Firstly, I'll be reviewing the House of M TPB (written by Brian Michael Bendis, pencilled by Oliver Coipel, inked by Tim Townsend, Rick Magyar, Scott Hanna and John Dell, coloured by Frank D'Armata and lettered by Chris Elipoulos), which also The Pulse, which is pretty much just advertising in comic book form (or newspaper in a comic book form?). I mean, sure, it does show (sortof) what's happening around the Marvelverse, but it's just advertising and is pretty ignorable really...
The first problem I have with this book is that after issue 1 (with alot of talking, which I don't mind), issue 2 just shows us what people's lives are like in this new world. That's fine and dandy in itself, but it's an event book, and it really shows the problem with this book - the pacing is all a bit off. I get that this new world needs to be established, but it probably was a big letdown for people reading this as it came out. For me, it's fine, but for others it might've caused a few issues.
The main problem with this book is that it suffers from Wolverine Publicity (thank you TVTropes). This is one of the few books where him being centre star of the series actually makes sense and works (which I don't mind, even though I really don't like him) - the problem is that he's been in everything else ever for the last who knows how many years. We've been inundated with him, which really drags the book down, though it isn't it's fault.
Another problem with this is a general problem with Brian Bendis - his endings of each issue aren't that great, and generally I find hamper the story a little bit:
- Issue 1: It should've ended a page earlier. Instead of showing Peter and Gwen, it should've just ended with that mahusive white flash, a whole new world, who knows what to expect from it kindof thing. And it would tie in with the ending of issue 7, a complete full circle of 6 issues, as it were...
- Issue 2: Yeah, it looks pretty, sortof. And? That's about it, it doesn't hold much significance for me. I mean, sure, Sentinels, SHIELD, what you have to assume is something important (the House of M flag) etc.
- Issue 3: A classic superhero comic flaw. They're having a standoff after they've told Wolverine he's got a tracking device in him. Wait, what? And it just carries on into issue 4 exactly how you would expect because superheroes can never agree, talk or do sensible things. They just have to fight...
- Issue 4: Yeah, let's just have a beer while saying the whole world's buggered. Great...
- Issue 6: It's meant to install hope, as it were, but, I dunno, it just rings slightly odd to me...
Anywho, enough complaining about endings, I mean, I've probably complained enough on this TPB anyway. Because, even though I've just made loads of complaints about it, and haven't even mentioned how convenient the whole Layla thing is, I did enjoy this book. It was fun, didn't really have a message in it, Emma Frost didn't dress like a slut (a good thing, as I actually enjoy reading it more when she's just wearing the suit and coat then when wearing, well, almost nothing. It's something irritates me with comics. Though Polaris wearing almost nothing in places did bring it down a bit...), Hawkeye's costume was pretty damn cool, the artwork was solid and interesting, but not brilliant. So yeah, I enjoyed this one.
But on a bad note: Peter Parker. Shut up. You're complaining when everyone else has suffered the same shit you have in this one. What right do you have to complain any more than the others here? Shut up, move on, and stop whining. Unless you want to turn into Toby Maguire...
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After that, we've now got X-Men: The 198 (written by David Hine, pencilled by Jim Muniz, inked by Kevin Conrad, Jonathon Glapton and Don Hillsman III, coloured by Matt Milla and lettered by Joe Caramagna), pretty much dealing with the aftermath of House of M.
The problem here is that is suffers from so much wasted potential, and the typical superhero fight at the end. It's got some many point that could be taken further, showing the real schism about what's happening here - the 'voluntary' capturing of mutants, the camps, all that stuff. But it really looses it's message because it ends up being your typical superhero comic when instead it could've been something so much better, something much cleverer. Something that really would've caused a lasting impact on the Marvel world. I mean, there's so many paths that they could've gone down. But instead, well, it fails at any message it was trying to deliver.
And yes, I did enjoy reading this, but it really does suffer from it could've been so much better syndrome. And the ending, well, er, what the hell was that?
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Now I have to move onto Secret Invasion (written by Brian Michael Bendis, pecilled by Leinil Francis Yu, inked by Mark Morales, coloured by Laura Martin and Emily Warren, and lettered by Chris Eliopoulos). I don't know whether I can or not... I mean, do I have to?...
It was a mess, from start to finish. Issue 1 started badly by just jumping off from some other comic I've missed, which is always a problem. I mean, it's like starting Civil War from the cleanup operation, instead of beginning at Stamford... And then it just get's confusing, I didn't really have much idea what was going on. I get that might be because Brian wanted it to be confusing to show how it was for the characters themselves, but it was just a jumble really.
And it doesn't explain at all why suddenly Osborn gets power over everything. Because he shot the Skrull Queen, when there were about five heroes about to kill her, he becomes the hero of the hour? Er, right. Yeah...
The artwork was alright, but much worse than House of M and The 198 (which was cartoony, but in a good way). It wasn't terrible art, but it's definitely on the lower scale of alright, heading towards bad...
