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!

Fantastic Four: NOT The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

Last night, I got caught up on the adventures of the Fantastic Four.  I read four new FFs and the recently revived Fantastic Four #600 and 601.  It's really no surprise that Marvel came back with the long-running Fantastic Four comic.  By "ending" with #588 last year, I figured Marvel would run the title FF for a year (12 issues) and then come back with #600.  It was just too coincidental.  I assume Marvel didn't think about FF doing so well, though, and so now they've decided to keep both Fantastic Four and FF.  And, to my knowledge, this is the first time that the Fantastic Four has had two ongoing monthlies at one time (with the exception of The Thing comic back in the 1980s (which I really enjoyed!)).

Fantastic Four #236 (1981)

The Fantastic Four was the first comic to get me hooked on comics.  I picked up several issues at my local comic book store in the early 80s and got hooked when John Byrne was writing and drawing "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine."  His amazing illustration lured me, but it was his character portrayal that kept me around.  I loved the realism he put into each story and his development of Sue Storm from weakest member of the team to the strongest.  He showed her getting pregnant, having a miscarriage, and taking on the dark Malice personality, etc.  He not only showed Sue as powerful, but he made use of Reed and Sue's son, Franklin, as well, by making the future Franklin Richards into a person to be feared.  

Fantastic Four #275

I also loved the romance between Johnny Storm and Frankie Raye, as well as the love triangle(!!) between Johnny, Ben Grimm, and Ben's long-time blind girlfriend Alicia Masters.  Byrne was all about developing relationships, and that really made the comic stand out.  And when The Thing stayed behind on the Secret Wars planet, Byrne added She-Hulk to the mix, thereby adding a lot of "fun" to the book and equaling out the gender ratio of the team. 

Fantastic Four #554 (2008)

After quitting comics in the mid 1990s, I began reading the Fantastic Four again with issue #554 in 2008 when Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch came onboard as the new creative team. Unfortunately, the series has been "meh," even with the change in writers and artists over the past few years.  And none of the team members look attractive.  Johnny looks like he's got a receding hairline and couldn't possibly be the ladies' man he's made out to be. 

Amazing Spider-Man #657

Even the story "Three," in which Johnny Storm dies, wasn't (pardon the pun) fantastic.  In fact, Amazing Spider-Man #657 did a better job of handling grief and showing emotion than the Fantastic Four's own comic(s).  

After the "final issue" of the Fantastic Four, the new comic (and team) FF came out.  It was slightly better than the original, but still lacked the "oomph" of Byrne's Fantastic Four.  Only when Barry Kitson is illustrating do the characters really stand out and look attractive again.  That was what I first thought upon reading FF #10 last night.  The colors throughout each panel were so vibrant, too.  

From FF #10, but I'm unclear as to why Sue and Reed
are wearing around their costumes to water their plants.
Don't they have any sweatpants or anything?

Sadly, with FF #12, Kitson is gone again, and the art by Juan Bobillo flounders in comparison.  And, with the team returning to the reinstated Fantastic Four comic, is the Future Foundation (FF) team now just a larger version of Power Pack, made up of just the random children (human and non) living in the Baxter Building with Sue and Reed's kids?  This version of FF probably won't last. 

So I'm not sure what the future holds for Fantastic Four or FF.  Can they ever return to true greatness?  At least Barry Kitson is returning for Fantastic Four #602.  Let's hope Marvel wises up and keeps him around.  The Fantastic Four really deserve to be more visually appealing to their readers.  Now, how about that character development so they can actually be deserving of "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" title?

Bitter Teens

Teen Titans #4 (2011)

In the latest incarnation of Teen Titans #4, the team hasn't fully formed yet and everyone is still getting acquainted...violently.   Superboy and Wonder Girl (Yikes! Can I call her that without getting beat up?) do battle in Times Square on New Year's Eve 2011.  What a difference from the romance and losing their virginity to each other in the previous volume of Teen Titans.  At least this Superboy looks bigger and more toned than the scrawny one in the Superboy solo series.  

Meanwhile, new characters Bunker and Skitter quarrel, too, as do Kid Flash and Red Robin...over clothing.  Sigh...

Unfortunately, the dialogue is reminiscent of Felicia Henderson.  Is "Scott Lobdell" her pseudonym?  Or vice versa?  Both writers seem insistent on giving the teens lame dialogue (even for teenagers) and making them angry...all. the. time.

Old Solstice

And what's with Solstice now being puffs of black clouds with intermittent lightning flashes throughout?   It was so nice adding some diversity to the team last year, and now the beautiful Indian girl is just a puff of smoke?

New Solstice

As for the rest of the characters and storylines -- eh, who cares?  Bring back the old series, please.   

Infested.

Spider-Girl loses her short-lived solo series and Marvel throws her a bone by giving her a Spider Island-related three-issue mini-series.  Wow.  What a rotten send-off that was. 

I just read all three issues back-to-back and had to give myself spider bites just to stay awake.  Not only is New York City infested with spider-people, but now wasp-people are after the spider-people.  (Really?)  And they're called the Sisterhood of the Wasp.  (Do they also wear traveling pants?)  How about throwing in Spider-Girl partnering with the Kingpin to stop the flying insects?  Really?  Suh-weet. 

If you're at all interested in the Spider Island storyline (personally, I think the hype was better than the actual stories), be sure to pass on the snoozefest that is Spider Island Spider-Girl. 

Superman: An Alien Among Us

I just read the new Action Comics #3 and Superman #3.  

Let's start with Action with the preface that I'm not a fan of Grant Morrison.  Surprisingly, though, the writing in this issue was decent and easy enough to follow.  (I guess Morrison took a break from the crackpipe to write this issue.)   I'm disappointed, though, that neither Superman nor Clark Kent isn't liked.  Superman for being new, different, and a bit scary to the public; reporter Clark Kent for trying to right the wrongs of the city by uncovering corruption.  Neither of these characters are the characters that I've known my entire life, so it's really difficult to accept this as the "new normal."  Lastly, why is DC charging $3.99 for Action Comics when we don't get any more story than a $2.99 comic?  "Filler" that is basically marketing for other Superman-related comics in the New 52 doesn't constitute an additional $1 upcharge to me. 

I liked Superman #3 better than the first two issues of the latest Man of Steel reboot.   The story seemed to flow and move along quicker.  While I appreciate that writer George Perez gave us more story for our $2.99 in issues #1 and #2, thanks to his throwback to the 80s with his tiny panels with lots of dialogue, it also made for stories that dragged on longer than they should have.  It was also fantastic to see Nicola Scott's return to a monthly comic!  I love her detailed, realistic, beautiful artwork and I think she's among the Top 5 current comic book artists. (And Superman's ass looks fantastic on the cover.)  But Ma and Pa Kent both dead already?  What reason does Clark have to return to Smallville in the future?  His visits to Smallville were always comforting.  Now it just seems he'll be a brooding superhero a la Batman.

All in all, the enthusiasm of "faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap tall buildings in a single bound" seems lost on Superman in the New 52.  He's no longer exciting to people, he's just plain alien.