Wow. Well, we like us some Tony Isabella around TWC and always have, but I’m not really having any part of this post talking about some sort of recent Marvel decline since “The Heroic Age” began. I’m especially not buying it if he’s going to hold up X-Men Forever, sort of the comics version of Ensure to keep old readers from starving when they don’t have much appetite for real food, as a high watermark of 2010 Marvel. Just…no.
“The Heroic Age” is, first of all, still in pretty early stages to be blasting at yet, with most of the series just finishing their first story arcs, but so be it. There’s a lot of Bendis comics, and I think they’re pretty but forgettable and stretched out, so no argument there. Ed Brubaker, another favorite around here, is still doing decent work on Captain America, though I think he’s kind of said about all he’s going to say with Bucky, and having him sleeping with the Black Widow doesn’t mean he’s actively developing their relationship. Jonathan Hickman is maybe showing some shortcomings in his approach now, but Fantastic Four and S.H.I.E.L.D. are still pretty decent. That Abnett/Lanning cosmic universe stuff didn’t really grab me, pre-Heroic or now, but it’s competent. Daredevil is ridiculous and Andy Diggle needs to get out of the Kitchen, soon, but the X-Men and Wolverine titles are actually all okay, even if this vampire thing is not really taking off yet, and you can see a lot of the plot points a mile away. Hulk is fun, though we really only need the one book and I couldn’t care less about his kids and the Gamma-bam-thank-you-ma’am women he used to bang.
There are some nice surprises on the fringe, like Black Widow, X-23, Avengers Academy and even Daken, but to me the best current book is Amazing Spider-Man, especially when handled by Mark Waid and Paul Azaceta. Azaceta isn’t even a guy whose style you’d think of as being a great fit for Spidey, but he’s good at drawing people, and that works better in this series than others where cool poses and big muscles rule. And Waid and his other rotating writers have really done a good job of giving Peter Parker new challenges, a credible new love interest who actually has a life of her own in Carly Cooper, and some situations where Pete doesn’t just fail and gripe and wisecrack about it, but actually has to confront his failures and maybe grow from them. Admittedly, it’s telling that Waid is able to be Editor-in-Chief of another publisher and still find time to be one of Marvel’s top five writers. Even in the “One Moment in Time” story, which wasn’t something I was looking forward to, writer Joe Quesada gave added to both Peter’s and Mary Jane’s characters when she confronts him with his own selfishness, the act that led to her still knowing about their marriage when the rest of the world was made to forget. Such knowledge is not only a burden for her but potentially dangerous, and if he loved her selflessly and maturely, Pete really should have let her forget.
A lot of this, of course, is just differing opinions. As Tony often says, your mileage may vary. But I do take issue with his using Secret Avengers and Secret Warriors as examples of Marvel characters not upholding the heroic values The Heroic Age was supposed to bring back. Secret Warriors, for one thing, is canceled, so it’s not like there was any reason to change direction for the last handful of months it had, and Secret Avengers aren’t doing any real black ops type of missions. They caught a terrorist using mainly just Cap’s shield and four tits, and then they went to freaking Mars to stop a cult. I mean, pick on the band of killers in Uncanny X-Force, by all means, but if that perfect example isn’t mentioned, then I’m wondering if the gripe is based on a fair, wide reading of the comics or not.
P.S. I have an aversion to the font used (Times New Asgardian?), so it’s hard for me to get through Thor. I can’t be alone in this, can I?
— Christopher Allen
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