Not that my adventures or lack thereof are why you read this blog. No, this blog exists because comics are awesome. When they’re great, they’re awesome, and when they’re terrible, I have an awesome time ripping them apart. It makes for wonderful reading, does it not? And this week has some exemplary books to pick at. Let’s get to it!
Fables 127 (Willingham/ Buckingham): Between Once Upon a Time, Grimm, and more derivative titles, television has decidely learned that audiences enjoy fairy tales. These shows aren’t bad, but they simply don’t stand up to Fables.
Mawwiage. Marriage is the theme of the day, be it in Supreme Court debates or Vertigo titles. In this particular case, Beast is trying to add “Matchmaker” to his resume while Old King Cole and the rest of old-school Fabletown collectively rewrites their own laws on marriage to underline the word “consent”. Snow White is having a dispute with an old flame, and while everyone is on her side of the conflict, no one can actually help.
Mawwiage. Marriage is the theme of the day, be it in Supreme Court debates or Vertigo titles. In this particular case, Beast is trying to add “Matchmaker” to his resume while Old King Cole and the rest of old-school Fabletown collectively rewrites their own laws on marriage to underline the word “consent”. Snow White is having a dispute with an old flame, and while everyone is on her side of the conflict, no one can actually help.
Traditions are stone. They are strong and weather ages, but they are also brittle, bothersome when in the way, and hurt when hurled at one’s head. Finding a way around them takes time, patience, and planning, but is the gentlest way to ensure that those who come later have an easier time on their path. For those less patient and incredibly powerful, there’s the option of smashing through and making a lot of noise in the process.
This isn’t a great spot to pick up on the story for new readers. There’s not much in the way of introductions or recap. There is, however, a great deal of intrigue, character drama, and action splash pages. If you want to get someone hooked on this series, this is the issue you should put in their hands.
Helheim 1 (Bunn/ Jones): For some people, love doesn’t get to be about raising kids or busting down walls. Sometimes love kills. Sometimes it kills the ones you love and you die inside. At the risk of instigating a convention for the emo crowd, we’re reviewing Helheim.
Helheim is the story of a small village of ancient Norse(wo)men. They’re hiding behind their walls against an army of barbarians to whom death means strategic weight loss. The barbarians are led by a mysterious witch that’s targeting the villagers for the equally mysterious redhead that’s captured the heart of Rickard, the greatest hero they’ve known for generations. Heroes have it rough - they hardly ever get to sleep.
Helheim is the story of a small village of ancient Norse(wo)men. They’re hiding behind their walls against an army of barbarians to whom death means strategic weight loss. The barbarians are led by a mysterious witch that’s targeting the villagers for the equally mysterious redhead that’s captured the heart of Rickard, the greatest hero they’ve known for generations. Heroes have it rough - they hardly ever get to sleep.
Though not the focus of the story, this provides an argument of marriage that doesn’t involve tradition, since the setting predates most traditions: is it enough for a union to make the couple happy, or should the welfare of the people around them be an issue? The actual purpose behind this story is related in the back of the issue - what does a viking-witchcraft-monster story read like? Between Bunn’s clean dialog and direct plot and Jones’s evocatively simple artwork, such a cocktail reads pretty good.
The common results of these kinds of mash-up books is that a bunch of flashy stuff gets thrown on a page and the reader is expected to look at it, think it’s cool, and throw money at someone. The common mash-up is terrible, because the creators behind it often forget to include any form of substance, and the thing ends up a rotting pile of tissue by the end. In Helheim’s case, there’s an effort made to show actual human emotion and drama alongside horn-helmeted skeletons cutting enough heads off to inspire the creation of a dozen death metal bands. This is so crazy it might just work.
Age of Ultron 4 (Bendis/ Hitch): A Marvel mega-event in the beginning of spring? Normally, publishers wait for summer to print their blockbuster crossovers, but like retailers with Christmas, the philosophy now seems to be “first is best”. Well, I’m not done eating my Hershey’s Candy-Coated Chocolate Eggs, so back off!
[Author’s Note: Seriously, those eggs are themselves justification enough for a major holiday. If I had a bank account, I’d drain it every year on those things.] (CC Note: Why did we not delete your site access while you were gone?)
[Author’s Note: Seriously, those eggs are themselves justification enough for a major holiday. If I had a bank account, I’d drain it every year on those things.] (CC Note: Why did we not delete your site access while you were gone?)
About two years ago in publishing time, meaning so far back no one actually remembers, a bunch of bad guys opened something from space to see what was inside. It was Ultron. He left. A bunch of other stuff happened, and just when everyone had stopped thinking about him, he destroyed most of the planet. The general populace isn’t taking the end of civilization well. What heroes survived aren’t taking it much better, but they have more experience at using anger constructively. In this issue, life throws them a bone. They find a place to catch their breath, compare notes, and assemble something that resembles a plan.
This series started deep. It started AFTER most of the explosions had already died. Everyone was hurt and vocal about it. What started as a survival horror story set in the Marvel Universe soon turned into a story of epic, bitter betrayal, and then quickly became a story across multiple time frames. Bryan Hitch, an artist known for his meticulously realistic art, has pushed himself admirably to render the scenes in a way that captures the hopelessness and pain such a story demands. I’m happy with him.
I am not happy with Brian Bendis. This became a time travel story, and I don’t like time travel stories. That’s nothing new. That is NOT why I’m not happy.
Bendis’s first Avengers story was one of apparent betrayal. Vision threw up Ultrons. Now, years later? Vision is throwing up Ultrons. Things are so bad that Spider-Man, the king of ID-paranoia, gave up his secret identity to the other survivors? Bendis did that before. Avengers have to go to the Savage Land to get the critical lead and find a path to victory? Not the first time. Not even the second. Taking one plot thread and attaching it to a different plot thread does not make a new and exciting plot. That doesn’t happen no matter how many old plot threads you put together. It just makes a braid of boring.
Some things get better with age. Others need to be enjoyed fresh. So far, Age of Ultron needs to be sent back.
Uber 0 (Gillen/ White): When I suggested this for the blog, my associates told me that I wouldn’t be able to handle it, that the internet would break under its weight. But we’ll show them, won’t we?
The justification the Nazis gave for instigating World War II was that they were protecting their home and gene pool from contamination, and establishing borders within which they could establish their version of a superior human, an ubermench. Their obsession with traits such as blonde hair and blue eyes, now understood to be genetically recessive, makes their cause sound more insane now than it did then, and plenty thought it was nuts then. Uber does not address aspects of the war like religion or economics or the potential risk of giving failed painters harsh criticism. It focuses on the idea of a superior human, and asks the reader a very direct question: what if the Germans had actual superhumans? What if they understood what made people stronger and could produce such people reliably?
The justification the Nazis gave for instigating World War II was that they were protecting their home and gene pool from contamination, and establishing borders within which they could establish their version of a superior human, an ubermench. Their obsession with traits such as blonde hair and blue eyes, now understood to be genetically recessive, makes their cause sound more insane now than it did then, and plenty thought it was nuts then. Uber does not address aspects of the war like religion or economics or the potential risk of giving failed painters harsh criticism. It focuses on the idea of a superior human, and asks the reader a very direct question: what if the Germans had actual superhumans? What if they understood what made people stronger and could produce such people reliably?
This is a prequel book. There’s a lot of set-up and exposition, a few splash pages, but things haven’t really even started yet. This is a very direct book. There are no sides taken, no clear heroes or villains. Given the subject matter, it couldn’t afford to be anything but - one does not show Nazis winning and then try to make a statement. This is a book for adults only. As is the Avatar publishing tradition, there’s copious blood and violence, and while there’s sexual content, there’s nothing in the way of nudity.
The first issue isn’t even out, and already this book has thrown down an impressive gauntlet. It’s challenging, but if you can handle it, it’ll make you proud.
It feels good to be back! Leave a comment to let us know if you like having the blog back, or if it causes you pain, describe that pain to us. Either way, we’d love to hear about it. (CC Note: When’s your next vacation?)
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