Avengers Discombobulated

When I heard that the Avengers were going to have a fresh start with the Heroic Age after the dreaded Dark Reign cloud that hovered over the Marvel Universe, I was elated.  I have fond memories of the Avengers from the 80s and wanted to recapture that excitement.  I've picked up the first three issues of The Avengers, the first two issues of The New Avengers and the Avengers Academy, and the first issue of The Secret Avengers.  Color me unimpressed.  The only one that has interested me so far is the Avengers Academy.


The Avengers Academy takes a group of relatively unknown teenagers and allows them to interact, working out their personality differences, learning how to use their powers together, and coming to terms with why they were chosen for the group.  This is great storytelling.   

What isn't great storytelling?  Avengers, New Avengers, and Secret Avengers.  The stories have been pretty bland and generic and aren't a very good starting place for newcomers.  The characters aren't given enough time to interact before they're thrust into battle with some other worldly villain.  We never get to really know them and, frankly, at this point, I don't even want to.

My main pet peeve: why are Spider-Man and Wolverine on both the Avengers and the New Avengers teams?  Furthermore, they each have their own comic book series (Spider-Man's is published thrice monthly), and Wolverine is in the Uncanny X-Men, X-Force, Astonishing X-Men, and the new plain ol' X-Men comic. Talk about overkill.  I wish I had that much free time.  No wonder they created clones of Spider-Man.  Then there's the addition of the Thing who is and will always be a member of the Fantastic Four.  I think there are plenty other Avengers out there with good tales to tell that could use a wee bit o' screen time.

Unfortunately, Marvel missed the boat on this "revamp" of a classic series and team(s).   2010 isn't so much the "Year of the Heroic Age" or even the "Year of the Avengers."  It'll be remembered by me as the year I wasted $3.99 a comic on some crappy Avengers wannabe series.  

Check out: Avengers Academy: Permanent Record

Grim Hunt

It's been a challenge trying to keep up with the Amazing Spider-Man since his comic is published thrice monthly, but I just finished reading the four-part "Grim Hunt" storyline that ran in issues 634-637.  (Side note:  at this rate, ASM is going to bypass Superman's and Batman's monumental 700th issues which, to me, is kind of cheating.)

"Grim Hunt" featured the return of Kraven the Hunter (whom I didn't realize -- or remember -- was dead).  Thankfully, Marvel Comics published a free companion comic that came out for Free Comic Book Day that gave a detailed history of Kraven.  This proved immensely helpful before I read "Grim Hunt."  It gave me the background of his suicidal death, as well as insight into his family members, including his half-brother the Chameleon, the many women he's bedded, numerous kids, pets, etc. 

Over the past year or so, the Kravinoff family has been secretly running Spider-Man through a "gauntlet," bringing back his most dangerous villains in order to weaken our Friendly Neighborhood hero before they brought Kraven back to life.  The stories haven't had much depth to me, and that's probably because of how many times a month the series is published.  You can't have quality and consistency when you have to have a variety of writers and artists to keep up with the hectic publishing schedule.  They're not all going to write or draw the same.  In fact, some of the writing and art has been horrendous and jarring.  Still, I held on to the series. 

In the process of this "gauntlet," Marvel also updated all of the "old" villains, making them more dangerous than ever before.  For example, the Vulture is now somebody else who wears a red costume (instead of green) and has new deadly powers.  Oh, and he eats people.   The Sandman and Rhino storylines in "The Gauntlet" had the potential to be very good because of their emotional impact...but in the end, they both fell apart.  The only well-written story I read was kind of a "filler" issue featuring the vampire Morbius.  It was a self-contained single-issue story that was cleverly written. 

Anyway, back to "Grim Hunt."  The Kravinoff family is after the entire Spider family:  Spider-Man, Madame Web, Spider-Girl, Arache, Spider-Woman, Arana, Spider-Man clones, etc.  Basically, anyone with a spider emblem on their chest, a spider-theme to their name, or Peter Parker's DNA in their body.  It's all kind of silly, really.  Clones?  Seriously? 

The Kravinoff family resurrects Kraven from the dead by sacrificing Spider-Man over his grave.  (I won't spoil it for you.)   Fights ensue, unimportant people die, and Spider-Man saves the day.  (What?  You really thought he was dead?  His name is on the cover.  How could he be dead?  Again, I won't spoil it for you with the whos, hows, and whys.)  In the process, Spider-Man almost kills Sasha, the mother of Kraven's daughter, Ana, by doing something painful to her face, but I couldn't quite tell what.  I had to go back and re-read it several times because it was so out of character for Spidey.  He also tries to kill Kraven, also out of character. 

So, this is what "The Gauntlet" was all leading up to?  It was a pretty disappointing finale from a disappointing lead-in, although I did gain some respect for Kraven that I didn't have before, now that I know him a little better.  Gone are the days when Kraven wore his leopard pants, fur jacket, and ballet slippers.  Thankfully, now the only place that you'll find someone sporting that combination is at your local Walmart. 

