Soldier Zero #3 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Sergio Arino (art), Archie Van Buren (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Bryce Carlson (editor)

The Story: Our protagonist comes into contact with a very smelly bad guy!

What’s Good: This continues to be a pretty good comic good.  It isn’t anything awesome that will change your life, but if you’re looking for a good, well-written comic in the sci-fi/superhero genre that will (probably) never require you to buy other titles as part of a company-wide crossover event, you might be pretty happy with it.  In fact, this is probably the type of comic that I’d suggest to new readers because it is self-contained and it represents comics very well.

The basic story is interesting: paraplegic Marine Capt. Stewart Trautman has bonded with a sentient and symbiotic alien suit of armor that fell to Earth.  Stewart has only caught a glimpse of what galactic events led to that suit being on Earth, but he has learned that others of these alien symbiotes are on Earth…and not all of them are friendly.  For some reason, this comic continues to give me a ROM Spaceknight vibe (which is a good thing).

In this issue I especially enjoyed the depiction of the other alien as we learned that policeman the alien has boded with is actually dead.  So, the symbiote is actually piloting a corpse around and that means that things are going to get smelly and fly-infested and that he has to do things to repair the corpse since it doesn’t heal itself.  Neat-o!

The art continues to be pretty standard fare at Boom!  There is nothing too adventurous in terms of style.  If you showed this to someone who hadn’t read comics in decades (or ever), they would agree that this is what a comic book looks like.  All of the anatomy is correct and there are no technical mistakes.  All of the storytelling works.  That may sound like I’m handing out a backhanded compliment, but I’m not.  It is incredible how many artists screw up basic stuff.

Soldier Zero #2 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (writer), Javier Pina & Sergio Arino (art), Archie Van Buren (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Bryce Carlson (editor)

The Story: We learn a LOT more about “Soldier Zero”, why he is here, how he works, etc.

What’s Good: The first issue of Soldier Zero was not so hot.  It spent a lot of time mewling over the central character and establishing that he was a Marine officer in a wheelchair, but he didn’t need any kind of special help…dammit!  It was okay character work, but we didn’t really see Soldier Zero until the very end.  With that lead in, I was surprised to see that….

This issue really kinda kicks ass!  We learn that this Soldier Zero thing that has come to Earth and bonded with our main character is a combination of Iron Man’s Extremis armor suit and the Trills from the Star Trek universe (or Venom, I guess).  [SPOILERS]  The suit is an alien symbiote, whose original host died during the space battle that was shown, but not explained, in issue #1.  The suit needed to grab someone just to stay alive and it settled for our main character.  The Iron Man thing comes in with how the suit manifests as it just kinda appears and can cover only certain parts of the body if need be, but it is not something that you put on like a pair of pants.

Why is the alien here?  Well, the mission is very interesting as well: It seems to be a modernization of ROM Spaceknight, one of my favorite comics of the early 1980’s.  Somehow Earth has been infiltrated by evil aliens that can assume human shape.  The Soldier Zero construct has fought against them in the past and can see them, but it is probably going to look like he is murdering innocent humans when he zaps them (just like ROM) and he won’t be able to get help from the authorities because he doesn’t know how pervasive the evil aliens are (just like ROM).

While it does seem to be an amalgam of story elements that we’ve seen before, it works for two reasons: One, ROM is so screwed up from an intellectual property standpoint that Marvel will never be able to do that character or even reprint the original comics.  So I’m happy to see someone continuing a ROM-like adventure.  Two, the story is well written and illustrated.  Story concepts are pretty easy, but writing and drawing them in an engaging fashion is hard and the creative team pulled it off (which was an especially difficult challenge given that I really didn’t like issue #1 very much).

Ms. Marvel #43 (War of the Marvels) – Review

By Brian Reed (Writer), Sergio Arino (Art), and Ikari Studios (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: The War of the Marvels has gotten off to a pretty good start. As long as things don’t get too convoluted (as has happened with a Ms. Marvel story or two in the past), the War could go down as one of the better arcs of the series.

The Story: Norman Osborn tries to figure out who keeps attacking his secret Goblin weapon caches. Spider-Man tries to figure out what’s up with the no longer deceased Ms. Marvel. Meanwhile, a woman named Catherine Donovan tries to make sense of her recent thoughts…

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: One of the best things about the latest chapter in the War of the Marvels is that it’s clear that Brian Reed is building toward, well, something. While a lot of the plot elements are a bit vague at this point and things seem to be moving rather slowly, there’s a general…weirdness…to the storyline that, surprisingly, works in it’s favor. By the time I had finished reading Ms. Marvel #43, my head was swirling with questions: What’s the deal with Ms. Marvel’s ‘tude? What’s the deal with Catherine Donovan? Is Reed’s story eventually going to make sense?

In short, Brian Reed’s dialogue and storytelling choices have me hooked. Am I entirely optimistic about the story because of that? Well, no. The “Ascension” arc left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth because it got too convoluted for its own good, and simply put, I worry that the War of the Marvels will do the same.

Sergio Arino’s artwork in Ms. Marvel #43 is pretty slick. It looks significantly better than the artwork done for Ms. Marvel #41, so much so that I can say that nearly every complaint I had has been addressed in some way. The unique color work by Ikari Studios, while occasionally a bit overpowering, is far more complimentary than the work done by Emily Warren and Christina Strain. In addition, Ms. Marvel is drawn much more consistently. My only real complaint about the artwork is that Arino’s characters tend to have a pose-heavy stiffness about them that is noticeable in a number of panels.

Conclusion: It’s a bit too early to say whether Ms. Marvel readers will be the winners after The War of the Marvels is over. It could go either way at this point and Ms. Marvel #43 does little to make me think otherwise.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Ms. Marvel #41 (Dark Reign) – Review

By Brian Reed (Writer), Sergio Ariño (Artist), and Emily Warren w/Christina Strain (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: Yeah, it’s weird… But I’m digging the current Ms. Marvel arc quite a bit. A deceitful, morally shady “hero” that’s standing in for the real hero? Storyteller jar babies? Colorful cosmic looking entities that may or may not be parts of a “dead” hero?! That’s good stuff people!

The Story: Everyone (as in Deadpool, Ms. Marvel, the New Avengers, and the multi-colored cosmic entities) wants to get to the M.O.D.O.K./Storyteller babies.

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: Frantic, funny, clever, and full of action, Ms. Marvel #41 delivers in ways that matter most as the series heads into the War of the Marvels arc. Brian Reed, who has been setting up the pieces and building momentum for the return of Carol Danvers, brings everything to a head in a way that makes great use of nearly every aspect of the story he’s been weaving. If I have any complaint about the way Ms. Marvel #41 plays out, it’s because Deadpool’s appearance feels rather tacked on and somewhat unnecessary. The Merc, as expected, has some entertaining lines, but there just isn’t a whole lot for the character to do.

The artwork in the latest issue of Ms. Marvel is something of a mixed bag. While the vibrant, striking color work by Emily Warren and Christina Strain compliments Sergio Ariño’s work well, it tends to overpower what Ariño does from time to time. Also, Ariño seems to have a bit of trouble with Ms. Marvel, as she looks inconsistent or awkward at times. Thankfully though, Ms. Marvel is really the only character I have any complaint about. Ariño’s Spider-Man looks great and his Wolverine looks impressive as well.

Conclusion: It’s always nice to see a series gain and maintain positive momentum heading into a major arc. Bring on the War of the Marvels!

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny