To make sure fans pick up a Western comic, DC decided to have Jonah Hex in Gotham City circa the 1800s, along with Dr. Amadeus Arkham. Adding to the early Gotham mythos may seem like a cheap gimmick to pull in Batman fans, but I have to say it works and makes All-Star Western relevant. DC took a huge risk by publishing non-superhero comics in the New 52 line, and it seems to be only a matter of time before most of the realistic comics gets cancelled due to low sales. The Batman connections are awesome: Court of Owls, Religion of Crime, early Bat-Cave, Alan Wayne, Wayne Manor, etc.

DC has GUTS to let Jonah Hex be politically incorrect with his Confederate uniform and belt that says “CS”.

As long Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti are writing it and Moritat is the artist, All-Star Western is a winner. Each issue has a backup story featuring another Western hero. I really like that. I thought it would just be obscure Golden Age DC Western heroes, but it turns out a new creation really got my attention: The Barbary Ghost, a Chinese American woman who goes against an Asian gang in California who killed her family. Her arc is done; give me more.

Bad-Dreams Recommendation: All-Star Western is a pleasant surprise in the DC New 52 universe. Each issue is very accessible for new readers, even within the story arcs. The writing and artwork fits the mood perfectly. Pretty cool Batman connections. Great old setting- seems well-researched and historically accurate. This is what DC New 52 should be all about.
All Star Western Vol. 1: Guns and Gotham (The New 52)

Action Comics 1-9: Pretty much the flagship of New 52, Grant Morrison really packed a whole bunch with these. This isn’t All-Star Superman by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s still kinda epic.

My problem with Action Comics

Due to some DC New 52 editorial mandate (or maybe Morrison himself- I don’t keep up on the gossip or care), issues 1-4 and 5-8 are different storylines, but also seemingly different time periods. I really dug the reboot in 1-4, but 5-8 seemed too high end (i.e. Final Crisis-like or a homage to Alan Moore’s Supreme) and too soon in this book’s run.

Morrison is a celebrity and can do what he wants, but his modern style is frustrating to me. No captions- so I had no idea who the K-Men/Anti-Superman Army were or what year anything takes place in.

After the introduction of the DC New 52 Superman in issues 1-4, Morrison took me on a mind-trip with Brainiac, Luthor, colored kryptonite, Superman’s new origin in #5, the Legion of the Super-Heroes, Phantom Zone, Kandor, and high concept ideas and concepts that I can’t really wrap my head around.

Issue 9 is about the Obama Superman (Superman of Earth 23- so much for one earth, huh?) It also has high-end concepts that seem to come from an LSD trip or black magic seance. It actually was a fantastic issue, although it seemed like a pre-DC New 52 comic book.

The Action Comics backup stories were OK. Steel is looking good. Ma and Pa Kent are dead, so their stories are in flashback mode. Lana Lang knows Clark Kent’s secret from Smallville.

All in all, Morrison is taking Superman to the same cool and deep yet confusing levels as his controversial Batman run. Pretty sad that DC’s promise to keep things simple for new readers ended pretty early in this run; I had to ask myself if I missed an issue or if I had to read Action Comics’ sister title Superman to figure out what the heck is going on after issue 4.

DC New 52 character treatments in Action Comics in Brief

Superman: As a youngster, started off a rebellious and violent spirit akin to the Golden Age Superman. After he grows up and changes his costume, he’s pretty much back to being Mr. Perfect.

Lois Lane: Downgraded a tad. Not as bad as Marvel phasing out Mary Jane Watson.

Perry White/George Taylor: Minor roles. Taylor and the Daily Star have been phased out.

Jimmy Olsen: Clark’s buddy.

Lex Luthor: World’s smartest man. Anti-alien. Works with General Sam Lane. Manipulative. Takes a back seat to Brainiac, though.

Brainiac: Totally new design and origin again. Destroyed Krypton (I think). But also guided Kal-El’s rocket and helps him with info about Jor-El (I think). A collector. On earth, called the Internet.

Legion of the Super-Heroes: So cocky and all knowing as usual. Seems like every comic book writer is a fan boy of this group. Pass.

Bad-Dreams Recommendation: Yes, give Action Comics a spin, but don’t expect easy reading even though it’s a reboot. Morrison is NOT turning back the clock and making it simple for new readers. Older fans of Action Comics or the Superman character may also be scratching their heads. Fans of Morrison, Final Crisis, and Morrison’s Batman storyarcs will feel right at home. Niche fans of Supreme will be disappointed that Morrison didn’t make things more timeless like All-Star Superman.

 Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel (The New 52)

The first Ghost Rider film was not really passable for a Marvel movie, and forgettable, and not one of my favorites. It would be near Fantastic Four 2, Elektra, X-Men 3, or Daredevil. In fact when my wife and I watched Spirit of Vengeance, she forgot it was a sequel to a movie we watched together. Yeah, I knew I was in for a long night. It turns our SoV is one of the LONGEST 1:35 minute movies I’ve seen. I’ve never seen Punisher 2 because Thomas Jane wasn’t on-board, but I have a feeling SoV and P2 are around the same in terms of quality.

I mean the first Ghost Rider made a profit of around $100 million dollars, so why not make another one, right? SoV “only” made around $60 million. Will we see the trilogy? As long as Nicholas Cage has to pay the IRS, we way get that honor.

Ghost Rider 2: Too many B-movie studios teaming up. Too many screenwriters. Uneven special effects. Hard plot to follow. Inconsistent super powers of Ghost Rider, Satan, and Decay…This one is a tough sell. It’s amazing because the beginning is cool: we get a recap of Ghost Rider 1 and Johnny Blaze’s origin, but right after it I had the sick feeling over my chest. You know- the feeling that you are watching a bad movie. A movie that is so bad that you hope the person you brought to see it doesn’t think you’re a nutjob? A movie that is so bad it’s not even bad in a funny way, like kung fu movies? I was afraid to check Rotten Tomatoes beforehand because deep down I knew critics had panned it. I just checked now: 18%/33%.

Ghost Rider 2 seems to try and mimic Blade, but totally fails. It’s full of random violence, a kid, his mom, a cult, monks, and bad dialog. There is no real evidence that Blaze and the Ghost Rider spirit are different personalities: they are both completely crazy and dark. In the comic books, their personalities were conflicting and mirrored each other. They was really a wicked demon trapped in his body. Blaze may have been depressed and dark, but the personalities were not similar.

If there are any positives, it would be the setting was legit: great areas of Turkey. Man, if Nicholas Cage wasn’t in this film, it would have lost $100 million, and had a 1% RT rating.

Ghost Rider 2 would be better if it was part of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, with The Avengers, but I guess due to licensing, lawyers, or stupidity, there were no signs, Easter eggs, or evidence that Ghost Rider is part of the Marvel Universe.

If you do see this movie on DVD or Netflix or whatever, or if you saw it at the movie theater and liked it: more power to you. I will always like the character, so that’s cool. I don’t think you’re an idiot for liking it. I wish I could like it. Ultimately, in terms of quality I would recommend you pass, unless you liked Mortal Kombat II: Armageddon.

Speaking of Mortal Kombat, there was a great line in Spirit of Vengeance where Ghost Rider uses his chain like Scorpion’s harpoon rope and says, “Come here!” Considering Ghost Rider predated his flaming skull clone by decades, that was a great line to show us who the original is…lol

Jean-Paul Valley Jr. made his debut in Batman: Sword of Azrael #1, with a cover date of October 1992. When it first came out, it was a quick and somewhat obscure comic book, highlighted by up-and-coming artist Joe Quesada. It was written by Batman mainstay Denny O’Neil, who has written high quality Batman stories. The irony is that the artwork held it back. Quesada’s Valiant Comics artwork was much better (as long as you can accept 1990s artwork).

There was no way anyone could have predicted Joe Quesada’s path to success based on Sword of Azrael. Granted the Wizard folks said it was great, but they have a bad street rep. Many fans of the 1990s still rate Quesada’s work on Sword of Azrael as being detailed and innovative. Sorry, but I don’t see it. I see a chaotic mess and experimental panel layout just as a way to ape the Image boys at the time.

Azrael’s origin is a complete mess…it’s bogged down by some religious order, hints of demons and angels, and Batman gets jobbed out. He’s mostly Bruce Wayne in this story, anyway, regardless of the bait and switch covers. There was no way that readers could expect Azrael to play such a major role in DC Comics later on. He seems like a one-shot character, like so many other 1990s heroes and villains from Batman’s supporting cast. Speaking of villains, the main villain- I think he is a demon- is utterly forgettable.

The story was so slow and uninteresting that I found myself skipping pages, which is something I never do when reading comic books. Many people involved in this St. Dumas religious order knew that Bruce Wayne was Batman, and I felt like I missed an issue, which makes no sense since it is a self-contained 4-issue limited series.

Azrael may be the Bobba Fett of DC in the 1990s: he’s only likable because of his costume. By the way, his civilian ID really looks bad underneath that armor and cape.

Bottom line Batman: Sword of Azrael Review: OVERRATED. I give props to Denny O’Neill for doing something different with the whole religious Da Vinci Code conspiracy, but it seemed like it was a book idea he had that he forced into the Batman universe. O’Neill is a “company man”: he should have tried to sell the idea to a publisher and written a book on his own.

