Blasphemy Reviews

quick takes 1/21/07

I'm jittery because the Bears are playing (can't help it; it never leaves you, like malaria), so we'll see how I do here...

Ultimate Spider-Man #104...The Ultimatized version of the Clone Saga concludes; it has been no masterpiece, but it has been Good, and the usual suspects are the reason: expressive, fun art from Mark Bagley that puts you right in the heart of all the fisticuffs; and funny, humanizing dialogue from Brian Michael Bendis. And it also employs melodrama while avoiding the pitfalls of melodrama, the way the original story could not. Good.

Gen 13 #4...As expected, this series begins to hit its stride. The art remains fine, though this time it's Sunny Lee instead of Talent Caldwell; to tell the truth, I wouldn't have noticed, which is not an insult to either artist. But the story develops a heart this issue, and, perhaps surprisingly, it's Grunge, who gets first look at how the team has been manipulated by its masters. I have no clue where this whole thing fits into past Gen 13 continuity, or if the reset button has been hit, but for the first time I'm curious about where this is headed. Good.

Godland #15...A new series for me; I'd heard interesting things and decided to pick it up. Basically, it's the Fantastic Four with harder science fiction and some cussing. The art is unapologetically cribbed from Jack Kirby, and possesses many of his charms, though not all of his storytelling magic at its best (who could match that?). The story, by the uneven Joe Casey, manages to be both more mature than the original Fantastic Four stories and remarkably free of cynicism. Good, and I'm looking forward to learning more about this one.

Helmet of Fate: Detective Chimp...Nabu's helmet needs a new host, and it's going to try out several members of DC's back catalogue. In this issue the DC Universe's simian sleuth gives it a try. Detective Chimp, revived from what I must assume to have been deep obscurity by Bill Willingham in the recent Day of Vengeance miniseries, is a surprisingly compelling protagonist, and Willingham writes him here as his usual unsentimental self. Because is pretty obvious that DC is not going to put a monkey in the costume of one of its traditional powerhouses permanently, this story rises or falls on whether the monkey does anything interesting while he does have the helmet on. And he does. Good.

The Spirit #2...Terrific storytelling from Darwyn Cooke, whose cartoony art really ought to be given a try by more artists on mainstream titles, considering how welcoming and coherent it seems. As someone who has never read The Spirit, the bar to enjoyment for me would be that he would be just another boring square-jawed guy in a domino mask, but as written and drawn by Cooke he's actually quite human and pleasantly fallible. If it's the same thing every issue it might get old, but so far, so Good.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #1...On the other hand, this is terrible. The art is actually the best I've ever seen on a Star Trek comic, except for the graphic novel Adam Hughes drew, but the story...ugh. Really, really dry, with one compelling sci-fi idea but absolutely no heart. Bad.

Fantastic Four #542...On the strength of Dwayne McDuffie's excellent Beyond! miniseries, I'm checking out his run Marvel's flagship title, and it's pretty Good, with some ideas about Reed Richards that are actually quite disturbing. Which I suppose had to be put forward by someone, considering the Events of Civil War. The challenge with this series will be to deal with the fact that the team has been torn in two by Civil War; will McDuffie take the easy way out, and write only half the team? Or will he show what everyone is up to while they work out their differences?

Ultimate X-Men #78...A Shocking Death, but, as so often happens in this series, the lack of human interaction between characters minimizes the drama. Bad, and while I'll keep reading this series, I probably won't review it again for a while.

Thunderbolts #110...Warren Ellis succeeds in making the post-Civil War Marvel Universe look like a dystopian nightmare the likes of which we usually only see in...well, alternate versions of the Marvel Universe imagined by Warren Ellis. One does hope that a little humanity will show through at some point, but the villains snarling at each other this issue are doing so in an interesting way, with interesting motives and foibles behind them. Good.

Agents of Atlas #6...The excellent miniseries concludes, with an unexpected rehabilitation of one of Marvel's most malevolently stereotypical bad guys. The lack of a giant fight at the end is perhaps welcome, but considering that what we get instead is exposition, a little fisticuffs doesn't seem so bad. Still, the ending is among the more moving things I've read in a comic recently, tying the whole series together beautifully in one page, and giving the comic a last minute push to Excellent.

Shadowpact #9...The generic plots and villains of this series always put me on the brink of dropping it, but something always brings me back, and this time it's a good old-fashioned cliffhanger ending. It also helps that the art's settled down into good old-fashioned DC house style. Good.

Y: The Last Man #53...A throwaway character Vaughn used to make a point several years ago pops up again, this time with something important to say. There are many wonderful things about this series, but one of them is the way Vaughn can show us the humanity of his characters even as it's obvious that trauma has radically altered their psyches. Excellent.

Birds of Prey #102...It turns out that Oracle's merry band of non-avian-themed heroines is not quite as cohesive as it might have appeared, raising all sorts of interesting possibilities for intra-team drama. Some terrific art makes this quite Excellent.

Battlestar Galactica #5...I would be quite surprised if Greg Pak is not offered a chance to write for the TV series, as his stories for this comic have been dead on EXACTLY what you'd expect to see on the show. The latest storyline is the best yet, with a fascinating theory of Cylon behavior revealing a new level of sneakiness for the robotic villains. Excellent.

Wonder Man #2...We learn just how the villainess from last issue got so messed up, and it's certainly understandable how she ended up wanting to kill lots of people. The art is a bit sketchy, but does the job. Good.

Cable & Deadpool #36...A slightly inconsequential issue, perhaps because it's a Deadpool solo story, but plenty of laughs and some good moments portraying Deadpool and the Taskmaster's interesting relationship. Good.

She-Hulk #15...After the last few issues have been phenomenal, this one's just OK, with She-Hulk using her smarts and a little help from her friends to beat the Abomination, but less character development than usual, which is what has made this series so good overall. Burchett's better at drawing stories than fights, anyway.

Tranquility #2...Not quite as good as the first issue, with some of the historical sidebars distracting from the story, and a little too much sentimentality surrounding a character we didn't know that well; after all, it's only the second issue. OK.

Justice Society of America #2...I really get tired of Nazi villains, but a truly surprising ending and some really special artwork from Eaglesham push this one into the Excellent category.

posted by Mr. Blasphemy @ 12:24 PM