Marvel revealed their solicitations for May a few weeks ago and there was one bit of news there that I found particularly interesting. I doubt that it would surprise most people that they’re going to start adapting the rest of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” novels, and while Robin Furth (plot) and Peter David (script) will be back writing it, Sean Phillips will be stepping in to replace Jae Lee on art. While I’ve really enjoyed Lee’s art on the series, Phillips has always been a personal favorite of mine since he has this uncanny knack for illustrating comics that I want to read and his run on “Hellblazer” showed that he can handle fantastic horror as well as superheroes and noir. The downside of this is that this will likely mean that he’ll be drawing less of “Incognito” and “Criminal” while he’s working on this, and that’s a shame. At least I have the collected edition of “Criminal: The Sinners” to look forward to in the near future. And on that note…

Stephen King’s The Dark Tower (vol. 4): Fall of Gilead: As editor Ralph Macchio remarks in the introduction, with a title like that you know you’re not going to be in for a happy tale. Fortunately the story of Gilead’s fall at the hands of John Farson and co. turns out to be quite compelling despite all of the bad tidings for the older members of this series. That’s due in no small part to the resourcefulness that Roland and his cadre of (barely) gunslingers display in the face of nearly insurmountable odds. Series colorist Richard Isanove takes over for this volume and while his style lacks the eeriness and attention to detail that makes Jae Lee such a perfect fit for the series, he proves to be a capable artist with a style that’s consistent enough to make this volume still pleasing to the eye. This volume also collects the “Sorcerer” one-shot which acts as a showcase for the wizard Marten and fills in some continuity gaps from earlier in the series. While scripter Peter David has done his best to channel King’s voice in the series, there’s been more than one instance where his own style peeks out and says “Hi!” After reading the one-shot, written entirely by Robin Furth in a style best described as “functional,” I’m glad that he has been onboard with this series since the beginning.

Fables vol. 13: The Great Fables Crossover: More of an elaborate joke on the reader than an actual volume of “Fables,” but it’s a funny joke, well-executed. Kevin Thorne, the most powerful of “The Literals” (the living embodiments of literary concepts from spin-off series “Jack of Fables”), has decided to rewrite reality to his liking and it’s up to Snow White and Bigby to stop him. With help from Gary the Pathetic Fallacy and Mr. Revise. Why not Jack? Smartly, writers Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges realized that he couldn’t be bothered to save reality if there wasn’t a reward more tangible than his continued existence. So he heads off to the Farm, and winds up becoming the center of a new cult that has sprung up around Boy Blue’s death and (hopefully) eventual return. Those of you looking for a continuation of the exploits of Mr. Dark from the last volume will be disappointed, but there’s enough comedy here to make this volume an entertaining bit of fluff. The best bits involve Kevin getting help from the different “genres” for ideas on how to end the world and his own, very literal, writer’s block. In the end, it’s more of an installment of “Jack of Fables” with the “Fables” cast, but it’s still entertaining enough to pick up if you’re a fan of either series.

Jormungand vol. 2: Aaaaaaaaaand I’m done. It appears that mangaka Keitaro Takahashi is more interested in delivering nonstop action than digging into the minds of his characters or the morality of their actions. The majority of this volume is the story of two assassins with an affinity for music show up in Dubai to take out Koko the arms dealer. Much shooting occurs and the two assassins are eventually dealt with. In all honesty, I was kind of hoping that they’d succeed because I really don’t care for Koko or the rest of the cast. They’re nothing more than a collection of stock character types and if I have to choose between rooting for them and the people out to kill them, I’m going to root for the side that has a girl who goes around in a skirt without any panties (that’s the assassin’s side in case you were wondering). All in all, it has the feel of “Black Lagoon,” but none of the substance and only a fraction of the style. While the next volume of that series won’t be out until July, this is a poor substitute by any stretch of the imagination.

Biomega vol. 1: This, on the other hand, I wouldn’t consider calling a substitute for “Black Lagoon” because this sci-fi action series is off to a great start. Mangaka Tsutomu Nihei’s most well-known series “Blame!” was a mystery, wrapped in an enigma, wrapped in some really great art that ultimately came off as something done more for his own sake than to tell an interesting story. “Biomega,” however, appears to be a different beast entirely. Rather than tease readers with another mystery, Nihei sets out a dead-simple premise: Alien spores are turning the populace into bio-zombies and a masked rider has to save the girl who might prove to be the cure. There’s also a Russian bear who knows how to use a sniper rifle. Why? Why not. The simplicity of the storytelling works in the book’s favor since it allows Nihei to focus on delivering some truly spectacular action sequences that are as exciting as they are unbelievable. No, there really isn’t a lot of depth to be found here; but, it’s a textbook example of how to make “style over substance” storytelling work.

Star Wars: Legacy vol. 8 – Tatooine: It’s a planet that holds great significance in the “Star Wars” mythos, and the focus on another satisfying volume of this series. With the death of Darth Krayt, Cade Skywalker and the crew of the Mynock don’t have a purpose anymore, so they’ve gone back to their old pirating ways. This eventually gets everyone stranded on the title planet with the criminal organization known as Black Sun out to get them. Throw in Imperial agent Morrigan Corde and her daughter Gunner (Cade’s mother and half-sister, respectively) and things only get more complicated from there. Then Cade winds up at an abandoned moisture farm where the spirit of his grandfather confronts him on the lack of direction in his life. More than anything, this volume feels like it’s trying to force a crisis point in Cade’s stubbornness to not follow either the Light or Dark side of the Force and until he does, the ultimate importance of this story to the series has yet to be seen. Still, writer John Ostrander does great work with all the characters and it has turned out to be immensely entertaining to see him work in some of the more familiar elements of the “Star Wars” mythos through unorthodox means. He does this again in the final story, showing us the origins of badass soldier Hondo Karr and his emergence as “Legacy’s” equivalent to one of the mythos’ most popular characters. It’s “Star Wars” done right, and I’d recommend it to any fan.

Amulet vol. 2: The Stonekeeper’s Curse: This second volume of writer/artist Kazu Kibuishi’s all-ages adventure came out late last year and I only picked up recently. After reading this, I won’t be waiting that long to pick up volume three. I liked the first volume well enough, but this volume does a great job in expanding the scope of the characters’ world and the overall story. As Emily and Navin head to the city of Kanalis to find a cure for the poison that threatens the life of their mother, they find out that not only are they wanted by the evil Elf King, but that there’s also a resistance movement that has been told of Emily’s coming as the stonekeeper. It’s a familiar development, but Kibuishi is aware of it and knows when to tweak audience expectations as well as when to let things take their course. It also helps that his art and coloring are top-notch. It’s “all-ages fantasy” feel is highly reminiscent of Jeff Smith’s “Bone,” but make no mistake, this story is its own entity. Excellent stuff for kids, and their parents as well.

If there’s one thing the people over at Dark Horse love, it’s anthologies. The publisher’s initial title and signature series for many years was an anthology series titled, appropriately enough, “Dark Horse Presents.” Many of its signature series got their start here including “The Mask,” “Sin City” and “Hellboy.” I believe “The Goon” also had its Dark Horse debut in the series, but as creator Eric Powell pointed out in the fine print of vol. 1, the series ended with that issue #150. Pure coincidence, I’m sure. Since then, the publisher has put out a number of anthology titles, but not one that I felt compelled enough to pick up. Until now, that is. “Noir: A Collection of Crime Comics” boasts an all-star list of creators that includes the likes of writers Ed Brubaker and Brian Azzarello, artists like Sean Phillips and Gabriel Ba, and writer/artists such as David Lapham and Paul Grist. That’s not the entire list, yet while some of these stories show how familiar “noir” tropes can be the fact that it contains new “Stray Bullets,” “Criminal,” “Kane” and “Mister X” stories will make the purchase worth it for fans of these series.

Stray Bullets: Open the Goddamn Box: Talk about opening on a high note. This entry in David Lapham’s long-running crime series involves a girl tied up in a box, a boy who wants to rape her (but is conflicted about it), and another boy who loves being in charge. Lapham packs an incredible amount of character detail and tension into these ten pages that show how cleverness will get you out of any situation, and remind me how bad of a person I am for only having one volume of this series in my collection.

The Old Silo: I’ve heard a lot of good things about writer/artist Jeff Lemire’s work, but this came off as just “okay.” An old man is in danger of losing his farm, but a potential solution to his problems arrives in the form of a gutshot bank robber. In terms of plotting, it’s certainly not the most original thing I’ve read, but Lemire’s creepily skewed art gives the piece a sense of unease that it wouldn’t have otherwise.

Mister X: Yacht on the River Styx: Of the stories from long-running series featured in this volume, this is the series I’m the least familiar with. The title character takes a female reporter out to a ghost ship to solve the mystery of a massacre from years ago, only to find out that the killer has plans for them. While the story is set up as a mystery, it winds up solving itself before writer/artist Dean Motter has had enough time to build it up. Still, the retro-future world is nicely illustrated and it’s the one story in the book where the sci-fi elements don’t feel out of place (more on that later).

