Sam Wilson’s Reviews
Another big week this week with a variety of books available to even the choosiest of comic fans. A trio of chica books from DC,
Hawkgirl,
Catwoman, and
Supergirl and the Legion of Super Heroes, Wildstorm’s excellent yet seemingly unloved
The American Way, and from the distinguished competition we have
Astonishing X-men and Reggie Hudlin’s
Black Panther to choose from, oh yeah, and let’s not forget Dan Slott’s
The Thing. So yeah, a great week for comics,
my pick of the week this week is
Hawkgirl (love that Howard Chaykin), and that being said, on the reviews…
Hawkgirl issue #51
DC Comics
Written by: Walter Simonson
Drawn by: Howard Chaykin
Yes, you read the title description correctly, two of the most legendary comic creators who are still living are writing
Hawkgirl. Walter Simonson, whom you all know from his character defining work on Thor, and his other great works including
X-factor,
Batman,
Manhunter, and even
Orion. The man created Beta Ray Bill. Got a chance to meet him at NYC con as well, hell of a nice guy to boot. Then there is Howard Chaykin, who is best known for his independent work on the groundbreaking
American Flagg series. He also updated the character
The Shadow for the 20th century, and did the art for the 1977 “Star Wars” movie adaptation. Both of these creators have cut their teeth time and time again for major projects with major companies, and have met with great critical and fan success, and now they combine their talents for more of DC’s “One Year Later” Madness with
Hawkgirl.
Umm, other than what I watch on the JLU animated series, there is not a heck of a whole lot I can tell you about Hawkgirl (hey, I’m a Chaykin and Simonson fan, that’s why I picked up this book, I never said I cared for the character). The Hawkgirl in this current series is Kendra Saunders, a young woman who committed suicide. When her soul left her body, that of her grandaunt, Shiera Hall , the Golden Age Hawkgirl, entered it. Umm, that’s about all I know. She has taken over Hawkman’s old comic starting with issue #50, and is still hanging out in St. Roch, Louisiana as a museum administrator. Hawkman has been missing for over a year (presumably after he events of the “Rann/Thangarian War”) and Kendra has been doing a bang up job reinvigorating the museum after the recent environmental catastrophes that have plagued the region. Anyway, weird things have been happening in St. Roch, homeless people have been found hacked up. An attempt is made on Kendra’s life (her car is tampered with and she almost dies in a wreck). All this, and old papers have been unearthed during the museum’s renovation, and a sealed vault in the basement is found to have old pictographs of what looks like hawk people. Then there is a cave in and we are led to the beginning of issue #51…
Issue #51 opens with Kendra in her bed only having a dim memory of recent events. She knows she wrecked her car because it is not in her parking spot, but she doesn’t remember being in a cave in and she thinks it was a dream. She meets an associate for dinner and soon finds herself (as Hawkgirl) getting involved in a grisly murder-in-progress. Some interesting story telling by Simonson, of course just more of what I would expect, and some dead-sexy art from Howard Chaykin. I know a lot of people are not a fan of his style, but I am, and he has truly outdone himself with
Hawkgirl. So yeah, pick this book up, it definitely deserves its place as my pick of the week.
New Avengers Annual #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn by: Olivier Coipel
A mighty marvel wedding event is the main focus of this annual, a wedding almost forgotten since both
Alias and
The Pulse have been cancelled and Bendis has been given carte blanche to do whatever he wants with the Jessica Drew aka Spider-woman character. Yes, I’m talking about the wedding of Marvel new/old comer Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. It all started back in Bendis’s MAX series
Alias. Jessica Jones was a failed Avenger and thought she was a failure as a person; a down on her luck PI who decided one day to engage in a one-night-stand with her old pal Luke Cage (their relationship was given a nice “origin” story in the final issue of
The Pulse). Well, she got pregnant, they ended up working together as Matt Murdock’s bodyguards, then Luke Cage was invited to join the New Avengers and Luke wanted to do right by Jessica and popped the question. She accepted and now they are getting married. Yeah, the kid has already popped out, crazy things have happened (Secret War, the failed “big event” limited series being one them), but the wedding is on. Well, the wedding and an updated for the new century Avengers villain who first showed up as a big green pain in the butt (waaaay back in “Avengers # 42, 196-something…) known as the Super-Adaptoid…
Anyway, AIM (Advanced Idea Mechanics for those who care, a techno/terrorist group) make the still-lightly crispy Yelena Belova aka the Black Widow 2 an offer to gain her revenge against the people she blames for her current state of, uh, crispiness (see
New Avengers #’s 1-6 for more info on how that happened). They grant her the powers of an old Avengers Villain, the Super-Adaptoid, a, um, thing that can absorb the powers of everyone it touches. Then they sick her loose. That, and Jessica Jones accepts Luke Cages wedding proposal from the last issue of
The Pulse (well duh). Not much else to say really, except everyone on the team gets in on the massive brawl, and the actual wedding is only a couple of pages long. It’s still pretty cool though. Not much Civil War stuff or anything like that, but a solid read and some chuckle worthy moments for sure. So yeah, if you want to see more Jessica Jones and learn the fate of Yelena and see some kick-a$# New Avengers action, then pick this book up. Word.
