Category: book reviews

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Loki Agent of Asgard: Complete Collection

This is a review of Loki Agent of Asgard: The Complete Collection. Please note that this review contains SPOILERS, so be forewarned. I recall seeing the original Avengers movie when it came out in 2012. There are a number of things I could say about that movie, but the only thing that’s related to this review is the fact that the actor who played Loki (the villain) made him interesting enough so that people liked the character, and Marvel picked up the baton from there.

The concept behind this graphic novel is that there’s a new Loki in town, and he (sometimes Loki is a she, but I’ll use he because Loki spends most of his time as a man) acts as Asgard’s agent, and for every good deed he does another one of old Loki’s heinous deeds is wiped from existence. This status quo lasts for three or four issues before the old Loki comes back.

I don’t know if this is a sly bit of meta-commentary by the authors, because at that time iconic Marvel characters were being replaced left and right, only to return after a year or two. At the time of this series’ release, Jane Foster was Thor. You should feel bad for Loki, because while Jane’s story arc lasted years, Loki’s story only lasts a few issues.

Turns out, the old Loki is from the future and the ‘new’ Loki is his younger self. Old Loki killed the real new Loki and took his place, but the current Loki has trouble accepting this. I am unsure why the current Loki thought he could move on from murdering himself, but perhaps he needs therapy. Anyway, the old Loki is so butt-hurt about being called the God of Lies (even though that’s what he is) he decides to bring on Ragnarok. Can the current Loki stop him, and does he even want to?

I admire this series for not jumping the shark. It comes close, though. My only quibble are the two tie-ins with company-wide crossovers, but in this day and age that can’t be helped. The authors do a good job of humanizing Loki, which makes us care about him and thus creates suspense. Loki is a god, which means he’s a beaucoup powerful character. You can’t kill him, any more than you can kill a story.

Recommended!

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Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Three

  

This is a review of Saga of the Swamp Thing Volume Three, which continues Alan Moore’s groundbreaking run on the title. One of the eye-openers of this volume is reading John Totleben’s (the artist’s) introduction and realizing how much of a collaborative process comic creation is. The idea for Nukeface, one of the series more memorable characters, came from Mr. Totleben.

Swamp Thing continues be a status quo breaker. Most superhero comic series love the status quo and hate change. True, things may seem to change, but they almost always revert back to the mean. The tried and true method is to have the title character quit/die/get his or her brain swapped/be transported back in time or to another dimension. While they are on the shelf (it’s always temporary), someone else takes up the mantle.

This has happened to Spider-Man (brain swap with Dr. Octopus), Thor (unworthy of Mjolnir), Iron Man (Tony goes back on the sauce), Captain America (assassinated), Superman (killed by Doomsday), Green Lantern (quit, died), and so on. The most notable instance that I’ve read this year is the first volume of Knightfall, when Batman’s back is broken by supervillain/steroid freak Bane, and he is replaced by a guy who turned out to be so unpopular DC killed him and didn’t bother resurrecting him.

Anyway, Alan Moore’s version of Swamp Thing thrives on real change. After his tryst with Abigail Arcane, the Swampster encounters an irradiated hobo named Nukeface who calls everyone Ed. Even though Nukeface’s touch means death, he really isn’t a bad fellow. Like everyone else, Nukeface needs to eat and drink – except he eats & drinks toxic sludge.

Swamp Thing is irradiated, dies, and manages to regrow his body. Shit gets even realer with the arrival of John Constantine, a nasty Englishman who looks like a young Sting (of the Police) and is partly based on Jerry Cornelius (created by Michael Moorcock). Constantine is an occultist, and he leads Swamp Thing on a merry chase across the country, where he encounters aquatic vampires, a werewolf story (that was quite controversial at the time), and finally zombies.

A great horror comic.

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Legends of the Dark Knight: Matt Wagner

           

This is a review of Legends of the Dark Knight: Matt Wagner. As the book’s title tells us, this collection is written and partly drawn by comics legend Matt Wagner, creator of Grendel and the writer of Sandman Mystery Theatre. Mr. Wagner’s stories in this volume contain lots of plot, focus on side characters and side storylines, and bring a fresh perspective to The Dark Knight.

