Review: Deadpool #1 [Marvel NOW!]

5 out of 5 stars
Marvel Comics
Story – Brian Posehn and Gerry Duggan
Art – Tony Moore

Thank God for Deadpool. I love Deadpool. I know he’s contentious. Our very own Jason Cohen has a longstanding hatred for the character, and he has his reasons. Deadpool just isn’t for everyone. But he’s definitely for me. And this premiere issue of the Marvel NOW! Deadpool just encouraged and validated everything I felt about Deadpool in previous stories. Let me start this review by saying that if this comic is as consistently high quality as the first issue, Deadpool will likely become my favorite comic book currently in print. With my normal favorite Amazing Spider-Man being such a revolting piece of shit right now, that might not sound like a lot, but it is, given my recent foray into Batman.

The story here is that a politically-minded magician/necromancer guy casts a spell that summons the spirits of dead American presidents, in the hopes that they will take control of the country and “fix it,” whatever that means to you. Initially, Captain America arrives on the scene, and appears in the paper the next day decapitating Harry Truman. S.H.I.E.L.D. feels that this is terrible PR and they need to find someone else to sweep the problem under the rug quickly and quietly.

The Dark Knight is Dead, Long Live Bruce Wayne!

Worst rumor ever. As a fan of Christopher Nolan’s Batman franchise and a respecter of storyline integrity, I believe that putting the Joseph Gordon-Levitt Batman in the Justice League movie is a big mistake. Bigger than Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern. It will definitely be more successful, but  even more distasteful.

First of all, there’s nothing wrong with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as an actor. I enjoy his acting. He was a highlight for me in Inception, a movie I thought to be overly hyped and lacking in a strong narrative and direction despite its cool concept. That’s something you should know about me if I’m going to be talking about movies. I thought Inception was alright.

Second of all, I thought The Dark Knight Rises was less than a masterpiece. Perhaps I need to see it again, but I found the entire movie to be a mess. Most of it seemed to be a reenactment of The Dark Knight, so much so that I was waiting for someone in the movie to say “Wait, the Joker did this before!” When no one said anything I thought maybe I had misunderstood something. I don’t outright think that TDKR is simply a copy of TDK, but I think it repeated a lot of themes that Nolan had already used more effectively elsewhere.

10 Things to be Learned from Marvel Comics’ February Solicitations

The February Solicitations for Marvel Comics have been released and we can now get a good feel of what Marvel Now! will be bringing to the table. Just from this month’s selection alone, it looks like Marvel Now! will be anything but expected.

1. Marvel Movie Invasion. The new Secret Avengers book will be led by the likes of Nick Fury Jr. and Agent Phil Coulson. Who is Nick Fury Jr? Well he’s Nick Fury’s secret son who strangely looks like Ultimate Nick Fury and Samuel L. Jackson. Then he loses an eye and looks exactly like Nick Fury. So the movie Fury is now the main Marvel Fury and Agent Coulson is here too. It’s pretty obvious that Marvel is pushing their movie properties into their comic books, but are they pushing a little too hard?

There is also the Avengers Assemble book, which chronicles the adventures of the movie Avengers. The book is supposed to be set in continuity, but there is really no telling how. Whether this book takes place in the past, with some other Avengers team with this lineup or completely outside of continuity, this book’s main focus is advertising the Avengers in the movie. I suppose that’s the exact point. Take Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow, and Hawkeye and throw them into the Marvel Comics Universe filled with all the heroes and villains they could want.

You Should Know About Valiant Comics

The brand new Valiant Entertainment is pushing on as their universe marches towards the end of its first year of publication. The company only publishes five monthly comics, six this month if you count the Harbinger #0 issue, but Valiant goes for quality not quantity. Here are their February solicitations.

Shadowman #2

If you don’t know Valiant Comics than you weren’t reading comics in the early 90’s. Founded by Jim Shooter, Valiant was a promising new company that published characters like X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Shadowman, Eternal Warrior, Rai, Ninjak, and Archer & Armstrong. The popular company was bought by Acclaim, the video game company, in 1994 and the line was revamped in 1996. By 1999 most of their Valiant comics were cancelled . Acclaim would file for bankruptcy in 2005, but the rights to their characters were bought and Valiant Entertainment began publication in May of 2012. The entire line was rebooted and re-presented for a new generation.

