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Multiversity Lights the Menorah: Night Eight

By | December 27th, 2011
Posted in Columns | % Comments
Graphic by Chad Bowers 

From the desk of Brian Salvatore, friend to all the Jews:

L’chaim! The Multiversity Comics staff is a multicultural bunch, and wanted to spread around the holiday cheer to our chosen brethren with our new series: Multiversity Lights the Menorah!

For the last seven nights, we have talked about trends/stories/runs that lasted far longer than we expected. For tonight, the final night of Hanukkah, we are turning over a new leaf: optimism. Call it a Hanukkah miracle if you must, but we want to shed some light on some things that we currently love about comics. So, we are using this last night of Hanukkah to hope that the success of these topics are kismet, and next year we will still be celebrating their existence.

So, let’s all grab the shammus and light the final candle of 2011!

Click here to relight the seventh candle, or the sixth candle, or the fifth, fourth, third, second, or first.

Joshua MocleOMAC

I like this book. It’s charming as all get out and mixes equal parts of the original Kirby classic with more recent iterations of the character to create one of the most unique additions to the reborn DC Universe. But let’s face it here, the DCnU’s propensity of giving slivers of spotlight to lesser known properties and newer characters won’t last forever, not in this economy. I suspect that when that time comes, even the book pioneered by co-publisher Dan DiDio and living legend Keith Giffen will be held to the same strict standards and good money says this one will come up lacking. Still though, it’ll be one helluva fun ride while it lasts.

Gilbert ShortDresden Files

When it comes to those pesky novels without pictures, I’m a big fan of the Dresden Files series. I was excited when the author decided to adapt the novels into a collection of mini-series that would follow the same narrative in the books, just with a visual component added. The first book, Storm Front wad adapted, and it was a very faithful retelling, even if it didn’t exactly set the world on fire with its release. Jim Butcher, the author, even released an OGN that told an exclusive Harry Dresden yarn that you can only find in comic format! That’s so cool!

The unfortunate thing, though, is that while Welcome to the Jungle and Storm Front Vols. 1 and 2 have been released, I haven’t heard much about any future releases. I love these books. I do so much I dedicated a Friday Rec to them some time ago. I want to see more of this ASAP, please. At least enough to where we can possibly see a comic series based on the Knights of the Cross.

Walter RichardsonJourney Into Mystery

There are few books like Journey Into Mystery on the shelves. It certainly isn’t the only lighthearted book out these days, and not even the only one from Marvel, but Kieron Gillen’s Thor spinoff (which was originally a spinoff of Journey Into Mystery) serves as a stellar example of how epic-scale storytelling and general silliness can blend seamlessly. It isn’t quite what one would expect from Marvel’s often far too serious Thor franchise, but I would go so far as to say that the playful approach that Gillen brings to Journey Into Mystery is just as appropriate for the ancient Asgardians as constantly playing them straight-faced. Remember that myth where Loki was banged by a stallion? Good times!

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Unfortunately, though, Marvel’s Mighty Thor has never really been a consistent bestseller, and I’m not sure if that the franchise that sometimes struggles to find strong support for a single title has enough backers to make this — in my opinion, much better — title stick around, no matter how many people were converted to the old ways by the recent film. I might be wrong, and I sincerely hope that’s the case, but I don’t see Gillen’s semi-wacky, semi-mythic take on my favorite pantheon of gods lasting too many years. Go to your store and buy copies of the recent Christmas issue for your friends until they’re sold out and prove me wrong!

Brian SalvatoreI, Vampire

The book I was potentially least excited about within the New 52 was I, Vampire – to me, the cover art resembled a fourth rate Twilight adaptation, and I was set to pass on it.  But then, the reviews started to roll in (including one from our own David Harper), and everything I read seemed to suggest the idea that this was a really special book.  So, despite my initial resistance, I picked up #1 and was blown away by the depth of the work.

Then, at New York Comic Con, I had the pleasure of interviewing Joshua Hale Fialkov (and butcher his last name in the process), but what I came away from the interview with was a sense of how much this property meant to Fialkov and how much of a vision he has for the book.  Couple that with the stunning art from Andrea Sorrentino, which creates a dark and beautiful world that both occupies its own space within, yet is seemlessly a part of, the DC Universe, and you have my most surprising book of the year.  Let’s hope this creative team is given a chance to stay on this comic for the long haul and continue to earn its place on my pull list, and hopefully, on yours too.

David HarperGood X-Men Comics Staying Good

Comics are cyclical, just like anything else, as they have their ups and their downs and their anywhere in-betweens. For my money, the X-Men books are at about as healthy of a place as they’ve been in a long while, and as a major X-Men fan this is a big deal for me. With Uncanny X-Force positioned as my favorite comic and Wolverine and the X-Men, X-Factor and a range of other titles putting out quality issues month-in and month-out, we’re at a pinnacle that hasn’t been matched since perhaps Morrison’s New X-Men run.

That said, this week’s releases featured six X-Titles with nearly all of them performing at a level significantly below where they’d been in the past (namely, Wolverine and the X-Men but specifically for the usage of fill-in artists and X-Factor just because WTF), I’m concerned our window of awesome is already closing. Please Marvel, please let these creators who have shown they know how to handle things handle things. That’s all I can hope for this Hanukkah. Keep this part of the cycle alive!

Matthew MeylikovHulk

Just as I spent last night railing on the birth of Rulk in the pages of Hulk, I’m here to tell you that like many things in life, it gets better. As Loeb’s run on the book came to an end and Rulk and Hulk had their final climactic showdown (or lack thereof, really), the book was taken over by one Jeff Parker and one Gabriel Hardman with the simple mission statement: redeem the Rulk. Not in the manner you would assume, mind you; in the eyes of Marvel, the book was and is a success thanks to sales. However, in the eyes of the universe, the Rulk was an abomination of a character whom noone wanted to invite to birthday parties or Hannukah celebrations, let alone Avengers teams. Thus, Jeff Parker began his run with a reviled character, started by giving him his comeuppance by letting every major hero under the sun beat him senseless, and then building him up a universe and world of his own for him to thrive and become a character as important and worthwhile as the original jade giant.

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Now, Hulk remains the single best comic to not start the character it was named for on the stands today. Parker and the various artists who have come to the book have truly done something special to his story, adding book ends to some of the more ridiculous aspects of Loeb’s work and infusing it with a logic that binds and a science that adds up. Instead of just a bland and rather trite punch-’em-up romp of muscles and fists, Parker’s Rulk is the three-dimensional globe-trotting space-bending adventure of a character whom noone likes struggling to become a character that other characters will at least tolerate peacefully. In every sense of the word, Parker is doing to the Rulk with great care and affection that Greg Pak recently did with the Hulk, and if we’re lucky this B-List character will continue to hold a spot on shelves month after month.

Besides, if you visit comic shops weekly, see THE FINAL BATTLE WITH OMEGEX!!! on a cover and don’t instinctively know to instantly purchase it, I just don’t know what to tell you.


Well folks, that’s it for our Hanukkah event for 2011.  Thank you for reading, and a special thanks to our own Chad Bowers for the fantastic Menorah graphics.  We hope you’ve enjoyed yourselves, and we’ll see you next year for Marvel Tov!

Brian, Josh, Gil, Walt, David, Mike and Matt


Brian Salvatore

Brian Salvatore is an editor, podcaster, reviewer, writer at large, and general task master at Multiversity. When not writing, he can be found playing music, hanging out with his kids, or playing music with his kids. He also has a dog named Lola, a rowboat, and once met Jimmy Carter. Feel free to email him about good beer, the New York Mets, or the best way to make Chicken Parmagiana (add a thin slice of prosciutto under the cheese).

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