JLA/Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Avengers Forever

Avengers vs JLA 1-4

Not like it’s a flash of brilliance or anything, but I think that I have to do my reading at an earlier time every day; I passed out yet again, this time reading JLA vs Avengers.  To be fair, it wasn’t just because I was sleepy/tired - I read the first 1.5 issues at 2 in the morning; I read the remaining issues today at 2 in the afternoon.  Still nodded off several times.  So I think the quality of the story had at least something to do with it.  But in any case, I’ll try to not make the reading the last thing I do for the night.  (I didn’t get any writing done yesterday, so today is a full hour of writing.)

So not the most promising start for Marvel and DC’s second shot at JLA/Avengers.  (There was an aborted attempt in 1979, written by Gerry Conway.)  This time around, Kurt Busiek wrote the story, but it contains none of the heart that you see in Astro City.  He certainly does a fine job hitting all the proper nostalgia buttons (here’s the standard misunderstanding-between-heroes fight, there’s the part where each team is in a race to collects a certain number of MacGuffins, much like the classic cartoon GI Joe 5-parters).  I particularly liked his references to past JLA/Avenger team-ups that never happened, harkening back to the old JLA/JSA crossovers.  And Hawkeye twice refers to the JLA as “Squadron Supreme wanna-bes.”  Heh.  

Soon this thing will be in three pieces and the Joes will be running all over the world.

But once I got past the initial thrill of seeing these two teams on the same page, I both literally and figuratively fell asleep.  The story did absolutely nothing to capture my interest.  In fact, the DC/Marvel crossover issues that led to Amalgam were way more fun, because they dispensed with any semblance of plot and focused on the fights between heroes.  I just wanted to watch Batman fight Captain American, I didn’t need a reason for it.  Green Arrow vs Hawkeye?  Sign me up!  Indeed those were the best parts of this miniseries.  I found myself wishing that I could ignore all of the plot-laden dialogue.  

Not a fan.

Especially when the art is done by George Perez!  It goes without saying that he was clearly the only choice to pencil this series. It was true in 1979, and it was true in 2003.  His splash pages are intricate Where’s Waldo masterpieces.  That cover to issue 3!  (Though I really dislike how he draws the Thing.)

That's more like it!

Regret buying?  No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again?  No, but I’ll look happily look at the art again.

Rating: Fine

Earth’s Mightiest Heroes 1-3

I stopped buying this miniseries after 3 (It ran for 8).  Can’t remember why; the story’s decent, and Scott Kolins does wonderful art here.  His Thor is impressively godly, and there’s a small panel of Cap towards the end of issue 2 that really moved me with its quiet majesty.  

The story fills in the gaps between the first issues of the original Avengers series, covering fascinating details like the signing of the Avengers charter and getting Avengers Priority Status from the US government (not being sarcastic here).  I wouldn’t have minded reading the rest of it, but not enough that I’m going to go searching for these issues.

Regret buying?  No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again?  Yes

Rating: Fine

Avengers Forever 1-3

This is one of those series that I keep starting and never finishing.  I go for the Carlos Pacheco art, and leave because of the dense story.  It’s time travel at its most confusing, and not in a good way.  But I’m really enjoying it this time around.  (Really need to make sure I’m not sleepy when I read it, though).  

It’s another Kurt Busiek Avengers special.  Between this and JLA/Avengers, there should be no doubt that he knows everything there is to know about Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.  His knowledge of their history runs deep.  And this series lets him make use of all of it, pulling from every corner of Avengers lore.

But as with JLA/Avengers, the art is the best part of this series.  This is apex Pacheco, to borrow a term from The Ringer’s Rewatchables podcast.  Simply beautiful.  It’s a day of small but stunning panels of Captain America.  This one’s also in issue 2, as he holds up a crushing mass of antagonists.  It’s a tiny corner of the page, but has always staying in my mind.

I also love his Kang one-handing massive guns.

Steve Oliff’s work also merits notice.  Despite the complexity of the pencils, his colors ensure that the focus of each panel is always clear.  (Something that stands out in in stark contrast to the colors in JLA/Avengers, now that I look back at it for comparison).  

All-New Captain America, Amalgam

All-New Captain America 1

Sam Wilson is the new Captain America.  Really nice cover.  Stuart Immonen art inside and out, which always warrants a look-see.  I can also understand why I didn't buy a second issue.  Rick Remender writes a by-the-numbers story, with main-character-narration over a fight scene that stretches over the entire issue.  Starts with the Hydra grunts, makes a stop at Batroc-the-mini-boss, and ends with a Baron Zemo reveal as the big bad.  The Immonen art is the only that's keeping this from the donation box.

Not a fan of the wings with the costume, but Immonen almost pulls it off.

Regret buying?  No

Would buy again? No

Would read again?  No

Rating: Fine

Assassins 1

JLX 1

Super Soldier 1

Super Soldier: Man of War 1
Amalgam!  DC and Marvel throw their characters into a blender and mix them into a delicious smoothie.  Though with the issues that I bought, the memories are fonder than the reality.  Which is really surprising to me, considering the quality of the creative teams;  Mark Waid and Dave Gibbons joined forces on Super Soldier, and revisited their work for Amalgam year 2.  Eh.  It was fine.  The pedigree of the team is keeping it on the shelf, and little more.

Waid also wrote the Howard Porter-pencilled JLX.  Hot mess.  With two teams fighting each other, not only did you have a huge number of characters to keep track of, you also had to figure out their component DC and Marvel inspirations as well.  I stopped trying when I saw the first splash page.

I’ve never been a big fan of Howard Porter.  More on him when I get to his JLA run (my first exposure to him), but I never understood why he was the choice for DC’s flagship title.  His character poses are stilted and awkward, and his faces are flat out ugly.  Couple that with a garish coloring job from John Dell, and this issue didn’t stand a chance.  

My brain can't even.

Dan Chichester and Scott McDaniel were a natural choice for Assassins, coming either at the tail end or after their run on Daredevil.  I’ve always been a fan of McDaniel’s unique style.  His storytelling is a little weak, but the energy in his work almost makes up for it; I feel his art more than I see it, similar to how his use of negative space implies rather than delineates the images.  That last sentence made more sense in my head.

Makes more sense now that you see it?  No?  Sigh.

Regret buying?  No
Would buy again? Yes for Assassins and Super Soldier.  No for the other two.

Would read again?  Yes for Assassins.  No for the others.
Rating: Okay.  Boring for JLX, which gets the cut.  

Age of Ultron

Age of Ultron 1-10

Superior Spider-Man 6AU

Fantastic Four 5AU
Well, that was way better than yesterday.  Oddly enough, another time travel story.  Ultron destroys the world for 5 issues.  Wolverine goes back in time to kill Hank Pym in a “murder baby Hitler” scenario, then spends the next 5 issues fixing the butterfly effects from that.  Everything turns out fine, except that it sets up the next mega-crossover.  (Whatever the death of the Ultimate universe was called.)  

Very much a summer blockbuster, with the appropriately selected Bryan Hitch drawing the first half of the series.  (Whenever I see him drawing epicness, my brain automatically thinks Mark Millar wrote the issue.  Their Ultimates collaboration was really something special.)  But no, this one was done by Brian Michael Bendis.  And in typical fashion, those first five issues probably could have taken three if he hadn’t deconstructed the crap out of it.  But he manages to make it engaging, and the numerous Hitch splash pages convey the horrible desperation of the situation quite well.  

So much epic.

Brandon Peterson and Carlos Pacheco split the art duties for the second half of the series.  Pacheco is okay here, but doesn’t come close to approaching his excellence in Avengers Forever.  Peterson has really changed his style from the X-Cutioner Song days.  

The story truly falls apart in the third act, when Wolverine and Sue Storm have to alter history for the second time. Warren Ellis did something similar in the fantastic Secret Avengers 20, only he did it in a self-contained single issue story.  With Age of Ultron, it really feels like Bendis realized he only had 2 issues remaining to wrap everything up, and 5 minutes to write them.  Not to mention that he had to spend half of the last issue tying in promos for the next slate of Marvel books.  A let down after what was a pretty fun adventure for our heroes.  

Regret buying?  No

Would buy again? Yes

Would read again?  Yes

Rating: Pretty good

The other two issues were the only tie-in issues I apparently bothered to buy before running out of patience.  The stories were boilerplate.  Dexter Soy on Spider-Man had a nice Fist-of-the-North-Star anime vibe.  Andre Araujo had a unique look in his FF issue, using very few black areas.  Mostly lines.

Regret buying?  No

Would buy again? No

Would read again?  Maybe
Rating: Fine

1602

1602 4-8:

Holy god was that boring.  I dozed off at least 5 times trying to get through the last two issues, and it’ wasn't just because I was sleepy.  I didn’t care about any of the characters, the plot ended up being a “must repair the time stream” deal, and the Watcher was involved, which is never a good sign.  Total snooze fest.

Regret buying?  No

Would buy again? No

Would read again?  No

Rating: Boring

So why don’t I regret buying it?  It’s Neil Gaiman.  It’s hard to regret buying anything that he writes; He deserves my support, if nothing else as retroactive thanks for Sandman.  (Though come to think of it, I do regret buying Norse Mythology.  Man, what a pointless book.)  

Here I’m faced with my first “wouldn’t read again.”  Because I really don’t want to ever go through that experience again.  The pack rat/collector side of me is finding it hard to yank it from my collection.  But why in the world should I keep this waste of space in my house?  Quick ebay search reveals that the issues are worth nothing, so no loss on that front.  

Yeah, I’m pulling it.  I’m hardly going to miss it, especially after this.

Anything else to say about this?  The Andy Kubert art was nice enough.  The Kubert clan art style has usually rated a solid above average in my book (except for Andy’s early X-Men work.  That was pretty shoddy.).  Though I wonder how the comic would have been if the entire thing was done in the woodcut look of the covers (credited to Scott McKowen.  Internet shows that he mostly does covers for books and posters for theatre shows.  Makes sense).

Nice, right?  Give me interior art like this!

Now I’m sitting here with zero interest in writing about 1602 anymore, with Almost Lover by A Final Frenzy running through my head.  Whoaaa, she played the sister in Fantastic Beasts??  That’s...I need a larger vocabulary.  Not amazing, not cool, not crazy, not shocking...To paraphrase Delirium (in honor of Gaiman, since I haven’t been very complimentary of him today), what’s the word for when you realize that two disparate things in your life are connected in a way you could never have imagined?  It’s like finding out your cousin from New York invited the girl you liked a decade ago in middle school in Taiwan to his sister’s wedding in California.  And you didn’t realize you were in the same room as her until after the event.  Talk about having your mind blown.

5 Ronin, 1602

I’m going to have to do this way earlier in the evening.  It’s two in the morning, and I’m pretty tired.  I’m pretty sure it’s detracting from my enjoyment of the stories.  Anyway, on to the comics.

I’m starting with the Marvel books that aren’t on my bookshelves. These are the ones that sit in boxes.  So Marvel Box #1.

5 Ronin 1-5:

I had completely forgotten that this existed.  5 issue miniseries written by Pete Milligan.  Each issue penciled by someone different.  I recognized Gorlan Parlov and Leandro Fernandez for two of them.  Presumably before their work on Ennis’ Punisher, but I can’t be sure.  

Each issue recasts a Marvel character during feudal Japanese times - Wolverine, Hulk, Punisher, Psylocke, and Deadpool.  There’s a loose overarching plot tying them together, but it’s merely serviceable at best; Each of the protagonists is trying to kill the daimyo for one reason or another.  

The reimaginings are pretty solid, but I found the Hulk and Deadpool issues to be the weakest of the bunch.  Psylocke as a geisha with an almost superhuman ability to read the minds of men was a clever take, and the Punisher’s story can be applied to any time period with very little effort.  (Which isn’t a bad thing if it’s done well.  Laurence Campbell’s art had a lot to do with it’s success.  Looking at his list of works, I believe that this is the only thing of his that I’ve read.  A shame, he’s got a style that’s very similar to Michael Lark, and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of it.)

I need to start coming up with a rating system.  I think I’ll add to it as I go and new categories become necessary.  

Regret buying?  No

Would buy again? No

Would read again?  Maybe?

Rating: Fine

1602 1-3:

I remember this being a big deal when it first came out.  I think it was Neil Gaiman’s first foray into the Marvel Universe after his work on Sandman, and I was excited to see what he would come up with.  (It appears that I’m going to be running fast and loose with my history.  There are a ton of facts that I’m probably getting wrong here, and while I would normally care, I’d rather get the words out first.  Also, this laptop is an old piece of crap, and I’m already annoyed at the lag as I type.)

I was disappointed by 1602 when I first read it, and haven’t gone back to it since.  (Starting this project with 2 Marvel Elseworlds stories, by the way.  Interesting, but not really.)  3 issues in, and my opinion hasn’t changed.  Gaiman’s thrown in a ton of winks to the audience (“ooh, look at how clever I am in translating this Marvel character over to Merrie Olde England!”), and it’s constantly distracting from the plot.  

Of course, I also think that Gaiman peaked with Sandman, and everything since then has been a sad disappointment when compared to it.  Which isn’t his fault.  It’s unfair of me to expect him to write something that would change my life for a second time, but I keep hoping for it.

To be continued tomorrow, when I finish 1602.  No rating yet, I’m going to rate by story arc when it makes sense.    

Here we go.

My comic book collection totals 11109 issues.  At least that what my database says.  Yes, I keep track of them with a database.  Anyways, I’m going to give this thing a shot after thinking about it for a couple of weeks.  What is this thing?

1. I’ve been collecting comics since whenever Transformers #8 was on the newstands.  It was the only title I bought.  Then after a hiatus, I started back up for good with Jim Lee’s X-Men #1.  That was in seventh grade, if I remember right.
2. When I was a kid, my mom collected stamps.  She said that at some point in the future, she would sit down and organize them for reals.  But now, three decades later, I don’t think she’s ever gotten around to it, nor does she have any interest in doing so.
3. Which made me wonder why I have a room crammed full of comic books.  I’ve had this vague idea of reading my comic library from beginning to end someday when I’ve retired and have the time to enjoy them.  But why wait?  I might lose interest, which would be a shame and a waste.
4. So let’s start now.  It’ll satisfy several things for me:
1. (I realize that I possess the writing version of Casey McCall’s conversational anal retentiveness)
2. I love comics.  Reading them will (or should be) a joy unto itself.
3. I justify buying things for my collections (dvds, books, Magic cards, etc) by saying that I’ll re-read/watch/use them.  It’s time to see just how true that is with my comics.  I will cull the comics that I don’t enjoy.  Put them in a box and donate them to Goodwill or something.
4. I’ve been wanting to write something on a regular basis.  This is an appealing way for me to do that.  So, rules:
1. I’ll start from one bookshelf and work my way through to the end.  
2. I’ll read at least half an hour a day.
3. Afterwards, I’ll write about what I’ve read for at least half an hour.  
4. It’ll just be my thoughts, not necessarily a review or anything.  
5. Hopefully, those rules are simple and attainable enough.  Eventually I’ll find a place to put these posts.  A blog or something.  [Clearly, this was written in the past.  Look, blog!]  I’m flirting with tweeting to the creators of the books I’m reading, but I’ll worry about that later.

That’s pretty much it.  I’ll start reading tomorrow.  Laters!