Harbinger is about people with the incredible powers to reshape the world, called Harbingers. The most powerful of them all, Toyo Harada, takes in Peter Stanchek, a boy that’s even more powerful than he is with the promise of helping to guide their people into a new tomorrow. If this sounds kind of like X-Men, don’t worry, it’s not. Toyo proves to be untrustworthy and manipulative so Peter breaks away and attempts to survive his ex-mentor’s wrath. The book is written by Joshua Dysart (Unknown Soldier, B.P.R.D. 1946, B.P.R.D. 1947) and drawn by Matthew Clark (Doom Patrol, Outsiders). The 0 issue has art from Mico Suayan (Batman: Arkham Unhinged, All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes).

Avengers Expanding; SHIELD, Arrow Casting

The Uncanny Avengers are expanding. Marvel has revealed that the team, once depicted as having only six members, will soon balloon to a total of nine. Now Captain America, Wolverine, Thor, Rogue, Scarlet Witch and Havok will be joined by Sunfire, Wonder Man and Wasp.

In Avengers vs. X-Men five mutants, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Magik, Colossus and Namor, are given the power of the Phoenix to reshape the world. Obviously that didn’t go so well. They fight amongst themselves, destroy whole civilizations and Cyclops ends up killing Professor Xavier. Now everyone hates mutants even more, if that was possible. To help the mutant image, Captain America creates a team made up of X-Men and Avengers. Captain America, Thor and Scarlet Witch are the Avengers, Wolverine, Havok and Rogue are the X-Men.

Superman and the Dangers of Aging Your Characters

Following up on the recent news that Superman was able to locate Krypton with the help of Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Superman has also now watched the destruction of his home planet. According to science,

The data from all of the telescopes are integrated and assembled by Superman to create images of Rao and Krypton. The images of Krypton’s tragic death have just reached the Earth, twenty-seven years after the event. Surrounded by astrophysicists, Superman witnesses the destruction of his home planet. In other words, Krypton was located on its final day of existence.

I’m not entirely sure how science is able to take images from the depths of space and turn them into 3D HD holographic movies. Maybe Superman has a Kryptonian projector with him.

DC has described the events that took place in Action Comics #14 as ‘game-changing’. But I’m not sure how that could be. Even people that know nothing about Superman know that Krypton blew up. The top five things people know about Superman: 1) He’s Clark Kent, 2) He’s crazy about Lois Lane 3) He’s vulnerable to Kryptonite 4) Lex Luthor hates him 5) Krypton blew up. How can this be anything other than more retreading of the Superman origin story? Can we maybe move on yet?

For me the biggest story out of all of this is dating the destruction of Krypton to 27 years ago. That in itself immediately dates everything that has to do with Superman. The old DCU was very careful never to date anything because it would age their characters. They simply used phrases like “many years ago,” or “Before” to tell you when something occurred, and that was it. I’m not creating a timeline of the DC Universe, I don’t need to know in what year Batman’s parents were killed in order to compare it to the arrival of Superman.

Confusing Realism With Pessimism

There is a growing trend, it seems, towards making comics “realistic.” The realism that they adhere to, though, is anything but. Comics where people die in depressing ways, where the hero doesn’t always win, where the villain is some kind of unspeakable rapist serial killer pedophile, that’s not realism. That’s pessimism.

Pessimism is an adolescent train of thought. There’s a time in your life where you grow disillusioned with the world and see everything as rotten, but that’s simply an illusion of the real world. When you’re a child, the world is wonderful, new, and awe-inspiring, but as a teenager you’re exposed to all these new facets of the world you previously had no interest in. Politics, heartbreak, genocide, these are suddenly new things in your life that before you were ignorant of. This exposure is scary, and you react in the only way you can, with pessimism. Surely, this world I previously thought to be so great and wonderful is actually a rotting carcass, you think. But like I said, it’s an illusion.

