Secret Invasion #2
Most of you have probably seen my little back and forth with Billy on the comments for his review, so there’s not a whole lot to say about this one. I liked the issue quite a lot. The art remains strong, and I liked the change of pace to focus on the paranoia of the heroes when faced with the unknown. Not much else to say, other than my need to reiterate how badass that Illuminati Super Skrull looked on the last spread. B
Green Lantern #30
Remember in my DC article how I mentioned that as much as I love Geoff Johns, he always seems to make story decisions that piss me off? Well, he’s still doing that. Any momentum from the Sinestro Corps War has been completely drained out of this book by a completely contrived bit of pseudo-retconning. I know I mentioned this in the last mini review for #29, but we don’t need to see Hal’s origin AGAIN. You’d think Mr. Johns is running out of ideas, because he’s capable of so much more than this. C-
Thor #8
JMS is still going strong, and this issue is probably the series’ best since the fantastic third installment. We’ve got two threads going on here, with Thor still inhabiting the Thorsleep while Donald Blake makes one last attempt to find Lady Sif and reawaken her. The Donald Blake side plot is what really shines here, as JMS does an excellent job in scripting his interactions with the person he believes is harboring the soul of Lady Sif, which ends in a wicked cliffhanger. But there’s also something undeniably fun about the Norse mythology side of the Thorsleep, where he has his confrontation with Odin, who is locked in an eternal daily battle with Surtur. It’s a no win situation for Odin, but he confronts it like a true hero. Great issue, featuring some awesome pencils from Marko Djurdjevic, who is fast becoming a favorite of mine. A-
Thor: Ages of Thunder
Matt Fraction + Norse Mythology = Good times. I do enjoy the fact that this little exercise in one shots (the first of three) isn’t completely pointless, as it paints a pretty vivid picture of the pre-Donald Blake “dick Thor,” which makes you really understand why Odin went out of his way to bind Thor to a human host and give him a little well deserved humility. It’s pulpy fun, with lots of Frost Giants and hammers and Loki shenanigans and Enchantress as a sex object. Not required reading in any sense of the word, but I wasn’t upset that I read it. Looking forward to the rest of these. B-
The Order #10
And so the series ends, while no one pays attention. I still liked this series, and it’s the type of exploration of the 50 States Initiative that is needed (you can only get so much out of Avengers: The Initiative). Ezekiel Stane is a fun character, and I like the way Fraction decided to use this series to build him up so he can be the first main villain in the Invincible Iron Man book. I like these characters, and I like that Fraction didn’t simply callously kill them off to allow them to possibly sneak back into the Marvel U in some fashion. This was a different kind of superhero book, and that may be why it didn’t go anywhere, but I enjoyed the ride. B
Immortal Iron Fist #14
Yep, more Fraction here, this time tempered by a taste of Brubaker. Epic chop socky action, as the entirety of the Seven Capital Cities of Heaven champions lay some smack down on HYDRA. The book is just good. But we pretty much already knew that. I like the story potential of the ending, and it’s a shame that Bru and Fraction won’t be able to hash that out, as they only have two issues left and one of them is another one-shot dealing with a past Iron Fist. This being the last major issue of the Fraction/Brubaker/Aja run, it’s sad to see them go, but it was a good climax and a worthy end to the craziness that was this particular arc of Iron Fist. B+
Tags: Brian Michael Bendis, Geoff Johns, Marvel Comics, Matt Fraction, Secret Invasion
May 9, 2008 at 5:02 pm
The Order was a different kind of superhero book, but maybe it wasn’t different enough? it was like reading X-Statix without the fun. i found the plots dull and the characters bland. the idea is sound, and we’ll probably see this type of comic crop up again (i hope), but derivative work just doesn’t sell comic books.
…wait, sorry, i take that last part back.
hey, i see that you hated GL like i hated SI. you’re right about GL and the retconning, obviously, but i got to say, the execution is satisfying to me… but i do see how it could piss people off. if the retcon was handled by a lesser writer than Johns, i’d probably be just as annoyed an you.
May 9, 2008 at 5:22 pm
The retconning itself doesn’t really bother me. I just think that Johns is being really lazy in throwing out an origin story out of nowhere with no kind of framing device to tie us to the present, which completely disrupts the flow of the story. There are a lot of other ways more mythos could be added to the Blackest Night prophesy without resorting to this. I just can’t shake the feeling that he doesn’t have enough stories to bridge to the crossover, so he’s stalling.
I so want to throw out the word decompression right now… But that would be silly and hypocritical… Nah. Let’s just move on.