Read Batman: Sword of Azrael (Prelude to Knightfall)

I tried posting a comment on your Dec. 12 blog about the Skrull-Kree war. For whatever reason, your website wouldn’t let me enter my name. This may be the reason why your recent posts have not received comment.

Thanks for noticing that. It’s one of the things I would not have seen since I am already logged in and can just hit reply without typing my name.

This was a WordPress error. It had to do with theme fonts or a WP Plugin conflict. Since I have no time to hunt down which line of PHP code to fix, I installed a new theme.

Hope you like it.

Sorry if you guys were blocked from posting these last couple of weeks.

I really enjoyed your attempt to bring rigor to the question of comic book run
quality in your fantastic four article. Yeah the inputs are entirely subjective but at
the very least you end up with what I guess Id call a fairly objective ranking of your
own enjoyment. Having said that a few factors that impact my enjoyment of a given comic book writers output slip through the cracks in such an approach, specifically the issue of wrap-up. How well does the writer deliver on his narrative promises? Take ‘the other’ storyline that ran through the spider-man titles. The story elements raised by it ultimately went nowhere and the transition from one writer to the next was utterly jarring. I guess we are talking about issues of ‘macro-quality’ that aren’t reducible to a single issue. Abandoned storylines negatively affect my enjoyment of a comic book. That raises the question of whose tab abandoned storylines should go on, the incoming or the outgoing writers? if I look at the first 200 issues of Avengers or Amazing Spider-Man, sub-plots transition smoothly from one writers tenure to the next. In fact were the credits removed from these comics it would be difficult to tell where any one writers left off and his successor began. I highly value such cohesiveness. How to account for it
in a system of quality evaluation that focuses on individual issues?

First of all, thank you for the feedback and comments (not sure if you wanted your name to be published, so you can leave a comment if you wish). I also value  plot cohesiveness and wrap up, and 100% agree about the cohesiveness of the early Marvel Universe. My system does not account for storylines with different writers over many titles. My system could do that if I chose to put together a “Storyline” or “Crossover Event” spreadsheet, called The Other or World War Hulk or whatever.

As you can imagine it is very time consuming to read every comic of a title in order and rank each one and then plug the numbers, so storyline rankings (for me) would just delay things more (I already finished reading Green Lantern, Hulk, Amazing Spider-Man, and some small volume titles, but don’t have the chance to compile the stats right now).

I rank the quality of an individual comic book because a company is charging money for it. A friend of mine once said it’s not right to judge The Phantom Menace in 1999 because it’s just an introduction and should only be judged until the other sequels were released, but the bottom line is if I had died and never had seen the other movies, George Lucas would have still taken my money. Nowadays many comics are “written for trade”, and if the issue is simply a setup issue or nothing happens, it still gets rated based on my own personal entertainment value. Additionally I am fixated on that being the core of the system because it can justify the macro level averages and that’s how baseball and other sports work: it’s all about the matchups. I like to see trends and see who was really overrated or underrated, and this system allows that.

I am willing to concede that if a storyline is re-published in a TPB or book I could rate it as a whole, but it would be different from the current system I have set up.

In terms of how my existing system accounts for The Other:

First of all, if I am reading a run of Amazing Spider-Man and at the end of an issue I am told to buy Web of Spider-Man or Spider-Man Unlimited or whatever, and then I come back “next month” and am totally confused because there’s no recap, the chances are that I deducted a star right from jump street.

The reason why I do that is because I don’t think comics should be written like that.

But if we pretend that I totally could understand the plot and get into The Other just by reading Amazing, if it started well, I would give them good ratings. If the ending sucked, and things got out of hand, I’d give it a poor rating and chances are the title’s momentum totally fell off the cliff. If the writer/artist remained, chances are my ratings would show my lack of enthusiasm. If a new team came on, they have a chance to reboot/clean up/take to a new direction. We see that all the time in modern comics (for better or for worse): a new writer usually ignores stuff he doesn’t like.

As far as who gets hit with the poor rating for abandoning storylines, that rating would occur during whatever issue my “personal objective enjoyment” Spidey-sense goes off. I can’t go back in time and penalize a bad writer, I have to judge him as I see it in this system. So if you value continuity that much, you may have to penalize the current writer for ignoring it, even though it might be a good thing to ignore.

I do know that my system can never be validated or accepted by the so-called “comic book community” or baseball sabermetrics because they believe in group work and hate subjectivity. In the end, comic books are art, however different aged readers would have different opinions. Generation Y, who was raised on reading The Authority and Spawn, for example, would give low ratings to older comics (even some great 1980s comics). How do I know this? CBR’s Greatest Runs voting system is proof. Many old fans from the 1960s hate the modern stuff, and they too lose sight of quality.

Another factor is that even if I could get a nice sample of comic book readers from different cross sections of a population, it’s not like I can lend out my comics, and it’s hard for folks to buy all of Marvel’s Essentials or even invest time into it even if they could. So it’s just me and me alone. Ultimately it has to be that way since it’s my own personal enjoyment, as you’ve said.

Some Star Trek guy rated every episode and his words are considered an authority, so as long as my system can get spread to others it is a least something that could be cited as somewhat relevant to a discussion.

Anyway, not sure if I gave a satisfactory explanation or idea in all of these words, but just wanted to have a forum to explain the system to you and others who have e-mailed me about it.

If you want to do you own system to account for The Other, I’d recommend some of the things I mentioned like:

1) Analyzing all of the issues in a crossover event spanning multiple titles.

2) Retroactively penalizing writers after you’ve read the issues. It probably doesn’t make sense to generalize or make a steadfast rule about to penalize the incoming writer or the writer that sent the plot into motion: it would have to be case-by-case.

3) Analyze a TPB or collected edition on its own merits.

Look at all of that human rubble.

But I digress: this is the ultimate Batman, the Batman that all others emulate and take homage from (although Frank Miller says he was just taking Batman back to his Golden Age roots). I read this when it came out in 1987, and have re-read it in collected trade paperback form a dozen times in later years.

There’s a reason why the movie Batman Begins made so much money and reignited the Batman movie franchise: it’s pretty much a direct lift (sans Ra’s Al Ghul). Think I’m exaggerating? Read it, watch it, and compare. Please tell me Frank Miller was listed somewhere in the credits. Better yet, tell me he got cash.

Anyway, no review can give Batman: Year One justice- the writing is dark and gritty but NOT totally dated; it’s pretty much timeless. Comics like Batman: Year One truly showcase Batman as being the greatest of all superheroes, including Superman and Spider-Man. People could relate a boy snapping by watching his parents getting shot right in front of him. People could relate to a man who trains and studies to become stronger.

But Frank Miller takes Batman to the next level (while paying homage to Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson) by making Bruce Wayne very vulnerable as he learns how to become a crime fighter. Batman messes up on his first night out. Next time out, it takes all of his energy and skill to stop three punks on a fire escape. You imagine yourself being in his shoes, and you fear for him. Then you have the utmost respect for him because you realize you’d be dead if you tried this.

Year One is so mature and dark: the police are beyond corrupt, the mayor is corrupt, the criminals rule the streets, perverts are abound, and Batman speaks like Rorschach from Watchman.

This is Jim Gordon’s story just as much as Bruce Wayne’s, if not more. Gordon joins the force and realizes he is surrounded by bad cops. He hates his job. The long hours, stress, and pregnant wife lead to him kissing his partner. His marriage is on the rocks, and so is his life, and the commissioner is the ring leader of corruption. Gordon and Batman parallel each other, right from the first page to the last.

When I was a younger I didn’t really appreciate all of the crooked cops, politicians, pimps, and mobsters, because I liked Batman’s – ahem- colorful villains, but with each reading I saw that these people are more dangerous than costumed creeps.

One reason I haven’t mentioned the artwork by David Mazzucchelli yet is because it’s 10/10, A+, perfect: there’s nothing to analyze or debate about it. The backgrounds, panel layouts, and action scenes put other artists to shame. There’s nothing subjective about it: it is great at every level. It’s a shame he quit drawing superheroes for DC and Marvel.

Back in the day, Batman: Year One was controversial because it was a continuity reboot and  Catwoman is a prostitute who lives with an underage girl (with lightly implied lesbianism/bi-sexualism). Nowadays, that’s nothing in entertainment media.

Batman: Year One is required reading, so if you are one of the few comic book fans who never read it, you must do so right now. Batman: Year One

What is the historical importance of the Kree-Skrull War story arc?

• It started a space war theme in the Marvel Universe (40 years in real time!) that is still referenced today in almost every major title with additional elements added to it.
• The romance between the Scarlett Witch and The Vision started to blossom.
• It could be considered the first real Marvel crossover event (Marvel epic), or at the very least a forerunner of things to come in terms of a large cast of characters combating a major menace.
• Writer Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams teamed up for the first time.
• Some of the characters had such a good showing in this storyline, that they lived off it for years: Rick Jones, Captain Mar-Vell, The Supreme Intelligence, Ronan the Accuser, the Sentry robot, Carol Danvers (before she was Ms. Marvel), and the Mandroids, not to mention that the Skrulls and Kree were catapulted to being staples of Marvel’s interstellar affairs.

Why do some consider the Kree-Skrill Wart be overrated?

• Well, a child of the 1980s may consider Roy Thomas’ dialogue to be dated, although I do get tired of this argument (a kid born in the future would consider EVERYTHING in 2012 to be dated). A child of the 1990s and 2000s would not even give this a chance, and instead indulge in Secret Invasion.
• Although it feels fun and organic that this story arc wasn’t completely planned and plotted out (the genesis of it was that the Avengers were caught up in an interstellar war) to label The Avengers 89-97 “The Kree-Skrull War” is misleading. The actual “war” (which was prevented!) occurs in issues 96 and 97! Only issue 97 has a label that even mentions the war and its conclusion. This, perhaps, is the only real problem I had with the storyline- the name of it misled my expectations. It’s very important to understand that Thomas was creating individual issues, and at times was all over the place with plot and momentum. I’m sure if he had the opportunity to have a redo, he’d clean up the focus a bit, since these are regular Avengers issues, not structured as a maxi-series. For example, John Byrne was able to better keep things focused when he did Fantastic Four story arcs.
• Although John Buscema and Sal Buscema perform admirably with their classic Marvel styles, Neal Adams (the Todd McFarlane of his era) blows them away with his “modern” bombastic style, but only handles issues 93-96. I mean, seriously, even Page 1 on issue 93 seems like I stepped through a time machine, that’s how advanced Neal Adams’ style was compared to the reliable Marvel Bullpen. My jaw dropped.

Issue breakdown:

Avengers #89: Captain Mar-Vell is on the run and being hunted by the Avengers (Vision, Quicksilver, and Scarlet Witch) and it feels like I missed an issue. The shocker is that Rick Jones guns down Mar-Vell with a ray gun. Then he goes into a flashback and explains the whole set up. Gotcha!

This is necessary as Mar-Vell has inadvertently absorbed a lethal amount of radiation from spending weeks in the Negative Zone, and it will prove fatal unless treated. With the aid of a scientist, the Vision drains the excess radiation from Mar-Vell. A flashback sequence explains that the Avengers detect an alarm from the Baxter Building, the headquarters of the Fantastic Four. The Avengers arrive at the building and find Mar-Vell using the portal to the Negative Zone—created by Reed Richards—to try and free Rick Jones from their need to “share molecules” (alternating between the same space, one on Earth and one trapped in the Negative Zone until swapping). Mar-Vell is successful, although while the portal to the Zone is open the Avengers are forced to drive back the entity Annihilus, who attempts to escape the Zone. Mar-Vell takes advantage of the distraction to steal the Avengers quinjet, which is tracked once the Avengers realize that the Kree hero has absorbed a lethal amount of radiation. The flashback ends and the group are then attacked by a robot Sentry.- From Wikipedia

Avengers #90: Sentry defeats the Avengers (!) and steals Mar-Vell’s body. Rick Jones briefs us on the secret origin of the Kree: they had sent the Sentry to the Stone Age to check up of their genetically engineered humans (the Inhumans)! The Sentry is a sleeper agent and the FF fought him previously, along with Ronan the Accuser. He recounts how that’s why Mar-Vell was sent to earth in the first place- to help his Kree allies destroy the earth. But he fought the Super Skrull and turned good.

The Avengers respond to a call from fellow member Goliath, who advises that he is answering a distress call from Avenger Janet Pym, also known the Wasp. With husband and fellow member Henry Pym, the pair were en route via ship to a research base in the Arctic Circle, there to study the effect of oil exploration on the environment. The pair apparently found a lush island, and investigate as the Wasp and Yellowjacket. Yellowjacket guesses the truth and pushes the Wasp away before reaching the island. When he disappears, the Wasp in turn summons Goliath.

The Avengers arrive and are attacked once again by the Sentry, now aided by a hypnotized Goliath.

Avengers #91:

The Avengers defeat Goliath but cannot stop the Sentry, who captures all but Quicksilver. The culprit is revealed to be Ronan the Accuser, now a Kree outlaw. Ronan begins “Plan Atavus”, intending to devolve Earth to a prehistoric time to use as a base in the war against the Skrulls. Ronan shows the heroes how the research scientists at the base, and Henry Pym, have devolved into cavemen, who now lust after Janet Pym. Quicksilver arrives and attacks, and Ronan ends the battle when contacted and advised of an impending attack by the Skrulls on the Kree homeworld of Hala. Lacking purpose, the Sentry self-destructs. The Avengers and Mar-Vell recover and find that Pym and the other scientists, like the environment, revert back to normal.

I had the issue back when I was a kid and wondered why there were cavemen running around. Doesn’t fit the rest of the arc.

