Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 72

Book Review: Betrotal of Sontar

Doctor Who: The Betrothal of Sontar by Gareth Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the Tenth Doctor's first comic book stories, with all but the last one having Rose as his companion. The strips originally appeared in Doctor Who Magazine Issues 365-380 and the the 2007 Doctor Who Story Book.

The Betrothal of Sontar (365-367): The first 10th Doctor comic book story and the titular story from this collection finds the Doctor on an arctic world where a bunch of deviations in the Sontarans have a base far from the action of the war and under the command of a purebred Sontaran who ends ups using the Doctor to find a doomsday weapon. This is actually the weakest story in the book. It's a Sontaran story where no one acts like a Sontaran. The purebed Sontaran has a mustache and sits around alone with his chest plate off revealing a hairy chest and wears fur shoulder pads. Even with a generic alien, this would be an average story. For bungling the Sontarans, it's a notch below that. Grade: D+

The Lodger (368): The Doctor is stuck on Earth and living with Mickey for a spell. The story is fun and does a nice job putting the Doctor into a unique situation. Roberts would later take the idea of the comic and make it a TV script for the 11th Doctor. You'll find the barebones of the idea here but other than the Doctor being good at soccer, little of the plot crosses over. Grade: A-

F.A.Q. (369-371): This is a story that actually is reminiscent of "Fear Her" (a story that aired in the same series as the comic strips), so it's weird the magazine ran this one. The story is better than "Fear Her" but the similarities are striking. At any rate, the Doctor and Rose arrive in a block where weird things are happening and people are disappearing and strange things start happening including mysterious disappearance and three boys being turned into trees. It all seems to center on a boy and is sister. This story twists around like a pretzel, it's very clever and rich with a lot of emotion, psychology, and misdirection at work. The commentary in the back reveals the real life modeling of the characters which makes the story even more enjoyable. Great concept and really good execution. Grade: A

The Futurists (372-374): This is the type of story you see in comics, audio, and novels, but never on the TV series as we have a story based on an obscure fact of history, sprinkle in sci fi and enjoy. In this case, the Doctor and Rose land in Italy between the Wars where the Futurists are beginning a movement that would become Italian fascism. An alien transports one of these Futurists back in time and gives him the chance to conquer the world. This is a wonderfully researched story that has several great twists in the final parts. Mike Collins art is great throughout the book (excepting some of the Sontaran designs in the first story of course.) but this is his best work in the book. I love his drawings of 1920s Italy and the clothing for the era is superb too. There's also a few nice humor bits sprinkled throughout.I loved Rose showing the psychic paper to an illiterate soldier. Grade: A+

Interstellar Overdrive (375-376): The TARDIS lands on a tour ship featuring a zombified singer leading a band of misfit has-beens. Of course, there's a murder mystery and a few nice end-jokes. The Time Loop that's a big plot device for the cliffhanger is a bit weak as the Doctor and Rose remember everything which serves to expedite the time loop solution but also isn't really how those things should work. Still, this is a fun story. Grade: B+

Opera of Doom (2007 Doctor Who Story Book): This story finds the Doctor taking Rose to the opera where strange things are afoot and an alien eats music. This is a story that's too short but that's really the fault of the BBC which demanded a shorter length to protect its Doctor Who Annual and that hurt this tale. It could have done with a few more pages, but it's okay as is with a nice comic and some good lines. Grade: B

The Green Eyed Monster (DWM 377): In Rose's final comic story, writer Nev Fountain decided to play with the idea promoted by many that Rose and her crew were kind of poor and trashy where Rose's adventures with the Doctor and one adventure in particular are fodder for a Jerry Springereseque Daytime talk show. This strip not only gets Mickey in, but also Jackie and in a quiet unusual way. Fountain manages to gently poke fun at some of Doctor Who's tropes as an alien princess tells the Doctor, "Our scientists have been mystified as to why our planet is solely populated by stunningly attractive with physical ages of eighteen to twenty." The strip does a lot in 10 pages, playing with Rose's jealousy of other women around the Doctor, perceptions of the Tyler family, and even works a riff of Peter Davison's famous line from the Fury of the Deep. Nicely done. Grade: A

The Warkeeper's Crown: The only visual teaming of the Brigadier and a revived series Doctor finds the Brigadier kidnapped from a Remembrance Day ceremony in full uniform. He arrives to find he's being asked to lead a war-like species into battle because he's the greatest military leader the Doctor knows. They also kidnap Mike Yates, however instead of the Brigadier's former UNIT aide, they kidnap a back bench member of parliament whose kind of petty. There are a few confusing points in the plot, but this is ultimately a love letter to the Brigadier and it works. It's a great dynamic between the post-time War Doctor and the Brigadier as the Brig realizes that the Doctor has been a war. Good stuff. Also, a key moment from the Series 8 finale may have had its genesis in the last page of this comic. Grade: A-

With the exception of the first story, I found most everything else in the book to be thoroughly enjoyable. There are some great concepts. Even though, many of these were planned with very little known of the 10th Doctor they captured the character well. Rose was usually pretty good, though she did occasionally become a bit of a comic foil. This is a very solid volume of comics from Doctor Who magazine that's a must read for fans of the 10th Doctor.



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Essential Silver Surfer, Volume 1

Essential Silver Surfer, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The Silver Surfer made his first appearance in Fantastic Four #48. This book collects his all eighteen issues of his first solo comic book series and his first solo appearance in a back up story in 1967's Fantastic Four Annual #5. While Jack Kirby created the character with Stan Lee. With the exception of the FF Annual #5 and Issue 18, John Bouscema handles the art duties.

The first seven issues featuring the Sky Rider of the Spaceways are doublelength stories. The Silver Surfer began as a 72-page magazine with a Watcher story back up.

During this period, the Surfer was Earthbound as he would be until the launch of his third series in 1987.

A 40 page comic book story with no need of extraneous recaps can work great if you know what you're doing and Stan Lee did. Though the books were without their first flaws. The first Issue and a half were very talk as our brooding hero could go on for pages about the insanity of humanity. But, this is more than balanced by the quality of the stories.

While the first issue is mostly a recap and set up with the Silver Surfer's origin more fleshed out. The next six that follow are epic and complex plots that use the 40 page format brilliantly.

Issue 2 has the Surfer stopping an alien invasion. Issue 3 introduces Mephisto, a demonic power who would be the Surfer's biggest rival and send ripples through the Marvel Universe. Issue 3 has the Surfer fighting Thor under the deception of Loki. Issue 4 has the Surfer trying to escape Earth and finding a human friend, and then facing off against the Stranger, a Marvel baddie who power could equal the Surfer's Issue 6 had the Surfer finding a way to escape present day Earth by travelling to the future, only to find a hostile post-apocalyptic world.Issue 7 has the Surfer meeting a descendant of Frankenstein who plans to use the Surfer for his own ends.

With normal size comics, Issues 8 and 9 were originally one double length story but tell of Mephisto's second attempt to gain the Surfer's soul with the help of a lost soul called the Flying Dutchman. Issues 10 and 11 have the Surfer in an oppressed South American country at the same time that Shala Bal is travelling from his homeworld of Zenn-la with a man who hopes to win her heart away from Norin Radd (the Surfer's actual identity) in a tale that has quite a few twists in it. Issue 12 is a battle against witches and the Abomination. Issue 13 has him facing the robotic doomsday man in a countdown to save Earth with several great twists along the way.

You could tell the book's sales were lagging despite good stories because the next five issues were crossovers. Issue 14 had a meeting between the Surfer and Spider-man which ended with an epiphany for Spider-man. Issue 15 had a meeting with the Human Torch when he becomes convinced the Fantastic Four is determined to capture him and turn him over to the military only to learn how wrong he was at the end. Issues 16 and 17 sees Mephisto return again, and try and make the Surfer destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. or see Shala Bal's life as forfeit. In Issue 18, the Surfer crashes into the middle of a Civil War amongst the Inhumans.

Overall, this was a good book. The stories (particularly in the first thirteen issues) were very good and expertly crafted. The Surfer despite his rough spots and weaknesses makes a good hero and his battles with Mephisto are some of the best good v. evil stories in comics. Some of the dialogue is over the top and there's some unintentional comedy here as a result of that. The Surfer is a noble soul at heart and that comes across multiple times.

On the downside, the latter issues did seem to suffer due to efforts to get people to buy the book somehow by introducing team ups that didn't let the Surfer shine. The worst of these was the final issues which ended on a very down note and seemed mainly designed to plug the inhumans.

This version of the Surfer also seems to have some very inconsistent morality. As the Surfer judges humanity for being bigoted and needlessly aggressive, he never touches on or recalls that he was the herald of the Devourer of Worlds. Indeed, if you read Issue 1, you get the idea that Earth was the first populated planet he led Galactus to even though logically that couldn't have been the case. While later comics addressed this, failing to do so in this one really seems like a major blindspot.

Also, in Issue 4, he steals a new scientific device from Reed Richards in hopes of ending his exile but then recoils in disgust when it occurs to him to steal money from a bank to get parts for the man he has working on it because it would be stealing something that didn't belong to him. You mean like the device you stole in the first place?

Still, despite these concerns, the book is worth a read. These stories are memorable with great art and truly good science fiction storytelling. While not Lee's best work, these Silver Surfer comics are a good read for fans of the silver age.



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Book Review: Doc Savage: Python Isle

Doc Savage: Python Isle by Will Murray

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Python Isle is one of Will Murray’s earliest Doc Savage novels. In it, a wild red-haired man encounters pirates, escapes and goes seeking Doc Savage. The pirate Captain is determined stop a message getting to Doc so he contracts with a baseball-bat carrying cat-loving, bird-loving thug to stop Doc from joining the chase.

Python Isle has a lot of familiar Doc Savage elements: a mysterious lost island, a lost people, and a great treasure, and of course the python make for great natural menaces. The villains are appropriately evil with Bull Pizano being extra-menacing and memorable with his baseball bat, his malice which contrasted with his love of cats and birds. The story also includes a trip on a Zeppelin and the hijacking of the same.

On the negative side, there are the typical issues with Doc Savage books such as lengthy descriptions of everything plus the repetive use of nickname likes “dapper lawyer” and “apish chemist” which comes with the territory. However, this book isn’t as good as other Savage books. It takes a long time to get started and even for Monk and Ham to show up in the story (let alone Doc himself.) Plus, this is a story where the villains seem to run circles around Doc in his men. The Apish chemist even commented he was getting tired of being captured. Given the accolades of Doc Savage in this book as well as the many other adventures Doc has had, it's a bit disconcerting to see him and his men held at bay by a two bit pirate and an eccentric hood with a baseball bat.

Still, the book isn't bad. It has a solid dose of high adventure and mystery. The audiobook is beautifully performed and directed and it even includes two brief interviews with Will Murray as special features. Overall, this story is fair, and offers several hours of adventures with Doc Savage which makes it a worthwhile listen.



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Book Review: X-men vs. Avengers/Fantastic Four

X-Men vs. Avengers/Fantastic Four by Roger Stern

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects two four mini-series from the 1987 when Magneto had (temporarily reformed) featuring the X-Men in Fantastic Four vs. X-Men as well as X-Men vs. Avengers as well as the first crossover of FF and the Avengers in Fantastic Four #29 and X-Men #9.

Fantastic Four vs. X-Men has its moments as Reed initially agrees then backs out of saving the X-men's Shadowcat. The story actually works mostly as a character piece about the FF as they face the discovery of a journal that calls in to question whether Reed anticipated the accident in the FF's fateful voyage.

The height of the story is Issue 3 when Reed and the FF have to face their fears and decide what they really think. The X-men end up turning to Doctor Doom to help Shadowcat when Reed bails and that's their main part. For a "vs" comic, there was no real battling except a bit in Issue 2 and Issue 4. The story had some moments of being overwrought moments including dream sequences and Franklin Richards played a big part in it but sounded very inauthentic as a child.

X-Men vs. Avengers was another tale altogether and far more substantial. The Avengers decided to bring in Magneto to stand trial before the World Court. However, they're opposed not only by the X-men but also by a Soviet superhero team that wants to eliminate Magneto on the strength of a Soviet court ruling.

The story has two nice features: First, there are some distinctly 80s comic book features particularly the Soviet team. Also, Monica Rambeau is very good in this as the Second Captain Marvel and I enjoyed her a lot more here than in Secret Wars. The Avengers team features not only Monica Rambeau, but also has She-Hulk, Thor, and Captain America. Though to round out the obscure, it features Black Knight and Doctor Druid (who actually does play a role in the story.)

There's also a great deal of intrigue. Magneto is fascinating throughout this. Roger Stern (who wrote Issues 1-3) is very capable here as some intimately familiar with both Captain America and the Avengers. The trial in Issue 4 (by Tom DeFalco) is a fascinating story with several nice twists involving Captain America.

The classic issues are just okay. They're trasparent in beig written as forms of cross-promotion. The X-men are manipulated to fighting the FF in FF #29 and then the X-Men have to fight the Avengers to save the world from a character named Lucifer. It's also intramural stuff for Marvel to say to readers of one comic, "Don't these characters look interesting. Why don't you put down 15 cents for their comic." On the upside, both were also drawn by Jack Kirby and written by Stan Lee, so there's some and playfulness.

As an aside, I have to note that the X-men come off well in either of these two stories.In Fantastic Four vs. X-men, they basically become tools of Doctor Doom in his war against Reed Richards. In Avengers v. X-Men, they try to stop Magneto from being brought to trial because he's a mutant. Why is it in every crossover the X-Men come off as only concerned with their own special interests and willing to align with the biggest evil around if it serves their interests?

Nothing here is essential, but X-men v. the Avengers is pretty darn interesting and makes the book worth reading.



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Book Review: Marvel Masterworks, Atlas Era Heroes, Volume 1

Marvel Masterworks: Atlas Era Heroes, Vol. 1 by Bill Everett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Superheroes died out at Marvel's Golden Age predecessor timely in 1949 and the whole genre was in decline. By 1951, he once mighty Captain Marvel would leave Fawcett and essentially Superheroes would be down to the big 3: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman and wouldn't really return in force until the Silver Age began in the late 50s.

This book chronicles two separate revivals with the great Roy Thomas offering commentary in the introduction on both.

The first is actually pretty inexpiicable as publisher Martin Goodman launched a brand new every other month Superhero title at the time Superhero titles were failing daily. The first more than half of the book is about the adventures of Marvel Boy as told in Marvel Boy 1 and 2 which was renamed to Astonishing for Issues 3-6. Marvel Boy is a boy who was born on Earth but raised on Uranus and so has amazing powers on Uranus but not on Earth unless he takes powerful pills. The character had a lot of potential, but didn't realize it because of the times it was being written in. In a normal comic, continuity and a status quo is established. Here, it seemed like Atlas wanted to have the benefits of established continuity without actually having to establish facts the rules of the world in the pages of the comic. So, boom, Marvel Boy is an insurance Investigator in addition to being an interplanetary hero. Marvel Boy's opponents ranged from conmen to Communists to alien invaders. It's an interesting spread of adversaries. The comic wasn't bad. Perhaps, a little underdeveloped, but enjoyable.

The second part of the book features the returns of Marvel's Golden Age Big 3 (Captain America, the Sub-mariner, and the Human Torch) in 1953 with the critical and ratings success of the Adventures of Superman on TV. This book features five short 7-9 page adventures for each hero as collected in Young Men #24-28. The comics are actually all very entertaining for their lengths.

While all have been stereotyped as anti-Communist stories, actually only Captain America's were all anti-Communists. The Human Torch's first story featured the Torch fighting Communism (and Communist brainwashing of his sidekicked which was corrected within a single page) but the rest were more fantastic stories that focused on non-ideological threats. The Sub-mariner stories were about 50/50.

However, I love the idea of these characters fighting Communism particularly in the wake of Stalin's brutal regime. The Captain America stories were solid with two stories featuring the Red Skull which is always a plus. The one minus was that the book seemed to forget its continuity with Steve Rogers being a professor in Issue 25 and then back to being in the Army later. (Maybe he got called up for Korea.) Regardless, it'd be up to Steven Engelhart to remove this continuity from Roger's past, lest Captain America be seen as standing up against Soviet aggression.

The Torch remains as enjoyable as ever, and probably benefits from the more fantastic enemies. Namor benefited enormously from still being drawn by original artist Bill Everett. Namor was Marvel's most enjoyable Golden Age character and he still was during this Atomic age, although a few of his mannerisms seem very 1950s in ways that don't fit with the Golden Age or his later appearances.

Overall, this is a great forgotten part of comic book history that's a fantastic read for any fan.



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Book Review: Superman: The Golden Age Sundays, 1943-46

Superman: The Golden Age Sundays, 1943-1946 by Wayne Boring

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects the Sunday Newspaper strips for Superman from May 1943-June 1946, which includes the most critical periods of the War. Superman couldn't just fly over to Europe or Japan and resolve the War as the character would be capable. Rather, in this book Superman does his "service for Soldiers" as he takes mail from soldiers, sailors, their friends, and sweethearts.

This period of time the comics felt a lot more like traditional funnies stories with a lot more humor, particularly as Superman is forced to resolve several wartime romance issues and he also takes up an office at the Daily Planet.

The book does a great job explaining the many roles people took on to help the war effort. It also has some moving moments, most notably when Superman helps the family of a veteran with Combat Fatigue understand him and support him. It's the most heartfelt moment in a book full of them, as these strips are patriotic and take us back in time. Superman doesn't fight the Nazis or Axis but tries to give a little comfort and happiness to those who did.

The War comics do feature a few stories of some very unpleasant caricatures of the Japanese in particular. As Mark Waid says in the introduction, the writers realized they'd gone too far soon after the War ended and you can see that here in a few strips.

After the war, the strip reran Superman's origin stories as if an attempt to reset and levelset the character as they transitioned back into more typical Superman stories beginning with one series on a rocketship to outer space and the other with Superman helping a sad clown in the circus win the heart of a girl by completing fetes of daring do.

Overall, the book is a lot of fun with nice art, some heartfelt stories and some good laughs along the way. Can't wait for Volume 2.



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It's the End of the Marvel Universe As We Know It...

The word is that this year the Marvel Universe and the Ultimate Universe are ending:

Together, Alonso and Brevoort made what was billed as “the announcement to end all announcements” when they revealed that Battleword will be the “melting pot” from which a new Marvel Universe will be formed.

It will begin in Avengers #44 and New Avengers #33, and then continue into Secret Wars #1. The final incursion will take place, between the Marvel 616 universe and the Ultimate Marvel Universe. The heroes of both worlds will fail to solve the problem before it’s too late.

As a result, Battleworld will be all that remains, and every world in Battleworld that were teased months earlier will play a role in the formation of the new Marvel Universe, with more to be announced. Alonso makes clear that these are not “elseworlds” books, but integral to the very fabric of the “All-New Marvel” post-Secret Wars.

The thought of many fans is that Marvel is ripping off Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC's 1st reboot back in the 1980s. Ultimately, that reboot took everything back to square one with new beginnings for Characters like Superman and Batman.

It's tough to say what this actually will mean, although its great to know that after all these years, the Marvel Universe will end due to our heroes stupidity and inability to get the job done.

The big question is the past and the future. The question about the past is what will Marvel's future past look like. The other is how different will this Marvel Universe look from itself or from the normal universe. I don't think a full Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in terms of everybody going back to their roots is in order. I don't think most of the comic-reading public wants us to go back to Peter Parker getting bit by a spider as a teenager. Overall, we'll watch and see how this goes and see if this turns out to be good or really stupid.

Book Review: Superman: KAL

Superman: Kal by Dave Gibbons

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Superman: Kal examines the idea of what would happen if Superman's space crash-landed in medieval England. The result is a story with fantastic artwork that we reuses some of the classic characters (with variations in spellings) and tells a story that certainly is worthy of medieval legend.

The book was released around the time of Rob Roy and Braveheart and has some similar plot elements. The two things I didn't like about Kal was the fact that Baron Luthor wore Kryptonite around his neck because he'd found it (and I guess) decided the metal was pretty, which is kind of a big contrivance. The other problem is that Kal doesn't really go beyond himself. His motivations in the story are falling in love with a girl and seeking revenge on Luthor.

Overall, though the book was a fair read and a good take on the scenario.



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Book Review: Captain America: Red Glare

Captain America: Red Glare by Mark Waid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In this book Mark Waid brings back the Red Skull. Admittedly, this is the second time in 3 1/2 years for a return of the Red Skull story (and the second story done by Waid) but still this story has got some unique features in the collected issues (Captain America Volume 3, Issues 14-19).

Issue 14 is a fascinating work in black and white (with the exception of RS' Skull) as the Red Skull finds himself in his own personal hell inside the Cosmic Cube until Kang the Conqueror lets the Red Skull out (or does he?) and then the Red Skull is out and merged with the Cosmic Cube he can remake the world in his own image.

Except for a few asides about Cap's broken shield. (Done very humorously in the middle of a battle between Cap and Mister Hyde) and a couple nods to finish up the continuity from the previous story arc, Red Glare is a bit of a mind-bender where beings of awesome evil acquire amazing power in a continuity heavy story. I can understand why some people wouldn't like it, but actually did.

The issue with the Nazi Red Skull forced to live in an ethnically diverse city where he's doing his old job as bellboy was pure brilliance and great from art and story background. This book also includes the original draft of Issue 14 which had a tad more violence, though it was against the Red Skull, so it was all good. The key plot twist at the end of Issue 17 was superb. Waid has a very good handle in this book on what Captain America represents a man and as a symbol and captures it well.

The only complaint I had is that there were a few parts where the art was a little weak. Lee Kubert's Watcher is a tad awkward looking and not like the traditional Watcher design at all. Plus, I generally prefer my comics a little less esoteric. Still, while this wasn't as good as Reborn, of the two, it probably represents a better chance to showcase the Red Skull as a character and the true Good v. Nature rivalry of Captain America and his most ancient foe.



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Book Review: Paul the Samurai Bonazai, Volume 2

PAUL THE SAMURAI BONANZAI 2 by Clay Griffith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This second volume of Paul the Samurai comics collects Issues 5-8 of the ongoing series.

The book begins by introducing a superhuman lumberjack Paul Bunyan and his female sidekick Babe as the story wraps up a previous line regarding a parody of environmental comics and segways back into Paul's rivalry with the evil Sagin, which dominates Issues 6-8.

The comics are a laugh a minute as the book features parodies of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turltes (I.e. The Galapagos Boxing Tortoises) and Japanese monster films. Issue 7 features a Japanese village that tries to trick Paul into awakening the monster Gomorra to build up tourist trade and filming.

The book has flaws. Even for a parody, it feels like there are too many characters running around and too much going on at times. Paul does seem to be getting harder to like compared to how Edlund wrote him in the Tick comics, as well as in the original mini-series.

Still, it's hard to dislike a book that's this funny. I should be clear that this book also ends in a cliffhanger, which hopefully will be resolved in Tick Omnibus Volume 5.



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