Volume 60: Siege

Siege

Author: Brian Michael Bendis | Illustrator: Olivier Coipel

"...[T]his is the kind of crap we should be avoiding."

The quote I used above echoes what I was thinking while reading through Siege. I could end this post right now, leave it at that, job done, but I've come this far, sixty volumes, so I'm going to finish.

Asgard is on Midgard. Okay, it's not technically 'on' Midgard, it's hovering twelve feet above Oklahoma, but still, WTF? Norman Osborn is still in charge of H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Avengers, such as they are. It was a stupid idea before and it's still a stupid idea now.

Looked at optimistically I could say that I feel the purpose of the story was to get the true Avengers back in place, or, if you prefer to put it another way, to undo all the convoluted, idiotic shit that they did previously. It's a semantic difference only. The result is the same.

Things were changing behind the scenes, too. The story was first published at a time when the live action superhero films were netting new fans for the publisher and Disney had just bought the company for a whopping $4,000,000,000. I don't know if the success of the early films had any influence on the planned direction, but it probably wouldn't have hurt matters. Siege put an end to the (then) current sate of affairs. It reset the nonsense, making things easier for the many new fans and beginning the new Heroic Age initiative.

I've drifted off topic a little. It's because I realised that I actually had said in the opening paragraph all that needed to be said about the book. It's garbage, the kind of crap we really should be avoiding.

The book collects together Siege: The Cabal and Siege #1-4.

Verdict:

Volume 58: Secret Invasion

Secret Invasion

Author: Brian Michael Bendis  |  Illustrator: Leinil Francis Yu

"[Y]ou all really need your asses kicked!"

I mentioned previously (in Volume 20: Ultimate Spider-Man: Power and Responsibility) that I believe Brian Michael Bendis can do good work when he sets his mind to it. I still believe that to be the case.

But it must also be said that his CV contains a fair amount of work that's the opposite of good - lazily plotted and clichéd stuff that still makes money because some fans will buy any crap with a Marvel logo; e.g. Secret Invasion, one of the worst books in the Collection.

It's a story about the shape-shifting Skrull, revealing how they've been masquerading as heroes for a long time, both A-listers and B-listers, destroying the costumed community from within in preparation for an all out Skrull attack (aka big yawnsome fight).

It kicks off with a huge battle in the Savage Land, followed by a huge battle in the city. During both conflicts we're repeatedly reminded that we don't know who to trust. It's a solid basis upon which to lay an evolving story of paranoia and misplaced loyalties—because the team need to know if the person next to them is going to protect their back or embed a traitorous knife in it—but the 'evolving' part of the equation is absent. Even five issues into the arc very little has changed, we're still wondering who is Skrull (or still not caring, in my case), still turning page after page of fight scene after fight scene.

The book's script rarely rises above tenth grade fan-fiction levels of accomplishment. It's an almost complete waste of precious time.

The final chapter drops a bombshell that'll once more throw the natural order into chaos. But frankly, the stupidity attached to the decision means the people involved deserve all they get.

The book collects together Secret Invasion #1-8.

Verdict:

Volume 41: Son of M

Son of M

Author: David Hine  |  Illustrator: Roy Allen Martinez

"There's something dark inside you. It's spreading all over. Can't you feel it? Doesn't it hurt you?"

The aftermath of the momentous event that ended House of M (see Volume 40) is far-reaching, and therefore explored across a number of different Marvel titles. Son of M focuses on Pietro Maximoff, aka Quicksilver. I can't talk about Son without going into what happened in House, so there'll be spoilers ahead for the latter title. If you haven't yet read House and, like me, hate spoilers, then it'd be best not to read past this paragraph because I will be referring to it.

Pietro's conscience is troubled by his role in the 'Decimation' that ended House, but what's really eating him is the loss of his powers. A life lived at normal (human) speed is a kind of living hell for the speedster. He spends his days like an addict forced to live without his drug of choice. Haunted by memories, he's a shell of a man. His self-interest drives him to the point where he'll do almost anything to get his fix, even if it means screwing over those who care for him most.

