Now for some stuff that I got at Comic-Con for 50% off:
To be honest, there was a lot that fell under the title of this review. Some of it I still might get to at some point. For now, I’ve just got a random grab-bag of series I’ve been reading (Thor: God of Thunder vol. 4, Loki: Agent of Asgard vol. 2, Captain America vol. 5) something I decided to pick up on a whim (X-O Manowar vol. 1) and another featuring the work of a creator before she became really famous (Cairo). For anyone keeping track at home — two of the Marvel comics mentioned here were found in hardcover format. Anyways…
Jason Aaron and Esad Ribic really hit it out of the park with their initial arc on “Thor: God of Thunder.” The saga of “The God Butcher” was every bit as epic a Thor story as you could hope for, and that really set the bar high for his subsequent arcs. “The Accursed” suffered for that as well as having its own issues, and the same fate befalls this latest volume, “The Last Days of Midgard.” This isn’t a bad story, but it is hamstrung by the fact that it feels like Aaron is shuffling things around for his next epic “Thor” story. That one will likely involve the new villain introduced in this one, Roxxon CEO Dario Agger a.k.a. “The Minotaur.” (No points for guessing if that name has any kind of literal meaning here.) As CEO of the chief Evil Corporation of the Marvel Universe, Agger is out to make billions at the expense of the environment while making all look above-board and within the letter of the law. Naturally, this does not sit well with Thor and his (girl)friend Roz Solomon, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agger turns out to be a great, smarmy villain who takes a page from Lex Luthor and uses the law as a shield to prevent Thor from simply taking him out. Granted, once he transforms all bets are off. Most of the story is concerned with the back-and-forth between the two, with things culminating in a virtual loss for the God of Thunder and a partial dismantling of his status quo on Earth. It all reads like buildup for another story featuring Agger down the line, but at least the parallel story of Old Thor vs. Galactus is more compelling. The older version of the character is just as hardened, bitter, and stubborn as you remember from “The God Butcher,” and he brings all that to bear on Galactus when the Devourer of Worlds shows up to consume the old husk that Earth has now become. Even with the aid of his granddaughters, the fight is as brutal as they come and leads Old Thor to perform a final desperate act at the end to stave off the destruction of the world he so loved. This also reads like there will be consequences down the line in Aaron’s run, yet it manages a more satisfying sense of accomplishment than the story being told in the present day.
With this second volume, it becomes clear that I’ve made a mistake in not reading “Loki: Agent of Asgard” as it comes out. Writer Al Ewing continues to excellently build on what Kieron Gillen did with the character previously as Loki matches wits with Doctor Doom, becomes a hero worthy of Mjolnir in the “Axis” tie-in issues, and then has to deal with the consequences of his actions as Thor and the rest of Asgardia find out who’s really in this body. Even though he’s dealing with a crossover for most of the issues collected in this volume, Ewing uses the events of “Axis” to further advance his story in a near-seamless fashion. He also delivers plenty of cutting dialogue along with some killer twists that will really make you feel for his protagonist. Things do end on a cliffhanger of sorts, yet I don’t mind that at all. It’s the kind of cliffhanger that leaves you anxious and eager to find out what’s going to happen next in the forthcoming final volume.
“Captain America: The Tomorrow” soldier harkens back to the most successful story in writer Rick Remender’s run, “Castaway in Dimension Z,” to lesser effect. Arnim Zola is back after decades have passed in his own dimension with an army of mutates to attack Washington DC. With Steve Rogers now just an ordinary senior citizen, it falls to the rest of the Avengers to fend off the attack. Except that Zola and his army aren’t the only things to have come through the portal, old friends and family of Steve’s have shown up as well. One will help turn the tide and the other will twist the knife once things are over and done with.
For most of this volume, Remender and artist Carlos Pacheco tell an effective if condensed action story with high drama and epic stakes. While it does build on what the writer set up earlier in his run it lacks the same emotional stakes. That’s mainly due to the fact that the big twist involving one character’s return and how it ties into the fate of villain-turned-hero Jet Black grates due to its predictability. The actions of this returning character serve to invoke discord in a way so obvious that it feels like the mystery traitor introduced at the end of the volume can’t be anyone but her. It’s annoying and has the pyrrhic victory achieved by the heroes feeling deeply unsatisfying. At least Remender sends things out on a better note with the wisecracking humor between Avengers livening up Sam Wilson’s coronation as the new Captain America.
I never got into Valiant Comics during their heyday in the 90’s, but this recent revival of their characters has been going strong for the past few years now. The charge was led with the return of “X-O Manowar” by writer Robert Venditti and artist Cary Nord. Knowing that, I decided to pick this volume up when I found it while rifling through the half-off bins. My verdict is that while it’s not a bad read, there’s really nothing to set it apart from the other sci-fi based superhero titles I read.
Yes, that probably sounds weird when describing the story of Aric of Dacia, a Visigoth from the 4th Century who is captured by aliens, forced to work on their plantations for years, finds himself worthy of their sacred battlesuit, and winds up returning home over 1600 years later. The execution of this story by Venditti and Nord is solid enough, yet there’s no real surprises here and Aric himself makes for a pretty bland protagonist even with the whole “Barbarian Out of Time” setup. Not helping matters is that it takes the entire volume to get to this point, so things feel pretty slow as a result. I can’t say I’m against getting another volume of this title or other Valiant books, but that’ll have to wait until I can find them for an equally deep discount.
What do a hashish smuggler, a member of the Israeli military’s special forces, a crusading reporter, an American expatriate, a djinn, and a would-be suicide bomber have in common? They’re all characters in the graphic novel “Cairo” by writer G. Willow Wilson and artist M.K. Perker. After reading and liking the first two volumes of “Ms. Marvel,” I figured I’d give this a shot when I found it on sale. Though this was her first work in comics, it doesn’t read like you’d expect. There’s no awkwardness to the execution, everything feels like the work of an assured professional. Which is all the more surprising since the story is basically an allegory for peace and understanding between people of different religious and ethnic backgrounds.
What I mean by that is that things could’ve become unbearably preachy in short order here. Yet there’s a lightness of tone stemming from the fact that this is also a story about a stolen hookah and the different forces who want it for their own reasons. Above all else, “Cairo” is an adventure story with a likeably diverse cast and one that is frequently funny and surprising as well. Wilson crafts a satisfying arc for each of her characters and Perker gives us a memorable depiction of the city as it straddles the old and new worlds as well as the real and fantastic. I could’ve done without the romantic subplot, which feels shoehorned into the narrative more than anything else, but that was my only real issue with this satisfying graphic novel.