This Week in Marvel Comics: Secret Wars #2, Magneto #18, Thor #8, and Uncanny Avengers #4

            Welcome, to what I hope will be a long running series of articles, entitled This Week in Marvel Comics, where I shall review the various issues of Marvel’s books that I read on a regular basis.  Why only one article?  Well, it allows me to condense the number that I have so that any readers I have can see everything in one place, as opposed to hunting through my blog articles to find the ones they want.  This may change in time, (the article titles can be a bit of a mouthful), but for now this is the way I wish to write it.  Now I before I go any further, it needs to be established that any issue I review will spoil the previous issues, as it’s the only way to talk about the current issues with the appropriate context so consider this your spoiler warning.  So, without further ado, this is This Week in Marvel Comics: Secret Wars #2, Magneto #18, Thor #8, and Uncanny Avengers #4.

Secret Wars #2

            The best way one can describe Secret Wars #2 is as a world building issue that quite frankly has little to do with the events of the previous issue save for the last seven pages.  Depending on your point of view, this is either the issue’s greatest strength or its greatest weakness.  As we all know from the last issue and the Time Runs Out build up, the Marvel Multiverse has ended with Earth 616, (the main Marvel Universe) and Earth 1610, (the Ultimate Universe), finally colliding and ending the last two universe because apparently the all-powerful Beyonders got bored or something, (it isn’t very well explained).  In a last ditch effort to save humanity, Doctor Doom attempted to confront the Beyonders and destroy them with the help of Doctor Strange, while Reed Richards and the Illuminati build a life raft for a small portion of humanity that can survive the Incursion.  Ultimately, Doom and Strange apparently failed and Richards succeeded, landing on a mysterious, unknown world but at a great cost. 

            Unfortunately, this issue doesn’t pick up where the last on left off and instead focuses on establishing the rules for the new Battleworld, mostly through the eyes of a new Thor, (more on that in a moment).  Through this characters eyes we learn that Doom, (or at least some version of him), is the ruler of this world, (or at least the more civilized parts of it), and has set himself up as a God with Steven Strange as his right hand and Sue Storm as his apparent wife and any who object to his rule or word are immediately put down, often by being thrown over a wall that divides the territories that Doom rules absolutely and other chaotic territories in Battleworld that are populated buy Marvel Zombies, Ultron’s robotic hordes, and another army known as the Annihilation wave, that periodically attack the wall.  The wall itself is manned by the Thors, who also serves as Dooms personal police force who serve him without question.  The world itself is divided among various barons, who rule their respective territories as kings and are only called to account when they have violated another baron’s rights in some way. 

            The confusing part of all of this, (outside of Battleworld’s existence), is that the entire population seems to be made up of characters who are dead; either killed in pervious series or during the Incursion and the book does nothing in terms of establishing as to why all of these characters are here.  However it does do a good job in establishing that these characters are virtually the same as their Earth 616 counterparts and what their goals seem to be in all of this.  Doom, for example, still wants to rule as a God, (as he always does), and Mister Sinister is, as usual, up to no good and is a promising setup for future stories to take place in this world. 

The main problem, as mentioned before, is that it really doesn’t have anything to do with the previous issue and up until the last few pages, it feels as if it’s grinding the Secret Wars storyline to a screeching halt and that’s going to make some people frustrated. 

All in all, however, this is a great issue.  It’s well written, the art work is fantastic and does an incredibly good job of setting up this world for future stories.  If you can get over the fact that the issue itself has apparently little to do with the previous issue, I say it’s worth a look.

Verdict

Read

Magneto #18

            The Magneto solo series has become one of the more surprisingly enjoyable character solo series that has spun off in my time reading Marvel’s current comics.  Taking place after the events of Avengers V.S. X-Men and after discovering villains attempting to harvest mutant growth hormones in enhance their own power, Magneto virtually cuts himself off from the X-Men and all members of his former Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to take up the mantel of Protector of Mutantkind, working as a vigilante against those who have caused great harm to his people and eventually reestablishing his mutant haven on Genoshia.  The series as a whole has been action packed and succeeds in getting the reader to root for Magneto and his cause but acknowledges that the man is still a murderer with not only questionable methods to achieve his goals but questionable degrees of success.  All in all it’s a very solid series and I highly recommend you take a look at it, especially if you’re already a fan of the character.