Son of M is a smaller, more personal story than the one that birthed it, but it's every bit as good. In fact, I liked it more than House. It explores the moral depths that a damaged individual will sink to in order to fill a void in their life. It understands that rock bottom isn't always the starting point to recovery that opportunistic people think it is. Sometimes a victim will choose to exist there for a long period of time, until escape becomes so all-consuming that their sense of reason is suppressed. Scars don't heal well when they're hidden under the covers. (To err is human... to super-err is superhuman?)

Pietro's sister, the Scarlet Witch, is an interesting character, but I'd personally never found Quicksilver to be that exciting, but Author David Hine changed that, at least for a time.

I loved Roy Martinez's art. Faces are occasionally a little off, but when he gets it right, which is most of the time, he gets it VERY right! His thin lines retain the human touch that I adore, and his ability to communicate the fragility of the human condition through them gives the book a special quality, one to which the carefully chosen colouring is fully respectful.

The book collects together Son of M #1-6.

Verdict:

Volume 35: She-Hulk: Single Green Female

She-Hulk: Single Green Female

Author: Dan Slott  |  Illustrators: Juan Bobillo / Paul Pelletier

"Your bed should come with air bags."

"Sorry, sweetie. Little involuntary muscle spasm."

SGF was my first, and to date only, She-Hulk book. It was less of a traditional superhero story and more of a self-discovery comedy, which is not at all what I expected. Based on the cover art I feared it was going to be just Hulk with tits, a prospect I was not at all excited by. (I'm not dissing Hulk, btw, but unimaginative gender swaps.)

But Shulkie isn't like her cousin Bruce Banner/Hulk at all. She can transform at will and afterwards keeps all her faculties intact; a situation that gives the writers much more leeway.

She uses her brain as much as her brawn to solve problems and defeat foes. It's nice to see a female character that isn't defined simply by her impossible cleavage and scant attire. Her sex appeal is still a factor, but it's addressed in a comical way.

Her human side is Jennifer Walters, a practising lawyer. Jennifer's a petite girl with a well-developed inferiority complex. When called upon by a prominent law firm to work for them she assumes it's the brawny She-Hulk they want, because it's always She-Hulk they want, never the brainy Jennifer.

There are some fun cameos from the Avengers. In fact, fun is what the book is all about. It recognises the absurdity that's a large part of the Marvel Universe and plays around with it. There's a progression arc that ties it all together, but mostly each story is self-contained.

The artwork is occasionally inconsistent, and I don't just mean the changeover from Juan Bobillo to Paul Pelletier. It's distracting but it doesn't interfere with the storytelling, and, to be fair, both artists provide some fantastic facial expressions.

It's not a AAA title and it won't send huge continuity ripples through the larger universe, but it's an entertaining read from beginning to end and a nice change of pace from the usual Marvel fare.

The book collects together She-Hulk (2004 series) #1–6.

Verdict:

Volume 33: Secret War

Secret War

Author: Brian Michael Bendis  |  Illustrator: Gabriele Dell'Otto

"[L]et the last thing they see on this earth be the culmination of all your lies and betrayals!"

Not to be confused with the Marvel Secret Wars (plural) miniseries of the mid-1980s, Bendis' Secret War is very different. Firstly, and without a doubt the greatest thing about the book, there's fully painted art by Gabriele Dell'Otto. His use of colours reflects both the nighttime setting and the seriousness of the situation. It's a story that shook one of the pillars of the Marvel universe: S.H.I.E.L.D.

Colonel Nick Fury handpicks a small group of costumed heroes from different walks of life and throws them together on a covert mission of great importance. We're told that each one was chosen because of their unique attributes or abilites, but the reasons for each aren't explored in a satisfactory way. Perhaps Bendis assumed we'd be able to discern for ourselves based on our knowledge of their past adventures? I don't know, but I personally knew one of them by name only, having never read a single issue of his solo title.

The story itself would sound great when told to someone, abridged, but actually reading it isn't a very exciting process. It's confusing for a while, but it's supposed to be, so at the end of the day that isn't a problem. However, it's also contrived, with not enough distinction between characters' dialogue, and the nature of the work means that 90% of the exposition is clumped together in a single issue.

Between each issue are text entries that give background (or extraneous) information on people or events prior to the story's main event, in the form of transcribed interviews and S.H.I.E.L.D. operation database entries; the interviews are the most useful.

