Review: Avengers Vol. 2: The Last White Event hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at '80s Marvel Rocks!]

Don’t buy the hardcover edition of Avengers Vol. 2: The Last White Event.

This has nothing to do with the quality of the story; I have some quibbles, but as I’ll explain, Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers has rightly become the core of Marvel’s endeavors to change for the better. Instead, I’m asking you to not buy the hardcover out of protest for Marvel’s current collections pricing structure. Asking $25 for five issues is just beyond the pale -- even more so when Avengers World charged the same for six! Comixology has the issues collected here for $19.95, and the trade paperback will be the same price when it comes out in April; it’s still a bit much, but at least it’s the appropriate cost considering the prices of the issues.

Hickman ended Avengers World with a double whammy of reveals: Earth is being threatened by a reality-destroying “White Event," and the artificial human created by that book’s villains is not named “Blackveil," but “Nightmask." The destruction of numerous universes by White Events is the topic of Hickman’s New Avengers and marks the start of the two books interlocking in preparation for Infinity. I’m not as big of a fan of New Avengers, mostly because the characters seem “off" from their usual selves, but it takes a turn for the better once Infinity hits.

So what’s the importance of Nightmask? If you’re not up on your obscure '80s Marvel characters, Nightmask was part of the “New Universe” initiative, an experiment in publishing a more “realistic” superhero universe. Hickman has been unapologetic in using '80s Marvel concepts in Avengers; I’ll go into more detail in a post on my Tumblr. This isn’t the first attempt to salvage the “New Universe” ideas: Mark Gruenwald made good use of them in Quasar, and Warren Ellis tried to revive the New Universe with newuniversal but had to abandon it after his computer lost the files.

Hickman takes the idea to a new level by proposing that the New Universe characters are archetypes who appear in each universe at a moment when that universe is ready to ascend to a new level of complexity. This is marked by a White Event; unfortunately, the systems used to deliver these archetypes have been broken, which cause problems such as Captain Universe -- the embodiment of Earth 616 -- to have memory problems. In this case, the White Event delivers a Starbrand, a sigil which grants immeasurable power. The opening of the story plays with the reader’s expectations by setting up a number of possible Starbrands ... and then taking a massive swerve, which I won’t spoil because Hickman and artist Dustin Weaver do such an excellent job of misdirection.

The ensuing arc sees the entire team take on Starbrand and Nightmask; they still aren’t enough. (I maintain that this is the result of bad karma for kicking Luke Cage out off-panel back in Avengers World.) From there, the villains Ex Nihilo and Abyss -- the creators of Nightmask -- make their reappearance to set up a number of incidents on Earth involving their experiments with life and sentience. The pacing is a little odd; the stories in this trade are all in response to the events of the first three issues, so it simultaneously feels like it’s taking too long on one scale while feeling properly paced when looked at from a distance.

"Validator," the story from issue #10, is easily my personal favorite in this trade, introducing an Omega Flight team as Canada’s contribution to Marvel NOW! and providing a number of surprising twists. Wolverine gets some great character work without having to stab anyone, while Smasher and Manifold get exposed to some of the stranger aspects of being an Avenger. What really makes this story great is a sequence involving the Avengers going through numerous evolutions and future incarnations (I’ll let you discover the context). The Hulk turns very briefly into the Maestro, his villainous future from Peter David’s run on the Hulk, but Captain America takes it further, turning into, of all people, Rob Liefeld’s Fighting American. There’s no real reason for it; it’s just an inside joke on the behalf of Hickman and/or Mike Deodato, but it’s an appreciated one.

The final story in The Last White Event sees a small team going to Macau to intercept the sale of a superweapon to various criminal syndicates. This story shows how adept Hickman is at portioning off the huge team into sub-teams, using Shang-Chi’s tranquility, Sunspot’s wealth, Cannonball’s gregariousness, Black Widow’s ruthlessness, Spider-Woman’s nobility, and Captain Marvel’s brashness to all drive the tale. Even though the end result doesn’t really work together with the New Universe elements of the rest of the book, it’s a nice break and a great use of the "JSA Cooldown" method.

I’m going to cheat a little here and discuss two issues that are in the next trade, Prelude to Infinity, but should really be collected here. These issues get swallowed up in the action of Prelude and the Infinity mega-hardcover, which is a shame, as they are again some of my favorites. Issues twelve and thirteen are a two-parter centering on another project of Ex Nihilo, in this case a tribe of fast-growing children whose bodies can violate thermodynamics to provide endless power. Thor and Hyperion take center stage so that Hickman can answer another fan complaint: why have both of them on the same team? While they are (almost) equally powerful, their friendship despite their respective pessimism and optimism provides a nice contrast on how to write super-strong heroes. Hickman also brings the High Evolutionary into play, setting him up as a potential greater threat.

On its own, Avengers: The Last White Event isn’t perfect, but it’s part of an excellent ongoing story and has its own highlights, especially the art from Weaver and Deodato. Next week, however, the systems running the universe finally break as Infinity begins.

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Review: Young Avengers Vol. 1: Style > Substance trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

Many Marvel NOW! titles were designed as fresh starts, but Young Avengers is a necessary exception. Numerous delays in the production of both the original series and the Avengers: Children’s Crusade mini-series have kept the Young Avengers from reaching their full potential. A major reboot would have only made things more confusing, and Kieron Gillen spends little time introducing the characters under the presumption that readers probably already know most of the cast of Young Avengers Vol. 1: Style > Substance.

Even though the history of the Young Avengers doesn’t get fully fleshed out, enough clues are given by their characterizations for the reader to understand that the team is not in a good place. Officially, they’ve disbanded and promised to retire after the deaths of various members in Children’s Crusade. Just about everyone on the team has someone to mourn; this becomes a problem when Wiccan apparently resurrects his boyfriend Hulkling’s dead mother and accidentally summons an interdimensional parasite. Wiccan and Hulkling are the heart of the team in all of its incarnations, and they drive the opening arc as its main characters until the group can fully gel.

The team can be broken down into three couples, although only two are romantic. The second dating couple after Wiccan and Hulkling are Kate Bishop and Noh-Varr; the latter insists on being called by his given name after taking and dropping “Marvel Boy,” “Protector” and “Captain Marvel.” Kate is basically in sync with her portrayal in Hawkeye as the team’s sassy and confident archer. Exactly how the two titles work together timeline-wise, especially given the trade’s ending, hasn’t quite been explained, but Kate relocating to the West Coast will likely solve the issue. Noh-Varr is enchantingly alien and obtuse; he’s obsessed with Earth music and culture thanks to the influence of Kieron “Phonogram” Gillen, but given the hell he’s been through, he deserves some positive character development.

Loki and Miss America form the third “couple” and are the first characters the reader encounters in the trade. A bit of warning: Young Avengers spoils the ending of the Kid Loki arc from Journey Into Mystery, and while too many details aren’t given away, it does take away some of the surprise. “Kid” Loki is no more; the old Loki persona has taken over the younger body, leading the spirit of the younger incarnation to converse with the older one in a manner similar to Otto Octavius and Peter Parker in Superior Spider-Man.

Miss America, my new favorite Marvel character, deserves her own paragraph. She debuted in Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta’s Vengeance, which introduced more teen heroes during the delays in Children’s Crusade. America Chavez’ origins are hidden in secrecy -- how did her two mothers die scattered across the multiverse? -- and she’s on-hand primarily to keep Loki from stealing Wiccan’s powers. It’s great to see a superhero who’s a person of color but who doesn’t have their abilities revolve around their heritage. Her effectiveness in battle and snarky commentary make her one of the book’s stand-outs. Additionally, her costume reminds me of Stargirl, and while Courtney Whitmore has appeared in the New 52, I still pine for what she once was.

Gillen uses “Mother,” the aforementioned villainous parasite, to drive home some of the central themes of this incarnation of the Young Avengers: the relationships between teens and parents and the transition into adulthood. Adults are blind to Mother, as Wiccan and Hulkling witness when they flee to Avengers Mansion (a scene which pays homage to the team’s earliest days, when they operated out of the then-abandoned building). Parents all fall under her control so that normal adults will jump out of windows onto spaceships to do her bidding. In her mind, Mother is doing the right thing by wanting to control the life of her son, his boyfriend, and their friends. She’s even a bit sad when she decides that the final step will have to be absorbing their souls.

