Josh was forced to go it alone yesterday, but came through with stellar reviews of Nemesis #1, Uncanny X-Men #522, The Guild #1, Green Lantern #52, Thor #608, and the Frank Miller GelaSkins!

CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S ARRIVALS

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Questions? Comments? Post them below!

Josh was forced to go it alone yesterday, but came through with stellar reviews of Nemesis #1, Uncanny X-Men #522, The Guild #1, Green Lantern #52, Thor #608, and the Frank Miller GelaSkins!

CHECK OUT THIS WEEK’S ARRIVALS

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Questions? Comments? Post them below!

This morning I bound from my slumber like a kid at Christmas. “Nemesis comes out today,” I whispered geekily to myself. When I heard that this week’s comic shipment got here this morning, you could see a trail of papers flying around in my wake.

After I got my hands on my copy, I quickly consumed it. After I was done, I started over from the first page to savor McNiven’s amazing artwork. Dude is seriously talented (obvious statement of the day out of the way). For reals though folks, McNiven knocks it out of the park.

From Nemesis’ smirk on page four to blood spatter that’s peppered throughout the book to the terror on peoples’ faces when they’re about to die, it’s clear McNiven is in love with his craft. He conveys the speed of bullets, planes and trains beautifully. When other artists forget to pay attention to the backgrounds and cityscapes, McNiven shines. The locations are just as much a character as Nemesis or the hero cop he’s targeting. I’m a fan.

I don’t want to give too much away for those who have already ordered their copy, but you can highlight the space below to see my spoilery review.

HIGHLIGHT BELOW FOR SPOILERS:
The premise is pretty simple. Imagine the most badass villain that you can and nobody in the world has been able to stop him. There it is.

Nemesis is grounded in reality–he’s got no super-human abilities to speak of (none that we know of, anyway), just a man with a plan and the means to make things happen. This issue sees our antagonist taunt and murder Tokyo’s Police Chief with such little effort that it’s almost laughable.

Nemesis is almost too good at what he does. I think that’s actually the point though. He’s the world’s only super-criminal—a ravenous Rottweiler who’s been unleashed. Millar does a really good job at writing Nemesis’s flippant attitude toward law, order, and human life. At one point, as people are fleeing for their lives, he says “That’s right, you little peasants! Run!” That single panel told me all I needed to know about his character.

We’re then introduced to Blake Morrow, the Police Chief of Washington D.C.. I really like what Millar’s doing here. Morrow is the best of the best. He’s intelligent, calculating, mindful, and successful. Crime has decreased 60% because of his initiatives and the word on the street is that he’s getting gig Homeland Security. In short, he’s the best there is. We care about his character and empathize for the situation he’s about to face. Too bad he’s gonna die.

I don’t know what the hell happened, but Nemesis has been waiting to take on Morrow. There’s some sort of history there dating back decades and he’s out for revenge. Did you feel that? You got chills just then, didn’t you? Did I mention that Nemesis single-handedly takes down Air Force One? I warned you things would get be spoilery.
Wicked, huh?

The only thing I’m left wondering is why you’re still reading this review. Get this book now. If you dig any of Millar’s previous work: Wanted, Kick-Ass, Old Man Logan, Marvel’s Civil War, you need to get this book. If you’ve got a darker side, that side should be buying this book now. Do it while you can, it will definitely sell out.

  Order Nemesis #1 Now

  Preorder other Nemesis issues

  See who won our Nemesis contest

This morning I bound from my slumber like a kid at Christmas. “Nemesis comes out today,” I whispered geekily to myself. When I heard that this week’s comic shipment got here this morning, you could see a trail of papers flying around in my wake.

After I got my hands on my copy, I quickly consumed it. After I was done, I started over from the first page to savor McNiven’s amazing artwork. Dude is seriously talented (obvious statement of the day out of the way). For reals though folks, McNiven knocks it out of the park.

From Nemesis’ smirk on page four to blood spatter that’s peppered throughout the book to the terror on peoples’ faces when they’re about to die, it’s clear McNiven is in love with his craft. He conveys the speed of bullets, planes and trains beautifully. When other artists forget to pay attention to the backgrounds and cityscapes, McNiven shines. The locations are just as much a character as Nemesis or the hero cop he’s targeting. I’m a fan.

I don’t want to give too much away for those who have already ordered their copy, but you can highlight the space below to see my spoilery review.

HIGHLIGHT BELOW FOR SPOILERS:
The premise is pretty simple. Imagine the most badass villain that you can and nobody in the world has been able to stop him. There it is.

Nemesis is grounded in reality–he’s got no super-human abilities to speak of (none that we know of, anyway), just a man with a plan and the means to make things happen. This issue sees our antagonist taunt and murder Tokyo’s Police Chief with such little effort that it’s almost laughable.

Nemesis is almost too good at what he does. I think that’s actually the point though. He’s the world’s only super-criminal—a ravenous Rottweiler who’s been unleashed. Millar does a really good job at writing Nemesis’s flippant attitude toward law, order, and human life. At one point, as people are fleeing for their lives, he says “That’s right, you little peasants! Run!” That single panel told me all I needed to know about his character.

We’re then introduced to Blake Morrow, the Police Chief of Washington D.C.. I really like what Millar’s doing here. Morrow is the best of the best. He’s intelligent, calculating, mindful, and successful. Crime has decreased 60% because of his initiatives and the word on the street is that he’s getting gig Homeland Security. In short, he’s the best there is. We care about his character and empathize for the situation he’s about to face. Too bad he’s gonna die.

I don’t know what the hell happened, but Nemesis has been waiting to take on Morrow. There’s some sort of history there dating back decades and he’s out for revenge. Did you feel that? You got chills just then, didn’t you? Did I mention that Nemesis single-handedly takes down Air Force One? I warned you things would get be spoilery.
Wicked, huh?

The only thing I’m left wondering is why you’re still reading this review. Get this book now. If you dig any of Millar’s previous work: Wanted, Kick-Ass, Old Man Logan, Marvel’s Civil War, you need to get this book. If you’ve got a darker side, that side should be buying this book now. Do it while you can, it will definitely sell out.

  Order Nemesis #1 Now

  Preorder other Nemesis issues

  See who won our Nemesis contest

Read the rest at AMC –>

New York, N.Y. February 23, 2010 - WHA Entertainment, a publisher and
developer of entertainment games based on leading IP Franchises, today
announced it is releasing Kick-Ass for the PSN and iPhone April 15th.
Kick-Ass is a superhero action game based on the upcoming theatrical
movie by the same name. Players will be put to the test as they take
on the role of any 1 of 3 super heroes based on the super characters
featured in the movie.

Featuring multiplayer local co-op gameplay, Kick-Ass brings an
unsurpassed integration of Facebook and Twitter to the PSN Network.
Many of the Kick-Ass missions are given via friend requests from the
FACESPACE social networking site.

Mark Millar and Steve McNiven–the team behind last year’s hit Old Man Logan and the writer of Marvel’s Civil War, Wanted and Kick-Ass, bring you their newest story. Nemesis is going to be one of the hottest comic book events of the new year and a bunch of people have been talking about it on the interwebs since they announced the series.

What follows is an interview with Millar and McNiven about the series. Warning: The following interview contains adult language.
———
The two of you have developed quite a history working together, first with “Civil War” and then with your follow up, “Old Man Logan,” both massive hits for Marvel. I guess teaming up for “Nemesis” was a no-brainer?

Millar: I just love Steve. He’s amazing. After working with somebody this brilliant, it would be heart-breaking to work with somebody shit. I’m just spoiled now. I can’t stand seeing the brilliant artists I’ve worked with work with other guys. I’m like a psycho ex-girlfriend. The minute I come to the end of one project with Steve or Hitchy [Bryan Hitch] or John Romita Jr. or somebody, I’m just thinking of the next thing for them.

So Steve and I really had to do a third project together. We get along well, even though he’s a prick and Canadian, and we work really well together too. We’ve only done two comics together before – “Civil War” and “Old Man Logan” – and both, like you said, were massive books. So the logical next step was a creator-owned project that shatters all records. We made Marvel a lot of money with these first two projects, and we feel we paid our dues and we had fun writing and drawing almost all of the characters that we’d ever want to do. But now we want to create something, and we want it to be bigger than “Kick-Ass.” “Kick-Ass” went through five printings each [issue] and has sold something like 115,000 [copies] an issue. But we want to beat that. “Nemesis,” we hope, is the next big thing. We’re very excited and think we have something quite unique here.

So when Mark called, Steve, you were ready to go?

McNiven: Yes, definitely. Mark is fun to work with. He writes stuff that’s fun to draw, and that’s great when you’re not pulling out your hair. And he makes me lots of money, too [laughs].

There’s nothing wrong with that.

Millar: What? I’m in it for the craft, baby. Jesus, you make me feel like Jodie Foster in “Taxi Driver.” I didn’t realize I’m just your wee cash cow [laughs]. Steve’s Harvey Keitel and I’m Jodie Foster. [Laughs] I thought he loved me, but now I see it’s just about the cash.

OK. Before, we jump into this, let’s put the rumors to rest. “Nemesis” is not an Avengers project, or an X-Men project, or a Marvelman project. It’s not even set in the Marvel Universe. It’s another world that you’ve created.

Millar: Absolutely. It’s a Marvel book, technically, in the sense that it’s published by Marvel, but like “Kick-Ass,” it comes out via Icon, and that means me and Steve own all the rights just like Johnny and I own the rights to “Kick-Ass.” It’s a sweet deal.

McNiven: It’s great for Marvel to have an imprint there for us. It’s really a great place to do this kind of thing. Just looking at how well “Kick-Ass” has done. It really gets your hope up.

When we first emailed back and forth about this project, Mark, you teased me with the tagline your friend suggested: “What if Batman was The Joker?’ I guess the answer to that is you’d have “Nemesis.” What was the genesis of this project?

Millar: Yeah, a lot of people who’ve read it have been coming up with hilarious tag-lines. “What if Batman was The Joker?” is the tame one. “What if Batman was a total cunt?” is maybe my favourite, although it’s hardly going to be an ad. Marvel President Dan Buckley sort of paid me a compliment, saying, “This is such a stupidly simple and obvious idea. I can’t believe nobody’s ever come up with it before. You are the master of the stupidly simple idea.” Which I suppose is kind of flattering because everyone said that about “Kick-Ass” too. It’s almost too simple.

But, yeah. “Nemesis” is a reversal of the Bruce Wayne or Tony Stark archetype. What if this genius billionaire was just this total shit, and the only thing that stood between him and a city was the cops? It’s Batman versus Commissioner Gordon, in a weird way. Or maybe a super-villain version of “Se7en.” A billionaire anarchist up against ordinary people. The Joker’s the best thing in the Batman movies, so this guy is a bit of an amalgamation of all the stuff we like.

McNiven: And we didn’t want to do a little creator-owned book. We wanted to do something that shoots for the Top 10 and competes with “X-Men” or “The Avengers.” We want this to be as big as it possibly can be. We’re aiming directly at the mainstream, too, and have already set up some corporate backing you’ve never seen in comics before, and international press. Mark has been working overtime on this one.

Millar: I’m a great believer in creator-owned books not being small. I think probably growing up in nineties’ comics did that, seeing things like “Spawn” and “WildCats” that did really well. I just love the idea of creator-owned books outselling Marvel and DC even.

So the idea that you do your Marvel and DC stuff with big sales and then you do your little creator-owned work on your own, I’ve never been a fan of that. I’ve been really lucky that “Wanted” and “Kick-Ass” have all sold hugely. So with this, I just wanted to do the biggest one of the lot. “Kick-Ass” beat “Wanted” as the biggest creator-owned of the decade, and we’re hoping this beats “Kick-Ass.”

McNiven: Aim high, buddy.

Millar: I don’t see why it shouldn’t. Steve is the biggest-selling artist in comics. If you add up all his sales and divide it by the number of books he’s done, he’s the biggest selling artist by a mile. At the moment, he’s the biggest and best of this generation.

Steve, you need to hire Mark as your agent.

McNiven: I know. That’s why I work with him.

Millar: It’s totally true. There are guys who sell well, and then there’s Steve. It’s just a different league. So the idea of getting Steve to go from “Civil War” to “Old Man Logan” to this big, new creator-owned thing to me feels just like Todd MacFarlane going from “Spider-Man” to “Spawn.” So I wasn’t going to give him a little slice of life thing about what it’s like to be a gay Muslim living in Arkansas or something like that [laughs]. It wasn’t going to be that kind of creator-owned. It had to be huge.

Nemesis is the world’s smartest man, and the bad news for us is that he’s the world’s only super-villain. That means he’s got freeze guns and jump-jets and all these James Bond gadgets and he’s using them against us. To entertain himself, he picks a different cop every year and makes his life a misery. The book opens with him fucking over Japan’s top cop, and then our story, the mini-series, takes place as he shifts his attention to Washington and his first American attacks. The visuals we’ve released here are just single panels from the Japanese segment. It’s the best stuff I’ve ever seen Steve do.

Do we get to see Nemesis in the Bruce Wayne role – the billionaire playboy, out and about town?

Millar: I wanted it to be a kind of mystery. I liked the idea of having “who is this guy?’ as a plot thread running through it. Why does he keep going after these cops and flying and training all around the world to end up in America to take on this one guy? So we find out a little more about him every issue.

McNiven: It’s a clever idea to switch it around so you don’t have the origin at the beginning, as opposed to Batman where you get it right at the beginning. I think this makes it a little more of a compelling story.

Millar: It’s the reverse superhero concept. A superhero story normally has a linear fashion. You see how he becomes that guy, and then you see him in action. But here, we’ve done the reverse. The origin comes at the end of the story. But he’s the Hannibal Lecter of supervillains in that sense. All the cops are needed to go up against a guy as formidable as this. He’s almost supernatural, he’s so good. But he happens to just be in a costume. Hopefully nobody’s ever seen anything like it before. We’re so used to supervillains fighting superheroes, I just thought, “Imagine if there was only one person on the planet like this, and he was actually a bad guy.” How would cops deal with him, even though he has no super-powers?

Let’s talk about the main cop, the Commissioner Gordon to Nemesis’ Batman/Joker. What can you tell us about him?

Millar: Very simply, I wanted to do a book about the world’s greatest villain up against America’s greatest cop. I just liked the high concept of that – the idea of a villain going around from country to country and having a battle of wits with the best guy that he can get his hands on. And he sends them a little funeral wreath with the date and time of when they’re going to die on it, every one dying at precisely that time. All these cops in the Pacific Rim are dead, and then we come in at the American side of the story and see the struggle of this guy in just trying to stop him.

McNiven: Tell him about the charity auction.

Millar: Ah, good point. Another thing that I should mention is the two lead characters – the secret identity of Nemesis and also the cop – haven’t been named yet. At the moment, I’ve written the scripts just with kind of placeholder names, but I wanted to do is what I did with “Kick Ass,” which was have a charity auction for the kids at a handicapped school where my brother Bobby works. Doctor Bob works at this amazing place and he’s trying to raise money to send the kids on another special trip. “Kick-Ass” raised a few grand for them, and now Dave Lizewski is a movie star name. There are two names up for grabs on “Nemesis,” and we’ll get details of this auction on CBR in the New Year.

Steve, can you speak about the look of Nemesis and the cop?

McNiven: Mark and I have been talking about it quite a bit. We want to make the guys good looking. They’re not ugly mugs. And they’re relatively young, as well. Even though Mark said this cop is Clint Eastwood-level good, it’s like young Clint Eastwood, not “Gran Torino” Clint Eastwood. Not that there is anything wrong with that. We get great mileage out of the old guys. The visual is to try and keep them very clean and very elegant and not go with giant belts and big shoulder pads and pouches everywhere and that sort of stuff. We’ve tried to streamline them and give them more of an iconic look. ??We’re just talking about the different outfits right now. But Nemesis, being the central figure, we really worked hard on his design.

I started with more of a Midnighter type of look, but we wanted to work with a white costume, something that really stands out in the shadows. Very much the antithesis of a Batman costume with the cape, as well. But in working out that initial design, we realized it was a little too bulky, too much armor. We wanted something smoother and simpler, and so we really distilled it down to something that’s almost the bare essence of a costume.

A lot of the impact of the costume is going to be more in the acting of the character, as opposed to some costumes where you have giant shoulder pads and huge guns and all that stuff, and it takes the place of any particular acting on the character. This one is stripped down, and we’re trying to let the character of Nemesis come through.

