Post by hangmanblues on Sept 18, 2007 17:33:16 GMT -5
(WARNING: Spoilers below.)
MARVEL TEAM-UP #1
By Meriades Rai
The set-up here, to paraphrase Meri, is classic MARVEL TEAM-UP: Spider-Man teams up with a different hero each issue to face little-used villains in mostly one-shot stories. For the Marvel 2000 take, this all happens in its own continuity with character versions decided upon by the author. As far as concepts go, there’s not much to dislike.
With his first issue Meri establishes what I imagine to be the tone for the series: light, quick, not the kind of stories that open up over time and read in a trade paperback but you’d pick up at the grocery store (if yours still carries comics). Spider-Man teams up with the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch to foil the villain Firebrand’s apparent scheme to wipe out the Berlin sisters’ properties.
Between Spidey and Johnny, both funny guys, there’d have to be a lot of humor involved. And Meri brings the funny – his (or rather Spidey’s, since this is written from his perspective) initial description of the twins, Spidey’s reason for following Johnny, their eating tacos on the stake-out… Spidey’s line, “With great power comes great liability,” when considering dropping a loudmouth fatty he’s trying to save. Some of the other jokes are a bit on the nose.
Two things pulled me out of the story. First, Spider-Man mentions Batman at one point. This really threw me for a loop. I know that, because he and Superman have had their own movies, at least the latter has been referenced at Marvel as a movie character. Here it was somewhat jarring – I wondered for a moment, “Does Batman exist in this series? Will he and Spider-Man team up someday?” before coming to the conclusion that he must be a comic or movie character in the context of the story. It’s a quick reference but it just knocked me away from reading for a second.
Second, and more importantly, sometimes the descriptions – though well-written – were long enough and placed so that they broke the flow of action, as in things happening, not “action sequences.” Occasionally these descriptions seemed especially out of place coming from Spidey’s mouth, or brain as it were. Would he really tell us exactly where he was standing in direction correlation to everyone else in the scene, and how he was posed while doing so? This specific example sets up a funny monologue line but sometimes it becomes apparent that Meri is giving us information he sees as necessary through Spider-Man’s mouth. Obviously this can’t be avoided completely and at times it comes across organically. Other times, not as much.
I will say that at one point I thought the “too much information” thing was happening again: Spider-Man was describing Firebrand’s armor in great detail, almost like a Marvel Universe entry. But then he says, basically, “Maybe that sounds dull to you, but to a science geek like me?” This put it very much into perspective for me and shined light on a part of Spider-Man – the pretty-darn-smart nerd – that gets ignored a lot.
Less a complaint than an honest question: does Johnny have true pyrokinesis? I always thought that he was impervious to fire, produce his own flame, and control that flame, but not shape a lighter flame into a dragon or will it to go sideways as, say, Pyro could. It’s possible that I read this part of the fight scene wrong.
The end has a double-twist, at least for me. I suspected the twins of at least killing their father from their anecdote at the beginning. That Spidey suspected them again shows his smarts and how important they are to the way he operates, while putting Johnny in the Firebrand suit to get the twins’ confession truly surprised me. It’s not a huge deal but I figured, somehow, Firebrand got away and went back to his bosses, with Spidey and Johnny following or something. Anyway, I can imagine it being a cool reveal moment – visually – in a comic book.
It took me probably 5, 6 minutes to read MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 and that’s not a complaint. It’s a fun, light read that is nothing more or less than a lighthearted superheroes and supervillains tale. With the Wasp promised as co-star for next issue, I’ll be back, and I’m expecting to enjoy that one even more.
MARVEL TEAM-UP #1
By Meriades Rai
The set-up here, to paraphrase Meri, is classic MARVEL TEAM-UP: Spider-Man teams up with a different hero each issue to face little-used villains in mostly one-shot stories. For the Marvel 2000 take, this all happens in its own continuity with character versions decided upon by the author. As far as concepts go, there’s not much to dislike.
With his first issue Meri establishes what I imagine to be the tone for the series: light, quick, not the kind of stories that open up over time and read in a trade paperback but you’d pick up at the grocery store (if yours still carries comics). Spider-Man teams up with the Fantastic Four’s Human Torch to foil the villain Firebrand’s apparent scheme to wipe out the Berlin sisters’ properties.
Between Spidey and Johnny, both funny guys, there’d have to be a lot of humor involved. And Meri brings the funny – his (or rather Spidey’s, since this is written from his perspective) initial description of the twins, Spidey’s reason for following Johnny, their eating tacos on the stake-out… Spidey’s line, “With great power comes great liability,” when considering dropping a loudmouth fatty he’s trying to save. Some of the other jokes are a bit on the nose.
Two things pulled me out of the story. First, Spider-Man mentions Batman at one point. This really threw me for a loop. I know that, because he and Superman have had their own movies, at least the latter has been referenced at Marvel as a movie character. Here it was somewhat jarring – I wondered for a moment, “Does Batman exist in this series? Will he and Spider-Man team up someday?” before coming to the conclusion that he must be a comic or movie character in the context of the story. It’s a quick reference but it just knocked me away from reading for a second.
Second, and more importantly, sometimes the descriptions – though well-written – were long enough and placed so that they broke the flow of action, as in things happening, not “action sequences.” Occasionally these descriptions seemed especially out of place coming from Spidey’s mouth, or brain as it were. Would he really tell us exactly where he was standing in direction correlation to everyone else in the scene, and how he was posed while doing so? This specific example sets up a funny monologue line but sometimes it becomes apparent that Meri is giving us information he sees as necessary through Spider-Man’s mouth. Obviously this can’t be avoided completely and at times it comes across organically. Other times, not as much.
I will say that at one point I thought the “too much information” thing was happening again: Spider-Man was describing Firebrand’s armor in great detail, almost like a Marvel Universe entry. But then he says, basically, “Maybe that sounds dull to you, but to a science geek like me?” This put it very much into perspective for me and shined light on a part of Spider-Man – the pretty-darn-smart nerd – that gets ignored a lot.
Less a complaint than an honest question: does Johnny have true pyrokinesis? I always thought that he was impervious to fire, produce his own flame, and control that flame, but not shape a lighter flame into a dragon or will it to go sideways as, say, Pyro could. It’s possible that I read this part of the fight scene wrong.
The end has a double-twist, at least for me. I suspected the twins of at least killing their father from their anecdote at the beginning. That Spidey suspected them again shows his smarts and how important they are to the way he operates, while putting Johnny in the Firebrand suit to get the twins’ confession truly surprised me. It’s not a huge deal but I figured, somehow, Firebrand got away and went back to his bosses, with Spidey and Johnny following or something. Anyway, I can imagine it being a cool reveal moment – visually – in a comic book.
It took me probably 5, 6 minutes to read MARVEL TEAM-UP #1 and that’s not a complaint. It’s a fun, light read that is nothing more or less than a lighthearted superheroes and supervillains tale. With the Wasp promised as co-star for next issue, I’ll be back, and I’m expecting to enjoy that one even more.