Markley’s Fevered Brain: Double Vision Around the World

Wayne Markley

Wayne Markley


by Wayne Markley

Within the following blog you will find reviews of two follow up collections, the second volume of Luke Cage: Second Chances and the second volume of Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Rebublic. You will also find a review of an artist I always think I do not like that much until I sit down and read his work and bIam! I am blown away every time. This is an important lesson because at first glance I think “this is not for me” till I actually read it and am proven wrong. The artist I am referring to is the European master, Guido Crepax. I wrap up with a fond farewell to one of Marvel’s newer series that had a short (alas only six issues) but fun run, Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. I really liked this book as it was fun and had original stories, but apparently I was one of a few who bought it. Well, on to the critiques.

Luke Cage: Second Chances Vol. 2

Luke Cage: Second Chances Vol. 2


Luke Cage: Second Chances Vol. 2 continues the story with his brother and father being captive from the first volume of Second Chances. After the family turmoil gets resolved, there is a six part crossover with two other titles. The complete crossover is included here even the non-Cage stories. The crossover reprints issues of Terror Inc.; Cage; and Silver Sable. The story involves Terror Inc., Silver Sable Inc., and Cage all trying to recover the mystical and deadly Vatsayana’s Tryst in a story called For Love Nor Money. Just for the record, this crossover included Terror Inc. #11 and 12 by DG. Chichester, Richard Pace and Temutin; Cage #15 & 16 by Marc McLaurin, Scott Benefiel and Frank Turner (the team who did almost all of these Cage issues in this collection); and Silver Sable & The Wild Pack #13 & 14 by Gregory Wright, Steven Butler and Jimmy Palmiotti. This six part story is a very mixed bag as it starts out with the three heroes all trying to recover a stolen treasure that comes in three parts and involves Cage, Terror and Silver Sable fighting each other and ends with them teaming to defeat a demon who, midway through the story, becomes the focus. I found this story to be muddled and just sort of a crossover with the attempt to raise the sales of two lower books up to the bestselling one. This crossover is nowhere as good as the rest of the Cage issues in the collection, so I guess the crossover dragged Cage down to Terror Inc.’s level. Thankfully there were four more issues after the For Love Nor Money storyline which were much better. We return to Chicago with Luke and Dakota North and the return of Troop from volume one. The book dramatically improves as it moves back to the urban stories vs. the globe-trotting crossover. The final three issues build to the end of the series and the creators were given time to nicely wrap up their overall story. I really liked this series as a whole as we learned a great deal about Luke Cage before he became Luke Cage (including his name). We meet his father and learn what makes the man Cage tick. The last story arc had Luke going back to New York and possessed by an evil force and fighting the Thing and the Human Torch. The art by Benefiel is clean with easy to read layouts. I liked how they wrapped up this whole book and all of the various subplots and themes throughout the 20 issue run. I also liked how they used Dakota North who never seems to get her proper respect in the Marvel Universe. At the very end the public is left thinking Luke Cage is dead, but we the readers know better.

Complete Crepax Vol. 01: Dracula, Frankenstein and Other Horror Stories

Complete Crepax Vol. 01: Dracula, Frankenstein and Other Horror Stories


Guido Crepax is an Italian artists who drew comics from the mid-1960s till his death in 2003. He has a very unique style that is almost always recognizable and there is very little like it, perhaps the closest being fellow European artist, Philippe Druillit. At long last Fantagraphics has taken on the task of bringing all of Crepax’s work to American audiences in 10 huge hardcovers ranging from 350 to 450 pages each. My only minor complaint is they are doing stories by theme not be release dates. The first volume is Complete Crepax Vol. 01: Dracula, Frankenstein and Other Horror Stories (eight stories total). This is an oversized, large, hardcover book that is priced at $75, but it is worth every penny. Crepax’s drawing and storytelling is almost like dreaming as his design and page layout are so creative and unlike anyone else’s. I could see elements of Sterenko’s SHIELD and a few la-outs by Neal Adams that could be argued influenced his page design but I do not think they were influences on him, and I am pretty sure his work was published first, at least in Europe. Perhaps his most famous creation was Valentina, of which there are numerous volumes (some in this collection), but he also did much more than just that. His other work includes Baba Yaga, Justine and the Story of O, Casanova, Venus in Furs and many, many more. In the past his work was reprinted by Heavy Metal and Catalan Books, Grove Press as well as Taschen Books. A lot of his work (most of it in fact) tends to lean towards the erotic and sexual. I found this an odd thing as much as I enjoy his work, and I really do, I do think his drawing of erotica is particularly sexy. At least not in the way of a Milo Manara or Reed Waller or traditionally what I think of as erotic artists. I have read that Crepax was greatly influenced by French New Wave Cinema, and I could see that in his work, but there is so much more than that. It is interesting that the art style in Frankenstein is so much simpler and different (almost reminds me of Dick Briefer’s Frankenstein in style) than the other stories in this collection which resemble his work that I was more familiar with, such as the previously mentioned Valentina. Another reason to buy this book is for the abundant background material about the stories, their history, Crepax’s history and much more. Not only do you get over 400 pages of amazing comic book storytelling you also get an in-depth history lesson. Overall I was thrilled with this book and I look forward to the next nice volumes. For mature readers only due to lots of nudity. A great addition to the Milo Manara library and the forthcoming Moebius Library’s from Dark Horse.

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Rebublic Vol. 2

Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Rebublic Vol. 2


Marvel recently released Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The New Rebublic Vol. 2 which continues collecting the stories that Dark Horse published that follow the destruction of the second Death Star. Most of these stories feature Wedge Antilles and his fellow members of the Rogue Squadron. Luke Skywalker, Admiral Ackbar, and a Wookie all appear in a number of these stories. Overall, I really liked this collection. Like I have mentioned in past blogs, I never read the original Dark Horse Star Wars comics so these Epic Collections are new to me and I really enjoy them. Part of the reason I did not read this originally was the stories took place all over the Star Wars timeline at random. With these Epic Collections Marvel is reprinting all of the stories in the order they take place, not the order they were published in, and I find this to be much more of an enjoyable read. All of these stories are fast paced and run about 5 parts each and feature a wide mix of creators, all who are very talented and tell both well written stories that look really good. There are enough references t the films (Deathstars, Empire not realizing they lost the war, Jaba the Hutt, and more) that if you have only seen the movies and not read the comics these are easy to understand and enjoy. As with the first volume this book is packed with action and political intrigue. There is all sorts of people switching sides and betraying their so called friends. I particularly enjoyed Battleground Tatoonie storyline. As with the entire run of Star Wars Epic Collections, I would recommend this one for Star Wars fans or just fans looking for good action/adventures stories with some science fiction thrown in.

The Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6

The Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. #6


The Howling Commandos of S.H.I.E.L.D. came to a conclusion with issue six and I for one am very sad about this. I really liked this book as it was quirky and fun. From the cast that included Warwolf, Dum Dum Dugan (LMD), Manphibian, Vampire by Night, Hit Monkey (my favorite), Kid Abomination, Man-Thing, Orrgo, among others. These were fun stories where S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secret supernatural team would take on various “X-Files” of the Marvel Universe. These ranged from the Sphinx to brand the villainess team STAKE. It was a creative book where Dun Dum Dugan, being an LMD, was constantly being killed only to switch to a new body; Orrgo being their communication director (and I love these old Marvel monsters being recast in the modern Marvel Universe, such as with Fing Fang Foom) and the use of these characters who are rarely seen anymore. Writer Frank Barbiere and artist Brent Schoonover deserve a big hand for at least trying to bring these characters to the forefront. Marvel will soon be releasing a trade collection of all six of these issues and it is worth picking up if you are any sort of fan of Marvel’s underutilized monster characters.

This wraps up the blogs for this month. I will be back in a few weeks with more reviews and thoughts about comics and the world around them. I welcome your feedback to this column, about what I have reviewed, what you would like to see reviewed, or if you just want to say hello. I can be reached at MFBWAY@AOL.COM or on Facebook at Wayne Markley. Everything I have written here is my opinion and in no way reflects the thoughts or opinions of Westfield Comics or their employees. As always,

Thank you.

 

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