Avengers: Prelude to Infinity, Jonathan Hickman

"It’s the buildup to the biggest event of 2013! First, Hyperion and Captain Universe begin the godlike education of the transformed Savage Land children. But when the High Evolutionary stakes his claim on the Children of the Sun, Hyperion learns the true cost of the decisions he’s made — as the techno-titan Terminus returns! Then, the prelude to INFINITY begins as all of Earth’s Origin Sites go active — and the planet begins communicating with something much more ancient than humans. And when alien races fleeing an intergalactic terror crash to Earth, Captain Universe and Manifold must take a trip across the universe. Whatever happened to Ex Nihilo, Abyss, Starbrand and Nightmask? As the Avengers recruit more members to deal with the mounting threat, the Builders enter the Marvel Universe — and INFINITY is upon us.  Collecting AVENGERS (2012) #12-17."



I think that it's probably fair to say at this point that I am unashamedly pro-Hickman's run on Avengers, even if there is a hard-core contingent of fans who believe his style of long-play, character presence heavy stories. Just as there were people who said that Bendis 'ruined' Avengers (he didn't), or Johns 'ruined' Avengers (still no), there are now some who seem convinced that any Avengers story that wasn't written, drawn and inked in either the 1960s or by Kurt Busiek doesn't count. So, Jonathan Hickman has 'ruined' Avengers, in the sense that he has expanded the cast, introduced interesting new characters, and crafted an ongoing series of arcs that require attention and comprehension skills beyond recognising who punched who.

Complicated doesn't always mean cerebral - it's a mistake that Doctor Who has suffered from over the last few years - but in this case it often works. It's certainly true that the huge number of characters who are now Avengers means that not everyone gets the spotlight every issue, but in creating new characters who all feel like they could hold their own for years to come Hickman reinvigorates the franchise, and has set it in a bold new direction. This isn't Bendis's street level team, but a cosmic crowd. Any team that can boast Hulk, Thor, Hyperion, Captain Marvel, Starbrand, Captain Universe as just the most over-powered of their membership is going to be powerhouse, so throwing in what would have been the New Avengers in years past, as well as the more classic line ups, allows for a greater rang of stories - note the difference between the battle with Terminus, the assault on the origin site in Canada, and Shang Chi vs. ninja's in a Chinese casino.

It's certainly true that character development in the overly monologuey style beloved of Bendis, the kind that requires you to pick up comic after comic to see the seeds sown in one chat play out, but reading this in trade makes it a better proposition. I can only imagine how unejoyable it may feel to get so little out of one issue, but that's, sadly, modern comics.

Also Try:
Jonathan Hickman, The Manhattan Projects
Jonathan Hickman, Secret Warriors
Brian Michael Bendis, New Avengers

North 40, Aaron Williams and Fiona Staples

"The residents of an isolated rural area discover superhuman and supernatural power in their midst. Within the limits of the county, something ancient and malevolent stirs and new monsters arise. Wyatt, unlikely hero from the wrong side of the tracks, Sheriff Morgan and town outcast Amanda will have to combine their efforts to keep the county from imploding...or being eaten by mighty Cthulu."













North 40 was recommended to me by the staff at my (outstanding) LCS, Nostalgia and Comics, due to the Fiona Staples art and everyone's love of her work on Saga with Brian K. Vaughan. That's the kind of universally acclaimed Sci-fi that tends to gain you devotees, and so the shop was offering copies of some of her older work.

It was actually the American Vampire and The Wake on my pull-list that earned me a recommend, as although I am enjoying Saga, I'm trade waiting rather than doing a monthly pull, something I'm perfectly happy with as I am apparently the only comic reader in the world who thinks it's pretty slight work.

So, instead I end up with a low-key horror trade, of Staples' art on a Lovecraftian epic, set in small town America where opening the wrong elder tome has led to the majority of the town developing the kind of eldritch talents that in a straight cape book would be called superpowers. Riffing on the horrific nature of giving people these abilities, and the terrifying amount of misuse they can be put to, whilst also dealing with vampires, zombies, giant robots, evil ghosts and, yes, Cthulhu, the story isn't deep and doesn't try to tell us anything new but works as a set up for the kind of monster mash-up that few horror stories really sell well.

The characterisation is choppy, the story bulging but shallow, but the art, the art! The art is lovely. Much looser than her Saga work (and apparently that's a trend as her earlier work on Done to Death supposedly is looser to the point of indifference), but with an easy slackness that fits the small town Americana vibe. It's complimented but some excellent colouring, a washed out palate that gives it a 50s, picture house vibe, all low washes and scrap book heart. It's fantastic.

Next I've been recommended Done to Death, so I'll pick that up and feedback.

