Access Back in Action! The Unlimited Access 1 Review!

Pat Oliffe's cover is very cool! Access is the keeper of the Amalgam Universe. "Inside" Access, too, is the gateway between the DC and Marvel Universes as well! The cover shows that within Access is The Amazing Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, Wonder Woman and The Juggernaut!

The unique and fresh spin for Unlimited Access, is not just space. The two universes, Marvel and DC coming together and teaming up against mutual foes, but bouncing around - or, quantum leaping - through different time periods of each universe! What starts in the present, with Spider-Man and Wonder Woman facing Mantis and The Juggernaut, bounces to Coast City four years after Barry Allen died and Hal Jordan facing The Hulk! Next, Access encounters Jonah Hex and Two-Gun Kid! After sending Jonah Hex off into the future to end up as Hex, possibly, Access ends up with The Legion of Super-Heroes facing The Sentinels!

Karl Kesel, Pat Olliffe and Al Williamson make an enjoyable team for an enjoyable story. The time travel element keeps things fresh!

Bouncing around significant time periods in each universe is a brilliant idea. Okay, maybe not so much original, as Access is now following a somewhat typical story trope. Kesel, Olliffe and Williamson manage to keep things interesting. It's nice that they manage to bounce Axel's relationship troubles off Peter and MJ. There's another laugh when MJ calls out Spider-Man flirting with Wonder Woman.

It's a fun, exciting, thrilling story. "No Time Like the Present" Unlimited Access earns five stars.   
 

Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle, The DC/Marvel All Access 4 Review

 

Wow. That cover. A horrified Access can only gape in abject terror as the X-Men battle the Justice League! It's a return match between Storm and Wonder Woman! That expression on Access' face is just... Wow. 

Access is referee when the teams collide. Superman demands that the X-Men let The Batman go. It's all a tense standstill, until Batman reignites things with Bishop. Then it all cuts loose. Team versus team. Access and Dr. Strange in the middle. Access blinks to keep Ming out of harm's way. 

Then it all comes out. Strange has been taken over by Dr. Strangefate who wants to bring back the Amalgam Universe! He has banished the real Strange, bouncing him from one place to another to keep him from being discovered and rescued. Strangefate manages to Amalgamate the X-Men and Justice League! Access must find a way to return Stephen Strange and restore the separate universes!

It turns out to be a tricky process. Tricky, but successful. 

In the end, Axel ends up with Caitlin Fitzgerald.

DC/Marvel All Access 4, "Savior" wraps it all up for three stars.

Scuffle in the Sanctorum! The DC/Marvel All Access 3 Review

After besting Two-Face, Jubilee and Robin (Tim Drake) are confronted by The Scorpion! Batman arrives and puts the beatdown on the Spider-villain. 

Using a bit of deductive reasoning, Access feels that answers to the mysterious Crossings may lie with Dr. Strange. It takes some doing, however, he manages to convince The Batman to accompany him to New York and Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum.

There, Access and The Batman engage in accusations and finger-pointing. Jubilee returns with the X-Men. Not a Classic line-up, mind you, Cyclops, Iceman, Jean Grey, Bishop and Cannonball. They fight with Batman. As The Dark Knight collects himself, Access himself returns with the Justice League! 

Guice and Rubinstein are back at it on Ron Marz's story. Lee Loughridge on colors; Digital Chameleon on separations. It's a pretty standard issue where hero's face a misunderstanding and end up arguing and fighting until they reach a lightbulb moment of clarity.

That moment may come in the next issue!

What is enjoyable is the diversity and somewhat unpredictability. The Batman and Dr. Strange? X-Men versus Justice League? The Batman spies The Black Cat?

This is what fans long for.

DC/Marvel All Access 3 earns three stars.

Young Heroes in Love The DC/Marvel All Access 2 Review

 

Ah, young love.

That Guice cover of swingers, Robin and Jubilee is just so sweet, innocent and cute. Whatever could possibly stand in the way of these two young heroes in love?

Having set the separate universes right again, Axel Asher enjoys a carriage ride in the park with his Marvel Universe girlfriend, Ming. Until Jubilee and Generation X show up. Jubilee has tracked Axel down in order to plead with him to use his Access powers for a chance to meet Robin (Tim Drake) one more time. They didn't get a chance to say goodbye after the events of DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC. Jubilee has a crush on The Boy Wonder and really wants to see him again. In return, she'll make it up to Axel by fixing things with Ming. Jealous Ming.

