Review: Superman #3

This relaunched version of Superman might be my favorite of the revamped characters in the DCnU. Superman, in appearance and character, is arguably the most iconic of the superheroes in DC’s line up, and it was a very ambitious move to mess with the globally recognizable Man of Steel. Overall, I think DC has succeeded in making Superman more accessible to a wider audience without losing his most iconic traits.

This issue opens on a documentary detailing the history of Superman in the DCnU. This was a nice little refresher course on the relaunched continuity, and it was also laden with little easter eggs for longtime fans like an appearance of Titano and a supervillain named Fleischer. More than a simple “previously, on Superman” device, this documentary showed what it would be like for the modern world to experience the debut of the first superhero. We see reactions of the general public ranging from adoration to suspicion of his anti-establishment stance of defying law enforcement to attack the corrupt power brokers of Metropolis. I hate to use this term, but it almost feels like the “Ultimate” version of Superman (which I mean as a compliment).

We see in this documentary that Lois Lane produced that there is contention over whether or not Superman is actually a positive presence. The argument seems to be that such a powerful metahuman like Superman is attracting increasingly powerful antagonists. Although Superman has always defeated these metahuman menaces, the idea is that there’s a certain amount of civilian casualties that wouldn’t necessarily happen if Superman didn’t exist. This sort of commentary and philosophical questioning is the kind of thing I like to see in my Superman comics.

This issue involves Superman fighting against the third in a line of odd monsters that have attacked Metropolis in the past two issues. This time it’s an ice monster that’s freezing the entire city with an arctic tornado. These scenes are a showcase for Nicola Scott’s great art of Superman in action, and it seems important to have at least one big battle for every issue of this comic. After the disappointing box office numbers of Superman Returns, it’s obviously a smart move to have Superman using his vast powers against vastly powerful enemies rather than floating around indecisively like an indestructible Hamlet.

I’m enjoying this comic quite a bit. It’s a risky move to radically change both the world and the costume of Superman, and at least for me, it’s paying off. I know some people don’t like the new costume, but I love it; in my opinion, the red belt looks better than red underpants (sorry,@supermanstrunks!) and I wish they would have used this costume in the upcoming Man of Steel film. Overall, I give this issue four out of five Raos.

Review: Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man #4

When I first heard they were killing off Ultimate Peter Parker, I didn’t think it was the best idea. Why kill off your teenage, continuity free, fresh start Spider-Man before he even reaches drinking age? What was the point of having a blank slate Spider-Man if you’re not going to tell all the stories that can be told, like sending him to college in the modern world for example? I’m happy to admit that I was wrong. Brian Michael Bendis not only made Peter Parker’s death one of the most heart wrenching and emotional superhero deaths of all time, but his origin story for Miles Morales is really selling this character as a worthy successor to the Spider-Man role.

This issue shows the events of The Death of Spider-Man through the eyes of Miles Morales who has recently gained spider powers of his own. Bendis revisits Peter Parker’s last stand, and I was reminded of how well he handled the death of Spider-Man. This may sound corny or overly sentimental to a lot of people, but I’m not afraid to admit it…I get a little choked up when I read Peter Parker’s last words to his Aunt May, “Don’t you see…it’s okay. I did it. I couldn’t save him. Uncle Ben. I couldn’t save him…no matter what I did. But I saved you. I did it.” These last words encapsulate the essence of Spider-Man.

Spider-Man’s crime fighting career was always about the crushing guilt of Uncle Ben’s death. Every life saved, every supervillain stopped, and every crisis averted was about saving Uncle Ben. The genius of Bendis’s decision to have Miles Morales witness this moment is that this new Spider-Man now has an Uncle Ben of his own: Peter Parker.

Peter Parker is Miles Morales’s Uncle Ben because if only he had been using his newfound spider-powers instead of hiding them, perhaps he could have been there to save Peter Parker’s life. The “Uncle Ben”, the unnecessary sacrifice that could have been prevented if only a better decision had been made is a crucial component in the equation that is Spider-Man. I think Bendis has made a brilliant choice to have the original Spider-Man serve as this sacrificial reminder of responsibility to the new Spider-Man.

Again, Bendis revisits the Death of Spider-Man by having Miles Morales attend Peter Parker’s funeral. We see the emotional moment of the little girl thanking Aunt May because Peter Parker saved her life but through Miles Morales’s eyes, and it’s just as heart breaking the second time around. Miles Morales brazenly asks Gwen Stacy why Peter Parker became Spider-Man, and her answer brings it all back to Uncle Ben. Gwen Stacy tells Miles Morales about the death of Uncle Ben, and she relays that line that is the eternal mantra of Spider-Man: “With great power comes great responsibility.” It’s important that any Spider-Man, Peter Parker or not, knows this quote and lives by it, and it would feel forced if Miles Morales’s father were to give him this line rather than someone who heard it first hand from Peter Parker.

In the next scene, we see Miles Morales designing his own Spider-Man costume, and he puts on a store bought, Halloween Spider-Man suit for his debut as the next wallcrawler. I liked the idea of Miles Morales using a Halloween costume, and it’s not without precedent. In Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s original run on Amazing Spider-Man, the 26th issue involved Spider-Man using an ill-fitting Halloween costume because Aunt May confiscated his regular suit (ironically, she thought it was a Halloween costume that was in poor taste). It’s a nice nod to tradition to have Miles Morales do the same, and it also makes sense when you consider how hard it would be for a teenager to sew his own webbing covered Spider-Man suit.

I am enjoying this origin story of Miles Morales a lot. Bendis is proving that you can take Peter Parker away from Spider-Man and substitute someone else without losing the heart of the character. Miles Morales is written as a believable character who is slowly coming to grips with the massive responsibility that comes with being Spider-Man, and through his experience, I’m reminded of what Spider-Man was about all along. Spider-Man isn’t about Peter Parker; Spider-Man is about responsibility, personal sacrifice, and a willingness to throw it all away it if means saving one more innocent life from needless death. I can’t recommend this comic enough, True Believers.

Review: Marvel's Point One

Marvel’s Point One is an anthology of stories by different writers and artists that teases the story arcs in upcoming comic book series. I didn’t really know what to expect before I read this comic. Would it be more of a marketing tool than a narrative? Would it be worth the 5.99 price tag, or would it feel like a promotional brochure for comics on the horizon? I was pleasantly surprised by the answer to these questions; Point One is a well written and illustrated collection of short stories that piqued my interest in a couple of these new series. Instead of reading like an empty marketing tool, this comic jams a lot of interesting and cool stuff into quite a thick comic book.

The comic opens on the Watcher in his sanctum on the moon. I was immediately struck by how good Javier Pulido’s art is in this section. Pulido depicts the Watcher’s home as filled with otherworldly, geometric shapes that seem to be pulled right out of Steve Ditko’s work on Dr. Strange. In fact, it looks like Pulido is really channeling Ditko’s style throughout the scenes in the Watcher’s home, which was an homage that I really appreciated.

Two unknown astronauts have infiltrated the Watcher’s home in a mission to steal his comprehensive memories and an object that goes unmentioned (the ultimate nullifier, maybe). This Ditko-esque scene serves as the narrative frame for the entire issue as one of the astronauts observes events happening in the present, future, and possible futures of the Marvel Universe by looking at “a wall of memories and windows into alternate universes”.

The first story in this issue involves Nova fighting Terrax on a planet 80,000 light years from Earth. I thought this story was well illustrated, but to be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of Nova because I find him and his Nova Corps to be a little too similar to DC’s Green Lantern Corps for my tastes. On top of that, Terrax looked and acted a lot like Darkseid. This sequence teases the return of The Phoenix, a planet destroying threat that would make “Galactus fudge his pants”, and putting aside the issue of similarity to DC’s mythology, I thought that the coming of the Phoenix was well handled.

The next story depicts a dystopian future in which mutants have become the totalitarian fascists that they always feared. Mutants have all but exterminated the human race, and they are portrayed as just as bad as the Nazis. The Red Prophet, one of the last human freedom fighters, breaks into the home of a mutant father who had a hand in the extermination of humanity, and he asks him, “Tell me, Krakken, was that a thrill for you? Watching ovens of your design so efficiently incinerate innocent men, women, and children?” The comparison between these future mutants and the Nazis seems practically explicit, and especially when the mutant Krakken asserts that he is not a human being, but rather “Homo superior”. I thought it was an interesting twist to have mutants become the oppressive, racist group that they always feared humanity would ultimately become.

The third story is the one that I was looking forward to the most, and it’s the reason I bought this comic. This section sees Kaine’s debut as the new Scarlet Spider, and it didn’t disappoint. I have a soft spot for Scarlet Spider. I was a fan of Ben Reilly and the Scarlet Spider persona back in the day, and there’s something about the idea of a more unhinged version of Spider-Man that I like. Spider-Man is stationary and confined to New York City, but Scarlet Spider can roam the United States untethered to commitment and permanent responsibilities. Kaine’s first appearance as Scarlet Spider really capitalizes on this notion of a darker Spider-Man, and we see as he reluctantly dons the persona that he’s trying to overcome his past as a murderous super villain. Scarlet Spider promises to be the redemption of Kaine, and I’m on board for this series.

The following story showed the origin of what I think are two new characters, “Dragonfire” and “Coldmoon”. These twins were grown as superhuman weapons by Taiji Corp and kept separate their entire lives until they intuited each other’s existences and teamed up to escape the facility they were raised in. Apparently, they’re going to be helping out the Avengers. The Ying/Yang, fire/ice symbolism of these characters is visually interesting.

The fifth segment was a Dr. Strange solo story that I found very enjoyable. Dr. Strange takes a stroll through Greenwich Village, and he pays a visit to a character called Notebooks Joe, a raving homeless person who has been compiling “the secret history of Greenwich Village” in the endless composition notebooks that lend him his namesake. Instead of wearing his usual garish costume, Dr. Strange is clothed in a fine suit, which I thought was a nice touch. Dr. Strange projects himself into Notebooks Joe’s fractured psyche in an attempt to wake him from his constant ramblings, only to discover that the source of the vagrant’s madness is some mystical machine that threatens to break the universe. This short story effectively teased the upcoming story arc in The Defenders, and it had an entertaining usage of psychedelic and mystical imagery.

The final scene involved another dystopian future in which Ultron destroys New York City. This segment was illustrated by the always amazing Bryan Hitch, and the art was very good as we see Hawkeye and Spider-Man desperately racing to escape Ultron’s attack. However, there wasn’t much going on in this section beyond Hitch’s beautifully detailed illustration of Ultron’s attack.

Overall, I thought that Point One was a pretty good collection of stories that effectively hinted at the plots in upcoming comics. I was sold on both Scarlet Spider and The Defenders based on what I read here. What could have been a shallow marketing tool of a comic was instead a dense read that delivered on the 5.99 price tag, and I think this is an anthology that you should buy if you want a taste of the future of the Marvel universe.

Review: Animal Man #3

Animal Man is proving to be one of the most interesting titles in the New 52. Jeff Lemire is writing Animal Man as less of a superhero and more of a shaman who traverses the spirit world and communes with totemic entities. On top of Lemire’s interesting take on Animal Man as a shamanic figure, Travel Foreman’s art is truly outstanding. This series is just the kind of original and idiosyncratic take on a superhero that I was hoping for in DC’s relaunch, and I can’t recommend it enough.

I was blown away by Foreman’s art on the very first page. He illustrates Animal Man and his daughter Maxine descending into “The Red”, a sort of spirit world that is the source of Animal Man’s morphogenetic field, and this drawing is just crazy awesome. Foreman has Animal Man’s head turning inside out in this grotesque fashion as he and his daughter fall into The Red. On the next page, Foreman has a bigger and even more detailed image of Animal Man’s every fiber being morphed and transformed by his journey into The Red. These images are stunning and psychedelic, and I would honestly buy this comic just for these disturbingly weird, masterfully drawn depictions of Animal Man as he’s transformed by a trip into the beyond.

After the first two trippy pages of their initiation into The Red, we see a double page spread of Animal Man and Maxine confronting these giant, chimeric “Animal Men”. These Animal Men are humanoid beings with all different sorts of animal parts incorporated into their bodies. They say that they are “the totems…all the former avatars of The Red”. The Red, which is described as “the life web that connects all living things” is extremely similar to the concept of the spirit world that you’ll find in animist religions. Animal Man and his daughter enter The Red and commune with self proclaimed “totems” and this is all but indistinguishable from a shaman communicating with spirits in the spirit world. The Red could also be compared to the Dreamtime of the Australian Aborigines. Lemire’s idea to borrow from animist religions in an Animal Man comic is very clever, and the mystical approach to this character is one that I find interesting.

I also found it interesting that these totemic Animal Men reveal that Buddy Baker is not the true avatar of The Red…his daughter Maxine is the real avatar of The Red. The concept of taking the protagonist of the comic and turning him into a second fiddle to his own daughter, who will probably be much more connected to The Red and perhaps much more powerful as well, is a compelling twist on the narrative of this series. I don’t want to spoil the plot of this issue too much, but the way that the Animal Men reveal Buddy Baker’s nature as a less important custodian of the avatar of The Red through a retcon of his origin was a cool twist on the way he got his powers. This new retcon of Animal Man’s secret origin (a crashed UFO blew up and gave him animal powers!) makes a little more sense of an origin story that you could easily call nonsensical.

While Animal Man is in The Red and learning from the totemic Animal Men spirits that his daughter Maxine is the next avatar of this spirit world, his wife is attacked by these terrifying monsters called “The Other”. Again, Foreman’s illustrations of these monsters are impressive. They are these horrifying mish mashes of organs that look like walking and talking cancers, and the disgusting detail that Foreman gives these creatures really hammers home their terrifying nature. It was easy for me to get sucked into the story as Ellen Baker and her son Cliff run away from these scary cancer-people that are trying to eat them.

Overall, I’m finding this comic to be extremely enjoyable. Lemire isn’t writing this as a-by-the-numbers superhero book. He’s writing Animal Man as this shamanic superhero who communes with totemic beings in the spirit world of The Red, and I think the idea of using concepts from animist religion in a comic about a guy who has animal powers is ingenious. In addition to Lemire’s fantastic writing, Foreman’s art is amazing, and there’s not much I could say about his work that would do justice to the levels of awesomeness he’s emitting. This series is exactly what I wanted to see from a DC relaunch…it’s weird, it’s out there, and it fires on all cylinders of craziness to deliver a story that is a fusion of a superheroic and a mythic narrative. You should read this series if you like your superhero comics with a dash of the mystical and a heaping of awesome art.

Review: Action Comics #3

Grant Morrison’s take on Superman as a socially conscious superhero is a refreshing update on the Man of Steel. It seems like the main thrust of his run on Action Comics is not to pit Superman against increasingly powerful supervillains, but rather to show the effects on society that an unstoppable crusader for civil liberties would have. This version of an amateur Superman sees that the system is corrupt, but it’s also like it’s made out of silly putty for his unbreakable hands, and he’s decided to go against the the law to right what he perceives as corruption and injustice. The heroic outlaw is a direction that is usually reserved for Batman, and Superman hasn’t been portrayed as such an anti-establishment crime fighter since the early days ofAction Comics in 1938. It’s interesting to see the anti-establishment take on Superman back in a modern setting.

