Namor: The First Mutant #1 – Review

By Stuart Moore (writer), Ariel Olivetti (artist)

The Story: As the assembled tribes of a now unified vampire nation descend upon the island haven of Utopia, Namor volunteers to embark on a suicide mission to retrieve the severed head of the one vampire capable of saving the mutant species: Dracula.

The Good: In the spirit of total disclosure, I’ll get this out of the way right now: I’m an avowed Namor fan. Not so much when he’s pining over Sue Storm, but definitely when he’s the cocky, assured, audacious bastard that I found him to be in this issue. From the moment he derides Oudvrou for being weak for losing an eye in her escape from the Aqueos to his dispatching of a vampire squid (oh yeah, you read that correctly), Namor is at all times portrayed by Moore as a man so convinced of his own moral and physical superiority over his worlds on land and in the sea that his dominion over them would be all but assured if not for inconveniences like this vampire insurgency. Characters like Namor, Dr. Doom, Mr. Fantastic, and Magneto aren’t heroes as villains as much as they are men who are utterly certain that their way of looking at the world is the Right Way, and it’s the rest of us who ought to fall into line. I know that’s an incredibly atypical morality for a hero like Namor to possess, but damn it all if it doesn’t make for some entertaining reading. My feeling on this character has always been that the more of an arrogant, yet noble prick Namor can be, the more fun he is to read, and from what I’ve seen in this issue Moore seems ready to take him down that path, and this pleases me. I also liked how Moore began to develop Namor’s undersea world as a fully realized culture, unique unto itself. In the same way that the recent, and incredibly cool, “Death of Dracula” one shot firmly established the vampire nation in the Marvel Universe, I think Moore has the creative chops to achieve the same outcome for Marvel’s ocean denizens. I didn’t see as much of that world-building in this issue as I would have liked, but I’m willing to let that play out over successive issues provided Moore can pull me deeper into Namor’s world. I’ve always thought it strange how an environment that covers seventy-five percent of the world Marvel comics take place in has never been nearly as fascinating or dynamic a place as, say, New York seems to be, and I hope Moore and Olivetti can change that perception and making the Marvel’s a haunting, adventurous new setting in this world.

Cloak and Dagger #1 – Review

by Stuart Moore (story), Mark Brooks (pencils, Walden Wong (inks), Emily Warren (colors) and Dave Sharpe (letters)

The Story: After the events of Dark X-Men, Cloak and Dagger must decide if they belong on Utopia with the X-Men.

What’s Good: We’ve been teased for about 25 years by the duo of Cloak and Dagger.  They were created in the 1980’s as super-powered heroes in the war on drugs, but it was never made clear if they were mutants or not.  They have failed (commercially) in a few attempts to give them their own ongoing series over the years, but had increased visibility over the last year as members of the Dark X-Men.  In this issue we do definitively learn that they are not mutants.  I liked the way this revelation was handled because it showed that even among the mutants, Cloak and Dagger just don’t really fit in.  They are kind of “other”.

I was also pleased for editorial reasons that C&D are not going to become X-Men.  The mutant roster is already so full that A-listers like Nightcrawler aren’t getting much to do. Two other cute story moments: Dr. Nemesis kicking butt while sneering at the bad guys’ technology, and Cloak suspecting Dagger of having an affair with the homosexual Anole (esp. Anole’s reaction).

As for the art, it is mostly a positive in this issue.  It’s a very bright and pretty book and I think Brooks nails the X-Men.  The cover is also really nice (if you care about that sort of thing).

Iron Man: Director of SHIELD #31 – Review

By Stuart Moore (Writer), Carlo Pagulayan & Steve Kurth (Pencilers), and Jeffrey Huet & Andrew Hennessy (Inkers), Dean White (Colors)

Why isn’t this book better? Invincible Iron Man is good. Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas seems good, so far. So why is Iron Man: Director of SHIELD so… soulless?

For the past two years, this book has been plagued by missteps, from scenes of questionable taste (the flying intestines of issues 17 and 18 ) and the unnecessary deaths of Happy and Sal, to out-of-character dialogue (Sue Storm berating Tony for not killing Happy) and plotlines that were simply incomprehensible and/or interminable (I swear I thought the Mandarin story was over two issues before it ended). There’s plenty of action, but no actually stories.

This issue is more of the same. Nasim Rahimov, a former associate of Tony’s, has hijacked his technology, made it nuclear, and is planning to… destroy the world or something. Also, SHIELD weapons guru Nicolas Weir has fused with the Overkill Horn and become a giant, floating, mechanical brain that plans to… destroy the world or something. And Paladin has disabled Iron Man’s armor, but Tony uses Extremis to get himself out of trouble. Again.

The problem is that none of this is original, and we’re given no reason to care about any of it. There isn’t a single compelling or insightful line of dialogue. The characters have no depth or complexity. There’s no sense that the story is headed anywhere other than toward more violence.  And it doesn’t help that the art is, well, ugly.

I’m going to keep buying the book despite its considerable flaws, I suppose, since Iron Man is such an important part of the Marvel Universe right now, and plenty of other readers probably will too. Maybe that’s why the book is so bad. Because they know it can be. (Grade: D)

– Andrew C. Murphy

Iron Man #29 – Review

Stuart Moore (writer), Roberto de la Torre & Carlos Pagulayan (pencils), Roberto de la Torre & Jeffrey Huet (inkers), Dean White colorist

If you haven’t been reading Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. then here’s a good issue to start. With the Mandarin story concluded, this issue presents the start of an intriguing four part arc. The story gives us international intrigue with Iron Man and his armored alpha team descending into the Eastern European Republic of Kirikhstan in search of nuclear bombs planted by terrorists. S.H.I.E.L.D. is in the former Soviet Republic at the request of the Russians – an interesting twist given Iron Man’s early and long history as an arch nemesis of the Russians in their Communist days. Meanwhile, back at the Pentagon a S.H.I.E.L.D. special weapons facility is infiltrated by a rogue agent and that’s never a good thing. One may argue that this is accomplished too easily, but hey, these things happen in comics. Both story threads provide beguiling technology, nukes that don’t behave like ordinary nukes, and a nano technology assembler for our hero to contend with.

This issue could have easily been subtitled “a blast from the past” for its frequent references to Tony and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s past. Tony reminisces about former love interest Bethany McCabe while musing more than once that nothing could ever scratch that dry itch at the back of his throat like a cold drink. Are we being set up for a relapse on Tony’s part? Perhaps a slow descent back into the bottle that could coincide with the next movie release? Or are these references just some throw-away lines to enliven the story? The leader of the terrorist cell in Eastern Europe is a man from Tony’s past for whom he feels responsible for, while the Pentagon infiltrator is a man with a history at S.H.I.E.L.D. I’m not sure if either of these characters is an established figure or a newly created one for this story line – either way, these two should provide ample opportunity to enrich the back story of both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Tony Stark.

In addition to a solid story with plenty of potential, the artwork here is first rate. Even though there are two artists and inkers credited there is no point in the story where we find a jarring break in style; the artistic team provides a stylistic consistency throughout. A great example of this is a suspenseful scene in which Tony defuses a bomb. It’s taut with suspense, rich in technological detail, and sure to be a highlight of the book.

And now for a pet peeve: I miss footnotes, seriously. The special weapon in the infiltration subplot is a classic from Marvel’s glorious past and an old school reader will recognize it as such. I used to love this sort of stuff as a kid – when Roy Thomas brought back the Skrulls from FF #2 and started the Kree-Skrull war in the early 70’s. A new reader, however, likely won’t realize that the object in question has a past that they might want seek out and read about. This is where the foot note comes in handy. It’s an essential element that serves to keep the reader informed about the continuity of the characters and events. I’ve noticed other recent issues such as the current Captain America series in which I’ve felt the footnotes would be useful yet were nowhere to be found.

Gripes aside, I really enjoyed this issue. I think it has a lot going for it and I look forward to reading the rest of this arc. Highly recommended. (Grade A-)

– Arthur Cooke