5/9/12
Avenging Spider-Man 7/Punisher 11
Small week for me (if I don’t find a more likable replacement I’ll try to stick to 3-4 books a week if possible), based mostly on cross-overs and events. A lot of Batbooks, but all tieing into Night of Owls. And Suicide Squad looked to be a cross-over with Resurrection Man. For the rest of Marvel, a lot seems to be X-Men vs Avengers. I’ll try to get a mix of DC/Marvel next week, but today not a lot caught my eye.
Avenging Spider-Man 7
Avenging Spider-Man 7 is the very first Spider-Man book I’ve picked up since One More Day. What could have been a potentially confusing experience was instead a light, fun romp with Spider-Man and the She-Hulk going head-to-head with cute kitty-cats.
Avenging is a revival of classic Spidey series like Marvel Team-Up, only here mostly adventuring with other Avengers (thus far). As an enormous John Byrne She-Hulk fan, her appearance and the fact that it was a one-off issue was enough to convince me to give Spider-Man a try again. The creative team didn’t hurt. I only have a passing familiarity with Kathryn Immonem’s work, but Stuart did one of my all-time favourite comics: Superman Secret Identity. I’m not an enormous fan of his She-Hulk, because she’s just a little too muscular for me. She does look great, but my preference for the Byrne version from Sensational and Fantastic Four. She-Hulk does look like she can kick your ass though, and that’s what’s important!
Neither Peter Parker nor Jennifer Walters appear in this issue, but their alter-egos have a good antagonistic relationship with each other and I laughed at a few of their shared scenes. Without giving too much away, let me just say this is a very entertaining issue, its one-and-done so you can just pick it up and enjoy it, and if you have a furry fetish then maybe you’ll get a surprise or two.
Punisher 11
Punisher 11 is also a self-contained tale, but one that continues the series ongoing dramas. The recap page is really helpful for new readers, but if you skip it then you’re still going to be following along with ease. Detective Walter Bolt is being interviewed about discharging his weapon the night prior when he has a change of heart and decides to come clean about his working relationship to the vigilante known as the Punisher.
Greg Rucka is the writer, and he’s always done a great job with realistic or street-level comics. Gotham Central spring to mind, about a group of police dealing with crime in a world full of marvels. This issue of Punisher had the same feel, with Frank being more of a fringe character then the star of the series. He only has one line in the flashback story, and is only talked about from an outside witness.
I don’t like Punisher in the main Marvel Universe, because he typically doesn’t fit in for me. But Castle here is a very grounded (for comics) character, and when the necromancer Black Talon shows up, he handles the situation in just the way you would expect him too if you’re more familiar with the very long-running MAX incarnation of the character.
Mirko Colak has a nice sense of realism to his art, and even someone as goofy looking as Black Talon can look like he’s NOT a comicbook villain, despite the suit. From this one issue of this series I’m really intrigued. Frank Castle still feels like he a force of nature, and the lack of internalization from him is very appealing for what it adds to that. The politics of the police force are also important to the issue as it goes on, and it’s pretty clear this isn’t going to be the silly comic series the main Punisher title eventually became. Circle of Blood, man that was amazing though.