Showing posts with label Secret Wars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Secret Wars. Show all posts

Monday, February 15, 2016

The Totally Awesome Hulk #2 by Pak, Cho and Oback

I wasn't sure but now that I've seen his whole name, I'm excited to actually recognize the illustrator of The Totally Awesome Hulk. I remember looking at Frank Cho's work at Baltimore Comicon back in the day and I also remember my friend Kat telling me she knew his girlfriend. Pretty exciting stuff.

The comic starts exactly where the old one left off: introducing Lady Hellbender, who wants to fight The Hulk. Living by a code of chivalry, he dodges her attacks. Her pet... monster, shall we say, steps in and The Hulk is wrestling with it as Lady Hellbender goes after Amadeus' sister.

Which is a huge mistake. Spider-man tries to help, and She-Hulk stops him, stating that she knows that look. She's right and he loses it, slamming Lady Hellbender into the ground. Oh, side note... I also didn't realize that the Spider-man was Miles Morales. He's completely in costume the entire time, and it was only looking at the ads of new comics that are coming out (which I mostly ignore), I would have never known (or Josh would have ended up telling me once he read the series.) Josh is super excited for his comic to drop and it seems like a way better Spider-man than the new Peter Parker.

It quick changes back to Bruce Banner, after absorbing the energy from a Kiber Fusion Reactor, is locked in a containment device underneath the ocean. Iron man and others are trying to figure out what to do and are quickly running out of options.

It snaps back to the new Hulk almost killing Lady Hellbender before She-Hulk and Maddy step in, defusing the situation.

I like the tone of the comic book, a mixture between Bruce's dire situation and Amadeus' new life with his sister helping him in the food truck. He's incredibly optimistic and he's just trying to figure out what to do and how to succeed with his new superpowers. I also love the inclusion of She-Hulk and Spider-man, which gives the Hulk some direction and a team to rely on. It's a very diverse comic, which is definitely appreciated.

It's an interesting choice that She-Hulk wasn't replaced, but I like how instead of just abandoning the Banner' backstory, they embraced it, leading up to how Amadeus obtained his powers in the first place.

My only problem is.... Maddy doesn't feel younger to me. She looks older, and she acts like the older sister to Amadeus. Maybe it's intentional? I don't know, but I have to keep reminding myself she's only 16, not the 25 year old that is depicted in the comic.

I can't wait for the next issue!

Monday, December 7, 2015

Marvel Mondays: The Amazing Spider-Man #1

This idea was given to me by my husband, who does a sketch comedy show in Baltimore parodying his beloved comic books. I have reviewed some comic books before (mostly She-Hulk) but since they are coming out with new number 1s of all the issues, why not review them? He also buys them, so it's mostly him spending the money for me to read.

I randomly picked out the Amazing Spider-Man #1. There are so many movies about this character that it's hard to not know who Peter Parker is by this point. He's a high school kid who's down on his luck, lives in the poorer part of New York and has unspeakable tragedy. He has a tough time with girls but despite of that, he's a witty, snarky guy. My husband and I have had many conversations about Spider-Man and how there is a comic about Miles Morales, which would be a better match for Spider-Man. What frustrates us the most is that there isn't really much diversity in comic books. Don't get me wrong, they are trying and doing a better job of expanding diversity when it comes to some reboot of some characters, but... well, they failed when it came to the reboot of Spider-Man.

Peter Parker is a new age industrialist with branches all over the world. The series opens with Spider-Man and Agent Morse, or Mockingbird, fighting a few bad guys from the Zodiac. Spider-Man is snarky, like he usually is, but... there is something off about Peter Parker. It goes flashbacks to him learning how to drive and learning Chinese at the same time. There is some important bits about S.H.I.E.L.D, but I don't really notice because I'm perplexed to why I dislike Peter Parker so much. Finally, the chase scene ends with them capturing this dude with a lion mask on, who works for Zodiac, who is important... but for the life of me I can't remember why. All I'm concentrating on is why Peter Parker is like Tony Stark, with his gadgets and technological know how. I mean, wasn't he a photographer?

The next scene shows Peter Parker in a suit, discussing the future of his company, and the start of the Uncle Ben foundation. I guess he's using Parker Industries to help the world? Fair wages and raising the quality of life for every person that he employs in the countries his company resides in? Then Slott and company really hit the nail on the head with a reporter calling Peter Parker a "poor man's Tony Stark." Peter leans heavily into it, by patting himself on the back and stating that he's wages are that of middle management and that he couldn't feasibly give himself a pay raise above his junior executives.

...what?

Look, I get what Slott and company were trying to do. In a way, I appreciate it. It's providing commentary for greedy CEOs and Wall Street and the 1%. However... why Peter Parker? Why Spiderman? I feel like they were going to do this with Tony Stark, and at the last minute, decided to go with Spiderman. I'm not very well versed with super hero legend, or the continuity of Marvel.... but it just doesn't fit. There is already a few heroes in Marvel that own their own companies and do what Parker is trying to do (or unabashingly doesn't do it) but Parker doesn't feel like one that needs to do something like that. Isn't the appeal of Spider-Man is that he's a regular Joe that just happens to have superpowers? Wasn't that the reason those movies were so popular and one of the first that Marvel put out, because he was so relatable?

There is a smart bit of Hobie Brown also being Spider-Man to keep Peter Parker's cover intact. However, I don't know Hobie Brown from Adam, and it sort of falls flat. Oh, and there is a gay wedding thrown in there, which I also don't know from Adam. I see that Hubbie also bought the second issue of Amazing Spider-Man, so I hope it really picks up. But the verdict? Peter Parker is another rich white dude who's trying to use his money for good, which isn't a bad thing, but this trope would look better on Tony Stark.