7/18/12

BEST OF WEEK: SILK SPECTRE #2—Jaw-dropping career-defining work from Amanda Conner here for the second time in a row, the back end of this series as yet unseen, it’s not too early to declare that if Mrs. Palmiotti shuffles off this mortal coil before I do, that first night that I find out, I promise to curl up with these four issues and a bottle of wine and just cry my eyes out, smiling all the while. A superior effort from all parties, but her in particular.

JUSTICE LEAGUE #11—Really just too much fun right here, any issue that burns maybe a third of its page count on Jim Lee drawing Wonder Woman just whipping the shit out of the rest of the Justice League is quite all right with me. If it happens every single month, even. I enjoyed the way this one was structured, Johns has really come all the way around and is delivering a story worthy of the A-list fellas he’s got on art. Also, it looks like SHAZAM is hopefully kicking into gear, here. Frank continues to be a hoss (just read their SECRET ORIGIN of Superman this last week and was really leveled, fine fine work from both parties, stunning penultimate panel, there).

FABLES #119—is in no way, shape, or form for all ages. Pretty gruesome shit, right here, bad enough eating the tiger raw before asking the toys to start sacrificing their body parts so that we can get a fire started up round here. That business gets in your head.

THE UNWRITTEN #39—This arc’s moving along a little bit better, but it’s still feeling like pretty much a misfire to bench Tom, barely include Savoy, and suddenly focus on new main characters. Though when you throw in a unicorn who’s not afraid to put that horn to stabby stabby use, that’s going to mitigate the problem a bit. Ready for this one to start ramping up. Cool bit with the holy relic, though, certainly.

WONDER WOMAN #11—I’m starting to lose my steam on this one. The wordplay remains clever as hell, but almost a year in, I’m about as uninvested as I could be, with Chiang/Wilson still certainly making it look very pretty. Wondering how much Azzarello has left in him, here.

GLORY #28—Campbell keeps drawing pretty pictures and Keatinge keeps adding to the momentum of this thrillride. This . . . doesn’t seem paced to sustain itself for much longer than a year. It will be interesting to see how long these runs last and who, if anyone, should happen to pick them up when the initial new creatives move on. I’m okay with maybe 12 issues of this and out but want PROPHET to last forever.

SAGA #5—This one’s still not giving me enough in single doses the way I’ve grown to expect from BKV after 110 issues of training. Not bad, just can kind of see the strings on him moving all the characters around from place to place trying to create the illusion that something’s actually happening. Interesting to lose the kid’s narration this issue in favor of her first interaction with her parents.

AVENGERS VS X-MEN #8—Wait, Coipel’s coming back, right? I hope we get more than two issues out of him. Though certainly no complaint about Kubert. Ha, funny to see him here, indirectly programmed against his dad and brother over on that unmentionable title across the street. But yeah, this one follows a very logical plot development for this juncture: Namor has been all Phoenixed up long enough to lose his patience and basically just goes apeshit all over everybody. Perfectly logical. Love that shot of Prof. X’s eyes there on that next-to-last page, Kubert really channeling classic Sienkiewicz in the best of ways. Onward with the last three issues and creative reshuffling and lots of new Now! #1s, rah rah.

DAREDEVIL #15—And man, the opposite of SAGA, no one can pack it in for you on a monthly single these days like Waid over here. The Latverian madness continues to play out. Samnee and friends continue to blow it up on art. And, hey, Iron Man!

FANTASTIC FOUR #608—Not so much happens in this one, but it’s still all wonderfully engaging and a pleasure to read. The women go hunting Anubis while T’Challa and Reed head to the Wakandan kingdom of the dead. So sad this is coming to an end/going to miss Hickman terribly/etc etc.