Black Panther and Punisher War Journal

First, I want to say that everybody's crazy about Matt Fraction's Invincible Iron Man, which I frankly was somewhat unimpressed by. Why have I never heard anybody talk about his Punisher War Journal run? Perhaps because it started during Civil War, the event that got me into comics, I've always been curious about War Journal, but just recently got the chance to read the first 19 issues. This is Punisher for super-hero fans. I'm not a huge Punisher fan. I've read bits and pieces of Punisher Max and a few of his mini-series. It seams like every time I've read it, he's infiltrating some sort of gang with lots and lots of convoluted characters who I could care less about. War Journal brings him into the mainstream Marvel Universe, fighting super-villains and being a bad-ass. That is what The Punisher should be.

As for Civil War, it's an epic event that I've spent the past few days re-reading. At this point, I'm about two thirds of the way through the event, reading all the tie-ins that I bought way back when. I'm generally pretty happy with the event thus far.

The one exception is Black Panther's tie-ins, which read like something I'd expect from a Tyler Perry movie. I mean, Rhodey is a strong black character, probably one of the strongest in the Marvel Universe. He shows up and pretty much immediately accuses a white character of being racist. Given what the guy said to him, it wasn't entirely out of character, but that scene added little to the story and, like much of the rest of the comic, leaned far too heavily on the race of the character.

My real issue with Black Panther, aside from the fact that it seams like every one of his stories that I read is poorly written, is that he's so defined by his race that it gives the authors an excuse to not develop him as a character. The Falcon, Patriot, War Machine, and a handful of others are characters who happen to be black, but also have personalities and compelling back-stories. Even Luke Cage, who is certainly defined by his race, can be compelling because of his attitude and the situations he tends to get himself into.

I haven't read much Black Panther, because the first few stories I read were so bad. It is possible that I just read the bad stuff, and like all characters, I'm sure it depends greatly on the writer. If anybody reads this and is a fan of Black Panther, please let me know if there are any runs on the title that are worth checking out.

I just bought a long box

So when I was telling people about my 2011 project to re-read all of my comics, one person jokingly said that he would spend 2011 trying to read all the comics that he'd bought and not read. I laughed, then I got a good deal on a long box of books. It looks like I'm going to spend the beginning of this year reading those books.

One series that I just read and really enjoyed was Great Lakes Avengers "Misassembled." It's written by Dan Slott, so it must be good. Essentially, the GLA is a team of z-list heroes in the mid-west with weird powers. One member has the ability to add as much fat to her body as she wishes and can get rid of it by making herself throw up. Another member is a reluctant immortal (seen it 1,000 before!) who is constantly trying to kill himself. And of course, there is Squirel Girl who throws nuts at people and talks to squirels. This book pulls off the over-the-top Deadpool style humor without feeling forced like many of the Deadpool titles out these days.

I've also been reading some classic What If issues. I've always liked the nature of What If books, because of the way they so often end in the apocalypse or utopia. However, I did figure out why it is no longer a regular title. These days, if someone thinks of a What If, they just make it regular continuity. I mean, there are actually books titled "What if Spiderman hadn't married Mary Jane?" and "What if The Punisher became Captain America?" In addition, there are plenty of "What if so and so had lived?" or "What if so and so had died?" Overall, though, I like the way What If books are almost always self-contained stories. They prove that any story can be told in 22 pages or less. Stan Lee would tell you that any story can be told in 1 page, but I don't quite buy that.

That's all I've got for now...

More on the Clone Saga

This will probably be a relatively short entry. Basically, I've been trying to finish up the Spider-Man Clone Saga this week. I'm about two or three story arcs from the end, and am starting to realize why so many people hated this story. Read through as a whole, especially if you skip some of the weaker stories, it created some cool characters and told some fun stories. I love Ben Reilly as a character, but forcing myself to read absolutely everything back to back like this makes me sick of how long every reveal takes and some of these stories make no sense and are just bad. The Return of Kaine and Web of Carnage story arcs both had potential. They both featured some cool characters coming after Ben, but Return of Kaine had Kaine involved in some kind of stupid gladiator-type thing, and Web of Carnage was simply poorly written. Even some of the art was unbearable in these two arcs.

Anyway, hopefully soon I'll be able to close that 3/4 box of clone saga books and start reading stuff that I bought when I first started collecting. Civil War here we come!(I hope.)

Spider-Man: Redemption and the Clone Saga in General

So it's officially January 1st and time to really start reading. Last night before I went to sleep, I read Spider-Man: Redemption. This mini-series was the sequel to Spider-Man: The Lost Years. It starred Ben Reilly, Kaine, and Janine, Ben's love interest. There was a lot of internal monologue, and like most of the clone saga, I'd have hated to read it one issue at a time. That being said, it was a solid 4 issue story.

I'm sure that I'll touch more on this in future entries, but unlike most people, I kind of like the Clone Saga. It did go on too long, and was a bit convoluted at times, but it created some very interesting characters like Kaine and Ben Reilly. I've really liked that in the past year or two Marvel has finally used these characters. It would be really cool if they figured out a way to bring Ben back, but I'm not holding my breath.

Anyway, I'm tired, hung over, and have a lot more reading to do today, so I'll see you next time.

Marvel's Noir Line and Allegations of Dan Slott's Racism

So I've been reading several of Marvel's Noir Line, and in short, they are amazing, but more on that later.

First, I want to address my thoughts about Dan Slott and allegations that Norah Winters is a racist character. Several blogs have been calling Dan Slott a racist for a handful of things Norah Winters has said over the last few years. This reminds me of an angry letter printed in an issue a while back after Norman Osborn said something either racist or otherwise offensive to people from the middle east. Wacker responded by saying that Norman Osborn's opinions are nothing like those of the writers and editors involved with making the comic, and that most of them were farther left-leaning than the typical American. Creating a character who has imperfections hardly makes the creator share those imperfections.

Norah Winters is known to say some things that border on stereotypes, but she's no worse than the average American. The fact that bloggers can point to two or three things she's said in at least 75 issues since she was introduced hardly makes her a bigot.

Dan Slott has written many of the best Spider-Man stories of the past decade, possibly ever. He is able to take old characters and re-invent them without making them act out of character. I'm a big fan of his online presence, and would not be too surprised if he stumbles on this blog. Obviously he sometimes acts a bit unprofessionally, especially if you look at the handful of quotes floating around, but that's kind of the point of twitter. It makes you feel like famous people are your friends, talking to you as such.

But onto Marvel's Noir line. I've just read X-Men, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and Spider-Man: Eyes Without a Face. In the past, I've also read Daredevil and Luke Cage. Every one of them re-invents their stars in a darker, more realistic world. Though not all of them mention it, I believe that they all also take place in the 1930s. Both Spider-Man series probably pull it off the best. The first uses the classic noir set setup of a man who has been shot telling the story before he dies. The second is a bit more preachy about racism, a topic not usually addressed in noir, but has some very cool moments and subplots. The scene with Dr. Octopus and Himmler at the end was amazing. I don't want to spoil it, but it's amazing.

I'm more or less reading them as they come out in paperback, because I like the look of the small paperbacks, so I have at least Punisher, Iron Man, and X-Men: Mark of Cain left to read, but I've not heard solicits for any additional series. I'd really like to see a Captain America Noir as well as more Spider-Man minis. I'll probably check out Deadpool Pulp as well.

Up Next: I might actually start reading my collection as 2011 is right around the corner.

Young Justice and The Dark Knight Returns

So I'm definitely not keeping to my 2 trades per day goal. In my defense, I've been reading heavy stuff first. Hopefully I'll pick up the pace by the time anyone actually starts reading this blog.

Anyway, first let's talk about The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. Anyone who really likes the Christopher Nolan batman movies and/or doesn't particularly like super hero comic books should read this. Miller pulls off the dark and gritty side of Batman better than most writers, and the art, also done by Miller, has a cool look. Obviously this is another classic must-read, but I didn't really like it.

I've never bought into the whole "Batman's the best because he doesn't have any powers" thing, and that's what the newspaper article in the introduction tries to prove from the outset. In addition, the constant onslaught of two-dimensional pundits debating whether or not Batman is a good guy gets old very fast. I particularly dislike when the same exact television clips are shown over and over. It's just more to get through.

Perhaps the worst part of this book is the portrayal of Superman as a dumb government sellout. It's books like this that make people dislike Superman as a character. Yes, he is an idealist, and yes, he believes in the government, but if he was asked to work for a corrupt government, he would work to change it. He would never simply do as he was told, as Miller suggests.

Anyway, now onto something I did like. After seeing the kickoff movie for the upcoming cartoon, I decided to check out Young Justice. Over the past few weeks, I've read the first seventeen issues of the series as well as the mini series and one shot that came beforehand. This is one of the most fun series I've ever read. Written by Peter David in the late nineties, it stars Robin, Impulse, Superboy, and a few female characters that nobody's heard of. It's one of those books that makes you laugh out loud, but still has strong enough plot and characters to keep you interested. Plus, because several of the characters are c-list, if something happens to one of them, it might actually stay that way.

Okay, that's it for today. I'm not sure what I'm going to read next...

The Sandman Volume 4: Season of Mist

The first graphic novel I chose to read for this project was Neil Gaiman's Sandman volume 4. Why volume 4 and not 1? The short answer is that it's the only one that I own. Basically, I'm a fan of super-hero comics. I read the classics, and have been known to check out some weird indie stuff, but I mostly read super-hero stuff. I have this copy of The Sandman, because I ended up with it at the end of a particularly nasty break-up with a girl. I can't remember if she gave me the book as a gift, or if I just ended up with it when we stopped speaking.

Anyway, in regards to the book, I liked it. The story was very heavy, but the characters were nicely developed. I read this several years ago, but did not remember the story being so interesting. Basically, Dream (Sandman) gets the key to Hell, because Lucifer doesn't want it any more. Then a bunch of characters from various mythologies show up and want to make a deal so Hell can be theirs.

Reviewing Neil Gaiman's Sandman is a lot like a film reviewer reviewing Forest Gump. It's pretty much loved by all comic-fans. Now I'm a few pages into another acclaimed Graphic Novel: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller.