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| Saturday, January 19, 2008 02:12 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
Iron Man: Extremis
I was vaguely aware that this was a pivotal miniseries in Iron Man's history, but I didn't realize just how pivotal until I started reading it. It collects #1-6 of the most recent volume of The Invincible Iron Man, and it's essentially Warren Ellis' re-origin story for Iron Man, wherein the character is quite literally reborn as the Iron Man of The Future.
It starts off a bit slow, but then gathers speed and power until all of the sudden it's hurtling forward like an 18-wheeler with rockets attached. The story is about a new super-soldier serum called Extremis which is handed over by one of the designers to some homegrown American terrorists who inject one of their members with it, turning him into a nightmarish super-terrorist who begins running amok. Another of the designers reveals what's going on to Tony Stark, who instantly suits up to face off against the guy - only to discover that his old, slow metal suit, even outfitted with the latest improvements he's designed for it, is woefully unsuited to facing the high-speed, high-powered threats of the future. It's only by jumping feet first into terrifying and potentially deadly new technology that he can modernize his Iron Man suit and hope to defeat the super-soldier. And it's only by looking inward at himself and reconsidering the entire bent of his life that Tony Stark can become strong enough to face the new world - and his own reflection in the mirror.
The book is brilliant, beautiful, powerful, thought-provoking, and action-packed. It's full of the regular Ellis themes of extreme violence, insane future science, radical political analysis, and hacking the human body. I wasn't sure how much I liked Adi Granov's smooth, computer-generated-looking art at first, but I warmed up to it, and it certainly suits the book well. One of the best moments in the book is when Ellis and Granov parallel Iron Man's original origin story, in flashback, with his re-origin story, as he's lying in his cocoon waiting to emerge as the man of the future. There's also another scene where Tony Stark and the Extremis designer go to see an old friend of theirs, and the three of them discuss a bunch of interesting philosophical issues in a really engaging and amusing way.
Ellis succeeds in taking an old character and rejuvenating him for the present without losing anything that was originally great about him. It's excellent work.
B.P.R.D. Volume 5: The Black Flame
So many of these old B.P.R.D. story arcs are so good, I'm feeling like I definitely need to re-read the more recent ones, which disappointed me a bit the first time around, and see if maybe I'll like them more once I'm all caught up. Anyway, this one is another fantastic piece of work from the ass-kicking team of Mike Mignola and John Arcudi on writing, Guy Davis on art, and Dave Stewart on colors. The frog monster peril escalates into all-out war and near armageddon in this book, as our heroes find themselves fighting a losing battle against the creatures, gunning down and burning out innumerable hordes of them, only to find more and more and more. Meanwhile, Daimio is still rubbing Liz the wrong way, but Roger has decided to emulate him in all things (leading to some pretty funny sequences). Abe has taken himself off the field team and is still haunted by memories of the wife of his former self, and Liz starts having unsettling dreams involving a mysterious man who warns her that things are even worse than they appear (this guy came back in a couple of the most recent story arcs, but his true motives and identity remain a mystery). Meanwhile, the CEO of Zinco, secretly a Nazi, has a plan for the frog monsters, and a supervillain alter ego: the Black Flame!
Put simply, this book is perfect. It's thrilling, suspenseful, horrifying, funny, and exciting. It's loaded with epic action and violence, and breath-taking magic and monsters, but there are also quiet, moving character scenes. The art and colors are mind-blowingly fantastic. Oh, and I love the crazy old guy who works for the B.P.R.D. That guy is hilarious.
Only one more volume, and my collection of B.P.R.D. will be complete! Then, like I said, I have to re-read all the issues I've been collecting and see if I was missing out on anything.
Annihilation: Conquest #2
I happened to be in the city late Tuesday night with some extra time on my hands, so I dropped by Atomic City to check for a couple of back issues I'd been unable to find in my local shop, and lo and behold, they had one! That one was this, the second issue in the miniseries that tells the main storyline of the Annihilation: Conquest arc. I'd already read #3, so reading this one was slightly confusing, but did help fill in some gaps. It was actually reading scans of this issue online that in part convinced me to start collecting this title, so I obviously enjoyed reading those bits again. It's just great sci-fi comics, with plenty of comedy, action, and drama, and excellent art to back it all up. I'm looking forward to following the series through to its conclusion now.
Nexus: Space Opera #1
During my same visit to the comic shop that netted me A:C #2, I saw this book on the shelf. It's the first issue in the first new miniseries about the Nexus character in 10 years, with writing and art by original creators Mike Baron and Steve Rude, respectively. I read the first couple of volumes of Nexus thanks to my local library and enjoyed them, so I thought I'd give this a try. It is indeed, as the subtitle suggests, a space opera. Nexus is a super-powered agent of vengeance who lives on an alien planet now populated by all the peoples he's freed from evil tyrants, as well as various other groups of refugees. In this story, his long-time love is pregnant with their child and readying to give birth, but meanwhile unrest is brewing amongst the citizens of his world, and a plot to murder his child is being developed.
