WRITING FOR THE TRADE

Something occurred to me the other day that here on Comic Book Quickies we sometimes say that a comic has been written for the trade. I'm sure most of you that come here know what a trade is but if you don't then by that we usually mean that a comic's being written slow paced and usually about six issues to an arc. Most comics are like this these days. It means that it can be easily collected into trade paperback which are the comics you'll find in book shops like Waterstones or what have you. That's all fine and dandy but when we say a comics been written for the trade we mostly mean it as bad thing. See if you have been following our flagship series comic book quickies you'll see that we buy our comics weekly and when a comics been written for the trade its a bit of a bugger to read cuz these comics aren't self contained stories but are just one part of a larger story so it can take six to seven months to read a full story and that's a bloody long time. That's like half a year! It's not always a bad thing but it's most definitely a thing that exists.

So let's try something new! Lets do a comic book quickies for trades and lets start with the most tradey writer out there, Brian Michael Bendis and since there's a new Ultimate Spider-Man just starting out why don't we take a look at the very first volume of Ultimate Spidey?

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN VOL 1: POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY

Written by Brian Michael Bendis art by Mark Bagley

Yup it's ultimate Spider-Man's origin story alright. So firstly Ultimate Spider-Man is a retelling of the Spider- Man story set in an alternate world from the main Marvel universe. The Ultimate Universe came about when the Marvel big-wigs thought to themselves that their main line of comics had too much continuity behind it which made it hard for new readers to get into so they decided to make a new line of comics where everything was new and shiny. And so the Ultimate Universe was born. This might be one of the first trades I ever bought. It's basically my gateway drug into comics so it has done its job as being a good starting point for new readers. Basically it's Peter Parker in high school. And it is glorious. Most of the time.

As you would expect this first volume is Spider-Man's origin set in the modern day so instead of the spider that bit Peter being radioactive it's instead genectaly engineered. That's one of the things about the Ultimate Universe - most of the heroes and villains get their powers from science that was trying to recreate the super solider serum that made this worlds Captain America. So in this story it's Norman Osborn and his attempt at the super solider formula that created this Spider-Man and turned him into the Green Goblin and as we'll see in later volumes made Doc-Ock too. So it's pretty niffty that everything is all tied together like that at the start.

So we all know the story, Peter gets bitten, his beloved uncle gets shot by a dude he could have stopped earlier so he dedicates his life to fighting crime. That happens here over seven issues. See that's where the whole writing for the trade thing comes in. I couldn't imagine what it was like to read this when it first came out monthly, I mean it probably was still kick-ass but it just works so much better as a trade. See if you were reading this monthly then it would take you seven months for you to see Spider-Man actually fight the Green Goblin or about five months for uncle Ben to die. That's crazy! So that why it works better as a trade, instead of a seven month wait you can read it all at once making the story feel complete.

The characters are staggeringly solid and that's one of the benefits of the slow pace. Here we actually get know uncle Ben before he gets shot and yeah he's a pretty cool if a wee bit hippy-ish. UltimatePpeter Parker's pretty much the geeky wise cracker you'd expect and yeah he does have his emo teen moments even before Ben's death but he gets over it pretty fast. One of the really fun things that I thought was cool was that Peter actually enjoys having superpowers which may be a dumb thing to say but all to often in comics do we have people that are all like “I just wanna be normal!” man that kinda thing sucks. The Norman Osborn here is a bastard. That's pretty much it. Oh and he's green Hulk that can shoot fireballs. Yeah that pretty much it.

How could I get this far down without talking about the art? Well it's damn fine. Bagley's perfect for the book. It's all cartoony yeah but awesome cartoony and since it's a Bendis book it's always very talky, Bagley's art is perfect for that. It's so good and Bagley lasted for so long on the book it's not really worth talking about. The art in Ultimate Spider-Man is only a talking point when Bagleys not working on it.

So this is indeed a great trade and a great start to a great story that just gets better and better as the years go on. Shame Peter's dead now. Or maybe he's just hiding : D

BUY IT !!!

The real comic book quickies 23/10/11

So have your comics been gid these last few months? Ours certainly have! Let me tell you about them!

FEAR ITSELF BOOK 7

Written by Matt Fraction art by Stuart Immonen

Well that's this year's marvel event over. I say that but the fallout's probably gonna run into next years event. Well this book has been crazy awesome - much better than flashpoint.The way I always put it is that Fear Itself had the better main book and Flashpoint had the better tie ins. Though now that I think about Flashpoint did have THOMAS WAYNE,  so I'll have to think about this for a bit. So this issue is the final battle with the Serpent and that was purty cool and it did have a few awesome moments that I won't spoil here besides the fact captain America has gone completely mental AND awesome! And Thor died. That's not a spoiler we knew months ago. And it wasn't a bad death, he died fighting the Serpent who was a dragon at the time and died pretty much like a Klingon. It's just that it doesn't seem like the Serpent actually hurt Thor in anyway - not a scratch. If it's a thing where if one dies the other dies it's not made that clear. The other thing is that we know Thor will be back, it's Thor he's not going stay dead for any amount of time and on top of that he's going to be back in time for the avengers movie. Marvel's not that mental. Yet. Now about that fallout I mentioned earlier, this comic has four epilogues. Basically, they are all just ads for 
up-coming comics and mostly aren't all that bad but that bloody first one god damn it's dumb. Sin's free. Ahagfshshsgzshashjgz!!! In the same bloody comics she's defeated in. AGHHGHGH! Still a good comic overall though.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #2

Written by Geoff Johns art by Jim Lee

MUCH better than the first issue. Last issue was way too slow but this issue picks up the pace and generally feels more action packed and fun. It's more of putting a team together and that's always fun. Best bit of the comic is when Hal Jordan calls up the Flash and's all like" DUDE HELP IMA FIGHTING SUPERMAN GONNA DIE NEED URS HELP". Much fun was had by all. We get to meet Cyborg's dad this issue. He's Gendo from evangelion. With #1 I wasn't getting all the love for Jim Lee's art but here it does feel more solid. The gumff at the back of back of the book lists Batman and Superman's first appearances as Justice League #1. That's kinda sick.

AVENGERS #18

Written by Brian Michael Bendis art by Daniel Acuna

WHYYYYY BENDIS? WHYYYYYY??? Kidding - it wasn't that bad. So finally after a looong looooong time the endless onslaught of pages of nothing but panels of the Avengers' faces talking at the camera has stopped. It's over. It took seven months. But its done. For now anyway, I'm sure it'll be back soon enough. I might cry. Anyway this is a comic of two parts, the first half is about a disgruntled SHIELD agent secretly gathering DNA samples of the worlds heroes. That's all fine and dandy but it means we have to sit through splash pages of past Marvel events and that includes Civil War and that's just painful. Marvel I was happy to just be all like "yeah Civil just never happened or just quietly sweep it under the rug when the Heroic Age happened so please don't bring it up now, OK?". The second half is your standard Bendis putting a team together story. Loads of heroes stand in a room blah blah blah.

Oh and Norman Osborne is free now. That's just dumb.

BLUE BEETLE #2

Written by Tony Bedard art by IG Guara

Ever see the movie star kid? Probably not. It was a kids film about this suit of alien power armour that is sent to earth for some reason and a kid finds it. Hilarity ensues. That's kind of what this book is about. This issue was much more fun than last, here we actually get to see the Beetle fight some dudes and that's always fun. I hear a lot of people saying this books treading a lot of past ground but I never read the old Beetle's series so I'm finding it fun. It's one of the few books of the New 52 that's a proper origin story which is a nice change and was probably done as most people don't know that much about this incarnation of the Beetle or maybe the Blue Beetle in general plus it'll make Jamie more of a rookie. There's also this alien army thing out in space that's cocooning planets. In issue 1 they only appeared in the past and it kind of looked like the Green Lanterns knew about them and were dealing with them but they turn up in the present day this issue and are still cocooning planets which is odd. I get that space is BIG and all and that there are only so many GL's but come on lads cocooning planets must kind of a big thing right? Crazy guardians.

