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Friday, September 28, 2012

Reviews for Recent Comic Book Publications


Mainstream comic books in their present condition are such that the amount of capital invested to seed the future cineplex blockbusters is reflected through examples of the medium's true potential, as expressed in successes and even in the failures of its most dismal dregs.  As well adjusted members of American society slough off the birthing cowl of high school, so too must comic books deal with their history as a medium geared and stunted for decades towards children and grown-up children.  Superheroes are as integral to comic books as a medium as the journey of the hero is integral to most ancient and modern mythologies.  How well they are dealt with matters a great deal to the industry. 

It is the intent here to draw from the entrenched dichotomy of the supposed mainstream, the "House DC" and the "House Marvel" if you will, and analyze the weight and worth of their good and bad and meh recent releases, individually or in the context of story.  In fact, scores for each issue are weighted towards story, with exceptional art tipping the scales towards bonus points unless dreadful. Assessments draw from the history of the standard for each title, within and without the medium's standardized history.  Attributions for each review are added on a title by title basis.  


I, VAMPIRE #0
Written by: 
Joshua Hale Fialkov
Art by: 
Andrea Sorrentino
Cover by: 
Clayton Crain


We all know that a "DC Vampire" book to fill in the gaps near where a proper Vertigo title (American Vampire) germinates was somewhat inevitable, given the nature of the social biosphere that lets pap like Twilight create a buzz among young fools.  I, Vampire emerged in the post-Flashpoint foam of the New 52 as a stand-alone anomaly, meeting at odd angles with Justice League Dark in the "fantastic and magic" corner of the DC Comics New 52 color-wheel.  It's done a serviceable job to its readers and seems to take the popular Faustian trope for its main character, Andrew Bennett.     

The art for this particular issue sells the story in panels seething modernist influences of the medium and accenting them with a tinge, a pinch, a mere touch of Gothic sensibilities.  We get the origin story for Bennet, his connection and encounter with Cain, the first vampire.  The pacing is spectacular, the multi-page unfoldings by Andrea Sorrentino worth careful examination and appreciation.  In the dustbins of comic books, this title shines like a blood-red diamond. A fabulous combination of elements and delivers what it promises, specifically vampires, in a fresh, slick, well-executed package.

9/10



THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #694
Writer: 
Dan Slott
Penciller: 
Humberto Ramos


Throughout Spidey's career, he has been crushed under tremendous weights multiple times, both literal and situation-based.  I can recall the hologram foil issue of Amazing Spider-Man #365 where Spider-Man fought the Lizard in one of their many sewer-based conflicts, brick-debris and a train from Penn Station nearly crushed him. In true-to-character fashion, he thinks of all those relying on him, and finds the strength to Hulk out in his own fashion and free himself. 329 issues and several crushings later, he does something he's never done before. He acts as landing gear for a plane with Aunt May and Aunt May's pilot boyfriend on it, as well as many other civilians, J. Jonah Jameson's family members, and a cute puppy in the cargo hold.

Why?  Well, a few issues back with his gig at Horizon Labs, Peter Parker accidentally gave an irresponsible iPhone twittering jackass punk kid superpowers. The kid named himself Alpha and, in this issue, smacks around a near-cosmic villain like a tiger pwning a puppy.  In the process, though, he nearly kills a goodly sum of civilians, hence the Spider-landing-gear.  With each issue since the Spider Island scenario, Amazing Spider-Man has proven that it can pack in fresher scenarios of interest into what should be a rather tired enterprise of recycled plot.  There are still surprises and a marked gradation of potential for Spidey and Parker now, less restricted by the limitations of his origins. As super-genius and masked vigilante carrying cards to both the Avengers and the Future Foundation, Spider-Man has settled into "middle age" rather comfortably. The art and writing hit where they fit, and this issue is a relevant example of that.    

9/10



BATMAN INCORPORATED #0
Written by: 
Grant Morrison
Chris Burnham
Art by: 
Chris Burnham
Cover by: 
Chris Burnham
Variant Cover by: 
Aaron Kuder
Chris Burnham


It has not happened yet, but it will someday. A character is designed for a comic book that will be the synthesis of Batman without the bat, that takes a stance towards corporate accountability in a fashion where the scum of a certain 1% are taken to task for their malevolence.  Until then, we have Batman Incorporated.  Grant Morrison extends into his personal mythos of the balance between Bruce Wayne's money and Batman's dogged determination.  Batman as a global icon to be established with certain individuals throughout the globe is part of the nostalgia that is built into Grant Morrison's style and approach with DC Universe characters.  Behind all the merely clever bits he hearkens to the same thing all successful comic book writers do: he finds where he fell in love with comics and writes that. 

 The age of Morrison when he first touched a comic book was an era where a league of Batman-inspired international heroes came together to fight the injustices close and far from home.  It was a time of goody LSD-exploded rainbow Batmen and artificially sweetened boy wonders.  An extension of his well-done Black Glove storyline, Morrison's Batman Inc. #0 is a backstory for all the heroes of Africa, Russia, Japan, England, and Australia, but if this were to extend further could we find one in India, or for that matter Pakistan?  There is the promise of riches to come for DC if they continue to allow Morrison reign over their dreamscape archetypes, with the art possessing a dynamic shift from still to kinetic with every page, fitting every scene.   

9/10



FF #22
Writer: 
Jonathan Hickman
Penciller (cover): 
Ryan Stegman
Artist: 
Nick Dragotta


We have already established that Jonathan Hickman is a Comic Book God by some rights, and his ability to make a second ongoing title for the Fantastic Four, a long-troublesome and sometimes near-dead enterprise, is testament to his strengths.  His weaknesses come about in the noticeable contrivance of "wrapping up dangling plot-threads".  At times entire issues simply lack the weight of driving action required for the comic book medium, but they serve a sound architecture of plot overall, and at his worst Hickman's dialogue is too choppy or verbose, but it never seems hackneyed or dumb.  With FF #22, in the fallout of major cosmic storylines preceding it, the Fantastic Four (with Spidey! Five! Fantastic Five!) confront the self-styled science messiah The Wizard on an AIM island compound.  Bentley, a clone of The Wizard, has been raised in the FF family for some time now, the "inherently evil" wise-cracker kid akin to DC's Damian Wayne without ninja assassin training.  As always, Hickman delivers and the art is crisp perfect flow.  With Hickman's recently announced departure from Fantastic Four, it'll be interesting to see what direction FF, very much his brain-child, will head. Nick Dragotta's artwork is a perfect compliment to this series, with comfortably sparse scenery setting apt tones and characters possessing solid emotion to their expressions.

9/10



THE FURY OF FIRESTORM: THE NUCLEAR MEN #0
Written by: 
Joe Harris
Art by: 
Yildiray Cinar
Marlo Alquiza
Cover by: 
Yildiray Cinar
Marlo Alquiza


Perhaps someday Firestorm will be more than a simple superhero slugfest book.  Mind you, that was the limitation imposed on it by virtue of the New 52, where Blackest Night seemingly never happened, nor did Firestorm's entire history. The Fury of Firestorm series has read up to this issue #0 as "the superhuman weapon" motif gone weird, the Firestorm Protocols.  Captain Atom deals with the themes of the scope of his matter-manipulation powers, whereas Firestorm just apparently blows stuff up.  Firestorms, plural. Sorry.  

Major problems for this series include but are not limited to the flat characters, the seemingly pointless story arcs interrupted by seemingly pointless shock value explosions, often set at public landmarks and/or sporting events.  It may be that the series is geared towards action junkies that aren't looking for finesse or plot, but rudimentary structures set to give the flat randomly-motivated characters room to explain the things they're seeing as said things are seen, or spout cliche threats against people dressed just like them. The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man is garbled nonsense at its worst moments and regurgitated fight scenes at its best. The profundities and potential of the characters understanding their powers or having something more to them than simple reaction scenarios is never really explored for more than a moment. If the series is to survive, it needs to carry more emotional weight, or at least pretend it can. 

