Positive Feedback - August 22nd

Of all the comics released on Wednesday, August 22nd, I read 16 books from Marvel (including their 2 creator-owned releases), 12 from DC, and 4 from other publishers. This week, it was hard to pick a definitive favourite, so instead I have picked out one favourite each from Marvel, DC, and others.

Favourite Marvel book of the week - Amazing Spider-Man #692 by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Dean Haspiel, Joshua Hale Fialkov, and Nuno Plati

First off, this was also my collector's item of the week. Not only is it the "official" 50th anniversary issue, but those Marcos Martin variant covers are gorgeous, and there's also a really nice FanExpo Canada exclusive cover that I have a friend picking up for me.

The main story was spoiled months ago on the comics news sites, but only in general terms. The details of it made it shine. It's a fresh direction that I've never seen in 50 years of Spider-Man comics, and, as far as I know, I've read them all. I like the "accident" that gave Alpha his powers. I like how Peter takes responsibility for it, like he does for everything. I like the "are they back together" question. I like the villain and his entourage at the end. And I absolutely loved that moment where Reed reveals he discovered "Parker Particles" years ago, but knew the risk in tapping them. Coming from Hank or Tony it would have seemed like a dick comment, but coming from Reed, you really get the impression Peter has done something dangerous here.

The backup stories are great too. Haspiel's had a "Boy Who Collects Spider-Man" feeling to it, but Fiaklov and Plati's was the story I enjoyed most in this issue. The two-page splash of Spidey and Chris (which Plati posted on his blog and I'm linking here) is gorgeous, and is everything I imagine any fan would want to do if they could spend a day with Spidey. Beyond that, the jokes made me laugh out loud, and the whole story just felt so true to Spider-Man's character. He's always been that hero who would take a day to spend with a fan, or friend, or just someone in need.


Favourite DC book of the week - The Flash #12 by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato

The Flash is consistently one of the best books DC puts out. From the cover (the variant sketch version of which looks even better!) to the last page, everything in this issue looked great. One thing to notice is the unconventional panel layout. Manapul uses panels within panels, angled panels, panels that get smaller as a character falls through them, and wavy panels to help tell his story. Some of them he only uses when a certain character is using their powers. It adds so much to the art and feel and flow of the book, and I think giving Manapul writing and art duties on this series going into the New 52 is one of the best decisions DC made.

Favourite other publisher book of the week - The Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #1 by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee

I would never have looked at this book if it weren't by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. I've never read any other Rocketeer comics, or seen the movie. That didn't detract from my enjoyment of this book at all. The story moved quickly, introducing us to Cliff Secord's personal life and heroic life at the same time and kickstarting directions to take them both in. This looks like it will be a very fast-paced series judging by the pace of this issue, but that works well with Samnee's art, which is also perfect for this 1940 universe they're working in. I can't wait for the second issue. I'm not about to go out looking for more Rocketeer stuff, but this is a good comic, so I'll keep reading it.


Other good comics this week -

Astonishing X-Men #53 - I just want to call out another really cool Dustin Weaver cover on this one.

Captain America & Namor #635.1 by Cullen Bunn and Will Conrad - I imagine this story was setting something up for upcoming stories in Captain America and..., but it stood really well on its own. I love Namor when he's handled properly, namely arrogant and ruthless.

Deadpool Kills The Marvel Universe #4 by Cullen Bunn and Dalibor Talajic - My favourite part of this series was the ending. Kudos to Cullen Bunn for that.

I, Vampire #12 by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino - I really liked seeing Stormwatch appear in this series, as it makes sense that this is something they'd be dealing with. I hope they stick around for the next issue and we get to see some epic fight scenes between them and Andrew Bennett.

Invincible Iron Man #523 by Matt Fraction and Salvador Larroca - I've finished re-reading Hickman's FF run to date, and moved on to reading Fraction's Invincible Iron Man from the beginning again. Doing so just makes this final story even better, and I highly recommend it. Seeing the Titanomechs first appear in Tony's dreams and nightmares almost 40 issues ago and knowing now that was the start of the Mandarin's attack... I don't even know how to finish that sentence. I'll be sad to see Fraction and Larroca go, and can only hope Gillen and Land can live up to what was done here.

