Henry10This Week in Comics
October 1st 2006 09:49
It's that time of the week again, when we all get the chance to see bright figures renderred in ink kicking each other in the teeth - new comic time! I'll be making my best effort to provide capsule reviews for every book I read, so strap in and prepare to be told what to like. From now on, your taste in four-colour fiction belongs to me.
CABLE & DEADPOOL #32 by Fabian Nicieza and Staz Johnson
In case I haven't told you to buy this book yet, I'm telling you now. This issue is the obligatory Civil War crossover, which sees Our Heroes on opposite sides. Cable, in benevolent world-conqueror mode, wants to stop the Registration Act, because he knows it leads to bad things in the future. Deadpool wants to aid it, because it gives him a nice shiny badge and the right to legitimately stab people. In the grand Marvel tradition this leads to a fight, but there's also some good material for Deadpool, who gets a rare moment to be more than the madcap comic relief. Recommended, as always, and much better than the main Civil War mini.
Oh, and it also has the Punch of the Week:
CAPTAIN AMERICA #22 by Ed Brubaker and Mike Perkins
Man, Mike Perkins does a mean Steve McNiven impression. They ought to get this guy to sub for him to stop those pesky Civil War delays. Nah, that would actually make sense...
Anyway, once again we see those wonderful, price-increasing words "Civil War tie-in!" The issue focuses on Sharon Carter, Cap's love interest and his liaison with SHIELD, and her dilemma - does she rat out Cap to her superiors now that he's a fugitive, or does she follow her heart (awww....). It's very talky, but Brubaker still delivers the goods. I feel like I know Carter better than I ever had before, and Cap's feelings about the Registration Act get fleshed out in more depth than before. There's also a pretty sweet cliffhanger, though I'm certain it means more to long-time Cap fans than it means to me.
CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE #6 by Paul Jenkins, Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber, Lee Weeks, and Jorge Lucas
I'd been enjoying this up to now, but with the Civil War mini faltering, the event's secondary book is starting to lose me (especially when the awesome death of Goliath gets redrawn into a wussified version). I did enjoy the first story, with Ben Urich investigating Iron Man, but I'm a Ben urich fanboy. The Speedball story is finally starting to gain speed, though Reed Richards makes an appearance acting like a pompous jerkoff. The Wonder-Man arc isn't grabbing me yet, and I'm still mildly unsettled by the back-ups where Civil War events are set against real world events, this time to a poem written about the Battle of Britain.
CIVIL WAR - YOUNG AVENGERS AND RUNAWAYS #3 by Zeb Wells and Stefano Caselli
It seems that Zeb Wells really wanted to write a comic about Marvel Boy (the alien/cockroach DNA guy written by Grant Morrison) because that guy comes across as more interesting than the entire rosters of the Young Avengers and the Runaways combined. Admittedly I care for neither of the comics these characters come from, but this mini is a step below both. There is one awesome moment where Marvel Boy RIPS THE VISION'S ARM OFF WHILE IT'S PARTIALLY SOLIDIFIED INSIDE HIS CHEST! but the rest is mediocre. One of the few Civil War tie-ins I'm not really interested in.
DAREDEVIL #89 by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark
DD is in Monaco tracking down the guy that he thinks had his friend Foggy murdered, and once again Brubaker does good. He's even introduced a new Matador! With his awesome powers of matadoring! The beginning feels a bit James Bond at the beginning, with DD doing some spywork and some gambling, and there's some punching and kicking as well as a tantalising mystery involving... Karen Page?!?. God bless Ed Brubaker.
52 #21 by Lots o' Folks
Because I demanded - a team I know nothing about! (That's Infinity Inc., by the way...) After a few weeks of outer space bliss, we're back to the subplots I don't care about. There's some decent intrigue with Luthor, and just what he's playing at by creating superhumans, and it does a reasonable job of introducing the new team. But I didn't care. Thankfully there was Ralph Dibny's badass entry into Hell to tide me over. Bring back the multi-subplot issues!
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #2 by Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes
There's some interesting things happening, notably with the Red Tornado, but Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are still sitting around a table deciding who makes it onto the team... Meanwhile, subplots are telling us who's bound to be on it anyway, SO GET AWAY FROM THE FRIGGIN' TABLE AND PUNCH SOMEONE ALREADY! It's well written and all, with some damn good character moments, but it's moving too slowly. I propose that all team books ought to have the teams formed by the end of issue #1.
SHE-HULK #12 by Dan Slott and Rick Burchett
Ahhhhh. There are those satisfying moments in comics, when something gets inserted into continuity so smoothly that you wonder why no-one thought of it earlier. In this issue Starfox is brought to trial for misuse of his 'love power' (super date-rape, in other words). The humour is great as always, but when a certain mad Titan and half-brother to Starfox shows up to give testimony - we get a new tidbit of the history of Thanos that makes So Much Sense that you can almost hear the comic book sighing in the pleasure that only seamless continuity can bring... It's beautiful... if you need me, I'll be hugging my copies of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Deluxe Edition).
SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #22 by Mark Waid, Tony Bedard and Barry Kitson
My jump off the deep end into the wilds of DC continuity continues, with the Legion of Superheroes. This was my first time, and thankfully the Legion were gentle. Supergirl (filling in for Superboy now that he's not in continuity anymore, I gather) has joined the Legion, and Ultra Boy's fixated on her being more powerful than him. But is it love? Ultra Boy's gal pal Shadow Lass needs to know, and her former lover Karate Kid is on hand to help. It's all deeply complicated teen romance stuff, with some punching of meteorites to keep me happy, but it's a lot of fun. I'll be sticking with the Legion for the nonce.
TEEN TITANS #39 by Geoff Johns and Tony S. Daniel
The Titans, on the other hand, I know from the cartoon. These are the same guys, sort of. As I gather it, Raven has disappeared in some attempt to find a traitor in the Titans' midst, and the rest of the Titans are trying to find her. Not a bad intro, as they tool around interrogating former Titans. I didn't get it all, but I enjoyed a good bit of it. Not bad at all. (And damn, I wish I could shout, "EROM ESEEHC!")
X-MEN #191 by Mike Carey and Clay Henry
Chris Bachalo sucks! You know why? Because Clay Henry is filling in for him this month, and all of a sudden it's a good comic! I can follow the story! Fights make sense! It's everything a comic without Chris Bachalo can aspire to be! The X-Men are still up against the Children of the Vault, who finally get a decent origin and start to make sense, but the absolute highlight is an extended sequence where Cannonball lives an illusory life married to Serafina. Usually these things come across as pretty hackneyed, but here it's just heartbreaking. Poor Sam. If only we could get Serafina to put Chris Bachalo through an illusory life as well! Convince him he's allergic to pencils or something.
CABLE & DEADPOOL #32 by Fabian Nicieza and Staz Johnson
In case I haven't told you to buy this book yet, I'm telling you now. This issue is the obligatory Civil War crossover, which sees Our Heroes on opposite sides. Cable, in benevolent world-conqueror mode, wants to stop the Registration Act, because he knows it leads to bad things in the future. Deadpool wants to aid it, because it gives him a nice shiny badge and the right to legitimately stab people. In the grand Marvel tradition this leads to a fight, but there's also some good material for Deadpool, who gets a rare moment to be more than the madcap comic relief. Recommended, as always, and much better than the main Civil War mini.
Oh, and it also has the Punch of the Week:
Gotcher nose!
CAPTAIN AMERICA #22 by Ed Brubaker and Mike Perkins
Man, Mike Perkins does a mean Steve McNiven impression. They ought to get this guy to sub for him to stop those pesky Civil War delays. Nah, that would actually make sense...
Anyway, once again we see those wonderful, price-increasing words "Civil War tie-in!" The issue focuses on Sharon Carter, Cap's love interest and his liaison with SHIELD, and her dilemma - does she rat out Cap to her superiors now that he's a fugitive, or does she follow her heart (awww....). It's very talky, but Brubaker still delivers the goods. I feel like I know Carter better than I ever had before, and Cap's feelings about the Registration Act get fleshed out in more depth than before. There's also a pretty sweet cliffhanger, though I'm certain it means more to long-time Cap fans than it means to me.
CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE #6 by Paul Jenkins, Ramon Bachs, Steve Lieber, Lee Weeks, and Jorge Lucas
I'd been enjoying this up to now, but with the Civil War mini faltering, the event's secondary book is starting to lose me (especially when the awesome death of Goliath gets redrawn into a wussified version). I did enjoy the first story, with Ben Urich investigating Iron Man, but I'm a Ben urich fanboy. The Speedball story is finally starting to gain speed, though Reed Richards makes an appearance acting like a pompous jerkoff. The Wonder-Man arc isn't grabbing me yet, and I'm still mildly unsettled by the back-ups where Civil War events are set against real world events, this time to a poem written about the Battle of Britain.
CIVIL WAR - YOUNG AVENGERS AND RUNAWAYS #3 by Zeb Wells and Stefano Caselli
It seems that Zeb Wells really wanted to write a comic about Marvel Boy (the alien/cockroach DNA guy written by Grant Morrison) because that guy comes across as more interesting than the entire rosters of the Young Avengers and the Runaways combined. Admittedly I care for neither of the comics these characters come from, but this mini is a step below both. There is one awesome moment where Marvel Boy RIPS THE VISION'S ARM OFF WHILE IT'S PARTIALLY SOLIDIFIED INSIDE HIS CHEST! but the rest is mediocre. One of the few Civil War tie-ins I'm not really interested in.
DAREDEVIL #89 by Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark
DD is in Monaco tracking down the guy that he thinks had his friend Foggy murdered, and once again Brubaker does good. He's even introduced a new Matador! With his awesome powers of matadoring! The beginning feels a bit James Bond at the beginning, with DD doing some spywork and some gambling, and there's some punching and kicking as well as a tantalising mystery involving... Karen Page?!?. God bless Ed Brubaker.
52 #21 by Lots o' Folks
Because I demanded - a team I know nothing about! (That's Infinity Inc., by the way...) After a few weeks of outer space bliss, we're back to the subplots I don't care about. There's some decent intrigue with Luthor, and just what he's playing at by creating superhumans, and it does a reasonable job of introducing the new team. But I didn't care. Thankfully there was Ralph Dibny's badass entry into Hell to tide me over. Bring back the multi-subplot issues!
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #2 by Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes
There's some interesting things happening, notably with the Red Tornado, but Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman are still sitting around a table deciding who makes it onto the team... Meanwhile, subplots are telling us who's bound to be on it anyway, SO GET AWAY FROM THE FRIGGIN' TABLE AND PUNCH SOMEONE ALREADY! It's well written and all, with some damn good character moments, but it's moving too slowly. I propose that all team books ought to have the teams formed by the end of issue #1.
SHE-HULK #12 by Dan Slott and Rick Burchett
Ahhhhh. There are those satisfying moments in comics, when something gets inserted into continuity so smoothly that you wonder why no-one thought of it earlier. In this issue Starfox is brought to trial for misuse of his 'love power' (super date-rape, in other words). The humour is great as always, but when a certain mad Titan and half-brother to Starfox shows up to give testimony - we get a new tidbit of the history of Thanos that makes So Much Sense that you can almost hear the comic book sighing in the pleasure that only seamless continuity can bring... It's beautiful... if you need me, I'll be hugging my copies of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Deluxe Edition).
SUPERGIRL AND THE LEGION OF SUPERHEROES #22 by Mark Waid, Tony Bedard and Barry Kitson
My jump off the deep end into the wilds of DC continuity continues, with the Legion of Superheroes. This was my first time, and thankfully the Legion were gentle. Supergirl (filling in for Superboy now that he's not in continuity anymore, I gather) has joined the Legion, and Ultra Boy's fixated on her being more powerful than him. But is it love? Ultra Boy's gal pal Shadow Lass needs to know, and her former lover Karate Kid is on hand to help. It's all deeply complicated teen romance stuff, with some punching of meteorites to keep me happy, but it's a lot of fun. I'll be sticking with the Legion for the nonce.
TEEN TITANS #39 by Geoff Johns and Tony S. Daniel
The Titans, on the other hand, I know from the cartoon. These are the same guys, sort of. As I gather it, Raven has disappeared in some attempt to find a traitor in the Titans' midst, and the rest of the Titans are trying to find her. Not a bad intro, as they tool around interrogating former Titans. I didn't get it all, but I enjoyed a good bit of it. Not bad at all. (And damn, I wish I could shout, "EROM ESEEHC!")
X-MEN #191 by Mike Carey and Clay Henry
Chris Bachalo sucks! You know why? Because Clay Henry is filling in for him this month, and all of a sudden it's a good comic! I can follow the story! Fights make sense! It's everything a comic without Chris Bachalo can aspire to be! The X-Men are still up against the Children of the Vault, who finally get a decent origin and start to make sense, but the absolute highlight is an extended sequence where Cannonball lives an illusory life married to Serafina. Usually these things come across as pretty hackneyed, but here it's just heartbreaking. Poor Sam. If only we could get Serafina to put Chris Bachalo through an illusory life as well! Convince him he's allergic to pencils or something.
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