The Heroic Age: Age of Heroes #1 (of 4) — Writers: Kurt Busiek, Rick Remender, Paul Cornell and Dan Slott; Art: Marco Djurdjevic, Chris Samnee, Leonard Kirk and Ty Templeton
Three stories: an 11-page JJJ-being-a-weasel one, plus eight pages of Dr. Voodoo date sitcom (he’s juggling eating out with a potential girlfriend, protecting his secret identity and saving our dimension, in a story so Silver Agey that it could involve Barry West and Iris Allen). Otherwise, there’s two pages of Captain Britain and MI-13, and a Spider-Man one-pager. The Captain Britain and the Busiek script are the biggest attractions here, but neither offers that much; in my considered opinion, this is not worth the $4 that Marvel is asking for it — unless you’re a big fan of both Dr. Voodoo and JJJ-as-weasel, in which case, hey, here’s your dream comic.
Enter the Heroic Age #1 (of 1) — Writers: Christos Gage, Jeff Parker, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Jim McCann and Jeff Parker; Art: Mike McCone, Gabriel Hardman and Giancarlo Caracuzzo, Jamie McKelvie, David and Alvaro Lopez, and Kevin Walker
New-material eight-page intro stories to five new Marvel titles: the first, by Gage and McCone, is for Avengers Academy, and yes, it looks very much like its predecessor, Avengers: The Initiative, with Hank Pym as mentor and, presumably, a much less evil governmental connection; similarly, Parker and co. provide an Atlas preview that promises a continuation of the humor, characterization and secret-agent stuff from Agents of Atlas. The Black Widow entry is from the current mini-series’ writer, and is distinguished by the art from McKelvie, of the late, lamented Phonograph: The Singles Club, while the comic is rounded out with both Hawkeye and Mockingbird and Thunderbolts previews. This is the same price as Age of Heroes, but a lot easier to recommend; it offers considerably more value for your hard-earned four bucks.
Avengers Assemble #1 (of 1) — Writers/Artists: Various
Also $4, but 67 pages of material: the catch is that it’s not a story, but an Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe set of entries on the team and various friends and foes. There’s three pages on the Avengers themselves, which serves as a reasonably concise summary of the last couple years of continunity, from Civil War through Secret Invasion and Dark Reign, and one-page updates on Captain America and Thor (but not Iron Man, whereas the Black Knight gets four pages). Some of the other entries are similarly puzzling (two pages each on ISAAC (the anthropomorphic compouter from Titan), Imus Champion, the Lava Men, Marrina, Ymir and Egghead, and three on the Super-Adaptoid?), unless maybe they’re all clues about where upcoming stories are going. If you like reading up on the minutia of the Marvel Universe (an obsession that, believe me, I understand), then this book’s for you.
Origins of Marvel Comics #1 (of 1) — Writers/Artists: Various (Most entries written by Fred Van Lente)
Also $4, but it’sonly 37 pages, and it’s a bunch of one-page origin/background summaries of the major Marvel characters, from Spidey and the FF through Thor, Iron Man, the X-Men, the Punisher, etc., etc. (oddly, there’s only one two-page entry: for, um, Power Pack). Most of the information is basic, default-setting stuff (so that, for example, the Dr. Strange entry has him listed as Sorcerer Supreme, the Punisher entry doesn’t mention Frankencastle, and the Ares, Loki and Sentry entries don’t mention that they’re currently “dead”). It’s all entry-level info for new readers, and OK for what it is, but what it is is promo copy, the kind of thing Marvel could use over and over as the front page of each character’s book, so the relatively-steep cover price is self-defeating: this would have been perfect as a Free Comic book Day giveaway.
Girl Comics #2 (of 3) — Creators: Colleen Coover; Jill Thompson; Kathryn Immonen and Colleen Coover; Stephanie Buscema; Faith Erin Hicks; Abby Denson and Emma Vieceli; Christine Boylan and Cynthia Martin
This has a lot of indie flavor to it, like a more whimsical Strange Tales; the heroines are Jill Thompson, with a clever, Snow White-influenced cover and a six-page Crystal/Inhumans/Lockjaw story, and Colleen Coover, with a two-page introductory manifesto and (with writer Kathryn Immonen) a charming seven-page Shamrock tale; Faith Erin Hicks offers a well-done peek at the Scott Pilgrim-influenced artistic future of comics, while Stephanie Buscema’s offering is both the shortest (at two pages) and the most art-comicky (not that there’s anything wrong with that). Marvel, annoyingly, is asking an extra buck for this, at $5, but along with 33 pages of story they’re including a fair amount of editorial material: three pages of detailed biographies of all the creators, plus four one-page profiles of historical female comics pros. This would be a cool gift for any young, aspiring comics writer or artist, female or male, one that might open them up to some of the infinite possibilities of the form.
X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back! #4 (of 4) — Writer: Kathryn Immonen; Art: Sara Pichelli
Speaking of Kathryn Immonen… this book wraps up the rookie X-girl’s mini-series, and very well, with solid, smart plotting and characterization (it should read even better in a collected trade, where the deliberately-disorienting first issue wouldn’t have to stand by itself). Between this and last year’s Hellcat run, Immonen is distinguishing herself as an appealing, dependably-craftswomanlike new voice.
DCU: Legacies #1 (of 10) — Writer: Len Wein; Art: Scott Kolins and Andy and Joe Kubert
Kind of DC’s The Marvels Project, with a Kolins present-time intro and the bulk by the Kuberts, Joe being one of the few still-working professionals left from that era (let’s see: there’s Joe Severin, and maybe the other guy who could team up with his son, John Romita, and…?). Suicide Slum in the ’30s stands in for Hell’s Kitchen and NYC, and we watch two hardscrabble kids, one good and one bad, as they encounter the Crimson Avenger, the Sandman and the Atom; there’s also an eight-pager by Wein and J. G. Jones involving a skeptical reporter investigating Dr. Fate and the Spectre. Like The Marvels Project, it’s all smooth and well-done, but curiously soulless; it lacks the crude, over-the-top energy of those original stories, and so makes it hard to understand what the fuss was all about.
The Spirit #2 — Writer: Mark Schultz; Art: Moritat
As with the first issue, this is just OK. A lot of people whose opinions I respect like Moritat, but he somehow doesn’t connect with me that much; he can do sexy, and has design sense, but his action is often too stiff to flow well. Also as with the first issue, it’s the back-up story, this time by Harlan Ellison and Kyle Baker, that’s the bigger attraction; however, that too falls curiously flat — given the creators, you’d expect flash and pyrotechnics, but it’s a deliberately claustrophobic tale in a minor key, well-constructed but sometimes clunky in both the dialogue and the visual effects (Eisner is the hardest of acts to follow — just ask Frank Miller — although maybe an Alan Moore/Darwyn Cooke team-up would do it….
Phil Mateer
