Marvel Civil War Event (collecting Marvel Civil War, issues #1-7)
writer, Mark Millar
pencils, Steve McNiven
colors, Morry Hollowell
letters, VC's Chris Eliopoulos
ISBN: 9780785121794
Read May 1, 2016
Graphic Novel Book Club read for May.
I really hope that I like the movie more than I like the comic event. This collection of seven issues has the core of the Civil War storyline, but as much of the character development and specific moments were parceled out into the individual characters' comic runs, the characters here are flat and dispirited and prone to making decisions that appear to be out of thin air, or changing their minds for what seems to be no reason. The artwork has lovely framing and is well-laid-out, but the combo of McNiven and Hollowell makes for characters who look like they are plastic dolls or an early cheap attempt at computer-generated artwork. Not my favorite look.
If you've been under a rock for a while, Marvel decided they needed a giant universe-roiling "event" and wouldn't it be cool if two of the major players in the universe were on opposite sides and got to fight each other! Yeah! Or something. So in the story world, some punk kid supers did something stupid, and then Tony Stark and Steve Rogers both reacted stupidly, and a whole bunch of forced decisions and rampant stupidity later, there was a big smackdown superhero fight (and some smaller ones) until things were sufficiently shaken up to make the Marvel head honchos happy.
Punisher gets some good moments (I especially liked Spiderman's poignant suggestion that Rogers and Castle are essentially the same soldier, but from very different wars and very different social responses). Spiderman gets shafted (when is that ever a surprise) and Doctor Strange gets the boot. Unsurprisingly, he, along with all the mutants, and Wakanda (at least at first), basically says "not my circus" when asked to choose sides. Steve doesn't really have a character, Tony's a giant bag of snarky comments and bad decisions, and SHIELD and the general public exist as a metaphoric stick to justify and consolidate shaky plotting.
Not the best, but if the cinematic universe continues as well as it's begun, I don't begrudge the source material.
Showing posts with label Iron Man. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iron Man. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Monday, August 31, 2015
New Arrival: Nonfiction: Marvel, The Avengers Vault, by Peter A. David et al
Marvel, The Avengers Vault
Peter A. David, designed by Katie Benezra
ISBN: 9781626862999
Hardcover pop-art history book with lots of lose-leaf inserts and reference materials.
This was a fun browse through Marvel history. I loved the design of the cover and of the book, but the fun of finding the little pages inserted randomly into the book was sadly ruined because we're a library, so we have to keep them all accounted for and noted.
The book itself has a fun flow, but it's organized in a way that makes it a little difficult to reference if you were looking up specific information. (There is no index, for example, and it could really use one.) First we get a brief tour through the history of the Avengers, then a chapter each on the current big four: Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk, and then a final chapter about Avengers on TV or in movies. There's even a roster of who was on the team when, and a breakdown of all the different major Avengers teams.
All of this of course in the current gaudy primary-color comics splash art style, with little sidenotes and bits of trivia sprinkled in.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Movie Novelizations: MCU Phase One, The Avengers, Alex Irvine
I found this in the bookstore and couldn't resist the lovely cover!
Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One, The Avengers
Alex Irvine
ISBN: 9780316256377
MG novelization of the 2012 movie, The Avengers.
To state the obvious first, this is an actual novelization of the film, and therefore has all of the scenes and events of the film in order, all the way to completion. This is not a "teaser" or a "movie storybook" with character bios or plot hints.
I was interested to see what sort of changes and omissions would be necessary to make The Avengers (overseas title: Avengers Assemble) into a MG-level book as far as content, and I have to say that I was impressed with the deft handling of the storyline, characters, and content.
I may possibly be a giant MCU fangirl, and so there were a couple of places where I have quibbles about the dialogue - please note that these aren't the places where certain not-so-PG comments are elided or rephrased, but other sections of dialogue that I felt were unclear or badly formatted. Dialogue is seriously difficult, and transcribing actual human speech, even in an environment as structured as a script, is even more difficult. It is impressive that Irvine got as much of Whedon's patter down in a manner I felt was satisfying, so the few bits I read as flubs sadly stood out quite a lot to me.
As far as the PG alterations, here's what I noticed:
1) Black Widow's introductory scene is handled beautifully by simply refusing to comment on her clothing.
2) In the scene with Barton, Loki, and Selvig, Loki's query as to what Barton needs garners a different response: "I need a distraction" he says, "and a biometric ID" instead of the slightly more disturbing comment in the film.
3) In related plot-developments, Loki doesn't gouge out any body parts in Stuttgart.
4) The Loki/Black Widow interrogation scene omits a certain nasty British imprecation.
5) Banner's despairing speech about Hulk's utter invincibility is left as an implication of suicide, with the actual description of his attempt left entirely out.
Now, oddly enough, despite all that, Cap still gets to call aliens "bastards" in the final battle, and I'm not sure if they just missed that one, or decided it was their single use and better make it a good one. It isn't like I mind language (although that it's CAP's language is especially amusing, given Ultron's running joke) but when it's the only instance in the whole book, it does become rather more noticeable and a bit jarring.
This one was super cute, and now I'm planning to hunt up the other ones.
Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One, The Avengers
Alex Irvine
ISBN: 9780316256377
MG novelization of the 2012 movie, The Avengers.
To state the obvious first, this is an actual novelization of the film, and therefore has all of the scenes and events of the film in order, all the way to completion. This is not a "teaser" or a "movie storybook" with character bios or plot hints.
I was interested to see what sort of changes and omissions would be necessary to make The Avengers (overseas title: Avengers Assemble) into a MG-level book as far as content, and I have to say that I was impressed with the deft handling of the storyline, characters, and content.
I may possibly be a giant MCU fangirl, and so there were a couple of places where I have quibbles about the dialogue - please note that these aren't the places where certain not-so-PG comments are elided or rephrased, but other sections of dialogue that I felt were unclear or badly formatted. Dialogue is seriously difficult, and transcribing actual human speech, even in an environment as structured as a script, is even more difficult. It is impressive that Irvine got as much of Whedon's patter down in a manner I felt was satisfying, so the few bits I read as flubs sadly stood out quite a lot to me.
As far as the PG alterations, here's what I noticed:
1) Black Widow's introductory scene is handled beautifully by simply refusing to comment on her clothing.
2) In the scene with Barton, Loki, and Selvig, Loki's query as to what Barton needs garners a different response: "I need a distraction" he says, "and a biometric ID" instead of the slightly more disturbing comment in the film.
3) In related plot-developments, Loki doesn't gouge out any body parts in Stuttgart.
4) The Loki/Black Widow interrogation scene omits a certain nasty British imprecation.
5) Banner's despairing speech about Hulk's utter invincibility is left as an implication of suicide, with the actual description of his attempt left entirely out.
Now, oddly enough, despite all that, Cap still gets to call aliens "bastards" in the final battle, and I'm not sure if they just missed that one, or decided it was their single use and better make it a good one. It isn't like I mind language (although that it's CAP's language is especially amusing, given Ultron's running joke) but when it's the only instance in the whole book, it does become rather more noticeable and a bit jarring.
This one was super cute, and now I'm planning to hunt up the other ones.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)