New Avengers #47

Written by Brian Bendis
Pencils by Billy Tan and Michael Gaydos

If there is one thing that Brian Bendis does better then almost anybody in the business, it’s character pieces. Few people can tell a great moment these days without resorting to action, especially in super hero stories. And if there is another thing that he does better then almost anybody, it’s write Luke Cage. He turned a guy who was the Shaft of Marvel comics into someone fit to lead the Avengers in the wake of Captain America’s death. Under Bendis’s time with him, Luke has become an Avenger, a father, a husband, a leader, and all in all, a better man. And it all traces back to Alias, one of the finest books that Bendis has ever written, which means that this issue is made that much more special as it sees a return by Michael Gaydos to pencil the flashback scene.

The story of how Luke fell in love with Jessica.

The pretense, penciled by Billy Tan, is that it’s before Civil War when Danielle had just been born and Luke was still in the process of adjusting to being a father. Crying babies, changing diapers, Sweet Christmas! What is this thing and is it doing? Taking a suggestion from Jessica, he chooses to tell the baby a story, and after going through a list that felt very organic given their relationship, he chooses to tell the one of how he fell in love.

This is where Gaydos comes in as Luke Cage hires Jessica Jones to find his dad for him, who he hasn’t spoken to in years. We watch time move along as she searches, and when she finally finds out where he is it’s at a continuity setting moment during a somewhat infamous (if you read Bendis’s Daredevil) team up between Daredevil, Spider-Man, Iron Fist, and Luke Cage. We’re treated to a several fine character moments, and an understanding of how Cage’s father views him, and at the end of the story there’s this feeling of love and hope around the family.

Alas, it’s not to last as all who read Secret Invasion #8 know, and this issue extends on the scene of them discovering their missing child. The look of fear and loss on Luke’s face on the last page makes this book alone. It’s one of the few fantastic issues of this book, and it is entirely because of Bendis finally getting to do something he’s actually good at it. We’ve received promises that this thread is going to be wrapped up quickly, rather then drawn out to an ungodly length like most Marvel stories wind up, which is a good thing, because the fate of Danielle Cage is actually really wearing on my mind. More so then the real question Marvel wants me to ask “Who are the Dark Avengers?”…..don’t care, give me Luke and Jessica!

Mighty Avengers #20

Written by Brian Bendis
Pencils by Khoi Pham

People, the impossible has come to be. I have enjoyed Khoi Pham’s art in an issue of Mighty Avengers, and actually find myself looking forward to his art next issue. It was quite astonishing, and I wont complain. His style finally let go of some of the Yu-isms that had been driving me insane, and while it’s still sketchy, it’s much more solid then it was several months ago.

This issue is the funeral of the Wasp, as well as Hank Pym’s being reintroduced into society after the Skrull issue. Unfortunately for Hank, he has to come back and immediately face that the love of his life is dead, and that there is no good bye. There is answering questions, planning a funeral, thinking of a eulogy….and being filled in on the time that he missed. House of M, Civil War, just what the Skrulls did…..the death of Steve Rogers. The death of Jan. Hank got off the ship with hope in his eyes, thankful to be alive and have another chance. But in this issue the despair in his eyes is clear as day, and you can tell that there is no hope left in him. That without Jan, he doesn’t want to be alive.

The funeral features a lot of familiar faces, so many mourners you can’t count. Jan touched the lives of so many, but unfortunately, politics rear their ugly head. Norman Osborn appearing causes a small commotion between him and the unregistered heroes that are there, and Hank causes a scene when he goes off on Tony Stark and blaming him for all of this. For the Invasion, for the War, for Jan. Thor makes a timely intervention and takes Hank away, but the message is the same. Hank will not forgive Tony for this, never. And the world will never be the same.

Invincible Iron Man #8

Written by Matt Fraction
Pencils by Salvador Larocca

Tony Stark remains the most brilliant man alive after what he did in this issue. The new status quo hits us in full swing as we dive right into Tony’s life now that the Invasion is over, and beyond that we’re immediately treated to the exit of her former office by new supporting cast member Maria Hill. Maria and Tony have their last days together, both clearing out their offices and facing the shame and anger that come from not only the embarassing exits, but from the disdain their colleagues have for them (Maria faces leaving a place where everyone hated her, but where she was great her job, while Tony leaves as the man who everyone thinks sold out the Earth).

Norman makes some demands of Tony, namely access to the Superhuman Registration Database which houses the full information of every registered hero. Tony warns him that he wouldn’t even be able to access it anyway, as it’s highly classified and he would need countless warrants among other things just to access single ones. Needless to say, the conversation doesn’t really end well and Stark leaves to go and persue the next juncture of his life while Norman continues to seek the files. Upon finding them, however, we finally become aware of just what lengths Tony went to protect the identities of his friends and comrades, and the table is set for him to become the most wanted man in the world.

Larocca’s art was always hit or miss for me for a long, long time. And it’s nice to be able to say that he fits this book perfectly. And is it just me, or does his Tony channel some Robert Downey Jr.? Not complaining at all, but for once I’m reading an Iron Man book and all of the characters look the way I’ve always tried to envision. It’s nice.

All in all, this book is where the new status quo debuts, and it does so with a bang. Best issue of the series yet.

Avengers: The Initiative #19

Written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage
Pencils by Harvey Tolibao

This was it! The epic conclusion to the Secret Invasion as the Initiative and Kill Krew did all that they could to hold off the final Skrull assault, one that would enter the entire world into the Negative Zone. The last ditch effort in case all else fails. The new Kill Krew is branching off, and every group has one person that can see Skrulls. This leads to the usage of three severed heads of three former members, in what amounts to a humorous moment. Slott gets a half of a page to devote to the Great Lakes Initiative as well, complete with Tippey-Toe making a joke about Squirrel Girl and nudism.

The entirety of the issue was rushed in execution, and while I can see why it was, it could have stood for a few extra pages so that the story would have a chance to breathe. As it stands the issue is non-stop from beginning to end, and it takes a little while to absorb everything that happens over the course of it. Not really a complaint, but one of my few problems with the issue. That and the art, as I would have hoped that Casseli could have been the one to finish this off. His art has made the Initiative stand out since the beginning, and while I can understand he has new work on Secret Warriors, he was very missed in this issue. No offense to Tolibao, but it’s hard to replace someone that did the job so well.

The best part of this issue, in my eyes, was Crusader being the one to finally stop Skrullowjacket and save the Earth. I doubt many books will mention it, but despite the battle in New York, it was this issue that secured the safety of the Earth more then any other. And it was all stopped, in the end, by one Skrull standing up for Earth. Not to take away from the rest of the Initiative, however, as we got to see various teams fighting their invader with help from members of the new Kill Krew. While rushed, these scenes were fun and gave us a chance to see more of the landscape of the overall Initiative instead of the usual firm view of just the Camp Hammond team.

Thor #11

Written by J. Michael Strcyznski
Pencils by Oliver Coipel

Captain America has been dead for one year in the Marvel universe, and the world is still unsure what to say or even do about it. People are still arguing and debating, using his name and legacy to try and define their actions, but nobody seems to have it straight. What would Captain America do? Would he support this? Would he condemn that? Would he like the direction his country is taking? Would he support the new president? How would he feel about the Invasion? There is so much talk going on from all sides, but how do you reach a decision when the person you’re talking about is resting peacefully in his coffin somewhere in the arctic? And most importantly, isn’t this a Thor review?

This issue proved to us that God’s can die on Earth, as two get into a drunken brawl and one actually slays the other. Baldar casts his judgement as the new Prince of Asgard, and Loki continues her machinations as they come to terms with their vulnerabilities and lay a comrade to rest, preparing his journey to Valhalla. It’s a very interesting side story that has a good matching tone with the true highlight of the issue.

And by highlight, I don’t mean the art of Oliver Coipel which is gorgeous as usual. I’ve been a huge fan of his work since I first saw him on Legion with Abnett and Lanning, and I’ve followed him as well as I can since. He was the best part about House of M, and with this book? He’s not the best part, he’s just another fantastic cog in the machine that is Thor.

The true highlight of this issue? Thor finally decides to say goodbye to his most important comrade, the one warrior who he’s grown to respect more then all others. A warrior cut down doing what he thought was best at a time when Thor was unable to stand at his side. That’s right, Thor visits the public memorial grave of Steven Grant Rogers. The grave of Captain America. It’s not just your standard talking to the memorial though, no, that would be too normal…too human for a God like him. No, Thor actually raises the spirit of Steve Rogers from heaven and speaks to him for several pages, having his final conversation with his most respected comrade in one of the most moving moments I’ve seen in a Marvel comic in years.

Secret Invasion: Dark Reign

Written by Brian Bendis
Pencils by Alex Maleev

You have got to be fucking kidding me. This is the big deal? This?! Yes, and evil Illuminati is a cool idea. Yes, Norman Osborn is made out of awesome right now. And yes, no group of evil can be missing Doom. But at the same time, no. No, the Hood is not a whiny little bitch who pulls his guns out at someone the caliber of Dr. Doom, Parker isn’t that stupid. No, the White Queen is not some sympathetic point of view character that we can feel sorry for, she’s a cold hearted bitch who has lost a lot, but even beyond that there’s one key thing…..SHE’S A GOOD GUY! And beyond that, no, Namor is NOT a fat old balding man! Just like he’s not about to be trying to pick up a broad at a super secret meeting!

The premise is fine, but the story telling is contrived. Emma and Parker feel completely forced into their roles, while Doom comes across as much more submissive then the despot should ever be allowed to. Yes, it’s the Norman show, and yes, Norman is the most powerful man in the Marvel Universe right now, but Doom is fucking Doom! He’s killed people for touching his cape! He’s not going to stand by and let Norman order him around and do him favors.

The best part of the issue comes near the end when we see Namor and Doom share a moment of solitude after the meeting, as they discuss what two men of their stature, who know each other as well as they do, would do in this situation. They form their own cabal within the cabal, and is by far the most natural feeling part of the issue.

The art is downright hideous. There, I said it. I love Alex Maleev, but I have to believe that this was someone else mimicking his style, or that he broke his hand or something. This is just horrible. Only Doom comes across consistently on target, with Norman doing pretty well even if I couldn’t recognize him at first. His Loki, at times, came across as a man with a pair of double D’s. I wish I was making that up. Emma was nice, but for some reason just kept seeming too innocent for the situation, and at times her looks even seemed childish.

Namor, however, was absolutely horrible. If there was any sort of research done for this character, it must have been to some time he drew Bendis. No offense to Bendis, but this image, at closer inspection, looks like a fat, old version of the writer. This would have been a funny little easter egg if A) it was intentional or B) it wasn’t done for such a main character. It was as if at no point in his life had Maleev ever seen Namor before, which is hard to believe as just a few years ago in the original Illuminati one shot he did a rather good job. So what the hell happened?

This issue just felt like a waste of time and money, as while it did set up the new status quo, there was no need to devote an entire issue to this worthless conversation. And worse yet, it felt like at least the third of the book was just preview for upcoming books, which brings me to my next review.

Dark Reign: New Nation

I got this book thinking “Cool, previews so I can see which books I’m picking up based on actual content”. Then I pickled it up and found three of the nine page stories that I had already read the first three pages of in the previous weeks Dark Reign one shot. That’s right, to pad out a horrible book they actually spoiled this book. Good job!

That said, it’s not a bad book by any means. It’s just everywhere, and that hurts it. With so many books being launched with previews from here, it becomes hard to get a firm grasp on any of the stories before they just seem to end with a buy the book credit. A few of the stories just give you a brief lead in, without really doing too much so as to not take away from the first issue (Secret Warriors and Ronin and Mockingbird), while the others each just try to push a story out.

The best of these stories, in other words, the ones I’m actually going to buy, are: Secret Warriors, Ronin and Mockingbird, and Skrull Kill Krew. Yeah, that’s; right, Ryder is back! And he kills himself some Skrulls in cow form! It’s a new writer taking the reigns, and he does a pretty damn good job. It’s only nine pages, but damn is it fun! Secret Warriors is exactly what I was expecting, and if you read what Bendis did with them in Avengers it seems like it’s going to be more of the same. But hey, monthly Nick Fury, FTW. Finally, Ronin and Mockingbird. I actually thought this was pretty fun, and it provided exactly what I wanted for this book. A preview of the writing and art that I actually enjoyed. Awesome.

So what about War Machine and Agents of Atlas? Well, no offense to War Machine because from what I read it seemed pretty cool, and I actually do really like the premise. It’s just not my kind of book. While I think a proactive super hero who goes after all the people that most just ignore is a brilliant idea, I just can’t really feel reading something like that at this current moment. Agents of Atlas, however, completely fucking lost me. Apparently if you’ve never read the lead in mini, you’re not going to have a God damn clue what’s going on in this series because there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to the actions to someone like me who never read it.

So the end verdict on it? It’s not bad by any means, as the good outweighs the bad, but it does suffer from the fact that three of the better stories have already been partially (one third) spoiled in other books. While others (Agents of Atlas) just don’t feel complete or even accessible. If you get it, you’ll probably find something you like, but if you don’t, you wont miss a damn thing.

New Avengers #47: 10/10
Mighty Avengers #20: 7/10
Avengers: The Initiative #19: 8/10
Invincible Iron Man #8: 9/10
Captain America # : 9/10
Thor #11: 10/10
Thunderbolts #1 : 8/10
Secret Invasion: Dark Reign: 4/10
Dark Reign: New Nation: 5/10
A few long hand review were omitted, but rest assured, next time there wont be any slips or misses.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/Grey420/logo_AvengersWebring.gif

Sorry about how late last week’s was up, I put it up for review a day late and it took almost a week to get it up! Lesson learned, and I hope you regular readers won’t hold it against me! Totally not my intention, and I have no real control over when something actually gets posted. I just get to submit and wait, not that I’m complaining though, it’s a cushy job. I get to sit at my desk, smoke, watch TV, and take my time and pick my words.

AND I GET TO READ COMICS!

That’s the single best part about writing here, with you guys, the readers, being a close second. I love to read comics. I love it more than most things in this world. I have for as long as I can remember, and I don’t see it ever going away. As much as I enjoy reading, comics are what grip me. I have an affinity for a lot of the characters at Marvel and DC both, not to mention selected independent characters. The visual and serial style draws me in, and the structure holds me tight. I just love comic books. I love the crazy story arcs, I love the serialized medium, I love virtually everything about them. And as I’ve said in the past, I love super heroes especially. So when it comes time to follow along with a big event, it’s usually pretty easy to get me to hop on board. I mean, sure, there are going to be times like World War Hulk when I’m not going to pick up any books that I’m not already reading, but for the most part, I like to follow along. When Infinite Crisis hit I only skipped one of the lead in miniseries (Day of Vengeance), and with House of M it was a slightly larger skip list, but not by much. I tend to read the majority of the auxiliary titles for the simple reason that, for the most part, they tend to provide a bit more payoff then the main series.

Case in point: Secret Invasion.

Let me see here, for SI I bought:

• Secret Invasion
• New Avengers
• Mighty Avengers
• Avengers: The Initiative
• X-Factor
• She-Hulk
• Thunderbolts
• Secret Invasion: Front Line
• Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four
• Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers
• Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust?
• Secret Invasion: X-Men
• Nova
• Deadpool
• Punisher: War Journal

Pretty big list, right? I mean, compare it to Final Crisis

• Final Crisis
• Final Crisis: Requiem
• Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds
• Final Crisis: Rogues Revenge
• Final Crisis: Revelations
• Final Crisis: Submit
• Final Crisis: Resist
• Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns
• DCU #0
• Last Will and Testament

The lists don’t seem very different in length, but there’s a big difference. See, six of the books on the Final Crisis list? One shots. The SI list? One of them, the rest are at least three parts each. DC promised an event that wouldn’t kill your wallet and they delivered without issue. Marvel, on the other hand, stretched their event out, added more tie-ins as time went along, and then decided that wasn’t enough. While every event promises long terms effects and changes, it’s rare that there’s a prolonged delivery of such an act. DC has been pretty good about trying to make sure that it goes through, and that their readers can feel the aftermath as the universe unfolds out of their events and tries to keep moving forward as each book tries to find its own unique voice in the post-event universe. Marvel…..is dropping us right into the next one after feeding us an event that disappointed in every single way and feels to this reader as if they wanted to waste a year of my time just to say that Norman Osborn is the top bad guy. But hey, I like Norman, and I love the idea of him filling Marvel’s much needed “Lex Luthor” role, so why does this bug me? Well, again, the sheer amount of money wasted on this bogus crossover.

We were promised big changes and huge reveals and giant unforgettable moments. We received…..well, we got five issues of an eight issue mini where nothing happened! I honestly have managed to forget more about what happened in Secret Invasion then in probably any other title I’ve read in the past six years, and I read Chuck Austen’s Uncanny X-Men. That’s right, Austen had more memorable moments then SI. Secret Invasion gave us an over hyped event that didn’t really deliver in any regards, whether it be compelling story telling or even epic battle or art. We were “treated” to horrible pacing from the get-go that carried over until the final panel of the final page. We watched shoe-horned character developments, and had the plot unfold at time through a narrator flat out telling us what was happening. I know that the story started life as Bendis trying to tell an epic Avengers story, and in all fairness, it should have stayed that way.

Now that it’s all said and done I can confirm my earlier thoughts, that the tie-ins were stronger then the core book. That I could have just bought New, Mighty, and the Initiative and gotten the full story. That the books designed to explain and to fill in the gaps wound up stronger then the core story. Then again, when you’re pacing out one and done issues, or two parters, it’s a lot easier to carry the load of the story as you have a tighter control over the characters and content. Then again, looking at the author’s name and seeing “Bendis” leads me to believe that somebody else should have scripted the core miniseries while he did the auxiliary books. Bendis has a huge weakness, and it happens to be his greatest strength. He is amazing at character pieces, and can write a believable story with believable characters, and he can easily handle a small handful of characters. But if you give him too many then he tries to stretch the development out and he tries to add too much important to too many little things and eventually the story finds itself taking a backseat to character moments. And that’s fine, it’s cool, character moments are awesome. But when it takes you five issues to advance a half an hour into the story because you’re handing out those character moments? Yeah, doesn’t work so hot.

Secret Invasion collapsed under the weight of its own hype engine, completely crashed and burned. Sure, we get an interesting after math, but I can’t help but think that there must have been at least a half dozen other ways to get to the same outcome. But I guess that it would have been harder to bring Mockingbird back using any of them, wouldn’t it? Actually, here’s what I want out of Secret Invasion. I want a book with Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Hawkingbird. Call it the Barton’s and have Clint and Bobby adopt Kate. Echo can guest star as the spurned lover who vanished magically about halfway through the Invasion itself after a sucker punch. After all, the last time she had speaking lines she was fucking Clint, and now he’s back with Bobbi like Maya never existed. Poor Maya, Bendis never gave her a fair chance, first she was Ronin for about five minutes, and then she gets sucker punched and vanishes in the Invasion.

Frustrating, that’s really how the majority of this is for me. I read House of M, I read Civil War, I read Messiah Complex. I read all these big Marvel events, and generally I don’t complain too much. But after Secret Invasion I may have completely lost all faith in Bendis to write anything other than a monthly book, he just can’t do it. At all. He can’t pace worth a damn, he can’t decide which characters actually deserve to have great character moments so he just spreads them around, and when it’s all said and done, the plot caves beneath the weight of all the random bullshit being thrown in.

Let’s take a look back to completely unnecessary plots developed during it, starting with the big one. Mar-Vell. It took four months to resolve him attacking the Thunderbolts, and it wound up just being that Norman talks to him and he decides to be a good guy after all and then goes and dies pretty much immediately in his next appearance in an effort to build up Noh-Varr, Noh-Varr who just flew around on a speeder bike and acted like a jackass. We’ve also got Tony Stark who spent pretty much the entire Invasion sweating and moaning about how useless he was, and now he’s getting blamed completely for it. The big hero of the Marvel universe and….he doesn’t do shit. He was completely impotent, hell, the Black Widow did more than him during her one issue of being useful. The whole thing just felt….it was horribly paced, and there was just too much of a cluster fuck.

I almost missed it. Seriously.

I remember the promise of reuniting the trinity, and aside from Thor and Bucky talking about being dead, that didn’t happen. Thor bitched out Iron Man and told him that he still hated him, and Tony got all sad. To be honest, Buck didn’t do a whole hell of a lot other then go more public. Tony just jobbed a new way every issue. And then Thor….Thor killed Jan, only I didn’t realize it the first time through because it was done in narration. You don’t kill a founding Avenger through narration. It’s an insult. Kind of like how you don’t make you big reveal at the end be that everyone is actually ok. Seriously, every single major person impersonated by a Skrull was alive, without a single exception. Jan was the only death in the whole series that I can remember, and even with her she was shunted into another dimension instead of just traditionally dying. It was irritating beyond belief.

The more things change…..the more nothing actually changes because we got gyped.

I’m just bitter, most likely. I invested a lot of money because of the hype machine and I honestly feel like I wasted the vast majority of it. New, Mighty, and Initiative carried the entire storyline on their backs and were the most worthwhile parts of the entire crossover.

All of that said, the Dark Reign one-shot only added to my disappointment as I felt it was some of the worst pencils that Alex Maleev has ever done (look at Namor, he looks like a fat, balding, sixty-five year old man). On top of that, Bendis completely lost touch with the voices of his cast, especially bad since he normally writes The Hood so well. Parker came across here like some common street thug, not as the Kingpin of Super Crime, and that’s unfortunate considering that he’s been such an integral part in Bendis’s books for the past several months. Emma looked great, but in her case the characterization flag was waving high above her head as well. She didn’t read like any version of Emma that I’ve seen around lately, and it just didn’t gel. She made for a fine POV character, but Bendis tried to make her too sympathetic and, well, it’s Emma Fucking Frost. She doesn’t do sympathy.

Also, allow me to voice my disappointment with Swordsman being killed like a little bitch in a flashback scene during Dark Reign. After months of being built up as someone that could potentially be a threat, especially after what Norman did to him, he gets killed like a spoiled child that got stabbed during a hissy fit. Not a death fit for a Strucker. Hell, not a death fit for the weaker Strucker. What a waste of a character that Fabian and Ellis both worked their asses off to make into a serious player in the Thunderbolts title. Andrea had a better death when people thought she was a Skrull.

Andreas Strucker - Job Boy Bitch

Now let’s hop the fence to Final Crisis, which has five of its eight issues out. Not over by a longshot, and yet, going strong. This time around DC wisely removed tying into their monthly books with it, so as to not disrupt the pacing. It also generates a self containing element to the core mini, and adds more importance to the auxiliary titles. Why does Revelations feel important? Because it’s telling a story that no other book is. With Secret Invasion we got the story fleshed out in the tie-ins, as opposed to the core story. With Crisis, the tie-ins tell their own stores with Crisis as the backdrop. Stories that couldn’t truly be told in another way.

Do I see who I think I see? A mighty….yes! Teth Adam! BLACK ADAM FOR LIFE!

There’s a level of creative care being taken across the DC books during this mega event that helps to add to the special nature. There haven’t been tie-ins for the sake of it, which is a huge change from your traditional crossover. I mean, look at Submit and Resist. One shots, not required reading, but both add plenty to what’s going on. They don’t try and be more then they’re supposed to be, they’re gap fillers. They fill in blanks in the story that don’t have to be answered, but it helps. Sure Submit was a bit on the weak side, but Resist was amazing. The story advanced without trivializing the core miniseries, and on top of that, it granted us a fabulously done story by Rucka, Trautman, and Sook that sets up a giant battle to come without forcing anything in the core series to be rushed or ignored. This story benefited the pacing to a large degree, and while completely optional in its necessity, it felt worth every penny to me.

Darkseid is.

I guess this is what happens when you try to do a universe spanning crossover, encompassing as many of your characters into one oversized story as you can. There are always going to be tie-ins, and there are always going to be writers who are just unaware of how to pace them. Pretty much on par with their opposites, to be frank. So why do we buy them? Secret Invasion was horrible but I read the entire thing, why did I do that?

Simple. Because I love comics, and as much as the current story might bother me, I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens next. It’s an evolving medium, and the more chances you give the product, the more likely you are going to be to find something that you enjoy.

There’s a starman waiting in the sky

He’d like to come and meet us

But he thinks he’d blow our minds

There’s a starman waiting in the sky

He’s told us not to blow it

Cause he knows it’s all worthwhile

What can I say about Rest In Piece….that I’m not saying in the long delayed release of me and our own Aaron Glazer ranting our assess off about it. If we ever get around to formatting it (hopefully soon), it should be a real treat for you guys. Alright, fine, I’ll say something about it. I felt that if Bruce had to go out, that was one of the best possible ways to do it. No super climatic moment with an arch rival, or some over done superhero ending. He just goes out doing what he did best.

I hereby nominate Duane Swiercynski as breakout writer of the year. Sorry Glazer, but I’m STILL saying Tomasi was last year. Tomasi is having an AMAZING year, and is a candidate for any writer of the year competition, but I wouldn’t call him breakout. Swiercynski on the other hand came on to Immortal Iron Fist as a complete unknown, having only written a hand full of one shots before his runs on Cable and Iron Fist, and you know what he did? He seamlessly transitioned from the amazing work of Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction into his own work. I didn’t even notice it, it was perfect. How many writers can honestly do that? His Cable still hasn’t found it’s legs, but Iron Fist is in the running for my book of the year.

The best Kung-Fu

New Avengers was the epilogue to Secret Invasion, and easily one of the best single issue stories of the year. I absolutely love how Bendis writes Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, and they’re one of my top couples in comics. Gaydos completely made the issue, as despite being a Luke Cage story first and foremost, it had the perfect feel of Alias that set the perfect tone for the book. A must read book.

I’d talk about Secret Invasion here, but I doubt you read the Standard just for the lower rantings.

Dan Jurgens is back on Booster Gold as the entire creative team, as he writes and pencils, and his first issue was solid and maintained the tone that Johns and Katz had set. Booster is one of Dan’s many, many children in the DCU, and even twenty years later he still can make him intriguing. Another book that didn’t take a hit in the quality.

Is it bad that I have absolutely no idea what’s happening in Final Crisis: Revelations? Seriously, I’m fucking lost. Would being Christian help? Because I can’t do that, and we don’t have a new testament in my religion.

JLA continued its upward swing as McDuffie is still running on premium. He really is at his best telling his own stories, with his own takes on characters. I think that this book will actually benefit heavily from the upcoming exit of the big three. It’s not going to be Giffen and DeMatteis’s work, just like it’s never going to be Morrison’s. It’s Dwayne McDuffie’s. There’s a reason why his episodes of JLU were so good, and this book is channeling it well. The man knows story structure.

And he knows that Kimiyo is a bitch.

Secret Six: Best new series. Nicola Scott: Best artist. Expect to see both on my awards column in a few weeks, not to be confused with the official Nexus awards however.

Invincible was very much in the middle this week as it featured Mark’s ex-girlfriend being a complete fucking idiot with battered wives syndrome, and his new girlfriend and him needing to figure out a way to not get caught having sex.

In Dark Reign, I have to say this, but why the fuck was Namor a 65 year old, overweight, balding male? Honestly, Maleev, who the fuck were you trying to draw? This book is on the bad end of his work, which is unfortunate since I do love his art. The issue was just…..it was a huge disappointment.

Not Namor.

What I read last week:

• Authority
• Batman
• JSA
• Cable
• Immortal Iron Fist
• New Avengers
• NYX: No Way Home
• Secret Invasion

Best of the week:

1. Batman
2. New Avengers
3. JSA

What I read this week:

• Action Comics
• Booster Gold
• Detective Comics
• Final Crisis
• Final Crisis: Revelations
• Green Lantern Corps
• Justice League
• Nightwing
• Secret Six
• Invincible
• Amazing Spider-Girl
• Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes
• Secret Invasion: Dark Reign
• X-Men Spider-Man

Best of the week:

1. Final Crisis
2. Secret Six
3. Green Lantern Corps

The Gold Standard
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/Grey420/GoldStandard-1.png

Hello all and Welcome to another Marvel Handbook. I will say we are cooking again. I‘ve got a few emails to cover here today and next week. Hey Daron how are you today partner?

I’m doing pretty good my man. Just finished the second draft of my movie script and only have one class left until break…I’m pretty pumped.

I‘m actually pretty good. If we can keep the emails coming with questions then I think I can get us back on a weekly schedule. With us running like we are right now I can only go bi-weekly. So it‘s up to our readers out there. Let‘s get going.

Eugene emails

I haven’t read the Initiative stuff. Can you give me a rundown on which existing characters are a part of it? Which notable characters have been created for it?

Sure I can do that.

New characters: Komodo, Supermax, Johnny Cool, Veda, Anthem, Calamity, Aralune, Hybrid, Heavy, Star Sign, Paydirt, Vox, Prima Donna, Think Tank, Challenger, Spinner, Cloud 9, Hardball, Nonstop, Telemetry, Jackpot, Miss America, Iceberg, Hope, 2D, Blue Eagle, , Baron Von Blitzkrieg, Armory, Melee, Proton, Batwing, Butterball, Physique, Trauma, MVP, Scarlet Spiders, Anthem, Calamity, Supernaut, Veda, Aphrodite, Avona, Bannerman, Corona, Maul, Pierce, Mulholland, Debrii, Butterball, Star Sign, Paydirt, Magnitude, Paragon, and Gadget

What do you expect from the Secret Invasion fallout?

Change. I hope. We know the event to follow this up is called Dark Reign. From what we know: There’s a war, and then there’s a cold war. This was an invasion, and from the invasion, certain people take the hit, certain people rise up as the heroes who you wouldn’t expect, and from that comes a new power status in the Marvel Universe that some would consider a dark reign and some would consider heaven. One man’s dark reign is another man’s ‘Finally!’”

What happened in the Spider-man One More Day/Brand New Day thing? I know the marriage is done due to a deal with Mephisto. I’ve heard a lot of complaints about the story. What are your thoughts about it all?

ok first what happened that most don‘t like:

Peter and Mary Jane agree to the deal after several hours agonizing over the choice. Mary Jane whispers an offer to Mephisto in return for removing the knowledge of Peter’s identity from the world. Mephisto then changes history so that Peter and Mary Jane never married.

Which Marvel property do you want to see made into a movie?

Many of the ones I want are being made. That list includes:

So I’m not sure about ones I’d want otherwise

Any idea what Gambit’s been up to since Messiah CompleX? (This one’s for Daron)
Thanks guys

hehe. I’ll let you take this one Daron. If you need help I know the true answer.

The long answer: don’t know…don’t care.

Blake asked

What roster would you pick for the Avengers movie?

Well since we should go with the originals on the first movie the line up should be

The sequals that follow this will have the Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Hawkeye and the others.

Personally, to keep costs down for the both effects and casting I think I’d go with just: Cap, Iron Man, Thor and Hulk. The others aren’t really needed nor are they known to the majority of people who’d see the movie. I think with the right script and director you could make a pretty kick ass Avengers movie with just the main four…

do you think that Marvel’s departure from using the incumbent president in its books a good or bad move?

I can tell this question came in when Marvel announced this:

I will say I sort of liked the idea of a different president. It would’ve been interesting to say the least.

Personally I don’t think it matters in the least, as for Jim…I have no idea what sort of answer that was…

Secret Invasion Synopsis

Avengers Initiative #18: Equinox is a Skrull and battles Freedom Force and Kill Krew before Cloud 9 as to take him out. Hammond: Ant-Man spies on the Skrulls. Skrulls reveal truth to all there’s a Skrull on each team. Georgie: Cavalry: Ultra Girl, Stunt-Master, Crimebuster, and Thor Girl see this. 3-d Man has problems spotting the Skrull at first. We find out it was Thor Girl. Ant-Man catches up with the group. The heads of some original Skrull trackers of the Krew are used as they go out to find the Skrulls.

Nova #11: Darkhawk, Quasar and Nove fight the Skrulls. Pagasus wakes the Worldmind who helps out sending Deathheads. A warship attacks only to be taken down by a group of Nova Corps.

Secret Invasion Thor #3: Blake faces the Skrull. Volstagg helps him get the hammer. The Skrull throws Bills hammer making it explode. The Warriors three attack. Thor gives Bill his hammer back. They take out the Skrulls as Asgard falls. Bill and Thor lift it before Bill leaves.

Secret Invasion X-Men #3: Skrulls attack Emma’s mind. She and the Stepfords fight back. The X-Men fight the Skrulls. Emma dies only to come back. Skrulls attack humans. Beast examines the Skrull. Colossus goes to help the humans. Kurt gives Beast the device. Beast brings out the Legacy Virus.

Original Sin Synopsis

Wolverine Origins #29: Sinister and Shaw talk. Wolverine fights the Hellfire Club. The female takes Wolverine out and one of her own members. Xavier sees into Logan’s mind again. Wolverine and Xavier discuss it. Xavier examines the Hellfire club. We see Xavier tell Wolverine in the past to recall he’s an X-Men.

House of M Synopsis

House of M Civil War #3: Magneto gathers mutants in Genosha. Xavier is crippled. Creed gathers the Friends of Humanity. Magneto meets with the Inhumans and Namor. Xavier tells of another in Black Panther. Magneto sends Sabretooth. Trask gathers Bucky, Mimic and Nuke and has them attack. Bucky attacks Xavier.

Manifest Destiny synopsis

X-Men Manifest Destiny #3: Bobby is taking a ride and tells what Mystique did. As a police man catches up we see it is Mystique. She aims a gun at him and he tells her to shoot. Beast examines Graymalkin and finds out about his powers. We learn more on Graymalkin’s past to Anole. Colossus is having issues. Rockslide, Wolverine Nightcrawler and Iceman try to help. Even X-23 is sent to help. Nothing works. Wolverine yells at Colossus only to have Pete tell him to leave him be. A girl ask Colossus to help save her kitty.

That‘s it for this week folks. I‘m going to do my normal request for questions. But first Daron, what do you think? Got any ideas how to get more emails?

Well we could always go out and put guns to people’s heads and make them send in questions…but seeing as how random that might be I don’t think we’ll really like the questions we get…I guess we’ll just have to rely on our peeps to hook us up…

We need more emails and to get those emails I‘m going to throw out a little challenge of sorts. Here‘s what I‘ll give as the challenge: Come up with some good debating questions, old school character questions, obscure character questions. We can take on it all we just need you to do the best and get us some questions.

Was there a challenge somewhere in there?

1. Digital comics Comics you can read online

That’s it from here. As always reporting from my corner of the Marvel Universe I’m Jim Trabold. Make Mine Marvel.

And make mine with a twist of lime would ya…that last one was pretty strong.

This time it seems as though my column logo here has taken on a whole new meaning, because if you’re a longtime Marvel reader and you actually spent money on SECRET INVASION - specifically it’s finale last week - it’s likely your eyes would be bleeding red beams of fury too. I gotta give credit to fellow Nexus head Matthew Stoddard, who was much kinder than anyone could possibly ask in reviewing this comic, considering the risk to his own personal health and sanity. And I’ll tell ya, I’ve looked around a few places online and frankly, I’d like anybody to write in and point me to a positive review, just so I can see what one looks like.

For those of you who made it to the very last page without passing out, you probably saw a special edition of the Editor-in-Chief’s CUP O’JOE column, where he talks up the direction the Marvel Universe is set to take in the aftermath of the Skrull invasion - “Think about it for a moment,” he says. “The Hood. Namor. Dr. Doom. Loki. Norman Osborn. These are your new rulers…With all that power, what chance do our heroes have? What surprises and evil plots do these villains have in store? If they are really united, who can oppose them?”

Yeah uh, slow down there Joey; I got a few questions of my own. First, answer me this:

What in the hell happened here? Seriously - I have no idea what I’m looking at! If you’re going to kill off a founding member of the Avengers, you’d think they’d deserve a clearer sendoff…and didn’t Ronin/Hawkeye just shoot this Skrull chick in the head with an arrow the previous issue or something? I thought we were done with her! Oh, wait…

To think: Wolverine was THIS CLOSE to being the big kahuna in charge...

Okay - now I guess we’re done with her. After all, we needed a way to set this up:

And that brings me to my next question: how new do I have to be to comics to buy into this? It’s as if Quesada, Bendis and company think that, because Spider-Man is the flagship of the universe, his arch-enemy has to be the baddest of that universe - and to repeat it just once more…that’s just not how things work here. Spider-Man is Marvel’s flagship because of his popularity, not because of his raw power. And that popularity comes of the fact that he’s one of the most relatable characters ever conceived. I think the writer of TALES TO MILDLY ASTONISH said it best: “I’m sorry, but I just refuse to buy Norman [Osborn] as a global-level, Luthor-type villain. It’s like making the Mirror Master ruler of Apokolips.”

Well said, dude. We really gotta hang out.

But really, folks - they may as well have scrapped DARK REIGN as a title, and just called it WHEN DOCTOR DOOM TURNS AROUND AND SCREWS EVERYBODY. And if our boy Victor doesn’t, well you can bet it’s only because Bendis is writing…and if it’s one thing he knows how to do, is find the exact opposite of decades of precedent in a continuity-intensive literary universe, and latch onto that course with an enthusiasm that would drop the jaw of David “Damn the torpedoes - Full speed ahead!” Farragut himself.

And last, but not least…

Hawkeye ain't the only one getting the 'bird here, and I'm not sure if it's Spider-Man, longtime Marvel readers or BOTH.

DOES EVERYBODY GET TO HAVE A WIFE, EXCEPT PETER PARKER?

It looks like they aren’t quite finished yet, but it feels like SECRET INVASION is the perfect embodiment for the sad excuse for storytelling and slipshod, forced characterization that Quesada, Bendis and the rest of their current Marvel inner circle love to pride themselves upon. With the apparent years of build-up, since NEW AVENGERS #1, all of those mischaracterizations? All of those continuity slip-ups? Part of the plan, all along! These guys like to tout their long-term plotting skill as a major selling point, and if this is their shining example, then I’m not impressed. I could plan a road trip to California, if I didn’t give a blazing monkey crap about traffic law.

You know, I think we’ve reached a point with the Big Two that “voting with your wallet” isn’t quite enough. You know what I’d like to see? A massive reader give-back.

If you bought into some “event” storyline and you’re not happy, just take’em back to your local comic book shop, slap’em down on the counter and say “I’d like to give this back.”  Most places don’t do refunds or exchanges, but the point isn’t to get your money back - in fact, if you want to make it clear that your dissatisfaction is with the publisher, and not the store, ask if they can recommend something worth spending your comic book dollar on - but my point is, flipping through a comic and putting it back on the rack isn’t visible enough. Going to the counter and saying, “I bought this Marvel/DC/Image/Whomever comic, I was grossly dissatisfied and I don’t want it anymore” is.

If enough people do it, maybe the retailers will take notice, and that in turn will find its way back to the publishers. Hey, maybe it’ll even make the news!

Nevertheless, if you had your eyes open, it was possible to find a truly satisfying conclusion amidst the big two that wasn’t as polarizing as BATMAN: R.I.P., or as…well, we’ve said enough about SECRET INVASION. A few columns back I first discussed parts one and two of Matt Fraction’s THOR miniseries: THOR: AGES OF THUNDER and THOR: REIGN OF BLOOD. Finally, the conclusion came out, and there’s no argument - this one did not disappoint.

Quoting CBR.com reviewer Chad Nevett: The third “Thor” one-shot by Matt Fraction completes the story of Thor’s pride getting the best of him after watching those around him screw up and then demand his help only to be betrayed in “Reign of Blood,” when a group of humans ate his horses. Fraction tries to balance the justified anger Thor has with his disproportionate response, which is to go on a rampage across all of creation.

The language used to describe Thor’s response usually refers to it as a tantrum or the actions of a spoiled brat, placing Thor in a role we’re not used to: the impetuous youth in good need of a smack. His father, Odin, is more than happy to oblige, first sending out the Valkyrior and then confronting Thor himself. There’s a certain joy to be had in seeing Thor get taught a lesson in humility at the hands of his father.

At the same time, Fraction has built up the incompetence of Odin and the other Asgardians to such proportions that Thor’s arguments have merit and his ultimate lesson in humility seems unjust. In the previous two one-shots, the Asgardians and humans have been equally guilty of pride and foolishness, but have been able to turn to Thor for assistance. In a way, the question implied here is one of Thor’s justification for lacking humility, which he would have a good argument for.

Ultimately, the conflict here is really between young and old with each blind to their own faults, which Fraction captures wonderfully. Thor sees his pride and rage as justified, unable to see how over-the-top his reaction is, while Odin sees his role as All-Father as a free pass to behave however he wants, unable to see that he has made foolish mistakes and is just as prideful as Thor. That most of this goes unsaid directly is a very smart choice on Fraction’s part.

Now this is what I’m talking about - and it only took three issues! Real drama! Real action! Real emotion! The smallness of Gods, the rage of son against father, the blindness of conflict - whether it be between Loki and a Frost Giant, the Enchantress and Odin or Thor and Odin. Nobody sees what they have contributed to any given situation, and therein lies the beauty, the tragedy, the irony of this story. This is what a Marvel comic, at its best, should be - a modern day parable that teaches you something or makes a light bulb go off in your own head.

Throughout this miniseries we have seen what drove Thor to pitch his god-sized fit, so we can sympathize - but does that justify the wrath he visits upon the nine worlds? Of course not - but that’s youth for you. And throughout the miniseries we have seen the kinds of crap Odin has to deal with as the All-Father. But does Odin see what millenia of “Thor - go fix that mess” has wrought?

"Because parents are not interested in justice - they want QUIET!" - Bill Cosby

Of course not - but that’s a parent for you.

Just sayin’, is all. And oh yeah, almost forgot…

January 20th, baby…it’s gonna be like Christmas: the Sequel!

Hello Mighty New Initiative…..like Lightning!

That’s right, loyal readers, starting this month the APR will be covering Thunderbolts as well! This is, of course, my attempt at expanding my operations slowly at first, as I take the slow and methodical path to completely overloading your minds with my rantings. Soon I’ll cover everything! And there’s nothing you can do to stop me! Bwahahahahaha!

Wait, did I just type all of that? Nut bunnies.

The Mighty

Mighty Avengers #19

Written by Brian Bendis

Art by Khoi Pham

Let’s just open up with me reminding everyone that Khoi Pham’s art does nothing for me, still. He’s not a bad artist, and he’s getting a bit better, but he’s by no means the artist I would have doing a regular gig on a top tier title. I try not to judge this book

The New

New Avengers #46

Written by Brian Bendis

Art by Billy Tan

I love The Hood. I have since I read his debut, though that’s not fair, as I love everything that Brian Vaughan does. But the thing is, after reading the mini I honestly never expected to see him used again, let alone to be made such a major character in the Avengers line. Bendis has done an incredible job with Hood and his group that has yet to be named “The Masters of Evil”, and he continued it in this issue. We’re given a glimpse into how the villains discovered the invasion, as the Skrulls tried to replace Madame Masque, and Z grader named The Slug was revealed as a Skrull when a bullet passed between his eyes. It was an incredibly solid issue that set up the villains for their appearance during the big fight of Secret Invasion, but you know what the real highlight was?

Finding out that the Hood is channeling Dormannu! Now that was fucking awesome! That one page made the words “Dr. Strange’s new arch enemy” ring through my mind, and had me wondering how long until the Sorcerror Supreme returns.

Billy Tan continued to do an amazing job on art, and despite my recent rant on consistency, I REALLY REALLY hope that Marvel does the right move and leaves him on the title for the forseeable future. His style fits it perfectly, and every issue is a pleasure to look at. It’s like he was born to draw this book.

Bad guys do it best

Of course, knowing my luck, just having said this should be enough to have him off the book by March. Let’s hope not! Billy Tan is the best artist I’ve seen handling this book since Steve McNiven left (for those keeping count, he was also the ongoing regular artist for about four issues).

The Initiative

Avengers: The Initiative #18

Written by Dan Slott and Christos Gage

Art by Stefano Caselli

What happened to my beloved Cloud 9?! Abby was such a sweet girl before, I hardly recognized her. Hardcore super sniper with a chip on her shoulder. Oh the horror, is this really what the Initiative does? I’m sad, she was totally awesome and now….alright, fine, you got me. She’s still totally awesome, and I saw this coming, it’s just sad that she couldn’t keep her smile. It’s a sad state of affairs even if it makes perfect sense given the evolution of her character; as she has been faced with death and hard choices since her very first appearance, it only makes sense that her Initiative training would leave her cold and battle hardened. A soldier more then a superhero, as was made painfully apparent when she sat in a cloud with a sniper rifle and waited for her chance to make the head shot.

Hardcore, Abby. Hardcore.

This book has been great with juggling multiple ongoing plots at a time, and not forgetting it’s main cast. We have the Kill Krew growing in size as it picks up more and more members of the first year team, there’s Crusader acting like a grizzled war veteran with Nick Fury, and who can forget Ant Man as he tries to save the world? Slott covers all of the bases to the best of his ability, and does a miraculous job with such a large and expansive cast. Nobody feels like they’re getting the short end of the stick, and even though it’s only issue eighteen I’m already feeling nostalgic with it.

Stefano Caselli, as I’ve said before, is the only artist truly suited for this book. It is HIS bookat the end of the day, and nobody draws any of these characters quite like he does. News that he was leaving this book upset me, but just made Secret Warriors a must buy as that’s where he’s heading.

The Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts #125

Written by Christos Gage

Art by Fernando Blanco

I love Norman Osborn. In fact, the only reason I’m hanging around on this book is because of Norman. Sure, I love the concept of the team, and have been a huge fan in the past, but this isn’t my Thunderbolts. Sure, Songbird and Moonstone are there, but where’s Atlas? Where’s Fixer? Where is ZEMO?!?! And beyond that, I absolutely despise Venom in all of his variations. So Norman is carrying this book for me, and under Ellis it was a masterwork as his Norman was definitive at times. Now I like Gage quite a bit, but this arc on Thunderbolts justifies him not being an ongoing writer for the title.

‘Stormin’ Norman Osborn

That isn’t to say that it’s a bad issue by any means, just hardly the same strength we’ve come to expect from him on most books (and yet the same weakness we see on several others, which forces me to mention that he might just be stretching himself too thin). This issue did a fine job of filling in the blanks for the Thunderbolts appearance during the Invasion, and hopefully is a true hint for what’s in store for Norman Osborn, as I would love to see him become even more prominent in the Marvel Universe, and would have no problems with him somehow replacing Tony in SHIELD.

As for the art….the art isn’t bad, and Blanco is a quality artist, I’m just not going to call it a good fit for this book. Though I do like what Marvel has been doing with the art on this book, having an art style that is consistently darker and sketchier. It creates a nice feel for the book, and helps it to stand out from the pack. A team of bad guys and former bad guys with a darker shade of art is just too perfect.

The Special?!

Avengers The Initiative Special

Written by Christos Gage and Dan Slott

Art by Steve Uy

One thing I love about this book is that it’s the only book Marvel puts out that consistently fleshes out the Fifty State Initiative…which makes sense given the name. It’s made obvious more often then not that Dan Slott is probably coming up with the vast majority of these teams and characters, and that makes times like this a complete treat as the Special opens up with a team up between the Arizona Desert Stars and the Nevada Heavy Hitters (love those cheesy names!). Each of the teams he’s debuted feature one or two characters that are easy to recognize, while the rest of the roster is filled out by new or obscure characters (I’m leaning towards new since I’m not familiar with them, but saying obscure on the chance that I’m completely wrong), and I could easily imagine another spin off focusing on some of these groups (and I’d buy it AND add it to the reviews!).

Vegas Baby!

One of my favorite parts of the Initiative during it’s first year was the ongoing romance between Hardball and Komodo, as the two came across as two perfectly flawed characters that truly belonged together. I was interested in the secrets of Melati’s origin, and the reason for not having her legs, just as much as I wanted to know how indebted Roger truly was to Hydra. So this issue managed to take three of my favorite things from the book and wrap them all up, which I’ll have to say is unfortunate. See, when the book was announced I said that I hoped that it didn’t end with them breaking up, and, well, that’s how it happened. And it sucks. The story was amazing for me, but the ending was just depressing and heart breaking.

Steve Uy has been the go-to guy for fill ins on Initiative, as the only times I can ever remember seeing his name are in the book, and he’s a pretty damn good artist. Competing against the nigh perfect Stefano Caselli is a challenge, but he does a pretty good job here. Vegas is depicted as too colorful for it’s own good, and I could feel my eyes burning from the overlit city through the pages (which, trust me, is a good thing). No real complaints on that end at all.

Then we have a Slott written back up story featuring the secret origin of Trauma, which was a lot of fun and provided a head-smack-worthy revelation. See, I’m not the best at shot-calling the origins of powers, but I wish I had done so here. I never would have managed it. I’ve spent the past year thinking he had some actual relation to Dani Moonstar, and now we find out he’s the bastard son of one of Marvel’s better hell residents? Freakin sweet!

The Overall:

Mighty: 5/10

New: 9/10

Initiative: 9/10

Thunderbolts: 7/10

Initiative Special: 8/10
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/Grey420/logo_AvengersWebring.gif

A good topic to talk about is hard to come up with, believe me, I know. This is the fourth different attempt I’ve made at writing a Standard this week, and I’m not even sure if this is going to be the final draft. I always get to thinking about what books are “must read”, and then I go over the lists and….well, some of them impress me, some of them don’t, and others make me go “No shit”. I mean, I could come up with a list right now of ten books you need to read and it would be the same list everyone else pushes out that focuses on Alan Moore. I’m going to avoid that though, and I’m going to list off ten stories (all available in trade or hardcover) that I think everyone should read. Early warning, due to my health still bothering me, I’m splitting this into five this week and five next week.

The Ultimates
Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch

Big time blockbuster superheroes, Marvel style. The twenty-six combined issues of this series (combining the two volumes into one epic for the sake of this) took well over the suggested two years, clocking in at closer to five. Was it worth it though? Oh yes it was. On top of the epic blockbuster stories that Millar tells through the two volumes, combining super heroic with real life politics, we’re also treated to the gorgeous art of Bryan Hitch. He might be slow, but at least he does a great job.

What if the Avengers were created in a post 9/11 world? That is the underlying question of the book. What if Captain America were awoken during the George Bush administration (Dubbya even gets a few cameos)? SHIELD is SHIELD, and Nick Fury is Samuel “Mother Fuckin” Jackson, Tony Stark drinks like a fish, and Hank Pym beats his wife. It’s the Avengers, what can be said beyond that? How about alien conspiracies? Better yet, how about a giant rampaging cannibal Hulk? A giant rampaging cannibal Hulk screaming “Hulk want Freddie Prinze Jr.!”

Hilarity. Seriously. Some critics will call it a poor man’s Authority, but despite the obvious similarity as both share Hitch on art, they’re very different animals. And that’s not to take away from Authority which I’ll get around to talking about one of these days, but to give credit to Ultimates.Especially to the final arc of the run, “Grand Theft America”, which will forever go down as one of my favorite comic stories. It’s the kind of political piece on Bush’s America that’s told in a way that only someone who doesn’t live here can truly write. It lacks any pro-America bias and does its best to tell the story clearly while presenting the good and evil of both sides.

Very nice touch, very enjoyable…..and is it bad that I got a guilty pleasure out of watching Laura Bush ripped out of Air Force One in mid flight?

Hard Time
Steve Gerber and Brian Hurtt

Remember the DC Focus line? Don’t feel bad, I doubt most people will. After all, it was only three books. And only one of them lasted past six issues….Hard Time. Hard Time lasted twelve issues, and then made its way into a second volume that lasted another seven issues. I remember the line for the previews of the book “Oz meets My So Called Life”. I was sold immediately, you see, I LOVED Oz. To this day it’s one of my favorite shows, hands down and without question. When I watch Sarah Connor, I look at Dean Winters and still go “It’s Ryan!” But I digress, back to the point.

Hard Time is about a fifteen year old boy named Ethan who was involved in a school shooting. He and his friend, the constant victims of bullying, went into school with masks and guns. Ethan was under the impression that the guns were loaded with blanks, that they were just going to scare everyone. But then the bullets started flying, and people were dead, and a red monster that was invisible to everyone but the reader came out of Ethan and killed his friend. The judge, not wanting to seem even remotely lenient (despite that evidence proved that Ethan never fired a single bullet), sentences him to life in prison, up for parole in fifty years.

That was all in the first issue. Ethan didn’t go to juvie, or some low risk jail. He went to a big time, REAL jail. He got in to trouble with all sorts of people, not the least of which was the Aryan brotherhood (and if Oz taught me anything, nobody is more evil). Gerber developed and fleshed out a full list of supporting characters, each with their own importance to the overall story. A dangerous life in prison, an inability to truly trust anybody, and developing super powers. And Ethan wasn’t even sixteen.

The book wrapped up with its “Fifty Years Later” issue, coinciding with DC’s “One Year Later” month. It served as a recap of what happened to the cast after the book ended, giving us some semblance of closure to a book ended far too soon.

The Man Who Laughs
Ed Brubaker and Doug Mahnke

The definitive Joker story. Period. I don’t care how great the Killing Joke was, this is better. We’re given, not an origin story, but a first Joker story. The first time he showed his smile to the city, the first time he made his presence known. Year One is over, and the Long Halloween has yet to begin, but as the mob bosses start to feel the pressure of the Bat, and a young Dick Grayson still has another year before his fateful trip to Gotham, a sickening smile appears on TV. This is by far the shortest story on my list, but it’s one of the first you should go out and read if you haven’t.

We are “treated” to a look at how the Joker perfected his Smilex gas with a vision of a room of mangled corpses. Disturbing, to say the very least. Later in the same issue we get to see Bruce dose himself with the drug in an effort to beat it, granting him the first glimpse into Joker’s psyche. Unfortunately, with a book this size it’s hard to say too much without spoiling it, but it clearly defines who and what the Joker is in the Batman mythos.

Also, Doug Mahnke should get a regular gig drawing him. Seriously. It’s dark and scary and I fucking love it.

Rising Stars
J. Michael Straczynski

My friend Ike introduced me to this book about a year ago, and not for a moment have I regretted it. It’s hard to find an original take on super heroes, despite the size of the industry and just how popular they are. Sure, a lot of different concepts come out, but a lot of them feel pretty similar. There’s mutants, meta-humans, aliens, magic people, etc. It’s pretty much all in the origin. Well, Rising Stars has a pretty unique origin story. There was a flash in the sky over the town of Pedersen, Illinois and every child in utero at the time was endowed with special abilities. One hundred and thirteen of them, to be precise. There’s a variety of powers amongst them, though quite a few do carryover. It’s just them though, nobody else in the world has these abilities, and the government is just slightly terrified.

The story gives us a look at the world of Rising Stars through the eyes of John “Poet” Simon, and develops several others into strong supporting characters. As they grew older many stayed in their hometown and started families, others moved out to try and live in the world like the rest of humanity. One more or less became Batman, another is a super cop, there’s a corporate sponsor wearing the American flag, hell, there’s even the most beautiful woman in the world and a flying minister. The story opens with a murder mystery, as Specials have been getting murdered, and the surviving ones have been getting stronger because of it. John chooses to investigate it, and the path leads to the government attacking the Specials, killing several and creating a power surge among the survivors. The cost of this being the city of Chicago, which is taken by a Special named Critical Mass.

In the aftermath they pledge to change the world, and spend years helping humanity in their own ways. From cleaning up neighborhoods, to raising money for the needy, to one Special who disarmed every country in the world of their nukes. All except for one each. They set out to change the world, and they accomplish it in a most wondrous fashion. It even has a clean and fitting ending that takes the entire book full circle. Treat yourselves, hunt down this book.

The Books of Doom
Ed Brubaker and Pablo Raimondi

I always get the feeling that this book slipped under the radar for most readers, even Fantastic Four fans. Ed Brubaker gives us the definitive origin of Victor Von Doom, finally, after all these years. Throughout the years we’ve been given glimpses and looks here and there; we knew he was a gypsy, that his mother was in hell, that his childhood love was Valeria, and that while trying to see his mothers soul he created a machine that twisted his face. That is the Doom we know. The one that cursed Richards, blamed him for his tragic accident, and then came back as the ruler of his own country. But how did this gypsy get to be a student in America? And past that, how did he manage to conquer an entire country? Sure it was easy enough to accept in the sixties, but my entire life as a comic reader I’ve asked myself those questions thousands of times. It’s driven be mad.

A reporter goes to Castle Von Doom for an exclusive interview, the likes of which none have had before. She is able to talk to his servants, to formerly close friends that are still in the castle, to prisoners held for one reason or another. And Doom himself, of course. He tells her the entire story from beginning to end, something made easier by the revelation that Doom’s memory encompasses his entire life, without the usual times of childhood that the majority of us have no recollections of. It’s a thrilling and compelling story, one that humanizes Doom like few before it. Much like the Lex Luthor story put out by DC a few years ago, it doesn’t cast Doom in the role of a villain; on the other hand, it doesn’t truly position Doom as a hero until the battle of Latveria. Victor has always been arrogant, just as he’s always been brilliant. Even from the youngest of ages he thrived and found dominance, he spat in the face of adversity, and he took every hardship as a reason to further better himself.

I admittedly love Dr. Doom more than most villains, I mean, you all saw my list. So there’s plenty of bias here, but it’s still an amazing story. Ed Brubaker works wonders in taking full advantage of the wealth of continuity, tossing virtually nothing to the side. And the ending is absolutely perfect, and as much as I want to spoil it, I’m going to make you go out and read it!

Oh the dragons balls were blazin’ as I stepped into his cave, then I sliced his fuckin’ cockles, with a long and shiny blade!

Blue Beetle is canned….shot called that by accident during the solicit discussion as just a way of pissing off Glazer and yet….lookie here, no more Beetle. I never read it, but I do see it as unfortunate. I’ve a big supporter of expanding the comic universes, and adding and developing new characters, so any time a book like this gets canned I find myself frowning. First my Spider-Girl and Manhunter, and now this. It’s sad.

I watched Star Wars: Clone Wars the other night, the new animated one. Dear freaking God it was horrible. Fights were cool, voices were horrid, and it was blatantly produced to attract the kids. If Anakin had a tween Padawan between episodes two and three, I think we would have heard of her before, but no. No we haven’t, and she exists only in this movie and the TV show that spun off of it. That’s right! It’s a TV pilot with a theatrical release that I’m glad I missed! This movie wasn’t worth the hour and a half I attempted to devote to it, and I honestly can’t recommend it to anyone unless they have little kids who want to get into Star Wars. Then you can watch this with them. Way I see it, by the time they get old enough to watch the real things then this piece of trash won’t even be a memory.

Dexter keeps getting better by the week, and I absolutely love the character of Miguel Prado. This season so far has done an amazing job of reversing situations, and furthering along Dex’s evolution. With every episode we see him take step after step towards his humanity, becoming more and more of the person he never thought he could be as the days pass. He has a girlfriend, they’re engaged, they have a kid on the way, he has friends, he has a best friend. He’s a normal person who happens to kill people, rather than the eternal outsider always looking in. And then to contrast it, we have Miguel who was introduced as a highly respected district attorney, a champion of justice, and as the season has gone on we’ve witnessed his descent. Not that he’s hit rock bottom, not yet at least, but he’s begun to embrace the dark side more and more, calling for deaths rather than trials, and worse, calling for deaths outside of the code. Dexter won’t break his code, but Miguel is on a slippery slope. I figure that by the end of the season Dexter will have to kill his best friend in an effort to preserve the code of Harry. Though that’s too obvious, and they love to swerve us, so we’ll see how things go.
<<Note: This was written before I got to watch Dexter, but is being left unchanged>>

You know what really grinds my gears? People with superiority complexes. Can’t stand it. I mean, seriously, who wants to sit around with someone who’s completely infallible in every way, who is utterly perfect, and can do no wrong? Well, only if you ask them. It gets irritating because they ALWAYS know best, and if you don’t go along with them you have to deal with the fact that most double as whiny, obnoxious, bitches. Yes, I’ve dealt with quite a few lately, and I’ve discovered that WoW nerds tend to fit the profile well over half the time. If you’re sitting next to me, and I’m playing my character, don’t tell me what to do or I will abandon you without any sort of warning. If you invite me to a group and make me wait the better part of half an hour for a summon, don’t boot me the second you invite me because I started doing something else and all of the sudden need a minute. In other words, don’t be a jackass. Jackasses don’t get anywhere….well, except geared, but then they just tend to play with other jackasses and have a giant jackass guild of jackasses. Do you want to join the Hate Corps? Do you? You act enough like them, we can arrange it.

I absolutely adore Paul Dini on Detective Comics and hope daily that despitethe Bat events he remain the ongoing writer on the book. It’s easily the best Batman I’ve ever read, which is saying a lot since it’s competing with Grant Morrison. He gives the right kind of support everywhere it’s needed, and with this most recent arc it’s humanized Bruce in a way that I haven’t seen in far too long. And you also have to give him credit for taking Hush and not only making him dangerous, but making him incredibly compelling. I honestly can’t wait for the upcoming two parter with him now.

I just finished watching Tropic Thunder and…..I was not as impressed as everyone else I talked to about it. Maybe it’s because I’ve been hearing about it for so long, but I just didn’t get into it. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy it, which I did, but it didn’t do nearly as much for me as I was expecting. It was one of Ben Stiller’s better movies, and I was shocked momentarily when I saw that he more or less did everything for the movie. Then I understood plenty about it, after all, it’s Ben Stiller. Funny guy, good delivery, but needs the right kind of director to really get a decent performance out of him. Robert Downey Jr. stole the show though. Period.

Is there any basic cable TV series better then South Park? If there is, I’d like to see it, because South Park is going to most likely go down as one of my top five all time favorite shows. Even when I don’t get (or care) about the subject matter (High School Musical), I still crack up from beginning to end. Matt and Trey are brilliant with how they handle the show in that it never plays too hard to any one side, which gives them the ability to tackle more or less any topic. I adored the election episode, and if you haven’t seen it, you have to watch it and then realize that they only made one version of it. Classic.

Brock Lesnar is the UFC Heavyweight Champion. Wow, I never thought I’d see the day. Especially after Frank Mir nearly ripped his foot off during his UFC debut a few months back. In fact, kinda wondering, but how did Brock score a title match for his third fight when he submitted in the first round of one fight, and won by decision in the other? Shouldn’t it have gone to someone with an impressive record? Maybe it’s just me, but I thought that you needed to be a contender to get a title shot.

That’s a mountain of a man if I ever did see one.

I actually bought a book that was both written and drawn by Alex Ross…..and I feel dirty. I’ve seen some reviews for the Superman one shot online, pretty hit or miss. Well, I’m labeling it as a miss.

What I read this week:

• Action Comics
• Detective Comics
• Booster Gold
• Green Lantern Corps
• JSA Kingdom Come Special: Superman
• Manhunter
• Nightwing
• Amazing Spider-Girl

Best of the week:

1. Green Lantern Corps
2. Detective Comics
3. Action comics

What I watched this week:

• Entourage
• American Dad
• Family Guy
• Heroes
• Sarah Connor
• South Park
• Dexter

Worst movies I’ve seen lately:

• Mutant Chronicles
• Star Wars: Clone Wars
• eXistenZ
• Hancock
• The Marine

The Gold Standard
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v614/Grey420/GoldStandard-1.png

Grey: Character Assassination: Can there be any better title for Spider-Man these days?

Glazer: The title is great, yet the title itself doesn’t do a lot for me.  I, for one, grew up with a married Spider-man. The Brand New Day stuff has been fine, but its been “new stories with an old time feel.”  I got that the way I wanted from Ultimate Spidey and all this does is change the Spidey I grew up with to be a bad joke.  None of the cliffhangers constantly thrown at us have changed that, and I’ll certainly be skipping this book, where mysteries that don’t matter to me are resolved.

Logan: A year in the making, and nothing eye catching enough to make it worth coming back to for old fans? Well at least Romita Art is still good…

Proto: I still despise the very thought of a mainstream Spider-Man book because of this garbage.