Black Panther Is Awesome Part 2: Wild Kingdom

2009-02-25 8:38:59 pm

X-MEN/BLACK PANTHER: WILD KINGDOM
(Black Panther #8-9, X-Men #175-176)
Written by Reginald Hudlin & Peter Milligan, drawn by David Yardin & Salvador Larroca

X-Men/Black Panther: Wild Kingdom isn't exactly the best example of why Black Panther is awesome. As I mentioned last time one of the big reasons I like this book so much is that it feels like it's firmly entrenched in the Marvel U without getting too detailed or confusing. That all gets hindered when you bring in the X-Men. I know a lot of people are all about the X-Men, but I still find them to be the most difficult franchise to get into thanks to the incredibly dense history. It's not even that Milligan's story is all that confusing, I just have a hard time placing this story in the long history of X-Men. You've got Gambit and Rogue on the same team, but what's their deal? Emma's there too, but is this still when Astonishing was going on? None of this really matters to the story, but it is distracting. I do like how both writers handle Storm and Wolverine though, two characters who will be important in their own ways coming up.

The story of this book is that the Red Ghost wants to start a new commie ape society in Africa. There's something about mutant animals, which gets the X-Men interested. BP of course gets involved too because this is his turf. For those of you unfamiliar with the Red Ghost, he's a communist scientist who can turn intangible and has created super powered apes who talk. There's another scientist guy in the story who can absorb mutant powers.

I'll be honest, the larger story here isn't all that interesting unless you're a huge Red Ghost fan (and I know some people out there are). What is cool about this story is seeing Storm and Black Panther together. Like I said before I don't know much about either character aside from what I've read in this book, so I'm not sure if there were any previous hints of their relationship or if this is the first readers saw of it, but I like how they are around each other, especially considering how adversarial they tend to be towards one another. It's cool to see the beginning of their love story (even if it's not the chronological beginning).

Oh, Dragon Man's in the book too which is pretty cool, but, again, the overall story isn't all that interesting. As far as my collection goes, I'm not all too concerned about adding this one to my collection, unless I can get it on Sequential Swap (a great site to get rid of some of your old trades as well as get some cool new ones). But, don't let that deter you from checking out my future installments of Black Panther Is Awesome, as Part 3 will focus on Bad Mutha, the arc that got me interested in this book in the first place.

Black Panther Is Awesome Part 1: Who Is The Black Panther?

2009-02-19 4:00:36 am

I've gained a bit of a reputation around the hallowed halls of Wizard as the dude who LOVES Reggie Hudlin's Black Panther comic. I came into it a bit late in the game (somewhere around the early teens I think), went back, got caught up and have been reading ever since. And, while I think the book got a bit weak in the over-long Fantastic Four issues (I might get to those eventually), I still think it's a pretty great series overall both because it made me care about a character I didn't really have any feelings toward one way or another (I never read the previous series') and because it felt like Reggie was really utilizing the vast resources of the Marvel Universe without getting too bogged down in said history.

So, in this semi-recurring feature called Black Panther Is Awesome, I'll be taking a trade by trade look at why this book rocks my world. So here we go with the first trade, Who Is The Black Panther?

BLACK PANTHER: WHO IS THE BLACK PANTHER?
Written by Reginald Hudlin & drawn by John Romita Jr.

Collecting Black Panther 1-6

Okay, right off the bat, I've got to say that this is one of the few cases in which I've really liked John Romita Jr.'s art. Usually it's a little too boxy for my tastes, but for some reason it really works on this book.

Anyway, the crazy thing about the first issue is that it doesn't even feature T'Challa, the current black panther, but instead focuses on three different Black Panthers from times past repelling foreign invasions, including a pretty rad fight between T'Challa's pops and Captain America back in World War II that looks even more vintage thanks to Romita's pencils (not sure how that works, but it does!). We're made aware of these past battles thanks to a small group of American politicians and military dudes trying to figure out if Wakanda poses a threat. We're also treated to a few small scenes of bad guys talking to each other, one of which turns out to be the Klaw, who, even I know, is the guy that killed T'Challa's dad back in the day. I do have one complaint about these flashback scenes, though. The dialogue seems way to modern at times. It's not a huge deal, but it is the kind of thing that could pull someone out of the story.

All of this sets up a few interesting scenarios. Who's the bad guy recruiting Klaw? What will the U.S. government try and pull? And most of all, who is the current Black Panther? We've seen these past ones, so what's T'Challa like? We'll get the answers plus more questions as things move on.

Also of interest, the footage we've seen of the Black Panther cartoon, which will be on BET, looks like they just animated this first issue like those old motion comic cartoons from the 70s. As you can probably guess, I'm pretty excited about that series whenever it comes out.

You know what's crazy about the second issue? Still no T'Challa as Black Panther. We get to see T'Challa challenge his uncle for the title of Black Panther and win which is pretty rad. Along with the scenes we also get some background about Wakanda where we find out that the Panther is the god of the people and also rules them as a king. We also get treated to some more pretty cool and sometimes brutal fight scenes between T'Challa's uncle and the challengers.

There's also an interesting set-up in the character of Shuri, T'Challa's sister who also wanted to try out to become the Black Panther, but was stopped by a falling opponent of her uncle's just as T'Challa jumped into the fray. There's some more U.S. government stuff that gets a bit old as the series moves on, but it's still pretty interesting here. Plus, Klaw recruits a bad guy/girl named Cannibal who seems to take over bodes based on physical contact. The seeds are planted.

The third issue is kind of an origin issue with some more team building on the bad guy's side. It seems as though Rhino and Batroq the Leaper (minus the silly costume, but still sporting the accent) have joined Klaw's cadre of evil somewhere in Africa. It turns out that Klaw is related to one of the dudes who we saw trying to invade Wakanda and getting killed. Klaw became an assassin hired to kill T'Challa's dad, killed him and T'Challa's brother only to get shot by a young T'Challa. Klaw went back to Belgium where they turned him into a cyborg killing machine. We also get a glimpse of what fueled T'Challa to become the badass dude we will eventually see in the book and got a glimpse of when facing off against his uncle.

The issue is capped with a few more additions to the villain crew in the form of the Vatican's Black Knight, who even sports an ebony blade and a ruler of a neighbor of Wakanda who is on Klaw's side. I'm not exactly sure how this fits into the actual Black Knight's continuity, but they did a call out to it in the most recent issue of Captain Britain (a really great book, highly recommended to all).

Finally, in issue four we get to see T'Challa in his Black Panther gear as the bad guys finally begin the assault. I don't want to get in too many of the details because they're pretty cool, but we get a great look at how the population of Wakanda looks up to T'Challa and how he, in turn, respects them. We also get treated to an example of the Rhino's toughness and an aerial dog fight with the Black Knight, plus the reveal that Radioactive Man is also on Klaw's Crew.

Issues five and six really display the throw down between BP and his people and Klaw's Crew (I like that name, they should get uniforms made up). The U.S. government even gets involved by deploying a group of cyborg soldiers that seem to have an awful lot in common with Deathlok, though the connection isn't made on the page. Oh, the Panther also has a freaking flight cycle. Awesome!

In the end, Panther faces off against Klaw, while his sister takes on Radioactive Man and Cannibal takes over his cousin in America (he's a diplomat of some kind). So, even though the good guys (and girls) prevail in their own way, there's still some lingering trouble.

So, what do I like about this book (aside from what I already mentioned)? Well, I'm pretty fascinated by Wakanda as a setting and Hudlin sets things up really well. You get to see both its technologically advanced side but also it's older, warrior and honor based culture. It's a really cool setting that really serves T'Challa later on and shows how he truly is a product of his environment.

I also really like this collection of somewhat classic Marvel villains. You've got Rhino, Klaw, Batroq the Leaper and Radiative Man all teaming up in a way that doesn't seem forced at all. Plus, I didn't even realize it until just now how little Black Panther is in the series and I was still really really into it. It's pretty cool.

Okay, this was a really long post, but I had to get in why I think BP is so awesome. Look for more installments later as I've read the first four Black Panther trades, but haven't read the X-Men/Black Panther trade in a while (I might just skip that one to save some time).

Trade Post: Thor & Dark Phoenix Saga

2009-02-13 4:45:30 pm

Today we've got a pair of Marvel trade reviews for your reading pleasure:

THOR VOL. 1 (Marvel)
Written J. Michael Straczynski & drawn by Oliver Coipel
On paper, I didn't think I'd like JMS's Thor. I've never been a big fan of the character and JMS disappointed me with Rising Stars after which I kind of stopped reading his stuff (also because I'm not a big FF or Spidey fan, though his Midnight Nation is rad). Also, I remember reading in Wizard a bunch of years back (I think right before I got my job) that Mark Millar and Steve McNiven were going to work on a Thor book where all these different Asgardian weapons started falling to Earth and new people were picking them up and becoming Don Blake/Thor-like pairings. That sounded pretty rad, but it never happened. Then that Thor clone thing happened in Civil War, so I was pretty much done with the idea of Thor.

Even with all that, I still started reading Thor when it came out and I was shocked to realize that I really liked it. I can't even really describe why I like it so much. I think it's the basic simplicity of a character that's been around for decades. Even though Thor's trying to find his fellow Asgardians in human form, it doesn't feel too bogged down in continuity. I also really like how he just decided to set up shop in Oklahoma as a floating castle-city. It's a really cool visual which is made all the cooler by Coipel's slick art. I can't remember if I've read any books he's drawn before, but I'd definitely make a point from here on out.

Unfortunately, I missed one issue in the first six and got off the story, which is a bummer because now I'll either have to find all the issues in the Wizard library (a veritable wasteland) or just read the trades as they come out which will take a while. Oh well, I'm still down with the book and from what I hear it's still doing well, so hopefully it'll be around for a while.

X-MEN: THE DARK PHOENIX SAGA (Marvel)
Written by Chris Claremont, co-plotted and drawn by John Byrne

I've talked a lot of X-Men trash over the years. Partly it's because I'm a dyed in the wool DC fan. Part of it is that I'm not a big Chris Claremont fan because of his run on Gen 13 (I was a HUGE fan of that book back in the day). And partly because I'm kind of sick of people saying how great it is.

But, all that being said, I figured I should at least give it a shot and see how it is so I can make an educated argument as to why I don't like the book (if in fact I don't). Well, I was surprised that I didn't hate the book. I don't think it's anywhere near the level of Dark Knight or Watchmen, books that I've heard it compared to before, but it's pretty good for a comic from 1979-1980.

Part of the problem is that I knew exactly what was going to happen and there were very few if any surprises. I guess I can thank my beloved X-Men animated series and reading various reviews and write-ups in Wizard for that. Anyway, sometimes you know how something's going to end, but the ride is still fun. Unfortunately, I kept getting let down by moments that I've heard were supposed to be awesome. The one that really sticks out in my mind is the couple of issues in which Wolverine gets knocked through the floor of the Hellfire Club and then comes back and kicks ass to save his teammates. Sure there are a couple of cool moments, but most of the issue is spent watching a Revolutionary War era Cyclops fighting in mind space or something. The final fight with the Imperial Guard is kind of boring as well. Plus John Byrne's very pretty art is often covered with dialogue that explains exactly what you're seeing the characters do on the page.

Like I said the story's not bad, especially if you haven't had nearly every beat of the story ruined for you and also if you have a predilection for Silver Age-type stories, but it doesn't really make me want to read the rest of this era of X-Men, though X-fanatic and Wizard World guru Brett White suggested I read From the Ashes which is on my list. We shall see I guess.

Iron Mongering: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. & Secret Invasion War Machine

2009-02-03 9:09:57 pm

In my ever-expanding quest to read more Iron Man comics I decided to give a few recent trades a shot, which brought be to Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Secret Invasion: War Machine. I wanted to read all of the post-Civil War Iron Man books, but couldn't find them in the library, so this will do.

IRON MAN: DIRECTOR OF S.H.I.E.L.D.
Written by Daniel and Charles Knauf, drawn by Roberto de la Torre
As some of you may know, I was involved in the weekly Civil War Room review column on wizarduniverse.com lead by former Wizard staffer Rickey Purdin. I enlisted thinking it would be a seven week commitment (that's how long it was supposed to take to come out right?). Well, it turned into an over year long commitment in which I read 99% of the Civil War related comics (thank you vacation). Anyway, because of all this, I feel pretty confident in saying that Iron Man was not a well handled character at the time, at least in my opinion.

So, with that in mind, I was pretty apt to skip Iron Man's post-Civil War comic which saw him in charge of S.H.I.E.L.D. an organization most well known for being lead by one of the coolest characters in the known universe, Nick Fury. But, alas, that didn't keep me away forever.

This trade is a pretty interesting one. The writers Knauf spin an intriguing yarn with plenty of espionage and superheroics all the same. I really like how Tony has built Iron Man-like armor for his S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. That's a cool touch that really makes sense. Also, I like how Dum Dum Dugan doesn't like Tony's way of running S.H.I.E.L.D. (like a business instead of a military organization). There's some pretty cool moments between the two of them as their relationship grows over the issues.

The book, which collects Iron Man #15-18, also features the return of the handless Mandarin who gets the alien power rings surgically inserted into his spine. I really wish I had the next few volumes to read between this and Secret Invasion to see how that played out. Some day I guess...

All in all, good stuff. Maybe not an easy entry point for new readers, but it's a good read for the initiated and also reprints two older stories, one starring Nick Fury, the other Iron Man. There's also reprints of some Marvel Spotlight: Civil War stuff and Marvel Handbook stuff, so that's a good deal.

SECRET INVASION: WAR MACHINE
Written by Chris Gage and drawn by Sean Chen
This book collects the repurposed Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. issues (#33-35) which were dubbed War Machine: Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D. while Iron Man was stuck in the Savage Land for six months.

I actually really dug this story. It's one of the cooler Secret Invasion tie-ins, far as I'm concerned. What you get is Jim Rhodes, a.k.a. War Machine, getting a distress call from Tony telling him that StarkTech had been compromised by the Skrulls, but luckily Rhodey (who's apparently a cyborg who looks an awful lot like Cyborg now) doesn't have StarkTech inside him, so he's cool. Tony also leads him to a satellite that's shielded from everyone that also transforms into a giant robot that Rhodey can control.

The story also has a pretty good tussle with the Winter Guard, some cool Super Skrulls that actually get identified (why couldn't they tell us who made up ALL the Skrulls?!) and a character by the name of Suzi Endo who is apparently known, but not by me. I wish this book would have come with some kind of intro or a Handbook entry on some of the characters to let me know what's up with them, but I got the gist of it. I haven't read the new War Machine book, but this definitely makes me want to, especially if it has a satellite that transforms into a giant robot!!!

Trade Post: Marvel Mania

2009-02-02 5:46:11 am

Time for some merry musings about a myriad of Marvel's most moving...comics. Wow, that's harder than it looks. Stan Lee should write an alliterative dictionary. Anyway, I've been catching up on some recent Marvel stuff that I missed out on the first time around, so here goes:

GHOST RIDER: HELL BEND & HEAVEN BOUND (Marvel)
Written by Jason Aaron and drawn by Roland Boschi & Tan Eng Huat
I've been hearing about how awesome Jason Aaron's Ghost Rider run has been, that it kind of takes a grindhouse approach to a character whose book wasn't exactly setting the world, ahem, aflame. Maybe it's because it's been hyped up so much, but I didn't find this volume, which collects Ghost Rider #20-25, all that awesome. Sure it was cool seeing Ghost Rider get mixed up with some ghosts on a highway and crazy nurses, but for me it never went beyond being just cool. I also couldn't help but feel like these were all Hellblazer stories bounced to another universe and used on Ghost Rider. That's probably not a fair comparison, but I do like the general approach to the character. Hey, I wouldn't be reading the book otherwise.

Also, I'm generally not a fan of the art, but I think it works in a book like this. It's kind of like how I wouldn't normally like some of the artists who do BPRD or Hellboy minis, but in the context of that kind of book the art really works well. It's pretty much the same thing here. All this being said, I will give the next volume a read, just to see how it goes, hopefully I'll be surprised.

THE INCREDIBLE HERCULES: AGAINST THE WORLD (Marvel)
Written by Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente and drawn by Koi Pham and others
Man, this is a good book. I loved Planet Hulk as it was happening but wasn't all that thrilled with World War Hulk (I'm not a fan of Romita Jr.'s). After all that I was kind of mad that Jeph Loeb was writing a Hulk book while Greg Pak, the guy who made Hulk awesome again got relegated to a Hercules book. I later found out that this was how Pak wanted to do things and heard good things about Herc, so I'm giving it a shot and unlike Ghost Rider, I'm 100% sold on Incredible Herc.

The book is great. Hercules is a pretty fascinating character, not just the wine swilling rogue we've seen in issues of Avengers past, but a really complicated dude who's lived an amazingly long life. The writers really dig deep, but don't pile things on too heavily and bury the fun. And there's plenty of fun.

Herc's chum in all this is Amadeus Cho, the seventh smartest person (first smartest kid) on Earth (I'd like to see the list in ranked order), a character I've grown to like in his few appearances leading up to and including WWH. Cho's obsessed with shutting S.H.I.E.L.D. down because of how they treated Hulk, but Herc doesn't want to destroy the good with the bad. Meanwhile, Ares is attacking Herc a lot, trying to put his arrogant, famous brother down.

My one complaint about Incredible Herc is that I'm not a big fan of Ares' characterization. I really really liked Michael Avon Oeming's Ares miniseries from a few years ago, but I feel like the character he set up there hasn't really been used as much beyond "big huge bad ass" in later appearances. Here he's a crazy, jealous dude who just wants to put Herc down. It's kind of strange and maybe that's how his character has been developed in books I haven't read, but it just feels a little off to me and took me a bit out of the story.

I can't wait to check out the next trade, which, I think, will be Secret Invasion stuff. I read one issue when it came out and really liked it, but it was part 2 or 3 and I missed the rest.

Iron Mongering Part 4: The Many Armors of Iron Man

2008-11-11 2:54:44 pm

As I've mentioned in previous Iron Mongering posts, I really want to see a Michelinie and Layton Essential, Visionaries or even an Omnibus or two. Many Armors is nothing like that. Instead it's a grab bag of issues by different creators introducing various Iron Man armors (a space armor, the stealth, etc.). Sounds like it could be fun right? Well, it really isn't unfortunately. My biggest problem with the book (which collects Iron Man #47, 142-144, 152, 153, 200, 218) is that, like with Demon in a Bottle there is no indication as to what's been going on with Iron Man around the time these issues came out, so you're just thrown in and have to figure it out on your own. And while the stories themselves may be kind of interesting, I really felt like I was missing a lot.

Generally I don't like trades like this with various issues from various teams about various stories, but the ones that I think did it best was the Green Arrow/Black Canary For Better Or For Worse which did the above, but also included little prose paragraphs before each story to explain what had happened in the years between the stories. Maybe if MAOIM did that for a later edition it would be a more enjoyable book, but as it is, it really isn't. It does REALLY make me want to see some Michelinie and Layton trades collecting their epic runs. I've got my fingers crossed. Maybe in time for the Iron Man sequel.

Oh, which reminds me, reading the first issue in this trade, which retold Iron Man's origin spurred me on to watching the Iron Man DVD, so, that's a least a point in the plus column. That movie's rad.

To My Astonishment

2008-11-09 10:16:13 pm

Wow, I was going through my posts and found this one that never went life for some reason. I think I wrote it originally back in August, but it could have been even further back than that. Enjoy!

I realize it's been a while since I did an actual comic review. I've been reading mostly newer stuff lately and trying to catch up on more recent books that I missed, but I did grab all four Astonishing X-Men trades from the library the other day after. I had read the first three and part of the fourth, but wasn't really seeing what all the fuss was about and got pretty displeased with the incredible lateness of the book, so I stopped reading. And while I did like the series a little bit more the second time around, I'm still not blown away like everyone else.

Now, don't get me wrong. I think Whedon crafted a good story and I like Cassaday's art enough. But neither one of those excuse the lateness of the book. I know it doesn't matter now that the whole thing is out in trade (and probably an omnibus at some point), but it still bugs me when creators make a splash with a book, get fans excited and then keep you waiting for four years to finish a 25 issues story. It's the kind of book I would have dropped if I was buying it and didn't get to read them for free at work.

Okay, aside from that, I did have a bit of a hard time not seeing shades of Buffy in every issue of the book. Em and I just finished watching the series again (look for something Buffy-related coming soon) right before I started re-reading the first trade. Sure these characters stand on their own and maybe Cassaday even took some of his cues from the show (the way he draws Beast with his glasses, instantly makes me think of Giles). But, after the first few pages of the first issue, all that kind of fell away. I still saw elements of his Buffy characters in the X-Men, but it's obviously not a direct lift or transference. Even though certain bits of dialog brought me right back to Buffy episodes. It could also be argued that the Buffy characters were influenced by the X-Men. Who's to say?

Also, I do have to say that I'm not much of an X-Men fan. As my faithful reader(s) know(s), I was a DC kid growing up, so my experience with the X-Men were the occasional grocery store comics I'd pick up and the cartoon (and reading Wizard back in the day). Because of this, I find their history nearly incomprehensible at times. That being said, I think this is probably the most accessible X-Men book I've ever checked out. Whedon and Cassaday both boil the characters down to their basic natures, both in content and appearance, so that you can figure out what they're all about in just a few panels. I even handed it to Em after the first two trades were out and she loved it, though I did have to hear her continually ask about the next trade for like two years. She has also re-read them and, with the exception of a few questions about the Legacy Virus and Cassandra Nova, didn't have any trouble with the plot.

I also appreciate the whole "let's make the X-Men a real life superhero team" idea that gets a bit lost in the middle of the series, but then comes back later on. One of the many things that has bothered me about the Marvel Universe is how bigoted the general citizens can be toward mutants and not towards the Avengers. How do they know that Cap isn't a mutant? Come on, get over it already. And for his part, Whedon tried to get people over it, by getting the "feared and hated by those they've sworn to protect" bit out of the way after the first arc. Kudos for that. And double extra kudos for leaving guns all over the different issues and firing them off in the end (most specifically, the big giant weird sentient Genosha-killing Sentinel). And super kudos for putting some genuinely funny moments in the book. The scene with Kitty falling thrown the floor into the TV room while her and Pete...celebrated his return, made me actually laugh out loud (yes, that an LLOL, a literal LOL).

I also appreciate how Whedon adds to the mythology without muddying up the already cloudy world of the X-Men and the Marvel U in general. You've got Danger, the Breakworld, Agent Brand, S.W.O.R.D. and maybe Armor? I'm not sure if Morrison invented her in his New X-Men or not, but Whedon obviously took a shine to her and gave Wolverine another Kitty Pryde/Jubilee girl partner to pal around with when X-23 gets to be too much of a psychopath.

All in all, like I said above, I think this is a good X-Men story. It almost reads like "All-Star X-Men" because it basically glosses over everything that happened in the Marvel U in the four years it took to tell the story. There's no mention of the Decimation and only one line about Civil War. Now, I'm not one to say that these big events MUST interfere with a big-time writer's story, but it would at least make sense to get a mention of the 198 or something. And, I'm sorry to say, but I don't see what the big deal about Cassaday's art. My friend Rickey Purdin has promised to sit down with me and go through the trades to try and change my mind, so we shall see. And really, I'm only disappointed in that because I think Whedon could have done some really fun things with those events AND I think the Marvel U and the X-books could have benefited from a more timely involvement.

We (Comic Book Detective Matt Powell and King of the Internet Jim Gibbons) were all talking about this book at lunch the other day and came up with the idea that it would be cool if Whedon "executive produced" X-Men the way he does TV or the Buffy comic, writing the important stuff, letting other writers flesh things out and approving everything that gets done. We all felt that, given a more regular shipping schedule, Whedon's run would feel a lot fuller and more well-rounded like our favorite seasons of Buffy.

Iron Mongering Part 3: Michelinie and Layton Pot Luck

2008-06-04 3:00:47 am

As those of you who have stumbled across this here blog probably realized, last week was absolutely dead in my little corner of the internet. That's because we were working on finishing the next issue of ToyFare (or "closing" as we call it) before Wizard World Philly which was last weekend. I had a pretty good time, you may have read some of my toy-related stories on the main page or even seen some pics of me hosting the First Annual ToyFare Hall of Fame Awards or on the TTT panel which was a lot of fun (huge thanks to anyone who found their way here because of that panel and thanks to Ben and Justin for hyping it). So that leads me to what will hopefully be the first of a few posts this week, another installment of Iron Mongering.

Instead of just picking up another trade, I decided to read some books I had in my "to read" pile (a pile that, I'm sure like most of yours, keeps getting bigger and bigger). A few years ago a buddy of mine by the name of James Walker was getting rid of a bunch of his comics and I grabbed a small stack of his Iron Man comics, which I sat down and read tonight. And awayyyyyy we go:

Iron Man #218-220, 223, 228 (1987)

Written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton
Drawn by Bob Layton, Mark D. Bright
Featuring Iron Man, Rhodey, The Ghost, Spymaster, The Captain

Okay, so even though these aren't consecutive issues, I really dug reading through this hodgepodge of issues from Michelinie's second run on Iron Man. I'm not sure what came before #218, but I feel like I was able to grasp what was going on pretty well. And I think this is a one-off story anyway, but basically Iron Man has to use his deep sea armor to grab a cannister full of some WWI biological weapon that sank on the Titanic.

As with the Demon in a Bottle trade, I really enjoyed these issues. The art by Layton and Bright still looks crisp even after being around in single issue form for 11 years. Michelinie's stories still have their very literary feel and he easily catches readers up to what's happening in each issue with no more than three panels, so kudos to him for that.

Which brings us to #219, which not only debuts a brand new villain but also strips Tony of his Magnum-like haircut and replaces it with a weird Jerry curl. How '80s. This issue sees the first appearance of techno corporate espionage villain The Ghost who can either become invisible or become intangible, both of which make him a powerful and dangerous foe for Iron Man and Tony, which leads into #220 another great issue that pits longtime IM villain Spymaster against new kid on the block the Ghost while Tony stands there, seemingly helpless. Of course, Stark's not really helpless as he uses Rhodey's gun to keep Spymaster from shooting a strange spinning disc blade in the Ghost's head. Which is great because SPOILER the Ghost ends up killing Spymaster by rematerializing him in the middle of a wall. Ouch. Even though I've seen this kind of move before, I don't think I've ever seen it kill anyone, which was a pretty big surprise.

Unfortunately, I don't have #221, which finishes the story, so I don't know how things were left between the Ghost, who really wanted to pop a cap in Tony's ass and the Man of Iron. So, moving on...

In #223, a character I've never heard of called Force leaves Justin Hammer behind and goes to Tony Stark for help getting out of his armor, which Tony as Iron Man gladly does. The dude inside of Force offers to give Tony everything he knows about Hammer's operation, but instead Tony sends him to jail where Beetle, Whiplash and Blizzard (all three in trenchcoats and hats, you know how much I like that!) show up to kill him. I found this pretty interesting because I've basically thought of Iron Man as a huge jerk since I had to read every Civil War tie-in during WizardUniverse.com's old Civil War Room column. Here I got to see Tony doing exactly what he thought was the right thing and it completely backfired in his face. Not sure what happens after that cause I don't have the next issue, but #228 was pretty rad too

Haha, okay, I actually started writing this after reading everything but #228, so then I got to this part and I realized that #228 (which is the issue where Tony gives Steve Rogers, now going by The Captain, his new shield) is part 4 of Armor Wars II, so I'm going to hold off on this one until I can get the rest of the issues.

These few issues of Michelinie's Iron Man that I've read bring me back to my earlier days of collecting comics. I used to pick up random books in the cheap racks of cons back in the day and if I liked them I'd go a little crazy and buy every issue in that particular series (which is why I'm about 7 issues away from owning every post-Crisis, pre-JLA Justice League book that came out). Now, I'm not feeling like I need to buy every Iron Man comic in existence, but I am feeling that old urge to pick up all of his and Layton's issues. Before I go too crazy, I'm definitely gonna check and see what's available in trade. All I know for sure are Demon in a Bottle and Armor Wars (which I want to read now more than ever). I'll keep you posted on how that works out for me.

Iron Mongering Part 2: Extremis

2008-05-25 3:44:12 pm

Next up on the Iron Man review front, we have Warren Ellis and Adi Granov's Extremis storyline which kicked off the fourth Iron Man ongoing series. Ellis took the opportunity to update Tony's origin so that he was blown up in Afghanistan instead of Vietnam. There's probably some other changes, but I'm not really sure. And, awwwwwwway we go:

Iron Man: Extremis (2005-2006)

Written by Warren Ellis
Drawn by Adi Granov
Featuring Iron Man, Mallen, Maya Hansen and Sal Kennedy

Unlike Demon in a Bottle, I've actually read Extremis before and liked it. When I read it originally, I had only read Heroes Reborn Iron Man (I'll get to that in another post) and a few issues of the third volume. So, I remembered most of the beats and still enjoyed it, but definitely not as much as Demon in a Bottle. On a sunnier note, though, there are a number of scenes in this book that they seemed to take inspiration from in the film, which is a fun little game to play.

Speaking of influence on the movie, they couldn't have picked a better artist to help design the movie armor than Adi Granov. His work on this book really jumps off the page. Sure there's a few panels that seem a little static, but for the majority of the panels, Granov really brings Iron Man AND Tony Stark to life. While still on the topic of creators, I've read a number of different Ellis books, liked some, didn't like others, so his name alone wasn't the big draw for me.

Okay, so on to the story. We open in an abandoned slaughterhouse where two kids inject a third (Mallen) with what turns out to be Extremis (more on that later). It turns out that a doctor at Futurepharm allowed Extremis to get swiped, so he shoots himself in the head, leaving Dr. Hansen to deal with the authorities.

Meanwhile, Tony Stark tinkers away in his garage laboratory (an image of Stark that I really like to see, he is a super-genius after all) and then gets interviewed by a documentary maker, in a very similar fashion than the ambush by the sexy blond reporter lady in the movie. It's a pretty great scene because it gives you a really good idea about who the man underneath the armor really is: one who feels responsible for creating weapons of destruction and wants to make right by the world. This goes on for a while, then we get a
snapshot of Mallen who looks like he's covered in a cocoon of tar.

Then back to Tony who's looking at his Iron Man armor, saying, "Hard to believe I used to be able to fit this into a briefcase." He then goes on for a few pages, briefly recapping his origin and explaining why he's Iron Man. It's a bit on the nose, especially after reading through the scene with Tony and the documentary maker. Anyway, Iron Man launches into the sky and flies around, remembering meeting Dr. Hansen who then calls him. Weird, huh? She tells him about Extremis and he tells her he'll be there ASAP.

On the way there, Tony has a video conference with his board of directors who are trying to convince him to step down from CEO to Chief Technologist, which he's having none of, mostly because they want to get back into the weapons-making business and Tony won't allow it. Also, they discuss a brand new Stark cell phone that sounds a lot like the iPhone. I remember when this project was first announced that Ellis said that, now that cell phones can do all this crazy stuff, that Iron Man needs an upgrade. It's kinda awesome that Ellis was able to call the next step in cell phone technology.

So, Tony shows up at Futurepharm, talks to Maya, uses a satellite USB drive to upload the entire contents of the dead doctor's hard drive to one of his computer techs and then heads off with Maya to meet up with Sal Kennedy to talk tech and the future while Mallen finally realizes what his powers can do and goes on a pretty awesome rampage. The juxtaposition of the scientists discussion of science and its place (along with theirs) in the world and what it means to be a genius against the misuse of science (Extremis) is a nice one, but it goes on for a bit too long, possibly. In my opinion, this whole six issue story could have been told in about four with little-to-no difference in quality.

Maya and Tony finally find out about the rampage and head back to Futurepharm on the plane, which gives Maya time to explain what the heck Extremis actually is. I'll let her explain it to you (though in a condensed version): "Extremis is a super-soldier solution. It's a bio-electronics package [that] hacks the body's repair center [rewriting it]. In the first stage, the body becomes and open wound. The normal human blueprint is being replaced with the Extremis blueprint. For the next two or three days, the subject remains unconscious within a cocoon of scabs." Get it? No? I'm not sure I do either, but I do like this brief call-out to the fact that this is all supposedly taking place in the Marvel Universe. It's about the only one we get, but it's a pretty good one. Basically, Extremis makes you awesome in just about every way, but how does it make you breath fire? Um...moving on.

Tony and Maya land, Tony heads to his hangar and talks to himself some more while Mallen remembers his redneck past, espcially the part where the fascist government (fascist because they didn't want these guys running guns, the jerks!). Makes sense right? Why not. Well, it turns out that the psycho, probably redneck (that's just what I'm picking up from this brief bit of dialog) apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as THIS seems to be the reason Mallen's such a d-bag. Well, his reminiscing gets interrupted by Iron Man, who slices the van that Mallen's being driven in in half. So, yeah, they fight and it's cool. There's even a scene that they seemingly borrowed for the movie where the bad guy holds up a car full of people to smash Iron Man with, but IM blasts them with his chest beam and then catches the car. The fight's pretty brutal, with Mallen winning, but then running away, leaving Iron Man under a car.

All of which leads us to the big deal aspect of this whole story. A broken and bloody Iron Man gets taken back to Futurepharm where he reveals his ID to Maya and asks her to inject him with Extremis because he wants a better, thinner, quicker operating system to run the Iron Man suit. Maya, of course, initially refuses, but Tony reminds her that he'll probably die without it, so she agrees. Tony makes his own alterations to Extremis (no fire breathing necessary) and then injects it, which leads to the re-telling of his origin. This time in Afghanistan, as I mentioned above. The Iron Man movie seems to have, again, used this origin as a blueprint for it's action packed escape sequences and Granov seems to revel in making the clunky gray armor look both realistic and kind of terrifying.

After this flashback, Tony comes out of the scab cocoon and reveals that he programmed Extremis to hide the under sheath of his armor in his bones and that he can now also see through satellites, oh and open briefcases from a distance and put his armor on without touching anything. Again, I'm not all too sure how all this works. If Extremis is supposed to make a human as good as it can be, how does that relate to circuitry and technology? I'm not sure and it's very possible that I completely missed something here, but I still buy it. Why not? These are comics after all and few heroes need an upgrade more than Iron Man (skate boots anyone?).

