Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes, page 94

Book Review: Spider-man Newspaper Strips Volume 2

Spider-Man Newspaper Strips - Volume 2 by Stan Lee

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This second collection of Spidey strips didn't leave with me warm feelings like the first. While this covers 2 years of newspapers strips, we only get to see 2 Spider-man classic rogues. The Kingpin (twice) and Kraven the Hunter.

What happened with the rest of the story lines? 1979 marked the time of the Jim Jones cult, so the Amazing Spider-man featured a cult leader named Loomis and the battles between Spidey, Loomis, and his cult take up months of story line. There's also the appearance of the Prowler (Hobie Brown) a character that had been created in the comics 9 years before.

Most of the stories worked from 1979, but the stories began to drop off in quality with the 1980 strips. Spider-man's girlfriend Carole Jennings had joined the Loomis Cult and then fled when cult members thought she'd betrayed them. Mary Jane returned and Peter was going with her. Then when Carole came finally back, Peter dropped Mary Jane to resume his relationship with Carole, who he'd only started a relationship with because Mary Jane had left town to work for Kraven the Hunter in his act. So are the days of our Spider-man.

There were three things that made this collection not work as well as the first one. The first was Carole Jennings. She became a driving love interest in 1980. Peter was ready to propose to her and actually told her his secret identity. Though she fainted and he figured she couldn't handle it. What Peter saw in her is a mystery.

The second is the balance between crimefighting and personal problems. The personal issues make us relate to Peter Parker, but we really like to see Spidey in action. Spidey is best as a hard luck hero who is misunderstood and struggles with life. If you have too much action he's not relatable. if you have too many struggles and too much self-pity he comes off as a bit of loser.

Unfortunately, this error dogged Lee particularly late in 1979. After an uptick with Spider-man taking on a neighborhood extortionist called the Protector, Spidey decides he needs to get some money and calls himself a Schlemiel and a Schnook for not having done so sooner. (Apparently that's what New York White Anglo Saxon Protestants chide themselves with.) So he tries to make his money in show biz. Reverting to the basic plot Amazing Spider-man #1 even to the point of being unable to cash his check because it's made out to Spider-man. The whole station gets in an uproar and refuses to issue him a new check made out to "bearer" because the Daily Bugle doesn't like him.

I honestly hated the plot because what's somewhat cute or even endearing for a confused sixteen year old kid looks kind of pathetic on a twenty-something year-old college student. From there, The plot did manage to get worse as Spidey decided to turn crook. Had this been at a time when there was a legitimate financial need, there might be a sympathy factor. Instead, it's just ego and greed.

He wants no one to get hurt, so he swipes a priceless gem and is shocked when: 1) local fences aren't willing to sell the gem as is because it's too recognizable and 2) that the theft of the diamond sets off an angry response from the Saudi government that threatens America's oil supply. The actions are that of an idiotic clod, not the intelligent mind of Peter Parker.

The book is worth reading for Spidey superfans and the 1979 strips are pretty good. However, the 1980 strips are much weaker and may kill any chance of future releases despite featuring two cameos by former President Richard Nixon.



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Book Review: Amazing Spider-Girl: Whatever Happened to the Daughter of Spider-man

Amazing Spider-Girl - Volume 1: Whatever Happened to the Daughter of Spider-Man by Tom DeFalco

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A mere six months after the end of the first Spider-girl series, Amazing Spider-girl returned. This book collects material from Issues 0-6

May Parker, the daughter of the Amazing Spider-man in Marvel MC2 universe had hung up her webs after a confrontations with the Hobgoblin that nearly killed her as well as the events of Last Planet Standing much to the relief of her parents. She's enjoying life as an ordinary teenager with a new baby brother, closer relationships with her friends, plus she's growing into a beautiful young woman with a handsome boyfriend.

However, when the the battered women's shelter she volunteers at is targeted by gangster working for the Hobgoblin, May goes back into action even without the costume. And reluctantly, her mom returns her web shooters and costume to save a life. Still, she's trying to keep her work as Spider-girl on the downlow and struggling with what the right thing to do is. She finds herself having to choose between keeping her word to her parents as well as following through on her commitments or on saving lives as Spider-girl.

May is a great character and her values and courage make her someone you cheer for. This book is really about doing the right thing and trying to figure out what that is. She also has a bit more with than she did at the beginning of the run. For the most part, the story is well-paced. Some old favorites appear on both the hero and villain side, including the Black Tarantula. The action is well-done and certainly not predictable.

That said, I don't quite care for how the volume ends, though I'll hope that it'll turn out better for May as her actions towards the end of the book have scream, "Unintended consequences."

While May's struggle is noble and I can understand exactly what she's thinking, her parents are another story particularly Peter (the former Spider-man). His responses to the situation are inconsistent. In Issue 1, he wonders to Mary Jane how long May can stick with quitting the Spider-girl thing, but then erupts like an exploding volcano.

In many ways, DeFalco is treading ground he explored in the first eight issues of the series where it certainly made sense for Peter not to want his inexperienced daughter to get herself killed playing hero. In the context of a hero who has fought alongside the Fantastic Four and taken on villains like Loki and the Kingpin, this seems kind of dumb. He also is shocked that she would hide her Spider-girl activity from him or lie despite the fact he did this for years with his Aunt May. The problem is that Peter is acting in a way that's convenient for the writer rather than one that actually makes sense based on what we know of the character, leading to a portrayal that's kind of contrived in this first volume.

Still I'm optimistic and looking forward to the rest of the series.



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Oh Boy, Here's Another Sin for Your List....Over-praising Books

You know there are so many sins and issues that many of us struggle with in our lives that are sins based on scripture. However, some times I wake up and think, "There just aren't sins out there for me to worry about."

The good news is that many people are happy to come up with new ways and new sins for us to beware of or feel guilty about. Such is the case with Mike Duran who writes that Christian reviewers may be sinning by overrating the books they read:

I started researching and writing in the Christian fiction industry in 2005. Frankly, other than “externals” — mainly things like content guidelines — it is difficult to tell the two industries apart. Especially if you look at their fan bases. The pattern is usually the same. A Christian novel is released. Within a week the five star reviews predictably start rolling in. There’s lots of over-the-top praise. This is quickly followed by the review itself being rated – “20 of 20 people find the following review helpful.” So not only are we able to stuff the ballot box, we are able to publicly high-five those who do....

The only reason I’m posing this uncomfortable question is because of this assumption: Christian reviewers are “Not of this world,” we are “Going against the flow.” Christian reviewers should approach reviewing differently, right? I mean, it shouldn’t be surprising if non-Christian reviewers distort or misrepresent a book or author. They often have a complete different set of values motivating them. This is not to suggest that all non-Christian reviewers are liars or something. Frankly, sometimes I feel like I can get a more objective review of a Christian novel from a non-Christian reviewer than I can a Christian reviewer. But my point is, We should be able to trust Christian reviewers to not inflate their opinion of a novel.

Certainly, we should trust Christian reviewers not to give five star reviews to a book that they don't think is five stars, but there are several things to consider. As Duran points out albeit dismissively, people can argue "“It’s all subjective. If I see it as a five, it’s a five.”

That's...actually correct. And I would argue that some Christian book reviewers may be "not of this world" in their approach to reviewing books by giving extra points for books with stronger values and messages within them. Some reviewers may uplift those books that contain things that are lovely, honest, and of good report. (Phil. 4:8) even if they won't win a Pulitzer. Certainly, there are Christian reviewers that you probably can't rely on for finding an amazingly fun book but that's why you can see how people rate books on Amazon and if you don't trust people or their standards, don't listen to their ratings. It's just that simple.

No reason to introduce "sin" into the discussion.

And any over-positive reviews Christian books received are more than balanced out by negative reviews from Atheists falsely accusing your book of teaching things like "if you don't spend all your free time in church or praying, then you must be evil."

Here Comes Daredevil...To Netflix

Daredevil is on his way to television screens... those that can stream Netflix anyway. The report:

Marvel once again makes a move that could only further its dominance over TV and films. In a surprise gamble Marvel has announced that they've joined forces with Netflix to produce and distribute four new Marvel live action TV shows. Each show will focus on different street level heroes from the Marvel Universe, namely Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage. Each series will culminate in a miniseries event featuring the joining of the heroes to form The Defenders.

If you're wondering who Jessica Jones is, she made her first appearance in 2001, so is far more recent than the guys who date back to the 1960s and 70s.

The series are bad news on one front at least: This makes the likelihood of a Daredevil movie reboot less likely.

Will I like it? I don't know. At this point, the early description makes me think that this will be much more to Frank Miller's liking than mine:

Each series will be based mostly in Hell's Kitchen, New York and will focus on the gritty and dark nature of the street level heroes, whereas The Marvel cinematic universe focuses on the billionaires, geniuses and demigods. Netflix has committed to at least 13 episodes for each of the four shows, with the option to extend the episode count.

If true, I'm not particularly interested. Don't get me wrong, I could be okay with stories with a dark element. After all, like many kids of my generation I grew up on Batman: The Animated Series. But what made that series work was that while Batman was that while Batman had his problems, this was really good v. evil.

My first reaction to reading this is that it feels like its going to be a Marvel version of Arrow a series I watched one episode of and quit. During the first episode our "hero" killed several people including killing one person just to keep his secret identity safe even though it wasn't particularly at risk. If that's the case, I'm really not interested.

There are legitimate reasons to be concerned that Marvel could go there particularly with the Jennifer Jones character whose solo comic series was based in the Marvel MAX imprint for explicit content. And one appeal to going direct Netflix is that you can be edgy and explicit as you want and no network censors to complain. Indeed, many Netflix originals are rated TV-MA. Also, is it me or do most of these new streaming TV shows have ratings of TV-Y or TV-MA with nothing in between.

There is some TV-MA Marvel material on Netflix but these are motion comics and anime.

To me, I hope they don't go totally dark with these characters. Not only wouldn't I watch the shows, it'd end up being bad business for them in the long run. If they don't create something that can capture fans of The Avengers movie, it's not going to be worth it to Netflix in the long run. In addition to that, both Luke Cage and Iron Fist are featured on the Ultimate Spider-man animated series and they'd be tossing away in any attempt to parlay that if they go TV-M or all dark via Green Arrow.

I also have to say their reimagining of the Marvel team, The Defenders with these characters is interesting to say the least. The original defenders were headed up Dr. Strange with the Hulk and Namor the Submariner, soon to be joined by the Silver Surfer. This team will have none of those characters, so that's definitely a reinvention, though the Defenders were always an odd group that I'm not really interested and they'll have to see if they can make the Netflix show more interesting.

How bad or how good these programs are is something we'll find out come 2015.

Book Review: Captain America; To Serve and Protect

Captain America: To Serve & Protect by Mark Waid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects Volume 3 of Captain America Issues 1-7 from the late 1990s. Volume 2 of Captain America was the year-long Heroes Reborn saga that had Cap in an alternate universe along with other characters such as the Fantastic Four and Iron Man and Volume 3 features Captain America's return to the main Marvel universe. Mark Waid who wrote the brilliant Captain America: Operation Rebirth to close out Volume 1.

Issue 1 features Cap coming to in modern day Japan in time to thwart a terrorist plot. In his year long absence, Captain America finds he's become an iconic figure and that a movie was made based on his life after his disappearance in Onslaught. He bemoans the disappearance of traditional Japanese culture and is taken aback by the adulation he receives.

The next six issues are all interrelated as Hydra rears its ugly head and attempts to hijack a Submarine. Issue 2 is full of Shield-slinging action as Cap rescues the sub's crew and mentions a couple times about cool his Shield is and what an awesome weapon it is and wonders what he'll do without it. At the end of Issue 2, he loses his shield in the Atlantic Ocean and even Namor can't find it.

Issue 3 finds him struggling with his replacement shield. He can't aim it properly to throw it. But he has to use it anyway as he rushes in to save the Smithsonian institution from Hydra and in gratitude, the Smithsonian gives Cap his triangular World War 2 shield. He can't throw this one either, but it's something he had used before and its comforting. The only other real benefit to it is that it protects a greater area than the round shield.

Issues 4-7 focus on the rise of Capmania with the last titled, "The Power and the Glory" which features Captain America's popularity on the rise and the new Sensational Hydra is actually happy about it, while Cap is disturbed by the adulation he's receiving.

The book has a lot of positives. There are some solid plots, particularly taking each issue individually. Cap had a great series of guest stars here: Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, and Quicksilver among others. The action in Issues 2 and 3 was particularly thrilling old school Cap kicking tale and taking names.

The book as a whole served as a study in fame and asked some great questions in a fun way and raised the danger of celebrity and supporting personalities without actually understanding principle. If we follow great principles, we'll never go wrong. If only follow people, we can easily fall astray when people do.

Captain America makes this work quite well. He remains courageous, principles, and above all humble (despite him inexplicably saying in the concluding speech that he got caught up in Capmania.) The only flaw with Cap is that he occasionally walked the line between introspection and being whyin and having doubt in the principles he aspouses.

The book does illustrate a challenge with writing Captain America. Waid tries to bring him to standing FOR things rather than just fighting supervillains, but the political lines drawn in America these days make it so that at the end Cap only really delivers very general principles that pretty much everyone believes in. You go into too much policy stuff and you alienate people.

Without spoiling too many details, unless his only motive is to have revenge on Captain America, the Sensational Hydra's plot is a little dumb. You also have to wonder what it says about Captain America that he'd rather take a SHIELD that's less versatile than learn to use the new one Tony Stark made for him.

Still, this is a great book for anyone who is a fan of Captain America. Waid continues to do a great job with the character and I'll enjoy reading his next book on the series.




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Book Review: The Greatest Team Up Stories Ever Told

The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told by Mike Gold

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book can be divided into two sections: Great and meh.

The great section is the first 189 pages are great beginning with a great introduction by Julian Schwartz and then Mike Gold about the history of crossovers and team ups.

Then we get into the stories the 1950s and 60s and we're treated to a smorgasboard of fun stories beginning with "The Terrible Trio" focusing on a supervillain team up between Luthor, the Toy Man, and the Prankster. Then "The Three Super Musketeers" with Superman, Batman, and Robin travelling back in time and stepping for the Three Musketeers to solve the mystery of the man in the iron mask. There's another time travel tale when "Superboy Meets Robin." Then we get to see a more okay story when Green Arrow and Aquaman team up in a magazine they shared together.

Thing then get really fun as we're treated to the landmark "Flash of Two Worlds" Story that established the DC status quo for 20 years as Barry Allen traveled quite by accident from his world to that of the other Flash Jay Garrick and they teamed up. Next up, the first JLA/JSA team up story is told.

Then we get to see Adam Strange and Hawkman teaming up to save Earth and Rann from a madman who is willing to destroy both worlds. We get a similar but even more wonderful sci-fi story when the Flash and Atom join forces in, "Challenge of the Expanding World" in a battle royale against tiny space aliens. Finally, there's what can be seen as a pilot for the Teen Titans as Aqualad, Kid Flash, and Robin team up to fight Dr. Twister.

From there, the book moves on to the 1970s and we get the first Green Lantern-Green Arrow team up where Green Lantern is chastised for fighting evil on other planets while not doing anything about it on Earth. Says one black character, "I been readin' about you...How you work for the Blu Skins...and how how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins...And you done considerable for the purple skins you never bother with the Black Skins! I want to know how come." Rather than explaining, his job is to patrol the galaxy, the Green Lantern feels guilty and joins with the sanctimonious and self-righteous Green Arrow and ends up going around the country in a van with one of the guardians from Oa. The story would be hilarious if it weren't meant to be serious.

Then we get a totally out of place story when the Guardians decided to reward a faithful Green Lantern nearing retirement by bringing him to the council to remind him of what a failure he was in preventing the destruction of Krypton. There's no real crossover here, so it doesn't even belong.

We're then treated to a team up of Batman and the Creeper which was really a ham-fisted attack on the religious right. The book ends up on a somewhat better tone on the surprisingly good 1985 team up between Superman and Swamp Thing.

Overall, put together with less care than The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, this is still a worthy read particularly due to the introduction.



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Book Review: Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told

Wonder Woman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told by William Moulton Marston

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is supposed to be made up of some of the Greatest story in the history of Wonder Woman from 1942-2001.

The book begins with two stories from the original run by Creator William Moulton Marston in the 1940s. The origin story is skipped for the more entertaining "Wonder Woman Comes to America" which has a great light sense of fun to it as Wonder Woman encounters crooks and establishes her secret identity. Second, we find Wonder Woman up against a team of supervillains when her attempt to put the Saturn women on Paradise Island's reformatory goes awry. The book length stories by Moulston were groundbreaking in that most comic book heroes would usually do 3 or 4 different stories when presented with their own magazine. Going back to Wonder Woman #2, Moulston would have a big plot for as comics as long as 64 pages. Whether this was Wonder Woman's greatest Golden Age story or not is unclear, but it's probably the one that could really fit in the 192-page book at a much more manageable 36 pages.

Next are three stories from the early to mid Silver Age by Robert Kanigher. "Top Secret" is a somewhat lame retelling of Wonder Woman's secret identity and a bizarre game played by Steve Trevor as the male Lois Lane trying to trick Wonder Woman into marrying him. "Wanted-Wonder Woman" is a fairly run of the mill alien story that just doesn't feel like it belongs in a greatest story ever told book. "Giganta-The Gorilla Girl" is from a series of stories where Wonder Woman's Golden age opponents were being reintroduced in the 1960s. Okay, but not great.

Next are three late Silver-to-Bronze book length adventures. "Wonder Woman's Rival" has Steve Trevor convicted of murder and acting like a jerk to blame Wonder Woman who tries to clear him by going undercover in mod clothing as she tries to solves the murder Steve's accused of. This was actually a pretty fun story.

Then we have "Wish Upon a Star," a story told by Green Lantern as he observes Wonder Woman as the JLA has its members observe Wonder Woman and evaluate whether to give her back membership in the JLA as part of the 12 Labors story in which Wonder Woman has to prove herself worthy of being in the JLA after leaving when she lost her powers. This is a part of Wonder Woman history that never made sense. It wasn't like she did anything unethical, so why did she have to prove that she was still worthy. So, while Wonder Woman has a great triumph, the underlying story makes no sense.

The best story in the book is without a doubt, "Be Wonder Woman...And Die" about a dying young woman who wants badly to play Wonder Woman in a film to prove herself as an actress and give some joy to her elderly father. While many stories here try to be emotionally powerful, this one does it and is the truest classic in the book.

Next up are two post-crisis Wonder Woman stories. First is, "Who Killed Windi Mayer" where most of the story is told by a male cop in this murder mystery that attempts a more realistic procedural. A police procedural is one of Wonder Woman’s greatest stories? Really?

Finally, we have "She's a Wonder" a story that's full of inconsistencies as Lois Lane follows Wonder Woman around for a day in the life with the help of the JLA teleporter. I really don't like the politics of Wonder Woman which really don't need to be stated. She comes out as pro-choice and attacks traditional religion. Whether you agree with the views expressed or not, it doesn't strike me as making the story timeless, but rather shoving politics down people's throats and dating it to the issues of the time.

The story's also bizarre for Wonder Woman's distracting constant wardrobe changes. Through the 18 hour day, she begins in Boston and then teleports to France wearing her traditional Wonder Woman costume and then speaks to College students then goes up to the Watch Tower to work on scientific experiments and changes into a Purple turtleneck and black mini-skirt, and does a TV interview in the same before teleporting to the White House wearing a dress that could double as a tent, before changing into a Wonder Woman costume with mini-skirt, then she goes into Atlanta and changes into a Wonder Woman t-shirt with gym shorts, then in a white t-shirt and workout pants in Indonesia, then back to Wonder Woman with mini-skirt in Rwanda, then to New York where she puts on a blue tunic with gray slacks at the UN, and then to white t-shirt and Jeans in support of an AIDS charity in Metropolis and finally back to her UN outfit on the streets. All told she wore seven different outfits and changed clothes nine times in a day. Mind you, she is at know time carrying a bag with extra clothes.

In addition, the artists and writers couldn't seem to agree. A full page spread of Wonder Woman declares she wears no make up while she's obviously wearing pink nail polish and lipstick.

