Avengers All Out #2 Miracleman Silver Age #1 and Avengers #61

 I was looking through some comics the other day and realised that I had Avengers All Out #1 which I bought a good while ago and thought I would have to get 2-3 back issues to catch up. Only one it seems.

This is a comics that does feature Avengers in it as a team though their characterisations made me re-check #1 to make sure that this was not any sort of alternative team. Nope. By the time I reached the last page (and that did not take long) my thought was "That could have been done in six pages.

Really no idea why Marvel can get good artists yet writers are slap-shod -maybe hoping a comic will get them that TV/movie deal?  Dr Doom, over the past ten years clearly has multiple personality disorder. At least I know not to buy #3

Then there was Avengers #61

So you do not worry -the Avengers (some) do make a cameo

Again, some very nice artwork (not with every issue though) but -if I may just leave aside the polite and friendly usual tone I adopt on CBO what the actual fuck is this crap?  As I wrote; good artwork but the story has been a mess and all over the place and this is not an Avengers comic worth buying. Yep, I wrote that. Started with the Avengers in the 1960s and went through the awful 1990s and there was the occasional glimmer of hope but this is a mess pure and simple. Writers trying to be clever and borrow bits from other successful comics is not making them the next best and greatest. Story concludes next issue....story???

Avengers Alpha is coming!!! Aaron can go chew on my big hairy log.  

Then we have Miracleman Silver Age #1

I know, I know, I've said it before: we are all supposed to drop to one knee and bow out heads when Neil Gaiman appears or his sacred name is spoken by an acolyte. I was in the toilet earlier and took a pen and wrote "Neil Gaiman" on a sheet of toilet paper then wiped my arse with it.  

That will probably get the same reaction from his fans as I got from Alan Moore fans when I corrected just 15 of his totally incorrect 'facts'. Gaiman is chasing the buck and adoration like most "super stars" so no one can blame him for that. Everyone has to pay bills. Also, I have read Gaiman work in the past I like and though some of it could be very pretentious I liked some of it.

Let me just say that this first issue was bland. It seemed to show promise but looking at it:

 Firstly, most Marvel fans have no idea who this character is who is being  plastered over every other comic title in Marvel's range (the irony is that Variants has absolutely no variant covers...Marvel realised the irony there?).  

Secondly if they do research they will find he was called (well before Marvel was considered as a name change by Timely) Marvelman. So why is he called "Miracleman"? feck off if you think I am going into all that for you. 

Thirdly, I think most Marvel fans were expecting some sort of multi-verse thing with the Marvelman appearing in the Marvel universe. Instead they have a lot of talking set...somewhere.  

I read comics from all over the world and have done so since the 1960s. I read what some call "over wordy" with little or no action. All sorts of genres but Hansrudi Wascher holds far more interest for me than this story-wise. "These stories are going to wipe conventional story-telling across the  (a bit like a dog with worms wipes its arse on the floor). Am I being overly negative? Maybe but I just spent good money on a comic that is a lot of chat over nothing (really -read it: this was a five pager at best) which followed on from #0 which was..a lot of chat that was so bland I can only remember bits of it (it was a mess).  

The best thing here is the art of Mark Buckingham. It looks gorgeous. It also leads to a complaint. #0 and this issue are pretty thick so you expect a long story (you know a five pager at best story stretched to 30pp). No. Just under half the contents are Mark Buckingham Sketchbook. Look, if anyone at Marvel actually does any work (I am not referring to Tom Brevoort who...well, wears a silly little hat) or looks at feedback here is a message:

GIVE MARK BUCKINGHAM A SKETCH BOOK 

Don't just throw stuff in and pretend you are like an indie company. You want to do a sketch book then do one or more and stop filling comics with filler (no matter how good it looks) because we might actually prefer a story. At this rate I think this title will progress not very far by issue #6 and to be honest I am going to wait and see what #3 is like and then decide whether to drop the title complately.