If there's one thing I cannot stand about comics, it's the term 'graphic novel'.
Oh, I get what it's meant to be used for, don't get me wrong: it's to illustrate the difference between the typical comic book series (with individual 20+ page installments delivered monthly, each serving as a chapter of a larger book) and a full story told in one single volume. It's just that the term has been co-opted by snobbish types who can't bear to admit they once read "one of the funnybooks" and actually liked it. "Oh yes, I have read that GRAPHIC NOVEL by mister Moore, it was rather enjoyable - what? Comics? Pfah, no, dear boy, I never read COMICS..." Say that last sentence in your best Mark Kermode voice for maximum impact.
Anyway, that nitpick aside, graphic novels (grrrr) are something that Marvel has been kind of ignoring for the past few years. DC, on the other hand, have had a pretty good grasp on what the format can do - namely attract a different audience, the kind of people who have a passing interest in the characters and worlds found in comics but lack the patience or obsessiveness to throw themselves into the deep end with an ongoing series. Stuff like the Earth One Batman and Superman stories have been pretty successful examples of this, but with the debut effort of their new OGN line, Marvel are perhaps being more ambitious; instead of retelling the beginnings of one of their iconic heroes, writer Warren Ellis and artist Mike McKone choose to drop the reader into a very of-the-moment universe, with a team of already-established characters, and trust that you'll be able to keep up with the self-contained story. Does the gamble work? Read on to find out! (or to save you some time - yes, it does)
Just Cap bein' Cap, no biggie.
...and also Nazi ice dragons. Those are bad too.
First, to make this clear up front: there is no previous reading required to 'get' Endless Wartime, as promised. All the information anyone would need to know about this world and these characters is contained in the book itself and delivered unobtrusively. For dorks like me, EW seems to take place fairly 'recently' in the Marvel universe, given that most characters are wearing their most recent outfit variations from the Marvel NOW! relaunch (and in the case of Hawkeye, behaving in sync with their most recent series upheaval), but it's so self-contained it could fit anywhere in that loose timeframe.
Of the characters involved, EW plays it mostly safe, sticking with the core 'Movievengers' squad of Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye and the Hulk (who doesn't show up 'til the last act, so to speak), all of whom - with the aforementioned exception of Hawkeye who doesn't spend half the story under evil mind control - behave largely as they have in the movies. Cap is honest and straight-shooting to a fault, Thor is boastful yet wounded by his own ego, Iron Man is just constantly snarking and only lets his guard down privately, the Widow is hyper-competent and frequently exasperated by the 'amateurs' she's stuck with, and Bruce Banner is wearily accepting of the Hulk and the resulting problems. Rounding out the unit is Wolverine, who still refuses to heed my forceful thought commands and just die already, and Captain Marvel, the only hero here yet to have made the jump to movieland (only a matter of time now, surely) but I've already talked about how awesome she is and she fits into the team dynamic seamlessly, a brash mix of firm protocol and daredevil self-assuredness that will likely win her more than a few new fans. If there is one regrettable side to this, it's that the villains - such as they are - aren't really much to write home about. Their background is explained well enough but the 'soldiers' are just cyborg monsters that can't talk, and the puppet masters behind them are introduced too late to amount to much. That's probably gonna feel like a kick in the teeth if your favourite part of the Avengers movie was Loki.
I am making it my mission to use the phrase 'Large Magellanic Cloud'
on a daily basis from this point on.
The story is fairly well-paced, with Ellis pulling out some narrative gymnastics to keep things moving at a fair clip while allowing for a pair of luxuriously long 'flashback' action sequences in the early going. There isn't much in the way of mystery - something that's pointed out and made fun of as Iron Man repeatedly observes "we're not detectives...because we actually really suck at that kind of thing" - but there are enough wrinkles in the plot to make the basic idea of 'find monsters and beat them up' stretch out to 110 pages without feeling padded. Of course, as with its cinematic inspiration, EW lives or dies on the strength of its wit and characterisation, which it thankfully handles with practiced ease. I don't wanna spoil most of the material here, because...I'm not that much of a bell-end, but suffice to say this is absolutely the funniest book with a big 'A' with an inset arrow on the cover I've read in a long, long time (and rest assured I read a LOT of inset-arrow-A books).
One thing that does strike a little odd is the tone of the book. Now, I have no issue with a story going from funny to serious between panels - I read X-Men Legacy, for god's sake, and even the Avengers movie dabbled with nasty business like Fury using Coulson's death to manipulate the team or the council of shadowy people launching a nuke at Manhattan - but Endless Wartime is pretty consistently dour throughout. That's not to say it's 'bad', or even wrong; any story that deals with US military intervention in contested nations and the thorny subject of drone warfare can never be light or cheerful because that is some heavy crap to talk about. My problem is that this book, released at this time, for a certain audience, was perhaps not the best place to talk about it, maybe? I mean, yes, the Avengers have had their fair share of bad days over the years, but for a one-off story aimed at a more casual, expansive audience than the typical comics die-hard, having the Avengers go to war against the country they're based in, and then having a major downbeat ending that reinforces the grim reality behind comic books as stories without closure, strikes me as something that would perhaps put people off these characters rather than encourage them to go buy up past trades of their other exploits. Could always be wrong, though.
Well, at least her butt isn't turned ALL the way towards us...
When I first sat down to write this post, I had a whole bundle of negative thoughts about Mike McKone's art (coloured by Jason Keith). Oh, it wasn't really bad per se - I'm not talking 90s Rob Liefeld or present day Greg Land here - but it was just so...workmanlike. Run of the mill. Competent. Average. And with a book that's meant to be an event, I was kinda hoping to be blown away like I was the first time I read a Bill Sienkiewicz Moon Knight issue or dribbled over Esad Ribic's work on Silver Surfer: Requiem. But, I've since re-read the book a few more times and I've come around on McKone's work quite a bit. His is a rather photo-real style, in the vein of Steve McNiven or Bryan Hitch, but with a softer edge on faces which, alas, does mean some panels read a little wrong when a given character's expression doesn't quite match the emotion expressed in the dialogue. That being said, every person, object and winged beastie is rendered well and McKone's framing is perhaps his strongest suit; even in mid-air pitched battles you'll never struggle to tell what's happening or who's going where. That may sound like I'm reaching far for praise, but trust me, it's impressive.
Also worth noting is the book's layout and design, by Rian Hughes. Without needing to worry about filling in blank pages where there used to be adverts - and perhaps given the luxury of a longer timeframe to produce the finished article - Hughes has gone for a lovely minimalist approach to the non-art pages and the covers, and as a sucker for small details I'm pretty much in love with the way his revamped Avengers 'A' links together into a wall of the things on the inside covers.
On the whole, Endless Wartime is a bit of an odd beast, but feels like a success. Ellis is on his A-game here and he's supported by an artist that, while perhaps not world-class, is more than good enough to let the story shine. The tale is daring enough to mess with your expectations of what an Avengers book could/should be while still wrapping you up in the cozy folds of Earth's Mightiest Heroes and their bromancing greatness. And the whole thing is bound together so nicely it practically stinks of quality. If this is the benchmark for the Marvel OGN label, it's a hell of a...nice...bench?...and I can't wait to see what's up next. (wait...it's a spider-man story about his missing parents that nobody gives a **** about, isn't it? gah)
It's only just occurring to me now that Iron Man flying around
while looking straight down at the ground is an accident waiting to happen.
THIS IS WHY EVERYONE WANTS TO STOMP YOU, TONY.
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Avengers: Endless Wartime is available now from bookshops and specialty stores, or digitally from Comixology and similar sites, for US$24.99.
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