snap judgments

A lot of previews this week, plus a little something extra: IMAGE previews!  Didn’t get ot them though, so we’ll make an extra special addition to the reviews tomorrow.  Otherwise, enjoy!

American Way #3

Well, surprise, surprise, being a ‘fake’ superhero sucks.  The African-American hero, now known as ‘The New American’ takes his job seriously and becomes the golden boy of the superhero set, bristling at not being able to show he’s black due to political climate.  The book continues along predictably as some rather interesting characters fall into either the ’spoiled and jaded actor’ to the ‘longing to do right idealist’ categories.  One even turns out to be homicidally crazy, killing his family and has to be taken down.  In the middle of the battle, the New American’s faceplate cracks and everybody gasps in shock. Let’s see where they take it from here, but this might be a ‘wait on a trade’ story.

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #204

I just don’t feel it from those cover zombies.  I mean, I have seen some zombies in my comics these days, those guys look sort of bored.  At least Batman looks mad.  We open with a tale about a ‘Gotham’ under the reign of King John in Nottingham, England, where the populace decided to act crazy, thus putting their town under quarantine lest the madness spread, to keep from being taxed.  Back in our Gotham, Bruce Wayne finds a secret door with secret info in his stately mansion that tells of a group called ‘The Madmen of Gotham’ which was sort of a covert group of high public officials that would help lead Gotham into a new enlightened future.  One of these guys wanted to put chemicals in the water to even everyone out.  Apparently the rest of the committee has seen Serenity, knew it was a bad idea, but the guy remained adamant.  Cut back to now again and we find random super-powered lunatics in Gotham (new ones this time instead of the old standards) trying to control Gotham’s populace in one way or another.  It’s well-written and well-paced and certainly worth a look, maybe two with the next issue.

Catwoman #54

Continuing the good.  Holly gets out of her jam in the tradition of desperate survival.  Selina breast feeds.  Slam Bradley gets drunk and Wildcat shows up just in time to be seen in a bar brawl, get a phone call from Holly and dispense a bit of advice to ‘keep fighting’.  Looks like a late night TV host of all things seems to be more than he appears, especially since he has footage of a unmasked (but still vaguely anonymous) Catwoman kicking a man when he’s down.  Not too much happens here, plot creeps along on little cat feet but it does do one thing and that’s remind you that this job is hard.  Being Catwoman is tough and Holly just might be tough enough to do it right.

Ion #1

… uhm, excuse me?  Really, why do we need this book again?  Not that Kyle Rayner isn’t a good character who made a passable Green Lantern, but his time is done now, isn’t it?  And, didn’t we already have this story?  Kyle Rayner is ‘Ion’ now, a ‘torch bearer’ for the Guardians who aren’t sure if he can handle all this awesome power- no really, I’m sure this is familiar…  what isn’t familiar is the flashback-now cut scenes with flashbacks of Kyle really wimping out in space, possibility annihilating a bunch of GLs (including one ‘Torquemada’) and then it’s back to now with him chilling out at an artist’s retreat.  He meets a chick who doesn’t talk.  He meets a chick who wants to collect them bounty on him, causing him to understandably ‘power up’ in a nice splash page of eminent battle on the last page.  Still, it leaves you with that ‘why are we here again?’ kind of feeling.

Lucifer #73

With it’s Hellboyish charms, this book can bring in the bigger issues of why were create stories about where we’re going and what we’re doing here when they came come at it from both sides, the lofty heights and the everyman sort of state, which is what Gaudium, Spera and Lumen are for.  The book pretty much made a restart for the idea of God, Heaven and Hell, et al. and is still cleaning things up in preparations for the final issue.  We get a tour of the forgotten Hells and Heavens that Elaine has to dust off, erase or take care of and meet Remiel, the angel that used to rule Heaven with Duma back when there was a Hell.  Lumen laments the fact that everything has been reset and feels a bit cheated out of all the hard work that had been done since time out of mind, while Spera gives hope that the best really is yet to come.  Amazing how a simply written book can make you smile on a philosophical level.

Skye Runner #1

Don’t worry if you feel like you’re missing something from the first part of the book, it’s supposed to be that way.  Otherwise, Battle Chasers fans this way!  We have the cute sword and sorcery tale of a young busty lass who’s got a warrior’s spirit despite her problem of being a woman.  Lady Skye, instead of being a knight as she’s always dreamed, is a ‘runner’ a sort of page/herald combo deal.  At least she would be this if the kingdom she came from wasn’t reduced to a small village.  She’s got ‘the strength of three men and the outfit of three whores’ (the latter of which she’s rather embarrassed by, making me wonder why she doesn’t just get a shirt), a sister, a moppet-like niece and nephew, as well as a flintlock and sword.  Alex Garcia’s art is pretty cool, very Jamie Hewlett in some places, and gets extra points for getting the story across when the art doesn’t.  The story really starts towards the end of the book where we get an inkling of were we’re going on this adventure, when Skye kills a god.  This is an epic level adventure, folks.

Solo #10 (Damion Scott)

Whoa, heavy hip hop art.  Did anyone else even know these things are numbered?  I kind of like them as single shot of art.  And this shot is way too cool.  Warning, this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but the work is vivid, dynamic and feels pulled off of someone’s high school notebook or the underside of a cement bridge.  This guy apparently used to do Batgirl, a style he revisits for a ‘Cassie’ era Robin/Batgirl story the only way I really see the short lived girl Robin.  There’s a incredible Flash story, some great portraits of Superman and a future story about Tim Drake and Cassandra Cain that’s well done and slick.  Again, you really got a dig the funky art, but if you do, get two copies.  It’s worth it.

Warlord #3

Sing along if you know this one: amnesiatic tough guy lands in a barbaric land that mistakes him for their savior.  The guy who has been bested by our hero doesn’t buy it, has ambition and hooks up with some conflicted royalty.  Bart Sears’s artwork is very thickly inked, which combined with the rather thick language Bruce Jones uses, it just tends to make you want to skip pages.  There is a dinosaur in the book, so it can’t be bad, but you’d still be better off with an issue of Red Sonja or Conan.

Amazing Spider-Man #531

Spider-Man fights the Titanium Man!  Good ol’ Russian stereotypes are in place with just a little bit of a twist at the end.  He goes on an on about how terrible the fall of the USSR is and how the US government will eliminate its own heroes because he’s gotten word of this ‘Superhero Registration Act’ and so have all his evil buddies.  Yeah, you’re right, that is a little too convenient.  Turns out Tony Stark put him up to the attack and write that little speech for him in order to buy him some time with the committee.  Forget the Civil War historical analogies,  Spider-Man’s appearance in the hearing the next day with his everyman sort of speech, the best moment in the book comes from the hired Titanium Man, who asks Iron Man as he hands him his payment, ‘When your government turns against you… when you are hunted down and drawn out… I wonder — how will you feel the day you run errands for other people… for briefcases full of money?’  The end of the book dovetails right into Civil War #1.  Folks, it begins.

Annihilation: Ronan #1

Like the Super Skrull issue, but not as solid.  Months after the Annihilation wave (instead of the previous ‘right after’ issues), Ronan is a sort of Judge Dredd on a payback mission, dispensing hard justice along the way.  Tana-Nile is the name of the witness who testified against him and sold him up the river, so he’s hunting her down.  He fights folk along the way and is a general sort of bad ass and on the last page, sort of squeezed in is a Gamora cameo.  Simon Furman may need some room to get this all together.

