Thursday, January 04, 2007

All Star Superman #6 / Civil War #6 - A Review of Sorts


First before I do my little reviews of what I feel were the big two books of the week I want to express that while I'm more of a DC fan then Marvel today, when I first started comics the Stan Lee / Jack Kirby / Steve Ditko marvel books made my day. I was a marvel fan first, but now I love DC much more. I believe it is because that DC has stronger characters and cares more about story then art. So my preamble is to try and put my prejudices out on the table before I compare/ review the big two books.

Let's talk covers. The best Civil War cover is the variant, the regular All Star Superman cover is fantastic. The Civil War variant cover does not even portray the Sub-Mariner the way he is shown in the comic. The blue jump suit is not what Namor's wears anymore. The All Star Superman cover is fantastic. I have it as a background on my computer and my wife thought it was beautiful. It is a cover that really evokes feeling. All Star Superman #6 is one of the best covers in a long time.

The art in the books. Steve McNiven is a really good artist. Frank Quiety is a fantastic artist. Both books have been late, both show that each artist is pouring his heart into the work. Overall Frank Quietly is the better artist, but nothing wrong with Steve McNiven's work, Quietly is the superior artist.

The stories. This issue of All Star Superman is not my favorite of the series, but is was fun, touching and overall another great issue in a great series. It is a flashback to Clark when he was younger and the time that his Dad dies. We had great touches where Lana says to Pete Ross, stop acting like I don't know who he is, fun with a man and his dog, a trio of future Superman and a great scene when Clark realizes he can't hear his Dad's heart beating and is devastated that he couldn't save his Dad. The affection of Clark for his parents and dog was palatable.

Civil War #6 was a little nuts. Punisher helps Cap get the plans for the prison in the Negative Zone, two villains show up at Cap's group and the Punisher whacks them, Cap beats the crap of the Punisher and throws him off the team for killing them, Punisher won't fight Cap, Spider-Man calls Punisher the same as Captain America -just a different war, big show down at the end. Cap's group is ambushed by Tony's group as Tigra is revealed as the traitor on Cap's group. The cells have been opened by Yellow Jacket the traitor on Iron Man's group who is revealed as Hulkling who is a shape shifter (who apparently even mimics the retina pattern of the person it mimics). It ends with a two page spread of everyone facing off and then a one page close up of Cap saying close your eyes gentlemen this is going to hurt. Left me cold and was very contrived.

All Star Superman evoke feeling and passion, Civil War #6 just left me as it has all along, wondering who are these people pretending to be the heroes I grew up with.

Now the thing that really caught my attention was the ending two page spread. Marvel has their big book of a long time having all the major players in one book and the double page spread is full of a lot of lame characters. It just really brought home how DC has a far superior catalogue of characters compared to Marvel. DC has an incredible number of really great characters and has a richer universe.

4 comments:

  1. What??? far superior catalogue of characters? It is to laugh! Ha ha ho ho. That's the sound of me laughing...

    Oh you poor, poor deluded... poor brainwashed... DC button person.

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  2. BUT, if I drank to much and was hidden away in a deep dark cave... lying on my deathbed. Gasping out my last breath...

    AND, after I told my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids (note, I plan on living a long time) how much I love them all.

    I might, as a last gasp, admit, that DC has handled their characters better the last couple of years than Marvel has.

    Actually, I might say it under my last gasp so it would be really quiet like. You probably wouldn't even hear it.

    Then again, I might not... you never know.

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  3. Civil War is by far the worst series Marvel has put out. The way they are treating the characters is so out of left field that you cannot even recognize beloved superheroes. Everyone is acting so insanely, the plot is non-sensical, the writing is piss poor...it's just a mess from top to bottom. Such a shame that the mainstream media are singing the praises of this misbegotten series. Truly terrible and will not even be remembered a year from now. I used to be a Marvel zombie with extra gore. The past few years, Marvel has so ruined the characters that I've loved since youth. I sense a hitting of the cosmic reset button over at the big M soon where they restart their universe and go back to basics.

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  4. Picking All Star Superman #6 up against Civil War #6 is like choosing between a nice bottle of wine and grape juice.

    What happened in CW #6? Not a whole hell of alot. That's the problem. Don't tell me "oh we learned who the traders were and Punisher and Cap had a throw down". Gah.

    The thing is I've read some amazing Mark Millar stories. This one feels like he's phoning it in. You know, just showing up to put his name on it and collect a paycheck.

    Like Spacey did when he played Lex Luthor.

    I rather liked All Star Superman. Moreso than the last issue of it. Sweet, crazy fun. And beautiful to boot.

    Now if you had put CW next to FLASH, it would have looked like Shakespeare my friend.

    True Story.

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