Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 91

Book Review: Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners, Vol. 4

Marvel Masterworks: Golden Age All-Winners, Vol. 4 by Bill Finger

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This final of All Winners Comics collects Issues 15-19, 21 and Vol. 2, Issue 1 collecting issues from 1945 and '46 and the series 1948 revival.

The writing and art for the first four issues was far from great in Issues 15-18. The first three issues featured stories with the Sub-mariner, Captain America, and the Whizzer. The Human Torch who was the other member of Marvel's big 3 was left out due to printing restrictions during the war, but returned in Issue 18. The Sub-Mariner's face had become ridiculous with a shape that was a lot like a slice of Pizza. The stories with the most potential in these first few issues were actually the Whizzer which could have been a lot of fun if they weren't hastily wrapped up in 8 pages.

But, the reason to read this book was Issue 19 which featured Marvel's first superhero team: The All-Winners Squad with Captain America, Namor, the Human Torch, the Whizzer, and Miss America together in one adventure. In a way that illustrated that even in 1946, Marvel was quite different from DC, this first adventure begins with the Human Torch accusing Namor of false-dealing and Namor and the Torch's sidekick Toro storming out in a huff. Yeah, that's the Marvel way of having a superhero team.

Like many of the All Star Comics and Leading Comics stories, the All Winners Sqaud followed a pattern where individual heroes would have an adventure and then team back up at the end. The Sub-mariner/Toro adventure was probably the highlight of the issue as Namor was particularly anti-social and the two had contrasting powers. The overall adventure was fun, solid, but could just as easily been a Seven Soldiers of Victory story or All Star Squad.

There was no Issue 20 and Roy Thomas speculate on why in his always-enlightening introduction, but Issue 21 features another All-Winners Squad adventure. This time the Squad faces a scientist from the future who plans to depopulate 20th Century earth to make way for his own people. In some ways, this calls to be mind the Silver and Bronze Age encounters with Kang the Conqurer.

This story requires a little more suspension of disbelief as the Futureman sets to go to each continent. We have to believe that the All Winners Squad will find him in time, but it's the Golden Age of comics and believing is what it's all about.

All Winners went out of business and relaunched in August 1948 without the squad but with stories from each of the big three: Namor, Captain America, and Human Torch, as well as a new comer the Blonde Phantom. The Namor story was a nice little detective episode and Namor's face was not so unnaturally triangular anymore. The Cap story was fine and a lot of fun. It was the type of lighter golden age fare that Batman and Superman enjoyed but I'd never seen from cap between fighting Nazis and the Horror comics. The Torch story was just a standard crime affair. In his introduction, Roy Thomas states that the Blonde Phantom was meant to compete with Wonder Woman and he compared her to a female Batman. To me she looks more like a combination of Quality's Phantom Lady and Will Eisner's Lady Luck. Either way, she wasn't headliner material.

Overall, this is a mixed book. The early story are unremarkable and show the dearth of quality available during the war. The All Winners Squad stories are firsts for the Marvel universe and well-worth the read. And Volume 2, Issue was a noble attempt to keep Superheroes alive that sadly didn't work out.

The Roy Thomas intro is exhaustive and educational, so overall, it's a collection worth reading.



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Book Review: Captain Marvel, Volume 1

Captain Marvel, Vol. 1: In Pursuit of Flight by Kelly Sue DeConnick

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This book collects the first six issues of the new Captain Marvel series starring Carol Danvers formerly Miss Marvel in the title role. This title was originally held by the male Kree Warrior Mar-vel.

The book is not bad, but it suffers from an affliction common to similar female productions: a sense of its own self-importance.

This is on full display in Issue 1 when the name change is the centerpiece of the whole issue. And Captain America, the First Avengers pushes her to do the change of title. He tells her, "Quit being an adjunct." And she appeals to Marvel's most popular character, the pre-Ock, Post-One More Day Spider-man for his approval and he gives it, while acting kind of pathetic and wimpy. Her assuming the title of Captain Marvel is given a huge front page billing in the Daily Bugle with "New Captain Marvel! And He's a She."

The big problems with this is that the book never explains WHY this matters in the Marvel Universe. Marvel died 30 years ago in our time, and since that time at least two other people including one woman have held the title. There's no reason for this to be front page news unless it's a very slow news day.

However, Issues 2-6 are an improvement as she takes the plane of her recently deceased girlhood hero Helen Boyd and ends up travelling back through time and encountering a World 2 team of female soldiers called the Banshees. Later, she travels forward to 1961 where female pilots are being denied a place in the space program and Helen has bought them a chance to get jet training, but at a price.

I won't say nothing interesting happens in the book: it does. However, the problem is the interesting stuff is tied to nothing in particular. Captain Marvel fights supervillains and alien tanks, and breaks into NASA in the 1960s and shows general guts and wreckless abandon but with no point whatsoever. She's offered a chance to get rid of her powers and be a normal women judged on her own merits, which would have been interesting...if she'd ever expressed an interest in that.

The other problem with the book is that it's supposed to be a jumping on point, yet character such as Carol's friend with cancer are shown without any real introduction. You'd have to know your Marvel to know that Jessica Drew was Spider-woman and especially to know who the friend with cancer is. There is an introduction of Carol Danvers' career and history that runs four pages of small print, but it doesn't help much, nor does it give readers a sense that we're dealing with a reliable hero with a strong personality. Instead, we get a picture of a character who has had three different secret identities and has been subject to constant redefinition by Marvel in her 40 year history.

Finally, the art is decent but rarely anything to write home about except perhaps in the first issue.

In the end, while Captain Marvel as written by Kelly DeConnick is an interesting character who could achieve some awesome things, she just doesn't get the chance in this volume. The book exudes girl power, but girl power can't make up for a weak plot and a book that takes itself far too seriously.





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Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man - Volume 7

Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man - Volume 7 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Despite, it's length, this book collects only 6 Issues of Amazing Spider-man continuity. However, it contains three giant specials. I purchased the book because it contained the two issues of Spectacular Spider-man Magazine that my older Marvel Essential Spider-man volumes didn't contain.

First, a look at Amazing Spider-man Issues 62-67: Issue 62 has a one-shot story featuring a guest appearance by Crystal of the Inhumans which is really rather pointless. Issues 63-65 features the return of the "Old Vulture" who seeks to defeat the "New Vulture" who has taken the Vulture's wings and identity when the old boy had been assumed to have died back in Issue 48. This is a solid storyline that also including Spidey going to jail.

Issues 66 and 67 feature a return visit from Mysterio in a story that's just a pretty typical Mysterio story.

Turning to the Specials in the book, Spectacular Spider-man (not to be confused with the long-running 1970s title Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-man) was created as a full 64-page comic magazine of a different size and style from the main story.

The first issue of Spectacular Spider-man is in black and white and it illustrates how good, black and white art can be. The story itself focuses on a man running for mayor as a reform candidate with mass amounts of propoganda behind him but something sinister lurks beneath the surface and it involves a frightening monster. The story also showcases the wisdom and intelligence of Captain Stacy, a man who doesn't just march blindly with the crowd.

The story does it have its problems though. First of all, there is some continuity issues. Spectacular Spider-man #1 portrayed Peter and Gwen Stacy together while in the main Spider-man title they were on the outs. In addition, the decision by the villains to go after Captain Stacy on merely learning he was researching a candidate's background seemed contrived, particularly since we never learned what there was to find out.

Spectacular Spider-man #2, on the other hand, was a pure masterpiece. When Spidey defeated the Green Goblin back in Amazing Spider-man #40, the Goblin learned Spider-man identity, but Obsorn suffered from amnesia and forgot everything the Goblin had known. However, Obsorn had been suffering some mental flashes and feeling ill for months in the main title with Peter constantly afraid that Osborn's Goblin memory would return. In Spectacular Spider-man #2, it does return and with a vengeance. Writer Stan Lee gets credit for not immediately throwing the two foes into battle but building the psychological tension before an epic fight. The story is a landmark in the long-running Spidey-Goblin war. The story really does stand the test of time. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, I realized that how Spidey handled the Goblin would later lead to tragedy but more on that in another review.

Finally, we have Amazing Spider-man Annual #5 which begins in medias res with Spider-man battling bad guys in Algeria and then flashes back to Peter Parker discovering a newspaper article that indicated his parents were traitors. He tries to ignore it, but isn't able to and sets out to prove them innocent, and he travels to Algeria to do so with aid from Mr. Fantastic. However, to succeed, he'll have to go through the Red Skull.

The problem with this story is that even a double sized annual didn't have enough space to tell it right. The story begins strong with the initial fight scenes and the pathos of thinking his parents traitors and then is rushed towards the conclusion with some unbelievably convenient plot contrivances. This would have worked better as a three part story.

The back up features for the annual are solidly enjoyable including an amusing story, "Here We Go-A-Plotting" which portrays Lee and John Romita and Larry Lieber trying to brainstorm a Spidey plot. The book wraps up with some original art from the series production including John Romita's Cover Art for Spectacular Spider-man #2.

In the end, the extras plus the epic nature of Spectacular Spider-man #2 makes this a truly special book, that's a worthy read for any fan of the Webslinger.



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Book Review: Flights of Fantasy

Flights of Fantasy by Michael J. Hayde

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In the 1940s and 50s Superman surged across the airwaves with a decade on radio and six seasons on television. In this comprehensive volume, Hayde examines the history of these two fantastic productions under Robert Maxwell on radio and for the first television season and then under Whitney Ellsworth for the rest of the TV run.

Hayde has done a thorough job researching the Superman's principals and production history of both the TV and radio version. About 2/3 of the book is dedicated to the TV series which makes sense as there tended to be more challenges around that production than the radio version. For devotees of the TV series, there's a wealth of production notes as to how certain episodes were shot, plus Hayde also shares key insights into the editing process and how and why many scripts changed between their first draft to what aired on television.

However, Flights of Fantasy does more than examine the technical aspects of the series, the book also has a lot of fascinating information on the cast and crew of Superman including stars Bud Collyer (radio) and George Reeves (Television.) How the two men reacted differently to the fame the role of Superman brought is a recurring theme in the book.

While the main narrative of the book is interesting in and of itself, Flights of Fantasy is also a solid reference book for fans of the series with five appendices including logs of every radio and television episode as well as plot summaries for all television episodes and all available radio programs, and plot details on two TV episodes of Superman that were never filmed.

Overall, Flights of Fantasy is a great book for fans of the Man of Steel's earliest adaptations.



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Powerhouse Hard Pressed Now Available in Multiple Ebook Formats

After six months part of the Kindle select program which made Powerhouse: Hard Press available exclusively for the Kindle, I'm pleased to announce that it's now available in all ebook formats through Smashwords. Eventually, it will make its way into the Itunes story, as well as into the Nook store, and hopefully onto the new rental service, Oyster.

Book Review: The Duck Knight Returns

Darkwing Duck, Vol. 1: The Duck Knight Returns by Ian Brill

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


: "Daring duck mystery, champion of the right, swoops down from the shadows, darkwing owns the night..."
If you grew up watching the Disney Afternoon like I did, you know the rest. Darkwing Duck, the legendary crimefighter of St. Canard bravely fought evil and crime of all sorts from 1991-95. After his initial run in the Disney Afternoon, he had two thirteen episode seasons on ABC's Saturday Morning.

The show was influential on me and my writing for two reasons. First was it's focus on combining the superhero and comedy elements with an eye towards parody. The second was introducing a family life in the superhero with the responsibility of raising an adopted daughter.

So when I found out that Boom Studios made a sequel graphic novel bringing the Darkwing Duck universe back after more than a decade, my interest was piqued, so I picked up The Duck Knight Returns

The plot finds Darkwing in retirement living exclusively as Drake Mallard and being a cog in the giant machine of Quackwerks that runs St. Canard and employees all its citizens.

However, something suspicious is going on. When his daughter Goslin's best friend Honker Muddlefoot is arrested for having downloaded music (which Goslin affirms on behalf of the Walt Disney Corporation is wrong but not worthy of cruel imprisonment), Darkwing goes back into action in time to see that his four biggest rivals (minus Negaduck) are also getting back into the swing of things with Bushroot, Megavolt, the Liquidator, and Quackerjack ready to wreak havoc. This looks like a job for Darkwing Duck.

The book which collects the first four issues of Boom's Darkwing Duck Comic strikes a perfect balance. It's clearly geared towards kids but also towards fans of the original series who have grown up. It explores themes of compromise, growing older, and has a bit of a cyberpunk feel to it without getting too heavy for younger readers. It recaptures the characters and fun of the series perfectly while having the right amount of serious moments to make it more than a trip down memory lane.

It's adorned with colorful art and lots of bonus cover art that makes it a visually stimulating read.

In addition, the book offers some interesting text in the back with some background on how the original series came about that true fans love. The series was originally began as "Double O Duck" but changed radically to resemble a Silver Age superhero show. It still held onto some of the original Bond-elements with Darkwing's battles for SHUSH against F.O.W.L. (The Fiendish Organ for World Larceny.)

It was interesting to learn about because it always seemed like Darkwing Duck had two different types of adventures. There were his battles with FOWL and his battles with Fiendish Five (either solo or together) and related supervillains and never the twain met.

Anyway, it was a very satisfying blast from the past.



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Book Review: Avengers Next: Rebirth

Avengers Next: Rebirth by Tom DeFalco

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


After the events of Last Planet Standing, the MC2 (next generation) Avengers were in a bind. Their forces have been depleted by injuries. American Dream was left in charge by Tony Stark designed robot Avenger Mainframe while he goes to Washington. The Avengers mansion is attacked by two former Asgardians who kidnap Kevin Masterson, formerly Thunderstrike and the Avengers, including former Supervillain/Revenger Saberclaw try to find where he is and organize a rescue.

The series had its highlights. The MC2 Universe's superstar, Spider-girl shows up big in Issues 1 and 2. There are some good moments for other characters. In the end, the book just doesn't work. The MC2 Avengers were okay at best originally. Here, the problems are several. The character of American Dream who was always an upbeat and optomistic character is down on herself and very idea of the Avengers throughout much of the first half of the series and then lets up on herself and the team with little justification at the end. Characters introduced such as the daughters of Thor and Loki aren't that interesting and likable. On top of that, the villains' plan while it's supposed to be something epic, is just stupid and unnecessary.

In the end, while there are some good moments, it just can't make up for all the weak or dumb ones in this mediocre at best MC2 title.



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Book Review: Essential Amazing Spider-man 3

Essential The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 3 by Stan Lee

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This edition of third essential Amazing Spider-man book collected Issues 44-65 and Amazing Spider-man Annual #4.

During this era, the book's developed a definite rhythm. There were a few standalone stories, but Lee's comics compromised a lot of multi-party story archs.

The book begins off with a decent battle against the Lizard (#44 and #45), Issues 46 introduced the Shocker and had Peter move out on his own. Issues 47-49 were sensational as Spidey faced Kraven the Hunter, and then the new Vulture. Issue 50 featured one of the most iconic Spider-man covers of all time, "Spider-man No More" as Peter tries but fails to hang up his webs.

The character of the King Pin is also introduced in Issue 50 and he'd been planning on Spider-man retirement. Instead, Spidey battles the Kingpin In Issues 51-52 which also features J Jonah being captured and Spidey having to get him to somehow cooperate.

Spider-man Annual #4 is not as good as #1 or #3, but it's pretty fun as it guest stars the Human Torch. Someone has the idea of doing Spidey-Torch movie, but who are the men behind the curtain? It's not a blockbuster plot, but it's still enjoyable.

Issues 53-56 has an epic battle with Doc Ock. In Issue 55, Spidey loses his memory and Doc Ock convinces him that they're allies and Spidey helps him until figuring out better. At the end of Issue 56, he still doesn't have memory and is wanted by the police for the first time in the series.

Still without his memory in Issue 57, he battles, who is tricked into fighting Spidey by the JJJ. In Issue 58, he regains his memory but has to first face the new and improved Spider-slayer piloted by Jameson.

Issues 59-61 has Spidey battling the Brainwasher (actually another villain by another name) who has taken control of Gwen Stacy's father Captain Stacy. And Peter faces a tough decision at the end of Issue 60 as he has to take a step that could save Stacy's life but will alienate Gwen.

Issue 62 is probably the weakest story in this book. Fantastic Four/Inhumans supporting character Medusa shows up to see if humans were tolerate her people and be open with her. Like Sub-mariner in similar circumstances, she tries to see if they can live in peace by acting like an imperious jerk. The story is really a filler and a bridge to the final serial.

Issues 63-65 find that the old Vulture (presumed dead) is alive and back more dangerous than ever. At the end of Issue 64, Spidey wins the battle but is taken to jail as City Hall debates whether they can remove his mask and a jail break occurs.

---Overall, this may have been my favorite silver age Spidey collection so far. The character grows up, moving out of Aunt May's house into a pad with Harry Osborn in Issue #46. Peter still cares about his Aunt. When a fight with Doctor Octopus leads to another heart attack, Peter moves with righteous fury to contront his foe. On a less dramatic route, Peter shows concern for his Aunt while he's out and when he's with her, he loving teases her in this wonderful charming way. Here, Peter's love for his aunt is charming and natural unlike some later versions.

