Marvel Visionaries

Rating:
Summary: Excellent finale to Steranko's Marvel works, despite colors
Review: I really anticipated this book being a BIG fan of Steranko. I purchased the earlier tomes from Marvel reprinting Steranko's amazing Nick Fury tales. Marvel Visionaries: Jim Steranko reprints his incredible Captain America issues, a groundbreaking, if not short, horror tale from Tower of Shadows, an unexpected romance tale from Our Love Story, and several cover illustrations from various titles around that time.

Now the stories, illustration, and sheer verve on display here blows the mind. Being a young guy of 22, I see even now how a lot of Steranko's influence has seeped into and expanded the vocabulary of comics storytelling and art for my contemporaries. The Captain America issues are just so cinematic and steady in storytelling. I guarantee that the finale to the Cap story arc will leave you giddy with excitement and amazement, like a great action movie. The horror and romance stories are very much welcome as they are very difficult to find as originals and otherwise. So many of the popular comics creators of the last 20 years such as Michael Golden, Paul Gulacy, and Jim Lee readily admit that Steranko played a key part in their development as artists.

My only gripe with the book is that the coloring is sometimes off-putting, but not wholly awful. Steranko's techniques of color holds and otherwise should have held more than enough, even better with today's technology to keep the colors true.

Regardless, I highly recommend this volume, along with Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD and Nick Fury: Scorpio, as must haves for your comic collection and testaments to one of the most extraordinary creators to ever grace comics, Jim Steranko.

Rating:
Summary: Worth It Only For Steranko's Art.
Review: Marvel Visionaries: Steranko is NOT the book to get if you're looking for a good read. The book is REALLY slim, and story-wise, the choices leave a lot to be desired. There's a two-part X-Men story, which is virtually unreadable- It's a convoluted, overwritten mess, and Steranko's art is very primitive. The three-part Captain America is a much better choice, as it showcases Steranko's groundbreaking visual style to much better effect, but the plot itself is sloppy, and it's way too long at nearly 60 pages; It could have been done in half that, and some of the logical lapses just boggle the mind. The android Vision knocked out by gas...? He doesn't BREATHE!! Why does the cornered Captain America just happen to have an inflatable replica of himself, complete with a lifelike face mask, and how does he get his costume off of himself and onto the dummy in a few seconds????? Stupid stuff...

The horror story that is included is a keeper, though. I remember reading this when I was a kid in Les Daniel's excellent Comix: An Illustrated History, and it still packs a punch. Steranko's visuals are stunning, and you can see his influence in character poses and page layouts to this day. The last story is a Stan Lee/Steranko romance short, and in light of political correctness and Women's lib, it's hilarious. One scene in the story screams out sexual harassment, and I think this cornball classic alone is worth the price of admission. Steranko's art on this piece is simply stunning; WAY ahead of it's time. The color reproduction on all of the stories is nice, better than I've seen in previous reprints of this material. The book is rounded out with a nice selection of Steranko's Marvel cover illustrations.

Overall, fan's of Steranko's art will enjoy this installment of Marvel's Visionaries series. People looking for a good read might want to give this a pass.