Showing posts with label 2010s. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010s. Show all posts

Thursday, 26 January 2017

X-Men Origins: Beast (2008) # 1, Colossus (2008) # 1, Jean Grey (2008) # 1, Gambit (2009) # 1, Sabretooth (2009) # 1, Wolverine (2009) # 1, Cyclops (2010) # 1, Deadpool (2010) # 1, Emma Frost (2010) # 1, Iceman (2010) # 1, Nightcrawler (2010) # 1


(I originally read these comics in early January 2017)

You should cherish this post if you're an X-Men fan, because I won't be making many of them. The X-Men and their sundry spin-offs are the Marvel franchise for which I have the least affection. However, that's not to say I don't enjoy some X-Men comics. Given that their convoluted continuity is my main barrier to enjoying them, self-contained, short stories like those in the 'Origins' one-shots should be much more palatable. At least, that's the theory.


  
  
  

Released between 2008 and 2010, each of the comics purports to tell the origin story of a long-standing X-character. In reality, they're really just recaps. Even as a casual (at best) X-fan, there wasn't much here I didn't already know or hadn't read elsewhere. Mike Carey's script for the Beast comic is hampered by having to retell what was already a crappy story with a silly villain. However, the frankly weird art style that looks like painted-over photographs really skewers it. His Gambit book is marginally better (an' I say dis as an avowed Gambit-'ater) and showcases an interesting art style by the combined talents of David Yardin and Ibraim Roberson. The Colossus book is better and has the benefit of moody art by Trevor Hairsine, but content is slim. It's Mike Mayhew's art in the Jean Grey comic that's the standout amongst the first half dozen titles. While I'm no great fan of painted comics, Mayhew's work is simply beautiful, presumably heavy on photo reference but without the stiffness that often results. Jean's journey from traumatised tween to powerful teen telepath is sensitively handled.

 There's not much room for sensitivity in the Wolverine or Sabretooth comics, but then that's not what their fans are after. Kieron Gillen's Sabretooth 'origin' doesn't offer much beyond violence, but Dan Panosian's art is great. With more history to recap than most, Chris Yost's Wolverine one-shot is superficial and you'd expect him to have remembered who out of Logan and Colossus he'd had join the X-Men first, instead of having both his efforts blatantly contradict each other.
  
 


Of the latter five titles, the ones featuring Cyclops, Nightcrawler and Iceman are the best, though that's not saying much. Jesse Delperdang shines on the art for the Cyclops one-shot, which recaps Scott Summers' background from parents' deaths to assumption of the role of X-Men leader, taking in their first clash with Magneto in the process. The Nightcrawler one at least has a Universal horror film vibe that I appreciated, but the rest are hit or miss. 

Deadpool still sucks. 

One thing that becomes apparent in these stories, to the point of it being a running joke, is just how willing these kids were to ditch their families, maybe forever, to follow a creepy, bald dude. Whether engaging in an endless battle to "protect a world that hates and fears them" or ending up faces frozen in time and staring out from the sides of of milk cartons is the worse fate, I'll leave up to you to decide.


X-Men Origins: Beast (2008) # 1, X-Men Origins: Colossus (2008) # 1, X-Men Origins: Gambit (2009) # 1, X-Men Origins: Jean Grey (2008) # 1, X-Men Origins: Sabretooth (2009) # 1 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) # 1 are collected in:

Hardcover:

Softcover:

X-Men Origins: Colossus (2008) # 1 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) # 1 are collected in:

Hardcover:

X-Men Origins: Colossus (2008) # 1 is collected in:

Softcover:

X-Men Origins: Cyclops (2010) # 1, X-Men Origins: Deadpool (2010) # 1, X-Men Origins: Emma Frost (2010) # 1, X-Men Origins: Iceman (2010) # 1 and X-Men Origins: Nightcrawler (2010) # 1 are collected in:

Hardcover:

Softcover:

X-Men Origins: Deadpool (2010) # 1 is collected in:

Hardcover:




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Thursday, 12 January 2017

Eerie (2012) # 1-8


(I originally read these comics in mid/late December 2016)

This latter-day revival of Warren's long-running horror anthology is a real disappointment. The decision seems to have been made to make it a sci-fi/horror comic, in keeping with the second half of the original mag's run and to distinguish it from Dark Horse's concurrent 'Creepy' revival, but this isn't consistent.

The first issue is an inauspicious debut, with two reprints. I made the decision to skip the reprints in every issue, so as to not spoil them for when I get around to a proper 'Eerie' read-through. Of the two new strips, the lead one by David Lapham, about a paranoid man coming to believe his family are robots, is gruesome and memorable. You'd be hard-pressed to find many jewels in the rest of the run, though, despite the artistic talents of Mike Allred, Evan Shaner and Mike Royer, amongst others. However, the two strips drawn by Kelley Jones in issues 4 and 6 deserve a mention. The first, written by Al Ewing, has a psychotherapist separate a man from his 'shadow self', in order to ease his guilty conscience. The second, an M. R. James adaptation by Jones himself, tells of a condemned witch exacting vengeance through an ash tree. For much of the rest of it, there's an issue with stories requiring too much investment - even over just eight pages or so - for too little pay-off. Bernie Wrightson provides back cover art. 

