Hulk: World War Hulk: Incredible Herc
Incredible Hercules: Against the World
by Greg Pak, Jeff Parker, Fred van Lente and various, published by Marvel Comics
These two books are a good sampling of what’s good and what’s bad with Marvel comics as a whole right now. For example, from the trade dress, you’d think Against the World is the first volume of Hercules adventures by Pak, but no, that would be a World War Hulk trade…which includes several non-Hercules related stories. However, while both books rely heavily on the Marvel status-quo as affected by Civil War and World War Hulk, Pak and his co-writers allow that information to come through naturally through character dialog. I don’t care one damn whit about the status of Ares with the Avengers, for example, but I’m told right away, in a clear way that makes sense, that he and Hercules are on opposite sides of a super-hero dispute and that Ares is, despite appearances to the contrary, a villain.
But chiefly, what I liked about these volumes was that they’re fun, and genuinely funny. Oh, to be certain there’s the obligatory and masturbatory angst given to both Hercules and his side-kick Amadeus Cho, world’s smartest boy, but it is judiciously used to flavor and ground what is other-wise a high adventure super-hero story with a humorous edge.
Bad Dog #1
by Joe Kelly and Diego Greco, published by Image Comics
A werewolf bounty hunter and his foul-mouthed, alcoholic ex-priest side-kick have a really bad day trying to collect a bounty. I’m a sucker for a good werewolf story, and it’s so rare to find them. Here we’ve got some genuine rough, dark comedy, with fantastic artwork with beautiful use of colors and shading. The characters are broad by necessity, given their situation and premise, but with a nice dose of humanity in Lou, the werewolf who, ironically, hates humans so much he refuses to turn back into one.
Now, if only Kelly can avoid a “the real monster is…man” scene, this has potential.
Bang! Tango #1
by Joe Kelly and Adrian Sibar, published by DC Comics/Vertigo
Vertigo seems to have settled into a nice little publishing niche of putting out crime/mystery comics and Sandman-lite books of highly variable quality. There hasn’t really been too much to interest me from the line of late, with Vinyl Underground‘s rapid cancellation and Young Liars turning to shock value over story or character far too quickly for my taste. And, to be honest, at first this didn’t really grab me either. I’ve seen the man with a criminal past trying to run from it, only to be dragged back in by someone he feels an obligation to before. I’ve seen the obnoxious, arrogant, unlikeable protagonist done to death. And while Sibar’s art is nicely stylized, it wasn’t enough to sell me.
And then I get to the last page, and that one image alone throws just about everything that came before out the window and forces me to reevaluate it in light of this new information.
Oh, well done. I’m in.
Agents of Atlas #1
by Jeff Parker and Carlo Pagulayan, published by Marvel Comics
I wish I could have had a completely positive reaction to this, because this is pretty much the sort of thing I want from my Marvel books: high adventure, fun comics, with a motley and varied cast of characters. It’s got sharp humor and gorgeous, gorgeous artwork. And, here’s the thing: it’s well-written enough that I honestly don’t care that the tediousness of the Dark Reign storyline forms a significant plot point in the first issue. But: I never read the Agents of Atlas mini-series, and it’s presumed that I did. Again, let me be clear: it’s so good and so well done, that in the end I don’t care, but it nags at me that it is assumed that I’m supposed to know who all these characters are and how they go to the point they’re at now.
Jersey Gods #1
by Glen Brunswick and Dan McDaid, published by Image Comics
I bought this purely because I’ve become a fan of McDaid’s work on the Doctor Who comics that run in Doctor Who Magazine, and I was eager to see what he could do with a full-length comic story. Not only did I get some more good-looking McDaid art, I also got a knowing super-hero comic in the tradition of Jack Kirby that doesn’t slavishly attempt to recreate his artistic style or poorly disguise blatant New Gods fan-fiction. It’s great big cosmic action, mixed with mall-princess self-centeredness. It’s a clash of style and subject matter that works because of their incongruity.
R.E.B.E.L.S. #1
by Tony Bedard and Andy Clarke, published by DC Comics
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been enjoying the recent spate of DC space books for their sheer randomness and insanity. This new series carries on that tradition, though it does suffer slightly both from an over-reliance on references to recent events in the various space-books, notably the current status of L.E.G.I.O.N. and the planet Rann, though most of that gets handled in dialog asides. The real appeal here, apart from Andy Clarke’s very attractive and expressive art, is Bedard’s skill at handling utterly loathsome and hateable chracters in an entertaining fashion. He did it well in Negation, easily the best of the CrossGen books, and he does it here, by strongly foregrounding the utter bastardry of Vril Dox. He’s the sort of character you love to hate, and playing him off of Supergirl in this first issue works well.
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So I guess that raises an important question – when you encounter a good book like Agents of Atlas, does the quality of this first issue make you want to seek out the first part of the story, or does the fact that it is clearly part 2 of a previously established storyline overshadow the issue’s quality? You said clearly that quality wins out in this case, but I wonder if everyone would draw the same line.
(FWIW, the original series was pretty damn good.)
Tim–In my case, it makes me want to seek out the first part of the story. But, and this is an important point, I have been reading comics for twenty-plus years. I’m used to being expected to do my own research on characters who have appeared before. And while I think the concern over “accessibility to new readers” is laughably over-stated by many people, I have to concede that in a shrinking market for super-hero comics it may be wise to offer more back-story than a jokey list of recent cross-overs.
Bad Dog was the best first issue I’ve read since The Boys.
I also really enjoyed Jersey Gods. I share your opinion of Agents of Atlas. And as for REBELS, well, I’m less sure.
Maybe I’m just reacting to it being called REBELS instead of LEGION… but I do love Vril Dox and am happy to see him put his nose in things again.