I honestly can't review this one anymore, it just makes me want to bludgeon my head against a brick wall. Repeatedly. It's that bad. Actually, that brick wall sounds delightful. Maybe it'll erase the stain of this comic from my mind...
Wow, I pretty much agree with you 100% here, Nagash! I did enjoy HoM(that was before my BENDIS burnout)and X-Men: 198 was OK, although I don't really remember the ending clearly, I may dig that mini out to refresh my memory. The really weird thing about HoM #2 was that there were SO many HoM tie-ins going on at about the same time where you really get a good look at everyones new lives. Wolvie's series had a tie-in. There was a Spidey HoM mini. Iron Man, the Hulk, the FF, everybody HAD a mini or a tie-in, so issue #2 was just SO unnecessary. You'd think the main mini would deal with the main storyline, while the tie-ins could be used to fill background stuff in.
ReplyDeleteI am SO glad you hated Secret Invasion, if you had typed that you enjoyed it, you would've worried me! It was as bad as you said, if not worse! I could go on an extended rant about SI(I'm sure I already have several times on my blog!), but I'll spare you and simply say I agree with you completely.
Where exactly did you feel he took upon the chaotic shroud of green-skeined failure, the cursed ring forged from the heart of Mordor, the boringness of his voice when you try to listen to him in a video? Where he took up the mantle that you proclaimed him the DARK LORD BENDIS?
ReplyDeleteBeing over the top and hamming it up is AWESOME :D
The ending, was, well, weird... I won't spoil it for you though...
See, with HoM, that's part of the problem with crossovers - they end up either missing stuff out or repeating themselves. Nobodies really managed to right a crossover which doesn't do that...
The problem is that it wasn't much of a review, cause it just made my head hurt. It was just completely and utterly terribly dire... I had to get out of talking about that comic as soon as possible. I didn't even bother to read the stuff after issue 8 (it had a bonus comic and a Skrull character guide), as I just wanted to get away from it. Not good for a comic, eh?
"Being over the top and hamming it up is AWESOME" Don't I know that to be true!
ReplyDeleteHmm, that's a good question... I think it was probably around the lead up to Secret Invasion/the beginning of the Mighty Avengers series. That's when he went from Bendis to BENDIS! If you think Secret Invasion was bad, the lead up to it was even worse! None of the stories made sense, everything was disjointed, and my personal favorite was the New/Mighty Avengers issues that didn't even bother to have ONE single current Avenger in it! That really wracked my brain...
You don't know how many times I'll read a comic and feel the same way you did with Secret Invasion. For me, it's really painful reading most of the x-titles nowadays. I can't even bring myself to read X-Men: Legacy or Astonishing X, and I basically read and review Uncanny as quickly as I can. If you ever want to depress me, just mention the x-books.
I'M BRIAN BLESSED!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhen I grow up, I want to be that awesome.
When you say didn't have an Avenger in it, do you mean none of the classic Avengers (Thor, Cap, Iron Man, YellowGoliAntWaspJacketMan etc) in, and just had people like Spidey, Wolverine etc, or none whatsoever?
Hmmm, maybe HE was replaced with a Skrull?
Then just to torment you, and also just to say, I picked up two issues of New X-Men today. Issues 42 and 43. Now, I know they're by Yost, but also by Kyle, and I like to think that Kyle just slapped Yost everytime he tried to write something stupid.
Which is why Yost can't write nowadays. He's got brain damage from being slapped too much by Kyle because he had too many stupid ideas.
The actual issues weren't that bad, I'll be skimming around that point, I'm liking Scottie Young's artwork, the bits were funny and anyway, how can you say no to a comic with Wolverine yelling, and I quote "$#%^ing unicorns!"?
I mean there wasn't any Avenger, current or past in it! For example, one of the books(I don't remember which)had Marvel Boy and the Skrull Captain Marvel, and that was it! I think another one may have only had Nick Fury and his band of losers in it... I mean, with so many Avengers to choose from, couldn't ONE of them show up?
ReplyDeleteYou know, BENDIS being replaced by a Skrull does make some sense. There was a time when he was among my favorite writers believe it or not, so maybe one of those damn Skrulls did have something to do with it.
Ha, if Kyle had slapped Yost in the head everytime he had a stupid idea, I think he'd be a drooling mess by now!
Hmmm, New X-Men... That series was one of the main reasons I began reading DC books. I really used to love that series before Yost and Kyle began their reign of terror... I actually have the full series, but I think I stopped reading them around issue #30 or so. See, now I'm depressed!
See, now that's just wrong. That's like the Justice League starring Snapper Carr, Rop Lop Fan and Harley Quinn. Sure, two of the characters are cool characters, but, well, you get the analogy...
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely around that period you see him go a bit laa laa, but he seems to be getting better. I enjoyed 1-6 of Dark Avengers anyway...
Isn't that what he is though? :D
See, I enjoyed the 2 issues I've read, but they are the only two I have actually got. I'll be looking for the Quest for Magik stuff, but not really interested in that crossover thing that happens afterwards...
Maybe it's like Gotham City Sirens, it's probably not really that good, but it's funny and silly and a sortof guilty pleasure.
MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA, kneel before me son of the summer, for I am, the master of toying with your comic emotions :D
You know, out of all the things BENDIS has done recently, the thing I like the most is Dark Avengers! He seems to save his best work for that book for some reason.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny that you mention GCS as a guilty pleasure of yours, because that's EXACTLY what New X-Men(New Mutants before that)was to me before Yost and Kyle took it over. It was just a light-hearted, fun little read. Nothing ever really happened, it was what it was, mutant kids attending an all-mutant school. They never even really fought super-villains or anything like that, they just did "normal" mutant kid stuff. When I needed to unwind from a hard day at work or school, I'd grab a copy of New X-Men/New Mutants because it was so inoffensive. *sigh* I miss that book...
You just think that even his best work isn't even that good, having looked at your reviews :P and of course he would, it's villains pretending to be heroes. Cue hilarity...
ReplyDeleteYeah, one thing about the X books: stop changing the damn names!!!
I must've grabbed the only two issues where nothing much happens then - it's the two where they're trying to find the youngest mutant, Rockslide and Anole call each other sissy's and fight, and Wolverine tries to get Pixie in the Danger Room...
I think during the earliest issues of DA I was at the peak of my anti-BENDIS mindset, so that probably explains some of the scores. Then again, if you compare the scores I gave for New Avengers to the scores for DA, I'd bet DA averages way higher! I think DA actually began to grow on me, while I just kept getting more and more tired of NA. Yeah, villains pretending to be heroes is a hard story idea to mess up. With that said though,
ReplyDeleteDark Avengers < the original Thunderbolts!
I think it was the Childhood's End storyline that took me off of New X-Men for good. I continued to collect them(mainly because I had a subscription to the series, plus my sister would still read them), but after that storyarc, I was disgusted by the new direction of the series. In like 6 issues, no fewer then 6 regular characters(along with like 20 supporting characters)were killed off, for the most part in very forgettable, unheroic ways. I'd been reading about those characters for a good 35 issues, and then BAM, Yost/Kyle come along with their beloved X-23 and basically kill off all of the characters I'd grown attached to... Yeah, to this day it still pisses me off...
Is New Avengers the one with Pym as the Wasp, Hercules, USAgent et all?
ReplyDeleteWasn't Thunderbolts written by someone really notable who I've now completely forgotten who it was that wrote it? Oops >.<
Was Childhood's End the one with the Purifers who blew up the bus? (or something)
X-23 - Wolverine in every way except with a XX chromosome pair?
Tis a good thing for me then that in the two issues I picked up she wasn't in much of it at all then?
Nah, Mighty Avengers is the one with the team you mentioned. That's the title not written by BENDIS!
ReplyDeleteKurt Busiek was the guy who initially came up with the Thunderbolts. Then Fabian Nicieza had a long run. Warren Ellis was also a writer for that series. I stopped reading after Warren's run, so I'm not really sure who became the writer after that.
Yup, that's the one... I might have accepted all of those deaths if they had died in battle(maybe...), or something more heroic...
X-23, the female clone of Wolverine. I can honestly say I don't get the appeal of her at all. She's pretty much a plain, dull version of Wolverine...
Oh, see, now that's where it's confusing. How many damn Avenger teams are they at the moment? FFS...
ReplyDeleteMight've been Warren Ellis, but I think it was someone else. Why'd ya stop?
Weren't they depowered at the time? And they were quite literally put on a bus (see TVTropes for what I mean).
She's Wolverine with breasts? I dunno, I'm meh to her...
Hmm, let's see, there's the New Avengers, the Mighty Avengers, the Dark Avengers, then there's the Avengers: Initiative(which is sort of like an Avengers training grounds), plus there's the Avengers Resistance, so yeah, it's easy to get it all mixed up!
ReplyDeleteThe main reason I stopped was probably money. Storywise, it was pretty easy to drop the T-bolts though. By the time I dropped the title, there were pretty much no original T-Bolt members left in the book.
Well, the ones on the bus were depowered, but others, like Icarus and Wallflower still had their powers. I still don't see the reasoning behind killing off such a large number of potential future X-Men, especially since Marvel doesn't want to/can't create any new mutants.
Yeah, that's X-23 in a nutshell, Wolverine with breasts and ZERO personality.
Mighty New Dark Avengers Initiative Resistance, ASSEMBLE!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I don't think that'll catch on...
So nowhere near as bad as Batman & Robin or Magog then?
The question is how much of that was there idea and how much was Joe's.
*cough* One More Day *cough*
Not even good ones at that. Yes, I went there. BURN :D