Look, there are a lot of comics out there. Too many. We can never hope to have in-depth conversations about all of them. But, we sure can round up some of the more noteworthy titles we didn’t get around to from the week. Today, Drew and Patrick discuss The New 52: Futures End 2, Avengers 29, and All-New X-Men 27.
Drew: With DC doubling- (even tripling-) down on weekly series, a lot of ink has been spilled on the benefits of a weekly format. While I certainly think the opportunity to sell four times as many comics is part of the equation, I’m more interested in the narrative benefits. Do you choose a monthly format to allow for more propulsive cliffhangers? To facilitate more nuanced decompression? To broaden the scope of the series? The New 52: Futures End favored this latter option right off the bat (much to the detriment of issues 0-1), but issue 2 begins to make good on that promise in earnest, placing its characters in the context of a larger superhero universe.
The issue revolves around Oliver Queen’s funeral, putting many of the series key players in the same location, allowing them to introduce a shared history by way of reflection. It owes a great deal to Eddie Blake’s funeral in Watchmen — also a second issue (perhaps not coincidentally) — but manages to imply a larger universe that was entirely lacking in the first two issues. A series could do more wrong than copying Watchmen, and this issue’s obviousness in its tributes (right down to its super-genius coming clean about his superheroing) strikes me as a good sign. It’s far from perfect — the story loses all steam any time it moves away from the funeral — but it’s certainly a step in the right direction.
Of course, it would be hard not to clear the low bar set by those first issues. The problems here are still numerous, and I’m particularly concerned with the terrible handle the writers have on Mr. Terrific’s voice. Writing smart characters is always difficult, but this issue doesn’t give me much confidence in how this series will handle one of its main characters going forward. Maybe it will take another cue from Watchmen and relegate him to the background for most of the series.
Patrick: If we’re relegating geniuses to supporting roles, how about counting Firestorm as one genius and letting that duo cool it. Jason fucked up — he blew off a responsibility that wound up getting Green Arrow killed. But there’s this ridiculous fallacy that Firestorm’s absence is solely responsible for the loss of life that day. Where, for example, was Arsenal? Where was Flash? Where were any of the hundreds of heroes in attendance at the funeral?
We don’t have the clearest image of what this world is really like right now, so I find it kind of frustrating how interested the issue appears to be in the past. I suppose it is inevitable — funerals make people talk about the life of the deceased, but for a series about the Futures (and the fact that they End), Buddy spends an inordinate amount of time talking about an era before the one we’re witnessing. Some of that fills in blanks: like Ollie’s role in the second war with Apokolips and the resultant fallout when two worlds were merged. But there’s also a huge panel of Ollie kickin’ butt with the Justice League United (we’re not actually calling them that, are we?), which I don’t think we need.
Also Drew, I can only assume you’re referring to Mr. Terrific’s “Whatch me trend.” That’s some awkward writing, but then again, it’s a weird situation for Mr. Terrific to be in. I straight-up don’t understand why a reporter would suggest that donating ten million dollars in Ollie’s name would be “enough.” Like, doesn’t it stand to reason that someone who would donate all that money would also want to go to the funeral?
Things are no less grave, but somehow markedly more fun in Avengers 29. There’s a fair amount of retread here, as the audience seems privy Captain America’s entire discovery that his memories of fighting the Incursions with the Illuminati have been wiped from his memory. My own memory of those events is sorta hazy, so I was actually relieved to have some of it recapped from the first couple issues of New Avengers. More than acting as a plotty reminder, however, the extended flashback serves to place the ideological divide between Cap and Tony at the emotional center of this conflict. The argument ramps up to a wonderfully muted fever pitch, as conversation dominates pages that are absolutely lousy with panels. And then the big reveal, which recalls both the image and the text from Avengers 1.
Now that “Bad Dreams?” “Something like that.” is a haunting refrain — a loaded phrase imbued with a uniquely Jonathan Hickman-level of meaning. Hickman milks that meaning for all it’s worth, dragging out the actual point of conflict between Steve and Tony to the last possible second. Even as Cap is in open aggression, Tony admits to nothing, preferring to keep his cards close to his chest. I’ve usually got a pretty good bullshit detector when it comes to “and now the heroes fight,” but it was goddamn exciting to see all the Iron Man suits power up to face down Captain America and his small band of demigods.
Drew: I also had a lot of fun with that sequence — and this issue as a whole — but I think suggesting that there’s a “fair amount of retread” is being overly charitable. Those flashback sequences are lifted page-for-page out of New Avengers 3, and while Leinil Francis Yu imbues a great deal more mood into his pencils than Steve Epting’s originals (somehow making this feel more like an issue of New Avengers, if that makes any sense), I’m less convinced we needed to see the whole scene again. I mean, the “Previously in Avengers” page pretty thoroughly robs that scene of any surprise — any hopes of allowing us to make that discovery with Steve — making me wonder why they even bothered.
Ultimately, I suppose it’s a minor quibble, and I can appreciate why Marvel might want to get everyone up to speed on this particular turn of events, even if they’ve never read an issue of New Avengers. More importantly, the retread doesn’t seem to come at the cost of any storytelling real-estate, as the issue weighs in at 27 pages. Still, it’s a bit odd to see an issue so mired in “on sale now!” footnotes that it just includes an extra 6 pages of another comic. At any rate, we’re all caught up now (and something something time gem), so I can’t wait to see where Hickman takes Steve and Tony’s relationship next.
All-New X-Men 27 similarly devotes a significant portion of the issue to past events, but with the notable difference that we haven’t seen these events before. They’re ostensibly flashbacks, examining the life of Xavier, but Brian Michael Bendis can’t help but remind us of the wonky chronology, insisting that these past events happen “years from now.” Filling in some blanks about the Brotherhood’s past could go a long way to avoiding some of the problems Battle of the Atom ran in to, but this issue actually fails to address what any of this has to do with our time-traveling original X-Men.
Of course, even without any deeper understanding of their motives, the Brotherhood’s siege on the New Charles Xavier School is thrilling, and penciller Stuart Immonen sells the ever-loving snot out of it. Between Raze’s attempts to gain sympathy as he changes form to Xavier’s zombification of Mindee, the present-day sequences are straight out of a horror film. That’s not a gear we’ve seen this series try before, but I’m pleasantly surprised with how well it works.
Patrick: It certainly is interesting which questions Bendis decides are worthy of him answering. I also really like getting a look at Raze and Xavier’s origins, even if it’s a little strange that Mystique turns into the Mother of Mutants. We still don’t have any information on how we’re seeing the Brotherhood again, but the characters all making numerous references to the fact that many of them “expired” during their last encounter. Deadpool even comes right out with it: “Yeah. I think I died last time. I’d rather not do that again.” What? I recognize that there are a billion comic-booky answers for why they could be up and running around the present, but I sorta feel like we need at least one.
The strength of the character work should totally put my objections to rest. Bendis is on a tear in this issue, almost as though he’s compulsively characterizing even bit players in this story. Take the example of Mystique, a Mutant who, by most measures, barely features in this series. We watch Raven give birth to Xavier — naturally, we don’t know that its her at the time — but Bendis and Immonen are careful to humanize her before she abandons the baby in the hospital. Rather than being Xavier’s Sad Story, it’s another brick in the heartbreaking legacy of the non-stop conflict between the Mutants. In fact, Mystique has a little flash before the child is born.
Scott Summers / The Phoenix killing Charles leads directly to Mystique giving up her baby. I don’t know that that moment needed any extra weight, but it’s now fully explained as the inciting incident of both the Original X-Men’s time displacement, and as a formative moment for some of the Brotherhood (who wasn’t even alive at the time). We’ve argued about how much anyone should be holding Scott accountable for his actions here, but there’s no denying that the event had a very real effect that reverberates backwards and forwards throughout time. With each new revelation, the act seems bigger, more consequential.
The conversation doesn’t stop there, because you certainly read something that we didn’t. What do you wanna talk about from this week?
Retcon Punch 
“Watch me trend,” might have been the most grating line of dialogue I’ve read this year. It’s a shame, I want to like Mr. Terrific. I still kind of like this comic, but holy crap, less Firestorm, less trending, more anything else….
And. . . you have a light round up this week and I’m actually prepared for it. I spent a couple minutes last night posting on my blog one sentence comments about what I thought I bought this week (I don’t know for sure because I don’t keep receipts and my piles of comics are on hold while I am applying for jobs) so I’d be able to contribute here.
So:
Nailbiter #1: This was THROWN at me by my comic guy. “Sold out!” he cried, “It’s going to be a big one!” Well, sold out or not, horror comics are tricky. This one has the necessary tension, the gore is reasonable, but I think it’s going to amount to a buddy cop type comic with a cop and a former (but is he reformed?) serial killer trying to find another serial killer. I could be wrong, but that’s where it was leading me. It was a fine debut comic and I’ll at least follow the first arc.
Iron Man #25 – No party at all for 25 issues of Gillen on Iron Man (and as much as you guys like Gillen, you seem to shy from his non teen stuff, which is weird to me). This is an ok issue. Iron Man FINALLY kicks some butt and has Malekith on the run. The best issue of this Mandarin arc. I guess I like it when the heroes win because of their strength, cleverness and planning.
Uber #13 – More Gillen! This wasn’t a necessary issue. It’s a character piece that probably could have been 10 pages instead of 24, but I still really, really appreciate this comic. It’d be great as a graphic novel, collected edition and it’s great month by month. The gore is over the top, but this is a really nice complementary book to Manhattan Projects (both started as WW2 arms race historical fiction to branch out crazily).
Doomed (and friends) #1 – It really struck me as odd that your piece on Superman/Wonder Woman talked about the book in isolation and as part of the series, but not as part of the Doomsday event. I liked all three books (Action #31, Supes/WW #1, and Doomed #1), but I thought Doomed was the best of the bunch. A bit cluttered in some action scenes, but it was one of the rare times that I felt the pressure that Superman must feel himself. He was responsible for this. It would kill everyone. He had to go to space to take it away, even if it meant leaving earth and it might even mean KILLING (which he only does in movies. Sorry, spoiler there). Great series so far, maybe my favorite event DC has put out in the New 52.
Afterlife With Archie #5 – I feel a little grossed out that I went with the cheesecake Betty in a nightgown cover, but it was a great cover. I chose it over the Francavilla cover. Francavilla is awesome. I picked a scared cartoon girl in her underwear over Francavilla. Awful. Actually, not as awful as my comic guy who ONLY Bought the Betty cover and didn’t buy any Francavillas for his store. “Are you serious?” he asked me. “This thing is awesome!” Conclusion to the Riverdale (Rivervale? Riverside? Where the hell do they live? I don’t know) arc. This thing seems to have legs. I’ve liked every issue. I just don’t know how much steam it can have – the Archie universe *is* limited, right? How much of a world, how many characters do they have?
Great week. A big week. I picked up a signed Spectacular Spider-Man 157, and a Snyder signed Batman #1 in NM condition on ebay this week, too. This week is looking up as well. More Spider-Man please!
Yeah, man – the Doomed event put us in a weird space as far as our discussions are concerned. We obviously weren’t going to commit three of our 11 conversations to pieces about the event, but Superman Wonder Woman is probably our pick over Action Comics and anything written by Lobdell, so we just decided to cover that single issue. It does turn out to be the weakest of the three, and hindsight is great, but not all that helpful in the moment. Drew and I felt that it was better to leave that article as a space to discussed DOOMED, so we didn’t bring them back up here.
Also might be interesting to note that we aren’t universally fans of Gillen’s. We tried (lord how we tried) to get into Iron Man about a year ago, but just couldn’t deal with it. And Drew and I have been vocal in our conditional love for Young Avengers. (I maintain that 80% of that series charm came from McKelvie and the place that series held in the fan community.)
And Afterlife with Archie is fun. I didn’t see that alternate cover, but yeesh.
http://afterlifewitharchie.com/cover-gallery/#jp-carousel-1284
Yeah, I’m quite likely the biggest Young Avengers fan working on the site, and even I wouldn’t say I’m universally a fan of everything Gillen puts out. I loved what Gillen did on the book, but I probably loved what McKelvie brought more, and I have mixed feelings about other Gillen books I’ve read – I’m still not sure if I really get Phonogram, for example.
Honestly though, I try my best not to be an “universal” fan of everything ANY author puts out. All of my favorite comic book writers have put out books I didn’t like or that didn’t work for me (Waid’s current Hulk reboot, Simone’s take on Firestorm, even Lemire and Azzarello on Futures End right now), and I try to be cool about that. It just happens sometimes.
I apologize if it came off as a criticism on choosing S/WW to write about. I was merely commenting on how we came at the same comic from very different paths. You guys love the Wonder Woman story and write a lot about the role of women in comics. It was an interesting topic to you guys about how Wonder Woman was portrayed here. I haven’t read Wonder Woman in a year and am only reading this as part of the Doomsday storyline, so the idea that Wonder Woman should be featured, even in the title that shared here name, didn’t really occur to me because, to me, it’s a Superman story. I just thought it was interesting. And a bit odd, because I’m always surprised when my thoughts are not universally shared – I should get used to it here; We REALLY read comics differently.
Would it bother you to buy those Archie covers? I have in the past avoided that kind of thing. This time I wasn’t wild about the Francavilla cover and a pinup Veronica cover in a zombie apocalypse at least seemed. . . a little not creepy. Maybe?
Please, don’t worry about offending us about our angle on S/WW — how exactly we wanted to cover it was actually a point of discussion. Both mindsets (that this should be read as chapter three of a crossover AND that this is an issue of an ongoing series) are valid, so we opted to not insist on either one from our writers. The fact that it happened to be the third issue of Doomed made us less interested in covering the first two issues here, but it did kind of leave a hole as far as our coverage is concerned. Oh well — I guess we can have that conversation here, anyway!
Oh yeah, I certainly didn’t take offense to that, but we did have an honest-to-goodness conversation about it, so I thought I’d pull back the curtain a little bit.
And that’s a good question about the covers. I end up buying all of my shit digitally (so we can use the screen grabs for articles – more curtain-pulling-back) so it’s never really crossed my mind that I might have something that I didn’t want to be seen with. But like, yeah, I’d be embarrassed to whip out that cover on the bus. Stuck away in a longbox? Not as bad. I’d rather it just not exist, but I don’t know how to make that happen.
Dude, embarrassment with comic book art is very real — especially for someone who tends to read on public transit. I have no qualms pulling out something that tends to be tasteful, but I get so uncomfortable when characters start having their boobs pop out or breaking their backs to keep their ass in frame. That’s not why I read comics, and I’d prefer it if there was no confusion in the eyes of the old lady reading over my shoulder.
Oh, that’s actually the wrong cheesecake cover…
http://afterlifewitharchie.com/cover-gallery/#jp-carousel-902
I don’t think there’s a single likeable character in all of this issue of Futures End. Firestorm and Mr. Terrific are both obnoxious, and I say this as someone who loved Terrific back in JSA and even followed the NEW 52 series for most of its run; this isn’t the character I’m familiar with from either iteration. Bring back Batman Beyond; hell, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d even take Grifter over them.
I STAND BY GRIFTER. I know I expressed my affinity for the Grifter portion of the previous issue, so I know I’m like a skipping record here – my heart is open to a new version of this character. I come to him with only some slight baggage (and Drew’s “what is he? some kind of grifter?” jokes), so the methodical serial killer (with… I hesitate to say “heart of gold” but he does have noble intentions) could wind up being a compelling character.
Avengers didn’t work anywhere near as well for me as it did you guys. The revelation about Tony had the potential to be catastrophic, but it quickly dissolved into a bland slug-fest between both sides. And I really didn’t like Yu’s art this time around. Much of it was blurry and hard to follow, and he didn’t even seem to understand the characters he was drawing; he kept having Starbrand shoot eye beams, for example, and that’s not at all a part of Kevin’s power-set. Starbrand shoots beams out of his hands, it’s HYPERION who shoots them out of his eyes!
[Pushes up glasses]
So… the glasses give him that power?
Is it so wrong that I expect people who make their actual career out of writing and drawing comic books to be as big of nerds as I am? STEP UP YOUR GAMES, CREATORS
[Pushes up glasses harder]
Jokes aside, why can’t Kevin shoot beams from his eyes? We’ve seen the Starbrand shoot energy from just fucking every part of his body, right? Maybe the eyes are just the easiest to aim.
Oh, I know I’m being a little rigid here; there’s probably no reason Starbrand can’t shoot beams from his eye, but we’ve never seen him do it before, while the only guy on that page who we HAVE consistently seen shoot beams from his eyes, Hyperion, doesn’t do it at all. It just makes me think that Yu got the two characters mixed up somehow.
Actually, these kinds of mistakes are some of my favorites — like when there’s a lettering mistake such that one character is speaking the lines clearly meant for another. The even funnier version is when it happens in animation, and one character momentarily has the wrong voice.