“Become your own army” – The team burns down a road less traveled in Uncanny X-Force #11

Moreso than any other book on comic shelves, Uncanny X-Force embraces a time many comics fans would much rather forget. Placing Psylocke and a mohawked Storm of the late 80s-early 90s age of X-comics is a stylistic gamble and teaming them up with Puck, Bishop and Spiral just drives home how much comics have changed. When most of these characters were part of the new age of Marvel, they now have a place as exhausted, twisted and worn out killers, left to be the last resort of the mutant race.  In Uncanny X-Force #10, the heroes were assaulted by the memories of the people they once were, killers and heroes who’ve lost so much in the past to be the people they are now. The message, of course, was that it’s hard to be hero, painfully hard to put the safety and well being of others ahead of yourself and in some ways, it’s not always a choice worth making.

Bishop’s quest to save the team from the revenants in #11 reduces a man who was once a savior and soldier into an opportunist and survivor. Having spent so much of his life outside of a time he once tried to save, he knows the high costs of failure. Sam Humphries draws heavily from Eastern mysticism and the film “No Country for Old Men” as Bishop assembles the tools he needs to rescue the people he doesn’t know are worth saving and it’s a memorable moment as he dispatches the spirits of pasts left unlived.

Storm, Psylocke and Puck’s eventual triumph over their shadows shows something eternal about these characters, namely that regardless of who they’ve become, our choices don’t define who we are. Puck and his doppelganger made different choices but both know what it means to fight, to have to fight. Both Storm’s understand the powers they control but only one knows the consequences. Betsy knows what she can do but her strength is in choosing not to. It’s a well written moment and one which shows the power these sometimes less than moral heroes still have.

Humphries’ work on the title hasn’t always been consistent and a rotating art team hasn’t helped the book stay thematically or tonally consistent and a constant narrative shifts from the French thriller of the Fantomex stories to the psychedelic head trips with Psylocke and Storm and the down and dirty club battles of the series’ beginning haven’t helped the book. However, focusing on these complicated characters and the people they could and want to be is sure to benefit a series in need of focus.

Stray Observations

Note 1: The nice thing about Villain’s Month is at least I can ignore the issues that are terrible. Note 2: DC and Marvel need to be giving Matt Kindt better books to work on.

• The Court of the Owls have been one of the best parts of the New 52 and the group’s one-shot in Batman and Robin #23.2 is a fun and horrifying look back at the society that controlled Gotham long before Bruce Wayne put on the cowl.
• Brian Wood is finally making Star Wars cinematic in this week’s #9, setting up three climactic stories as Leia, Han and Luke all find themselves running out of time as Vader and Boba Fett close in.
• It’s interesting to see how Jonathan Hickman has differentiated all of the infinity books and taking galactic betrayal to the Avengers’ doorstep in Avengers #19 is a gut punch I would never have expected.
• Oppenheimer plays all of his cards in Manhattan Projects #14 and seeing the team of decimated psychopaths is the closest this book has come in making these characters even slightly sympathetic. Just slightly.

“This may have been one time too many” – Bendis ends his soulless summer blockbuster with Age of Ultron #10

Age of Ultron was controversial from the very beginning. People seem sick of Brian Michael Bendis and event comics in general, particularly ones that feel as if they’re already out of continuity in some way. In his defense, Bendis always understood this and kept pushing the series further and further into alternate universes and timelines and away from reader expectations and he’s one of the best dialogue writers Marvel has.

I mentioned two weeks ago that it didn’t seem possible that Bendis could make a coherent payoff for Age of Ultron and in a way, he did and he didn’t. This week’s Age of Ultron #10 is a comic that ends with promise and little else. Yes, we finally get scenes of the Avengers battling the robot who enslaved the Earth and Hank Pym at long last gets a moment to be a hero but it’s a book that ends with about 20 pages of advertisements for what’s coming. And that’s the frustrating part.

The arrival of a hungry Galactus in the Ultimate Universe, Image’s former heavenly femme fatale Angela’s sudden appearance in deep space and Tony Stark and Hank Pym discussing the implications to the seemingly cracked timeline all surprise and are moderately exciting developments but what does it mean to Age of Ultron? The ending feels less for Age of Ultron than a prelude to what’s coming, namely the announced Infinity, Hunger and Battle of the Atom.

This isn’t terribly new development for event comics. Crisis on Infinite Earths was an event which existed solely to reset DC’s universe, Age of Apocalypse tried to capture the sales Spider-Man’s Clone Saga had made and Avengers vs. X-Men was written mostly to set up the soft relaunch and conclude years of Uncanny X-Men stories.

The problem is that event comics can do much more than that. Bendis’ own House of M set up a similarly compelling alternate reality but ground the story in characters, namely Wolverine and Scarlet Witch and offered a payoff which promised a new direction for the Marvel Universe and completed the story in a compelling way. It’s a wonderfully compelling story with real emotional and universal stakes.

DC similarly created an event comic with stakes, character and a world demanding to be explored with Flashpoint. Another alternate reality event series meant to lead into a relaunch, Flashpoint succeeded because of a world which felt exciting and necessary. The various tie-in stories of Flashpoint fleshed out an exciting new world that felt like it had history and relationships between characters. It was a world I wanted to explore beyond the main issues.

For me, the problem with Age of Ultron was the event offered little more than promise. For every compelling alternate reality or bit of characterization, Bendis stoically refused to explore histories or character in favor of pushing forward the event. We don’t know how Pym’s death led to the fall of the Avengers, how The Owl was dealing with Ultron or how Galactus broke universal barriers and no one involved with the book seems to care. It’s not an issue of explaining things for the fans but giving characters the motivation or sense of place needed to give Age of Ultron the heart it needed to be more than a plot delivery vehicle.

Bendis has surely weathered complaints about the series and he’s taken to Tumblr to defend his work. He’s reiterated that Age of Ultron works better as a total package than as single issues and I think he’s right. Age of Ultron shines as a blockbuster event, full of apocalyptic violence, tough decisions and real consequences but that’s about it. It could have been so much better, so much more meaningful and more focused on the characters and worlds that bring readers to comics every week. The problems once again point to editorial demand for bigger more serialized comics and that artificial demands lead to artificial stakes, forced drama and inauthentic characters.

Random Notes

• Animal Man #21 shows how creative Jeff Lemire can be when he’s not bound by tie-ins. The combination of social media and media attention with Buddy’s super heroics gives the book a sense of urgency it hasn’t had since it began.
• Justin Jordan’s Green Lantern New Guardians #21 might have the strongest start of the Green Lantern relaunch. It’s clear he’s carving out his own place in the universe and I’m excited to see where it goes.
• I’ve made no secret of my love for The X-Files and the new Season 10 #1 issue seems like it could be fun. I’m also happy IDW is eschewing their house art style for something more minimalistic and iconic.
• Brian Azzarello’s Wonder Woman has been criticized for not focusing on the title character but this week’s #21 shows the power Diana’s team has in a massive, exciting battle with the First Born.
• Jonathan Hickman’s New Avengers #7 keeps showing the kind of withering pessimism and simpering tension that makes this one of the can’t miss series of Marvel Now. It may be one of my favorite single issues of the year.

“This is what I wanted to show you” – Astro City #1 brings us back to the most important city in comics

I never thought I would get to read new Astro City.

Let’s go back to 2009. I hadn’t kept up with any comics outside of mainstream books in a long time, mostly sticking with Batman and the major DC and Marvel events. I was also at one of the lowest points of my life. I was incredibly depressed, drinking to the point of oblivion most days of the week  and helpless to try to find happiness.

I never wanted to make this blog about me or about my life because my experiences aren’t unique and the narrative is less important than who we are and what we take away from the things we experience. It just so happens that Astro City helped to let me take an important, critical look at the things I cared about.

I discovered Astro City in trade at the university library and I devoured the first volume before going onto the rest of the series and collecting as many issues and trades as I could get a hold of before I had the whole series. I went back and explored writer Kurt Busiek’s other works and it got me back into independent, artistic, challenging comic books.

I celebrated the news that Astro City was coming back and holding the first new issue in years in my hands, I felt a wave of excitement, nostalgia and care that comics rarely give me. And of course, opening tbe book brought all of those feelings back. Busiek is simultaneously as challenging, welcoming and whip smart as usual and penciller Brent Anderson leaps back into the sharp, retro design style he nailed in the series first outing.

Putting new characters such as the paranoid, insane watchdog, The Broken Man, alongside the optimistic powerhouse, American Chibi front and center highlights the inventive spirit the new volume and the return of well loved members of the Honor Guard  and independent characters such as the Confessor makes this world feel as fully realized as ever.

The focus of Astro City has always been on the city’s civilian residents and the way they’re drawn into the super-heroics of the city. Ben Pullman is our guy this time, a seemingly satisfied but ultimately bored programmer who volunteers to be a representative of a whole new world. It’s something of a throwback to the very first issue of the series, where the heroes have to deal with forces beyond their power but that’s not by any means a problem. History is one of the most important parts of a series that succeeds by swimming in the passage of time.

Busiek is quick to remind us what this series is about, the history of the medium and the way our lives can change and be reflected in the culture we consume. A wonderfully inventive, bleak and cutting final two pages remind readers that much like the heroes, our world can seem irresistibly small when we’re confronted with change. The wonderful thing is that we’re allowed to independently pick up the book, volunteer and choose to be satisfied.

Stray Observations

Lots of really good books this week. Let’s check out some of the more interesting ones.

• Jonathan Hickman had two great books this week, East of West #3 and Avengers #13. Both show off his mastery of character specific dialogue. Mao’s honorable but fruitless bluster in the face of Death’s coming attack is a great moment fitting a character we just met and Hyperion’s revelations in Avengers feels like the kind of character moment a lesser author would have handled with less subtlety. Hickman makes both feel masterful.
• James Robinson’s Earth 2 has weirdly been something of a minor hit for DC and it always surprised me. Earth 2 has felt like a bit of a disservice to the company’s Golden Age characters but the way he played with the Green Lantern mythos is this week’s #13 is really promising.
• Kierron Gillen’s new issue of Iron Man really showed how to do a retcon well. The revelation about Tony Stark’s past is organic to the character, doesn’t undo his past actions and offers a wealth of storytelling opportunities.
• Age of Ultron #9 finally had the characters realize what every reader thought of 8 issues ago. I’m curious to see how and if Brian Michael Bendis is going to make all this build up pay off.
• Bendis is, however, nailing All New X-Men. The way he’s turned Jean Grey into a wild card was such an initially unexpected but perfectly realized characterization and I love seeing how the character deals with recent events like Decimation.
• Robert Venditti really did a great job on Green Lantern #21, his first issue since Geoff Johns’ departure. I’m not crazy about how young and soft Billy Tan is making Hal Jordan look but I’m super ready to see what these guys can do.

“The Female and the Male, the one who cast her out”: Phase One of Marvel Now concludes with a bang

By all approximations, Marvel NOW! has been one of the House of Ideas’ most economically successful ventures, albeit one with some problems, since the launch of the Ultimate Universe and has challenged and dominated DC’s sales every month since the relaunch. With the first wave of new and relaunched titles wrapping up this week, let’s look at the last book and reevaluate some titles that have developed since I initially reviewed them.

X-MenThe all female X-team has been a lightening rod for internet applause since it was announced. The web has been clamoring for more positive and widespread portrayals of female characters for years, with much of the conversation beginning with the 2011 cancellation of the X-23 series and the idea for an all female team that doesn’t draw attention to their femininity is a sound one.

Brian Wood’s interpretation of the team doesn’t really jump off the page and it follows the form of his X-Men book pre-relaunch. Once again, we’re following the old tried and true formula of having bunches of characters doing different things with the assumption that they might all come together by the end. It’s dull and expected at this point but he’s got a hell of a cast. Psylocke has become a fan favorite in recent years and Wood has had plenty of experience writing her and Storm but his Kitty Pryde talks like she just started using Tumblr and Jubilee feels like she could be any other character. Dialogue has never been Wood’s strong suit but penciller Oliver Copiel draws dynamic action sequences and quieter scenes with great attention to body language and facial expressions which more than makes up for scripting flaws. The looming threat of the too-long-missing villain, Sublime and a last page cliffhanger are sure to keep readers interested in the title but as it stands, it isn’t living up to the potential of the premise or team.

The Verdict: Wood’s first issue of the relaunched X-Men feels unfinished but there’s plenty of reasons to pick up the next one.

I never felt bad about how dismissive I was to some of the earlier relaunches of the line and I think, for the most part, the way I felt about early issues of some of these series is still the way I feel now. Still, there are a couple that have evolved or fallen since those first issues. Let’s go back and check in on them.

Iron ManIron Man had one of the roughest starts of the relaunch with writer Kieron Gillen clearly having to balance the upcoming cosmic changes to the character with the mechanical Earth based adventures new readers expected. The first four issues suffered dramatically because of this but as soon as Tony headed to space, everything improved.

While Greg Land’s early issues suffered from overuse of photo reference, sending the protagonist into space and requiring Land to draw aliens, spaceships, robots and planets opened his style up for experimentation. His Tony is still inconsistent from issue to issue but he and Gillen are really crafting something special in the new “Secret Origin of Tony Stark” arc.

The (Revisited) Verdict: Tony’s transition into space has opened up the storytelling possibilities but the art still holds the series back from becoming a must buy.

X-Men LegacyI initially dismissed X-Men Legacy as feeling like an unnecessary niche title in an already loaded X-line and vastly, I still stand by that statement. Legacy is undoubtedly a cult book, focused on David Haller aka Legion, one of probably the most maligned characters in the franchise. The magic of the series is how writer Si Spurrier knows how you feel about David and doesn’t give a shit, writing a book that combines character study, low key adventure and heartfelt romance in equal, unexpected measure.

Legacy is one of the most experimental books of the relaunch, with a protagonist who actively dismisses the “speedos and tights set” of the X-Men, a genuinely respectful, loving relationship between Haller and Blindfold and a timely, thoughtful approach to how the rest of the world would build their lives around a people they believe to be a menace. Each issue treads new territory, goes further and further into the hero’s psyche and ups the ante with each new conflict.

The (Revisited) Verdict: Almost undoubtedly the best book of the relaunch.

FFI initially dismissed FF as a lesser companion piece to writer Matt Fraction’s excellent Fantastic Four but it’s much more than that. It’s still a companion piece, one very focused on the legacy of the First Family but it has centered primarily on Scott Lang’s hopes to create a new family in the face of tragedy and loss.

When FF clicks, it really works. Lang and Darla Deering’s plans to deal with the Internet addled Yancy Street Gang is exciting, silly and very funny in equal measure. Medusa’s struggle to be a mother for a group of children she doesn’t and doesn’t want to understand is intriguing and offers a fascinating subtext to the issue of family. Mike Allerd’s pop-art inspired pencils make the characters feel like icons in much the same way he brought new millennium style to X-Statix in the ’90s. The problem really is fan service. Tong’s unexpected revelation of his gender identity, The Wizard maniacally hoping for a “heteronormative cissgendered” family and an entire page sequence of Darla trying on hats feel like they were written and designed to be posted to blogs rather than appear in a comic.

The (Revisited) Verdict: Even for a beautifully stylish and well written series, FF needs to decide what it wants to be and stick with it.

AvengersAn obscene twice-monthly shipping schedule did wonders to boost the pace of Jonathan Hickman’s universe spanning Avengers team, with early issues not giving much of a look at what the book would become. Revamps of long forgotten characters, introductions of galactic heavy hitters and the looming threat of the White Event have come together to make a great series.

Despite a clear motive and goal for the characters, Hickman has given plenty of room for minor figures and off-beat issues. A recent trip to a Shanghai casino to duel with AIM scientists, an amazing look at a battle for the fate of the Shi’ar Empire and extended ruminations on the nature of creation round out a book that could have been little more than a series of dour battles and down character beats.

The (Revisited) Verdict: Hickman clearly has big plans for Earth’s Mightiest Heroes but readers expecting a classic team book should adjust their expectations and ready themselves for something experimental, intriguing and entirely unexpected.

Superior Spider-ManI was really, really harsh on Superior Spider-Man. I still have a lot of problems with it but I’ll admit, this is the first Spider-Man story I’ve ever really cared about. The Doc Ock swap still feels cheap and ridiculous but the web-head is exciting, interesting and unpredictable for the first time since I’ve been reading comics.

Dan Slott still tends to write very soapy which is par for the course for Spider-Man comics but the pacing is just very off. Plot developments drop off as soon as they are introduced, such as the Avengers questioning Peter’s mental well being, the finally revealed fate of the remnants of Vulture’s gang and Phil Ulrich’s struggles with the Goblin persona, and these give the book a deep sense of worldbuilding with no real story pay off. It’s nothing Slott couldn’t take care of and the book shines when it focuses on Doc Ock and his moments of inner turmoil as he struggles with what it means to be a hero working out childhood trauma on all criminals great and small.

The (Revisited) Verdict: Long live Doctor Otto Octavius.

Stray NotesHey, at the end of every comic post, I’ll be talking about a couple other releases of the week, just to highlight some of the books I write about less than others. Consider it a conversation starter more than anything else.

• So, that twist in JLA #4, huh. After Geoff Johns wrote maybe the best single issue of his career in Green Lantern #20, this just felt crazy, unnecessary and a little disgusting.
• Also, damn it, wasn’t computer lining supposed to help David Finch get his art out faster? Why do we have to keep dealing with Brett Booth?
• I know I missed it last week, but Fearless Defenders #4 A.U. probably had one of the most fun tie-ins of the event.
• I can’t really put my finger on it but what’s the problem with the new Uncanny X-Force? I like the story well enough and it’s a great line-up of characters but it just doesn’t add up to anything. The Bishop memory fragments were great and Adrian Alphona killed it on art but the whole book still just feels very, very off.

“Now we show them how it’s done” – Bendis embraces silence in the exceptional Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1

It’s been interesting to watch the rise of Brian Michael Bendis. In Sean Howe’s excellent “Marvel Comics: The Untold Story,” the author traces Bendis’ career at the company from a fill in writer for Kevin Smith’s embarrassingly bad run on Daredevil to a man who morphed with the times, becoming the poster boy for The Ultimate line with his exceptional early issues of Ultimate Spider-Man to changing into the face of editor Bill Jemas’ decadent and depraved Marvel Knights line. Howe sets Bendis up as a chameleon who morphed as Marvel changed in a tumultuous time, rapidly becoming the authoritative voice of the company.

I think it would be hard to argue that Bendis is the main voice of Marvel and he’s done it by being everything for everybody. His authorial voice is talk heavy, soapy and often spineless with his heroes’ voices blending into a sea of characterless noise. When there’s a big, universe defining crossover event that needs written, there’s one guy the House of Ideas turns to because they’re going to get a bombastic, non-upsetting singular voice. Those books pay off big and give Bendis a lot of leeway, letting him take over the X-Franchise after the dubious success of his Avengers run and now establishing Marvel’s cosmic characters for the first time in years.

What started as insultingly blatant teases for the new Nova series in Avengers vs. X-Men, has blossomed into Guardians of the Galaxy, a series which, let’s face it, wouldn’t be coming out if the movie wasn’t forthcoming. I know I’m a cynic but Marvel and DC have both played this game for so long, it’s hard to not see the pattern. This week’s preview issue “Guardians of the Galaxy #0.1” makes an incredible case for why this could be much more than a cheap tie in.

Jeph Loeb’s Nova and the new Bendis’ Guardians are really my first introduction to Marvel’s cosmic characters. I know my Shi’ar, Skrull, Kree, Brood and Phalanx but as far as the good guys out there who aren’t part of the Summers family, I was lost. With that being said, I’ve been impressed with how Bendis, and to a much lesser extent Loeb, have been able to organically introduce the stars.

Bendis goes with the very typical origin story for Peter Quill, the man who would become Starlord. It’s the classic Marvel tale of a  a typical kid with an Oedipus complex gaining an identity through heroism but what makes Guardians shine is Steve McNivens. McNivens delivers instantly iconic art for what could have become a throwaway issue.

What’s most surprising about how well the art works is how much Bendis lets the art speak for itself . One of the most valid criticisms of the writer’s work is how chatty he is. Characters talk and talk and talk and panels endlessly featuring chatting heads are the norm, particularly during Avengers. Instead of falling back on his own style, Bendis wisely gets out of the way and lets McNiven tell the story. A beautifully splintered splash page in the issue shows the burgeoning relationship between Meredith and J’Son is one of the most organic, albeit stereotypical sequence that wonderfully sets up her character. I always hate describing comics as cinematic but it captures the trope we all know and the next few pages capture the rush of feelings that come from whirlwind love.

Bendis and McNiven did exactly what they set out to do with their prologue to Guardians of the Galaxy. This was a book that I ruled out from the beginning but in an exceptional issue, I’m hooked. Bendis’ ability to reign in his chatty tendencies and let emotionally sweeping art shine through has made the Guardians into what could be a great cosmic companion to Jonathan Hickman’s slightly over-saturated Avengers and I can’t wait to see what these characters get up to.

“Being a superhero is amazing. Everyone should try it.” – Marvel NOW keeps rolling along

We’ve now had three months of Marvel NOW! and the new titles just keep rolling along. After the last roundup, there’s been a lot of change. FF, which I initially said was a little below board, has proven to definitively be the best, most stylish series of the bunch. Thor: God of Thunder, which I picked up on the recommendation of a commenter, brought all of Jason Aaron’s stylish, continuity embracing charms to the most godly Avenger. It’s been a neat experiment but with new books still coming, we’ve got a lot more rounding up to do. [Note: I didn’t pick up Morbius: The Living Vampire. I’m not a Spider-Man and friends fan and I just don’t plan to get into it.]

AvengersJonathan Hickman has been one of my favorite writers of the last three years for his high concept take on the Marvel Universe. He’s best at taking the smartest people in the room and making them do the impossible and that’s why his Avengers is still a bit of a slippery slope.

The first few issues have shined almost solely on the strength of Jerome Opena, who’s bringing the same dark, epic charms to the title that he brought to Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force. It’s a visual treat and the world spanning cast recalls Grant Morrison’s epic work on JLA. It’s not great and I’m admittedly not the biggest Avenger fan but this book definitely has an irresistible hook.

Rating: It’s really not my cup of tea but it seems to be blossoming into something worth reading.

New AvengersHere’s where Hickman hits his stride. The most brilliant minds in the superhero community come together to reform the Illuminati in the wake of an interdimensional threat. It naturally recalls The Manhattan Projects, one of my favorite books of the year, and the hook alone is worth buying it for.

The art edges a little too close to Marvel’s house style but Hickman nails the characterizations. Black Panther’s brooding intelligence and his conflict with Namor’s haughty indifference is page turning and that’s not even mentioning the cold, calculating cynicism Reed Richards and Tony Stark are bringing to the conflict. These are great characters with competing goals, views, and strategies for dealing with the threat they face. With an art team willing to paint these characters in the shades of grey they deserve, this would be Marvel’s perfect Avengers book.

Rating: So close to perfect, it hurts.

Avengers ArenaIt was the toast of pre-Marvel NOW! controversy and naturally, it’s become one of the company’s top sellers. Pitting the company’s teen characters against each other in a series that’s actively drawing from “The Hunger Games” and “Battle Royale,” Avengers Arena just goes for it with old school Avengers and X-Men villain Arcane trying out his old Murder World on a bigger scale than ever.

There’s really not a lot to say about the book itself though. Dennis Hopeless is one of the newcomers to The House of Ideas and he’s clearly more interested in the newer characters he’s created than anything else. It’s a disappointment, especially with one of the book’s big appeals being characters from Avengers Academy and Runaways. It’s nice that there’s a teen focused book on the shelves but it just doesn’t reach the heights of Marvel’s previous efforts on that front.

Rating: It’s trying way too hard and just being aggressively average for the efforts.

Cable and the X-ForceHopeless is getting the fringe titles and it’s clear he’s trying but, boy, is it not working. The return of the Cable and Domino team-up should make those three Rob Liefeld fans wake up from their Doritos induced slumber but the book lacks punch. It’s nice to have Hope around to do awesome mutant action but the team up of Dr. Nemesis, Colossus and Forge as support characters doesn’t add much.

It doesn’t help that issue 3 features one of the most deliriously idiotic story lines in years. As Cable tries to stop a prophetic dream from occurring, the team discovers a fast food company that’s trying to infect the populace with mutant zombie meat. It’s such an aggressively dumb plot that you wouldn’t be wrong to think it was meant to be satire but Hopeless plays it with such a self-seriously straight face that it’s impossible to laugh.

Rating: You can skip this one like you’ve skipped every Cable book since Messiah War.

ThunderboltsMarvel doesn’t really seem to know how to do a dark book at this point. The best parts of Marvel NOW! have been optimistic, intelligent, character driven and thought-provoking books that put their iconic characters into new situations and settings. I’m all for that as DC seems to have embraced ennui and nihilism in their biggest titles. Marvel seems to be trying to bite off some of that style with the relaunch of Thunderbolts, bringing together Thunderbolt Ross (get it, eh, eh), Deadpool, Venom, Elektra and Punisher to destroy threats worldwide.

