New Comic Cavalcade: Avengers, Thor and More

Welcome back to another installment of New Comic Cavalcade, where we here at The Vault read new comics so that you don't have to. Now, as you no doubt know, it's been a little while since last time we provided this invaluable service, so as you might expect, a large pile of new comics has been accruing, mostly due to the fact that Marvel is currently printing about 1700 Avengers titles.

In order to work our way through this slush pile, then, we're going to forgo the usual, incredibly in-depth review in favor of something a little different: concise and precise two sentence reviews. Don't worry, we'll still be providing our grades as usual along with the insight that you've become accustomed -- and addicted -- to. It will just be, you know, a lot shorter.

So why are we screwing around? Let's read some comics.


Avengers #3 (Brian Michael Bendis and John Romita Jr.): Better than the last issue anyway, but while this was reasonably enjoyable, when it was done I still felt like nothing had actually happened. That's because nothing actually happened other than one large fight scene, but I'll stick it out to the end of this first arc anyway. My Grade: B-.

Secret Avengers #3 (Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato): Like Avengers, this was also a step up from the last issue, though it was a bit clunky in places (I'm looking at you, random robot guy). Unile Avengers, this is written by Brubaker and not Bendis so I'm willing to give it more of a chance; that's just how it works when you've earned the reader's trust. My Grade: B.

Hawkeye & Mockingbird #3 (Jim McCann and David Lopez): I'm still not sure why they brought Mockingbird back, so I'm having some trouble getting into this arc in general. The ending was kind of goofy for my money, but on the other hand, considering the basic premise of the series, overall I think they're doing pretty well. My Grade: B.

Avengers Prime #2 (Brian Michael Bendis and Alan Davis): Shaping up to be the best Avengers story Bendis has written, though there were still some odd moments here and there (such as the fact that the whole Hela-based premise doesn't seem to match up in any way at all with what is happening in Thor). Steve's sudden romance with a random elven woman was... random... and a little out of character considering he's in a committed relationship, yet I still found it kind of interesting. My Grade: A-.

Avengers: The Children's Crusade #1 (Alan Heinberg and Jim Cheung): Yes, there's yet another new Avengers title, this one featuring the Young Avengers in a story where they supposedly track down the Scarlet Witch to find out the truth of Wiccan's parentage. Given Heinberg's track record, I have high hopes that this will end up being better than the Young Avengers stuff since he left their original title, and the cliffhanger with Magneto showing up is a good sign. My Grade: B+.

Steve Rogers: Super Soldier #1 (Ed Brubaker and Dale Eaglesham): brubaker spotlights Steve Rogers in this four issue series that adds yet more backstory to Steve's already crowded origin. I'm not sold on the art but the premise has at least some promise, so we'll see. My Grade: B-.

Captain America #608 (Ed Brubaker and Bruce Guice): Now this is more like it: not only does Brubaker really start to apply the screws to Bucky, he's doing it by re-establishing Baron Zemo as an A-level badass. The leak to the media revealing Bucky's identity as the new Captain America and his role as the Winter Soldier was a surprise that should really shake up what we thought the status-quo was going to be on this book. My Grade: A+.

Thor #612 (Kieron Gillen and Doug Braithwaite): As I mentioned this Hela-centric fantasy/horror hybrid tale is kind of interesting but seems to clash completely with the version of Hela in Avengers Prime. Well, whatever I guess; I kind of prefer this take on Thor to the JMS version because things are actually happening, even if it took half a year's worth of disjointed Siege tie-ins to get to this point. My Grade: B-.

The Rage of Thor #1 (Peter Milligan and Mico Suayan): Marvel continues it's new tradition of pumping out Thor one-shots, though for once this doesn't seem designed to plug a scheduling hole caused by slow-ass creators. And as usual, it's actually a lot better than the main title itself, which makes me wonder why they don't just publish these good stories as regular Thor issues. My Grade: A.

Astro City Special: Silver Agent #1 (Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson): After a decade plus of wondering, fans are finally being treated to the story of Silver Agent and what exactly happened to him. It's solid as always but does feel a little bit like a (necessary) clearing of the plate in order to get to the new, fresh stuff when the monthly Astro City finally re-launches. My Grade: B+.

RASL #8 (Jeff Smith): Things are starting to make some sense, at least they were until Smith drops a potential game-changing revelation on the last page. I've learned to trust Smith over the years, but I'm worried, because this twist has the potential to be really, really stupid and possibly undo the whole series if not handled just right. My Grade: Incomplete.


Well, look at that: nothing worse than a B-! Either this was an unusually solid group of comics or else I'm still swooning from hearing Samuel L. Jackson read the Avengers intro. But not a terrible batch anyway.

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New Comic Cavalcade

This week our reviews include Thor #602, RASL #5 and Captain America #601. Okay, so none of these books came out this week, but whatever. If Cap can bounce through time, then so can I.


Thor #602

J. Michael Straczynski, Marko Djurdjevic, etc.

First off, let me say that it’s nice to have the real numbering back on Thor. Yes, Marvel has taken some guff for its policy of slapping numbers onto comics seemingly at random, but some titles just don’t look right with single digits. 602 is looking good on Thor.

Something else that’s looking good on Thor? The pencils of Marko Djurdjevic. Sorry to all the people who love Oliver Coipel, but I’ve had my fill of the new “fat face” look. Coipel’s Thor looks way to much like Roger Clemens for my taste; I’m surprised he can get that sweaty moonpie to fit through the neckhole of his shirt. Djurdjevic’s Thor has more of an Albert Pujols look to him; muscular, yet slender without going into Andre Dawson territory. It’s just better suited for Thor. Or, apparently, for the NL All-Star team.

As far as the actual story in #602, well, eh. Every time a new issue of Thor comes out I have to put on my sound dampening headphones to drown out the clamor of the furious fanwanking coming from my internet speakers, but personally I haven’t quite understood the love. Like, yes; love, no. I mean, I’ve liked the run and I like this issue, but the way people are talking you’d think it was the second coming of Walt Simonson – that is, if any of the people commenting have even read Walt Simonson, which I tend to doubt.

In this issue we finally learn Sif’s fate, a mere 15 issues into JMS’s run. I know decompression is all the rage, but at this point Thor has given me a massive case of the bends. There have been some very cool moments in JMS’s Thor, but they have been spaced out so much that I could drive Toothgrinder between them and have elbow room on either side. I do appreciate some of the grunt work that JMS has had to do to get Thor functional again; turning the crown over to Balder so he’s not stuck in king mode, the loss of the Odin force in this issue and the general reducing of Thor to reasonable power levels over the course of this arc are all things that should make Thor into a viable character again going forward, one that can actually interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe. But balanced against this is some weird, seemingly pointless navel gazing (I’m looking at you, state of Oklahoma) and the fact that most Asgardians still seem like immature morons.

If this all seems pretty negative, well, it’s simply my attempt to let some of the hot air out of the high flying JMS Thor hype balloon before it reaches escape velocity and shoots into outer space. The series is pretty good – the writing is pretty good and the art is pretty good and this specific issue is even pretty good. But if, like me, you think it shouldn’t take two years to say “Thor’s alive”, then you’d be better off borrowing your friend’s trade and reading it all at once. Because setting Thor up isn’t enough any more; it’s time to actually tell some stories with him.

My Grades: This issue gets a B. the run as a whole only gets a B-; some very good issues, but even more that seem like they are just filler.


RASL #5

Jeff Smith

I don’t know what “RASL” means. I don’t know what’s going on in this story. I don’t know why the main character kind of seems like an asswipe a lot of the time. But, there are a few things I do know about RASL and RASL #5.

Firstly, it’s all done by Jeff Smith, who did Bone, which was only one of the greatest comics of all time. I’d imagine it must be pretty hard to do something new after you finish a project like Bone. I mean, there’s just a wee bit of pressure, right? When you’ve shot the moon on your first try, you better aim for Mars with your second.

Which brings me to the second thing I can tell you, which is that it’s already pretty clear that Smith is aiming at a target I can’t even see. I don’t know just what, yet, but something is sure as hell going on in these first five issues. And if you’ve read Bone, you know that whatever you think the premise of the series is at the start, it may end up being something very different by the end from what you imagined.

Now, I know this is a bit ironic considering I just busted JMS for decompression and here I am saying that we should just give Jeff Smith as much time as he needs to develop whatever it is that he’s doing. But when Smith’s characters are talking, you feel like they’re saying something; when the characters in Thor are talking, it feels like they’re saying nothing. It could simply be the difference between a creator owned property and a title where the writer doesn’t have full power to cut loose; but even when nothing is actually happening in RASL, Smith makes you feel like that nothing is itself something.

Plus, the dude has a lettercolumn, which right there means it gets a thumbs up from me. T. M. Maple would be so proud.

My Grades: A for the comic, B for the main character being sort of a wanker


Captain America #601

Ed Brubaker, Gene Colan

The cover announces that this is a “very special issue of Captain America”, but let me put your minds at ease: contrary to rumors, this comic does not feature a young Gary Coleman being molested by his father’s business partner. Nor is teenage pregnancy or drug use addressed.

No, the reason this is special is that it features art from living legend Gene Colan. Colan, whose first comic work appeared back in 1944, is no stranger to Captain America, having penciled a classic run that included the Falcon’s first appearance as well as the Red Skull / Cosmic Cube epic that is a clear influence on the current Brubaker run. So it would seem like this is a perfect pairing.

And it’s not half bad. Colan has been slowed recently by some reported health issues, but the art inside, while maybe not up to some of his classic work from Tomb of Dracula, is still easily recognizable; for instance, it’s not messed up like some of Kirby’s “wonky eyeball” era art. There’s just no mistaking his moody, idiosyncratic style (even though some of Carmen Infantino’s later work seemed to be gravitating towards the same ideal). The story itself is fittingly dark and atmospheric and even involves a zombie attack during World War II, which is a nice nod to Colan’s body of work.

So, yeah, it’s totally fine. What, you think I’m going to pitch an 82 year old man under the bus? C’mon. I’m not a dick like that guy from RASL. I will admit that, even though I am a big fan of Colan himself (he is a very cool guy if you have the chance to meet him) I’ve never really gotten into his art. It’s just not my thing. And I can’t say I care for Cap stories set during World War II either; is it just me, or are they uniformly and universally tedious? But considering all the strikes against it, I’d say I enjoyed this book as much as could be hoped. Who knows, you might like it more than I did.

My Grades: If I didn’t like the creators so much it would get a B-, but since I do, I’ll give it a B+.

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