Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 75

Will Spider-man Renew His Vows?

Marvel offered a teaser picture for next year:



For those who aren't big fans of comics, the significance of the cover should be explained.

In the 1980s, Spider-man married Mary Jane Watson. Writers tried to do many things with the marriage including having Mary Jane believed dead and having the couple go through a trial separation. However, writer J. Michael Straczynski revitalized the marriage during his long run writing Amazing Spider-man.

However, then-Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada hated the marriage and wanted to get rid of it. However, killing Mary Jane hadn't been well-received (leading to her never being dead but it all being a hoax), divorce was thought to age the character, so instead Quesada decided to have Spider-man sell his marriage to the demon Mephisto in exchange for prolonging the life of his elderly Aunt May. The marriage was erased as if it had never happened and several other bits of continuity were undone for no good reason and both Peter Peter Parker and Mary Jane were left with no memory of what happened.

There are numerous problems with the story as summarized in a 70 minute video review (language warning) by Linkara but with those without time, my biggest problem with the story (other than the stupid bits like no one in the entire Marvel universe being able to fix a gunshot wound other than Mephisto) is as follows.

Spider-man making a deal with the Devil totally violates the character and turns him into someone I can't like let alone admire as a hero. This is made even worse by the fact that Aunt May is ready to go. She is at peace with dying having lived a long life. However, Aunt May took a bullet meant for him, so if she dies he'd feel guilty. So Spider-man makes a deal with the Devil to throw away the most important relationship in his life and does something Aunt May would never approve of in order to avoid feeling guilty.

To make things worse, Peter Parker isn't able to feel regret about it. That's somewhat ironic, given all the things he feels guilty about, the one thing he should feel guilty about, he can't because he doesn't remember it.

And that is why I don't buy Spider-man comics or trades written post-One More Day. The character in the comics isn't the Spider-man I grew up watching on TV. He's not the Spider-man who people read for forty-five years prior to One More Day. I won't shy away from other media with the web-slinger in it or avoid books where he guest stars, but no, I don't read Spider-man.

So what do I make of "Renew Your Vows?" After 7 years of fan criticism and sales that still lag behind pre-One More Day Spider-man will One More Day be undone next year, I'm pessimistic and there are two reasons why:

1) Joe Quesada is still at Marvel. While Quesada is no longer Editor-in-Chief. He is Marvel's Chief Creative Office (CCO) and has put himself out as the defender of One More Day for years including in a recent documentary on superheroes. In the very first episode of the Ultimate Spider-man TV show, he put the kaibosh on any possibility of a Mary Jane-Peter Parker romance.

In addition, he's backed up by other senior leaders at Marvel. Marvel Editor Tom Brevoort snapped at a fan who asked if One More Day could be altered to remove the deal with the Devil stating, "You’re talking about a story that is now, what, five, six years old?There are no plans to go back to any of this at the moment. Move on. Live your life."

Plans could have changed in the five or six months or Brevoort could have been lying. But why bother lying when you can just not answer a question on Tumblr? Either way, signals from Marvel have not been positive.

2) Marvel has done this before: In the lead up to the "death of Spider-man" in 2012, Mary Jane and Peter got together again, only so Doctor Octopus could be creepy when he took over Peter Parker's body during Superior Spider-man. At the end of Superior Spider-man, while Mary Jane believed him when he said he'd been taken over by Doctor Octopus, she walked out of Peter's life once again, saying she was tired of having the weirdness around Spider-man dominate her life. So essentially, what was done in 2012 was a tease, and I'm willing to bet this is just the latest attempt to drive sales through gimmicks (which sadly seems to be writer Dan Slott's Modus Operandi on Spider-man.)

If it is, I think it's quite shabby of Brevoort and others to complain about fans being upset about One More Day. It's hypocritical in the first place as the comics industry depends on fans caring about all kinds of minutiae of continuity. And marriage to Mary Jane Watson isn't a minor event, it was a huge deal that was simulcast in real life at Shea Stadium. Marvel milked for millions in merchandising, spin off books, and worked to get fans to care about that relationship.

In the second place, if Marvel truly wants to get past One More Day and for fans to "get over it," it would seem the solution would be to not have Mary Jane in the comic book rather than constantly rubbing salt in the wounds of fans. But Marvel tries to drive sales, providing some hope to fans who still read the book but would like One More Day gone, and hoping to entice those who stopped reading over Spider-man to plunk down the coin of the realm in he hope that this long comic book nightmare will end.

For my part, if Marvel truly reverses this, I'll buy the trade containing the story where it's fixed but in terms of buying into the build-up. Count me out. Once bitten, twice shy.

Book Review: Golden Age Captain America Masterworks, Volume 4

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age Captain America, Vol. 4 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


The fourth volume of Marvel Masterworks Captain America stories collects Issues 13-16 of Captain America Comics. These issues were written post-Pearl Harbor and reflect the mood (for the most part) with kids being urged to buy war stamps, and even being urged to cut down on comic book purchases (imagine a comic book company doing that) to buy more war stamps and it being announced that Captain America's Sentinels of Liberty not receiving a certificate so that paper can be better used for the war effort.

Here is a feature by feature round up of the book as each book included two full length Captain America stories plus other features:

Captain America: The Eight Cap stories are strong. They're somewhat typical war action stories with a horror bent so the series remained true to the original vision of creators Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. The art isn't Kirby and Art Avilson's drawing of all American enemies with fang-like teeth is a bit over the top but it was wartime.

The two standout Cap Stories are Issue 3's "The Invasion from Mars" by the legendary Bill Finger which features a "real" Martian invasion in the midst of the War making for an interesting plot. Issue 4's "The Red Skull's Deadly Revenge" is a 24-page epic by the 19 year old Stan Lee. The story's grand plot and its creation of mythology around the Cap-Red Skull rivalry provides a great preview of the type of stories Lee would write more than two decades later when he launched the Marvel age with big battles and heroic struggles.

Ironically these stories contain the biggest goofs in the book with "The Invasion from Mars" mis-spelling Orson Welles' name and the art of "The Red Skull's Deadly Revenge" featured the Skull having the Japanese rising sun on his shirt and then switched within the same story to the traditional Swastika. Apparently, the Skull shops at Axiswear.

Still, all of the Cap stories are good with these two being must-reads.

The Imp: Really somewhat of a departure from the rest of the book. It's a pure children's feature with the rhyming lovable imp taking on every day foes in a great story for younger readers. It's delightful and just really fun to read by Stan Lee that showcases his early humor.

Secret Stamp: One of the most dorky (albeit patriotic) superhero concepts ever. Roddy Colt, a paperboy who also sells Defenase Stamps has his bike stolen. A reporters buy him a new one, so he decides to become a defense stamp themed superhero who helps ferret out fifth columnists, with his biggest clue as to who might be a potential fifth columnist: people who don't buy defense stamps.

This is a series of stories you just have to enjoy for their unintentional hilarity. While it's well-meaning, it's a truly silly feature.

Headline Hunter: Thankfully, this strip made it's last appearance in Captain America #13. As a concept, it was very weak. Essentially, a reporter goes around punching out bad guys for six pages and that's the whole plot.

The other portions of the book are pretty forgettable include four two page text stories and short humor strips, Elmer and Percy. However the book is worth reading for some great Golden Age Captain America stories, the charm of the Imp, and the goofiness of Secret Stamp.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Blue Beetle Volume 1, Shellshocked

Blue Beetle, Volume 1: Shellshocked by Keith Giffen

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Shellshocked features the first issues with Jaime Reyes as the new Blue Beetle. There's a lot to like about the character. Jaime is a good kid and the background and setting of having a superhero in El Paso is actually a pretty good idea in a universe where heroes are East and West coast sorts of guys. Also, there's a tremendous amount mystery wrapped up around Jaime.

On the other hand, this book is Exhibit A on why the whole One Year later approach where heroes disappeared for a year and the books began after there return was such a bad idea. In this book, it's darn confusing and despite it being early in the character's run, you feel like you need to go out and buy Infinite Crisis to figure out what's going on. And for a book that contains only six issues-there was a lot going on in here. It really struggled with tone. What type of book was this going to be? Dark and mythic? Or light teen superhero? More teen angst?

In the end, both the book and character show promise but whether it will be worth continuing is an iffy question.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Superman Chronicles, Volume 4

The Superman Chronicles, Vol. 4 by Jerry Siegel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is the fourth Volume of Superman stories following all of Superman's Adventures in Chronological order, collecting adventures from Action Comics 26-31 and Superman #6 and 7 all from the second half of 1940.

At this point, it really feels like Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and other artists working on Superman had truly found their stride. The art is certainly improved from the more crude style Superman began with and there are some truly nice drawings of Superman's daring feats.

The stories are all enjoyable, even though most aren't all that unusual but that's okay. It's Superman acting as champion of the oppressed, taking on all comers including racketeers, robbers, and political corruption. The book portrays a lot of civic corruption in Metropolis which lends some sympathy to Superman's heavy handed methods. However, Superman is often able to generate a truce with the law in order to solve a case. Siegel and Shuster originally planned to write Superman exclusively as a newspaper strip and several of these comics read like that.

Highlights of this book include:

Action Comics #26: Superman takes on a phony doctor who is cheating child polio patients with quack treatments. The comics served to support President Roosevelt's campaign on behalf of Polio victims.

Action Comics #28 is a mystery story where the most likely suspect in a series of robberies is a circus strongman who clashes with Superman and who also earns the attention of Lois Lane.

Superman #6 features two great stories, one in which Lois Lane is framed for murder and the other where Superman investigates strange goings on in the South American country of San Caluma where a crook uncovers his identity. The last story also gives you an idea of how much the Superman mythos had developed at this point as it involved Clark Kent giving Lois Lane blood for a transfusion.

Action Comics #30 is probably the weirdest and most wonderful story in the book but I love how cleverly inventive it is. It's snowing in August but there's a logical explanations and it involves Arabs kidnapping a blonde so they can take over a lost city in the Sahara desert with the aid of deadly yellow globes. Superman actually gets knocked and Zolar is as close as we get to a supervillain in this book. It's a great read even though the final plot twist makes no sense even in this story.

Superman #7 has an example of how there was no continuity during the golden age of comics. The first story in the comic has a crusading (albeit egotistical) Metropolis prosecuting attorney targeting the mob and being targeted behind them, the third has a completely different character in the same job who is corrupt.

However, the highlights of the book are the second and fourth stories. "The Exploding Citizens" is a well-written story of an absolutely insane plot involving people blowing up in "Gay City" and Clark Kent and Lois Lane going to investigate. The motive of the perpetrators is just jaw-dropping.

The last story features Clark Kent and Lois Lane going undercover to catch a gang of robbers. Lois dyes her blonde and Clark Kent removes his glasses. I love the art of Lois as a blonde and the story works beautifully.

The last story in the book from Action Comics #31, "In the Grip of Morpheus" is another great tale as Clark Kent and Lois Lane drive into a town where everyone has been put to sleep and Clark tries to find the truth. This features some memorable art with the best being when Superman is hit with an atomic ray gun.

Overall, this collection is a joy and gives great insight into how America fell in love with Superman.




View all my reviews

Book Review: Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil

Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil by Jeff Smith

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Jeff Smith's take on Captain Marvel in this book manages to do something rare for writers of the Big Red Cheese: Capture the Spirit of one of the Golden Age's best characters.

The art is the best part of the book. I've never seen a better example of art that is so inviting to younger readers to enjoy comics than in this collection. The pictures are so fun and appeal to kids of the twenty-first century the same way the original C.C. Beck art appealed to the kids of the 1940s.

Much of the story is heartfelt and has great ways of showing Billy Batson's kindness. The story is a bit more real about Billy being a homeless waif and his need for family. His love for his sister Mary was very sweet and endearing.

The only downside to the book is even though it's more than 200 pages long, it's a very picture heavy story with a lot of very cool half, full, and two page pieces of art. The problem is that at times, the book seems too small for all that's going. You not only have the titular Monster Society, you have Doctor Sivana, a mystical talking tiger, and Mary Marvel. In that way, the book feels overloaded. In addition, a few of the modern adjustments such as tension over an evil Secretary of Heartland Security (or was he Attorney General, I got confused at the point) seemed to lessen the magic. Thankfully, there was plenty of magic to go around, and this book is still by far, the best representation of Captain Marvel in more than sixty years since the character was cancelled by Fawcett.



View all my reviews

Introduction to Adventures of Powerhouse

With all of the people I met at the Tree City Com, I thought it was time for a sort of reintroduction to the Adventures of Powerhouse series:

Book 0:
Tales of the Dim Knight

"Some relationships are built on trust and mutual respect, others are built on using someone as a pawn in a game of global domination." Mild-mannered janitor and superhero fanboy Dave Johnson gets all his wishes at once when an alien symbiote gives him supernatural powers. But what's he to do with them? Follow the zany adventures of the clueless custodian as he fights crime and corruption while trying to keep his family together and avoid being sued for copyright infringement...


Book 1:Fly Another Day:

A year ago, Dave Johnson flew high as the super-powered crime fighter Powerhouse, defeating Seattle’s top crime family and becoming a local legend. In the process, his marriage nearly crashed, his eldest son suffered a life-threatening injury, and Dave lost his super powers. Now, Dave is a new Christian, a stay-at-home Dad, and living off memories and comic book royalties.

An interdimensional alien hires the cynical Mitch Farrow as the CEO of Dorado Incorporated. Farrow attacks Powerhouse’s legacy in the media. This only prompts Dave to seek to regain his powers and become Powerhouse again. This time, he’s determined to not only fight crime, but poverty, fatherlessness, and hunger and enlists the help of local churches.

Farrow’ then hires a lawyer who threatens Powerhouse with frivolous lawsuits that could ground him forever. Outraged, the Johnson family’s super-powered alien chef pledges to rid Earth of lawyers and introduces his race’s robotic lawyers. He unwittingly sells the plans to a Dorado subsidiary, who equips the Robolawyers with powerful alien weapons that make them the most dangerous threat Powerhouse has ever faced.

Book 2: Powerhouse Hard Pressed:

Dave Johnson’s dreams have come true. He’s taken Seattle by storm as Powerhouse, a metal-clad crime fighter. His awesome array of powers has the underworld on the run, his charitable efforts are a success, and he has a popular comic book. When his publisher is bought out, he’s given every fan’s dream: he’s tasked with creating his own line of comic books. His biggest problem is his tendency to attract campy, wannabe “supervillains” who aren’t worthy opponents.

Mitch “the Pharaoh” Farrow wants to turn Dave’s dream into a nightmare. Mitch’s job is to spread cynicism ahead of an interdimensional alien invasion. The aliens’ king has promised to cure Mitch’s dying daughter when he takes over and Mitch will do anything to save her. He uses every tool at his disposal, from a massive media smear machine to a force field bubble that crushes its victim into atoms.

With the help of new allies and old friends, Powerhouse strives to protect his family and the citizens of Seattle from the forces of cynicism.

Book 3: Ultimate Mid-Life Crisis:

What happens when a superhero endures a midlife crisis?
As Powerhouse, Dave Johnson has become a local legend in Seattle but choruses of voices advise him that he’s wasting his time defending the Emerald City. He’s urged to take on more ambitious goals like defending New York, being a full-time comic book executive, or becoming a bat-breaking evangelist. These questions are pushed into the background when Powerhouse is confronted with an unprecedented crime wave launched by the interdimensional warlord Varlock as part of his effort to help King Bel conquer the Earth.
At the same time, Naomi Johnson secretly possesses her husband’s super powers. When her work slows down during the summer, the Johnson children depart to summer camp, and Dave is never home due to the crime wave., she assumes a new identity in Wyoming as Marie Dubois and becomes a vigilante known as Justice Woman. In the course of this, she confronts her unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and her unresolved anger.
While Powerhouse is pushed to the point of physical and mental collapse by Varlock’s scheme, Naomi has to decide whether she’ll go back to her old life or chart a new course. How she decides will affect her, her family, and the entire world.

Book Review: Peter Parker Spider-man: A Day in the Life

Peter Parker: Spider-Man: A Day in the Life by Paul Jenkins

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This is a dark book that swings too far to an extreme in Spider-man's world. Personal problems and even personal tragedy have always been part of the Spider-man world but this book takes this to an extreme.

In some ways, you can't quite blame Paul Jenkins for this because Marvel mashes together a three part story from the Spider-man magazine Webspinners from 1999 with Jenkins earliest work on Peter Parker Spider-man a year later. Both visit similar themes and are somewhat redundant when shoved into the same trade.

The first three part story "The Scoop" is somewhat inane with the Chameleon going around in a ski mask and being emo in the first two parts with the last part of the story being Spider-man sitting around recalling all the tragedy in his life including the deaths of Captain Stacy and Gwen Stacy.

Jenkins first work on Peter Parker Spider-man in Issue 20 has his moaning and crying at the grave of Uncle Ben about the unhappiness of his life and the death of Uncle Ben. To be fair, he had good reason for this as he was deeply depressed after his wife had apparently been killed. And so the sadness and grief in Issues 20 and 21 were appropriate in the context of the original comics. In this trade, it means we start out with five consecutive issues of almost pure depression.

At the start of Issue 22, we get to see Jenkins potential beyond merely showing Spider-man depressed as Peter goofs off and has a moment's reprise.,,before getting see the Sandman reach an ignominious end that's as depressing if not more so than the Chameleon's.

Then we see Issue 26 which is a great premise that has police officers sharing their thoughts on Spider-man including opinions and some fun mini-stories. Of course, as Jenkins is writing it, it also revisits the death of the Stacys. Although there's a fair bit of lighter stuff thrown in to give a more balanced portrayal.

In the end, this book isn't so much bad as it is unpleasant. Even accounting for how Marvel's decisions in printing this trade account for many of its shortcomings, Jenkins delves too much into Spider-man's past. However, Marvel amplifies this by collecting so many depressing stories in the same book.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Paul the Samurai Bonazai, Volume 1

Bonanzai by Ben Edlund

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Paul the Samurai return after the Ben Edlund written mini-series returns for a proper continuing series. This book collects Paul the Samurai (Vol. 2) Issues 1-4.

Clay Griffith takes over the writing chores and there's a clear shift from Edlund. Edlund's portrayal of Paul was of a character who was truly noble whose comedy came out of the situations he was in. Here, much of that nobility is somewhat more superficial though only somewhat. The world around Paul is still the source of entertainment.

Some of the ideas in the book are quite fun. Paul battles the Miti Men, a group of Manga/Anime inspired characters in Issues 1 and 2. (Kudos to artist Dave Garcia for making this incongruous set-up of traditional American comic and Japanese comic art in the same picture actually work). Issue 3 sees Paul battle a mad mastermind dog and Issue 4 has Paul beginning to face an environmental extremist anti-hero.

On the negative side, some of the humor is quite dated. This comics were written in 1992 during the tale end of Japan's economic ascendancy and American anxiety over such as represented by Issue 1's other villain the Detroit Fury, a giant car robot created by a laid off auto worker. Paul's position as an apolitical Japanese warrior who'd rather just hit things with a sword was nice comedy but readers who the humor doesn't age well.

The book ends on a cliffhanger that will be resolved in Volume 2.

Overall, this is a fun series very much in the spirit of the Tick and worth a read.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told

The Greatest 1950's Stories Ever Told by Mike Gold

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book collects a wide sampling of 1950s comics when Superheroes were in decline. Given that, its a little surprising how many superhero tales made the cut: There are stories for Superboy, Superman and Batman, Batman (alone), Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Silver Age Flash and Green Hornet, and also stories featuring Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.

The superhero tales are mostly very good. The "Super-Batman" is certainly one of the better team ups in World's Finest, the Green Arrow two parter features art by Jack Kirby and one of the most solid stories of that somewhat lackluster title. The Wonder Woman story is a bit more so-so with Steve Trevor being extra-creepy in a revised origin for Diana Prince.

Outside of superheroes, the book features westerns, science fiction, fantasy, comedy pieces, horror comics, one spy comic, and one romance and one war comic. The Westerns ranged from forgettable to pretty good. The most bizarre one was with a character named Johnny Thunder (not the same as the Justice Society character of the same name) a school teacher whose father wanted him to be a Deputy Sheriff. Instead, our hero pretended to be a school teacher and helped his father fight injustice as Johnny Thunder, leading his father to be ashamed of his son. What was the reason for this? Maybe, that could be explained in the intro rather than complaining about McCarthy in the intro.

Tommy Tomorrow was entertaining silver age style science fiction while Captain Comet was boring. Both Shining Knight and Viking Prince were both enjoyable. The Viking Prince piece was notable for having DC incorporate Thor and his hammer into a story, seven years later before the Norse gods became a Marvel thing. The comedy pieces were cute and worth a chuckle. I did wish they could have reprinted some Adventures of Jerry Lewis or Adventures of Bob Hope comics. The horror comics in Phantom Stranger and Johnny Peril seemed to be typical of tehe era. The Spy comic featuring King Farraday was one of the highlights of the book as a nice action thriller. The romance comic was good but I felt that as a genre wasn't well-represented and deserved more than one story. The war comic featuring Sergeant Rock was a great World War II story. Rock does a good job in the era before DC's greatest war characters (such as Haunted Tank) would come along.

Beyond that, the book featured a couple miscellaneous Adventure comics. Given that the Blackhawks stories were published throughout the 1950s, it's hard to believe that the best DC could find was the oddball tale included in this volume. This also features the first Challengers of the Unknown Story from Showcase #6. The Challengers with their lack of individual personality can be a little bit boring. However, the first story is actually a lot of fun and certainly worth including the whole 24-page story.

Overall, this book is not a perfect collection of 1950s DC comics but it contains of good comic reading with generally strong stories from well-known series that it highlights as well a lot of forgotten series that are worth a read.



View all my reviews

Book Review: Essential Captain Marvel, Volume 1

Essential Captain Marvel, Vol. 1 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


There's power to longevity and retelling of heroic origin tales and that illustrated better nowhere else than in the case of Mar-vell of the Kree, a character who Marvel killed off and never brought back in his original form back in the 1980s. To many comic fans and certainly to the general public, Mar-vell is rather obscure which is why I'm so thankful for this very enjoyable collection which features the original Captain Marvel story from Marvel Superheroes #12-13 along with Issues 1-21 of Captain Marvel and a parody reprint of Not Brand Echs.

This Captain Marvel shouldn't be confused with the Fawcett/DC character formerly known as Captain Marvel now known as Shazam. Marvel created the character after Fawcett had gone bankrupt and they wanted to use the name.

Mar-vell was a spy for the Kree Empire sent to monitor the Earth and to report back to the Kree without getting involved. At the same time, the commander of the Kree ship, Yon-Rogg is jealous of Mar-vell's rising star and seeks to bring him down. As part of his mission, Captain Marvel has to intercede on Earth and is proclaimed a hero. In some ways, he was the opposite of Spider-man who was mistrusted despite good intentions while Mar-vell could doom the Earth. Adding to this tension is that Mar-vell really does sympathize with the people of Earth and is a hero and this brings him into direct conflict with himself and the Kree.

The story follows along this same line through Issue 10. Some of the best highlights here are Mar-vell's battle against Super Skrull (Issues 2 and 3) and Namor in Issue 4. The Namor Issue is particularly ironic as Mar-vell has been ordered to allow the detonation of a device that could inflict great harm on the Earth while Namor is trying to stop it, with Namor being seen as a villain to humanity and Mar-vell as the hero.

Arnold Drake of Doom Patrol fame (took over from Roy Thomas) with Issue 5 and the stories were fun but very much character and plot arc driven through Issue 12. The big change happens when the Kree finally order Mar-vell's execution. It's stayed in Issue 11 when Mar-vell isn't executed due to a random attack that leads to death of his beloved Uma, and he encounters the alien entity Zo who gives him a new power set. This story arc continues with some impressive but odd comic art from the period from artist Dick Ayers, Frank Springer, and Tom Sutton. With Gary Friedrich doing the writing chores for Issues 13-15 and Archie Goodwin writing Issue 16 which ends with Mar-vell in his most recognizable form and then banished to the Negative Zone.

Issue 17 saw the return of of original series writer Roy Thomas along with Gil Kane as artist as the new status quo of Rick Jones having a bracelet that he could slam together to call forth Captain Marvel from the Negative zone while Jones changed place with him. In some ways, this was an improvement on the original Fawcett Marvel concept and it certainly was a great turn for Rick Jones a character.

The Not Brand Echs comic at the back was nice for its rarity, though it wasn't quite my cup of tea. I also appreciated the original artwork reprinted at the back.

Overall, a lot of hands were involved in these comics: Five different writers, six different artists but the results are great. Mar-vell is a fascinating character and a great concept that's well-executed. The book also introduces Carol Danvers. While she bears resemblance to the modern Danvers, she's certainly ahead of her time. Overall, while this book isn't essential reading for comic fans. It certainly is recommended.



View all my reviews