(w) Kieron Gillen (a) Jamie McKelvie
Origin stories tend to either be very, very cool, or very, very lame. I don't know why, nor do I pretend to understand why. It just seems to happen that way.
Even before this conclusion issue, it was evident that Kieron Gillen's team of Young Avengers was a whole different beast from Alan Heinberg's from back in the day. And I was prepared for that. I was ready for my favorite franchise to look and feel completely unique from what I'd come to love. But I'd read Phonogram so again, I knew I was in for something different. I wasn't, however, ready for just how awesome it could be.
Gillen's opening arc for the second volume of Young Avengers is one of the most intriguing and interesting takes on the "getting the band together" comic book trope I've ever read. These characters are teenagers and they act like it. What kids are voluntarily putting their lives on the line instead of being glued to their cell phones and tablets? Well, if any would, it would be the ones who are superheroes. Gillen understands that normal teenage behavior doesn't go away when the superheroics kick in. These kids are always thinking about who they are and what they want, just like any other normal kid, The difference is that the Young Avengers have to juggle interdimensional monstrosities.
** SPOILERS AHEAD **
These kids don't want to be a team. This simple fact is what makes this vision of the Young Avengers so appealing -- by the end of Young Avengers #5, the only reason they all decide to stay together is to physically prevent an otherworldly invasion. It's not because they all necessarily like each other. In fact, everyone hates Loki mostly, and Miss America doesn't trust anyone else. Just like normal teenagers, their relationships are complicated. And just like eighteen-year-olds in real life, they have to recognize when to grow and step up to the challenge. This is as good at time as any.
GRADE
9.5/10
(w) Kieron Gillen (a) Dale Eaglesham
Kieron Gillen is no stranger to long-form narrative. Just take a look at his run on Journey Into Mystery and how each arc grew from the last and influenced the next, like a novel with it's many chapters. One would think this is how most comic books are written, but it tends to be a lot more difficult than it sounds. Iron Man didn't start out as strong as everyone hoped it would, but six issues in, Gillen upped the ante by sending Tony Stark into deep space where he faced the consequences of his attempt at destroying the Phoenix Force in Avengers vs. X-Men.
"The Secret Origin of Tony Stark" doesn't aim to retell Iron Man's origins. Quite the contrary, in fact. Working inside the strict parameters of comic book universe continuity seems to be Gillen's inspirational constraint. It's one of the elements of the comic book industry that makes it so amazing, that a creator 40 years removed from the character's origin can still add something to said origin, have it make sense, and make it totally awesome.
** SPOILERS AHEAD **
Iron Man #10 plays out like a 60s spy thriller as Howard Stark assembles a team to steal the one thing all his power, money, resources, connections, and intelligence can't get him: hope for his already dying prenatal child. If it seems a bit dark, then Gillen has done his job. Tony's always had a medically spotty history, but this pushes that concept to a whole new level. The fact that alien technology plays a part in this plan means Tony's life was influenced by technology before he ever left his mother's womb. I really like the team Howard assembles, but I wonder just how Gillen plans on using them as the story moves forward.
Overall, I found Iron Man #10 to be intriguing. It's the first official part of "Secret Origin", and it reveals quite a bit about the story leading up to Tony's birth, but nothing is intersecting yet. It's like one of those new puzzles without edges that are just that much harder to start piecing together, but are so much more satisfying when completed.
GRADE
8/10
(w) Kieron Gillen (a) Dale Eaglesham
This, ladies and gentlemen, is how a comic book is done.
From beginning to end, Iron Man #9 is one of the best single issues I've read in quite a while. It's a fantastic 'jumping on' point that really does the phrase justice, the artwork is leaps and bounds better than the previous eight issues under Greg Land's airbrushing hands, and Death's Head might just be one of my new favorite tertiary characters.
Though this issue is technically a prologue to "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark", Kieron Gillen does an amazing job summarizing the last arc through Tony's conversation with Death's Head, a freelance bounty hunter whose written to sound like he's from the Old Country. It's a tactile way to rehash past events, and it doesn't come off as an overbearing information dump. Gillen's organic dialogue feels way more fluid than what most other writers in the industry are producing today. Basically, Iron Man #9 is an extended conversation between Tony and Death's Head that takes three huge turns in the very last pages that beautifully set up the forthcoming look back at Tony's origin.
I first took notice of Dale Eaglesham when he illustrated Villains United for DC as part of the "Countdown to Infinite Crisis" event. Since then, I've only come to enjoy his work more. The pages of Iron Man #9 are a testament to the man's talent and some of the best work I've ever seen from him. There's a subtle depth to his facial expressions as well as backgrounds and crowd scenes. All around, Eaglesham knocks this one out of the park.
Simply put, Iron Man #9 is a triumph. Rarely does a single issue so intuitively cater to both the dedicated fan and the new reader. We need more writing like this in the comic book industry. Sure, it's still about Iron Man zipping around the galaxy with a giant robotic bounty hunter looking for another robot who orchestrated genocide, but somehow, it feels incredibly relatable and down to earth.
