Things I've Been Reading
Back in April I bought myself an iPod Mini as a birthday gift. Within a couple of weeks, I tried the Marvel Unlimited app, which has a monthly subscription fee that I am finding worth every penny. It has access to a huuuuuge backlog of Marvel Comics, and updates every Monday with newer comics that were released 6 months ago.
Some of the titles I have found most interesting to read so far (not necessarily good, just interesting):
Growing up I was a fan of reading Star Wars novels, but for some reason I never read the ones that formed the basis of the post-ROTJ era expanded universe. I knew names like Thrawn, Mara Jade, and Talon Karrde from their other appearances. Anyway, now that the old expanded universe has been swept away to make way for Disney's new vision, it almost seems silly to catch up now. But Disney now owns Marvel Comics & Star Wars properties, even comics that were published by Dark Horse Comics. I did actually enjoy the Zahn trilogy - Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command - as presented in comic book form.
The story is a wee bit convoluted, as we have to remember that in the pre-prequels era, the role, history, and nature of the Jedi were little known. The Empire is licking its wounds and one of its leading agents is Grand Admiral Thrawn, introduced as some kind of brilliant strategist who can divine and exploit the smallest enemy weaknesses to great effect, who plans to reclaim territory lost after the Emperor's death. There's a Dark Jedi who has aims of forcing Leia's children to become his apprentices. Luke has his hands full with Mara Jade, the Emperor's assassin, whose master's last command was for her to kill Skywalker. Leia finds an enslaved people and rallies them, which later proves to be Thrawn's undoing.
It's good escapist stuff, even if it's just a bunch of crazy shit that happens. At least you kind of care about the secondary characters like Thrawn, Jade, Pellaeon - which is something Star Wars fiction usually fails at.
I had never read this series before, but with Marvel movies poised to adapt this story to screen, I figured it was time. And... wow, how boring it was.
Okay. Back up. For years my friend Tom has told me about his love of "Cosmic Marvel", this whole other set of stories that takes place in space and deals with supreme beings, deities, scoundrels, and whole worlds & races. These stories occasionally match up with the more familiar Earth-based heroes, but the separate yet parallel nature of these worlds is well illustrated by these panels from a What If? comic dealing with the Civil War storyline from 10 years ago when Nova suddenly plummets to Earth to warn the heroes of imminent cosmic doom:
Infinity Gauntlet was a big cross-over event, but the problem is it leans more heavily on Cosmic Marvel than Earth Marvel. So if you came in wanting a story about Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, et al. triumphing against impossible odds over a space tyrant - you don't get it, they're bit players who provide little more than a temporary distraction. I'm told by Tom that the array of cosmic characters that it assembles is very exciting if you're a Cosmic Marvel fan, though. The same goes for the sequel series, Infinity War - you would need to be a fan of Cosmic Marvel to enjoy. So what does that mean for the forthcoming Avengers: Infinity War movie? I'm guessing a near total departure from the story as established in the comics, though probably leaning heavily on characters introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy like Gamora.
There are two limited series that follow Jahan Cross, who in short, is the James Bond of the Star Wars universe. An agent of the Galactic Empire, he is an unlikely hero. The people he tends to fight seem to be worse than the organization he serves, though not by much. But, like Bond, or Jason Bourn, he is more than just his abilities - a sense of honor drives Cross's actions. The fact that he works for a morally corrupt system is actually an appealing complexity to the story that isn't glossed over. The series are pretty short, so it's a quick read. Unfortunately because it's pre-Disney, there probably won't be any new stories in this series.
One thing DC universe has been better than Marvel is reining in the ever-sprawling continuity. Every now and then DC would run a Crisis On ____ storyline, the world would get changed up, and everything would kind of start fresh. When things got stagnant or too complicated, DC would hit the reset button. Oh, some things remain the same afterward - apparently Batman: Year One will forever be the go-to origin story no matter what happens in the wider continuity - but renewal helps a great deal in ongoing continuities.
Marvel, however, has been building on the same continuity for 50 years. Until 2016.
Starting in 2016, the Marvel Universe ended, and merged with the Ultimate Marvel line of stories, with a storyline where Dr. Doom managed to become 'God' and create a new world after all other universes ended or merged. He created a patchwork of different continents in 'battleworld' so that many of the stories and locales familiar to him could carry on. But he also makes changes that please him - Sue Storm as his wife, Ben Grim as a 'Great Living Wall' that protects one continent from one full of horrors, Yggdrasil forming Doom's throne. Even the powerful Dr. Strange, one of the few people who remembers the world as it was before, serves Doom because he's "good at [being God]" - but everything gets upset when a couple of 'lifeboats' of survivors from the previous universes appear and try to set the multi-verse back to normal.
It's a weird and occasionally fun storyline. Eventually the heroes prevail, restore a universe that resembles what they're all kind of used to, and carry on. If you know Ultimate Marvel, you might be sad that Secret Wars was finally the last call for that imprint. But this storyline gave a way for Miles Morales, the young man of Puerto Rican descent from Ultimate Spider-Man, to exist in the mainstream continuity, but co-exist with the more familiar Peter Parker Spider-Man. Miles focuses on New York, and Peter does his Avengers / world-wide Spidey stuff.
Yeah, another Star Wars title, but this one is actually part of the current canon having been published under Disney's watch.
Is it possible to add more depth to this well-known character? Yes, and this comic did it. Set immediately after A New Hope, Vader finds his station has diminished. He's in a very different place than what we see at the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, where he's clearly in charge and can execute top Imperial officers with impunity. He could not prevent the Death Star's destruction, so the Emperor openly challenges his utility, Imperial officers are unafraid of him and even look down their noses at him, and he has to navigate intrigue and prove himself strong lest he be replaced.
Because he's on the outs with the Empire and has Imperial minders scrutinizing his actions, Vader has to team up with the unscrupulous Dr. Aphra to get things done on the sly. Aphra is like the anti-Han Solo: she's supposed to be an archaeologist, but she is more of a completely amoral adventurer. Vader begins to quietly inquire through underworld channels about who the rebel pilot was who destroyed the Death Star - sparking painful revelations once he's told that the pilot's name is Skywalker. Did Vader really kill his wife like he thought? Had the Emperor lied to him? ...is he a father? Thus begins his obsession with finding Skywalker, but he tries to hide that motive under the more sweeping mission of fighting the rebels.
If there's one thing I don't like about this series, it's that the issues always seem too short! It's one of the few ongoing series I'm reading, so it's hard having to wait a month for new issues to come in.
So that's just a few of the series I've been reading lately. Anyone know anything in Marvel's collection I should check out?
Some of the titles I have found most interesting to read so far (not necessarily good, just interesting):
Growing up I was a fan of reading Star Wars novels, but for some reason I never read the ones that formed the basis of the post-ROTJ era expanded universe. I knew names like Thrawn, Mara Jade, and Talon Karrde from their other appearances. Anyway, now that the old expanded universe has been swept away to make way for Disney's new vision, it almost seems silly to catch up now. But Disney now owns Marvel Comics & Star Wars properties, even comics that were published by Dark Horse Comics. I did actually enjoy the Zahn trilogy - Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command - as presented in comic book form.
The story is a wee bit convoluted, as we have to remember that in the pre-prequels era, the role, history, and nature of the Jedi were little known. The Empire is licking its wounds and one of its leading agents is Grand Admiral Thrawn, introduced as some kind of brilliant strategist who can divine and exploit the smallest enemy weaknesses to great effect, who plans to reclaim territory lost after the Emperor's death. There's a Dark Jedi who has aims of forcing Leia's children to become his apprentices. Luke has his hands full with Mara Jade, the Emperor's assassin, whose master's last command was for her to kill Skywalker. Leia finds an enslaved people and rallies them, which later proves to be Thrawn's undoing.
It's good escapist stuff, even if it's just a bunch of crazy shit that happens. At least you kind of care about the secondary characters like Thrawn, Jade, Pellaeon - which is something Star Wars fiction usually fails at.
I had never read this series before, but with Marvel movies poised to adapt this story to screen, I figured it was time. And... wow, how boring it was.
