Reviews 12/05/08

Well no reviews last week because my motivation ebbs when I've nothing new to tell the world. Last week I picked up the excellent B.P.R.D Killing Ground collection which has no surprise in the sense that it's excellent but plenty of twists with the characters, the whole story taking place at 'home' in Colorado. If your're reading it already, there's nothing to tell as you know it's great and if you're not picking it up, you're missing one of the best monthly books currently published. Guy Davis' art just gets creepier and creepier and the freaky monsters just get weirder. On a side note I picked up his own series the Marquis a little while back which he wrote and drew, black, white and lots of great zipper tone...and cracked out monsters too. It's collected by Oni in two books but tricky to find.
The only floppy comic I picked up was Action Comics 864, which I must have ordered based on how much I was enjoying the previous run with Gary Frank. While I'm now much more up to speed on the Legion Of Superheroes, this issue left me lost with a big reveal of a villain who I don't know but suspect I'm supposed to. Also leads into the Legion of Superheroes Crisis thingy which I won't be reading. Artwise, nothing to show, feeling if I've nothing nice to scan then don't scan anything at all. I feel used...
This week, however, I had comics to buy! First up to show no hard feelings, Action Comics Annual 11 which I believe we've waited a year for. Though I don't know what happened to Adam Kubert to make him run SO late on this, I don't overly care. There've been plenty of good Action Comics and Busiek Superman(s) in the meantime and some iffy fill-ins which I just skipped : ) Check out upset people's feelings here. They are funny! Artwise, though Dave Stewart's not on the colours, Edgar Delgado fills in fine, mostly matching the style and finishing Kubert's art and maintaining the unique finish. Also fun is is that Richard Donner and Geoff Johns manage to surprise on the story, but I don't do spoilers. A great read that if you've not followed, will stand alone happily as a trade paperback.
The softcover of New Avengers Illuminati came out, which I'd been waiting a while for. I really like Jimmy Cheung, and have done since Iron Man and Maverick, back before he was a "Marvel Young Gun". There's something straight but fun about his art that I can't put my finger on. I feel he makes everyone look like a teenager, but its not really true (see the collection's cover). It did make him the perfect choice for Young Avengers where, with great inker John Dell and perfectly suited colourist Justin Posner, I decided to keep my eye on what he was up to in the future. I wouldn't pick up everything he does...but this series fits. A retrofitted marvel history telling of how a few key Marvel Players have manipulated things from behind the scenes. Secret Wars, the Kree Skrull War are good my personal fave was putting a punctuation mark at the end of Morrison's Marvel Boy which was a great cosmic trilogy cut short by shortsighted Bill Jemas worrying about how he couldn't make a movie of it.The book also coincided with an all Skrull, Secret Invasion tie-in that follows on from Illuminati but otherwise just left me Jimmy Cheung non Skrull stuff.
The third part of Risso and B K Vaughn's Logan mini came out and while overall the series was a little light, it was good fun that didn't stray from the character, though perhaps a slightly dated version of him. Risso's art is superb as always and the last page almost justifies the series alone. I imagine there's a Hard Cover coming of it but for three issues, I'd be careful...
Following my last post I found out the Hellboy Golden Army preview I got free was maybe not very liberally distributed so I've taken the liberty of scanning the thing. My logic, and I hope it'd stand up in court is that 1)the comic was free and 2)it was meant to be READ for free and used to promote the movie and comic. Well here it is. Low res so you can't print it but complete so you can enjoy it. Enjoy it!

Reviews 30/04/08

A slow week last week. I'm starting to come to terms with the ideas that I'm in an abusive relationship with Morrisons Batman. No matter how bad the art gets, I keep coming back. I could handle Andy Kubert, to my mind the lesser of the two Kubert brothers, and inked by Jesse Delperdang who has done nice things for Kubert's art since Ka-Zar. The text story was heavy going but still had promise. JH Williams is a personal favourite so I was very happy for three issues. For about a year now, it's been relentless bad art. Batman 675, which years back would have been one of those special issues, Ryan Benjamin takes the ball and runs with it. Even Tony Daniel will have to work to achieve the level of thoughtless, amateurish rubbish that Grant Morrison gets to work with. I don't know what kind of editor gets to see this stuff in black and white before the colourist comes in and has to try to save it.Ryan Benjamin came onto the scene shortly after Tony Daniel in about '94 as part of one of Jim Lee's talent searchs, along with Travis Charest, J Scott Campbell, Aaron Weisenfeld, all of whom have gone on to better things. I can only hope for his sake, as I'm not malicious, that he had about an hour to draw these 22 pages. Storywise Morrison moves Batman more and more towards the breakdown he kees referring to in interviews and we get to see that its not Talia (Ras Al Ghul's daughter) who's behind these various future Batmen or the murder attempts on Bruce Wayne. Someone else is out to get him and knows his identity. Shoulda been good!
Marvel will make sure their A-list writers get the approriate level of artist, or at least the artist they want. Mark Millar seems to get whatever he wants, Bendis too yet DC's treatment of one of, hands down, their best writers on their flagship title gets...this. I think all of the above is what's gettng me really interested in Final Crisis. I've never read any of the other Crisis books and I'm sure it won't matter but at least I'll be able to pore over the art.
Moving on...
Spirit #16 came out and I loved it. I really enjoyed the breezy story, Spirit wondering around a film set, the Spirit splash was great and Paul Smith's art was excellent and less 'on model' than his previous issue. Lee Loughridge's colours are good and its all wrapped up in a Bruce Timm cover. If the last two issues were a little shakey and made you feel Darwyn Cooke took all the good stuff with him, I recommend checking out this issue.

My local comic shop here in BCN gave me some deservingly free comics for Free Comic Book Day which was a nice thought. One nice surprise in there was Hellboy and the Golden Army. An annoying film still cover, which I won't bother scanning, but a really nice story which is a comic ad-ap-ta-tion of the prologue to the second movie. Guillermo Del Toro says in the introduction that this is in the movie but told with puppets. Cool! The art is by Francisco Ruiz Velasco who drew Lone Wolf 2100 and apparently also works on designs for the second Hellboy movie. There's not really any Hellboy in it but Mignola scripts Professor 'Broom' telling the story to Hellboy Jr. All good.

I finished reading Michael "Heroes" Green's Batman:Lovers and Madmen HC collecting the story with Denys Cowan art from Batman Classified. Telling a story from Batman's early years and a new origin for the Joker, it has to be read with some suspension of disbelief; we all know the origin of the Joker ie our established favourite or mixture of various. Jack Napier kills Tom and Martha Wayne and sets his ironic destiny at the hands of Batman. Desperate, unamed, unfunny comic gets knocked into chemicals and comes out nuts and gorgeously drawn by Bolland. Those are my two. One's a film, one's a comic.
This book reads like a film, in a comic and the Joker looks like the pending Heath Ledger version. Like any sensible writer, he keeps Year One in play and the story shows bored/suicidal criminal who gets a a new lease of life after meeting Batman (like a reversal of JM DeMatteis' Going Sane story). Taken on it's own terms, out of DContinuity etc, the pacing's great, the characterisation of Alfred, Bruce, Batman, the Joker is all spot on. Denys Cowan and John FLoyd's art is great, nutty looking cartooning far from any previous published work by them. ILL's colouring is the best I've seen from them but still...Recommended!

Almost Weakly

Back again to get up to date.
Now where to begin...?