The Last Hit: A seasoned hitman gets the feeling that something has gone wrong when additional conditions complicate his latest job. Writer Chris Offutt is clearly familiar with the conventions of this kind of story as he spends most of it subverting them. That’s great up until the end when he serves up the ending you saw coming from the beginning of the story. Great moody and gritty art from Kano and Stefano Gaudiano, though.

Fracture: What happens when a girl decides to push an annoying beggar in front of a train? What happens when she doesn’t? More of an exercise in style and form than an actual story from writer Alex de Campi and artist Hugo Petrus; however, it’s still a fun exercise to analyze once you figure out what’s going on and where everything leads.

The Albanian: An Albanian cleaning man finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time after hours at his job. Usually these “witness to a murder” stories wind up with the witness on the run or under some kind of protection, but there aren’t enough pages for that. So writer/artist M.K. Perker takes an absurdist approach to things and has the main character running through the office remembering his old military training before coming face-to-face with the killer and his hand puppet. Even if it’s not clear what the point of it was, it’s an entertaining romp.

Kane: The Card Player: NEW KANE!!! … uh, sorry. I got a little worked up for a moment because this is THE FIRST NEW KANE STORY I’VE READ IN YEARS!!! … Yeah, I’m a fan of writer/artist Paul Grist’s absurdist noir/crime series that for six volumes (so far, I hope) performed an impeccable balancing act between the comic and the tragic. That said, despite a really clever “knock-knock” joke setup, this is probably a bit too continuity-heavy for those unfamiliar with the series to appreciate. If you’re a fan of the series like me, then you’ll be glad that it just exists.

Blood on My Hands: Writer/artist Rick Geary, whose odd cartoonish art style I’ve always found appealing, tells a tale of suburban rot, marital infidelity, and what happens when one man goes off his meds. It’s very well-worn territory and while the first-person perspective (both literal and figurative) does offer some novelty, it doesn’t last. The ending also undercuts the story as its return to normalcy gives the story a “What was the point?” feeling.

TRU$TWORTHY: It’s a story of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy finds out about the bad, bad men that are after the girl, then boy pledges to find some way to get girl out of trouble. It’s a setup that’s probably older than “noir” itself and the way it plays out here is pretty much the way you’ve seen it done before. The difference here is that it’s told in prose with illustrations… which is only unique in the context of this collection, and the writing by Ken Lizzi and art by Joelle Jones don’t really distinguish it. It’s only notable twist is at the end, which borders on sci-fi since I don’t think holographic technology has reached that level of sophistication yet. Speaking of out-of-place sci-fi elements…

The New Me: …This story has an even worse one. The setup is promising as it involves an unattractive and overweight woman looking to get in shape with help from an amorous instructor who only has eyes for good-looking ladies. Once the woman does get in shape, her instructor starts to have eyes for her and then his troubles begin. It’s a good setup from writer Gary Phillps and it features some sharp art from Eduardo Barreto, but the final twist completely undermines the story since this particular sci-fi element is both implausible and comes from out of nowhere.

Lady’s Choice: I’m more familiar with writer/artists Matthew and Shawn Fillbach for their oddball takes on other creators characters, and this is my first experience with an original story from them. There’s still a hint of the absurd in their tale of a bored woman who narrates the tense showdown between a powerful criminal and a genuine cowboy, but it’s played straight for the most part. Their art is stylish as is their willingness to use as many panels as needed on a page in order to tell the story, which is familiar but still well-executed.

Criminal: 21^st Cenury Noir: Leave it to writer Ed Brubaker and artist Sean Phillips to take the dead-standard “noir” setup featured in “TRU$TWORTHY” and not only make it fresh for the modern era but provide a clever twist on how it’s told. Yes, boy meets girl and is willing to do anything for her once he falls in love with her, but we don’t just get the story from his perspective, we get the story from the girl’s and her husband’s. Bonus points are awarded for how the story uses the internet in a way that doesn’t feel tacked-on and makes the story seem fresh as a result.

The Bad Night: Some people will read this story written by Brian Azzarello and illustrated by Gabriel Ba and see only a tense story of a two-bit hood getting orders from a Mafioso to steal a pearl necklace from a rich couple as they walk home from the movies with their son. Others will read it and see a thinly veiled take on the origin of one of DC’s most famous superheroes. Fortunately it works on both levels, though this is the second time that Azzarello has done this kind of story with this particular DC character (he previously did it on his “Hellblazer” run years ago). If he keeps this up, someone is going to have to stage an intervention…

So it’s hit-and-miss, but there aren’t any truly awful stories here and even the mediocre ones still have something interesting to offer on an artistic level. The best ones, however, are good enough to make up for the ones that are just “okay.” So if you’re in the mood for a good collection of crime tales, or are fans of any of the series or creators that contributed a story here then this is a collection that’s definitely worth your time.

After taking the time out to focus on USM last time, there’s been a considerable amount of stuff piling up for me to look at. Without further ado…

Chew vol. 1: Taster’s Choice: I can’t tell you what a relief it is to read the words “sold-out surprise hit comic” on the back cover and know that it isn’t utter BS. Tony Chu is a cibopath, someone who can get psychic impressions from what he eats, who is recruited by the FDA to solve food-related crimes in a world where chicken has been outlawed after the bird flu epidemic. In lesser hands this might’ve been an exercise in weirdness for weirdness’ sake, but writer John Layman manages to treat everything with the right amount of seriousness to make the absurdity funny and make you take things seriously as well. Artist Rob Guillory also has an appealingly cartoonish style that’s at home with drawing exaggerated character expressions as it is with ultraviolence. While the actual story told here is great at setting up the world and future plotlines, it’s really not all that interesting in itself and sets up a conflict I really couldn’t bring myself to care for. Still, the storytelling details are great and I’m really intrigued to see where Layman goes from here now that he has set everything up.

Captain America: Road to Reborn: Here we get stories about people remembering the past that prove even when Ed Brubaker is working on autopilot, he’s still better than most other writers. Seriously, the majority of the tales here are just filler and of importance or relevance to the series ongoing storyline, and the stuff that’s actually relevant to “Captain America: Reborn” probably wouldn’t have fit into an entire issue. Yes, it’s still interesting to read about Sharon Carter realize that she was once pregnant, and to hear Bucky talk about fighting vampires with Cap in WWII, but the feeling that everyone involved is just killing time until “Reborn” is unmistakable.

Ikigami: The Ultimate Limit vol. 1: In this Japan, random citizens are injected with a capsule that will kill them at an early age. The thinking behind this is that if they’re instilled with the fear that they’re going to die at any minute, the populace will learn to value life. With a premise like this, it would seem that the obvious route to go would be to focus on the last hours of those about to die. That is the case for most of this volume as we see a depressed wage slave take revenge against those who bullied him in high school and a singer try to leave his mark on the world, but mangaka Motoro Mase seems to be more interested in showing us how the people who are part of the system that implements this policy work and live with themselves. That’s a good thing because it’s far more interesting to witness the banality of evil in the people who keep this system going than it is to see its victims. The story about the bullied kid is effective if predictable and familiar, while the musician’s tale is painfully melodramatic and contrived. If Mase can make the system’s victims as interesting as the people who administer to it, then I’d recommend this series to anyone but this first volume doesn’t really get there.

Real vol. 7: After the last few volumes’ focus on Takahashi’s rehabilitation, the focus shifts back to Togawa’s struggles with his wheelchair basketball team, and Nomiya’s struggles to find meaning in his life. The best part about this volume is how it manages to balance Togawa and Nomiya’s storylines and integrate them together to a certain extent. While the wheelchair basketball matches are as exciting as ever, Togawa’s crisis at the end doesn’t quite have the drama that mangaka Takehiko Inoue wants it to have. Frankly, I’d be more surprised if Togawa actually DOES leave the team than if he breaks his word and decides to stay where he is. We’ll see where that goes. Inoue’s successful balancing act between Togawa and Nomiya’s storylines also has me anticipating when he’ll finally bring Takahashi into the mix (because he’s not even in this volume) and start telling stories about the three of them together than splitting his focus between two separate storylines.

The Unwritten vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity: This is writer Mike Carey’s new series for DC/Vertigo and he’s teaming up with his “Lucifer” artist Peter Gross. The high concept for this series is that Tom Taylor is the son of the author of a wildly popular “Harry Potter-esque” series of books and the ostensible basis for its main character. Except that he might actually be the character come to life, and to get answers he has to start digging into his father’s past only to find weirdness. While Carey does seem to have a plan for Tom’s “fictional character in a real world” dilemma, his main goal with the series seems to be more about using it as a jumping off point to dissect how people respond to fiction. Here’s hoping it’ll be as focused as his work on “Lucifer” and “X-Men,” and not degenerate into head-scratching ridiculousness as it did in “Faker.” The last story, about Rudyard Kipling’s dealings with the people that Tom’s father were involved with since it’s a very good story in itself that manages to both serve Carey’s themes and offer up tantalizing glimpses of the larger plot.

