Monthly archives: February, 2007

Civil War is over. After ten months, multiple delays, countless tie-ins, plot twists, and online fanboy whimpering, the most popular crossover in comicdom over the past several years has come to its conclusion. Was it satisfying? Did it live up to the enormous amounts of hype behind it? Will it really change anything in the Marvel Universe? Maybe, probably not, and most definitely. Let’s talk about it. If you haven’t read it yet, I’m going to be fast and loose with spoilers, so be warned.

First off, from a sales standpoint, Civil War has been nothing short of a gigantic success. Even if people only bought the issues to cry about how poorly they characterize Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, they’ve still flown off the shelves. Last month, Marvel owned the top five slots in the sales charts, with three of them coming from Civil War and its tie-ins. Civil War #6 held the top spot, selling more than twice as many issues as Civil War: The Return, which took slot number two. Make no mistake: I hated The Return. People have started getting into comic books again because of this series. It’s gotten tons of main-stream media coverage, and, more importantly, it’s gotten comic nerds everywhere talking. This series and nearly everything with a Civil War logo on its cover, has profited a great deal for Marvel Comics. But, there’s much more to the success of a series than sales figures, so let’s ask ourselves the real question here: Was Civil War good?

Yeah, it was. (more…)

I had a bit of free time, so I read a decent number of books I would’ve otherwise skipped, mostly for curiosity’s sake. This wasn’t a good week. There were some interesting items, but lots on the “brilliant failure” end of the spectrum, more than memorable successes. Mostly, this was the week that Civil War heaved to a halt. And, on that note, the reviews…

Eight: Civil War #7

Advance warning: If you’re looking for something objective, then look elsewhere. I hated Civil War from the get go. Still, I figured maybe the concluding chapter would overcome what has been a very uneven event and muster up a grand finale. Instead, we get a truly fitting book end: an issue that’s all over the place, never quite sure where it’s headed and never transcending to the level of hype, much less approaching it. I really don’t understand the continued Steve McNiven love. He’s a great artist, but is a terrible fit for this book. He can’t convey massive battles. His characters are too still, convey too little depth and motion. He frames things too tightly. And while that was a problem, the utter lack of a meaningful conclusion was much worse. So, um, Clor is the big death? Or did Reed Richards die? I’ve already forgot.

At the very least, it’ll be interesting to see Captain America in jail. Oh, wait, we already saw that premise played out in the last arc of Daredevil…

Seven: Amazing Spider-Man #538

Aunt May is dead. Again. I guess Mary Jane had to live so that she could die of radiation poisoning from Spidey’s “fluids” in Spider-Man: Reign. Hey, someone let me know when it’s safe to read Spidey books again.

Six: The Spirit #3

I understand that Cooke and crew need to do a rehash of the origin for new readers to Will Eisner’s famed hero, but this was not the right way to do it. First, I like the idea of going retro, but the artistic design of the “flashback” scenes strike me as very 1970s. And, last I checked, the Spirit debuted a few decades prior to that. Also, the origin story was diddled with needlessly in some places (why does every villain have an uzi?) and the split-narratives were just too splintered. The result was an interesting idea that completely imploded, all forewarned by the series’ first weak splash page.

If I have to say something nice (I don’t, but I will), is I really liked how Cooke added more of Ebony White to the origin. I think they could’ve used his viewpoint for the whole story and winded up with something much more effective.

Five: The Immortal Iron Fist #3

I like the creators (Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction and David Aja), I like the character and I like the idea, but so far things haven’t come together. I’m guessing the last few pages (in which the Iron Fists… Fistses… whatever… come together) will serve as a launching pad through the rest of the series. In other words, ask me next month.

Four: Birds of Prey #103

To All Comics Creators Everywhere: Having a villain who says things like, “The election’s over and everything I did was in America’s interests,” is played. Yeah, absolute power corrupts, even democracies engage in shady practices, the ends don’t justify the means, fascism is bad, etc. Kat is just the latest in a long line of bad guys (and gals) who rant this stuff and it’s taking the easy road to use that as a motivation. Gail Simone seemed like she was setting up her new villain to be a terribly complex person, then burnt it all up within a couple pages.

It’s a shame, because otherwise it was a good book. Still, if this newest Birds of Prey arc were a movie, I think everything that’s happened to now is like the cool intro at the start of a James Bond movie, where there’s lots of scattered action and you’re pretty uncertain of what’s going on. After three issues, I damn well hope we finally have reached the title sequence.

Three: Superman #659

Just a cool, pretty straightforward Superman story that didn’t try to reinvent the wheel, but still rolled along just fine. I may have to consider reading more of this book, since Action Comics is mired in Delayville.

Two: The Brave and the Bold #1

I think this is going to be our Book of Doom, so I’ll wait to post thoughts.

One: 52 #42

A nice moment with Montoya at the front, then a whole bunch of Ralph. And… wow. What a great conclusion to that piece of the story. Everyone’s favorite stretchy detective goes out on top after solving one of the biggest cases he’s come across. Sure, the conspiracy theorist inside me wishes this storyline would’ve tied into everything else going on, but I’ll take this gladly.

Welcome to the first installment of Doom and Doomer, where Doom DeLuise and I take a back-and-forth look at comic book movies. Up first is Ghost Rider, starring Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes and Peter Fonda, which opened at #1 this past weekend.

JIM DOOM: Well let me say that I have lost all sympathy for Mark Steven Johnson. I watched Daredevil, thought it was entertaining but bad, but then I watched the DD Director’s cut where he talked about all these lame stuff that the producers wanted to add in to make it more “Hollywood.”

DOOM DELUISE: Like a plot?

JD: So I thought, here’s a guy who loves comics, wants to make good comics movies (which I thought the DD: Director’s Cut was a pretty good stab at doing), but got messed up with producers.

No, they added the DD / Elektra love scene (he wanted that to never happen), they took out the whole Matt Murdock as lawyer subplot, really, you should watch the featurette on the brilliance behind those awful decisions.

So anyway, after seeing Ghost Rider – which he has said in interviews is much closer to his original vision than DD was – I realize, this guy’s just a hack.

The Spider-Man movies, and the Lord of the Rings movies and numerous other “genre” movies have proven that you can make a successful movie about anything, as long as you make a good movie.

Ghost Rider seemed so embarrassed to be a comic book movie that it tried to be everything to everyone and ended up being nothing to anyone.

It tried to be cute for little kids, scary for adults, ironic for teen-20 folks, but make little comic references for the comic fans. Meanwhlie the kids are going to be freaked out, the adults are going to be offended at the moronic level of humor, and the comic fans are going to be like “Jesus, I used to read this?”

DD: Yeah, but you can’t put all of the blame squarely on the shoulders of one guy, no matter how big a “hack” he may be.

JD: Well, you can put a lot of blame on him, because he got sole writing, screenplay and directing credit.

DD: Yeah, but maybe the fact of the matter is that no matter how hard anybody would try, Ghost Rider is just a stupid character.

Ooh, the Penance Stare! Gimme a breaksville.
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Most Economical Characterization- Beast variant cover, Astonishing X-Men #20

This variant cover by John Cassaday tells you everything you need to know about Hank McCoy in one simple, two-toned image. First, he’s a big furry cat-like thing. Second, he’s incredibly agile. And above all else, he follows proper etiquette. Pinky’s up!

Best Twist- no one dies, New Excalibur #16

The latest arc of New Excalibur is titled “Fallen Friend.” Here’s how the issue was described in the solicits: “One of the team’s members suddenly succumbs to an all-too-real tragedy. The team must pull together and care for their fallen friend while their own lives fall to pieces.” As I’m sure most people did, I assumed someone was dying in the issue. As it turns out, the “fallen friend” in question didn’t die. Nocturne had a stroke. It’s not very often that a superhero succumbs to a real-life ailment and it’s treated like one. Superheroes die and come back to life every other month. They get limbs ripped off and live to fight another day. But in New Excalibur, Nocturne can’t move half of her body anymore. She can’t speak correctly. She can’t even remember the names of her friends. And it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon.

Best Pacing- Manhunter #28

The last issue of Manhunter ended with someone claiming to be Ted Kord showing up at Wonder Woman’s trial. With such a high-profile dead superhero, you might think it’d be obvious by the next issue if it was really him or not. Not here, though. He passed Wonder Woman’s magic lasso test and even submitted to a DNA test by Batman. This really seems like the Blue Beetle we all know and love. But DC wouldn’t do that, would they? We won’t know for sure until next issue, and by that time the suspense will be killing me.

Best Villains- everyone fighting Nextwave, Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #12

The final issue of Nextwave starts with the team battling a robot in a white tuxedo and top hat. Then it’s revealed that the actual villain behind said robot is a baby MODOK. But it turns out that the baby MODOK isn’t the actual villain either. The person who’s been giving Nextwave so much grief isn’t a person at all…it’s Devil Dinosaur. Devil Dinosaur in a smoking jacket holding a pistol and a glass of champagne. ‘Nuff said.