There doesn’t really seem to be much of a purpose for the team yet. These are some of the most dangerous and capable killers in the universe and they’re mostly just aiding militia fighters in a covert war. Why do they need the Punisher and Red Hulk? Why is Elektra willing to do this? The book doesn’t justify it’s choices well enough and the violence the book promises doesn’t come or provide any of the tension these personalities should bring to the table.

Rating: A massive waste of potential. Even for $2.99 and for the great team of characters, it’s not worth picking up.

Savage WolverineI would love to think I’m a man of refined taste but there’s a primal appeal in watching Wolverine fight dinosaurs, SHIELD agents get torn to shreds and see Frank Cho’s crazy take on the female anatomy. Savage Wolverine is a showcase for the male comic fan’s basest instincts and it’s probably worth indulging in.

Wolverine wakes up in the Savage Land and is pretty quickly killing dinosaurs, fighting barbarians and teaming up with Shanna the She-Devil. It’s pure pulp. There’s no context, no tie-ins to Wolverine’s recent attempts to stop killing and no desire to show these characters’ place in the larger context of Marvel. Frankly, I couldn’t be happier to see the company have this much fun with one of their biggest characters.

Rating: I feel bad about loving this as much as I do. It’s worth seeing if you will too.

Superior Spider-ManIt’s an uphill battle for me to care about Spider-Man from the get go and the Amazing Spider-Man 700 twist certainly didn’t help matters. I like Dan Slott. I think he’s a funny guy who cares deeply about the character but Spider-Man is a character who exists in a virtually impenetrable pocket of the Marvel Universe. No one touches New York in the same way Spider-man does and that’s what makes any lasting change in the character feel so strange.

Superior’s Doc Ock swap feels like a stop-gap and it’s one readers are familiar with. Peter’s not gone, even if his ghost wasn’t there, he still wouldn’t be gone. Once the next Amazing Spider-Man movie comes around, Parker will be back and that’ll be the end of the experiment as the status quo gets reset. For now, the book is uninteresting, the art cribs heavily from Todd McFarlane and Greg Capullo and the writing has the same alternatively dour and overly quippy style that has kept me away from Spider-books for years.

Rating: This is a Spider-Man book for Spider-Man fans and Spider-Man fans only. New comers need not apply.

Uncanny X-ForceHow do you follow up one of the biggest surprise hits Marvel has seen in the last five years? Rick Remender’s Uncanny X-Force was one of the best X-books in a long time and it seemed impossible to see lightning strike twice. Sam Humphries has been given the unenviable job of doing just that and he wisely sets a different tone for the book.

Psylocke and Storm is a great team up, with both women facing major changes as the return of Fantomex and a divorce from Black Panther have put the women at new positions in their life. Both show off their power as they exorcise their demons and although the group doesn’t have a clear goal, it’s neat stuff to see them team up with Alpha Flight member Puck. It’s a super colorful, stylish to a fault first issue that looks to be a lot of fun especially with a drug dealing Spyral, the return of Bishop and a final page reveal of Fantomex’s new leading lady.

Rating: Don’t think this is a revamp and get on the action packed ride. It looks like it’s going to be fun.

Young AvengersThe kids have grown up. When last we saw the Young Avengers, they were crippled by loss, war and the realizations that the real world is a brutal place to grow up. Kierron Gillen has a much different take on these characters. These are teenagers. They hook up, make out and have fun with the fact that they’re occasionally the smartest, toughest, most dangerous people in the room.

Gillen nails the characterizations here. Kate Bishop is a girl playing the game for the thrill, the sex, the battle, the fun. The relationship between Hulkling and Wiccan feels like the kind of kamikaze love that can only happen when you’re 18. Kid Loki rocks being the self-righteous punk who doesn’t care who you are or what you’re selling. It’s a book that we’ve seen a couple of times before as the team starts to form up to face down a new potential Skrull attack but you can’t find many better characters to spend the time with.

Rating: Until Runaways gets a new volume, this is the premier teen series. That’s not a bad thing.

Fearless DefendersMarvel’s clearly been happy with how much better they look than DC on the subject of gender diversity, sexuality and women in comics but that’s not much of an accomplishment. It’s like me being happy for being taller than my dog. Fearless Defenders received a lot of early press for the team up between shit-kicking ladies Dani Moonstar and Valkyrie and the pair do work really well but this is an action comic first and foremost.

It works on the strength of just that and the rest of the first issue shines for the characterization and bold choices. It’s a fun fight book with these two very different characters taking on pirates and Viking zombies. There’s a lot of style to work with here and this has the potential to be one of the most fun pure-action comics of Marvel’s relaunch.

Rating: It’s the most sexy, violent, empty-headed, pop-culture addled, ’80’s obsessed, straight up fun book Marvel is putting out right now.

Casting the Not-Doing-Them-Justice League

I’m really glad that people have really rallied behind “The Avengers.” Seeing it for the third time earlier this week, people were still laughing, marveling and having a good time with what was intrinsically a really nerdy, very faithful to the spirit of the comics really fun adaptation.

Naturally, DC is hoping to pull off the same feat that Marvel was able to pull off with its movie and so talk has started back up on the casting of a Justice League film. Its a movie that has been talked about for years and DC’s attention to the project has caused all sort of wild, totally incoherent speculation.

The worst of all of this has been on Flavorwire, the blogging partner of Flavorpill. Generally, the site offers a variety of topical lists and think pieces on television and writing and its all pretty inconsequential stuff. I’ve commented there several times and visit the site regularly, although I think the site has one massive problem.

Flavorwire will leap on any trend and mercilessly beat it into the ground. Now, I have no problem with a website covering what the readership wants to hear, I just think that a lot of the time, they’re not quite able to cover the subject with any manner of responsibility or respect. Just because a subject is popular, doesn’t mean that it needs to be immediately covered by whoever kind-of-sort-of knows something/anything about the subject.

That’s how we get monstrosities like this.

Seriously, go ahead. Read that little thing.

Now, I don’t want to unnecessarily berate author Jason Bailey. He’s an extremely well informed film writer, with an eye for films new, old, obscure and well known. He’s rarely written about comics, even comic book movies and by no means do I intrinsically trust him on the subject. I don’t know that there was anyone on the staff of Flavorwire that was informed enough to know their way around this sort of article but hey, lets look at what he said. We’ll critique his choices and try to offer some alternatives.

Superman

Bailey went with Tom Welling, who played Clark Kent for 10 years in “Smallville.” That’s a safe choice. I don’t know that I could agree with his assumption that Welling “did it well,” but I guess I’ll let it slide. As I’ve said before, if you’re going to do a Superman movie, make Kal-El old and get Jon Hamm to play him.

Batman

Yep, Bailey cast Daniel Radcliffe as Batman. His reasoning? Bailey’s ironclad reasoning for putting the Harry Potter star as the Dark Knight was the ironclad statement of “the later Harry Potter movies were, for lack of a better description, action films.” Sure, they were dark movies that had lots of explosions and stuff but more than anything, those movies were about a nerdy guy and his socially rejected friends running around and shouting at things. Bailey says that Radcliffe is a fine actor and I definitely agree but Batman is grizzled. He’s a man that’s seen the worst of the world and doesn’t blink. Radcliffe isn’t grizzled. He’s a friendly, welcoming and hopeful actor who works best when in over his head. He can’t handle the reigns of Batman. Personally, I would like a little unconventional of an actor, namely Karl Urban who has proven himself as someone who could handle the pessimism and world weariness that Batman deserves.

Wonder Woman

Seriously, Jason Bailey wanted Mila Kunis to play princess of the Amazonians, one of the most powerful and influential characters in comics. Yep. He even brought up that Nicholas Refn wanted Christina Hendricks to play Diana in the same paragraph. Hendricks would be perfect for the role, despite the hair color but his casting of Kunis is just a symbol of a writer more interested in page views and contemporary references than creative exercises.

Green Lantern

That’d be pretty cool, actually. I think he might be a little young to play John Stewart but I’d love to see how they’d handle it.

Flash

So perfect that I can’t believe I had never heard anyone come up with this before.

Cyborg

In all honesty, regardless of what version of the Justice League that DC decided to go with, there is no chance Cyborg would be included. He’s too obscure, not defined well enough and virtually unknown to people who haven’t read the comics or fondly remember the “Teen Titans” animated series. Regardless, Bailey went with Michael B. Jordan of “Chronicle” and “Friday Night Lights” and yeah, sure that works, I guess.

Aquaman

I’ve long said that the best way to figure out if someone is an  actual comic book fan or not is to see what they think of Aquaman. If they unleash a typical tirade about how pointless and unimportant he is, you’re talking to a pretender. Jason Bailey is a pretender. Also, I desperately want Daniel Craig as the true king of Atlantis.