This issue opens on baby Kal-El on Krypton. He’s with his mother at a Kryptonian party of upper-class socialites. This isn’t Byrne’s unemotional and cold Krypton. This Krypton is a society of super-enlightened people who discuss unimaginable scientific discoveries over champagne. Instead of Byrne’s anti-septic and unwelcoming Krypton, Morrison’s Krypton seems like a place of beautiful architecture and glorious, hyper-evolved citizens who have progressed their civilization to a level of maturity that we can only dream of.

We learn in this scene that Jor-El is the Chicken Little of Krypton who is always screaming that the sky is falling. The partygoers, such as Lara’s sister and her mother, are skeptical about Jor-El’s claims that “Krypton’s recent quake activity ” spells certain doom for their entire planet. Apparently, Jor-El has a history of “apocalyptic hyperbole”, and no one takes his doomsday claims seriously. I like this idea of portraying Jor-El as the boy who cried wolf, or rather the man who cried planetary destruction. It lends a certain bitter sweet irony to the fact that no one listened to him when he was actually right.

The party is interrupted by Jor-El’s desperate pleas to his wife Lara for her to flee with their infant son Kal-El. Brainiac crashes the party and he starts to miniaturize Kandor because of Krypton’s imminent destruction. A little touch I enjoyed in this scene was Morrison’s choice to have Brainiac refer to his miniaturization process as “dwarf star lensing”, a nice nod to the technology that The Atom uses to shrink himself down.

We see that this entire scene was a nightmare that Clark Kent was having. It seems a little unlikely to me that he would remember any of that stuff in Kandor when he was just a baby, but you could easily say that Kryptonians can remember things from a much earlier age than humans. Clark Kent’s slumber is interrupted by his landlady and the Metropolis Police Department. The police are searching his apartment because of his activity as an investigative journalist and his constant struggle to “expose the corruption in Metropolis”.

I guess you could say that Inspector Blake and the MPD are on the corrupt Glenmorgan’s payroll, but I’m not sure you can randomly search a journalist’s apartment on the flimsiest of pretenses. Clark Kent didn’t even attempt to stop them or ask for a warrant which seemed a little odd to me. Putting aside the issue of a likely illegal search of his apartment, I enjoyed the idea that Clark Kent is an investigative journalist who doesn’t shy away from exposing the corruption of the rich and powerful. Although this Clark Kent masquerades as a scrawny and weak physical specimen, he doesn’t act like a wimp; he’s assertive when Inspector Blake tries to intimidate him into giving up his crusade to reveal the dirty tricks of powerful men.

I also liked the design of Clark Kent’s apartment. This isn’t a palatial loft. It’s a tiny apartment with room for about four people to stand in before the oxygen levels get perilously low. This kind of small living space is realistic for a journalist just starting his career in a big city like Metropolis. Clark Kent decorates his apartment with a star map, which I found appropriate for a guy that would look to the celestial bodies and wonder if one of those points of light was his home.

I also noticed that when the cops search his place, one of them picks up a copy of Walter Tevis’s classic sci-fi novel The Man Who Fell to Earth. This sci-fi book (famously adapted to a movie starring David Bowie in 1976) tells the story of an alien who lands on earth and seeks to find a way to transport his people from his homeworld to earth to escape the deadly drought on their planet. This was an extremely clever prop to have in Clark Kent’s room, and it’s these subtle references which really make me love Grant Morrison’s work.

There are a few more plot points that I don’t need to spoil in this review by going into too much detail. Suffice to say that you can expect to see the rise of Metallo and the coming of Brainiac in the following issues. I’m enjoying Grant Morrison’s take on Superman who is just starting his career, and the idea that he approaches crimefighting with an eye to righting the wrongs that the corrupt system ignores. His Clark Kent is not a pushover…he’s an investigative journalist whose work to reveal social injustice is just as vital as his work as Superman. I give this comic 5 out of 5 Raos, and I’d definitely recommend it to Superman fans and uninitiated readers as well.