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Timely 70th Anniversary Collection 2009 (HC) 250 pages
Written/illustrated by various.
Colours/letters: various.
Reprinting the new stories from All-Winners Comics 70th Anniversary Special, USA Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Mystic Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Marvel Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Daring Mystery Comics 70th Anniversary Special, All-Select Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Young Allies Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Captain America Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Human Torch Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Miss America Comics 70th Anniversary Special, Sub-Mariner Comics 70th Anniversary Special (2009)
Rating: * * * * 1/2 (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1
Reviewed Feb. 1, 2010
Published by Marvel Comics
One wonders if, after all these years, after Marvel Comics (arguably) revolutionalized super hero comics in the 1960s with the Marvel Age, and finally conquering the cinematic box office with Spider-Man and Iron Man (after years of watching DC produce hit movie franchises), one wonders if someone at Marvel Comics looked over at DC Comics...and got jealous. Because the one thing DC had that Marvel didn't so much...was a sense of history. Marvel has been around as long as DC, albeit undergoing various name changes over the years, from Timely, to Atlas, before settling on Marvel Comics. But while DC has frequently mined its Golden Age legacy for stories and characters (even buying rights to the heroes of other companies)...Marvel tended not to as much -- looking forward, perhaps, more than back. Sure, Captain America and, to a lesser extent, the Sub-Mariner have continued to be players in Marvel's modern adventures, and the original Human Torch, and possibly the Whizzer, have been dredged up from time to time. But in essence, Marvel's 1940s properties were allowed to slip into obscurity, enjoying only occasional revisitations in such series as The Invaders.
Now Marvel seems to have decided it wants to establish a sense of a venerable history. A few years back, Marvel had re-numbered a bunch of its series as a marketing gimmick to get them back into low figures presumably to attract newer readers. But recently they've re-established the old numbering, proudly proclaiming Spider-Man and others have reached their 600th issue! And with J. Michael Straczynski's The Twelve and Ed Brubaker's The Marvels Project the company has been all keen to suggest the Golden Age of Marvel Comics really was a Golden Age.
Of course the overall success of such revisionism is far from certain: The Twelve took forever to complete, while The Marvels Projects comes across as though Brubaker read Darwyne Cooke's DC: The New Frontier, and thought, "Hey, I bet I could do that"...and proceeded to prove that, um, no, maybe he can't.
As part of this wave of newfound nostalgia came eleven one shot 70th anniversary specials, drawing upon Marvel/Timely's Golden Age legacy, utilizing both familiar characters (Captain America & Bucky, the Sub-Mariner) and some more obscure ones, such as the Phantom Detective, or the original Vision. In addition to new lead stories, each of the one shots also included some vintage reprints.
The new stories have been collected between a single cover as The Timely 70th Anniversary Collection.
And the result is actually pretty good.
Employing a variety of writers and artists, the tales run a certain gamut of styles and themes. Some are adventure-thrillers...some are more thoughtful, character pieces; some are played straight...some have an element of tongue-in-cheek. As mentioned, there are plenty of stories using familiar characters, either solo, or teamed up...and others calling upon more obscure properties. Most are war time adventures, some are framed by modern sequences. At least one seems to be set in modern times. Some seem true to the war time characterizations...others seem to draw upon later embellishments...some I suspect take liberties with characters that, after all, were pretty vague to begin with (in the story involving the otherworldly Vision, he evinces a nifty power -- to confront people with their greatest fears -- that isn't actually indicated in the reprints that accompanied the one shot).
And all the tales are self-contained, though some draw upon continuity that came much later, as opposed to being totally true to the 1940s era (references are made, in one story, to the fact that the Captain America there isn't the true Captain America, while the Blonde Phantom story is set in modern times, and has her referring to being older than she looks...with no explanation for what or how). Yet it's not particularly confusing continuity that demands you need to know the background to follow the story.
And overall, it's enjoyable.
The issues were of a pretty high quality just on their own, and probably benefit even more from being collected, as the variety then becomes a plus, rather than a problem. That is, if you picked up a one shot, expecting an adventure, and got something a bit slower and more introspective (or vice versa), you might be disappointed. But pressed next to each other, that very variety is what makes the collection a fun, interesting read, with enough action and thrills to keep it entertaining, and enough introspection and characterization to give it depth.
The art style varies, admittedly much of it a bit more stylized, or cartoonier, than I necessarily prefer...but still, generally it's energetic and tells the scenes well. And there is more realist, conventional art on display, too. Among my favourites is Paolo Rivera on the Young Allies story, a nicely done Roger Stern scripted effort which mixes flashbacks and a modern framing sequence as Bucky reunites with survivors of the boy team he and Toro used to work with, for a mix of adventure and bittersweet melancholy.
Arguably, among the best issues, in sense of being well rounded, is the All-Winners issue, which manages to cram humour, drama, character interaction and an adventure plot all into one story, involving some of the team later popularized as the Invaders.
Perhaps among the more disappointing were the Sub-Mariner stories, despite some great art. Maybe it was because they choose to present too shorter tales of the Atlantean prince, giving neither enough room to really develop. Old pro (and one time Sub-Mariner writer) Roy Thomas delivers an introspective tale...that could've used more plot/adventure. And Mark Schultz writes an old fashioned adventure yarn...that could've used some more depth (and plot twists).
Still, there's not a "bad" tale in the bunch (save maybe Michael Kupperman's tale of the robot Marvex which is done as out and out parody. Even it isn't terrible...just kind of pointless.)
Because these stories are pretty well all self-contained, either featuring characters you aren't expected to know well, or explaining most of what you need to know of those that are more familiar, it makes a surprisingly satisfying anthology, where you can read the stories -- and the collected volume -- for itself, and not feel as though you have to buy six other TPBs just to get what's going on. And it does provide a neat kind of glimpse at an alternate Marvel Comics, pulling back the curtain on heroes and adventures otherwise largely lost to time.
Whether decades after the fact Marvel can establish a sense of a legacy like DC Comics has, is unclear. A lot of these characters -- though entertaining and interesting for these one shots -- don't necessarily suggest they have what it takes to be Marvel's answer to Dr. Mid-Nite, or even the Human Bomb. In powers, personalities -- even costume designs -- there's maybe a reason they fell into obscurity. Then again, maybe other Golden Age heroes seem more compelling simply because they've been kept in the public eye and embellished upon over the years. Maybe all it would take is a few more specials and mini-series, and Marvel's lost heroes will begin to glow with a similar nostalgic resonance.
Whether or not that happens though, is unimportant. Just read for itself and itself alone, this is a nice collection, mixing familiar and obscure heroes, in tales that run a variety of tones...and most of them above average.
This is a review of the story serialized originally in the comics.
Hard cover price: $24.99 USA
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Showcase presents The Trial of the Flash
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The Twelve, vol. 1 and vol. 2 2008, 2012 (HC & SC TPBs) app. 144 and 184 pgs.
Written
by J. Michael Straczynski. Pencils by Chris Weston. Inks by Garry Leach,
Chris Weston.
Colours: Chris Chuckry. Letters: Jimmy Bentacourt. Editor: Tom Brevoort.
Volume 1 Reprinting: The Twelve #1-6 (2008)
Volume 2 Reprinting: The Twelve #7-12, The Twelve: Spearhead (2008, 2012)
Rating: * * * (out of 5)
Number of readings: 1 (vol. 1 read twice)
Mildly suggested for mature readers
This review posted: July 2012
Published by Marvel Comics
The Twelve was a 12 issue max-series that has been collected across two volumes -- I initially reviewed volume one, but have decided to replace that with a combined review of both collections. After all, although the first volume (ending with issue six) doesn't end on a cliff hanger or anything, and so can be read as a "sample" of the series -- Marvel isn't really expecting readers to pick up vol. 1 and not vol. 2. The Twelve is a 12 chapter story.
