June 2008#1st Impressions |
The Invincible Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Britain and MI:13 (Marvel, 2008), $2.99.
By
James Moore
As Spring draws to a close, it becomes that time of year
when the flowers boom, the weather gets warmer, and
not-so-young comic companies’ fancy turns to launching new
series in the name of media synergy, trademark renewal, and
to cash-in of the annual crossover. Still, just because
they have commercial aims, it doesn't mean a trio of new
Marvel titles don't have something enjoyable to offer.
Marvel’s big debut is also the tie-in to the companies big
movie debut, The
Invincible Iron Man.
Normally, a new launch to capitalize on a film would
be a gratuitous cash-grab, but Invincible’s
excellent
creative team more than compensates for the open greed.
Matt Fraction is one of the most interesting and fresh
writers currently working at Marvel, and he turns out a
first issue of the same high quality of the film. The Iron
Man film managed to be accessible to the non-geek without
talking down to veteran comics fan, and Fractions' script
has a similar quality. It smartly glosses over the more
'questionable' creative decisions (i.e., turning the
character into a mustache twirling fascist who tries to put
his friends in a super-concentration camp) the character
has been subjected to, and keeps the focus on making the
character both conflicted and, most importantly, fun.
Fraction's Stark is the kind of man who
can go from fixing a space station to bedding a socialite
in the space of a few pages. It's a pared
down-approach getting back to what makes the character work
without being retrograde, and it is easily the best
portrayal of the character since Warren Ellis' "Extremis"
arc that opened that the other ongoing Iron
Man. This
is a Tony Stark that manges to be moral, without being
stiff or unlikable. Even his status as the head of
S.H.I.E.L.D is played in such a way as to be
understandable by any fans of the film, as is the
supporting cast. Even the books villain, rogue genius young
Ezekiel Stane, has a tie to the film's villain.
Invincible
also
manages to draw from Fractions previous comic work. While
Pepper Potts played an important role in the film, the
character was also the backbone of Fraction short-lived,
criminally underrated series, The
Order. Stane
also got his start as the mastermind behind the
The
Order's
travails. It is by no means a requirement to have read the
previous series, but for those who did it is nice to see
the threads picked up (fingers crossed for an appearance by
Stark's old buddy-in-rehab Henry Hellrung soon).
The opening issue of
Invincible
succeeds
on an even more important level than its accessibility,
however. It is a nimble, engaging story with sharp
dialogue, a clever idea on every other page, and a
delightfully evil villain. It has a central conflict that
foregrounds Tony Stark's character and his world while
being topical. It is a great beginning to what should
be consistently enjoyable and unpredictable series.
All you really need to know about another new Marvel
series, Guardians
of the Galaxy, is
that it has a telepathic cosmonaut dog in it. You want two
things? You also get a sarcastic talking raccoon.
Anthromorphised cast members
aside, Guardians
is about
a group of cosmic outcasts drawn together after two
universe-threatening crises, working to prevent further
catastrophes before they happen. Like Invincible,
it has its roots in a previous series, in this case
the two suites of the space epic Annihilation.
In a sense this makes the first issue of
Guardians the
sixtieth-odd issue of a sweeping space saga. These previous
miniseries, while not essential to understand this comic,
have revitalized the space opera/kosmic komics portions of
Marvel Universe into a rich, fascinating world.
Guardians
works
that groundwork in character development and world-building
into an enjoyable new beginning here with the first issue
of Guardians.
Artist Paul Pelletier turns in the best
young Alan Davis impersonation since Bryan Hitch's
pre-Authority
work.
There's that sense of playful weirdness in his line work
and creature design you'd see in the
Moore/Davis Captain
Britain.
Pelletier is one of those quiet, under-the-radar artists
who tends to turn out consistent, perfectly enjoyable work
but never gets noticed by fandom. His work here is easy to
pass over: it reads solidly enough on the first pass.
