Marvel Now! (spoilers)

I know that Marvel Now! isn't complete: a much-hyped Guardians of the Galaxy book and another, prolly pretty bad, Nova book are still coming, as is the Marvel flagship, Uncanny X-Men. Suffice it to say, X-Men will be good, Guardians will be temporarily good (until Bendis and McNiven abandon it after issue 20 -- unless Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning come back to Marvel). Nova will likely suck (Loeb can't really write, McGuiness is a gimmicky artist). I wanted to do a quick run-down on the extant Marvel books for anyone who thinks I'm not even-handed in my criticism of D.C. compared to the House of Ideas. I do, generally, prefer Marvel books, but I think it's reasoned and not programmed. The reason is simple: creative talent. So, I'm going to walk through the books in the new Marvel launch and give them a category: Good, Wait, Bad.

The Good Books:

A+X: Yes, I know, this book is basically Marvel team-up. Look, there's nothing wrong with that. Marvel Team-Up was fun. If its done by good creators and with interesting stories, there's no reason we can't have pint-sized servings of Marvel characters doing stuff they don't normally do, not to drive an arc, but to tell good stories. There are some poignant character moments here (Cap), some cute team-ups (Beast/Spidey), and some weird-o stuff (Psylocke). Generally, though, it's all fun and readable. Compare it to every version of Brave and the Bold since 1978 and you'll see how much better it is.

All-New X-Men: I was intensely skeptical of this book. I thought it would be Bendis's first huge failure. I was sure that people would pan a return of the 1960's X-Men for decades to come. It would be a boondoggle Marvel would be digging itself out of for years, like Heroes Reborn. It was awesome. The premise that something is wrong with Beast's mutation is interesting (even as it's faded to the background for parts of the later story). I generally think Marvel is raising Hank's profile and I like that (he's my favorite original X-Man by miles). But Bendis is also doing an excellent job writing the old team. Mixing them in with modern heroes and villains. You can't deny how good Brian is with dialogue. Immonen's art has improved dramatically in just the last 4 years. I think he can legitimately be considered one of the top of his craft today. I'm looking forward to every issue of this book.

FF: Welcome home Mike Allred. Matt Fraction is an on-and-off writer for me, and a lot of his success at hitting me depends on his collaborator. I'm not sure he and Bagley have hit it off, but he and Allred are right on the same page. I miss X-Force by Allred so much and I love the tone of this book that brings me back to that moment in 2002. This book should be excellent with its quirky characters and association with a red-hot FF universe fresh off of Hickman's epic, historic, amazing run on the book. It's a great time to be writing FF and I suspect that Fraction will embrace all of the weirdness that makes the First Family of comics work. He can write a book Jack Kirby would want to draw, to be sure. I am waiting on Fantastic Four, but I am all in on FF.

Indestructible Hulk: I'm a sucker for LFY. I can't help it. I don't think he'd be my first choice for a Hulk artist, but this is a pretty cool, different Hulk book. The kinetic energy in Yu's art is evident in every panel. It is his best penciling work in recent memory, and I'm very excited to see where this book goes. Mark Waid is at the absolute top of his game right now. Don't even get me started on how good Daredevil is, but I just think Waid is writing hits right now. This book is probably going to be awesome. It will certainly get back to core Hulk concepts for the first time in a while. A very good Hulk book.

Thor: God of Thunder: Esad Ribic is an artist, not a penciler or a comic artist. This book is absolutely gorgeous. It seems like what Marvel has done is to take come criticism and recognize that in some places, it was being outshined by D.C. in art. Not anymore. Ribic doing regular pencils on this book is a huge coup of the House Stan Built. The period-spanning adventure that pits Thor vs. a serial killer of gods has been excellent. It's obviously super tough to write Thor like it's difficult to write for Wonder Woman or Superman. He has very few real threats, he is "out of place" in our world both spatially and temporally, and he's hard to relate to. Jason Aaron is doing a good job or revealing motivations and exploring core concepts in this big beautiful book. Nice work.

Avengers & New Avengers: My favorite writer with two of my favorite artists on the best title of the last ten years. You haven't been following this blog very closely at all if you don't already know Jonathon Hickman. He's the second coming. I am glad the kept the Avengers titles unified under one writer with two artists as they did with Bendis. The two "brands" is a good way to do an Avengers book. And, let's be real here, these books are bigger than the Avengers now. They're the core of Marvel. These books are basically a cross-over and the invention of new Marvel themes in one title. This isn't just a Cap, Thor, and Iron Man book now. It's the centerpiece of the Marvel U. Some of the new characters are exciting (I just read the introduction of the new Shi'ar elite member, Smasher). I am especially intrigued by Manifold, their teleporter, and his connections to Gateway, one of my all-time favorite X-Men. The Illuminati, the Infinity Gems, and the ever-present threat of Thanos (ever-present since the end of May's major motion picture The Avengers) are also looming large. And more Beast, which is awesome.

Savage Wolverine: A pleasant surprise. I'm not often as entirely wrong about a book as I was Savage Wolverine. I drop books, especially Wolverine cross-overs, like it's my job. I love Wolvie, but I'm very protective of what I consider good story-telling regarding our berserking healer with adamantium claws and what I see as Wolv-sploitation. I picked up the first issue expecting to cancel this book. In fact, I was drawn in pretty early. The panels were reasonable. There were words. A story developed pretty quickly. There was, of course, a nearly naked cavegirl (Shanna, The She-Devil -- who else). But, it's Frank Cho so what do you expect. There was, however, a sensible plot device that drew this story together and it appears that there may be an over-arching narrative that doesn't just involve Wolverine fighting a dinosaur (he will do that, however). I enjoyed this book. The Wolverine books have been craptastic since Millar left, even the Aaron stuff took a quick turn for the worse, so hopefully this and the upcoming Cornell Wolverine title salvage what's left of Logan's solo titles.

Daredevil: Mark Waid's run on this book has been awesome. From Kevin Smith, to Bendis, to Brubaker, not so good with Diggle, and now with Waid, Daredevil has seen one of the best, largely uninterrupted, runs of any Marvel title. It's been more consistent than any X-Men book (besides X-Factor, largely awesome because it stays out of the mess of other X-Men stuff). Certainly better than Wolverine. Better than Punisher (although I stand by Ennis's work on the book -- some of the other fill-in has been ass-tastic). Way better than Spider-Man. The artists Waid has to work with are some of the best up-and-comers in the business, including my personal favorite regularly working comic artist, Paolo Rivera (look up the Spider-Man issue he did with Sandman and try and not have your mind blown). This isn't really a relaunch book, but it is one of the very very best comics coming out now and a standard setter in great superhero story-telling.

Wolverine & the X-Men: This is the most borderline, in my opinion, of my Good Book category. I thought that parts of the latest storyline, featuring Frankenstein and a circus, were tortured. The comedy in the book seems strained at times. The best character is Broo, the brood mutant with a conscience. Wolverine is not as central a character as the title indicates; it's largely a New Mutants type, Westchester Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters type book. And that's a good concept. It was strongly beloved when the X-Men were great, for instance, the introduction of Kitty in the Claremont/Byrne era. This book intentionally harkens back to that time (replete with a pint-sized reincarnation of the Hellfire Club, among of the best of the X-Men rogues). This book is not a great fit for Jason Aaron (it would be an excellent fit for, for instance, Bryan K. Vaughn, as indicated by his work on Runaways -- one of the unheralded heroes of modern day superhero comics), but it's still well-done. Aaron apparently loves writing it, but I think it will do well down the line under someone else's watch.

Wait-And-See Books:

Uncanny Avengers: The book I was most excited to see launch has had a tepid start. Jon Cassady is one of the best comic artists in the world when he is inspired, but this book is not his strongest work. Rick Remender can be an absolutely mind-blowing story-teller, but this book has not shown that narrative power off so far. The big reveals have been creepy, but not like "WHOOOOAAAA" moments. Nothing about this feels like Uncanny X-Force or even Fear Agent, Remenders preeminent masterpieces. Hopefully the story will pick up and we'll all look back and say "slow start, but man was it awesome once it got going," but I have concerns at the moment. This is a big criticism for me, because I don't think I've ever put Remender on blast like I'm doing now. This book needs some inspiration and fast. I like Havok as a leader. I think the world needs a Summers brother and I've always considered Havok the more compelling of the two. But we need to see that story develop pretty soon or it's going to lose the readers.

Captain America: Uh oh two straight Remender books, two straight question marks. I like Jr Jr; I know a lot of my close comic book friends don't. One of the first books I ever bought was a Daredevil vs. Punisher drawn by Jr Jr and it was awesome. He can't live up to that today, his pencils are sloppier, but I still generally enjoy his stuff (like on Kick-Ass, for instance). This book looks like garbage in places. It's poorly conceived (why start the book in the middle of something no one gets -- what is this, the new 52?). The dialogue is laborious. Basically, everything about this book needs a shot in the arm. However, it's still got its moments. Cap has a cool battle with a huge beast that he thinks his way out of. The kid is creepy and cool. Sometimes Jr Jr can do as much with one pen stroke as other artists do in ten panels in terms of conveying emotion and meaning. We just need to not go a 4th issue without really understanding what's going on here. It's leaving the reader in the lurch too much at this point.

Deadpool: This book is less a wait-and-see than it's a mixed bag. The art is Tony Moore. Can't complain, ever. He is awesome and delivers one of the most consistent products in comics. Marvel is lucky to have him. Why, however, is he only doing dumb joke books. He's done this and the Franken-Punisher stuff. He should be telling real stories. He's fully capable of it. You'll let Ed McGuiness have a serious series but put Tony Moore on comic relief, that's some bad editorial assignment, imo. This rant aside, the book is pretty funny. My biggest complaint is that the first arc is too long. This, generally, is my complaint about Deadpool: stop telling 5 issue story arcs on a joke book. What is the problem with it? You're telling the same god damned joke for 5 issues. This should be relatively obvious, but that isn't funny. Brevity is the soul of something, I heard. Tell a joke, change the topic, move on. Long arcs make no sense for a book like this.

Fantastic Four: Another book that has just been so slow getting out of the gates. It feels like it's dragging on with nothing happening. I mentioned before the problems I think with matching up Bagley and Fraction. I don't feel like they're thriving with each other. Bagley has largely worked with one guy successfully ever, keep this in mind. His time with the Justice League was uninspiring, for sure. Fraction is a strange man with wild ideas and maybe they're difficult to execute on paper for someone like Bagley who hasn't really been asked to stretch his imagination too much on USM over the last 13 years. That said, the big concept of this book is sound. It has a great lead in tailwind with the Hickman run just closing. I think the book should make it over time. It might see an artist change before too long, however. Don't be shocked.

Iron Man: Iron Man has the single best moment in the new Marvel reboot. I don't want to give the line away, but Pepper says something to Tony that is so awesome that you have to think "Kieron Gillen may've found his book". Of course, without batting an eye I would tell you there were some excellent moments in the Journey Into Mystery run. I also dropped the book, because it appeared to go nowhere and have too weak of a plot structure to sustain a real story. I retain this fear for Iron Man. Two issues are about Tony and "the future" -- because his power, obviously, is being a futurist, as Marvel has repeatedly tried to sell us on over the years. The third issue is about blowback from the Phoenix stuff of late. I know he's going to space and joining the Guardians (the worst kept secret in comic book history). The book is all over the place. Gillen is such a talented writer, but he isn't a talented scripter, I believe, and may need some help over time with big picture direction and narrative structure. Hopefully, he picks this up in enough time to keep from dropping the ball on Iron Man.

Morbius: Yes, Morbius. Wait and see. The first issue is WAY better than I expected, but it's still Morbius so it will, in all likelihood, end up being stupid. The good news: I don't know who in the fuck Joe Keatinge is and I'm relatively impressed with the first issue given that level of greenness. The bad news: Morbius is sort of stupid, historically. I'm going to keep buying it.

Superior Spider-Man: I only list this as a wait-and-see because it's so new. I think it's good so far. I thought the end of Amazing was good. I am fine with Peter dying (he didn't -- he propelled his consciousness into some octo-bot and will be back soon, I'm sure). I'm fine with Ock kissing MJ and even killing someone. Spider-Man has sucked so much for so long that for something to change the status quo just can't be a bad thing imo. The problem for Spider-Man, like any book that has gone on forever without aging or fundamentally changing the characters is that it is incredibly hard to forget what you know and avoid relating all stories to the past. New Spider-Man villains feel like the 1980's villain of the month gristmill; old villains feel like shadows of their former Ditko and Romita selves. What can a Spider-writer do to please the fans? I like this book now more than any time since Stracyzinski. It's a promising new direction. Of course, it could turn out stupid, so we'll wait and see.

Avengers Assemble: KSD is a pretty hot property right now. Of course, comics have a gender problem: it's mostly middle-aged white dudes who make comics and therefore, reaching over 50% of the world's reading market is tough when you're telling stories where women are window dressing at best or titillation at worst. If I were a woman, I'd have trouble trusting comics. Finding fresh voiced young female writers that will work on superhero properties can't be easy. She has a lot of lady books right now -- Ghost, Captain Marvel (Ms. Marvel, if you're nasty) -- but Avengers Assemble is a real mainstream gut-punching superhero effort and it's going well, I'd say. Her Hulk writing is strong. The ladies are portrayed pretty awesomely. Hawkeye is hilarious. Generally, I think this is a good book. Stef Caselli is also solid on pencils. I think Ghost is one of the better books out there right now, so I'm starting to become a believer in Kelly Sue.

Journey Into Mystery: Is a bit of a stretch for the wait-and-see category. I'd say it's my next cut if it doesn't improve soon. So, I am literally waiting and seeing. Sif is awesome. She's my favorite Asgardian by far. This book has trouble with movement. I like the idea of making Sif just a crazy Berserker badass who doesn't care about anything. That's awesome. Now, get on with it. What happens? The last issue is promising -- she meets some other Berserker dudes in Berserker world -- but she needs to, for instance, do some more freaking berserking. Kathryn Immonen does not have much polish as a writer, imo. Her work has always been too slowly paced for comic writing. I'd like to see this book move a bit more.

Uncanny X-Force, Guardians of the Galaxy, Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Wolverine, Young Avengers: I haven't read Young Avengers or Uncanny X-Force even though I have them. The others have yet to be released. I'd say these are mostly promising books. I'm more excited about the two Bendis books because, well, he's the most consistent hit writer for me. I suspect I'd rank them in this order:

Uncanny X-Men -- Bendis
Guardians of the Galaxy -- Bendis
Wolverine -- Cornell and Alan Davis
Uncanny X-Force -- Interesting line-up, spinning out of Remender which was awesome
X-Men -- Still expecting Brian Wood to be as great as his potential suggests
Young Avengers -- Kieron Gillen has questions marks, but I like all of these characters, esp. Loki

The Bad Books:

Red She-Hulk: Jeff Parker got the shaft on the transition to Marvel Now! I think his Hulk and Thunderbolts books were both excellent. He got booted from both and moved to a dead end job: writing She-Hulk. No one can write She-Hulk. You want to know the problem with She-Hulk? It sucks. The end. They should put Jeff Parker on a real Defenders book (not the Fearless Defenders, which is really a throwback to a cross-over follow-up no one liked and no one can be sure why they're keeping it around as a plot-device). Red She-Hulk is Betty Ross-Banner (or are they officially divorced now, I dunno) turned into a gamma monster hanging out with Machine Man. Machine Man is the good part. That should really tell you something.

X-Men Legacy: Pure crap. Simon Spurrier has never impressed me much. Tan Eng Huat has been misused consistently since his work on Doom Patrol. This book is a trainwreck. It looks terrible and reads like gibberish. It doesn't help that they've taken a twelfth-rated X-Man and given him, basically, a solo book. Legion is dumb, stop it.

Avengers Arena: Hopeless says it all. He's the writer of this book by the way, but it also expresses the mood of this Hunger Games knock-off, tweener crapfest. The concept sucks. The art is not good. Hopeless is getting big Marvel titles, like the Ultimates, and just crushing them into non-existence. He even ruined an Arcade book for me. I love Arcade. Stupid Dennis Hopeless. If Paul Cornell wrote this book, it would be awesome for like 50 issues. As it stands, unreadable.

Cable and X-Force: Did I mention how much Dennis Hopeless sucks? He took over the best book of the last 3 years and immediately pooped all over it. You know what the worst thing ever about X-Force was? Cable. Who is the worst X-Man? Bishop, obviously, but Cable is close. I expect Bishop to show up any time now. And Stryfe. And everything else bad about the 1990's. The one reason this book has any value is because of how sick Forge is. Forge rules. I'm still reading this crap book in hopes that Forge becomes the badass he should be. But, generally, this book takes everything awesome about X-Force when Remender was on it, forgets it, and restarted Rob Liefield without the eye-popping visuals. Have fun with that, X-Force fans.

Thunderbolts: Daniel Way and Steve Dillon? SIIIIIICCCCKKKKK. To my stomach. What happened to Planet Hulk era Daniel Way (for all that matters, where is Greg Pak?)? What happened to Punisher and Preacher Steve Dillon. This is at worst uninspired and at best a mockery of everything good about comic books. It reminds me of the Wolverine, Punisher, Ghost Rider maxi-series, from, say, 1992. How could this go wrong? Oh everything about it will suck. The story will be bad. Cool looking characters will be drawn poorly. There will be absolutely no overarching plot. It will be soulless corporate crap that everyone wants to forget. And two great creators will be ashamed of themselves. Daniel Way, note to you, stop letting Marvel demand that you make dumb books. You're talented. Steve Dillon, you illustrated what is one of the best 80 issue comic book series of all time; have some respect for yourself. Give Thunderbolts back to Jeff Parker.

Fearless Defenders: Cullen Bunn is awful. Just terrible. Do you remember when he started to write some of the Brubaker Captain America's and everyone was like "It'll be fine. Brubaker still had all the ideas and he'll just write them."? He couldn't even do that. It was trash. His dialogue sounds like it came from the brain of a drug addled 11 year-old. He apparently asks his artists to produce panels that could bore Nick Cage to sleep. This book adds to that level of skill a concept so obnoxious, so underwhelming, so thoroughly pointless that even Art Adams couldn't pull it off. NO ONE WANTS TO READ A VALKYRIE BOOK. EVER!!!! Misty Knight is cool. Bring back Heroes for Hire. Don't make her a god damned lesser Norse god. That's moronic. This book is stupid out of the gates.

Nova: I haven't even read it and I can't wait to drop it. That's how dumb this book is. I guess they think kids might buy it with McGuiness art and Nova's popularity from the USM cartoon (he is funny there, I'm sure Jeph Loeb will ruin that). I think they're underestimating kids intelligence and overestimating their potential share of comic sales. Maybe they just think they can sell more toys. That's fine as long as you don't mind running a loss on the book.

So, this concludes my full run-down of Marvel Now! stuff. I'll add that I think the Ultimate line is on the ropes. It's basically all terrible except USM, which is likely to be the only title that survives. I'm sure they'll try to re-re-relaunch UXM and Ultimates at some point (maybe in conjunction with their respective upcoming films), but the books are off the rails. Hard to imagine their being saved atm. I think the most unfortunate missteps have concerned Marvel's handling of X-Force coming off of the incredibly well-received Remender book and their basically benching Jeff Parker. X-Force had such momentum and Parker has so much talent it's hard to get what happened to both the product and creator there. I'd say, generally, the biggest risk is that Uncanny Avengers never gets going. That would be a huge problem with two of their top creators on what amounts to an all-star team book. Hard to see how they flub that one without it being considered a huge management error. Overally, Marvel is still winning the product wars but I believe they took a mild step back in the recent relaunch so far. With more promising books to come, hopefully they can get right back on track.