2021 Marvel Comics Omnibus Thread

[ohtani's jacket]

I took the plunge and began reading Grant Morrison's X-Men. It was a bit jarring at first as I couldn't relate to how the characters looked or spoke. There's no real explanation as to why this group are the current incarnation of the team, and the art is off-putting, especially the way Quitely draws Cyclops. By the third issue there were enough hooks to keep me interested.

I followed Michael Golden from Micronauts to The 'Nam. I'm not sure what I was expecting from this book, but Golden's cartoony style surprised me. Sometimes it looks like a daily strip about 'Nam. I guess in my mind I associate Vietnam with stark realism. I'm not saying it's bad. It's just different from what I expected. 

I also followed Barry Windsor-Smith onto Weapon X. I'm thinking that might have been a mistake. Fantastic art, but there's nothing in the story that rises above the early 90s comics milieu. Not yet, anyway. 

[The Natural]

The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #54 written by Nick Spencer, the artist is Mark Bagley in Last Remains Part Five. This was a graphic issue for the fight between Spider-Man and Kindred and what’s done by Kindred again and again. Marvel messed the solicits up. #53 was billed as “Last Remains continues! If you think you’ve seen a brutal Spider-Man fight before, you are wrong. Do not miss this issue”. It was here instead. There’s a page recreating the Joker’s crowbar attack on Jason Todd in Batman: A Death in the Family and what Knightfall is known for. We’re still waiting how Harley Quinn acquired these powers in hell. Hope Nick Spencer sticks the landing, there’s a lot to cover in TASM #55, the conclusion to the Last Remains arc.

The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #55 written by Nick Spencer, the artist is Mark Bagley in Last Remains Part Six. This was a mixed bag. First the Patrick Gleason cover is amazing, no pun intended using that adjective. I liked Harry Osborn saying Spider-Man let Norman Osborn/Green Goblin go in the classic How Green Was My Goblin/Spidey Saves The Day (TASM #39-40) because he couldn’t remember who was Spider-Man. This would have consequences for all of them instead of getting treatment for his issues. Mary Jane Watson gets a good showcase as she has on Nick Spencer’s time on the title. I just felt this was anticlimactic with One More Day teases but not addressing it head on, the Sin that Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson made the deal with Mephisto/undoing it, how Harry became Kindred and the great build toward this moment. The payoff had its moments but felt flat. You could have trimmed this arc a couple of issues which Hunted needed and lost the Order of the Web so the focus went on Peter Parker/Mary Jane Watson/Norman Osborn/Harry Osborn only. The solicits says Last Remains concludes yet it doesn’t. I wrote a piece listing the good and the bad of Hunted and will do the same for Last Remains.

The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #56 written by Nick Spencer, the artist is Mark Bagley in Last Remains Post-Mortem, Part 1. Nick Spencer writes a great Norman Osborn and I’m glad his cleansing from the Sin-Eater has stuck when it appeared it hadn’t. A repentant Norman Osborn has story potential, gives him more development than the same old. I liked seeing the Spot having grown up on the mid ‘90s Spider-Man cartoon. Harry Osborn/Kindred gives a moving monologue to Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. A couple of pages are wasted on Carlie Cooper and Overdrive. Norman Osborn says “There’s so much about what’s happened to you that I don’t understand.” Kindred: “The only way you’ll remember what you did.” We’re still waiting as readers. Need answers.

The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) #57 written by Nick Spencer, the artist is Mark Bagley in Last Remains Post-Mortem, Part 2. I liked the issue for the heated argument between Peter Parker and Norman Osborn that they’ve been here before that Norman Osborn’s free from the Green Goblin only to come back to it and how Peter Parker says the demons Harry Osborn inherited from his Dad and his own is what remains of him now. Issue ends with Mary Jane saying to Peter Parker: “This isn’t over is it?” Peter: “No, no it isn’t”. Readers in agreement. Will the wait be worth it? Slow decompressed going.

[The Natural]

The Amazing Spider-Man: Last Remains. The Good and The Bad spoilers. I’m counting Last Remains, .LR issues and Last Remains Post-Mortem.

Spoiler

The Good:

• One of the darkest Spider-Man stories.
• The art by Patrick Gleason, Mark Bagley, Federico Vicentini fit the tone, particularly Patrick Gleason’s.
• Mary Jane Watson makes a welcome return to the flagship book.
• A repentant Norman Osborn is new.
• Doctor Strange guest appearance.
• References to the first half of Joseph Michael Straczynski’s Amazing Spider-Man run.
• Amazing TASM #55 cover by Patrick Gleason.
• The graphic fight between Spider-Man and Kindred for what Kindred repeatedly puts him through.

The Bad:

• Pacing. Some issues go by too quickly while some too slow going.
• Like Hunted, you could have trimmed this down by a couple of issues. More than Hunted actually.
• The Order of the Web isn’t necessary.
• Silk fucking sucks.
• Lack of answers. Hints to One More Day but not addressing it head on. How did Harry become Kindred?
• A letdown LR couldn’t match the long build towards this moment unlike Jason Aaron’s War of the Realms.
• Morlun jobbed out.
• No stand out .LR issues where we got two with Hunted Hus tie-ins: Black Cat and the Gibbon.
• Hate that Kindred wears a mask, that should actually be his face. Kindred has a great look to him which memorable and even non memorable ones have.
• I’d take a few TASM Nick Spencer arcs over this. Back to Basics (#1-5), Heist (#8-10) and Sins Rising/The Return of Norman Osborn from TASM (Vol. 5) #44-49 come straight to mind.

 

Edited March 9, 2021 by The Natural

[dogwelder]

13 hours ago, The Natural said:

Silk fucking sucks.

I'll admit I may be a bit biased as an Asian American, but I thought the idea of Silk was somewhat interesting and that her solo series leading up to Secret Wars was pretty good.  Since then, yeah, she's become another pointless sidekick in the Spidey books.  I sort of wonder when the plan to bring over Miles into the regular MU came about WRT Silk, because it seems that he took what might have been her 'spot'.

[The Natural]

4 hours ago, dogwelder said:

I'll admit I may be a bit biased as an Asian American, but I thought the idea of Silk was somewhat interesting and that her solo series leading up to Secret Wars was pretty good.  Since then, yeah, she's become another pointless sidekick in the Spidey books.  I sort of wonder when the plan to bring over Miles into the regular MU came about WRT Silk, because it seems that he took what might have been her 'spot'.

Only things I like about Silk: she's Asian American and how she was put into a bunker by Ezekiel Sims as he wanted to do the same for Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home. That's one of my favourite Spider-Man books ever. Nearly all my hate for the character comes from her appearances by co-creator Dan Slott in TASM (Vol. 3). Said volume is dire as is TASM (Vol. 4). Should have dropped them sooner. Silk is so randy around Peter with both wanting to get it on, she's faster than him, Spider-Sense is better, she frequently has to save him and she's disobedient.

Things got better for Silk under Robbie Thompson in her own book but that's not saying much for him either. Silk was created in TASM (Vol. 3), April 2014. Spider-Gwen in Edge of Spider-Verse, September 2014 stole her thunder and surpassed her, thankfully. Better character, better costume and better solo series. That didn't help Silk nor as you note, Miles Morales joining Earth-616.

Silk is probably my least favourite comic book character ever.

Edited March 10, 2021 by The Natural

[Kang]

Heroes Reborn will end in Heroes Return

Spoiler

Few other 1 shots got announced days ago.

[ohtani's jacket]

Conan the Barbarian continues to be a great book. The Conan books were definitely a highwater mark for 70s Marvel. It's amazing how much b*tching went on in the letter column, however. So many complaints about one of the great Marvel books. 

I have taken it as my self-appointed duty to find good Marvel books from the 90s. So far, I've started reading the Inhumans mini-series by Paul Jenkins and Jae Lee, Earth X, and Punisher War Zone. I also read Amazing Spider-Man #400. 

Inhumans was decent, but the art isn't fluid. I guess it doesn't matter since there's so much narration over the top of it. Earth X was a slog. Amazing Spider-Man #400 was okay, but I prefer the work J. M. DeMatteis did on Spectacular Spider-Man and thought SSM #200 was a better anniversary story. Punisher was probably the most fun of the lot. It helps that I like early 90s JRJR artwork, but like a good genre flick, it's not trying to be anything more than what it is.

Edited March 12, 2021 by ohtani's jacket

[The Natural]

Do you have a Marvel pull list?

I only get The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 5) but I was toying whether to stick or not due to the slow going and lack of answers. As noted I had problems with Last Remains.

[Kang]

Marvel Solicts now come before DC's:

Gamma Flight new title is coming, so they tied current Hulk with Alpha Flight.

The Marvels will further change the pre history of Marvel.

Coates is soon done with Captain America.

[The Natural]

3 minutes ago, D.Z said:

Marvel Solicts now come before DC's:

Gamma Flight new title is coming, so they tied current Hulk with Alpha Flight.

The Marvels will further change the pre history of Marvel.

Coates is soon done with Captain America.

Thanks. Wonder who'll take over Coates on Captain America? Any interesting Spidey solicits? 

Edited March 18, 2021 by The Natural

[Kang]

Spiderman vs Baron Zemo again in Non Stop Spiderman.

Amazing Spiderman which goes weekly for awhile brings the Chamelon and the Foreigner, Jack O'Lantern, Chance, all back to face Spiderman.

[The Natural]

2 minutes ago, D.Z said:

Spiderman vs Baron Zemo again in Non Stop Spiderman.

Amazing Spiderman which goes weekly for awhile brings the Chamelon and the Foreigner, Jack O'Lantern, Chance, all back to face Spiderman.

Cheers, @D.Z!

[Kang]

The new X Men team debuts in Hellfire Gala.

Wildchild will wear his AOA suit in Hellions.

Cable is finishing soon, they are either aging up young Cable or bringing the real one back.

[Eivion]

3 hours ago, D.Z said:

Cable is finishing soon, they are either aging up young Cable or bringing the real one back.

Hopefully the latter. Young Cable just felt dumb and unnecessary.

4 hours ago, D.Z said:

Coates is soon done with Captain America.

So anyone read Coates's run? Been curious on how it was.

[dogwelder]

Well looks like Marvel's leaving Diamond too:

Marvel Exclusively Distributed To Comic Shops By Penguin Random House

 

[Kang]

Good news.

[OSJ]

On 3/12/2021 at 7:03 AM, ohtani's jacket said:

Conan the Barbarian continues to be a great book. The Conan books were definitely a highwater mark for 70s Marvel. It's amazing how much b*tching went on in the letter column, however. So many complaints about one of the great Marvel books. 

You really had to be there... We Robert E. Howard fans had been conditioned by years of Frank Frazetta covers on the Conan paperbacks and let's face it, Barry Windsor-Smith is about as un-Frazettalike as you can get. By the time we used to Smith's interpretation of the character (and the fact that everything else he drew in the book was stunning), they switched to John Buscema, who is now considered one of the greats but back in the day got lots of criticism for his horrible anatomy work (putting muscles where people don't have muscles, that sort of thing, if you want a stellar example, check the cover of Sub-Mariner #2, where Namor and Triton look just ridiculous). Anyway, that's sort of a nutshell of the mentality of fans back then.

[OSJ]

Let me expound just a bit as One Who Was There (isn't that how Stan would have written it?)... Anyway, first issue of Conan the Barbarian hits and we all bought a copy (after all, you always buy the first issue of something even if it looks like crap it will be good trade bait later). We didn't really know what to make of this, the art on everything but the lead character was amazing, but Conan himself just looked a bit, (how should I say this?) a bit, well... too pretty for a barbarian thief. Remember, the 1960s saw the greatest boom in sword and sorcery that we've ever seen. With the exception of the Gray Mouser and Moorcock's doomed heroes, we expected characters that looked like they were painted by Frank Frazetta or Jeff Jones imitating Frazetta. So we didn't know what to make of Barry Smith's version, then issue two with the beastmen came out and boy oh boy did that suck. Roy Thomas did well to avoid conventions the month that came out, he might very well have been lynched. Then we had issue #3 and the loose adaptation of "The Grey God Passes", this hit the like column on every possible level and it was nothing but a warm-up for what came next. #4 featured the "Tower of the Elephant", which may just be the best Conan story ever written and it was as faithful an adaptation of source material as comic books have ever seen. Conan was off and running then with Savage Tales to soon follow...

[twiztor]

7 hours ago, OSJ said:

they switched to John Buscema, who is now considered one of the greats but back in the day got lots of criticism for his horrible anatomy work (putting muscles where people don't have muscles, that sort of thing, if you want a stellar example, check the cover of Sub-Mariner #2, where Namor and Triton look just ridiculous).

you mean you don't have muscles in those places? Maybe they're supposed to be gills?  

OMG Namor's right calf is gigantic! it looks like Scott Steiner's bicep!

[odessasteps]

There's a John Romita Artists Edition coming out. 

[OSJ]

27 minutes ago, twiztor said:

you mean you don't have muscles in those places? Maybe they're supposed to be gills?  

OMG Namor's right calf is gigantic! it looks like Scott Steiner's bicep!

A pet peeve of mine in regard to Triton has always been that if your whole thing is based on doing stuff underwater, why would you wear boots?

[Eoae]

On 3/25/2021 at 2:03 PM, dogwelder said:

Well looks like Marvel's leaving Diamond too:

Marvel Exclusively Distributed To Comic Shops By Penguin Random House

 

This has to be the end of Diamond, right?  Retailers can still buy from Diamond, but Diamond is essentially just a customer of Random House too, so there's not much upside, particularly since Random House isn't charging for shipping.

[Matt D]

Chip Zdarsky's current Daredevil run is just excellent. I'm playing catch up on it right now and I'm onto issue 19. It's really good at balancing Matt so he makes mistakes, learns from them, but ultimately is sympathetic, but more than that, it has a lot of moments of inversion where you're expecting things to go one way but they twist the other instead. I would easily put it up there with the seminal 2000s runs.

[Kang]

Extreme Carnage soon

[Kang]

John Romita Jr is back with Marvel.