Astonishing Tales 7 (August 1971)

If Herb Trimpe spent as much time on his figures as he did on the shading lines, his Ka-Zar story might not have been hideously ugly. It’s actually passable–ambitious at times even–until the dinosaurs show up. Trimpe can’t draw dinosaurs.

Roy Thomas scripts the story, which is an extended chase and fight scene. The narration’s weak and the dialogue’s weak. Ka-Zar is annoying with his Tarzan speaking, but he also lacks any personality. Sure, he’s got a sabertooth tiger for a sidekick… but it doesn’t make either compelling.

And Thomas’s conclusion is inept.

Then Gerry Conway and Gene Colan do Black Panther versus Doctor Doom. Frank Giacoia isn’t the best inker for Colan, but he’s not bad either. Sadly, Conway’s script is annoying beyond belief. He constantly questions the characters in the narration. I’m not even sure what person it is.

Overall, aside from Colan, it’s a waste.

Fantastic Four: True Story 4 (January 2009)

And it’s a happy ending for everyone not looking at Domingues’s art.

Seriously, it’s really bad.

But the final issue has a lot of charm–even if the ending is too short and Cornell wastes the cast of The Wind and the Willows. Having Toad run around with Johnny Storm seems somehow perfect and Cornell only hints at it.

Cornell’s rules for the story and its logic are pretty loose (I think Reed refers to it as the “fictoverse,” but only one time… as someone noticed how stupid it sounds). It all comes together nicely so the issue can end with a bow on it.

The problem with True Story is how unimportant the Fantastic Four are to the story–it could be anyone having this adventure in the… groan… fictoverse. It might even be better with other characters.

And with the Domingues art, it’s too ugly to be precious.

CREDITS

Johnny Storm Saves Books; writer, Paul Cornell; artists, Horacio Domingues and Rick Burchett; colorist, Nestor Pereyra; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Fantastic Four: True Story 3 (November 2008)

The third issue has some very weak moments–oh, the Austen characters are from Sense and Sensibility–but it ends with the Fantastic Four all dead, shot by firing squad.

Along with the little kid from Sense and Sensibility. So Cornell gets some respect for shooting a little kid. Even if it’s not shown on panel (Domingues would just screw it up anyway).

Cornell reveals the villain to be Nightmare, who through some complicated sounding way is all of a sudden able to invade fiction. What’s idiotic about this detail is the timing. Cornell ties it to a particular book being written. Only… no one’s done it until now? No one’s ever written about the conceptual idea of the character Nightmare (who gives people nightmares) until now? Given the intelligence Cornell writes with (most of the time, at least, excepting his scenes between Sue and Reed), it’s a tad contrived.

CREDITS

Total Nightmare; writer, Paul Cornell; artist, Horacio Domingues; colorists, Nestor Pereyra and A. Dalhouse; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Fantastic Four: True Story 2 (October 2008)

Well, if it weren’t for Domingues, Cornell might really have something this issue.

Cornell tasks Domingues with drawing various literary figures and he comes up with something out of a “Scooby Doo” cartoon. The artwork here does not cut it–Marvel should be embarrassed. Domingues’s style is unfinished (they should have given him an experienced inker at the least) and almost entirely thoughtless. True Story, this issue shows, needs a visual tone. Domingues can’t bring it.

This issue excels past the first (it’ll probably be the best issue of the series, given the events) as Cornell starts teaming the Fantastic Four with the heroes of Pride and Prejudice. At least, I think it’s Pride and Prejudice, it’s an Austen novel for sure. But it lets Cornell be funny–he’s got a great sense of humor (Dante bickering with an Austen hero).

The end has issues, but it’s a fun read.

CREDITS

Grimm’s Fairy Tales; writer, Paul Cornell; artist, Horacio Domingues; colorist, Nestor Pereyra; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Fantastic Four: True Story 1 (September 2008)

I really wanted to love Fantastic Four: True Story, but Cornell just isn’t able to make it precious enough. The concept is somewhat complex–Sue is suffering from melancholy and discovers it has to do with not wanting to read fiction. It turns out the whole world is suffering from a similar melancholy (a major problem with the narrative is Reed “discovering” that universal ailment–someone else would have noticed first).

So the Fantastic Four journey into fiction to find out the problem.

Cornell does a great job with Johnny and Ben–he even abbreviates their bickering, which only lasts a page, but is a fine approach to what otherwise would have been something familiar.

It’s Sue and Reed who come off wrong. Cornell has them blathering to each other like they’re out of a romance novel.

Plus, Domingues’s art fails. He doesn’t do either element–superhero or magical–well.

CREDITS

The Melancholy of Susan Richards; writer, Paul Cornell; artist and colorist, Horacio Domingues; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Marvel Graphic Novel 17: Revenge of the Living Monolith (1985)

I’m not even sure where to start.

About half the comic deals with the Living Pharaoh’s origin and his escape from prison. It’s a strange origin; he seems a lot like an Egyptian Peter Parker for a bunch of it (you know, if Peter weren’t a college dropout or whatever). Michelinie does everything he can, for a while, to making the character sympathetic and tragic. Then the Living Pharaoh kills his daughter and the sympathy is out the window.

He’s got a cult of followers and she’s, unbeknownst to him, now one of them. The whole Egyptian cult thing–there are terrorist comments a plenty–makes it seem like Marvel could publish the thing today (if only Frank Miller worked at Marvel these days). But what Michelinie fails to realize is how bad a plot choice making the character utterly unsympathetic halfway through does to the comic. It makes the second half barely tolerable.

The second half, according to Michelinie’s introduction, is where the actual story idea comes to fruition. A giant monster attacking New York, only it’s the Living Pharaoh jumbo-sized off the Fantastic Four’s powers.

Michelinie writes a good Captain America and Fantastic Four. Everyone else–particularly Spider-Man and She-Hulk (though she’s technically an FF member at this time)–is spotty.

The art is sometimes good, sometimes bad, it depends one of the seven inkers. It opens well though. The colors are very nice at times.

It’s pointless, but I guess it could be worse.

CREDITS

Writers, Christopher Priest and David Michelinie; penciller, Marc Silvestri; inkers, Geof Isherwood, Mike Witherby, Brad Joyce, Phil Lord, Keith Williams, Tom Morgan and Jerry Acerno; colorists, Bob Sharen, Christie Scheele, Steve Oliff, Mark Bright, Michael Davis, Charles Vess, Paul Becton, Janet Jackson, Petra Scotese and Paty Cockrum; letterers, Joe Rosen, Rick Parker, Janice Chiang, John Morelli and Phil Felix; editors, Keith Williams and Christopher Priest; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Spider-Man / Human Torch 5 (July 2005)

I read this series when it came out, but I barely remembered anything about it besides it being really good–I didn’t, for example, remember the crimes against the comic book medium the colorists perpetrated.

Suffice to say, I didn’t remember this issue.

This perfect issue.

I mean, it’s a perfect close to this limited series, but it’s also a perfect comic.

It’s not too mature, but it’s not written for kids. It has a healthy respect and admiration for the characters’ pasts, but doesn’t let continuity get in the way of a the story. It’s happy and sad and hopeful and just plain lovely.

This issue reminds of New Frontier in its optimism of the human condition.

It also reminds enough of Kesel’s World’s Finest limited series from a while ago… I wish Slott had ten issues too.

It’s a fantastic comic and really makes the bad colors okay.

CREDITS

Together Again; writer, Dan Slott; penciller, Ty Templeton; inkers, Drew Geraci and Greg Adams; colorist, John Rauch; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Spider-Man / Human Torch 4 (June 2005)

It’s a cute issue. It’s set during the black costume period, when Spidey was with the Black Cat. I sort of remember reading these comics as a kid and, from just the Secret Wars II crossovers I more recently read, they aren’t cute. It’s a strange approach for Slott to make–it’s an all humor issue.

Some of the problem might be with the Black Cat. She didn’t end up with Spidey so watching this lost episode of theirs decidedly lacks drama.

The issue has some coloring problems, but it’s emulating a more slicker period, so it’s not as bad as when it’s bad. The inks… the inks are strange. There’s this whole sequence when Black Cat is in an evening gown and she looks about fifteen. It gets even stranger since there’s a scene with her in her undies.

The opening scene suggests Slott needs to do a She-Hulk team-up with

CREDITS

Cat’s Paws; writer, Dan Slott; penciller, Ty Templeton; inkers, Tom Palmer and Drew Geraci; colorist, John Rauch; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Spider-Man / Human Torch 3 (May 2005)

And the coloring problems return. Not quite as bad, but whoever’s doing it–there’s no name just Sotocolor–thought adding three dimensions with color shading was a good idea.

And is wrong.

But it’s hard to care, because the series just gets better issue to issue. Here, Slott marries two very disparate elements of Spider-Man history–he relieves Peter’s depression following Gwen’s death with the lunacy of the Spider-Man toys. The Amazing Spider-Mobile, or whatever it was called, will probably never be used so artistically again. Or the fruit pies. What Slott does with the fruit pies is just fantastic.

There’s not as much emphasis on the Human Torch here, except as a true friend to Spidey. Slott writes this lovely scene with Peter (in mask) telling Johnny all about Gwen’s death. And even though the issue is–relatively–light, the whole weight of Peter’s secret identity is clear.

Maybe the series’s first great issue.

CREDITS

Auto Motives; writer, Dan Slott; penciller, Ty Templeton; inkers, Nelson DeCastro and Tom Palmer; colorist, Sotocolor; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editors, Andy Schmidt, Stephanie Moore, Molly Lazer and Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Spider-Man / Human Torch 2 (April 2005)

Now, this issue doesn’t have the same coloring problems as the first. It has different ones, but they’re far less garish, thank goodness.

This issue, for the most part, is a Human Torch issue. He and Spidey swap jobs for the day. Spidey messes up the Fantastic Four’s scientific exploration while the Torch takes on Kraven and some drug dealers. Slott bookends the issue with Johnny hanging out Peter and the gang–this issue is set jut before Flash Thompson ships out and… wow, does Slott write the characters well. Even though Johnny has a bigger part throughout, nothing compares to the attention Slott gives the Spider-Man cast.

Templeton does a great job with the three facets–the mundane reality, Johnny’s Kraven adventure and the Fantastic Four sci-fi stuff. His Peter Parker and Gwen Stacy beg for a series of their own.

My only question’s Captain Stacy–did he know Peter was Spider-Man?

CREDITS

Catch You On the Flipside; writer, Dan Slott; penciller, Ty Templeton; inkers, Nelson DeCastro and Tom Palmer; colorist, Felix Serrano; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editors, Andy Schmidt, Stephanie Moore, Molly Lazer and Tom Brevoort; publisher, Marvel Comics.