THE UNBOXING - JULY 2014

It's a chunky Marvel month hereabouts. First off is a biggie, the INFINITY GAUNTLET OMNIBUS. I've been waiting for this for years, ever since Marvel's Omnibus program started up in earnest. I figured it could be only a matter of time, especially as they started getting into the more obscure old crossovers, before they reached this storyline, a favorite from my youth. Watch for a full-length review of this book coming soon.

Next up are two trades collecting a large segment of Roger Stern's AVENGERS run: AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: JUDGMENT DAY, which contains issues 278 - 285, plus assorted odds and ends, and AVENGERS: THE LEGACY OF THANOS, reprinting issues 255 - 261. For those who are interested, the gap in between is collected in AVENGERS: THE ONCE AND FUTURE KANG (262 - 269) and AVENGERS: UNDER SIEGE (270 - 277). Add to these THE TRIAL OF YELLOWJACKET and ABSOLUTE VISION, volumes 1 and 2, and the entirety of Stern's fifty-plus issue AVENGERS run is now complete in reprint format. I confess that I've read very little of Stern's Avengers, and I look forward to someday sitting down and binge-reading the whole thing.

DANGER GIRL: VIVA LAS DANGER

Story: J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell | Script: Andy Hartnell
Art & Color: Phil Noto | Lettering & Design: Richard Starking's & Comicraft's John Roshell
Assistant Editor: Kristy Quinn | Editor: Scott Dunbier
Danger Girl Created By J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell

The second Campbell/Hartnell/Noto collaboration is a much better read than the previous one, HAWAIIAN PUNCH. VIVA LAS DANGER begins with a teaser featuring Abbey undercover in South Africa, involved in a high stakes poker game in order to acquire a one-of-a-kind gem. She wins by cheating and escapes her angry fellow gamers with assistance from Johnny.

I don't think I've mentioned it yet, but one of my favorite things about the DANGER GIRL comics is that they mostly all begin with such quick teasers, sometimes related to the main story's action and sometimes not, evoking memories of the great Connery and Moore Bond films I grew up on. The teasers are then always followed by a double-page title/credits sequence, usually in the form of a montage featuring the girls in varying states of undress in the background. It's another nice, Bondian touch which helps to sell the stories as action movies in comic book form.

Though I have to say that, while Campbell usually provides variant covers for the DANGER GIRL mini-series, I wouldn't mind seeing him devote that energy to these pages instead. I suppose putting his artwork on the cover is a bigger draw for readers, but the montage Campbell drew for the original series was outstanding, and I think he could have a lot more fun with the various mini-series' character designs drawing them into such pages rather than cramming them onto covers which need room for logos, trade dress, UPC barcodes, and more.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #57

"THESE WINGS ENSLAVED!"
Roger Stern: Words Beyond Compare!
Jim Shooter: Layouts That Are Fair! | Jim Mooney: Artist With A Flair!
Jim Novak: Letterer Extraordinaire! | Ben Sean: Colorist, If You Care!
Denny O'Neil: Editor With Gray Hair! | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: En route to a high society bash at Jonah Jameson's penthouse, Spider-Man is accosted by a glowing yellow energy cloud. After it departs, he realizes it was probably his old foe, Will-O'-The-Wisp. Then, with the cloud gone, the web-slinger proceeds on his way. At the party, Jameson's girlfriend, research scientist Marla Madison, accepts a job working for the Brand Corporation. But the party breaks up when the bodyguard of James Melvin, Brand's president, reveals himself as the mercenary Killer Shrike and kidnaps Marla.

The police detain the party guests for some time, trapping Peter among them. Finally, when Melvin departs, Peter changes to Spider-Man and follows him to a Brand factory in New Jersey, where Killer Shrike has taken Marla. Shrike's costume is possessed by Will-O'-The-Wisp, who has been rendered non-corporeal and needs Marla to restore him to normal. Spider-Man allows Marla to do her work and holds off the Brand guards when they interfere at Melvin's order.

Finally Will-O'-The-Wisp is restored to normal and escapes, but not before wiping Marla's memory of the entire incident and destroying the factory.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #56

"THE PERIL... AND THE PUMPKIN?"
Words: Roger Stern | Layouts: Jim Shooter | Finished Art: Jim Mooney
Letters: Janice Chiang | Colors: Bob Sharen & George Roussos
Editing: Dennis O'Neil | Again: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Spider-Man sees the terrorist called Jack O'Lantern carried into Bellevue Hospital and snaps some pictures, then heads for the Daily Bugle. The next day, Jack O'Lantern's men attempt to spring their boss from the hospital's prison ward, but the terrorist instead decides to hold the hospital hostage. Informed of the situation by Aunt May, whose fiance Nathan is at the hospital for physical therapy, Peter Parker changes into Spider-Man and infiltrates Bellevue. He takes out Jack O'Lantern's men, saving the hostages, then defeats Jack O'Lantern himself.

The Sub-Plots: The Marcy Kane plotline finally comes to an end as Steve Hopkins positions himself over the door to the chemistry department offices and snatches her scarf when she enters, discovering that she has a wig on as well. Marcy runs away but Peter follows, and Marcy tells him that her hair used to be blonde when she was young, but that it went dark so she began to dye it instead -- until her doctor told her the dye was harming her hair and she needed to stop. When Peter tries to cheer her up, Marcy realizes that perhaps he's not as bad a person as she had previously believed.

GORAN PARLOV - THE "NOT A HOAX" SENSATIONAL NEW COMIC ARTIST FIND OF 2014!

I mean, I guess technically Marvel found this guy before me. And according to the internet, he's been a professional artist for over twenty years, first in his native Croatia, and then his first American work was published by DC's Vertigo imprint in the early 2000s. Since then he's done some work for Marvel as well, mostly on the Punisher. But I just discovered him, and isn't that what really matters?

Anyway -- I was perusing the weekly new releases in the Marvel Unlimited app, and my interest was piqued by the thumbnail cover to A+X #16 starring Spider-Man and Psylocke, which appeared to feature a beautiful image of my favorite web-slinger in the iconic John Romita, Sr. style. I opened the issue and thumbed through it, and -- wow! This guy draws the most perfect Spider-Man I've seen in years. Previously the record for "Best Modern Spider-Man Artist" was held by Marcos Martin for the handful of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN issues he illustrated during the "Brand New Day" era. And while I still absolutely adore Martin, and I think his work is a perfect fit for the character, Parlov's rendition is practically a clone of Romita Sr., thus edging Martin out of the top spot.

DANGER GIRL: HAWAIIAN PUNCH

Story: J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell | Script: Andy Hartnell
Art: Phil Noto | Lettering: John 'JG' Roshell & Comicraft's Wes Abbott
Assistant Editor: Kristy Quinn | Big Kahuna: Scott Dunbier
Danger Girl Created By J. Scott Campbell & Andy Hartnell

Following Tommy Yune's KAMIKAZE! is a Danger Girl one-shot plotted by series creators J. Scott Campbell and Andy Hartnell, with script once again by Hartnell. The story begins with a brief teaser set in snow-blanketed Italy, where Abbey, Sydney, and Johnny Barracuda recover a McGuffin from a group of nondescript terrorists. Following the borderline successful completion of their mission, Johnny suggests a well-deserved vacation in Hawaii. The story proper then picks up with our heroes enjoying their downtime in the islands, little aware that they're about to fall into a devious new plot.

It seems Don Ka Nui, a Hawaiian theme park magnate, is running out of money and believes that the only way to get people into his park and get his revenue back up is to destroy the world's other popular parks. To that end he uses several genetically crafted mind-control leis to turn Johnny and a group of U.S. naval submarine officers to his side. The subs depart Hawaii and launch missiles at two theme parks in California and one in Hawaii. But the Danger Girls become aware of the plan and foil it, with some timely aid from Valerie, along for the ride in Hawaii, and Deuce, who is vacationing in Florida.

The story is silly, but Ka Nui works in a "Roger Moore Bond Villain" sort of way. He has a right-hand hula girl named Lae'ula and several trained fighters at his command, and his penchant for chess results in Johnny tied to a giant white bishop, which is kind of a funny image. There is a story angle missed, however, considering that Ka Nui has a half-completed theme park on of the islands, which could have made a great spot for a final showdown, but which is barely acknowledged as existing after its introduction.

PETER PARKER, THE SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #55

"THE BIG BLOW OUT"
Writer: Roger Stern | Penciler: Luke McDonnell | Inks: Jim Mooney
Letters: John Morelli | Colorist: Roger Slifer | Scrutiny: Denny O'Neil
Wake-Up Calls: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Robert Hunter, also known as the villainous Nitro, is released from government custody thanks to an uninformed hotshot lawyer hired by Hunter's well-meaning daughter, Virginia. Nitro immediately goes on the lam and makes plans to track down his enemy, Captain Marvel. He robs a bank to get the cash he will need in order to find Marvel, but runs afoul of Spider-Man while there.

The wall-crawler leads Nitro to a warehouse owned by Chemico, Inc., where he uses various gases in an attempt to stop the villain. Spider-Man finally succeeds by forcing Nitro to explode near several canisters of nausea gas. When Nitro re-forms himself following this most recent explosion, he is rendered sick by the gas he has reabsorbed into his body. The police arrive to take Nitro away.

The Sub-Plots: Peter sneaks out of his apartment building when the landlady, Mrs. Muggins, comes banging on his door for the rent. Peter later worries that his rent may increase soon due to a recent fire at the building.