Publisher Marvel Comics - Review

Sigil 1

Everything about this feels far too glib. We have a schoolgirl who might as well be Buffy mark II, struggling at school, traumatised by her mother having recently died. She has strange dreams, and when attacked by some bullies at school, demonstrates superpowers then finds herself time-travelling to some pirate ship, under attack by some superpowered evil pirates.

Avengers: The Children’s Crusade: Young Avengers 1

This is a weird one-shot, in that it seems like issue 5 of the current Children’s Crusade series, explaining Iron Lad (aka young Kang) appearing at the end of issue 4 thereof. It’s also a weird title, in that the team and book were previously entitled Young Avengers before the bizarre new title.

Venom 1

I said of Flash Thompson in my review of Amazing Spider-Man 654.1, which may as well have been the first issue of Venom, “Why a disabled ex-corporal was chosen for this is not stated – because he’s an old pal of Spider-Man, is all I can come up with, which is a comic writer’s reason, not military intelligence’s.” I thought this might start to attempt to justify that, but in fact I now learn that Flash has had problems with alcoholism which, since they need the host to be in calm control of the Venom symbiote, pushes this even further beyond plausibility.

Ruse 1

I’ve had to get good at not judging a comic by its cover (I assume Willie Dixon would approve of the extension): the third-rate John Buscema knock-off here, delivered by the always imagination-free Butch Guice, would be enough to put many readers off, I would think.

Fear Itself: Book of the Skull

Fear Itself is Marvel’s big crossover event for the next few months – I can’t tell you how many months or how many comics you’ll have to read to make sense of it, because to my surprise there is no checklist included with this. This first comic in the story is also by a different writer from the main series (that’s Matt Fraction), which also surprises me.

Deadpool 33.1

The first thing to say is that this actually fits what I thought a .1 ‘jumping-on point’ issue might be like far more than the other couple I’ve tried. It’s a one-off story, giving what I assume to be a typical flavour of the character. The second thing to say is: isn’t Bong Dazo a great name for a comedy hippy?

Heroes for Hire 1

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning revisit another old team, successfully.

Fantastic Four 588

So here it is, the final ever issue of the Fantastic Four. Johnny Storm’s dead, Spider-Man’s waiting in the wings to become the new fourth member, there are new costumes, a new direction, it’s the end of an era, yaddah, yaddah, yaddah.

Hawkeye: Blindspot 1

How many lousy ideas can you fit in the first issue of a mini-series starring one of Marvel’s finest characters? Not a challenge anyone should be taking up, but McCann seems to be having a good go.

Amazing Spider-Man 654.1

I was bewildered by the Iron Man .1 issue, and this adds to my confusion. These are supposed to be ‘jumping-on points’ for new readers, but like Iron Man 500.1, this makes no attempt to give you any idea that there are interesting things to come for the title. At least in Iron Man you got plenty of sense of where the character is right now, which is something: here, what you get is no Spider-Man at all.