BATMAN #2

Written by Scott Snyder art by Greg Capullo

Again HELLS YES! This was indeed awesome. Firstly the art is damn fine, it's just my sort of cartoony. Snyder is really pushing Gotham as a character. Last issue was about one of Gotham's newspapers this issue was about Wayne tower and its history with the city. Plus Batman fights some dudes and then fights an Owl Man. Gid times. Not much to talk about with this book it's just so much fun and so well written. I hear rumblings of the book taking a dark turn hopefully that won't happen or at least it wont go full grim dark cuz right now the books tone is just right.

SUPER GIRL #2

Written by Michael Green art by Mike Johnson

Despite the lack of mecha fights in this issue this comic still manages to be crazy awesome. It's basically the same issue as last month but instead of Supergirl fighting mecha for 15 pages this time she fights Superman for the whole book. That's crazy! Most fights aren't usually the main focus of a book but here it is and that's AMAZING. So Supergirl fights Superman then and she pretty much pimp slaps him around and it does look like he's getting hurt but its pretty clear he's holding back. There's this pretty cool page of Supergirl using her X-ray vision on Superman while she's punching him where it goes through multiple layers of flesh and bone so that's purty cool. And man the art is purrty too.

Next time! - More Power Rangers, Nobody's favourite superhero, and Barry Allen hopefully continuing to be less emo. Also, Spider Island has its exciting conclusion, so that may or may not be reviewed, depending on who writes the reviews!

Kicked off my ass...

Due to extreme laziness, it has been over 6 months since my last post, as such I wish to start fresh with a new segment to the blog called "Coffee, Damn Fine: A partial biography of Special Agent Dale Cooper".

The best comic book quickies 13/10/11

Well it's a month of DC #2's. Does anyone else feel like the magic's gone? Can any of you out there remember those long lost days of September, when the world was young and every week was full of new #1's? Now we're just left with #2's - seems like the rebootaverse is feeling a bit old now doesn't it? Ah wells,  it'll probs get rebooted soon enough. Can you picture it? #1's 52 weeks of the year! Kidding by the way. ONWARDS TO COMICS!

GREEN LANTERN #2

Written by Geoff Johns art by Doug Mahnke

Right lads so spoilers OK. You cool with that? Hal Jordan gets the ring back this issue. See it dident take 6 months to a year or anything, Sinestro just deputised him which is a pretty cool way to do it. It basically makes Hal Sinestro's slave as space Hitler can turn off the ring when he feels like it. Points to Hal though for kamehameha-ing space Hitler the second he gets the ring. It didn't work but its the right response. Sinestro being a Green Lantern again is just mental but Sinestro being the main green lantern is even more mental! It's good that they made Hal a lantern again as soon as they could - hopefully he'll brake free of Sinestro's control using FIGHTING SPIRIT or something or other so they can be proper buddy cops together. IN SPACE.

SUPERBOY #2

Written by Scott Lobdell art R.B Silva

I didn't buy the first issue of Superboy (not sure why maybe it was already a big week). Anyways, the other Mad Hatters were saying it was pretty gid so a thought I might pick up #2 if it was a cheap week. Then I saw #2's cover and thought "Holy hell yeah that's awesome, superboy fights a street shark. YEAH!". That's totally worth picking it up for and yeah Superboy does fight a street shark - three infact. Pretty cools so I'll pick up the second printing of #1 when it comes out. So I'm pretty torn, I was going to refer to Superboy as Shinjiboy cuz the story's pretty eveagelion-ish what with Superboy being a clone and being used by a sinister organisation and on the cover he kinda looks like Shinji - he even kinda has a plug suit. But now Linkara has pointed out that this Superboy is Mewtwo, yes the Pokemon Mewtwo. He's a clone that has uncontrollable psychic powers, and he's being used by a sinister organisation. So Shinjiboy or Mewtwoboy? - I'll get back to you on that.

FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E #2

Written by Jeff Lemire art by Alberto Ponticelli

Well this continues to be loads of fun. Frankenstein pimp slaps an old woman across the room on page two. It's not often we get a page two old woman pimp slapping that's completely justified but here we do. The town that Franky and his team had been sent to rescue had been sacrificing their children to dimension monsters for generations. That's damn sick and we see all theirbones at the bottom of a lake. Despite that it's still a fun book about good monsters fighting actual monsters. We also get the back story of the female Abe sapien and it's pretty sad and just a wee bit creepy. A jam packed book!

FF #10

Written by Jonathan Hickman art Barry Kitson

See I like this book and I keep buying this book, but I've got no idea what's going on. It's been fun though and it usually has pretty art but if I'm being honest I basically buy it for DOOM and sadly he wasn't being that bad ass this issue what with him being a slave of alternate universe reed Richards but hopefully that will change soon. The in-human stuff is a drag on the story and it's not so much I don't know what's going on with those guys it's just that I don't really care. Banter was fine this issue though.

ULTIMATE COMICS ALL NEW SPIDER-MAN #3

Written by Brain Michael Bendis art by Sara Pichelli

Well holy hell lads how awesome is the schedule for this book, it's out like every 2 weeks right? From Bendis that's crazy we might even see the end of the new dudes origin story in our lifetimes! This was so much fun it's what I'd call a meaty story - stuff happened! Miles did some proper hero work saving people from a fire and was thanked for it which is kinda a big thing in the very mutant hateing ultimate universe and he moved to his new boarding school maybe setting up a school arc. However miles is being all I don't wanna be a hero I just want to be normal !which sucks I guess its the more real way to wright it but dudes if you got spider powers and not even super powers but bloody spider powers ! Your gonna got out there and be awesome cause your bloody spider man !

The true comic Book quickies 11/10/11

Well it's the second month of the DC rebootaverse and I'm back from my 10 minute retirement! Aren't you people lucky! And no Marvels this week - they're still hiding in their bunkers waiting for the buzz to die down on the New 52. Might be a long wait on that.

ACTION COMICS #2

Written by Grant Morrison art by Rags Morales and Brent Anderson

Superman's fine! Sure he's being tortured by the US government but he's pretty cool with it, you know cos he's superman. That's all that really happens this issue. Superman breaks out and finds the rocket he came to earth on and at one point Lex Luthor accuses Supes of being a space goat. Yeah. The art was pretty shaky this issue probably cos of the other artist, there's this one panel of Lois Lane thats just comedy gold. There's a lot of behind the scenes gumff this issue and while it is nice to see how it was all put together it does feel like it's trying to make up for how shot the actual comic felt. So not as fun as issue one but still worth a read.

RED LANTERNS #2

Written by Peter Milligan art Ed Benes

Well this was kinda grim. Atrocitus is still beat up about not being the one to kill his “lover” Krona, and yeah I think I'll keep calling Krona that too. It's just so damn weird. Atrocitus is all like "grrrr! My rage is lest than it used to be cos the handsome dude that was responsible for the massacre of my planet was killed by another dude ohh grrrr!". This cool and all but it's weird that he's not out and about killing dudes, he does later in the comic but for the first issue and half of this issue he's all in mourning for his lost love. The killing part is where it gets pretty grim which I guess is normal? Atrocitus talks about and then goes to this planet where these techno dudes are fighting theses non techno dudes in a bloody war. Pretty much everyone dies. The art is nice though, very Liefeld-ian but well drawn. I really like the pages with Red Lanterns on them, dumb thing to say I know but the pages without them kinda suffer from the generic lantern book art much like the lantern rangers book from last week . It's not a bad art style but it dosent really stand out or pop. I really want to like this book but so far its just been OK.

DETECTIVE COMICS #2

Written by Tony S. Daniel art by Ryan Winn

Terrible gruesome things keep happening around Batman! That's what this issue was about and I get the feeling that's what this runs going to be about. Didn't really enjoy it as much as the first issue but I think that's to be expected with the rebootaverse, its going to be top loaded with awesomeness. Just like expected we didn't find out what was going on with the Joker this issue and even though I thought that going in it still feels a bit of a let down. We do get another gruesome cliffhanger to end the issue so points there and it's nice to see at least in my local comic shop that it's selling out after being put down as the Bat-book not to get.

JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #2

Written by Dan Jurgens art Alberto Aaron Lopresti

This was damn good! Far and away my best of the week. The JLI fight a giant robot, lose and run away. Now hear me out on this one. I know how what I just said sounded bad. The JLI fight this giant robot and get beaten down by it, and I know what you're thinking - Batman's there so how could they lose? Well I guess he was just having an off day and wasn't able to channel the Bat god but that doesn't matter it's the way it was written that is the cool part.  It all just feels right, they weren't ready to fight the giant robot and Booster didn't want to get anybody killed. It's so against the way I normally like comics to go but it's so well written I just dig it. Oh and the banter on the team is AMAZING it just feels so real for the characters to be saying. And personally the art in this book was my favourite of the week. Maybe its not to everyone's taste but it fits the tone of the book perfectly. Like Doovydavy will tell you, it's an 80's comic but damn you should be reading it.

Comic Book Quickies 02/10/2011

A little change this week: bag guy is off on the bench while I take over this greatest of features. And what a week it was! High quality all round from the last of the new #1's, and Marvel even turned out this week with some good stuff (all Spider-man, admittedly). Onto the quickies!

AQUAMAN #1
Written by Geoff Johns, art by Ivan Reis

Fresh from the character's return in Brightest Day, here we have the same creative team tackling an ongoing series, and man did they have a job to do. Aquaman is considered, fairly or unfairly, to be among the worst of DC's line-up, despite some amazing runs in the past by all accounts. Johns tackles this situation head on here, hoping to prove to new readers and naysayers that Aquaman has potential, and generally succeeds.

Right from the offset, Johns puts Aquaman in a situation to show off his powers, a simple bank robbery he hears from the ocean, and vows to stop the perpetrators, to the LOLZ of the police. Aquaman shows them who's boss though when he flips the getaway truck through mid air and takes bullets like a boss.

This begins an entire section of Johns working to challenge misconceptions of Aquaman, in the form of an asshole blogger asking asshole questions ('how does it feel to be NOBODY'S favourite superhero?') while trying to chill and have lunch in a diner (his order may be a slight shock). In the midst of this, Arthur Curry's past is kind of set up in an attempt to make a more sympathetic character.

If you've read Brightest Day, it will come as no shock that the art in this title is similarly good. Vibrant and eye popping colours in the Boston set scenes contrast with the dark and subdued art introducing some new foes, The Trench, seemingly a kind of underwater Zombie heading to the surface to find food... VERY interested to see where this title goes. Definitely one to read, and my favourite title of the week.

THE FLASH #1
Written and drawn by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

Coming hot off the heels of Flashpoint is another rebooted Flash series starring silver-age hero Barry Allen. From the very first page it's apparent there have been some major changes here since before the reboot - Barry looks noticeably younger than in his last appearance, and hence he's no longer married to Iris, and instead is beginning a relationship with his colleague in the CSI team, Patty, who are out on a date at some wine and cheese event for scientists in Central City.

It's not long though before their date is interrupted by some mooks who have crashed the party to steal a portable genome re-coder. Barry (who has a cool new folding costume) quickly suits up and beats up the dudes. After having retrieved the device, the body of one of the robbers is discovered that is linked to Barry's past.

All well and good for the first issue, nice setup plot wise and characterisation wise. Manapul and Buccellato are completely new to writing books, having only previously drawn them, and they do a pretty damn good job. Conversations come across as believable and it zips along from page to page very well (fitting, for a Flash comic). Being writer-artist allows you to very closely tailor the script to the art, and my do they do a wonderful job here. The art is just wonderful, with cartoony pencils that really suit the character, conveying the speed and fluidity of the Flash., aided by gorgeous watercolour like visuals and truly imaginative page layouts and panels (the title page and the scene in Barry's apartment are particular standouts).

I very much enjoyed this comic, and I'll definitely be back for issue 2.

GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS #1
Written by Tony Bedard, art by Tyler Kirkham

A multicoloured Lantern team book has been a very long time coming, and not just because it evokes memories of Power Rangers. Unlike the other Lantern books, this retells Kyle Rayner's origin story, which is bizarre considering they haven't done it for any of the other Lanterns, and Kyle's hardly the most obscure one. So we see Ganthet, the last Guardian, mourning his fellow guardians and vowing the last power ring goes to the right hands. Then we see Kyle at a restaurant, where he goes out to take a piss, and then gets made a Green Lantern by Ganthet. That's basically it.

While Kyle becomes accustomed to his new powers, the rest of the issue is a montage of various coloured lanterns losing their rings for reasons left unknown. This all sets up a nice cliffhanger at the end of the issue that will probably want to make you come back for the second.

This was an OK comic, the worst I read this week but the potential of a Lantern team book is too good for me to even think about stopping reading this title currently, and there was nothing awful about this issue.  The art is functional, if not impressive, and it flows along pretty well. Let's just hope the story builds up and becomes as awesome as the premise.

ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #2
Written by Brian Michael Bendis, art by Sara Pichelli

Miles Morales continues to discover more of his powers in this, the second issue of his story. Bendis is still writing for the trade here, and I can't help but feel these issues are just too damn short for my £3 (true of most Marvel comics these days, sadly), but I can't really complain much more than that considering Bendis writing for the trade means a DAMN GOOD trade in the case of Ultimate Spidey, and the faster release schedule avoids too long a wait for the all important first suiting up.

As long as the origin issues stay as good as this though, I'll be happy waiting for a while yet. Continuing on from issue 1, we see Miles discovering more of his powers on top of his invisibility, including a sort of electric shock thing, and we meet his best friend, Ganke (rocking an awesome Frog Man t-shirt). Being from the Ultimate Universe, Miles is rather worried about his new found powers, seeing as how unbelievably bad mutants are treated in this universe, and Ganke tries his best to reassure him about it all. Later we see a great, well written heart to heart between Miles and his Dad, setting up plot points that will obviously go right to the heart of the character dynamics and status quo in this book. On the other side however, I can't help but shake the feeling that Miles is just a little too young as of right now, he really is just a boy on the cusp of his teens, but it's pretty obvious that's a very deliberate choice from Bendis and I'll be interested to see where he goes with it. This is Spider-man though, so heartbreak has to be just around the corner...

Like a lot of books this week, again the art shows incredible talent. New York really comes across as a vibrant, diverse and colourful place, and in Spider-man comics, New York is as essential a character as the web-slinger himself, and hopefully this continues and we'll also see some of New York's shadier side in due course. Credit must also be given to the wonderful facial expressions, that really help to convey the characterisation Bendis is hammering in the first arc. Recommended, despite the price and short issues.

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #670
Written by Dan Slott, art by Humberto Ramos

Since Dan Slott took over as the sole writer on ASM last November, he's pretty much been killing it on this title, really focusing on the Spider-man cast as a whole, rather like a sitcom, and it seems like a bunch of story elements are coming to a close here, having been built up since Slott took over, hitting high story points along the way (the excellent Death of Marla Jameson arc) and filler arcs (which are still great). Spider-Island is definitely one of those high story points.

Everyone in New York has Spider-Powers, and the Jackal and various other villains not seen in a long time are trying to take over the city. This comic is just plain fun, with nice cartoony art that really fits the plotline. Slott always manage to make his issues feel large and dense, avoiding that ripped off feeling you get from a lot of $3.99 Marvel comics.

Being mid event though, this issue kind of stumbles a tad. A certain plot of this issue is dependant on the Venom tie-in comic currently ongoing, and his escapades just come off odd and confusing if you haven't been reading that comic.

Still, I wholeheartedly recommend catching up on Spider Island if you haven't already done so. It's incredibly enjoyable.

Next week! The first of the DC #2s, is Superman alright?, and just what the hell is the Joker up to?