NEW MARVEL #1's

WOLVERINES #1

I suppose Marvel saw and liked the sales that DC had for their weekly series started last year, Batman Eternal. So Marvel starts their own weekly series about...well...what is it about? Wolverine is dead (or, at least, encased in adamantium and presumed dead). The new Weapon-X project created a few new super-dudes that inhabit this book along with a few other heroes and villains like Sabretooth and Mystique and Lady Deathstrike. So far I'm not really sure where this book is going or what it's ultimately going to be about. I guess it would've helped if I had read the mini-series that linked this book to last Fall's Death of Wolverine series. Either way, the characters head to the destroyed lab where Wolverine's body is. There's some fisticuffs. I'm confused. Usually writer Charles Soule and artist Nick Bradshaw deliver the goods. But this book is just a mess (it doesn't help that pages 17 and 18 are randomly drawn by someone else). If Marvel wants anyone to pony up four bucks every week for twenty-pages it's gonna have to be fucking awesome. * (out of ****)

 ANT MAN #1

A new Ant Man movie is coming out this summer starring Paul Rudd so here's the new series (Marvel Studios seems to be getting desperate finding new franchises, no?). At least they got red-hot writer Nick Spencer to work his magic (the humorous, amusing tone is very similar to his The Superior Foes of Spider-Man book that recently wrapped up). I have no idea who Ant Man is...but after reading this I realize why he's not Batman famous. He can shrink to the size of an ant. That's it. Yes. That's all folks. But the book is very funny, very fun. It's light, easy, entertaining. The story so far as Scott Lang, aka Ant Man, trying to get a job and be a good dad to his daughter. He skips out on a bodyguard job for Tony Stark so he can move to Miami. It's simplistic but a treat. ***

STAR WARS #1

 They got their best writer to write it, so at least Marvel did something right when they got the Star Wars comic book rights back. Artist John Cassaday does a hell of a job here. Han Solo looks like Harrison Ford, etc. The book looks great and the plot and dialogue are spot-on. The story is entertaining and the climax is nice...but this book is the definition of fan fiction and that's a problem. It just feels like a cheap copy of the original Star Wars films. They also can't change the storyline so it's a little muted in that sense (Darth Vader isn't going to kill Leia or anything as an example). If you want same-old, same-old then I suppose you'll enjoy this. But Jason Aaron is a beast that is best when set loose (see Southern Bastards, Scalped, or Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine). He's restrained here, and it shows. **1/2