Thursday, February 25, 2010

Five Reviews - Irredeemable #11,Flash Rebirth #6, Scalped #35, Walking Dead #70 and New Avengers #62

I want to try and get more reviews out faster when I have some time and while some of these will probably be repeated on Tuesday I thought five shorter reviews might be fun.

Irredeemable #11 – The last couple of issues had me falling a little off this book. It started out for at least six of the first ten issues as absolute dynamite, but the reported unlimited nature of the series had slowed down the various reveals about the Plutonian. Also it seems apparent that in order to make the series go on for a long period of time various plot points were dragged out. This issue reeled me back in and has put Irredeemable back into a top spot on my list. The background story about Bette Noir and the Plutonian was great. From how she decided she wanted to seduce him, to the special candle that could take away his powers so they could make love. The best part was the horror she found behind his eyes while they were intimate. Add to that the creepiness that Tony exudes now as he travels with the robot Samsara and what he did to his foster parents’ child and the Plutonian makes your skin crawl. The story advances all the storylines very well and has a ton of additional twists in it.

Flash Rebirth #6 (of 6) – A nice ending that wraps up the premise of what was going on between Barry and the Reverse Flash and firmly re-establishes Barry back into the current DCU. I’m still not 100% sold on the whole deal, but I could not help but smile as Barry and Iris were back together again.0 Barry tells her how he wants to slow down and enjoy his time with her and friends. This story also had plenty of great foreshadowing about the various rogues who will be plaguing Barry’s life and setting up what Barry will be doing in his secret identity. I have been pretty down on this series but the ending pulled it out and made the series a solid reintroduction of Barry Allen.

Scalped #35 – So possibly the best series on the stands does a standalone story about an Indian couple who lives out in the middle of nowhere in the badlands. After all the unbelievable raw emotion and hard hitting action, a simple story of two older people who love each other truly and completely. Even with the wonderful artwork of Danijel Zezelj to help out, you think this will be okay at best, but it was terrific. From page one until the end I was immediately drawn into their story and never wanted to put the book down. When I thought they had died at one point I was sad for I had come to care about Mance and Hazel an amazing amount in such a short time. Aaron crafted a beautiful story that showed us what these people are like and we can only aspire to have something as real as they have. This was an outstanding story that stands so well on its own and yet adds to the tapestry of the life that is lived in the badlands. I bet we see them again one day. This could be one of the best single issue stories I have read in years and yet I believe it will tie into the overall story also.

Walking Dead #70 – This issue is classic Robert Kirkman and is an issue that proves why Walking Dead is such a long lasting hit and a great book. Rick and crew are welcomed into a community that seems to be a safe haven from the world outside. We get a great conversation between Rick and the leader of the community that they are being interviewed to join. The back and forth give us a ton of insight into the community and how Rick sees things but it is never exposition to explain, it is a natural dialogue that reveals things we want to know. Then we get to see Rick get cleaned up and given his a new job of being a constable to help patrol the community. It is a touch of Pleasantville in the midst of the Zombie Apocalypse. Just in case you were getting too comfortable an exchange at the end lets you know this town has issues and dark secrets sure to cause Rick and his crew troubles. It was just a well constructed and very well written issue that was (as always) illustrated perfectly by Charlie Adlard. I should buy a page of his Walking Dead run; it would be very cool to own a page from a long running top notch series like this. I need a Rizzo page from 100 Bullets also.

New Avengers #62 - I included this book because these were the five books I got around to today and my thought was to do brief reviews on all the books I read. Unfortunately I have less than stellar things to report on this book. The cover screams the Hood is in this book and he was not. It screams it is a Siege tie in and it is not. It also is written by Brian Bendis who is writing the Siege and the two books are inconsistent. Marvel has been tightening their continuity and because of that I have come to expect more consistency when I see Character A appear in different books. This is especially true when the storyline in both books are tied together. It is even more expected when the same writer is writing the two books. In Siege #1 Captain America is sitting at home in his costume when he hears about the Siege and runs out to gather a group. In this book that same scene is replayed, but Cap is not in costume and he is surrounded by most the Avengers and the Secret Warriors. Oh sure you can come up with a stupid explanation to help make it work, but no prizes aside it sucked eggs. Add to that the crappy Bendis dialogue and the art by Daniel Acuna on the Spider-Man versus Spider-Woman and I was happy that the book ended and unhappy I was charged $4.

Hard to not have enjoyed this week so far as out of seven books I have read we have had five great books, one okay book and one book I could have passed on altogether.

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