Book Review: Fantastic Four Ultimate Collection Bk. 2 by M. Waid et al.

Fantastic Four Ultimate Collection Book 2 written by Mark Waid and pencils by Mike Wieringo and Casey Jones

See my review of Book 1 here.

Most of this volume is about a confrontation with Doctor Doom. Vincent von Doom has been an on-going and iconic adversary for the Fantastic Four. Doom tries a new attack, committing to an all-magical assault. He makes a deal with demons to get some extra witchcraft abilities which he uses to torment Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben. Doom's initial focus is on Valerie and Franklin, Reed and Sue's children, making him extra-evil. The conflict causes a lot of damage to Marvel's first family, not all of it resolved in this book.

The story was interesting, especially providing some backstory for Doom that was relevant for the current narrative. He is a fascinating character and used well here. The overall narrative has some character development for Reed and Ben which was nice. The art was a bit hodge-podge, with some different styles for the characters. I was never confused about who was who but the changes were noticeable. 

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Fantastic Four Ultimate Collection Bk. 1 by M. Waid et al.

Fantastic Four Ultimate Collection Book 1 written by Mark Waid and pencils by Mike Wieringo and Mark Buckingham

Waid and Wieringo had a popular run with Marvel's first family, the Fantastic Four. At the start, a couple of single issues set up the typical FF family dynamic, with the bickering between Johnny Storm/The Human Torch and Ben Grimm/The Thing and the parenting trials of Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic and Sue Storm Richards/The Invisible Woman. They have two children, Franklin and Valerie, who have minor roles in these stories. A large role is played by a couple of characters from a PR firm who manage the Fantastic Four's public image. Patents from Richards's invention only cover part of the expenses of the team. They also depend on merchandising and it's hard for the FF to stay in the celebrity lime light. Some of the marketers work with the team, meaning they get to go on the crazy adventures in alternate dimensions and micro-verses. 

The stories are fun and lean into the family dynamics: Reed has troubles with parenting (he is a geeky scientist, after all) and Sue with her immature brother Johnny (giving him a role in the financial department is a good idea according to her since it will help him be more responsible). The kids cause a little trouble for one story arc. The family dynamics are more fun than the scientific nonsense Richards talks about, which comes up quite often. The writer has fun making up stuff, maybe more fun than the readers. 

The book ends with Avengers #400, the first collaboration between Waid and Wieringo. That's a fun, epic story that I enjoyed.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 7 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 7 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Marcio Takara and Damian Couceiro

The story of Max Damage wraps up as Coalville starts slumping back into anarchy in spite of Max's attempts to enforce order and St. Lucifer's governing style. Max is working through personal, existential issues along with other characters. Some come to a happy ending, others don't.

The plot is a little hard to follow without having the cross-over storylines from Irredeemable's finale. This book reads choppy on its own, jumping between story beats as the conflict with the Plutonian is resolved over in the other book. The aftermath for Max is interesting but not as compelling or satisfying as I wanted. Also, the quality of the art has dropped, which already was not a strong point for this series.

Mildly recommended--if you made it this far, you might as well finish.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 6 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 6 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Marcio Takara

Max Damage is working on a new project now that The Plutonian is back on Earth. Meanwhile, the group of villains who want a piece of Coalville get taken over by Plutonian's old enemy St. Lucifer. He's got his own project too that may or may not be compatible with Max's. The plot moves forward slowly until the inevitable confrontation between Max and Plutonian, yielding some cryptic results.

The story is less clear than it used to be and less interesting too. There's only one volume left, so I will finish it just to see where they are going.

Mildly recommended--I'm coasting on inertia here.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 5 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 5 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Marcio Takara

Max Damage continues his campaign to be a hero as the citizens of Coalville try to get back to a normal life. Max's past actions and allies come back to haunt him. He tries to recruit a district attorney to lead the city but he did something exceptionally horrible to the DA's family. The DA is not convinced. A group of villains is forming up to create their own rules for Coalville. They try to recruit Max but he is not convinced. And there might be a sinister plot behind everything that's happening.