Against everything he should be about, the whole keeping the two universes separate, Access agrees to cross Jubilee over to hook-up with Robin. What could possibly go wrong?

Access is overpowered by Two-Face! Using the same gimmick that Robin used to beat Jubilee, the pair outsmart and overpower Dent. After that, they're confronted by The Scorpion!

Guice gets support from Joe Rubinstein on finishes and Lee Loughridge on colors. The look is a lot less over-the-top, so to speak. It all looks smooth. Even with a wonky premise, the story plays out pretty well. It's a fun romp.

DC/Marvel All Access earns three stars.    

Between a Rock and a Hard Place The DC/Marvel: All Access 1 Review

 

Ordinarily, I'm a fan of "Butch" Guice. I enjoyed his art for Wally West as The Flash after Crisis on Infinite Earths. I liked his work on Ruse. I'm somewhat familiar with his work on Justice League and "The Death of Superman" storyline...

There's just something about his art on DC/Marvel: All Access that just feels like a square peg in a round hole. Maybe it starts with the cover. Guice has Access in a "Hero or Villain?", quite menacing pose. Access looks angry! He looks unfriendly! Like perhaps, Monarch - when the former Hawk, of Hawk and Dove went rogue and sent the DC Universe reeling through a "Crisis in Time"! Surrounded by DC and Marvel Comics' heavy hitters, Access is leading the charge! It's a cool cover, but somewhat off-putting. Yes, just who is this new character, Access? What powers does he wield? What control? What does he have to do with the best, brightest and finest of two universes?

That question can only be answered by reading, nay, investing, in the story!

Axel Asher, Access, is late AGAIN meeting his Marvel Universe girlfriend, Ming. This is kind of the standard hero trope. Axel, like Peter Parker and Barry Allen is the Everyman, the good guy off doing good things, on his own, saving the Universe and THAT's getting in the way of his social life. He can't commit because he's already committed to The Good Fight. Guice carries Ron Marz's story. The seizure that Axel has looks a lot more painful than Spider-Sense. Messy, too. Axel senses that Venom has crossed over to Metropolis and has to run off to fix that. One would think that Superman could handle Venom, however, one would guess amiss. Only the combined teamwork of Superman AND Spider-Man, is Venom overcome. And while in Metropolis, Access manages to rescue a fair damsel in distress. One Caitlin Fitzgerald, "Fitz" for short. 

After Superman, Spider-Man and Access stop Venom, Axel returns the webslinger and his archfoe to the Marvel Universe. Where, Doctor Stephen Strange notices... "it begins!"

Venom is an interesting choice. Not an "A-List" bad guy. Also interesting is the ongoing cliche of the hero late for a date, and relationship issues. Guice's art is decent, except that it just seems over-the-top, especially showing Access reacting to a Crossing.

DC/Marvel All Access earns three stars. 

Down The Rabbit Hole, Part DEUX!

Still reading the original four-issue mini-series DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC. Waiting for further facsimile reprints of JLA/Avengers.

It starts with The Brothers. Created specifically for this crossover. The Brothers are the origin of the Multiverse. One is a DC Brother, the other a Marvel. The spin is that DC and Marvel have pretty similar characters: Aquaman and Namor, the Sub-Mariner; Green Arrow and Hawkeye; The Atom and Ant-Man and the Wasp. There are a number of similarities between the two companies. So much so that this should be a fun and enjoyable story.

And it is.

However, the bottom line for a business is to sell or move product. A publishing company publishes. A Comic book company sells comics. Unfortunately, since 1985's Crisis on Infinite Earths, the genie that was let out of the bottle is the "line-wide crossover", a story so big and epic that it involves every title the company produces. It's a compulsion to buy every title to enjoy or fully appreciate the entire story. The only downside is that story becomes thin, hype becomes heavy all to push or move more product.

This may sound cynical or mercenary. Maybe it is. Comic books are a unique entertainment experience. Films have a certain amount of time to capture attention. So there has to be advance promotion and hype to put bodies in seats at the movie theater. Television series have to capture attention almost immediately. Radio is instant. So, comic books have to capture attention and drive return, appointment reading.

The bottom line really is the bottom line. It's really all about sales. Fans can argue art and story until the end of time. Name any artist or writer, and that creator has to be able to sell product.

What's somewhat thin is how quickly and decisively the individual competitions in DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC turn out to be. The only battle that seems to rage on is between Batman and Captain America. And then, Axel Asher comes along as Access, and "saves" the multiverse by amalgamating two universes into one. Batman and Wolverine become Dark Claw. Superman and Captain America become Super Soldier. Your mileage may vary on the quality of these hybrids. Some are just for sh-... grins and giggles. Lobo the Duck...

If I'm allowed a nitpick, or maybe a sour aftertaste, it's that the third issue of the series spawns a line of Amalgam Comics featuring these hybrid characters. This might have worked when comics were a dime, twelve cents or a quarter. Thirty-five cents might have been pushing it. In 1996, these books are $1.95. There's the subjective question of pause. Who has that kind of disposable income? Who can juggle and justify that kind spending against rent and utilities, compounded by other financial pulls on purse strings? Further, what's the "rerun" value? Is the story just as disposable as the income? Or will it hold up for re-reading and return investment. Some stories hold up pretty well to the test of time.

How does a "homeless man" holding the multiverse together through a cardboard box in an alley hold up over time? Every individual battle starts with, "I don't know you, but I have no choice but to fight you to save my reality! Otherwise, I think we might be besties!" and ends with, "I'm sorry I had to kick your butt, But. It. Was. The. ONLY. WAY!"... except for the mostly off-panel fight between Wolverine and Lobo. They really wanted to damage each other...

Your mileage may vary, but my somewhat sour grapes is that the whole thing was just a hyped-up gimmick. An interesting story. Somewhat a riff on Crisis and Secret Wars, but still a gimmick to sell more comics. I was sorely tempted to go all in and buy all the Amalgam Comics. I just bought the Dark Claw issue. A couple copies. One as a collector item and one to read and re-read. So, yeah, I bought into the hype. But only so far...

That's just my opinion as a fan, and you're entitled to it.

  

Down The Rabbit Hole, Part One

Reading the facsimile reprint of the first issue of JLA/Avengers sent me down the rabbit-hole of digging out and re-reading the 1996 DC Versus Marvel/Marvel Versus DC.

Legend has it that the inter-company acrimony stems from fierce competition. What it comes down to is sharing the slices of The Pie. I'm not sure who said it, Joe Quesada or Dan Didio - and I don't mean to demonize either one - but someone is on record as being quoted as saying, "Why do an inter-company crossover where DC and Marvel have to share the profits and proceeds", when we can enjoy the wealth of our labors on our own characters? When Spider-Man and Superman team up, the split is 50/50. Same with Batman and The Hulk and New Teen Titans and Uncanny X-Men.

What's interesting about DC Versus Marvel is that it's the entire line... and it's decided on fan votes.

Didn't anybody learn anything from the 1988 fan-vote Death of Jason Todd? At that time, no one really thought that the fans would kill off Batman's second Robin, Jason Todd. However, they did.

The unfortunate outcome of DC Versus Marvel is that Marvel's characters either tied or bested DC. There's the off-panel battle between Lobo and Wolverine, where Wolverine comes out on top. There's the near stalemate between Batman and Captain America, with serendipity favoring Batman.

Admittedly, I have to read a little more closely, but there's the budding infatuation between Robin Tim Drake and Jubilee that hampers that face-off.

One fan reviewer put it that it's hard to please every individual fan with an outcome, so it may seem that the actual story just sort of stays flat and bland. A Contest of Champions that really has no decisive winner. Yes, there were winners and losers. Storm beat Wonder Woman. Flash beat Quicksilver. Thor beat Captain (SHAZAM!) Marvel. Superman beat The Hulk.

Aside from the battles, it all feels so much like Crisis on Infinite Earths. Realities and worlds hang in the balance for the winners and losers.

My only other gripe, if I'm allowed to is that we get one-offs. We get Ben Reilly. Smart Hulk. Wally West and Kyle Rayner. Maybe mullet Superman. 

I know, it's a minor nitpick. However, just as with JLA/Avengers, we're not really seeing a "Classic" line-up. We're not seeing "Classic" versions of the characters. Further, why not create a single, shared reality where everybody knows everybody? Clark Kent knows Peter Parker - Peter Parker knows Jimmy Olsen. Get passed the familiarity and get right down to a story that affects all the characters.

That seems to be the flaw I find in DC Versus Marvel.

But, that's just one fan's opinion - and you're entitled to it.