Vol 1: Breakout
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by David Finch and Danny Miki
2005
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 2: Sentry
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Steve McNiven and Mark Morales
2006
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 3: Secrets and Lies
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by David Finch, Frank Cho and Rick Mays
2006
Sorry. This item is currently unavailable from Islington libraries.
If you would like to order a copy you can do so: here.
Vol 4: The Collective
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Steve McNiven and Mike Deodato
2007
Sorry. This item is currently unavailable from Islington libraries.
If you would like to order a copy you can do so: here.
Vol 5: Civil War
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Howard Chaykin, Pasqual Ferry, Olivier Coipel, Leinil Francis Yu and Jim Cheung
2007
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
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Vol 6: Revolution
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Alex Maleev and Leinil Francis Yu
2007
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You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 7: The Trust
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Leinil Francis Yu
2008
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If you would like to order a copy you can do so: here.
Vol 8: Secret Invasion Book 1
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Michael Gaydos, David Mack, Jim Cheung and Billy Tan
2009
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 9: Secret Invasion Book 2
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Billy Tan, Jim Cheung and Michael Gaydos
2009
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
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Vol 10: Power
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Billy Tan
2009
Available now from Islington Libraries
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Vol 11: Search for the Sorcerer Supreme
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Billy Tan and Chris Bachalo
2009
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You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 12: Powerloss
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Stuart Immonen
2010
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You can reserve this item for free here:
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Siege
Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by Stuart Immonen, Mike Mayhew, Marko Djurdjevic and Bryan Hitch
2010
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
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I realise that there must be some people out there that read all these Marvel books in order and get each issue as it's released and etc etc - but the idea just seems so kinda alien to me: like training yourself up in a strange form of martial art - where the dedication in out in spending - well - your time and money - and making sure you buy each thing at the right moment so that the story builds up naturally - rather than doing what I do - which is just splurging out on reading the trades when your local library finally decides to catch up. Before the comic book forum I was worse - and if I couldn't find anything to read - I did sometimes used to just grab random things off the shelf- paying no heed at all to what volume number something was (something which seems almost - how do I say this? - unethical almost to me now): but then that might have been before I realised (and - oh - what a glorious day that was!) that I could reserve books that weren't in the same branch as me and get them sent over to where I was. But yeah - even having said that - I tend to read things in series - so: all of Daredevil and then all of Ultimate Fantastic Four and then all of Ultimate Spider-Man and then all of The Invincible Iron Man and then all of etc. And seeing how most of the time (in the Marvel Universe or the Marvel Ultimate Universe or whatever) these stories all kind of hit upon each other and cross-over in different ways - there's a strong feeling of Déjà vu that hang over everything. I mean - I've read House of M and Civil War and bits of Secret Invasion and Dark Reign and Siege (what can I say? I was curious and wanted to see what all the fuss was about) [1].
The Avengers I always kinda stayed away from (well - at least I thought I'd stayed away from them - reading these books I discovered that for three or four of them - I was actually re-reading) because it seemed like too much of a stuff - and (probably more importantly) Islington doesn't have all of the volumes - and most of the time I hate to read stuff with bits missing (because - hey - if you're gonna do something - do it properly - right?): but - then - well: when The Avengers movie came out - I thought - I know I'll get a big stack of Avengers comics because people will want to take them out right? (and like I've often said: the point of the Islington Comic Forum beyond how nice it is to meet people and talk about things and all that - is to get people to borrow as much stuff as possible) and - hey - it's Michael Bendis - so I know that it's good and I'm not just fostering rubbish on to people. But I didn't expect that I was going to bother to read the damn things.
But then - well - Malcolm (one of my comic book regular favourites) took them out and returned them the next session with a big grin on his face - and I was like "Oh - are they worth reading then?" and he was all: "Yeah - man - they're really good." And so - 12 issues later - here we are.
Before I took the books Malcolm told me three things: One: all the Characters sound the same (which I guess turned out to be kinda true - not wasn't something that I actively noticed: and hey - if you're reading or watching something under the watch of someone with a certain style and sensibility - I think that's almost a given and not really a problem of any real kind. It's like with - say: Joss Whedon, Quentin Tarantino and Aaron Sorkin: you could say that mostly - all of them write characters that sound the same [2]: but damn it - maybe that's just the price you pay for something that's a little - well - distinctive). Two: Bendis can't write black people (but - hey - come on: Luke Cage is supposed to be a superhero version of Shaft - right? No?) and Three. There's a really great issue which is composed entirely of Nick Fury [3] speaking to his wife (this one turned out not to be true: maybe it happens in The Mighty Avengers instead? Oh well).
So: Vol 1 starts off like it's all gonna be some major long-running epic: there's a prison breakout - a big bunch of evil people get loose and The Avengers (dur dur dur!) get back together in order to sort things out. So far - so obvious right? It's like Pokémon: gotta catch 'em all! and so on. But then - sometime around Vol 5 when it gets to all that Marvel Civil War stuff - it kinda collapses into self-contained short stories. - which get better and better and indeed it's where Bendis' real strengths start to shine tho (little character work stuff that most of time deals with some little ramification of superhero life that never normally gets remarked upon or side-steps the obvious clichés to bring you something that cuts a lot deeper) - in fact there's a story in Secret Invasion Book 2 involving Reed Richards that works really well: and had the hairs on the back of my neck crackling with tension. I guess it's kinda like watching a TV show that starts off with the formulaic stuff in it's first session before it starts to mutate into new forms and working out all the ways it can subvert your expectations (not to mention having lots of episodes where all the entertainment comes from watching the characters (who you've come to know so well) just sitting around and just talking to each other (and if there's anything that Bendis' likes - it's people talking)).
And the short story stuff definitely works much better than the big team going on adventures in strange lands stuff as the one thing that kept striking me was the weird sense of - I dunno - distance: it's not the main characters books - so when the main stuff happens to the characters you dont really know why (eg what are the reasons why Spider-Man's costume keeps changing? And - oh - Captain America is dead now?) - but also: when it comes to the Big Marvel Events (Civil War, Secret Invasion) a lot of the main stuff also happens elsewhere - so lot's of massive events will happen and you're just see the reactions of what happens afterwards (it's like - the characters all arrive on December 8th at Pearl Harbour [4] and are - like - "omg - what happened?") and so you'll need to start paying more and more attention to that "Previously in New Avengers" bit at the start.
Also - I very much like how Bendis is always mentioning how things smell (Loki speaking of Earth: "I find this entire realm has an odd odor" / Spider-Man fighting ninjas of The Hand: "Boy, I don't know what you hand ninjas use in your laundry... but you guys smell like a garden of lilacs. It's really quite lovely." "You ever get a whiff of Doctor Doom?" "Oh I know! He hasn't washed that green cape of his since the Kree-Skrull War." / "Do we have to wear our costumes for this thing today? Mine smells of dead ninja." "Mine smells like symbiote." "Oh, that's what that is.")
Across all 12 volumes the artwork (for my tastes at least) is constantly top-notch with only a few dropped balls (#39 is done by David Mack - who is normally amazing - but urgh - I don't know what the inker did - but here it looks clumpy and awful) - with my personal favourite being Billy Tan (but that might just be a side effect of the stories he gets to draw all being so compelling - especially love the guy that breaks into mess with Tony Stark). And - ok - for all the clichés that get played with - there is still lots of fights and lots and lots of fight scene banter - but - goddamn - it's good banter - so what the hey right?
I'm glad that I took the time to read them - and mostly - it was time well spent - but for anyone who wants a proper thrill - I'd point you in the direction of Bendis' epic Ultimate Spider-Man run: which for my money was much more consistently entertaining and - gosh darn it - kinda a billion times more fun (because - as every good comic book fan knows - if you spend your time with Peter Parker - you're gonna leave with a smile on your face): plus - with the Ultimate Universe - there's less constraints and more space for Bendis - well - to do whatever the hell he wants. And as good as The Avengers stuff is - it's still corporate comics and so by it's very nature can only do much and push things only so far. I mean - yeah - at the end of Vol 10: Bendis lift a trick from the Grant Morrison playbook and has a different artist draw each page (and surprisingly - this actually works pretty well (unlike say - the end of The Invisibles - *shudder*)) - and also: Vol 2 (which is one of those ones that I had read before but hadn't remembered until I started reading it again) which gets trippy and strange in a very appealing way: and does some wicked meta-fiction gymnastics (that Grant Morrison influence again - I wonder if Bendis is a fan?) and the Steve McNiven artwork is very tasty (and really reminds me of Kilian Plunkett who did the art for a great nasty little alien comic called Aliens: Labyrinth [5]: which we don't have - but if anyone is curious - you should order it: Aliens Omnibus Volume 3!). Oh - and special mention to the double-reference (referencing something referencing something else) when Luke Cage says:: "Doctor Strange is out walking the Earth like Caine in Kung Fu."[6])
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[1] And for those of you that have no idea what I'm referring to these are all the names of the big Marvel Summer Events where all their characters cross-over and then find some excuse to have a big massive fight (because everyone loves a good ruck - right?).
[2] If you're looking for proof of that then I'll recommend this video of Sorkinisms - A Supercut ("This video is a tribute to the work of Aaron Sorkin: the recycled dialogue, recurring phrases, and familiar plot lines. This is not intended as a critique but rather a playful excursion through Sorkin's wonderful world of words.")
[3] I've gotta say: after reading all the Ultimate books - I've gotta say - it sure is strange seeing Nick Fury as - you know - a white guy.
[4] For anyone who doesn't know their American History - Pearl Habour (or "Pearl Habor" if you're from the states (but does mean that - seeing how it's a place "Pearl Habour" is spelling it wrong? Gah)) - took place on December 7th. Obviously now I think of it - a clearer example would have been to say it's like a bunch of people turning up on September 12th in New York and going "omg - what happened?"- but I didn't want to come across as being - you know - insensitive.
[5] Oh - and checking the artists tabs on the side of this blog - also Superman: Red Son. How about that?
[6] In fact - it's so good - he does it twice. Ha!
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Links: The M0vie Blog Review Vol 1 - 4 / Vol 5 - 8 / Vol 9 - 12 / Siege.
Further reading: The Avengers: The Avengers (2011 - 2012), Ultimate Spider-Man, Daredevil, House of M, Civil War, The Avengers: The New Avengers: Illuminati, Spider-Woman: Origin, Thunderbolts: Faith in Monsters / Caged Angels, Dark Reign, Siege.
Profiles: Brian Michael Bendis.
All comments welcome.
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