sonotadream

Ororo: Before the Storm (2005) - written by Marc Sumerak, art by Carlo Barberi

Another limited series origin story, this time about Ororo Munroe, aka Storm.

So, of course, we start the story with some wannabe Indiana Jones ~~stealing~~ retrieving an ancient Aztec artifact in Mexico. He's betrayed by the mysterious guy who hired him and falls to his apparent death. Probably. This book is aimed at younger readers, so it isn’t made explicit.

He then get to meet young Ororo, a leader in a crew of child thieves run by Achmed El-Gibar. He seems to treat his army of orphan thieves fairly, for a man who makes children work for their food. He also has sway over the local police, but we never see why. It’s probably just one of those things inherent to the genre of children books and I shouldn’t be overthinking about it, but I can’t help it.

Anyway, Ororo is sneaky, a loyal friend, a good leader, and fiercely misses his parents.

Nari, hot-headed and not as skilled, is her main rival. Together with Hakim, the three are chosen for a special job. The mystery guy from the beginning hired El-Gibar to retrieve the Opal of Ozymandias from inside one of the Pyramids and he sends his students to deal with the booby traps. He does seem to care for them, for a man sending children in a dangerous, possibly deadly, mission.
Mystery guy also name-drops Apocalipse when he explains why the Opal is so valuable - it grants eternal life, and also eternal servitude to Apocalipse, but the guy seems to be into that.

The kids make their way to the final room. Nari grabs the Opal, inadvertently awakening the statues that act has its guardians. Things look bad, until statue!Ozymandias recognizes Ororo as someone with a significant destiny in relation to Apocalipse, mentioning future events (depicted in past comics, I assume), and lets the kids go.

Unfortunately, mystery guy is waiting for them and traps Ororo and Hakiim in a rock slide, taking the Opal from Nari.

Ororo has a flashback to her parents deaths - trapped in rubble after an explosion. The thought of the same happening to Hakiim awakens her latent powers and they manage to free themselves, only to find the El-Gibar and the rest of the kids have been captured and are about to be sacrificed in a ritual to bring Apocalipse back. They put their training to good use, liberate their friends and Ororo tricks the bad guy into becoming a stone statue himself when he claims the power of the Opal.

In conclusion, a nice story and a nice showing of Ororo’s qualities. However, I’m definitely not the intended audience, because the fact this is framed as a group of street urchins having an amazing adventure and not as a group of orphans being exploited by a man of dubious morals really bothers me.

Doctor Strange Season One (2012) - written by Greg Pak, art by Emma Rios

A bit of Background: the Season One graphic novels were Marvel's way to modernize some origin stories. They end up being placed in a different universe from Earth-616, except for this one. They also seem to be hit or miss in terms of quality.

Doctor Strange is definitely a hit. It starts with a brief, faithful retelling of Strange Tales #115, just smoothing out some rougher edges - does Strange walk in on Mordo casting dark magic? No, Mordo invited him in an attempt to recruit Strange to his side.

Skip to a few months later and Strange's mystical studies aren't going very well. He sort of accidentally invokes Dormammu, which earns him the eternal enmity of Wong, until the end of the first arc.

The main difference between the Wong from the Silver Age and this one is that the latter is actually a character (TBF he only appeared twiceinthecomics I read).

Anyway, Wong has been studying the Mystic Arts his entire life and is a Kung Fu master, but has a chip on his shoulder about Strange. The Ancient One encourages the two to work together because they compliment each other: Wong has the heart, but lacks the discipline or patience necessary to advance, while Strange has the discipline but his heart is lacking - he's here only long enough to heal his hands and go back to his previous life.

We meet our third teammate, Sofia di Cosimo,of il Museo Della Mitologia Antiga Rome. She came looking for Wong and the Ancient One because she discovered three powerful rings went missing and now she's under attack by supernatural forces. The mission is to recover the rings and neutralize them.

The Ancient One forbids his students from going, so of course they slip away in the middle of the night.

