Reading the Marvel Universe in the new year

Welcome back. Happy new year. Happy new decade.

This blog is primarily dedicated to reading Marvel’s entire comic book universe, starting in 1961 with Fantastic Four #1.

The menu can direct you to some of the key posts to help understand this venture, but it’s worth pausing to reacquaint ourselves.

Perhaps most important page is the Resources page. This attempts to enumerate the many websites upon which I depend to gain enough information about comic books to even attempt such a feat as this blog.

I have a post entitled Why Read the Marvel Universe?, which is a good place to begin. It attempts to explain what the Marvel Universe means to me and why I think this project is worth doing.

As we meet a new significant character, I update Our Cast So Far.

If you want to get right to the meat of it, the Reading Order post contains links to every comic we’ve discussed, and hints about what’s coming next.

We begin in 1961, and I hope to get into the 1980s one day. Anything pre-1961 or post-1991 is certainly out of the scope of this blog, but I occasionally find comics from these eras worth touching on as they relate to other comics. For example, Johnny Storm becomes the modern Human Torch in 1961, but occasionally peeking at the adventures of the original Human Torch gives some context. Sub-Mariner is a character who debuted in 1939, but returned after a 7-year hiatus to have more adventures in the modern Marvel Universe. The “PRELUDE” posts cover these pre-1961 stories I find relevant. If we look ahead at any post-1991 comics, we label them “POSTLUDE”, as with our peek at the 1993 comic, Marvels #0, which gives a new perspective on the origin of the original Human Torch.

We paused this effort just about a month ago, with Tales of Suspense #45, our 89th entry, featuring Iron Man in battle with Jack Frost.

I took some personal time to travel for the holidays and to be extremely jet-lagged upon my return to work. And with the year and decade wrapping up, I made my first blog posts on other topics, discussing my favorite comics of the decade, as well as my take on the decade’s best science fiction films.

But now I’m ready to get back to work. So please join me as we look in on the 90th story from the Marvel Universe, in which the Amazing Spider-Man meets the Sandman!

2010-2019: A decade of science fiction cinema, part 3 of 3

The Franchises

In the last two parts, we discussed my top 50 science fiction films of the decade… except I got a bit stuck on the franchises. So I left out any films which were part of a film series with two or more entries this decade.
In this post, we’ll walk through all those franchises for which at least some entries were seriously considered for a best-of-decade list.
And so we will talk at length about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but not discuss the DC analogue.
No particular order.

The Franchises

2010-2019: A decade of science fiction cinema, part 2 of 3

2015-2019

We consider the best science fiction of the last half of the decade. Find a discussion of the films from the first half of the decade here. The third installment will talk about the decade’s franchises.

If I’ve done my math right, we discussed 25 films in the last installment, so we’ll talk about another 25 here, to make an even 50.

Chronological order.

2010-2019: A decade of science fiction cinema, part 1 of 3

2010-2014

In 3 parts, I will talk about some of the best science fiction movies of the 2010s. The first part will focus on films from 2010-2014, presented in chronological order. The second part will concern 2015-2019. These two parts will skip most franchise films, any film series with 2 or more entries in the current decade. We will talk though several science fiction film franchises in a 3rd part.

For a few films, we’ll also discuss some precursors within older science fiction cinema for the ideas on display.

Warning that light spoilers may follow, as the essential sci/fi premise of many of these films is sometimes a twist or late-movie revelation.

2010-2019: A decade in comics

Lots of great “Best of Decade” lists popping up across the internet. This is just a little personal blog, so I figured I could make a bit of a personal list. Here are 25 comics from the past decade that I’m glad to have read and think you should consider reading too.

Without repeating writers or worrying too much about what “this decade” is, I made myself a list of a top 50ish, then whittled it down to 25. We’ll present those 25 in approximate chronological order of first release and mention some other good works by the same creators from the decade.

Twelfth Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Dr. Doom and Magneto

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my twelfth entry, representing #1 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

Today is the final day. Thank you for reading along.

1. Dr. Doom and Magneto
“A World for the Winning”
from Super-Villain Team-Up #14 (Marvel, 1977)

by Bill Mantlo, Bob Hall, Don Perlin, and Duffy Vohland

[This isn’t quite a complete story; it concludes in the Champions, but the contest I’m playing along with was specifically not about teams, so we’re focusing on the first chapter. All that said…] this was a clear #1 for me.

These are my favorite super-villains. And Dr. Doom has conquered the world. Like, it’s over. He’s won. His only enemy left is boredom. And out of that boredom, he gives Magneto a chance, a small chance, to free the world.

This story would get reused and reworked for Marvel Graphic Novel #27, “Emperor Doom”, also by Bob Hall. And the bare premise of a super-villain in psychic control of an entire world has shown up here and there, since. Most recently in Tom King’s Batman.

But this is the one. Doom’s finest hour. The best story for Marvel’s best villain.

Eleventh Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Spider-Man and Gargoyle

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “ Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my eleventh entry, representing #2 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

2. Spider-Man and Gargoyle
“Time, run like a freight train…”
from Marvel Team-Up #119 (Marvel, 1982)

by J.M. DeMatteis, Kerry Gammill, and Mike Esposito

The general consensus is that the high point of Marvel Team-Up is the work of Claremont and Byrne. A position I don’t disagree with. But it’s often overlooked that there is another great run, that of DeMatteis and Gammill.

They may not have the slickness of Byrne, but they make up for it with strong character work and stories that break out of the established Marvel Team-Up formula. Most of the series had allowed very little time for Spider-Man to be Peter Parker. As they have like 20 pages for him to meet up with some other hero, get up to speed on a threat and deal with that threat together. Throw in an initial misunderstanding or fight between the heroes and you see why you’re out of pages.

But DeMatteis wanted time to show Spidey out of uniform and to develop the supporting cast. Now, the “main” books were already developing most of the supporting cast, so DeMatteis took what he was allowed to play with: the people at Aunt May’s nursing home. He developed the character of Nathan Lubensky, Aunt May’s love interest and reflected on aging in our society.

The apex of this reflection came in two issues #119-120. Issue 120 teams Spider-Man with an aging Dominic Fortune. I wasn’t sure [the event moderator] would buy them together as a two-parter based on tenuous thematic links, so I decided to focus this entry on the best issue of the run.

This story spins out of Defenders #109 and focuses on the new friendship between Spider-Man and Gargoyle. Gargoyle is notable for being a rare old-man superhero, and Spider-Man is notable for being a particular young not-sidekick superhero. Now, Spider-Man has aged since his early teenage appearances, but he’s still only recently out of college, so probably about 23 or so.

An attempted mugging leads Spider-Man and Gargoyle down parallel tracks, which try to tackle the difficult question of when it’s time to fight to keep living and when to accept it’s time to go.

The title of the comic seems to reference an Eric Andersen song. I don’t really know Eric Andersen outside of looking up the title to this song.

“Time, run like a freight train, won’t you take me down the line; there’s so much I can never say of the ruins left behind.”

Tenth Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Usagi and Zato-Ino

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “ Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my tenth entry, representing #3 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

3. Usagi Yojimbo and Zato-Ino (inspired by Zatoichi)
“Blind Swords-Pig!”
from Critters #7 (Fantagraphics, 1987)

by Stan Sakai

While Spider-Man has dominated my list this year, I had to make some room for the best non-Spidey comic book series in history. What originally came to mind is Usagi/Ninja Turtles, as that fits neatly in the theme. But then I thought about [the contest moderator] using Captain Strong as a Popeye stand-in, and remembered Usagi Yojimbo is filled with such stand-in characters. Surely his meetings with Lone Wolf and Kid would qualify as well then.

And that thought process brings us here. Zatoichi is the famed blind swordsman of Japanese cinema. Did you know there have been around 30 Zatoichi films? I think I’ve seen one of them. There was even a film, Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo. (With Usagi’s character drawing from a mix of Yojimbo with the Miyamoto Musashi of the Samurai trilogy).

But this isn’t Miyamoto Musashi. It’s Miyamoto Usagi. “Usagi” being the Japanese word for “rabbit”. So of course he doesn’t meet Zatoichi, the blind swordsman; he meets Zato-Ino, the blind swords-pig.

One of the series’ (many) great characters in one of the series’ (many) great tales.

Ino sees the flaws in everybody except himself. And is always ready to believe the worst of people and lash out at the world. Usagi is the first person to try to understand him and connect with him, but Ino is too hateful and spurns Usagi’s advances. It’s a tragic tale of a man (err, pig) who thinks he is seeking a peace the world denies him, when, in truth, it is he himself who stands in the way of his own peace.

Ninth Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Daredevil and Captain America

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “ Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my ninth entry, representing #4 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

4. Daredevil and Captain America
“Armageddon”
from Daredevil #233 (Marvel, 1986)

by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli

It also features the Avengers, but I decided to downplay that fact above, per the rules of this contest. Besides, most of the Avengers only show up for like a page. But oh what a page. “A soldier with a voice that could command a god… and does.”

Once the pill-popping psychopath with delusions of patriotism is subdued, then it’s up to Captain America and Daredevil to expose government connections to the Kingpin of crime, and trace the origins of Nuke all the way back to the experiment that once created Captain America.

Frank Miller had done a legendary run on Daredevil, which came to an end. He returned to the book a few years later for one more sprint, this time teamed with the legendary David Mazzucchelli. (The same team would later reunite for Batman Year One) Over the course of 7 issues, they tear Matt Murdock’s life apart, but leave him standing strong despite it all. This is their final issue. Kingpin has grown tired of his more subtle attacks on Daredevil and unleashed hell on New York.

For those keeping count, this is the 3rd Daredevil entry and second entry without Spider-Man.

Eighth Day of Classic Comics Christmas

Swamp Thing and Batman

See my initial post for the context. Suffice to say that I will be sharing my entries to the Classic Comics Forum tradition, “ Twelve Days of Classic Comics Christmas“. This is a cross-post of my eighth entry, representing #5 on my list of favorite comic book Crossovers.

5. ~~Spider-Ma~~ Swamp Thing and Batman
“Garden of Earthly Delights”
From Swamp Thing #53 (DC, 1986)

by Alan Moore and John Totleben

After seven straight days of Spider-man entries, let me try to recall if I’ve ever read any other comics. Well, Alan Moore is my favorite comic writer, so let’s see if he ever wrote a crossover. Looks like he has. I’m not the only one to think of his Swamp Thing series, I see. Not even the only one today.

Here’s where he fights Batman.

The story so far: Swamp Thing’s wife has been arrested in Gotham City for the crime of fornication with a swamp creature. Swamp Thing is angry and has turned Gotham into a garden paradise. Many Gothamites have embraced the new order and a cult of worship has grown around Swamp Thing. But Batman is not happy.

Batman gives it his all, but can’t beat Swamp Thing, and begins to question whether he is even on the right side of this conflict, and whether Swamp Thing should just be reunited with his wife. Obviously the law is wrong. But can you just start giving into demands to change the law made by force?

Where Batman fails, Lex Luthor succeeds. He scoffs at the notion that Swamp Thing is invulnerable, saying, “You don’t know from invulnerable. I know from invulnerable…”

The issue ends with Swamp Thing dead. Second time Moore killed him this run. Yet somehow the series isn’t over this time either…