5/10



SPACE PUNISHER #3
Writer: 
Frank Tieri
Penciller: 
Mark Texeira


There's silly and then there's silly that knows how silly it is. On the heels of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe limited series comes a type akin in its major meta-style kookiness. Space Punisher, which is exactly what it sounds like. It's the Punisher. In space. This is that bit every Marvel fan speculated on at least once, where Frank Castle, armed with only a robot and space age weaponry, goes cosmic kill-ride with a list of most of the cosmic names of the Marvel Universe, along with variations of villains to murder memorably as he goes.  If you like over-the-top action thrill rides, senseless violence, and tentacle clone armies of Hitlers, heroes and characters warped between humor of Lobo and the no-nonsense ultraviolence of Judge Dredd, this piece of Marvel weird come to life lies somewhere in between.  In this almost-hilarious enterprise of an issue, Frank Castle gets closer and closer to his answers, and the Watchers that killed his family are in his sights. There's no need to think too hard about this one. It's a limited series, and it's fully aware of itself. The art is at times too spare, but overall it's a piece that can be spotted for what it is. Fun and action.

7.5/10



SUPERMAN #0
Written by: 
Scott Lobdell
Art by: 
Kenneth Rocafort
Cover by: 
Kenneth Rocafort
Variant Cover by: 
Kenneth Rocafort


In some ways, the dilemma of the DC stock of characters is wholly understandable. They see the need for constant revisionist history of storylines and events to fit the long-term goal of loyal readership.  With Superman we have the most difficult task of all, stripping away his acheivements and accolades and toning him from the level of Supergod to perhaps demigod.  Gone is his lawful perfect attitude towards all things, staggeringly high intelligence, and ultra-refined understanding of his powers.  

The New 52's Superman has been described as near-socialist in his stance as a hero. He fights against not just tsunamis and alien invasions, but government corruption, media bias, terrorist attacks and alien invasions. And tsunamis.  He's been taken down a few notches, save interesting portions of Action Comics and blips on the miasma of Superman as a title itself, where the old ideal shines through.  With Superman #0 we see his father's story, that is, Jor-El, studying the potential reasons for Krypton's imminent demise, which thanks to ham-fisted plot-tinkering would appear to have been arranged by someone of great power and influence.  The art for this particular issue is breath-taking, so much so that the sparsity of Krypton's culture in favor of a chase sequence conspiracy seems tolerable.  The final page raises whole new questions, and we are left with a potential storyline involving time-travel to unravel the secret conspiracy of why Krypton died (as apparently it's not just because Despair suggested it to Rao in Sandman: Endless Nights) and how that affects Earth's possible demise.     

8.5/10   



ULTIMATE COMICS ULTIMATES # 16
Writer: 
Samuel Ryan Humphries
Penciller (cover): 
Michael Komarck
Artist: 
Billy Tan


The past year or so of the Ultimate Universe has seen dramatic changes and bold decisions, mostly in the wake of Ultimate Spider Man's death.  Ultimate Reed Richards pretty much decimated Europe, killed almost all the Asgardian gods, went to war with a superhuman Asian army, and annihilated Washington D.C. will an antimatter bomb.  Texas immediately secedes. Meanwhile an Evangelical Christian bigot has co-opted an entire army of Nimrod Class Sentinels and declared major portions of the southwest as a sovereign territory, as well as calling for death to all mutants.  Who it turns out are human-made. So. Steve Rogers retires out of shame and this is what happens? What would happen if perhaps he was simply sworn in as president of the United States and rebuilt the nation through force of arms?  Ultimate Comics Ultimate #16 answers this question and a few others.  It's commendable enough that each Ultimate series and its Earth variant have moved further from and closer to the Earth 616 (latter being the surprisingly refreshing and tastefully done Spider-Men).  They piqued interest in what might very well have been a dud enterprise based on the lightning in a bottle that was Mark Millar's first pass at these alternate reality Avengers, certainly paving the way for works and multi-billion dollar movies to come.  Since the gradual phasing out of Jonathan Hickman for Sam Humphries, the title's dialogue has suffered somewhat in quality, but vestigal plot-devices linger on, leading to what may wind down into nonsense but for now keeps pace with the build-up that brought us to this point.

