Best and Worst of Last Week

No true best and worst this week as I’m knocking out all the posts I want to get in for year end and so my schedule has been wrecked. This week again became a review of what I even read as opposed to a true best and worst. After this week you will see a few comments from me on the Marvel and Indies preview review but this week is my swan song for 2009 as I’m taking off on vacation.

One thing this week that jumped out at me was Invincible Iron Man #21 and New Avengers Annual #3. Not that either book was the bees knees or anything, but because of Steve Rogers. Captain America has now been seen in three different books as last week we saw him in Dark Avengers Annual #1. Now I know that we all knew Steve Rogers was coming back, but still as a fan of comics I always hope that there could still be a twist at the end of the story. As the last issue of Reborn ended we had the Red Skull taking over Steve Rogers’s body. Just because Cap is coming back, does not mean Reborn had to have a happy ending. The Red Skull could have gotten Steve’s body and we could have had a year long story about how Steve eventually wins his way back. Okay since this was a mini-series and being packaged for the book stores, that could not be the ending either. So maybe Steve does not want to be Captain America anymore, but no even that little bit of mystery has been taken out of it with all of his appearances in these other books. Of course I believe Reborn was supposed to be over by now and it was not. All in all the whole point of the mini-series has been diluted to make it nothing more then a perfunctory story.

Before I get off this Iron Man #21, how silly was this book. The only way to jump start Tony’s heart was for Thor to strike his hammer on Cap’s shield. Please it was so ham fisted to force the idea of having the “big three” of the original Avengers together that I almost gagged.

Marvel had a bad week with me as Ghost Riders Heaven on Fire #5 (of 6) has become a train wreck after I had fallen in love with this series, now I just want to get the last issue of this mini-series and I can then never buy the book again.

Still Marvel has a great book with PunisherMax #2. Now I know I have railed against ultra-violence and this book was hard core nastiness, but it fit the characters. The Kingpin is the most vicious and vilest person you can imagine and this issue we saw just how deep the depravity runs in the man. I’m looking forward to Frank hopefully being able to cap his ass.

Vertigo has a winner with Daytripper #1. I’m assuming every issue will be about another person as the star of this issue is killed in the end. At least I thought he was killed, but the next two issues are about Brás de Oliva Domingos, who is an obituary writer. I’m curious to see if the criminal killed himself instead of Bras and what will affect this event have on Bras. Go out and pick up this book as you will want to follow along for the ride like I do.

The only other book I will bother commenting on is Adventure Comics #5. I know what Johns is doing with Superboy Prime as he is harkening back to the old days when the people who wrote the comics were real people on Earth Prime. As Superboy-Prime knows that he is trying to kill the DC staff as he is fighting Black Lanterns. At the end he becomes a Black Lantern himself. None of this type of stuff works for me anymore and I appreciate the effort, but some things are best left in our memories. The Superboy (Connor Kent) back up was excellent, as Connor continues to befriend this young girl and is shocked to run into Lex Luthor , who is her uncle and carry some green kryptonite.

Very, very short and not a best or worst post, but hey that is a wrap for this week. I’m starting to feel the need to continually change up the Monday and Tuesday post and next year they may morph into something new.

Best and Worst of Last Week

To be totally accurate this post should be called best and worst of what I read last week as I never even read about 12 books off my list last week. This is due to the same lament I have been singing for awhile but it is true. The volume of work at my paying job is at an all time high and sadly we are down one person. Onto the best and worst!

THE BEST

Jonah Hex #50 – Writer Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, Art Darwyn Cooke, Colors Dave Stewart. This book brings Jonah back into the stories that I like, one and done. At best Jonah can have a two issue story, but the previous six part “epic” felt too dragged out. This issue we start with Tallulah Black and Jonah doing some bounty hunting together. After a roll in the hay, Tallulah takes off. Jonah is given an assignment to capture or kill 50 men who had obviously done someone with money some wrong. (Side note: The story of the 50 feels like a plot thread to be explored at some later date.) Tallulah we find has gone off to quit the life and settle down. We find out later she is pregnant with Jonah’s child. The tale ends tragically, but it is done with a lot of emotion and a ton of action. The art is pure Darwyn Cooke and with his animation style sometimes this type of story is not a perfect fit, but Cooke makes it work so well that it is a thing of beauty and a joy to behold.

JSA All Stars #1 – Writer Matthew Sturges, Art Freddie Williams II, Colors Richard and Tanya Horie. I love the JSA and seeing a second ongoing series that splits the group into two parts is fine by me. Number one the group is so large they need to be split into two groups or at least have two ongoing series to allow each member a little more face time. Also with the writing team of Willingham and Sturges each taking a book I would hope the two titles will synch up pretty well. This issue we see that Magog is the team leader on the field and that most of the younger members of the JSA have split off with this group. It appears Power Girl is still the leader at their (new) headquarters, but Magog is the field general. The JSA in this book is heavily action driven and given how little many super heroes ever battle bad guys in a slug fest anymore I’m happy to see this. I liked all the little characterization bits and I thought the art was decent. Normally I love Freddie, but I think he needs a little more time on a group book as I do not believe he has ever done this type of comic before. Finally they are going to have to work really hard to make me care about Magog, but DC is pushing the crap out of this character by giving him an unlimited series and making him one of the team leaders of the JSA.

THE WORST

Baltimore City’s Mayor being convicted of stealing gift cards meant for the poor. Way to represent Ms. Dixon.

QUICK HITS

Absolution #4 (of 6) – Another strong issue in this series. I like how it appeared that John was going to give up to the police but instead escaped. The next two issues should be great.

Blackest Night The Flash #1 (of 3) – This was a good start that not only added some bits to the Blackest Night story it also added quite a bit to the whole Flash Rebirth story which has not completed yet.

Blackest Night Wonder Woman #1 (of 3) – The best Wonder Woman book I have read in a very long time. Diana was portrayed the way that feels right for her and she is powerful and decisive, every inch a hero.

Dark Avengers Annual #1 – Interesting story and the new Captain Marvel, but what a horrible costume. Also I thought he was from a different universe and this story sort of indicated that and then did not. What was a shocker was seeing Steve Rogers back as the end page for this story, with Bucky next to him as Cap. Shouldn’t this reveal be in Cap’s own mini-series.

Echo #17 – This issue we learn about the beta suit and just how powerful it is. It was actually a big favorite for a friend of mine. While I enjoyed it, I thought it was a slow issue of the book and a needed one so we understood more about what the suit was and what type of power the suit has.

Fall of the Hulks – Alpha – A waste of paper in many ways. I very tired of these retro-cons that Marvel is doing. It is not just retro-conning Jason Todd to have red hair; Marvel has these long untold secrets that have been going on forward. The Illuminati was one of them and now a group of bad guys has been planning stuff for years and years and they created the Red Hulk.

Scalped #33 – I love this series and this issue is no exception as we are building up to the conclusion of this arc in the next issue. All the players are coming together and it feels like the culmination of the entire series.

Seige The Cabal One Shot Writer Brian Bendis, Pencils Michael Lark, Inks Stefano Guardino, Colors Matt Hollingsworth. I choose this book because I keep hoping Marvel is going to end the Dark Reign and saw this book as the beginning of the end. I was expecting some great things from this book as I love Michael Lark’s art and it was great, also Bendis usually does well with the bad guy side of things. It was a waste of good art and yet another $4 waste of paper. I should know better. Bendis is a master at many things. Number one he has been fantastic at bringing the Marvel universe back to a more cohesive style. You can read almost every Marvel Universe book (outside of the X-Men) and know that they are occurring in the same time frame. This has not happened since the days when Stan Lee was orchestrating and writing or scripting almost the entire line. This has it pluses and minuses, but overall I see Bendis as the architect behind it. Bendis also has some great overall ideas. Finally Bendis can drag out a story and a plot point like no one else and he can have some really clunker moments when it comes to characterization. See my full review here.

Thor #604 – Not a bad follow up to JMS, but it is fast becoming just another Marvel book at the same time.

Shorter post, but probably closer to what I would want on an ongoing basis, just hopefully with a tighter quality.

Best and Worst of Last Week

I’m very late in getting this done as I’m typing this after midnight Sunday / Monday morning. This weekend was unusually busy with a visit from Lee, a poker game, helping my Dad out and the Ravens game being the Sunday Night game. I want to reiterate that I’m working to make this post as tight as possible and that means a lot of books are not getting comments, but I’m trying to at least do a twitter post about most books. I think when a post gets too long you lose a good portion of the audience.

THE BEST

Superman Secret Origin #3 (of 6) - Writer Geoff Johns, Pencils Gary Frank, Inks Jon Sibal, Colors Brad Anderson. Not only is the actual issue itself well done, the story beats and the structure of the entire mini-series is also well done. If the complaint before was the first two issues were too much a reflection of the Smallville show, then the complaint this issue is it was too much like the first Superman movie with Christopher Reeves.
The comparisons are inevitable as Johns and Frank are obviously paying tribute to that movie and incorporating the Clark as the clumsy nerd persona into Clark moving to Metropolis and getting a job with the daily planet. In addition to that Frank has used Reeves as his model for Superman and manages to pull off the classic Superman looks along with the essence of Chris Reeves’ Clark Kent and make it work.
Johns starts off with Clark looking on the sidewalk in Metropolis in awe of all the big buildings and the farm boy is dazzled by the big city. Having visited and then worked in New York City for a little while, Johns captures the essence of the jaded nature of the citizens and the awe of the tourist. We also get a clear picture of how important Lex Luthor has become as apparently he chooses one person a day to fix their life. See my full review here

Thor Giant Size Finale - Writer J. Michael Stracynski, Pencils Marko Djurdjevic, Inks Danny Miki with Allen Martinez & Marko Djurdjevic, Colors Christina Strain.
The story opens where the last issue left off. William, the mortal love of the Asgardian Kelda, is dying after being attacked. Balder comes in and after being informed by William of what Loki and Doom are doing begins to fight off the Asgardian henchmen of the evil duo. Balder appears to be almost beaten when William makes a heroic effort with his dying strength to save Balder. Balder is now aware of Loki and Doom’s machinations and is alerted that he has led his people the wrong way.
We also see the showdown between the enhanced Doombots and Thor. The Warriors Three and the Lady Sif defend Dr. Blake as the Doombots strike. We get to see one of my all time favorite scenes as Volstagg takes on the Doombots and is shown as a hero. He loses his clothes and we are given some great humor as Sif comments on other attributes of Volstagg that have increased his legendary status. From there Donald Blake finds his cane, but before he strikes it, then a Doombot shoots a bolt of enjoy and wounds Blake’s back. He succeeds in changing and Thor dispatches the robot and then checks Donald Blake into a hospital. See my full review here

Blackest Night #5 (of 8) - Writer Geoff Johns, Pencils Ivan Reis, Inks Oclair Albert & Joe Prado, Colors Alex Sinclair. Nekron shows up on Earth, Hal and almost all the other corps pull together and are heading to Earth to save the day. Back on Earth Flash gets a lot of help showing up to also help to save the day from the Black Lanterns. Towards the end a Black Lantern Batman comes to life, but interestedly he does not speak. I’m betting this is not Batman and this is just further proof that whatever happened to Bruce that was not his body that was brought back by Superman. As the corps are attaching the Black Lantern as a group instead of destroying it, it looks like they maybe actually powering it up. Then a great twist as Black Lantern rings attached themselves to all the heroes who have died and risen again. We are left with Wonder Woman, Superman, Green Arrow, Connor Kent, Bart Allen and more now Black Lanterns, yet still alive gathered around Nekron. Nekron also hints that the Guardians big lie is due to be exposed. You know this is an eight issue series, but Johns does a nice left turn at the end to really hold our interest. The final two panels are Black Lantern rings going after Hal and Barry. The art is stunning as it has been the whole series. I really can’t say enough good things about, but to just say again Ivan Reis is the standard in super hero art that everyone else has to try and meet.


THE WORST

New Avengers #59 – This book is not working for me. Between Bendis missing almost everyone’s voice and Immonen’s art not well suited for this type of comic the book is barely hanging together. I’m close to bailing out on this book.


QUICK HITS

Chew #6 – Another fine issue in this series. Tony is now partnered up with his old partner who is not quite himself anymore. The case this issue leads to capturing bank robbers who are making chicken gumbo, that Tony tastes and discovers it isn’t chicken. This strange fruit that Tony taste was shown in the first few pages as growing on an island and it looks like a pineapple with octopus tentacles. How this all ties in, I don’t know but I’m happy to read on and enjoy the ride.

Immortal Weapons #5 (of 5) – This book almost made best of the week. We end the series on a high note. I thought all of the Immortal Weapons were pretty cool characters and most of this series hurt these characters. Not this issue The Prince of Orphans was very cool as he goes around trying to resolve different issues or problems that seem to have been caused by the cities. Also he called in Iron Fist to help him and the interplay between the characters was great. This issue was what I hoped every issue was a spotlight on the Weapons that made me want to read more about each one.

Invincible Iron Man #20 – Four bucks for a story that went nowhere and had tons of filler to justify the $4 price tag. Also what the heck is Tony’s origin now in Marvel and is he of a mixed race descent? I don’t care, per say, I just want to know as I’m confused by who Tony is anymore. Maybe it is just the push by artists to make him look more like Robert Downey Jr.

Justice League Cry For Justice #5 (of 7) – I love the art in this book as far as the pictures, but his layout of design work leaves something to be desired. Of course the fault could be with the writing as Robinson is telling a very choppy story as he tries to build up to the climax of his story. It just has a disjointed and stilted feel to it. Next up is Red Arrow gets his arm ripped off; really this needed to be done why? I guess we are making sure Green Arrow has no competition since Connor has been taken out of the running, now Roy can be sidelined. As my Dad lost an arm over 60 years ago, I know Roy can make do, but this was ridiculous. Finally why is the cover Freddy and Supergirl making out when inside it never happens and instead it appears Freddy has gone nuts or been taken over by a bad guy.

Justice League of America #39 – Vibe is back as a Black Lantern. Vibe is such a horribly dated character and in hindsight a funny character, but this issue of JLA worked as it focused on some JLA members dealing with the newly risen dead.

Superman #694 – I like Mon-El, but something about this series has just been off. I think it is a combination of the artwork being not quite what I’m looking for in a pure super hero book and a choppy story telling that has been infected the entire Superman line of books. There are a lot of great ideas in the Superman line of books and maybe this is all foundation building, but the line needs an overall to get out of being a middle of the pack type of book.

Teen Titans #77 – The best issue of Teen Titans in a very long time and it didn’t have the Teen Titans. A bad sign for a book called Teen Titans. This issue was about Deathstroke and Ravager facing off against each other and Black Lanterns that are Slade Wilson’s crosses to bear. One bit that was great is seeing Wilson’s early training in the military and he is taking out a solider with the last name of Rogers, very funny.

That wraps up this week. Have to wait to Thursday to get new books this week. I think I can make it.

Best and Worst of Last Week

I’m trying to limit my commentary which means the Quick Hit section will be changing to include fewer books. I find that this column gets to long and I went to Best/Worst to shorten it and then I noticed I was starting to comment on every book. I have to curb my need to remark on every book. Often a book comes out and it was a good episode of the book, but really needs no commentary. If I really love it or hate it will make the best or worst list. Still I want to leave the option to make remarks on books that I think have some merit for commentary, like with the Authority the Lost Year #3, now issue #4 of that book could be good, but if some surprising cool thing or bad thing did not happen, then I need to leave it alone.

THE BEST

Realm of Kings One-Shot – Writer Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, Art Leonardo Manco and framing sequence Mahmud Asrar, Colors Bruno Hang. This issue gave us a great menace that has potential to allow this series to grow beyond just the cosmic side of the Universe and if they want it could lead to a major showdown with all of Earth’s heroes. The short story is Quasar enters “The Fault” which is the rift in time and space created at the end of the War of Kings. When he enters the Fault he crosses over in another universe and runs into an alternative version of the Avengers. In this reality the Avengers have given themselves up to a Cthulhu type creature. (A quick side note it is amazing how often Lovecraft themes stray into comics and I often wonder how many have read the source material.) As they have drained this Universe they are in need of a fresh place to exploit and have decided to use Quasar as a guide. Quasar escapes and we are not sure if it is our Quasar or the bad guys version who makes it to Earth, since he has the red eyes as all the evil Avengers did. The story has more elements then what I have mentioned, but with Manco's terrific art on the heart of the story it looks as good and these evil Avengers have a creepy vibe to them. All in all I hope this story line is followed in at least GOTG. I have a feeling that the Realm of Kings is going to build up to a major mini-series next year as many of these story lines have kicked off and then gone into mini-series which lead up to the main story after those series are over.

Invincible #68 - Writer Robert Kirkman, Pencils Ryan Ottley, Inks Cliff Rathburn, Colors FCO Plascencia. In order to understand one of my main reasons for liking this book is we only have to start with the first page. We see Invincible trying to clean up some site that was destroyed when his doppelgangers wrecked a lot of the planet. He has braces on various body parts, which are obviously casts for a super hero as he is still recovering from his battle with Conquest. Everything that had happened in the last eight issues or so, were being reflected in the splash panel opening the book. Invincible is them attacked by Dinosaurus, a talking thinking Dinosaur creature, that we find out is just a teen-age kid who claims he is not controlling the transformations. The character is at once ridiculous and also a cool little one off menace. In a short four page fight Kirkman gives us a character we could see again and he could be a bad or good guy. What he did was show was Mark (Invincible) Grayson’s dark side as Mark was contemplating killing Dinosaurus when he was human. From there we see Mark suffering through meeting Eve’s parents. Those scenes were great human interest pieces filled with humor and show the growing relationship with Mark and Eve. We see Mark and Eve out selling Invincible as a service so Mark can make money on his own now that he is no longer government funded. See my full review here.

THE WORST

Punisher #11 - Writer Rick Remender, Art Tony Moore, Colors Dan Brown. I love having fun with characters and having humor in many books is a good thing. Hercules from Marvel does a great job with humor and Power Girl from DC is a book where humor is sprinkled throughout the book and it works well. Even books like the Giffen/Dematteis JLA did a good job with humor. Humor can be found in all sorts of books and situations and you can have a funny page on page one and a serious encounter by page three and it can work, but it has to be within the context of the character and still show the character some respect. The FrankenCastle story is a joke, but it is on us. The Punisher at its core is an over the top concept, but you have to approach the character with some respect. Frank is human and does what he does because he believes that killing the bad guys is the only way to stop them. Given what happened to him we can at a minimum understand why he believes what he does is right. Maybe we also have a secret fantasy that his way is the right way because we see miscarriages of justice occur in our legal system and want to forget that we rather err on the side of caution to protect people then kill everyone and let God sort it out. See my full review here.

QUICK HITS

Adventure Comics #4 – I understand the charm in trying to have a self referential work, but this was just too cute. I’d rather have had more of Conner Kent as opposed to Superboy Prime on Earth Prime. The Legion of Super Heroes back up feature is the only thing that saved this book from being a worst of book. I loved the whole set-up of the former White Witch and Blok, plus the Wildfire / Dawnstar relationship was well defined.

Authority The Lost Year #3 (of 12) – I was worried that I would not be able to get into this story, but after three issues it has really gotten my interest. We are suckered into thinking we are on our own Earth or something but the twist is they are on an Earth that is ruled by Cthulhu. The Authority’s power is not as great as they supposedly should not exist in this reality. Will they try to save the world or just escape from it.
Brave and Bold #29

Cowboy Ninja Vikings #2 – The second issue was good, but the single color tone being an almost pink did not work like the light blue did last time. I’m enjoying this madcap adventure and love Riley Rossmo’s artwork. The art seems to be even more glorious given the larger golden age size canvas. I don’t know if it would work better for everyone, but I’m hoping more people try this size more often. As a four issue mini-series I think this will be a blast, as a long term ongoing series I don’t know if the gimmick of the triplets last forever and what type of world would need to build to keep Duncan entertaining. Some concepts lend themselves to unlimited storylines, this concept seems limited to a few adventures, but I’m in for the long haul and willing to be proved wrong.

Dark Avengers #11 – This was a strong issue where we get to see the Molecule Man show off his power. Of course there is no team, just people that he has created to be his friends. I’m curious to see where this goes, especially as I’m unfamiliar with the Molecule Man’s current history, he seems mentally unstable, but has godlike power, so where has he been? Even though I have enjoyed the last two issues of this book the Dark Reign concept needs to end, it has more then run its course. It appears Siege will be the end of the concept, but even Siege is too far away and the Siege series runs till April.

Farscape Ongoing #1 – Just a continuation from the last mini-series. As a fan of the show I can only tell you they have captured the essence of that show and continued on with it. If you were a Farscape fan and you are not getting this book, you are making a mistake.

Flash Rebirth #5 (of 6) - Lots of new costumes, bigger boobs for Liberty Belle and some more time travel confusion, but I liked it more then I have. It is doing some good ground work in setting the foundation for who Barry is and giving us the full Flash family type of stuff. In trying to rebuild the Flash franchise Johns is breaking some eggs and it is a little messy, but the ultimate outcome maybe very good, the next issue should give us a final answer.

Irredeemable #8 - Writer Mark Waid, Art Peter Krause, Colors Andrew Dalhouse. For seven issues we have been learning about the Plutonian and all the secrets behind what have driven him over the edge. We learned about his super hearing allowing him to hear the jeers as well as the cheers, the whispers about him thought to be behind his back. This was a nice little thing to throw out there because everybody is ripped behind their back by acquaintances and co-workers. Often it is in fun, but it maybe mean spirited and if we heard all these things it might eat away at us.We learned that his girl friend rejected him. He had hidden his secret identity away from her and when he finally revealed who he was, she freaked out and walked away. We have been trained to expect the girl to swoon and love that it is the hero, but in real life the reaction was more natural. She had been falling in love with a façade and not a real person, the trust had been broken. She was not going to jump into bed and be happy after finding out the man she loved, was not who she thought he was. Michael Corleone’s wife was not too happy either once she found out he never stopped being part of the family. We learned how his sense of duty and his super senses never allowed him to get a moment’s rest. I know when I’m constantly pushed that I start to lose perspective on things and something small can make me angrier then it should. See my full review here

Realm of Kings Inhumans #1 (of 5) - This was a good start to this series. Medusa is carrying on as Queen, but refuses to accept Black Bolt is dead. She also is holding the position in place until her and Black Bolt’s son is ready to be King, so she is accepting of her role. The duality is well played. We also get to see why there are advantages to the Inhumans ruling and we get a glimpse of the Blastarr issue on one of the rim worlds. DnA have given us a better galactic empire then any other Marvel writer has done. It has the politics, the action and the character development all in one great package. Two minor quibbles, one seeing Maximus covet the crown has been done to death and the $4 price tag, guarantee to keep some readers away.

Supergirl #47 – This was totally a story about Supergirl’s mother Alura. She is given a lot of depth of character as both a person and someone who is the acting ruler of New Krypton. We see how much see loves her deceased husband and what she has to do regardless of that love to do what she thinks is best to protect New Krypton. The story revolves around the trial of Reactron and his trial is used to gives us the various insights into Alura’s character. After reading this issue I could enjoy a New World of Krypton series, but New Krypton needs to be moved to a new solar system.

That wraps up this week. Tomorrow a ton of new books come out and I hope to have time to at least put up a Blackest Night #5 review.

Best and Worst of Last Week

This week-end was busy as both of my daughters flew in for my Dad’s 90th birthday and Gwen and I did the Cosmic Comics Conversation. With that schedule I was surprised that I got around to reading everything and even was motivated to write as much as I did. This was a great week of books with a lot of great talent. I hope to start doing some end of year type posts that highlight some of the stuff I loved the most in 2009.

THE BEST

Batman Doc Savage Special #1- Writer Brian Azzarello, Art Phil Noto. I loved this book; there I destroyed any mystery surrounding what I thought about the book. For the record when I read other reviews I like to be able to just see a rating so I know what they thought. I try to always include one at the end and you can scroll down and see what I thought with a letter grade. Then if you didn’t want any spoilers you are safe. The on-line reviewers I avoid are those who eschew the idea of giving a 4 star or 9 out of 10 or what ever type rating. I understand the philosophy behind that idea, but think it screams you are worried people won’t read you whole review if you give a quick thumbs up or down. My thought is let the reader decide how much information they want.
What made me love this book is the entire mixture of this strange and concocted brew of a world that Brian Azzarello has created. I’m glad DC is flexible enough to let Brian have his own little universe and go crazy with it. This issue focuses on Batman and Doc Savage, but the next mini-series to come, called First Wave, will have Black Canary, Rima the Jungle Girl, The Blackhawks, The Avenger, The Spirit and a worldwide criminal organization call The Golden Tree. This book has me dying to see the next issue, but we have to wait a few months.
Brian’s universe is a mixture of the modern and the past, with an art deco Mister X type of feel to it. We have cell phones and Zeppelins, it feels like the Golden Age has been moved into the 21st century, but we never evolved past certain things. It sounds mad as hell, but it works and gives the book a setting that is unlike anything else we have currently on the stands. It also make Doc Savage feel more like he belongs. See my full review here.

Ghoul #1- Writer Steve Niles, Art Bernie Wrightson, Colors Tom Smith. Niles and Wrightson are becoming the team supreme for me in a genre that is more or less uniquely Niles’ own. I call it Noir Horror for lack of a better term. Niles has done a lot with Cal McDonald and his Zombie manservant; we had Dead She Said, with this same team and now the Ghoul. The Ghoul is a hulking eight foot tall mass of gray skinned humanity who has been the FBI’s secret weapon in the war against the supernatural and the bizarre. In this story we have Detective Klimpt who is in need of special expertise to try and solve a case and they send in the Ghoul. Klimpt is not prepared for this monstrosity, who is also an educated and occasionally sarcastic and humorous creature. Steve sets the groundwork and gives a great introduction to our two main characters as well as establishes the mystery they are looking to unravel. Then he does a left turn as we find out the Ghoul is in LA to run an errand while helping Klimpt, he needs to kill a couple hundred demons set to be released in LA. While the story and art were only 16 pages, which made me cry a little, the prose story in the back about the Ghoul was great. The prose story gave us a lot of insight into the character and filled in his background, making the front story even better. Bernie Wrightson was created to draw this type of material. His realistic and dark style with heavy shadows and dark lines, wonderful page design, great body language, facial expressions and all the rest make each page a masterpiece. Bernie is truly one of a kind and a master of his craft. Tom Smith with his colors enhances the work and sets the mood and lighting perfectly. I can’t wait for issue #2.

Batman and Robin #6 – Writer Grant Morrison, Pencils Philip Tan, Inks Janathan Glapion, Colors Alex Sinclair. I love the pace of this series. Grant never lets up in this book. We are only six issues into this book and more has happened in this series then most series have occurring over 24 issues. The Flamingo is the most flamboyant bad guy ever created and with his over the top costume you would not even think he was dangerous, but he puts down the Red Hood and Scarlett without breaking a sweat. Batman and Robin also jump into the fray and a battle royal ensues. The net result is the Flamingo may have been killed by Jason, but Jason is taken in custody by the police, Scarlett appears to have escaped the life of costumed hero/villain and Robin lies perhaps paralyzed after taking five shots in the back. More mystery is laid out regarding the Gravedigger and we see Dick go into a secret vault that contains Bruce (Batman) Wayne or what? Morrison usually has issue in writing an episodic comic and when I read them as a whole they are better then the individual issues, but this series has been great issue by issue and I can’t wait to one day read this stuff as a whole. Tan, Glapion and Sinclair’a art gives us a dark looking book, that was at times a little too dark and a little muddy, but had such power and dynamism to it that it was another artistic gem as well as a great story.

Jersey Gods #9 – Writer Glen Brunswick, Art Dan McDaid, Colors Rachelle Rosenberg. This book continues to be one of my favorites and has been part of a wave of great books coming out of Image. We have had Jersey Gods, Chew and Cowboy Ninja Vikings all coming from Image this year. Jersey Gods is always such an impassioned book, the story and art are both just dripping with the enthusiasm of the creators. In this issue we get into some pretty deep ideas and story points about Barock and his family, Helius and his story of how he became a father, Rushmore getting blind sided. At the same time they inject some nice humor into the book with a great scene with Zoe and her boss. While the obvious Kirby influence is in the book from both New Gods and Young Romance, the book has become its own genre in a way. This is a modern mythology and mythology often includes the gods looking to marry mortals. The story is told from a 21st century perspective and throws out characters which appear to be stereotypical. As the story progresses your assumptions of what appear to be stereotypical characters is shattered as we learn they have far more depth then you would have believed in the beginning. Also like real life in the midst of high drama and even shocking events there can be things which are light hearted and even amusing at times.

JSA Vs Kobra #6 (of 6) – Writer Eric Trautmann, Pencils Don Kramer, Inks Michael Babinski, Colors Art Lyon. This was a solid series and a great follow-up to what has been happening with Kobra. Eric Trautmann is a rising star at DC and this series showed his command of both the Checkmate type of material and the JSA type of material. Of course having Don Kramer and Mike Babinski supplying the art did not hurt. I wish I could afford that double page spread on pages 2-3 of the JSA by that art team. I also wish that we had a regular monthly series as an outlet for this material as the mixture of Checkmate, JSA and Kobra’s attack on the world worked great in this book. Also in this series Mr. Terrific is still alive and I have to hope he is revived or not really dead in the JSA as he is one of my favorite characters in the DCU. Mr. Terrific has actually had a lot of character growth over the years after just being introduced as the new Mr. Terrific. In fact I believe Mr. Terrific could support his own series or at least be a better choice then Magog or Azrael being given an unlimited series to run with. Finally I enjoyed how Kobra (Jason Burr) won at least 50% of this attack. The villain that loses all the time loses the sense of menace that a good villain should bring, having Kobra win parts of this attack make him more dangerous.

THE WORST

Daredevil #502 – Master Izo is alive and well and Daredevil and Tarantula took his body to a separate room to hide him from the hand. The whole thing just killed this book right away. The idea that Daredevil is running the Hand was interesting. The test they made him take, killing Izo, was also a good dilemma. The solution and way out of the box, worthy of writing that belongs in the seventies. We are supposed to believe that the Hand will just take Daredevil’s word for Izo being dead? Aren’t they going to ask what happened to his body now that he was revived and sent away? Now the story will be about Matt using the hand and going too far and some confrontation with Lady Bullseye and Kingpin down the road as Fisk is rebuilding his empire. Come on Mr. Diggle you can do better then keeping Daredevil stuck in the same Frank Miller cycle everyone else has. I will give Diggle some rope as I like him, but this just feels too much like material we have seen before, with the added twist the DD is leading the Hand. I was totally taken out of the book by the lame way Izo was saved and that the Hand is that stupid as to not check that he is dead.

QUICK HITS

Batman #693 - Tony Daniel (writer and pencils) is trying to tell an ambitious story and has spread his net wide with a huge cast being jammed into one book. We have Black Mask, Edward Nigma, Barbra Gordon, Commissioner Gordon, Harvey Bullock, Robin, Alfred, Hush as Bruce Wayne, Huntress and more and oh yeah Batman. In the hands of the most skilled writer it would tough to get a coherent story and Tony is not yet that highly skilled writer. Also some of his fight scenes in the beginning were poorly laid out and looked disjointed. I see tons of ideas and great potential with Tony’s work, but maybe a layout artist and a co-writer could make this book shine as opposed to be what it is now, which is just an okay and oft times confusing story.

Booster Gold #26 – The Blackest Night is doing a great job of entering into various book story lines and adding something to the series it is impacting as opposed to being a distraction. Of course in this book we get Ted (Blue Beetle) Kord as a Black Lantern and this impacts Booster and the current Blue Beetle, a solid issue.

Echo #16 – Every issue of this book has been a great chapter. I feel like I’m getting to know Julie Martin just as she is starting to worry she is losing herself to Annie, the woman in the suit. Truly a graphic novel being released a chapter at a time and Terry Moore is doing his best work right now with this book. A top ten series for me in 2009.

Green Lantern Corps #42 – Are you meeping kidding me Kyle Rayner is dead? I mean it was a noble type of sacrifice and all, but Kyle dead? Blackest Night is really playing around with the concept of death, so I’m not sure who is dead for good or not in the DCU anymore and I think that is part of the overall story that Johns is playing with as a theme. Peter Tomasi is the perfect compliment to Johns writing and is doing a bang up job on this book. Regardless of the high quality of the work on this book, I do not want Kyle to be dead, he is too good of a character to lose.

Locke and Key Crown of Shadows #1 (of 6) - We are starting the third mini-series in what is becoming a great epic tale. In some ways I think they should do the numbering more like BPRD, where every mini-series has its own numbering but inside it states it is number 47 or whatever of the entire series. The ghost of Sam and Duncan fight it out this issue and we are given a revelation about the nature of Duncan and a hint that he is a puppet for something else. Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriquez have me in for the long haul; I just wish I knew how long that haul is, as the story does need to have an end point.

PunisherMax #1- Writer Jason Aaron, Art Steve Dillon, Colors Matt Hollingsworth. Let’s start with the art for this book. I have missed Steve Dillon’s art and remember last following it on Wolverine Origins. Steve has a nice realistic style that at times is a little on the static side of things. This tends to make his work fit material like Preacher and the Punisher much better the long underwear set. From over the top graphic violence to the subtleties of facial expressions displaying characters’ emotions Dillon is a master craftsman in his field. His page layouts and designs help to make any story flow. I don’t believe I have ever seen bad work from Steve, it is always top notch and a pleasure to look at and this is his type of story. Matt Hollingsworth on colors is also pretty much a mortal lock on quality. In this book he trends closer to a super hero palette, but never gets into the bold bright style of that genre. Matt’s work enhances Dillon’s art and is so good that it all seems exactly like it should be. The story itself was also fascinating and Jason Aaron is certainly known for being able to generate a hard edge into his scripts and a little maniac and madness when needed. The one thing that continued to perplex me and pulled me out of the story too often was the timeline. I know Punisher Max is not part of the regular MU, but I thought Jason wanted to bring it closer then what Garth Ennis was doing. Garth’s Punisher felt old and very world weary, continuing to fight his war because there was nothing else left for him. His world consisted of only humans; the super human was not in this universe. The MU Punisher is young by comparison and feels like he is still committed to avenging his family by whatever means it takes. See my full review here.

Realm of Kings Imperial Guard #1 (of 5) – This was an odd book to start the Realm of Kings with, but still it was an enjoyable adventure of the Imperial Guard now charged with following their own team mate as the Majestor. I also enjoy that Cecil and Beanie live on as Imperial Guardsmen and I’m sure I’m one of the few who remember that cartoon, but click on the hyperlink and you’ll see the characters who were transformed into guardsmen. I also thought at $4 a pop we could have gotten to the actual mission this mini-series will focus on a little faster.

Rebels #10 – A very cool issue as Blackest Night impacts this series. We get a nice summary of the history of Viril Dox and see Stealth become a Black Lantern. The regular storyline moves ahead as Dox’s son is captured and joins with Starro. A high energy book that is fast moving and has a complex plot but it reads very well and is one of the best newer series from DC. Dox getting a yellow ring to become part of the Sinestro Corps was also a very nice cliff hanger ending.

Red Robin #6 – This is a decent series, but Chris Yost relies on jumping around in time lines in every issue and he has still not mastered that style. Just tell a straight story from beginning to end for once. Yost is good, but he still has a ways to go to be a top writer in my view.

Supergod #1 (of 5) – Since Ellis starts this story at the end of the story everyone is already dead. It is an interesting idea that all of these different countries were trying to create super heroes and nothing went as planned. I did enjoy the political shot Ellis took at Pakistan. Overall a decent start with potential to get better.

Walking Dead #67 – A slower paced chapter where we see Rick and Carl talk about their revelations. We also got a hard left turn as the “scientist” is revealed as a science teacher with no idea if Washington DC is still alive and well, he was lying to have others take care of him.

The Quick Hits title is a little bit of a misnomer this week as a few of the books in that category I got a little wordy on. It’s funny with the way I try to do commentary on current books because between full blown reviews, preview reviews, this column and the twitter updates I always have an opinion on a book. While I did not highlight the death of Kyle Rayner is a continuation of DC running their big three third generations into the ground with Wally West, Kyle Rayner and Connor Hawke going from being headliners with their own series to being made into “C” or even “D” list characters. I hope Kyle survives somehow.

Best and Worst of Last Week

This week was an odd one because after reading Stumptown no other book could equate to being a best of the week. I’m not sure if it would have been any different if I read stuff in a different order, but you never know.

THE BEST

Stumptown #1- Writer Greg Rucka, Artist Matthew Southworth, Colors Lee Loughridge. What a great frelling book. From the moment I saw the cover on the stands I thought this book had a chance to be something special. Greg Rucka is one hell of a writer and has done some beautiful work for DC. Still when you read Queen and Country or the two Whiteout adventures you can tell there is something extra with these books as Greg works best grounded in the real world. I think that is why the Question and Batwoman work well for him as they are non-powered heroes and also female leads. With all the great work that Greg has done this book was a grand slam with the first issue and has the feeling of being something extra special from Mr. Rucka’s pen. So many writers start there stories at the end or middle and then go backwards to get to the opening and then wrap it up. It has been done so often by so many writers that it is a cliché. No one can work up to a climax, so why bother, start with one and then explain it. It sounds like a great idea but some writers don’t know how to do it or over work the gimmick. Greg does it perfect. The first five pages grab you by your shirt collar and drag you right into to the book. Once you hit page six there is no turning back, you are reading the entire issue and will be ignoring phone calls and even the urgent pleading of your dog to come back inside, everything else can wait. With page six we jump back 27 hours and then work back to the beginning of the book. We then go a few steps further to get to a solid ending that has you checking your calendar and circling the Wednesday four weeks from now when you hope issue #2 will be hitting the stands. Hell this book is one that I want to buy more copies of and give them to other people to show them how good comic books can be and how to tell a great modern private eye story. See my full review here.

THE WORST

Captain America Reborn #4 (of 6) – This series has fallen off the rails for me. The writing is good and the art is very good, but the pacing of this story is horrible. We are 4 issues into a five issue series that has been extended into six issues and a follow up special called “Who Will Wield the Shield.” A side note, rhyming titles should be outlawed. First this should have been part of Cap’s regular book. Second this feels like a series that was conceived more as a marketing plan then being 100% story driven. By that I mean that this feels like it will be a nice evergreen collection sitting in a book store so to fill it out we made it almost four issues of it a Captain America retrospective. Three, have they really explained what the deal was with Cap’s body and how they revived it? Maybe they did and I was just bored and missed it. For the $16 this series has cost us so far I would mark this book as a rip-off to fans. Not a total failure but wasting a lot of page count to move the story forward only incrementally.

Deathlok #1 (of 7) – What an unmitigated and unreadable failure, I can’t believe Marvel even published this book. We only have a seven issue series and we never even got to see Deathlok in this issue as he has not been created yet. We are in some future world where war has become a blood sport of sorts and armies are run by corporations and broadcast with commentary replete with a play by play announcer and color commentators. There was so much text on half the pages that added nothing to the story that I could not being myself to even read most of it. This was unimaginative writing that never got me into the story and I could not wait to get to the end to see if there was any hook or hope to hold me in and there was none. This was not only the absolute worst book of the week, but one of the worst I have read in a long time. Cancelled.

Haunt #2 – The second issue still felt very derivative of trying to make this character a cross between Spawn and Spider-Man. The “cleaner” was a stupid movie cliché that was way over the top and too unbelievable for even comics. Way too many good strong titles that have just started to waste time and money waiting for this to get better. Cancelled.

QUICK HITS

Absolution #3 (of 6) – Christos Gage is doing a great job with this character. Each issue does us down this road of the hero crossing lines that the hero knows he should not cross, but things are always taking nice little twists and turns to keep this series fresh. It is nice to see a talented writer like Gage be given more then clean up assignments from Marvel or under the radar stuff from Wildstorm.

Assault on New Olympus – This book is a solid prologue to the story line that will be the focus for Incredible Hercules. It is the same animal as Hercules, with strong story telling, fast paced, humor, light hearted, but not light weight. The magnitude of this event could easily make this book too serious, but they managed to balance the book very well. The Agents of Atlas back-up is melding into this story as Venus is actually a siren and the real Venus is a little ticked off about this Venus trying to steal her role. I’m a little confused as to why the special was spun out of the regular title as I don’t believe this book will be crossing over into others, maybe just a marketing ploy to try and garner more attention for Hercules.

The Authority #16 – I liked the ending of this arc because it made sense and made for a great battle. Jack Hawksmoor bonds with the city of Gamorra and kicks Kaizen’s tail. It was just a well thought out plot and moved the storyline forward by leaps and bounds.

Cinderella From Fabletown with Love #1 (of 6) – Almost a best book of the week. A highly enjoyable story, but it spent a lot of time setting up the story and explaining Cindy’s place in Fables. As an editor I would have suggested cutting back on explaining her back story as Fable readers would know it and the rest can be filled in on the run. It is interesting as I notice myself critiquing story structure as much as anything else. It was still a fun, smart and enjoyable beginning to Cindy’s latest spy adventure as she searches for who is taking magical fable items and using them in the mundy world. Chris Roberson (writer), Shawn McManus (artist) and Lee Loughridge (colors) have me looking forward to the rest of this series.

Doctor Voodoo #2 – This was a strong second issue after an uneven start to this series. Nightmare manipulates Jericho into getting a free pass into our dimension. This book has a good feel to it and is the magic type book I have been missing for years. It is not the Dr. Strange book I was waiting for, but this works.

Doom Patrol #4 – So the first three issues have been okay, with Metal Men being the better part of the book and it is the back-up series, but this issue the book takes off. I was worried about Blackest Night taking over so many regular series, but the first traditional cross-over of an event book was nothing short of brilliant and made me really enjoy this newest version of the Doom Patrol. Having the second Doom Patrol Arani, Negative Woman and Tempest as Black Lanterns was great. The cliff-hanger (pun intended) was Robotman’s human body (Cliff Steele) as a Black Lantern attacking him. The Metal Men back-up was it normal wonderful light hearted crazy self.

Immortal Weapons #4 (of 5) – I wish the rest of this series had been as good as this issue. The story of Tiger’s Daughter was great. Essentially she is the Queen of a matriarchic race of people. I was so looking forward to this series and the first three issues really missed the mark and the long delay between issues has destroyed any momentum they may have been left after that, but this issue redeemed the series a little. I wonder if Iron Fist is getting his own series again after this.

Jonah Hex #49 – This was way too “comic booky” of an ending. Instead of shooting Turnbull Jonah gets up close and personal and then is almost beaten by him. As Jonah is about to finally kill him so guy Santos comes and arrests him and Turnbull gets to live to torment Jonah another day. The Jonah I like to read about after shooting Turnbull's horse would have just rode up and shot him.

The Mighty #10 – This book only has till issue #12 to get to the finish line and this issue feels like they are wrapping up everything in a hurry. Loved Alpha One’s origin this issue and I think this book might have had better sales numbers if they were not playing it so close to vest about what Alpha One is or what is going on. It was too slow of a reveal for this type of book; Irredeemable is facing similar issues, but with other super powered beings around it gives them more time to play. Plus under Boom’s banner Irredeemable gets tons of attention and a big marketing push, The Mighty is left on its own under the DC banner. Still this book has been a solid read and looks to remain that way all the way to the finish line.

Secret Six #15 - This was a great solo story about Deadshot. John Ostrander (writer) and Jim Calafiore (artist) told a nice one and done story that gave us a lot of back story on Lawton and shows just how much of menace he can be. Ostrander needs to be back on a regular title in the DCU.

Sweet Tooth #3 – This series continues to impress. This issue we get to meet Becky, who appears to have bunny ears. Of course in this book they could be real and not just a headband. Wonder if she like to f*** like a rabbit too? Just kidding, but not about how good this series is, it is a quick and easy read with lots of content and subtext.

X-Men vs Agents of Atlas #2 (of 2) – This book was really a continuation of the Agents of Atlas series and dragged the X-Men into to boost sales I guess. All in all I’m enjoying it because I love the Agents of Atlas and want to follow their adventures. Marvel is showing that numbering and series mean nothing to them as they are willing to do any sort of convolution to jack up sales. So far it seems to be working for them, but I wonder long term if it will work as being able to just follow a series is something many fans like to do.

I can’t emphasis how much I loved Stumptown this week. It was a perfect first issue. I hate starting things at the end and then flashing back, but Rucka showed why people started doing that writing trick and showed how it can work well. Cliché become clichés because people overuse them and don’t know how to make it work. Finally I may have been harsh putting Captain America Reborn in the worst category, but I expect better of that creative team.