M
Madrox The Multiple Man: Multiple Choice/Madrox The Multiple Man!
featuring Len Wein, Chris Claremont and Peter David
(Art by John Buscema, Joe Sinnot, Pablo Raimodi and Drew Hennessey)
Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 56. Here we get Madrox's first appearance in the pages of the Fantastic Four and then the first story arc of his first title series in which he sets himself up as a private detective.
The first story here follows the tried, tested and tedious pattern of many of Marvel's early character introductions in that it introduces a new hero by having him fight some existing ones. Unfortunately this is one of the examples of this wherein there is no actual reason for the fight, he just annoys the Thing who then decides to try beating him up. It's a pretty bland origin for the character and it sort of makes sense that he only appeared infrequently in stories after this initial introduction. Very much a swing and a miss.
Peter David's story is of much higher quality, however. Here we're introduced to the intriguing idea that Madrox's duplicates all come out with different parts of his personality in prominence. This means we get great scenes such as him trying to save himself by creating a 'dupe' only for that dupe to immediately run off to safety because he's the embodiment of Madrox's survival instinct. It means that David gets a great deal of milage out of this single character by having different parts of him show up as other characters. Naturally, as a P.I. there's also a strong noir vibe to this story which Madrox himself comments on at one point.
A solid second half spoiled by a bland first half.
3 out of 5
Mars Attacks: The Human Condition
featuring Fred Hembeck, Bill Morrison, Ian Boothby, Dean Haspiel, Phil Hester, Beau Smith and Neil Kleid.
(Art by Fred Hembeck, Tone Rodriguez, Alan Robinson, Dean Haspiel, John McCrea, Kelley Jones and Carlos Valenzuela)
This anthology combines 'Mars Attacks The Holidays' with 'Mars Attacks: Classics Obliterated', giving us a collection of short episodes each with an individual theme, either a special holiday or piece of classic literature; Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Moby Dick, Jekyll & Hyde and Robinson Crusoe.
Really, beyond the novelty of each story's theme, there's little of particular interest about this book as a whole. It mostly occilates between silly and pointless, although, truth be told, I actually found the latter half of the book to be an actual insult to the great works of literature it appropriates.
The one good thing on offer here, and the reason I've rated this as a two instead of a one, is Boothby's 'Mars Attacks Thanksgiving'. It contains the dark, wry humour that the rest of the book is lacking but which you could justifiably expect in a Mars Attacks story. Somewhere between amusing and tragic is the inclusion for comedy effect of the arrogant, idiotic elitist businessman Donald Triumph. A nice parody of Trump, but tragic in that this book was released in 2013, when the idea of him becoming President was just a horrifying fever-dream that we were sure couldn't ever be real...
2 out of 5
Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Guardians Of The Galaxy
featuring Arnold Drake, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Bill Mantlo, Jim Valentino, Keith Giffen, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning.
(Art by Gene Colan, Mike Esposito, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Mike Mignola, Al Gordon, Jim Valentino, Steve Montano, Timothy Green, Victor Olazaba, Paul Pelletier and Rick Magyar)
An anthology collection which covers some important milestones in the comics history of the Guardians of the Galaxy, bringing us more or less up to date. It is worth pointing out, to those not in the know, that there are in fact two teams with that name; the original one whose stories take place in the 31st century and a second one which formed the basis for the massively popular movie. This book features both.
The first story here charts the first appearance of the original 31st century Guardians, published in 1969 and then there is a later story, published 1990, which features an updated version of this team. I used to own several comics featuring this team but the truth is that their storyline, so disconnected from the main Marvel timeline, makes them seem pretty campy, shallow and, frankly, unfamiliar. It also doesn't help that the 1969 story is based on the astronomy of a time when the moon was still a mystery, so to read about Charlie 27 walking on the surface of Jupiter robs the story of the scientific credibility that sci-fi needs. On the plus side, I really like the character of Vance Astro (despite the name); a man who left Earth in the 20th Century and is revived a millennia later in a Buck Rogers-esque way.
We are also given a couple of graphic novel-length stories of two of the modern Guardians but from their early days in comics. The first, by comics legend Claremont, tells the story of Star-Lord's fight against sinister forces within the realm of an interplanetary Empire. This story was published the same year that Star Wars originally took the world by storm and the parallels are too strong to be ignored. There's even a character who's referred to as a Sith-Lord. What would've been a cheesy but enjoyable Flash Gordon-esque space opera is ruined by paling in comparison to the franchise that defined that genre from 1977 onwards. The other old story of a new Guardian is a mid-eighties story of Rocket Raccoon. It is a genuinely bizarre affair in which Rocket is a Ranger on a planet where talking animals and robotic clowns are tasked with caring for an entire civilisation of insane people who were dumped there like it was one big asylum. Even now, I couldn't honestly say whether I really liked this weirdness or whether I completely hated it. Mike Mignola's artwork for it is great though.
The last third or so of the book brings us to more recent times, in the aftermath of the Annihilation War when the de-powered Peter Quill aka Star-Lord is given command of a Dirty Dozen-type group of misfits which includes Loverbug, Mantis, Captain Universe, Rocket and Groot. This was a much more enjoyable storyline indeed, albeit something of a cliche, and I particularly enjoyed seeing the awkwardly developing friendships within the group. There's then a skip ahead a bit to issue #1 of Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2, in which Quill formalises a new team intended as cosmic Avengers. There's some great humour in this last story as it is interspersed with debrief vignettes from each of the characters, commenting on the progress of their first mission together.
Overall this book is perfect for getting a sense of where the current Guardians of the Galaxy came from and, perhaps, where they're going. Unfortunately, as a reading experience it's very disjointed and occasionally confusing, with great variations in the quality of the stories on offer. And the truth is, although comic purists may want to crucify me for saying it, the comic incarnations just aren't as compelling as the ones in the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie.
2 out of 5
Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Iron Man
featuring Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Bill Mantlo, David Michelinie, Denny O'Neil, Bob Layton and Joe Quesada.
(Art by Don Heck, George Tuska, Mike Esposito, John Romita Jr., Bob Layton, Jerry Bingham, Mark Bright, Ian Akin, Brian Garvey, Harry Candelario, Sean Chen and Rob Hunter)
A collection of Iron Man stories ranging from his first appearance in 1963 up to the year 2000. Here we see Iron Man's origins, see his struggles with alcoholism and see him do battle with the likes of the Mandarin, Doctor Doom and Iron Monger.
I'm always a little confused by what stories make the cut for this sort of collection. Here, for example, we have Iron Man's iconic origin amid the Vietnam War and the brilliant 'Demon in a Bottle' storyline, but we also get a story which is just him trapped under some rubble on a space station, thinking about how to get out from under the rubble. And whilst some of the villains featured here, Mandarin and Doom, are iconic, the specific stories chosen are not. Instead of Iron Man's first encounter with the Mandarin, we get the second instead, which is fairly by-the-numbers and instead of having a story which explores the similarities and differences between him and Doctor Doom, we get one where they're bizarrely thrown back in time to the court of King Arthur.
I'm not saying there's not good stuff, however. The origin and 'Demon in a Bottle' are the flagship stories here, but I did also like seeing the original version of Iron Man versus Iron Monger (having first encountered it in the 2008 movie) and the story arc where Tony tries to help cure Bruce Banner shows the engineer/scientist side of his character nicely.
So, in short, a mixed bag.
3 out of 5
Marvel Platinum: The Definitive Wolverine
featuring Paul Jenkins, Barry Windsor-Smith, Len Wein, Chris Claremont, James Owsley, Fabian Nicieza, Larry Hama and Erik Larsen
(Art by Andy Kubert, Barry Windsor-Smith, Herb Trimpe, Jack Abel, John Byrne, Terry Austin, Frank Miller, Josef Rubinstein, Mark D. Bright, Al Williamson, Matthew Ryan, Mark Farmer, Dan Green, Mark Pennington, Leinil Francis Yu and Dexter Vines)
A collection of diverse stories featuring the clawed superhero from across the years 1974-2001 but edited into the chronological order of the character's life. Here we see the first time he uses his claws, his time as Weapon X, his time in Japan, how he loses his adamantium skeleton and other key points from Logan's life.
These Marvel Platinum anthologies are good at giving you a general overview of a character, their key history and how they've changed over time but they're not so good for readers, like me, who really want the opportunity to get into the story. For example, the first tale here is a single issue lifted from the 'Wolverine: Origin' miniseries (reviewed here), so doesn't explain its context nor show you the consequences or resolution of what happens; it is exclusively here because it's the first time (chronologically) that Wolverine uses his claws. More than other titles from this series, this book does offset that by having a couple of complete stories within it. The best of these is the complete run of the original 'Wolverine' miniseries by writer Chris Claremont and artist Frank Miller. Here we see Logan battle the dichotomy of his nature, being both honourable hero and savage berserker, whilst fighting ninjas and samurai to win the heart of his beloved Mariko. It's what was used as the basis of the movie 'The Wolverine', if that sounds familiar.
Overall, the quality of the storytelling here is pretty high (although that could be my lifelong love of the character giving me a bias) but the somewhat fractured nature of how the book is put together, whilst appropriate to Logan's psyche, prevents it from being a truly enjoyable read.
3 out of 5
Marvel Zombies: Dead Days
featuring Robert Kirkman, Mark Millar and Reginald Hudlin
(Art by Sean Phillips, Greg Land, Matt Ryan, Mitch Breitweiser and Francis Portela)
A companion book to the Marvel Zombies series, this book opens with a prelude to the main Marvel Zombies timeline then goes on to include the stories where the zombies crossover into the Ultimate Fantastic Four and, later, the mainstream continuity of the New FF.
The cover of this book promises to reveal the origins of the Marvel Zombies universe, but that's not strictly true. Sure, it shows us how many of Earth's mightiest became zombies in the first place but it never really goes into details as to where the infection came from. It may be that this is revealed in the main MZ books, which I haven't yet read, but I went into this book under the impression that it was intended as the starting point for people new to the MZ ideas. On top of this, the first third of the book, the titular 'Dead Days' story by Kirkman, isn't actually particularly engaging. It's fairly shallow zombie fayre and never seems to decide whether it's straight-up horror or slapstick comedy.
The parts of the book which show the zombies crossing over with more familiar continuities are much more interesting, however. Although I'm not the biggest fan of the Ultimate universe, this book's best moments all come in the crossover with the Ultimate Fantastic Four. I particularly enjoyed seeing the youthful Ultimate Reed Richards matching wits with his older, zombified alter ego. Similarly, I enjoyed the watching the New FF (which is to say, the Thing, Human Torch, Black Panther and Storm) going toe to toe with the zombie Galacti.
However, that leads me on to this book's other major problem, which is that I don't know when to suggest reading it. I read it in the expectation that it would lead into the first 'Marvel Zombies' (by Kirkman), which parts of it do, but the latter parts of this book all take place after that book and lead into 'MZ2'.
3 out of 5
Marvel's Doctor Strange Prelude
featuring Will Corona Pilgrim, Brian K. Vaughan, Jason Aaron, Stan Lee and Steve Englehart
(Art by Jorge Fornes, Geoffo, Marcos Martin, Alvaro Lopez, Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Mark Irwin, Steve Ditko, Frank Brunner and Dick Giordano)
A tie-in to the Doctor Strange movie containing seven stories, including his origin. Here we get some backstories for some of the movie characters, such as Mordo, Wong and Kaecilius as well as see Doctor Strange himself facing foes like Nightmare and Shuma-Gorath.
Despite what you might think from the cover of this book, only two out of seven stories here have links to the Doctor Strange movie. Those two are definitely the best on offer here, showing us how the Masters of Mystic Arts of Kamar-Taj operated before Stephen Strange turns up on their doorstep, but even they are fairly unremarkable.
The other five stories here are an absolute jumble running across decades of Doctor Strange stories, with no discernible themes or narrative connections. The only story which feels it really belongs here is the one by the classic duo of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko which was the original reveal of Doctor Strange's origin story. All of the other stories seem almost randomly chosen and, mostly, aren't even complete self-contained tales.
So, just a messy jumble of Doctor Strange stories which don't actually really add anything to the movie that they're supposed to be helping promote.
2 out of 5
Mass Effect: The Complete Comics
featuring Mac Walters, Jeremy Barlow, John Dombrow, Patrick Weekes, Sylvia Feketekuty and John Jackson Miller
(Art by Omar Francia, Tony Parker, Gabrial Guzman, Matthew Clark, Drew Geraci, Sean Parsons, Eduardo Francisco, Garry Brown, Chris Staggs, Marc Deering and Jean Diaz)
An omnibus of over thirty comics telling stories from the First Contact War all the way through the events of the first three Mass Effect games and onto the beginnings of 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'. Here we get backstories and additional tales for such major ME characters as the Illusive Man, Aria T'loak, Saren, Liara T'soni and most of Commander Shepard's companions.
As with any anthology, this is a mix of high points and low points but overall the highs definitely outnumber and outweigh the lows. Due to the involvement of writers who actually worked on the games, the stories here genuinely feel like part of the lore built into the ME universe, rather than tie-ins just bolted-on afterwards. As a result, this book also answers a lot of questions I've wondered about whilst playing (and absolutely loving, it has to be said) the games, such as why do the Illusive Man's eyes glow blue and how did Liara go from the somewhat timid researcher of ME1 to the badass espionage expert we see in ME2 and ME3.
These stories also do something that initially bothered me but which, in hindsight, actually works really well; they very carefully avoid exploring anything directly involving Commander Shepard or the Reapers. At first it felt a bit of a cheat to avoid Mass Effect's two main elements, but the more I think about it the more it makes this book and the games work together really well. Neither holds the full story of these characters/situations but both can be enjoyed to their fullest without relying too much on overlapping their stories.
The low points mentioned above mainly come amid the 'Foundation' story arc (by Mac Walters and Jeremy Barlow) which follows the character Rasa from one of ME3's DLC stories from her childhood and through her service to Cerberus. Because she's occasionally the main character but sometimes merely a framing device for someone else's story, the whole arc feels a bit fragmented and confusing. Also, at one point, the art quality had dropped to the point that I genuinely couldn't tell which character depicted was Rasa and which was Miranda, making their action scenes together almost unintelligible.
Overall, a great read for a Mass Effect fan and all that remains to be said is that 'Andromeda' wasn't nearly as bad as everyone said it was (fight me!).
4 out of 5
Midnighter: Anthem
featuring Brian K. Vaughan and Keith Giffen
(Art by Darick Robertson, Karl Story, Chris Sprouse, Chriscross, Rafael Sandoval, Jon Buran, Troy Hubbs and Rick Burchett)
Book 2, featuring two stories; 'Fait Accompli' and the titular 'Anthem', set in DC's WildStorm universe. Midnighter is having a crisis of identity, which leads him to seek out his lost past and his forgotten life as Lucas Trent. However, he is soon targeted by Anthem, a private security corporation whose goal is to paint meta-humans as an existential terrorist threat in order to seize more power for themselves.
The first story here is a very short one. It has the interesting novelty factor of being told in reverse, with each page being a step back in time until we finally learn that everything we've read so far is Midnighter predicting the outcome of a fight before it even happens. Structurally it's a really clever idea but in practice it makes for a nigh-on unreadable comic.
The majority of this book is made up of the title story, however, which is thankfully much better. I liked the idea of Midnighter having a crisis of identity, wondering who he was before being transformed into a meta-human, and then embarking on a journey which, ultimately, reveals to him that who he is is Midnighter. Having him viciously dismantle a militant right-wing paramilitary group to discover that was also very satisfying.
4 out of 5
Mister Fantastic: The Fantastic Four!/Sentient
featuring Stan Lee and Mark Waid
(Art by Jack Kirby, George Klein, Christopher Rule, Mike Wieringo and Karl Kesel)
Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 5. Here we get two stories, the first of which is the debut appearance of the Fantastic Four and the beginning of Marvel Comics as we now know it. The second story sees the FF trying to revitalise their public image whilst juggling the priorities of business, being superheroes and family.
To my surprise it was the older of these two stories, from 1961 no less, which I enjoyed more. Often throwback tales included with more modern ones make for interesting reading from a comics-history sense but are often less impressive in their storytelling. Perhaps it is simply that the debut adventure of the FF is so iconic that it's hard not to like it. On top of that is Jack Kirby's iconic artwork and the fact that Stan Lee hadn't yet fallen into some of his more irritating habits as a writer (alliteration in almost every speech bubble being one).
Waid's 'Sentient' on the other hand is pretty slow to get going. The beginning of it, where a PR executive observed the FF for a week, was so painfully on-the-nose as a meta examination of the characters for a new writer's run on the comic that it made me strain my eyes by rolling them so much. The executive's conclusions at the end of that section read like a mission statement by the writer for his plans for the series and, honestly, it would've been better served as an internal Marvel memo than being turned into an actual story.
All that said, 'Sentient' does eventually get up to speed and the tail-end where the FF have to defeat Modulus, a living equation from another dimension, felt like a proper scientific adventure for these iconic characters, giving each a chance to show exactly what makes them so enduring.
3 out of 5
Mockingbird: ...And No Birds Sing!/New Avengers - The Reunion
featuring Steven Grant and Jim McCann
(Art by Jimmy James, Bruce Patterson, David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez)
Marvel's Mightiest Heroes Book 47. Two stories, the first of which features the debut of Bobbi Morse's Mockingbird identity in a team-up with Spider-Man. The second, main, story has the reunion of Mockingbird and her estranged husband Hawkeye, as they try to deal with the breakdown of their relationship and the fallout of having been separated for years whilst Bobbi was impersonated by a Skrull infiltrator.
The team-up story with Spider-Man, by Steven Grant, is nothing special to write home about but it does have the interesting core concept of SHIELD having been corrupted and Bobbi acting as a rogue agent to try to bring the corruption to light. It's an interesting premise but unfortunately comes from an era of Marvel storytelling before they were really able to tackle that kind of thing compellingly, making this a light and somewhat cheesy attempt.
The main story here is also very interesting in concept: exploring the complex relationship between Bobbi and Clint. From Bobbi's perspective, she was ready to divorce Clint and was then kidnapped, spending years as a prisoner of the Skrulls before finally returning to Earth post-Secret Invasion, leaving her feeling confused and emotionally adrift. From Clint's perspective, he and Bobbi (secretly a Skrull impostor) actually reconciled before she sacrificed her life to save him and, having dealt with the grief of losing her, he is troubled to find her alive and a different woman to the one he remembers.
It's all very compelling in concept but, strangely like the story from 1980, the writer fails to actually do that concept justice. The big problem is that there doesn't actually feel like there's any chemistry between Bobbi and Clint, which means all of the emotional moments in her totally fail to land as they should. Despite that complex backstory being discussed (and shown in a couple of places) the two characters actually feel like total strangers who've just been sent on a mission together. It gives the whole thing a weird dissonance that it never recovers from.
2 out of 5
Morbius: The Living Vampire
featuring Vita Ayala and Ralph Macchio
(Art by Marcelo Ferreira, Paulo Siqueira, Francesco Mobili, Roberto Poggi, Scott Hanna, JP Mayer and Tom Reilly)
In trying to cure his vampirism, Doctor Michael Morbius accidentally makes it worse and begins to lose himself to a rapidly mutating, blood-thirsty beast. He is then confronted by the Melter and woman from his past bent on revenge. However, with the help of Spider-Man he has one last chance at a cure.
For me, being able to sympathise with a protagonist is one of the most important parts of getting me onboard with their story. It is a shame then that Morbius is impossible to get behind as a main character. He is constantly whining about how terrible his affliction is and about how he can't help himself and 'oh, woe is me, I'm ill' despite the fact that everything that happens is his own fault. If it were a case of the accident that made him a living vampire was an act of hubris and now he's trying to do better, that would work but instead he keeps following up with more and worse acts of hubris; not following proper scientific procedures and feeling sorry for himself when things go awry. On top of that, he never really shows any proper remorse for what he's done and blames all of his misdeeds on 'the hunger'. He's unlikable and totally toxic in his thinking but this book is framed in such a way that the writers still think we'll feel sorry for him. Nope.
Honestly, this book's only redeeming feature is Spider-Man's inclusion and thankfully he is written to be the Web-Slinger we know and love.
2 out of 5