Could the radioactive spider that bit Peter Parker have a real-life cousin in a nuclear plant? Researchers are puzzling over a white, “cobweb-like” substance that was found on spent uranium rods at the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina. The British tabloids are having a field day, with headlines like ‘Mutant’ spider fears at nuclear waste lab (at The Sun) and a rash of Spider-Man refereces. ABC News, on the other hand, talked to a real scientist:

“We observed it, it was unusual, it appears to be biological in nature but we don’t know that for sure,” said Will Callicott, the lab’s manager of executive communications. “It doesn’t seem to be doing any harm.”

The webs were found in the pools of water in which the spent fuel rods were submerged, but no one seems to have found an actual radioactive spider yet.

ABC News also interviewed Robert Baker of Texas Tech, who pointed out that wildlife flourished in the area around Russia’s Chernobyl nuclear plant after the accident there. The reason: The humans left, so the wildlife had the area to themselves. “They’re going to live a lot longer lives, because humans are worse for them than the radiation was,” Baker said.

Over at The Sun, their Spidey sense is tingling:

Experts say that any creature inside in the pools of water – which are intended to protect workers – would have been exposed to the nuclear fuel.

This raises the prospect of a creature having morphed into a new species of ‘extremophile’ after being exposed to uranium.

Angoulême

Conventions | Wim Lockefeer lines up the exhibits he’s looking forward to at the 39th Angoulême International Comics Festival, which begins today in Angoulême, France. [The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log]

Legal | Cartoonist Albert Lekgaba was sketching the proceedings of the Botswana Court of Appeal when security officers asked to step out of the courtroom, confiscated his work, and told him he could not draw in court, “especially if the judges were present.” When the judges learned of this, however, they informed the court registrar that sketching is indeed allowed, and they ordered that Lekgaba be readmitted to the courtroom and his sketches returned to him. [The Botswana Gazette]

Passings | California newspaper cartoonist John Lara has died at age 56. [Coastline Pilot]

Creators | Heidi MacDonald sums up a number of recent posts on piracy and the creative life in one mega-post, and a lively discussion follows in the comments section. [The Beat]

Eisner Awards

Creators | Tom Spurgeon cast his votes for the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame, and he urges other readers who are qualified (or who think they may be qualified) to do so as well: “The way I look at it, a Hall of Fame is a cultural document that has a chance of surviving decades into the future when things like our on-line text jeremiads and late-night hotel room conversations about what’s valuable in the medium will have long faded from memory. It’s worth having whatever small input one can have on something like that, particularly as time will also drive any objections we have from relevance.” [The Comics Reporter]

Creators | Frank Cho is so busy these days that he has decided to postpone the release of his miniseries Guns & Dinos: “I want to apologize to all my fans out there who were eagerly waiting for this book. But with only half the book done and no time to complete it, it’s only fair to reschedule the release date when the mini-series is completely finished. Fear not, I’m planning on releasing it before the year is out.” [Apes and Babes]

Retailing | Retailer Chris Brady, owner of 4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga, California, explains why he embraces digital comics: It brings new readers to the medium, and his comiXology storefront pays him 15 to 30 percent of cover price without much effort on his part. [The Press-Enterprise]

Daredevil #8

Comics | Colin Smith sees Mark Waid’s Spider-Man/Daredevil crossover as everything a good comic should be — smartly written, accessible to new readers and grounded in reality despite the fantasy elements: “Waid’s super-people are always individuals before they’re crime-fighters, and for all the fun of the roof-running and the holographic illusions, it’s the moments of betrayal and sadness and self-deception which stay with the reader after the comics have been put away.” [Too Busy Thinking About My Comics]

Comics | Warren Ellis gets an advance copy of Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga #1 — yes, the one with the breastfeeding on the cover — and finds it good. However, he also worries that the market may not be mature enough for the book, both because of its length and its juxtaposition of different types of elements. [Warren Ellis]

Creators | Sean T. Collins interviews horror comic creator Julia Gfrörer: “I’m most interested in making art about feelings and experiences that are hidden or obscure, uncomfortable to talk about, frightening to even think of. It should be challenging for me to create, and for you to consume. I guess that it often comes off as overwrought and melodramatic, but like the song says, I can’t come through half-stepping.” [The Comics Journal]

Comics | Larry Cruz celebrates Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, which he admits has a “stodgy” feel but nonetheless boasts glorious art and a gripping story in an unusual format. [The Webcomic Overlook]

Review | Matthias Wivel takes a look at the Fantagraphics edition of Carl Barks’ Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes. [The Comics Journal]

Review | Philip Shropshire reviews the second volume of Ed Piskor’s phone-hacker comic Wizzywig, which takes the protagonist on a through-the-looking-glass trip through the criminal justice system. [Comics Forge]

Hello and welcome to Shelf Porn, where fans show off their collections. Today’s collection comes from Iz Wilkison in Lakewood, Colorado, a longtime fan who is currently rebuilding his collection.

If you’d like to submit something to Shelf Porn, just drop me an email at jkparkin@yahoo.com and we’ll make it happen.

Now let’s hear from Iz …

My name is Iz Wilkison and I’m from Lakewood, Colorado. I’ve been reading comics for 30 years now, but what is depicted here is a pale shadow of what my collection used to be. Y’see, around seven years ago I was laid off and struggled to find work for nearly two years. During that time I was forced to sell off most of my collection, and have only been rebuilding it for the past couple years. Now to my meager collection…

This is the collection as it now sits in the guest bedroom/computer room. Those two large bookshelves (along with 2 others) were once completely full, and are only now nearing capacity.

This is the left bookshelf. On top is my O-ren sword from Kill Bill, and on the top shelf sits Mjolnir and my Qmx replica phaser from the Star Trek film. The second shelf is full of Marvel oversized hardcovers.

On the third shelf sit miscellaneous large-format books and graphic novels. The fourth shelf is where you’ll find the rest of my hardcover collection. Finally, the bottom shelf sits empty, awaiting spillover.

Here are my Marvel Essentials/DC Showcase bookcases, along with a floating bookshelf that holds miscellaneous “odd-sized” books. The three short boxes contain rotating single issues that I’m reading (currently bronze age Spider-Man, miscellaneous silver and bronze age Green Lantern issues, and every issue of every The Demon series).

This is the right bookshelf. On the top you can see two of my H.R. Giger books, and can just make out my Sgt. Rock dogtags hanging to the left. The top shelf is the beginning of my softcover trade paperback collection.

The second and third shelf continue my softcover TPB collection.

The fourth shelf is the rest of my trades. On the bottom shelf are my original art portfolios. Mainly sketches from conventions and eBay auctions, they really deserve to be in frames on the wall.

This is the far wall with some framed issues from my collection. I change these out every few months or so (Captain America #100 always stays).

Finally, my favorite piece. I got this life-sized Spider-Man years ago from a friend of mine. Best gift ever. You can’t see it, but the closet is just to the left, and it’s packed floor-to-ceiling with comic boxes (this is where the single issue collection currently resides).

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

The producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark struck back Tuesday against a lawsuit by Julie Taymor, claiming the former director violated her own contract before she was fired in March, and shouldn’t receive any royalties from the $75 million Broadway musical.

Taymor, who also co-wrote the long-troubled show, sued producers in November, arguing that the overhauled musical violates her copyrights. She also said she deserves full credit and pay, despite her public ouster. Taymor seeks at least $1 million, as well as future royalties.

But according to The New York Times, the producers’ countersuit insists Taymor “could not and would not do the jobs that she was contracted to do,” forcing others to undertake those responsibilities, resulting in a new show over which she has no claim.

In the court filing they say Taymor refused to create an original, family-friendly musical based on Marvel’s Spider-Man and instead “insisted on developing a dark, disjointed and hallucinogenic musical involving suicide, sex and death.”

Following Taymor’s firing, Spider-Man shut down for three weeks to undergo an overhaul at the hands of new director Philip William McKinley and writers Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Glen Berger. When the musical returned in mid-May for previews, it was described as “virtually unrecognizable” from the show savaged by critics in February.

“As a result of all of the changes that Taymor could not and would not make, the Spider-Man musical is now a hit,” the producers say in their suit. “The show is a success despite Taymor, not because of her.”

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, which costs $1.2 million a week to produce, grossed about $1.4 million last week, behind Wicked and The Lion King. It has brought in about $81 million since performances began in November 2010.

