Massively Effective #1 – Review

Written by Marco Lopez and Bryan Ginn, Art by Michael Mayne, Colors by Walt Barna

The Story: Meet Mass and Effect, the two most inefficient superheroes of all time. So ineffective that a tribunal of godly creatures forbids them from ever being superheroes again. While Mass accepts his Fate, Effect…not so much.

The Good: The incredible amount of fun that I have not seen in a comic since Skullkickers. Lopez and Ginn have a myriad of great characters that keep bringing more fun to this comic, from the giant Lizard playing guitar to PHD and his sidekick. There is no shortage of a good time here. Of course, the main attraction is the two heroes—one, Effect, who is desperately trying to hold onto the nostalgia of his youth, and Mass who is almost the complete opposite—ready to grow up and leave childish things behind, but with just enough reluctance that Effect has some sway over him. The best thing about their bromance is that they’re both wrong, but they’re of course oblivious to that. Yet, like George and Jerry from Seinfeld, together they make one functional man.  Or in this case, one functional superhero. Only, since they can’t yet acknowledge each other’s strengths, they kind of just get into a lot of trouble. This leads to PhD, the embodiment of every mad scientist ever known.  He is a perfect foil to both heroes. For Effect, he’s too serious and contemplative. For Mass, he’s too crazy and out there.  But he’s never both of these at the same time. He has bat-shit crazy plans that he carefully, painstakingly constructs.  Neither Mass nor Effect know how to properly handle him and that makes some great conflict—I really want to see where it ends up going. And then there’s the art and colors—the art in this comic plays up the nostalgia end, sometimes even looking like a Saturday morning cartoon. In a way, the art is almost a commentary on itself—comics are supposed to have a bit of nostalgia to them, harkening back to simpler times. At least for those who have actually read comics as a child (as in, not me).  But what the art does for the various themes is give them a subtlety. Yes, this is very fun and cool and we get to see awesome battles against Mario Land rejects, but there is a deeper meaning to it, an understanding of holding onto innocence that only this style of artwork can provide.  While you are on the site, go and check out the preview for Rock, Paper, Scissors—great stuff—the art for that would be awful for Massively Effective not because it is bad art, but because it plays up the serious nature, while Massively Effective is about hiding from it. Plus, it’s just damn cool art.

Fear Itself: Avengers HC – Review

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils: Chris Bachalo, John Romita Jr., and Mike Deodato, Ikners: Tim Townsend, Jaimie Mendoza, Al Vey, Wayne Faucher, Victor Olazaba, Mark Irwin, Klaus Janson. Colorists: Chris Bachalo (double duty), Dean White, Paul Mounts, and Rain Beredo.

Collecting Avengers #13-17 and New Avengers #14-16

The Story: The Avengers fight against FEAR ITS—I can’t do it. It was just such a horrendous event. Still, other writers tried their best in the tie-ins and some of them were MUCH better than the main event (like Avengers Academy).  So the first section of this review should really be…

Dealing with the Crap that was FEAR ITSELF: Bendis had two series to tie into Fear Itself, and did so in very similar ways. He must have known that Avengers and New Avengers would be collected together, as he used the same narrative technique in both series. The idea is that the Oral Histories of the Avengers are caught up, so the heroes are being interviewed about their most recent crisis: Crisis of Infinite Hemorrhoids—I mean Hammers. So we have a video interview-like thing going on with the heroes playing Monday morning quarterback, and then we get images from the event. Without Fear Itself, you’d almost think that something was happening in the world. There is some brutal fights in these tie-ins. The fight between Red Hulk and the Thing was ten times more exciting than the “brawl” in Fear Itself #5. Even Squirrel Girl’s story in New Avengers was more exciting and more dire than anything that happened in the main event. So in terms of making Fear Itself seem like an actual major crisis the heroes struggle to deal with, it’s successful. Crazy shit happens here. Daredevil takes on a brigade of Nazi Robots. Spider-Woman fights the Hulk while protecting a school filled of children. Protector hacks into Stark’s Iron Men suits (including Iron Patriot) and sets them on Sin. Every moment in the Avengers/New Avengers tie-ins would make you believe that this is one of the most important events in Marvel history. If only that were true.

