#IReadsYou Review: STAR WARS #108

STAR WARS No. 108
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon. And visit the "Star Wars Central" review page here.]

STORY: Matthew Rosenberg
PENCILS: Giuseppe Camuncoli; Andrea Broccardo; Kerry Gammill; Jan Duursema; Stefano Landini; Luke Ross; Leonard Kirk
INKS: Cam Smith; Andrea Broccardo; Ze Carlos; Jan Duursema; Stefano Landini; Luke Ross; Leonard Kirk
COLORS: Chris Sotomayor
LETTERS: VC's Clayton Cowles
COVER: Walter Simonson with Antonio Fabela
VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: John Tyler Christopher; Michael Golden; Carmine Infantino and Dan Green with Dean White
52pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (July 2019)

Rated “T”

Marvel Comics is in the middle of celebrating some kind of 80th anniversary or birthday.  Marvel is 80 when you count the debuts of Marvel's “predecessors,” Timely Comics (1939) and Atlas Comics (1951 to 1971).  The declaration, “80 Years,” is currently emblazoned on the Marvel logo.

As part of the celebration, Marvel has been publishing a series of one-shots that act as a brief continuation of odd, off-beat, and forgotten Marvel and Timely comics titles (such as the recent Ziggy Pig - Silly Seal Comics and Gunhawks one-shots).  One of those one-shots, Star Wars No. 108, is a continuation of Marvel's original Star Wars comic book series, which was published from 1977 to 1986 for a total of 107 issues, three annuals, and the Return of the Jedi miniseries, which was a comic book adaptation of the 1983 film.

Star Wars #108 is written by Matthew Rosenberg, who divides the story into eight chapters.  The team of Giuseppe Camuncoli and Cam Smith draws the first four pages of Chapter 1, with Andrea Broccardo drawing the rest.  Chapter 2 is drawn by the team of Kerry Gammill and Ze Carlos.  Chapter 3 is drawn by Broccardo.  Chapter 4 is drawn by Jan Duursema (who drew numerous Star Wars comic books for Dark Horse Comics).  Chapter 5 is drawn by Broccardo.  Chapter 6 is drawn by Stefano Landini.  Chapter 7 is drawn by Luke Ross (who has drawn several Star Wars comic books for Marvel).  Chapter 8 is drawn by Leonard Kirk.  The colorist for this comic book is Chris Sotomayor, and the letterer is Clayton Cowles.

Star Wars #108 is a sequel to “The Crimson Forever,” which was published in Star Wars #50 (cover dated: August 1981) and was written by late Archie Goodwin and drawn by the late Al Williamson and Walter Simonson.  The story also features the character Valance the Hunter, a character that originates in Marvel's original Star Wars comic book and not in the Star Wars films.  Valance was created by writer Goodwin and Simonson and first appeared in Star Wars #16 (cover dated: October 1978).  Simonson, with colorist Antonio Fabela, provides the main cover art for Star Wars #108.

Other Star Wars comics-only characters appear in #108.  First, they are the bounty hunters, Jaxxon (a rabbit-like humanoid) and the female, Amaiza Foxtrain, both of whom first appeared in Star Wars #8 (cover dated: February 1978) and who were created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Howard Chaykin.  Another is the lead villain of “The Crimson Forever,” the vengeful Domina Tagge, who first appeared in Star Wars #35 (cover dated: May 1980) and who was created by writer Archie Goodwin and artist Carmine Infantino.

Star Wars #108, entitled “Forever Crimson” opens some time after the events depicted in Return of the Jedi.  The story finds Domina Tagge again seeking to use the mysterious twin red jewels to avenge herself on both the Rebel Alliance (now known as the “Alliance of Free Planets”) and the remnants of the Galactic Empire.  When separated, the jewels create a deadly plague called “the Crimson Forever.”  Now, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO must stop Tagge.  Jaxxon and Amaiza Foxtrain are allies-of-sorts to Luke and company, but they have their own plans.  And Domina's actions have inadvertently served to revive Valance the Hunter, but whose side is he on?

First, let me say that I am disappointed and somewhat upset that Lando Calrissian does not appear in Star Wars #108, especially because he was directly involved in the original story, “The Crimson Forever.”  That aside, this is a really nice way to celebrate and to remember – even honor – Marvel's original Star Wars comic book series.  For many Star Wars fans (myself included, dear readers), Marvel's Star Wars was the only way we got a regular Star Wars fix during the three-year wait between the release of the original Star Wars films.  [No newspaper local to me carried the very good Star Wars newspaper comic strip that ran from 1979 to 1984.]

Writer Matthew Rosenberg was also someone who was a big fan of those early Marvel Star Wars comic books.  His love for them shows up in “Forever Crimson,” which is true in spirit, tone, and storytelling style to those old Star Wars comic books.  We would be so lucky if Rosenberg produced sequels to other Star Wars stories from those bygone days.

The artists turn in excellent work, and Giuseppe Camuncoli and Cam Smith expertly mimic Walt Simonson's graphic style in their four-page retelling of the story of Valance the Hunter.  Luke Ross delivers his usual stellar work, and Leonard Kirk's closing chapter, with its Art Adams and Mike Mignola-like flourishes, gives us award-worthy art.

Superstar colorist Chris Sotomayor displays his wicked skills coloring seven different artists or art teams in bright colors that recall old-school Marvel comic book coloring.  And superstar letterer Clayton Cowles helps to give each chapter its own tone and atmosphere.

I was quite excited when I first heard about Star Wars #108.  It surpasses my expectations, and it makes me anxious to go back and reread those old Star Wars comic books.  That is high praise indeed.

This issue also includes an afterword in which several people who worked on the original Star Wars comic books recount, to editor Mark Paniccia, their experiences working on the title, some taking a paragraph or more to tell their story.  These include Jo Duffy, Ron Frenz, David Michelinie, Tom Palmer, Louise Simonson, and Walter Simonson.

8.5 out of 10

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


The text is copyright © 2019 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Review: UNCANNY X-MEN #600

UNCANNY X-MEN No. 600
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

[This review was originally posted on Patreon.]

WRITER: Brian Micheal Bendis
PENCILS:  Sara Pichelli, Mahmud Asrar, Stuart Immonen, Kris Anka, Chris Bachalo, David Marquez, Frazer Irving
INKS: Wade von Grawbadger, Tim Townsend, Mark Irwin
COLORS: Marte Gracia, Jason Keith, Chis Bachalo, Frazer Irving
LETTERS: VC's Joe Caramagna
COVER: Chris Bachalo
VARIANT COVERS: Art Adams with Jason Keith; Kris Anka; John Tyler Christopher; Olivier Coipel with Marte Gracia; Adam Hughes; Rick Leonardi and Dan Green with Jason Keith; Ed McGuinness and Dexter Vines with Val Staples; Paul Smith with Paul Mounts; Leinel Yu with Jason Keith
60pp, Color, $5.99 U.S. (January 2016)

Rated T+

X-Men created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

With the arrival of the “All-New, All-Different Marvel Universe,” X-Men comic books are entering a new era.  Apparently if all the incarnations of Uncanny X-Men are added together, the result is that 600 issues of comic books entitled Uncanny X-Men have been published.  It is that 600th issue that marks the end of something, if not an era, then, the end of Brian Michael Bendis' tenure as an X-Men writer.

Uncanny X-Men #600 opens at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.  Storm has called all the X-Men currently residing at the school to a meeting.  It's an intervention for Dr. Henry McCoy, or you can call it “The Trial of Beast, and Hank sure ain't feeling the love.  Also, young Iceman has a serious talk with adult Iceman.  Plus, a summons from Washington...

I found the Iceman/Iceman conversation to be heartfelt, and the Jean Grey-Beast meeting felt like something big.  The rest of “The Trial of Beast” does not amount to very much.  After months of delay, all readers get is this tepid tale – simple as that.  Considering the high-quality work that Bendis did on Uncanny X-Men and All-New X-Men, Uncanny X-Men #600 is quite disappointing.

B-

“Winter Carnival” (bonus story)

Writer: Mary Jo Duffy
Pencils: George Perez
Inks: Alfredo Alcala
Letters: Janice Chiang

As a bonus, Uncanny X-Men No. 600 closes with a reprint of the black and white story, “Winter Carnival.”  This 18-page story originally appeared in Bizarre Adventures #27.  This was the X-Men-themed issue of Marvel Comics' black and white comics magazine series that was published from the mid-1970s (under a different title) to the early 1980s.

The story finds Robert L. “Bobby” Drake a.k.a. Iceman as a visiting college student at Dartmouth College (an Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire).  The campus is covered in snow, which is appropriate as this is the time of year for the celebration known as “Winter Carnival.”  Bobby discovers that Iceman is needed when crime decides not to take the weekend off and join in the wintry fun.

I wish Mary Jo Duffy (also known as simply Jo Duffy) were still writing her character-centrist stories for either Marvel or DC Comics.  I don't think that she has written for either publisher in over a decade.  In this story, she allows Iceman to shine as a superhero, but she opens the interior Bobby Drake, depicting him as thoughtful and possessing of a personality and of a sparkling wit.

