Review- AVENGERS: LEGION OF THE UNLIVING

AVENGERS: LEGION OF THE UNLIVING (Marvel, 2012; Softcover)

Collects Avengers Nos. 131, 132, 352-354, (Vol. 2) Nos. 10,11, Avengers Annual No. 16, Avengers West Coast No. 61, and Giant-Size Avengers No. 3 (cover dates January, 1975- December, 1998).

Writers: Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, Tom DeFalco, Dann Thomas, Len Kaminski, and Kurt Busiek.

Artists: Pencilers- Sal Buscema, Dave Cockrum, Bob Hall, Paul Ryan, M.C. Wyman, and George Perez; Inkers- Tom Palmer and others.

Upon first glance this book might seem like a confusing hodge-podge of random issues cobbled together to make you unclench that cash from your fist, and you would be right. Once you settle in and start reading it though you will see a thread throughout these stories spanning 24 years of publication. That thread is The Avengers, in various incarnations, fighting the Legion of the Unliving, also in various incarnations.

Things start out smack dab in the middle of the Bronze Age of comics with Avengers #131, 132, and Giant-Size Avengers #3 by the criminally forgotten Steve Engelhart. These issues are the first three parts of the legendary Celestial Madonna storyline. I have always been a sucker for Kang The Conqueror/Rama-Tut/Immortus, in all of their various timeline and reality glory. For the uninitiated, they are all one and the same from different points in time. Immortus, working at a grand scheme not clear to those who have not lived for seventy odd centuries in timeless Limbo, gets unwittingly/wittingly trapped by Kang, who plucks dead villains from various points in time to fight The Avengers. 

When reading comic books it is most helpful to have a healthy suspension of disbelief. When reading Bronze Age comics, it is also helpful to not over-analyze and overthink everything. Just relax and enjoy it. Let's face facts: seeing Thor battling the Frankenstein Monster is worth it, no matter how it gets to that point, right?

Avengers Annual #16 is the weak link of the book, being enjoyable but not great. While I am a fan of Tom DeFalco's writing, particularly his Spider-Man and Spider-Girl stuff, he is outclassed as an Avengers writer by the heaping helping of talent present in this book. I did enjoy the “comic jam” aspect of that annual, with artwork by a smorgasbord of greats. This issue has been collected in multiple books, so I have read it a number of times.

Avengers West Coast #61 finds Roy Thomas doing what Roy Thomas always does, making continuity as tight as a drum, for better or for worse. Here we see Agatha Harkness cast a spell on Immortus and make him spill the beans on things. Roy Thomas was apparently not a fan of the original android Human Torch being a part of the original Legion of the Unliving, since an android is not alive and therefore cannot truly die. He ret-cons Toro, the Torch's Golden Age kid sidekick, into that role instead. I can dig it. Continuity is Roy Thomas' porn.

Avengers #352-354 were a pleasant surprise to say the least. '90s Marvel can be a dicey thing, but here we see the Grim Reaper upgraded to his logical extreme. Changes to a character that make sense are welcome. Changes to a character to suit a spoiled brat “rock star” writer are not. The Grim Reaper is more dead than alive, a quasi-demon almost. I like this version of the character way more than the original (and current version). Len Kaminski wrote a ton of great comics for Marvel during this time but has seemingly dropped off the comic grid. The same can be said for artist M.C. Wyman, a wonderful craftsman whose work here reflected the Marvel house style. He took a severe turn for the worse shortly after these issues, which is a shame because he can clearly do great work. Stupid Image artists! They, and the speculator nonsense that they created and attracted, nearly destroyed the entire industry.

M.C. Wyman was a good artist at one point in time.

The endcap of this book are issues 9 and 10 from the incredible 1998 relaunch of the title by Kurt Busiek and George Perez. Busiek is Avengers royalty, a writer whose run I hold in the highest regard. Busiek, Englehart, Stern, Thomas...these are the greatest Avengers writers bar none. Busiek's writing is so rich and textured here. If space aliens landed and asked me what are the best Avengers comic books to read, I would have to flip a coin between Busiek's and Stern's run. Perez is at the top of his game here. Unlike some artists, Perez's work only improves with age. Seriously, check his artwork out. That is some seriously great stuff! Like Ultron, Busiek managed to pen the ultimate Legion of the Unliving story. 

George Perez rules!

This book was an absolute blast to read and should be a welcome addition to any serious superhero fan's bookshelf. And would you look at that...I made it through an Avengers review without bashing Brian Michael Bendis' eight year run on the title once. I could...but I won't. Even though I should.

Junk Food For Thought rating: 5 out of 5.

The OCD zone- There is a typo on Avengers #10, page 2. Mighty is mistyped might. I am all for preserving comics as they are originally printed, but typos, especially those from the computer lettered era, drive me nuts.

I like how the trade dress is included on the covers of the issues for the 1998 Avengers series. It has been standard practice in the industry to not include it on covers of issues of modern material collected editions, and has been for a dozen or more years. These two issues were reprinted in Avengers: Clear And Present Dangers trade paperback and again in the Avengers Assemble oversized hardcovers without the trade dress. I am a big fan of trade dress, so I thought that this was cool. Most folks like things the way that they are, but I am a “I want to see the cover as it was originally published” sort of cat.

DVD-style Extras included in this book: The fully rendered covers found on the front and back of this book, minus trade dress.

Linework and Color restoration rating: 4 out of 5. #131 is pretty hit or miss in terms of restoration, with page 8 of this book looking abysmal. Luckily, this issue will receive the Cory Sedlmeier treatment with the forthcoming Marvel Masterworks: The Avengers Vol. 14, on sale this summer. While that won't rectify the inferior restoration found in this book and of the same issue in the old Avengers: Celestial Madonna trade paperback, you can rest assured that any future reprintings of this issue will look superb. DC does it once, and if it sucks, it will suck for all time because they never revisit and remaster their material.

Paper rating: 5 out of 5. Nice dull matte finish coated stock, the same found in Classic lines and the softcover Marvel Masterworks.

Binding rating: 4 out of 5. Perfect bound trade paperback.

Cardstock cover coating rating: 5 out of 5. The usual high quality waxlike lamination found on all Marvel trade paperback releases.

Buy AVENGERS: LEGION OF THE UNLIVING TP at InStockTrades!

Reviews- DRACULA: THE COMPANY OF MONSTERS VOL. 2 & VOL. 3

DRACULA: THE COMPANY OF MONSTERS VOL. 2 (Boom, 2011; Softcover)

Collects Dracula: The Company of Monsters Nos. 5-8 (cover dates December, 2010- March, 2011)

Writers: Kurt Busiek and Daryl Gregory

Artists: Scott Godlweski (Issues 5, 8) and Damian Couceiro (issues 6, 7)

DRACULA: THE COMPANY OF MONSTERS VOL. 3 (Boom, 2011; Softcover)

Collects Dracula: The Company of Monsters Nos. 9-12 (cover dates April- July, 2011)

Writers: Kurt Busiek and Daryl Gregory

Artists: Scott Godlweski (Issues 11, 12) and Damian Couceiro (issues 9, 10)

This is solid stuff by Busiek and Gregory. They waste no effort in hiding what they think about corporate greed or the state of the economy. The moral of this story is that there are indeed monsters in this world, and the worst of them in this book don't have fangs. I thoroughly enjoyed this series, and feel that it has a satisfying ending. 12 issues over three modestly priced trade paperbacks.

The OCD zone- Typical wax coated cardstock cover. Nice, thick coated stock paper. My only gripe is that the covers are collected in the back of the book rather than as chapter marker pages. There are pages that say “Chapter 8”, etc., but I prefer to see the issue covers there. Your mileage may vary.

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DC has made strides in fixing the problem of their books not laying flat. Join the cause page if you want make sure that DC keeps up the recent good work on their hardcovers. Don't do it for me, do it for the children. Won't somebody please think of the children??

Reviews: Avengers/ X-Men- Maximum Security

AVENGERS/ X-MEN: MAXIMUM SECURITY(Marvel, 2010; Softcover)

Collects Avengers No. 35, Bishop: The Last X-Man No. 15, Captain America No. 36, Gambit No. 23, Iron Man No. 35, Maximum Security Nos. 1-3, Maximum Security: Dangerous Planet, Thor No. 30, Uncanny X-Men No. 387, X-Men No. 107, X-Men Unlimited No. 29 and selections from Iron Man No. 34 (cover dates October, 2000- January, 2001)

Writers: Kurt Busiek and Chris Claremont, etc

Artists: Jerry Ordway, Salvador Larroca, John Romita, Jr, Paul Ryan, etc

The first thing that I thought when I was reading this book was “Man, this is good, but it sure does feel awfully familiar.” I went and did a quick check in my Comic Book Collection file, and lo and behold, I had read five of the thirteen issues in this book in the Avengers Assemble Vol. 4 hardcover a few years ago. So while there is some double dipping going on here, I am glad to get the complete crossover in one handy package.

