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

Spoiler Reviews for Comics released May 30, 2012

Amazing Spiderman Annual #39 - 9/10

Writer Brian Reed has put good use of Spider-Man's current position in the Marvel Universe into play with this Annual.  Shunting the webhead out of time during a experiment in Horizon Labs with the all-too-innocent chubby scientist Grady, we catch a glimpse of what the world might look like without Spider-Man. Penciler Lee Garbett does a solid job in all respects, giving a friendly tone to a world that seems in some ways better off (Norman Osborne cures cancer, Mary Jane Watson is a superstar) and in others quite ordinary (Spider-Woman and the Avengers seem much the same).  What makes this issue stand out more than anything is the temporary return of Uncle Ben, who Peter Parker couldn't help but visit. If you want to pick up just one Spider-Man comic this year, this would be the one.  It's clutter-free despite the chronal catastrophe at the outset, and it fleshes out characters without attempting to go overboard.  Nearly perfect in execution, and so far as "the new status quo" goes, well-placed in continuity, and Reed has clearly done his homework regarding key points along the Spider-Man timeline, played up throughout.

Animal Man Annual 1 - 9/10

Ongoing series writer Jeff Lemire has been running with the same "Animal Man's family on the run from the Rot" story for nearly a year, and this Annual, the first for Animal Man's new series, fits into that, hinting at the upcoming team-up with Alec Holland, Swamp Thing and last knight of the Green.  The story stands on its own, in a fashion, being in great part a flashback to a team up between warriors of the Green and the Red to stave off The Rot. This Annual features glorious art by Timothy Green, whose alternation between sparsity and complexity of line-work suit the story quite well.  The mythology brewing in the "Vertigo import" titles of the New DCU, Swamp Thing and Animal Man, has been venturing into interesting new places, breaking ground for newer and older generations of readers to enjoy.  So far as intrigue goes, it has come to a point where the final battle or battles will have to match or exceed the build-up, as lengthy and pleasantly meandering as it has been.  This issue, a pause of reflection, in some respects, compounds that feeling.  Still gloriously done. Leaves the future for these characters wide open in terms of potential development.

BATMAN Annual #1 - 8/10

Mister Freeze has not warranted a decent reappraisal since Schwarzenegger turned him into a joke so many years ago.  This Batman Annual, however, written by Scott Snyder and James T Tynion IV with impressive art by Jason Fabok, pulls us into the character with an ease that some might not expect.  Tying into the "Night of the Owls" storyline wrapping up all the Batman related titles at the moment, Mr. Freeze breaks out of Arkham in a somewhat novel fashion, goes on a brutal rampage up to and including the semi-legitimate Penguin's casino (to get his freeze guns) and returns to his object of obsession, his precious Nora.  In previous continuity, this was rather straightforwardly (read: dully) played out as his wife.  There is now a twist, potentially coupled with details of his family background, that gives the demented tragedy of Mr. Freeze a deeper resonance than was previously thought possible.  At the end of the day, of course, this can only wrap up in a limited fashion, but the trip to the inevitable end has some good and even surprising moments along the way.

Star Trek The Next Generation/Doctor Who #1 - 9/10

Here we have a crossover that fans of both series should take a moment with, something quite unexpected but highly enjoyable.  With storywork by Scott Tipton, David Tipton, and Tony Lee, the cross-over starts out in the Star Trek Universe (are we to assume both universes are one and the same? If so, would Q and the Doctor have an interesting interaction or what? Perhaps later issues will clarify this.) where the Cybermen have teamed up with the Borg and are laying siege to planets, Starfleet seeming helpless to stop them. We're carried to the Doctor's universe (with Rory and Amy) where they are just wrapping up a lovely set-to with ancient Egyptians and alien scum in disguise. J.K. Woodward's arts and colors have a clean yet almost ethereal quality to them, somehow fitting.  We finish this issue in what is quite obviously the anachronistic setting of early twentieth century San Francisco a la Enterprise Holodeck.  There were a hundred ways in which this story could go wrong, but it has a strong finish and looks to be well paced.  Here's to the future, eh?

Supercrooks #3 - 8/10

These days, Mark Millar writes superhero stories that seem as punchy as a wide-screen cinematic experience.  One-liners and dramatic fights play out amongst characters that could easily have celebrity sit-ins.  The premise for this story, obvious from the get-go, is "Oceans Eleven starring supervillains" making that last big score to get their old mentor out of trouble with a casino owner.  Since his work on Superior, also with Millar, artist Lenil Yu seems determined to make his characters and settings as clean and crisp as is humanly possible, even when covered in muck and gore.  This issue is the one in which the titular super criminals case the joint, in this case a villa for a retired super-villain known as The Bastard. From start to finish it's text-book longing for cinematic pick-up.  With each page you can practically see Millarworld spin off emails to grubby producers, pitches lined with clips where some textured baddie is growling and chewing the scenery.  Let's just never make another movie like WANTED. Please.

Wolverine #307 - 7.5/10 

With story by Cullen Bunn and art by Paul Pelletier, this issue marks another chapter in an ongoing arc involving Wolverine tracking down Dr. Rot, a homicidal surgical villain lurking behind the scenes for nearly as long as Wolverine's interminably normal boring girlfriend.  She's been looking for Wolverine with the Feds, who think Logan, James, whatever, has been going on a rampage.  Well, this issue, we get to meet Dr. Rot's "extended family" (Wolvie mercy-killed the dad and disemboweled a "cousin" last issue)... who are supposed to pack the same punch as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre family, perhaps, but end up coming off ghoulishly unrealistic and flat.  When these second-tier blood encrusted yahoos manage to one-up Wolverine, lobotomize, brainwash, and give him a tour of their facilities, the reader, if not already numb, can pull out of the muck long enough to predict the final page, wherein Wolverine's girlfriend and the Feds are closing in on the Rot compound, and Rot gives Wolverine orders to kill them.  Let's predict next issue. Wolverine doesn't kill his girlfriend. He doesn't even manage to kill any of the Rot family.  Somehow these people, grossly brutal villains that he has let off the hook before, will be let off the hook again.  Then the next level of status quo will be eminently achieved when Wolverine's dull awful ethnically confusing girlfriend tells him he's not an animal, or something to that effect.  Dialogue's decent enough and some instances of old tropes replayed are even novel, but ultimately this gruesome tale can only be re-examined in so many ways.