Review: Ages of Thunder

Comic book fans aside, who the hell wants to read about Thor?

Aside from his silly colorful costume and winged helmet, he's a freakin God for Chrissakes. An actual Norse god. What the Hell is he doing in the Marvel universe? Not to mention the fact that he says "thou" enough to make you wish he could get kicked in the gnads a few times.

Most people that haven't read comics don't want to read about a character like that, which seriously makes me wonder if the Thor movie will have any success with a mainstream audience. People want to read about badass superheroes with cool costumes and powers. People want to read about Wolverine and Spider-Man. People don't want to read about a character that wears an American flag on his costume, a blaxpoitation superhero, or a kung fu superhero that compresses chi into his hand.

And yet, a funny thing has happened at Marvel over the last 5 or 6 years. Imagine if Republicans started coming out in support of gay marriage and supporting socialized medicine and Democrats reacted by merely slapping the cover of a leatherbound bible with the backs of their hands. It would be a topsy turvy world, which is exactly what was happening with the characters at Marvel. Loser characters were being handled by the best talent in the company and consistently making the top 10, whereas staples like Spider-Man and the X-Men stagnated and slipped into the 50,000's in sales.

Bendis started throwing Luke Cage into all his books and made people realize he's actually cool. Fraction and Brubaker took on Iron Fist and turned a campy 70's kung fu hero an turned his book into a multi-generational mythological machine. Brubaker started scripting and "death and return of..." story for Captain America that brought people to tears. And just a few years ago, J. Michael Straczynski took on the Norse god of thunder in a revamp for the ages. The book sold in the 100,000's, earned JMS a "Best Writer" nomination at this year's Eisners, and had people scrambling for collections of the classic Thor stories from the heyday.

Thor was cool again.

I must confess that as much critical acclaim as JMS's new THOR reboot has been garnering, I still haven't read beyond the first six issues. I know, I know... that's a big blow to my credibility as a comic book blogger. But I just have a sneaking suspicion that his whole run (which will be concluding shortly) will be collected in a giant gorgeous hardcover omnibus edition. One so pretty that all my friends will want to come over and just look at it, touch it. Okay, maybe not. But I do like to fantasize about things like that sometimes.

But then, at a comic book store, somebody warned me that there was critical plot information contained in the series of one-shot Thor stories that Matt Fraction had been writing, all collected in the Ages of Thunder volume. So I had some catching up to do. I also kinda figured I could pretend I was a real scholar researching a mythological figure while I was at it.

Now, Thor was an entertaining read and all, but he still seemed like a goody two shoes. I mean, what the hell was a god doing on Earth on the Avengers, getting involved with Earthly drama? It just doesn't seem like a god's style. Then, I read these stories, which take place in Asgard before Thor ever got involved with the Earth.

Man, was that guy badass.

This guy puts every man to shame. You could write more facts about this guy than you could about Chuck Norris. I can't remember how many times his face got completely covered with the fresh blood from a Frost Giant's corpse. And as if leaping through a Frost Giant's head with his hammer wasn't enough, I just can't tell you how awesome it was when Thor single handedly won a war against entire armies of the Undead when he single handedly piloted a giant Blood Colossus.

Oh man. Just that image slowly sinking into the blood from the battlefield, about to rise within the Colossus's skeleton. Chilling, I tell you. Chilling!

But the biggest surprise wasn't Thor's toughness. Everybody knew he was strong. What this story surprised me about is that the guy was actually a huge asshole. The three one-shots contained within are all essentially three acts about Thor's arrogance and the detriment it has on Asgard and the humans of Midgard. I mean, during Asgard's famine, the guy had hoarded golden apples and refused to share them with his starving comrades. What a cold-hearted bastard.

The climax of the book is actually the match of eternity. Thor vs. his own father, Odin. If you thought Thor was menacing, just look at the fully armored Odin brandishing his gargantuan sword. Holy shit.


Pick up this book if you'd like to see an awesome badass big mythological fall from heaven type of story. Matt Fraction, I salute you.

What made me wish I went to WonderCon

When I saw the WonderCon '09 lineup, I didn't feel too badly about missing it.

1. I was already planning on going to the NY Comic Con, which was featuring a lot of big name talents like Bendis, Morrison, Stracyznski, etc.

2. It would have made for a pretty expensive plane ticket.

Of course, right after it happens, I hear about the awesome panel to end all awesome panels - a discussion between Matt Fraction, writer of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN and CASANOVA (two of the best comics out right now), as well as Michael Chabon, novelist extraordinaire and author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay and WonderBoys.