Unlike the Teen Titans or even the Runaways, the Young Avengers feel like “real” teens in how they act. These are kids on the cusp of eighteen and they’re trying to make something of their lives. Many on the team are orphans, and they must confront Mother’s facsimiles of their dead parents almost as a form of therapy. At the end, they’re forced to run away and stay apart from adults in order to keep Mother in check. Wiccan in particular is forced to leave the parents who love and support him and Hulkling.

Jamie McKelvie’s art has received numerous accolades and rightly so. Much like its sister series, Hawkeye, Young Avengers doesn’t hesitate to demolish normal panel layouts. Wiccan and Hulkling get imprisoned in what seem to be blank panels, and Loki frees them by quite literally breaking the third wall. Noh-Varr and Kate are introduced in a dynamic sequence of quick panels and captions. The absolute pinnacle of the collaboration between Gillen, McKelvie, co-artist Mike Norton, colorist Matthew Wilson, and letterer Clayton Cowles is a two-page spread using footnotes and a floorplan to explain an epic fight scene.

One failure of the trade is the loss of the recap pages. Most recaps are unnecessary; even the funny ones, such as the Deadpool pages, suffice as extras. But the recap pages in Young Avengers take the form of expertly-designed Tumblr pages, complete with fake user names, article tags and “links” to other blogs. These do more than just retell events; they set the mood and reinforce the book's timeframe. Some of the jokes (such as Loki referring to himself as “Tyrion” from Game of Thrones) might not make sense in a few years; the Tumblr gags might end up equivalent of MySpace references. But Young Avengers: Style > Substance is a unique book and a worthy continuation of these kids’ stories.

Next week, with Thor: The Dark World storming into theaters, I’ll take a look at the finale of Walter Simonson’s run on The Mighty Thor.

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Review: Hawkeye Vol. 2: Little Hits trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

Even though it helped launched Marvel NOW!, Hawkeye still feels like no other book that Marvel puts out, either in storytelling or visual design. The Hawkeye Vol. 2: Little Hits collection features one issue told in anachronic order, one issue containing two stories, and four issues which slowly tell one long tale which will be finished in another trade. At times, the issues feel like they should all be read one right after the other ... but then, there are moments where Matt Fraction and his artists clearly want you to take a break between issues. It can be maddening to figure out the proper pace of reading.

When it was first published, I was surprised that the previous trade, Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon didn’t contain issue six. It makes sense in retrospect, as the issue is the first named appearance of Clint Barton’s neighbor “Grills," who is at the center of nearly every story in Little Hits. Grills is an oddball older man who doesn’t quite seem to be all there. We find out more about his background in the first story in issue seven with a visit to his cranky father out in Queens. Issue seven was written and drawn in record time to get it out so that it could be used to raise money for Hurricane Sandy relief. The devastation created by the hurricane is more powerful than any alien invasion just because of how realistic it feels.

Grills’ presence in Hawkeye serves its purpose at the end of issue nine, when he’s killed by a newly-introduced villain, the Clown. The next issue provides the Clown’s origin, and it’s one of the rare cases where I wish Fraction had waited to tell this story. There’s nothing wrong with the origin; he’s a clown from a circus in an unnamed Eastern European country (the home of the Tracksuit Dracula gang) who lost his loved ones and sanity to a war-torn environment. But this story is being told to Kate Bishop during the events of issue #7 and #8, meaning that we spend four very decompressed issues in the exact same spot story-wise. Issue eleven moves forward just slightly, but it introduces another plot element that will be told from various angles over two issues after that. It’s frustrating even writing about Little Hits because there’s barely enough plot for three issues.

What redeems the book is the storytelling flair of the creative team. It’s best to turn off “guided reading” on Comixology when reading Hawkeye because otherwise, the little details fly by without letting you appreciate the page design. Issue six uses an amazing amount of white space, but it’s in service to the winter-set story. David Aja uses this space, along with many small panels and specially-designed titles from Chris Eliopoulos, to set a sparse mood. There’s also an innovative sequence on page three in which Hawkeye, Wolverine, and Spider-Man take on AIM soldiers. By putting the headshots of the characters in one corner and positioning the characters carefully, it becomes a pastiche of a side-scrolling video game. Fraction also adds in shout-outs to Hawkeye’s adventure in Solo Avengers with Dr. Druid and the existence of the Avengers’ favorite show, “Dog Cops."

Marvel split issue seven between two artists both because of the rush to get it out and because it tells two stories, but Steve Lieber and Jesse Hamm were up to the task. Lieber seems to emulate Aja’s style in his story about Clint, while Hamm has a cartoonier style more fitting to Kate’s story in which she’s stuck at an engagement party during the hurricane. Issue eight uses splash pages (drawn by Annie Wu) of lurid romance comics to separate its story sections and to subtly tell the backstory of “Cherry," Clint’s hook-up from the previous trade. She’s on the run after killing her abusive husband, one of the Tracksuit Draculas. Issue nine retells the previous issue while focusing on Clint’s relationships with Mockingbird, Black Widow, and Spider-Woman. David Aja gives all three of them '60s-style bouffant hairdos in a stylistic touch. Even though I’m annoyed that issue ten stalls the story in its tracks, I can’t fault the gorgeous art of Francsisco Francavilla; it got me to read his The Black Beetle recently.

The absolute triumph of Little Hits is issue eleven, which is told from the point of view of Lucky the pizza dog, the abused dog Hawkeye rescued in issue one. This isn’t done with thought boxes, but rather with a unique set of symbol diagrams created by what the dog would smell. For instance, when patrolling the scene of Grills’ death on the roof, we see an icon of Grills’ head, which proceeds to a grill, then a beer bottle, and finally a skull and crossbones. See some examples from Comics Alliance. Even the colors are muted to match the world in the way a dog would see it. All of the actual word bubbles are filled with scratched-out text with only the few words Lucky would understand remaining intact, such as “dog," “help," “up” and “good boy."

This is one of those books where I can’t figure out if I recommend it. It looks absolutely amazing, but Hawkeye Vol. 2: Little Hits is a frustrating read in a collected edition. If nothing else, you should grab issue eleven just to see how Fraction and Aja pull it off.

In two weeks, I’ll take a look at another title featuring Kate Bishop which values style over substance. But next week is Halloween, so it’s time to get terrified by the Xenomorphs. Beware of cat scares!

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Review: Secret Avengers Vol. 1: Reverie trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

The Marvel NOW! version of Secret Avengers, as presented in the book’s first trade, Secret Avengers Vol. 1: Reverie, does not use quite the same format as its predecessor. Steve Rogers and later Hawkeye commanded a tight group of covert heroes; this version is far more fluid in how it utilizes its assets. One version isn’t better than the other; in fact, with the massive amount of Avengers books on the shelves, Secret Avengers sets itself apart by being a "non-team" book of the highest caliber.

After a brief catch-up thanks to the Marvel NOW! Point One issue, the first issue reveals one of the book’s target audiences: fans of the films. This is no surprise -- Avengers Assemble and Indestructible Hulk both cater to new fans -- but this issue uses on-screen concepts almost entirely. This is actually a smart move as Nick Spencer’s use of Hawkeye, Black Widow, Maria Hill, Coulson, and Nick Fury Jr. allow him to slowly introduce comic-centric concepts later on. For instance, the bad guy is new (and possibly connected to Warren Ellis’ Secret Avengers: Run The Mission) and there’s a cameo from Druid of the Secret Warriors.

The first issue also introduces a key element of the book: mind-erasing nanotechnology, used so that the heroes employed by S.H.I.E.L.D. can disavow their actions. “Reverie” is the word which activates and deactivates the tech. Most readers (myself included) are far enough removed in time from Identity Crisis for a mind-erasure plot device to not trigger overly strong emotions. At the same time, Spencer doesn’t take the technique for granted; Hawkeye repeatedly has qualms about using it and about his participation in the Secret Avengers Initiative. It also opens up storytelling opportunities, and Spencer and artist Luke Ross use memory manipulation to change the order of events and play tricks on the reader.

Issue two sees the team recruiting a villain, Taskmaster, who can imitate the movements of superheroes and has traditionally used this for profit. S.H.I.E.L.D. needs to set up Taskmaster as part of the newly-revived AIM, led by a calm yet sadistic Scientist Supreme and headquartered on their own UN-recognized nation, the island of Barbuda. Once Taskmaster is one of the Island’s ruling council, the mind-wipe technology comes into play again. “Tasky” has tried to gain legitimacy before, and I like the irony that in this case, he technically has ... but he doesn’t remember doing so unless his memory implants are activated.

The third issue introduces the comic’s most controversial character: Daisy Johnson, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., who's only nineteen years old. Having her in charge was a consequence of the end of Secret Warriors, and Nick Spencer swiftly undoes this silly plot concept within three issues of Secret Avengers to the benefit of the Marvel Universe. It doesn’t help that Johnson is almost physically indistinguishable from former S.H.I.E.L.D. director Hill; only flipped hairstyles and a white jumpsuit versus a black one keep them apart. Spencer also brings in Senator Robert “Rebel” Ralston, a former Howling Commando and longtime S.H.I.E.L.D. ally. He goes down in a blaze of glory in the third issue in one of the rare occasions where bringing a character back to kill him worked out effectively.

More characters keep getting reintroduced, starting with Mockingbird, the ex-wife of Hawkeye who was resurrected (sort of) in Secret Invasion. To make her not feel redundant by being on a team with Black Widow, she’s been given “Camo-Tech,” allowing her to imitate others with perfect holograms. Not only is this fitting for her name, but it also fits into Spencer and Ross’ unreliable storytelling conceits. Bruce Banner helps out in issue four as both a scientist and as the Hulk, taking on a flock of sentient Iron Patriot drones stolen by AIM. There’s a massive twist at the end of issue four which makes it my favorite individual story in the collection. I can’t spoil it; all I can say is that it takes both classic Hulk tropes and story elements from Indestructible Hulk and turns them both on their head.

Spencer writes Secret Avengers as a continuous tale, and unfortunately, this means that the trade ends with part one of a three-part story. Hawkeye’s unwillingness to kill is a factor, as it was in Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, in the story “The Tape” as Daisy Johnson orders the assassination of the Scientist Supreme. Spencer leaves open whether the assassination actually happens; the abrupt ending will make an uninformed reader wonder why James Rhodes has a cameo in the book or why the Iron Patriot plot isn’t wrapped up, but both elements will be dealt with in the next trade (to great effect).

Luke Ross was an ingenious choice for the artist. Combined with Matthew Wilson’s colors, he’s able to set the right tone with suitably dark but still readable artwork. Ross has strong self-inking skills (although some of the faces could use a bit of work) and knows when to leave space for the colors to be put in afterwards. In a use of the advantages of digital lettering, the “memo” lettering boxes from Indestructible Hulk are seen in issue four, providing a nice thematic link.

At NYCC, it was revealed that Secret Avengers will see another reboot. I’ll be sad to see Spencer and Ross leave, because Secret Avengers: Reverie is an enjoyable book for both new and old fans. The use of AIM here helps set up elements in Infinity ... and the status quo after Infinity is what will probably necessitate the reboot.

Next week, we transition from Hulk to Hawkeye with a look at his (and her) next collection.

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Review: Avengers Assemble: Science Bros trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

Marvel launched Avengers Assemble as a movie tie-in in only the loosest of terms. The initial storyline, by Brian Michael Bendis, featured the film’s cast as they fought Thanos and teamed up with the Guardians of the Galaxy (the next non-sequel Marvel Studios film). It would have been easy to just get rid of Assemble once that story was finished, but the reshuffling of the Avengers franchise thanks to Marvel NOW! meant that a niche had opened up. I think there’s room for a lighter Avengers title amongst all the heavy space drama, which is where Avengers Assemble: Science Bros comes in.

Kelly Sue DeConnick worked with Brian Michael Bendis on Castle: Richard Castle’s ‘Deadly Storm’ and is close friends with him, so she’s able to keep a similar tone to his while maintaining her own voice. The issues collected here take place just before and during the transition into the current Avengers franchise, and they help smooth out some of the elements glossed over by Jonathan Hickman’s Avengers World. This also makes it one of the last books to feature Peter Parker as Spider-Man (at least before he returns in whatever will come after Superior Spider-Man), and I do wish DeConnick had done more with him. As it stands, his appearances in the first story arc are highlights of the book.

As I mentioned in my Avengers World review, the one character who needed some alterations to fit back into the team was the Hulk, and Assemble, along with Indestructible Hulk, provides the necessary changes. The title of the trade and the first story arc refers to Bruce Banner and Tony Stark, whom the fandom dubbed the “Science Bros” after their chemistry in the Avengers film. It was a brilliant take on the characters and Marvel was wise to follow through with it in the comics. DeConnick sets them up in opposition, with Stark as the perpetual optimist and Banner as the understandable pessimist. Despite their conflicting ideologies, they’re able to solve the convoluted problems the Avengers keep finding themselves in; a good chunk of Infinity involves their teamwork. It also feels like a natural progression of their characters to some degree, although considering Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, I have to assume that some counseling sessions took place off-panel.

The first story involves a bet between Stark and Banner as to who can find a missing mutual friend in an Antarctic base. With Thor and Spider-Woman along as their respective teammates, it becomes a fun jaunt until, in horror movie fashion, the pile of corpses is found. DeConnick nails the switch in the mood between issues nine and ten, allowing just enough humor without making the characters seem like sociopaths. They soon discover that the missing scientist is working with a Chinese madman, Yun Guang Han, to re-seed Earth with microbes found in an ancient lake and take it over. Han is a villain who needs to return: not only is he wonderfully smug, we also never learn the cause of his horrific mutation. The High Evolutionary recently returned in Avengers, and Han would make a good assistant/foil for him.

From there, we go to a two-parter starring Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Spider-Woman, the newest Avengers love triangle. I don’t necessarily buy Hawkeye and Spider-Woman dating ... but as indicated here and in Hawkeye, not even they seem to know if their relationship is serious. The mission revolves around a favor the Black Widow offered to the wife of one of her victims. What proceeds is a rather odd story featuring a body-altering drug and lizard-people who look like Doctor Who’s Silurians. The plot eventually takes a back-seat to some excellent character work, and by the end, there’s a sense that Assemble is really about the female Avengers and their perspective on the Marvel universe. There’s even an appearance by Lucky the pizza dog at the end.

The included Annual doesn’t fit into the “female perspective theme,” but then it doesn’t fit with the book’s tone, either. It centers on the Vision, who came back ... at some point. I think it was during or right after Fear Itself; I didn’t really notice that the current Vision isn’t the “Young Vision” who was a member of the Mighty Avengers. The Vision is part of the greatest Avengers love triangle, which has unfortunately been screwed up beyond repair ever since House of M. While the Annual is intended to set up a new status quo, it doesn’t really resolve anything for Vizh, since Age of Ultron put a spanner in the works for him until the launch of Avengers A.I..

The better character in the Annual is Sunturion, a classic Iron Man foe who does what everyone in the Marvel universe wants to do and starts burning down the corrupt corporate juggernaut Roxxon. Sunturion was always one of the more honorable bad guys and the story ends with some hope for his redemption. Unfortunately, the story isn’t helped by almost half a dozen artists working on it. All of them are good, including Mike Deodato, Luke Ross, and Mike Mayhew, but it ends up looking jumbled. Stefano Casselli on the first arc and Pete Woods on the second are as solid as always.

Like Avenging Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble is the go-to book when extra issues are needed for another story. After this trade, two issues are Age of Ultron tie-ins, while the next two are part of the Captain Marvel “The Enemy Within” crossover. There probably won’t be another Assemble trade for a while, but it’ll be worth it, as Warren Ellis is co-writing with DeConnick after the Infinity tie-ins end. If you’re a fan of the female Avengers and/or the Hulk and Iron Man, I’d check out Avengers Assemble: Science Bros. It’s not crucial, but it provides a different perspective on the more earth-shaking events going on in Hickman’s books.

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Review: Avengers Vol. 1: Avengers World hardcover (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

Free Comic Book Day 2013 is coming up this Saturday, and Marvel’s offering this year is a doozy. Jonathan Hickman’s Infinity #1 is the start of a major event, with ties to current Marvel comics and, quite likely, the upcoming film appearance of Thanos in the next Avengers film. Hickman has taken command of the core Avengers titles, after over a decade of Brian Michael Bendis’s decompressed and rather talky tenure, with New Avengers and Avengers, the first six issues of which are collected in Avengers Vol. 1: Avengers World.

Taking his cues from the film, along with Bendis’s own Avengers Assemble book, the team begins in its six-person cinematic line-up. It’s a credit to both the film and Marvel’s own editorial choices that such a team makes sense in the modern Marvel universe. The only out-of-place element is the Hulk’s presence, especially since his founder status was revoked back in Kurt Busiek’s run. Thankfully, Mark Waid’s Indestructible Hulk and Kelly Sue DeConnick’s Avengers Assemble have helped improve the Hulk’s status quo. The series begins with Steve Rogers and Tony Stark stripping the team down to rebuild it later on, though they dismiss Luke Cage and Dr. Strange a little too casually for my tastes.

As it turns out, they’re immediately outclassed by a trio of aliens. Two of them, the dark Abyss and the golden, horned Ex Nihilo, enjoy fiddling with the building blocks of life and creating “better” organisms. Their guardian, the robotic Aleph, is a rampaging terror whose destructive impulses provide both a bit of comic relief and a genuine threat. The initial fight between the Avengers and Ex Nihilo’s forces is extremely well-done, proving the aliens’ bona fides while demonstrating that the Avengers aren’t fooling around either. Jerome Opeña’s artwork uses shading to a perfect degree, without going overboard like Mike Deodato and other artists tend to do. Opeña also draws an awesome, ape-like Hulk which looks closer to the Kirby original than nearly any other incarnation I’ve seen.

From here, Hickman rebuilds the team in a very deliberate way. Hickman’s previous career as a graphic designer often translates into his comic book work in page layouts and, especially, in his love of charts. Each issue of Avengers begins with a complex infographic featuring each member’s personal insignia. They’re connected to each other and to a central hub in a way that hasn’t quite been explained yet, but which ties into how the universe itself is laid out. Despite dismissing some of the New Avengers, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Wolverine, and Captain Marvel are quickly brought back in. At the same time, Hickman deliberately under-uses Spider-Man and Wolverine to give space to characters without their own titles. Other veteran Avengers include the Falcon and Shang-Chi, previously seen in Secret Avengers: Run The Mission.

Some of the newest team members include Sunspot and Cannonball, longtime veterans of the New Mutants who attempted to retire after that series concluded. They swiftly become some of the team’s best comic relief while also demonstrating Captain America’s desire to train the next generation of heroes. They’re joined by Manifold, a mysterious teleporter previously found in Hickman’s Secret Warriors series. The final trio is comprised of new heroes with old names: Hyperion, Smasher, and Captain Universe. After the three-part initial arc is over, the next three issues delve into these heroes as Hickman brings older Marvel elements into the forefront. These issues are drawn by Adam Kubert, whose style is similar enough to Opeña’s that the transition isn’t jarring.

Hyperion’s origin is told as the team clears up some of the aftermath of Ex Nihilo’s plan to terra form Earth. Marvel has tried to emulate Superman numerous times, most famously with Thor and the Sentry, but Hyperion is the closest imitation as a member of the Squadron Supreme, a Justice League pastiche. This is actually a different Hyperion than the one from Mark Gruenwald’s groundbreaking Squadron Supreme maxi-series and the one from Supreme Power. He has the right mix of internal turmoil, arrogance, and skill to come off as a good Superman imitator without getting annoying. Tying his origin into AIM gives that organization new life, especially now it’s become a key enemy in other titles like Hawkeye and Secret Avengers.

Smasher’s story in issue #5 begins with a flashback to New X-Men issue #122, published over a decade ago. I checked my New X-Men hardcover, and apart from some different angles and abridged dialogue, Hickman and Kubert did a beat-for-beat recreation of the previous Smasher’s demise as he and the other Imperial Guards (Marvel’s Legion of Superheroes pastiche) fled from Cassandra Nova. The story picks up a dangling plot thread from that issue: the idea that a human could have found the power-giving exospex wielded by that Smasher. Izzy Dare becomes the first human Smasher, and the parallels to Hal Jordan’s origins are obvious but underplayed. The revelation of her grandfather’s identity is a brilliant inside joke which brings a popular British sci-fi pulp hero into the Marvel Universe.

Finally, Captain Universe’s tale involves the revelation of her origin to Shang-Chi. For a while, many people online (myself included) thought that the new Captain Universe was Monica Rambeau, formerly of Nextwave. Tamara Devoux is a new character with a tragic backstory and ties to both the 1980s incarnation of Captain Universe and the failed New Universe publishing project, which will become the core story of the next volume. This issue also solves a problem many people had with the publishing timeline: how does Avengers interact with the new Superior Spider-Man? We find out here as Octavius-in-Parker’s body instigates a feud with Cannonball, and Sunspot and just generally makes an ass of himself.

Avengers: Avengers World is a story of building, both in the tale itself and in the paratext around it. The strong subtext of “creating the new from the old” plays out in Hickman’s use of classic Marvel concepts and characters. With clever dialogue and great art, it’s easy to see why Avengers has swiftly become one of Marvel’s core books.

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Review: Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Review by Doug Glassman, who Tumblrs at Hell Yeah '80s Marvel!]

My name is Doug Glassman, and I am no longer a wait-for-trader . . . at least, not in the traditional sense.

This is a review of the issues that will be collected in just a week or so in Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon, though I own the book in single issues. Hawkeye was the first comic to suck me back in to monthlies after fully dropping them for space and cost reasons; I’ll discuss my changing trades reality a little more over the next few reviews.

Along with Daredevil by Mark Waid, Captain Marvel: In Pursuit of Flight, and Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself, the current volume of Hawkeye led the way to Marvel NOW! Part of what makes Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye so compelling is the tone. With the character gaining a surge in popularity thanks to the Avengers film, it would have been easy to just give Hawkeye a standard action-oriented title. Instead, Fraction took a unique approach to the character by removing conventional heroics from the book entirely. Clint Barton is rarely in his costume during My Life As A Weapon; instead, it follows his “regular” life, which is more chaotic than his Avengers duties. The man can’t help but get involved with troublesome situations, whether they involve world-spanning criminal families, mysterious redheads, or a maltreated pizza dog.

Anachronic storytelling is a recurring feature in Hawkeye, but Fraction does it differently each time. For instance, the third story revolves around the nine bad ideas Clint’s had over the course of a day. Every issue starts with the phrase “okay, this looks bad,” followed by a jump back in time to explain what’s gone wrong. It keeps the book feeling unique, since you don’t know how the next story is going to unfold.

Clint Barton has never been the most serious of characters, and this is borne out by his narration throughout the book. It’s heavily stream-of-consciousness and usually dripping with snark. Aiding Matt Fraction in conveying this is Chris Eliopoulos, the letterer, and together, they steadfastly refuse to use conventional sound effects. In one instance, when a gun is cocked, the sounds it makes are spelled out like script directions. Characters speaking in foreign languages don’t get their dialogue translated; it’s instead replaced by Clint’s best guess at what language they’re speaking.

Despite the book’s occasionally irreverent tone, it’s still strongly connected to the main Marvel continuity, albeit in interesting ways. In the second issue, at a performance of the Circus of Crime, there are brief panels of the Kingpin and his wife, Hammerhead, Madame Masque, the Owl, and Tombstone. None of them are identified or given any dialogue, but their silent presence adds to the set-up of the issue. Madame Masque becomes a key foe in the two-parter in issues #4 and #5, but Clint’s main foes are the “Tracksuit Draculas,” lower-tier Eastern European gangsters whose main strengths are their numbers and brutality. Be prepared to hear “bro” used many, many times in many, many contexts, as it’s one of the few English words that the Tracksuit Draculas know. I personally maintain that this trade should’ve been named Hawkeye: Aww, This Looks Bad, Bro after the three most-repeated phrases, but then that’s why I’m not in charge of Marvel’s collections department.

