52 WEEK TWENTY-THREE:
Written by“¦.Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka & Mark Waid
Broken down by“¦.Keith Giffen
Drawn by“¦.Drew Johnson
Inked by“¦.Ray Snyder
Coloured by“¦.David Baron
Edited by“¦.Stephen Wacker
Published by, um, DC
“The Island of Professor Morrow”
DAY #162 – Following his kidnapping last week, Dr Magnus finds himself on somewhere called Oolong Island. He is greeted by Professor Morrow, wearing an outfit that not even the tackiest of Miami Vice extras could even begin to contemplate describing as ‘cool’, slurping some purple drink with an umbrella flavour to it, doing a big bunch of drugs and hanging out with some all-but-naked young woman in a bikini. Everything seems to be just dandy, save for the crazy robots. The mad scientists that have been abducted during the course of this series have all been taken here, to try and create non-crazy robots. The market for crazy does not match the market for robots, I guess. Except for maybe on Cybertron. But who wants to see that crossover?
Put your hands down.
DAY #166 – In Yemen, Charlie, a.k.a. The Question, and Renee, a.k.a. The Whinger, have managed to track down Whisper A’Daire and her Intergang recruitment camp. Isis’ brother, Amon Tomaz, is one of the unfortunate slave-students there and winds up getting his legs smashed for trying to escape again. Charlie and Renee get attacked by some ugly red thing in yellow underpants (no, not Hulk Hogan) but Isis and Black Adam run-in to draw the DQ. The ever-vigilant Charlie manages to swipe Whispe’s prayer book too. They all head downstairs and find Amon, who is held guard by what looks like the rhino-hippo thing from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and someone who was dropped from Thundercats after a poor demographic showing in the pilot episode. Adam uses yet another one of his handy magic tricks to restore Amon to health, which apparently makes him Osiris now. How many Marvels does DC need?
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“A colossal waste of interest” |
DAY #167 – Adam, Isis and Osiris head for China.
Bye! E-mail me when you get there!
No, really, that’s all that happens. I know.
Oh, no, wait, there’s an origin story for Wildcat! Wow, that changes”¦ nothing. Has he even appeared in 52 yet?
All in all, this is a colossal waste of interest.
Grade: C
THE PULSE VOL. 3 – FEAR TPB
Written by“¦.Brian Michael Bendis
Art by“¦.Michael Gaydos and Olivier Coipel
Collects issues #11-14 and NEW AVENGERS ANNUAL #1
Published by Marvel
Jessica Jones is dead.
Well, not literally. She’s fictional, so a literal death would be an astounding feat and confirm Bendis’ God status in the eyes of more than merely the Jinxworld faithful suckling at his teat.
Oh dear god, don’t let me picture his teat again. Or your teat, if you really are Bendis. And if I’m just talking to myself then I really don’t want to be God because then God would be an alcoholic”¦ although that would explain a lot, considering bee’s wonderful ability to make sense out of nonsense and beauty out of the flabbiest of teats.
I believe I was talking about Jessica Jones, right?
Right.
Shut up, God. (I get to put that in a quote box now, courtesy of Manolis and his whacky HTML hive! Please, please, please Marvel, put “Shut up, God” as a quote on one of your books. We’ll sell it to millionaire atheists with too much time on their hands, make ‘em buy all the variants, then laugh at how we’ve finally left 52 behind in the dust of the racing sales chart we’ve driven away on a KITT-powered DeLorean”¦ whooooyazzzz”¦ the only way is up)
Okay, seriously, Jessica Jones.
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“Shut up, God.” |
She’s not dead, but her career as a leading character in a comic book certainly is. Those of you who have been paying attention, not only do I salute you for making it this far but you will already have realised that ALIAS could never possibly be matched by a non-MAX fluff series such as THE PULSE. Hell, even Potential God Bendis realised it and, after having it carefully explained to them with the aid of a crayon-maze and a double-Oreo, so did Marvel. That’s why the book ended instead of continuing it under the guidance of Paul Jenkins. Jessica Jones was left in the position to see the light at the end of the tunnel at long last when ALIAS wrapped-up. All they had to do was bring her out at the end of the tunnel in this series. When she emerged, married to Luke Cage and happily raising their child, there was nowhere else to take the character without hastily undoing all the solid work that had been done in the first place. Hence the voluntary cancellation and Jenkins’ plans getting shifted over to the highly-similar CIVIL WAR: FRONTLINE instead.
Sadly, 14 issues down the line, it becomes more apparent than ever that having Jessica Jones as the focal point of THE PULSE was a big mistake. Yes, God f*cked up (another one for the quote box, methinks). If there had to be a leading character in this title then it should have been Ben Urich. Jones can saunter around, talking about babies and spouting clichés on love. Urich can use his Daily Bugle day job to be slotted into any given situation in the Marvel Universe, from Daredevil’s trial to the Green Goblin’s public outing, and respond not just as a typical world-weary character but as an intelligent, articulate columnist too.
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“God f*cked up.” |
There’s a B-story in here that sees Urich tracking down D-Man, a long-forgotten hero fallen on harsh times, which is exponentially more interesting than the familial familiars of Jones and Cage. Coming on the back of Bendis’ solid exploration of Uric’s professional life in DAREDEVIL, this series, if anything, makes Jones seem utterly bland while leaving Urich seem like a hot commodity. Yes, Ben Urich”¦ hot. Well, maybe in the eyes of God”¦ If that means in the eyes of Quesada then, who knows, perhaps after Civil War leaves us all alone we might actually wind up with a Ben Urich solo book – or at the very least a Daily Bugle series. Robert Kirkman’s MARVEL TEAM-UP might have crashed and burned, but there is plenty of room for a comic that spans the underbelly of the Marvel Universe, and doing it via their premier newspaper and most renowned journalist seems like a perfectly sensible option.
A quick word on the art. I know that Gaydos has his fans but, c’mon, the guy made a scene of Sue Richards sitting in a park on a sunny afternoon talking about her children come across as unsettling and gothic. Surely, that can’t be right.
So, ta-ta to THE PULSE. Ta-ta to Jessica Jones and the baby. The others may look forward to seeing you in the background of NEW AVENGERS but I, along with the other nostalgia-driven fools in the world, will be quite content to simply have our ALIAS books on the shelf and leave it at that.
Have I angered God? Is he still there? If you speak but can’t hear anybody listening, are you still speaking? My head-innards ache”¦
Grade: C
DAREDEVIL VOL. 6 HC
Written by“¦.Brian Michael Bendis
Art by“¦.Alex Maleev and David Mack
Collects issues #76-81 and #16-19
Published by Marvel
So if ALIAS was a keen thumbs-up and THE PULSE was a conditional thumbs-down, then what of Bendis’ other plaything? What of DAREDEVIL?
Well, I’ve been trying to think of a way of saying this without hyperbole, but it does seem fair to say that this title has, mainly due to Bendis’ persistence and Quesada’s affection for the character, quietly become one of the most important books of whatever Age comic books are currently in. Almost every major, non-Hollywood step that Marvel have taken in developing their superhero books for a modern audience has been initiated in the chaotic haze of Matt Murdock’s life. Let’s do the checklist:
Scurrying away from clones and Rob Liefeld and bankruptcy to take a chance on Marvel Knights? Check.
Inviting well-known creators from film and TV to come and write comics with the bare minimum of editorial hassle? Check.
Downplaying the importance of continuity in favour of just having a decent story? Check.
Transferring the balance of power from the artist to the writer? Check. (David Mack was originally the draw on this title after Kevin Smith, not Bendis)
Permitting a more graphic, gritty, realistic take on the superhero genre than the traditional bright-coloured spandex crowd would ask for? Check.
Creating a more rounded supporting cast and then using them for more than the standard exposition and dues ex machina double-whammy? Check.
Shifting the storytelling focus from the ultimate destination to the description of the journey? Check. You might dub this ‘decompression’ but, be fair, we can’t hold Bendis accountable for things like Bruce Jones’ run on HULK.
Pushing the boundaries of superhero conventions, most notably the secret identity issue, the impact of the media, and the legal standpoint of the government and law enforcement agencies? Check.
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“A remarkable body of work” |
Not all of those developments are solely attributable to Bendis’ involvement of course, but they still highlight the unspoken importance of this title and how his run on it has strengthened this fact rather than diminished it. ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN might be the book that most will associate with Bendis, but in truth he has had a far greater impact on the tone of the regular Marvel Universe than with its Ultimate counterpart – and it is his run on this book that most aptly demonstrates that.
This sixth volume of the incredibly well-produced over-sized hardcover books collects the final arc of Bendis’ run, “The Murdock Papers”, and an earlier arc by David Mack, “Wake Up”, which was omitted from earlier collections. The Bendis story follows the legal ramifications of Daredevil’s outing and Kingpin’s thirst for both vengeance and freedom through to their logical, satisfying conclusion. It’s good to know that the new creative team, Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark, are already receiving rave reviews for their work on this title – and that they haven’t merely set the reset button, instead exploring Murdock’s newfound situation. The Mack storyline is very much a stand-alone tale, and you’ll already know by now whether his abstract-painted style of art is your cup of tea. It can certainly be a little grating in certain circumstances, but considering the story involves a catatonic child haunted by psychologically devastating nightmares, it certainly fits in well here. Also, Bendis’ story continues to bring out the best in the Ben Urich character. It was Bendis’ first writing job on DAREDEVIL and an early indication of how determined he was to restore the influence of the Daily Bugle on the Marvel Universe.
So, five years after it began, we are fortunate enough to have a remarkable body of work collected in these exceedingly well-set books. If you only know Bendis as the guy who killed Hawkeye, built the rather boring House of M and shoved Wolverine into the Avengers, then you would do well to acquaint yourself with his real strengths as an influential writer, all of which can be seen in DAREDEVIL. Come to think of it, maybe he should do that too.
Grade: A
Next Week”¦.one of the Seven Soldiers turns up before that event ends in 52 WEEK TWENTY-FOUR….IDW continues to establish a thoroughly coherent and intriguing universe that nobody is paying attention to in TRANSFORMERS: STORMBRINGER #4 and TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHT: NIGHTBEAT….and, because I forgot to cancel it, there’s the rather non-exciting presence of SHADOWPACT #6….
