Comics creator Max Field is recruited by CIA operative Julia to be a spy – and that’s the “plot” of Cover! Because Brian Bendis’ characters are as overly chatty as ever, like in titles such as New Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and All-New X-Men: waffle, waffle, waffle, oh shit, the book’s over and I forgot to add a story – classic Bendis!
And what’s worse is that quite a bit of the dialogue, in addition to being largely pointless (WAY too much on Jack Kirby – I get it, you’re a fan!), reads like writing as well as a lot of stream of consciousness. I get the impression Bendis doesn’t get much editorial interference over at DC. The lack of any real story only highlights how repetitive the structure of the book is: Max is at a comics convention, Julia chats him up, change the unimportant location and repeat.
The one part of the book that actually plays like a conventional spy thriller – Max tied to a chair getting whaled on by a thug for information – fizzles into nothingness. He passes out and is somehow rescued by Julia – no clue how. Did she kill or injure his torturer? No, because the torturer shows up later without a scratch! Wha happen…?
All of which sounds like I’m coming down on Cover – and actually I really enjoyed it! The dialogue is abundant but most of it is amusing and, because it’s mostly about the comics biz, something Bendis is extremely familiar with being one of comics’ top creators – at this point, of all time – a lot wisdom gets dropped on the subject of writing, creating, comics, and much more. A lot of it is inspiring and motivating for wannabe comics writers in much the same way as Stephen King’s On Writing is for aspiring novelists.
Max’s comic, Ninja Sword Odyssey, is very clearly a thinly veiled reflection of the main story running in parallel but it’s also entertaining in itself – David Mack wrote these parts of the book so hats off to him. And even though it’s not clear why comics creators are being used as geopolitical pawns in the first place (which does feel like Bendis/Mack being full of themselves – “let’s make the coolest people in the world comics creators – just like us!”) – I mean, are they really ideal candidates? – but it is an original setup and the end result is breezy and fun.
David Mack is such an accomplished artist and this book wonderfully showcases his skill and vision. His spare and elegant brushes for the comic within a comic, Ninja Sword Odyssey, are beautiful and I liked how he switched up his style for the childhood flashback sequence into unexpectedly avant-garde figures. The majority of the book is drawn in a more conventional – but no less impressive – way full of stunning painted art, and the layouts are imaginative and effective – I always love Mack’s art and, as expected, had no complaints with the visuals of Cover. Bill Sienkiewicz and Michael Avon Oeming also contribute pages for the other comics creators’ fictional comics and their art is excellent too.
Mack writes in his introduction that he’s been friends with Bendis since 1993 and they always intended to create their own comic one day. After Bendis nearly died at the end of 2017 without this happening, they decided to fast track the project after his recovery and Cover is the end result. 26 years in the making and I’d say it was worth it!
It might annoy more plot-driven readers, but I found Cover, Volume 1 to be an interesting, engaging and visually glorious book. Along with Scarlet, Bendis is doing his best work these days on his Jinxworld titles.
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