Starr The Slayer #1: Daniel Way & Richard Corben
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
As I’ve said in the past, I’ll buy pretty much any comic book that lurks on the outer edges of DC and Marvel. That’s where the off-the-wall, non-continuity stuff can be found, and there are some real gems that feel like someone’s sliding them under my door and running off. Starr The Slayer is one of the latest, written by Daniel Way (Deadpool) and illustrated by the most-excellent Richard Corben (Den; Hellboy; Cage).
In the first issue of this four-part mini-series, pulpy genre writer Len Carson enjoys wild success with a series of Conan-like books called Starr The Slayer. So successful that he’s soon churning out books like crazy and driving fast cars packed with top-heavy women. Y’know, just like real life. He soon tires of success because “the lit scene calls to me.” Twenty years after he’s abandoned his barbarian creation and failed to crack the world of tweed jackets, college professors and Borkum Riff, he’s ready to tackle his greatest creation one last time.
In a parallel story, Starr, a barbarian with a hot temper, journeys from his village to “civilization” with his family. They promptly hit a wall of trouble, his family is killed and Starr is forced to fight in an arena, where he brutalizes a local named Trull so badly that the disfigured guy runs away to concentrate on the black arts—and making these two parallel stories collide.
Click to continue reading Starr The Slayer #1: Daniel Way & Richard Corben
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M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1: Ryan Dunlavey
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
I love comics that stand out from the rack, and I particularly love them when they make me laugh. Out. Loud. M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1 is one of those comics and Ryan Dunlavey is my new favorite Marvel creator. Pitched as a tie-in to Marvel’s Dark Reign event, this one-shot is only tangentially but humorously connected through an opening sequence of phone messages from MODOK to Norman Osborn. I suspect someone in marketing needed a reason to slap a Dark Reign logo on the cover to boost sales. Well, I’m all in favor of anything that’ll sell more copies of things I like.
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby over 40 years ago, MODOK is a great choice for this kind of comic. He combines two great comic book archetypes: the character with the big head (like Steve Ditko’s The Leader), and the chair based being (like Kirby’s Metron).
And here he’s used for great comic effect in a story that has Osborn sending him to Erie, Pennsylvania to get him out of the way although MODOK thinks that “surely, Erie is the linchpin in the path of total world domination!” It’s also where his family lives and he’s just in time for his high school reunion. Dunlavey also manages to weave in MODOK’s high school backstory, a giant robot fight and abused minions who long for a better life.
Click to continue reading M.O.D.O.K. Reign Delay #1: Ryan Dunlavey
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Jack is Back: Jack Kirby Vs. Disney/Marvel
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
Of course, you knew it was coming. I didn’t, because sometimes I can’t see either the forest or the trees, but someone knew it was coming once it was announced that Disney was buying Marvel. Jack Kirby’s children have banded together, not unlike the countless groups their father created, to file motions of copyright termination to 45 of Kirby’s Marvel creations and co-creations.
Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily and Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool, weigh in with the details and analysis. Over at The Beat, Heidi McDonald also notes the news and has a very lively comments section (pay particular attention to the calm and rational ones by Nat Gertler and Kurt Busiek). Elsewhere, countless bloggers and message board attendees are posting about the shock and awe they feel. Their wild theories of how this is the end of everything—the equivalent of a comic book rapture—has them typing faster than they can down a box of Milk Duds.
Before everyone gets all Defcon Fanboy about it, I recommend reading up on the history—the continuity, if you will—of relations between Marvel and Jack Kirby.
Click to continue reading Jack is Back: Jack Kirby Vs. Disney/Marvel
Ultimate Comics Avengers 1: Mark Millar & Carlos Pacheco
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
This issue was a test for me. I’m not up on my current Marvel continuity and even if this was a Double Jeopardy round I don’t think I could tell Ultimate Avengers from Dark Avengers or even The Avengers with Patrick McNee and Diana Rigg. I prefer Marvel’s weirder mini-series and one-shots these days, whether it’s Marvel Apes, Marvel Zombies or the new Strange Tales.
So when this first issue came out, I thought I’d pick it up as a test. Will this issue seem like so much super-hero hieroglyphics that I’d need a Rosetta Stone of Continuity to keep up? Or will I be able to just leap into it and be entertained? In other words, how quickly will I have to go to the Wikipedia to figure out what’s going on?
The answer: I didn’t need Wikipedia at all. Yeah, Fury now looks a lot like Samuel L. Jackson (that’s the power of a multi-picture movie deal in the Marvel Universe), Carol Danvers (the one-time Ms. Marvel back when Mark Millar was in diapers) is now the director if S.H.I.E.L.D. Hawkeye is not only carrying a gun (yup), he’s now looking like some kind of ninja warrior in an outfit from a bad 1980s-era comic, wearing a mask that looks like he stole it from Bug’s Fourth World Kirby closet. Oh, and Tony Stark now looks like the current Robert Downey, Jr. and drinks and parties like the old Robert Downey, Jr.
Click to continue reading Ultimate Comics Avengers 1: Mark Millar & Carlos Pacheco
Marvel Comics Review: Marvels Project #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: ****
The work that’s been done by James Robinson and Geoff Johns at DC over the past 10 years with the DC Golden Age characters has been amazing. These men took these characters and have told some great stories. Well, thanks to Ed Brubaker, it looks like Marvel has their own guy to work some magic with their Golden Age characters. I know very little about Marvel’s Golden Age when they were then known as Timely Comics. Other than Captain America and the Invaders (then known as the All-Winners Squad) I really didn’t know much about anyone else. So when Ed Brubaker introduced the character of Thomas Halloway, The Angel in the first issue of the Marvels Project, I had to back track and do a Wikipedia search for the character to find out more about him. In this second issue, Halloway dons a costume and begins fighting crime as the Angel.
Other Golden Age characters make their appearance as well and begin fighting crime including: Fiery Mask, Mister E, and the Phantom Bullet.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Marvels Project #2
Weekend Reading: Disney, Marvel, Wolfman, Claremont, Starlin And The Lost Silver Surfer Novel!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics,
What a week, huh? Disney bought Marvel and everyone’s wondering how this will finally address their pet Marvel peeve. Before you get all fan-ish with what this means now and will mean in the future - they own the Ultraverse! They own Crossgen! They have to do this! They have to do that! They can hire Alan Moore! They’ll clean up Marvel! They’ll rollback prices! You should run over and read Steven Grant’s very perceptive take on the buyout in his Permanent Damage column. He’s a sharp guy and he makes excellent points.
In the meantime, there was other stuff for avid lurkers to check out and peruse in their spare time. Let’s take a look:
Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Tyrese Gibson, Marvel Digital and Stan Lee!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Image Comics, Marvel Comics,
Just when you thought that it was safe to stop sending out resumes, a few more new and interesting comic book jobs pop up on the digital radar. One’s a freelance job involving Stan Lee, and the others, well, how can they even compare? Let the job hunt begin with three tempting opportunities!
Stan Lee: Well, who wouldn’t want to work with Stan The Man? If it’s good enough for Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko and Pamela Anderson, then it’s perfectly acceptable for you, right? If that’s something you’d like to pursue, there’s an unnamed “L.A.-based film company with studio pictures in the pipeline” that’s jumped into the crowded comic book/graphic novel biz. They’re looking for artists for their books, some of which are proclaimed to be written by Stan. If you have a style that’s “dark and edgy” and can pencil, ink and color (this ain’t best 2 out of 3—they want it all), then a paid gig awaits. Naturally, they’d love it if you already had experience at the usual suspects.
Tyrese Gibson: The creator of Image Comics’ Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem is looking for “hard-working and dedicated interns” to join his company. You’ll be bouncing between all divisions of Mr. Gibson’s company—music, film/TV and comic books. If you’re looking to break into the business, Tyrese can help.
Click to continue reading Comic Book Jobs: Who’s Hiring? Tyrese Gibson, Marvel Digital and Stan Lee!
Disney Buys Marvel Comics: Top 20
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Marvel Comics,
Fanboys of a certain age will always remember where they were on Monday August 31, 2009, the day the vast Disney empire, home of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Quentin Tarantino, announced it was buying Marvel Comics, the home of Iron Man, X-Men, Spider-Man and all the rest, at a price of $4 billion.
For now, both sides are saying all the correct, corporate, and SEC-friendly things designed to placate worriers and fretters from Wall Street to Melrose Avenue. If you’d like to know what the future holds, though, here are the Top 20 Signs That Your Comic Book Company Has Been Bought By Disney:
Click to continue reading Disney Buys Marvel Comics: Top 20
Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, Marvel Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2 *
Captain America: Reborn is here! Ed Brubaker’s soon to be classic run on Captain America continues with this mini-series which will return Steve Rogers to land of the living, but did he ever really die in the first place?
In Captain America #600 we saw that Sharon Carter recovered the gun that she used to kill Steve. However, it appears that this is no ordinary gun and Steve Rogers was not killed, but instead he’s – somewhere else right now.
Ed Brubaker wastes no time in revealing what happened to Steve and how he will end up returning to the Marvel Universe.
It seems that the gun that Sharon used to “kill” Steve was part of a larger weapon that the Red Skull and Arnim Zola had borrowed from Dr. Doom. The weapon was a variation of Doom’s time platform. After the assassination, Sharon Cater was then strapped to the machine by Zola and the Skull to be used as a homing beacon of sorts in order to retrieve Steve’s body. Sharon was able to retrieve some of her senses and fought back which resulted in Steve becoming stuck in time and space. So where is he? He’s in the past.
Click to continue reading Marvel Comics Review: Captain America: Reborn #1
MARVEL COMICS: REAL FRANTIC ONES 2009!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
Face Front, True Believers! Back in the day, DC’s comics felt like they were put together in a giant office that might have resembled an insurance company or a tightly-packed Mad Men set. Think guys with buzzcuts, white shirts, ties and shiny shoes, occasionally having a cigarette while trying to create comic books for 12-year-olds. Marvel Comics presented themselves as the anti-DC: hipsters and cool cats who were tapped into the youth of today and their crazy scene, man.
One of the great things that Marvel did to cement its relationship with the fans and start building the mythology of the Marvel offices – the bullpen - as the original frat party for comics nerds was to get more personal. Stan Lee gave everyone snappy and with-it nicknames – Stan “The Man” Lee, Jack “The King” Kirby, “Darlin’” Dick Ayers, “Jolly” Solly Brodsky, “Our Pal” Sal Buscema, and dozens more. You can find a fairly complete list over at the Wikipedia.
(Comic book and TV writer Paul Cornell – Captain Britain and Doctor Who - recently collected a list of snappy nicknames for modern comics creators.)
In the 1967 Bullpen Bulletins page that ran in Marvel’s comics, then-fan Mark Evanier suggested some equally snappy “nicknames” in the form of honorary titles for Marvel fans. You can see that original page over here.
That letter sparked what became known as The Hallowed Ranks of Marveldom, a list of aspirational titles that ran on the letters pages in Marvel’s comics. Here’s the original list:
Click to continue reading MARVEL COMICS: REAL FRANTIC ONES 2009!
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