Tpull's Weekly Marvel Comics Review
The decision to skip a week for publication has really thrown things out of whack. I never thought I’d see the day when I bought so few Marvel titles.
The Twelve: Spearhead 1
by Chris Weston
How in the world they managed to put this together when we don’t have the rest of the series, I’ll never know. Straczynski is nowhere to be found, this is all Chris Weston. The Twelve, which has the same number of issues for its mini-series, has been stuck on issue nine for what feels like a year and a half. Maybe it’s less, but it feels that way. In the very back, there is an advertisement for #9, and it says, “Coming soon.” That made everyone in the comic store laugh. And you know you’re in trouble when you’re the butt of the joke for everyone in a comic store. This series has had a bigger problem than any of DC’s late books. Marvel had a huge number of late books, and high profile, too. DC seemed to be making it a race to catch up with the lateness of Legion of Three Worlds, Flash: Rebirth, and others. But The Twelve just takes the cake and wins the race, no contest.
Still, I had cash left in my pocket, and no way was I going to pick up dreck like Dark X-Men, while Cable is still just a big mess of Cable hopping back and forth through the timeline with Hope, running from Bishop. For those who were paying attention, I just reviewed the last two years of Cable. I “Hope” you liked it.
Setting aside my rants on lousy Marvel comics and lateness, let’s get into this particular one-shot.
Weston has a good style, and he patterned these heroes after some celebrity faces. It works well, with them successfully looking like they come from that era. The Phantom Reporter has been put to work as part of the public relations campaign to keep morale up for the fighting men of World War II. He is our main witness to the various cast members, sometimes taking down a story told to him of the Black Widow, other times seeing Dynamic Man or Electro in action first-hand. Weston grabs the feel of the era well in both words and pictures, which is surprising, because I didn’t know he could write so well. The one thing he doesn’t do well is give Captain America a nice face.
Excello’s psychic powers help the Phantom Reporter to join a big mission led by Captain America. Not all of the Twelve are here, but we do manage to see each one in a few panels throughout the comic. Cap tries to have the Reporter thrown in the stockade at first, for interrupting a secret briefing, but Excello claims he will be part of the mission, so he is. In a bit of ret-con that doesn’t harm much of anything, we see the members of the Twelve interspersed and working with the Invaders and all the other super-heroes of the time. Cap gets pinned, and Phantom Reporter’s crucial contribution is to call out for help, and guide Rockman to them, saving Cap’s life. It’s not much, but if we are to believe Cap would have died there, I’d say yelling for help made for an excellent contribution.
Near the end, Weston squeezes some good stuff into a few panels, reminding us that Whizzer and Miss America were lovers, and showing us that Laughing Mask was always a brutal kind of hero, and trying to drive the point home that the regular Joes of the armed forces were the ones who actually did the lion’s share of the work. We are supposed to take this as a prequel to the mini-series; this is the beginning of their awareness of each other, and shortly after is when they are assembled for the mission that leads to their decades-bout with suspended animation.
I liked it very much! When Weston has enough time to put something together, his art is most enjoyable. Now if only we can finish off the mini-series this year.
Ultimate Spider-Man 8
by Brian Bendis and Takeshi Miyazawa
Well, well, well. An issue of this title I actually like for a change. It doesn’t help at first that the first couple of pages have this pea-greenish background every other panel, that I suppose is allegedly grass. It also doesn’t help that there’s a misspelling on the next page, where Spidey says, “Hey, you now, we all had to start somewhere.” Thanks, Bendis, but there’s a ‘k’ in “you know.” Maybe I should type his name out as Benids every time he messes up. I’m used to this shoddiness in Powers, but I’d be embarrassed to have an editor credit on the first page.
Okay, the normal artistic laziness and poor English aside, this was the best issue to date since they did the re-launch, and it’s mostly due to BEndis’ dialogue. LaFuente is gone for this issue, at least, so the art has ticked up a notch. It still has the simple “kid-friendly” style to it, but Miyazawa manages to tell the story with what he is given.
The biggest thing is that the jokes are funny, and sound close to how I used to talk as a teenager, and the whole idea of Rick Jones getting tutored by Ultimate Peter, Bobby Drake, and Johnny Storm, is hilarious. They end up teleporting to where the Watcher used to be, and the Serpent Squad is there again trying to steal an item of power. Strangely enough, they put the Infinity Gauntlet and other Easter eggs there too, which really doesn’t make any sense, but it adds to the humor of the situation. The funny continues as Iceman tries to hit on the ”lizard girls” while at the same time fighting them.
Rick Jones declares his name to be Nova, and he heads out in search of a way to figure out how to learn about his new powers, and his destiny. It feels almost like a good episode from the old cartoon, Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends. Considering I was about to drop the title, I think I’ll hang around and get more material like this. Is good.
Tpull is Travis Pullen. He started reading comics at 5 years old, and he can't seem to stop.
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