What I bought November 2016

Okay a couple of days late, but the order came in on 1 December.

Vigilante: Sounthland #2 by Gary Phillips & Elana Casagrande

After the first issue I was a bit hesitant to read this but this issue was definitely better and I followed it better.  We're still in the origin arc and it seems that there were other heroes who have operated here in the past including one who operated as The Eastsider.  I'm really starting to get into this story and I'm looking forward to the next issue.

Red One #3 by Xavier Dorison and Terry and Rachel Dodson

Colour me as sucker for female spies - Danger Girl, Black Widow, Modesty Blaise.  I was intrigued by this title produced for two issues a year.  I'd found issue 4 a couple of months ago and said lots of naughty words when no one had issue 3 - so I'm grateful to Secret Identity comics for ordering this in for me.  The idea of a Russian spy acting as an American superhero as a propaganda tool is unusual and I'm keen to see what next year's issues bring. 

Peepland #2 by Christa Faust and Gary Phillips and Andrea Camerini

A solid follow up to the first issue.  New characters and complications get added to the plot and I'm really enjoying this series.


James Bond: Eidolon #11 by Warren Ellis and Jason Masters

We're in the final stretch of this arc and Ellis is ramping up everything for a final confrontation.


20 Years of Tomb Raider by Meagan Marie

Wow it's been 20 years since the first Tomb Raider Game.  This is a beautiful overview everything Tomb Raider.  The Game not surprisingly take up half the book but Marie examine Books, Comics, novels, movies, cosplay, and the various fan activities such as Fan fic, fan art, fan films.  The various models, voices and musicians for the game are also looked at.

Even cooler is the fact that there is a flip book effect as various incarnation of Lara run,  jump and shoot as you flick though the book.

It's a big book and the type of companion that I love to have in my collection.

The Great Comics Reread: The Twelve

So a few years back one of the local comic shops had a moving sale every back issue $1.  Sweet I say and have a shopping spree.

Part of that haul was Issues 3-8 of The Twelve as well as The Twelve: Spearhead one shot and the zero and half issues.  A little bit of internet research told me that the series had not been finished.  J. Michael Straczynski (writer) had become in demand with Hollywood after the success of the movie Changeling directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Angelina Jolie.  The artist Chris Weston (who did Spearhead solo) also moved onto other projects.  The general consensus on the net seemed to be that we'd never see the end of the story then in 2012 the last four issues came out.

 The idea is that twelve characters from the Timely Comics era (and hadn't been seen since) were found in 2008 in a bunker in Germany in cryogenic suspension.  The military tries to make them think it's still the 1940s but the narrator The Phantom Reporter soon sees through that.  In many ways the scene is reminiscent of the end of Captain America: The First Avenger which came out three years later. 

Many of the reviews I read claimed that JMS was trying to do a Watchmen.  I can certainly see the similarities - one of the heroes is murdered at the end of the first issue.  The use of defunct characters (the original plans for Watchmen were just that - the MLJ and later the Charlton characters) and the old Timely characters. Some might even say that JMS later work on Before Watchmen bears this out.    I won't go into the merits of this but Watchmen would certainly appear to be an influence on this comic.

I liked the idea that Marvel was embracing some of their Golden Age heritage - except for Captain America and Sub-Mariner there were few characters that seemed to consistently used in the Marvel Universe.  Some of the Characters only appeared in one or two Golden Age Stories some had more.

I wasn't quite so fond of JMS retconning of the character's histories.  The Fiery Mask's origin is revealed to be completely false  for example completely trampling over the Joe Simon origin.  I though his handling of Rockman's origin was better leaving the reader to decide whether the new origin was true or not.

The Phantom Reporter had three identities Richard Jones, cub reporter, The Phantom Reporter and millionaire Van Elden.  The Van Elden identity is completely ignored. (The millionaire playboy fighting crime trope was a little overused in that time and perhaps made him too similar to Mr. E who was already in the Twelve)

It would have been a big problem but the zero and half issues reprinted several of the Golden Age stories so readers would have had the opportunity to read those stories and see the changers that JMS made.

Another thing that I had an issue with was that Twelve was a way to bring these characters back into the modern Marvel universe yet several of the characters were rendered useless for that purpose.  The delayed ending would not have helped in this regard.  Several were dead or presumed so (The Blue Blade, Dynamic Man, Rockman and The Fiery Mask) others seemed to be operating in secret (The Phantom Reporter, The Black Widow, Master Mind Excello, The Laughing Mask, Electro and The Witness) .  Me E had retired. 

Some like Electro and The Black Widow had new bearers of the name running around but a simple name change like (the original Daredevil now referred to as The Death Defying 'Devil  in new stories)

Overall,  I enjoyed the series.  I liked the idea of bringing back the classic characters and giving them a new life.

The pulp style covers were nice.

A few thoughts on a possible Black Widow film

Just after The Avengers came out, there was a quote from Joe Quesada basically saying that there was no female Marvel properties or actresses that could carry a solo movie franchise.


Not surprisingly this caused a wee bit of a stir.  The internet rattled off multiple characters and actresses who could do exactly that, the most obvious one that most people pointed to was of course the one female character and actress who had appeared in both Iron Man 2

 

and The Avengers

 

 

 

 

 

After seeing Captain America: The Winter Soldier and the announcement that we were getting a Black Widow at some point in the future (after Avengers 2: The Age of Ultron) 

 

I had to wonder if Marvel Studios was playing it carefully -  there had only been one Marvel based film with a female lead character Elektra (2005)  and it was not a success. 

 

 (A number female characters appeared in the  X Men films and Sue Storm The Invisible Woman had appeared in the two Fantastic Four movies but they were part of an ensemble cast) There had been one animated series starring a solo Marvel heroine Spider-Woman which ran for 16 episodes.

 

So Marvel Studios had little experience with their own properties.  How was their largest rival DC handling solo female superhero movies/TV/Animation?

 

After two failed pilots, Wonder Woman had a TV series that ran for three seasons (1976-1979), Isis (TV series 1975), Supergirl (1984), Birds of Prey (TV series 2002)  Catwoman (2004) Wonder Woman (2009) animated film. Wonder Woman had an unaired pilot in 2011.  Of all of these only the Wonder Woman TV series starring Lynda Carter might be considered a success.

 

Outside of the big two I'd be hard pressed to think of any successful solo female film or TV series.

 

So I wonder if Marvel Studios, is carefully introducing us to Black Widow expanding her role just a little bit more each role - A glorified cameo in Iron Man 2, part of the ensemble in The Avengers, almost equal co star in Captain America; The Winter Soldier (at least one review has suggested that the movie should have been called Captain America and Black Widow)  so that we as fans actively want a Black Widow film.

 

I could be overthinking it.