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.

Happy Ending

"That's a lot of [fucking] ghost riders." -Johnny Blaze

A couple of years back, Jason Aaron took over Ghost Rider and probably gave the character the best two years he's ever seen. Despite being one of the coolest characters ever designed, Ghost Rider has a pretty mediocre bibliography.

Aaron had a very unique take on Ghost Rider. Combining elements from exploitation movies gave the book more of Roger Corman or Russ Meyer feeling than that of a typical superhero comic. He took wild, over the top characters and scenarios (such as nuns with guns) and played it totally straight.

Now, let's talk about the pinnacle of the run, Ghost Rider 34. This is not only one of my favorite comics that I bought last year, but one of the best single-issues stories I've ever read. It seems that Tony Moore was born to draw Ghost Rider. This issue contains the coolest (Ketch) Ghost Rider transformation ever drawn. Its a shame that he only did three issues. This is a really cool highway killer/ghost story that brought the return of the Highwayman. A ghost trucker from the 80's book, US-1.

After the Tony Moore issues, I think in order to boost sales, Marvel canceled Ghost Rider to culminate Aaron's story in a miniseries. Entitled Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire, it featured both Ghost Riders in the lead, just about every character Aaron used since beginning his run, and just about every Marvel supernatural Marvel character you can think of. With this, it elevated from over the top to (I guess) over over the top.

I'm really sad to see it go, but it was a great run that played out until the end. I can't recommend it enough. If you missed it, check out:

Ghost Rider 20-35
Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire 1-6

or (in trade form)
Ghost Rider: Hell Bent and Heaven Bound
Ghost Rider: The Last Stand
Ghost Rider: Trials and Tribulations
Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire