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| Cover of A-Force volume 1 TPB by Marvel Comics |
Black Widow (2014) #1Captain Marvel (2014) #1Ms. Marvel (2014) #1She-Hulk (2014) #1Thor (2014) #1The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (2014) #1
Score (out of 5 Capes)
Cross-title collections like this are always a swirl of styles and quality. This collection is stronger than the subsequent volumes because we get the start of all their stories.
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| 3.5 out of 5 Capes |
My Review
The year 2014 must have been a landmark in the long publishing history of Marvel Comics. It saw the debut of a stunning number of new ongoing series led by strong superhero women. This trade paperback book collects the #1 issues of six of the titles, those with closest association to the Avengers, while leaving out others like Storm, Elektra and Spider-Woman, whose titles also debuted around that time.
Some of the heroes here are familiar, with a well-established history and existing fan base. Black Widow was perhaps best-known among them, with her many years in the Avengers. She-Hulk also entered her series with a long history, although based on the debut issue, this series will take her in some unique new directions. Captain Marvel, another well-known hero, has been rapidly ascending the heights of Marvel fame.
Once past those three, the characters at the center of these books are newer, their creative teams unafraid of riffing on other famous names to give their books a running start. Thor, for example, is now the goddess of thunder, providing a woman's touch to one of the most famous of Marvel Comics heroes. And Ms. Marvel borrows a name but is an entirely new and boundary-pushing creation.
And finally, there is Squirrel Girl, because why not?
Black Widow #1 is the lead story of the collection. Writer Nathan Edmondson set the tone for this new series right from the start, weaving many of the fan-favourite elements of Widow into this debut tale. Her fearlessness, combat skills, espionage abilities all shone through. Yet he also found room to give her a hint of a personal life, one that struggles with costs and pet care. Artist Phil Noto produced some beautiful images, a deft painterly touch whose soft tones blunt the hard edges of the character, yet draw out strikingly expressive faces, especially in frame-filling close-ups.
Since a critical role of a #1 debut issue is to set the tone and central themes of a series, I must tip my hat to writer Charles Soule and artist Javier Pulido for what they achieved with She-Hulk #1, the second story in this set. Would they focus on her strength? Power? Rage? Relationships? Their chosen direction became clear within the first 8 pages of this book: the series would revolve around her professional life and her relationships, including with other Avengers.
When her law office bosses fired her, sure she smashed their very expensive boardroom table with one finger and a scowl, but she then set out to establish her own legal practice. How unfortunate, then, that her very first case brought her into a head-on collision with Tony Stark's lawyers and robots. How can a tall, green-skinned lawyer strike a work-life balance and bring in enough clients to stay afloat?
Pulido chose to render the book in a simplified and cartoonish style, reflective of the lighter narrative tone written by Soule. The end result is at times too smoothed out and simple; a little more visual complexity would not be out of place for this career-woman hero.
Kelly Sue DeConnick's script for Captain Marvel #1 set the stage for our hero to return to space for an extended time and, I am sure, many fantastic and alien adventures. From the very first panels, we are dropped into a team filled with people we don't know, in a place and situation that is unclear. So, after a few pages of that teaser, DeConnick backed us up six weeks, to what enticed the good Captain back into space in the first place. The reader must commit to a few more issues, though, as #1 fails to return to the original scenes. We are left with most of those six weeks still blank and must await #2 to see how the two parts ultimately connect. David Lopez produced straightforward art pages, the most creative of which was the origin one-pager done in the childish style of her friend Kit.
If the first three chapters of the collection focus on well-known heroes, the second half of the book turns to the newbies. First up: Ms. Marvel. Writer G. Willow Wilson introduced us to Kamala Khan, an ordinary teen Muslim growing up in New Jersey. Balancing school, friends, family and teenage emotions proved hard enough for any of us. But the one time Kamala defied her parents and snuck out to a party, she got hit by a mysterious fog that granted her shape-shifting and body manipulation powers. Oh man, is she ever gonna be grounded!
The fresh and clean art by Adrian Alphona is well suited to this body-horror setup. Until Kamala figures out how to control the new powers, she is prone to very inconvenient and embarrassing physical changes. A great metaphor for the teen angst around puberty, handled throughout with skill and grace by both Wilson and Alphona. Well done!
Russell Dauterman's art on the new Thor, by contrast, was not so clean nor so deftly handled. While he is unafraid to slant and break the boundaries of the panels, their contents are so filled with spikes and swirls of hair or ice or light that they lose clarity and become a visual mash.
Writer Jason Aaron's story is likewise a mash. Thor, the god of thunder, has lost the ability to heft his magical hammer, leading to lots of moping on the moon and conflicts with his father, Odin. Shockingly, a mysterious woman lifts the hammer on the final page, which then magically clad her in appropriate goddess of thunder garb. This should be a shocking and exciting new twist on this long-standing warrior, but it gets lost in the mash of poorly formed Asgardian English. The attempt at balancing the pomposity of the gods with some wit and levity fell flat, producing a narrative that is a chore to read.
The sixth and final #1 collected here is the series debut of Squirrel Girl. Writer Ryan North presented her enrolling in college, in her secret identity, while avidly talking to squirrels, especially her best bud Tippy-Toes. Oh, and battling Kraven the Hunter. It is hard to tell if North is aiming to make this a children's book - the goofy plot and characters, paired with the extreme cartoonishness of Erica Henderson's visuals suggest that to be so. Yet more mature wit and wordplay appear throughout, including in the tiny secret text at the bottom of every page.
What I loved
Phil Noto's gorgeous visuals in Black Widow #1, such as this final panel with its soft-focus background of her face to draw attention to the little spider in the foreground. The whole chapter is just as beautiful!
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| Final panel of Black Widow #1 showing Phil Noto's stunning art |
What I didn't love
The flat, cartoonish style Javier Pulido shows in She-Hulk #1. Too many frontal and profile views with unadorned expressions.
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| Javier Pulido's simplistic and cartoonish renderings of She-Hulk |
Related Reviews
A-Force Presents volume 4 (coming soon!)
Quick Reference Details
Writers: Nathan Edmondson, Charles Soule, Kelly Sue DeConnick, G. Willow Wilson, Jason Aaron, Ryan North
Artists: Phil Noto, Javier Pulido, David Lopez, Adrian Alphona, Russell Dauterman, Erica Henderson
Published By: Marvel Comics
Published When: Jan 1, 2015
Parental Rating: Teen+
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| Back Cover of A-Force volume 1 TPB by Marvel Comics |
