The most exciting books in Marvel are the ones featuring characters who are often considered second stringers, those who are on the fringes of the roster, those who are often aren’t top of mind when buying comic books. What’s fun about these books are these are also where creators can play; this is where they have room because there’s less to lose. And, with these three, it’s a lot of fun to read.
Vision, the comic book, has to be among the most ambitious of the three. Writer Tom King begins the series with a disturbing premise, that The Vision creates his own android family because of his “human” longings for normality. Things go horribly wrong, and the comic book relishes in presenting the horrors of forcing humanity, or its trappings, anyway, onto a society not ready for artificial life. It’s a horror book, more than anything, which is the last thing one would expect in a book featuring an Avenger.
Dr. Strange, while he is expected to become more mainstream especially after the debut of the Benedict Cumberbatch film, remains a character that is often relegated to cameos in other books. He’s cool though, and is getting an awesome rewrite courtesy of Jason Aaron, one of my favorite Marvel writers. This Stephen Strange is cooler, less stuck up, and finally the magic he uses is portrayed as something more than just colored bands.
Moon Knight is a weirdo. He’s a Batman ripoff and has gone into the confused state of being something no one seems to know what to do with. Warren Ellis had an extremely promising take on him, but it wasn’t carried through. Now, it seems that writer Jeff Lemire is embracing his insanity completely, which yields some intriguing possibilities for where to bring the character. The reader is presented with the shifting point of view that Moon Knight himself must be going through. It’s a trip, and it looks really exciting.
Why read these books? Because it’s here that we see where things can go. The marquee books, Iron Man, Captain America, and such, can’t really take these risks, there’s too much going on with these stories, and too many expectations, to push envelopes. With these books, readers are treated to where things can go, at least in the context of the Marvel books.
It’s fun, pick some up and get to enjoy some different storytelling.
bleary 