More new stuff from this week:
Mighty Thor 703
I’m looking forward to re-reading Jason Aaron’s run on this title. It’s consistently entertaining, and the art by Russell Dauterman is spectacular. (Whoa, turns out he started as a costume illustrator, and worked on the first Captain America movie!)
In an arc titled “The Death of the Mighty Thor,” I hope that they don’t kill off Jane Foster or her alter ego. Both are awesome.
Champions 16
Humberto Ramos is perfect for this title. As with Impulse and DV8 before this, he excels in drawing teenagers. His skinny, long-limbed character style is perfectly suited for them.
I’m loving the conflict that Viv and and Vivian are going through as they struggle with the existence of both themselves and each other.
Mage: THe Hero Denied 5
I haven’t read the previous Mages in years. Can’t wait to go over that either. Matt Wagner is at his best when he’s drawing what he writes, and it’s no different here.
Strangers in Paradise XXV 1
Terry Moore is back on SiP!!! This was one of my first forays into indie comics, and I was obsessed with it for a couple of years. It spoke to the college me.
Moore has a new story to tell for SiP’s twenty-fifth anniversary, which I love. Sadly, it looks like it’ll be centered around the Parker girls, which I always placed at a distant second to the pure joy of the interactions between Katchoo, Francine, and their friends. Whatever, I’ll take what I can get and be happy about it.
Daredevil 319-325
Back to Marvel Box 3. My collection jumps ahead two years to DG Chichester’s Fall From Grace storyline, AKA Born Again version 3.0 (after Born Again and the original Typhoid Mary storyline). Taken on its own merits, I can’t say that it’s very good - The story is nigh-incomprehensible, and Scott McDaniel’s storytelling is often just as confusing. Still, I’ve had these issues for a long time, and I’m strangely fond of them.
Perhaps Chichester meant for this to be some sort of epic tale, because he crams it full of moving parts. The first issue sets up Eddie Passim, Hellspawn (the DD doppelganger from Infinity War), Garrett (last seen in Elektra: Assassin), Sara Harrington, Snakeroot (an offshoot of the Hand), and the return of Elektra. At least the McGuffin is clear: A telepathic virus that alters the ingester’s body based on their thoughts. Given the panacean qualities of this plot device, pretty much everyone in the arc wants to use it to cure themselves of whatever affliction they have.
But Chichester does a poor job of tying them all together, and various threads show up and disappear seemingly at random. Some examples:
Silver Sable shows up in issue 320 to fight with Daredevil over Eddie, then removes herself from the equation with a vague threat that’s never followed up on.
In 321, Venom and Siege both appear, because there weren’t enough people involved in this mess.
323 randomly introduces a Snakeroot traitor, and I had to go back to the previous issue to make sure I hadn’t missed a page. Everyone refers to him as if the reader should know who he is, and it’s completely confusing. Even worse, it’s completely useless, as he dies before the end of the issue, having done nothing but be a catalyst for a fight scene.
Meanwhile, Venom gets talked out of the arc by Matt’s powers of persuasion. Contribution to the story? Fight scene.
But that’s cool, because Morbius shows up in the next issue. Siege bows out with a throwaway line…
...Only to show up again in the climactic issue. As does Hellspawn after a 3 issue hiatus, because he’s needed to get rid of the virus after all the hoopla, and to provide a body that looks just like Matt Murdock’s. Which lets Matt start a new life and allow Karen think he’s dead for like the third time. (By the way, Matt and Karen finally got back together earlier in the issue after having the same “will they won’t they” conversation that they were having 25 issues ago.)
I can’t, in honesty, give this more than a Didn’t Suck. But there’s no way this gets cut from the collection. I have feels that are as inexplicable as the story.
Other notes:
This came out in the era of Knightfall and the death of Superman, where everyone needed to get darker and a new costume. I actually give DD’s new outfit a thumbs up, but there’s zero chance in hell that he found a way to incorporate biomimetics into it on his own.
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| The Mardu color combination on his costume is really sweet. |
I just like the juxtaposition of eras and scale here:
Regret buying? No
Would buy again? No
Would read again? Yes
Rating: Didn’t suck
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