Trade Weight: Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! Vol 1

2016, Marvel

Within seconds of turning* to the first page of the Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! trade, I thought I had made a huge** mistake.  Brittany L. Williams' art is just... so ... erm ... for girls.  I don't mean that disparagingly.  I don't mean in any way it's bad.  I just mean it looks more like art coming out of a Monster High early readers book or one of the Rainbow Magic fairy books (with a 7-year-old daughter, I've seen my fair share of both of those) than standard superhero fare.  It looks very much like something meant to appeal to a younger, female audience, not to a 40-year-old dad still obsessed with recapturing his youth in paper and plastic***.  And you know what, I think that's the point of Williams' art, and Kate Leth's stories.  They're decidedly not constructed to appeal to the standard 40-something, hasn't-grown-up, male demographic.  I mean the chibi Hellcat that pops up as a stylistic device for emotional emphasis makes my head throb in its non-sequitur-ness, yet another telltale sign this just wasn't meant for me.

And yet, I flipping loved this book, far more than I think I should.  My only exposure to the character was on Season 1 of Jessica Jones, and that character's not even named the same (she goes by Trish in the show), and the don't share the same career (or lack thereof, Trish in the show is a radio host, Patsy here is largely unemployed/self-employed), and in the show Trish is not a costumed vigilante...at least not yet.    Ah...crap, I completely forgot about Patsy's role as She-Hulk's best friend in the short-lived, but awesome, She-Hulk series by Charles Soule... erm, nevermind?

The comic opens with Jennifer Walters having to lay Patsy off as her P.I., since things are slow.  Patsy has dreams of starting an employment agency for people with special abilities who can't find other work, partly as a preventative measure to keep them from crime.  Leth also deals with the fact that Patsy was dead for a while and had once married Damon Hellstrom, son of Satan.  It creates this curiously deep backstory that isn't even the most interesting part of her past.  No, that falls to the fact that Patsy was once the star of an Archie-style teen romance comic named after her, created by her mother.  Her mother died and left the intellectual property in the hands of Patsy's best frienemy, Hedy, who has resurrected the comic much to Patsy's chagrin.

Patsy Walker's origins in comics date as far back as 1944, and until the 1970's she was only ever a romance comic character, so it's a delicious bit of meta-fiction, somewhat borrowing from the "It's Patsy" teen sitcom backstory for Trish on Jessica Jones.  There's a whole gaggle of weirdness to Patsy Walker, Hellcat, but it comes together in a satisfying manner.  It affects much of the tone of a teen romance/comedy comic, but with superhero flourishes, and even some not all that mature legal drama. 

What wins it over, 100%, is Patsy herself.  She's a fish out of water in her own life.  Having been dead for some time, she's missed out on a lot, and certain technologies are just beyond her grasp.  There's a dash of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt in that, which only makes her more endearing, especially given Kimmy Schmidt's rage issues in Season 2 of that show.

I'm not sure Patsy Walker, Hellcat will win over the dadbod crowd in droves, but there's no reason she can't.  The book features guest shots from Dr. Strange, Howard the Duck, She-Hulk, Valkyrie, and Jessica Jones (among others), so it uses the larger Marvel U in its own ways (just like it's big sister comic Unbeatable Squirrel Girl).   I certainly need to get my daughter onto this though.  I think she'd love it, perhaps even more than I do.  I love that this exists, and that Marvel's line up of titles has become so varied in style and tone and character.  


*when it's a digital comic, is it really "turning" at that point?
** by huge, I mean incredibly minor, or nominal.  This is what we in the blogging biz call "hyperbole", sometimes melodrama.
*** eg. comics and toys

Secret Wars Hardcover

(Marvel, 2016)

I don't think I could have done it.  I don't think I could have read Secret Wars as it came out over the past year, with all the delays and whatnot.  I absolutely absorbed this hardcover in two days (with a huge break to plow through Daredevil Season 2), so I don't think I really could have waited so patiently month (or months) between issues.  I admit though, I think having the month-by-month allowed the reader more time to invest in the Secret Wars Battleworld, and delve into all the various tie-in series that presented new and unique perspectives on familiar Marvel Universe characters and scenarios (I read and enjoyed Civil War, Thors, and Weirdworld quite immensely, thank you) and the same can't really be said about plowing through the consolidated hardcover.  When I had the break (in between issues 4 and 5, watching Daredevil Season 2 in one butt-numbing sitting) I did consider seeking out more of the Battleworld books, just to dive into things a bit more.  Particularly I was wondering if there was a Spider-Man one, since Miles Morales seemed to have some importance to the story, but in the end it was rather limited to making a place for him in the redefined Marvel U.

Ah, this Battleworld Checklist has the answers... or not...it's incomplete and definitely not updated. I need to read Ultimate End, methinks.  This is dangerous though, as now that I start poking, I start thinking about all the different tie-ins and whether I shouldn't just go read them all.  They trigger in me the whole "dead universe" fascination and make me want to go explore the Battleworld, a dead universe that lasted about 10 months but still managed to produce well over 100 issues of content.  Crazy bones.

Anyway.

I did indeed love Secret Wars, but then I've loved every ounce of Hickman's Marvel run.  From his Ultimates/Ultimate Hawkeye, to S.H.I.E.L.D. to Fantastic Four and FF to his dense Avengers/New Avengers run (plus Infinity), it's all freaking amazing.  And that it all loops back in on itself, without cannibalizing itself, is astounding.  Every piece fits, even if they aren't always essential.  I love this, it's what makes these long-term superhero universes so special, these type of unique storytelling opportunities.

Simone Bianchi's pencils for the image that was parsed across the variant covers for issues 1-8

The fact is, Secret Wars is the summation of both Hickman's Avengers run, which is where the universes colliding was happening, and his Fantastic Four run which built up the FF into a very large family indeed (not just a group of four).  What starts off as almost the Marvel version of Crisis on Infinite Earths ends in a mano-y-mano showdown between Reed Richards and Dr. Doom, and being a swansong for the Fantastic Four (for now at least, as the company needs to ride out its annoyance with Fox owning the film rights to the characters).  It seems so right that it goes from this massive scale to something so small as Doom's petty rivalry, and Hickman's resolution is both sweet and ingenious.  It's not the end of anything, really (except maybe the Ultimate Universe), and it's chalk full of new beginnings.

I've read almost all of Hickman's work for Marvel in trade (save for his Ultimates and S.H.I.E.L.D, the latter of which I'm still waiting for its completion), so it only made sense to wait for the Secret Wars trade.  As happened I could never wait for the actual paperback of any of the FF or Avengers stuff, so ditto for Secret Wars... all hardcover all the time.   I enjoyed this so much, I'm keen to dive back into the Hickman Ultimates and Fantastic Four again, and just plow right through all of it once more, but that would imply I didn't have other things stacked up to catch up on...

Nostalgia In The New Millenium

When you get it right, you get it right.

Above is the cover to the upcoming Marvel: 1985 mini by Mark Millar and Tommy Lee Edwards.

If cover artist Jim Cheung's intent was to put you in the place of the kid in the foreground, job well done then.

Geez, I remember the year 1985 well. I'm a sophomore in junior high and absolutely hating it. I was going through a growth spurt and was literally having growing pains. My once high voice was on the way to becoming the rich, silken smooth thing it is today. Before that happened though, I and everyone else had to contend with a voice that alternated between rabid chipmunk and garbage disposal.

Through it all there was one thing that I could count on...

Marvel.

Marvel Comics had a freshness at that time and at this point, the comics they were producing were aimed right at my over-large head.

Whether it was Marvel's first mega-crossover Secret Wars, Roger Stern's truly Amazing Spider-Man run, John Byrne's Fantastic Four or The Uncanny X-Men (Believe it or not kids, there was only ONE "X" book once upon a time), for me, Marvel Comics was it and for nearly 15 years after, I almost exclusively made mine Marvel.

And Marvel: 1985 seems to want to cash in on that.

I don't know if you can do that, cash in on a time and place, a feeling. This, to me, was my Golden Age of comics discovery. Of caring so much about who was under The Hobgoblin's mask that I risked suspension to smuggle the comic into school.

It was where I developed a huge love for the character She-Hulk.

It was where I learned to appreciate a writer/artist operating at the height of his abilities with Walt Simonson on Thor.

This was where I really started to appreciate art and storytelling. Where I learned that Marvel Comics truly shared a complete universe and felt utter incredulity at Daredevil's exclusion in the Secret War.

Most importantly, it was where I learned to collect comics in sequence thanks to Larry Hama's gateway comic for a whole generation, G.I. Joe.

At this time, Marvel truly seemed like a "House of Ideas."

It was my favorite time, comics-wise and I don't know if it can be recreated.

That said, I will be picking up, at least, the first issue of Marvel: 1985, simply for the above cover alone.

As much as I love that era, I believe it's one best left behind. I honestly believe today's publishers increasingly gear everything towards those of us who stuck around. In today's comics market, the focus is way too much on what came before and nothing fresh seems to be emerging.

I don't know if it can be 1985 again.

So, my question is two-fold (Feel free to answer one or both) :

1. "WHAT WAS YOUR GATEWAY INTO COMICS?" and...

2. "DO YOU THINK SOMETHING LIKE MARVEL:1985 HELPS OR HINDERS COMICS?"