Black Panther #15

Flip through it fast to get the basics.  Not really worth your $2.99 considering the endings not all that surprising.  What is surprising is the first three pages where we, out of nowhere, get a new/another ‘Arabian Knight’ from a unmentioned Middle Eastern country.  They even seem to think this isn’t the best idea, but if the Vatican can have a ‘Black Knight’ go attack Wakanda, why not them?  Indeed, why not have this poor guy show up with his one little word bubble of ‘Die Infidels! For I am…’ sort of speech, can’t hurt?  Well, it can when it’s right in the middle of some Black Panther & Storm relationship drama.  As if Reginald Hudlin didn’t trust himself to write the scene all that well, so he just sort of threw in some action to keep our interest.  This miserable stereotype gets his ass handed to him while Black Panther tries to woo Storm, who’s rightly a little put off by this sudden proposal.  They don’t spare this Arabian Knight a second look as he’s trounced.  Poor guy.  Storm agrees to think about it and Black Panther takes her back to Wakanda when the inhabitants seem shocked and awed by the sight of their monarch holding hands with her.  Meeting the Panther’s momma, she finally sets things straight.  Storm is a very powerful and strong character, the kind of woman you want co-leading a country.  The question she poses to Ororo is simple:  do you really want this crossover to last… forever?  Well, you know the answer.

Daughters of the Dragon #4

Now that there’s a Heroes For Hire book in the works, looks like this is the issue to tune into.  And, believe it or not, it all sort of fits in to the recently announced title.  Misty Knight gets her cybernetic arm (and The Chip) stolen back by Belladonna amidst some textbook references about psychology and masks (yeah, just go with it).  Then its Humbug to the rescue!  You heard me.  HUMBUG.  We get some ‘How did Misty Knight lose her arm’ flashback sequence and Stark shows up for a quickie cameo and upgraded arm-aments (Ha ha).  Humbug looks to be going legit as he helps Colleen Wing find out that this book could really use some Ninjas.  This book would be a lot better if they took themselves a little less seriously.  I’m not saying they want to make a operatic epic, I’m saying they still want to come across as ‘cool’.

Fantastic Four #537

Doom with hammer on the cover.  Do we get it inside?  HELL NO!  Inside, we get Doctor Doom getting asked how he made it out of hell, only to sort of drift off for a moment to recount a fairly slap/dash explanation of how it all went down.  Hammer coming crashing back to earth apparently opened up a gate between hell and earth, he hopped through, the end.  Try not to think about it too much says Marvel and I don’t mind agreeing with them on this one.  I mean, come on, who wants to live in a world without Dr. Doom?  Exposition over, he fights the FF, tries to pick up the hammer, unsurprisingly FAILS and goes home to clean house in Latveria.   We get another stupid ‘flash of blinding light’ when Doom tried though, which apparently sent a signal to perhaps the heir to Mjolnir?  Someone with the initial ‘DB’ or… who just likes wearing those initials?  A lot of in-betweens here, just points to get to the next points.  Though there is one monumental thing:  THE RETURN OF THE EDITOR’S NOTE!  My favorite tiny yellow boxes are back as Tom Brevoort reminds us all that Ragnarok actually happened.  Not the best of notes, but still!  Nice to see them back.

Incredible Hulk #94

Hrm, lost my notes on this one, let’s see what we can pull from memory.  More Gladiator action!  More aliens with complex backgrounds and political structures!  And finally the Hulk concedes to being in the book.  I mean really, we’re on our way to Planet Hulk and what is sure to be his eventual return to the Marvel Universe, this is just the slow boat.  However, there are some pretty cute retro flashbacks regarding his rag tag crew’s personal origins, including one from the perspective of the Hulk.  Apparently, the gamma bomb was Banner’s way of trying to kill the Hulk.  So … so it seems this week.  Eh.  This is pretty much trade fodder, considering the arcs slated for a year.

