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: Journey Into Mystery #646, Indestructible Hulk #1, Captain America #1, FF #1

There were a few titles in the Marvel NOW line-up that I was looking forward to more than most. Three of those series are now here - a new direction for Journey Into Mystery, with Sif as the lead, Mark Waid's Indestructible Hulk series and  FF, my most anticipated series since its announcement. Also released was Remender/Romita's Captain America #1, ending Ed Brubaker's lengthy run with the character. The report card so far for Marvel NOW is wholly positive, with only one real stinker in the bunch (A+X). Even the books I'm not interested in, like Red She-Hulk, have been capable action-adventure tales, and I'm rooting for weird stuff like X-Men Legacy to find its audience, even if that audience isn't me. Let's dig into the new books...

Before the Thor movie, I didn't know much about Sif, but Jamie Alexander made a big impression in the role. After the Thor movie, I dived head first into Walt Simonson's run on the book, and got to know all of the characters that inhabit Thor's world including Sif, and found it interesting that Marvel had been sitting on a female superhero with real breakout stay potential for several decades. Journey Into Mystery had been young Loki's book, but with that character moving over to Young Avengers, it freed up the title for a new star.

Sif is doing a little soul-searching and identity-hunting in the first issue, an interesting way for readers to find out more about her (as she finds out more about herself and what defines her). It feels a little more modest in scope than some of the more "widescreen" Marvel NOW titles, which might be why it didn't relaunch with a new #1 issue, Kathryn Immonen and Valerio Schiti are doing a respectable job here, but I think it might work better if you're already a big fan of Marvel's Asgardian world.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Journey Into Mystery #646 is a solid fantasy adventure book, and I wish it all the best. Budgets, however, are limited, and it won't be making my pull list. (Side note: Marvel, please ditch the Asgardian font. Please. It's almost unreadable.)

Indestructible Hulk #1 is good but not "instant classic" good; not in the way that Mark Waid came on to Daredevil and knocked out a home run. Part of the problem is that the first issue is almost all hook - it's basically the pitch for the new direction - and if you'd read any of the press that Waid did before its release, there aren't really any surprises beyond that. Because of that, I'm not going to get into the specifics of the new direction here, but I will say that it's a clever way of making the more savage Hulk as close to an actual hero as possible without ever betraying the character. It's good, and if Hulk has never quite been your cup of tea, there might be enough of a new direction here to draw you in.

Lenil Yu is an undisputed superstar artist, and his work is typically impressive on a technical level, but there are little things about the team of Waid and Yu that feel at odds with each other. There's a long sequence in a busy diner, where the bustle of the patrons and the constant ticking of a clock are supposed to create the tension that Maria Hill feels while talking to Bruce Banner. Instead the panels feel oddly unrelated to each other. It's just a drawing of a clock; it's just a drawing of someone bumping into someone. The creative team members are both skilled, but almost seem to be playing against each others' strengths. The big Hulk action scenes do fare better than the more dramatic moments.

This might be corrected as they learn to play together better, or they may just be a mismatch, and if so, it's not so out of whack that it ruins the book.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. I've been a Hulk fan for years, and a Waid fan for a few years less than that. Besides, I have to come back, because now that the hook is established, I want to see where this thing goes.

I found myself so put off by Rick Remender and John Romita Jr.'s Captain America #1 that I actually had to read it twice just to re-evaluate what it was that had stuck in my craw. I'm all for Kirby homage, but Cap seemed to borrow some of the nonsensical nature of those 70's comics as well. 

This gets into some specifics that some might label as spoilers, so skip a couple of paragraphs if it's a concern. Captain America and Sharon Carter get dressed for a fancy birthday event, but the fancy birthday event turns out to be Carter putting Cap on a mystery subway train that SHIELD has been monitoring. Cap is immediately captured and whisked away to another dimension and experimented on by Arnim Zola. He escapes Zola (and Cap has his costume and shield - I guess it was under his clothes), steals both Zola's infant son from a test tube and a plane, that Cap then immediately crashes. Tune in next month.

Why did they get dressed up fancy just to put Cap on a train to another dimension? Why would Cap even get on that train like no big deal without any theory at all as to where it went or what it was? Was Arnim Zola just hoping that one day Captain America would get on board his special train or was it a total surprise? Why would Cap snatch a baby? Are these questions that will be answered over time, or is the book just kind of ludicrous in its plotting?

Look, sometimes comics are more than the sum of their parts, and I get that. Captain America might even be that, because my reaction was more befuddlement than anything else. Cap's staccato inner monologue captions reminded me of Frank Miller and Romita's art has more of a painterly look to it than I've seen before (though I'm not a fan of the mask's chinstrap. Chinstraps are comics' new shoulder pads), so I acknowledge that there is something worthwhile here. I guess you either buy into all of it and ride along, or you let the book's seeming lack of logic keep you at arm's length.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? I have no idea. I'm going to be gauging public reactions to future issues, because I can appreciate what Remender/Romita were going for, but I just couldn't get into it. Not in the way that I'd hoped.

Meanwhile, FF #1 was exactly what I was hoping for (FF is short for Future Foundation, Reed Richards' quasi-school for the young and brilliant). If you've been following Matt Fraction's Hawkeye series, this is in that ballpark, tonally. The first issue is all characterization and set-up, devoid of any action set pieces, and relies heavily on the talking head interviews that Brian Michael Bendis likes to use a lot, but I loved it. Fraction and artist Mike Allred are going to win over a lot of new fans if the series delivers on the promise of the debut issue.

We get to meet the kids and the new adult leaders of the FF (the Scott Lang Ant-Man, Medusa, She-Hulk, and Johnny Storm's latest squeeze - though she's not Ms. Thing yet even though she's pictured that way on the cover). Scott Lang was the star of one of the first comic books I ever remember reading (it was an issue of Marvel Premiere) and She-Hulk is one of my favorite Marvel characters of all-time. I'm also an Allred fan from way back during his very first Madman mini-series. I have tendency to like lighter, more character-driven books, so I am primed to love this. I am the target audience for this book, and love it I did.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. I could very well have a new favorite book soon, folks.

I Want My Marvel NOW: Fantastic Four #1, Avengers Assemble #9, Thor #1, and the X-Men!

It was a huge day for Marvel NOW today, as six titles came out under the "reboot that isn't a reboot" banner - four all-new books and two jump-on issues of existing titles. You can read about the previous Marvel NOW releases here. To recap, until today, I liked Deadpool the most, and even after today's haul, A+X remains the least satisfying of the bunch. Fantastic Four is near and dear to my heart. This is the comic series that first got me interested in comics. I watched the old cartoon with HERBIE - even watched the teen Ben Grimm TV show, the one with the "Thing Ring" - and because of Fantastic Four, the first comic book artist and writer I ever followed was John Byrne, whose landmark run in the 1980s is still looked up to as the second most definitive run on the book after Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. I've checked in on the book now and again over the years, but the only time I've had it on my pull list recently was under the care of Mark Waid and Mike Weiringo.

The good news is that Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley's Fantastic Four feels more like the spiritual successor to Waid's run than anything I've read since. Fraction lays down a new direction - the team are going to slip out of time and space for a bit to teach their children practical lessons in inter-dimensional exploration (while Reed searches for a solution to a newly discovered physical problem he has; one that can't be solved on Earth), but the tone is highly reminiscent of Waid's. There's good-natured humor, comfortable characterization, and an air of anything-goes unpredictability that hints at future greatness.

Bagley seems to be trying something a little different with his art style. There are hints of Alan Davis (or Bryan Hitch by way of Alan Davis, who was obviously an influence on Hitch), but I'm not sure that those kind of larger open panels, with more detail, serve Bagley well. I'd almost rather see him swing the other direction - stripping away his linework to get down to efficient cartooning - but that's Monday morning quarterbacking on my part. Admittedly, I've never been a Bagley fan, though my opinion of his work has mellowed over the past twenty years (when he replaced Larsen on Amazing Spider-Man, I was one sad Spidey fan). He's a workhorse, and that's admirable.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes. I'm in. It'll be nice to read this Fantastic Four every month.

Avengers Assemble is the Avengers book that's supposed to best match the Avengers movie. The thinking here is that someone interested in the team can buy this book and get the characters they expect, behaving pretty much the same way that Joss Whedon made them behave in the blockbuster. It's the movie tie-in that isn't a movie tie-in. Brian Michael Bendis, already stretched thin writing two Avengers titles, always seemed like an odd choice for this series, and I was curious how Kelly Sue DeConnick (currently the fastest rising star in comics) would approach the book, knowing that she'd be adding a couple of characters from outside the movie roster (Spider-Woman and Capt. Marvel).

Well, she approached it like DeMatteis/Giffen's Justice League, which I don't think I've ever seen applied to Avengers before. The book's number one goal seems to be amusement, with adventure bringing up the rear. It's a very playful take on the team. DeConnick writes Tony Stark as Robert Downey Jr. straight-up, not even pretending not to (Gillen walks a finer line in the Iron Man monthly, reviewed here). If you're an Iron Man purist, you might wrinkle your nose, but if you love the Iron Man films, this is the Stark you know.

