Back issues of the recent past this edition: All-New All-Different Avengers #1, the Uncanny Inhumans #2, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, Secret Wars #5, Secret Wars Too, Spider-Woman #1, Star Wars: Darth Vader #11, and Web-Warriors #2.
All-New All-Different Avengers #1 (Marvel)
From January 2016.
The Alex Ross cover doesn't exactly scream the same "youth" as the lineup and interior of this revamped team, featuring characters from the Ms. Marvel generation. Written by Mark Waid and drawn by Adam Kubert (the brother who worked on Action Comics with Geoff Johns, not the one who worked on Batman with Grant Morrison), this is exactly an updated version of the kind of stuff Marvel has been doing since the '60s, and hey, it seems to be working quite well for them, right?
The Uncanny Inhumans #2 (Marvel)
From January 2016.
With the heavy role the Inhumans are playing lately, not just in Civil War II but generally speaking (Marvel is kind of desperate for them to replace the X-Men, whose movies are not currently controlled by Dr. Disney), it was kind of crucial for the comics to be good. I knew Charles Soule had it in him, and Steve McNiven has been a heavy-hitter (collaborations with Mark Millar on the first Civil War and the original "Old Man Logan," for instance) for years, so creatively, I have nothing to complain about. The comic is good, too, with Black Bolt falling out with his lady Medusa, and their son Ahura falling under the influence of Kang, an arc that accelerates giddily throughout this issue. I have plenty of evidence that Soule knows how to write great comics (his Secret Wars version of Civil War, for instance, in case you thought I'd referenced that title for the last time), so it's good to see that he started out well here, too.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #1 (Marvel)
From March 2016.
This is stuff adapted from the TV series, which I've never particularly made a habit of watching (I'm a Flash guy, with some real effort toward DC's Legends of Tomorrow tossed in), but I knew Agent Coulson had a flying car he calls Lola. Apparently he named it in honor of his ex-wife.
Secret Wars #5 (Marvel)
From October 2015.
As A DC guy, I tend to be amused at the way fans and creators alike treat Dr. Doom like a god. I just never understood it. In this entry of Jonathan Hickman's ultimate Fantastic Four (sendoff) saga, Doom literally has become a god, and the entire issue is just kind of Doom complaining about it with a lackey, because he recently offed Dr. Strange and no longer feels challenged. You know what? I'm not even going to talk about this issue. Let's just move on, because Hickman's got better material in:
Secret Wars, Too (Marvel)
From January 2016.
This is literally Hickman and Marvel joking around about the whole Secret Wars concept. Marvel has gotten to the point where it either publishes straight-out humor titles, titles obviously inspired by successful movies, or the handful of serious stuff it allows itself to do, so it's not at all surprising that something like Hickman literally laughing about his apparent inability to finish his story happens in something Marvel itself published. Marvel has become the House Wizard Created. All throughout the '90s, Wizard was a massive Marvel fan service, and introduced the cartoony approach to fandom that has since gone mainstream. Hickman's piece is brilliant, in which he imagines a conversation with Dr. Doom about what the conclusion should be. Then there's some middling stuff that's just kind of there, and then indy creators Rob Guillory (Chew) and Eric Powell (The Goon) provide some of their trademark wit. I actually have to give Marvel props for releasing this. In another era, this would've been a jump-the-shark moment, but this one's all about that kind of irreverence.
Spider-Woman #1 (Marvel)
From January 2016.
This one's famously the cover advance solicits spoiled as feature the pregnant Jessica Drew. Dennis Hopeless somewhat hopefully assumes readers would be familiar with Spider-Woman's somewhat odd supporting cast (the guy who's dressed up as a porcupine), so he spends the entire issue presenting the awkward situation of superhero being unable to superhero while pregnant. It's bold in an era where it's kind of anathema to be pregnant (or something) to have a pregnant superhero, but one wonders if this latest calculated move to corner every market didn't miscalculate.
Star Wars: Darth Vader #11 (Marvel)
From December 2015.
Kieron Gillen normally gets pretty high marks from fans, but he apparently is somewhat uninterested in featuring Darth Vader as the lead of his own comic...
Web-Warriors #2 (Marvel)
From February 2016.
This series was recently cancelled, and Mike Costa announced to be moving on with a new Venom series, which I think will be right up his alley. I've been a vocal of supporter of Costa for years, and long for the day he'll be a major player at the Big Two (I can't believe he's gotten less than the Greg Rucka treatment). It may be that he simply finds it hard to use his Cobra style outside of his IDW work. Not in this issue, though. This one reads like a straight-up Web-Warriors edition of Cobra, detailing Electro's romp through the Spider-Verse, with Spider-Gwen (this is what Marvel thinks of as witty) filling in for the good guy Costa frequently traps in his webs (phrasing it that way totally helps make sense of Marvel thinking of him as a Spider-Man guy). Maybe I'm just as guilty as anyone else in not giving Costa's non-Cobra work a fair shot, but it's always nice to come across work that rings so true to what I know best, because Costa's best is among the all-time best.
Showing posts with label Secret Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Secret Wars. Show all posts
Friday, September 2, 2016
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Reading Comics 190 "DC Rebirth Week 3, 4001 AD, DKR: The Last Crusade, Dept. H, and catching up with Secret Wars"
4001 AD #1 (Valiant)
Valiant's latest event series takes a look at the future courtesy of the ever-resourceful Matt Kindt, imagining the tyranny of New Japan and the rise of a new Rai to challenge it. Once again Valiant has proven that its unique superhero vision, the first comprehensive ongoing revision of the 21st century, has incredible legs, where just about anything's possible, and it nearly always seems completely plausible, not to mention remarkably cohesive. It's not like others haven't tried, but it helps to have talent like Kindt and Jeff Lemire leading the charge.
Batman #1 (DC)
Tom King's first regular issue of the series once again demonstrates his remarkably analytical mind, as Batman and Duke Thomas pull back the curtain on what it takes to pull off the impossible. Of course, it's also Batman doing so at the expense of his own life, in yet another layer of King showing that Batman isn't like other superheroes. When an out-of-control plane threatens to crash in Gotham City, he can't just fly in and guide it safely down. No, for someone like Batman, it takes considerably more effort. If this were the movies, you might expect something like this from the show-stopping exploits in the Mission: Impossible series. Few writers would be bold enough to expose Batman's limits in this way. King is merely setting himself up for that moment you though you'd never see: some other hero calling Gotham his home, someone who can fly, who represents everything Batman can never be. This ain't no Superman. Is King preparing to White Martian us? Time will tell...
The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade (DC)
This prequel to the original Dark Knight Returns depicts the circumstances in which Batman originally retires. It's in effect his last statement on Robin, the Boy Wonder, too. In the Dark Knight universe, Frank Miller offered up his judgment quite effectively: Dick Grayson goes insane. Yet there was also, before "A Death in the Family," a dead Robin to account for. The Last Crusade is a rephrasing of "A Death in the Family," actually, the Joker once again being responsible for the death of Jason Todd, under the same circumstances, the second Robin increasingly demonstrating that he isn't mentally prepared for Batman's crusade. And yet, unlike "A Death in the Family" and its follow-up, "A Lonely Place of Dying," Miller (along with co-writer Brian Azzarello, around so Miller can't go wildly out of control again) has determined that the problem isn't Jason's attitude, but Batman's notion of having a kid sidekick in the first place.
This was what he was getting around to explaining in All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, I think, and as I'd hoped, The Last Crusade is the finishing statement we'll probably never get from the earlier project. All Star Batman became a joke among readers for its brutish portrayal of the Dark Knight, a true maniac who was difficult to root for, in a story featuring Dick Grayson's initiation into crime-fighting. Miller never conceded that it was a good thing. Comics fans never really picked up on that, and they probably still won't with The Last Crusade, even though by this point his conclusions are unmistakable. The Batman of this story is aging, and his body is fast betraying him. He reveals that he hoped Robin would prove to be his successor. On the second try, he's proven brutally wrong. You can only duplicate so much of what created Batman.
It's an incredibly bold statement. I think the whole concept of the Dark Knight stories is creating a reality where Batman exists in a finite world, where he can't escape consequences. This can never exist in the ongoing comics, because fans will always clamor to see old favorites return, and creators will always be there to help them in that goal. In Miller's reckoning, Batman is human, and as such is completely fallible, and bad things happen as a result of his actions, whether to himself, to those around him, or in the world around him, not because of anything he does, but because that's just a fact of life.
As a summation, The Last Crusade may be the most crucial element of the most important Batman story ever told.
Dept. H #2 (Dark Horse)
Matt Kindt again, in his creative follow-up to Mind MGMT, his innovative look at the spy world. Dept. H seems to be an unrelated story, but Kindt is once again handling writing and art chores, so the look is the same, and so is the storytelling. In this second issue, someone has died, and someone else, burdened with a perfect memory, realizes that it could only have been murder. Clearly, Kindt continues to have the mind on the mind, and this continues to be a good thing.
Green Arrow #1 (DC)
I tended to skip Green Arrow in the New 52, but figured I'd give the guy another shot in the Rebirth era. Not only is Black Canary back in the picture, but so is Oliver Queen's moral compass. At his best, Green Arrow will always be the Batman whose inner Bruce Wayne dominates his goals more than his crime-fighting. This is one of those rich guy characters whose transformation into a superhero made him socially conscious for the first time in his life. This issue does a good job of bringing that back into focus.
Green Lanterns #1 (DC)
Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz don't play well together. They have conflicting mindsets, and as rookies, they both have plenty to prove. That rounds out to good Green Lantern storytelling, as we learn more of what makes Baz stand out (we now have him deemed the bearer of Emerald Sight), which is an important distinction for all these human Green Lanterns, as the new Red Lantern threat continues to unfold. I'm so glad DC is letting this franchise return to its recent Geoff Johns roots.
Secret Wars #9 (Marvel)
Flashing back to the last Marvel event, and its ending, we find Jonathan Hickman closing out the book on his Fantastic Four adventures, imagining the last conflict between Dr. Doom and Reed Richards. Doom had found himself in possession of ultimate power, and decides Richards is, once and for all, jealous of him, because he could never do as good as Doom. Someone decides to put that to the test, and so the Marvel landscape is reshaped (to its current state), and Richards retires from the superhero game to act as a kind of gatekeeper (thus allowing Marvel to remove the Fantastic Four from its lineup). Hickman was always a big game hunter, and I guess it was appropriate that he wound up telling the biggest Fantastic Four story ever, so we'd see what that finally looked like.
Superman #1 (DC)
Tomasi and Gleason reprise their Batman and Robin act, this time on the grand stage. Once again, a DC icon has a son struggling with his place in the world, and once again, Tomasi and Gleason are ready to knock it out of the park. I couldn't be happier for them. The story starts out pretty heavily focused on Superman, but then we meet his son Jonathan, who is struggling with his new powers. This was something Tomasi and Gleason touched on in Batman and Robin, when Damian briefly gained superpowers in the wake of his resurrection. It's one thing to have an indomitable youth on your hands. It's another when it's Superman's son. All these years, whenever someone wanted to tell a story about the young Superman, it was always the exception, and then more often than not something glossed over until he hit puberty and, in some continuities, became Superboy. This is the first time we'll see it play out in an ongoing capacity. Framed as Superman's son, this is an intriguing opportunity, and again, Tomasi and Gleason are well up to the task. They know when they need to provide dialogue, and when the story speaks for itself. Anyway, I'm hugely, hugely glad this is happening, no matter how long it lasts.
Titans: Rebirth #1 (DC)
The return of Wally West continues, as he reconnects with his oldest friends, the original Teen Titans, in a series of encounters that prove all over again how personal these DC stories are to these characters, and how they can connect on an emotional level with fans, too.