The premise is that twelve obscure 1940s era super heroes (culled from the pages of Marvel Comics at the time -- then called Timely Comics) get trapped in suspended animation at the end of the war and are awakened in the modern world. Seeing them as symbols of a nobler age -- and one more tractable to the whims of authority -- the U.S. government houses then in a mansion, so they can slowly re-adjust to this brave, new world, and with the hopes they will all agree to resume their old crime fighting activities as sanctioned government agents. Granted, one can quibble about whether the government would care that much given that, although some of the characters have super powers...some don't. Some are just guys in masks carrying guns and a right hook.
The story is set in the mainstream Marvel Universe -- references are made to the Super-Human Registration Act of recent Marvel lore -- yet is essentially isolated from it. Spider-Man and the Hulk don't drop by for guest appearances. One wonders if creators Straczynski and Weston had wanted to set it in its own reality, but Marvel brass insisted it be set in the Marvel universe proper (so that if any popular characters arose out of it, they would have no trouble making guest appearances in other titles). Still, it basically comes across as its own, self-contained reality...even as we don't have to question the credulity with which people accept super beings. (Though it does make some of the dilemmas a little less dramatic if you pause to think that the Avengers or Dr. Strange are just a phone call away).
The series has obvious echoes of other sagas. Indeed, around the same time Dynamite Comics unleashed their Project Superpowers series about...a bunch of obscure 1940s super heroes resurrected in the modern age! (Though Project Superpowers was more clearly super hero action, while The Twelve is aiming for more sophistication). Both even use a "Dynamic Man" -- apparently there were two Dynamic Men published by separate companies in the 1940s...though they were almost identical to each other. Stracznyski himself had been the route of "revisionist" super hero sagas set within a distinct universe with Midnight Nation, Supreme Power, and even Bullet Points.
And an obvious antecedent to The Twelve is...The Watchman. Both take a bunch of super heroes, hook us with a mysterious murder of one of them meant to tease us through the saga...even as the real focus is on simply examining the characters and their backgrounds, more a talking head drama, with the murder and the action often on the backburner. There's plenty of flashbacks, and cutting between what was and what is. And both explore their subject -- and their idiom -- with a revisionist eye, pointing out the feet of clay, the neuroses and prejudices, of these erstwhile stalwarts.
The art by Chris Weston is part of that realist deconstruction. Although he still draws the heroes with rippling musculature, the figures and environments are meticulously rendered, right down to wallpaper patterns. And instead of presenting a collection of square-jawed matinee idols as they were in their original comics, he presents them as a more motley collection of "real" people, some with big noses, or jutting jaws. Although, when it comes to the -- only -- woman in the group, the Black Widow (no relation to the later heroine), he presents her with movie starlet looks and an improbable bust line. Indeed, most of his women are drawn glamorously -- including a woman who, other than a streak of grey in her hair, hardly looks like a woman in her sixties! The art can be a bit stiff at times, particularly in the occasional super hero/action scenes, but I liked it, and it suits the material.
The comics flirt with "mature readers" material, but not as fully as the R-rated Supreme Power. There are mature ideas, such as allusions to homosexuality, or a scene where a Nazi is shown nonchalantly fondling the unconscious Black Widow's bosom (fully clothed, of course). There are a few gory panels, and three or so panels where we glimpse the Black Widow's bare backside (as well as a male backside from time to time). But in essence, Straczynski and Weston generally pull off the trick of imbuing the thing with a "mature" tone, comparable to The Watchmen...without seeming gratuitously so.
Unfortunately, The Twelve fails to be anywhere near as ambitious or accomplished as The Watchmen. I tend to have mixed feelings toward The Watchmen, because Alan Moore's approach to characters and characterization tends to be rather cold and analytical rather than human and emotional. Straczynski can fall into a similar trap, but here at times he was creating a little more sense of the characters as, well, people, human beings with human emotions, rather than just ciphers for an idea. At times -- unfortunately, at other times, not.
At the end of the day, The Twelve is disappointing. It's not terrible, but it does feel like a concept in search of inspiration. The saga even went on a ridiculously protracted hiatus -- something like three years between issues #8 and issue #9. Supposedly this was because the creators got swamped with other projects (though Weston managed to find the time to draw -- and write! -- the double-sized one-shot The Twelve: Spearhead, telling a flashback story of the characters during WW. II, which is included in vol. 2).
The heroes get resurrected, housed together, and then the saga mixes flashbacks to their origins (some based on their real, 1940s comics, others suggesting those origins weren't the "true" story), their struggles to adjust to a modern world they don't fully understand (which, frankly, you could get in any of a number of Captain America comics over the years!)...with a mystery involving the murder of one of their own, and some other deaths. But Straczynski never really ties it all together into a tight, cohesive epic.
Frankly, one can't help thinking the 12 issue length was simply hubris -- because The Watchmen was 12 issues, as was the original Squadron Supreme. Not because Straczynski had 12 chapters worth of material. Frankly, he could've resurrected eight heroes, and serialized it over an eight issue series called The Eight. Or six.
Straczynski fails to create much sense of group camaraderie -- hence why I say you could drop a few and it wouldn't affect much. We learn this character's back story in one issue, another character's in other...but mostly it doesn't have any relevance to anything else. And they tend to be defined by one or two characteristics. So Mr. E, we learn, is a Jew who in the anti-Semitic 1940s hid his Jewishness...and now feels bad about that. And that's pretty much the definition of his character, and his scenes, for the entire series. Some characters get more development...but some even less!
Arguably the most crucial emotional/character thread is the romantic tension between the Phantom Reporter -- the saga's nominal hero -- and the mysterious Black Widow. Except even here it's not really clear why there's the attraction -- other than she's pretty, the only woman in the group, and tends to sleep in the nude. But it's not like we're exactly thinking, gosh, these two belong together, I hope they can work it out.
There are some emotional moments, some cute exchanges. But there's also a lot of times where Straczynski smugly reduces his characters to simply vectors to deliver an idea, rather than convincingly presenting well rounded, three dimensional personalities that we can care about. The flashback themselves often aren't particularly detailed, or form compelling stories in and of themselves. And even the revisionist aspect, as Straczynski clearly feels he's making pointed comments about race and sexuality, can feel rather simple and trite.
Ironically, it's not even really clear what the point is at times as by the end Straczynski himself is shrugging off the deeper ethical issues of vigilante justice and the like.
And then we get to the mystery/suspense aspect. In the first issue, we learn one of the heroes will be murdered -- albeit nothing much more is hinted at for a number of issues. By the sixth issue (which Straczynski presumably knew would serve as the final to the first TPB collection) a prophetic character arbitrarily announces something is "wrong" as if to try and reminded us that, uh, yeah, all this is really headed somewhere, folks, honest. There's also a mysterious attack on a gay bar that the police suspect connects to the Twelve.
It can all feel a bit...anti-climactic (despite one of the issues' captions referring to the characters trying to "save the world" it doesn't really feel like the story has anywhere near that kind of ramifications). And when the revelation occurs...well, it's pretty much who you would suspect (cause he came across as a jerk), for the reasons you would imagine. The only surprise revelation is something which, if you were familiar with the character's 1940s origin -- or had simply googled him! -- won't be a surprise!
And it all kind of degenerate into a big fight for a couple of issues -- a bit incongruous given the contemplative tone of the series -- before finishing off with a sedate epilogue issue. An issue that clearly indicates that Straczynski feels we've come to really care for these people, and feel like we've spent a long time with them. But I'm not sure we do entirely -- on both counts (even with that three year hiatus).
Ironically, I probably gave it a slightly better review for just the first volume -- when the saga was incomplete -- because although it was a bit slow and rambling, I was reasonably intrigued to see how it played out. But, now, finally, after its extended hiatus, the complete saga of The Twelve is...okay. Not bad, but not really anything that stands out from others within what could be seen as a sub-genre of the whole super hero genre, not fully creating a rich cast of characters that will linger with us long after we close the pages, with a two hundred plus page story that never quite becomes an epic, complex saga.
As I say: it's okay.
This is a review of the story serialized originally in the comics.
Cover price: $___ USA
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