Comic Book Coffee Break #52

 Thanks for joining me no my Comic Book Coffee Break!  Today I grabbed coffee at Dunkin' on my way in for an early meeting. Pretty solid coffee.

Let's talk comic books!

This week I was guest-hosting Previously on X-Men and the focus was on The First X-Men, a 2012 limited series from Neal Adams and Christos Gage.  Because of that you get an all Neal Adams issue.  Let's do it.

Marvel 

I'd already read The First X-Men a while back so I jumped back to Adams' early X-Men stuff as collected in X-Men Visionaries: Neal Adams.  This collects several issues from '69-'70 illustrated and plotted by Adams.  I always like the original team so it was fun to dive into this mess of a story and revisit the characters. The story dealt with Havok and then with the Sentinels, but I was primarily focusing on the art, which did live up to the hype.  It's bright, clever and delightfully chaotic. I can see why it got the "Visionaries" treatment. 

On to The First X-Men.  I guess I'd categorize this as... harmless?  It's fine.  It's a relatively entertaining story about Wolverine and Sabertooth setting up a proto X-Men team. It doesn't provide much in the way of new insights into the characters, but it does tell a very serviceable story.  We really picked it apart in the episode. 

DC Comics

I've read a lot of books with Neal Adams art, Green Lantern/Green Arrow and classic Batman comes to mind.  But I've only recently read some of the stuff we wrote as well. Let's talk The Coming of the Supermen. This feels to me like something that was written in the 80s, forgotten for a few decades, then dusted off and printed with no changes.  And I mean that as a compliment. It's kooky, it's weird, and I had a great time. 

Batman: Odyssey on the other hand, is every bit as bad as you've heard.  Despite the negative reviews, I went in to this slightly optimistic. After all, I'd enjoyed the Superman story, so I thought maybe. 

No. Everything about this is bad.

For starters, the plot is impossible to follow.  Not difficult, IMPOSSIBLE. The character designs are clunky and the overall look of the book is unappealing. I've read a lot of bad graphic novels, but this might actually be the worst mainstream graphic novel ever assembled.  I can't believe it went to print. 

There was one section with Robin and a dinosaur that I enjoyed, but it was brief. That's as close to a compliment as I can get. 

Here's the thing though, I do think you should read it, as least part of it anyway. It's worse than you think.

Next Time

I'm finishing up Superman Savage Dawn, then that's only leaves Final Days.  See you then.

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You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.
The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 
You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast and This Endorian Life, both for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 
I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library. 

Comic Book Coffee Break #43

 Thanks for joining me on my Comic Book Coffee Break.  Today, I'm drinking Charcoal Corral coffee with 2 creams and 4 sugars.  Not a great start.

Let's talk comic books.

This week didn't go exactly as planned comics-wise, but I did check a couple off my list. 

DC Comics

This week in DC I dug in to the Milestone Comics archive to read the first volume of Icon by Dwayne McDuffie and art by M.D. Bright/Mark Gustovich.  The basic premise is cool. What if is Superman-type landed in the south at the height of slavery. The problem is that that is not really explored in these first 8 issues.  The story follows Icon and his teenage sidekick Rocket, but it really feels like Rocket's story. While she is an interesting character with plenty of story to mine, I felt a little cheated of Icon's development. Hopefully this is explored further down the road.

As for Superman, I paused my New 52 reread to check out Superman in the Seventies.  I collected a lot of these from my comic stores quarter bin when I was a kid, but this era is largely uncollected and is only sporadically included on the app.  I'm still reading this one, so I'll save a full review for #44, but it starts with a story by Elliot S! Maggin that spoofs Captain Marvel. In the story Captain Thunder appears from another world and it's up to Superman to figure it out. I hadn't read this one before, but Elliot recounted the writing of this particular issue when Eric and I interviewed him for the All the Books Show. It was fun reading the story with that context in mind. 

Marvel Comics

For Marvel, I got back on track with the readthrough and picked up Uncanny Avengers V.1: The Red Shadow by Rick Remender and John Cassady.  I find that creative team a little hit and miss, but this one really worked for me.  Basically, Havok leads a team of Avengers and X-Men in the wake of the whole rumble between those two teams, and Red Skull gets psychic powers to menace them. It helps that I've been reading classic Cap/Red Skull stories, because this captured that retro, hot-mess energy well.  The plot is a little kooky, but in a 70s vibe, and I dig it. 

Finally for my weird X-Men pick of the week I resumed Exiles with V.2: A World Apart. While I found the first volume to be funny and off-beat. This one was more annoying and a little trashy. There's a whole issue where one of the characters goes lingerie shopping. Pass. Also, this version of Morph is just Deadpool lite.


Finally, and this is more an honorable mention, I read the junior novel Star-Lord: Knowhere to Run by Chris Wyatt. This was just right for a book club with my son. It's action-packed and the format and colors make for a very dynamic read. Plus, the characters felt right. Good times. (We interviewed Steve Engelhart, the creator of Star-Lord over on the All the Books Show.)

Next Time

I'll likely finish Remender's run on Secret Avengers and maybe take a look at X-Men Ronin. For DC, I will polish off Superman in the Seventies and for my New 52 reread, it's Superman: Doomed. 

As always, open to recommendations so let me know.

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You can find back issues of the video version of Comic Book Coffee Break here.

The audio version of Comic Book Coffee Break is over there. 

You can find me as the co-host of 9021 Here We G0: A 90210 Rewatch Podcast for the Radio Meanwhile Network. 

I also host Howe's Things, the podcast and radio show of the David A. Howe Public Library.