Jennifer de Guzman

Publishing | Jennifer de Guzman announced that, after 10 years, she has left her position as editor-in-chief of SLG Publishing: “My decade SLG was, I suspect, like no other decade anyone has spent working anywhere. I had great co-workers and got to work with fantastic creators, all of whom I will miss very much. (Though because this is comics and a community like no other, we will always stay in contact.)” [Possible Impossibilities]

Retailing | Chris Powell, current general manager and chief relationship officer for Texas-based comic chain Lone Star Comics, has accepted the newly created position of executive director of business development for Diamond Comic Distributors. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund board member will start his new position in March. [ICv2]

Miles Morales

Publishing | Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso answers questions about Miles Morales, the new Spider-Man of the Ultimate Universe: “When a little boy or girl looks at Spiderman, they do not see race. They do not see anything but the bright colors and the human shape. I think it is very easy for them to project themselves into that suit and to imagine themselves in that suit. Part of the thrill for me is knowing that there are little boys who will now pick up a Spiderman comic and see that after the adventure and the mask is peeled back he will look like them. As a Hispanic, it is nice to see Spiderman’s [...]  last name resemble the last name of my son.” [Fox News Latino]

Publishing | SanJose.com profiles SLG Publisher Dan Vado, who talks about why he started working in comics: “I think comics decided for me; I don’t think I really had any choice. There was never any point where I said, ‘This is what I’m gonna do.’ Comics was always something I was going to do while I’d figure out what it I was gonna do, and I guess I never really figured it out.” [SanJose.com]

Kate Beaton

Publishing | The Beat names its comics industry People of the Year. [The Beat]

Creators | Brian Wood chats about his upcoming Dark Horse series The Massive: “The world it inhabits is sort of a minefield of current events, of divisive politics (global warming, regime change, corporate bad-behavior, etc) but all that has sort of come to pass by the time the story opens. The damage has been done, and so its less about why/how things got so bad and more about, okay, what do we do now? Powerful social themes, but not political in the same way DMZ is.” [Suvudu]

Creators | Comics writer and filmmaker Kevin Smith answers questions about women and comic shops as he touts his new TV reality series Comic Book Men: “This is a show about these four dudes who work in this store. There are no women [in the store] yet…There should be a Comic Book Women, and good willing, there’ll be a spinoff Comic Book Women, and I’ll make shit ton of money.” [ThinkProgress]

Super Pro K.O., Vol. 1

Creators | Jarrett Williams discusses his work on the Oni Press graphic novel series Super Pro K.O. [Spandexless]

Creators | Writer Kyle Higgins looks at what’s ahead for DC’s Nightwing. [USA Today]

Comic art | The collaborative art blog Relaunched puts out the call for contributors to “Watchmen Too,” a Watchmen 2 theme month. [Calamity Jon, Save Us]

Commentary | Don MacPherson looks back at some of his favorites of the previous year. [Eye on Comics]

Fandom | When asked during a 60 Minutes interview whether his company was thin-skinned, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason popped his claws: “We’re like Wolverine and our skin has been melted off, and we’ve had Adamantium fused onto our bones.” [Nerd Reactor]

Not at all ominous...

Over what was most likely a perfect cup of Moroccan Mint green tea, Greg Rucka sat down for a discussion with Mark Waid and Steve Wacker about “The Omega Effect,” an upcoming crossover between The Avenging Spider-Man, The Punisher and Daredevil debuting in April.

In the story, the Man Without Fear will find himself in possession the Omega Drive, a file connecting five powerful criminal organizations — dangerous information that everyone’s going to want to get there hands on, right? That’s a well-used motive in our genre with the added twist of science; you see, Spider-Man is operating at the behest of Reed Richards, who invented the Omega Drive to begin with. So either Richards has been collecting dirty sheets on crime bosses in his spare time, or there’s something more delicate to what’s holding all this information in the first place. Remember all the math he used to keep in the basement telling him how to nudge society around? Yeah, this could get ugly.

That’s why we have the Punisher, who’ll go head to head with Spider-Man and Daredevil to put this information to good use — which, as we can guess, probably means shooting some fools. Waid and Rucka are more than willing to throw their supporting casts into the mix, as well as relevant story arcs that coincide with the trouble at hand. Spider-Man vowed that no one else would die on his watch, and that’s a hard vow to keep next to Frank Castle. Daredevil has had a long history with the Punisher, both falling on different sides of the very concept of justice. With his most recent fall from grace and return with a fresh attitude, how will the new Daredevil handle a man acting as judge, jury and executioner?

And the Punisher? Follow me on this one, guys, but what is Frank Castle going to get out of all of this?

(WARNING: Spoilers ahead for PunisherMAX #21 and Punisher #7, out this week.  Grab your copies and follow along!)

Yeah, he’ll get answers, information and his sticky little fingers into some Marvel Universe action. But really, what does a man like Frank Castle get from hanging out with the cape-and-tights set? Recently, I’ve wondered at the idea of the Punisher playing well with others, and I think that has a lot to do with the MAX line. The Punisher’s most modern character revival came at the hands of Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, cementing the idea that the character comes along with some …. well, mature issues. Even Jason Aaron’s PunisherMAX #21, leaves one with a feeling of utter despair and the ugliest truth about Frank Castle’s ultimate destiny. If I could get a little spoilery for a moment — please read this series, it’s coming to a swift conclusion and is absolutely brilliant — through PunisherMAX #21, we see Frank experience flashes of his life before the Punisher; it was a lot of missed moments, a lot of actions taken that shied away from what would have been a happier, if not simply more normal, life. Being alive means something entirely different to the Punisher, like a means to an end — ab end that will never arrive.

from Punisher (2012) #7

Punisher #7 also came out this week and, in Greg Rucka’s own title, it’s very clearly stated to the readers and that one cop guy that “eye for an eye”-style justice doesn’t fly in a truly moral world. And, despite its grit and shades of gray, the Marvel Universe is a truly moral world because of the heroes that inhabit it. The Punisher works as a man outside the boundaries of where our heroes live. He’s a guest star at best, a morality tale for people who do have the luxury of friends, family and an alternate identity. Frank Castle works best when he’s not reined in or festooned with gimmicks, and he’s certainly not going to be joining the Avengers any time soon (please, dear God, no). His path is different and should certainly be less traveled by men like Daredevil and Spider-Man.

So why stand them all next to each other in this new story? Mark Waid in the discussion said: “I think we start with Spider-Man with something tonally that is very close to what Spider-Man is, but the moment the Punisher walks into the room, thanks to Greg, the tone shift. That’s part of the fun of collaborating on this thing; bouncing back and forth without it being jarring.”

These don't normally end well for others....

So we won’t have to change anyone’s M.O. to be there; Frank Castle won’t be held back, and Daredevil and Spider-Man get to be seen in a different light, one perhaps with a little more shadow. If anything, both Daredevil and Spider-Man are going to have to go up against (and possibly work with) a man who is the physical embodiment of some very personal issues. Spider-Man has shouted to the rooftops that “as long as he’s around, no one dies,” and that’s going to be challenged by the Punisher simply being nearby. Daredevil just got back from the darkest turn in his career, full of death and judgment. His recent brush with the dark side under the Hand and how far his own life had been pulling away from friends and family might bring some new facets in the relationship between Daredevil and the Punisher.

Sounds good all around until you wonder what the Punisher is going to get out of all of this. Sure, we’ll be seeing Spider-Man and Daredevil in the tonal shift that comes with having the Punisher guest star in your books. But how will their tone affect the Punisher? He’s going to give some different depth and development to the other two and, considering his co-star’s viewpoints, it would be easy to paint him as a villain (or more like … an anti-villain?) but there’s got to be something more.

The guys in charge are clearly thinking along the same lines, given what’s hinted at here:

I love Frank as a thinker, but the second we put him in 616, the second he’s not in a MAX world, he has access to 616 resources,” Rucka said. “In a couple of upcoming issues, he’s going to get his hands on a variety of resources. One of those is going to be incredibly useful to him. He will recover something from one of the people that he’s fighting that is going to make him — I don’t want to say bulletproof — but it will prove to be of great assistance.”

The story purposefully started small, but the reason ‘The Omega Effect’ story is placed so well is that Frank’s story is about to be big,” said Wacker. “He’s not only going to have to be bulletproof, he’s going to have to be SHIELD-proof as well.

Is he going to get a thing? Reed Richards’ famous mathematical sociology that charts the course of mankind? Some sort of terrible intel on S.H.I.E.L.D. that makes them look even worse that they did in “Dark Reign”? A device that bequeaths terrible cosmic powers?!!

Who knows (but I’m really not voting for the latter)? Most importantly, the Punisher will gain purpose in a world of gods, powered armor suits and super-humans. Maybe by getting him to play with others and socialize some, the grim future shown in PunisherMAX might change. From the plans they shared with us, fans will certainly find some new and fascinating corner of the character given light by two talented writers with a clear course into the unknown. April can’t come soon enough.

I suppose it’s the mark of a good film that months after it’s release you’ll find any excuse to post any tangentially comics-related fanart thereof on the comics blog you work for. By that standard, Nicholas Winding Refn’s Ryan Gosling vehicle (rimshot) Drive is a pretty good film. And Miklós Felvidéki’s Drive-themed cover version of Jazzy John Romita Sr.’s famous “Spider-Man No More!” image over on the always delightful Covered blog is a pretty good piece of fanart. Still, given that the Driver’s jacket had a scorpion on the back in the film, I’m sure one Mac Gargan is pretty p.o.’d that Spidey’s biting his style…

Be a real hero and check out the remake next to the original at Covered, then visit Felvidéki’s website.

Matt and Felicia, sitting in a tree — or, actually, more like a giant hole instead of a tree, and I guess Spider-Man being electrocuted kind of kills the mood …

Courtesy of Marvel Comics, we’re pleased to present an exclusive preview from Daredevil #8 by writer Mark Waid and artist Kano, with a cover by regular series artist Paolo Rivera (who returns to drawing the interiors with issue #9). It’s the second part of a crossover with Amazing Spider-Man #677, which is also written by Mark Waid and features art by Emma Rios. The solicitation text refers to the Spider-Man/Black Cat/Daredevil as a love triangle, so I guess we’ll see if sparks fly figuratively between Daredevil and Black Cat as the sparks fly literally for Spider-Man.

This is the comic that topped CBR’s recent top 100 comics of 2011 list, and many of us here at the blog are big fans as well. It’s kind of cool to see a title like Daredevil, which has had very strong creative teams working on it for the past 10 years or so, reinvent itself with a completely different tone and still remain impressive.

Enjoy the preview, and look for both Amazing Spider-Man #677 and Daredevil #8 in shops later this month.

Daredevil #8

Here is the solicitation info:

DAREDEVIL #8
MARK WAID (W) • KANO (A)
COVER BY PAOLO RIVERA
VARIANT COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
• Spider-Man and Daredevil team up – Part two!
• Picking up where ASM #677 left off, the next great love triangle of the Marvel Universe continues!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$2.99

If the rapid approach of the holidays has pushed you into panic mode, just relax, because you’ve already found the perfect gift for the superhero-comics fan in your life (or, y’know, yourself): a superhero Snuggie, or as the trademark sticklers prefer to call it, a “Comfy Throw Blanket With Sleeves”!

If you can’t fight crime like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman or Spider-Man, you can at least look like them — well, kind of? — while remaining toasty in the comfort of your own beige living room, while sitting on your own beige sofa and watching your own (probably) beige television. Hey, I’m only going by the product photos, which do a better job of advertising furniture than selling one-size-fits-all Snuggies Comfy Throw Blankets With Sleeves using two models and Photoshop.

Batman is out of stock, but you can still get Superman ($30.97), Wonder Woman ($25.99) and Spider-Man ($24.95) while supplies last! Act now and you’ll get … I don’t know, peace of mind? The satisfaction of seeing your loved one smile uncomfortably while modeling, and pretending to appreciate, a garish, yet comfy, fleece shroud? Yeah, probably that.

(via Geekologie)

Amazing Fantasy #15

Crime | A man in Lincoln, Nebraska, told police that a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, valued at $15,000, disappeared from his home sometime between Oct. 27 and Monday morning. The 1962 issue was kept with other comics, but the man claims several people had been in and out of his home since he last saw it. A near-mint copy of the comic, which features the first appearance of Spider-Man, sold at auction in March for $1.1 million. [Lincoln Journal Star]

Creators | Writer Greg Pak has set up a page to take donations for former comics writer Bill Mantlo, whose tragic situation was detailed in an article last week. “Bill Mantlo has had a huge influence on me as a writer and reader,” Pak said. “His Micronauts stories blew my mind as a kid and his Incredible Hulk run laid the groundwork for the themes I explored my five-and-a-half year run with the character.” Money donated through the site goes directly to Mike Mantlo, Bill’s brother, for Bill’s ongoing care. [Greg Pak]

Conventions | Joe Keatinge and Pollyanne Birge have been confirmed as president and secretary, respectively, of Portland, Oregon’s Stumptown Comics Fest. Keatinge is the writer of the upcoming series Brutal, Hell Yeah and Glory, and executive editor of Image’s PopGun anthology. Birge has worked with the City of Portland on arts and culture policy under Mayor Sam Adams and is currently the vice-chair of Portland’s Independent Publishing Resource Center. The organization is accepting applications for additional board members. [Stumptown Comics Fest]

Any Empire

Creators | Nate Powell discusses his graphic novel Any Empire, which takes place in the same fictional town as his previous graphic novel, Swallow Me Whole: “I didn’t intend on Any Empire’s placement in Wormwood, but at a certain point, I realized I was narrating it within the same fictionalized version of Little Rock present in Swallow Me Whole. After asking myself ‘why not?’ the possibilities of weaving these tales into the same town seemed really exciting! I’ve really enjoyed the character cameos and figuring what certain characters would be like at certain times, but I envision the town as a quasi-magical nexus wherein each tale can float around pretty freely. Swallow Me Whole’s Wormwood contains a little bit of Richmond, Virginia, as well, and Any Empire’s Wormwood has a little bit of Montgomery, Alabama, where I spent some of my elementary school years, but Little Rock remains the general template.” [Graphic Novel Reporter]

Creators | MAD Magazine‘s Sergio Aragones is the latest creator to contribute art to the Team Cul de Sac Parkinson’s Disease fund-raiser. [Comic Riffs]

Creators | Jeff Kinney admits he thinks of himself as “a cartoonist who couldn’t crack into newspapers.” That was Kinney’s dream job, but when he realized he would never make it in the newspaper field, he created Diary of a Wimpy Kid and settled for success, popular acclaim, and riches instead. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

Reviews | David Anderson reviews Merik Tadros and Greg Houston’s self-published comic River Jordan, a drama set among Arab Christians in Jordan. [Spandexless]

Avenging Spider-Man

When I started hunting for reviews on Marvel’s latest Spider-Man title, Avenging Spider-Man by writer Zeb Wells and artist Joe Madureira, I wasn’t surprised that the reviews were good–Wells and Madureira are certainly up for the task–but I was surprised by how good they were. As a reader, I didn’t really have this book on my radar, but after seeing how much folks liked it, and how words like “fun” and “the team-up is back” were being thrown around, I decided to download it and read it myself. As the owner of near-complete runs of Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One, I was pleased to find out that, indeed, as Chris Sims put it, “this comic is Marvel Team-Up, and with this issue, it’s earned the name.”

But not everyone gave it a flawless review, so let’s take a look at what people are saying about Spider-Man and Red Hulk’s big team-up …

Alex Zalben, MTV Geek: “Wells has been slowly building an impressive body of work at Marvel, from a Carnage mini-series, to an epic run on New Mutants that spanned the history of the Marvel Universe. Here, we’re getting Wells flexing his comedy muscles (the writer started in comedy shorts, and currently writes for Robot Chicken) in full force. Here’s a Spider-Man writer who is as funny as Spidey is supposed to be, and the book is better for it. One ‘pose’ page with Red Hulk and Spider-Man has one of the better riffs on an ‘80s juice commercial I’ve seen recently (you’ll know it when you see it). And even a poster has a gut-busting joke on it in the form of the perfect slogan for Mayor J. Jonah Jameson to use for the New York Marathon.”

Jason Clyma, Broken Frontier: “Avenging Spider-Man #1 captures the fun tone of a light-hearted superhero story, while also poking fun at the less than believable nature of the genre. Spider-Man’s team-up with the massive Red Hulk is the perfect mixture of opposite strengths and tones, which serves to heighten the humor and fun. Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira delivered a fantastic first issue, one that hopefully is only the first part in a long run of Spider-Man team-ups.”

Iann Robinson, CraveOnline: “Joe Madureira does some spectacular art here. Like Humberto Ramos, John Romita Jr. and a few others. Madureira pencils comics with the understanding that they are larger than life. It’s interesting because he doesn’t do it with bold, clean lines. The work is very delicate, lots of small lines and bits of shading. It lands between the comic art of Ramos and the fine art of Marc Silvestri. Madureira’s stuff bristles with action, everything seems to constantly stretch and move. It gives Avenging Spider-Man a distinct look and allows Zeb Wells’ more action-oriented scenes to jump right off the page.”

Patrick Tobin, Multiversity Comics: “As a Spider-Man comic, Avenging Spider-Man #1 is a promising side-trip, but has no bold path of its own. The storytellers provide the personality and flavor, not the story itself. At the same time, it’s hard to deny the fun that can be had with these guys, as Wells leavens Madureira’s fury with humor and Madureira livens up Wells’s conversations with motion. You could do a lot worse. A lot, lot worse.”

David Pepose, Newsarama: “So what keeps this book from perfection? The first thing, cliché as it might be, is that I thought Avenging Spider-Man ended just a little too soon — we’ve got action, we’ve got setup, we’ve got the twist, but man I wish this could have been expanded beyond a standard 22-page opener, just to give Mad and Wells some more room to maneuver. The other thing — Mad’s self-inking — also gave a slightly washed-out feeling to the book, particularly with Ferran Daniel’s digital colors: there were certain pages that almost had a Greg Capullo-style look, which is fine if you’re most artists, but this is Joe Madureira, you don’t want him to look like anybody else. And finally, there is one off-color joke that Wells put in here that even made my eyebrows raise up — I’m not one for political correctness in my comics, but it’s something that probably should have been cut in the editorial process a long while back.”

Dean Stell, Weekly Comic Book Review: “Marvel made a big deal out of giving away a free digital copy of this issue with a print copy. I’m a huge fan of digital comics on my iPad, so I was curious to see how Marvel implemented this. Part of what makes Marvel’s iOS app so beautiful is it’s simplicity: You tap the ‘buy’ button, input your App Store password, confirm that you want to buy and you’re reading your comic. The whole process takes ~5 seconds. What Marvel did here really sucked. You had to go to a special webpage, log into Marvel.com (trying to remember my Marvel password), input a ~15 character code (‘Is that a 0 or an O?’), say what comic shop you bought your comic at, agree to accept emails from your comic shop and then go to your device to read the comic. This is not a process that will win many converts to digital comics because the beauty of digital is its simplicity!”

James Hunt, Comic Book Resources: “Usually, I think defending a star rating in the body of a review is a little too meta, but in this case I feel it’s worth discussing. This isn’t a 5 star comic in the sense that it’s the next Sandman and everyone should have a copy on their shelves. It isn’t. It’s a pop comic. A firework, not an atom bomb. But with art this good and writing this entertaining, you can’t fail to enjoy it — and that’s a 5 star experience however you look at it.”

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes

It’s time once again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for cool, new comics. As usual, we’re focusing on graphic novels, collected volumes and first issues so that I don’t have to come up with a new way to say, “ Mouse Guard is still awesome!” every month. And I’ll continue letting Tom and Carla do the heavy lifting in regards to DC and Marvel’s solicitations.

Also, please feel free to play along in the comments. Tell me what I missed that you’re looking forward to or – if you’re a comics creator – mention your own stuff.

Amulet

Explorer: The Mystery Boxes - With the Flight anthologies done, the all-ages version, Flight Explorer has morphed into this. I expect it to be as lovely as its predecessors and especially like the Mystery Box theme.

Archie

Jinx – J Torres and Rick Burchett’s graphic novel aimed at tween girls.

Kevin Keller, Volume 1 and Kevin Keller #1 – Archie collects the first appearances and mini-series of their major, gay character and also launches his ongoing series.

Ardden

Flash Gordon: Vengeance of Ming – The third volume in Ardden’s Flash Gordon series.

Ferals

Avatar

Ferals #1 – David Lapham writes werewolves.

Atmospherics, Color Edition – Warren Ellis and Ken Meyer’s re-mastered and newly painted story about a woman who’s either a disturbed witness to a UFO attack or a heroin-using serial killer.

Bongo

Simpsons Illustrated #1 – Bongo launches a Best Of series collecting material from various Simpsons titles.

Boom!

Steed and Mrs. Peel #1 – Reprinting Grant Morrison and Ian Gibson’s 1990 Eclipse Comics story of the other Avengers.

Peanuts #1 – Kicking off the regular, monthly series with new stories as well as reprints of Schulz’s Sunday strips.

Campfire

Jungle Book - Campfire’s artwork can often be perfunctory, but I like the whimsy of Amit Tayal’s cover for this one.

Cartoon Books

Bone: Quest for the Spark, Book 2 – The second installment in Tom Sniegoski’s series of novels set in Jeff Smith’s world (with illustrations by Smith himself).

Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand

Dark Horse

Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand #1 – Mike Mignola’s pulp hero returns for a five-issue mini-series.

The Monstermen and Other Scary Stories - I love Gary Gianni’s linework anyway, but I especially dug his Corpus Monstrum/Monstermen stories that appeared for a while as back-up features in Hellboy comics. This volume features Gianni’s tuxedo-wearing, medieval knight fighting zombie cowboys, squid pirates, abominable snowmen, and mustachioed skulls.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – War #1 – I’m pretty much done with the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but if you’re not or are curious about it, Dark Horse is billing this as a major jump-on point to the part that covers the ancient period of the Star Wars galaxy.

Compleat Terminal City - All fourteen issues of Dean Motter and Michael Lark’s retro-scifi/noir series.

Mighty Samson: Judgment - Probably as close as we’re going to get to a Thundarr the Barbarian comic.

King Conan: The Phoenix on the Sword #1 – This four-issue mini-series adapts Robert E Howard’s first Conan story.

Dark Horse Presents #8 – Features a BPRD eulogy for Hellboy and a new Tarzan story.

DC

Justice League #5 – Looks like the team’s finally together.

Frankenstein vs. OMAC

Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #5 and OMAC #5 – As a faithful reader of Jeff Lemire’s Frankenstein, I”m actually kind of excited that this will give me some motivation to check out OMAC, which I’m hearing good things about.

Xombi - The biggest casualty (for me, anyway) of the New 52 gets its collection.

Drawn and Quarterly

Goliath - The David and Goliath story told from Goliath’s viewpoint through the filter of corporate bureaucracy and presented in a lovely, minimalist style.

Dynamite

The Lone Ranger #1 – I tried Dynamite’s first Lone Ranger series, was disappointed that it wanted to stretch the familiar origin story into a multi-issue arc, and immediately dropped it. Assuming that won’t be the case this time – and noticing that it’s written by Ande Parks, whose writing I’ve enjoyed very much on other things – I’m up for another try.

First Second

Olympians, Volume 4: Hades, Lord of the Dead – The latest in George O’Connor’s wonderfully exciting and insightful review of the the most important characters from Greek mythology. Hades has always been a favorite of mine, so I’m especially looking forward to this one.

Silence of Our Friends - “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” Edmund Burke is supposed to have originated that quote, but it was driven home for me by Vicente Amorim’s 2008 film, Good about good Germans who were too afraid of the Nazis to assist their Jewish neighbors in WWII. But even that gave me some comfortable, historical and geographical distance from the people and events it was talking about. I expect that Silence of Our Friends, about the civil rights movement in the ’60s, will hit even closer to home.

The Sincerest Form of Parody

Fantagraphics

The Sincerest Form of Parody: The Best 1950s MAD-Inspired Satirical Comics - I can’t decided if I’m more interested in the historical context of what folks were parodying in the ’50s or just looking at some cool Jack Davis and Kirby art that I’ve never seen before.

Hermes

The Phantom: The Complete Sundays, Volume 1: 1939-1943 – I like daily strips too, but Sunday comics are the best.

Humanoids

Whispers in the Walls – Guillermo del Toro’s co-writer from The Devil’s Backbone goes solo on this tale of horror at a Czechoslovakian children’s hospital in the late ’40s.

IDW

Infestation 2 #1 – Since I’m not a zombie fan, I passed up the first Infestation even while I was loving the idea of connecting all those weird, incongruous universes. This time around it’s Lovecraftian demons, which is not only a more appealing concept to me personally; it also makes a lot of sense from a dimension-crossing standpoint. That something exists tying 30 Days of Night and Dungeons and Dragons together with Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gives me all the joy I’ll ever need.

Danger Girl: The Danger-Sized Treasury Edition - I’ve been wanting to check out Danger Girl for a while now. This collects the first three stories to get me started.

Danger Girl: Revolver

Danger Girl: Revolver #1 – And here’s the new story.

Womanthology: Heroic - The controversial Kickstarter sensation comes to life.

Doctor Who #13 – Occasionally I have to break my rule about only mentioning new series. Josh Fialkov’s taking over Doctor Who for four issues to put the Doctor in 1941 Casablanca is one of those occasions. It starts here.

Steve Canyon, Volume 1: 1947-1948 - I read these stories when Checker published them and was eager for more. Unfortunately, Checker quit, but now Milton Caniff’s globe-trotting pilot is at IDW in a great-looking hardcover.

Image

Fatale #1 – Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ supernatural noir comic has everyone’s mouths watering, including mine. I’d buy it for the “Beauty” cover alone, though the “Beast” one looks cool too.

Prophet #21 – Two of my favorite artists, Brandon Graham and Simon Roy are collaborating on this, with a cover by Marian Churchland. That’s the exact opposite team of whatever I expected from a continuation of a Rob Liefeld book. Seriously: good on Liefeld. I’m also impressed that he’s not just starting the numbering over again with #1. Seems like that would be the obvious thing, especially with the book going in such a new direction, creatively, but it’s because it’s surprising and counter-intuitive that I like it. And it’s not even like he’s cashing in on a milestone issue-number. If my calculations are correct, he’s counting two mini-series (one, ten-issues; the other, nine), a one-shot, and an annual to get to 21. If this is what we can expect from the new Extreme, and apparently it is, my interest is piqued.

Whispers #1 – I find the Luna Brothers interesting enough that a new, supernatural thriller by one of them gets a check-out.

The Intrepids

The Intrepids, Volume 1 - Teens vs mad scientists (and a cyborg bear).

Marvel

Scarlet Spider #1 – The latest spin-off for the Spider-Man franchise.

Amazing Spider-Man #677 and Daredevil #8 – I like a couple of things about this crossover. First, like DC’s Frankenstein/OMAC one, it’s pretty unobtrusive. Second, Mark Waid’s writing both parts of it.

Alpha Flight #8 – SOB! I’ll miss you, Alpha Flight!

Wolverine and X-Men Alpha and Omega #1 – I’d usually feel ungenerous towards a mini-series spin-off of a comic that’s only four issues old, but Brian Wood is writing it and that bears looking into.

X-Men Legacy #260.1 – Christos Gage takes over from Mike Carey. I’m sad to see Carey go, but intrigued to see what Gage has planned. I hear good things about his Avengers Academy.

Daredevil by Mark Waid, Volume 1 - Waid and Paolo Rivera’s critically acclaimed run for trade-waiters.

Moonstone

The Big Book of Kolchak: The Night Stalker – Collects the first seven, long-out-of-print Moonstone Kolchak stories.

Oni

Possessions, Volume 3: Better House Trap - Sadly, it’s only recently that Ray Fawkes’ name has been on my radar. Now that it is, I want to check out his slapstick series about a possessed little girl trying to escape the loving, nurturing environment of the haunted house that traps her.

Wasteland

Wasteland #33 – Oni is celebrating Antony Johnston’s post-apocalyptic series’ going monthly with a $1 kick-off issue. I’ve fallen extremely behind in reading it, but it was one of my favorite comics at the time I decided to trade-wait it.

The Avalon Chronicles, Volume 1: Once in a Blue Moon – I’m a sucker for stories about young people who get transported to magical worlds where they discover things about themselves. Especially ones as nicely drawn as this one.

Papercutz

Monster Mess - Lewis Trondheim’s story of two kids who discover their ability to bring monsters to life (and have them fight each other) just by drawing them.

Putnam

Fangbone! Third-Grade Barbarian, Volumes 1 and 2 - It’s a cute enough concept, but Michael Rex’s art and Fangbone’s deadly serious expression on the covers are what sells it.

Russ Cochran

Sunday Funnies #1 – This is kind of brilliant. I’ll just let the publisher describe it:  ” A monthly, 32-page, full-size comic section containing historic Sunday pages from as far back as 1895, and including favorites such as Gasoline Alley, Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, and many other classic Sunday pages that you’ve probably never seen before. Each issue … will be a full-size 22″x16″ comic section, containing full page Sunday comics in full color. These pages are coming from the archives of Ohio State University, which, thanks to Bill Blackbeard, has the largest and most comprehensive collection of Sunday comics in existence. The retail price will be $10 and I will be selling subscriptions, 12 monthly issues for $100.” Should go well next to Wednesday Comics collections.

Bettie Page in Danger

SHH

Bettie Page in Danger #1 – Even more brilliant. A fumetti using real Bettie Page photos to tell a story about the pin-up queen’s career fighting zombies, mad scientists, and other naked ladies.

SLG

Sparko – This sounds a little like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere with the Thames replacing London’s Underground. I don’t mean to make that sound like a bad thing. Coming from SLG and including a murder mystery, goth goblins, and a pickpocket named Belle, I trust that it’s not.

Tor

Girl Genius Omnibus, Volume 1: Agatha Awakens – The Hugo-winning, steampunk webcomic gets the deluxe hardcover treatment.

And that’s it for me. What did I miss?

Matthew James Thomas

Another cast member of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was injured Wednesday, the first since the once accident-prone Broadway musical underwent a sweeping overhaul in April.

Newsday reports that Matthew James Thomas, who plays Peter Parker in the Wednesday and Saturday matinees, suffered a head injury backstage at the Foxwoods Theatre near the beginning of the second act. Production stopped for about 10 minutes as Thomas was taken to the hospital for stitches. Star Reeve Carney, who happened to be in the theater at the time of the mishap, stepped into the role for the rest of the performance.

Producers described Thomas’ injury as “minor,” and released a statement saying, “He is fine and will be back in the show for his next scheduled performance on Saturday.”

Thomas, who was named as Carney’s fill-in about a year ago, is the sixth performer to be injured in the $70-million musical. The most recent was Arachne actress T.V. Carpio, who was hurt March 16 during one of the show’s many fight scenes (she replaced Natalie Mendoza, who left after suffering a concussion during the problem-filled first preview). The worst, however, was aerialist Christopher Tierney, who fell about 30 feet in December, breaking four ribs and fracturing three vertebrae. He returned to rehearsals in April.

The latest injury comes just as original director Julie Taymor, who was forced out of Spider-Man in March after five delays and a barrage of scathing reviews, filed a lawsuit against the producers, demanding proper pay and credit.

Action Comics #1

Comics | ICv2′s latest report on the comics market shows a mixed picture for monthly comics and graphic novels. While DC’s New 52 reboot has helped push comics sales, the graphic-novel versions of those comics won’t be out for months — and Amazon is gobbling up a larger and larger share of graphic novel sales, especially at the high end. And this is interesting: “Digital sales are growing as a percentage of the market, but apparently not at the expense of print sales. Retailers interviewed by ICv2 do not feel they’re losing sales to digital competition on DC’s day and date titles.” That seems to be more anecdote than data, but you would think retailers would be the first to notice a drop in sales. The report also includes lists of the top 10 properties in various categories. [ICv2]

Creators | Writer Kieron Gillen reflects on his year’s worth of stories in Marvel’s Generation Hope: “I always suspected I’d leave Generation Hope at the end of the first year, and so planned it as a coherent statement that would establish the book. I saw it as my job to properly delineate the lights and define Hope’s post-Cable existence as a somewhat desperate Messiah. Like all work, I’ve got some things I regret and some things I’m enormously pleased with. I think to start with I was a note too overconfident and obtuse, and immediately following that went too far the other way into being a little nervous and crass before swiftly (and thankfully) finding its balance. Taken as a whole, I can only view it as a success. I’d taken six kids, shown how each one ticks, and took them from meeting, to bonding, to an initial success, to heartbreak and then near destruction, and both showed who they were and how the experience changed them, while setting the stage for whatever comes next. Obviously being deep in the X-Office, with Hope on my team, means that I’ve got more than a few fingers in the assorted mutant-pie (which is a disturbing, Disir-esque quasi-cannibalistic metaphor I’m going to abandon immediately), but it’s still more than a little sad saying goodbye to the kids.” [Kieron Gillen's Workblog]

The Activity #1

Creators | Nathan Edmondson and artist Mitch Gerads discuss their new Image title The Activity. [MTV Geek]

Creators | Writer Tim Daniel walks through the process he used to pitch his new Image series Enormous: “While there are scores of excellent columns, creator blogs, and publisher’s submission guidelines to help steer a creative team, there is only one truth to this entire crazy process – there is no definitive manner for successfully presenting your book. Follow the submission guidelines for a publisher, knowing full well that just because you dutifully adhere to the rules does not in any way guarantee success. When pitching Enormous, we were lucky, fortunate and foolish; lucky to have discovered artist Mehdi Cheggour on Facebook, fortunate to have built a relationship with Shadowline publisher Jim Valentino through dedication and hard work, and foolish enough to assume our story would stun him with its creative genius – guaranteeing the immediate green-light.” [Multiversity Comics]

Creators | Art Asylum, the company creating Minimates based on the mid-1980s Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man storyline “The Death of Jean DeWolff,” interviews the story’s writer Peter David. [Art Asylum]

A Flight of Angels

Creators | Rebecca Guay discusses her work on the new graphic novel A Flight of Angels, due out next week from Vertigo. Guay handles the art and a number of writers, including Bill Willingham, contribute loosely related stories that are all knit together by a single framing tale. [USA Today]

Process | In his regular “Wacky Reference Wednesdays” post, artist Paolo Rivera shares how he used photos from the Tenement Museum as reference for his Mythos: Captain America work. [Self-Absorbing Man]

Process | In two posts, comics writer/editor Jim Shooter gives a “how to” lesson on continued stories and next-issue “teases.” [Part 1, Part 2]

Comics | David Brothers makes several spot-on points about Marvel’s now-canceled Iron Man 2.0 series, not the least of which is that it never really felt like James Rhodey, aka War Machine, was the star of the book: “I was actually sort of annoyed when Rhodey slipped further and further into the background. I hit one issue where Rhodey wasn’t in it at all, or on one page or something ridiculous like that. And then Fear Itself hit and the book turned into Cast-Off Iron Fist Characters Monthly (sometimes featuring War Machine).” He also talks in general about the current slate of black characters starring in Marvel’s comics. [4thletter]

From Daredevil #5

Comics | Christine at the Other Murdock Papers shares something I’d never noticed, that Daredevil has rarely featured a computer in its pages. She notes that issue #5 of the current series brings Matt Murdock into this century, giving him both an iMac and an iPhone. [The Other Murdock Papers]

Commentary | Tim Callahan shares plans to reread and talk about the major works of Alan Moore over the next year. [Tor.com]

Commentary | Chad Nevett and Alec Berry have started a series, “Direct Messages,” in which they discuss DC’s New 52 releases. [GraphiContent, Alec Reads Comics]

Cosplay | Frederico Garza of Cleburne, Texas, owns a hot dog shop that’s underneath a plaza infested with bats. Instead of having them exterminated, Garza has taken to wearing a Batman costume and has added a “Cleburne Bat Dog” to his menu. He’s also taking donations so students at the local high school can build bat boxes for the animals to move into. [KVUE]

Conventions | LaToya Peterson takes us inside the speed-dating event at New York Comic Con; while her writing is intelligent, she leans a bit hard on the device of setting up stereotypes so she can debunk them. But she’s right to describe the lower level of the Javits Center as “a deeply unsexy underground bunker” — and the speed dating was in one of the nicer rooms. [Slate]

If you’re a Spider-Man fan in need of a table and you also have $2,200 burning a hole in your web-lined pocket, allow me to draw your attention to this: a one-of-a-kind Spider-Man sculpture made from recycled metal and old automotive parts. While it is coated to protect the wall-crawler — or floor-crawler — from rust, it doesn’t come with the glass tabletop that will make the sculpture practical; you’ll have to shell out a little extra for that. You’ll also have to cover shipping costs from Thailand, which I imagine for a 110-pound object is probably pretty steep.

(via GreenDiary)

Big Questions

Hello and welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where every week we talk about the comics, books and other stuff we’ve been reading lately.

Our special guest this week is musician and comic creator Nate Powell, who you might know from his most recent graphic novel, Any Empire, or the Ignatz and Eisner Award-winning Swallow Me Whole. When he’s not creating comics, he’s hanging out at the United Nations with the likes of R.L. Stine, Ann M. Martin and other teen-fiction writers in support of What You Wish For, a collection of young adult stories and poems. Proceeds from the book will be used to fund libraries in Darfuri refugee camps in Chad.

To see what Nate and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

*****

Michael May

Planet of the Apes

In this week’s Food or Comics I said that I’d run out of ways to praise BOOM!’s Planet of the Apes series. Having read the seventh issue, I’ve found another one.

As the series has progressed, writer Daryl Gregory has been using the ape/human conflict to shine a light on human atrocities like terrorism and containment camps. I wasn’t comfortable with that at first-–in fact, I’m still not–but I realize that that’s the point. These are complex issues and it’s very much in the Planet of the Apes spirit to touch on them in a way that lets them remain difficult. Is terrorism always evil or are there ever causes that justify it? Planet of the Apes doesn’t claim to have the answers, but it’s raising the questions in fascinating and, perhaps more importantly, entertaining ways. It also helps that the art’s so beautiful and exciting, it makes me cry.

Tim O’Shea

Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors #6: Writer Mark Andrew Smith completely surprises me with the conclusion to the first arc. Instead of being the reveal I thought it would be, he instead gives us a plot moment that will serve as a catalyst for even bigger things in the series. The battle scenes that dominate the issue are some of artist Armand Villavert’s strongest pages of the series. If I have not convinced you to buy the series before now, you may be interested to know that Image will soon be releasing a trade paperback of these first six issues.

Secret Avengers #18: This issue in particular reminded me of writer Warren Ellis’ early 2000s Global Frequency series. As much as I appreciate the writer’s approach to Shang-Chi with this issue, what really shines (and makes the issue a must read) is David Aja’s Escher-like layouts on a particular series of fight scenes.

Avengers Academy

Avengers Academy #20: Writer Christos Gage’s ability to write an ensemble cast never ceases to amaze me. This issue serves as a major transition point in the series, allowing readers and characters to look in the rear view mirror and see where the story has gone and the potentials of where it might travel. When I started reading this series, I never fathomed that Veil would be so central to the book’s appeal and theme. Not to be a stuck record, but if you are one of those readers who have been left cold by most Avengers writing for the past several years, this is the book for you.

Avengers Solo #1: Jen Van Meter’s script (Hawkeye as detective is the core premise) works for me, but is severely hindered by the art. I normally like Roger Robinson’s art, but for whatever reason in this particular assignment he is inked and colored in a vibrant noir style that comes across as a poor imitation of Howard Chaykin. Two characters in the book have a costume so similar in design; I could not tell who was who. I so wanted to praise this story from the rooftops, as I am a huge Van Meter fan. The back-up Avengers Academy tale is a solid follow-on to this week’s issue, written by Jim McCann and with art by Clayton Henry.

All-Star Western #2: This is one of the new DC universe books that are not hindered by starting from scratch. Jonah Hex is Jonah Hex and Moritat on art is just some of the most exquisite Hex/horror/Western art you can buy for—oh crap I just realized I paid $3.99 for it. Memo to DC, you are really annoying me with making me pay an extra buck for a preview of a crappy-looking Lee Bermejo story that I will never buy.

Daredevil

Daredevil #5: I have run out of words to praise Mark Waid’s Daredevil. Just go get it. This may be the first current mainstream Marvel book I will let my 12-year-old son read (he normally reads the all-ages titles), That’s how much I enjoy the series.

Spaceman #1: Not really sure what story Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso is trying to tell with this nine-issue mature reader miniseries. But offering the first issue for a buck made me buy it. The art is, as always with Risso, strong as hell. But the dialogue that Azzarello saddles some of the characters with is quite annoying. I will leaf through the next issue, but I am unsure if I will actually buy it.

Spider-Man Marvel Adventures #19: Sean T. Collins writes a really great battle story between Kraven and Spidey in an office building. That’s a
sentence I never fathomed writing. Seriously, artist Pere Perez has a stairwell layout that was a sheer delight to view, would love to know if that was Collins’ idea or totally from the mind of Perez. And that was after getting to enjoy the first half of the comic, which has J.M. DeMatteis and Clayton Henry doing a Freaky Friday-type tale with Spidey and Silver Surfer.

Nate Powell

Master Of Reality by John Darnielle (33 1/3 series, Continuum Books, 2008)

Master of Reality

“I opened up my eyes, and I wondered whether my younger self was actually somebody who’s still inside me at all… I’m 26, but I’m not ready for my 16-year-old self to be dead. So I bring his ghost to work with me and hold séances behind a locked office door and when I come out of it there’s this gigantic salad in front of me and I want to start eating it with my bare hands, reciting these childish lyrics out loud, spitting sunflower seeds and bacon bits in big chunks at the wall.”

I can’t believe it took me this long to get around to reading this book. I’d eagerly awaited its release from the moment I heard news of its existence, but it finally arrived in my mailbox as a considerate gift from Leigh Walton with the attached note, “See if it isn’t the most Nate Powelly book ever written.”

Almost immediately, this novel just felt right. Darnielle’s music has proved crushing and illuminating, particularly the 1997 Mountain Goats album Full Force Galesburg, having both encompassed the shittiest period of my life and having held some responsibility for pulling me out of that self-erasing era. Master Of Reality (using Black Sabbath’s 1971 masterpiece as its core) challenges itself to represent certain sentiments we’d only admit we truly take or took seriously in trusted company—that music can truly be salvation, that our surroundings are truly ugly and lame, that the people we think we know truly don’t understand. What makes this kind of exploration bold is the potential for embarrassment, as creators and as readers. Darnielle’s protagonist and narrator is a smart, sensitive, troubled teenager in the mid-1980’s—but importantly, not too smart, and troubled because he’s simply too sensitive for the strip-mall blight around him. I accept this contract with the author, and I believe in the gravity of his character’s assessment of the world, of clichés laid out with an intimate enough lens, close enough to the embarrassment itself, that such statements immediately cease to be clichés.

Darnielle’s protagonist ruminates on Sabbath as a teenager and again later as an adult having unearthed his old psychiatric center-mandated journals, hammering in the fundamental, primal function of headbanging, assumptions on the fathers of metal’s decision-making processes through the limited perspective of an American teenager, and for any true lover of Black Sabbath, an utterly convincing blueprint of their two-dimensional.

“Normally even the hard music is supposed to sort of take you higher but when I borrowed this album from Mike I knew it wasn’t just the pot, it was like the whole point was ‘everything is a bummer, even your fantasies are a bummer.’”

Downtune those guitars, children.

From The Graveyard Of The Arousal Industry by Justin Pearson (Soft Skull Press, 2010)

From The Graveyard Of The Arousal Industry

As abrasive and impenetrable as his musical endeavors can be, Justin Pearson’s memoir is laid out the only way I could imagine it, as the music’s blunt, brash foil. Pearson’s account is incredibly intimate without even a trace of sentimentality, and this is important to accept early in the reading process. He makes no qualms about the emotional and physical barriers he’d learned to establish for the sake of survival in a fucked-up childhood and adolescence, and the necessity of building something real under his own power, and through whatever means were available at the time.

Struggle, Pearson’s first band, was one of the earliest hardcore punk bands I was exposed to as an eighth-grader. Our bands floated and toured around in the same circles for years, but only played together a few times. His most widely-known band, The Locust, drew as much ire and hatred as it did excitement and anticipation. As a 22-year-old stuck in the trap of needing to be painfully earnest about every goddamn thing that came out of my mouth, I found myself as frustrated as I was stimulated at Locust shows, which inevitably spawned 3-hour debates about the band later that night at the diner. When Soophie Nun Squad and The Locust occasionally shared the stage, we were (cosmetically) polar opposites trying to communicate similar things with our music, and this healthy-but-dissonant relationship was hard to reconcile in a well-meaning but deeply flawed late-90’s punk climate—a climate stating that we should make waves against the shores of the outer world, but should generally avoid challenges to our collective concept of why we think we’re not a part of the world we hate, why we think we’ve got so much in common anyway, and who we alienate.

Pearson’s music has always been a part of this essential push-pull relationship, and I’ve grown to increasingly love and respect his bands’ dedication to the truly annoying, the truly questioning, the truly interesting. Decade-old memories of naked young men wearing only gas masks shitting on a Michigan venue floor while uprooted shrubbery is thrown amidst makeshift fires and flying bodily fluids finally get the answers they’ve been longing for. His narrative is honest and unabashed enough to raise the question within me, “why didn’t I just ask him all these questions when I was twenty? Just how many assumptions did I make about people around us? What the hell was wrong with me?”

Big Questions by Anders Nilsen (Drawn & Quarterly, 2011)

I started reading Nilsen’s individual issues starting with #3, and had been waiting for this collected volume for ten years. I won’t hesitate to say that Big Questions is probably my favorite comic of the last decade, and that it approaches uncertainly, darkness, hope, cruelty, dedication, and selfishness in a way that makes most other efforts seem like a waste of paper.

Nilsen gets away with a task of this size by simply following the (mostly animal) characters’ actions without an obvious directorial perspective—the reader never feels that they’re being intentionally moved in a particular direction or towards a certain topic by the creator. This might be because the narrative took nearly 15 years (in as many installments) to unfold, and a lot changes in a creator’s priorities in that time. Major events in the storyline come as genuine surprises, and my emotional response to the losses of certain characters was much heavier than I expected.

The world depicted in Big Questions is certainly aware of ours, and of its political and social realities, but only one ambassador from “our world” makes his way through the book, slowly and begrudgingly adapting his method of interacting with others, relearning what it means to survive. Most of the internal social structure is found within a group of birds who are drawn so similarly that it came as a shock and a true joy to discover that I’d grown to care about each bird and their individual struggles so deeply. A kind of magic was at work; the birds’ once-uniform depictions retroactively became nuanced, attentive, undeniably unique.

Big Questions, like McCarthy’s The Road, is not in any way a pick-me-up, but its flashes of lightness in an impenetrably grave situation provide measured glimpses into the other side of a world just behind it, or just before it. This collection is a necessary exploration of an endlessly murky and uncertain existence.

Americus by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill (First Second, 2011)

Americus

Reed and Hill are successfully making a case against people losing their goddamn minds these days. Americus is a focused, efficient narrative tackling the poisonous, anti-intellectual, privileged forces of the authoritarian evangelical Neanderthals we know so well against, well, a world they think is theirs.

I grew up in the suburbs of Arkansas, just down the road from Americus’ fictional Oklahoma town. The setting could have truly been anywhere in the country, but at no point came off as a generic depiction of suburbia. No, this was the world in which many of us came of age. Cultural threats and scapegoats shifted every few years—the Satanic Ritual Abuse craze of 1985 begat the Judas Priest suicide trial-farce that fueled the proper Satanic Panic in which I devoted myself to heavy metal, the occult, and fantasy storytelling. This era was essentially put to rest with the West Memphis Three witchhunt of 1993, to be quickly replaced by a deep suburban terror of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic, only to be dethroned in time by Marilyn Manson. What made the perceived threats so bizarre was the evangelical Neanderthals’ insistence that depictions of reality and fantasy were interchangeably dangerous.

Americus centers around a popular all-ages fantasy epic patterned after the success of Harry Potter and its predecessors. We get glimpses into the literary adventures cherished by so many folks in the book, but don’t get too much, and this is important, as the town’s (and my town’s, and yours’) authoritarian evangelicals have never really been concerned with what’s actually in the offending articles. In fact, the whole crux of the book and its frustrating reality is that such vocal opposition is focused on what the books represent, which is a world that has room for more than just one perspective or value system. Possibility really is frightening.

MK Reed’s dialogue is quite natural and believable, and Jonathan Hill’s brushstroke is clear, competent, and descriptive. Americus, as a graphic novel readable by anyone age 12 and up, is an welcome addition to the much-needed broader discussion about the role of the Arts in our society, the powers and motivations at play in the effort to crush a more truly representative world, and the terrifying rise of these proto-fascists we know so well, not just at the local level, but when the battlefield is what we read, listen to, and how we think.

“Fear, that’s terrible for kids to see, and all the violence, it’s just too negative for them,” she explained. I looked at the poster, wondering if there actually was something terrible on it but no, no gore, sexual situations or excessive violence. She actually had a problem with the title. I told her the title came from the quote that we have nothing to fear but fear itself, an appeal for strength. How every kid faces a fear at one time or another and why not show them how super-heroes handle theirs? “After all,” I told her, “… you know the good guys win.”

She thought about it and we talked about fear and being strong. In the end, I hadn’t changed her mind entirely but she did admit that saying the whole store was negative was probably a bit rude. The young customer bought something he liked and everyone went home happy. If a robot had carried in a cupcake for me, it would have been the perfect day.

