So at this point I've decided to bring back the roundup feature I sometimes fall back on here. When there's something I haven't really enjoyed I don't have to try and justify it too much. But there can be real gems in the bunch as well!
Cable and Bishop are time-traveling mutants who are fascinating in theory but are more often than not incapable of living up to their potential, possibly because writers aren't really thinking about what they can do but rather what they can't, which is explore the dystopias they come from. Bishop has had a much rougher path to follow than Cable (notice which one is in the title, and has had a lot of series over the years and which...hasn't), although he's been a favorite of mine since I first saw him in the old early '90s X-Men cartoon. (Hey, and speaking of which, is either one of these guys in X-Men: Days of the Future Past?) They've got the same curse every Marvel mutant has, actually, only amplified. Everyone knows that the X-Men are supposed to be a persecuted lot, but the logical gymnastics writers take to keep them that way, or ignore this concept entirely, can sometimes be ridiculous. Recently they've settled on making more Magneto characters, which is to say compromised figures trying to do the right thing but making all the wrong moves (read: Cyclops). Add Bishop to that bunch, unfortunately. And so that's what this issue is all about. Apparently someone also thought it was a good idea to have not one but two teams of X-Force running around (because you can never have too many competing concepts in Marvel), and so that's also what this comic's about. It's not very good, alas. And the art looks a little weird at points. It screws up Cable, for instance. (Since when was his metallic arm a covering for an actual arm? Who am I kidding? I don't care!) Long story short: this is not a comic book I would have read deliberately.
I kept trying to find the recent annual that basically mainlined the awesome Flashpoint concept from a few years back of Thomas Wayne becoming Batman instead of his son, but failed everywhere I looked (even though I do digital comics now and am clearly aware of the Internet, I still love operating in the physical world), so it was pretty awesome to randomly come across an issue of the regular series. This series, in case you're not aware, is set in one of DC's alternate realities. It was launched by James Robinson as a surrogate Justice Society landscape but set in the same context as the debut arc from Geoff Johns' Justice League, so that the Darkseid siege of Earth was more successful and so everyone had to figure out how to pick up the pieces. At the start the new versions of the classic JSA superheroes were occupying a landscape devoid of the more familiar DC icons because those guys had been eliminated. But recently they've been resurfacing, including the new Batman. I think it's evolved beautifully, and under the auspices of Tom Taylor remains a leading contender for a mainstream superhero comic that you could pick as your standalone experience should you want to know what that's like without having to worry about picking up any other series. And this is a good issue. Like I've said about Justice League all along, Earth 2 could easily be construed as an ongoing event book. Closing in on two years, that's not a bad thing to consider reading at all. At the moment, Batman and the altered version of Superman have been occupying the center stage, coming ever closing to a reckoning. Well, like I said, good stuff.
This was last year's big Marvel event, sort of like something-something Thanos, something-something Inhumans (because Marvel keeps trying to make them a thing just like DC keeps trying to make the New Gods a thing, and only one of them actually has something interesting to explore) (and it's not Marvel). This was Jonathan Hickman's effort to duplicate the classic Jim Starlin stories featuring Thanos, no doubt thanks to the large-chin villain's cameo at the end of Avengers (although he won't appear as a main character until the third movie) (probably). I've always admired Hickman's ambition, but I'm not sure he's quite what Marvel keeps hoping he'll be, which is their own Grant Morrison. He's better than other writers who've tried to handle Thanos recently, but the result is still a fairly poor echo of Starlin's material. Still, the art is from Jim Cheung, who was half of the iconic original team on Young Avengers (along with Allan Heinberg). Good strong stuff there, anyway, as always. Glad to see him still considered a significant player.
Marvel Previews #14 (Marvel)
This is Marvel's separate catalog to the industry-standard, Diamond distributor version that handles...everyone else. I don't really know why this ended up in the grab bag. But it didn't exactly convince me to think any differently about Marvel's current output than I have been. On the cover is Nightcrawler, the latest returned-from-the-dead character. Oh, which reminds me, in case you had no idea, Nightcrawler's been dead lately. But apparently he got better.
I haven't really been following the Green Lantern franchise, other than Geoff Johns, since the New 52 relaunch in 2011, but it's been nice knowing it exists, and in such force. One of the odder additions to the lineup was a Red Lanterns series, but it seems the longer it's lasted the better it's gotten. With Charles Soule, always good news, writing it these days, and Guy Gardner having become the face, it's probably as good or better than anything else you'll find in the lineup. Guy has repositioned the remaining members of the corps into defenders of his home turf, not so much on Earth but the territory (Space Sector 2814, to be precise). Soule has particular fun with Guy's allies, while he also continues the saga of Atrocitus, who once ruled the roost. It's as good a sci-fi title as I've read, which is actually pretty rare for a Green Lantern series. Which is pretty odd when you think about it.
