Wednesdays New Things: Iron Man, Once A Year

1) Undertow just seems like a good comic. I don't know either writer Steve Orlando or artist Artyom Trakhanov, but there's something about the preview that just pulls me in. Steampunk adventure at sea? What could be bad? Except the white lettering, which is hopefully going to be clearer/changed in print. 

2) I'll probably trade wait this one, just because it's a mini, but the premise is Winter Soldier-as-gangster, which is at least nominally intriguing. Also the art is great; think Chris Bachalo working in black and white. 

3) Marvel's Iron Man Annual #1 (I remember buying an Iron Man Annual #1 in 2010, but its time I accept that comic book numbering is meaningless instead of letting it drive me crazy) is a weird, weird comic book. It costs five dollars, and its an epilogue to one of the Marvel Infinity Digital comics. It is written by Kieron Gillen, but it doesn't seem to be connected to the mainline Iron Man book at all, except, of course, that the solicitation is very vague. Who knows? Could be relevant. I don't think I have a fiver that cares, though. Similarly, who is this new New Warriors series for?

And, NOW!: Iron Man #1

And, NOW! is a series of posts about Marvel NOW!

Let's get one thing straight: Greg Land is not a bad artist. He's not a good artist, either, but I think I've been hyperbolic about his work in the past and I just wanted to clear this up. Although I'm not attracted to his artificial style, which is a stiff and lightboxed parody of photorealism, I am willing to admit that his lines are solid and that his characters have a certain boldness, a kind of magnetic density that draws the eye towards them and away from the rest of his compositions, which, themselves, merely suggest scene dressing.

Part of the problem with that kind of composition, though, is that individual panels often closely resemble one another. To avoid a repetitive page, then, Land is forced to pull the reader a great distance in between panels, effectively slowing any natural movement from one to the next by forcing the reader to close more space than he or she should have to. Since the relaunch of Uncanny X-Men, a year ago, though, he's been doing a few things that ease the reading experience, like varying compositions in interesting ways and, most importantly, allowing panels to interact with each other through the gutter. In the sequence below, for example, the cell phone flies out of one panel, up and over the gutter, and into the next one. The move between individual compositions is kind of awkward, the first indicates movement and while the second is still, but the airborne phone suggests, very deftly, how the character in the white shirt moves while the reader is in the space between.

All of this to say that I'll defend Greg Land, yes, but only up to a certain point-- his human characters all have exaggerated soap opera facial expressions that leave much to be desired. Like Sal Larroca before him, though, his style lends itself to the drawing of machines, so that his version of the Iron Man armor is dynamic in the same way that his drawings of people are stilted, at least in terms of the individual panels. This seems to make him a perfect choice for Iron Man and he may indeed prove to be, but only if Kieron Gillen does his damnedest to keep Tony Stark in the suit rather than leave him out of it.

Basically, its up to Gillen to write for his artist's strengths, in a way that Matt Fraction didn't always manage to do when he was writing for Larroca. Reading this first issue, it seems likely that this will be the case, since Gillen is eschewing Fraction's fascinating corporate espionage angle in favor of a more traditional man-of-action faces down terrorists kind of plot, one that will require Greg Land to draw more than one kind of armor. For his part, the writer does a pretty good job, even managing to relatively concisely explain a piece of information from an old Iron Man arc, even as he's placing it at the center of his own story. It's a masterful example of how good shared universe writers can relay enough information to keep new readers in the loop while still managing to keep old ones interested. Gillen has experience with this particular kind of counterterrorism story, often pulling it out during his Uncanny X-Men work, but much of that stuff was sort of out there and I expect that he's going to play Iron Man much more traditionally.

I think Fraction and Larocca's work with Tony Stark is probably definitive for the next little while, but if Gillen can keep it up, and if Land can behave, then we may very well have another classic on our hands. 

Quote For the Week

This is Iron Man as adventurer and knight and… oh, let’s just have a quick burst of words. This is hyper-intense bursts of adventure and the future. This is about reclaiming the single issue story in the context of a larger narrative. 

-Kieron Gillen, on his upcoming Iron Man run for MARVEL NOW! If Gillen really can do that, if he can go ahead and carve out a space for single issue stories for one issue comics wholes that are only one order separated from the larger whole of an ongoing series, than it will be a thing of beauty. Of course, he's already managed it on a smaller scale, and I have to believe he'll manage it here, too.

