This was a really mixed bag of books this week, with series endings, plenty of new #1s and all sorts of stuff. I had some best book contenders this week, but I still was not absolutely blown away by one single book. I would attribute that to comic book overload at times, but since I do Cosmic Comics Conversations and I did not sense any other panelist just being overwhelmed, I think it is just the nature of the beast. This week had a lot of really good comics, just nothing that is “jaw dropping”.
House of Mystery #1- For the House of Mystery story line Writer Matthew Sturges, Art Luca Rossi, Colors Lee Loughride, for The Holows (Sally’s story) Writer Bill Willingham, Art Ross Campbell. What a great opening issue. We are introduced to the House of Mystery itself, a young girl who enters the house for her first time and we get a story of “hungry Sally”. This series appears to be about the House itself and the staff members who run it (whom are apparently stuck in the House for an indeterminate period of time) and solo stories of other house guests. We will have lots of mysteries that will surround the house itself, the staff and why things are the way they are. Also I’m assuming we will get these nice little gruesome horror stories such as hungry Sally’s little tale of woe. A grisly affair of how she was the birth mother to some rather large flies. Both artists delivered a great job and this series looks to be a great addition to the Vertigo line up.Foundation #5 (of 5) - Writer John Rozum, Art
Chee, Colors Pablo Quiligotti. This issue one of the last surviving field agents Steve Valentine manages to go after Waters who has betrayed the Foundation. He gets close to Waters, but is discovered and held captive. Waters tells Valentine why he is doing what he is doing. Essentially Waters is working for a different group who see certain events needing to occur to make a brighter future and the Foundation is in conflict with that. Valentine makes one last escape attempt and is almost successful but Waters wins and is about to shoot Valentine when Amanda (from the Foundation) saves the day. She and Valentine disarm the bombs and Valentine quits the Foundation. It sounds a little bland and almost standard fare when you break it down like that, but why I liked it so much has to do what the series as a whole did. In five issues we were given the back story on The Foundation, had two separate missions, had some big battles and little battles, threw out some ideas on destiny and gave us a good snap shot depicting one man and his struggle to understand if what he is doing is right. The art work by Chee is not going to blow people away, but he knows how to tell a story and gives some depth and quality to his main characters. His style works really well with this type of more “real world” story. The Foundation is a hit and should be an easy book to build a series of mini-series on. In my humble opinion this is another winner from BOOM.
Gemini #1 (of 5) – Writer Jay Faerber, Art Jon Sommariva, Colors FCO Plascencia. Jay Faerber got my attention with Dynamo 5, next with the five year jump he has hooked me with Noble Causes and I got a huge kick out of issue #1 of this mini-series. The basics are a group of people control Gemini and can “activate” him when needed. When he is not active he is a normal Joe with a boring job who has no recollection of his super hero activities. Of course as all comics seem to love the hero is killed at the end of issue #1. It is just such a fun concept and the dialogue and pacing on this book keep you moving from page to page. What really won me over was the art. Jon’s style is on the cartoon side of things, but has such vibrant life and energy that you can’t help but like it. There was one panel when he exaggerated the characters arms way too much (kitchen scene with the scientists) but otherwise his “magna” eyed girls and wonky style just looked absolutely terrific. Well laid out, great page design and strong rendering made this book a pleasure to look at and the fun story matched the art.
Detective Comics #844 – Writer Paul Dini, Pencils Dustin Nguyen, Inks Derek Fridolfs, Colors John Kalisz. This was a gem of an issue where we get the origin of the new Ventriloquist. Turns out that she is the wife of a mob boss and was married off in an arranged wedding. Her husband become ambitious and took out her father and shot her and left her for dead. She survived and found the ruined Scarface and together that sought revenge. Batman and Zatanna almost save the day, but instead the Ventriloquist (Peyton) and her husband end up in the water together apparently both dead. My favorite part is Bruce and “Z” are talking about a possible relationship and “Z” says that she is unsure if Bruce could honestly give her love. Bruce says “can you forgive me?” and she says “I always have.” I would love to see that relationship happen! Anyway this was a really good story about Peyton with some great character moments of Bruce and “Z”.
Nightwing #144 – Writer Peter Tomasi, Pencils Don Kramer and Rags Morales, Inks Christian Almay, Michael Bair & Sandu Florea, Colors Nathan Eyring. This was another very good issue. This is one of the smoothest and natural reading books I have read in a long time. Peter Tomasi has an almost perfect rhythm to this book. This issue was Part 5 of the Freefall story arc which has established Dick Grayson life. We open with him halo jumping at night and having his girl friend meet him at a pre-arranged spot and then they go out on a date complete with Dick having his tux under the jumpsuit. We then get more of a day in the life story of Nightwing taking down some bad guys. Then we get a confrontation between Talia and Dick that was really well done. The art by both Don Kramer and Rag Morales is also very strong. Under Peter Tomasi this has become one of the best super hero books on the market. For lack of a better description this is the “real” way it would work if you were Nightwing in the DCU.
Abe Sapien The Drowning #4 (of 5) – Writer Mike Mignola, Art Jason Shawn Alexander, Colors Dave Stewart. The art on this series continues to blow me away. The art has such a nice quality about it that it feels like it has real depth, but a rougher edge to it all of the same time. The story is also very well done as we are in Abe’s shoes learning about what happened to this town and trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I’m really looking forward to see if Abe can help to stop the evil wizard from coming back to life again or is he part of the evil that the BPRD is fighting today.______________________________________________
Atom #23 - Writer Rick Remender, Pencils Pat Olliffe, Inks John Stansi, Colors Alex Bleyaert. What a wonderful issue. Atom finds Panda who has aged 10 years and a group of people who have been swallowed up by this virus. He also runs across skeletons of himself and a female Chronos locked in a death struggle. Trapped in a microscopic world without his powers and huge monsters and a time distortion issue, it’s like Lost on crack. The story ends with Atom saving a group from some monster where a man from the group walks up and blows Atom’s head off. A madcap rollercoaster ride of a book that you never want to end.
Jonah Hex #31 - Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotto, Pencils Paulo Siqueira, Inks Amilton Santos, Colors Rob Schwager. This is such a great series, issue after issue. This story is about a town who hires Hex to find the Red Mask. The sheriff has 3 men shadow Jonah and tells then to kill him once he catches Red Mask. Red Mask thinks he is outsmarting everyone by pretending to be the town drunk. To make a long story short, Jonah wins after some great little twists and turns. He is marching Red Mask back into town and the Red Mask is mocking Jonah by saying he will tell them Hex is the Red Mask and they will believe him over Jonah as they only know him as the town drunk. Hex shoots him. What a great ending and totally in character. A note about the art, Paulo did a great job and I last remember doing some great art on the Black Canary mini-series. I was very impressed that he was able to draw both westerns and super hero work with equal skill.
Crossing Midnight #18 - Writer Mike Carey, Pencils Jim Fern, Digital Inks/Colors Jose Villarrubia. The penultimate issue of this series sees the twins on opposite sides of the war. The brother is supposed to be in spiked armor and his sister (who does not remember being her family) is out to kill him. It was an easy misdirection to have two people in spiked armor, but it was effective when we thought she had killed her brother on the battlefield. I’m not going to do this book any justice by doing a plot review, but pick up the trades because it may have been the best 19 issue series that you have never read.
Conan #50 – Writer Tim Truman, Art Tomas Giorello, Colors Jose Villarrubia. This was a nice ending to this phase of the Conan saga. Tim Truman has Conan’s voice down pat. I know that we don’t know what a barbarian would sound like but it rings true while reading Truman’s take on the character. Artist Tomas Giorello does a great job with the art; it has a touch of Jodi Benet and a little John Buscema in it and comes across as an excellent vision of Conan. Plus Giorello does not skip on backgrounds so the book more of a lush feel to it then Cary Nord’s. This was an extra length ending with 40 pages for the front story and then a reprint of the Roy Thomas/John Buscema version of this story in the back up, which does not hold up well against this remake. Next up we stat back up with Conan the Cimmerian as Conan become a mercenary.
Thunderbolts Reason in Madness – Writer Christopher Gage, Art Ben Oliver, Colors Jose Villarrubia. This was a nice one-shot that gives us a story that shows us more on this Venom and spotlights how tough and devious Norman Osborne is. The story revolves around Venom being recruited by some old “friends” to help enrich their lives and keep them safe from being captured. Venom does not betray the Thunderbolts and Norman helps to take this group down and then allows them to be free and be at his beck and call. Since Gage will be taking over the writing of the Thunderbolts I guess he will work on utilizing all these character elements and story bits when he takes over the series, but Thunderbolts has been hurt by having almost two parallel series running side by side as Marvel has tried to keep Thunderbolts monthly regardless of the schedule of the main series.
Tor #1 (of 6) –- Writer, Artist Joe Kubert, Colors Joe Kubert and Pete Carlsson. Joe Kubert is still the man. I love Joe Kubert’s art and the story is compelling also. Tor is a prehistoric man who has apparently been kicked out by his clan. Beaten and tired he is marching towards a mountain to find a new home. At the base of the mountain he discovers a strange fruit and eats it and then falls into a hallucinogenic dream. Whether that dreams holds any significance story wise is yet to be determined, but we know he takes some fruit with him. Inside the ring of mountains he discovers a separate world. In exploring that world he sees a young creature tied to a rock in the water and saves him from a sauropod (big a** alligator type monster). The ape men tribe who placed the boy in the water have Tor follow them and explain with drawings that the boy was a sacrifice for a giant four armed monster, that shows up in the last panel. A nice opening chapter in what appears to be a journey of discovering for Tor as he seems to be learning about himself and the wider world at the same time. Another thing I love about this book is Joe gets them to put all the ads in the back of the comic, so it is read with no interruptions.
Rann Thanagar Holy War #1 (of 8) - Writer Jim Starlin, Pencils Ron Lim, Inks Rob Hunter, Colors John Kalisz. This issue has a lot of moving parts as Jim Starlin is involving the outer space Starman of Ditko’s, Hawkman, Comet, Adam Strange and others. All in all it was better then I expected, but since I expected utter chaos, this book actually managed to explain the set-up fairly well. The one gripe I have is that Carter Hall refers to the Thanagarians as his people. My understanding is that Carter Hall is human and that the connection to Thanagar is nebulous at best and has to do more with the nth metal then anything else. This maybe a small point but it seems like Geoff Johns spent a lot of effort trying to fix the character and DC seems to think of him as the Silver Age Hawkman and not the Golden Age Hawkman. If you are a Jim Starlin fan and have been following his work in the DCU (especially the Mystery in Space series) you will enjoy this book. Ron Lim’s art is very strong and seems more like Starlin’s work then I had thought of him before, but that could be the illusion of this being written by Jim Starlin. I enjoy Starlin and his take on space borne heroes is usually enjoyable, but this maybe too convoluted for the casual fan.
Exterminators #29 – Writer Simon Oliver, Pencils Tony Moore, Inks John Lucas, Colors Brian Buccellato. This is the penultimate issue of this series. The war between Bug-Bee-Gone and Atan kicks into high gear. After the exterminator headquarters is blown up Henry and his group join forces with LAPD and the battle gets bigger. Millions of these huge bugs called Mayan Hissers attack and with firepower and an attack helicopter the good guys push back. The final showdown will be next issue. At this point I would not recommend buying the individual issues, but for a well written and an entertaining series go out and get the trades on this one.
Mighty Avengers #13 – Writer Brian Michael Bendis, Art Alex Maleev, Colors Matt Hollingsworth. This issue we continue the adventures of Nick Fury as he is gathering a group of unknowns as his task force to fight against the Invasion. Bendis got way too cute by having Nick Fury’s disguise be the look of the Ultimate Nick Fury. Somehow, someway Marvel is going to make Nick Fury in the regular Marvel Universe into the black version in the Ultimate Universe and if they do it will cause me to have to put Marvel even further into my rear view mirror. I like the concept of gathering unknown powered people as that way Nick knows he can trust who they are because no one would even care to infiltrate our world using people who are unknowns. Nick contacts Daisy Johnson (from Secret Wars) and uses her to gather together this group and we are introduced to each one in about 3 pages each and then Nick meets with them and tells them to follow his orders or they will die and now training is about to begin.
Nova #13 – Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, Pencils Wellington Alves, Inks Scott Hanna, Colors Guru eFX. This was a very good issue. Now that Nova is solo again we can see some of his space adventures. This issue he comes to the aid of a world that is being devoured by Galactus. Nova has arrived too late into the process to try and stop Galactus and he is not in that power class anyway. The leaders had summoned Nova to make sure certain elites could be saved. Nova instead goes to help the people in the most need get into space arks. As he is doing this he runs across a physic energy that possesses people and goes on a murder spree. Successfully stopping this menace and imprisoning it, he then goes to save as many people as possible. Then we find out that the space arks will not start as their technology is being interfered with due to Galactus’ feeding. All will be lost, but Nova goes to try and ask Galactus for a little more time for these people. While trying to get Galactus’ attention the Silver Surfer attacks Nova. This is what I want this series to be for a year or so, a series of adventures that show Richard as a protector of the Galaxy.
Big Badz#1 (of 4) –Writer Chuck Dixon, Art Enrique Villagran, Colors Jason Embury. Chuck Dixon can flat out write almost anything. This is part one of a story that appears to be about a werewolf roaming around a Chicago slum. In this issue a dead body is found by a housing cop who watches over an old high rise tenement about to be torn down. The body is ripped about. The Chicago homicide say dog attack and tell him to call Animal Control. Animal Control says no way it is a dog as the tracks are too big. We get to meet the few tenants and learn a little back story on Dex Bullens the housing authority officer in charge of this area. The ending is two housing officers find a naked white boy in the snow and put him in their car. A werewolf rips through the wiring separating the front and back seat and it looks like two more victims have fallen to the werewolf. We get the set-up, we meet the characters, we get a little history on the central character and we get some action. The art work is solid, it will not wow you, but it tells the story well and adds to the book. A good first issue and all wrapped up in a beautiful Nat Jones cover.
Jonah Hex #31 - Writers Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotto, Pencils Paulo Siqueira, Inks Amilton Santos, Colors Rob Schwager. This is such a great series, issue after issue. This story is about a town who hires Hex to find the Red Mask. The sheriff has 3 men shadow Jonah and tells then to kill him once he catches Red Mask. Red Mask thinks he is outsmarting everyone by pretending to be the town drunk. To make a long story short, Jonah wins after some great little twists and turns. He is marching Red Mask back into town and the Red Mask is mocking Jonah by saying he will tell them Hex is the Red Mask and they will believe him over Jonah as they only know him as the town drunk. Hex shoots him. What a great ending and totally in character. A note about the art, Paulo did a great job and I last remember doing some great art on the Black Canary mini-series. I was very impressed that he was able to draw both westerns and super hero work with equal skill.
Crossing Midnight #18 - Writer Mike Carey, Pencils Jim Fern, Digital Inks/Colors Jose Villarrubia. The penultimate issue of this series sees the twins on opposite sides of the war. The brother is supposed to be in spiked armor and his sister (who does not remember being her family) is out to kill him. It was an easy misdirection to have two people in spiked armor, but it was effective when we thought she had killed her brother on the battlefield. I’m not going to do this book any justice by doing a plot review, but pick up the trades because it may have been the best 19 issue series that you have never read.
Conan #50 – Writer Tim Truman, Art Tomas Giorello, Colors Jose Villarrubia. This was a nice ending to this phase of the Conan saga. Tim Truman has Conan’s voice down pat. I know that we don’t know what a barbarian would sound like but it rings true while reading Truman’s take on the character. Artist Tomas Giorello does a great job with the art; it has a touch of Jodi Benet and a little John Buscema in it and comes across as an excellent vision of Conan. Plus Giorello does not skip on backgrounds so the book more of a lush feel to it then Cary Nord’s. This was an extra length ending with 40 pages for the front story and then a reprint of the Roy Thomas/John Buscema version of this story in the back up, which does not hold up well against this remake. Next up we stat back up with Conan the Cimmerian as Conan become a mercenary.
Thunderbolts Reason in Madness – Writer Christopher Gage, Art Ben Oliver, Colors Jose Villarrubia. This was a nice one-shot that gives us a story that shows us more on this Venom and spotlights how tough and devious Norman Osborne is. The story revolves around Venom being recruited by some old “friends” to help enrich their lives and keep them safe from being captured. Venom does not betray the Thunderbolts and Norman helps to take this group down and then allows them to be free and be at his beck and call. Since Gage will be taking over the writing of the Thunderbolts I guess he will work on utilizing all these character elements and story bits when he takes over the series, but Thunderbolts has been hurt by having almost two parallel series running side by side as Marvel has tried to keep Thunderbolts monthly regardless of the schedule of the main series.
Tor #1 (of 6) –- Writer, Artist Joe Kubert, Colors Joe Kubert and Pete Carlsson. Joe Kubert is still the man. I love Joe Kubert’s art and the story is compelling also. Tor is a prehistoric man who has apparently been kicked out by his clan. Beaten and tired he is marching towards a mountain to find a new home. At the base of the mountain he discovers a strange fruit and eats it and then falls into a hallucinogenic dream. Whether that dreams holds any significance story wise is yet to be determined, but we know he takes some fruit with him. Inside the ring of mountains he discovers a separate world. In exploring that world he sees a young creature tied to a rock in the water and saves him from a sauropod (big a** alligator type monster). The ape men tribe who placed the boy in the water have Tor follow them and explain with drawings that the boy was a sacrifice for a giant four armed monster, that shows up in the last panel. A nice opening chapter in what appears to be a journey of discovering for Tor as he seems to be learning about himself and the wider world at the same time. Another thing I love about this book is Joe gets them to put all the ads in the back of the comic, so it is read with no interruptions.
Rann Thanagar Holy War #1 (of 8) - Writer Jim Starlin, Pencils Ron Lim, Inks Rob Hunter, Colors John Kalisz. This issue has a lot of moving parts as Jim Starlin is involving the outer space Starman of Ditko’s, Hawkman, Comet, Adam Strange and others. All in all it was better then I expected, but since I expected utter chaos, this book actually managed to explain the set-up fairly well. The one gripe I have is that Carter Hall refers to the Thanagarians as his people. My understanding is that Carter Hall is human and that the connection to Thanagar is nebulous at best and has to do more with the nth metal then anything else. This maybe a small point but it seems like Geoff Johns spent a lot of effort trying to fix the character and DC seems to think of him as the Silver Age Hawkman and not the Golden Age Hawkman. If you are a Jim Starlin fan and have been following his work in the DCU (especially the Mystery in Space series) you will enjoy this book. Ron Lim’s art is very strong and seems more like Starlin’s work then I had thought of him before, but that could be the illusion of this being written by Jim Starlin. I enjoy Starlin and his take on space borne heroes is usually enjoyable, but this maybe too convoluted for the casual fan.
Exterminators #29 – Writer Simon Oliver, Pencils Tony Moore, Inks John Lucas, Colors Brian Buccellato. This is the penultimate issue of this series. The war between Bug-Bee-Gone and Atan kicks into high gear. After the exterminator headquarters is blown up Henry and his group join forces with LAPD and the battle gets bigger. Millions of these huge bugs called Mayan Hissers attack and with firepower and an attack helicopter the good guys push back. The final showdown will be next issue. At this point I would not recommend buying the individual issues, but for a well written and an entertaining series go out and get the trades on this one.
Mighty Avengers #13 – Writer Brian Michael Bendis, Art Alex Maleev, Colors Matt Hollingsworth. This issue we continue the adventures of Nick Fury as he is gathering a group of unknowns as his task force to fight against the Invasion. Bendis got way too cute by having Nick Fury’s disguise be the look of the Ultimate Nick Fury. Somehow, someway Marvel is going to make Nick Fury in the regular Marvel Universe into the black version in the Ultimate Universe and if they do it will cause me to have to put Marvel even further into my rear view mirror. I like the concept of gathering unknown powered people as that way Nick knows he can trust who they are because no one would even care to infiltrate our world using people who are unknowns. Nick contacts Daisy Johnson (from Secret Wars) and uses her to gather together this group and we are introduced to each one in about 3 pages each and then Nick meets with them and tells them to follow his orders or they will die and now training is about to begin.
Nova #13 – Writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, Pencils Wellington Alves, Inks Scott Hanna, Colors Guru eFX. This was a very good issue. Now that Nova is solo again we can see some of his space adventures. This issue he comes to the aid of a world that is being devoured by Galactus. Nova has arrived too late into the process to try and stop Galactus and he is not in that power class anyway. The leaders had summoned Nova to make sure certain elites could be saved. Nova instead goes to help the people in the most need get into space arks. As he is doing this he runs across a physic energy that possesses people and goes on a murder spree. Successfully stopping this menace and imprisoning it, he then goes to save as many people as possible. Then we find out that the space arks will not start as their technology is being interfered with due to Galactus’ feeding. All will be lost, but Nova goes to try and ask Galactus for a little more time for these people. While trying to get Galactus’ attention the Silver Surfer attacks Nova. This is what I want this series to be for a year or so, a series of adventures that show Richard as a protector of the Galaxy.
Big Badz#1 (of 4) –Writer Chuck Dixon, Art Enrique Villagran, Colors Jason Embury. Chuck Dixon can flat out write almost anything. This is part one of a story that appears to be about a werewolf roaming around a Chicago slum. In this issue a dead body is found by a housing cop who watches over an old high rise tenement about to be torn down. The body is ripped about. The Chicago homicide say dog attack and tell him to call Animal Control. Animal Control says no way it is a dog as the tracks are too big. We get to meet the few tenants and learn a little back story on Dex Bullens the housing authority officer in charge of this area. The ending is two housing officers find a naked white boy in the snow and put him in their car. A werewolf rips through the wiring separating the front and back seat and it looks like two more victims have fallen to the werewolf. We get the set-up, we meet the characters, we get a little history on the central character and we get some action. The art work is solid, it will not wow you, but it tells the story well and adds to the book. A good first issue and all wrapped up in a beautiful Nat Jones cover.
Secret Invasion #2 (of 8) – Writer Brian Michael Bendis, Pencils Lenil Yu, Inks Mark Morales, Colors Laura Martin. Comics are a visual medium and that means that the art counts for a lot. I personally think Marvel has such a hard core following and does a very good job at marketing so B. Roken Hands could be drawing this book and it would sell like hotcakes, but Lenil Yu is just not right for this book super hero slug fest. Sal Buscema, Ross Andru and other silver age artist did great work with layouts and in story telling, but no one was going to mistake them for Neal Adams or Curt Swan. Down the road that hurts the idea of buying the hard cover and or trade. As for the story itself, it is just okay at this point. A big battle between the two groups and apparently the Spider-Man, Hawkeye and Vision of the crash landing group are shown to be Skrulls. Mockingbird appears to be the real thing. At the end a group of super powered Skrulls with various Marvel hero abilities lands in mid-town. Tony apparently is going to rebuild his armor from scratch in a lab in the Savage Land. It feels a little scattered right now and I’m worried that you need to read too many of the ancillary tie-ins to make the whole story work. One final point this book smells of greed on Marvel’s part. It is 22 pages and is $4, the biggest selling title for this month with huge orders and they are extracting an extra $1 because they can.
Supergirl #29 – Writer Kelley Puckett, Pencils Drew Johnson and Ron Randall, Inks Ray Snyder and Ron Randall, Colors Kanila Tripp. Supergirl’s fight to save a young boy from cancer takes a dangerous turn as the villain she broke out of jail gives himself powers as opposed to working on a cure for the boy. With the help of the Resurrection Man Supergirl overcomes the bad guy. During the fight Resurrection Man died and was reborn with healing powers. Supergirl is flying him to try and save the boy when Superman finds her and tells her the boy had died. The story line is really ringing true for me on a couple of levels. First Supergirl is young and she is very powerful and god like. When you are young you hate to be wrong and when she told the boy he would be okay and did not know he had cancer, she hated to be wrong. This quest is a noble one and filled with mistakes that one would make while thinking with their heart and not their head. Second if you had that much power wouldn’t you think you can do anything? I’m looking forward to the next issue of this series.
Infinity Inc #9 – Writer Peter Milligan, Art Pete Woods, Colors Brad Anderson I’m starting to enjoy this book more now that we have a direction and artist Pete Woods is onboard. This issue the group is after the Bogeyman who apparently is another everyman whose power has manifested. This time it a young man’s new power has manifested itself by turning into being a copy of the villain his father was. We are seeing a real building of some of the characters, especially Gerome who can duplicate himself, but is having a real identity crisis as to who is the real Gerome. I almost wish this was a Vertigo title and Milligan could have a lot of fun exploring these super powered people.
Countdown to Mystery #7 (of 8) – Eclipso – Writer Matthew Sturges, Pencils Chad Hardin, Inks Dan Green, Walden Wong, Wayne Faucher, Colors Dan Brown. A lot has happened with Eclipso in the span of this series. First off he is now back to being merged with Bruce Gordon and not Jean Loring and now he has merged with the heart of darkness and become almost god like in his power. The story has also been about the Spectre as well.The Spectre is now fighting this ultra powerful Eclipso and a ghost who has gathered all of the Sepctre’s past kills to come back for revenge. I’m wondering if this will play into Final Crisis at all. Doctor Fate – Story Steve Gerber, Script Adam Beechen, Art Justino, Inks Walden Wong, Colors Chris Chuckry. Fate has discarded the helmet and the young woman from the book shop dons the helmet. At the end she and Fate are lying at Nergal’s feet. Nergal is trying to ensure no other person ever becomes Dr. Fate. I understand we will get multiple endings for this story as Steve Gerber died before completing it. I hope that the real tribute is that Dr Fate is picked up and the concept Steve started is giving a chance as at least a mini-series.
Action Comics Annual #11 – Writer Geoff Johns nad Richard Donner, Art Adam Kubert, Colors Edgar Delgado. This was a good ending to the “Last Son” storyline, that touched on the father/son them in many different ways. The art was very good and some panels and pages were excellent. The story line is Superman has Lex Luthor and the “Superman Revenge Squad” help to fight all the people released from the Phantom Zone. Seeing Bizzaro, the Parasite and Metallo take down these supermen was well done. Seeing Lex take one out was also a very nice scene. The final solution is Lex reverses the engine of one of the Phantom Zone fliers and it starts a chain reaction that pulls everyone back into the Phantom Zone. Chris Kent sacrifices himself and goes back into the Zone to close up the Zone again. Well written, as I said some great elements examining fathers and sons from the many angles and the art had great layout, design and was top notch work. The problem with this book was it was so late that it muted the power of the story. Another problem was the fact that Chris Kent has been all over the place in Superman stories for the last six months, so it made my head hurt trying to understand the continuity of the last year’s worth of Superman stories. Finally the Superman Revenge Squad was very powerful and looks like they could kill Superman in a heartbeat and we did not see what happened to them at the end of this story. It may do what DC really wants it to do the most, which is to serve as a long lasting trade and or hard cover that sits on a book store shelf forever and can be read one, five or ten years from now and still be a good read. When looked at from that stand point a graphic novel focusing with strong art and Richard Donner’s name on a Superman book could be an book that has a lot of staying power.
Dynamo 5 Annual #1 – Writer Jay Faeber, Art Fran Bueno, Gabe Birdwell, Jack Lawrence, Matthew Humphreys, Colors Ron Riley, Jack Lawrence and Matthew Humphreys. Four stories giving us moments in the history of this group. The first story was a reprint from a Noble Causes book that contains the first appearance of Captain Dynamo, the next story was about Captain Dynamo and then two short stores about Dynamo 5. A very enjoyable book and all of the artists had vastly different styles, ranging from an animation look to a more standard super hero look. Gabe Birdwell was the best of the bunch and should be a name to look out for in the future. I would love to see this type of Annual in the future. It was a nice way to give us some back story without slowing down the main series.
Logan #3 (of 3) – Writer Brian K. Vaughn, Art Eduardo Risso, Watercolors Dean White. This was an okay ending to a story that was part love story, part war story, part revenge story and about loss. This issue Logan is fighting Warren a man who can be harmed, but almost impossible to kill. Warren is a radiated skeleton that has been haunting the woods in Hiroshima for sixty plus years. During their battle he rips out Logan’s heart and eats it. He is restored to his human form and of course Logan is still alive and manages to decapitate Warren and then collapses. At that point he meets his long lost love again and she thanks him for avenging her death and offers him the chance to totally forget her so Logan can go on without the pain of his loss. He wakes up and we are not told what he chooses. The art by Risso is nothing short of stunning. I swear Mignola must have learned how to spot blacks from looking at Risso’s art, but since they both came up around the same time, maybe both learned from Alex Toth. On one hand the end was a nice artistic touch to allow the reader to decide if Logan will forget her or not, but on the other hand he just got his memories back and is a strong man and he would not choose to forget a great love of his life.
Midnighter 19 – Writer Keith Giffen, Art Lee Garbett and Rick Burchett, Colors Gabe Eltaeb. This issue we have round 2 of the fight between Assassin 8 and Midnighter. Small aside the cover for this issue shows Midnighter beating the crap out of Apollo, is it that hard to get the right cover on a book? The cover scene depicted was last issue. First off I have to say that I love Lee Garbett’s art work and Rick Burchett seems to match up nicely as inker (or finisher, the credits are not clear). This book was just like two issues ago, one long fight scene except Midnighter wins this time. This series improved with Keith Giffen onboard as writer, but has significantly improved with Lee as the artists. Now I want to know what happens with Midnighter and who sent Assassin 8. Of course this series is ending next issue, but better late then never I guess.
Avengers / Invaders #1 (of 12) – Story Alex Ross & Jim Krueger, Script Jim Krueger, Pencils Steve Sadowski, Color inLight Studio. My first question is why this book contains the Dynamite Entertainment Logo along with Marvel? I’m sure some article on the internet covered it, but I guess I missed it. The premise of the book is laid out perfectly in the first issue. The WWII group the Invaders comes through a time portal of some type and end up in the modern MU. The first people they run into is the Thunderbolts who are trying to capture Spider-Man and the Invaders take out the Thunderbolts rather easily. The Invaders take off to find a place to figure out what is going on and the world and Iron Man reacts to their arrival. The artwork was good and I’m guessing it was shot direct from pencils and then colored, but it looks inked in spots, so I don’t really know. While the story itself was good the dialogue in this book was rather stiff and unnatural. The writer never got Spider-Man’s voice at all although he tried to give him some snappy bantering it just never quite worked. The bottom line is this started out okay, but I’m not sold yet.
Supergirl #29 – Writer Kelley Puckett, Pencils Drew Johnson and Ron Randall, Inks Ray Snyder and Ron Randall, Colors Kanila Tripp. Supergirl’s fight to save a young boy from cancer takes a dangerous turn as the villain she broke out of jail gives himself powers as opposed to working on a cure for the boy. With the help of the Resurrection Man Supergirl overcomes the bad guy. During the fight Resurrection Man died and was reborn with healing powers. Supergirl is flying him to try and save the boy when Superman finds her and tells her the boy had died. The story line is really ringing true for me on a couple of levels. First Supergirl is young and she is very powerful and god like. When you are young you hate to be wrong and when she told the boy he would be okay and did not know he had cancer, she hated to be wrong. This quest is a noble one and filled with mistakes that one would make while thinking with their heart and not their head. Second if you had that much power wouldn’t you think you can do anything? I’m looking forward to the next issue of this series.
Infinity Inc #9 – Writer Peter Milligan, Art Pete Woods, Colors Brad Anderson I’m starting to enjoy this book more now that we have a direction and artist Pete Woods is onboard. This issue the group is after the Bogeyman who apparently is another everyman whose power has manifested. This time it a young man’s new power has manifested itself by turning into being a copy of the villain his father was. We are seeing a real building of some of the characters, especially Gerome who can duplicate himself, but is having a real identity crisis as to who is the real Gerome. I almost wish this was a Vertigo title and Milligan could have a lot of fun exploring these super powered people.
Countdown to Mystery #7 (of 8) – Eclipso – Writer Matthew Sturges, Pencils Chad Hardin, Inks Dan Green, Walden Wong, Wayne Faucher, Colors Dan Brown. A lot has happened with Eclipso in the span of this series. First off he is now back to being merged with Bruce Gordon and not Jean Loring and now he has merged with the heart of darkness and become almost god like in his power. The story has also been about the Spectre as well.The Spectre is now fighting this ultra powerful Eclipso and a ghost who has gathered all of the Sepctre’s past kills to come back for revenge. I’m wondering if this will play into Final Crisis at all. Doctor Fate – Story Steve Gerber, Script Adam Beechen, Art Justino, Inks Walden Wong, Colors Chris Chuckry. Fate has discarded the helmet and the young woman from the book shop dons the helmet. At the end she and Fate are lying at Nergal’s feet. Nergal is trying to ensure no other person ever becomes Dr. Fate. I understand we will get multiple endings for this story as Steve Gerber died before completing it. I hope that the real tribute is that Dr Fate is picked up and the concept Steve started is giving a chance as at least a mini-series.
Action Comics Annual #11 – Writer Geoff Johns nad Richard Donner, Art Adam Kubert, Colors Edgar Delgado. This was a good ending to the “Last Son” storyline, that touched on the father/son them in many different ways. The art was very good and some panels and pages were excellent. The story line is Superman has Lex Luthor and the “Superman Revenge Squad” help to fight all the people released from the Phantom Zone. Seeing Bizzaro, the Parasite and Metallo take down these supermen was well done. Seeing Lex take one out was also a very nice scene. The final solution is Lex reverses the engine of one of the Phantom Zone fliers and it starts a chain reaction that pulls everyone back into the Phantom Zone. Chris Kent sacrifices himself and goes back into the Zone to close up the Zone again. Well written, as I said some great elements examining fathers and sons from the many angles and the art had great layout, design and was top notch work. The problem with this book was it was so late that it muted the power of the story. Another problem was the fact that Chris Kent has been all over the place in Superman stories for the last six months, so it made my head hurt trying to understand the continuity of the last year’s worth of Superman stories. Finally the Superman Revenge Squad was very powerful and looks like they could kill Superman in a heartbeat and we did not see what happened to them at the end of this story. It may do what DC really wants it to do the most, which is to serve as a long lasting trade and or hard cover that sits on a book store shelf forever and can be read one, five or ten years from now and still be a good read. When looked at from that stand point a graphic novel focusing with strong art and Richard Donner’s name on a Superman book could be an book that has a lot of staying power.
Dynamo 5 Annual #1 – Writer Jay Faeber, Art Fran Bueno, Gabe Birdwell, Jack Lawrence, Matthew Humphreys, Colors Ron Riley, Jack Lawrence and Matthew Humphreys. Four stories giving us moments in the history of this group. The first story was a reprint from a Noble Causes book that contains the first appearance of Captain Dynamo, the next story was about Captain Dynamo and then two short stores about Dynamo 5. A very enjoyable book and all of the artists had vastly different styles, ranging from an animation look to a more standard super hero look. Gabe Birdwell was the best of the bunch and should be a name to look out for in the future. I would love to see this type of Annual in the future. It was a nice way to give us some back story without slowing down the main series.
Logan #3 (of 3) – Writer Brian K. Vaughn, Art Eduardo Risso, Watercolors Dean White. This was an okay ending to a story that was part love story, part war story, part revenge story and about loss. This issue Logan is fighting Warren a man who can be harmed, but almost impossible to kill. Warren is a radiated skeleton that has been haunting the woods in Hiroshima for sixty plus years. During their battle he rips out Logan’s heart and eats it. He is restored to his human form and of course Logan is still alive and manages to decapitate Warren and then collapses. At that point he meets his long lost love again and she thanks him for avenging her death and offers him the chance to totally forget her so Logan can go on without the pain of his loss. He wakes up and we are not told what he chooses. The art by Risso is nothing short of stunning. I swear Mignola must have learned how to spot blacks from looking at Risso’s art, but since they both came up around the same time, maybe both learned from Alex Toth. On one hand the end was a nice artistic touch to allow the reader to decide if Logan will forget her or not, but on the other hand he just got his memories back and is a strong man and he would not choose to forget a great love of his life.
Midnighter 19 – Writer Keith Giffen, Art Lee Garbett and Rick Burchett, Colors Gabe Eltaeb. This issue we have round 2 of the fight between Assassin 8 and Midnighter. Small aside the cover for this issue shows Midnighter beating the crap out of Apollo, is it that hard to get the right cover on a book? The cover scene depicted was last issue. First off I have to say that I love Lee Garbett’s art work and Rick Burchett seems to match up nicely as inker (or finisher, the credits are not clear). This book was just like two issues ago, one long fight scene except Midnighter wins this time. This series improved with Keith Giffen onboard as writer, but has significantly improved with Lee as the artists. Now I want to know what happens with Midnighter and who sent Assassin 8. Of course this series is ending next issue, but better late then never I guess.
Avengers / Invaders #1 (of 12) – Story Alex Ross & Jim Krueger, Script Jim Krueger, Pencils Steve Sadowski, Color inLight Studio. My first question is why this book contains the Dynamite Entertainment Logo along with Marvel? I’m sure some article on the internet covered it, but I guess I missed it. The premise of the book is laid out perfectly in the first issue. The WWII group the Invaders comes through a time portal of some type and end up in the modern MU. The first people they run into is the Thunderbolts who are trying to capture Spider-Man and the Invaders take out the Thunderbolts rather easily. The Invaders take off to find a place to figure out what is going on and the world and Iron Man reacts to their arrival. The artwork was good and I’m guessing it was shot direct from pencils and then colored, but it looks inked in spots, so I don’t really know. While the story itself was good the dialogue in this book was rather stiff and unnatural. The writer never got Spider-Man’s voice at all although he tried to give him some snappy bantering it just never quite worked. The bottom line is this started out okay, but I’m not sold yet.
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War That Time Forgot #1 (of 12) – Writer Bruce Jones, Pencils Al Barrionuevo, Inks Jimmy Palmiotti, Colors Mike Atiyeh. An okay start to this 12 part series. As I’m not a huge Bruce Jones fan currently I went in with limited expectations and came out wanting to give this series a little more rope. The premise is we start with a WWII Flying Tiger pilot who crashes into this island that is filled with people from various time lines as well as dinosaurs and hostile native tribes. We meet characters from DC’s history with Tomahawk, Firehair, Enemy Ace and then other people from various war campaigns throughout history. At the end as our group is fleeing one menace into the arms of another menace a futuristic woman appears killing a dinosaur that was about to kill our group. Now for all we know she can just be another time lost warrior trapped on this island. DC had an old series about a dinosaur island and some fighting men trapped on this island, but this is an updating and revamping of that idea. I’m guessing an idea that look better given the popularity of the TV show Lost.
X-Factor Quick and the Dead – Writer Peter David, Art Pablo Raimondi, Colors Jeromy Cox. This issue was a one shot where we see Pietro delusional and he is going over his recent life events. He sees Wanda, Magneto, Crystal, Luna and Layla. He then discovers he has his powers again, saves a girl from falling off a building and then bounces off around the world, hits an airplane, crashes into the ocean and is picked up by a cruise ship. Really that is the basics of what happened. The art by Pablo Raimondi is well done and just reminds me that I miss him as artist on the X-Factor title, but the story is odd. After everything David Hine did to make him a dark and villain like character he is redeemed and has his powers back. Why? He was more interesting as a semi-bad guy then he ever was as the hero. Feels like all the work then went into the “Son of M” series has almost been whitewashed away and I see no reason why it was done. Maybe David has some plans for this character in X-Factor, but still a very odd issue then left me feeling rather blah about the whole thing.
Young X-Men #2 – Writer Marc Guggenheim, Pencils Yanick Paquette, Inks Ray Snyder, Colors Rob Schwager. Okay I’m on issue #2 of this series and I have decided to ride out the first arc, but the X-stuff is really making my head hurt. Cyclops has become the Tony Stark of the x-world and shows up in every damn x-title that I read (almost). On top of that I must have missed an issue where Cannonball goes from X-Men team member and one of the good guys to being part of the New Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Then on top of that Cyclops has this taste for telling everyone to go kill everybody in X-Force, Wolverine and Young X-Men that just feels totally wrong. As for continuity, it is so wonky on the x-books that you would think Dan Didio is the editor. If I take it for a book on its own I’m enjoying learning characters who I have never know before and find Blindfold to be the most intriguing. Of course she is part of the new generation of super-heroes that have ill defined powers, but she works for me. The story is the new team is trying to take down the New Brotherhood who used to be the New Mutants.
Metal Men #8 (of 8) – Writer/Artist Duncan Rouleau, Colors Pete Pantazis. The series ended the way the entire series read, disjointed with some great art. The story had multiple time lines and we jumped back and forth in time way too often. The story had so many moving parts and with it split up the way it was I was constantly playing catch up as I was reading this. As a mini-series this book was a failure, but I still think it may make a really good trade, just not sure if I will pull the trigger on buying it down the road.
DC Universe Special Justice League of America – I wasn’t even going to comment on this book as it is simply a reprint of the first (and probably only) Libra story and the first Human Flame story. Both characters were totally lame and I will be shocked if the Human Flame has anything to do with this very old character. The Human Flame is a guy in a suit that shoots flames and other energy who appeared as a Martian Manhunter villain from way back when. What confused me was that they stuck another JLA story in here that was about the Secret Society of Super Villains and I have no clue why they did it other then to pad out the page count.
War That Time Forgot #1 (of 12) – Writer Bruce Jones, Pencils Al Barrionuevo, Inks Jimmy Palmiotti, Colors Mike Atiyeh. An okay start to this 12 part series. As I’m not a huge Bruce Jones fan currently I went in with limited expectations and came out wanting to give this series a little more rope. The premise is we start with a WWII Flying Tiger pilot who crashes into this island that is filled with people from various time lines as well as dinosaurs and hostile native tribes. We meet characters from DC’s history with Tomahawk, Firehair, Enemy Ace and then other people from various war campaigns throughout history. At the end as our group is fleeing one menace into the arms of another menace a futuristic woman appears killing a dinosaur that was about to kill our group. Now for all we know she can just be another time lost warrior trapped on this island. DC had an old series about a dinosaur island and some fighting men trapped on this island, but this is an updating and revamping of that idea. I’m guessing an idea that look better given the popularity of the TV show Lost.
X-Factor Quick and the Dead – Writer Peter David, Art Pablo Raimondi, Colors Jeromy Cox. This issue was a one shot where we see Pietro delusional and he is going over his recent life events. He sees Wanda, Magneto, Crystal, Luna and Layla. He then discovers he has his powers again, saves a girl from falling off a building and then bounces off around the world, hits an airplane, crashes into the ocean and is picked up by a cruise ship. Really that is the basics of what happened. The art by Pablo Raimondi is well done and just reminds me that I miss him as artist on the X-Factor title, but the story is odd. After everything David Hine did to make him a dark and villain like character he is redeemed and has his powers back. Why? He was more interesting as a semi-bad guy then he ever was as the hero. Feels like all the work then went into the “Son of M” series has almost been whitewashed away and I see no reason why it was done. Maybe David has some plans for this character in X-Factor, but still a very odd issue then left me feeling rather blah about the whole thing.
Young X-Men #2 – Writer Marc Guggenheim, Pencils Yanick Paquette, Inks Ray Snyder, Colors Rob Schwager. Okay I’m on issue #2 of this series and I have decided to ride out the first arc, but the X-stuff is really making my head hurt. Cyclops has become the Tony Stark of the x-world and shows up in every damn x-title that I read (almost). On top of that I must have missed an issue where Cannonball goes from X-Men team member and one of the good guys to being part of the New Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Then on top of that Cyclops has this taste for telling everyone to go kill everybody in X-Force, Wolverine and Young X-Men that just feels totally wrong. As for continuity, it is so wonky on the x-books that you would think Dan Didio is the editor. If I take it for a book on its own I’m enjoying learning characters who I have never know before and find Blindfold to be the most intriguing. Of course she is part of the new generation of super-heroes that have ill defined powers, but she works for me. The story is the new team is trying to take down the New Brotherhood who used to be the New Mutants.
Metal Men #8 (of 8) – Writer/Artist Duncan Rouleau, Colors Pete Pantazis. The series ended the way the entire series read, disjointed with some great art. The story had multiple time lines and we jumped back and forth in time way too often. The story had so many moving parts and with it split up the way it was I was constantly playing catch up as I was reading this. As a mini-series this book was a failure, but I still think it may make a really good trade, just not sure if I will pull the trigger on buying it down the road.
DC Universe Special Justice League of America – I wasn’t even going to comment on this book as it is simply a reprint of the first (and probably only) Libra story and the first Human Flame story. Both characters were totally lame and I will be shocked if the Human Flame has anything to do with this very old character. The Human Flame is a guy in a suit that shoots flames and other energy who appeared as a Martian Manhunter villain from way back when. What confused me was that they stuck another JLA story in here that was about the Secret Society of Super Villains and I have no clue why they did it other then to pad out the page count.
That wraps up another week of comics. The worst book almost should not be on the list as it is a reprint issue, but it is so pretty lame material from older times.
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