Comic Review -- Avengers vs. X-Men #4 / Jonathan Hickman, John Romita, Jr., Scott Hanna, and Laura Martin

I know I've been pretty critical of this series, but I must admit I like this cover.  It says, "Get Hope."  We've got the young lass on the run, the Phoenix getting nearer, and two teams full of heroes hot on her trail.  It sells the issue pretty well, and Jim Cheung's pencils here really make it look pretty.

Wolverine, who has done a hilariously admirable job of surviving in the Antarctic since Captain America marooned him there last issue, is picked up by Hope Summers, who tells him he's the only one she trusts to finish her off if she can't control the Phoenix--but, she stipulates, she deserves a chance to try.  Wolverine reluctantly agrees, and as the other teams fight each other while trying to track Hope down, he raids  the A.I.M. Worldworks and helps her secure a shuttle to the moon.  Once there, she is confronted by the Avengers and the X-Men, who threaten to start fighting over her fate once more, until Thor comes careening into their location.  He's been hit hard by the Phoenix Force--which has just appeared to all of them.

It's too late.  For better or worse, the Phoenix is on hand.  If it's gunning for Hope, it will probably get her.

Things finally got a lot more interesting in this issue.  I'm not sure if it's due to Jonathan Hickman's deft handling of the material or if there was an emergency editorial meeting that mandated things actually get more readable, but either way, this issue is a marked improvement over what's come so far.  Hope's seeking out of Wolverine for the reason she ostensibly ran away--that he was willing to kill her--was unexpected, and makes me a little more willing to give the girl a chance in the hero department.  Up until now, she's just been a badly written teen, full of snot and noise at all the wrong times; now, she's shown a real willingness to own up to how big all this Phoenix business is, and I do like that.

The beginning of this issue had me in stitches, for two reasons.  First, seeing that Wolverine killed a polar bear and used it as a gory overcoat was nothing short of hilarious.  And of course, Hope using beer cans as bread crumbs to lure Wolverine to her aircraft was a tension-breaking touch of genius that showed that Hope--along with Hickman--knows how to motivate the tough-talking mutant.  Brilliant.

The montage of fight scenes between the two teams as they work their way around the world in search of Hope felt a little obligatory and really did little to add to the story except remind you to BUY AVX VS FOR THE FULL STORY OF THESE FIGHTS.  While I intend to do so--the writing in the first one was better than the writing I'd seen in the first three issues of this main series--I think it's worth saying that this kind of blatant salesmanship is a little insulting to the reader.  If you want to make these fight scenes important to the main narrative, I'm all for them, but for fate's sake, MAKE THEM RELEVANT.

Finally, there's the artwork.  I don't think I've made any secret that I'm not fond of John Romita, Jr.'s artwork for something this expansive and wide-ranging, so I'll stop crowing as much about it for a while.  I will say there's been some moderate improvement in various scenes, particularly the ones where he's just focused on one or two characters per panel.  I really did like the partially shadowed Wolverine at the A.I.M. base after he's just gotten done slaughtering a bunch of bad guys.  His renditions of Hope are also pretty good in some places as well.  It's like when he's just got a little to concentrate on, he does decent.

Overall, I'd say this issue is worth picking up.  The writing is engaging, the artwork is a little more palatable, and things really appear to be coming to a head.  Highly recommended.

Film Review -- The Avengers / Joss Whedon, Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg

So, I'm guessing most of you who read this blog have probably seen The Avengers at least once already, and are well aware of the box office juggernaut (pun intended) this film is becoming.  The advance reviews for it have been unprecedented in their uniform level of praise for a superhero movie, and the ticket sales back up the claim that this movie has not only been hyped, but anticipated at a ravenously frenzied level.  It has action, humor, and a narrative flow that never really bogs down the film, but by now you know this--unless you've been actively hiding under a rock.

And the reviews--oh, the scores of positive reviews--have generally said the same thing: excellent start to the summer movie season, best superhero movie yet, audiences of all ages and markets are going to love it.  The acting, writing, and directing is brilliant.  Excellent moments for all the characters.  Hulk steals the show.

But you already know this.

I'm well aware that any review I write of this film--which I will agree, was spectacular and mind-blowing and fun in a way I haven't quite experienced since Iron Man four years ago--is going to be yet another paean to a film that is racking them up left and right.  I'm also relatively late to this party.  So instead of a straight-up review, I'm going to focus on a few things that stuck out to me about the film and the experience of it.

Warning: spoilers ahead.  If you haven't see this movie and don't want to be spoiled, don't read any further.

I've seen this film twice now, and will probably see it several more times.  Iron Man, as I've mentioned previously, holds the distinction of being the movie I've seen the most times in the theater.  If there's a film that will break this record, it's this one, and I daresay it stands a pretty damn good chance of doing so.  Even after two viewings, my desire to see it again remains exceptionally high.

My first viewing of this film was a midnight showing, and as any fan knows, going to those is always an experience in and of itself.  The number of people in Avengers shirts, costumes, and gear was astounding, as was the overall atmosphere of excitement and anticipation.  I saw girls dressed up in Thor regalia, a Captain America who fashioned a shield out of a trash can lid, and a rather large gentleman who, rightly, got a loud ovation from the crowd when he appeared as the Hulk, his body and hair dyed green.  Applause and cheering were constant, from the moment the film began to the climax of so many excellent scenes, including the post-credits scenes.

The great thing about this experience is the sense of camaraderie and kinship you feel with these folks, all of whom share a high interest in what you do.  It's loud, raucous, and energetic.  It can also, of course, make viewing difficult.

One good example is during the scene where Loki gets beat down--authoritatively--by the Hulk.  We loved that scene.  I laughed harder than I had in a long time when I saw that.  And so did the audience, at length, and in that circumstance, it was all too easy to miss what the Hulk said to Loki as he walked away, leaving the Asgardian staring up at the ceiling in unmoving shock (a pitch-perfect "Puny god!").  I actually didn't catch it until the second viewing (where it was still hard to hear), and a friend I was with was upset that he missed the dialog due to the audience's loud appreciation of the prior moment.

Do you mind, Cap?  Bruce and I were having a moment!

I think the development that came out of this film that I liked the most was the budding bromance that developed between Tony Stark and Bruce Banner.  It's no surprise that these two would connect on an intellectual level--they're both super-geniuses--but I thought it was pretty ingenious to have Tony express an admiration for Banner on both aspects of his life, and then essentially take him under his wing.  The biggest obstacle to this new friendship seems to be Banner's own distrust of his Hulk side, which Tony Stark seems eager to see.  Tony's encouragement of Bruce to embrace his green side was also a brilliant way to set up the idea that the Hulk's rampages can actually be a good thing, a fun thing, a pleasure and an asset, when properly aimed and directed.

I also have to begrudgingly give Joss Whedon his due, in the scene where Agent Phil Coulson is killed.  I didn't see it coming, and I think I may now understand how Firefly fans felt when Wash was suddenly killed off in Serenity.  I mean, that was a surprise too, but I hadn't been as emotionally invested when I saw it the first time.  Here, I was both shocked and horrified, but even as I mourned this character who'd connected previous Marvel films to this one, I found myself nodding in unwilling agreement.  His death was necessary for the Avengers.  After all, they needed something to avenge, if I may finish the character's final, uncompleted thought.

All of the characters have moments to shine, which are all pretty fairly spread out.  Cap gets to be a noble, heroic super soldier.  Black Widow shows she has many skills, including interrogation.  Iron Man is the epitome of Whedon snark and banter.  Thor and Hulk throw down with aplomb, and Hawkeye shows that he's more than a man with a bow and good aim.  Coulson gets to be super-fan and get the last word in with Loki before he fades.  And Nick Fury shows why he's the top spy in the world, keeping and defending both his ship and his command in all his Samuel L. Jackson badass-ness.

There's a million other things I could compliment and talk about in this movie, but chances are extremely high they're covered in other reviews, which you've probably read.  If you haven't seen this movie, do yourself a favor and do so.  Even as a straight-up popcorn action flick, you'll be entertained and engaged throughout.  And if you're a comic book fan, shame on you for reading this review before having gone and seen it already.  Get out of the house and go see it!

Overall, this is a great comic book movie that truly does live up to the massive hype around it.  Packed to the brim with moments of awesome for all of its characters, it's epic, fun, and very clever.  I don't see how you can like superheroes and comics and not see this movie.  Very highly recommended!

GN Review -- The Ultimates, v. 1: Super-Human / Mark Millar, Bryan Hitch, and Andrew Currie

After being exposed to the Ultimate Marvel universe through the pages of Ultimate Spider-Man some years ago, I was pretty excited to get my hands on The Ultimates books.  The blending and re-imagining of familiar elements from the original universe into a more modern and edgier narrative made me wonder just what stops they would be pulling for the reworking of Marvel's premier super-hero team, the Avengers.  How would they come together?  How would they interact?  What would be different?  What wouldn't be?

Plenty of all, as it happens.

These Ultimates, like their Avengers counterparts, had been brought together by circumstances beyond each individual.  But these guys are a hell of a lot darker: Bruce Banner is berated by his colleagues and wife, and harbors a starkly psychopathic Hulk; Iron Man drinks to deal with the reality of his brain tumor; Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne beat the crap out of each other when they argue, and have no qualms about using their powers on one another.  Thor is either the real deal or, more likely, a homeless guy with delusions of grandeur, and Captain America, while definitely the real deal, suffers several forms of shell shock from having woken up decades after his proper time.

In addition to being an interesting spin on a familiar team, it's a lot of fun to see some of the more modernized elements of the narrative, mostly in the form of cameos that will undoubtedly date this story in the years to come.  Shannon Elizabeth, George W. Bush, and Freddie Prinze, Jr. are just a few of the names and/or faces that place this story squarely in the early 2000s.  It's a bold step to take for a comic book, where readers are mostly treated to an elastic and blithely imprecise timeline that preserves the heroes' agelessness and timeliness. Time will tell if this particular formula holds up, but you have to give Mark Millar credit for being willing to draw such a line in the sand.

I know this series was plagued by delays for a long time, so I have to admit I'm glad I got to read it long after its publication, because I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on the second volume at the end of this one. This volume ends after a major victory--the Ultimates triumphing over a crazed Hulk rampage--but there's plenty of fallout looming, and things take a turn for the vicious in the domestic arena when some of the team members lose their tempers with each other.  It not only sets up a couple of sub-plots nicely for further reading, but makes you wonder why, with all the flaws in these iterations of the Avengers, you can't help but want to read more and more.

Art-wise, Super-Human looks every bit as good as it's intended to be.  I can't claim to be familiar with much of Bryan Hitch's work, but his pencils set the tone (and a high bar) for the story, taking the narrative to the visual heights and scope demanded by the script.  The Hulk looks creepy and wildly menacing, Banner looks nebbish and pathetic, Janet looks cute and Rogers looks studly... and the scenery is accurate, well-drawn, and its own vision to behold.  The close-ups of various characters look especially realistic, and the overall style is well-suited to a modern epic of heroic proportions.

This was an undeniably entertaining read.  It did a good job of re-envisioning the Avengers myth, and made the people in it feel more realistic, even if they felt a whole lot uglier in places because of it.  The writing was well-paced, the dialog was witty, and we get to see a big freaking battle with the Hulk.  I'd say it's worth a read if you haven't checked it out before.  Highly recommended.