Runaways #15

Oh!  Last issue, when Alex Wilder’s old MMORPG group tries to resurrect him, they wound up getting his dad from the 80’s!  Somehow, that’s really cool.  He takes the rag tag group and goes about getting revenge for the kid he never even got to sire.  Meanwhile, the Runaways deal with personal feelings and issues in a way that doesn’t seem trite or whiney, we learn a little more about them through the little touches and never forget that these are kids in a really big world.  That’s why they go down like a tons of bricks to the right amount of tactic trickery.  This book never tries to make them more than who they are and I appreciate that.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #5

Mary Jane gets her dream date with Spider-Man, who takes true nerdy care to be romantic and sweep her off her feet.  Skyscraper views, a picnic beside city lights, a carriage ride in the park, not to mention a few swing bys to rescue those in need.  The only thing missing is, well, a personal connection.  Realizing the perils of loving a man behind a mask, MJ asks to go home, giving Spidey a peck for his troubles and pours her heart out to Liz the next day.  Realizing her mistake, Liz doesn’t bother telling her ‘I told you so’, just acts like a good friend and reminds her that Peter Parker is head over heels for her, and Mary Jane decides to give him a second chance.  But it seems Peter’s hitting it off with the new girl in school, a girl by the name of Gwen Stacy.  God, I love this book.

Storm #3

And as if in contrast, we have the young love of Storm and T’Challa.  The young prince is actually portrayed pretty well as he brings back Ororo and her rival to the little thief camp led by ‘the Teacher’.  Both share there awe and distaste for one another because of class and wealth.  The rest of the orphans are in awe of T’Challa, who seemed a little more like a kid and less like some big great destined prince.  His eye on Ororo, she laments being a girl, not et a woman and walks off to visit treasures that remind her of her dead parents.  T’Challa follows, they talk and the rival girl gets even more jealous.  Oh, and a white guy wrestled a bull.  Maybe it’s me, but there’s just something kind of uncomfortable about reading a comic about a young girl and her blossoming womanhood.

Wolverine #41

Double sized, probably was slated to be an annual or some such.  But this, this is the kind of Wolverine story I can get into, just a hard man doing hard work the hard way.  Zwarthied, classily labeled by the UN ‘world’s worst country’, is pretty much a little bit of everything going wrong in Africa right now.  One good man cleans things up as bets he can, is assassinated for his troubles, leaving an heir in the form of a tiny baby girl who needs to get out of the country.  Enter Black Panther first, who can’t get involved due to the fact this book is called ‘Wolverine’, so he calls the New Avengers and Wolvie takes up the cause.  Never been to the world’s worst country, apparently.  In some well illustrated scenes, Wolverine straps the baby to his chest and fights his way out.  Good, moody, warmly silhouetted art, it’s not too preachy on the political stuff, but it’s honest as well.  It’s nice to see some problems with doing what he does best from Wolverine, especially when things are this messed up.  Also, that is one good baby.

X-Factor #6

Aw.  My pet theory was that Layla Miller was actually Charles Xavier after House of M. Instead, in this rather ’settling in’ sort of issue, we learn as much about her origin as we learned from Wolverine’s in Origin, a.k.a. just enough to keep us interested.  Turns out she’s an orphan and been sort of ‘hanging out’ at the X-Factor Detective Agency when she should be in foster care.  Most of the cast still seems a little mixed on her being there, as well as sorting out what to do in lieu of the attack on Siryn and being generally snarky.  Jamie and Rahne (orphans themselves) go and check this thing out and we find out Layla has some sort of ‘chaos theory’ power in which she can choose to do something or not and affect the future outcome of things.  Think the character ‘Destiny’, only younger and with more butterflies.  They eventually decide to take her in and only Rictor seems to think the girl is still more than she seems.  It’s a nice series of moments to give our heroes some credibility or detail as needed.  Heck, it’s been what six issues now and the little moment between Jamie and Guido (buds since the old X-Factor days) has that nice worn sweater feel.  We know these characters, David’s just reminding us and adding something new and different to the mix.  Now whether this new and different turns out to be something more than a Deux ex Machina… we’ll see.

Happy Wednesday.