Blasphemy Reviews

quick takes 1/08/07

Many comics to review...holiday buildup...thank you Marvel for decreasing the number of ads...please don't do it again.

Civil War #6...I'm sort of done reviewing this as a comic. It's an event. I don't think it's been great, and I don't think it's been awful. I certainly like it when the status quo gets shaken up, as that's the only way to create actual interest in characters that have been around for so long, and this event has done that. On the other hand, Mark Millar writes a terrible Captain America, somehow not able to find a shred of nobility in a character that should embody it. I don't mind if heroes make bad choices, but they should still talk like themselves. Very few Millar characters talk like anyone but Millar characters. Art is still pretty good, though it would have been better to have Salvador LaRocca do it and get it out on time. In the end it's just OK.

Civil War Front Line #10...As story, this has been a sight better than the main series, except for those awful backup stories comparing the Civil War to actual historical wars. In this issue, they turn Speedball into a new character. Lots of people are troubled by this, but to me they're just saying he lost his mind, and I buy it. Certainly his character will be in good hands in his new series, which I hope Warren Ellis writes for at least twenty issues or so. I'm less interested in Tony Stark's alleged machinations. OK.

Annihilation #5...By far the superior crossover to Civil War. Not even a close comparison. Drax and Ronan, like Tony Stark, are powerful men making dubious use of their power against great evil. But there's no straining for plausibility here, just big fights for the fate of the universe that feel like they really matter. I hope a good regular series comes out of this, but I have no idea what it would be. Excellent.

Incredible Hulk #102...Speaking of new directions for characters that some people do not like, the Incredible Hulk has now been in another dimension or outer space or something for almost a year. Personally, I really like the story. The Hulk, who was sort of gloomy the last time I read him regularly, has become a sort of Cranky the Barbarian, righting intergalactic wrongs by beating up bad guys. His supporting cast, always key in making him interesting, has been pretty good considering that it's all new with this storyline. This issue, the Hulk literally puts his body where the danger is to save his friends. Giving your personal flesh as food as a way of cementing an alliance is pretty cool. Excellent.

American Virgin #10...Adam Chamberlain's origin issue, and the best issue so far of this series. It turns out our hero has not always been such a goody two-shoes, and it turns out he's had a lot more pain in his life than I had assumed. He's all the more interesting for it, and so is this series. Plus, a deadly plane crash. Excellent.

Teen Titans #42...Kid Devil's origin issue. Geoff Johns specializes in revitalizing obscure characters; here he is again, giving Blue Devil's erstwhile sidekick several rich veins of angst and three years to live. Surprisingly effective guest art from Peter Snejbjerg, who did some okay work on Starman and a Preacher special but who seems much more at home in hell. I would have thought I'd have tired of this series by now, but I really haven't. Good.

Criminal #3...After everything went to pot last issue, Brubaker spends this issue setting up just how everything is going to go to pot next issue. One of the reasons Brubaker is good is that he can really get your hopes up that things are going to go well for his characters, and then dash your hopes. His protagonist is also a smart man with limited options making bad decisions. Always good for a laugh. Excellent art from Sean Phillips, who aparently is equally good at zombies and the real world. Excellent.

Midnighter #3...It's official: Garth Ennis is a great superhero writer. Too bad he hates superheroes. Excellent.

Secret Six #6...A terrifc ending to a terrific miniseries. Somehow the protagonists lose none of their sympathy, even though they're mostly pathetic psychopaths, sociopaths, and wannabes. How on earth did the Mad Hatter become believable as the emotional heart of a team? Excellent, though the art was a little patchy throughout.

New Avengers: Illuminati...Pretty uninspiring, as I guess I should have expected. If you're going to create a retroactively powerful and important superteam, they should do something retroactively powerful and important, not go after those poor Skrulls, who, let's face it, have had their empire eradicated too many times to seem a major threat at any point in history. This story could have been taken care of with Skrull Kill Krew: Illuminati, frankly. Eh.

Birds of Prey #101...The new direction is working great so far, with an interesting and believably dangerous new adversary, great artwork (especially Barda's aerial dogfight), and a cliffhanger that is both hilarious and terrifying. Excellent.

Bullet Points #2...Haven't gotten to #3 yet, and I'm not that eager, frankly. Remember when Straczynski was the biggest thing ever to hit comics? Well, aside from Supreme Power and parts of Rising Stars, he's turned out to be pretty run-of-the-mill. Still, he's proved a competent guardian of most characters, if not exactly the mind-blowing font of story we all used to think he was. His big idea here is "what if Peter Parker got hit by the gamma bomb and what if Steve Rogers wore high-tech armor?" The answer is, well, then Peter Parker would be the Hulk and Steve Rogers would be Iron Man. Nothing remarkable here, but definitely acceptable fun. OK.

Gen 13 #3...These Wildstorm Universe relaunches, with the surprising exception of Midnighter, seem so far to be critical and commercial flops. Too bad; most of these characters have been written pretty well at times in the past, but so far just about all of these top flight writers seems horribly miscast. (OK, Wetworks is written just fine, too, but the art is offensively bad.) Gail Simone, so successful with a bunch of grownups on Birds of Prey and a bunch of crazies on Secret Six, and absolutely inspired on her sublime Tranquility, seems lost here in the world of teen angst. The art is pretty good, but something's just not clicking. I remain hopeful. OK.

Ex Machina #25...A pretty good character piece for Mayor Hundred's bodyguard, with the usual sublime art. I am, however, beginning to worry that a closing plotline is just not going to develop. We'll see. Good.

Wonder Man #1...A textbook example of why Peter David is such a good writer; he easily transforms the undistinguished and bland Wonder Man into a compelling protagonist who knows just how undistinguished he is, and accepts it. And also, we have an interesting conflict. Excellent.

Punisher War Journal #2...It has a nice way of contrasting the Punisher with Captain America, but I've discovered how many Punisher books per month I'm interested in reading, and the answer is less than two. OK.

The Spirit #1...Pretty good relaunch of Will Eisner's classic. No, I've never read any Eisner, either, though I guess I probably should. This issue mostly makes me remember how much I enjoyed Brubaker and Cooke's Catwoman, but it does have some pretty funny dialogue and an originally grotesque villain. Good.

Fallen Angel #11...More tales of cold, cold revenge, with terrific art. Lee's son Jubal is the most interesting character right now. Still Good, though apparently no one is buying it any more. Too bad.

Ultimate Power #3…Now we go back and learn the story from the Squadron’s point of view, and this mini is all the better for it, with more motivation in place. Greg Land, who did some terrific zombie disaster art in Ultimate Fantastic Four, is right at home portraying the attack of an interdimensional muck monster. Good.

Crossing Midnight #1…An intriguing new Vertigo series from Mike Carey, with lovely understated art from Jim Fern, who I believe drew an issue of X-Factor once. The narration is a bit heavy and expositional, and I’m not sure that the atomic bomb as pseudomystical event is a story that needs to be told again, but it’s unique enough that I’ll try another few issues. Good.

Battlestar Galactica #4…The artwork continues to improve, but is still cartoony enough that I only feel 90% like I’m watching the TV show when I read this. Which sure says a lot for Greg Pak’s writing. He’s got the same kinds of ideas as the writers of the show, which I don’t get to watch on account of not having a TV. Good.

Newuniversal #2…More crazy fun from Warren Ellis. I can only imagine what the fans of the original New Universe think of this, but not having read anything of the original myself, I’m enjoying it as a sort of successor to Planetary, with world-spanning weirdness among previously normal people. Ellis usually chooses one focus character, but here he’s got at least six, and the story feels big. I hope it can deliver on the promised bigness. Good.

Winter Soldier: Winter Kills…A terrific one-shot that finally brings me around to the idea of Bucky still being alive. The whole enterprise is worth it for the conversation with Namor at the end, which shows proper respect for Marvel history and gives us great characterization of the cranky old Avenging Son, who’s probably due for another try at a regular series. Ed Brubaker is a workhorse and I hope he’s the one guiding Cap’s continuity for a while. Reliably good art from Lee Weeks. Excellent.

Jack of Fables #6…Jack may be a schemer, but there’s got to be something more to him than schemes, or the device will get tired. It’s mostly just scheming here, but to the extent that this title exists to bring us information on the fables that haven’t made it into the regular book, it works. A lot of the fun of both series is spotting all the characters you can, and for all that this has been billed a solo title, it’s actually got quite a lot more than just Jack in it. Still, he’s in control. Let’s see if he’s going to evolve at all, because Jack being Jack isn’t going to be fun for more than fifteen issues or so. Good.

Ultimate Vision #2…Brandon Peterson’s art, which seemed perhaps a little flat in the Ultimate Extinction series, is really marvelous here, showing brilliantly the scary bigness of Galactus or whatever they’re calling him in the Ultimate Universe. Storywise, just as it looks like AIM is becoming just a pack of boring mad scientists, the REAL bad guy shows up. Tarleton, incidentally, was the original name of Modok in Marvel continuity. Something tells me he’s going to end up a little more powerful here. The Vision herself spends most of the issue disassembled, but she’s managed to locate a friend who’s just as compelling a protagonist. Excellent.

Ultimate Spider-Man #103...A seemingly ill-advised plot point is quickly swept away, and this continues to be Good and much better than the original clone saga, which, I must admit, I did not read all of but did not think was that bad. We have only six more issues to enjoy Mark Bagley's brilliance, but not to worry because he's being replaced by...

Nextwave #11...Stuart Immonen, who draws his penultimate issue of this soon-to-be canceled treasure of a series. There are promises of miniseries somewhere down the line, but given the full plates of both creators, I really only hold out a fool's hope. Still, we'll always have the mad brilliance of these twelve issues, which read like Ellis and Immonen put them together in the same room with The Best of Monty Python playing in the background. Excellent.

52 #34...The best series DC has ever produced, in my opinion. One of the only comics out there today that gives one the delight of a truly enormous story, the way reading X-Men used to, but better. And yet it's still completely comprehensible. This issue, the Question dies in bed, in a genuinely moving scene. (Incidentally, last week's Christmas issue was a gem, too.) Excellent.

X-Men #194...Speaking of X-Men, it's doing just fine these days. Humberot Ramos is not an artist I would automatically pick for the relentlessly serious X-titles, but the cast of oddballs Rogue has assembled for her strike force look just write as drawn by the guy who gave us Impulse. Mike Carey sure does throw a lot of new characters at you, but so far it's not too confusing. Good.

Y: The Last Man #52...Plenty of soap opera shenanigans afoot here, including an alleged crush that I'm not sure I buy, but I can't complain when the central mystery remains so tantalyzingly close to being solved, and yet so far out of my imaginative grasp. Always Good at least.

Checkmate #9...Just as much fun as the old Suicide Squad series was, but the added layer of realistic espionage jargon and conflict that Greg Rucka is able to provide, thanks to his chronicling of the adventures of Tara Chace, makes it all the better. The melding of superheroes and grunt feds is seamless. Excellent.

Thunderbolts #109...Considering how "cosmic" the final storyline has been, this final issue of Fabian Nicieza's run is surprisingly down-to-earth and not a little moving, with a deep look at how these characters, many of whom started out and existed for years as nothing more than bombastic, clownish villains, have evolved into real people. Nicieza, a giving writer, works hard to tie up his own plot threads and pave the way easily for the new team to take over. The departure of Donny Gill, which nearly happen off-panel it's so understated, is especially well-done. I have not read even half of Nicieza's work on these characters, and it's going to be a pleasure to track them down in back issues. Excellent.

Daredevil #92...full up of ads, and all the worse for it, as Michael Lark's subdued style has trouble peeking out from behind them. It's probably worth the patience and expense to wait for the trade when it comes to end-of-the-year Marvel stories, as apparently they're going to lard us up with ads in November and December from now on. Anyway, this issue is the evil villain explaining her plan, and Brubaker pushes it hard but it still comes off cliche. OK.

Supergirl and the Legion of Superheroes #25...The bad guys show up, but they're actually good guys warning about REALLY bad guys, who are about to show up. Pretty fun and Good.

Cable & Deadpool #35...Cable lets Wade spend some time with his bad memories, with predictably mixed results considering Wade is mostly a conscienceless killer. Mostly. Excellent.

Justice #9...Alex Ross clearly possesses some kind of complicated personal ethics concerning who the DC characters are, and these ethics have been offended enough by recent DC continuity for him to write this exceedingly odd tale in response. There's always a potshot in here at a better story; in this issue it's Villains United. Nevertheless, this remains a fun romp with beautiful art; a weirdly inspiring spread of the Justice League "wearing" the Metal Men into battle closes this issue. Good.

Fables #56...A Christmas issue, with Santa Claus, who is, of course, a Fable himself, charged with making sure the Adversary doesn't try to invade via the North Pole; I suppose someone has to. There are sappy elements here, but Santa also gives Flycatcher an important quest, which is pretty promising. Good.

Loveless #14...Not quite comprehensible, and extremely nasty. I guess now I'm just waiting for some kind of resolution. Eh.

Hellblazer #227...This story has been going on for way, way too long, and continues to galumph through until the final pages, which bring unexpected hilarity to this glum Glaswegian enterprise and actually have me anticipating eagerly the next issue for the first time in quite a while. OK.

Shadowpact #8...The Ragman's family history saves the day. Despite the inability of Willingham to come up with interesting adversaries for his quite likable, unique heroes, this series continues to be just odd enough to keep my interest. Shawn McManus' art, which has a comic touch, helps tremendously. OK.

posted by Mr. Blasphemy @ 11:04 AM