I'm going to be honest; this wasn't what I originally wanted to write about. I wanted to tackle the "Shed" storyline in ASM, but thanks to the incredible depth of writing and fitting artwork by Zeb Wells and Chris Bachalo respectively, the internet has already tackled it in depth. So... I'm gonna say my piece anyway and get into a new title at Marvel afterwards. Basically, the reason this arc resonated with so many people is that it is taking a villain (The Lizard) that has been routine and boring for years and taking him to the logical progression of his original character arc. For those of you unaware, The Lizard is another tragic Spidey foe (is there any other?) who is both friends with Peter Parker and enemies with Spider-Man. Need any more info, wiki him or something. Anyhoo, he has a son, who has usually calmed him and reverted him into human form. Now, with the intervention of Kraven's daughter (long story) he ends up killing his son in lizard form. This leads him to "shed" (see what they did there?) his human self. Now, this arc is great because it... well what else can I say that no one else has said already? The writing, the art, even the lettering work in perfect tandem to deliver a breathtaking story. Bachalo redisigns the Lizard to show exactly how much of a physical threat even as Wells shows him as a mental threat. The letterer shows the divide between Curt Conners and The Lizard perfectly. It's a perfect combination. Even with the death of a child, the book doesn't descend into a "gritty hardboiled noir" story. Instead, we're treated to a story that, rather than become a "What If" type story, is actually handled with a real amount of depth. Anyway. I liked it is what I'm saying. Now. Onto Avengers Academy. I came into this book fully prepared to hate it. I wanted to hate it. I didn't like Christos Gage on Avengers: The Initiative, although to be fair that did have Humberto Ramos on art, and I just hate his style. Not to mention one of the characters was going to be Reptil. Motherf**king Reptil. Who came up with him? An eleven year-old? This is literally a nine year-old's wet dream and while I can't fault them for making him and putting him in their kid's show, he really does not need to be on a real team. Moving past my hatred for Reptil. I was so ready to hate this book. And then something weird happened. I started to like the characters. I started to like the direction. By the time, Gage had dropped the twist in the final pages, I was on board. Basically this book is about a bunch of kids who got tortured back when Norman Osborn was running the world. And they have powers earlier than they would have? That part wasn't quite clear. Anyway, their powers are all f**king them up, so they need some heroes to show them how to move past torture and all that. So, who do they get to teach? Hank Pym, Speedball, Tigra, Justice, and Quicksilver. Yeah. So, good luck with that. But, the idea of f**kups teaching f**kups is interesting. Plus, the powers are inventive. Some (like Veil who turns into gases) are more inventive than others (Hazmat, who has radioactive... everything?). But, the writing is good, the art grew on me, and the concept is clever. My one complaint is Justice. Just don't like him. Anyway. That's it. Two for one to make up for my lateness! WOOOOOO!
No comments:
Post a Comment