Lost Vegas #1 – Review

By: Jim McCann (writer), Janet Lee (art), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: A space-faring gambler gets conscripted to work at a Casino/Slave Ship.

Review: This issue was a total miss for me.  Your mileage may vary, but I didn’t enjoy this on any level.  My policy with negative reviews of creator-owned projects is to (i) draft a review, (ii) wait a day and (iii) if I still don’t like it, to be precise and specific about what I didn’t enjoy.  Criticism of creator-owned comics is no time to show the world how funny and witty the reviewer is.

Secret Avengers #19 – Review

By: Warren Ellis (writer), Michael Lark (breakdowns), Stefano Gaudiano with Brian Thies (finishes), Jose Villarrubia (colors), Dave Lanphear (letters), Lauren Sankovitch (associate editor) & Tom Brevoort (editor)

The Story: The Secret Avengers go to bust up some criminals who are selling illicit “stuff” to the Shadow Council.

Five Things or Why Marvel should let Warren Ellis write more for them: 

1. Again, Warren Ellis is nailing this done-in-one format.  I would read this series forever, because I love the way Warren Ellis is handling these quick hitting Secret Avengers stories.  I mean….I do enjoy Bendis’ Avengers, but there is a LOT to be said about getting to the point.  We’ve gotten more story in a few months of Ellis’ Secret Avengers than we’ve gotten from 18 months of Avengers and New Avengers combined.  This story of Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter, Black Widow and Moon Knight busting up some Eastern European arms dealers was just so hot.  There’s no dicking around; the story just begins, reveals a mystery, delivers action and resolves the mystery.  Done!   All in a standard length comic.  I have to think that a company like Marvel that is publishing ~80 new comics a month can find some place for this type of storytelling on an ongoing basis.  Make it happen!

2. The best modern-day Captain America book. Not only is this the best Avengers title right now, it’s the best Steve Rogers title.  Light-years better than Brubaker’s Captain America.  This Steve is almost like Nick Fury.  He’s on a mission, he has a plan and he’s getting stuff DONE.  And, there’s no annoying Boy Scout-ish behavior.

3. Great art from Michael Lark and crew.  I hate to be one to count panels, but it does help to tell a done-in-one story to avoid too many splash pages, especially in the fight scenes.  There are a couple fights in this issue where Lark goes to a 9-panel grid and that allows us to see a fast paced and furious fight without the fight soaking up the entire issue.  The story is gritty and the art matches it.  Wonderful colors as well.

Secret Avengers #18 – Review

By: Warren Ellis (writer), David Aja & Raul Allen (art), Dave Lanphear (letters), Lauren Sankovitch (associate editor) & Tom Brevoort (editor)

The Story: Steve Rogers, Sharon Carter & Shang Chi on a mission to stop a threat from another universe.

Five Things:

1. Done-in-one format is great.  These last three issues by Warren Ellis have all been self-contained stories.  This time again, we get 3 Avengers teaming up to stop a defined threat and they are finished by the end of the issue.  This is such a superior story telling method to the typical 6-issue story arc that pervades Marvel these days.  I’ll put in this way: In the last 3 months, Warren Ellis has given us more complete stories than most Marvel series give us in an entire year.  Some stories are epic enough that they need 6 issues, but most are not.  Done-in-ones rule!

2. Aja’s art is getting it done.  On one hand, you can just look at these pages and see why we don’t get David Aja on a monthly comic book.  For one thing, this looks like really time consuming art since he colors it himself.  For another, he’s so good that I’m sure he get’s lots of offers to work outside of comics.  His characters are so vibrant and strong.  When Shang-Chi is kicking folks, you can almost hear the bones breaking.  And he’s got all kinds of interesting page layouts and panel designs to keep the page visually interesting.  This is Grade A stuff.

3. Warren Ellis reminding us why he’s a superstar.  I’ve said it before, but this series of issues by Ellis reads like ideas he had for Global Frequency that are reworked into the Marvel Universe.  In that way, you can tell what a font of ideas Ellis is.  I love the way he’s just breezing back into the Marvel Universe for 6 months and dropping a heap of ideas on Secret Avengers that are more interesting and far out than anything Marvel’s other writers are doing.  If I were another Marvel writer, I’d be an odd mix of afraid that Ellis will come onto my title and make me look pedestrian (Seriously, how bad does Brubaker’s run on Secret Avengers look now?) and inspired to pick up your game.  But, it doesn’t even stop with the cool concepts…..Ellis writes really well and his black sense of humor comes through in a few places too like when Shang-Chi is off-panel mauling some goons and Sharon comments to Steve, “God, whatever he’s doing sounds horrible.”  That’s a rare time when saying it is more effective than showing it. 

Secret Avengers #17 – Review

By: Warren Ellis (writer), Kev Walker (art), Frank Martin (colors), Dave Lanphear (letters), Lauren Sankovitch (associate editor) & Tom Brevoort (editor)

The Story: The Secret Avengers learn about some secret weapon being transported through Eastern Europe and mobilize to take it down.

