“Hawkeye: The Saga of Barton and Bishop” (a.k.a., “Hawkeye by Fraction and Aja: The Saga of…”) Trade Paperback (Marvel, 2021). Writer: Matt Fraction. “Hawkeye: The Saga of Barton and Bishop” (a.k.a., “Hawkeye by Fraction and Aja: The Saga of…”) Trade Paperback (Marvel, 2021). Writer: Matt Fraction. Artists: David Aja, Javier Pulido, Steve Lieber & Jesse Hamm, Francesco Francavilla, Chris Eliopoulos, Annie Wu, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer. Color art by Matt Hollingsworth, Francesco Francavilla, Jordie Bellaire, Paul Mounts. Reprints: Young Avengers Presents #6 (August 2008), and Hawkeye #1-22 and Annual #1 (October 2012 to September 2015). Read: 7/22/23 to 8/16/23. Opinion: Excellent! First Marvel material that I’ve read from this period in a very long time, so I was a bit unfamiliar with Hawkeye’s (Clint Barton’s relationships with the other Avengers (including Black Widow, Mockingbird, and Spider-Woman, who all appear here), but it didn’t take long to figure out that this was an entirely “side thing” to whatever else was coming out at the time. Barton here is a complete slacker and loser, relationships wise, here, although he fiercely protects the building he’s bought and lives in along with its fellow residents from the “Tracksuit Maffia” and their underworld bosses who desire to own the building. Meanwhile, Barton at least for a time takes fellow Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, on as a partner (although partway through the series she gets fed up with him and goes off to California on her own for awhile). This series is the basis for the 2021 “Hawkeye” Disney+ series and shares a few common scenes but the two are very different from each other as the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of Clint Barton played by Jeremy Renner is a family man and no where near the loner loser figure that this version of the comics Barton is. And also because the tv version (which I also loved) is about establishing the character of Kate Bishop, while, in the comics, Bishop was introduced separately from Clint Barton prior to this material, in the first “Young Avengers” series that started in 2005 on the heels of the controversial “Avengers: Disassembled” story line. (This collection does start off with the first time the already established as “Hawkeye” Kate Bishop first meets Clint Barton (at the time going by his “Ronin” identity) in Young Avengers #6.) Again, I really liked this, especially the issues drawn by David Aja. Unfortunately, it becomes very apparent as reading this collected edition that Aja couldn’t keep up with a monthly schedule because there are numerous fill in issues by other artists, including the whole “Kate in California” side plot (which are all enjoyable but not nearly as much as the Matt Fraction and David Aja issues). I ended up giving this one four out of five stars on GoodReads. (Would have been five stars if Aja could have drawn more than half of the run, and the at times disjointed effect that had.)...more
"Fantastic Four: Full Circle" by Alex Ross (writer and artist), Alex Ross with Josh Johnson (colorists), Ariana Maher (letterer) (Abrams ComicArts in "Fantastic Four: Full Circle" by Alex Ross (writer and artist), Alex Ross with Josh Johnson (colorists), Ariana Maher (letterer) (Abrams ComicArts in conjunction with Marvel Comics, 2022) Original graphic novel. Thoughts: Awesome. One of the best comics I've read all year. Alex Ross is famous for his usual "Norman Rockwell-esque" photo-realistic painting style that he's been using since 1994 ("Marvels" four-issue mini-series). This, however, is Ross's first major experiment with an entirely different art style, one more of a traditional line-art style (with clear nod to that of classic Jack Kirby Fantastic Four) combined with fantastic (pun intended) pop art style coloring. The story is adequate (a call back to a classic FF Stan Lee and Jack Kirby issue from the 1960s) but Ross has the four main characters down perfect in terms of their mannerisms, dialogue, and visual depictions. This is so far only available in hardcover from Abrams ComicArts (under license from Marvel Comics). Highly recommended. I gave this five out of five stars on GoodReads....more
“Fantastic Four: Antithesis Treasury Edition” (2021). Reprinting “Fantastic Four: Antithesis” #1-4 (October 2020-January 2021). Writer, Mark Waid and “Fantastic Four: Antithesis Treasury Edition” (2021). Reprinting “Fantastic Four: Antithesis” #1-4 (October 2020-January 2021). Writer, Mark Waid and penciler, Neal Adams (credited together as “Storytellers”). Inker, Mark Farmer. Color artists, Laura Martin with Andrew Crossley. Letterer, “VC’s Joe Carramanga”.
I have to say that I ended up really enjoying this one. Aside from a few really oddly drawn depictions of Ben Grimm (the Thing)—I think Adams was trying to show Grimm’s emotions through exaggerated facial expressions, as is per Adams’ usual style, but Grimm’s rocky exterior makes that very difficult—this is a beautifully drawn book.
Now, I should say that this is clearly “later Adams” (the style he had developed into and used on all of his projects from Batman: Odyssey (2010-2012) onwards. Hyper detailed. Hard lined figure outlines. Exaggerated facial expressions. Some long time Adams fans dislike this change (or development) of Adams’ style, so they might also not like it here.
However, I felt it was perfect for a story of this scope (and especially in this larger “treasury” sized format. Adams page layouts are dynamic, much of the story taking place in outer space or in the “Negative Zone”, and the characters all benefit from the larger page size (especially “cosmic” alien characters like the heroic and noble Silver Surfer, creepy/scary Annihilus, gigantic Galactus, and the new villain character here, Antithesis).
The story is a pretty standard but sufficient one to warrant the Neal Adams visual fireworks. Gateways begin to open between Earth and the Negative Zone, allowing Annihilus to attack at the start of the story. The Fantastic Four successfully repel his attack and send him back to the Negative Zone but then discover (from the Silver Surfer, who crash lands on Earth, injured) that a new threat, Antithesis, has seemingly destroyed the Surfer’s master, Galactus, and threatens the Earth next.
(One thing I’m not too sure of is the actual timing of when this story is supposed to take place. The Silver Surfer is still (or again) serving as Galactus’s herald and guide during this story. Yet Reed and Sue’s daughter, Valeria, is very young, not yet speaking. I’m not familiar enough with Fantastic Four continuity to know if those two things line up, or if it doesn’t even matter if Waid and Adams maybe considered this story to be out of the established continuity all together?)
As someone who has read all of Neal Adams’ material, I think, from “Batman: Odyssey” through this and “Batman vs. Ra’s al Ghul” (“Antithesis” and “Batman vs. Ra’s al Ghul” being the last two things he did prior to his death in April 2022), I can say that while I enjoyed much of Adams *art* in pretty much all of those stories (which also included “The First X-Men” (2012-2013), “Superman: The Coming of the Supermen” (2016), and “Deadman” (2018)), I think I enjoyed “Antithesis” more than any of the others (which is saying a lot coming from a big DC guy like me). And I attribute this to Mark Waid’s involvement in the writing of it.
Yes, Neal Adams’ renditions of his classic DC characters like Batman, Superman, and Deadman will always *look* awesome. However, Adams’ plots (and especially his dialogue and characterizations) when he was both writing and drawing, as he was in all of these except for “Antithesis” and scripting assistance from Christos Gage on “The First X-Men”, were often quite, well, wacky at best, head-scratchingly bad at others. So much so that his final Batman stories are widely criticized as being nonsensical and difficult for longtime readers to get through.
Waid is very familiar with the characters of the Fantastic Four as he wrote their regular monthly title from 2002 to 2005. Therefore his (presumably) plot and dialogue here keep this story a quintessential Fantastic Four adventure and the characters all their familiar selves. (For Adams, this is the first time he ever drew a full length Fantastic Four story or for anything more than a quick cameo. But his Reed Richards, Sue Storm, and Johnny Storm are all excellent here, as is his Ben Grimm except for the aforementioned odd facial expressions here and there.
This “Treasury Edition” reprint collection (which, for those not familiar with treasury or tabloid sized comic books, measures at 8.75” x 13.3”) also includes two bonus stories from the Marvel archives, the first drawn by Neal Adams, a classic February 1970 X-Men issue (#65) written by Denny O’Neil and inked by Tom Palmer). And, second, the first issue of Mark Waid’s 2002-2005 Fantastic Four run (#60 [#489], October 2002), penciled by the late great Mike Wieringo and inked by Karl Kesel. Both good choices to bring back in the treasury sized format.
Another trade paperback reprint collection of “Fantastic Four: Antithesis” is due out in January 2023. This will be in the more standard comic book size/format and will, presumably, only include the “Antithesis” mini-series (not the two bonus stories).
Again, I really liked the “Fantastic Four: Antithesis Treasury Edition”. I gave it four out of five stars on GoodReads.
Read "The First X-Men" by Neal Adams (writer/penciler/inker [issue #5]), Christos Gage (writer), Andrew Currie (inker [#1-4]), and Matthew Wilson (colRead "The First X-Men" by Neal Adams (writer/penciler/inker [issue #5]), Christos Gage (writer), Andrew Currie (inker [#1-4]), and Matthew Wilson (colorist). Originally released in single issue format as "The First X-Men" #1-5.
Generally speaking, not bad. This is the third "newer work" (2011 onwards) that I've read over the past few years. The first, "Batman: Odyssey" (released cover date December 2011 through June 2012), had some pretty art by Adams (as always) but the story was confusing and the main characters (Batman, Robin, Alfred, Commissioner Gordon) were all depicted so out of character that that I had a hard time enjoying it). The second to come out was this one, "The First X-Men" (October 2012 through March 2013). And the third (most recent) was "Superman: The Coming of the Supermen" (April 2016 through September 2016), which I enjoyed more than the Batman story because the Superman tale was shorter and didn't feel as "padded" although it again felt like I was reading different versions of Superman and his supporting casts than I've ever read before, just as with the Batman story.
Of the three, I think I enjoyed "The First X-Men" more than I did "Batman: Odyssey", and probably about the same as I did "Superman: The Coming of the Supermen". The story is better in "The First X-Men" than the other two (perhaps because in this case Adams had a co-writer, Christos Gage.
Adams' art, again, is very nice in places. However, his storytelling seems to take second place at times to drawing a cool looking page. His facial expressions also don't always seem to match the tone of the dialogue. (In the case of Wolverine and Sabretooth, most of the time they appear to be growling their words--which is usually appropriate for these two characters--although Adams does show them smiling occasionally.)
And, again in the area of storytelling, there are abrupt jumps in the action between panels sometimes. For instance, in one panel they would all be sitting together, in the next Wolverine would be lunged across the panel attacking someone with only his dialogue explaining what was happening (rather than a close up shot of Wolverine reacting to whatever was just said, in between). "Traveling" transitions (when the characters are moving from one location to another are sometimes rushed or omitted, as well.
That said, again, I enjoyed the overall story well enough.
One thing that people need to realize in these three Neal Adams written books (originally published as comic book limited series) is that these have to be taking place in Adams' own specific universe, separate from the other X-Men, Batman, and Superman comics that were coming out at the time these were, and any that came prior to that. Adams' plot points do not fit in with any already existing lines of continuity, and the characters are given to acting quite differently than they usually do. (And, yes, I realize that all of these characters have been written by countless writers by this point over the years, and that there is not single way of portraying any of these characters anymore, but for DC and/or Marvel comic book geeks like me it still sticks out like a sore thumb when the characters act differently from existing stories without some clearly labeled reason why, which is why I am unofficially labeling these as all taking place in the "Adams-verse".)
"The First X-Men" is not an especially original story. Logan (Wolverine), prior to his becoming part of the Weapon X program and receiving his Adamantium claws and to his losing most of his memory, partnering with Victor Creed (Sabretooth) and bringing together a small group of other mutants (mostly newly created ones for this series) to defend themselves and other mutants from a federal government agency that's been hunting them down. Along the way, they cross paths with other established characters ("guest stars", which is always part of the fun part to reading a Neal Adams book, seeing them and how he will draw them) such as Charles Xavier (Professor X), Magneto, and Namor the Sub-Mariner.
The ending is a bit predictable as it has to set things up to "fit" (somewhat) within established X-Men continuity (Wolverine still has to undergo the Weapon X ordeal and Charles Xavier establish his School for Gifted Youngsters). That, however, does not lessen my enjoyment of the story, overall, as it is not an uncommon thing in superhero stories, that they follow well established "story beats" and that you can oftentimes tell where the story is going.
I would recommend this book to any Neal Adams fans, and to any X-Men and/or Wolverine fans who don't think Adams and Gage's liberties with established comic book continuity and characterizations will cause them too much irritation to be able to enjoy this. (And for anyone who read "Batman: Odyssey" first and who did not like that work, please don't let it prevent you from trying this and "Superman: The Coming of the Supermen". I think you will agree that they are at least a bit better, even if they do not recapture that Neal Adams magic of his 1960s and 70s comics that he is mostly famous for still today....more
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