To get you excited/interested in what is coming down the pike, Marvel put out a anthology book called well... what else but:
Before we talk about the cover, let's talk about the price of this here comic book for a moment. It's over 6 dollars. There are 7 stories (6 with a framing sequence) in the book so your almost paying a dollar per story & in this down economy the price point might turn people off buying this book. The comic book store I went to (Arcane Comics) knew this & was offering this book at half off the cover price so it was only 3 dollars for the book. Why did they do this? I was told that they didn't think anyone would buy the book for 6 dollars. I was willing to, just because I wanted to talk about it here on the blog. If I didn't have that as a reason. I would have flipped through it & not bought it. Marvel could have priced it cheaper but maybe they are trying to make up for money lost to the New 52 :)
On to the cover: A general mish mash of characters. Some people are drawn better then others. Nova (way in the back) looks too wide. The Scarlet Spider (to the right of The Watcher's big, bald head) is drawn weird or at least looks a bit weird to me. Maybe Adam Kubert, the cover artist, wasn't exactly sure what the costume was going to look like so kept it vague. Ultron (under the Watcher's Left hand) looks weird. I think it's the head that throws me off a bit. The rest of the people look ok. Still not sure if the archer at the bottom is Hawkeye or not. If it is him, then he's getting a new costume because he ain't wearing that now. When I first saw the cover, I thought that was Sabertooth. Not sure why but that what my mind connected to. Also, I have looked at this cover a half dozen times & it wasn't until I had scanned it in & had it starring me in the face while typing up this post, did I noticed that the Phoenix was on the cover. I thought that was the sun, a lens flare, something other then The Phoenix.
Let's talk the book it's self. I'll say what the stories title is & who made it (The writer & artist only).
The framing sequence (by Ed Brubaker & Javier Pulido) I made mention of is that there are 2 astronauts who are part some group called The Unseen who break into the Watcher's moon base while he is in a trance. A trance that lasts only 42 minutes (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy reference? Doctor Who Reference? Random Number?). So, the 2 astronaut go look at to the quote the book "a Wall of Memories and windows into Alternate Universe". So, the Watcher's TV which he uses to watch events that have or might happen. The two are there to record what the Watcher has been watching (Who watches the Watcher? Apparently these to). From there we get out first story.
Story #1: "Harbinger" by Jeph Loeb & Ed McGuinness. A story featuring Nova in a story that I feel like I've read before. It's not just that this story is telling me that the Phoenix has returned & that it just killed a planet (because that what The Phoenix does). But this felt very much like Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. Nova is Pariah, the one who witnessed the destruction. The Phoenix is Earth-3 because it had a bad guy who thought he fight against the all encompassing whiteness of death (Earth-3 had Ultraman where as the Planet Birj had Terrax). This story probably has the worse line of the whole book & Nova says it as he flies away from the planet as Phoenix sits on it (or eats it depending on how you look at the picture):
... All those people... I... epic fail...No, Nova. You don't. Don't blame yourself, Jeph Loeb epic fails because that's a stupid line & he was the one who came up with it & had you say it. That line might be the stupidest line I've read in a while & not in a stupid/awesome kind of way. Just a stupid/makes my brain hurt kind of way.
I also don't understand why this exists. Unless they don't something new & different with The Phoenix I don't see why there needs to be yet another Phoenix story. But they might. They might not.
Onto the next story, Story #2 "The Myth of Man" by David Lapham & Roberto De La Torre. This story brings up back to the Age of Apocalypse for a 3rd, 4th time. Not really sure why we need to return to this alternate timeline. It seems kind of pointless since I didn't there was anything left to cover in this timeline. Sure, not everything had been covered but you don't need cover everything. The story we have here is that basically the entire human race is dead (The rest of Earth's population are Mutants) except for a group of 5 humans who are on a quest to kill mutants. What does merry little quintet but the most extreme name that could come up with: The X-Terminated! Which I guess works for a alternate timeline that came into being during the Mid-1990's & as Lewis Lovhaug has a habit of telling us poor literacy is of course kewl. :)
Story #3, yet another story with calls back to the Mid-1990's "The Scarlet Thread" by Chris Yost & Ryan Stegman. The Scarlet Spider is back in action! But it's not who you might think it is but you'd be close. Scarlet Spider was the identity original created & use by Ben Reily, a clone of Peter Parker (Spider-Man). But this time it's Kaine. Who? He's another clone of Peter Parker. During the 90's he had a lot of clones running around. In fact there was a whole saga about him & his clones. This story spins out of the events of Spider-Island, which is a story I haven't read but it does kind of interest me. Something I might pick up when they collect it into trade paperback form. We see Kaine in his Spider outfit beat up a few bad guys. One of the better stories in the book but I'm not sure if I read the continuing stories with the new Scarlet Spider.
Story #4 "Yin & Yang" by Fred Van Lente & Salvador Larroca. The main characters in this story (codenamed Dragonfire & Coldmoon) are from the only story to not get some representation on the cover. All the other stories have at least 1 character on the cover (2 stories get 2 of their characters on the cover). This brother & sister duo (DF is the brother & CM is the sister) are 2 characters I had never heard of. From the looks of the story & how it is told they are new characters. They will be teaming up with the Avengers to help take down an evil corporation by the name of Taiji because as Coldmoon said in the story:
"Taiji is infecting this planet with alien technology that will enslave humanity if we don't stop it."so... yeah. This is all set up for something in the future. The book doesn't tell us where to read their further adventure (most likely an Avengers book). This story has a slightly funny interchange between Hawkeye & Wolverine after seeing Dragonfire & Coldmoon show up:
Hawkeye: Friend... or Foe?
Wolverine: Or somethin' in between?I got a laugh out of it.
On to the next story, one of the better of the book. Story #5 "The Shaman of Greenwich Village" by Matt Fraction & The Dodsons (Terry penciled the art & Rachel inked the art). I read an interview with writer Matt Fraction over at Comics Alliance about the upcoming The Defenders book which this story leads us into & it sounds like a cool book with an interesting story to tell. Given the interview & this story, "The Defenders" is maybe the only book I'd think about picking up.
The last story in the book is "Age of Ultron" by Brian Michael Bendis & Bryan Hitch. This story & the Defenders' story might have the best art in the book. I got an Old Man Logan feeling from this story but that might just be the "Story set in a not to distant crappy future" setting to both of those stories. It doesn't tell you much but that's ok. I might pick this up.
So... out of the 6 stories in the book I'd pick up 1 or 2 of the books, I find 1 pointless & 3 I'm sort of non plussed about. Was it worth my 3 dollars? Not sure. But It certainly wasn't worth my 6 dollars.
I'll be back soon with my thought on the other books I picked up this week.
One more thing: My Life in a Longbox is on Facebook. I've set up a group page which I think you should be able to find just by searching for by name. If you "like" it you can get message about this blog on your Facebook wall. How cool is that? :)
Well... until next time: Stay Jazzy, everybody!
- Brian
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