Tales From the Dollar Bin: Marvel Boy #3

There are comics which are worth incredible sums of money, but so many of the most interesting, tragic, or just downright weird can be found for a simple dollar or less in a store's "dollar bin". There, comics that never gained much popularity can be found alongside those that sold so much as for a copy to be worthless. "Tales From the Dollar Bin" aims to explore these comics, be they a single issue or an entire run of a series. From the great to the miserable, some of the best treasures and worst nightmares can be found in those infamous boxes. Let's have a "tale" now...
Not Long-Lived, But it Was a Magical Time

There was a relatively brief time Grant Morrison did some work for Marvel. It was short but wonderful, with his, "New X-Men," being a tour de force and in my opinion the best X-Men comics ever (which people take umbrage with when I state, but oh well). Morrison's X-Men was stellar and still has a lot of popularity to this day, with many folk remembering it fondly. Morrison actually did other things for Marvel too, however, creating a character who has been through quite the creative-wringer since his introduction by Morrison, Marvel Boy. It wasn't exactly a hit seeing as how I was able to find one of my favorite issues from the mini--the third--in the dollar bin.

Weird, Yet Good.

Grant Morrison's, "Marvel Boy," at first wasn't clearly taking place in the Marvel Universe--at least not the main, "616," one we all know. Some people said it was clearly hinting at being in the Ultimate Universe or its own place. Later on he was tied into the main MU, but we'll discuss that toward this piece's end. Anyways, the book was taking place in a world that was Marvel-influenced and featured a young man named Noh-Varr who was a Kree alien that had DNA meshed with that of cockroach and traveled through various dimensions with a science-team. At the start of the first issue they end up on Earth and almost everybody dies.

From this point Marvel Boy tries to find a way home whilst battling an assortment of odd folk. The third issue involves him fighting what was kind of like DC's anti-life equation when a sentient corporate virus known as Hexus begins trying to take over Earth through marketing and branding. It is a fun joke about capitalism and between lots of explosions Noh-Varr manages to defeat it the only way possible--he sends the details of its marketing strategies and secrets to all the other big competitors.

It is funny and the rest of the six-issue mini-series was great too. Then Noh-Varr was basically forgotten about before--deep breath--randomly popping-up in an, "Illuminati," mini-series, fighting the Young Avengers and Runaways during, "Civil War," kicking-around a bit during, "Secret Invasion," randomly joining the Dark Avengers under Norman Osborn, joining the normal Avengers with the new name of, "Protector," and having all of those comics not really do a good job portraying him at all. Thankfully, after all that he popped-up in, "Young Avengers," simply stating he felt he wasn't a good fit for the regular Avengers and that his weird name was a phase (so we could all forget about it). Now he's hanging-out with the Inhumans for some random reason and I'm not reading about him currently because, I mean, it's the Inhumans. Some of the characters he fought appeared in other books too, like Dr. Midas and the Exterminatirx/Oubliette being in that Marvel event everyone just kind-of forgot about, "Original Sin."

I quite liked Morrison's introduction of Marvel Boy, and loved how he was portrayed in, "Young Avengers," but most other appearances have been forgettable-to-bad. You can get the original series in trade paperback form at Things From Another World or if you want just individual issues eBay of course works great too. It shouldn't be too hard to get some issues of the book because while it was quirky and enjoyable, since that first appearance most writers (besides Kireon Gillen with, "Young Avengers,") have struggled to know what to do with the character. Therefore, Noh-Varrr is someone with a lot of potential that sadly has rarely been reached. So it goes when we share a...tale from the dollar bin!

Secret Wars is Going to Have a Comic Named Like An Awful Event But Unrelated To It...Huh?

Secret Wars and the New Battleworld-Lands.
If you follow comics much you undoubtedly know that the upcoming "Secret Wars" event will result in a lot of comics getting temporarily or permanently cancelled by Marvel and replaced by various comics set in the "Battleworld" of the event. Some of the comics have been new versions of or extensions of current Marvel titles (Captain Marvel becomes Carol Corps) and some popular older events and comic-runs are being revisited (Old Man Logan, for one example). Now, so far most of the stuff that has been announced looks back to beloved series or times, but now I'm starting to worry Marvel might be getting confusing with their announcement today of yet another series that will have its own little chunk of land in the "Battleworld."

Siege...But Not?

Back when Marvel wrapped-up "Secret Invasion" they made things a bit interesting by having Norman Osborn come out of the Skrull invasion looking like a hero. This led to his gaining power during a, "Dark Reign," of sorts until he eventually lost everything during a terrible event-comic called "Siege" that was little more than an excuse to kick Norman out and get rid of the mostly-reviled "Sentry" character. Today Marvel announced they are going to be doing a "Secret Wars" comic titled "Siege," so immediately I thought it would reference that awful comic. Well, in an even weirder twist, it isn't. That's right, a comic titled, "Siege" that Marvel announced today with a similar logo to it--even with the blue-shading--isn't actually at all involved with that earlier event. Instead, the comic is serving as a, "Spiritual sequel," to writer Kieron Gillen's awesome-but-mostly-ignored "S.W.O.R.D." mini-series.

It has protagonist Abigail Brand of that comic (and now this) working with a varied cast of characters on the Battleworld to prevent the entire Southern Pole of the aforementioned Battleworld from destroying the Shield (not S.H.I.E.L.D. as this is apparently a different, living entity), which she is in charge of. Apparently if this Shield is destroyed some hideous beings can ruin the rest of the Battleworld, so it falls on Brand and her, "Eclectic cast," including but not limited to, "Miss America Chavez from Young Avengers, Leah of Hel from Journey Into Mystery, Illyanna Rasputin from All-New x-Men, a medieval version of Kate "Hawkeye" Bishop, a number of UNITs from S.W.O.R.D and an army of clones from Mr. Sinister called the Endless Summers," to keep everyone safe.

That's some crazy-good artwork.

This all sounds delightfully insane and involves a variety of characters Gillen has worked on before or will do justice to. Also, there will be some stellar art with one of the illustrators being the superb James Stokoe. Therefore, it all sounds great except for the name. I mean, why use the word, "Siege," if this comic appears to have nothing to do with it as it once existed? I mean, clearly a siege of sorts is going on, but unless the Sentry from that event makes a surprise appearance at the end of the first issue, or Osborn gets involved somehow I don't see what this has to do with that event whatsoever. Really, that makes using the title and the odd blue-shading not at all useful. I mean, didn't most people hate "Siege" with a passion and viewed it more as the means-to-an-end for finishing "Dark Reign" than anything else?

I just don't understand Marvel's thinking behind getting such a stellar writer (my favorite of 2014) and artist, then attaching them to a cool-sounding project but giving it that name. I just hope when the comic comes out it maybe makes some sense to remind us of a seemingly completely different comic.

Marvel is Doing Their Numbering for "Inhumanity" and Other Comics in a Way that is Either Genius or Terrible

Inhumanity is a sort-of event coming from Marvel in a matter of months--and is spinning directly out of the "Infinity" event that is going on. I say it is only sort-of an event because it seems there is no main event comic in the sense we lacking a special mini-series. There is a Matt Fraction-penned ongoing comic with the name "Inhumanity", and some comics tying in to the spectacle, but this just doesn't have that "major event" feel. The strangest thing about the "Inhumanity" non-event however is definitely how Marvel are numbering tie-in comics. A series has its normal numbering, so if a comic just finished its 21st issue the next one will be the 22nd, but it will have a little ".INH" next to it. Therefore, "Avengers Assemble #22.INH" will be at your comic shop instead of a comic just simply titled, "Avengers Assemble #22" because it happens to tie into Inhumanity going-ons.

There are problems though. For example, please keep in the mind the actual minis and the main comic won't apparently have this logo though. Another issue is that comics already do so many weird numbering schemes that this could easily back-fire and confuse people when they try to organize their comics or even know what order to read new releases. In fairness, the clever part is how this makes it absolutely clear how whatever comic with a .INH you see is a tie-in to Inhumanity. Basically, this is either one of the best ideas ever or absolutely horrible, and I'm not sure which category it truly is, even after looking at those aforementioned pros and cons.

Why does a mini-series for "Inhumanity" not have the ".INH",
but yet ongoing comics that tie-in with the event somewhat less do?

Between Marvel's whole messing with "Point One" comics, DC following suit with Villain's Month's insane numbering(and the company's own huge re-launch a couple of years ago), "Age of Ultron" having its own weird numbering scheme, and any other kinds of numbering-mayhem, it is clear that messing too much with the digits that accompany a comic can cause trouble. One saving grace for this is that it isn't a case where you have an issue of a comic and another one with the same numbering but an additional ".INH". No, the one with the ".INH" is the actual only comic. That keeps things from being too much of a nightmare for an earlier-mentioned potential collector who wants to organize everything, but if some of the comics such as the main series won't even have a ".INH" it seems really odd.

Marvel isn't just doing this little trick with their "Inhumanity" comics either, you have some of the comics that are a part of its big "Marvel Now" branding starting to carry their usual numbers and a ".NOW" logo. Therefore, we have "Avengers #24.NOW" alongside the aforementioned, "Avengers Assemble #22.INH" and we should not forget, "Avengers: Age of Ultron and Infinity Aftermath #1.INH.NOW" which doesn't actually exist but could soon enough at the rate we are are going with all the Avenger comics and weird numbering schemes. Oh, and not even all the comics in this upcoming 2nd-wave of Marvel NOW will be have that logo, a new Invaders comic, appropriately titled, "All-New Invaders" lacks it. Ummmm, what?

It is actually the 24th issue, but has a #24.NOW,
plus there is a logo about how this is the first issue of a new story.
This is getting silly.

Clearly this can go a variety of ways, and who knows if the comics will even be good enough for it to matter? Matt Fraction can make some incredible stuff ("Casanova", "Hawkeye") but then will sometimes turn out tripe such as "Fear Itself". I am excited that Warren Ellis of all people will be co-writing some of those "Avengers Assemble" comics with Kelly Sue Deconnick--especially as their little collaboration on a back-up story that appeared in the amazing "Osborn" series was quite stellar. It is just odd that Ellis seems to literally be popping in and doing a little scripting for a book as if he were some sort of fill-in writer (which do exist, although fill-in art is more common).

I'm unsure if all of these ".INH" and ".NOW" signifiers next to a comic's number will matter much in some years when folk could very well not remember what ".INH" even meant if the sorta-event bombs. Then again, should this non-event-event be a major success numbering could be greatly impacted on other comics from all sorts of publishers. DC could take the Batman "Zero Year" comic and make them have a ".Zero" next to the titles for all we know (okay, that is event is already going on so they aren't going to start that, but you know what I mean).

This "All-New Invaders" comic is a new Marvel NOW title,
but doesn't have a ".NOW"? What is going on here?

I'm genuinely interested to see how successful these comics are, and hope the stories turn out well. I won't be reading too many of them because I am both a bit tired of events and have gone into great detail about how I dropped and am continuing to drop a lot of comics from my pull-list to save money. Still, I hope folk tell me good things.

Flashback Friday-- "Osborn" and "Skrull Kill Krew"

Space-Aliens and Madmen.

The Kill Krew's "Dark Reign" mini-series.

There was a time where Norman Osborn was basically the boss of the Marvel Universe and life sucked for almost anyone who considered themselves a super-hero. It was called, "Dark Reign," and it spun out of the "Secret Invasion" event. Despite not actually being a mini-series or such, it was a pseudo-event that occurred in a variety of ongoing comics and had some mini-series that examined what this upside-down world was like. I'll be talking in-depth about one of those mini's which was known as "Skrull Kill Krew". But first, let's talk about the comic I'm discussing today.

Osborn's "Dark Reign" ended with the horrendous "Siege" mini-series that I hated more than any Marvel event I'd read (at least until "Fear Itself" which I literally gave-up on). However, one good thing to come from "Siege" was a superb mini-series by Kelly Sue Deconnick titled simply, "Osborn". It is no secret that I loved Osborn as early as its 2nd issue and was such a fan I went on to interview Kelly Sue Deconnick about it and her other works.

My favorite of the "Osborn" covers.

 Later on, Brian Micheal Bendis would have a mini cross-over between two Avengers books he was writing where Osborn tried break out of Prison and take over America again only for the Avengers to stop him because his plan was incredibly stupid--an odd counter to the behavior of the clever and calculating Osborn seen in Deconnick's series. I'm talking about quite recent events and the point of this post is to flash-back, so let's start doing so by discussing the Skrull Kill Krew--but not the Dark Reign one. No, first we're going to go back to those magical days of Crystal Pepsi and "The Spice Girls" known as the 1990's. God help us all.

From the Origins of the Kill Krew to the Modern-Day
Back before Grant Morrison started hating Mark Millar's guts for reasons we still aren't aware of (and it is their own business anyways, so I shan't pry) they collaborated on a mini-series known as the--you guessed it--"Skrull Kill Krew" It took the story-line of how back in the olden days of comics the Fantastic Four had tricked some Skrulls into thinking they were cows, and this series had the idea that one of those Skrull-cows accidentally was slaughtered and people ate its meat. The resulted in most dying, but a few gaining the shape-shifting abilities of Skrulls...while also still suffering from the fact they were dying, and being really mad about it.

It was a pretty wacky series and ended with the Krew basically going off never to be seen again, at least until  "Secret Invasion" when writer Dan Slott brought them back in the "Avengers Initiative" comic to help fight against all the Skrulls they so desperately hated. Upon their return they were given their own mini-series that took place in the aftermath of "Secret Invasion" and dealt with their being funded by Osborn's new organization, "H.A.M.M.E.R." to keep doing what they did best, kill Skrulls.

Let's Discuss The Actual Mini-Series
You're all caught-up so now I'll tell you about the "Dark Reign"-related mini-series itself and why I liked it a great amount.

Basically, I enjoyed the newest incarnation of "Skrull Kill Krew" because it was wacky while also at times being surprisingly deep in its asking questions of morality and just what made Skrulls count as "evil" compared to the fact that the Krew was working for the most villainous man around, Norman Osborn. Between breaking up a human-cow fetish club run by Skrulls who were actually killing the humans that liked pretending to be cows (I told you it was silly), learning they were genetically basically Skrulls due to their illness mutating, and starting to realize that while there are evil Skrulls, some were in fact born on Earth and had no desire to cause trouble, the Krew eventually figures out they want to in fact protect the good Skrulls.

The Krew warns Osborn to leave native-born Skrulls alone, and then ride off into the sunset once more to not been seen for another decade or so, I suppose. In the end, an enjoyable time is had by the reader, and a quality book is done.

Now, "Osborn"
The Krew's warning to Osborn was kind of pointless, because it was within the span of a few months that he found himself ousted from power and locked up far from the public. I guess Bendis was already concocting plans for Osborn as he did his big attempt at a coup in the pages of "Avengers" and "New Avengers" a year and some months later, but before that happened Marvel must have wanted to keep the character in the public's eye because they gave Deconnick the opportunity to write this mini.

Osborn delivers some killer lines.

One of the reasons I enjoyed "Osborn" so much was that Deconnick masterfully wrote dialogue, with Osborn having some of the best quotes I'd seen from the character in years. Plus, his fellow prisoners that we meet are all intriguing, be they a surreal space-alien, a monstrous spider-God, or a woman who has genetically altered herself into a killing machine. I also deserves mention that artist Emma Rios turns in some beautiful pages that will astound anyone reading this comic.

The ending to "Osborn" itself was slightly disappointing because it just put him back in prison system he had worked so hard to get out of over the course of the mini, but set things in place for when Bendis used the character again by introducing some of the characters Osborn would work with and having the public be somewhat on his side due to his pointing out in this series how he was basically being held without trial--something the government can't do to an American citizen (but seems to have no trouble doing with foreign folk we think may be terrorists, but that's a whole different rant).

"Osborn" is a stellar mini-series that a lot of people may have missed out on because by the time it occurred they were sick of the character from all of his "Dark Reign" appearances. It's a shame if people didn't read it though, because this is just a fantastic collected five issues that ranks among some of my favorite comic-works.

To Be Seen Again?
As I said earlier, after their mini-series the Skrull Kill Krew seemed to just disappear again, with us readers now having to wait for some other writer to have enough of a fondness for the characters (or excuse to use them) for another appearance to occur. Norman Osborn is of course such a ubiquitous character due to his close ties with Spider-Man that he'll most likely never disappear for long, but after his mini and brief attempt at a power-grab in Bendis' comics, Osborn has been surprisingly quiet--though he is beginning to pop-up more and more in the series, "Superior Spider-Man".

I suppose the moral of this post is that when a character (or characters) has enough popularity or writers who are fans, it is only a matter of time until said character/s have an appearance in our comics. This is a positive thing when you get really good comics such as the two mini-series I've just discussed, but it goes without saying that for every "Osborn" or "Skrull Kill Krew" we get there are plenty of awful things that are put out too. That's just the way of comics, movies, and any form of media, though. Anyways, these comics were superb and I give them these ratings:
Dark Reign: Skrull Kill Krew: 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Osborn: 5 out of 5 stars.

Film Friday--The Amazing Spider Man

That Was Decently Fun
The Amazing Spider-Man was a good movie. Not utterly excellent, but pretty enjoyable. I was somewhat of the mind that considering not too long ago we had a trilogy of Spidey flicks that maybe rebooting the character was a bit... unnecessary. Having seen the movie and its somewhat new spin on things I am more confident that perhaps starting fresh with Spider-Man was a pretty solid idea, despite the problems I have with the film.

You would think the thing that bugs me the most is going-over Spider-Man's origin again on film. That would make you wrong though, because I found the earlier parts of the movie where the titular Peter Parker is thinking about a mystery with his parents (that somewhat disappears from the film clearly to be continued in future installments) getting used to his crazy new powers, and of course having the requisite guilt about Uncle Ben to be some ofgreat the more enjoyable parts of the movie. Andrew Garfield does a great job even if he looks a little too handsome and fit to truly "feel" like geeky Peter Parker. Emma Stone is quite good as Gwen Stacy too and Dennis Leary is fun as her police-chief father. The problems start to set in a bit later once The Lizard shows up.

Garfield and Stone show a chemistry between them.

I don't want to spoil what evil plan is that Rhys Ifans' character has, but its pretty darn silly. Once we hit the middle of the movie and the focus goes onto our villain's plan the movie just sort of drags. No matter how much cool action we get between Spider-Man and The Lizard fighting that overall goal he has is still pretty absurd. That's a shame as the actors do a great job making the silly threat seem credible even if by the end of the movie I'm pretty much just going, "So that green liquid is bad and the blue one is good...or something?"

"I've got a pretty stupid plan."

Also, even though I tend to prefer the first movie in a trilogy stand somewhat alone and not try to set up future installments, the mid end-credit's teaser with what seems to be the first appearance of Norman Osborn in this universe does make me excited at the idea of Peter learning more about the mystery with his parents, and the Green Goblin showing up in the next movie (I'm pretty sure Gwen is gonna die like in the comics come the sequel and the third movie will be about Spider-Man getting revenge for it, I'm just gonna call that one now).

Overall this is a well-done film with a great start and intriguing finishing tease, but a draggy middle and quite dumb end. If you don't think too much about it though, and just enjoy the action and the hints of good things to come, it's still a solid piece of 2 hours and change. Just be ready for the flaws too. Oh, and no, Nick Fury does not show up to tie this in with Avengers as some rumor-mongers have said, Spider-Man seems to be staying in his own super-hero world for now.
3 out of 5 stars.

Interview Time--Kelly Sue Deconnick

In early-ish April I emailed Kelly Sue Deconnick to tell her how much I was enjoying the Osborn mini-series and inquire if she would be willing to answer some questions for my blog. She kindly obliged and I sent out these questions; below is our interview:  

Podcast Episode 5--Superman And America Call It Quits

In this episode I cover some world news (such as dead terrorists) comic news (for one thing, the newly announced Ultimate-line comics), and of course provide reviews. Reviews of what, you ask? Action Comics #900, Osborn #5, Jeff Smith's Rasl #10, and Invincible Iron Man #503.

