Everyone has their own ideas on what critics should be concerned about, should focus on. Some don’t think one should write about whether something is worth the price being charged for it—they might not even list the price. I get that, and that’s something I struggle with and upon which I don’t have a definite stance. 

I also struggle with just how useful, or how fair, doing reviews of first issues is. I mean, it’s much less often I’ll review subsequent issues of a book once I’ve reviewed the first issue. Maybe if I liked that first issue, I’ll review a collected edition of that story arc, but often I don’t get around to it. And maybe that book got better. I’ve written negative reviews of books such as Haunt and Vengeance of the Moon Knight, and just maybe they’ve found their groove now and it’s unlikely I’ll ever discover that.

One other part I have trouble with is putting aside that a lot of comics have very little reason to justify their existence, creatively, and that some of your and my favorite creators may be involved with them strictly to pay the rent/mortgage. I guess my solution is just to take the comic on its own merits and if someone’s phoning it in or not doing their best work, regardless of the fact that professionals have to keep working and aren’t always going to be at their best, you call them on it. 

I was thinking about this as I read this latest batch of #1 issues. I’ll touch on a couple other books as well. It so happens that these are all Marvel titles, but it’s not like DC or other publishers don’t go through the same thing.

Avengers: The Origin #1 (of 5)

Writer - Joe Casey

Artist - Phil Noto

Casey has quietly become a kind of go-to guy for this type of book, which retells decades-old superhero team origins with some modern tweaks that don’t upset the apple cart of continuity much. He did it with the Fantastic Four in First Family, and less successfully early in his career on X-Men: Children of the Atom. I like Casey, but I think only the hardcore fan is going to follow him everywhere, to stuff like G.I. Joe. This miniseries expands on the plot of the first issue of The Avengers over 40 years ago, slowing down the pace to give some more dialogue to everybody and big panels for Noto to make with the pretty pictures. He does, for the most part, although I’ve never found his style kinetic enough for superhero action, and to my eyes it looks like he’s not quite comfortable with Photoshop or something, because some of the pages, particularly the ones with Loki, look indistinct and bland. I did like what Casey did with Rick Jones and his pals, making them sort of Hulk-oriented phishers/hackers. Casey likes to identify with the smartass rebel characters, so it was inevitable he’d connect with Jones. Not outstanding, but not bad.

Deadpool Corps #1

Writers - Victor Gischler, Frank Tieri

Artists- Rob Liefeld, Matteo Scalera

Liefeld AND Tieri? I know, right? What am I doing with this comic? Call it an drunken one night stand that you’re embarrassed about the next day, except not as embarrassed as you might be since it was still pretty fun. Well, I didn’t like the Tieri/Scalera backup, honestly. I’m actually pretty new to Deadpool and think he’s a fun character but not so much with the ha-ha killing of innocents. Well, I guess these grocery store employees turned out to be terrorists, but he didn’t know that when he shot one for asking, “paper or plastic?” So that’s not funny. I have to say, though, Liefeld’s style is still pretty ugly but not as bad as it used to be, and not inappropriate for an intentionally dumb book like this, where Deadpool now has a team with a female, teen sidekick, dog, and disembodied zombie head versions of himself, going off on a cosmic quest. Liefeld does still draw these pinched, sharp noses that stretch the skin around them like they’re about to burst through it, though, and every forehead is creased with rage or something, even the forehead of the skull on the very Loboesque spacebike Tryco is riding. Gischler is hit and miss with the gags, but I chuckled at some of it. It’s sort of a palette cleanser from all the angsty superhero books.

World War Hulks: Classified #1

Writers - Various

Artists - Various

I picked this up thinking it was the start of World War Hulks, the next Hulk title storyline. Instead, it’s a stopgap special with six mostly throwaway stories, with Jeff Parker the only writer actually involved in the event, to my knowledge. I liked his story about the least actually, which had Rick (A-Bomb) Jones breaking up with wife Marlo because now that he’s superpowered she’d be a target for villains just like Betty Banner was. Makes sense, but if you have a gal willing to stick by you even when you turn into a giant blue armadillo, you hang onto her. Parker also writes a Deadpool story that explains his involvement in the event, and it’s okay. That’s basically the reason for this special, to give explanations and little moments to supporting characters like Cosmic Hulk, Red She-Hulk, Leonard Samson and even Glenn Talbot, who surprisingly has the strongest story here, detailing his torture at the hands of Winter Soldier way back when. As for the artists, they’re all virtually unknown but all okay, with Ryan Stegman and IG Guara the most ready for prime time.

Captain America & Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers #1 (of 4)

Writer - Reginald Hudlin

Artists - Denys Cowan and Klaus Janson

Routine effort on the writing side—WWII-era story of Hitler wanting vibranium, and the U.S. mission to help Wakanda protect it ends up being the first time Captain America worked with Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos. Hudlin lets Gabe Jones narrate to give this long-underused African-American character some gravity, and I liked the scene where Cap nonchalantly borrows Gabe’s spoon in the mess hall to eat his chow, proving he doesn’t have a racist or germophobic bone in his body. Aside from some posturing and fighting between Cap and original Panther T’Chaka, not much happens. The art was my main reason for getting this one. You don’t see Cowan or Janson that much these days, and here they are together. Still, the inking really doesn’t look like typical Janson. It’s thin and not overpowering; I’m wondering if maybe he did it digitally. Still looks good, just not recognizably him, and I’m not getting the point of the washed-out coloring; well, everything but the Red Skull. Although a professional effort all around, it feels like I’ve been there before.

—Christopher Allen