Marvel Reviews

How to (Re)Read the Hickman Era of X-Men: The Hellfire Club (House of X #4-5)

June 2, 2021 by David Bowen Leave a Comment

[X-Force vol3 #3 by Craig Kyle, Chris Yost, Clayton Crain, Cory Petit, 2008]

V. Two Big Bad Mutants of Hellfire (cont. from last week’s list of newly Krakoan villains!)

(We’ll get to the undead human supremacists pictured above in section VI.)

Last time we did a rundown of all the mutant villains freely stepping onto Krakoan soil in House of X #5. Except for Selene and Sebastian Shaw—so now we can segue (at last!) into a look at the roster of human/non-mutant baddies listed in HOX 4. Why? The Hellfire Club was once an exclusive domain of power-politics contention between elite humans and mutants; it’s seen its share of amoral mutants and humans whose cynical, self-aggrandizing politicking has often resulted in great harm to mutantkind. And even today, the question of the Club’s legacy could reignite.

Hickman X-Men Reading Order

Krakin’ Krakoa!

Swamp Monsters & the Counterculture in the Man-Thing Omnibus

May 28, 2021 by Sara Century Leave a Comment

You might know Man-Thing as “basically another Swamp Thing,” and that is fair—to say there’s a resemblance between the two is to say that water is wet. Yet while there is significant crossover in origin and concept, each character tends towards different kinds of stories, and so have remained unique enough that their similarities matter less. Though Swamp Thing has far overshadowed Man-Thing for most comic readers, Man-Thing has his own epic, career-defining run with writer Steve Gerber.

Man-Thing Omnibus collects Man-Thing’s first appearances as well as most of Steve Gerber’s classic run on everyone’s second (or third) favorite fictional marsh creature. Though this story begins in familiar territory, it transforms in no time to include Satanists, alternate dimensions, weird sword-and-sorcery characters out of nowhere, and, of course, one highly cantankerous cigar-smoking duck named Howard. Buckle up! [Read more…] about Swamp Monsters & the Counterculture in the Man-Thing Omnibus

IRON MAN by Matt Fraction & Salvador Larroca: Resilience and Reinvention

May 26, 2021 by Doug Smith Leave a Comment

To many, Superheroes are a monolithic force for good: infallible, incorruptible, and invincible. But what happens when these heroes fail? And what does it take for them to recover, and rebuild? In 2008, writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca began a 4-year tenure on The Invincible Iron Man, with the aim of restoring Tony Stark to his former glory as a shining vision of tomorrow. But to shape this new chapter for the character, Fraction had to confront Iron Man’s troubled past, and tear down his complicated legacy to forge something better in its place.

Unfortunately, Fraction’s run is often overshadowed by the characterization shown in Marvel Studios’ Iron Man and the subsequent entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But in spite of this, Fraction’s run has endured over the years on the strength of its deep, critical look at the character of Tony Stark, his numerous flaws, and his desire to move beyond them in the pursuit of a brighter future. Digging deep into Stark’s strengths, weaknesses, and insatiable curiosity, Matt Fraction’s run brings an entirely new outlook to the character, and superheroes at large: In the end, the best heroes aren’t invincible; they’re resilient.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Loki, Agent of Asgard Review!

May 26, 2021 by Sara Century 1 Comment

Many of Marvel’s most notorious villains have gone through changes that added layers to their personalities, transforming them from mustache-twirling fiends to complex figures in their own right. Be it Doctor Doom’s relationship with his mother to Magneto’s lost family, superhero comics have given the genre world many of its most nuanced characters with supervillains.

Still, none of Marvel’s baddies have quite achieved the antihero status of Loki. Making his first appearance in Journey Into Mystery #85 in 1962, Loki spent several decades experiencing relatively little in the way of depth. Yet in recent years, his movie counterpart and a handful of dedicated comics writers have somewhat helped redeem the irredeemable God of Lies. To find this new, heroic Loki at his very best, we have the Loki: Agent of Asgard complete collection. [Read more…] about Wherever You Go, There You Are: Loki, Agent of Asgard Review!

Al Ewing’s Guardians of the Galaxy and the Pursuit of Queer Planets

May 24, 2021 by Alexandra Iciek 2 Comments

The (Un)Queer Planet

In Michel Warner’s Fear of a Queer Planet, Warner refers to the ‘Pioneer Plaque’- an image that was sent on board the 1972 Pioner 10, spacecraft and later the Pioneer 11 in 1973 (Warner & STC, 1993). The crafts were sent by NASA as part of their space exploration program and were built to feasibly travel beyond our solar system. The plaque- designed by astronomer Carl Sagan and his wife- was designed to give basic information about humanity, in case extra-terrestrial life were to encounter the probes.

Warner observes that the plaque represents humanity through the image of a white, naked man and woman (ibid). He describes how this representation says much about the normative assumptions upon which Sagan, and by extension the American institution, understand ‘humanity.’ On the two figures, Warner writes:

They are not just sexually different; they are sexual difference itself. They are nude but have no body hair; the woman has no genitals …To a native of the culture that produced it, this bizarre fantasy-image is immediately recognizable not just as two gendered individuals, but as a heterosexual couple…, a technological but benign Adam and Eve. It testifies to the depth of the culture’s assurance (read: insistence) that humanity and heterosexuality are synonymous. This reminder speeds to the ends of the universe, announcing to passing stars that earth is not, regardless of what anyone says, a queer planet (ibid: 21). [Read more…] about Al Ewing’s Guardians of the Galaxy and the Pursuit of Queer Planets

Marvel Reviews

V. Two Big Bad Mutants of Hellfire (cont. from last week’s list of newly Krakoan villains!)

Related:

The (Un)Queer Planet

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