Valiant's latest event series takes a look at the future courtesy of the ever-resourceful Matt Kindt, imagining the tyranny of New Japan and the rise of a new Rai to challenge it. Once again Valiant has proven that its unique superhero vision, the first comprehensive ongoing revision of the 21st century, has incredible legs, where just about anything's possible, and it nearly always seems completely plausible, not to mention remarkably cohesive. It's not like others haven't tried, but it helps to have talent like Kindt and Jeff Lemire leading the charge.
Batman #1 (DC)
Tom King's first regular issue of the series once again demonstrates his remarkably analytical mind, as Batman and Duke Thomas pull back the curtain on what it takes to pull off the impossible. Of course, it's also Batman doing so at the expense of his own life, in yet another layer of King showing that Batman isn't like other superheroes. When an out-of-control plane threatens to crash in Gotham City, he can't just fly in and guide it safely down. No, for someone like Batman, it takes considerably more effort. If this were the movies, you might expect something like this from the show-stopping exploits in the Mission: Impossible series. Few writers would be bold enough to expose Batman's limits in this way. King is merely setting himself up for that moment you though you'd never see: some other hero calling Gotham his home, someone who can fly, who represents everything Batman can never be. This ain't no Superman. Is King preparing to White Martian us? Time will tell...
The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade (DC)
This prequel to the original Dark Knight Returns depicts the circumstances in which Batman originally retires. It's in effect his last statement on Robin, the Boy Wonder, too. In the Dark Knight universe, Frank Miller offered up his judgment quite effectively: Dick Grayson goes insane. Yet there was also, before "A Death in the Family," a dead Robin to account for. The Last Crusade is a rephrasing of "A Death in the Family," actually, the Joker once again being responsible for the death of Jason Todd, under the same circumstances, the second Robin increasingly demonstrating that he isn't mentally prepared for Batman's crusade. And yet, unlike "A Death in the Family" and its follow-up, "A Lonely Place of Dying," Miller (along with co-writer Brian Azzarello, around so Miller can't go wildly out of control again) has determined that the problem isn't Jason's attitude, but Batman's notion of having a kid sidekick in the first place.
This was what he was getting around to explaining in All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, I think, and as I'd hoped, The Last Crusade is the finishing statement we'll probably never get from the earlier project. All Star Batman became a joke among readers for its brutish portrayal of the Dark Knight, a true maniac who was difficult to root for, in a story featuring Dick Grayson's initiation into crime-fighting. Miller never conceded that it was a good thing. Comics fans never really picked up on that, and they probably still won't with The Last Crusade, even though by this point his conclusions are unmistakable. The Batman of this story is aging, and his body is fast betraying him. He reveals that he hoped Robin would prove to be his successor. On the second try, he's proven brutally wrong. You can only duplicate so much of what created Batman.
It's an incredibly bold statement. I think the whole concept of the Dark Knight stories is creating a reality where Batman exists in a finite world, where he can't escape consequences. This can never exist in the ongoing comics, because fans will always clamor to see old favorites return, and creators will always be there to help them in that goal. In Miller's reckoning, Batman is human, and as such is completely fallible, and bad things happen as a result of his actions, whether to himself, to those around him, or in the world around him, not because of anything he does, but because that's just a fact of life.
As a summation, The Last Crusade may be the most crucial element of the most important Batman story ever told.
Dept. H #2 (Dark Horse)
Matt Kindt again, in his creative follow-up to Mind MGMT, his innovative look at the spy world. Dept. H seems to be an unrelated story, but Kindt is once again handling writing and art chores, so the look is the same, and so is the storytelling. In this second issue, someone has died, and someone else, burdened with a perfect memory, realizes that it could only have been murder. Clearly, Kindt continues to have the mind on the mind, and this continues to be a good thing.
