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Reviews

Maniac of New York Review! Pray Harry Doesn’t Find You

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Elliott Kalan and Andrea Mutti open up Maniac of New York: The Death Train with the above image. It already warns you the story will be filled with the kinds of violence and gory deaths characteristic of the slasher genre. In our day and age, with so many sequels and remakes, everyone knows the basics of slasher flicks like Halloween and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, so – in a way – we are already familiar with Harry, our Jason-like serial killer. But his role is also a bit different from the other characters mentioned. [Read more…] about Maniac of New York Review! Pray Harry Doesn’t Find You

The Evolution of Marvel Cosmic, Pt 2: Molecule Man, Skrulls & Inhumans!

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[covers drawn by Jack Kirby; respectively inked by George Roussos, Joe Sinnott and Chic Stone]

Find part of our Evolution of Marvel Cosmic series here!

There’s no doubt that with the arrival of Galactus eager to feast upon our Earthly life energies or whatever in Fantastic Four #48-50, Stan Lee and, in particular, Jack Kirby finally opened up a whole new vista of storytelling within the nascent Marvel Universe. The invigorating potential for Kirby’s genius particularly unlocked not just the best Fantastic Four stories to come but also the King’s streak of cosmic epics in Thor, which maybe wouldn’t be surprising to Thor readers of the past decade. These two early titles are really where, post-FF #48, virtually everything about what we think of as Marvel Cosmic was first conceived.

The only major cosmic players to appear almost fully realized before Galactus were the Watcher and Super-Skrull. The Skrulls themselves, however, Stan and Jack weren’t quite sure how to depict, although their subsequent appearances over the first few years after their debut in FF #2 were far in advance of their original almost embarrassingly goofy conception. If not for their useful native shape-shifting abilities, they would’ve certainly gone the way of the vast majority of Marvel’s early one-off alien species.

Instead of the typical ignominious fate of many an early Marvel alien species, the Skrulls returned with increasingly sophisticated visual embellishment courtesy of Jack Kirby as he was really coming into his own as the King of this fledgling medium. [Read more…] about The Evolution of Marvel Cosmic, Pt 2: Molecule Man, Skrulls & Inhumans!

Inferno: The X-Men’s Empire, Destroyed

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That’s the real war, isn’t it? Ensuring you’re on the winning side?

After decades of struggle, the Mutant race has achieved utopia, and built an empire that spans the galaxy. Together, they have transcended scarcity, disease, and death itself. But what is the true cost of this paradise? And what becomes of it when the many secrets, compromises, and hidden agendas that built it are finally brought into the light?

Brought to life by Valerio Schiti, Stefano Caselli, David Curiel, RB Silva, and Tom Muller, 2022’s Inferno is so much more than a crossover. It’s the ending to a saga that writer Jonathan Hickman began in the pages of House of X and Powers of X, transforming the X-Men, their world, and the Mutant metaphor behind it all. While the “Krakoan era” would encompass every title and creative team on the x-line of comics it would all be in service of Hickman’s vision for the title, uniting Mutants, both good and evil, in a desperate mission to stave off extinction and build a sanctuary for the species.

“I think what happened after Grant and Frank did their thing is that you got that version of the X-Men and then there’s been this nostalgic version of the X-Men…Playing the old hits kind of stuff,” muses the writer. “And those two things have been fighting with each other, probably since that run. You don’t want to do archaeology or nostalgia tropes. My job is to do new stuff with it, and launch us into a newer age of X-Men.”

As each new corner of this sanctuary is explored, Hickman and his collaborators craft a larger picture across the line, putting the nation of Krakoa on a path that would end in its ultimate reckoning. While a number of factors influenced the event’s production, including top-down editorial decisions from Marvel Comics and input from the other creatives on the line, Inferno is the definitive end of Hickman’s vision for the X-Men, as countless threats spark back into being, threatening to burn down everything the Mutants have built. After years of storytelling, Inferno delivers what would become Hickman’s legacy for X-Men: one last trial by fire for the Mutant race.

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

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Who Watched the Watchmen? Countdown to Final Crisis

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It is often said that Watchmen is the most influential comic ever to be released. That comics wouldn’t be where they are without it, for good and for ill. But how did we get here, exactly? More to the point, just what influence did Watchmen provide to the larger world of comics? What, ultimately, is the legacy of Watchmen? Who watched the Watchmen?

Countdown #17, cover art by Pete Woods

Duela Dent is dead and the Multiverse… actually doesn’t care that much. In the aftermath of the fiscally successful and critically-acclaimed 52, DC launched Countdown to Final Crisis, which is, well, less fondly remembered, to put it kindly. As its title might imply, it was attempting to build hype for the then-pending Final Crisis. This weekly series followed much the same format as 52 by juggling an enormous cast of lesser-known characters, but went overboard on pointless cameos and mostly forgot to include the parts where the story would be relevant to the events it was leading into.

To say Countdown was a hugely ambitious project is no exaggeration, so where did it go wrong? Well, following up the admittedly loose but still exciting and energy of 52 with a comparatively uninspired but equally long series to keep the fiscal ball rolling set it up to fail from day one. Another one of its biggest mistakes is the act of invoking Watchmen’s plot points, imagery, and themes. Regardless of your overall feelings on Watchmen, it had a meticulously written script in which a number of story and character beats dance more or less seamlessly with the larger plot. If you’re going to call attention to the series, you’ve got to run a tight ship or you’re setting yourself up to come across as a cheap imitation. Yet even a lot of cheap imitations are more charming than Countdown turned out to be. [Read more…] about Who Watched the Watchmen? Countdown to Final Crisis

X-Men: Red #2 Review – On Fire

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The dream team of writer Al Ewing and penciler Stefano Caselli, previously working together on S.W.O.R.D., continues to make ­X-Men: Red the Destiny of X title I’m most excited about (alongside Immortal X-Men, of course). Issue #2 is a killer follow-up, building Brand’s new “X-Men” threat and overall nefarious schemes, as well as underlining Vulcan’s explosive instability, with clues as to how this happened being revealed a little at a time in what feels like an inevitable build toward this omega timebomb going into full meltdown on Arakko—just what the bigoted and secretly anti-Arakkii extremist Abigail Brand wants, as she burrows deeper into her role as director of Orchis’ “Infrastructure and Influence.”

What hasn’t been stated outright yet in this new series is that as all her experience with interstellar threats and Machiavellian politicking, she’s bringing her own far-reaching network of mercenary contacts and alliances to the otherwise astronomically provincial Orchis. In other words, Abigail Brand is just about Orchis’ single most important asset (and anyway, Nimrod and Omega Sentinel don’t really count as assets any longer😉).

Ewing also continues a story that fans have been wanting, in some form, for many years now: not just something where Storm is the central protagonist but a narrative that delves into her character, advancing her into 21st-century superstar status among mutantkind. This is the promise of X-Men: Red at its core.

The thematic tension between (just two of) Storm’s identities (perhaps the most ambiguous ones), being queen of both Wakanda (starting with Black Panther vol. 4 #18, 2006) and, much earlier, the Morlocks (from Uncanny #170, 1983)—has clearly been one of Ewing’s central interests in Storm since he recast her as Regent of Sol in S.W.O.R.D. #6 (the “Hellfire Gala” issue). I believe that was the first time he really had, as a storyteller, to write her character, but right off, he seemed to have clear direction for her trajectory.

No doubt, Ewing is revitalizing Storm with an energy and clarity that we haven’t seen since Claremont, and who knows—but I’m hopeful he takes the evolution of Claremont’s most cherished character even further.

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