MARKLEY’S FEVERED BRAIN: MUTANTS, GUARDIANS, and BENDIS

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Wayne Markley

by Wayne Markley

A year and a half ago, DC launched their new 52 to mixed results. marvel followed suit with what they called marvel NOW! There was a big difference between DC’s new 52 and marvel NOW!, that being while marvel did re-launch a number of titles with all new creators and new directions and new storylines, they kept all of their history (70 year’s worth on some characters) while DC, whose character’s history is actually older than Marvel’s, was scrapped and DC pretended that all of their past never happened. A second difference is the choice of creators between the two re-launches. DC proclaimed how they had all of these terrific new creators, and some have been really good like John Layman, Scott Synder, Greg Capullo, Jason Fabok, and a few others. regrettably a lot of of their creators have been ex-Marvel creators from the 90s. On the other hand, marvel has taken all of their creators that were working for them and asked them what characters would they like to work on and the results have been fantastic.

Daredevil #29

I think marvel learned a lesson with Daredevil where a designer (Mark Waid) was allowed to work on a character which he took pleasure in and the results have been amazing. Month after month, Daredevil is one of the best marvel books. considering that the re-launch of marvel NOW!, some other titles that have become need to reading are Indestructible Hulk (Waid again), wonderful Four, FF, and Hawkeye – yes Hawkeye – all written by Matt Fraction. As a side note, I was not a substantial Matt fraction fan, but his writing on all four of these titles has been amazing. absolutely top notch. There is also Jason Aaron’s Thor. This has been very good as of late. then there is the group of titles and the one writer I really want to spotlight, Brian Michael Bendis.

Jinx

Bendis is a very good writer and probably a better storyteller than nearly any individual in comics. For reasons I have never been able to figure out, he is ether loved or disliked by fans. I personally fall into the first camp. Bendis’ early work was written and drawn by him for small publishers and a lot of of the stories were crime themed. a lot of of his early work has been collected by image and Marvel, including Torso, Goldfish, and Jinx. I am ready to bet a substantial sum of money that no one, even Bendis, would have thought he would have gone from doing Goldfish to becoming one of, if not the best, writer marvel has. His spent nearly ten years writing various Avengers titles for marvel where he did everything from house of M to Avengers Vs. X-Men, which built on the results from the house of M story ten years earlier. He has told some of the best modern Avengers stories with passionate vision. His love for the characters and the marvel mythology is very evident in his writing. Admittedly, when he left the Avengers he reset all of the Avengers titles back to a clean starting point for the new creators, Jonathan Hickman and Rick Remender. With the marvel NOW! launch, Bendis has moved on to the X-Men franchise.

All-New X-Men #14

Currently, Bendis is writing the all-new X-Men, Uncanny X-Men, and the Guardians of the Galaxy. (As well as Scarlet, Takio, and Powers -none of which are part of the marvel Universe, although they are published by marvel – and utmost Spider-Man [Hey, Wayne! You left out Age of Ultron – ed.]). When marvel first announced the all-new X-Men, in which the Beast goes to the past to bring the original X-Men (Beast, Cyclops, Angel, Iceman, and marvel Girl) to the future, I was a bit leery about this premise. I need to say I was wrong. The stories are wonderful and the art by Stuart Immonen has been top notch. I do not want to give too much away, but these stories have been filled with twists and turns that makes for true drama and makes you want to come back issue after issue.

Uncanny X-Men #3

Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men follows the escapades of Cyclops and his group of X-Men. As part of the Avengers Vs. X-Men storyline, the X-Men split into two different groups, one being Wolverine and the X-Men (also a very good book) and the other Cyclops and the X-Men (who are here in Uncanny X-Men). These two groups of X-Men have different goals and viewpoints and, of course, this leads to conflict between the two groups. Uncanny is just as dramatic and well done as All new X-Men and the two titles go hand in hand. Both of these books have the trademark Bendis style of having the characters talk and tell the story and not using thought balloons or other narrative devises. nearly all of Bendis’ stories are told through character dialogue, which at times does create chatty characters, but it is well worth it.

Guardians of the Galaxy #1

While both All new X-Men and Uncanny X-Men are on the top of my reading list each month (or at times bi-weekly),another title recently launched also written by Bendis is the Guardians of the Galaxy. There is little doubt marvel launched this title to tie into the build for the motion picture that is coming next year. The title could have been a filler to let new readers get to know the characters before the motion picture and not really be anything special. But, Bendis would not allow that. even though it is only three issues in, Guardians has risen to the top of my reading list along with Bendis’ two X books. Guardians is a fast paced adventure story filled with space opera and Bendis’ normal terrific charactertions. It is exciting, dramatic and funny all at once. It is terrific reading.

Guardians of the Galaxy

If you are ecstatic by, or are just interested in, the world of the Guardians of the Galaxy (or Tomorrow’s Avengers as they are also now called.) you are in luck as marvel has reprinted the majority of their early adventures in two full color graphic novels. Both are very good reading, although to be fair, they resemble the modern Guardians in name only. These early stories are fun space adventures and are entertaining for the time period they were produced in. The Guardians were revived by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning in the late 2000’s, spinning out from the Keith Griffen written Starlord miniseries, for a terrific 25 issue run and four trades (most of which are out of print) that were space adventure at its finest.

The modern Guardians are made up of various space characters that marvel had lying about for a number of years. They consist of Starlord, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Rocket Raccoon and, my favorite, Groot. This group of characters is sort of Marvel’s space version of DC’s war group the Losers. (Which is available in a substantial showcase collection.) It’s a group of characters from their own failed books or from other places put together as a group that is light years ahead of the individual characters. For example, Rocket Raccoon was always considered a joke character (and he really was) until he was added to the Guardians where he was given a special personality and has become an interesting character. Groot is a character from a one-off short story from the old marvel horror titles (Tales to Astonish, I think). In those old comics, there were four or five monsters in every issue, so there were hundreds of monster stories, yet one story about a wood monster has become a terrific character who can only say three words, “I Am Groot!” Gamora, Drax and Starlord all also have similar stories. They appeared in various solo stories, one shots, or as backing characters, but they never really had a purpose till the Abnett and Lanning Guardians, which are the basis Brian Bendis’ Guardians.

Marvel NOW!’s re-launch has been mixed to me, but Brian Bendis has risen above the rest to produce some of the best comics currently been published. I have always took pleasure in Bendis’ writing, but his X-Men have risen to a new level. I highly recommend you try all-new X-Men and Uncanny X-Men as well as Guardians of the Galaxy. All three of these books are entertaining and well worth your time and money.

As always in this column, everything I have written is my opinion and only my thoughts and they do not reflect the opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. I welcome your thoughts and comments, and if you read any of Bendis’ work, what do you think?

Thank you.