Marvel Season One: Ant-Man and Hulk

I haven’t touched a lot of the old school comics before when it comes to Marvel and DC (and those I’ve read are because of SuperMOOC). So when the opportunity came via the library system to check out the Marvel Season One books – the updated origin graphic novels retelling the origin stories of some of the better known heroes I was game.
I really picked up the titles in order of interested and was able to touch the first few pretty quickly so the reviews are in that order as opposed to some kind of chronological one.

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Graceland Reviews, London Edition-

I have been in London, so here are some comics I picked up there. Feel free to tell me why I’m stupid for liking something or for disliking AvX (You’d be wrong, but you’re welcome to your opinion)

Harbinger #3, Joshua Dysart, Khari Evans:

“We’re an army in training for a corporation?”

I’ve been dubious on whether or not this comic could make a turnaround from an event in the first two issues when the protagonist uses his mental powers to force a girl to fall in love with him and then has sex with her, a plot point that made the book hard to read, and harder to recommend. Still, I figured I’d give Joshua Dysart a few issues to show his hand, seeing as his run on the Unknown Soldier was one of my favorite comic runs, and I’m glad that I did. Instead of using the really gross action as a quick way to motivate Peter to advance the plot, it’s becoming clear that Dysart is actually making an extraordinarily broken “hero”, of whom nearly every other character in the book looks at with disdain or fear, an opinion echoed by the reader. At this point in time, Peter should be a disgusting individual, and even when we get some back-story to elicit sympathy, it’s immediately halted by Peter being a dick to people. I’m fascinated to see where this can lead, and whether Dysart will actually give him a positive character arc or failed redemption. Past the story part of it, the art by Khari Evans isn’t quite to my liking; he or she does a fair job at concise storytelling, but the art just isn’t quite at a level as to be a draw on its own.

SPACE JAM OF THE WEEK

Archer and Armstrong #1 Fred Van Lente, Clayton Henry:

“Noooooo—I wanna ride dinosaurs like they did in Caveman times”

This right here is my jam. Fred Van Lente and Clayton Henry (of the Incredible Hercules, one of the best comedic action comics ever) reuniting for a story about an immortal, who might as well be “The Dude” from The Big Lebowski and the naïve assassin that’s been charged to kill him, teaming up and fighting people for alien technology. First issues are always tough to pull off, but Van Lente and Henry do a great job, setting up the story, introducing the characters, and having more than a few fun action set-pieces. I’m looking forward to seeing more of this comic when they fall into groove. Unfortunately, I can’t help but feel like the art’s a bit lacking, and I’m wondering if it’s the coloring. There’s a whole lot of grays and blacks in this comic, and Henry’s work on Incredible Hercules showed that a wider color palette looks just as professional.

Atmospherics, Warren Ellis, Ken Meyer Jr.:

“You’re a junkie that gets homicidal urges on heroin.”

So, this is basically a story that Warren Ellis wrote after he saw a documentary on cow mutilation and watched the X-Files for a while. It’s so short and one-note, it’s almost a waste to give any sort of plot summary to it. Of the other mostly half-baked Ellis Graphic Novellas, I’d say it’s not the worst, but why would you waste time reading a comic that’s really just not the worst?

Batman: International Written by Alan Grant and Mark Waid, drawn by Frank Quitely, Diego Olmos, and Arthur Ranson:

“Mr. Wayne, viewers want to know: what’s under your kilt?”

Frank Quitely has a two-parter in here about Batman in Scotland, written by Alan Grant, and it’s really interesting to see Quitely’s work when he’s not written by Morrison. I’m so used to their collaborations at this point that I found myself checking backgrounds and tiny details out of the habit that they would play into the story later, despite this being just a rather straightforward “Batman solves crime in a new place” story. Once I stopped that, I realized something about Quitely that I somehow hadn’t noticed before: He rarely uses speed lines or ghosting to communicate action; instead, he chooses the exact moment of time and body language of a character to imply the preceding and proceeding actions. And yes, I realize that’s the object of cartooning, and probably something that everyone knows about Quitely, but it was something I’d never realized since I was always distracted with trying to figure out Morrison’s writing. Anyway, the story’s fine, and it’s worth reading just to see how Quitely can elevate just about any comic script, which will probably be put to the test (hyperlink Millar’s comic). The other two stories are a neat Mark Waid story that isn’t jaw-dropping, but has a neat tweak on the character of Killer Croc, that if given the time and inclination, I think some writers could do some interesting things with, and an Alan Grant story that is a mediocre tale of Batman’s mystic training coming back to haunt him in the present day. This trade’s bargain bin at best, but if you can get a nice price, I doubt you’ll regret buying it.

SVK: I ended up writing a longer review of this one. Short version: it’s fine, not great.

“Rape-looking zombie bastard”

AvX #10 Ed Brubaker, Adam Kubert

“Is that a dragon?”

Why is this comic still going? UGGGGGHHHH, I hate it, I hate it so much. Every character is stupid and poorly written, and it’s not even about Avengers fighting X-Men anymore. It is seriously about Avengers (which includes pretty much all the X-Men at this point) fighting two crazy mutants with god-like power, one of whom is killing people and making others bow to her. How is this even a good plot twist? How is this worth the paper that it’s printed on? How will it end? Answers in order: It’s not, it’s not, and I don’t give a shit.

Pak and Van Lente Announce Explosions, Informed of Cancellation Seconds After

Seconds after announcing their new title Explosions, comic creators Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente learned that their new series based solely around superhero fights leading to kick-ass explosions was cancelled.
“Well, this sucks,” commented both at the same time before Pak jinxed Van Lente who had to leave to get a Coke.
This continues the string of cancellations by Marvel previously commented on.

Pitch Week – Herc

Welcome to Pitch Week – the week where we pitch the ideas we’d like to see for media, realistic or not, and give them because if we can’t talk about dream projects – why run a fake website?

Herc/The Incredible Herc

Set in the Marvel Movieverse we are given a loose adaptation of the Incredible Herc series by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, in fact get those two writing for the movie since Pak has direct history writing movies.
After finding his parents killed and his house exploded the only clue to his parent’s murder that Amadeus Cho has is a SHIELD Agent seen running from the scene. Cho, using his thousands in college scholarships and his parent’s inheritance to hire Hercules, a cable channel bounty hunter who is more than what he seems. The two take off in a van to track down SHIELD HQ as Cho finds that Herc is the real god and that emotions must be kept in track since things aren’t always what they seem which are shared through stories of Hercule’s famous exploits. Meanwhile Agent Coulson from the other films acts as the law attempting to track the pair down and stop them.
Picture it as a transcontinental action film filled with explosions and old enemies leading to the final confrontation with SHIELD and the truth about what happened. Something that happens in the universe more commonly that doesn’t necessarily concern the bigger heroes and doesn’t require entry into the Avengers.

Amadeus Cho – age him up to 16 or so, unsure about actors. This Cho is less of the mega genius that he was in the series to balance him out a little more. He’s going to college already and is set to graduate in a few months. He can be rash and vindictive but is ultimately good. Over the story he changes to become more controlled thanks to lessons from Herc. Must be Korean-American.

Hercules – immortal god of strength possibly played by a wrestler type (CM Punk?) – think Batman Brave and the Bold Aquaman personality wise – more energetic and excitable than in the comic. There is a dark edge though that comes from being immortal and for the sins in his past. While the other Greek gods remain in Olympus, Herc who was born human likes the company of people who change. At the start of the film his is a bounty hunter on tv but he hides his true strength. When he meets Cho and sees the potential for good or evil though, he sees that it is important to guide the boy who lost his parents and to turn him from the path of revenge.