The Trophy Room: Frankenstein, Captain Marvel, and Talking Cats

Hello, folks. I've asked Jacob Hall to come up with a regular feature, and this is it, in its inaugural form - The Trophy Room. Jacob is a writer for Screencrush.com and Movies.com, and a lover of storytelling in all of its forms. With The Trophy Room, he'll give weekly awards to the comics that he thinks stand out.

Welcome to the Trophy Room, where I'll recap my week in comics through arbitrary awards. Everyone's a winner! Unless you're a loser. And then you're probably not a winner. Sorry.

Hickman-iest Comic of the Week: New Avengers #2

The second issue of New Avengers has everything you'd expect from a comic penned by Jonathan Hickman: a few dramatically blank (wasted) pages, lots and lots of dialogue that's bound to pay off three times over in twenty issues and a villainous scheme so complex that it literally requires Mr. Fantastic to pull a Doc Brown and draw a diagram to explain it to the rest of the Illuminati (and the reader). This book certainly isn't going to win over Hickman's detractors, but if you like your superhero stories decompressed and filled with all kinds of nutty hard science fiction, well…then you really should be reading New Avengers.

Unadorned variant cover to Savage Wolverine #1, art by Milo Manara. Marvel Comics.

Least Hickman-iest Comic of the Week: Savage Wolverine #1

On the opposite end of the spectrum from New Avengers, you'll find writer/artist Frank Cho's Savage Wolverine, which manages to squeeze a ridiculous amount of action and momentum into its debut issue. I'm not enough of a Wolverine fan to pick up issue two (I hugely prefer Jason Aaron's silly take on the character over the every-popular growling badass), but this is a perfectly fine book that's going to please fans of the character and satisfy those who hungering to see Wolverine snikt his way through legions of baddies.

Best Use of a Talking Cat: Saga #9

What's up with talking cats becoming the break-out characters in my favorite books? Socks, the Animal Totem turned house cat over in Jeff Lemire's Animal Man, is somehow one of the best characters currently inhabiting the DC universe, but he's got stiff competition in this category from Lying Cat over in Image's Saga. The sidekick/companion of the mercenary known as The Will, Lying Cat is able to detect whenever a character is lying, no matter how petty the mis-truth. It's no exaggeration to say that I laugh out loud each and every time Lying Cat makes an appearance, so I was more than happy to spend an issue away from the series' protagonists and get to know The Will and his world a little better. This issue doesn't get the Comic of the Week award only because this series would win that honor every time it comes out and that's just not fair.

Best Horror Comic Disguised as a Batman Comic: Batman #16

There are parts of me that are deeply uncomfortable with Scott Snyder's Batman, mainly because I can't help but imagine an eight-year-old Batfan picking up an issue and being traumatized for life. But I'll just have to get over that because Snyder and artist Greg Capullo have turned Batman into one helluva horror comic, albeit one starring the Caped Crusader. Although the "Death of the Family" arc has been consistently unsettling, issue #16 is a special brand of grotesque, following Batman as he navigates an Arkham Asylum that's been completely taken over by the Joker. Readers looking for more friendly Batman adventures should check out John Layman's exceptional Detective Comics - Snyder's is a comic for grown-ups with strong stomachs.

Cover to Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #16, art by Alberto Ponticelli. DC Comics.

Most Confounding Final Issue For a Series That's Been Unceremoniously Cancelled: Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #16

Despite being one of the most consistently entertaining titles on the stands, Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. is no more and its final issue is baffling, to say the very least. That doesn't mean it's bad, per se, it just means that it ignores everything that went down in the past couple of issues, leaps backwards in time, revives a bunch of dead characters and tells a story set prior to the events of the "Rotworld" crossover event. I get why this happened - it lets the series end with our titular hero and his Creature Commandos triumphant - but it feels wrong, especially since the whole "Rotworld" thing is still ongoing over in Swamp Thing and Animal Man, leaving Frankenstein's side of the tale feeling woefully incomplete. This is a perfectly entertaining issue, but there's something quietly insulting about it. Instead of an actual ending, this final issue promises future adventures…which we'll never get. Because the series is canceled. Delightful.

Runner-Up Comic of the Week: Daredevil #22

Fact: there is no superhero book on the stands better than Daredevil. Mark Waid and Chris Samnee continue to tell the ever-pitch dark story of Matt Murdoch without wallowing in grime, walking the finest of fine lines between fun and morbid. Daredevil is telling a story about damaged people at the end of their ropes, but it's still, somehow, an absolute joy and pleasure to read. Bonus points for Waid's take on the Superior Spider-man, which made me realize that character is going to be genuinely hilarious as he navigates the dense Marvel Universe.

Comic of the Week: Captain Marvel #9

For its first eight issues, Kelly Sue DeConnick's Captain Marvel has been a consistently entertaining series with a solid grasp on its characters and fun (if not especially memorable) conflicts. Well, something went wonderfully right with issue #9 and the result isn't just good: it's Matt Fraction's Hawkeye and Waid's Daredevil good. Instead of sending Carol Danvers on another journey through time and having her fight another giant robot, DeConnick sends the former Ms. Marvel on her most interesting adventure to date: a very, very busy day in New York City (drawn by Filipe Andrade, whose anime-influenced pencils are stunning). By keeping her on the streets instead of in the cosmos, DeConnick grounds Danvers and her conflicts, making scenes like a battle with two time-displaced dinosaurs somehow relatable (because it's going to make her late for her cat's vet appointment, you see). I don't know if this signals a major shift in the book's tone or if it's just a one-off, but consider me a big fan of this (pardon the pun) grounded Captain Marvel.

I Want My Marvel NOW: Hawkeye #6, New Avengers #1, and Morbius #1

New Marvel NOW books! Have we been pleased enough with the comics to call this publishing initiative a success? Because I totally did in the Year-End wrap-up. I hope that's okay with you.

Hawkeye #6, like Wolverine and the X-Men #19, is part of a regular run, but the first issue to bear the Marvel NOW branding, hoping to entice new readers. Fraction has designed the book well, keeping it accessible at any time, so if anything, #6 is a litmus test for whether or not you're down for what the book is serving every month.

This issue serves up a "week in the life" story that finds archer Clint Barton struggling with setting up his home entertainment system, trying to get the cable working in his brownstone, and fending off dimwitted Russian mobsters (ones that he'd pissed off in the first issue by purchasing the apartment building they regularly used for tenant shakedowns).

I sort of still can't get over the fact that Marvel publishes a book like Hawkeye. Artist David Aja is playing around with sequential art; I'd say experimenting, but he's displaying such a mastery over how to construct panel-to-panel sequences on a page, I don't think it's an experiment. Hawkeye is not a book to read digitally - there's too much work that goes into creating each page as its own composition (#6 features a sequence that's laid out like a side-scrolling video game). Reading the book one word balloon at a time, as digital demands that you do, does an injustice to what Fraction and Aja are creating.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Darn tootin'.

I found New Avengers #1 to be almost hilariously snooty, and it wasn't helped by four all-black splash pages used to create "TA-DAH" cinematic breathers from the action. In the first issue, Black Panther runs afoul of some mysterious new baddies (named Black Swan and Manifold) mucking about with cosmos, and is forced against his better judgment to call on the help of his old "Illuminati" buddies (Namor, Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Dr. Strange, and Black Bolt).

It may set up a team book, but it's really all T'Challa the Black Panther's show. I liked it marginally better than Jonathan Hickman's adjective-less Avengers book, because it felt a bit more dense. And I'm still trying to figure out if I like Hickman's approach to comics or not. The writer may mistake inflated importance for character stakes; I'm not quite sure just yet. New Avengers #1 is almost so pretentious that it goes beyond pretense and comes right back around to being fun.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? As harshly critical as I sound, I think the book is still of interest. I was out of comics while Marvel was pushing the Illuminati storyline, and while I think it's out of character for some of these heroes to believe that they control the fate of the Marvel U, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in seeing where this goes. Just, please, no more all-black pages.

As conflicted as I am about Hickman, I've fast become a Joe Keatinge fan (thanks to his inventive work with Ross Campbell on Image's Glory). Morbius the Living Vampire #1 is the least Earth-shattering of the Marvel NOW line-up, more in keeping with the kind of street-level Marvel Universe we used to see on a regular basis in books like Bill Mantlo's Cloak and Dagger. It's a nice change of pace to the rest of the line.

The title picks up with Michael Morbius, a brilliant doctor turned scientific vampire (a small distinction from a supernatural vampire, but an important one), trying to settle down and find his way in Brownsville, a craphole run by punk rock thugs straight out of an 80's comic. Keatinge and artist Rich Elson lay out the ground rules for the anti-hero (long a C-list member of Spidey's rogues), and infuse the book with a refreshing sense of humor that isn't going for big laughs but a sardonic tone.

Elson's art fits well for this kind of throwback, bearing some influence from early John Byrne instead of going all-out horror comic with the visuals. Morbius is the kind of low-key funky book that I typically enjoy (I think I would write comics like this if afforded the chance), and the kind that typically gets canned in less than a year. But, hey, if Hawkeye can find its audience, then maybe Morbius can too. I think if you came of age on Marvel in the 80's, there's a lot to like here. It's certainly not like any of the other Marvel NOW books, that's for sure.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? "Hell Yeah" to use a Keatinge-ism. The writer is still feeling his oats as a pro, and there's going to be great things from him down the line. I want to be the Keatinge Hipster who points to Morbius in five years and says, "I was reading him from way back." I suspect Morbius is my kinda fun. Guess I'll find out!

I Want My Marvel NOW: Thunderbolts #1, Avengers #1, Cable & X-Force #1, and Avengers Arena #1

Well, it couldn't last forever. As much as I'd been enjoying the Marvel NOW debuts overall, there's been another dud dropped into the line, to join the ranks of A+X at the bottom of the heap. While I can't see A+X really getting any better, due to it not having a direction or monthly creative team, Thunderbolts, by writer Daniel Way and artist Steve Dillon, still has the potential to climb up from the bottom of the books.

The problem is in the first issue's execution, not in the concept. General "Thunderbolt" Ross aka Red Hulk recruits a team of Marvel's most notorious killers - The Punisher, Deadpool, Elektra, Venom, and a purple-haired mystery member. And that's it. That's the first issue. Basically, it's a weak extrapolation of the cover art.

Lack of conflict equals lack of drama, and Thunderbolts #1 is conflict-free. Ross shows up, usually calmly negotiating during the middle of a firefight featuring whoever he's trying to talk into joining him (a visual gag that never works here). They join him, and the issue ends. There's almost no world-building beyond perfunctory introductions of the characters on the cover, and certainly no clue at all as to what kind of book this is going to be in the future (a violent one - but then what?).

Hopefully, it's going to be  a better book than its debut. While the first issue might stink, it stinks because it doesn't do anything. The good news there is that Thunderbolts could improve simply by doing something. I expect it to gear up over time now that the introduction is out of the way, but, really, I can't remember the last time I found the first issue of a team book so dissatisfying.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Not unless I hear that Thunderbolts has really kicked it into overdrive. I need drama.

I've been an Avengers fan for a long time, and the Avengers comics I prefer are the ones that really allow for a lot of the team's personality to shine through. I like banter and interplay and inter-personal team soap opera stuff with these guys. One of my favorite Avengers writers of the past was Steve Englehart, who was good at finding a balance between the superhero fights and the smaller personal conflicts. I'm not as big on the book when it's threat-driven, where I feel like a lot of the team's interaction are defined by their abilities instead of their personalities, and this is where Avengers #1 lets me down.

New writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Jerome Opena are working in a "widescreen" cinematic style for the book, and tonally, it's pretty interesting. It really does feel big, in a way that most of the Marvel NOW books don't, and it sets up things that you can already tell are going to require a little patience to see through to the end. Hickman is known for his long-term planning on books, but, to me, it's also his downfall as a writer because individual issues always feel (and here comes the bad word) decompressed. I always feel like I can read them in a matter of minutes, and I rarely feel like I got any kind of a story with a beginning, middle, and an end - I just got a chunk of something.

With the promise of a massive 18-member roster of rotating sub-teams, I'm pretty much guaranteed to not see the kind of personal politics I enjoy in Avengers. There are going to be adventures, probably really good ones, on huge cosmic canvases, built around Hickman's big ideas, but little apparent room for soap opera. And that's fine, I guess; I can't ask everyone to write their books just for me.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? I will probably "trade wait" this one, and get the first arc when it's all collected. It'll probably be a more satisfying read in that form, and if I like it (and I sort of suspect I will), then I'll be back for more.

Are you a Cable fan? I'm not, though somehow I've collected a lot of stuff with Cable in it over the years. Sometimes X-Men books are like barnacles on the ship of our comic book fandom. We travel through the waters and we end up collecting this stuff, whether we really want to or not. Ah, analogies.

Anyway, Cable & X-Force #1 (Dennis Hopeless/Salvador Larocca) sees the militant mutant leading some kind of secret strike force that manages to piss off the Uncanny Avengers (does the team actually call themselves that, and, if not, how do they distinguish themselves from the "real" Avengers?) and Cable's daughter Hope (who is still dealing with the aftermath of AVX , fallout from a book I never read).

I found it completely serviceable, and your mileage may vary depending on your love of Cable. Oddly, it's another first issue in Marvel NOW (like Fantastic Four), where the lead finds out he's really, really sick and doesn't know how to deal with it. That fuels a lot of the story, along with Hope trying to figure out if there's a place for her on her father's side. I got the impression that a greater working knowledge of what's been going on with these characters would've helped a lot. In some ways, #1 felt like it could've been #19 or so of a book that wasn't bad, but was barreling along with its own story.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? This isn't a bad book, but no. If you have nostalgia for the original X-Force or a healthy love for Cable, then you'll probably like it just fine.

Also from writer Dennis Hopeless is Avengers Arena #1, an in-name-only Avengers book that sees a bunch of the more recent teen heroes of the Marvel U thrown onto an island and forced to kill each other by the mad gamer Arcade. Yes, it's a lot like The Hunger Games in concept, and if Hopeless thinks a quick verbal reference will let him off the hook for such a blatant swipe at a pop culture phenomenon, it doesn't.

Imagine for a second you're Christos Gage, and you've created a bunch of brand-new characters for Marvel. They get their own monthly, Avengers Academy, and build a small, but loyal, fanbase over time. Sales can't support the book, and the writing is on the wall, but even if the book has to be canceled, Marvel now has a half-dozen new interesting characters to play with. They thank you by handing those characters over to Dennis Hopeless to kill off one by one in Avengers Arena.

In that way, Avengers Arena is an almost brutally disrespectful book - a garbage bin for characters that Hopeless has no creative attachment to, in the service of a stab at a fraction of the Hunger Games audience. It's cynical and gleeful in its cynicism. In the press Hopeless has done for the book, he's laid out his long term plans for eventually killing all but one of the teenagers within its pages by the time he's through. I'm sure it will be a wild ride, but is this the best use for these new characters? Wouldn't it make more business sense for Marvel to cultivate them instead of cropping them?

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. Because even though I've spelled out my knee-jerk thoughts on the book, it's fascinating and too early to tell if its a fascinating trainwreck or fascinating experiment. I kind of need to find out, and, in that way, Avengers Arena #1 is a rousing success, albeit one with a repulsive core. I'm curious to know how I'll feel about this book three or four issues after this and there's only one way to find out. Gotta read it.