Marvel - Review - FA Online

The Official Marvel Graphic Novel Collection 1

Any series that only covers the last thirty years can’t really claim to be ‘the best of Marvel’. But this isn’t a bad way to acquire handsomely-bound versions of these stories at reasonable prices.

Hello boys! from the Scarlet Witch

Almost perfectly spherical!

Why is Thor boring?

Thor is one of Marvel’s oldest and most powerful characters, and a prominent member of the Avengers. He was also fortunate up to 1982 in having stable creative teams. Why, then, did he rarely arouse interest in fans in the 1970s?

New Avengers 16.1

The presence of these two superb artists is enough to persuade me to pick up this extra issue of Marvel’s most frustrating super-team. Frustrating? I reckon that’s a fair way to describe a group containing some of Marvel’s most powerful, experienced and charismatic characters, which never hits the heights it should.

Captain America: The First Avenger

I’ve spent a good few years being quite cynical about Marvel’s ambitious plans for their superhero franchise in the cinema. Even if they did get made, they wouldn’t be any good. What is very pleasing about Captain America: The First Avenger is that none of these fears are realised.

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberalism?

In the window of the old location of Gosh Comics there was a cartoon that depicted a bloated Captain America serving the needs of US agribusiness. I think this idea of Captain America is completely wrong.

Captain America 1

I am a huge admirer of Brubaker, and he’s done a lot of his best work with Cap, so I had high hopes for this, but I am slightly deflated after reading it. It does a great job of introducing the essentials of the character, thankfully eschewing a millionth showing of the origin, but flashing back to WWII, showing him with the Avengers, bringing in Nick Fury, Dum Dum Dugan and Sharon Carter, giving him some action as Steve Rogers and finally as Cap.

Marvel Universe vs Wolverine 1

A title like that, I thought this would just be some fairly lightweight all-action adventure. Then again, I suppose Mark Millar’s tremendous Wolverine: Enemy of the State more or less fulfilled this title as well, and was entirely serious. One note is that this has to be a What If alternate world story (not that it states that), since a few heroes have already been finished off in this first of four issues, and I bet there will be lots more.

Vengeance 1

I’m a highly intelligent person who has read fucking thousands of Marvel comics over the years, so I don’t often find I read a comic mostly centring on existing characters and end up with not the slightest idea what is going on.

All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes 1

This strikes me as a total disaster area of a comic. First, purge your mind of any previous knowledge of the All-Winners Squad, more or less the same as the Invaders: this lot has no Torch (though is that supposed to be him on the cover?) or Sub-Mariner or Whizzer, though it does have Cap and Bucky. We see them from 1944 in mostly army uniform with a bunch of other soldiers who wear masks.