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On a similar vibe to what Cobie was saying about Saviors, I thought I would warn anyone who's perhaps been trade-waiting the most recent volume of Young Avengers that I think you could just save your money and buy something else. As someone who enjoyed everything Allan Heinberg did with those characters, I can't believe how incredibly disappointing Kieron Gillen's take on the concept was. There was virtually no plot in sight; what plot there was was virtually nonsensical. And the characters were so bland and one-note as to be completely obnoxious. For the life of me, I have no clue as to why so many professional reviews of the series tend to rate it so highly. I wish I could brainwash myself in such a way that I could un-read all of the issues that I read. All in all, a complete waste of shelf (or iPad) space and of what was a pretty competent artistic collaborator in Jamie McKelvey.

It was so bad that I'll probably automatically skip anything Kieron Gillen ever writes again.

Marvel had pretty much lost me on renumbering previously. It's even more baffling now.

There's a thread somewhere for creator involvement that will make you drop a book. We can add Gillen to it. It will break up the James Robinson posts

Yeah, it's funny how stoked I was for that YA series and how I slowly-but-surely came to accept what an utter load of crap it was. But not before I already bought all but the last 2 issues...

I mean, Gillen had been praised for so many things before he got to this book that I was SO prepared to be wowed. Maybe he blew his creative wad on Journey Into Mystery which immediately precede his run? I intended to go back and get JiM at some point, but after reading his YA, that's not gonna happen.

This scenario with Gillen is pretty much exactly what happened with Rick Remender and me deciding to try out Uncanny Avengers based on his rep. While UA was not quite as bad as YA (but terribly convoluted and virtually inaccessible to new readers), I'm similarly pretty sure I'll avoid more Remender at all costs.

But, again, maybe I'm insane or out of touch with what everyone else likes because both Gillen's YA and Remender's UA get almost universally great reviews. Or maybe the reviewers are all on the take?!?!

Well if the quotes are from creators who want to work with the big companies and want to show they all get along....

If the quotes come from people already working for the same company...

If the quotes come from people who have been prodded by the marketing department of the common company...

If the quotes are in a review form a site that panders to any/all comics companies...

If the quotes are from the site of the company itself...

If the quotes are cut up and pasted form a source that wasn't originally as glowing...

If only it was as simple as them being on the take

Lardy, here's my take on Gillen:

- never EVER trust Bleeding Cool to review one of his series. He's Rich's close, personal friend.

- his Journey into Mystery is utterly brilliant! It is incredibly well written and moving. I recommend it to all comers.

- however, I like you found his Young Avengers to be highly disappointing. There are a LOT of reasons why, but you nailed one of the ones I could never put my finger on: every character comes off as a total self-absorbed obnoxious jerk. It's hard not to hate Billy Kaplan after this latest run.

- his Iron Man run, while nowhere near as bad, has also been really weak. Basically unreadable actually.

- because of these last two, it'll really have to be a big reason for me to buy a Gillen series. Yet, one such reason happened with Image's Three. And you know, it's been absolutely great! Really fantastic 5 part mini that I can't wait to finish.

Also, on Remender:

- he suddenly came to my attention with excellent runs on X-Force and Venom. These were two series I'd never imagine enjoying yet I was totally engrossed by his writing. Suddenly he's on my radar.

Yet...Uncanny X-Force did end up dragging on in a big way and I eventually dropped it. Venom stayed great but he left early and the series suddenly went to shit.

- despite X-Force getting weak, I was still interested in Remender. Which led me to collect Uncanny Avengers for waaaaay too long. It was all the parts of Uncanny X-Force I disliked with none of the excitement. I dropped it.

- meanwhile his Captain America was *okay*. But really it was great art by JR Jr, and when he left, the series really collapsed.

- still thinking maybe it was Marvel to blame, I gave his two new Image series a shot: Black Science and Deadly Class. I dropped both after two issues.

He's not a bad writer but his style just isn't for me. There's something missing there: it's not exciting enough, the characters don't have enough depth, the plots run too long. I can't get into it.

Honestly, I rarely see any comics reviews at all on Bleeding Cool. It's much more of a news site for me than anything else, so it's other sites that I check out that have the glowing reviews. And those sites tend to have pretty trustworthy reviews from my experience overall. I mean, YA appeared over and OVER again on "Best of 2013" lists! WTF?!?!



I believe you. But still....it's hard to be enthusiastic and make the move to buy and read it after the utter piece of crap that was YA, y'know?



I flipped through the first couple and hemmed and hawed several times, but the combo of being screwed once and the art not being terribly impressive was what caused me to pass.

Well put. I tried Black Science as well, and you basically nailed my criticisms of it. If nothing else, give me interesting, relatable, compelling characters. Just wasn't there.

It's a pity because he's obviously got some good ideas. Presentation is lacking. A problem I have with some other big name writers that so many people love.

You wanna check out reviews of all kinds...check this site out. Seriously. They give links to all kinds of reviews (positive and negative) for a ton of books.

http://www.comicbookroundup.com/

It is nowhere near as bad ... it's just unreadable. HA!


I was into Journey Into Mystery in the beginning and for some time but then they changed artists and I bailed. I actually didn't like the story arc when they changed artists. I'd say the first year was excellent if I remember correctly. (maybe two years) It was a really refreshing book.

I found his YA ... boring ... I don't know why I stuck with it for so long ... I'm not sure I even remember the ending ... I certainly didn't pick up the recap issue.

Poor Young Avengers! Marvel Boy came off cruel and sleezy ... and he dumped Kate Bishop??? They need to reboot that out, that was a definite mistake.

now that i think about it i think i dropped YA before the ending as well. such a bad sign .. after all that ... i didnt care to find out what happened.

Uncanny Avengers is horrible. I'm just going to say it, I was excited early on ... truly ... but its been like 40 issues of the Apocalypse Twins now .. with absolutely no end in sight ... and Wasp comes off as a grumpy cougar ...token babe .. while everyone bickers constantly ... and in the upcoming issue ... finally drawn by Acuna ... she is being carried by Havok on the cover. ARGH!

This book makes me unhappy.

I read an issue ages ago it seems, and those are exactly the same things I picked out. It really is drawn out.

... Sorry, in fact it has only been about 14 issues of the Apocalypse Twins story line.

I was exaggerating when i said it had been 40 issues.

(not by much)

14 issues.

I think sometimes they are trying to pull off a book as about one villain antagonism, even if you give UA that, it hasn't been well done because it has been a fist fight for about 11 issues ... not a back and forth or a mystery as to who the villain that is pulling the strings is.

Also, I don't think this book was set up that way since the first story arc was different and against the Red Skull. I thought the book was supposed to be about a mix of Avengers and X-Men going up against each others greatest hits in new ways. (like the first story arc ... of course the Red Skull made perfect sense in the mutant context ... why has this not been done before .. etc.)

Apparently Rogue and Scarlet Witch died a few issues? And all the muties on Earth have been raptured to another planet.

It's a time travel plot so I can't muster any emotion over their deaths or these developments ... you know they'll be back or it wasn't real.

However, after all that moaning (quite a lot of bitching too) I will get the conclusion because it is drawn by Acuna and looks delicious.

They're spinning it as a Mega Arc.

Well, I enjoyed Young Avengers, for the most part, though the end was somewhat sudden. What I really dislike is the 'season' approach Marvel says they are taking with YA.

The only jerk around was Loki. And what else could you expect, really? Billy and Teddy were the latest flies in one of his webs, even though Loki's no longer eeeevil (evil adjacent?).

It was a very idiosyncratic take, and quite a departure from previous volumes, so I can see that it wouldn't have been everyone's cup of tea.

I wanted to like the latest Young Avengers, and did like some specific scenes, but felt like it was 'Billy screws up and it's another Tuesday in Sunnydale.'

I'd like Wiccan about 100x more if he had some definable super-powers or a selection of spells, instead of this deus ex machine reality manipulation crap, which inevitably seems to turn into a problem, followed by the usual 'out of control' arc.

Miss America Chavez was a very cool character, 'though, so there is that. Noh Varr was out of character, but still enjoyable.

That reminds me of another problem: Gillen assumes we know everything we need to know about characters like Chavez, Noh Varr and even Kid Loki to an extent. I can buy somewhat that readers picking up this volume may already be familiar with the returning Young Avengers, but it seems we learn more about the newbies from the letter column than anywhere else. Even from what is inferred about them, I never got a sense of Miss America or Noh Varr as characters. And Kate's character is barely window dressing after all the awesome characterization she gets over in Hawkeye. And when Prodigy is brought in, he's as much an enigma as the rest. The only thing remotely interesting about him is his views on sexuality, and that does not three-dimensional character make.

It wasn't the conclusion. I swear I read on the internet that 018 was an extra large conclusion!

It was neither extra large nor concluded!

well. sh*&.

I suspect now it is a Mega Conclusion.

A mega hot mess perhaps.

So when it came out, I was very high on Black Widow, as it seemed to be the series that would do for Black Widow what Hawkeye's series has done for him. And in a lot of different ways its been terrific: the art is staggeringly good; the action & spy adventure sensibilities are tight; the Widow herself is at her most formidable and dangerous.

But what's missing is any sense of supporting cast and character. I simply can't stay interested in a series where the protagonist is always on missions and acting as a hero / spy / etc. I need a little more than that. For some reason, this happens a lot to female superheroes when they are written by men. (Though it happens a lot to male superheroes too--it was the worst part of Geoff John's latter half of Green Lantern).

Ultimately, there isn't enough there I think for me to keep justifying buying this series. I want the Widow to succeed as a viable franchise, but not at the expense of my bank account.

Likewise, I'm also cancelling Moon Knight by Warren Ellis and the awesome Declan Shelvey. It's similar: great, mesmerizing artwork; awesome action & adventure sequences; yet almost no character development and no supporting cast. This is something I've always disliked about a lot of Ellis' Marvel work, actually.

So, two pretty good series--better than average, I'd say--but I'm just not loving either enough to keep going.

I finally just read the first issue and quite enjoyed it. I immediately identified with the main character and enjoyed the look inside a Pakistani-American family that felt believable and accessible. A very mysterious origin, too. Plus, it's great to see Adrian Alphona's art again! It's been too long!

Picked up Justice League United 0-3.

<gasp> I bought some DC books.

I've been curious about, it has Mike Mckone as the artist, whom I like, and Jeff Lemire writing, who I think is not bad.

The reviews have been a mix of pretty favourable and interesting.

After reading the first four issues I have to say ... it is not bad.

Looks cool, is exciting, gots a lot of touches ripped off from the LSH such as "Encyclopedia Galactica" entries (although these are used with happy trigger finger) and lots and lots of space and aliens.

I like Byth as the main villain, where's he been, and I like the new take on the Ultra Multi Alien. While not so original in general It makes cool sense for the Multi Alien and I like the inclusion of Hawkman the Thanagaarian. The fight between him and Lobo is one of the high points of the first few books. Hawkman here is a bit too "savage" and too similar to the reincarnated Hawkman for my tastes if you're gonna put him in space. I'd prefer the super science cop Katar (of course).

Same with Star Girl, I like her, she almost fits here but if they're gonna put a Star Person in space ... she is the least likely to be there. Can we get a Starwoman too, regardless of her age. Well ... that's debateable I suppose but we don't have Animal "Guy" hopping along by her side.

Speaking of, Animal Man and Green Arrow don't quite fit here ... maybe the next mission will be in the inner city or in Africa but I am skeptical and curious that this JL United might be a round robin of revolving characters instead of a core team.

Adam Strange works ok but they've changed him into an anthropologist who steals a battle suit ... and the plucky Alaana is ethnicized (I'll get to that later) and turned into his research assistant. I can hear it now "She's smart but still inferior!" I'm not so sure what an anthropologist is going to do long term in a battle suit ... PhDs aren't interchangeable ... he's on a dig in Canada and this starts the whole space alien adventure.

Animal Man and Green Arrow bicker as if that is entertaining or what straight men do but ... it's annoying.

Supergirl joins and is the big gun and butt kicker of the team, she comes off very exciting but a little too much like Power Girl without Power Girl's dorky or vulnerable side. A bit cold.
It's not a big problem to me.

I still don't understand how Animal Man's powers could possibly work but whatevs ...

Martian Manhunter comes off GREAT! A mix of the war lord and the personality of the long stalwart of the JLA-I. He's great here IMO. He establishes himself as a forthright leader and relies on his telepathy as well as general butt kicking. (no shape shifting to be seen ?)

The first story arc is called Justice League Canada ... I'm not sure why except the story starts in Canada, it is unclear who is Canadian except for ... a completely unrelated character who is on their own through issue three.

A mystic Cree named Miyahbin. She's going through all her own thing off by herself ... with no clue as to how this is related ... to the JL United. Now she seems cool, she's drawn well .. . but while her story is somewhat interesting and she seems like she's worth following as a person, she's been off by herself with no introduction to the main team. Furthermore, her character design as a mystic native with a what I presume is a traditional name ... highlights something I find very distressing with non caucasian characters in comics and they haven't come very far from the Apache Chiefs of the Superfriends comics. She's of native ancestry ... great ... why's she gotta have powers based on that ... can't she be a super scientist ... can't she be a mutant ... or a ninja ... or have a name, like Miyahbin's best friend ... Elizabeth?

We don't see the majority of caucasian charcaters running around with powers fueled by their historic religion ... (except Thor) ... where's Super Jesus ? Or Mighty Mary the Super Virgin ? I don't mean to be insensitive but this is basically what I think most of these characters sound like to me.

Marvel is a bit better on this, we've got lots of butt kicking African or African American characters (but what's with most of them wearing goggles ... ) and has Thor and Snowbird ... Valkyrie ...

The Ray and Ryan Choi were better efforts by DC, for sure, so far compared to the mysterious Miyahbin and her seemingly magical mystical powers based on her race.

Which leads me to a more general claim about Justice League "Blonde" as someone on FB called it. Alanna's been "ethnicized", and we've got Miyahbin ... but these are supporting characters and if they are efforts at diversity, they are very meager and some what patronizing.

Meanwhile Lucien Gates the Ray would fit in great with this space team (if he's still alive).

i don't want to say the book is terrible, and I will get number 4 to finish out this story arc, and possible 5 and a few more. I WAS pleasantly surprised by this book. Unlike the rest of the recent DC books I've tried the issues don't even seem short, thanks to Lemire.

BUT ... this could very easily have been a whole lot better with the switching out of a few characters.








I give it three very solid Power Boys while noting it's clumsy attempts at diversity.

So...I thought Outcast #1 was pretty great! Dark and suspenseful, but with a heavy emphasis on great art & coloring, and moody character-driven writing. It's scary, but not in the sense that it'll make you jump out of your seat, just in that its an enjoyably on-edge experience from start to finish.

It's also clearly Kirkman's greatest introductory issue yet, as he's clearly becoming a much better writer in terms of starting stories as he's getting older and being influenced by other colleagues in both comics and television.

Paul Azceveta, whom I admit I don't know from a hole in the wall, does a fantastic job in conveying the terrible possibility of demons in what at first appears to be a mundane, dirty everyday world. This then transitions into a growing acknkowledgement that the world is anything but mundane, but scary for all kinds of other reasons (which then tie back into the excorcisms).

Colorist Bettie Brettweiser, who I know from her awesome work on Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's awesome comics, lends a really great tone to the series of uneasiness and remoteness. These are some great colors that evoke Halloween (the season) and Autumn. Even letterer Russ Wooten steps up with some interesting lettering fonts that I've never seen before.

All in all, a really strong outing from Kirkman & company.

So if anyone's been following my reviews around here the past year or two, you've probably noticed 2 trends of things I've been interested in lately: 1) '70s DC and Marvel, and 2) the iconic '80s indie books. I've been especially heavy on 1 lately and somewhat remiss on 2. So over the past few days, I've made a point to read a collection belonging to the latter category: Grendel Omnibus Vol. 1: Hunter Rose, published by Dark Horse.

Grendel is one of those indie boom comics of the '80s I've been meaning to read for a long time. Some research revealed that probably the most expeditious way to experience Grendel was the series of 4 Dark Horse Omnibuses that groups the different incarnations of the character into separate volumes and arranges them into chronological order story timeline-wise, which is different from the order of publication.

Hunter Rose is, of course, the first and most famous Grendel. He appeared in the first Batman/Grendel inter-company crossover and just debuted in another crossover with the shadow. He is the creation of Matt Wagner, who really built his reputation and prestige with the character and his successors. I'd read the Batman crossovers, and that's been the extent of my knowledge of the concept. Now, I'm finally getting to read the source material.

Ironically, most of the material in Volume 1 is not culled from the '80s. From what I've been able to discern, there were only 4 original Hunter Rose stories in 1982-3 before the series got cancelled. Hunter next appeared in backup stories in Wagner's other big '80s indie creation Mage. Wagner chose to tell the entire Hunter Rose story in these backups in 48 pages, later collected in a one-shot as Grendel: Devil by the Deed.

It is that story that opens the Omnibus. It's told completely in text accompanied by a series of illustrations that resemble the kind of innovative page designs that artist J.H. Williams III has since become known for. But this is illustrated by Wagner and in 1985 originally, so if one is inspired by the other, it would be Williams.

It's an involving, mythic story that is lavishly presented. However, I felt a little let down by it being told in this manner. I'd always assumed that Hunter had a saga which unfolded over several years in more or less traditional episodic format with story beats and developments unfolding in a suspenseful manner. After his first attempt at such a series was aborted, Wagner chose to tell Hunter's story in this manner, perhaps fearing he'd never get the opportunity to do so otherwise. So when the next Grendel ongoing series debuted, it was already on to Rose's successors.

So, in a way, Wagner's likely regret over the truncated Hunter Rose run has resulted in a series of projects intended to remedy Hunter's short shrift and flesh out his story more. And that's what we get with the rest of the Omnibus: a prodigious series of short stories featuring the character followed by a mini-series telling the longest sequential Hunter Rose story ever told.

So after Devil by the Deed follows 380 pages of short stories, generally 8 pages in length a piece, that appeared in some anthologies published by Dark Horse. They feature a murderer's row of artistic talent, including Tim Sale, Mike Allred, Darick Robertson and Michael Zulli to name a few. Wagner writes every single story and even illustrates a few, so you know that they are all in Rose's continuity and "count".

I must admit, though, that the short story format wears pretty thin. All are well told, but the majority of them get across the one same general idea: Don't fuck with Grendel. That certainly gets repetitive. It seems the better ones dramatize some of the events that we only got to see glimpses of in "Deed", including more of Rose's final moments. Some of the stories featuring the other major and minor players in Rose's saga stand out as well, but Rose mostly remains enigmatic.

Truthfully, it was quite a chore to get through those 380 pages of shorts, despite all of the great artistry and my love of the noir-ish tendencies. As I said, it feels like a way for wagner to get Rose out of his system and tell the kinds of stories he always meant to tell with him. But maybe 380 pages of short stories might have been going a little overboard. I'll admit, though, to never having been the biggest short story fan, so I'm sure the mileage of other readers will vary.

What REALLY distinguishes the Omnibus, though, and ends it in fine fashion is the mini-series Behold the Devil. Written and illustrated by Wagner, this is exactly the kind of story I was hoping to read in this book. Set sometime before Rose's eventual fall, Wagner tells an untold tale that encompasses Rose's struggles to consolidate his grip on the criminal underworld even as he deals with an unseen menace and is being pursued by a journalist on the trail of his true identity. It's really a stand-out tale in the comics medium and is exactly the story that Rose needed to be featured in to make him seem more than a curiosity to me. It's a gripping, heavy-hitting story full of character, nuance and beautiful artwork with interesting characters and twists. Even better, we see characters and events seen in many of the short stories referred to or reappearing here, which makes those stories a lot more relevant and this story even richer in hindsight. Certainly, "Behold" is one of the better stories I've read of this kind--like 10/10 great!

And so we have concluded a tour of the 600 pages of Volume 1. Even if the long short story portion was kind of a slog to get through and there was some disappointment in the story format of the bulk of the book in general, you just can't go wrong with the quality and bulk of material under only a $24.99 cover price. the format of these Omnibuses is slightly smaller in length and width than a traditionally-sized TPB, but only slightly; it's certainly no digest. The color palette of black, white and red grates a little; I'd prefer just B&W personally. The artwork by Wagner and others is first rate as is the noir fix, spiked with a touch of the supernatural.

Even better, subsequent volumes are more of the episodic nature that I prefer, as their publication was more consistent and not so much playing catch-up, as with Hunter Rose. I already have Volume 2 and anticipate getting 3 and 4 soon. I'm also probably going to have to dig out my Batman/Grendel books for a re-read and am hearing enough good things already about the Shadow crossover that its purchase by me is inevitable.

I also think I'll eventually pick up Dark Horse's Grendel Archives that collects the earliest Hunter Rose appearances pre-cancellation. I'd have preferred that they were included in the Omnibus, but at least they are available in some format.

Anyone else read some Grendel? Thothkins, iirc?