Sunday Marvel Sunday - “MONDAY Marvel MONDAY!”

Sunday Marvel Sunday...on a Monday??? I know what my legions of readers are thinking: the world has officially gone well and truly mad...

That being said, I’m still waiting for libraries to reopen to bring Sunday Marvel Sunday back as regularly scheduled, but since I recently bought some additional three-pack Marvel comics at Walmart and the alphabet still works in only one direction, I’m skipping the line a bit, and here’s some comics thoughts:

Uncanny Avengers #23

From 2014

Rick Remender dropped Captain America into an alternate dimension for a little while. Apparently he did exactly the same thing to the Avengers. This issue deals with the aftermath. Apparently big traumatic things happened to some members of the team. This is the textbook example of things that can only ever be completely ignored by later writers. That is all.

Avengers #27

From 2019

Jason Aaron probably should never have been used by Marvel to produce traditional superhero comics. That is not his wheelhouse. His wheelhouse is gritty crime comics. But, as it is, Marvel did, and there was a long Thor run, and then, because he is still one of their biggest name writers, he moved on to the Avengers. And somehow this issue is highlighted...by Thor. Brood Thor. Brooding over being worthy of Mjolnr. Kids, don’t grow up someday to run a comic book company where things like this happen. In completely unrelated news, probably later this year you will read a future edition of Sunday Marvel Sunday in which I enjoy a Thor comic. And I don’t mean this to sound personal, but it will not have been written by Jason Aaron. But, all things considered, Brood Thor brooding over Mjolnr is...still a pretty awesome image. So there’s that.

Captain Marvel #6

From 2019

In which Jason Aaron’s Ragnorak, I mean “War of the Realms” is happening, and someone at Marvel is writing superhero dialogue that sounds “relatable” and “believable” and totally absolutely convincing. In unrelated news, someone at Marvel got very, very carried away with the Bendis phenomenon. And the MCU. Probably mostly the MCU. Which wouldn’t exist without Bendis. But, not everyone can pull it off. And every single character should not be talking like this all the time.

Road to Empyre

From 2020

Back in ye innocent days before the pandemic when everything was still on schedule, the latest Marvel event was going to riff on classic Marvel storytelling concerning the Kree and Skrulls, as some fans naively think is going to be the next Thanos arc in the MCU. Which maybe even the MCU thinks this? But it’s not. It’s not going to continue indefinitely. It’s not. This I guarantee you. Anyway, this issue is a recap of relevant events. It starts out with that horrible Meet the Skrulls comic that was not at all as good as the Tom King comic it desperately wanted to be. And then circles around to beloved Young Avenger Hulkling, who is either a villain now. Or not. Probably not? But possibly? But, probably not. But, temporarily. Also? Young Avenger Iron Lad already...had this arc? He’s Young Kang. Why can’t they just bring back the Young Avengers. The actual team. The original team. Anyway...

Marvel Comics #1001

From 2019

The first one was great. This one isn’t. The only page worth anything is Kaare Andrews’, which reminds me all over again how great he is. That is all.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #47

From 2019

A poster child of everything that’s wrong with Marvel’s recent efforts to be “cool” and “relevant,” in its final issue. Devil Dinosaur is one of those Marvel monsters that just kind of exists, like Fin Fang Foom. A few years ago someone thought to team him up with a hyper-intelligent little girl. Because. Reasons. The girl is hyper-intelligent in the way writers who don’t understand how intelligence works think intelligence works. She is capable of...anything. This issue revolves around how she is in fact smarter than Reed Richards. If she were a legitimate prodigy, people would have noticed. Part of the gimmick is that she and Devil Dinosaur “don’t have anyone else, but at least they have each other!” It’s “beautifully empowering.” I don’t care that she’s a black girl, it’s sloppy writing regardless of her skin color. At the end of the issue she and Devil Dinosaur are traipsing about New York. This is a Marvel comic, where the Hulk can’t so much as raise a green eyebrow without everyone freaking out. The issue has Moon Girl messing around with a Doombot. The issue has Moon Girl wondering if she should maybe be a superhero? This is published by Marvel, the House of Ideas, one of which is...Spider-Man. Moon Girl in a Marvel comic literally makes no sense at all, and I have the feeling no one pointed this out, at all, because she’s “empowering.” It would be more empowering not to empower stupid writing, and stupid characters. That is all.

