I read a lot of comics, but never get around to reviewing them. This is the first of three posts to talk about some of the titles (in this case from Marvel) that I'm reading and enjoying a lot.
A few remarks in preface:
1. I am a long-time and, at times, nearly solely Marvel reader. I never joined the MMMS, but you can consider me a Marvel fanboy.
2. Marvel has a real problem with too many soft reboots and revamps and universe-changing events. None of those are particularly bad in and of themselves, but run too many of them together and it leads to chaos in the line. I intentionally chose a very retro graphic for this post because everything else I ran across as a group Marvel hero shot was already dated. That's a problem.
3. But the problem isn't necessarily the nature of the changes they have made. In particular, the very obvious effort to introduce new versions of old characters — sort of an "Instant Silver Age" but with a high degree of diversity — has, to my mind, been largely successful. It's given us interesting new characters (even if they share a name and powers and some appearance to the old ones), and have often kept the old ones around in a new or different capacity. Overall, I've liked most of it.
4. Marvel's apparently quite intentional decision to (a) get rid of the Fantastic Four and (b) try to replace "Mutants" with "Inhumans" has been both stupid and counter-productive, and certainly hasn't increased my reading of Marvel Comics.
On the other hand, I'll still reading a lot of them …
All-New Wolverine – I didn't immediately dive into X-23 because the whole X-verse got just too annoying to me, but since she's gotten her own title and story mostly independent of that other stuff, the new Wolverine has been a regularly good read.
Black Widow – This isn't quite as good as Waid/Samnee's Daredevil, but it's a solid read, doing all sorts of fun spy stuff in that "you won't know who to trust" vein.
Captain America: Steve Rogers – So I was as cheesed as anyone else by having Rogers "turn out to be" a sleeper Hydra agent. They came up with a just-edge-of-reasonable (well, deus ex machina) explanation, so, since Cap's been jerked around so much the last several years anyway, I decided to stick with it. Good art and an interesting (if too-drawn-out) story (seeing how Steve Rogers' strength of will and even his morality seep through into his being a Hydra agent is probably the most interesting aspect here). I'm still not happy with the idea, but the execution is pretty decent.
Champions – Two issues in and this new "team of younger heroes / versions of classic characters" (Cyclops, Nova, Hulk, Ms Marvel, Vision, Spider-Man) is fun, fresh, and interesting.
Civil War II – Yes, it has a goofy premise, it's been all over the map in its effects, and it's been dragged out waaaay too long, but … damn, I enjoy reading Bendis' dialog.
Daredevil Not as good as Waid/Samnee's run, but an interesting new setup (Matt's working for the DA's office?) and good, gritty entertainment.
Doctor Strange – The current run has been imaginative, humorous, and dramatic. Great stuff.
Infamous Iron Man – It's new, but the whole Dr Doom subplot in Iron Man has been fascinating, and watching him (for reasons still not clear) acting as a "hero" is looking like it will be enjoyable.
Invincible Iron Man – Again, the beginning of a new run, with the new Iron Man. I will be interested in seeing how this goes, but I'm enjoying it so far.
Jessica Jones – Bendis/Malyeev revisit the character and I am so happy.
Ms Marvel – This book is still top of its form in showing how a young person deals with powers, growing up, and the clashes between them. It's a classic Marvel trope, but Wilson is making it fresh again.
Scarlet Witch – Robinson is going very strong things with this title, touching on both magic in the MU and in weaving a new mythology around Wanda (and Agatha Harkness). Always a good read.
Spider-Woman – Great layering of private life on top of super-heroics, and the problems of being a single mom while periodically pulling on the spandex and going off into space. Enjoyable.
Squadron Supreme – I've always enjoyed the various versions of these characters (Marvel's originally-a-joke take on the JLA), and the current run continues to clean up some of the mess of various Marvel events of the past several years.
Star Wars – Marvel's doing fine things with the franchise. I've been trying to keep the titles I pick under control.
The Totally Awesome Hulk – I like Amadeus Cho, and the directions they are going with him as the Hulk have been interesting and fun to read.
The Mighty Thor – I've loved the current run on the title with the female Thor. The art's excellent, the writing solid, and the fact that it drives some fanboys bonkers is icing on the cake.
The Unworthy Thor – And that "original" Thor (the Odinson) is back in his own title, and it's looking just as good, should assuage those fanboys (but won't).
Thunderbolts – Another one where I've enjoyed the various incarnations of the team (the only good thing to come from the Onslaught debacle), and the new one — with most of the classic members plus Kobik and (as leader(ish)) the Winter Soldier — is turning out fun as well.
Anything on the Marvel side I'm missing that I shouldn't be?
Marvel has a real problem with too many soft reboots and revamps and universe-changing events. None of those are particularly bad in and of themselves, but run too many of them together and it leads to chaos in the line
I watched a couple of videos about this the other week which blamed most of this on the film deals that Marvel had with Sony and Fox, and on the current CEO who has their own agenda. Don't know how true that is. Truth is that I'm more of a DC fangirl than a Marvel one, but that said most of my comics reading is via the local libraries and hence horribly out of order and often out of date.
Actually I'm embarrassed about a DC's track record on films. Most have been crap after a few successes, whereas their TV series were just right in their balance. How can one not lover Arrow, The Flash and SuperGirl? arvel have caught up on that, with Agents, Daredevil and Jessica Jones being right for their subjects. With DD, you can feel Matt sweating blood to do what he does, same with Jessica Jones (although she fucks up more, which is partly why I love the character)_.
If only the comics I've read reflected that. I read some doped trade paperback about secret avengers and it had a scenariop where everybody in it (almost) was a "body double" of the originals. Just ghastly, because, you know, where are those acid baths when you need them? And the Marvel trope of "let's turn our heroes dark for a while" , well it was OK with Spiderman from the stuff I've read (but how the fuck do they come back from that), wheras the Stark version was ust Tony being "more Tony". Ugh. And does it matter if say, Steve Rogers was altered by some "cosmic cube" method 'cause you know they'll flip him back later without a thought. It all seems like a horrible marketing technique to get fansto buy comics that they're not so keen on, when really they should be bulldozed into the ground next to unwanted ATARI games.
See, what happens when the movie fans decides to check out the comic versions of these characters and find they're just arseholes? I think Marvel is shooting itself in the foot, again.
Unbeatable Squirrel-Girl is tremendous fun
Dave, you might like Astonishing Ant-Man. Scott Lang has opened his own security firm and hired Machinesmith and Grizzly. It hasn't been going particularly well. The latest story arc tied into his Marvel Premiere origin story.
+Scott Randel I read of the trade paperbacks with that – ha, Machinesmith and Grizzly aren't the smartist tools on the block!
Mockingbird, which you loaned me, has the perfect level of snark.
+Laura Ess I certainly agree that Marvel is not doing a good job of making the comics in any way resemble the movies. In part, that's because the movie folk and the comics (and TV) folk are different organizations (and the comics/TV leader, Ike Perlmutter, is a real piece of work).
I actually liked some of the stuff you aluded to (the Norman Osborne "bad guy" Avengers, and Spider-Man when he was being run by Doc Ock's personality). Other bits have fallen more flat. The idea that "everything will go back to normal," though, I think no longer quite applies — "normal" no longer exists in so many ways, which is part of the problem: without a baseline, the drama of stuff that moves away from that baseline s muted.
+Scott Randel I've heard good things about it, but haven't tried it.
+Stan Pedzick Alas, canceled / ended its run. 🙁
+Dave Hill Well I may have read that TP out of context. It was #3 and I hadn't read 1 or 2!
+Dave Hill poo! I was going to ask to have it added to my pull list.
+Stan Pedzick I'm unclear on the timing, but apparently there was a lot of harassment of the writer over both the book in general and when she (in response) put M'bird on the cover in a "Ask me about my feminist agenda" t-shirt. I'm uncertain whether she left the book because of that, or if the book was scheduled to wrap then.
There is a second TPB after the first I loaned you; it hasn't been published yet, but has been solicited.
+Laura Ess That probably didn't help. 🙂
+Dave Hill wow. That's a real shame since it was a lot of fun. I'll have them pull the two TPB's for me then.