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Creannotators #59: “Way of X” with Si Spurrier!

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This week on Creannotators, I talk Way of X with writer Si Surrier. We talk about writing X-Men characters like Nightcrawler and Legion, what to expect from the X-Office after Jonathan Hickman’s departure, and Spurrier’s long comics career including Hellblazer.

On Comic Book Herald’s ‘Creannotators’ I’ll be interviewing some of my favorite creators in comics about specific runs, graphic novels or series, looking for their insights on the inspirations behind the work and ideas or hidden material readers may have missed. Creannotators is an audio annotative guide to enjoying the intricacies and thinking in the art. Thanks for listening, and enjoy the comics!

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Best New Graphic Novel: Eternals Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillen & Esad Ribic!

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Of the big three “non-human races” of the Marvel Universe, the Eternals have long been playing catch-up. The X-Men are, well, the X-Men. While the Inhumans have a rich and varied history interwoven into the fabric of the larger Marvel Universe dating back to the Silver Age (to say nothing of a failed TV series and that time when Fox still owned the X-Men movie rights so Marvel tried to position them as their new, more cinema-friendly, version of mutants).

The Eternals, while of a similar pedigree (all three share an artistic creator in Jack Kirby), have long existed on the fringes of the Marvel Universe: various artists and writers, often top-notch ones, step-up and present their take on the long-lived demi-gods secretly protecting humanity from the monstrous Deviants in the name of the cosmic Celestials, and when they’re done, the Eternals quietly fade once more into the background of the Marvel Universe.

Eternals: Only Death is Eternal is the latest such creative effort. Collecting the first six issues of a new ongoing Eternals series from writer Kieron Gillen and artist Esad Ribic, the book is clearly being positioned to capitalize on and contribute to the Eternals’ upcoming moment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe zeitgeist, with their feature film (after a lengthy pandemic-induced delay) scheduled to premiere just a scant few months after the publication of this volume. In Gillen & Ribic, Marvel has again entrusted top-tier talent to this effort, and Gillen and Ribic, to their credit, reward that trust. Every iteration of the Eternals attempts to put a new spin on the concept in some way, and the inaugural launch of this series is no different.

Gillen and Ribic don’t just put a new spin on things; they do so in a way that contextualizes and synthesizes all of the previous versions, creating a kind of grand unified theory of the Eternals that honors what’s come before in the Eternals history while breaking new ground. Along the way, they also tell a densely-plotted, gorgeously-illustrated, rip-roaring tale filled with moments of fist-pumping excitement and tragic heartbreak alike. The end result is the best possible entry point into the Eternals for a new reader.

Ed. Note: Story Spoilers Follow

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SWORD Volume 1 Review!

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After the fervor of the Hellfire Gala and the Twitter shattering announcement that Jonathan Hickman is leaving the X-Men following Inferno later this year, many fans of Marvel’s Merry Mutants are left in a panic. The playground of Krakoa is still open with no shortage of titles exploring this new status quo. From exploring culture in Way of X to corporate strategy in X–Corp, the very reason for Hickman’s departure is that there’s just so much to explore.

While the conceptual diversity of the Krakoan era is excellent and offers a variety of talents to tell compelling stories with a number of characters, I do feel for the loss of focus. The themes and conflicts Hickman proposed in House of X and Powers of X were incredibly compelling to me and I was hoping to see them built on for longer towards a larger conclusion (some of which may come from Inferno). And while it’s true, the momentum of the line is not solely propelled by Hickman but by the X-Writers as a whole–it’s difficult to see what the next driving goal of the line will be.  [Read more…] about SWORD Volume 1 Review!

All Smash, No Pass: The Best Hulk Comics Of All Time!

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An intelligent, sensible man strapped to a gamma-born bulldozer (or is it the other way around?), Dr. Bruce Banner, first among the various other characters to carry the Hulk name at Marvel, is a ticking time bomb.

A founding member of the Avengers, a father, a friend, and a deeply flawed man, the Hulk has more in common with DC’s Swamp Thing than Marvel’s own Man-Thing does. A man out of time, out of place, and with a dangerously close connection to something primal. His best stories understand this, the unique position he commands both physically and philosophically in the comics sphere, and they deliver on that promise with a marriage of the intense depth that come from both Bruce’s raw humanity, and yes, a whole lot of Hulk smashing. These are the best Hulk comics:
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Jane Foster (Valkyrie) Reading Order!

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Until the last decade, the tale of Jane Foster wasn’t a particularly noteworthy one. She was nothing more than the usual example of a 60s love interest, used as a secondary character to a male hero for a few years before being pushed aside and fading to the background of the Marvel universe.

But this all changed in 2014, when writer Jason Aaron pushed his run on Thor in a whole new direction by replacing the god of thunder with a new Thor, the Mighty Thor, the Goddess of Thunder : Jane Foster. Accompanied by Russel Dauterman’s gorgeous art, Aaron reinvented her as a superhero, protecting Asgard and the Nine Realms as Thor, while battling breast cancer as Jane, with the complication that using Mjolnir cancels the effects of chemotherapy on her body, thus putting her life on the line even more each time she picks up the hammer.

When the time came for Jane to stop being the goddess of thunder however, she didn’t stop being a hero, instead taking on the mantle of Valkyrie to defend the Realms and accompany the souls of dead heroes to Valhalla. And now that she is is about to come back to the MCU in a big way as the Mighty Thor in the upcoming Thor: Love and Thunder, it’s a great time to look back on the story of Jane Foster, both as the Mighty Thor and as Marvel’s new Valkyrie. [Read more…] about Jane Foster (Valkyrie) Reading Order!