Unfortunately, like all the other Nexus books I've read, it's a bit uneven. It's an odd and uneasy mixture of goofy comedy and extreme melodrama. The story is intriguing enough, there's some exciting action, and sometimes it is funny. But it never really tips the scales and becomes truly excellent. Rude's art is really quite good, though, as are Glenn Whitmore's colors, and the miniseries is only four issues long, so I'll probably pick up at least one more of these.
Immortal Iron Fist #12
It's funny how different people's perceptions of things can be. I read this book and was thoroughly underwhelmed by it, and even began contemplating dropping the series altogether. Chris Sims, on the other hand, gave it his "best of the week" award and called it the best comic Marvel is putting out right now. I guess the main issue is that Sims is all about action and I'm all about story. There is a lot of action in this comic, but not a lot of great story. I actually found it at times melodramatic and at other times just rather dull. There's some intrigue, but it's kind of cliche and even slightly unbelievable. I think it might be time for me to leave this title behind. Which I'm pretty sure would leave me with only one title by Matt Fraction that I'm still actively collecting. I haven't come to the conclusion that the guy's not talented, because he definitely is. I've just decided his writing is too uneven on most titles for it to be worth it to collect them.
Incredible Hercules #113
One guy who has yet to disappoint me is Greg Pak. Can I just say again how much I wish they'd given Hulk to him instead of the awful Jeph Loeb? Anyways, this book features a kick-ass fusion of ancient Greek mythology and the Marvel-verse; more of my favorite genius boy, Amadeus Cho, totally pwning S.H.I.E.L.D. & Company; and Herc getting stuck in a flashback, flipping out, and totally beating the crap out of a couple superheroes. Nice.
World War Hulk: Warbound #2
Pak's other book this week is also awesome. The Warbound find themselves trapped in the Leader's "Gammaworld," trying to make peace with S.H.I.E.L.D. soldiers long enough to save a town full of unlucky humans before they get themselves smashed by gamma mutants of various sorts. There's also a more detailed explanation of Hiroim's power, him using it impressively, and the next episode of the back-up feature with a very fascinating look back into the history of Hiroim's character. Good stuff.
Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite #5
The first Umbrella Academy series hurtles towards its conclusion in action-packed issue #5 of 6. It features Kraken being Batman to Inspector Lupo's Commissioner Gordon, and thus learning a key piece of information that might have led him to the true threat... if it weren't already too late. It also has a strange little scene in which #5 seems to learn something terrible about Pogo's past, but it's not clear exactly what he learned, or exactly how he learned it. Then there's a tender character-developing moment between Spaceboy and the Rumor... and then all hell breaks loose, and the last day in the history of the world begins. The way the issue ends - with a newspaper revealing that the day of the apocalypse is going to be a perfect day with beautiful weather - is completely brilliant. The main story is followed up by a fantastic and hilarious page from the Encyclopedia Umbrellica, which tells the origin story of Vanya's violin, while also revealing that Stradivarius was a vampire.
This is probably the best issue of this series yet, and I expect the sixth one to be even better. Bravo!
Mouse Guard Volume 1: Fall 1152
This is a lovely hardcover graphic novel/collection that was another unexpected but welcome Christmas gift from poppy. I'd never heard of Mouse Guard before, but apparently this first series was a big indie hit went it first came out, and a second series (Winter 1152) is currently being released bi-monthly in a square issue format. I'm definitely going to have to start collecting that because this first series is quite excellent. It's sort of like Watership Down or The Rats of NIMH, if you replaced all the rabbits and rats with mice, and then gave them swords and a complex medieval society. The story isn't as intricate as that of Song of Ice and Fire, but it's the same basic concept - an action fantasy epic with lots of politics, intrigue, and war.
Mouse Guard is, impressively enough, entirely the creation of one man: David Petersen. He did all the art and all the writing. His strong point is definitely the art; the writing is certainly not terrible, but the story and dialogue tend a bit towards the simplistic, melodramatic, unoriginal, and predictable. Which is not to say I disliked reading it; it's still a fantastic adventure story with some fun characters that is completely engaging and entertaining.
And the art! Good lord is it beautiful. Everything - the map in the front, the illustrations on the title pages and in-between sections, and of course every panel in the main story sections - is done with great care and with a wonderful eye for color and detail. It's imaginative, lovely, dramatic, and just all around fantastic.
Like I said, the story is just standard epic fantasy kind of stuff, but a basic fantasy adventure accompanied by this wonderful art is totally okay with me. |
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