12/24/13

AVENGERS #024.NOW — And I thought all of that point-1 numbering was stupid. But The House of Ideas always has somewhere else to take it. I should have been grateful that at least we were still rocking actual numerals, there. At any rate. Hickman cracked me up in a recent promotional interview, saying that this issue of Marvel's flagship title that is specifically numbered with a non-event brand-name in the tenths through thousandths decimal place of its issue number in order to somehow convey the fact that it is an ideal jumping-on point for new readers was, in actuality, a “terrible jumping-on point.” I appreciated him just shooting straight with Brevoort sitting right there, challenging the hallowed “every issue is someone’s first issue” mantra first espoused by “The Man” before then even citing that maybe he was just rationalizing for his own deficiencies. All of that said, I do have to more agree with Brevoort. It’s at least as much of a jumping-on point as you’re going to get from a Hickman epic at this point. And he said “twenty-something” issues, but when you throw in NEW AVENGERS and INFINITY (and why wouldn’t you?) this is more like in the low forties already. It’s definitely Part One of The Next Big Act. If you are down with the fact that there are a bunch of Marvel heroes who hang out and are Avengers and just came back from some serious celestial shit, you’re pretty much good to go with this one. Or at least, you’re no more thrown than the rest of us mainstays when we open with The Baxter Buildings in 3030. And but then you’ve got to have gone back with Hickman even a little bit further through all his prior three-and-a-half years of FF greatness to appreciate the full implications of adult bearded Franklin Richards roaring into that first scene seeming every bit the antagonist. So, a crazy opening, then we get more character interaction than classic Claremont could pack into a baseball game over on the grounds of 1407 Graymalkin, followed by Steve and Tony messing with Hickman’s roster graphic that’s been such a cool little deal since the top of this run. And then something really really monumental happens that gives every indication of being actually much more potentially Everything Changes! than the entire Big Event we just tore through, setting up some serious fodder for the next wave of monster big ideas that Hickman no doubt has queued up for the next little bit, here. I really am interested to see how they can escalate from what has come thus far. And was about to say that Esad Ribic tore it up on art and, in particular, did a good job channeling Deodato on some of those pages, but it turns out the man was on hand himself, to say nothing of Larocca and Guice. All in all, a balanced and in fact satisfying done-in-one that is as good of a jumping-on point as you’re going to get amidst all of this crazy. Everyone should give it a shot.

FOREVER EVIL #4 — All right, now this is the first one of these that the script even somewhat did it for me. Finch/Friend/Oback have been knocking it out from the beginning but the manic glee with which Johns has infused just how baaaaaad everybody is has really kept me at arm’s length thus far. And that’s certainly still happening here, it’s not like the characterization has gotten just so much less shallow, but I liked the first scene with Bruce and Selina and then, I don’t know what it was, that page with Luthor and Bizarro snuck up on me. Even when Lex starts into the story, I was kind of rolling my eyes at this very Lindelof trick to pull (somebody whips out a heartbreaking-but-impossibly-topical childhood anecdote to suddenly convince someone else to change their mind about some plot-critical element), but the combination of Bizarro’s response and, really, that delayed beat when Luthor opened his eye, it just really hit me in the gut from out of nowhere. So, well played there before all of the hilarious escalation at the end. All we needed was Blue Lantern Superman to roar in from the mesosphere, but maybe that’s next month.