Black Panther: Long Live the King by Nnedi Okorafor, André Lima Araújo, et al.

Long Live the King is another miniseries that ran alongside Ta-Nehisi Coates's main Black Panther ongoing; similar to World of Wakanda, it tells smaller stories, though T'Challa is the protagonist in most of these, unlike the ones in World. I had actually read it before, as it was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story back in 2019.

from Black Panther: Long Live the King #2

There are three stories here; the first, by Nnedi Okorafor and André Lima Araújo, appears in issues #1, 2, and, oddly, 5, and is about T'Challa investigating a monster that's causing earthquakes in Wakanda. It didn't really hang together for me; everyone acts like T'Challa is crazy when he says he can see a monster but no one else can. Like, c'mon, you guys live in the Marvel universe, stuff like this happens all the time! The story tries to explore a subgroups of Wakandans who live without technology, but doesn't really go anywhere interesting with that, and I found making a new character an old childhood friend of T'Challa was not actually an effective way to get me to care. I also don't care for how recent Black Panther comics have watered down Christopher Priest's Hatute Zeraze from feared Wakandan secret police to generic guards. (I feel like the rough edges of his conception of Wakanda are being sanded off.) I often find Okorador's dialogue stilted in her novels, and that's true of her comics as well. Araújo's artwork is technically competent but rarely interesting to look at.

from Black Panther: Long Live the King #3

The second story, by Aaron Covington and Mario Del Pennino, appears in issues #3-4. I just reread my notes on it and I still don't remember what it's about, except it once again depends on a previously unmentioned childhood friend of T'Challa's to generate drama, so... 

The last story, by Nnedi Okorafor and Tana Ford, I remember confused me when I read it originally because it takes place in an alternate universe, but the trade paperback it was collected in completely failed to mention that. Thankfully, reading in single issues, you get an explanatory text page that does give some context for why the Black Panther is suddenly a wheelchair-using Nigerian woman bonded to the Venom symbiote... but not why anyone might think this worth telling stories about. 

Back when I read these for the Hugos, I ranked them below No Award. I stand by that. This is generic superhero stuff, not the best of the genre or the character. Presumably churned out to make sure there was lots of Black Panther content on the shelves when the film was released.

from Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury #1

That's probably also true of Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury, a one-shot about T'Challa battling Klaw. It's written by Ralph Macchio, who previously wrote Black Panther way back in 1982... and if you told me this was an inventory script hanging out in his drawer since 1982, I would believe you. Macchio was a prolific comics writer back in the 1980s, and his style doesn't seem to have moved on since then. Overly wordy, very simple characterization. Actually, that's not fair to the actual comics of the 1980s, which were usually better than this. If this was a new story put out to tie into the film, I'm not sure what anyone involved was thinking.

Black Panther: Long Live the King originally appeared in six issues (Feb.-Apr. 2018). The stories were written by Nnedi Okorafor (#1-2, 5-6) and Aaron Covington (#3-4); illustrated by André Lima Araújo (#1-2, 5), Mario Del Pennino (#3-4), and Tana Ford (#6); inked by Terry Pallot & Scott Hanna (#6); colored by Chris O'Halloran (#1-5) and Ian Herring & Irma Kniivila (#6); lettered by Richard Starkings (#4) and Jimmy Betancourt (#1-6); and edited by Devin Lewis.

"The Sound and the Fury!" originally appeared in issue #1 of Black Panther: The Sound and the Fury (Apr. 2018). The story was written by Ralph Macchio, illustrated by Andrea Di Vito, colored by Laura Villari, lettered by Travis Lanham, and edited by Mark Basso.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Black Panther & the Crew: We Are the Streets by Ta-Nehisi Coates, Butch Guice, Scott Hanna, Yona Harvey, et al.

Like World of Wakanda, Black Panther & the Crew is a prequel miniseries that ties into Ta-Nehisi Coates's first arc on Black Panther. Partway through A Nation under Our Feet, T'Challa summoned the assistance of "the Crew," reviving the all-black superhero group devised by Christopher Priest, though with a totally new membership roster. While it originally included War Machine, White Tiger, and Josiah X (son of the "black Captain America"), this version is made up of T'Challa, Storm, Luke Cage, Misty Knight, and some guy named "Gates." The first and only story arc, We Are the Streets, reveals how "the Crew" (never actually called that, I think) originally came together.

from Black Panther & the Crew #1
(art by Butch Guice & Scott Hanna)

Coates and co-writer Yona Harvey borrow the structure of the original series, which is unfortunate, as I felt that the original series's structure was one of its flaws, with the group not coming together until the end of the arc. Of the first five issues here, each is narrated by a different member of the Crew in turn, focusing on their individual relationships with Ezra Keith, a black activist who recently died in police custody, leading to protests on the streets. This means we get a lot of meditations on the various characters' relationships with Ezra, but not a lot of them actually interacting with each other or, really, seemingly doing much of anything at all; it doesn't feel like there's enough going on in their investigations to justify spending six issues on it, even when it turns out that Hydra is behind gentrification in Harlem (an idea done much better in G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel, as I recall). Coates and Harvey have a strong sense of voice and character, and I liked the art by Butch Guice and Scott Hanna a lot, but like A Nation under Our Feet, this rarely has a sense of forward momentum. The ending I found more of a fizzle than a climax: some things blow up, the story ends.

from Black Panther & the Crew #3
(art by Butch Guice & Scott Hanna)

Weirdly, while on the one hand the series doesn't seem to be doing enough to justify six issues, on the other hand, it seems to be trying to do more than its six issues can accommodate. Specifically, a series of flashbacks throughout most of the issues show that in the 1950s and '60s, Ezra founded an all-black superhero group with what he thought was assistance from Wakanda, but turned out to be a Hydra plot, and the group ejected him when they started using their violence for less principled reasons, but then he rejoined the group, but then he ended it. Introducing two new superhero teams is just too much for a six-issue series, and though I found some of this very intriguing, it was too rushed and too fragmentary to really work. The conflicts within the team have to happen very quickly and most off-panel, and ultimately I wasn't sure what Coates was actually trying to say about violent resistance through them.

So, as I have felt about all three stories I've read from the "Coates era" thus far, to me We Are the Streets had a lot of interesting ideas, certainly more than many other comics I have read, but also didn't know how to make those ideas work within the constraints of its format. I would have liked to have seen the Crew come together faster and do more, and to have seen the previous superhero team saved for some other story that could have done them justice.

We Are the Streets originally appeared in issues #1-6 of Black Panther & the Crew (June-Oct. 2017). The story was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates (#1-6) & Yona Harvey (#2, 4, 6); penciled by Butch Guice (#1-6), w/ Mack Chater (#2-3, 5-6) & Stephen Thompson (#5); inked by Scott Hanna (#1-6), w/ Chater (#2-3, 5-6) & Thompson (#5); colored by Dan Brown (#1-6), w/ Paul Mounts (#5); lettered by Joe Sabino; and edited by Wil Moss.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Bloodstone by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning, Michael Lopez, Scott Hanna, et al.

from Bloodstone #1

In 2001, twenty-five years after Ulysses Bloodstone was killed off, Marvel brought him back... sort of. Bloodstone was a four-issue miniseries focused on the daughter who never knew her father. Eighteen-year-old Elsa and her mother move to Massachusetts, having inherited a mansion from Elsa's father; down on their luck, they have no other financial resources. Elsa's mother doesn't want her to know her heritage... but of course she soon stumbles on it and ends up taking her father's monster-fighting mantle.

As I said in my previous post (see item #1 in the list below), Bloodstone ends up retooled a bit here. Elsa inherits a piece of his bloodstone gem in the form of a choker, but other than that, there's no substantive connections to his original 1970s appearances, no mentions of the conspiracy he battled or the gem's importance to his quest to defeat monsters. Instead, he's a more generic monster hunter, battling the kind of creatures that might appear in a Universal monsters film, like Dracula or armies of mummies. He has a Frankensteinesque manservant and a vampire legal executor, and the ability to teleport around the world to deal with monsters.

from Bloodstone #4

So this all is what Elsa inherits, accidentally teleporting into danger and figuring a way out of it with the help of the manservant (Adam) and a nerdy teenage boy who has a thing for her. The result is pretty fun, actually. This is nothing deep, but if you don't want to read about a sarcastic teenage girl mocking an undead warlord trying to raise an army of mummies in Egypt... why are you even here? This is pure comics.

The art is occasionally a bit skeevy, and sometimes a little confusing, but it's exactly the kind of art the story calls for, I think. Notoriously, this story was recently revealed to be rewritten by Gail Simone in one of her earliest comic assignments; my understanding is that she punched up the dialogue (to make it more Buffyesque) after the comic was written. I think you can see the signs of this if you know; Joss Whedon talks about how he was once hired to punch up the dialogue on an already recorded film. This meant everything he added had to be done via ADR, and thus the characters became wittier when they were offscreen and he didn't have to match mouth movements. Similarly, here there's a lot of jokes that come from off-panel and aren't totally reflected by the visuals, tonally. Still, if you hadn't told me, I don't think I'd've noticed, it all works together fairly well.

from Bloodstone #2

Bloodstone has never been collected, though Marvel has twice solicited printings of Bloodstone & the Legion of Monsters claiming it will be included. When I first conceived of this project reading through Marvel's Bloodstone stuff, the four issues could be found fairly cheaply on the secondary market, but since then 1) the Gail Simone reveal came out, and 2) Elsa Bloodstone appeared in a MCU animated film on Disney Plus, so now people are more interested in the character, and the issues range from $30 to $150 apiece on MyComicShop.com. Thus, I had to settle for getting them on comiXology.

This iteration of Elsa Bloodstone made just one further appearance of sorts, in a handbook-style one-shot called Marvel Monsters. The book presents profiles of various Marvel monsters, from Bombu of Oobagon VIII and Devil Dinosaur to the Molten Man-Thing and Rorgg, in an in-universe style. It's made up of blog posts by Elsa and e-mails to and from her as she tries to assemble information on all sort of monsters from across Marvel continuity. Again, you can get it on comiXology. I found it hard to read every word—I just don't care about Marvel monsters that much—but I did find it occasionally interesting, and Elsa's voice gave it a lot of charm. There are a lot of goofy monsters in the Marvel universe!

Bloodstone was originally published in four issues (Dec. 2001–Mar. 2002). The story was written by Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning [with dialogue by Gail Simone], penciled by Michael Lopez (#1-4) and Tom Derenick (#4), inked by Scott Hanna, lettered by Jon Babcock, and edited by Mike Marts.

Marvel Monsters: From the Files of Ulysses Bloodstone and the Monster Hunters was originally published in one issue (Jan. 2006). The issue was written by coordinator Michael Hoskin, with Madison Carter, Jeff Christiansen, Sean McQuaid, Stuart Vandal, Eric Moreels, Ronald Byrd, and Barry Reese, and edited by Jeff Youngquist.

This is the second post in a series about Elsa Bloodstone. The next installment covers Nextwave, Agents of H.A.T.E. Previous installments are listed below:

1. Bloodstone & the Legion of Monsters (1975-2012)
   

My 2019 Hugo Awards Ballot: Visual Categories

These are my ballots for Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon, with commentary, in the two Hugo categories for "Dramatic Presentations" and the "Best Graphic Story" category (i.e., comic books). I'll start with the story I ranked the lowest and move upwards. Links are to longer reviews when I have written such a thing, or where the story is freely and legally available on the Internet.

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)

6. Avengers: Infinity War, written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeeley, directed by Anthony Russo & Joe Russo

Going into this film, I was convinced it was going to be terrible and there was no way they were going to pull it off. That they did pull it off is a testament to the skill of everyone involved, but I still don't think it's particularly great. Parts of it are clever and exceptional, but parts of it are bloated with spectacle. Characters have to make dumb choices a little too often to make the story work.

5. A Quiet Place, screenplay by Bryan Woods & Scott Beck and John Krasinski, directed by John Krasinski

A postapocalyptic horror thriller where people must make as little sound as possible: this was intense and well constructed. I think probably it was a better film than Sorry to Bother You or Black Panther. That I don't want to rank it higher than them reveals, I think, how voting in the Hugos is not just about quality, but about the best in a genre. It might be a better film than Sorry to Bother You but I don't think it's a better sf/f film. I told this to Hayley and she objected it was totally an sf premise, and she's right... but the movie isn't interested in doing sf things with that premise, it's interested in doing horror things. (I thought there were some pretty implausible parts of the premise, actually.) Those aren't mutually exclusive, of course, but the film definitely emphasize scares over, say, worldbuilding, and it's hard for me to point at A Quiet Place and say it's the best that sf on film has to offer even if it is very good.

4. Sorry to Bother You, written and directed by Boots Riley

If this whole film had been like its first two thirds, this would be hovering a little higher, probably just below Annihilation. It starts out a funny, dark comedy about a black guy trying to make it as telemarketer; once he learns how to adopt a "white voice" he's suddenly the superstar, right as his telemarketing workplace is unionizing. The scenes especially where he is initiated as a "power caller" are amazing. But if it had all been like its first two thirds, it wouldn't have been sfnal, not really, even if it does seem to take place about five minutes into the future. The last third gets strange, partially in ways that I liked, and that continue the satire of the beginning, but partially in ways that kind of make it feel like the film is floundering and doesn't know how to resolve. Great acting, great music, great visual gimmicks. Definitely more ambitious than Black Panther, but not as consistent in realizing its ambitions.

3. Black Panther, written by Ryan Coogler & Joe Robert Cole, directed by Ryan Coogler

I admired this film more than I loved it. Great cast, good worldbuilding, but ultimately it's a Marvel superhero film by the numbers. Which is an achievement in its own way, but I felt that like many Marvel movies, it tries to raise issues of complexity without dealing with their complexity. No one in Wakanda actually seems tempted by Killmonger's plan, which makes it all a little too easy for Black Panther to win everybody back; he himself doesn't feel like he quite goes low enough to ultimately be reborn.

2. Annihilation, written and directed by Alex Garland

This film was really captivating, making you feel strange and tense. Like Arrival on the 2017 ballot, this seems like the kind of thing the Hugos should be rewarding. Great music, great direction, one of Natalie Portman's greatest performances, astounding visuals, great sfnal ideas. I like stories that point at how big the universe is, and how unfriendly it is, and this definitely does that. Every time you think you have the lay of the land, the movie changes tack, up to the strangely beautiful ending. I feel sad this had to come out the same year as Into the Spider-Verse, as I would have ranked it #1 on, say, 2018's ballot.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse; screenplay by Phil Lord & Rodney Rothman; directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, & Rodney Rothman

I expected that I would like this; I did not expect that I would rank it so high. Funny, moving, clever, dramatic, it plays with superhero spectacle and interpersonal drama with equal astuteness, knowing how to mix them. Definitely the best Spider-Man film since Spider-Man 2; probably the best Spider-Man film of them all. If every superhero film was this good, the saturation of the genre would be worth it. Some Marvel movies feel manufactured (I enjoyed Captain Marvel, for example, but it's very Marvelly), but this one feels real. Plus it's just gorgeous, using the animation medium to its utmost, especially during the final battle. And the jokes. Oh the jokes! Honestly this is better than a Spider-Man cartoon movie had any right to be.

Best Dramatic Presentation (Short Form)

6. The Good Place, Chapter 31: "Jeremy Bearimy," written by Megan Amram, directed by Trent O'Donnell

Sometimes you can drop into a serialized show and figure out why you should care, and you do care. Sometimes you drop into a serialized show, however, and bunch of characters who were dead last time you saw them now live in Australia, and you spend the whole episode wondering what's going on. Lots of people go around doing things I didn't care about; the title of the episode comes from a joke I thought was vaguely amusing, but has nothing to do with anything.

5. Doctor Who 11x03: "Rosa," written by Malorie Blackman & Chris Chibnall, directed by Mark Tonderai

This episode-- Doctor Who Discovers Rosa Parks-- had its good and even great moments, but didn't come together. Like too many episodes of series 11, there are weird jumps in the story, bits that seem important but ultimately fizzle out. The Doctor feels curiously impotent, and there are spots where that's a feature, but too often it's a bug. I'm not surprised this was a finalist, though; it feels like the Doctor Who equivalent of Oscar-bait. (I nominated "It Takes You Away" personally, but I'm not surprised that didn't make the finalists list.)

4. The Expanse 3x13: "Abbadon's Gate," written by Daniel Abraham & Ty Franck and Naren Shankar, directed by Simon Cellan Jones

I was an avid viewer of The Expanse, but not long after I started watching season 3, I got busy somehow and fell away after just one episode, so I had to skip over eleven episodes to watch this and vote! But I figured it would be okay because between then and now, I'd read the book this season was based on. It kind of was. There are a number of characters in the show who are not in this particular book, and as a season finale of a serialized show, its pay-offs are mostly action/plot, and not emotional, which was the strength of book three. Plus, some aspects seemed overly compressed, especially the fall-out after the climax (book one got fifteen episodes, but book three only seven!). I enjoyed it fine, and could imagine myself enjoying it more if I rewatched it in context, though, and there were no glaring incompetencies as there sometimes were in "Rosa," so I gave it the edge.

3. The Good Place, Chapter 36: "Janet(s)," written by Josh Siegal & Dylan Morgan, directed by Morgan Sackett

This is the best episode of The Good Place of the four I've seen. I laughed at multiple jokes (I think for the first time), and it has an inventive premise: because the four main human characters have all been hidden inside the artificial construct Janet, the actress who plays Janet must play all four of them. (Most of the regular cast is barely in the episode.) She completely nails it, capturing their mannerisms and ways of speaking (without doing impressions) so well you kind of forget they're not being played by their normal actors. All that, plus a genuinely fun visit by Janet and Michael to Accounting, where the morality points people earn during their lives are reckoned. This is the first Good Place ep I've seen to actually make me want to watch the show. Thus, I could imagine myself wanting to rewatch it in a way that's not true of "Rosa," so I ranked it higher.

2. Doctor Who 11x06: "Demons of the Punjab," written by Vinay Patel, directed by Jamie Childs

I enjoyed this more than "Rosa": it's another "worthy" Doctor Who episode, this one is Doctor Who Discovers the Partition of India. It has nice human moments, and its lack of a real villain saves it from some of the problems that plagued a lot of other series 11 episodes. The thirteenth Doctor is at her best when being empathetic and enthusiastic, and this one did a great job with that.

1. Dirty Computer: An Emotion Picture by Janelle Monáe, directed by Andrew Donoho & Chuck Lightning, written by Chuck Lightning

I actually nominated this; it's a series of music videos from a concept album packaged into an overall narrative. Set in a dystopian future, Jane 57821 is captured by the government for being "dirty" (i.e., noncompliant), and we see her memories as they are "cleansed." It's visually amazing and inventive, and resonates with the contemporary moment metaphorically. It's unlike anything else on this shortlist, or unlike anything else I can remember, and that seems like the kind of thing worth awarding. (Incidentally, fact fans, this is one of three Dramatic Presentation finalists this year to star Tessa Thompson. She plays a very different character each time!)

Best Graphic Story

7. Monstress: Haven, script by Marjorie M. Liu, art by Sana Takeda

I liked the first volume of this series a lot, but with each successive volume, I enjoy it less. I'm happy other people are into it, and it seems a worthy finalist (and of course it's won the last two years), but it's hard for me to rank it remotely high.

6. Black Panther: Long Live the King; scripts by Nnedi Okorafor & Aaron Covington; art by André Lima Araújo, Mario Del Pennino, and Tana Ford, Terry Pallot, & Scott Hanna

Three standalone stories in the world of Black Panther: a three-issue one where he investigates the cause of an earthquake/blackout and runs into an old childhood friend, a two-issue one where he seeks out the leader of a dangerous cult and runs into an old childhood friend, and and one-issue one about a Venomized Black Panther who chases down robbers and runs into an old childhood friend. Apparently there is only one way to generate character drama. The first two stories are okay but unremarkable superhero adventures. Good concepts, but largely nothing is done with them except for fight sequences, and the art looks good but struggles to communicate action. The third I had to stop reading halfway through because I didn't understand where an interim Black Panther who was a wheelchair-using Nigerian girl carrying the Venom symbiote fit into things; I googled and discovered the whole story takes place in an alternate universe, which the comic book collection itself completely fails to mention. Anyway, last story aside, I understood what was happening so I ranked it above Monstress.

5. No Award

I don't feel like the Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story is for merely competent superhero comics (even within the superhero genre, there is definitely better than Black Panther), so this seems like the kind of circumstance in which one ought to deploy No Award.

4. Abbott, script by Saldin Ahmed, art by Sami Kivelä

This was a fun comic book: a black journalist in Detroit in 1972 discovers that dark occult forces are at work, and only she can put the pieces together to stop them. It was fun, but not great, I think because honestly the supernatural stuff feels like a distraction because it's all kind of generic. I'd rather be reading a comic about a hard-nosed bisexual reporter investigating police corruption in Detroit, which seems much more unique than a comic about a woman encountering dark supernatural forces. Though of course then it couldn't be a Hugo finalist. Anyway, great art, strong dialogue and sense of character. Ahmed is clearly a rising star in comics.