Looking over it again he seems oddly suited to the series
where he is required to bring a wide palette of skills to
the table. He does great facial expressions and convincing
body language on very diverse cast. At the same time, he
also has to pull off some mind-blowing spaces, like a
church-powered space ship or the team’s home base inside
the enormous severed head of a space god.
Guardians
would do
well to keep him on for the long haul.
Guardians
of the Galaxy is
written by the writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning,
known as DnA. The pair have extensive experience working in
sci-fi heavy comics, having writing for previous
Annihilation events as well serving a solid tenure on
DC's Legion
of Superheroes. The
pair do a great job making this debut issue both an
enjoyable single issue story while introducing the cast,
their relationships, and the teams raison d'etre. Their
characters all have unique voices as there's a maniacal
vein of sarcastic humor throughout. While the book is
smooth and readable, it is striking just how dense it is. A
lot of ground gets covered very quickly, making
Guardians
stand
out from the agonizingly wheel-spinning team books
cluttering the racks. The teams forms quickly and
they actually interact and do things. In the first issue
they go fight a threat to reality itself, as opposed to
spending seven issues playing Fantasy Super-Team while
grimacing and crying a lot (I'm looking at you
Avengers
and
JLA).
The book also has possibly the weirdest
lineup of any mainstream team book in years. They run
the gamut from a lesbian space Joan of Arc Quasar to a
royal alien tree with a habit of getting blown up and
regrown from his own twigs. There is a fluid, unpredictable
group dynamic at work and hopefully it will be fun to see
it play out.
Captain
Britain and MI:13 is
another quirky team book launched on the back of a
crossover. The opening story uses the Secret
Invasion crossover
as a springboard, but all a reader really needs to
know is that a bunch of aliens who have copied various
superpowers are invading Britain. In response to the
invasion, the government expands its superhuman operative
program MI:13 to include any and all British superheroes.
Art is by Leonard Kirk who turns in
nicely readable pages in the contemporary realist style.
Like Pelletier its the kind of solid, meat-and-potatoes
linework that is easy to take for granted. He does
action well, and his figure work is excellent. Kirk's
superskrull designs are a good balance of creepy and goofy.
If there's a weakness to the art, it's that his backgrounds
are a little sparse. There is a little of Davis in his work
as well, but that is most likely a combination of the
cast/setting and the fact that Marvels unofficial
house-style is heavily influenced by the work of Bryan
Hitch who, as mentioned, bares a heavy Davis influence of
its own.
MI:13
is
written by Paul Cornell, perhaps better known to a wider
audience for working on Doctor Who novels before the
current revival, but whose credits include last
year’s Wisdom
miniseries,
which set up some of the characters of the new series as
well as the MI:13
concept.
Cornell's writing is somewhat low-key with a sly sense of
characterization-on-the-run, introducing some lesser-known
characters in an action-packed first issue. Aside from its
classic titular character, Captain
Britain and MI:13 features
WW2 speedster Spitfire as well, the Black Knight (who has
some history in Marvel's UK line), and underrated Warren
Ellis creation, mutant spy Pete Wisdom. Cornell’s original
creations are quite good as well, including John the Skrull
(a skrull who was part of a scheme to replace the Beatles
but decided he preferred living on Earth to invading it)
and superhero fangirl Faiza.
And while we are only one issue in here,
there does seem to be the implication that
MI:13
has
already mapped out its larger themes as well,
including the question of what a person is versus
what they want to be. From the Black Knights use of
flippancy to dodge his grim legacy to Captain Britain's
desire to become a national symbol, the book shows some
potential payoff other than: 'Another superhero team, in
Europe!'
Despite the diversity of these books (at
least by the standards of corporate superhero comics) its
interesting how much these books have in common. All of
them have solid if not exactly groundbreaking artists,
skillful writers producing entertaining stories with just
enough depth to keep them moving, and concepts with the
potential to turn into above-average action-adventure
books. The key to moving forward will be to keep the books
visually stable and to avoid getting mired in any new big
crossovers which would likely sap the new titles of their
individuality (especially Guardians
and
MI:13).
For now, though, anyone looking for some good superhero
comic would do well to check any of these new series out.