The first ring is in Salem in the hands of a corrupt politician. He thinks he's the best thing ever because the ring has been protecting him his whole life, a feeling Strange can relate to. He's able to charm the ring away from the politician, who now has to reevaluate everything he thought he knew about himself.

The politician's ancestors, however, object to this turn of events, but Strange manages to invoke the Vishanti for protection, and then dispel them when they object to an unworthy worm holding the Ring of Compulsion.

The second ring is in Cairo, in the hands of a doctor, Ahmad Amin, who's using it to basically perform miracles. He got it from an old monk in the Himalayas, funny enough.

Strange feels conflicted in taking the Ahmad's ring, but Mordo is also after the rings and sends a horde of monsters to attack the doctor. Our trio manages to save him with some magic and Wong takes the ring.

Ahmad's confidence is shaken, but Strange gives him a pep talk and a helping hand, and maybe remembers why he became a doctor himself.

He's also becoming more in tune with the magical forces around him, which allows Strange to direct the trio to Stonehenge when their magical map stops working.

There is Wong's turn to get a pep talk. He's feeling down because, despite training in Lamar Taj his entire life, Strange is the one with the ability to invoke the Vishanti. Strange reminds him what the Ancient One said, how he has the heart, he just needs to find the words, and the two work together to vanish another horde of Mordo's monsters.

The third ring is in the British Museum, in the hands of an old lady who believes herself to be the last on a long line of guardians against evil magic. Unfortunately, the ring is attracting powerful, evil spirits and Strange resorts to awaken the ancient gods whose energy is still around to defeat them.

It works and they get the ring, but now they have to confront Mordo.Wong calls on the Vishanti, but he's not strong enough to control them, so Mordo, with Dormammu's power behind him, takes control. It's Sofia's turn to give Strange a pep talk, remind him he's not worthless and he manages to call on the Vishanti for help to defeat Mordo, who shows himself not to be so much better than the two novices.

Strange and Sofia help Wong regain control of himself, the rings decide Strange is not an unworthy worm and he returns them to the Vishanti, instead of healing his hands and going back to his old life.

In conclusion, this is a good adventure story. It does a good job of bridging Strange's arc between his origin and being an established sorcerer. And it's nice that the central relationship between the main trio doesn't revolve around a love triangle, it's all about friendship.

The art and colours, especially in the final battle are phenomenal.

Mordo remains a one-note villain, though.

Strange Tales (1951) #110-111, #114-122 - written by Stan Lee, art by Steve Ditko

Finally reading some actual Silver Age comics!

We are introduced to Doctor Strange as an established Master of the Black Arts, his Master, the Ancient One, and his rival, Baron Mordo, who wants to destroy the other two to become the only sorcerer around.

These are short stories and follow a few set beats: Mordo tries to attack either Strange or the Ancient One; Strange meditates to speak to the Master (how many times can you call the old man Master before it starts getting weird?); there's a fistfight in the Astral plane; the amulet of the Eye of Agamotto saves the day.

The origin story comes later, in issue #115. Strange was a selfish, egocentric surgeon, uninterested in helping others. One day, he crashes his car. The damage to his hands makes him unable to operate again and he spirals.

He hears of the Ancient One, a Master of the Mystic Arts with healing powers and goes to the Himalayas searching for him. The Master refuses to help him, because 9he's a selfish, egocentric man, uninterested in helping others.

Strange isn't happy, but he gets conveniently snowed in and has to stick around until he's able to leave. He also conveniently witnesses Mordo attacking the Ancient One with dark magic. He tries to warn the Master, but Mordo puts a spell on him and the only way around it is for Strange to ask to become the Ancient One's student, in hope of learning the way to defeat Mordo.

But TWIST! The Ancient One knew what was going on all along. Strange passed the test, showing he's capable of caring for other people and he's to become the Ancient One's heir and battle Mordo when the time comes.

Things get more interesting with Nightmare taking center stage in issues #116 and #122, with the art takes a more psychedelic turn. He also has much more style than Mordo.

Issue #119 has a lot of panels with Strange in silhouette, looking dark and mysterious with his (non-sentient) cape.

One unfortunate aspect is the Orientalist bent, not just because the Ancient One is Tibetan sage or because Wong is not really a character. Sometimes Strange's depiction leans into the trope too.

A fun note: despite trying to keep mystical goings ons under wraps, Doctor Strange is famous enough to get recognised in the street.

In conclusion, a nice introduction to the mystic side of the Marvel Universe, but I like old comics. The villains are a bit one note, but Doctor Strange's character is well defined already.

Absolute Superman #9 - Jason Aaron/Rafa Sandoval, Fico Ossio - lots of plot in this issue. Nice peek into the Omega Men and looking forward to Ras Al-Ghul trying to make Superman his heir. Lois and Jimmy are not having a good time.

Action Comics #1088 - Mark Waid/Skylar Patridge - it”s fun to see Clark”s early days as Superboy, learning the ropes. Also, nice cliffhanger.

Fantastic Four #1 - Ryan North/Humberto Ramos - Works well as a number one (even if the renumbering feels unnecessary...). We spend time with each member and get to wonder how they”ll escape another impossible situation.

The Power Fantasy #19 - Kieron Gillen/Caspar Wijngaard - this continues to be stellar. Did new Magus kill the original Magus? Is it wrong that Etienne is my favorite?

Logan: Path of the Warlord (1996) - written by Howard Mackie, art by John Paul Leon

One shot featuring Logan sometime after the war, when he's working as a mercenary in Japan. He gets involved with a scientist that discovered dimensional travel, his daughter who has knives for fingers (I guess she's Lady Deathstrike?) and an immortal warlord from another dimension. He's also studying with a sensei, hoping to better control his animalist instincts. Which he accomplishes in the climax of the story.

Overall, not very interesting.

Magneto: Testament (2008) - written by Greg Pak, art by Carmine di Giandomenico

So, this isn't a superhero comic, not really. There's no heroes or absurd supervillains, just the harsh reality of growing up during the Holocaust.

The authors were striving for realism and I think they accomplished their goal.

The story starts in 1935. Max Eisenhardt is a regular school boy, trying to impress the girl he likes by excelling at a sports competition. He wins a medal, even after a sympathetic teacher warns him not to stand out. In the end, he's accused of cheating and expelled - can't make the arian students look inferior…

( Read more... )

Absolute Martian Manhunter #4 - Denniz Camp/Javier Rodriguez - this continues to be amazing. Also. I can”t believe Joh doesn”t realize his marriage isn”t doing well...

Absolute Wonder Woman #9 - Kelly Thompson/Hayden Sherman - curious if any Amazons will show up in this arc. But we seem to be getting more info on the goddesses plan for Diana.

Superman #27 - Joshua Williamson/Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Sean Izaakse - I guess Lex is back to being his old self, except with a beard this time.

Absolute Green Lantern #4 - Al Ewing/Jahnoy Lindsay - I knew John wasn”t dead! Noticing some similarities with Absolute Martian Manhunter in the plot.

Captain America #1 - Chip Zdarsky/Valerio Schiti - this is off to a very good start. Loved seeing Steve after just getting out of the ice, trying to figure the modern world. Interesting to see it's explicitly set post-9/11.

Captain America and Bucky #620-624 (2011) - written by Ed Brubaker and Marc Andreyko, art by Chris Samnee

We go back to Captain America with this not-actually-a-miniseries (it retains the numbering from the ongoing Captain America series) retelling the origin of Captain America's sidekick, Bucky Barnes, written by the guy who brought us the Winter Soldier.

( Read more... )

The Ultimates #13 - Deniz Camp/Juan Frigeri - the Ultimates 3.0 rebrand seems to be going nicely. otoh, Tony is making some questionable decisions...

Batman & Robin: Year One #8 - Mark Waid/Chris Samnee - it's a bit ouch for Dick to recognize Clayface as Bruce because he was friendlier.

West Coast Avengers #8 - Gerry Duggan/Danny Kim - feeling really invested in Killawatt”s arc here.

X-Men #18 - Jed MacKay/Emilio Laiso - Robin is totally on your side, Cassandra, no way she”s changing her mind.

