Review: Hulk: Red and Green Vol. 2 hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

Continuing my romp through Jeph Loeb's Hulk collections, I found the second volume, Red and Green, to be somewhat less entertaining than Red Hulk but still with enough to enjoy in this fairly brief (three issues) installment of the ongoing saga of the Red Hulk.

In Red and Green, Hulk fans get two doses of gamma-ray action in two separate stories which originally ran as co-features but are presented here as united halves of this volume. The first, "What Happens in Vegas," is essentially the "Green" half of the book, in which Bruce Banner roadtrips to Las Vegas in search of the cannibal werewolf Wendigo creatures. Vegas unleashes Gray Hulk "Joe Fixit" as Batman Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and others join in.

Then comes "Hell Hath No Fury," in which She-Hulk and her Lady Liberators take on the Red Hulk. This "Red" half has much more in common with Red Hulk, with Red Hulk taking hits on all sides from the likes of the Invisible Woman, Storm, Valkyrie, and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s deputy director Maria Hill.

The division of this volume very neatly in half is a bit jarring compared to the previous volume's single unified storyline, but it reads a lot better than I assume it did in single issues. Rather than bounce back and forth between Green and Red, the book ties up Green before picking up with Red. Unfortunately, Green's storyline -- even with the inclusion of Mr. Fixit -- is nowhere near as compelling as Red Hulk's. It's strange that this new character is stealing the spotlight so blatantly from the titular hero, a little like giving Doomsday the spotlight instead of Superman.

Maybe it's a matter of personal taste; I've never found the angsty Bruce Banner too appealing, running away from his powers in every incarnation I've seen, and on top of all that the Green story here isn't terribly compelling. Hulk chases Wendigo to Vegas, Hulk fights Wendigo, Hulk becomes Wendihulk, and other heroes join in for no apparent reason. And unfortunately the more sinewy pencils of Arthur Adams aren't as much to my liking as Ed McGuinness's work in the previous volume.

On the whole "What Happens in Vegas" feels a bit like filler; it's probably a fine Hulk story, but being thrown into the middle of a larger story accentuates the story's own irrelevance. Conversely, "Hell Hath No Fury" is exactly the kind of story arc the larger narrative needs, continuing from the events of Red Hulk and moving forward without losing sight of the main storyline. And it's more entertaining, feeling a lot like the Marvel team-up Gail Simone never got to write with enough action handled deftly by Frank Cho (whose "tough girls" work looks like a blend between Adam Hughes and McGuinness).

This volume, unlike its predecessor, features the use of Jeph Loeb's trademark "narration boxes" which step inside the head of a character and provide internal monologues for important characters. Here we're treated to the reflections of Bruce Banner and She-Hulk Jen Walters, but the narration is inconsistently deployed, often receding altogether to give the main focus to the action on the page. This is a wise choice but a distracting one; for such a stylistic mainstay, Loeb's irregular use of the narration is more puzzling than anything else. Ultimately the narration doesn't do anything for the story and so it isn't missed in its absences, but because Loeb is so well-known for it (Superman for All Seasons and the precedent set by his Superman/Batman), it simultaneously seems like more is both expected and needed.

But Red and Green's biggest shortcoming is quite literally its brevity. The trade collects three issues, a throwaway back-up biography of the late Abomination, a few variant covers, and more delightful "Mini Marvels" by Audrey Loeb (here the Lil' Hulks tussle with Spider-Man, Iceman, and airport baggage checks). At a list price of $15.99, this is a steal -- on Marvel's part. At six dollars an issue, Red and Green simply isn't worth it. While the lightness of Red Hulk was mitigated by six issues full of action, Red and Green just isn't enough. It's good, but I can't help but wonder about the collection practices at play here.

Zach torn.

In my next Hulk review, coming up in a few weeks, the return of Ed McGuinness as Hulk and Red Hulk duke it out in a cosmic game before a game-changer takes one Hulk out of the equation -- for good.

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Review: Hulk, Vol. 1: Red Hulk hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest reviewer Zach King blogs about movies as The Cinema King]

In the midst of a universe-wide reboot over at the Distinguished Competition, I wanted to check in with Marvel and see if I ought to jump on board any of their titles, too (as if I'm not not already spending too much on comics every week). I won't deny that the advent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has led me to dive into Marvel comics, and the appearance of a few creators I recognize from my life with DC made Red Hulk seem as good a place as any to begin.

There are only two things you need to know about the first volume of Jeph Loeb's collaboration with Ed McGuinness on Hulk: there's a new Red Hulk in town, and he's about to fight with as many Marvel characters as he can in the six issues collected in Red Hulk. After Abomination is murdered, apparently by a gun-toting Incredible Hulk, General Thunderbolt Ross and Leonard "Doc" Samson discover that Bruce Banner hasn't escaped captivity since his rampage in World War Hulk.

Enter the Red Hulk, Abomination's true murderer and the Marvel Universe's "Most Wanted" for a six-issue slugfest with Iron Man, Thor, The Thing, and even Uatu the Watcher -- before Bruce Banner "hulks out" and takes on his new nemesis.

I came to this title with Jeph Loeb as a favorite writer but the Hulk as one of my least favorite Marvel characters (blame two lackluster feature films in the last decade). In fairness, I've never read a Hulk comic book beyond the six Loeb volumes and Loeb's collaboration with Tim Sale on Hulk: Grey, not even the original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby issues. The good news about Red Hulk is that I didn't need to. Loeb starts a new storyline with a new status quo (and a new #1 -- there's a bit of that going around on my comics reading list) and doesn't get bogged down in story-stopping continuity.

There's no question Red Hulk takes place in a larger universe, with an unfamiliar Avengers team and allusions to past storylines like Civil War, but Loeb smartly boils this Hulk story down to what every Hulk story has at its core -- large creatures brawling for pages at a time with stilted grammar.

To this end, Loeb is helped greatly by Ed McGuinness, whose exaggerated muscleman style is a natural fit for a Hulk story -- especially one with two Hulks. While his DC work (Superman/Batman, JLA Classified) was fun and cartoony, McGuinness is perfectly suited for drawing the Hulk, and now his unique style feels complementary rather than just entertaining. Not to slight colorist Jason Keith, but McGuinness does a solid job differentiating between Hulk and Red Hulk.

McGuinness's work with the other Marvel characters here isn't bad, either; his Iron Man and Thing have personality even behind their well-established looks, his Uatu channels Kirby without plagiarizing, and his Thor is as regal as he is intimidating. McGuinness is given plenty of double-page spreads to let his titanic juggernauts duke it out, and not a one of them disappoints.

Unfortunately, Red Hulk is filled with double-page spreads and wordless clobbering to the point that, despite being six issues long, the main story feels a little light. By the end, Red Hulk has smacked around everyone in sight, but even Hulk leaves the unconscious Red Hulk unattended -- a serious problem considering the whole story was about catching a murderer. The whole excursion feels like a popcorn movie, which isn't actually a bad thing. Red Hulk is a fun and entertaining read, but it's not (pardon the pun) terribly hard-hitting. This is quite clearly an opening salvo in a much larger story, and at this point the story is firing on all cylinders for excitement but remains a little light on content.

Taking a backseat to the action of Red Hulk is the ongoing mystery of the Red Hulk's true identity. At no point can the reader forget that Jeph Loeb is also the author of DC mystery mainstays The Long Halloween and Dark Victory, with red herrings and significant clues sprinkled throughout Red Hulk. Unfortunately, I had the identity of the Red Hulk spoiled for me long before I even bought this book (a spoiler I won't disclose until the sixth and final volume's review), but that made the reading experience a little more fun.

Knowing the who and not the how, I got a little more bang out of the red herrings Loeb throws in, trying to puzzle through them rather than simply scratching names off a list of potential suspects. To any reader, the identity of the Red Hulk should be fairly obvious, but when Loeb puts Red Hulk and the prime suspect in a room together, you have to wonder on what level you're being tricked. This act of "puzzling through" made Red Hulk more than just a mindless slugfest for me -- not that a mindless slugfest drawn by Ed McGuinness wouldn't be fun in and of itself.

The collection is padded out with two features of note. First, a Wolverine/Hulk story by Loeb and McGuinness that retells the infamous first meeting between the jolly green giant and Canada's own mutant. This story has no connection to Red Hulk at large and adds little to the relationship between these two characters; it's just one more opportunity to McGuinness to draw big men beating each other up, but it's done well with a curious allusion to the Ultimate Marvel Universe thrown in for good measure. The other feature is more entertaining, a few Tiny Titans-style "Mini Marvels" shorts written by Loeb's daughter Audrey, with three young Hulks (Red, Blue, and Green) in absurd but delightful comic scenarios involving zoos, finger paints, and swimming pools.

All told, Red Hulk was a good "first" experience for me, an easing into the Marvel waters with familiar creators and a new original storyline which has me hooked for the next volume.

To paraphrase our gamma-irradiated friend, "Zach satisfied!" Up next, Hulk goes to Vegas in search of the Wendigo while Red Hulk has his crimson keister handed to him by Marvel's loveliest ladies.

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Review: The Torch hardcover/paperback (Marvel/Dynamite)

[This guest-post comes from Timbotron, who (impressively) reviews a comic every day at Comic-Per-Day Reviews]

What a fascinating trade paperback! I am always a little leery of series produced by two publishers. Too often, they can lead to a muddied product that doesn’t stand out as belonging in either company’s catalog, but The Torch, this joint venture of Dynamite and Marvel, is really quite well done.

I’m not sure when Alex Ross became the go-to guy for all Golden Age characters, but since he has that role, it makes sense that he’s responsible for plotting and character design in this trade. Mike Carey's character-based scripting really brings this story to life.

[Contains spoilers]

Contrary to what you’d expect, the lead characters for this trade paperback are actually Toro and the Mad Thinker. While the Torch appears in every issue and has an important role to play, he’s basically a robot for most of the book, leaving the thinking and feeling to the more mortal characters. The Torch is one of those characters that doesn't have a strong personality to define him, and Alex Ross and Mike Carey embrace that fault in this story. The Torch only gets to be the hero he is because of his friendship with Toro.

Toro is recently returned to life after the recent Avengers/Invaders TPB, but really, the how and why doesn’t matter. What does matter is that Toro is struggling to find his place in the world. As this takes place during the Dark Reign event, he doesn’t think he belongs on the Dark Avengers and Bucky seems to have lost his number. So he spends his time drinking and remembering what life used to be like. Toro is a sympathetic character; I didn’t know much about him before this trade, but he does well in the spotlight.

I’ve always liked the idea behind the Mad Thinter but at times, this series seems to focus on him too much. We see the Mad Thinker obtain financing, set up his headquarters and eventually start on his experiments. The Thinker is a cold and cruel master; he relishes the opportunity to demean his lab assistants and employers whenever he can. Alex Ross’ character design in the back matter is excellent, and it includes an image of a nice Kirby-esque teleporting watch.

The Mad Thinker is excited at the opportunity to use AIM’s funding to create a new smart weapon to target at an Eastern European country. When the Torch falls into his hands, he relishes the chance to use his old foe as the smart weapon. The Thinker is jealous of the Torch’s creator, Dr. Phineas Horton, as someone who has created something lasting. The Thinker knows that until he creates something that everyone will remember, he is just a footnote in history. Instead of creating, the Thinker modifies the Horton Cells that make up the Torch’s blood into a new mind-control device. It lets him control the Torch, but even better, it lets him control anyone infected with the red cells themselves.

This leads to an exciting infection story setting up a rematch between fire and water. Of course, Namor is infected and taken over, leading to a throw-down between Namor and three flaming heroes, the Torch, Toro, and the Human Torch of Fantastic Four fame. This is a memorable sequence, only partly because of the challenge of identifying which fire-guy is which. All the while, the Mad Thinker is still pulling the strings.

Eventually, Ross and Carey bring things back to the Torch’s World War II roots with some good Nazi villains and a new “Inhuman” Torch. (Naturally, the Mad Thinker is heavily involved again.) This closing portion of the book not only sets up a possible arch-rival for the Torch and Toro, but a new locale for the Marvel Universe to play in. I haven’t seen a city like the sunken, forgotten New Berlin used as an ongoing location; I’d love to see more of it.

Patrick Berkenkotter’s art is reminiscent of Dougie Braithwaite, but he sticks to the Alex Ross designs nicely. Toro’s new suit doesn’t scream “fire guy” at me, but it is a distinctive suit. Maybe it’s the lack of logo that confuses me.

[Contains full covers, character designs, and cover layouts. Printed on glossy paper.]

Overall, The Torch plays to the strength of both writers. Alex Ross is great at rejuvenating Golden Age characters and leaving them in a place where someone else can use the character in modern times. Mike Carey is brilliant at dealing with identity and loss in his work. Both creators get to show off what they do best in this collection.

Thanks Timbotron. New reviews next week!

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Comic Book Gift Guide 2011

The weather is colder, the holidays are nigh upon us, and once again it's time for the Collected Editions blog's picks for the top trade paperback collections and graphic novel presents you can give as a gift for your favorite comic book fan.

And of course, I've built this list to help you get free shipping on all your gifts (nothing worse than cutting into your holiday budget with shipping!).

I think I've got a fun list this year with lots of variety for every readers' interest -- and of course, everyone appreciates additional suggestions in the comments.

* Avengers Prime
* Avengers Forever
* Marvel Avengers: The Ultimate Character Guide
* Marvel Adventures Avengers: Captain America
* The Ultimates: Ultimate Collection

You might've heard there's a little thing called the Avengers movie coming next year, so Avengers gifts are bound to go over well this holiday season. As crowdsourced from the Collected Editions Facebook page, our suggestions for Avengers collections include Avengers Prime, a story focusing on Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor that's controversial because it contains more talking than action, but might be interesting for fans of the "Big Three"; Avengers Forever, by popular Avengers writers Roger Stern and Kurt Busiek, is a continuity-heavy story of Avengers joined together from different eras -- most likely meant for the educated fan, but might pique the curiosity of a newcomer, too (comes with free shipping on its own, so you could pair it with the Marvel Avengers: The Ultimate Character Guide).

Though set in Marvel's Ultimate universe, The Ultimates is a back-to-basics, no-nonsense recreation of the Avengers by Mark Millar with breathtaking art by Bryan Hitch. For a fan new to the Avengers, this is a book with no previous knowledge required. And for the younger fan, Marvel Adventures Avengers: Captain America is one in a series of young readers Marvel graphic novels. This might be a nice follow-up for a young fan of the movies; there's Iron Man, Spider-Man, and plenty other entries into this series as well.

* Batman: Noel
* Batman: Arkham City (graphic novel)
* Batman: The Black Mirror

Between the new Arkham City video game and the new Dark Knight Rises movie coming out next year, DC Comics has a slew of Batman books coming out for the holidays. Their biggest push is Batman: Noel, a graphic novel written and drawn by Lee Bermejo and based on Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Bermejo drew the Joker and Lex Luthor books that we listed for the holidays in past years, and it seems his holiday work is becoming something of a tradition.

Speaking of Arkham City, you can pair Noel with the Batman: Arkham City graphic novel by popular Batman writer Paul Dini, and get both for just over $25 with free shipping. Also getting good reviews is Scott Synder's Batman: The Black Mirror, a classic mystery starring former Robin Dick Grayson as Batman -- pair Black Mirror with either of the other Batman books for free shipping.

* Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
* Teenagers from the Future: Essays on the Legion of Super-Heroes
* Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

I love to give books about comics out to my comics-reading friends as stocking stuffers, and there's just hundreds of them out there. Hot this year, of course, is writer Grant Morrison's tome on all things comics, Supergods. For free shipping, I'd like to suggest pairing it with either of two books by comics-website writers that I like, Teenagers from the Future: Essays on the Legion of Super-Heroes edited by GeniusboyFiremelon's Tim Callahan, and also Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed by Brian Cronin of the Comics Legends Revealed column on Comic Book Resources.

* The Spirit: A Pop-up Graphic Novel

Writer and artist Will Eisner is considered the father of the modern graphic novel, essentially, and what better gift for a graphic novel fan than a pop-up Will Eisner graphic novel (because you can never have too many pop-up comic books!). The Spirit: A Pop-up Graphic Novel collects Eisner's last two Spirit issues re-designed as a pop-up book -- and any other item on this list will qualify for free shipping with this collection (or if you hurry, I think there's still some bargain copies available!).

* Castle: Richard Castle's Deadly Storm

ABC's mystery series Castle seems to be popular with comics fans (at least that's what I see on my Twitter feed), and an episode last September even featured a graphic novel starring fictional writer Richard Castle's character Derrick Storm. That graphic novel, Castle: Richard Castle's Deadly Storm, was actually published by Marvel and ought be a must-have for any fan of the show. Pair with Stuffed! and Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (see both below) and get three graphic novels somewhat off the beaten path for just over $25 with free shipping.

* Tintin in the Land of the Soviets
* Tintin in America

Admittedly I'm not all that familiar with The Adventures of Tintin, the European comic (and television series, and radio broadcast, and so on), but I imagine everyone's going to be when Tintin comes to theaters next month. Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is the very first black and white collection, available in hardcover and paperback -- pair the hardcover with Marvel Adventures: Captain America as a gift for your favorite young reader with free shipping, or get the paperback with Captain America and the The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet The Muppets (see also below), all for just over $25 with free shipping.

(See comments section -- some readers in the know have suggested Tintin in America might be a better place to start.)

* Infestation (IDW)

I'm a bit enamored with IDW's Infestation collection -- you might call Infestation "just another crossover," except that it was a crossover that included Transformers, GI Joe, Star Trek, and Ghostbusters segments! This hardcover lands in stores pretty close to Christmas, but I think the cool factor makes it worth it. This one just about qualifies for free shipping on its own -- you can pair with the to spend just over $25, or any other title on the list for free shipping.

* New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 1
* New Teen Titans: Games

* Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse (deluxe)
* Legion of Super-Heroes: The Great Darkness Saga (deluxe)

* Flashpoint
* The Flash: Road to Flashpoint

DC got a bunch of impressive-looking goodies coming out this season, sure to make you look good at gift-giving time. A nice two-fer is the New Teen Titans Omnibus Vol. 1, which was supposed to only contain sixteen issues of the classic 1980s series and instead included twenty-four plus issues; that gets free shipping on its own, and you can pair with the brand new New Teen Titans: Games graphic novel for a great gift package. The Omnibus gets free shipping on its own, as would anything else with it.

There's also Legion of Super-Heroes: The Curse, a deluxe oversized follow-up to one of last year's top-rated gifts, the deluxe Legion: The Great Darkness Saga. And chances are your favorite comics fan is already on top of this one, but there's the collection of the recent universe-changing event (which heralded DC's New 52 titles), Flash: Road to Flashpoint that lead in to the event, and DC Comics: The New 52, a whopping, expensive collection of all the DC New 52 #1 issues. Legion: Curse gets free shipping on its own, the Flashpoint books would get shipping together, and just about anything would get free shipping with the New 52 book.

* Dolltopia

* Stuffed!

Looking for things your favorite graphic novel fan may not already have, I recently had a chance to flip through Abby Denson's Dolltopia and really enjoyed it. Call it the un-Toy Story, this is the tale of dolls who run away to try to escape their pre-determined societal roles. Definitely "indie" in art and story, this might also be a good present for that friend you've been trying for a while to interest in comics (read preview). Pair with Supergods, Batman: The Black Mirror, an Avengers book or more for free shipping.

Also off the beaten path is Stuffed! by Colbert Report and Daria's Glenn Eichler with art by Nick Bertozzi. Two sons must decide what to do with their late father's stuffed African warrior known as "The Savage" in a comedy that looks both at family dynamics and race relations. This'll probably be another new addition to most collections; you can get Stuffed!, Dolltopia, and the Spirit pop-up for just over $25 with free shipping and look really clever on Christmas morning.

* The Muppet Show Comic Book: Meet The Muppets

Of course you know there's a new Muppets movie around the corner, so the Muppets are back en vogue (when have they not been?!). Not only is this funny Muppet Show collection fairly well regarded, but it comes in at just about $4.00. If you were going for Batman: Noel and Batman: Arkham City, for instance, or Castle and Tintin, consider tossing in the Muppets comics either for your favorite young reader or just to give away to charity (Barnes and Noble, for instance, is collecting kids books this holiday season). If your free shipping can get a child reading, hey, why not?

We're in the middle of Collected Editions sixth year right now, and couldn't be having more fun. Thanks for reading -- and happy holidays and happy New Year to all!

(Lots of bloggers, by the way, have affiliate links like the ones above, and when you do your holiday shopping after clicking these links, the blogger gets a few cents. This year, if you're buying gifts online, consider clicking on someone's link before you buy -- when I buy online, I always try to click through a blog before I do. There are lots of hard-working bloggers out there [see blogroll], and this is a great, easy way to support them. Thanks!)

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Review: Invincible Iron Man: Stark: Disassembled hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[This review by Doug Glassman, who blogs at Astrakhan Industries.]

When last we left Tony Stark (in Invincible Iron Man: Worlds Most Wanted), he was brain-dead and Norman Osborn was victorious as the Iron Patriot. As the Siege of Asgard unfolds around him, Tony battles for life. Siege isn’t too important to this story, except that it does explain where these issues fit into the overall event narrative thanks to the Ghost.

The title Iron Man: Stark: Disassembled refers back to the Avengers: Disassembled event, which precipitated Iron Man’s Extremis armor, House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion and Dark Reign. Matt Fraction clearly intends this story to end that chapter of Tony Stark’s life and start a new one. I believe that he succeeds in reference to both Stark’s story arc and Stark’s character. Tony starts over in more ways than one, and while the ending of this story has been called a deus ex machina, the context of later issues diffuses feelings of a simple ending.

Not only is Tony rebuilt (both physically and metaphorically) in this story, but so are his friendships. War Machine, Pepper Potts, Maria Hill, Thor and the original Captain America are necessary to revive him, and it even ends up being their choice to resurrect him in the first place. Other allies, such as the Black Widow, the current Captain America and Dr. Strange, are also on hand to help Tony. After years of stories in which the Marvel heroes have become fractured and, to an extent, unlikeable, Stark: Disassembled lays the cornerstones for the new Heroic Age, in which differences won’t have to be settled with Negative Zone prisons and Norman Osborn rising to power.

Opposing Tony’s resurrection is the Ghost, who starts to rise to the position of one of Iron Man’s top enemies. I feel that Stark: Disassembled puts him on the level of the Mandarin, Titanium Man, Crimson Dynamo and Spymaster. His anti-corporate leanings have come to the forefront after being sporadically used, making him a perfect foil for Stark. Only a last-minute hoisting with his own petard stops the Ghost, and it also starts him on his road of change as seen in the Thunderbolts series. I do like that there’s a clear point where he leaves the Thunderbolts’ mission to Asgard to attack Stark, as delineated both in this book and in Siege: Thunderbolts. It seems like Marvel’s various titles are really starting to sync up.

Also opposing Tony is his own mind, and a good half of the story is dedicated to his internal battle to return to consciousness. One of Tony’s driving factors has always been guilt; the Armor Wars is the best example. Even his friends aren’t sure whether he should come back, leading to a frank discussion of resurrection in the Marvel Universe. There’s a sequence in which Stark confronts the people who have died because of him, most notably Happy Hogan and Ho Yinsen, but also a few more obscure people. Although they aren’t named, I’m fairly certain that a glasses-wearing man is supposed to be Tony’s technical genius Abe Zimmer, while a blonde woman may be Kathy Dare, the stalker who shot him and destroyed his spine.

Salvador Larocca continues his epic run on Invincible Iron Man. The Fraction/Larocca team may go down in history alongside the Michelinie/Layton runs as one of the best consistent Iron Man writer/artist teams. One of Larocca’s strengths is that his characters can actually show emotion, an ability key to this storyline. He does use some interesting motion blurs, which can be distracting at times, but it does demonstrate how far comic book technology has come. Larocca also did the intriguing cover designs for the issues. The cover for the trade isn’t an example of these (although it is fine artwork), but Larocca created modern-art covers with unique color palettes and a circular design scheme. I really wish unique covers like these could be used more often.

While Stark: Disassembled ends Invincible Iron Man’s two-year-long story, it also ends a seven-year-long character arc. Tony Stark has gone from a Secretary of Defense, to a superhero registration enforcer, to a Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., to a troubled businessman, to a criminal fleeing from what used to be his organization, and finally to a brain-dead shell. This is truly the rebirth of Iron Man, and I highly recommend picking up this trade and those before it.

Thanks Doug! New reviews and more coming next week ... don't miss it!

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Review: Siege: Thunderbolts hardcover/paperback (Marvel Comics)

[A new guest review by Doug Glassman, who blogs at Astrakhan Industries.]

It’s time to move past the “Dark Reign” era and on to “Siege,” recounting a war between the Asgardians and Norman Osborn’s H.A.M.M.E.R. Many of the “Dark Reign” plot threads were wrapped up in “Siege” and the new “Heroic Age” era began. The Thunderbolts have come a long way, too, since my review of Justice, Like Lightning.

The title has gone through some changes of concept recently. What began as a team of redemptive criminals masquerading as superheroes was first retooled into a Fight Club rip-off (if you’ve ever heard the derogatory term “Fightbolts,” it refers to the last few issues of the original run). The New Thunderbolts reboot in 2004 returned the team to its roots, eventually growing into an army of villains during “Civil War.” Warren Ellis then famously had Norman Osborn take over the team, resulting in violent new members like Venom and Bullseye and a change of concept from redemption to Marvel’s version of Suicide Squad. That team then became the Dark Avengers, which went back to the original concept in some ways, while a new team of Thunderbolts emerged as Osborn’s personal killing squad.


Siege: Thunderbolts takes place during the inevitable “fall” period of any empire. It was only a matter of time before Norman Osborn came crashing down spectacularly, and his team of killers is along for the ride, if only peripherally. In the two stories presented here, Osborn is getting ready for the siege of Asgard, so he’s mostly seen in holographic messages.

The team is led by Scourge, who is actually Nuke, the flag-faced, pill-popping villain initially seen in Daredevil: Born Again. As a military man, he tries to keep his team in line . . . but all of his teammates have a few issues with authority. Mister X is a constantly shirtless, egotistical and violence-addicted Wolverine villain whose telepathic fight abilities are reminiscent of the Midnighter from The Authority. The Headsman, Cleavon Twain, is a hick who uses Green Goblin-style technology -- and yes, that is his real name, and yes, there is no way he could have gone into any other business. 


Apart from these whackos and the Grizzly, a super-strong Spider-Man foe who joins up later, there are a few more complex characters. Paladin is a hired gun who has been around for a long time and who starts having some suspicious feelings which may resemble a conscience. The new “Irredeemable” Ant-Man, who premiered in a great series by Robert Kirkman and Phil Hester a few years back, is just an all-out coward and opportunist who wants nothing more than to get out of the Thunderbolts.

The most interesting character here is the Ghost, an anti-corporate raider who has been a thorn in Iron Man’s side for decades. He’s gone through an impressive redesign, both physically and character-wise, and while it began in the Iron Man: The Inevitable mini-series, Thunderbolts takes it even further. Starting out as an alternate version of the Taskmaster, he’s become a spindly, gas-masked creep, with the social manners and speech patterns to match it. However, he has his own weird moral code. I’ll talk about the Ghost more in later Thunderbolts reviews and the Invincible Iron Man: Stark Disassembled review.


While Andy Diggle (creator of The Loners) put this team together, it’s Jeff Parker who takes the team apart. Sometimes, when a new writer is brought on board for a “bold, new direction,” it’s easy to just kill everyone off and pretend the past never happened. However, Parker successfully transitions from this band of killers into the upcoming “Heroic Age” incarnation. In the first story, this is accomplished by using the Agents of Atlas. This team is Marvel’s closest equivalent to the Justice Society of America in that they’re heroes of the past reinvigorated by a continuity-happy author to create a fantastic team in the present. Like an inverse of the original Thunderbolts, the Atlas Foundation and its Agents pretend to be a shady business operation while they secretly use their funds and power to do good deeds. The Grizzly faced off against them previously, and he certainly gets some revenge in.


The actual “Siege” tie-in finds the Thunderbolts as raiders of the Asgardian arsenal to find Gungnir, the Spear of Odin. In doing so, they face off against the Mighty Avengers, which on the surface has a rather odd line-up, featuring a younger, reborn Vision; Stature, former Young Avenger and the daughter of the second Ant-Man; U.S. Agent, the super-patriotic Captain America replacement/knock-off; and Amadeus Cho, Hercules’ super-smart buddy who thinks in mathematical equations.

Yet despite lacking powerhouses (Herc was dead-ish at the time, Hank Pym was busy and Quicksilver gets there late), this odd assemblage puts up a good fight in one of the best laid-out superhero battles I’ve read in a while. Much of this is because the villains aren’t pulling their punches; at least two are actively murderous, and most of the others wouldn’t mind taking some Avengers down permanently as well. There is also some giant-on-giant combat, which has been depressingly rare recently. In both stories, Parker gets to indulge in some very dark humor, including a post-hypnotic suggestion gone horribly wrong and Mister X’s fantastic moment in which he realizes that he just killed a god. 


Helping this dark story is some dark artwork from Miguel Sepulveda and Wellinton Alves. While I have never read anything drawn by Sepulveda before, Alves’ art has improved tremendously from his fill-in stint during War Machine (although I have a feeling that may have been a rushed job due to time constraints). Thankfully, there are no major artistic shifts, which can often ruin an ongoing story. The art is heavy on the shadows, and most of the main characters have a dark color palette; even the constantly shirtless Mister X has numerous black chest tattoos. Standing out amongst this is the pure-white Ghost, which provides some good contrast. When at their base or in-transit, the lighting is always red, darkening things even more.

One design quibble I do have is the change in helmet design for Ant-Man. He loses the forehead antennae and instead has a helmet that wouldn’t look out of place on an Autobot. Personally, I feel that Ant-Man should always have an ant-like head, or at least one that isn’t so distractingly un-ant-like.

Siege: Thunderbolts is a good pair of stories, especially if you like anti-heroes. This is at the end of an era, so I’m sure some of the story beats would be even more powerful with the context of previous storylines. I’d still say it rates a look, if only because it might hook you on Agents of Atlas.


This trade comes courtesy of Twilite Zone Comics in Glen Burnie, MD.

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Review: Wolverine: The Gehenna Stone Affair - Classics/Essentials trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

I’m not a huge fan of Wolverine. The character himself is fairly interesting, but when he’s appearing in ten books simultaneously written by ten different writers of varying skill, he gets diluted [ditto Batman -- ed]. While Spider-Man often has the same problem, at least Spider-Man has a truly consistent characterization, a combination of humor, responsibility and the worst luck in the Marvel Universe. Wolverine . . . well, usually he’s just a gruff berserker. Occasionally, though, there are some writers who remember that Wolverine has an actual personality. While Wolverine isn’t a draw for me, the great Peter David is, which is why his 1989 "The Gehenna Affair" (as collected in Wolverine Classic Vol. 3 and Essential Wolverine Vol. 1, among other places) was so appealing to me.

The book finds Wolverine in his days as “Patch,” a disguise so ridiculous that one of Peter David’s first acts after taking over the Wolverine title is to reveal that everyone knows who he is. For those not in the know, Patch is simply Wolverine wearing an eye patch. It’s the equivalent of Batman’s Matches Malone identity (a.k.a. Bruce Wayne with a mustache and shades). As a character points out, nobody wanted to be the one to point out how obvious this was at the risk of getting stabbed. Wolverine does have an excuse for operating under this fake identity: at the time, the X-Men were believed dead. To sum it up briefly, 1988-1989 saw the expansion of the X-Men Universe into its famous ridiculous proportions. A crossover called “Fall of the Mutants” ended in the apparent sacrifice of the X-Men, who survived in the Australian Outback. As a result, this was one of the first occasions where Wolverine started appearing in more than one title regularly, giving his desire to have a second identity at least some credence.

As Patch, Wolverine uses the tiny nation of Madripoor as a place to relax and find more people to fight. Madripoor is one of Marvel’s great fake nations; it’s essentially a lawless version of Monaco, a safe haven for all sorts of outlaws, albeit charming outlaws. Madripoor’s seediness brings to mind the World War II-era Morocco of Casablanca, which was definitely David’s intent, since "The Gehenna Affair" is a big tribute to both that film and The Maltese Falcon. There’s a very 1940s pulp feeling to the entire story, with extensive plane chases, exotic locales and just a hint of betrayal. A car chase in San Francisco also has a nice homage to The French Connection.

I mentioned a little while ago that Wolverine often struggles to have his personality come out. He’s usually written as gruff and laconic, and while the latter is pretty much correct, many writers forget that Wolverine is actually the biggest smartass in the entire Marvel Universe. He has seen and done it all, with his lifespan extending with every retcon, and pretty much nothing fazes him anymore. A page rarely goes by without him making a funny remark or pointing out something bizarre, either in dialogue or in his narration boxes. Some of this is because Peter David is a funny writer, as anyone who has read Young Justice or his Star Trek or Sir Apropos of Nothing novels can attest to. However, I find that it’s a legitimate way to write Wolverine, especially when he starts making fun of his “the best there is at what I do” catch phrase.

Like any good Maltese Falcon homage, the plot is outwardly complex but fairly simple once all the details are out. A demon, Ba’al, wants to reassemble the Gehenna Stone to access great power. Complicating things are the insane brother of Wolverine’s pilot friend Archie and the effect that the Gehenna Stone fragments have on those around them: namely, they make you murderously possessive, similar to the One Ring. Also dropped into the middle of this is Jessica Drew, a.k.a. the former Spider-Woman (Julia Carpenter was the black-suited Spider-Woman at the time). Despite being depowered, Jessica ends up being a great foil for Wolverine as the two superheroes play off of each other. Ba’al is a relatively standard demonic villain, although he does have a sense of honor and can pretend to be kind . . . up to a point. His henchmen are fantastic, however; they pretend to be vampires and argue constantly amongst themselves, reminiscent of the ninjas from The Tick: The Naked City.

The art team features pencils by the great John Buscema, with thick inks provided by Bill Sienkiewicz and a nice dark color palette from Mark Chiarello, Glynis Oliver and Gregory Wright. Essentially, this is an artistic dream team, and they created a moody, at times scratchy artistic atmosphere. Letterer Ken Bruzenak provides some angular lettering which at times seems scribbled. It can be occasionally hard to read, but I think it adds to the book’s overall mood. I personally prefer Wolverine in the blue and yellow costumes, but this was the “tiger stripe” (brown) era and they do make Wolverine look good.

"The Gehenna Stone" is an oddity in the Wolverine bibliography, but if you can find a copy of Essential Wolverine, it's well worth seeking out, especially if you want to see Wolverine do more than just stabbing people.

Coming up, the Collected Editions review of Brightest Day Vol. 2, and marking the end of the DC Universe as we know it!

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Review: Iron Man: Armor Wars trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Doug Glassman]

Like many long-running comic book characters, Iron Man has a cyclical history. Tony Stark’s alcoholism is one recurring problem, resulting in two major story arcs, “Demon in a Bottle” and the “Stane Saga," the latter of which provided the villain Obidiah Stane for the first Iron Man film. Another, even longer-running problem is Stark’s difficulty in keeping his technology out of the hands of his enemies. This is one of the major themes of the current Invincible Iron Man series and was also a major plot point in the second Iron Man film. However, Stark’s insecurities are well-founded, and they mostly stem from one of the most famous Iron Man storylines: “Stark Wars.”

Newcomers to the franchise might be asking: “Don’t you mean ‘Armor Wars?’” Yes, this collection is better known (and titled) as Armor Wars, and in fact, Marvel solicited an “Armor Wars II” which took up much of John Byrne’s time on the title a few years later. But the story is officially called “Stark Wars," mostly as a pun on Star Wars.

Iron Man’s epic vendetta begins when his enemy Force becomes an ally and Stark discovers that Force's armor has elements of Stark’s designs. Many were leaked when Stane took over Stark’s company, and they are now in the possession of Justin Hammer, who applies them to the armors of his henchmen. After an unsuccessful court battle, Stark is able to procure files on the whereabouts of his technology from fellow Avenger Ant-Man -- all except one file. What happens next can best be described as a roaring rampage of revenge as Iron Man goes from one villain to the next, shorting out their armor and trying to locate the last user. He loses his reputation, teammates and even has to fake his own death before he finally finishes his quest.

The modern Iron Man is essentially defined here, starting with Stark’s infamous Jheri curl, which my generation remembers as his hairstyle on the Iron Man animated series. Thanks to colorist Nel Yomtov (every Transformers fan just shuddered), everyone who has black hair has it rendered blue; this includes Stark and Rhodes. You eventually get desensitized to it. After years of using the distinctive Silver Centurion armor, Stark switches back to the red and gold which he will wear almost exclusively through the present day. (The major exception to this is War Machine, but that armor has become so connected to Jim Rhodes that it almost goes forgotten that Stark wore it first.) He uses multiple armor types extensively for the first time, including the well-known Deep Sea and Stealth Armors.

More importantly, this is where Stark'ss paranoia and controlling tendencies come to the forefront. The weight of the deaths orchestrated by his technology being misused sends him into a frenzy, eventually causing Stark to kill someone himself; by this point, Stark had been fighting his past as a weapons maker for years. As a recovering alcoholic, Stark'ss control issues dominate his personality during this story. His guilt and feelings of ineffectiveness are best demonstrated in the last part of this trade. A coda with incredible art by Barry Windsor-Smith consists of Stark’s haunted nightmare of the crimes he feels responsible for and his attempt to get past this part of his life. You can tell that while he admits out in the open that he wants to put his troubles behind him, he never quite gets there.

“Armor Wars” features a huge amount of Marvel Universe supporting characters, guest stars and villains. The Beetle becomes part of Iron Man’s rogues gallery, and other featured villains include the Controller, the Raiders, Stilt-Man, Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo. Very early on, Stark also considers Doctor Doom as a culprit; the story never picks up on this, and to be honest, I feel including featuring Doom would have derailed the plot. Iron Man also attacks a number of heroes, including SHIELD’s Mandroids, the Guardsman, the Captain and Stingray. For those unfamiliar with late-80s Marvel Comics, the Captain is Captain America, who gave up his name and uniform after refusing to follow the orders of the United States government. The man who replaced him would later take the black Captain uniform and become U.S. Agent. Stingray is, well, very minor, a government-employed ocean-based ally of Namor and an Avenger for a brief period. Armor Wars is Stingray’s finest moment, and at least he is visually interesting.

Speaking of visuals, David Michelinie’s second run on Iron Man also brings back his frequent co-writer and finisher, Bob Layton, this time joined by Mark D. Bright. Layton’s art remains one of the most influential Iron Man art styles. It is hard to define this style; I like to call it “angled roundness," drawing a near-perfect balance between the very round armor of Jack Kirby and the sharper suits of Adi Granov. The most similar artist I can think of is Jim Aparo, although Layton’s characters lack Aparo’s long, thin heads. My policy is that every Iron Man artist has the right to create their own armor, and Layton’s new creation at the end of the series is known as the Modern Armor for its longevity. The shoulderpads (though not as bulky as the Silver Centurion suit), the angled red chest chevron, the heavily-outlined unibeam and “popped” collar would remain in effect for years, even when Stark had to move to a remote-controlled unit. The main new villain of the story is Firepower, whose bulk invokes the Iron Monger. It is an interesting design, even though it has a massive rocket strapped to its back for most of the story.

Armor Wars is the definitive Iron Man story, adding some extra action to the same introspective nature of “Demon in a Bottle”. Quite simply, the entire character of Iron Man changes in this story to become the character we know today, and it is entirely for the better. If you are at all interested in Iron Man, whether through the comics or films, Armor Wars is a mandatory read. At $24.99, it may seem a little steep for what appears to be a thin trade, but Layton’s art fits a lot of panels in a very small space.

For a final remark, it is amazing the publicity one film can create. Before the first Iron Man film came out, you were lucky to find old Marvel Masterworks editions and the occasional Mask in the Iron Man trade. Now, the Iron Man section of your local comic book store has dozens of Iron Man trades, collecting both the newest arcs and the “Golden Age” of the 1980s and mid-1990s. All we need are “Crash and Burn” and “Hands of the Mandarin” trades to truly have a full appreciation of the best years of the Iron Man title.

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Review: Dark Reign: Sinister Spider-Man trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest-blogger Doug Glassman brings us a little relief from the DC Reboot mania today ...]

The “Dark Reign” era was an interesting time to be reading Marvel books. After the Secret Invasion event, Norman Osborn has become a national hero and his Thunderbolts have taken the place of the Avengers. For quite some time, evil reigned in the Marvel Universe. My biggest qualm is the gigantic "Idiot Ball" carried by the residents of the Marvel Universe, especially the government, to allow all of this to happen. However, the overall concept produced some excellent stories, such as the year-long Invincible Iron Man story “World’s Most Wanted” and the entirety of the wonderfully over-the-top War Machine series. Another of these great stories is Sinister Spider-Man.

With Peter Parker going through hell (One More Day pun intended), the Spider-Man here is Venom, a.k.a. Mac Gargan, formerly the Scorpion. He hides his nature as Venom well ... at least, until his hunger and base urges take over. Yes, Venom still eats people, but it seems less for sustenance and more for the sheer thrill of cannibalism. This is one of those rare books where the title character is gleefully and criminally insane. There are no moral qualms as with many anti-heroes, and no ruminations about death, like the kind you might find in a Punisher story. No, Mac Gargan is drunk with power and wants nothing to do with responsibility.

Much of the story is based in Gargan’s origin as the Scorpion. J. Jonah Jameson hired him and gave him his powers to take on Spider-Man. Now that JJJ is the mayor of New York, Mac is envious of his success and wants to take his old employer down a notch. It doesn't all make complete sense, but then again, Venom isn't really all there, and as he points out later on, he could just eat JJJ at any point; this is about torturing the man for fun. Along the way, Venom’s victims form a support group in order to redeem this Sinister Spider-Man. The “real” Spider-Man does not make an appearance here except in flashback, busy as he was with "The List" and other storylines.

This is my first time reading a book by Brian Reed, and he has instantly become a new favorite, demonstrating in Sinister Spider-Man a particularly dark sense of humor. Someone gets partially eaten every five pages or so, and in many cases, it's played for laughs. It helps that those who are attacked are super-villains. The absolute best joke of the series comes from Venom's hunger, and I cannot say any more lest I ruin it, other than it addresses some of the more horrifying aspects of being eaten by a symbiote. There is also a great throwaway joke about a potential rendezvous between Gargan and Squirrel Girl ... which leads to him having an appetite for squirrels, which he calls “squirmy popcorn.” A less grotesque but still brilliant moment reveals that Venom has gained a fortune from selling Norman Osborne's Iron Patriot prototype and replacement parts.

Reed gives the Sinister Spider-Man a wonderfully lame rogue’s gallery led by the Redeemer, a nebbish psychologist with a skull mask who wants to bring the Sinister Spider-Man to the good side. Amongst his cohorts are General Wolfram, a man who thinks he is genetically engineered from a wolf; the Hippo, an actual semi-evolved hippo created by the High Evolutionary; and Doctor Everything, a parody of Watchmen’s Doctor Manhattan, complete with an ever-present “CENSORED” bar over his crotch. Bullseye and Daken (Wolverine’s son) of the Dark Avengers make a great set of cameos in the fourth issue. Since he is a major character, it is fitting that J. Jonah Jameson is very well represented; J.K. Simmons' voice rings through in every line. There are no combustible lemons here, unfortunately.

Chris Bachalo lends a unique style of art to this story. The cover is the first indication of the weirdly sketchy and cartoony style, including Venom’s multi-sectioned tongue. In fact, while the rest of the series has an animated feel, Venom is comprised of sketched shapes and ingrained lines, making him stand out. Occasionally, panels will be seen in only black and white inks, representing Venom’s vision, which is a creepy and very dehumanizing touch. Like Reed, Bachalo has taken advantage of this opportunity to let loose and try something new, which is something I think writers and artists should try more often, even if it is just for a limited series. A prologue story illustrated by Rob DiSalvo reinforces just how important Bachalo's art style is to this story. DiSalvo’s traditional art is perfectly fine for a traditional superhero book, but it would not convey Reed’s dark humor.

Overall, in an era of increasingly violent comic books and anti-heroes constantly inching towards the side of darkness, having an unrepentantly psychotic hero is a nice change of pace. The book is satisfyingly brief. Mac Gargan’s Venom would be hard to take as an ongoing lead, but for four issues, he is a lot of fun to follow.

Sinister Spider-Man does not require any additional reading; all of the required back story (which is fairly negligible) is provided. The book is dark, gory, and absolutely hilarious. The art is unique, and you may want to flip through the book in person to decide if it will really put you off. My one qualm is the price: $16.99, which is a bit much for four issues and a short prologue. I admittedly got mine at a sale at Tate’s Comics in Florida. Still, if you want to wait for a sale, check it out of the library, or if you have been waiting to see if it is worth it, then definitely take a look.

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Review: Hulk: Skaar - Son of Hulk trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[Guest review by Damien Lockrow of the Damien's Omens blog]

Covers are far from the most reliable way to tell what's going to happen in a given issue. At times their purpose isn't much more than to look pretty, but sometimes they get it right. This is one of those occasions. Just from looking at the cover of Hulk: Skaar - Son of Hulk, it's hard not to think, "Holy crap, they painted Conan the Barbarian green" which would be a pretty accurate assumption. The high concept at play here is "What if the Hulk's son was Conan the Barbarian?"

Now, I don't know about you, but that's just awesome enough to grab my attention.

[Contains spoilers]

Skaar - Son of Hulk picks up not long after the events of Planet Hulk, which I have not read. The Hulk himself has already come, conquered, lost it all and gone back to Earth seeking vengeance by the time this book starts. When his wife was turned to ash in the explosion of the ship that brought him to the planet Sakaar, his sons egg survived, bouncing away, straight into a lake of fire; unbeknownst to Hulk, of course, who was so busy practicing his imitation of Ash William's "NOOOOO" that he didn't notice, despite it falling inches to the left of his knee. Some time later, the son emerges into the broken world his father left behind and, like his old man, he's usually pretty pissed off. An old mystic takes the boy -- who names himself Skaar -- under his wing and begins to guide the jade barbarian towards an ancestral power. Naturally, it's time to toss our thinly veiled Conan analogue at dragons, axemen and other foes ripe for dismemberment.

This trade is relatively simple in basic premise. The main story -- the six issues of the ongoing, not including the "Shadow Tales" backups -- is pretty straightforward, basically amounting to "there's a prophecy that this green dude is totally going to save us, so we need to get him to a place that will make him even stronger" -- not that such exactly worked the first time with Hulk himself, but then some of these guys aren't too swift, especially considering how quick they are to declare Skaar dead every time he so much as gets a hangnail.

It's more an action comic than anything else. There are no underlying themes here to pick apart or mysteries to follow along on, just a simple comic with lots of severed limbs. Whether that's the kind of thing you like or not likely depends on personal preference; if you're not down with seeing a jade giant gut a dragon, this probably isn't going to do it for you. This also isn't a trade for people who hate decompressed storytelling; the six issues of ongoing present here could probably have been cut down to three or four issues without losing anything of importance or worth.

Son of Hulk is written well enough, but it's not without its problems. For one thing, it wavers in structure quite a bit. Either the book is primarily concerned with action -- the main story is a pretty light read because of this -- or it kicks the exposition into overdrive. Many of the "Shadow Tales" backups have the latter problem. Most of the time, they are removed from the main story -- usually following this slave boy named Hiro-Kala, who I guess this book is trying to make out as important in some fashion -- and makes gratuitous use of flashbacks. The result is quite a bit of infodumping, which is a jarring pace change from the main comic; either someone is trying to convince Hiro-Kala that Hulk did more harm than good or a character is taking the time to monologue his backstory to a kid with a poisoned knife.

It's borderline ridiculous at times, especially considering the story of Hiro-Kala and Skaar intersect at no point during the course of this volume; I really think this book might have made for a smoother read had the "Shadow Tales" backups been removed from their place between issues of Skaar and spun together in the back of the book as a side story.

Another problem I had was that I came into this story cold. As I mentioned earlier, I haven't read a lick of Planet Hulk, so I wasn't exactly familiar with the trappings of the book. The first several pages are a quick recap of the important bits of the aforementioned story, so it does make a point to let you know how we got here. But for a new ongoing, it's not exactly as accessible as it should be. There are several points in the course of the story where things just went right over my head; some of the lore and events that are made reference to here are things that I assume would mean more to me had I read Planet Hulk. The story doesn't make much of an effort to explain any of it either. It's not always necessary for a new ongoing to explain everything, but when you're playing off the sort of backstory that Son of Hulk does, it's best to re-introduce a concept.

Working both for and against Son of Hulk is the art. It's generally nice to look at, but all too often there are storytelling gaffes or images that are difficult to suss out. For example, early in the first issue we get a splash page of the young Skaar attacking a dragon-esque creature. One arm has hold of its tongue, but figuring out what the other hand has done isn't quite so easy. It looks like he's ripped something out of the monster, but the blood trail leads back to it's eye, which shows no sign of damage, much less like part of it has been ripped out.

Another time, a priest has a goon stab a bug; but when Skaar gets pissed and attacks the goon, he passes the priest to get to the goon, which is kind of difficult to imagine considering we had literally just seen that the priest was standing just to the left of the poor sap. Other instances see Skaar have a sword one moment, it disappear the next, only to have it return. On top of all that, sometimes the linework just gets downright sketchy, especially on panels where we're zoomed out from the action.

Added to this is that many of the Shadow Priests and the red skinned characters look alike. This poses a problem, because they can seem to blend together at times. In fact, unless you pay close attention to the facial tattoos, you might be hard pressed to figure out that one of the figures we see in each "Shadow Tale" is the same person, as he is not named as Hiro-Kala for the first time until very late in the book.

On a positive note, one thing I do like about the art is that it's colorful. I admit I'm a sucker for comics with bright colors. Also of note is that while there are art screw-ups about, some of the fights seem to flow particularly well. Said fight scenes are generally easy to follow from panel to panel, which helps make up for the inconsistencies I mentioned earlier. The importance of this shouldn't really be understated, because if you're doing a comic with a lot of action, it's generally a good idea to have an artist who can tell a story with their art. Otherwise, what's the point?

[Contains full and variant covers, sketchbook section.]

As a whole package, there is good to be had in Skaar - Son of Hulk. I found I enjoyed it despite its flaws, but it's not exactly deep reading much less something I'd recommend over another book. If you read and loved Planet Hulk, you might get more out of it. For anyone else it's worth a look, but probably not a purchase. The premise of a barbarian Hulk, however, is still cool as hell regardless.

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Review: Savage She-Hulk trade paperback (Marvel Comics)

[This guest review comes from Adam Noble]

Marvel has been putting on a good show lately of branding themselves as the lady-friendlier of the Big Two Superhero Companies, with its recent releases spotlighting female characters (the Rescue, Namora, Sif, etc. one-shots, the awkwardly named mini-series Her-oes), female independent comics creators (Girl Comics) and the upcoming Women of Marvel Omnibus. Nearly all solid efforts, some of which I've really enjoyed (Kelly Sue DeConnick is poised to become a recognized A-List writer with her upcoming run on the upcoming supervillain prison comic Osborn, and it's a conferral that's long overdue).

However, I have to confess there's a serious lack of female characters at Marvel that I'm all that interested in reading about regularly. There's lots of brooding ladies (this is Marvel, after all), eternally patient mother-sidekicks (looking at you, Sue), women who seem to bring about the apocalypse on a semi-regular basis (I wouldn't get too attached to Hope or her Generation, everybody). There's a lack of fun, funny, fully-realized distaff characters at either DC or Marvel these days. I mean, U-Go Girl's still dead, Kitty Pryde's a mute ghost and Jessica Jones has been doing the Jodie Foster "Stay away from my child" thing for the past couple of years, right?

The very reason that Jessica "The Sensational She-Hulk and Attorney-at-Law" Walters made for such a great character and ongoing title when written in the 1980s by John Byrne and again in the 2000s by Dan Slott was that both writers realized that the character's very essence has comedy gold built into it ("She's like the Incredible, Rampaging Hulk... but more ladylike!"). Slott and Byrne (and Jen) broke the third wall and made for great meta-commentary on the silliness of superhero comics. Basically, she's the only Marvel character I can see fitting in seamlessly with the Giffen/DeMatteis-era Justice League. That should tell you everything you need to know right there.

But that was then, back when mainstream in-universe superhero comics were permitted to be at all silly. Now I'm a pretty huge Fred Van Lente fan -- anybody who can write a cartoon primer to almost all philosophical thought ever (Action Philosophers) as well as a great all-ages Wolverine/Kitty Pryde team-up book (Wolverine: First Class) is aces. So it was pretty exciting news when his She-Hulk miniseries was announced initially -- it sounded like a great pairing of character and writer. Surely Van Lente could make liberal use of Walters' sense of humour and intelligence and bring us another all-time great She-Hulk story?

Except... this wasn't Jen Walters? It was apparently some alternate future daughter of the Hulk and... Thundra? I guess? My knowledge of the Hulk and his foes are pretty much limited to the ones who've appeared in the movies, or who have been mentioned in other Marvel Universe titles, so I had no idea what Thundra's deal was.

So what of the trade itself? The All-New Savage She-Hulk (TANSSH?) is written by Van Lente with art by four or five boilerplate superhero artists who draw with stiff anatomy and bland faces. Van Lente pulls off a few clever flourishes, including having TANSSH, or Lyra, travel back in time to modern-day Marvel NYC armed with a feminist-lingo-spouting reprogrammed Tamagotchi as her sidekick on a quest for the DNA (ahem) of the world's greatest "hero" Norman Osborn (then masquerading as good guy Iron Patriot during the utterly uninteresting status-quossover Dark Reign).

Lyra's grim quest to overcome the edicts of a bleak alternate world is given a shot of lightness, mercifully, when Jennifer Walters shows up and helps convince her that Osborn's team of Dark Avengers are Not Okay Dudes and Lyra totally should not have carnal knowledge of the ex-Green Goblin. Despite the fact that Lyra was created by typically fun-loving and inventive writer Jeff Parker, Lyra is basically Green Lady Cable, so it's nice that Jen is able to inject bring make with some jokes. Despite the revelation that Lyra actually loses her strength when she gets mad, the concept isn't explored to its full ironic potential. The extent to which this superpower demonstrates itself is limited to Lyra using words like "supple" and "flow" and the phrase "bend like a reed" while deploying Zen Future Kung-Fu against the Dark Avengers.

There's a back-up story featuring the second appearance of Lyra written by Paul Tobin, but it's odd that her aforementioned first appearance by Jeff Parker (Hulk: Raging Thunder) isn't included here, especially since it's heavily referenced in the roundtable discussion between Parker, Tobin and Van Lente.

The following year I was once again optimistic when Marvel published a sequel mini-series written by Parker and illustrated by Salva Espin (Wolverine: First Class, Exiles), one of the best superhero artists working today. Alas, the trade paperback's title is at least as convoluted as the plot: Hulk: Fall of the Hulks: The Savage She-Hulks. The first half of the TPB re-prints the Van Lente-written backups featuring Lyra working for an interdimensional patrol agency fighting leftover villains from Seven Soldiers of Victory (seriously!) and low-powered female versions of Hulk enemies. It is not very distinctive or good, and leads directly, albeit awkwardly, into the "Fall of the Hulks" crossover.

If you've been reading this crossover this book might make sense to you, but as I said, I am not a huge Hulk fan, particularly when the title is being masterminded by a latter-day Jeph Loeb. So I enjoyed looking at Espin's art here (until it disappeared during a She-Hulk fight with an army of Red Hulks to replaced by a bad manga imitation style). The story itself is utter confusing nonsense – something about a Red She-Hulk, who according to Wikipedia, is [spoiler redacted -- ed.] Is there any Hulk supporting character who isn't themselves a monster at this point? And if I'm right and that's the case, doesn't that defeat the original point of the Hulk's outsider status? But I digress.

There's a token attempt throughout H:FOFH:TSSH by Parker to tie up Lyra's conflicted relationship with her mother, but it's a subplot that belongs in a better/less crossover-ridden book.

From what I can tell, the Hulk line of comics seem to be in a bit of chaos despite this crossover. In addition to Incredible [green] Hulks (yes, plural) and [singular, red] Hulk there's an ongoing She-Hulks title debuting in November written not by any of the writers mentioned above, but Harrison Wilcox, a newcomer to comics, but a veteran writer of TV's Heroes.

The teaming of Lyra and Jen Walters still has terrific potential and if the pair can manage to steer clear of crossovers and if Wilcox can make the odd-couple/surrogate-mother dynamic work we might see Savage She-Hulk Lyra become a breath of fresh air in the Marvel Universe and some newfound adult responsibility for Sensational She-Hulk Jen Walters. My advice for fairweather She-Hulk fans like myself? Wait and see how the reviews for the new ongoing turn out, then maybe go back and pick up these trades to fill you in on who exactly the redheaded She-Hulk from beyond the future is.

Otherwise, hang tight for the new John Byrne run reprints coming in early 2011. Now that's some girl power.

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