Besides the "Grim Hunt" storyline, Marvel Comics justified jacking up the price of each issue to $3.99 by running a second storyline which featured an "untold" tale of Kraven and Kaine, the long-haired Jesus-looking Spider-Man clone.  It sort of ties into "Grim Hunt," but really it's just filler.  Even the artist couldn't even be bothered to do a great job.  He made Kraven look like Gru from the animated movie Despicable Me.

Lastly, there was a third storyline going on in the issues of ASM.  These were two-page "stories" written by Stan Lee that were a combination of the original 1960s Spider-Man stories...and Pinky and the Brain.  Yeah, you heard me. 

What do I think of Spider-Man?  Meh.  I wish Marvel Comics would get Spider-Man back on track with some good storylines, good writers, and good artists.  Not one, but two, Spider-Man clones?  Spider-Man loses a portion of his life, so he's single again and no longer married to Mary Jane?  Aunt May acting all rude and freaky with a storyline that's going nowhere?  Whatever happened to Spidey's heyday with the black costume saga and Todd McFarlane's art?  Can't somebody come up with something equally entertaining but not silly?  For $3.99 a pop three times a month, we readers deserve better.  And, frankly, so does Spider-Man.

Wonder Woman Turns 600

The trinity of superheroes at DC Comics are all celebrating milestones this month.  Batman and Superman both reached their 700th issues.  And now there's Wonder Woman, reaching her 600th.  It's not technically her 600th, but since her first volume contained 329 issues, her second 226, and her third 44, if you add them all up, the next issue would be 600.  And that works for me, because I think she deserves to be recognized for surviving so long as an under-appreciated character.  

Wonder Woman's milestone turned out to be the best of the three (save the best for last?).  The first story within Wonder Woman #700 was beautifully written by Gail Simone.  It was drawn by and "inspired by" the ever-fantastic George Perez and I see why.  The tale harkened back to when George Perez took the reigns of Wonder Woman back in the 1980s and gave her a fresh start and look. Diana was a fish out of water back then, and I was very happy to see the return of Julia and Vanessa Kapatelis.  It was a return to the uncomplicated stories that were full of heart and not so Greek god- or Amazonian-based. 

The next two stories featured Power Girl and Superman, respectively.  Two mighty players she could team up with against a powerful villain.  Instead, she dealt with both on a humanistic/personal level.   Power Girl's story was a little silly, but still cute.  I thought it was great that Power Girl looked up to Wonder Woman as an idol, even for the smallest  advice about her cat (no sexual pun intended). 

I'm not quite sure what to think of the last story in the giant-sized issue.  It's a lead-in to the future storyline of Wonder Woman starting in issue #601.  It features Wonder Woman's new costume, which is all abuzz in the news.  To me, the storyline seems kinda Lost-ish.  From my understanding, time has been shifted, Paradise Island has been destroyed, and she had a different origin story, hence the new costume which, by the way, is very Black Canary-ish.  (That's my second "-ish" in case you're keeping count.)  She has to try to get time back in alignment?  At least that's what I got out of it.  Hmmm... I'm not so sure about that direction, if that's what it is.  That seems beyond the scope of Wonder Womandom and a bit overdone.  DC has been doing too much lately with parallel worlds/earths and time travel (Bruce Wayne coming back to "life," Booster Gold bebopping all over the time continuum, bringing Superboy back to life from the future, the Legion of Superheroes going back and forth between their time and ours, etc.).  

I'll keep reading Wonder Woman, though, because I'm curious about her future.  And she needs all the support she can get!  (Again, no sexual pun intended.)  Here's to another 600 issues!  (Let's hope she never has another #1.)

Superman Turns 700

Superman reached his 700th issue last week, following Batman's disappointing 700th the week before.  Ironically, Batman started in 1940 while Superman started in 1939.

Superman's milestone was much better than Batman's.  Both issues contained a few short stories starring the title character, but Superman's was tied to current storylines or past history, whereas Batman's were just random bullshit.  In fact, Superman #700 contained a story that teamed him up with the original Robin, Batman's former partner, in a story set back in time.  Batman/Bruce Wayne appeared briefly and his appearance here was still better than the stories from his own 700th issue.  It provided a fun reading, seeing Superman play the adult mentor to the teenage Robin.  This was my favorite story of the three; however, it was more of a story for Robin than Superman.  I love the original Robin, though, so I was content.

Another story within the issue focused on Superman's reunion with his wife, Lois Lane, after the events from the "War of the Supermen" and "New Krypton" sagas that have run in all of the Superman books over the past couple of years.   I appreciated being let into Superman's personal life, as it's something that we haven't had a glimpse of in quite some time.  It made him -- for lack of a better term -- "human."  (Although hearing Superman and Lois confess their love to one another over and over again got a bit redundant.)

The third and final story within Superman #700 lays the groundwork for the upcoming "Grounded" storyline that will see Superman walking across the U.S. from Philadelphia to Seattle, stopping at cities and small towns in between, so he can reconnect with his fan base on their level.   I like that this will give Superman a more personal approach, but he can't be there to save people's everyday lives.  Hello!  He's not Sup-- Well, I guess he is.  But still...

So, while $4.99 seems a little steep for what we got, it was money better spent than Batman #700.  It didn't suck.