The book collects together Secret War #1-5.

Verdict:

Volume 25: Spider-Man: Blue

Spider-Man: Blue

Author: Jeph Loeb  |  Illustrator: Tim Sale

"[M]aybe by chance, or maybe God has a sense of humour and we're all part of the joke."

Blue is the story of how Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy fell in love, and of how Peter's life seems to him a pendulum that swings repeatedly from good times to bad times. He tries to rationalise the situation by seeing the bad as being a necessary precursor to the good.

It's split into two distinct time periods that work in tandem.

The first is a confessional memoir narrated by Peter in what I'm going to call the present. It mostly takes the form of text boxes (captions) that sit inside the frame and act like a v/o in a film. They're spoken by a Peter that's endured hardship - a Peter that's developed a deeper understanding of his purpose and the dangers inherent in it.

The second time period is a visual retelling of past events. The art and speech bubbles that make up the majority of the frame depict what happened or was said in the past. They show a Peter early in his career as Spider-Man; he's less mature and therefore less acutely aware of how tragedy can shape and scar an individual.

The past and the present exist as one within the same frame and together they tell the full story.

Even though the pictures fill the majority of the page, it's the captions that carry most of the weight and the reason the story works so well. If they were absent it wouldn't need to be retold. Jeph Loeb tinkers with the original very slightly but there's no major retcon happening. I'm willing to bet that, by the end, more people than not will be glad that he did what he did, particularly if you can relate emotionally.

My belief that the art is respectfully subordinate to the text doesn't mean the art is weak. On the contrary, Tim Sale's style is a perfect match for Loeb's words. His colour-blindness doesn't seem to be a handicap at all. His lines are bold and his blacks are striking.

He seems to have a filmmaker's eye. If his frames were taken verbatim to a screen they would make dynamic eye-candy; most likely even better than any of the live-action Spider-Man films that exist at time of writing.

The book collects together Spider-Man: Blue #1–6.
The events that Blue reference can be found in The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1 #43-48 and 63.

Verdict:

Volume 22: The Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations and Until the Stars Turn Cold

The Amazing Spider-Man: Revelations and Until the Stars Turn Cold

Author: J. Michael Straczynski  |  Illustrator: John Romita, Jr.

"You can't beat this by hitting it. It's not that easy. But that doesn't mean you don't try."

The previous Spider-Man story, collected in Volume 21: Coming Home, ended with something that Revelations addresses. It couldn't not, such was the gravity of the situation, but it does it in such a way that the telling of it is as memorable as the reveal itself.

There's a small amount of suited, web-swinging action, but the majority of it is a people story, a quiet but powerful confessional that significantly alters the life and feelings of those involved.

It's the kind of situation that J. Michael Straczynski is really good at. He uses conversational scenes as multifaceted tools, enabling his action scenes to be justifiably interpreted as tests of character as revealed in the personal moments, working as a commentary that's a much better reason for action than is action for its own sake.

Outside of that, Peter is still settling into his new job as a teacher at a high-school. He's attentive to the kids' moods even when they aren't attentive to his lectures. His teaching is more than academic.

Volume 22 also contains Spider-Man's entry in the 'Nuff Said! event that had all of Marvel's major titles for December be without dialogue or exposition. There is some written word in the Spider-Man tale, but none of it is spoken. It highlights the essential role that pacing and spacing have in a story, and it forced people who may overlook such things to sit up and take notice, hopefully in a lasting way.

The second part of the book, the ...Stars Turn Cold part, is less interesting to me than the Revelations part. It returns to the Villain vs Hero format, something that was maybe considered long overdue by some readers who had to wait four weeks between issues.

I know my own mind well-enough to conclude that I'd likely have been less receptive to the change than I actually was if not for the comparative balancing I mentioned previously. In short, the immediate situation needing a resolution meant less time was available for introspection. And while it's true that the two parts collected as they are could be perceived as giving a reader the best of both worlds, the Revelations part is the main reason I'll be keeping the book when the time comes to choose what stays and what goes.

The book collects together The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol 2) #37-45.

Verdict:

Volume 21: The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home

The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home

Author: J. Michael Straczynski  |  Illustrator: John Romita, Jr.

