10.26.11 Reviews (Marvel Edition)

I’d planned on putting these reviews up much sooner, but as soon as I was finishing them up, the hard drive on my laptop crashed! I lost the document, so here’s basically what I remember…

Secret Avengers #18 (Marvel): There are so many concepts in here that are trademark Warren Ellis. Things like “transmatter” retaining its illogical physical properties regardless of the universe it’s currently in, and “bad continua” spinning off from the crystalline entity that is the multiverse. For anyone who loved David Aja’s run on Immortal Iron Fist with Matt Fraction, you know he’s well suited to tell a story involving Shang-Chi. The line weight here is thicker, which adds more gravitas than the light popcorn entertainment disposable feel that earlier issues of this series have had. These guys have really mastered the art of the classic “done-in-one” story. Ellis is throwing in more rich storytelling shards here than most series see in their entire run. Hello, Warren Ellis is writing Avengers y’all, with some of the most interesting and underrated artists around, and nobody seems to be talking about it! Grade A.

Wolverine & The X-Men #1 (Marvel): I really like Chris Bachalo’s art here, which seems to be easier to parse than some of his more stylized work I’ve seen in the past, I’m thinking of things like DC’s The Witching Hour. Jason Aaron does a great job paying homage to many of the more popular runs of X-Men comics in the past, really bottling that energy, but then taking a huge bold forward-thinking leap forward in a move that could really be a continuity marker. I hope it sticks. The framing device of the state education inspectors plays a little heavy-handed and dense at times, but I’ll probably stick with this for a few issues. He really nails the portrayal of Kitty Pryde. This isn’t the Sprite or Shadowcat girl we grew up loving. This is Headmistress Pryde, standing right alongside Headmaster Logan at the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning. She’s all grown up, marked by her time in Astonishing X-Men. She’s an educated, experienced, and confident woman. Another treat is the backmatter, including an org chart of sorts that reminded me of this Game of Thrones visual. Grade A-.