12/29/10

Holiday travels and shenanigans cause another late one, folks. I actually didn’t even crack the first of these badboys until quarter to midnight Friday night, which, yeah, New Year’s Eve, the wife fell out and I just drank champagne and finally dove into the new stack while the madness all around me built, which, I have to tell you, was just a hell of a way to read the first book. What was it called?

S.H.I.E.L.D. #5—Just as Newton got #3, the elder Richards and Stark men take this one, and, you know, it’s a lot of fun. I wish these creators could just give us a series starring them. But it would not be a monthly, no! Words, pictures, this is nothing less than top drawer work, folks, with a last splash that seems so obvious in hindsight but that gasses up the narrative considerably and will leave us breathless for another eight to ten weeks or so. So, make that last gasp a good one.

(at this point, I paused to toast the new year and then watched this bit from Harpo, which happened to have been playing a few minutes earlier on AMC or some such and, really, isn’t it still one of the finest pieces of musical performance you’ve ever seen or imagined?)

AVENGERS #8—I’m impatient to start reading tonight’s new books and there are 13 of these things, so forgive the terse nature of this week’s reviews. Bendis gets me back on board with this arc, redeeming all those pages spent last month on how great the Hood is with a new meeting of the Illuminati. Which, maybe Medusa showing up would have been a bigger deal if she wasn’t on the cover? Not that it’s really like a spoiler or anything, but it was weird, because I saw the cover and made the mental adjustment, oh, that’s right, it would be her, and then the characters’ surprise was a beat in the plot. It’s better not to remind us that we’re outside of the picture, we want to be in their heads, feeling their surprise, not thinking Tony’s a doof for not checking out the cover. Nitpicking, though, what a huge last splash. That’s a pretty big moment. And the oral history continues to dominate, though at this rate, we’re going to be up to #500 in just a few months. It will actually be hilarious to hear the characters talk about Disassembled. In the hands of about anyone else, I think it would be a masturbatory Ourobouros train wreck, but I bet that old Bendis still finds a way to make me smile. He always does.

OSBORN #2—Kelly Sue continues to tear it up. And, my God, Emma Rios. But it looks like Ellis was only on board for #1. I didn’t catch McKelvie’s work on the interior’s, a mistaken cover credit? We hit the gas in this one, next issue should be pretty interesting.

ASTONISHING X-MEN: XENOGENESIS #4—Oh, I am the sad that teh Ellis is almost done playing with the X-toys. Certainly the definitive voice of Emma Frost, but he really makes the franchise sing in a way that it hasn’t since Morrison was tearing it up ten years ago. And Kaare Andrews turns in increasingly jaw-dropping work, I stared at that double-page celestial thing for what felt like much too long of a time.

NEW MUTANTS #20—Derp! He’s back! That was a crazy moment with Illyana, but she’s still a demon running with the angels. Right? Right?

CAPTAIN AMERICA #613—So glad this book can look this good without Epting, I was afraid it was never going to recapture this run’s halcyon days. The Nomad back-up was pretty hardcore. A younger version of me would’ve told you different, but I actually enjoyed the artistic switch-up between the two. Oh, and I am now officially fucking sick of William H. Macy’s new show. Wild and crazy! Never even heard of it before seeing an ad for it six times in a row.

INCOGNITO: BAD INFLUENCES #2—Another treasure. The comic books these guys make should be minted. Almost a platonic form of the medium, you can’t add or subtract a line of dialogue or art without reducing the perfection before you. And then Nevins drops in again and blows everyone away with the pulp essay. This is a hell of a value for your t’ree fifty, ladies and gentlemen.

NEMESIS #4—I . . . actually didn’t mind this so much? McNiven always kills it. I thought it was going to maybe end? Not very conclusive as a standalone, but hey, True Top Gun Romance is making a movie out of it, so I guess Millar can chalk this one up as another win. The script vs. art pages are hilarious. Like, maybe a joke, even, I wouldn’t put it past that Scottish imp. If not, I hope old McNiven is pulling at least 60%.

GREEN LANTERN #61—Mm, I don’t really care about Atroticus and dug this about as much as I could for an issue starring him. It kind of seems like Johns enjoys writing stand-alone issues for villains.

FLASH #8—Yah, it really really does. This is a pretty solid Rebirth done-in-one for Professor Zoom. Had a cool Twilight Zone/Outer Limits anthology show feel to it. If one of those things blew up into a monster Big Event, of course. This Flashpoint is probably going to be pretty solid, I’m thinking.

ACTION COMICS #896—Lex trying to talk his way out of it was a deft piece of writing. Running out of things to say about this arc. It’s really fucking good. Going to follow Spencer/Silva over to the OLSEN special, they’re doing the best work I’ve seen with that guy in years, hell, maybe in my entire natural lifetime.

DETECTIVE COMICS #872—Oh, Scott Snyder, how can you be killing it so hard out of the gate? Lining up this creative team was a masterstroke, everybody is at the top of their game. Was that plummet off the space needle thing an homage to Dick & Damian’s jump up at the top of BATMAN & ROBIN? It takes some balls to reference Quitely, but Jock more than gets it done. It doesn’t look good for Dick, no!

THE DARK KNIGHT #1—I was impressed by this. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but it kind of freaked me out how much like Jim Lee this artwork looked. He found a good man in Scott Williams! I knew the pencils would be solid, but had no idea what to expect from the writing, and am pleased to see Finch come out swinging, doing a fine job with the time-honored journal narration from YEAR: ONE. Too, it was nice to have someone walk in on the last page and not have that beat already plastered all over the title pages of CBR, Bleeding Cool, etcetera. A promising beginning.