I'm Glad Daniel Way is Happy. That Said, I Wouldn't Mind if He Wrote Comics Again

Daniel Way wrote a lot of comics in a short-ish period of time. From 2000 through 2013 or so, he did a ton of writing, especially for Marvel. Some of the bigger books included but were not limited to, 'Wolverine: Origins," "Deadpool," "Venom," "Ghost Rider," and one of my favorite works of his, "Supreme Power: Nighthawk." Toward the end of his tenure with Marvel, he did a chunk of a, "Thunderbolts," run and then shifted into works for other publishers at a much slower rate. He wrote for, "Crossed," from Avatar Press and some other stuff in 2014, scripted a, "Hit-Girl," mini-series in 2019, and did a little Deadpool yarn in a 30th anniversary special comic in 2021. That was it. He basically disappeared from comics in terms of writing any after that. He was practically everywhere for a decade and some change, then once we hit 2015...little to nothing (zero comics after 2021). I was curious if he was alright, and thankfully he is, and seems pretty happy!

In 2024, Bleeding Cool's Rich Johnston was also wondering, "Whatever happened to...Daniel Way?" It turns out in 2016 he cofounded Geekcraft Expo, a comic-con-styled take on craft fairs. He is also the frontman for the band, "Gamma Gamma Ray," which plays at many of the Geekcraft Expos. He seems to (intentionally) have almost zero social media presence outside of a semi-official Facebook fan page that hasn't been updated since 2018, except for now linking to Geekcraft Expo.

To Way's credit, the Geekcraft Expo events remain popular,  happening in a mix of cities in varying months, with one having occurred in Saint Louis this past July, of all places! I actually was aware we had a geek-centric craft show held in our city on occasion, but had zero idea it was the one that Way founded! From the little I can find specifically about him on the internet, he's grown a family that he lives with in Hawaii when not doing the Geekcraft Expos. I wonder if a comic writing opportunity came along that was just right, if he'd be interested in scripting something? For now, he seems semi-retired from that particular part of, "Geekdom," even if he's quite active in other aspects.

The Joy and Misery of Violent Heroes: Musings on Steve Orlando's, "Midnighter," Versus Daniel Way's, "Thunderbolts."

Joy, Pain, or Joy in Pain?

Superhero comics often trade in stories of violence. Not always, but a good deal of the time someone is getting punched, shot, stabbed, or otherwise smacked-around. One thing I've noticed though is that depending on the character's being featured (and of course who the writer is) that the tone of this violence can vary immensely. There is a big difference between when Deadpool is joyously shooting-up goons or the Punisher is doing it with his usual grim determination, to give one example. I read the latest, "Midnighter," books and it made me think about some comics I read long ago that are also about people with powers, but very different tonally--"Thunderbolts," when Daniel Way was writing it. Now I shall discuss these two different books that very clearly display this idea of how we react and consider violence can really vary.
Gleefully Attacking Evil

I liked reading the 1st and 2nd volume of Midnighter's somewhat short-lived series (it went a total of 12 issues). The book happily is kinda continuing with the, "Midnighter and Apollo," mini-series currently being released, but I haven't read it yet. While the character of Midnighter has for sure had a hard life of being experimented on (he doesn't even know who he truly is) and otherwise mistreated, he doesn't let it get him down. He's designed to be the perfect fighting machine who can see everyone's moves multiple steps in advance and he likes fighting. He gets a kick out of beating-up bad guys and then going home with a good guy (Midnighter is openly gay, and also takes immense pleasure from fighting homophobes).

The 1st volume of Midnighter is cheekily titled, "Out," and the 2nd volume of Midnighter is even more tongue-in-cheek with the label, "Hard," and follows our hero as he does what I just described, beating up bad guys and sleeping with good guys. In his effort to help the innocent, our hero fights a ton of people and kills many of them without a second's hesitation. We aren't necessarily supposed to support this as a reader, but it is for sure made quite clear anyone Midnighter kills is very evil, so he never feels bad either. When it turns out someone he thought he had a connection with and who was maybe going to be a potential boyfriend was in fact a villain named Prometheus the whole time in the first volume, Midnighter doesn't let it get him down. Even when Prometheus taunts Midnighter with the possibility of learning who he really is our protagonist states that he knows exactly who he is. It's self-assured and a very positive statement of individuality .

In the 2nd volume our hero continues to fight more villains, including the Suicide Squad and a DC-Universe version of Henry Bendix (he was a hero-then-villain from the pre-folded-into-DC days of Wildstorm, Google it). He then gets back together with Apollo (they had broken-up when the series began) and its a very peppy and positive comic...that also is full of Midnighter brutally murdering bad guys. Oh, the book also throws in two stand-alone tales from when, "Midnighter," had his own comic set in the previously-mentioned Wildstorm Universe and one is an especially fun story by Brian K. Vaughn that takes place backwards (the first page is the end, and the last page is the start). There currently is an aforementioned, "Midnighter and Apollo," mini-series going on and Steve Orlando is writing a number of titles for DC including a new, "Justice League of America," so the publisher clearly knows the man has talent.

Bad People Doing Bad Things

When it was coming out a number of years ago I talked about how I liked the critically-maligned run of Daniel Way on, "Thunderbolts," that later had some other writers come on board and lighten the tone until the book was repeatedly re-launched as Marvel of course loves to do. The biggest complaint people seemed to have was that all the heroes on this team of Thunderbolts seemed angry, dour, and otherwise unhappy except for Deadpool who injected a bit of enthusiasm into the story and was clearly there to provide at least a modicum of comic-relief. I didn't get the hatred for the series during the time when Way was doing it, because I could clearly see he was giving us a book about bad people doing bad things--but not because they liked it, it was because they felt they had to.

In the first volume collection of Way's run, titled, "No Quarter," this team made-up of folk like the Red Hulk (AKA General Thunderbolt Ross), the Punisher, Deadpool, Elektra, and other heroes known for their violence and sorrow (Deadpool may be really funny, but does have some depressing history without a doubt) goes around killing people they think are even worse than them in order to keep the World safe. They take no pleasure from doing so (besides the aforementioned outlier Deadpool), but know it must be done. These are, "Heroes," in the loosest sense of the word and while they are committing just as much violence as our previously discussed Midnighter they clearly approach it from a much different perspective. The whole thing is depressing, nasty, and shows violence as something sad and horrific.

After the first volume of Way's time on, "Thunderbolts," and as he continued to write the book for a big longer the characters continue to behave awfully toward others and each other, but it always is shown as something sad and terrible--ain't nobody cracking a smile while killing people the same way Midnighter does, regardless of how bad the people getting hurt are--then as I mentioned other writers came and super-lightened the tone. Still, under Way's penmanship there's no joy in the pain here.

Context Is Key

I suppose when it comes to our superhero stories and the tone they strike about violence context is key. "Midnighter," is full of violence, but carries with it a certain pep and whimsy, with it clear our hero is someone violent, but he's not dour and sad about it, so why should you, the reader be? Yeah, Midnighter faces some struggles, but he's still an optimist at the end of the day. On the flip-side of this coin, we have a squad of grim-faced killers who know they do something very gruesome--destruction of life--very well. These books who how the violent heroes we read about can be full of joy or overflowing with misery--it just depends on how the story is presented. I personally find all this fascinating to consider. I hope you do too, or I just wasted our time with this whole post. If you're simply bored or scratching your head after reading this, um...sorry?

Thunderbolts Mini-Run Review AKA Why is Everyone So Negative About This New Series?

Thunderbolts #1-#3 Mini-Run Review

As part of "Marvel NOW," we have had a new Thunderbolts comic written by Daniel Way with art by Steve Dillon. The first issue got a decent-enough response from reviewers. My friends over at Nine Panel gave the series' debut a respectable 6 out of 9 panels in their review. We are now on issue three, and wow, the negativity has been overwhelming.

I'm no ray of sunshine, I declare my hate for a wide variety of comics, their characters, companies, writers, artists, printers, and anyone who was ever involved in any way, shape, or form with a Bluewater Press publication. That said, I find it odd this good comic is getting lambasted by so many people. When it comes to reviews for the latest issue, CBR maybe was the most positive with its review of 3 out of 5 stars. However, Comic Vine didn't like this comic much, Major Spoilers absolutely hated it, and even IGN which normally loves everything because they have no editorial freedom beyond, "Let's adore everything so companies like us, declared Thunderbolts to, "suck." What is the deal?

A cure for negativity? Not when its comic-reviewers we are talking about.  Trust me, I'm one of them.

Some say the book is trying too hard to be grim and gritty. Others say the characters are either too dull except for Deadpool, or good except for Deadpool who is too annoying (either way you can't win). I've heard smart-ass remarks that Marvel made a team entirely of characters who are Wolverine, in the sense they are tough and not afraid to kill. Some people just don't care for Steve Dillon's art. Fair enough to all of this, these thoughts are reasonable-enough opinions. One thing that I recall reading somewhere that I just couldn't stand however was the idea that this was a bad comic because the characters are all impossible to like. Well, yeah, that's the goal.

This team of Thunderbolts is made up of people who do bad things; the only reason they aren't evil themselves is that they only do their bad things to other terrible people. Deadpool is a mercenary who despite trying to act like a hero sometimes is a killing machine. Elektra is one of the most dangerous assassins alive. Frank Castle has killed more people than most of us will ever meet. The Red Hulk is General, "Thunderbolt," Ross and if you know his history with the original Green Hulk it is clear he lacks most niceties too. Flash Thompson as Venom is maybe the only person who is the least bit likeable as he is simply a soldier feeling he is doing a soldier's work, but everyone else is just a wretched person--but on purpose.

You aren't supposed to like these people, the whole point is to see that there is the thinnest of lines separating them from the people they kill. When the Punisher has rebels use a primate for target practice its supposed to disgust us and make us uncomfortable. When General Ross reveals he is using an ex super-villain as a pawn before planning to kill him, that is meant to make us squirm. These are people you wouldn't want to go near in your normal life, but if you're dealing with something even worse than them, well, you want this team of Thunderbolts helping.

I understand people don't like this comic being all dark, but the point is to show the sad fact that there are monsters that go unattended to by the big-name heroes because those lot are busy fighting cosmic wars or having super-battles among themselves. Those lesser evils such as a dictator of a country or his corrupt army can't be dealt with by the Avengers or Fantastic Four, they are needed to save another dimension or such. In the Marvel Universe for the smaller and uglier jobs you need the black-ops team of people who know how to follow orders, work together, and get their mission done even if in the process of doing so they lose their humanity...or at least let the team think this is case, even if we are the reader question just how ethical everything is.

The Thunderbolts are not heroes, at least not in this incarnation. They are killers, terrible people, and this comic is going to follow them down the rabbit-hole of how far they'll go in their crusade of thinking the ends justify the means. I've found these first three issues to be of a great quality and look forward to seeing where this series goes next, even if many other reviewers don't seem to be as eager as I am to read future issues.

Give this version of the Thunderbolts a chance even if some of the negative reviews have put you off picking this up. Just remember you aren't reading about heroes, you're reading about people who keep pushing the question of how much bad you can do in the pursuit of good--and who may not like the answer when they "push" too far. Keep all that in mind and you should enjoy this just fine.
4 out of 5 stars (for all three comics).

The Letdown of Deadpool #63

This Wednesday a new Deadpool series starts. It looks promising, which is good as the last Deadpool series--which just wrapped up--ended pretty poorly. Daniel Way has written the series the entire time, and some of the tales that he told were great. That's why it is depressing this issues ends the series so poorly.

The series itself had some ups and downs, with certain issues being marvelously good such as #26 that looked deep into the character, and then less-good parts such as the whole sub-par, "Evil Deadpool" business. What is annoying is how this issue feels extremely rushed in its conclusion of, "Oh wait, that serum that made Deadpool human actually wears off and he's going to be the same," with the aforementioned Evil Deadpool showing up at the last minute to announce this. Before that we get the meh story of a former federal agent working her darnedest to take Deadpool down. It's nothing to write home about story-wise, but the biggest insult is the terrible art by Felipe Andrade and Sean Parsons.

