C2E2: The Sketches - Agent Coulson by Gabriel Hardman

Saving 12-Year-Old Me from the Avengers

Twelve-year-old me is positively beside himself about the Avengers movie coming next spring. And, I have to admit, 41-year-old me is pretty excited about it, too. I have never done an opening night, midnight screening of a movie, but I told Tracy and Jack when we left the theater after seeing Captain America that I am all about it for the Avengers premiere!

The interwebs and Twitterverse were abuzz last week when the first official trailer for Avengers was released. I was so excited when I finally hit the “play” button on my iPad, but, if I’m honest with myself, I was ultimately pretty let down by it.



There were three things that played against it for me...

First, the bulk of the trailer’s action sequences consisted of the explosions filmed in Cleveland this summer. When director Joss Whedon and his crew descended on Northeast Ohio earlier this year the Avengers hype reached a pretty high mark. I was fortunate enough to hear all kinds of cool behind the scenes details about the big budget production from a fellow POP! club member who was an extra during filming, and I don’t think I know anyone who avoided long and short clips of the action filmed here playing on the local news and YouTube months ago.

Second, the use of Nine Inch Nails’ “We’re in this Together” off 1999’s The Fragile felt horribly out of place. It was similar to my reaction rewatching the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie recently: The soundtrack dated the movie horribly. My affection for Nine Inch Nails, though deep, apparently does, in fact, know bounds.

Finally, there’s the thing that really rubbed me completely the wrong way about the trailer: Samuel L. Jackson’s first line in the trailer as Nick Fury is the answer to Agent Coulson’s off screen question, “What do we do?” And instead of a “We kick some ass!” or “We defend Earth!” or any number of bad ass quips you could hope for, you get a completely neutered, “We get ready.”

Wait.

What? We just... get ready?!

Every time I hear that line, it’s delivered in my head in Eddie Murphy’s mocking-the-up-tight-black-cop “You’re not gonna fall for the banana in the tailpipe” voice from Beverly Hills Cop.



Now, I realize this is a “getting the band together” movie, and the overall theme of it probably is actually about, well, getting ready… the heroes we’ve seen in all the other great Marvel movies being gathered by S.H.I.E.L.D. and preparing for battle against this movie’s Big Bad. But, man, I really expected more badassery out of the gate when Nick Fury first opens his mouth.

I guess I need to avoid any more promotional hype for this juggernaut whenever I can, for my sake and the sake of 12-year-old me who really, really wants to love this movie.

Generic Blog Post

I love hanging out with John. And a few Saturday’s ago, we had some time free of family responsibilities and decided to meet up at the Hartville Flea Market. It’s in the town where we grew up and, although it lacks the charm it held when we were younger, it can still yield the random, unexpected treasure.

Working our way through the stalls, we found a vendor selling comics. As I flipped through row after row of bagged and boarded single issues, I stumbled on Marvel’s Generic Comic Book. When I pulled it out of the longbox and held up the stark black and white cover, John glanced over at it and then me and asked if I’d ever seen that comic before. I answered, “no,” gobsmacking him right alongside me. It’s cover dated 1984 – clearly right in my wheelhouse, but remained under my radar for nearly 30 years!

I’m not naive enough to believe I know every Marvel comic of the era, but their quirky one-offs and stunt publishing endeavors always seemed to hold particular sway over me. Obnoxio the Clown vs. the X-Men. Marvel Tails, Starring Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham. Marvel Team-Up #74 between Spider-Man and the Not Ready For Prime Time Players. The adaptation of the TV show Sledge Hammer. The entire Assistant Editors’ Month run. (A collection of comics I adore so much, I devote an entire chapter of my book, Deus ex Comica, to the event!) But Generic Comic Book was an unknown quantity.

The price was right, so I decided to give it a go. I pulled it out of the taped-shut bag when I got home, and found no writing or art credits in it, only a “Stan Lee presents” banner across the splash page. I’m ok with that, actually. I mean, it’s generic, so nameless seems appropriate. It took some digging online, but the ever-reliable Comic Book Database tells me that Steve Skeates wrote the book and Larry Hama edited it. No idea who drew it, though.

According to the interwebs, Skeates worked for the legendary Warren Publishing in the 1970s (Creepy, Eerie, etc.), then wrote Generic Comic Book after being out of the industry for a brief time. One story claims Hama asked Skeates to write the book and that led to him getting the writing gig for the Peter Porker ongoing of 1984 that spun out of that Marvel Tails mentioned earlier.

As I was sitting down to read the book, a few thoughts swirled through my head... I wondered if the contents would be geared towards my 13 year-old self, or if it would be a more sophisticated satire that my present, adult self would better appreciate. Turns out, neither version of me found it all that remarkable. Even though I didn’t feel the book succeeded (the story wasn’t particularly entertaining and the art was dodgy throughout), maybe it actually did. I mean, maybe it’s entirely appropriate for a generic comic book to be somewhat bland and to play broad.

An Indefinite Article, A Definite Problem

Ok. So I crack open Black Widow and the Marvel Girls trade paperback looking for some all-ages fun to read before passing it along to the kiddo, and on the first page of first issue collected, I’m greeted by this:

Now, I’m a freelance writer and editor. It’s sometimes distracting to see the written word through my eyes, because I see the errors where others might breeze past them. And this “an”/“a” one stopped me dead in my tracks. How does something like this slip through? Did the editor get confused by the “near-” being appended on the front of “ageless”? Or maybe think that the indefinite article is referring directly to the “Asgardian”?

I looked at those words so long that I actually started to doubt myself! Then I did some quick searches online to see if I was losing my mind and called my long-time editor John. According to the Purdue University Online Writing Lab, Grammar Girl, and Compass Rose Horizons (the first three sites that came up in my Google search for "grammar rules an vs. a") and John, I can find no exceptions to the indefinite article rules to make me think what’s printed on that page of the comic is correct.

From Purdue OWL:

The choice of article is actually based upon the phonetic (sound) quality of the first letter in a word, not on the orthographic (written) representation of the letter. If the first letter makes a vowel-type sound, you use "an"; if the first letter would make a consonant-type sound, you use "a." So, if you consider the rule from a phonetic perspective, there aren't any exceptions.

I’m not infallible. I make grammatical errors all the time (there are probably some in this very blog entry), but I also don’t run everything I write by an editor and the writing I’m doing here is for fun. The writing in my book that has passed through my editor’s hands or in anything I have edited, however, should be grammatically sound. I can understand small errors here and there in a publication like this comic, but to be in large font on the first page of the book was surprising.

Regardless, I did enjoy the collection of four one-shot Black Widow team-ups (along with a bonus reprint of Amazing Spider-Man #86 and the debut of the Widow's modern costume). And that typo on page one is nothing that a black Sharpie won't fix.

Astonished

The March 2010 solicit in Marvel Previews for Astonishing X-Men #1 caught a bit of amusing flack on Twitter and the interwebs for its depiction of Storm and Emma Frost. Presenting the Queen of Wakanda desperately in need of a sandwich and in an outfit that doesn’t even cover her bra, and the former White Queen’s lumpy ass seemed enough to justify the barbs.

But that really didn't do anything to deaden my surprise when I opened this month's Marvel Previews and saw the issue #2 solicit. In a pose that appears to owe as much to pornography as it does anything else, we get a shot of Emma’s over-inflated bosom dripping with fresh mutant-baby spit-up!

I respect all visual artists because they possess a talent beyond my capabilities, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to like everything they do. I really dug Kaare Andrews' Immortal Iron Fist and Dead of Night Featuring Man-Thing covers. Although his Astonishing X-Men work might be spectacular and right up someone else’s alley, the preview images are striking all the wrong notes with me.

Marvel Unbound - DC and Marvel Present: Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk

A while back, I was digging around in some boxes of old stuff my parents had delivered to our house that were mostly filled with books and toys from my childhood. My old James Bond books, my original Star Wars and G.I. Joe action figures and vehicles, my football cards, a basketball program from a trip to the Richfield Coliseum to see the World B. Free-led Cleveland Cavaliers against the Philadelphia 76ers, novelizations of WarGames, E.T. the Extraterrestrial, and Star Wars were all uncovered. My Marvel Illustrated Books were also in there. I mention these in my book Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan as a sort of precursor to today’s trade paperbacks.

I had Marvel’s comic adaptations of Conan the Barbarian and Blade Runner, along with collections of Avengers, Daredevil, and the Fantastic Four among the black-and-white Marvel Illustrated Books. But there was another book in the box that I somehow overlooked when I first rooted through it, and didn’t stumble upon it until a week or so back when I was looking for some other things in the basement. This other book is that same mass paperback size as the Marvel Illustrated Books, but this one was printed “In Full Color!” It’s DC and Marvel Present: Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk.

Besides 1982’s baxter-papered Marvel and DC Present: The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans in “Apokolips... Now!” single issue, this is the only other DC/Marvel crossover story I own. It reprints the last issue of the DC Special Series line, which began in 1977 and ran for 27 issues before ending with this “Fall 1981” dated book.

The single issue sized original printing of this story went for $2.50, but I shelled out an extra forty-five cents for this in book format. For some perspective, the going rate for Marvel’s monthly issues was fifty-cents at the time, although the aforementioned X-Men/Teen Titans book set me back two bucks.

The Len Wein written story finds the ever-wandering Dr. Robert Bruce Banner working odd jobs under an alias. He’s trying to get close to an experimental Gamma-Gun that the Gotham City Branch of Wayne Research is developing, believing it could spell the eradication of Banner’s rampaging alter ego, the Hulk. Similarly, the mechano-Skrull amalgam entity known as Shaper of Worlds is also after the gun because gamma radiation seems to alleviate his anguish. He sends the Joker into Wayne Research to steal the Gamma-Gun and the battles unfold from there across five “chapters” (much like the old Giant-Size Marvel books), bookended by a prologue and an epilogue.

What I remembered most about the story were specific Jose Garcia Lopez illustrated and Dick Giordano embellished panels, like the Joker offing Kenny, one of his own henchmen, with the poison-dipped thorns of a rose boutonnière for insinuating the Joker is afraid of Shaper of Worlds. There’s also the full-page shot of Hulk bear-hugging Batman, then later another full-pager of Banner and Bruce Wayne shaking hands with their shadows revealing their respective alter egos, and the giant Dough-Creature absorbing and containing the Hulk!

Touted on the cover as containing “The Blazing Battle You Never Expected to See!”, the 160 or so pages pack their fair share of action. Beyond just the headline DC and Marvel heroes and villains of the story, we get a nice cross-section of cameos from both sides of the fence. Commissioner Gordon, Alfred, Killer Moth, Two-Face, and Scarecrow show up from DC’s lineup, while Marvel offers Abomination, the Leader, Rhino, General Thunderbolt Ross, Doc Sampson, and Rick Jones.

Although DC and Marvel Present: Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk is not my typical reading choice (I’ve never been a huge fan of the publisher crossovers, either back in the day or now), I enjoyed the nostalgia uncovered in this little gem and time travelling back to the world of my 11-year-old self, if only for an hour or so.

Marvel Unbound - The Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus

I didn’t read any Power Man and Iron Fist comics back in the day. In fact, it wasn’t until I started reading things like the House of M trade paperback and the current New Avengers run and playing Marvel: Ultimate Alliance that I really got to know who Luke Cage, née Power Man, really is. And Iron Fist? Well, I didn’t know who he was beyond a kelly green and lemon yellow costume obviously born out of the Me decade obsession with chop-socky film culture until I started reading Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction’s revival title.

It’s no secret I’m a fan of Brubaker and Fraction. So it should come as no surprise that I love what they did in energizing this Marvel ’70s staple character. Back in 2007, my local comic book shop guy knew I was reading Brubaker on Captain America, and recommended I give The Immortal Iron Fist a try. I was blown away by the first trade paperback collection and immediately started picking up the current monthly issues on the shelves. Knowing how cohesive the first story arc was, I put off reading “The Seven Capital Cites of Heaven” storyline until it was complete, eventually taking them all in one sitting.

After I had collected the entire run, I bought the story in trade paperback and immediately reread The Immortal Iron Fist, Volume 1: The Last Iron Fist and Volume 2: The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven in quick succession. And when Marvel solicited The Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus last year, I couldn’t resist its call. My amazing wife came through in a huge way by ensuring this gorgeous book found its way under the Christmas tree.

Because this title was originally recommended to me before I was completely aware of who Brubaker and Fraction were, and I was fairly ambivalent about the character going in, a large part of the appeal was initially David Aja’s art. If ever there was a poster child for cover art that can sell a book, the first year and a half or so of Immortal Iron Fist are it. I was consistently blown away month after month by Aja’s (and other’s) cover art on the title, and if I hadn’t been reading the book I would have definitely been considering it on the strength of what was peering out from the shelves of the local comic book shop. And Aja’s interiors are the best of the series, a perfect pairing of story and art.

The tales contained within by Brubaker and Fraction and illustrated by Aja create one of the richest tapestries of character history, ongoing adventure, and Eastern mysticism. The writers introduce a simple but compelling premise to the Iron Fist mythos: that for sixty-six generations there has always been an Iron Fist. This “legacy power” idea enabled the writers to weave one-offs into the title (two within the ongoing series – issues #7 and #15; and two over the course of book – Annual #1 and Orson Randall & the Green Mist of Death; all collected here) chronicling the exploits of past Iron Fists and add emotional weight to the current character.

Although I have heard others complain about it being disrupted by the sequential placement of some of the one-offs, there is a logical flow to the omnibus. It moves from “The Last Iron Fist Story,” introducing Orson Randall to the mythos, to the traditional battle between the seven Capital Cities of Heaven’s analogous Immortal Weapons that occurs each generation.

As Danny Rand’s immediate predecessor as the Iron Fist, the first story arc is as much Orson’s story as it is Danny’s. Much of the history around Orson and his friendship with Danny’s father Wendell is explored here. Brubaker and Fraction weave a familiar theme into the book, one of brothers. There is Danny and Orson, Orson and Wendell, Wendell and Davos (the Steel Serpent and one of the book’s antagonists). That last relationship in particular echoes Snake-Eyes and Storm Shadow’s from Marvel’s original G.I. Joe series.

Both James Hilton’s book and Frank Capra’s film adaptation of Lost Horizon are among my favorites of their respective mediums, and I see elements of both woven throughout these Immortal Iron Fist tales. From the hidden city concept to the references of the “Kuen-Lun” mountains in Lost Horizon (“K’un Lun” is the Iron Fist’s city) to the powers of Eastern mysticism, there are threads throughout Brubaker and Fraction’s stories that lead directly – if not intentionally – back to that influential work.

As far as the omnibus itself goes, it’s the complete package and near-perfect in every way, right down to the color-coordinated green cover with yellow-gold embossed lettering found under the dust jacket. Apart from the stories contained within, the book also includes a wealth of extras. The Origin of Danny Rand (reprinting Marvel Premiere #15 and #16 with a Fraction framing story) is incorporated here, along with the repackaged and original Marvel Premiere covers.

Spanish artist Aja’s covers for the first six issues of this new series are truly graphic art, and seeing them presented in the omnibus, unencumbered by corporate logos and UPCs, is stunning. The curtain is pulled back a bit on Aja’s cover process for issue #1, along with the inks for that cover and pages from issues #0, #1, and #7. Eleven pages of character designs with commentary by Aja are also presented (this feature has quickly become one of my favorites among collected edition extras). Along with Aja’s work, we get Gabriele Dell’Otto and Kaare Andrews’ variant covers.

Text-based extras include the lengthy Iron Fist OHOTMU entry, the original story pitch by Brubaker and Fraction, original script excerpts for issues #0 and #1, and a slight-but-fun early “Behind-the-Scenes E-Mail Exchange” between Brubaker, Fraction, and Aja about the development of the Mechagorgons.

My one and only complaint is that Civil War: Choosing Sides (The Immortal Iron Fist #0) is presented in the back of the book as a part of the extras when it actually should be read first from a chronology perspective. But that’s hardly worth getting your little yellow silk booties in a twist over when everything else presented here is spot-on!

I can’t recommend The Immortal Iron Fist Omnibus highly enough. Other than the seminal Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars, Brubaker and Fraction’s run on this title is the only comic series I have spent money on and read in three formats: single issues, trade paperback, and omnibus. And even after reading and rereading this story so many times, it has been worth every penny.

Marvel Unbound - Wolverine: First Class - The Rookie

Marvel seems to have struck gold with the “First Class” franchise of their X books. They started out with Jeff Parker’s excellent eight-issue X-Men: First Class series in 2006. That series, focusing on the original X-Men recruited by Professor Charles Xavier, was so successful it was granted an on-going that lasted nearly a year-and-a-half. This was followed by the Wolverine: First Class on-going (2008), the three-issue Weapon X: First Class (2009), and the new Uncanny X-Men: First Class on-going (2009).

What’s great about this franchise is Marvel has put quality writers and artists on it, kept the stories all-ages, and let them breathe between the panels of the original runs of the X books history. (Similar to what Joe Casey did with Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin.) X-Men: First Class dealt with Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, and Angel. Uncanny X-Men: First Class explores the group originally formed in the pages of 1975’s Giant-Size X-Men #1... Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and more. (Incidentally, I loved this First Class so much I actually bought the original art for page 5 of the Giant-Size Special #1 from Craig Rousseau. Gorgeous stuff!) I haven’t read the Weapon X: First Class books, but they strike me as designed to cash-in somewhat on the popularity of the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie.

More “Kitty Pryde and Wolverine: First Class” than actually just Wolverine: First Class, writer Fred Van Lente has a lot of fun with these characters. I had picked up the first two single issues when they were on the stands, but decided to trim my pull list in favor of trade-waiting and snagged this first collection at Wizard World Chicago. It’s slight, to be sure, pulling together only the first four issues of the on-going, but it’s a fun read and something (again, like Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin) I can (and have) handed off to the kiddo to read without reservation.

The issues collected here consist of two one-and-done stories (issues #1 and #2) and a two-parter (issues #3 and #4). I haven’t read beyond these four issues, so I can’t speak to how formulaic the series gets. Even over these first few issues the “Wolverine doesn’t want a sidekick/Wolverine reluctantly brings Kitty along/Kitty and Wolverine both learn a lesson” blueprint is obvious but not a deterrent.

The Rookie isn’t an omnibus, nor does it claim to be, so you get a reprint story in the back, along with five pages of Salva Espin’s character and cover sketches. I only have a sort of half-complaint with the reprint story in that it’s Wolverine’s first appearance in Incredible Hulk #181. I say “half-complaint” because I had never read it before, so that was cool, but given the timeframe the Wolverine: First Class series covers, it might have been more appropriate to include something from the Kitty/Wolverine ’80s Uncanny X-Men instead.

Regardless, it’s a fun collection and I’m definitely planning to pickup volume two from a bargain bin somewhere down the road, if only because it includes an Alpha Flight story and is something I can pass along to the kiddo!

Marvel Unbound - Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin

A couple of years ago when the John Favreau/Robert Downey, Jr. Iron Man movie came out, I was surprised to learn that the Golden Avenger is not considered to be a well-known character. I didn’t read a lot of Iron Man in his own title back in the day, but got plenty of him in the pages of Avengers and Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-in-One. He might not have been as front-and-center in the ’80s as he was during Marvel’s Civil War/Illuminati/Secret Invasion storylines of the past decade, but I always operated under the impression he was a first-tier super hero in the Marvel U.

Iron Man has always just seemed to be everywhere in the Marvel Universe, so I guess I took my familiarity with him for granted. But, thanks to that 2008 movie, a whole helluva lot more people know who Tony Stark is these days. And that’s a good thing.

Unlike X-Men and Spider-Man, I didn't avoid buying Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin in single issues because I was moving to trade-waiting (this was coming out soon after I was fully re-immersed in comics), but, rather, I hesitated because I was buying so many single issues at the local comic shop at the time something needed to be cut. I did, however, promise myself I'd pick it up in trade at some point. It ended up being one of the 20 or so collected editions I snagged at Wizard World Chicago last year. Final-day-of-the-con bargains meant I paid a whopping $2 for the trade paperback. Money well-spent.

This Joe Casey-written, Eric Canete-drawn story was a lot of fun. It is basically an Iron Man “Year One” story set in modern times (not unlike the Iron Man movie in some respects, I suppose). Based on the events that took place between the Mandarin’s debut in Tales of Suspense #50 (February 1964) and issue #55, just under a year after Iron Man himself was introduced in issue #39, Enter the Mandarin is a retelling of how Iron Man and the Mandarin first crossed paths and what took place. I’m not familiar with that original story, so I can’t say how much of a reimaging this is versus a complete revamp of the history, but I was really entertained by what Casey came up with here.

(It's interesting Casey seems to be staking his claim outside of the First Class franchise for this approach to expanding the all-ages, "between the panels" story of the early Marvel Universe with the five-issue Avengers: The Origin mini scheduled for April 2010.)

My only complaint is with Comicraft, responsible for the lettering in this series. Always present in any current Iron Man story is the data readings from his armor. And in Enter the Mandarin, it’s presented as white letters with a royal blue outlines. Very hard on the eyes. I found myself skipping a lot of the armor info because it was just difficult to read.

Canete’s art is fantastic. His art deco inspired covers are perfectly stylized, and his interiors contain a lot of motion and energy. I loved issue #5’s cover, and its rendering of Iron Man against a Chinese dragon representation of the Mandarin. As expected in a collection like this, the only extras are three pages of Canete cover sketches and inks for issues #2, #4, and #5.

With its obviously current technology and references to email and Wired Magazine, it’s clear the story is set in modern times. But Casey gives the reader a classic Iron Man tale that hits all the right notes: technology versus magic, a playboy Tony Stark alter ego, Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan, and the conclusion is satisfying enough to stand alone, but open-ended enough to leave room for the story to continue.

An Embarrassing Confession

I love Jeff Parker’s work. Perusing his comic book resume is a venerable list of comics that pepper my personal collection. But I think I am the only comic fan I know who isn’t completely smitten with Agents of Atlas. I want to like it – hell, I want to love it! – but it just hasn’t clicked with me.

As someone who has flirted with music journalism, I would say a negative review is one of the toughest things to write. It’s easy to gush about stuff you enjoy, but to put together a thoughtful negative review is always challenging. First, you don’t want to come off like you’re just piling on or being vindictive or just ranting to hear your own voice. Second, you don’t want to be disrespectful to the artist or creator.

Chris Marshall recently praised the Agents of Atlas hardcover collections on Collected Comics Library. All of my comic book fan friends gush over the book. I had dinner with Dave Wachter the other night, and as you would expect to happen when two comic fans get together, the conversation eventually turned to what we have enjoyed reading lately. And what title was Dave quick to say: Agents of Atlas. So still I remain, the only person I know with whom that book and team hasn’t connected.

But the conversation with Dave may have finally helped me realize why I'm not digging the book. Dave raved that he loved how it combined noir with super heroes with espionage with ’50s style sensibilities, and I think that might be it... for me, the book suffers from an identity crisis. And maybe it’s because I love Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction’s Immortal Iron Fist so much, but Agents of Atlas also feels like, at its heart, it treads a little too close to that same Eastern mysticism territory.

My favorite issues of the series have been the ones where folks like the Hulk and Captain America and Namor have guested. I genuinely feel horrible that I don’t like this book, like there is something wrong with my comic tastes that this creation by a writer I admire and an artist I enjoy, that this team of eclectic characters who seem right up my alley, that this mix of genres I love is somehow not clicking for me.

Obviously my opinion is firmly in the minority, and that’s ok. I’m not trying to sway anyone from enjoying Agents of Atlas. And I certainly don’t mean any disrespect to the creator because I love most everything of Parker’s I read, I love the work of the artists that bring his writing to life, and every interaction I’ve had with Parker via Twitter has been great. Heck, in spite of never really falling in love with the book, I purchased all 11 issues of the second volume along with the X-Men vs. Agents of Atlas two-issue mini. I just have found that – machinegun wielding, kick-ass Gorilla-Man aside – Agents of Atlas just isn’t my thing. Sorry.

Between the Panels

A couple of weeks ago I did an author visit at the Fairlawn-Bath branch of the Akron-Summit County Public Library. I had a really great time reading from Deus ex Comica and answering questions from the audience on a wide range of topics. During the Q&A session, the conversation turned to motion comics. Marvel is already in the game with their Spider-Woman title on iTunes, written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Alex Maleev.

I downloaded the first Spider-Woman motion comic when it was released, but haven’t picked up any of the subsequent installments, instead opting to consume the monthly storyline in traditional single issue comic book form.

There is the question of the future of comics: Will they be delivered and read via monthly single issues, collected editions, or electronically on a computer or smart phone? But that is a discussion for another time, because motion comics are not a part of that debate. Motion comics are not comics, they are semi-static movies with spoken dialog and minimal animation.

I’m all for getting new readers engaged in the medium, but Marvel’s motion comic has little to do with the act of reading a comic. In fact, I’d argue that motion comics have as much to do with gaining new readership for comics as the big screen adaptations or Universal Studios’ roller coaster rides featuring these properties do.

Comics have a well-documented history of being censored and banned. But that combination of reading and exercising your imagination will always be the medium’s highest redeeming quality as far as I’m concerned. The kiddo gets enough stimulation spoon-fed to him via TV and video games. I first encouraged him to read comic books to get him to read. Now that he’s reading them voraciously, I’m encouraging him to slow down with his comics and let each panel sink in, urging him to experience the comic and let his imagination twist and expand and grow as he fills in the blanks.

A motion comic takes too much away from the experience of a comic book for me. Some of it is tactile. Like the album-to-mp3 struggles experienced by every generation prior to the current one, there is something to be said for holding the comic book or collected edition in my hands and smelling the paper and feeling the weight of it, knowing it occupies physical space in the world. But there is more to it than that because I see a future for reading comics and books on smart phones and computers. The motion comic’s biggest crime is that it takes me out of the role of active participant and renders me a passive consumer of the art.

When I read a comic book (either in monthly single issue format, collected edition, or via an electronic delivery option), I am forced to engage in the activity. By its very nature, a comic panel can’t move. It can imply motion, but I have to use my imagination move the characters or action from point A to point B. It’s what happens between the panels, which takes place completely in my head, that makes reading a comic a dynamic activity. And that is what ends up left out of the motion comic experience.

Clobberin' Time!

My parents are big sports fans when it comes to professional football. I have great memories of sitting in our finished basement on Sunday afternoons, watching all the day's games as a family. My mom, a teacher, with her red plastic clipboard in her lap and papers for grading spread out on the couch around her. My dad in his big chair, and me, sprawling on the floor. Sloppy Joes and potato chips and dip and soda was dinner. That was how crisp fall and early winter Sundays were spent.

For a while back in the late ‘90s, when the Cleveland Browns left town and I was living out of state, a wave of nostalgia around the franchise washed over me. I remembered those Sunday afternoons with my parents and trips to the Pro Football Hall of Fame with my dad and getting up ridiculously early for an end-of-summer Saturday to attend the Hall of Fame Parade every August. Those memories combined with the newness of eBay sparked in me some strange desire to collect vintage Browns programs. I don’t think I ever bought more than a handful, and have since passed them on through garage sales and, in the cyclic nature of the online auction, back through eBay.

I did keep one of those programs, though. It’s not a particularly old one by comparison to some of the other ones I had acquired and then unloaded. The issue I held on to, dated October 11, 1970, is for a game between the Cleveland Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals that took place nine days after I was born. The cover depicts well-known denizens of the Marvel Universe rushing forward. I wasn’t back into comics when I decided to unload the programs I’d accumulated, but clearly the nostalgia of a John Buscema cover held sway over me, tapping into some dormant love of the Marvel characters of my youth, that prompted me to hang on to this program.

A look inside the cover and, amid awesome ads for Kent Menthol cigarettes, Bobbie Brooks, Stroh’s “Stay Cold” Pack, and Zenith Chromacolor televisions (“Now the biggest breakthrough in Color TV comes in small, medium, and large” 19-inch, 23-inch, and 25-inch sizes!), it seems the NFL and Marvel teamed up to highlight the linebacker position across the league in a feature called “Beware the Linebacker!” Stan “The Man” Lee sets the stage with this hyperbolic passage...

Fasten your safety belt, frantic one, ‘cause here they come! They’re the superheroes’ superheroes – strong, smart, savage, and swift.

You know their names. Nobis, Butkus, Webster and Bell. Curtis, Robinson, Howley, Nitschke and Warwick. Call ‘em the linebackers... pro football’s dazzling defenders, magnificent marauders who battle against incredible odds every game of the season.

Now know them as we know them through the world of fantasy. Let’s watch these real life super stars with their superhero counterparts from the pandemonious, power-packed pages of marvelous Marvel comics.

And with that we are treated to five pages of Buscema goodness! And what I love about them most is that it looks like they paired the featured linebackers with their corresponding Marvel counterpart based purely on the similarity of the poses. Which really makes me wonder... Was Ray Nitschke matched up with the Silver Surfer simply because of his bald dome?!

Marvel Unbound - Spider-Man/Red Sonja

The Spider-Man/Red Sonja crossover miniseries from Marvel and Dynamite Entertainment was loads of fun! The miniseries, written by Michael Avon Oeming and drawn by Mel Rubi, is fantastic! I have been a fan of Oeming since discovering him through his collaboration with Bendis on Powers. I enjoyed his writing on the Ares miniseries and love his work with Bryan J.L. Glass on Mice Templar. He turns in a solid story here, continuing the struggle of Kulan Gath’s attempts to take over the Earth with magic.

Originally debuting in the pages of Marvel’s Conan the Barbarian comic back in 1972, Kulan Gath soon became a Red Sonja rogue. In 1979, Red Sonja joined Spidey in Marvel Team-Up #79 to battle Kulan Gath in what amounts to a single-issue version of the story retold and expanded on by Oeming and Rubi here two decades later.

But it’s not just Kulan Gath playing in this sandbox. Some classics from Spidey’s rogues gallery show up, too, like Scorpion, Lizard, Hobgoblin, and Venom. Venom’s actually crucial to the story as Kulan Gath takes control of the symbiote, eventually ripping it from Eddie Brock and becoming Kulan Venom. Joe Robertson is used to fine effect, as well as J. Jonah Jameson in a bit part. Mary Jane in the lynchpin of the five-issue arc just as she was in the original Marvel Team-Up tale. A modern-day Red Sonja herself, I imagine she’s a fun character to write, and Oeming seems to have a good time using her here.

There are some nice extras for being a fairly slim trade paperback collection. Michael Turner’s original covers for all five issues are included, along with his variant covers for issues #1 and #2. His Red Sonja is stunning and sexy. You also get two pages of Rubi’s character sketches – a full page of Spidey, plus a page of MJ, Red Sonja, and Venom. The best extra in this collection, however, is the inclusion of Marvel Team-Up #79. And if you’re not familiar with this Chris Claremont and John Byrne written, co-plotted, and penciled story, you’re in for a real treat! In fact, I would seriously recommend you read this story in the back of the collection first, before reading the update by Oeming and Rubi.

In short, with Spider-Man/Red Sonja you get a fun, expanded update on a classic Marvel tale, some gorgeous art (and eye candy), and a bonus from-the-vaults story by a couple of legends reprinted to boot, all for under 15 dollars! That’s good stuff!

