Sorry for the utter, bastardly lateness of this; I could only get my comics today. And damn, there were a
lot of comics to be commenting on this week.
Civil War: Frontline #2
So remember when those Marvel guys said that they were going to try to keep the political commentary reasonably unbiased and neutral? I think we can safely say that by this issue, that inconvenient little bit of idealism got about as far as "dead is dead" went. Seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if Tony and Reed take up eating babies in the next few weeks just to make the pro-reg side seem a bit more like bad bad bastards.
In Speedball's story, the pro-reg side is shown to be sneering, rude military-types who all but piss on the Constitution and the American legal system to get their way. Miranda Rights? What Miranda Rights? Right to an attorney? Kindasortanotreally. They want him to admit guilty to a crime, and yet throughout the entire story we're never told what crime he actually even committed. Oh yeah, and the military prison guards are abusive and trigger-happy, too. The beatings he receives from the inmates by the end portion of our program practically pale in comparison to the type of treatment he gets from the law. And through it all, Robert Baldwin himself is portrayed as a wronged man devoutly standing for his beliefs. Sure he's irritatingly naive, but he's fighting for his rights. "
I'm not the one who exploded.
I was the one trying to
stop him!" Perhaps that's not a good enough excuse in reality but it might as well be, considering how unsympathetic Jenkins has made his opposition.
In the next story, SHIELD enlists the aid of Norman Osborn, the Green Goblin! Wow, do you think we villified the pro-reg side
enough in this book? Are you
sure you don't want to throw in that baby-eating scene just in case?
You know the funny thing though? In spite of the blindingly blatant narrative bias, it works. It's solid. The writing's compelling and gets you to root for exactly who you're supposed to root for. So while I'm going to rag on Marvel for the rest of this whole event on how they've been going about it, I can't begrudge them the quality of their work.
(8.5 out of 10)
DC: Brave New World
So remember when those DC guys said that they were going to lighten things up after the Crisis? Yeah, that didn't happen either. Sure the core titles like Superman and Batman and WW and GL have been given a back-to-basics approach but if anything, things in a lot of books have just been getting more melodramatic and cynical, and this book in particular seems to emphasize that a bit. Not that I really mind and not that it makes for bad stories, but I'm just saying.
To my surprise, one of the things that I'm
the most excited for after having read this was Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters, if only for the whole switcheroo in tone near the end of that chapter. You've got your political intrigue and your mean military commanders and your government-sponsored superheroes so the point where I was wondering if this was just the DCU's response to the Civil War...and then the last few pages swing around and pull the carpet from under our feet. I'm intrigued, definitely.
Some quick thoughts on the other heroes' chapters in no particular order...
Captain Marvel: While Winick's penchant for filling the page up with text boxes telling us things that we already know just from looking at the pretty pictures is far from Claremontian proportions, it's definitely a looming danger. "He's Freddy Freeman." "She's Mary Marvel." "He's Captain Marvel." Damnit Judd,
WE KNOW!!!
Other than that, the art looks great and the storylines are halfway interesting. Count me in.
The Atom: Well it's cute, I'll say that. And "In your face, polite society!" was definitely a memorable line, and Gail Simone's writing is as clean as ever, interspersed with quotes from scientists both fictional and real. I like Ryan as a character, perhaps since -- as some people have pointed out -- he's pretty much just an Asian Ray Palmer, but unless the official first issue blows me away I probably won't be adding this to my list.
OMAC: Chaotic and confusing and disorienting...but it works. I hear horror stories about Bruce Jones' writing, but based on this short story alone it doesn't seem to be
so bad.
The Creeper: "What if Bill Maher was a superhero?" Not too bad if I were ever interested in the character at all.
Martian Manhunter: I'm...cautiously interested. I liked the fake-out with the Justice League posters and the writing is okay, but this just feels like another bump in the long line of "Let's make our nice heroes meaner and more hardcore and edgy and..." completely with edgy costume redesign. Perhaps that's just exactly what the Martian needs -- I wouldn't know, I always thought he was just fine the way he is -- and perhaps he'll just revert to his old state in a few years. We'll see.
(8 out of 10)
Young Avengers #12
Pretty much as good as we'd all expected it to be. Action that feels like action, gorgeous art and colors, and great characterizations all around. Not a single panel is wasted and there's a satisfying finish. Oh sure, it was all pretty predictable except for that one fake-out that even Captain America didn't see coming
, but it's a great kind of predictable.
Heinberg continues to clean up after the mess that others like Bendis leaves behind and honors Hawkeye's deeds and his memory. Maybe it's because I've been reading DC for a while, but yes that's how I see it, as an act of honor instead of "loLzNEXT!"
(10 out of 10)
52 Week 8
"You guys spend
weeks spaced out on alien
fruit!" -quote of the week
The space crew are caught by space giants, Lex Luthor's plan comes unveiled, Ollie's heart bleeds all over the carpet, Booster and Clark Kent team up, and Natasha Irons learns the dangers of working on battle armor while dressed in a low cut t-shirt.
Wacker has mentioned that thought Natasha becoming a superhero wasn't such a good thing to happen to the character, but I always thought it was one of the best; the issue where she teamed up with Cir-El and Staci 13 was one of my first memorable encounters with DC. I hope she can somehow regain her armor by the end of 52 -- hell, I hope she's still
alive by then -- but I have to say I'm enjoying this storyline very much.
For the first time, the History of the DCU doesn't feel entirely out of place and even seems to have a purpose. But then again, maybe I'm just saying that because we've finally caught up to a point where I actually remember reading some of this stuff. Although...hmph...no mention of Linda Danvers
.
(8.9 out of 10)
X-Factor #8
Like I said in another thread...I'm really not quite sure what this team is doing, but they are so interesting and amusing doing it that hell, I just don't care. Peter David writes these characters like nobody's business.
Siryn makes a very compelling case against the reg act, incidentally.
Quicksilver and Layla's conversational debate got real close to "From my perspective the
Jedi are evil!!" corniness, but thankfully didn't quite make it. What was
really cool was the notion that Quicksilver and Layla are somehow nemiseseseses, and that a portion of his genes carry the chaos factor too which makes him a bit immune to Layla's own predictions.
As good as the issue was, what
really got my attention was the the last response in the letter page that someone pointed out to me, in which Peter David pretty much openly admits that there's close to no coordination between the X-writers concerning the whole Decimation O*N*E 198 nonsense which...frankly, is a surprise to a total of no one. Everyone should check it out to see the real deal behind Marvel continuity.
(8.5 out of 10)
Ion #3
Okay so it reads a little cliche, "When dead girlfriends attack!", but then you consider that Kyle's had
three dead girlfriends and it becomes a bit more charming and almost necessary. I liked the fact that Marz likened all of Kyle's costume changes to his girlfriends of the month. The whole "history of the character dream intervention" thing is not really anything that we haven't seen before, but it works. A character like Kyle Rayner is much less about the subtext and much more about the, uh, text. Marz also sets up a nice scene which reveals that Kyle's really not afraid of new powers or anything -- getting new powers is what he's done forever now, and he's way used to it -- but afraid of what this new powers would do to people around him considering what his powers have always done to people around him. It's ridiculously simple and straightforward pathos but again, Kyle's never been overly complicated. It's when you overwhelm him with layers upon layers of psychoses and angst and subtleties that the character loses his charm.
(7 out of 10)
Crisis Aftermath: the Spectre #2
Damn, that last page. I should have seen that coming from a mile away yet it totally caught me off guard and made me
WAY excited for the next issue.
Pfeifer has set up a great and interesting little dynamic between Crispus and the Spectre; Cris isn't really
the Spectre himself so much as he's the Spectre's partner. With Hal Jordan, while you knew that the Spirit of Vengeance was still a separate thing than him, he would also be performing a lot of acts of his own will and of his own design...he
became the Spectre in most ways. In this case of Cris, he would engage in conversation with the Spectre and question him constantly, walking and acting and thinking separate from him. It reads really well, 'cause even though the Spectre may be God's right hand and all unknowable and all that, Cris himself brings the human perspective to how hollow and ineffectual and even inane this whole vengeance gig is. All in all, a great read.
(9 out of 10)