Avengers #92:

Mar-Vell’s existence is revealed when the scientists advise the authorities as to what they witnessed, and the “Alien Activities Commission” is formed, led by Senator H. Warren Craddock. The Avengers agree to participate in a hearing, but this is abandoned when the Avengers refuse to hand over Mar-Vell. The Avengers encourage Mar-Vell to go with Danvers to a private farm, and although pursued by Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D. escape. The Avengers deal with frustrated members of the public, who picket Avengers Mansion and then force their way in to vandalize the building.

Avengers Captain America; Iron Man and Thor apparently return to the Mansion and announce due to the behaviour of the team it is now disbanded forever.

This issue is significant for a few reasons: 1) Senator Craddock is an analogy for Senator McCarthy, and there is an actual hearing; 2) The Avengers refuse to turn in Mar-Vell because they understand that once you discriminate against aliens, all super-powered heroes would eventually be regulated (proven true years later with Civil War); 3) the general public turns against The Avengers, and there is a sign reading Avengers: Disassemble!; 4) Roy Thomas teases us that the powerhouse team of Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor are taking over; 5) Rick Jones longs for the “black and white” morality of the old days when he used to read comic books (Timely Comics). Although Cap and Sub-Mariner were “real” the other Golden Age Marvel characters were fictional.

Avengers #93: The famous Neal Adams issue has more pages, too. The Vision is knocked out. The bulk of this issue features Ant-Man inside of the Vision trying to restore him. I think Marv Wolfman and George Perez were paying homage to it in CRISIS when the Atom went inside the Red Tornado. Anyway, the artwork is just mind-blowing here. Roy Thomas does some weird stuff in this issue, though: it was confusing to see Iron Man, Thor, and Cap acting good since they were jerks at the end of 92. All gets revealed but it was distracting. Also, Thomas actually outdid his idol Stan Lee by penning the most melodramatic and over the top scene of all time when Ant-Man reveals how attached he is to ants.

NO WONDER HANK PYM WENT CRAZY

But Thomas redeems himself by bringing back the cows that were hypnotized by Mr. Fantastic at the end of FF#2! Yes, those same Skrull cows (cattle/bovine) whose plot hole was also used by John Byrne, Grant Morrison, and Michael Bendis. But Thomas used Lee and Kirby’s dangling plot first!

Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and the Vision decide to leave and check on Mar-Vell, but while there are attacked by what at first appear to be three cows. The cows fire energy beams that cripple the Vision, who while able to turn intangible cannot move. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch are captured when the cows turn into three members of the Fantastic Four, and then reveal they are in fact Skrulls, the ancient enemies of the Kree. At the same time Danvers has led Mar-Vell to a Skrull vessel she claims to have found, and persuades Mar-Vell to build an “Omni-Wave Projector”, a communications device that in the hands of non-Kree is a deadly weapon. Mar-Vell, however, sees through the deception [Editor's note: Carol was The Super-Skrull!] and destroys the device, but is captured and along with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch is taken off Earth. Although injured, the Vision is able to return to Avengers Mansion, where founding members Captain America; Iron Man; Thor and Henry Pym (now in his original identity of Ant-Man) have gathered. Ant-Man reduces himself to microscopic size and enters the Vision, and is able to repair the android. Ant-Man departs and on questioning the recovering Vision the Avengers determine it was the Skrulls – previously disguised as cows – that dissolved the team.

FF#2: Uhm...were there three Skrulls or four, Reed?

Avengers 94:

The four Avengers find and capture the Skrulls for interrogation, and determine that the aliens are in fact three of the four members of the original exploration team that once visited Earth and battled the Fantastic Four. The Avengers are then attacked by a team of threen Mandroids, sent by Senator Craddock to apprehend the heroes for failing to cooperate. Iron Man – secretly Tony Stark – designed the Mandroids and overloads their armour with an electrical discharge.

Funny note: When the Avengers contact the FF via viewscreen, Reed Richards is SHOCKED that the cattle Skrulls survived, and says he has to check his records from that time period and will get back to them. He never does..lol.

Although the art in this issue is once again phenomenal, and there’s lots of action, the story is kinda hard to follow since it’s all over the place. It’s also a very important issue because it seems the Super Skrull is exile and the Skrull Emperor sees him as a rival. They don’t trust the Super Skrull and he has to fight his own people until he presents the Emperor with his captives. It is agreed that Mar-Vell will work on the Omni-Wave or his friends will die.

Avengers 95:

At the same time Triton of the Inhumans arrives, and unable to locate the Fantastic Four, asks the Avengers for aid in locating their ruler Black Bolt, needed as his brother Maximus has seized power in their homeland Attilan. The Avengers aid Triton, and after locating Black Bolt accompany the Inhumans to Attilan. Maximus is revealed to have entered into an alliance with the Kree, and in exchange for rulership uses Kree technology to control the population, intending to use them as soldiers against the Skrulls. The Avengers defeat Maximus and his minions, and after restoring Black Bolt to power leave (with Goliath) for Skrull space, intent on rescuing their comrades.

