Showing posts with label Zeb Wells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zeb Wells. Show all posts

Sunday, 27 November 2016

Runaways (2005) # 1-24, Young Avengers & Runaways (2006) # 1-4


(I originally read these comics in early June 2016)

Thought I'd pick up the second volume of Runaways, having read the first this time last year and before I forget everything about it. To refresh the memory, it follows a group of West Coast kids who came to discover their parents made up a shady crime cabal, and then teamed up to defeat them. There's no great, overarching plot to this series. Two new members join - a cyborg 'son' of Ultron and a noble Skrull who, while male, takes on a female guise after he shows up to announce his long since pre-arranged marriage to lesbian member Karolina. (And "Squee!" go the Tumblrettes.) There's a team-up with Cloak (of Cloak and Dagger), a meeting with Spider-Man (they eat sushi) and a clash with a support group for ex-teen super-heroes made up of Marvel third(or even fourth)-stringers. One Runaway dies.

This continues to be well-written stuff by Brian K. Vaughan, with great character interaction and dialogue. Of course, the kids are all far more likeable, responsible and intelligent than real-life counterparts would be. Vaughan left after # 24, so I'm gonna take a break as I'm not enjoying it quite as much as I did previously. 

I'm very surprised Marvel hasn't announced a film (or at least a TV series) of this already. It has broad crossover appeal and would seem destined to be a surefire mainstream hit.


   
   
   
   
  
  

   

  


Runaways (2005) # 1-18 and Free Comic Book Day: X-Men/Runaways (2006) # 1 are collected in:

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Runaways (2005) # 1-12 and Free Comic Book Day: X-Men/Runaways (2006) # 1 are collected in:

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Runaways (2005) # 1-6 are collected in:

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Runaways (2005) # 7-12 are collected in:

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Runaways (2005) # 13-24 are collected in:

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Runaways (2005) # 13-18 are collected in:

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Runaways (2005) # 19-24 and Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways (2006) # 1-4 are collected in:

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Runaways (2005) # 19-24 are collected in:

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Civil War:Young Avengers & Runaways (2006) # 1-4 are collected in:

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Wednesday, 9 November 2016

Carnage (2010) # 1-5, Carnage, U.S.A. (2012) # 1-5, 'Minimum Carnage' (2012), Superior Carnage (2013) # 1-5, Deadpool vs Carnage (2014) # 1-4


(I originally read these comics in mid April 2016)

Amused myself over the last few days reading recent adventures of Marvel's favourite serial killer 'symbiote.' If you don't have much interest in Carnage, I wouldn't blame you - he has always been a desperately one-dimensional character and his stories nothing more than an excuse for bloody violence. Certainly the first two series by Zeb Wells and with dark 'n' slimy art by the inexplicably popular Clayton Crain are nothing to get excited about. 


  
 

  
 


However, the 'Minimum Carnage' crossover sees Carnage being transported to the Microverse and pressed into use by nefarious forces, with the new, heroic Venom (Spidey jock 'Flash' Thompson) and Scarlet Spider (the surviving Peter Parker clone from the '90s 'Clone Saga') in pursuit. I wasn't sure how I'd like FlashVenom, but he's obviously gone through a lot of recent character development and is put to good use. I'm certainly eager to check out more. The few Marvel-owned characters from their '80s 'Micronauts' series - namely Arcturus Rann, Marionette and Bug - also appear. 


      


The 'Superior Carnage' series entails the Wizard abducting Carnage, left catatonic after his previous adventure, to make up the final element in his latest incarnation of the Frightful Four with himself, Klaw and a paraplegic scientist. The purple-helmeted one bonds the Carnage symbiote to the scientist and is even possessed by it himself to battle the 'Superior Spider-Man' (actually Doctor Octopus' consciousness controlling Peter Parker's body - don't ask.)


  
  


I'm not sure how a five-issue limited series warrants an annual, but it at least reunites the Carnage symbiote with his original host, Cletus Kasady. It then leads straight into the 'Deadpool vs Carnage' series, which, despite my disdain for Deadpool, proved to be pretty amusing despite it being just a four-issue fight.


   


Carnage (2010) # 1-5 are collected in:

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Carnage, U.S.A. (2012) # 1-5 are collected in:

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Minimum Carnage: Alpha (2012) # 1, Scarlet Spider (2012) # 10-12, Venom (2011) # 26/27 and Minimum Carnage: Omega (2013) # 1 are collected in:

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Superior Carnage (2013) # 1-5 are collected in:

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Superior Carnage Annual # 1 and Deadpool vs Carnage (2014) # 1-4 are collected in:

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