Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX #4 - Marvel Comics

GIANT-SIZE LITTLE MARVEL: AVX No. 4, November 2015

Despite documenting the twins’ exploits with both the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Inhumans, as well as the series’ diminutively-sized titular characters, Skottie Young’s all-too familiar storyline for Issue Four of “Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX” doubtless disheartened many of the book’s 28,025 buyers with its worrying repetitiveness and over-reliance upon endless panels simply portraying Iron Man, Cyclops and their respective team-mates furiously yelling at one another. Indeed, this seemingly incessant conveyor-belt of shouting, threatening, arguing and gesticulating even appears to get too much for the Inkwell Award-winner himself, who towards the end of the eighteen-page periodical goes so far as to have an extremely agitated Zachary and Zoe scream at everyone to “Shuuuuutttt Up!” as they’ve “had just about enough of all of you!”

Admittedly such reservations about essentially reading the same plot repeatedly over the course of a couple of comics doesn’t necessarily apply to the entirety of this publication’s narrative, with the American author’s decision to incorporate the wide-ranging physical enhancements of the Attilans’ mutagenic Terrigen Mist arguably producing some of the series’ biggest laughs yet; “Ha Ha Ha! Hey we’re the Inhumans! Join us and you’ll get hit with a green fart cloud, wrapped in to a rotten egg and turned into one of these! Ha Ha Ha!” But even this sequence ultimately results in yet another round of everyone just squawking at one another after Black Bolt flattens the X-Men’s sarcastic leader with a single sound, and Zoe matter-of-factly hints she is “thinking of jumping over the zombie wall and calling it a day.”

Potentially of far more interest is Young’s ‘last gasp’ suggestion that perhaps the twins would actually prefer to join the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants rather than one of the superhero teams. Swiftly attired in black capes and cowls, courtesy of the speedster Quicksilver, and surrounded by the villainous ‘cutesy’ likes of Magneto, Loki, Doctor Octopus, Ultron and Venom, this plot development seems a far more likely source of inspiration and levity than the Fairbury-born writer’s mundane re-treading of old ideas. Sadly however, such a diabolically intriguing opportunity is infuriatingly never actually explored on account of the mini-series ending without warning or resolution on that very splash page…

Words and Art: Skottie Young, Colors: Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Letters: Jeff Eckleberry

Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX #3 - Marvel Comics

GIANT-SIZE LITTLE MARVEL: AVX No. 3, October 2015

Containing an astonishing number of cutesy cameos including Devil Dinosaur, Red Hulk, She-Hulk, Fin Fang Foom and Lockheed the Dragon, Skottie Young’s humour-filled narrative for Issue Three of “Giant-Size Little Marvel: AvX” must have absolutely delighted its steadfast 32,003 followers in August 2015. Certainly, the twenty-page periodical’s script would have pleased fans of both “The X-Men” and “The Avengers” alike with its inclusion of the “Beast’s Science Lab”, “The Danger Room”, “Asgard”, Captain America’s “Boot Camp U.S.A.” and Jarvis’ reimagining of the Hulk-Buster into “The Iron Twinz!”

Somewhat disappointingly however, so very many ‘guest star appearances’ and swift location changes, aren’t particularly conducive to constructing a terribly elaborate storyline. Thus, whilst the Fairbury-born writer manages to keep things moving along swiftly enough, courtesy of giving the reader a tour of “The X-Tree Mansion” and The Avenger’s not-so secret Headquarters, it probably isn’t until the twins encounter both Galactus and his equally cosmic-powered companion, Thanos, that the former “Marvel Mangaverse” illustrator’s script finally gets interesting. In fact, apart from “the blue X-doggie-cat-thing” transforming Zachary and Zoe into a humanoid mouse and hulking brute respectively, both tours of the two super-teams’ clubhouses and their accompanying “all-out brawls” are actually pretty clichéd.

Fortunately, once the “giant kid with a very impractical headpiece” and “the flying kid sitting in a flying recliner” do make an appearance, Young’s ‘Little Marvel’ (Battle)world suddenly becomes an infinitely more intriguing place to visit on account of its most recently-arrived inhabitants discovering that the place is ‘protected’ by an all-encompassing unbreakable force barrier. This potential hint at just where the cartoon series tangibly sits within Emperor Doom's multi-title Battleworld is just the sort of ‘hook’ the Inkwell Award-winner’s storyline arguably needed, and of course, the magazine’s cliff-hanger panel featuring Star-Lord offering the twins a place alongside “the Guardians of the Galaxy” rather helps ramp up the publication’s pleasure factor too.

So crazy a comic book will always rely upon colourful, well-articulated visuals in order to help carry its audience along with the zany antics on show, and Skottie Young’s incredibly dynamic breakdowns, portraying a fast-moving ice-made roller coaster one moment and then a Sentinel-invading Savage Land double splash the next, more than succeed with just such a task. Indeed the America illustrator’s drawings of Nick Fury being ‘splatted’ by Hawkeye, and Thor subsequently ‘smashing’ an ice giant in the head with Mjolnir are arguably worth this publication’s cover price alone.

Words and Art: Skottie Young, Colors: Jean-Francois Beaulieu, and Letters: Jeff Eckleberry

Marvel Two-In-One #5 - Marvel Comics

MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE No. 5, September 1974

Despite Benjamin Grimm’s ‘team-up’ with the (original) Guardians of the Galaxy not actually taking place until two-thirds of the way through this Bronze Age comic’s narrative, Issue Five of “Marvel Two-In-One” is still absolutely packed full of wonderfully ‘over the top’ fist-fights and corny Seventies dialogue as The Thing, Captain America and “the woman he loves” Agent 13, face a seemingly endless supply of Steve Gerber’s wickedly unimaginatively named Zoms and “Earth’s new masters: The reptilian conquerors called the Brotherhood of Badoon”.

Indeed in many ways it is actually somewhat frustrating that Major Vance Astro, Charlie-27, Yondu and Martinex make an appearance in this story at all, as their ‘timely’ arrival upon an alien-infested world, also sadly ushers in a bizarrely abrupt climax to what was up until the superheroes’ brief attack against Lord Drang’s palace, a genuinely enjoyable read. Just why the Eagle Award-winner would try and encapsulate a citywide ‘revolution’ against the planet’s extraterrestrial masters within the space of just two pages is unclear. But having spent a considerable portion of the periodical depicting the “heroes of old Earth” clobberin’ the likes of Commander Ogg and his ray-rifle carrying lizardmen, it seems dissatisfyingly odd that the creator of “Howard the Duck” would then shoehorn in both the defeat of the metropolis’ green scaly “lordsire” and the departure of “three weary chrononauts” back “into the past” within the space of six small panels.

Mild disappointment at this book’s brevity aside however, Gerber’s writing proves to be remarkably entertaining, and even includes a somewhat inventive ‘recap’ for any new readers by having Captain America explain the events which lead up to “Seven Against The Empire!” via a memory probe’s vocal stimulator. The Missouri-born writer even manages to conjure up a remarkable rematch between “the orange-skinned one” and the “Monster of Badoon” by having Grimm triumphantly batter “ugly” senseless with the help of the “last survivor of Earth’s Jupiter colony.”

Sal Buscema’s artwork is equally as solid, and whilst the New Yorker predominantly relies upon the standard six-panelled sheet for the majority of his illustrations, that doesn’t stop him drawing some genuinely memorable moments, most notably that of Ben hurling a futuristic car into a horde of Zoms and Badoon, and the single splash of the planet’s resistance movement storming Drang’s fortified stronghold.

Writer: Steve Gerber, Artist: Sal Buscema and Inker: Mike Esposito

Guardians 3000 #3 - Marvel Comics

GUARDIANS 3000 No. 3, February 2015

It is quite easy to see why any fan of Star-Lord of Spartax would be downright disappointed with this particular edition of “Guardians 3000”. For not only does the issue sport a stunningly colourful and dynamic Alex Ross cover featuring the definitive version of the interplanetary policeman swooping into action with his element gun firing. But internally it boldly declares that the month’s story title is “Lord Of Stars”. Yet in reality, the character of King Peter only actually makes an appearance, albeit a highly dramatic one, within the last few of pages of the comic book.

However, any lasting sense of disillusionment over this ‘no-show’ will almost certainly be ‘swamped’ by broad bewilderment, as writer Dan Abnett begins feeding the reader with his somewhat implausible and incomprehensible explanation as to why the Peace Summit at the Hideaway Parliament was previously attacked and why the mysterious A-Sentience want the Guardians Of The Galaxy dead.

 

To be succinct the tech constructs, also known as the (Anthony) Stark, and heavily influenced by the outward appearance of the playboy inventor’s Iron Man armour, are afraid of the death of reality. The synthetic constructs are therefore hunting Geena Drake because they perceive the Human to be “part of the problem and part of the solution” due to her awareness of the progressive erosion of time. To make matters even more baffling a Stark Body Unit befriends Yondu Udonta, Charlie-27 and Drake, when it is informed that the Guardians have fought alongside the robot’s Progenitor a thousand years earlier.

 

Bearing in mind the destructive chaos and murderous slaughter the mind-controlled Badoon have wrought upon the galaxy in order to try and achieve the A-Sentience’s goal of destroying the space-faring superhero team, this seems an incredibly weak justification for the killer robot to suddenly just ‘swap sides’. It also does not explain, bearing in mind the machine forms part of the Stark ‘collective mind’ so therefore it now knows of the Guardians history with Iron Man, why the rest of the techno-organic species are still determined for the heroes to “Submit to A-Sentience”? As Drake would say Abnett is “freaking me the flark out.”

Unfortunately Gerardo Sandoval would appear equally as bemused and bewildered by the plot’s proceedings as his artwork is both inconsistent and at times dishearteningly poor. Admittedly the Mexican graphics designer provides a very strong cohesive visual image for the Stark Body Unit and the rest of the A-Sentience. But a number of his panels featuring Charlie-27 and Geena in particular, suffer from such pitiful pencilling that each character is endowed with some quite grotesque facial expressions.

The variant cover art of "GUARDIANS 3000" No. 3 by Gerardo Sandoval

Guardians 3000 #2 - Marvel Comics

GUARDIANS 3000 No. 2, January 2015

In many ways there is a strong sense of déjà vu with this comic’s storyline, a feeling predominantly due to the fact that “My Aim Is True” starts in an almost identical manner to the previous issue of “Guardians 3000” and continues along very lines for the first couple of pages. However this is not a case of self-plagiarism or lazy writing on behalf of Dan Abnett, nor does it stem from the need to regurgitate an earlier successful plot device in order to make this book an action-packed triumph either. It’s simply a chance for the character Geena Drake to provide any uninitiated reader with more background on the formidable super-powers of Vance Astro and cleverly show how the latest Guardian of the Galaxy is able to manipulate her knowledge of ‘this all happening before’ to positively influence events.

As a result proceedings, initially similar in nature to what Abnett has had occur before, swiftly start to veer away from the old and steer towards the new. For starters ‘Sweetgenes’ now carries a hefty looking firearm with which she noisily dispatches the odd Badoon warrior, and her brief warning to their allies within Parliament of an imminent attack provides the likes of Gladiator, Praetor of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, and King Peter, the Star-Lord of Spartax, just enough time to establish a defensive perimeter. Something the various delegations were unable to even contemplate when the Badoon originally ambushed them prior to the time-division. Plus the half-human half-alien Starhawk is now female...

This leads to some serious action-packed fire-fights, with all the Guardians ‘dishing out’ some serious destruction upon the invading A-Sentience and its warriors. Ultimately Parliament is still lost, as indeed is the Guardian’s starship The Captain America. But due to the apparent sacrifices of Stormfront and The Supreme Intelligence, the human Drake and her team-mates are still very much alive and where there’s life there’s hope…

Somewhat disconcertingly however all of these intense pitched-battles are inconsistently, yet still competently illustrated by Gerardo Sandoval, whose pencilling seems to have lost much of its discipline from his first contribution to this title. Indeed such is the dramatic and abrupt change in the quality of the artwork that I actually had to check to see whether the Mexican graphic designer had been replaced as penciler. He has not nor has the color artist Edgar Delgado been substituted either.

The variant cover art of "GUARDIANS 3000" No. 2 by Gerardo Sandoval

Guardians 3000 #1 - Marvel Comics

GUARDIANS 3000 No. 1, December 2014

Somewhat disappointingly known these days as the 1969 team, the “original defenders of the Galaxy” have always seemed to be one of the more readily forgotten groups of super-heroes within the Marvel Universe; apparently being far more popular as sporadic ‘guest stars’ in numerous titles such as “Marvel-Two-In-One”, than as the lead characters in their very own comic series.

However these ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ did enjoy a highly successful sixty-two issue-run during the Nineties and it’s clear, following the renewed interest in the franchise of their successors, that “Marvel Worldwide” are hoping to achieve something similar with “Guardians 3000”. 

Written by celebrated British author Dan Abnett, in many ways the brain behind the incredible rise in popularity of the modern spacefaring ‘Guardians’ roster, it would certainly seem that the American publishing company have resisted the temptation with this book to simply print a short-lived ‘cash cow’ title. For if the legion of followers of the “Black Library” novelist’ were not enough to ensure a competitive monthly copy sales figure, then the regular involvement of legendary cover artist Alex Ross should certainly warrant a healthy circulation statistic… and no-one has mentioned whether the comic itself is any good or not yet.

Fortunately it is very good, as Abnett uses a couple of reliable story writing ‘tricks’ to hook the reader from the first page. For starters it is written from the perspective of a new character trapped within the thick of an action-packed planetary invasion, who kindly provides a bit of exposition behind each of the ‘Guardians’ as she encounters them one by one. However more engrossing is the fact that the writer has each of the team members killed as the battle progresses. This not only leaves the reader utterly shell-shocked but also compelled to read on in order to ascertain just exactly why things have turned so very bad so quickly.

All of this tension and excitement is fantastically illustrated by artist Gerardo Sandoval, whose strong, almost cartoon-like stylised pencilling really brings some heroic dynamism to the action sequences. The illustrator’s interpretation of each of the ‘Guardians’ are also wonderfully drawn, with each displaying their own unique, though quite possibly ‘over the top’, physical characteristics and expressions. Indeed it is hard not to join in with Charlie-27’s joyous smile when the genetically engineered soldier smashes the heads of two Badoon warriors together during the opening encounter with the reptilian alien species.

The variant cover art of "GUARDIANS 3000" No. 1 by Skottie Young