Comic reviews…
This week saw the release of two allegedly humorous—comic, if you will—comics from Marvel—the first issue of the new Defenders limited series, and the final issue of the GLA (Great Lakes Avengers) limited series.
Defenders #1. The Defenders is a concept that most comic fans seem to have a soft spot for, but that hasn’t much thrived beyond its initial series. Marvel has tried to revive it a few times over the years—there was the 90s series Secret Defenders, for one, which is the sort of series that you try to avoid looking in the eye when you pass it on the street. Maybe you stick a quarter in its jar, but you do not start a conversation with it. Then there was the Busiek/Larsen Defenders re-launch a few years ago, which I quite liked until it sort of disappeared for reasons I never really understood. Like that series, the new Defenders bills itself as a funny funnybook, and it has the creators to back up that billing—the Maguire/Giffen/DeMatteis team who made the 1980s Justice League such a riot and who recently worked a li’l more of their magic in the Formerly Known as the Justice League and I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Justice League limited series.
Superficially, Defenders #1 bears a close resemblance to their past work—the gags fly fleetly past, inspiring reactions that run the gamut from chortle to yawn. But the Defenders are a much different team from the old JL—or at least this Defenders team is, composed of heavy-hitting loners Dr. Strange, Namor, the Hulk, and the Silver Surfer. Much of the humor in JL was possible because M/G/D had the liberty to goof around with second- and third-tier characters like Booster Gold, Blue Beetle, Fire and Ice. When Batman or Superman made an appearance, it was always to play straight man to one of the other characters’ tomfooleristic shenanigans. And underlying all the jokes, the stories often revolved around the tenderness that these B-listers felt towards one another—as, for instance, in the most recent mini-series, in which a silly story about the heroes being banished to a fast-food franchise in Hell turned into a meditation on their grief over a dead teammate. That’s not the case with the Defenders’ foursome—each one has a firmly established character that can’t be ignored too often for the sake of a cheap joke, lest the joke seem, well, cheap. Fortunately for the M/G/D creative team, however, there’s a kind of inherent humor in getting these four together simply because, in the whole of the Marvel Universe, they are probably the four characters who take themselves the most seriously—all angst and ego.
And they do get some yuks out of it in this first issue, which focuses mostly on Dr. Strange (and the embarassing gaps in his knowledge about his trusted lifelong man-servant Wong—like what his first name is. And just the fact that he has a man-servant, period.) Strange’s attempt to recruit Namor are especially chuckle-worthy. The humor seems a bit strained, though, in the scenes featuring the villains of the piece, the dread Dormammu and his sister Umar the Unholy—ha ha, sibling rivalry, etc. And I’m not sure what to make of the Silver Surfer’s new hobby—hopefully it’s a throwaway gag and it won’t be a running theme for the series. On the whole, though, this promises to be a lot of fun.
GLA #4. Sigh. This book just doesn’t know what it wants to be—a metafictional send-up of Identity Crisis (one of the characters is named “Gene Lorrene”) and Avengers Disassembled, or a funny-but-meaningful superhero story about lovable losers. I dunno. The trouble is, even though these characters take themselves seriously, the book itself just can’t—it’s not that the heroes are making stupid jokes and cracking wise, it’s that the book is making stupid jokes at the heroes’ expense. If they’re supposed to be lovable losers, then show ‘em some love, for Pete’s sake!
you know, i liked Erk Larsen’s work. he did some Thor’s a few years ago that were great. regardless of what one things about his writing (which i HAVE seen be good on occasion), his art sometimes gives me that pleasant feeling that he LOVES drawing these characters. i wish he did more work on characters i liked.
anyone that likes kirby owes it to themselves to see the Black Panther TPB. the reproduction, esp. the colors, are EYE POPPINGLY good.
I still need to go pick up the FKATJL series; I waver between loving their humor and approach to the characters, and worrying they’re just making them more of a joke—”Super Buddies”? I mean, I heart Booster + Beetle, and so making them more dumb . . . well, they need a little respect.
Well, that was actually the thrust of the latter part of the second mini-series—redeeming Booster from the low pits of dumb-dom to which he had sunk.
And as far as the Kirby BPs go: Sold! I’ve been eyeing that TPB for a few weeks, and I’ll probably pick it up soon. I was put off after I checked out the b/w Kirby Mister Miracle edition from the library—those stories made so. little. sense, even for Kirby. And aside from Miracle and Darkseid, I’ve got no use for the New Gods anyway.
the 4th world stuff is alternately great and …i dunno…drug induced? can someone draw that well drunk? none the less, the BP’s are great and the new colors and good paper make it look better than if you bought them off the stand.
Amen to that! That first Nick Fury trade was the same way. Retooling at its finest. That’s part of why I like the Archive Editions so much. They polish up the old stories and make ‘em look brand new.
I hate the New Gods, but I liked the He-Man movie which was based on them. I really liked Mister Miracle’s solo series for a while, in the same way I liked that Guy Gardner book. Y’know what I really liked about that Gardner book? The fact that Guy Gardner is the one who answered the letters. Haw. That’s awesome.