Thursday, May 22, 2008

Two quick bits

I had to work last night, so I only managed to get through two comics:

Mighty Avengers # 14: Brian Bendis adds a new chapter in his fan fiction Sentry story, and I liked it, probably the first time that's happened. I didn't really care for the original mini-series (though I do love me some Jae Lee), and his usage since then has ranged from trivial to inappropriate to "How do we end this...ooh..have the Sentry come to the rescue!" I was kind of hoping he'd be a Skrull (spoiler, I guess?) because he's such a nothing character. Still, I did like this issue, especially since it gave more weight to the light Secret Invasion #2. I still don't like Khoi Pham that much, but the writing seems to be getting better since Frank Cho left, so that's nice.

X-Men: Divided We Stand #2: Judging by sales numbers, people really don't care for anthology series. Me, I love them. It gives writers and artists a chance to work on characters (or experiment with styles) that they wouldn't otherwise get to try. These two issues have acted mostly as a prequel to Young X-Men, which is okay, I guess, and no particular story is particularly strong, but on the whole it's a pretty good collection. Plus, some of the art (especially Frazier Irving and whoever did the Forge story) is just...pretty.

1 comment:

s1rude said...

I'm with you on Divided We Stand. I couldn't give two, um, licks about Young X-Men (the first issue was just boring; a by-the-numbers "getting the team together" exercise that did nothing innovative or interesting), but each of the stories that seemingly lead to that book are still nifty little character pieces. The Beast, Havok and Forge chapters are all really intriguing, especially the latter two. There's nice art throughout the book in a variety of styles that mesh well.

The Havok tale is the real standout. (1) It's Frazer f'n Irving. I'd rather have more & timely Gutsville , but...it's Frazer f'n Irving. (2) I haven't read any of Brubaker's Shiar "epic" or the subsequent mini(s?), but in a few pages I'm caught up , get more insight in Alex's character than, well, ever and get the kind of "hells yeah" moment I want from my superhero comics. I also thought it was neat how the opening and closing chapters each end with a good news/bad news life metaphor about the day.

Nicely done. This is a Marvel book I don't mind having paid $3.99 for (I'm looking at you Secret Invasion #2 - all 22 pages of you).