Unlike many comic scribes, who can’t, won’t, or don’t want to, Mr. Wagner goes there on a fairly regular basis. He doesn’t shy away from the dark side of human nature, writing violent, unsettling material. The other comic writer I can think of who does this is Robert Kirkman, the creator of The Walking Dead and Invincible. To me, it’s a jarring way of breaking the fourth wall.

This graphic novel contains three major storylines. The first is a Two-Face story, which is very good. There’s also a Riddler one-shot, where Ed Nigma hosts an underground game show that proves to be a big hit with the Gotham public. What interests me are the last two storylines, both of which involve Batman characters and villains from the 1940’s. The source material for these stories is contained in the Batman Golden Age volumes, some of which are reviewed here. These are retro stories that take place at the beginning of Batman’s career.

The first story involves a minor Batman villain named Hugo Strange, M.D. (medical deviant). Strange is fascinated with genetic engineering and seeks funding to continue his studies. Since he’s a mad scientist who probably locks his test subjects in the basement, nobody but mobsters will fund him. Trouble starts when it turns out that the wacky Strange does indeed lock his monstrous, mutated test subjects in the basement.

The second storyline involves a villain called the Monk. Originally a kitschy Dracula homage done by Kane & Finger, Wagner’s version of the Monk wears a bright red robe and hood, S&M style. The story is ambivalent about whether he’s really a vampire, but he’s certainly deranged. A few of the torture/dream sequences in this storyline are quite disturbing.

We also have Julie Madison, who in the 1940’s holds the distinction of being Bruce Wayne’s arm candy fiancée before she dumps him in favor of movie stardom. In these storylines, she’s really Bruce’s girlfriend, which is…look, superhero comics have always been terrible at depicting normal relationships. Historically, they’re aimed at 14-year-old boys, whose hormones are raging out of control.

IMO, having Batman behave like a normal human being is a risky proposition, because if you humanize Batman too much he falls apart as a character. That sort of happens here. Seeing Bruce lie to his girlfriend about – well, basically everything – hammers home the point that he’s an emotionally stunted man who is terrified of intimacy. The fact that he draws all the wrong conclusions when she leaves makes it worse. There’s a brief story after this one that shows us the present-day Batman, and let me tell you he is one sad motherclucker.

Recommended!

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Marvel Masterworks Iron Man Volume Two

This is a review of Marvel Masterworks: Iron Man Volume Two. I expected nothing from this graphic novel. That’s because the first volume – read my review here – was a mish-mash of bad art, clichés, propaganda, and poorly developed characters.

I am happy to report that the series finds its legs in the second volume. We have the usual Marvel love triangle, this being between Tony Stark, Pepper Potts (secretary), and Happy Hogan (chauffer). We have the introduction of Marvel mainstays The Black Widow and Hawkeye, as villains. The Black Widow is a Russian spy and Hawkeye is her boy toy.

I like the characterization of Hawkeye, here. Think Captain America, without Cap’s brains and sterling moral compass. In the Black Widow’s first appearance, she’s teamed with another spy named Boris (the Black Widow’s first name is Natasha). Since I watched Rocky & Bullwinkle as a kid, I found this very funny but YMMV.

We also have our first Iron Man multi-issue storyline. If you read my review of the first volume, you’ll know that Tony Stark has shrapnel in his chest and the only thing keeping him alive is his chest plate. When Tony’s heart problems worsen, he can’t take off his Iron Man armor, and his employees/only friends Happy & Pepper begin to suspect Iron Man of doing away with him!

I should mention my favorite scene of this volume. Tony invents an anti-gravity machine, but doesn’t recall exactly how he did it. When the Black Widow visits, Tony knows she’s a Russian spy, but little Tony makes him demonstrate the anti-gravity device in an effort to impress her. Thus, it is the Black Widow and not Mr. Doll or Jack Frost who comes closest to ending Iron Man’s life. Instead of putting a bullet through Tony’s head, Natasha merely gasses him and steals the device. It’s a lot of fun watching his increasingly frantic efforts to get it back.

There’s also the time Tony leaves the briefcase with his Iron Man armor behind. The armor is stolen, and Tony must use his ugly old golden armor to fight the interloper, who goes crazy during the course of their battle. Instead of telling the world that Tony Stark is Iron Man, he tells everyone that he’s Iron Man. Whew, that’s a lucky one!

Stark is written as being careless at best, unreliable at worst. I am unsure if the word ‘narcissist’ was used much back then, but it describes Tony to a tee. He’s a self-centered workaholic who is obsessed with money and has no real relationships to speak of. Maybe it’s because he’s living on borrowed time, or maybe it’s just the way he is.

A decent volume, especially if you like Iron Man!

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Golden Age Superman Volume Two

This is a review of Golden Age Superman Volume Two. You can read my review of the first book, here. Spoiler alert: I didn’t like this volume quite as much. Reading twenty-plus one issue stories that are identical can be mind-numbing.

A few characters return from the last volume. We have Ultra, a mad scientist who transfers his brain into the body of a beautiful young starlet. Ultra might be gorgeous, but he’s still a megolamaniac asshole who wants to conquer the earth. Strangely, Ultra is replaced by Lex Luthor, who in this volume has hair. Luthor is a mad scientist just like Ultra, so I’m unsure what happened. Why did they ditch Ultra? Maybe the public didn’t like a body swapper?

We also get Lois Lane. Lots of Lois Lane. Like Clark Kent, Lois is a reporter with no fear. Unlike Clark, she doesn’t have super powers. This means she acts in ways that can be interpreted as stupid, such as telling the gangster that she’s going to publish an exclusive exposing his evil plans. I lost track of the number of times Lois is captured and used as a hostage object in this volume. In one issue, she’s kidnapped twice!

The stories range from gangster potboilers to science fiction. Superman still can’t fly. He can be mind-controlled and knocked out by radium bombs or men with strength-sapping ray guns. There’s no suspense, which is why we have the Lois Being Kidnapped Again trope.

As I said, most of the issues blend. The exception is a story about a children’s orphanage. The owners run an operation worthy of a torture-porn movie. Watching them throw the works – buzzsaws, safes, boiling water, acid, etc. – at Superman is an eye opener. They’re nasty customers, but different from the normal gangster or megalomaniac scientist. You don’t get many pure sadists in superhero comics.

Two other things struck me about this volume. Unlike today’s Man of Tomorrow, the Superman of Yesterday didn’t have many qualms about killing. In fact, he does kill people – usually when he feels threatened (he kills the guy who hypnotizes him). He also doesn’t care about rules. There are several stories where Superman tries to gain evidence on the mobster/crooked politician/saboteur/etc., and then resorts to the tried-and-true method of threatening to crush the evildoer’s skull to a pulp if he doesn’t confess. Since this gambit always works, I’m surprised why he doesn’t just cut to the chase. It would save him time.

If you like Superman, you’ll enjoy this volume!

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Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Volume Two

This is a review of Marvel Masterworks: The Mighty Thor Volume Two. I was nervous reading this graphic novel, because the first volume was so wretched. You can read my review, here. Disappointing, but I hoped it would get better, because Jack Kirby’s Thor run is regarded as a minor classic and I’d already bought the first ten volumes.

Lucky for me, this volume did get better! Jack Kirby does most of the penciling, and – if you believe him – the plotting and dialoguing as well. There’s a back-up feature called Tales of Asgard, that fleshes out the world of Asgard and adds new characters. Besides Thor, Loki and Odin, we now have Balder the Brave, Heimdall, Hela, etc.

The secret to Thor’s success, in a nutshell: moahr Asgard. The stories involving Thor’s homeland and his extended family are so much more interesting than the stories set on earth. In one issue, Loki unleashes a pair of demons on New York City. Odin the All-Father uses his powers to transport all the humans into Limbo as he and Balder the Brave join Thor in a battle royale!

We still have the Don Blake/Thor/Jane Foster/Odin love mélange. Don Blake loves Jane Foster, who loves the mighty Thor, who can’t love her back because the all-seeing Odin has cock-blocked him. Odin is supposed to be all-seeing, but his dislike of Jane Foster hinges on a misunderstanding.

There are still Thor stories set on earth. Cobra and Mr. Hyde appear in a few issues, leading to the tried-and-true formula of Thor dropping his hammer and transforming back into Don Blake. Some sequences strain believability, as when Don Blake tells Cobra and Mr. Hyde to look out a window, and transforms into Thor when their backs are turned. Neither villain is none the wiser. With great power comes great stupidity, apparently.

Recommended for Thor and Jack Kirby fans.

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The Flash, by Mark Waid: Book One

This is a review of The Flash by Mark Waid, Volume One. I have a soft spot for The Flash. I am not sure why this character speaks to me. Maybe it’s because The Flash is the first superhero comic I ever read. Or it could be because of The Flash’s rogue’s gallery, which is one of the best in superhero comics. Or maybe it’s the costume? It certainly isn’t Barry Allen’s personality, because he didn’t have one when I started reading his adventures back in the late 1970’s. No, my Flash is Wally West.

Let me explain. There are three Flashes who have starred in their own books – Barry Allen, Jay Garrick, and Wally West. I wasn’t around in the 1940’s when Jay Garrick was active. Wally became the Flash after Barry died (1980’s), which turned out to be a temporary setback.  Originally, Wally was Kid Flash. I read Wally’s origins in the Silver Age Flash. You can see the review, here. Back then, Wally was a comic book writer’s idea of what a teenager in the 1950’s should be. The results were horrifying.

Mike Baron’s short run on Flash – read my review here – gave Wally a personality. He’s callow and self-centered, like most people who are twenty years old. Writer Mark Waid’s run takes place several years – or whatever passes for time in the DC universe – later. Wally is older and wiser. He’s still paying off debts accrued from when he won the lottery and blew it all.

Mr. Waid gives Wally a personality – blue collar, not a rocket scientist, always tries to do the right thing – and a love interest. Mr. Waid is good at evoking emotion. His style is upbeat, which in the early 1990’s was decidedly old school. Stories in this volume include an updated version of Wally’s origin; a team-up with Aquaman, The King of the Seven Seas; and a looong annual starring Eclipso, back when DC made Eclipso a super-powered serial killer. Also, a rejuvenated Abra-Kadabra, minus his skin.

Run to Comixology to get this volume!

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Man-Thing Complete Collection: Volume One

This is a review of…look, if you ever told me I’d like a comic called Man-Thing, I wouldn’t have believed you. I thought Man-Thing was just a Swamp Thing rip-off, but apparently it’s the other way around. Man-Thing came first.

Man-Thing is Dr. Theodore Sallis, a chemist, who is in the Everglades working on a bio-weapon to produce the ultimate super soldier. Unfortunately, his love interest turns out to be an AIM operative. Sallis injects the formula into himself to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, does a header into the waters of the Everglades, and is transformed into a mindless pile of swamp trash.

Unlike Swamp Thing, Man-Thing is truly mindless. He has an interesting power set. He’s strong. He can ooze through things like nets. If you cut Man-Thing, he does not bleed. He oozes swamp muck. Man-Thing is empathetic, sensing emotions, and fear is the emotion he hates most of all. Thus, Whoever Knows Fear Burns at the Touch of the Man-Thing! Literally.

Man-Thing spends all his free time shambling around the Everglades, fighting alligators and enormous snakes. I’m surprised that the Marvel team somehow knew that one day the Everglades would be overrun with discarded pet pythons, so kudos to them.

Now, you might think having a mindless protagonist with no desires at all would be tough to write about. Enter writer Steve Gerber. In this volume, Man-Thing confronts the issues plaguing 1970’s America, racism, biker gangs, Vietnam vets, peace protestors, unscrupulous land developers, and 500-year old Spanish conquistadors. Confront might be the wrong word. He kind of shambles into the picture. BTW, the swamp is also the Nexus of All Realities. I don’t know what that is, but it sounds important.

Then there’s nearby Citrusville, a dingleberry little town that is ground zero for Florida Weird. There are demons and cults and even wizards with honest to gosh wizard hats. Howard the Duck guest stars. There’s also an appearance by Wundarr, a baby blasted from an exploding planet to Earth. Wundarr comes out of his spaceship fully grown and thinks Man-Thing is his mother.

One of the funnest books I’ve read all year.

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The Spectre Volume One: Crimes & Judgments

This is a review of The Spectre: Crime & Judgments, which collects the first twelve issues of John Ostrander (writer) and Tom Mandrake’s (artist) 1990’s run of the Spectre. It is no secret that I’m a huge fan of John Ostrander, the man responsible for the creation of Grimjack and the modern version of The Suicide Squad.

