Where Demons Feat To Dwell!

Another disappointing Dazzler issue. This one consisted almost entirely of a fight between about a million heroes and a bunch of demons called forth by the Enchantress. It was really boring and, even though the winning blow went to the Dazzler, it again seemed like a way to distract the readers from the title character.

Rating:

So Bright This Star

Well, my enchantment with the Dazzler is over. This issue was pretty terrible. I hate when debuts (or any issue really) is just filled to the brim with lame guest cameos, as a thinly-veiled attempt to draw in new readers. I guess it works — Spider-Man’s appearance is, afterall, why I’m reading this trash — but that doesn’t excuse it.

The issue fails on so many levels. First, Dazzler’s power seems to have gotten lamer since her appearance in Amazing Spider-Man. Instead of creating some kind of powerful light beams, she now creates silly light patterns in the air that simply befuddle her opponents. She also doesn’t seem to use her magic disco ball anymore, which is a total shame.

The structure of the issue is also a complete mess. The issue hops around from Dazzler to Spidey to the X-Men to a lame origin flashback to Asgard to the Avengers and back. It’s all a bunch of roundabout nonsense that leaves the reader as disoriented as the Dazzler’s victims.

Finally, the character herself is just completely uninteresting and unsympathetic. It’s fairly clear DeFalco doesn’t have any idea what to do with her, and it’s pretty telling that she only appears on of 15 out of 23 pages in her own debut title. The issue should be jam-packed full of Dazzler awesomeness, giving us an exiting taste of the character and the direction of the book. Instead we get weak filler.

(Also: Spider-Man makes a comment about getting photos for the Bugle. Potential problem in placement?)

Rating:

Fear!

This was surprisingly decent. I liked Mr. Fear. The relationship between Spidey and Hawkeye was nice too. It wasn’t just all buddy buddy as usual. Hawkeye was embarrassed a bit about working with Spidey but the two just basically acted professionally. There were some other nice touches too, like Hawkeye having to work a security job and Spidey browsing Hawkeye’s record collection.

My two biggest complaints are that the art wasn’t as crazy and imaginative a I would have liked for a fear issue, and Hawkeye’s gimmick is kinda lame. Rescuing himself from a fall with a flare arrow is kinda bullshits.

Overall I really enjoyed it.

Rating:

There’s One Iron Man Too Many!

…And a Child Shall Slay Them!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrators: Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott
Letters: Costanza
Colors: G. Wein
Originally published: February 1979

The Andromeda Attack!
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Illustrators: Keith Pollard, Joe Sinnott
Letterer: Jim Novak
Colorist: Francoise M.
Originally published: March 1979

Spidey’s unconscious from the Man-Wolf attack, so we’ll have a brief stopover with the Fantastic Four before rejoining him. First, the Fantastic Four battle Quasimodo and an evil duplicate of Iron Man. Next, the Fantastic Four fight evil duplicates of themselves. Finally, in 204, The FF deal with some Skrull stuff and Johnny Storm gets bamboozled by a fake university.

Spidey appears in a flashback in FF 202 and has a real appearance in FF 204, as a cut-away to a fight with the Man-Wolf in ASM 190. I’m reading 203 because it comes in between those! FF 202 and 203 should come before ASM 187, by the way.

Rating:

First Blood

Hmm…again, I jumped into the middle (or beginning?) and really had no idea what was happening here. It seemed mildly interesting, but without more info it’s really hard to tell.

Pete and MJ are seen when some shit goes down in Forest Hills.

Rating:

Excerpted material originally appeared in: Fantastic Four 44-47; Fantastic Four Annual 3; Strange Tales 161
Excerpted material by: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Jim Steranko, Vince Colletta, Joe Sinnott, Frank Giacoia

This issue is about Reed and Sue’s wedding and the Fantastic Four’s first meeting with the Inhumans. Spider-Man appears in one panel that I believe is new, during the big wedding fight. This was read out of order.

There are two characters that I didn’t recognize and couldn’t tag.

I like this Marvel Saga stuff, it’s really making me understand stuff more.

Rating:

At Last: The Decision!

A new set of Avengers is chosen. It very much resembles the existing lineup. There are lot of flashbacks, including one with Spidey. This was kind of like a crappy clips episode of a sitcom.

Why is Ben Grimm human, but wearing a Thing costume? I’ve clearly missed something there.

I probably shouldn’t have this smack dab in the middle of a cliffhanger.

Rating:

Claws!

Um this was a really insane action-packed issue. The Avengers are always good for excitement, that’s for sure. As usual when I read some random book like this, I had not idea what was going on really. This time, though, I didn’t especially care. It was a pretty enjoyable book, considering.

Spidey appears in a flashback with the Cat, one of my favourite characters.

Rating:

Midgard Aflame!

Loki invades Earth — specifically, Washington, DC — and, to ensure his battle is solely with Thor, he immobilizes every other super-powered individual on the planet. This includes Spider-Man, who appears in a brief cameo.

Even though I don’t really know most of the backstory, this was a thoroughly enjoyable issue. It also made me realize how much I miss John Buscema’s art. Nothing against Ross Andru or anything, but John Buscema is fantastic.

Rating:

The Messiah Machine!

Hawkeye and Spider-Man fight the robot Quasimodo. Hawkeye’s simultaneous defeat of all the robots around, including Quasimodo, is just far too preposterous. The story was pretty precarious too begin with, and that ending just pushed it over the edge into absurdity.

Rating:

To The Death!

I’m back to my correct chronology, and it’s the Avengers and the Defenders vs. Dormammu. I’m not a fan of these super-hero orgy issues, where every damn last Marvel character is thrown in. This issue manages to overcome this a little, but is still a little on the weak side.

Rating:

The Day She Died

I already wrote a review of this and it got deleted. I don’t feel like rewriting it, so here’s the summary: no good. I had high expectations after reading the other Marvels issues and after reading the Amazing Spider-Man stories this was based on. Unfortunately, this issue didn’t live up to either.

(Update: According the Chronology Project, Clark Kent is in this issue. I think I see who they’re talking about, so I’ve given this review a Superman tag.)

Rating:

The Incredible Shrinking Doom!

Hank Pym, now pretty much retired from super-heroing, is a professor at ESU. Peter Parker is helping him and his stupid dog with some experiment with American Indian drugs when some thug shows up and says that he and his goons have kidnapped Curt Connors’s son. They want the drugs in exchange for his safe return.

Hank turns into Ant-Man and sets of with Peter to stop the kidnappers. Ant-Man attacks and Peter – still in his civilian identity – joins in. Unfortunately, the good guys need to cooperate; the baddies have injected the kid with some kind of lethal injection, and unless the antidote is administered he will die. Everyone takes off together and heads into a secret mountain complex.

The Connors kid ends up escaping, Ant-Man and Peter end up getting injected and yadda yadda yadda the dog saves the day.

Peter does turn into Spider-Man at one point, but it’s not very exciting.

Rating:

The World is not for Burning!

It’s Christmastime, and Spidey shows up to hand out Toys for Tots, along with the Avengers.

A good chunk of this issue takes place in alternate universes, and for the sake of my own sanity I’m not tagging any characters from those alternative universes. It’s pretty cool, I guess.

Rating:

The Baxter Building Besieged!

The Sinister Secret of the Sentry!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Chuck Dixon
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Paul Ryan, Al Milgrom, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings, Wes Abbott
Cover: Michael Golden
Originally published: March 2001

When Strike These Sentinels!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Tom DeFalco
Pencils and inks: Eric Shanower, Ron Frenz, Paul Ryan, Tom Scioli, Bruce Timm, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Jae Lee, Bruce Timm
Originally published: April 2001

The Merciless Menace of Modok!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Jeph Loeb
Pencils and inks: Erik Larsen, Bruce Timm, Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Shannon Denton, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Bruce Timm
Originally published: May 2001

New York Knockdown!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Script: Kurt Busiek
Pencils and inks: Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Joe Bennett, Al Milgrom, Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Gordon Purcell, Bruce Timm
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: June 2001

Mayhem on the Moon!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Eric Stephenson
Layouts: Keith Giffen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm, Keith Giffen, Al Gordon, Jorge Pereira Lucas, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Michael Golden
Originally published: July 2001

…Touched by the Hand of Havoc!
Co-plotters: Eric Stephenson, Erik Larsen
Script: Tom DeFalco
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Cover: Keith Giffen, Bruce Timm
Pencils and inks: Rick Veitch, Al Williamson, Ron Frenz, Al Gordon, Mike Manley, Bruce Timm, Graham Nolan, Al Milgrom
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Originally published: August 2001

…To Aid the Avengers!
Co-plotters: Eric Stephenson, Erik Larsen
Script: Kurt Busiek
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Bruce Timm, Jorge Pereira Lucas, Al Milgrom, Bill Wray, Rick Vietch, Terry Beatty
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Cover: Rick Vietch, Bruce Timm
Originally published: September 2001

Nightmare in the Negative Zone!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Tom DeFalco
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, Frank Fosco, Bruce Timm, Bill Wray, John Beatty, Paul Ryan, Al Gordon
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Bruce Timm
Originally published: October 2001

On…To Asgard!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Bruce Timm
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Mike Royer, Dave Ross, Greg Adams, Joe Sinnott, Erik Larsen
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Bruce Timm, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: November 2001

Doom Triumphant!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Erik Larsen
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Bruce Timm, Frank Fosco, Mike Royer, Al Milgrom, Paul Ryan, Joe Sinnott
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: December 2001

Victor von Doom, Emperor of Earth!
Co-plotters: Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson
Script: Stan Lee
Layouts: Erik Larsen
Pencils and inks: Ron Frenz, Joe Sinnott, John Romita, Tom Palmer, Dan Jurgens, Al Milgrom, Steve Rude, Jorge Lucas, Bruce Timm, Scott Hanna
Colors: Eric Stephenson
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Cover: Erik Larsen, Joe Sinnott
Originally published: January 2002

Most of these are probably out of order, but I didn’t really care. I just figured I was kind of interested in reading them, and most of the FF’s chronology didn’t matter to me than much. Spider-Man appears in issue 3 in a brief cameo and as a floating head in the last issue.

It took me forever to get through these, which is why I haven’t updated in awhile. I don’t have a ton to say about them, but generally I thought they were pretty good. Lots of times these modern books that try to emulate the silver age style end up sucking really bad and failing miserable; these don’t. They somehow managed to stay pretty true to the style of the art and writing from the 60s and 70s, so kudos to everyone involved.

My biggest complain with this series is that it was too long. The story was pretty cool, but I think it could have been told better in eight or six issues instead of twelve. By the end, the whole thing was wearing a bit thin. Even the endless cameos, which I thought worked really well for the first while, started to get extremely tiresome by around issue 8 or 9. Even so, these problems didn’t actually detract from the books on an individual basis, as they were fairly uniformly entertaining.

Rating:

Beware… the Black Widow!

It totally threw me off that Spider-Man claims the Black Widow is a “female copy of [him]self”. I’m not crazy familiar with the character, but she’s shown up in a bunch of Avengers stuff that I’ve read and I never noticed any spider-like powers, despite the name. It’s also weird that the splash page calls her a “new costumed adventurer”: this is the same Black Widow that’s been around for awhile – though, admittedly, she does get a new (smoking hot) costume.

Anyway, this issue starts with Spidey apparently swinging home after his encounter with the Kingpin (since apparently all the shit I read since then was in the wrong spot – see previous post). We’re then treated to a little Black Widow recap in a nutshell. When Spider-Man gets home, he finds Gwen, Capt. Stacy and Harry waiting for him. As far as they know, he’s been taken captive by Spider-Man. Pete is covered in bruises from his fight (wait – I just realized Spider-Man never actually got involved with the fight. Why was he bruised?!), and Gwen first drops the L-bomb, then asks Pete to promise to never have anything to do with Spider-Man again. Ouch.

In addition to his usual girl problems, Pete has a case of his not-infrequent dizzy/groggy spells, and he feels like his powers may be fading. This usually means he’ll be fighting somebody less powerful than himself later, and that Stan needed a reason for him to not be able to beat the crap out of this lesser foe. In this case it’s pretty obvious that he’ll end up fighting the Black Widow.

Speaking of Natasha, we cut back to her in her new costume, testing out her new web-shooter – which she readily admits is “just like a female imitation of the original wall-crawling, web-shooting Spider-Man”. Man, shit like that makes me cringe. She wants to find the secret to Spider-Man’s powers, so she sets out to find him.

It’s weird, apparently she does have Spider-Man’s powers, or at least some of them. She’s shown clinging to walls. Why didn’t I know about this? Perhaps I am stupid. But, later she says she gets her powers or whatever from training and special weapons. How would those help her walk on walls? What am I missing?

For some reason they start fighting. It’s really ridiculous actually, and pretty unbelievable. They end up fighting more or less to a standstill, but the Black Widow is still amazed by Spidey’s powers, even in his weakened state. She goes back home and decides she should just be herself, gosh darnit. And wouldn’t ya know it? We get to see her be herself in her own monthly book that’s just starting! Pff.