By the way, for the first time the inside of the comic says “Part VII”, which links back to Avengers 89.

More proof that this story arc was in fact a crossover event, this issue wrapped up the Inhumans storyline that was happening in Amazing Adventures. I’ll be honest with you, I have always found The Inhumans boring, and this is no exception. They are used all the time because Jack Kirby created them, sorta like The New Gods.

Note: Nick Fury takes the Avengers side over the corrupt Senator.

Avengers 96:

Mar-Vell is taken to the heart of the Skrull empire and after being advised that the captive Avengers will be executed, is forced to build another Projector. The Avengers arrive in Skrull space, and hold off the alien fleet while Mar-Vell is forced to use the Projector, which casts a temporarily freed Rick Jones back into the Negative Zone.

This is actually the first time The Avengers go to war with the Skrulls. They head straight into the Andromeda Galaxy. Truly epic. Rick Jones’ role is huge, as Ronan the Accuser holds him captive but Rick actually fights back. The Supreme Intelligence seems to be a good guy (since Ronan seized his power) and he helps Rick.

Avengers 97: “Godhood’s End”

Jones is rescued from the Zone by Kree leader the Supreme Intelligence, who shows him Senator Craddock on Earth being discredited and killed by a mob, with Craddock in death reverting back to his true form: the fourth Skrull from the Earth expedition. The Supreme Intelligence unlocks hidden mental powers in Jones, who sends a wave of Golden Age heroes with the Avengers against the Skrulls, ending the war. The heroes return to Earth to discover that the real Senator Craddock has been found, and the Avengers’ reputation has been restored.

The characters that Rick Jones summons are Golden Age Captain America, Golden Age  Sub-Mariner, Golden Age  Human Torch, Golden Age Vision, Golden Age Angel, Golden Age Patriot, The Fin, and the Blazing Skull.

The “fourth Skrull” is a great touch to Fantastic Four #2, as only three of them are shown at the end of FF2 (probably an oversight by Kirby).

Mar-Vell and Rick once again become joined together voluntarily, but differently this time. (They both had hated to share time together.) Rick was the true hero of this story.

The Skrulls and Kree actually fight each other from their respective galaxies, so “war” is being used loosely.

Kurt Busiek’s Avengers Forever was heavily influenced by this saga.

The Supreme Intelligence never turned bad in this story.

***

Michael Bendis’s later retcons: One reason why Bendis is hated by older fans is because he added the following concepts to the Kree-Skrull War: the Illuminati ended the war behind the scenes, Infinity Gems, and the Beyonder was always an Inhuman. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

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So many people have different definitions of what makes a Marvel crossover event. Let me tell you mine:

It’s a storyarc that involves multiple characters that do not ordinarily team up with each other to combat a serious threat.

In the 2010s Marvel crossover events have a main limited series, sub mini-series, one-shots, and crossovers into all, or most of, their main titles. It is not fair to hold that standard to Marvel events of the past.

Before Contest of Champions (which was billed as the first Marvel limited-series event that contained several heroes), Marvel had some very important ongoing storylines that had a long duration, but were not brazenly labeled as “major events”.

The Kree-Skrull War (Roy Thomas) was told in The Avengers 89-97, and Amazing Adventures (Inhumans) crossed over with it.. When I was a kid reading comic books, the Kree-Skrull War was constantly referenced as a special event in Marvel history, and to this day (Hickman’s FF).

Just because the cover of The Avengers didn’t say “KREE-SKRULL WAR PART 1″ this should not disqualify it as being considered a major crossover event. In addition to the 1971/1972  roster of the Avengers, former Avengers appeared, as did Captain Marvel, Rick Jones, Annihilus, the Inhumans, and others.

Another forerunner of the obvious 1980s Marvel events was the Thanos War, which was heavily referenced in the Infinity Gauntlet all the way to the present. The First Thanos War ran in Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Avengers, Marvel Feature, and Iron Man in 1973-74. The Second Thanos War was told in Strange Tales, Warlock, Avenger Annual, and Marvel Two-in-One. It technically ends in The Death of Captain Marvel. We get caught up in labels. Yes, before Thanos Quest there were actually two Thanos Wars that used the same characters and plots throughout Thanos’ reign of terror (and he usually turns good) that effects every cosmic event in the Marvel Universe. Jim Starlin created Marvel cosmic and is an underrated comic book genius.

