Review- EVOLUTIONARY WAR OMNIBUS

EVOLUTIONARY WAR OMNIBUS (Marvel, First Printing, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22, Avengers Annual #17, Fantastic Four Annual #21, New Mutants Annual #4, Punisher Annual #1, Silver Surfer Annual #1, Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8, Web of Spider-Man Annual #4, West Coast Avengers Annual #3, X-Factor Annual #3, and X-Men Annual #12 (cover dates Annual 1988)

Writers: Louise Simonson, Mike Baron, Steve Englehart, Tom DeFalco, David Michelinie, Steve Gerber, Gerry Conway, Walter Simonson, and Mark Gruenwald

Artists: Pencilers- Terry Shoemaker, Mark Texeira, Joe Staton, June Brigman, Mark Bagley, Kieron Dwyer, Arthur Adams, Cynthia Martin, Al Milgrom, Mark Bright, Paris Cullins, and Ron Lim; Inkers- Al Milgrom, Scott Williams, Josef Rubinstein, Bob McLeod, Mike Esposito, Joe Sinnott, Bob Wiacek, Cynthia Martin, Gerry Talaoc, Chris Ivy, Keith Williams, Mike Gustovich, Valerie Gustovich, Tony DeZuniga, and Jim Sinclair.

File this one under “Things aren't as good as they used to be...and they probably never were.” I eagerly scooped this book up when it came out, apparently oblivious to my memory of reading it when it was originally published. I hated this crossover at the time of original publication. I knew at age 15 that this was nothing more than a cash grab and a scam, refusing to buy the issues that were not a part of my regular titles. The fact that the story was incomplete unless you bought every single double-sized (and double-priced!) issue was an insult to me then and it is even more so to me now. Of course the point of comic companies is to make as much money as possible, but to insult the fans by forcing them to do stuff like this turned me off back then...much like it has today. I buy nothing that Marvel publishes today. If not for collected editions of vintage material they would see none of my money.

The main story is pretty feeble. The High Evolutionary has returned, deciding to fulfill humanity's potential by accelerating their evolution to it's maximum. This story is dragged into places where it doesn't belong. Incorporating The Punisher into this crossover was a bit of a stretch. To be honest most of these stories don't make a lot of sense, or they simply have the High Evolutionary shoe-horned in there for crossover branding purposes. The Amazing Spider-Man Annual with Speedball and Daredevil was fun, in a corny kind of way. The X-Men Annual was underwhelming, then and now. Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #8 shows Gerry Conway returning to what was one of the most gaping holes in a plotline from his 1970s run: How a mere college professor could clone a human. Conway's ret-cone only serves to further muddy the waters on the clusterfuck that would soon be known as The Clone Saga a few years later.

If not for the back-up stories in each Annual which chronicled the origin of the High Evolutionary (collected together in the back of the book), I would have ranked this much, much lower. The origin story was highly entertaining, especially when the High Evolutionary was battling Baron Gregory Russoff (the ancestor of Jack Russell, a.k.a. Werewolf By Night).

 

This isn't a high point in the history of the Marvel Universe, nor is this the best work of any of the creators involved. I will still take this over what passes as Marvel Comics these days. At least everyone is acting true to character and the writers tell a story which serve the characters and not themselves. Not every comic has to wow or shock you, folks.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- While I have grown to dislike the size of most Omniboo, this book hits the 400-500 page sweet spot.

There are numerous omissions in this book. If a back-up story didn't belong as a part of the crossover then it was omitted from this book.

Linework and Color restoration: Very good overall, certainly better than the material warrants.

Paper stock: Beautiful thick coated stock with a slight sheen. I loved the paper that Marvel used in their Omniboo during this era.

Binding: Smyth sewn binding, book lays completely flat from the first page to the last.

Dustjacket and Hardback cover notes: Thick lamination on the dustjacket, faux leather grain casewrap with dye foil stamping. 

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- ACTS OF VENGEANCE CROSSOVERS OMNIBUS

ACTS OF VENGEANCE CROSSOVERS OMNIBUS (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Alpha Flight Nos. 79, 80, Damage Control Nos. 1-4, Daredevil Nos. 275, 276, Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme Nos. 11-13, Fantastic Four Nos. 334-336, Incredible Hulk No. 363, Marc Spector: Moon Knight Nos. 8-10, New Mutants Nos. 84-86, Power Pack No. 53, Punisher Nos. 28, 29, Punisher War Journal Nos. 12, 13, Uncanny X-Men Nos. 256-258, Web of Spider-Man Nos. 64, 65, Wolverine Nos. 19, 20, and the Apocalypse back-up story from X-Factor No. 50 (cover dates December, 1989- June, 1990)

Writers: Walter Simonson, Archie Goodwin, Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas, Peter David, Mike Baron, Carl Potts, Chuck Dixon, Ann Nocenti, Terry Austin, James D. Hundall, Louise Simonson, Chris Claremont, Dwayne McDuffie, and Gerry Conway

Artists: Rich Buckler, Ron Lim, John Byrne, Jackson Guice, Jeff Purves, Jim Lee, Ernie Colon, Rob Liefeld, Paul Smith, Alex Saviuk, Mike DeCarlo, Klaus Janson, Marie Severin, Mark Farmer, Al Milgrom, Tom Palmer, Al Williamson, Bret Blevins, Bob Wiaceck, Joseph Rubinstein, and others

I really enjoyed the core of this crossover which was collected in the Acts of Vengeance Omnibus. This book collects the odds and ends of the event, including the “epilogue” battle between Graviton, Brothers Grimm, Goliath, Thundra, and Trapster against Spider-Man in Web of Spider-Man Nos. 64 and 65. Marvel really caters to the completist rather than the mythological mainstream bookstore buyer that DC keeps on chasing, and god bless 'em for it. Marvel's collected editions are exhaustively researched and amazingly complete. DC's often omits covers, for chrissakes.

Many of these issues are mediocre, although there is some gold in this sand. The aforementioned Web of Spider-Man, Power Pack, Doctor Strange, and Alpha Flight issues all rank as highlights for me. The Moon Knight, Punisher, and Wolverine issues were also highly entertaining. Others, such as the second Damage Control mini-series, will be skipped over when I re-read this book in the future. The writer of that title, the late Dwayne McDuffie, would go on to do vastly superior work on Fantastic Four and the Ben 10 Alien Force cartoon. 

The worst issues in the book are probably the favorite of the under 30 crowd: the Uncanny X-Men issues with the idiotic Claremont/Lee collaboration which turned Psylocke from a British telepath from the UK Captain Britain strip to an Asian ninja. This is asinine and has never been undone. Ninjas in general are often lame, and ruining a perfectly good character when you could just create a new character is just plain dumb. 

Is that Robin? Nope, it's Jubilee. Artwork by the overrated Jim Lee.

Also horrendous is Jubilee, whose color scheme is just like Robin's. Yes, Robin, as in Batman and Robin. Horrendous costume designs were just coming into vogue during this time and would last for the better part of the '90s. I find Jim Lee to be the most overrated artist in the history of comic books. He's okay, but people act like he is the lord and savior of comic book artists. He still sells, so I am in the minority, but in my opinion he is a huge part of the problem with comic books, not the solution. 

Is this an essential, must-own book? No way, Jose. Is this a fun, albeit uneven, read of one of Marvel's earliest crossovers? Absolutely positively. There is some good writing and good artwork throughout the book, but that's all it is: good. Never really good, or even very good. Strictly second and third gear stuff. If you go into this book with that in mind and read this book in small doses you will enjoy it. I couldn't plow through more than five issues at a time. I quit comics as this crossover was gaining steam and didn't come back until the early aughts. Read whatever you want into that.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 3.5 out of 5. 

The OCD zone- I love the Marvel Omnibus format. It may seem like I don't review a lot of them, but that is because they take forever to get through. This beast was over 750 pages. I probably have two dozen more unread Omniboo in my backlog waiting to be read.

Linework restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Much of the artwork in here is just okay, but it is flawlessly presented here in its mediocre glory.

Color restoration rating: 5 out of 5. Rest easy, folks: Rob Liefeld's New Mutants have received the hi-def treatment.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Beautiful thick coated stock with a slight sheen. These Chinese made books smell fantastic, the result of ink made from compounds of asbestos tiles, mercury from recalled thermometers, and lead paint chips. Once mixed with the final ingredient, the tears of the Chinese children working the sweatshop printing presses, you get an aroma that is delectable. The paper is also great, likely sourced from virgin Amazon rainforest trees. China's complete lack of respect for the environment is our gain, at least pertaining to the wonderful, toxic aroma of this book.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Like all late 2007-on Marvel Omnibus hardcovers, this has sewn binding. The casing is not glued square to the spine, allowing for a considerable amount of flex. The book lays perfectly flat from the first page to the last. 

