Atoll Comics Round 13

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 Moon Knight and dropping Avengers.

Why Moon Knight: Sometimes you read a comic because you have some great interest or affinity for the leading character. You are just soooo into Batman that pretty much any comic with Batman in it is something you want to read. Other times you read a comic because the creative team making the thing demands your attention. Moon Knight by Warren Ellis, Declan Shalvey, and Jordie Bellaire is exactly that kind of comic. Warren Ellis has written some of my favourite comics, and its a joy to see him back writing more. Declan Shalvey is a great noiry artist and Jordie Bellaire is a reliable awesome colourist and together they are doing some really interesting things. It's maybe an especially interesting collaboration as, I've gathered, Shalvey and Bellaire live together, and that kind of geographically close collaboration between a penciller and colourist is pretty rare and potentially special. If the first issue of Moon Knight is any indication, the book looks poised to be pretty good: a fascinating trip into the mind of the supernaturalish-insane person that is Moon Knight rendered in this fantastic style that sees Mooney stark, flat white in a sumptuously rendered, coloured world. The first issue is a comic worth picking up for quality of the overall story but also just for the daring artwork. You ought to at least give it a try.

Why not Avengers: Avengers is the flagship, tentpole comic for one of Marvel's main publishing lines. It's a comic that draws Marvel's biggest characters and puts them into the biggest storylines, those linewide Events! that change the very nature of the Marvel Universe. Avengers plays for all of the marbles all of the time! OMG!

And... I'm kind of bored of it. The constant smashy crises, even with the best creators, tends to get a little repetitive: the world is ending and the heroes save it. Even worse, from my perspective, Avengers has a nasty habit of setting up and then interweaving with the Event! de jour which means the comic can seem like its either in a holding pattern, set up period, or a tie-in. Add to that a very large (and pleasantly diverse) cast, and there isn't much room for character development. I find I am more interested in reading character driven comics that have enough editorial freedom to tell stories without too much interference from Event! cycles. So, yeah, Avengers is out.

The thing is, I don't think Avengers should change! There is completely a place for this kind of Event! driven, character heavy, comic in Marvel's line. I used to love Events! and the interlocking stories with New Avengers, and I suspect that there is still a large block of readers that buy into this kind of storytelling. And the wonderful thing about a healthy comics publishing line is that there can be comics for everyone. Marvel publishes a lot of other comics that are more my speed, more than I can actually afford to read, so my comic tastes are being still being satisfied. Not every comic is for everyone, live and let live and find what comics work for you.

Previously:

Atoll comics Round 12: She Hulk in and FF out

Atoll Comics Round 11: Ms. Marvel in and Young Avengers out

Atoll Comics Round 10: Black Widow in and The Movement out

Atoll Comics Round 9: The Movement in and The Indestructible Hulk out

Atoll Comics Round 8: The Indestructible Hulk and FF in and Uncanny Avengers out
Atoll Comics Round 7: Young Avengers in and Winter Solider out
Atoll Comics Round 6: Either The Indestructible Hulk or FF in and Batwoman out
Atoll Comics Round 5: Avengers in and Fantastic Four/FF out
Atoll Comics Round 4: Avengers Assemble in and The Invincible Ironman out
Atoll Comics Round 3: Uncanny Avengers in and Ultimate Spider-Man out
Atoll Comics Round 2: Hawkeye in and The Flash out
Atoll Comics Round 1: Captain Marvel in and Thunderbots/Dark Avengers out
Atoll Comics Round 0: The originals

Abseiling Avengers #7

Or Whit Event?.... why does that seem familair?

Jonathan Hickman's Avengers is yet another high concept plot machine of a book. In it Hickman and company do that thing Hickman does where he throws out crazy, high concept ideas and builds these enormous feeling high stakes plots. I'm a big fan.

In his most recent issue Avengers #7 (and a bit in Avengers #6, EDIT: Also presumably 8; this comic comes out too frequently!) I noticed something kind of perplexing happening. One of the characters, the being created by the Martian gods, is called a "Nightmask". And then we see a bunch of weird alien artifacts in the "Superflow" and then the sky glows white as a "White Event"happens. The issue climaxes with a search for a super powerful individual known as a "Starbrand".

Nightmask. Superflow. White Event. Starbrand.

Something about these terms stirred something in the seldom used recesses of my brain. I've definitely read some comics about these terms before... about this whole premise before. A comic that I remember being pretty great. And then I realized the comic I was thinking of was Newuniversal by Warren Ellis and Salvador Larroca.

In the existing Newuniversal trade: Everything Went White, we see the initiation of the White Event, a cosmic paradigm shift from an extradimensional space made of information called the Superflow. To help facilitate the turbulent times following the White Event select human beings are given powers to help quell the chaos. Izanami Randall is made into a Nightmask, a being that can travel into the information stream of the Superflow to receive information from a Communication Station placed there and to travel between different locations. Kenneth Connel is given the terrible power of the Starbrand meant to make him the ultimate guardian of humanity; a power he doesn't understand and can't control. John Tensen, a brain damaged and traumatized police officer given the Justice glyph which gives him the ability to see others guilt, a deadly weapon, and the means to carry out an insane quest for justice and vengeance. Jenny Swann, a struggling tech specialist who is made into a Cypher, a technological Savant that understands and can communicate with machines. Working against these super people is Philip L Voight and the shadowy Spitfire program which seeks to protect humanity from super humans by whatever horrific means are necessary:  because if there is one superhuman, there will be two, and if there are more than two they will meet and reproduce and then humanity will be supplanted. 

Newuniversal: Everything Went White is a pretty amazing introduction that throws out a crazy, high concept idea and builds an expansive, high stakes plot around it. It's also, as the googles point out, a pretty snappy modernization of the New Universe line of comics published by Marvel in the late '80s that saw the original version of these characters suddenly imbued with powers from a White Event. It's a great comic with terrific writing by Ellis and superb artwork by Salvador Larocca. It's also, based on the salient details, probably the keystone which Hickman is using to inspire his current story in Avengers.

Sadly, a series of computer failures destroyed Ellis' work on Newuniversal, which culminated in the hiatus and cancellation of Ellis' Newuniversal. (Well, actually there were a few one shot titles meant to buy Ellis some time to rewrite the comic, including Newuniversal: 1959, a story about the chilling lengths Philip L Voight went to to quell the 1953 White Event, which I think was Kieron Gillen's first work for Marvel.)

(There would be an image of Newuniversal 1959 here, but the issue is buried in a storage locker and I am lazy.)

I guess what the point of this kind of rambling essay is that I'm glad that Hickman's Avengers is borrowing from the pretty great premise laid out by Ellis in Newuniversal. It's pretty cool to see some of that potential used. I'd also say that if you want the background, or really dig what Hickman does with the White Event story and want to read more, that you should check out Newuniversal: Everything Went White which is apparently still available from Amazon (but not Comixology... they should fix that, eh?). I'd also recommend Newuniversal: 1959 if you can track it down somewhere.

Atoll Comics Round 5

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 Avengers to my ten comic list and dropping The Fantastic Four/FF.

Why Avengers?

The Avengers, when it's at its best, is the engine of the Marvel universe. It's where the big, bold events happen and where a collection of the most interesting and powerful of Marvel's heroes combat the very worst of their villains. It's Marvel's showcase book for the company's serious fans (while Uncanny Avengers and Avengers Assemble would be more casual, approachable showcases). What I'm getting at is that it's supposed to be BIG. And while it has often been a high stakes book over the last few years, the title has maybe lacked some gravitas and thoughtfulness (in my humble opinion). If there is one guy who can infuse Avengers with some weight and an insane degree of planning and thought it's Jonathan Hickman. The man is an expert at creating new, giant ideas and building exciting stories around PLOT while still maintaining all important characterization and dialogue. Couple him with some great artists, like series opener Jerome Opena, and Avengers looks to be a thinky, epic comic about which the Marvel Universe can spin. And yeah, I want in on that.

(Really though, I could've just said I want some Jonathan Hickman in my life, and this book looks like the best of the current lot.)

Why not The Fantastic Four/FF?

The Fantastic Four really saw a resurgence under Hickman. The Fantastic Four previous to his run had become essentially about a super powered family who had superhero adventures. Under Hickman the book, and its offspring title FF, became Science Fiction comics where a super powered family explored, studied, and fought epic battles against simply incredible things. No comic being made by Marvel or DC managed to stimulate my wonder glands in the same way as Hickman's Fantastic Four and FF. All the more impressively Hickman managed to tell his epic Sci-fi parables and super heroic conflicts without ever losing focus of the family and love which are the heart and soul of the Fantastic Four. For me the book was this perfect balance of Sci-fi and heart. (Hickman also writes one hell of a Reed Richards.) Hickman has moved on to other projects and The Fanatastic Four seems to want to become a really good book about a super powered family again instead of a wonder inducing book about an astronaut/scientist/explorer/superheroic family who have mind-expanding Science Fiction adventures. And as good as the former is, all I really want to read is the latter.

(Although, if you are looking to read more comics Matt Fraction and Mark Bagely's Fantastic Four is pretty good.)