All Star Superman great. It's not controversial to say so. However, it's getting better. Frank Quietly made the choice towards the end of his X-Men issues to ditch inkers as he felt no-one managed to make it look how he wanted. It's taken a while (ie all of WE3 and the previous nine issues of All Star Supes) but this is the first issue I didn't read wincing at bits that I wish he'd inked or had someone else ink.
The storytelling, grace, detail and sense of scale that he's always had hasn't gone anywhere and Morrison is stripping the sory back to the absolute minimum of text etc but the book is so rewarding on a reread. Highlight of this issue are a great Lex Luthor moment, the innovative illustration of Superman's X-Ray vision (above) and Superman creating a mini universe to see what would have happened if he'd never 'come' to Earth (below).

Continuing with Superman, Action Comics 863 finished up the Superman and the Legion of Superheroes arc. Difficult to to remove any image to show without damaging the resolution of the story. No beat is wasted by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's art, as repeatedly mentioned before is great. I was left wanting more and I'll get more. IN future though, when James Robinson starts on Superman, Action and Superman will run closely together and crossing over. This pisses me off a bit as I like James Robinson but I'm really not sure about the regular artist on the book (Renato Guedes). IT's really souless and I'd already stopped getting the Busiek Superman because of it.
We'll see.
More Superman (what the f*ck's going on). Well Darwyn Cooke and the Justice League New Frontier Special which came out about a month ago. Cooke's written the whole thing and drew half of it, a missing scene from his mega mini New Frontier. A conflict aluded to but only briefly in the series is ellaborated on, Batman Versus Superman. The whole thing is told on three panel per page and feels a little like storyboards. Everything is set up perfectly. Batman stages the fight in a junk yard so the lead will screw up Superman's X-ray vision and then doesn't stop hammering at him. Interesting too are mentions of Batman stuff that retroactively forshadows Dark Knight Returns; interesting because Cooke was very outspoken about Miller's Dark Knight Strikes. However as much as New Frontier was very settled in time because of Cooke's research and structuring of the series within the "real" events of the DC silver age, these nods to Dark Knight, for me, secure it as part of DCs future.
The back ups in the book are good too. The director of the DC:NF cartoon, Dave Bullock does a great Robin and Kid Flash story and Darwynn Cooke's frequent collaborator Jay Bone does a fun Wonder Woman/Black Canary strip.
Oh and DAVE STEWART colors it all.
Which reminds me...the Eisner nominees were announced this week, reminding me how out of touch I am for the for the most part (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=153595) but Richard Isanove nominated for best colourist!?!?!?!? Awards are always controversial but bloody hell...my finger's really not on the pulse.
Moving on, in my last review of Loveless, I mentioned that it was one of the series I pick up just for the art, when its drawn by Daniel Zezelj. This latest one stand alone story makes me question my judgement. While the art is superb and the colours a perect fit, the story is incredible. Really great. X ammount of years after the main story takes place, a couple of gangsters turn up to hide at a farm house and lie low. They're pretty callous and the old man lives alone and tells 'em a story of when he was a kid, racing horses in a touring racing team. The reveal at the end isn't necessary (though I still shalln't spol it) but if you've read 100 bullets, this is similar to the Kennedy issue. Pick it up, if only when Zezelj is drawing it. Great stuff!
Along with Loveless from Gosh I received issue one of Suitcase Nuke #1. The comic's funny, very well drawn with creative layouts and story telling. I don't, however, know what Wangchung is. Regardless the comic was a really pleasant surprise (I've met him) and I recommend checking out his stuff at http://crowleeey.blogspot.com.
The book also inspired me to flex my polish poster muscle for the first time in ages, the result of which you can see at the bottom of this post.

