A rather mediocre week. Small, and none of the books I got were books I really "yearn" for in that sense, or even dreaded and had the pleasure of at least complaining. They're just sort of there, if you can relate. I also may give AMERICAN WAY a try. It seems March ends with a whimper, not a bang, for me.
It appears that ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN has gotten "good" again since I left. Too bad. I had to make my break from that passive-aggressive, frustrating title and CLONE SAGA was it. You can't just go running back to your ex after a nasty breakup just because they lost 5 lbs and dyed their hair. The same issues remain. Anyway, trade was so better for that book anyway.
As always, full spoilers.
DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT for 3/28/07:
52 WEEK #47: The issue's focus touches on a messload of stories without really allowing one to take dominance, and that at least starts to get some house-cleaning in order to try to tie up some loose ends. Animal-Man becomes a cosmic god-moder and seemingly returns to his wife, only to find her recieving the comforts of another man since his departure. Guess now he knows how Spawn felt. Bruce Wayne goes to Narnda Parbat to do more soul-purging so he could meet international versions of himself OYL in BATMAN. Intergang bickers over not being able to find Batwoman, only to use the tomes to get around to finding her via her secret identity, and she's taken before she can reunite with Montoya, AKA the New Question. The docs at Oolong Island are working on brainwashing Black Adam. Steel & Nat open up their own group and Nat's pretty much become a convert of her uncle now, having learned the lessons of the "quick and easy" path. And Wonder Woman is set on her path to OYL, where the same inability for anyone to write a proper version of her still holds her back. The Titans, or rather the Johns relaunch, gets the origin here. The preview art looks a bit sketchy, like something Eastman & Laird would have drawn in 1985. Hopefully it'll look better colored & inked. Nothing bad but nothing special, just more set-up, and as we have 5 issues left, I am hoping we get to more dramatic stuff soon. What happened to Booster Gold and the Skeets thing? And will it all wrap up, or simply end with a "buy more now! At a higher price!" sort of ending that will make me glad Marvel outsells them? Time will tell.
BLUE BEETLE #13: Giffen is completely gone from the credits and Rogers is writing this baby solo now. I can't say I have noticed any dramatic difference, to be honest, which means the two were from the same page or one of them didn't contribute as much. This title is like superhero fast food for me. Enough to please me but nothing really sustaining or substantial. But in the modern age of negavity, heroes vs. heroes and all that, simply being good, clean superhero fun can be enough, even if it's nothing groundbreaking. It's another "make someone ethnic into the next legacy hero" from DC, but at least I like the characters. Blue Beetle & Peacemaker are making for a good little duo together (no, not in that way). We once again deal with a plot about BB's origin, a plotline that seemed exhausted last year, only this time it is going somewhere. Again, it is nothing terribly new; it is revealed that Jamie's alien scarab is "broken" because when it hit earth it was exposed to magical energy, and the aliens who are behind it are doing the "To Serve Man" schtick (acting nice so they can soften Earth up for conquest, which is only 75% as played out as "swarms of invader warrior aliens with"). These aliens seem to be interested in profit stuff, so they're like warrior Ferengie (Trekkies, spelling?). And they test Jamie by attaching scarabs to a bunch of random people and having them go on a rampage. The scarab doesn't bond with them correctly and Beetle is able to get them to stop without hurting anyone, and is publically hailed as a hero. To eyes sore from CW, it almost seems like a rare thing to read a mainstream comic and see the public actually GRATEFUL for a superhero, vs. just wishing they'd all leave them alone. This title has meandered a while, and while I am not convinced that where it is going where be anything dramatically unique, it is still a fun, stress free read with some nice visuals and quirky characters, so I'll still get it. It's just not a book I count down the weeks for.
HUNTER/KILLER #12: Due to the extreme lateness halfway through, this title's seemed like it took forever to get here, but unlike ULTIMATES 2, after some horrid embarrassment at letting 7+ months go by between issues, Top Cow really buckled under and made sure the rest of Vol. 1 shipped on time. On a related tangent, comics really have to stop trying to ape on the popularity of TV shows by calling volumes "seasons". They are not seasons, they are volumes, stop pandering. That said, H/K #12 has a finale that puts a bookend on this long chapter of the story but leaves plenty of room for more. Given that Waid has been busy of late and it took 3 artists to get us here, teasing us with another volume that may not come may not be the best thing to do; I made that mistake with a little book called SHADOW REAVERS from Black Bull (Wizard's shortlived comic publishing company). That said, it ties up the loose ends and leaves a definate story for part two. Basically, both sides come to a conflict and a final twist is revealed; Morningstar's entire story was bull, but not because he's a lying *****e, but because Cassandra's vision was so horrible, he used his own powers to pursade himself of his own lies. It's a meshing of psychobabble and superpowers, but it worked for me. Ellis, tired of being a pawn, puts an end to the conflict and seemingly sees a future with Morningstar dead being a lot worse, and ices Cassandra. Honestly, I was figuring that she had some alterior motives, but she claimed Ellis "misunderstood" the vision at the end, so now I'm not sure if this was a triumph or a tragedy, which at least will make me think about it longer than some other comics. Hopefully H/K won't relaunch with a new #1, because that's tacky, but I must say I enjoyed the story despite some cliches and latenesses, and would definately read more of this Waid creation. It recycles some old bits but puts on enough new spins that you don't notice as much, even if the art always reminds you of the mid 90's. Not a groundbreaking work, but a sleeper sort of story.
ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR #40: Quite frankly, ULTIMATE POWER has been a more entertaining UFF story than this one. Carey came aboard having done some short, enjoyable, but generic UFF stories before, and after spending 6 issues on an ungodly conveluted and needlessly gibberish-ladin exploration story, he's back to doing shorter, more generic superhero stories. So we have the Four going back in time to fight the mad alchamist Diablo. It is a little jarring to go from the beginning of the Ultimate line when everything was all black leather, techno-babble and cynicism, to a universe that is actually capable of accepting daffy and hammy story elements like magic and time travel. It is a change of pace, but I am not sure if it doesn't simply repeat some of the problems of 616 (although ULTIMATE X-MEN is in more danger of that, to be frank). Kolins and Brooks share the art chores again, and the effect is doable, although I don't care for Brooks' Johnny Storm for some reason. Dressing as carnival attractions to enter the past was an amusing bit, and considering how utterly lame the 616 Diablo is, this version actually seems more dangerous, if not still hammy and cliched. He reminds me of what the writers of INVINCIBLE IRON MAN did with Mandarin; rather than Diablo being a modern man pretending to be some past mage, in Ultimate he IS some past mage. And yes, I equate alchemy to magic, because I am lazy. Ultimate also has allowed the UFF some family members, like a little sister to Reed and a doting mother to Thing, which would have worked better if only we'd seen more of them before they conviently showed up to be kidnapped. Better late than never, though. There are are some other mages who are enemies of Diablo who are being manipulated into fighting the Four, but I really don't care about them, they're just stock guardian types. All they're missing is a Healing Chick and a Guy with a Hammer. But at least this story is easy to follow and readable as a straightforward adventure story. And it has the benefit of Ultimatizing a villian who honestly couldn't have been recreated any worse. It also shows that we're reaching the bottom of the barrel for UFF rogues. Not great, but not confusing like the last. Just coming off of Millar's greatness, it is a helluva dive.
ULTIMATE X-MEN #80: Kirkman's worst title, hands down, and this issue, while decent, does nothing to dispell that fact in my eyes. He was great in MTU, and ANT-MAN, and INVINCIBLE, and whatever else he has done, but here he seems more awkward. It also is frustrating that Paquette, who is good with action but less dramatic with talking scenes, gets a lot of the "talky" issues, and Oliver, who is serviceable with talking scenes and utter garbage on action, gets the "action" issues. This has happened a few times and I am fearing it will happen again. The cover amused me; firstly, are Ultimate Wolverine's gloves really yellow now, like Jubilee's? And secondly, I can't get all awed at a cover suggesting that Logan leaves the mansion, because even in Ultimate that is a fairly regular action for Logan. He left at the end of Millar's run (or was booted by Cyke before being re-invited), and he went on solo missions during every run since, and has sometimes stated not being on the same page. This is little different. Still, the strongest bits of the issue are when the characters try to deal with the loss of Xavier, a plotline that has been done to death in 616 but still is fresh for Ultimate. Scott, Jean, and Ororo have inherited Xavier's assets and go about trying to find the best way to carry on. Scott takes Jean's refusal of his engagement ring very well, then essentially suggests they stop being paramilitary and simply be a school. Kind of like Emma Frost's school. Which, as NEW MUTANTS showed, was utterly defenseless against those who want to hurt mutants, which was why the world needed X-Men to have to fight (that was the entire moral). Granted, considering Xavier died in such a paramilitary act I can understand Scott wanting to maybe cut back on those. At least if I forget the hard-arse rear-smasher that Millar wrote him as, that got me to enjoy the character. Of course we know the "just being a school" bit can't last, so there is the fear of the moral of NEW MUTANTS being repeated, and if Ultimate X-Men has to resort to endlessly recycling itself at under 100 issues, it is in trouble. But then again, USM couldn't avoid that either. Pyro is introduced, Nightcrawler is back up, and it turns out Xavier isn't really dead, which is good because his death scene was awkwardly paced. The biggest problem is that Kirkman has now established time travel into the X-Men mythos, which is one of the many things that has drained on the 616 franchise as a needless detail that pulls away from their main point and just wastes time over and over (much like aliens and alternate realities). Ultimate was created to free the X-Men from that kind of trite and I dislike it that Kirkman is shoving us back into that. Not to mention his version of Cable is not entirely creative, at least compared to Vaughan's versions of Longshot or even Mr. Sinister. He's essentually the same guy, just a Howlett and not a Summers. Still, it is a step up from some past issues but I can't shake the honest feeling that when Vaughan was on, I eagerly begged for every issue, and about a year into Kirkman's run, despite enjoying him on pretty much every book of his that I read, I just am not clicking as well with his Ultimate X-Men. He uses a lot of characters, he's kept Vaughan's tone away from bitter cynicism, and done some good things. But, much like UFF, going from "good" to "average" is a dip in quality that cannot help but be noticed. At least it seems Kirkman may have a storyarc coming, even if it just means more Cable. I'd have rathered Chronok. He also continues Vaughan's misstep of writing Iceman as a goofy idiot, which is also a bit of a departure from Millar's intention. His Iceman was actually competant with a sense of humor, and I liked that. On the plus side, his Ultimate Pyro is more interesting than his Cable sure is.
Poor Goliath.
