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Review Date: 01/08/2010
Good King Leonardo wishes everyone a very Happy New Year,
and to kick-off 2010 right, the King decrees that
we start the year off with reviews of the following
three Marvel comics; a Stan Lee used to say back in
the Silver Age, for this week at least, Make Mine
Marvel!: |
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Thor
#605
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Kieron Gillen: Writer
Billy Tan: Penciler
Christina Strain, Emily Warren & Paul Mounts:
Colors
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Thor #605 was released over the holidays, featuring part two
of a three-issue story arc entitled "Latverian
Prometheus." The multi-issue story is written
by Kieron Gillen with art by the team of Billy Tan,
Christina Strain, Emily Warren and Paul Mounts.
A page one narrative updates the reader on the story
so far, giving us the details of a major war between
Marvel Universe bad guy Doctor Doom and Thor's fellow
Asgardians. This storyline picks-up from last
year's wonderful Thor storyline written by veteran
writer Michael Straczynski, in which Thor resurrects
Asgard and its citizens just outside the town of Broxton,
Oklahoma. Prior to issue #605, Dr. Doom has
abducted and killed a major Asgardian figure, while
torturing and transforming other Asgardians into mindless
zombies, whom he calls "Doombots," and whom he unleashes
back upon the Asgardians.
The plot of issue #605 is very action-oriented, as
a missing Thor returns and quickly learns of the situation,
leading to an issue-long battle between the Thor-led
Asgardians versus Doom and his former Asgardian Doombots.
An interesting sub-plot has Thor's evil half-brother
Loki playing his usual devious mindgames, in this
case seeking trust again from Thor in exchange for
his offer to restore the life of the key Asgardian
whom Dr. Doom killed in the previous issue.
The story ends in a cliffhanger as Doom unleashes
a powerful secret weapon on Thor, utilizing captured
energy from Thor's previous use of his hammer.
I didn't expect this latest Thor issue to match-up
to last year's classic Thor interpretation by Michael
Straczynski and while my diminished expectations were
met, this is still a quality and entertaining Thor story
plot in its own right. I liked the manner in
which writer Kieron Gillen evolved the concept of
Asgard being relocated into Earth's society to the
point where Dr. Doom attacks and takes advantage of
the Asgardians. There is a very moving multi-page
sequence in which Thor's brother Balder has to battle
and kill three former Asgardian's, flashing back to
the good people whom they were prior to their horrible
transformation at the hands of Dr. Doom.
I only had two minor criticisms of this story concept,
the first being that there's a lot more blood and
mutilation in this issue than I personally enjoy in
a comic. Secondly, it seems odd to me that the
human villain Doom is so easily able to physically
harm any Asgardians. Back in the day, Marvel
always presented Thor's people as invincible gods,
while in the current storyline they're presented as
being more physically empowered than the average human,
but easily killed or harmed if a villain such as Doom
just puts his mind to it. I suppose that's the
only way to generate even a little story drama for
a conflict between humans and Asgardians, but it feels a
bit odd to me.
The last two comments aside, a definite thumbs-up
recommendation for this entertaining take on the traditional
Marvel Universe world of the Almighty Thor, his mythical
kingdom subjects and their current nasty conflict
with well-known Marvel bad guy Dr. Doom.
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The
Torch #4
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Mike Carey: Writer
Patrick Berkenkotter: Art
Carlos Lopez: Colors
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Issue #4 of Marvel Comics's The Torch is now on the
That's Entertainment new issues shelves. The
eight-issue mini-series is written by Mike Carey with
art by Patrick Berkenkotter and colors by Carlos Lopez.
I reviewed the first issue in this series, which centers
on the return in our present day of Jim Hammond, the
Golden Age Torch and Tom Raymond, who served as his
sidekick Toro. The series began with The Torch's
mad scientist foe The Thinker delving into the technology
which created the synthetic Torch back in the 1930's
and from his research developing a mind control technology which
he successfully uses on the original Golden Age
hero. Woven into this main action plot is a
parallel story focusing on Tom Raymond/Toro's efforts
to fit into today's society as well as his efforts
to rescue and team-up with the captured Torch.
Issue #4 advances the storyline with three interweaving
storythreads. The main storyline focuses on
The Torch getting free of The Thinker's control and
teaming-up with Toro to address the second story element,
in which The Thinker's mind control chemical contaminates
the ocean, turning human beings along with our
old friend The Submariner and his Atlantean subjects
into mind controlled zombies, all heading for New
York City to attack mankind. The third storythread
advances a mystery element of the series, in which
Toro with the assistance of reporter Betty Brant delves
into the 1930's origins of The Torch in an effort
to resolve the mystery of his own superhero origins.
After reading all four of the first issues in this
eight-issue mini-series, I'm struck by how writer
Mike Carey manages to give us a very fresh and interesting
return of Marvel's original Golden Age heroes
without turning the effort into a pretentious mega-event.
Without the overblown grandeur so often at the center
of these "return of our past heroes" storylines,
the creative team just gives us a very entertaining comic
book series that adds new origin facts to the
main characters while bringing them into the modern-day
Marvel Universe through both high action and
an interesting plot. Compliments are also
due to the artistic team for giving us a beautiful
visual series in the oil painting style of Alex Ross.
The cover art of issue #4 is particularly impressive,
with a detailed rendering of The Submariner and his
soldiers dramatically rising from the sea to invade
dry land.
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Models,
Inc. #4
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Paul Tobin: Writer
Vicenc Villagrasa: Pencils
Gary Martin: Inks
Val Staples: Colors
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As
a change of pace from the usual superhero fare, Marvel
has just published the final installment in a
four-issue mini-series called Models, Inc. The
title brings back several fashion model characters
from Marvel's historic past, including the Golden
Age Atlas Publishing fashionista character Hedy Wolfe
and the Silver Age characters Millie The Model and
Chili Storm. The series is scripted by Paul
Tobin with art by Vicenc Villagrasa, Gary Martin and
Val Staples.
A
two-page opening narrative explains the history of
the Hedy Wolfe character in the Marvel Universe, followed
by a 20-page murder mystery story. The plot
concludes the four-issue story, in which a group of
New York fashion model friends are trying to solve
the mystery of who murdered one of their friends
and stole his priceless paintings. The girls
escape from their own potential murders a few times
while investigating suspects. Without providing
any spoiler details, the story builds to a conclusion
in which the models escape from harm, solve the murder
and recover the missing paintings.
This issue was an enjoyable change of pace from the
usual superhero fare of most comic book titles.
In a positive and entertaining way, I felt as if I
was reading the comic book version of an episode of
one of the CSI television shows, with the murder mystery
involving some well-known comic book fashion characters.
While the plot was understandable as a stand-alone
comic, I did feel to some degree that I would have better
appreciated the significance of some of the narrative
and action if I had read the previous three issues.
I was also surprised to see that the story plot focused
on models Chili, Millie and two lesser known fashion
characters, while the cover art and wrap-around narrative
gives the impression that Golden Age character Hedy
Wolfe is the lead character in this title. Instead,
Hedy seems to be the editor of a fashion blog that
narrates the tale. Yet while somewhat misleading,
this approach didn't take away from an interesting
change-of-pace comic book title.
On a final note, the opening narrative refers to the
possibility of Marvel renewing this title beyond this
four-issue mini-series. So if you enjoy this
non-superhero genre, my suggestion is to drop an e-mail
to Marvel letting them know that they should keep
offering readers the adventures of Models, Inc.
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New
Contest Announcement!!!
Good King Leonardo has
decreed that we begin the New Year with a real thinking
person's contest. As such, the Bongo Congo panel of
judges proclaim the following contest challenge:
Many Batman fans have told
us over the years that they are Caped Crusader fans because
they like the fact the Bruce Wayne has no given superpowers and
as such achieves all that he does by using his intellect,
as well as developing a high degree of human-level skills
and talents. This led us to think that similar to
preferences for Coca-Cola versus Pepsi, many comic book
fans fall into one of two opposing camps regarding superhero
preferences, either prefering heroes with unnatural powers
(Superman, Spider-Man, etc.) or the self-made, human-level
hero (a la Batman).
As such, your contest challenge
is to e-mail us at Gordon_A@msn.com and pitch
to us which of the two types of superhero camps you fall
into as a fan, why you prefer the super or brainy type of
hero, and justify your preference by telling us about one
or two of your favorite heros in your chosen category.
Please note that we will not choose a winner based on our
personal preferences for either super vs. brainy heroes,
but solely on the quality of your pitch for your favorite
point of view. So give us your best shot, and proclaim to
all of fandom why the superpowered or nonsuperpowered-but-highly
trained/skilled folks rule!
That's all for now, so have a great beginning of
2010 comic book reading week and see you again next time
here In Bongo Congo!
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