HEY BUDDY (Guest blogger Cory Stine): "Poe Dameron #1" by Soule & Noto

The King Oscar Isaac's likeness lighting up a Marvel cover.

Welcome back to JHI! I've not only got single issues of comics, but also serious issues with time management! You can expect a double-shot of comics greatness this week! I'll be back with hot takes on Lemire's new run on Moon Knight later!

For now, enjoy an unedited conversation with the God Cory Stine, leader of the Jetpack Joust media network! We mostly gush over Poe Dameron #1! I also make it clear that my opinions on the King Oscar Isaac are not at all professional. Enjoy, and read me soon!

JC: So, I really like Poe Dameron #1!

CS: Yeah dude! It's a nice compact little story. I'm very excited to see where it goes. Soule is such an underrated writer.

JC: Yeah and I was really stunned, from the getgo, by how accurately Soule captured Poe Dameron with dialogue. There's something so singularly pure about Poe's "gee whiz" heroism and it's all there. Even when he's miffed, he's still very nice.

CS: There's something very classic about Poe. He's the type of hero we don't see too often in modern fiction: someone who wants to do the right thing for seemingly no other reason than the fact that it's the right thing. Obviously, he could get more layered, as I imagine he'll play a larger role in the events of Episodes VIII and IX, but I think it's actually very refreshing that Poe is the opposite of all grimdark heroes that seem to be dominating our culture at the moment.

JC: I was literally just thinking about that. There's something very dorky about Poe and I mean that in a good way. It's like if a good-natured honor student was the protagonist of a comic book.

CS: Exactly! He's Captain America prior to the events of The Winter Soldier. Good-natured, smart, charismatic, and maybe even a bit too idealistic for his own good. And Soule does such a great job of capturing that, even if Poe only had fifteen minutes of screen time in The Force Awakens.

JC: The book, and Leia herself, mention that he's really our peek into life for a Republic member who never knew the Empire.

CS: Poe, as a character, helps to remind us that quite a bit of time has passed in the Star Wars galaxy. He never lived under the thumb of the Emperor and Vader, so he may not fully understand the complexities of that time period. Just like I highly doubt that anyone in our age group fully grasps the ins-and-outs of the end of the Cold War. Poe feels the impact of history, but only understands the present. But I just got very philosophical about a book that, more than anything, is just incredibly light and fun.

JC: Yeah the book really breezes along, even with the (predictably adorable) BB-8 story at the end. It whets the appetite for more info about his team.

CS: I really hope that we get to explore some of the supporting characters. Probably the best comics in the old EU were the X-Wing books and the reason they were so successful was the supporting cast and the team dynamics. I want this to be Poe's book, but I'd love for this series to have that same dimension. I'm already interested in L'ulo, who flew with Poe's mother in the Shattered Empire series. How did you feel about the artwork? I think Phil Noto is very talented, but I wasn't a huge fan of the Chewbacca mini-series, so I'm glad they brought him back for another chance at Star Wars.

JC: I thought the art was the strongest part of Chewbacca and this looked even better! There's, again, a stern and quiet decency to everything Poe does and instead of looking like a square, he just looks firm and Steve Rogers-esque.

CS: Definitely. There's a trend in these Star Wars comics where artists clearly trace moments from the films when drawing familiar characters. It can be a bit distracting. You can tell that Noto is reverent to the characters, but he also has his own style that very much fits the tone of the story being told. I love it.

Dameron, you wry bastard.

JC: So Poe is definitely on a mission to find the Max Von Sydow character, right?

CS: That's definitely the impression I got. Which is great, because that character came and went so fast in The Force Awakens and it feels like he had a lot of potential. He's important enough to be the only person in the galaxy with a map to Luke Skywalker, so he could potentially be some of the connective tissue between the original trilogy and the new films.

JC: Yeah I'm really hoping he pops up in Rogue One too. So, I know that on my end, I've read Chewbacca and Vader Down from the newer Star Wars comics. I got deeper into this than Chewbacca, but so far it lacks the real propulsion of Vader Down. Where does Poe Dameron sit for you?

CS: As a first issue, it's very strong and it definitely left me wanting more. I've read every Star Wars comic that Marvel has put out and I'd definitely say that this is in the top tier, at least at the jump, but it has to maintain the momentum to keep me interested in. I have faith in Charles Soule after his run on the Lando mini-series, so I'd definitely call this a buy.

JC: Agreed. I think it's a great add to a pull list for anyone who already reads Star Wars, and a strong entry point for the casual fan.

CS: Yeah, so many of the other Star Wars lines are intertwining narratively and are deep enough in that it could be difficult to find a good starting point. Because Poe takes place in this completely unexplored area of the timeline, it's perfect for casual fans of the franchise.

There you have it, Rebels! Don't wait to stream it on Unlimited, Poe Dameron is a buy!

Quake, Interrupted: "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. #3" by Guggenheim, Peralta & Rosenberg

The Tarantino -shot cover lacks the very ugly Standoff logos.

When the Jeph Loeb-headed television branch of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began back in 2013, it opened with a thud, inaudible even to Matt Murdock. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. featured an inexplicably resurrected Phil Coulson leading a team of lesser-ranking super-spies going against even lower-status agents of Centipede. The series centered around Skye, played by Chloe Bennet, a stressed-yet-gorgeous hacker who managed to infiltrate S.H.I.E.L.D. using only her wits in the back of a van. The rest of the cast, filled out with Abercrombie models, "nerdy" characters by your usual "TV-ugly" brand of actors, and the legendary Ming-Na Wen, playing a character well below what she deserved. I expected it to die a quiet midseason death, after an episode meant to tie into Thor: The Dark World featured Peter MacNicol as a former Asgardian.

Something happened around The Winter Soldier in 2014, however: the show crystallized around a main MCU plot and began moving. Suddenly, Brett Dalton's performance as Agent Grant Ward became an intentional cypher of a "good guy," and the rest of the cast began to fill out like a regular Whedonesque ensemble, and not just the disconnected facsimile they were in the first 16 episodes. The show was also pursuing a LOST-style mystery around Coulson's resurrection (going so far as to link his rebirth to the Tahitian ISLAND) that it quickly dropped in favor of making threats to the world explicit in the rebirth of Hydra.

Season 2 added even more to the show, opening with actual Marvel villains like the Absorbing Man and TV-ready heroes like Mockingbird. Talented actors like Adrianne Palicki and Nick Blood jumped on to the cast (and will sadly be missed moving forward) and mainstays of the MCU like Samuel L. Jackson and Hayley Atwell dropped in for world-building scenes. Most importantly, the show performed some breathtaking storytelling parkour in destroying the ground underneath Skye's feet by turning her into Daisy Johnson (not yet Quake) and establishing her as an Inhuman (as well as the daughter of Mr. Hyde, played gleefully by Kyle Maclachlan) having just experienced Terrigenesis. The show also found new depths to old characters like Deathlok (played by Whedon alum J. August Richards) and space for experimental episodes, like the Agent Simmons showstopper "4,722 Hours." Renewed already for a fourth season, Agents rests comfortably now as a Once Upon a Time-style fixture on ABC's schedule, while fans bite their nails in anticipation of a third season of Marvel's Agent Carter.

Great, expressive action shots help move the story along in issue #3.

It makes sense that Marvel wouldn't want to launch an Agents tie-in that takes 2 years to get good, and it's a good thing that they pulled in rival showrunner Marc Guggenheim from the CW's Arrow to make things sing on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and his storytelling expertise shows from issue #1. The book plays out like a "best of both worlds" compilation of characters from the show, as Quake leads Coulson's field team consisting of Agents Fitz, May, and Simmons. Mockingbird and Deathlok are also on hand for the spy capers of the show, and each character gets plenty of face time. Rick Jones even swings by for a bit to help Coulson with the mission at hand.

Peralta and Rosenberg do great work with pacing and color, as you can see in the explosive opening shot above, and there's plenty of space for Guggenheim's dialogue-heavy action to dominate the panels. Deathlok hasn't been so simultaneously fearsome and friendly in years, and to see him drawn this way is a joy for longtime fans.

Ironically, my only misgiving with an issue like this is that the Agents book, unlike the show, loses something when it has to tie into a bigger picture. The Standoff crossover is currently occupying a rather boring miniseries by itself, while also splintering into some dull stories in other books. Sam Wilson: Captain America is strong enough by itself to survive the crossover, but Agents lives and dies by the high-powered adventures that refresh themselves between issues. Standoff forces these characters to flip into the continuity of a bad lead-up to Civil War II, and it really shows. Guggenheim and Peralta got hired for their ability to tell a great story on their own; here's hoping that Marvel lets them out of Inhuman jail long enough to do it!

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