The forward momentum of the story slows to a crawl as the comic seems to shift to more character development. Unfortunately, they are not doing a good job developing the characters, so the story is less interesting. I haven't completely lost my interest but the series is skating on thin ice. Happily, the art has shifted away from the exploitative depiction of women.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 4 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 4 written by Mark Waid and art by Marcio Takara

Max comes up with a brilliant plan to take down The Plutonian just when Plutonian is taken down by some aliens who will enslave him off-world. What's a novice superhero to do? Max's allies, psychotic sidekick Headcase and Plutonian's ex Alana, are worried about what Max will do. The Paradigm, the Justice-League-style group of Plutonian former allies, come to Max with a strange offer--join them in fixing the world or die.

The side story with Headcase is the most interesting part of the story. She's struggling with personal loss and what to do with herself besides living the high-risk life of fighting evil people (without any superpowers). She's not right in the head and Max keeps meaning to set her straight, but he really has no capabilities to persuade her. The main story, Max's path of redemption, is getting a bit muddled, like the writers don't know what to do with him either. Another side plot, the cadre of rich people exploiting the anarchy, moves slowly in seemingly random directions, another meandering plot thread. Maybe things will come together in the next issue?

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 3 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 3 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Horacio Domingues and Marcio Takara

Max Damage goes after the girlfriend of his old enemy the Plutonian. Alana Patel is a Lois-Lane type who worked at a radio station where the Plutonian, in his everyday persona Dan, worked. She dated the Plutonian until the day that Dan admitted his love for her and that he is the Plutonian. She wigged out and broke up with him. She blames herself for Plutonian going evil and has let herself be kidnapped by a gang of racists who admire The Plutonian because they think he is targeting minorities (he's actually targeting everybody). Alana had an unpublished autobiography that details a lot of secrets, including how Max's powers work. He doesn't want revenge, he just wants to control the information. This situation leads into a lot of conflict between a variety of characters. Also, Max's new sidekick, a Japanese woman who lost her family to the racists and has embraced the Jailbait identity as a coping mechanism, starts making trouble with her own suicidal tendencies. He's renamed her "Headcase" which she does not object to.

The story is less interesting than before. Max is still trying to figure out how to be a hero, though that has taken a back seat to a lot of the other plot mechanics. Many of the minor bits are interesting, like the police chief who has gotten off the bottle just when everyone else turns to drink to deaden the pain of the situation. Unfortunately, the artists still treat Headcase and Alana as eye-candy (i.e. skimpy outfits and lots of cleavage). 

Mildly recommended. They need to get back to Max's main problem!

Book Review: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Lost and Found by M. Waid et al.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Lost and Found written by Mark Waid, art by Javier Garron, and colors by Israel Silva

Second Ant-Man Scott Lang and second Wasp Nadia Pym are forced to team up when she tries to quantum-port him from deep space back to Earth for his daughter's birthday. The precise timing is messed up when Scott grabs the present he almost forgot to take back to Earth. Scott and Nadia wind up in the sub-atomic world, where standard physics don't apply. Bizarre creatures and random happenstances abound as they try to figure out how to get back to their home.

The book is an interesting mash-up of creativity and pseudo-scientific ideas and jargon. Scott has his usual problems with being a good dad. Nadia is Hank Pym's (the original Ant-Man) long-lost daughter who took on the Wasp role when she returned to America and Janet Van Dyne (the original Wasp) took care of her (her dad was already dead). Nadia is a lot smarter than Scott and solves most of the science problems. He's better at practical problems. The micro-verse or quantum realm is an opportunity for the artists to try out all sorts of things. I am not sure the science really holds together, which is a minor problem since it drives the plot to some extent (if physics doesn't apply in the micro-verse, why are observations and theories about quantum particles accurate?). The ending felt very formulaic, also a minor problem.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 2 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 2 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Horacio Domingues

Max Damage's original partner Jailbait (real name: Terri) goes AWOL since he's changed from a villain to a superhero. The only problem with her plan is that every enemy of Max will be gunning for her. Max saves a kidnapped woman only to find out it's not Terri. The woman's name is Annie. Annie is grateful to Max for saving her so he has her impersonated Jailbait long enough for him to find Terri and get her to safety. The plan does not go well, leading to more action and drama.

The story takes an interesting turn as Max realizes his impact on others. Annie gets enough story to make her an interesting character and to force her to join forces with Max. A new artist was brought on. The new visuals are a bit more cartoony which didn't bother me much. The art does play up the sexiness of Jailbait much more than in the first volume which I liked less. It's not bad enough for me to stop reading.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Incorruptible Vol. 1 by M. Waid et al.

Incorruptible Volume 1 created and written by Mark Waid and art by Jean Diaz

Max Damage is a super-criminal in Sky City, the home of superhero The Plutonian (a Superman knockoff). Max's newest problem is The Plutonian losing his mind and turning into the worst supervillain ever (see Irredeemable). After spending a month thinking about the situation, Max has decided he needs to step up and become a hero. He has a hard time convincing people like his sidekick Jailbait (an underage female who likes the wicked lifestyle) and the police commissioner. Max starts off by letting the police know about his gang's next job, leading to their arrest. Also, he gets rid of all his ill-gotten gains. That includes torching his vault with 4.2 million dollars in it. The commissioner and Jailbait have a really hard time with that one too. Max wants to be on the up-and-up. He starts working his way through problems as they come, like an ex-associate who is profiting off of his "get superpowers quick" experiments that don't work so well but are easy to market to the desperate populace.

Max is a very interesting character. While Irredeemable told the story of why a Superman-like hero would turn to evil, this book takes on a more interesting and, to me, plausible challenge...how would a villain turn over a new leaf and become a hero? Even after a month thinking about it, Max still makes some mistakes here and there. Turning himself 180 degrees is not easy, especially when everyone thinks he's playing some sort of game or lost his mind. The reader has an easy time rooting for Max, especially when he does the right thing in little situations like not sleeping with his underage sidekick anymore. The story is a nice twist on the hero's journey.

The art is not the best. Max's face sometimes looks different from issue to issue. The book has some nice splash pages for big scenes, though the rest is fairly standard comic-book fare. Even though Jailbait has a skin-tight outfit and wants to be exploited, the artist treats her with more respect than she has for herself, so there are good aspects to the art. 

Recommended--this is a more intriguing premise than the original series.

Book Review: Irredeemable Premier Edition Vol. 4 by M. Waid et al.

Irredeemable Premier Edition Volume 4 written by Mark Waid, illustrated by Peter Krause, Diego Barreto, Eduardo Barreto, and Damian Couceiro, colors by Andrew Dalhouse and Zac Atkinson, and letters by Ed Dukeshire

See my review of the last volume here.

After a lot of wild jostling around, the Plutonian's mad rampage has gotten him into an insane asylum in the heart of a star (with the usual "science is magic" explanation for how the prison works). On Earth, former Plutonian ally Survivor is trying to restore order though he has become as monomaniacal as Plutonian. The other heroes reluctantly go along, though they are starting to make plans to deal with him and all the criminals to whom Survivor has promised amnesty if they help fix things.

Plutonian starts an escape, which leads him deeper into the prison planet which gets weirder and weirder. Along the way, he picks up some other prisoners who are aliens and want to escape. Meanwhile, Qubit and Modeus (Plutonian's greatest enemy) have teamed up to find him. Modeus has realized he's in love with Plutonian because being his greatest enemy makes him his greatest admirer (if that really makes any sense). The two manage to teleport to the heart of the prison just as Plutonian's gang arrives. After a brief fight, Plutonian escapes back to Earth while Modeus and Qubit are stranded. Plutonian resumes his mad rampage, now with alien super-criminals on his side.

Survivor has been trying to fix all of Earth's problems and generally failing. The criminals are not good at civic order and harmony. The other heroes' schemes to bring down Survivor are paltry and do not deliver what the Earth needs. Meanwhile, the acting president of the United States meets with some Asian leaders who have their own plan to deal with the return of the Plutonian. They have some super-powerful beings who should be able to bring down the wayward hero. The only cost is a huge nuclear blast that frees those beings, creating a cloud of radiation that will kill a third of the people on the planet.

My misapprehensions about where the story was going once Plutonian was taken off as a prisoner in space have been confirmed. His storyline becomes more or less bat-poop crazy. The revelation of Modeus's affection for the Plutonian also seems forced and false. And there's a surprise twist with Survivor that does not make sense with what has come before, like a murder mystery that brings out a brand-new characters in the last twenty pages who should have appeared much earlier. So many disappointing parts, what happened to the writing?

Not recommended.

Book Review: Invisible Woman: Partners in Crime by M. Waid et al.

Invisible Woman: Partners in Crime written by Mark Waid and art by Mattia De Iulis

Susan Storm Richards is the Invisible Woman, one of the Fantastic Four. Her power is generating force fields that make her or other objects invisible. In this book she's given a solo story about working as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, though in the present day story S.H.I.E.L.D. is no longer functioning. One of her old partners, Aidan Tintreach, is involved in a foreign plot: Kidnapped students are held hostage by a hostile eastern European government. Susan has a certain comradely affection for Aidan and jumps at the chance to save him. The C.I.A. is only interested in any leads she can give. She finds her own clues and starts a globe-trotting adventure with the typical twists and turns of a spy adventure story.

The plot has a James-Bond feel to it. The story wanders all over and some of the science and action scenes are a bit preposterous. Sue has some typical superhero problems to deal with, the main being her principle of never killing anyone. That's tough for a spy to do but her superpowers give her a little more flexibility. She does some creative things with her powers and has enough charm to lead her own story. Black Widow, Nick Fury, and Maria Hill all have cameos that help to set up some contrasts and to move things along. It's an entertaining read without much depth or resonance.

Mildly recommended.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 7 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 7 written by Mark Waid and illustrated by Chris Samnee, Jason Copland, and Javier Rodriguez

See the previous volume here.

Matt Murdock continues to deal with Foggy's cancer and his ex-girlfriend being Foggy's replacement. Daredevil faces some problems too. He's fighting the Sons of the Serpent, a white supremacist group that's creating anarchy in Manhattan with fake media messages. The media problem is caused by the Jester, a third-level villain whose been trouble for Spider-man and Daredevil in the past. Dealing with the Jester isn't nearly so difficult as another issue Daredevil uncovers. The Sons of the Serpents have some sort of occult connection involving an ancient spellbook called "The Darkhold." Dr. Strange sets Daredevil on the right path, leading to a rural town where he has to fight with (and eventually team up with) a group of classic horror characters--a Frankenstein's monster, a werewolf, a mummy, and the daughter of the Devil. She's a bit mad about Daredevil being a poser for her dad. After he gets what he needs, he heads back to New York.

This story arc was the end of Waid's run on Daredevil. All the speechifying was over-the-top and led to some dramatically unbelievable moments, but Waid was able to keep his fun style going. The bit with the horror monsters was the best part though the connection to the bad guys was very slim. The art shifted in the last couple of issues, resulting in Dr. Strange looking like a different person! So that was a little distracting.

Slightly recommended--if you've made it to Volume 6, you might as well finish it off. You will be satisfied but not wowed.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 6 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 6 written by Mark Waid and art by Javier Rodriguez, Chris Samnee, and Matteo Scalera

Matt Murdock gets a new law partner to help with the caseload while Foggy Nelson is in the hospital with cancer. He also gets a new client, a childhood bully who gave Daredevil his name by teasing the young, sighted Matt for being bookish and non-confrontational. The bully has had a less than legal lifestyle but his latest arrest was a false arrest. Matt still has lots of negative feelings about the bully but decides to defend him anyway because a false arrest is an injustice, regardless of how crummy the person is. Turns out there's a lot more going on when they get to the courtroom and Daredevil has to fight his way out.

The book also has a minor adventure with the Silver Surfer and then a longer adventure with the Hulk. Matt Murdock is Bruce Banner's lawyer. And also his failsafe since Bruce made a deal with S.H.I.E.L.D.--they provide him with a high-tech lab, he provides them with Hulk muscle on missions. One mission takes out a shipment of high-tech weapons headed to a villain in New York City. One of the bad guys slips out, forcing Hulk and Daredevil to work together to hunt down the one missing gun. The story was so-so. 

Mildly recommended. The series has only one more volume, so I'll finish it off.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 5 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 5 written by Mark Waid and art by Chris Samnee

The foes from the last couple of volumes are being organized by some mysterious figure who is ready to start the next (and probably final) round. That problem takes a back seat when Matt Murdock's best friend, Foggy Nelson, reveals a big secret. Foggy's got cancer, or at least that's what the doctor's think. Matt needs to step up as a friend just as the mastermind enemy starts his final plan to eliminate Daredevil.

The story does a good job going between the action and the drama and ends mostly satisfactorily. The action works well and Daredevil's character develops some uncharacteristic fear. As with most heroes, his fear is for his friends' safety, not so much for himself.

Recommended.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 4 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 4 written by Mark Waid and art by Chris Samnee and Michael Allred

The Avengers perform some invasive surgery on Matt Murdock's brain after Doctor Doom filled it full of nanobots trying to steal Daredevil's sonar power. The surgery is mostly successful. Matt still has some troubles, especially when he starts hallucinating. His law partner, Foggy Nelson, has had it with Matt's instability and breaks up the legal team. Daredevil goes off the deep end as he faces a new villain, the Coyote. Coyote has been knocking off a lot of drug lord in New York City in gruesome and unlikely ways. Their confrontation resolves some problems for Matt but makes others worse.

The story takes a dark swerve away from the light-hearted swashbuckling in previous volumes. Matt deals with more personal demons and more horrible happenings. The ending itself is a bit of a downer for the Man without Fear. Still, I want to find out what happens, so I will keep reading!

Recommended.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 3 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 3 written by Mark Waid and Greg Rucka, art by Marco Checchetto, Chris Samnee, Khoi Pham, and Tom Palmer

Daredevil has the same problem as last volume--the Omega Drive. It's a piece of Fantastic Four tech that stores information on five different super criminal organizations. After defeating Black Spectre (one of the organizations), he's now on a mission to keep it out of any wrong hands. That includes Frank Castle's hands. Frank is The Punisher. He'd love to use the information to cause mayhem and destruction for organized crime. Daredevil thinks that will involve too much collateral damage, so he teams up with Spider-man to keep Castle in check as the three try to destroy the drive, hopefully in public where all the bad guys will realize it's gone and stop hounding Daredevil. Plans don't go according to plan. Other plots are tried, though they are interrupted when Doctor Doom abducts Daredevil for his own nefarious purposes.

This story continues to entertain and be creative. The plans to get rid of the drive are interesting. At first, the Doctor Doom stuff seems shoehorned in. As that story develops, it makes a little more sense. The art is a bit uneven since the story was spread over different comics. The volume includes issues of Avenging Spider-man and The Punisher. It was one of those crossover stories--the bonus materials in the back show how the three different issue covers are put together to make one big picture. The characters look a little different in the different issues, a fact I found distracting. Still, the story is solid and I am ready for more.

Recommended.

Book Review: Black Widow: No More Secrets by M. Waid et al.

Black Widow: No More Secrets written by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, art by Chris Samnee, and color by Matthew Wilson

This is a sequel to Black Widow: S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Most Wanted, which I reviewed here. By this point, Black Widow has turned the tables on her enemy, The Weeping Lion. She's using him to go after The Dark Room, a rebirth of the Red Room project that created the Widow back in the day. Her old teacher, the Headmistress, is training a new set of young girls who are being robbed of a normal life, something Black Widow wants to stop. Even though the Widow tends to be a loner, she has the Winter Soldier and an old Russian friend living out in the middle of nowhere helping her. 

The plot is fun but goes a bit too far over the top when the Widow and the Soldier take a spaceship to visit a zombie-like Nick Fury on the moon for some intel. The rest of the plot was fine with a very satisfying ending. Like the previous volume, this book takes the Black Widow seriously (except for the moon bit) and not sexily. It's refreshing to read the story of a female hero who gets by with her wits, determination, and skill, not her scantily-clad body. The art is reminiscent of Mike Mignola's Hellboy style, which is a bonus in my eyes.

Recommended.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 2 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 2 written by Mark Waid, art by Paolo Rivera, Joe Rivera, Emma Rios, Kano, and Khoi Pham

Daredevil winds up with a hard drive full of information on five different crime organizations: A.I.M., Hydra, Agence Byzantium, The Secret Empire, and Black Spectre. They naturally want it but any one individual organization would have great leverage over the other four. While they work out a deal to cooperate, Matt Murdock gets on with his life.

After a one-off adventure where Murdock saves and is saved by a bunch of kids on a winter bus trip, the action starts in full force. Spider-man comes by asking for legal help--his friend/former lover Black Cat is in trouble. She's a master thief and is accused of stealing some high tech equipment from the outfit where Peter Parker works. The slip-up that got her busted seems fake. Daredevil and Spider-man investigate, though they don't need to break Black Cat out of custody. She does just fine for herself. The three work together to figure out what's going on. 

Their adventure is cross-cut with a subterranean horror that Matt has to deal with--the cemetery where his father is buried has been graverobbed...from underneath! What sinister plan does the Mole Man have for the dozens of coffins his minions have stolen?

The stories are interested and Daredevil's new, more light-hearted characterization is fun. Matt attends a Christmas party with an "I'm not Daredevil" sweater, still trying to get out from under his identity being revealed. He doesn't find as much humor in situations as Spider-man does (but who can match Spidey in that department?), but he isn't mopey or conflicted like a lot modern superheroes. He still deals with serious issues without being glum.

Recommended.

Book Review: Daredevil Vol. 1 by M. Waid et al.

Daredevil Volume 1 written by Mark Waid, art by Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin

In July 2011, Marvel Comics relaunched the Daredevil monthly with Mark Waid as writer. Waid was (and still is) a popular writer who had the challenge of picking up the story after a lot of dark stuff happened to the Man Without Fear, including being possessed by an actual demon and being outed as Matt Murdock, attorney-at-law. The actual demon problem is behind him, though Matt always carries some personal demons. The celebrity outing causes him problems in the courtroom--every other lawyer brings it up and causes the case to be about Murdock/Daredevil rather than the case at hand. He and his law partner, Foggy Nelson, come up with a fun plan to work around the problem. Most regular people have moved on to other celebrity scandals, so it's not too much of an issue otherwise, just an annoyance. He sees a lot of action as Daredevil, though the first couple of enemies are a little more outlandish and unbelievable, like an enemy made up of sound. Daredevil does come up with creative solutions and he's fairly upbeat and fun compared to his dark past. He crashes a mafia wedding, foiling an attempt to kidnap some and kissing the bride on his way out! Good thing the New York crime families don't buy into the Matt Murdock=Daredevil mathematics.

Recommended. I may try some more of this.