Marvel's Point One Initiative, part 1

I haven't bought a Marvel comic for 2 or 3 years now, nor have I followed anything major since Civil War.  So I guess that makes me the target audience for their Point One Initiative, an effort to provide a perfect jumping on point for some of their most popular characters.  These books are supposed to make it easy for new readers and returning readers (like myself) to get an idea of what's going on in the Marvel Universe right now, as well as get ongoing readers excited for what's coming up.  So this month and over the next two months, I'll be weighing in on what I thought of everything the Point One line has to offer.

The Invincible Iron Man #500.1 (Matt Faction, Salvador Larroca, Frank D'Armata)

Iron Man had the strongest Point One entry this month.  While it really isn't much more than a recap story, it's very well done.  Tony Stark recounts his history growing up and as Iron Man at an AA meeting, which I thought was a pretty cool way to do a recap issue.  Fans who are more intimately familiar with the history of the character will get more out of parts of it, but as something of an Iron Man novice, I had no problem following along.  Faction's writing is sharp and bittersweet, and Larroca's pencils were stronger than anything else I saw in the other Point One books.  As far as giving hints as to what's to come, there's isn't much more than a few mysterious pics at the end, but I think I'm all in on this one.  Not only will I be picking up Iron Man from this point, but I'll be taking a look at what else Faction has done since he re-launched the title in 2008.

Wolverine #5.1 (Jason Aaron, Jefte Palo, Nathan Fairbairn)

This one caught me a little off-guard.  The first page sees Wolvie doing some pretty standard stuff...walking around somewhere in the Canadian wilderness, finding a deserted tractor trailer, finding some evidence of foul play...nothing we haven't seen before.  Then we see a surprise birthday party for him being organized.  A birthday party.  For Wolverine.  I didn't know what to think when I hit that point.  I sort of wanted to write this one off as a loss, but I'm sort of glad I gave it a chance.  I may have been a bit tired at the time, but it turned out that this issue is HILARIOUS.  Deadpool brings a cheese dip filled with bullets and sings karaoke, Spidey gets left behind in New York and no one notices he isn't a the party, and Luke Cage makes references to Squirrel Girl.  And what is Logan doing while everyone waits for him to show?  Tracking down a couple of cannibalistic brothers who use guns made out of bone that shoot teeth.  It's definitely messed up, and I'm not sure if I'll be coming back for more yet, but I sort of enjoyed it by the time it was over.  The art pretty much sucked, but the I remember Wizard giving some serious praise to writer Jason Aaron awhile back.  It ends with the appearance of a certain group of villains that I'm a bit partial to, so I may go for it.  I'll have to sleep on it, but this was definitely a fun, if slightly dumb ride.

The Amazing Spider-Man #654.1 (Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, Carlos Cuevas, Edgar Delgado)

So this was definitely a good issue, not a great one, but I have to question if it should really have been part of the Point One line.  The book follows Flash Thompson, Peter's old schoolmate and friend, now a war hero who's lost both his legs in the Middle East.  He's also the new Venom.  Apparently the government has ownership of the symbiote these days and they allow Thompson to use it for black ops missions, so long as he remains in control and not Venom.  The suit gives him back his legs, but it gets removed after the mission is done.  There's a particularly striking scene after he complete his first mission and he goes to get out of his wheelchair, forgetting he no longer has his legs.  As we could all probably guess, Flash isn't going to stay in control of the alien suit for long, and when Venom finally comes out, it's pretty awesome.  Now I'm someone who thinks Venom doesn't really work outside of the 90's.  For all intents and purposes, I hate the character.  Seeing him gutting dudes and eating a guy's hand off and me being pretty thrilled by it is a rare occurrence.

Yet there's no Spidey in the issue, and very little about Peter Parker at all in it.  I don't think this can classify as a jump-on point for ASM when would it be better suited for the new Venom book.  Even then, Slott does an adequate job writing, but Rick Remender is writing Venom, not Slott.  Regardless, I liked Slott's writing enough and there's some cool nods to what's to come, so I'll be checking out more ASM in the following weeks.  Plus, I love Spider-Man and I've been waiting for a good place to pick it back up.

BONUS MINI-REVIEW!

Silver Surfer #1 ( Greg Pak, Stephen Segovia, Victor Olazaba, Wil Quintan)

Had to throw this one in, as this was probably the best Marvel comic I read this month.  It's not a Point One book, but it's still a first issue and is pretty accessible.