posted
You know I'll be there, too! Val and Dani? SOLD! Misty's fun, too.
Apparently, there will eventually be five more ladies filling up the team.
My choices right now are Hellcat, Crystal, Magma, Darkstar and Veil. I'd hope Clea and Thundra show up, too. They wouldn't qualify for new Valkyrior status, however- since they aren't from 'Midgard'.
From: Knoxville, TN | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I bought Fantastic Four, All-New X-Men and Thor #1s.
I'll wait until after Lash reviews FF and ANXM before I chime in.
REVIEW: Thor #1
Written by Jason Aaron Art by Esad Ribic
SPOILERS follow
First I have to preface this by saying that Thor has almost never been done to me liking. Except for the Simonson era and the Lee/Kirby era, the attempts at fusing mythology, super-heroics, and science fiction have generally left me cold.
Jason Aaron was an intriguing enough choice of writer for me to give it a go. Wolverine & the X-Men may not be my cup of tea, but I can appreciate what he's doing there as a much-needed lightening-up pop-explosion that the X-books haven't seen the likes of in a very long time.
The Aaron of W&XM is nowhere to be seen on Thor. The story is as grim and icy as the Nordic wind, with Thor on the trail of a serial god-slayer. The art is drab and unremarkable.
Sometimes I think it would be best to simply move the realm of Asgard to another universe and do straight mythology, like the old Lee/Kirby Tales of Asgard stories.
Simonson proved me wrong once, but that was almost 30 years ago. With each creative turnover on Thor, I grow less optimistic every time.
posted
Hmmm, thanks FL ... I didn't know Aaron was on Thor ... seems like a great venue for him, considering his Scalped series which is totally different from his excellent W&XM (except for Marvel's every other issue cross over crap meddling)
I think Aaron must be very talented to switch genres without a drop in quality.
anyhoo ... I'm an arty. I will buy a bad book for amazing art but not an amazing book with bad art ... (so thanks for the heads up) ... and I felt so lost during the past year of Thor i dropped the book despite Alan Davis' best efforts.
I'm curious about the other two titles though ... but LASH CAN TAKE FOREVER TO GET THROUGH HIS PILE OF BOOKS!
so you might as well review.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Esad Ribic is the real wild card for me too on Thor. I'm open to just about any tone if Aaron can deliver the goods, but on a series like Thor there definitely needs to be some 'pop' in the art.
From: If you don't want my peaches, honey... | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I thumbed thru Fantastic Four #1 at the CBS today. Gotta say, Bagley's stuff in the issue made me doubletake and make sure it wasn't Alan Davis on pencils. One look at the inker, and you realize that's Mark Farmer's influence. I've never really thought of Bagley and Davis having similar styles before, so Mark Farmer, having inked Davis often, must be exerting tons of influence on the finished product.
I don't know if that's a bad thing necessarily. Davis has an iconic take on the family that's very classically satisfying. It's a similar look to what Dale Eaglesham brought when he was the original artist on Hickman's run that I found very appealing.
Unfortunately, it makes me think that the only book that Bagley's pure style really works on is Spider-Man. (You could argue New Warriors or Thunderbolts, as well, I suppose.)
Anyhow, it looked kind of intriguing, but on a super-heavy week in which I wasn't able to get every book on my pull and still went over-budget, it was a pass. If the reviews are exultant, I'll consider getting it in a future visit.
And, yeah, Marvel U and DCnU are a tough sell for me these days, anyway...
-------------------- "Suck it, depressos!"--M. Lash
From: The Underbelly of Society | Registered: Jul 2003
| IP: Logged |
Lardy, I'd definitely say that Bagley at his purest was just as good on New Warriors and Thunderbolts as he was on Spider-Man. I also agree with you on how much Farmer made him look like Davis, which I'll elaborate on below.
REVIEW: Fantastic Four #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Mark Bagley & Mark Farmer
SPOILERS follow
Not unlike Thor, I've long felt that Fantastic Four has spent most of the last four decades spinning its wheels since the breakup of the Lee/Kirby team. And, as with Thor, only Simonson's take on Fantastic Four has wholly satisfied me as something worthy of the Lee/Kirby legacy.
Matt Fraction is the latest writer to give it a go, inherting a humongous supporting cast from his predecessor, Jonathan Hickman, whose run I found quite overrated.