Absolute Flash #4 - Jeff Lemire/A. L. Kaplan - Grodd continues to be adorable.

Fantastic Four Fanfare #2 - Jonathan Hickman/Dustin Weaver, John Tyler Christopher/Andrew McIntosh, Mark Buckingham - Mr. Fantastic going off on a weird quest because he forgot about Val”s birthday is a mood.

Fantastic Four #33 - Ryan North/Cory Smith - aww, HERBIE. But it”s neat he”s the reason our universe exists the way it does.

Marvels #0 and #1 (1994) - written by Kurt Busiek and art by Alex Ross

Marvels is a miniseries showing the big events of the Marvel Universe from the common perspective of the common person. Basically, it's Outsider!POV, which is one of my favorite tropes.

I do find the trope more fun when you know what's going on, but my lack of knowledge about the events of the Golden Age didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the story.

( Read more... )

Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man - Kevin Smith, Al Ewing/Mark Buckingham, Chip Zdarsky/Cafu - The story about Spider-Man's ripped pants was just silly; the multiverse one was fun; the third one had an interesting take on speed powers.

The New Avengers #1 - Sam Humphries/Ton Lima - That was a fun start. Bucky and Nat have good chemistry.

Exceptional X-Men #10 - Eve L. Ewing/ Carmen Carnero - Emma Frost keeps growing on me. Is Kitty's pet dragon back?

Ultimate Black Panther #17 - Bryan Hill/Stefano Caselli - the plot is thickening - coups and counter-coups.

Ultimate X-Men #16 - Peach Momoko - nice Nico showcase.

Iron Man #9 - Spencer Ackerman/Michael Dowling, Julius Ohta, Guiu Vilanova - Vishte makes for an interesting antagonist.

The Avengers #27 - Jed MacKay/Andrea Broccardo - Mad Thinker is living up to his name - convoluted plan and now he thinks he can take Sam and T”Challa on his own.

Detective Comics #1098 - Tom Taylor/Lee Garbett - Batman and the Penguin make for a fun team up.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest #40 - Mark Waid/Adrián Gutiérrez - another fun team-up for this week - Jim Gordon and Perry White.

Robin & Batman: Jason Todd #1 - Jeff Lemire/Dustin Nguyen - this seems to be leaning on Jason was bad from the start, which not fun, but the art is very good.

Ultimate Wolverine #6- Chris Condon/Alex Lins - I'm sure Legion won't cause any trouble down the line...

Absolute Green Lantern #3 - Al Ewing/Jahnoy Lindsay - John Stewart is def coming back. Also, neat way to make the weakness to yellow not silly.

Absolute Superman #8 - Jason Aaron/Rafa Sandoval - Superman's not having a good time deciding who he should trust.

Action Comics #1087 - Mark Waid/Skylar Patridge - meanwhile, Superboy's having a successful first superhero outing.

The Power Fantasy #6 - #9 - Kieron Gillen/Caspar Wijngaard - finally caught up. Loving the world building, the characters and art. Not much plot going on, but in a good way.

Supergirl #2 - Sophie Campbell - still cute. Interesting villain. The dialogue still feels a bit too exposition heavy.

One World Under Doom #5 - Ryan North/R. B. Silva - "because he's Doom" it's not a very good counter-argument, Tony. Especially when you're okay working with reformed Ultron in your other book.

Absolute Batman #9 - Scott Snyder/Nick Dragotta - Absolute Universe Bane is massive

Uncanny X-Men #15 - Gail Simone/David Marquez - the Outliers are my favourite new mutants in this crop. Dead boy is definetely not becoming the new guardian, though. Loved the old team makeover!

New Champions #5 - Steve Foxe/Ivan Fiorelli - still fun. The team is coming together well.

Ultimate Spider-Man #17 - Jonathan Hickman/David Messina - Gwen and Harry”s honeymoon seems to be over. Also, giving his AI suit the personality of his abusive father really was a bad idea.

Justice League Unlimited #7 - Mark Waid/Travis Moore - Grodd”s plan was coming together nicely, until all those pesky heroes showed up.

Green Arrow #24 - Chris Condon/Montos - nice epilogue. Liked the way Oliver gave himself away to the detective.

Absolute Wonder Woman #8 - Kelly Thompson/Hayden Sherman - nice hook. Let”s meet some Amazons!

Absolute Martian Manhunter #3 - Deniz Camp/ Javier Rodriguez - such psychedelic art!

Ultimate Spider-Man: Incursion #1 - Deniz Camp, Cody Ziglar/Jonas Scharf - it was fun to see Miles as the veteran Spider-Man, but Peter needs to step up his superhero game.

Laura Kinney: Wolverine #7 - Eric Schultz/Giada Belviso - the dream world started to disintegrate fast. When it was revealed it was created by an imprisoned mutant, I thought «oh, she”s doing it on purpose.» But no, she really wanted to give Laura a perfect world ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

X-Men #17 - Jed MacKay/Ryan Stegman - Cyclops is in MVP leader form and I”m loving it.

The Amazing Spider-Man #4 - Joe Kelly/Pepe Larraz - the flashback with Aunt May was very heartwarming. The new job seemed to be legit this issue, but I'm not ready to be convinced.

Detective Comics Annual 2025 - Al Ewing/Stefano Raffaele, John McCrea, Fico Ossio - the first act was a fun closed room mystery, then it got really esoteric.

Joshua Hale Fialkov/Mike Norton - this one was really cute. Great to see Batman being good with kids.

Batman and Robin Year one - Mark Waid/Chris Samnee - poor Dick, having to go all that trouble to keep a secret identity 😜

Superman Unlimited #1 - Dan Slott/Rafael Albuquerque - I appreciated the life recap, but it got very sentimental in a way I found cringe tbh.

Batman/Superman: World's Finest #39 - Mark Waid/Clayton Henry - the time travel shenanigans were super fun.

Absolute Flash #3 - Jeff Lemire/Nick Robles - Wally is ready to stop running and teaming up with Grodd, and that”s so sweet!

X-Factor #10 - Mark Russel/Bob Quinn - I just hope we get to see Granny Smite again.

Absolute Batman #8 - Scott Snyder/Marcos Martín - Mr. Freeze continues to be the creepiest. Nice to see Bruce”s frineds have his back.

Captain America (1968) #255 - written by Roger Stern, art by John Byrne. First published March 1981

This is a special issue for the 40th Anniversary of Captain America and is meant to be the definitive telling of Captain America's origin story.

Steve Rogers was raised by his widowed mother in the Lower East Side (not Brooklyn! Sorry, that's not the last time I compare the comic with the movie). He grows up a fan of fantasy and art. He watches a news reel about nazis one day and becomes radicalised - love that for him.

He's not fit enough for the army, but General Phillips just happens to be hanging out at a random recruiting center and recruits Steve for Project Rebirth, on the strength of his desire to fight nazis. Not a bad reason, but I think the movie did this part better.

( Read more... )

Origin II (2014), written by Kieron Gillen, art by Adam Kubert, colors by Frank Martin.

We pick up where the last series ended, with Logan living in the Canadian Wildernness with a pack of wolves. He helps them hunt, takes care of the pups, and they took him in as one of their own. Unfortunately, their peace is disrupted by a wandering polar bear.

The bear finds the pack's den and kills the wolves. He and Logan fight, killing eachother. The art in these pages is very striking, red blood contrasting with the white background.

Logan survives, because regenerating factor, but he's all alone again.

( Read more... )

Action Comics #1086 - G. Willow Wilson/Gavin Guidry - Nice story. Unfortunately the real enemy is climate change... You'd think in a universe filled with super-genius, they would find a solution for that.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #15 - Greg Weisman/Andrés Genolet - Really sad to see this one end. The dynamic between Peter and Miles was good, although they were playing second fiddle to Juliet's drama in this arc. Glad she managed to sort herself out, probably could have spend sometime on that instead of three pages of cameos.

Uncanny X-Men #14 - Gail Simone/David Marquez - cool dragon fight. Nice to see the kids powers explained in more detail - although Calico's managed to raise more questions. Lady Henrietta got quite the glow up in the last panel.

The Ultimates #12 - Deniz Camp/Juan Frigeri - Nice to see the team working out their problems with words and not their fists. Also, Tony being supportive of Doom, he clearly didn't expect that, poos guy. And the reveal that Wasp is the mole - could be a double agent, could not, but we know that Fury is, so that's gonna be interesting.

Fantastic Four #32 - Ryan North/Cory Smith - this one got dark. Valeria can be ruthless, but also compassionate. Jane Grey/Namor - new crack rare pair that's also somehow canon unlocked?

The Vision and the Scarlet Witch #1 - Steve Orlando/Lorenzo Tammeta - just found out Wand and Vision are not a couple at the moment, lol. They were very cute together, until the end. Interested to see where it goes next.

Fantastic Four Fanfare - Mark Waid/Ramon Rosanas, Alan Davis, Andrew Wheeler/Sara Pichelli - loved the reality show story. Rooting for the Mole Man, lol

Absolute Superman #7 - Jason Aaron/Carmine di Giandomenico - nice parallels between the Collective and Krypton. Almost felt bad for Brainiac.

Absolute Green Lantern #2 - Al Ewing/Jahnoy Lindsay - this is really leaning into the cosmic horror side of things.

One World Under Doom #4 - Ryan North/R. B. Silva - you'd think making a mistake that allows a primordial evil entity to almost conquer earth would give Doom cause for some self reflection and character growth, but no. You could excuse it as a character flaw, but the narrative is not supporting that interpretation. The art was good, though.

Supergirl #1 - Sophie Campbell - the art was cute. Nice story hook, but felt a bit exposition heavy.

Current Mood: lazy

Did you know that the main Marvel universe has never been rebooted and you can read the main continuity from the begginning? Well, I found that out recently and decided it would be fun to try. I love a good checklist.

I'm following this list from Comic Book Reading Orders. It goes in chronological order, not publication, and I'll be skipping anything I don't feel like reading, otherwise this would be unmanageable.

So let's start with Wolverine: Origin (2001), written by Paul Jenkins, art by Andy Kubert, colors by Richard Isanove:

Rose, recently orphaned, arrives at the Howlett Estate to be a companion to the young son, James, a sickly child. There's another boy, the groundskeeper's son (whose name is Logan! And looks exactly like Wolverine!), who everyone calls Dog (poor thing).

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished

I'm almost up todate this week. It's a long list:

Godzilla vs Spider-Man - Joe Kelly/Nick Bradshaw - That was fun!

Nyx #10 - Jackson Lanzing, Colin Kelly/Francesco Mortarino - Suddenly, Mojo is back! Still, it was nice to see everyone come together to defeat him. I'm sad this one was cancelled - the community building aspect after the fall of Krakoa really set this one apart from the other X-Men series. Hope to at least see Anole and Sophie again.

X-Men #15 - Jed McKay/Ryan Stegman, C. F. Villa - tfw the twin you absorbed in uetro claws her way out 13 years later.

Ultimate Spider-Man #16 - Jonathan Hickman/Marco Checchetto - interesting reveal with Gwen and Mysterio. It's nice she and Harry are the real deal. I'm feeling ambivalent about Harry not being dead, since I feel he was set up as this Peter's Uncle Ben equivalent. Starting to wonder if there's some subversion going on, if Peter is gonna atep up as Spider-Man.

Amazing Spider-Man #2 - Joe Kelly/Pepe Larraz - new job/new-old friend still feels super suspicious.

( Read more... )

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Entries tagged with comics

MRL - Ororo: Before the Storm (2005)

MRL - Doctor Strange Season One

MRL - Strange Tales

Weekly comic roundup

MRL - Logan: Path of the Warlord (1996)

MRL - Magneto: Testament (2008)

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MRl - Captain America and Bucky (2011)

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MRL: Marvels (1994)

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MRL - Captain America (1968) #255

MRL - Wolverine: Origin II (2014)

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MRL - Wolverine: Origin (2001)

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