West Coast Avengers (1984) #4

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Hall hasn’t made much of an impression during West Coast Avengers but during the climatic battle scene here, he does a great job. He’s got Breeding and Berardi inking him (and this issue has no art hiccups like the previous three) but it’s really about his panel composition. Plus, he’s able to bring real drama to Stern’s scripting of the action sequence.

Otherwise, the issue lacks any distinction. It’s a mediocre superhero book. The Vision shows up again to congratulate the team (he doesn’t call them “Angels” though) and Rhodey reveals himself to be Iron Man II. Stern handles that revelation well. Though, by the end, Iron Man’s off by himself with Tigra paws Wonder Man.

There’s also some funny stuff about Graviton’s molls thinking he’s a lame creep.

Stern comes up with a decent plan for the team to confront him.

Again, it’s fine. Most impressive for Hall’s contribution.

West Coast Avengers (1984) #3

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There’s something weird about Graviton. It’s almost like he’s overcompensating.

This issue focuses mostly on Tigra and Wonder Man (Rhodey gets cast aside). First it’s about their insecurities, then it’s them teaming up with the Shroud to go after the bad guy (who’s secretly working with Graviton).

The splash page has some weak proportions from Hall and Breeding but it clears up fast. Except for Iron Man only showing his teeth through the mouth slot, I imagine in five more issues, the art would start getting good. Too bad there’s only one more issue.

Stern, being a professional superhero writer, is able to work through all the nonsense and expository dialogue and actually make Wonder Man sympathetic during his talk with Tigra. Still, it’s weird how she’s pairing off with him, sort of leaving Rhodey to be a third wheel to the still underrepresented Hawkeye and Mockingbird.

It’s okay stuff.

West Coast Avengers (1984) #2

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Is it possible for Wonder Man to be any more annoying? He spends every moment either bragging about himself or whining. And Stern loves expositional dialogue, so it’s a lot to get through.

My favorite line in the book is from him, though–“Who would be crazy enough to rob a bank in broad daylight?” Either Stern (who’s written a lot of comics and they must have had bank robberies) is out of it or he’s very subtly trying to point out Wonder Man is a complete idiot. Unfortunately, I think it’s the former.

The book opens with the team training, which leads to Rhodey (as Iron Man) and Tigra both having lengthy low self-esteem thoughts in balloons. It’s getting to be a problem, especially since Hawkeye and Mockingbird barely make an impression this issue.

Again, decent enough superhero art from Hall and Breeding. Nothing sensational, nothing too terrible.

West Coast Avengers (1984) #1

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Wow, Stern writes some tone-deaf dialogue. Not all of it, but some… there are some lines in here, it’s like he got out the thesaurus. Though I suppose naturalism wasn’t his goal. He goes overboard with the thought balloons too.

What he does do—which is actually quite neat—is set the issue up a little like an episode of “The Love Boat” and the superheroes are the guest stars. We get a nice introduction to everyone and a little backstory and it all feels very… eighties. But in an okay way.

And the Vision’s guest spot is a little like “Charlie’s Angels.”

The resolution is pretty funny (the issue’s conflict is due to Jessica Drew prying into Tigra’s personal business).

The art, from Hall and Breeding, has a lot of problems. Their people are awkwardly squat.

It’s not any good, but it’s particularly bad.

Though Wonder Man’s goofy.

The Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #252

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Tom DeFalco really likes expository dialogue and thought balloons, not to mention narration. Peter Parker cannot shut up he’s talking to himself so much, then there’s the Black Cat thinking about recent events to catch the reader up. Strangely, the issue opens on this amusing exchange between Jonah and Robbie about the best way to use art on the cover of the Bugle.

The opening and close is pretty strong–DeFalco paces the issue really well and reading it is an investment of time (oh, the eighties… one got to read one’s Marvel comic for longer than five minutes… I’d forgotten).

Spidey and Curt Connors get back from Secret Wars in a nice sequence, then the lengthy Peter exposition stuff, but the conclusion is Spidey taking an arguing teenage couple out to see New York the way he does.

It’s occasionally overwritten, but still a rather good mainstream comic book.

The Amazing Spider-Man 252 (May 1984)

It’s occasionally overwritten, but still a rather good mainstream comic book.

CREDITS

Homecoming; writers, Roger Stern and Tom DeFalco; penciller, Ron Frenz; inker, Brett Breeding; colorist, Glynis Wein; letterer, Joe Rosen; editor, Danny Fingeroth; publisher, Marvel Comics.

The Avengers (1963) #266

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So, in this Secret Wars II epilogue, the Molecule Man finally gets a happy ending. And since Shooter isn’t writing it, Volcana’s just a dim bulb, instead of being the target of endless misogyny. There’s also an (early?) example of She-Hulk tramping around, picking up Hercules in the conclusion of the issue.

But the Silver Surfer frames the whole thing and I wondering if Stern realized how perfect it was to use him, an alien observing the possible end of the planet. Regardless, it’s a nice move. This issue might be better than every other Secret Wars II crossover issue–or close, anyway.

I’m a little perplexed how the Wasp managed to be a popular character for so long, since she’s such a vapid twit. And can anyone tell me if the Black Knight and Captain Marvel get together? They should, but I don’t care enough to read more.

The Avengers (1963) #265

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Wait, hillbillies don’t know who the Avengers are? The things I learn reading Secret Wars II crossovers….

This issue features–finally–the scene where the Beyonder reveals his body is just a modified copy of Steve Rogers’s body. Well worth reading thirty issues for that non-moment in comic history.

Otherwise, Stern seems to be doing his best not to emphasize the silliness of the crossover, which isn’t the same thing as the comic book good. Instead, there’s bickering between Hercules and Namor. It goes on for pages, actually, maybe the entire first half of the comic book.

Then the Avengers attack the Beyonder and they get beat up and he has a bunch of idiotic dialogue (did it hurt the more capable Marvel writers to write such drivel?), then the issue ends.

I like the Black Knight and Captain Marvel. They aren’t annoying like the rest of the cast.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2009) #6

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Okay, so Busiek doesn’t pull it off, not saving the whole series, not even saving the whole issue, but when he has the chance to be a right cheap bastard and have the mutant girl be a hallucination of a dying cancer patient… he doesn’t do it. He doesn’t do the M. Night Shyamalan ending. He does the work instead.

The ending doesn’t work–we never find out the title of the new book the protagonist was working on and there’s this whole emphasis on his concern for mutant rights–which started an issue ago, certainly not through the whole series–but most of the issue does.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera is a piece of shit. The only issue worth a cent, much less three hundred and ninety-nine of them, is this last one. It could have been a one shot. Would have been better as one too.

Marvels: Eye of the Camera (2009) #5

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If Marvels II is really all about the protagonist dying, shouldn’t they have made the issues match the Kübler-Ross model–the five stages of grief–you know, from that “Simpsons” episode with the blowfish. Just an idea.

I’m not sure when this issue takes place. Sometime in the late 1980s at least. The protagonist has been dying for six months or something, so this history of the Marvel Universe is rather abbreviated. It’s idiotic, really. I mean, if the point of Marvels was to age things real time, based on publication date, look at this nonsense. Whatever.

This issue ends with a thread from the first series returning. It’s an interesting, cheaper than cheaper idea. I mean, if Busiek really resolves the story of the runaway mutant girl… it means the first series really was all bullshit to him.

I think I dislike this comic book more each issue.