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30 Days of Marvel: Day #30 - Your favourite event
Now, my knowledge of Marvel’s big events is unabashedly limited. Spider-Island was, in fact, the first and only big event I’ve ever kept up with at the time, and to be honest I feel like some of those books just weren’t worth my time. I felt because I wanted to keep getting ASM I ought to collect all of the tie-ins and suchlike, and that was a costly decision for titles of varying quality. I loved the Avenger’s one-shot, but on the other hand the Spider-Girl in particular was a let-down (still one of the better ones, but it had been the mini I had most hope for). I think in future I’ll definitely be more wary about collecting everything just because it’s there.
And when it comes to other recent events? Sure, I’ve read some Civil War/Initiative etc. stuff, but only bits and pieces. Fear Itself came up in a few titles I follow recently, but again it didn’t particularly thrill me; the Avengers Academy issues were pretty good, but that’s about it. In fact, I think the older, more limited crossovers largely surpass the current sprawling events. Give me Kraven’s Last Hunt or The Infinity Gauntlet over Secret Invasion or World War Hulks any day.
Honestly, events are one of the things which put me off Marvel and DC titles in the first place. I looked at their continuities and saw a big sprawling mess, with titles crossbreeding all over the place, like a filthy incestuous web of back-patting and forced storylines. I saw huge epics rendering individual issues meaningless, but on the other hand I saw over-dramatisation and expectation of a lot of reader knowledge of a lot of different characters and storylines. It scared me away from standard capes comics for a while, until I read one book. And I didn’t even read it because of Marvel.
Image Comics’ Invincible was the book that first properly introduced me to the world of capes; it was sometimes funny, sometimes more serious, interesting, it evolved in a way that superhero comics sometimes seem to lack and it made me really take another look at the genre. I’d tried bits and pieces, but they’d all seemed obtuse and not really quite clicked until I got into this series. And then in Invincible #33, Invincible fought Angstrom Levy, who sent him into all manner of different dimensions, one of which was, you guessed it, Marvel’s very own 616. This led very neatly into an issue of Marvel Team-Up, which was funny, interesting, and all round great, and is probably one of the key reasons I went from mildly interested reader who downloaded or bought the odd thing to full-time comic book afficionado who spends more money on comics than he does on anything else (including food), because this title was just Spidey and random other characters kicking some arse and having a laugh. This is what gets me interested in new characters, this is what keeps things both respectful of the characters involved and their fandoms and reasonably balanced with the rest of the universe, and this is what I think crossover comics should be.
So yeah, I’m going to kind of cheat, and say screw big events, give me Marvel Team-Up style capers any day.
See Also: Marvel Two-In-One, Avenging Spider-Man
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #29 - Your favourite series you would suggest to read
Hmm. Because of this whole no repetition in the 30 days thing, Iron Man 2.0’s out, as is Avengers Academy or anything Spidey, but it occurs to me that while I have mentioned X-23 a handful of times, I haven’t yet extolled her virtues to the extent that they deserve. She’s a good character - a balance of violence and naivete, weakness and strength - but with the most recent issues I think her book’s the strongest it’s ever been - possibly as good as the old Target X and NYX minis which are still my favourite X-23 appearances. However, that isn’t really a great recommendation, as it’s one of the swathe of Marvel titles which will shortly be coming to a close (as is Iron Man 2.0) - much though I think it’s worth reading, there’s little point jumping on at this stage. I even chatted a little about The Incredible Hulk the other day. This actually makes my job pretty easy as these are all but one of the standout Marvel titles currently on my pull list, so the only logical solution is to bring up the new Daredevil. And if you’re not already reading it, you’re definitely missing out. Story-wise, it’s a good, fun, engaging side to Daredevil which has been missing recently in some other titles, but its real prowess lies in the design. Just look at the pictures up above and tell me you don’t want to read it now.
Thought so.
Go get it. Now.
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #28 - Your favourite comic time period
I’m going to have to say the modern/heroic age stuff. I’ve loved isolated runs from all sorts of eras, but to be honest I’m still fairly new to comics, most main Marvel continuity stories I’ve read have been from the last decade or so, and to pretend that I had a stronger bond to any older eras as a new, relatively inexperienced, reader would just be pretentious. There have been classic stories of all shapes and sizes through the years, but I’m by and large a 21st century comics sort of a chap.
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #27 - Your favourite non-human race
While I love that there’s a race called the Vegans, the Watchers are great as a framing device, the Skrulls have provided some pretty cool storylines and a few other races are awesomely powerful, I’m going to have to go with what I was leaning towards a couple of weeks ago. The Moloids are cool as subjects of Mole Man, their existence as a lesser race created by The Deviants is endearingly pathetic, but in recent times I think there has been some interesting progress - first with the ascension of Tong et al to the ranks of official Fantastic Four hangers-on, which showed the possibilities of evolved members of a race previously deemed primitive, and then more recently in the fantastic new series The Incredible Hulk. I’m loving this so far (I’ve only read the first two, though) and the community spirit between the Moloids and the Hulk was pretty awesome. Kind of Ewok-esque. I’m definitely looking forward to reading the rest of this book, but I like the face that this shows for the Moloids. In the end, that’s one of my favourite things about them. They may have clashed a lot with the Fantastic Four and the rest of the surface heroes, but at the end of the day, they’re a pretty weak bunch individually who can be shown as an aggressive horde or a strong subterranean tribal culture and be equally decent either way. For a race whose defining characteristic is being a disappointment to their creators, that’s not a bad show at all.