Sunday Marvel Sunday "Avengers #2 (2018)"

Avengers #2
December 2018

I got a bunch of packs of Marvel comics late last year at Walmart, and will be talking about them individually here every Sunday.  Here's the first one!

I clarified in the title which year this came out, because Marvel has relaunched all its major titles about a billion times.  Helpfully, this black and white fifth printing includes a legacy numbering of #692, which was also helpful.

The creators are Jason Aaron, who just finished up a near-decade chronicling the adventures of Thor, and Ed McGuinness, who was a major name at the start of the millennium but has inexplicably slipped below superstar status since moving his horse to Marvel, where one of his first projects was Red-Hulk with Jeph Loeb.  I knew he was still in the doghouse when fans were complaining about the cover art from the first issue, as if they had never heard of McGuinness before, but I guess it shouldn't be surprising from the kind of community I've also seen this kind of reception from the likes of Matt Wagner, as if nobody had seen his work before.

The comic itself is quip-heavy, which seems to lean into the Avengers of the movies, which is solid enough thinking, considering how insanely popular the movies are, although technically this mindset probably comes from the comics, the Bendis revival that made the team relevant again, if not the Ultimates version that inspired a few movie elements like Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury (since they kind of cast him in that role first).

She-Hulk, as depicted by McGuinness, is looking like Banner Hulk these days, even though she's more traditionally depicted as a well-developed regular body-type.  That's her in the lower corner.

Captain Marvel is there doing her modern Captain Marvel thing, which annoys fans because she's only been doing it for a few years and the other guys have been doing it for decades.  It would perhaps be more helpful if she were an entirely new character, but entirely new characters haven't done so well in recent decades.

The new Ghost Rider has a car.  Nic Cage probably would've loved that version, circa Gone In 60 Seconds ("Driiiive!"), but then he still did two movies of the classic biker version.  I still think a lot of non-MCU Marvel movies are wildly unappreciated, especially since the MCU phenomenon hit full-stride.  Nic Cage is an excellent Ghost Rider.  (Haven't actually seen the second one.  Don't think Eva Mendes is in it.  Seems less important.)

Yadda yadda yadda, Loki shows up, saves the issue from generic villains with vaguely Kirbyesque designs.  The end.

Quarter Bin 100 "True Believers: Thor #1"

True Believers: Thor #1 (Marvel)
From November 2015/December 2014

writer: Jason Aaron

artist: Russell Dauterman

A total of twelve comics across four value packs, and I'm left with a decidedly familiar impression of Marvel: these guys just aren't for me.

I mean, I can read the odd Marvel and enjoy it quite a bit, but it just seems as a rule that I just don't get this company.  Case in point: this comic.

Like True Believers: Black Widow #1, it was a reprint of a comic that was older than I thought it was.  Unlike True Believers: Black Widow, however, True Believers: Thor #1 is the start of a bold new story, in which, in keeping with what Marvel has been doing across its line for a few years now (cue semi-appropriate comparisons to DC's Silver Age, or post-Infinite Crisis), changing identities, ethnicities, and sexes for a large portion of its heroes.  Basically, keeping the names and changing everything else.

How can you possibly do this with Thor?  A very-well-established Norse god?  Whose name is Thor, and whose secret identity is Thor?  Good question.  Jason Aaron still doesn't have an answer, by the way.

I used to be a huge fan of Jason Aaron.  Scalped was a work of genius.  I even liked his work when he started dabbling in Marvel comics.  But it just seems as if he's been totally overwhelmed in the years since, and will try anything, and take any suggestion from his bosses.  Such as turn Jane Foster into Thor.

I mean, if ye so lift the hammer Mjolnir, thy arst granted the power of Thor.  But become Thor?  Really?  This one just don't make no sense.

This issue doesn't even pretend to make sense of it.  It opens with some fairly generic action.  Then we spend some time with Thor absolutely not explaining what's going on, which sets the tone for the next several years' worth of stories.  And then a woman lifts the hammer.  Later, we find out it's Jane Foster (y'know, Natalie Portman), but this big concept debut issue just kind of has her wander in unannounced, at the end of the issue, and lift the hammer, and be transformed.