I bought each issue of this incarnation of Eerie as they were farted out over a period of three and a half years, without reading any. Safe to say, if I'd read them as they came out, I'd have dropped the title from my pull list before it was halfway through. In a time when real life horrors are a staple ingredient of TV news and social media, you have to try much harder than this. I'm afraid 'Eerie' is best left in the past and viewed through the lens of nostalgia where you can at least imagine the world was safer and cosier and that these types of tales still had the power to frighten.


   
   


The original stories from Eerie (2012) # 1-8 are collected in:

Softcover:



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Sunday, 1 January 2017

'Breed (1994) # 1-6, 'Breed II (1994) # 1-6, 'Breed III (2011)


(I originally read these comics in early December 2016)

It's 1949 and the army is deployed to investigate strange goings-on in the town of Bucksnort, Texas. Upon reaching the town, Captain Alex Stoner and co. discover a scene of carnage with human remains assembled into a shrine and alien symbols painted on the walls in blood, with just one pregnant survivor. Twenty years later, army photographer and Capt. Stoner's adopted son Ray's true heritage rears its hulking, horned head when he's ambushed in the steaming jungle of Laos. It's only after the war, however, when he stumbles upon a hidden city that he discovers the truth; that he's 'Breed', a human/demon hybrid, and, furthermore, he's the one who it's foretold will destroy all demonkind, making him a constant target of assassins. 

Jim Starlin crafts an interesting mythology here, one that only continues to expand throughout the three series. His art has a rough-hewn, Severin-like quality but is undermined with naff Photoshop effects. The speech balloons and captions are also rife with typos. 


  
  


The second series finds Stoner leaving a Nepalese temple and immediately coming under attack by 'brethren'. Dispatching them easily, he disappears to fight in a series of South American wars as a mercenary and to hone his skills as the story moves on into the '80s. However, it's not long till the brethren catch up with him and he must choose on whose side to fight. This chapter concludes with an exciting confrontation among the spires and citadels of the hidden city, Elsewhere. This is the weakest of the three series, with Starlin's art looking rushed. The Photoshop effects dominate and make the pages look sparse. They must have been cutting edge back in the mid-'90s, but have dated badly.


  
  

   
  


The third and final series, produced by Starlin after a sixteen year break, really kicks things up a notch. This is a much denser read, as though he had a lot of story left to tell in only a set seven issues. Unfortunately, much exposition comes in the way of an extended flashback in the first half of the book that does rob the story of some immediacy. Stoner, in his demon form, comes to the rescue of a woman whose face he's been seeing for years in the still waters of Elsewhere, and her dying, ten year-old son. Just how they figure into what's going on is teased and hinted at until late in the series when Stoner and other guest-starring Starlin creations such as Vanth Dreadstar, Oedi and Kid Kosmos must face a final battle. Things get trippy here with Stoner fighting on a psychic plane of mind-bending, Ditko-esque weirdness, and Starlin renders it all beautifully with no short cuts taken. His art is more refined and detailed here than previously, with less in the way of garish Photoshop effects, though they're still present. 

I found the 'Breed saga in its entirety to be pretty satisfying stuff.


'Breed (1994) # 1-6 are collected in:

Softcover:

'Breed II (1994) # 1-6 are collected in:

Softcover:

'Breed III (2011) # 1-7 are collected in:

Softcover:



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Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Alice Cooper (2014) # 1-6, Marvel Premiere (1972) # 50


(I originally read these comics in mid November 2016)

In what's a first for this blog, I'm gonna skip a review until I re-read this series. This is because I'd like to give a comic inspired by one of my all-time favourite musicians a chance to convince me it didn't suck quite as hard as I thought it did the first time. 

Watch this space.


  
  



As an extra, here's an in-house ad for Marvel Premiere # 50.




Alice Cooper (2014) # 1-6 and Marvel Premiere (1972) # 50 are collected in:

Hardcover:



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Wytches (2014) # 1-6


(I originally read these comics in mid November 2016)

'Wytches' is only my second taste of the work of Scott Snyder (for the first, see here) and he could have made a worse impression. Having said that, I didn't find it an entirely satisfying experience. 

It follows a children's book illustrator, his disabled wife and their thirteen year-old daughter Sailor as they move to a new town, having left scandal and trailing secrets behind them. The bullied adolescent was suspected of killing her tormentor when she disappeared in the woods, never to be found. Her new schoolmates approach this rumour with a mixture of fear and awe.

It would spoil the story to say too much. Like 'The Wicker Man', this is a tale that relies on the measured disclosure of ominous goings-on to evoke growing dread. However, it comes as no surprise when the family's new hometown is proven to be a hotbed of supernatural shenanigans and that there are revealed to be scarier things than raccoons lurking in the woods. 

The plot is engaging, even if the non-linear storytelling threatened to lose me once or twice, the dialogue is sharp and the central characters of Charlie and Sailor are likeable. My main issue was with the art, or specifically the dark and murky colouring that employs a heavily 'paint-spattered' effect throughout. Because of this I missed a few story details and was turning back the pages in confusion. I feel a more conventional palette would have eased immersion into the story and better allowed Jock's line work to shine.

'Wytches' feels like a movie pitch in comics form, so it's no surprise to learn there's a big screen adaptation on the way.


  
  


Wytches (2014) # 1-6 are collected in:

Softcover:



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