Lost Your Own Series? Come Join the Avengers Academy!

I caught up with Avengers Academy over the weekend.  (I was about five or six issues behind!)  I have to say that AA is probably my current favorite Marvel comic.  It's very fresh and relevant and, thanks to writer Christos Gage, the characters become more and more developed with each issue, as they explore their relationships with one another.  Gage gives each member their own personality, incorporating diversity in a subtle (or not so subtle) way. 

Avengers Academy #1

During Marvel's Avengers explosion of 2010, I sampled each new Avengers comic, only sticking with the Academy after the dust settled.  They were the only team to offer something different, and they reminded me of the New Mutants when they first debuted in 1983.  And, having been a huge West Coast Avengers fan back in the day, I was happy to see Tigra used again, this time as a teacher to young Avengers-in-training.  

I liked the possibilities of characters Veil, Hazmat, Mettle, and Reptil during the first several issues.  However, I felt that Finesse and Striker were too generic, both in their codenames and their personalities.   The name "Striker" reminds me of a character from the Airplane! movies, while "Finesse" sounds like a hair product.  They also have black and white costumes to match their bland, angry personalities.  

When it came time to shake things up during a roster change (circa issue #20), I was disappointed that Veil was the one to go.  She was my favorite character and had what I thought was the best costume.  What about Striker or Finesse?  I felt like they could leave and nobody would even notice they were gone.  

New additions to the team were -- surprise! -- Lightspeed (from one of my favorite 1980s comics, Power Pack) and White Tiger, whom I had never heard of, but I liked the costume, despite being black and white, colors already in abundance at the Academy.  I was excited to see Julie Power join and grateful that at least one of the Power kids was finally being used in a series and allowed to grow up outside of the confines of the Fantastic Four's Baxter Building.  She's more a teenager now with a more adult costume (hello, bare midriff!).  (Note to FF:  let the other Power kids grow up a bit, too!)  She also comes with secrets that I never would have guessed (more on that later).   Additionally, I was pleased to see series-canceled teens Spider-Girl, X-23, and She-Hulk (Lyra) joined the Academy.  I guess they have to go somewhere, right?  The new Avengers Academy recruiting slogan should be:  "Lost Your Own Series?  Come Join the Avengers Academy!"

Not only were there good additions to the team, but the team also added Hawkeye as a full-time teacher AND moved to the old digs of the West Coast Avengers!  How psyched was I?!  It was like a WCA reunion! 

The Avengers Academy series gets a bit bogged down during the crossover events (I'm talking to you, Fear Itself) and is at its strongest when dealing with one-on-one character interaction.  I love the relationship struggle between Mettle and Hazmat.  It reminds me of the torture that Colossus and Kitty Pryde went through for years and years, with a little bit of The Thing and Alicia Masters thrown in for good measure.  And Mettle's kind of sexy in his own, skinless way.  

Mettle and Hazmat

Most recently, I loved the very personal conversation between Striker and newcomer Lightspeed.  (SPOILER ALERT!  Just warning ya.)  Striker gay?  Lightspeed bisexual?  Whoa... Thanks for making me appreciate Striker more, Christos.  He's not just a pompous ass; he's confused and insecure!  Can we change the generic codename, though?  And, come to think of it, Julie always was pretty butch back in her Power Pack days.  Now, she's more of a lipstick lesbian -- er, bisexual.  I'm still not crazy about Finesse, though.  Can we kill her off?

I look forward to the continuation of Avengers Academy with characters that aren't popular enough to support their own series, but as a team do pretty damn well.  After The Children's Crusade, how about adding Hulkling and Wiccan to the school?  (Hint, hint.)

New Teen Titans: Too Gamey.

 

I was soooooooooo looking forward to the New Teen Titans graphic novel, Games.  The New Teen Titans from the 1980s was (and probably still is) my favorite comic book. It was what got me hooked into reading comics for decades to come. When I heard that original creators Marv Wolfman and George Perez were teaming up to do a graphic novel based on my favorite team (ever!), I couldn't wait to get my hands on it! Sadly, I was a bit disappointed.

The story "Games" was just average. It reads like your basic technological action movie. This was nowhere near the quality I would expect from such masters of their craft. Where were stories like the first ones involving Deathstroke, Trigon, Blackfire, Brother Blood, or Terra?

More disappointing than the plot was the membership of this particular New Teen Titans. Wolfman chose not to go with the original team that burst onto the scene in 1980; he chose to use the team with members from later years. In fact, it was probably one of the weakest memberships. Donna was no longer Wonder Girl, Wally had gone off as the Flash, Terra was already dead, Speedy had already left the team, and Raven was already in her white costume (instead of the original blue).
 

Cousin Oliver...er,
Danny Chase.

Most disappointing was the inclusion of Danny Chase, the "Cousin Oliver" of the Teen Titans.  Bleh!  Whoever thought this was a good character was sadly mistaken. He's like the annoying Agent Cody Banks of DC Comics...and that's *not* a compliment. According to Wikipedia, "Problematically, the character was often portrayed as an overly snide, egotistical brat. This quickly proved unpopular with most fans, and pro- and anti-Chase letters sparked heated debate in the letter column. Wolfman tried various ways to make the character more appealing to the Titans' fan base, including having him briefly disguised as the mysterious "Phantasm" during the Titans Hunt storyline. However, negative fan pressure was strong enough to write Danny out of the series." So why was he used in this story?

Mullet-ready

Troia (Donna Troy)

In addition to the awful choice of Danny Chase, Donna Troy's weird Troia (or whatever the heck her name was at the time) get-up and Gar Logan's mullet make their appearance as well.
 

Since the story was already set in the 1980s, Wolfman would have been wiser to use the original team-up that was so successful. On a related note, Wolfman goes out of his way to point out to readers that the story is set in the 1980s, but then he throws in an Internet reference. I wasn't even aware of the Internet until the mid to late 1990s.

Naturally, I loved the detailed art by George Perez but it was mired down by the lame story. 

Overall, "Games" was a disappointment. I really think long-time fans of the original series deserved better. 

What's New is New Again. And Again.

Astonishing X-Men #48

Astonishing X-Men #48 - New Creative Team!  Best-Selling Author Marjorie Liu And Mike Perkins. The X-Men Return To New York City, But It's Not A Social Call.  Don't Miss The First Chapter Of What Will Be The Most Controversial Story Of 2012! 

Astonishing X-Men #49 - (W) Greg Pak (A/CA) Mike McKone.  The Marauders Are Back! Something From Northstar's Past Has Resurfaced And Is Looking For Revenge. Kyle Goes Missing - How Is He Connected To The Person Behind Everything?

I hardly think one issue constitutes a "new creative team."  

FAIL.

Newsarama even featured the "new" team of Marjorie Liu and Mike Perkins in an online article.  Where's the article about Greg Pak and Mike McKone as the "new creative team" of issue #49?  And what about issues #50 and beyond?  Let's have a "new creative team" every issue!

DC no longer drawing the line at $2.99

Apparently, DC Comics didn't learn from their mistake a couple of years ago when they tried raising comic book prices from $2.99 to $3.99, using the stupid justification of "back-up stories."  People stopped buying their comics. 

Besides the existing Justice League and Action Comics already priced at $3.99, in April's solicits, there appears to be some comics that have gone from $2.99 to $3.99 (Yes, I'm talking to you Batman and Detective Comics) with the justification of a "back-up story."  These additional stories may be better than filler like sketches, etc. that comics use to raise the prices to $3.99 or $4.99 (or even up to the atrocious $7.99!!!), but typically they're not even worth the paper they're printed on.  Does anyone even recall a good back-up story they read when DC tried this tactic a couple of years ago?  I thought not.

So what's going to happen with this increase?  People will stop buying the comics.  Again.

Boo hiss to DC for repeating their own mistakes.

You can stand under my Umbrella...ella, ella, eh, eh...

What a great concept the Umbrella Academy is!  Babies are mysteriously born throughout the world by mothers who didn't even know they were pregnant.  Most are abandoned.  A mysterious benefactor adopts 7 of them and raises them at the Umbrella Academy, which I'm assuming is like the X-Men's Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters.  Six of the seven children have powers; the seventh feels like an outcast. 

I read through the entire graphic novel (volume one, which is made up of six comics/sections) in no time.  The story was very engaging.  However, I would have liked to have seen more character development.  I didn't feel like I knew much about all of the characters, only a couple of them.  The rest were kind of two-dimensional; their personalities weren't developed.  I also would have liked more about the children's mysterious backstory.  How did it come to be that these children were all born?  How did their powers manifest themselves?  How did their benefactor track them all down and know about them?  And what about the benefactor's background?  There's SO much more story that could be told.

All in all, though, I thought the writing was fantastic.  It really held my interest.  The interior art was a bit child-like/cartoonish; I would have liked it to have a little more realism to it (like the fantastic covers).  I'm looking forward to reading Volume Two and beyond!