Category Archives: Comics
Review: Scarlet Spider #10
It’s crossover time in Scarlet Spider, where our favorite wall crawler teams up with Venom to take on Carnage…and the Micronauts, for some insane reason. I’m not going to review the entire crossover, just the issues of Scarlet Spider that are involved. But I’ll provide recaps to make sure everyone is up to speed. This review will focus entirely on Scarlet Spider #10, the second part of the crossover. It’s a pretty good story, hampered only by the general silliness of the plot itself. It’s just my own personal taste, but I don’t particularly enjoy some of comics more fantastical elements. Especially when writers can’t modernize those elements and make them work with modern day comic reading sensibilities.
Scarlet Spider #10
This is basically my way of saying that I just don’t think it works when street-level or military characters are suddenly thrust into a magical micro land full of wild, random characters. But such is Minimum Carnage.
Comic Rating: 3/5: Alright.
There’s nothing particularly special about this issue or this crossover so far. I like the interactions between Scarlet Spider and Venom, and there’s a…minor sense of menace when it comes to Carnage. I’ve always liked Carnage. I wasn’t reading comics yet when his most famous story, Maximum Carnage,came out in the 90s, but I’ve read an issue or two here or there. And there was this palpable terror in the comic. Carnage is a serial killer given extreme super powers, and Maximum Carnage was all about him cutting free and just killing at random in the streets of New York City. People were terrified, the hospitals were overflowing with the injured and the superheroes were pushed to their limit. The Joker always has some kind of game or plan in the works when he kills people. But Carnage just killed indiscriminately, and few have the power to stop him.
Time, of course, has dulled Carnage’s menace. But there are hints and shadows of it in this series so far, not to mention the fact that Carnage has been treated like a pretty important character in recent years. Minimum Carnage comes on the heels of two separate Carnage mini series, one in which he took over an entire town and captured the Avengers. So Carnage has been on a pretty good streak recently, but this new series kind of goes off the rails…
Still, it’s readable. And it’s nice to see Kaine interacting with some other people from the Marvel Universe.
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more review!
Marvel Has Got Space Characters Too!
I posted yesterday about Threshold, the new DC Comics space series. Well not to be outdone – especially with a big movie on the way – Marvel revealed their space-based comics at a panel at NYC Comic-Con. First up we have the new Guardians of the Galaxy, written by Brian Michael Bendis.
Young, attractive, blonde male make the best lead characters
As you can see, the team will feature Starlord, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora, Drax and someone who appears to be a space-armored Iron Man. This is the exact lineup as the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie in 2014. I wonder if these will be their movie costumes. The inclusion of Iron Man clearly has to do with the shared Marvel movieverse, considering Iron Man is probably the most popular character from the movies. So why not garner some fan attention for the Guardians by throwing Iron Man onto the team?
Personally…I’m not impressed. I’m a huge fan of Bendis, don’t get me wrong, but I was never particularly fond of his Avengers comics, and I doubt I’ll pick up his Guardians comic. I tend to buy comics based on my favorite characters, and none of my favorite Guardians are going to be in this series. I’m sure it will be great, I’m sure Bendis has some great ideas lined up. I just doubt it’s for me.
But I really do hope this works out for Marvel, and I can’t wait for the Guardians of the Galaxy movie!
Next up we have the new Nova series by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness.
Alas, if only he’d been blonde
Sure enough, the new Nova is revealed to be Sam Alexander, a teenager who has taken up the Nova mantle after original Nova, Ritchie Ryder, was lost in space. Sam Alexander is also the same Nova who is appearing in the Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon. He also had that big cameo in the last issue of Avengers vs. X-Men.
Gotta say, I’m also not interested in this one. I loved Ritchie Ryder’s Nova during and after Annihilation, but I have zero interest in reading a new Nova just for Nova’s sake. And Jeph Loeb’s comics haven’t been too great, as of late. I’m just don’t particularly care.
So it looks like both these comics will pass me by. There’s still one more day of the NYCC though, so there may be even more new series announced that I can get behind!
Larfleeze is Kinda, Sorta, Maybe Gonna Get His Own Series!
Larfleeze, the Orange Lantern, is one of my absolute favorite new comic book characters introduced in the past couple years. He’s crazy, in a fun way, and he rocks the color orange almost as well as Otto. He’s been kind of a stinker in the pages of Green Lantern: New Guardians in the New 52, so it seems that DC is going to give him his own series, written by space and joke master Keith Giffen!
Or actually, Larfleeze is going to get some back-up features in a new cosmic superhero comic entitled Threshold.
Reach harder, you lovable bastard!
Giffen is one of the geniuses that wrote Marvel’s Annihilation series, which was this huge space-based Marvel story that completely rewrote the entire Marvel space landscape. You know the Guardians of the Galaxy movie coming out in two years? That movie exists because of the work that Giffen did with Marvel’s space characters. So now that he’s working for DC, they’ve decided to let Giffen have similar fun with all of DC’s space characters. Could be a real blast.
But I’m mostly interested in the Larfleeze back up stories that are going to be a part of Threshold.
For those who don’t know, Larfleeze is the Orange Lantern; similar, of course, to the Green Lantern. A few years ago, writer Geoff Johns blew up the Green Lantern mythos, introducing some stellar new concepts and ideas that remain popular to this day. One of those is the idea that ‘Green’ is just one color in the entire Lantern spectrum, and that there are other groups out there, not just the Green Lantern Corps. There’s the Sinestro Corps, the Red Lantern Corps, the Star Sapphires, the Indigo Tribe…and then there is Larfleeze, the only Orange Lantern. The color orange represents greed in the emotional spectrum, and Larfleeze is an alien psychopath who is obsessed with his own power and owning stuff.
He’s comedic gold! And I’m very much looking forward to this series now.
Giffen had this to say about Larfleeze:
Yeah, there’s always going to be humor in everything I do, but with Larfleeze, he’s just such an outrageous character that you can do a lot with him. His first adventure is going to be dark humor, because he is, of course, greedy and self-centered and mean. So if you find that funny, then you’re going to find this story hilarious.
Sounds excellent to me! You can read the whole interview at Newsarama.
DC Comics is Going to Try Again With Superman
This can’t be good news for the replacement writers on Superman and Action Comics. But DC has announced a brand new Superman comic – called Man of Steel – that will be written by superstar writer Scott Snyder and drawn by superstar artist Jim Lee. It will come out next year, not so coincidentally alongside a new Superman movie that is also titled Man of Steel.
Look at him break stuff like a pro!
Jim Lee, of course, is one of the most popular comic book artists of the modern day, and one of the big wigs at DC Comics corporate. He was also the artist entrusted with starting the New 52’s flagship Justice League series.
Scott Snyder is currently writing the spectacular and incredibly popular Batman series, and is the mastermind behind both the Court of Owls and the current, highly rated Joker storyline.
So clearly DC Comics is banking hard on this new Superman series.
But that makes me wonder how the new creative teams of the current Superman comics – Action Comics and Superman – must now feel. I mean, jeez, why don’t DC just hang big signs around their neck that their comics won’t matter in the wake of Man of Steel? I can’t imagine that the Superman comics are doing so well that Superman could support three ongoing series. Batman is doing it, but just barely. And Superman is not as popular as Batman.
DC has actually had a bit of trouble with Superman in the New 52. Grant Morrison has been writing a pretty popular Action Comics, but he’s leaving in the new year, to be replaced by Andy Diggle. Not to talk down on Mr. Diggle’s work, but he’s no Grant Morrison. Nobody is Grant Morrison. Though personally, I haven’t been a big fan of Morrison’s Action Comics. Considering it was supposed to be the main Superman title in the new reboot, Morrison went really insane really fast, which I thought was disruptive in the context of a reboot.
And then Superman the series has had four different writers in just one year, with Scott Lobdell taking over in September. And readers of my blog will know that I’m no fan of Scott Lobdell’s work on Teen Titans – though I am sort of enjoying his work on Red Hood and the Outlaws. But Scott Lobdell is no Scott Snyder or Grant Morrison or anybody else. Not to be mean, but he’s not an A-list talent in the comic book world. After losing George Perez – who was very vocal about why he left Superman – and Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens, it seems like DC just looked around their office for someone who wasn’t mad at DC Comics and just threw Lobdell into the slot.
So clearly Superman has been floundering in the New 52, whereas characters like Batman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman have exploded out of the gate. This new Man of Steel comic may turn things around and give us some quality Superman stories…but why not put Snyder and Lee on one of the existing Superman books? Why try to support 3 identical Superman comics?
Though I definitely think I’ll be buying Man of Steel when it comes out. Snyder and Lee are great!
Review: Uncanny Avengers #1
One thing is pretty clear after reading the first issue of the new Uncanny Avengers: Marvel foolishly seems to think Captain America was the hero of Avengers vs. X-Men. Were they reading the same comic I was? Because I’m fairly certain Cyclops was right all along, and it was Captain America who caused all the problems in the first place. But as I said in my review of Avengers vs. X-Men #12, history is written by the winners. And sure enough, Captain America won the big superhero fight. So he gets to decide how the world of superheroes moves forward, and he and all his buddies get to vilify Cyclops like it was their favorite new hobby.
Uncanny Avengers #1
I wonder if the ending to AvX has anything to do with Captain America leading Marvel’s $1 billion Avengers movie franchise, and the X-Men being owned by a whole different studio?
Comic Rating: 4/5: Good.
I’ll try to tone down my Cyclops love for this review, because it was a good comic. In the sense that it told a straight forward story, set up several main characters and seems to promise a lot of character-based drama in the issues to come. But I’m not blown away by the new series, and there’s nothing in here that’s truly revolutionary or exciting. It’s kind of just…a superhero comic. One that may be a little too closely tied to Avengers vs. X-Men to stand on its own. Both Cyclops and the death of Professor X weigh heavily on this issue, so I don’t know if it’ll be too daunting for new readers who might have been attracted by Marvel NOW!
The choice of villain has been spoiled for a long time, so his appearance wasn’t a surprise. His choice of henchmen, though, leaves a lot to be desired. They sacrificed one of my all-time favorite X-villains for no good reason, then introduced a bunch of new nobodies that literally made me question what the hell I was reading. And not in a good way.
This comic has a lot of potential as Marvel’s new flagship title. I have a lot of faith in writer Rick Remender, and John Cassaday is a very good artist – though I’ve seen him do much better work. He’s definitely not at the top of his game with this issue. Remender and Cassaday lay the groundwork for some hopefully great work coming up. We shall see.
Henchman-4-Hire 