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Wayne Markley
by Wayne Markley
Last week I talked about Marvel’s secret Wars and how I liked number two much much more than number one. this week I read a number of the secret Wars tie-ins and sub-series and they were all good to great. They were all well thought out and the stories make sense in the context of the secret Wars and all of it firmly fits together. I should say after the first week of these side books I was really impressed. I am going to review the first six tie-ins and I might review much more of them in the future if they are half as good as many of these first six were. In no particular order, here we go.
Deadpool’s secret Secret Wars #1
Deadpool’s secret Secret Wars is by Cullen Bunn, Matteo Lolli and Jacapo Camagn and is it very clever. The basic story takes place in 1987 during the original secret Wars and it has Deadpool popping up all over the place in scenes recreated from the original comic. What the joke here is Deadpool was not in the 1987 secret Wars series so all of these appearances and stories never happened. It is a mix of superhero romp and gags that work quite well together. What is particularly good is the art looks amazingly like 1980s marvel which really adds to the feel and the nuance of the story. Not the best of the miniseries, but very good.
Secret Wars: Battleworld #1
Secret Wars: Battleworld is sort of a catch all title with short stories, two this issue, set in various parts of the Battleworld. These are short stories that are not worthy of a full blown miniseries but do help to flesh out the overall event. The first story is about a Punisher possessed by Dr. unusual as he has to takes on Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Ghost Rider. It is written by Joshua Williamson and drawn by Mike Henderson and is a tight action packed story filling in details in the bigger story. The second story I thought was great and it was by Ed Brisson and drawn by Scott Hepburn. In this tale, there are seven M.O.D.O.K.s from different dimensions all bickering over who is the best M.O.D.O.K. It is essentially a comedy story but I found it to be very entertaining and worth the price of the book alone. The last panel is a classic. While I really liked the art on this story, which is a little cartoony, I loved the dialogue which was sharp and witty and was full of insight and smart word play. A very entertaining book.
Planet Hulk #1
Planet Hulk is just an all-out-slug fest between a very different looking Steve Rogers combating an army of Hulks. This is not the wave of various gamma radiated characters like in the recent Hulk series; these are a group of Hulks from different dimensions all with various distinct attributes. The dialogue is snappy and sharp and the art is very nice. It has a few jokes mixed with a lot of action. Writers Sam Humphries and Greg Pak set the best tone and artists Marc Laming and Takeshi Miyagawa are ideal to make each Hulk look distinct and powerful with each fight scene being a battle royale. This was a fun old time fight comic.
Spider-Verse #1
Spider-Verse might have been my favorite tie in from the first weeks’ worth of books. This book is filled with Spider-Men, numerous from the recent Spider-Verse miniseries (now available in a beautiful hardcover collection) all thrown together to face a risk only found in Battleworld. Spider-Gwen, Silk, Spider-Man Noir, may Parker, Spider-Man India, and much more combine to make this a very good read. I thought this was much better than the Spider-Verse crossover and the set-up is full of potential in the following issues. writer Mike Costa does a bang up job here and the art by Andre Araujo is ideal for all of these different types of Spider-Men and this total package made this a should read book.
Ultimate end #1
Ultimate end by Brian Bendis and mark Bagley sets up the end of the supreme Universe, again. this time it really is the end as the supreme universe is being merged into the mainstream marvel Universe. This issue is mostly set up with Spider-Man and numerous of the other supreme characters getting organized to try and save their world. This might be a good time to tell a little known story about the supreme line of comics. When the supreme line was first introduced in in 2000, it was done in a series of magazines, not conventional comics. At the time Marvel, was struggling with their publishing and was deeply concerned about their future. The Ultimates line was an attempt to get comics back into the mainstream marketplace, very markets, gas stations, Wal Mart, etc. The distributors to these locations were not interested in conventional comic books but a higher priced magazine they would be prepared to put out. marvel hoped with this added, broader distribution, much more contemporary stories, and having heroes without a load of backstory would be a way to find new readers. I had a number of discussions with marvel when I ran FM international at the time about distribution ,and the Ulitmates concept in particular, because they could not sell FMI the conventional comics due to an exclusive deal with diamond Comic Distribution, but they saw this as an opportunity to use FMI to help sell these supreme magazines into new markets (outside of comic stores). Unfortunately, the magazines did not catch on with the mass market audience and for reasons I do not know (but strongly suspect were sales) the magazine experiment was scrapped. However, the characters of Miles Morales and the Ultimates were very popular with the conventional comic fans and stores. (Marvel reprinted the magazine stories in comic book format for the direct market) and over the last 14 years, the Ultimates have found a range of success and a number of ups and downs.
Master of Kung Fu #1
Master of Kung Fu is by writer Haden Blackman and artist Dalbor Talajic. I found this book to be less entertaining than the other Battleworld books but I think it will get better with future issues. This first issue is a lot of set up and it features practically every kung-fu character in marvel from Shang-Chi to Iron Fist to Electra (I k now she is not considered a conventional marvel kung-fu based character), but not as you would expect. This book lacked the straight forward storytelling that the other Battleworld books had, it just seemed a little muddled to me. but I do see potential with how issue one ended.
Initiates
And now for something completely different, Initiates by is a fantastic graphic novel by Etienne Davodeau and published by NBM. It is a true story of a comic’s book developer who learns the trade of wine-making by working with at a small vineyard with Richard Leroy. In turn Leroy leans all about graphic novels from their creation and to the technical production and marketing. This is unlike practically any comic you would ever read made by American authors; it is thoughtful, insightful, warm, educational, and excellently crafted, and there is not a superhero in sight. Etienne Davodeau originally published this book in France, where the story is set, and it so practically perfect. It is such a breath of fresh air to read a book that is so far away from conventional comic, and is filled with the passion and creativity you would expect from a master novelist. The closest thing I can think of to compare this book to was will Eisner’s new York stories, but this is so much brighter a story. I learned so much about red wine making, and about the creativity of comics, in this lovely and truthful graphic novel. A true eye opening read that I thoroughly enjoyed.
That is all for this time. I hope you have delighted in it. As always, everything written here is my opinion and in no way reflect the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. have you read any of the books I have discussed here? What did you think? agree or disagree? who is the best M.O.D.O.K.? What have you read that is really good? I want to know. I can be contacted at MFBWAY@AOL.COM and I welcome comments or complaints.
Thank you.