Okay. Back up. For years my friend Tom has told me about his love of "Cosmic Marvel", this whole other set of stories that takes place in space and deals with supreme beings, deities, scoundrels, and whole worlds & races. These stories occasionally match up with the more familiar Earth-based heroes, but the separate yet parallel nature of these worlds is well illustrated by these panels from a What If? comic dealing with the Civil War storyline from 10 years ago when Nova suddenly plummets to Earth to warn the heroes of imminent cosmic doom:
Infinity Gauntlet was a big cross-over event, but the problem is it leans more heavily on Cosmic Marvel than Earth Marvel. So if you came in wanting a story about Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, et al. triumphing against impossible odds over a space tyrant - you don't get it, they're bit players who provide little more than a temporary distraction. I'm told by Tom that the array of cosmic characters that it assembles is very exciting if you're a Cosmic Marvel fan, though. The same goes for the sequel series, Infinity War - you would need to be a fan of Cosmic Marvel to enjoy. So what does that mean for the forthcoming Avengers: Infinity War movie? I'm guessing a near total departure from the story as established in the comics, though probably leaning heavily on characters introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy like Gamora.
There are two limited series that follow Jahan Cross, who in short, is the James Bond of the Star Wars universe. An agent of the Galactic Empire, he is an unlikely hero. The people he tends to fight seem to be worse than the organization he serves, though not by much. But, like Bond, or Jason Bourn, he is more than just his abilities - a sense of honor drives Cross's actions. The fact that he works for a morally corrupt system is actually an appealing complexity to the story that isn't glossed over. The series are pretty short, so it's a quick read. Unfortunately because it's pre-Disney, there probably won't be any new stories in this series.
One thing DC universe has been better than Marvel is reining in the ever-sprawling continuity. Every now and then DC would run a Crisis On ____ storyline, the world would get changed up, and everything would kind of start fresh. When things got stagnant or too complicated, DC would hit the reset button. Oh, some things remain the same afterward - apparently Batman: Year One will forever be the go-to origin story no matter what happens in the wider continuity - but renewal helps a great deal in ongoing continuities.
Marvel, however, has been building on the same continuity for 50 years. Until 2016.
Starting in 2016, the Marvel Universe ended, and merged with the Ultimate Marvel line of stories, with a storyline where Dr. Doom managed to become 'God' and create a new world after all other universes ended or merged. He created a patchwork of different continents in 'battleworld' so that many of the stories and locales familiar to him could carry on. But he also makes changes that please him - Sue Storm as his wife, Ben Grim as a 'Great Living Wall' that protects one continent from one full of horrors, Yggdrasil forming Doom's throne. Even the powerful Dr. Strange, one of the few people who remembers the world as it was before, serves Doom because he's "good at [being God]" - but everything gets upset when a couple of 'lifeboats' of survivors from the previous universes appear and try to set the multi-verse back to normal.
It's a weird and occasionally fun storyline. Eventually the heroes prevail, restore a universe that resembles what they're all kind of used to, and carry on. If you know Ultimate Marvel, you might be sad that Secret Wars was finally the last call for that imprint. But this storyline gave a way for Miles Morales, the young man of Puerto Rican descent from Ultimate Spider-Man, to exist in the mainstream continuity, but co-exist with the more familiar Peter Parker Spider-Man. Miles focuses on New York, and Peter does his Avengers / world-wide Spidey stuff.
Yeah, another Star Wars title, but this one is actually part of the current canon having been published under Disney's watch.
Is it possible to add more depth to this well-known character? Yes, and this comic did it. Set immediately after A New Hope, Vader finds his station has diminished. He's in a very different place than what we see at the beginning of Empire Strikes Back, where he's clearly in charge and can execute top Imperial officers with impunity. He could not prevent the Death Star's destruction, so the Emperor openly challenges his utility, Imperial officers are unafraid of him and even look down their noses at him, and he has to navigate intrigue and prove himself strong lest he be replaced.
Because he's on the outs with the Empire and has Imperial minders scrutinizing his actions, Vader has to team up with the unscrupulous Dr. Aphra to get things done on the sly. Aphra is like the anti-Han Solo: she's supposed to be an archaeologist, but she is more of a completely amoral adventurer. Vader begins to quietly inquire through underworld channels about who the rebel pilot was who destroyed the Death Star - sparking painful revelations once he's told that the pilot's name is Skywalker. Did Vader really kill his wife like he thought? Had the Emperor lied to him? ...is he a father? Thus begins his obsession with finding Skywalker, but he tries to hide that motive under the more sweeping mission of fighting the rebels.
If there's one thing I don't like about this series, it's that the issues always seem too short! It's one of the few ongoing series I'm reading, so it's hard having to wait a month for new issues to come in.
So that's just a few of the series I've been reading lately. Anyone know anything in Marvel's collection I should check out?