Deathstroke #1 – Review

Written by Kyle Higgins, Pencils by Joe Bennett, inks by Art Thibert, colors by Jason Wright

The Story: A dude with Wolverine’s candor and Deadpool’s skill kills a lot of people.

What’s Good: Is it wrong to say that out of all the New 52 I’ve read so far, this is the one I’ve had the most fun reading? Death Stroke…he’s not one of the good guys. He’s not even an antihero. At least, not yet. He’s not like Deadpool, doing the mercenary thing but also willing to be the hero when he needs to be. He’s just a mercenary out for blood. No law. No code of conduct. (No way did I just accidentally quote X-Men Origins: Wolverine). The issue starts by showing you exactly the kind of guy Mr. Wilson (really?) is. He’s–in his associate’s words–“a major damn badass.” To prove this, he rips the door off of a cargo jet going 300 miles per hour, twenty thousand feet in the air. Also, by the double page spread very early on, you know that if he were singing a duet with Julie Andrews, he might count decapitating Russians as one of his favorite things. Higgins sells Deathstroke with the kind of ease that makes it clear that the writer had a damn good time with this character. The twists are well placed, and the action is incredible. Of course, that’s also thanks to Bennett’s pencils–who seems to love the character as much as Higgins. He really has Deathstroke do some pretty insane stuff. Both the artist and the writer are on the same page–they are not looking to tell a story about a Merc with a Heart. This guy is brutal, all the way down to Wright’s color scheme, they’re out for blood. And I think it’s going to be one hell of a ride.

X-Force: Sex + Violence (Graphic Novel Review)

Written by Criag Kyle and Christopher Yost, Art by Gabrielle Dell’Otto

I rarely start with price, and even more so, I never recommend a book that the price costs more than the individual issues (like the Siege hardcover edition)…but in this case, I have to change my stance. Sure, Sex + Violence is only a three issues long, making the cover price total only 11.97, and the hardcover is priced at 19.99 (it also includes the New X-Men Annual 2001 by Grant Morrison), which seems like a pretty big hike, and it is. But it’s worth it. It’s actually an oversized hardcover, which is no less than Gabrielle Dell’Otto deserves. And let’s be honest, that’s what we’re paying for.

Sex + Violence was first announced at the 2009 New York Comic Con, but wasn’t released until August 2010, after Second Coming ended along with Kyle and Yost’s phenomenal run on X-Force. In fact, the story takes place closer to the beginning of their run. Whatever the reasons were for the exceedingly long delay, it was worth it. The concept is simple–Domino and Wolverine kill a lot of people and have crazy sex between the slaughters. Seems that Domino somehow managed to really piss off the Assassin’s Guild…something about a shit-ton of money and Russian girls. Who cares, it’s a Macguffin and the best kind–the kind that gives us, well, sex and violence. But it’s also not just cool for the sake of cool (okay, these are superhero comics, I guess it’s all cool for the sake of cool in the end, but that’s beside the point). Kyle and Yost aren’t just going “hey, look how edgy we can be!” All of the sex, all of the violence, works to highlight the story. By the time X-Force joins in for backup at the end (in one of the most glorious double page spreads in the history of comics), it’s quite clear–for this superhero team, sex and violence are hardly two separate things. Especially for Domino and Wolverine.

X-Men: Second Coming – Review

Writers: Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, Matt Fraction, Zeb Wells, and Mike Carey

Pencillers: David Finch, Terry Dodson, Ibraim Roberson, Greg Land, and Mike Choi with Stuart Immonen, Lan Medina, Nathan Fox, and Esad Ribic.

