Review: Uncanny X-Men #510

What movie is this from? It looks familiar, but I can't quite place it. Anyway, it's been filtered through the pencil magic of Greg Land for this week's "Uncanny X-Men" #510 which is a pretty kickass issue about the Red Queen's assault on the X-HQ.

Flipping back and forth between this week's "Uncanny" and the Jim Lee stuff reprinted in "X-Men Forever Alpha" shows the shocking difference between the more open, airy visuals of today vs. the overly packed panels of the early 1990s. Man is that Jim Lee X-Men stuff hideous! Say what you will about Greg Land -- and I'll be the first to admit that he's just doing collage at this point -- but it's a hell of a lot easier on the eyes than a billion random shading lines and those pouches and rippling muscles.

Plus, this comic has the Matt Fraction advantage. Read my review: Uncanny X-Men #510

And, just for kicks, here's a sample of that atrocious Jim Lee stuff that turned me off his work back then and is supposed to make us interested in picking up this new Claremont-penned series:


No thanks. (And is that really even Jim Lee? It looks like it was drawn by assistants.)

Invincible Iron Man #11 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Invincible Iron Man #11, about which I write the following sentences: "Even though the characters don't visually match the previous issues with much fidelity, Larroca's work here actually looks better than it has on any 'Invincible Iron Man' issue so far. By abandoning the heavy photo reference (or making his use of it less obvious), his work becomes more dynamic, more fluid. This issue cuts between the past and present, and also between War Machine vs. Iron Man action and Maria Hill investigative mysteries. Frank D'Armata uses a different approach to coloring this comic than he does on 'Captain America,' and it looks good here. The sepia-toned flashbacks are well distinguished from the present-day action, and when Larroca gives us men and women in sleek suits of armor (for even Pepper Potts has her own super-suit now), D'Armata's coloring gives a glossy sheen that looks great. Larroca and D'Armata really are at their best with the mechanical aspects of this series, and this issues shows off their talents well. But this is a series about the men and women in those armored costumes, and that's where Matt Fraction comes in."

Read the entire review HERE.

Uncanny X-Men Annual #2 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Uncanny X-Men Annual #2, about which I write the following sentences: "Fraction uses all of that history to great effect here. This is Emma Frost, unleashed, but with a depth of character that we rarely see in her. And even though this comic is ostensibly a 'Dark Reign,' tie-in, it's more about how she handles the new status quo than the status quo itself. It's about her strangely affecting relationship with Namor, and her history with Sebastian Shaw. It's about who Emma Frost is now, and who she was as a member of the Hellfire Club. And it's surprising and alive and full of robot attacks and bedroom intrigue. It's very good."

Read the entire review HERE.

Fraction at Comics Reporter

Tom Spurgeon gives us yet another excellent interview today, this time with Matt Fraction.

Some highlights:

Fraction on Morrison's Batman:

Have you read Grant Morrison's Batman run? It's a pretty spectacular example of this -- using Batman as frame of reference for Batman. The gag is that everything that's happened in the Batman comic actually happened to Batman, right? And what would that do to a human mind? From the bleak noir stuff to the bam-sock-pow stuff and everything in between. He's using the whole history of the character to comment on the character as the character endures it. And to comment on the comics mainstream, and on heroes, and all that great stuff. I mean, the first fight scene takes place in an art gallery during a Pop Art retrospective where these faux-Lichtenstein paintings of comics are commenting on the comic we're reading as we're reading it, for god's sake. And as the run went on, Morrison really used the entirety of the character's history as a frame of reference and context to comment on the character. Batman-as-Batman-
as-Pop-Culture-in-toto. It's a mess, and a glorious one at that, and his reach might have exceeded his grasp for a couple reasons not exactly germane to this discussion, but it's been a pretty amazing piece, all the same. It's the Cremaster of superhero comics.

Fraction on Iron Man being "damaged goods" before he launched Invincible Iron Man:

I don't think any character is "damaged goods." I reject the premise. Creators can be damaged goods, sure. But characters? No character is damaged goods in the hands of a writer with vision. It's fiction. You can do anything. Some people on the internet didn't like the way the character behaved in a story. That's not "damaged goods."

Fraction on Larocca's tendency to photoreference with celebrity images:

I can't stand that stuff, personally -- yanks me out of the story immediately. Not photo referencing, that's not what bugs me, but using celebrities just... it's as intrusive as someone standing over your shoulder reading the word balloons with funny voices. Bums me out.

