OK. Apologies for the lateness and brevity of this week’s missive. It’s been a crazy week and I’m getting ready to head out for Terrificon at Mohegan Sun tomorrow. It’s going to be a great three days of hanging out with friends in the comic book community, seeing legendary creators like David Finch, Jim Lee, Chris Claremont and Klaus Janson and more.
So I’m going to give you my very high-level view of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and then we’re going to dive right into Pull List reviews. Also, next week’s newsletter will also probably be a day or two later than usual since I don’t get back home until late Sunday night and won’t have read all of this week’s books by the time I typically would.
OK. Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Fucking loved it. 9 out of 10 for me. I had a few minor gripes that in no way diminished my love for this flick. So let’s start by running down the things I loved.
The web-swinging. Fucking nailed it. You can tell that Destin Daniel Cretton (the director) and his team played the Playstation video games made by Insomniac because the web-swinging felt exactly like that, but on a massive screen. It was so immersive that you really felt like you were inside the movie and inside those games. I have to imagine that whole sequence with the tank at the beginning of the movie was inspired by the chases in those Playstation games because everything about it felt so familiar and pulse-pounding.
And they perfectly combined that feeling with the montage that pays tribute to classic ASM covers. At one point, Spidey swings onto a rooftop in Manhattan and takes out a gang of thugs, exactly like he does in the games. And when he knocks a guy off the roof and he seemingly falls to his death — just like the games — Spidey dives after him, catching the baddie and swinging him to safety in an homage to Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance ever of Spider-Man in comics.
As for the story, again, they nailed it. This is a more mature Peter Parker, struggling with much more grown-up issues. The emotional beats with him and MJ were fantastic. You could feel the isolation and what it was doing to him and that made his moments with Ned and MJ that much more powerful.
Frank Castle is great in the film. He provides humorous beats when needed but never in a cheesy way that hurts the version of Frank we’ve seen established in the Daredevil and Punisher shows. Yes, it’s a PG-13 movie, but this still very much feels like the Frank Castle we’ve known over the last 10 years.
It was great to see the real Incredible Hulk once again. Can’t wait to get more of him in the future.
The minor gripes I had were nitpicks that, as I said, didn’t detract from my viewing experience. I’ve seen it twice in theaters, BTW.
First up, we never get any explanation for how Peter could afford his apartment or all that crazy computer equipment and tech. We never see him with a part-time job or any way of making money to support all that. But, comics, you know? I can live with it.
Second gripe is that I was really excited to get more of Tombstone. When they announced the character and the casting I was hopeful we’d get something with some meat on the bone, but alas, it was just a quick cameo as part of the ASM cover montage sequence. I really liked what we got. I just wanted more.
Last thing was The Hand. After seeing the trailers I thought they would play a much bigger role as an organization in the film. It seemed like we were finally going to get a more comic-accurate version of The Hand on screen. Instead, they were essentially a security team for Damage Control. Didn’t love that.
But, the fight sequences they had with Spider-Man were fucking epic, so I can’t really complain all that much.
There’s so much more I could talk about when it comes to this film: loved Yelena’s role, Ned and MJ’s performances were great, so many great themes taken straight from the books and fleshed out here, the cinematography and color-grading were probably the best we’ve ever gotten in a Spidey flick. But alas, I’m running out of time before I have to hit the road.
I’ll just end by saying that, for me, this is the best Spider-Man movie to date. Hot Take: outside of Alfred Molina’s performance as Doc Ock, Raimi’s Spider-Man 2 is wildly overrated and this movie slaps it around like a redheaded stepchild. Fight me all you want.
And now, Pull List reviews …
This issue is all about the Juggernaut, aka Cain Marko. It’s really a character study, with Cain admitting that he doesn’t think he’s a good man, but that being a part of the X-Men gives him purpose and that he can lean on the good judgment and leadership of people like Scott Summers to keep him on the right path. He can’t trust himself, but he can trust Cyclops to tell him what’s right and what’s wrong. But this mysterious force-field-protected statue of Bolivar Trask, the creator of the Sentinels, is actually talking to Juggernaut, telling him that his sins can’t be erased and that because he’s not a mutant, eventually the X-Men will cast him aside when he’s no longer of use to them. Seems like Gail Simone could be foreshadowing Juggernaut breaking bad once again, or at least being tempted to. All in all, a very solid issue.
A phenomenal miniseries, start to finish. Give me more Jessica Jones and Typhoid Mary team-ups any day. It’s the thing I never knew I wanted but now I can’t get enough of. I’m really looking forward to it being released in a collected edition so I can sit down and reread it as one big story. All the groundwork laid by Sam Humphries in the first couple issues pays off by the end of this one. He writes such great chemistry between Jessica and Mary and the dialogue was witty and razor sharp. Geraldo Borges’ art is bloody and beautiful and a perfect pairing with Humphries’ story. There’s this classic “aha moment” when the whole mystery comes together that I absolutely loved, and they nailed the ending. Thoroughly enjoyed this miniseries — especially with all the gorgeous David Mack covers. Definitely go back and read all five issues if you haven’t already.
