In the tail end of 2010, Marvel announced a set of point one issues on many of their most popular titles to attract new readers and create an accessible starting point. Since I hadn’t been reading Marvel publications for long, this came as welcome news to me and countless other would be readers. In this three-part feature I’ll be reviewing each issue to see whether they’re doing their jobs properly… we’ll be starting with the February releases.
To tie in with a landmark issue number, the first release was The Invincible Iron Man 500.1 and I’ve got to say it was a disappointment, writer Matt Fraction provided a basic first person re-telling of Tony Stark’s entire life story. Apart from running over a few helpful plot points and setting up familiar adversaries ( The Mandarin) the issue didn’t offer much more than a simple search on Wikipedia could provide, and it only takes one viewing of Jon Favreau’s Iron Man to find out Tony Stark has major issues with booze and woman. I think Fraction failed to provide the springboard Marvel set out to provide with the point one releases, the end two preview pages did more to persuade me to buy the next issue than anything.
ED – Yeah, this put me off Iron Man a lot, which is a shame because #500 was a great jumping on point…
Just from the cover art I became interested in the next point one, Wolverine 5.1. Whilst at first I was worried Jason Aaron might rely on the lazy inner monologue technique used in Iron Man, these fears were immediately dashed as Aaron set up a double narrative between Logan fighting cannibal hillbillies and his girlfriend setting up a surprise birthday party! Aaron used the situation and action to convey the character rather than dialogue heavy exposition, the issue was violent but still comedic, and the artwork was interesting and nicely coloured; we even met further characters in the Marvel universe (we’ll be coming to Deadpool next time!) An epilogue set up the narrative for the next issue and left me wanting to find out where Logan might be heading…
ED – HELL! Didn’t tell you that did it?
The February releases finished with the highest issue number point one, The Amazing Spiderman 654.1. Once I got over the fact that Peter Parker is not the primary character in this issue (Didn’t I just see him on the cover?) I enjoyed it. The use of panels within the pages are really kinetic and the plot points exciting; The spy and espionage elements to the narrative were even reminiscent of classic James Bond (Flash Thompson very quickly ends up putting on a tux and uses dance to get close to a
girl, it’s Sean Connery in a Venom Symbiote!). Although the end two preview pages did interest me enough to continue reading, I was left wondering why Spiderman only now takes over the narrative drive, and who will have it in issue 655?
ED - I thought it was more a Venom 0 than a Spiderman.1. I guess they figured noone really needs a jumping on point for Spiderman. Not surprised you were confused though, they just used the issue to get people to buy Venom #1.
In part 2 of the point one feature, I’ll take a look at the March releases, including Hulk 30.1, Deadpool 33.1 and Uncanny X-Force 5.1.
Will Pond.
