What You Should Have Read #1

I'm changing up my comic book review a bit. I read a lot of comics, but I've got very little time during the week to read them, so it's usually the weekend before I can get around to it. So reviews from the previous week will appear on Mondays, and while I probably won't be in time to dissuade you from purchasing something awful, maybe I'll be able to convince you to pick up something on your next trip to the comic shop that passed over the previous week.

So here's the first installment of my review column, What You Should Have Read.

It was a pretty mediocre week for comics. A handful of books came out that I was looking forward to, but nothing really grabbed me while I was reading it or really satisfied me when I was done.

Here’s my reading list:

Adventure Comics #4

Brave and the Bold #29

Flash: Rebirth #5

Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant #1

Outsiders #24

Superman/Batman #66

Amazing Spider-Man #612

Dark Avengers #11

Dark Reign: The List – The Amazing Spider-Man #1

Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth #5

Incredible Hulk #604

Mighty Avengers #31

Punisher #11

Realm of Kings #1

Realm of Kings: Inhumans #1

Spider-Woman #3

Stand: Soul Survivors #2

Thunderbolts #138

War Machine #11

Wolverine: Origins #42

Wolverine: Weapon X #7

X-Men: Legacy #229

Irredeemable #8

Dr. Horrible #1

Out of all of those, I’d have to say the best of the bunch was The Stand, and that’s probably because it’s my favorite book and is adapted perfectly. It’s just like reading the novel, except with pictures. Dark Avengers was pretty good with the Molecule Man facing down each “Avenger” one by one, and the football game in Incredible Hulk was nice. This is a MUCH better book than the adjectiveless Hulk book. The infighting and manipulations in Thunderbolts were entertaining, but this team doesn’t compare to the previous team.

Dr. Horrible was a bit of a letdown, mainly because I think it’s so difficult to capture the same feeling as watching the, what, half-hour? musical. I like it best as a done-in-one (or three, I guess) web series. And really, it’s a musical. That’s a big part of it’s draw. Can’t really capture that part in a comic.

Comics that made me cringe: Adventure Comics with Superboy Prime, Flash: Rebirth (I am so totally lost here…it’s all over my head), Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth (the premise was cute for maybe a mini-series, but I’m done with Headpool), and Punisher (Frankencastle? Really? No thank you. And the series was so good until this issue).

Everything else was just pretty bland. We’ve got a big storyline beginning over in Amazing Spider-Man, but you couldn’t tell from this blah Electro story. Realm of Kings isn’t filling me with excitement like Annihilation and War of Kings did. I’m really hoping Quasar hasn’t been effed with since we just got him back. Spider-Woman was okay. After the events in his mini, I expected more from a black ringed Solomon Grundy in Superman/Batman, and Bizarro gives me a headache when he talks.

Next week, though…wow. Lots of good stuff to look forward to next week.

Comic Book Reviews for the Week of Dec. 24, 2008 (Limited Series)

Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch #3

So Danny is a Ghost Rider again, but he’s not at full power. And I know I said I didn’t like the idea of a Spawn-like Ghost Rider, but I’m not minding it so much now that it’s been explained. Having GR be an instrument of Heaven makes his penance stare make more sense. I wouldn’t think Hell would care all that much about penance.

Greatest Hits #4

If I had the time and inclination, I’d take a look back at Vertigo and see how many writers and artists have been British and how many haven’t. I’m betting you’re looking at at least 65% British. Not a gripe, just an observation. I wouldn’t mind seeing this continued as a regular series if that were possible. The story we’re getting is very interesting, and we’re finally going to figure out what the mystery behind the Mates is. Great art and rock-solid story telling always make for a great comic.

Punisher: War Zone #3

Y’know, for the past two issue I’ve been saying that this book is a direct pick-up from Ennis and Dillon’s last Punisher mini, but it really isn’t. I had been waiting for the humor to come back, but it hasn’t, and I’m pretty positive that it won’t. Garth is taking the series a bit more serious, and that’s not a bad thing. While I’ve enjoyed almost all of his work that I’ve read, I think his best stuff has been the serious stuff. This book definitely has the feel of the old series, it’s just more bitter than humorous.

Rann-Thanagar Holy War #8

The last issue goes out with a bang. The heroes destroyed Rann after teleporting the population to Throneworld. A people who are now believed to be dead are living on a planet whose population was killed. Fitting. Bizarro is home, which makes me wonder how he appeared in one of the Superman titles in the last month or so. I was pretty ambivalent about this mini, but seeing Synar’s new form made me think there’s a good story waiting for the character.

