And so we come to our final chapter and the final post for
2012. I hope to generate some more interviews next year and do a few more
opinion pieces; I will keep up the week in review and as always mix up how I do
it. Finally I almost forgot the list for this coming Wednesday is here and here. The
first is the clean list, the second the more detailed listing. Of that list
Harvest #5 (of 5), Invincible, Colder, Fury Max, Punk Rock Jesus #6 (of 6) and
I,Vampire are all highly anticipated.
The Black Beetle #0 –
The Night Shift by Francesco Francavilla. Francesco is known to me as
an artist from Left on Mission at Boom years ago to the Black Panther book from
Marvel a couple years back and here he is giving us a pulp hero style book as
writer and artist. Francesco style is not going to blow away anyone but its
dark and blocky style along with his effective story telling has made me a fan
of his work. Unfortunately the story is very pedestrian and a paint by numbers
type of deal. We have seen it all before, the mystic artifact being sought by
Nazis and the hero saving the damsel in distress and the hero saves the
artifact. As you read it you can hear
the Indiana Jones music. The final twist where the hero uses the artifact
himself to start something gave me enough hope that I will be back for the
mini-series. My concern is that we learned so little about the hero and the
story felt so plain that it may have turned off other readers who are not as
easy going as I am. Let’s face it I’m an easy mark to try out your book and I
will give the series a chance.
Next up is Captain
American #2 by Rick Remender and John Romita Jr. Rick said he wanted
to explore the Jack Kirby stuff and boy is this book different from what Cap
had been. It is such a hard left turn that I expect the sales to tank on this
book. Rick has some wild ideas but his execution against them have been uneven
at best and often the book gets too involved and long term falls apart. Uncanny
X-Force was certainly better at the beginning and died during the Captain
Britain stuff. The one year jump in this issue already tells me that at the end
of the adventure Cap will get off the train a minute after he left in issue #1.
That means the entire adventure only impacts him and does not interfere with
anything else. It is sad that in today’s comic there is no true change to any
character because they are needed in too many books and you can’t have any
consistency in characterization if you make a true change in the character’s
own book. Rick has built up credit with me so I’m on for a few more issues but
right now it is just a crazy Kirby festival. I think it is almost a fun retro
ride, but I wonder how long this story will be and where will Rick go after
this book. I guess that child that he has adopted could come back with him as a
young man and be a character in the series going forward. Bottom line is this
book is probably being received harshly by Cap fans that have come to expect
something different. In hindsight Brubaker’s run was not the masterpiece we
thought at first as it fizzled and died at the end.
A good book is X-O
Manowar #8 by Robert Venditti, Lee Garbett and Stefano Gaudiano.
The pace of this book could be faster, but we are now getting to Earth being
invaded by the aliens. Aric and Ninjak are uneasy allies as the invasion is
about to start. The artwork is very good, the action is great and the writing
is solid, but we are eight issues in and are yet to establish a premise about
what the series is about. If this is a long limited series, then it is working
fine. If it is meant to an unlimited series I’m wondering how we transition to
X-O versus the aliens saving Earth to an unlimited series. Regardless the
upcoming Planet Death looks to be great as the aliens will be invading and we
will have to see how Earth fares. I guess we find out if all the books are in
the same Universe during this series. Jump in the water with issue #9 if you
have passed on this book before.
Last and in some ways least, yet in others ways a good book
was Avengers #2 by Jonathan Hickman
and Jerome
Opena. It was let’s
meet the cast book. In the first issue the movie Avengers are beaten and Cap
comes back to Earth to gather the new team. Since most of the team is almost
unknown we are giving the one to two page introductions to the characters as we
flashback to their recruitment. It is a decent read, but we are $8 into the
investment and have yet to get to the story. Hickman is making Bendis proud
with the decompressed story telling. This type of book pushes me to want to
wait for the trade, but when the trade comes out I will probably just forget
the story existed. Hickman continues to intrigue me with potential but takes so
long to deliver on his ideas that I’m bored or have dropped off the book by the
time we get to the crux of the matter. The faster release schedule helps, but I’m
guessing that can only go on for so long. Of course I think Marvel has a lot of
book on an 18 issue per year schedule now.
That wraps up 2012, thanks for reading and hope you are back
next year.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
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