Quick Comic Book Reviews - Nov 2nd, 2010

A pretty darned good crop from last week and there was more goodness out there as well that I didn't review at all.  Sad, but there's just so much good stuff going on out there.  Just gotta taste it all!   But here's a good selection for you to check out!

Teen Titans #88 - Written by J.T. Krul and Penciled by Nicola Scott.  This issue was promised as a bit of a refresh on the Teen Titans that have suffered much neglect and inconsistent writing, mixed with storylines that they never did anything with.  Krul mixes a story together and gives the characters a driving focus in this issue.  We actually see some team dynamics form for a change and it seems to work very well.  What worked for me in particular?  Well, the interaction with Wonder Girl and Superboy was great and had some excellent moments.  Bart or Kid Flash being written just like he should be, some really great stuff with him.  Feels like how Peter David would have liked him being written.  Even Ravager has some really strong moments in here.  Despite all of this character development we see, what Krul does best is balance in action and an underlying story through it all.  So instead of making it just a character driven issue, we also have some bad stuff going on in the background that in the upcoming issues the characters will try to solve.  The artwork is pretty decent.  I really liked it and I thought it really brought out the characters well.  I particularly like how Nicola draws Kid Flash and Ravager.  Ravager, drawn in the wrong hands, looks very boring.  Not so this issue.  I enjoyed this issue a lot and I definitely recommend you checking it out this week!

Thunderbolts #149 - Written by Jeff Parker and Art by Declan Shalvey.  The Thunderbolts disobey the direct orders of Songbird as she takes Fixer to the hospital.  They view it as a chance to prove themselves so the whole operation doesn't go belly up.  So off they go to find the Undead Hand horde of ninjas.  In this issue we learn a few VERY interesting things about Crossbones, one of which will forever change the character.  Another thing with Crossbones is the "oh no, he didn't just do that, did he?" moment we won't soon forget.  Also worth looking out for is Man-Thing being absolutely sliced and diced into a sad salad.  So there are plenty of excellent moments in this issue.  To categorize it as awesome would be an understatement.  Parker definitely has the pulse of this new team, he's got some great humor and plenty of huge moments that make this an issue that you can't afford to miss.  Plus Declan's art is very well done in here and seems to fit the whole Shadowland storyline very well.  So just in case you missed it, BUY THIS ISSUE!  It is just that amazing and awesome that if you don't, well, that will make you a sad panda.  Bet on it!

Time Masters: Vanishing Point #4 - Written and Layouts by Dan Jurgens and Art by Norm Rapmund.  Why does this series get a bad rap?  I'm just not understanding what people don't like about it.  Sure, they're supposed to be looking for Batman, but that ISN'T what the story is really about.  I don't think that people get what this is all about and I think the story is at the point that they may just finally get it.  Anyway, this issue is about fighting some evil sorcerer who wants to manipulate the time stream and use it for his own good.  More importantly, the gathering of evil with Black Beetle at the Vanishing Point is building as he manipulates the last two of the Linear Men.  So a grand plot is unfolding there as well.  I like that we get a bit more of Supernova, as I think his character still has a lot of life if DC chooses to utilize it.  I like getting the bits and pieces of Rip Hunter's background as well.  I think that is some of the best parts.  What I didn't like it Hal Jordan once again ripping unnecessarily on Booster.  Yes Dan, we know the image that Booster Gold has conveyed, but let's not make it this over the top anymore.  We get it!  But besides that, a pretty solid issue and some great art.  I love issues that Jurgens does any layout or art for.  But is this a must buy?  Not at all, merely a borderline issue that is not nearly as bad a series as people will make it out to be.  You can skip it and not miss a beat, but there's still a good comic underneath it all.

Zatanna #6 - Written by Paul Dini and Art by Jesus Saiz.  Zatanna is about to get married?  Well, not really, but mind control is a hell of a thing.  So it's up to Zach to come running to the rescue?  Yup.  So we have a face-off with a really angry demon in this issue.  But it's all good fun and the final solution will make you think a couple of times about it and the implication thereof.  I like how they really play on Zach's jealousy, but more importantly, his need for approval from Zatanna.  They've fleshed out his character a bit and really made Zatanna interesting relevant.  I actually look forward to reading each issue as I know there will be plenty of clever moments and a truly fun story involved.  So far, Paul Dini has not let me down at all.  And boy, does Jesus Saiz draw a truly grotesque demon of greed.  There were a few off spots, but there were a few panels I mistook Benjamin Raymod for Zach.  But overall he does a good job of storytelling with his art.  Maybe I'll blame it on my bad eye for details some days.  Yep, I'll just blame it on that.  So do you need to buy this issue?  Well, I really like it every month.  But is that enough for you?  On a scale of 1-10, I would rate this as a 7.5, very enjoyable and you might enjoy this title, but it isn't an absolute must.

Fantastic Four #584 - Written by Jonathan Hickman and Art by Steve Epting.  So we're selling simply off the fact that a member of the Fantastic Four is about to die.  I'm just not buying it though.  It's going to be one of the Reed Richards from an alternate timeline or something like that dying.  Blech.  Anyway, this issue focuses on the Thing.  Ben can take a special formula that he can take once per year to spend a week as a normal human again.  So Ben tries it out and we get a somewhat heartwarming, but ultimately fun, issue.  We get to see Ben go out and do things he normally doesn't get to do.  So while that was fun, I'm wondering what the hell any of this has to do with last issue.  Or even the issue before that.  The problem seems to be that Jonathan Hickman only exists to confuse the hell out of us!  Seriously, I don't know what the hell if going on half the time.  I hate all the alternate timeline Reed Richards crap that's been going on.  Now there's an alternate timeline/dimension Galactus?  And our Galactus is mad that he's dead?  I'm sorry, not OUR Galactus, I mean he's really everybody's Galactus.  But seriously, how does any of this make sense?  Hickman, you confound me!  This is a pretty good issue overall, but only if you view it as a one-shot because this series has made sense in ages.  Hickman is wildly inconsistent with what he's doing and there are some more gaps in logic in this issue as well.  Just a borderline issue with some good Ben Grimm stuff if that might interest you any.

The Incredible Hulks #615 - Written by Greg Pak and Penciled by Barry Kitson.  This issue is basically the prep and invasion of planet K'ai.  So we see them prepared and they get ready to fight and then start fighting.  That's the issue in a nutshell.  However, it is pretty well told and the interaction of the characters is decent enough.  Kitson's art is very well done.  So this was just a solid issue as far as the Dark Son storyline goes.  I'm still not totally pulled into this storyline, but hey, I really love A-Bomb as a superhero.  He's just happy when he gets something right, it's just fun to see him.  Nothing too spectacular here, just ok to decent.  Then we get a back-up feature that focuses on Red She-Hulk and the Punisher.  Written by Ben McCool and Penciled by Tom Raney.  This just tries to give us a glimpse into Betty's personality and motivation now that she's the Red She-Hulk.  We get to see how she's viewed by the Punisher and they use him as kind of a way for us to see how much she's changed.  Not a big fan of the artwork and the story was just mediocre.  We know that Bruce isn't going to give up on her, but really, they're wasting paper on this story when we could have just had more of the Dark Son story instead.  So an average issue, nothing terrible, but nothing great.

Quick Comic Book Reviews - Nov 2nd, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 29th, 2010

Well, there are a few titles from last week that I didn’t fit in, I’ll try to squeeze them in next week.  For the most part, all the major titles from last week were read and reviewed.  Hope you find today’s batch useful as well!

Uncanny X-Men #528 – Written by Matt Fraction and Penciled by Whilce Portacio.  We start off visiting Nigeria where we have another new mutant who popped up.  This one apparently controls fire and ice, some I’m going to call her Icy Hot Analgesic Girl.  Good name, eh?  Anyway, Storm and Hope come in to save her after some local people are trying to kill her for what she accidentally did to the town.  We also take a look at what’s going on with Emma Frost hiding Sebastian Shaw in Utopia, Namor deals with his realm, and Kitty Pryde is still in ghost form looking to communicate with Colossus.  The issue isn’t badly written at all, but there’s just something missing.  It still doesn’t have a grand X-Men feel to it.  We kind of wander from one story to the next without one being our real focal point.  Then there was a weird scene with Nekra and Frenzy that I still can’t figure out why it is even in the book.  And the art… well, it’s better this issue, but part of me wonders if the inker didn’t help bail Whilce out on this one.  I still see a lot of shortcuts here.  Pages 6 and 8 have just a ton of white space for no apparent reason.  Readers aren’t paying for blank real estate here Portacio.  But it is better, but still not good by any stretch.  He also uses extreme close-ups of the eyes so that he has to draw less.  Really, just stop having him draw, he isn’t worth paying anymore because it’s clear he doesn’t care about what he’s doing for Marvel.  This issue is ok, mainly because I like the stuff with Hope and the Emma Frost stuff has some promise, but there’s nothing to rave about here.

Fantastic Four #583 – Written by Jonathan Hickman and Art by Steve Epting.  We play witness to a fight breaking out in the former city of the High Evolutionary.  At the same time, Valeria Richards decides to embark on some mischievousness of her own and breaks into her Dad’s workspace where he’s been going back and forth meeting with the many Reed Richards of alternate universes.  Of course, Reed left himself a recording and answer system that tells her all about what’s going on.  What she sees on the other side frightens her to ask for help from none other than Victor Von Doom himself.  For the life of me, I don’t know why the whole thing with the High Evolutionary’s City was even in here, it didn’t make sense.  Hickman then leads us on a story with the League of Mister Fantastics (or the council or whatever you want to call it) that didn’t seem to make much sense.  The issue seemed strangely put together and it didn’t really fit a normal storytelling flow.  Sure we got a big reveal on the last two pages, but everything else before didn’t really have any rising drama to it.  I was just kind of bored and confused by the whole situation.  I’m not quite sure what to make of it.  The artwork by Epting is pretty good and he does capture some amazing facials, so that’s top quality stuff.  However, the story is just lacking and I think you could very well skip this issue and pick up next issue instead and probably come out ahead.  So our “Countdown to Casualty” is a bit of a miss this week, but I’m holding out hope that next issue is better.

Green Lantern Corps #52 – Written by Tony Bedard and Penciled by Ardian Syaf.  We learn the fate of Boodikka in this issue and the Lanterns take it to Cyborg Superman and his Alpha Lanterns.  A titanic battle ensues in which the inhabitants of the planet Grenda rise-up for a cause.  That’s really about as much of a synopsis as one needs.  The pace of this issue is fast as we can see they’re trying to move the story along and give us a pretty good battle to boot.  I liked how Boodikka got the final laugh in this one.  It was a great scene to see!  Truly a fitting conclusion to this for now.  The issue works well with the parts it has set-up and makes you feel satisfied with the conclusion.  Unfortunately the issues leading up to this weren’t anything special.  This one feels like a decent bit of story and some pretty good artwork mixed together.  It helps that I’m a huge Green Lantern fan, but to most people, this issue was nothing to write home about.  I really like Cyborg Superman, but at the end of the day, this didn’t feel like it moved any particular plot along much.  The only good thing is figuring out what happened with the Alpha Lanterns.  That being said, a decent issue with some good artwork, but nothing you would feel sorry about not buying a few months down the road.

Justice League: Generation Lost #10 – Written by Judd Winick and Penciled by Joe Bennett.  We are shown events from the Kingdom Come series from several years ago in a smaller form.  At least, this is the vision that Maxwell Lord has, so the White Ring or Entity wants him to stop this from ever occurring in our reality.  However, at the end of last episode Magog had been brought on to help Max, so we’re left to wonder and perhaps assume what is going on here.  We also find out that Skeets was able to find out about 4 dormant Checkmate cells came back online upon Lord’s return.  In fact, Skeets downloaded pretty much everything he could.  Fire & Ice have a heart warming-ish moment as well.  There is a very interesting scene where Batman starts realizing something is up with Max Lord and Power Girl is also starting to believe there’s a conspiracy.  Just as quickly as they put it all together, their memory of it all vanishes again.  The end of the issue reveals one of my favorite groups of all time.  I don’t want to spoil everything, but wow.  Ok, I just wrote a lot about this issue, but damn was it a great read!  Is Lord using Magog and planning to destroy him with the help of the Justice League?  Is Max trying to work against the White Lantern’s entity?  Will the other heroes ever remember Maxwell Lord?  So many questions and a great story every issue.  Judd Winick has hit his stride and made this a hit.  My only complaint is that the art was pretty bland.  Joe Bennett just didn’t do it for me.  He’s ok, but I never felt pulled in by it and there’s a scene with Max Lord saying “Ooh-rah,” that’s just plain bad.  But the writing is there and fantastic, the art varies from issue to issue because of the changing artists, but that doesn’t affect my end opinion.  You need to be buying this series, because it is flat out DC comics at it’s best!

The Avengers #5 – Written by Brian Michael Bendis and Penciled by John Romita Jr.  The Avengers left in our time are trying to figure out what exactly to do in all of the chaos.  It isn’t an easy task either, because of all the innocents involved from the past and future who are being sucked into our timeline.  Also, Thor tries to take Galactus down a few sizes, which is always a difficult task.  In the future Tony Stark learns the future version of himself attacked him.  Kang wants to keep putting groups together to defeat Ultron, but in the end, he’s unraveling time by doing it.  There are just some weird leaps in logic in this issue, but some might say that’s Bendis’ style.  When they get teleported back in time how do they take the place of themselves?  Would they be there alongside themselves?  Although, when you put it in terms of the “Groundhog Day” reference, it does make a tad bit of sense, just not much.  The story feels like it should take a few more steps forward than it did, but still not bad.  I just didn’t care for the explanations going on by Future Stark.  Not some of Bendis’ better writing, but I did think the issue was still entertaining.  Romita is Romita, I don’t need to say much else.  Despite being entertaining, it isn’t enough to make me recommend it to you unless you’ve been following this storyline, if so, you might as well.

Shadowland: Daughters of the Shadow #2 – Written by Jason Henderson and Art by Ivan Rodriguez.  Former Bounty Hunter Colleen Wing takes her place as leader of the Nail.  The Nail is a sect of female assassins for the hand.  We get a first hand taste of them right away in this issue as they rescue a truck full of girls headed towards being enslaved.  Colleen considers herself a Samurai, because unlike ninja, samurai adhere to codes and principles.  Colleen talks to Murdock and mentions once again that her mother used to lead the Nail.  Colleen intends to lead the Nail into an attack on a Massage Parlor that uses these enslaved women.  However, when the person behind the trafficking scheme is somebody her friend Tig is working for, things go south.  An interesting tale of trying to play a middle line when there’s not much of one to play.  She walks the thin line while the other female characters don’t subscribe to it.  Most of them are downright nasty, especially Black Lotus who doesn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with Colleen’s style.  It’s not excellently written or anything, but there is a fun kind of appeal to this.  The artwork isn’t great, kind of stiff in spots, the colors make this thing tolerable, but I have a feeling if everything wasn’t blended and gradiented out, it would look worse.  If you like “Kill Bill” type movies, this might be an enjoyable read, otherwise it has limited appeal.

Legion of Super-Heroes #5 – Written by Paul Levitz and Penciled by Yildiray Cinar & Francis Portela.  A transport that was supposed to take Titan refugees to their new home, instead crashes on their camp. While the Legion is dealing with that, Earth Force shows up to perhaps vanquish what’s left of the refugees.  Meanwhile on Naltor, we see the search for the new wearer of the Green Lantern ring continue.  Earth-Man bails out his fellow leaguers as well and Brainiac disobeys an order.  Just a lot of interesting things going on with the main story being the Earth Force vs. Xeno’s story and Earth-Man’s part in it all.  Once again, a lot of characters to juggle, but Levitz handles with extremely well.  The only disappointing part was no Saturn Girl follow-up yet.  But with so much going on, it’s hard to get back to some things.  It makes me wish the issues were longer so we could find out more and slow the pace a tad.  On the plus side, we have Timber Wolf quite a bit in this issue and he’s been all but unseen in these first four issues.  Hopefully we see more of him going forward.  The Durlan sub-plot is also getting interesting and I want to know where that is going.  The art is pretty superb in this issue as well, so I found no problems with it.  The only issue I have anymore is that too many characters, not enough time for them all, which is almost a shame really.  Lots of interesting characters and pretty superb writing his made Legion a can’t miss monthly epic.

Technorati Tags: uncanny x-men,matt fraction,whilce portacio,fantastic four,jonathan hickman,steve epting,green lantern corps,tony bedard,ardian syaf,justice league: generation lost,judd winick,joe bennett,avengers,brian michael bendis,john romita jr.,shadowland: daughters of the shadow,jason henderson,ivan rodriguez,legion of super-heroes,paul levitz,yildiray cinar,francis portela

Quick Comic Book Reviews–August 29th, 2010

Quick Comic Book Reviews–September 6th, 2010

Wow, I’m even more behind than usual with my supposedly quick reviews.  But we just had a new baby born and leading up that I didn’t have as much free time as I normally do.  I’ll keep working on updating everything, but I’m lagging behind.

Shadowland: Moon Knight #1 – Written by Gregg Hurwitz and Penciled by Bong Dazo.  First of all, wow, what a name.  Bong?  The artist is named Bong?  If that’s a real name, poor choice.  If that’s a nickname, once again, poor choice.  I would legally be changing that if I had that name.  But anyway, he does a very good job here.  His artwork is different, it has a certain feel to it where everything is very rounded and has a fluid-like feel to it.  Kind of like everything is melted a little bit.  The story is pretty decent and does a good job of reacquainting readers with Moon Knight.  His story is a bit confusing at times, so it isn’t a bad idea to do this.  The story isn’t super interesting, but it gets there towards the end.  It wraps in very well to what is going on in Shadowland and makes sense.  Really a lot of stuff going on, but this is a bigger issue than normal.  I thought it made me want to see what happens next.  I really think they want to make Moon Knight relevant again and they’re doing a pretty decent job.  This is an issue worth checking out if you want to get back on the Moon Knight train!

X-Men: Curse of the Mutants – Blade #1 – Written by Duane Swierczynski and Penciled by Tim Green.  Ah yes, the epic saga of the “Curse of the Mutant” continues on!  First of all, how the hell does Blade carry his sword with him in an airport and not get stopped?  I mean, he’s a vampire yeah, so pretty crazy anyway, but let’s take all realism away.  Another one of those pointless cross-over issues that made me yawn.  So this just explains some background story.  But really, it isn’t all that important as background story anyway.  They assume we want the story of how Blade knows it when they could have summed it up in a 5 panel exposition in one of the already awful X-Men issues.  Anybody want to hold a turd in there hand?  If you do, pick this up, if you don’t, buy War Bonds.

Fantastic Four #582 – Written by Jonathan Hickman and Penciled by Neil Edwards.  I have a feeling something big is happening here, but this issue left me wanting to figure out what the heck was going on.  The best part of a story is if at the end, you want to keep reading and finding out what’s going on.  Jonathan Hickman does a wonderful job of setting up what may very well be an epic story.  This has been the summer of Hickman as he has stepped up his game with some wonderful storytelling.  Here we wrap-up the battle of the Nathaniel Richards’ battling it out.  We get a wonderful look at another timeline’s Doctor Doom.  Don’t know why I like that so much.  But we have a big set-up going on to see how the lives of the Fantastic Four are about to radically change.  I’ve got a feeling this is going to be a good one, so pick this issue up so you can’t say you were left out!

Justice League: Generation Lost #7 – Written by Judd Winick and Penciled by Joe Bennett.  The main question in this issue… where the hell did they find the extra Rocket Red outfits?  Ok, so this issue is about infiltrating Checkmate HQ to get to Max Lord.  Wait, what’s that?  Who’s Max Lord?  You’ve never heard of him either?  NO!!!!!!  Um… anyway, sorry about that.  For an infiltration mission, this ends up about like I would suspect.  But the story is fun and entertaining the entire time.  And guess what?  Going after Max Lord might just be a very bad idea in more ways than one.  Hilarious lines with Rocket Red and everyone trying to emulate him.  Just good stuff.  The artwork is solid throughout and helped hold my attention, so a good job there.  There are a few spots where I couldn’t quite figure out how they all joined up at the end, but that might be because the writer didn’t leave a way for the artist to really visualize it well.  Plus, with everyone wearing the same outfit, there’s bound to be a little confusion.  Other than that, I’m a big fan!  Must buy this issue, this is what good comics are all about!

Adventure Comics #517 – Written by Paul Levitz and Penciled by Kevin Sharpe and Marlo Alquiza.  The artwork in this issue is erratic.  Some spots it looks pretty good and then in other spots it looks very awkward.  I wonder if the reason there are two artists is to clean-up the work of the other one.  The story, however, is based on the Legion during it’s founding day when there were only 3 Legionnaires.  The story itself is just ok, with some moments that seem a bit out of place.  It’s like Paul Levitz is putting his best stuff in the new Legion of Superhoes comic, but not the Adventure Comics.  I think he’s trying to keep it simple, but the stories so far haven’t been that entertaining.  Weird how one writer can be night and day different with the same team.  I think we all know which series he’s putting his heart into right now.  The back-up story has the Atom!  Written by Jeff Lemire and Penciled by Mahmud Asrar.  I’m liking Mahmud’s work here!  The story does what it can with a limited amount of pages.  The problem is, it goes by a bit too quick and felt like it wasn’t very worthwhile.  Jeff tries to explain things about the Atom’s power that he probably just shouldn’t bother trying to do.  So it doesn’t add much value to this issue.  Overall, Adventure Comics is once again another miss for me!

Action Comics #892 – Written by Paul Cornell and Penciled by Pete Woods with Pere Perez.  I’ve liked a lot of Paul Cornell’s writing, but boy was this story disjointed.  What if… I wrote every… sentence like this?  Well, that’s how this story reads.  A lot of people stammering around thoughts and that just doesn’t make for good reading.  So Lex is out after the Black Ring energy.  That’s about the story in general and it doesn’t evolve too much from there.  The artwork is the best part and we’ll leave it at that.  Blech!  We get an extra story with Superboy.  Written by Jeff Lemire and Penciled by Pier Gallo.  This is just a weird set-up for Superboy #1 and frankly it doesn’t impress me, nor does it make me want to checkout that issue when it does come out.  Smallville has some dirt golems come to life and attack, but I have no idea why, nor did I really care at that point.  For being a second feature, it was more like a long advertisement.  Didn’t add much value, but at least it was better than the main story this issue.  Not saying much though.  This one is a turd folks, skip it.

Technorati Tags: Shadowland,moon knight,gregg hurwitz,bong dazo,x-men,curse of the mutants,blade,duane swierczynski,tim green,fantastic four,jonathan hickman,neil edwards,justice league,generation lost,judd winick,joe bennett,adventure comics,paul levitz,kevin sharpe,marlo alquiza,action comics,paul cornell,pete woods,pere perez

Quick Comic Book Reviews–September 6th, 2010