And so here it is: the last installment of the “Messiah Trilogy” or Messianic X Cycle (Say it. Make it catch on!). We’ve been through Endangered Species, Messiah Complex and Messiah War. Now it’s time for Second Coming, the event that concludes three years of X-Men stories. It’s been some of the darkest times in X-Men history. They’ve exiled themselves to an island nation after Norman Osborne and the Dark Avengers attacked them in San Francisco (Read Utopia for that), which then caused Magneto to return—with his powers back—and pledge allegiance to Cyclops. The Black Queen raised an army of dead mutants to attack their new home (Necrosha). In the meantime, Cyclops has been sending his own wet works team out to kill every threat to mutant kind, and they kill plenty. And Cable is off the future raising Hope, the mutant messiah, in a wasteland of a timeline literally blown to pieces by Bishop.  But X-Force has killed pretty much all except for their first target: Bastion, the robot-made-man-then-decapitated-and-later-made-cyborg-by-attaching-the-head-onto-a-Nimrod-sentinel-from-the-future. You know, one of those. And Cable has stranded Bishop in a future so distant that the sun is about to consume the Earth. It’s time for Hope to go back to the present and join the X-Men.

Now, that creative team. Well…it’s not the magic we had in Messiah Complex, nor is it the uniqueness we had in Messiah War. Kyle and Yost basically own this series. Pretty much every majorly important thing that happens in Second Coming happens in their issues.  Still, Mike Carey and Zeb Wells are both fantastic too. In fact, Zeb Well’s is surprisingly good as he was the one writer everyone expected to fall short. Unfortunately, it’s Matt Fraction’s writing that sticks out like an ugly chick in a swimsuit catalog. It’s not always bad, but it’s hard to believe that Fraction read a single issue of Cable or X-Force before writing Hope. When Wells, Kyle, Yost, and Carey are writing, the character is consistent. Yet Fraction writers her (and I’ve said this before) like a bipolar Pixie. His transitions are awful. At the end of the first act, Colossus is freaking out about Illyana being sent to limbo but shuts up when he sees Kurt’s dead body.  Fraction begins act two with Colossus smiling and suggesting a vampire movie to Kittie as she’s confined to her ghost chamber. What the hell? Everyone who was in the field are still standing around Kurt, he’s scared to death that his sister is dead too, and for some reason he takes the time to rent Twilight for his ghost girlfriend? And the thing is…that’ not even the only inconsistent part. Let’s move to the transition between act 2 and 3. In the end of Act 2, Beast gives an update of the wounded, including the fact that “Iceman has third degree energy burns over 25% of his body.” That sounds relative serious and a good reason why Iceman should be out of the game, right? Apparently not because we see Iceman without a scratch taking down a Nimrod with Psylocke and Fantomex. At this point, the other writers seem to have said “F it. Fraction ignored his injuries, we’ll use Iceman too.” What made Messiah Complex and Messiah War awesome was the proof that the writers were working together. In Second Coming we get four writers who do and one who ignores his peers. Having said that, the times Fraction is good, he’s really good. When Nightcrawler learns about X-Force in the second chapter was very well written as was the very last segment of the crossover, which we’ll get into later since it’s the end, but Fraction makes up for a lot of his bad writing there. Nightcrawler’s funeral…. not so much. But back to the writers who really brought their best to the plate. Carey is unsurprising. His last full issue of Cypher taking down the Nimrods is superb (in its writing…we’ll talk about art next). He writes every character perfectly. Even when he’s thrown a new one like Hope, it’s like he sat down, read every issue of Cable took a deep breath and said “yeah, I see what Swierczynksi’s doing with her. She’s not just young female Cable, but she is her father’s daughter nonetheless” and then wrote her. Prodigy describes Hope as the “voodoo doll for the whole mutant race.” Carey is basically the voodoo doll of every X-writer, and yet, like Hope, still has his own kind of power. Wells gives the best line of foreshadowing ever. When Hope and Dani are fighting, Dani says “I’m not the person you want to be putting your hands on.” The fact that Hope powering mutants by touch doesn’t happen until after Second Coming, and only for newly powered mutants, makes this line pretty awesome when returning to the crossover. But his best writing is in the first chapter of the last issue (confusing, I know) when he writers from Professor X’s point of view after Hope destroys Bastion and simply wants to curl up next to what is left of her father, and then when she wakes up and talks to Magneto for a little bit. We get the two seniors of the X-Men and both written so wonderfully. And Kyle and Yost? Well, seriously, their last X-Force issue when Hope comes into power is just fantastic, but it’s also their little beats along the way. For instance, at the end of act two, as Cyclops is about to send Cable and X-Force on a suicide mission. Wolverine blames Hope for what happened to Kurt,  but instead of telling Cable to hurry up and move out, he tells him to “get on with it.” “Get on with it” basically telling Cable to go to Hope, tell her he loves her, and goodbye. They (Cable and Wolverine) both know they’re going to die. Not even Wolverine can be callous towards a daughter about to lose her father, even if she doesn’t know it. And it prepares the reader. Why would Wolverine think it important to make sure Cable does this? Because a few pages later, Cyclops admits to having sent them all to die.

