It’s just Gil and I this week and next week again. You know why? It’s because everyone else at Multiversity doesn’t love you the way we love you. That’s right – David is off on vacation, Walt and Brandon are out of the review pool, and Mocle isn’t settled into his new home to start. All of that translates to they don’t love you. But I do. I do bundles! So I have some reviews prepared for you, although a tad late due to this whole “labor day” holiday silliness coupled with some Rosh Hashanah celebration/Jewish guilt trip parties.
So. With that out of the way, let’s grab some rules, shall we?
0: Uwe Boll will direct the adaptation of this comic
0.1 – 1: Burn upon touching
1- 1.9: Abysmal
2.0 – 2.9: Art. Writing. Editing. All bad.
3.0 – 3.9: You’d be a masochist to pick this up.
4.0 – 4.9: “I’ll give it another month…but that was not good.”
5.0 – 5.9: “Really? The Watcher? In the face? I guess it was fun.”
6.0 – 6.9: “Hmm. That was decent.”
7.0 – 7.9: Well made but a few problems
8.0 – 8.9: Nearly flawless
9.0 – 9.9: Outstanding
10: Perfection. Issue of the year contender
This week my reviews include Amazing Spider-Man #641, Adventure Comics #518, Daytripper #10, Daredevil #510, and Thor #614.. It’s a fun and eclectic mix this week, featuring a line-up by some of my favorite books, so the reviews are bound to be positive.
Check out all the reviews after the jump.
Amazing Spider-Man #641
Well, there you have it. One More Day is over, One Moment In Time is wrapped up, and the Brand New Day is on it’s way to a finale (for the first issue of Mark Waid’s finale arc, check Gil’s reviews this week!). Of course, OMIT has caused some rather quick controversy among fans due to many people really just not getting into it at all. Perhaps they still hold grudges to old stories, or perhaps they just really don’t like Quesada’s work. I fall in neither of those work, but at the end of the day I can’t say I’m a fan of One Moment In Time and all of it’s hype.
As the story comes to a close, nothing is really resolved and nothing is really truly changed. To be quite honest, a large part of this book feels like a story that I don’t think ever needed to have happened. One More Day was pretty clear in it’s intentions – continuity reboot and no more Peter and MJ. That’s fine. What OMIT brought to the table was this idea that they had broken apart due to natural causes and that their love couldn’t sustain. It seemed that what Mephisto had fed on was the idea that he could take their love away and they couldn’t ever have it. However, now we know that – spoiler alert – they can still love each other all the way forever and ever. Well, great. Peter gets a kiss, Mary Jane leaves, and I end up feeling like I got dragged around for four issues for no real reason at the end of it, because we’re still exactly where we left off.
At no point during any of the Spider-Man adventures of the past couple years did I feel like Peter was weighed down by MJ, so in him setting himself free from this “burden”, we feel no catharsis. There’s no great tender moments, and a lot of this is really just trying to fit itself into continuity where it wasn’t needed. I was absolutely fine with a magical continuity reset because it didn’t need an explanation – it’s magic! However, this ends itself with the same element – magic changes everything. The great turmoil is supposed to come in this idea that Peter didn’t want MJ to forget, and for me I feel like that’s not the kind of big relationship changing moment that matters. The finale of the book acts as a mirror to the finale of One More Day, with many scenes playing out with the same art as we’ve seen, and it’s this big “it all comes together” idea. It just doesn’t really matter, though.
Continued belowHere’s what would have helped: if every fanboy’s dream came true and Peter and MJ got back together, it would matter. If some epic trickery was revealed by Mephisto here that made everything seem crooked, it would matter. If something happened – anything – than it would have mattered. Spending four issues to basically retell a story without the possibility of anyone dying (and featuring an issue that’s basically a reprint, I might add) is really just a waste, and might have worked better as one single issue.