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Rant Reviews--Action Comics, Detective Comics, Osborn, and A Comic Named Rasl.

We've got the Action Comics #900 where all kinds of things happen--some controversial if you've been following the news, Detective Comics #876 which is snazzy as always, the final issue of the stellar Osborn mini-series, and the independent comic Rasl.

Rant Reviews--Three Comics With Three Different Sociopaths.

I discussed these in-depth on my first-ever podcast, but still wanted to get my thoughts down in text too about these three comics that seem to involve sociopaths, interestingly enough. They are Detective Comics #875, Daken: Dark Wolverine #7, and Osborn #4.

The Newest Rant Podcast Episode 1.

My first experiment into podcasting can be found here, I discuss and review three comics each starring or featuring three sociopaths, Detective Comics #875, Daken: Dark Wolverine #7, and Osborn #4. Please excuse any glitches, sound issues, or overuse of the word "and" or "um" as I was a bit nervous. I also plan to get text reviews up but thought this would be a fun test. If you don't want to download you can also just play the 12-minute-ish episode below. Please share your thoughts--and yes, I will try to be getting up on iTunes too...although to do that I need to use a different file-host that can make feeds for me. Any advice on which to use?

UPDATE: I am now using Podcast Machine because they have a free service that works well for me and you can also just download the podcast directly from the player that way too. 

NEWEST UPDATE: I am now using Podbean because it is better than Podcast machine.

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Flashback Friday--Warren Ellis on Thunderbolts.

Thunderbolts #110-#121
After the Civil War event-comic Marvel did the world had changed. Super-heroes had to register their identities or be breaking the law, and it led to various conflicts. The problem with this idea of putting super-heroes on a government payroll is it also meant that the crazy villains could hop on the gravy train too, and warp public opinion so as to think they were heroes. Hence, the concept of Warren Ellis' short but amazing twelve-issue run of Thunderbolts. Separated into two volumes, the first is about the dynamics of this dysfunctional team. You have Bullseye, Venom, Penance, Swordsman, Moonstone, Songbird, and The Radioactive Man (although the last two weren't all bad) and leading this team you have one of the craziest men around, Norman Osborn. How could this comic have been anything but a masterpiece?

Looking Over This Week's Comic-Book Haul

It's Friday, so let's review all of the comics I've bought/borrowed for the week two days after they actually came out--with reviews for a few of the titles possibly coming not too long after. Make a comment if you want me to review one especially soon (although there is some stuff that is a bit older I need to get my thoughts put up for too). After all, I do this blog for you, the reader...and so that I don't bore the people in my everyday life with my thoughts about stuff they have no interest in.

Moreso Links I Found Interesting Than A News Round-Up

Some links to things I found interesting for some reason or another.

Osborn

• It's not a secret I love the Osborn mini-series, so when I saw CBR had a big piece about it and its writer, Kelly Sue Deconnick I was overjoyed.
• Also, there is a good interview she did some weeks ago that I finally remembered to share now.

Wizard

• Sean T. Collins collects what is arguably the most complete list of articles about the death of Wizard magazine (and Toyfare) in existence.

Venom

• An interesting piece about the upcoming Venom mini-series by Rick Remender and Tony Moore, a team-up I always love so I'm going to give this comic a shot despite my reservations.

Gay Character in Comics

• Dorian Wright observing how writers are at least trying to show diversity in comics--in this case in regards to sexual orientation. Now if DC would just stop killing off its characters that aren't white and straight.

That. Was. Awesome: Osborn #2

Osborn #2
This mini-series became my favorite one coming out based on the first issue alone, and I now see that I was not wrong in thinking this comic was great.

I'm happy, my comic haul was good this week.

Just thought I'd share how I'm pleased with the comic items I got this week. Why was it a good pull? Let's list what gets me excited of what I got and how it looks promising, with some possible reviews to come from a few of these...

Rant-Reviews--Out of the five heroes on our cover only 2 appear in the issue.

The disaster that is Shadowland and Daredevil, Osborn is one bad mutha' and neither the Punisher, Ghost Rider, or Iron Fist appear in a comic that specifically advertises them.