CAPSULE COMMENTS for Oct. 26, 2011
Brief thoughts on this week's comics haul, with an off-the-cuff letter grade, which may or may not correspond to the full-review grade to come. Purchased: five regular-format, new DC comics and one month-old Marvel comic for $18.94.
SUPERMAN #2 - Dec.2011 (A+)
"Flying Blind" (20 pages ~ 132 panels)
by George Perez (story/breakdowns), Jesus Merino (art)
The single best book of the entire New 52, George Perez' Superman is, so far, among my very favorite comics runs of all time. The cover is so totally old-school enticing that I could not wait to tear into the story. And by God, we got a story, not just a tiny piece of some larger tale. I love that although we have a continuing sub-plot involving monsters with a connection to Krypton, we get one who is introduced, battled and vanquished all under the cover of this one issue, and with a clever hook to the resolution, to boot. All this and Merino's art, as close as anyone has got to classic Perez this side if Jiminez. My only complain about kills book is that Perez' run is fated to end after six short issues.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone who remembers buying comics when comics shops were a curious new corner of the distribution chain.
*****
AQUAMAN #2 - Dec.2011 (B+)
"The Trench, Part Two" (20 pages ~ 73 panels)
by Geoff Johns (story), Ivan Reis (pencils), Joe Prado (inks)
I'm afraid I'm not over-awed by the fang-fish villains, possibly because the amount of panel time they get robs them the the mystery that might otherwise make them truly horrific. I also find it hard to believe that with as many cops as there were combing ofer the harbor crime scene, no one apparently thought to look on the boat they crashed until Aquaman arrived on scene. These quaffs and Johns trademark glacial plots might make this a tough read, except that he absolutely NAILS the character, making him a noble, heroic, awe-inspiring object worthy of idol worship. Not only that, but his Mera comes across as truly regal - self-assured and slightly haughty but without crossing the bitch line. Much credit must be given to the Reis/Prado art team. What a fantastic-looking book! Best of all, the art serves the story, it doesn't get in the way of it.
RECOMMENDED for those who doubt Aquaman is anything this less than A-list, or that Mera might be something other than a Maxim-grade mega-bomb.
*****
THE FLASH #2 - Dec.2011 (B+)
"Think Fast" (20 pages ~ 136 panels)
by Francis Manapul (story/art), Brian Buccellato (story/colors)
I continue to be charmed by Manapul's artwork, and pleasantly surprised with his writing ability. That's note absolute praise, however. The plot involving Barry's now-cloned college pal really doesn't go anywhere, the flashback doesn't tell us anything about his character, or his relationship with Barry, that we didn't learn in last issue's flashback scene, and we get sidetracked with a Cosmic Treadmill New 52 origin, to no apparent purpose. What this issue does have, however, is a pretty interesting interlocution on the speed of Barry's synapsis. It's an interesting thought game, although, I think, an unnecessary one. If Barry could not already think as fast as he runs, he'd spend half his time slamming into shit. What Manapul does, however, is make him think faster than he can run, such that he can think through an infinite number of causes and effects in the space of seconds. Manapul presents his theory of how that might work fairly well, but, I fear, succeeds mainly in creating a supersonic deus ex machina-maker that'll surly trip up future, lesser writers.
RECOMMENDED for fanboys who really like to over think their super-heroes. I can just about imagine the heated debate this comics would engender among the Big Bang Theory quartet.
*****
LEGION: SECRET ORIGIN #1 - Dec.2011 (B)
"From the Wreckage" (20 pages ~ 102 panels)
by Paul Levitz (story), Chris Batista (pencils), Marc Deering (inks)
This is not a bad book by any means. In fact, given the general quality of Levtiz' post-executive efforts, it's damn good. It's almost as if someone threw him through as Anywhere Machine and found the writer he used to be. There are some issues, of course, primarily in the complain that this issue is almost all prologue, with no real story. There also are changes to the mythos (such as Phantom Girl's first meeting with Brainiac 5) which, more than new costumes, suggest this is a New 52 version of the Legion, rather than simply a new look at the secrets of the original Johns-booted team Levitz is most famous for helming. I do like the apparent de-aging of Brainiac 5, but not so much Lightning Lad skipping straight to he Bronze Age costume. Phantom Girl arriving through a wormhole instead of phasing straight from her home dimensions, along with the way she says, "Everybody at home can do this," as if "this" is becoming immaterial, not dimension-shifting, suggests she, too, has got a bit of a tweak. I've never heard of editor Kwanza Johnson (a name that sounds suspiciously like Justin Thyme, to me), but he sure messed up one panel, where characters ask the computer for data, comment on the data, yet get nothing but photos and blanks space where the data should be.
RECOMMENDED for fans of Legion reboots, of which there have been a few, or for any new fans interesting is starting from scratch with the 31st-century super-teens.
*****
ALL-STAR WESTERN #2 - Dec. 2011 (C)
"Showdown at House Arkham" (20 pages ~ 72 panels)
by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Moritat (art)
"El Diablo" (8 pages ~ 41 panels)
by Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti (story), Jordi Bennet (art)
After last issue's strong start, this title falls all over itself trying to jump in the tank. While last issue was a strong narrative by Arkham delving into the physiological underpinnings of Jonah Hex's character, the good doctor says nary a word in this issue, which is all pin-ups and one frantic gun battle. Unfortunately, Moritat has not read Will Eisner's Comics & Sequential Art, which notes that many panels tends to slow the action, while few speed it up. Thus, what is supposed to be a rapid-fire, split-second battle takes forever the "read," while we zip right by the scenes on which one supposes we're meant to linger. The serial murders we were investigating this issue are written off and ritual murders - to what purpose, we aren't told - leaving us with a typical secret-society conspiracy plot. And, as with most comic book plots these days, nothing really happens this issue, other than the bad guys sitting around a table agreeing to be bad guys. There seem to be more of the to. Either that, or I'm just a victim of getting old and not being able to remember incidental characters Mssrs. Gray & Palmiotti don't bother reintroducing us to. Who's the wizard-looking guy? Or, the crater-face who looks to be the New 52 version of the Outsider? And where's Cobblepot? I also found the artwork much diminished, especially in the latter pages, as if someone was buckling under deadline pressure. The El Diablo back-up feature was so by-the-numbers, I wouldn't be surprised if its something left over from a Kubert School student portfolio, dusted off only because zombies are back in vogue. Sadly, while Bennet has solid drafting skills - something it would seem he takes seriously, given that his signature is a take on Toth's - his artwork looks like it was produced with a Sharpie, as if he churned out this story at a convention during lulls in his autograph line.
MILDLY RECOMMENDED for the 1 percenters out there who can afford to throw away $4 on a printed product that's paper thin. But, me? I don't expect to be back for issue three.
*****
FF #10 - Dec. 2011 (D+)
"What I Need" (21 pages ~ 97 panels)
by Jonathan Hickman (story), Barry Kitson (art)
What the hell?! I mean, honestly, what the flying, friggin' hell??? I give up on this book. I've been mildly confused from the beginning, there being an abundance of unannotated references to stories I have not read, and characters and motivations I'm clearly supposed to know, but don't. But in the last few issues, ever since the Inhumans showed up, I have had absolutely NO idea what's going on. There really no story here at all. What we have is 21 pages of references to things that have happened before, those things not being limited even to recent issues of this title. I've been reading comics for 40 years and I'm lost, I can just imagine what the casual reader, if such a creature still exists, would make of this. I'm officially out of the only Marvel title on my pull list.
NOT RECOMMENDED for anyone other than the most diehard of Marvel zombies
I plan to post a full review of one or more of the above later tonight, or tomorrow. The full review examines the book in 10 categories: Cover, plot, script, panel layout, artwork, coloring, editing, production values, collectibility and something I call "the gosh-wow factor." After assigning a qualitative score to each category, I run the total through a quantitative handicapper that accounts for the number if panels and words, along with the overall reading time.
Any votes on which book you'd like me to tackle first?
Oh, and I also do something a call a "panelology review" - a panel-by-panel examination of the issue. That style is reserved for the Legion: Secret Origin debut.
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