Because time isn’t always kind: economic reviews in a world full of waste!
One has to give points to ESSENTIAL MARVEL SAGA: VOL. 1 for at least having its heart in the right place. The book collects a dozen issues of Marvel’s mid-1980s series, which aims to tell “the official history of the Marvel Universe” in more or less chronological order, using panels and pages clipped from the original adventures of Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, X-Men, Captain America, Doctor Strange and the like. But the text bridging the reprinted material is maddening, the tone is schizophrenic, and often the pages are ill-designed. Nice try, but I’d rather just have a collection of origin issues.
Who’s Josh Howard? Dunno, but he’s the proud ringleader behind JOSH HOWARD PRESENTS SASQUATCH, an indie-comics anthology of stories specifically about Bigfoot and his hairy ilk. Maybe you got a sneak peek via last year’s Free Comic Book Day edition? If so, make do with that. Had this been more horror- and suspense-oriented, Howard might have had something. Instead, too many creators go the “funny” and/or cutesy route, which makes most of it hard to stomach. A couple of exceptions lie in David Hartman’s gory “Sawmill Horror” or Christopher Graybill’s absurdist “… The Yeti,” but that’s not enough to save it from disappointment. Some of the pieces are so bad they’re unreadable, while others merely mildly amuse.
After being hurled through the cosmos by Captain Marvel, Dr. Fate’s wayward helmet seeks a new owner in THE HELMET OF FATE, a five-issue miniseries now in one handy trade paperback. Each chapter stands alone, with the helmet finding its way to a different obscure character from the expanse of the DC Comics universe. Furthermore, each is tackled by a different creative team, and thus, has its own style and feel. FABLES‘ Bill Willingham does wonders with Detective Chimp, Steve Niles goes the E.C. route with Sargon the Sorcerer, and Gail Simone places it in the hands of Goth girl Black Alice, but it goes downhill from there, with fairly pointless excursions with Ibis the Invincible and Zauriel. So, about half-good.
More dark adventures with the apparently schizophrenic crimefighter await you in ESSENTIAL MOON KNIGHT: VOL. 2, collecting 20 issues from the superhero’s early-’80s series. Here, Moon Knight goes to Mardi Gras, encounters a demonic creature, teams up with The Thing to tackle a Medusa-esque monster, fends off a trio of kung-fu chicks on an island fortress, tracks down a cabbie killer, takes on Kingpin, and just about loses his hot girlfriend. Brother Voodoo and Werewolf by Night also make appearances, and a couple of shorter backup stories serve as prequels, showing Marc Spector’s days as a mercenary. A lot of value is packed into these 600 pages, with great scripts from Doug Moench and greater art from Bill Sienkiewicz.
Whereas the SPIDER-MAN FAMILY one-shots rounded up reprinted material featuring a variety of Spider-Men across time, the new series – of which the first three issues are contained in SPIDER-MAN FAMILY: BACK IN BLACK – is comprised of all-new stuff featuring an array of characters from Peter Parker’s world. In this digest, Spidey fights The Sandman, Black Cat fights Hellcat, Spidey fights Venom, The Lizard fights a lab assistant, Spidey fights The Fantastic Four and Electro, and Scorpion fights Venom. It’s a bit ballsier than the all-ages rating on it would have you believe, but it’s still a bunch of fun.
After collecting 52 in a series of four trades, DC Comics still found a way to milk an extra few bucks out of the franchise with 52: THE COMPANION, which reprints noteworthy, non-52 stories of 10 of the series’ most valuable players, including Steel, Elongated Man, Booster Gold, Rip Hunter, Renee Montoya, The Question and Black Adam. Best are Grant Morrison’s Animal Man adventure in a time-frozen Paris, and Steve Gerber’s look at an unhinged Dr. Magnus, creator of the Metal Men. Skip the Adam Strange chapter, which is text-based and never before reprinted for a reason. –Rod Lott
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