Marvel Penguin Picks: October 2024
Above-the-Board Recommendation:
Star Wars by Charles Soule vol. 9: The Path of Light
There are times when you’re reading Soule’s work and you’re left with the feeling that it’s a little by-the-numbers. That he’s put in the thought needed to make a serviceable story, but it’s lacking the cleverness or emotional connection to really succeed. Then there are the times when he delivers all of that and you find yourself fully invested with what he’s selling. Both sides of the writer were on full display in the course of his run on the main “Star Wars” title, which was marketed as charting the time between “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi.” A period for which a key member of the mythos couldn’t be used because he was… indisposed during this time.
Some people might’ve looked at that as a problem. Soule, to his credit, saw an opportunity here and used it to spotlight another character and give him an epic story of his own. So while we did find out what the Alliance was up to during the period in question, this run was really about Lando Calrissian and his attempts to fit in while doing some very questionable things to save his buddy Lobot. I’m still waiting to see how “The Trial of Lando Calrissian” plays out in vol. 8 and concludes here. Which means that even if Soule’s work on this series wasn’t always firing on all cylinders, it was still doing more right than wrong to keep me invested in it up to its end.
Storm #1: Not the first time the character has been graced with an ongoing series, but we’ll see if this one can last longer than a year. Working in its favor is the character’s increased prominence in the Marvel Universe as she’s not just an X-Man at the moment, she’s also an Avenger and she plans to leverage her newfound fame to be a worldwide force for good. Right after she’s stopped this meltdown at a nuclear facility in Oklahoma City. Murewa Ayodele writes and Lucas Werneck draws.
Iron Man #1: Tony Stark goes to war! It’s cool, though. The war is against a team-up between Roxxon and A.I.M. who have apparently fired the first shot. Unfortunately for them, Stark is a lot angrier these days and he’s been looking for a way to take out all this aggression. What better targets than Marvel’s pre-eminent evil corporation and evil science organization. Journalist and “Waller vs. Wildstorm” writer Spencer Ackerman is chronicling this war while former “Iron Man” guest artist Julius Ohta gets the job full-time.
Venom War: Fantastic Four #1 (of 3): Another month, another round of “Venom War” tie-ins and… well now, THIS is interesting. We’ve got a three-issue “Fantastic Four” tie-in written by “Empowered’s” Adam Warren. This isn’t the first time he’s worked with the company, but outside of last year’s “Venom: The End” it’s been over a decade after the underappreciated “Livewires” and “Iron Man: Hypervelocity.” So maybe this is the start of the man getting more work at the company? I’d be all for it as he’s got to do something while vol. 12 of “Empowered” waits to get published at Dark Horse. As for the story of this tie-in, Doctor Doom and Kang make their entrance into the war, and you know what that means: Sorcery and Time Travel. Which should give Warren all the license he needs to go as nuts as he wants. Joey Vasquez illustrates this mini and I hope he can keep up.
Blade (Red Band) #1 (of 5): As I understand it, Blade’s character is going to need some rehabilitation in the wake of the “Blood Hunt” event. Writer Bryan Hill and artist C.F. Villa have either drawn the short straw in doing it, or maybe they’ve got a great plan to get it done. Best of luck to them in that regard. They’ll have the novelty of this series being published in a polybagged “Red Band” edition to account for all of the graphic violence the Daywalker’s redemptive journey is going to entail.
Mystique #1 (of 5): “The Wedding Special” implied that Mystique and her wife Destiny were going to enjoy a life of crime for a while now that they were finally back together. The solicitation text for the first issue of this new miniseries from writer/artist Declan Shalvey… makes no mention of Destiny. Instead, it implies we might be seeing this story from the eyes of Nick Fury as he winds up on the mutant’s trail after her latest escapade. Kieron Gillen (and to a lesser extent, Simon Spurrier) made the title character suffer a lot during their time on the X-titles and managed to make this generally unsympathetic character worthy of (a little of) my sympathy for their efforts. Shalvey looks to have Mystique reverting to type here, and, well… I’m sure this will look nice as it’s also being illustrated by him.