GRADE
9.5/10
------- DC Reviews
Normally, each issue gets four dedicated sentences, but because Animal Man and Swamp Thing interconnect on such a basic level, I've gone ahead and combined them in one, eight-sentence review that covers the entire "Rotworld: Finale."
Animal Man #17
(w) Scott Snyder & Jeff Lemire (a) Steve Pugh, Timothy Green III, and Joseph Silver
Swamp Thing #17
(w) Scott Snyder & Jeff Lemire (a) Andrew Belanger
This week, "Rotworld" finally came to a close with Animal Man #17 and Swamp Thing #17, a one-two punch finale that, unfortunately, succumbs to the law of diminishing returns and just doesn't feel all the satisfying after nearly two years of build-up. Even though the connections between Animal Man and Swamp Thing have only been official over the past six months, these series have been connected since issue one, and the threat of the Rot is starting to become a little long in the tooth. While nearly every other title in the 'New 52' has gone through at least two distinct story arcs, both Animal Man and Swamp Thing have been greatly decompressed to the point where it's hard to imagine either of these series outside their plight against Anton Arcane and the Rot -- when heroes start to be defined by their villains, you know something is wrong. "Rotworld: Finale" just doesn't live up to the hype Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire have been promising for what seems like forever now.
And the truth is, I don't really know why; Snyder and Lemire invested so much time, effort, and energy into crafting this massive crossover that would have lasting ramifications on these characters, yet in the final moments, it all comes down to something that's been in the equation since the beginning. I'm not a fan of "deus ex machina" situations like this where the answer has been sitting there the entire time because that kind of story betrays the intelligence of the characters and, by extension, the readers. I didn't dislike or hate "Rotworld: Finale" as a closing chapter of the ongoing Rotworld saga, but it's just not as explosive as I imagined it would be, and switching out Yannick Paquette for Andrew Belanger for Swamp Thing #17 was a mistake on DC's part because there's now a disconnect between the rest of the arc, which looks beautiful, and this final issue, which looks just passable. I'll continue to read both titles going forward, because Snyder and Lemire have amazing track records with them as well as their other work, but Animal Man #17 and Swamp Thing #17 both dropped the ball when it came to delivering a satisfying conclusion to the months-and-months long "Rotworld" narrative.
GRADE: 7/10 (Animal Man)
GRADE: 6.5/10 (Swamp Thing)
------- Marvel Reviews
Iron Man #6
(w) Kieron Gillen (a) Greg Land
Kieron Gillen and Greg Land are taking Iron Man into space with "The Godkiller", a story arc designed to preface Tony Stark's membership in the newest iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy, as well as provide some proper aftermath to last year's Avengers vs. X-Men. For the most part, Gillen is having fun with Tony in space because it's a setting where the character doesn't have a lot of experience, which means his normal processes -- both on the job and at-play -- have to be adjusted accordingly. Iron Man #6 mostly takes a look at Tony experiencing the wonders of deep space by trying to hook up with a purple alien babe made to look eternally from the 80s by Greg Land. Being the first of only three parts, I expected a bit more plot-wise from Iron Man #6, but it's still an enjoyable issue that fulfills it's goal as a bridge between bigger ideas.
GRADE: 7/10
(w) Kieron Gillen
(p) Jamie McKelvie
(i) Mike Norton
What do you call it when the stars align, when everything goes exactly as planned, when all the pieces effortlessly fall into place? Usually, it's called perfection. Now, we can add Young Avengers...again.
Alan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's seminal 2005 Young Avengers was one of the most fascinating instances in modern comics history. Mercilessly pigeonholed before it even debuted, Young Avengers #1 was all it took to sway a vast majority of the skeptics. I say this because, logically, there is bound to be a small subset of readers who won't like something for one reason or another, but to be honest, I've never met a single Marvel comics fan (in person or on the internetz) who didn't not only like, but love the original run. Heinberg and Cheung bottled lightning with those original 12 issues. It's testament is the rabid anticipation that's been brewing for a new ongoing Young Avengers ever since the original ended. Sure, we got The Children's Crusade, but that was Heinberg and Cheung's swan song -- an ending with the potential for new beginnings.
Enter Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie, a writer and artist respectively who have worked together numerous times in the past, most notably on their Image series, Phonogram. Gillen and McKelvie's subtle world of music as magic conveyed an idea of youth and popularity as a tiresome barometer of desire, along with the emotional resonance of music through the lens of supernatural pastiche. There's a lot of layers to Phonogram. So what do you get when you put a wildly successful youth-oriented superhero squad with a creative team that somehow perfectly captures the idea of being young? You get Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie. And now I've used the same literary device twice in the same review.
That's how good Young Avengers #1 is.