The Spectre is an older character who appeared in the Justice Society way back in the 1940’s. Basically, The Spectre is the Wrath of God. His purpose is to wreak vengeance on evildoers, and since he’s beaucoup powerful, he can do whatever he wants. The Spectre’s anchor/human host is Jim Corrigan, a cop killed in the 1930’s. Corrigan’s ghost still hangs around, even though sixty years have passed. Evil never sleeps, and neither does he.

My favorite issue of The Spectre features a trio of kidnappers who bury a child alive and die before they can reveal the child’s whereabouts. The Spectre storms into Hell and fights a devil for one of the kidnapper’s souls. When the kidnapper reveals the child’s whereabouts, the Spectre tosses him back into the eternal flames like a piece of garbage.

I don’t want to say a lot about the plot. If you are the type who’s easily triggered, I might skip this book. I myself had trouble reading the last four or five issues, but then again I’m a sensitive sort. The B-storyline features a character who mirrors the Spectre, in that he says he’s destroying evil. This character is also an enormous monster. Make of that what you will.

Great art, great writing. Highly recommended, especially if you like nihilistic horror.

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Night Force: The Complete Collection

This is the first comic I’ve ever read put out by a mainstream comic publisher (Marvel/DC) where one of the characters talks about his wife wanting an open marriage. Welcome to Night Force, one of the weirdest comics I’ve ever read.

Night Force is a horror comic put out by DC in the early 1980’s. It lasted fourteen issues before it got canceled. It’s written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Gene Colan, a creative team with impressive credentials. Despite some issues, Tomb of Dracula is a classic. Unfortunately, Night Force is not a classic.

The plot: Baron Winters lives in a grand old mansion in Georgetown. The Baron has a pet cheetah and can’t leave his house, because reasons. However, his house has portals that allow him to travel into the past. We never find out why, because the book gets canceled and I don’t really care anyway. BTW, Georgetown is also the setting of The Exorcist. Vanessa Van Helsing, one of the characters in Night Force, is about the age Regan MacNeil would be in the early 1980’s.

Vanessa is a physical medium who can channel evil. She’s been institutionalized ever since she was a child, and spends most of this graphic novel getting beat up, kidnapped, and jabbed with hypodermic needles. She has absolutely no agency at all. Her only purpose is to be rescued, so she’s a damsel in distress on steroids.

The Russians want to kidnap Vanessa and channel her psychic powers. Baron Winters, who is Vanessa’s guardian (again: because reasons) assembles his Night Force to counter the Russkies. So who’s on the team? Jack Gold is a writer who can’t keep a job. His marriage is finito. Spurred on by the Baron, he takes a liking to Vanessa. They have sex. Since this title exists under the auspices of the Comic Code Authority, they only show the aftermath. One other thing: Vanessa is twenty years old, while Jack is at least twice that age.

Donovan Caine, the second member of Night Force, is a parapsychologist. He’s doing experiments on Vanessa for the CIA. This involves having his graduate students dress up in black robes, draw pentagrams on the ground, and perform pretend Satanic rituals. Caine wants to help Vanessa channel evil, and boy oh boy does he succeed. Unfortunately, that evil kills his wife.

Donovan Caine is important, not because he does anything (in some ways he’s as much a damsel in distress as Vanessa), but because he’s the only person in this comic who has any agency that makes sense. Caine blames the Russians for his wife’s death. He’s wrong about that. Picture this: say you know a person who can manifest evil in physical form. Say you start performing Satanic rituals to summon that evil, which indeed starts manifesting. Does that sound safe to you? Maybe you’d ask, what are your safety protocols? What, you say you don’t have any? Okaaaay.

When Vanessa is kidnapped and sent to Siberia, Caine and Gold try to bring her back. Caine hates Gold so much it’s comical, even though Gold saves his life three times (at least). The first storyline lasts seven issues and still feels truncated to me. The twist at the end is good, but also reinforces the unpleasantness of the characters.

There are two other storylines after this one. The second, which involves a criminal fighting a walking garbage mound that imprisons a bunch of people in a brownstone, is pretty good. The third and final storyline makes no sense.

My guess is that this was an experimental comic. The stuff about manifesting evil and psychic powers is interesting, but the characters are mostly unpleasant assholes, which makes it difficult to care. They’re led by the biggest asshole of all, Baron Winters. So I can honestly say I’m not sure what to make of this comic.