Despite all that, the art element of the book is still good. Rivera is a Spider-master at this point – I love his style. The way he handles Parker and friends in this epic flashback is wonderful, and his Dr Strange is oh-so-good. Rivera also draws the big magic scenes with a lot of perfection. Quesada’s art isn’t terrible either. Here’s something I kinda noticed: in the scenes where Peter and MJ are mostly in the dark, that’s when the book looks best. In all the daytime scenes, Quesada’s art really doesn’t look too great as others have noticed, but his darker images filled with shadows get this really nice Deodato-esque feel, and it looks as good as it did in One More Day (though the reusing of panels makes that kind of obvious). Even his final shots of Spider-Man look great. I think the only thing that flubs Quesada’s art up here is the facial features, so shadows covering those up as well as Spider-Man’s mask make the book look rather nice.
All in all, as a Spider-Man fan I can’t really get into the book. OMIT could have been used to do something really special with the characters and their story, but instead it succeeded in mucking up continuity a bit more and telling a story that just wasn’t very interesting. I’m not interested in seeing how Peter and MJ won’t get back together. I’m interested in them either getting back together or just being apart and mildly catty to one another. Having them discuss why either option won’t work just ended up dull.
Final Verdict: 5.4 – Browse
Adventure Comics #518
Adventure Comics used to be a book that got me incredibly excited to pick up a new issue. It was at the top of my pull list, and I even have the variant of the first issue framed and hanging on my wall. Now? Now with every issue I get closer to the point where I fully decide I can’t pick up this book anymore, because I’m not getting a whole lot out of it.
In recent years I’ve really grown to enjoy the Legion and Paul Levitz. I think that he’s got a great style for the characters and stories, and I was excited to get a book that shares more into their past, elaborating on events that had never been really discussed until now. Last issue that dealt heavily with Saturn Girl’s (now defunct) love triangle was particularly interesting, if a bit stabbing at canon and continuity a tad. This issue, however, felt like a waste. Adventure Comics has functioned more as a series of one-shots versus an ongoing story, and it’s worked well this way. This issue tries to act like an ongoing that solicits itself as a one-shot and doesn’t really focus on the topic that it should.
The solicit for this issue claims that it will deal with Superboy (the Clark Kent version, not Connor) dealing with learning about his future too early, such as that he will be killed by a monster known as Doomsday. In reality, that’s a very small part of the story. What could have been a really touching exploration of the character as well as fate was wasted on what felt like a disconnected Legion adventure that didn’t really seem too interesting. At the end of the previous issue, we got a tease that we’d be focusing on Superboy and his adventures with the Legion, yet he’s sequestered and instead muses for a few pages in his own hall of villains before returning to the past. It feels like a very wasted effort.
Continued belowLike I said, I enjoy Paul Levitz and his writing and take on the Legion, but the only real reason to buy Adventure Comics is for Lemire’s back-up with the Atom. I haven’t really enjoyed any of the back-up features, including the ones written by some of my favorite writers or starring characters I love, but Lemire is really bringing me into his story. It’s short, sweet, and features the Atom really branching out from the shell the character has been stuck in for the past few years. While it is an odd route for Lemire to try and go with this whole over arcing family conspiracy (that honestly feels very Johns inspired), it’s one that I’m really enjoying, and I would kind of rather that take over the entire book of Levitz’s Legion continues to be so dry.
It’s too bad, though. Sharpe’s art and Asrar’s art here are both really great, and the book from start to finish looks fantastic. I’d gotten so used to “classic” artists drawing the Legion these days that to see someone newer to my repertoire of artists work on the characters is nice and refreshing. Asrar has some issues in the facial department occasionally, but for the most part his short time in the back of the book is great. Both artists really make the stories their own with their work here. I just wish that the writing matched up for the Legion half.
I guess Adventure Comics has gone from a top book down to one that is mildly worth following. If you’re a Legion fan, it’s good to keep your eye on the book, but it’s better to follow the ongoing title which is much more entertaining than this.
Final Verdict: 6.4 – Browse
Daytripper #10
Daytripper is one of those series. You know, one of those books that is just so fantastic that it is almost impossible to review? Ones that every month have emotional gauntlets you have to run for 22-24 pages a pop. And with the last issue, I thought it would be nearly impossible to end the book. I mean, that was the ending right there. It’s exactly what I wanted out of the finale of the story in every sense of the word. So with one issue left in the tale, and the story being brought more down to Earth for it’s closing, how does it play out?
Unfortunately, I prefer the previous issue to this. I really would have liked the last issue to be the finale because it ties all the elements together, makes a rather poignant statement on life, and an even more interesting metaphor on the power of the written word and storytelling. With this issue, we see our humble narrator years in the future, old and gray and at the end of his life. There is a new tumor in his brain, and he has finally decided to wrap up his life and accept the future. He comes across a letter addressed to him that, through very clearly placed narration boxes, illustrates the finale of the story.
The reason I don’t like this as much as the previous one is that the last issue was rather existential, really took chances with the story as a whole, and offered a very unique collaboration between Moon and Ba. That story, especially the last panel, was a way to really bring the story home through beautiful art and metaphors. This story is a rather linear one that, if anything, feels like an epilogue to a lot of the themes brought into the story throughout the ten issues. I guess I just like my comics with less straightforward finales of this nature.
It’s not that the comic is bad, though. It’s a very well written issue and a nice way to tie things together by Ba and Moon. I suppose my own hype is what kind of hurt the issue for me, because after an issue like the previous one, how do we move on from that?
Either way, Daytripper is still a beautiful series, an expertly tackled story by Ba and Moon, and one that no fan should be without. Daytripper is a perfect book to have in your collection, and one that is worth reading many times over. How you view the ending will be up to you, but for me, I love the story that ends with a typewriter.
Continued belowFinal Verdict: 7.3 – Buy
Daredevil #510
The last time I reviewed a Daredevil book, I said that it was shaping up to be better than the event itself. Now I’m not quite so sure. Shadowland #3 was a big hit in my book, and this acts more as a coda to those events. It’s almost as if somewhere out there, Diggle and Johnston heard our cries that we didn’t want this to turn in to a Blackest Night/Green Lantern situation, and they made it so.
This is still a very good issue, though. In Shadowland, Matt’s real main supporting cast (i.e. Foggy and Dakota) have no relevance in the title, so Daredevil does a good job to bringing them in and making them relevant to the issues. We’d seen the Kingpin hold his hand in the previous Shadowland titles, but now Foggy is aware of this – and Foggy knows the Kingpin better than anyone. There really is a lot of heavy foreshadow in this issue as well. We know that Matt is going to have to die for the Beast to truly be defeated, and Foggy reminds everyone that the Kingpin is pushing towards controlling the Hand himself, which can only be done if Matt is out of the way. These scenes, along with the final scene of the issue, bring forth a very familiar “Who Can You Trust?” feeling to the title. It’s a whole great heaping of paranoia being brought in.
Unlike the previous two issues of Daredevil, I feel like this is the first that really does a good job of being an event tie-in and not just trying to infuse itself as part of the main storyline. I really don’t like when writers will make an event book that branches off main story plot points into side books, because it’s unfair to the casual reader (and me being such a generous guy, I’m always looking out for the little guy). It also becomes disorienting when trying to go back and read the story by yourself later. I prefer an issue that deals with the events of a story and simply add on to it’s general mythos, pretty much like Bendis did during Secret Invasion. Shadowland should be a very linear story of the loss of Matt Murdock, so with Daredevil #510 not making the same mistake the previous two issues did, it makes me much more fond of what’s going on.
The book is just generally incredibly strong, though. It has been for quite some time now. Diggle and Johnston working together make for a great team, and the focus on ancillary characters is great. The amount of time spent on Tarantula also is fairly rewarding for the main points of the story, and White Tiger’s role is becoming ever so much more clear as the story goes along (though I still do wonder if someone is controlling her). It’s a bit odd to have Elektra just kind of “thrown” in there, but I suppose it will make sense more in Shadowland #4. I also have to once again say – I’m not trying to dis Tan here, but Marco Checchetto’s art would’ve made Shadowland so much better. I’ve been in love with his artwork for quite some time now in the Daredevil title, and it’s just so great. It’s moody, it fits the story perfectly, and it deserves the larger recognition. The standout piece of art for me was his Kingpin – when he arrived on the scene, it was one of the darkest moments of the book but one that looked beyond fantastic. This is Daredevil.
Daredevil makes for a great pairing to Shadowland now, and it’s something I appreciate. It’s hard to have a title match up with the current events of a story without taking too much away from the main title, and I feel like a better job was done here in that regards than other issues. It’s not one that you have to read to “get” Shadowland, but it is one that will make that story that much more entertaining. It adds details around the story rather than places them inside, and for that, I salute the issue.
Continued belowFinal Verdict: 8.8 – Buy
Thor #614
Oh, I am sad to see this go. I was trying to think of some kind of clever “the writer of Thor is dead; long live the writer of Thor” way to tackle this review, but ultimately the book comes down to a few simple words: if you haven’t been buying Thor, then you have seriously missed out.
Thor #614 brings the end of an arc that I’ve already praised repeated times. It’s a story that has put Thor deep down under in order to save the souls of the damned, and it has honestly been a true Asgardian epic of a tale. As Thor struggles to figure out a way to retrieve Eir-Gram, he shouts out “Dsir!” which brings about their curse – when called, they must answer. It’s a last ditch effort for Thor to try and save Hela, who is on a deathbed of her. So the issue becomes a series of very tense moments, all of which have satisfying pay-offs: can Thor retrieve the sword? Can Tyr protect Hela? Up above, what exactly is happening with Kelda? Where is Loki? And does Mephisto have one last trick up his sleeve?
For the most part, I thought that Gillen would generally leave this story a lot more open-ended than he did. He had been working some quiet layers into his run on Thor that I could only have assumed had far reaching pay-offs, but this issue does successfully wrap up his story. That’s not to say there aren’t a few loose ends for writers to explore, but it’s not a loose end that detracts from the tale. Rather, it seems like set up for another writer to explore aspects that Gillen brought into play, such as the devious Dsir who have a brand new home of sort by the end. And for the life of me, I would have 100% expected – spoiler alert – Loki to make an appearance at the end in something more than a flashback, but what was presented is just as good. I love when stories have finale pay-offs to events that seemed fairly insignificant before, because it helps add to the overall mythos of a story and it’s characters.
You also have to love the dark and somewhat referential humor as Mephisto ignites the previous issue’s narrator.
Doug Braithwaite’s art here matches the tone of the book so vividly. His Hell and Hel both look astonishing, and Gillen’s stoic Thor is matched by Braithwaite’s handling of the character and his massive and imposing build. It seems both had a bit more fun with this final issue, and Braithwaite has some very interesting panels this issue. One of the scenes at the end in particular marks for a truly intriguing visual feast, and without giving too much away, the added use of color and heavy overtones of green match just as well as red does throughout most of the issue.
To wrap up, I again bring back my really quite silly line that I opened with: “the writer of Thor is dead.” When it was announced JMS would end his run and Gillen would take over, there was a bit of pause there when I myself (having been a fan of Gillen’s work for some time) wondered what he would bring to the title. JMS had done a run that was very infused with his own ideals and beliefs while still managing to bring a lot of life to characters who had been dead for quite some time. Gillen took over and made the story very much his own, both closing out JMS’ story and spending enough time establishing his own that was built in mythology instead of philosophy. Gillen really put the thunder back into Thor’s hands, and these final few issues have been a fantastic reminder of the world that Thor came from as well as who Thor is. I will greatly miss Gillen’s work on the book, and as I said in the beginning – if you haven’t been reading Thor, you missed out.
Then again, I’m sure the trade is a few months away, so no great worries. I’ll give you your $200 for passing Go when you get it.
Final Verdict: 9.4 – Buy
