Geoffrey vs. Velvet Volume 1: Before the Living End

This post will kinda sorta violate the ethos behind these blog posts. Since I have yet to publicly define the ethos of this blog, I shall do so now.

When it comes to talking about comics, or indeed any form of so-called "geek media", so much of what is written is negative. It's just nerdrage after nerdrage about everything from Pakistani Ms. Marvel to J.J. Abrams on Star Wars and blah blah blah. If you are a geek/nerd/some other identifier that gets what I am talking about, you know what I mean. You've probably done it. Nerdraged. I know I have.

If I am going to spend time writing about comics, which I love, I am not going to indulge in this. It's low-hanging fruit to come up with witty barbs with which to sting the hands of those who would craft these geek media artifacts which I may scorn.

This blog is only for me to write about comics (and maybe other stuff too but for now comics) that I love. I sorta dropped the ball on that in my New 52 post, which was not overly negative but really did indicate my feelings about the failings of the...see? There I go. Not gonna do it.

So. Comics I love.

Which brings me to Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting's Velvet: Volume 1 - Before the Living End.

I decided to try some creator owned stuff. I picked three comic writers that I genuinely enjoy and ordered the first trades of some of their series. All coincidentally Image publications. The already mentioned Velvet, Bedlam by Nick Spencer, and Rick Remender's Black Science.

Since I paid for and read all three, I feel like I want to write about all three, even if my level of love for the three works is varying and therein lies the violation in a kinda sorta way.

I did not love Velvet. I guess I liked it well enough. Epting's art (colours by Elizabeth Breitweiser) is wonderful. The character of Velvet Templeton is different and compelling (a middle aged bad ass female spy). The rub is that I guess I do not love pure espionage stories. This work seems very old school James Bond. The story turns, while not being maybe that surprising, are well told and since this is but the first chapter of an ongoing, I suppose it could surprise the reader well enough down the line.

So. Lukewarm? Yeah, I guess. I was kind of disappointed. I LOVED Brubaker's run on Captain America and have loved some of his other work. I really felt the ball was in my court for loving Velvet.

I'd still recommend it to people who like pure espionage stories. I am not super familiar with the genre, as it leaves me cold, but this does seem like a comic that would really blow someone into that kind of thing away. I honestly think my parents would LOVE it but getting them to read graphic fiction would be a huge feat. I will probably try anyway.

I really want to support creators of work I love and I genuinely feel bad that I did not like this as much as I was thinking I would going in.

Geoffrey vs. Ed Brubaker's Captain America

I was into Captain America long before I ever started being into comics. I can remember throwing frisbees and pretending they were the shield. Also garbage can lids.

I think my appreciation of Cap goes back to this:

This little black and white softcover paperback was bought for me on a camping trip probably in 1982, the year it was released. So I would have been 7. This book contains a two part story about Captain America fighting a Nazi vampire, and a 1 part story about Cap running for President. Story by Roger Stern, art by John Byrne.

This panel:

Probably is the one that sold me on superheroes in general. Buncha good guys I had no clue about, bunch of obvious, creepy bad guys...to this day I thrill at panels like this. These issues are why Union Jack and Spitfire remain some of my Marvel faves, even though they are definitely lesser lights of the superhero universe.

These issues were originally in Captain America 250 and 253-254. If I still had this book, I think I would give it a read tonight. Instead I will read it on the Marvel Unlimited app sometime soon.

Oh check out this panel:

Awesome.

My favourite run of Captain America, this time in my early years of comic collecting in North America, is probably the mid-late 300s of the series, so late 80s and early 90s. This stuff was written by Marc Gruenwald with art primarily by Kieron Dwyer and Ron Lim. The Bloodstone Hunt, from issues 357-362 pretty much defined how I like my superhero stories.

And Cap's Rogue's Gallery! Man, it is awesome. It is an often overlooked one but it contains some great villains. Red Skull (mais oui), Arnim Zola, MODOK, A.I.M., Baron Zemo, Strucker, Hydra, Viper, Batroc the Leaper, the Serpent Squad, Crossbones, Mother Night, Flagsmasher, Sin...these are seriously bad people, as well as being complex characters.

Anyway so I love Captain America blah blah blah.

So why did it take me so long to get around to reading Brubaker's acclaimed run? Well I like Brubaker as a writer (as mentioned before, his Smells Like Teen President is a long standing fave of mine...). I like Cap. What was the deal?

Bucky. Cap's teen sidekick, dead since WW2, and jokingly referred to as the one Marvel guy who doesn't come back from the dead. Well Ed Brubaker brought him back from the dead and made him a Soviet era hitman.

I was kinda Meh to that idea.

With the release of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, I thought I might delve into the Marvel Unlimited archives and finally read the Winter Soldier storyline. See what was what.

My expected 6-12 issue read turned into a marathon 100 issue festival of shield slinging red, white, and blue.

Like all other great superhero comic stuff, this run takes the best parts of the past and spins them up modern. The changes are the stylistic story elements, not the story substance. Given Brubaker's success with crime style comics, I guess I kind of expected a lack of superhero type stuff, but nope. It's all there. And all rooted firmly in the Marvel Universe. Serpent Squad, Crossbones, Red Skull...and he even goes superhero nuts with the concepts, giving the world Zola-Skull, which is a simultaneously goofy and terrifying image, and MODOCs, and just plain fun stuff that felt modern and mature.

My largest concern, Bucky's return, was handled with what I guess should have been expected skill. This was no hack job. That guy came back, he earned his return and he redeemed his checkered past. And he was a different Captain America during his time in the suit too, but was still a really solid Captain America.

It was great. I wish it could have gone on forever.

Oh and Steve Epting's art, as well as Butch Guice and Alan Davis and everyone else, was all just wonderful.

Read it when you can. It's all TPBed up or also available digitally through Marvel.com or on Marvel Unlimited.

PS: Even squeezed in Diamondback.  Sweet.