Clint isn’t the only Hawkeye starring in the book. His sidekick/partner/barely plausible love interest is Kate Bishop, a member of the Young Avengers who finds herself helping Hawkeye as he digs himself into difficult situations. Kate is actually a better archer than Clint, and their mentor/student banter cements a strong theme of responsibility which runs through the book. The trade collects the Hawkeye spotlight issue of Young Avengers Presents, issue #6, which not only serves as a dry run for Fraction’s interactions with the Hawkeyes, but it also demonstrates how much difference artwork can make. Alan Davis (who is one of my favorite artists) has a far different style from the main book.

Much like Daredevil by Mark Waid, the art in Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon is in a cartoony style. However, the work of David Aja and Javier Pulido is rougher than Daredevil's Marcos Martin and Paolo Rivera, and this "roughness" works with Clint’s personality. Both artists like to work with tiny panels, making the pages resemble film storyboards or comic strips rather than a conventional superhero comic book. Matt Hollingsworth, the book’s colorist, adds the final layer of the book’s style with a very specific color palette. There’s a specific shade of “Hawkeye Purple” which tends to get put in the backgrounds and other shaded areas.

Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye has taken both the Internet and the comic book world by storm. In my opinion, it feels like an independent comic book that just happens to be set in the Marvel canon. The strong characterization, unique storytelling, and captivating art have attracted both longtime fans and newbies, and Hawkeye: My Life As A Weapon could certainly serve as a gateway for those uninitiated in Marvel.

Coming up, I’ll return to IDW’s two Transformers ongoing series. One is a trade I own a physical copy of, while the other is a digital version. I’ll also explain why Comixology could make “waiting for the trade” a thing of the past for me.

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Review: Infinity Gauntlet hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman.]

Continuing directly from Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos, Jim Starlin and Ron Lim’s Infinity Gauntlet is the last of what I call the “Marvel Epics.” From 1980 to 1993, a string of Marvel stories defined the characters for years to come. Starting with the Dark Phoenix Saga and going through Captain America: The Captain, Armor Wars and Avengers Under Siege (among others), Infinity Gauntlet finishes the chain with the greatest single battle in Marvel history. I say this having read the major Marvel crossovers, and my opinion still stands. The scope of the war in this volume is absolutely astonishing.

Authors have different strategies to convey the threat of a villain. Some use staggering amounts of violence, like Superboy-Prime’s slaughter of the Teen Titans in Infinite Crisis or the Stamford explosion in Civil War. Some use world-shattering disasters, such as Krona’s war on reality in JLA/Avengers or the Sun extinguishing in The Final Night. Some keep ratcheting up the scope of the participants, such as the numerous Supermen in Final Crisis or the Skyfathers in Secret Invasion. Starlin decides to go with all three of these tactics with Thanos -- appropriate, as Thanos is the most powerful being in the universe.

The book starts out with Thanos having aged Nebula, his crazed granddaughter, into a shambling near-corpse (staggering violence). He then commits one of the most infamous acts in the Marvel universe: the death of half of the universe’s population. This is done with a snap of his fingers. It sends every facet of the universe into chaos, represented by brief vignettes from the Avengers, Namor, Asgard, and many others. Starlin jumps from vignette to vignette as a way to keep the scope from overwhelming the story. When Thanos throws a temper tantrum, the Gauntlet creates a wave of destruction which rips through the universe, knocking the Earth out of orbit and destroying Japan and the entire West Coast of the United States (world-shattering disasters).

At this point, Starlin resurrects the character of Adam Warlock, and the recruiting of Marvel’s most powerful players begins (ratcheting scope). Warlock is a “perfected human” who defeated Thanos before; commanding the forces against Thanos, he plays a complex strategy game. Dr. Strange and the Silver Surfer are on hand to question him about it, while Doctor Doom injects himself into the proceedings as a way to advance his own agenda. They start small, getting together the remaining superheroes. This is not as big of an army as you might think. The entire Fantastic Four, most of X-Factor and the New Warriors, and many Avengers were taken in the culling of the universe.

From this point on, more and more powerful participants are brought in. The heroes gather the Skyfathers -- the heads of all the pantheons of the Marvel Universe --  which only happens when the situation is truly dire, similar to DC’s Quintessence. Galactus is one of the weaker combatants compared to the embodiments of Chaos, Order, Love and Hate; a pair of life-seeding Celestials; the Living Tribunal, the final arbiter of the universe; and Eternity, the sentience of the universe itself. Their eventual fight with Thanos takes place mostly off-panel, mostly because it would have been nearly impossible to draw. Even the parts we do see are limited by the confines of the written and drawn page, and the combatants eventually destroy many of the universe’s fundamental tenets and scientific laws. Thanos keeps winning ... and it’s all part of Warlock’s plans.

Even with all of these characters in play, Starlin is able to capture their characterization and use it to drive the story. The various cosmic forces are hard to marshal and are driven by their own self-interests and egos. Galactus, for instance, is only involved because the aforementioned Earth-wrecking temper tantrum robbed him of potential planets as food. The humans have their own issues, with very few trusting Warlock, and Doctor Doom being a divisive presence. A key scene features Wolverine and the Hulk (who was sentient at the time) calmly discussing their turbulent past, only for Warlock to explain that they’re part of the mission because they’re willing to kill. Captain America has used Wolverine in this capacity before, and even he knows that sending the Hulk into a situation can result in such damage. It’s a refreshing realization of Marvel’s own issues with vigilantism.

Thanos’ greatest downfall is his own self-loathing and his feelings of unworthiness to hold his power. As Warlock points out, this is the third time Thanos has had omnipotence. It also becomes the third time he lets it slip away due to carelessness and easily-avoidable flaws. Helping the heroes in his own way is Mephisto. While One More Day may have tarnished many characters, Mephisto is one of the few to come out with a good reputation. All he did was manipulate Spider-Man’s emotions, and he does the same here with Thanos, pushing just the right buttons to cause astonishing chaos while keeping him from destroying existence (and Mephisto himself) entirely.

This is why Thanos remains one of Marvel’s best villains. He yearns for greatness and achieves it, but can’t keep it. When the universe has a massive reset near the end of Infinity Gauntlet, it doesn’t feel cheap because the events still remain in Thanos’ mind. The reset isn’t even his fault; it’s part of Nebula’s justified revenge. I normally dislike resets like this—for instance, I thought that Paris’s destruction during Fear Itself should have remained as a way to greatly change the Marvel Universe. But this time, the knowledge that such a reset needed to happen just for publishing purposes is abated by the circumstances.

If you need artists who can draw numerous characters effectively, Ron Lim and George Perez are two of the best, and they collaborate wonderfully. The changeover is nearly impossible to notice until you look at some of the faces. Perez has his trademark “circular face,” while Lim uses a more ovular style. Both draw some of the best star-fields in comics, taking their time to create extensive detail in an age before computer coloring could do it in half the time. The reality-bending Gauntlet’s powers require some extensive art effects, and these sometimes make the story a bit difficult to follow. A few sequences with a white-outline-drawing Doctor Strange on top of yellow energy may not have been the best color combination. The Gauntlet itself is also an excellent and memorable design -- enough so that viewers immediately noticed it when it appeared very briefly in Thor.

In retrospect, Infinity Gauntlet marked the end of the old Marvel. Lee, Liefeld, and the other founders of Image Comics were on the rise, and within a few years, the Heroes Reborn event and its reversal would change it entirely. Like post-Final Crisis DC, post-Gauntlet Marvel may never attain its former glory, but the last Marvel Epic is a testament to what came before. It deserves to be put on film, and it seems that Hollywood has answered the call to do so.

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Review: Silver Surfer: The Rebirth of Thanos trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman. Spoilers ahead for The Avengers movie.]

Shortly after Avengers came out, I sought a copy of Infinity Gauntlet, the likely source material for the film’s sequel. Upon reading it, however, I felt that something was missing. It opened as if it were the third act of an epic, with characters returning having been killed off-screen. As it turns out, there was a huge chunk of story missing … and thankfully, Marvel has collected this in Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos. Though the title has been out in hardcover for some time, it was recently put out in paperback just in time for readers to get ready for Thanos’s entry onto the big screen.

Collected here are two major stories: “Rebirth of Thanos,” which was told in the Silver Surfer series, and “The Thanos Quest,” a two-issue miniseries. The Silver Surfer isn’t one of my favorite characters. My favorite moments featuring him are smaller cameos, such as his epic fight with Cable in Cable and Deadpool or his turn as a gladiator in Planet Hulk. Perhaps the Surfer’s greatest issue is that he suffers from Superman Syndrome: the difficulty of coming up with a threat great enough to be serious for such a powerful hero. Jim Starlin sidesteps this problem in two ways.

Firstly, Starlin spends a lot of time humanizing the Surfer. In the first few pages, for instance, he gets to sleep for the first time in years. Unlike Superman, who can go from sleeping to flying off within seconds, the Surfer travels such great distances that he can’t afford to rest. His irritation at being saddled with Drax the Destroyer (who is basically Space Hulk) is palpable, and the Surfer gets rid of Drax not through strength, but through intelligence and patience.

But the key to Rebirth of Thanos is its title character. Thanos may have begun as Marvel’s rip-off of Darkseid, but his death and resurrection turned him into a new kind of conqueror. Where Darkseid wants to be worshipped, Thanos simply wants to be seen as an equal. The only problem is that he wants to be an equal of Death. If you saw The Avengers with a Marvel fan and they cheered when Thanos’ advisor says that he’s “courting death,” well, this is why. Marvel and DC both personify Death as a woman, but while DC’s Death is a perky Goth, Marvel’s death is a hooded, often skeletal figure who only speaks through others. In fact, Death’s refusal to speak directly to Thanos ends up as a major plot point at the end of “Thanos Quest,” and one that leads into Infinity Gauntlet.

Darkseid and Thanos also differ in how they relate with others. Darkseid is, for a lack of a better term, “personable.” He’s constantly surrounded by underlings, and even when they want to rebel against him, they fall back when he’s ready to launch a plan. Thanos, meanwhile, is very much on his own by his own choice. After his resurrection, he goes after Nebula, a dangerous warlord claiming to be his granddaughter. Where Darkseid would try to convince her into an alliance, Thanos just blasts her forces.

Thanos also has a cold sort of reason about him. His plan to “balance the scales” by killing half of the universe’s population is presented as not just a logical choice, but the only possible solution to the ills of existence. He takes the Surfer to the modern, polluted, and overcrowded Earth and tries to make his case that the entire universe would be better off if the Surfer helped him in his genocide. Starlin takes what would have been just a silly supervillain scheme and pushes it up a level by putting in the hands of an immensely powerful and incredibly intelligent planner who fully believes that he’s slaughtering populations for love. The cruel trick he pulls on an overpopulated, predator-less planet is just the start.

I’ve written about the difficulties about villain-driven series before, and how characters like Carnage and Venom couldn’t carry their own title. Thanos’ miniseries demonstrates that he can hold his own as a lead character. In his quest for the Soul Gems (rebranded the Infinity Gems in this title), he goes up against six of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe and outwits them. He accomplishes this by going in a very specific order, using each new gem to enhance the ones before them. When he uses the Gems in turn, you can get a sense of just how powerful the Infinity Gauntlet itself is. Starlin then goes the extra step and demonstrates the Gauntlet’s sheer might, and the threat is made all too real.

Ron Lim provides the art for both stories. Starlin and Lim are considered one of the best writer/artist teams in comic book history, and Rebirth of Thanos demonstrates just why this is. Lim consistently provides lush backgrounds and intricate panel layouts, allowing him to convey action-driven, large-scale stories with great clarity. He also adds to Thanos’ design through the removal of his eyes. Thanos had always been presented as having a huge brow, but the only time he has eyes in Lim’s artwork is when he has a manic gleam. Otherwise, they’re hollow sockets, a fitting touch for a lover of Death. Lim even makes background characters interesting. Death is accompanied by a rotting corpse and a humanoid rat, and I wanted to know more about both of them. (Perhaps they’re visitors from Discworld?)

If you’re interested at all in Infinity Gauntlet, then you must read Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos. This is Act I of the story, and I wish Marvel could find a better way to get word out about it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a Thanos Omnibus in the future, but for now, pick this up for a fantastic supervillain’s rise. An extra story from Logan’s Run is collected as well, and it shows off just how far Thanos has come from.

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Review: Heroes Reborn: Avengers trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

Heroes Reborn: Avengers is a study in bad comics and good. What starts out as as early exercise in alternate continuity (like the Ultimate Universe) goes terribly wrong, but some smart writing brings it back from the brink.

Issues #1-7 of the "Heroes Reborn" Avengers collected here were co-plotted by Rob Liefeld; the scripts for these issues were provided first by Jim Valentino, then by Jeph Loeb. Because of this, Avengers feels like an early Image title, with clichéd dialogue and a bland plot which serves as an excuse for a series of fight scenes.

What bogged me down in the first issue is Loki's truly horrible narration. A lot of people mock Thor and the other Asgardians for the Old English tone of their words, but Old English is actually a language with rules. Valentino doesn’t seem to realize this. Every other sentence has a “what be” or an “e’en” in it, and it becomes incredibly distracting. I have an English degree, and for a class, I had to be able to translate passages Beowulf into modern English for a test. To see such a blatant disregard for language is insulting, similar to a bad translation from Spanish.

Then there's the art.  Chap Yaep is the primary artist at first, and his art isn’t too bad by 1990s Marvel standards. His women have ridiculous proportions and every one seems to be snarling, but that’s par for the course. But the other reason I couldn’t get past the first issue is what I can only describe as a “smash cut.” As the Avengers assemble against Loki, we see the Vision and Scarlet Witch running through a hallway, and then BAM! Double-page Liefeld spread. From there, it descends into what feels almost like a Rob Liefeld parody, with constant snarls, tiny eyes and the ridiculously long legs of the Enchantress.

Ian Churchill takes on art duties later on, and along with Jeph Loeb's script, the title slowly improves. It’s not helped by some terrible costume designs. Hellcat has suddenly become Feral from X-Force, but without a nose. Had this been Tigra, it would’ve been more understandable, but the lack of a nose makes the character look strange. Hawkeye has been given a putrid brown costume and a full face mask. It seems like Liefeld and company wanted to have Wolverine but were saddled with Hawkeye, so they gave him a version of the tiger stripe costume and Wolverine’s mask. Ant-Man has a robotic costume with huge antennae which make him look like the Tick.

The best of the worst is the Swordsman, who has, for reasons I cannot explain, a Moe Howard haircut. I think they were going for a samurai look, but it just made him into a trio of unintentional Three Stooges homages, with Hawkeye’s wing-mask as Larry and Vision’s bald head as Curly.

By the eighth issue, the reader can see how Marvel decides that the Heroes Reborn experiment had failed, and they start folding their characters back into Marvel's original continuity. Along with Peter David’s Heroes Return mini-series, they changed the creative team on Avengers to Walt Simonson and Michael Ryan, who turned it into one of the greatest comics I’ve ever read. Ryan’s cartoonish art is okay for the story Simonson is telling. At the time, manga’s influence was growing in the comic book world, with Humberto Ramos and Todd Nauck becoming rising artists; Ryan’s style has wide eyes and brighter colors to match this style.

Walt Simonson turned Thor into a frog and made it a work of genius, so you can imagine what he brought to this title. He creates a clever fake-out in issue #9 as the dialogue of the Asgardians descends into even worse Old English; Thor actually says “If this be the way of the Avengers, then mayhap Thor be Avenger no longer!" At first, this was disconcerting, since Simonson’s run on Thor is one of the Eighties Marvel Epics (I’ll get into my redefinition of that term next month). I was concerned that Simonson lost his touch. But then, at the end of issue #9, the real Thor appears, and it all clicks.

Simonson turns the entire title into a self-parody of the first eight issues. The Asgardian dialogue is so bad because Counter-Earth is the creation of a young child (Franklin Richards) and based on his memories. When the real Thor encounters the Counter-Earth Thor, he notes that “You speak strangely, warrior ... as though thy tongue were twisted into knots!” The Enchantress’ legs remain ridiculously long and the Scarlet Witch’s costume keeps shrinking, parodying the earlier artwork. Characters keep having random revelations, much like the hints about Counter-Earth’s “wrongness” early on, like the Swordsman knowing Mantis, which were never picked up on again. There’s even a joke about being unable to find the proper sound effect for a fight scene; Simonson often works with John Workman, the creator some of comics’ most memorable sound effects.

Heroes Reborn: Avengers is a bizarrely prescient version of the Ultimate Universe. It’s a world with heavy SHIELD influence where a squabbling superhero team starts out poorly, continues without focus and is killed off one-by-one during a reboot-oriented massive event. I went into this volume believing Heroes Reborn: Avengers to be the worst Avengers book ever, and the first part of the book bears this out. I wouldn’t recommend buying it, but if you can get it for really cheap or can check it out of the library, you should do so, if only to see the transition from badness into brilliance.

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Review: Avengers Academy: Permanent Record hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

After the Siege event, two books in the Avengers line ended: Mighty Avengers, following a quirky team led by Hank Pym to oppose the Dark Avengers, and Avengers: The Initiative, chronicling a group of heroes-in-training. When the new title designed to replace them was announced, one question emerged: “Why do we need another book about teenage Avengers?” It’s an understandable concern, as Young Avengers has recently completed its epic “Children’s Crusade” story.

However, Avengers Academy owes less to Young Avengers than to the original X-Men and the New Mutants. They’re not even officially a team until the end of this first collection, Avengers Academy: Permanent Record. Instead, the six students of the Academy are being trained by Hank Pym to be the next generation of superheroes. You can see how this book replaced its predecessors, and it takes the initial concept to new dimensions. It helps that Christos Gage was also the writer for Avengers: The Initiative, and some plotlines from that book continue through here.

One of the best moves in creating Avengers Academy was staffing it with well-established instructors but new students. Avengers: The Initiative had to work with continuity-rich characters like Thor Girl and Batwing, but the only pre-established student character here is Reptil. He was introduced last year to tie in with The Superhero Squad Show, and reading the book, one gets the feeling that Gage was forced by the editor to have Reptil in the roster. He’s a somewhat flat character, especially in comparison to his classmates. His ability to manifest parts of dinosaurs is also just strange and was clearly designed to appeal to kids first [dare we call him Beast Boy? -- ed].

The six teens are all united by Norman Osborn’s attempts to turn them into villains, and we get brief looks into their histories and how they were manipulated. Gage has each character narrate an issue, an effective way to get the information across. Veil is a shy but cheerful girl who can turn into gas and is dying from her enhanced powers. Hazmat constantly produces volatile materials and is stuck wearing a secure suit, significantly souring her attitude. The final female member is Finesse, with photo-reflexes similar to the Taskmaster . . . because she might be his daughter.

For me, the two other male characters are the most interesting. The lightning-manipulating Striker is the son of a would-be celebrity who extended her fifteen minutes of fame through him. At the end of issue #5, the issue he narrates, his mother drops a bomb which changes the tone of the series completely; it’s actually subtle enough that it took me a second read to catch it. Mettle, the huge, red character, has the most tragic origin, being a laid-back surfer dude who hit a wave and found his skin peeling off to reveal a metal skeleton. Gage makes him very relatable and sympathetic, even when things change toward the end.

Marvel knew going in that the kids weren’t going to get people to read the book, so they gave the Academy a strong faculty, albeit one with its own issues. Hank Pym, in his guise as the Wasp, is still reeling from Siege and his wife’s death, but he’s surprisingly capable of holding himself together. Having one of the original five Avengers in the book grants it legitimacy. At his side is Tigra, who has gone through hell herself thanks to an assault at the hands of the Hood and an unexpected pregnancy. Jocasta, Ultron’s “mate,” flits in and out of the book. Justice, a former New Warrior and reluctant killer, has divorced from Firestar and is doing his best to help to the kids. Also there for the kids is Speedball, who has returned from his Civil War-era Penance identity . . . at least outwardly.

The last permanent faculty member is Quicksilver in a very uncomfortable role as instructor. I say “permanent” because any Avenger can drop in to teach a class. Steve Rogers and Iron Fist do some sparring practice, while Valkyrie has “the talk” with the girls, much to the dismay of Tigra. Issues #4-5 form the “Scared Straight” crossover as discussed in my review of Thunderbolts: Cage. The two titles connect nicely, apart from some wonky continuity with the Juggernaut, and an unlikely trio gets revenge on Osborn . . . or at least they try to. The Ghost’s paranoid rambling speech is a highlight. As much as they want to make these kids into heroes, it’s clear that the faculty have to work hard to keep them from turning into the next Masters of Evil, as Moonstone predicts they might.

Along with teenage superhero angst, Avengers Academy shares something else with Teen Titans: Mike McKone. On some of his other books, I’ve felt a bit disconcerted by McKone’s tendency to draw identical faces. That doesn’t happen too often here (and certainly not to the degree that Tom Grummett or Rags Morales do it), but McKone does occasionally lapse into “dull surprise.” Some characters have their mouths hanging open far too often. McKone designed some very good costumes, and I have to think that Mettle’s uniform of a black shirt and jeans is a reference to Superboy. He unfortunately can’t make Hank Pym’s Wasp costume look any less garish, however. (He’s since changed back to Giant-Man.)

I applaud Avengers Academy: Permanent Record for doing something new, at least when it comes to the Avengers. Student superheroes have been a constant for the X-Men, and I can only imagine how this school will interact with the Jean Grey School in Wolverine and the X-Men. Christos Gage is adept at writing both teens and superheroes, and he and Mike McKone are putting together a solid tale of old and new heroes in an unsteady Marvel Universe. It’s definitely not your average teen book.

Next time . . . look upon Rob Liefeld’s works, ye mighty Avengers, and despair.

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Review: Secret Avengers: Run the Mission, Don't Get Seen, Save the World hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

There are a ridiculous amount of Avengers books on the shelves right now. There are the "Adjectiveless," New, Mighty, and Secret teams, along with the movie-themed Avengers Assemble. There are also related mini-series and related ongoings like Avenging Spider-Man and Avengers Academy. It’s difficult to figure out who’s on which team at once, similar to the dread one feels when discussing late-1990s X-Men.

However, Secret Avengers justifies its existence by having a very different purpose. Similar to the current incarnation of X-Force or what Justice League Elite was supposed to be [gosh, I liked Justice League Elite -- ed.], the Secret Avengers are the covert team, taking on operations they don’t want the world to know about. Ed Brubaker kicked off the series, followed by Nick Spencer during Fear Itself. During a gap between the Spencer run and Rick Remender coming on to the book, Marvel decided to have a little fun and, on Brubaker’s advice, bring in a very unlikely Avengers writer: Warren Ellis.

For me, Ellis is at his best when writing team books, whether it’s Nextwave, Stormwatch, The Authority, Planetary, Black Summer or the late, lamented Global Frequency. Ellis decides to take the latter route, and Secret Avengers: Run The Mission, Don’t Get Seen, Save The World feels like volume 2 of that title. In every issue of Global Frequency (which I’ll be reviewing next month), Miranda Zero hand-picked a team of specialists to solve a world-threatening issue. They were aided by tech guru Aleph, and the situations ranged from kinetic missiles pointed at the Earth to biological engineering to Zero being kidnapped.

For Run The Mission, Miranda Zero is replaced by Steve Rogers, Aleph is replaced by Beast, and the team to choose from is limited rather than the 1,001 specialists on the Global Frequency. Otherwise, the tone, the threats, and the story construction are very similar to Ellis’ previous title. He uses exactly twenty-two pages to tell the six stand-alone stories, ending each individual tale rather abruptly on that last page without any follow-up. The final issue of the run brings in elements of the previous five.

Warren Ellis has an interesting take on superheroes. I don't think he outright hates them, like Garth Ennis does, but he has a pessimistic view towards them. Throughout the stories, it’s clear that Rogers’s team is often in over their heads, and they use trickery to take out most of their bizarre enemies. You’ll note that I’m using “Steve Rogers” instead of “Captain America”; that’s because, at this time, he was the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. He’s since returned to his old identity (to the surprise of no one), but his maskless, star-studded uniform is an interesting take on what he used to wear.

The Avengers team remains mostly unchanged from the previous roster in the series (Nova sadly departed after the first arc; I wanted him to stick around). The only member taken out is Ant-Man, whom Ellis disliked, and the only addition to the roster is Shang-Chi in issue #18. The majority of the members are hand-to-hand combatants: Rogers, Sharon Carter, Shang-Chi, the Black Widow and Moon Knight. The team’s heavies are Valkyrie, Beast, and War Machine. It’s an odd line-up, but Ellis makes it work thanks to the former Captain America’s sheer force of will. Steve is in charge, and once the Secret Avengers get going, they’re unstoppable.

Most of the roster remains underdeveloped, but then again, with Rogers, Moon Knight, Beast, War Machine, and Black Widow appearing in their own or other books, there isn’t enough room to make major changes. Despite this trade’s cover, Nick Spencer decided to remove War Machine’s iconic shoulder guns, perhaps the dumbest Iron Man-related costuming move since the S.K.I.N. armor. Rhodey seems distant in this book, distracted by the events of his own title, Iron Man 2.0 (a name I loathe). Black Widow is mysterious and snarky, Moon Knight is gleefully insane, Valkyrie loves her warrior nature, and Beast, as always, indulges in technobabble. Shang-Chi, in his one issue, is reluctant to work with the team, a hesitation Ellis later details. Sharon Carter is the odd-one-out, on the team primarily because she’s Steve’s girlfriend, but she too holds her own.

One reason I enjoy Ellis’s Marvel books is that the man loves his Marvel trivia. Nextwave had all sorts of bizarre Marvel villains, and Secret Avengers keeps it going with the Secret Empire and a rogue Arnim Zola body, amongs others. The first story, for instance, uses a copy of Doctor Doom’s time platform from Fantastic Four #5 -- Doom’s first appearance. The villains’ schemes employ complex and horrific scientific processes, like bio-mechanical engineering factories and drugs which allow spirits to take over your soul. Issue #19 introduces the reader to Pilot Marko, a fanatic cyborg pilot who, in four pages, manages to completely steal the book away from the main team. Ellis can be relied on for strange, over-the-top action, to be sure.

Perhaps the greatest similarity to Global Frequency is the art -- namely, having a different artist in each issue. However, rather than the somewhat random artist selection from that book, Marvel decided to have some of its major artists work on the book. In order, they are Jamie McKelvie (X-Men: Season One), Kev Walker (Thunderbolts), David Aja (The Immortal Iron Fist), Michael Lark (Daredevil), Alex Maleev (Spider-Woman) and Stuart Immonen (Nextwave). They have a variety of art styles, ranging from blocky to shadowy to cartoony, with each picked to match the story.

Warren Ellis’ take on Secret Avengers will be sorely missed. He has, however, stated that he would return if Marvel wanted him to, so if there’s a publishing gap in the near future, Ellis can hopefully fill it. Secret Avengers: Run The Mission’s six stand-alone stories, with creative threats and top-notch artists, are some of Marvel’s best work of 2012.

In my next review, Hank Pym and Norman Osborn battle for the souls of six malleable super-kids. (Figuratively battle, I mean. Though in the Marvel Universe, a physical battle for souls wouldn’t be too unusual.)

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Review: Avengers/X-Men: Maximum Security trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

When a comic book company creates a complex outer space portion of their universe, one of the questions that must be answered is: “Why are humans so important?” In the DC Universe, this was answered in Blackest Night by making Earth the home of the life-creating White Lantern Entity. Marvel decided to take a more cynical approach -- it’s not Earth itself that's so important, but that humans keep butting in to the dealings of the rest of the universe. As seen in Avengers Forever and the unfortunately uncollected Avengers Infinity, this eventually leads to humans conquering planet after planet. So what are the other Marvel space species to do?

This is where Kurt Busiek, Chris Claremont, Jerry Ordway and other creators got very inventive when they put together Avengers/X-Men: Maximum Security. Most crossovers tell the main story in one central title, but if you only read the four Maximum Security core issues (the “Dangerous Planet” one-shot and the three central books), the story would feel hollow. Instead, plot threads were spread out among a variety of books, all of which are collected in this paperback.

Some were expected titles, such as Avengers and Uncanny X-Men. But a core plotline runs through issues of Bishop, X-Men and X-Men Unlimited, which non-mutant fans wouldn’t have thought to look at. An issue of Gambit adds another crucial element. Maximum Security forced the reader to check out unusual books, and with the hope that they might end up liking them. (Fabian Nicieza even uses the event to explain a plot point of the X-Cutioner’s Song crossover.) Because of the rising costs of books, the degree to which this crossover-storytelling method is used has lessened.

The kickoff of the storyline is brilliant. Professor Xavier has gathered a group of Skrull mutants, called “Cadre K,” to prevent genocidal “cullings” of other mutant Skrull children. When Xavier’s actions are brought up to the galactic council, headed by Empress Lilandra Nerimani (Xavier’s wife), an argument ensues over what to do about the humans. Then they’re attacked by Ego the Living Planet. (For the uninitiated, Ego is like Mogo, but with a mustachioed face and an evil disposition.)

Professor X and Cadre K save the day by summoning the psychic strength of the assembled aliens to defeat Ego, with help from the Silver Surfer and an enigmatic new alien race, the Ruul. The “gathered psychic energy” trick is a fairly standard superhero maneuver, especially amongst the telepath-rich X-Men. However, they do this just as the alien council is in a furious discussion over how humans keep intruding in their affairs.

As a result, the aliens punish our solar system by making it a penal colony. That way, the prisoners keep the human heroes so occupied with mayhem that the humans can’t leave Earth to do anything else. Busiek neatly covers a plot hole -- why not put the prisoners on the other planets in the solar system? -- with this “constant combat” element. The imprisonment is aided by long-standing Avengers foe Ronan the Accuser and a system of forcefield-projecting space watchtowers. The plot gets a little more complex after this point, involving a reborn Ego absorbing the Earth and the machinations of the Ruul, but I’ll leave those unspoiled.

There are lots of “blink and you’ll miss them” appearances from Marvel’s various races, from the well-known Shi’ar and Skrulls to the obscure Axi-Tun, Badoon, Technarch and Kymellians. As always, Busiek has done his research when it comes to the history of Marvel’s space adventures; “Dangerous Planet” alone brings up the Kree-Skrull War, Operation Galactic Storm and the Dark Phoenix Saga as major reasons for Earth’s imprisonment. Maximum Security is billed as both an Avengers and X-Men book, and while I got it for the former, the latter really got me intrigued. Mind you, this is late 1990s X-Men, infamous for being rather impenetrable, but having the interconnecting issues all in one place brought everything together.

The individual issues mostly involve fighting various aliens and hunting for McGuffins which can be used to stop the alien plot and free humanity. U.S. Agent, a.k.a. the replacement Captain America from Captain America: The Captain is a key character, representing the interests of the United States while wearing a new helmet based on Judge Dredd. A notable costuming quirk is that Iron Man is in his classic 1960s costume; this is because Maximum Security took place right after the story where his armor became sentient due to Y2K and nearly killed him. (It was actually Ultron, but at the time, Y2K was the reason given.)

The individual issues have solid creative teams with many major players. Other writers in the crossover include Fabian Nicieza and Frank Tieri; Dan Jurgens does the writing and art for issues of Thor and Captain America. Notable artists include Yanick Paquette, Georges Jeanty and Salvador Larocca. For me, it’s strange seeing Larocca’s old, non-computer-aided art style, which is gorgeous nonetheless. The weak link is the X-Men Unlimited issue by Joe Pruett and Brett Booth. Pruett has a hard time connecting the X-Men and Avengers sub-plots and his German is terrible (“freunds” is not a word). Booth’s art looks like an Image book from five years previous. However, the stories around it keep the crossover moving along.

Though not for everyone (especially since the trade is somehwhat expensive), Avengers/X-Men: Maximum Security is a major event in the cosmic side of the Marvel universe, paving the way for Annihilation and Secret Invasion, and this collection is rare in including both the main story and the tie-ins. Busiek, Ordway and Claremont do an impressive job of keeping such a complex story moving, and the tie-ins are well-executed.

In my review next week, Warren Ellis delivers a pseudo-Global Frequency Volume 3 ... if you replaced the normal human agents of Global Frequency with a team of Avengers, that is. Tune in to see what I mean.

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