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| Wednesday, September 5, 2007 09:17 AM |
| The Take, Part Two |
 by Fëanor |
Blue Beetle #18
I had backissue Blue Beetle #13 on my list, but when I got to the store the only issue on the shelf was this one which, when I opened it, I realized was actually the one I was looking for anyway, so I picked it up. And hey, it's good! The new Blue Beetle finds himself on a school trip to see a space shuttle launch. But more than one class is there to witness the launch - and the other class includes the members of the Teen Titans. Unfortunately, they don't recognize each other right away, which leads to wacky misadventures as they both independently attempt to protect the shuttle from some unspecified alien menace that turns out to be the dreaded Lobo, who's working for Blue Beetle's enemies, the Reach. The issue is loaded with fun character stuff, hilariously funny and clever dialogue, and a great story packed with action. I am officially a fan. I will definitely pick up the next issue.
The Last Fantastic Four Story
This is a book I knew I'd have to purchase, given the title, and the fact that it's written by Stan Lee with art by John Romita Jr. And the art is indeed quite excellent. The people come out looking a bit boxy sometimes, but I like Romita's style, and he can do big, amazing, awe-inspiring panels like nobody's business. The problem here is definitely in the writing. Lee's style, incredibly, hasn't changed even the smallest iota since his work in the first Spider-Man comics. There are still little narrative boxes to explain everything that's going on, even when it's already obvious from the pictures. People still say aloud ridiculous things that people would never actually say. Everything is described with a superlative of some kind. The story and dialogue are both incredibly melodramatic, and the plot itself is both unbelievable and nonsensical.
The premise is simple enough: an incredibly powerful, apparently nearly all-knowing race calling themselves the Cosmic Tribunal, who can make things happen with the power of thought alone, decide that humanity is too war-like and immoral to be allowed to live any longer, and they declare a death sentence upon us, sending a giant, invulnerable agent known as the Adjudicator to announce their decision and to give humanity a week to get their affairs in order. The Fantastic Four and all of the other big-name Marvel heroes (not to mention the US military) try to figure out what they can do; mostly they end up attacking the Adjudicator and failing utterly to even put a mark on him. Finally what they decide to do is to use the help of Galactus and the Silver Surfer to send a mindless race of killers known as the Decimators after the Cosmic Tribunal. Admittedly, the entire human race is at stake, but this seems like an unlikely step for Richard Reed to take. I mean, wouldn't they consider tracking down the Tribunal themselves first and trying to talk them out of things before sending a mindless race of killers after them? Anyway, of course, Reed instantly has second thoughts about what he's done and everybody bands together and flies off to the Tribunal world to save them from the Decimators, thus proving humanity worthy of continuing to live. The FF all get awards and big commendations, and then decide to quit the whole superhero biz, because obviously they can't top saving the human race.
But there are a number of things about that story that don't make sense to me. First of all, why would anybody, even the Decimators, be a threat of any kind to a race whose power is the power of thought? Why can't they just think the Decimators out of existence? Why aren't they as invulnerable as the Adjudicator? Why do they need the help of humans, who couldn't even harm the Adjudicator in the slightest, to destroy the Decimators? And how come the Decimators are horribly injured and have to take off pretty much as soon as the humans start attacking? I also don't buy the idea of the FF just quitting superheroing after they save the entire Earth. Who would let them quit after that? What if the Earth ends up in danger again? And when were the FF ever in it for the fame and fortune anyway (well, besides Johnny)?
So yeah, the story is ridiculous, it doesn't work, and Lee's style, while it's quaint and enjoyable when I read it in a classic issue of Amazing Spider-Man, is utterly out of date and out of place in a modern comic book. Which isn't to say there aren't fun moments. But overall, it's really just not a good book.
The New Fantastic Four #549
Meanwhile, regular old FF continues apace, despite the fact that the last FF story has already been released. I really love Paul Pelletier's art in this issue - especially in the close-ups on the characters - and McDuffie's writing is fun, too. The Invisible Woman has a particularly fantastic scene where she talks a supervillain into fainting. It's a little disappointing that the villain from the big reveal last issue is disposed of so quickly and easily, but hey, there wasn't much time to spend on him, since we had to get back to the other plot of this story arc - which turns out to be the destruction of the universe by a terrible doomsday weapon. Good stuff!
X-Men: First Class #1-3
Wow, I'm so glad I saw some scans of one of these and decided to pick up all three issues. This book is so much fun. As you might guess, it's going back and telling the story of Professor Xavier's first class of mutants - the original X-Men team - which includes Angel, Beast (before he was blue and furry), Cyclops, Marvel Girl, and Ice Man. And normally that kind of setup would bore the hell out of me, but they tell the story here with an incredible amount of humor and an incredible sense of - like I said - pure fun. The lovely, slightly cartoony art of Roger Cruz and colorist Val Staples is the perfect accompaniment to Jeff Parker's smart, engaging, hilarious prose. All this, and the team ends up on Monster Island, trying to survive an onslaught of horrible creatures, and witnessing a giant head fight! It's brilliant, and I will definitely be collecting it from now on.
Hellboy: Darkness Calls #5
What can I say about Hellboy? As usual, the art is totally amazing, atmospheric, and beautiful; the story is engaging; the action is crazy; the dialogue is alternately impressive and doom-laden, goofy and hilarious. My only complaints about this issue are that it's not quite as awesome as other Hellboy issues have been, and also for some reason I felt vaguely confused by it the whole time. But I think everything will make more sense once I get the last issue in this arc and then read the whole thing together, one issue after the other. Oh, and reading the two arcs that came before this one might also help.
World War Hulk: X-Men #3
OK, so this did turn out to pretty much be the Hulk continuing to beat up every mutant in sight, but I ended up liking it anyway. When the Hulk says, "This is pathetic. I don't even know who most of you are," that line really kind of hit home for me, and amused me quite a bit, because neither did I. The mutant who's nearby when he says this responds by introducing herself and saying that she's virtually invulnerable. The Hulk then punts her into the distance, saying, "Go be invulnerable in Jersey." Bah ha ha ha! That's good stuff. Also, the ending to this one was surprising to me. One of the young mutants pretty much talks the Hulk out of taking Professor X away with him by giving a little speech about how much the mutants have lost lately, and making the Hulk realize that Xavier is already living in his own little hell. This scene could have been really corny and lame, but somehow it works. Of course, once I got to the very end, I couldn't help but feel this whole miniseries was vaguely pointless, as it all took place between WWH #1 and WWH #2, and we already knew the Hulk was going to get away and fight Iron Man and so forth. But it was still a good read, and an interesting little side track, and there's a lot of good smashing, not to mention some surprisingly good writing from Chris Gage.
Avengers: The Initiative #5
The other WWH book this week brings us back to the storyline of the incredibly lame Initiative recruits, but thankfully mostly ignores them and focuses on a secret black ops Initiative team with some slightly more interesting characters in it. The central guy in the story is Trauma, a boy with the ability to become his target's worst fear. Seeing him use his power on the Hulk, and then seeing the result of that was a really cool little sequence. Mutant Zero was also an intriguing character; I thought maybe her mysterious background was already supposed to be known to me, but a quick check on Wikipedia has convinced me otherwise. She really is mysterious! I sure would like to know her true identity. Hopefully it will come out during WWH or I'll be able to find it on the internet eventually, because I definitely haven't seen enough good things in this book to want to actually collect it.
Batman: The Doom that Came to Gotham #1 & #2
Fat Jack's was able to find the first two books in this trilogy, but not the third one, which is pure agony to me, as in these first two episodes, the premise - Mike Mignola writing an Elseworlds story that cleverly marries H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos with DC's Batman mythos, thus essentially pitting Batman against Cthulhu - is executed in exactly as awesome a fashion as I had hoped it would be, and the art - by Troy Nixey - is truly fantastic, and really strongly in the Mignola style. I won't review it any further until I get the third book and can talk about the trilogy as a whole. Suffice it to say - if you have that third book, or know where it can be acquired, I am willing to pay for it in human blood.
Runaways Volume 4: True Believers
I like the story arc of this volume, which launches in a pretty shocking fashion with a hot adult Gert coming back from the future and, before dying in Chase's arms, revealing that she and the future Avengers, along with pretty much every other hero on Earth, will be killed by a villain whom the Runaways must now track down and stop before he can become all-powerful. Meanwhile, we're also introduced to a support group for ex-superheroes (which consists mainly of a bunch of young second- and third-stringers) who are hired by a secret benefactor to track down the Runaways (apparently to save them, but who knows for sure?). Although both storylines come to a kind of conclusion in this volume, they also are both left open-ended, so that the villain could still be a danger, and the superhero support group is still out there looking for the Runaways. Also, at the very end, yet another storyline is opened up, with the introduction of a new, but horrifyingly familiar, threat to our heroes.
It's another solid volume of Runaways fun and action, with plenty of the self-referential comic book/pop culture humor we're used to. It left me, however, with that same strange, uneasy feeling that Runaways often leaves me with - like it's good, but not that great, and maybe it could have been better. But really the point is, it's fine entertainment, and I definitely want to know what happens next.
Planetary Volume 2: The Fourth Man
Woah. This volume is pretty mind-blowing. It reveals the identity and fate of Elijah's predecessor, besides also revealing the identity of the mysterious "fourth man" in Planetary. It also continues the storyline about those four immortal, super-powered villains who appear to be the mortal enemies of Planetary (in fact, Elijah essentially declares war on them, the crazy bastard). It also makes some interesting StormWatch references which I actually am able to get now. And then there's the incredibly dark issue that includes horribly twisted origin stories for three characters obviously meant to be Ellis' versions of Superman, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lantern. If you don't come away from that issue at least a little scarred, you're not human.
It's good stuff, but I also came away feeling slightly puzzled. I think I need to read it again, directly after reading Planetary Volume One again. Then things might flow a bit more smoothly for me. Although I'm pretty sure the issue that introduces Snow's predecessor still won't make a lot of sense; there's stuff in there that doesn't appear to have been explained yet, and might not make sense for some time.
Planetary Volume 3: Leaving the 20th Century
Ellis is essentially creating here a universe large enough to fit all cool things ever - his own little comics mythos that he can play around in. Every story, idea, or character that was ever awesome is apparently somehow going to be introduced into this world at some point. In the last book he briefly introduced Sherlock Holmes into this reality, as well as a character who was clearly meant to be James Bond; now he gives us the full flashback on the Holmes story, and then also brings in the Invisible Man, Baron Frankenstein and his creatures, Dracula, Tarzan, and, in a particularly brilliant sequence, the cane/hammer of Marvel's Thor. He probably also makes some other references I'm not well-read enough to get. All that while giving us more backstory on Elijah Snow and the other members of Planetary, and continuing, in the present, the storyline of Planetary versus the evil four. It's rocking stuff. Sometimes it gets a bit too... expositiony. But overall, it's just great. My favorite story in this collection is probably the last one, "The Gun Club." Not only does it feature the members of Planetary kicking some serious ass, it also has a neat, moving little story about an ancient space capsule that ends up kind of capturing everything that Planetary is about. The world is a strange place, and Planetary is keeping it that way. And I couldn't be happier about that. |
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