Reign in Hell #6

I don’t know a whole helluva lot about the DCU spiritual stuff, so I don’t know if powerful demons can actually be killed, but it sure looks like Neron is dead. That leaves Blaze and Satanus as the new rulers of Hell rather than just Purgatory. I have no idea how that will affect things. Are we supposed to get some proactive Hell stories throughout the DCU in the future? Will this have anything to do with Blackest Night? Only time will tell.

Dark Tower: Treachery #4

It seemed there was a little more meat in this issue than in issues past, a bit more narrative. That’s a good thing since the issues seem to go by so fast (and I don’t read the prose in the back). Roland has finally given up the grapefruit, but is it too late for him? Well, we know it’s not since we’ve read the books. There wasn’t any mention of Cort’s niece, and I can’t remember where we left her last issue. I hope the Del Rey books are just as good as the Marvel ones when King switches over. I loved Lee’s portrayal of Farson. Other than mentions of him in the books, I never really formed a good picture of him in my mind. I’ll take Lee’s. It was beautiful.

Trinity #30

Okay, so the legends of the aliens’ God is starting to make sense. This whole damn thing is Krona’s fault. But the Trinity are energy beings now, or are they abstract concepts given form, forms that we as readers are familiar with? I think it would be pretty cool if DC were to market a couple of Tarot sets featuring the villains and the heroes that are in this comic. Didn’t Vertigo do that with Sandman? Get some popular artists to do the art, have Busiek write a manual, and make it a limited collectible. Well, I think it would be neat.

Ultimatum #2

Wow. Pretty powerful and disturbing issue. Let’s do a rundown. The Hulk is helping Spider-Man. Why isn’t he eating anyone? I guess that’ll be addressed in the next issue of Ultimate Spider-Man. Reed and Doom are going to the Squadron Supreme universe to get Fury back. I wonder how that will impact the Squadron Supreme book, and if any of this stuff will happen in that book. That’d be pretty neat. Cap is in Valhalla, so he’s dead. I wonder if he’ll stay that way or if Black Panther will take up the mantle since Steve did the opposite in Ultimates 3. Since when was Blob a cannibal? That was damn disturbing. So Wasp is another casualty. And then the big one at the end, the death of Professor X. I definitely didn’t see that coming. And how did HE not see it coming? This really is shaking up the Ultimate universe.

Unknown Soldier #3

Jesus Christ this is a brutal and uncompromising comic. Kidnapping girls from a Catholic school so the boy soldiers can have wives. That’s rough. And our hero has to kill those boy soldiers, boys who have had no choice but to do this, who have lived their entire lives in the shadow of this war. It hits you pretty hard.

Comic Book Reviews for the Week of Dec. 17, 2008 (Limited Series)

Black Terror #2

Black Terror breaks into the White House to rescue Tim, and he does it in a very dramatic way, rather than just storming the gates and forcing his way inside. It didn’t make any sense to me. He says he needs to announce his coming, but wouldn’t tearing through the ground forces work just as well? I guess it wouldn’t make for an as dramatic comic book. Eh. I had assumed the twist at the end would be Tim there ready to take him down, not other heroes from the urn we haven’t seen before.

Dead of Night: Devil Slayer #4

This mini started out a little differently, not like the same-old same-old comic. I’m not just talking about the cussing. I had expected some commentary on war, some real heart-breaking stuff. But it turned out to be a standard comic…with cussing. This issue ended the mini with our hero thought of as a bad guy, even though he saved the world. That NEVER happens.

Punisher: War Zone #2

It’s just like Ennis and Dillon’s first Punisher mini ended a few months ago. There was a lot of death, but it really wasn’t as disturbing as you might expect from Ennis. Just normal shootings and stabbings. I like Dillon as an artist, but his characters look a bit stiff. The facial expressions are wonderful, though.

Spider-Man: Noir #1

The best thing I can comment on with this issue is the cover. It’s a beautiful play on a classic Spider-Man pose. The story was your run-of-the-mill alternate reality story with Spidey and his supporting characters shoe-horned into various roles. The art was very muddled, especially whenever it was snowing. The flakes covered a lot of the frame. Yet another mini I’ll pass on.

Tangent: Superman’s Reign #10

So this whole thing is going to come down to a battle between the Tangent Superman and his New Earth Villains vs. his wife and a combination of New Earth and Tangent heroes. Sounds a bit one-sided to me, especially of Lola really does have the same powers as Tangent Superman. How many times do we have to read an absolute power storyline (Squadron Supreme, Authority) to realize in the end it never works out. There is no perfect solution.

Trinity #29

One thing I’ve been liking about this series is that there have been tiny storylines inside this massive, weekly, year-long book. But this latest tale about the three heroes being gone and the world attempting to fix the vacuum is starting to wear thin for me. I sort of like where it’s going (where the heck ARE they?), I just wish it would get there a little quicker.

X-Men: Kingbreaker #1

I know I say this each time I start reading a new X-Men title, but I’ve missed a BUNCH of stuff. I think I’m going to put this away until I’ve caught up on my X-history. I knew about Vulcan, but I had no idea about his takeover of the Shi’ar empire. I’ve got some research to do.

Comic Book Reviews for the Week of Dec. 10, 2008 (Limited Series)

Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #2

Now this looks like it’s going to be a good series. Last month I made a comparison between Blue Marvel and Sentry, noting how they were both extremely powerful characters that were written into Marvel’s past. Now a comparison can be made between Blue Marvel and Isaiah Bradley (I think that’s his last name), the black Captain America. Not necessarily their powers or their situations, just that these two black men had very important roles in history, but they were covered up. It didn’t take Tony all that long to dig up the dirt on Adam, though. Let’s see how it’s going to be used.

Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #2

Well, this was a thoroughly depressing comic. Nothing like suicide and murder in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future to get you going in the morning. While the stories were good, I’d rather read about what’s actually going on in AXM rather than what might have happened.

Civil War: House of M #4

I understand how the mutants took over in the House of M universe, I just don’t understand how there became so many. In the Age of Apocalypse universe, the death of Charles Xavier led to a more level headed Magneto. Really, though, can you blame the guy? I guess there’s no compromising with bigots, though, so diplomacy goes out the window. I guess we’ll see next issue how the HoM universe of yesterday becomes the HoM universe that we were first introduced to.

Final Crisis #5

I have no idea what is going on. Darkseid is back, and I get that. He took the body of Dan Turpin. I’ve got no clue about anything else. Grant Morrison is just getting too weird for me. I love Carlos Pacheco’s artwork, though. I would like to see a lot more of it on a regular basis.

Final Crisis: Revelations #4

So Vandal Savage was Cain all along, or Cain was reborn IN Vandal Savage? This whole damn event is just messing with me. At least Marvel tries to keep theirs somewhat simple. I’m hoping for a great and heaving explanation next issue.

Punisher: War Zone #1

The only time I ever liked the Punisher was when Ennis was writing him humorously, so it’s great to see him and Dillon back (even though Ennis stayed around, but used a totally different writing style). And it really picks up right after that mini, and I’m no worse the wear for not having followed Frank since then. He’s back to nipping the comeback of the Gnucci family in the bud before anything sprouts. Not really any humor this issue, but some decent gore.

Death Defying Devil #1

Continuing some solo stories from Project Superpowers, where some classic heroes were brought back into the mainstream. I would imagine it would be difficult to write a book with a silent main character, hence everyone else explaining everything. I’m not sure if these little spin-offs are on-going series or mini series. I don’t know if there’s enough here for a monthly series, across the whole line not just with the Devil, but I’ll probably stick around as long as Alex Ross is involved.

Trinity #28

I’m just about ready for all the alternate reality wackiness to be over with. I guess we are making some progress in that direction if the Trinity’s friends are starting to get a bit of their personalities back, and they’ve stumbled upon where the trio might be. That part is the more interesting out of the two stories. It’s got the characters using their brains (or at least Alfred is) instead of a bunch of fighting, which is what’s going on in the second part of the issue.

X-Men/Spider-Man #2

I like how the mini is tying very well into the past. Spider-Man is my #1 hero, and the Claremont/Silvestri X-Men (the Australia X-Men) are my favorite team, so this issue was a great treat. It looks like Gage is setting up a pretty good surprise for us, and I’m wondering if it has anything to do with the Kraven that recently showed up in Amazing Spider-Man. And I’m enjoying Alberti’s art. It can be a bit muddy at times, but it’s still very vibrant and exciting.

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