Captain Marvel #14 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (story), Scott Hepburn & Gerardo Sandoval (art), Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: Yon-Rogg tries to make a metropolis sandwich—with his mind.

The Review: As we wind down on the biggest and most important arc on this series thus far, it’s become increasingly clear that Captain Marvel launched without much more of a goal than to boost the titular heroine’s profile in the Marvel U.  There’s no denying she deserves it—needs it, even.  But it takes more than an ongoing series to bolster a character’s popularity.  It takes a cohesive vision from the creators and a total love and understanding of their star.

I’m not sure we’ve really gotten that from this title, if both its steadily declining sales and shortage of critical acclaim say anything.  After ten issues, you can’t say that you’ve grown more attached to Carol, nor do you have a much better handle on what makes her tick than before.  DeConnick has established her as strong-minded, compassionate, occasionally snarky—but how does that set her apart from all other Marvel women?  Sadly, you find her second banana, the wisecracking, compulsive eater Spider-Woman, more compelling than Carol herself.

Captain Marvel #13 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (story), Scott Hepburn & Gerardo Sandoval (art), Jordie Bellaire & Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: That awkward moment when you realize your foe has been spying on you all along.

The Review: You may recall in my review of Avengers: The Enemy Within #1 the thinly veiled irritation I had over DeConnick pointlessly continuing her Captain Marvel storyline in another title altogether.  For an issue that had Avengers in its name, it really had little to do with the Avengers, and for anyone who wasn’t somewhat intimate with the plot already, much of its significance would have been lost.  So yeah, I wasn’t particularly impressed by the issue.

I was even less so when I came in to buy my comics for the week and discovered, upon opening this latest installment of Captain Marvel, that I was reading the third chapter of the “Enemy Within” storyline, not the second.  When I flipped to Enemy Within #1 again, I was nonplussed to find on its final page an announcement that the storyline would continue in Avengers Assemble #16.*  My running thought was, Really?  Has the situation gotten so out of hand that it’s not an Avengers problem and not just a big Carol problem?

Age of Ultron #2 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (Writer), Bryan Hitch (Penciler), Paul Neary (Inkers), Paul Mounts(Colorist), VC’s Cory Petit (Letterer)

The Review:  This’ll be a short review. Not because I’ve suddenly gained the ability to limit myself to sub-1000 word articles (I don’t think I’ll ever break that irksome habit), but rather because thanks to a dose of plot decompression there’s not much to add here that hasn’t already been covered in my review of Age of Ultron #1.

The same sense of despair, after all, is persistent. Even on the other side of America (this issue takes place in San Francisco) the outlook’s bleak. Ultron-Bots continue to ‘pacify’ the population while Black Widow scrambles over piles of dead bodies and Moon Knight snipes at violent looters from atop blown-out buildings. The two heroes were apparently caught off-guard by Ultron’s uprising while in the middle of a black-ops mission and are seen working together to locate a secure rallying point (a classic Fury hideout) and from there plan some payback.

Avengers #1 Review

By: Jonathan Hickman (Writer), Jerome Opeña (Artist), Dean White (Color Artist), Cory Petit (Letterer)

The Review: It’s fitting that for a first issue Avengers #1 should be so obsessed with new beginnings – a new team, new enemies, a new philosophy. When you’re tasked with relaunching one of comics’ highest profile titles, one that’s been guided by the same authorial voice for the best part of a decade, what alternative do you have but to tear down the old walls and build the castle anew? Even more puzzling, how do you even start such a comic book? If you’re Jonathan Hickman you open with the Big Bang and work your way outwards from there: “There was nothing. Followed by everything.” Stick that in your pipe and smoke it, haters.

And haters there may well be, as all signs point to Hickman getting ready to spill our toys on the carpet and personally stomp all over ‘em. And I do mean the ‘personally’ part. In FF #23 (the final issue of a brilliant series) I felt it was inferred that Hickman was issuing his farewells to the cast and audience of the book through the guise of the grown-up, time-travelling Franklin Richards, a character who could easily be adapted to be the author’s mouthpiece. If Hickman is represented by any individual in Avengers #1 I think it’s probably the strange and seemingly all-powerful Ex Nihilo – a new enemy launching attacks against the Earth from his base on Mars – who makes his mark by being the catalyst that forces the Avengers to fight smarter and “get bigger.”

The Avengers – Movie Review

The Story: When these guys show up, it’s your signal to stock up on disaster insurance.

The Review: Don’t take this as a sweeping statement of superhero movies, but I tend to think they work best when they’re just straight-up action-adventure vehicles.  Just give people what they want: plenty of thrills and laughs, a solid plot, and you won’t need to mix in any dramatic nonsense or political statement in between.  That latter stuff would be nice—an exciting movie with some relevance is always a good thing, but sometimes all you really need is the excitement.

With that in mind, The Avengers easily takes a position as one of the best in what has been a Golden Age for superhero films.  The prologue alone has enough explosions, gunfire, car chasing, martial artistry, crumbling rubble, and suspense to fill several Daredevils, and the movie only builds in scale right to its very last second, proving that more really is sometimes more, and that you can never go too big or too splashy if you know how to do it right.

Captain America: The First Avenger – Movie Review

Brief Personal Note: While I do teach, I also worked for five years at Borders Books and this midnight screening of Cap was also on the last day that Borders operated as an actual bookstore before going into liquidation today. So, it was kind of the last thing my coworkers and I will do as coworkers. And if you go to a closing Borders to scavenge for graphic novels, remember that all the workers there are essentially fired already and most of them don’t have other jobs to go to.

On with the review…

Two Iron Man movies. One Incredible Hulk. One Thor. And now Captain America, Marvel’s fifth movie by their own studio, and the last piece of the puzzle before Avengers next summer. And with five movies, they have shown something remarkable—they really know how to make good movies. None of them are perfect, but all of them are at least very enjoyable (some might disagree on Incredible Hulk, but at least that one didn’t have Hulked-out poodles. You really can’t get worse than a Hulked-out poodle). Really, Captain America: The First Avenger was their last chance to really screw up the Avengers, but luckily, that didn’t happen. In fact, The Avengers didn’t even feel like it was a real movie that would be coming out until the credits began to roll on Cap (and the end credit surprise just sealed the deal). But as great of a stepping-stone as it is, it certainly isn’t a perfect movie.

One thing that did work well was the story—it had a much more defined narrative than all of the other Marvel films so far. Sure, it’s an origin story, but one with more depth than Thor—Cap and Peggy Carter actually have time to develop their bond as opposed to Thor and Jane Foster’s one night on the roof. Well…I suppose we don’t really know what happened on that roof.) and more heart than Iron Man (Rogers wants to do good because he’s a good man…Stark wants to do good because he built weapons of mass destruction. There’s something about Rogers’s nobility that strikes a chord). As far as story-telling, the script was pretty solid with just one or two minor annoyances. When developing the shield, Cap picks one from under a table that Howard Stark designed as a prototype and was seemingly going to throw away in favor of something more…Iron Man-esque. Yet when Cap asks what it’s made of, Stark says it’s an extremely rare metal called Vibranium and that the shield he was moments ago calling a prototype was most of the Vibranium in the world. So…why on earth would you take this remarkable metal and use it to make a prototype you don’t even care about? It might be a small problem, but man did it bother me. And Bucky…first, there wasn’t enough of him, and while I won’t spoil it, I will say that I wasn’t a fan of the changes to his story. Sort of a “if it wasn’t broke, why’d you fix it” thing.