Thoughts on Digital Comics and Higher Price Points, Masquerading as an Iron Man Annual #1 Review

I really dug The Invincible Iron Man Annual #1. First and foremost, Matt Fraction here is at the top of his game- his hero is tragically brave, his villain is believably ego-maniacal, his story is dark and subtle, his facts are his fictions and his fictions are facts. All that, despite featuring one of the most flamboyant characters in comics- The Mandarin.

It would be easy to play up the villain, easy to make him overbearing and long-winded but Fraction resists that temptation. Instead, he gives us a villain aware of his own past but unwilling to remember it or, perhaps more relevantly, willing to rewrite it. This may very well be a reference to Fraction himself- this is something that the writer does very well and to great effect, particularly in his run on Immortal Iron Fist from a couple of years ago (incidentally, the book is littered with Iron Fist references and call backs. I'm hopeful that this foreshadows Fraction's return to the character, at the very least in a limited capacity). More likely it's a reference to the way in which certain writers feel free to retcon a character rather than to reinforce core principles.* Either way, it's a vicious piece of plotting, and it hits its mark beautifully by reminding us that no man is the villain of his own story, even if he knows that he is.

In fact, The Invincible Iron Man Annual is, in almost every way, more of a long Mandarin one-shot than an Iron Man comic. Tony Stark (or, at least, the real Tony Stark) makes only one, brief appearance- in a flashback. This is why it's so odd that Marvel choose this comic to try same day and date retailing with- this is a damn good comic (in fact, maybe the best all year), but anyone who's been observing the business for any length of time realizes that quality does not necessarily lead to sales. Recognition leads to sales. Iconography leads to sales. Sure, people who know comics know The Mandarin- but would a guy off the street (or dude with an iPad) looking for something more after Iron Man 2?

It's not impossible, certainly, but it is extremely unlikely. Why this comic, then? There are plenty of other Iron Man comics they could have tried, plenty of others more likely to hold the interest of a casual comics fan.

I think this is the key. I don't think that they're aiming for the casual comics fan- I think the comics companies are looking to hook people who were already into comics into digital readers. It's the only thing that makes any sense. Otherwise, DC would have published Batman #700, Superman #700 or Wonder Woman #600 rather than that JLI comic they've started out with. Marvel would have begun with an X-Men comic, or an Avengers one. In fact, they might even be trying to hook people who think they've outgrown comics- people who would be interested in JLI or the Mandarin.

People who might not otherwise be interested in paying $5 for a comic book might be willing to read about a character they remember fondly at a much cheaper price of $2 for the beginning of the story.

I understand why the Annual cost so much- it's a big comic book, and the ads are relatively unobtrusive- but I bet if we did a page by page analysis we would find that it's actually relatively inexpensive for the amount of story- I'm going to guess somewhere around 45 pages?- that we actually get. Not only that, I'm glad parts of it are accessible cheaply; it's a damn good story, and I suspect that no one who buys the first third will be able to resist buying the rest. What I don't understand is why today's issue of Thor costs so much for a normal sized comic. Or why Marvel insists on putting those lame "oral history" pages in the back of new Avengers issues.

I have a theory, though. I think we're paying for respectability.

It's true that, in purely physically aesthetic terms, the quality of comics has shot up over the last 20 years or so. Higher quality paper, more colors, etc. Although we're also paying for those things when we buy a comic these days, I think what we're really paying for is the right to look at something that might be high art. Consider this- things that are considered "great art" have limited accessibility. Plays and classical music cost money. So do movies. Literature, until very recently, we severely limited by the number of people who were capable of reading. This has always been comics' problem- too many people had access. Too many people could appreciate them, so they couldn't possibly be fine art- except now they can be, because they're expensive. Because they aren't as accessible as they used to be.

I have no idea if this is actually true, and the thought clearly needs some development, but it's curious, isn't it? And what if I'm onto something? How does that change the way we, as comics readers and intellectuals, understand our passion?

---------------------
*Consider the differences between JMS's attempts at the former (Spider-Man) rather than the latter (Thor).

Disneyland Has Got Marvel's Goods!

So the first Marvel merchandise has appeared in a Disney theme park store, according to ICv2.com today. Although, The Hollywood Reporter proves it was at least a few days ago, right on time for the release of "Iron Man 2". It is, as ICv2 points out, a first step to the integration of Marvel(@Marvel) merch into Disney retail, which is good in and of itself, I think.

In fact, the Online Disney Store has started carrying a healthy amount of Marvel items as well. [See image below of Online Disney Store Marvel product details.]

[Image at left and original report, via The Orange County Register here.]

The appearance of Marvel stuff at Disneyland is the first real, tangible consumer-side proof that the acquisition has gone through. It took almost six months, which is exactly what the pundits were saying it would take for any effects to take hold at all. Hopefully, this means it will take even longer for them to get their hands dirty in the trenches of Marvel Comics editorial... if at all.

Generally, let's hope for: At all.

(Not that it would be 100% bad, but better not to tempt the dragon.)

More exposure for Marvel's goods and characters outside of the limits of 'kid's merchandise' is a good step forward for Marvel (the specific shop is in the more adult-oriented Downtown Disney). But will this cut into the market of the comic specialty shop? If someone already bought an Iron Man t-shirt last summer at Disneyland, will they be less willing to buy another one at their local shop?

I suspect the answer is no, but I also suspect that won't stop the comic shop retailers of America from getting upset about it anyway because, theoretically, if the Disney Store offers the same Marvel merchandise as the average comic shop. and the Disney store is more high profile, people will go Disney first and then not be interested in the comic shop.

BUT

Equally theoretically mind you, if someone really, really liked "Iron Man 2" and they happen to be in a Disney store they're going to buy Iron Man stuff but it is almost equally possible that they are going to be in a comic shop first and buy the Iron Man stuff there. Furthermore, if someone buys a T-shirt or a toy of ol' shellhead at a Disney store and they want more (like... trading cards, the new awesome COMICS by Matt Fraction[@mattfraction], or the cool old COMICS, hardcover COMICS collections, vintage action figures, buttons, pins, nice expensive statues!) they might just seek out their local comic-book store with an inquisitive and money-spending mind. And they might just buy some comics.

I say that the industry as a whole, from the publisher to the retailer to the consumer has more to gain and not to lose from the appearance of Marvel merchandise in Disney stores.

And after all, those old Warner Bros. stores used to carry DC Comics (@DC_NATION) stuff and the world didn't end.

I am, as always, hoping for the positive!

~ @JonGorga

Marvel Announces New $1 Reprint Throwback Line

In what is obviously meant to be a compliment/counter to DC's "After Watchmen" program of last year, Marvel announced their "World's Greatest Comics" line on their corporate site back in December here and have made a second recent small statement here.


DC's "After Watchmen... What's Next?" program can be read about at AfterWatchmen.com, a sub-site of DC's website [which appears to have been taken down - DEAD LINK - 9/15/2o12]. It was just narrowly an even better program than this new initiative from Marvel, because it also included a free catalog that explained why they felt X, Y, and Z project they did was similar to "Watchmen" and why you should go buy them all.

This seems like an excellent idea to me. Comics, as a medium, is great. Individual comic-books are great. Superheroes are great. Trade-paperbacks are great. Marvel is great. DC is great. These programs essentially promote all of these things at once.

Already out is "Invincible Iron Man" v3 #1 reprint for FREE no less!
"Captain America" v5 #1
"Thor" v3 #1
"The Wonderful Wizard of OZ" #1
and
"The Punisher MAX" #1
are to follow over the course of March for a mere $1 each.

Putting out the first issues of the modern interpretations of the BIG THREE (Thor, Captain America, Iron Man) just before they are presumably going to be re-united by the currently ongoing "Siege" crossover 'event' storyline in cheap, cheap reprints is a stroke of genius! No question about it.

"Marvel's Greatest Comics" was the title of a reprint anthology series Marvel produced from 1968 to 1981, which was a re-titling of "Marvel Collectors' Item Classics" started in 1965. The bombastically promotional nature of the title is Stan Lee all the way. So there's a throw-back element here as well: the idea of presenting old comics material again at a lower price has been around for a LONG time.

"Marvel Tales Annual" #1 was Marvel's first and was printed back in 1964! It reprinted the origin stories of each of Marvel's biggest hit characters from the previous three years. In a way, this is EXACTLY what the new "Marvel's Greatest Comics" line is doing. I have fond memories of some reprint titles, as they were the only way to cheaply catch-up on old Spider-Man stories in those days before the internet!

Reprints may not be worth as much as the original, they may entirely miss the cache of that 'THIS WAS THE OBJECT, THIS WAS THE TIME' feeling, but reprints are a good thing.

In fact, the first comic-books were reprints. "How the fuck is that possible?" you ask. "How could there be a reprint if there were no comics to reprint!" you think, smug in your excellently logical thought process.

Well Mr. Smug, the first comic-books and comics trade-paperbacks were reprints of comic-strips. "The Funnies" #1 from January 1929 was essentially a newspaper comic-strip section without the newspaper. "Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics", published in 1933, was the first comic-book one-shot. "Famous Funnies" #1 kicked-off the first ongoing comic-book series way back in 1934.

They are all firsts, but they are also made-up mostly or entirely of comic-strips reprinted one on-top of another page after page, reformatted to the new form of the comic-BOOK.

________________________________________
To learn yourself more about this stuff:

Arthur's Marvel Comics Reprints Website is a catalog of Marvel reprint titles.
Marvel Masterworks.com is a very detail-oriented examination of the Marvel Masterworks hardcover and trade-paperback reprint line.
The Collected Comics Library is a strange but thorough site which reports on collected reprint editions.
and
TheComicBooks.com has a detailed history of the invention of the comic-book format in the section titled "Newsstand Period 1922-1955".


UPDATE: 3/12/2oo9
Not only are these many first issues being made available in super-cheap reprints, but the second issues will be available for free as a part of Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited on their website.

Brilliant.

Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 2/3/2o1o!

Hello true believers!

On this upcoming Wednesday, when I take a trip to my local comic-book shop to pick up my comics I'm most definitely going to buy:

"Invincible Iron Man" #23

Wow. That was actually quite hard this week! Considering that "Siege" #2 comes out this week and apparently "The Siege has begun and it claims its first victim as AN AVENGER WILL DIE!!" Who could it be? Who could it be?! Oh I may not lay my head down to rest until I know!!! I'm assuming that based on what I picked as my top choice of the week... you can tell that's sarcasm.

On top of that, a graphic novel I've been waiting for since it was announced at the MoCCA Festival way back in June is coming out! I urge you to take a look at Raina Telgemeier's "Smile". It looks human and sweet and funny and sad. All the things good autobiographical comics should be. It's available in both a hardcover and softcover edition tomorrow at considerable difference in cost!

Plus the second volume of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan's "Demo" starts up this week. That can't NOT be good.

And that is pretty much my whole pull-list, actually. Light week, thank goodness!

Check back to see what becomes a part of the Gorga-Cave!
Don't worry I don't actually call my home that...

One More

Now we know that Spider-Woman (who I may have forgotten to handicap a couple of weeks ago. Woops.) is going to be on Brian Bendis and John Romita Jr.'s team too (and JRJR has really hit these two previews out of the park, hasn't he?), as well as Cap and probably Spidey. I also should have mentioned that yesterday that we also know Iron Man and Thor are going to be on this team too.

For more info, go here.

Avengers Endsemble?

Well, this news over at IGN is certainly interesting.

Certainly, this isn't the end of The Avengers- I suspect that what will happen is that they'll relaunch with one main title (presumably entitled The Avengers) and a couple of periphery ones (if I were to have my druthers, one of these series would be called Avengers Assemble! and a second one would be another try with the Young Avengers). Alternatively there could be two main titles (and I would still be pulling for the second one to be called Avengers Assemble!) with two main teams- one to handle street level threats, another for the more pressing and world altering kinds of things the Avengers used to be used for.

The big question, then, is who will be doing the Avenging? It isn't, of course, a question a lowly reader like me has any sort of real answer too- but I'm going to fulfill a time honored geek tradition and attempt to handicap it.

To start, here are the lineups from the Avengers teams from the last several years (I'm leaving out the Dark Avengers, for what I think are pretty obvious reasons)

New Avengers:
Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Iron Man, Captain America (Steve), Luke Cage, The Sentry, Wolverine.

