Secret Invasion #2: Mm, this felt a bit light for a chapter of a big event book. Nice art, and what’s here is well done, it’s just not really enough of it to be satisfying. A few too many big panels and obvious reaction shots, not enough real content, and no big revelations. A bit of a step down from the excellent #1.
Mighty Avengers #13: Conversely, this Secret Invasion tie-in was densely satisfying, providing some really meaty SI B-story that seems likely to lead into more interesting areas than what happened in the main book this month. Even the appearance of Bendis’ intensely annoying amazing automatic foreshadowing plot device character Layla Miller doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm here. Still, I don’t know, I guess I’d like to see more of this stuff that’s been separated off into the Avengers tie-ins at least referred to in the main book once in awhile to break up the big fight scenes with random dinosaurs.
Invincible Iron Man #1: I’m still not convinced that a second monthly Iron Man book is necessary, but eh, what the hell — let ‘em cash in while the cashing’s good. Not overwhelmingly great but a good first chapter setup, with overall decent if distractingly obviously photoreferenced art. I think I still prefer the other Iron Man book, though.
Amazing Spider-Man #558: Regardless of the merits of the individual Amazing Spider-Man ‘Brand New Day’ arcs since Marvel began this thrice-monthly publishing schedule, I have to say I think the format in itself is a success (time to ditch the Brand New Day branding though, guys). While not everything that’s comes down the pike has been great, it’s all been decent, and when it comes out three times a month it’s easy to hang in there, since the stories don’t drag on forever. Hell, that whole dumbass Mephisto-retcon thing already seems like a long time ago. Especially now that they’re not locked to the 3-part story arc structure, there’s an energy and unpredictability about the book, yet also a certain, sort of ossified classic-DC sense of there being an inviolable set of standard situational story rules as well as a refreshing sense of disconnectedness from the rest of the Marvel line due to the necessary mechanics of publishing the book. This issue wasn’t great by any means, in fact it was kinda dumb, but I found myself not really minding. The maxim of the thrice-monthly ASM seems to be “Look, we can’t promise greatness, but we can promise consistent entertainment. And a lot of it.” And sometimes that’s good enough — that’s the case here, and I’m on for at least the next dozen issues or so.
DC Universe #0: This was a very effective job of weaving what were basically teasers together and making them all tie in thematically to an overarching story that was in itself a teaser. Writers Johns and Morrison did a good job making connections between the main story and the other bits in the book, though some of them were admittedly subtle and were only evident upon rereading. (The Red and the Black, anyone?) Don’t worry if you’re a tad confused at times, as this is basically a trailer: you shouldn’t expect to understand everything in this book yet even with a comprehensive knowledge of the DCU and recent events, as most of the stories teased have either not yet begun or just started. Myself, the only bit that didn’t really get me excited for what’s upcoming was the Wonder Woman segment; I dropped that book already and haven’t seen any reason to pick it up again yet. But holy shit I can’t wait for Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds and Final Crisis itself. Other than simply getting people hyped, I think the point that was successfully accomplished with DCU#0 and its attendant publicity is that it’s not so much important whether or not Barry Allen is back so much as what they do with him. And frankly, for anyone but me and other freaks the return of Barry is not a big enough event it and of itself to be the climax to a story this big. The sense I get from this is more like “Yes, okay, Barry is coming back, we’ve hinted at it heavily enough that you all know it. But we’re not gonna make you wait until Final Crisis #8 to see it, he’s coming back soon — and that’s when shit starts to break loose.”
2 comments ↓
I am with you 100% regarding Secret Invasion and Mighty Avengers. It almost seemed like Mighty Avengers 12-13 should’ve actually been Secret Invasion #2. This may be a by-product of Bendis’ original concept of running the Skrull invasion only through his 2 Avengers titles.
And thanks for reminding me that Fraction’s Iron Man book came out today. Hopefully my “A for effort, C for common (or comics) sense” LCS stocked up on the one comic most closely associated with THE GIGANTIC MOVIE THAT EVEN THE PEOPLE WHO THOUGHT OUR STORE WAS THE JACKSON HEWITT OFFICE NEXT DOOR SAW IN THE LAST 96 HOURS, and I’ll be able to snap it up tomorrow.
[...] with Final Crisis itself boiling along in the background (starting next week!) and the events of DC Universe #0, this series is looking more and more like it’s just biding time. I mean, seriously, The [...]
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