Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "marvel-comics"

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 4 by Carl Burgos

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book picks up where Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Marvel Comics, Vol. 3 or Golden Age Marvel Comics Omnibus, Vol. 1 left off and collects Issues 13-16 of the golden age Marvel Mystery Comics.

The line up of characters is the same throughout all four issues and with one exception, it was the same line up as had been in Marvel Mystery Comics at the end of the previous book. Here are some thoughts:

1) Human Torch: The Human Torch has a great story involving a fire cult in Issues 14 and 15 sandwiched between the Torch fighting Terrorists in Issue 13 and Nazis in a pre-war story in Issue 16. These stories hang together pretty well and there's a great deal of complexity in the fire cult story which actually had some great plot twists in it.

2) Submariner-The Submariner began inching towards the "good guy" category. He fights Nazis in every issue but Issue Issue 15. Unfortunately, in Issue 15, he goes to New York and kidnaps a man and his girlfriend with the intent of forcing her to be his bride. (So not entirely on the side of the angels yet.)

The Submariner stories are connected but that leads to an odd switch. After issue 15, he goes from trying to kidnap the girl and defeat her beau to having them both accompany him to Europe to fight Nazis. Not quite Casablanca, but an interesting shift. In reality, this was setting up the second big Namor-Torch crossover in Marvel Mystery Comics #17 but the breakneck redirection is a little awkward. Also, Namor wears a helmet that looks like its pig shaped in this book. Whenever artists get Namor into wardrobe, things get weird.

That leaves the rest of the book and once again we're left with a mix between the good, the mediocre, and the bad:

On the good side, Ka-zar the Great has a solid plot in Issues 13-15 trying to get back to civilization and rescue his lion brother Zar before meeting a recurring villain back in the Jungle in Issue 16. Terry Vance, School Boy Sleuth continues to provide lighthearted fun with some amazing adventure. My favorite has Terry giving his Dr. Watson, his pet monkey, a gun to guard the bad guys with.

A little less good was the Vision. Not to be confused with the Android of later years, the golden Age Vision was an interdimensional/supersnatural being in stories that were somewhere between Horror and Science Fiction. The stories and art were by Jack Kirby which makes them imaginative and worth reading even if they don't always make sense.

On the down side, the stories featuring the Angel are, if anything, even more boring than prior stories. The stories of Electro the Wonder Robot astonish me only to the degree that they managed to stick around so long. They were simply repetitive and uninteresting.

Bottom Line: It's a decent collection even if a lot of space is wasted. I'm looking forward to Volume 5 and the next meeting of Submariner and the Human Torch.



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What If? Classic, Vol. 2 by Don Glut

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What If? was Marvel's 1970s magazine taking a look at how many of Marvel's most notable stories and characters could have gone another direction. At this point, each issue is hosted by the Watcher as a Rod Serlingesque guide to these alternate realities.

This second collection of What If Tales has some extra fun features. Chief among them is the inclusion of Why Not? the letters page which gives key insights as to what writers were thinking and how readers reacted. The only downside is that some of the letters have to do with Issues 5 and 6 which were in the last book, but still there's some great insight.

With that said, let's get to the stories:

Issue 7: What if Someone Else Besides Spider-man Had Been Bitten by the Radioactive Spider: Three different alternate timelines where Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, and Colonel John Jameson were bitten by the radioactive spider. It's a solid story, with the John Jameson story having the most startling deviation in the timelime. It also had a great message about what it takes to be a hero. Overall, I'll give this story a B+.

Issue 8: What if the World Knew Daredevil Was Blind? and What if the Spider Had Been Bitten by a Radioactive Human: The first story, which takes up the bulk of the issue, is just stupid. It's far fetched to imagine Electro guessing that Daredevil is blind. And the way he proves it (because DD can't tell the color of Electro's uniform) is stupid because that could mean that Daredevil's color blind which is something else entirely. Even if Electro did believe Daredevil was blind, the odds of him convincing other supervillains of that is slim. It's also stupid to suggest that this would destroy his effectiveness as a crimefighter. This was just a dumb story all around. The second story is an okay and slightly amusing funny animal superhero parody, but it can raise this issue above Grade: D+.

