So this week, I hope to start reviewing my comics on this blog instead of clogging my twitter feed with 140 character reviews of the books I read each week. I intend to have short reviews to give you a sense of what I feel about my weekly haul of books.
I'm playing catch up right now, I'm a week behind. I should be able to swing the rest of my stack tomorrow or saturday. This was an odd week. A small-ish haul, made up mostly of limited series or things I'm thinking of dropping. Without further ado... COMICS
Action Comics Annual (2010) #13 - Paul Cornell's reinvention/redefinition of Lex Luthor continues in this solid annual. We're given Luthor's first encounters with two of DC's other iconic villains: Darkseid and Ra's Al Ghul. The Darkseid story is a solid effort, Darkseid having some fantastic lines, and has some fantastic layout work from Marco Rudy. That said, Rudy's line art was a little shaky, some characters were hard to follow through the story. Some of that was also the fault of the colorist, at times its hard to discern the difference between Perry White and the head of Intergang. The Ra's story is told in the style of a legend/fairytale and its coupled with some of the most mature Ed Benes art I've seen. It's nice take on the relationship between the two, while having a very nice style. Both stories are great editions to Cornell's overall Luthor mythos. 4/5
Adventure Comics #521 - This isn't a book I generally pick up, but I thought the premise of rebuilding the Green Lantern Corps. in the future of the Legion of Super-Heroes might be fun. While I didn't enjoy the issue - it seemed focused on character work I wasn't look for base don the cover - I thought it was decent and the reveal at the end could be interesting. I just wasn't sold on this series. 2/5
Astonishing Thor #1 - This was another book I picked up on a lark. I wasn't particularly drawn to it, but I had heard a few good things scattered across the Internet. Mike Choi's art is pretty solid across the issue, though some faces look odd at times. The story is fairly weak, with some clunky dialogue. I admit, the last time I read a Rob Rodi script was 10 years ago in Codename: Knockout, but I remembered liking it. Nothing here was working for me, sadly. 2/5
Brightest Day #15 - Now that we're past the midway point of this series, I had expected to see some threads coming together. Instead, we're treated to a 20-page long alternate timeline in the Martian Manhunter's mind. It's not a bad one, and there are some insightful characterizations but the issue just felt flat and like so much padding to get the story to 26 issues. Clark and Gleason worked really well together here, so it's not all bad! 3/5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 8 #39 - I really just don't know what to say about this book at this point. It felt like a jumble of gobbeldy-guck to get to the end of the story. The book just doesn't have the luster it did 2 years ago when it all started. Count me out for Buffy Season 9. 1/5
Freedom Fighters #4 - This is a writing team I've loved, and whose previous work with these characters was fantastic. But this latest effort just lacks the energy of previous installments. I can't even place why I'm not liking this issue. I just don't feel anything for this book. Sadly, I'll be departing the book with this issue. I still love this issue's fantastic minimalist cover. 2/5
Generation Hope #2 - I was a little leery after last issue, but liked it well enough to continue. This issue really doesn't move us too forward in terms of plot, however there are some great moments of characterization for the "Lights." That said, I found this issue to be a little wanting. It was certainly better than run of the mill, but a step down from the first issue. As a sidenote, I picked up the wonderful Women of Marvel variant cover for this issue, featuring Hope Summers. 3.5/5
Sweet Tooth #16 - Sweet Tooth is a book that I have loved since issue 1. It's also one of those books that it becomes tiring to talk about because it's so good. I had been a little down on the book of late, not because it was getting bad but because I just felt a little distant. Lemire is doing fantastic things with this book. There were some great layouts and art choices this issue. As well, I got a sense of forward momentum from the plot which really energized the book for me. A great read. 4/5
Vertigo Resurrected: Winter's Edge - The second in a collection of Vertigo shorts and lost stories. I was really intrigued by the first special which presented a mixed collection of stories vaguely premised on being gun/war based stories. This special recollects the three Winter's Edge one-shots released in the late 90s. They present stories featuring Vertigo mainstays with a winter theme. Most of them, for obvious reasons, deal with death (and Death) and present some great morality tales therein. However, there are two stories that deal with Desire that sparks the idea that the Solstice was the celebration of the Unconquerable Sun, when spring and life come back to the world. A fantastic read, though I would say I found a few more misses that hits in this collection as opposed to the first. It still presents some of the best material around and is worth picking up. 5/5
And my Pick of the Week for December 2, 2010:
Ozma of Oz #2 - I've loved the previous Oz collaborations between Eric Shanower and Skottie Young. Shanower does a great job of working Baum's stories into a comic format, but Young's pencils shine as you can see in his design for the Wheelers to the right. I've loved Ozma of Oz ever since I saw Disney's Return to Oz which combines some minor plot points from Marvelous Land of Oz with the overall story of Ozma. This issue brings us fully into the story I'm used to. Dorthory has woken up on the distant shore of a fairy land. With her talking hen, Billina, she begins to investigate the area whilst avoiding the Wheelers and she stumbles upon Tik-Tok the Clockwork Man. Tik-Tok is my favorite Oz character and Young's redesign of him is fantastic! He has a copper mustache and he has three seperate keyholes to wind his thinking, speaking and "action" independent of each other! The comic takes us through his origin and we start to move deeper into the land of Ev. Fantastic things are being done in this book and I'm glad to be supporting it. I love handing these things off to my nieces and nephews. 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment