Cover Review: The Eternals #14

Jack Kirby strikes again!  For a man I didn't appreciate as a kid (mainly because his art freaked me out), I definitely appreciate him now.  This is not, obviously, his best cover, but it works.

The Eternals was a weird series, and I never picked it up, but seeing the Hulk on the cover would have caused a curious Hulk fan to at least page through this.  It also has all the Kirby standards, which definitely doesn't hurt.

The first thing that catches the eye is the imposing figure of a red-clad man flying off the cover courtesy of the Hulk.  A cover that shows off action like this begs to be investigated regardless of whether or not you know who the characters are.  There are no word balloons.  There is a cover blurb, however, which pretty much details the cover with one exception -- this is a "cosmic powered" Hulk.  Attention grabbed; curiosity peaked.  Mission accomplished.

Cover artists of today could take more than a few lessons from Kirby.  He did every cover as if his career depended on it.  You can argue about whether they all worked, but you can't argue with the creativity put into them.  He knew what worked, and used it.  Perhaps if more artists followed his lead sales would be better these days.  Then again, Kirby was one of a kind ...

Band of the Hand

If you are a regular reader of Daredevil you know that he now leads The Hand, that group of ninjas who have run roughshod over the lives of Elektra, Wolverine, and others.  It is a plot development not without controversy, but I applaud it.

One of the reasons I have stuck with this title since the 1970s (and there are a lot of bad issues between then and now) is because it never really seems static and has had a sense that anything can happen (especially since the late '80s).  As of late he has had his identity outed, been jailed, and has (once again) gone off the deep end.  Now this.

Obviously there is a plan for ol' Hornhead.  He hasn't, as some people have said, "gone criminal."  He is, however, dancing on that razor's edge, and that's what makes the series exciting.  If you want a safe read where you are hardly ever challenged on what you can expect from a superhero comic, you can read any number of titles.  Daredevil has never been about conventions.

This plot twist could very well fail in an awful way.  If that happens, it will be a shame, but the title will live on.  There have been other plot lines that have fallen flat in their execution (Mike Murdock, working for S.H.I.E.L.D, etc.), but that's the joy of reading a title that is not one of Marvel's flagships.  It can be tweaked.  It leaves room for experimentation.  That will inevitably lead to some failures, but it will also produce incredible stories.

Only time will tell what this storyline turns out to be, but I'm betting that before it is over many of the critics will change their minds.  And if I'm wrong?  Eventually there will be a new writer who will bring new problems to Daredevil's life, and if the past few years are any indication -- it could be a very wild ride.

Enemy Mine

I just got done reading Enemy of the State Volume 1 by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr..  I read the issues when they originally came out (who hasn't?), but this was the first time I read it since then.  It actually holds up well, and reading it in trade paperback format actually made it a better.  It was also nice to see Romita, Jr. back to drawing Daredevil again, and it made me realize just how much I enjoy his art.

A few friends I know think that Romita, Jr.'s work is too square looking.  I admit that I can kind of see that, but I would argue that his art fits the hero genre quite well.  His Ultron, Wolverine and Elektra all look deadly, which is more than I can say for some artists who have worked on those characters.

I've had the pleasure of have some instant message exchanges with Romita, Jr. in the past, and he came across as a very nice guy who was happy to discuss comics and his work.  I don't claim a friendship with the man or anything, and I doubt he even remembers those chats (as I'm sure he's engaged in thousands of those with fans), but it meant something to me.  Art is a skill I don't have but desperately wish I did, and when I come across an artist I like, I tend to have a lot of respect for them.

Romita, Jr. is one of those artists.  His father, a comics legend, isn't bad, either, but Romita, Jr., I have to say, has a style all his own that stands out in an art form where imitation is far too often the norm.

West Coast Avengers -- Why?

I have every single issue of this series, including the limited series that preceded it.  The West Coast Avengers was, and I can't believe I'm going to say this, hot for a time.

I can't remember why.

The line-up was pretty good.  Iron Man, Hawkeye, Tigra, Wonder Man and others made for a good core group.  If I recall correctly, however, the stories were often less-than-ideal.  In fact, some were downright horrible.  (As an aside, the entire "No more mutants" had its start in the pages of WCA.)

I remember wanting to read the series because of Iron Man and Hawkeye, two characters I enjoyed in The Avengers.  Tigra was a nice addition, too, because the writers actually portrayed her as she should be.  Once I actually read it, however, I started thinking, "Well, maybe the next issue will be better." 


The series could have been worse.  (Heck, it could have been Dazzler.)  It should have been better, though.  It had all the trappings of a good series, it had some good talent (John Byrne was on it before he totally sucked), and some passable art.  It squandered all that, though, and attacked readers to crap like Master Pandemonium and Firebird. 


Why?


Marvel, in the mid-Eighties, was enjoying quite a bit of popularity, and it tried its hands with some new ideas.  Some were horrible.  Some were pretty good.  Some, like WCA, were misfires.  WCA had enough potential and popularity, however, to last until 1994.  I can only attribute that to idiots like me who kept giving it second chances (and third and fourth ones, too).

Looking back on the series now, I can't help but think it's like the old television shows I used to dig, but now, when looking back, I can't figure out why I ever watched them in the first place.  Some still hold up, but aren't nearly as good as my memories make them out to be.  Some seem like they were never good in the first place, but I never realized it until much later.  WCA falls into the former category, as I'm sure I'd still enjoy some of the issues, but the majority of them would make me wish I never bought any issues in the first place.  I still think the idea has merit and could've worked.  Unfortunately, the team and the book was treated as second tier goods.  The heroes fought moronic villains, and at the end of the day the clout the Avengers name has in comic book history was tarnished by the series. 

One thing I can say about the series that is in its favor is that it never felt like a cash-in on that Avengers name.  I believed the creators were trying to do something new, something to set it apart from the main series.  It never felt exploitive, like all those X-Men spin-offs, and it never read like the core title with different characters.  In the end, though, it just wasn't worthy of that Avengers title.  The Avengers had tales that were epic in scope (most of the time).  They were, after all, Earth's mightiest heroes.  The West Coast Avengers, which had some tales that were pseudo epics, was not the Earth's mightiest heroes. 


At least we got a decent Scarlet Witch story out of it years later.  

Correction

In the first paragraph of the last post, "none" should be "known."  For some reason I cannot edit it.  Stupid Vodka and mescaline.

The Joke's on You, Jack

Few comic book villains are as none by the non-comic book reading public as the Joker.  Granted, he's never been my favorite villain, but when he's done well (think Alan Moore's The Killing Joke) he's incredible.  Unfortunately, like a lot of popular characters, he is often overused (though nowhere near as much as Wolverine) and often poorly written. 

Frank Miller's done the character justice, as have a few others.  Without the Joker, Batman wouldn't be nearly as effective a hero.  The Joker is his polar opposite.  While Daredevil has the Kingpin, those two characters work because they are both very similar to one another.  Joker and Batman is a totally different story.

Decades ago the Joker had his own comic book series.  It lasted about nine issues if memory serves me correctly, and seemed like an odd idea for a series.  I have an issue or two somewhere and will someday collect them all.  He's not my favorite character, but I will admit to taking some pleasure in reading his exploits.  There's something very refreshing about an off-kilter psychopath in make-up.  Sort of like a less sinister Rush Limbaugh or something.

Joker has already cemented his place in comic book history.  There's no doubt he deserves his spot, too.  Years from now, if our culture continues upon this path, the Joker will still be around, and he won't have changed much.  There's no need to upgrade a character that works so well from the start.  (Yes, he has changed a bit since his inception, but the course he's been on for quite some time now is the one he'll be staying on as far as I can see.)  That's what makes a character like him timeless and a character like, say, Darkhawk a toss-off to be used sparingly at best.

Now if Alan Moore would agree to do a Joker series, I'd be getting that every month without question.  Until then, however, I'll take the good stories when they come up and ignore the vast majority of them out of fear they'll be exactly as exploitative as I know they will be.  

Steve Ditko Killed Indiana Jones

When Marvel's The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones came out,  I was thrilled.  I was a huge fan of the movies, and now there was a comic book.

It wasn't very good.

It wasn't horrible, but the comics lacked the energy of the movies.  Some things just don't translate to other mediums well.  This was one of those things.

I stuck with the book, but when artist Steve Ditko took over, I found myself reading it simply to ride it out until the end.  Ditko's art, which was passable in his younger years, destroyed what little life was left in the book.

Look at it.  That's one of the better pages. 

Ditko's art was ... freaky.  Eyes were too wide.  People were in strange poses.  Nothing looked right.  His run lasted less than 10 issues if I remember correctly, but one issue was too much.

Dark Horse picked up the license years later, but my view of the comic was so skewed that I pretty much stayed away from it.  People told me it was a fine read, but the horror that was Ditko burned itself into my psyche, and there was no way I was going to destroy the Indie comic memory even more.  Hell, if the Dark Horse comics were bad it could ruin my movie and novel memories, too, through some sort of weird cultural spillover.

So now I stay away from all Indiana Jones comic books.  It's necessary in order to keep my sanity.  And as for Steve Ditko ... I don't want to say he was on some sort of future recall diet drug that caused hallucinations, but Jesus his art was bad.