Many readers may not recognize the art in “Winter Carnival” as that of George Perez (I didn't.), as it has very little resemblance to the graphic style that would define Perez's career on works like New Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths, and Wonder Woman, to name a few.  However, readers will get a chance to see the talents of inker Alfredo Alcala, whose ink wash over Perez's pencils does not look as good on glossy paper as it would on some good old-fashioned newsprint comic books.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and  syndication rights and fees.

I Reads You Review: THE INCREDIBLE HULK AND WOLVERINE #1

THE INCREDIBLE HULK AND WOLVERINE #1
MARVEL COMICS – @Marvel

WRITERS: Len Wein, Mary Jo Duffy
PENCILS: Herb Trimpe, Ken Landgraf
INKS: Jack Abel, George Perez
COLORS: Christie Scheele
LETTERS: Artie Simek, Michael Higgins
EDITOR: Roy Thomas, Jim Shooter
EIC: Jim Shooter
COVER: John Byrne and Jack Abel with George Roussos
48pp, Color, $2.00 (October 1986)

In the summer of 1986, Marvel Comics published The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1.  This was a one-shot, single-issue comic book that reprinted The Incredible Hulk #180 and #181 (cover-dated November 1974).  Issue #180 (cover-dated October 1974) contained the first appearance of Wolverine, as a cameo in the final panel of the last page.  Issue #181 features the first full appearance of Wolverine.  Of course, Wolverine is a member of the X-Men and one of Marvel Comics’ most popular characters.

The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 also includes the short story, “Wolverine and Hercules,” which originally appeared in Marvel Treasury Edition #26 (1980).  “Wolverine: The Evolution of a Character” is an essay at the back of this comic book.  It is written by former Marvel writer and editor, Peter Sanderson, and details the creation of Wolverine and also provides a fictional biography of the character.  This text piece includes spot illustrations and other art drawn by John Romita, Paul Smith and Joe Rubinstein; John Byrne and Terry Austin; John Romita, Jr. and Dan Green; and Frank Miller and Joe Rubinstein.

The Incredible Hulk #180 finds the Hulk returning to Canada.  There, deep in the Canadian woods, the emerald behemoth finds himself caught in a conspiracy involving Marie Cartier and Georges Baptiste.  Marie’s brother, Paul Cartier, bears the curse that transforms him into “the hideous cannibal beast,” known as the Wendigo.

Marie has devised a plan to transfer the Wendigo’s form to the Hulk.  Events don’t follow her planning once Hulk and Wendigo engage in an epic battle.  Meanwhile, at a top secret Royal Canadian Air Force Tracking Installation, military authorities are not about to allow the Hulk to rampage through Canada again.  They’re sending something called “Weapon X” to take care of the green giant.

The Incredible Hulk #181 begins with Wolverine revealing himself to the Hulk and the Wendigo and launching himself into their battle.  This three-way fight devolves into a death match between the Hulk and the Wolverine.  Meanwhile, Georges Baptiste makes a fateful decision about him and Marie Cartier’s plan to save her brother from the curse of the Wendigo.

When The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 arrived on newsstands and in comic book shops, it gave me a chance to read the story in which Wolverine made his first appearance, and I was ecstatic about that opportunity.  I would read the story again in a single-issue facsimile reprint of The Incredible Hulk #181.

I long ago lost or sold my original copy of The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1, but a recent at sale at super comics retailer Mile High Comics’ website allowed me to get another copy.  I had forgotten that even with a $2.00 cover price, The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 was just a cheapie reprint.  At a time when comic book publishers, large and small, were moving to heavier and whiter paper stocks, Marvel Comics printed The Incredible Hulk and Wolverine #1 on newsprint.  The print quality ranges from mediocre to tolerable, and the colors don’t “pop” off the page the way they do today.  With newsprint, things like details, borders, and lettering can fade or even not fully print.

I think that at the time this was originally published Marvel Comics was printing anything that would help with their market share and that could make a lot of money with little investment.  The Hulk stories here were bought and paid for over a decade earlier, and who knows if the creators got any royalty payments from this reprinting.  Like I said, high return on low investment.

That aside, I like these old Hulk comics.  Writer Len Wein’s ability to create a compelling story out of monster comics and supernatural melodrama is a sign of the skill that made him a standout comic book creator and editor in the 1970s and 1980s.  Penciller Herb Trimpe, one of my favorites, mixes the dynamism and fury of Jack Kirby (who was obviously an influence on Trimpe) with the cartoon mysticism of Steve Ditko.  This is classic comic book art and graphical storytelling – monster comics and mystic mumbo-jumbo.

It is also fun to look at this early Wolverine-in-the-raw, which is practically nothing like what the character would become in the decades that followed his first appearance.  So I grade this comic book not on the cheap newsprint reproduction, but on the fun old comics.

B+

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux


The text is copyright © 2014 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for syndication rights and fees.

I Reads You Review: AKIRA, VOL. 3

Creator: Katsuhiro Otomo; Yoko Umezawa, Linda M. York, Jo Duffy (translation and adaptation)
Publishing Information: Kodansha Comics, paperback, 288 pages, $24.99 (US), $28.99 CAN
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-935-42904-3 (ISBN-13)

Kodansha Comics (through Del Rey Manga, apparently) recently released the third volume in their current English-language republication of Katsuhiro Otomo’s legendary manga, Akira. Just as the first two volumes did, Vol. 3 had me racing through nearly 300 pages of comics as if my life depended on it.

Originally published in the Japanese manga periodical, Young Magazine (from December 1982 to June 1990), Akira takes place in the year 2030 A.D. and is set Neo-Tokyo, the new city built upon the ashes of Tokyo. 38 years earlier, Tokyo was destroyed by a monstrous psychokinetic power known as Akira in a nuclear-like blast that also started World War III. Tetsuo Shima, a juvenile delinquent, begins to exhibit paranormal abilities, which brings him to the attention of The Colonel, the head of a covert government program that studies children with telekinetic powers. Tetsuo’s kidnapping thrusts his friend Shotaro Kaneda into this conspiracy.

As Akira, Vol. 3 opens, Akira, who actually a boy, is awake and is now the pawn in a deadly game of take-away. Kaneda, Rei the young resistance member and her associate, Chiyoko, rescue the boy from the clutches of Tetsuo, who awakened Akira in hopes of challenging his powers. Soon, however, other competing forces attain, lose, and regain the boy in a chase that culminates in a quite neighborhood, where a small war breaks out.

On the back cover of this third volume of Akira, there is a quote from comic book writer Warren Ellis (Red) that says, “Utterly unlike anything you’ve experience before.” A short sentence that speaks volumes of truth, that’s what it is. Praise Ellis! Testify!

There have been science fiction comic books with majestic art (like the works of French cartoonist/illustrator Moebius). There have been dystopian comics that are both great reads, highly acclaimed, and hugely influential (like American Flagg!, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, and Watchmen). They live in Akira’s shadow. The entirety of Vol. 3 is fantastic, but the last 60 pages have a visual power unparalleled in comic books. I think we would have to reference motion pictures in order to quantify Akira’s visual power. Right now, I’m thinking that this is the greatest comic book ever.

A+

I Reads You Review: NARUTO, VOL. 4

Naruto: Volume 4: The Next Level

Creators: Masashi Kishimoto; Jo Duffy (English adaptation)
Publishing Information: VIZ Media, paperback, 184 pages, $7.95 (US), $11.95 CAN
Ordering Numbers: ISBN: 978-1-59116-358-9 (ISBN-13); 1-59116-358-7 (ISBN-10)

Those in-the-know know that the star of Naruto, the hugely popular shonen manga by Masashi Kishimoto, is Uzumaki Naruto. When he was a baby, his body became the prison for a destructive nine-tailed fox spirit. Because of this, older villagers spurned him, but now, Naruto is an attention-seeking, ninja-in-training with dreams of being his village’s Hokage (champion).

Naruto, Vol. 4 concludes the storyline that found Cell Number 7: coach/teacher Hatake Kakashi, Naruto, and his classmates, Uchina Sasuke and Haruno Sakura, on a mission to protect a bridge builder in the Land of Waves. Gatô, a millionaire crime lord, is determined to stop the builder, Tazuna, from constructing a bridge that will bring prosperity to the Land of Waves, as well a usurp Gatô’s power. Gatô hired the ninja assassin, Zabuza, to kill Tazuna. However, the end comes via two bloody battles: Kakashi vs. Zabuza and also Naruto vs. Zabuza’s exceptionally talented apprentice, Haku.

When Team Kakashi returns to the ninja village of Konohagakure, it is near the time of the Journeyman Ninja Selection Exams, which brings in ninja from other villages to Konohagakure. That’s when Naruto and friends meet a group of fellow young ninja-in-training from the mysterious Land of Sand.

The fourth volume of Naruto exemplifies creator Masashi Kishimoto’s ability to balance the need for violence (because Naruto is, after all, about ninja) and his penchant for humor and silliness (best personified by the title character). I often compare Naruto to the Harry Potter franchise, which blends multiple genres and moods into what is basically hard fantasy. Naruto does this. It is not just about fights, battles, magic, and ninja. It is also a drama about the bonds of friends, rites of passage, amazing people, fantastic creatures, and life. Naruto’s juvenile nature and attitude does not hide the truth that this is an exceptional comic book series.

A-