So, clearly I'm kind of the target audience for this series. I'm not sure how many new readers will be coming aboard for the journey, except maybe Neil Gaiman fans who came about after the end of the original series when he'd begun making a name for himself as a prose writer. The casual comics reader probably won't be spending too much time in the Vertigo sandbox, because with Image and a thousand indies running around, there's a lot more competition for the nonsuperhero set than ever before. As someone who loves Gaiman's Sandman but who hasn't read the complete series, I'm a curious phenomenon (for a lot of other reasons, too). I caught the original version of this debut issue of Overture, but was glad to randomly catch the special edition as well. It helped me digest it a little more, not just the bonus features, but being forced to read the comic itself over again. The Corinthian (the creepy dude with two additional mouths where his eyes ought to be) is in the spotlight once again, but only until our title hero stumbles into an existential conundrum that is not anywhere near finished by the end of the issue. Gaiman's approach is serialized in this effort, rather than in some of the fairly self-contained stories he told even in his arcs from the original Sandman. There's plenty to find familiar and interesting here. It certainly helps to have an artist the caliber of J.H. Williams III (there are few others capable of being anywhere near as awesome), whose sense of the page is virtually unparalleled, which as host of the special edition he's capable of walking through with the reader. If you're unsure of Overture, these special editions may actually be your better bet.
I'm just going to skip over this one. Better for you. Better for me. Better for them.
There's whole corners of the New 52 landscape that have nothing to do with Superman or Batman or Green Lantern. No, really! One of them involves the so-called "dark" characters who most recently were handled by Vertigo rather than DC. Their return has been one of the most interesting things about the relauch (I know, if you hear much about it I bet you much more regularly hear all the complaints about what was lost rather than gained). I confess to not having really taken advantage of this stuff. But it's good. It's probably some of the best stuff DC has. But even fans who know about this corner find reasons to complain, especially since there have been a lot of crossovers. I don't see the problem with crossovers. If it's a shared universe, it's a lot more useful, sometimes, to have an out-and-out crossover rather than have a guest-star. Crossovers, when done right, have a good way of establishing context, and as far as I can tell, books like Swamp Thing have definitely understood that. Unsurprisingly, the writer here is also Charles Soule. The dude has quickly become indispensable. Where the heck did he come from??? A lot of what this particular character means comes from Alan Moore work from thirty years ago. This run, and even this very issue, is a chance for a fresh start. Good stuff.
Walking Dead #119 (Image)
(Comic Book Datebase locked me out of the issue listing without a login, so no cover for you.)
Obviously you know about Walking Dead. Whether from the comic or the TV series or both. Rather than discuss anything specifically from the issue, I want to address the letters column. In it, creator/writer Robert Kirkman discusses the future of the comic, how long he envisions it to last. A couple years ago he was talking a total length of 300 issues. And keep in mind we're only a third of the way there. But apparently now he's thinking 500. And he's already got fans talking about him padding his storytelling. Because of the huge success of the TV show, Kirkman could keep this thing going as long as he wants, long after the show is over. The one doesn't depend on the other. It just sounds ridiculous to me. No writer has five hundred issues worth of material to tell about one story. It's just this dude realizing he's got it made. No matter what else happens, he'll always have this in his back pocket. Now, there are certainly creators in any medium who spend their whole careers on the same property. In comics that's certainly been the case. But other than Dave Sim (who by the way did accomplish 300 issues, over the course of thirty years, on his Cerebus), there hasn't really been anyone who has managed to make such a dedicated run (it's worth noting Sim was his own artist). Kirkman probably ought to stop prognosticating. If fans are already complaining about his output now, he may have very few fans indeed decades from now who care about the latest shenanigans of survivors stumbling from scenario to scenario. Just saying.
Like Walking Dead above, I'm not really going to talk about the issue or the capable talents of Richard Isanove, but rather some of the ridiculous recent habits of Marvel. On the cover, as you can see, there's a giant #1 in the corner, even though this is not the first issue or some reboot (of a reboot of a reboot of a reboot...over the span of...just a handful of years). Marvel has always prided itself as never having rebooted its line. The stories you read today are theoretically related to stories that were done decades ago. And yet, there've been so many shenanigans that it doesn't really matter anymore. It's just one successful gimmick to keep fans interested after another. Such as the equally ridiculous Marvel Now! branding that is clearly Marvel's lackluster answer to DC's New 52. The cover also has the copy #14.now, which means...absolutely nothing. It's just one stupid, we're accessible! argument after another. I think in a few years Marvel will have finally worn out its welcome at the top. Hopefully. Well, I wish...
All images via Comic Book Database.
Grab bags sound like the only reason for me to go into a comic book store, though I did see something similar at a Dollar Tree once. I guess recently Supergirl joined the Red Lanterns. I only vaguely keep up with these things by looking at the new issues on their site. And also I look at the recent old issues they post, vainly hoping they'll finally start posting the rest of the Azrael series beyond the six issues featuring Bane.
ReplyDeleteThose are the only issues? Out of a hundred? Yesh!
DeleteI love grab bags because you get to read stuff you wouldn't normally read. Earth 2 sounds like an exciting concept, but how would Thomas Wayne work since his father didn't die and have a bat crashing through the window? I'll have to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI believe he took up the mantle to replace his fallen son. Although in some older continuity, he was the first Wayne to fight crime in a batsuit. Albeit very temporarily.
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