Heroes for Sale had no copies of Justice League or The Flash but I had read positive reviews of the New 52 iteration of The Ray, so I tried that. Leafing through issue 3 of 4, I thought the logo and the hero are fussily over-designed. The cover reminds me of JLA in the 90s while the story reads like a PG version of the Marvelman/Miracleman/Zenith stories of the 80s.The ethnicity of this novice hero, however, makes him a more interesting and diverse fit for the modern-day Justice League than the obligatory Firestorm, for example. Harmless but unmemorable; I was reminded of the short-lived Will Payton Starman .
Legion Secret Origin hasn't really been secret at all, thanks to the deadly dull pen of Paul Levitz. I was very keen on his writing in the Bronze Age. But for the last year or so, on the parent LSH book, his plots have been plodding and the artwork has a charmless, plastic quality. In this slight spin-off, Chris Batista draws the Legionnaires as slender, youthful figures; so much so, they look a little anorexic. I was pleased to see Ultra Boy in a more-or-less faithful version of his Sixties costume. However, again as in the 90s, this LSH artist wants to draw Jo Nah with stubble. That's missing the point: he was a bad boy who wanted to be a good boy and would try to look as clean-cut as possible.
The cover is deceptive: the Cockrum-style Shrinking Violet does not appear. You'd think they could get that right. It looks like another classic character, the Time Trapper, is manipulating events from behind the scenes. What a florging surprise in a LSH story! I will come back for the last issue, simply because of the nostalgia rush of Star Boy in his original, regal white-and-purple outfit.
I don't want to sound boastful (or delusional) but Grant Morrison's Action depicts the direction that I wanted to see Superman take four or five years ago: a scrappy urban hero in a faintly-militaristic space costume. I didn't picture Brainiac as a mechanical insect ( more as a zombie virus, fusing one villain with another-Bizarro) but it seems I was tapping into similar ideas. This is one series I look forward to re-reading as a collection.
I can't get excited about the Metropolis version of Steel, however, who's just another transplanted Marvel character: a fusion of Thor, Iron Man and Luke Cage. This back-up strip also looks just like a Marvel comic but, hey, that's what made DC successful in the 80s and again in the 90s.
To borrow a hackneyed phrase, The Avengers look suitably awesome on this cover:
Madame Hydra is an imposing (and alluring villain) while The Vision looks almost retro. I'm pleased he's back at long last but he looks as quaint in this book as The Whizzer did thirty-odd years ago. This very slender episode ended on a cinematic note with a theatrical entrance by Norman Osborn. I've missed an issue but it makes no difference; the story hasn't really progressed. I feel that Storm is a bit redundant with Quake (Bendis' latest Mary Sue) on the team. Ororo may very well be one of Marvel's most high-profile heroines but she seems out of place where she didn't in the FF. I also find the use of the drab Ultimate Hawkeye costume inexplicably annoying. I enjoyed the comic but it was a bite-size pleasure.
I had foretold the death of Echo for a couple of months and in Moon Knight 10, she still seems very dead. But then, so did Elektra once upon a time. I wonder if Bendis was always planning to sacrifice Maya back in her "Ronin" days? I should have been expecting to see Madame Masque since she's Nefaria's daughter and formerly Big M of the Maggia. I have enjoyed this expressionistic urban noir since issue 1 and will be sorry to see it end.
Next: A Mars a Day
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When it was first announced that Paul Levitz was coming back to the Legion, my immediate premonition was this was one of those things that sounded good on paper but was fundamentally a marketing-driven decision at heart, with no real creative need whatsoever behind it. What little I saw of his current tenure has only confirmed that suspicion. It seems like it's happened mainly for the sake of having his name on the cover to sell a few extra copies to folks nostalgic for his earlier work on the series. This is a writer a little too sure that going through the motions is good enough. By contrast, while I didn't agree with all of Jim Shooter's plans for his Legion book, by god he wrote it like he had a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. There was no doubt he felt an urgent need to tell those stories and show us all what he was capable of doing. Too bad his behavior behind the scenes brought his run to such a premature demise.
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