While the story showed Wonder Woman doing great things and interacting with Lois, who is jealous of her relationship with Superman, the story seemed forced. The writers seemed self-conscious about making all the right points that they ended up with a lot of junk and lacked consistency.

Until this last story, the book was bordering on being four stars, but this makes a definite three.

The other thing that keeps this story out of the four star territory is the introduction. It's by Linda Carter who played TV's Wonder Woman and seems to know nothing about the comic. This is a book that needs an introduction. If I hadn't researched beforehand, I wouldn't have know about the "12 labors " series or how rare the lengthy villain battle contained here during the Golden Age was. Wonder Woman went through more fundamental changes than other characters which leaves many questions. Why did they redo Wonder Woman's origin in 1958? Why were they reintroducing Golden Age characters in 1966? You won't find the answers here.

There was a time that DC would put good introductions that would give fans the context to understand what's going on when they did DC Archives and the original Greatest story ever told collections in the late 1980s and DC Archives books. What Wonder Woman got here was a mish mash of stories with no context, some of them excellent, and some unintentionally laughable. She deserves better than this thrown together book by DC.




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Powerhouse Hard Pressed Free Today on Kindle

Powerhouse: Hard Pressed is available for free today for the Kindle here. In addition, you can get the audiobook for $1.99 with the purchase or download of the Kindle book.

Book Review: Wonder Woman Chronicles Volume 2

The Wonder Woman Chronicles, Vol. 2 by William Moulton Marston

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book begins with Wonder Woman #2 and ends with Wonder Woman #3. In between, the book features Wonder Woman stories form Sensation Comics #10-#14 and Comics Cavalcade #1.

Moulston's plotting of Wonder Woman #2 and #3 is particularly clever. After Wonder Woman #1 followed the popular practice the day of four unrelated stories starring the heroine, in Both Wonder Woman magazines we're presented with four stories that are closely related. The first set teamed Wonder Woman against Ares, the god of War in a story that seemed like a Justice Society in reverse as each featured a different sub-villain battling Wonder Woman. Mars himself is up in the first story followed by attacks by Greed, Deception, and Conquest. Thus Moulston used Greek mythology to create a modern parable of war.

In Wonder Woman #3, the four stories focus on Wonder Woman challenging the baroness Von Gunther.

Wonder Woman at this point in her history has a solid supporting cast with back up from Steve Trevor and the surprisingly competent Etta Candy. In one story, it's even revealed that Wonder Woman belongs to a local bowling league. (Wouldn't you love to bowl against that team.)

The book is one that parents should be cautious about sharing with their kids. The book's pseud-paganism and constant use of slave imagery as some sort of feminist metaphor is kind of surprising for the 1940s, and it's something parents should be aware of before buying.



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Book Review: Collected Paul the Samurai

Collected Paul the Samurai by Beb Edlund

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ben Edlund is best known in comicdom as the creator of the Tick. However, Edlund also created three spin-off series from the Tick. Among them was Paul the Samurai. This older book collects the character's first three Issue series from 1990-91.

After Paul's appearance in the Tick, he sets out to become a private detective but finding work sparse, he becomes a night watchmen in a mall. Skulduggery has been afoot as several night watchmen have disappeared while patrolling the boiler area. While his fellow guards are apathetic, Paul sets out to find the truth and he has to match wits with Reverend Billy, an insane boiler man who has become leader of the boiler men as well as the other boiler men.

Paul the Samurai is nowhere near as zany as the Tick. (Though perhaps that would have gone without saying.) The humor of the book doesn't rest on Paul's behavior. Paul is the straight man to the book's cast of characters. He's truly an honorable hero though he does struggle with self-doubt in Issue 3. He still is loyal, courageous, and honorable.

The book is actually quite good and given that the biggest plot point deals with mad boiler men, it's pretty good. In the Paul the Samurai #3, we see a Superhero dive that predates the Comet Club which was one of the most iconic places in the Tick Universe. This bar caters exclusively to down on their luck superheroes, so it's not quite the same, still the seeds of the idea for the Comet Club are in this section.

Overall, this a wonderful book about an overlooked hero in the big blue world of the Tick.



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