“What is the greatest Marvel story never told?” was a common question asked around the Marvel offices. Each fan of the Marvel Universe has their own favorite character or team which they’d like to know more about, but Marvel for decades kept one specific story close to the vest and only revealed it a few years back in 2001. Now I know I’m a little late to the party, and if put on the spot I’d be hard pressed to come up with the story I want to hear, but Wolverine was never a character that I connected with and I wouldn’t consider the origins of Wolverine to be it. Thanos and his plans for complete domination is more my guy and I want to hear the story of him gaining dominance over the universe!

The artwork in the book was penciled by Andy Kubert and colored by Richard Isanove, who was the same team that did the artwork for one of my favorite comic arcs Marvel 1602. The duo manages to put on paper a visually appealing work that creates sweeping landscapes with vivid colors and does a top notch job telling their part of the story. If you’ve ready 1602 you can expect the exact same style here.

My problem is the writing of the story starts off at a high pace and is very engaging but about halfway through it derails. The main climax happens in the first part with a major twist and the first half deals with topics which I felt fit in very with the controversial nature of Wolverine. If left at that, it would have told a snippet of the origins of Wolverine but still kept enough untold and maintained the aura of mystique. The second half of the book started to feel very cliché, trite and forced and in my opinion doesn’t do much to further Wolverine’s story.

Origins is interesting but sadly reaches it’s storytelling peak too early with the later half leaving me uninspired. For any major Wolverine fan this of course is a must buy, but for the casual Wolverine reader like myself just borrow the book. Overall the story is good but if left with just the first part of the book would be amazing and very memorable, but with what feels like a forced second half the work as a whole takes a hit.

‘Til Next Time - Happy Reading
LvT

Filed under: Comics, Origin by LordVonTush
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A few days back I picked up the latest trade paperback set in the Marvel Zombies story arc appropriately titled Marvel Zombies 2. Not to say it is the second book in the Marvel Zombies series…it is actually the fifth, but it continues the story told in Marvel Zombies. Now MZ isn’t that original a concept, if you have a story or world it is pretty easy to ask questions that start with a ‘What if…?’. In this case it is a “What if the Marvel characters were all turned into zombies?”

Lots of hyjinx that is for sure! But, truth be told, I guess I went into the series expecting a bit more. Especially when compared to some of the story arcs coming out of Marvel’s writing team now. Let’s just say that the story took a different path than I thought it would. I was expecting to hear a story that was dark and grim…Kind of like Dawn of the Dead or Night of the Living Dead, but instead I got lot of humor which at time is witty and other times just slapstick…More like Shawn of the Dead or Army of Darkness. My expectations aside I became more and more sold on Robert Kirkman’s world as I read the books, but like many armchair quarterbacks there are some things I would have done differently.

The artwork I felt was average but I don’t consider my eye good enough to critique it in any sort of meaningful way. Overall I felt the shading, coloring and line art all had a feeling of a mediocrity. It wasn’t bad where it detracted from the story. To me it was just kind of there and didn’t draw me further into the story. There are times where I’m thinking “Wow, did that just happen?” and a other times the panels are forgettable. So all in all the package is very hit or miss.

The part that impressed me the most though were the covers. Every individual issue in the MZ series has an homage drawing to classic Marvel covers but of course reimaged with a zombie theme. First issue covers of The Avengers, Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four, Secret Wars, and Wolverine have all been redone as well as other classics like Frank Miller drawing of Elektra holding Daredevil’s mask or the seductive jail-bait version of Mary Jane from issue two of her self titled series. Arthur Suydam customized these comic covers to tell a story from a nest of birds appearing in Captain America’s cranium, a family of mice that has made home in Mary Jane’s decaying body to giving The Hulk an obsession with eating eyeballs. This made Marvel Zombies: The Covers a very entertaining and enlightening read for me.

Overall MZ is pure entertainment. Upon reflection I think Kirkman made a wise choice of taking a lighter and comedic tone to the books instead of deep character reflections like I was expecting. There are cliché times and there are times of surprise, but all in all it was an enjoyable read. If it came down to passing, borrowing or buying the books, I’d rate it as a borrow. Once the novelty of the characters being zombies wares off there isn’t enough there to keep me going back to re-read again and again.

But I will leave you with this final thought: “Zombie Howard the Duck”

‘Til Next Time - Happy Reading!
LvT

Filed under: Comics, Marvel Zombies by LordVonTush
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