Millar: Almost the way Batman was a good guy dressed in black, we’ve reversed that to the bad guy dressed in white. It just seemed obvious to me. And there are so few characters out there wearing white, it’s actually an unusual look in comics. There are loads of red and loads of blue and loads of black. We wanted a guy that’s very, very visually distinctive. When Steve sent through the first drawings, I had never really seen anything like that before. He looked quite beautiful for a bad guy. It almost looked like a costume made of moonlight, just because it was this shining light material. It’s visually quite stark, but it also looks like something people could wear in the real world. Again, this is set in our world. It’s not a superhero universe.

Mark, you’re no stranger to having your projects being picked up as movie properties. Have you already had those talks about “Nemesis”?

Millar: We actually got a call a few weeks ago when the teaser poster went up on CBR. We were pretty crafty about this in terms of how we marketed this. We had a poster out that said, “‘Civil War,’ ‘Old Man Logan,’ ‘Nemesis,’” and teased it as a potential big event for Marvel. The number of people talking about it and guessing was just insane, which we loved.

And Marvel was very good about it, not contradicting us. But what was funny was that I got a call from my agent that night – and it was funny because all we did was release a date and a title and no information. And my agent called and said two producers had been in touch saying, “We’re really big fans of this book that Mark and Steve are doing. We really like it.” Are the rights available?” [laughs].

McNiven: That, my friend, is the definition of Hollywood insincere.

Millar: I know [laughs]. I couldn’t believe it. But it made me realize how lucky I was my first picture making $350 million and getting Angelina [Jolie] in it. It made me realize how lucky I was getting [Matthew] Vaughn on “Kick-Ass” and the buzz around town being through the roof and “American Jesus” and “War Heroes” and all that getting picked up so quickly. I remember what it was like, literally being unable to pay my bills nine years ago, so to have this level of interest when I couldn’t sell a book not very long ago is just amazing.

McNiven: Sniff. I’m so touched I think I’m going to cry.

Millar: So, yeah, if a movie happens, great. If a bed-spread and lunch-box happens, great. But we’re really just focusing on the comic. Anything else is gravy and shouldn’t be taken too seriously.

McNiven: Making comics is a real job.

Millar: Exactly. Movie guys are pussies.

Millar, McNiven, “Nemesis,” March 2010. Gentlemen, thanks so much for for your time.

McNiven: Can’t talk. I’m still finishing a page.
—————

It’s pretty clear that this is going to be one of the hottest new titles of the new year. To celebrate the debut of this exciting new book, we’re giving away 10 Free Subscriptions to Nemesis. Everyone who preorders Nemesis #1 before March 1st will be entered into our Nemesis Contest for each one they order.

*Be sure to come on back to TFAW.com in February to order Nemesis #2 for an additional entry!

Mark Millar and Steve McNiven bring us one of the most exciting Wolverine stories ever! The bad guys won. They banded together and the heroes fell and the villains have been calling the shots ever since. What happened to Wolverine is perhaps the biggest mystery of all.

For 50 years, no one has heard hide nor hair from him, and in his place stands an old man called Logan. A man concerned only about his family. A man pushed to the brink by the Hulk Gang. A man forced to help an old friend–the blind archer, Hawkeye–to drive 3,000 miles to secure his family’s safety.

Get ready for the ride of your life, Logan!

If you only pick up one Wolverine graphic novel this October/November, make it Old Man Logan.

Have you been reading the single issues as they’ve come out? Are you as stoked to sit down with this book and read it from start to finish as I am? Let us know below.

I get a little spoilery when I gush, so watch out. (And ew.)

Like Future Imperfect, Peter David’s inspired “What If?”-like digression during his run on The Incredible Hulk, in which he introduced one possible future where Bruce Banner outlived all the other Marvel mainstays by giving in to his dark side and becoming The Maestro, Old Man Logan is a digression into another possible imperfect future. It also involves the Hulk, as well as several other heroes, villains, and next-generation shades of gray, outliving the old world and the old ways. And, of course, it involves Wolverine, aka Logan, in what I think should go down as one of the great character-defining stories involving the old Canucklehead.

And in case you weren’t aware, Millar and Marvel have done more with this mini than just tell an awesome What If: Wolverine story. Old Man Logan actually ties directly to Millar’s other two recent Marvel projects–the enjoyable 1985 and his ambitious year-long run on Fantastic Four, which introduced the characters currently in the spin-off book Fantastic Force.

Old Man Logan is the only must read of that bunch, but I think it is admirably creative on the writer’s part to think outside the panel box like this and craft three stories simultaneously that are all bigger than themselves. The reader wasn’t beholden to any one story to understand or enjoy the rest, but if you happened to read all three like me, you got an enhanced experience. (So, thanks for that, MM.)

So what do you think–was Old Man Logan the book of the week? Could it be the best series of the year? Would you buy a “Lone Wolv’ and Hulk-Cub”  sequel that filled in the 20+ year gap between this and the characters’ reappearance in Fantastic Four?

If a concoction of Millar, nerd buzz, and pre-teens eviscerating the underworld sounds appealing, check out our ninja’d clips and tell us what you think!

Check out all four clips:
· Intro
· Kick-Ass takes on a couple punks (above)
· Hit Girl in training with Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage)
· Kick Ass saved by Hit Girl

If a concoction of Millar, nerd buzz, and pre-teens eviscerating the underworld sounds appealing, check out our ninja’d clips and tell us what you think!

Check out all four clips:
· Intro
· Kick-Ass takes on a couple punks
· Hit Girl in training with Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage)
· Kick Ass saved by Hit Girl (above)

If a concoction of Millar, nerd buzz, and pre-teens eviscerating the underworld sounds appealing, check out our ninja’d clips and tell us what you think!

Check out all four clips:
· Intro
· Kick-Ass takes on a couple punks
· Hit Girl in training with Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage) (above)
· Kick Ass saved by Hit Girl

If a concoction of Millar, nerd buzz, and pre-teens eviscerating the underworld sounds appealing, check out our ninja’d clips and tell us what you think!

Check out all four clips:
· Intro (above)
· Kick-Ass takes on a couple punks
· Hit Girl in training with Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage)
· Kick Ass saved by Hit Girl

“I only got to the set for a week over the winter, and I had the screenplay in my hands because I’m also working on some animation for the film,” he confirmed.

Everything’s up in the air with an air of secrecy (or perhaps uncertainty) regarding the property, but at least in the hands of director Matthew Vaughn, the stills from the movie look geekfully fantastic.

Yup. “Geekfully”

Feast:

As always, email us your questions or comments at pcs@popcultureshock.com or give us a call at 1-888-817-5766 and we’ll address your feedback on the next show.

The following review is excerpted from Comic Book Revolution (click here to read CBR’s full review)

Art: 9/10
Story: 7/10
Overall: 8/10

Nothing can kill a white hot story arc more than shipping problems. And that is what has happened to Millar’s Old Man Logan story arc. It seems like those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. We had these same shipping issues the last time Millar and McNiven teamed up together and gave us Civil War. Wolverine #68 came out way back on August 27, 2008. Here it is two and a half months later and we are finally getting Wolverine #69. At any rate, let’s go ahead and do this review…

The Good

This issue starts out the box quick as the first nine pages are full of adrenaline pumping action. Millar then eases off the gas and gives the reader a chance to soak in more of the setting of this future version of America. Millar then ends Wolverine #69 with an excellent scene that focuses on character building. All in all, Wolverine #69 was a nicely balanced read.

I have been impressed with Millar’s world building skills as he has been able to give this future Earth plenty of depth and intrigue. The reader gets such a strong sense of the bleakness, lawlessness and hopelessness that permeates this future Earth. This dry and dusty future America reminds me of a Sergio Leone western and I can hear the music of Ennio Morricone as I read this issue.

Millar treats the reader to plenty of neat little throwaways as our heroes travel across the country. We see Loki’s giant body under the Baxter Building. There is Venom’s costume stretched across a canyon wall in South Dakota. There is Red Skull’s visage chiseled onto Mount Rushmore. We also see wild packs of dinosaurs from the Savage Land roaming the desert.

All of these little throwaways add plenty of flavor to this story and help to give this setting more depth and a real sense of history. They also help to pique the reader’s interest and get the reader’s imagination cooking over what happened during the great war between the heroes and the villains. It is obvious that Millar is having fun with fleshing out this bizarre future.

