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I Want My Marvel NOW: Fantastic Four #1, Avengers Assemble #9, Thor #1, and the X-Men!

It was a huge day for Marvel NOW today, as six titles came out under the “reboot that isn’t a reboot” banner – four all-new books and two jump-on issues of existing titles. You can read about the previous Marvel NOW releases here. To recap, until today, I liked Deadpool the most, and even after today’s haul, A+X remains the least satisfying of the bunch.

Fantastic Four is near and dear to my heart. This is the comic series that first got me interested in comics. I watched the old cartoon with HERBIE – even watched the teen Ben Grimm TV show, the one with the “Thing Ring” – and because of Fantastic Four, the first comic book artist and writer I ever followed was John Byrne, whose landmark run in the 1980s is still looked up to as the second most definitive run on the book after Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. I’ve checked in on the book now and again over the years, but the only time I’ve had it on my pull list recently was under the care of Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo.

The good news is that Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley’s Fantastic Four feels more like the spiritual successor to Waid’s run than anything I’ve read since. Fraction lays down a new direction – the team are going to slip out of time and space for a bit to teach their children practical lessons in inter-dimensional exploration (while Reed searches for a solution to a newly discovered physical problem he has; one that can’t be solved on Earth), but the tone is highly reminiscent of Waid’s. There’s good-natured humor, comfortable characterization, and an air of anything-goes unpredictability that hints at future greatness.

Bagley seems to be trying something a little different with his art style. There are hints of Alan Davis (or Bryan Hitch by way of Alan Davis, who was obviously an influence on Hitch), but I’m not sure that those kind of larger open panels, with more detail, serve Bagley well. I’d almost rather see him swing the other direction – stripping away his linework to get down to efficient cartooning – but that’s Monday morning quarterbacking on my part. Admittedly, I’ve never been a Bagley fan, though my opinion of his work has mellowed over the past twenty years (when he replaced Larsen on Amazing Spider-Man, I was one sad Spidey fan). He’s a workhorse, and that’s admirable.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. I’m in. It’ll be nice to read this Fantastic Four every month.

Avengers Assemble is the Avengers book that’s supposed to best match the Avengers movie. The thinking here is that someone interested in the team can buy this book and get the characters they expect, behaving pretty much the same way that Joss Whedon made them behave in the blockbuster. It’s the movie tie-in that isn’t a movie tie-in. Brian Michael Bendis, already stretched thin writing two Avengers titles, always seemed like an odd choice for this series, and I was curious how Kelly Sue DeConnick (currently the fastest rising star in comics) would approach the book, knowing that she’d be adding a couple of characters from outside the movie roster (Spider-Woman and Capt. Marvel).

Well, she approached it like DeMatteis/Giffen’s Justice League, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen applied to Avengers before. The book’s number one goal seems to be amusement, with adventure bringing up the rear. It’s a very playful take on the team. DeConnick writes Tony Stark as Robert Downey Jr. straight-up, not even pretending not to (Gillen walks a finer line in the Iron Man monthly, reviewed here). If you’re an Iron Man purist, you might wrinkle your nose, but if you love the Iron Man films, this is the Stark you know.

Heck, if you loved the Avengers movie, this is the book for you. DeConnick seems to be capturing an overall spirit of what she enjoyed about the film (the chemistry between the crew), not tied to servicing specific movie nods like making sure Black Widow or Hawkeye show up (they don’t). Stefano Castelli is called on to do a variety of facial expressions more than big action (just like Kevin Maguire did on Justice League), and he’s a better match with DeConnick’s sensibilities than Dexter Soy is with her on Captain Marvel.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes, but not monthly. Not yet.  It’s so, so close though. I think I need some reassurance from Marvel that this is a book they actually care about, not just a (well-written and entertaining) movie supplement. I need to know that this book is going places.

Thor: God of Thunder sort of shocked me with how good it is. It has the same doomed campfire tale feel as Conan comics have, and the art is really phenomenal. I love Jason Aaron’s Wolverine and the X-Men, and pretty much hated Aaron’s Hulk, so I had no idea what to expect with this book. Aaron sets up the story of a mystery godkiller who has affected Thor’s life across three different eras. The book eschews superheroics for hard fantasy, and benefits greatly because of it. Not all ice cream should be vanilla.