Issue 9: What if the Avengers Had Fought Evil During the 1950s?: This was a Don Glut script based on a Roy Thomas concept and it was a good idea that would later become Agents of A.T.L.A.S. as this 1950s Avengers team was made up of characters that were published in ATLAS comics such as Venus and Marvel Boy as they fought 1950s villain The Yellow Claw. This was a decent concept marred only by the end which suggested that the Avengers couldn't make it because the 1950s were so evil and paranoid and everyone was scared of everything having to do with superheroes which is why Adventures of Superman was a ratings hit during that decade. Lame. Grade: B

Issue 10: What if Jane Foster Had Found the Hammer of Thor: The story involves Jane Foster rather than Donald Blake finding the hammer of Thor and Foster becomes Thordis. This is a fun concept with a lot of great scenes. The story's weakness is an ending that really tries to have the story end with traditional continuity come back in one change that's a little bit creepy but not too much. Grade: A-

Issue 11: What if the Original Marvel Bullpen Had Become the Fantastic Four: This story imagines Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Saul Brodsky, and Marvel Secretary Flo Steinberg getting the powers of the FF and trying to find out who caused them to get the powers. The story is actually pretty good and played fairly straight. It was written and drawn by Jack Kirby and as the letters page this was the first FF story written by Kirby and it works fairly well. Grade: A

Issue 12: What if Rick Jones Had Become the Hulk?: This story asks the question of what would have happened if Rick Jones had saved Bruce Banner from turning into the Hulk. The result is actually a solid tale. The one weakspot is that Rick gets trained by Captain America who voluntarily gave him a new Bucky costume. That's a pretty radical departure from cannon and we'd need some explanation to make it work well. Still, it's an alternate universe, so they can probably get away with it. Grade: A-

Overall, another fun and solid collection.



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o, the Internet is all abuzz about the announcement by Marvel that there’s going to be a female Thor.1

Due to the media coverage, there’s quite a bit of confusion and misinformation out there. A few key issues are worth clarifying.

1) Thor is not getting a sex change. The person who is Thor will still be around with his gender intact, but the powers of Thor will be wielded by a woman.

When it comes to the confusion, the media is at fault for reporting this “story,” because it’s a pure PR gimmick as anyone who follows the comic book world knows. The average person has a view that most heroes are defined by one person: Peter Parker is Spider-man, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Steve Rogers is Captain America, and Tony Stark is Iron Man. However at different times, Ben Reilly was Spider-man, Bucky Barnes was Captain America, Dick Grayson was Batman, and Jim Rhodes was Iron Man. Comic companies like to imagine that a costumed identity can be passed on. Usually, the character people associate with the identity end up returning, as will no doubt be the case with Thor.

Thor is an odd case. While we can imagine a female Captain America, Thor is not an androgynous name. Marvel does have some precedent to justify this, going back to a What If? alternate universe story for the 1970s as well as both the Young Avenger movies, and the MC2 Universe featuring teenage girls wielding Thor-like powers.

2) This will have no impact whatsoever on the upcoming Avengers movie. The movies and the comics exist in separate universes, though it’s probably fair to wonder if this will all be resolved by the time the movie comes out.

3) Why is Marvel doing this? Because gimmicks are Marvel's Twenty-first century substitute for writing good stories that people want to read. Through stories like Civil War, One More Day, Avengers v. X-men, Shadowlands, and the entire Superior Spider-man saga, Marvel has made a habit of telling stories that may violate the characters they're writing but will attract controversy and interest and sell books. Thor is vulnerable to this because the title's sales are weak. In June, Thor: God of Thunder #23 ranked #55 with less than 40,000 sales.

They especially like it if they can start a book off with a new Issue 1. Marvel will have collectors rush to grab it in the hopes that it'll someday be worth something and will lead to a bump in sales. That's why they did a new Issue 1 for Daredevil after 36 issues, for the Incredible Hulk after 20 issues, and Captain Marvel after 17.

As if to emphasize this strategy, the day after word of the female Thor came out, it was announced that the #71 ranked Captain America will feature African-American superhero Sam Wilson as the new Captain America.

Marvel especially likes it when they can start a book off with a new Issue 1. Marvel will have collectors rush to grab it in the hopes that it’ll someday be worth something and will lead to a bump in sales. That’s why they did a new Issue 1 for Daredevil after 36 issues, for the Incredible Hulk after 20 issues, and Captain Marvel after 17.

Like Superior Spider-Man, this is a gimmick that will run until Marvel feels sales slipping, then they’ll go back to the original Thor.

The other thing that drives this is the same thing that drives the, "They should make the next Doctor a woman," calls. It's a belief that women really want to see all male heroes supplanted and have women as the Doctor or as Thor. However, Doctor Who showrunner Stephen Moffat said of the decision not to have a female Doctor, "Oddly enough most people who said they were dead against it – and I know I’ll get into trouble for saying this – were women."

Having a woman take over the lead in an existing TV show or a comic represents an attempt to grow market share among women that’s seen as less risky than investing the time and marketing budget to create a brand for a new character, but there’s little evidence women are really interested in female characters that are derivative substitutes for male characters. While a female Thor may be a great gimmick, what is more likely to excite readers and viewers are unique and well-written female characters.

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Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor - Volume 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the first eighteen Thor stories which appeared in the anthology series Journey Into Mystery Issue 83-100. Overall, these are impressive stories with great art by Jack Kirby. Kirby brings Thor and all these amazing Asgardian characters to life with some of his best work for Marvel in the 1960s.

Having read the first adventures of a variety of Marvel heroes, it seems to me that these early Thor Adventures are the most DC-like creation Stan Lee came up with. Throughout most of these stories, Thor is much more iconic than he is human, a lot more like Superman than Spider-man.

The romantic relationship stuff might have been the only thing that was Marvelesque because the general template of Don Blake's relationship to Jean Foster was the same as Peter Parker to Betty Brant, Matt Murdoch to Karen Page, and Tony Stark to Pepper Potts.

However, the villains really work well and provide some of the books' strongest moments. Loki (and his dupes) are perfect foils for Thor and they're in a lot of stories. This book also sees the first appearance of Mister Hyde and the Radioactive Man. The writers also wrote, "Tales of Asgard" which gave Marvel adaptations of Norse legends which was helpful since Norse mythology was not nearly as well known as the Greek or Roman

Overall, this book was a lot of fun. It doesn't rise to the level of emotional engagement of the best Marvel books and it's not quite as fun as DC's most entertaining books, but it's still a very enjoyable read with great art and a good concept for a character.



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What If? Classic Vol. 6 (What If? by Danny Fingeroth

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Issues 33-38 of What if? Are collected in this book.

Issue 33 features two stories:

What if Dazzler had become the Herald of Galactus?...A plot turn that makes more sense than what happened in the mainstream continuity. Surprisingly good and a bit poignant. Grade: B+

What if Iron Man had been trapped in King Arthur's Time?...Essentially, what would have happened if Tony Stark had been doublecrossed by Doctor Doom when they teamed up to escape the time of King Arthur. A compelling story with some great twists. Grade A-

Issue 34 is the humor Issue. It reads a bit more like Marvel's parody comic What The? However, it's filled with pages of rapid fire jokes with multiple joke what ifs on some pages and no concept take up more than a couple pages. Some are now politically incorrect, and some are stupid, but there are enough funny ones to keep you laughing through the stupid ones. Overall, not bad. Grade: B-

Issue 35 features three stories:

What if Bullseye had not killed Elektra?...Drawn and written by Frank Miller himself. This is a decent story. May have inspired the end of Dark Knight Rises. He even gives the watcher a Noirish feel. Overall, a decent if not spectacular story. Grade: B

And Thus are Born the Cat People: An untold tale of the Marvel Universe, like was done with the Eternals in another collection. This was in fun, kind of B Movie sci fi with a Marvel twist. Grade: B+

What if Yellowjacket Had Died?: Yellowjacket (the then latest superhero identity of Hank Pym) continued attacking after a villain surrendered, leading to his eventual court martial. What if he had died? Then my friends, there would have been Avengers drama. It's a somewhat believable take on what might have happened with a strain on the team and his wife Jan ( who would divorce him) becoming desirous of vengeance. Overall, okay, but not spectacular. Grade: B-

Issue 36 featured two stories:

What if the Fantastic Four had not gained their powers?: This one lays out the very reasonable scenario of Reed Richards deciding to be reasonable and wait for an appropriate ship to go into space, which means no one gets powers. However, what happens when the threat of the Mole Man emerges? It's a story that shows what makes the Fantastic Four heroes and it's not their powers, it's their hearts, minds, and family feel. Grade: B+

What if Nova had not given up his powers?: This book asks what would have happened if the original Nova (Richard Ryder) had chosen to remain on Xandar to hold on to his powers and then tried to escape back to Earth with him rather than surrendering him as the Xandarians required if he went home. This story illustrates the problem with What If? stories. There's only a range of stories which are believable. Twists of fate and choices that are within their personality you can do, but if you stray too far from who these people, they're no longer recognizable, and this is the case here as Ryder's behavior is totally inconsistent with the heroic persona. The story is a boring battle scene with a stupid attempt at a moral. Grade: D

Issue 37:

What if the Thing continued to mutate? The first of a doubleheader on continuing mutation finds a mutation continuing far beyond what happened in the main continuity. It's a well thought out story with a very nice ending. Grade: A-

What if the Beast continued to mutate? This story takes a different direction, as the mutation that turned the beast Blue goes even further turning him into a real beast. The way the X-men handle it is consistent and the ending is intriguing. Grade: B

What if Galactus had turned the Silver Surfer into Norrin Radd? And Reed Richards had actually made it possible for him to return to Zenn-la. File this one in the, "The Silver Surfer can't win," file along with the, "Ain't Galactus fickle" file. Grade: B-

Issue 37 focused on possible future:

First are the Avengers, as the Scarlet Witch is in her last days and the Vision is trying to cope with it. Never a big fan of the Vision-Scarlet Witch relationship but this story becomes a beautiful tale of love and sacrifice. Though, the imagination put into future Avengers was bit lazy. Grade: A-


What if Sharon Carter had not died?: A look at what if Steve Rogers and Sharon Carter had a family. It features the Red Skull to boot. It's another enjoyable tale. Grade: A-

Daredevil 2013!: An over the hill Daredevil is working at the U.N., where his old love Natasha comes for an official visit, but they both are drawn in when an old enemy attacks. The art's not great, but the story is well-done and has a very solid conclusion to the volume. Grade: B+

Overall, I think (with the exception of the Nova story), this is one of the strongest What If? Classic volumes with many enjoyable favorites for fans of classic Marvel comics.



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Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Sub-Mariner, Vol. 2 by Bill Everett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 5-8 of the Golden Age Sub-Mariner series. It includes eight full-length Sub-Mariner stories, four Angel stories, as well as humor strips and back-up features.

The Sub-Mariner stories are not as good as in previous volumes. Creator Bill Everett left the strip to go fight in the war and other artists took over including some who didn't get how the Submariner worked. (One actually wrote that the Submariner had to go on land when it started raining.) There are plenty of Sub-Mariner wartime adventures, fought mostly against Japan in this volume with some good action sequences. He also got into more traditional comic book territory as he fought underwater Zombie pirates. The stories in this collection are not great, but I would say are above average for Golden Age material still, though being World War II, there are a couple of cringy moments.

The Angel reallys hines as he takes on some really bizarre and creepy foes. His one war-related tale has his against a villain who uses people's dreams to get them to commit murder. He also faces another foe who uses skeletons to commit murder, as well as a frustrated writer who turns to murder so he can write about it realistically.

The humor features are mixed. The Pop's Whoppers feature in the first three issues is about a cop who tells lies to impress people. It's a bit repetitive. The Tubby and Tack story in the final issue is really a cute little kids comic strip that was fun to read.

The two page text stories are above average. Two of them are good suspense tales by future Mike Hammer writter Mickey Spillane. In addition, the book features an introduction by the great Roy Thomas, which is always a highlight.

Overall, this is still a good read if you're a fan of the Sub-mariner or Golden Age comics in general.



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Essential Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1 by Gerry Conway

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the entire Miss Marvel series from the 1970s (1-23) along with two previously unpublished stories that were released with Marvel Superheroes Magazine #10 and #11 in the 1990s, and Avenger Annual #10. While Carol Danvers had been introduced in 1968, this book really marks her heroic beginnings as Miss Marvel.

Throughout the book, Miss Marvel is a battler, having the knowledge of a Kree Warrior. The character was introduced when seventeen page issues had become the norm and this leads to some tight and exciting battles. My favorite stories in here are found towards the back of the book. Issues 17 and 18 have her dealing with a murderous plot involing SHIELD and the Avengers. Issue 19 sees Ronan the Accuser trying to take her and Captain Marvel back to the Kree homeworld in a good team up. In Issue 20, she gets a new (much better) costume and begins a two part story involving sentient lizards in the desert. The story in Marvel Superheroes #11 shows how she began investigating the death of a friend and ultimately ran into the then villainous Rogue and Mystique and lost her powers and memories to them. Avengers Annual #10 is a great story about the Avengers having to fight Rogue, but Miss Marvel's main role in this is as the inciting character and to chew the Avengers out over something they did in an issue not collected in this book.

The biggest challenge with this book is the character of Miss Marvel and Carol Danvers. Probably the main point of sympathy is her relationship with her dad, class A chauvinist who won't accept that she can do anything and when she was younger refused to pay for her college because he was spending all the college savings on her brother. Beyond that, the writers tried to give her some feelings of duality for the first dozen issues. But beyond that, she comes close to becoming an example of the "Strong, Independent Woman" archetype that replaced the damsel in distress...and is just about as interesting. In the first issue, she's hired on to edit a magazine for J. Jonah Jameson, says in the interview that she'll ignore the his vision of the magazine and edit the thing her way. She bulldozes him so that Jameson gives her the pay rate she demands to run the magazine the opposite of how he actually wants it run. Again, this is J. Jonah Jameson.

To be clear, the stories are all good fun, if you're looking for some fine comic action. The writing is by Gerry Conway (for the first three issues) and then by Chris Claremon, two comic book legends. The art is all competently done. This book will give you some fun action. If you're looking for a deeper and more well-rounded female character, however, you'd do better to check out Spider-woman and She-hulk books that came out a few years later.



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Captain Marvel Vol. 1: Rise of Alpha Flight by Michele Fazekis

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects the first five issues of the post-DeConnick run on Captain Marvel. Kelly DeConnick began her previous run by giving Carol Danvers command of her own starship and consciously made her a female take on Captain Kirk. In this volume, she's given command of a spaceship, so now she's the Marvel Universe's Captain Sisko or maybe we're going with Babylon Five and she's Commander Sheridan.

At any rate, she's in command and the crew are members of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight. And there's a ghost ship arrives and she sees the Hala Star she wears on her chest on the ship.

This isn't a bad book. It's got a nice little mystery and some imaginative art to capture all the alien species. But it's not a good book either. The plot isn't mind-blowing. It's comparable to maybe an average episode of Deep Space Nine, but with far less characterization. The only character that really is memorable at all is Lt. Commander Brand who is Carol's second in command and a bit of a foil to her. The rest are pretty forgettable. The book just doesn't have time to focus on characters because even though Carol's in space, she has to be involved in the next big ultra mega company crossover, Civil War II. The result is a story that has some good elements, but is pretty well disposable.



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The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now by Ryan North

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The book features the first six issues of volume 2 of the Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, along with Issue 6 o Howard the Duck as part of a crossover.

The first issue is a one-shot that establishes the characters, has Squirrel Girl (Doreen's) mother come for a visit and embarrass her and then we have a Brain Drain appear. The first issue felt a bit over-stuffed and had moments when it was trying to hard

Issues 2-5 is a four-part story that finds Doreen sent back into the time to the early 1960s before the age of Superheroes began. She finds other former ESU Computer Science students also sent back with her. She enjoys the styles of the time and sends a message to her friend Nancy. Unfortunately, the only help Nancy can find come from Doctor Doom. This is a fun travel story that also manages to effectively make fun of Doctor Doom's egotism and his often overrated sense of honor.

Finally the book concludes with a crossover with Howard the Duck. What begins as a search for a missing cat turns into a life and death battle as our heroes face a woman determined to hunt the deadliest game. The first part of this story (Squirrel Girl #6) is really good and has some nice funny moments but the final issue (Howard the Duck #6) is a pretty standard paint by numbers story that often gets Squirrel Girl's voice wrong.

Overall, this book still h has more enjoyable moments than not, so this is wroth a read.



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Defenders Masterworks Vol. 1 (Defenders by Steve Englehart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 34 and 35 of Sub-mariner, Marvel Feature 1-3 1-3, and Defenders 1-6 and introduces Marvel’s novel non-team of Superheroes. The Sub-mariner story is kind of a backdoor pilot that sees Namor recuring the Silver Surfer and the Hulk to save humanity from an ill-advised experiment. Then the Marvel Feature stories are more full-blown that has Doctor Strange calling for aide fro m Sub-mariner and the Hulk. Those three issues ended on a note that could have wrapped up the Defenders, but instead we got the full series which stars Strange, Namor, and the Incredile Hulk, but also an occasional from the Silver Surfer. The most important issue in this book may be Issue 4 which introduced Valkyrie who joined the Defenders as much as anyone can.

Of course, the Defenders is a non-team, and I didn’t fully grasp what that actually meant until reading the book. They have no secret headquarters and communicators. If one of them runs into a crisis they can’t handle, they call on as many of the others as they can. The book features a combustive mixture of personalities that makes the 1977 Yankees look tame by comparison with Namor being the second most level-headed member of the group. The Defenders are so entertaining and fun to read together that it makes the book worth reading. The art is well-done and manages to give the team a lot to do. You get to see some of the most combustible characters in the Marvel Universe let loose in glorious four colors.

Probably the worst thing to say about the book is that the villains are obscure, and I think that’s almost inherent with the format. Though one villain they face twice almost destroys the world, so it’s not the villains are weak, so much as they are little known.

Overall, I enjoyed this and will definitely check out Volume 2.




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