A great week, though a small one; I only bought five books and one of them was just one that my shop didn't have
last week.
Angel: After the Fall #2
Okay, so I was wrong. I guess I'ma have to eat my copies now
.
Time will tell whether this...Gunn v.Big Bad will end up being a good story or not. My instincts right off the bat tell me no but, hey, remember how I was wrong before? I could be wrong about this as well. Time will tell.
Beyond that, the story is still quite good. Lynch is still going strong on Angel's character and the interaction with his new team, so to speak, flows together rather well. Lynch gives these characters a bit of a...different tone of voice and I'm not sure if he's trying to emulate Whedon's grammar or not, but it comes off okayish. Spike is...well, Spike, and if you enjoyed Spike from before you'll enjoy him now, and if you're like me and could only stand him in measured doses before...well, this is pretty measured doses.
The art is both a lot better and a lot worse this time around. A lot better in that colors are a bit brighter and lines are clearer and it's easier to tell what the poop is going on. A lot worse in that this depiction of Illyria is basically the worst depiction of Illyria that anyone could have drawn. Seriously, my biggest complaint about the art was going to be be Connor's bishonen manga hairstyle until we got to that last page. The sole reason why Illyria turned out so awesome onscreen was because of Amy Acker's portrayal. Sole reason. And a lot of that portrayal was just her being completely...well, alien. She was so still and robotic and subdued and definitely of the "less is more" variety of acting, delivering so much with so little. And, here, with just a single panel on a single page, Urru takes all of that completely away.
This Illyria flounces about in a comic book vixen pose whilst her hair waves in the wind and makes angry snarling expressions at people. Yuck. A world of yuck. This isn't the Illyria I know.
(8.1 out of 10)
Superman/Batman #44
"I have a
strange favor to ask you."
"No, Clark. You can't borrow my pirate ship."
Have I been missing out? Has this series been this awesome lately and I simply didn't know about it? Because this is an awesome issue. This hearkens back to some of the very first issues of this series and how awesome Loeb had made it back then (even featuring some of the same scenes from that first arc). It mockpraises the ridiculous abundancy of Kryptonite on Earth and the freakoftheweak concept of Smallville and then actually works it all in an interesting way.
Oh, and it's also hilarious ("Yes! To the moooooon!") while balancing with gravity and everyone is characterized very well and the art is pretty great.
(8.8 out of 10)
Mighty Avengers #5
More of the same, basically. If you liked what we've gotten, you'll like this. I'm sort of ambivalent about it as usual, but then...looking back, the arc does actually come together fairly well. At least the whole team action we've gotten here is leagues upon light years better than what we've gotten in New Avengers.
And Wasp does get a pretty cool HERO MOMENT!, even though she immediately ruins it by acting like an idiot a couple pages later.
(7.1 out of 10)
Green Lantern Corps #19
Is this simply one of those books which is going to be awesome no matter who takes the reigns? Not that I doubted Tomasi; in fact, his work on Black Adam had more or less quelled any doubts I could have had for his taking over. But this title really lost a great thing with Gibbons leaving, who had built this new universe from the ground up brick by brick by cast member by cast member, and it's big shoes to fill no matter
how qualified you may be for the job.
Not to mix metaphors, but Tomasi seriously fills those shoes and hits it out of the park here. Last issue's Ion shenanigans were just passing the time; this one is his real first issue. He takes the monstrous cast that Gibbons has left him and writes the hell out of every single last one of them, giving
everyone at least one good moment and plenty of respect. Whether it's Vath, or Soranik, or Iolande, or even Salaak; no one gets left behind. We all know how very
wrong this process of a new writer taking over a giant cast of preexisting characters could have gone (NEW! X! MEN!) and it's nice to see it working out for once.
And because I'm me, special gushing must be reserved for his handling of Kyle here. Tomasi addresses the whole Parallax thing and simultaneously makes it a significant issue and also puts some finality and closure on it, which is just fine with me 'cause it makes it easier for me to pretend it never happened. But actually the best part here is the suggestion that Kyle is going to become art director for the Rose Center for Earth and Space (which
a quick internet search tells me is very important, I guess). This is pure awesome for two reasons: one, HOLYFCK KYLE HAS A LIFE ON EARTH AGAIN IT'S LIKE THE SUN JUST EXPLODED OR SOMETHING. Two, this is exactly why I lust for legacy characters; you can literally track the changes and progress they've made throughout their continuity. Superman started out reporter Clark Kent and is going to be reporter Clark Kent forever (props to Rucka for making reporter Clark Kent interesting, however). Hal Jordan was a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft forty years ago and, huh, is once again a test pilot for Ferris Aircraft today. Kyle Rayner designed logos for rent money under Marz, drew a comic strip for Feast magazine under Winick, and is now (probably going to be) the art director for a museum. This is progress. This sort of progress in a character -- or at least the appearance of progress -- is unfortunately something that most characters are
never going to experience. Hell, most characters these days don't even
have occupations or lives to develop.
Also, props must go to Tomasi for (probably unintentionally) catching on to the fact that Kyle likes taking his manfriends to the Statue of Liberty for dates. Ah, Kyle. The best gay straight man ever.
Art's still great, of course, and may in fact be getting even better, even if Gleason has absolutely no idea what to do with Kyle's new/old crab mask; counting the cover, I think it goes through four versions in the span of a single issue. Ice's costume has the same problem, except that's probably the colorist's fault. He makes up for it, though, in drawing the cutest damn mini-Kilowogs
in existence. Awww, dead family members on Mogo. So cute. Seriously, they have to be seen to be believed.
(9.4 out of 10)
The Incredible Hercules #112
I glanced through this just out of utter curiosity regarding how Pak was possibly going to handle this and was greated with a faceful of Amadeus Cho being the most annoying turd in existence. I mean, Hercules is an idiot here, but at least he has his redeeming points and isn't
trying to be an idiot. Amadeus is just an idiot. Has anyone in this series itself referred to him yet as the smartest idiot alive? 'Cause it's such a fitting descriptor for him that I'd be shocked if it hasn't been used. His dismissal and disgust at SHIELD is understandable (if a bit horribly timed), but him
still believing that the Hulk is just some tragic wronged creature who was just tragic and wronged? Ugh. Seriously, I can't imagine how anyone could possibly stomach an ongoing
series of this.
(3.9 out of 10)
Checkmate #21
This arc is basically dedicated to turning Josephine Tautin -- Mademoiselle Marie -- from a cool character into a
muthafckin' badass character. With flashbacks and WWII nostalgia and nationalism played up, this almost feels like an issue of Brubaker's Captain America, and that's a compliment. Combined with the virtually flawless writing and dialogue that this series is known for, and we end up with another spectacular issue, as usual.
I have no idea who this new White Queen is -- Valentina Vostok? -- and wikipedia doesn't help much, but I have full confidence that in this title she'll become an awesome character by the year's end. Uh, next year's end, anyway.
(9.3 out of 10)
Birds of Prey #113
Sean McKeever's first issue, and the man gets right to the point. There's no setup or introduction or letting people get into his groove...he just lets the story tell the, uh, story. And it's a pretty good start; we get great action, character moments at least on par with what past writers have delivered, a truck that turns into a giant robot courtesy of what I can only guess was the DC equivalent of the Allspark, and also DARK VENGEANCE. Oh, and Nicola Scott draws Superman's cape really nice. I don't know how long I plan on investing in this title; McKeever's work with the DCU so far hasn't been jawdroppingly awsumz or anything, but to date he's just decent enough to keep my attention.
(7.6 out of 10)
