Blasphemy Reviews

capsule reviews

I'll be reviewing individual issues of series I read, as I get my hands on them. Be warned: my reading schedule is erratic, and I often don't get to an individual issue until weeks after it comes out. Anyone looking for Paul O'Brien-style regularity should, well, read Paul O'Brien.

I'll be rating the books as follows, and in descending order of quality: Superb, Excellent, Good, OK, Eh, Bad, and Terrible.

Runaways #18...Yup, one of them dies, just like it says on the cover. Not an earth-shattering confrontation, but perhaps that is the point. Enjoyable, and the art is lovely. Good.

Civil War #3...A very welcome Special Surprise Guest Star at the end of the issue. As with most universe-changing crossovers, you're still constantly wondering what caused the major conflict besides the editors thinking it was a good idea for a story. (Which it is, by the way.) It's not like the late, lamented New Warriors were the first heroes to leave behind some collateral damage. Steve McNiven is undoubtedly talented, but the art still always looks like the camera is just a little bit too close to whatever it's showing, which makes it hard to show motion. OK.

Shadowpact #3...It had a great set-up in the first issue, but the second issue was just paint-by-numbers "each hero fights a neatly matched villain and gets captured, except one, who escapes, and..." (Yes, I know that the evil villain used her evil psychic powers to plant the idea of acting out the stock battle scenes in the heroes' minds...but they're still stock battle scenes.) Then we get to this, and the bad guys are defeated awfully quickly for people who have held an entire town captive in an impenetrable barrier for a year. Fill-in art is just fine. Hopefully the plotting gets better, because Willingham is terrific at characterization. Eh.

Warren Ellis: Wolfskin #1...Well, I guess this must be written by Warren Ellis. The artist should get equal billing, though; Juan Jose Ryp is his name, and highly detailed carnage. squalor, and natural beauty is his game. (I'm really ready, however, for the era of extended, wordless fight scenes to come to an end. The visual language of comics is similar to movies, true, but these days some comics are turning into storyboards.) Has a few excellent Ellis one liners, including a doozy of a closer; the strangeness of the world in which the story takes place, which is sort of Dark Ages Europe, but not really, is definitely intriguing. Good.

New Avengers #20...Brian Michael Bendis is a man with plenty of great story ideas, but such ideas are better when they're driving the plot, instead of described over and over again, commented upon, and generally pumped up as if they're some kind of unbelievable leap of the imagination. That was the problem with Avengers: Disassembled. Still, the art is great, I like SHIELD being run by someone other than Nick Fury, and Iron Man's heroism is quite compelling, especially considering that he's sort of a bad guy these days. OK.

Loveless #7...A minimalist statement of Ruth Cutter's undying love for her husband, which is perhaps not enough for one whole issue. Zezelj draws everything well except faces. Eh.

Teen Titans #37...I've always enjoyed Tony Daniel's pencils, and they're ideally suited to this teen team book as they were to X-Force. As for the story, it has perhaps one scene too many of a Titan staring wistfully off into space, contemplating the unfairness of it all...but the disturbing aspects of Niles Caulder's schemes are creepily cool, and Monsieur Mallah and The Brain are just creepy, by which I mean, I'll want to read about these villains again. Good.

X-Factor #9...The art is OK but I keep thinking that my copy got smudged a little. The story is excellent; much, much better dramatization of internecine quarrels among superheroes than anything in the Civil War miniseries proper. I'm just delighted that Peter David came back to these characters; for my money, they're his best work. Excellent.

American Virgin #5...Maddened by grief, hip Christian skater boy Adam loses it at his fiancee's funeral and humps her casket right there in the church. Goes a little over the top, you might say. But Adam's emotional arc, as a Christian who can't believe that God would let anything bad happen to him, is completely believable. (Considering how many people go through their lives with his worldview, it's astonishing to me that we don't see Adam's dilemma dramatized more often.) Less believable are the melodramatic international thriller elements of the story, but I'm still willing to give Seagle the benefit of the doubt. Good.

Astonishing X-Men #15...John Cassaday's art has never been as good on this series as it is on Planetary, which makes me suspect he's rushing. Or maybe it's just that the story is so much smaller; for a guy with such a reputation as an imaginative creator of storylines, it sure seems like Joss Whedon it reheating old hash. But there's no doubt he's got a gift for dialogue, and Cassaday's skill at pacing a story is undiminished even if his faces and figures are. And I freely admit that I enjoyed the last page; guess it's some pretty tasty hash Whedon is reheating. OK.

Fables #50...Still engagingly odd, but Bigby's secret mission is not nearly as compelling as Boy Blue's quest from a few issues ago. Come to think of it, Bigby himself is not as compelling as most of the other characters in this book. Reminds me too much of Wolverine, I guess, and Lourdes knows we get enough of him. Art is pretty good, though. Eh.

X-Men #187...Peter Milligan's run as writer comes to an end...it's not his best work, but he definitely made some interesting changes to some characters, which is more than you can say about the last guy to write this book. His last storyline was probably the best, but I've always liked Apocalypse as a villain more than other people, so your mileage may vary. Salvador Larroca has always struck me as better suited to a different book, but he's fine, too. OK.

Ultimate Fantastic Four #30...Wow, Mark Millar really does like those zombies. Still, they're suitably horrifying, especially considering that everyone else Greg Land draws is the most gorgeous person you've ever seen. It's a great set-up, too, but as always with Millar I give it a few demerits for his stiltedly ironic dialogue. OK.

52 #11...Well, nearly three months into this thing, I think we can call it a success. My word, that's a lot of story, but I like everything except maybe the evil henchmen that turn into giant animals. There's no denying the spottiness of the art, but it's probably as good as it's going to get on a weekly schedule. Good.

Daredevil #85...Be warned: he's my favorite character, so your mileage may vary. But I'm loving the Daredevil-in-prison story. The Punisher guest spot is great, and I really, truly do not know how this whole situation is going to end. I loved the Bendis/Maleev run, but this is even better. Excellent.

Squadron Supreme #5...I'm really not sure I want to read Joe Straczynski's take on The State of the World, but I do find many of these characters compelling, and the art is terrific. OK.

Brave New World...excellent value for story; I'll probably be trying out most of these titles, and I probably wouldn't have looked at any of them except the Atom without the cheap preview. Nice trick, DC. Excellent.

The All New Atom #1...But now that I read the whole issue...really do not care for the art; it looks sketchy. I can't believe it's the same guy who drew this. And I couldn't quite get into the story; maybe it's the annoying quotes from famous scientists everywhere. I'll still be trying the next few issues based on the overall excellence of Gail Simone's work, though. Eh.

Y: The Last Man #46...No one does a cliffhanger better, these days. Nearly four years in, I continue to be impressed with the amount of imagination that has gone into this series. More like this, please. Excellent.

The Punisher #34...Still fun. Excellent.

posted by Mr. Blasphemy @ 3:49 PM