Also funny Zeb Wells and Bachalo finished their three part Spidey story this week in Amazing 557. This is very much the kind of story which would've bee given a mini or have been relegated to Tangled Web (a place for good solid Spidey stories which don't fit into the convoluted continuity). However, thanks to a load of convoluted continuity, there's now a new unconvoluted continuity so while some stuff might go over your head, you can enjoy what you're reading. As my mate Anthony pointed out, if Spidey was that good every month, we wouldn't miss it. Chris Bachalo's seamingly involved in the colouring of the book, from what I understand, directing the colourist so it looks like he coloured it himself. It looks great, though yet again Tim Townsend ducks out just before the end of the three issues and while Bachalo's pretty hard to overpower/ruin, the art suffers a little for it. Could be worse though, Barry Kitson's on the next arc.
Couple of last mentions of things I can't scan cause it'll f*ck the books up.
The new recoloured Killing Joke has a healthy pricetag but is really gorgeous. I had the book in black and white, which I love, but would never have imagined anyone else colouring it other than the very lively John Higgins. I had a happy moment at Alan Moore's signing at Gosh when he agreed that the Batman Annual story he did with George Freeman (love letter coming soon) was a better Batman story than Killing Joke. It's questionable of course whether its supposed to be a Batman story at all.
Picked up the Mad Archives volume 2 a few weeks back and though I'm dipping in and out (as I feel I have to with really old comics) it's plain gorgeous. Not much to add really, just don't assume it's the weakest link in the EC stable until you've looked at what Wally Wood's capable of with Kurtzman.
Lastly, a friend bought me a book (in the form of giving me the money for me to pick it up). I chose the collection of Michael (Heroes) Green and Denis Cowan's Batman Confidential arc. I'll give it the full review next time but so far, really liking it.

Ketchup

Here we go. Brief recap of my reads from the past month due to waiting and waiting, keeping loyal before finding out my order'd been missed. For the most part I'm up to date and even read a couple of new things that I'd otherwise not have picked up.
In no particular order...

I picked up Kick Ass #1 and subsequently #2 in the out of a sense of keeping my finger on the pulse and always hoping for the best for JRJR. For the record, I get the idea that Mark Millar is 1) a really nice guy b) loves to publicise/overpublicise himself and thirdly, operates in his own bubble in the world of comics.
Every interview I've heard with him tells us how the artist he's working with is the best currently working in comics. Steve McNiven has something, Tommy Lee Edwards is a great illustrator, and Bryan Hitch has come a long way baby. John Romita Jr is probably the closest his claim comes to validity. His art on Kick Ass plays to one his many strengths which is street level. The book looks gorgeous, inked by Tom Palmer who couldn't do any wrong over such a great draftsman. The colourist Dean White also did a great job over him on Black Panther.
The problems start with what I think is Mark Millar's weak point; the high concept. Warren Ellis used to suffer the same thing for me. You come up with a great idea. "A+B=Wow. Now to add to the idea and you have a story". The problem with this is that you get the nice element of surprise at the newness in the firstplace, enjoy it all the way through but can never go back to it. Twelve issues of Wolverine by JRJR, inked by Klaus Janson and I just couldn't go back and read it.
Kick Ass already has that feeling for me. If I get a slow week I might continue with it and keep you posted but I'm not optimistic.
To get it all out of the way, I also picked up the Morrison Batman I'd missed. The story's taken an up swing and has a great Batman moment at the end to remind me why I'm sticking with it but the art attached backs up my feelings about Tony Daniel. Roll on the fill-in issues.

Now Jonah Hex, moving on and up is just a joy. I found one I hadn't noticed in Previews, while desperately seeking my fix. Plus a new one. Great, (generally) stand alone stories by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray that I'd read every month if I didn't have to pay for 'em. I'm spoiled for working in a comic shop in the past to the point of only buying books I feel I'm gonna keep wanting to go back to. Fortunately, every xth issue is drawn by Jordi Bernet who has a mixture of classic styles in his own, not the least of which is Alex Toth, and I feel a bit of John Buscema, Dan DeCarlo there too. As you'll see from the scans, it's just fuggin gorgeous. The stories give him plenty to work with, in terms of environment, characters, violence and comedy and is completely faithful to Michael Fleisher and Garcia-Lopez stories from the 70s. Pick it up!
Wolverine's on a roll. The regular monthly has a three parter by Jason (Scalped) Aaron with Wolverine hunting to kill Mystique, who's generally a treacherous bitx, and great for it, but really screwed the X-Men during the recent X-Men crossover. This was one of those great meetings of the stars. Ron Garney who's comics I always want to buy the writing lets him down, Jason Aaron who's great and, well so far so good. Lastly Wolverine who's a character I love to read done well.
Ron Garney's drawing it, at his absolute best, adapting his style for every project and to this one bringing a lot of John Buscema, shot straight from pencils which gives it a good, rough, Klaus Janson finish. His story telling is great and fluid and his Wolverine is great.
The story is twisty-turny, violent and fun and recommended for Wolverine fans, not however recommended for people that don't like Wolverine.Marvel Knights Logan is by Brian K (he's good) Vaughn and drawn by Eduardo Risso. Dean White colours and while its loud, its also good. A good water colour vibe without the apparent colour blindness that afflicts Richard (three tone) Isanove or Guy (one tone) Major. Dave Stewart makes it look easy and has plenty of peers to show that its not.

Its Risso so its gorgeous. Its Risso Wolverine so it can't go too wrong for me. Plenty of reviewers have gone on about another lost Logan love and another surprise, old enemy who needs revenging and to be honest, I don't know what they want. There's really not too much to add to the character. Get over it. Don't read comics you know aren't going to offer you something new because you only disappoint yourself.
George Pratt wrote and drew a great looking Wolverine story called Netsuke a while back. It bombed, isn't collected because...it's not following the 'formula'. Wolverine+Revenge...Wolverine+Loser at Love=...Wolverine+PLus World War 2=...
This is just a good Wolverine story...And its gorgeous.
Bachalo's just come on for his first arc on Spider-Man with the funny and fun Zeb Wells who never disappoints me and Tim Townsend inking who does him the most justice of any inker (close second of Richard Friend).
I, for one, don't care about Spider-Man's marriage, deal with the devil, dead/dying/alive aunt. I've been seeing scans of pages here and there for a while so I was stuck for what to scan. Hence a good Spidey picture! This is one of those 'does what it says on the tin' reads. If you like the look, pick it up. I thought it was great.Paul Smith on the Spirit. I was excited by the prospect but found the experience jarring. One minute its Paul Smith, the next its Eisnery. Good fun, good Lee Loughridge colours, good fun Aragones and Evanier story...though Cooke is missed. Both Ploog and Smith, I feel, are being overly reverant in dealing with Eisner's flagship character. They could both relax a bit. Regardless, I'll stick about, though I'm really, really dreading Waldon Wong (deadline corrector) who only seems to emerge from the shadows of comics shadows to ink great artists into the ground when they can't meet deadlines.The Iron Man movie's coming and so there's a lot of Iron Man comics about. This is one of the few I jumped at. I fked up a bit and bought the issues, not banking on a collection as Joe Casey+Great Idiosyncratic Aquired Taste Art generally= Critical acclaim, commercial flop.
Great, contempory, year one type story by Casey, incredible art by Eric Canete (see the blog links above) and DAVE STEWART on colours! The quality starts there! Saturfaction guaranteed! Seek it out or buy the book in a couple of months!
To be continued with All Star Supes, New Horizon Special and Action Comics.

Absent Without Leave

Hello cruel world,
Contrary to my slanderous accusations of poor couriers causing delays here in Barcelona, it was in fact a clerical error at my comics shop here that left me without comics for a month : (
I've got a couple of Jonah Hexs, Iron Man Enter The Mandarin, Amazing Spider-Man, Killing Joke Reissue, The Spirit, Batman, Action Comics,Wolverine, Logan, All Star Superman and Kick Ass.
I'm now up to date and will get a load of reviews up over the next few days. In the meantime, here's one of those reminders that no matter how much we love to see creators working on their own stuff (particularly Mignola), there's something about seeing 'em cut loose on Kirby, Ditko etc.
These images are from the Upper Deck Trading Cards so you're probably seeing these bigger than published size.
Watch this Space!

Last weeks reads

The amazing work of Spanish couriers means my comics arrived very late. So here I am the day before (hopefully) getting my new ones, giving opinions on what everyone else has already read.
Anyway...
To begin with a non review.
Batman by Grant Morrison may hold up better upon hindsight. The run started with 'superstar' Andy Kubert on the art who seems like a nice guy and has a distinctive style that really does very little for me. It's very typical of current DC (and Marvel to a certain extent) to tell us how awesome someone is when all the evidence in front of you tells you otherwise. We then got a great three parter by J H Williams with Dave Stewart to show us how good it could be before new 'superstar' Tony Daniel came on as the regular artist with Guy Major colouring.
Now my understanding of the logic behind this decision is that he can do a monthly book with a cool style.
The problem for me is that he doesn't have a cool style. His art is jarringly ugly and I would go so far as to say he was better in '93 on X-Force. It was actually an alright style for the time, Following Greg Capullo (when HE was of interest) and before Adam Pollina. Hence the non review. After wincing through the first few parts, wishing I needed glasses so I could take them off, I then had to read the just plain rubbish Ras Al Ghul crossover and called it a day. This week the first one I didn't order came out and I'd like to read it but I can't spend money on it.
I probably will later though...it's Grant Morrison on Batman and I wanna know what happens : )
Continuing with Batman, though one I've read this time, All Star Batman & Robin #9 hit the shelves and continues to show that while Frank Miller never seems to disappoint every time he opens his mouth lately, he still writes really entertaining comics.
At some point it became fine for me to like Jim Lee's art again. He's as much of the reason I got into American comics at sixteen as Image was responsible for me seeking out good comics elswhere (Dark Horse, Fantagraphics, Europe etc). It seems to me very much that if he's got Scott Williams inking him, you're all right. I even ended up buying the Absolute Hush as a present for my inner child and while it's a crap read, it's nice seeing Jim Lee experimenting with styles and keeping both himself and me interested. He's doing this even more-so in All-Star Batman.
The comic is a real guilty pleasure. I actually enjoy it. That's my review. If I analyse it too hard I'll find I've very little good to say about it but I do enjoy it and recommend it...(if you're me or someone who found you enjoyed DK2 despite yourself).

The post midlife crisis reboot of Action Comics by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner was troubled from the start by delays, all of which would seem to be the fault of Adam Kubert who turned in fantastic work with colours by Dave 'satisfaction guaranteed' Stewart. I really can't imagine what could have caused delays so huge as to have them keep the series going in the meantime and elect to finish his first (only) story arc in an Annual. I liked it and am looking forward to the end of it.
Anyway, in the meantime we've had a great, strange, Bizarro story by Eric Powell and they've also welcomed as the new regular penciller Gary Frank. I've never been a huge Gary Frank fan, marginalising him as "solid" and once he started getting inked by Top Cow inker Jonathan Sibal a few years back, I thought that was the end. However, the current Action Comics arc has been gorgeous, really. We've got Christopher Reeves as Superman, interesting page design and colours by Dave McCaig bringing it all together. The story, for one not at all up to speed on the Legion, has been great fun and I'm looking forward to good long run on the comic I thought I'd never be able to buy.
Number 1 of Rasl, the new Jeff Smith series also hit and was very well received, by me. The printing's a bit sh*t and while I prefer Jeff Smith's work in black and white, the pinting left it all a bit dark grey and white. Only criticism. I thought the story was a great start which got me really interested but the experience was too short. As you can read anywhere, its a sci-fi adventure about an art thief who can jump through dimensions to nick the same thing various times. This takes a lot out of him and so he's got to drink, smoke and meditate before getting back into the swing of things. This is the premise of the series and is pretty much all we get from the first issue so you kind of read it with a sense of de ja vu. Two months till number 2.