Anyway, Pete goes home and is still feeling like ass. He decides to test his own blood, but he’s afraid to look at the results. It ends with Pete realizing he’s really afraid to lose his powers.

This issue was alright. The Black Widow stuff was kinda weird and dumb, and it’s pretty annoying that it was just a crossover to launch her own stupid book. Most of the Peter stuff was pretty good, though – everything with Gwen, him being afraid of losing his powers, all that jazz.

This issue has the third Spider-Man Woody Allen reference.

Rating:

The Name Is…Yellowjacket!

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: March 2007

…Till Death Do Us Part!
Writer: Roy Thomas
Artist: John Buscema
Inker: Mickey Demeo
Letterer: Sam Rosen
Originally published: January 1969

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: March 2007

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: April 2007

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: May 2007

In Avengers #59 a new super-hero, the mysterious Yellowjacket, shows up in town and tackles a few crooks. The next morning, Goliath – Hank Pym – doesn’t show up for an Avengers meeting. Just as everyone starts wondering where Hank is, Yellowjacket appears claiming that’s he killed Goliath. He kidnaps the Wasp, then makes out with her and lets her go. The rest of the Avengers show up as she’s leaving and they attack Yellowjacket – until Wasp stops them! When they ask her what’s up, she says she’s going to marry him! WTF?!

Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes #005 starts in basically the same spot as Avengers 59. There are some crooks, Yellowjacket shows up and trounces ‘em. (This time it’s a hell of a lot bloodier, which is sweet. Yellowjacket really seems like a lunatic.) It covers basically the same events, but shows much more of the background that’s going on – continuing investigation of Vision by SHIELD, Hawkeye’s relationship with the Black Widow, T’Challa’s secret life as a school teacher. When Yellowjacket shows up in Avengers Mansion in this issue, we see Jarvis scan the intruder and determine he is none other than – Hank Pym, Goliath! In this version of the story, all the Avengers realize it’s Hank but don’t let on at first. They suspect that he’s had some sort of breakdown (he has) and doesn’t really realize who he is (he doesn’t).

This is a nice retcon. It’s pretty insane to believe the Avengers wouldn’t recognize their teammate, and I like how this book handles it. They even have a SHIELD psychologist around who tells them to humour this new personality, so as not to harm Hank’s obviously fragile mind. This goes a long way towards explaining why the Avengers actually fight Yellowjacket in Avengers 59. Cool.

The issue ends right before Hank kidnaps the Wasp.

In Avengers #60, we continue the elaborate charade. To be honest, the retcon doesn’t work that well in this issue – there are still some moments when it’s painfully clear that the Avengers have no idea who Yellowjacket is. It works well enough, though, that will a little bit of suspension of disbelief, a little bit of slack, we can buy the whole thing. Sort of.

Anyway, because the story of Wasp apparently abandoning Hank for this Yellowjacket character – his supposed murderer – wasn’t enough for those 1960s action-hounds, there’s a whole other mess thrown into the mix. At the wedding ceremony, the caterers turn out to be the Ringmaster and his Circus of Crime! Man, talk about nutty. The event is hella rolodex, as weddings in the Marvel universe tend to be: there are super heroes up the wazoo.

This issue is actually shockingly lame. The fight with the Circus of Crime is really stupid, the big reveal is really stupid…I don’t know, it just kind of a huge let down.

Switching back to Earth’s MIghtiest Heroes, we again get to see the events of the wedding. This time we learn that whole wedding is a SHIELD operation. Everybody on staff, including the minister, is a SHIELD agent. The point? The Wasp seems to think it will snap Hank out of his psychosis. Everybody – the other Avengers (active and otherwise), SHIELD – is pissed at the Wasp for doing it, but they still go along with it.

Meanwhile, that Death Tiger character is still after the Black Panther. He shows up outside the wedding and is stopped by SHIELD agents on patrol. The issue ends with Princess Python’s dumb snake jumping out of the dumb cake.

EMH 7 continues, with Yellowjacket flipping out and revealing himself as Goliath – basically the end of Avengers 60. Once the smoke has cleared Hank gets carted off by SHEILD for a thorough examination, and we learn that SHIELD lost some agents. Knowing full-well that the Circus of Crime are a bunch of lame douchebags, they wonder how that could be…but we know it musta been bad ol’ Death Tiger. The Black Panther, God bless him, figures it out pretty quickly after seeing the bodies.

A couple days later, Death Tiger shows up at the public school where Black Panther is teaching, but doesn’t do anything really..at first. Later, this bullied kid that the Panther is trying to help goes off the deep-end. He’s preparing the blow the brains out of his tormentor when Death Tiger shows up again, this time in the school. Death Tiger and the Black Panther fight like crazy in the middle of a classroom and, after the Panther ends up getting knocked out of window, out in an alley (I think…). The Panther puts up a good fight, but is eventually knocked down. Just as the Tiger is about to finish Panther off, the nutso kid with gun shoots the Death Tiger! Yeah!

The obvious message is that all schoolchildren should carry guns and, hopefully, be capable of murder. Right? Actually, the Panther looks pretty shaken up and disappointed in the kid. But whatever.

Back at the Avengers mansion, Vision is down in the dumps about all the humans in the city hating him. In the last page of the issue, he goes up to the roof and runs into the evil escaped adaptoid.

Finally we reach the end of this saga. EMH 8 opens with the crazy-gun-kid in the police station, and the Black Panther showing up (in super-hero costume, rather than teacher-costume) to talk to him and chastise him. He ends up revealing to the kid who he is, and does thank him for his actions. He tells the dumb kid to accept the consequences of his actions like a man, and to use them as a source of strength. Nice, I guess.

Back at the mansion, there’s a big-ass fight with the super-adaptoid. The adaptoid mostly picks on Vision, and tries to get him riled up with insults and attacks on innocent bystanders. Vision wipes the floor with him in a very anti-climactic fight, but it does warm the public’s opinion of him.

After that, it’s just a bit of wrap-up. T’Challa’s still teaching and becomes Avengers chairman, Hawkeye and Black Widow break up, and Captain American and Iron Man hug. It’s all warm and fuzzy.

Spider-Man shows up to heckle J. Jonah Jameson at one point in Avengers 59, and at the wedding in Avengers 60 and Earth’s Mightiest Heroes 6.

Ok, so overall these issues were OK, but sorta boring. The wedding thing really threw the whole story off in my opinion, but I don’t know who to blame for that. It was in the original series, so it can’t really be ignored. Then again, Casey chose to write about this point in Avengers history… I didn’t mind reading this series, but I certainly wasn’t as enthralled as I was with the first series.

Rating:

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: January 2007

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: February 2007

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencils: Will Rosado
Inks: Tom Palmer
Colors: Wil Quintana
Originally published: February 2007

So far this series is focusing on the induction of the Vision into the Avengers. He is an android — actually a “synthezoid” — originally designed to destroy the Avengers. Having changed his ways, though, he is welcomed by the Avengers into the fold. Other groups, however, are not so sure about Vision. The government and SHIELD get involved and take Vision into custody.

Meanwhile, another android — a super-adaptoid with the powers of all/most of the Avengers — has been captured by AIM (bad guys) and is being used to create a secret army of duplicates. SHIELD asks the Avengers (including Vision) to go in and solve this shit. They do (mostly), but it leaves Goliath (aka Hank Pym, former Ant Man and Giant Man) suffering from severe shock and psychological problems. The fourth issue ends with him waking up from nightmares and flying off the deep-end, tearing the shit out of his own garage.

There’s a C-plot involving T’Challa, the Black Panther, who has also just recently joined the Avengers. He has taken on a secret civilian personality as a public school teacher in Harlem. His motivations (other than pure do-goodery) are unclear, but the whole thing has pissed off some of his enemies and they’ve hired an assassin to rub him out.

I loved the first Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. This one’s good too, but I don’t think it’s quite as good as the original. The plot is interesting, but I think I’d be getting more out of it if I had been reading more of the Avengers stuff that was going on at this time. My main problem with these issues, though, is that the writing seems a little disjointed. It’s almost as if certain panels or pages have been removed to make space, leaving the connections between the remaining panels more tenuous and opaque. It’s not impossible (or even difficult) to read, it just seems a little fragmentary.

No Spider-Man in this series yet.

Rating:

This was pretty intense. It was all about S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra, and a bunch of stuff I don’t really know about — but it was still pretty awesome.

When the Supreme Hydra declares that he’s killed Nick Fury (not true), Spider-Man is shown with a bunch of other heroes receiving the news.