No one will be happy again

The Walking Dead is one of the most popular comic books being published right now, and with a hit TV series that continually shatters ratings, it’s certainly not going away any time soon. It’s appeal is certainly the “realistic” approach it takes towards the zombie genre, where every day is a struggle for survival, no one is safe, and the real enemies aren’t the zombies but the humans. But, this is confusing realism with pessimism. Reality isn’t a bleak, meaningless existence. Reality isn’t a world where humans revert to their base instincts of sex and violence when society collapses. That’s foolishness. The Walking Dead is a series where there’s no light at the end of a tunnel, no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, no hope amongst all the despair. Nowhere is safe, and no one is to be trusted. People who fall into those traps end up raped, tortured, or worse. The philosophy behind the series is “no one is safe”. That’s not real world, despite the best efforts to convince us otherwise. It’s fantasy, pure and simple.

Happy Valentine’s Day from DC Comics; No Rage Cats

I’ll continue to wait for this to go away

DC Comics are giving you a Valentine’s Day special called Young Romance: A New 52 Valentine’s Day Special #1 (Say that out loud). The 64-page anthology book will be out on February 6th for all of you out there that don’t have a date. I think that’s what this is for. The book even comes with perforated Valentine’s Day cards featuring the characters included.

Superman and Wonder Woman will obviously be the main attraction in this book. Batgirl, Catwoman, Batwoman, Aquaman and Mera, Apollo and Midnighter, and Dick Grayson (doing everyone) will also be making appearances. I like Aquaman and Mera in the pages of Aquaman, but Geoff Johns has a tendency to get carried away with giant story lines and events, which ultimately leads to the abandoning of the more subtler, character driven moments. If this special can deliver that, than this could be a lot more fun than it makes itself out to look. It could be interesting to see if Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon have any of the sexual tension they had in the old universe. The inclusion of Batwoman must also mean that she must be developing a relationship with someone. Maybe this could mean the return of Renee Montoya!

10 Things to be Learned from DC Comics’ February Solicitations

DC Comics released their solicitations for February 2013 and now we know what the DC Universe will be like in three months time. It’s given us clues as to what will be happening soon as well as down the road. There’s plenty of guesswork, but it’s all we can really do.

1. Justice League Expansion? The solicits for Justice League #17 mentions the possibility of the Justice League finally expanding its roster. While it might not be right away, it still could be happening in the very near future. Maybe we’ll finally see the likes of Firestorm, Atom, Deadman, Element Girl, Mera and Lady Luck(?) We were told would join the Justice League eventually.

The odd part about this is the inclusion of Hawkman and Green Arrow in this picture. The two will soon be appearing in Justice League of America and this picture was released before that title was even in a twinkle in Geoff Johns eye. It’s pretty obvious that the title was not something they had on their schedule at that point, since Justice League International was supposed to be the ‘other’ Justice League team. Then again, Deadman is there and he’s been in Justice League Dark since the beginning, so maybe I should be giving them more credit.

New 52 News: Arsenal, Reverse-Flash, Batman of Africa

Next up on the rotating feature reel that has been DC Universe Presents, a title that provides a variety of characters and creative teams a place to shine, is Green Arrow’s ex-sidekick, Arsenal. Issue #17 offers a one-shot story about Roy Harper’s altercation with Killer Croc in the streets of Japan. The issue also guest stars Arsenal’s co-stars in the pages of Red Hood and the Outlaws, Red Hood and Starfire.

Previously starring Deadman, The Challengers of the Unknown, Vandal Savage, Kid Flash, and Black Lightning and Blue Devil, DC Universe Presents puts the spotlight on the more obscure characters of the DCU in their own adventures. Challengers of the Unknown, Vandal Savage and Black Lightning and Blue Devil all made their re-imagined debut in the pages of this book. Kid Flash had previously starred in a one-shot that was closely connected to the Teen Titans, where he appears regularly, before another multi-issue story came in, so you can expect another story arc to come in after Arsenal has gotten his moment.