Giant-Size Ms. Marvel: update

Sadly, I won't be posting this review on the site today. As writing does, it took a turn I did not expect. The pieces started as a short rant meant to be posted on a comic book message board; it then exploded into a review, which was the last thing in the world I wanted to write when I sat down early yesterday evening; and the more I wrote and the more I thought about the piece, the more it turned into a feature article about the dos and don'ts of mail ordering comic books.

Unexpected does not mean unwanted, however. In fact, it means the exact opposite here.

Writing evolves as the pen crosses the page and your fingers tap the keys. And any writer worth his muse will tell you this: "Go with it." Fighting the flow of where your writing wants to go only because it doesn't fit your original plan / outline / notion / whatever is counterproductive, believe it or not.

Ever ignore a gut feeling only to lose out on something big? Yeah, it's like that — writing is.

Writing is a gut feeling wrapped in an idea guided by serendipity. You can't control it; it controls you.

That's what happened here — to me. The rant-turned-review / review-turned-feature has taken on a life of its own, and I'm giving it legs. Unfortunately for its legs, my eyes are tired. So it will have to wait until this weekend to stretch 'em.

Giant-Size Ms. Marvel

This is an excerpt from a review of Giant-Size Ms. Marvel that I'm currently writing. The rest will hit Earth-2 come Friday:

As everyone knows, I'm a Marvel guy. No way around it; that's what I am. More often than not I find myself on the opposing end of "Marvel / Joe Q. / Bendis sucks" rants. So yeah, I defend them because I love what they do, and loathe when people blindly hate on them because it's the cool thing to do. Or whatever.

That said, I cannot defend Marvel this time. I can't do it.

My biweekly DCBS order arrived today, and in it were several titles I was really looking forward to: Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk #2, Daredevil #82, Astonishing X-Men #14, The Warlord #1 and Batman #650. Most of all, however, Giant-Size Ms. Marvel.

Even if my life depended on it, I couldn't explain why this one had me so excited. Maybe it's because I love it when companies reinvigorate longstanding, yet underused characters (RE: Cage, Luke; Hood, Red; Panther, Black), and had hoped Marvel would do the same with Captain Marvel / Binary / Warbird / Ms. Marvel. Maybe it's because I love what Kurt Busiek did with her in The Avengers. Then again, maybe it's because Frank Cho will be illustrating the covers of her new ongoing, and I do so love his work.

Whatever my reasoning, I ordered Giant-Size Ms. Marvel from DCBS and eagerly read it as soon as I could. And before I knew it, I was done. This 96 page book that cost $4.99 was 80 pages of reprints (including ads) and only 16 pages of new material.

Okay, so I only paid $2.49 thanks to DCBS, but I still paid $2.49 for only 16 pages! And those pages are a very belated "House of M" tie-in. While I understand that the events of "House of M" play directly into this new ongoing, the story was rushed at best and filler at worst.

Now as for the reprinted material: I don't mind it, really, because it's older origin stuff I've never had the chance to read. But Marvel could have at least included 22 pages of new material. Or, better yet, 36 — with half of those set in the House of M world (where Carol was the world's most revered non-mutant hero) and the other half in the regular Marvel Universe (where she's just another person in tights).

With 36 pages at his disposal, writer Brian Reed could have easily drawn several parallels between Carol's two distinctly different superheroic lives, set up a decent conflict (and introduced a new villain) for her to knock down and, last but certainly not least, developed her character through actions and words — rather than first-person narration. As any writer will tell you, it's show, not tell. Reed told us Carol is unsatisfied with her costumed life thus far, but showed us nothing to truly indicate this.

But that's this writer playing armchair, well, writer.

Not all of the blame should be shouldered by Reed, however. Marvel dealt him 16 pages — 16 pages with which he had to cram character development, action, internal strife and resolution into while enticing people to purchase the upcoming ongoing; a difficult task to say the least — but a 16-page story needn't feel rushed, crammed or whatever one wants to call it. The lack of new pages is Marvel's fault; the quality of the story is Reed's. So I blame them both, but Marvel must take the brunt because of their decision to limit new content in lieu of decades-old tales. (Plus, an editor could have asked Reed for a rewrite.)

Every comic cannot be a gem. I understand and actually expect that. But again, we are being asked to spend $4.99 on 16 new pages, so the book better be damn near perfect. At that price, I want to flip to the last page and feel moved. It should be an experience. After setting it atop my stack of newly read books, I want to crave the first issue of the ongoing. A desire to rush to the local comic shop should penetrate my bones. Instead, I feel cheated.

Nightwing 117

Publisher: DC
Price: $2.50
Cover date: April 2006
W: Devin Grayson
A: Brad Walker

Synopsis: While recovering from radiation burns, Dick ties up some loose ends and makes a life-changing decision.

Thoughts: Nightwing 116 stunk! But 117 makes up for that. While not a terrific issue, it's certainly better than the previous installment. What keeps this one from being great is Grayson's (the writer; not the titular character) need to wrap up her story before handing the book over to upcoming writer Bruce Jones. Everything from Dick's interaction with Alfred and Bruce, his fight with Slade and Rose, and the emotional ending could have been... could have meant so much more had she one more issue. Instead, everything is crammed into here and feels rushed.

Mario Kart DS

This is going to sound like an odd contradiction, but I'm going to say it anyway: Mario Kart DS is the best Mario Kart to date, but it's also so damn boring! I think this stems from the porting of old tracks into this new game. Because half of the courses are so very familiar, the game only feels half-new. And even though these are some of the best tracks from the four previous Mario Kart titles, I doubt they'll sustain the hardcore MK player's interest past the 50cc circuit.

That said, the handling is smooth, the weapons are as dangerous as ever, the characters are rendered in a smoother (but still somewhat blocky) N64-like way, the challenge increases nice and sharply as one moves from circuit to circuit, the new courses have that Mario Kart flair, and, though the stylus isn't needed, the use of the DS screen to show two different types of maps and the weapons of other players is a great addition to the franchise.

Besides the aforementioned familiar / half-new feel, my only other real gripe is that the buttons are way too small. Though it isn't the fault of the game, the tiny buttons actually hinder gameplay and can cramp larger hands.

The DS was clearly made for younger gamers — the button design is proof of this — and it's a damn shame that great, all-ages games have to suffer because of it.

Hopefully a full review will hit Earth-2 before the weekend.