Onto art…sadly, the crossover falters a lot in this department. The only main artists that fit here are Ibraim Roberson and Mike Choi (all the “with” artists do no harm). And while Terry Dodson’s art isn’t bad in any way, it just doesn’t match the story. It’s jarring. His art would be great for a fun Spider-Man story, but for the story about the X-Men making their honest-to-god last stand? It’s just not serious enough. But at least Dodson’s art has quality. Because the fact they not only included Greg Land and his pornographic style, but paired him with one of the best writers of the series is just a sin. A comic book sin. His style doesn’t match, and his art is just bad. Every woman looks exactly the same. At one point it really looks like he just drew the same female boy twice but gave one a gun to indicate which was Hope and which was Rogue. And let’s not forget the most awful double page spread ever where he cuts out Hope’s legs but gracefully leaves her vagina. But we’ve heard every Greg Land complaint a thousand times before, so let’s just move on. You know who really should have been the artists here? Well, everyone from Messiah Complex would have worked, but instead, I would have loved to see Ariel Olivetti and Clayton Crain. Pairing them with Choi and Roberson would have given that “this is it” feeling to the entire story. And I really would have loved to see Olivetti’s Nimrods. That would have been awesome. Oh well.

X-Force/Cable: Messiah War – Review

Written by Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Duane Swierczynski, Art by Mike Choi, Sonia Oback, Ariel Olivetti, and Clayton Crain

So far, we’ve looked at Endangered Species (the tone-setter to the Messiah Trilogy), and Messiah Complex, the first actual part of the trilogy. This week we’ve got Messiah War, the often-criticized second installment. Being hailed as the sequel to one of the greatest X-Men stories that have ever been told might have set up expectations this much smaller crossover could never live up to. However, it does seem that recent feedback of Messiah War has been much more positive than when it was originally released. Yet even with more positive criticism, the biggest question remains: Is this story actually relevant to the Messiah Trilogy?

Absolutely.

The first question is always “what happens?” Maybe this is where Messiah War is lacking, because it can be summed up too easily. Bishop teams up with Stryfe to kill Cable and Hope. That’s kind of it. Of course, Bishop doesn’t tell Stryfe about Hope or how important she is—good or evil. To gain Stryfe’s allegiance, Bishop tracks down a weakened Apocalypse and helps Stryfe kill his father…or maker. Meanwhile, Cyclops is freaking out and has Beast make time machines for X-Force so that they can go the future, retrieve Cable, and bury Bishop six feet under. When X-Force arrive in the future, they find themselves trapped in a time net…thing. There seems to be a lot going on for a seven issue story, but the one criticism I do have on the series is that it’s about one issue too long. There’s a bit of padding early in the story, especially dealing with Deadpool.

Which brings us to the writers. This goes for all three—their writing in the second half of the crossover is much stronger than the first. The consistency that was so strong in Messiah Complex got off to a rough start in War (yet there will still be a worse example) as Swierczysnki didn’t seem to understand Kyle and Yost’s style, and vice versa. By the fourth chapter, however, they begin to move as one, and for the rest of the story, that unity of storytelling is much stronger. We also get into the heads of the characters a lot more than we did in Complex or we will in Second Coming. Our three scribes move between Cable, Bishop, Stryfe, Archangel, and finally Apocalypse (though only Kyle and Yost write from his point of view, sadly) in a way that doesn’t feel unnatural. What hurts the writing most, early on, was the need to recap the events of Messiah Complex and Cable for the reader. And Kyle and Yost, who wrote the first chapter, actually take a while to do this—again, stretching time. It makes sense that they would, considering that a lot of the readers coming on would be new ones wanting the sequel to Complex, but it was a bit much.

X-Men: Messiah Complex – Review

Writers: Ed Brubaker, Peter David, Craig Kyle, Christopher Yost, and Mike Carey

Pencilers: Mark Silvestri, Billy Tan, Scot Eaton, Humberto Ramos, and Chris Bachalo

There probably will be spoilers in this about the entire Messiah Trilogy. Thou hath been warned!

Last week I wrote about Endangered Species and how it set the tone for Messiah Trilogy and everything that follows. Now it’s time to get into the real meat of the Messiah Trilogy with the crossover event Messiah Complex.  Rereading this for probably the 100^th time, I can say this right off the bat—it still gets better with every read. Complex is simply one of the best stories to have come out in comics in years. Out of all the major events in the past ten years, I honestly hold Messiah Complex as the best. Does it have its faults? Of course. Every story no matter how well told will always have a few glitches, no matter how minor. But just looking at the entire Messiah saga, Complex has the strongest writing and the strongest art (Well, Messiah War has fantastic art, but it’s not exactly the same. Next week…next week). So before we get into the story and how it works in this trilogy as a whole—and the implications of some of the scenes/motifs—let’s look at this awesome creative team.

First off, did you see that list of writers? If that’s not a perfect group of writers, then I don’t know what is. Just going by these names, anyone who picks up this graphic novel should know that they’re in for a great read. Each writer is great—and more importantly, they’re consistent. Of course it’s important for a writer to stand out on their own, but in a crossover—especially one as big as Messiah Complex and the later Second Coming, consistency in style and tone is extremely important. It may be five writers, but the story should read one. The reader should not notice a change in writers, and the fact that Brubaker and company were able to do this not only proves how talented they are, but also show their ability to work with other great writers—knowing when to pick up traits or possibly give suggestions—and create a great story as one. In one of the two sequels to Messiah Complex, we’ll definitely see instances of one writer not wanting to play with the others because the abrupt shifts in characterization and tone scream at the reader (I’ll keep you guessing for now, but I’m sure most of you know which story I’m talking about).  I am all for individuality, and if you read all these writers’ respective books, you can get that. But seeing so many talented people working together is one of the biggest treats of the book.

X-Men: Endangered Species – Review

Written by Mike Carey, Christopher Yost, and Christos Gage

Penciled by Scot Eaton, Mark Bagely, Mike Perkins, Tom Grummett, and Andrea Divito

For the next four weeks, I’m going to give a closer look at the Messiah Trilogy that has consumed the X-Verse for the last three years. I know what you’re thinking: if it’s a trilogy, why are there going to be four posts? That doesn’t add up. Well, no, it might not, but there is a fourth story that I believe is crucial to the experience of these X-Men events. That Story is Endangered Species. It’s a depressing piece, filled with crushed hope and doomed times. All in all, it’s perfect.

The event that truly started all of this was House of M, written by Brian Michael Bendis. It’s a shame, really, because House of M changed so much of the X-Verse and nothing at all in the Avengers world, yet an the Avenger writer wrote the story that would alter the course of X-Men stories forever—or at least for a decade or more. House of M was a horribly written story that made very little sense with repercussions that didn’t add up (and this is coming from a Bendis fan). The Scarlet Witch casts a spell for “no more mutants.” Except most of the X-Men and their key villains keep their powers. Oh, and what was supposed to be 198 mutants left is clearly wrong as “undiscovered” mutants pop up everywhere. However, what the X-writers have done with the concept of an endangered species has been incredible—and future stories are very promising. These writers have carefully crafted a story (I will prove it to you) that has been developing since House of M and is still going on. The Avenger side of the Marvel Universe claim that the story of Siege was building for 10 years or so, but let’s be honest, it was from Civil War on.  The X-Men are on their 5^th year of being endangered.

Green Hornet Vol 1: Sins of the Father (Hardcover)

Scripts by Kevin Smith; Breakdowns by Phil Hester;  art by Jonathan Lau, colors by Ivan Nunes; and covers by Alex Ross.

Once upon a time, Kevin Smith was going to make a Green Hornet movie. That’s right. The man who brought you Cop Out and Jersey Girl was going to bring new life to a classic character. But that never happened. He wrote the script and, according to his introduction, freaked the frig out and didn’t think he had the chops to direct it. Ages went by and the script hibernated until it became useless and forgotten and Michael Gondry and Seth Rogen went on to make their own Green Hornet that looks like it might be fun, but let’s not get our hopes up. So what was to become of Kevin Smith’s script? Well, here it is. Converted into comics and now being released by Dynamite.

Sins of the Father picks up the Green Hornet 20 years after he’s retired. His son is a tabloid whore and he is one of the most powerful people in century city… Until he gets murdered. Now the son must take up his father’s mantle. Um… Isn’t that what the new movie’s about? Nevermind, that’s another post for another time. It’s a fun story, and Smith’s natural ability to sell a character really shines through. It’s a shame this was never turned into a film because I’m sure the new Kato would have been really hot in the Chauffer outfit.

Siege (Hardcover)-Review

Written by Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils by Oliver Coipel, Michael Lark, Jim Chueng, with art by Lucio Parillo, and colors by Laura Martin, John Rauch, Matt Holligsworth, and inks by Mark Morales and Stefano Gaudiano.

If you haven’t read this yet, there may be spoilers, but if you’ve been reading Marvel, all of this is known already.

Siege may go down in comic history as Marvel’s last big event before everything became an event. At only four issues, it’s hard to imagine that this series is supposed to conclude ten years of Avengers stories, but it does conclude a good three or four, at least from Civil War on. Not only that, but it unites the solo stories of Thor, Captain America, and Iron Man in a way that actually makes a lot of sense. Siege wouldn’t have worked without all three of them, and on a story level, they needed each other to finally defeat Norman Osborn and put down the Sentry.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Siege is the final battle of Osborne’s Dark Reign. Loki manipulates him into attacking Asgard, which forces Steve Rogers, Iron Man, and Thor to work together for the first time in years. It’s an event designed to do one thing: show why these three Avengers are so important to the superhero community. You can throw anyone you want onto an Avenger team, but when Cap (any Cap, it seems), Iron Man, and Thor are united as one? Well, shit gets done. If this event did anything, it rekindled the magic of superheroes. Civil War, Secret Invasion, and Dark Reign was such a, well, dark time for Marvel that seeing these three heroes come together was an amazing effect. People might not like Bendis, but he’s crafted the tone of the Marvel Universe perfectly over the years to make “the big three” coming together really mean something.

And while we’re on it, let’s talk about Bendis. Most people hate to admit it, but he is one of the best superhero writers out right now. He knows how to craft a story—but that doesn’t mean he always knows how to tell it. Avengers Disassembled was a good concept but poorly executed. House of M was an improvement, but the last couple of issues faltered too much. Secret Invasion was close to being really great, but it was too long and that last issue fell really flat even if the outcome was cool. So how does he do with Siege? Near perfectly, actually. It’s always the end issue that has fans going “okay, now Bendis is going to drop the ball.” But he doesn’t. Every issue is actually really well told, with important things happening. Maybe it’s the shortness of the series that did this—Bendis didn’t have time to drop the ball. That’s not to say Siege is perfect, but out of all of his events, Siege is the best written.

