As always, full reviews (of at least 3-5 books I get) are posted at Examiner.com first, since they actually pay me. You may access it in my link or here:
http://www.examiner.com/x-19829-Bro...-Day--November-11th-2009-Veterans-Day-Special
At any rate, this week for me was a bit of a "Meh" week. None of the books I bought were bad, but nothing knocked my socks off. Some weeks when I get 5+ books, it is a challenge whittling down only 3 or 4 to review at Examiner; this week it was a chore finding 3 worth reviewing at Examiner. At the very least, the "Meh" week allowed my lone DC book to shine for once. As always, rants contain spoilers, so beware!
Dread's Bought/Thought for 11/11/09:
BOOSTER GOLD #26: This was easily my "pick of the week" over at Examiner as BOOSTER GOLD does it's obligatory tie-in with Blackest Night. And why not? It ties into other DC events, it could surely use the surge in sales, and Booster's got a dead friend. If there is any downside, it is that Booter's regret and mourning for Ted Kord, as well as his feelings about the rest of the League about his death, have been covered in this book before, either by Jurgens or by Geoff Johns. It is still executed well, but it is still a bit of a repeat. As opposed to solicitations, Matt Sturges is not credited on the cover or interior with any co-writing credit. All 30 pages are lead story; Mike Norton, the back-up artist, instead devoted his eight pages to covering Jaime Reyes scenes when he enters the story, which is a solid idea. As always, the art is excellent.
The Black Lantern resurrects Ted Kord, going over his death as well as Booster's origin, and now we have Zombie-Kord with energy powers seeking to destroy his old friend. He first targets Daniel Carter, Booster's 21st century ancestor (and formerly Supernova). Meanwhile, Rip sends Skeets to find Booster, and in the process Skeets recruits Reyes, who decides that he wants to keep the "blue and gold" legacy alive and pitch in. Unfortunately, this makes him a target of Zombie Kord as well.
While on the subject of BLACKEST NIGHT, I am amazed that DC so captured the zombie
Zietgiest as well while Marvel wasted it with Marvel Zombies years ago. They decided to mingle zombies with Green Lanterns, as well as the comic fetish of needless death and resurrection, into a no-brainer kind of event premise. Marvel is trying to do X-NECROSHA, but it's too late and the timing makes it seem like a shameless rip. Which it is - Marvel does that too. Anyone remember IDENTITY DISC?
At any rate, Booster goes back to the wake for Kord and regrets his inability to say a proper eulogy, and it's powerful stuff even if we more or less know a bit of it before. It is worth nothing that Jurgens writes Diana/WW as being warm and compassionate, some could argue the most so at the funeral. At the end of the issue we naturally have quite a cliffhanger, with Zombie Kord about to kill Dan Carter. Considering the arc in which Kord actually was saved from his death by Booster, which caused a time paradox, this in a way is a solid resolution of it. Or at least a new angle to play on it; Kord is back, but he's an evil zombie lantern thing. At any rate, this is an effective first installment to the BN tie-in for BOOSTER GOLD, and whatever extra orders from retailers it got, they are deserved. BLACKEST NIGHT is actually allowing DC to steadily compete with Marvel again for the first time since about 2006, so it may as well get BOOSTER GOLD on the bandwagon. The art's great, some solid lines, just overall a good issue. Not perfect but still good, and in a way it is a good that a "meh" week allows me to appreciate this title just a little bit more than I was.
REALM OF KINGS: IMPERIAL GUARD #1: To be honest, when this was solicited, I thought this would be the one REALM OF KINGS book I would take a pass on. But like THE TORCH #1, it happened to debut on a slow week, so I gave it a try. Despite Abnett & Lanning's talent, this one is a bit of a misfire for me, and at $4 an issue for another four issues, I may not bite for a second helping. My initial impression proved to be right.
Even the cover is weird; Gladiator has a mohawk, yes, but he is supposed to still has hair on the sides of his head.
The interior is hard to get into. In a way it is similar to JUDGE DREDD in a way; you are following the star enforcers of a fascist regime as they crush "rebellion", essentially. Kallark may be running things for the Shi'ar now, but things aren't all hunky dorey. Some of his fellow Guard mates resent the fact that "one of them" is in charge and are more used to some form of regal splendor, either through royal blood or whatever; Vulcan at least married his way to the top (worked for John Kerry, right?). Half of the issue is spent crushing a "rebellion" on one of the Shi'ar's planets. The planet where they always get their war machines manufactured was stretched to the limit of starvation under Vulcan, and when Kallark doesn't cut them any sort of break, they decide to turn on the empire. Hey, that doesn't sound so unreasonable. Unfortunately for them, the Shi'ar are in favor of the public option (all for the empire, and nothing for you, in the name of equality), and naturally they send their guard to slaughter everyone. Abnett & Lanning try to use their trademark snappy banter, but the Guard are poor targets for it. They've always been bad guys, and they still are. Gladiator is just the LEAST heel of them, but that doesn't instantly make him a babyface. They do the empire a great service by crushing those who just wanted to not starve while under work orders, but get into a brawl in the mess hall.
Kallark is back in his normal duds despite getting a spiffy new costume in WHO WILL RULE, and naturally is still unsure of himself in the ruling role. If the issue has any positives, it is in the form of two twists. The first is Talon, the Raptor who got Powell from Earth, posing as Kallark's head executive to carry out some plot, as well as the Starjammers, or at least Raza and Ch'od, showing up at the end. Future solicits claim the Starjammers play a larger role in subsequent issues, but if so, why not just make this a Starjammers series to begin with, rather than trying to make fascist brutes seem appealing?
The art is by Kevin Walker, and if he had to be taken off chores on GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY for this drivel, then I can only shake my head in disappointment. This isn't terrible, but it's clearly the worst thing from Abnett & Lanning I have read, especially for four bucks. Even some of their stumbles during ANNIHILATION CONQUEST weren't as disappointing, and that I could at least attribute to growing pains. If anything, this shows that the excellence of NOVA or GOTG is hardly easy, and that it takes hard work every month.
I think Christos Gage managed to tell a better story with just one of the Guard in PLANET SKAAR than Abnett & Lanning did with the whole troop. Whether I bite on issue two will merely come down to how slow a week it is. The two decent hooks just aren't enough to overcome the negatives here. Nice try, I guess.
STRANGE #1: The other new launch from Marvel, this one by famed writer Mark Waid, whose popularity has probably faded at least a tad from his Fan Four years. Now he applies his trade for the semi-annual obligatory mini series that Marvel designates to Doctor Strange, alongside art by Emma Rios with color work by the always talented Christina Strain. If any launch had a misleading cover, it is this one. The cover is all gritty and arcane, and the art from Rios looks like it was made for SPIDER-MAN LOVES MARY JANE, or perhaps a mediocre fill in for Alphona on RUNAWAYS. For Dr. Strange it can be a bit jarring, even if Rios draws some decent demons, and Strain as always does incredible color work.
Dr. Strange of course has gone though quite a bit since 2007, since WORLD WAR HULK and since Vaughan and Martin launched their excellent five issue THE OATH mini, which is better than this in every possible way. If THE OATH proved anything, it shattered the lie that Marvel has convinced themselves of, and that they have in turn convinced fans; that Dr. Strange is too powerful and thus cannot be written in an interesting manner in a suspenseful story. The fact that writers were able to do that for about 25 years was a fluke I suppose. Instead, editorial and Bendis has seen Dr. Strange stripped of his rank as Sorceror Supreme, and with damaged hands, even unable to do low level spells. The aim of this first issue is to show that Strange is still trying to defend the world from supernatural threats, only he relies on luck, wit, and guile more than outright magic. Essentially, to become HELLBLAZER. There was even a story in HELLBLAZER in which John Constantine took on a soccer-demon. In this issue, Strange takes on a demon who has a thing for baseball. Sports and heroes in Marvel have usually been tough sells and led to shoddy stories (must I dig out the comic in which a football match played by Spider-Man and a bunch of misfit kids somehow saved the life of Uatu the Watcher from some dopey alien?).
In this issue, we meet our point-of-view heroine, Casey Kinmont, the grand-daughter of a baseball team owner who has blue hair, trendy glasses and who texts too much. She happens to accidentally "meet" Stephen Strange, who seems to be an overzealous basefall fan, only is in fact there to save everyone in the stadium from losing their souls to a demon. The demon captures the pair and zaps Casey's grandfather, but Strange is able to help the two escape and outwits the demon by, of all things, serving as the final batter of the game. Strange apparently "wins" by deliberately being hit with a pitch, but the art is a bit inconsistent so you rely on the dialogue. While Casey is "a natural" at magic (she would HAVE to be for the premise to work), Strange seems to disappear at the end of the issue. Anyone want to bet he shows up again in the next? It's only called STRANGE.
What is "STRANGE" is how Marvel seems to think making Strange mundane is what will help him, and that Waid seems to agree. If they wanted a low rate magician, there was always Mortigan Goth - Immortalis or something. He's even British, like Constantine is. If they wanted an apprentice, whatever happened to Jinx from DARKHOLD REDEEMER issues?
At any rate, it won't be a story like this which gets Strange back into the big time. What always perplexes me about B or C list franchises that Marvel convince themselves can't sell is that they almost never relaunch them in a position to capitalize on their strength. They always think they need a "twist", and the twist usually eliminates about 85% of what made that franchise work or was once enjoyed about it. The NEW WARRIORS are a case file on this sort of problem, and Dr. Strange could be similar. Making him mundane is as effective as making VERTIGO's Sandman mundane. Waid means well, and overall it's not a terrible or offensive story, but it all feels very mediocre, very episodic, very poor-man's manga. Strain's colors really make Rios' art pop and I would like to seem them handle other projects. But this didn't click for me at all.
UNCANNY X-MEN FIRST CLASS #5: This issue is an improvement over last month's with Jean, Storm, the Daughters of the Dragon and Nightshade, but it still doesn't have the energy or charm of the first three issues. The problem with this roster line up is that so many stories have been done with them by Claremont and others that when things don't click, it feels like some lost issue of X-MEN CLASSICS or some lost story for a UXM annual from 1977 or so. The Roger Cruz cover is cool, and the interior art by Nelson Decastro & Scott Koblish is fine. However, the subplot with the alien "Knights of Hyklon" come to a head is quite a bit of "seen it, done it" stuff for the X-Men. Especially this class of X-Men. This was the era when the X-Men started fighting more aliens than the Fantastic Four and Star Trek combined. No exaggeration.
The Knights tear up the orbital base of Xavier's friend, and are impossibly, boringly invincible. They can grab psychic ghost forms, and the smallest one of them can fight the entire X-Men and spank them like pets. Jean and Storm are returning from their "vacation" and end up fighting one as well.
Would this story be functionally more impressive if it was still the real "first class" (maybe with Havok and Polaris around)? No. But I've seen that class fight aliens less than this one, historically. Scott Gray has a nice grasp on the dialogue and some of the banter between the characters is nice, but this all had a vibe of "been here, done that, got the reprint" to it. Plus, the plot point of "new threat emerges, beats the entire team with ease" became a cliche only because it was done with the X-Men so often. Why else is Colossus the crappiest 85 ton tanker in comics? I like this series overall, but these last two issues have hardly been their best, and I'm not sure these alien Knights will lead to more ideal stuff. Scott Gray would be better off doing more grounded, personal stories.
VENGEANCE OF THE MOON KNIGHT #3: In the “meh” week, this passed for second best book after BOOSTER GOLD #26 for me. Not that it is bad; this relaunch by Hurwitz and Opena has been surprisingly better than I expected. But, well, NOVA it’s not. Still, it is a pretty decent turn back from the extreme sadism of the last volume, without ignoring that it happened. Marc Specter is tucking things back and doing his best to ignore the dark temptations of Khonshu to become a proper superhero again. He beats up the bad guys, but doesn’t kill, cripple, or mutilate them; been a while since that happened. This has even gotten him back into the good graces, as well as bedroom, of his old lover Marlene.
Unfortunately, Norman Osborn seems to think he is the only psycho in a mask who the public should trust, and has tasked the Hood as well as the Profile (who can see plot convenient text in the air as a power, sort of like Amadeus Cho without the math). Fortunately before Hood lost his rep from Dormmamu, he used it here to resurrect Bushman from the grave to torment Specter once more. Now, see, here is a perfectly fine resurrection without the angst or hand wringing. Bushman is dead, buried, and he is stated to be dead and buried. Character shows up, waves some plot convenient energy about, and poof, alive again. That’s all it takes. You don’t need to stretch it to 6 issues like REBORN and treat it like the second coming; it’s been done too often to take seriously anymore. Bushman’s back, asks for his face politely, and sets about working with Scarecrow (on loan from GHOST RIDERS apparently) to take over a mental ward and command the psychos as his new crew.
To be blunt, Moon Knight’s enemies have usually been garbage, and Bushman is no exception. The only reason he is his arch-enemy is because he was involved in the origin story. In a way that is one of the biggest problems with Moon Knight as a premise and franchise. Even if a writer finds a good way to write his balance between sanity and psychosis, he is stuck with the crappiest cast of villains any superhero ever had aside for U.S. ONE, in a modern comic market where no new character seems to last a year (heroes have more of a knack of sticking around than villains). Their choice is to either stick with Moonie’s or have him fight the rogues of other people. Considering Moon Knight took on the Slug last month (a Cap/Nomad villain) and Bushman here, Hurwitz seems to be balancing both options as well. So far, so good.
It would be amusing if Bushman could meet up with Bushmaster, Luke Cage’s old enemy. It could be a comedy hour of criminal terror, terrible ethnic clichés, and genital slurs. C’mon, Joe Q, yours is the Marvel of tentacle rape and T&A covers, and allowing Bendis to write all women as tramps or victims; make it happen!
At any rate, not quite as entertaining as the second issue, which had Sentry and Moon Knight having their “chat of the psycho hero” moment, but still a solid set-up issue. This run is moving along at a faster pace than the Hudlin one, at least.
Daredevil #502 - Andy Diggle keeps things moving here as both White Tiger and Black Tarantula are revealed to not be under The Hand's influence.
hehe
