snap judgments

Light on the reviews this week, but still some fantastic books coming out from Marvel this week. Why don’t we get DC First Look books anymore? And no, for the last time, Thanksgiving will not delay your books. At least not at Metro Entertainment!

And they pay me to say that!

Daredevil #91

By all accounts, this is a filler issue, a shorter step of confronting the girl and fighting her flunkies to a bigger punch of finding out who’s behind all this. And the best part if it all is that I don’t mind in the slightest. Instead of a book like Civil War, marching towards its apex, there’s an almost dreamy quality to the book, getting you where you need to go while telling a few anecdotes along the way. We watch Daredevil do his best Batman, flinging himself off rooftops in that newspapery inking style that I’ve come to know and love from the book, colored in muted tones except for the red of his costume. Ah, Brubaker.

Heroes for Hire #4

Okay, the guys at the shop were really into this book at the start, finding it a nice little tie-in to Civil War. Odd, considering how much fluff (good fluff, mind you) the Daughters of the Dragon mini-series was, but I could see how it might be put as a lighter, get the job done kind of view it could have on the big tent event. So all that good work, all that buzz from Civil War… and we’re back to mini-series material. They have these new and interesting characters, why not to go them for plot? Why crack open the OHtMU’s and find some random villains or heroes to put under the Registration crunch? Ah well. Riccadonna is out and, to prove her major villainess status, sends hitmen after the H for H. Some are kind of stupid (Insecticide? Really?), some are kind of cool (Shang-Chi’s stylish calm against his foe) and some play right into their clichés, down to the ninja. Our cliffhanger ending shows that Riccadonna now has superpowers. This should be exciting.

Marvel Spotlight: Ultimate Spider-Man - Bendis/Bagley

I stopped reading Wizard. The ads posing as articles got to me after awhile and I’ll just flip through the store copy if I really need to. I also haven’t bought any of these “Daily Bugle” mini-papers since the CSN is free; yeah, they want a quarter but it still boils down to ads. Then the X-Axis lets off some steam about Marvel’s 24 pages of adverts to 22 pages of story ratio. So I took one look at the Marvel Spotlight and went on to the next book.

New Excalibur #13

The Wrecking Crew! YAY! These guys are still up and at it? That rules! Not to mention the fact that they’re having a little private chat with reformed villain, Juggernaut. And by private chat, I mean pounding him into the pavement. I appreciate seeing a little retribution for switching sides, especially from the working class Wrecking Crew. Juggernaut’s smashed with a car, the rest of Excalibur engages in a little light hearted fight with the Crew and Juggernaut makes a last minute smash in the nick of time. But that doesn’t mean he still doesn’t hear what I assume to be the little Cyttorak headvoice in his brain telling him that evil would be a lot more fun. He goes to see the only guy who’d really understand him and the guy he helped put in prison: Black Tom. They commiserate, have a bit of a Dr. Phil moment and Cain goes off to where it all began at the temple of the Cytorrak, where he will most likely fight ninjas.

Runaways #22

Widower boyfriend Chase continues not to take the death of Gertie well at all and resorts to angry teen coping tactics. Victor and Nico talk about it and continue their awkward “romance” and in the middle of all this is an honest and simple “The More You Know” segment with Xavin the Skrull and Molly about tolerance. Now, I grew up in the ’80s so I am more than familiar with embedding little public service announcements in the middle of your comics, but this sounded more like a conversation than any of them had before. Molly’s little retort of having a picture of Northstar on her wall and everything was pretty cute and reminds me again what an opportunity Marvel missed with Northstar’s current predicament. The Gibborim, their evil parent’s benefactors, offers getting Gertie back for good in exchange for a “flawless crime” of an innocent soul sacrifice. Like any good D&D player, Chase goes over all the details and promises to return with an answer that just might be Nico on the chopping block.

Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #12

And another chapter in awesome teenage drama unfolds. Don’t tell me there are no comics out there for kids. This one is a done-in-one character study on MJ and Harry being flirts. I like that use of ‘flirt’; it sounds fun and young and cute, doesn’t it? A hard hitting school reporter wants the inside scoop on Mary Jane (who’s starting to buckle under the weight of being ‘plastic’, as she puts it) and Harry the playah. Both have their reasons and a lot of it deals with self-confidence, more of the personalities that we know and love from our classic characters are coming to the fore and one can see how these guys grow up into the Spider-Man mythology. Also, do note: This is Issue 12! Yay Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane! And yay for Sean McKeever, the man who writes the little book that could.

Wolverine #48

Hrm. Can’t find my notes on this one, so… what do I remember about the issue? For one, it looks into a little something people don’t like to think about and for good reason. Wouldn’t it really hurt to regenerate some of the grievous wounds we’ve seen Wolvie take very the years? As a matter of fact, it does! In some stunning artwork from Humberto Ramos, we get a little look at what Logan’s thinking about when he’s regrowing a limb or reknitting his nervous system. Sure, it’s a little hokey and don’t dare think about the logistics of regenerating your entire body over your skeleton, but enjoy the flashbacks, the noirish writing, and the cheep Atlantian roll in the hay. Also, Nitro is dead and/or in the hands of Namor; the preview copy might have been missing a page or two.

X-Factor #13

And this… this is going to take a full post tomorrow. You see, X-Factor #87 is to this day one of my favorite comics of all time. Everything, from the characters to the writing to the artwork to the coloring, it’s my “gold standard” by which a lot of comics are judged in my book. I have HUGE expectations for a book that’s the sequel and, well… watch for a full post tomorrow.