snap judgments

Yikes! Still looking a little bare, our traffic cones are still down and the Under Construction tape is still wound around This Old Blog here, so we appreciate your patience. Important info coming soon!

But in the meantime, here’s what Marvel sent the store this week for review:

Amazing Spider-Man #544

Man, Joe Q. What happened? Was it the rush? Was it just being overworked? This is just not the level of art I’m used to from a man I seriously wish would do more in the ways of penciling and less in the ways of PR for Marvel. Just enjoy the books and draw the pretty pictures, Joe.
Anyhow, first One More Day issue, yadda yadda, all you really need to know is that Spider-Man is pretty well alone in his sea of troubles, unable to get direct help from IronMan meaning he can’t exactly pop over to his super-pals and get advice on all this misery. He’s very desperate to fix his mistakes, so we’re left off with him jumping away to find out how to save Aunt May. He’s got some support at least, a doctor who’s put two and two together and will keep Aunt May’s locale on the down-low and Jarvis (who totally rules) coming in with a big check from a mysterious benefactor, but this is all Spider-Man and he’s got no other choice than the one they’ve decided for him at the end of the storyline.
Whatever gets me to Brand New Day, folks.

Annihilation: Wraith #3 (of 4)

Now, I first read this while killing time at the store after my shift and I hit a full page reveal that litterally took the air out of me. I was so stunned that I had to clap a hand over my mouth lest I be heard by the customers. And this is the best part- I was shocked over something I had only come to know and respect at the end of Ronin’s Annihilation mini, a book that honestly didn’t do very well. Despite that, turning the page and seeing that one page splash, the big reveal, I was honestly surprised. It’s like I was let in on what could be the accepted downfall of the entire Kree race, and that actually means something. This is some GREAT writing and art.
Wraith breaks free of the Phalanx prison, takes Super-Skrull and his side-kick lady with him and makes a huge decision in order to avenge the death of his parents (add your own dressing like a Bat joke here). Meanwhile, in a very parallel story, Ronin is darn well doomed.

Incredible Hulk #110

Remember when they shot the Hulk into space and Bendis went on record saying that the Hulk was actually responsible for every life ruined by his smashing episodes and counts as a killer and is dangerous and please believe this storyarc isn’t the work of total bastards, etc. etc.? Well, this issue’s job is to discredit all that by proving that the Hulk will not kill, no matter how much you piss him off. Sure, it’s proven by Amadeus Cho (who Rick Jones should smack around in my humble little opinion- what the hell is Rick really doing these days anyhow!? Lazy bastard.), but then we can say that his super-powered math proved it as well and as we all know, if you can prove the worst of actions with math, you have to be right. Everybody thank Reed Richards.

Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1 (of 6)

So, been looking for some old school Iron Man, free of SHIELD responsibility, back to the days of secret identities and strong supporting characters? A little bit of pompous villainy and dramatic posing? Go give this a flip through. I’m not saying it’s perfect; it’s like finding water in the desert in a kind of dirty glass. Sure, you’re not too certain of the contents but boy, are you thirsty.

Ms. Marvel #19

Or as we now call it at work: the Aaron Stack show! Whoever thought to bring in Machine Man (especially the Nextwave flavor Machine Man) is a right genius because this book got such a punch of personality from the include that they should win a trophy. Ms. Marvel and her crew are looking around Chile for what’s causing a bunch of kidnappings and brainwashed mercenaries to bust out villains we hadn’t heard of before; Ms. Marvel finds the heart of the story, that it’s all the Puppet Master going into the creepy business of mind-controlled slaves ready for purchase (including super-heroines for implied nefarious purposes). Meanwhile, Aaron Stack, Sleepwalker and Agent What’s-His-Name find out the same thing by walking around ‘in disguise’ and having a quick semi-fight with Arana. The sight of a robot in a mustache makes me look forward to the next issue.

New Excalibur #23

Is it just me or is this book rather complicated? I mean, you have your ‘Dark X-Men’, your evil Captain Britain, your wayward Captain Britain, the Excalibur crew (one of whom is possessing a Britain on the bad side since she’s had a stroke, the other is undercover as an evil Britain and seemingly lost in the role) and all these people are doing things all at once. And that thing is fight fight fight. Eventually, things get to a big dramatic duel between Evil Captain Britain and Good Captain Britain and lo and behold, they’re the same person. Kind of unsurprising considering the rest of the chaos that’s going on, really.

New Warriors #4

Let’s see, more clues that point to Night Thrasher being Bill Foster’s nephew Tom (yes, I know we’ve seen Tom in issues of Incredible Hulk, but that won’t stop the House of Ideas), another version of Tony Stark who seems sympathetic to the New Warriors, some hard training and hard practice that kills off one of the New Warriors right on the waffling Sofia’s doorstep, forcing her to make a choice. Still nothing remarkable but nothing bad, still a book I can’t figure out.

Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest #2 (of 4)

Ugh. The weirdest thing is that there’s a story in here. It’s a crime drama about modern pirates and double crossing and what people are prepared to do to survive. This would be a great Icon book or Vertigo mini-series or something that crime drama on the high seas could really work with. You could call it ‘Wrecked’ and focus on the lives of criminals marooned on an island and how they make it out.
But no, they got cheesecake all over a dramatic story and not even good cheesecake at that. Add in some dinosaurs not so lovingly drawn as when Frank Cho’s on pencils, some … weird Nazi ape-men (which normally, I’d be a HUGE fan of), and Shanna the She-Devil as dull as a post and you have a book that could have been so much more if they just decided if it was going to take itself seriously or not.

She-Hulk #21

Dan Slott is an underrated genius. It’s like the dawn broke and we can see the sky clear and in the most beautiful color and all could be well again. He promised that this issue would fix a lot of characterization and plotting problems and it does in a rather wonderful story to end his run on. It even fixes problems within in own book!
Too bad no one will listen. Much like the medieval fool, Dan Slott was able to say truthful things about the current Marvel Universe with that edge of humor. Despite my distaste for the whole Starfox debacle and ‘She-Hulk: Agent of SHIELD’, this lone issue clears it all up and many more that have somewhat broken my heart over sloppy storytelling and a lack of character dignity.
Great, right? Glowing praise? No one will ever use it. This little gem is too farcical and silly to ever be put into use, despite it’s finer points. I’d tell you his brilliant solution, but you’re just going to have to read it, roll your eyes and sigh a little wistfully for yourselves. Trust me, a great way to end a rather solid run on the book.

Tomorrow! NO BOOKS FOR YOU. Labor Day brings us our books on Thursday this week, so this whole post was just a big ol’ spoiler (well, at least I hope it wasn’t). But please, don’t forget to drop by your local comic shop anyway this week and say hi. They’ll be lonely and confused, the comic shop employees internal clock timed to the Diamond shipping list like the phases of the moon with the tide.

Happy Wednesday anyways, folks.