3. Paper Girls 4, script by Brian K. Vaughan, art by Cliff Chiang

I felt this volume of Paper Girls was weaker than the volumes of Paper Girls on either side of it, but a weak volume of Paper Girls is still a comic book worth awarding. Vaughan and Chiang consistently do some of their best work here, month in, month out.

2. Saga, Volume 9, art by Fiona Staples, script by Brian K. Vaughan

Saga is always quality, and though I found aspects of volume 8 on the weaker side, volume 9 bounced back nicely, with some good character and thematic resolution. For me, Saga is slightly better than Paper Girls-- I think Vaughan has more to say in Saga-- so an above-average Saga wins out over a below-average Paper Girls even though they're both great comics.

1. On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden 

Even though I really like both Paper Girls and Saga, I can't say I was excited to have them ranked up top. I feel like awards, especially genre awards, need to recognize works that are pushing forward. But Saga already won in 2013 for volume 1, and was a finalist in 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018, while Paper Girls hasn't won yet but was a finalist in 2017 and 2018 already. All of my lower ranked placings also feel kind of recycled (Monstress already won in 2017 and 2018, even). But On a Sunbeam, which I read last, delighted and moved me. Walden takes the boarding-school story and the group-of-disparate-people-have-to-work-as-a-team-in-space story and makes something new in putting them together. Add a beautiful romance and even more beautiful art, and you have something quite amazing, something that even though it has many familiar elements, feels utterly unlike anything else I've read (except for maybe Moto Hagio). Great stuff, and quite obviously the most deserving of the award by far.

Overall Thoughts

Long-Form Dramatic Presentation was probably the strongest of these three categories, where I'd be reasonably happy if anything in my top five won. I appreciate how the Hugos always cause me to seek out a few non-franchise films I might not have gotten around to in a long time, if ever, otherwise. I don't think the eventual winner is as clear-cut as in some other years: Annihilation is my guess, but on the other hand, I feel like everyone who sees Into the Spider-Verse is taken by it. Short Form was kind of a muddle, but then it always is; even the stronger stuff here didn't blow me away. My guess is that the inexplicable and inscrutable love of the Hugo electorate for The Good Place causes "Janet(s)" to win. I really wish there was a more diverse pool of tv finalists, though; we supposedly live in the Golden Age of it after all!

Similarly, I wish Graphic Story was more diverse; as my comments on On a Sunbeam point to, there's been a lot of repetition in this category in just the three years I've been voting. I kind of have a feeling Monstress will threepeat, but I have no idea why people keep voting for it. I guess at least Schlock Mercenary no longer makes the ballot.

Review: Black Widow: Deadly Origin by Paul Cornell, Tom Raney, John Paul Leon, et al.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2010 (contents: 2010)
Acquired August 2012
Read February 2017

Black Widow: Deadly Origin

Writer: Paul Cornell

Pencils: Tom Raney
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors: Matt Milla
Art & Colors, Flashbacks: John Paul Leon
Letterer: Cory Petit

Paul Cornell's Black Widow: Deadly Origin is one of those comics that takes the tangled history of a superhero character that's been jerked from status quo to status quo over the years, and tries to retroactively impose some kind of characterization on it all. Natalia Romanova was a super-agent of the U.S.S.R., a Russian superhero's wife, a spy in the West, a member of umpteen superhero teams, and a lover of umpteen male superheroes.

Matt Murdock lived in San Francisco?
from Black Widow: Deadly Origin #3 (art by John Paul Leon)

I don't think he really succeeds, unfortunately. If Natasha has her own core identity, I'm not sure what it is. Cornell's story alternates between the present day (where there's a plot to kill all those who she's ever loved) and the past (where we get snippets of her history). But there's either too many flashbacks or not enough of them. We never spend more than a page or two in any one time period, making it hard to get an emotional bead on Natasha at any given point. If they were expanded, they might work better. Alternatively, focusing on the present-day story might make Natasha's emotional throughline more clear. But as it is, it still feels more like a jumble of comic book continuity than actual story. I don't think I know Natasha any better as a person than I did before reading.

If you interpret creepy sex stuff here... you're not wrong!
from Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1 (art by John Paul Leon)

The art doesn't help. John Paul Leon's art for the flashbacks is nice and stylistic, but sometimes cold and hard to follow. Tom Raney's art for the present-day narrative, on the other hand, is often awkward, and his Natasha looks younger and more girly than Leon's in the flashbacks, which seems... misjudged.

Also, what mediocre faces!
from Black Widow: Deadly Origin #3 (art by Tom Raney & Scott Hanna)

My favorite part was when Natasha breaks into a Russian bunker to acquire some secret information, and all the young guys in the bunker are so excited to be defeated by her they just tell her everything she needs to know, and toast her with champagne as she leaves. The inclusion of Cornell's original pitch, including his editor's comments, is a nice bonus too.

Is it women's faces that trip him up? Faces drawn from angles? Something is always off, anyhow.
from Black Widow: Deadly Origin #2 (art by Tom Raney & Scott Hanna)

P.S. While writing this review, I came across this really nice review of the story from a feminist perspective on Fuck Yeah, Black Widow! A worthwhile read, and it helped clarify to this Black Widow novice what was preexisting continuity, and what was Paul Cornell's interpolation.