It seriously looks like Marvel took rough thumb-nail sketches, blew them up in size, and colored them in the hopes of getting this comic out quickly enough that this Deadpool series could wrap up before the new one started.

Seriously, the art is just ugly, perspective makes no sense, sizes are out of whack...it's just one of the ugliest books I've ever seen put out. Do note that I don't just mean ugly in terms of big-players such as Marvel and DC, I mean even compared to some of those independent comics with a great story but horrible art, this is even worse in quality (and there isn't even a very good story to support things).

It's sad because this series had some truly great moments, and to go out with a whimper as this does is just anticlimactic  Then again, we are talking about comic books, where characters in ongoing-story Universes can't really have their stories end, they just keep going on so as to sell more books.

This Deadpool series has been good at times, and I will remember those good issues fondly. I'll just pretend this weak ending didn't occur.
1.5 out of 5 stars.

Mini-Runs Of Daken, Flashbacks To Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts, And iPad Games

I Plan To Visit An Art Show This Friday AKA Today
Yeah, I'm gonna see art tonight. Anyways, let's talk about a comic that has been just plain bonkers in terms of its story. It's been twisty, clever, and just plain delightful to read. It's called, "Daken: Dark Wolverine," and since Rob Williams started writing it some time ago its become just a treat. Speaking of treats, a big trade paperback collecting all of Warren Ellis' work on Thunderbolts came out a bit ago. Do my extremely fond memories hold up with everything put together? Yup, it's still pretty awesome. Then, how about we round things out by discussing some fun iPad games? Yeah, this is an annoyingly positive post. I'll make up for it by trying to get something up sooner than later dripping with my somewhat-usual venom.

Daken Can Be Awesome... 
When Writers Quit Trying To Make Us Think He's Awesome

Daken: Dark Wolverine #12-16
Daniel Way was writing the Daken comic, he was trying his hardest to make Daken look oh-so-cool and snazzy. Yes, Daken is a bad guy, and a scheming fellow. Trying to convince us he is some sort of awesome genuis just gets old though. Then Rob Williams came in and started writing the comic in a, "Why didn't anyone else writing Daken think of this?" way. Namely, he made it so that the comic showed Daken as continuing to think he was just the bee's knees and incredibly cool, but we the reader see how he is a pretty delusional guy with some severe daddy-issues (understandable if your Poppa was Wolverine).

Throughout the issues I randomly decided to review for this we see the end and start of some arcs, but really everything has so far been one big story with everything linking together beautifully. Oh, and did I mention that seeing as how Daken is in LA and Moon Knight is there too in his own comic it only makes sense they would cross paths? Yeah, one of my favorite heroes is in this comic too.

What has the plot been? Well, you could start with the "#.1" issue that actually successfully told a single tale and set up the current status-quo and go from there without me spoiling things...but basically Daken is trying to become a big-time Kingpin of LA while also figuring out who a mysterious serial killer is that is murdering people with claws. There is also a borderline-insane FBI agent helping him out when she isn't trying to take him down. Plus Moon Knight, Moon Knight is always good.

This series is great, and it says something that I dropped my Wolverine books during my purge of numerous Marvel books but kept this. Buy it, read it, love it.
4.5 out of 5 stars (for all the issues).

Flashback Friday: Warren Ellis' Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts: Ultimate Collection
There was the Marvel Civil War event where heroes fought heroes about having to reveal their identities and blah, blah, blah. The interesting thing is that Warren Ellis came onto a comic called Thunderbolts and took the idea that some villains would have registered as "heroes" and what it would have been like as the media tried to make them look good whilst they of course crumbled from the inside-out. It was an amazing 12 issues that took forever to come out due to delays that resulted in little one-shots by various other authors using the team on fun little missions--but Ellis was where it was at.