Marvel circa 2000 was not yet plagued by decompression, so the issues took more than five minutes each to read. I was shocked by how dense of a read many of these issues were. I do miss the second party narrative in modern comic books, as it provides lots of characterization and adds nuances that enhance the story beyond pictures and dialogue. Many modern comic books miss this point and that is why you have talking head picture flip books these days.

Not everything here is gold, though. Take the Bishop and Gambit issues, for example. Both of these characters are just horrible, with Bishop being so kewl and X-treme!!! that it makes me sick. If you shoot him, he becomes more powerful. It's impossible to hurt him, because he is so powerful. It's also impossible for me to like him because he is so powerful. As for Gambit, well, he just totally sucks. The whole Cajun accent is annoying to read on paper. The fact that his origin makes little to no sense. The fact that he “kinetically charges” things but prefers to use playing cards to hurl at enemies is asinine. He hurls them way farther than the finest baseball pitcher could. They are playing cards. If you threw them, they might make it a few feet. Why wouldn't he employ, say, a baseball or something that one can actually throw far? Oh wait I know, it's because he has red eyes. Why? Because red eyes are kewl. These '90s X-characters are abysmal.

Writers who avoid decompression are not always good, either. In the X-Men Unlimited issue collected here, Writer Joe Pruett's dialogue and narrative are laughably pitiful, almost as much as Brett Booth, Sal Regla and Sandu Florea's “artwork”. Other hall of shame inductees in this book are “artists” Alina Martinez and Rob Hunter (Iron Man #35) and Yanick Paquette (Gambit).

The core series is gold, with Writer Kurt Busiek and Artist Jerry Ordway doing a fantastic job. John Romita, Jr. does an amazing-as-usual job on The Avengers.

The only other gripe that I have is the redesigned USAgent costume. It looks like a cheap Judge Dredd knockoff, right down to the eagle shield. This look was fortunately short-lived and didn't detract from the reading experience too much.

The OCD zone- While the book doesn't appear to be thick, it in truth does has a hefty page count due to the thinner paper. It's not too thin, though, and it holds the colors well. The nice thing about collections that are comprised of material from the digital age is that there is no linework loss, no restoration required. Everything is ready to go, plug and play, and everything is as perfect as it was on it's original publication.

Reviews:MARVEL MASTERWORKS- ATLAS ERA JUNGLE ADVENTURE VOL. 1; ASTRO CITY- SHINING STARS; Winnie the Pooh movie 2011

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA JUNGLE ADVENTURE VOL. 1 (Marvel, 2009 ; Hardcover)

Collects Lorna, The Jungle Queen Nos. 1-5 and Lorna, The Jungle Girl Nos. 6-9 (cover dates July, 1953- September, 1954) and the “Loona” Lorna spoof story from Riot No. 6 (cover date June, 1956)

Blame it on Sheena. I passed on this when it was originally solicited because I couldn't care less about Jungle comics. Then I found a copy of Devil's Due Golden Age Sheena Vol. 2 trade paperback in a $5 box at my local comic shop. Months and months went by, and I read it. I was completely blown away, so much so that I tracked down Vol. 1 and then grabbed this book.

This is superb! Don Rico's writing is excellent, if somewhat offensive to 21^st Century sensibilities. Sexism and unflattering portrayals of minorities abound, but this was the 1950s. Werner Roth does the artwork on all of the Lorna stories, and I was shocked by the quality of his artwork. I was unimpressed on his run on The X-Men during the '60s, but here he is a master. Rich, lush linework is the norm. His jungle scenes and animals are photo realistic, and I love how he crams so much detail into each panel without sacrificing clarity. His page layouts are tightly structured, with 7-9 panels per page.

The writing can be a little formulaic after a while (how many lost lands can there be in one jungle, after all?), but this was a blast to read. Dinosaurs, giant apes, jewel thieves...this stuff rocks. Do yourself a favor and check it out. On the OCD side of things, everything gets two thumbs up: nice paper, sewn binding, superior linework and color restoration, nice aroma...I am ill, but at least I admit it. If loving these things about books is wrong then I don't want to be right. 

ASTRO CITY: SHINING STARS (Wildstorm/DC, 2011; Hardcover)

Collects Astro City: Astra Nos. 1, 2, Astro City: Beauty, Astro City: Samaritan and Astro City: Silver Agent Nos. 1, 2 (cover dates September, 2006- September, 2010)

This collects the odds and ends of the Astro City series, an assortment of one-shots and mini-series. These are all character sketches that add to the mythos but do not necessarily function as a cohesive read. Still, it is nice to get all of the odds and ends tied up in collected edition form. The Samaritan one-shot is great, with writer Kurt Buseik coming close to Alan Moore level cleverness...back when Moore was still clever and didn't rely on boobies to be “mature”. The Silver Agent mini-series was excellent, and I love how he was a mailman in his civilian identity. It's about time that a superhero was a mailman. I hope that we see a follow-up to this book sooner than later. The only thing that is frustrating to fans of this series is the wait between “seasons”.

Winnie the Pooh (Disney, 2011)

I took my hatchlings to see this yesterday, and they seemed to like it. For kids weaned on CGI films, this throwback to traditional animation must have seemed archaic. I guess that I liked it well enough, too.

Review: ASTRO CITY- THE DARK AGE BOOK 2: BROTHERS IN ARMS

ASTRO CITY: THE DARK AGE BOOK 2: BROTHERS IN ARMS (Wildstorm/DC, 2010; Hardcover)

Collects Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three Nos. 1-4 and Astro City: The Dark Age Book Four Nos. 1-4 (cover dates July, 2009- June, 2010).

In this, the seventh book of Kurt Busiek and Brent Anderson's love letter to the Silver and Bronze Age of comics, we see things get darker and grittier. The time is now 1984 in Astro City, and change and dark times are running rampant in the city. The atmosphere in Astro City has always mirrored the change in the comic book universes of the time.

This title is what I like to call a comic book fan's comic book. One would almost need an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel and DC Comics of the '60s-80s for things to make sense. The nods and whys and wherefores would surely be lost on a “civilian” reader...or would they? I am kind of curious what a non-comic book fan would get out of this series. Much of this series deals with how regular people would react to the world if there really were such a thing as superheroes. It has a lot of heart and is among my favorite titles out there.

Originally posted on my myspace blog on 5/19 & 5/31/2009

FX (IDW, 2008)

Collects FX Nos. 1-6 (cover dates March- August, 2008)

This is the creator owned series by Wayne Osborn with artwork by John Byrne, and was a fun read. If you enjoy pre-'90s superhero comic books, then you'll love this.

JLA/ AVENGERS (DC/ Marvel, 2008)

Collects JLA/ Avengers Nos. 1-4 (cover dates September- December, 2003)

This is the best company crossover that I have ever read. Kurt Busiek and George Perez are so well versed in both universes that it never seems cheesy or pandering to either company. This is Perez's A-game. Each and every panel is a visual feast, crammed with so much rich detail that it borders on distracting. Busiek stuffs as much of each universe's respective continuity into this that it qualifies for a nerdgasm. I never bothered picking up the expensive $75 hardcover and was relieved when a softcover was solicited all of these years later. In retrospect, this book would have been totally worth the deluxe package treatment. It's grand either way, so whatever.

WONDER WOMAN: SECOND GENESIS (DC, 1997)

Collects Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) Nos. 101-105 (cover dates September, 1995- January, 1996)

This is competent stuff by John Byrne. His artwork took a turn for the worse here, but the storytelling and layouts are still solid. The writing is also good, and I unfortunately read the Lifeline TPB first, and have since forgotten how The Demon storyline gets resolved. I guess I could A) dig out the book and re-read it or B) look it up on the Internet.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA VOL. 3: THE MAN WHO BOUGHT AMERICA (Marvel, 2008; Hardcover)

Collects Captain America Nos. 37-42 (cover dates June- November, 2008)

Finally! The climax to the epic saga that has been building for years! I am totally loving the "new" Captain America, and Ed Brubaker has firmly cemented his run in the upper echelon of Captain America runs.

NEW AVENGERS VOL. 8: SECRET INVASION BOOK 1 (Marvel, 2008; Hardcover)

Collects New Avengers Nos. 38-42 (cover dates April- August, 2008)

Bendis, Bendis, Bendis... The man is not paid by the word, that's for sure. I flew through this hardcover in about 40 minutes. That's terrible! Issue 38 is nothing more than padding, with the whole of the issue comprising of a conversation between Luke Cage/ Power Man and Jessica Jones, and the team moving into a new apartment headquarters. I wish I were kidding, but that is really all that happened for 22 pages! Couple that with Michale Gaydos' laughably pitiful artwork, and you have Grade A crap. Issue 39 seems to be a 45 RPM single played at half speed to take up a full issue. 38 and 39 combined are almost one issue's worth of story. The rest of the issues move along at a brisk clip but are at least entertaining. Brian Michael Bendis has some interesting ideas but really needs to pick up the pace in this day and age of $3.99 floppies.

NEW AVENGERS VOL. 9: SECRET INVASION BOOK 2 (Marvel, 2008; Hardcover)

Collects New Avengers Nos. 43-47 (cover dates September, 2008- January, 2009)

I am this close to dropping this title, as it is a poor value for the money. Too little story unfolding over too many pages for too much money.

WONDER WOMAN VOL. 3: BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS (DC, 2005)

Collects Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) Nos. 15-19 and selections from Action Comics No. 600 (cover dates April- August, 1988)

WONDER WOMAN VOL. 4: DESTINY CALLING (DC, 2006)

Collects Wonder Woman (Vol. 2) Nos. 20-24 and Wonder Woman Annual No. 1

An eye candy feast by George Perez! This is such an enjoyable read, and the artwork is so great that you almost have to read the page and then go back and just stare at the artwork, analyzing them like you would a painting. Perez is one of all-time favorites, alongside John Byrne, John Romita, Sr. and Gil Kane. The only sub-par issue is Annual No. 1, as it features artwork by some less than notables like John Bolton.

THE SUPERMAN CHRONICLES VOL. 6 (DC, 2009)

Collects Superman Nos. 10, 11 and selections from Action Comics Nos. 37-40 and World’s Finest Comics Nos. 2, 3 (cover dates May- Fall, 1941)

Fun, goofy Golden Age stories. These are all pretty cookie cutter, and could be swapped out with any story from Volumes 2-5. The only "super" villain in this book is Lex Luthor. Superman really, desperately needs some badass supervillains to fight.

AMAZING SPIDER-GIRL VOL. 4: BRAND NEW MAY (Marvel, 2008)

Collects Amazing Spider-Girl Nos. 19-24 (cover dates June- November, 2008)

The usual excellence by Tom DeFalco, Ron Frenz, and Sal Buscema. How can this book not have more readers than it does, while losers like Bendis hog the top of the sales charts? Are people really that dumb?

MIGHTY AVENGERS VOL. 3: SECRET INVASION BOOK 1 (Marvel, 2008; Hardcover)

Collects Mighty Avengers Nos. 12-15 (cover dates June- August, 2008)

I read this in under 45 minutes. In the House of M mini-series a few years ago Bendis wrote “No more mutants”, and I am now going to write: No more Bendis. I will not buy anything that this man writes. Issue 12 was total waste of space about Nick Fury's whereabouts after the Secret War mini, and didn't really belong in this title. Issue 13 was basically a prequel to the upcoming Secret Warriors Secret Invasion spin-off series. My biggest issue with these heretofore unknown heroes is that much like Heroes, Lost, and any other series geared towards the non-comic book fan, they are wholly derivative. I can see the suits, sitting behind their desks, Blackberry in hand, trying to figure out a team of heroes that could be a major motion picture option: We need a guy who flies, one who runs really fast, one that can control the weather and/or elements, etc. These heroes have already been created, and their stories were already told better years ago. Half of this book had nothing to do with this particular team of Avengers! I didn't buy this for a Nick Fury's Secret Invasion 2 part-er, I wanted to read an Avengers story. The only winner in this whole book was Issue 15, with solid art by John Romita, Jr., Klaus Janson, and Tom Palmer. Alex Maleev's "artwork" on Issues 12 and 13 sucks ass. If Dan Slott doesn't turn this series around when he gets on board, then I am jumping ship.