Reviews She-Hulk Sensational #1

She-Hulk Sensational #1Erica gives this comic three starsComic book review for Marvel’s She-Hulk Sensational #1 by Peter David and Brian Reed

She-Hulk turns 30 this year. And of course, since her character’s off playing dead in the current Fall of Hulks saga and Marvel marketing wanted a story, editorial decided to give us some flashback tales. The first is done by David, She-Hulk’s last writer, and the second by Reed, who’s last endeavor was the recently canceled Ms. Marvel.

The issue also reprints Sensational She-Hulk #40 written and drawn by John Byrne. While I’m glad they didn’t reprint Savage She-Hulk #1 again, I think this story was a poor choice. Mostly because no one will get anything but the infamous jumping rope scene if they haven’t read the previous issues of Byrne’s She-Hulk as it’s all a bunch of references backwards. It needed a stand alone story.

Anyway, onto the new stories, which both get a 3-star rating for different reasons… Continue reading “Reviews She-Hulk Sensational #1”

Reviews Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1

Seems I’ve been letting boys invade this blog. This guest blogger is Jason Sellers, my partner. I’m Donna to his Doctor; or more like he’s the Francine to my Katchoo. Only we have less problems. To set the record, I DON’T READ COMICS BECAUSE MY BOYFRIEND GAVE ME SANDMAN. In fact, I seduced him with my love of She-Hulk on the first night we met. Anyway, as he read the following comic, he kept telling me about the crazy and I said, “Oh, you have to write a post for my blog.”

I recently picked up The Incredible Hulk: The End hardcover for really cheap. This collection includes the two-part “Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect” by Peter David and George Perez. I’d heard of this story before, and I knew it was supposed to be one of the most renowned Hulk story arcs. Originally published in 1992, Marvel solicits this story as a “career-defining” story from “perhaps the greatest Hulk writer in comics history” that ranks “among the classics in Marvel history.”

“Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect” #1 by Peter David with art by George Perez

Future ImperfectJason Gives This Comic Two Stars

David’s story takes place in the post-apocalyptic city of Distopia. At the start, a group of people are running through the crowds talking about some sort of plans. These must be the good guys! How do you know? Well, for starters, one of the women gets shot in the head by super-future-robot cops by the fifth page! Continue reading “Reviews Incredible Hulk: Future Imperfect #1”

Fail, Peter David. Fail.

Erica gives this comic one star.I was going to actually review She-Hulk Vol 2 #38 by Peter David. It is the last issue of She-Hulk after all.

Then I saw this:

She-Hulk #38

You know, eventually, I might’ve read another Peter David comic after the Scans_daily debacle. But now I’m pissed.

I’m pissed that Peter David thinks an ableist comment is an acceptable thing to print in a comic. I’m pissed that he think She-Hulk would say something like that. I’m pissed that this made it off an editor’s desk and to print.

There are times when characters are racist, sexist, ableist, and homophobic to serve the text and in a good text, these actions are condemned either by the narrative, plot, or other characters (see such texts as To Kill a Mockingbird). This is not one of those. She-Hulk is not ones of those characters; she’s a highly educated lawyer and a hero, who’s never expressed anything like this before even in moments of weakness when her friends were in peril. When her mother was killed by a mobster, She-Hulk went after him legally. She-Hulk had more grace in February 1980 than in March 2009.

Fail, Peter David. And fail, Marvel, for printing this.

Goodbye, Wolverine: First Class. You were a good one.

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Wolverine First Class #12Erica Gives This Comic Four StarsSpoilers for Wolverine: First Class #12 by Fred van Lente and Scott Koblish

This title should really be called Kitty Pryde: First Class as Kitty has been its main character since the beginning. Though Wolverine’s name on the cover sell more comics. This is my biggest and only real complaint with the title, which say a lot given my hypercritical nature and my general blah toward Wolverine.

(Okay, I also have a side complaint to Marvel’s marketing division: Wolverine and Cyclops fight over…Kitty?! as a sub-headline for the preview makes me ill. Seriously, Kitty is a teenager in this series. This actually reads: Two men in their 30s fight over…an underage girl. Think about that.)

I’m sad that Fred van Lente is leaving the title and #12 is his last issue. (Peter David will be picking it up, but I won’t be following.) Though I suppose if one wanted to go out on a high note, issue #12 encapsulates everything awesome about van Lente’s run and gives it an nice, but open-ended cap.

Kitty and Wolverine have been off on (largely) their own adventures as Wolverine trains her to be an X-Man. (These stories take place during Claremont’s famous run of Uncanny where Wolverine as mentor to Kitty first appears.) Wolverine’s interactions with Kitty have always brought out the “human” side of Wolverine and allowed for audience identification with both characters. van Lente is perhaps the only current Marvel writer who I think really knows how to write Wolverine. Too many writers only focus on one aspect of Wolverine’s personality and take that aspect and run it to the extreme. He’s really much more well-rounded than just being an angry Canadian who likes beer, killing, and Jean Grey. (Though he’s that too.) van Lente remembers this.

van Lente also takes the character of Kitty and plays her as a complex teenage girl, who shows hints of the strong leader we all know she grows up to be. Kitty’s training isn’t as harrowing or traumatic as others’ (see Magick, Darwin, or Pixie), but instead it’s fun, thrilling, dangerous, and, above all else, a learning experience. The X-Mansion is a school for mutants, if school included a lesson on how to kick ass or take down a Sentinel. van Lente also steers clear of making Kitty a Mary Sue as a Wolverine fanboy might or Claremont and Whedon did. Or bringing some “nudge, wink” romantic plot to it. It’s so refreshing to see a story about a platonic relationship between a male and female character, even when they’re brought together through life-threatening peril.

Koblish’s art has also been refreshing in that Kitty actually looks like a teenage girl. She’s a little gangely and awkward. But you can always see how determined she is through her face. Continue reading “Goodbye, Wolverine: First Class. You were a good one.”

Thoughts on Scans_Daily and Peter David

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Scans_daily, a LiveJournal community, was suspended, and you can read about that here and here. The short: Peter David saw half an X-Factor comic scanned there, got mad, talked with Marvel, and Marvel complained to LiveJournal.

For those of you who don’t know, Scans_daily was a community for posting scans of comics and discussing them. The community was very slash-oriented, and a day usually didn’t go by without someone posting an old scan of a Batman comic where Bruce and Dick were in the same bed.

I always found the community useful for finding scans of comics that I was reviewing already on my blog. (This means that I’ve already read the comic and I have the printed version in my hand.) I also found it useful to read one or two pages of a comic I was thinking of spending money on. I realize that I might not have been the typical user, but I will miss this resource.

I do think Scans_daily always walked the thin line (and sometimes went over) when it came to copyright laws. I do think that some of the members had fights with creators that turned into libelous and inappropriate name calling. And that some of the members continue to do so in the wake of the community being suspended and up for deletion.

However, I don’t think Peter David is helping his own case any when it comes to appealing to fans. He’s trudging close to the wank line set by pros like Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyers, just to name a few infamous ones. I believe that Peter David himself also acted in an unprofessional manner. (Please note that I do not think it was unprofessional for him to turn in the community for copyright violation.)

This blog is not free of harsh comments on Peter David’s writing. No writer or artist is a sacred cow. My philosophy has always been if you publish it — whether it says Marvel on its cover or whether it’s on a blog — it’s up for criticism. Criticism can mean both good and bad things.

The internet is a great place that can bring both fans and creators together. However, Peter David is one author that I’ve seen going around to blogs and message boards and arguing with fans who are critical of his writing. He did this on the She-Hulk message boards as fans complained that his less-than-stellar writing on the title caused its cancellation, and he did this on the post in question on Scans_daily where someone pointed out his questionable gender depictions in X-Factor.

If Peter David wanted a real copyright infringement shut down of Scans_daily, he should not have commented and started arguing with fans on the same post he was turning them in for. Especially from the tone of the comments, it was easy to see how it turned into a name calling event. It is unprofessional and reeks of entitlement as a Creator and Professional Author.

I do think Peter David can address and argue with people’s opinions about his writing. But in the case of Scans_daily, Peter David getting Marvel’s lawyers to shut it down for copyright infringement while still arguing with fans about their negative comments is having his cake and eating it too. You cannot convince me that Peter David’s desire to shut down the community only had to do with copyright infringement. If so, it would’ve happened a long time ago.

Peter David has been quoted with saying that he wants to triple X-Factor‘s readership. This is an admirable goal considering how comic book readership, in general, is down. (Which, by the way, has nothing to do with the internet or communities like Scans_daily, no matter how much they get blamed. Comic readership has been down since the mid ’90s.)

In the “last time in X-Factor,” Peter David has been telling fans not to scan the comic, not to share spoilers with each other, and not to talk about the comic. I cannot tell if this is a great marketing ploy or if it’s a just another symptom of Peter David as Creator trying to maintain 100% control of his work and of others’ opinions about it.

If it’s the former, congratulations, Peter David, the marketing worked. That’s why it appeared on Scans_daily and that’s why people were talking about it. (Remember, criticism is both good and bad.) You probably would’ve seen an increase in your book’s readership. However, you just killed your marketing efforts within a certain fanbase by closing their community.

If it’s the latter, I shake my head. Peter David is not a sacred cow and neither are his comics. I’m not saying he can’t argue with fans, but there’s a difference between agreeing to disagree and feeding the trolls. Comics only survive because of the community behind them, because people go to cons, support their local comic shops, and because they share with each other. Sharing and selling someone on a title may take a few “spoilers” to get an interest. Very few comic fans care or can financially afford to keep up with every comic, which sharing the comics themselves or spoilers can help keep up with side plots. It seems to me that Peter David once upon the time had a place in that community before becoming a professional author, especially given that he writes and is paid to write stories based on others’ characters. (Or is a professional fanfic writer as my blog tag lovingly jokes.)

Scans_daily served a community base that was not served by the marketing or editorial decisions of Marvel and DC Comics. A community — largely of women — that would rather buy comics at Barnes & Nobles than go to the stereotypical comic shop where it was dirty and they’d get leered at or have their tastes mocked. Peter David took down that community in a way that was not 100% professional, and his behavior there and on other boards has caused me to lose respect for him.