"Painfully, perhaps even dangerously. But life finds a way."

And life found a way this weekend, dear readers.

I dressed up as Jurassic Park's Alan Grant on Saturday. He's one of the dinosaur researchers, if you don't recall, and my significant other and I realized something as we were planning the costume. They're mostly generic hiker outfits!

So I searched on the internet for some Jurassic Park ID Badges. I found a couple of very good ones, but it wasn't quite good enough for me. So I took inspiration from those, and made a fair-sized image for my own purposes. Tip of the hat if you see some of your badge in it.

My significant other laminated them, and away we went, to the land that time forgot. Feel free to use it for yourself.

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Woo-hoo!

We get an hour back!

From Amazing Spider-Man #648, by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos

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And no one's gonna save you / From the beast about to strike

You know it's thriller!

 Thriller night!

From Secret Wars #6, by Jim Shooter and Mike Zeck. Happy Halloween folks.

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Spider-Man Noir: Eyes without a Face

"We've got a new president and a new deal. And the same old homeless bums are still lining up for Aunt May's soup." Peter Parker, teenager and reporter at the Daily Bugle provides the hard-boiled narration in Spider-Man Noir: Eyes without a Face. It's same kind you've come to expect from Marvel's noir series.

This is the sequel to the original Spider-Man: Noir, by the same team of David Hine and Fabrice Spolsky. This might be the biggest project they've done, because I don't quite recall a bigger project from the. To read my review of that, click-y here: http://chezkevin.blogspot.com/2015/01/spider-man-noir-not-your-mamas-spider_13.html.

When Peter defeated the Goblin in the previous series, he left a power vacuum that the Crime Master is looking to fill, a masked man that's marking his territory with dead bodies. This sequel also introduces you to the noir version of Sandman, a tough enforcer with skin as hard as rock, and Dr. Otto Octavius, a paraplegic refugee from Berlin who's come to America to continue his experiments on human neurology. Over the course of the four issues, Peter uncovers a neo-Nazi plot aimed at enslaving New York's African-Americans.

Peter takes it down with the no-nonsense panache characteristic of the Marvel Noir series:

Recommended if you liked the previous series. Sorry there isn't much meat in this review -- I'm getting back into the hang of things.

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I'm beginning to sense a theme here.

This ktam guy, he sure makes some good sound effects.

From Amazing Spider-Man and Superior Spider-Man, by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, and Ryan Stegman.

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House of M and Black Panther #7

House of M was a miniseries in 2005 that took over the Marvel Universe for 8 or so months. The Scarlet Witch got sick and reshaped reality into a world that was governed by her father, Magneto and his "House of Magnus." It changed the lives of every Marvel superhero and touched or created over 10 different titles.

I had the pleasure of reading through the full series (see the full list: http://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/guide-part-4-house-of-m/), and figured I would spend some time talking about them. Today we're looking at a single issue of Black Panther, along with the complete 8-issue story event.

Read 'em all!
House of M: Fantastic Four
House of M: Spider-Man
House of M: Incredible Hulk
House of M: Black Panther #7 and House of M

Black Panther #7
"Soul Power in the House of M"
by Reginald Hudlin, Trevor Hairsine, et al.

Black Panther #7 happens at some point when Doom is still in control of Latveria, so anytime before the last few issues of House of M: Fantastic Four. The official placemark is between Issues 5 and 6 of the main storyline. I'm really fond of this issue, for the way it dives into the lives of major players of the House of M, and for the way the characters "act" through the art.

And for how bad-ass Black Panther is in this issue. Straight-up, there's a 4-page fight sequence between Black Panther and the assassin sent by Magneto, the mutant Sabretooth, which ends in Black Panther beheading him! On every page, Black Panther fights off his pursuer, and every page, you think he's done, until Sabretooth's healing factor kicks in and you get a new page of hurt. It's my favorite sequence in the issue.

T'Challa, the Black Panther, mails the head back to Magneto, and it's one move in the game of political chess that they play out. I really enjoy the macroscopic view of this political war between Magneto and his appointed rulers, with the microscopic view of the actions that they take, and the romances that arise in the war. Quicksilver professes his love for Storm, both because he truly loves her, but also because his father is intent on breaking up the marriage between her and T'Challa.

The boiling royal tension erupts when Magneto sends Apocalypse to lay siege on T'Challa's kingdom, and the results are glorious with a great twist from Black Bolt. Expertly written, meticulously drawn. Black Panther #7 might just be the best single issue to come out of the House of M.

House of M #'s 1-8

by Brian Bendis, Olivier Coipel, et al.

I wish I could say the same for the storyarc proper. House of M is a lot of an action movie; you don't really get to dwell on characters so much, but you need to move from plot point to plot point. Character A needs to get McGuffin Z in order to save Character/World/Girl B, while killing bad guys X and causing explosions Y. And that's not to say that I don't love action movies; it's just that nothing remarkable happens in the 8 issues that much mattered, other than characters talking about how awesome/terrible/mediocre it is to live in a world ruled by mutants.

You read and read about how strange this role reversal is, how mutants control society now, and wait until you hear what actually happened to the world, in issue 7 or 8, and then, yay, everything's back where it was, mostly. The stuff that's different, well, that's going to tie in to this new story we have for you, told in the next super secret crisis event.

House of M promises you the story of what would happen if mutants ruled the world, and I suppose it delivers, assuming that a story is a connection of plot points. But there isn't any heart in the story that engages the reader. Maybe it's event fatigue, maybe it's my cynicism setting in, maybe it's my 6-year separation from the comic book, but House of M is an art gallery at best, and a shell of a story at worst. This story exists only to tell the other stories told in tangential titles like Black Panther.

As much as I rag on it, here is this sweet two-page splash from Coipel when Spider-Man gets his memories back. Even when he gets a break, he doesn't get a break from the Marvel Universe. . .

If you too would like to read through the House of M series, there are a few series that you can skip, and some one-offs that are surprisingly good. Some surprisingly good one-shots include: Black Panther #7 and Captain America #10, which I previously wrote about collected in the Winter Soldier omni.

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Batman: Dark Victory

 Batman: Dark Victory
Collects the 13-issue miniseries
by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

Bemoan all you like about the decline of Jeph Loeb's work on titles such as Ultimatum or Red Hulk, you can't deny the footprint he's had on Batman. So much so that, in the 2014 printing of Dark Victory, the co-writer of the Dark Knight trilogy, David S. Goyer, writes the introduction! This is a direct sequel to Loeb and Sale's previous Batman crime drama, The Long Halloween, so click over there if you haven't read it before.

Like its predecessor, Dark Victory focuses on a series of crimes committed on American Holidays, and this time, the crimes are murders. . . murders of Gotham City Police officials/former officials! After a breakout at Arkham Asylum frees the likes of Freeze, Ivy, Grundy and Two-Face, Batman has to track down who's killing Gotham's finest and leaving what appears to be Harvey Dent's M.O. There are direct follow-ups to The Long Halloween and Dent's suffering, so make sure you read that before you read this.

Themes include the lonesome suffering of Batman, the evolution from organized crime into super-crime reflected in the war between mob bosses and supercriminals, and Batman as detective. It's a little slow-paced to be reading over the course of the year, but it's slightly better to read as a single graphic novel.

I don't think there's much I need to say to convince you to read this. You can always find it at your local library; it's on most of DC's must-read lists and usually makes the top 25 for Batman stories, so I won't expend the effort. Instead, here are several scenes from the book that I enjoyed.

When Batman loses the ally of Harvey Dent in the war against crime, he falls deeper into himself. He spends more and more of himself in fighting crime, and it suffers in his interactions with people he cares about. He just lets Catwoman slap him.

In the few times that you get to see Bruce Wayne, he's late for a Thanksgiving dinner, and this is a dinner that Alfred had arranged for him to have with the flirty, Selina Kyle. They have a huge dinner table separating just the two of them, and it's a small vignette of the affection that she offers.

The colors don't get any stronger than in this frame! When Batman hounds after the escaped Two-Face and finds a light beneath the sewers, in contrast with the dark of the raining night.

Black and white are rarely used in the story, and this might be the only time that it's used so powerfully. You really get a sense of what Batman is dishing out when you read this.

I've never seen the Penguin drawn like this. It's really odd, and I was fixated on it for a bit. His sharp teeth and mouth are exaggerated to look like a watermelon!

Again, I'm cherrypicking a scene where you see Bruce Wayne, and here his face is the main show. It's a sympathetic face that shares the pain of orphan Dick Grayson, and wants to help him recover from the loss of his parents.

In the last action scene of issue 13, some of the criminals run into the Batcave, and Dick has no choice but to reveal himself and defend it! The two of them take on the Joker and Two-Face, and succeed. Afterwards, Batman bombs the cave to seal off the villains' entrance and christens the Boy Wonder, "Robin," after a nickname given to him by his mother.