But then again, nothing in this world is perfect, not even my unflinching adoration for one of Marvel’s finest architects (FRACTION 3:16!). But if you boil Fear Itself down to its base elements, you will find jewels of the human spirit expressed in the Mighty Marvel Manner. It may not be the best event book, but I’m starting to think that the core of Fear Itself is one of the most important stories you can read for inspiration.

(WARNING: We will be talking about Fear Itself, including this week’s cataclysmic issue #7, grab your copies and read along)

In an article talking about Doomwar, I said that event book essentials included: 1) a major villain, 2) a global threat, 3) assorted heroes unified to fight numbers 1 and 2, and the most important 4) the human element. When galactic threats bear down on the planet Earth, someone has to stand, look at the sky and shout ‘Holy cats, that’s a Terrible Thing!’ Heroes don’t often get this chance, as they are too busy being heroic and fighting the good fight to get in a word of astonishment at their own activities. Fear Itself is unique in that not only does the common man express his hopes and fears at what is quite possibly the end of the world, but the heroes express the weight of their down fears as they take on impossible odds. From gods to men, they all stare own adversity, face their own fears and dig deep to find the strength to keep going.

a dark father's love

Even when they’re not human. Odin tells Thor over and over that he doesn’t have to fight this mortal battle, and that he would see Midgard razed to ashes because, “A world is nothing for your son.” In a similar fatherly gesture, when Skaldi laments that their victory will cause the Serpent’s death, he tells her that when he falls, she will carry on in his name. “This is all for you, darling. This was always just for you.” Even our villain does not fear death and his own defeat, because he is giving his daughter the world in his absence. One man would see it burn, the other would serve it up on a silver platter, both for their children. Come on, that’s kinda cool.

Two human men demand not miracles, but tools and some level of accountability, from Odin himself. Tony gives up something of his own dignity by drinking at the doorstep of the All-father so that he could get the God’s attention, to arm his friends so that they may fight their own battle. When Captain America brings back the battered body of Thor before the final fight, he demands that Odin do his own duty. As much as Odin may want to burn the world to save his son, destiny demands otherwise. All of his efforts and machinations to escape his (and his son’s) fate come to nothing. By the end of the final story, Odin has not only lost Thor, but Asgard has become his tomb as he stands guard over the broken body of the Serpent until the end of time, his brother’s keeper at last.

There is a moment after all they’ve seen, and the oppressive weight of inevitable defeat is on their shoulders that Spider-Man bends to his own fears and leaves the front line. He is worried for his family, for his friends, and as terrifying as the end of everything is, one wants to be with the ones they love. I can’t fault the man, these are some impossible odds! He eventually finds Aunt May and she asks about her nephew Peter. There is some sideways dialogue possibly alluding to the idea that Aunt May knows exactly who Spider-Man is, but once she is assured that her nephew is fine, she tells Spider-Man to keep protecting him and others. “You have a great responsibility, you know, and it wouldn’t be right, me keeping you here away from it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he tells her, and swings back out to continue the good fight.

Parallel to this, there is an everyman threaded through Fear Itself, a homeowner in Broxton who also runs back to his family to check on his wife and child. As they huddle together, this everyman makes his choice and heads back out to do what he can. “If this… if this is the end…? I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”

Later, Captain America has fallen in the midst of battle, and it’s this guy who helps him to his feet. And thus for the bravery of a balding middle aged man in the midst of costumed adventurers, do we understand the point of this seven issue series.

Fear can be many things. You can be afraid of spiders, afraid of heights, afraid of flying Nazis in powered armor. You can be afraid of losing your son, of losing your job, afraid of the end of the world, but those fears are incremental in comparison to what you do about them. Fears say less about a man than his strengths of character, and if there is anything I think kids should be learning about today, it’s that.

• Following in the footsteps of DC Comics: The New 52, most of Vertigo’s titles will be available digitally the same day as print.

• Geoff Johns announced that work is about to get under way on a Robot Chicken DC Comics special that will skewer the company’s superheroes in the same way that the show tackled Star Wars. The episode, written by Johns and MAD‘s Kevin Shinick, is set to air next summer.

• Confirming last-minute speculation, Ed Brubaker announced that he and frequent collaborator Sean Phillips (Sleeper, Criminal, Incognito) will release their next project through Image Comics. Called Fatale, the series blends noir elements with the supernatural world. “I’ve been wanting for a while to do something with a more supernatural element to it,” Brubaker told Comic Book Resources. “So Fatale mixes what we do and all the ways we’ve poked fun at the noir genre. If Incognito was us doing ‘What if Doc Savage, Dashiell Hammet and Raymond Chandler had all existed in the same universe?’ then this is a weird combo of James M. Cain and Lovecraft. It’s got a real horror element to it — the first time I’ve really tried to do anything with horror — but it’s also got this really epic story to it.”

• Dark Horse confirmed that Demo creators Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan will reunite in February for an adaptation of the Robert E. Howard Conan short story “Queen of the Black Coast.” Wood, whose upcoming Dark Horse project The Massive has been extended to an ongoing series, told Comic Book Resources that he’s signed on for 25 issues of Conan the Barbarian, “to start.”

• Vertigo announced Saucer Country, a new ongoing series from Paul Cornell (Stormwatch, Demon Knights) and Ryan Kelly (Local, New York Five) that the writer describes as “The West Wing does The X-Files.”

• Beginning in April, Return of the Dapper Men writer Jim McCann will team with Morning Glories cover artist Rodin Esquejo and colorist Sonia Oback for Mind The Gap, an ongoing series from Image Comics that combines elements of science fiction, thrillers and police procedurals. “This book is my X-Files meets Twin Peaks whodunit,” McCann told Comic Book Resources, “where everyone is suspect, and no one is innocent!”

• During its Amazing Spider-Man panel, Marvel announced a Scarlet Spider ongoing series will debut in January from writer Christopher Yost and artist Ryan Stegman.

• Ape Entertainment revealed it’s in talks with Sesame Workshop to publish comics featuring the beloved characters from Sesame Street.

• IDW Publishing will release a graphic-novel adaptation of Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 film Alexander Nevsky, by Ben McCool and Mario Guevara.

• Expanding their partnership, Stan Lee and 1821 Comics announced they’ll launch a line of children’s comics called Stan Lee’s Kids Universe.

Scarlet Spider

After months of teasers, Marvel broke their silence at the New York Comic Con and announced a Scarlet Spider ongoing series by writer Christopher Yost and artist Ryan Stegman that will kick off in January.

As for who is under the mask, well, that remains a mystery, but Yost has confirmed it is someone who has a connection to Spider-Man.

“After the events of Dan Slott’s amazing #spiderisland, Scarlet Spider’s entire life has been turned upside down,” Yost told MTV Geek. “ScarSpi (like ScarJo) has one motivation — get the hell out of New York. For reasons that are as yet unrevealed, ScarSpi is on the run, heading down Mexico way. But as the story progresses, those motivations will change because life gets in the way.”

The original Scarlet Spider was Ben Reilly, a clone of Peter Parker who first appeared as a part of the infamous Clone Saga back in the 1990s. Reilly assumed the identity for a brief time before taking over as Spider-Man from Peter Parker. Later a villain took the name. Reilly eventually died saving Peter Parker from the Green Goblin. More recently, three “Scarlet Spiders” appeared in Avengers: The Initiative, wearing the “Iron Spider” armor Tony Stark once gave to Peter Parker.

Marvel comics has become the latest comics publisher to offer entire story arcs at a slight discount through their digital comics app (the one run by comiXology). They are launching with ten titles:

• Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted
• Captain America: Winter Soldier Vol. 1
• Invincible Iron Man Vol. 1: Five Nightmares
• New Avengers Vol. 1: Breakout
• Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage
• Thor, vol. 1 (by J. Michael Straczynski)
• Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1: Power and Responsibility
• Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol. 1: The Fantastic
• Ultimates Vol. 1: Super-Human
• Ultimate X-Men Vol. 1: The Tomorrow People

I checked in with comiXology CEO David Steinberger, and he said the discounted collections are available only through the Marvel app. A number of other publishers, including Archaia, IDW, and Image, are already doing this, and Steinberger expects to see more: “This is a great value to the consumer, both from it being a bit cheaper than the individual issues and from the fact that they are complete story arcs in a convenient form,” he said.

In related news, the debut of MIles Morales in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 broke the record for the most digital sales on the day of release—although since Marvel isn’t releasing any numbers, it’s hard to know exactly what that means.