Or Changes to My Top-Ten Comics
Due to poverty and an urge to buy better comics, I have
decided to be super-selective about which superhero comics I read. Harnessing
the Awesome Power of Maths, I have determined that I can afford to read 10
ongoing titles. So I get to read 10, and only 10, titles published by either
Marvel or DC as well as one trade paperback a week of my choosing.
A complication of this is that I am forced to drop an
on-going title if I want to try reading a new on-going title, an act of very
tough love. Being financially responsible is the worst.
I will be adding Captain Marvel to my ten comic list and
dropping Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers.
Why after the cut:
Why Captain Marvel?
It’s a book about a crack fighter jet pilot who gets
superman level powers (limited invulnerability, super strength, flight, and
energy projection) from interacting with a powerful alien empire. Over the
years this superhero has been an avenger, had problems with alcoholism, and
been put in a coma by a mutant terrorist.
Sounds like a character ripe with
potential, right?
Would it be a surprise to learn this character is Carol
Danvers, the sometime Ms. Marvel? The blond woman who is usually one of the
token lady avengers?
I guess what I am getting at here is that Carol Danvers, the
new Captain Marvel, has way more character potential than how she typically
gets used.1 As a fan of the character, I’m keen to see some of this
potential realized and see Carol have her own good title. Furthermore, I tend
to think it behooves Marvel to build up the portfolios of more of their female Avengers
characters for migration to other media.
I’m also pretty excited about the creative team. I think the
writer, Kelly Sue DeConnick, is fantastically talented and I’ve very much
enjoyed her work at Marvel (Rescue One-shot, Sif One-shot, Osborn
Limited-Series). I really think DeConnick has earned her shot at an on-going
title.2 What I am most excited about though is how perfect DeConnick
appears to be for writing Captain Marvel. From what I’ve been able to gather,
DeConnick grew up on Air Force bases (where she encountered comics) and
therefore has an understanding of Air Force culture. Inferring a bit from the
kinds of things DeConnick has posted on her blog, it seems that she has
encountered and overcome issues with substance abuse, which is another
formative Carol Danvers event. Also, writing Captain Marvel appears to herald
DeConnick’s shot at big league writing at Marvel, and making it as a big time
superhero has often been a key theme to Carol Danvers. And, although I’m sure
DeConnick is probably sick of having this pointed out, she is a strong feminist
and a woman and therefore has a pretty good understanding that female
characters should have all the agency, strength, and flaws of their male
counterparts and that being female, while a character trait, is not a full characterization.
Seriously, whoever at Marvel editorial made this happen is a genius.
I’m not super familiar with series artist Dexter Soy, but
the preview pages of Captain Marvel look very nice. They have a kinetic, stylized
quality that should be a good match for the series.
Why not Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers?
Sometimes I get reminded that there are several people who
read comics who are not me and that comics publishing is ultimately a business.3
This frequently manifests itself when a title I really enjoys gets cancelled or
terribly altered because the reading habits of the former affects the latter.
The transition of Thunderbolts to
Dark Avengers falls into that category for
me.
My dearly departed Thunderbolts was a comic about a ragtag
group of supervillains given a chance at redemption that proved comics can be
fun without compromising maturity and dramatic tension (which is especially amazing
given the thematic temptation to lapse into grit). It has been replaced with
Dark Avengers mark II, which focuses on Hulk’s alien son, Clone-Thor, and
six-armed-spidermanish guy with the same premise of supervillains given a
chance at redemption. This happened for some kind of business reason,
presumably for the increased sales of “avengers” titles or in an effort to capitalize
on the success of the Avengers film. I’m not super interested in this book’s new
starring cast (really, Clone-Thor?), and kind of find this top-down refocusing
of the book kind of distasteful.
On the other hand, Jeff Parker and Kevin Walker and the rest
of the Thunderbolts team are staying on the Dark Avengers book. They are an
extremely talented bunch of creators, which makes me think that the book will still
be quite good. I wasn’t initially sold on the premise of Thunderbolts, and it
was their execution that made it such a pleasure to read. I wish them, and the
new book the best of luck. That said, if I am going to only read ten comic
books, is one really going to be about lil’ Hulk, Clone-Thor, and
spider-whatever?
No, no it’s not.
If there is any silver lining to this whole thing is that I’ve
discovered that Jeff Parker is a great writer and that he has been very
prolific in at making independent comics.4 I will assuredly read (and review) more of his
comics in the coming months.
This makes my current top ten list:
Batman
Batwoman
Captain Marvel
Daredevil
Fantastic Four/FF
The Flash
The Invincible Ironman
Ultimate Spiderman
Winter Soldier
Wonder Woman
1: I’d argue if Carol Danvers (F) was Clark Danvers (M) he
would easily be one of the most important characters in Marvel’s line up. I
really think Carol Danvers SHOULD be one of Marvel’s marquis characters (I’d
suggest that she already IS, but that she just has to have the chance to
shine).
2: Not a slight on Kelly Sue DeConnick in the slightest. New
writers at Marvel, I’ve noticed, tend to come from elsewhere in the industry
(indy books, editor, translating manga scripts, etc…), spend a period of time
either co-scripting titles or writing one-shots/limited series, and only then
get a shot at writing an on-going title.
3: Especially at Marvel and DC.
4: You can read his sexy-muderers mystery comic Bucko forfree online.
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