Review- ATLANTIS ATTACKS OMNIBUS

ATLANTIS ATTACKS OMNIBUS (Marvel, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Amazing Spider-Man Annual No. 23, Avengers Annual No. 18, Avengers West Coast No. 56, Avengers West Coast Annual No. 4, Daredevil Annual No. 5, Fantastic Four Annual No. 22, Iron Man Annual No. 10, New Mutants No. 76, New Mutants Annual No. 5, Punisher Annual No. 2, Silver Surfer Annual No. 2, The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual No. 9, Thor Annual No. 14, Web of Spider-Man Annual No. 5, X-Factor Annual No. 4, X-Men Annual No. 13, and selections from Marvel Comics Presents No. 26 (cover dates August, 1989- March, 1990)

Writers: Steve Englehart, David Michelinie, John Byrne, Peter David, Fabien Nicieza, Gerry Conway, Terry Austin, Roy Thomas, Louise Simonson, Peter Sanderson, Michael Higgins, and Mike Baron

Artists: John Byrne, Ron Lim, Paul Smith, Mike Vosburg, Rob Liefeld, Mark Bagley, Ron Wilson, Rich Buckler, Don Perlin, Al Milgrom, Paul Ryan, Walter Simonson, Terry Austin, Don Heck, and others

Woe to me, and my never ending obsession with high end hardcovers. Had this been solicited as a softcover or an Essential (as was discussed over on the Masterworks Message Board years ago), I would have griped “Why not in hardcover??” I got my wish, for better or for worse. I bought several of these steaming piles of crap off of the stands in the summer of 1989, and didn't realize until after I bought this 544 page book that this crossover was one of the main reasons that I dropped comic books in late '89/early '90. I disliked the shyster “gotta buy 'em all for the complete story” crossover gimmicks which started several years prior with Secret Wars II. I disliked the then new breed of comic book “artists” like Rob Liefeld, and even the writing by veterans like Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway was overwritten and uninspired. 

...so don't even try!

This book has it's share of solid entertainment value, but much of it is overwritten and clunky. I love old comic books, but there are aspects to them that I find annoying, such as when someone is about to get hit with a beam or something, and the antagonist telegraphs it in their dialogue. “I shall hit you with this laser beam, which will...” or other such nonsense. 

Artwork by Mark Bagley.

The artwork by Rob Liefeld can never be badmouthed enough as far as I am concerned, and it was he who inspired me to quit buying comic books in the final months of 1989. If this was what was going on now, then I wanted nothing to do with it. I couldn't have fathomed how much worse things would get with the ensuing Image boom. Thankfully, I sat all of that holo-foil variant nonsense out. 

"Artwork" by Rob Liefeld. No, Liefeld is not an abstract artist, merely incompetent.

The gist- Ghaur, high priest of the Deviants, conspires with Llyra of Lemuria to use Attuma and the Atlanteans as a catspaw in an attempt to bring about the return of Set, the Serpent God. Attuma and his Atlantean army are tricked into attacking the surface world, with Ghaur knowing full well that the armies of Atlantis will slaughter innocent civilians, fail against the surface world's superheroes, and will result in a blood sacrifice to bring Set back to this dimension. When Attuma withdraws his armies, Ghaur goes with his plan B: kidnapping seven super-heroines to offer to Set as brides. (Set has seven heads.) 

Artwork by John Byrne. Note how there is NO gutter loss in this double page spread. DC should take notes. It CAN be done.

The best part of this book are each Annual's back-up stories, the 14 chapter The Saga of the Serpent Crown by Marvel historian Peter Sanderson and then newbie artist Mark Bagley. They go so far and so deep into continuity that it'll make your head spin. I love continuity, but there is a point where those hippies writing comics in the '60s and '70s made things ridiculously complicated. I am looking at you, Roy Thomas and Steve Englehart. Still, our host Uatu the Watcher clearly explains things, and by the end of those back-ups, you feel like you have a solid grasp on the subject. They are all collected in the back of the book, so that they can be read in exact order rather than in their proper printed location at the back of each annual. It didn't make my OCD twitch, but your mileage may vary. 

Artwork by Mark Bagley.

The original series editors were terrible, with countless typos and word balloons attributed to the wrong character on numerous occasions. While typos can be somewhat forgiven when you think back to the pre-spell check era, the errors that I caught were glaringly obvious. Now, here is a chance for the collected edition obsessives to get their own o-fish-al Junk Food For Thought no-prize. They used to do paste-ups over the word balloons on the original art with spelling corrections which often fell off or became lost. I no longer own the floppies of these issues, so if someone wants to go issue by issue, page by page, and determine if they were indeed corrected for print and we have superior, pre-correction file sources here, shoot me an email. Snap a picture (or scan) of them side by side, and I will post your name and picture in this blog. Wow! Fame and fortune can be yours too.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 2.5 out of 5. 

Note how terrible the re-coloring is on this Rob Liefeld "artwork".

The OCD zone- The restoration is generally excellent, with two exceptions: Pages 512-517, the back-up story from Web of Spider-Man Annual No. 5, where the linework is dropped out in several spots, and the re-coloring on New Mutants Annual No. 5, which has shoddy re-coloring, looking “airbrushed” due to the computer filling in the shapes rather than doing it “by hand” on the computer. The latter isn't that big of a deal, however, as it has art by Rob Liefeld. Even Cory Sedlmeier and Michael Kelleher couldn't make his art look good.

Linework restoration: 4 out of 5.

Color restoration: 4 out of 5.

Overall rating affected by the problems listed above. Restoration rating would have been closer to 5 without these defects.

Paper rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Binding rating: 5 out of 5. Lays perfectly flat at any and every point of the book.

Reviews: The Punisher- Franken-Castle

THE PUNISHER: FRANKEN-CASTLE (Marvel, 2010; Hardcover)

Collects Dark Reign: The List- The Punisher, The Punisher Nos. 11-16, Franken-Castle Nos. 17-21 and Dark Wolverine Nos. 88, 89 (cover dates December, 2009- November, 2010)

Writers: Rick Remender and Daniel Way

Artists: John Romita, Jr. (DR:TL-P), Mirco Pierfederici, Dan Brereton and others

The gist- The Punisher is cut to pieces by Daken, Wolverine's ret-conned child. The Punisher is sewn together by the miscast Morbius the Living Vampire. He was a doctor, true, but he was a biochemist. Here, he is miscast as a Dr. Frankenstein type who pieces Frank Castle back together. These continuity discrepancies are the reason that I have been dropping modern Marvel titles like flies. This works for me because of all of these vintage collections of good comics being put out. I only bought this because of my undying loyalty to the '70s undead (Morbius, Werewolf By Night, The Living Mummy, etc.).

John Romita, Jr. artwork.

This is why I do more research into all of my purchases these days. I am a sucker for Marvel's Bronze Age monsters, and when I saw those snazzy covers in Marvel Previews, I was like oooh, I will definitely pick that up once it's collected in trade. I now read the solicits more carefully, noting how they list the cover artist credit as being someone different than the interior artist. In this case, the interior artists are vastly inferior. With the exception of John Romita Jr.'s fast paced greatness on Dark Reign: The List- The Punisher, Dan Brereton's occasional painted artwork and Mirco Pierfederici's work on Dark Wolverine, the artwork is horrible. The writing is so bland and uninvolved, and the story has no sense of urgency. I only finished it because the issues read so fast that I was done before I knew it. That, and if I pay for it I must read it. This is an underwhelming read that will find its way on to eBay during my next purging.

The OCD zone- Marvel's over-sized hardcovers have glued binding most of the time. The shocking thing about this book is that it lays flat. I could live with this book if the material didn't suck.

Review: The Punisher- Circle of Blood

THE PUNISHER: CIRCLE OF BLOOD (Marvel, 2008; Hardcover)

Collects The Punisher Nos. 1-5 (cover dates January- May, 1986)

There was a time when I loved the Punisher, and this was it. My comic book collecting friend from way back when these issues were published bought these, and we'd sit there and “share” our comic books. This series was worlds more violent than anything going on in Marvel Comics at the time, and it was gold to this (at that time) 12 year old boy. This was pre-Robocop and Die Hard, mind you. I loved the mindless violence of the '80s.

Mike Zeck's artwork is great, and you just don't see action scenes with this type of “movement” from one panel to the next anymore. Zeck is a master storyteller, and I wonder where he is today.

This mini-series is a work of art and worthy of a Masterworks line or, better yet, an Omnibus.

The OCD Zone- I was suffering from a round of upgrade-itis, a condition that plagues us collected edition obsessives who want the best reproduction, best linework, best color restoration, best binding, etc., available. I saw this hardcover, sealed and brand new, in a $10 box at the Detroit FanFare. How could I resist this, a beloved mini-series from my golden age of the mid-'80s, in hardcover? I couldn't, and I didn't. I opened it up to read, and to my horror...glued binding. Not just glued binding, but the evil, unholy, blacker-than-black glued mousetrap binding that Marvel once used. Oh, the humanity! I have become so spoiled by and accustomed to the wonderful sewn binding that Marvel uses in this Premiere Classic line of hardcovers that I simply forgot that things weren't always so. Now this story is a two-fisted read on both levels: First, the action and violence make this a pulse-pounding read. Second, the binding is so tight that if you take even one hand off of it at any point in the book...snap! Like a mousetrap!

Adding further insult to this injury is the occasionally muddy linework. This was recolored using computers. Allow me to clarify...all of these books are re-colored by computer, but there are generally two methods: one is to let the computer “fill the shape”, which is way faster but can saw off lines. The second is “by hand”, where the colorist has to go in and painstakingly fill in the spaces. I prefer the latter method because the integrity of the linework is maintained better. It is, of course, more expensive to use this method, which is why it is typically reserved for the more high end collections like Masterworks, but that is where my OCD lays.

My advice is to get the original 1988 trade paperback printing or the floppies. I wish that I didn't dump mine off on eBay for this “upgrade”. I am on the extreme end of anal-retentiveness when it comes to this kind of stuff, so your mileage may vary. Maybe you like occasionally bad reproduction and glued binding...it takes all kinds I guess.