Across The Universe
I’ve skimmed over Marvel’s cosmic heroes a few times here, but never really addressed them in the same way as, say, the horror stuff. I think that’s because, as much as the cosmic stuff fascinates me when it’s done well, there’s a lot that doesn’t interest me as much and that I don’t really know about. I mean, I don’t think anyone can really do a meaningful bit on Marvel space opera without an understanding of Jim Starlin’s work, and I just haven’t read a lot of that. In fact, I’m probably more familiar with his Batman stuff than anything else (quite like it, actually, though I know it tends to get some stick from some quarters). Oh, and also Mystery in Space from One Year Later, which I really enjoyed.
In true nerd fashion, I’ve always been one for the space ships. Despite Lucas’ best efforts, Star Wars will always be the Holy Trilogy, and I sincerely hope the new Trek will capture at least some of the majesty, scope and horror of the original series and the single-digit even-numbered films. I’d say I’m hoping the Curse has switched away from the odd-numbered ones, but I’d just rather any possible follow-ups be good instead of having to sit through an Insurrection equivalent again.
So yes, be it Babylon 5, Dune, Foundation or new Galactica I’m in deep. I only wish that comic-based Ship Skiffy lived up to its potential. That should be past-tense, actually, because with Marvel’s Annihilation and Planet Hulk sagas, they’ve been hitting the target more often than not.
Let’s look back a bit before we go there. It goes without saying that when Kirby was on, he was untouchable. But I honestly think that he and Stan Lee needed each other to do their best work. I know how well-beloved Krazy Kirby is to so many people, but the short version is chrome covered space martyr on a surfboard = good, Death on Skis = daft. The Silver Surfer shouldn’t work, but it does. But I’ve always felt the New Gods veered to much to the stupid.
I can go round and round on the question of Bestest Bad Guy, and almost always come up with a different answer depending on the day and what the last thing I read was. But in terms of a balance between fascination and design, it’s Galactus. Hence the name of the cat (which has lead to an interesting observation regarding those not familiar with the Fantastic Four, actually. Most people, including the vet, seem to think he’s called “Galacticus”, as if he were named after a Roman.) And it wasn’t even a comic or storyline that did it, either. First time I saw Galactus was on a Top Trumps card in the 80s, and needless to say his stats had him at fuckty-foot tall and unbeatable. That’s how you generate mystique for the Transformers generation.
The strength of the Kirby stuff has been in the fantastic. And that’s the weakness, too. As Paul C remarks from time to time, DC heroes are great for their gimmicks, like only an hour of power, or running really fast, or being a commie Robin Hood. A whole lot of Marvel stuff, from Thor onwards, uses an unspecified power set that usually involves firing blobby ENERGY at people. And this tendency comes to the fore most obviously with the Novas and Captain Marvels and Quasars.
Annihilation is shockingly good, and manages to sidestep the above problem either through the use of characters without blobby energy powers (like Starlord, or Drax) or making the blobby energy characters different enough to distinguish between them (the new Quasar is way more distinct to Nova than the original, for example). The series isn’t perfect; the Silver Surfer part of the first saga dragged, and Wraith is a bit of a damp squib in the second. Overall though, the stories have an epic quality that I didn’t really feel in Civil War, say. In fact, Nova returning to Earth to find out an essentially petty squabble had kept the heroes out of a war that almost destroyed the universe really reflected badly on the Biggest Summer Event Ever N’Ever N’Ever.
The biggest revelation for me, though, has been Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s writing. I’ve read some of their 2000AD and DCU stuff in the past and it left me a little cold, plus I still harbour a grudge over Abnett’s negative SFX review of Morrison’s JLA that meant that not only did I miss out on the first ten issues or so, but I advised Brother Trigg not to get it either. That’s a lot of baggage, right there. Regardless, their work on Nova and Annihilation has been great.
