By Don M. Ventura
Journey into Mystery #622
Marvel Comics
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The Infinite Vacation #2
Image Comics
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I’ve been struggling with what comic to choose as the best book I read last week and I came to the decision that it was a total and utter draw. That might be considered something of a cop out, but consider this: it’s an appreciation for good storytelling.
And damn it, these books were good. I have spoken before on the podcast about writers who are passionate in the stories they tell and I think that is what came across most in both Journey into Mystery #622 and The Infinite Vacation #2. Both were, in different ways, a testament to solid writing and artwork—the stuff that makes comic books click.
I have not made any secret, either here on the blog or on the podcast, that I am completely enamored with Nick Spencer’s work on just about everything he touches; though I’ll admit, until issue #3 I’ve been slow to embrace Iron Man 2.0. Spencer seems to have an effortless time building strong characters through clever dialogue and actions.
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| Infinite Vacation #2, art by Christian Ward |
I’m still getting my feet wet with the work of Journey into Mystery scribe Kieron Gillen. I’ve been reading the work he’s co-written with Matt Fraction on Uncanny X-Men, but the only stand-alone work of his that I have read was Uncanny 534.1, which was good, but it didn’t bowl me over.
So I read these two books last week, with about twenty others, and it was just so clear that Spencer and Gillen had produced a couple of seriously confident—no, passionate—scripts that didn’t waste a single word. Because of this, I’m calling it a tie.
In The Infinite Vacation #2, we catch back up with Mark who has been accosted by three of his alternate selves from different realities. These other Marks tell Mark that someone is gunning for him because he is the one unique Mark in the universe. My words do no justice to Spencer’s, nor the psychedelic artwork of Christian Ward.
As complicated as the story might seem, Nick Spencer has a way of easily keeping his readers on track. This is a feat for a guy who so often sets his characters in well designed, and heavily layered mysteries. And the book is damn funny.
Mark’s doppelgänger kidnappers are Red Neck Mark, Hacker Mark and Nudist Mark (“Nudist Mark is nude,” real Mark elaborates). In a few pages Spencer is able to give each Mark a personality all his own, to hilarious effect.
Ward’s artwork on this five-issue mini-series is absolutely wonderful. Each page is so uniquely illustrated and colored by Ward, who work looks as time-consuming as I’m certain it is. Perhaps my favorite piece in the book is a two-page spread in which Claire Reynolds, the woman with whom Mark has quickly become enamored, tells of her heartbreaking experience with the Infinite Vacation. Her story is touching, and illustrated beautifully as Ward captures the strength and grief explored in the character’s testimonial.
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| Journey into Mystery #622, art by Doug Braithwaite |
Journey into Mystery was a total surprise for me. First, I had no idea at the power of Gillen’s storytelling. I reread the opening passage a couple of times, totally taken aback by the timelessness of the writer’s prose. The story opens with seven magpie’s flying to Asgard—on their own journey into mystery.
Second, and more importantly, Gillen has found a distinct and wonderfully charismatic voice in his young Loki, Journey’s protagonist. Loki is snarky, he is clever, he is imaginative and troublesome, but he’s not evil. Artist Doug Braithwaite perfectly captures the curious and brave young boy with a newly set destiny.
Gillen has poured more imagination into this opener than anyone would have expected from what many might have considered a throwaway title. But make no mistake, and don’t take the previous sentence as any slight on this book, Journey into Mystery is indeed not a throwaway title. It’s one of those hidden treasures that begs for a second or third reading to reaffirm how good it is.
If you were at your comic shop last week and thought, “Well that Infinite Vacation looks a little too esoteric for my taste” or “I’m not really a Thor fan so I’ll pass on that Journey thing” I assure you, you passed on two great books.
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