However, a good script in the hands of a terrible cast and director can’t turn into a good movie. When I heard that Joe Johnston was going to direct it, I cringed a little, but held faith. I mean, Wolfman? Jurassic Park 3? I mean, Rocketeer and some of his others were good, but his bad films were really bad. Yet Marvel did put a lot of faith into Jon Favreau for Iron Man, so it seems they know what they’re doing. And Johnston does a great job with Captain America. First, you can tell that he has a lot of respect for not only the comic, but the period the story takes place, and films that harken to that period. There is a Raiders of the Lost Ark kind of feel to it (Hopefully a sequel won’t have a Kingdom of the Crystal Skull feel) that makes it a lot of fun, but also lets it stay grounded. Thor was a lot of fun, but it was about a god. Grounded isn’t really a possibility. The only thing I wish Johnston focused more on was Cap’s use of the shield. There was definitely some great shield action, but he was mostly a slugger. I wanted to see more of that shield-mastery he’s so known for. And the pacing of the movie was a bit off.  Either the second act was too short or the third act too long, but midway through the movie it starts to feel a bit slow even with the awesome action, and then randomly picks up again.

This is also a very well-casted movie. Stanley Tucci is wonderful as Erskine, and Tommy Lee Jones steals scenes like he’s Danny Ocean. And congratulations Toby Jones for playing the first likable Nazi, Arin Zola—by the way, when the evil organization makes Nazis not look half-bad, that is a really evil organization. Haley Atwell was surprisingly fun to watch—maybe because she’s the first Marvel love interest who doesn’t just need to be saved. Betty Ross, Jane Foster—twice with Pepper Potts, all they did was look pretty and need to be rescued by the hero. Not Peggy. She straps one on and joins the fight. Which says a lot—all of the other females in Marvel movies are in present day but still act as the typical damsel in distress, yet the one character from a time ripe with stories of distressed damsels is the strongest and most independent. Dominic Cooper was also a pleasant surprise. First because I thought Howard Stark was going to be more of an Easter egg cameo than an integral character, but he serves the story well, and that you could believe this guy would eventually father Tony Stark, but while also being a womanizing genius, he didn’t simply act like Robert Downey Jr.; he made the character his own. Which leads us to the last of the supporting players, Sebastian Stan’s Bucky. Honestly, I was convinced he was Rogers’ friend, but I didn’t get to see enough of him being Bucky to buy that he was Bucky.

Avengers #10 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), and Dean White (colors)

The Story: The Avengers check to make sure that Xavier and Namor’s infinity gems are safe.

The Review: Avengers #10 is, unfortunately, something of a stumbling block for the series after a couple of solid outings.

The main culprit is the story structure, which sees various Avengers checking on the locations of Xavier, Namor, and Stark’s infinity gems.  Clearly, Bendis intends for us to be impressed with where and how each character has hidden them, each in his own distinct fashion.  Unfortunately, it’s honestly not that interesting.  Each character basically puts them in just the sort of place you’d expect them to.  Worse still, there’s something bland and formulaic about the narrative structure: we follow the characters to each location, Bendis tries to wow us with each locations security feature, and then we get a look at each of the gems.  It almost feels like a tedious video game, with each location being a level to play through.

The other thing that dogs Avengers #10 and, I suspect, is something that will hinder the series for some issues to come, is just how many freaking characters there are.  Avengers #10 began to feel a bit like a bad issue of Uncanny X-Men, where any sense of an actual team is thrown out the window and there’s basically just a mob of X-universe characters moving about.  Here, it’s just that, but it’s the Avengers universe instead.  Bendis has slammed all the teams together, and I can’t even say that it was really all that necessary.  I mean, even the Secret Avengers show up and, as Iron Fist awkwardly points out, isn’t that a little off if they’re supposed to be, you know, “Secret?”

New Avengers #5 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: The Avengers learn who is behind the mystic attacks and devise a plan to challenge him/it.

What’s Good: By this point, it should go without saying that I’m loving this as a Marvel mystic storyline.  It makes New Avengers feel distinct, it helps bring in some real power players from an arena that is largely ignored.

Focusing on the mystic corner of the Marvel Universe has also brought the best out of Stuart Immonen and Laura Martin, who are able to make the kind of bright, vibrant, Saturday-morning artwork on steroids that they clearly excel at.  New Avengers, even moreso now with all the mystic lights, spells, and blasts, is just downright fun to look at.

This issue’s plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested.  There’s a constant sense of things getting increasingly large, both the story and the villain.  Things keep getting exponentially bigger and by the end of this issue, from a mystic perspective, the conflict is positively massive in scale despite its really only involving one team of Avengers.  Certainly, putting an identity on the bad guy (and it’s a huge one) helps a great deal with this.  Not only is the revelation both interesting and surprising in its gravity, but it also helps to make the story feel more important, something that has been lacking lately what with all the faceless, formless goons the Avengers have been fighting lately.

Avengers #5 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson & Tom Palmer (inks), Dean White (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: The Avengers discover the truth behind the breaking of the time-stream and come up with a gameplan.

What’s Good: The new main Avengers title continues to deliver its brand of old-school, pulpy stories, which is a good thing, as combined with Romita’s distinctive, scratchy style, it makes the title stand out among the mass of Avengers-related title, and that’s a major accomplishment in and of itself.

It also provides grounds to use a smattering of characters that can’t be found anywhere else, guys like Maestro, the Next Avengers, and most importantly, Kang.  Kang is presented really well this month, both arrogant and sniveling, seemingly in a constant state of petulance.  There’s a sense throughout this issue that Kang’s up to something that the others can’t quite put their fingers on, despite their suspicions.  I couldn’t help but get the feeling that despite his current downcast state, he’s still pulling the strings somehow, which did intrigue me about the story-arc’s future.  There’s also a certain kind of tragedy inherent to the fact that the broken time-stream has resulted in, or perhaps is caused by, Kang’s fighting the same unwinnable battle against Ultron again and again and again.  It’s a nice statement on the classic comic villain and, combined with Romita’s down-trodden rendition of Kang, makes the character all the more compelling, even sympathetic.

Beyond that, Romita’s art maintains its recent upswing in quality.  Large panels are very impressive, and the bigger the action, the better.  Giant, flamboyant images are clearly what Romita excels at and he attacks any and all action sequences with gusto.  The book isn’t lacking character, and while it may not be for everyone, I found it to be fun.

New Avengers #4 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Stuart Immonen (pencils), Wade von Grawbadger (inks), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story: The Avengers beat demonic faces and Iron Fist confronts Dr. Strange.

What’s Good: There’s a lot of action this month.  In fact, there’s a ton of action.  The great news is that that means we get a lot of sweet, sweet Stuart Immonen artwork, highlighted by the big, bright colors of Laura Martin.  Along with von Grawbadger, this is one of the most underrated art teams at Marvel.  Their work is pure, Saturday morning bliss and when there’s as much mayhem and as many explosions as there are this month, it makes for art that is a whole lot of fun.  It’s the sort of stuff that makes you excited, while carrying a gleefulness that brings the kid out of you.

Bendis’ story this month, much like the past couple of issues, also manages to really highlight just how starved we are for a Marvel mystic story and just how underused this corner of the Marvel Universe is.  That Bendis has decided to center his first arc around a fully mystic plot makes the comic feel fresh and unique amidst Marvel’s products, no small feat for an Avengers title.  This freshness only adds to the fun that Immonen’s art already naturally brings forth.

Really, though, Bendis’ script this month is mostly about promises of big things to come.  The hinted-at developments towards the end of this issue are really intriguing and I can’t wait to see where they go.  Bendis seems to be implying some darker, and less heroic roots for Dr. Strange, which definitely has me very interested.  This looks to be a surprising turn of events that should elevate this story and keep it feeling distinct and important.

What’s Not So Good: This issue has much of the same problems as last month’s did in that there’s only so high I can grade a book that is almost entirely action.  Worse still, it’s action that pits the Avengers exclusively against faceless, nameless, and voiceless demons.  These demons attack in such numbers and are so void of personality and distinguishing features that it’s impossible to ever really feel them as legitimate threat, and certainly not a special or unique one.  As a result, I never really felt invested in the action or its high stakes, and certainly not to the extent that Bendis desired.  It was fun action, sure, but it also felt insubstantial and superficial.

New Avengers #63 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike McKone (art), Dave McCaig (colors), and Albert Deschesne (letters)

The Story: The motivations of Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, Ronin, and Mockingbird are explored in the days leading up to Siege.

What’s Good: This is probably the best issue of New Avengers to come around in some time, and it’s largely because it avoids many of the pitfalls that other comics in its position often fall prey to.  Simply put, everything in this comic that happens feels like it means something.

Take the dialogue for instance.  This issue is surprisingly heavy on character moments and conversation.  Before you run for the hills, it’s definitely pleasant to see that none of this dialogue is the sort of circular, pointless chatter that Bendis is often accused of.  All of it feels emotionally significant and necessary, giving life to the characters while also having them discuss subjects that need addressing.  It’s all pitch-perfect, with every character both feeling very human and true to their voices and personalities.

After this book, it’s hard not to feel like you’ve gotten to know Clint, Bobbi, Luke, and Jessica a little better and even if this isn’t the case, you’ll probably like them all as people just a bit more.  Heading into a cataclysmic series of events like Siege, that’s exactly the sort of thing Bendis should accomplish, as it makes the fight more than just a bunch of random faces scrapping on the page.  It’s also pretty cool that both conversation scenes also give little glimpses of what’s to come for the characters post-Siege.

And sure enough, it works.  After these dialogue portions, the action suddenly becomes meaningful despite the plethora of characters involved.  Luke’s grumbling and Mockingbird’s loving, mischievous glance at Ronin make the fight mean so much more.  In big events like these, it’s often easy to lose track of the participants as individuals, but thanks to the time he invests this month, Bendis bucks the trend.  The battle isn’t just about plot progression in the Marvel Universe, it’s about the people involved and the individual struggles of each of them within the massive, swirling melee.

I also have to mention that McKone draws a wonderful Mockingbird.  I’ve always liked the characters current design, but Bobbi really looks dynamic and lovable under McKone’s hand.

Captain America #38 – Review

By Ed Brubaker (writer), Steve Epting (pencils, inks), Ink Perkins (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors)

After seeing Sharon Carter stumble upon a burned, but fully thriving Steve Rogers last issue, I thought that Ed Brubaker would let this mystery play out for another issue or so. Many people thought this new guy was a clone or the real deal, but anyone who’d spent some time doing some research on Captain America would figure out who this person is with minimal effort. My hat goes off to Brubaker for doing his homework and throwing this twist into the story. Because the person behind this incarnation has a storied past and Brubaker wastes no time revealing who he is or the part he originally played in the Marvel Universe. This is Captain America… just not the one you were expecting.

This issue stands out as a bit of an oddity. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is still top notch and the ending is definitely on point, but for perhaps the first time in many, many issues, I didn’t gasp at the issue’s cliffhanger. The story, while progressing methodically as it always does, reads very quickly – and I don’t know how I feel about that. Other than the fantastic backstory that was explained in the first few pages of the book, we’re given little to no progression in the actual story. Yes, it’s great to see Bucky progressing along with his new role, and sure, Doctor Faustus’ new Captain America is being groomed to eventually face off against Bucky (I appreciate the historical irony behind it all, too), but as far as Bucky and The Falcon’s investigation is concerned, they’re not really any closer to getting their hands on the Red Skull than they were last issue. One could say the bonding moments between Bucky and The Falcon is where the real progression is taking place, and I’ll give them that. But that’s just not what I wanted to see in this issue. Then there’s Sharon Carter, who while discovering the mystery of this new Steve Rogers, has taken yet another step back by being subdued by Doctor Faustus. The nod Brubaker throws to the Third Reich is very clever, however. Scary stuff.

In a nutshell, most of this issue feels like a retread of events we’ve been seeing for months now. It’s like a dog chasing its tail. Or maybe I’m just getting a little impatient. Whatever the case may be, there’s no slighting the excellent storytelling by Steve Epting or the story arc as a whole. It’s still firing on all thrusters and I’m still dying to see what happens next, but it’s really time for this story to pick up steam. (Grade: B)

– J. Montes