Review- CLOAK AND DAGGER: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

CLOAK AND DAGGER: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT (Marvel, 2012; Hardcover)

Collects Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #64, 69, 70, 81, 82, 94-96, Marvel Team-Up Annual #6, and Marvel Fanfare #19 (cover dates March, 1982- March, 1985)

Writers: Bill Mantlo, Al Milgrom (#94-96)

Artists: Pencilers- Ed Hannigan, Al Milgrom, Ron Frenz, Tony Salmons, Rick Leonardi, and Kerry Gammill

Inkers- Jim Mooney, Al Milgrom, Kevin Dzuban, Terry Austin, Tony Salmons, and George Freeman

Progress and diversity are two things on the tips of the tongues of comic fans everywhere these days. Judging by the hype in the comic press, this is something new and now. Sorry kids, but writers like Bill Mantlo and others were blazing the trail decades earlier. Unlike nowadays, there were no plugs from CNN or USA Today whenever something new or daring was attempted...something like, say, an interracial superhero couple. Bold ideas were presented to the story more organically and thus enjoyed greater acceptance than many of the so-called progressive or diverse ideas forced down the throats of comic fans today.

Cloak and Dagger were teenage runaways who were kidnapped and experimented on with synthetic drugs by the mob, who were trying to make new addictive drugs. Due to some anomaly in their body chemistry they were the only ones to survive...and somehow get super powers in the process. They take up a crusade against drug dealers everywhere. This was all very 1980s, Nancy Reagan “Just say no” for the comic book set.

Spider-Man is in every issue except for one, so this is kind of like a Spider-Man hardcover as well. Dagger's light steals Silvermane's life in #70, a plotline revisited and resolved in issues 94-96. Those three issues are all special to me, as I bought #94-96 off of the stands and read them countless times during the summer of 1984. The Punisher losing his sh*t in issues 81 and 82 is highly enjoyable as well. 

This is as close to Cloak And Dagger Masterworks as we will ever get. Combine this with the other Premiere Classic hardcover which collects their original mini-series and you have their early run collected. It would be nice to see these two make the silver screen if only to get more 1980s material collected.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.25 out of 5.

The OCD zone- The late, lamented Marvel Premiere Classic line was a sort of junior Masterworks line, where material was presented in a high quality format but at a much lower MSRP than the Marvel Masterworks. The line reached well over 100 volumes but petered out because Marvel flooded the market with them.

Linework and Color restoration: The linework is tight and clean. Not Masterworks level but I am fine with it. The coloring is pretty faithful to the original issues.

Paper stock: Thick coated stock with a slight sheen.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, lays mostly flat.

Hardback cover notes: The dustjacket has that stupid dull matte finish which scuffs if you breathe on it hard enough. The images have spot varnish and the lettering has a foil stamp. These comments apply to the bookstore market design only. The Direct Market variant dustjacket is different. The cover of the hardback has that grainy faux leather casewrap with white die stamping.

Review- THE THING: LIBERTY LEGION

THE THING: LIBERTY LEGION (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Invaders Nos. 5, 6 Marvel Premiere Nos. 29, 30, Fantastic Four Annual No. 11, Marvel Two-In-One Annual No. 1, and Marvel Two-In-One No. 20 (cover dates March- October, 1976)

Writer: Roy Thomas

Artists: Pencilers- John Buscema, Don Heck, Sal Buscema, Frank Robbins, Rich Buckler, and Dick Ayers; Inkers- Vince Colletta, Sam Grainger, Jim Mooney, George Roussos, and John Tartaglione

The year was 1976, and America's Bicentennial was all the rage. While I was a mere 3 years old at the time, the reverberations of this celebration were felt for years, with all of the leftover Spirit of '76 flags, welcome doormats, coffee mugs, and other paraphernalia. With the apparent success of The Invaders, Roy Thomas was all set to push his Golden Age fetish with yet another team of superheroes set during the 1940s, this batch from the Timely Comics era of Marvel.

Using a somewhat ingenious scenario to unite these seven misfits, Roy Thomas brought in characters which the average comic fan of the day would have no idea who they were. The only reason that I knew who any of them were is because I own all of the Golden Age Marvel Masterworks, and even those don't contain all of the stories referred to here. The Red Skull manages to hypnotize The Invaders (Captain America, The Human Torch, The Sub-Mariner, and the Torch's kid sidekick, Toro) except for Bucky Barnes. Barnes then does a ham-fisted invasion of a radio station to call other heroes for help. Scenarios like this are corny and overwritten, but Thomas does them to move things along while demonstrating the heroes' powers with their misunderstanding fights/ hey, let's team up outcomes. Answering Bucky's call are the Whizzer, Jack Frost, the Blue Diamond, Red Raven, Miss America, The Patriot, and The Thin Man. They are dubbed the Liberty Legion and of course free The Invaders.

Comic fans, myself included, bemoan the crossover. Such blatant cash grabs...such gimmicky marketing...if only comics could go back to the good ol' days! You mean like the good ol's days of early 1976, when rascally Roy Thomas made you buy Invaders #5, Marvel Premiere #29, Invaders #6, and then Marvel Premiere #30 in order to get the complete story? Or howsabout how, in an apparent act of desperation to get his beloved Golden Age heroes into their very own ongoing series, they became the focal point of a crossover which began in Fantastic Four Annual #11, continued in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1, and finally ended in Marvel Two-In-One #20. Yes, Marvel has been suckering us all into buying comics that we didn't really want to buy for longer than any of us want to admit.

Occasionally clunky dialogue and some overwriting aside, these are all fun reads. The artwork is solid. Just look at that list of artists above, it's a veritable who's who of Bronze Age journeymen. In the second crossover (or “arc” as the kids call them) the Liberty Legion take a backseat to The Thing and the rest of the Fantastic Four. Indeed, the team are not the main focus for the majority of the book. Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 features a young Johnny Romita in the New York of 1942, one of a billion Roy Thomas winks and nods (or “Easter eggs” as the hipsters say) peppered throughout these comic books. Roy Thomas was one of the original generation of comic book fans who came to write comics. His reverence for the medium is apparent. What many folks thought of as disposable entertainment Thomas saw as an important artform.

Praise be to Marvel for releasing such a left field, odd duck collection. No one would have ever asked them to make it, but I was only too happy to buy it. I am not sure what that says about me, but I am certain that someday the pharmaceutical industry will make a pill to cure me of it. Until then, MAKE MINE MARVEL!*

*Sentiment does not apply to most modern Marvel Comics.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- The late, lamented Marvel Premiere Classic Hardcovers were a sort of junior Masterworks line. While they weren't quite the “Blu-Ray” version of these issues like you would see in a Marvel Masterwork, they are still excellent.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Give Me Liberty- Or Give Me Legion text pages by Roy Thomas from Marvel Premiere #29 and 30 (2 pages).

Linework and Color restoration rating: 3 out of 5. This rating is based on an average. Some of these issues are a muddy, pixelated mess (Invaders #6) while others are perfectly fine, serviceable restorations (Marvel Two-In-One #20). The original color palette is maintained for the most part with only a minor deviation here or there.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Sweet smelling toxic ink Chinese made virgin Amazon rainforest tree-sourced coated stock paper with a slight sheen.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Smyth sewn binding, 6 stitches per signature. The book lays 90-95% flat. The book block doesn't have much room to flex to lay perfectly because the squared casing.

Buy THE THING: LIBERTY LEGION HC at InStockTrades!

Review- AVENGERS VOL. 4: INFINITY

AVENGERS VOL. 4: INFINITY (Marvel, 2014; Hardcover)

Collects Avengers Nos. 18-23 (cover dates October, 2013- January, 2014)

Writer: Jonathan Hickman

Artists: Leinil Francis Yu with Gerrt Alanguilan

Colorists: Sunny Gho, David Curiel, and Paul Mounts

This book as whole seem like a sparse scattershot of scenes and less like a run of 6 issues of a comic book title. This is due to the fact that these are tie-ins with the Infinity crossover, which I am not buying in hardcover due to the crappy paper and Jonathan Hickman's insane insistence on putting the covers in the back of the book while interrupting the story with those stupid white pages with a phrase on them. You are not Stanley Kubrick or Steve Jobs, and your use of whites to change scenes is not effective, it is annoying. 

Only Jonathan Hickman thinks that this...

Worse still, all of those stupid wasted pages (and yes, they are a waste) result in the variant covers being shrunk down four to a page. What is this, 2005? Who thinks that shrinking incredible artwork by John Cassaday down to thumbnail size adds more value to a book? Jonathan Hickman apparently does, as this is all done at his insistence. ...but he's a graphic designer, the apologetic fanboys chime in. Yeah, and I am a consumer of collected editions, buying more per year than I care to admit, and I call shenanigans. I will think twice...nay, thrice, before purchasing anything by Hickman ever again. Boring writing and annoying layouts are a tough sell when there are so many other better comic books out there competing for my collected editions dollar.

...is better than this. What a waste.

Leinil Francis Yu is a fan favorite, and I am not sure why. While he is decent on a technical level, his artwork is static. Everyone looks like a statue, even in action scenes. I prefer comic book artists whose work has energy, whose artwork “moves” even though it is an image on a page. In short, his art left me cold.

Maybe I am old. Maybe “the kids” really like this sort of stuff and I am out of step and out of touch. Or maybe I have just read too many truly great Avengers comics written by Roger Stern, Steve Engelhart, Roy Thomas, and Kurt Busiek to accept any substitutes. Maybe Marvel NOW really makes me wish for Marvel THEN, or maybe I just don't like being suckered with endless crossovers.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- There was a time when editorial mandated that caption boxes and word balloons were placed in a way that they wouldn't get sucked into the gutter in the inevitable collected edition. Apparently this edict has since passed, since there are a lot of words curving toward the gutter in this book.

I really like the spine redesign on all of these Marvel NOW! collected editions. While I am mostly immune to the spine and trade dress fetishes that many of my collected edition brethren have I can appreciate a well done spine design.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: #18, 20, 22, 23 Avengers 50^th Anniversary variants by Daniel Acuna and all four John Cassady and Laura Martin #19 50^th anniversary. All shrunk down four per page across two pages.

#19 Avengers 50^th Anniversary variant wraparound cover by John Cassady and Laura Martin, #21 Lego sketch variant by Leonel Castellani and #21 Lego variant by Leonel Castellani. All shrunk down on one page...but at least you get the brilliant “graphic designer” Hickman's faux Kubrick/Apple white pages throughout the book instead of a full size cover gallery in the back of the book. Count the pages, they would have fit if that assclown Hickman didn't insist on those wasted pages.

Paper rating: 4 out of 5. The glossy coated stock paper is a fair weight and is of the non-shriveled variety.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Perfect bound/ glued binding. It lays pretty flat in one hand since it is a thin book.

Hardback cover coating rating: 4.5 out of 5. The cover has the image printed directly on it, no dustjacket required. The coating has a somewhat odd feeling to it, but the dull matte finish is scuff resistant with reasonable handling.

Buy AVENGERS VOL. 4: INFINITY HC at InStockTrades!

Review- MARVEL MASTERWORKS: IRON FIST VOL. 1

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: IRON FIST VOL. 1 (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Marvel Premiere Nos. 15-25 and Iron Fist Nos. 1, 2 (cover dates May, 1974- December, 1975)

Writers: Roy Thomas, Doug Moench, Tony Isabella, Chris Claremont, and Len Wein

Artists: Pencilers- Gil Kane, Larry Hama, Arvell Jones, John Byrne, and Pat Broderick; Inkers- Dick Giordano, Dan Green, Vince Colletta, Bob McLeod, and others

I had no knowledge of, or interest in, Iron Fist growing up. None. I bought the old Marvel Visionaries: Gil Kane trade paperback, and it reprinted Marvel Premiere #15, Iron Fist's first appearance. I was so blown away by the quality of that story that I hunted down Essential Iron Fist Vol. 1 and was even more blown away. So much so that I was primed and ready for a full color collection. Years later, this book was released. Even more years later, I rotated this through my backlog and read it. I think that it takes mystical K'Un-Lun less time to appear again than it did for all of this to occur.

Marvel Premiere was one of Marvel's “tryout” books. Lots of new 1970s concepts were tried out in these rather than being launched with an endless stream of new #1s and cancelled and relaunched titles. Iron Fist enjoyed a long run in Marvel Premiere, lasting eleven issues before being spun off in his own magazine. The launch of his solo series came smack dab in the middle of an ongoing storyline. In this book it reads just fine. I can see where folks who bought it off of the spinner racks would be confused, though. Wait, isn't this the first issue? 

Like many Bronze Age titles, this series was handed off like a baton to a number of comic book journeymen. To the writers' credit, things never became disjointed and continuity was maintained throughout. No egotistical crybabies trying to undo what another writer had just done, trying to put their “stamp” on it, just moving the story forward from one issue to the next. If one didn't read the credits, one wouldn't notice a huge difference in the writing until Chris Claremont came aboard. His distinct voice was already fully formed, even in his salad days. Thomas, Claremont, Isabella, Moench...these guys were all students of the artform, growing up with it and have a genuine love for it.

The artwork is a mixed bag. Gil Kane starts things off strong. Kane is a master, one of the best artists of his day. The only reason that modern fans are unaware of him is that he jumped around too much and didn't have a defining “run” on any title. Larry Hama did a few issues after Kane's one and only issue. Yes, that would be the same Larry Hama who helped Hasbro co-create the G.I. Joe characters of the '80s and wrote all but 6 of the 155 issues of the original title. He started out as an artist but made his mark as a writer. Arvell Jones and Pat Broderick are those artists who did solid work but whom nobody calls a favorite. If you flip through your collection of '70s and '80s comics you likely own many issues that they drew.

I enjoyed seeing Iron Fist fight Batroc the Leaper. I am always a sucker for the shared universe aspect, where one hero's villains wind up in another one's title and they fight. Most of the better villains and battles occur in the next volume in this series. There is tons of high octane, bone crushing martial arts action here, though. Iron Fist is very much a product of it's time but holds up extremely well some 40 years later.

Chris Claremont takes the reins with Marvel Premiere #23, where he introduces a villain named Warhawk. Warhawk was some kind of shell-shocked Viet Nam veteran who saw the world as a war that was still continuing, much like the Punisher. While the Punisher was more of a zeitgeist antihero, Warhawk was a villain plain and simple, shooting at civilians and whatnot. 

John Byrne's first published Marvel work.

John Byrne comes aboard with issue 25. This marks the dawn of the collaboration between Claremont and Byrne which would be continued in Marvel Team-Up and reach artistic heights in Uncanny X-Men just two years later. This is like John Lennon meeting Paul McCartney, and the two began writing songs together. This is also when the series kicks into high gear. Claremont and Byrne never met a subplot they didn't like, and they would throw interludes in while putting seemingly endless new developments into motion. Things always got tidied up. It was a blast reading this stuff for the first time, and was equally thrilling on the re-read. While this book is great, the issues collected in volume 2 are even better.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- Marvel Masterworks are my poison of choice. While the line has certainly had some missteps and mistakes over the years, it has been pretty much perfect since 2007-2008. When it comes to earlier printings I would advise folks to avoid them for the most part and buy the softcovers. They often boast superior restoration to the existing hardcovers and use the same upgrades found in the Omnibus hardcovers. For Masterworks of this book's vintage, rest assured that this is the definitive Blu-Ray edition of your favorites.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Introduction By Roy Thomas (2 pages).

Creator Biographies by John Rhett Thomas (4 pages).

Linework and Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Think of the post-2007 Masterworks as definitive Blu-Ray editions.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Thick coated semi-glossy stock which smells nice.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Rounded book casing and smyth sewn binding (six stitches per signature) allow this book to lay completely flat as Godzilla intended.

Buy MARVEL MASTERWORKS: IRON FIST VOL. 1 HC at InStockTrades!

Review- CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 2: CASTAWAY IN DIMENSION Z BOOK 2

CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 2: CASTAWAY IN DIMENSION Z BOOK 2 (Marvel, 2013; Hardcover)

Collects Captain America Nos. 6-10 (cover dates June- October, 2013)

Writer: Rick Remender

Artists: Penciler- John Romita, Jr.; Inkers- Tom Palmer, Klaus Janson, and Scott Hanna

Colorists: Dean White with Rachelle Rosenberg (#10)

Rick Remender has penned a really dark Cap saga over the course of ten issues. Things are downright morose at times, and it is a tough pill for me to swallow. Real life is hard enough, and this winter is as dark and gloomy as all get out. I realize that none of that is Remender's fault, but weather does affect moods. The first half of this opus showed so much promise but the second half came up short at the end.

We have what may be Arnim Zola's masterstroke against Captain America, and are left with a question at then end. Was Dimension Z real? It sure seems that way, but did all of those events, a decade plus, really occur to Cap or were they memory implants from Zola? I like to think all of this happened, but can we be certain? Time will tell.

You can't go wrong with the artwork when you have a heavyweight like John Romita, Jr. along with accomplices Tom Palmer, Klaus Janson, and Scott Hanna. Couple that with colorist Dean White and you have some real eye candy. Modern day colorists add depth and shade to the mix and almost act as an additional inker sometimes. Modern colorists have a million choices as well as other tools at their disposal and blow my mind.

I think that it is safe to say that Marvel has entered a period of post-decompression with their comic books. Double page spreads and splash pages are used sparingly rather than as a general rule to pad out the page count. There are more caption boxes and word balloons and, therefore, more story per issue then there were just a few years ago. I felt like these issues had something to really sink your teeth into. This was a refreshing change of pace from the faux Frank Miller style of dialogue and caption free comics that have been regurgitated ad nauseum over the past decade. This is a change for the better.

So while this book was slightly disappointing it was still entertaining. I'm not writing off Remender's run yet and neither should you. It takes more than one “off” day for me to write off a title. I'll wait and see what he has up his sleeve next before making any final decisions.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.75 out of 5.

The OCD zone- The free digital copy code is no longer on a stiff piece of cardboard glued into the book block. It is now behind a sticker which must be peeled off. While still annoying because it “ruins” the book, it is far less annoying than the card.

I really like the spine redesign on all of these Marvel NOW! collected editions. I am not one of the spine fetishists of the world but some designs look better than others.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: #6 Many Armors Of Iron Man variant by Pasqual Ferry.

#8 Wolverine Through The Ages variant by Alex Maleev

Script for #10 (18 pages).

Paper rating: 4.25 out of 5. The glossy coated stock paper is a fair weight.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Perfect bound/ glued binding. It lays pretty flat in one hand since it is a thin book.

Hardback cover coating rating: 4.5 out of 5. The cover has the image printed directly on it, no dustjacket required. The coating is a somewhat odd feeling dull matte finish and is scuff resistant with reasonable handling.

Buy CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 2: CASTAWAY IN DIMENSION Z BOOK 2 HC at InStockTrades!

Review- AVENGERS VOL. 3: PRELUDE TO INFINITY

AVENGERS VOL. 3: PRELUDE TO INFINITY (Marvel, 2013; Hardcover)

Collects Avengers Nos. 12-17 (cover dates July- October, 2013)

Writers: Jonathan Hickman and Nick Spencer

Artists: #12, 13- Mike Deodato; #14-17- Stefano Caselli with Marco Rudy and Marco Checchetto (#17)

Colorists: Frank Martin with Edgar Delgado (#15)

Jonathan Hickman has ramped up the cosmic angle this time out, with Captain Universe and these new New Universe versions of Starbrand and Nightmask looking like they are going to be center stage soon enough. I am not crazy about bringing the New Universe into the main Marvel Universe. The only good thing that could come out of this is maybe Warren Ellis could finish newuniversal or we could get follow up volumes to Star Brand, D.P.7, and Psi-Force Classic lines of trade paperback. Better still, a big fat Nightmask Ultimate Collection trade!

The Savage Land Children have caught the attention of the High Evolutionary. The Children are growing at an incredible rate, and will likely be incredibly powerful once they reach adulthood. I'll take a wait and see approach before I decide if I like the concept or not. So far, so good.

I was just about to criticize Hickman and Spencer's characterization of Spider-Man until I realized that this was the so-called Superior Spider-Man. For those not up to date, that means that while Peter Parker's body is still Spider-Man, it is Doctor Octopus' mind that is in control while sharing his brain...and for some reason he has decided to be a hero. No, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, either. No, I don't see how this concept got green lit. And no, it doesn't mention anything about this anywhere in the book, which is a massive failure in terms of being new reader friendly. I know, I'm a naive, nostalgic romantic, but I'd like to think that there are kids picking this stuff up for the first time, becoming lifelong readers so that these characters can live on in print. In reality, 40 year olds like myself are sadly becoming the median age reader, which should scare the crap out of anyone who makes a living in this industry. 

So Iron Man can now just beam his mind into empty suits of armor from across the galaxy? I have a pretty healthy suspension of disbelief, and can buy into the fact that Tony Stark is a technological genius, but this just screams cop out to me. Howsabout just not having Iron Man appear in every single title? Nah.

Wolverine is a member of this team of Avengers as well? Can he beam his mind into a cloned body or something? Because he is in so many titles and on so many teams that I cannot buy it. Marvel used to have continuity that was as tight as a drum, with everything having a logical rhyme and reason. You could connect the dots from one story to the next. Nowadays it's like origami connect the dots. I can't make heads nor tails of any of this anymore, and worse still, I'm caring less and less.

Another groan inducing moment is the induction of the villains in the first arc of this series, Ex Nihlo and Abyss, into the ranks of the Avengers. Yes, I know that Hawkeye, Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and the Black Widow started off as villains. Yes, I agree with you that this is probably a double standard on my part, but I still think that it totally sucks and is lame. 

I enjoyed this book quite a bit in spite of these gripes. For starters, anything Mike Deodato touches turns to gold. He is one of the bright spots in the current generation of artists at Marvel. Stefano Caselli is another solid craftsman whose work is easy on the eyes. Hickman seems to be a love/hate thing for folks. I can take him or leave him, but his writing here is solid and enjoyable in spite of the criticisms that I listed above. I am intrigued enough to buy Volume 4 as well as the forthcoming Infinity hardcover. Kill me.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 4 out of 5.

The OCD zone- The free digital copy code is no longer on a stiff piece of cardboard glued into the book block. It is now behind a sticker which must be peeled off. While still annoying because it “ruins” the book, it is less annoying than the card.

Hickman dictates to editorial that he wants the covers collected in the rear of the book in a cover gallery rather than in their proper “chapter marker” pages before each issue. There are chapter marker pages here, mind you, but they are plain white pages. I'm not sure about the reasoning for this practice. Does Hickman believe that folks will think that this is a “graphic novel” and not a compilation of material previously published in periodical format? Because I don't think that there are any mythological mainstream bookstore buyers who would be fooled into thinking so. Jonathan Hickman's practice results in an OCD -10% score.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: Avengers #12, 14, 16 Avengers 50th anniversary variants covers (2 pages)

Avengers #12-15 cover art (uncolored) thumbnails. (1 page)

Paper rating: 3.5 out of 5. Thinner, “wavy” glossy coated stock. The paper looks shriveled up, which annoys the piss out of me since all of my books are stored in a climate environment. I keep telling y'all that these US paper mills are using green trees and don't allow them time to properly cure, and this is what we get.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Glued binding. It lays pretty flat in one hand.

Hardback cover coating rating: 4.5 out of 5. The cover has the image printed directly on it, no dustjacket required. The coating is a somewhat odd feeling dull matte finish and is scuff resistant with reasonable handling.

Buy AVENGERS VOL. 3: PRELUDE TO INFINITY HC at InStockTrades!