Now this was a great start to another big Marvel event that I haven’t heard that many people talking about. For whatever reason, I feel like as massively successful and popular as the Donny Cates Venom run and King in Black event were, it’s now the cool thing to hate on Knull. I personally really like the character and I love Hela as a character, so I was always going to check this out. And it delivers.
The art from Iban Coello and Ze Carlos with colors by GURU-eFX is really good. Knull and Nova throw down right at the start and then Nova is kind of in the Bruce Banner role from Avengers: Infinity War where he’s warning Tony Stark about Thanos coming — only here, Nova is warning them of Knull’s return. There are multiple really awesome splash pages that help to sell the scale of this Invasion of Earth led by Hela and her armies. It feels like there’s real weight and consequence to what’s happening. And Hela looks absolutely badass here, especially in a scene she shares with Scarlet Witch. There’s also a hilarious moment with Captain America and Captain Alliance (basically his Skrull equivalent).
The one gripe I have is that this is yet another massive event happening seemingly at the same time as Infernal Hulk and Armageddon. And we know that Steve Rogers in in hell fighting against Mephisto right now during Armageddon. How are all these things happening at the same time?! Anyway, I really enjoyed this first issue and I’m 100% onboard for the rest.
Event tie-ins are 50-50 at best when it comes to whether they are any good or have any real impact on the larger story. After reading this, I’m betting Defenders of Light will both be good and relevant to the main Queen in Black storyline. I enjoyed this book a lot. The pacing is good and there’s plenty of action throughout. I like the dynamic between Tony Stark and Cable and why they’re putting this team together. I dig the reasoning behind Cloak & Dagger being central to the story here. There’s a really good fight between Beta Ray Bill and Tyr that makes you wonder what sort of character journey Bill will go on during Queen in Black and if we might see him break bad at some point.
The only thing I didn’t like was the design for Knull’s new Light Symbiotes. They just look like glass statues. Didn’t dig them at all. Nowhere near as cool looking as normal symbiotes like Venom or Carnage. That being said, I still really enjoyed this issue. The ending was set up very early on and earned by the time you get to the last page.
Another swing and a hit for the Queen in Black event. This is a one-shot with stunning art from Carlos Magno. There are some truly epic fucking splash pages here that are a ton of fun to look at. He draws both Hela and Karnilla as captivating femmes fatale. The plot here is basically Karnilla, Queen of the Norns, telling Balder the Brave how she saw a possible future that ultimately led Hela to make a deal with Mephisto, allowing her to cross into the mortal realm. She saw that Loki would cast a spell — in the pages of Al Ewing’s The Mortal Thor — that would make everyone forget Asgard or Thor ever existed. Well, all but Beta Ray Bill. That’s something being explored elsewhere in the Queen in Black books. In any event, Hela has advanced knowledge of the Throne of the Void calling out to a weakened Knull and this is the story of how all those threads come together and allow Hela to launch her invasion. Loved the ending to this one-shot. Well worth the read.
There really isn’t any action to speak of in this issue, and at first the pacing felt a little off to me. But then I saw what Ewing was doing with this story and it started to make sense. The reader is meant to be kept a little off balance the way Magni, Thor’s sort-of-future-son/current King of Asgard, is. Because it makes the payoff at the end that much more meaningful. It won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. But I appreciate the creative approach to storytelling Ewing takes with this issue. He takes big swings like this every so often and sometimes they don’t land for me, but this one did.
The basic plot here is Miles telling Tony about the origin boxes that he brought back from the Ultimate Universe and how he “misplaced” them. A big baddy from the Negative Zone, Hosticulus (horrible name), breaks into Stark Tech facilities and steals a bunch of crazy powerful weapons and then throws down with Iron Man. That’s about the crux of it. The art is solid. The action is ok, but nothing super impressive. We see a couple glimpses of the new characters who have been affected by some of the origin boxes, but not really enough to have them start taking shape as characters we care about yet.
My big question is, once again, when exactly is all of this supposed to be taking place in the larger 616 timeline? Because, presently, Tony Stark is getting his ass handed to him, along with most of the rest of the Marvel Universe lineup, over in Infernal Hulk. But he’s ALSO part of the big throwdown in Chip Zdarsky’s Armageddon event going on right now as well.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m enjoying the hell out of Infernal Hulk, Armageddon and Joshua Williamson’s Iron Man series. But it seems like all of these huge events are supposed to be happening at the same time yet none of them reference any of the others. Marvel needed to plan these timelines a little better. But TBH, you can probably mitigate that by just skipping anything remaining that still has the Ultimate brand on it, because it’s all been a big letdown for a while now.
Geiger is not what you would call a verbose book. Each issue has minimal dialogue and exposition. It still tells a fun story but most issues are very quick reads. While this wasn’t a particularly long read, it probably had the most dialogue of any Geiger book thus far. And it paid off. There’s some solid character development here as Nathan and Doctor Molotv discuss the nature of evil and monsters and redemption, while Tariq Geiger, aka The Glowing Man, debates the finer points of fatherhood vs ownership with the Custodian. It all serves to set up a big showdown between Tariq and President Griffin in next month’s oversized 25th issue.
Three things drew me to this book — the title, the cover art and the fact that Dan Panosian wrote it. And while I would have preferred that Panosian draw the book himself (he’s an amazing artist), I had a good experience with this book. It’s a familiar premise but with a few cool tweaks. A rich man in the late 1800s dies and leaves a last will and testament to be read once all his family and close associates are gathered. But first, they all have to travel a specific trail by horseback together to the final destination of the reading. And it doesn’t seem like everyone is going to make it to the reading alive. Based on the title and some of what we see in this first issue, there’s clearly some sort of supernatural bend to the story. It was a fun read and I’m in for the next one. If you have the GlobalComix Gold subscription, you can read this and all other Mad Cave Studios books for free day and date of the release.
Cassandra Cain is trapped in her own mindscape investigating the murder of a girl from her past. A creepy character called Dr. Forget-Me-Not is the one pulling her strings and she’s limited by the abilities she had at the time of the murder when she was a child in training. So, for example, most of the dialogue from that time is redacted in the word bubbles because she hadn’t yet developed the language skills and lip-reading ability she has as an adult. The end of the issue was a little on the predictable side, but Tate Brombal has done an excellent job writing this series so I’m hopeful that he’s got some surprises in store as the story arc progresses.
An action-packed finale to a solid DC Black Label miniseries. It raises a lot of questions about the rules of warfare and the greater good vs self-interest. It also looks at how important a secret identity really is — or isn’t — for a superhero to make a positive impact on the world. And could someone like Oliver Queen or Bruce Wayne do more good in the light of day with full transparency vs their cowled vigilante personas? Art throughout the series was very good and it’s definitely worth a read if you’re a fan of any of the main three characters.
Mobsters and Mooks. That could be the name of this story arc. It’s a fun and quick read where Deadpool clashes with Hammerhead and his goons and Hammerhead starts carving pieces of Wade, pushing the boundaries of his healing factor. Along the way we start getting a glimpse of what happened before the whole series kicked off that set everything in motion — the source of the trauma Deadpool’s been hiding that has a lot to do with the last job he did with his up-and-coming Merc of a daughter. Oh yeah, and Hammerhead catches a big ass shark with a fishing pole. So that happened. Anyway, fun read. Deadpool’s solo series have never really been Universe-shaking stories that I would call must-read. They’re fun to follow up with when you can but not necessary to know what’s going on in the larger Marvel Comics Universe.
It was pretty obvious after the last issue where they were going with the truth about Rogue’s missing memories, so I’m glad they didn’t drag it out. We get most of the details here, though I’m sure there are a few more coming next issue as to how and why those memories were taken from her. This has been a reasonably entertaining miniseries with a decently paced and plotted story, but nothing that feels like it’ll have an impact on the larger stories within the X-Men corner of Marvel Comics.
I really liked this issue a lot — definitely more than the first. At the core, it’s a simple and heartfelt story about a man whose dog is dying and it hurts to let go. It humanizes a godlike character in a way that makes him instantly relatable, which is no small feat when you’re dealing with a character as powerful as Sentry. You’ve got a wife worried about her husband, a man concerned for his best friend and another man with unimaginable power who actually fears what playing god might lead to. Throw in this mystery of the crystalline threat and an emotionally resonant scene with Hulk and this was a fantastic read, start to finish. I’m even warming up to the Kingpin angle they’re using here, which admittedly I was not the biggest fan of in the first issue. So let’s see where this goes. Issue 2 has me much more invested than issue 1 did.
Until next time, here’s this week’s Pull List …
MARC SPECTOR: MOON KNIGHT #7
CAPTAIN AMERICA #14
QUEEN IN BLACK #2
QUEEN IN BLACK: VENOM #1
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #34
UNCANNY X-MEN #33
IRON MAN #8
ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN #22
BATMAN #12
SUPERGIRL: SURVIVE #3
CLAYFACE: CELEBRITY DIRT #1 (DC INFINITE ULTRA)
BARBARA GORDON: BREAKOUT #3 (DC INFINITE ULTRA)
THE FURY OF FIRESTORM #4 (DC INFINITE ULTRA)
…and much more.
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