Sunday 8 April 2012

A Showdown for the Ages! The Avengers vs the X-Men!

The latest Marvel event has kicked off! Hoorah!

Never mind that the mini-series following up on the last event are only just finishing now. The crazy world changing events never cease! It's tough being a hero. Can't go a week without another cataclysmic battle with a new banner coming along and spoiling your Easter. On Wednesday/Thursday/whenever you decide to get your comics, Avengers vs X-Men #1 came out. I'm not counting #0. I never count any 0s, .1s or negative numbers. They're just obscene.

The concept of this event is that the Phoenix Force is coming back to Earth and targeting Hope Summers, the first new mutant ever since M-Day, when the Scarlet Witch went batshit and used her deus ex machina powers to wipe out all but the most profitable of mutants. Your Wolverines and the like. Right, obviously, this flaming bird is a bad thing, but different sides want different things. Cap and the Avengers want to keep Hope under observation, protect her from the Phoenix and whatever. Cyclops, in full dick mode, wants to see what happens, believing the Phoenix is a sign of rebirth, wants to use it to spark the mutant species back into existence.

All this is slightly familiar. A while ago, Mark Millar had a series called Civil War which put the superhero community against one another over real issues over their freedom. AvX (as the plebians call it) feels exactly like that, but with a lot of the subtlety and nuance stripped away. Just look at the title. They just wanted a way to have superheroes punch each other for twelve issues. Yes, twelve. Twelve issues of the first half of every issue of early Marvel Team-Up. Don't get the reference? Read early Marvel Team-Up.

It's fairly well devised superhero thuggery. There is Hope, which needs to be sorted out. There is the Phoenix, which needs to be sorted out. This story has been on the cards for years...for the X-Men. For some reason, the Avengers have gotten involved, because they think they know best, despite needing a new headquarters every other day (in Marvel time). The Avengers Tower was smashed to bits in Fear Itself, but it's back, brand new. So is Thor, which is fun.

Let's tackle the fast-paced, but ever so brief, issue. I used to be a fan of John Romita Jr., but his art seems to be getting more rushed by the series. It is no longer Eternals or World War Hulk level JRJR, but a bootlegged version which is rushed and seems to have forgotten that Beast is now a cat. Thankfully, we have the inks of Scott Hanna and the colours of Laura Martin to spruce it up. Lovely.

The writing is fairly straightforward to kick things off. There's some Bendis banter all round the Avengers Tower (good as new) and the MIGHTY AVENGERS defeat A PLANE. The new Nova seen in the Point One book is here, all bruised and battered up. His story is in AvX: Infinite, a new online, digital book. I'll have to take a look into that at some point. Yeah, Wolverine is pondering what side to pick. Cyclops kicks two shades of shit out of Hope in something he considers "training". Cap and Cyke meet, badassery from both and the battle commences with the X-Men hopelessly outmatched at the moment. It all feels a bit...90s? A bit Maximum Carnage perhaps? That's a bit harsh, it is a fun story and I do look forward to what happens next, but I don't feel that much will.

Basic fight stuff. If you want more, check out the specific fight mini-series, Avengers vs X-Men: Versus.

Now get off my damn island.

Monday 21 November 2011

Early Comic Fan #1

Yeah, I have nothing topical to talk about at the moment, so I have decided to make this very personal. I say that, I'll probably keep this flippant, cold, unfunny narrative throughout the brief history of this blog. Nonetheless, I am here writing in the middle of the morning to talk about my first comic experience.

You'll never guess what I was reading. It's quite obvious and it's a character that I will never fall out of love with. Even if he's made deals with not very nice people.

Spider-Man. Fucking hell, Spider-Man

My brother was actually the first one to pick up an actual comic. It was a PANINI Collector's Edition comic called the Astonishing Spider-Man, which contained three issues of various Spider-Man series about four years behind the actual continuity in the USA. Oh yeah, I'm in Britain, if I haven't mentioned before. My brother seemed to keep reading and re-reading this thing with a card cover and a weird advert for a toy on the back. He was two years younger than me, how dare he enjoy something that I'm not?! It happened with Pokemon, but it's not going to happen this time, godammit!

