Panel Vision - Fury: My War Gone By

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Today marks the return of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, the first major Marvel show on a network.    This year’s premiere of Marvel’s super-spy series comes with a big dollop of serendipity as it’s hot on the heels of the first new Nick Fury comic book to hit stands since the ‘90s.  Given the situation and the fact I’ve meant to write about this for a while now, I’ve elected to look at the best Nick Fury comic book yet written- My War Gone By.  

I briefly discussed it back in my look at Nick’s many iterations and again while going over his best comic covers, now the time has come at least to tackle it head on and believe me, this is a long overdue review.  Aside from fitting into the double SHIELD theme of this week My War Gone By fits the much broader tone of this moment in American history.  

It’s a vast, complex, sobering cold war story of one soldier’s march through history and towards oblivion, the way we make war, and what drives the American identity- just the thing to read as we begin our own inevitable march towards oblivion. 

Panel Vision - Alias

So, Jessica Jones has hit Netflix everywhere and the response has been pretty much overwhelmingly positive.  A lot of critics seem to love it, myself included, and there seems to be enough popular support that I wouldn’t be surprised if a second season got announced over the next couple of weeks.  It’s easy to see why the show has touched such a chord with so many, firstly because it’s just a really well made show.  The writing is excellent, the cinematography solid, the set design and lighting is superb, and the actors are all in top form.  More than that, the show has taken the bold stance of touching on a lot of very controversial and raw subject including, abuse, PTSD, rape, dubious consent, and privilege. 

All of that is relatively in line with the comics that spawned the series, 2001’s groundbreaking comic series by Marvel comics architect Brian Michael Bendis: Alias.  Published through Marvel’s MAX Comics line for adult content Alias pushed the boundaries of modern comics and helped Bendis get his foot in the door to create the Ultimate Universe and eventually take over the reigns of power at Marvel and extend greater relevance to now key characters like Luke Cage and Carol Danvers.  All of which is nice because aside from the book’s importance…it’s really not that great.