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Hawkeye Vol. 1 - My Life as a Weapon

Hawkeye Vol. 1: My Life as a Weapon
by Fraction, Aja, Pulido, Davis
Collects Hawkeye #'s 1-5 and Young Avengers Presents #6

It took me long enough! Today I read the first of Marvel's indie darlings, the comic that launched a slew of creator-focused, editorial-light titles, Hawkeye.

The first three issues set the scene for Clint Barton as a normal down-to-Earth New Yorker who occasionally has to deal with a criminal Russian landlord, adopting a lucky dog, or a super-criminal heist at a swanky show Uptown. Each of the three issues is a slice of life of Hawkeye when he's not being Hawkeye, and Fraction and Aja tell it with flair. Just look at this sequence when Hawkeye is talking to Kate Bishop, the new Hawkeye! A great visual way to slow down time and expand on the tension of drawing a bow.

It's the next two issues in the paperback that really impress me. It's a two-parter with Javier Pulido pencilling, and here you can see Fraction's sense of humor blow up! He sends Clint off to Madripoor to recover a tape, incriminating Hawkeye as the assassin of a world leader. He could tell it as a straight spy story, but instead makes it humorous.

Javier Pulido is such a wonderful visual storyteller. I wish he had an ongoing! Dig this other piece, near the end of the storyarc, when Clint shoots the office of his captors:

Now, the title is written by Jeff Lemire and it's 3.99. I can't imagine myself paying that much, but always something good to pick up from the library. Because. . . boomerangs.

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House of M: Incredible Hulk

House of M was a miniseries in 2005 that took over the Marvel Universe for 8 or so months. The Scarlet Witch got sick and reshaped reality into a world that was governed by her father, Magneto and his "House of Magnus." It changed the lives of every Marvel superhero and touched or created over 10 different titles.

I had the pleasure of reading through the full series (see the full list: http://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/guide-part-4-house-of-m/), and figured I would spend some time talking about them. Today we're looking at the Incredible Hulk tie-in.

Read 'em all!
House of M: Fantastic Four
House of M: Spider-Man
House of M: Incredible Hulk
House of M: Black Panther #7 and House of M

House of M: Incredible Hulk
issue #'s 83-86, by David, Lucas, et al.

G'day mates. Remember that time the Hulk joined a group of aborigines in the Outback and found inner peace? No? Well, then I guess that's why you're reading this. Bruce gets the name of "Two Minds" and is initiated into the group right before it's attacked by insurgents from the House of M. See, even if the anti-sapien sentiment is bubbling underneath the surface in places like North America, it's downright explosive in Australia, where humans are being rounded up into "safe houses." Bruce takes his stand in the Outback, overthrows the mutant regime there and even brokers a "leave us alone" treatise with Magnus!

Peter David delivers a tightly-plotted four-issue story of Hulk as governor, Hulk as rebel and Hulk as smasher -- it's really impressive how much is in the four issues, and it's really charming what he writes in the issues. So I'm just going to show you a bunch of cool stuff from the storyarc.

Here's an aborigine elder acknowledging that House of M is totally weird, you guys:

Here's Hulk delegating political work:

Here's Hulk smashing:

Here's Hulk and the Sydney Opera House:

The Hulk's story in House of M is worth reading, but you'll have to keep up with the plot to fully enjoy it. Recommended for comic book fans with patience.

If you too would like to read through the House of M series, there are a few series that you can skip, and some one-offs that are surprisingly good. The series you can skip include: Excalibur, Mutopia, Giant-Size Ms. Marvel 01 and Wolverine. Some surprisingly good one-shots include: Black Panther #7 and Captain America #10. Stay tuned for the next part: Black Panther #7.

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House of M: Spider-Man

House of M was a miniseries in 2005 that took over the Marvel Universe for 8 or so months. The Scarlet Witch got sick and reshaped reality into a world that was governed by her father, Magneto and his "House of Magnus." It changed the lives of every Marvel superhero and touched or created over 10 different titles.

I had the pleasure of reading through the full series (see the full list: http://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/guide-part-4-house-of-m/), and figured I would spend some time talking about them. Today we're looking at the Spider-Man tie-in.

Read 'em all!
House of M: Fantastic Four
House of M: Spider-Man
House of M: Incredible Hulk
House of M: Black Panther #7 and House of M

Spider-Man: House of M #'s 1-5

by Waid, Peyer, Larroca et al.

In the wacky world of the House of M, Peter Parker is a beloved mutant married to the beautiful, smart Gwen Stacy and who's used his public popularity to start up Spider-Man Industries and give a comfortable life to his family: May and Ben Parker, George Stacy and his son, Richard Parker. AKA, he's redonk rich, owns a condo in downtown NY and even has a bodyguard called the Rhino! Like the Fantastic Four: House of M tie-in, it's an inversion of everything we know about the character. Peter has everything he could ever want -- in fact, he's the boss and J. Jonah Jameson is the employee!

But it's all a hoax -- Peter never had the x-gene. Instead he was bitten by a radioactive spider, and imagined a story that won him the love of the public. It all goes South when the Green Goblin gifts JJJ with Peter's diary, explaining how he actually got his powers.

The rest of the series is Peter trying to escape the anti-sapien hate that befalls him, and his family struggling with years of a comfortable life based on a lie. It's refreshing to see the classic Spider-Man story: a story of public fear, framed in the House of M story: a story of racial persecution. While the creative team handles this, there's some plotting issues in the fourth and fifth issues. It's never really explained how Peter has a mental breakdown, and the ending is a happy ending that seems to ignore his mental illness.

The final two pages in issue 4 are particularly masterful. Peter needs to hunt down his journal back from Jonah to clear his name. He's estranged from his family now to save them from the social ostracization, so his family are conducting a separate heist to get ahold of it from JJJ's office. Peter's made a buttload of money from his web-shooters, so Gwen and George are using the web-shooters to guide their heist. After Spider-Man gets ahold of it, they try to get ahold of him:

The way I read that first picture, and because there's that giant "NO!," it looked like they were trying to web shoot Spider-Man, and because of the static image, I thought they failed. But they didn't! You could only tell this kind of story in static images -- with comic books. Which makes me really happy, because it makes comic books a unique medium that can tell special kinds of stories. This series comes recommended if you're into alternate-universe Spider-Men and are OK with loosey-goosey plots.

If you too would like to read through the House of M series, there are a few series that you can skip, and some one-offs that are surprisingly good. The series you can skip include: Excalibur, Mutopia, Giant-Size Ms. Marvel 01 and Wolverine. Some surprisingly good one-shots include: Black Panther #7 and Captain America #10. Stay tuned for the next part: Black Panther #7.

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House of M: Fantastic Four

House of M was a miniseries in 2005 that took over the Marvel Universe for 8 or so months. The Scarlet Witch got sick and reshaped reality into a world that was governed by her father, Magneto and his "House of Magnus." It changed the lives of every Marvel superhero and touched or created over 10 different titles.

I had the pleasure of reading through the full series (see the full list: http://www.comicbookherald.com/the-complete-marvel-reading-order-guide/guide-part-4-house-of-m/), and figured I would spend some time talking about them. Today we're looking at the Fantastic Four tie-in series.

Read 'em all!
House of M: Fantastic Four
House of M: Spider-Man
House of M: Incredible Hulk
House of M: Black Panther #7 and House of M

Fantastic Four - House of M #'s 1-3

by Layman, Eaton, Hillsman II, White

Under the House of Magnus, Victor Von Doom I is the ruler of Latveria, one of a number of powerful monarchs on the planet Earth. His people love him, and he goes on adventures with his wife and son, the Invincible Woman and Inhuman Torch along with his monstrous pet, the It as the Fearsome Four. It's thanks to his gift with sorcery that his family has superpowers, and he's doing pretty well. . . for a sapien.

This three-issue mini is a great character piece for Victor Doom. In fact, the Fantastic Four we're familiar with get only a couple of pages. In the issues, we see how even when Doom has everything that would make him happy, it isn't enough. It crushes him to be under the heel of another man, and he hatches a brilliant plan to trick Magneto into a dimension where electromagnets do not have their typical properties. The climax so brilliantly explains Doom's ambitions.

A highly recommended tie-in series - what a wonderful, twisted inversion and re-imagining of the Fantastic Four. I'm surprised Marvel didn't give Layman a title after this, because he understands the character so well, and tells a story to explain him that Secret War lumbered to explain.

If you too would like to read through the House of M series, there are a few series that you can skip, and some one-offs that are surprisingly good. The series you can skip include: Excalibur, Mutopia, Giant-Size Ms. Marvel 01 and Wolverine. Some surprisingly good one-shots include: Black Panther #7 and Captain America #10. Stay tuned for the next part: House of M: Spider-Man.

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