Comic Review: Civil War II

Published: February 1st, 2017
Written by: Brian Michael Bendis
Art by: Jim Cheung, Oliver Coipel, David Marquez, Marko Djurdjevic (cover)

Marvel Comics, 317 Pages

Review:

Man, this was bewilderingly bad.

Historically, I’ve been pretty 50/50 on Brian Michael Bendis’ writing but man, it’s like when he did this, he already knew he was leaving Marvel. It also reads like he was given orders to use certain characters and he was begrudgingly forced to work them in. Granted, he’s also created some of the terrible modern characters.

While I’ve been well aware of the criticism that the Captain Marvel character gets in modern times, I always liked her when she was Ms. Marvel. But this new, short-haired, suddenly pushed into a leadership role Carol Danvers is not even the same character, remotely.

Based off of how she’s written here, as a self-righteous, fascist, tyrant bitch, I totally see why fans can’t stand her. If this story is an accurate portrayal of how she is post-2015 or so, I have no interest in following her character unless she’s actually made into a permanent villain. But even then, there are so many better villains I’d rather read about.

And I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to interpret her character. Is she supposed to be psychotic, god-powered, tyrannical piece of shit? Or am I supposed to empathize with her point-of-view?

What made the first Civil War so great was that you could emphasize and relate to both points-of-view and it made for a compelling read. Civil War II just made me hate Carol and every character that so easily sided with her. These characters aren’t heroes, as their actions in this story crossed the line into villainy.

Whatever. Fuck this comic. Fuck Bendis. Fuck post-2015 Marvel. But at least the art was really good.

Rating: 4/10
Pairs well with: all the other Civil War II crossover tie-in trade paperbacks.

Comic Review: Alpha Flight: True North – One-Shot

Published: September 4th, 2019
Written by: Ed Brisson, Jed MacKay, Jim Zub
Art by: Max Dunbar, Scott Hepburn, Djibril Morissette-Phan, Nick Bradshaw (cover)

Marvel Comics, 33 Pages

Review:

I used to read Alpha Flight back in the day but they were always sort of C-list heroes. Maybe it’s because they were Canadians and always seemed overshadowed by the A-list teams, as well as all the X-Men spinoff teams that monopolized the late ’80s and early ’90s. But I always had a soft spot for them, even if they only showed up in other comic titles when a hero or team would find themselves in Canada for some reason.

That being said, it’s been awhile since I read an Alpha Flight comic book, so when I saw this on the shelf of my local comic shop, I decided to give it a shot at $4.99.

Lately, I’ve only seen the team appear in the Old Man Logan and The Immortal Hulk titles. So maybe there are plans to dust them off and give them a new ongoing series considering that Jonathan Hickman is steering the X-Men ship now.

Anyway, this was an anthology that featured three short stories crammed into this slightly bigger than normal single issue.

I would have rather they just chose one of these stories and fleshed it out more into something bigger than a tapas meal. Still, each story was okay and engaging enough, they just felt skeletal, rushed and if I’m being honest, there didn’t seem to be much care put into them, except for the middle story about an event from Puck’s past.

Maybe this was made to test the market to see if there was still interest in a standalone Alpha Flight title. If this did go on to bring us a new series, I’d give the duties to Ed Brisson, as he seems like the one writer that has a good grasp on the characters, especially after using them in his Old Man Logan stories.

Rating: 6.25/10
Pairs well with: other Alpha Flight comics, as well as other recent Marvel one-shots and anthologies.

Comic Review: X-Men/Alpha Flight (1998 Series)

Published: 1998
Written by: John Cassaday, Ben Raab
Art by: John Cassaday, Liquid! (cover)

Marvel Comics, 64 Pages

Review:

I wasn’t expecting much from this two-issue story arc but I was pleasantly surprised by how fun this was.

I love the X-Men and I love Alpha Flight. I especially love when they come together.

In this story we see the X-Men get captured by Baron Strucker and Hydra. Alpha Flight then goes in to save them.

I didn’t realize that this was a 1998 story when I first read it, as the version on Comixology listed it as 2016. So at first I thought it was a cool throwback because it had a very ’90s art style.

This is also the second X-Men/Alpha Flight team up mini-miniseries. I have read and owned the first one for years now. I don’t remember how good that one was but if it’s on par with this, that’d be great.

For a short story that didn’t have much room to breathe, this was a good, fun comic that reminded me why I loved these two teams back in the ’80s and ’90s.

Alpha Flight needs more love, people.

Rating: 7.5/10
Pairs well with: other ’90s X-Men and Alpha Flight stories.

Comic Review: The Immortal Hulk, Vol. 2: The Green Door

Published: September 19th, 2018 – December 5th, 2018
Written by: Al Ewing
Art by: Joe Bennett, Lee Garbett, Alex Ross (covers)

Marvel Comics, 112 Pages

Review:

Sometimes, I love being wrong. In this case, I was wrong about this series.

It didn’t do much for me by the end of the first story arc and even though it had some good stuff in it, it felt really lackluster, overall. I quit picking up the issues, month to month. But then a friend asked if I was still reading it and told me that it was becoming his favorite comic. So I went back and rounded up the issues I missed and gave it a second chance.

The Green Door story arc is pretty friggin’ enjoyable and it set the stage for what I hope is a stellar third arc.

This version of the Hulk has grown on me and man, this series started out dark but it gets even darker and more messed up.

At one point, the Hulk is cut into pieces, placed into jars and studied. This obviously doesn’t end well for the evil scientists and we get to see the Hulk do some things we’ve never seen before. But in a way, this whole series has become a reinvention of the character without trashing what the Hulk was before it.

I have to give props to Al Ewing for writing something so interesting and unique for a character that has been pretty one dimensional throughout his history. While I mostly like the Hulk character, I’ve never been an avid reader of Hulk titles because they just haven’t been that great.

This really taps into the core of what Hulk used to be. He’s a monster. He’s a version of a Jekyll and Hyde or werewolf type character. Over the years, that has been lost or at least, it hasn’t been utilized in the right way.

I’ve grown to love this story and its direction. Al Ewing has reinvented the Hulk in a refreshing way in the same vein that Donny Cates has given new life to Venom.

I was sure that I was done with this series and now I’m actually excited for the next part of Hulk’s journey.

Rating: 8.25/10
Pairs well with: The first volume of The Immortal Hulk, which now reads better after seeing where the series was going with this volume. Also, I’m assuming the followup story, The Immortal Hulk In Hell.

Comic Review: Old Man Logan: Northern Flight

Published: August 22nd, 2018 – September 12th, 2018
Written by: Ed Brisson
Art by: Damian Couceiro, Andrea Sorrentino (covers)

Marvel Comics, 46 Pages

Review:

This wasn’t the best story that we’ve gotten in the ongoing Old Man Logan series but it was still mildly entertaining and decent filler, as the arc after this one is probably the big finale of the series.

This story was told in two parts over issues 46 and 47. It sees Logan go on a little mission with Alpha Flight up to rural Nova Scotia. While there, they are confronted by an alien plant creature that is devouring the town and growing in size.

The story is used as a way to have Logan reflect on his life, which he knows is coming to an end. He does some crazy and very painful shit in order to stop the plant alien menace but that’s what nearly indestructible manly men do in comics.

Anyway, we get a nice moment between Old Man Logan and Puck. This whole story is really just one big human moment but other than tapping into Logan’s thought process and his physical way of working through his emotions, there’s not a whole lot here.

Still, it’s always cool seeing Wolverine in Canada and I usually enjoy Alpha Flight cameos.

Rating: 6.5/10
Pairs well with: Other Old Man Logan stories.

Comic Review: The Immortal Hulk, Vol. 1: Or Is He Both?

Published: June 6th, 2018 – September 5th, 2018
Written by: Al Ewing
Art by: Joe Bennett, Alex Ross (covers)

Marvel Comics, 128 Pages

Review:

I wanted to support this for two reasons.

One, I love Bruce Banner and I thought that it was great to have him back. Nothing beats the original Hulk and this new take on the character, where the green Hulk is now more intelligent than Banner, peaked my interest.

Two, and this is incredibly superficial, but I love these Alex Ross covers, especially the first issue. It was very Frankenstein-esque and totally f’n badass.

The problem with this story arc, which takes place over the first five issues of this new series, is that it, like the Hulk, has multiple personality disorder. With that disorder, though, it’s level of quality is incredibly inconsistent from issue to issue.

Issue one was a pretty good introduction to this updated version of the Hulk. Issue two was really f’d up but damn intriguing and frankly, I loved it. Issue three, however, was so bad, I was astonished at how poorly it was crafted after being really happy with the book’s first two outings. The fourth issue was pretty much just boring filler, trying to explain the story, as the first three issues didn’t have a lot of detail and mostly just focused on the Hulk being a real force of nature with an attitude similar to the Punisher. The fifth and final issue pits the Hulk against Alpha Flight’s Sasquatch but there is a big twist and you discover that Hulk is just battling his own daddy issues. *exhales loudly* Really? …Really?

I wanted to like this, I truly did.

I liked the beginning of the arc, I thought the art was solid and I liked the tone of this darker yet smarter Hulk tale. But by the time I got to the end of the story, I wanted to chuck these comics into the fireplace. I don’t own a fireplace, though. Florida is too hot for that shit.

This first arc was the test to see if I was going to end up adding this to my pull list. I won’t. I’m done with this series. That is, unless someone whose opinion I trust continues to read it and tells me it’s gotten better. Unless that happens, I’ve got mountains of other comics to read.

Rating: 5.25/10
Pairs well with: I don’t know, not a whole lot, really. This is pretty unique and it’s great to have Banner back but the tone is so different from older Banner stories. But maybe read Damage, which is DC Comics’ new character that is very Hulk-like but a better read, right now.