The End of R.E.B.E.L.S. (2009-11): To Be a R.E.B.E.L. and Starstruck

It ought to be a crime that DC stopped collecting Tony Bedard's 2009-11 revival of R.E.B.E.L.S. with only eight issues to go. One more trade paperback would have sufficed to get the whole series in book form. It's a particular shame because this was probably the best DC space-based ongoing since L.E.G.I.O.N.-- it has its flaws (mostly too many characters that didn't get enough focus), but it certainly outdid both The Darkstars and the original R.E.B.E.L.S.

There is a sense here that the book is on its way out, though. Issues #21-23 are To Be a R.E.B.E.L., a story bringing Vril Dox's reestablished L.E.G.I.O.N. into conflict with the Green Lantern Corps. With Green Lanterns featuring prominently in the stories and on the covers, it feels like an attempt to cash in on how popular the Green Lantern Corps was at the time under Geoff Johns-- which surely wouldn't be needed if R.E.B.E.L.S. had been doing fine on its own. But Tony Bedard and Claude St. Aubin make the most of this mandate (if mandate this was): the two Green Lanterns are a Psion and an Okaaran, both Vegan species from the old Omega Men series, and using them allows for some new perspectives on the Vega system (L.E.G.I.O.N.'s new home base), and a decent role for Starfire.

The last five issues constitute Starstruck (numbered "Part 1," "Part 2," "Part 3," "Part 3," and "Conclusion"), which brings back series nemesis Starro the Conqueror for one last confrontation. Compared to the previous Dox/Starro clashes we've seen, this one feels much less epic, as Starro never controls more than the Psion homeworld and Ranagar, and it also seems rushed. One assumes Bedard knew his time was up and brought back the series's big bad for a finale (it was indicated when Starro was originally defeated that he would indeed be back), but didn't have enough issues to make it as exciting as he wanted. (It also hurts that with #24, the issues go from 22 pages to 20.)

It's not without its moments, however. Lobo using a clothespin to stop himself from being seduced via scent is great, as is how Lobo eventually defeats Starro's sub-boss, Smite. The Psion plan is a pretty incredible one, though there's something seeded with it that will never be followed up on, given that shortly after this was published, the DC universe was rebooted in Flashpoint. It's always fun to see Dox be Dox, but he probably gets the fewest good moments of the whole series in this storyline. Previously, Bedard and company balanced action and character well, but this climax tilts a little bit too much to action, and the solution to the Starro menace is surprisingly simple. Though I obviously wish it had been collected, this is only an adequate end to R.E.B.E.L.S.

Review: R.E.B.E.L.S.: Sons of Brainiac by Tony Bedard, Claude St. Aubin, Scott Hanna, et al.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2011 (contents: 2010) 
Acquired August 2012
Read September 2016

R.E.B.E.L.S.: Sons of Brainiac

​

Writer: Tony Bedard

Artists: Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna
Additional Pencils: Sergio Ariño
Additional Inks: Walden Wong
Colorists: Jose Vilarrubia, Tanya & Richard Horie
Letterer: Travis Lanham

The last volume of R.E.B.E.L.S. sees a new status quo emerge: New Rann, formerly Throneworld, has been transported into the Vega system, longtime base of operations for the Omega Men. In exchange, the people of New Rann have let Vril Dox set up a new headquarters for a new L.E.G.I.O.N. there. This pulls together a lot of the diverse threads of DC's space stories, even more when you remember (as writer Tony Bedard does) that the Vega system and the Omega Men were originally devised as backstory for the Teen Titans' Starfire, who turns up in this volume wondering what New Rann is doing where her home planet once was. And then once Starfire's sister, Queen Komand'r, and a pair of rookie Green Lanterns turn up, things really get crazy.

Poor Comet. Go find Marij'n-- she loved you.
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #18 (art by Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna)

Which is, of course, the exact kind of situation in which Vril Dox and thus R.E.B.E.L.S. as a series excel. In the book's first story, "What Happens in Vega...", things keep on escalating until Dox pulls the perfect rabbit out of his hat. It's like a classic L.E.G.I.O.N. tale of old, done just so, with humor and action. Starfire is a welcome addition to the team, and her relationship with Captain Comet gives that character-- a favorite of mine since Jim Starlin's Mystery in Space-- some much-needed focus. I liked how he had a much more "old-fashioned" view of relationships than Starfire, which makes sense, as he came of age during the 1950s! (And I was pleased that Adam and Comet discuss Tyrone, Comet's totally awesome genetically enhanced dog from that series, though sad that he doesn't actually turn up here.) And the idea of a relationship between Komand'r and Vril Dox is delicious.

Review: R.E.B.E.L.S.: The Son and the Stars by Tony Bedard, Claude St. Aubin, Andy Clarke, Scott Hanna, et al.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2010 (contents: 2010) 
Acquired August 2012
Read September 2016

R.E.B.E.L.S.: The Son and the Stars

​

Writer: Tony Bedard

Artists: Claude St. Aubin, Andy Clarke, Scott Hanna, Geraldo Borges
Colorist: Jose Vilarrubia
Letterers: Steve Wands, Travis Lanham

R.E.B.E.L.S. is back on form with its third volume. Bedard is great at action, great at keeping the story moving, and great at weaving in old continuity without being distracting. In this volume, the series is affected by the DC crossover Blackest Night, but it's not a distraction: the massive outbreak of space zombies forces both Vril Dox and his enemy Starro the Conqueror to reformulate their plans. Plus, it allows for some tie-ins to the original L.E.G.I.O.N. run, as long-serving L.E.G.I.O.N.naire Stealth, mother of Vril Dox's child, is now dead and thus a Black Lantern. Before you know it, Lyrl Dox has a Starro spore... and Vril Dox has become a Yellow Lantern? I never knew I wanted that until I got it.

Sinestro has got nothing on Vril Dox when it comes to being an asshole.
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #11 (art by Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna)

This is a little more action-driven than previous R.E.B.E.L.S. installments, but Bedard and his artistic collaborators keep the action interesting by varying it, and by keeping a lot of focus on characters and their relationships: Dox and his son, Dox and Stealth, and so on. It's nice that some DC space heroes left "homeless" by the cancellation of Jim Starlin's space stories (Captain Comet and Adam Strange) have a home here now, but it does mean the R.E.B.E.L.S. team is getting a bit crowded, and indeed, Bedard seems to realize this, as Strata and Garv depart in this volume, but still, Ciji the Durlan and Strata's friend Bounder still feel very underdeveloped: what motivates them? Still, this is the big action finale, not exactly the spot for character ruminations, and it's good at what it does, and the end promises a new set-up going forward.

Using first-person narration in the action-heavy issues is a good tactic, too.
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #14 (art by Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna)

Review: R.E.B.E.L.S.: Strange Companions by Tony Bedard, Andy Clarke, Claude St. Aubin, Scott Hanna, et al.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2010 (contents: 2009) 
Acquired August 2012
Read September 2016

R.E.B.E.L.S.: Strange Companions

​

Writer: Tony Bedard

Pencillers: Andy Clarke, Claude St. Aubin, Karl Moline, Derec Donovan, Kalman Andrasofszky
Inkers: Andy Clarke, Scott Hanna, Mark Pennington, Derec Donovan, Kalman Andrasofszky
Colorist: Jose Vilarrubia
Letterers: Steve Wands, Travis Lanham

I didn't like this as much as volume 1 of R.E.B.E.L.S., I suspect mostly just because it collects less. The Coming of Starro contained six issues that functioned as a near-complete story, though they were obviously setting up for something bigger, but Strange Companions collects three issues of the regular series plus an annual that lays out backstory for Starro the Conqueror and some of his minions.

I don't know how this would all read to a L.E.G.I.O.N./R.E.B.E.L.S. novice, but as an experienced reader, I dug both the continuity and the humorous take on it.
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #8 (art by Andy Clarke)

What's here is good, though. Vril Dox tries to recruit the strange Gil'dishpan (last seen in Invasion! invading the Earth) to his side against Starro, only to run afoul of their xenophobia. He also goes after his son Lyrl, last seen as the villain in the previous R.E.B.E.L.S. series, but now a harmless teenager. (I was glad to see that writer Tony Bedard ignored the idea Tom Peyer introduced in his run on R.E.B.E.L.S., that after Stealth raped Dox and bore his son they fell in love-- their relationship here is referred to in purely biological terms.) Meanwhile, the Omega Men are recruited by one of their old enemies, the Psions, and Dox adds Captain Comet and Adam Strange to his team. A nice, big space adventure is unfolding; it's just that three issues means it doesn't get to unfold very much.

The highlight of this book so far is the big, weird team Dox has assembled:

Smiling Kanjar Ro is so amazing.
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #9 (art by Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna)

That's Garv and Strata (silicon-based ex-L.E.G.I.O.N. cops) and their son Rocky; Wildstar (a Native American from outer space transformed into an energy being); Ciji (a shapeshifting Durlan in the form of a Khund child); Bounder (ex-L.E.G.I.O.N. cop who can transform into a stone ball); Amon Hakk (a Khund bounty hunter considered a failure by his people for his time in L.E.G.I.O.N. as a R.E.C.R.U.I.T.); Kanjar Ro (former alien dictator and long-time foe of the Justice League); Dox himself (son of Superman foe Brainiac); Captain Comet (evolutionary throw-forward from Earth who was once head of L.E.G.I.O.N. himself as well as an independent P.I. on Hardcore Station); and Adam Strange (human protector of the planet New Rann). Not pictured is the former Dominator Fleet Admiral of the Xylon Expanse, who has rededicated the R.E.B.E.L.S. as his caste. It's a mismatched group of misfits, which is exactly the sort of groups I like reading space adventure comics about. Hopefully Tony Bedard can manage the sprawling cast size!

I dunno why I find it creepy... but I really do.
from R.E.B.E.L.S. Annual #1 (art by Kalman Andrasofszky)

The annual featuring the backstory of Starro and his minions was decent. There are some quite complicated backstories for minions who I suspect won't amount to much; what was nice was finally understanding how the humanoid Starro in R.E.B.E.L.S. relates to the giant starfish form we've seen menace the Justice League time and again. The giant starfish versions creep me out a lot. I'm a little disappointed they're not the "real" Starro. Supposedly star conquerors have attacked the Earth three times before; I wonder which specific Starro stories Bedard is counting in continuity? The references are very vague. The only one I've read is the Grant Morrison JLA story where the Justice League needs help from Dream of the Endless to defeat Starro.

Review: R.E.B.E.L.S.: The Coming of Starro by Tony Bedard, Andy Clarke, Claude St. Aubin, and Scott Hanna

Over the past week, my reviews of Big Finish's final two novel-to-audio Doctor Who adaptations appeared at Unreality SF: Original Sin and Cold Fusion, both featuring the seventh Doctor, Chris, and Roz, and the latter adding in the fifth Doctor, Adric, Nyssa, and Tegan for good measure.

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2010 (contents: 2009) 
Acquired April 2010
Previously read June 2010
Reread September 2016

R.E.B.E.L.S.: The Coming of Starro

​

Writer: Tony Bedard

Artists: Andy Clarke, Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna
Colorist: Jose Villarrubia
Letterers: Travis Lanham, Steve Wands

I read this book over six years ago; it would have been, like, my fifth DC universe space comic. Now I'm rereading it in preparation for finally reading the three follow-up volumes, and these days I've read twice that many space trade paperbacks, plus tons of uncollected space comics like The Omega Men, L.E.G.I.O.N., the original R.E.B.E.L.S., and more. I really enjoyed it the first time around, when it was part of my introduction to the larger world of DC space; I still really enjoyed it now that it I'm familiar with that larger world. There's even a tie-in to Tony Bedard's run on Legion of Super-Heroes, which I coincidentally read shortly before this reread, so I got more out of that this time, too.*

The only thing better than one Brainiac is two Brainiacs. Later in the series, they'll get up to three Brainiacs at once; sadly, they never bring in all four at once. (Or five? Who is Brainiac 4, anyway?)
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #2 (art by Andy Clarke)

Obviously this follows up on the events of L.E.G.I.O.N. and R.E.B.E.L.S. from the 1980s and '90s, as well as more recent space series. Adam Strange: Planet Heist and Omega Men showed that Vril Dox had reassumed command of a computer-controlled L.E.G.I.O.N.; now that computer has been taken over by Starro, L.E.G.I.O.N. robots are turning on their client worlds, and Vril Dox is on the run and has to build a team to reassert control over L.E.G.I.O.N. and defeat Starro. So far, the team includes old L.E.G.I.O.N. favorites Strata and Amon Hakk, plus some new characters too. Bedard has Vril Dox's voice pegged perfectly: he is the superintelligent master manipulator of old, even when he's on the run.

I miss Strata, but I also miss when Strata wasn't so whiny (i.e., when Strata wasn't yet married).
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #3 (art by Andy Clarke)

The art is great, too: both art teams have realistic styles that provide details facial expressions, which is good for adding to the character in a team-based book like this. The book moves quickly, operates on a great cosmic scale (we see Maltus, the Dominators, Earth, Cairn, and the Vega system), and has some fun action-- this is everything a space-based superhero comic should be, if you ask me.

The only thing that makes a jerk worse is the jerk being right.
from R.E.B.E.L.S. #6 (art by Claude St. Aubin & Scott Hanna)

* Brainac 5 suggests his ancestor recruit a team based on the 31st-century Legion of Super-Heroes in order to take back L.E.G.I.O.N. Weirdly, this causes Vril Dox to recruit a new team member patterned on Dawnstar... who never appeared in the threeboot Legion that Brainiac 5 hails from!

Faster than a DC Bullet: Birds of Prey, Part XX: Team 7: Fight Fire with Fire

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2013 (contents: 2012-13)
Borrowed from the library
Read June 2016

Team 7, Volume 1: Fight Fire with Fire

Writers: Justin Jordan, Tony Bedard

Artists: Jesús Merino, Julius Gopez, Pascal Alixe, Marlo Alquiza, Gui Balbi, Juan Castro, Ron Frenz, Drew Geraci, Scott Hanna, Rob Hunter, José Marzan Jr., Norm Rapmund, Cliff Richards, Jimbo Salgado
Colorists: Nathan Eyring, Nei Ruffino

Letterers: Carlos M. Mangual, Pat Brosseau, Taylor Esposito, Rob Leigh

I picked this up because it covers some of the backstory of the New 52 version of Black Canary, and was released alongside volumes 2 and 3 of the New 52 Birds of Prey. The first and only volume of Team 7 is set five years in the past relative to them, and chronicles Dinah Drake's membership on the U.S. government special ops team known as Team 7. If you're looking to pick up this volume for backstory on Dinah, what you get here is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I liked the glimpses we get of between Dinah and her boyfriend Kurt Lance, especially in the first couple issues, where they go on a few missions together. They have a fun, playful banter, and the convince as a pair who like to both work and play together. Unfortunately, as the team assembles, the focus goes off their relationship, to the extent that it is revealed in an offhand comment from a teammate that they got married between issues.

In fact, the banter between Kurt and Dinah is probably the only good banter Justin Jordan writes. The rest of the dialogue is so generic.
from Team 7 vol. 2 #0 (script by Justin Jordan, art by Jesús Merino with Norm Rapmund & Rob Hunter)

An ongoing thread of Birds of Prey has been that Dinah is wanted for the murder of Kurt, which happened three years prior. Here, he dies five years ago in the heat of battle, when the team pours all its energy into Dinah's canary cry, and Kurt is among those killed in the blast. I can see why she would feel guilty, but there's no logical way she could have ended up wanted for murder based on what happened here. Plus, from a storytelling perspective, the death of Kurt just doesn't have the weight it needs to be effective, their relationship being too underdeveloped and the moment itself being too tossed off.