Asking him very nicely, at the age of 10, if I could read his comic, was a blow. A major blow. I could've punched myself in the face with a brick and it would've been easier. Yet, ask I did. He quickly said yes, as at that time he wasn't an angsty little thing. I opened it and started to read.

What the fuck? There was no Spider-Man in the entire thing, just some brooding idiot called Dusk fighting a man who fought with glue and a guy dressed as a purple bee fighting the Vulture. Norman Osborn AKA the Green Goblin was a well respected businessman. I didn't know what the hell was going on. Spider-Man apparently committed the murder of some moron named Joey-Z. It was extremely confusing for a first time reader.

I was hooked and continued to buy what else I could find. Except X-Men. There was a guy throwing pink exploding cards, that's dumb.

So yeah, it reminds me of a topic that comes up nearly every week. A jumping on point. Back in the day, every issue was capable of being a jumping on point. When you're a bid, you don't care. You read. You see. If it's any good, you enjoy. What the guys behind the comics need to focus on, especially the Big Two, as that's is what most kids are likely to read, is not the jumping on points.

In fact, just getting somehow, kids to read them. Calm down the violence, forget dredging up stories from 40 years before. Don't worry about making it so accessible, it's patronising.

They'll pick it up. They'll understand. Every issue is a jumping on point. Just let them jump on.

Monday 14 November 2011

Doctor New

This isn't strictly comics, but I may just talk about all things "geeky" and "nerdy" in here, including the use of quotation marks and the new, talked about reboot of Doctor Who, starting with a movie by David Yates.

One link of many: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15730665

Now, I have nothing against Mr Yates. His Harry Potter films, the last four of the series, were half-triumph, half-tolerable. He knows how to make a British feeling film. However, I do not feel that he is the man to take upon the task of an unneccessary reboot. It would be too kitsch and too simple. Another factor is whether he can actually get actors to act as apart from the already seasoned actors in the films i.e. none of the kids bar Rupert Grint, the acting was sub-par. Not that Doctor Who is know for its acting.

Also, he may have taken upon a doomed task. Reboots are the latest trend in popular media. Spider-Man has recently been rebooted, as has the Hulk (sort of), in the cinema. Batman will be after the Dark Knight Returns. Hell, the whole DC line of comics was. However, Doctor Who has nearly 50 years of history behind and while it may be slightly convoluted, the majority of Doctor Who fandom love that about it. I bet even some of the modern fans took into Doctor Who extremely quickly in the Russell T. Davies years as there was no origin episode where we see the Doctor steal the TARDIS or something else reasonably dull. Never mind the Doctor's ability to regenerate taking the need for reboots completely away. Yes, he may only have 13, but there's definitely a way out of that, I'm sure.

Yeats knows the score with translating a major franchise, just not terrifically. Never mind that Doctor Who is intrinsically more complex due to the time and space factor. More complicated than magic, yes. It's just money being thrown around at a time of there being no money. See the cancellation of Confidential and various other news reports on the TV show to find out what I'm talking about.

This blog has an immense amount of spelling mistakes, I feel. Hmm.

Anyway, I do not think that this is a good idea, especially as it will be seperate from the TV show. Two different continuities do not make anything easier. Whatever. Peace out.

And the cast and crew of the show must be feeling great about their futures as well.

Sunday 13 November 2011

The Cost of Reading Comics

Sort of around the time of going to university, I stopped buying and reading comics, bar a few in trade, mainly because of cost and I am terrible with money so something had to go. Recently, I restarted buying them and was hooked all over again. Still terrible with money, but I just starve a little bit more towards the end of a semester. No biggie.

However, comics are EXPENSIVE. Which brings me to "the biggest change in Marvel history for 35 years". Point One. And that quote may be slightly inaccurate or wrong or made-up. I saw it somewhere. Maybe a forum.