"We tell stories, put on masks, build statues and say prayers to a memory."

Have I mentioned elsewhere that the books were released to shops out of order? I'm not sure. But they were. Volume 21 was the first issue, the one that started TUGNC and set a benchmark for the entire series. It was a hell of a good start! J. M. Straczynski nailed it.

It's about the adult Peter Parker, not the wise-cracking teen. He's separated from his wife, and living in a small apartment. It's a temporary, transitional period, but anyone who's been in that same situation knows that the weeks can become months, even years. If Peter is to bounce back, then he'll need to adjust to a new routine.

When not in the suit, Peter has time on his hands to think. JMS uses the time to explore the character's origins: who Peter is, why he is, why he feels like he does, and how he fits into a world that he tries to shape. It's a scenario I can very much relate to; when your own life is shit you sometimes find situations that enable you to improve the life of others, hoping to achieve a kind of universal balance in order to reinforce the belief that the world is worth saving from itself.

In a way, it reworks the character from the ground up, turning the familiar into something new and equally wonderful. It's not a disrespectful approach. The event that changed Peter Parker is exactly the same, but we view it differently, we're given a new plateau upon which to stand and have the benefit of onlooker-hindsight.

That's all I'm willing to say about the story. It's best if you go into it without expectations; not because it won't meet them, but because the story is structured to work upon a reader that way. It's so well-written that I suspect even folks who are unwilling to accept the philosophical side of things will be unable to forget it completely.

As is often the case with J. M. Straczynski's best works, the dilemmas and resolutions have a power that lingers even after the book is closed (or the TV episode ends); the questions and concepts are revisited on a more personal level during the small hours. One such conclusion is that to progress through life it's necessary to use all our available strengths in precise, calculated ways that are tailored to meet each new challenge - but even a perceived weakness can become its own opposite in a time of crisis.

The book collects together The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #30-35.

Verdict:

Volume 20: Ultimate Spider-Man: Power and Responsibility

Ultimate Spider-Man: Power and Responsibility

Author: Brian Michael Bendis | Illustrator: Mark Bagley

'I was selfish. So selfish — and you paid the price.'

Marvel were in financial difficulty back in the late 90's. The ULTIMATE line was a make or break concept that saw them reboot some of their most popular franchises for a potential new audience. It was a complete wiping clean of the slate, resetting characters back to day one. They didn't abandon the existing books; the new ones ran concurrently with a separate continuity that kept the core values but left behind all the baggage.
In the case of Spider-Man they made him 15 again; he's an adolescent in an adult world, on the verge of learning real responsibility for his actions. It was the most daring, freshest thing to happen to the character in many, many years. And luckily for Marvel it was instrumental in saving their ass financially.
More titles followed, including Ultimate X-Men, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and an Avengers style team-up called The Ultimates.

Click the drop-down box above for some brief information about the Ultimate line of superheroes and how they fit into the existing Marvel world. It's not essential to what follows, so you can ignore it if you’re not interested or if you already know.

There's no flaffing around in Brian Michael Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man. It introduces the teenage Peter Parker, his friends and family, sets up the relationship he has with each of them and gives a glimpse of the world in which they all exist, then BANG! The spider bite, the transformation, and the crux of the story takes hold.

Comics are often filled with narrative boxes that document what a character is feeling; it gives a reader an insight into the head-space of the hero, but an over-reliance on them can be a crutch. Bendis makes use of them, it's difficult not to, but he keeps them at a minimum in the early stages. What he does instead is revert to a 'show don’t tell' attitude that gives the story a real vibrancy and immediacy; it filled me with a desire to get to the next page as hurriedly as possible, which is the opposite of what I normally do because I like to take in all aspects of the work (construction, style, art, etc).

Artist Mark Bagley understood the approach and fills his panels with everything necessary to communicate the unspoken parts. In just a few pages writer and artist show Peter's isolation, Mary Jane's compassion, Harry Osborn's arrogance, Uncle Ben's paternal longing, and Aunt May's stern but sensitive role-play.

I know Bendis has his haters, but I would argue that when he didn't dilute himself across multiple titles he was damn good at what he did.