Fraction has hit upon a couple of decent premises:
First, what if the Fantastic Four's powers began to wear off? Right now, it's only happening to Reed, but I think it's safe to assume that it's going to happen to them all, especially given that Ben looks human again in the flash-forward that opens the issue.
Second, what if Reed engineered a means of keeping the whole family together while zipping in and out of the space/time continuum? Well, this issue has some pretty heavy-handed foreshadowing that it's not going to work out well, but it's intriguing enough to hang in there for the time being.
The weakest scenes are the ones dealing with the most familiar Fantastic Four tropes: Ben's run-ins with the Yancy Street Gang and Johnny's romantic life. Fraction seems to think he's being more clever than I think he's actually being, a problem I've always had with Fraction's writing.
Now, as for Mark Bagley, he is one of my favorite artists and always a good incentive to try something even if I'm dubious about the writer. Mark Farmer's Davis-iszing of Bagley, however, is not to my liking. Bags needs a nice, gutsy, loosey-goosey line to shine, but Farmer -- who in addition to Davis has also inked such stylistically varied artists as Adam Kubert and Dale Keown -- seems to be under some sort of orders to keep it clean. This isn't unheard of in the long history of the Fantastic Four: during the 1970s, John Buscema & Joe Sinnott clashed stylistically on the book. But Bags' sense of dynamics, even watered down by unsympathetic inking, are still a sight to behold. Perhaps I shall become accustomed to this new look in the long run.
Overall, it's a promising start for Fraction & Bags. But it's sobering to note that some of the worst Fantastic Four runs -- I'm thinking Straczynski/McKone and Englehart/Buscema -- also got off to promising starts.
As Bendis' eight-year-plus Avengers run limps to its conclusion, here comes ANXM #1 to remind us that there is a reason he was once considered the hottest writer in comics.
Simply put, he has strong ideas which are simple enough for any reader to grasp.
Where he arguably falls short a lot of the time is in the execution. I've certainly argued that many times -- Bendis was one of the poster boys of the post-modern sensationalism that polluted comics in the 2000s.
Which makes ANXM #1 something of a pleasant surprise. Here we have Cyclops' team using the most extreme measures to unite the wave of post-AvX mutants, and Beast responding (after an offhand remark from Iceman) by time-travelling to the past and approaching the young Cyclops to come with him to the present.
It doesn't take a degree in rocket science to see this as an analogy for the old ways/old days versus the new. Bendis the Terrible now appears to be turning into an old softie. Instead of tearing everything down like he did when he took over Avengers, he seems to want to rebuild the X-Men from the ground up into something brighter.
There is an energy and conviction here, unseen in Bendis' mainstream work for a long time, that almost sells me on the premise, and while I fear that it could curdle into a nostalgia trip, I'm willing to give Bendis the benefit of the doubt for now.
It certainly helps that Immonen & Von Grawbadger are providing the art. They have become quite a venerable team, and their work here has a charm and dynamism that's perfect for what Bendis seems to be going after.
I haven't felt this positive about a mainstream Bendis book since the Avengers Prime mini-series. He may have some surprises up his sleeve, and mainstream superheroes are badly in need of just that.
posted
Thanks btw! I am far more curious about these books than I was before! Looks Like ANXM may even be worth buying.
(I was going to ignore the whole thing! ha!)
I tried Hickmans FF and was a bit bored but I also jumped into it at the end ... when Ronan and Crystal were split up as the end of a story line ... and i just didn't care .. I thought they were arranged anyway?
----
but the fading away of the FFs powers sounds interesting because it reminds me of one of my favorite FF stories .. XMen vs. FF ... where Doom tricks everyone into believing that Reed planned for them to gain powers in the rocket accident, for the greater good, and disfiguring Ben.
I also enjoyed Byrne's FF.
From: Ninja Land | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I am rather surprised to see FL's favorable reviews as I tend to feel like she is not easily impressed (I mean really, FF issues from the 1970s in the 170s-early 200s range are GOLDEN-- esp. with Perez art!!) and I know we both dislike Bendis' writing to a large extent!
So this makes me more excited to dig into these books, too--!!
Hyperpath: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic | Subscribe To Topic
![[Sensor Girl]](graemlins/SensorGirl.gif)
![[Hug]](graemlins/hug.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Yes]](graemlins/nod.gif)
![[shrug]](graemlins/shrug.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[LOL]](graemlins/lol.gif)
All right, Peebs, I'll review them later today.![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
I was planning to read them right away but got delayed by THANGS!!!
