A Whole Nother New World

I actually liked all four comics this week. As much as I love Brian Posehn, the creative team that I was most excited for in all the relaunched books is Aaron and Ribic.How can this not be badass?

I haven't read a lot of Thor recently but this series seems to be a pretty big departure. It doesn't take place on Midgard at all and there is absolutely no tights and cape stuff here. It solely revolves around the mythical aspects of the gods (I guess kind of sci-fi since there are different worlds).

There are three concurrent stories united by the same antagonist. One story taking place hundreds of years ago, one in the present, and one millennia in the future, in what appears to be Thor's final battle.

My only problem was that three stories is a lot to fit in what is now only 20 pages of comic. It doesn't leave a lot of room. Other than that, this was a really cool start.






This was my least favorite book this week. Not that it's bad. But going back to my 20 page point from earlier this seems like all appetizer and no meat. It vaguely establishes what the book is about, but spends most of the time individually introducing and establishing each character. It's something many writers do on their first issue and it always seems redundant. I know this is a number one, but it's not like there was even a month since the last issue. And there have been 600+ issues, two movies, and a few cartoon shows about the Fantastic Four. Nearly (if not) everyone reading this has at least a vague understanding of these characters. It also seems to be a direct continuation from Jonathan Hickman's run.

All in all, this was a decent (albeit slow-paced) issue with really good Mark Bagley art. Since this is tying pretty closely with FF hopefully that premiere will pick up the pace a bit. Otherwise we won't have a story until three issues into the run.

This was the biggest surprise for me. I was a long-time reader of Bendis's Avengers run since the beginning eight years ago. I loved it for a long time, but he's been spinning his wheels for a while now. I dropped it last year and figured that I was just Bendised out. That coupled with the seemingly dumb premise of bringing the original X-Men to modern times, I thought this was going to be awful.

I guess Bendis just needed a change-up because this is a really fun read. It's been my favorite new Marvel book so far. The time-travel aspect was only touched upon towards the end, but it seems like it can be used in some really fun ways. I know time travel never makes sense but it's a cool concept and some of my favorite stories of all time involve it.

This also seems to really move the X-Men along dealing Cyclops's role post-AVX. There are also new characters being introduced now that the "no more mutants" quo is over. Hopefully we get some cool young characters that stick around and are not just a plot device for this one story.

 I've actually haven't read this series since the name changed to Legacy, but I'm pretty sure this is also a pretty big departure since the previous series. Mostly because this isn't about the X-Men. It's about Prof X's son Legion. However I don't blame Marvel's decision for keeping the title. A book titled Legion would probably only sell about a dozen copies.

This is a good starter issue based mainly around character development. Unlike Fantastic Four this is a way way way more obscure character that many people have probably never even heard of. It sets up Legion pretty well and gives glimpses of some weird mutant prison camp.

Killing Time

If you were reading this page back when I first began and it was comic book-themed (Although I believe I did mention that it could devolve into whatever I felt like. I guess I could go and check very easily, but I don't care enough and can't afford to hire editers), you might remember that I absolutely love Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four run. It's easily the best book that Marvel has (along with Hickman's SHEILD, which doesn't come out nearly enough), and maybe just the best book out there right now. That being said, I'm pretty worried that the book may be jumping the shark with issue 587 on Wednesday. This is the climax of the Three arc which promises to kill a member. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of the superhero death. Here's why:

No one stays dead. Now, I'm not complaining about the unrealistic aspects in a story that involves people getting superpowers from cosmic rays. What bothers me is that it sucks most of the drama out of these ultra-dramatic moments, so then, really, what do you have left? An exception to this rule is Civil War: The Confession by Brian Michael Bendis, one off the finest single-issues ever written.

Too much promotion. Marvel has been promising in ads that someone will die. Although the title Three pretty heavily foreshadows death, a number of outcomes are possible (maybe Ben Grimm quits to join the Avengers full-time). Anyway, it kills any surprise that might be waiting. An exception is the end of Thanos Imperative where (Spoiler Alert) when Nova and Star Lord go out blazing like Butch and Sundance. This wasn't advertised at all, and it's believable because, honestly, it's conceivable that these two characters can never make an appearance again.

Death Sells. I never understood this. Every time, a superhero death boosts sale. Why? I mean, I understand that some chump sees that Batman is dying on the TV, so he'll run to a store and buy it thinking he'll be able to sell it for a lot of money one day, but why do comic book readers who know the character will return in a year. I mean, I'll buy it, but that's because I've been buying Fantastic Four every month for the past year and a half. I didn't buy the Captain America death issue, because I wasn't buying Captain America. When dealing with an A-list character, there is never an exception.

Predictions:

2 to 1: Reed dies. If anyone has been reading Hickman's run (or last month's issue), this is the obvious choice. Not in a bad way, but structurally, this is where the story is leading to. Almost anything else would be bad writing for shock value.

10 to 1: Ben dies. This was a little more plausible a couple months before Marvel started using him in 2011 ads. Anyway, Ben's turning human in the beginning of this arc cannot be a coincidence. It would be tragic if this caused his death. In light of the aforementioned ads, I now think it would be tragic if Reed dies because a depowered Ben can't stop the threats or save Reed.

50 to 1: Sue or Johnny dies. I don't see how this would fit the story.

100 to 1: Someone else dies. Marvel claims its a team member, but you never know with these things. It could be misdirection. However, with all this publicity, it seems that could cause some backlash.

Bonus Prediction: We know that after Fantastic Four ends next month, Marvel is relaunching it as FF at issue 1 in March. My prediction is whichever character dies will be brought back in a year, so that Marvel can change the numbering back to 600.

Book of the Week

I read some comics today, and there were a few that I really liked.  I'm bringing this column back for some quick reviews.

8-25-10
Fantastic Four 582
Marvel
No.  I won't shut up about this book.  It keeps getting better and better.

(

9-1-10
Scarlet 2
Icon/Marvel
I also talked about this book last month.  The second issue didn't disappoint.

9-9-10
American Vampire 6
Vertigo/DC
I'm really glad with the way this issue turned out.  Even though there's no doubt that the Stephen King story greatly increased sales, I think it really hurt the book's pacing.  It was tough to get into this series with each issue split into two 16-page stories.  I really liked this issue.

r

runner up
Booster Gold 36
DC
I really love the direction this book is going in.  It's the only DC-proper title that I'm reading.  I hate what they've done with the DCU in recent years.  So it really surprises me that even though Booster deals with these plot lines, it does so in a funny and sad self-aware kind of a way that's really amazing.

Book of the Week

2-24-10

Once Again, Hickman and Eaglesham put out a great issue of Fantastic Four. It's got the fun and adventure of a 60's sci-fi movie when people would discover new worlds around every corner.

Last issue, they team went underground to a radioactive city of mutated Moloids where Galactus' skeleton is buried. This time, they travel to a research base in Antarctica only go to an underwater city of fish and snail and dolphin people.

Eaglesham's art really adds a lot to the storytelling. Much of the book is completely told in the art. There are no words during an underwater battle, and the sequence is told with no confusion at all. This task can even be difficult for veteran artists.

It looks like this book is going to send the team all over the universe in these one-issue adventures that will later be seen as a larger overarching story.

Book of the Week

1-27-10

This book caught me a bit by surprise. I normally don't read Fantastic Four. In fact, I think the last time I bought two consecutive issues was when Claremont took over, and even then, I didn't stay on board for long. I tried the first issue of Millar's run, and found it abysmal.

But advertisements and previews got me interested in this. So I bought it. And I really liked it. This is mostly a setup book, but it looks like Jonathon Hickman has some pretty wild ideas coming up, and I'm totally excited. Dale Eaglesham's art is great. There's a great Alan Davis cover.

There's a new aspect that adds a bit of depth to the Moleman and Moloids that I've never seen. I don't want to spoil too much, so I'll just say that there are a lot of cool ideas planted here. I hope subsequent issues hold up, because it looks like The Fantastic Four are in for a far-out Kirby-esque epic. There's potential for a lot of fun.