Captain Stacy is introduced in Issue #56 and lends a great deal of gravitas to the proceedings. He's a fully formed, complex adult figure who counters the cartoonish J Jonah. While the Fantastic Four was adding forgettable characters like Wyatt Wingfoot, Stacy was a true gem.

The stories themselves were rich and full of twists. They were exciting and oftentimes emotionally charged. They were well-developed and well-executed. Several issues also featured foreshadowing of the coming return of the Green Goblin.

The art remained solid throughout. The only thing I didn't like was Mary Jane getting a perm in Issue 65. Ugh! Though perhaps that's just because I'm not a fan of perms. Regardless, this is a must for Spidey fans.






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Book Reviews: The Doom Patrol Archives, Volume 1

The Doom Patrol Archives, Vol. 1 by Arnold Drake

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In the 1960s, Marvel was creating more realistic and human characters. Arnold Drake got a chance to follow suit as DC with the creation of the Doom Patrol. Three people whose lives have been transformed due to tragic accidents become the Doom Patrol: Elasti-girl, Negative Man, and Robotman. All three have become recluses after accident, but a wheel chair bound genius doctor know as the Chief spurs them into action. Thus they set out saving the world and become the Doom Patrol.

Robotman is a man stuck in a robot's body with a human brain, Negative Man has the power to have a negatively charged being of energy leave his body. The highlight of the book is Elastigirl who hasability to shrink and expand from inch-size to skyscraper size. Her power exceeded that of DC's Atom or the more comparable Marvel Ant Man. Plus, she has the most distinct personality in the book.

The stories are pure sci fi fun. It's not quite the Fantastic Four, but the stories work even though the only major villain is General Immortus who doesn't quite have the star power of Lex Luthor or Dr. Doom. There are some good fun action stories, a few very emotional stories such as Elastigirl's Private War which has her trying to reunite a war oprhan with his adopted father. There's also a solo Robotman story that's so humorous it has to be read to be believed. I can't help but think Monty Python read this before writing the black knight sketch.

Overall, this collection stands up pretty well despite some annoying "ha ha's" thanks to Elastigirl. I'll look forward to the next Archive.



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Book Review: Batman Brave and the Bold: The Fearsome Fang Strikes Again

Batman: The Brave and the Bold - The Fearsome Fangs Strike Again by Landry Q. Walker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The second collection of Batman Brave and the Bold books brings another mixture of poor and really solid stories. The book collects Issues 7-12 of the first Batman Brave and the Bold series based on the Cartoon Network comic series.

Issue 7 turns out a really poorly drawn and poorly written story featuring the Doom Patrol. Really, the group deserved much better than it got, particularly the beautiful Rita.

Issue 8 featured a Batman team up involving a bunch yetis and is obscure team of Chinese Super Guardians which produced a so-so story.

Issue 9 is the highlight of the book when Batman meets up with a guy in a very similar costume called Catman who offers to help Batman to take down some of his most dangerous foes. The question is why and who is this mysterious character?

Issue 10 is attack of the Colossal Bat Monster when Dr. Hugo Strange turns Batman into a monster and its up to Green Arrow and the Atom to save the day. Landry Walker decides to give the Atom the power to grow to massive proportions like he was Ant Man from the Marvel universe, but otherwise the story works.

Issue 11 has Batman and Green Arrow battling in the the titular story, "The Fearsome Fang Strike Again." This was an okay story that mainly highlighted Green Arrow's competitiveness.

Finally, we have Issue 12 which puts Batman with Adam Strange in a battle to save the universe. The story is problematic. Batman's made to look like a clown for the benefit of Adam Strange's wife. Then it turns out that they can save the universe by going to an anti-matter storm that coincidentally transforms Strange into a Santa Claus lookalike leading Batman to declare they were creating Christmas as everyone on Earth would have a memory of a guy with a red suit and a beard (and how would they know that?). While it'd be too much to expect an acknowledgment of why Christmas is called Christmas, did they really have to pretend that it was something Santa created with a blue bat elf?

In the end, we're given comics with mixed quality and a smattering of men attacking stupid as a propoganda method, with the Catman story elevating the book to 3 stars.




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