Unsolicited Art, Vol 2

Of all the drawings the kiddo has done, this one is my favorite by far! It has a real Marvel Super Hero Squad feel to it. I love the attention to detail and catchphrases! (Click image to enlarge)

The Ultimate Marvel-DC Crossover

So the kiddo came home from school the other day and informed me that he and his friends started a business. It’s an art venture where they draw stuff, and you buy it from them. I’m a little fuzzy on what the other second graders in the company are doing for the good of the cause as far as creating drawings or profit sharing, but I do know my kiddo is drawing and hawking his wares to anyone he can -- me, my wife, his grandparents... you get the idea.

He has a back catalog of already drawn images – mostly Bakugan characters – to choose from ranging from ten to twenty cents each, and he does commissions (price negotiable). I requested a head shot of Galactus, and the boy over-delivered! What I ended up with was a full body action shot of the world devourer crying out as he battles the Green Lantern! It's a simple pencil and single-color marker sketch that set me back a quarter, but it was the best 25 cents I’ve spent in a long time.

G.I. Joe-splosion!

I loved the G.I. Joe comic book and toy line in the early ’80s. I actually devote an entire chapter of my upcoming book, Deus ex Comica: The Rebirth of a Comic Book Fan, to the franchise! I’m also a fan of Hasbro’s current Mighty Muggs toy line. I have a bunch of the Marvel Mighty Muggs and the kiddo has a bunch of the Star Wars ones, but Hasbro just started releasing G.I. Joe versions and I couldn’t be happier. I could take or leave the Mighty Mugg of Duke, but there was no way I could pass up Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes, and Cobra Commander. The packaging layout is pretty standard across the Mighty Muggs line, but what I love about the G.I. Joe Mighty Mugg boxes in particular is the image on the side of the box: It’s a throwback to the original “explosion” G.I. Joe packaging of the ‘80s! Great stuff and a cool nod to the old schoolers. The only thing that could have made these even more awesome... white-dot outlined dossiers on the back of the packaging!

Jack of Hearts Revisited

Jack of Hearts is one of those characters that snuck up on me back in the day. In my original collecting window, he could be seen in the background on a couple of panels in the January 1983 "Everybody Loves a Parade, Right?" story on the pages of Incredible Hulk #279, and then co-featured with Spidey in the "The Boy's Night Out!" story from October 1983 for Marvel Team-Up #134. Then came the Jack of Hearts four-issue limited series in 1984. I remember loving this saga as a 13-year-old then, and I had a blast rereading it 25 years later. According to Comic Book Database, the character then sort of fell off the Marvel Universe map until the '90s.

I rediscovered him when I read the trade paperback of Avengers Disassembled, where he is the catalyst Wanda Maximoff uses to signal the beginning of the end for her sanity and the Avengers. I don't know what happened to Jack Hart between 1984 and Avengers Disassembled, but the Bill Mantlo limited series holds up fantastic.

I love the way the first issue of the miniseries is so firmly rooted in and interwoven with the Marvel Universe. Mantlo does a great job taking a somewhat fringe character and making him a part of the mainstream continuity by immediately involving S.H.E.I.L.D. and Nick Fury. Series editor Bob Budiansky calls out references to Spectacular Spider-Man and that great Marvel Team-Up, along with the Vision and the Scarlet Witch miniseries in the first issue alone! And that issue sets the table for some great origin story retcon for Jack, turning him from a hero-by-accident into a Cosmic Marvel character.

Turns out Jack Hart's mom was a Contraxian who was sent out into the universe to find a habitable planet that doesn't currently have life on it. You see, Contraxia's sun is a dying star, so they have to find a new home, but their honor code forbids them from displacing or destroying an existing life to save their own. Hart's mother came to Earth and was monitoring Hart's father's work on the Zero-Fluid in the hopes that it might save her planet's dying sun. She fell in love with him and they had Jack. Years later, Jack falls into a vat of Zero-Fluid giving him his powers, or so we thought. In this version, though, the Zero-Fluid doesn't grant him his powers, but rather activates his dormant Contraxian abilities.

Now as an adult, not only is the Jack of Hearts being unknowingly monitored by Kaina, a Contraxian love interest in the human form of Marcy Kane, but also by the morally ambiguous Survivalist sect of Contraxia. This sets up some great lessons on right and wrong, the good of the many versus the good of one, a redemption arc for one of the villains, and a heartbreaking ending.

I love that Marvel was granting characters like the Jack of Hearts, Rocket Raccoon, Machine Man, and others a chance to shine in their own limited series back in the day. I don't know what's happened to Jack since Avengers Disassembled, but it was worth digging this limited series out of my collection for some Retconned Cosmic Marvel '80s fun!

Cat's in the Cradle

My kiddo made a cloth-bound book for my wife and me in his second grade class that he gave to us last night. The book is titled The Important Thing about My Mom and Dad. It's four pages long: title page, page about mom, page about dad, about the author page. Here's the page about me:

And yeah, that's the Hulk he drew.

Hercules Revisited

I had half of the issues of Bob Layton's Hercules: Prince of Power miniseries from '82 and '84 in the Original Collection, but my wife and I were at a local comic book show recently and I found both four-issue limited series for a buck each, so I figured it was time to fill that hole in the collection and in my Herc history.

I recognize the names of the comic book writers and artists of my youth, sure, but I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to recognizing their specific styles. But I do know I enjoyed Layton's work here when I viewed it through the nostalgic lens of a 12 year-old. Layton's irreverence plays perfectly with this over-the-top character.

The first series kicks off with Herc's father, Zeus, banishing him from Olympus until he learns true humility. This premise sets up a couple of fun single-issue adventures for Herc after picking up a Rigellian Recorder early in the first issue to document his exploits. I think the four issues are woven together perfectly and conclude with Galactus and Herc having a drink together, Galactus letting his hair down, and Herc bedding Frankie Raye. Good times!

The second series picks up with Herc still in exile and now permanently ditching the green-and-orange sash outfit for the black-and-red number. His Rigellian Recorder is still with him, but early on he picks up a Skrull outcast named Skyppi to the detriment of the story. The green-skinned shape-shifter is whiny, arrogant, childish, and played for laughs.

The up-side to this miniseries is the Thanos/Captain Marvel element, along with the use of Mentor and Eros on Titan (marred only by a Skyppi/Eros mistaken identity subplot that falls horribly flat). The last book draws the entire eight issue arc to a brawling father-son conclusion that I thought carried the appropriate weight, if a little bit too easy. But it does harken back to the beginning of the arc that began in the '82 series, and is ultimately satisfying.

So, to recap, the first series boils down to a little bit of sex, a lot of scrapin', and the search for a good drink. The second series brings Herc home with his lesson learned, but only after making us suffer through the unfortunate antics of a sidekick Skrull. "Embrace change," indeed.

But it was all worth the ride. So, dig 'em out of your collection if you've got 'em, or check out your quarter bins for some Mount Olympus-sized '80s fun!

Marvel Unbound - Avengers/Defenders War

Avengers/Defenders War is one of those legendary Marvel events that didn't make it onto my radar the first time around. It predates my original comic book reading and collecting by a good ten years, but when I came upon the Premiere Hardcover Collection edition of it in the half-price box at a local comic book show, I couldn't pass it up!

Beyond what the title reveals, I didn't know what to expect with this one, but what unfolded on the pages within was like a giant-sized Giant-Size Marvel epic. The prologue and 12 chapters are sprawled across eight issues of both Avengers and Defenders titles. At the time of its original printing, it was one of Marvel's first experiments in bi-weekly storytelling in the medium. And while I can't speak to how it played upon its original release in 1973, it holds up beautifully as a collected edition.

I have a handful of Steve Englehart's work in the Original Collection -- a couple of Vision and the Scarlet Witch and West Coast Avengers issues, along with an Avengers or two. I'm going to have to go back and revisit those issues, because I really enjoyed the writing in this Avengers/Defenders War event. As much as I love the comics of my youth, there is a certain lack of sophistication detectable in the storytelling when held up against today's writers. But Englehart's tale is coherent, intelligent, and fun!

In terms of comic books, the premise is simple: Dormammu, Lord of the Dark Dimension, pushes Loki, Prince of Evil, to join him in his quest to -- what else? -- conquer Earth by gaining possession of the Evil Eye. Dormammu uses his grudge against Doctor Strange as motivation to trick the Defenders into recovering the six pieces of the Evil Eye dispersed across the planet. When the Evil Eye is assembled, it will unite Dormammu's dimension with Earth's dimension, allowing him to take it over.

Sometime Avenger and sometime Defender the Black Knight has been turned to stone, and Dormammu tricks Doctor Strange by impersonating the essence of the Black Knight, telling him they must assemble the pieces of the Evil Eye to save their friend. Loki simultaneously tricks the Avengers, who believe the Black Knight has been captured by Doctor Strange, into going up against the Defenders when he realizes that Dormammu will never uphold his end of the bargain and restore Loki's sight.

Playing off the idea of the Defenders non-team team being outsiders, the war itself is based on a misunderstanding! It's quaint. It's provincial. And I love this sort of old school setup, and Englehart knocks it out of the park. The chapter conceit works great here, allowing Englehart room to stretch with a prologue to setup the villains, and chapter-by-chapter battles as the story progresses.

Great, key one-on-one (or sometimes one-on-two) skirmishes include Silver Surfer versus Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Iron Man versus Hawkeye, Doctor Strange versus the Black Panther and Mantis, Swordsman versus the Valkrie, Captain America versus Sub-Mariner, and the Hulk versus Thor! Bob Brown and Sal Buscema do a fantastic job rendering these clashes. This is bold, primary color stuff that pops off the page! The Premier Hardcover Collection edition notes "select art reconstruction" and "select color reconstruction," but I have to believe the originals were just as amazing.

The book is comprehensive, in that it includes six full issues, plus a prologue and first chapter pulled from the end of Avengers #115 and Defenders #8. The extras are pretty standard for Marvel's Premier Hardcover Collection offerings from my experience. The most important extra being a thoughtful introduction by a key participant -- in this case, Englehart himself. This insightful essay provides great background on what Marvel was doing at the time as a company, how the event idea came about and was pitched, and even how penciler Brown was brought on board. Avengers/Defenders War also has all the relevant original covers, including the covers for Avengers #115 and Defenders #8, and the 2002 trade paperback cover for completeness. This is one of the few Premiere Hardcover Collection books I've felt compelled to buy, and although I didn't know it at the time, the storytelling, art, and presentation are worth a full-price admission ticket.

And in light of the events from New Avengers #46, now is a great time to read this book, and maybe reread Brian K. Vaughan's collection, The Hood: Blood from Stones.