Average sized week, onward with the spoilers!
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 9/26/12:
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES #14: As IDW's era of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics begins a second year, the company's output has increased as summer has stretched into fall. Since August 22nd, two issues of this ongoing series as well as two issues of the spin off "micro series" have shipped, offering quality Ninja Turtle tales for fans new and old. New regular series artist Andy Kuhn (FIREBREATHER) once again unites with series storytellers Kevin Eastman and Tom Waltz, as well as colorist Ronda Pattison for another terrific issue of this exceptional revision of a 28 year old franchise. While one could state that this issue is light on action and heavy on dialogue and exposition in comparison to other issues, this is also an issue which offers a contrast of fathers. Often lost with the ninja action and catch phrases is that TMNT at its core is a story about families; the 2003 era animated series capitalized on this fact well, and this newer comic series also utilizes such contrasts for richer content.
There are a lot of subplots which are furthered along in this issue, both from previous issues and the micro-series, which begin to gel into a cohesive whole. Three father figures are showcased in this issue - Splinter, Shredder, and Casey Jones' father - and the contrasts are surprisingly not quite as black and white as one would expect. The Shredder, who has been resurrected from Feudal times by his granddaughter Karai, still clings to ancient sexist traditions and seeks a male heir to his criminally violent Foot Clan. Mr. Jones is an alcoholic bully who verbally and often physically abuses Casey, and this situation comes to a head when Casey turns up with his new friends with bruises. Splinter is naturally the more positive role model, but this issue (as well as this series) have made certain not to paint Splinter as a flawless monk. Eastman and Waltz have wisely chosen to explain Splinter's endless patience for Raphael's reckless rage because he has battled it himself in his youth and prior life. This leads to a decision to expand the Ninja Turtle family to include their new human allies, as well as a declaration of war against their enemies. As a bonus, General Krang explains more of his past to Baxtor Stockman, which effectively merges lore from the 1980's cartoon series as well as the original Mirage Studios material.
Kuhn's artwork still takes some getting used to after a year of Dan Duncan's pencils defining the book. His line work is simple and there are some people who may see some panels as rushed. However, there is always a charm to his illustrative style and Kuhn fearlessly dives into the fantastic sci-fi/ninja designs which this series requires. Over time the look of the book will become Kuhn's own if he remains on it long enough, and he is well on the way towards that reality.
This is a "quiet" issue of TMNT with more character development and exposition than combat within 22 pages, but it is an issue which gets right to the core of the franchise and executes it excellently. It remains the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles product released by any medium since Viacom purchased the property in 2010 and an excellent example of how to mine a franchise's many incarnations and adaptations into a cohesive and entertaining new whole.
INVINCIBLE #95: This issue of Robert Kirkman's seminal Image Comics superhero series has shipped late; probably due to co-creator Cory Walker having the task of drawing most of this issue. Walker's struggle with monthly deadlines are why he originally handed off art chores on this series to Ryan Ottley after issue eight or nine many years ago. By this stage it is easy to claim that Robot and Monster Girl have taken over the book for months. The narrative has been driven by the centuries they spent in another dimension attempting to stop a threat to earth, which has now bitten them and their fellow heroes in the face. This might be a problem if this narrative didn't burst with imagination with every panel and benefit from top notch artwork from Walker along with colors by John Rauch. World building, kinky alien sex, space armor, and more are all woven into a saga told in flashback of how Robot and Monster Girl saved and then lost both an entire world and their romance. While there are moments where the action comes to a halt for a ride on a flashback train, but it is a fair alternative to reliance on gore (which Kirkman has done for stretches on this title). The spotlight on these long term supporting characters has been interesting, although one hopes the title will not ware out their welcome and shine the spotlight back on the stars soon.
SUPER-DINOSAUR #14: Lost in the promotion cycles for WALKING DEAD #100 and even INVINCIBLE #100 is this title; another Robert Kirkman written SKYBOUND publication, although one which sells at the bottom of the Top 300 (at best) and unless trades and merchandise (t-shirts and a coloring book) are selling SUPER-WELL, can't be making much profit by itself. Regardless, this collaboration with Jason Howard continues with with a very imaginative world and a tightly woven stories around an extending cast. Despite the title, the real star for much of the series was the super genius kid Derek Dynamo. He has since been kidnapped by his enemy the Exile and brought to "inner earth", the world within earth's hollow core where dinosaurs and apparently a race of reptile-men come from. The Exile it a literal exile from the royal family of his people who was banished for claiming a surface world exists; he has since brought Derek there to lead a rebellion against the monarchy. Meanwhile, Super-Dinosaur and the rest of Derek's friends have traveled to "inner earth" to rescue him, and wind up having to battle giant dinosaurs and sleep outdoors. Kirkman writes an interesting story in which he has painted the Exile as a fairly sympathetic villain seeking to save his people from a stubborn monarch, but from Derek's perspective Exile seeks an invasion of his world, and thus betrays him. Some may say this is tailor made for an animated TV series on a cable network, and frankly Western animation probably needs more series like this. It is perhaps a shame, but nothing too surprising, that this series is struggling in sales as much as it is. I imagine Kirkman's earnings from WALKING DEAD and other works allow him to fund as many vanity projects as he likes, but surely this is better than some ARCHIE material or JUNGLE GIRL, which usually outsell it. It is an acquired taste, as usual. One has to like their Saturday morning cartoons and dinosaurs.
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #694: With a cover which pays homage to the crossover comic of 1976 between Superman and Spider-Man, the "ALPHA" story line comes to an action packed and character heavy conclusion after three issues. Longtime solo writer Dan Slott once again unites with reoccurring regular artist Humberto Ramos, inker Victor Olazaba and colorist Edgar Delgado to finish a story which got media attention and has become one of the biggest challenges of responsibility that Peter Parker has faced. One of his experiments for Horizon Labs empowered random teenager Andy Macguire (named after two of the actors who have played Spidey in film) with limitless cosmic energy which he has used to become a superhero named Alpha. Despite training by Spider-Man and an abduction by the Jackal, Alpha remains a reckless, often selfish and completely shameless superhero more concerned with media appearances than battling evil. Spider-Man considers Alpha his responsibility, although with Alpha seeming to appear more and more unworthy of the powers of a demigod, he has thus decided to try to strip those powers away. While MJ sought to make the point that Andy is simply being a normal teenager, the story has developed him into an overpowered brat. This issue contrasts the suspense of Spider-Man trying to save his aunt and new step-uncle from a private plane crash with the over-the-top spandex brawl between the Avengers and Terminus. Slott has made better original characters than Alpha before, and this story does risk being seen as skillfully promoted filler. However, it did pose an interesting moral dilemma for the titular hero and promises a much more suspenseful arc to come. As always, Ramos' art works best with far-out characters as well as action sequences, and this issue provides many of those; he even draws Captain Marvel's new design well. With Slott's solo run on this longstanding title nearing a second anniversary, he shows little sign of rust or ware, even if some arcs are better than others.
FF #22: Against my better judgement I picked up this issue of the FANTASTIC FOUR spin off - which I abandoned once FANTASTIC FOUR returned after Johnny's resurrection - because the last issue of Fan 4 posed quite a cliffhanger between Wizard and his cloned son, Bentley 24. While the issue itself is perfectly fine, it doesn't quite live up to that cliffhanger for me. FF has naturally become the series in which Jonathan Hickman follows his child characters of the Future Foundation (while Fantastic Four covers the adult heroes). Val decides to take Bentley to A.I.M. Island for a last chance to meet his father. Naturally this leads to a confrontation between Bentley and the Wizard. Naturally, Bentley proves to not simply be the sum of DNA and Wizard continues to be a lunatic (although the source of that being a brain tumor isn't bad). It is a good scene but for me it wasn't quite worth the price of admission. The art by Andre Araujo and colors by Cris Peter isn't bad although the large eyes the kids have can seem a little jarring, making them look like dolls (or ASTRO-BOY characters). Perhaps that is intended. The issue does state Val's physical age as 3 years old, so a romance between her and Bentley should satisfy that fringe of "loli" fans who troll Deviant Art. This isn't a bad issue by any means, but perhaps my expectations for it were too high as Hickman winds down his long run on the franchise.
