Thursday, May 27, 2010

5/26/10

SECRET AVENGERS #1 – Brubaker & Deodato show up with a first issue that does everything it’s supposed to, start off with a bang, introduce us to our cast, provide a basic set-up, then throw a couple of kinks in before cutting to a Shocking Cliffhanger (which really, really should have been on a left page, that’s just basic). Deodato’s Beast is immaculately rendered. I’m curious how much longer Brubaker’s staying on Cap’s main title, if he and Steve are bailing on that and coming over here, I can definitely see adding this. Then again, if the $4 cover price sticks and the page count jumps back down from 28 to 22 next month, this might be a secret that Marvel gets to keep.

X-FORCE #27 – Great opening, no dialogue until the bottom of the tenth page. Now that’s a fight scene! Surpassed, however, by that crushing final page. What a last line. Ominous, given that this volume and incarnation of the team only has one more issue to go. But then again, it’s not like Logan’s not going to hitch a ride back somehow, so I guess anything’s possible. It would be out of character and very ballsy if Cable, Archangel, Domino, X-23 et al did not in fact make it back.

WAR OF THE SUPERMAN #4 – Ah, an art jam issue. Too bad that Barrows is drawing circles around these guys, more than a bit jarring. And it defuses tension. Soooo, the big yield of this entire year’s worth of Superman books is that there might now be a few Kryptonians holed up somewhere on Earth? And Lois’s daddy offed himself? (who came first, Gen. Lane or Gen. “Thunderbolt” Ross? Because one of those guys is a serious rip-off). That’s it? Mm, I don’t feel bad about picking up these four issues, but I’m glad I sat out the last little bit here. Looking forward to seeing where JMS and Cornell take it.

JUSTICE LEAGUE: GENERATION LOST #2 – An entertaining ride as the plot thickens. Bennett’s art is a bit of a dip from Lopresti’s fine work last issue, but if Keith Giffen is plotting and doing breakdowns for these characters, really no way I can’t be there. Shouldn’t Captain Atom get kicked forward in time if he absorbs too much energy? Thought that was pretty much the deal.

GREEN LANTERN #54 – Atrocitus is starting to crack me up, between visualizing a Mera construct and letting the love work its way into his heart. There’s nothing really wrong with this issue (I’m either getting more acclimated to Mahnke’s new style or he’s getting better at it), but I guess I’m coming down with a touch of the old event fatigue. Can’t believe we went straight from the culmination of five years’ worth of Johns’s work on this title and right on into the Next Big Thing, which you’ve got to also buy a bi-weekly title if you want the story (the scene from the top of this issue being a direct lateral from BRIGHTEST DAY #0). I kind of just wanted Hal to take Carol out to dinner for an issue and see what happens when they drink too much wine. And THEN Lobo smashes in! Yeah, that would be all right. But no, we’re right back to running up and down the color spectrum with some more entities that are the embodiment of something or other.

FANTASTIC FOUR #579 – Now, THIS is how you do a fill-in. I was less than impressed with Neil Edwards when he showed up to pinch-hit for both Hitch (a thankless gig, to be certain) and, just a very few months later, Eaglesham. Don’t know if he had more time to spend on these pages or the script just spoke to him or what, but he does a great job here. That head shot at the end of Reed’s speech is beautiful, he nails the faraway look in Reed’s eyes. Explorer, first! I’m really loving the long game Hickman is playing, setting up all these kids for Reed to mentor. Between Alex Power in this book, Fraction dusting Madison Jeffries off for the X-Club, and the JLI coming out of retirement, all of my favorite 80s characters are getting more than their share of attention. This issue is really just a laundry list of little bits I loved: Reed’s line to Alex about the perfect SAT score, Alex’s reply indicating he totally doesn’t get it even though he aced the test, that shot of Spider-Man swinging through the air with the greatest of ease (because why not? if you’re doing an NYC establishing shot), the moloids diving into “King Lear” the day they teach themselves how to read, the insane double-pg Nu-World recap (“thereby achieving for the first time in human history the thought-to-be fictional socialist state” I mean, really!), Franklin vs. Artie & Leech, and Reed resigning from his society of futurists and holding the inaugural session of his new class. Reed as teacher for the next generation is just such a good fit. Love love love this book.

BEST OF WEEK: BATMAN: THE RETURN OF BRUCE WAYNE #2 – Morrison and Irving do it just a little bit better, though. Didn’t realize that this book was bi-weekly, a nice surprise to find on the rack. The KLARION team couldn’t ask for a more thematically appropriate reunion than this tale of Bruce Wayne hanging out in the days of Puritan witch-hunts. Morrison does such a fine job of crafting a story that seems to organically grow from this title’s central premise, What would happen if Batman was in Year ____ with no memory but the same personality? That’s all well and good, but the real meat of this issue is what goes down at the end of time between the guys tracking Bruce and that biorganic archivist. The two pages when they talk about space a and plane time and cube time are some of my favorites ever, the “superstring on a mighty fretboard” line being what puts them over the edge. The idea of Darkseid boobytrapping Batman at the end of FINAL CRISIS is genius. And next issue, pirates! Plus, our heroes, marooned at the end of time and trapped in the universal heat death that is the unstoppable conclusion of the thermodynamic process! And pirates!

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