Sunday, November 28, 2010
Fantastic Four: The Master of Doom - Mark Millar
Since I decided to give Marvel a try again and started reading some of the current books and catching up on the past few years by picking up collected editions, I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed most of what I’ve read. And I’ve mentioned before that FANTASTIC FOUR is my all-time favorite comic book. So I had high hopes for this trade paperback collecting an eight-issue run from a couple of years ago that featured the classic FF villain, Doctor Doom. But . . . but . . . boy, I didn’t like it. Characterizations that seemed ’way off, a plot that barely made sense, and art that was good at times but filled with giant panels and double-page spreads that just seemed like a waste of space to me. I know, I know, I’m being a curmudgeon, and I hardly ever post negative reviews of anything, but this one just left a bad taste in my mouth. A new writer, Jonathan Hickman, picked up the title after this run, and I have the first collection featuring his work, too. I’m sure hoping I’ll like it more.
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7 comments:
Millar and Hickman are as different as two writers can be. Comics are really a matter of taste, moreso than novels, but I avoid everything Millar.
Public libraries tend to have a lot of graphic novels these days. I really recommend trying some of them out before purchasing. Some I read and enjoy but know I'll never have the time to read again, and I'm glad to have borrowed them.
It seems like I've read other stuff by Millar that I thought was okay, but I can't recall what it was at the moment. Of the current writers, I really like Ed Brubaker and Brian Michael Bendis, and Matt Fraction is pretty good, too. And I've been catching up on the Spider-Man reboot by various hands and enjoying most of it, too.
I've read quite a few graphic novels and collections from the library in addition to buying some of them. I agree it's a great way to sample some of the titles.
You & me both. That's the one where the Torch is sleeping with a bank robber, right? The Millar run was really hyped in San Diego a few years ago but I think a great many fans were displeased.
I don't remember a bank robber, but Johnny does have a threesome with a couple of superhero groupies dressed up like Storm and the Scarlet Witch. Also, Ben is engaged to some schoolteacher named Debbie I'd never heard of before. But I guess it's not Millar's fault that I'm out of touch. I can't help but wonder what happened to Alicia, thought.
Those crazy panels are the result of artists aping a style that was aping a style that was aping Steranko. Thing is, they don't seem to know why they're doing it or what purpose those panels serve. I can't look at a modern comic.
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