What’s Good: This done-in-one story format is so great.  Get in there, tell the damn story and move on to the next story.  It is such a nice thing to be reminded that a comic story can be begun and ended in a single issue.  What’s funny is that you can totally see how some other writers at Marvel could stretch this issue’s idea into a 6-month saga by adding lots of “character moments” to a dude like Steve Rogers who has been around since the 60’s.  When I see a guy like Ellis just pumping out a series of done-in-ones like he’s doing Secret Avengers, I just imagine him laughing at those 6-issue arc guys and laughing because he has ideas like this dripping from every orifice on his body.

What makes done-in-ones so great is that even if they suck or if you don’t like the mix of characters the creators choose, it’s over in ~20 minutes instead of dragging for 6-months.  And because the pain of a bad idea is over faster, it can encourage creators to be more experimental, and isn’t that a good thing?
This story kicks off so well.  The Secret Avengers detect a threat, Steve rallies a team of whoever is in the building at the time and whatever quinjet is in the parking garage and off they go.  It feels like a real emergency since they aren’t waiting around for Black Widow or Beast to show up.  Have we ever seen a 4-person team of Steve, Sharon Carter, War Machine and Valkyrie?  I don’t know that we have and that’s cool.  I probably wouldn’t want to read an ongoing series with just these characters, but it’s great for an issue.

Secret Avengers #16 – Review

By: Warren Ellis (writer), Jamie McKelvie (artist), Matthew Wilson (colorist), Dave Lanphear (letters), Lauren Sankovitch (associate editor) & Tom Brevoort (editor)

The Story: The Secret Avengers find a Secret Empire base under Cincinnati.  Chaos ensues.

Review: This issue was just what Secret Avengers needed.  Brubaker’s run on the title wasn’t bad, but it was uninspired and made folks wonder why this title existed (beyond selling another comic that says “Avengers” on the cover).  Nick Spencer had a few nice little issues tying into Fear Itself, but that didn’t answer the question of, “Why does Secret Avengers exist as a title and team?”  The “event tie-in” can help a limping series continue for a few extra issues (Herc, Heroes for Hire), but there needs to be more meat on the bone.

Enter Warren Ellis.  He’s probably one of my favorite writers ever for giving us Planetary, Transmetropolitan and Global Frequency.  [Note: I still don’t understand why we can’t have more Planetary and Global Frequency.]  Ellis has serious “big idea” credentials.  While it is true that he isn’t at his best in a shared universe, I think that’s just because he isn’t reading all the other Marvel comics every month (even if he generally knows who these characters are).  So, having him write a few issues of the “Secret Avengers” is a great idea because they’re not intimately tied to other Marvel events.

Taskmaster #4 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Jefte Palo (art), Jean Francois Beaulieu (colors), Dave Lanphear (letters) & Lauren Sankovitch (editor)

The Story: Van Lente fills in the last few bits as he fleshes out the suddenly very interesting Taskmaster character.

What’s Good: Who’s up for a Taskmaster ongoing?  I am!  Perhaps that is overdoing it, at least in this lousy comic sales environment, but in this series and issue Van Lente has really changed the way we see Taskmaster.  Perhaps it is a bit of a retcon, but it doesn’t seem to conflict that much with past characterizations of Taskmaster that we’ve seen.   Bravo!

For those who have missed it, Van Lente has turned Taskmaster into a kinda tragic figure.  His brain is filled to overflowing with his memorization of fighting styles at the like to the extent that something has to give.  And the things that always get lost when his brain gets too full are the details about who he is, the identity of his wife and the fact that he is really a good guy.  Mercedes (his wife) is just about as interesting as she dutifully stays at her husbands side, acting as his handler only to have him remember (and forget) her again and again.  How sad is that?

I think this could have been a great miniseries with any type of art, but Palo’s scratchy style seems especially well suited for this spy/espionage-y tale.  Once again, my favorite trick that he uses are the windows over Taskmaster when he is emulating someone else’s moves. Very clever.  I don’t know if he originated that concept, but it works well for demonstrating that Taskmaster is pulling a move he learned from Daredevil (as an example).  Without this bit of visual storytelling, we’d have to see a narration box explaining what moves he was using and that would be really clumsy.

Taskmaster #3 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Jefte Palo (art), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colors) & Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: Taskmaster encounters “The Town that Was Hitler”.

What’s Good: It is hard to write a good comic book.  It is also challenging to write a funny comic book.  But, it is a true accomplishment to write a comic that is both good AND funny, but that is what Van Lente has pulled off again with the third issue of Taskmaster.