It's funny - it seems so obvious that Chabon would be a comic book fan considering that Kavalier and Klay, his Pulitzer prize winning 650 page beast of a novel, is entirely about comic book creators in the Golden Age of comics. And yet still, I had this impression that he was somebody that had just grown up reading Superman comics and at best described his comics reading experience the way most people nowadays would describe collecting baseball cards or watching Saturday morning cartoons: Something that captured a lot of childhood's excitement and passion, but is really a thing of the past.

It was the only explanation that made sense to me. I thought - There's just no way a serious, accepted, literary author could keep up with the funny books every month! Comics are considered to be a lowbrow artform, after all. People are willing to see movies like A History of Violence, Road to Perdition, or Ghost World, but rarely show any interest in seeing the comic books they were adapted from. Hell, 90% of the people who raved about Dark Knight (and those ravings were totally legitimate) have no interest in picking up a comic book.

One time when I was working at Borders, I got to know an older employee who told me that when he was younger, he collected every Marvel comic book between 1961 and 1970. He was a totally devout enthusiast in his childhood and made an effort to collect and read any comic book he could get his hands on. WhenI asked him if he'd read any newer comics, he shook his head and said he thought they were "too adult". This is coming from a guy that read almost exclusively adult fiction.

No matter how much evidence there is to the contrary, people seem to think comic books are for kids.

Imagine my excitement when I found that Chabon, a critically acclaimed writer possessing "literary merit" is bona fide fan of current comics. Hell, he even reads IRON FIST, the lowbrow of a lowbrow artform. That's awesome. Ironically, the discussion him and Fraction had centered around the very subject I'm complaining about - the high culture and low culture division in fiction and literature, particularly the stigmatization of genre.

Reading this was like getting a huge deep breath of fresh air for me. Finally, I got to hear from writers within the establishment that had the same gripes I've had. I've always seen that writers like Philip K. Dick or Stephen King were relegated to Sci-Fi or Horror sections of bookstores, and to boot, there are many that will make the claim that the works of these writers "aren't literature."

Just what the hell does that mean?

I recall once reading something where somebody asked Orson Scott Card why Stephen King's books weren't considered literature. His response was "His works are obviously literature in the sense that people read his books and enjoy them. However, they are not literature in the sense that they are not accepted by the academic and literary elite." And that's really what this comes down to - what academia decides is and isn't art. In this case, the jury is still out on works of genre.

Personally, I don't buy the whole high art vs. low art distinction. I'm not entirely sure what people classify as "high art", but I'm going to assume that it's works that are considered to be intellectually stimulating or historically relevant. I think it's a terribly elitist assumption to assume that works that are more cerebral and require more intellectual engagement are inherently superior to works that are not. I think that "popcorn art" (be it a movie, comic book, whatever), as in works that are designed strictly to entertain, have a very important function in our culture. Imagine if everytime we got home from a long day of work we sat down and plunged through another few chapters of Ulysses before the next work day. This would probably result in a mass suicide epidemic.

But let's assume I buy into the high art/low art distinction as worthwhile. Does the presence of a detective, a talking gorilla, or God forbid, a superhero, really detract from the ability to tell an intellectually engaging story? Do these elements prevent us from telling stories that reflect human nature?

I really think not. And as Chabon and Fraction pointed out, there are writers like Vonnegut, Dickens, and Balzac, all members of the literary canon, that conformed to genre elements in some way or another.

- - - -

I'm going to cut myself off because I could probably get another 5 pages out of this. I'll be writing more about the subject of genre in subsequent posts.

Most Handsome Man in Comics?

I've been wanting to make a detailed post that borderlines on being an article about how awesome Matt Fraction's writing is. It would detail his early creator-owned work to the more recent epic CASANOVA and even his Marvel work and how he was able to really bring to life many lesser known or previously seen as unlikeable characters. All of this would lead to a sort of argument that Matt Fraction is a guy to really watch in comics - somebody that might be as important as Grant Morrison in ten years.

But somewhere along the line, I got lazy.

Yeah. Work does that to you.

So instead, I'm going to make a much easier argument. I'm going to say that Matt Fraction just might be the Most Handsome Man in Comics right now.

Don't believe me? Compare him to these ugly schmucks.

Jeez, Frank. I wouldn't look so smug if I was sporting your ugly mug.

And this might be the first time anyone has ever referred to Alan Moore as an "ugly schmuck." I'm just THAT edgy.

Kirkman's Cruise to Save Comics

I realize this was a while ago, and most people have already read this, but I wanted to weigh in my opinions on Kirkman's controversial claims about creator-owned work in the industry. Not necessarily because he's wrong, but because his argument is very very scatter-brained and he misses the mark on some issues.

If you haven't seen his editorial, watch it here.

First, being the feisty guy I am, I'm going to pick his argument apart, piece by piece.

"If you give people the option of Spider-Man or your creator-owned book... they'll choose Spider-Man, that's something time-tested versus something new. New has to be the only option."

I'm not really sure about this. Walk into your average comic book store.

And when I say average, I mean AVERAGE. Not the hip trendy store downtown where all the employees are cute girls that like indie rock or the stores with couches and lounges in them and have every Top Shelf book on display.

I mean the ones that have giant statues of Spider-Man and don't even a trade paperback section yet.

In most of these stores, most people don't even follow the creative teams involved. They just buy books with their favorite characters in them. I highly doubt sales of Matt Fraction's CASANOVA would be at all affected by him dropping his Marvel duties on INVINCIBLE IRON MAN or UNCANNY X-MEN. Even if you wrote "From the writer of all your favorite Marvel books!" on the cover.

"If that results in a mass exodus of creators leaving Marvel and DC, don't panic guys, I love their books as much as everyone else -- nobody wants to hurt them in the process. Look at it like an opportunity, that's the time for Marvel and DC to step up the plate and make their comics viable for a whole new generation. Less continuity, more accessible stories -- not made for kids, but appropriate for kids. Books that would appeal to everyone still reading comics, but would also appeal to the average 13 year old too. "

Would this really result in a creative resurgence at Marvel or DC? Let's look at some historical examples.

Let's roll back five years. Ed Brubaker was introducing new readers to Selina Kyle in his reboot of CATWOMAN and at the same time, along with Greg Rucka, was giving us a gritty detective drama very much akin to TV shows like NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues on GOTHAM CENTRAL.

Mark Millar made a Superman fan out of me (and many others) in SUPERMAN: RED SON.

Brubaker, Millar, AND Warren Ellis were all doing incredibly provocative work at DC's child, Wildstorm.

Then they all left to do work at Marvel. And what happened to the DC Universe?

INFINITE CRISIS, COUNTDOWN, DEATH OF THE NEW GODS, and now FINAL CRISIS. Heavily continuity-driven books that were very unfriendly to new readers.

Let's go back even further, to the entrance into the 90's. Nearly every major name creator, from Jim Lee to Alan Moore, had all left the big two to do work at Image, Dark Horse, or other independent companies.

What happened to the books at the Big Two?

The Death of Superman happened, along with a billion other superhero deaths. And crossovers.

I think Kirkman is way wrong on this point. I think most of history has shown us the opposite - that when the good creators leave, quality and accessibility of the books goes way down.

In some ways he's correct, in that some of the books that really appealed to all ages were ones in which DC or Marvel were taking big chances on new talent. Bendis was a no-name indie guy when he was given ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN, and now, everybody in the last 6 years swears it's what got them reading comics again.

But there's two points that need to be considered with that: 1) That all-ages accessibility is really a prerogative of the editors more than anything. DC editors don't seem to care much for that at the moment. 2) It usually takes several years for the company to get desperate enough to take chances with no-name talent.

"A comic industry where there are more original comics, so there's more new ideas, more creator-owned books by totally awesome guys that are selling a ton of books. Those books are mature and complex and appeal to our aging audience that I count myself among who are keeping this business alive. And we also have a revitalized Marvel and DC who are selling comics to a much wider audience than ever before. And that audience, as they age, may get turned on to some awesome creator-owned work eventually. So everyone is happy."

Kirkman envisions a kind of creative renaissance in comics due to an exodus. I think what's more likely to happen is that many of the creators would flop like fish out of water. Most comic readers don't take chances on buying new creator-owned books until at least a trade is put out, so many of them would suffer financially almost immediately. Most of them would just go back to working at the Big Two right away. Marvel and DC can hold their breath much longer than the creators can, and it would take a long time to erode the market to the point where buyers HAVE to buy creator-owned work in order to read something good.

--

It seems like I'm being really negative about creators in this. I really don't want to appear that way at all. I love creator-owned work and actually prefer reading it much more to the usual monthly titles on Marvel or DC.

I will even agree on the point that most writers at Marvel and DC should be doing much more creator-owned work. I would love to see awesome writers like Matt Fraction, Grant Morrison, Jason Aaron, Brian Bendis, and Peter David have AT LEAST as much creator-owned work being published as corporate work.

And Kirkman pointed out one thing that's really critical and misrepresented - while most creator-owned work isn't profitable, it has the potential to be INCREDIBLY profitable, more lucrative than any high paying job at Marvel.

The biggest selling blockbuster comic at Marvel is usually a crossover issue, and that usually hits about 250,000 copies. The average #1 during a non-summer crossover month is around 110,000 copies. And even if you had a big seller like this, most of the profit goes to Marvel, the real owner of all of the characters.

But did you know that there are still comics that sell in the MILLIONS? They're not making it on the Diamond lists, but that doesn't mean they don't fly off of bookstore shelves. Comics like Jeff Smith's BONE, Chris Ware's JIMMY CORRIGAN, Marjane Satrapi's PERSEPOLIS, and Craig Thompson's BLANKETS are all huge worldwide sellers, with some of these selling multiple million copies.

So it's possible to sell ten times the copies of a hit Marvel comic, while at the same time, getting a much bigger profit share. Ever since launching the Millarworld comics, Mark Millar has probably been driving Ferraris.

Do the math. All the wealthiest in the industry own their own creations. So while Kirkman may be wrong about EVERY creator, he's right in that there are a few more that would be able to launch a book that critics adore and at the same time puts a Ferrari in the garage.

Comics I Read This Week 1: 8/28/2008

First post!

I finally became presumptuous enough to think people care about my opinions about comic books. While the world has plenty of comic book blogs, I checked today, and there was a need for *one* more. So here we go.

---

Comics I Read This Week:

1. NEW AVENGERS #44 - Secret Invasion Tie-In
   
   I should start by saying that I'm not even reading the main Secret Invasion storyline or reading any of the other-tie ins. Lately, I've decided to actually boycott big cross-overs altogether. The problem with the last three big cross-overs at Marvel, namely House of M, Civil War, and World War Hulk, is that there were many moments that they would forego with the story altogether in order to introduce some big status-quo shaking moments in the Marvel Universe. House of M said no more mutants from now on (a poor decision in retrospect), Civil War said everything is government controlled, and World War Hulk, well, introduced the Red Hulk and did some strange things to Bruce Banner that I can't even remember.
   
   I figured the same thing would happen with Secret Invasion. My prediction was there would be some major punch to the early issues, there would be a lot of suspense for the last few, and then the whole last issue would be a big trailer for 1o or 15 different Marvel books. Whoopee.
   
   So, why did I buy this issue? Simply becuase it pertains to The Illuminati. And ever since they've been introduced by Bendis, they've been pretty damn awesome. Their dialogue in the Sentry storyline was pretty much the only cool thing in that whole story, the pre-Civil War Illuminati discussions really hit on the "tough questions and tough solutions" angle that the whole main series should have been about, and the 5 issue Illuminati mini-series had awesome, well-written stories featured during the Kree-Skrull War or the Infinity Gauntlet eras of the Marvel U.
   
   The kicker? The Illuminati are cool in nearly every scenario, no matter how dull the main story is. This issue was no exception, doing a done-in-one story discussing a major unexplained facet of the Skrull invasion up to this point. Full of twists and turns, this issue was really Bendis on his game in the way he hasn't always been while writing New Avengers.
   
   Worth buying, even if you're not reading Secret Invasion.
   
   
2. RUNAWAYS #1
   
   Only bad people don't like The Runaways.
   
   Seriously. I don't understand how anybody could read Brian K. Vaughan's 40 issue run, in which he single handedly created an original action/adventure/sci-fi/romance/teen drama that is possibly Marvel's most accessible title. I'll go as far as to say that Runaways is my favorite Brian K Vaughan comic, easily going to toe-to-toe with Brian K. Vaughan's other should-be-mainstream hit drama Y: The Last Man. The comic created a cast that was a whole-new cast of teenagers turned superheroes after their discovery that their parents are supervillains bent on taking over the world. One's a mutant, one's a superpowered alien, one's a magician, one has a pet dinosaur, one uses a set of high-tech gloves... The assortment on the team is a smorgasboard sampling of all the corners of the Marvel universe, while the story simultaneously never hinged on convulted character histories or continuity.
   