If you want a Spider-Man origin story that closely resembles the Sam Raimi film version, and you want a great comic that starts strong and keeps on giving, then Ultimate Spidey is highly recommended.

The book collects together Ultimate Spider-Man #1–7.

Verdict:

Volume 11: The Incredible Hulk: Silent Screams

The Incredible Hulk: Silent Screams

Author: Peter David  |  Illustrator: Dale Keown

"My whole life has been so unbalanced."

The first issue of the arc occasionally goes to some weird places (such as bizarre happenings in a closet), but author Peter David does a fine job in giving us an insight into where the long-gestating relationship between the flawed Bruce Banner and his hulking alter ego is currently at, and why it's crucial for what will follow.

The type of story it develops into uses the comic format wonderfully, pairing feeling and imagery in such a way that they work in tandem upon the reader — a state of affairs that's equal parts thanks to illustrator Dale Keown — one supporting the other in ways that are sometimes understated and all the more powerful because of it.

At this stage in the Banner/Hulk relationship the transformations are mostly under control, coinciding with the day/night cycle; i.e. during the day the Banner persona is the dominant one, whereas at night the Gray Hulk takes over. Green Hulk is repressed by both.

The communication between the personalities of Banner and Gray allows for a number of interesting parallels in both the astral plane and physical world, separately and together. (E.g. while Banner's friends fight to stop a threat in the physical world, he's deep in his psyche fighting for control of his conflicting emotions.) Quite often the dramatic use of colour during those times is excellent.

There's a number of timely light-hearted moments and even a few stupid ones, but overall it's a mature story that'll have the biggest impact upon individuals who understand that maintaining personal relationships is difficult; to take trust to a higher level it's necessary to willingly give a part of yourself, an act that weakens you while also strengthening a different but interdependent side – in short, it changes the individual. Someone with a fractured psyche, someone such as Banner who's fought to attain a kind of (shaky) equilibrium, has every reason to need the trust but fear the change.

The book collects together The Incredible Hulk (Vol 1) #370-377.

Verdict:

Volume 10: The Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt

The Amazing Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt

Author: J. M. DeMatteis  |  Illustrator: Mike Zeck

"Don't fear me. Love me. For I intend to bless you. With pain. And blood. And Sorrow. Tonight."

I didn't expect it to be very good because Kraven hasn't held much of an allure for me in the past, but Kraven's Last Hunt turned out to be one of the finest Spider-Man stories I've ever read. Hell, it's one of the finest comics I've ever read. J. M. DeMatteis crafted a dark tale of personal suffering, full of symbolism and primal longings that puts many of the other writers on the Marvel roster to shame.

One of the reasons it works so well is because there's very little dialogue. Often writers use dialogue to bridge the gaps between small parts or to lengthen action scenes. There's no such trickery herein. Instead, there are inner monologues to tell the story; they really get inside the head of each of the three main players: Spider-Man (obviously) and two very different antagonists.

It struck me that reading KLH feels like reading a Noir text, but not any Noir that I've ever encountered before. Neither Spade nor Marlowe could climb walls, for a start.

Quite often whole pages go by with no text at all because it's not needed. The imagery from Illustrator Mike Zeck is able to deliver everything we need to follow the drama. His work oozes dynamic movement and pace. The colouring paints everything with a shadowy, other-worldly brush. The colours act like a kind of curtain or a veil that gets pushed aside just enough to let the person behind it act out their role. It's a truly collaborative effort between writer, inker, and colourists, and no one part would be as powerful on its own.

With a little help from William Blake and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, DeMatteis presented us with an enduring tale of men fighting for their sanity in a world that seems destined to take it away from them piece by piece. It deserves a place on every comic fan's shelf.

The book collects together Web of Spider-Man #31-32, The Amazing Spider-Man #293-294,
and Spectacular Spider-Man #131-132.

Verdict:

Volume 09: The Amazing Spider-Man: Birth of Venom

The Amazing Spider-Man: Birth of Venom

Authors: Tom DeFalco / Louise Simonson / David Michelinie  |  Illustrators: Ron Frenz / Greg Lo Rocque / Todd McFarlane

"Sometimes I feel like I have absolutely no control over my own life!"