Rating:

The Avengers are considering offering Spider-Man membership in their group. They call up Daredevil to ask what he thinks, and he gives Spidey the thumbs-up. Spider-Man decides to give it a shot, but in typical fashion he completely blows his top over nothing and starts fighting with all the assembled Avengers. Peter’s temper really pisses me off. For some reason they look past that and give him a test to determine his worthiness – bringing in the Hulk.

Spider-Man goes after him, but during the fight he discovers the Hulk’s true identity of Dr. Bruce Banner and has second thoughts about fighting him. He ends up lying to the Avengers and telling them that he couldn’t even find the Hulk. Spider-Man doesn’t realize that the Avengers wanted to help the Hulk as much as he did. It’s all kinda sad actually.

Rating:

This issue starts awhile back from my current place in the chronology, but it ends sorta right after the whole thing with the Looter from Amazing Spider-Man 36. The background for this issue is the first visit of Galactus and all the events surrounding that (in Fantastic Four). The main idea of the issue, though, is the world’s growing frustration with the Marvels and Phil Sheldon’s growing anger at this.

To be honest, this issue wasn’t as captivating for me as the others have been so far. The art was still great and the writing was still good, but for some reason it wasn’t able to keep me as interested as I have been up ’til now. Perhaps it’s still lingering disappointment over that Heroes & Legends shit. :/ Anyway, this was still good, just not up to Marvels standards I don’t think.

Oh and Spider-Man was actually in this one! (Actually, Kraven in a Spider-Man suit was, but then Peter Parker was in it later).

Rating:

Writer: Joe Casey
Art: Scott Kolins
Colors: Wil Quintana
Letters: Richard Starkings
Originally published: April 2005

Writer: Joe Casey
Art: Scott Kolins
Colors: Wil Quintana
Letters: Richard Starkings
Originally published: April 2005

Once again, these were in the wrong order. They should have all come at some point before FF Annual #3 at least. That didn’t stop them from being awesome though! These three issues pick up the story of the early Avengers as they are about to go through some roster changes. After the Wasp’s shooting in issue #2, she and Giant Man are questioning their involvement and decide to leave; Thor is called off to Asgard for some godly duties; Captain America heads to South America to rescue Rick and finally defeat Zemo.

Then we get some new members: Hawkeye and renegade mutants, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Subtract Iron Man, add back in Captain America as the new leader, and the new lineup is complete. Everyone rejoice!

This series did not disappoint, I loved the whole thing. The writing and art were consistently great, and it was a cool approach to a series.

One thing to note: when I got to the end I realized Spider-Man wasn’t in the series at all. I was under the impression he was, which is why it was on the list. But — surprise — he’s actually in one of the issues of the second volume. I guess I’ll have to add that in. As annoying as this mistake is, I can’t really complain; this series was just too good.

Rating:

Yeah, more Kurt Busiek! And Alex Ross’s art again! Woo!

Seriously, I love Marvels. It’s super good. In this issue Busiek deals with the emerging mutant “menace”. It turns out everybody — everybody — hates the mutants. A lot. Like, I thought Spider-Man was hated by the public, but Busiek puts people’s fear and distrust of mutants in a whole other category. Even our protagonist, photojournalist (and now budding author) Phil Sheldon, hates the “muties” and ends up clocking Iceman in the head with a brick.

That all changes, though, when Sheldon’s daughters find and rescue a lonely little mutant girl. Sheldon agrees to take her in, and his views begin to change. The mutant story comes to a head when the Sentinel robots are released, sparking mass riots and general chaos. Sheldon sees his friends and neighbours turn into far worse monsters than the mutants they’re raging against.

The chaos and anti-mutant fire is contrasted with the whole city’s celebration of Reed Richard and Sue Storm’s engagement and subsequent wedding. The city adores the Fantastic Four, and the wedding is a blow-out extravaganza that catches the interest of the whole town. The fact that the wedding and the release of the Sentinels occurs on the same day just helps further sharpen the contrast between these two groups – the so-called Marvels and the mutants – and the public perception of them.

This is a great issue in what’s turning out to be a great series. Busiek’s writing and Ross’s beautiful, stunning paintings, make it a sheer joy to read.

Rating:

This was stupid-ass. It was just a lame way to throw just about every Marvel character in one issue. The story: Dr. Doom uses some kind of ray to get everybody to attack Reed and Sue’s wedding. And then the fight. For a million pages. Seriously check out the list of characters in the tags. I probably missed some, too.

Rating:

Really strong writing and art once again. I love this series, even if I don’t really have a clue what’s going on.

No Spidey.

Rating: