Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Comics Reviews: 3 Marvel Reprints and an Archie Christmas

Basically all three of the Marvel reprints are ads for omnibus volumes.  Since they’re essentially teasers, it’s a bit hard to judge them individually.   


True Believers #1: Marvel Knights-Iron Fist


This was the Iron Fist origin story, kind of.  It showed Danny Rand being tested and accessing the Iron Fist power.  It shows the tragic story of how he got to K’un Lun as a child.  The premise is kind of flimsy.  (There might also be a bad misprint in it.)  However, the worst of it, is that there’s no real motivation shown for why Danny wanted to be a Kung Fu bad ass.  Presumably, this comes later, but for your standard origin, you’d best spell out some things up front.  (Or alternately, make everything a mystery and start with showing the character in action as a hero.)    






Anyway, Danny is shown using the Iron Fist for the first time, though just against a robot.  If you’re wondering, that panel with Cobra Commander and his pals gets repeated about four times in this comic.


Marvel’s Greatest Creators #1: Misty Knight-Iron Fist



Misty Knight, Danny’s future girlfriend, makes her debut here.  Iron Fist is fighting an Indian Kali cult here.  This issue has a lot of good martial arts and supernatural action.  However, nobody has a gun here, even though this all takes place in New York City.  Since there’s no explanation as to why not even the bad guys will use one, one has to severely suspend one’s disbelief.  Of course, this is a Kung Fu comic.  Presumably, readers aren’t buying it expecting gun play.        



Danny Rand is still a complete cipher and way too functional here.  For the story, he only really interacts with Misty and that’s just a “misunderstanding” fight.  (There is no formal introduction between them.)  Both this issue and the other annoyingly use the second person narration, even though they’re scripted by different writers.  It’s obnoxious.  


Marvel’s Greatest Creators #1: Luke Cage, Power Man


For whatever reason, this comic is extremely wordy.  It’s trying to impress you with its literacy, but ends up being almost unreadable.  


However, the action and the story are right there.  Heck, it starts off with Cage about to be snapped in two, strapped to the bottom of a bridge that’s about to open.    


Cage is such a bad ass, he even sleeps in a tiara and still looks like a bad ass.  He is, “One bad mutha . . . shut yo’ mouth,” as a song about him might say.  


He’s fighting a couple of Batman-esqe colorful street villains.  There’s the Piranha with steel teeth biting him.  (How unsanitary and sort of alternative lifestyle-like, if you get my drift.)  He’s also fighting Cockroach Hamilton, who wields a six-barrel shotgun and hangs out with cockroaches.  Cage has got superpowers and a strong moral compass, but without a proper foil and a sense of humor, he does border on parody. 

Honestly, Power Man and Iron Fist aren’t bad characters, but didn’t it didn’t really come together for them until Marvel combined them into one title.  Iron Fist joined Cage’s private eye agency at some point.  That was kind of genius.  The two characters are so different that they complemented each other well.  The only reason anybody other than comics geeks know about these characters is because of their Netflix shows and the Defenders.  Unfortunately, they didn’t do a Heroes for Hire show and pair these two up.  I guess it was because Cage’s character had been more popular and had a history with Jessica Jones. 


(Actually, the last issue of Power Man and Iron Fist had Iron Fist disintegrating himself healing someone and Power Man getting framed for killing him.  He ended up on the run from the law.  Sweet Christmas!)       


Archie Christmas Spectacular #1


Going through one of my comics boxes, I discovered I’d bought an Archie Christmas Spectacular #1 last year.  It was a totally different comic; it just had exact same title. This years’ edition features a classic Harry Lucey cover with modern coloring.  It’s very attractive.  Apart from the cover, the rest of the issue is new material. 

The comic features four short stories, no ads, and a reduced price.  First up, the gang has a run in with the Bee over Christmas spirit.  I love that first panel.  In the second story, Sugarplum and Noelle, a couple of recurring Archie Christmas characters, end up unknowingly double dating Archie at a party.  That works out for Archie about as well as you’d expect.  


Next up is a baking contest, theoretically.  In actuality, it’s a bunch of cheesecake-y shots of Veronica.  (Betty too, but mostly Veronica.)  It’s not a great story, but who cares?  This is the reason to buy this issue.  Lastly, Santa himself joins the gang for some karaoke.  (Yeah, I am not over seeing Veronica in those little hearts shorts.)

I took out all of my Archie Christmas comics and sat down and read them a couple of nights ago before bed.  Archie does a great job with the season.  Admittedly, some of the older issues were better than this one, but it’s hard to regret the purchase (especially Veronica’s sleepwear).  What can I say?  It’s a tradition.  

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