Peter Parker returned from Battleworld (Vols 06+07: Secret Wars) on a high, thrilled that he survived the ordeal (he only had to live it – we had to read it) and with his newly acquired black costume intact, but it doesn't take long before the reality of being Spider-Man brings him back down to Earth. He's forced to take stock of his situation and his relationship with Felicia Hardy, aka The Black Cat, a woman who understands the importance of having a secret identity.

Getting back to a more traditional one-on-one conflict after the cluster-fuck that was SW was actually welcome. Spider-Man is being hunted by a villain with an ability that can track the hero over long distances, so, no matter how fast or how cunning Peter may be, his avoidance of a final and decisive bout is only a matter of time.

His life continues to have its usual ups and downs for a while before the Venom character gets properly introduced. The slow build is never boring, though, because amid the usual comic-book shenanigans there's some tender times and some hard-hitting moments, the best of which comes courtesy of Mary Jane Watson. Even if you're not a fan of M.J. (I'm not), it can't be denied that Tom DeFalco used her well, splitting our sympathies between the confessor and the shoulder being cried upon. Sterling work, sir.

With that in mind, I feel it's unfair that only Michelinie and McFarlane get their names on the cover. They're responsible for only one of the included issues (The Amazing Spider-Man #300), whereas Louise Simonson scripted one and Tom DeFalco was responsible for five.

When Venom finally appears in all his blackened glory, the stakes are raised even higher. He's not yet been given the sharpened teeth that he sports on the cover, meaning his toothy grin is at times almost comical, but he still manages to be menacing in all the best ways and push Spider-Man to ever greater levels of desperation.

To keep the page count to an acceptable level, and get the reader to the money-shot sooner, there's a lot of 'black-suited' Spider-Man issues omitted, which is a shame because there's some good stuff not included, such as the four-part The Death of Jean DeWolff. But overall, what's present is quality that should please most fans of the original friendly neighbourhood web-slinger.

The book collects together The Amazing Spider-Man #252, 256-259, 300.

Verdict:

Volume 06+07: Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars

Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars

Author: Jim Shooter  |  Illustrators: Mike Zeck / Bob Layton

"You remind me of a lady bouncer I used to know."

The first arc in the series to feature a large crossover event and also the first to be split over two volumes. That's as exciting as it gets.

A powerful entity whisks a bus-load of heroes and villains away from their usual surroundings and deposits them on an alien world to do battle. Many of the good guys can be seen on the cover of the book (left), so I won't go over them all again. The bad guys are Dr Doom, Doctor Octopus, Ultron the Gobshite, and a few more B-Listers that would get paid buttons if it was a film and not a comic they were in.

By the end of Part 1 (Volume 06) I was of the opinion that maybe the Secret War should've stayed secret, like a shame, because it hadn't managed to do anything worthwhile in that time. It was originally a monthly comic, so after six issues (six months!) you'd expect at least something worth the time taken to collect and read them. Nope.

It mentions in the back on the book that it was originally conceived as a way to promote a joint Marvel and Mattel toy line. (Mattel were the folks who produced Masters of the Universe.) The actual story was a secondary concern. That explains a lot. It's a multi-part advert.

Rarely does anyone just speak in Marvel comics, they exclaim everything. When dialogue flows nicely it can detract from the overuse, but SW's is so awful that it heightened my awareness of it. I didn't hunt for the best example to prove a point, I simply chose one random page and this is what I got: two people in a room together, no one else around, six panels of equal size, twenty-five exclamation marks. There's a fine line between adding drama and being outright ridiculous. Jim Shooter left that line in tatters. It's fucking stupid.

When it was time to read Part 2 (Volume 07) I was close to despondency but determined to continue. And, thank the gods of turnaround, things improved. The fighting was still tedious but wasn't always just filler - there was actual consequences this time, some of which were continued into each hero's respective individual title. A few of the protagonists even had their emotional state altered or affected. Bloody hell! Secret Wars had justified its existence. (But that doesn't exonerate it, because it's still crap and could've easily achieved the same result in 6 or 7 issues.)

Volume 06 collects together Marvel Super Heroes: Secret Wars #1-6; Volume 07 collects #7-12.

Verdict: