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Columnist Thunder Mod
Super Moderator
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Denver Area, between Asgard and Krypton
Posts: 21,364
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The Mighty Reviews 5/20/10
Well, my two Mighty partners are out of commission today and with family in last night for my son's high school graduation tonight I could only crank out two reviews. Here ya go:
Wktf’s Reviews
The Avengers #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn by: John Romita, Jr.
Covers by: John Romita, Jr., John Romita, Sr., Greg Land
With Dark Reign and Siege officially at an end, Marvel’s “Heroic Age” officially kicks off with this title and with much Marvel marketing fanfare behind it. The President has wised up, shut Osborn and HAMMER (never did learn what that acronym meant, did we?) down, rescinded the superhero registration act, and put Steve Rogers in charge of policing the world. One of the coolest moments in Siege #4 was Steve’s officially passing his famous shield to Bucky. For me there will only be one, true Captain America but for now, for the next few years probably, I’m perfectly happy with Bucky’s keeping the star spangled mantle. Rogers is proactively recruiting for the official Avengers’ (note the plural possessive) teams, stating that he thinks he knows what the world needs, whether it’s one big Avengers team or a handful of teams. And a multitude of heroes across a wide spectrum of former allies and teams have answered his call. It’s pretty spectacular, really, to think of all these heroes united and officially integrated under one master plan manned by the one man who, in all the Marvel Universe, should seriously be able to pull this off. But ultimately this book is “The Avengers,” the flagship title of the several Avengers books coming out.
And this team, fairly widely publicized, housed in Stark’s HQ complete was Asgardian ornamentation on its roof, includes Thor, Hawkeye (yes, the real Hawkeye), Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America (Bucky-Cap), Spider-Woman and Iron Man. A team that really seems primarily to be the most recent rendition of the pre-Siege New Avengers sandwiched by Thor and Iron Man, the most powerful members of the original Avengers. And as Steve gathers his team we actually learn that his team will be managed by someone else familiar to nearly all of The Avengers, especially Tony Stark, and an active participant in the war against Osbon’s Siege. Of course, the dynamics are a little squirrely among some of the players but, hey, they are just getting started after all. There’s some interesting lack-of-familiarity between Thor and Buck which felt a little strange given their first dialogue back in the Secret Invasion days. What goes on between Tony and Steve can only be explained by what happens in the yet-to-be-published Avengers Prime story, unless Tony’s also referring to Civil War. And there’s a nice bit of coaching offered from Wolverine to Spider-Woman, as well. And there’s even a bit of a mystery over who didn’t show to answer Captain Steve Roger’s call, though we’ll have to see if that’s not explained by the argument he has at the beginning of this book and the cover for issue #2 that’s shown as a teaser at the end.
Naturally, though, no Avengers story can really complete without the #$@&% eventually hitting the fan and, in this one issue, it happens not just once but no less than three times. There’s a brief but violent interlude at the very beginning that sets up the major villain entrance about half way through this book in a moment after which we get this beautiful line from Hawkeye, “THAT would be what it’s like to be on the Avengers with Thor,” a moment that sends our villain careening across the roof tops of New York. But our villain brings a warning of an even greater and more imposing villain even than he, and our team of Avengers have a mystery in front of them that demands investigating.
I’d say this book is off to an absolutely solid start. All the expectations around Siege can’t help but make whatever comes after it to be a bit anticlimactic and this reboot fresh start, being a new beginning, needs to lay some track before it begins revving up. Still, when Bendis and Finch kicked off New Avengers and Bendis and Deodato kicked off Dark Avengers both books felt like they exuded considerably more energy than this one, and I’m guessing that’s a function not only of the character dynamics but also the choice of artist. JR JR’s style, especially lately inked by Klaus Janson, has tended to be more cartoony, blocky and even sloppy. In addition, while some of his closer angle panels are pretty sharp, his wider angle group shots look sloppy to the point of seeming unfinished. Particularly inconsistent are his renderings of Thor, even panel to panel, and Steve Rogers, who sometimes looks more like Johnny Storm than Steve Rogers. So, while this book was fun and certainly had more of an optimistic, heroic feel to it than we’ve seen in many a year, it didn’t quite hit the mark completely. And, frankly, the reveal of the ultimate villain on the very last page made me groan a bit. I mean, haven’t we seen this guy explored in his various iterations enough, twice by Peter David and once recently by Mark Millar? Regardless, I’m on board for at least the next few months to see how this moderately promising start carries through.
War of the Supermen #3 (of 4)
DC Comics
Written by: James Robinson & Sterling Gates
Drawn by: Cafu
Cover by: Eddy Barrows & Matt Ryan
The 100 minute war between Generals Zod and Lane crossed the half way point last issue and now has rounded into the home stretch. When this thing started I couldn’t imagine how Earth, even with the aid of Superman, could stand up to an army of angry Kryptonians. And angry doesn’t even begin to describe them after issue #1 for, now, Zod is not merely striking out at those loved by the House of El nor the people who’d attacked New Krypton before, but at those who destroyed not just the very new home they’d created but the majority of their very race. The way this story has been running, as each side, be it Lane or Zod, seems to take the advantage the tide quickly shifts to the other side, so the reader experiences a pretty rapid-fire and continuous back-and-forth. In the meantime Lois Lane, who was about to publically call out her deranged father, has captured by her superpowered sister and being held by her maniacal father while the grieving Kal-El and Kara have been out in space trying to stop the Kryptonian invasion. Still, with the device supplied to General Lane by Luthor it was difficult to imaging how the Kryptonians could even survive to make it to this issue.
And, the sad truth is that the vast majority of Zod’s army now is dead. Lane has successfully, remarkably and brutally trimmed Zod’s army to a tenth of what it had been. And here lies a strange, unexplained element to this story. If Lane successfully killed nearly seventy thousand Kryptonians, how in the world could Superman and Supergirl both survive this same attack? Is it due to their longer exposure to yellow sun radiation during their lives thus far? It really doesn’t make sense, and seems awfully convenient, that they should be the only ones to survive. Still, even with only 1/10th of Zod’s army still intact, seven thousand hostile beings each with the power of Superman proves to be a serious and devastating force to our planet. And, as Zod’s remaining army tears through our defenses we’re given a set up that promises a couple of major showdowns in the next, final issue.
My only real complaint about this series up until this point has been about the progressive deterioration in artistic talent as we’ve gone from Eddie Barrows in issue #0 to Jamal Ingle in #1 and then Eduardo Pansica with the third issue. Cafu’s art is a swing back in the right direction but it’s still not the powerful art Barrows delivered a t this series’ beginning. In particular, Cafu’s facial expressions are rather flat and his Superman, overall, on the last big dramatic page just doesn’t look all that imposing. Ultimately, while War of the Supermen has been a fun, engaging and even tense read up until now, I feel that it’s losing some of the steam in its stride. Both sides, Zod’s and Lane’s, have much to answer for, with Superman and his band of heroes caught in the middle. And, considering the last two issues have not delivered the same level of power and excitement as issues #0 and 1, it remains to be seen if next week’s conclusion can carry the series properly to it end.
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