Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "dan-slott"

She-Hulk by Dan Slott: The Complete Collection, Volume 1 by Dan Slott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects the entire twelve-issue 2004 series and the first five issues of the 2005 series.

This book really feels like something I should like: It's going for a light fun feel, it's got She-hulk in it and the art is decent, but I found myself mostly non-plussed. However, most of the storylines are pedestrian and the only guest character that is better than so-so is Andy the Mad Thinker's who writes on a slate. It's not bad, there are some interesting Sci Fi ideas, but nothing that really grabs me. Jokes are hit and miss, and She-hulk isn't particularly likable.

Overall, it just didn't connect for me and seemed like a bit of a missed opportunity.



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Thing: Idol of Millions (The Thing by Dan Slott

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Thing: Idol of Millions collects Dan Slott's Thing Eight-Issue Solo Series. Ben Grimm is now a Billionaire and trying to live the high life as the Thing. The book has a lot of guest stars including Iron Man and Spider-man, the Inhumans, and more.

This book is mostly inoffensive. There are some funny bits, a few sweet moments that showcase Ben Grimm's character, and a few times of him saying, "It's clobberin', time." Unlike Geoff Johns' Freakshow, I felt like Slott actually got the character to some extent.

However, the book is also just unremarkable. It starts out with a three issue story involving a kidnapping and a murder-themed park, includes a few issues of him working off a debt at a pawnshop because the broker won't take his check now that he's filthy rich, and him building a community center, some supervillain fights, and him deciding he needs to win back Alicia by taking her back in time to visit the statue of Venus DeMilo when it was still new. The books ends with an eighth issue which indicated that Slott had more planned for the book, but was forced to draw it short with Civil War coming up. It felt like there was four-issues worth of story condensed into one and Ben's character arc with Alicia drawn to a close in a way that makes little sense with what happened in Issue 7. Slott continues a practice of many Marvel writers in the mid-2000s: forcing a character to the destination you have planned for him or her even if you've not actually been able to provide all of the steps that would make it feel merited.

To be fair, John Byrne did do a lot of random single and double stories with Ben Grimm during the first Thing series during the Eighties. However, in the case of Byrne, he told far more interesting and engaging stories (even if he could be a bit of a downer.) At the end of the day, Slott just doesn't seem to have anything interesting to say about Ben Grimm.

This isn't bad, but it's more mediocre and frustrating for the potential it has but never realizes.



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