            Magneto #18, entitled Last Days of Magneto, takes place during the Incursion as he tries to make amends with his daughter, Lorna Dane, (the forgotten child of Magneto), as well as attempts his own last ditch effort to destroy Earth 1610 in order to save his own.  Unfortunately, this issue is probably going to be the lesser of what is clearly going to be a multiple issue storyline.  The glaring problem of the issue is that we already know how the Incursion ends.  We know Magneto fails.  We know in all likelihood he is going to die and it renders much of what he is saying and thinking moot.  It’s the prequel/inbetweenquel problem that plagues most stories like this and this issue fails to rise above it.  The vast majority of the issue focuses on Magneto talking with Lorna, regretting his failures as a parent while cutting back to his meetings with Namor who apparently told him what was going on and the whole thing feels padded, as if the writers are just wasting time until the real meat of the story comes in later issues.  There is a lot of talk between Magneto and Lorna with the typical Estranged Father/Daughter stuff we’ve heard a million times before with Magneto stressing in his mind about how what he is about to do will kill him and how the fates of all hang in his hands and cutting back to his meetings with Namor that just feel superfluous as if the writers felt that we needed to know their history with one another and it ultimately just feels like a bit of a time waster until the final page that sets up what the final story arc of the series will really be about.

            It’s not helped by the artwork that while not bad is unremarkable.  One of the series more questionable choices was without a doubt the art direction of the series, as it always felt like they were trying to emulate the style of Greg Capullo of Batman but in this series it always felt a bit out of place and this is very much at play here as well.  The panels themselves do nothing to keep your interest, consisting of people just looking at Magneto in awe or the characters just talking and does nothing in terms of getting us to feel just how epic of an event is going on in the Marvel or the stakes that are on the line.

            In the end, Magneto #18 just doesn’t do it.  It’s not emotional enough to keep you invested, not action packed enough to keep you engaged, but also not bad enough to where it’s not worth a look at, if only for the sake of discovering what will happen next and the ultimate fate of the Master of Magnetism will be.

Verdict

Browse

Thor #8

            The past year or so has seen very strange changes in Marvel Comics, (outside of the obvious reboot).  A past version of Bobby Drake, (it’s not really made clear as to when this Iceman is from), turned out to be gay, Spider-Man turned out to have not been the only one to have been bitten by the radioactive spider that gave him is powers, a character known as Spider-Gwen has gained a surprising amount of popularity, the mantle of Captain America was taken over by Sam Wilson, and a woman now carries Thor’s hammer and goes by his name.  Words have been used to describe these moves as that of some kind of “liberal agenda” or roundabout efforts of “political correctness” and have viewed this changes as a hugely negative thing but I’ve seen it more as progressive; an attempt by Marvel to realize that the world is and always will be changing and one has to change with it.  Now whether or not changing Iceman into a gay man or gender/racial swapping Thor and Captain America is the right way to go about this is another discussion all-together and one that is worth having but not today.  This part of the article’s section is whether or not the resulting series of one of these changes is any good and if it was worth ending an otherwise excellent series in order execute this status quo shaker.  The answer is yes AND no.

            You see, the proceeding series, Thor: God of Thunder, had been, without a doubt, one of the best series of the Marvel Now! lineup, with incredibly creative stories that spanned not only space but also time, breathing new life into a few old villains, characters as well as introducing several new ones that I hope will play larger roles in the future and potentially have their own spots in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  That all ended however, during the events of the Original Sin crossover event where Thor lost the use of his hammer, (read the story for more info on that) and the story of Thor began right after that, as an unknown woman is able to lift the hammer.

            On the whole the series has been good but not great.  It’s very entertaining to see the new Thor discover her powers, how they work and how she interacts with the original Thor, (who now goes by Odinson), and how he attempts to discover her identity.  Unfortunately, it’s just not as intense or creative as the previous series so it makes the shift a bit hard to justify from an improved narrative point of view and this particular issue doesn’t help matters.

            There really isn’t much to say about this issue as the vast majority of it focuses on Thor, Odinson, and their allies fighting off the Destroyer, sent after her by Odin in order to reclaim the hammer from her.  What follows is a very underwhelming fight where the various characters of the Marvel Universe trade unfunny banter and fight the Destroyer until it comes to its inevitable end where the new Thor’s identity is revealed and it doesn’t really make all that much sense.  That’s really all there is to say about it.  The action in the issue isn’t particularly well depicted, with much of the action apparently happening off panel, the banter between characters doesn’t work and outside of a few story advancements with her current position among the gods and an apparent plot by her enemies that all happen at the end of the comic nothing really happens and while it’s not one I would say you should burn, it’s one that you would be better off looking at a wiki article for what happened as opposed to buying the issue.

Verdict

Browse

Uncanny Avengers #4

            An inevitable fact of a long running franchise is that it’s going to go through high and low points, masterpieces and duds, and decent entries to mediocre ones.  But does this make the more average or non-spectacular entries in said franchise bad?  Does not living up to the high standards of a predecessor make a story told later horrible?  It’s a question that any fan of any franchise wrestles with when confronted with one of the mediocre entries of any long running franchise and I find myself asking this question a lot in with Uncanny Avengers.

            Formed in the aftermath of the Avengers V.S. X-Men event, the Uncanny Avengers is a series that focuses a group of the Avengers known as the Unity Squad; a group made with the intent to show that humans and mutants could work together.  The resulting series was nothing short of amazing, with three major story arcs that knew how to bring out the best in all of their characters for all of their strengths and weaknesses with incredibly well written plots that remain among my favorite in all of Marvel, which eventually led in to the excellent AXIS story arc and remains one of the best crossover events in Marvel in recent memory.  Unfortunately, AXIS ended with many shakeups occurring in the Uncanny Avengers lineup and the focus of the book shifted from Avengers/X-Men esc battles against threats to both groups to something far inferior.

            The new renumbered Uncanny Avengers follows a new Unity Squad made up of Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Rogue, Sam Wilson/Captain America, Doctor Voodoo, The Vision, and Sabretooth as they travel to a doppelganger planet earth called Counter-Earth and get caught up in a battle against its ruler who periodically wipes out the planets population in hopes of creating the perfect race, free of flaws and has been a very underwhelming series thus far.  At the forefront are Scarlet Witch’s and Quicksilver’s daddy issues that don’t really seem to amount to anything interesting outside of what feels like a forced revelation so Marvel Studios can say that the two character’s aren’t mutant characters anymore for the sake of the characters’ movie rights.  The plot itself isn’t particularly interesting with a villain who comes off as a boring version of Apocalypse and his plans don’t really seem to have very high stakes outside of what is going on within this planet that we have never heard of before and does next to nothing to get us invested in.  The artwork, while not bad, does nothing to help matters, depicting a visually uninteresting world and new characters that won’t be remembered anytime soon based on their designs.  The one silver lining is Sabretooth’s story as he wrestles with the fact that he has gained humanity, (read AXIS for more info on that) and struggles to be a better person while still faced with the fact that he still has to let the animal out every now and then.

            And that’s really the review of this issue as well.  It has the same problems as the rest of the renumbered series.  Uninteresting artwork, mediocre writing, and giving the reader the general feeling of “man this series used to be so much better”.  In the end, does that make this series itself bad?  Grudgingly, I have to say yes.  While not the worst issue or series that I’ve read, it really does nothing to stand out from a huge crowd which is just flat out sinful when compared to what came before.  And in this case, for being such a failed follow up to a great series, it deserves the burn pile.

Verdict

Burn

            And that about wraps up this edition of This Week in Marvel Comics.  We got a really strong second entry into Secret Wars, two mediocre entries into two otherwise good series, and another mediocre entry into what has sadly become a mediocre series.  Hopefully next time I will be able to have the next article out in a more timely manner but for now I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on it and hope that Marvel will keep going strong in some areas and get better in other.  So until next time, please follow the blog, follow me on twitter and come back next time.  Until then, this is Griff the Ghost signing off.