’t want to give away.

 

Countdown 51: Good first issue. Paul Dini manages to get me interested in the plights of Mary Marvel, Duela Dent and the Trickster. However, I wasn’t impressed with the comment by Jason Todd that Duela doesn’t even belong on this world. The whole who-belongs-to-which-world was a confusing barrier to a young Chris and while I may be able to make sense of the situation as an adult that doesn’t mean I want to.

 

Crossing Midnight 4, 5 and 6: Reading this series is like being grabbed by the collar, shaken up and not let go. When I’m reading it, I’m completely involved in it. I feel as if I’m as in-over-my-head as the twin leads of Kaikou and Toshi. These three issues give us a little bit of back-story for their mother, a spotlight on their father and a new mystical protector/master for Kaikou. Finally, in issue 6, we see what’s happening to Toshi as she learns that the imagination and the ability to lie may be the most dangerous weapons of all. 

 

Danger Girl: Body Shots 1 and 2: This is pretty typical Danger Girl: action, intrigue, and more than a little hanky-panky. I don’t mind the hanky-panky, but I ‘m glad that Danger Girl tends to be tongue in cheek about it. 

 

Dark Horse Free Comic Book Day Special, featuring The Umbrella Academy, Pantheon and Zero Killer:

The Umbrella Academy was an okay short story but it wasn’t good enough to make me all that interested in either the characters or the concept. Pantheon City was more intriguing, but it was really just a teaser. We don’t know much more than that it takes place in the future. It looks good but it’s hard to know for sure. Zero Killer is not for me at all. It’s violent and ugly. Some other people like reading that kind of thing, but I don’t.

Dreadnoks Declassified 3: Snake Eyes Declassified was excellent. Scarlett Declassified was even better. This was a muddled mess. In this finale, I finally figured out why: Amaury ends up killing Zartan and becoming the new Zartan. So we haven’t been bouncing around time. We’ve been alternating between Zartan and the man who will become Zartan. Maybe I should have known that before I started reading the story. But I think that maybe the story-teller could have communicated that to me more clearly. After all, that wasn’t the only thing that was confusing me. Half the time, I wasn’t sure if the story was taking place in the Australian Outback (the original home of the Dreadnoks) or the Florida Everglades (the new home of the Dreadnoks). It’s not a good sign when you can’t tell the difference between the desert and the swamp. 

 

Dynamo 5 #2: This was good. Really good. Better than Noble Causes good. Gotta-get-more good. The team is made up of the descendants of Captain Dynamo, but there are a couple of twists: each of the five characters inherited a different power, and each of the five characters is Captain Dynamo’s child by a different woman. Plus, the team is being run by the Captain’s widow, who isn’t mother to any of them. Suddenly, you’ve got a team that has a reason to work together, and even more reasons to not get along. Jay Faerber manages to come up with a few twists on convention as well such as giving the football player mental rather than physical powers. These characters have flaws, but they’re still mostly likable. And I have to mention Mahmud Asrar’s art. It’s absolutely gorgeous. He draws pretty women who look different from one another, muscular men and scary monsters. He draws fluid flight scenes and powerful fight scenes. And he’s a strong enough story-teller that he can handle quiet scenes like conversations over coffee and visits to a nursing home. Do yourself a favor and buy this book.

 

Ex Machina 27: Mayor Mitchell Hundred loses his powers just as a super-powered threat arrives in New York. Meanwhile, New York is suffering a severe power outage and the mayor’s office is scrambling to address the problem. Once again, Brian Vaughan manages to make the political side of things interesting. The super-villain problems complicate the real world problems rather than overshadowing them. Plus, somehow, Mitchell manages to remain charismatic even in the midst of the chaos. I love his line about blaming Canada for the power outage, and I’m a Canadian. 

 

Fables 59 and 60:  Fables #59 made me laugh out loud… multiple times. It’s a special one-shot in which Bill Willingham and two handfuls of artists answer readers’ questions with short stories. We find out the last thing that Jack did before leaving Fabletown, who’s been asking questions of the Magic Mirror and how Bufkin keeps getting into the liquor. It’s funny stuff, yet Willingham still manages to creatively tie several of the short stories together and occasionally reveal important character information. The next issue, #60, starts us off on a Flycatcher story. It’s not as great as 59, but it’s just an opening act so it’s got plenty of time to get better. 

 

Fantastic Four 544 and 545: I’m not a big fan of the Fantastic Four. I enjoy the title when it has a good creative team but I’m not so enamored with the characters that I have to get this title when it doesn’t. However, the early returns on the McDuffie/Pelletier era are positive. It’s not “the best FF ever,” but its well worth reading. I especially enjoyed the witty dialogue, particularly in the playful banter between Ben and Johnny. Other creators have written their relationship as if they’re enemies who would rip each other apart if Sue wasn’t there to intervene. McDuffie writes them more like they’re brothers. They enjoy teasing each other and trying to show the other one up, but they honestly like each other and would defend the other one from anyone else. Oh, and the Black Panther and Storm fit in well with the Black Panther providing tech support and tactics while Storm provides phenomenal power and a moral center—kind of like Reed and Sue.  And oh again, I liked the inclusion of new characters like Stardust (who I hadn’t met before now) and Gravity (who I liked a lot thanks to his first mini-series). All in all, good stuff so far from the new creative team on Fantastic Four. 

 

Firestorm 34 and 35: This was kind of a weird ending for Firestorm. Even though it was the final arc, the story spent a lot more time setting up a conflict with the New Gods that will presumably play out in other titles like Countdown. It’s almost as if Firestorm became a supporting character in his own book at the end. 

 

GI Joe 22 and 23: This was a great title about a year ago. Now, it seems to be marking time, focusing on secondary characters like General Rey and the Baroness rather than on the Joes themselves. That’s supposed to change with a gigantic issue 25 but for now we’re looking at decent but not great issues of GI Joe. 

 

Green Lantern 18 and 19: Daniel Acuna is miscast as a penciller. He’s a great cover artist, but it just doesn’t translate to interior pages. It looks too unreal, like a painting, and keeps you distant from the characters. That’s especially a problem in a story like this one, in which love and lust play such a central role. As for the story, I’m intrigued at the idea of a Star Sapphire Corps but I’m still not sure what they’re supposed to be about. 

 

Green Lantern Corps 11 and 12: Currently, I prefer the Spin-off Corps to the core title. Guy Gardner may be too crass to work as a solo hero but he’s a great fit for an ensemble cast. Sora Natu, with her surgeon’s perspective and reservations about the Corps, is a great new character. I was a little nervous about seeing so many Lanterns act out of character, but Gibbons didn’t leave us wondering for too long before revealing a very surprising cause.

 

Invincible 40 and 41: Yes! A double dose of Invincible. This is “probably the best superhero comic book in the universe.” I love how Kirkman juggles the supporting cast. The main action is on Invincible and a team of heroes fighting off an invasion from outer space, but we still cut back to earth to the heroes and the girlfriend left behind. The previously annoying Rexsplode is suddenly a sympathetic character, while you feel bad for Amber even at the same time that you want Mark to break up with her so that he can get together with Eve. Invincible does a great job of balancing action and relationships, of including a huge supporting cast while not losing sight of the lead, and of playing around with the fact that the title is part of a larger superhero universe (as with the Brit cameo in issue 40). It just doesn’t get any better than this. 

 

JLA Classified 37 and 38: I don’t Frank Halloran, the self-important nihilistic philosophy major who is the lead in these issues. But I do like his story. I’m intrigued by his struggle. He rejects the destiny of violence and villainy that Professor Ivo and Amazo have planned for him. But he doesn’t exactly embrace the concepts of virtue and justice. It’s an interesting Catch-22. If Frank was even slightly sympathetic, this story would be great. As it is, it works on an intellectual level but doesn’t quite engage me as a fan.

 

JSA Classified 24 and 25: The first issue is the conclusion of a Dr. Mid-Nite vs. a vampire story. It’s not great but it was okay. My big problem with the story is Pieter Cross’ insistence that there’s no such thing as vampires. That’s a reasonable assertion in our world. But in the DC Universe, a place populated by alien races and immortal Neanderthals, Pieter’s skepticism seems a bit extreme. Oh well, it was at least better than issue 25. I generally like Tony Bedard’s work but not this time. It was like somebody replaced my issue of JSA Classified with an issue of Checkmate. It looks like Alan Scott, but he’s morally compromised, breaking his word and spouting about the gray areas between right and wrong. And it’s not even that good a story. Blech! 

 

Justice 11: I really need to re-read this story all at once. The bi-monthly schedule has allowed Alex Ross to pencil every issue but it’s also made it hard to remember what happens from one issue to the next. At least after a couple of pages to get my bearings, I usually enjoy whatever issue I’m reading. The penultimate installment was no exception. There were some great moments, such as Rita Farr knocking out Giganta and Superman’s line “It’s my job.” However, this issue did get a little busy and confusing. This is one case in which less might have been more. 

 

Justice Leagues and Societys (JLA 7 and 8, and JSA 5): I have one complaint about JLA 7: the pages were printed out of order. I have another complaint: Brad Meltzer’s jump-cut style of story-telling made it difficult to figure out what the right order should be.  But that’s about it. Everything else was great. I love the line-up, incorporating members from all of the different eras and even a few new ones. I love the character moments, like how much Roy Harper respects Black Canary, and Superman telling Batman that it’s okay to have Hal and the others pick the new team. I like the Hall of Justice. I like it all. JLA has got to be one of my favorite books right now. And then there’s “The Lightning Saga,” the crossover with JSA. It’s hard to judge a crossover based on only the first two chapters but I do like what I’ve seen so far. Both Meltzer and Johns know how to mix character moments with action and suspense. On the one side, there’s more Roy Harper (yay!) and Brion’s half-apologetic half-boastful observation about how he has the combined powers of the rest of the team. On the other, there are some quick fights like Batman vs. Karate Kid and the training sequence of Hawkgirl vs. Red Arrow.

 

Loners 1 and 2: I like obscure heroes so I was intrigued by The Loners but not enough to come back for issue 3. Karl Moline inks his own pencils a little too darkly. And C.B. Cebulski hasn’t really given us a reason to like the main characters though the second issue was better than the first. But in the end, Loners just isn’t as good as I would want it to be. 

 

Madman Atomic Comics 1: I was disappointed. I wanted to like Madman. I wanted to like him like I like Hellboy and Nexus. I wanted to like him like I liked the Atomics. But this was not a good first issue. Basically, it’s a re-cap of all of the various Madman series and specials over the years. That’s okay, but it probably should have been a 0 issue or a prequel instead of the new number 1. Then, when the recaps were done, Madman got into a philosophical dream about whether we are who we are or who we think we are. I wanted “madcap” but I got “pretentious.” Blech. 

 

Mighty Avengers 2: I liked the flashback sequences in which Miss Marvel and Iron Man gather the rest of the team together. However, the main action sequence lacked any forward movement; the Mighty Avengers were in basically the same situation at the end of the issue that they were at the beginning. Also, others might find Bendis’ dialogue tics endearing but I find them annoying. This isn’t a bad title, it’s just not the right title for me.

 

Nightwing 131, 132 and Annual 2: Bride and Groom are really lame villains. Even the attempt to tie the Bride into the Salem Witch Trials fails to make her interesting. On the bright side, at least we’re getting to see the real Dick Grayson rather than the imposter we’ve been seeing in Outsiders and during the Devin Grayson run. Plus, I like how Marv Wolfman is building a neighborhood and a supporting cast around Dick. I’m just not sure it’s enough to get the side stuff right while the main action is so lame.  The Annual seems to have the opposite problem. It should be a good story. After all, it has a strong hook. It’s the story of Dick and Barbara - aka Robin and Batgirl, aka Nightwing and Oracle- and their on and off and on again relationship. We get to see what it was like when they first started to be attracted to each other. We get to see them first fall in love. We get to see them leave each other, hurt each other, but always care for each other. But this issue just doesn’t have the heart or the emotional oomph that it needs to convey the relationship. It answers questions. It just didn’t make me feel. At least, not as much as it should have. 

 

Noble Causes 29: I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. It’s the big showdown between the Noble family and the Blackthornes. And it’s great. The two families have become so intertwined that a quarter of them don’t even know which side to fight for. There are some great throw-downs and a surprising offer that puts at end to the shenanigans. Stories like this are the reason I started to love this title in the first place. My only complaint is Yildiray Cinar’s art felt a little rushed. It’s still better than the previous artist, and his talent stood out in certain panels and pages. It just wasn’t as consistently excellent as it had been in the previous issues. 

 

Runaways 25 and 26: It’s a new creative team, but it’s still the same old Runaways. Joss Whedon brings a little of his Whedonspeak to the dialogue but these are still the same characters that we’ve been following for forty plus issues over two volumes. And Michael Ryan is a good choice for the art- as with his run on Academy X, the kids look like kids without looking cartoony. This isn’t a drastic change for the title. It’s simply more of the good stuff we enjoyed under the previous team. 

