Heroclix Comes to the Library

I'm not sure how many Heroclix fans we have reading Graphic Novel Universe, but if you've never played and are in the Anne Arundel County, Maryland vicinity, think about stopping into the library tomorrow for our very first Heroclix program! It's from 10:00AM to noon at the Severna Park Library in Severna Park, MD.

The program is targeted for beginning players ages 8 and up. My two friends and Heroclix experts Trip and Eric will be on hand to teach you all the basics. (Experienced players are also encouraged to join us.)

We'll have a couple of door prizes and other fun stuff supplied by the great folks at Third Eye Comics in Annapolis. Hope to see you there!

Three Mild Temptations

Glancing at the Collected Editions Library release schedule, I don't see an awful lot of collected editions coming out this week that are must-haves. Actually, I don't see any, which is good, since I'm pretty backlogged right now. But I could be persuaded to take a look at these three:

Superman vs. Zod is a pretty safe buy and this week's biggest temptation. Reason #1: I've been a big Zod fan ever since I saw Terence Stamp play the character in the first two Christopher Reeve Superman movies. He's one bad dude. Reason #2: Ten bucks. Although most of these stories are from the 80s, one of them is a Geoff Johns story from 2007.

All-New X-Men Vol. 1: Yesterday's X-Men has an interesting premise: the original X-Men from the 60s (the ones I grew up with) have been brought into the present. I'm not the biggest Brian Michael Bendis fan, so I'll probably wait to see if the library buys this one. 

Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary isn't a graphic novel, but it's graphic novel-related, sort of. This volume weighs in at a slim 96 pages, but it's a DK book, so you know it's going to look great. This might be a lot of fun for someone like me who mainly knows only TOS and TNG. I'll borrow it from the library before it gets too abused.  

So.... Let me know what you're looking forward to this week.

Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Volume 1

Marvel Masterworks: Captain Marvel Vol. 1 (1967-69/2013)

Roy Thomas, Arnold Drake, Gene Colan, Don Heck

Collecting Marvel Super-Heroes #12-13, Captain Marvel #1-9

Trade Paperback, 246 pages, Marvel Comics 

ISBN 9780785167563 

Retail price $24.99

Amazon $???

In late 1967, Stan Lee handed Roy Thomas the “assignment” of writing the tales of a new character (of sorts) named Captain Marvel. But, as most comics fans know, Captain Marvel had been bounced around for many years, the subject of much controversy as to who really owned that character and his name. (all of which is explained in the Roy Thomas introduction.) 

Fortunately, Thomas had learned a thing or two from Lee, including how to plot an interesting story, how to create subplots, the creation/adaptation of not one, but multiple alien races, and every now and then, a little romance (if not love triangles). Thomas took Lee’s own idea of an alien race called the Kree from the pages of the Fantastic Four (issues #64-65, to be exact) and developed it into a character named Mar-Vell, a member of the Kree who has come to Earth perhaps to save it, perhaps to destroy it. Thomas adds a little complexity into the mix by making Mar-Vell’s superior officer, Yon-Rogg, a man plotting to kill Mar-Vell and steal away his girlfriend, Medic Una. (I’m not making these names up, honest!) 

While the names may sound ridiculous, Thomas’s stories create tension on multiple levels with Mar-Vell trying to survive attacks by Yon-Rogg, keeping his Earth identity a secret from Carol Danvers (head of security for a missile base), and ultimately to find out whether or not Earth should be punished for destroying a Kree sentry. While the fight scenes are pretty standard (and sometimes sub-standard) for the time, Thomas keeps things moving while Gene Colan’s art elevates the book to near-greatness, at least for the first six stories. (Thomas and Colan yield to the team of Arnold Drake and Don Heck [inked by Vince Colletta] starting with Captain Marvel #5.) Colan was a master at portraying the dark sides of characters wrestling with moral ambiguity. You see it a lot in the way he draws eyes, frequently hiding the irises, but also in his characters’ body language and point-of-view angles. If nothing else, reading this collection makes me want to seek out all of Colan’s work.

Yet the Drake/Heck combination works well also; I have no quibbles with their product. The entire collection is one large story arc, something rather unusual for an untried character at the time. There’s much, much more to say about Captain Marvel and the directions he took after this volume, but that story will have to wait until I’ve read Volume 2. If you’re a fan of Silver Age superheroes, you really can’t miss with this first volume of Captain Marvel.   

4.5/5

Don't You Wish All Classes Were This Cool?

The other day I found out about an online course at Ball State University offered through the Canvas Network: Gender Through Comic Books. You can read more about it here, but be warned: you'll be tempted to sign up for the April 2 - May 10 course.

There's really no reason not to: it's free. Sure, you'll have to have access to the course reading list, which may set you back a bit, but you can read these comics digitally or probably get some of the trades from your local library.

Me? I'm going to give it a shot, even though my next Library and Information Science course starts the same day. Two of my co-workers are also signed up for the free online course. How about you? What do you think?

Thor Omnibus Volume 2 - Cover Revealed

Okay, so this isn't really breaking news; the cover for The Mighty Thor Omnibus Volume 2 has been common knowledge for awhile, ending my previous speculation, but I thought I'd post it here for the sake of completeness. I guess it's a pretty good choice, coming from Thor #147, showing Thor and Loki slugging it out, with Odin fuming in the background. You can just hear him spouting, "You @#%&* kids! Stop that! Can't I get some sleep around here?" 

Anyway, the Amazon price is pretty sweet, if you're inclined to pre-order. As far as a variant cover and artist, I haven't heard anything yet, but this Kirby cover (Heck, practically any Kirby cover) is just fine with me.  

I have a somewhat related question. I own a handful of the Marvel Omnibus editions (and none of the DC Absolute editions, at least so far) and enjoy them, but they're just too heavy to read comfortably unless you're sitting at a large table or desk. They're certainly no good for reading in bed. (Who wants a concrete block sitting on their chest?) So do you buy Omnibus editions? Will you continue to? I pre-ordered this one because the price is very reasonable and getting these same stories in the Marvel Masterworks editions would not be cost-effective. For a long time I was looking for the Fantastic Four Omnibus Volume 2, but figured out quickly that I could get the same books in the Marvel Masterworks editions much cheaper, plus they're easier to handle. 

So... Your thoughts on the Marvel Omnibus (or DC Absolute) editions???

Oops....

Well, it was a nice try. I tried downloading some titles, but no go. Maybe Comixology will try again. More here.

DC Showcase Presents Hawkman Volume 1

DC Showcase Presents Hawkman Volume 1 (1961-66/2007) - Gardner Fox, Joe Kubert, Murphy Anderson, et al.

Trade paperback, 560 pages, DC Comics

ISBN 9781401212803

Retail price $16.99

Back in January, I decided to take up Chris Marshall’s challenge over at Collected Comics Library to adopt a comic book character or creator in 2013. I chose Joe Kubert, an artist I’d had very little exposure to over the years. So a few months ago, I picked up DC Showcase Presents Hawkman Volume 1, knowing that Kubert didn’t draw all the stories in the collection, but that was okay; I had some vague memories of reading Hawkman as a kid, so I figured why not? 

Like the Marvel Essentials series, the DC Showcase series brings you mammoth phone-book sized editions of black-and-white comics for a pretty reasonable price. If you’re on the fence about a character or title, this series is a good way to get your feet wet without spending a whole lot of money. 

Realize, however, that although these stories were first published in the early 60s, this is not the first appearance of Hawkman. He was originally a Golden Age character dating back to 1940 with Flash Comics #1. Hawkman has a much-recycled and convoluted history. In the Golden Age, he was the reincarnation of an Egyptian prince. In the 1980s and beyond, other Hawkman characters appear (sometimes with different names) and disappear, but the Hawkman in this volume is Katar Hol, a policeman from the planet Thanagar. Katar and his wife Shayera (a policewoman) have come to Earth to capture an escaped criminal from Thanagar (all of which is related in the volume’s first story, “Creature of a Thousand Shapes!” from The Brave and the Bold #34). After solving the crime, Katar and Shayera decide to stick around and learn about Earth police procedures while posing as museum curators Carter and Shiera Hall. 

                 Kubert art

Most of the stories involve some detective and/or science work, but are mostly backdrops that provide a springboard for Hawkman and Hawkgirl to do their thing - catching the bad guys. The Gardner Fox stories usually aren’t that great, but they’re Silver Age fun and if you can put yourself back in that early 60s era, you’ll have a good time with this volume. But the real reason to buy this collection is the Joe Kubert artwork. Although Kubert’s contributions stop after page 162 (of 560), those first 162 pages are stunning, even in black and white. Kubert’s world is one of darkness, which is reflected in the characters, particularly the villains, who appear far more sinister and cold-hearted than those drawn by Murphy Anderson. Kubert also has an impeccable eye for bodies in flight, a skill he developed to an extraordinary level on Enemy Ace several years later. (I’m looking at pages 129 and 130 from “Masked Marauders of Earth” from The Brave and the Bold #43 as just one example.) The perspective and angles of his point of view panels give a real sense of wonder to the world of Hawkman. 

               Anderson art

You miss most of that when Murphy Anderson takes over on page 163. Anderson’s a fine artist, don’t get me wrong, but he has a different set of skills. In his hands, Gardner Fox’s stories are, for the most part, drawn as run-of-the-mill comic book stories. There’s not the same sense of wonder, the same tone of underlying darkness, the same risk-taking that you have with Kubert. One of the biggest gripes I have with Anderson is his overuse of long vertical panels. Kubert uses them sparingly; Anderson all the time. I don’t mean to slam Anderson. Again, he’s a fine comic book artist. His biggest problem is he followed Joe Kubert. (You want to be the guy that follows the guy that follows Kubert!)     

I plan to keep this volume, but will probably limit myself to re-reading only the Kubert-drawn stories. If anyone has read the Grant Morrison run or the Geoff Johns omnibus, please let me know what you think. 

3/5