Ellis writing of crazy-people (and the craziest of all, Norman Osborn) combined with Mike Deodato working his hardest to turn in stellar art made just a plain great comic about what exactly heroism is, propaganda, nationalism, and of course really cool fight scenes. It was just plain fantabulous.
5 out of 5 stars

iPad Games AKA Wasting Time When You Should Be Working

I enjoy playing games on my iPad, occasionally I find some fun games worth sharing my thoughts about. Let us discuss. Oh, and note some/most of these can be done on your iPhone too, etc. etc.

Anomaly Warzone Earth
It's available on computers too, but the iPad version is just so fun! We all know "tower defense" games where you build up defenses to fight off attackers, but what about a "tower offense" game where you are those attackers? Yeah, now we're talking! This game is good fun and not too costly so I'd recommend grabbing it!
4 out of 5 stars.

Dark Meadow
Everyone has been talking about this game like its the next "Infinity Blade" and it is quite fun and good. I haven't beaten it yet so depending on how much the story pays off my score is a bit iffy. I'm enjoying myself, but if I feel let down at the conclusion, well pffft.
3.5-4 out of 5 stars depending on how well the tale ends.

ShadowGun
A fun little shooter where you take cover and fire your gun. Think Gears of War but more basic and with a really silly story but pretty good voice-acting. It's a decent time-killer.
3 out of 5 stars.

Where's My Water?
It's really cute and actually pretty challenging. You try to guide water around to assist an alligator in getting some much-needed showering done. Last I checked this was dirt cheap, and again, quite entertaining.
3.5 out of 5 stars.

That's all for now, those should tide you over pretty well though.

To Conclude
You should be reading Daken: Dark Wolverine, Warren Ellis did a great job on Thunderbolts, and the iPad is a fun way to play games even if you have an iPad 1 like me and can't do all the fancy graphics.

Funny With Some Introspection--Deadpool #40

Deadpool #40
This issue of Deadpool is funny, has some hyper-violence, and peers a bit into the mind of the character, so all around we get a pretty solid issue.

Rant-Reviews--Daken, Heroes You Pay, Deadpool Wants To Die, And A Rare Miss For Thunderbolts.

We' got a series of declining returns, with a really great Daken: Dark Wolverine, quite good Heroes For Hire, pretty enjoyable Deadpool, and a surprisingly mediocre Thunderbolts. Yes, they are all Marvel books, but I have something big planned for a DC character on Friday so it's cool.

Collision Part 1-4 AKA Those Comics Where Daken and X-23 Fight

Collision Part 1-4/X-23 #8-9 & Daken: Dark Wolverine #8-9
Daken and X-23 fight and team-up, one betrays the other, they fight, team-up, talk, and nothing much is resolved. Eh.

Mini-Run Review: Deadpool #33-36 (With #33.1)

Deadpool #33-36 (including #33.1)Let's review Deadpool's adventure in space, and return to earth where he faces a bad-guy from  aforementioned space whom we readers thought dead from issue #32. Oh, and there is a random .1 issue that has nothing to do with the other story, which as has been discussed on this blog multiple times really defeats the purpose of .1 issues, but bitching and moaning about that really gets us nowhere.

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.

Podcast Powered By Podbean

Good Fun so Far--Daken: Dark Wolverine #6

Daken: Dark Wolverine #6
Wolverine's son continues to plot and plan, with all the puzzle pieces starting to fit together in this great issue of fun dialogue and clever plotting.

Rant-Reviews--Four Marvel Comics.

A decent-enough Avengers, fun done-in-one Deadpool story, the Punisher Plot developing, and Uncanny X-Force being just plain spectacular.

Rant-Reviews--Dark Wolverine, Lex Luthor, and Two Batmen.

 More comic book reviews; overall some quality books in this review bunch, at least more-so than yesterday's terrible-to-good mixture of funny-books.

This comic stars someone who is over-exposed but I still like him: Deadpool #29

Deadpool #29
Yes, he has way too many comics starring or at least featuring him out on shelves right now. However, I actually like me some Deadpool--when he's written well. His other series/mini-series tend to be hit-or-miss but the main title is generally solid thanks to Daniel Way. Did this issue continue that trend? Let's see...