Agent Carter #1

The first noble truth of the comic-book industry is that the cover sells the book. That is certainly the case with Agent Carter #1. When I walked into my neighborhood comic shop Wednesday night my eyes were immediately drawn to Declan Shalvey's art. I pulled it off the shelf and purchased it.

Sadly, the story inside does not live up to Shalvey's cover. Kathryn Immonen, who scripted some interesting material for Journey Into Mystery, teams up her star from that title, Lady Sif, with Margaret "Peggy" Carter, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., for a completely uninspired tale of suspense set aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in the north Atlantic.

I'm not a fan of Rich Ellis' art; it gives me at times a Frank Robbins flashback. In my youth there was no greater disappointment than to discover that Frank Robbins had taken over the penciling duties on a comic-book title I was following.

One good thing about Agent Carter #1 is that it continues to paint S.H.I.E.L.D., an obvious stand-in for the gargantuan U.S. national security state, as an amoral, destructive force.

Where would the Marvel Universe be without the calculating, malign Nick Fury?

Also, based on a reading of this comic book, I might give the ABC series, Marvel's Agent Carter a try.

Below are six "action-packed" interior pages. Fury, having recruited Lady Sif as a co-conspirator, has surreptitiously booby-trapped a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier headed for decommissioning in order to test Agent Carter's crisis-management skills.

Magneto #3

Magneto is another title in the All-New Marvel NOW! series I've been gushing about this year. It has a The X-Files vibe to it, as Magneto, a.k.a. Holocaust survivor Max Eisenhardt (the character played by Michael Fassbender in the movies), drifts through a desolate America (accurately portrayed as a post-Great Recession fallout zone) ruthlessly rooting out plots to murder Mutants.

The art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta is perfect. It casts the mind's eye back to early Underground comix at the same time appearing sharp and fresh. Cullen Bunn is a journeyman writer who scripts a disciplined narrative.

What I take away from Magneto is that it is a story aimed at my generational cohort: middle-aged white men on their way to senior citizenry, alone and embittered -- that the world didn't align with the expectations of their bountiful youth. The Tea Party archetype.

I live in a neighborhood that attracts aspiring, educated young adults, the generational cohort I was a member of when I first landed here. At that time the neighborhood was more bohemian. But a steady current of gentrification razed the last Hippie house more than 15-years ago and has priced all the artsy types out as high-rise apartment buildings and condominiums have shot up along Broadway. Now, rather than the hard-partying Grunge rocker, it is the young professional with the well-scrubbed look of entitlement that populates the community.

I'm not complaining. The neighborhood is much more quiet today, despite the increased density, than it was a decade ago when Friday- and Saturday-night bacchanals were a common occurrence. I'm slightly out of place though because of my gray beard; I am something of an anachronism, like a dinosaur walking about in the age of mammals.

And that is part of the beauty that Bunn and Hernandez Walta (Javier Fernandez Barranco, who provides the art for several issues, as well) bring to Magneto -- a feeling of being out of place and out of one's time.

Below you will find scans of the cover to Magneto #3, art by Declan Shalvey, as well as ten interior pages, art by Gabriel Hernandez Walta; colors by Jordie Bellaire. Cullen Bunn has Magneto tracking down a secret government lab creating human-Sentinel cyborgs. Magneto, the Mutant master of magnetism, takes care of the deceptively attractive female scientist (who resembles the young professional women in my neighborhood) by inserting two paper clips under the skin of her arm.

Dark Avengers #189

The new Dark Avengers title, written by Jeff Parker with pencils by Neil Edwards and inks by Terry Pallot, is, I'm sad to say, weak. It is unfortunate because I like Jeff Parker's writing; his run on Red Hulk was exceptional, as was his work on Thunderbolts with artists Kev Walker and Declan Shalvey. The storyline in the current Dark Avengers is a time-travel narrative set in a future where warring superheroes have divided New York City into various turfs. It is convoluted and feels exhausted. It is also unfortunate because the original Dark Avengers title, written by Brian Bendis with art by Mike Deodato, was the premiere Marvel comic book for the first year and a half of the Obama administration; it corresponds with the Dark Reign and Siege Marvel crossover events and Congressional Affordable Care Act battles and the rise of the Tea Party.

Below are five scans from Dark Avengers #189. The cover art is by Joe Quinones, a play on the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of a sailor kissing a woman in Times Square on V-J Day. In Quinones' subversive cover, Toxic Doxie is the one doing the kissing, bending the sailor's back and cradling his head. The four interior pages by Neil Edwards showcase Skaar, Son of Hulk, pounding an alternate universe Mr. Fantastic into rubble: