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.

I read an interesting bit of comics rumermongering earlier this week. While it has been shown that Norman Osborne has some superpowered character at his beck and call to keep the members of his Cabal (Namor, Emma Frost, Dr. Doom, Loki and The Hood) in line, this person’s identity has been one of the best-kept secrets in comics at the moment. (Which is probably because people at Marvel haven’t figured it out yet. But I digress…) Rich Johnston over at Bleeding Cool thinks has some inside info on the character’s identity, as he reported that at the Big Apple Comic-Con last weekend that the character’s name involves the letters “MM.” This leads Johnston to believe that it’s Miracleman (or Marvelman if you live in England). To be honest, even I’m having a hard time believing this as I type it. The Moore/Gaiman series of comics featuring the character has been the center of a decades-long legal battle that few thought would ever see resolution. Marvel has apparently made some headway with that as they announced at Comic-Con last year that they now have the rights to creator Mick Anglo’s original “Marvelman” comics, and most are believing that resolving the rights to the contested comics will be a matter of “when” not “if” anymore. As far as Miracleman being Osborne’s strongman? That seems to be so obviously BS that Johnston should’ve recognized it, but he seems to believe it for now. All I can say is that if this is the case, then it would be one of the rare, RARE times when one of their “big reveals” actually feels satisfying. The actual truth of the matter will probably bear out sometime in 2010 – and now, reviews!

Berserk vol. 31: Lots of dramatic fighting between Guts’ crew and the demonic Kushan hordes. Their leader even puts in an electrifying (literally, cue rimshot) appearance as he poses a no-brainer question to Guts: “Join me to fight against Griffith.” The action is entertaining as always, but now that we’ve moved into the “fighting” part of this arc, it’s threatening to overwhelm the storytelling. Of course, with Zodd showing up at the end of the volume (and getting his ass handed to him), there’s potential for some interesting parley between Guts and one of his nemesis’ subordinates. I’m looking forward to seeing how, or if that plays out in the next volume.

Captain America — The Man With No Face: Or, volume nine in Ed Brubaker’s run for those of you keeping track at home. Now that Bucky has saved America from the Red Skull’s plan and started to settle into the role of being the new Captain America it’s time to start throwing some old and new threats at him. The old comes in the form of Batroc the Leaper, who despite his goofy appearance Brubaker makes into a credible threat, and the new comes in the form of the title character, a legendary spy who can travel through shadows. Overall, it’s another solid arc in the writer’s run, though I hope that he doesn’t keep playing the “an old threat from Bucky’s past comes back to haunt him” card for the character’s future adventures. It’s more interesting to see him adapt to his place in the current Marvel Universe than in its past.

Fables vol. 12 – The Dark Ages: With Gepetto deposed from his position as the Adversary, everything should be rainbows and sunshine for the cast of this book, right? Of course not, as one of the evil powers, known only as Mr. Dark, sealed away by Gepetto during his reign is turned loose and singlehandedly levels Fabletown. With everyone retreating to the Farm in the wake of Mr. Dark’s attack, there’s a feeling that things are returning to the series’ original status quo, but so many factors have changed since then that it winds up feeling fresh nonetheless. Though regular artist Mark Buckingham handles things with his usual style and competency, the real artistic highlight of this volume is Mike Allred’s return as guest artist for the opening issue. You wouldn’t think that his off-kilter style would work in a book that showcases the virtues of traditional storytelling, but it does. Beautifully. Those of you worried that the series had nowhere to go after the end of the last volume will find their fears happily allayed here.

Neon Genesis Evangelion – The Shinji Ikari Raising Project vol. 2: Yup, still mortgaging my self-respect. That said, I’m starting to see what editor/English adapter Carl Horn said about the appeal of seeing these characters in a traditional high-school setting. While tropes such as mistaken sexual orientation, class trips, waking in on girls in their underwear are out in full-force here, there’s something engaging about seeing the established Evangelion cast perpetrate them as opposed to characters I know nothing about. Then again, I’m also certain that the witty self-aware nature of Horn’s adaptation also contributes greatly to my enjoyment. Anyway, the highlights of this volume include Kaworu’s introduction to the cast, and Gendo’s revelation that NERV’s emergency generators are powered by exercise bikes. Not recommended to the casual manga reader, but if you like Evangelion you might find this unexpectedly enjoyable.

The Walking Dead vol. 10 – Here We Remain: The most enjoyable thing about this volume isn’t something that happens directly on the page, but in seeing how writer Robert Kirkman subverts the standard zombie/horror movie conventions. From the unexpected direction of the relationship between Rick and Abraham (who appears to be your standard angry military man), to the amount of deaths in the main cast, and how he sets up a nice moment between two characters that makes you go “Oh, she’s going to die,” and then doesn’t kill her off – this the work of a man who really knows what he’s doing. Yes, some of the traps he sets up are bound to go off eventually, but it’s clear that he realizes the virtue of letting the reader have time to calm down and forget about them before setting them off. Though Kirkman has said that the cast will eventually reach a real pocket of civilization, even the promise of a respite still sounds fraught with disturbing storytelling potential after reading this volume.

Slam Dunk vol. 5: All through this volume I couldn’t stop thinking about what an idiot the main character, hoodlum turned basketball player Sakuragi Hanamichi, was. I’d find him completely unlikeable if he didn’t actually demonstrate the capacity to learn from his mistakes over the course of this volume. Then there’s the “Shonen Jump” style pacing, which means that the game started in the last volume still hasn’t finished by the end of this one and most of the plot points and beats are inherently predictable because that’s how they play out in stories like this. I was so busy bitching about what annoyed me in my head while reading this, that before I knew it the story was over and I wanted to know what was going to happen next. It’s a credit to mangaka Takehikio Inoue’s skill as a storyteller that I’m still interested in this series despite its many flaws, but it has yet to become the great series that everyone I know says it is.

Secret Six – Unhinged: I’d heard nothing but good things about this series from writer Gail Simone and artist Nicola Scott, so picking up this volume was a no-brainer. After reading it, I’m not as enthusiastic about it as everyone else, but this villain-focused series does have its charms. The Six, made up of Catman, Deadshot, Scandal Savage, Ragdoll, and Bane (and yes, I realize that’s only five villains, but the sixth one joins halfway through) are given a job by a mystery client to break an ex-superhero/ex-FBI agent out of prison and get her to give up the card she stole from a legendarily fearsome and evil crime boss known only as Junior. Junior also wants it back too, and he puts out a bounty on the heads of the members of the Secret Six. Simone is a very witty writer and its clear she’s having a lot of fun writing characters whose moral compasses usually point south, and that fun is infectious for the most part. The problem is that while she creates a very clever McGuffin, the action overwhelms the story by the end and we’re left wondering “What was the point of all this?” Simone also sets herself up for failure with Junior, who is said to be a crime boss so fearsome that he gives the freaks in Gotham nightmares, but comes off as a B (or even C) list Batman villain. When Deadshot has a chance to do him in and is warned off by another character that Junior would kill them all, it’s not believable at all. Still, with the introductory arc over, and the series sales’ at a relatively consistent level, I’m hoping that we get a second arc that’s a bit more low-key and does more interesting things with its impressive cast.

No burning comics news to report today. I did record new podcasts this weekend, so you can look forward to hearing my next crossovercast with the “No Podcast For Old Men” crew next week on a subject near and dear to all of our hearts – “Star Wars.” Two weeks from then I’m going to make good on a promise from an earlier column with my thoughts on the late Drew Hayes’ “Poison Elves.” After that? Well, thanks to RightStuf.com’s Viz sale, I finally picked up the rest of Naoki Urasawa’s “Monster” (after reading it years ago in scanlated form). So a podcast on that and “20^th Century Boys” might be in the offing. Though what I’d really like to do is get the “NPFOM” crew to read “Pluto” since the result of trying to write a sci-fi manga with hard sci-fi elements, but no actual hard science would make for interesting discussion. Anyways, on with the reviews:

DMZ vol. 6: War Powers: Easily one of the strongest volumes in writer Brian Wood and (primary) artist Riccardo Burchielli’s series. Back in the city after a vacation following Parco Delgado’s election as the governor of the DMZ, reporter Matty Roth finds himself in the thick of things again. In order to make good on all of his promises, Parco needs money and Matty’s Triad buddy Wilson is supposedly sitting on a store of gold left unsiezed since the start of the war. While following up on that is one thing, Matty’s even less sure about the man he helped bring to power after he winds up being the delivery boy for Parco’s “insurance policy.” Fascinating in the way it shows Parco’s political maneuvering and strategizing, this volume also sets the stage for what is most likely going to be Matty’s downfall. I think it’ll be very entertaining to watch this man, who didn’t realize until it was too late that he was being played, try to become a player himself.

Gunsmith Cats: Burst vol. 4: It’s hard for any series to keep its momentum going after more than a year between volumes, especially if they didn’t have much to begin with. While the gunfights and gun otaku trappings that have been this series stock-in-trade for the longest time remain compelling, little else does in this volume. After I read the first volume, I wondered why mangaka Kenichi Sonoda decided to revive his signature series since it didn’t seem like he had anything new to say about the characters or stories to tell. The two volumes that followed were more entertaining, but that “lack of ideas” issue rears its head again with this volume as Sonoda brings back Goldie. She was the “big bad” of the first series and her story was pretty much done. Now she’s back, and I might’ve been more amenable to her return if Sonoda didn’t restore her to status quo through an illogical contrivance that makes heroine Rally Vincent look like an idiot. This volume isn’t enough to make me stop reading the series entirely, but I won’t be chomping at the bit for the next volume.

Eden: It’s an Endless World vol. 12: This, on the other hand, I wish Dark Horse would publish more regularly. A fantastic sci-fi action series with ideas as impressive as its gunfights, it’s a series that has me eagerly anticipating the release of each new volume. The action showpiece here is Elijah and Alethia’s showdown with one of Propater’s android assassins, the meat of this volume comes from the bonding between Maya and Hanna. While Hanna is still bristling at being a forced guest at one of Propater’s safehouses, Maya takes the time to teach her about the ways of the world by delving into the memory of the colloid virus (still engulfing people around the world) and showing her the truth being her sister Gina’s ill-fated love affair and drug addiction. I realize that my summation of the events of this volume probably makes things more confusing, and that just means that it’s not a good jumping on point. If you haven’t read it, start from the beginning – you’ll be glad you did.

Dan Dare Omibus: Collecting the miniseries originally published by the now defunct Virgin Comics. That said, let me say now that it was worth collecting, if only for the fact that it’s one of the RARE instances where you’ll see writer Garth Ennis actually show respect to an iconic comic character (to the Brits, anyway). The story is fairly standard issue: An old threat is coming from beyond the solar system and it’s carrying a black hole along with it. Retired for many years, legendary war hero and pilot Dan Dare is called back into action to save us all. Except that not all is what it seems and Dare’s return may just turn out to be his last hurrah. Ennis writes in his introduction about the appeal of Dare’s idealism, and he pulls off the difficult task of making it a quality to be proud of instead of descending into sentimental claptrap. He’s also helped immensely by the art of Gary Erskine, who makes the retro-sci-fi look of the comic seem believable and appealing.

Cable vol. 2: Waiting for the End of the World: In which Scott Summers broods about letting the title character go at the end of “Messiah Complex,” Bishop unsuccessfully tracks him through time, and then he takes a few years off to raise Hope before having to pick up his guns to defend her and their settlement from humanoid cockroaches. If you’re like me, then the main reason you’re reading this is because it’s directly following up on one of the key threads from the “X-men’s” last, excellent, crossover. It’s not bad, but as with a lot of “X-Men” comics these days, it probably won’t have much appeal to people who aren’t well versed in its continuity or have an interest in where the franchise is going. Still, writer Duane Swierczyinski has a good handle on the characters, and it’s a rare writer that can make Cyclops’ brooding actually seem interesting.

Frankenstein’s Womb: Warren Ellis has now done three “graphic novellas” for Avatar, and this is easily the least of them. His first one, “Crecy,” was an excellent history lesson about a battle that helped shape modern warfare, and his second, “Aetheric Mechanics,” was a fun riff on Sherlock Holmes that also had the funniest use of profanity I’ve seen in an Ellis book. (And if you’re familiar with his penchant for profanity, you’ll know that’s saying something.) This… has Frankenstein’s Monster nattering on about the future to Mary Shelley in a castle before she writes her signature work. Less a story than Ellis banging on about an idea he had for 48 pages, it has some nice art by Marek Oleksicki but not much else.

In case you were wondering, I recorded this before I went out and saw the movie last weekend.  Had I seen the movie before recording this, I would’ve recommended that those of you who were planning on seeing the movie to just take the money you would’ve spent on the ticket and put it towards buying the graphic novel that inspired it instead.  It’s not that the movie is awful, but it demonstrated a clear lack of faith in the source material as it replaced the majority of the graphic novel’s plot with something of the screenwriters’ own devising.  So if the idea of “The Surrogates:  As done by the people who brought you ‘Terminator 3′” sounds like a can’t miss idea for you, then run — don’t walk — to see this.  Otherwise, go read the graphic novel and follow it up with a good Bruce Willis sci-fi movie (”13 Monkeys”) instead.