Sentinels #1 (of 5): Wherein the mutant-hunting technology is now in the hands of mutants, and they’re using it to protect the fragile peace that currently exists between species. Which is a novel approach for this series and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the new cutting-edge-nanotech approach for them. Even if it looks like the reason for that is to have humanoid-looking (and sized) Sentinels instead of the classic giant robotic ones for protagonists. No idea what they’re going to be like, but writer Alex Paknadel will likely find some way to engender drama between them. Justin Mason illustrates.
Amazing Spider-Man #60: Zeb Wells caps off his run with a nice round number and an oversized issue to boot. While I’ve still been following his run on Marvel Unlimited, I can’t say it’s been as fun as the initial issues were. Mainly because more drama has crept in to upset the balance between it and comedy that this series needs in order to thrive. Also, it looks like Norman Osborne is finally reverting to type after all these years and, well… I really liked his repentant “Gold Goblin” phase and it’ll be missed. Still, I’ll keep reading this to the end because it’s “free” and, who knows, maybe we’ll even get a podcast out of the whole thing when it’s done.
Star Wars: Ewoks #1 (of 4): We’re now moving into the post-”Return of the Jedi” era of “Star Wars” storytelling at Marvel and what better signifier for this new era than a miniseries about the furry creatures a lot of fans blame for ruining that movie. They’re wrong, though, and writer Steve Orlando, along with artists Alvaro Lopez and Laura Braga, have come up with a fun-sounding miniseries to show why you don’t mess with the inhabitants of Endor’s forest moon. A team of Imperial remnants and bounty hunters have arrived on the moon looking for a cache of hidden weapons, and they’re about to find out why and how the Ewoks helped turn the tide in the battle there.
Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #’s 1-3 (of 4): I will admit to being more interested in this new series which is going to be doing a deep dive into the last battle of the war between the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Don’t let that “of four” part fool you, this is going to be a twelve-issue maxiseries that has apparently been split up into four parts so they can sell it as three separate volumes. Annoying, to be sure, but it looks like each of these issues are going to be 40 pages in length, so it could be worse. Alex Segura writes, and Leonard Kirk and Stefano Raffaele illustrate this leg of the story as a new leader assumes control of the Empire to lead a desperate counteroffensive against the might of the Alliance. We all know how it’s going to turn out for him… but I’d bet that things will go shockingly well in his favor during this first part.
Immortal Thor vol. 3: The End of All Songs: No, I haven’t gotten around to reading the first volume of this series, but vol. 3 continues a promising trend. That would be of the declining prices for each volume as this one will only set you back $18 for five issues of comics. Which sound promising as Odin’s children team up to go looking for his missing child, Hercules and Thor team up to take on Zeus, while Thor and the Enchantress have a chat.
Star Wars: Darth Vader – Black, White & Red: Vader gets the three-color anthology treatment, and it shouldn’t surprise that a lot of creators were attracted to the idea of doing shorts in this format about the most famous Sith Lord. Chief among these is Jason Aaron, making his return to “Star Wars” with artist Leonard Kirk. Daniel Warren Johnson is also on hand to hopefully show us that he can treat the character with the same level of excitement he brings to “Transformers.” Also on hand: Peach Momoko, Marc Bernardin, Klaus Janson, Alessandro Vitti, and MORE!
Doctor Doom by Cantwell & Larroca: The ten-issue series from the creators is collected in one volume along with some intriguing odds-and-ends. If you didn’t read the “Doom” series from writer Christopher Cantwell and artist Salvador Larroca, then this collection is worth picking up just for that. Not only do they work well together, but they also do an excellent job in getting into the character’s head with a storyline that will leave you with a deeper understanding of him by the time it’s over. Also collected is the supremely goofy “King in Black: Iron Man/Doctor Doom” tie-in where the two team up to take on a Knullified Santa Claus, as well as a “War of the Realms” tie-in that escaped my notice.