 

Samurai: Heaven and Earth Vol. 2 #4: There’s not a lot I can say about this issue of Samurai that I haven’t said about others. It’s got beautiful art by Luke Ross reminiscent of Greg Land on Sojourn or Steve Epting on El Cazador. It’s got exotic locations, sudden betrayals and passionate love. It’s just plain ol’ great.

 

SHAZAM: Monster Society of Evil 3: I have to admit I’m kind of bored with this title. Just when I think it’s about to get good- as with the introduction of Mary Batson/Mary Marvel in the latter half of issue 2- it seems to take another step backward. In this issue, Mary is pushed to the sidelines while we spend the bulk of the book following Sivana, Attorney General of the United States.It’s bad enough that we follow the villain rather than the more interesting sidekick. It’s worse that Jeff Smith created such a distraction for himself: the political commentary didn’t really fit the rest of the book and would go right over the heads of the kids this book is supposed to be aimed at. I anticipated that this would be one of the best mini-series of 2007 but so far, it’s been a dud.

 

Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars: Three of the four Star Wars titles shipped during this month and a half; Rebellion was on hiatus and shipped one week too late to make it into the review.  

First up, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 15 and 16. John Jackson Miller recently quit his day job so that he could concentrate on writing full time and I have to say that it’s a good decision. Knights is one of the most consistently excellent books that I read month after month and the first issue, 15, is one of the best so far. Protagonist and failed Jedi Padawan Zayne Carrick has had a prophetic dream in which he foresees the Mandalorian army bombing the civilian population of Serroco. In this issue, he tries to share his knowledge with those who are in charge of the Republic forces. Unfortunately, his own reputation works against him. Zayne’s protestations are taken as proof that he’s insane. He’s arrested, and the civilian population of Serroco is devastated by the bombing. It’s one of the most tragic issues I’ve ever read. Even so, Miller manages to keep things from being too depressing by including some comic relief through Zayne’s companion Gryph. Yet, even while we’re laughing at Gryph’s antics, we’re still anxious for him to leave the planet and survive. Miller manages to drag the suspense out even further by dedicating the next issue to Zayne’s former companions Jarael and Camper, as well as one of the Jedi that killed Zayne’s classmates, 

 

Next, there’s Star Wars: Legacy 10 and 11. Knights is set far in the past. Legacy is set far in the future. It’s the story of Cade Skywalker, the latest in the great Skywalker lineage. Yet Cade has rejected his heritage and is leaving as a smuggler rather than a hero. Issue 10 follows a couple of bounty hunters who are trying to bring Cade to Imperial justice. It’s not a great issue- I don’t care for Colin Watson’s art- but there is a great revelation at the end. Issue 12 is much better. It marks the return of regular artist Jan Duursema who’s been doing great work on the Star Wars titles. It also focuses once again on Cade, who’s having visions of his forebears- such as Darth Vader and Mara Jade. Plus, it introduces K’Kruhk- last seen in Star Wars: Republic comic books and the Clone Wars cartoons- and the Yuuzhan Vong- alien adversaries from the New Jedi Order series of novels. 

 

Finally, there’s Star Wars: Dark Times 3. Dark Times isn’t quite as incredible as either Knights or Legacy but it’s still a good book in its own right. It follows the (so-far) surviving Jedi in the early days of the Emperor. One former Master, Dass Jennir, is being forced to learn how to be a smuggler instead of a noble knight. He still tries to work against the empire and injustices like slavery, but he’s sadly learning that there’s not a lot that he can do. 

 

She-Hulk 17: I liked the old status quo. It was great to see Jennifer Walters as lawyer to the capes. But I like the new status quo, too. She-Hulk (the character, not the title) felt shackled as a lawyer. Now, she’s free as an agent of SHIELD to punch things whenever she wants to. Yet Dan Slott continues to engage both worlds. We still get the quirky characters from the law offices while being introduced to a second quirky cast aboard the Helicarrier. A few highlights: the opening argument about wasting space on a splash page, Sidney complaining about the number of Helicarriers that have been destroyed over the years, and She-Hulk vs. a room full of Nick Fury LMDs.

 

Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes 28 and 29: I’ll admit it; I’m lost. With two dozen Legionnaires and now a dozen Wanderers, it’s hard to keep track of all of the characters. I’ve lost track of this title so much that I didn’t even remember we were in the middle of a Dominator war. And I had all of these complaints even before the new creative team in issue 29 which was an unfortunate step down. This version of the Legion has had its moments, especially in the first year and shortly after the addition of Supergirl, but lately it’s not been as good as I’d want it to be. 

 

Superman 661 and 662: I was about ready for the fill-ins to be done. I enjoyed the previous fill-in that focused on the Prankster, but this one guest-starring Wonder Woman wasn’t all that great. The good news is that issue 662 marked the return of the main story and series penciller Carlos Pacheco. I wasn’t a huge fan of the dystopic future that Arion showed Superman but I do like how it’s playing out after the fact. It’s not very interesting to set Superman up against threats he can beat by hitting them. Conversely, it’s very interesting to have a story in which Superman is forced to question the effectiveness of hitting things. I liked how Jimmy Olsen automatically rushed to defend Superman, while Superman investigated the problem by talking to Zatanna and then finding Sirocco. The latter course of action showed us that Superman is a lot smarter than we usually give him credit for. Plus, I kind of like Sirocco. It’s always nice to meet an interesting, new hero.

 

Teen Titans 45 and 46: This is what some observers derisively refer to as a “fight comic.” The Teen Titans fight the Titans East. Then they fight them some more. Then they fight them even more. It’s like the theme song to “The Itchy and Scratchy Show.” Characters who have been knocked out of the fight early in one issue come back later on, with the result that the whole thing just feels its moving in circles instead of forward. The Titans fight against Dr. Light was a classic. This was not. 

 

Wonder Woman 6, 7 and 8 and Amazons Attack 1: Back in the day, I used to be a theatre major in college and I remember some acting classes that talked about how heading towards something is a stronger motivation than heading away from something. I’ve seen that point illustrated in a number of works, including here. The new Wonder Woman title keeps looking back to the Maxwell Lord incident instead of ahead to whatever Wonder Woman wants to accomplish next. There’s some good stuff here. I think this arc is stronger than the first one. Donna has been moved out of the title so there’s less confusion. Wonder Woman is learning how to create and maintain a secret identity. She has an interesting partnership with the former Nemesis. And Circe makes for an interesting ally with the Amazons. But the good pieces just don’t come together as a great whole. Maybe it’s because I expect too much after Greg Rucka’s excellent run. Or maybe it’s because the title feels like it keeps on looking over its shoulder.   

 

World War III 1-4: Wow, World War III was really bad. So bad, I started skimming instead of reading bad. So bad, I told my wife not to bother reading it bad. World War III came about because a change of plans for 52. 52 was supposed to fill in the lost year, using several characters as observers. However, as the writers worked on 52, they discovered that the point-of-view characters had interesting stories in their own right so the title became more about them than the events they were supposed to witness. I fully endorse that decision. I enjoyed reading about the point-of-view characters and in my opinion, 52 struggled a little when it broadened the story beyond those six heroes. But the result of that decision is that a lot of the changes that were supposed to be chronicled in 52 weren’t going to be addressed in that title. Apparently, the solution was to include one event that would explain all of the changes and add this four-part mini-series to cover them. 

 

Unfortunately, it didn’t work. For one thing, the explanation becomes a punch-line. Why did Donna put on the Wonder Woman costume? World War Three. Why did Beast Boy quit the Titans? World War Three. Why did Amanda Waller start a new Checkmate? World War Three. Why did Jason Todd become Nightwing? World War Three. Instead of developing as a natural outgrowth of a story, the changes all seemed to be cobbled onto the big event. They become arbitrary instead of essential.  Another major problem is that the mini-series itself didn’t have a plot. It simply intercut scenes of various characters making important decisions with scenes of various heroes fighting Black Adam. The one never seemed to have anything to do with the other. There was no story there. Worst of all, John Ostrander chose to make the Martian Manhunter the narrator. However, the Manhunter’s inner monologue became very tiresome, even before the end of the second issue. And the whole point of the narration was to explain why the Manhunter turned dark for his most recent mini-series, a change that wasn’t particularly interesting in the first place. Ugh! World War Three is a clinic on how not to write a comic. 

 

X-23: Target X #5: I’ve reviewed this title before so I don’t have a lot of new things to say. The Michael Choi art is beautiful. X-23, despite her origins as a clone, is an interesting character as she struggles to be who she wants to be instead of who she was made to be. And there are some strong story moments such as X-23’s confrontation with Kimura and her surprising decision at the end of the story to go after Wolverine. 

 

X-Factor 18: This is the only X-Men spin-off that I’m still reading. So why has X-Factor persevered while New X-Men, New Excalibur and Exiles have fallen by the wayside? Peter David’s witty dialogue. The complicated ways that the stories fit together. It’s smart so that my brain keeps spinning with questions, while also funny and occasionally exciting. This particular issue is a good example of the convoluted stories that somehow pull together. The team feels like they have to do something even though Layla Miller tells them that the current conflict will resolve on its own. When they persist, she sends them on various errands that at first seem meaningless but tie together to bring them face to face with the X-Cell. 

 

X-Men, X-Men and more X-Men: Astonishing X-Men remains one of my favorite titles and issue 21 is no exception. When I handed the first stack of comics to my wife, she asked me if there was anything that she should read right away and I answered, “Astonishing X-Men.” The John Cassaday art is consistently beautiful. And Joss Whedon knows how to include all of the little things that make a comic fun. There are great moments of wit such as the Beast’s put-downs of Agent Brand, great moments of romance such as the scene between Kitty and Colossus, and it’s all set as the counterpoint to great moments of action, intrigue and surprise. 

Uncanny X-Men may not be quite as good as Astonishing, but it’s close. Issue 485 is the penultimate chapter of “The Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire.” I had been fairly impressed with the earlier issue in which Vulcan fell in love with Deathbird. I found it wholly believable that somebody as young and impressionable as Vulcan could be so turned around by a lover that he ends up fighting to defend the very thing he set out to destroy. Yet in this issue, Ed Brubaker pulls the rug out from underneath us again. Vulcan was only playing along and after he weds Deathbird, he goes ahead and kills D’Ken anyway. As if that apparent betrayal wasn’t enough, Vulcan then declares himself emperor by right of marriage. That is not a scene I’m likely to forget for a long time. Well done, Uncanny.

 

Unfortunately, it seems like there always has to be one weak X-Men title. Nowadays, it’s adjective-less X-Men by Mike Carey and Chris Bachalo.  It’s not that their run on X-Men is horrible. It’s certainly better than the two previous runs by Chuck Austen and Peter Milligan. But it certainly doesn’t measure up to the two other X-titles. Carey seems to have trouble clearly communicating who the villain is or what they want so the main conflict is usually confused. This is as true for issue 198, the second part of Red Data, as it was for the previous story. There are some nice moments like the budding flirtation between Iceman and Mystique, and I like the inclusion of newer heroes like Lady Mastermind and Omega Sentinel, but overall this is a pretty mediocre book at the moment. 

 

Y: The Last Man 56: Nothing much happens in this issue. For a lot of other comics, that would be a complaint. But not for a Brian K. Vaughan comic. Instead, Yorick and Agent 355 have some parting conversations that are really touching, and that shine a light on their personalities and their relationship. We also catch of a glimpse of several supporting characters who are close to tracking Yorick down. That’s a good thing when it’s his sister Hero and the second Beth. That’s not a good thing when it’s the Israeli agent Alter. Oh, and we’ve been waiting for those final three pages for four years. They literally made my wife cry.

Originally Published at CaptainComics.us, May 25, 2007
 

The Best Shi’ar Stories

In honor of Uncanny X-Men 486- which happened to ship this week and which happens to be part 12 of the 12-part “Rise and Fall of the Shi’ar Empire”- I present my personal list of the best Shi’ar stories. So strap on a space-suit and get ready for a ride…

 

Uncanny X-Men 107-108 by Chris Claremont, Dave Cockrum and John Byrne

This is where it all started. Well, I guess you could say that it started several issues earlier with Professor Xavier’s dreams of an alien, but this is where it really started. The X-Men are suddenly teleported to another planet and thrust into battle with the Imperial Guard. They’re well on their way to losing when they find some unexpected allies in the Starjammers. They’re caught between a mad emperor, his noble sister and a plan to destroy the world using the M’Kraan crystal. In the second issue, the X-Men enter the crystal and fight a series of guardians before we see the full extent of Phoenix’s ability to rearrange the world around her.  

