Thursday, November 15, 2012

Marvel Now: X-Men, Iron Man, Thor, and Deadpool


Not one to be outdone by DC's massive reboot, Marvel comics has launched its own "Marvel Now!," starting several series over from issue 1. While this isn't as much of a reboot as DC's, it is still reassembling new teams, starting new adventures, and generally trying to make a good starting point for new readers. I've picked up quite a few comics from this relaunch, so let's take a look at some of them.

As always, there will be minor spoilers.
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X-Men Legacy

Before the relaunch, I was following X-Men Legacy, and it was mostly focused on Rogue, her team, and her romance with Magneto. (I, of course, will always support Rogue and Gambit, but that's neither here nor there.) The new Legacy takes it far away from that, and instead focuses on David Haller, son of Professor Xavier.

This is a character I'm only somewhat familiar with, and my understanding about him is pretty limited. As such, I got to look at this issue from the point of view of someone with minimal knowledge about David and his powers, but from the looks of it, he seems to have multiple (mostly evil) personalities locked away in his head, and he can channel the various powers of each one. If this is vastly wrong, please feel free to correct me, but that's the impression given by this comic.

The first issue is mainly spent giving us an idea of his personality. In spite of all the evil personalities locked away inside his head, he wants to do good, but knows that he's got a lot of insanity to deal with. He also has some serious issues with his father, which may be causing just as much trouble as the many personalities.

That said, the story is structured well enough; the scenes in the "Qortex Complex" and in Kangchengyad (where David resides) get linked together nicely, without having to spell anything out, even if it may make things seem odd at the beginning.

However, I wasn't drawn in to this comic particularly much. I haven't really connected with David's character, and I can't bring myself to care where his story goes. They're setting up some interesting things, but whether or not those make it worth buying has yet to be seen.
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All-New X-Men

This is a bit of a backwards title, given that the main sell of the comic is that it features the return of the original X-Men. Not that they ever left - they're just a lot different than they used to be. Beast became all blue and furry, Jean died, Angel turned evil, returned to the side of good, went evil again, died, then came back an amnesiac, Cyclops jumped off the slippery slope, and Iceman… actually, Iceman hasn't changed quite as drastically.

Still, even though the last part of the chapter features Beast going back in time to bring the original five to the present, saying so is in no way a spoiler, since that's all that's been advertised about it. Until then, we get to see some of the new mutants popping up around the world, and just how far Cyclops will go to recruit them to his cause. I don't even need to point out the parallels he has to Magneto and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, although Cyclops still claims the title of "X-Men."

The new mutants we've seen so far don't have the most unique powers (by which I mean there were characters on "Heroes" with the exact same powers), but their personalities are at least somewhat different from what we've usually seen. After all, they're struggling with these new powers they suddenly found, which is something we haven't been able to see in an X-Men comic since Hope's five lights.

The main thing that has me reading this is Beast, everyone's favorite fuzzy blue mutant (aside from Nightcrawler). Let's just say that things are not going well for him, and he believes this to be his last chance to try and set things right and see his old friends as they once were again.

I have to wonder how long this will be able to go on for, since there's no way he can keep the old team together in the present for too long without having serious ramifications on the timestream, but it will be an interesting read at first. Brian Michael Bendis has an even amount of fans and detractors, given his style, but one can't deny that the man can write comics well.

All in all, I'll give this one a little time. I'm mostly interested in seeing how the classic X-Men react to seeing them as they are now, but I don't know how long I'll stick with it.
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Thor: God of Thunder

Now we get away from the X-Men stuff, and start looking at everyone's favorite hammer-throwing, golden-haired god of thunder. Rather than focus on Thor beating up frost giants and other baddies on Earth, we start by seeing him perform his godly duty of answering prayers. Even on planets far away, if someone prays to Thor, he'll give it a listen.

As this comic starts to look at Thor's status as a god, it also expands upon the various other deities, both on Earth and other planets. We know that the Norse gods are far from the only ones on Earth, although with Thor they do get the most focus. Other planets have their own gods, though, which this comic uses to an interesting effect.

As such, it's important that he fight an enemy worthy of a god. Normally that would mean some other wicked god (Loki is no longer available to fulfill that role, of course), but this time it's a threat that can make even other gods cry out in terror. Judging by the last few pages, it's far from a threat to be taken lightly.

Still, this is not a traditional Thor comic. There's little focus on other Asgardians, and the only time spent on Earth is in the past. It's a different look at the god of thunder, which some might enjoy more than others. So far, there's been more "acts of god" than beating up bad guys, but when Thor summons rain, he at least makes it look cool.
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Iron Man

Fresh off his success with "Journey Into Mystery" (which you better have read. Seriously.), Kieron Gillen is taking on the genius, billionaire, playboy philanthropist Tony Stark. This time, Iron Man's got to deal with the Extremis nanotechnology, which is reappearing in the wrong hands.

The writing has all the signatures of Gillen's style, with clever dialogue, quite a lot of text boxes, and themes of the past coming back to haunt someone. The characters are smart, even the ones you wouldn't think to be, and when the action kicks in, we get to see Tony kicking ass, taking names, and showing what he's learned from his years as Iron Man and his last experience with Extremis.

I can't say much for the art, but while I like the designs and coloring, there's something about the faces that doesn't sit well with me. Maybe it has something to do with how everyone seems to close their eyes while smiling, but that's my only complaint with the artwork.

I'm a fan of Gillen's work, so I'm looking forward to seeing how this progresses. Normally I don't read the Iron Man comics, but I trust Gillen to make the characters not only relatable and likable, but to put them through situations that make us both cheer and cry for them.

Of course, I'm also looking forward to his take on the Young Avengers, especially since Loki is joining the team. Seriously, I can't wait for that one.
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Deadpool

For all your comedic, sociopathic, fourth wall-breaking, stabbing and shooting needs, Deadpool is here. While Dan Way's take on Deadpool has met with mixed reviews, it did well enough to keep him on the title for quite some time, but now Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan are taking over, and boy are they off to a great start.

We're re-introduced to everything that makes Deadpool crazy awesome. He bursts out of a giant dinosaur monster's gut, having teamed up with (and thoroughly disgusted) Thor, then goes on to fight zombie presidents. Yes, that's right, the US presidents have been brought back from the dead, and they're not happy with what has become of the United States of America… so clearly the solution is to do what zombies do best.

Every step of the way, Deadpool has a quip, reference, or joke to make, and the visual gags (keep an eye out for monster pieces in the background) make it all the better. He has yet to address any of his yellow text boxes, but that also means none of the "multiple personalities" that Way gave him (a sad misunderstanding of his medium awareness), and the comic does not suffer for the lack of them.

Even characters who aren't Deadpool get some nice moments, but Deadpool can run with those just as well as anything else. Some cameos from Thor and Captain America, as well as SHIELD's role in Deadpool's new assignment, add some nice variety to this comic, while creating some foils for how Deadpool and how he's viewed by the heroic community.

In short, this is one I'd recommend to any fans of Deadpool. While my favorite comic featuring him is still currently "Cable and Deadpool," this is looking good so far, and promises to be a good run.
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Anyways, that's what I've got so far. I'll try to post something other than comic reviews soon, so I don't get too repetitive. Until next time, this has been whatever I read.