MARVEL NOW! REVIEWS

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE HULK #1: C'mon, idiots; it's The Incredible Hulk. That's a great title. Why change it? The Hulk books have been hit-or-miss for a very long time. When was the last great run? It was certainly before my time. Lately they had Ed McGuiness and Jeph Loeb with a red Hulk and over-the-top action and then Jason Aaron's short run was even more over-the-top. This issue feels so safe and dull after those runs. Mark Waid, the fan boys' favorite writer, and Leinil Yu bring Banner to S.H.I.E.L.D. He'll work for them now. Yawn. The art is good when it's people but for some reason Yu is not a good match for drawing the Hulk. Oh, well.
** (out of ****)

ALL NEW X-MEN #1: So in two years will this still be called All New when in fact it will be old? Bendis is writing it and Stuart Immonen is drawing it and the premise has Beast bringing the 60's X-Men to the present day to talk some sense into Cyclops. It's actually a really good storyline even though it makes no sense and Immonen's art is terrific. ***

THOR: GOD OF THUNDER #1: Jason Aaron, Marvel's best writer, is put on this when he should be writing Spider-Man. And even though this copies from both Millar's "Old Man Logan" storyline and Bendis' God-killing serial killer storyline from Powers, it's still a terrific first issue that looks stunning thanks to Esad Ribic's art. The one thing that is fresh is that the book is split into three stories involving the young Thor, the current Thor, and the old, one-eyed, one-armed Thor. Plus, Aaron's villain, Gor the God Butcher, promises to be epic. ***1/2

CAPTAIN AMERICA #1: Great art by John Romita, Jr. and a terrific, old-school, 70's sci-fi type story by Rick Remender, who I usually loathe. I loved Brubaker's run on this book but the last year or so has gotten stale and this is a vibrant, engaging, classic take. A really inviting first issue. ***1/2

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #698

Peter Parker dies in this issue. Okay. Peter Parker sort of dies in this issue. Writer Dan Slott had mentioned awhile ago that something big was going to happen in this issue. Someone scanned part of this issue early and posted it on the internet and the spoilers were all over. I avoided them and was actually shocked by the last two pages. I figured Mary Jane would die or something lame. But no, they actually killed off Peter Parker. The premise has Dr. Octopus on his death bed at The Raft, a prison for super villains. Parker visits him and Doc Ock switches his mind with Parker somehow (it isn't revealed how). Dr. Octopus with Peter Parker's mind dies and Peter Parker, now controlled by Doc Ock, goes on living. That's it. Totally fucked up, right? Well...only if in thirty years Dr. Octopus is still Spider-Man, which I doubt will happen. This all leads into the big #700 issue and next year a new series, Superior Spider-Man #1. Peter Parker is dead, which is a big deal. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out and how they reverse it (I'm guessing time travel). So Parker is dead. Is he in hell? Quick. Get Jason Aaron on it; Peter Parker in Hell #1. **1/2 (out of ****)

IRON MAN #1

Wait a minute. Iron Man #1? Hasn't that been around since the 60's or something? How is at #1? I think it used to be called The Invincible Iron Man or something...but that's not why it's #1. It's #1 because DC did such a phenomenal job with their 52 #1 issues in September of 2011 that Marvel copied it...sort of. The new Marvel books aren't all coming out in the same month (I think it's like a four month stint), there isn't a new universe with new origins, and not every book is getting a #1 or a new creator (X-Factor is staying the same and Wolverine & the X-Men is staying among a few). But they have changed writers and artists around and this is the second book of the Marvel Now initiative (the first was Uncanny Avengers #1 last month which was typical over-the-top garbage by writer Rick Remender). Deadpool #1 also came out this week but that was awful except for the nice Tony Moore artwork. Iron Man #1 is by writer Keiron Gillen and tracer Greg Land. I wasn't sure what to expect because Gillen did good work on Journey to Mystery but did little on Uncanny X-Men. So far...this book is by-the-numbers and mediocre. There's one great shot of Extremis standing in a plume of smoke that's cool but the rest isn't at all interesting. Land of course is loathed by fanboys for copying his drawings from other sources. That, and all of his women look like porn stars. But Land's art is clean and pretty but the story here is just dull. For a re-launch we all want to be blown away...especially to pay $3.99 for 20 pages. ** (out of ****)