This story also marks the transition between two great artists. Dave Cockrum drew the first part in Uncanny X-Men 107. He designed the great costumes and- with Claremont- modeled the Imperial Guard on DC’s Legion of Super-Heroes, a title that Cockrum had previously worked on. A lot of the charm of the Shi’ar, the Guard and the Starjammers comes from Cockrum’s sense of design. The second issue was drawn by John Byrne, marking the beginning of his long tenure with the team. Byrne brought a very accessible style to the title, with clean and powerful line-work. This was especially evident in the big climax featuring Phoenix.

That would be enough to get any story onto this list, but this story gets the little things right as well. For example, I love the bit in which Wolverine steals Fang’s costume. It’s a good look for Wolverine- and is later borrowed by X-23- as well as a nod to the Legion’s Timber Wolf.

 

Uncanny X-Men 135-137 by Chris Claremont and John Byrne

 

It’s only the biggest X-Men story ever and a candidate for one of the greatest superhero stories ever told. It’s the end of the Dark Phoenix saga. It’s absolute corruption at the hands of absolute power. It’s honorable heroes standing by their friend to the death. And it happens to be a Shi’ar story as well.

 In order to replenish her power, Phoenix drained the energy of a sun dooming an entire world to destruction. The atrocity didn’t go unnoticed. The Shi’ar were aware of what Phoenix had done and in issue 135, they arrive for justice. In the earlier story, the X-Men helped to unseat the mad emperor D’Ken. But this time around, the Shi’ar are led by their friend and ally Lilandra. The climax of the Phoenix saga is no simple tale of good and evil. Instead, it is a tale in which loyalty and justice find themselves at odds and the X-Men stand against one friend in order to defend another.

 

Uncanny X-Men 275-277 by Chris Claremont and Jim Lee
 

I wanted to include Uncanny X-Men 162-167 but outside of a few guest appearances by Corsair, Deathbird and Lilandra, it’s really more of a Brood story than a Shi’ar one. So the next big Shi’ar story worth including is this three-parter by Claremont and Lee. And this story just happens to be a personal favorite of mine. 

At the end of issue 273, Lila Cheney shows up on the doorstep of the Xavier mansion, tells the X-Men that they’re needed and promptly teleports them away. They arrive on Chandilar, in the heart of the Shi’ar Empire. What I like most about this story is that there’s a lot of character misdirection. Charles Xavier has been gone from the X-Men some time as he had joined Lilandra as her royal consort circa issue 200. When the X-Men arrive in Shi’ar space, they’re confused by stories that Lilandra and her royal consort have somehow become corrupt. The team becomes divided as some team members refuse to believe that their former mentor is capable of evil. The character misdirection is further amplified when
Claremont causes doubts to fall upon new members Gambit and Psylocke both of whom have shady pasts. The result of all of this sleight of hand is a great battle between Wolverine and Gambit in issue 277 and a stunning turn for Wolverine in issue 276. But don’t worry, Xavier didn’t really turn evil. Instead, he and Lilandra have been held captive by Skrulls who are trying to undermine the Shi’ar Empire and doing a pretty good job of it.

As I mentioned earlier, this is one of my all-time favorite X-Men stories. I love the high drama of it which Jim Lee captures so well in the covers. I like that the new guys turn out to be right even though no one believes them at first. And I love that Claremont keeps us guessing as to who might have turned evil and who might have stayed true.

 

Uncanny X-Men 342-344 by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira

 

I think this is a pretty underrated story. This particular tale continues the tradition of having the Shi’ar threatened by an outside source and turn to the X-Men for salvation. It had happened previously with the Brood and the Skrulls. Now, it’s the Phalanx who have infiltrated the Empire. The story begins in issue 341 with a great battle between Guardian and Cannonball in which Guardian begrudgingly admits that the Shi’ar need the help of the X-Men. After that, we’re treated to a tight three-part story in which the X-Men take on the Phalanx, learn secrets of the Shi’ar and team up with Deathcry. It’s a nice fast-paced tale. 

I also like that this story gets the little things right. Guardian is too rushed to insure that he only sends X-Men into space so two X-Men associates are sent with the team. That means that Lobdell is able to continue character and relationship work even while the team is in space. One associate is Hank McCoy’s off-and-on girlfriend Trish Tilby. Through this story, we get a stronger appreciation for Trish as we see her resourcefulness. Also, Trish gets a stronger appreciation for Hank and his fellow X-Men as she sees the kinds of threats that they face on a regular basis. The other associate is Joseph. Now I know that not a lot of people like the Magneto clone. However, I liked how he was used in this story. It’s neat to see Gambit distrust the newcomer, an ironic reversal of his early tenure. And Lobdell does a great job of having Joseph react to the Phalanx’s genocide of the Shi’ar.

 

Uncanny X-Men 475-486 by Ed Brubaker, Billy Tan and Clayton Henry

 
  Maybe it’s too early to include this story. It’s not like we have had any time to look back on this tale and reflect on whether or not it was truly good. Plus, I haven’t even read the finale yet. It’s possible that the whole thing falls apart. Then again, this has been one great tale. I’ve read some negative reviews of it and I’m left to wonder if they’re even reading the same story. 

Here’s what we have so far: Gabriel Summers, aka Vulcan, swears vengeance on the Shi’ar.  The X-Men take off after him but they’re always behind and sometimes way behind. They’re fought off by Shi’ar outposts who consider them a threat and think they may even be allied with Vulcan. A Shi’ar anti-Phoenix specialist attacks, trying to kill Rachel Summers. Vulcan blows out all of the Shi’ar jumpgates. Lilandra is betrayed by her own military who consider her weak and is deposed. D’Ken returns from the dead, but he’s still as insane as he ever was.

Darwin continues to evolve, becoming one of the coolest new X-Men in years. Havok takes charge. Vulcan arrives on the Shi’ar homeworld. Deathbird takes Vulcan in as a lover and uses her sexuality to twist him around until he’s fighting to protect D’Ken. Lilandra finds a new ally in someone she had previously banished. The X-Men hook up with the Starjammers. Xavier and Darwin are captured by D’Ken and scheduled for public execution. Vulcan marries Deathbird, kills D’Ken and declares himself emperor by right of marriage. That means that the Shi’ar have gone through two coups in less than a month while the X-Men have doggedly been trying to get across the universe. Even the X-Men manage to defeat Vulcan in the finale the Shi’ar Empire has been irrevocably altered. That’s a great tale.

 

And that’s it for this list.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Different Variations, One Team

I thought I had a dilemma. I had heard that DC was going to publish a variety of covers for Justice League of

America

#7. The cover features the current team running towards the reader, while six portraits of previous eras serve as the background. Personally, I think it’s a great cover. However, I thought- mistakenly as it turns out- that DC was going to publish six different covers. I thought I was going to have to choose one of those covers. But how could I choose? The obvious answer is that I should simply pick the cover that shows my favorite era. But there lies the dilemma. I don’t have one favorite era. I have several.

 
Admittedly, it’s a pretty good dilemma to have. After all, the dilemma is borne out of liking several eras. I like the satellite-era Justice League that I grew up with. I liked that it was so big, that it felt like a league. I liked that it had room for all of the big guns, and that there was also room for newer characters like Firestorm and the Red Tornado. I like the Bwa-ha-ha Justice League. I like the second-stringers and the mix of humor and action. I could read those comics again and again. And those characters are every much as real a Justice League as the team I grew up with. I like the new classic era. I like the Magnificent Seven that Grant Morrison put together in the late ‘90s. I like the classic feel and the big threats and, well, the fact that it was really good. 
 

I was still left with the question of which cover to pick. However, that question led me to think about some other things. Why is it that I have several favorite eras when other fans seem to cling to one specific era as the best?

Maybe it has something to do with my own personal experience with comics. Most fans seem to have one point of entry. But I didn’t. I had multiple points of entry. And maybe that’s why I have multiple favorites. In order to explain, I have to tell a little bit about my own story.

 
Like a lot of others, I started reading comics as a little kid. My mom would give me Richie Rich comics as a way of keeping me quiet while we were on family trips. Eventually, she moved on to giving me Archies and then superheroes like the X-Men and the Teen Titans. Those are the comics of my youth, and they’ll always have a special place in my heart.

 
However, at some point, I started to think of comic books as kids’ stuff. I gave them up. It wasn’t just comic books. I quit reading Hardy Boys, too. I moved on to big stuff like “War and Peace” and James Clavell. The thicker the book the better as far as I was concerned. I left comics behind, even though my high school classmates still considered me “an expert” on comics.

 
I became an English literature major when I went to college. I kept reading the big books. I kept reading works with meaning and importance. And I enjoyed it. I enjoyed reading those books and writing papers about them. Then one summer, I happened to have a roommate who owned a big collection of comics. I didn’t have anything to read for school so I borrowed his long-box. I would read dozens of comics in a day. I read hundreds over the course of the summer. And I discovered that I liked these, too. I still read the big books when school started up again. But comics were a great way to cleanse my mental palate and enjoy myself after reading something big and important. I finished reading my roommate’s collection. I borrowed comics from anyone I could: two more roommates, my cousin, a friend.  

 
Eventually, I had run out of comics to borrow and I had to buy some of my own. I bought some of the new comics that were coming out. And I bought back issues, trying to find those childhood dreams all over again. My collection grew- equal parts new and old. 

 
That’s what I meant when I said I had multiple points of entry. I had entered comics as a child. But I re-entered comics as a college student and adult. I had that initial discovery. And I had an age of re-discovery. That alone would explain two points of entry. Yet the age of re-discovery wasn’t a single point of entry. I bought new comics. I also borrowed collections from a cousin and friends, filling in the gaps of comics that had been published since I’d move on to thicker books. And I bought back issues. During one trip to the store, I might buy a run from the ‘60s. During another, it might be a story from the ‘70s. My one age of discovery encompassed every era. So I like them all.

 

How does the Justice League fit into all of this? I’m familiar with the satellite-era team from my youth. I don’t remember reading any of the comics. But those were the same characters featured in the SuperFriends and featured in the Kenner SuperPowers action figure line and I know them from those sources. So I have that nostalgic love for that team as the team of my childhood. If there was any one version of the Justice League that I’d describe as “the real Justice League,” it would be the satellite team of Superman and Batman and Firestorm. 

 
That first roommate I mentioned had a huge run of the Bwa-ha-ha Justice League. Those comics were some of the ones that I read on rainy days when I couldn’t go to work painting houses. Those stories were some of the ones that reignited my interest in and my passion for comic books and superheroes. Shortly after I started buying new comics on my own, Grant Morrison and Howard Porter re-launched the team with a new classic line-up. Those were the first JLA stories that I bought new. Those are the ones for which I remember the feeling of being so excited for a new issue to come out. Both of those eras are a significant part of my re-entry into comics. I hold them both on my own personal pedestals. And so I have three favorite eras of the Justice League.

 
That also means that I’m open to the new team and this new era. I’m used to liking different versions of the same team. I don’t dismiss the new team as not being the real Justice League. There’s lots of real Justice Leagues, and I’m ready to accept this one too if the stories are good enough. 

 
By the way, this isn’t just a Justice League phenomenon. I have multiple favorites of the Avengers. I was buying Roy Thomas and David Micheline and Bob Harras issues back-to-back. I have multiple favorites of the Titans, and the X-Men. I have more than one Golden Age. It leads me into the occasional dilemma, such as this one. But I tend to think that’s a good thing. 

And for the record: there are only two variant covers, not six, with each including three different eras and versions of the team.  I’ll be happy with either one. 

Deconstructing Civil War

Nearly a month ago I wrote, Defending Civil War now it is time to deconstruct the final issue.

Page one: The last issue ended with the two sides lining up for a fight at the prison in the Negative Zone. This issue opens with the two sides joining battle.

Page two: As the battle heats up, I thought to myself, "You know, if you're really that opposed to costumed heroes, don't you simply shut down the inter-dimensional gateway and trap all of them on the other side?" And a panel or two after I think that, somebody at SHIELD basically suggests the same thing and starts doing it. At that moment, I'm going, "Yeah!" For me, it was like Captain Comics' revelation during The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Frodo and Sam are watching an army on the march as it becomes ambushed. Cap has said that he thought, "You've been there too long" one beat before Frodo says to Sam, "We've been here too long." It's a great moment because it feels right..

Page four: Black Panther and Dagger discover that SHIELD is trying to shut the gateway down. They try to reroute it to another location, fail. Then Dagger tells Cloak to get ready to teleport everyone. Maybe I was reading too much into that scene, but I thought, "Of course Cap would have planned an escape route with his side. Of course they'd have another way out of the Negative Zone." So for me, that was two great moments in two pages.

Page six: Cloak teleports everybody into downtown New York. This was the first misstep for me, although at the time it seemed like a minor one. I think that Millar attempted to give us a couple of explanations. One, Black Panther was said to be rerouting the gateway to the Baxter Building instead of Ryker's Island but they didn't use the gateway, they used Cloak so that doesn't quite work. Two, Cloak complained that he couldn't do it and even though Dagger talked him into it, this was as far as he was able to go. But again, the explanation doesn't pan out. Cloak's complaint was that it was too dangerous, not that it was too hard. I got the sense that he was worried about keeping track of that many people while teleporting them and possibly losing some to the dark dimension. Or something like that. Three, Cloak could teleport between dimensions but not over distances. This works better if they arrive on Ryker's Island instead of in Manhattan, because the latter shows that he was able to travel some distances. And we've seen Cloak teleport from L.A.to New York before (though not in this series) so we know he can travel over distance. It could have worked. But you needed a panel or two of Cloak after the teleport, exhausted from his endeavour, confessing to Dagger or somebody else that he tried, he really tried, but it was too hard to teleport that many people that far away. And that's all you needed. Yet we didn't get that. We get a Captain America who apparently has a back-up plan to escape from the Negative Zone but hasn't worked it out that they should return to the Mojave Desert or somewhere in the cornfields of Nebraska. We get a Black Panther who is capable of rerouting the SHIELD gateway to the Baxter Building and sending teleportation coordinates to Cloak but who also doesn't think that he'd be better off taking this fight away from civilians than to them. And we get a Cloak who is capable of teleporting across dimensions but not across a couple of hundred miles. It didn't work. And it really wasn't that big a deal on page six. But it becomes a big deal later on.

Page eight: "Amazing." "Spectacular." At this point, the issue only had one small misstep and two great moments so I'm still having a good time. Since I'm in a good mood already, I enjoyed this little exchange.

Page ten: Loved the Namor entrance.

Page eleven: Loved the entrance of Thor and the Champions. This battle is really escalating. Plus, the reinforcements for both sides had been shown in issue six either getting ready in the case of the Champions or being recruited in the case of Namor. I know that some people have expressed problems with this scene but so far, I'm still going along with the story. Some people have questioned Tony using Thor again after he's been shown to kill. Well, Tony still wants to win. He keeps Thor on the sidelines as long as he can but he's going to let Thor loose rather than risk losing.

Page fourteen: Nice to see The Thing arrive. And nice to see Mr. Fantastic switch sides at the last moment and save Sue from the Taskmaster.

Page fifteen and sixteen: I didn't care for the "I knew Thor and you sir, are no Thor" line. Didn't work for me. Though I did like seeing Hercules smash the clone Thor into bits.

Page seventeen: Captain America has defeated Iron Man.He's got him down. Tony tells Steve to finish it. And I'm on the edge of my seat. Well, not literally, as I was reading this while lying down. But certainly figuratively. How are they going to get out of this? What is Cap going to do? And then...

Page eighteen: The public tackles Cap! Are you kidding me? The public tackles Cap! I can explain it. I really can. During this whole series, we've seen that one of Iron Man's major motivations has been winning back the public trust. And we've seen him actively working towards that goal, especially in issue three or four when the group that becomes the Mighty Avengers takes down a robot in Manhattan and the public applauds. And that's the reason behind Spider-Man's unmasking. Not to comply with the government regulations. But to win back public trust. So I can speculate that Iron Man's plan is paying off and that he's actually winning back the public trust. And Captain America hasn't cared at all about public opinion. He's been underground. He's been in hiding. And I can see the public faith in Captain America eroding while he's out of sight. So I can explain it.

But here's the problem: I shouldn't have to be the one explaining it. That's the job of the storyteller. And if the issue of public trust is going to play such a critical role in the climax of the story, then we have to see some sign of public opinion before that. We have to have scenes in which Average Joe on the Street says something about how much he admires Iron Man.

We have to see Soccer Mom complain that she just can't trust somebody like Captain America
who keeps so many secrets. We need those scenes. And this is story-telling 101. Quoting JMS (who certainly didn't invent the idea): "if you're going to show a gun in the first act then you'd better use it in the third act, and if you're going to use a gun in the third act then you'd better show it in the first act." Mark Millar remembered to do this with everything except public opinion. He showed Yellowjacket training the Champions. He showed Sue recruiting the Submariner. But we never got a scene in which ordinary, average people expressed that they trusted one side more than the other. Without that, this scene comes out of nowhere. And this is where the issue starts to fall apart.

Page nineteen: Cap sees the devastation that this battle has caused on downtown New York and realizes that they've been fighting for the wrong reasons. Now, the little problem back on page six becomes a major problem. Why did Cloak teleport everybody into New York in the first place? Of course this is what was going to happen.

The problem here is that the writer's hand shows itself too clearly. The whole story was kicked off with an incident in Stamford, Connecticut in which 600 people died. You need an incident bigger than that to bring Cap to this kind of momentous realization. And that's why Cloak teleported everybody into downtown New York- so that you can have this big incident. But there was never a good in-story reason for the fight to take place where it did. The fight had even been moved from a relatively isolated area- the NegativeZone-to a highly populated one by. Cap's major realization on this page is based, in large part, on the location of the fight but the location of the fight is a mis-step. And it isn't a character's mis-step, such as that Cloak would have taken everybody to an isolated place if he could but this was as much as he was able to do. No, this was a story mis-step in that we were never given a plausible explanation for why the fight was moved to the place that it was moved to. So Cap's realization and change of heart is based on a story-telling flaw. The fight was in downtown New York because the writer needed the fight to be in downtown New York. So it's hard for us as readers to buy Captain America's change of heart. We just don't believe because we see the writer's hand too clearly.

Page twenty: Captain America surrenders. And I have to admit it feels hollow and disappointing. Is this what the story has been leading up to? Cap quits! And part of the reason why this feels so hollow and disappointing is because of the major flaws on page eighteen and nineteen. Those major flaws mean that we don't buy Captain America's motivation for his change of heart.

So how would I have done it differently? Well, for one, I'd have included that one extra panel of an exhausted Cloak explaining why he was able to teleport to New York and no further. Two, I wouldn't have had the public tackle Cap. You could have achieved the same result in a different way. All you needed was one police officer yelling, "Cap!" Captain America holds the defeated Iron Man down and looks at the person who called his name. The person says something simple like, "Don't do it." Cap looks down. He realizes that he's fighting someone who used to be his friend. He looks at the devastation of the city and realizes that he's endangering the lives of civilians rather than protecting them. And then he orders a retreat.

Once back in hiding, the other heroes might even question Cap. "Why did you have us retreat when we were so close to winning?" Cap could even say something like what he said on page twenty: "We weren't close to winning, we had already lost." Then he calls someone on the other side- Tony and Reed are both down, but he could still call Yellowjacket or Ms. Marvel. He could call the President himself for crying out loud. And he offers to surrender himself to the authorities, but he has a condition: all of the other heroes will be granted amnesty for siding with him.

I'll admit that it's less dramatic in one, maybe two ways. Having someone stop Cap with a word rather than having a handful of guys tackle him could be considered less dramatic. After all, the latter option involves action and fighting while the former option does not. But it’s not like there hasn’t been plenty of fighting in this issue already and dialogue can be dramatic too if handled correctly. Admittedly, having Cap surrender over the phone from some secret hide-out is less dramatic than having him take off his mask and hold out his hands to be cuffed while standing in the middle of a field of battle. But compared to the little bit that you lose in terms of drama, you gain so much more in terms of consistent characterization and sensible story-telling.

First, by having someone stop Captain America with a word instead of a group tackle, you're appealing to his ideals and his virtues. That's a problem I've often had with Civil War. It's supposed to be a conflict of ideals. Neither side is supposed to be wrong. Both are supposedly motivated by positive things- freedom on the one hand, security on the other. Yet so often, we've seen characters motivated not by their positive characteristics but by negative ones, not by their ideals but by their flaws. Don't have a group of people tackle Captain America because he's gone too far. Have somebody appeal to him. They want him to stop the fight because they still believe in him, not because they stopped.

Second, in the scene as it's written, Captain America comes off very badly. He surrendered. He's a quitter. All of the people who put their trust in him and fought on his side are shown to be fools. But it doesn't have to be that way. Have him order a tactical retreat. Have him surrender from afar on the condition that the others are granted amnesty. Suddenly, he's not a quitter anymore. He's still a hero. He's selfless to the point of being sacrificial. He's someone who believes in his ideals so much that he's willing to lose for them.

I've defended Civil War because I think that it's true-to-life that after people have chosen sides based on ideals, they often compromise those same ideals in their efforts to win. We've seen both sides do that. Iron Man has conscripted villains. Captain America had agreed to work with The Punisher for a time. And in this scene, Cap realizes that this is the case. He's compromised too much. He's been fighting for the right to privacy while protecting the world from harm. Yet in doing so, he's actually brought more harm to the world. I don’t have a problem with that realization. But the realization itself was mishandled. It was forced by unexplained story elements. Captain America looked stupid rather than shrewd. And he looked wrong, in a story in which neither side was supposed to be wrong. Have him surrender sacrificially. His side will still look right in terms of ideals. To paraphrase the line from page twenty: he’ll have won the argument but not the war. And the other side will still look right in practical terms. They’ll have won the war but not the argument. But as it is, Cap and his side have lost everything.

Despite my disappointment in the climax of the series, I’m interested in some of the places that the story will go from here:

Page twenty-two: The Punisher as Captain America?

Page twenty-three: the Avengers Initiative

Page twenty-four: a different group of Avengers fighting back from the underground

Page twenty-five and twenty-six: However, the scene between Reed and Sue simply didn’t work for me. It gets back to what I was complaining about in the earlier paragraph. Captain America’s side has lost everything. They lost. They admitted they were wrong. Iron Man’s side hasn’t lost anything. They won. And they haven’t admitted that they compromised too much of their ideals in order to win. Not even in Reed’s letter. He promises Sue that they won’t have to make the same hard choices that they’d made before- no more traps, no more clones- but he never expresses any remorse for having made those hard choices in the first place. And yet Sue comes back. It’s not good enough that Reed tells her that he needs her. He never actually says, I’m sorry. So again, a key member of the anti-registration side seems to admit that she’s wrong, while a key member of the pro-registration side is shown to be right.

Maybe it works on an allegorical level. Civil War has been promoted as an allegory for our real world debate. And in our real world, the security side of the debate certainly won. At least, they had for a while though the pendulum seems to be swinging back the other way. So it fits that Iron Man’s side should win in this story, as well, just as they won the real world debate. But while that may work on an allegorical level, it’s unsatisfying on a storytelling level. Not everybody on the winning side has to admit they’re wrong. Iron Man can still act like he was fully justified in everything that he did. But someone on that side should wonder if they paid too high a price, someone on that side should have the same kind of realization that Cap did. It looked like it might have been Reed. He was certainly the best candidate for it. But he didn’t quite go there. He almost said that it wasn’t worth winning the argument if it meant he lost his wife. I would have had a lot of respect for Reed if he had come out and said something like that. But he didn’t. Not quite.

As a result we have a story that is disappointing. It’s a disappointing finish because the climax didn’t work- it depended on too many plot holes and contrivances. And it’s disappointing emotionally. It’s too bad. Civil War aspired to be a great story. And at points, it almost got there. But it didn’t. Instead, with such an unsatisfying ending, a not-quite-great story became a bad one.

Originally Published on Saturday, 24 February 2007 at  Captain Comics.us.

 

Series Review: X-Treme X-Men

Part One: Introduction and Issues 1-9

 

Introduction 

Sometimes, I wonder why I didn’t buy this series when it first came out. And sometimes, I’m glad I didn’t. Eventually, every series or franchise goes through a low point. And while I may have a certain loyalty to some concepts, at one point or another over the years, I’ve dropped pretty much every personal favorite including JLA, The Avengers, Teen Titans and yes, even, the X-Men. X-Treme X-Men debuted at a time in which I was becoming disenchanted with the franchise.  I was dropping the entire line.

 And honestly, X-Treme X-Men was one of the reasons why. I was very disappointed in Chris Claremont’s return to the X-Men titles in 2000. So I was happy to see him go and wasn’t particularly interested in following him to a new title. I did give him half a chance and bought the first issue of X-Treme X-Men. I didn’t care for it and happily washed my hands of not only Claremont’s new title, but the entire X-Men line.

 So why the change of mind? The first step was Claremont’s second return to Uncanny X-Men in 2005. While there were some obvious missteps in his third run on the title such as the atrocious Mojo/X-Babies story, I actually enjoyed the majority of his run. The next step was a seemingly unrelated purchase via eBay. I bought the entire original run of New Mutants. I discovered that I really enjoyed reading an entire series in that fashion and I started to keep an eye out for other series that I could purchase. The third step happened last summer when I saw the X-Treme X-Men: Savage Land mini-series in a back issue bin. I went ahead and picked it up. I figured it was only four issues and if I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t be out that much in terms of either money or time. Surprisingly, I enjoyed it. Maybe it’s because I didn’t have to pay full price. Maybe it’s because I was able to read multiple issues at a time rather than waiting a month between installments. But whatever the reason, I enjoyed the Savage Land mini-series and that was the final step that convinced me that I might also enjoy the parent title. So when the opportunity arose to buy the entire series online, I jumped at it. And all that brings us to X-Treme X-Men #1.

 
X-Treme X-Men #1

 
My initial reaction to X-Treme X-Men #1 was spot on. The issue is a mess. The X-Treme team is already in Spain when they’re suddenly attacked individually and taken out of commission. It’s not a bad “before the credits” type of opening. The one major flaw is that Claremont’s newest addition to the team, Sage, is the only member not immediately defeated. It’s a typical move for Claremont, and a typical bad one. It’s the kind of mistake that writers of fan fiction are known for. We’re supposed to believe that long-time superheroes like Bishop and Storm can be taken down so easily but not the new girl and we don’t.

 
From there, the story backs up to show us how and why the X-Men came to Spain in the first place. We’re also treated to a scene in which we see the Spanish authorities react to the arrival of a team of American mutants on their soil. It’s a classic story structure- start with the action and then back up to show us how we got to where we are- but it doesn’t work here. Again, Claremont falls prey to one of his typical mistakes. The exposition is too heavy, the dialogue too wordy. This isn’t just a break from the action. Instead, the action is brought to a screeching halt. There are several pages in which the word balloons take up more space than the art. Everything is explained and over-explained. It’s bad enough when it’s done with characters we know, like the X-Men, but it’s practically unreadable when it’s the way that we’re introduced to new characters such as the Spanish authorities. By the time that Dr. Maria Pilar Cortes (the Spanish counterpart to Val Cooper) tells Diego Sandoval (the Spanish Nick Fury) that he’d better act “before this mess turns into a disaster,” I’m thinking, “too late, it already has.”

 

Next up is a quick scene with a mysterious villain named “Vargas.” We actually met him at the beginning of the issue and there’s supposed to be some confusion as to whether the X-Men are being attacked by Vargas or the Spanish Action Force. This scene clarifies that the Action Force is actually attacking the X-Men, which the villainous Vargas doesn’t approve of as he wants to be the one to dispose of them. But by this point in the story, it’s been so long since we read about the attack that I’m not sure we care.

 
Finally, we return to the X-Men. Five members of the team have been dressed in their costumes and dumped in a sewer. As they try to figure out what’s happened to them, they’re ambushed by the Action Force which leaves me trying to figure out what’s happened as well. Didn’t the Action Force already defeat them in the opening scene? Why would they dump them in a sewer instead of a holding cell and ambush them a second time? I understand that it’s a classic story structure- open with action, explain with exposition, end with action- but it just doesn’t make sense. At least this time, the X-Men actually defeat the Action Force. But while they’re still trying to figure out what’s going on, the floor implodes beneath them and they’re capture for a second time in the same issue.

 

Like I said, this issue is a mess. Chris Claremont is displaying all of his worst characteristics. There’s the new pet character that looks good at the expense of everyone else: Sage. There’s the heavy-handed exposition. There’s the mysterious new villain with vague powers: Vargas. By the time I finished this issue, I was wondering what I had gotten myself into. However, I had paid for the entire series and I wasn’t going to be dissuaded so easily.

 

X-Treme X-Men #2-3

 

The second and third issues are marginally better than the first. With all of the exposition out of the way in the first issue, Chris Claremont is able to settle down and tell his story. We’re still treated to a few flashbacks- such as a scene in which Storm conscripts Rogue onto the X-Treme team in issue two- but they’re not as long and they’re more germane to the story being told. We also learn that Sage wasn’t the only X-person to have survived the initial attack which alleviates some of the nepotism problem. Rogue crashed into the ocean and was left for dead. Now, she’s on the loose and is determined to find out what happened to the rest of her team. Rogue is the star of the second issue, not Sage.

 

But that only addresses a few of the problems. The rest of the X-Men are still involved in a running battle with the Spanish Action Force who inexplicably let them go in the previous issue. Maria Pilar Cortes is now arguing that the operation should never have been started, despite arguing in its favor in the previous issue. The antagonists simply aren’t making any sense. The story gets slightly better when Vargas interrupts Rogue’s attempt to rescue the rest of the X-Men. Although his motives are still mysterious, his goal is quite clear and his sword battle scene is effective. However, the sword fight turns into another example of a new character being made to look impressive at the expense of others. Vargas and his two minions defeat veteran X-Men like Rogue, Beast and Psylocke too easily and Psylocke’s death is too abrupt.

 

The third issue slows down again as it serves mostly as a eulogy for Psylocke. The continuing fight with the Action Force is repeatedly interrupted by flashbacks of Psylocke’s life. It’s understandable that
Claremont would want to remind us of the life of this character who so recently died. Unfortunately, he tries to do more than just that in these scenes which muddies them. He inserts Sage (then known as Tessa) into one flashback again attempting to elevate her as major character. And he tries to set up the new Thunderbird as someone who had been a love interest for Psylocke, which might have worked if he had been doing a bit more of that before she died except he didn’t. The first two issues had hinted at a possible relationship with Beast not Thunderbird so we again have flashbacks telling us a story that seemingly comes out of nowhere.

 

By the end of the third issue, things don’t look good for the X-Treme team or the title. The team has lost two members: Psylocke is dead and Beast is heading back to the mansion to tend to his injuries (and join Grant Morrison’s team of New X-Men). While they may have reached an understanding with the Spanish government, Vargas is still on the loose and planning to kill them. The dynamics of the title are in the same sorry shape. The two new members don’t exactly fit in: Sage keeps being made to look better than the others, while Thunderbird is weak and ineffectual in both fight scenes and in life. The story is occasionally nonsensical and too frequently interrupted by back-story and exposition. I can still find a few things to like- the gorgeous Salvador Larroca art, the swordfight between Vargas and Rogue- but that’s because I’m looking for things to like.

 

X-Treme X-Men #4-9

 

To my surprise, X-Treme X-Men started to improve with the fourth issue. Which I suppose is a good thing since I had still had more than forty issues to go. There are a couple of contributing factors to the improvement in the title. One is the arrival of Gambit. I realize that Gambit’s arrival wouldn’t be a plus for everyone. Kurt Busiek once answered the question, “How would you fix Gambit?” with a blunt, “A hole in the head.” However, I’ve always seen Gambit as a Han Solo-type. A guy who’s spent the better part of his life on the wrong side of the law but who shows heart, loyalty, virtue and nobility when pushed. And in this case, Gambit makes a perfect counterpart to Vargas: they way that they dance around each other, the way that they verbally spar when they meet, the way that Gambit gets on Vargas’ nerves. Vargas is a villain who thinks he’s noble, while Gambit is a hero who acts like a rogue and it’s a pleasure to see them interact.

 

The other contributing factor is the increasing prominence of Destiny’s diaries. The diaries had been mentioned in the first issue. But it’s in the fourth issue that the X-Men actually sit down and look through them. The result is that the team is given a purpose, a reason for being. They suddenly have two goals- to find the rest of Destiny’s diaries and to act on the information that they find within. And both goals set up a future conflict with Vargas. The diaries show that Vargas is fated to die at the sword of an X-Man. And Vargas has gotten his hands on one of the diaries. Before reading the book, I had thought that the entire Destiny’s diaries mission would prove to be boring. Yet it’s actually had the opposite effect of making the title more focused, and therefore more interesting.

 

The fifth issue offers a couple of other improvements. For one thing, we get a clear description of Sage’s powers. In her former life as Tessa, she had always been presented as a telepath. That’s one of the reasons why I didn’t care for her addition to the team. With Professor X, Jean Grey, Rachel Summers, Psylocke and the White Queen, the X-Men have had an abundance of telepaths and they didn’t exactly need another. But now Sage is being described and depicted as a “living computer.” She suddenly has a very specific role which doesn’t duplicate that of other team members. Plus, she’s defined as a character by what she does rather than by looking good at the expense of others. Much to my surprise, I find myself liking Sage and appreciating what she brings to the team.

 

Bishop is similarly given a stronger role. In one issue, Bishop takes the “rookie” Thunderbird aside and gives him advice. In another issue, Sage falsifies a badge for Bishop and he spends some time working as a homicide detective. While his undercover role sometimes takes him too far afield from the rest of the team, it’s nice to see him using his brains as well as his brawn. There is a bit of confusion that results from the team’s sudden relocation to Australia from Spain but that’s explained a little later by the 2001 Annual.

 

At this point, Chris Claremont adds a couple of other elements to the title. While figuring out Destiny’s diaries has given the team a focus, it’s a story that’s a little light on action. Claremont brings in a pair of foes: Red Lotus attacks Gambit and Rogue in the fifth issue as revenge for his grandfather who he claims had been killed by Gambit. This also gives Salvador Larroca a great excuse to dress Rogue in a beautiful Chinese dress for a couple of issues. Plus, Lady Mastermind begins to work on Sage as a prologue to Sage’s former master Sebastian Shaw taking a more active hand. These separate attacks could have cost the title its focus, but they don’t. Instead, they serve as obstacles that the heroes must overcome in order to continue their work while also livening up the story with a bit of action.

 

Chris Claremont introduces two potential heroes as well: Heather and Davis Cameron. Heather is a lifeguard.Davis is a surfer. Unfortunately, their introduction doesn’t go quite as smoothly.Claremont
plays up Heather’s heroism as a lifeguard a bit too much in his narration which usually has the effect of making us resent a character more than admire her. Thunderbird develops a crush on her as well. And while it makes sense that Thunderbird would be attracted to a strong woman, it does seem odd considering that he was supposed to be in love with Psylocke who had died fairly recently. Even worse,
Davis seems like little more than a surfboard slacker. It’s understandable that he might hit on Storm. It’s not as believable that she would be interested in him.

 
Over the next couple of issues, Claremont does a good job of bringing all of these stories together, causing them to overlap with each other. Lady Mastermind plays with Rogue in one issue and Davis in another. Red Lotus discovers that Gambit has been framed and actually fights Sebastian Shaw as a new X-Men ally. And Rogue and Gambit are reunited as lovers- something I didn’t think I wanted to see, and something that I didn’t think could be pulled off in a believable fashion yet something that feels so right when it actually happens. They had spent time imprisoned together by Red Lotus. They had worked together to escape. The illusions that Lady Mastermind gave to Rogue reminder her of the love she used to have for Gambit. When they smile at each other at the end of issue eight, they were friends and partners-in-arms who were attracted to each other, lovers ready to re-unite rather than two people trapped in the co-dependent and destructive relationship that had been depicted a couple of years ago.

 

However, the best issue so far is easily issue number nine. The fights are mostly over. The plots are mostly tied up. And the X-Men are recuperating from what they’ve just gone through. The strongest story is actually a psychic conversation between Storm, still in Australia, and Jean Grey, back at the mansion. Often, these psychic conversations are painful to read- heavy on dialogue, spoken exposition, deep emotional or psychological admissions and metaphors- but not in this case. Storm and Jean are treated as old friends. They update each other on what’s been happening to their various teams. And their responses provide some interesting perspective. Jean Grey tells Storm about the many goings-on in and around the mansion, including all of the major elements of Grant Morrison’s first year on New X-Men: the arrival of Cassandra Nova, the destruction of Genosha and the public outing of the Xavier Institute as a refuge for mutants. Through Jean, Chris Claremont is able to update us as readers. Through Storm, he’s able to respond to those events and it proves to be both an interesting personal conversation between two friends as well as an interesting professional response to someone else’s story.

 

There’s also a surprising development regarding Lifeguard. I’ll admit that I was predisposed to dislike her. Based on comments I had read in several places, I was of the opinion that she was yet another example of Chris Claremont’s super-strong-woman with a power that screamed deus-ex-machina. But she proved to be a more interesting character than I had suspected. Her lack of control kept her from being the plot contrivance I had feared. Indeed, in one scene, she needs Thunderbird to rescue her brother because she can’t control her sudden ability to fly. And in this issue, I saw the attraction. There’s always been an element of wish fulfillment in comic books and superheroes. There’s always been that moment when the reader is supposed to think “I wish I could do that. I wish I could fly like Superman, or that I could blast someone with a look like Cyclops.” At one point, Lifeguard is thrown into the ocean by Lady Mastermind. She suddenly develops a dolphin’s tail and I thought to myself, “Wow, how cool would it be to have that power.” And I got it: Lifeguard is a great wish fulfillment character, with just enough restrictions to her powers to keep her from being an immediate out for any story obstacle.

 

I could hardly believe it myself. I was all set to dislike Sage and Lifeguard, ready to merely put up with them while reading about characters I liked such as Bishop and Gambit and Storm. Yet somehow,
Claremont had turned my expectation around and I found myself warming to both Sage and Lifeguard. I was accepting them as a part of the team. I was truly interested in them and in what they brought to the title. That isn’t to say that X-Treme X-Men was a perfect title at this point. I still have no idea why Davis Cameron is in this title, other than to play boy victim. And Thunderbird, despite having a moment to shine when he saves Davis, still doesn’t seem to belong. Yet I will say that these six issues proved to be entertaining and fun. They were a definite improvement upon the opening story in the first three issues.

Part Two: Issues 10-24

 

X-Treme X-Men 10-18: Invasion!

 

I had been pretty disappointed in the first few issues of this series. The first issue had been one of the worst first issues I’d ever read. The second and third were marginally better yet still plagued by problems. However, much to my surprise, the series started to improve with the fourth issue and I found myself really enjoying the Australia arc through issue number nine. But the Australia arc was nothing compared to what was coming up next.

 

The opening wasn’t all that good. The first scene was of Davis Cameron who apparently now has powers as well. He’s a group teleporter, able to surf a wave of teleportation and bring others along in his wake, and yes it’s just as stupid as it sounds. There’s also a bit of play between Davis and Storm, a relationship I don’t believe at all. We then jump back in time and the X-Men are again trying to decipher Destiny’s diaries. Their progress is interrupted by a beast who claims to be the vanguard of an invasion. He abducts Gambit for reasons unknown and Lifeguard manages to go along. The X-Men debate what to do next when Sage reveals that Davis is a latent mutant with powers that would enable them to follow the beast.

 

At this point, X-Treme X-Men is losing the good will it had built up in the previous six issues. Sage is again a super-woman, able to do pretty much anything. She’s a living computer, but how does she know that Davis is a latent mutant? And how does she have the power to activate him? We aren’t given satisfactory answers other than that Sage is Sage.

Claremont also tries to carve out a role for Thunderbird but it doesn’t work. Way back in the first issue,
Claremont had included some extra notes about the characters. He mentioned that Thunderbird was supposed to be the reader’s point-of-view as the character who is new to all this. And eventually, Thunderbird was supposed to find his place on the team as a conscience and a moral center. But this is Thunderbird’s first time stepping up as a moral voice and it’s to argue that they have no right to activate Davis’ powers despite the fact that Davis clearly wants them to. Davis even smartly throws their own ideology back in their face by asking them if they’re ashamed of what they are. Instead of being a moral center, Thunderbird looks weak and afraid. It doesn’t endear him to us in the least.

 

Obviously, Davis gets his way. After all, we had already seen him teleporting the team in the opening scene. The team goes to Madripoor where the enemy is establishing a beachhead. Plus, we meet the enemy and his name is Khan.

 
Despite the weak opening chapter, Khan’s invasion turns out to be a great story. Chris Claremont and Salvador Larroca pull out all of the stops in order to make this a big story. Larroca draws some great lizard-like invaders as well as multiple battalions in the background.

Claremont includes a few scenes in which the world responds, such as a meeting in the White House situation room and another of the Avengers. We eventually learn that Khan has created a force-field around the island of Madripoor while he brings his troops through an inter-dimensional portal. The world’s military forces and the Avengers are stuck on the outside- though still fighting to get in- while the X-Men and a few select allies like Red Lotus and Viper are stuck on the inside alone. Despite the complaints that the X-Men form their own little universe, this story clearly includes other heroes and gives us a plausible in-story reason why they aren’t centrally involved.

 

The story takes an interesting turn when Khan captures Storm and brings her back to his own dimension to be his queen. Admittedly, we’ve seen this before. It’s not the first time that a heroine has been added to a villain’s harem. But I think that Claremont handles it very well. Khan has a shape-shifter named Shaitan take Storm’s form in order to oppose and distract the X-Men. Meanwhile, Storm plays along, pretending to surrender to Khan’s love while we get hints that she’s waiting for the right moment to strike back. And back in our world, the X-Men look pretty good as a guerrilla fighting force. We even get some nice heroic scenes for Lifeguard as she rescues civilians and for Thunderbird as he gets to play veteran to the rookie Davis.

 

Eventually, Rogue –not Sage!- comes up with a plan to defeat Khan. The only way to stop him is to shut down his portal. With Storm missing, Rogue takes over as team leader. She sends the bulk of the team through to Khan’s dimension. Meanwhile, she and Davis will try to keep Khan’s forces contained on the
island of Madripoor. It’s nice to see Rogue step up as a leader. We can certainly see her potential, and we can see why Mike Carey will eventually choose Rogue to be the leader of the team in his title.

 

I also like how Claremont continues to complicate the action. Vargas reenters the title, still vowing to kill Rogue before she can fulfill the future predicted in Desiny’s diaries. And with only Davis as an ally, Rogue is certainly vulnerable. Storm’s role is complicated by a rivalry within the harem. And even Khan’s role is complicated when his Storm simulacrum argues against him. Yet the biggest complication belongs to Lifeguard. Her power has always been the ability to change into whatever she needs to be in order to save her life or the life of another. Her power has also always been uncontrollable. For example, in a previous issue, she hadn’t been able to activate her power for a situation that was less than life-threatening. But in this story, her power takes a scary turn. Apparently, what she needs to save herself from Khan’s forces is to be an alien. Heather begins to turn into a Shi’ar, a complication that completely scares her.

 

From this point, the story just keeps getting bigger. We’re treated to fight after fight, battle after battle. Yet these aren’t simply fight comics. Each battle has a specific goal- to defend a world, to rescue a friend. And Claremont does a great job of jumping from one moment of action to another: Davis
fighting the invasion forces, Rogue fighting Vargas, Sage fighting Shaitan, Storm fighting Khan. I was seriously blown away by how exciting and how good these issues were. This is probably the best story
Claremont has written in more than fifteen years. Multiple villains, complicated but not confusing action, sub-plots that pay off right away, impossible odds and moments of triumph- this is really an example of superhero comics at their best.

 

However, that’s not the end of the story. Just as Claremont spent some time building up the story, and lingered on the climactic battle, he also treats us to a real denouement. In issue 17, we see the X-Men pick up the pieces, literally. Most of the X-Men help clean up debris from Khan’s invasion. But not all. Gambit and Rogue have been severely injured. Khan had used Gambit for his ability to charge things with kinetic energy as a way of powering his portal device. Freeing Gambit from that device drained him of his power and nearly killed him. Rogue had been stabbed by Vargas and while that didn’t kill her, it did cause her power to go haywire. And in issue 18, we see all those who had been kept outside of Khan’s force-field enter the remains of the battlefield. We see Avengers carry X-Men to their hospital beds. We see members of the other X-teams, such as Nightcrawler, Phoenix and Beast, arrive to help minister to wounds physical (Beast), psychic (Phoenix) and psychological (Nightcrawler).

Phoenix manages to call Storm back from the dead in a psychic conversation that’s reminiscent of issue 9. Beast manages to save both Gambit and Rogue, though both have apparently lost their powers. And Nightcrawler counsels Davis who has rejected his sister as an alien. In its own way, this issue is as exciting as the battle. As a reader, you feel like you’ve truly been through a war- beginning, middle and end.

 

X-Treme X-Men 19-24: Schism

 

After the enormous events of the past nine issues, Chris Claremont gives us a bit of a break. Issue 19 is a quiet issue. The X-Men are celebrating Thanksgiving in New Orleans, complete with cake and champagne. It’s also a time for the X-Men to reflect on what they’re going to do next. Heather Cameron, aka Lifeguard, decides that she has to leave the team. For some reason, she hasn’t reverted to her human form. She feels that she needs time to get used to her new alien appearance. She also feels that her brother needs her more than the team. Thunderbird quits the team as well in order to join her. Rogue and Gambit decide to leave the team too. They have both lost their powers and found each other. And they think that maybe this is their chance to have a normal life together. With so many people leaving the team, Storm talks to Kitty Pryde about her future plans. Kitty tells Storm that she’s only a phone call away if they need her but for now she’s planning to go back to college. With the X-Treme team down to Storm, Bishop and Sage, Wolverine decides to stick around.

 

Over the past couple of issues, Claremont has strengthened the ties between his title and the characters appearing in New X-Men and Uncanny. With his next story, he ties the titles even more closely together. It begins with a murder in Alaska. As he did in Australia, Bishop inserts himself into the investigation. The trail leads Bishop and Sage to Xavier’s mansion. The killer was apparently a young mutant and he has now sought refuge with the X-Men.

 

At first, this story reminded me of everything that I disliked about Grant Morrison’s run. Previously, the X-Men had been champions of equality and co-existence. They insisted that they were homo sapiens superior, a sub-set of the human species but still human nonetheless. It was the villains like Magneto and the Hellfire Club who insisted that they were homo superior, a new species that would eventually replace humanity. But when Grant Morrison took over the title, the heroes began to spout the same rhetoric that was once the province of the villains. The White Queen moved into the mansion but she didn’t sound start to sound like the X-Men. No, the X-Men started to sound like her. And all of this came to fore in this story, especially when the students at the school attack Bishop and Sage simply for being outsiders.

 

Claremont, however, saved this story for me with his second issue. The White Queen may have been spouting militant mutant rhetoric but Bishop, Sage and Storm weren’t about to join her. When a riot accidentally triggered one mutant into transforming into a dragon, Bishop fought to bring her under control and told her, “You’re not a monster, you’re a human being.” When Storm found out about the activities at the school, she confronted Emma Frost and challenged her approach.  And rather than being a feeble toady to the White Queen, Professor Xavier inserted himself as a potential mediator. It was nice to see so many of my problems with Grant Morrison’s approach dealt with so directly in this series. As the title for this arc suggests, the White Queen’s approach has created a “Schism” within the X-men.

 

Even so, Claremont makes sure that this is more than just a story about ideology. It turns out that the youth had been manipulated by an evil mutant named Elias Bogan. And now that Emma Frost has allowed the child sanctuary in the mansion, Bogan is able to get his psychic claws into her. The story suddenly turns as the X-Treme X-Men are now trying to rescue the child and Emma from a villain, rather than trying to arrest them. Once the X-Men are able to separate Emma from Bogan, she and Storm are able to set aside their differences in order to go after the immediate threat.

 
But that doesn’t mean that the “Schism” is over. While the hostilities may have been set aside for a moment, they aren’t buried and gone. Once Bogan is defeated, Storm confronts both Professor X and the White Queen about offering sanctuary to a murderer. Both sides stand their ground and the X-Treme team finally walks out in order to go their own way. “Schism” is almost as good as Khan’s invasion. There’s a clash of ideas plus enough plot twists to keep a reader squirming. At this point, X-Treme X-Men has been on a roll for more than a year.

 

In “Schism,” Claremont dealt with what was going on in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men. He follows that up with a one-shot that looks at what’s been going on in Joe Casey’s Uncanny. Cannonball had been a part of the X-Corporation. His group had recently been involved in a battle that nearly destroyed the Channel Tunnel connecting England to France and they had lost Darkstar, one of their own. After the battle, Cannonball decides not to return right away with the rest of X-Corp. Instead, he joins the rescue effort helping to pull wreckage and survivors out of the tunnel. He realizes that it’s been a mistake for the X-Men to separate themselves so much from the rest of humanity. This realization is confirmed when his fellow rescue workers welcome him openly as a mutant. At the end of the issue, Storm invites Sam to join the X-Treme X-Men. Sam accepts. Storm’s team isn’t about separating themselves from humanity. It’s about fighting for peace and protecting humanity from mutant terrorists. That sounds pretty good to Sam. And it sounds pretty good to me, too.

 

Part Three: Issues 25-46

 

X-Treme X-Men 25-30: God Loves, Man Kills II

 

By this point, X-Treme X-Men has had a strong run for about twenty issues. And since the next arc- the sequel to Chris Claremont’s classic graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills- is the most-hyped story of this title, there’s no reason to think that it won’t maintain its level of quality. Unfortunately, that doesn’t turn out to be the case.

 

The first mark off is the artistic change. Salvador Larroca drew the first twenty-four issues without a break. Now, he’s being replaced by Igor Kordey. Kordey is actually a competent artist. It’s not that he’s bad; it’s that he isn’t quite as good as Larroca. And since Larroca stays around as the cover artist, we’re constantly reminded of that fact. I do have a few specific complaints. Kordey has the tendency, like Frank Quitely, to flatten heads abnormally. It’s especially a problem with his depiction of Storm. Plus, he dresses Kitty Pryde in a trampy leather outfit. I realize that she’s tending bar while putting herself through college but it just doesn’t fit with her character. However, it’s not all bad. I think he does a great job with Kitty’s body language and facial expressions when she’s talking to a shrink. And I have no problems with his depictions of Bishop, Deathstrike or Sage.

 

The story starts out with a few problems as well. Claremont’s original God Loves, Man Kills is one of the inspirations for X-Men 2: X-Men United. The movie’s villain, Stryker, is even named after the villain in
Claremont’s graphic novel. So the movie sequel is the reason for the comic book sequel. But the result is a weird blend of influences.

