On to the books:
100 BULLETS #84(w. Brian Azzarello, a. Eduardo Risso)
Sigmar Rhone is one of the Trust. He is also someone that we haven’t seen all that much in 84 issues of this series. Why then is he the main character of this standalone 100 Bullets story? To prove the point that
DMZ #21: Happy to have Burchielli back, but this may have been one issue too many for me, I'm ready for the verdict.
NEW AVENGERS #32(w. Brian Bendis, Leinil Yu)
Brian Bendis and his Avengers run polarizes people on the internet. From "its brilliant" to "its a disaster" and "Bendis should never have touched the Avengers." 32-plus issues in, and I'm still having a good time with the book. This issue comes fresh after the discovery of Elektra as a Skrull, so being a Bendis book, everyone has to talk about it for an entire issue. And that's fine with me. These kind of conversations makes sense, even though there was a lot of time spent hammering home the point of "WHO CAN YOU TRUST?" that Marvel will put all over their comics next year, but still the point was made. The characters not only argue about who could be a Skrull, but what to do with Skrull-Elektra's body. Suddenly (and mysteriously), the Rand Jet is taken down, our heroes survive of course, but not before Spider-Woman owns Wolverine and leaves the scene of the accident with the body over her shoulder. Um, I guess we couldn't trust HER. Good issue, with moves towards the future.
FABLES #63
(w. Bill Willingham, a. Mark Buckingham)
This title is having one of its best arcs of the series, and that's mainly because of all the stories that have come before it. Willingham has created such a large and diverse cast, that there is so much for him to draw from. This issue continues the great arc, and it does that by checking in with everyone, but in a way that isn’t annoying. A lot of time passes here, but as the Fables and the Adversary prepare for war, we get to check in with Bigby, Snow and Mowgli amongst others. If these characters were not as well defined as they are, this might be an annoying issue (sorry new readers). The final sequence with Flycatcher recruiting the “Dead” Fables as his army was a surprise that didn’t completely work for me, but it was well done. I guess I was over Bluebeard when he was killed the first time. But still, its an interesting turn of events for sure, and this does not diminish my excitement for the rest of this arc (and beyond). Good issue.
X-FACTOR #21
(w. Peter David, a. Pablo Raimondi)
So apparently this Isolationist guy made a cameo in the very last issue of David’s previous X-Factor run, but I don’t remember it. I might need to get out the old run and see sometime, but until then we have him here. Being a creepy ass loner, which I guess is why he’s called The Isolationist. Or is he? The only real name we get is Josef Huber. He appears to be a bit crazy with voices in his head, and he left his seclusion to seek out Jamie Madrox. Everything else in this issue was kick-ass Peter David character work, which he excels at once his supporting cast has settled in. The scenes between Nicole and Layla are entertaining, but Layla always is. The temporary solution between Jamie, M and Siryn makes a lot of sense, and the scene with the entire team where he confronts them, and M asks who was better in bed was hilarious. Everyone’s reaction to what was going on was perfect, and none more than Rahne, which led perfectly into her scene with Rictor. And I never considered it before, but the two of them hooking up here is nice. All this AND we have Guido being offered Sheriff of Mutant Town, AND a new mystery (some twins stuck in a mutant hating cult) AAAAAND someone in the house appears to be pregnant—AND LAYLA DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT IT?!?! Awesome! This was cover-to-cover comic goodness. The ho-hum Endangered Species back-up aside, this was the BOOK OF THE WEEK.
STORMWATCH PHD #9(w. Christos Gage, a. Andy Smith)
This two parter has clearly been the first misstep of this series. When I talked about #8, I mentioned that it had some really good character moments and I ranted about my distaste for SON OF HENRY BENDIX being in the series. This issue, everything else goes wrong. Jackson King and his wife Christine, two of the more important characters in the Wildstorm universe take a shit. Or more accurately, Christine was shit on. Are we really supposed to believe, after everything these characters have been through, that she suddenly decides that she is going to laser part of Jackson's brain away so that he doesn't have powers anymore? Wow. For as good as this series has been, this was bad. Not only was it a lame plot point, but-- entitled reviewer attack: it had no respect for its characters at all. To be honest, the issue wasn't ALL bad however, as the character work Gage does everywhere else mostly works. The Malcolm King stuff was good, as was the scenes with Hellstrike and Diva. SON OF HENRY BENDIX was lame UH-GEN though. Anyway, just some bad plot decisions in a mostly good run here. I think Christine, Jackson and everybody else should forget this ever happened as quickly as possible and return to the status quo. I mean, hell, they reset it by the end anyway: Battalion alive and with super powers. Disappointing issue.
[Side bar: I haven't mentioned it before, because I keep forgetting, but of all the dead characters come back to life, do we get an explanation for Cannon too? If I remember correctly, he was in the cryo-prison thing that Bendix had created at the tail end of Volume 1 and was amongst the dead when Skywatch lost power in #50. Right? Whatever, I guess Captain Atom explains that away too...]
GREEN ARROW: YEAR ONE #1(w. Andy Diggle, a. Jock)
The only Green Arrow books I own/read are the Kevin Smith ones, and the Brad Meltzer story that followed it a few years back. He’s a fun enough character whenever he shows up, in whatever incarnation, albeit the JLA cartoon or the JLA comic book. But still, normally I would have stayed away from this kind of thing if it wasn’t for the truly brilliant idea of giving the young Oliver Queen to Diggle and Jock. I’m a big fan of their Losers series, and although there wasn’t that much action in this issue, they do a damn good job. The Howard Hill stuff was a little silly, but other than that, this was a good opening issue and I can’t wait until some ass-kicking starts. Jock does the usual amazing job on cover duty. Cover of the week for sure.
GEN 13 #10: Was Burnout ever this interesting in the previous series? The Bob Marley thing was a bit silly, but it kept with the spirit of the series.
PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #9: Still not completely on board this series, but it was okay.
MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS #3(w/a. Mike Allred)
I read a lot of comics. So I get a lot of #1’s. And usually I know at that point whether or not I want to keep going, but not always. Issue #3 is another big marker for me where a series can be dropped. Madman Atomic Comics was under that very microscope this week. How did it fare? Well, not sure. As far as the plot goes, Madman runs around trying to get to reality, which is not very interesting in itself, but this was a really-really fun comic book to read. Mike Allred recreated tens of different art styles so that every panel was an homage to someone else’s style. Brilliant fun. There was too many that I didn’t know, and there were a ton that I recognized but couldn’t name. Still, the ones that I did know made it fun enough for me. I bet Allred had a blast making this issue because it shows. So what’s the verdict? I guess I’m back for at least a little more. I mean, nothing has happened in three issues, but this was an experimental issue so I’d like to see where more of the real story will go. Someone online will break this down by artist, right? Please?
ULTIMATE X-MEN #84: Hints of the old Ultimate Wolverine here. That, in the fog of another boring issue, was nice.
GRIFTER/MIDNIGHTER #5: I'll check in with this after the last issue.
No comments:
Post a Comment