Starlight #1 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Goran Parlov (art), Ive Svorcina (colors) and Marko Sunjic (letters)

The Story: An aging former space hero finds life on Earth to be depressing.

Review (with SPOILERS): This was a really touching first issue. Back in the old days, I used to actually go on comic message boards.  God, what a horrible experience.  Fun at the time, but…. Ugh!  Mark Millar was always an active discussion topic on those boards.  Saying that you actually liked Mark Millar comics on a comic message board was like admitting that you picked your nose and ate the boogars.  The intellectual minority of the minority of comic fans that go on message boards likes to deride Millar as being a hype-machine who is just interested in doing shocking things to get a reaction.   I actually see a lot of experimental brilliance in his edgier works like Wanted, Kick Ass and Nemesis.  Sure….Millar can be offensive sometimes, but I think he is just interested in exploring artistic boundaries – and when you rigorously explore the boundary, you will cross the line sometimes.

But, dismissing Millar as”hype-machine who writes exploitative comics” really discounts some of his other works.  Did you ready Superior?  There were some really touching moments in that story.  How about Secret Service?  All that stuff about how poor the main character grew up?  That was pretty affecting.  There are even some powerful moments in Kick Ass (the original series).  Millar really can do a touching and heart-felt comic if he wants to.

I think Starlight is one of those more touching works.  If you don’t enjoy the “extreme” Mark Millar…..you should definitely give Starlight a try because it is very different.

It tells the story of Captain Duke McQueen who once had a very John Carter-esque experience of being sucked through a wormhole to a very Barsoom-like place where he fought villains with swords, saved a kingdom, was honored by scantily clad princesses, rode dragons, etc……but gave it all away to go back home to Earth and be with his lady love.  Only, when he got back to Earth, nobody really believed his story and he lived a mundane life with his wife.  And he was happy because he loved his wife….

The issue picks up with a very sad story of how Duke’s wife dies.  We only see her in flashback, but I love how Parlov draws her.  Duke himself looks like an old American football player who has kept himself in shape: big, broad-shouldered, but still gray haired and wrinkled.  His wife (in contrast) looks like one of those ladies who you first assume Duke has a trophy wife who is 25 years old, then you realize she’s just one of those ladies who has held onto her youthful beauty by virtue of hard-work, lifestyle and good genes.  She’s like the idealized version of what you thought your mom looked like as a kid: beautiful, not sexy, just beautiful.  And, since this is just Duke’s flashback memory, who knows if she really looked like that, or if she just looked like that in his mind because he loved he so much?  It doesn’t really matter.  Duke loved her and we get to see the moment where she finds a lump under her breast after a lovely evening out to dinner.  It is really painful and touching because in just those few pages, you get the feeling that she was someone who was a special light in the world and didn’t deserve to die young.

Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher #4 – Review

By: Jonathan Maberry (writer), Goran Parlov (art), Lee Loughridge (colors) & Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Punisher has to save a still-human Mary Jane Watson from a band of cannibals led by Kingpin.

What’s Good: This was a satisfying wrap up to a fun, little non-continuity miniseries featuring the Punisher as the last “hero” who has remained uninfected by some sort of virus that has turned the other heroes into raving cannibals.

The whole series has played with the notion of whether the Punisher is really a hero or whether he is just a killer in the wasteland and that question gets resolution in a not surprising (but still satisfying) way.  There are probably few people reading this comic who want to see anything other than Punisher being a bad-ass and those folks will be happy with what happens.

Most of the “surprising” parts of this come via cannibal Deadpool.  I’m not a fan of all the Deadpool books, but I don’t mind him showing up for comedic relief in other comics and what we get here is pretty good as his self-awareness carries over even after his infection (and repeated killing at the hands of Punisher).

Throughout it all, Goran Parlov’s art makes everything work well.  It isn’t stunning art, but it sells the story very nicely.

Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher #3 – Review

By: Jonathan Maberry (writer), Goran Parlov (art), Lee Loughridge (colors) & Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Frank Castle is forced to do battle with a criminal mastermind who is ruling the cannibal controlled wastes of NYC.

What’s Good: How do you make a fun, non-cannon story about cannibal versions of your favorite Marvel heroes and villains getting killing by Frank Castle better?  Well, it appears that you can do it by having Jonathan Maberry write it because he tosses in a few plot wrinkles here that have made this one of my current favorite miniseries.

The story has evolved quite rapidly from the first issue to where we have learned that the cannibal hordes opposing Frank Castle aren’t mindless.  They have some structure and are lead by infected cannibal heroes/villains who have kept some of their mental faculties.  I don’t want to spoil matters here too much, but if you’ve read Marvel comics for any period of time, the identity of who would come out on top of a cannibal gang in NYC shouldn’t be a huge surprise.

The better surprise is the motive of cannibal Spidey to seek Frank’s help with a plot device that is especially sweet if you have been reading the garbage that is Amazing Spider-Man: One Moment In Time.  This issue of MU vs Punisher either shows that Joe Quesada has a healthy sense of humor and ability to laugh at himself for allowing this story OR he just wasn’t paying attention at all.

Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher #2 – Review

By: Jonathan Maberry (writer), Goran Parlov (art), Lee Loughridge (colors) & Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: The Punisher, as the last “normal” hero (super or otherwise), tries to rid the Earth of infected cannibals.

What’s Good: I really enjoyed this a lot.  I’m usually a continuity whore, but for some reason I don’t mind these alternate versions of The Punisher (Franken-Castle, Max, this one, etc.).  This version of Punisher does have the advantage of being pretty true to his original form: the bad-ass and heavily armed man-with-a-plan cutting a vengeful path through the Marvel U.

There really isn’t much not to like about this issue.  We get to see two really cool little action sequences where Frank takes on Hulk and Venom.  I especially liked Frank’s method of taking down the Hulk, but both sequences show just how much planning Frank has put into taking down these various superhuman-types, so Punisher fans should be happy by this showing of their hero as the baddest badass there is.  And it’s also fun that the two main villains are both talkative heroes who annoy the piss out of Punisher in the 616 universe.  That’s well thought out.

This comic has lots of little bits of humor, but doesn’t go overboard into full-scale yuk-yuk mode.  It’s just that appropriate dark, black and dry humor that I appreciate in an apocalyptic Punisher story.  I don’t want to give away the jokes, but you’ll enjoy them when you see them.

The Punisher #60 – Review

By Garth Ennis (writer) Goran Parlov (artist) Lee Loughridge (colors) Cory Petit (letters) Tim Bradstreet (cover)

Garth Ennis’ incredible run on The Punisher concludes in this issue. Very few writers have become synonymous with a character to the point where anyone else writing them makes you cringe. Ennis took us past the gun-toting maniac surface and showed us something deeper, making The Punisher one of the most engaging characters in comics. Having said that, issue #60, his last on the series, left me wanting more and not in a good way.

First let me say the issue isn’t bad, I just wanted more. It’s disappointing because it feels like familiar territory instead of a capstone. We have yet another guy who wants to stop Castle. He talks to him on a personal level and while he doesn’t support Frank’s actions he sees that some of it is necessary. It’s done very well, but it’s been done before. The big distraction for me were the excerpts from the book Valley Forge, Valley Forge. The text is written well, but it’s still a huge block of text in the middle of a comic book. Also, if you’ve read Punisher: Born it’s basically a recap. Those gripes aside, it never gets old seeing The Punisher gun down some jerks who have it coming. I just wish we actually saw him kill the evil generals instead of the aftermath.

Incredibly detailed and stylized, Tim Bradstreet’s covers always set the tone for the issue. Goran Parlov’s art is excellent also, even if it isn’t my usual cup of tea. There is an odd use of detail for each panel which makes each character stand out. Up close it’s easy to see each wrinkle on Howe’s face and each furrow of his brow. Castle on the other hand is drawn with very broad strokes, a great illustration of his black and white view of the world.

I don’t know if Garth Ennis will ever come back to work on The Punisher. I certainly hope so. I wish he’d gone out with more of a bang. This issue is more of a fade away than a spectacular burnout. I was expecting something huge, something that would be near impossible to followup. Instead, I got a solid story that feels anticlimactic because it’s the end of the Ennis era. (Grade: B-)

– Ben Berger