The Korvac Saga ran all year in 1978 in The Avengers. The Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers attempt to stop the most powerful menace the Marvel Universe has even seen up until that point. Korvac gets the Power Cosmic and pretty much becomes a God, like The Beyonder later does in Secret Wars II. Heavily referenced, it also spawned one of the most tragic What If? comics of all time “What if the Avengers had become pawns of Korvac?” Any invincible cosmic villain in Marvel is a homage to Korvac.

Other  storylines could qualify as Marvel events, but they have a few things going against them: duration and relevance.  I know “relevance” is subjective, I mean was 1994′s “Starblast” an “event” just because Marvel labeled it as one? I would have to say “yes”. Although Starblast was an unsuccessful and boring crossover event Marvel gave it its own limited series and it crossed over into a bunch of titles.

Gerry Conways’s  Mister Kline storyline involved Iron Man and Daredevil  (DD 78-84, IM 41-45, Sub-Mariner 42, 1971). This was an early attempt to bring continuity to series, but the “Who is Mr. Kline?” angle sucked and is a footnote in history with no ramifications.

Steve Englehart had three story arcs that may be considered crossover events: Avengers-Defenders War, Celestial Madonna; and Secret Empire (Captain America, X-Men, Beast in Amazing Adventures), Avengers (154-156) and Super-Villain Team-Up 8-10. The Celestial Madonna storyline was very hyped and referenced a bunch in the 1980s, but lasting just three months is a strike against it. The Avengers and Defenders fought Loki and Dormammu in both of their series, but it only lasted four months.

The Villains War in Iron Man involved many villains  and lasted more than one year (IM 69-81, 1974-75), but it’s a stretch to call it a crossover because it didn’t spill over into other books and other heroes didn’t team up with Iron Man in every issue.

There was the Conspiration storyline (mostly in Captain America and Hulk from 1977 to 1979 and Machine Man) but it was so minor that it’s not worthy or memorable.

There was a sub-plot crossing over titles involving three mysterious figures from 1974 to 1979, one of them was revealed to be Tyrannus in Incredible Hulk.  (MTU 15,19,20,26,28; Uncanny X-Men 119, Hulk 209, 238-243). The problem with this is that it was not major and had no conclusion.

I’ll be reviewing Kree-Skrull War, Korvac Saga, and Thanos War I and II in the future; the others don’t really qualify.

By the way, just wanted to say that these 1970s events were more innovative, natural, fun, and organic when compared to the structured and forced crossovers of the modern era. I doubt the editors or writers knew how long the arcs would last or what the conclusions would be. They just wanted to tell great stories, and although at the end of the day, the writers wanted to make money for their main title, Marvel did not overtly manipulate the stories to cash in on the rubes. Manipulating creativity degrades into crass commercialism, and the story gets diluted. Peter David said so.

The Latest Thanos Saga

Ultimately the goal of the comic was to take a snapshot of the conditions of the time period which led to his improbable rise to power. Does it break any new ground compared to IDW’s Obama comic book? Not really- it was just as balanced and neutral, although a right winger who is a Rushbot would never paint Obama in any good light.

From Trade paperback

The irony is that the reason the people (who voted) elected Obama is because he gave great speeches and spoke for minorities, during a time period where it was seen that President Bush didn’t do enough for blacks during Hurricane Katrina, and there was war weariness.

So the writer Chris Ward kinda got caught up in the furor of hope and change when he went to a political rally and voted for Obama against Clinton and McCain. He loved the fact that Obama seemed like an everyman posterchild for Generation X (although it’s weird for a 47-year old man to be seen as speaking for a new generation- welcome to politics where being 50 is young.) We usually get old rich and distant white guys to vote for, so I guess anything different is cool.

Chris Ward also tackles Obama’s identity issues when he was growing up. I do empathize with Obama for dealing with an unstable family, traveling, being exposed to different religions and socioeconomic classes, college drugs, and civil injustice, but when you compare it to John McCain being a POW in Vietnam…well, it just doesn’t compare- sorry, Generation X and Generation Y; your journeys of identity are in your mind.

It is amazing how Obama wasn’t on track for anything yet he didn’t give up and was able to get motivated to change his life for the better. Many Enneagram Type 9s never do that. The ones that do take many years to accomplish something, as did Obama.

Overall a good snapshot of why he was elected, and a good collector’s item for your comic book collection or Obama memorabilia collection. With Obama not having any grasp on how to fix an economy, not doing a thing to help black Americans or the impoverished, and with a schizophrenic foreign policy, it should be interesting if people will get caught up in his great speeches again in 2012, especially if he goes up against a white corporate tool, like Newt Gingrich, or a rich stuffed shirt like Mitt Romney.

Anyway, great artwork in this Political Power comic and a solid comic for school kids.