Towards the end of last issue, we got the hint that there might be more to Taskmaster’s past than we had previously thought, but we learn a LOT more in this issue.  Instead of just telling us the whole story, Van Lente splits the origin into two parts: one-half is Taskmaster’s brain starting to remember things from his past whereas the other half is Nick Fury telling Captain Steve the other half of the story.   This is so much more interesting than just having the history explained to us in narration boxes.  Under Van Lente’s pen, Taskmaster is becoming a very interesting character!

What really sets Van Lente apart is the humor because it isn’t just a bunch of fart jokes.  It is humor for smart people.  If you read this comic and aren’t laughing it is because you are dumb and just don’t get it.  Don’t worry….they have Deadpool comics for you.  The humor is functioning at all sorts of different levels.  For example, some of the humor is pseudo-raunchy, such as the main bad guy announcing that his organization is called the Minions International Liberation Front.  Get it?  Or, on a more subtle level, how about the way the town of Hitler’s are all planning to attack their neighbor for “elbow room” and how they all speak German with a Passau accent (the town where Hitler grew up).  It is just smart writing for smart people.

Taskmaster #2 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente (writer), Jefte Palo (art), Jean-Francois Beaulieu (colors) & Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: Taskmaster runs into trouble against Mexican mercenaries wearing death masks!

What’s Good: One of the best experiences in comics is to read something where you can tell that the creators had a GREAT time writing/drawing the comic book.  Not to imply an occasional lack of passion from creators or that they allow a “time to make the donuts” attitude to sometimes pervade their Marvel/DC superhero work (Never, never….), but while reading most comics you don’t get a mental image of the creators giggling at how clever the comic is.  It would be highly surprising to know that Van Lente didn’t have a serious case of the giggles while he wrote this….

In this issue, we continue seeing Taskmaster on the run from the ORG who has put out a bounty on him that causes all sorts of groups to come out of the woodwork to collect his head (Hydra, AIM and all sorts of whacky groups that FVL just made up last issue).  This time he comes face to face with the Don of the Dead who uses funny/clever/great Spanglish dialog like, “So.  El Mastro de Task.  Ju face the Don of the Dead in Final Combat.  What ju say to THAT, hanh?”  Mind you, this is coming from a dude wearing a death facemask and a mariachi outfit.  Brilliant…

What’s more, the serious aspect of the story is not lost in the silly fun.  FVL hits on all the important aspects of Taskmaster’s character such as showing that although he lost his memories, his abnormal muscle memory allows his fingers to automatically do things like dial telephones and withdraw cash from ATMs.  There is also a very good “big story” revelation on the final page that ensures that this miniseries isn’t just fun for fun’s sake.

Iron Man Legacy #4 – Review

By: Fred van Lente (writer), Steve Kurth (pencils), Allen Martinez (inks), John Rauch (colors) & Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: We finally get some Iron Man action in Iron Man Legacy as Stark has a throw down with a plethora of enemies.

What’s Good: Not a whole lot, to be honest.  It was refreshing to finally see the actual Iron Man be present in a comic titled Iron Man Legacy as we get to see a multi-way throw-down between Iron Man, Radioactive Man, Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo (thank goodness he isn’t named Crimson Man who that would have been a tedious sentence).  I enjoyed seeing a stranded Tony Stark get resupplied with armor by an orbital platform.

We also have the promise of better things to come with Dr. Doom getting in on the action with some Stark-tech juiced Doombots.

The art in this issue was quite improved mostly because the subject matter (armor battles) seems to play more to the strengths of Kurth’s pencils.  I’ve mentioned before that I think this more photo-realistic style in both Legacy and Invincible Iron Man work better on the armor than they do on the characters actual faces, so it is nice to see a story that is starting to play to the strengths of the artist.

Iron Man Legacy #2 – Review

By: Fred van Lente (writer), Steve Kurth (pencils), Allen Martinez & Victor Olazaba (inks), John Rauch (colors) & Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: Tony Stark’s one-man war against the villains with stolen Iron Man technology in Transia continues.

What’s Good: I was a little hard on the initial issue of Iron Man Legacy,

but this issue feels a lot more grounded and put together.  One thing that bothered me about issue #1 was that although it was pretty clear that it wasn’t exactly in continuity with the rest of the Marvel Universe, it wasn’t clear when the action took place.  That is kind of answered here.  This story is taking place sometime before Tony Stark made it publicly known that he was the Iron Man.  That at least clears things up a little.

This is also very clearly a “new reader” comic.  The target for this comic is folks who loved Iron Man 2 and wanted to try reading an Iron Man comic.  The story is very unburdened by continuity (witness that I can’t figure out when this really happens).  As much as I love my continuity, it is a serious impediment for new readers and I’m glad to see Marvel trying to make this an easy title to jump onto.

The art has also calmed down a little bit.  I felt like in #1 there was almost an attempt to make the art look like Salvador Larroca’s work on Invincible Iron Man.  While this issue is still generally photo-realistic, it has its own look.  I particularly like the inking job on this issue.