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So I picked up the first Ellis trade, Faith in Monsters (which is, I have to say, an excellent title), and I read it this evening and I enjoyed it. It didn't-- maybe something to do with being an actual, in-continuity Marvel comic-- it didn't fire off all my neurons like the complete dance party that was Nextwave, but I really enjoyed it, for the most part.
Penance, obviously, is tiresome. Venom -- I just never got the point of Venom, you know? Either version. I just don't see the appeal. And the cannibalism aspect just hits me like a redux of Millar's Ultimate Hulk trying to eat Freddie Prinze Junior, but without the "amusing" jibes at celebrities. Though I did like the bits with just plain old Gargan talking about how warm the symbiote was, and how cold it was when Venom was inside rather than outside.
Really, this was about Norman Osborn, Songbird, and Moonstone. They're the only three I really cared about, one way or another -- Songbird is sort of tragic, playing the role of conscientious objector that she's doomed to play -- an obstacle for the "smoking bastard Ellisman" inversion Moonstone. Moonstone's callous disregard for humanity interests me more than, say, Bullseye -- he just has that kill-kill-kill hard-on which seems to be sort of bland Hannibal archetype and I get fatigued reading him. And Moonstone as power-player, stuck in one position and wanting Norman's power, well, that interests me.
Norman, well, Norman's funny. In a weird, horrible way. I like his constant jibes at Radioactive Man -- "Joke. Really." -- and how he spins international relations. The Lex Luthor reference up above is very true, but Norman sort of fails at it, and I like that. Spidey is his Superman. Norman is the director but he wants to be Moonstone, he wants to have her finely honed psychological talent -- his slices people open like she does, but only as long as he can keep control.
The fireworks when she finally makes her move have got to be spectacular.
Art -- well, I'm not terribly impressed. Moonstone always looks like she has spinal damage. Venom pretty much looks like the Ultimate Version showing up in Ultimates 3, and he's one of the many reasons I'm not reading that comic.
Fun to see Jillian Woods, though. Anyone know if she's up to appear somewhere else soon? Or is that in the "need to know" post-Volume 1 Thunderbolts? |
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