Miles’ Book
The Invincible Iron Man #1
Written by Matt Fraction
Art by Salvador Larroca
Marvel Comics, 2008
This book just screams “smart publishing decision” – if one could scream that. With a hit movie (which also happens to be incredibly awesome on all fronts) fresh to the theatres, it’s time to launch an Iron Man comic book for those who have found themselves in a comic book store jonesing for some more of Anthony Stark’s wit and robots.
Sadly, they will be frustrated.
The Tony Stark that exists in the Marvel Universe is in a pretty different place than his bigscreen counter-part. This issue throws around names that would be familiar to someone who just watched the movie, but they aren’t doing anything like what they were doing in the movie. Except Pepper. She’s still his secretary, but she’s, well, acting kind of slutty for a recent widow (however, new readers will not know what I’m talking about).
As for the issue itself, it’s okay. It seems like something Warren Ellis should have written because there are wacky concepts and several slightly out-of-character moments. For example, the introduction of our hero, where he’s fixing a space shuttle docked to the international space station, is a little out of character. “That’s great news, Director Stark. You’re incredible.” says the astronaut who’s happy with Iron Man’s in-space mechanic skills. “Please,” replies Tony. “You guys are actual astronauts. I’m just a guy in a suit.” Mr. Stark, you’re just a guy in a suit who is in charge of the safety of all of humanity – enough with the false modesty, it doesn’t suit you.
To be fair, this moment pays off well when Tony remarks that he’d like to watch the shuttle landing because they don’t show them on TV anymore unless the astronauts are killed. Which is a valid and character-building point.
Larroca’s art is a mixed bag. I love his clean lines and detail, but occasionally his poses are a little stiff (except when his poses are incredibly kinetic, which is why I said mixed bag) and his men have way-too-pouty lips. Ultimately, I do like his art, but he’s not an artist that I seek out to buy his work.
Other good elements include using Ezekiel Stane as the very crazy and menacing villain. That was a smart move for movie readers and interesting to me as someone who goes both ways. As a watcher of movies and a reader of comics, I mean. Not that Tony doesn’t have some nice qualities, I’m just not into mustaches.
Isaac’s Book
Avengers/Invaders #1 (of 12)
Plotted by Alex Ross and Jim Krueger
Scripted by Jim Krueger
Penciled by Steve Sadowski
Marvel Comics, 2008
This comic does a lot of things really right for me. It has a lot of action, character, and really feels connected to the Marvel universe in general. That there would be action and character was a given, this is a comic from the minds of Alex Ross and Jim Krueger – the guys who did the series Justice over at DC and better still (in my mind) Earth X over at Marvel (I still haven’t read all of Planet X or Universe X, but if nothing else can be said for it, the enormity of the project is incredible.)
Justice and Earth X are pretty self-contained, not concerned with whatever tidbits of continuity are present in the current comics of the month. For example, if Lex Luthor was a good guy in issues of Superman while Justice was coming out, in Justice Luthor would still be a bad guy because that is Luthor’s iconic persona.
Obviously, I’m leading to the fact that Avengers/Invaders #1 doesn’t stick with just the iconic versions of the characters in a timeless story. Iron Man is still director of SHIELD, Spider-Man still has to contend with the pro-registration forces of the Thunderbolts, and the Captain America of our time is still dead (keep in mind I usually only get Captain America in trade format, so if his “life status” has changed and I don’t know about it yet).
That said, when the comic focuses on the Invaders it does shift to that “iconic quality.” Familiar territory for Jim Krueger, which makes sense considering that any story dealing with the original World War Two Invaders can’t be affected by current continuity. But it also means that we know that after this story is done Bucky isn’t going to go back into the past and sit out the war in Casablanca so he doesn’t end up as the Winter Soldier. The Invaders are fairly fixed in how they can respond and change to whatever happens through the series.
This clash between a current, evolving comic universe and a cast of characters eternally stuck in the golden age of comics leads to the problem I have with this crossover through time – I can’t see how it could matter to the past characters. When Captain America is unfrozen in a strange new world, his character deals with all the changes in society and being a “man-out-of-time” (check out the first two volumes of The Ultimates to see this culture shock done exceptionally well), so I predict that for whatever reason The Invaders will lose their memory of this adventure by the end of it.
I guess the point will be how these past characters will affect the current world with their values and I should just sit back and enjoy the ride. Wish they didn’t colour Namor’s hair brown though.
“The false modesty doesn’t suit you.”
This was clearly a brilliant review.
Excellent ratio of puns to sentences.