After the events of Civil War and then again after Secret Invasion the following heroes also became members of the New Avengers:
Iron Fist, Dr. Strange, Ronin, Mockingbird, Ms. Marvel, Captain America (Bucky).

Mighty Avengers:
After Iron Man left the New Avengers because of the events of Civil War, he started his official, registered Avengers team, also including: Ms. Marvel, Wonder Man, Ares, The Sentry, The Wasp and Black Widow.

After the events of Secret Invasion, Henry Pym (as The Wasp), manipulated by Loki, starts up a new team of Avengers featuring: Hercules and Amadeus Cho, Quicksilver, Jocasta, Stature, Vision and US AGENT.

So, given all of that, who stays and who goes? I'm going to categorize my guesses in three ways- those who I know will be on the team, those who I guess will be on the team, and those who are longshots, but could stick around anyway:

Incidentally, there are some minor spoilers below- don't read if you aren't caught up.

Avengers Assembled:

Given the way that both Siege and the upcoming Heroic Age have been branded, I would put money on Captain America, Iron Man and Thor being on whatever team Marvel assembles. As the Big Three, this is basically a no-brainer. The only real question here is which Captain America will be throwing his shield into the melee and my guess is Bucky Barnes- I expect Steve will stick around in some capacity, but given what goes on in the Who Will Wield the Shield one-shot I think Buck is going to be the one wearing the Flag on a regular basis.

With that said, I'll hazard to say that Avengers mainstays Hank Pym (in who knows what costume) and Clint Barton (and, lets be honest, same deal costume wise) will also be on the team in one form or another. If, for whatever reason, Janet Van Dyne comes back to life, she's here too.

Ms. Marvel will be on the team too, if only because her solo book just ended and, given that Osborn saw fit to replace her on his team, she's clearly an important part of the Avengers mythos.

Finally, I think that Brian Michael Bendis likes Luke Cage (and, also, Jessica Jones) too much to let him fall by the wayside. I read somewhere (or maybe Jon and I talked about this, I can't really remember. Perhaps it's both.) that Bendis turned Cage into a top tier character by sheer force of will, and I think that's exactly right. The only scenarios in which I imagine Luke not staying on involve some sort of attempt at a solo book or, perhaps, some sort of Iron Fist/Power Man team-up series (if it were to be written by Brubaker or Fraction, well, I think I would die of happiness.) Even if one of those come to pass, though, I still have trouble imagining Bendis letting go of one of his favorite characters.

Reserves:

While the Iron Fist has said that he doesn't really fit it on the Avengers, it's hard to imagine a team that Luke Cage is on without Danny Rand far behind. This would be particularly true if Luke has some sort of leadership role/his own time.

I'm not sure what Mockingbird's story is- they seem to be teasing her death in some of the solicits, but they also just brought her back, so I imagine she'll stick around in some capacity, particularly if Clint is on the team too.

Stephen Strange is usually around too- although now that he isn't the Sorcerer Supreme, I don't really know what his deal is. Still, his presence on the team wouldn't be a surprise. At the same time, it is a distinct possibility that Jericho Drumm becomes an Avenger. I suspect it will be one or the other- there really isn't another good place for them.

Hercules and Amadeas Cho come as a package- either they're both on the team or neither of them are and it all sort of depends on the outcome of Assault on New Olympus and whatever the new status they're teasing for Herc is. If Dan Slott is writing it, the likeliness that these two are in goes up.

Who knows whats up with Wolverine? He's in the mix for no other reason than he's been around and also that he sells well.

Quicksilver, too, is sort of an unknown quantity. I'm going to hedge and put him in the middle.

Finally, what about Spider-Man? Does he stay on the Avengers? I think he might, but it's hard to know. I think it's more likely if there are two main teams, but he's been a consistent member since New Avengers started up six years ago. It's a bad idea to count him out, and I suspect it's worthwhile to count him in.

Some Dissassembly Required:

Conceivably, there are some characters who have served in the past, say Wonder Man or She-Hulk, who might be in the mix. Of the two, I imagine Simon is the more likely choice, if only because he repented for serving with the pro-registration heroes on Iron Man's team, and he still lingers in the Avenger's mythos.

Another such long shot is Beast, who has recently taken a leave of absence from the X-Men. He's taken on a starring role in SWORD, so I suspect that's where he'll stay for awhile. Still, I would welcome the big blue guy back to Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

I have no idea what the Sentry's deal is. Depends on what happens in Siege, but my guess is he goes away for awhile.

With two Caps, I think that US Agent is probably superfluous.

Finally, Stature and Vision are in this category only because I think they're going to move to a soon to be announced Young Avengers book. Remember that one of the Siege one-shots is going to be a Young Avengers one- I suspect that they're going to be part of the new status quo.

Well, that's what I've got. How about you, noble readers? Got any ideas of your own?

Gorga's Looking Forward to Wednesday 12/9/2oo9

My thoughts on the comics that interest moi this week!

BIG week:

"the Amazing Spider-Man" #614 (definitely)
Still only beginning to catch up with this book...

"Spider-Man and the Secret Wars" #1 of 4 (probably)

The "Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars" was one of my favorite comics to dig through boxes for in comic shops (sometimes all around the world) when I was a kid, so the idea of dropping in at the BEST moment of the series (the opening of issue #4) and depicting it from my favorite character's POV? I don't even care if this turns out to be out-of-continuity I think I will buy all four!

"Web of Spider-Man" #3 (maybe)

So far I didn't buy #1 and then I bought #2, but mainly only because it was a sale weekend at St. Mark's Comics... Spider-Man never seems to actually show up in these, but I get the feeling they really need to be read to follow the story-line "The Gauntlet" currently going through "Amazing".

"New Avengers Annual" #3 (maybe)
I loved the first annual from a few years ago, felt kind of lukewarm about the second one. Depends on whether the Web-Head shows up. We shall see.

"the Invincible Iron Man" #21 (probably)

Well, the first part of "Stark: Disassembled" in last issue was great (as can be seen in Josh's review here), so we'll see how things move along here. Considering the connections this story should have to the upcoming 'events' from Marvel I should read all of it just to best appreciate "Siege" and whatever the hell "The Heroic Age" will be.

"Daytripper" #1 (probably)
A completely original work from the remarkable team of twins Fabio Moon and Gabriel Bá? Why wouldn't I pick this up?

"Ghostbusters: Past Present Future" (maybe)
The Ghostbusters take on the mythical ghosts of Charles Dickens' classic story "A Christmas Carol"! Deeeeee-lightful!

"God Complex" #1 (maybe)

This looks pretty good to me. Fun, cool, smart.

UPDATE: 12/10/2oo9

So Spidey appears in the "New Avengers Annual". Also? It looks like Bendis is finally going to make sense of the muck he has made out of the character of Hawkeye in this issue. Exciting!

"Web of Spider-Man" by comparison looked okay, but had no Spidey... His name is in the title, right?

"Invincible Iron Man" is really about as excellent as superhero comics get.

"Daytripper" is equally excellent. I can't wait for this series to be complete! It could be truly brilliant.

"God Complex" and the Ghostbusters one-shot? Well, they just seemed a bit too rote, you know? Standard choices being made.

I also took a long and hard look at "Wolverine: Under the Boardwalk" and seriously considered it. Looked very good, but I have TOO MANY COMICS. I passed on it.

"Spider-Man and the Secret Wars" #1? I bought it. I make no apologies.

Already Tired of Tuesday- Daytripper #1

So, I've decided to try a new format for Already Tired of Tuesday, and that format is this- I'm going to pick one book each week, talk about why I'm going to pull it in excruciating detail, and then just list everything else I'm going to take a look at. The old format was getting boring, and it was actually pretty difficult to write, which is why I've been kind of lax about this lately. So, we're going to start this new format with....


Gabriel Ba's and Fabio Moon's Daytripper #1, which I'm almost hysterically excited about. Two of the best artists in comics today, artists who have worked with both rising stars like Matt Fraction and industry stalwarts like Mike Mignola, Bá and Moon do work that is distinctive, moody, smooth and, most importantly, consistently awesome. I have no idea what their abilities as writers are, although they certainly seem to be pretty good from the Daytripper previews I've seen, but I think that the concept (the life of Brazilian obit writer Brás de Oliva Domingos, told non-linearly but in a presumably illuminating way) is interesting enough to support the book even if the writing isn't all there. Make no mistake, though- if you're buying this book, you're buying it for that art. I'm hoping to pleasantly surprised by the writing- Vertigo seems pretty high on it, anyway- but I'll be disappointed if the drawing doesn't blow me away. Did I mention it's set in the twins' home country of Brazil? Beautiful Brazil drawn by artists with bountiful brilliance? What could be better?

Other Things Worth A Peek This Week:
S.W.O.R.D #2
Invincible Iron Man #21

A Post-Thanksgiving Two For One

My belly is full of turkey, I'm at home with my family, and I'm ignoring my copious amounts of homework.

What should I do?

Why, review comics of course! On Tuesday I told you I was going to pick up the new issues of both Invincible Iron Man and Fantastic Four, because I had been looking for a chance to jump on each and this week, both because they seemed like good points to jump on and I was going to be away from the shop with my pull list, seemed like a good opportunity for me to do just that.

Now, before we delve into the comics themselves, I should mention that I've never really been all that interested in either set of characters. My reasons for disliking Tony Stark are well documented, and I don't really want to go into them at this juncture (although you can find them here, if you're interested) and, for some reason, The Fantastic Four have always just rubbed me the wrong way. I think it's probably because I always sort of saw Reed as the driving force behind the team, and I don't like Reed very much, for many of the same reasons I don't like Tony.

With all of that said, there is no Reed Richards in this issue of Fantastic Four, just Ben, Johnny, Sue and the Richards children (who, incidentally, rub me the wrong way just like their father does). The way the issue starts, with Franklin relating the events to Sue, is both very clever, but also very limiting- Franklin is a capable young man, to be sure, but, if there was any real consequence to the events, you could be damn sure we would be seeing the Fantastic Four save the day rather than just hearing Franklin tell us about it. That feeling, that Jonathan Hickman may have outsmarted himself a little, is pretty consistent through out the whole issue. The writing is just a little too clever for its own good, as if Hickman knows something we're not always quite privy to- although this may be because I jumped onto the title here.

Still, the book isn't bad by any means- it's just not particularly noteworthy, either. That the art is inconsistent doesn't really help. I'm unsure where to go from here, with the Fantastic Four. I might pick up another or issue or two, just to see what the book is like from month to month, but I'm not sure.

Now, where Fantastic Four #573 seemed a little bit too clever, Invincible Iron Man #20 seemed just right. Fraction seems to be a master plotter in the old Claremont style, with putting bits and pieces in place that won't come to fruition for years- actually, kind of like the Tony Stark that he's writing. That Tony barely even makes an appearance in the book is pretty incredible, too. He's the catalyst that gets the ball rolling, sure, but other than that it's up to everybody else to get the job done, and that's only the pieces that he's got going on. Where does Madame Masque fit into all of this? Norman Osborn? How does this all fit into Siege? It's all very exciting.

It helps that the trade dress is so damn cool. I don't know if it's something that's new just for Iron Man or what, but I really dig it. Sometimes I think that designing comic book covers is something of a lost art, but that clearly isn't the case here. If I have one complaint, its that I'm not sure how I feel about Salvador Larroca's art. It's not bad, by any means, and he's an excellent storyteller, but it all just feels a little bit, I dunno, mushy.

Still, with only the one, relatively minor, complaint, it's hard for me to imagine not picking up this book for a while to come. Matt Fraction is one of my favorite writers for a reason and if anyone can make Tony Stark interesting, it's probably him.

I Have No Idea What This Means

Any guesses? (from Techland, via Robot 6)

New Clothes Make "The Invincible Iron Man"

Oo! Oo!
Get a load of the new look of the covers of "the Invincible Iron Man" I found presented here.

Gorgeous? Yes. "like a book from the future”(Matt Fraction in interview)? Maybe.

The new look premiers with issue #20.

This and the cover of the second issue with this new look can be seen on Matt Fraction's website along with Fraction's quick comments.

Whatever Happened to the God of Thunder?

It used to be that I thought Thor wasn't very interesting. I used to believe that the most compelling superheroes were those with whom we could identify, those that we see ourselves as. This is a variation on the oft-stated opinion that Batman is the most compelling super-hero because he doesn't actually have any super-powers (which, incidentally, is untrue: Batman's superpower is being as rich as God. I suppose the argument might work with Nightwing, or maybe a character like Hawkeye or Green Arrow but in the context of what I'm about to say and recent events its mostly a moot point).

Both of those suppositions are wrong*.

The latter is wrong mostly because no-one says it about Iron Man (who is a much better Marvel analogue to Batman than Moon Knight, mostly because the basic character type is the same). The reason that no-one makes this argument on Tony Stark's behalf is that, mostly, Tony isn't as interesting as Bruce Wayne, because his hook isn't nearly as fantastic. Iron Man really is just a dude with a lot of money and training; Batman is a dude with lots of money and training whose parents were killed by criminals, scarring him into becoming a psychopath, albeit an awesome one.

I discovered that the former isn't true because of J. Michael Straczynski's run on Thor. I love JMS's Thor. I love it so much that I'm willing to throw out one of my core beliefs about what makes a good superhero concept simply on the basis of a series that I've been reading backwards, from #602 back to #8 (which is far, far less impressive than it sounds, considering the renumbering). I love it so much, in fact, that I have since bought (and fallen in love with) Matt Fraction's Thor One-Shots**, and some Walter Simonson Thor issues out of a fifty-ceny bin.

So, basically, Thor is by far one of the best superhero comics being released at the moment. The problem is, of course, that I have to use a term like "released" loosely, because the timeline between issues seems to roughly consist of forever, and this is extremely frustrating.

Unfortunately, JMS is leaving Thor, apparently beacuse of the big upcoming "Siege of Asgard" event referenced here. Rich Johnston has a couple theories about what this might be, here and here, and although the former has been discredited, the latter seems to be within the realm of possibillity.

That is, until one considers that the most recently announced Marvel Event is called Assault on New Olympus, which sounds sort of similair to "Siege of Asgard" insofar as it involves attacking a new representation of an old home for ancient gods. Now, Marvel is sort of notorius for appropriating ideas from elsewhere (take that Identity Disc miniseries from a few years back or the upcoming Necrosha event, which is basically Blackest Night featuring mutants) but stealing from yourself is a little absurd, even for the House of Ideas.

So, True Believers, the question is this: Is it Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente who are going to bring the God of Thunder back into the Marvel U. proper? Will it be Bendis and Copiel, as Rich proposes? Or is it something else entirely?

For what it's worth, my allowance is on the first option: given both Herc's status as a former Thor supporting character and Amadeus's previous history with helping out heroes in need, as well as the title similarities pointed out above, and the dots seem to connect in all the right places. Still, the second option isn't inconcievable and (despite my modest bashing of Bendis earlier this week) would probably be quite wonderful.

Whatever happens, I'm excited to see where Thor goes- although JMS's issues were so few and far-between, he concocted a great setup for the next guy, and I can only hope that that guy is someone equally as talented.

------------------------------------------------

*This is a sweeping generalization- the kind I should have learned my lesson about with the sweeping generalization made in the introduction- and, as is usually true of such statements, it is incomplete. There are two sets of comics characters who are compelling because they are identifiable, and a third who sort of fits the bill. The first two, are, of course, the X-Men and (if my limited knowledge is correct) The Doom Patrol, both of which are made of heroes both hated by humanity and sworn to protect them. Spider-Man sort of fits the bill, except I suspect we like Peter Parker mostly because we like him, not because we feel like we are him.

**Now, Fraction's work makes me suspect that my first sweeping generalization wasn't so wrong after all- what he makes clear is that Thor exists as we know him in the Marvel comics because he was flawed. Thor was, essentially, cursed to be bound with a mortal because he was a holier-than-thou ass, which rubbed Odin the wrong way. Perhaps if the sweeping generalization is modified into "The only heroes that aren't compelling are those heroes that aren't flawed" which would, of course, mean that Superman may be the least interesting cape of all time- as near as I can tell (despite attempts by people like Brian Azzarello, who's Superman run is fantastic) Supe's only flaw is that he's got this moral code that no one can live up to but him, which maybe the least realistic flaw of all-time. I have no problem with suspension of disbelief (I am blogging about comics, after all), but that's just absurd.