New Beginnings - Star Wars #1 (Marvel)

by Matt Puddy

Iconic opening lines to one of the most well known science fiction films in history. Also the line emblazoned on the first page of this week’s new beginning.

In fact you could also see this comic as a homecoming as this is a brand new Star Wars comic back once again with Marvel. From 1977 to 1987, Marvel produced a 107 issue comic series which loosely followed the original films. During this time it was rumoured to have had such strong sales that it kept Marvel financially afloat. A few years later Dark Horse gained the license and took a more creative approach opening up much richer back stories to main characters as well as introducing new arcs, side characters and areas of the Star Wars universe. Now, with the Star Wars and Marvel brands both part of the Disney family, the circle is now complete and Jason Aaron takes the helm to pen new tales from the galaxy.

From the outset you know exactly where you stand with the cover depicting all of the well loved characters - well the good guys that is anyway (on the cover designed by John Cassaday). The comic then opens with as close to the cinematic experience as the printed medium can. The huge Star Wars sign followed by the implied scrolling prologue breaks you in nicely. Set after the Death Star has been destroyed, the Rebels are moving onto new targets in an attempt to beat the Empire.

The setting is Cymoon 1 the largest munitions factory supporting the Empire’s war effort, and the loveable rogue Han Solo is the man with the plan. Infiltrating the site under the banner of Jabba the Hutt, all seems to be going well and the destruction of the base looks imminent, but where is the fun if it was that simple!? Things start to go wrong when it transpire they Empire uses slaves there and Luke’s instincts draw him away, only to be followed up with catastrophic news. The negotiator has arrived and it’s none other than Darth Vader himself. A botched assassination attempt, the Millennium Falcon being slowly dismantled and ultimately a showdown between Vader and Luke. It’s a whole film is just a few pages complete with a huge cliffhanger.

As mentioned previously John Cassaday is the artist for the issue and it’s great. So great in fact that Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford owe him a lot for turning back the clock and giving the readers such fresh faced and youthful depictions of them all. If anything this helps support the comic's place in the chronological order of Star Wars even further, as it dates it all so well. Strangely though one of my favourite panels was when the team discover the hold of AT-AT’s. Aside from the cheeky demeanour from Solo, Cassady also lovingly renders the vehicles and tech as well as he depicts any of the original cast! Classic images given to the reader with strong fine line work – what isn’t to like about this?

Without being a massive Star Wars fan, even I can’t find much fault with this issue. It’s well drawn and well written. The combination sweeps it along at a great pace and is a lot of fun. You constantly find yourself hearing the tonal inflections, the attitude and most of all the well known voices from the films.

It’s a cracking first issue that any reader, fan or otherwise, will enjoy.

Matt Puddy is not the droid you're looking for. Move along.

New Beginnings - Original Sin #0-1

by Matt Puddy

Well it’s that time of the year again when Marvel rolls out a new event for the combined universe to undergo. It’s been teased and hinted at for quite a while – and I think some of the recent one word teasers also relate to the repercussions too – but we now embark on the eight-part Original Sin storyline. 

There are several crossovers also occurring as a result with the sins spilling into Avengers, Mighty Avengers and Deadpool. And those were just the ones advertised in the back of part one!

There is an issue #0 (written by Mark Waid) to also take into account which - for those who aren’t really aware of who the Watcher is - explores the role that the Watcher plays and how he came to be over the millennia that preceded the present day. It also shows an uncharacteristic moment when he speaks in the presence of a mere mortal – Nova – which demonstrates his scope and view over all things.

Jason Aaron’s main storyline though revolves initially over the Watcher coming to an end. The issue is titled Who Shot The Watcher? which is an interesting premise for a series to begin with, considering Uatu was meant to be all-knowing and all-seeing. Sadly I think it's impact has also been muted a little bit, as it follows so soon after the new Hulk title which also a whodunnit about who shot Bruce Banner. In such a short time, the duplication of the same idea comes across as bad planning perhaps on Marvel’s part.

Opening with the crime itself, the narrative then quickly shifts location and levity to a restaurant on steak night, Cap, Wolverine, Black Widow and Nick Fury are seen arguing over the best steak (or bear) they’ve had. Things change quickly when they all have to head to the moon and the Avengers assemble at the scene of the crime. Aside from the shock factor at who has been killed, the ramifications of his arsenal being pillaged and his technology being plundered are potentially outweighed by the gruesome act of the assailant having also gouged out his eyes.

Realising that this could take more than the Avengers are prepared to do, T’Challa is called to help and a slightly random assortment of heroes are put together as a loose-knit team to help dig, investigate and interrogate the various leads in order to get to the bottom of it all. Along the way Spider-Man and The Thing end up fighting a Mindless One who is apparently gaining sentience and individuality, something it cannot handle so it ends its own life. Stern stuff for an entity that is being controlled from a big bad in the background. Someone that we gain a glimpse of but nothing more.

So will Nick Fury also manage to play detective? What will T’Challa find on his various challenges, and what will happen between The Punisher and Doctor Strange seeing as they’re already at odds... the next seven issues will tell.

Veteran Mike Deodato (and one of my favourites! BF) takes to the pencils for this series. There are a lot of familiar faces with a grittier depiction. A lot of attention has been paid to every frame and panel and it feels as though there is a real classic quality to this. It adds a certain gravitas to the whole comic which would have been lost if another artist (Ramos for example) had been on it instead.

It is a big issue with a bold and brassy opening, but is it too big? The cast in this issue alone is huge and the advertising for issue two pulls in even more known heroes to the situation. Even with the cast shown it sometimes felt a little diluted and spread too thinly to hold a concise story over the coming issues. For instance, crowbarring in Ant Man and Emma Frost just to show they are part of the team felt awkward, although you can see it might be necessary.

Will this be all wrapped up and solved in eight issues? Well yes solved I'd say, but wrapped up? No, I can envisage that there will be a great deal of fallout from the simple actions that this opened with. But then that's a classic Marvel event, often the aftermath is even more interesting than the event itself such as Dark Reign and the preceding Secret Invasion. Jason Aaron is well known as one of Marvel’s architects so I trust his work. We'll see where this takes us.

Matt Puddy is going to melt on his upcoming travels.

New Beginnings - Thor God Of Thunder #1 (MARVEL NOW)

Time travel can be a fickle beast can't it? Especially in fiction, where the myriad of possibilities enthral some while alienating others. Be it a narrative that crashes through time, with the audience experiencing things first hand like the Doctor and his companions, or showing disparate but connecting time zones like Cloud Atlas, it can be a very divisive storytelling device.

Personally I tend to love time travel stories, as they can maintain the thrust of a progressing plotline, whilst compellingly obfuscating certain details until the moment is right. With Thor God Of Thunder #1, Jason Aaron has chosen to do exactly that. The story initially moves back and forth between a young Thor, fighting and carousing alongside Vikings and the Thor of now, answering a young child's cries for help in deep space.

Well, I say cries, it's actually her prayers. This first issue firmly reestablishes that the Marvel Universe has various pantheons of Gods. I know that some readers will struggle with this, for a variety of reasons. Mark Millar's Ultimates' Thor neatly sidestepped this controversy by implying at first that he might simply be a madman with delusions of pagan deification. But this is Earth-616 Thor, the mainstay of Marvel comics and this character firmly believes he is a God. It's even in the title after all!

There's no hint of the Marvel Cinematic Universe take on it all here either. If - in order to suspend disbelief - it helps you to believe that there are older alien races with superior technology and physiology, and that these Gods are simply such as those who have bought into their own hype, then there's also nothing here to contradict that. Prayers for help could simply be a form of telepathic SOS after all.

The point I'm making here is that Jason Aaron has embraced Thor wholeheartedly in a way that even JMS didn't quite manage during his run. Rather than modernise Thor by blurring the lines as in the Ultimates or trying to blend the middle America with the fantasy of Asgard, Aaron presents us with classic Thor in a supremely confident way, without teetering into arrogance. Across three time zones, we see the God Of Thunder at various stages in his life, confronted by the same menace and responding as only Thor can.

Three time zones? Oh yes, that's the crowning jewel in this Asgardian treasury of a first issue. There is a menace that Thor has encountered before, first depositing the dead God of a Native American tribe on the shores of a Viking settlement, then later slaughtering a whole pantheon of alien Gods in deep space. There's a God Butcher on the loose. And so, several millennia from now, Thor the King of Asgard sits atop his throne - the last of his kind, waiting to face the one responsible for deicide in final glorious battle. According to interviews with Aaron, the story will continue to unfold across these three times, first showing us what Thor learnt from his first encounter, before setting up the beginning of the end in present day and culminating with the epic showdown in the future. As I said, supremely confident storytelling.

It reminds me of the way I felt about Brubaker's run on Captain America. Both the Super Soldier and the Thunder God are Avengers that failed to inspire me as a teenager. I flat out disliked their stories on the whole and gave them a wide berth. Brubaker made me put Cap on my pulllist and - damn it - I'm certain Aaron just sold me on Thor. Even JMS didn't manage that, though admittedly he came close.

The artwork from Esad Ribic is beautiful, like an ethereal painting that fits this story of dark fantasy and heroic majesty. Thor does look a little effeminate when he smiles, but it's a minor criticism in the grand scheme of things.

Last week's Iron Man fell short, but this book, Deadpool, Fantastic Four and All New X-Men are all a breath of fresh air. Thor God Of Thunder #1 embodies the quality I'll be holding Marvel Now to. It sets a nice high benchmark. I never thought I'd say that about a Thor comic!

Ben Fardon is pleasantly surprised!