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Messages from Midgard #10 – Deadpool Down Under

Posted on June 8, 2019 by Logan Dalton

“War of the Realms” is starting to wind down this week with the release of the penultimate issue of the core series, War of the Realms #5. The comic has a predictable ending thanks to the marketing department, but actually feels like a Jason Aaron/Russell Dauterman/Matthew Wilson Thor comic thanks to its excellent characterization of Thor and Jane Foster to go with fight scenes a la the third act of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The tie-ins aren’t bad either as I wish Journey into Mystery went on for another four issues of road trip hijinks, Greg Pak and Gang Hyuk Lim finally find their sprawling ensemble cast’s footing in New Agents of Atlas, and Captain Marvel and Deadpool wisely choose comedy over melodrama. The only real stinker of the bunch is Tony Stark, Iron Man #12, which made feel really bad for Gail Simone, who has to do the comic book equivalent of walking, chewing bubblegum, and someone else’s calculus homework at the same time.

War of the Realms #5

War of the Realms #5 is paced like a fever dream and a reminder that Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, and Matthew Wilson have done fantastic work on Thor and can tell a poignant story that isn’t just fight scenes stitched together. With the death of the Valkyries and Loki and the capture of Freyja and Odin, this is a real breaking point for Thor and the “War of the Realms” as a whole. Aaron, Dauterman, and Wilson double down on the religious/mythological imagery by having cosmic powered Daredevil nail Thor on the World Tree so he can have some insight on how to defeat Malekith. It’s a big moment for a hero that has been considered “unworthy” for the past five years, and he takes responsibility for all the realms sliding into the role of All-Father and not just a rage-filled, hammer destroying warrior.

Speaking of war, there is quite a lot of it, but Aaron, Dauterman, and Wilson do a good job balancing it with the intense, non-linear Thor/Daredevil/Jane Foster scenes. Even though they feature a variety of locations and characters, the action sequences work because they follow a uniting principle of “liberation”. There are sheer badass moments, like Okoye delivering killer one-liners while the Dora Milaje drive back the angels to Heven, Jane Foster and Roz Solomon watching Roxxon’s stock prices drop while they kick Dario Agger’s minotaur ass, and Captain Britain and Captain America teaming up to drive the Dark Elves back to the English Channel. War of the Realms #5 alternates between triumph and agony and is a treat for fans of the Jane Foster Thor stories as she is inspired by the sacrifice of the Valkyries to continue being a warrior and a hero. With operatic visuals (Especially the Daredevil/Thor scenes.) and its strong character development of Thor, War of the Realms #5 earns an Overall Verdict of Buy.

War of the Realms: Journey into Mystery #4

In its frenetic fourth issue, War of the Realms: Journey Into Mystery enters the pantheon of one of my favorite types of mainstream comics: the fun, quirky B-list cast starring book that ends too soon. We’re talking books like Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Superior Foes of Spider-Man, and Secret Six. The McElroys are definitely hip to the idea that the best comedy comes from character, and it leads to hilarious moments like Wonder Man lamenting his Tommy Bahama shirt being riddled with bullets, the underage Brooklynite Miles Morales having no idea how to act in a casino, and Balder trying to order “sack” aka the favorite drink of Shakespeare’s Falstaff at the casino. As we’ve gotten to know the cast of Journey into Mystery better, the humor level has increased along with the level of general peril.

Yes, Journey into Mystery #4 isn’t all witty banter- it’s a heist story set at a henchpeople convention because the War of the Realms isn’t great for business. Andre Araujo’s diagram-like layouts and Chris O’Halloran’s flat approach to colors gives this issue great flair especially when the heist goes sideways, and a gun fight breaks out. Araujo tilts his grid to give readers a 360 view of the casino floor while the team struggles with what to do as Ares goes mano a mano with Thori. Great jokes, an easy to follow setpiece, a down ending, and the brilliant concept of a henchperson convention earns Journey into Mystery an Overall Verdict of Buy.’

War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #3

Up to this point, New Agents of Atlas has had tons of potential yet has been a little bit of a mess with a huge cast of characters and middle of the road visuals from Gang Hyuk Lim and colorists Federico Blee, Andres Mossa, and Erick Arciniega. However, Greg Pak uses a team meal of spam prepared different ways to unite his Pan-Asian superhero team, and it’s a well-timed breather before Jimmy Woo puts his final plan in motion. Splitting the team into tasks that reflect their strengths finally showcases Woo’s strategic genius, and it also lets us get to know the sprawling cast of New Agents of Atlas before the big finale next issue.

Some character moments that stood out to me in New Agents of Atlas #3 was the growing master/apprentice type bond between Sword Master and Shang Chi and the fact that sexist, elitist Monkey King kept getting his ass handed to him by various team members. There is also a sad, yet relevant scene where the usually cheerful Filipina heroine Wave realizes that Sindr making the water warmer will lead to flooding in Cebu where her grandpa lives. New Agents of Atlas #3 is the issue where Pak and Lim make the majority of these characters seem like people and not interchangeable action figures with cool powers. Also, Amadeus Cho gets one hell of a redemption arc and basically is the Korean-American Wolverine as he fights off swarms of Fire Goblins so the rest of the team can accomplish teir tasks. The art is still too “house style”, the colors are still over rendered, but Greg Pak made me care about this new superhero team in this issue so New Agents of Atlas #3 earns an overall verdict of Read.

Captain Marvel #6

Opening with one hell of action scene from artists Annapaola Martello and Tamra Bonvillain where Bucky and Black Widow take out a group of undead ghouls with some acrobatics and a grenade, Captain Marvel #6 ends up being Freaky Friday with Captain Marvel and Dr. Strange, which is the result of them failing to defeat Enchantress. Writer Kelly Thompson has tons of fun with this premise that works because both Strange and Carol are Type A personalities even if his superpowers are more mental and hers are more physical. Black Widow’s dry sense of humor is on full display for most of the issue as she cuts these two big personalities down to size at least until surrounded by aforementioned ghouls.

The big problem with Captain Marvel #6 is that much of the action is said to take place in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, which have metropolitan areas of over 12 million each, but 90% of the comic happens in a fucking jungle. Thompson’s writing is clever, and she nails the dysfunctional personalities of Dr. Strange and Captain Marvel. But, at the bare minimum, she could have read Wikipedia and realized that Brazil is 87.5% urbanized. Despite this huge research faux pas, Captain Marvel is an enjoyable read that doesn’t take itself too seriously, has hilarious faces and well-done action choreography from Martello and Bonvillain, and has an Overall Verdict of Read.

Deadpool #13

I always love when Deadpool has an event tie-in because he always ends up mocking the premise of the event and having a fun, goofy adventure. (Also, because the first Deadpool comic I ever read was a “Secret Invasion” tie-in). Writer Skottie Young and artist Nic Klein take him on a wild ride to Australia where he’s commissioned to liberate the continent/country from Ulik and the trolls with the help of their nation’s finest heroes, Captain Outback, Nuclear Nancy, and copyright friendly Tasmanian Devil. Yep, Young peppers his script with plenty of pop culture references and jokes like having Captain Marvel use Crocodile Hunter dialogue in dream sequence, and “Skottrick” even roasts his own writing when he borrows a one-liner from Terminator and blames it on his kids being home from school.

What makes Deadpool #13 so funny and work has a comic is the blend of silly, irreverent dialogue and detailed art that is played for drama like Klein’s double page tableau recapping what’s been going in the “War of the Realms”. But Klein can do humor too like Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s deadpan expression as Deadpool reacts and laughs at various romantic comedies, or the ending when Deadpool is making jokes about the shittiness of the Hobbit movies while being surrounded by trolls and not having the best allies to help him out. Skottie Young and Nic Klein have a good handle on irreverent Deadpool comedy stylings and have some clever ideas like the trolls enjoying the sparsely populated Australian Outback so Deadpool #13 gets an Overall Verdict of Buy.

Tony Stark, Iron Man #12

I love the idea of Tony Stark fighting a greedy, Smaug-like dragon (Or wyrm. I don’t wanna piss off the fantasy geeks.) and having that fight be written by Gail Simone, who excels at writing smarmy assholes that want to be heroes in spite of it all. (See Catman.) However, Tony Stark Iron Man #12 has to deal with the effects of Dan Slott’s previous arc, introduce the dragon, and have another plot about not having artificial intelligence completely work on technology that affects human behavior. Apparently, in the last arc, Tony Stark relapsed into alcoholism in a virtual reality environment, which honestly just sounds like a weak tea substitute for “Demon in a Bottle”, or a real problem that people experience.

So, Simone and artist Paolo Villanelli are stuck trying to continue that storyline and do a kind of prequel to “War of the Realms”. The idea of Malekith sending a dragon assassin with magical abilities to take out a man of science with quite a large “hoard” is clever and gives an opportunity for Simone to write some Stark snark as he compares the wyrm to Toothless and Falkor. But it’s weighed down by too many subplots. Honestly, this comic would have worked better as a miniseries with Dan Slott continuing his alcoholism/AI/wannabe Black Mirror thing in the main Tony Stark, Iron Man series. It’s safe to say it gets an Overall Verdict of Pass.

With the exception of a bungled Iron Man tie-in, I personally enjoyed this week’s “War of the Realms”, including the core book, which lived up to the pre-release hype of combining the strong arcs and ideas from Jason Aaron’s Thor run with epic Marvel Universe-spanning battles. I’m also going to miss The McElroys when they leave comics and return to their lucrative day job of podcasting and think they would make amazing writers on a humor, character-driven Justice League or Avengers title. Finally, it definitely seems that Skottie Young or someone in the Deadpool office has played Risk because Australia is truly the key to victory…

Panel of the Week

Poor Skottie Young’s kids (Deadpool #13; Art by Nic Klein)

Review: Thor #8

Posted on May 13, 2015 by

The big reveal is finally here and fans from far and wide are likely to be picking up this issue, even when they likely haven’t read another issue of this series other than the first. Ever since the initial announcement of the gender swap for the titular character, this series has been controversial. Some have not accepted the drastic change for a well established character while others have focused on the quality of writing and the deep characterization. Regardless this is the big issue which focuses on the unanswered question, with both the character and the company, since the end of Original Sin.

With the high quality of writing, there would be likely to be some curveballs thrown to the readers, and this is definitely the case here. All sings have pointed towards Roz as the new holder of the hammer, from her disappearance for a short time, as well as to her suspiciously being in the right place at the right time nearly every time that Thor has shown up. This has kept the readers guessing, but the creative team is also adept enough to figure out how to play with the readers a bit through the use of a bit of misdirection (and those that are suspicious and prone to over-examination likely figured out the identity of the character already.) The one misfire in this issue is the inclusion of all the major female heroes. While it is kind of akin to a welcoming party, it also comes off a bit as them showing up to give the new Thor support, which the character really doesn’t need.

The overall effect of this issue is a bit dulled by the ongoing question, that is until the last few panels when the questions are finally answered. The revelation gives fans a lot to ponder, while also providing what is perhaps one of the last unexplored plot lines in comics. Equally the setup will allow others to fill in the characters for this new series, and perhaps even give some unheralded characters a chance to shine. Heading into Secret Wars there is perhaps no better sendoff than this one. The fans that have been picking this up for the quality of the story will have their curiosity piqued by this story. This is just the end of the beginning, but there are still other great stories to be told.

Story: Jason Aaron Art: Russell Dauterman
Story: 8.8 Art: 8.8 Overall: 8.8 Recommendation: Buy

Random

Review: Thor #6

Posted on March 11, 2015 by

With the initial shock worn off of a female Thor, as well as an adequate explanation of how another person can take on the name and not just the title of another, the question therefore comes down to who this new Thor is. The writing team has been careful thus far to leave enough clues to keep the fans guessing, while equally also not releasing too many details too soon. As a simplistic carrot-and-stick motivator, this might fall short, but the issue is careful to also balance in a fair share of action from Thor and some maneuvering by her villains so as to keep more than a prolonged guessing game be the sole source of fun in this series.

It is still perhaps this idea of who Thor is that is the draw here, and the question is explored through Odinson, accepting of the new female version, but also presumably interested in getting back his hammer. In so doing he explores various possibilities, notably here seeking out both Jane Foster and Roz Solomon, two likely suspects from the readers, with a discounting of Jane (or was it?) and a likely implication of Roz (or was it?). As the cover suggests though, there are still a lot of other possibilities that haven’t been explored, and with all the effort put into establishing the new Thor, such a discovery will be by a bang not by a whimper. As this passes, the new Thor is thrust into the background, so much so that by the time that she actually shows up she seems a bit out of place. All the same this is evidently her series and though she is present for only a few panels at the end, she still manages to steal the limelight.

The creative team will of course have to be careful in its drawing out of the search for the identity of this new Thor. In a sense it is not fair as some heroes have maintained their own identities for several decades, often hiding in plain sight without anyone the wiser. In this case, readers will demand an explanation, and while it is going to draw out, it is still important to keep the momentum moving forward, as without it the series would stumble. It is successful in that regard with this issue, framing the story around this investigation but prescient enough of itself to know where its focus has to rest.

Story: Jason Aaron Art: Russell Dauterman
Story: 8.6 Art: 8.6 Overall: 8.6 Recommendation: Buy

Push Comics Forward – The Female Super-Scientist

Posted on February 13, 2015 by

Recently the head honchos at BOOM! Studios put out the idea that comics needs to change and to not be stagnant as a medium. Long since dominated by superhero stories, the medium has indeed made a number of changed in the past couple of decades and the change is noticeable in some regards. Equally though, comics are somewhat of a niche when it comes to their perception in popular culture. Although there is an increasing amount of female readers, the medium is slower to make the changes to draw in fans of all backgrounds, and especially at the big two publishers instead still focuses on mostly a collection of characters who are both white and male. While the interest in push comics forward doesn’t necessarily lie solely with the big two publishers, change has to happen there as elsewhere in order for the medium to evolve.

Science in comics was a bit of an x-factor until the onset of the silver age. Until that point, science was usually grossly misapplied in order to move along a plot. Gross inaccuracies were made and aspects of scientific knowledge would be presented, leaving what was actually used of the science to be misappropriated and simplistic. As the silver age started, the focus on science is what rescued comics from being a medium for children, and instead allowed the medium to mature. The changes first came at DC, though with the generally more god-like powers of the characters, the science was not as pertinent. Hawkman and Green Lantern became intergalactic police, the Atom used White Dwarf matter to give himself powers, and the Flash became a scientist that gained powers by a scientific accident. While the science was there, it was not until Marvel arrived that it redefined science in comics. Although still unreal, the science was still presented in a way that it could be real, at least in our imagination. Instead of characters that were either given or born with their powers, the new wave of heroes earned it the hard way, by building it themselves. Not every Marvel hero was a scientist, but there were a few – Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Tony Stark, Hank Pym, and Reed Richards. While this did push the envelope forward for comics as a medium, what was left behind were the women. The female leads to these heroes were still sometimes heroes, but they fell back into the template of having powers given to them. Sue Storm was a college dropout, and Janet van Dyne was just an girlfriend. They even did better than Betty Ross, Pepper Potts and Mary Jane Watson, who were often relegated to secondary status as damsels in distress (though Sue Storm also performed this role despite being a power superhero.)

While there are perhaps more men than women in science still as a profession, there is no real clear reason why. Women at younger ages are as adept as their male counterparts, and the interest for science is equally there. Some consider it to be a genderized problem, that the “old boys club” of science discourages women from entering its field in some cases, and that women are taught gender roles by society to be less focused on science as opposed to other ventures. While there is debate on these assertions, it is true that women have no more or less natural inclination to science than men do. So why can’t there be a female version of a super scientist? There are of course some very intelligent women in comics. The female version of the Hulk is an accomplished lawyer, and others have shown an ability to pursue more academic fields than what is traditionally typified by their genders, but there is still a gap in terms of the heroes, and who can do what. Female characters can still be powerful, but it is unlikely that their minds are capable of giving them those powers. In fact a large portion of female characters derive their powers from either magic or the supernatural.

What has been an interesting and worthwhile development in the cinematic versions of comics, is that the women characters are presented in a way which is a lot more progressive. Jane Foster is an astrophysicist and in the previous round of Fantastic Four movies, Sue Storm was shown to a be a scientific genius in her own right. This is because as the characters move to a more popular medium, they are forced into a more acceptable presentation of the role that women play, more so than just damsels in distress, but also as able thinkers on their own. So why is there no female superscientific genius yet in comics? This comes back to the inherent idea behind #pushcomicsforward, that there can and should be such female characters, because the medium simply has not caught up yet to the reality of the world. There is even maybe not a need for as many as Marvel has, but a character that is at least adept at science, and who knows the periodic table from the kitchen table. There is no reason not to, as such a character wouldn’t even have to carry a series, but they could still be there, guiding the scientific discussion to a place that is more realistic.

Diamond Select This Week: Thor: The Dark World and the Thunderbolts Strike!

Posted on December 20, 2013 by Brett

Thor fans, gird yourself for battle, as this week’s New Toy Day brings a ton of Thor merchandise to your local comic shop! Not only do the Thor: The Dark World Minimates and Select Jane Foster figure hit stores this week, DST is also shipping out their Thor silicone tray! Plus: the new Thunderbolts Minimates Box Set! The God of Thunder AND the Thunderbolts? Wear your earmuffs!

Marvel Select Thor: The Dark World Jane Foster Figure

Actress Natalie Portman played a prominent role in Thor: The Dark World as Dr. Jane Foster, and Diamond Select Toys has teamed up with Gentle Giant to capture her on-screen look! Sculpted in a 7-inch scale with 16 points of articulation, the figure depicts Foster as she appears in the new film, with detailed sculpting and paint as well as an exacting likeness of Portman. The figure will come packaged with an alternate “possessed” head, a Dark Elf weapon, and a detailed diorama that combines with Thor’s. Comes in display-ready Select packaging, complete with side panel art. Sculpted by Gentle Giant! (Item #MAY131785, SRP: $24.99)

Marvel Minimates Series 53 Thor: The Dark World Asst.

A Diamond Select Release! Designed and Sculpted by Art Asylum! The Mighty Avenger is back in a new movie from Marvel Studios, and DST has an all-new series of Marvel Minimates to go with it! The assortment includes four different two-packs, including Thor with Malekith, Loki with Heimdall, Dr. Erik Selvig with a Dark Elf and the short-packed variant set of Darcy Lewis with a Dark Elf. Each Minimate stands 2 inches tall and includes a variety of interchangeable parts and accessories. (Item #MAY131783, SRP: $9.99/2-pk)

Marvel Thor’s Hammer Silicone Tray

Feel like a frost giant with the latest Marvel-themed silicone rubber tray from DST! You can fill the Mjolnir-shaped openings with a variety of substances to make little hammers made out of ice, gelatin, or even chocolate! Turn any party into an Asgardian feast with the perfect gift for any Thor fan! (Item #SEP131920, SRP: $15)

Marvel NOW! Minimates Thunderbolts Box Set

The newest incarnation of the Thunderbolts may be the deadliest team yet! This box set of four Minimates mini-figures draws from the latest Thunderbolts line-up, as seen in the current Marvel NOW! comic, and includes Deadpool, The Punisher, Elektra and Red Hulk, who can transform into General “Thunderbolt” Ross! Each Minimate stands 2 inches tall and includes a variety of interchangeable parts and accessories. Designed and Sculpted by Art Asylum! (Item #AUG132037, SRP: $19.99)