'Marvel NOW!' has been a mostly successful venture with a few outlying exceptions. Titles like Avengers, All-New X-Men, and Captain America are good because they commit to they commit to a clear narrative direction. Jonathan Hickman makes the Avengers feel bigger that ever before, Brian Michael Bendis has shifted the entire landscape of the X-Men corner of the Marvel universe, and Rick Remender took the Sentinel of Liberty out of our universe in order to find a bold new frontier for Steve Rogers. Young Avengers #1 does magnificently what so many books fail at doing on a monthly basis, and that is tell a compelling story about young heroes that actually feels like it's about young people. The opening pages featuring Kate Bishop and Noh-Varr (formerly known as both Marvel Boy and Protector) are pristine for Gillen's presentation of the awkward morning after a weird night our parents always warned us about while McKelvie draws these characters to look like actual adolescents, which is, again, something that is frustratingly uncommon in today's comic book landscape.
While Miss America Chavez and Kid Loki were featured exclusively in Marvel NOW! Point One's prologue tale, their time in Young Avengers #1 is limited to a small exchange over Loki's apparent plan to inflict harm of some sort, and America's natural reaction to floor the annoying Asgardian imp. Being such a short sequence, the amount of character development is betrayed by the number of panels. America wouldn't even listen to what Loki had to say in Point One, and now she's at the same location, like she's following him. Then we've got Loki, who tries to dine and dash before being spooked by a corporeal voice. Why is Loki so cheap? Is it because he's the god of mischief or is it because he's young and the money he has is that much more precious to him?
The most emotional storyline comes with the established relationship between Billy and Teddy, a.k.a. Wiccan and Hulkling, the latter of whom still goes out and puts on his proverbial mask to fight crime. Billy doesn't approve of the superhero game after the events of The Children's Crusade, and for good reason. "How many friends have we buried?" he posits his boyfriend as the two attempt to understand the needs and desires of the other. Teddy's surprise confession to privately dealing with the crumbling of his entire life after his mother's murder is surprisingly moving. It's what jumpstarts Gillen's plot, "big bad"-wise, going forward as Billy decides to use his powers again, but just for good. Again, McKelvie's artwork plays a pivotal role in the storytelling as his facial expressions contain depth and a dimension of reality without betraying the core of it being comic book art. Much like Mike Allred, McKelvie focuses on the face as a whole to convey different emotional responses instead of relying on body language or over-expressive features.
Young Avengers #1 was somewhat of a homecoming for this comic book fan. Since I got myself back into reading comics on a regular basis almost two years ago, my collecting has been done exclusively digitally, mostly out of convenience. It wasn't until Marvel announced the relaunch of Young Avengers with Gillen and McKelvie (something I actually hoped for after reading Phonogram and first learning about 'Marel NOW!') that I decided I would start buying in print again. I own all 12 issues of the original Young Avengers, and I didn't want to have a gap in my collection. As they've stated in many an interview, Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie have not recreated the magic that made Alan Heinberg and Jim Cheung's Young Avengers so amazing. Instead, they've evolved the idea (in Gillen's own words) from "being sixteen to being eighteen." While that's only a two year difference, in the life of a person that age, that's all the difference in the world, and Young Avengers #1 captures this sentiment perfectly.
GRADE
10/10
(w) Kieron Gillen
(p) Greg Land
"If your ideas have at least one military purpose, you can get them paid for. You can realize your dream, as long as it's got enough nightmare to it."
Tony Stark's words ring true throughout Iron Man #1, as new writer Kieron Gillen brings about the return of the Extremis virus in the epic first issue of this new 'Marvel NOW!' series. Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca have been handling the Iron Avenger for a few years now, so skepticism toward a new creative team is to be expected. Fortunately, Kieron Gillen and artist Greg Land seem to have a promising if not perfect formula for the title going forward.
Kieron Gillen is a prolific talent. He's the kind of writer that can put his own spin on almost any character he takes on, while still keeping said character's core qualities and personality. If you've never read Phonogram, read every issue you can before it fries your brain, then read Gillen's run on Journey Into Mystery to see what I mean. This same principle applies here to Iron Man as Gillen uses his unique style to give Tony Stark a fresh voice for the first time in ages. I don't want to sound like I disliked Fraction's take on Stark, but it was something that took a lot of getting used to, while Gillen's style has more instant appeal and witty swarth. The man is English, after all.
Everyone's favorite nano-virus, Extremis, is back for a second go-round with Tony Stark and bringing about a dangerous age of man-made metahumans. Gillen does an amazing job of blending character development, supporting cast introductions, and plot advancement that it's almost astonishing. I found myself noticing so much more about the issue on my second read-through -- the way Land illustrates emotion (at least for women; Tony looks donkey-toothed most of the time), how Tony's inner monologue is more actually about processing thoughts instead of giving readers narration, and the way Gillen effortlessly brings back one of the most popular threats in all of Iron Man history without it feeling forced.
Both Iron Man and Deadpool debuted this week as part of 'Marvel NOW!', and many buyers are considering purchasing just one of these issues. Do yourself a favor and get Iron Man #1. Kieron Gillen has, in one issue, built a fascinating situation for Tony Stark, as well as a clear direction for the character himself. This was not a title I thought I would be buying each month. In fact, I had no plans on even reviewing this initial issue outside the 'Extra! Extra!' section. But as always (and I should have guessed), Kieron Gillen blew me away with his masterful grasp of comic book writing.
GRADE
9/10
(w) Kieron Gillen (a) Jamie McKelvie