Jason Aaron supporters say it fits in perfectly with what he'd previously been doing.  Anyone else will be able to tell that he was merely fulfilling a Marvel mandate to make Thor a woman, for diversity's sake.  We've all seen superheroes undergo gimmick changes.  There's nothing inherently wrong with gimmick changes.  But Thor is Thor.  The hammer doesn't make the man.  Er, woman.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with diversity.  But there are female mythological characters you could introduce, Marvel.  Have a look around! 

It's a special kind of logic that in this form is twisted so badly, you really need to be drinking the kool-aid to appreciate it.  I'm a DC guy.  I've seen a lot of weird stuff.  But this is bad storytelling and publisher mandate taken to a whole new level.

So no, I'm not a Marvel guy.  I'm a DC guy.  And twelve random issues did absolutely nothing to change that.  More often than not, this DC guy just felt like he was being insulted as a reader.

For those wishing to keep score:

• True Believers: Black Widow #1 - fail
• Captain America: White #1 - pass
• Captain America: Sam Wilson #1 - fail
• Hail Hydra #1 - pass
• Hawkeye #2 - pass
• Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 -pass/fail
• Karnak #1 - fail
• Nova #1 - fail
• Star Wars: Obi-Wan & Anakin #1 - pass
• Star Wars: Shattered Empire #2 - pass/fail
• Star-Lord and Kitty Pryde #1 - pass
• True Believers: Thor #1 - fail

That's 5 fails, 5 passes, and 2 that are somewhere in-between.  You'd think that would equate a fairly mixed bag, but batting .500 in this instance is not good.  The fails are epic.  The passes in large part exemplify what it is to be Marvel, indicating the very kind of insular reasoning Marvel fans are always accusing DC of implementing.  I don't know.  Maybe it's confirmation bias.  Maybe twelve random comics was too large a sampling.  Maybe I just take this stuff too seriously.  Maybe I'm too close to DC to judge it the same way.  I mean, I tend to read what I like (which any sane person would do), and if that seems like a much larger percentage at DC than Marvel, again, that just goes to prove that I read DC more than I read Marvel.  These were twelve random comics.  I was pleasantly surprised a few times.  That's a good thing, right?  And again, I've deliberately sought out and enjoyed plenty of Marvel over the years, some of which is reflected in this very sampling. 

The object lesson here is, I should quit trying to make this so hard.  I like comics.  All comics follow peculiar logic.  All stories do.  I'm not going to like all of it.  That's it.  The end.  Nod, nod.  Wink, wink.  Say no more...

Star Wars #2 (Marvel)

writer: Jason Aaron

artist: John Cassaday

A curious thing happened to Star Wars comics recently.  No, I don't mean leaving Dark Horse for the first time in a quarter century, returning to the Marvel fold in conjunction with the franchise being in the hands of Disney and on the heels of Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens.

No, they've become popular.  It's kind of a slap in the face to Dark Horse.  The debut issue of the flagship in Marvel's launch (like the new films, there are spin-offs for individual characters as well) sold like hotcakes, an instant collectors item the likes of which comics in general haven't seen in years.  At my local comics shop, people were buying two and three (etc.) at a time.  I never even saw the first issue.

So here I am with the second.  What're the results?  It doesn't even seem important that the writer is Jason Aaron, an acclaimed member of the Marvel fold whom I personally still know best from his Vertigo series Scalped.

Aaron has placed his series in the aftermath of A New Hope.  Luke wears the yellow jacket he rocked in the awards ceremony.  The Rebellion is trying to capitalize on the destruction of the Death Star.  And Darth Vader ain't happy.  He also doesn't seem to know who Luke Skywalker is.

At first it didn't really bother me, but the more I think about it, this is a sizable plothole.  I mean, Vader isn't just some shmoe, he's a Sith, a practitioner of the Force.  You might explain the gap as Vader's apparent disinterest in either of his offspring, or perhaps simply his understandable confusion about how exactly Revenge of the Sith ended, whether he has offspring at all.  And yet, there's a real argument to be made that he would have known in an instant who the mysterious pilot was, a confusion from the end of A New Hope he would've cleared up much more quickly.

That's the central element of the issue, and whether or not you go along with it probably defines what you think of it.  They'll obsess over it if they're not primed to accept just about anything.  The minute they have reason to reject even one thing, something like this would drive them crazy.

I suspect most fans just won't care.  For me, it's reason enough to give up.