"No longer like a toad in these foul cellars will I secret the venom of hatred -- for you shall bring me love!" - Erik
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May 22, 2002
Captain Marvel 32
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Captain Marvel #32
I dunno, i read last issue, a character driven story about Marlo, and i said "alright, he's out of his rut, he's changing direction, and it's gonna get good again". I picked this up with high hopes, cheered that Chrisscross is still missing, and enjoyed the "making fun of fanboys" scene on pages 1-2 (which lost some of its pounce when it turned out to not really be Doom, i have to say. Because it changed from "Yeah, you can make fun of Doom and how he dresses and whatever you want, but, in the MU, Doom has a presence and is scary as hell" into a cheap "ha ha!" But still...). This issue was another downtime, character-driven episode, and not too much mired in old PAD continuity. All in all, it ought to have been a good issue. It wasn't. There's too many attempts at humor. Never mind for a minute that it is failing in its attempts (it is, certainly). The problem is that the humor is dominating the story to point where it feels like a sitcom. The plot, what there is of it (not a criticism, just noting again that this is a "down time" issue) is a device to move the humor along. You can hear the canned laughter chiming in after the 'witty' remarks. Helping this along is the fact that Calafiore is imitating Chrisscross' exaggerated facial expression style (it isn't nearly as distracting, however). The result of this is that you end up not caring about what is actually happening. You are concentrating on the jokes. The plots themselves are moving with a Claremontian slowness. The random seriel killer from the Hulk should never have been brought back, but now that she has, something has to be done with her. So far, she's just been lurking around, and now that she is dead, either the plot is over (in which case, what was the point?), or there's more to come involving this whole Marlo/death relationship, and it is really, really dragging. Meanwhile Genis is revisiting what i assume are some ridiculous characters from his earlier series, and no one cares about them. No one. It'd be ok to tie up some lose ends with a few lines ("Hey guys, good to see you again." "Where've you been?" "Oh, i'm on Earth nowadays. Later."), but an entire plot should not have been built around them. On the postive side, at least a version of the Magus has appeared that has long hair, justifying my custom figure. Also, Genis's mother is revealed to still be alive (*yawn*), and, judging by the way she dresses, is the new Green Queen of the Titan branch of the Hellfire Club. Now... we can go back to how well the jokes work. If they were funny, you might have something here. I personally hate sitcoms, but it's reasonable to assume that there is an audience for comic books that are funny. It'd be fairly unique for Marvel, too. Deadpool is funny in a satirical, "make fun of the Marvel Universe and itself" sort of way, but this could be a more accessible sort of funny that doesn't require a geek's knowledge to enjoy. Unfortunately, the jokes are really lame. Additionally, i don't think Peter David is going for a sitcom feel. I believe he is trying to move the plot along, and pepper it up with humor. He was very good at that when he was writing Spider-Man, Hulk, and X-Factor. It's just not working here at all. Drop (though priscilla may overrule me).
Deadpool #67
This is good stuff. I thought mini-Rhino was going to be a throwaway joke, but he's still here, and he's hilarious. ("Aha! But he was 'thrown away' at the end of the episode, wasn't he?!!" "...shut up, Peter.") Simone manages to revert Dazzler to 1983 without making it feel like it was done just to make fun of Dazzler circa 1983. In fact, Dazzler isn't really made fun of at all. There's a good character moment dealing with her not being with the X-Men anymore, and overall she is played fairly straight, though she doesn't do anything super-heroic. A few sub plots get cooked nicely (but not over-cooked: one of them is being moved up to main plot next issue, along with an appearance by Udon's Taskmaster). So see, Peter, while the humor is certainly the focus, there's a nice balance of plot and character development as well. And this is Deadpool, a completely absurd character. An interesting trick of Marvel Time is that Dazzler was a pretty young pop star in the early 80s, and is again a pretty young pop star in the 00s. I guess by the 7 year rule fads go by pretty quickly in the MU. Of course this doesn't detract from the story in anyway. My only complaint with the art continues to be that all the women are drawn with exactly the same figure, and fairly naked. One of the subplots looks like it is going to deal with Sandi's abusive boyfriend (?), so that may strike a balance if Simone does it well.
The Hood #1
Brian Vaughan has written the new Swamp Thing and the Cyclops Icons mini-series, so he has to go pretty far to convince me that anything he does is worth reading. So far, he's suceeding. Both Swamp Thing and Cyclops set up good things and went nowhere with them, however, so i'm still wary, but this is looking good. The device of looking at the MU from different people's perspective is not used often enough (though between Alias, Deadline, X-Factor, this, and the coming Call of Duty books, it looks like we're about to end up with a glut), and it is being done fairly well from the "common street thug" angle here.. The stand-out scene is the Hydra recruiter, both his anti-semitic conspiracy angle and the thugs' reaction to him as a terrorist after the attack on the World Trade Center. The scene with Electro in the bar (compare with Ron Zimmerman's version) is also very good. Parker's relationship with his girlfriend is also interesting and worth returning to. What worries me is the way Parker gets his powers at the end. If his powers are supernatural in origin, the plot could get very bogged down in wacky details that have nothing to do with the premise. I hope that won't be the case. Other than that, I have two complaints. The first is that Gro seems to be far too attractive a prostitute, in too nice of an apartment, for a jobless person like Parker, who has to steal people's shoes, for crying out loud, to be seeing on a regular basis. Not that i *ahem* know anything about getting a prostitute other than what i see on the teevee. Much worse is the scene with the gang at the end of the story. Not only is it bad enough to introduce the stereotypical black hoodlums, but dialogue like "The hell he go...?" is just wrong. I have no problem with Parker being racist (in fact, as a lowlife criminal, it makes sense), but that doesn't mean the story ought to be. I'm hoping that this is just my kneejerk liberal bleeding heart kicking in and not a failing on Vaughan and his editor. Kyle Hotz's style fits here better than it did on the Avengers, but he needs to work on making everyone (Parker, his girlfriend, the prostitute) model-level attractive. We aren't dealing with bigger-than-life super-heroes, and the people can look a little more plain.
Origin #6
A pointless end to a pointless mini-series. This was not Wolverine's origin. There is nothing here that adds anything to the character. There is no story here. If Paul Jenkins really wrote this, he's slipping. Badly.
Wolverine/Hulk #4
A pointless end to a pointless mini-series. But the art was good, and there's a little scene at the end with the Hulk that's pretty good. Hey! Reviewing crap is easy!
X-Factor #2
Now this is good. The device of using Federal Agents allows the writer to write a story about basically whatever he wants. The way to get into a plot is just to assign the case to the Feds. Easy. So the writer can concentrate on making the story really good, while moving subplots along, and using the extra space to deal with the characters. This is, in theory, what Bruce Jones, who i guess has been writing crime stories, is doing on The Hulk. The difference is that here the characters really are being developed, and the subplots really are moving along. The religious aspect to Aaron Kearse is being handled well. He's clearly a very religous man, but he isn't being treated like a Puritan. He and his wife enjoy the hankie pankie, and he's able to analyze his distrust of mutants through his father's outright intolerance. It's the 'sort of not relying on stereotype short-hands' that you don't see much, in comics or in fiction in general. The aspects of "coming out" as a mutant, the celebrity themes, Catherine Gray's relationship with her mother, and the politics are all excellent as well. I'd also like to point out that the scene with Nightcrawler would not have worked nearly as well if he were wearing his traditional outfit. Using the X-Men as vigilante mutant freedom fighters (which is what they ought to be) works much better if the characters are dressed distinctively from traditional super heroes. The art is great. It is realistic, in a John Buscema sort of way, which works well since we are dealing almost exclusively with "real" people. The pages are densely packed with detailed panels.
Extra Stuff!!!
Call Of Duty 911 part 1
Well here's a nice little story about police doing normal police stuff. It's got all the witty banter and the tense situations that you've seen in cop movies and tv shows. It's good. If this is what Bruce Jones has been doing since Ka-Zar, i can sort of understand what he was trying to do on Hulk. It didn't work there, but i guess he's more comfortable here, and this is well paced and interesting. The challenges will be keeping it going with a spanning plot, and demonstrating what business it has being set in the Marvel Universe. It's also fairly well drawn. A lot of detail. People have too many lines on their faces, but not in a Rob Liefield sort of way. A nice freebie, and i'm looking forward to the next part.
You Can Call Me Al part 1
This, on the other hand, is something that fell out of Adam West's Batman. A bunch of super villains, including major players like Doctor Octopus, hanging around at a bar in costume. In the background of one scene, Mysterio -- you know, they guy with the giant fishbowl on his head? -- is holding a bottle. Totally campy. Suitable for DC in 1980, maybe, but Marvel is supposed to be a little more intelligent about this stuff. See, for example, Christopher Priest's Deadpool or even the first issue of The Hood for a much better way of seeing things from the villain's side. This is better than Jay Leno & Spider-man, mainly because Zimmerman isn't trying to be funny, and the anecdote about the Punisher was entertaining, but dialogue like "You kow who I met today that's a huge pain in the butt?" sounds so unnatural, and the basic premise (from what i can tell of it so far) is lame, but i'm willing to read the next part. For free. Gee, aren't i generous? |