Fast Thoughts - The Week of 3/7/07

Since I have a lot of thoughts on some things that need to be said this week that won't make it to the column - and since I'd like to have something special for my fans on LJ - starting today, my brief thoughts on whatever books I read each week are getting posted here.

There will be some spoilers, so be warned.



52 WEEK #44 - Nice to see why Black Adam went back to being a bad-ass in One Year Later. The Four Horsemen are seriously underwhelming. And I still don't care about "Next Question".


CAPTAIN AMERICA #25 - Am I the only one struck by the irony of a Captain America comic with such a strong anti-authority message featuring a GO ARMY advert on the back? Regardless, this story - which is making headlines in the mainstream non-comic press - is one of the best so far this year. I don't expect the events to actually stick - but even before that moment, this book had me thinking that as much as I hated Civil War, Marvel Comics isn't completely hopeless yet. That's Reason Number One.


DETECTIVE #829 - (sung to the opening line of "Money For Nothing") I want my Paul Dini. And it's still way too early to be doing "terrorist-blowing-up-financial-centers" storylines.


FANTASTIC FOUR #543 - As Ben says, "If you think Cap has given up, you don't know him at all." Between that line and the crowds of people showing up to support Cap at his trial, I think THAT is the real reason Cap allowed himself to be taken into custody. He can't beat Tony and the pro-registration forces by beating them up - but he can damn well make them look bad and put their "New World Order" to the test as we see how they go about throwing the man most consider the greatest hero in the world in a secret prison for trying to help people. All this, Dwayne McDuffie setting up a chance to write the two most prominent Black heroes at Marvel AND a classic Stan Lee story with Mike Allred art. Reason Number Two Marvel Comics is not totally doomed yet.


JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #6 - Lot of the same flaws as Identity Crisis - way too scattered (what the hell was with the GeoForce scenes?) and as much as I dig the use of Vixen's powers, that was still WAY too Deus Ex Machina - which doesn't seem a fitting phrase for a fight in which a god-like machine is destroyed by a woman with the speed of a falcon and the weight of a dinosaur... but it's all I've got. Still, a damn sight better than anything done with the JLA since Mark Waid was writing it.


RED SONJA #20 - This book, too, is becoming far too scattered. The title is Red Sonja. I want to read the adventures of Red Sonja. Not see the mooks she's traveling with being put on trial ala Planet of the Apes. Not seeing some mysterious pirate wench (whose name is too close to that Howard heroine Valeria but is obviously not Valeria) running about dealing with impending disaster. Not seeing random villagers turning to barbarism - well, a more bloody barbarism, at any rate. Sonja is in danger of becoming a supporting player of her own title, being in barely half the pages of this issue and a majority of those being splash pages with little to no dialogue.


SHEENA PREVIEW - I picked this one up for three reasons. First, the price (99 cents). Second, I figured my girlfriend - who loves tough girl comics - might get a kick out of it. And the third - well, call me a sucker for anything inspired by the work of Will Eisner. And make no mistake - this book is Eisner-worthy. No pin-up book this, this book leaves the feminist and conservationalist leanings of the original Jungle Queen character pretty much intact. And while the series appears to have been modernized in some respects - Sheena now protects the Amazon rainforest from a corrupt Banana Republic government and loggers rather than the Congo from poachers and cannibals - the base idea of a woman who protects nature through the help of her animal friends and her own animal cunning that was the heart of Sheena, The Jungle Queen is still there. Highly reccomended.


ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #106 - I rag on Bendis a bit, but then he does an issue like this that reminds me of why Ultimate Spider-Man was such a breath of fresh air when it first came out. And after the sheer depressing weightiness of some of the Marvel books of late, it's a pleasant surprise to read a book where Peter Parker's biggest worries involve Kingpin buying the rights to his name, talking his way into keeping his job and a Kitty Pryde/Mary Jane Watson love triangle. Reason Number Three Marvel Comics is not totally doomed yet.

Looking To The Stars - Stan Lee Meets Dr. Strange - A Review

How is it that a story can be three things at the same time?

I ask this because I read the new Stan Lee Meets Dr. Strange book this week and I find myself puzzled by the second story in that collection. Written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Mark Bagley, the story is both a commentary on modern Marvel, a tribute to the old Stan Lee Tales of the Marvel Bullpen stories and a big upraised middle-finger to every Marvel Critic everywhere.

The plot focuses on The Impossible Man – the weird little green alien with reality altering powers who made life interesting for The Fantastic Four every once in a while. He shows up at the Baxter Building ready to cause mischief, only to find a laid-up Johnny Storm. Johnny explains that the rest of the team is gone – Ben has fled to Europe because of the Civil War between the superheroes in America.

Still looking for someone to play with, The Impossible Man teleports to the Avengers Mansion. Or rather, what WAS the Avengers Mansion. A helpful T-shirt vendor (selling “Not Like This!” memorial Hawkeye shirts) fills IM on what happened to The Mighty Avengers – namely that Scarlet Witch went crazy, blew up the mansion and killed Hawkeye. “And Ant-Man, but nobody seems to care about him,” the vendor notes sheepishly. After a quick glance at the top of the eyesore of a New Avengers base, The Impossible Man moves on to Xavier’s School.

The Impossible Man then spends a goodly while conversing with a random Asian female student. “Who cares?” she says when IM asks who she is. “I’ll be dead in six issues anyway!” IM is filled in on why exactly Sentinels are patrolling the grounds, why there are so few students and indeed, why there are a lot less mutants. Disgusted, The Impossible Man continues on to the Marvel Comics offices, where he is bumped from editor’s assistant to editor’s assistant.

If the idea of Tom Brevoort begging Mark Millar to turn in his Civil War script on time or Joe Quesada showing everyone the clip of him on The Colbert Report for the hundredth time is funny to you, then you’ll love this little section. (Tom Brevoort’s To-Do list includes “Listen to Ed Brubaker babble” and “Take It All Out on Dan Slott”) Not much happens concerning the plot, save that The Impossible Man cares only about talking to Stan Lee himself. And eventually, one of the aides tells him that Stan no longer works in New York – he’s out in Hollywood.

One quick trip later and IM is at the back of a line of other Marvel Comics characters who have complaints about how the company is being run without Stan Lee’s influence. Eventually, after a small fight scene, IM gets to speak to the Man himself. And Stan assures his creation that change is a part of life and comics and that people are always going to complain about change and life and by extension, comics. He notes how much hate mail he got over changing the team make-up of The Mighty Avengers when all of the original team left, leaving Captain America to lead a team of three reforming criminals in Avengers #16. He also notes slyly that he got more than a few complaints about a certain character being a rip-off of Mr. Myxlplyx.

Now, don’t get me wrong. This story is very funny in parts. The scenes in Marvel Comics offices are a nice tribute to the old stories Stan Lee wrote about what was going on in the Marvel bullpen. And this story does articulate most of the complaints that many critics of New Marvel quite well – ironic given that this story was written by the man responsible for so many of the big changes (and arguably, big problems) with the modern Marvel Universe.

At first, that was enough. I was amused by the story and I was glad to see that Bendis could poke fun at himself a little bit. His writing is hit or miss with me most of the time but even if I don’t like a writer’s writing I can usually at least respect them if they can laugh at themselves. And then I reread it to see if I missed any sly in-jokes in the panels – and that’s when it hit me.

There’s not a negative word to be said about any of the writing itself! Just the changes.

Now believe me, I understand the need for change and drama in comics as much as anyone, I’m a Kyle Rayner fan, for crying out loud! But there is a world of difference between the fanboy belly-aching about how all change is bad and the fanboy who says “Well, I think there could be a good story told about Peter Parker revealing his real identity to the world – I just don’t think THIS is a good story.”

Reed and Sue having marital strife? Ben leaving the Fantastic Four? The Avengers having a bunch of new misfit members? All of those stories have happened before and things turned out fine! So yes, people DO need to stop whining about that. But when remodeling a home, there is a world of difference in complaining about the new color of the kitchen and in complaining about the termites destroying the foundation.

Those of us who have questioned Tony Stark’s fall to the dark side, Reed Richards’ apparent indifference to Sue’s leaving him and killing off a no-name hero (and an Black hero at that) just to prove a point – those people, who are respectful in their questions, deserve answers.

What Bendis has done in this story is attempted to equate reasonable criticism with whiny trolling in an effort to dismiss both. In short, the story is a metaphor with Impossible Man playing all critics everywhere and Stan Lee as the voice of reason, according to Brian Michael Bendis.

And that is the most insulting part of this tribute book. For all his faults, Stan Lee has never tried to silence or dismiss his critics. Whenever talking about his past and some of the more questionable elements of how he has done business, he has always told his side and his side alone and left it for people to decide for themselves. In every print and tape interview I’ve seen, I have never seen him say a bad word about Kirby, Ditko or any of the other creators who felt they had been cheated by “The Man”.

When Stan Lee kids himself, there is something sincere in it. Consider the stories he wrote in the two “Stan Lee Meets-“ books so far. In the first, he promoted merchandising in order to get Peter Parker to stay Spider-Man, pointing out all the people – t-shirt makers, toy-makers and such- whose livelihood would be ruined without Spider-Man, not mentioning himself though he certainly did think about it. In the second, Stan Lee derides merchandising as he goes to visit Stephen Strange and finds out that the Sorcerer Supreme has taken to selling t-shirts and guided tours of his home in order to make ends meet.

Anyone here remember the musical Music Man? Stan Lee is our Harold Hill. Yes, he has an aura of questionable integrity barely concealed by a slick smile and a “trust me” wink. But when Stan tells a story or even just introduces a story, not only do you believe that the band and the instruments are real - they actually WERE real. He may have been a con-man but he his heart was in the right place when you got right down to it.

Stan mocked himself and his friends in his writing but never with any malice. The hobbyist themselves were rarely a target. And even on the rare occasions he has made fun of some of the scarier sects of Fandom, it has always been in a concerned and dare I say loving way, like his famous cameo in Mallrats.

Any hint of that love is absent from this tribute story. It is skillful, yes. It parodies the tone of Stan’s older works quite well, yes. But the wink to the camera isn’t there. The “don’t worry – it’s all a gag” smile is absent. The man who was once the heart and soul of Marvel Comics is truly gone.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars - Looking To The Reviews!

A word of warning: Here Be SPOILERS! Turn back, lest ye learn more than ye ever wanted ta be knowing.

Action Comics #837
Company Name: DC Comics
Writers: Geoff Johns & Kurt Busiek
Art: Pete Woods

I wasn’t much of a Superman reader before but damn me if Johns and Busiek haven’t succeeded where lesser writers failed in making the mysteries of this book seem more like invitations than a device to keep us reading just to figure out what is going on. How did Superman loses his powers? Who is this new Toyman who looks like The Animated Series version as opposed to a creepy old man? When did Metallo regain a more human body? And what the heck is Lex Luthor up to anyway? These are questions this author will stick around to find out the answers to.

Grade: A

All-Star Superman #3
Company Name: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Art: Frank Quietly

Grant Morrison once said (and I am paraphrasing here) that he wishes he could be half as crazy as everyone thinks he is because only some of the great minds of the Silver Age could come up with the ideas that they did. With tongue NOT in cheek, Grant borrows one of the more infamously ludicrous classic Superman stories to create this – a story of Lois Lane’s birthday where Samson, Atlas and Superman compete for the pleasure of her company. If that last sentence didn’t make you smile a bit, not even a little inside, then you may as well skip this book; there is nothing for you here. But for those of us who still believe that a man can fly, this is one heck of a good read.

Grade: A

Fantastic Four #536
Company Name: Marvel Comics
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Art: Mike McKone & Andy Lanning

Despite the cover, this is not truly an Illuminati tie-in. And thank goodness for it, because I’d much rather see a good-ol-fashioned Doombot smackdown in this title than another issue of Bendis’ Talking Heads Theater. JMS, rather infamous for his own grasp of flowery dialogue, knows when to let his characters talk and when to let the action and the concept speak for itself. And when you are dealing with a concept such as Dr. Doom making a bid to get the Hammer of Thor and wield it, there is preciously little else to say except “That is cool!” Sadly, we don’t actually get to see the good Doctor wield the hammer this issue… merely his declaration of intent to Reed Richards. Such is the power of Doom that he can monologue BEFORE securing ultimate power – he is that good.

Grade: B

Green Lantern #10
Company Name: DC Comics
Writer: Geoff Johns
Art: Ivan Reis and Marc Campos

This title was a little slow to get started but now that the framework is laid, Johns is bringing up the subplots full-tilt. One Year Later, we find that Hal Jordan’s relationship with the Green Lanterns is as strained as ever, he’s in hot water with the global superhero community on Earth and even Ollie Queen is accusing him of being a dangerous maverick. If nothing else, I love this book for the irony and perfect portrayal of the Hal/Ollie dynamic – that the eternal iconoclast is now in a position of authority and the good soldier is now rebelling against authority in the name of a higher cause. All this, and the creation of The Sinestro Corps.

Grade: A

Lucifer #72
Company Name: Vertigo Comics
Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Peter Gross and Aaron Alexovich

Reviewing this book seems a tad pointless now. With the final issue months away and the current storyline being devoted to summation and tying up loose ends, there is not much for me to say. Except that if you were a fan of the old Sandman series or like mature magical comics, start tracking down the Trades or the old back issues of this series. Lucifer is as worthy a successor and sequel to Sandman as if Neil Gaiman had penned it himself, and this author will sorely miss it once it is gone.

Grade: A

New Avengers – Illuminati #1
Company Name: Marvel Comics
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Alex Maleev

Against my better judgment, I read this book in the store. And I learned nothing except that Tony Stark is a jerk. A real jerk. Everyone says Superman is a jerk but he should take lessons from Tony Stark. You know he’s a jerk because Namor tells him he’s a jerk (not in so many words) and when Namor says someone is being a jerk, then you know it MUST be bad. And I’m not saying this because he spurred the creation of the secret He-Man Girl-Haters Club For Jerks. Not because he is so ready to sell out the vast majority of the superhero population to save his own butt. No – it’s because he gives away the whole plot of Civil War (such as it is) under the guise of “seeing-the-future”. Because only a jerk would give away the plot of a story without warning. That is why Tony Stark, and Brian Michael Bendis by extension, are jerks.

Grade: D

Superman/Batman #24
Company Name: DC Comics
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Art: Ed McGuinness & Dexter Vines

Me am enlightened by this comic. Me think it make lots of sense. Me think it confusing now we know Joker am not behind whole thing. Me not wondering at all why Bizzaro am involved. Me think this comic not make more sense in one sitting, in kept hardback. Like comic am on time for three months now. Still, while Darkman am liking unconfused writing, he am hating cartoonish artwork. He am hating it so much on serious, dark book like this one he want to hurt it very much.

Grade: C

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Visit our blog at: http://www.livejournal.com/users/looking2dastars/

Looking To The Stars - The New Look

My apologies for the late posting. It was a long weekend.

Remember what I said last week about big changes and a big surprise coming soon?

Well, the big surprise is still a little further off.

But the big changes start now!

Doubtlessly most of you have already read The Dark Overlord's missive regarding how the look of the site, the layout of reviews and other things are going to be changing over the next few weeks.

If you haven't, you'd better go read about it quickly, before he has you flayed. There will be new columns, new writers and a lot more graphic elements to the site among other things.

This of course begs the question, how will THIS, the column that has been a staple of this magazine since Day One be changed by these changes?

The answer is, not much.

The column is still here.

Barring my being framed for an assassination attempt on Mark Millar and jailed or being made king of New Marvel, I'm not going anywhere.

And my original contract to write whatever I want, however I want so long as it is turned in before Sunday evening still stands.

There have been no modifications or requirements that I shift everything into a pure graphics format so as to capture that important demographic of illiterate web-surfers who find text and prose-style writing frightening.

You know, the morons, who don't read my column anyway. ;)

So what changes are there? Well, here comes the first one.

And it is a big one.

So big that I've been trying to pad out this introduction so as to better disguise it.

It is, in fact, a logo.

Every feature on the site now has a logo and we will not be exempt from this.

Because of my commitment to being as independent as possible, I designed the logo myself, from scratch, from a photograph of yours truly taken by my friend Donna.

Using the magic that is Paint Shop Pro, I have chopped it, channeled it, fiddled around with and then hit it with a hammer to create something that screams Indy. Something that screams inspiration. Something that didn't take all afternoon. And something that was free so I didn't have to pay Daron's friend to make me one.

With that, I give you this... the new face of Looking To The Stars as we enter this bold new age of graphic-enabled independence!



We've come a long way baby!

Well, that's all! I'll see you all next week!






































Okay. You're all still here.

Yes, I do actually have SOME content to the magazine this week, besides the spiffy new logo.

First, a review of the latest work by a writer who I have been missing for a long, long time.


Detective Comics #817
Company Name: DC Comics
Writer: James Robinson
Layouts: Leonard Kirk
Finishes: Andy Clarke
Colors: John Kalisz

The minute I saw the previews of this book, I knew I'd have to get it. Not just because I usually get all the Batman books whenever a new direction begins. Not just to learn the fate of Batman and what happened to him after Infinite Crisis. No. I had to get it because my favorite writer of all time is writing comics once again.

James Robinson, the creator of Starman, is back in comics. And with this, the first Batman comic taking place One Year Later, he has brought back…

* Jim Gordon as Police Commissioner
* Harvey Bullock, with a badge!
* Harvey Dent – Vigilante!
* Batman (Apparently he was gone for a year)
* Robin in a new suit!
* Poison Ivy – not dead and more powerful than ever!

There's not much of a plot at this point past setting up the Gotham City of One Year Later. Despite this, the story goes smoothly and this feels a lot more like what Batman should be than anything written on the Bat-Books since Jeph Loeb left the title. And I'm glad to see somebody FINALLY doing something with the reformed, newly-sane (as far as we know) Harvey Dent.

The art is might pur-tee too. Dark but not overly so. Of course it's not Tony Harris (which would make this book 10 kinds of heaven) but it works well.

Grade: A

And if you're wondering about the new 52 comic, I recently stumbled across a preview of the first five pages.

Finally, on a happy note, I got some fan mail from Jason R Svoboda. This made me laugh after a hard day at work. Hopefully it will do the same for you too.


I'm a long time reader. Very VERY occasional feed-backer. Good job with the column, BTW.


Don't laugh! That's not the funny part!

Anyhow, after reading the spoilers and such on Marvel’s “Civil War” which is being written by Brian Michael Bendis, I think I have an idea of how the editorial meetings with him must go…

Marvel Editors: OK Brian, we need some hot new ideas to spark interest away from that Crisis stuff at DC.

BMB: OK, here’s my pitch: Thor, harder edged. Modernized for the modern fan.

Editors: Sounds good so far.

BMB: Alright well we start off with the Iron Fist holding a meeting with some of his allies in regards to starting a new “Heroes for Hire.” We would have Black Knight there, White Tiger, maybe some mutants like Wolfsbane or Marrow or some other b-leaguers.

Editors: Interesting.

BMB: And then right as they’re talking, in walks… get this …. D-Man! With a bomb strapped to his chest, babbling about “the coming Ragnorak!” At which point it explodes and kills every in the building!

Editors: But what does Heroes fo Hire have to do with Thor…?

BMB: Also, Moon Knight hears the commotion and heads over to investigate, and a piano falls on him.

Editors: ……… why would you kill Moon Knight?

BMB: Eh, I don’t plan on writing him. So why not kill him?

Editor: Well we can’t do that because we are planning on a Moon Knight minseries.

BMB: Oh. Well I do have another idea, it’s a series of one shots involving the key members of the Defenders.

Editor: Sounds better…

BMB: We start off with the Controller feeding the kids from Power Pack into a wood chipper…

Editor: Uh no. We are still using Power Pack for our kid friendly comics.

BMB: Huh, comics for kids… don’t think that would work. Well if not that then howabout this…a saga with Captain America where I kill every single Marvel character whose name starts with the letter “R.”

Editor: Uhm, do you have any ideas that don’t involve randomly killing off characters? Maybe a story where the good guys…. uhm win? Or a story where some dying is integral to the story and not just killing off someone you don’t care for?

BMB: …. I don’t get what you’re trying to say.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars: Make Mine NOT Marvel

It’s been a long time in coming, but this week I finally did it. I removed all the Marvel Comics from my subscription. This decision was not made lightly, nor was it made completely without pain. But the sad fact is that my expenses are going to be very tight this summer as I enter my final semester of Graduate school and SOMETHING had to go. And that something was, I decided, the company that made up a mere four books on the list of twenty titles I read every month.

Why Marvel? Why now? Well, to be honest most of the books I have been reading either no longer thrill me as much as they used to or have become outright unreadable. Also, I came to a realization regarding the current tide at Marvel that also made this decision a lot easier. But first things first- let us discuss each title in detail.

Amazing Spider-Man

JMS. You’re the one who got me reading Spider-Man again but even you can’t keep me reading him. So far, you’re the only writer who seems to have done anything worthwhile with the idea of Peter Parker being a member of The Avengers and I commend you for that. But sadly, the new environment is not working for me.

I think of Spider-Man and I think crummy apartments, Aunt May unable to make the house payment and Mary Jane being out of work because nobody takes her seriously as an actress because of her modeling. Moving them all into Stark Tower just takes out a lot of the natural drama that has always been a part of the book.

In short, I leave Amazing Spider-Man behind me, not that I hate New Avengers less but that I love your take on Amazing Spider-Man unspoiled. If you were allowed to write the book without having to include The Avengers, I might stay. But since Marvel doesn’t have the greatest track record about not shoving “new and wonderful” things down our throat, I must, as Groucho Marx said, be going. “I came to say I cannot stay; I must be going.”

Daredevil

The one title I can gleefully remove from my list with no complaints whatsoever. Now lest I start getting complaints about being a Bendis-basher who is still bitter over Avengers, let me set a few things straight. I’ve been reading the book consistently since Kevin Smith rebooted the title. I read through the Mack, Gale & Bendis runs and I enjoyed them all. But lately, it seems to me that Bendis is not writing Daredevil. He is writing a book full of interesting dialogue and situations… but he isn’t writing Daredevil.

This is the biggest complaint I get from people who accuse me of being an uncultured philistine who does not get the wonderful artfulness of your average Bendis story. That because I actually expect to see a guy in a red costume kicking-butt and to see Matt Murdock in court doing the lawyer thing in a Daredevil comic, that I am stuck in the past and unable to see the beauty of true art.

Let me tell you folks something: it doesn’t take a master of “art” to take six months to tell a story where three of the books are issue-long fight scenes. It isn’t art to retell the same story twice from different character’s viewpoints in two different issues over a year-long span. (Besides, James Robinson did that better in Starman.)

How sad is it that the only story featuring Daredevil that has felt like a Daredevil story that I’ve read in recent memory is the overly melodramatic Daredevil: Redemption? On every level, I find it to be inferior to Bendis’ plots, dialogue and character (outside of Matt himself, of course). And yet, I found the book much more enjoyable because while it was overdone it felt truer to the spirit of what Stan Lee and Frank Miller did with the character than anything Bendis has ever written.

Fantastic Four

Another book that I had no complaints about but I just cannot stick around to read. Mark Waid all but drug this title back to greatness from mediocrity and proved popular enough to make a comeback after being removed from action by an editor who very quickly learned why Mark Waid is as popular as he is skillful. But with Waid on the book and even with JMS coming on… I feel it is best for me to move on for now.

Ultimate Spider-Man

Everything I said above about Daredevil? Repeat that. Twice.

Of course I haven’t sworn Marvel off completely. Though I have no interested whatsoever in the upcoming House of M storyline, there are still a few specials that are well worth-reading. Dan Slott’s GLA and Spider-Man/Human Torch have been two rare treasures that Marvel has released this year and I will check out any future projects he releases. And I suspect that once JMS’s Fantastic Four begins, I will somehow find my way back into reading that once a month.

Until then, the next person who asks me to “Make Mine Marvel” will get a very polite “No, thank you.”

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

What If... Karen Page Had Lived? - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Michael Lark
Inked by: Michael Lark
Colored by: Dave Stewart
Lettered by: Cory Petit
Editor: C.B. Cebulski
Publisher: Marvel Comics

SCENE: A Bar.

Bald Guy: Greetings! I am the Watcher! Or maybe I’m Brian Michael Bendis. Michael Lark’s dark and spooky artwork makes it hard to tell. At any rate, I am a man with a freakishly large bald head whose duty it is to tell you of tales that might have been.

CUT TO: Kevin Smith’s Study.

Bald Guy: Behold Kevin Smith- filmmaker and comic writer of immense popularity. And yet also an object of vast scorn! Mostly by wannabes, who are jealous of his being a writer of comics, maker of films and his actually having been bare naked with a girl!

Kevin Smith: Dig it.

Bald Guy: Ah, but what if… in some other world, it had been Brian Michael Bendis who had written that most beloved “Guardian Devil” story?

Kevin Smith: Folks, I apologize in advance for this. And for Black Cat being late. And Mallrats. Again.

CUT TO: A Church.

Bullseye: (smoking a pipe) Ah, my dear… tis so sweet this business of murder. To plot and smite my foe such upon holy ground is a great joy to a blasphemer such as myself. Would that the finest port could quell my thirst so well as this, the blood of the fiend Daredevil spilt upon the ground for me. Oh, that I might play with thee further, sweet foe. But alas, my duty is to deliver yon child which thou protectest unto my ungentle employer.

Bald Guy: It was in that moments that things changed. A billy club thrown. A brave woman’s action. A totally unnatural tone of dialogue for a well-established villain. A recap taking twelve pages that Roy Thomas could have managed in three. Yes, what if things had been different? A centimeter to the left. A centimeter to the right. A jump to the left. A step to the right. Hands on her hips, with her knees in tight? What if Karen Page HAD lived?

50,000 Fanboys: GET ON WITH IT!

Bald Guy: Well, not much to tell really. Mysterio still would have killed himself. Matt Murdock would have confronted Kingpin and accidentally killed him. Wilson Fisk, prepared for the unlikely event of his violent death in his life as a gangster, would have the finger of blame pointed at Murdock post-humously. Foggy Nelson would fail to consider an insanity plea and Matt Murdock would go to jail after a trial which was a circus even worse than the one he has experienced having his secret identity exposed in the true Marvel Universe. His trial would be the last time that he would see Karen Page. If he could see… that is, it was the last time they would be in the same room. And he would emerge from jail years later, a broken and depressed man with nothing to live for.

CUT TO: A Bar.

Bald Guy: Rather depressing, isn’t it? I suggest you deal with it the same way I dealt with writing this story: by drinking heavily.

Daredevil #64 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Alex Maleev
Inked by: Alex Maleev
Colored by: Dave Stewart
Lettered by: Virtual Calligraphy’s Cory Petit
Editor: Jennifer Lee
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Some guys get all the luck. Take Matt Murdock. He’s a respected lawyer. He’s a superhero. And he’s gotten it on with a lot of really amazing women. Sure, there’s the whole “blindness” thing. And there’s the whole “not-so-secret identity”. And the problem of his being disbarred and probably jailed with all the guys he spent a lifetime putting away if anyone can ever actually prove that he IS a superhero.

Come to think of it, it really sucks to be Matt Murdock right now. Even if he does get more booty than Blackbeard and his little black book features an ex-porn star, three gorgeous professional assassins, a psychotic multiple-personality actress and now - an ex-wife.

If you haven’t been reading Daredevil lately, you’ve been missing out. Brian Michael Bendis has taken the book down a twisted path and every issue is an actual, honest to gawd surprise. Granted, this is nothing new as Daredevil has frequently been one of the most mysterious and certainly one of the most consistently well-written titles within the last five years. But Bendis has proved his metal and certainly stands worthy of standing on the platform with Miller and Nocenti. Daredevil is also easily one of the easiest books to jump on-to, as the plot thus far is recalled handily at the start of every issue so that newbies have no trouble hopping into the middle of a storyline.

The artwork is suitably dark and has a neat grittiness to it even as approaches photo-realism at some points. Maleev is a master at weaving shadows together and the book is dark without ever feeling overly inked. Indeed, colorist Dave Stewart managed a wide variety of lighting effects that covey mood very well. The blue coolness of evening as Natasha and Matt talk on a rooftop, the bright yellow light of a sunny autumn day - even the flashing red and blue pattern of a police car light are all captured perfectly within the colors of this book.

Looking To The Stars: What Once Was Old Is Old Again...

Did I step through a time warp and wind up back in 1992? All evidence suggests yes. There’s a Bush in the White House, once seemingly invincible thanks to a war in Iraq; now looking weaker and weaker as the economy crumbles. I’m ecstatically happy and yet feeling like a clumsy dork… all due to a girl who is as equally convinced that I’m her soul mate as I am of she, just like the not so glorious days of Jr. High. And Marvel Comics is getting ready to put out a new “Venom vs. Carnage” book.

To paraphrase the great Louis Black… “WHAT THE HELL ARE THESE PEOPLE THINKING?!?!”

I mean, honestly? Has there really been that big a demand for the return of the symbiotes from anyone who isn’t a speculator? Somebody who isn’t still sitting on five-long boxes full of every single misguided attempt Marvel made during the early 90’s to give Venom a solo series? Someone who can intelligibly give reasons for why Venom and Carnage were the greatest Spidey villains of all time without using the words “kewl”, “w1ck3d!” or “aw50m3”?

It’s almost enough to make a fanboy wish for the second coming of Bill Jemas. Almost.

I mean, ignoring the fact that the current Venom book (which didn’t even really have Venom in it until recently) is one of the most vile pieces of filth to be foisted onto the comic-reading public in recent memory and that pretty much everything done with the character except the recent “The Hunger” storyline in Spectacular Spider-Man within the last ten years has… to be blunt… stunk like a dead skunk in a natural gas processing plant… Carnage is dead. Has been since Peter Parker #10 (vol 2) and I haven’t heard anyone complain since.

The news of this ill-conceived concept came recently in a Marvel Comics news briefing, which also heralded the arrival of other new titles of questionable judgment. Among these are…

Amazing Fantasy #1

Staring a heroine who is “…fierce…sassy...she sticks to walls!” and promising “teen-friendly adventures set in the current Marvel Universe!”, this title will be written by Fiona Avery (aka J. Michael Straczynski’s protégé) with art by Mark Brooks of Marvel Age: Spider-Man.

Wary as I am of any title billed as being teen-friendly, I could see this one actually working so long as editorial and Avery concentrate on building it up as its own unique thing and don’t turn it into a guest-of-the-month book and then have Wolverine and Spider-Man show up in every other issue.

Who are we kidding? This is Marvel. They’ll cross-promote the heck out of this, it will wind up looking like “just another superhero book” that will go ignored by the teenage girls that we’re OH SO DESPERATELY trying to get into the comic book stores and this will go down as one more example of why Spider-Woman has failed to take off in the same way She-Hulk did.

I’m also somewhat wary of having Avery writing this one. This is, as far as I know, her first solo work as writer and plotter and what I’ve read of her writing with Straczynski’s plotting on “Amazing Spider-Man” hasn’t filled me with a lot of confidence. Loki seemed very out of character on her “Chasing A Dark Shadow” story and last week’s “Vibes” seemed derivative of countless other stories where Peter reaches out to a troubled youth and makes a difference by doing something other than webbing up a crook.

Still, though my Spidey Sense is screaming “Miss” the more I read about this title, I’ll wait for it to come out before I get too worried.

Mary Jane

Written by Sean McKeever with pencils by Takeshi Miyazawa, this one will center on teenage Mary Jane Watson, showing “the thrilling highs and the crushing lows of high-school existence in a new, ongoing teen drama!”

This one I see a bit more hope for. The most popular books with the much desired teen girl market these days are manga books that center around this very concept; an ordinary teenage girl who gets caught up in extraordinary events all while trying to balance her life and all the regular problems of a teen girl. Not that a book featuring a super-powered heroine can’t do well, but… well, I see more teenage men reading “Slayers” than “Fruits Basket” and more teenage girls reading “Hot Gimmick” than “Battle Angel Alita.”

McKeever has already proven that he can do this kind of story on various Tsunami title and while I’m not familiar with Miyazawa’s work, what I’ve seen looks good.

Spider-Man/Doctor Octopus: Year One

Written by Zeb Wells with art by Kaare Andrews, this one will take a look at the early years of Dr. Otto Octavius.

Wells work has been hit or miss with me in the past. While he can do a cute one-shot, he’s failed to entertain in the past on stories as serious as the early years of Doc Ock are likely to be. Also, I’m curious if he’s going to try and utilize the new background (ie troubled childhood, abusive father) that Octavius has seemingly developed over the last few months. Personally, I’ve always been a big fan of the “Octavius as an altruistic scientist, forever changed by a lab accident” origin as it just makes Dr. Octopus another example of one who could have been a hero had it not been for cruel fate as opposed to just another mistreated maniac.

Still, it will be interesting to read if nothing else… assuming I haven’t gotten Dr. Octopus burnout by then.

Other projects announced for June this year (though not expanded upon in the announcement) were Identity Disc, Invaders, and Witches; none of which grab me by title alone.

And in another announcement, Marvel announced that they would restart “Avengers” with a new #1 and a new team made up of the “big guns” of the Marvel Universe with Brian Michael Bendis writing.

Okay. This one I won’t wait on do declare an outright BAD IDEA.

I thought we were past the days of restarting books with #1! This one seems particularly gratuitous as we are now rebooting the book just a scant few issues after it will be renumbered as Avengers #500 and taking it into yet another volume!

