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I’ve been a bit behind on my comics reading as I’ve been binge-reading the entire Synder/Capullo run of Batman. But, today I got back to the pile of comics that’s been building. This one is dedicated solely to catching up on all the Secret Wars books. I’ve been getting, which is about 90% of them. As always, you can check back with tag newcomics to see all of these recaps. And, no spoilers are discussed in these capsulized thoughts…
Secret Wars Journal #1 – The “Journal” books are a tradition for Marvel events. They used to revolve around Ben Urich viewing the events of a given event IIRC, but it seems like they’ve morphed into something more nebulous. To be honest, it’s hard to see much difference between this title and Battleworld, to be honest. It might have been less confusing to just have one or the other be bi-weekly. In any case, like Battleworld it presents a couple vignettes that take place in Battleworld. This time we visit King James’ England and Egyptia. I enjoyed both little tales a lot. The King James’ England section involved some Young Avengers taking on “Punisher Sheriff” (a bit of an odd nom de plume, I must say) in a Robin Hood-esque setting. I never tire of Kate Bishop, Wiccan and Hulkling. So it was fun to see them here. This story serves as a prequel, of sorts, to Kieron Gillen’s Siege. The next story is in a setting I’m not entirely familiar with. It’s X-men centric, with a team of X-men in Egyptia trying to free themselves from the goddess Konshu. If Konshu is around, you can be sure a certain hero is going to be involved, too. It’s a fun little story, remixing some concepts from around the Marvel Universe in a way that’s interesting so that even if you’re not familiar with it’s past history in the MU (assuming it HAD a past history… I’m not entirely sure all the Battleworld sections are based on previous stories yet) it still reads well.
M.O.D.O.K. Assassin #1 – This book looks like it could be a lot of fun. The idea of MODOK as an Assassin is fun. And the cover is energetic with playing cards, guns, booze and muscle cars suggesting a story very different from what we get. It’s not bad, but it’s pretty boring. The joke of MODOK’s speech is kind of fun at first but gets old very quickly. I have issue #2 already in my pull list for next month. We’ll see how it goes, but right now this feels like an easy drop.
Old Man Logan #1 – It’s basically Wolverine in a post-apocalyptic Western. I’ll admit, Bendis is pretty hot and cold as a writer, to me. Sometimes I like his stuff, sometimes it kind of annoys me. My biggest issue is I’ve read too many stories by him that have intriguing set-ups but that just sort of fizzle out and don’t really go anywhere. I really hope that’s not the case, here, because I enjoyed the first issue of this. It’s a classic Western set-up, and Logan is perfect in that sort of role. I will say the storytelling art-wise can be a bit muddy. I like the style pretty well, but there are times when making out what exactly we’re seeing can be a bit difficult.
Secret Wars 2099 #1 – I was really looking forward to this. I’m a fan of Peter David. I’m a fan of the 2099 universe in general. But, overall I found this book a disappointment. The story is okay. I will definitely give the next issue a go, and I hope to see it perk up some. But it felt a bit flat to me. The art seemed a little amateurish in places, and the character designs that looked pretty good on the cover are really kind of clunky and odd in the book itself.
Inhumans: Attilan Rising #1 – Now this is more like it! This is a really fun set-up involving a 1940s gangster Ghost Rider taking on some Hulk in Greenland before being interrupted by the Thor Corps. That’s just the start! The Inhumans, of course, are involved too. The art is really gorgeous here, and I was hooked by the story immediately.
Inferno #1 – In this book, Colossus leads a team of X-men into the Inferno-infested Manhattan where his sister Illyana, is trapped. People will recognize the riff on the old X-men storyline. It’s an interesting set-up, and it’s fun to see a more 80s-era X-team in action. Again, though, the art is a little weak. It’s natural, when you have this many books going out, that some of the art is going to be not quite as strong as others. I’d say this is about mid-level. The storytelling is pretty strong, it’s just the anatomy that can get a little weird and the cartoonishness of some of the art plays awkwardly with the demonic setting. This might be another possible book to add to the drop list.
That’s all for now! There’s still some more Secret Wars issues to cover, but those will wait until next time.
