Review Month - Thanos Rising - issue 1.

Thanos Rising - Issue 1.

Written by Jason Aaron.

Art by Simone Bianchi.

Coloured by Simone Peruzzi.

Published by Marvel Comics.

It had to come didn't it. After the tease in the Avengers movie this was bound to happen. When I saw this solicited I was happy / dubious. Aaron is a great writer. I had the pleasure of chatting to him briefly at Thoughtbubble last year and he was a real gent. I think he is pretty much the best comics writer at the moment and this stems out of Scalped which was incredible. So this is good.

I have also met Mr Bianchi at Lucca in 2010 but pretty briefly. I admire him greatly as an artist and his work is pretty incredible. I have a little problem with his sequential work and think he needs to let it flow a little however. So this made me dubious.

So considering all the above.

Why the fuck are the first three pages so boring!? A planet in a star field? For three pages. C'MON! A little more imagination please gents. And yes I know there is a flare or an explosion or something. But really is that all you got? How much do we pay for these things!?

Moving on.

It would seem that Thanos returns to Titan once a year to walk the ruins (yay! Walking for two pages). The story then flashes back to the day Thanos was born. His mother tries to kill him and we then get Kid Thanos in the school yard. He yearns to draw! (Seriously? Maybe he could yearn to dance modern jazz too).

They go exploring. Thanos is caught in a cave in. Some lizards appear to eat his friends and he is pushed into taking revenge with what looks like a butter knife. Oh look this made him evil - origin story kind of thing.

I think the big problem is that I expected this to be better, deeper and not a little bit twee.

I don't really care about Thanos The School Years. 

I am not sure persoanlly that I see the point of this book (other than the obvious financial benefits). The whole premise seems to be off.  Why are they fleshing out this character. To me the act of making him vulnerable only weakens his effect in other books.  Sure he has this love thing with death - but that is what makes him so scary and his appearance all the more threatening.

Sure it looks great and the narration reads well. But by the time I got to the end I felt a sense of - 'Is that it?' 'Was that really worth the hype?'

It will most probably read better in trade (or the inevitable hardback) when it comes out in a couple of months and will sell well both in the LCS and a chain book shop.

But I can't help but feel that it is a little bit of a wasted opportunity?

What do you think?

NIA.