The American Way #3 (of 8)
DC/Wildstorm Comics
Written by: John Ridley
Drawn by: Georges Jeanty
For those of you who care, John Ridley wrote and directed one of my favorite movies ever, “The Three Kings” (Desert Storm movie with Mark Walhburg, George Clooney and Ice Cube). “Three Kings” was kinda like “Kelly’s Heroes” but with more heart, a lot more grey and was easily one of the most overlooked movies of its time. Comic writer Christopher Priest has often cited “Three Kings” as his inspiration for his “Crew” series (the short-lived Marvel book featuring Jim Rhodes, Josiah X, Kasper Cole and a few other lower tier Marvel characters who were much loved, but apparently not loved by enough). Anyway, The American Way is Ridley’s second foray into the comics genre, his first being the “Authority” OGN “Human on the Inside” (which was pretty good, check it out). Like “Three Kings” and his other work, Ridley’s The American Way is vaguely political, historically based and always intelligent.
The American Way opens in 1961 with the story of the ICON, a new concept car and its creator, Wesley Catham. The ICON was going to be the next hot automobile, but that fell flat. An alien attack on the earth at several locations at the same time, including the auto show debuting the ICON, messed that up. Yes, the Civil Defense Corps, the US’s own home grown super-team, repelled the attack, but the debut of the ICON would forever be associated with that day, and soon Wesley Catham found himself without a job, but not for long; which is fine and great but who the heck are the Civil Defense Corps (CDC)?
With members including space aliens and mini-skirt clad women, the CDC is this Earth’s ‘60’s version of the Avengers and the JLA. They are they heroes of the United States, having repelled many attacks, and always prevailed. From natural disasters to Nazi’s, the CDC has been there for the US, and has put them in a place of prominence as far as world power ranking, because it’s rough having to keep up with the Russian’s advances in space technology and nuclear weaponry, unfortunately there is one whole caveat to the CDC I have not mentioned yet. They are a fraud. Sure their powers are real, even there “exploits” are real (as much as pro-wrestling is real, or choreographed I should say), but everything they do, manufactured by the American propaganda machine since World War 2.
This brings us back to Wesley Catham, he was lucky enough to have been friends with Robert Kennedy, currently our nation’s Attorney General, now offered the task of keeping up the charade, and given charge of the hype machine that keeps America sleeping safe, and so it begins. Issue two has Catham neck deep into his new job and making some serious waves. He believes America is ready for (well, not ready for as much as needs) a black superhero, and no one else seems to agree with him, including said black super hero. Issue three has the entire team and Wesley questioning what they are doing, while his latest hero, the “New American” wants to tell the world that he is a black man. Things go from bad to worse, and the team learns what it is like to fight when the stakes are real, but against an enemy they didn’t see coming. Ridley has really outdone himself with this intricate, well plotted out story. George Jeanty’s art is beautiful as well, and I for one will be sticking with this series for as long as it is around and give it my highest possible recommendation.
Wktf’s Reviews
Pretty decent size week for me, and a great week for comics. In addition to the three I review below, I also picked up
The Thing #6 (pull Slott’s thing, dammit!),
Black Panther #15,
New Avengers Annual #1 (happy to see Luke and Jessica tie the knot!),
Astonishing X-Men #14 (with a cover that is both accurate and deceptive at the same time),
Incredible Hulk #94,
The Sentry #8 (I’ve been trash talking this series but buying every issue…I may need therapy on this one),
Villains United Infinite Crisis Special, and
The Collected Jack Kirby Collector Vol. 5 (yes!). A lot of great things happening in comics this week, not the least of which is happening in my first review…
Fantastic Four #537
Marvel Comics
Written by: J. Michael Straczynski
Drawn by: Mike McKone
I had so much fun writing the intro to last month’s Fantastic Four review I had to recycle that first paragraph here. Here we go.
Mjolnir. The hammer of Thor and the most powerful weapon in the known universe. Prior to
FF #536 we last saw Mjolnir in the pages of
Thor #85, way back in 2004 (has it really been two years?). Surtur, the one who killed Thor’s father Odin, the leader of the fire giants in the south and ruler of Muspel, the realm of fire, had reforged the thunder god’s broken hammer in exchange for a free pass to Asgard. According to Norse legend the end of the world, known as Ragnarok, would see Surtur’s hordes rush north to overwhelm the Asgardian gods. Thor, then newly repossessed of the Odinpower, made this legend possible for Surtur in order for his kin to die their final, glorious warriors’ death. Meanwhile, Thor dispatched “those who sit above in shadows” who, for time immemorial, had leeched off the energies from the Asgardians’ perpetual cycle of destruction and rebirth, a cycle these gods-of-gods themselves perpetuated for their own selfish purposes. Mjolnir was the tool of their deaths after which Thor, suffering grief for the loss of his people yet rejoicing in their final glorious end, realizing he “must stand alone” with even the personification of the Odinpower now fading from him, with “no star to guide [him]…or a bird to show [him] a sign,” seems to fade into the cosmos as he closes his eyes to rest and “breathe deep the slumber of the gods…for a while, at least…”
In discussing
Fantastic Four #536-7, Editor Tom Breevort said in this interview,
http://www.comicscontinuum.com/stori...arvelpress.htm, "It's the first step on the road to bringing back Thor into the Marvel Universe." Well, thunder-philes, flash to last month’s FF #536: a mysterious object that was registered to be “only a couple of feet in size, too small to do any significant damage” crashed to Earth (Oklahoma, specifically) six months ago and left an enormous crater from its impact. We know from last issue that the object was Mjolnir and that a government installation was built over it to safeguard and study it. Reed Richards and the FF were summoned by the military to help out and it’s a good thing, too, as it seemed every remaining Doombot had been powered up to attack this facility and retrieve Mjolnir. But not everything was as it seemed as the Fantastic Four not only took on the Doombots but, to Reed’s great surprise, also encounter Dr. Doom, himself, who was supposed to have been trapped in Hell! And Doom believed himself to be the only one worthy enough to lift and wield the sacred hammer, thereby granting him the power to rule over all the world’s nations.
Warning. Possible spoilers from this point forward: With
FF #527 we learn that Mjolnir does not just represent Doom’s key to the future but also was his means of escape from Hell. In a scene that may well personify Doom’s villainous arrogance we see a flash back of his defiantly, and bereft of any weaponry, squaring off against the minions of Hell, daring them to take him down and proclaiming “- - There is Doom Enough For All!” But during this brief battle, Mjolnir’s descent to Earth created a dimensional rip into which Doom cast himself to return to Earth. And having felt the touch of the Asgardians as they fell, and the power of Thor as Ragnarok tore through Hell itself, he believed he was infused with the energies needed to lift Mjolnir. But was he? Reed Richards, not wanting to chance the answer, sent Ben into Doom’s path to stop him. And after a pitched brawl (it’s always great to see these two face each other) we get to see both Doom and Ben take there turns with the hammer. But to what effect? No one believes Doom should be able to achieve his goal but if Steve Rogers and Superman once were “worthy” enough to lift Mjolnir, is not also the noble Ben who, in
FF #511, was resurrected from the dead by none other than the Almighty (and I don’t mean Odin) Himself, pure enough of heart to do so? Well, you’ll have to read this issue to find out.
But by far the most significant part of this tale occurs when those Asgardian energies with which Doom was infused touch the hammer, producing a reaction of huge intensity beyond all expectation. Reed astutely guesses that an “awakening” of sorts happened to Mjolnir (remember the whole “slumber of the gods” thing from the end of my first paragraph?). And as “something major is coming to Oklahoma,” under the rumble of thunder, in the form of an individual with a one-way bus ticket and a duffle bag marked with familiar initials, we realize both that an old enchantment, once removed, may have been reinstated and that Editor Breevort may well have spoke the truth. This issue is not great as an issue of the FF but, rather, as the prelude to a beloved old character’s new beginning. But in what form will he take? His state of being when last he was seen? The state more commonly known to Marvel readers? Dunno, but for all this, and for how wonderfully both JMS and Mike McKone set this stage while still teasing Thor fans mercilessly, it is
my pick of the week.
New Avengers Annual #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn by: Olivier Coipel
My esteemed colleague covered off beautifully, as usual, on this book so the only thing I want to add is that you shouldn’t forget to check out who “The Man” is that’s officiating the ceremony between Luke and Jess. Yes, this “Smilin’” gentleman is well known to all of Marveldom Assembled and it’s always great to see his face pop up in a Marvel comic every now and then!
Batman #652
DC Comics
Written by: James Robinson
Drawn by: Don Kramer
The “Face the Face” OYL Batman story arc that’s toggling between the two Bat books started off brilliantly last month in
Detective Comics #817. We learned that Batman had been away for a full year but now was back and re-partnered with Robin, James Gordon was the commissioner again and Harvey Bullock is back on the force, and the reconstructed (see “Hush”) Harvey Dent has been acting as Gotham’s protector in the mean time. Sadly though, for Harvey, despite his new face he’s still hearing dark voices. The once fearsome KGBeast had been thrown off a roof with two (count ‘em, two) bullets in his head. Magpie, a villainess I’d not seen since John Byrne’s “Man of Steel,” and The Ventrioloquist/Scarface both (or all three, depending on your view of Scarface) were executed the same way.
The prior covers in this arc have focused on close ups of Batman and Harvey. This issue gives us Robin on the cover, up close. And this is a big action issue for Tim as he goes solo, with his mentor’s permission, in a pitched battle against Killer Moth. This issue continues the tact in this arc of presenting us with a calmer and more compassionate side to Batman than we’ve seen in years. The guilt over Tim’s father and responsibility he feels for Tim’s future, his desire to fight for Harvey despite mounting incriminating evidence to the contrary if only Harvey can tell Batman what he wants to hear, and the truly out of former character reconciliation with Bullock, all reinforce my last three issue’s perceptions that this is a Batman who’s undergone some serious introspection over the year he was missing and is bent on changing his ways from the two-dimensional boor of the more recent past. We also learn something interesting about the role Batman assigned Harvey during his one year absence, not unlike the role he assigned Azrael after the Broken Bat storyline which, as with Azrael, may have been more responsibility than Harvey’s fragile mind could handle. This is a solid issue that brings us to the half way point in “Face the Face,” presents more questions than answers right now, and continues to present a far more interesting and well rounded Batman than the one I’d given up on prior to Infinite Crisis. I’m enjoying this Batman relaunch immensely.
Wolverine #41
Marvel Comics
Written by: Stuart Moore
Drawn by: C.P. Smith
And now for a break in our regularly scheduled programming. Billed as a double-sized issue, this issue of Wolverine takes us out of the continuity that’s been built up over the last several months with a one-shot story before the new creative team takes over. The Black Panther has come to the Avengers to rescue the infant daughter of Africa’s Zwatheid President Mayamba. Mayamba was a peace maker in a land of pirates and pillagers but a vicious General Lago, realizing Mayamba’s power, had him murdered. The Panther, unable to move on one of his neighbors finds himself in need of assistance to someday bring a peaceful force to Zwareid in the form of Mayamba’s future adult daughter. And Logan volunteered to be this child’s savior.
I was really looking forward to this issue and, for the most part, it delivered pretty well. We see the compassionate as well as the killer sides of Wolverine and it’s a blend that works better than the pure berserker or coddling mentor as he’s sometimes portrayed. In fact, the most interesting parts of this comic are when he’s conflicted about killing his enslaved enemies and when he feels he must keep his berserker rage in check for the sake of the little charge strapped to his body. The punishment he suffers, from the jungle insects to bullets to the rain of arrows depicted on the cover is just staggering, though not more staggering that anything we’ve seen before (Mark Millar’s final WWII concentration camp issue would have us believe Logan has survived decapitation), and the fact he’s willing to come so close to death to protect one lone innocent who could also grow up to be a country’s future is totally consistent with a character who’s too quickly stereotyped as a two-dimensional killing machine. Still, both the writing and the art are a little rough, probably intentionally so, but it doesn’t work as well as it should. I didn’t enjoy the issue as much as I hoped I would. It kind of ran a course that I pretty much expected and didn’t offer anything new or interesting to longer time Wolverine readers. It actually may have been trying too hard to be that “special” Wolverine tale and, in doing so, ended up falling a little flat.
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