Wednesday, December 2, 2015

I READ MORE COMIC BOOKS

Being another collection of my thoughts on comic books I have read in recent weeks.

The Hangman was sort of the Punisher before there was the Punisher. In the 1940s, he avenged the death of his super-hero brother, the Comet, and then, presumably, hung some other murderers in his self-appointed roles of judge, jury and executioner. His career in the 1940s wasn’t a long one and few of his stories have been reprinted.

2015. The Hangman #1 [Dark Circle Comics aka Archie Comics; $3.99] reinvents the character as an urban legend who exacts justice of the lethal vigilante type on modern-day murderers. It’s written by Frank Tieri with art by Felix Ruiz. Decent writing, decent art, but, overall, nothing to knock my socks off.

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The first issue deals with a family man who is a hitman and, quite frankly, not very good at his job. He leaves a victim-to-be in the trunk of his car overnight in his family garage. He also leaves his young daughter’s stuffed rabbit in the trunk and has to do a bit of fancy dancing to keep his wife and kid from learning what a monster he really is.

Whatever the hitman lacks in basic smarts, he more than makes up for with true viciousness. His victim is a mobster who was in love with a boss’s wife. The hitman covers him in strawberry jam and leaves him with a whole bunch of waterfront rodents. His next planned stop is to do something unspeakable to the cheating wife, which is when he meets the Hangman. Save for the gratuitous nastiness, which comes off as Tieri trying too hard to earn this comic books its “mature content” rating, this is all pretty much by the numbers for a comic book like this one.

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While most of the issue is by the numbers, it’s the last two pages that will bring me back for a second issue. What happens on those pages caught me off guard. What happens on those pages could be a sign of something interesting in future issues. We shall see.

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Klaus #1 [Boom! Studios; $3.99] is the first of six issues by Grant Morrison and artist Dan Mora. It’s the story of “How Santa Claus Began” and, as much as I can tell from the initial chapter of this story, it’s a really good one. Fine writing, intriguing characters, lovely art. That’s all you get from me, save that I’m truly looking forward to the rest of the series and, if they are as good as this first one, buying a hardcover collection of the series for future readings during many holiday seasons to come.

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We have a winner. Or, maybe, that should be...we have a loser. The 2015 edition of Secret Wars is the worst company-wide event in the whole history of excruciatingly awful company-wide events. It earns this “coveted” honor because writers and editors with no regard for the great Marvel characters with whom they had been entrusted decided it’d be fun to twist those characters into unrecognizable versions of their essential selves. For years, these so-called talents took  multiple craps on the characters and then most of them went back to their creator-owned comics. Except for those who have stayed around to continue collecting those big Marvel checks. A pox on them all.

Now I love Marvel Comics. The comics the company published in the 1960s made me want to write comic books. The company has generally treated me fairly and even well. I love the Marvel characters. I’ve expressed my regard in print for many of the Marvel comic books of recent years. But Secret Wars and the comics leading up to it and most of the cling-on limited series of recent months add up to one big steaming dump. To be sure, there were exceptions, but, by and large, what I read were some of the worst super-hero comics of my lifetime. However, even as I try to wash that bad taste out of my brain, I refuse to give up hope.

The Marvel movies, TV series and cartoons are more true to Marvel than the comic books. I enjoy all of them. But, by nature, I am a forgiving man. I want to forget the Secret Wars garbage. I want to enjoy the comic books published in the wake of that most awful of company-wide events. My pledge to you is to give all of those comic books a fair shot.

Which brings us to Extraordinary X-Men #1 and #2 [$4.99 and $3.99 respectively] by Jeff Lemire with artists Humberto Ramos (pencils), Victor Olazaba (inks) and Edgar Delgado (colors). Probably not the best start to trying to rekindle my romance with Marvel’s comics. The issues felt familiar and not in any good way. They were more than boring. They were tedious.

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The very existence of Marvel mutantkind is imperiled...again. The Terrigen mists released by the Inhumans during the years of Marvel writers torturing Marvel characters are poisonous to mutants. The mists have also sterilized all mutants, meaning there will be “no new mutants.” Shades of the Scarlet Witch, we have been down that road before and it was an unpleasant ride.

Sidebar. What I should have written is there will be no new mutants until the Marvel brass want new mutants. Which, using my own mutant psychic powers, I predict will be when Marvel Studios reclaims the movie rights to the X-Men. End of sidebar.

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There are multiple ongoing X-Men titles on the Marvel schedule and the roster of this one is Storm. Iceman, Illyana, Colossus, Old Man Logan (from another and now gone alternate universe), Nightcrawler, the young Jean Grey from the past and Cerebra, a mutant-finding GPS system housed in an old Sentinel body because, if you want to find mutants, you want to introduce yourself while you’re in the company of a giant robot known for slaughtering mutants. Hey, Storm, last time I checked, it wasn’t survival of the most clueless.

One more thing. Bigotry against mutants is back to record levels. The people fear them. Mobs try to kill them or, at least, get them to leave their neighborhood. Governments attack them. Donald Trump wants to build a wall around them. Ted Cruz wants to convert them  into Christians. Dead Christians, but Christians nonetheless. Which is, of course, exactly what Jesus would do.

My first date with post-Secret Wars Marvel was a disaster. But I’m hopeful I can find a Marvel comic book out there that’s perfect for me. Maybe a whole bunch of them. I’m a swinger.

I’ll be back soon with more stuff.

© 2015 Tony Isabella

1 comment:

  1. I had mixed feelings about Secret Wars, I must admit. A few of the tie-in titles like THORS were fun, but the main book left me scratching my head. Not only did the writers & editors play with the Marvel super-heroes we know, but decided to muck about with alternate Earth versions as well.

    To be honest the worst part for me is that the 'event' is still going to go on into the New Year, while the "new" Marvel Universe is already several issues into its current incarnation. We already know who is going to be surviving and how their new origins are spelled out. Why bother continuing to read the series? This is why I should know better than to be sucked back by these things.

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