Supercrooks #4 of 4 by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu - I don't always like Millar's creator-owned books, and I don't always like Yu's art, but I liked this series. Have the movie rights been optioned? I'm assuming so, and it should make a good movie too. Can't wait to pick up a hardcover of it.

Venom #23 by Cullen Bunn and Thony Silas - It looks like Bunn is becoming one of my favourite writers at Marvel. It doesn't hurt that he's working on all the right characters to pluck at my heartstrings. This is his first solo issue of Venom, so it's a great jumping on point for new readers, and it gets into the action nice and fast.


Hardcovers & Graphic Novels -

Wolverine & The X-Men vol 2 by Jason Aaron and Nick Bradshaw came out in hardcover this week. I liked this material better than the launch story, so I'll definitely pick up the collection. It also has one of my favourite lines of comic book dialogue ever - "Anyone not willing to murder for the sake of science is no scientist at all."

Swamp Thing vol 1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette came out in softcover, and if you haven't been reading this series, I suggest picking it up. When it comes to collections, I stick to hardcover, but trades are a great way to get into a series if you've never read it before.


Comic News from this week -

Mike Allred put out some variant covers that are going to be available for FF #2-5 here and here and here and here. Love 'em all. Gonna have to get 'em all.

On a similar note, almost all of the Skottie Young baby variants for Marvel Now! are available for preview here. Thor is my favourite, but I'm also gonna have to get pretty much all of these. I already have Marvel Now! Point One #1 (which isn't shown there) and Uncanny Avengers #1 on order through local stores, but neither of those stores can meet the requirements for A-Plus X, and the rest haven't been solicited yet.

Rob Liefeld quit DC on Twitter in a very public, bridge-burning fashion. I know a lot of people hate on the guy and are probably happy he's gone, but it doesn't bode well for DC that he isn't the first creator to leave citing editorial problems less than a year into the New 52. Hopefully they can get it under control so that it gets better and not worse.

Dan Slott got some pretty hateful messages on Twitter and responded by blocking the people and with a nice little note saying it's okay to hate his work, but don't seek him out on Twitter or anywhere else just to be mean to him, or any other comic creators. It's the exact reason why this blog is called Positive Feedback; because there are too many people out there just broadcasting blind negativity, and I would rather praise people for giving me something I like than attack them for something I didn't.

FanExpo Canada is going on right now, and, sadly, I couldn't afford to make it this year after my son was born 7 weeks ago. There's sure to be lots more news out of it, but so far we've heard that Jason Latour will be taking over Winter Soldier from Ed Brubaker, which leaves me wondering - what are Brubaker's plans? We've also heard that Jeff Parker will be introducing a new team of Dark Avengers in issue #184, including USAgent. As much as I didn't like the change from Thunderbolts to Dark Avengers, it worked in the story, and I'm sure this will too. I have faith in Parker to deliver.


Lastly, my pitch of the week -

Amazing Spider-Man #692 featured the introduction of Alpha, and I couldn't help but see similarities between him and Gravity, a Marvel character created by Sean McKeever and Mike Norton in a 5-issue mini in 2005. Gravity is my favourite new character of the last 10 years, and I think has a ton of potential, but hasn't really caught on. I've probably written a dozen different pitches for the character, and will probably write a dozen more. When you see potential, how could you not?

The Fundamental Gravity

A Proposal

We open on Greg Willis, Gravity, standing on the ledge of a building, preparing to jump.

“Once, I flew off this building,” the first caption reads.

“Once, I took off my mask and “quit” on this building,” the second caption reads.

“Once, I jumped off this building, powerless, to my certain death,” the third caption reads.

The last panel on the first page shows him taking a step forward, and the second page has him plummeting to his death.

“Oh wait. That’s happening now,” the caption reads.


We cut back to days earlier to show the chain of events leading to Gravity’s suicidal leap. He still has his powers, and defeats Brushfire, one of his regular rogues. He returns to his home, unaware he is being watched. He finds a message from Lauren, his old girlfriend, on his machine. She wants to get together, and this excites him. For once, everything is going right in his life. A knock on his door prompts him to rush out of his costume and into regular clothes. When he answers it, he is grabbed by the man behind it, who has some kind of machinery running up his arm. Energy shoots through the machinery, out of Greg’s body and into the other man’s.

Greg wakes up tied to a chair. The attacker explains who he is – Graviton – Avengers and Thunderbolts villain, presumed dead. He tells Greg his story. Once again, his powers took him to another dimension to save him from certain death. But this time, he wasn’t welcome there. The aliens from that dimension tried to use his powers to open a portal to Earth. When they did, he saw a boy get pulled in, but the portal was unstable, and Graviton’s powers transferred through it and into the boy. Graviton was left powerless and kept in an alien prison. But they didn’t know he was once a scientist, and he was able to use their technology to make his own portal back to Earth, and a machine to steal his powers back. And now that he has them back, he’s going to have some fun with them.

“Avengers Assemble!” kicks off the second issue as Cap leads the team against Graviton, to no avail. Greg is still in his apartment, tied to a chair, but his phone starts to ring, and he manages to knock himself over and squirm to answer it. It’s Lauren, his ex, again, and he begs her to come over and help him, explaining his situation. As she tries to make her way over, she finds Manhattan is practically being destroyed by the fight between Graviton and the Avengers. She gets to Greg’s apartment and unties him. Greg insists that the Avengers will take win. They have to. But he turns on the News to check, and finds that Graviton has defeated Thor, the last Avenger standing.

In our third part, having defeated the Avengers, Graviton extends his powers to lift Manhattan out of the water. He’s clearly as crazy as ever, loudly proclaiming that this is his city now. Greg is left to watch and ask “what can I do?” He has to explain the whole crazy situation to Lauren, who can only comfort him and tell him she believes in him and she loves him and if she wasn’t sure before, almost dying on her way to his apartment made her sure. Her faith helps him open his eyes, and he notices Graviton left the ruined machinery that he used to steal Greg’s powers behind. Greg grabs it, and runs out of the apartment, doubling back to give Lauren a kiss, tell her he loves her too, and to stay there, where she’ll be safe.

While he runs through the city, other superheroes show up to confront Graviton, and he defeats them all. Greg is putting his life on the line trying to dodge falling debris and explosions being caused by Graviton’s destruction of the city, but he knows he can’t stop. If he had tried to figure out where his powers came from, or if he had noticed Graviton following him, or if he had learned to control the power to the extent that Graviton has, maybe none of this would be happening. Graviton is throwing superheroes into space, possibly killing them. Greg knows he has to take responsibility for it. He has to stop it. Hopefully his idea works, as he reaches his destination – Horizon Labs. He bangs on the sealed security doors.

Minutes later, Uatu Jackson brings him into Peter Parker’s lab. “This guy says he’s a superhero, and he knows how to stop that Graviton dude, but he needs your help,” Uatu tells Peter. Greg explains that he saw on the news how Peter helped make tech for Spider-Man, and so he thought Peter could fix the power transference machine. Peter agrees to take a look at it.

The last part of the story brings us back to the start. Greg, on a building, powerless, leaps to almost certain death. Peter was able to fix the machine, and, on his way to the ground, Greg manages to grab a hold of Graviton, who was floating below. He holds on tight as the power transfer machine starts to do its job and Graviton screams, slowly falling to the ground. It’s not working as well as it did the first time though, and Graviton is able to fight back against it, putting himself and Greg in a super-powered arm-wrestling match. As it looks like Graviton might take back the upper hand, Spider-Man shows up, having been watching for his moment. He webs Graviton’s eyes and punches him, breaking their grip on each other. Graviton isn’t left powerless though, and he quickly takes Spider-Man out of the fight. But Greg is no longer powerless, and so the two men fight, pitting their powers against each other to see who came out of the power transfer with more. Greg wins, and then strains to extend his power and lower the city back where it came from. He barely survives the experience, but manages, passing out as he finishes.

He wakes up in Avengers Mansion, having been taken in and checked over after the Avengers and other heroes were able to break Graviton’s hold that kept them in the upper atmosphere and return to Manhattan. They all praise him for winning the day. He thanks them, but thinks to himself that he still has a long way to go before he’s the hero he wants to be. Lauren is let into visit him, and they kiss, both happy to be back together.

In an epilogue, a newscaster reads the Avengers statement about Gravity saving the day. Black Death, Gravity’s first major villain, is watching, and says to himself “Little fish, little fish… looks like we’re both ready to swim in a bigger pond.”