Rapid Fire Reviews #1 - May 17th releases
I had nine comics on my list to buy at the store this week, but only managed to get eight (Green Arrow wasn’t in my box, just like last time, I made sure it was on the list now). So what did I get, and how did I like it?
52 Week Two – Just seeing Ralph Dibny’s patented nose-twitch along with the dryly delivered implication that he’s a better detective than Batman made the issue for me, adding a lot of goodwill to a series I was already willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Other highlights included a teaser-filled conversation between two not-quite-obscure, not-quite-well-known scientists (I bet Morrison wrote that one), a funny-yet-ominous Booster Gold action scene, and a yummy Question/Renée Montoya confrontation—my guess is that Harvey Dent is using the guise of the Question, for some reason. Whatever the case may be, seeing him disappear in question-mark-shaped smoke kicked all sorts of ass. Just like the first issue had to have a gratuitous gory scene, this issue had one moment that turned me off and pulled me out of the story: Renée and her girlfriend wearing bra and panties while asleep in each other’s arms. Tacky on a variety of levels and reminiscent of the ridiculous scenes where Scully of X-Files fame would go to bed wearing a bra. I know some comic book writers may not have slept with a woman yet, but come on! The art was nothing stellar but more than serviceable and rather eye-pleasing despite its straightforwardness. For this DCU fan, a VERY GOOD issue.
Robin #150 – The “Boy Wanted” arc continues, as Robin is confronted with the mastermind behind the once and former Batgirl’s disappearance. I still like both writing (snappy dialogue if light on plot mechanics) and art (clear action-packed layouts and story-flow) but this felt like a bit of a step down from the previous two issues, though it's hard to pin-point why. I do find Tim’s hard-ass behaviour somewhat hard to swallow compared to his exuberance over in the Face The Face arc, and the manner in which Cain has been tied up doesn’t carry across the intent: that he’ll strangle himself if he tries to move. Come to think of it, I don’t really like Tim using that tactic in the first place, even if Cain is meant to be one of the most dangerous men alive. And of course the revelation of the aforementioned mastermind is who I’d already guessed, making it disappointing, although I’m still hoping for some twists and turns in upcoming issues. Nonetheless, as I said in this review, the new creative team is to be recommended for their efforts, making this a GOOD issue.
Moon Knight #2 - I reviewed a preview copy of the first issue and based on my enjoyment of it, decided to buy the opening arc to see where it’d all go. I can’t honestly say I was as fond as this second outing as I was of the opening salvo. The extremely gory and bloody violence, for one, didn’t appeal to me at all, which I do realise is just a matter of personal taste. I didn’t get the impression from the previous issue though that we’d take this route, so it’s off-putting. Moreover, writer Charlie Huston attempts to create effect in the captions through repetition, succeeding only in creating sameness and boredom. Witness the captions of page 1: “A hero. As if I ever was. As if that’s what you wanted from me. As if that’s what I gave to you. As if that’s all I gave.” As if I give a rat’s ass about all the as-if-fing. On page 2 we get “how many times” three times (how many times can Huston repeat it before I throw the damn comic away in disgust?), next it’s five times of “blame it on...” in a row (repeated again several times later, to which I say: “blame it on weak editing”).
Or how about this weak sequence: “The hatred born from slaughter. Slaughter born from friendship. Friendship born from recognition. Recognition of a kindred soul. Souls hating each other. Hating as you can hate only one thing”, accompanying a brutal fist- and knife-fight resulting in a fate for Moon Knight’s attacker which is just too sickening to write down here. Yes, I’m that lamely squeamish, sue me. It was disturbingly neat when Garth Ennis did it back in the early days of Preacher, but this seems more like pathetic pandering to the gore-lovers out there (gore without the capital g, of course. Though I believe the character Moon Knight maimed is called Bushwhacker, so maybe it’s about Gore-lovers after all :p)
While the first half shows us how Moon Knight came to lose everything in brutal, over-rendered flashback, the second half is more interesting again as Huston appears to have a better grasp on dialogue than on thought-captioning. Between the zealous line-work and the weak writing though, I was reminded of Todd McFarlane’s opening arc on his Spider-Man book, “Torment”, which was indeed quite torturous, so not a compliment at all there. I will still give the team a chance and support their endeavours for the time being, but the viciousness displayed in this issue makes me inclined towards scrapping it from my pull list—a damn shame considering my original praise for the first part of the arc. All in all, not recommended.
Ms Marvel #3 – In my reviews of the previous two issues, I already remarked upon the slipshod writing of Brian Reed, whose enthusiasm for both the character and for working within the Marvel Universe as a whole does shine through in the letter column (let’s hear it for the return of letter pages across all of Marvel’s series, woohoo!) but doesn’t materialise in the finished product itself, which turns out to be not living up to my expectations. There is too much of a focus on a fight with a blah-looking alien whose motives are too one-note to be of interest. I would’ve preferred some more of a struggle between Carol and the Brood, who are depicted on the cover but nowhere to be seen inside the comic.
The over-the-top cliffhanger of last issue is resolved cleanly if tamely, but I was dismayed to see the apparent destruction of an entire community be dismissed so casually while the New Warriors are vilified over in Civil War for the deaths of a couple 100 people (which wasn’t even their fault, but anyway). I would like to imagine that even as Carol is happy she averted the fate the Brood had in store for Earth, she’d also show some signs of distress over her inability to save the people of the town of Spaulding, Georgia. The writing strongly hints at a return of not only Cru (not someone I’d like to see again, so let’s hand out a “bah!” for that) but Spaulding as well (“this is world full of marvels” after all, as a news commentator sagely points out.)
And while the cliffhanger this time around does propel us straight into an entirely different situation for our heroine, one that makes sense considering her efforts to become “the best of the best” (and publicity is everything), there’s still something missing from the writing to make it as special and fun as I’m sure Reed intends it to be. Not a bad read, but if this series wants to survive, the creators really need to pull out all the stops. My fingers are crossed that the next installment will be more of the type of slam-dunk action I’m looking for (some more villains like the Stilt-Man would go a long way to satisfy my classic-Marvel-cravings :p) The art was still pleasing to my eye, so let’s give it a careful OKAY for now.
Captain America #18 – This sees the beginning of a new arc revolving around the plans of the Lukin/Skull merger, prompting Cap to team up with Union Jack (always fun to see both flag-draped heroes together, now how about some Captain Britain for good measure?), with a pretty cool Bucky scene as well as a murderous Crossbones/Syn (she’s scary-hot!) scene thrown in to keep those plots simmering as well. Brubaker juggles all his scenes nicely, as I’m used to, and Epting is as awesome as ever, particularly his face-shot of the Red Skull in the limo (loved the Skull’s face reflecting back to Lukin’s, very well done). Usually I’m no fan of overly “realistic” artwork, and I must admit I do prefer his older work on the Avengers, for instance, but this is still rather marvellous stuff. “Twenty-First Century Blitz” looks like it’ll be a lot of fun, making this kick-off point a VERY GOOD issue.
Shadowpact #1 – I love Bill Willingham’s Fables and despite its obvious sexism I’m also a fan of his Ironwood saga, which he wrote and pencilled alike, just like he does with this fresh start for the offbeat magic-themed team called the Shadowpact (as introduced in last year's Day of Vengeance mini-series). It’s clear from the inclusion of Superman in his story and the way they work around it, effectively bumping into the team’s appearance in 52 #1 last week, that he has no idea how to write within the confines of a company’s continuity. Based on Fables and Ironwood though, he does know how to write a rollicking tale of magic merriment and bloody betrayal, so I’m still quite looking forward to what he has planned.
His pencils appeal to me, even if I’m not too thrilled with his redesign for the Enchantress and Detective Chimp (no more Sherlock Holmes hat when he goes out on a case?! Outrageous! At least it was still featured when he was smoking at the bar) and if I think of this series as having its own parallel-universe continuity, I think I’ll be able to roll along with anything he comes up with, no matter how out there.
The bad guys are very bad indeed and the good guys are a colourful, oddball bunch, plus the Phantom Stranger guest-stars, which automatically raises any comic to the level of GOOD, with room to become better (though, I fear, not much time, since I can’t see the series being long for this world, so I’ll be getting it while I can!)
Aquaman, Sword of Atlantis #42 – Drunken stupor-induced nookie with a mermaid! Calamitous underwater bar fight! The Sea Devils! And the unexpected return of a character thought dead that made me squeal in delight! (yes, I squeal, wanna make something of it? :p) Busiek continues the entertaining tale he began One Year Later (aka two months ago) and improves upon the already-good previous two issues, giving me high hopes for a long and healthy run (if Guice can keep up, which I’m doubting considering this book was late, though I don’t mind so much because his art is scrumptious. With pages like the Sea Devils’ aquatic fortress, I can give him a bit of slack :)). The mix of action, mystery and revelation is pretty much perfect with the same high production values as before, so I’m definitely back to being a regular Aquaman fan. This one would be my favourite of the week if not for...
Fell #5 – It’s been a couple months since Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith graced us with another chapter in the life of hard-ass detective Richard Fell, but it was worth the wait, of course. Templesmith succeeds perfectly in bringing Ellis’s grimy, seedy world of Snowtown to life in general and does another well-expected admirable job with this issue’s tightly-scripted panel-to-panel camera work and the moody colouring. Focusing almost entirely on an interrogation scene, both writing and art keep the tension high and manage to tell us more about the titular hero than a lot of exposition in other series would.
Warren Ellis may come across as a bit of a nincompoop in his online ramblings, to me, but he’s a very talented popinjay nonetheless! One of those talents is the ability to easily make me swallow the violence, which somehow feels appropriate, likely because of the noir atmosphere that has been established since the very first issue. He’s also quite good at throwing in little things that pop up upon closer rereading, or when taken in hindsight, adding some extra value to an already entertaining and gripping little story. In closing, with lines like “I can do things to men that poodles only dream of!” (you had to be there), I cannot give this richly served representation of a well-worn theme (crack the bad-ass’s attitude) anything less than an EXCELLENT rating. It’s only 2 bucks, so get out there and hand over your change to the geek (or in my experience, cute girl) behind the counter!
Whew, that wasn’t as rapid-fire as I’d wanted it to be! Maybe I’ll do this again next week, if the offerings are appealing enough. This was a pretty satisfying week for the comics I buy, so it deserved being spotlighted.
52 Week Two – Just seeing Ralph Dibny’s patented nose-twitch along with the dryly delivered implication that he’s a better detective than Batman made the issue for me, adding a lot of goodwill to a series I was already willing to give the benefit of the doubt. Other highlights included a teaser-filled conversation between two not-quite-obscure, not-quite-well-known scientists (I bet Morrison wrote that one), a funny-yet-ominous Booster Gold action scene, and a yummy Question/Renée Montoya confrontation—my guess is that Harvey Dent is using the guise of the Question, for some reason. Whatever the case may be, seeing him disappear in question-mark-shaped smoke kicked all sorts of ass. Just like the first issue had to have a gratuitous gory scene, this issue had one moment that turned me off and pulled me out of the story: Renée and her girlfriend wearing bra and panties while asleep in each other’s arms. Tacky on a variety of levels and reminiscent of the ridiculous scenes where Scully of X-Files fame would go to bed wearing a bra. I know some comic book writers may not have slept with a woman yet, but come on! The art was nothing stellar but more than serviceable and rather eye-pleasing despite its straightforwardness. For this DCU fan, a VERY GOOD issue.
Robin #150 – The “Boy Wanted” arc continues, as Robin is confronted with the mastermind behind the once and former Batgirl’s disappearance. I still like both writing (snappy dialogue if light on plot mechanics) and art (clear action-packed layouts and story-flow) but this felt like a bit of a step down from the previous two issues, though it's hard to pin-point why. I do find Tim’s hard-ass behaviour somewhat hard to swallow compared to his exuberance over in the Face The Face arc, and the manner in which Cain has been tied up doesn’t carry across the intent: that he’ll strangle himself if he tries to move. Come to think of it, I don’t really like Tim using that tactic in the first place, even if Cain is meant to be one of the most dangerous men alive. And of course the revelation of the aforementioned mastermind is who I’d already guessed, making it disappointing, although I’m still hoping for some twists and turns in upcoming issues. Nonetheless, as I said in this review, the new creative team is to be recommended for their efforts, making this a GOOD issue.
Moon Knight #2 - I reviewed a preview copy of the first issue and based on my enjoyment of it, decided to buy the opening arc to see where it’d all go. I can’t honestly say I was as fond as this second outing as I was of the opening salvo. The extremely gory and bloody violence, for one, didn’t appeal to me at all, which I do realise is just a matter of personal taste. I didn’t get the impression from the previous issue though that we’d take this route, so it’s off-putting. Moreover, writer Charlie Huston attempts to create effect in the captions through repetition, succeeding only in creating sameness and boredom. Witness the captions of page 1: “A hero. As if I ever was. As if that’s what you wanted from me. As if that’s what I gave to you. As if that’s all I gave.” As if I give a rat’s ass about all the as-if-fing. On page 2 we get “how many times” three times (how many times can Huston repeat it before I throw the damn comic away in disgust?), next it’s five times of “blame it on...” in a row (repeated again several times later, to which I say: “blame it on weak editing”). Or how about this weak sequence: “The hatred born from slaughter. Slaughter born from friendship. Friendship born from recognition. Recognition of a kindred soul. Souls hating each other. Hating as you can hate only one thing”, accompanying a brutal fist- and knife-fight resulting in a fate for Moon Knight’s attacker which is just too sickening to write down here. Yes, I’m that lamely squeamish, sue me. It was disturbingly neat when Garth Ennis did it back in the early days of Preacher, but this seems more like pathetic pandering to the gore-lovers out there (gore without the capital g, of course. Though I believe the character Moon Knight maimed is called Bushwhacker, so maybe it’s about Gore-lovers after all :p)
While the first half shows us how Moon Knight came to lose everything in brutal, over-rendered flashback, the second half is more interesting again as Huston appears to have a better grasp on dialogue than on thought-captioning. Between the zealous line-work and the weak writing though, I was reminded of Todd McFarlane’s opening arc on his Spider-Man book, “Torment”, which was indeed quite torturous, so not a compliment at all there. I will still give the team a chance and support their endeavours for the time being, but the viciousness displayed in this issue makes me inclined towards scrapping it from my pull list—a damn shame considering my original praise for the first part of the arc. All in all, not recommended.
Ms Marvel #3 – In my reviews of the previous two issues, I already remarked upon the slipshod writing of Brian Reed, whose enthusiasm for both the character and for working within the Marvel Universe as a whole does shine through in the letter column (let’s hear it for the return of letter pages across all of Marvel’s series, woohoo!) but doesn’t materialise in the finished product itself, which turns out to be not living up to my expectations. There is too much of a focus on a fight with a blah-looking alien whose motives are too one-note to be of interest. I would’ve preferred some more of a struggle between Carol and the Brood, who are depicted on the cover but nowhere to be seen inside the comic. The over-the-top cliffhanger of last issue is resolved cleanly if tamely, but I was dismayed to see the apparent destruction of an entire community be dismissed so casually while the New Warriors are vilified over in Civil War for the deaths of a couple 100 people (which wasn’t even their fault, but anyway). I would like to imagine that even as Carol is happy she averted the fate the Brood had in store for Earth, she’d also show some signs of distress over her inability to save the people of the town of Spaulding, Georgia. The writing strongly hints at a return of not only Cru (not someone I’d like to see again, so let’s hand out a “bah!” for that) but Spaulding as well (“this is world full of marvels” after all, as a news commentator sagely points out.)
And while the cliffhanger this time around does propel us straight into an entirely different situation for our heroine, one that makes sense considering her efforts to become “the best of the best” (and publicity is everything), there’s still something missing from the writing to make it as special and fun as I’m sure Reed intends it to be. Not a bad read, but if this series wants to survive, the creators really need to pull out all the stops. My fingers are crossed that the next installment will be more of the type of slam-dunk action I’m looking for (some more villains like the Stilt-Man would go a long way to satisfy my classic-Marvel-cravings :p) The art was still pleasing to my eye, so let’s give it a careful OKAY for now.
Captain America #18 – This sees the beginning of a new arc revolving around the plans of the Lukin/Skull merger, prompting Cap to team up with Union Jack (always fun to see both flag-draped heroes together, now how about some Captain Britain for good measure?), with a pretty cool Bucky scene as well as a murderous Crossbones/Syn (she’s scary-hot!) scene thrown in to keep those plots simmering as well. Brubaker juggles all his scenes nicely, as I’m used to, and Epting is as awesome as ever, particularly his face-shot of the Red Skull in the limo (loved the Skull’s face reflecting back to Lukin’s, very well done). Usually I’m no fan of overly “realistic” artwork, and I must admit I do prefer his older work on the Avengers, for instance, but this is still rather marvellous stuff. “Twenty-First Century Blitz” looks like it’ll be a lot of fun, making this kick-off point a VERY GOOD issue.
Shadowpact #1 – I love Bill Willingham’s Fables and despite its obvious sexism I’m also a fan of his Ironwood saga, which he wrote and pencilled alike, just like he does with this fresh start for the offbeat magic-themed team called the Shadowpact (as introduced in last year's Day of Vengeance mini-series). It’s clear from the inclusion of Superman in his story and the way they work around it, effectively bumping into the team’s appearance in 52 #1 last week, that he has no idea how to write within the confines of a company’s continuity. Based on Fables and Ironwood though, he does know how to write a rollicking tale of magic merriment and bloody betrayal, so I’m still quite looking forward to what he has planned. His pencils appeal to me, even if I’m not too thrilled with his redesign for the Enchantress and Detective Chimp (no more Sherlock Holmes hat when he goes out on a case?! Outrageous! At least it was still featured when he was smoking at the bar) and if I think of this series as having its own parallel-universe continuity, I think I’ll be able to roll along with anything he comes up with, no matter how out there.
The bad guys are very bad indeed and the good guys are a colourful, oddball bunch, plus the Phantom Stranger guest-stars, which automatically raises any comic to the level of GOOD, with room to become better (though, I fear, not much time, since I can’t see the series being long for this world, so I’ll be getting it while I can!)
Aquaman, Sword of Atlantis #42 – Drunken stupor-induced nookie with a mermaid! Calamitous underwater bar fight! The Sea Devils! And the unexpected return of a character thought dead that made me squeal in delight! (yes, I squeal, wanna make something of it? :p) Busiek continues the entertaining tale he began One Year Later (aka two months ago) and improves upon the already-good previous two issues, giving me high hopes for a long and healthy run (if Guice can keep up, which I’m doubting considering this book was late, though I don’t mind so much because his art is scrumptious. With pages like the Sea Devils’ aquatic fortress, I can give him a bit of slack :)). The mix of action, mystery and revelation is pretty much perfect with the same high production values as before, so I’m definitely back to being a regular Aquaman fan. This one would be my favourite of the week if not for...
Fell #5 – It’s been a couple months since Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith graced us with another chapter in the life of hard-ass detective Richard Fell, but it was worth the wait, of course. Templesmith succeeds perfectly in bringing Ellis’s grimy, seedy world of Snowtown to life in general and does another well-expected admirable job with this issue’s tightly-scripted panel-to-panel camera work and the moody colouring. Focusing almost entirely on an interrogation scene, both writing and art keep the tension high and manage to tell us more about the titular hero than a lot of exposition in other series would. Warren Ellis may come across as a bit of a nincompoop in his online ramblings, to me, but he’s a very talented popinjay nonetheless! One of those talents is the ability to easily make me swallow the violence, which somehow feels appropriate, likely because of the noir atmosphere that has been established since the very first issue. He’s also quite good at throwing in little things that pop up upon closer rereading, or when taken in hindsight, adding some extra value to an already entertaining and gripping little story. In closing, with lines like “I can do things to men that poodles only dream of!” (you had to be there), I cannot give this richly served representation of a well-worn theme (crack the bad-ass’s attitude) anything less than an EXCELLENT rating. It’s only 2 bucks, so get out there and hand over your change to the geek (or in my experience, cute girl) behind the counter!
Whew, that wasn’t as rapid-fire as I’d wanted it to be! Maybe I’ll do this again next week, if the offerings are appealing enough. This was a pretty satisfying week for the comics I buy, so it deserved being spotlighted.
posted by Peter at 10:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home