José Marzán, Jr.Recensioni

Amazing anthology of Indigenous & Native authors and artists bringing much needed depth and understanding to Marvel’s many Native characters. Even without complete story arcs in this collection, it makes me want to find more on many of the characters I’d not seen before (a Native Werewolf by Night? I want more on this guy!).

that was some bullshit.

(This is a review of the entire series!)
I was very excited about this graphic novel - a dystopian world in which all men but one mysteriously die? But I was hugely disappointed, as this isn't the feminist utopia I was looking for. It's anything but, and the fact that this title was written by a man should have warned me. It's very obviously a title written by men for men, as it's pretty much every man's fantasy to have a world of women at his disposal, isn't it?

Well, the comic cleverly tries to avoid such implications by making Yorick, the last man, a very sensitive, fairly unmasculine, English major. He doesn't take advantage of his situation at all, rather, he is on a 5-year quest around the world to find his girlfriend, who was in Australia when the men a died (while Yorick was in the US).

And that's where the comic started bothering me - we're presented with a post apocalyptic world in which society has broken down. No more phones, no more electricity, no more planes. I find it utterly unrealistic that a world full of women would be unable to maintain the basic functionalities of society. Of course there might be an adjustment phase, but after that, women would be perfectly capable of doing anything men can do. It just takes some organizational skills, which I daresay women are much better at than men.

The comic also displays it's dystopia full of gangs and criminality. Again, I find this very unrealistic. I don't think women would go quite as far as the ridiculous Daughters of the Amazon are going. The comic is full of similar fanatics, like the Israeli soldiers who want to claim the last man for the future of their country. Knowing what I know about Israel, I find this pretty unlikely.

The whole conclusion to why the wipeout happened was not very satisfying either, it was rather ridiculous. There would have been much better scenarios as to why all males suddenly died.

Allover, this title was a huge disappointment for me. Where is the feminist utopia in which women lead a better world?

Story: 6.5 / 10
Characters: 6.5
Setting: 8
Prose: 6
Art: 7

Whoa! Crazy! Crazy awesome. Hella violence and hella freaky.

Monkey poop? What?

It's frustrating to have to read this one little piece at a time. Though a few questions are answered in this installation, it wasn't very satisfying. Still, I'll soldier on because I want to know how it ends.

These should probably all be 4s, but, y'know.

This was my first book taken out from the Minet Library, near Camberwell. Wish I'd joined earlier!

Great opening of what looks like a fascinating story.

Yorick is such a Dumb Boy. Luckily I love a Dumb Boy so I find him a fun protagonist. An annoying and kinda unwilling sidekick to 355's determined secret agent.

705

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One of those anthologies that is awesome in concept but a bit disappointing in execution as we are given shallow little glimpses of a lot of characters. A couple of the longer stories offered are first issues of mini-series where the rest of the story will be continued elsewhere.

There are a few gems that make it worthwhile to flip through it though.

The Watcher ~ 3 stars

Uatu provides a roll call of all the Marvel heroes with Indigenous roots. I'd forgotten about some of these characters, so it was nice to get a reminder right off the top.

Hitting Back ~ 2 stars

Echo gets called to help an alien race defeat a swamp god who is terrorizing him. A martial artist vs. a god? "Super easy, barely an inconvenience." More a prelude to developments in Maya Lopez's life than a story.

Multifaceted ~ 3 stars

New Mutants Mirage and Wolfsbane do the standard X-Men thing, showing up to help a new mutants whose first display of power has gotten him in trouble with the local authorities. Nicely done, though, with charming character interactions.

Blue Moon ~ 2 stars

In the distant past Silver Fox and Trigo, a wife and husband of the Blackfoot Confederacy, sabotage a fort so it will fail and slow down white settlers. Dark and depressing for many reasons.

The Unexpected ~ 2 stars

Indigenous members of the X-Men play whack-a-mole with a weird but easily defeated giant thingywhatsit. Less a story, more a statement.

The Tuurngait's Song ~ 2 stars

Snowguard of the Champions returns home to Nunavut to recruit help for her village against some sea witches. Stiff and silly.

Not Dead Yet ~ 3 stars

Set in the 2070s, American Eagle shows us that aging is not the same as being washed up when he stumbles into a bank robbery.

A Friend in Need ~ 2 stars

Another prelude to the upcoming series starring Maya Lopez introduces readers to River -- short for Riverwalker -- a young man who does the old "I see dead people" thing. Meh.

An Interview with Writer Rebecca Roanhorse

Roanhorse complains of "one-dimensional characters where there's always a spirit animal or someone's always changing into an animal." The editor maybe shouldn't have placed this article right before the next two stories.

Champions Annual #1 ~ 2 stars

Snowguard, a shapeshifter, returns to Nunavut for the second time in this collection to deal with still more mythical creatures endangering her hometown. She's a more interesting character this time around, but it's all so earnest it gets a little boring.

Werewolf by Night #1 ~ 2 stars

When he's not protecting his people by turning into a werewolf at night, Jake Gomez works as a janitor at an evil corporation. Seems like those two things are going to collide at some point. And Red Wolf is hanging out in the background keeping his eye on everything. Seems a little generic as far as first issues go, but I might pick up the series collection to see if it builds momentum.

The United States of Captain America #3 ~3 stars

This short excerpt introduces us to Joe Gomez, a Kickapoo construction worker from Kansas, who ends up using a tower crane to battle Bulldozer when the villain attacks his construction site. Gomez's regular guy rising to a moment of heroism is cool. It's a shame they didn't do more with him instead of making him yet another new Captain America in a series that gave us a half dozen or so.

Phoenix Song: Echo #1 ~ 2 stars

Oh, look, here's what those previous two stories about Echo were hinting at. I've seen Maya Lopez in various places around the Marvel Universe, but she never seems to be anything but angry. This first issue from her new mini-series seems to be more of the same at first, but might be moving toward something a little deeper. I'm not totally won over, but I might check out the full collection later.

Honor the Sacred ~ 3 stars

A nice tribute to Red Wolf with some dynamic art and design.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:

• Introduction / Lee Francis IV, writer

Marvel's Voices: Indigenous Voices (2020) #1, cover art by Jim Terry
• The Watcher / Jeffrey Veregge, writer and artist
• Hitting Back [Echo] / Rebecca Roanhorse, writer; Weshoyot Alvitre, artist
• Multifaceted [New Mutants] / Darcie Little Badger, writer; Kyle Charles, artist
• Blue Moon [Silver Fox] / Stephen Graham Jones, writer; David Cutler, penciller; Roberto Poggi, inker
• Afterword / Taboo and B. Earl

Marvel's Voices: Heritage (2021) #1, cover art by Kyle Charles
• The Unexpected [X-Men] / Jim Terry, writer and artist
• The Tuurngait's Song [Snowguard] / Nyla Innuksuk, writer; Natasha Donovan, artist
• Not Dead Yet [American Eagle] / Steven Paul Judd, writer; David Cutler, penciller, José Marzan Jr., inker
• A Friend in Need [River] / Rebecca Roanhorse, writer; Shaun Beyale, penciller, Belardino Brabo, inker
• An Interview with Writer Rebecca Roanhorse / Angélique Roché

Champions Annual (2018) #1, cover art by R. B. Silva
• [Snowguard] / Jim Zub and Nyla Innuksuk, writers; Marcus To, artist

Werewolf by Night (2020) #1, cover art by Mike McKone
• [New Wolf Rising, Part 1] / Taboo and B. Earl, writers; Scot Eaton, artist; Scott Hanna, inker

The United States of Captain America (2021) #3, cover art by Gerard Parel
• [Excerpt featuring Joe Gomez, the Captain America of the Kickapoo Tribe] / Darcie Little Badger, writer; David Cutler, penciller; Roberto Poggi, inker

Phoenix Song: Echo (2021) #1, cover art by Cory Smith
• [Phoenix Song: Echo, Part 1] / Rebecca Roanhorse, writer; Luca Maresca, artist

Marvel Comics (2019) #1000
• Honor the Sacred [Excerpt featuring Red Wolf] / Taboo and B. Earl, writers; Jeffrey Veregge, artist

• Marvel's Voices Essay / Darcie Little Badger, writer
• Marvel's Voices Essay / Karla Pacheco, writer
• We Are Here! Indigenous Presence and Imagined Futures / Amanda R. Tachine, writer
• Variant Cover Gallery / David Mack, Afua Richardson, Jeffrey Veregge, Roy Boney, Jim Terry, Bill Sienkiewicz, Babs Tarr, and Maria Wolf, illustrators

The trade I have to rank the same as Trade #1. I was so disinterested in this crossover all together, that the further i pushed myself, dragging feet through it, it almost felt the worst it got. Things that made it livable:


1. Blue

2. The Page Sister's

3. The Literary Tropes

4. The culmination of the Little Girl gag

Lots of blah blah blah in this one.

Glad I tried another-this was much better than the last one.

The last man on Earth can be a real moron sometimes. I was glad to finally see a little of what's happening with Beth, but the ship vs. submarine storyline mostly felt like filler until they get to Japan. The 355 and Dr. Mann business came out of nowhere, at least 355's side of it. There and gone, apparently just for the heck of it. And the business with the swashbuckling captain? Irritating. What was with the love declaration towards the end, anyway? Was he supposed to be in love with the captain?

Anyway, I still want to see how it ends, but this series is kind of hit or miss for me.