10/13/10

A weekend in New Orleans followed by a crushing MAD MEN finale have held these words at bay just a little while now. Maybe the latest review yet, the new books are on the shelves but here’s last week’s reviews. Come on, now!

NEW AVENGERS #5—Bendis & company continue to lead the charge. This art team is just maybe the least bit better than over on the other book, I think, but that’s probably splitting hairs. Worst ad placement was behind those two pages with Brother Voodoo’s brother in fractal white space where you can see the logo from the wrestling action figure ads on the flip side of the page. Not cool, editors! Best panel of dialogue was when Logan called Parker “Webs,” tht whole exchange is vintage. It’s really asinine not to have Bendis scripting Spidey for the big screen. But, hey, I still think Morrison should be writing a Superman movie, what do I know? Meanwhile, in these very pages, we get a solid fanboy’s wet dream setup to take us into what’s surely the last issue of the arc. I want to not pay $4 for this in singles but don’t know how to stop. The oral histories really do make it pretty well worth it.

THE UNWRITTEN #18—Ah, it’s the old V FOR VENDETTA trick. I guess Morrison trotted it out for WEAPON X, so why can’t Carey have a whack at it, as well? Another single before the next arc kicks off. One gets the feeling that Carey & Gross are still just barely getting started, even a year and a half in. In a way that’s maybe not a bad thing.

GREEN LANTERN #58—Yeah, this whole multi-hued thing is getting pretty clustered up, here. It’s still for the most part working for me, but it must be just a hell of a thing to plot. It feels like Johns is going to have no problem making it to #100, and then, man, I’d have my eye on Bendis’s USM record. Not that that’s even over with. Nice to have the guest star cameo at the end feel like it’s going to matter or, I don’t know, count? since he’s written by the same guy. This book hasn’t been blowing me out of the water for a while now, even on the level of, say, Johns & Manipul killing it over on FLASH, but it’s solid, and you have to respect Johns’s long game.

SUPERIOR #1—I liked this better than I thought I would, picked it up more for the Yu art than Millar premise (just really sick of the self-promotion, almost hilarious to not even be surprised to find the guy pimping a movie role for this out to Don Draper the very day the first issue hits the stands, just something really undignified about it). The MS thing came off as a bit of tearjerker shorthand, like he didn’t have to try any harder to characterize the kid as anything more than the same fanboy mold as old Dave Johnson, except Now With MS, Making the Whole Magic Wish Thing That Much More Poignant. Sure was happy to see that space monkey show up, though. I think I would have tried to do this without all the Vertigo language in the dialogue, the kind of story that seems like eight year olds should maybe be able to get their hands on. Nobody wants to hear Billy Batson talking like a sailor, but hell, maybe that’s the kernel that got Millar on this in the first place. I figure I’ll pick up #2 if it’s a light week, catch up on the trade eventually if not. Cool of them to make it $2.99, that was probably the creators’ call. Millar does hook his artists up, a very cool thing.

FRACTION HAT TRICK!:

THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #31—I’ve decided that this one probably reads better in trade. Maybe the movies are spoiling me, but I feel like we’re inching along and not getting enough of a complete story every month. It’s all very well done, of course, the chapters just aren’t quite as satisfying as they could be. Like watching Downey, Jr. in six-minute doses. Great work, but then it’s over right when they’re about to get to the next good part. Not to say I’m not stoked for next month, as ever.

THOR #616—This, too, was more of a slow burn than I expected. And, of course, I’ve still got like stratospheric expectations for this brought about by the delays plus mainlining Simonson’s Surtur Saga right before we got going. Ferry’s work is breathtaking. I don’t see why the ad for the damn Red Hulk in THE AVENGERS can’t be on the right side of the page and not break up the momentum leading to such a momentous last page, not really a time you want to hiccup the flow. Editors! It also seems strange putting a LOKI #1 on sale next week, but I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised. Final verdict, enjoying this, but it’s taking a little while to get off the ground. But hey, they basically had to perform the equivalent of introducing Beta Ray Bill in the first issue to live up to the hope and hype.

CASANOVA #4—And just like that, Luxuria comes to an end. I am curious what someone who’s never hit it before thought about it in this concentrated colored dosage. I really like what Cris Smith did. And can not get enough of the Ba(Moon)! Hit PIXU just a couple weeks ago. Just waiting to find that DE:TALES for cheap, now. Looking forward to the next arc because I reread the hell out of this first one and remembered more beats than not, whereas I always meant to go back and do the same with #8-14 and never did, so should be a treat. Seems ill-advised to build a three-month gap in between now and the next arc, though. Monthly, people! I want this book to do as well as it possibly can. Really just can’t wait for #9, to be perfectly candid. The interview with Chaykin (heh, almost typed “Flagg” there) was interesting, but it seemed like Fraction went to the F-bomb a few times too many, as if that was automatic cred or something. I mean, like five or six times in a row. It loses weight through repetition, Boss! It got to the point where I was just expecting retorts like “Fucking fuck AMERICAN FLAGG, fuck me.” Ah well, I suppose I can really criticize his interviewing technique after I get Chaykin on the line myself. One thing it did accomplish was inspire me to finish tracking down the rest of that first run of AF in singles, so that’s surely going to improve my life.

And this would have been a footnote, since we’re all the way off the Quinn family now and already at the bottom of the page, what’s the point? But talking about AMERICAN FLAGG, I’ve been hitting some classic runs in singles that got by me in the first place, am two years into Byrne on FF, now about to lock it up with ALPHA FLIGHT and hit those side-by-side, month-by-month, and still need to knock out the remainder of Simonson’s THOR and the last year and change of Milligan/Allred on X-STATIX, (all of these are stacked up in my nightstand drawer, just waiting), then I still need to track down #37 of JLI (or I think it’s A by then, but you know what I mean, Giffen/Dematteis) to finish that one up, then yeah, let’s do Chaykin and maybe finally round up all those old Miller DAREDEVILs. And need to finish up CEREBUS and start LONE WOLF & CUB back up from the beginning now that I’ve got all those, too. Really no surprise that I’m not hitting that much prose these days, no.