Despite the fact that the sense of hopelessness permeates every corner of this setting and that it practically overwhelms the reader at times, Millar still gives the reader a small flicker of hope when Logan mentions Sue and Reed. The mere fact that these two heroes from Marvel’s First Family of superheroes might still be alive shows that even jaded and broken people like Logan still have a small flicker of hope within their hearts.

Old man Logan is akin to Clint Eastwood’s character in Unforgiven. This is the Man with No Name when he became an old man. These are not complex characters given to loquacious soliloquies or inner narration. Each line is carefully chosen and has the weight of a hammer as it hits home.

Hawkeye’s short monologue in the final scene concerning his daughter was excellent. I have a feeling that we have not seen the last of Ashley. I enjoyed how Millar played with the concept of Hawkeye having been a killer and how he had extinguished the flame of life in many people. This is contrasted nicely with the miracle of birth that Hawkeye witnessed when Ashley was born. At this point the killer finally understands and experiences the joy of seeing the flame of life ignited in a newborn child.

Despite the killing and the drug dealing, the heart of a hero does still beat inside of Hawkeye’s chest and this scene proves it. This scene only serves to further emphasize that Hawkeye is a fallen hero. And with each issue the reader wonders just how much further Hawkeye can fall from the once heroic stature that he had as a mighty Avenger.

Millar continues to do a fine job handling Logan’s character. Again, less is more as Millar proceeds to show the reader instead of telling the reader how much Logan has changed and the conflict that is raging inside of him. In the final scene, Millar relies on an economy of words and some action in order to convey to the reader the sense of pain, bitterness inside of Logan as well as the raging conflict inside of him as he struggles to be a pacifist.

Millar has Logan exclaim that he loves his wife, kids and his little life that he has carved out for himself which is Logan listing the reasons why he should embrace his new life of pacifism. Logan’s unsolicited insistence to Hawkeye that Logan no longer is excited by death anymore immediately makes the reader wonder who Logan is trying to convince: himself or Hawkeye…

Throughout Wolverine #69, the reader begins to see some of the old violent Wolverine slowly bubble up to the surface. This all comes to a head in the final scene. Even though Logan does not pop his claws, the violence and the fury flashes itself. It becomes apparent to the reader that Wolverine is reaching the breaking point with the struggle inside of his soul.

Wolverine #69 ends with a great hook ending as it appears that the reader will finally find out exactly what happened to Wolverine during the great war with the next issue. Millar has spent much time; some might say too much time, in building up the mystery surrounding what happened to Wolverine during the war between the heroes and the villains. I am certainly curious to learn exactly how the villains managed to break Wolverine.

McNiven and Vines combine to deliver some absolutely phenomenal artwork. Wolverine #69 is simply a fantastic looking issue. McNiven is able to create such a grand scope and feel to the setting of this story. The double page splash shot of Mount Rushmore conveyed the overwhelming presence of such a massive structure. I continue to love how McNiven draws Logan. The reader can see the time, pain and loss etched on Logan’s face. McNiven also is able to deliver action scenes just as well as the dramatic scenes.

The Bad

Wolverine #69 is a thin read. And there is a lack of plot progression in this issue. While this might be a fast action packed read, the fact remains that not much really happens at all in this issue. I got the sense that Millar was stalling a bit for time in order to push off the reveal of what happened to Wolverine during the great war between the heroes and the villains.

I think that many readers would probably not be so irritated with how thin this issue is if it had come out on time. The lack of plot progression only becomes amplified and more noticeable by the two and one half month delay. Millar likely has his eye on Old Man Logan being released in trade format and that is to be expected. Decompressed storytelling rules modern day comic books and it can be tolerated to a point if the monthly issues actually stick to their monthly shipping schedules. Once that shipping schedule is missed then decompressed stories begin to grate on the reader’s nerves even more than usual.

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I’ve got to say, I really hope they make some mention of how silly the costume looks in the movie… But they probably won’t.

Also, I hope the comic gets good at some point, but maybe that’s just me. More pictures, and some on set video are online at SlashFilm, so go check ‘em out already!

“I feel like my creator-owned ideas are more interesting for me at this point in my career than being the 300th guy to draw another Batman story.”

Click here for our interview with Mark Millar.

War Heroes #1 is available now!