So, now we're treated to an issue's worth of fighting between Mallen and the brand new Iron Man (who doesn't actually look all that different than he did in the first issue). It's a great fight scene, one that, again gives us a look at who Tony really is. He admits to killing a number of people when he escaped in the original armor, something that I didn't know. Iron Man even tells Mallen why he's so scared of him: "You're my nightmare: the version of me that couldn't see the future." This reads to me as Tony admitting his dilemma. He's terrified of what technology can (and probably will) do to the world, but it's the only thing he's good at. He's also cursed or blessed with the ability to see how things will play out, he's always looking at the big picture, which means that he's working on a level that most people probably can not understand (which explains his actions during Civil War).

In the end, Iron Man ends up killing Mallen and revealing that Maya helped release Extremis. THE END.

Like I said before, I would have been happy with this being a four issue series (maybe five). Unlike Demon in a Bottle, in which so many crazy things are going on, many of which don't pertain to the main story on the surface (but, of course, ended up playing out later on), Extremis seems a little too focused. There isn't a lot else going on besides the main story. And that's not bad, it's just not as interesting to me as a denser story.

I do wish that Extremis was better explained. Calling it a technological super soldier serum doesn't really explain how Tony was able to use it with the armor or how Mallen was able to breath fire. Like I said above, though, I can dig it. But it does take away from the story, that such a big element isn't made very clear, especially when there aren't many subplots to get wrapped up in.

Also, I would have liked to see Iron Man find another way to stop Mallen besides killing him. I can understand him killing some people while escaping for his life, but one of the most brilliant men on the planet (possibly the universe?) SHOULD have been able to figure out a better way to stop him than cutting his head off. It also takes a potentially great arch-enemy for Iron Man of the table (well, until someone resurrects him).

Overall, Extremis is a pretty good read, looks beautiful, has some great fight scenes, establishes Tony Stark as a character and re-establishes his origin, but it doesn't have the same sense of shared universe and history that Demon in a Bottle had. It also reads very much like a mini-series instead of the beginning of an ongoing. If it WAS a mini, I don't think most of these things would bother me as much.

Iron Mongering Part 1: Demon in a Bottle

2008-05-13 1:37:41 am

Like everyone else in the world, I really dug the Iron Man flick, but it got me thinking: What are some great Iron Man stories out there? Everyone's always talking about Armor Wars and Demon in a Bottle, but I've run into some trouble getting into comics from back then, what with the huge text blocks and "I'm saying what I'm doing" dialog. So, I went up to Wizard's comic library (a truly magical place) and grabbed a big stack of trades, old and newer, and will post my thoughts as I read through them. Huge spoilers ahead. Sorry about the smaller images below, I'm still trying to work this whole thing out.

First up, Demon in a Bottle (1979)

Collects: Iron Man #120-128
Written By: David Michelinie
Drawn By: John Romita Jr., Bob Layton & Carmine Infantino
Featuring: Iron Man, Namor, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Bethany Cabe, Jarvis, Captain America, The Avengers, Justin Hammer, a slew of villains and booze

First, a quick bit of background on my comic-reading past. I grew up a DC guy, so most of my Iron Man knowledge stemmed from the short-lived '90s animated series, whatever random Marvel books I'd pick up from time to time and what I read in Wizard. Like everyone else, I've heard a lot about Demon in a Bottle, but never really took the chance to read it until now because I kind of figured I knew everything that happened and didn't think I'd like it.

Well, I was wrong. Though the trade is a bit difficult to jump into (there's characters I'm not familiar with and the book starts with the last 5 pages of issue #120), it didn't bother me all that much because it reminded me of what it was like when I first started reading comics. I had no idea what was going on and loved trying to figure it out.

Keeping that in mind (and knowing that not everyone likes to read comics the way I do), I wanted to offer a little background info that might help new readers. Up to this point Bethany Cabe (first appearing a few issues earlier in IM #117) was a lady that Tony Stark was eying after his break-up with Madame Masque. At the time this book opens, he's got no idea that she's really a bodyguard for hire. Also, at this point in his history, the world doesn't know that Tony Stark is Iron Man, they think Iron Man is Stark's bodyguard. That should be about enough to get you through the trade until the big origin recap.

Like I mentioned, the book opens with the end of #120, showing us a battle between Iron Man and Namor. The ensuing fight with Roxxon Oil over a Vibranium-filled island is an interesting one, beautifully and crisply drawn by JRJR, but it doesn't have a whole lot to do with the rest of the story. This brings up another aspect of the book I liked, it reminded me how comics used to be written. Nowadays we're so used to six-issue arcs with set beginnings and endings that it can throw us off when we're offered a glimpse of an older story like this. Michelinie wasn't worrying about six issues here, he had a whole tapestry of stories and subplots weaving in and out of each other that probably started years earlier and went on for plenty after. Sure, the Namor section of the story isn't necessary, but it does lead to Tony's recollection of his origin and the eventual reveal that someone is messing with his armor.

I really thought that I would get bored with a 12-page recap of Iron Man's origin, especially having just seen basically the same story on screen a week before, but Michelinie's text boxes read like a novel and guest artist Infantino's art on this issue really captures the drama and action of his origin. In the end, the story still feels fresh after almost 30 years.

As a bonus (for me at least), the origin story included two of my favorite visuals in fiction: a splash page that encapsulates a character's costumes/history and a character wearing a trench coat even though it's the most conspicuous fashion choice of all time (especially if you're a dude walking around in a suit of armor).

Okay, so after ol' Shell Head remembers how he became a man of armor (while flying his way home) something crazy happens: his suit malfunctions, sending him flying erratically through the skies, even through the offices at Marvel. As staffers huddle in fear one calls out "Gee, Jim [Shooter, EIC at the time], I uh, realize guest stars help sales--but in editorial meetings?!" There's even a little sign on the wall that reads "Kill All Inkers" signed by Stan. It's a great little in-joke for fans, the kind of thing I imagine Marvel did all the time back in the day.

Tony regains control and heads back to his lab where he tests out his armor in a pretty amazing sequence mixing elements of Kirby and Steranko drawn by JRJR, who absolutely kills his issues.

Finding nothing wrong, Tony heads to a casino with Bethany Cabe only to be interrupted by Blizzard (who comes in wearing a trench coat and a wide brim hat), Melter and Whiplash. Tony suits up and makes short work of the villains only to be chastised by Bethany for not guarding Stark.

Upon returning home, Tony gets a request for Iron Man to represent Stark International at a ceremony and meet with ambassador Kotznin to which Tony agrees. He then has a drink, tries to design some sciency stuff, gets fed up and suits up as Iron Man to patrol the area.

Later that night at the ceremony, everything seems to be going fine until the mystery villain works his technical mojo, causing Iron Man to blast a hole straight through the ambassador's chest. Man, what a great scene. I remember this being referenced back when I read Avengers, but had no idea it was coming up and was blown away (like the ambassador, heh). Even today the murder of an innocent man at the hands of a hero strikes a chord. These are men and women who have sworn to help humanity often at the detriment of themselves and, when something like this happens, even if it's not their fault, you just know that it leaves a hole inside of them that will take years to heal. Michelinie wasn't pulling any punches and will continue to lay it on pretty thick for our armored hero, but never shows him completely beaten because this is the kind of guy who's gonna keep fighting until his dying breath.

All of this leads into my personal favorite issue of this story, #125. The issue opens on a shadow-covered Iron Man, again drawn beautifully JRJR, contemplating all that's just happened. He's able to convince the cops to let him go as long as Stark brings the armor to them for safe keeping by telling him that the armor malfunctioned. Afterwards, Tony goes on a bit of a bender, looking a lot like the famous cover that this collection gets its name from. We then see Tony showing up at Avengers Mansion where he asks Captain America to give him some fight training, which is a great scene because Cap's got no idea that Tony and Iron Man are one in the same. We're treated to another fantastic montage scene (one that was referred to a year ago when Cap and Iron Man were having their troubles during Civil War). What I love about this scene, besides the art, is that it just makes sense. I'm a big fan of the idea that these characters don't automatically know how to handle themselves. Even after being a superhero for years, Tony's always relied on his suit to help him, but what he's got coming up, an assault on the man he only knows as Hammer, will require his prowess, not Iron Man's.

He also knows how to get help from his friends in the superhero community. Tony sets up a meeting with Scott Lang, the new Ant-Man, who then uses his shrinking abilities to visit Whiplash in jail and get more information on Hammer. I don't mean to keep gushing about this issue, but I love the sense of this being a shared universe that you get just by reading this one comic. Not only do you have the Avengers seeing the news of Iron Man's accidental murder, but Tony training with Cap and getting help from Scott. These are the kinds of stories that make reading comics in a shared universe fun.

I also love stories in which the hero has to operate in his civilian identity, but is still a badass. Ed Brubaker did a great job with this in his first year on Daredevil, starting with Matt Murdoch in prison and then sending him to Europe. In this issue we're treated to Tony Stark playing James Bond and not just in the bedroom. Tony follows up on the info he got from Scott and heads to Monaco with his buddy James Rhodes at his side and flying his plane.

Tony and Rhodey go on to run across some hoods that they, at first, easily dispatch, but end up with Rhodey unconscious on a beach and Tony in the clutches of Justin Hammer, the man who's been screwing with Tony this whole time. But who is this guy? Well...no one, kinda. I mean, he's a pretty big deal rich dude, but he's the kind of villain that's been waiting in the wings for his moment to attack. Kind of like what's happening with Morrison's current Batman run (maybe).

So, now that Tony's in his enemy's clutches, what happens next? Tony pulls some more James Bond-like maneuvers (electrocuting his guard and using a grappling hook belt he got from Scott Lang) to get his armor back, just in time for Hammer to unleash a legion of super-villains like the Constrictor, the Beetle, Porcupine, Discus, Stiletto, Leap-Frog, Man-Killer and more. Iron Man rumbles pretty mercilessly, but awesomely, with the villains, then goes after Hammer himself (did I mention they're on a big boat-like island?), who's escaped, leaving Tony to return home, get skunky drunk, snap at Jarvis and receive Jarvis' resignation the next day.

All of which leads us to the issue you've seen the cover of a hundred times, but (if you're like me) never actually read. Yup, the famous "Demon in a Bottle" Tony-looks-like-hell cover.

I gotta say, this is my least favorite of the issues. Not because it's a poorly written or drawn, but because it just seems a little too cut and dry. Sure, plenty of writers have gone back to this aspect of Tony's personality, but this issue really seems to steam through his ordeal with booze. Even the emotional and heartbreaking scene with a drunken Iron Man crashing through his office window, things just go by too fast for me. It turns out that Bethany had a husband who was addicted to drugs and doesn't want to see the same thing happen to Tony, so she helps him through his withdrawal (again, drawn in agonizing detail by JRJR). Our hero also patches things up with Jarvis, finding out that the faithful butler's mother is sick and to help offset the costs, Jarvis sold his shares (there's a subplot running throughout the whole story that S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to buy a controlling interest in his company). Tony tells his long-time friend that he'll pay for everything and goes on to deal with the rest of his life, including a battle with self-control over a bottle of booze that he wins. End of story.

Okay, I don't want to end on such a downer note. Again, I really liked this book and think that, given an even bigger trade that shows more of Tony's battle with his new found bottle demons, I wouldn't feel the way I do. Jeez, this was a really long post. Too long? Let me know.