Green Arrow #1 (DC)
I tended to skip Green Arrow in the New 52, but figured I'd give the guy another shot in the Rebirth era. Not only is Black Canary back in the picture, but so is Oliver Queen's moral compass. At his best, Green Arrow will always be the Batman whose inner Bruce Wayne dominates his goals more than his crime-fighting. This is one of those rich guy characters whose transformation into a superhero made him socially conscious for the first time in his life. This issue does a good job of bringing that back into focus.
Green Lanterns #1 (DC)
Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz don't play well together. They have conflicting mindsets, and as rookies, they both have plenty to prove. That rounds out to good Green Lantern storytelling, as we learn more of what makes Baz stand out (we now have him deemed the bearer of Emerald Sight), which is an important distinction for all these human Green Lanterns, as the new Red Lantern threat continues to unfold. I'm so glad DC is letting this franchise return to its recent Geoff Johns roots.
Secret Wars #9 (Marvel)
Flashing back to the last Marvel event, and its ending, we find Jonathan Hickman closing out the book on his Fantastic Four adventures, imagining the last conflict between Dr. Doom and Reed Richards. Doom had found himself in possession of ultimate power, and decides Richards is, once and for all, jealous of him, because he could never do as good as Doom. Someone decides to put that to the test, and so the Marvel landscape is reshaped (to its current state), and Richards retires from the superhero game to act as a kind of gatekeeper (thus allowing Marvel to remove the Fantastic Four from its lineup). Hickman was always a big game hunter, and I guess it was appropriate that he wound up telling the biggest Fantastic Four story ever, so we'd see what that finally looked like.
Superman #1 (DC)
Tomasi and Gleason reprise their Batman and Robin act, this time on the grand stage. Once again, a DC icon has a son struggling with his place in the world, and once again, Tomasi and Gleason are ready to knock it out of the park. I couldn't be happier for them. The story starts out pretty heavily focused on Superman, but then we meet his son Jonathan, who is struggling with his new powers. This was something Tomasi and Gleason touched on in Batman and Robin, when Damian briefly gained superpowers in the wake of his resurrection. It's one thing to have an indomitable youth on your hands. It's another when it's Superman's son. All these years, whenever someone wanted to tell a story about the young Superman, it was always the exception, and then more often than not something glossed over until he hit puberty and, in some continuities, became Superboy. This is the first time we'll see it play out in an ongoing capacity. Framed as Superman's son, this is an intriguing opportunity, and again, Tomasi and Gleason are well up to the task. They know when they need to provide dialogue, and when the story speaks for itself. Anyway, I'm hugely, hugely glad this is happening, no matter how long it lasts.
Titans: Rebirth #1 (DC)
The return of Wally West continues, as he reconnects with his oldest friends, the original Teen Titans, in a series of encounters that prove all over again how personal these DC stories are to these characters, and how they can connect on an emotional level with fans, too.
Thursday, June 4, 2015
The Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1 (Marvel)
artist: Adam Kubert
To call this disappointing would be an insult to disappointment. One of the many spin-off titles from Secret Wars
Yeah, so that doesn't really happen. And I don't know, but does this pretty much mean the whole Dan Slott era that succeeded the bi-weeklies really wasn't for me? Because Slott's time with Spidey continued the arc-heavy period that he succeeded, but at the cost of distancing the wall-crawler from most of what he had once been. This was the period where Peter finally got the hi-tech job that made him stop having to mope around all the time because things never work out for him (even though the greatest success from this career turn seems owed to Doctor Octopus from the Doctor Spider-Man era that was...much more of a Doc Ock story than it was a Spider-Man story).
Slott's the writer of Renew Your Vows. He seems to have been absolutely the wrong choice.
This happy return to the marriage era is immediately presented as less than ideal, MJ depicted as a nagging wife. And so why are we even doing this? I have no idea. Then we find out Spider-Man is doing a lot of overtime because other superheroes aren't doing their part to catch bad guys. Then we find out why. Then we meet
Then Spidey resolves this by killing Venom. Then we fast-forward a bit and the bouncing baby Adam Kubert can't quite pull off early on is older, and we learn that Peter has consciously decided to let Regent rule New York...And on the cover for next issue? Apparently...Venom.
It's a nightmare! And I will not be bothering to check back in. I've seen people complaining about the overall quality of the Convergence spin-offs. I personally questioned the value of Convergence: Superman, which finally gave us a story with Lois and Clark having a baby. I mean, a little late, right? (Except that's a trio that might show up again if DC ever follows up on their role in helping sort out Crisis On Infinite Earths as suggested in Convergence #8.) Renew Your Vows ends up like a bad rephrasing of "Old Man Logan," a Wolverine arc that has also been revived for Secret Wars. (I nearly decided to buy that first issue from last week after all. I could still do so. We'll see.) I have fellow bloggers gushing over Secret Wars so far. But if the rest of its spin-offs are like this...
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Secret Wars #1 (Marvel)
artist: Esad Ribic
So here we are, Secret Wars commence! Again! This time infused with far, far more Jonathan Hickman!
Oh Hickman, Hickman, Hickman...There are times I wonder whatever happened to the Hickman I knew when he was still just an Image standout. Then he was recruited by Marvel to translate his style to mainstream comics, a move I strongly suspect as motivated by a desire to find the next Grant Morrison.
Hickman's most notable run at Marvel to date has been with Fantastic Four and its spin-off FF (which stood for Future Foundation, by the way) even though he was most recently running around with Avengers sticking out of his pockets. Secret Wars, so far as I can tell, is either directly related or at least inspired by his Fantastic Four, and there they are at the heart of the story, too (so it's not such a hard assumption to make, really).
And Hickman is full Hickman, making stylistic choices and approaching the whole story from a way that makes perfect sense in a Jonathan Hickman sort of way. If there's a problem with any of this, it's that the whole process is in service to a story that boils down to: Marvel doing another Super Dramatic Event, which has been a problem since Civil War, when the company first tried to duplicate the emotional impact of DC's Identity Crisis. The more Marvel tried, the more it permanently warped the course of its own future into an increasingly grim, impossible to avoid destiny of destroying everything it had once been.
You see, Marvel used to be fairly buoyant, bouncing back after even events like House of M, which "only" decimated the X-Men line while completely rejuvenating the Avengers. The Ultimate line, however, somewhat jubilantly tore itself apart from the very beginning, particularly with The Ultimates, which is half of how the cinematic Avengers came to be (the other half being the style of Brian Michael Bendis, who is like classic Marvel on crack).
The higher the stakes, the less Marvel could pretend, as it has for more than fifty years, that its continuity was an unbroken chain of events. And so Secret Wars is the story, finally, that does what DC has been doing for decades, which is purposely break those chains. That's what this first issue is all about, turning aside everything (hey! there's big bad Thanos randomly inserted into a pack of other villains!) and preparing a giant reset button.
Which, depending what you think about Marvel, is either very, very wrong or very, very right. I guess we'll see. I'm certain Hickman will have fun along the way. As to whether or not readers do, too, is somewhat beyond the point. There are already a billion spin-offs ready to launch, giving the fans plenty of other ways to view this event, almost none of which will look like anything Hickman will be doing for the next seven issues...
Or, as Marvel has always done, having its cake and eating it too.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Reading Comics 157 "True Believers"
Marvel deluged Free Comic Book Day with Secret Wars material. Last Wednesday I helped myself a little, too, by scooping up a few more of the True Believers reprints, including the ones for House of M, Planet Hulk, Old Man Logan, and Age of Apocalypse. As far as Marvel goes, I can sometimes be pretty darn grumpy, but rest assured, it mostly because Marvel is the most popular comics publisher, rather than DC, and in my humble opinion DC is the better one.
Sometimes I view fan allegiance to Marvel as something of a cult. With phrases like "true believer," it's not even that hard to imagine. But that's a bit extreme. (Right???)
Yeah, Secret Wars is basically a ripoff of DC's Convergence, but maybe it doesn't matter (maybe). Marvel loves to celebrate itself, and really, that's all that Secret Wars is, too, trotting out all over again a bunch of the famous stories it's published over the years, which yes, the True Believers reprints have helpfully pointed out in advance.
I think House of M is iconic for all the right reasons. It was a rare moment when Marvel allowed itself to live up to the hype, and as far as the X-Men books were concerned kept the story going for years. Scarlet Witch says "No more mutants," and then we have to wait until Hope arrives and then Avengers: The Children's Crusade for true resolution to occur (I'm sure there are fans who think AvX belongs in this lineage, too).
Planet Hulk was a goofy idea that is best remembered by me for allowing Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente to write a lot of great Hercules comics (seriously, they remain my favorite-ever Marvel memories). Old Man Logan was great. Age of Apocalypse features bad '90s art, but pretty good storytelling.
So yeah, I may be checking out some of this Secret Wars material. Could be interesting. (Could!)
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Reading Comics 156 "Impending Secret Wars"
And thus the new version of Secret Wars that's about to commence.
Maybe there's more to it than that. I'm not sure how much I should care. I know this much: the company has been making various decisions that make it look like "everything will be different" post-Secret Wars (this is the usual statement post-any event). And maybe once announcements start coming about what does result (DC started making such announcements at a fairly rapid pace, so that fans knew what to expect post-Convergence before Convergence itself even began), I can quit worrying and maybe learn to embrace Secret Wars.
Or not.
What's clear at this point is that while DC chose to represent certain eras in its version of this event, Marvel is evoking acclaimed stories, and it has been releasing handy one-dollar reprints of first issues for these stories. The Infinity Gauntlet edition is the only one so far that I actually took up on as an offering.
(I passed on Age of Apocalypse after some consideration; I've never read this event, but it always seemed pretty interesting, although recently I read an analysis of it that was not particularly flattering. Also, I saw what's inside Armor Wars. A lot of extremely dated art. I passed quite eagerly on that one.)
Like Convergence, Secret Wars is featuring a bunch of spin-off mini-series. The only one I'm interested in is Old Man Logan, to be written by Brian Michael Bendis. It's inspired by a classic story arc from the mind of Mark Millar, which I greatly enjoyed in its original incarnation. Does Bendis has something interesting to say? Oh, "Old Man Logan" refers to Wolverine. In-continuity Wolverine is still dead, by the way. But his publishing schedule remains undaunted.
Anyway, I didn't really pick up the Infinity Gauntlet reprint because of Secret Wars specifically. I picked it up because of Infinity Gauntlet itself. This was Jim Starlin's opus, the culmination of his Thanos stories. You know, Thanos, as in the guy at the end of The Avengers who grins in the general direction of the audience when his lackey equates fighting the eponymous heroes with "courting death." This is because Thanos obsessively courts Death, literally. Everything he does is because he loves the silly gal.
And no, not the version in Neil Gaiman's Sandman. (That might be easier to understand. She's kinda cute.) Starlin figured out a way to convert Thanos from a blatant ripoff of DC's Darkseid to a Shakespearean tragic figure, who has no idea how ridiculous his quest really is. Death literally resurrects him to play into her hand, not because she loves him or respects his obsessive courtship (I mean, who would?).
Whenever Starlin focuses on Thanos, his storytelling is blameless. It's when he focuses on anything but that the wheels wobble. Sure, Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange are fine and all, but they're not Thanos, and the three don't amount to the inhabitants of every panel. And other characters are not to par.
Basically, Infinity Gauntlet is absolutely worth your time. Thanos is the standard by which all cosmic villains should be rated. But finding a story that at any point deviates from his specific perspective is perhaps a challenge too great for even Jim Starlin.
Ah, which means, if Jonathan Hickman uses Thanos in Secret Wars, which certainly seems to be the implication, he ought to be careful indeed...But then, how likely is it that Secret Wars itself will be anything but a random series of "everything-changes-forever!" nonsense? You know, in a way that Convergence isn't?
Yeah...
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