John Berry 4-20-09

---------How does one start a column. I have no idea. I have never been a blogger or columnist or anything else like that. I have always loved super heroes and the comic books written about them. I actually quit collecting comics for many years due to rising costs and industry chicken shitted practices. But I could not stay away forever. At first I would stick with Graphic novels. I mean what harm could possibly come of it? They were self contained stories. No crossovers. No collecting drama. I mean graphic novels didn’t need to be bagged and boarded. Before I knew it I was spending thirty to eighty dollars a month. What can I say I have an addiction. So I was minding my own business going to Borders to buy a graphic novel, I think it was Crisis on Infinite Earths, when I saw a comic book so tempting it would eventually drag me back into the comic book store. It was Prologue to World War Hulk. Why was the Hulk carrying a sword? I had never seen anything so cool in my life. I mean Joe Fixit gray Hulk was awesome. But this, this was magic. I mean Hulk is the strongest there is and now he has a sword. But I held strong. I left the store with the graphic novel I went there to purchase. However the image of the Hulk swinging a sword was an image I could not shake. I think I made it almost a week before I was in there buying up that issue. I didn’t realize the financial commitment I was making that day. In the end I estimate the total cost of World War Hulk and all the titles that went with it was a couple hundred bucks. Now of course once I was in the comic book shop I was hooked. It has now been almost two years since I started back up collecting comics. I couldn’t even tell you how many titles I am currently collecting.

----------As a rule I try to stay away from comic books that span too many titles. That is why I don’t read Xmen, Avengers, and Spider-man. I hate having to read eight comic books to stay up with what’s going on. That being said those are three of my favorite intellectual property. Now I get my Spider-Man and Xmen fix with the Ultimate universe, at least for the time being. However The Ultimates just don’t come out often enough to take care of my Avengers needs. So this week I went into the store and asked to have The Dark Avengers and The New Avengers. I picked up New Avengers fifty and fifty-one and Dark Avengers one, two, and three. I am intrigued to see Norman Osborne alive and well. Now I am not alone in thinking it is a little stupid that Marvel can’t seem to let a character stay dead. I already knew about the whole Norman Osborne being alive thing. I have not gone and sought out the explanation as to how Gobby managed to escape death and become a “super-hero”. As I get into the continuity I probably will seek out the answers.

---------I had already read the graphic novel detailing the origin of the New Avengers. I found it to be an entertaining read. I always thought Spider-Man should be a full fledged Avenger, so that was pretty cool. So we got Spidey and Wolverine on the team, which is awesome. Also we got Power Man and Iron Fist, which is also awesome. I always loved the heroes for hire comics of the seventies and eighties. I don’t have them all, but I do have about forty of them. Sure they were cheesy, but that’s how things were back then. I remember the nineties when Iron Fist was brought back to life in the pages of the Namor comic. That was awesome. However Later I tried reading an Iron Fist solo comic and it was mostly unreadable. I don’t think I collected past the second issue. So seeing them as Avengers is fun. Then you got Ronin, who is really Hawkeye. Now Hawkeye was never a character I identified with. Bullseye pretending to be Hawkeye on the other hand is definitely cool. Then you got Captain America. Not the Steve Rogers Cap but the Bucky Cap. I didn’t read the whole death of Captain America storyline as it was right before I jumped back into comic books, however I al;ways thought it was a little dirty how they wiped out Steve. Of course it’s Marvel so we all know he wont stay dead forever. And then we round it out with Captain Marvel, Mockingbird, And Spider-Woman. Three characters I don’t really give a shit about. That’s cool though I don’t hate. I guess Spider-Woman was all involved in the Secret Invasion drama. Which seems to be terribly dramatic. So issue fifty was pretty good. Good dialogue and a little situation recapping for those of us who are catching up on the whole Avengers mythos. Also it delivered with a big fight. I love it when comics deliver and hate it when they don’t. Issue fifty one on the other hand did not deliver in the action department. There was of course some good dialog. Spider-man revealed his identity, which confused me as I thought the world and the Avengers knew who he was. I guess that’s part of the Brand New Day storyline. I can’t say as I didn’t read it. This issue focused mainly on Dr. Strange drama. Here is where I have a problem. There was a fight between the good doc and some demon looking dude in a hood. But they didn’t show the fight. They showed the lead up and the aftermath, but they didn’t show the fight. This is the kind of shit that pisses me off about comics. Show the damn fight. We all want to see it, so don’t hold out on us.

-----------Now as for these Dark Avengers. I am intrigued. We got Gobby dressed up as a cross between Iron Man and Captain America. This is promising. We got Venom, not Eddie Brock but the dude who used to be the Scorpion. We got Bullseye dressed up as Hawkeye, way cooler than the original Hawkeye. We got the son of Wolverine dressed up as Wolverine. Then we got a Ms Marvel and a Captain Marvel, a couple more substitutes. The team is rounded out by the Sentry. So I read the first three issues and I got to tell you, I am liking it. Nobody trusts anybody and Norman Osborne is a right and proper asshole. I am hooked and will probably follow this if they keep up the quality.

-----------So this week When I went into the comic book shop today I saw an unexpected treat. A beta Ray Bill one shot. Sure it was a Secret Invasion one shot, and of course I didn’t read Secret Invasion. But it was Beta Ray Bill, an alien with the powers of a thunder god. I have always found Beta Ray Bill to be a pretty righteous dude, and I always have wished Marvel would use him more. So I picked up the issue and read it. It was pretty good. It was nice to see Bill and Skuttlebutt in action. There was some Skrull drama, there was some godly drama, and in the end there was a good boss-fight. All in all it was an enjoyable self-contained story and the last page showed a new Beta Ray Bill comic coming out in June, some kind of god killer dealio with Galactus on the cover. This I will definitely be checking out. You know Bill and Galactus got some issues to work on with the whole ,”you wiped out my people” drama.

-----------Now let’s move on to Wolverine Weapon X. My man down at the shop put this one in the box for me. I didn’t ask for it, however he will do that from time to time when something comes up he thinks I may like. A good business practice no doubt. Either way I picked it up and read it. I give it a “not bad” and an “I will pick up the next one.” In this issue we got some guy running around with green glowing Wolverine claws and we got Wolverine cutting off some punks arm on the bart, Bay area rapid transit. We also got some lead up to Wolverine having to go to claw town with a new batch of Weapon X noobs. I will keep you posted on how this one develops.

---------------Next week we will discuss the lack of Hulk-Sword in World War Hulk.