Fraction on Casanova's return:

It's a safe bet we could sell at least as many copies at regular length, in color, for a buck and a half more, and actually not just break even but Ba and/or Moon could make something approaching a wage. Maybe it's the format; maybe the book's just never going to find an audience. I'm not ready to concede the second point so I'm focusing on the first.

Good stuff. Read the whole interview HERE.

When Words Collide: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

Good news for WWC fans: Jonah Weiland, head honcho of Comic Book Resources, has given me the go-ahead to continue with my weekly column. You probably didn't realize this, but I was on kind of a three-month trial, and if readers weren't flocking to my once-a-week babble sessions, "When Words Collide" would have gotten yanked from the regular rotation.

But traffic has been very good and everyone is pleased and that means I get to keep writing, and you get to keep reading.

So, I thank you, regular readers! You are as awesome as everyone says you are.

This week's WWC is all about those embarrassing teenage comic book ideas we tend to have. The ones that seem like brilliant ideas for comics when we're 15, but, in retrospect, seem pretty terrible.

I even got heavyweights like Marv Wolfman, Matt Fraction, and Jason Aaron to weigh in on the topic, along with members of the Draper-Carlson clan.

Check it out: "It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time," in this week's "When Words Collide."

Uncanny X-Men #503 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Uncanny X-Men #503, about which I write the following sentences: "Yet it's certainly not the art that makes this issue worth reading, no. It's the clarity of the characterizations and the swift pace that make this story work. Fraction gives us a nice scene with Cannoball, Karma, and Mirage at a San Francisco bar which serves two purposes: it reminds us how stupid Sam Guthrie can be at times, and how much these young men and women have been through as New Mutants. After that, the whole issue basically alternates between an exploration of the Hellfire Cult's sub-basement and the chase scene with Empath. What Fraction does particularly well is to hinge the story on the character of Pixie. Pixie, a Kitty Pryde-type who offers a fresh perspective on complex X-insanity, becomes the unlikely hero here, coming to the rescue on her Vespa scooter. If this brief story arc has been about anything beyond setting up future stories, it's been about introducing the reader to Pixie and showing why she's such an important part of the team. She's a Joss Whedon dream character, a sweetheart who can kick some ass. And she's a great addition to 'Uncanny X-Men.'"

Read the entire review HERE.

Invincible Iron Man #6 Hits THE SPLASH PAGE

I reviewed "Invincible Iron Man" #6 yesterday, but Chad Nevett and I wanted to take a closer look at the issue, mostly because Chad kind of hated it, and I kind of didn't. Chad doesn't like a lot of superhero comics these days, and in our discussion we try to get to the bottom of that general sense of disappointment.

Is Chad wrong? Or are so many superhero comics really that lame?

Really, it's not even about "Invincible Iron Man" #6, except it TOTALLY IS.

Read what we have to say in this week's installment of the play-at-home version of the internet's largest and most comprehensive resource for passive aggressive chit-chat: The Splash Page.

Click HERE, if you prefer.

Invincible Iron Man #6 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Invincible Iron Man #6, about which I write the following sentences: "'Invincible Iron Man' #6 isn't perfect, and it's not Matt Fraction's best work, by any means -- that would be 'Casanova,' which, as one of the best comics of the decade, would be hard to top -- but this is a good, solid superhero story. It works particularly well as the culmination of the first half-year of plot developments. On its own 'Invincible Iron Man' #6 is an extended fight scene, but as the climax of the Ezekiel Stane/Tony Stark conflict, it's a successful piece of storytelling. The fight scene does have its nice moments, like the cliffhanger from last issue where Iron Man's head is blown off, carried over here into an assault by a battalion of remote-controlled Iron Men. What would an Iron Man comic be without a multitude of different armor designs? Not as cool. Not by a longshot."

Read the entire review HERE.

Punisher War Journal #24 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Punisher War Journal #24 about which I write the following sentences: "Here's a strange beast: a 'Secret Invasion' crossover that has neither the word 'secret' nor the word 'invasion' anywhere on the cover. Instead, we get Alex Maleev's haunting image of Frank Castle behind bars and not even the slightest indication that a Skrull might rear its freakishly green head. Yet, this issue is absolutely full of Skrulls, and as much as I'm ready to take a break from the shape-shifting aliens after reading about them in every Marvel comic since the Spring, 'Punisher War Journal' #24 teaches an important life lesson: Skrulls are okay, folks. Especially when they're in the line of fire and Frank Castle is holding the arsenal."

Read the entire review HERE.

Secret Invasion: Thor #2 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Secret Invasion: Thor #2, about which I write the following sentences: "I thought 'Secret Invasion: Thor' #1 was a decent start, but this second issue takes what Matt Fraction and Doug Braithwaite established in the first chapter and accelerates the pace. Fraction cross-cuts between Donald Blake's delivery of a child with the raging Skrull battle in Asgard. It's an effective technique, because not only does it contrast the vulnerable and the human with the nearly inconceivable war of the gods, but it also provides dramatic tension as Blake longs to join his brethren at arms but knows that bringing a single human life into the world is his more immediate concern."

Read the entire review HERE.

Teenagers from the Future Now Available!

Initially released in a small preview print run for the NYCC, Teenagers from the Future: Essays on the Legion of Super-Heroes is now availableworldwide!

Edited by me, and featuring a foreword my Matt Fraction and an afterword by Barry Lyga, the collection of essays covers the following topics:

"The Perfect Storm: The Death and Resurrection of Lightning Lad," by Richard Bensam

"Liberating the Future: Women in the Early Legion," by John G. Hemry

"The Silver Age Legion: Adventure into the Classics," by Christopher Barbee

"The (Often Arbitrary) Rules of the Legion," by Chris Sims

"Shooter's Marvelesque," by Jeff Barbanell

"The Legion's Super-Science," by James Kakalios

"Bridging the Past and the Present with the Future: The Early Legion and the JLA," by Scipio Garling

"Decades Ahead of Us to Get it Right: Architecture and Utopia," by Sara K. Ellis

"Those Legionnaires Should Just Grow Up!" by Greg Gildersleeve

"Thomas, Altman, Levitz and the 30th Century," by Timothy Callahan

"The Amethyst Connection," by Lanny Rose

"Revisionism, Radical Experimentation, and Dystopia in Giffen's Legion," by Julian Darius

"Pulling Back the Curtain: Gender Identity and Homosexuality in the Legion," by Alan Williams

"Diversity and Evolution in the Reboot Legion," by Matthew Elmslie

"Fashion from the Future, or 'I Swear, Computo Forced Me to Wear This!" by Martin A. Perez

"Generational Theory and the Waid Threeboot," by Matthew Elmslie

"A Universe in Adolescence," by Paul Lytle

"The Racial Politics of the Legion of Super-Heroes," by Jae Bryson

Buy your copy NOW at Amazon.com -- check it out HERE.

Or, if you want to order it through your local comic shop, it should be listed in next month's Diamond Previews. More details to follow.

(But, seriously, you can just order it online right now, so why wait???)

Invincible Iron Man #4 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Invincible Iron Man #4, about which I write the following sentences: "The real draw here is Matt Fraction's script. He's brought Tony Stark to life far more successfully than anyone other than Robert Downey, Jr. Fraction gives us the same kind of vibrant Tony Stark that we saw in the film, and there's far more energy in this comic than in the 'Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.' series. One might think an Iron Man as an intelligent sexy superspy comic would be the one to read, but it's not. That one's neither intelligent or sexy, it turns out. I don't want to spend too much time here discussing another comic, but while 'Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.' has all the fun of an administrative bureaucracy, 'Invincible Iron Man' is about the potent intersection between technology and superheroics. It's a bit about technology fetishism too, but most of all it's about characters at odds with one another, using the world as their game board."

Read the entire review HERE.

Uncanny X-Men #500 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Uncanny X-Men #500, about which I write the following sentences: "This issue also helps clarify what was missing from Brubaker's previous issues (other than Fraction, who is a more-than-welcome-addition to the series): a grand threat. When Magneto appears, blending in, at first, with the costumed visitors to the 'Mutant Kitsch,' he not only recalls the best of the classic X-Men stories, but his threatening presence reminds us of how long this series has run without a great villain. And the lack of such a strong antagonist has softened the team over the past couple of years, leading them on adventures into space, and in the sewers, and around the world, like a bunch of directionless little rodents. The X-Men have been scurrying around the borders of the Marvel Universe for too long, this issue seems to say, and now that Magneto has returned, they have something to stand and fight against besides some kind of vague mutant loathing."

Is the return of Magneto a spoiler? It might be, I guess, but wait until you see how he returns. This issue goes on sale tomorrow, and it's the one you've been waiting for. Although, I'm not a big fan of that Alex Ross cover--it looks like he spilled his Kool-Aid all over his painting. Anyway, issue #500 is good, even if the cover is sticky and reeks of fruit punch.

Read the entire review HERE.

Punisher War Journal #21 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Punisher War Journal #21, about which I write the following sentences: "Under the guidance of Matt Fraction, 'Punisher War Journal' has alternated between clever, witty looks at the Marvel Universe and serious and severe looks at the screwed-up world in which Frank Castle lives. The tone hasn't been exactly consistent from arc to arc, but I don't see that as a drawback at all, because the Punisher in straight-up vigilante mode has never been all that interesting in the long term. The Punisher is an inconsistent character, really, if you take into account all of his in-Universe portrayals over the years. He's been a buffoonish killer, a monster, a hero, a lunatic, a patriot, and almost anything you can imagine. Fraction has written him as a strange combination of all of those things, and if he isn't heroic in a traditional sense, at least he has a code he follows. He's a psychopath headlining a book set in the Marvel Universe, and Fraction has made him compelling and somewhat noble, while never going so far as to make Frank Castle admirable."

Read the entire review HERE.

Young Avengers Presents #6 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Young Avengers Presents #6, about which I write the following sentences: "Remember that 'Spectacular Spider-Man Annual' Fraction wrote -- the one where he came in for a single issue and proved how vibrant and powerful the Peter Parker/Mary Jane marriage could be? The approach he took there, with its mixture of nostalgia and emotion, is similar to the one he takes with the new Hawkeye character here. He doesn't literally retell story bits from the past like he did in that annual, but he does hit all the right beats, and he turns one of the least-developed Young Avengers characters into someone the reader can care about. In short, this is everything a superhero spotlight issue should aspire to."

Read the entire review HERE.

Happy Matt Fraction Day

So, I assume you're going to get the final issue of Matt Fraction's Immortal Iron Fist, and you'll probably get his Thor one-shot because the first one was good, and you expect this one to be good also, but are you going to pick up Young Avengers Presents #6?

Well, you really should.

I'll be reviewing it for CBR today or tomorrow, and I just read a preview copy, and guess what? It's really, good. Art by Alan Davis. Script by Fraction. I literally laughed out loud at one point--and comics never make me laugh out loud. I am serious and humorless. But Young Avengers Presents #6 snapped me out of that. I loved it. And after the lackluster issues in this series so far, you were probably going to skip issue #6 entirely, weren't you?

Don't. You'll like it. Trust me.

Invincible Iron Man #2 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Invincible Iron Man #2, about which I write the following sentences: "Fraction plays Stark as the ultimate multi-tasker. He's that super-tech geek who needs to be the first one with the new toys, if he doesn't have the new toys, he needs to know about them before you do and pass them by because they're already obsolete. He's the guy that plays the role of the hero, and shoulders the burdens of the world, but acts like it's all a breeze -- partly because he's prepared for it, and partly because he's concerned about what's next and just whizzes through the incidents that would make the average hero tremble. He also allows himself to have fun doing it, and when he battles with M.O.D.O.G. (that's Mental Organism Designed Only for Genocide), it's like a cat batting around a mouse that doesn't yet know it's dead."

Read the entire review HERE.

Casanova #14 Hits THE SPLASH PAGE

I know, I know. You're probably sick of me talking about Casanova by this point. Blah blah Casanova is the best comic since ever blah blah Fraction writes real good blah blah. But, guess what? I don't care. Casanova is greater than your hate. Also, Chad Nevett and I are smart. So you should value our opinions above all others. And some people didn't get to read Casanova #14 this week, so this is just yet another way to taunt them.

Seriously, though, if you have a brain, and eyes, and a soul, and two bucks, you should buy Casanova #14, then go over and read the newest installment of The Splash Page.

Or, you can just click here by clicking HERE.

Why Casanova Matters

Now that Casanova has reached the conclusion of its second album, I've spent some time rereading all fourteen issues. I'm more certain than ever that Casanova will be seen as one of the defining comics of this decade, if not the defining comic.

In celebration of this end-of-Casanova-for-now moment, I've written a lengthy essay on "Why Casanova Matters" for Comic Book Resources. The essay spoils the conclusion of the "Gula" arc, just to warn you. But if you've ever had any doubts about the greatness of Casanova, or you just want to see what I have to say about a comic that you already love, check out my exploration of the work HERE.

Punisher War Journal Hits THE SPLASH PAGE

Once in a generation, a comic arrives to change the face of the industry. That comic is probably not Punisher War Journal but, you know what, two smart guys talking about Punisher comics can lead to some pretty insightful observations about graphic narrative. None of which necessarily occurs in this week's installment of THE SPLASH PAGE, but it might. You'll never know until you read it.

Check out Chad Nevett and I, as we discuss Matt Fraction, Garth Ennis, and Frank Castle here: THE SPLASH PAGE: Punisher War Journal vs. the Assembled Critics!