No Hero: Writer Warren Ellis’ latest collaboration with artist Juan Jose Ryp after their “superhero kills the president” opus “Black Summer.” This time they’re looking at superheroes through the lens of how they relate to the idea of vigilantism and just how far people are willing to go in order to achieve their dreams. For the most part, it shows that Ellis learned from the flaws of “Black Summer” and does much more showing how messed up his characters are than simply telling us they are. He also sets up his plot twists better here, but that winds up biting him in the ass at the end. While it’s a given that the main character had to have some sort of secret that would be revealed in the end, the revelation of that secret winds up kneecapping the very premise of the book. It recovers somewhat in the end, but it really detracts a lot from the overall enjoyment of the book. On the other hand, Ryp shows that he’s as adept as ever at depicting the twisted environmental and human carnage that Ellis is capable of dreaming up.

The Walking Dead vol. 11: Fear the Hunters: This took far too long to arrive from Amazon, but when it did… it was worth the wait. Writer Robert Kirkman finally gets around to addressing one of the inevitable concerns of any world where human society is in ruins (think cannibalism) and manages to subvert a lot of the expectations that a reader would have with the setup of this story. What’s more interesting is that beneath the story of Rick and co.’s response to being hunted by cannibals is the emotional cost involved with people’s needs to protect themselves, their family and their friends. I have no doubt that Rick and co. did was the right thing, but that doesn’t make it any easier for them to do it and it makes for great drama to see them grapple with the moral implications of their actions. It’s a tribute to Kirkman’s skill as a writer that he also keeps finding ways for his characters’ suffering to be interesting, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them once they reach Washington D.C. and civilization in the next volume.

Things start off on a high note with “USM Annual #3” which marks the debut of “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” (don’t know why they felt the need to add “Comics” to the title, but there you go…) penciller David LaFuente. LaFuente has an appealingly cartoony style that has more than a little manga influence to it, mostly in the eyes and the excited facial expressions, and a real knack for knowing how to showcase action and movement, as seen when Spider-Man has to stop a speeding getaway car. His style is much different than that of previous pencillers Mark Bagley and Stuart Immonen, but I really like what I see of it here and I’m looking forward to seeing him on the new series (once it arrives in softcover, sigh…).

As for the story, it takes an idea that could be “fingernails-on-the-blackboard-painful” and then proceeds to treat it with enough intelligence that it winds up being pretty interesting and offers additional insight into the minds of these characters. Said idea is whether or not Peter and MJ should “go all the way.” This leads to some friction between the two as Peter tries to figure out why MJ would start avoiding him after she brought the idea up. Ultimate Mysterio is also introduced and it’s a refreshing change to see the police working with Spider-Man to stop a super villain. Too bad that writer Brian Michael Bendis backpedals on that when Aunt May is arrested in the next story, but the Mysterio case also provides the impetus for the two leads to start talking to each other again. All in all, it’s easily one of the better stories that series writer Brian Michael Bendis has done on the series and further proof that no one knows the character (no matter his age) better than him.

That knowledge is put to great use in the title story, “Ultimatum.” Now this storyline was a tie-in to the “Ultimatum” mini-series that was going on at the time that was promising to shake the Ultimate universe to its very core! The core premise essentially involved the return of Magneto to wreak havoc on the world for the deaths of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, which he does by reversing the Earth’s magnetic poles. I’d go into more detail, but I haven’t read the series which by all reports was said to be utterly abominable.

Things start out on a fun note with Johnny Storm begging Peter’s help to get him out of a date with an airheaded starlet, and then he winds up running into both the Vulture and Spider-Woman. Peter’s female clone is instantly classified as “girlfriend material” by Johnny. Then as Peter, MJ, Gwen, Kitty Pryde and Kong head out for a night on the town, Aunt May is arrested and a giant tidal wave hits New York. With millions dead from the tsunami and almost as many still at risk, Peter swings off into the city to save as many as he can.

It’s in this crisis that Bendis cuts to the core of Spider-Man as a character. Yes, he’s got those fancy spider-related super powers, but he’s really just a kid who is forever compelled to do the right thing because when he didn’t, the person who mattered the most to him was killed. That compulsion to do the right thing often leads him to places and events where he’s not fully equipped to deal with what’s happening, and that’s the case here. Bendis wrings lots of great drama from showing Peter’s desperate efforts to save as many people as he can from the flood, and his silent anguish when he realizes that he’s too late to save them all.

While Bendis’ understanding of Spider-Man is the core of the story, its best moment stems from him showing us an event that he’d probably never be allowed to get away with in the regular Marvel universe. That event being J. Jonah Jameson’s admission that he was wrong about the wall-crawler. Despondent after escaping from the chaos with the rest of the Daily Bugle crew he talks about how as he saw the world ending and Spider-Man jumping into the fray to save whoever he could about the chaos. Dare I say that it’s a powerful scene as Bendis’ words and Immonen’s images capture the anguish of a man who believes he is right in just about everything finally admitting that he was wrong about something and then taking the steps to address that. Yes, I realize that JJJ could return to being the iconic spider-hating newsman that everybody knows him for (and sadly, it wouldn’t surprise me if they did…) but it’s a scene like this that really justifies the existence of the Ultimate universe and I hope Bendis follows through on what he does with JJJ’s character in this scene.

Into this mix, Bendis also throws the Hulk and the demon that Peter tangled with in his adventure at Dr. Strange’s place way back in vol. 12. Said demon isn’t that interesting by itself, but it does bring back all of Spider-Man’s greatest foes to knock him around for a bit, which makes for some good visuals from Immonen. While it’s interesting to see Peter try to reason with the Hulk, with mostly successful results, and there are some great scenes showing MJ’s reaction to all of this, the last two issues are pretty much one big superhero fight fest. Granted, it’s a superhero fight fest drawn by Stuart Immonen who, as he has done with this entire storyline, brings an effortless sense of energy and excitement to the proceedings. He’s a great superhero artist and his work here shows what he’s capable of when turned loose on both widescreen carnage and human drama.

Still, even Immonen’s work can’t save the end which fails entirely at giving a sense of closure to the proceedings. Bendis’ decision to go with a “silent” final issue doesn’t entirely ruin things, but there’s just too much going on to allow the characters to not have any say in things. The real kicker is that we’re left with a “Spider-Man is dead,” ending which no one would’ve found believable even if they hadn’t started the new series a few months later. I can only assume that Bendis was trying to add a poetic, “he died using his powers to save people” to Spider-Man’s life, but it just doesn’t work.

BUT IT GETS BETTER! Because this really isn’t the actual end of USM!

After the last issue, Marvel published a two-part mini-series called “Ultimatum: Spider-Man – Requiem” written by Bendis with art from both current artist Immonen and original artist Mark Bagley. These issues were meant to provide a capstone to USM and show the final fate of Peter Parker – and how he escaped death in “Ultimatum.” This sounds like the ending we should’ve received in this volume, so why the hell aren’t they reprinted here?

That’d be because “Requiem” issues were also published for “Ultimate Fantastic Four” and “Ultimate X-Men,” and since their final volumes had already been published, the only way Marvel would be able to reprint them is if they were all collected together in one volume. Which they were, and since I have no interest in reading capstone issues of series I’ve stopped reading, I’m left with the option of tracking down these issues from other sources. So expect a review of these once I decide to root through “Things From Another World’s” nick and dent section and add them to my order.

So what could’ve been a truly spectacular wrap up to this volume of Ultimate Spider-Man’s adventures winds up being only a pretty good one. Even though I’m frustrated by the lack of the series’ actual ending, there’s enough good stuff here to make me recommend this to everyone who has been following the series so far. It also looks to be in good hands artistically with new artist David LaFuente, and I’ll still be getting my Immonen fix since he’s moved over to be the new artist on Bendis’ “New Avengers.” Huh, now that I think about things, it might be time to start re-reading everything for a future podcast…

Irredeemable vol. 1: Or, “What would happen if Superman finally snapped and became a bad guy.” Except that it’s not “Superman,” but the “Plutonian” who for reasons that will eventually become clear has turned on his fellow supermen and decided to explore the idea of absolute power corrupting absolutely. This first volume gets things off to a good start as we get some novel takes on traditional superhero events such as what happens when one reveals his identity to his longtime girlfriend (and it’s utterly believable). It’s also fun seeing writer/creator Mark Waid create his own superhero universe and using it to do stuff he couldn’t get away with while working for the big two. Granted, this universe will seem instantly familiar to anyone who has read a Marvel or DC comic, but the biggest issue with the series so far is artist Peter Krause. While Krause is a capable storyteller, his art doesn’t conjure the awe and grandeur that’s needed to sell us on the appeal of this new world. Still, a good first volume overall and I’m looking forward to seeing where Waid goes with this from here.

Moyasimon: Tales of Agriculture vol. 1: For now, this is the only Del Rey manga title that I’m reading – at least until the omnibus edition of the last three volumes of “Mushi-Shi” ships in July. Based on this first volume, well… I’d like to say that the pre-release buzz I heard about it was justified, except it’s not really. The series gets points for its unique setup as it’s not only one of the few titles I’ve read that takes place at a college, but it’s the only one that takes place at an agricultural college. However, the real hook for this series is that the main character, Tadayasu, has this ability to see all the bacteria around him (and they’ve been anthropomorphed into very cute — and therefore marketable — forms). As far as slice-of-life stories go, it’s not bad and I liked all of the insight into the details of life at an agricultural college that mangaka Masayuki Ishikawa packs into the volume. The only problem is that this series seems to have no greater aim than to show off Ishikawa’s knowledge of biology and really disgusting yet edible foodstuffs. It doesn’t help that the characters are either too thinly depicted to be interesting (Masayuki), too cartoonish to be taken seriously (Masayuki’s oddball professor) or taken straight from the “stock manga characters” drawer (the professor’s strict and overbearing assistant Haruka). Overall it’s alright, and I’m willing to give it another volume or two to see if it develops into something better, but I was expecting more from this one.

The Incredible Hercules: Dark Reign: Or, “volume four” since the series took over from the “Incredible Hulk.” As with all of Marvel’s series that have the “Dark Reign” title to them, this volume involves the cast coming into conflict with Norman Osborne’s agenda and the fighting that ensues as a result. It’s handled in a more interesting manner here as Osborne isn’t out to get the main cast (Hercules, boy genius Amadeus Cho, and goddess of wisdom Athena), but rather Hera and the rest of the Greek Gods she has under her command as CEO of the Olympus Corporation, who is out to get the main cast (for every indignity she’s suffered because of them in Greek mythology). So in order to survive her wrath, Hercules and Amadeus are sent to the underworld to bring back Zeus (he died a few years back in the “Ares” mini-series) only to find that Pluto, lord of the underworld, is planning to put the king of the gods on trial for his multitude of crimes. This is an easy book to review because all I have to say is that if you’ve liked the previous volumes then you’re going to like this one as well. The series wit and knack for skillfully blending Greek mythology with the rest of the Marvel Universe is on fine form here and the end sets up the next volume quite well.

Jormungand vol. 1: This, on the other hand, is a bit of a mess. It reads like mangaka Keitaro Takahashi wanted to create a rip-roaring action yarn in the vein of “Black Lagoon” only set in the world of arms dealers, while nicking the “child soldier as protagonist” idea from “Full Metal Panic” as well. Unfortunately he doesn’t have the skill to pull it off. We’re introduced to Jonah, the child soldier, as he joins up with arms dealer Koko Hekmatyar and the rest of her motley crew as they go about their business of making sure that their deals go through with a minimum of fuss and government interference. Naturally a lot of shooting is involved. While exploring the demands of being an arms dealer in today’s world is a topic rife with storytelling potential, but Takahashi doesn’t seem to be interested in it beyond using it as an excuse to set up action scenes – which are very confusingly choreographed for the most part. Focusing the series on arms dealers also creates another problem as their profession doesn’t really make me want to like or see these people succeed at all. While it’s possible to base a series around people who morally dubious things (see the above-mentioned “Black Lagoon”), said people need to be interesting enough to make us see past their occupation. That’s not the case here as Takahashi falls back on silly comedic elements that feel out of place and some token arguments about how the characters are acting in a moral gray area that we’ve all heard before. My only hope for this series’ future is that Takahashi starts digging deeper into his premise to offer more insight into why these characters are in the business of dealing arms, and to find ways to make the characters themselves more compelling.

Gravel vol. 2: The Major Seven: The first volume of Warren Ellis and Mike Wolfer’s ongoing series about combat magician William Gravel was a fast-paced and entertaining action story that involved the title character killing his way through seven other magicians (of varying degrees of bastardry) for an item of immense occult power. Upon finishing off the last of these “Minor Seven,” Gravel found himself invited to join the ranks of the “Major Seven,” the ruling magicians of Britain. Now he has two tasks: to reform the “Minor Seven” and to find out who killed Avalon Lake, the member of the “Major Seven” he’s replacing. I was looking forward to this volume a lot after reading a favorable review of the issues at Comic Book Resources and having a friend of mine wax enthusiastic about how this volume was about more than just Gravel killing a bunch of bastards. Long story short: I was disappointed. While it was a nice change of pace to have the title character do more talking than shooting and to see him begin recruiting members for the “Minor Seven,” there’s not enough change to make this volume seem like a more flaccid version of the previous one. The ending comes off as particularly redundant after the events of the first volume. That said, I’m hoping to see that the next volume will let us see more of Gravel trying to build something in this life rather than trying to tear it down.

This has been old news for a few weeks now, but I wanted to say a few things about DC’s new “Earth One” graphic novel initiative. A lot has been made already about how this is going to be an ongoing series of graphic novels featuring continuity-free reboots of Batman and Superman and the differences between publishing these as original hardcover graphic novels versus serializing them as single issues. If you’ve been following my podcast and these posts for any length of time, you’ll know that I vastly prefer my comics in trade paperback or OGN form than single issues, so I like this development. That said, all of the concerns about price, format, release schedule, creative teams (Geoff Johns writing and Gary Frank drawing “Batman,” and J. Michael Straczynski writing and Shane Davis drawing “Superman”) all become irrelevant in the face of one thing:

Will they be any good?

God knows that most people thought that Marvel’s “Ultimate” line of comics was a bad idea when it was launched. How would re-starting the continuity of the X-Men and Spider-Man make the characters more relevant and interesting to a modern audience? To the surprise of pretty much everyone, the comics turned out to be quite entertaining and while the line has lost a lot of its luster in the wake of Jeph Loeb’s mangling of “The Ultimates” and the “Ultimatum” event, it still brought us a lot of entertaining comics over the years. Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch’s “Ultimates,” the “Ultimate X-Men” runs by Millar, Brian Michael Bendis’, and Brian K. Vaughan, Warren Ellis’ “Ultimate Galactus” and “Ultimate Fantastic Four: N-Zone,” and chief amongst them – Bendis’ “Ultimate Spider-Man,” with art by Mark Bagley (over one hundred issues!) and Stuart Immonen, and is the one Spider-Man title that I’d recommend to anyone who wants to see why the character is such an enduring icon.

Now “Earth One” seems like DC’s attempt to finally do an “Ultimate”-style re-imagining of the iconic characters from their universe. Their previous attempt, the “All-Star” line, was pretty much justified by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s “All-Star Superman,” but the walking punchline that is Frank Miller and Jim Lee’s “All-Star Batman” and their utter failure to get another title out of the line obviously necessitated the need to start things over from scratch. The other problem here is that alternate-universe re-imaginings of its characters is something that DC has been doing for years in its retired “Elseworlds” line and various out-of-continuity mini-series that pop up for certain characters over the years. They’re going to need to clearly define what makes this particular re-imagining different in order to make it stand out from all the others. (This includes Johns’ and Frank’s re-telling of Superman’s origin in the “Secret Origin” mini-series which is currently being serialized, and might even wind up being collected in hardcover in time to hit stands with the “Earth One” Superman OGN.)

Of course, all this will cease to be an issue if the stories turn out to catch the same lightning in a bottle that the “Ultimate” line did, and we’ll see them selling like hotcakes and introducing a whole new audience or even generation of readers to the awesomeness of Batman and Superman. We won’t know if that’ll happen for a while as I’ve only heard “sometime in 2010” tossed around as a launch date for these OGNs. As for me, I’m going to do what I always do in these situations and wait for them to come out and read the reviews online to see if they’re worth ordering through Amazon. I’m not going to buy them on sight because while I’ve liked some of Straczynski’s and Johns’ other works, neither have put out consistently excellent comics work the way other writers like Bendis, Garth Ennis, and Grant Morrison have that make me buy pretty much everything they do on sight. Still, it’d be nice if this podcast became famous enough for DC to send me complimentary copies to review… but I’d give better odds on “Earth One” capturing that “lightning in a bottle” before that happens.

I’ll keep trying, though! In the meantime, so that the title of this post doesn’t become a complete misnomer here are some reviews:

Yotsuba&! vol. 7: If you haven’t noticed that the world is now a better place since Yen Press started releasing new volumes of Kiyohiko Azuma’s brilliantly funny and cute series, then that’s probably because you aren’t reading it. Yes, its cuteness may call to mind the “moe” stereotype that’s infesting a lot of anime and manga today, but it’s such a well-thought-out work of comic genius that it transcends those initial impressions and becomes something that everyone can enjoy. This may sound like overblown praise for a series that chronicles the (mis-)adventures of a five-year-old girl who, in this volume, learns about pastry making, respect for the elderly day, catches a fever, and goes to a ranch (where she punches a sheep!), but Azuma’s perfect comic timing and knack for creating honest (but absurd) character scenarios will most likely make anyone a believer if they give the series a chance.

Detroit Metal City vol. 3: Meanwhile, at the other end of the comedic manga spectrum, Kiminori Wakasugi’s Metal epic continues to successfully mine fresh laughs out of its one-joke premise. Showing how beyond-wimpy protagonist Soichiro Negishi balances his real life and his job as Death Metal God Krauser II should’ve degenerated into sitcom-rote situations by now, but Wakasugi keeps finding new situations to exploit. These include showing how bandmember Jagi just doesn’t have the same charisma as Negishi does when he’s Krauser and how Negishi tries to help him compensate, and the band’s exploits at the heavy metal festival that begin the series’ longest arc to date. Great stuff, and it comes with a special recommendation to people who are Metal or want to find out what being Metal means.

Ooku vol. 2: Now that I finally have this volume in my hands, let me say that it does live up to the promise that the first volume displayed. It does take the long way around in doing so, as rather than picking up with where we left off with Shogun Yoshimune in the last volume, we’re introduced to a new cast of characters and setting. Picking up not long after the redface pox has noticeably decimated Japan’s supply of men, mangaka Fumi Yoshinaga goes about the business of showing how the transition of power from the men to the women was handled after the outbreak by showing us the tragic fate of a Buddhist monk, Arikoto, and two of his disciples. After circumstances conspire to bring Arikoto and one of his disciples to the Ooku, we get to see that it was still a very treacherous place even in these early days, and the truth behind many of the conventions and rules of the place that were established in the first volume. Some parts are decidedly unsettling, but more for the actions of the characters than cheap shock value, which only underlines the strength of Yoshinaga’s storytelling skills and illustrate why this is a series that everyone should be reading.

Children of the Sea vol. 2: This, on the other hand, is not. Right now this series falls squarely in my “I’m buying it so that Viz will release other titles that aren’t mainstream friendly,” camp. It’s the story of a young girl named Ruka who meets two strange boys named Umi and Sora one summer and bonds with them. These boys are strange because they’ve spent most of their life in the sea and are currently being studied by researchers in order to find out just how different they are from us. The problem is that there’s too much focus on the central mystery of what Umi and Sora actually are and what they portend for the world, and not enough on the characters or the plot itself. This is the kind of book where we’re constantly told that something mysterious is going on, but are never really given any answers or clues to figure out what it is or to even try to guess at it. There’s no question that mangaka Daisuke Igarashi is a hell of an artist, and he makes the scenery and characters really come to life on the page, but he doesn’t seem to have the same skill at telling a story or creating characters that are interesting enough for us to follow through it. People who can appreciate a story just for its art alone will definitely get more out of this than I did, but there are better mature/alternative/different manga out there that deserve your money more.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and the list of titles to review just keeps getting bigger. Let’s see what I can get through tonight…

New Avengers vol. 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme – In which we find out that Stephen Strange has relinquished his title as “Sorcerer Supreme” of the Marvel Universe, paving the way for someone else (who everyone hopes is not Dr. Doom) to take the role. Chaos then proceeds to ensue as The Hood, whose body is being taken over by the demon that lives in the cloak that gives him his power, joins the search as well. A noticeable improvement over the last volume as stuff actually happens here, and Bendis’ dialogue produces some entertaining exchanges between the cast. Be it “Ultimate” or regular Marvel Universe, the man knows how to write Spider-Man like no one else.

X-Men: Legacy – Salvage: (Technically vol. 4 for those of you keeping track at home.) While my usual caveat to non-X-Men fans holds true here, those of you who have been following the series so far will find a (mostly) satisfying resolution to Professor X’s story here. After meeting up with his stepbrother Cain Marko (a.k.a. The Juggernaut), Xavier teams up with Gambit to find Rogue out in the Australian outback so he can see about fulfilling his long-ago promise to help her control her powers. Rogue isn’t alone out there either as Danger (the now-sentient incarnation of the X-Men’s “danger room” from Joss Whedon’s “Astonishing X-Men”) is looking to use her to enact vengeance on Xavier, and some Shi’Ar salvagers have found Danger’s signal and are looking to salvage her. What follows is a fairly continuity-dense story about the difficulties of taking stock of your past and trying to move on from it, but it doesn’t let the continuity strangle the telling, and the Shi’Ar salvagers provide welcome comic relief at the right times. The volume “concludes” by having Xavier return to where the story began, at Exodus’ compound, so he can destroy the mutant’s mission with words rather than brute force. I say “concludes” because the final panel involves Norman Osborne showing up to recruit Xavier for his X-Men team. As I said in my review of “Utopia,” we never find out how things went from there to Xavier in a cell, and that’s a shame since I’m sure that would’ve made a more interesting story than most of the filler that made up that volume.

The Winter Men: Now this is a series that I never thought I’d see completed. While other series that have had long delays in their publication (see Kevin Smith’s “Spider-Man/Black Cat” miniseries, Damon Lindelof’s “Ultimate Hulk/Wolverine” and Warren Ellis’ “Planetary”) eventually finished their run because of their high-profile nature and large fanbase, this is a series that had neither. After reading it, I’m glad it did. In the world of this story, Russia once had a genuine “superman” and mechanized infantry to wage war against the forces of capitalism, but all that eventually faded away with the country’s subsequent collapse. Kris Kalenov was once a soldier in one of these units known as “The Winter Men” and now he’s just a policeman in Moscow trying to make it through the day. That is, until he winds up in charge of a case involving an infant girl that’s tied to Russia’s old superhuman program and his investigation starts to unravel the life he and everyone around him have built for themselves. This book is a very dense read that requires you pay close attention to everything on the page, but the payoff is that you get a fully realized mirror image of Russia with characters and a story that will stay with you long after you’ve stopped reading. Courtesy of writer Brett Lewis and artist John Paul Leon.

The Boys vol. 5: Herogasm – This is more of the outrageously over-the-top superhero sex and violence that the series has made its stock-in-trade; fortunately, this time it doesn’t manage to cross the line into offensively off-putting as the last volume did. In the world of “The Boys,” the yearly superhero “crossover event” is merely an excuse for every superpowered being in the world to meet up at a small tropical island resort to indulge in every perversion imaginable. Naturally, the title characters use this as an opportunity to take care of some business of their own as not only will Vought-American’s superhero liaison be there, but so will everyone’s favorite vice-president Vic “the Veep” – a man so stupid, he makes Sarah Palin look like Einstein. While I’m sure the main draw of this volume will be all of the superhero sexcapades (which really aren’t all that interesting), writer Garth Ennis (teamed up here with frequent, and frequently excellent, artistic collaborator John McCrea) weaves in lots of interesting details and plot threads that deepen the story and cast in interesting ways. My only real complaint about this volume is Hughie’s frequently ineffective and whiny nature. I know he’s meant to be our sympathetic point-of-view character, but I’m finding myself more interested in Butcher’s “bastard with a plan” characterization. As with “X-Men: Legacy,” if you’ve stuck with the story this far, you’ll be entertained by what you find here.

Grandville: Writer/artist Bryan Talbot’s latest graphic novel is an alternate-reality/history/steampunk tale of a world populated by anthropomorphic animals, and a Britain that only recently gained its independence from France. Grounding this story in something relatable is Inspector LeBrock, a badger who is also an inspector from Scotland Yard and effectively this universe’s Sherlock Holmes and Arnold Schwarzenegger (more on that in a bit). This might seem like a lot to take in, but Talbot’s confidence in his storytelling abilities and the detail he brings to his world through that and his art will draw in anyone who is willing to give it a shot. Where it starts to fall apart is in the endgame when LeBrock engages in some serious “Army of One” action straight out of an 80’s Schwarzenegger flick. While Talbot handles the action quite well, it’s pretty far removed from how the rest of the book has played out until things start blowing up. It’s still good overall, but I hope that if Talbot ever decides to return to this world, he keeps things on a more even keel next time.

The Immortal Iron Fist vol. 5: Escape From the Eighth City – This is the final volume of the series and writer Duane Swierczynski brings it out on a high note. While the last volume left off with Iron Fist Danny Rand and the rest of the Immortal Weapons finding the gate to the lost “Eighth City of Heaven,” this volume picks up with the cast already inside and fighting for their lives. As it turns out, this city was where all of the undesirable elements of K’un-Lun were cast out to and they include everything from political dissidents to malevolent demons. Though Danny and co. have come there on a mission of mercy to save the wrongly imprisoned from the city, he quickly finds out that they might have bitten off more than they can chew. It’s a fast-paced action story full of the clever twists and witty dialogue that have been the hallmarks of the series. Also included are few one-off stories that offer closure to the series and two unusual tales of other Iron Fists. One of these is a pacifist (which is quite good) and the other is from the far, far future (not as good, but still entertaining). While I still have the “Immortal Weapons” mini-series to look forward to, I’ll miss this series and hope that Marvel re-launches it (with Swierczynski, or another equally capable writer) in the near future so it can get the audience it deserves.

Berserk vol. 32: Only one more volume on Dark Horse’s schedule before we start having to wait. *sigh* This volume wraps up the conflict between our heroes and the Kushan Emperor, with Guts and Zodd having to enter into an uneasy truce so that they can put the fiend’s astral form in its place. Later, Griffith shows up with his army in tow and puts the Emperor in his place and then goes on to begin his consolidation of political, military and religious power across Midland. Easily another solid entry in the series, though I wonder how the story is going to feel now that we’ll be getting it in six-month (at best) installments as opposed to bi-monthly. I also like the final chapter which looks to begin an interesting “catch your breath” arc as the protagonists head to Elfheim and Farnesse begins her magic lessons in earnest.

Bleach vol. 29: Ichigo, Uruyu, and Chad all fight their own Espadas with help from some of the Arrancars that they met in the previous volume. None of this is really “bad,” but it does little to shake my plans to stop reading this the moment it goes south or reaches a convenient “stopping point.” That said, I’m a 30-year-old reading a series intended for boys less than half my age, so take my opinion with as many grains of salt as you’d like.

When “Avengers/X-Men: Utopia” was announced, one of its selling points was that it was the first direct crossover between the two teams since “Bloodlines” over fifteen years ago. Technically that’s not true since this crossover involves the X-Men fighting Norman Osborne’s “Dark Avengers” team, which is made up of villains working for him. Early word of mouth indicated that this crossover wouldn’t have to work too hard to be considered the better of the two since “Bloodlines” was reputedly pretty dire. Mainstream comic book writing has come a LONG way in those fifteen years, though, and while I haven’t read “Bloodlines,” I can say that “Utopia” is well worth reading for X-Men fans.

Things start off with tensions between San Francisco’s human and mutant populations boiling over into mob violence on the streets. After the X-Men’s initial efforts to quell the uprising only succeed in making matters worse, Norman Osborne comes to town with his Avengers team in tow to restore law and order. But Osborne has bigger plans in mind than just restoring order, as he wants to use this opportunity to set up his own team of “Dark X-Men” with Emma Frost as its leader. As this also involves arresting Cyclops and effectively taking control of all mutant affairs, the X-Men aren’t going to take this lying down.

It’s that struggle to outwit and out-fight both of Osborne’s teams that forms the driving force of “Utopia’s” narrative, and in contrast to “Messiah War” the story isn’t focused on having superheroes fight each other. We get a lot of scenes showing how both sides are reacting to each others’ moves and planning on how to counter them. I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to say that the X-Men triumph in the end, but it’s immensely satisfying to see Cyclops’ plan play out perfectly by the time he addresses the nation on the mutants’ new status quo.

That’s also another thing that separates this from “Messiah War:” the story effects lasting change. While that story was essentially a big blast of sound and fury that signified nothing, “Utopia” actually sets up an interesting new status quo for mutants in the Marvel Universe. Whether or not it’ll actually play out into interesting stories is yet to be seen, as the team’s much-vaunted move to San Francisco really didn’t add up to much in the end. Still, this change has much more potential since it is physically and geographically much more interesting than having the team move to another city.

Another thing separating “Utopia” from “Messiah War” is that nearly all of the story is written by one man, regular “Uncanny” writer Matt Fraction. While I liked the fact that you couldn’t tell the difference between the writers in “Messaih War,” Fraction’s accomplishment here is greater not just for the above-mentioned reasons, but because he’s also dealing with a cast of over twenty characters in the crossover. With a cast that large you’d expect there to be a certain amount of chaos in the proceedings, but Fraction keeps things focused on the Cyclops/Emma/Osborne dynamic and manages to give the rest of the cast their own moments to shine as well. That being said, the only thing Fraction hasn’t managed to accomplish here is write a story that’s accessible to someone who isn’t already well versed in current X-Men/Avengers/Marvel Universe continuity. While the well-worn idea of the X-men being a metaphor for the struggles of minorities is on full-display here, this isn’t the story you’re going to want to use to get someone interested in the X-Men or comics in general.

While the main “Utopia” story is a clear success, the same can’t really be said of the other half of the collection which brings together all of the tie-in issues and stories for the crossover. “Dark X-Men: The Confession” written by Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost technically falls into this area because it’s not part of the crossover proper, but actually an epilogue detailing the emotional fallout between Cyclops and Emma from all the secrets they’ve been hiding from each other up until now. It’s a nice, measured bit of character drama that works well because instead of resorting to the histrionics that you’d expect from this time of story, the couple involved just takes the time to talk things out and come to an understanding based on everything that’s happened. Good stuff overall.

Everything else, however, isn’t nearly as relevant. To be honest, just about everything else here feels like filler in order to justify the $40 cover price of the collection. The two issues of “X-Men: Legacy” by Mike Carey are standard crossover material, with Rogue, Gambit, and a reformed Danger showing up in San Francisco to help out where they can. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t really add anything to the crossover, which is a shame since I’d have loved to know how Professor X winds up in a cell at the superhuman prison in Alcatraz after his meeting with Osborne at the very end of the latest volume of “Legacy.”

What these two issues have over the rest of the stories in the book is the room to tell an actual story, since the rest of the collection is filled out by short stories revolving primarily around the other mutants/superheroes picked to be in Osborne’s “Dark X-Men” team. It’s not that they’re bad, but the problem here is the same as they’re not telling stories that are in any way essential to the crossover. Personally I liked Jason Aaron’s short “Get Mystique [Slight Return]” mainly because it ties into his excellent “Wolverine” story involving Mystique, and his knack for character detail makes her meeting with Osborne in a bar in the middle of nowhere suitably tense. Also of note is the last story in the book, “The One Who Got Away” by Simon Spurrier, which is interesting because it tells of Osborne’s only failure in recruiting: getting the Canadian mutant Aurora to join his team.

Overall, I did enjoy “Utopia” mainly on the strength of its main story, and the “not badness” of the filler didn’t do much to drag it down. While I’d like to recommend this to X-Men and [Dark] Avengers fans, I realize that the $40 price point for the collection is probably a little more than most fans are willing to spend for something like this these days, and I have to admit that the book isn’t THAT good. However, if you do what I did and order it from Amazon.com, you’ll only be out $26, which is a much more reasonable price for everything. It’s also possible that Marvel could release the core “Utopia” storyline in its own book (as they’re doing with the “X-Men: Legacy” issues and “Dark X-Men” short stories collected here), but I have this nagging feeling that’s not going to happen. So if you can find the price point that’s right for you, you’ve got a good story in “Utopia” that sets up a potentially interesting new direction for the X-Men franchise.

The podcast is done, but we’re having some technical issues getting it up. It should be up sometime this weekend, though. In the meantime, I hope everyone is having a happy Thanksgiving and in lieu of not having a podcast up right now I figured I’d talk about the two large “X-Men” hardcover collections that arrived in the mail yesterday. Ideally “X-Force/Cable: Messiah War” and “[Dark] Avengers/X-Men: Utopia” are meant to be meaningful chapters in the ongoing saga of the franchise, but only one manages to have any real ramifications. Both of them also collect a number of tie-in issues in order to pad out the collected editions’ page count beyond their core stories. While it’s certainly… “thoughtful” of Marvel to throw in everything that was related to these storylines, they’re not really necessary to enjoying or understanding the storylines they’re tied into.

That being said, that “extra content” was my main reason for finally picking up “Messiah War” since it also functions as the next volume of “Cable.” (Issues #11-12, and “The Time and Life of Lucas Bishop,” featured here will also be available as “Cable vol. 3” in the near future.) Originally hyped as the follow-up to the excellent “Messiah Complex,” I wasn’t initially convinced to pick it up since I’d heard that while the storyline started out strong, it eventually degenerated into meaningless fighting. Having read the whole thing through, I can say that yes, that’s exactly what happens.

The thrust of the story is that after months have gone by in the real world without any word from Cable, Cyclops is getting worried that something has gone wrong with his son’s mission. After Beast tracks Cable and Hope to a point about a thousand years from now in the timestream, Cyclops makes the call to send in X-Force (the “take no prisoners” black ops team of mutants led by Wolverine, natch) to find out what happened. While that’s going on, Bishop is making plans of his own that include teaming up with Cable’s evil clone Stryfe to track down the time-traveling-duo so he can kill Hope and prevent his future from ever coming to be.

Long story short: they meet, they fight, Stryfe kidnaps Hope, they fight some more, Bishop fails to kill Hope, X-Force gets sent back to the present, Apocalypse shows up and kidnaps Stryfe, and Cable and Hope slide further forward in time. The End. Oh, and Deadpool shows up. He’s a thousand years older and nuttier, and the most entertaining parts of the book usually wind up involving him (such as how he developed a split personality to play tic-tac-toe while he was imprisoned, and how his other personality kept beating him). I wish there was more to say about the storyline than this, but there isn’t. Though the setup is potentially interesting with Stryfe being set up as a patsy for Bishop and the conflict between Cable and X-Force, who broach the idea that if this is the future that he took Hope to, then he might’ve made the wrong choice. Writers Duane Swierczynski (who handles the “Cable” issues) and Craig Kyle and Christoper Yost (who handle “X-Force”) do work well together in the crossover as there’s no clash in styles as they write characters from each others’ books. Things start off with lots of potential with the conflict between the protagonists, Deadpool’s always entertaining insanity, and the morbid “Why would you even bring them back?” appeal of the writers using Stryfe and Apocalypse here (for me, anyway – your mileage may vary); however…

All of it is eventually smothered underneath the nonstop fighting that ensues for most of the storyline. Some of it is clever, but the majority is just of the “superheroes hitting each other” variety. While the art of Ariel Olivetti and Clayton Crain is generally all right to look at, Olivetti’s style isn’t really that good at conveying motion. Crain’s art, on the other hand, is frustrating because it shifts from appealing photorealism in one panel, to rushed splotchiness in the next (it’s also way too dark for its own good in most places). Mike Choi’s work in the opening chapter is easily the nicest to look at, and even if he wasn’t able to do the whole thing, I wish he’d at least been able to take over for Crain’s chapters (since they alternate as the regular artists on “X-Force”).

Things might’ve been salvaged if the story had done anything to advance the story started in “Messiah Complex,” but it doesn’t. We don’t learn anything new about Hope; such as, what her powers are, what did she do that killed a million humans in Bishop’s timeline, and whether or not she’s really Jean Grey reborn. Even more disappointing is that there’s no accord reached or final reckoning between Cable and X-Force. Traditionally this kind of story would’ve ended with the team realizing that Cable’s way was right and grudgingly giving him their approval. That doesn’t happen, and neither does the team make any attempt to take Cable and Hope back to the present day. I realize that I’m getting into spoiler territory here, but the end result is such a cop-out that there’s actually not much to spoil.

So while the main story is a swing-and-a-miss, what about the extra stuff that’s going to make up “Cable vol. 3?” To be fair, the two issues of the series that lead off the collection are probably the most satisfying thing about the book. This time, Cable and Hope’s time traveling has led them to a future that turns out to be a fairly desolate wasteland with little food or water to be had. It’s a fairly standard man (and his adopted daughter) vs. nature tale that’s enlivened by Swierczyinski showing us how Cable and Hope have really bonded to the point that they’re virtually “father and daughter,” and showing how Hope uses her wits to save Cable in the story’s second half. It also has some nice art from artist Jamie McKelvie who, despite being a jarring shift from regular artist Olivettie (whose art bookends the two issues), has a real skill with body language that sells a lot of the interaction between the two protagonists.

While this was nice, the other storyline that’s featured here, “The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop” is beyond redundant for anyone who is A) familiar with the character and B) has read “Messiah Complex.” (And really, if you haven’t read “Messiah Complex,” why would you have any interest in reading this book?) As I fall into both groups, I can say that while Swierczynski’s retelling is competent, it really has nothing else to offer the reader. Granted, there is a lot of detail in here that I wasn’t aware of, such as what Bishop’s family was like and his time as a thief, these details don’t enhance my appreciation of the character or his current story. Perhaps the best thing I can say about it is that while the story features art from Larry Stroman (last seen trying, and failing miserable to re-capture the magic of his and Peter David’s 90’s run on “X-Factor” in the current series), he’s on much better form here than he has been in the past though his style is still very much an acquired taste.

So while it wasn’t aggressively bad, “Messiah War” is a thoroughly disappointing entry in the X-Men’s ongoing story post-“Messiah Complex.” You might enjoy this more if you’re a hardcore fan of the characters or creators involved in the storyline, but if you’re buying this expecting answers or story progression you’re better off spending that money elsewhere. Preferably on what I’ll be talking about tomorrow: “Avengers/X-Men: Utopia,” a story that does offer up some surprising changes and resolutions, and a whole lot of filler.

…

Yeah. I’ve got nothing this week. For this space, anyway. On with the reviews!

The Goon vols. 8-9: Entitled “Those That is Damned” and “Calamity of Conscience,” respectively. These two volumes bring an end to the “Goon Year” of storytelling where writer/artist Eric Powell delivered twelve issues of the series on a monthly schedule. He’s still working on the series, but at a more “relaxed” pace right now. While they continue the decidedly more serious storytelling trend started in “A Place of Heartache and Grief,” there’s still plenty of Powell’s wacked-out humor to keep things from getting too melodramatic or sentimental. Is there a catch? While the story wraps up satisfyingly enough, I was expecting more closure than what I got. For a storyline that was set up to be the mother of all “Goon” stories, to have it come off like the first part of a planned trilogy felt somewhat unsatisfying. Still, it gives Powell room to try and top himself whenever he gets around to following this up.

Ghost Rider: “The Last Stand” and “Trials and Tribulations” – I’d been waiting for the next collections of writer Jason Aaron’s run on “Ghost Rider” for a while now, and while I wasn’t disappointed, they didn’t set my world (or even my skull) on fire. These two volumes continue Johnny Blaze’s struggle against the rogue angel Zadkiel who bound Blaze’s soul to the Spirit of Vengeance and turned him into the title character, and is now set on taking over Heaven. Tossed into the mix here is the revelation that there are many “Spirits of Vengeance” spread out over the world, bringing justice to their particular region, and Blaze’s brother Danny Ketch, who’s “extinguishing” the spirits on Zadkiel’s order. Despite its outlandish nature, the story is too predictable to be compelling in and of itself, but it’s the details that Aaron brings to his stories that make the books worth reading. From a warrior nun turned “Ghost Rider” wrangler, to a big-rig driver who sold his soul to the devil, an anime/manga inspired flesh-shaper, and the Punisher’s reaction to the fall of Heaven, there’s plenty of little things to hold your interest as the plot works towards its inevitable conclusion. Points off for the forgettable filler “annual” in “Trials and Tribulations,” though.

The Umbrella Academy vol. 2: Dallas – Writer/creator Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba’s follow-up to their ridiculously inventive first series is a worthy successor. No, it’s not as good as the first one, but that’s mainly due to pacing issues than the fact that the premise has worn out its welcome or that the creators have lost the thread. Anyway, “Dallas” picks up not too long after the events of the first series and finds the cast either succumbing to depression, enjoying their newfound fame, making the most of what was dealt to them, carrying on as usual, or in the case of Number Five, being hunted by an agency dedicated to resolving temporal anomalies — an agency he used to work for. Now they want him back to fulfill the job he wrecked for them: The assassination of JFK. It’s never less than entertaining to see what crazy ideas Way has come up with and how Ba has decided to render them, but the feeling that things are being padded out starts to set in once the cast makes the leap in time back to the 60’s. They could’ve shaved an entire issue off the six that are collected here and not lost anything essential to the plot, but everything on display here still has me looking forward to the next volume in the series.

Captain Britain and MI-13 vol. 3: Vampire State — If the idea of Count Dracula waging war on Britain from his secret base on the moon with his vampire army sounds appealing to you, then buy this volume now! It’s a credit to the skills of writer Paul Cornell that he takes a setup that sounds ridiculous even by the standards of the Marvel Universe and manages to not only wring out an effective superhero story from it, but one that can be taken seriously as well. Yes, there are funny bits sprinkled throughout the story (such as the rooting out of MI-13’s vampire infestation), but the overall story is so tightly plotted and well-thought-out that once Dracula begins his trans-lunar assault, you’ll feel that it’s a credible threat. While I wouldn’t quite recommend this to people who don’t read superhero comics, those who do (and especially those with a fondness for Marvel’s British characters, Captain Britain, Black Knight, Spitfire, Pete Wisdom, and Blade [yes, he’s British too]) will find a lot to like here, and it’s a shame we won’t be getting more of this anytime soon.

Battle Angel Alita: Last Order vol. 12 Angel Redux – Alita is back in action in this volume and she wastes no time in letting Aga Mbadi and Desty (Super)Nova know that they’ll be fighting on her terms from now on. While it’s great seeing Alita back in the real world after the events of vol. 10, the majority of this volume is given over to Toji and Zekka’s rebuilding of their “Space Karate” team for their fight against Alita’s “Space Angels.” While I would’ve liked to see more of Alita than that, it’s still a fairly satisfying chunk of action and character-building setup. However, the best moment in the volume comes in a quiet exchange between Mbadi and Nova, as the former agrees to give the latter one of his servants that Alita utterly defeated to remake for his own purposes. Now the last time Nova rebuilt one of Alita’s foes for his experiments, we wound up with “Tears of an Angel,” the best volume in the previous series. The potential here is exciting, and I’m REALLY looking forward to seeing where mangaka Yukito Kishiro goes with this.

Daredevil: Return of the King – Bringing an end to writer Ed Brubaker’s tenure with the character, a time that was mostly spent extricating the title character from the status quo that previous writer Brian Michael Bendis left him with. Granted, Brubaker’s run has been pretty entertaining, but he never really got the title out of the shadow of Bendis’ epic run. To be fair, this volume does pretty definitively extricate Matt Murdock from pretty much all of those loose ends by setting him up with a drastically new status quo… that will subsequently be explored by new writer Andy Diggle. While this means that Brubaker’s run will probably best be remembered as a “transitional” one, this volume at least sends him out on a high note by bringing The Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, back into Daredevil’s life. After having his attempt at a normal life ruined by Lady Bullseye, Fisk returns to New York and proposes an alliance with Daredevil in order to bring her down. While it should be obvious that there’s more to Fisk’s plan than this, the way things play out wind up giving Murdock a victory of sorts over the people who have sought to control his fate, even if it means placing himself in dire personal straits. Good stuff, but here’s hoping incoming writer Diggle doesn’t let his run wind up in the shadows of his predecessors.

Scalped vol. 5: High Lonesome – By all rights this series should be too depressing to read. The series’ ostensible hero, Dash Bad Horse, has let his life descend into a drug-fueled stupor and then lets himself get roped into a con man’s scheme to rob Chief Red Crow’s casino. However, the worse things get for the cast of this series the more entertaining it becomes. The other stories in this volume are similarly happy tales as they depict crucial and compelling backstory from the supporting cast. We get to see how wannabe Indian FBI agent (and current prison inmate) Diesel became the man he is today, what really went on when the two FBI agents were killed on the reservation back in Red Crow, Gina Bad Horse, and Catcher’s younger days, and most satisfyingly the personal history of Nitz, the FBI agent dedicated to bringing Red Crow down. Up until now Nitz has come off like your average evil white guy in a position of authority; but, with this story we finally get to understand what made him that way and why he’s so bent on getting revenge for his FBI friends that were killed. It doesn’t make him likeable by any means, but he’s a far more interesting character to read about now especially since his actions aren’t entirely unjustified. Another superb volume from writer Jason Aaron, and artist R.M. Guera (and co.), and I can’t wait to see how much worse things get for everyone in the next volume.

(Sorry about the delay.  My computer has been giving me crap all week and I’ve finally bludgeoned it to the point where it’ll go on the internet, but keeps throwing system errors at me.)

Anyway, that bit I wrote two weeks ago about Miracleman being Norman Osborne’s “secret muscle” – completely wrong. As it turns out, the “MM” that Rich Johnston was referring to was “Secret Wars” veteran “Molecule Man.” While I understand he has a place in the hearts of many fans of 80’s Marvel comics, he’s also gifted/burdened with a power that makes him almost impossible to write in a shared superhero universe. That power being the ability to rearrange molecules into any form he wants. It’ll be interesting to see how writer Brian Michael Bendis has wrangled this character and his powers into a believable plot element for the upcoming “Siege” event, but that’s why I like waiting for the trade – you get to hear how these things work out before putting your money down. That said, the fact that Osborne’s secret muscle isn’t Miracleman has diminished my interest in this storyline considerably. More shenanigans with Osborne and his “Dark Reigin” after the break.

New Avengers vol. 10: Power – I’m back on the wagon after taking two volumes off while the series filled in “Secret Invasion” backstory. As this volume is pretty much the starting point for the “Dark Reign” storyline, I was expecting to see more action than I did. While the opening chapter, “Secret Invasion: Dark Reign” has lots of engaging chatter and setup for future events courtesy of Bendis and artist Alex Maleev, the actual “New Avengers” issues are pretty “meh” in comparison. In the three issues collected, we see the team re-formed, Luke Cage get his daughter back, and the team throws down with The Hood’s gang of supervillains, but remarkably little is actually achieved. There are some good moments as the team gets formally introduced to the new Captain America, and reacts to Osborne’s “Dark Avengers” (while finding out that Wolverine has a son in the process), but remarkably little progress is made in telling any kind of story. Which is too bad because…

Invincible Iron Man vol. 2: World’s Most Wanted book 1 — …this is an excellent showcase for what mileage can be gotten out of the “Dark Reign” setup. With Stark Industries on the brink of collapse, and S.H.I.E.L.D. being re-formed as H.A.M.M.E.R. under Osborne’s watch, Tony Stark has reached his lowest point in a long while. Making matters worse, his plan to keep the Initiative database (which contains the identities of every costumed superhero in the U.S.) out of Osborne’s hands has made him… well, look at the title of this volume. While Tony’s plan to keep the database safe by storing it in his mind and slowly wiping it all away (with a subsequent loss of intellect) requires a certain suspension of disbelief to accept, the rest of the story is grade-A superhero action courtesy of writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The ensuing battle of wits between Osborne and Stark’s camps is truly entertaining to watch, and all the action sequences are never less than “thrilling.” Overall, this isn’t just something that I’d recommend to fans of the character or superhero comics – but if you liked last year’s movie and don’t read comics, then I’d recommend this to you too. Speaking of series that have hit their stride…

Claymore vol. 15: At this point, there’s very little chance that Norihiro Yagi’s saga of demonic creatures and the girls with big-ass swords that kill them will ever escape being “Berserk Lite” in my mind. However, it still works pretty well as violent fantasy manga “comfort food” and this volume was a particularly tasty meal. After swiftly resolving the cliffhanger from the last volume Claire and company (I’d give more names, but Yagi’s biggest weakness as an artist has been the way most of his characters tend to look alike) sit back and have the next phase of the plot explained to them. As expository speeches go, this one wasn’t bad, and while one of the revelations came as no surprise (the Organization really are the bad guys) the subsequent twist on that was actually quite ingenious (it turns out that the world of “Claymore” is much bigger than we’ve been led to believe). In addition to this, we finally get to find out what Raki has been up to since the “Battle of the North” and if he and Claire ever meet up again, his new travelling partner will make their reunion a violent one at the least. Toss in the surprise return of a long-forgotten character at the end, and you have a series that has me anticipating the release of the next volume… NEXT JUNE! Come on Viz! You haven’t caught up to the Japanese release yet, so there’s no reason for us to wait THAT long for the next volume. *takes deep breath* Well, at least we won’t have to wait too long for other series…

20^th Century Boys vol. 5: Of the two mangas by Naoki Urasawa being released by Viz, the other being his Astro Boy remake “Pluto,” this is easily the better of the two. The first half of this volume focuses on Kenji’s efforts to gather his friends together and plan to take down the mysterious “Friend,” and it’s well-done if a bit predictable (though seeing the modern-day versions of Yanbo and Mabo was quite a surprise). Things really get interesting when the series jumps ahead 15 years to 2014 to focus on Kenji’s niece Kanna, who has grown up to be the type of frighteningly competent heroine that Urasawa loves to write (see also: Nina in “Monster”). Seeing her stop a gunfight by dressing down the attackers’ poor tactics is great and there’s no easier way to win me over to a story than to show me a protagonist who has their act completely together. While I was less convinced about the leap forward in time as a storytelling device, the fact that I’m actively speculating about what happened to Kenji’s group in 1999 makes me think that it was a good choice in retrospect. And while I can’t wait to see more of Kanna in action in the next volume, other series aren’t as fortunate to have protagonists as capable as her…

Slam Dunk vol. 6: The match between Shohoku and Ryonan finally wraps up, and even though it’s not a televised game, the down-to-the wire action was still pretty exciting on the page. While Hanamichi is still too much of an idiot for my tastes, the fact that he’s improving as a player makes him a little more palatable. Mangaka Takehiko Inoue also makes things more interesting by introducing a new character that might be even more of a violent troublemaker than Hanamichi is. Not a great “Shonen Jump” title, but it’s getting better. Slowly. Still, when it comes to Takehiko Inoue and basketball, his other title is the one I’d recommend to anyone…

Real vol. 6: Ostensibly this is about wheelchair basketball, but it’s really about three teenagers with varying degrees of mental and physical handicaps. You’ve got Nomiya, who is so much of a hothead that he got kicked off of his school basketball team and subsequently quit school, Togawa, a rising star in the field of wheelchair basketball, and Takahashi, Nomiya’s former teammate who was recently paralyzed from the waist down in an accident. It’s Takahashi’s story that’s the most compelling of the three and the one that has (rightfully) been the focus of the last two volumes. While the easy way to handle his story would be to portray Takahashi as a determined hero with an indomitable spirit (right out of a “Shonen Jump” manga) who will regain the ability to walk through sheer will, Inoue takes a much trickier route with him. While he has shown some resilience in the face of his tragedy, the realization that his life will never be the same has pretty much crushed his spirit and caused him to give up on his rehabilitation. The return of his father, who ran out on him and his mother years ago, hasn’t helped as he’s now a beaten-down potter as opposed to the heroic businessman Takahshi remembers him as. Though Takahashi’s struggle has been fascinating to watch, the series was set up as a three-character drama, and while Nomiya gets one good scene in this volume, Togawa and the rest of the wheelchair basketball team’s story feels like it’s going nowhere fast. While it would be nice to see Nomiya and Togawa’s stories get the same treatment that Takashi’s gets, this series is still plenty engaging as it is.