So, why isn’t it perfect? Well, there are a few things missing that might mean four issues were too short. It was a big event, but it could have been bigger. One issue of pure battle (like issue 7 of Secret Invasion) would have served it well. Also, and I know I might be chastised for saying this, the X-Men needed to be involved. Before you decide to hate me, hear me out. The semi-big event before Siege that Marvel made such a big deal about was Utopia, which pitted the Dark Avengers against the X-Men and finished with Cyclops starting his own island nation for mutant. Marvel kept saying and are still saying that the X-Men would be much more integrated with the rest of the Marvel Universe. So, when Captain America is leading the Avengers to Asgard, where are the X-Men? We get one panel of Wolverine and Cyclops watching the news, but I highly doubt that if they saw Cap leading the charge and they were in need of help—say, when the Hood’s army of super villains arrives—he would have stayed home. The Avengers may have appeared in Second Coming (not doing too much), but if Marvel really wanted to unite their universe, Siege was the place to do it. Cap, Iron Man, and Thor could have still saved the day; I’m not saying the X-Men should have done that, but they should have had much more of a presence considering that Osborne is trying to do to the Asgardians what he has already done to the mutants—drive them out.

Avengers/Invaders (TPB) – Revuew

Plot by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger, Written by Jim Krueger, Penciled by Steve Sadowki, Patrick Berkenkotter, Alex Ross, and Jack Herbert

We’ve all gotten those miniseries or events that have just too many issues and there’s easily one or even two issues that didn’t even need to be there. Avengers/Invaders is not one of those series. There is just a ton of stuff happening in this graphic novel that if anything, there’s so much going that there’s no room to breathe.

So what is Avengers/Invaders about? A lot. It starts with the American people so distraught over Cap’s death (this is after Civil War, before Secret Invasion) that their psyches, channeling though the villain D’Spayre, manipulate the cosmic cube and pull Captain America, along with Namor, Bucky, the Human Torch, Toro, and some poor soldier named Pau Anselm, out of World War Two and into present day. Their arrival is frickin’ amazing. They land right in New York interfering with a fight between Spider-Man and the Thunderbolts and the Invaders tear the Thunderbolts apart. Krueger’s script isn’t exactly cinematic, because if as much happened in these twelve chapters (and they do call them chapters) happened in a movie, I think the cast, crew, and director would commit mass suicide. It’s more like season for Lost, when they had to shorten the season due to the writer’s strike, so shit happened every single episode (except for that one crappy Juliet episode). In fact, Avengers/Invaders is much like Lost but with superheroes and you get answers at the end. The Invaders are stranded in our time, and then someone tries to change the past, screwing up even more than they fixed. But where it is most like Lost is in the character interaction. This series has a huge cast. The New Avengers (Dr. Strange, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ronin, and Echo), Mighty Avengers (Iron Man, Black Widow, Spider-Woman, Ares, Sentry, Ms. Marvel, Wasp, and Wonder Man), and the Invaders (the ones listed before as well as Union Jack and Spitfire) are all represented and each member of the team truly get at least one moment to shine, one of my favorites being when Echo takes down D’Spayre. D’Spayre’s power is based on manipulating his opponent’s fear by basically telling them everything they don’t want to hear. As it turns out, Echo can’t hear anything and just walks up to him and punches him in the dick. Okay, so maybe it doesn’t quite happen like that, but you get the idea. Sure, some characters get a little more love than others, but none of them get robbed in any way. The only part of the story that I thought could be scaled back a little was the Life Model Decoy attack on the Avengers. I’d go more into why and who was behind it but, though it’s kind of obvious who it is, I don’t want to spoil it.

To Afghanistan And Back (Updated Edition)

by Ted Rall

Some graphic novels are so far beyond the genre that it’s hard to classify them as graphic novel to people. Works like Persepolis, Maus, The Alcoholic, and Fun Home are graphic novels in every definable way, but they’re more memoir than novel, of course. It’s these kinds of graphic novels, however, that attract academia. Let’s be honest—graphic novel courses would have never been aloud if we didn’t have Maus to “legitimize” the genre. Well, now there’s a newcomer to this seemingly elite category: To Afghanistan and Back by Ted Rall. In fact, Afghanistan sets itself in even another category altogether by calling itself a “graphic travelogue.” It’s a journalistic graphic novel, aiming for the heights of going legit like the others mentioned before. There’s just one little problem. It’s not a graphic novel. It’s not a graphic travelogue. It’s good, but it’s just not what it sells itself to be.

I got this graphic novel in the mail, a review copy, all excited to read something new and different (not that I don’t love everything else). As well, I wanted to read about this journalist’s experience because not only am I pitching a novel dealing with Afghanistan, but also because my brother had served there for quite a long time. So I open to the first page, read Bill Maher’s introduction, followed by Ted Rall’s prologue, and then prose chapters. I have no problem reading prose. In fact, despite that I work so much with graphic novel, most of what I read is still prose. But when I’m sold a “graphic travelogue,” I want a graphic travelogue. Whatever, I can deal with 35 pages of memoir before the graphic novel actually begins.  And Ted Rall’s prose is actually pretty good. It’s engaging even if you disagree with his position (but really, is anyone going around talking about what a swell guy Bush was?). If I was ever tempted to be a war time journalist, Rall helped me realize how crazy I’d have to be. Describing their situation, Rall says “the [Northern] Alliance [turned] us into targets by [forcing] us into caravans of rented vehicles containing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, traveling across remote dustscapes, with no more control on human behavior than the estimated five million mines planted among the spindly trees alongside the road.” Yeah, probably not the best place to be…okay, I’m still intrigued by the idea, but will probably never do it.

So now the 35 pages of prose are over and the actual graphic travelogue begins. And it’s good. He develops even further. His artwork is in the accepted style of graphic memoir, with very little definition (remember what McCloud said in Understanding Comics: the less defined the character’s face, the more we the reader can identify with him/her) and drawn somewhere between Art Speigelman’s and Marjane Satrapi’s style. This style works really for Ted Rall. Like the other two, there’s something about the very cartoony style juxtaposed with the seriousness of the content that just drives the seriousness home. There are scenes of journalist being sent home in boxes that have such a haunting effect that wouldn’t have existed if this was drawn by a big time artist. But it feels like once it begins, the graphic travelogue is over and we’re brought back into prose-town.

Haunt Vol. 1 – Review

by Robert Kirkman (writer), Ryan Ottley (Pencils)

You know what’s cool? Robert Kirkman. You know what’s not cool? Taking two characters you’ve created, mashing them together, and calling it “new.” You know what’s just ugly? Not even doing the pencils on the new thing you’ve “created” but claiming top billing anyway. In other words, F-You Todd McFarlane.  Just pony up and suck the blue cock of doom you has been. Because Haunt could have really been something awesome if it weren’t for the fact that it’s a blatant mash-up of Spawn and Venom. And you know what? Since it basically is Venom, it could have made a really good Marvel Knights or Max series. Venom binds to a wayward priest seeking to avenge his brother? This entire plot could have been done with the symbiote— you know, since it already was.

So before I go all Lewis Black on this, I think it’s best for everyone if I pull back a little bit and break this down ignoring Spenom, or Vawn—however you want it. I find myself really liking this despite how angry the superpower concept makes me. A big reason—and maybe the only reason—why this is still enjoyable is Robert Kirkman’s story. The Venom aspect really didn’t interfere with the story. In fact, it proves even further that there was room for something actually new instead of the same symbiotic goo suit we’ve already seen.  Haunt, above anything else, is about two estranged brothers forced to reconcile and violently impale wrongdoers as they do. There’s Daniel and Kurt. Daniel is a priest who hates his life and sleeps with the same prostitute three times a week like clockwork. In fact, the first panel is the prostitute he frequents. Kurt is the saint of the two. Loving husband and special agent who saves his victims and brings justice to the people who do great evil. He’s Captain America holding a baby running through a minefield. And halfway through the first issue, he’s dead. But his soul becomes tethered to Daniel, his brother, and we begin to learn about their relationship. Kurt stole Daniel’s girl and then married her. Not a very brotherly thing to do. Oh, and about Kurt being a saint…well, turns out that he cheated on his wife—the girl of Daniel’s heart—numerous times and was going to scam the government and run away with some broad. Kirkman’s character play is amazing. He seesaws the likability of his character John McCain does with his principles. The more you read the more you’re just not sure what to make of Kurt or Daniel. At first Daniel is a punk, but by the end he’s got much more of a soul than Kurt—after all, Daniel must have decided to become a priest for a reason. Truly, forgetting the Vawn issue, this is an incredible story.