This is the one-shot that Marvel released last week which showcased upcoming series and storylines by different writers and artists all for the lump sum of $5.99. I cannot remember the British price, but it doesn't bode well via exchange rate. Buying this book was equal to paying for the trailers at the cinema. None of the sections really constitute a complete story, bar Fraction's Defenders tale and the return to the aging, hopefully dying, Age of Apocalypse timeline by David Lapham, who writes the abysmal DeadpoolMAX.

There was also some twin brother/sister story by Fred van Lente which was boring and probably already cancelled like the rest of his books recently. I feel bad for the guy, but these Yin and Yang characters did nothing for me, especially with their dull names like Colddragon or whatever. And they were Chinese, I believe. Calling them Yin and Yang...is that racist, bro?

Anyway, it kicked off with a framing structure which showed two unknowns hacking into the Watcher's memories (which will lead into a HUGE STORY which will CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER). This was nice with an artist whose name I forget, but it looked a lot like Marcos Martin, but it wasn't. Forget that.

Then into a Nova story written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by superstar of some sort Ed McGuiness. It had a planet blown to shreds with the Nova flying away, calling his failure or saving millions of live an "epic fail". I am beginning to think that Loeb just does this because he can and he is a massive WUM (wind-up merchant). The art is nice though and it's a tie-in to whatever the Pheonix Force is going to do next. Hopefully, CHANGE EVERYTHING FOREVER.

Another highlight was Brian Michael Bendis and Bryan Hitch's Ultron War preview which was essentially everything blowing up. It was well drawn and cinematic, but nothing more than a teaser to a storyline that has been teased since the relaunch of Avengers. If you want to know more, read Moon Knight which has an Ultron head in its pages.

So yes, once again I wasted money on something pointless. I can't even get drunk after spending that money. Sigh.

I need an accountant.

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Supergods

Supergods, the new book by comicphile, Grant Morrison, gives us several interesting takes on history of superheroes, from Superman to Batman and from Ma Hunkel to Flex Mentallo. Some of these characters are better known than others.

Who's ready to slap a Jap?

Morrison divides the book into four "ages", Golden Age, Silver Age, he renames the Bronze Age as the Dark Age and then finishes with the Renaissance. Any of you whom have read any of Morrison's work know that he can be a pretentious little Glaswegian, but hey, it structures the book very well and it takes us through as simply as he can, chronologically.

He covers the creation of superhero comics, DC and Marvel/Timely, and the struggles they had to go through to get published. A light hearted romp through the extreme silliness of the Golden and Silver Ages, where anything could happen. Literally. Look at any Golden Age cover and you can see the ludicrousness of the stories. Apart from Wonder Woman, which is merely a bondage fest, but never mind.

It shows his love for the books, also shown in his work. It sometimes veers off track, such as the time where he claims he has healing powers or went lo Las Vegas with Greg Rucka. It carries the traditional Morrison tone, a mix of aloofness, arrogance and modesty, which gives the book a different feel to your standard history book. There are even some laughs in there.

Personally, it got interesting when it reached the era of time in which I was actually alive. The creation of Image Comics, Identity Crisis and event Comics, not discountign the effect September 11th had on many comics. He follows the changing styles and themes through out the books, themes that aren't neccessarily obvious if only reading comics as comics.

A worthwhile read, not the first choice for comics' history, but a worthwhile chapter and a good read. I certainly stuck with it and I hate reading. Thank God that comics have those cool pictures.

Never Been Relaunched.

We've now had the first wave of new #1s in the DCU. So what? Comics get new #1s every other month, just look at Marvel's Ultimate Line with everything being relaunched, even Ultimate Spider-Man which is now blacker than before.

However, this time we get a new Action Comics, by Grant Morrison & Rags Morales, and a new Detective Comics, by Tony Daniel. Two series that have never been relaunched due to their massive history. One uses the past to inform its take and one stays strictly in the present, but which is more successful? Let's take a looksie.

Action Comics #1 has a young Kal-El/Clark Kent in Metropolis dishing out justice in jeans and a baby blanket as a cape. He beats up wife beaters and throws people through walls to interrogate them. He is, frankly, reckless. He's arrogant. He thinks he can do anything, except fly. Probably hasn't encountered kryptonite yet. This takes a huge nod to Golden Age Superman, an era that Morrison seems to have a kind fetish towards. Just read any page of his book, Supergods, to find that out. And that he has healing powers, which is for another time.

Lex Luthor and General Lane, both alive, try to stop him, as Clark lives in an apartment ala Peter Parker and hangs out with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. Pa and Ma Kent are deceased. It's a whole new universe, once again in the case of Superman. Geoff Johns' Secret Origin was only a few years ago after all.

Anyway, he beats up criminals, gets chased by the police and then is captured after saving a trainlod of people, all due to the machinations of Lex, unliked by the General as it put Lois in danger. Whatever. This issue was very fun to read. It set up this new Superman and his motivation, his world, very neatly with a few questions remaining, but there are still more issues to this arc. Despite not being very original, it does reference a lot of Golden Age stuff, it has Morrison's distinct voice on everything. He has a good take on this young Clark Kent, a very different take to the one in All-Star Superman which seemed to be Superman in a mid-life crisis. Add the astounding art of Rags Morales and this is the complete package. Complete, yet not groundbreaking. However, this is issue 1, it has plenty of time to become the one of "those" runs that everyone puts in their "Top 2345 Comics Evah" lists. Potential is there.

On the other end of the spectrum is the new Detective Comics with Batman stalwart, Tony Daniel, who's been around for a lot of Batman's recent developments, ever since Morrison took over the book in fact. He's been switched from Batman to D.C., which doesn't suggest much change. And really, it's business as usual as Bats chases the Joker around Gotham City. Gritty and dark, despite a few corny lines, "I own the night", it's very easy to follow and introduces a new villain, the Dollmaker, in a very gruesome final page. It may even put readers off reading the rest of the run.

Daniel's storytelling has greatly improved since the flop that was Battle for the Cowl and his art has improved to boot. I reckon he can get to the Jim Lee level that many aspire to. And that is some level. It's a decent done-in-one story that introduces the aspects of Batman that will follow through in this run. Another great jumping on point, as many issues in the relaunch have been. I recommend picking this up for yourselves,not for a thoroughly changed Batman, but a good tale. The only thing I don't feel is right is that Alfred seems to be a hologram, similar to J.A.R.V.I.S. in the Iron Man films.

Overall, these series have the potential to continue the grand history of these iconic series. Just as long as they move on from the past and don't get too stuck in the present.

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Justice League #1 Review

The entire DC universe has been relaunched. What a place to start picking up tens of comics again and chuck in a blog there too.

Let's kick off with the headline piece: Justice League #1, written by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. This has been highlighted as the main title to follow and Jim Lee's art brings an epicness to it, something which he brings to every book he draws. The inker and colourist, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair, really bring it out as well. The Gotham landscape and the final page with Superman being highlights. I also feel that Jim Lee is the only person so far who seems to be able to draw Supes' new costume.

What happens is this: Batman chases a villain, one of Darkseid's goons, and runs into Hal Jordan, the cockiest Green Lantern of them all. They banter and look for the villain of the piece before realising that they need to find Superman, they do, Jordan gets knocked the **** out and NEXT ISSUE: Batman VS Superman! Yeah, next issue. We also have Victor Stone (pre-Cyborg) with his own plotline which is touching.

Right, the writing is slow, it's a slow burner. This would read well in the trade format, but as the main book in a relaunch, it needs to be punchier, though it eventually gets there in the last two pages. The two-and-fro between Batman and GL is amusing, yet not enough in all honesty. Still, it is very pretty. An enjoyable read, if not what is needed. This arc is six issues, how long will it take for the Justice League to form and take on Darkseid. We've only seen four members, one for a page, one who's pre-Cyborg.

6.5/10

I'm reading comics full-time again.