Dean White is giving Esad Ribic’s art a beautiful painted feel, and the team is already indispensable to this title. Often, art this good can’t be maintained on a month-to-month basis, and my one hope for the book is that it finds a way to always look this good as it continues. Aaron’s writing is solid, but this is really a “perfect storm” book – where the art and the words work together to create an exemplary final package. One piece of it is not more important nor more impressive than the other.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? I can’t believe I’ll be buying a Thor book on a monthly basis, but there you have it.

I’d mentioned Wolverine and the X-Men as a book I already enjoy, but issue #19 is the first to bear the Marvel NOW name. What does that mean for new readers? The same thing it means for old readers, turns out. There’s big shake-ups going on at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, and #19, while not a new direction, introduces new dynamics and fresh storylines for the future of the book. The gimmick here, if you haven’t read it, is that Wolverine has started a school in Jean Grey’s name to educate young mutants and let the kids be kids instead of X-Men-in-training. Wolverine is a presence in the title, but the book is really an ensemble piece, with Kitty Pryde and Beast sharing the spotlight with the eclectic student body.

#19 is literally packed with cameos from all across the Marvel Universe, heavy on the humor, and if you try this issue and don’t like it, you’re probably not going to like the series. Kitty’s looking for a new teacher, Wolverine and Beast are assisting a comatose alien student, and something is simmering between Husk (who may be crazy) and Toad (who may be bitter). If you like your books fun, this is a fun one. I’d also recommend it to old fans of Generation X. The spirit of that book lives on in this one.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yep! Month after month! Been reading since #1.

Probably the most hyped book in the Marvel NOW launch is All-New X-Men #1, and it’s the most traditionally X-Men flavored of the three X-books this week (which makes sense, as this one and Uncanny X-Men are the flagships of the X-brand). Bendis’s first issue feels dense, which is a welcome change for that particular writer, and he’s assisted by career-best artwork from Stuart Immonen (with inks by Wade Von Grawbadger).

In the aftermath of Avengers Vs. X-Men (AVX), Cyclops has distanced himself from Xavier’s dream of a peaceful mutant/human cohabitation. Instead, he’s allied with former villains White Queen and Magneto, and he’s scooping up as many mutants as he can as part of a militant mutant agenda. The X-Men are, of course, concerned about Cyclops basically becoming the next Magneto, so Beast concocts a kooky plan that involves going back in time and bringing the Cyclops from the past to the the present day to talk some sense into his future self.

It’s all sort of ridiculous in a big comic book way, but, damned if it isn’t entertaining. Bendis only seems to operate under the desire to create definitive runs of whatever book he’s working on (the success of those attempts can be argued), and while it’s way too early to start throwing words like “definitive” around, you at least know that this is a writer with plans.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes, it’s going on the pull list. I want to know what happens next.

X-Men Legacy #1 has an uphill battle ahead. I don’t think anyone is a fan of Legion aka David Haller, the psycho son of Professor Charles Xavier, but if there is a fan out there, they’re in luck. Legion has his own solo book now.

And it’s not bad, but it’s not an easy sell. In the first issue, Legion’s multiple personalities are being extinguished under the training of someone called Guru Merzah, until Legion gets a psychic vision of what Cyclops did to his father at the end of AVX, and all of his training goes out the window. This is the oddest book yet in the Marvel NOW launch, feeling far removed from the Marvel U, with just a dash of psychotronic Vertigo flavor. I’m not even sure how it got past the pitch stage, but kudos to the X-editors for taking a chance.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? No, but this is a book that deserves a shot. Writer Simon Spurrier’s doing weird stuff in here, and I’m not sure how this series will sustain past 4 or 5 issues. The only way it could sustain is to get even weirder, and if that’s where it goes, I could see this becoming a cult favorite. This has an audience. It isn’t me, but I hope it finds its people.

NEXT WEEK: Rick Remender and John Romita Jr. on Captain America #1 and Mark Waid and Francis Leinil Yu on The Indestructible Hulk #1.

I Want My Marvel NOW: Iron Man #1, Deadpool #1, and A+X #1

I’m giving each of the Marvel NOW books a fair shake; I reviewed the first two here (Uncanny Avengers #1 and Red She-Hulk #58), and so far so good. “So far so good” is typically the case at Marvel these days – nothing is ever truly god-awful, though some books are better than others. Since I’ve gotten back into collecting on a regular basis (2010), Marvel’s stuff across the board has been, at the very least, enthusiastic. What I mean is, no one seems to be just phoning it in. That effort is appreciated, even when some of the individual titles aren’t my cup of tea. I could do without invasive cross-over events spilling into my monthlies, but that’s pretty much the nature of the beast at this point.

I’ve never collected Iron Man on a monthly basis, and I think my interest in the title was at its highest in the late 80′s, during the Micheline/Bright storyline that introduced a new gold and red armor after a few years of silver and red. There’s a part of me, the Avengers fan part, that always hopes that Iron Man will hook me, but so far I’ve remained unhooked.

Iron Man #1 from Kieron Gillen and Greg Land is no exception. There seems to be a concerted effort from Marvel to Robert-Downey-Jr-ize the character of Tony Stark, making sure that Iron Man’s dialogue sounds like things Downey would say. It’s not nearly as noticeable as DC’s effort to Ryan-Reynolds-ize Hal Jordan, mostly because Stark isn’t so far removed from Downey as Jordan is from Reynolds (Hal was never a smartmouth). At any rate, this is the quick-witted playboy that fans expect from the Iron Man films, right down to the snappy patter with Pepper Potts. For those coming in for the first time from the movies, the rhythms of the book will feel comfortable.

What won’t be so welcoming is the book’s reliance on prior knowledge of the Extremis storyline from a few years ago. Strangely, Iron Man #1 is another Marvel NOW book (like Uncanny Avengers) that doesn’t provide as clean a jump-on point as advertised. You can follow its storyline with the context provided, but there’s definitely a feeling that you’re missing something as you read.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? No…however, try it – you might like it. I don’t really care what happens next, but Gillen’s writing is respectable and Land draws a cool Iron Man (the black and gold armor looks pretty good in action). There’s just nothing about this new direction that feels like a new direction.

Deadpool is another character whose books I’ll dip into sporadically, but never monthly. Last thing I read was the David Lapham and Kyle Baker MAX run, which should’ve been a homerun for me, considering that I love both of those creators, but I dropped it after the initial issues, and I literally have no recollection of why. I can’t even remember what the storyline was.

I liked Deadpool #1. I expected comedians Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan to write a funny line or two for the “merc with a mouth,” but I don’t think I expected the plotting itself to feel so assured. Posehn and Duggan do write some funny stuff here, but it’s as well-paced and inventive as any Marvel book written by a veteran writer. What felt like a bit of a gimmick – two well-known fringe comics on a fringe title with a popular fringe character – is actually the real deal. It’s a funny action book, fully comfortable with the trappings of the Marvel U, while skirting the edge between ridiculous and cool.

They’re helped by artist Tony Moore, whose work here is more comfortable than ever before, as if this is exactly the thing he’s been waiting his entire career to draw. It’s not even that it’s technically his best artwork; it’s that the energy of the work is at a higher level than he’s ever displayed. Moore is getting off on this, and you can tell.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. I’m not committing it to the old pull list just yet, but it’s so close. At the very least, I’ll be completing this first arc, and we’ll see where it goes from there. I’d recommend this if you were a fan of the old DeMatteis/Giffen Justice League.

Deadpool #1 also contains the only Marvel AR stuff yet that fulfills the promise of the smart phone application. If you’ve been curious about the app, this is the best book to try it out. Scanning certain AR-marked panels with my phone revealed a video interview with Brian Posehn and a cheap, weird puppet show that explained the origin of Deadpool. More stuff like this, Marvel; less stuff like narrated word balloons or videos of unlettered pages.

A+X is supposed to be a team-up book featuring an Avengers cast member and an X-Men cast member, but considering how Marvel has blurred the line between the two teams, this may as well be called Marvel Universe. I think the only character ineligible from appearing is Man-Thing, though somebody probably made him an honorary Avenger at some point. Who knows.

The first issue has two stories – one with Captain America and Cable, from Dan Slott and Ron Garney, and one with Hulk and Wolverine, from Jeph Loeb and Dale Keown. My cover for #1 has Spider-Man and Green Goblin on it, characters who aren’t even mentioned inside. At any rate, it was interesting to see the evolution of two artists whose work I’ve enjoyed in the past. Garney seems to have become a more comfortable cartoonist, while Keown, who only draws sequential pages once in a blue moon, seems to have regressed. There’s a stiffness to the work that reminded me a lot of Brandon Peterson’s first Jim Lee knock-off X-Men stuff. Beyond his initial Incredible Hulk run, Keown has never shown much interest in producing monthly work, and I’ve always wondered how his art would’ve evolved if he was more dedicated to craft. His lack of output in the past twenty years is comics’ loss.

Slott’s story reads like a back-up tale that’s been tucked away in a drawer for use in a book that was running late. It’s readable, diverting, and brief. Loeb’s story stinks, especially in the dialogue department. Hulk says things like,  ”I’m punching you back to wherever you came from!” while Wolverine busts out a late-90′s “Whatever” in the middle of a fight. In it, modern Wolverine and Hulk fight Old Man Logan and Maestro until those two baddies disappear. Then there’s a last panel reveal, with a “The End…for now!” caption, that may or may not be addressed in the next issue. A+X is the worst of the new Marvel NOW books so far, and its thin concept and thinner stories place its head directly on the cancellation chopping block right from the start.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? This is a loaded question. No, definitely not monthly. Sometimes I do get suckered in with the right mix of characters, so it’s entirely possible I might pick up another issue someday. Out of all the titles so far, though, this is the one I’d tell people to skip entirely.

I Want My Marvel NOW: Uncanny Avengers #1 and Red She-Hulk #58

ImageI’ve read the first Marvel NOW books! Uncanny Avengers #1 and Red She-Hulk #58 (replacing Hulk, which starred Red Hulk who is moving on to Thunderbolts, not to be confused with Incredible Hulk, starring Green Hulk, which just got canceled to make way for Indestructible Hulk #1) came out recently, and I’d been waffling on whether or not I was going to buy them all (like I did with DC’s New52). I actually picked up Uncanny day-of, and passed up Red She-Hulk, but went back and bought it after New52′s “Zero Month” proved to be one of the biggest creative missteps I’ve ever seen from a major publisher (more on that soon, I promise). If I wanted to compare Marvel NOW to New52, I’d need to read more than just one book.

Both books were just fine – neither set my imagination ablaze, but I also didn’t want to shred them upon reading. Uncanny Avengers #1 was more of an epilogue to AVX than I expected, less of a clean start, but the way Rick Remender meshes the Avengers world with the X-Men world makes sense and does provide a unique mash-up of both teams. It’s not quite the Avengers; not quite the X-Men. Much has been written about the final splash page cliffhanger, but I had no real opinion on it one way or the other. My immediate thought was that it was kind of comic book dumb in a way that didn’t feel at home with the rest of the book. I’m hooked with the concept, but not that final page.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. I haven’t added it to my pull-list, but I liked it enough to come back for a second issue. I’m game. Let’s see where this goes.

ImageRed She-Hulk #58 was pretty much nothing but punching. There’s a government agency making new super soldiers, and Betty Ross aka Red She-Hulk aka Hellion (a name I didn’t even know she had since no one ever seems to use it) is super-pissed about it. She beats up all the new meta-humans and warns the directors of the program to stop running experiments like this. The government calls up Captain America to find out exactly why Hellion is so mad about it, because they’ve spent time and money and have work to do, dammit.

What I wanted was to be sold on why Hellion should exist in a Marvel U that already has so many Hulks – what makes her any different – and instead I got a fairly standard Hulk vs. military action issue.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? No. But don’t let that stop you from trying it out for yourself. I didn’t think the book sucked outright; I just prefer more characterization amongst my smashing. If anything, it reminded me of Loeb’s early issues of Hulk, where the focus was definitely on the punching.