Models and Marvels

Last night I read a friend's copy of "Models, INC." #1 from a month ago or so, and was shocked to discover that it's not the complete schlock it looks like. In fact, it was fun. It's cute. And with Wikipedia at hand it actually makes sense in the larger context of the Marvel Universe and ours! Of course, I'm not saying Wikipedia is required to enjoy this comic. It just helps.

The main character is professional model Millicent Collins (the blonde, at left). Sound familiar? It should, she had her own romance/humor series for almost thirty years "Millie the Model" (from #1 in 1945 till #207 in 1973). Her close friends Toni Turner and Chili Storm (the redhead, also at left) who appear in "Models, INC." are originally from that series as well.

The other major character at play here is Patsy Walker, the first romance/humor character from Marvel Comics. She premiered as a secondary back-up feature character in Miss America Magazine #2. She eventually took over the book. It was reamed "Patsy Walker Starring in Miss America" at this issue.

Stan Lee brought all of these characters officially into the cohesive meta-story he was building that has come to be called the Marvel Universe in "Fantastic Four" Annual #3, where Patsy and her friend Hedy Wolfe appear hoping to spy famous model Milicent Collins attending the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm, the celebrity superhero couple Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman! Freaking amazing, right?

The Patsy Walker character eventually grew-out of the romance/humor genre and begged to be a super-hero. Suddenly, after hanging out with X-Men's Beast for probably ten seconds in Amazing Adventures #13, she's wearing spandex and calling herself Hellcat in the Avengers #144. So she's a super-hero AND a model. Some girls have all the fun.

Superhero secret I.D. Kyle Richmond's name is dropped several times and the Human Torch, Johnny Storm makes a pretty wonderful cameo.

On the other end of things, photographer Demarchelier is mentioned as are designers Anna Sui and Alexander McQueen. Then Dolce and Gabbana gets a mention in the Tim Gunn back-up story. (A long time mainstay of these humor/romance comics as you can tell!) And I would never have had a clue about any of that crap if it weren't for my buddy Dave Goren explaining everything as I read his copy.

This is one of the many wonderful things about mainstream comics! We get a game in which puzzle pieces come together to make a story, even one as small as this one about four professional models who are friends, part of a larger tapestry. The past! The present! All in one! Like all good art! Even if all of that was out the window, I'd still have had a ball reading Tim Gunn giving fashion advice to an A.I.M. henchmen.

Is there a lot of cheesecake in here? Yeah. Is there a lot of bad jokes and unnecessary sub-plots? Yeah... But it takes place very much in a double historical context of celebrities guest-starring in comics (from John Belushi, David Letterman, and Jay Leno to George W. Bush and a whole damn lot of Barack Obama). and old-school humor comics like Millie the Model and Patsy Walker. As well as the context of the Marvel Universe and the present-day fashion world. Personally, I find that fascinating.

And it was fun. And cute.

Jon's Looking Forward (a little behind) and Jon's just looking (9/30/2oo9)

(The standard "Amazing" and guest appearances:)
"the Amazing Spider-Man" #607
I'm not the first one to say it: Three times a month is too much.

"The Punisher" Annual #1
Well, Spider-Man going crazy was fun in the Mister Negative mini. Maybe we'll get a nice repeat of that or a repeat of the hilarious Punisher/Spider-Man team-up from a few years ago.

"Spider-Man: Clone Saga" #1 of 6
I gotta admit that as a child of the Eighties and Nineties who started reading Spider-Man, his favorite major continuing character, while the original 616 Clone Saga as it saw print was just starting? I gotta check this shit out.


(Hey there good-lookin':)
"Batman: Widening Gyre" #2
I loved the first issue of this fucking crazy series. Looking forward to getting my hands on this.

"Deformitory"
Well this looks interesting... Weird, but interesting.


So in bad local news:
I lost my job at the comic-book store last week. So I am now unemployed in the big city. For the second time. And my apologies for not having as much of a presence on this blog of late as a result.

So, if you know of any openings in any corner of the comic-book industry. Let a guy know!

YOU THINK THIS A STANDS FOR AWFUL?

I want to love Captain America: Reborn #3.

I really do.

Most of you already know that I adore stories about Captain America, as I'm sure you also know that I adore Ed Brubaker, so, as I've said, I want to love Captain America Reborn #3. Except I can't.

Because the art is terrible.

Brubaker, as usual, is doing everything right- he has set up a good story, his characterization is excellent and, although his scope is abnormally large, it really does seem to work: with an event this big and this important, most of the Marvel Universe should be involved and, thankfully, Brubaker slims what could be a bloated monster down into a managable but approprately sprawling tale of being unstuck in time.

Bryan Hitch, however, seems to be mailing it in. I know he's capable of drawing Cap, because he's done it in the past, but here it just seems like nothing works. Everything, it just seems... wrong somehow. The Bucky in the panel above should look like a mess, because he's just been beaten up in the back of an airplane, but thats not why he looks like a mess up there- he looks like a mess because he was drawn t0o fast. This is a moment of victory and a moment of revenge, but Buck doesn't look victorious or vengeful- he looks like someone is about to hit him. And its just all wrong.

There are also too many horrifying images like this terrifying picture of Namor:

I don't know what it is about Hitch's figures here, but they're all terrible- there's an even worse one of Thor that I omitted because I love you.

Anyway. Reborn is good, but not great (but mostly because the art sucks) and it needs to get better, right quick, before what could have been a fantastic ending to a fantastic saga turns into a whole lot of nothing.

What Could It Be

Rich Johnston's hope is that back-up feature in Kieran Gillen's S.W.O.R.D is going to be a Dazzler one- my own hope is that it will be about Lockheed's short stint on Broadway in a production of THE PRYDE OF THE X-MEN.

Seriously, is Lockheed in a top hat too much to ask?

Already Tired of Tuesday 09/29/09

After a one week break filled with some pretty decent comics, I'm back in action this week for what looks to be the second pretty small week in a row; after two big weeks in a row, it is something of a relief.

In fact, there looks to be only one Marvel book I'll be picking up this week-

Thankfully, that book is the epic, the mighty, the finally assembled THOR #603. I'll be sad to see JMS' run end, but maybe it means that the book will ship on time one of these days. I certainly hope so, anyway.

Other than that, well, I'm getting JSA #31 and... that's pretty much it.

In other news, I already miss Wednesday Comics.