SECRET AVENGERS #31: It is interesting to read this alongside WINTER SOLDIER. This issue has Black Widow fighting a brain-washed Hawkeye, and WINTER SOLDIER has Hawkeye and Bucky fighting a brain-washed Black Widow. It's as if Chris Claremont has become senior editor somewhere; that man loved him some brainwashing stories. Writer Rick Remender has been picking at the leftovers of Ed Brubaker's launch run on this series by having Max Fury organize an island of villains as well as assemble all of the Serpent Crowns they were after. Unfortunately, the attempt to recover it by the Secret Avengers failed, and now the mystical Abyss has possessed Taskmaster and now spread to possess everyone on the island. It seems only Venom and Ant-Man are immune; the former due to his symbiote and the latter due to his ant-helmet (or being a Super Adaptoid replicant). Venom and Ant-Man seek to stop the possessed masses from spreading the condition by flying to other countries, and Black Widow beams in to assist - which means fighting their own teammates. This might seem boring but the art by Matteo Scalera with Matthew Wilson's colors makes wonders of the action segments, and all of the villains showing up are essentially Remender showing off his continuity skills - Vengeance and the Squid of all villains get some notable sequences here. This is clearly a middle chapter, but Remender manages to make it fun and exciting enough in a manner which this title never was for much of the time I read it before. I am quickly dismissing the AVX crossover as an editorially mandated hiccup and enjoying the rest of the Remender run here. I do wonder what he'll bring to UNCANNY AVENGERS.
WINTER SOLDIER #11: As much as I enjoy Ed Brubaker's work on this title - more so than I have his work on CAPTAIN AMERICA since its relaunch - his suspenseful stories are also themselves predictable. Essentially, a Brubaker suspense thriller will consist of a mastermind villain who is always one step ahead of the hero yet leaves enough bread crumb clues behind for variable reasons to keep the chase alive until they reach the stage direction which calls for the villain to finally lose. To a degree this happened with Red Skull for years until CAPTAIN AMERICA REBORN, is happening with Codename Bravo in CA in a more crude manner and will ultimately happen with Leo Novokov, the former Soviet super-soldier giving Barnes all sorts of problems. He's successfully re-programmed Black Widow into being a deadly Commie spy again and is rubbing Barnes' face in it for revenge. Barnes has recruited Hawkeye and Wolverine to attempt to rescue Natasha, although not even they seem to do more but hammer A.I.M. grunts. As always Brubaker establishes a great mood and is a master at Barnes' voice to the point that regardless of it being predictable it is always a good read. The art by Butch Guice and Brian Thies is up to its usual standard of quality and perhaps the best scene is the cliffhanger, in which Leo offers a terrible choice for Barnes - submit to his own re-programming or never get close enough to save Natasha. It will frankly be a shame to see Brubaker leave this title and character after so many years - I often found him easier to relate to than the often flawless Steve Rogers. Still, there is still a chunk of story left to enjoy here.
X-MEN LEGACY #274: In this issue of Christos Gage's run on XML - an adventure starring Rogue! Next in other surprises, water is wet, fire is hot, and politicians lie. By this point literally the only issue of Gage's run which didn't star or heavily focus on Rogue was the one about Frenzy. David Baldeon returns to art chores as Magneto enters this issue to allow Gage to tie a bow on their "relationship". I imagine with Rogue set to join the Uncanny Avengers and Magneto off to whatever awaits him after AVX, these two have to be split up. They come together to save some trapped civilians in a subway tunnel and naturally spread their soap opera all over the scene as only X-Men seem to do. The final act relies upon the two coming across a mortally wounded man with regrets regarding his own lover which does broach the point of becoming preachy - a trend which Gage sometimes indulges in. In the end Rogue and Magneto agree to just be friends for various reasons - namely that Rogue wants to live life under her own personality without being led by a figurehead again. What a wonderful time, then, for her to join a team featuring Captain America led by Havok, right? Regardless, that isn't Gage's fault and the issue is perfectly fine and readable, although I would hardly call it a home run. It hits that average of "good, but not great" that it seems most of his run on XML has become. Whatever knack Gage has for Avengers series seems to escape him on X-Men stuff, which is quite curious. The final issue is the last for him and I don't expect anything epic, but I wouldn't mind being surprised - especially since AVENGERS ACADEMY has seen an upswing in quality as it winds down.