Heck, if you loved the Avengers movie, this is the book for you. DeConnick seems to be capturing an overall spirit of what she enjoyed about the film (the chemistry between the crew), not tied to servicing specific movie nods like making sure Black Widow or Hawkeye show up (they don't). Stefano Castelli is called on to do a variety of facial expressions more than big action (just like Kevin Maguire did on Justice League), and he's a better match with DeConnick's sensibilities than Dexter Soy is with her on Captain Marvel.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes, but not monthly. Not yet.  It's so, so close though. I think I need some reassurance from Marvel that this is a book they actually care about, not just a (well-written and entertaining) movie supplement. I need to know that this book is going places.

Thor: God of Thunder sort of shocked me with how good it is. It has the same doomed campfire tale feel as Conan comics have, and the art is really phenomenal. I love Jason Aaron's Wolverine and the X-Men, and pretty much hated Aaron's Hulk, so I had no idea what to expect with this book. Aaron sets up the story of a mystery godkiller who has affected Thor's life across three different eras. The book eschews superheroics for hard fantasy, and benefits greatly because of it. Not all ice cream should be vanilla.

Dean White is giving Esad Ribic's art a beautiful painted feel, and the team is already indispensable to this title. Often, art this good can't be maintained on a month-to-month basis, and my one hope for the book is that it finds a way to always look this good as it continues. Aaron's writing is solid, but this is really a "perfect storm" book - where the art and the words work together to create an exemplary final package. One piece of it is not more important nor more impressive than the other.

I can't believe I'll be buying a Thor book on a monthly basis, but there you have it.

I'd mentioned Wolverine and the X-Men as a book I already enjoy, but issue #19 is the first to bear the Marvel NOW name. What does that mean for new readers? The same thing it means for old readers, turns out. There's big shake-ups going on at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, and #19, while not a new direction, introduces new dynamics and fresh storylines for the future of the book. The gimmick here, if you haven't read it, is that Wolverine has started a school in Jean Grey's name to educate young mutants and let the kids be kids instead of X-Men-in-training. Wolverine is a presence in the title, but the book is really an ensemble piece, with Kitty Pryde and Beast sharing the spotlight with the eclectic student body.

#19 is literally packed with cameos from all across the Marvel Universe, heavy on the humor, and if you try this issue and don't like it, you're probably not going to like the series. Kitty's looking for a new teacher, Wolverine and Beast are assisting a comatose alien student, and something is simmering between Husk (who may be crazy) and Toad (who may be bitter). If you like your books fun, this is a fun one. I'd also recommend it to old fans of Generation X. The spirit of that book lives on in this one.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yep! Month after month! Been reading since #1.

Probably the most hyped book in the Marvel NOW launch is All-New X-Men #1, and it's the most traditionally X-Men flavored of the three X-books this week (which makes sense, as this one and Uncanny X-Men are the flagships of the X-brand). Bendis's first issue feels dense, which is a welcome change for that particular writer, and he's assisted by career-best artwork from Stuart Immonen (with inks by Wade Von Grawbadger).

In the aftermath of Avengers Vs. X-Men (AVX), Cyclops has distanced himself from Xavier's dream of a peaceful mutant/human cohabitation. Instead, he's allied with former villains White Queen and Magneto, and he's scooping up as many mutants as he can as part of a militant mutant agenda. The X-Men are, of course, concerned about Cyclops basically becoming the next Magneto, so Beast concocts a kooky plan that involves going back in time and bringing the Cyclops from the past to the the present day to talk some sense into his future self.

It's all sort of ridiculous in a big comic book way, but, damned if it isn't entertaining. Bendis only seems to operate under the desire to create definitive runs of whatever book he's working on (the success of those attempts can be argued), and while it's way too early to start throwing words like "definitive" around, you at least know that this is a writer with plans.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? Yes, it's going on the pull list. I want to know what happens next.

X-Men Legacy #1 has an uphill battle ahead. I don't think anyone is a fan of Legion aka David Haller, the psycho son of Professor Charles Xavier, but if there is a fan out there, they're in luck. Legion has his own solo book now.

And it's not bad, but it's not an easy sell. In the first issue, Legion's multiple personalities are being extinguished under the training of someone called Guru Merzah, until Legion gets a psychic vision of what Cyclops did to his father at the end of AVX, and all of his training goes out the window. This is the oddest book yet in the Marvel NOW launch, feeling far removed from the Marvel U, with just a dash of psychotronic Vertigo flavor. I'm not even sure how it got past the pitch stage, but kudos to the X-editors for taking a chance.

WILL I BE BACK FOR MORE? No, but this is a book that deserves a shot. Writer Simon Spurrier's doing weird stuff in here, and I'm not sure how this series will sustain past 4 or 5 issues. The only way it could sustain is to get even weirder, and if that's where it goes, I could see this becoming a cult favorite. This has an audience. It isn't me, but I hope it finds its people.

NEXT WEEK: Rick Remender and John Romita Jr. on Captain America #1 and Mark Waid and Francis Leinil Yu on The Indestructible Hulk #1.