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.

Book of the Week

3-3-10

Even though it had a pretty decent finale, I have some mixed feelings about this Stark: Disassembled arc. First off, I think that five issues is a little long to to spend with a main character in a coma. It seems like Marvel just wanted this character in stasis until The Siege was over.

I really liked the surreal scenes in Tony's subconscious, which is a storytelling technique that I normally find kind of annoying. I credit this to Salvador Larocca's gorgeous artwork and designs. I guess also that usually in these situations are usually just characters walking around in heaven or something talking to dead people and not getting chased around in the desert by giant robots, which is infinitely cooler.

What I really feel mixed about are the scenes outside of Tony's mind. While there were really good touching scenes with the supporting cast dealing with the fact that Tony might die, there was also the subplot of an assassination attempt by Ghost, a third tier character that I'm not really sure what he does or even his relation to Tony. I guess you need some action in a superhero comic, but this just seemed silly and posed no threat. Not that I really think Dr. Doom or Mandarin or anyone would ever kill Iron Man, but as a reader I could suspend my disbelief a little easier.

The other thing I find awkward is the end. We've spent almost a year and a half with Tony trying to redeem himself for the Registration Act, the death of Captain America, and all around generally being an asshole. So when they implant Tony's downloaded memories, it turns out that they were downloaded prior to all this which seems to relieve him of all of these responsibilities. I know that you would want the care-free Iron Man around the time of Iron Man 2's release, but it just seems like an easy reboot. Like Spider-Man's deal with Mephisto; it could work out. I guess we'll have to wait to see where Fraction goes with this.