Geoffrey vs. Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy

The year 2000. Mankind's certain doom at the hands of Y2K was narrowly adverted and we as a species slowly crawled from the wreckage to reclaim the future that was to be ours.

At least that's how I remember the pre-9/11 world. A time of wonders.

One of these wonders from this storied, nigh-forgotten past is the 6 issue mini-series Marvel Boy, written by my absolute favourite comics writer, Grant Morrison with art by the phenomenal J.G.Jones. Colours by Avalon Studios and Matt Milla.

This comic is the story of Noh-Varr, an Ensign on an alternate dimensional Kree diplomatic vessel. After a cosmic accident sets the shift adrift through the superstructure of the mutliverse, it ends up above the 616 Marvel Earth and is promptly shot down by evil corporate mastermind Dr. Midas. Midas is a kind of ur-villain. He wear a modified  prototype Iron Man armour, bathes in gamma rays like the Hulk, and eventually gains cosmic versions of all the Fantastic Four's powers. He is like Dr. Doom squared.

He also had a daughter named Oubliette the Exterminatrix, who self describes as the Lara Croft of evil.

The series is kind of divided into halves. The first three issues are semi-one shots. #1 sets everything up. The origin. And its great. Just as Midas is a delicious melange of villainy, Noh-Varr is the fruit trifle of Marvel heroes. He's a last-of-his-kind, fallen to Earth Kree warrior with altered DNA combined with insects outfitted with fantastic weapons and training. So he's Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, Namor and Thor.

Issue 2 plays up the Namor angle with Noh-Varr ransacking Manhatten, literally carving "FUCK YOU" across its face, all while keeping anyone form losing a life. This is an angry and unstoppable young man.

Issue 3 is probably one of the best Marvel comics produced. Ever. I say this knowing I am biased towards items with a particularly Morrisonian flair.In this issue we are introduced to Hexus, the Living Corporation. A cosmic level predator that destroys worlds through branding. There is a dizzy delight that comes from merely typing those words.

The back half of the miniseries is really a 3 issue fight between Midas and Noh-Varr, with Oubliette performing a face turn to join the side of...I don't want to say angels, because Noh-Varr in this series never really comes round to being on the typical good guy side. She is no longer on Midas' side. You can tell Morrison had an affection for her because she gets all the best lines.

Even though I am pushing 40 there is still a delightful frisson that comes from youth disrespecting age. Now get off my lawn.

The whole series has a real millennial vibe, one that you can forget infected everything back then, before the real end of the world in September 2011. And wow was this series forward thinking. Everything in here, the writing, art, characters, story, they are not necessarily timeless (though that is an element), they are more permanently contemporary. This series could have come out last Wednesday and it would fit right in with any comic being released today. Grant Morrison is really a master.

One of the things I loved most about this series, which leads on the ONLY disappointment associated with it, is the unfulfilled promise of more. Here's how it ended (uh spoiler alert I guess):

Noh-Varr in captivity promising to change the world into a new Kree empire with a post script promising Marvel Boy 2:001. That shit never went down.

I suppose it's not too late. Grant's off DC Comics for a bit now it looks like, doing his own thing. Hey Joe Quesada, back up the dump truck full of that sweet Marvel Movie Money and get Morrison back!

Though if he does come back to Marvel, I kinda would want him to do something new honestly. He already changed the X-Men and introduced Noh-Varr.

Noh-Varr was embraced as time went on, eventually becoming a member of the Avengers. I enjoyed those stories very much as well, but they still were missing what I feel is an essential element of his character: the potent rage at the system and the burning need to change everything. Not just slowly, but to tear it down and feast on the ashes. No writer has embraced the promise of this.

I can see why not associating a main character with a "Cosmic Jihad" would be a prudent turn after 9/11, but surely enough time has past that we can have our Space Namor back, yeah? It's a way better take on the character than a Motown-loving himbo. (Not that the Young Avengers version was entirely unsuccessful either).

Anyway, here's to the Way That Was and to the end of it.

Seriously, get off my lawn.

Geoffrey vs. Afterlife With Archie

I am no Archie aficionado. As a comics fan and long time comics reader, I know I must have owned Archie comics during my past, even if I never collected them. I am sure those grocery store digests must have made for some easy and disposable reading at some point in my life.

So while not an Archie fan, I am not a hater either. I guess I can appreciate the charm and admire the Jugheadian fantasy of being able to eat a seemingly unending plate of cheeseburgers.

Recently, the fine folks at Archie Comics, after over 70 years of accumulated stories, decided to spice up the already spiced up world of Archie by killing Jughead, turning him into a zombie, and having Riverdale overrun with a cannibalistic orgy of violence.

Just another day in the Afterlife with Archie!

I bought the first trade recently and was very, very impressed.

It's not played for laughs and a lot of the comic style hijinks from the regular comics seem to come across as being a bit more sinister. But it's also not played for grossness for grossnesses sake either.

The series is written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa with art by Francesco Francavilla. Aguirre-Sacasa is a writer and producer for the TV series Glee. I don't have much to say about Glee because I have never watched Glee. That's about all I know about Glee. I can sure tell you though that his writing on Afterlife with Archie is stellar.

I think it's ballsy to take a 73 year old perpetually teenaged wacky hijinks comic character and translate it into a dark, serious, mature work that echoes old EC Comics horror stories. Ballsy is kind of Archie Comics' brand these days though, as they introduce openly gay characters and give them their own series (Archie's pal, Kevin Kellar) and advance the plot through two different series exploring Archie marrying Betty and Veronica. The latter isn't as ground-breaking as the former but it is still pretty big when most of Archie's adventures seem to involve thwarting Reggie's attempt to cheat on a high school test while eating cheeseburgers at Pop's and mooning over the same two girls.

NEITHER HERE NOR THERE!

Back to Zombie Jughead. Juggy's dog Hot Dog gets run over and he approaches Sabrina the Teenaged Witch (sadly not played by Melissa Joan Hart - the only flaw in the story I think) to Pet Semetary the furry brute back to life. Faster than you can say "Necronomicon", zombie Hot Dog is spreading the undead cannibal plague all about Riverdale and a horde led by Jughead "Zombie" Jones is surrounding the surviving Riverdellians, holed up at Veronica's Lodge Manor.

There are dark character moments, strong action beats, scary and constructive uses of the zombie tropes, and really clever plays on 70+ years of character building that pay off even for casually Archie-aware readers, such as myself.

All round I have to say this is the best zombie comic I have read. Sorry, The Walking Dead. It's also one of the best horror stories I have read in a while too.

Now, about that art...

Holy crap do I love Francesco Francavilla's work!  GALLERY GO!

The above is his cover to Avengers Arena #16, featuring Cammi, a Marvel character. It's dark, retro, modern, dangerous...AWESOME!

Fantomex Max #1. It's Jim Steranko and Mike Mignola's art love child for this fantastic take on personal fave Grant Morrison's Danger: Diabolik expy Fantomex! AWESOME!

Check that out! Jason has never looked better! AWESOME!

I love how he uses red. And somehow he makes post-AvX Cyclops look like a Kirby-created classic. AWESOME!

This is just a piece Francavilla did for kicks. JUST FOR KICKS! This comic doesn't exist but I wish Steve McQueen had been Batman. AWESOME!

Here's a take he did for horror writer Joe Hill's novel N0S4A2. Which was the best horror story I have read in years. MORE AWESOME RED! Has he made some devil-deal to use the blood of angels in his art? I don't know and I don't care because it is AWESOME!

I forget what this was from. I think it was just a pin up in a What If?. AWESOME!

I love his art because it feels simultaneously modern and classic. Like I could have found this in 1922, 1952, 1982 or 2222. Timeless. These could be covers, panels, posters...they just work. The composition is so brilliant, with the lights and darks and OH MY GOD THE RED.

Yes I am gushing. But I have not found an artist I have enjoyed this much since Frank Quitely. (Aside: Laurence Fishburne looks like a living Frank Quitely drawing. Go ahead, watch an episode of NBC's awesome show Hannibal and tell me I am wrong. You cannot.)

Should it ever come to pass that someday I am a writer of illustrated fiction, I would love to work with Francesco Francavilla.

Ahem.

All that aside, I really did like Afterlife with Archie and I will definitely be following it in trades as it goes along.

New 52, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

I was out. Out of comics. Done. I don't remember the last one I bought. Sometime in 2007. I didn't leave for lack of interest (I was loving Grant Morrison's beginnings on Batman, frex) but for financial reasons. These little, colourful beasts were getting mighty pricey every month and I had a new fiance and debt to be paid and so many other number-crunching reasons that I had to leave my spandex clad amigos behind.

I am a geek though so I kept in touch. Comics would write and I would smile at their postcard. "Hey Geoff, this Bendis Avengers stuff is actually pretty fun. Wish you were here!" and "A new Fables trade just came out and it is faaantastic. Love to the wife and kid!" Stuff like that. So I heard about the end of the DCU and its rebirth after Flashpoint. I heard about it and I thought maybe this would be a good time to jump back in.

Having been away, I was really looking for some new thrills when I returned. Old stuff revisited and made new as well as twisted in a new way. I got most of the number 1s of the new 52. By month 4 I was down to maybe 10. By month 6, it was 6 (And this was the month I dropped Justice League, which as you may surmise from this blog's title is somewhat of a signature series in my comiclife.) As it stands now I am hovering at 4 new 52 titles. Grant Morrison's sublime Action Comics, Green Lantern, Red Lanterns, and Aquaman.

Really, what it  boils down to is that the New 52 isn't really that new. It seems a lot like the old  DCU except that...it isn't. The changes seem arbitrary. The characters sometimes are the same in motivation and personality and sometimes aren't. Huge, universe affecting details pop up at random (Really, Tim Drake was never Robin? Really? Really?) and there has been no expectation that there will be any real resolution.

A lot of this may have worked if the old DCU had actually ended. Which it didn't. It just stopped. The New 52 may be a wild ride, but I kinda wish I was back on the other roller coaster. The one where the comic universe is allowed to grow and change and reflect the new and the old.

Kind of like what Marvel is doing in spades.

Getting ready to move.

I have so many comics,man. Compared to some maybe not an insane amount but 9 long boxes worth seems like a lot to me.
The weirdest part is going through them and finding things I've completely forgotten about. I apparently have a couple years' worth of X-men from the late 90s. Before Grant Morrison's run. I had no idea.
Other finds include an early Ed Brubaker comic from 1995, the Vertigo one-shot Smells Like Teen President. One of my faves from back in the day. I'm going to read it again and see if I still love it.
This is I guess my first blog entry on a blog I set up a year ago to.review the New 52 DC comics which brought me back in to the world of comicdom. Neat. Maybe I will soon get to that story and how the New 52 would eventually come to Make Mine Marvel.