   If you haven't read it, read Vaughan's 7 volume run on the story. It would rank easily in Marvel's Top 5 books of the last 10 years (a list I should make at some point). And with each trade ringing up at only 8 bucks a pop, I'll be insulted if you don't read it.
   
   This issue marks the introduction of Terry Moore and Humberto Ramos to the book, which is the second creative team to take over since Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. The first being Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan who did a fairly disappointing 6 issue run that didn't really hit on all storytelling cylinders the way Vaughan did with his writing. Freshly returned to present day Los Angeles after their sojourn to 1907's New York, the team is in their chronological and geographical home. Not much happened in the way of plot in this issue, and the pace was rather slow, but the dialogue was spot-on. Moore clearly has these characters down and could probably have some of them rally a conversation for 5 issues straight and still have it be engaging to read. I'm hoping the plot picks up in the next couple of issues. Terry Moore could still be one of those talents like Robert Kirkman who is just unable to adapt to writing the Marvel characters.
   
   Who knows? Buy it only if you've already everything up to this point, otherwise it won't make a lick of sense.
   
   
3. THE IMMORTAL IRON FIST #18
   
   I started picking this one up in issues because the Fraction/Brubaker/Aja run of the book introduced a whole new appreciation of the character. Seriously - before those guys came in and revamped the book, character, and mythos, nobody really gave a shit about the character. He was some kind of lame, kung-fu superhero. Oooo! He can turn his fists to a fiery gold by focusing his chi! Who cares? Well, Matt Fraction made me care.
   
   This marks the second issue since the disheartening departure of the original team at issue 16. While the writing exemplified a lot of the qualities that made the Fraction run great, like peppy dialogue, fast pace, cool action - the new artist just can't make a lot of the action and motion cool. Couldn't David Aja at least have stuck around to draw the book? His action sequences were so good, they made me want to go out and kick some ass myself. That doesn't happen too often in action in American comics, where most fight sequences are represented by big splash pages showing every character locking horns with someone, but not really telling any story or revealing the pace of the battle. A lot of nothing going on, really. See the Bendi'ss Avengers books for examples.
   
   I'm buying it because I really want it to pick up and be really good. Maybe it will? It's continuing a cool storyline at least, investigating the mysterious deaths of all of the Iron Fists at the age of 33, after what event but Danny Rand's 33rd birthday! Heh. Picked a hell of a time to do that.
   
   
4. KICK-ASS #4
   
   Fuck yeah. Waited what, 2 or 3 months to get this?
   
   I can't talk about it without seriously spoiling what's going on. The third issue had such a big kick-in-the-face ending that the 3 month waiting period to the next issue was pretty gruesome and lonely.
   
   This issue was just as satisfying and violent as all of the ones up to this point in the continuing saga of this sick and twisted take on a superhero existing in a real world. Sure, jaw-dropping violence is easy to fill a comic with, but to do it within the context of a fast-paced, twist-laden, big emotional drama is icing on the cake.
   
   Notice how the katana girl's cape is held together by a padlock? What an awesome design. Frankly, seeing this cover should make you buy the issue. This is amounting to my favorite Mark Millar comic yet.
   
   
5. SUPERMAN #679
   
   Yeah, I probabably shouldn't buying this.
   
   It's just that something needs to tie me over until the next issue of All-Star Superman comes out. And what an issue that will be! Can't wait to read it (and review it)! Reading this issue made me really wonder why it couldn't be more like All-Star Superman. This 4 issue storyline about Atlas that this is 3 parts of the way through probably could have been told in less than one issue if Grant Morrison was writing it.
   
   James Robinson is the current writer of Superman. While I haven't read anything by him, I've heard nothing about pretty damn close to orgasming praise for his run of Starman, which I'm really anxious to read. I'm not sure if my boredom at his Superman writing is more due to his writing ability or due to DC's editorial decisions - I'm guessing it's more the latter.
   
   So yeah, Atlas is still beating up Superman. Somehow he's pretty helpless, and that hasn't really been explained. Supergirl apparently can't do anything either. Who comes to save him? Not the Green Lantern (who was around earlier in the story), not Batman, not the JLA, but KRYPTO, the WONDER DOG!
   
   Yep. The next issue is going to be about Krypto saving the day. Stay tuned and I'll review it. And yes, this is the only issue for which I revealed significant details about the story. That's because the story was so dull I figured most readers wouldn't mind it being revealed to them.
   

---

I'm going to try to do this every week. If you're curious about how (badly) I spend my money, stay tuned!