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #26 - Your favourite elementalist
Honestly, apart from Johnny Storm, Iceman’s pretty much the only elementalist I can think of off the top of my head. Lack of options isn’t the only reason he’s badass, though - founding X-men member status gets you a lot of points. His powers used to be a fair bit weaker, until he got involved in a war with the Frost Giants, and Loki boosted his powers to much higher levels. So essentially he got a boost from a God, while fighting battles on their level as a mere mortal. After that, Emma Frost juiced him up too. Not only has he recieved both of these boosts (putting him in the very select Omega-level mutant category), he’s also been picking up new tricks over the years anyway, and basically just dicking all over fools. I may not be that knowledgeable an X-fan, but this guy is pretty damn cool in my books…
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #25 - Your favourite video game
This one kind of wins by virtue of being the only Marvel game I’ve ever owned, and possibly the only one I’ve ever played. Hey, a victory by default is still a victory.
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #24 - Your favourite cartoon adaptation
As if it could be anything else. Bitch, please.
This program was as much a defining part of my childhood as the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers (although I refuse to acknowledge anything after Tommy, and even that’s a stretch). The CGI at the time seemed awesome, and it was exciting and fun - Spidey was swinging about saving the day and Hobgoblin was being dastardly and everything was good.
I’ve rewatched it recently and while the CGI may not look quite as good as I remembered it’s still one of the most awesome cartoons ever.
Oh, and one more thing in its favour. You can watch it legally, free, right here.
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #21 - The best form of transportation
Don’t get me wrong, teleportation’s the most cool and useful, but when it comes to vehicles? Screw a Quinjet, I wants me a Spider-Mobile. It’s such a patently ridiculous vehicle (see the first picture. And then everything else with it in). It looks hilariously stupid. And then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, POW, Old Man Logan. It says a lot that it’s at its least ridiculous when being driven by a blind dude.
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #22 - Your favourite universe/dimension
The Marvel Adventures universe is pretty cool - Spider-Man is the only title I’m picking up but Pete/Chat in that is the best coupling ever in a Spidey comic, and it’s good, clean, family-friendly fun. Earth 1961 is a pretty good premise (characters age normally from 1961 onwards and the universe diverges reasonably radically in the 70s - it’s an intriguing idea, but I haven’t actually come across an issue set in it). The Age of Apocalypse is cool in theory, but honestly I’d get sick of it if every comic was set in it. Ultimate has its moments (I loved Ultimate Fantastic Four and I hear great things about Spider-Man), but on the other hand it’s definitely also had it’s downsides *cough*Ultimatum*cough*. Zombies I’ve never been sure about; I liked the Ultimate Fantastic Four crossover and I hear Kirkman wrote some of it (he’s one of my favourite writers), but on the other hand a friend that has it says it’s pretty poor and I can see how it could come across as gimmicky. 1602 is one of the things I’ve wanted to read for a long time, and I think actually on reflection that this Christmas might be a good time to hunt down some trades or something. However, all this aside (and I like to think I’ve weighed up most of the main options), the clear winner has to be vanilla 616.
Let’s be honest, some of these universes are pretty well formed (Ultimate) and some sound absolutely great (1602) but at the end of the day the main Marvel universe is one of the strongest things it has going for it - generations of interlocking plots, great characters and characterisation, a legacy of brilliant story arcs all leading up to the present day. Sure, some things can get pretty muddy - long continuities are always messy - but there’s so much good that’s been set here, and so much potential for more, that choosing one of the gimmickier options would just be wrong. One the other hand, the multiverse is a big ole place, there’s plenty of room for gimmicks for everyone (there are approximately a gazillion other Marvel universes I didn’t even touch on) and most varied doesn’t always mean best. With that in mind, here’s a bunch of images from other universes, because what the hell is the point of a post like this if you don’t post random universes anyway.
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30 Days of Marvel: Day #21 - The most memorable death
People don’t die in comics, silly. Not permanently, at least. In fact apart from Uncle Ben (whose entire purpose was for a dramatic death) and Jean Grey (who’s all over the place mortality-wise anyway), there is only one key Marvel character whose death I particularly remember. (I’m discounting, for example, people whose much-hyped deaths essentially amounted to an extended stay in the Negative Zone or who actually just phased out of space/time due to a magic gun). It’s a predictable choice, probably the most obvious one, but hell, here’s the Death of Gwen Stacy (subtitled: Necks don’t work that way).
