Thor: God of Thunder 23, Silver Surfer 3

Thor: God of Thunder 23
Aaron (w) and Ribic (a) and Svorcina (c) and Sabino (l)

Thor fights the Minotaur, now fully transformed, and a legion of trolls with some help from Roz Solomon while, far into the future, King Thor teams with All-Black the Necrosword and, with the aid of his granddaughters, fights off Galactus. In the present, the more pressing storyline, Thor, able to unleash his true power on the Minotaur without the worry of Agger's lawyers or perception as a good guy, defeats Minotaur, though loses track of him, allowing Agger to return to human form and move on.

Strong issue for the book to pause on as THOR: GOD OF THUNDER and LOKI: AGENT OF ASGARD are put on hold to team together for THOR AND LOKI: THE TENTH REALM. Though Agger is not yet out of Thor's hair, it's a nice win for the thunder god as he realizes how hard corporations can be to beat. Some of the writing in this issue is exceptional, some is a little choppy at times, but it's overall certainly an easy and worthwhile read, not least because of Ribic and Svorcina.

Total Score: 4/5


Silver Surfer 3
Slott (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c) and Cowles (l)

Dawn leads Silver Surfer to the Never Queen's heart and Silver Surfer uses the power cosmic to keep the Impericon together while the civilians and hostages therein flee. Dawn is tasked with bringing the heart back to the Never Queen and, with the help of some of the freed hostages, succeeds as Surfer bests the Incredulous Zed in combat, unintentionally killing him in the process. Eh, couldn't be helped, right? Anyhow, Surfer and Dawn set off to return to Earth as the Never Queen and her beloved Eternity are reunited.

In just its third issue, Slott and the Allreds continue to make a push to keep this book rather light and fun, even if there are dark moments or tones. It embraces the fantastical and demands the audience revel in it rather than be confused or overwhelmed by it. It's a book that knows itself and both wants to give the audience something worth reading but also not take itself too seriously (as such, you get nods to how crazy it is that the power cosmic ends up occasionally being some sort of undefined panacea). Sometimes the tone of, say, Silver Surfer gets a little muddled in this, unsure if he's that classic, seemingly cold character or if he has a sense of humor that rarely comes out, but I think that's something that will define itself more in time (though, you could also argue, it's already defined itself because the past doesn't matter, that what's in this book is the definition). Slott is very clearly having fun with this new series and the Allreds were a perfect team for this blend of fun and fantastical.

Total Score: 5/5

Fraction leaving Fantastic Four and FF after their next issues

Bit of new news coming in that I could probably wait til tomorrow to say since I'm planning to review F4 tomorrow but Matt Fraction will be leaving both Fantastic Four and FF after their next issues (F4 12, next after this week's, and FF 11). I have rather a lot of faith in Marvel and their ability to replace talent on books successfully but I won't act like this doesn't sadden me. The reason given, as is stated in the article above, is that Fraction is leaving because his schedule is too packed as is (particularly with Inhumanity and other books coming up from Marvel). Seems legit. It's still unfortunate. Fraction's run on both books have been truly great and both books have a renewed sense of fun and of self-awareness. Fantastic Four has really gone back to its roots (in a lot of ways) and has established itself again as Marvel's first family, really making the book about the family and the problems they have. I'll be interested to see where the book goes, though I don't entirely know what the plans are and how they'll be presented going forward. Christopher Sebela (I believe; the article reports it as Selba but I don't think that's a person) is co-writing F4 11 (reviewed tomorrow!) and Karl Kesel will step into the book afterwards. Meanwhile, Lee Allred will pick up the writing reins of FF for issue 12, making the credits to the few issues they're all on Allred (w) and Allred (a) and Allred (c). Weird, you guys.

Still, pretty sad about this. Fraction is a shining star in comics and it hurts to have him leave a book that's been so good under his watch, let alone two separate books. Happy to give him a break, though. I'll allow it. At least it's not Hawkeye, am I right?



EDITED TO ADD: Not totally sure about this bit of news either (a cursory Google didn't find me anything) but Mike Allred says he's at least on the book to issue 16 but also said that he's there until "it's intended conclusion." Is Twitter trying to tell us that FF is done after 16?

FF 10, Venom 38

FF 10
Fraction (w) and M. Allred (a) and L. Allred (c)

Plenty going on here, but first and foremost, let's talk about things that are meta. Meta, as comic readers probably know, refers to a situation wherein a work refers to itself, usually pretty directly. Hey guys, this book is pretty meta. There's a storyline in this issue where, in an attempt to counter bad publicity, Darla brings her publicist to talk to the team about creating a comic book based on the FF. The people the publicist brings over from Marvel Comics are editor Tom Brevoort, the writer Matt (as in Fraction), and the artist Mike (as in Allred). They then all go on a fantastic journey together, shrinking down to see the wonders of science at a microscopic level. Meanwhile, old Johnny Storm suspects that Alex Power has been dealing with Doom and Doom tells Alex to kill Storm, lest something horrible happen to Power's parents. A handful of the FF kids, led by Ahura and Alex, then go to see Maximus the Mad in response to Alex's question of whether or not they knew anyone who'd ever killed somebody.

I tend not to like serious works that are so self-referential to the point of taking the audience out of it. I don't think this book is so serious, for starters, but it's serious in that it comes out with a new plot every month and the characters are serious characters within this context, in that they are characters who exist in this world. However, I don't mind it here as, for starters, Fraction is fairly self-deprecating in this issue and pokes fun at his job a fair amount. More than that, of course there are also comics in this world. One of the interesting ideas behind Alan Moore's Watchmen series is that there's a big story-within-a-story where a kid reads a pirate-based comic book and the thought is that, with so many real superheroes in the world, kids read comics about pirates, preferring not to read stories about the people they hear about daily in the news. I don't really buy it but it's an interesting idea. I think, more like this story posits (and other comics have posited before), that these people are heroes in this world and, though more commonplace, still the stuff of legend, meaning that kids would still be gobbling them up, maybe more so. Maybe fewer kids would be allowed to read comics but whatever, now we're getting too deep into it. I'd be interesting to know if someone less familiar with Fraction as a person (I'm not connected to Fraction in any way, obviously, but being as invested in comics has led me to most of his work and to all of his online stuff, which create a personality that I kind of love) would find this issue as charming. The most important part, though, is that dropping real humans from our universe into the Marvel Universe means, logically, that we are all in the Marvel Universe. Sure we're not the superheroes but GUYS, I'm in the Marvel Universe.

Venom 38
Bunn (w) and Jacinto (a) and Loughridge (c)

Venom needs help in his war against Lord Ogre, who has some impressive resources at his disposal, including a seemingly endless number of hit men to attack Venom. Flash has decided to get some resources of his own and he's fortunate enough to have all of Katy Kiernan's contacts at his side. Venom, he feels, can no longer work solo out in Philadelphia. He needs help in any form he can get it. That becomes doubly apparent when Jack O'Lantern reveals himself again, showing up in Flash's apartment while Venom is out in the city. Unfortunately, he shows up at the same time Flash's neighbor (and student) Andi tries to go talk to him about what she saw in gym class (when he accidentally revealed to her that he's Venom). Jack promptly attacks her, following her back to her own apartment where Venom crashes in to enter the fray. Big surprise ending here that I won't spoil for you but that's worth reading.

I think this is far and away the best book Bunn has done for Marvel so far. I don't think he's a particularly weak writer in any respect but I don't tend to love his work elsewhere. He had a short run on Captain America before one of its rebrandings and he's worked the Deadpool Kills series and Fearless Defenders. Deadpool Kills, at least in its last iteration and maybe in this one (we're only one issue in) has been interesting enough for a throwaway book but i haven't really warmed up to Fearless Defenders yet (including the newest one, spoilers for Saturday's reviews). However, Venom through and through has been a pretty solid book. I think there have been a few waste issues that weren't the best but overall it's been a solid series and it's really encapsulated everything that made the book interesting under Remender while pushing forward in its own unique way (also, it showed a town in Massachusetts this one time that's right next to my hometown and, considering what we learned in FF this week, was therefore officially the closest I've ever come to getting into a Marvel comic book). This issue is no different as we get an interesting side of Flash, realizing that he needs help out here and that the problems of Philadelphia are bigger than his own personal demons so looking for help isn't any sort of negative on him. The twist at the end was very interesting and sets up next issue pretty well, giving us something (hopefully) to look forward to. It could, as nearly any story, go horribly wrong, of course, but there's reason to be optimistic.