Also Try:
Scott Snyder, American Vampire/ The Wake
Brian K. Vaughan, Saga
H. P. Lovecraft, Necromicon

Temeraire, Naomi Novak

"Captain Will Laurence has been at sea since he was just twelve years old; finding a warmer berth in Nelson's navy than any he enjoyed as the youngest, least important son of Lord Allendale. Rising on merit to captain his own vessel, Laurence has earned himself a beautiful fiancée, society's esteem and a golden future. But the war is not going well. It seems Britain can only wait as Napoleon plans to overrun her shores.

After a skirmish with a French ship, Laurence finds himself in charge of a rare cargo: a dragon egg bound for the Emperor himself. Dragons are much prized: properly trained, they can mount a fearsome attack from the skies. One of Laurence's men must take the beast in hand and join the aviators' cause, thus relinquishing all hope of a normal life.

But when the newly-hatched dragon ignores the young midshipman Laurence chose as its keeper and decides to imprint itself on the horrified captain instead, Laurence's world falls apart. Gone is his golden future: gone his social standing, and soon his beautiful fiancée, as he is consigned to be the constant companion and trainer of the fighting dragon Temeraire…"

This was a reread inspired by my friend Alex looking for a new book to read - knowing his love of historical fiction, and especially his fondness for Sharpe, I figured this would be an excellent next step. It's one of the best, and most unusual, works of speculative historical fiction, boiling down to 'Napoleonic War with Dragons' but stretching far wider than the European theatre that suggests.

Few writers have such a solid grasp of narrative than Novak, who builds a world that is enjoyable to read about and doesn't strecth credibility too far within her central premise. As the series builds her grasp of the politics and world wide picture comes into focus, and it's here that Temerarire excels. Bringing in Chinese politics, Australian rebellions, Portugese Empire building in South America, the invasion of Russia, whilst also sprinkling in divergences such as France invading England by air, or the rise of a Pan-African anti-slavery nation.

These twists keeps things fresh from a historical perspective, whilst the main characters, Captain Will Laurence and his Dragon, Temeraire, make for hilarious protagonists. Frequently faced with intemperate, uncomprehending adversaries within British society, as well as enemies abroad, they stand as a mixture of Sharpe, Hornblower and Mr Darcy, as confident delivering pithy put-downs to fellow fliers as in battling the French.

A novel and often head-scratchingly inventive novel, these first few books are the high point of the series, and well worth reading.

Also Try:
Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel
Neil Gaiman, Sandman

A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson

"The longest continuous footpath in the world, the Appalachian Trail stretches along the East Coast of the United States, from Georgia to Maine, through some of the most arresting and celebrated landscapes in America.

At the age of forty-four, in the company of his friend Stephen Katz (last seen in the bestselling Neither Here nor There), Bill Bryson set off to hike through the vast tangled woods which have been frightening sensible people for three hundred years. Ahead lay almost 2,200 miles of remote mountain wilderness filled with bears, moose, bobcats, rattlesnakes, poisonous plants, disease-bearing tics, the occasional chuckling murderer and - perhaps most alarming of all - people whose favourite pastime is discussing the relative merits of the external-frame backpack.

Facing savage weather, merciless insects, unreliable maps and a fickle companion whose profoundest wish was to go to a motel and watch The X-Files, Bryson gamely struggled through the wilderness to achieve a lifetime's ambition - not to die outdoors."

Before ‘An Idiot Abroad’ ever cemented a vision of English travelling that revolved around an uncomprehending blankness about the achievements and successes of other nations, or a distaste for travelling to places of wonder and awe, Bryson was ALSO moodily assessing the state of the world. Far from the current, tiresomely modern exercise in banality that marks out the works of the ‘Is it just me or is everything shit? Brigade’, Bryson deconstructs the places and people around him, drawing meaning and insight from small towns, the food and the arch-locations he journeys through.

His strength as a travel writer is often the incidental way he writes about travel; part historian and part comedian, his musings frequently resemble nothing less than streams of information – facts, figures and analysis are consumed and reassembled in pithy summations, that impart far more than any travelogue or journey plan alone ever could. Bryson at times resembles nothing less than a polymath; the range of research that went into a book such as A Walk in the Woods is intense, but his down-to-earth writing style, aversion to floridity and general good humour often convinces that these are not just post-journey findings, but simply off the cuff recitals of things he knows.

Bryson is my favourite travel companion, and A Walk in the Woods is more than just my favourite book about travelling. Its evocation of a way of life divorced from the wider world, of men and women who mark time by the miles they’ve walked, and who are consumed by their passion, as well as for the world outside and how much we’ve lost of our place in nature is powerful and compelling. Like all the great writers, filmmakers and artists whose work is touched by a love of ‘The Green’ (to borrow an idea from Swamp Thing) reading his books makes you want to scale a mountain, or explore a forest, to lie in the grasp and allow time to pass by.

Also Try:

Bill Bryson, Notes From a Small Island

Tony Hawks, Round Ireland with a Fridge

Dave Gorman, Dave Gorman’s Googlewhack Adventure!

Nathaniel Philbrick, Mayflower