I like Brian Michael Bendis as much as the next guy but thus far he has not proven able to write an effective team book. His best works usually focus on a single character as they deal with an event, with a supporting cast to back them up. This is how his work on Ultimate X-Men thus far has read, with a focus on Wolverine and the rest of the team just showing up later… or with a focus on Angel and then the rest of the team in the background not saying anything except for a few panels. I’m not saying that he couldn’t do well on Avengers… but the evidence thus far suggests it.

Also… the “big guns” idea for the team is a bad idea since, in this case “big guns” means the most popular characters and not the most powerful. That approach might work in JLA, where all the most popular heroes are also among the most powerful and versatile. Compare that to Avengers mainstay Scarlet Witch. Wanda has never been as popular as The Hulk, but there’s nobody better to have on your side going into an unknown situation than a woman who can control the unknown.

Compare that to the concept of Spider-Man and Daredevil on a team. Bad idea: they both team-up well, but are not the “sit around the base and do patrol duty” type of hero. Besides, with Spider-Man’s reputation and Daredevil all but retired from active duty (thanks to Bendis’s work on his title) they would be hard to fit into The Avengers.

Storm and Wolverine on a team other than X-Men. Bad idea. True, they are team players but both are more used to covert ops than the more visible role the Avengers play. Also, with Wolverine’s habit of cutting down those he fights, it’s unlikely he’d gain much public acceptance.

And I’m not even going to touch the concept of The Hulk in his current savage form on a team. Mark Millar already showed how well that works in Ultimates; not bloody well. Still, we can hope that something good will come of this. And hope, if nothing else, is the one thing a good comic book can give you.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Ultimate X-Men #43 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: David Finch
Inked by: Art Thibert
Colored by: Frank D'Armata
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics


SCENE: The X-Mansion

Xavier: Storm, are you sure that you know nothing about Hank’s disappearance?

Storm: Nothing.

*THUNDER ROLLS IN THE BACKGROUND*

Xavier: And there’s nothing bad that happened between you two?

Storm: No.

*THUNDER ROLLS AGAIN*

Xavier: You are upset about something…

Jean: I thought you didn’t read our minds without permission.

Xavier: I’m not reading her mind, Scott. There’s a major hurricane about to make landfall in New York City and that usually only happens once a month.

Cyclops: Why once a… oh!

Rogue: Just standing her in the background. Saying nothing. Sure would like a line or some character development.

Nightcrawler: Ja. Wish they’d do something with the new mutants they got at the end of the Millar run before introducing even more characters…


SCENE: A Hotel Room. Washington DC

Hank: *sighs*

Xavier: Problems?

Hank: Why don’t you just read my mind and tell me?

Xavier: I’m not doing that, Hank. I never did that. Well, except when I was figuring out who spilled the beans on my having Magneto hypnotized and in a secret identity. And who told the public that we had a mutant who looked like an angel living with us. And to see which one of you stole my Rogaine but otherwise I never read minds without permission.

Hank: Whatever. I’m gone.

Xavier: But why?

Hank: I dunno. Maybe I’m upset because I went on three missions with you and got turned into a giant blue furry freak instead of just a big vaguely human freak. Maybe I’m upset that I’m risking my neck to save people who don’t care about me and who I really don’t think should be saved. Maybe I’m tired of not being called “the blue one” anymore, now that we have Kurt on the team.

Xavier: Who?

Hank: Never mind. Point is, I’m not going back..


SCENE: The White House : Sub-Sub Basement

We See The President sitting at a table. We know he is the President, because he is called the President even though we never get to see his face clearly. He is NOT George W. Bush, because what follows suggests that The President in the Marvel Universe is a complete idiot only concerned with appearances who is being manipulated by corrupt forces in his own cabinet in order to force an agenda that would oppress the rights of a minority group in order to satisfy the whims of a vocal group of religious fanatics. Again, this is TOTALLY FICTIONAL and has absolutely NO BARING WHATSOEVER on today’s society. Really.

The President: Welcome, Ms. Frost. I understand you have a radical idea to help solve our mutant problem. However, I am ready to listen to you and consider what you have to say in a fair and reasonable manner.

Emma Frost: Yes sir.

The President: Now, it says here that you are a mutant?

Emma Frost: Yes…

Guard #1: RIGHT!

*Guards throw Emma Frost down against the table, forcing her hands behind her back*

Guard #1: Under Article V of the Patriot Act, we now have the right to ask frankly anything, including what library books you’ve checked out…

The President: That will do.

Guard #2: But sir! We haven’t even gotten to do the body cavity search yet!

The President: I said, that’s enough. Now, you aren’t going to read my mind are you?

Emma Frost: No sir.

The President: Make me do anything against my will?

Emma Frost: No sir.

The President: Rip the clothes off my body and make me lick your boots?

Emma Frost: Not in this universe, no. All I wanted to do was talk about Charles Xavier. You see, he has apparently banged half the beautiful mutant teachers in the world and I was once a student of his. We disagreed on some things and what I propose is that you build a non-militant group of mutants in order to combat the group under General Fury’s command.

*A monitor comes up showing screen several mutants that are probably going to eventually be in the crowd standing in the background of every issue in the very near future*

The President: Oooh, this is just like American Idol! Well then… yes, yes, no, no… yes, no…


MEANWHILE, in the background.

Random Cabinet Member #1: Generic statement of mutant hatred.

Random Cabinet Member #2: Affirmative Statement of Agreement

Random Cabinet Member #3, who looks like a lot like Stryker from God Loves: Man Kills: May God help us to slay the mutant scum.


SCENE: The Comic Book Store of one “Starman” Morrison.

“Starman” Morrison: *reading through the book* Well, now this is a cool concept. Emma Frost is the non-militant one creating a team of pacifist teachers while Professor X is running a militaristic superhero school. That is something different and unexpected and yet unusually deep and insightful as to the natures of both characters in the 616 Marvel Universe and turning that on its ear.

Fanboy #1: Hey! That looks like Blink in the one screen!

Fanboy #2: Hey yeah, it is! She’s so hot!

“Starman” Morrison: *sighs* The world exists only to mock me, I swear.

Ultimate Spider-Man #52 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Mark Bagley
Inked by: Art Thibert
Colored by: Transparency Digital
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Reading through the latest issue of USM, I have two questions; what happened to Brian Michael Bendis and does CrossGen know that Chuck Dixon broke his exclusive contract to ghost write this issue?

Believe it or not, those rhetorical questions are complementary. This issue breaks the usual mode of Bendis’ writing style, reminding me of Chuck Dixon’s work on the early issues of Birds of Prey. The sharp dialogue and wise-cracking, self-depreciating monologues we all expect of a Spider-Man book are still there, but not in the usual high volume.

And what fills up the rest of the volume you ask? The title says it all…cat fight. Elektra and Black Cat, to be exact. And for several pages we are treated to the sight of two sweaty, gorgeous, leather-clad women struggling, grinding against the pavement and each other, lithe muscles…

Yes. Well, you get the idea.

Peter doesn’t say much while this is going on, proving the old saying that “women and cats do what they do and there is nothing a man (or a Spider-Man for that matter) can do about it.” That’s Heinlein, incidentally, for those who care.

After an anti-climactic scene where Peter is thrown off a roof, Peter finally gets an extended monologue too big for word balloons and returns to the scene of the fight to find both girls gone. And no sooner does Peter chide himself for the stupidity of sneaking out in the middle of the night to meet a criminal, a shocking cliffhanger on the final page shows that even with one woman out to kill him, a professional thief crushing on him and his being implicated in several thefts, there is no situation in Peter Parker’s life that cannot get worse.

Bagley’s art is given a stronger focus here, with the brief dialogue taking up so little space that we get to see that in addition to being a mean “eye” artist, Bagley is no mean background artist. The fight scenes are well illustrated, with appropriate close-ups and unlike most comics featuring girl-on-girl fighting, this one doesn’t feel posed or exploitive for a second. Quite a change from the Greg Horn and Terry Dodson images of Elektra and Felicia, I must say.

Overall, this issue is different but not bad. Bendis isn’t playing to his strengths, but this book is far from bad and doesn’t seem like filler despite most of the book being taken up by one long fight scene. The art is, as always, wonderful, and all the characters who are supposed to be teenagers actually look like teenagers.

Ultimate X-Men #40 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: David Finch
Inked by: Art Thibert
Colored by: Frank D'Armata & Morry Hollowell
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics


SCENE: The Worthington Mansion

Xavier: So what you’re telling me is that the boy lives here alone because his parents find him… distasteful?

Butler: Indeed, the boy wants for nothing financially as my masters are your atypical WASP scumbags who cannot cope with anything outside their own viewpoints of normalcy but neither can they bring themselves to disown the boy outright.

