Marvel - Review - FA Online

She-Hulks: Hunt For The Intelligencia

This paperback collects a mini-series that ties into the current continuity of the Hulk comic. Actually Hulk comics, since there are currently two monthlies, Incredible Hulks and Hulk, dealing with the wacky antics of a whole bunch of gamma-irradiated folks as they search for love n’ life n’ learning in the big wide world.

Iron Age Alpha 1

I’m not sure if this is heading for a crossover or miniseries or what, but the setup has decent plot potential. A dying mad scientist with a grudge against Tony Stark kidnaps him and makes him watch as he uses one of Doctor Doom’s time machines to somehow pluck Dark Phoenix out of time. He provokes her and Tony gets to see her destroy the Earth – but he also gets thrown back in time, so I assume the rest of the story is Iron Man gathering forces to somehow prevent this.

Ka-Zar 1

I’ve read some first issues and one-shots that were, in craft and technique terms, significantly worse than this, but I don’t recall any that were so unutterably boring. I’m amazed that the first-issue synopsis was approved by editor Tom Brevoort.

Mystery Men 1

I have my qualms about these retro series (this is set in 1932): I think they can undermine the importance of the first Marvel heroes as currently established, and aren’t always plausible in how they fit in with their world’s history. Nonetheless, this one is rather good, so I’ll put those doubts aside – at least until any of the promised links with the existing Marvel Universe materialise, for better or worse.

Ghost Rider 0.1

Another 0.1! Why do we need a jumping-on point before the first issue? How is a first issue not a perfect jumping-on point? I’m mystified by this, but let’s treat it as a starting point, and see if it does the job.

15 Love 1

Remember Andi Watson? One of the rising stars of the latter twentieth century, who brought us Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day, Skeleton Key, and other delightful, imaginative, lively stories? Guess what? I just found out he has a counterpart on the Bizarro World!

Supreme Power 1

This feels very much like a comic not designed for those who haven’t read previous series. I know this world is based on the JLA pastiche Marvel introduced decades ago, but I am totally out of touch about recent events.

Fear Itself: Fearsome Four 1

Fear Itself is the latest Marvel “event”. Cue some world-threatening force that causes heroes to band together and save the day via numerous crossovers and miniseries. Yawn yawn yawn. Maybe Marvel’s saving all its creative efforts for its movie spinoffs, because there’s little sign of any such inspiration in its comics line at the moment.

Avengers Academy 14.1

This is one of the better .1 issues, on nearly every level. It introduces the characters, all of whom are pretty new to me, gives us some action, presents an interesting and ambiguous new character connected to the team, and presents some actual moral ideas for them to think about.

S.H.I.E.L.D. 1

I take it much of this stuff was set up in a previous S.H.I.E.L.D. series – we’re thrown right in the middle here – but the first thing to do is to dismiss all thoughts that it has any discernible connection to S.H.I.E.L.D.. No Nick Fury or helicarriers or secret agents or anything like that. We have instead the Brotherhood of the Shield, a secret mystic/scientific organisation that has existed for thousands of years. We get 20 pages of story, one intro page, and at the back ten pages of mostly Marvel Handbook style background material (useful when I looked back at the otherwise information-free final splash, since the backup material tells me who these people are). I still don’t have much idea of what is going on.