Iron Man Vol. 1: Believe (Marvel NOW!) Review

Tony Stark tests his new invention:
Robo-Groupies

Iron Man Vol. 1: Believe (Marvel NOW!)

Writer: Keiron Gillen

Artist: Greg Land

Collects: Iron Man #1-5

Background Information:

If you don’t know who Iron Man is by now, you probably shouldn’t be reading this blog. The guy’s been in four movies now and has appeared in two cartoons over the past five years. I therefore won’t waste too much time with the background information only to say that he’s become one of the most valuable franchises that Marvel publishes (and... y’know... still owns the film rights to).

Review:

Considering how big a franchise Iron Man is these days, you would have expected a lot more care to be taken when making Tony Stark’s debut in Marvel NOW! Sadly, Marvel’s biggest player at the moment has the worst debut trade in Marvel’s renumbering initiative.

Black is the new red.

Believe’s story is centred around Extremis; y’know, that strange genetic thing that made people puke fire Iron Man 3. That’s really the first problem with Believe: Iron Man 3 wasn’t the worst of the Iron Man films, but if you’re going to reference a film, reference the first one- it was much better. Here, thankfully, Extremis doesn’t blow people up; rather, it  gives them different abilities that can be used for destructive purposes. Somebody has sold Extremis to a slew of different buyers and that bothers Tony Stark, so he goes out to stop everybody who is using it; regardless of their intentions.

and explode in

What follows is a series of isolated battles that have very little to do with each other except that the bad guys use Extremis. I don’t mind it when stories are isolated if they are entertaining. Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye pulled it off amazingly in the first volume. The problem is that writer Keiron Gillen treats these isolated incidents like they’re part of something greater and they just aren’t. There is no reason to care about any of these battles that Stark is launching himself into. Even the threat of Extremis doesn’t seem like it’s that bigger a problem. Stark tends to nullify all the threats before they seem like a challenge and that makes the whole thing seem too easy.

The bigger problem, though, lies in what this book doesn’t do.  Marvel NOW! is all about placing different heroes in new situations that push the boundaries about what we know about these characters. Thor meets gods from different faiths all over the universe. Hawkeye has a life outside of the Avengers. Captain America is in another Dimension and Spiderman is possessed by Doctor Octopus. Iron Man, though, is plain-old, regular Iron Man. When everyone else in Marvel NOW! is being pushed to their limits, Believe give us an Iron Man who is incredibly uninteresting.

In my mind, Tony calls this the "Fat-Suit".

The art doesn’t really help Believe. Yes, Iron Man looks good, but Tony Stark appears to be using Botox. For that matter, so does every character in the book. The women in particular look exactly the same but for their hairstyles. Gillen almost recognises this in the dialogue when Tony Stark tells Pepper Potts that she doesn’t look like all the other women he was involved with because her hair is red. That line says more about the art than anything else I can tell you.

The end of Believe suggests that there is a far better story about to happen, but with how pointless this story felt, you can probably skip straight to Iron Man Vol. 2: The Secret Origin of Tony Stark Book 1 without missing out on anything. It gets a one out of five Botox faces.

*

+ Iron Man looks good as Iron Man

- Tony Stark, and all other characters look fake

- Story fails to engage

Alternate Option: Superior Spider-Man: My Own Worst Enemy

This is the true spirit of Marvel NOW!; new things being done with their characters that builds interest.

Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates, Vol 1

Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates, Volume 1

RUN! Run away from the giant Captain
America!

Writer: Jonathan Hickman

Artist: Esad Ribic

Read as trade paperback

Background Information:

By the time the 21^st century rolled around, Marvel was in trouble. The 90s had not been kind the publishing house and the company was on the brink of bankruptcy. It sounds ridiculous now to think that the comic company that produced The Avengers would ever have been in such dire straits, but that was the reality of things. Marvel needed something big to bring in new readers.

That something big turned out to be Marvel’s Ultimate universe; a reboot of select Marvel titles specifically geared at reaching a new audience. It was a successful venture; Ultimate Spiderman was by far the star of the new universe and Ultimate X-Men started strong (even if it did tail out after the death of Magneto). When it came time to give readers an Ultimate Avengers, Marvel decided to shorten the title and call the entire team The Ultimates.

Fast forward into 2012, and it came time to retcon the Ultimate universe. It became Ultimate comics and featured, among other things, a black Hispanic Spiderman. Hence why I’m now reviewing a comic with the confusing title of Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates.

Review:

The first volume of The Ultimates opens with a group known as the Children of Tomorrow collectively deciding to venture out of the mechanical dome in which they have lived for generations. Here, this means taking over large sections of Europe. In doing so, the group discover Thor, who has joined the likes of Captain Britain on an attack on their city, and there things start to get complicated.

Those looking for the full Avengers cast as seen in the 2012 film are going to be disappointed. It’s really only Iron Man and Thor make a real appearance in this volume. Captain America makes a brief enough appearance to say he’s not joining the party, Black widow says some words, and Hawkeye lets some arrows loose once in a while. As such, The Ultimates really feels like it should have been titled Thor and Iron Man are the Best of Friends.

But Hickman does a really good job of that. Early on in the book, Yggdrasil, the life tree from which Thor draws his powers is destroyed, leaving him without his godly powers. Tony, being the good friend that he is, provides Thor with a suit that gives him a sort of synthetic version of his powers, which allows him to continue the fight. This is a nice moment; Thor shouldn’t try to take on the Children of Tomorrow  in his state, and Tony seems to know it, but he gives Thor the suit anyway. Considering how the Hollywood Avengers made Iron Man little more than a one-liner spitting mongrel, it was nice to see Tony Stark be the kind of guy who could actually be a friend.

But really, the star of this volume is Thor. Thor witnesses a lot that tears his world apart. Asgard is ransacked. The other gods are killed. Thor’s own son is destroyed inside the Yggdrasil tree. This pushes Thor over the edge. The god wants revenge and he doesn’t care if he dies in the process.

My biggest issue with the story is the way that Hickman writes the villains. I’m not really convinced that the Children of Tomorrow are the bad guys. They are the ones who are initially “attacked” by Captain Britain. Everything else they do seems more reactionary. They don’t seem to be seeking to destroy anyone, excluding the gods who they seem more to be counter-attacking than actually plotting to destroy. Their expansion into Europe doesn’t seem to cost the lives of anyone who isn’t already trying to fight them. Hickman writes them as sinister, yet I don’t really see it in the group’s actions. It’s a problem that’s only compounded by the non-existence of an ending to this volume. I personally buy collected editions to avoid cliffhanger non-endings that I would otherwise get in single issues, and that made this all the more disappointing.

Esad Ribic’s artwork is phenomenal. I’m picking up vibes of Alex Ross in much of the paints on each page. Though Ribic’s art is significantly more simple, he still manages to instil that visual awe that Ross was able in titles such as DC’s Justice. Tony Stark looks a little too slim for my liking and Hawkeye looks like a reject from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy but otherwise Ribic draws each character fairly well.  

By far the best thing about this book, at least is visual terms, is the cover art by Kaare Andrews. Andrew’s does these beautiful pieces that highlight characters more than events in the book. They are packed full of detail and a joy to look at.

Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates, Vol 1 is great to look at, but the story is (hopefully) not Hickman’s best work. I’m interested to see what he does with The Avengers in Marvel Now, but I hope his storytelling is a step up from what I saw here. The Ultimates gets a three out of five best friends.

***

+ Beautiful Art

+ Iron Man and Thor play off well together.

- The Villains don’t strike you as particularly evil.

- That awful cliffhanger non-ending.

The Avengers, Vol.3

The Avengers Vol.3

Captain America called all of their
mothers fat.

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Daniel Acuna, Renato Guedes, Brandon Peterson

Collects issues 18-24 and 24.1

Read as trade paperback

Background Information:

In the wake of an event known as Secret Invasion, Green Goblin Norman Osborn took over the Avengers. In an era known as the Dark Reign, Osborn utilised the Avengers to commit awful crimes against humanity. His reign ended when he tried to attack Asgard, and the Avengers once again formed under Iron Man and Captain America.

What you probably also need to know is that the Avengers have always had a rotating door; allowing multiple superheroes to enter the team. As such, don’t expect to see Thor or the original Hulk in this group.

Review:

The Dark Reign cemented Norman Osborn as one of the most interesting villains in the Marvel Universe; he’s manipulative, maniacal and very, very rich. The third volume of The Avengers takes full advantage of this character and does a far greater job of introducing new readers than the first volume of Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates.

Vol. 3 is essentially a new beginning for the Avengers. Captain America assembles a new team of avengers that includes Storm and a newly –rebuilt Vision (think a robotic superman and you’re pretty close). In the meantime, Osborn’s organisation H.A.M.M.E.R, the Nazi spin-off group HYDRA, and the terrorists A.I.M have joined forces to create super-soldiers based on the DNA of various Avengers. It’s a plot fit for the Avengers movie, and is actually a better plot all-round. Bendis’ storytelling packs Vol. 3 full of big cinematic moments- the kind that show giant soldiers attacking jets, Hulk-Spiderman hybrids chasing characters through tunnels and Wasp-powered soldiers making short work of Red Hulk. Admittedly, most of the story doesn’t have much in the way of depth- character development is sacrificed in favour of action scenes and witty dialogue. What I can say for the film is that it’s no less shallow than Joss Whedon’s Avengers film, which actually makes it pretty accessible to new readers.

When depth makes an appearance in Vol. 3 is in issue 24.1, which sees Vision trying to adapt to a world in which he has been dead for many years. He mends his relationship with She-Hulk, who apparently ripped him in two many years ago, he confronts Magneto, his father-in-law and mourns the loss of his one-time wife Scarlet Witch. When reading this issue, your heart has to break for Vision; he’s lost so much that Bendis makes us wonder if being repaired by Tony Stark was really the best thing for the robot. It’s a pity we didn’t see more of this scattered through the issue.

I’m a little disappointed that Storm was so under-utilised in this volume. She gets set up rather nicely in Vol. 3, as a suggest recruit by her husband Black Panther, and she is supposed to be the friendly face of Captain America’s new group of Avengers. For some reason, however, Bendis chooses to keep her only to try and zap things with lightning. It’s a shame, as Storm is one of the most interesting of the X-Men, and including her in the Avengers looked like an opportunity to bring her more into the spotlight. For some reason, though, Bendis doesn’t see it that way, and Storm’s inclusion seems only to be a way to fill numbers in the squad. Instead of the bold, dynamic character that the Queen of Wakanda is, she gets written as more of an afterthought.

I get a little worried when I see the names of three different artists on one book. It usually means that the quality of art is going to vary significantly and that destroys the feeling of unity that a book should portray. Thankfully, in the combined efforts of Acuna, Guedes and Peterson, I really didn’t notice any disconnect in the art. That’s a hard thing to do when there’s only two artists, yet these guys pull it off perfectly. The action is drawn really well and the panelling has some moments that really stick out; case point, in a scene where a jet is crashing, thin, diagonal panels cover the page, creating a “speed lines” effect that fits the moment just right.

Overall, The Avengers Vol. 3 is a great starting point for any new reader- the book offers a fantastic story, and the consistent arts helps that along. It’s just a pity that some characters feel underutilised. It gets a 3 and a half out of five speed lines.

*** ½

+ Plot idea is great.

+ So is the art.

- The story itself is fairly shallow.

- Storm is drastically underutilised.

Alternate Option: Ultimates Comics- Ultimates Vol. 1

Okay, it’s nowhere near as good a title, but if you really want a good starting point for an Avengers story, you could do much worse.