Xavier: So you want me to take him out of their bigoted hands in exchange for a huge sum of money?

Butler: That is the offer, yes.

Xavier: You insult me, sir. I take all young people with mutations into my school based on need, not on financial reward.

Butler: So you won’t be needing the check for several million dollars?

Xavier: (grabbing the check) Not NEEDING as such… but advanced holographic technology doesn’t pay for itself… YOINK!


SCENE: The Xavier School For Mutants : The Pool

Xavier: I’m sorry to interrupt the 1 pm sunbathing and lounging around class, but I wanted to introduce our newest student. This is Warren. He never wears shirts.

Kitty: Oooh! I wanna sink my teeth into that! I don’t care if he’s Kosher or not…

Storm: Kitty, you’re 13 or something. Granted, we’d never know if from that swimsuit or the way your body is drawn in the long shots…

Rogue: Hold on… isn’t that kinda weird? I mean, he looks like an angel… and then we have demons walking around with us…

Nightcrawler: Ummmm….

Rogue: I mean, its all Biblical, right? Sign of the end times? The forces of good and evil standing among us, working in plain sight?!?

Nightcrawler: Uh.. hello? Standing right here?

Xavier: Now, Rogue…. Kurt is not a demon. Apologize to him.

Rogue: I’m sorry I called you a demon, Kurt.

Nightcrawler: That’s okay. I’m just happy to see someone else is getting the dialogue with the heavy-handed religious commentary

Rogue: Well, I’m just glad to be able to say “I” instead of “Ah” and “sugar” instead of “sugah”.

Xavier: I do understand your concerns and we will be discussing the religious implications of mutation later. Not now.

Rogue: When will we be discussing it, Professor?

Xavier: Off-camera. There’s no way I’m going to piss off the Christian Coalition by touching this subject with a 10 foot poll in any story that will see print.


SCENE: The Xavier School For Mutants : The Next Day

Pro-Mutant Protestors: God is a mutant!

Anti-Mutant Protestors: God hates mutants!

Xavier: Before I ask which one of you is responsible for the crowds of zealots outside the campus, I would like to point out that I a) am not stupid b) am a telepath c) already know the answer and d) know that one of you has a history of saying things he shouldn’t to people about the inner-workings of our semi-secret school of superheroic celebrities… HANK?!

Beast: What? I just posted it on a few websites… along with those naked pictures of Storm.

Storm: You son of a-

Xavier: You can electrolyze the hair off of him later. Right now, I want you to go find Warren.
Storm: Why me?

Xavier: Because he likes you.

Storm: You read his mind to find that out?

Xavier: No, I found the pictures bookmarked on the computer in his room.


SCENE: A Cliff.

Storm: Hey.

Warren: Wow, I finally get some dialogue of more than like three words in a book that’s all about me.

Storm: We want you back.

Warren: So you can laugh at me some more?

Storm: We weren’t laughing. Well, Bobby was but we try to ignore him. All the girls think you’re gorgeous and want you to take them to heaven and back.

Warren: Okay. So I am going to have a lot of gorgeous and in the most case legal-age girls fighting over me…but people think I’m this thing I’m not.

Storm: So go show them what you are. Look, I write and nobody knows I write and nobody thinks of me as a writer, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a writer.

Warren: … what?

Storm: I don’t know. It’s news to me too, but it’s a lot more characterization than I got when Mark Millar was writing this book.

Warren: Well….I guess I can get all those nuts off the lawn, at least.


SCENE: The Xavier School For Mutants

Warren: I’m not an angel. I’m a mutant. I don’t have any message from any God, but I think that fighting over the whole thing is pretty silly and that we should all be good to each other despite our differences.

*crickets chirp*


SCENE: A Diner

Hank: (reading from newspaper) Angel Sightings are Mutant Hoax on Page One…. Dick Cheney’s Oil Company overcharging customers on page 20.

Shadowy Figure: Rather a mess, isn’t it?

Hank: Who are you?

Shadowy Figure: Darned if I know. Allow me to say something cryptic to lead into the next part of the story.

Wolverine: Hey! I didn’t show up once in this book! Call my agent!

Ultimate Six #2 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Trevor Hairsine
Inked by: Danny Miki
Colored by: Dave Stewart
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulous
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Doctor Octopus has always been, for my money, the best Spider-Man villain ever. Why? Well, he’s one of the first villains Peter Parker ever fought… in fact, Peter faced him more than any other villain during the history of Stan Lee’s run. His origin also closely mirrored Peter’s; a man of science unwittingly given powers after a lab accident. But Otto Octavius’ accident also effected his mind, turning a once benevolent scientist, probably the greatest expert on radiation on the planet, into a jealous and petty madman. So I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for the guy as there was a little bit of suggestion that his taking the path of villain was not completely his fault; he was as much a victim of circumstance as Peter Parker.

But despite that sympathetic element, he was still every bit the villain. He was one of the few villains who could match wits with Peter on the level of a scientist. He also proved to be no mean strategist, leading most of the various incarnations of the Sinister Six against Spider-Man. And depending on who is writing him, he is also one of the few villains who can match Peter insult for insult, quip for quip… and exhibits no mean sense of humor himself. I remember a scene in one of the Spider-Man novels (Revenge of the Sinister Six, I believe), where he is holding the Bugle Staff hostage, recognizes Betty Brant and thanks her for being “one of my first, and most agreeable hostages”. Betty angrily asks him if it really made him feel powerful, menacing a helpless young woman. (See Amazing Spider-Man #12, true believer!) Doc Ock just smiles and says, “Yes, actually, it did. Thank you for being so kind as to ask.” And nobody, but nobody else in the Spider-Man rogue’s gallery almost married Aunt May.

It’s going to be a good time to be a Doc Ock fan in the coming months. In addition to getting a costume redesign and a new story arc in Spectacular Spider-Man, he’s also going to be appearing in TWO mini-series; the first of which, Negative Exposure, also came out this week with “Out of Reach” starting later this year. And of course he will be THE villain in the Spider-Man sequel coming out this summer. And then, of course, we have this… his appearance in Ultimate Six.

Bendis has translated the classic character of Doctor Ocatvius into the Ultimate universe beautifully. Though he was rather amoral before the accident, working for the unethical Norman Osborn AND acting as a spy for rival Justin Hammer, his vicious streak doesn’t fully emerge until he is left as a freak “just to see what would happen” by Hank Pym and other SHIELD Scientists. Though it is unclear if he has been driven completely insane by the accident in this universe, it is clear that he is just as twisted now, as his 616 counterpart. Still, it is Otto who is the first to “break ranks” in the holding cell arranged for him and four other “illegal genetic mutations” (To wit- Green Goblin, Kraven the Hunter, Electro and The Sandman) and offer to help Hank Pym and his scientist with curing the conditions of the other villains.

Not surprisingly (at least to us fans of the good/bad Doctor), things go wrong and Otto effects a brilliant plan which results in the escape of all the villains in question. The issue closes as they escape and discuss finding “the Sixth man”… who turns out to be someone that I had not seen mentioned in ANY of the on-line discussions regarding this story arc.

The art by Hairsine and Miki is quite different from the styles of the artists on both Ultimate Spider-Man and The Ultimates, but still enjoyable. It has the fine detail of Bryan Hitch’s pencils, but is much cleaner and smoother flowing. It has the cleaner feel of Mark Bagley’s pencils, but also seems much darker and more subdued than the high-energy, every-moving style that Bagley employs. In short, the art, like the story, appears to be merging two totally different styles and succeeding… forgive the pun… Marvelously.

Daredevil #50 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Alex Maleev
Inked by: Alex Maleev
Colored by: Matt Hollingsworth
Lettered by: Cory Petit
Editor: Joe Quesada
Publisher: Marvel Comics

There are times when a book comes along that I cannot review easily. Sometimes the book itself is hard to read, due to a poor story or confusing artwork. Sometimes I just feel uninspired and cannot think of the right words to do a good book justice. And sometimes, the book itself can not be described without giving away every bare detail of the plot and artwork. This is one of the later.

The title page helpfully informs us of what has happened so far. There is a blind lawyer named Matt Murdock, whose four senses operate at a superhuman level far surpassing any loss he might have felt from his sight. His secret identity has been revealed to the world, but he has managed to prevent any proof of it from being discovered, since this would likely result in his disbarment and arrest. His most dangerous enemy, The Kingpin of Crime Wilson Fisk, has returned to reclaim his broken empire and sent Typhoid Mary and Bullseye, two of Daredevil’s most dangerous enemies, to distract him as the Kingpin goes about his business.

But Daredevil managed to best the two assassins, at long last putting away Bullseye; the man who killed the two greatest loves of Matt Murdock’s life. And now there are no more distractions. No more obstacles. Nothing standing between Daredevil and the Kingpin and one glorious, long overdue fight.

And what a fight it is! This issue promised a battle to end all battles and it delivers, lasting for over half the pages of the book.

This is gloriously illustrated over a series of panels by an all-star team of artists, who had worked on the regular Daredevil series in the past. While this is much more interesting that the standard "pose gallery" that your typical 50th issue closes with, it is a bit jarring to see Kingpin and DD change so much from panel to panel. Particularly since none of the artists seem to agree on what kind of pants the Kingpin is wearing or whether or not he has a jacket.

I think it might have been better to give each artist a whole page, rather than a single panel. And Frank Miller is conspicuous in his absence among such classic greats as John Romita Sr. and Gene Colan. For that matter, I wonder why John Romita Jr, who illustrated Miller’s "Man Without Fear", wasn’t included.

Despite the spotty artwork during the "tribute" fight scene, Alex Maleev maintains his gritty, photo-realistic style throughout the rest of the book until everything concludes in a wonderful scene inside the now infamous Josie’s Bar in a scene that will surely leave you wanting for the next issue.

Ultimate Spider-Man #42 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Mark Bagley
Inked by: Art Thibert
Colored by: Transparency Digital
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Peter Parker really cannot catch a break, can he? No sooner does he finally get back together with his girlfriend, something comes up and keeps him from the wonderful afternoon of face-sucking they had planned. He has to drop everything to deal with a superpowered delinquent blowing up cars on the other side of town and finds his patience sorely tested as he tries to explain why “with great power comes great responsibility”.

That’s the core of this issue and the best part about it. Rather than jump into the situation and start throwing punches, Peter tries to reason with Geldoff; an exchange student in denial about his mutation, who starts using his powers as a road to acceptance with the in crowd. After all, nothing impresses the cheerleaders like making things explode. Believe me, I know that from personal experience… but I can’t talk about that until after the trial.

It’s a situation that Peter tries to be sympathetic towards. After all, he did become a basketball star for a while before Uncle Ben’s death. And the majority of the issue deals with the two just talking and trying to understand one another. But before I scare you off completely, let me assure you this isn’t an ABC After-School Special. This is not a tear-eyed intervention, complete with hugs and melodramatic “I love you, man” moments and Brian Austin Green appearing at the end telling us that blowing cars up with our mind is just plain wrong.

There are no revelations. Geldoff is unable or unwilling to grasp Peter’s explanation for why it is important to help people. This is well conveyed, as is Peter’s barely repressed annoyance at having to give up time with Mary Jane and his lack of a proper costume and his very real annoyance at Geldoff’s obliviousness to Peter’s message. And despite having little room to talk about early reactions to getting superpowers, it’s hard to argue with Peter’s assessment that Geldoff is an idiot.

Still, this isn’t a superhero/supervillain smackdown story. This is about two teenage guys who are trying to find someone who can relate to what they are going through. Sure, they both have super powers but that is incidental to the story. And it is putting this kind of real characterization into a story that has made Brian Michael Bendis a favorite of critics and fans alike… not to mention yours truly.

But good as it is, the writing doesn’t steal the show. The powerful pencils of Mark Bagley and the incredible inks of Art Thibert equal it. (Alliterative Adjectives Absconded from the Stupendous Stan Lee!) The characters are all uniquely illustrated and both the comic and dramatic moments are conveyed with equal skill. And it should be noted that Bagely draws some of the best explosions to be seen anywhere and gets ample opportunity to show this throughout the issue.

All in all, I can’t think of any reason why anyone shouldn’t be reading this book. The writing succeeds as a traditional superhero story, despite being anything but traditional in execution. The artwork is gorgeous for those who prefer art over writing. And if you have a preference for superhero teams over single-acts, you should pick this issue up for the extremely surprising guests on the final page.

Ultimate Spider-Man #37 - A Review

Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Penciled by: Mark Bagley
Inked by: Art Thibert
Colored by: Transparency Digital
Lettered by: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Do you remember the scene in “Monty Python And The Holy Grail” where the narrator yammers about the beauty of the scene we are about to watch, until a horde of knights yell “Get on with it!” and he keeps talking until someone hits him over the head? Picture Brian Michael Bendis as the narrator and me as the horde of knights and that sums up how I felt reading this issue.

You know why this story is titled “Still”? Because after five issues of featuring Venom on the cover and the promise of a smack-down against Spider-Man hanging in the air… we’re all STILL waiting for it to happen. (ba da bum!)

In all seriousness, I did like this issue but it hasn’t done anything to alter my opinion that this story arc has been stretched out a bit too much. There is one scene between Mary Jane and Peter in this issue that has as many long pauses (as represented by panels with no text) as your average Harold Pinter play. Thankfully, the pauses are not frequent to the point of making the dialogue sound like it is being delivered by William Shatner. And like Pinter, the dialogue is sharp when it is there.

When it is not, Bagley’s artwork is as sharp as ever. More than any artist I can think of, Bagley does a good job with the eyes and the soul of each character pours out through them. I particuarly enjoyed the painted nightmare scene the book opens with and the nightmarish appearance of Venom when he (finally!) shows up.

Still, despite the drama being played up a little bit too much as we build towards the magic moment, this is still one of the best books on the rack today. Pick it up. This one is definitely worth the swag spent on it.

Looking To The Stars: Devil In The Darkness (Or Why Brian Michael Bendis REALLY Doesn't Get Daredevil)

SPOILERS WARNING! The following article gives many details about the general history of Daredevil and the runs of Frank Miller, Kevin Smith & Brian Michael Bendis in specific. Read no further if, by some chance, you have not read any of these stories, but plan to after you move out of the cave you’ve been living in.

Most of us have had it happen: our favorite writer or artist announced they needed a change of pace and new management was taking over your favorite book. And the new team set about systematically tearing apart everything you loved about the book.

Maybe the art was now too focused upon cheesecake poses. Maybe all the subplots you had been following for years were now being ignored in favor of whole new subplots. Maybe your favorite character was booted off the team for being “useless” (according to the new creative staff, anyway) and would spend the next five years in comics limbo making occasional appearances in the big crossovers before being killed off in a footnote. I don’t need to name names. You know whom I’m talking about!

My point is that a new writer can completely and totally change the general tone and direction of a book. And few characters have suffered so many drastic changes in the general tone as the soon-to-be, big-screen star… Matt Murdock, also known as Daredevil: The Man Without Fear!

Now I’m going to let all you kids in on a little secret. See, a lot of you… all you know of Daredevil was written in the last three years or so. And all of those were very adult stories for big boys and girls to read. So you know I’m only telling you this because you’re big enough to handle it… ready? Okay…

Back when he was first created by Stan Lee, Daredevil was a silly book. A REALLY silly book. In fact, it was one of the few super hero books being published by Marvel back then that made it look like being a costumed vigilante was kind of fun!

Yes, back in the days of high angst “I’m so hideous I can only be called a Thing! , I can’t get the money to pay for Aunt May’s new hip” stories, a blind-man put on a silly costume and in the first ten issues of his solo adventures, fought against such dread evils as…

· The Owl: a fat mutant with a bad haircut and “gliding powers”

· The Purple Man: a lavender-skinned telepath, who was instantly likable.

· The Matador: a masked robber who confused his enemies with his cape (not a Hypno-cape mind you… an ordinary cape… a freaking ordinary cape)

· The Stilt-Man: ‘Nuff Said

· The Eel, who had a special suit that kept him from being held (ooh… someone has intimacy issues)

In all fairness, he faced down Electro and The Sub Mariner too, but most of the early Daredevil rogues gallery was definite Z-list material and quite quite silly. And things stayed that way for the most part through a succession of writers for a number of years… until an artist turned writer would come along and change the tone of Daredevil to something darker. The man who was “grim-n-gritty” before the term was ever coined: Frank Miller.

Now, Miller has taken a lot of flack in the past for being partly responsible for the beginning of the Dark Age of comics. And it cannot be denied that his work on Daredevil was an influence upon later writers and unlike anything that had come before or since, despite a host of imitators. But say what you will about Miller’s writing… everything he wrote had something at the core. A special something that most of the writers of the Dark Age forgot.

Hope.

Hope is the central theme of all true superheroic tales. Without the hope that good will win out, that evil will ultimately be punished and that no matter what bad things happen some greater good will come of it, there is no heroism to the tale. A hero must have the hope of triumph. A hero may taste defeat. In fact, it makes their victories all the sweeter later if they do. But the hope that they can win must be there.

Miller understood this and no matter how much blood, tears and tragedy went into a story there was always a hope that somehow Matt Murdock would persevere and come out on top. Consider how in his two stints on Daredevil…

· Matt lost college-sweetheart turned assassin, Elektra, to the hands of costumed sociopath, Bullseye. Evil ninja clan, The Hand, immediately set about bringing Elektra back as their mindless immortal slave.

· Matt wound up dropping Bullseye off the edge of a roof in revenge.

· Matt’s ex-girlfriend Karen Page was revealed to have become a heroin addict and a porn star and sold out his secret identity for a fix.

· Crime-boss Wilson Fisk (The Kingpin) found out said secret identity and set about ruining Matt’s life by framing him for corruption in his job as a lawyer, costing him his law license, beating him senseless in a one-on-one fight and then arranging a gruesome death and a frame for murder.

Pretty mature stuff, eh? And yet despite all this death, all the bad things that happened…

· Matt somehow managed to bring Elektra back from the dead and purified her tainted soul through pure blind hope and faith.

· Daredevil visited an in-traction Bullseye in the hospital and proved, through a game of Russian Roulette, that he would not kill Bullseye and sink to his level.

· Karen cleaned herself up and patched things up with Matt.

· Matt was able to escape from the Kingpin’s deathtrap and after a few weeks of hiding and running warfare, he was able to expose Wilson Fisk’s illegal activities. Although The Kingpin escaped a prison sentence, Matt did cripple Fisk’s businesses and ruined his false image of a legitimate businessman. Matt also eventually regained everything he had lost.

For the most part, this tone held out through the rest of the First Series of Daredevil. Some writers leaned more towards the more carefree tone of the early books but most opted for darker stories that involved serial killers or drug dealers. Of course Frank Miller had dealt with these subjects before but very few of these stories approached the higher standard he set.

And then in the late 90’s, as Daredevil was started over in a Second Series, someone came closer than ever to stealing the throne. Kevin Smith, an independent film director, cut his teeth on comics for the first with an eight-part story called “Guardian Devil”. And what a story!

Smith built upon the characters and mythology created by Miller and kicked the darkness up a notch. In a scant eight issues, readers were treated to a nursery full of mysteriously killed babies, a church full of dead nuns, the possibility that Matt might have gotten AIDS, babies thrown off roofs (years before Michael Jackson’s attempts), Matt Murdock contemplating suicide and Daredevil savagely turning on Black Widow and breaking her wrist. And we can’t forget the death of Karen Page and the suicide of Mysterio, can we?

And yet despite this story- an even mix of Miller plotting and Dark Age style, Smith got it: a superhero story must have hope at the core. In fact, I have to credit Smith with phrasing my point in this little writing exercise perfectly. In the final issue, a depressed Daredevil pours his heart out to Spider-Man as they two discuss the deaths of everyone close to them because of their lives as heroes… and Daredevil asks for one good thing that had come of the entire mess. And Spider-Man says, quite simply “You SAVED that baby girl’s life, Matt. Think about it.”

Matt does think about it and in the rest of the story he looks for what he has to be thankful for. He loses a girlfriend but regains his independent law practice, thanks to her generous life insurance policy. He finds his long-lost mother and makes peace with her as a result of what has happened. And he finds a peace and new resolve to keep going forward in life despite all the bad things that have happened.

What concerns me, though, is that Brian Michael Bendis does not seem to understand this need. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve enjoyed Bendis’ work on Daredevil very much. But what he is writing, in my estimation, are “Law and Order” and “The Sopranos” episodes that occasionally feature a superhero. Why not paraphrase the very helpful summary that precedes each Daredevil issue now? (And much thanks to whoever brought back the “Previously Page”)…

Mr. Silke was a new member of the Kingpin’s crew. When his coup attempt against the Kingpin failed, he turned himself into the FBI. His wife, Vanessa Fisk, hunted down and killed his attempted assassins and set about dismantling his criminal empire. When the FBI refuse Silke’s request for protection he gives them the one piece of information the Kingpin had that he thinks will save him: That Matt Murdock is Daredevil.

The FBI decide not to follow up on the lead, but an agent with marital and financial troubles leaks the story in exchange for a hefty fee. On the next day, the cover of tabloid The Globe screams “Blind Attorney is Daredevil!” With his secret out, Matt files a 400 million dollar lawsuit against the Globe. Mr. Rosenthal, the owner of the paper, vows to go the distance because he knows the story to be true.

You could change Daredevil to almost any other nasty secret and this story could still work. (Blind Lawyer is Shoe-Fetishist!) In fact, a quarter of the issues Bendis has written (from 26 to the present 40) do not have Matt Murdock in costume at any point in the story and another quarter only have him in costume briefly (5 pages or less). And while I have to admit this saga has held my interest, it’s just not a superhero story!

But up until recently, the story still had the core of hope in it that things would ultimately work out. No more, I am sad to say, is this true with the conclusion of the untitled three-part story arc that ran from Daredevil 38-40.

In a bit of a side-track from Matt’s legal woes, we find out that long-retired, street-level vigilante The White Tiger was arrested on charges of murder. He was found clutching a TV and standing over the body of a dead officer, who had radioed for back-up as he was trying to stop a pawn shop robbery and was shot with his own gun.

Matt is reluctant to take the case, thinking that his involvement in anything involving superheroes at this point would taint the case and make his own lawsuit against The Globe more difficult. Still, after some heavy prodding from Luke Cage, he agrees.

The case against White Tiger is mostly circumstantial. There is no physical evidence that he fired the murder weapon and nothing that contradicts his own story that he arrived after the officer had been shot by two gang members. But the DA has his eyes on the Mayor’s office and is looking to ride the anti-vigilante feeling in the public there with a win on this case.

So the prosecution’s entire case hinges his painting a portrait of the White Tiger as a failure as a husband and provider, who turned to crime and murder in a desperate attempt to keep his wife from leaving. Matt, in turn, has to focus his efforts on keeping her from leaving him in the middle of the trial (he had promised her that he would give up heroism) and on emphasizing the lack of physical evidence like the lack of powder burns on a pure-white costume.

What we get in issue 39 is a look at how a murder trial might actually work in a world where guns can be fired telekinetically and where an expert on magical artifacts would not only be taken seriously but routinely consulted by the police. And in a treat for cameo fans everywhere, Reed Ricards, Dr. Strange, Luke Cage and Danny Rand and others take the stand as (respectively) an expert on superhero psychology, an expert on magical amulets and character witnesses.

Still things go badly when the White Tiger loses control on the stand under the DA’s brutal questioning and as issue 40 begins, we find Matt listening in on the jury deliberations. He finds that most of the jury is ignoring the evidence. He concludes that some of them are convicting The White Tiger to get at him, who should have been brought down in disgrace because of the scandal with The Globe.

It goes even worse at the sentencing when after being found guilty a panicked White Tiger fights the bailiffs, grabs a gun and flees the scene. He is gunned down on the courthouse steps, just as it appears he was about to drop the gun and give up. But in the commotion, Matt notices a hooded young man sitting in the courtroom who is not running away.

Following him, and appearing as Daredevil, Matt’s hunch proves correct: the young man is one of the two robbers but not the one who fired the gun. The two fled to Chicago, at the bullying instance of the killer, who later died of a drug overdose. The second robber returned, planning to clear White Tiger but turning chicken when he got to the courthouse. The issue ends with the young man turning himself in.

There is no justice here, no silver lining to the cloud. An obviously corrupt district attorney unjustly prosecutes a good man, who’s only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He dies needlessly, his true killer escaping true justice through his own death. And the only person left for justice to be served on is a scared teenager who didn’t kill anyone, didn’t want to kill anyone and who’s only real crime was wanting to steal a copy of Grand Theft Auto 3. (Oh, the irony!)

The only possible bright side to any of this, is that we are informed through a news broadcast that many now doubt Matt Murdock is Daredevil because of his taking this case. The logic here being that if Matt were Daredevil, he wouldn’t be associating with superheroes and risking raising such suspicions.

If that’s the case, and this entire three-issue digression was just to put Matt in a better position for the coming legal battle with The Globe, then all I can say is that this is very sad. To kill off a character for so weak an advantage as this, even a long-forgotten never-was like the White Tiger is just plain wrong. And Brian Michael Bendis should know better. Because while the hope may still be there for Matt Murdock, Hector Ayala has none left… and never really did when this story first started.

But that is where things stand now. I hope, in the next issue, that there is something more that may yet turn the tragedy of The White Tiger into a triumph.