8/10



AQUAMAN #0
Written by: 
Geoff Johns
Art by: 
Ivan Reis
Joe Prado
Cover by: 
Ivan Reis
Joe Prado
Variant Cover by: 
Ivan Reis


Admit it. Everyone thinks Aquaman is a joke.  The New 52 provides him a means to drop all the baggage of his history and start fresh.  So it is that with Aquaman #0 we see a story from his life where, prior to heroics, he's simply confused and angry about his questionable heritage and seeks out his first answers.  Under the sea.  In many ways the art of this series has been a major selling point, serving the story to such a great capacity that if it was a lesser artist would have killed the baby in its crib.  As things stand, Aquaman has come to a point where you can relearn his history without knowing the phases of "hand/not hand", "hook", "bionic hand", "sea god powers", "king/not king", "moody", "useless", "dead"... and reinforce his ongoing animosity with his half-brother Black Manta.  He's depicted too variably in what few other New 52 titles he's appeared in, but with this series, he's less out of his element, pun most certainly intended.  So long as they keep reminding people that the art sells the story in Aquaman and less the other way around, everything for this title should remain relatively kosher. Ha. Kosher. Get it? Alright.

8/10



X-TREME X-MEN #4
Writer: 
Greg Pak
Penciller (cover): 
Kalman Andrasofszky
Artist: 
Paco Diaz


You'd be better off forgetting the Chris Claremont brain-child X-Treme X-Men that emerged from the sewers of Marvel around the same time as Grant Morrison's New X-Men.  The new title X-Treme X-Men follows a group of characters that first appeared in Astonishing X-Men, playing alt-reality foils to Lawful Neutral Cyclops in a reality where Charles Xavier is a bit of a dick-head. Then they reality hop, apparently along the lines of the little-loved but potentially fabulous Exiles series.  With X-Treme X-Men #4 the team, if in fact it can be called that, consists of a Charles Xavier head in a floating jar, James Howlett, Dazzler, and an alternate reality Nightcrawler (common since his death on Earth 616) and they team up to... well, it's hard to say. "Kill about a dozen evil Xaviers" fits, but it's an "episode to episode" scenario in many aspects, the true overarching goals unclear at a glance but hey, who cares?... Feels like the old series Exiles mixed with Sliders mixed with Quantum Leap, to an extent, and just like Exiles it's very mutant-heavy in all respects.  The art and the general "just go with it" attitude of the title overall save it from falling into the realm of being too snide or overly hokey.  If every two issues or so we get to see this reality-hopping crew have a random encounter or three, it should make for neat cover art at the very least.

8/10



RED LANTERNS #0
Written by: 
Peter Milligan
Art by: 
Ardian Syaf
Vicente Cifuentes
Cover by: 
Miguel A Sepulveda


Let's just say you don't want to be a jaywalker when the Manhunters decide to get feisty.  What has come as a pleasant surprise is that the title Red Lanterns has survived as long as it has.  It showed a strange sense of potential, twisted as that may at first seem.  Atrocitus, the first Red Lantern, provides explicit details of his motivations and origin with Red Lanterns #0.  Also, it turns out that he had relations with a demonic space squid, and learned the lessons of the Five Inversions, using their bodies to craft the Red Lantern battery in the first place.  These and other details are filled in that should prove of interest to both new and old fans of the Green Lantern stables of stories.  Overall, this issue shows the complications of a character you might expect in a Lantern whose primary motivator and power source is rage. Though not inherently evil, but more inherently brutal, the red end of the spectrum seems motivated by injustices rendered by figures of authority, and with the recent and blatant abuses of power rendered by the so-called Guardians of the Universe, along with the removal of Hal Jordan and Sinestro from the board, war is almost certain.  They'll be calling it the Rise of the Third Army.  This issue plants seeds for that and more, and although rushed in some spots and wordy in others, sports a certain confidence overall, which leads to a stronger fan base in the long run.

7.5/10



WOLVERINE #313
Writer: 
Jeph Loeb
Penciller: 
Simone Bianchi


This whole mess sucks. I'll get to this review when I am done wolveretching. God. Such a terrible taste in my mouth.

Really, how many times will Wolverine nearly kill Sabertooth?  Kids shelled out good money to see him decapitated once and for all, heck, there was a hardcover copy and everything. A clone killed Feral, is that what you're saying?  And this Romulus and Remus thing that we're led to believe was behind even what was behind the behind of Weapon X program?  

What's so effin' difficult about writing a Wolverine storyline? Sure, send him to hell, okay.  Let demons take over his body.  Then hem and haw over him dealing with the same tired pattern, maybe throw in a Gorilla detective for comedic relief, or gross everyone out with yet another hint at his mysterious past and shit, fine, you know what? Don't care.  Stopped caring. Wolverine should be dead from overexposure by now. He's impossible to kill by virtue of his popularity, okay, we get it, but you can write a story without it being about something fifty to four hundred other people have already done.  Mark Millar got it right, and that was ages ago.  Since his revelation of memory after M Day, we've had Wolverine run ragged joining the Avengers and becoming a headmaster of a new school and being featured in his usual six to ten guest star spots either subverting his classical image or tritely attempting to make it more shiny.

At the end of the day, this most recent plotline is to make us believe that Logan, James, whatever you want to call him may have volunteered for the Weapon X project, used to work for Romulus and Remus, and bladdah bladdah forget anything you knew before, let's change the ending to something besides a faked alien threat, yeah, let's make it, um, Dr. Manhattan bombing the world, sure, let's dumb down the whole thing like a Zach Snyder feature and end it with him kissing the hot immortal redhead or whatever, Christ, fine, do it.  Get Jeph Loeb to do this series forever, let him turn Wolverine into an actual wolverine. Yeah. Team him up with Liefeld and a team of cancer monkeys. It's over. I'm done with it. Wolverine's officially jumped the shark, folks. Nothing to see here.  

Art for the past few issues with this effrontery against all previous issues has been fantastic. That's it. That's all that's even remotely good about it.  Even then, to be honest, it just makes me nostalgic for old back issues of Heavy Metal. Let's strike these past three issues from the record. Bury them like E.T. the video game. 

4/10

Friday, September 14, 2012

DC New 52 Issue Zeroes Reviews

Does anyone still have fresh memories of the time Hal Jordan broke from character, went ostensibly insane, and attempted to revamp the DC Universe with the maxi-crossover Zero Hour? It was  a means to extend the aging franchise of various half-century old properties, revitalize storylines, and pique interests anew in the 1990's... coming out of the era which stated "Change is Necessity" the origins of the various characters did not shift considerably, whereas the troublesome Golden Age heroes either died or underwent an apotheosis. The one-billionth incarnation of the Legion of Super Heroes emerged.  

During the Q and A a few months ago, there came the question of whether or not DC would commit to issue zeroes for the DC New 52, and sure enough, that was just what they had in store.

Some of the ones that came out this Wednesday are noted below in a "Top 5 of the Week" format. 



BATMAN AND ROBIN #0
Written by: 
Peter J. Tomasi
Art by: 
Patrick Gleason
Mick Gray
Cover by: 
Patrick Gleason
Mick Gray


Since the arrival of Damian, Batman's son by way of Ra's Al Ghul's daughter, we've seen the tumultuous ride unfold in topsy-turvy plot collisions and a terribly disappointing resurrection deflation.  The titles all warped once more with the arrival of The New 52, but interestingly, outside of the retconning of Batgirl/woman and the addition of Talons and Owls into the Dark Knight's mythos, the main series remained fundamentally intact.  What Batman and Robin #0 provides is a perspective into the oft-referenced training that Damian Wayne received practically from birth.  We see the role of his father as symbol of worth, and his troubling relationship with his mother.  This issue is executed flawlessly, giving it a perfect score, nearly impossible in this neck of the woods.

10/10




Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #0
Writer: Matt Kindt
Artist: Alberto Ponticelli
Inker: Wayne Faucher
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Colorist: Jose Villarrubia
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Publisher: DC Comics

When Frankenstein was first conceived as a miniseries during the Seven Soldiers of Victory esoterica during DC's "Let Grant Morrison steer a bizarre vessel through the mainstream" days, it was by far the most successful and strictly speaking stand-out title of the bunch.  A lumbering behemoth of science, the ill-gotten monster of a Modern Prometheus, taking his creator's name as his own, spouting parables from the Bible and Shakespeare while cleaving monsters in twain, was a brilliant concept.  When Flashpoint ran through stores to make way for The New 52, Frankenstein was again given a limited series, this time with his fellow Scary Movie Golden Age Archetypes, textured versions of the Wolfman, Vampire, Black Lagoon Monster, etc. all given reign of the classic World War 2 Squadron motif.  This carried over into the new universe, but established within the framework of Father Time's S.H.A.D.E. operation (hearkening to an interesting time when Uncle Sam was pertinent to the DCU Mainstream with his Freedom Fighters).  For Frankenstein: Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #0, we get a straightforward origin story, crafted to fill in details of the monster's life and describe his motivations within the organization that he has served for so long.  It delivers precisely what it claims to, and a little more to boot, with (un)naturalized characters and fittingly descriptive art. 

9.5/10



RESURRECTION MAN #0
Written by: 
Dan Abnett
Andy Lanning
Art by: 
Jesús Saíz
Cover by: 
Francesco Francavilla


One of the certainties of the Resurrection Man series was always that it would never get very far.  A certain apathy comes to casual readers with a character like Mitch Shelley, though admirably the story laid out in the series was linear and catchy enough to snag some loyalists, myself included.  Announcements regarding the cancellation of the series are sad enough. With Issue #0, our hero, who resurrects with new powers every time he dies, discovers the truth of who he is, who he was, and who he will be.  The plot-threads playing themselves out up to this point seem less slap-dash now that certain pieces have been put into place, although some knots didn't need as much unraveling as they received.  The series as a whole has had a Fugitive feel to it, and it's understandable that without that driving force, the series could have gone stale much more quickly.  It's been a long strange trip with only a few bumps and snags, but this issue answers a lot of questions and is a microcosm testament to the strengths and weaknesses of the series as a whole.

8.5/10




STORMWATCH #0
Written by: 
Peter Milligan
Art by: 
Ignacio Calero
Sean Parsons
Cover by: 
Tyler Kirkham
Batt

From Stormwatch came The Authority (and from that the Monarchy and Meritocracy and Establishment and Planetary) and from The Authority came Stormwatch.  The New 52 proposes Stormwatch as a centuries-old organization of superhumans of all sorts coming together with the common cause of warding off alien menaces.  Integrated into the calling is our teenage Century Baby (The Doctor meets Cultural/Industrial Zeitgeist personafied) Jenny Quantum, being trained by Adam One (former leader of Stormwatch, stuck in a Death Hole or somesuch now) in this issue #0, ostensibly situated within the current order of events of the standard plot.  Perhaps owing the most of its existence to the merging of properties out of all New 52 titles, it has shown the most competent superhero team on the planet, and also the most secretive.  Peter Milligan has smartly adopted the history of this expansive and ancient organization to reveal only a bit at a time.  This issue seems a tad heavy on the exposition, which lags some areas, but is essential to hints of Jenny's "history" with the group throughout the ages.         

8.5/10



DEMON KNIGHTS #0

Written by:
Paul Cornell
Art by:
Bernard Chang
Cover by:
Bernard Chang

Another title that seems to owe its existence to the propositions of those that seek to add an actual air of historicity to the New 52 Universe. Demon Knights #0 is another example of a take on the origin story motif, though this one focuses exclusively on the dichotomy of Jason Blood and Etrigan the demon, both upstarts reaching for ambitions well beyond their grasps, leading to their ultimately being bound together, though they never precisely overlap.  Therein lies the intrigue, with Merlin and Arthur playing as prominent roles in young hotheaded Jason Blood's life as Lucifer does in Etrigan's, entertaining petty and pointless rebellions to stave off the boredom.  Pacing is a mild problem with this issue, and in certain places feels pinched or rushed, but to be fair, it is an origin story, and stands in interesting contrast to the Demon #0 released after Zero Hour, so long ago, hitting buttons of the oddest nostalgia, yet not quite fulfilling expectations.  However, intrigue and interest has been triggered, as this is a solid and serviceable read, especially next to releases so dreadful they shall not be reviewed or even named here.

8.5/10