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.