wktf
03-18-2010, 10:05 AM
Wktf’s Reviews
Siege #3 (of 4)
Marvel Comics
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn by: Olivier Coipel
Covers by: Olivier Coipel, Gabriele Dell’Otto, Joe Quesada
The incredibly fun popcorn movie comic book event that is Siege has rounded the half way mark and, if you were wondering if anything this issue could top The Sentry’s brutal killing of Ares last issue…well, you probably were right. The face full of Captain America’s shield is resoundingly delivered squarely to Osborn’s Iron Patriot face-plate as telecasted at the end of last issue, as Cap and his team of Avengers combined with Fury’s troops descend on Osborn’s forces. And I’ll admit to a satisfying grin crossing my face as Coipel takes three full pages to deliver Norman’s spill to the ground. But the beginning of the end? Not quite as it turns out. Or, at least, not yet.
The battle is joined in this issue on three fronts. Captain America and Fury’s troops wage war against the Dark Avengers (with some assistance granted by one of Osborn’s partners) on the ground. Finally we also get the much awaited showdown between Thor and Sentry. Even struck full on by Mjolinir, Sentry is driven back about 15 or so feet but, to Thor’s vexed “Odin’s Eye” statement, is still standing. And, finally, our country’s own Commander In Chief decides to deploy the might of the US Military against H.A.M.M.E.R.’s airborne forces. As one threat is manhandled between Cap, the timely return of the last of the Avenger’s “Big Three,” and an able blow struck by the ever Amazing Spider-Man, the story takes a bit of a left turn to reveal the final, ultimate and, as drawn by Coipel, truly terrifying menace of this story is yet to be fully contained.
This issue kept the action flying and the level of destruction certainly is devastating, especially to Thor. However, and though we should have felt this coming, the sudden shift away from Osborn, coupled with the absolutely bizarre image of Osborn’s actual face (what is that, seriously?) leading to what no doubt will be the final resolution on the fate of a much controversial character, feels like a turn away from what’s been billed as a story seven years in the making. I really thought we were going to get some resolution on the events that took place starting in Avengers Disassembled or even Civil War, but now I’m not so sure, and I’m actually feeling that this issue has caused the story to lose some of the focus it should demonstrate in wrapping up not just a year-long Dark Reign but in delivering on its seven year promise. In the end, Siege #3 had its share of big and even scary moments, action and fun but it seems to have taken a step off its pace and focus from the two preceding stellar issues.
Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1 (of 2)
Marvel Comics
Written by: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente
Drawn by: Ariel Olivetti
Cover by: Ariel Olivetti
It was a tough call between reading/reviewing this book or Dark Avengers. But Incredible Hercules, even with its rotating cast of artists with every story arc, has been such a consistently enjoyable read since the finale of World War Hulk, and with the ending of Herc’s own series resulting in the ending of Hercules himself, that this issue made it to the top of my reading list. News of Hercules’ death, what we know really was murder at the hands of his own sister during the final battle for New Olympus, seems to have gotten around as a long line of people now are lined up outside The Parthenon, Athena’s own temple, to mourn the passing of one of history’s greatest heroes and champions. And though Amadeus Cho, Hercules’ side kick lo these many months, calls out to Athena to show her respects it is a collection of Earth’s and Asgard’s heroes who answer his call for fellowship during this time of grieving.
And so begins a trip down memory lane as Thor, Namor and Banner tell tales of camaraderie and heroics involving the Prince of Power while a collection of some of Marvel’s women, including The Black Widow, Namora and Snowbird relate how they both stood alongside Hercules and also, well, you know. One of this book’s greatest elements is the humor Pak and Van Lente mix with the action and excitement. With a loutish character like Hercules one might argue that might be easy to do but so few writers have ever gotten the big galloot right. These writers have consistently done so and here make great use of these strong women, and the reaction of some of their male counterparts to their stories, to lend some humor to this retrospective on our hero. But this being the first of a two part story, and with the combination of Hercules, Zeus and Hera all now dead, the rest of the Greek pantheon finally arrives to drop a bombshell on Marvel’s new Prince of Power.
Olivetti’s done some great work both on Punisher and Incredible Hulk and his style seems perfectly suited in portraying Hercules, as well. He can render humor every bit as well as drama and action, and he seems like an inspired choice for this bookend on our title character. It clearly seems like Pak and Van Lente are taking Cho and Marvel’s Greek pantheon in a new direction, and even with Hercules seemingly gone I’m totally on board with seeing what the next issue brings and what Cho’s role in the Marvel U will be going forward. As usual, this title was a fun and highly recommended read.
The Brave & The Bold #32
DC Comics
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Drawn by: Jesus Saiz
Cover by: Jesus Saiz
This book now bears the sub-title “Lost Stories of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Given what’s going on in DC continuity these days, it certainly seems like this done-in-one story must be one of yesterday or tomorrow. A couple of police officers come across an obviously distressed sailor who, late at night, is exhuming the casket of a long buried friend. In questioning his actions, the sailor tells the story of how he washed ashore from a ship wreck on to come face-to-face with Aquaman and Etrigan the Demon. JMS’ teaming of these two characters is absolutely inspired. Both are legendary and mystical in their own way. Both supremely confident and masters of their own elements. And, somehow, they seem also to fit really well, almost naturally, together. Back to the story, though, it seems that on a fairly regular basis a monstrous demon from another plane of reality comes to our oceans to infiltrate our planet. And Aquaman and Etrigan have formed a pact to join forces whenever this happens to stop it. As told by this lone sailor, this story is the most recent joining of fire and water to stand against the powers of the elder gods.
There really is just so much to love about this issue. As told to the police by this sailor, the tale takes on the mythic quality of lore. The fact that the invading host raises the dead to do his bidding, including a long dead friend of our sailor, coupled with the grave-digging scenes ads an element of classic horror to this tale. JMS not only really delivers on Etrigan’s strange, rhyming dialect and otherworldly abilities, but also makes Aquaman the powerful and commanding character he should be. But it’s Jesus Saiz who feels like the real star of this issue. His art is just stunning. From Aquaman’s chiseled body to the richly complex undersea scenery to the shadowy scenes both in the graveyard and the ocean depths, Saiz’s art delivers the haunting and almost mystical mood this story requires. While the ending wraps up a little too neatly for my taste, this issue still is my pick of the week.
The Mighty Trade Reviews
Two of the Loeb/Sale Marvel “Color” collaborations for your consideration!
Dawg’s Trade Review
Daredevil: Yellow
Marvel Comics
Written by: Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by: Tim Sale
Comics are a great medium for telling stories. They have been a great medium for well over 60 years. In this great medium for telling stories, we are occasionally gifted with storytellers that when paired together, have a certain magic that leaves us affected each time we put their tales down and ponder what we just saw. Stan and Jack, Frank Miller and Klaus Jansen, Chris Claremont and John Byrne are a few that pop into my head immediately as I write this… oh and let’s not forget the pair in question here either… Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.
The art is stylistic and the writing is excellent when individual and on their own, but when they are together, it’s nothing short of magic. They are best known for their work on Batman: The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but a few years back they did a series of six issue mini-series for Marvel. The first of which was Daredevil: Yellow.
How does this tale stack up compared to the work they are more well known for? Let’s just say they never ever disappoint this comic reviewer.
We start this story out with a contemplative Matt Murdock A.K.A Daredevil leaping across the roof tops in that trademark Tim Sale style. Matt is talking to himself as he often does when something is weighing on him. In this particular case we see a shaken Matt still lamenting over the loss of his beloved Karen Page at the hands of an arch foe Bullseye.
Matt can’t seem to shake the loss of Karen and the sting is still too close to his heart, and so the narrative becomes a letter to Karen that Foggy (Matt’s oldest friend) suggested he write to try and say goodbye. Matt admits to himself and Karen in the letter, that he doesn’t know where to start, so he’d just go back to the beginning. The beginning being before Karen, before Nelson & Murdock: Attorneys at law, and before Daredevil.
This beginning is when the one person that Matt loved the most was still alive… his father… Battling Jack Murdock.
What a brilliant way to back track to the beginning and retell an origin. Loeb and Sale make something that has been done to death, somehow fresh and smooth as silk. Not only that but we are given constant muted color washes with subtle touches of yellow, black and red on every page (Daredevil: Yellow… remember?)
We have Matt and Foggy in college and hanging out with Matt’s dad as he makes his fateful and final run at being a boxing champion of the world. Jack Murdock was in with some bad folks that were fixing his fights. Jack didn’t care, as he just wanted a shot at the title. Shot at the title, he would never get though as his last fight before the title fight, he was supposed to take a dive and lose. Matt reflects that this was just not his father’s style to Karen in his letter.
Jack does win the fight, to the chagrin of the mobster who had been fixing his fights. Jack knows that this would be his last fight and perhaps his last night on earth and hands Matt his robe of yellow, red and black. This exchange is the last one that father and son would ever have…
A son’s despair and grief and rage, drives a sewing binge and Daredevil is born. Donning his father’s colours, Matt becomes Daredevil and seeks revenge. He instead gets justice as the man responsible for his father’s death is taken to jail.
It’s a great beginning to the origin of Daredevil, all the while diving into the very core of who Matt Murdock is. Matt reflects so much into his letter to Karen and you can’t help but be a little moved by how this story is handled. I like to think that the comics that leave you thinking a bit are the ones that end up being classic.
This is just the tip of the iceberg however, as we are launched into the law careers of Nelson and Murdock. They have their office and they are searching (Mostly Foggy) for a secretary. We all know who comes calling and eventually fills that slot. Matt’s beloved Karen Page. We also get to see Matt and Foggy’s very first clients. This is none other that the famous Fantastic Four as Ben Grimm comes crashing through the window looking for these “Nelson & Murdock shysters”.
We get to see that it was Foggy who initially took a shining to Karen, but she seems to have eyes for Matt and Matt has “eyes” for her… Initially this is a problem for Foggy but eventually he decides that he can’t fight fate nor deny his friendship with Matt and let’s his feelings for Karen fade.
This story is all about Matt coming in to his own as a person and as a superhero, all the while fondly remembering how he and Karen Page came to meet and fall in love, while dealing with trying to bring his father’s murderer to justice. We are given more depth and emotion in this tale than you could ever hope for in a comic series. This is one of the things I have always liked most about Daredevil. As much as he tries to hide it and act tough, he wears his heart on his sleeve.
Daredevil: Yellow is the best Daredevil origin there is, it is refreshing, cinematic, graphically superior in it’s flow and design, and it finds a way to kick ass while pulling on the heartstrings of us and our beloved fictional comic book hero. To me that’s what I was talking about earlier… to me that is the magic that’s given to us every now and then, when two collaborators come together and tell their story in this great medium. When you turn the last page and close the book, you can’t help but think about what it is you just read and think.
Wktf’s Trade Review
Spider-Man: Blue
Marvel Comics
Written by: Jeph Loeb
Drawn by: Tim Sale
It’s hard for me to write this review without slipping into hyperbole. I grew up with the Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita, Sr. Amazing Spider-Man comics and this series, as it was coming out in five separate installments and even more so reading it as a trade collection, feels like a Valentine to these three legendary creators. Which, maybe, it is even as the story opens on Valentine’s Day and today’s Spider-Man, now married to MJ, brings a single red rose to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge and begins a dialogue with the long-dead Gwen Stacy (much as Daredevil: Yellow began with Matt’s addressing the recently murdered Karen Page), about whom Peter says at the end of this book, “…and I long for a time when a girl I knew with an incredible smile and so much good in her heart made me think…life can be great.”
We learn here that Peter believes things have to get really, really bad before they can get good. Good follows bad. And while this incredible story, which reprises several classic Lee/Ditko/Romita, Sr. Spider-Man moments, does not go all the way to the worst moment in Peter’s life, the death of Gwen Stacy, the moment many feel ended the Silver Age of Comics, it does something much more powerful. It shows us Peter’s introduction to both Gwen and MJ, his courtship of Gwen and the moment when they first gave themselves to each other, all the while knowing the awful moment that awaits these two young lovers. Ironically and fittingly, this book begins with Peter’s unmasking at the hands of the Green Goblin, the moment back in Amazing Spider-Man #39-40 that began the spiral toward Gwen’s death. One plot device in this book it turns out, is that there’s a mysterious hand moving Spidey’s various villains, including the Goblin, The Rhino, The Lizard, and The Vulture (both of them!) against the wall-crawler, but even after the shadowed mastermind is revealed we still discover all is not as it seems. Loeb winds an intricate plot, interweaving the progression of Peter’s young personal life with Spidey’s superhero life in a way that drives to a surprising conclusion even as Peter’s life begins to find resolution and happiness. But, we have to remember throughout all these flashbacks, that it is today’s Peter that is telling this tale in a recording to Gwen, one of many we discover, that creates yet another layer of fine, emotional storytelling to this book. This, ultimately, is the story of Gwen Stacy, Peter’s first and possibly greatest love. More than any of the other Marvel “color” books, this one is most aptly named, as Peter explains, as there is a melancholy blueness, like in jazz music, that still pervades Peter’s life even this long after Gwen’s death.
So, is this book fun to read or is it a total downer? It’s a blast is what it is, but with a strong emotional core that pulls at the center of the reader. The “blast” part is delivered in spades by Tim Sale, who sketched a way-cool Spidey face inside my Spider-Man: Blue HC at the ’05 Boston Con. This book explodes with action and wild, wise cracking Spidey battles against the various foes I mentioned previously. Sales’ panoramic images of Spider-Man swinging away from or into the massive NYC skyscrapers are stunning and, as he did in Superman: For All Seasons with the Smallville General Store, he even makes Aunt May’s kitchen an incredibly intricate Norman Rockwell-ish slice-of-life illustration. What’s also really cool is how he moves from a Gwen Stacy drawn similarly to how Ditko drew her, a little harsher, a little edgier, to the far softer and more beautiful Gwen of Romita, Sr. as this story progresses. But his Ditko references, one with Flash reprising the famous Amazing Fantasy #15 cover and another shot of Spidey battling the Scorpion, for instance, are spot on flawless. If you’ve grown up with Spidey over the last 40+ years, you’ll love this book. If you haven’t and these images and references all are new to you, you’ll love this book (I hope). It’s harder to find the original HC version but it’s readily available as a tpb. If you’re one of the few comic book readers who does not own this beauty, do yourself a favor and pick it up.
Siege #3 (of 4)
Marvel Comics
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn by: Olivier Coipel
Covers by: Olivier Coipel, Gabriele Dell’Otto, Joe Quesada
The incredibly fun popcorn movie comic book event that is Siege has rounded the half way mark and, if you were wondering if anything this issue could top The Sentry’s brutal killing of Ares last issue…well, you probably were right. The face full of Captain America’s shield is resoundingly delivered squarely to Osborn’s Iron Patriot face-plate as telecasted at the end of last issue, as Cap and his team of Avengers combined with Fury’s troops descend on Osborn’s forces. And I’ll admit to a satisfying grin crossing my face as Coipel takes three full pages to deliver Norman’s spill to the ground. But the beginning of the end? Not quite as it turns out. Or, at least, not yet.
The battle is joined in this issue on three fronts. Captain America and Fury’s troops wage war against the Dark Avengers (with some assistance granted by one of Osborn’s partners) on the ground. Finally we also get the much awaited showdown between Thor and Sentry. Even struck full on by Mjolinir, Sentry is driven back about 15 or so feet but, to Thor’s vexed “Odin’s Eye” statement, is still standing. And, finally, our country’s own Commander In Chief decides to deploy the might of the US Military against H.A.M.M.E.R.’s airborne forces. As one threat is manhandled between Cap, the timely return of the last of the Avenger’s “Big Three,” and an able blow struck by the ever Amazing Spider-Man, the story takes a bit of a left turn to reveal the final, ultimate and, as drawn by Coipel, truly terrifying menace of this story is yet to be fully contained.
This issue kept the action flying and the level of destruction certainly is devastating, especially to Thor. However, and though we should have felt this coming, the sudden shift away from Osborn, coupled with the absolutely bizarre image of Osborn’s actual face (what is that, seriously?) leading to what no doubt will be the final resolution on the fate of a much controversial character, feels like a turn away from what’s been billed as a story seven years in the making. I really thought we were going to get some resolution on the events that took place starting in Avengers Disassembled or even Civil War, but now I’m not so sure, and I’m actually feeling that this issue has caused the story to lose some of the focus it should demonstrate in wrapping up not just a year-long Dark Reign but in delivering on its seven year promise. In the end, Siege #3 had its share of big and even scary moments, action and fun but it seems to have taken a step off its pace and focus from the two preceding stellar issues.
Hercules: Fall of an Avenger #1 (of 2)
Marvel Comics
Written by: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente
Drawn by: Ariel Olivetti
Cover by: Ariel Olivetti
It was a tough call between reading/reviewing this book or Dark Avengers. But Incredible Hercules, even with its rotating cast of artists with every story arc, has been such a consistently enjoyable read since the finale of World War Hulk, and with the ending of Herc’s own series resulting in the ending of Hercules himself, that this issue made it to the top of my reading list. News of Hercules’ death, what we know really was murder at the hands of his own sister during the final battle for New Olympus, seems to have gotten around as a long line of people now are lined up outside The Parthenon, Athena’s own temple, to mourn the passing of one of history’s greatest heroes and champions. And though Amadeus Cho, Hercules’ side kick lo these many months, calls out to Athena to show her respects it is a collection of Earth’s and Asgard’s heroes who answer his call for fellowship during this time of grieving.
And so begins a trip down memory lane as Thor, Namor and Banner tell tales of camaraderie and heroics involving the Prince of Power while a collection of some of Marvel’s women, including The Black Widow, Namora and Snowbird relate how they both stood alongside Hercules and also, well, you know. One of this book’s greatest elements is the humor Pak and Van Lente mix with the action and excitement. With a loutish character like Hercules one might argue that might be easy to do but so few writers have ever gotten the big galloot right. These writers have consistently done so and here make great use of these strong women, and the reaction of some of their male counterparts to their stories, to lend some humor to this retrospective on our hero. But this being the first of a two part story, and with the combination of Hercules, Zeus and Hera all now dead, the rest of the Greek pantheon finally arrives to drop a bombshell on Marvel’s new Prince of Power.
Olivetti’s done some great work both on Punisher and Incredible Hulk and his style seems perfectly suited in portraying Hercules, as well. He can render humor every bit as well as drama and action, and he seems like an inspired choice for this bookend on our title character. It clearly seems like Pak and Van Lente are taking Cho and Marvel’s Greek pantheon in a new direction, and even with Hercules seemingly gone I’m totally on board with seeing what the next issue brings and what Cho’s role in the Marvel U will be going forward. As usual, this title was a fun and highly recommended read.
The Brave & The Bold #32
DC Comics
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Drawn by: Jesus Saiz
Cover by: Jesus Saiz
This book now bears the sub-title “Lost Stories of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.” Given what’s going on in DC continuity these days, it certainly seems like this done-in-one story must be one of yesterday or tomorrow. A couple of police officers come across an obviously distressed sailor who, late at night, is exhuming the casket of a long buried friend. In questioning his actions, the sailor tells the story of how he washed ashore from a ship wreck on to come face-to-face with Aquaman and Etrigan the Demon. JMS’ teaming of these two characters is absolutely inspired. Both are legendary and mystical in their own way. Both supremely confident and masters of their own elements. And, somehow, they seem also to fit really well, almost naturally, together. Back to the story, though, it seems that on a fairly regular basis a monstrous demon from another plane of reality comes to our oceans to infiltrate our planet. And Aquaman and Etrigan have formed a pact to join forces whenever this happens to stop it. As told by this lone sailor, this story is the most recent joining of fire and water to stand against the powers of the elder gods.
There really is just so much to love about this issue. As told to the police by this sailor, the tale takes on the mythic quality of lore. The fact that the invading host raises the dead to do his bidding, including a long dead friend of our sailor, coupled with the grave-digging scenes ads an element of classic horror to this tale. JMS not only really delivers on Etrigan’s strange, rhyming dialect and otherworldly abilities, but also makes Aquaman the powerful and commanding character he should be. But it’s Jesus Saiz who feels like the real star of this issue. His art is just stunning. From Aquaman’s chiseled body to the richly complex undersea scenery to the shadowy scenes both in the graveyard and the ocean depths, Saiz’s art delivers the haunting and almost mystical mood this story requires. While the ending wraps up a little too neatly for my taste, this issue still is my pick of the week.
The Mighty Trade Reviews
Two of the Loeb/Sale Marvel “Color” collaborations for your consideration!
Dawg’s Trade Review
Daredevil: Yellow
Marvel Comics
Written by: Jeph Loeb
Illustrated by: Tim Sale
Comics are a great medium for telling stories. They have been a great medium for well over 60 years. In this great medium for telling stories, we are occasionally gifted with storytellers that when paired together, have a certain magic that leaves us affected each time we put their tales down and ponder what we just saw. Stan and Jack, Frank Miller and Klaus Jansen, Chris Claremont and John Byrne are a few that pop into my head immediately as I write this… oh and let’s not forget the pair in question here either… Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.
The art is stylistic and the writing is excellent when individual and on their own, but when they are together, it’s nothing short of magic. They are best known for their work on Batman: The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but a few years back they did a series of six issue mini-series for Marvel. The first of which was Daredevil: Yellow.
How does this tale stack up compared to the work they are more well known for? Let’s just say they never ever disappoint this comic reviewer.
We start this story out with a contemplative Matt Murdock A.K.A Daredevil leaping across the roof tops in that trademark Tim Sale style. Matt is talking to himself as he often does when something is weighing on him. In this particular case we see a shaken Matt still lamenting over the loss of his beloved Karen Page at the hands of an arch foe Bullseye.
Matt can’t seem to shake the loss of Karen and the sting is still too close to his heart, and so the narrative becomes a letter to Karen that Foggy (Matt’s oldest friend) suggested he write to try and say goodbye. Matt admits to himself and Karen in the letter, that he doesn’t know where to start, so he’d just go back to the beginning. The beginning being before Karen, before Nelson & Murdock: Attorneys at law, and before Daredevil.
This beginning is when the one person that Matt loved the most was still alive… his father… Battling Jack Murdock.
What a brilliant way to back track to the beginning and retell an origin. Loeb and Sale make something that has been done to death, somehow fresh and smooth as silk. Not only that but we are given constant muted color washes with subtle touches of yellow, black and red on every page (Daredevil: Yellow… remember?)
We have Matt and Foggy in college and hanging out with Matt’s dad as he makes his fateful and final run at being a boxing champion of the world. Jack Murdock was in with some bad folks that were fixing his fights. Jack didn’t care, as he just wanted a shot at the title. Shot at the title, he would never get though as his last fight before the title fight, he was supposed to take a dive and lose. Matt reflects that this was just not his father’s style to Karen in his letter.
Jack does win the fight, to the chagrin of the mobster who had been fixing his fights. Jack knows that this would be his last fight and perhaps his last night on earth and hands Matt his robe of yellow, red and black. This exchange is the last one that father and son would ever have…
A son’s despair and grief and rage, drives a sewing binge and Daredevil is born. Donning his father’s colours, Matt becomes Daredevil and seeks revenge. He instead gets justice as the man responsible for his father’s death is taken to jail.
It’s a great beginning to the origin of Daredevil, all the while diving into the very core of who Matt Murdock is. Matt reflects so much into his letter to Karen and you can’t help but be a little moved by how this story is handled. I like to think that the comics that leave you thinking a bit are the ones that end up being classic.
This is just the tip of the iceberg however, as we are launched into the law careers of Nelson and Murdock. They have their office and they are searching (Mostly Foggy) for a secretary. We all know who comes calling and eventually fills that slot. Matt’s beloved Karen Page. We also get to see Matt and Foggy’s very first clients. This is none other that the famous Fantastic Four as Ben Grimm comes crashing through the window looking for these “Nelson & Murdock shysters”.
We get to see that it was Foggy who initially took a shining to Karen, but she seems to have eyes for Matt and Matt has “eyes” for her… Initially this is a problem for Foggy but eventually he decides that he can’t fight fate nor deny his friendship with Matt and let’s his feelings for Karen fade.
This story is all about Matt coming in to his own as a person and as a superhero, all the while fondly remembering how he and Karen Page came to meet and fall in love, while dealing with trying to bring his father’s murderer to justice. We are given more depth and emotion in this tale than you could ever hope for in a comic series. This is one of the things I have always liked most about Daredevil. As much as he tries to hide it and act tough, he wears his heart on his sleeve.
Daredevil: Yellow is the best Daredevil origin there is, it is refreshing, cinematic, graphically superior in it’s flow and design, and it finds a way to kick ass while pulling on the heartstrings of us and our beloved fictional comic book hero. To me that’s what I was talking about earlier… to me that is the magic that’s given to us every now and then, when two collaborators come together and tell their story in this great medium. When you turn the last page and close the book, you can’t help but think about what it is you just read and think.
Wktf’s Trade Review
Spider-Man: Blue
Marvel Comics
Written by: Jeph Loeb
Drawn by: Tim Sale
It’s hard for me to write this review without slipping into hyperbole. I grew up with the Stan Lee, Steve Ditko and John Romita, Sr. Amazing Spider-Man comics and this series, as it was coming out in five separate installments and even more so reading it as a trade collection, feels like a Valentine to these three legendary creators. Which, maybe, it is even as the story opens on Valentine’s Day and today’s Spider-Man, now married to MJ, brings a single red rose to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge and begins a dialogue with the long-dead Gwen Stacy (much as Daredevil: Yellow began with Matt’s addressing the recently murdered Karen Page), about whom Peter says at the end of this book, “…and I long for a time when a girl I knew with an incredible smile and so much good in her heart made me think…life can be great.”
We learn here that Peter believes things have to get really, really bad before they can get good. Good follows bad. And while this incredible story, which reprises several classic Lee/Ditko/Romita, Sr. Spider-Man moments, does not go all the way to the worst moment in Peter’s life, the death of Gwen Stacy, the moment many feel ended the Silver Age of Comics, it does something much more powerful. It shows us Peter’s introduction to both Gwen and MJ, his courtship of Gwen and the moment when they first gave themselves to each other, all the while knowing the awful moment that awaits these two young lovers. Ironically and fittingly, this book begins with Peter’s unmasking at the hands of the Green Goblin, the moment back in Amazing Spider-Man #39-40 that began the spiral toward Gwen’s death. One plot device in this book it turns out, is that there’s a mysterious hand moving Spidey’s various villains, including the Goblin, The Rhino, The Lizard, and The Vulture (both of them!) against the wall-crawler, but even after the shadowed mastermind is revealed we still discover all is not as it seems. Loeb winds an intricate plot, interweaving the progression of Peter’s young personal life with Spidey’s superhero life in a way that drives to a surprising conclusion even as Peter’s life begins to find resolution and happiness. But, we have to remember throughout all these flashbacks, that it is today’s Peter that is telling this tale in a recording to Gwen, one of many we discover, that creates yet another layer of fine, emotional storytelling to this book. This, ultimately, is the story of Gwen Stacy, Peter’s first and possibly greatest love. More than any of the other Marvel “color” books, this one is most aptly named, as Peter explains, as there is a melancholy blueness, like in jazz music, that still pervades Peter’s life even this long after Gwen’s death.
So, is this book fun to read or is it a total downer? It’s a blast is what it is, but with a strong emotional core that pulls at the center of the reader. The “blast” part is delivered in spades by Tim Sale, who sketched a way-cool Spidey face inside my Spider-Man: Blue HC at the ’05 Boston Con. This book explodes with action and wild, wise cracking Spidey battles against the various foes I mentioned previously. Sales’ panoramic images of Spider-Man swinging away from or into the massive NYC skyscrapers are stunning and, as he did in Superman: For All Seasons with the Smallville General Store, he even makes Aunt May’s kitchen an incredibly intricate Norman Rockwell-ish slice-of-life illustration. What’s also really cool is how he moves from a Gwen Stacy drawn similarly to how Ditko drew her, a little harsher, a little edgier, to the far softer and more beautiful Gwen of Romita, Sr. as this story progresses. But his Ditko references, one with Flash reprising the famous Amazing Fantasy #15 cover and another shot of Spidey battling the Scorpion, for instance, are spot on flawless. If you’ve grown up with Spidey over the last 40+ years, you’ll love this book. If you haven’t and these images and references all are new to you, you’ll love this book (I hope). It’s harder to find the original HC version but it’s readily available as a tpb. If you’re one of the few comic book readers who does not own this beauty, do yourself a favor and pick it up.