Claremont’s Stryker was a reverend who had advocated a holy war against mutants- not unlike modern ministers who preach publicly against gays and lesbians. The movie Stryker was a military man who was using military tactics and decommissioned bases to strike out at mutant-kind. This Stryker is supposed to be the minister of the original story but he has some odd connections to the movie version. For example, the military Stryker had Lady Deathstrike working for him as an operative. It made sense in the movies as Stryker was the man behind Wolverine’s adamantium and memory loss. In the comics, Lady Deathstrike and Stryker are allied as well. She even breaks him out of custody during a prison transfer. But while Deathstrike refers to the alliance that Stryker struck with her bosses, there’s no real explanation why the two of them should be working together other than the fact that they’re connected in the movie. Plus, Stryker has some unexplained connection with the creators of the Mandroid armor and he ends up running around in a metal suit for most of the story.

 

I also became annoyed with the way in which Stryker would constantly quote Scripture. It worked well for his introduction and for a few other scenes. But it was overdone and a few of the quotes were either taken wildly out of context or had little to do with the scene at hand. The problem was multiplied when we were introduced to Paul, another pastor with a quote for every occasion. Now, I admit that I have a particular sensitivity to the portrayal of pastors as a pastor myself. I don’t automatically object to a pastor as a villain but I want a certain level of characterization and complexity to go along with it. In the first couple of issues, I wasn’t sure I was getting that.

 

However, Paul and his Mount Haven sanctuary turn out to be just what we need. This story doesn’t devolve into the X-Men vs. the evil preacher. Instead, while running from Rev. Stryker, Kitty Pryde is taken in by another pastor who has been creating a mutant haven in the Rocky Mountains.

Claremont introduces the complexity I was looking for by setting two pastors on opposing sides. Even better, this story doesn’t devolve into good pastor vs. bad pastor. Paul has been creating a sanctuary for mutant children but he’s also been killing the flat-line families that bring them. He’s every bit as deluded as Stryker and the X-Men soon find themselves caught in the middle. Yet Claremont doesn’t let this story become a screed against everything religious. While fighting for the middle ground, both Cannonball and Shadowcat refer to their own faith as the reason why they believe in peaceful co-existence between humans and mutants.  And even the evil preachers are shown to have some light in them by the end. Paul is discovered to be a computer construct. But rather than destroying it, Stryker offers to try and rehabilitate Paul. After all, he believes in the possibilities of redemption.  “God Loves, Man Kills II” turns out to be a morality tale against intolerance and absolutism, but not against faith. Although it’s not quite as good as “Invasion,” “God Loves, Man Kills II” turned out to be a lot better than I had expected based on its beginnings.

 

X-Treme X-Men 31-35: Intifada

 

Next up is “Intifada.” With “God Loves, Man Kills II,” Chris Claremont had begun to explore the issue of co-existence between humans and mutants. He had created what appeared to be a mutant paradise- a sanctuary in the Rocky Mountains- only to reveal a dark underbelly. “Intifada” explores similar territory. This time around, the supposed paradise is a community outside of Los Angeles called Valle Soleada in which humans and mutants live together openly.  It’s reminiscent of San Francisco and its thriving gay community. This particular community also includes a pair of former mutants who are living out their “happily ever after”: Gambit and Rogue. 

 
But again, there are problems lying under the surface. The first problem is that some of the young mutants aren’t happy with a status quo of peaceful co-existence. They believe in the Magneto rhetoric of mutant superiority. And they’re terrorizing local “flat-lines,” including one incident in which they force a car off of a cliff resulting in several fatalities. The second problem is that there appears to be a real estate agency that is trying to turn Valle Soleada into a fully mutant community with no humans allowed. And to get their way, they’re using mutant powers of coercion to convince humans to sell their property and get out. The third problem comes from pro-human groups like the Friends of Humanity and Purity who want to get rid of all the mutants. They find true believers in the victims of mutant crimes- including a girl who survived the car accident mentioned earlier. This girl, Marie D’Ancanto, becomes a key figure in the story after she attempts to bomb a dance club in Valle Soleada. And finally, there’s one last problem featured in a sub-plot. The leaders of the world are worried about the growing mutant problem, especially about the kind of mutant hostility that’s been shown in Grant Morrison’s New X-Men, and there’s a mutant problem summit at the president’s ranch in Texas. Gambit and Storm go to the summit undercover and end up meeting with the behind-the-scenes mutant experts like Val Cooper, Alexei Vashin and Maria Pilar Cortes.

 

As he had done in several of the previous stories, Chris Claremont begins to weave most of these plots together. For example, Jarod Malloy, the real-estate lawyer, tries to work his mojo on Rogue since she’s without her powers and no longer a true mutant. And Marie D’Ancanto tells her story to the X-Men which sets them on a path to stop the mutant hoodlums. Claremont also works in strands from earlier stories. Evangeline Whedon, the mutant who can turn into a dragon as seen in X-Treme X-Men #21, is also in L.A.

She agrees to defend Marie D’Ancanto as a client after hearing her story. And Elias Bogan, the behind-the-scenes villain from “Schism,” has another mutant under his control and is using her to get at the X-Men. Usually, it’s interesting to see several strands of story come together. However, in this case, there are a lot of characters to keep track of and it does become a little confusing. There’s probably enough going on in the story without bringing in Bogan.

 

There are a couple of reasons why I liked this story and they’re fairly similar to the reasons why I liked “God Loves, Man Kills II.” Once again, Claremont works with the theme of mutual and peaceful co-existence. In this story, Claremont expands on that theme to show the difficulties that the X-Men face in trying to control a younger generation that doesn’t believe in Xavier’s dream. It’s eerily reminiscent of our real world situation in which black celebrities like Bill Cosby and Jim Brown have spoken out against the actions and attitudes of the younger generation. Plus, it shows that even an old writer like Claremont
is able to work with new themes. Another theme that Claremont works with in both “God Loves, Man Kills II” and “Intifada” is the theme of redemption. In “God Loves,” we saw Rev. Stryker change his stance and offer to rehabilitate a mutant criminal. Through “Intifada” we follow the journey of Marie D’Ancanto who, by the end of the story, is labeled a traitor to her race by her former “friends” in the Purity movement. These are positive themes and positive developments and they’re good to read.

 

That doesn’t mean that “Intifada” is a perfect story. As I noted earlier, the plot did get a little too complicated. Also, the Storm and Gambit sub-plot is occasionally a nice counterpoint to what’s going on in Valle Soleada: the global perspective and the local perspective. And I like what comes out of it. The various governments agree to form the Xavier Security Enforcers so that mutants like the X-Men can police their own- a major element in Claremont’s return to Uncanny X-Men in 2005. But that’s only occasionally. It’s also sometimes stretched out and sometimes silly. It certainly wasn’t the strongest part of the story.

 

X-Treme X-Men 36-39: Storm: The Arena

 

So far, so good. While the two latest stories weren’t quite as good as “Invasion” and “Schism,” they were still well worth reading. Unfortunately, X-Treme X-Men’s string of success stops here. This next story is set up during the Storm and Gambit sub-plot. Storm agreed to the proposal that the X-Men serve as an international security team to deal with mutant threats. Russian spook Alexei Vashin challenges Storm to prove her intentions and her competence by taking down a mutant slave smuggler named Tullamore Voge. This is already a bad sign as far as I’m concerned. As Gambit reminds the readers, the X-Men have previously tangled with Voge during Claremont’s less-than-successful return to the team in 2000. I like the idea that the X-Men are going to target a villain but Claremont’s 2000 return had left such a bad taste in my mouth that I didn’t want to deal with its dangling plots and leftover villains. 

 

The next misstep is that Claremont sends Storm in undercover and alone. Gambit had been a part of the conversation with Vashin but he apparently opts out of the mission because he doesn’t want to stay away from Rogue too long- despite the fact that he has as much personal interest in stopping Voge as Storm does and his skills as a sneak would come in handy. The rest of the team offer to work as back-up but Storm brushes them off. It’s dumb and several of the X-Men say so, but Claremont goes through with it anyway. That leads us to another misstep: an X-Treme X-Men story that is, for all intents and purposes, a Storm mini-series.

 

The biggest mistake however is the story itself. Storm’s plan to uncover and stop the slave ring is to… join the slave ring as a slave. She becomes a gladiator. And apparently, the rush of excitement is so much that she isn’t even sure she wants to put an end to it. This is so stupid. This certainly isn’t the Storm who flirted with danger in “Invasion” but only so she could bide her time until it was opportune to strike. This is a Storm who wants to give him to her dark side. Personally, I’m sick of gladiator stories.  I’m sick and tired of seeing heroes dragged into medieval fight clubs. And I’m tired of the heroes relish the purity of combat. No, no, a thousands times to. The X-Men have fought to defend a world; they’ve fought to save a friend. They’ve even fought for an ideal. But- with the possible exception of Wolverine- they don’t fight just to fight.

 

Claremont tries to make this work by reminding us of great Storm stories of the past. He reunites Storm with Yukio as a way of releasing her wild side. He replays the classic bout between Storm and Callisto as Callisto is also part of this gladiatorial gang. But these moments only serve to show how far Storm has fallen since then.

 

Not even an appearance by Strong Guy can save this mess. Strong Guy is also a prisoner and a gladiator. Yet instead of welcoming Storm as a potential liberator, he pushes Storm to be a champion so that he might ride her coattails to the top. I tell you, nobody in this story is thinking clearly. Eventually, Storm does manage to defeat most of the ringleaders. However, while she puts masters like Masque out of commission, she never does work her way all the way up to Voge. This is an ugly, stupid story and easily the worst arc of the title.

 

X-Treme X-Men 40-46: Prisoner of Fire

 

After the drek that was “The Arena,” I was hoping that X-Treme X-Men would get back to form with the next story, “Prisoner of Fire.” And there’s reason for hope. We’re back in Valle Soleada, the site of the pretty good “Intifada” story. And the first issue shows some nice character interaction. We see Rogue and Gambit as a couple and in love. We see Evangeline Whedon (the dinosaur mutant) and Marie D’Ancanto. And we see Cannonball reconnect with his old friends and former teammates on the New Mutants, Sunspot and Magma, who had both become involved in “Intifada.”

 

Unfortunately, a story is only as good as its villain. Elias Bogan has twice been used as a background villain: once to good effect in “Schism,” and again as an unnecessary complication in “Intifada.” Now it’s apparently time for this simmering feud to come to a boil. But it’s not because the X-Men decide to go after him. No, it’s because he decides to go after them and sends in a bunch of unimaginative patsies like Manacle, Bludgeon and Cudgel. There’s also a woman in black who has red eyes. The patsies defeat Bishop and torture him until Elias Bogan is able to take over his mind and use him as another pawn.

 

The X-Men bring in reinforcements and prepare for battle. Cannonball comes up with a decent plan, but it’s hard to take this story all that seriously. After all, they’re fighting a couple of guys named Bludgeon and Cudgel who swing big, heavy sticks. Yeah, I can see how a woman who can turn into a dragon and a guy with the strength of the sun would have problems dealing with that. Skids, the former New Mutant, even gets them to bang their heads against each other. The story tries to take a serious turn when the X-team goes up against a brain-fried Bishop but doesn’t manage to pull it off. The evil Bishop is an almost laughably over-the-top villain.

 

Meanwhile, another squad led by Sage tries to go after Bogan in his hideout underground. With Shadowcat’s phasing ability and Magma’s ability to control lava, they try to sneak into his compound from the earth rather than through the front door. This is actually one of the better issues in this story. It’s always nice to see heroes use their powers in inventive ways and for reasons other than fighting. Of course, once they arrive, they’re going to use them for fighting anyway first against some of Bogan’s dumb minions and then against their teammates who have been defeated by Bishop and turned against them. There are some supposed-to-be surprising revelations, such as the fact that Gambit only feigned being turned so that he could get close to Bogan and that Magma has really been turned the whole time. But neither moment is all that shocking as we’re long past the point of ridiculousness.

 

However, for all of that, “Prisoner of Fire” isn’t nearly as bad as “The Arena.” There are even a couple of developments that, while not quite making the entire story worthwhile, insure that the end isn’t as bad as the middle. In the fifth issue, Sage is hit with a psychic attack. Up ‘til now, Chris Claremont has been inserting Sage in various flashbacks and sharing her back-story in dribs and drabs. But now we get the whole tale. We learn all there is to know about Sage. And it’s actually pretty interesting. Plus, Sage had tried to keep her past hidden because she thought that the X-Men wouldn’t accept her if they knew the truth. It was nice to see Sage, one of Claremont’s typical super-women, actually be vulnerable. And of course the X-Men accept her.

 
The other significant development is that the X-Men are finally able to defeat the woman in black with the red eyes. She had been plaguing the X-Men since “Intifada” and was the only one of Bogan’s stooges who had caused them any trouble. But when they finally free her from Bogan’s control, they discover that she’s actually their friend and former teammate, Rachel Summers. It’s not quite enough to make this a good story but it is nice to have Rachel back in the fold.

 
And that brings us to the finale. Chris Claremont uses the final issue as both an ending and a beginning. He ties up some of his stories from this series such as giving Gambit his powers back. But he’s also scheduled to take over Uncanny X-Men again and he uses this issue to put his new team in place for that title. Plus, he uses this issue to tie the X-Treme team back to the other titles, something he hasn’t done since “Schism.” Angel updates Storm as to the death of Jean Grey and the team is welcomed back to the mansion by Dani Moonstar and Wolfsbane who are helping to run the school as seen in New Mutants and New X-Men: Academy X. It’s actually a pretty decent final issue. There are some rough spots- I didn’t care for the way in which Gambit’s powers were restored- but it serves as a good coda, especially compared with the last two arcs.

And that’s X-Treme X-Men. It was really bad in the beginning. It was really bad at the end. But in the middle, Chris Claremont managed to spin some amazing stories. I’m glad I read them. Though I’m also kind of glad that I waited five years.

 

The end.

(Originally Published at the Captain Comics.us  as three-part series, titled,  From X-Cellent to X-Cruciating: X-Treme X-Men Series Review Part 1 of 3,  Published Feb. 23, 2007, X-Treme X-Men: An X-Cellent Series Review Part 2 of 3, Published March, 9, 2007 and X-Treme X-Men : From X-Cellent to X-Cruciating Part 3 of 3, Published March 16, 2007)

New Reviews: Birds of Prey, Exiles and more

It seems like a lot of the comics I read recently had something new going on: new creative teams, new story directions, that sort of thing. So here are some reviews of the first and second issues of something new. 

New Creative Teams:

 
Exiles #90 is the kind of comic that you know whether or not you’re going to like it before you even open the cover. It’s written by Chris Claremont and if his mannerisms annoy you then they’ll annoy you in this issue, too. There’s his sometimes heavy-handed exposition. Then there are his favorite supporting characters that he loves to use in every title, like Roma and Psylocke. But if you like those things (and personally, I’m fond of Psylocke), or if they don’t annoy you all that much, then you might have a good time. The story moves along at a brisk pace. There’s a bit of humor and a bit of action. And there’s a pretty good cliffhanger ending between Psylocke and Sabretooth who have a history going all the way back to the Morlock Mutant Massacre. Even so, this issue comes up short in several ways. Several characters oddly refer to the insect-like Timbreakers as “lizards.” We get a full sparring match to break up the conversation with some action, but a real fight takes place off panel. The best thing about this issue is easily the Paul Pelletier art. And while this issue of Exiles might not a be bad story, the dialogue and plotting issues keep it from being a good one.

 

Wolverine 50: This issue introduces the new creative team of Jeph Loeb and Simone Bianchi. Over the past two years, Wolverine has seen some great heights and some awful lows. Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.’s “Enemy of the State” story was one of the best Wolverine stories ever written.
Daniel Way’s “Origins and Endings” was one of the worst. Loeb and Bianchi fall somewhere in the middle. Bianchi is a better fit on Wolverine than he was on Green Lantern. His moody art fits the characters better and he gets in some real menacing panels of Sabretooth.  But I still don’t think that Bianchi is a great artist. Sabretooth looks chunky rather than muscular in the two-page spread which should have been the artist’s chance to show off. Loeb’s story is straightforward action as Wolverine discovers that Sabretooth is living in the Xavier Mansion as part of Rogue’s team of X-Men and goes in to smack him around. It’s a good all-out fight, though we’ve seen it before. In Loeb’s defense, this is the first real Wolverine/Sabretooth fight of the current series so it has been awhile. It’s an okay start, but not more than that.

 

New Story Directions:

 

Birds of Prey 102: I like this new direction. I like having Oracle draw on a number of different superheroines as she needs them. And I like that she has a new opponent in Spy Smasher who is trying to take her down by exposing her rather than by trying to beat her up. I think that the Calculator was a slightly better foe, but I’m okay with Oracle having more than one nemesis. I do hope that the title doesn’t stay with a rotating cast but that Oracle eventually forms a rapport with a new core team. And much to my surprise, I’m hoping that the current Manhunter becomes a part of that new team. I think that there’s a good relationship in there as Huntress would suddenly find herself in the role of the responsible one to the Manhunter’s loose cannon. I don’t need all of the characters to keep coming back. Judomaster is a place-filler and Big Barda is a great guest character but she’s too powerful to be a permanent part of the cast. Whatever direction this title is heading in, I can at least say that I’m enjoying the trip.

 

She-Hulk 15: First things first: I love Greg Horn’s homage to Jim Steranko’s work on Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD. I also love the way that this title approaches all of the new situations that are thrust upon it by the titles around it. Dan Slott does a great job of playing with a scene from Civil War while also keeping character issues from his own title in the spotlight such as Doc Samson’s insistence that She-Hulk also spend some time as Jennifer Walters. And while others may disagree, I love the way that this title jumps with both feet into the new direction of having She-Hulk as an Agent of SHIELD. It’s as if Dan Slott has said, “If this is the direction we’re going in then we might as well have a blast doing it.” And it is a blast- She-Hulk in a SHIELD uniform, She-Hulk para-gliding off the SHIELD heli-carrier, Agent Cheesecake, and the Abomination hanging out in a Horndogs restaurant. There’s a lot of wit in this issue, as there is every time that She-Hulk is at her best.

 

Mostly New Mini-Series:

 

Star Wars: Dark Times 2: The lead character is former Jedi Dass Jennir and his story is an interesting one. He’s a former Jedi, not because he chose to leave the order but because the order no longer exists. And now Dass has to try and make his own way in the world, falling in with smugglers and falling in love. Dass’s new life is a curious balance of trying to stay true to his old ideals while admitting that the old ideals no longer fit the new life. Welles Hartley and Mick Harrison are also doing a good job of building a supporting cast around Dass, surrounding him with interesting aliens. My only complaint has to do with the depiction of Darth Vader. I just don’t like the way that Vader is portrayed in most of the post-Revenge of the Sith stories, whether it’s in the novels or the comics. When we first meet Darth Vader in the movies, he’s a dark, dangerous foe. In Dark Times, and other stories of the same time period, Vader is often portrayed as ineffectual. Here, he’s brooding and indecisive rather than forceful and menacing. I understand that he’s still growing into his role as galactic bogeyman but I admit to preferring him as a full-fledged foe.

 

Samurai: Heaven and Earth Vol. 2 #2: What a great series! The art by Luke Ross is amazing. He draws beautiful landscapes and beautiful people. He captures multiple cultures and multiple emotions. And he makes you wish you were actually there. Ron Marz’ story has a lot going for it as well. The first volume established the depths of the bonds of love between Asukai Shiro and the Lady Yoshida. It’s a great romantic tale as Shiro crosses heaven and earth to get back his lady love. That tale continues in this volume. However, while the first volume featured a lot of driving action, this volume is mixing things up with a bit of twisting action. Promotional art for the second series showed the Sahara desert but Marz ended the first issue with a cliffhanger in which Shiro finds out that Lady Yoshida has boarded a boat bound for the Americas. But just when we think that we’ve abandoned one continent for another, Marz turns us right around bringing us unexpectedly to the third. At first, I was disappointed that we wouldn’t be going to Africa. Now, I’m disappointed that we won’t be going to the Americas. And yet, I can’t help but admire how Marz has twisted the story and the reader around.

(Originally Published,Feb, 02, 2007 at CaptainComics.us)

Defending Civil War

 

If there was an award for most controversial comic of the year, Civil War would win it hands down. But while I’ve noticed a lot of writers willing to criticize Civil War, I’ve noticed very few who are willing to defend it. Well, I’ve never been shy of a bit of controversy. So here goes my defense of Civil War.

There was an episode of Studio 60 last fall in which a veteran writer told two writers-in-training, “Buy the premise, buy the bit.” In this instance, the veteran writer was trying to convey to the younger writers that they needed to establish the premise of the skit early. That way the audience would know what the skit was about and accept it. Although he used the word “buy,” he was actually talking more about selling the premise since he was addressing the writers not the audience. Sell the premise and you’ve also sold the bit.
 

While this particular bit of advice was given to the writers, I think it just as readily applies to the audience. If you buy the premise, you buy the bit. There are times when the failure lies at the foot of the writer as was the case in that particular episode of Studio 60. But there are also times when the failure to accept the premise lies with the audience. The audience isn’t always willing to accept the premise, no matter how well crafted the tale might be. But that’s why we often talk about the “willing suspension of disbelief.” The phrase is sometimes shortened simply to “suspension of disbelief” yet I think it’s important that we remember the “willing” part. If the audience wants to enjoy the bit, whether it’s a comedy sketch or a comic book series, it is the audience’s responsibility to accept the premise. In the case of Civil War, I think that there is a segment of the audience that simply refuses to accept the premise and that lies at the heart of most of the controversy.
 

So what is the premise of Civil War? The premise is that a local tragedy prompted extreme national reactions. The populace was infuriated and the government quickly passed legislation in response. The legislation itself became controversial. People lined up on opposing sides, some supporting the legislation, others opposing it. Both sides claimed to have principle on their side, though there were also some who chose a side out of pragmatism rather than idealism. Eventually, those who had chosen one side over the other began to place more importance on having their side win than on the ideals that caused them to choose their side in the first place. People on both sides of the controversy compromised their principles for the sake of winning. And in this case, the controversy has to do with the conflict between freedom and security.

 

Sound familiar? It should. In many ways, Civil War is an allegory for what is happening right now in the
United States of America. From a tragedy that prompted extreme reactions. From legislation that became divisive. From the pursuit of victory over principles. Everything that is happening in Civil War is also happening in the real world right now. Admittedly, the division in the Marvel Universe has been pushed a little bit further than the division in the real world. But that shouldn’t be surprising. A good allegorical tale will always push past the real world in order to heighten the tension or illuminate a point. George Orwell did it in 1984 and Animal Farm. One might argue that William Golding did it in Lord of the Flies. And it’s being done in Civil War.

Either you buy that premise, or you don’t. If you buy the premise, then Civil War is a really good story. Characters you previously admired are on opposite sides. Characters you identify with are caught in the middle. There’s personal tragedy and high drama. There’s a clash of ideals and a conflict of principles. And it seems like there’s no way out. I’m not saying that Civil War doesn’t have its flaws as a story. It does. It’s not perfect. It’s not the best story I’ve read this year. But if you buy the premise, then those flaws are minor irritations.  If you buy the premise, you enjoy the story. 

If you don’t buy the premise, you won’t buy the bit. You won’t enjoy the story as a whole and every flaw will be magnified. That’s a danger inherent in any story with allegorical overtones. And that’s a danger in Civil War. 

Yet I will defend Civil War on this ground. I think that they have sold their premise. Even those who don’t like the story admit that they know what the premise is. And enough people have accepted the premise that it’s hard to put all of the blame in the hands of the storytellers. Some irate readers may not want to hear it but if they’re not enjoying the story it’s more likely because of their failure to accept the premise than because of any flaws in the story itself.

 

While I’m at it, I’d like to defend Civil War on another ground as well. Some of the criticisms that have been directed at Civil War have had to do with the added tie-ins and spin-offs. I’ve noticed a couple of theories as to why Marvel has added extra tie-ins and spin-offs besides those originally announced. One theory is that once Civil War began falling behind its schedule, Marvel scrambled to fill in the time with these extra one-shots. Another theory is that Marvel scheduled these one-shots in order to patch over the flaws in the main story. They’re different theories but they both originate out of the same place- the theory that these extra stories are the by-product of failure.

 

I think that the opposite is true. I don’t think that these extra stories are the by-product of failure. I think they’re the by-product of success. Civil War has been the highest selling series in more than ten years. Is it any wonder that the people at Marvel thought to offer even more stories that spin out of their most successful series in a decade? Is it any wonder that they used one spin-off to promote several upcoming titles, as Civil War: Choosing Sides had prequels for Iron Fist, Irredeemable Ant-Man and Omega Flight? I think that Marvel would be publishing these one-shots whether or not Civil War was coming out on time.

 

I also dispute the claim that these one-shots are necessary because of flaws in the main story. That claim gets us back to my original defense. Those who accept the premise don’t think that the story has holes that need to be patched up. Yet there is a huge difference between not needing extra stories and not wanting them. Hamlet was a pretty good play, but Tom Stoppard still thought he had a story to tell about some of its minor characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. MASH was a pretty good movie, but somebody still thought that there were hundreds of stories left be told about those characters. So many extra stories are being spun out of Civil War because it’s a success, not because it’s a failure.

There you have it: my defense of Civil War. I didn’t defend everything. For one thing, I don’t have the time or the space. For another, there are a few flaws to the story which keep it from greatness. But while Civil War may not be the best story I’ve ever read, it has its strengths. It’s packed with action and emotion and it’s successfully fulfilling the premise that it set for itself at the beginning. And that’s pretty good.

(Originally published at Captain Comics.us, on   26 January 2007)