This week, our beloved editor Matthew is on vacation. Walter and Joshua are keeping the site tanked up with valuable, sexy content; meanwhile, I’m sitting here with a disgusting, mind-crippling cold and a stack of words and pictures leering at me. If you want in-depth, thoughtful commentary, um, look at their reviews. If you want to see what it’s like when an incredibly sick hoo-man comics reader blasts through a pile of things as fast as possible, well — after the jump.
Batgirl #20
Written by Bryan Q. Miller
Penciled by Ramon Bachs
In which we are presented the second half of an exciting adventure wherein Batgirl beats up a guy. This was a pretty sound comic; I can’t exactly fault it structurally or anything. That said, it was also a pretty unambitious comic. I don’t think I’ve seen Ramon Bachs’ work since Generation M, and I don’t think I’ve read a Bryan Q. Miller comic in my life ever. The former turned in solid but unexciting work — car chases and martial arts fight were given too much blank space surrounding them, turning what should have been dynamic sequences into ones that felt strangely empty. Miller’s writing has somewhat of the same quality — there’s nothing wrong with it, but it just feels uninspired. The idea of a slacker villain being given a speed-suit and everything he needs to succeed is a cute one, but that’s the only ground it really covers. Fine, but not clever. Verdict: 6.0/10
Batman and Robin #22
Written by Peter Tomasi
Penciled by Patrick Gleason
In which we wrap up “Dark Knight vs. White Knight” and go more than a little gonzo. Of all the Bat-books around, right now Tomasi seems the writer most game to try and leap in front of the truck that is Grant Morrison. This issue involves Arkham Asylum being turned into a blinding neon water-trap, Damian Wayne getting in a moment of smug adolescent cruelty with the villains, weaponized Bat-ears, and a moment where someone shouts out “ANGELS ARE FALLING ON GOTHAM!” and totally means it. This is a comic where some days, you just can’t get rid of a bomb, and Patrick Gleason draws the hell out of it, striking a fine balance between dynamic action and quirky but expressive facial ‘acting.’ How much you like this is going to depend on how much goofiness you’re willing to tolerate in a Batman comic. Frank Miller and Alan Grant fanboys steer clear. Verdict: 8.0
Birds of Prey #11
Written by Gail Simone
Penciled by Pere Perez
In which the issue of Huntress and Catman’s relationship is resolved, with additional stops for special guest-star Catman to punch a pregnant woman and get his bowels punctured. The storyline is a twisty game of moral ambiguity, which is a lot to sell in one issue, but I imagine the people invested in “will Huntress and Catman end up together?” (hint: not me) will be happy that the bases get covered, with some fighting to boot. As a character spotlight, it’s not bad at all. Pere Perez’s art is pretty rock-solid, except for some weird fish-eye lens panels or moments where you can see what he’s trying, but it doesn’t come off (the “punch” panels where all black shading mysteriously vanishes, serving to emphasize nothing in particular). Verdict: 6.0
Daken: Dark Son of Wolverine of Darkness #8
Written by Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu
Penciled by Marco Checchetto
In which it rains. A lot. This book has a reputation for being ponderous, with plots consisting mostly of Daken musing about something or other while showcasing his superior intellect through cunning plots that mostly seem to involve stuff randomly falling into place in a way that benefits him. There’s elements of that here, but there’s also, like, actual conflict and stuff; Daken and X-23’s paths colliding over artifacts of the Weapon X program actually comes dangerous close to providing both of them with motivations. Checchetto’s art is atmospheric and dark, sometimes skirting the edges of becoming unclear, but by no means bad — in fact, the mood it brings elevates otherwise blah pages like Daken standing around on buildingtops, reciting lines of William Blake to himself. And yet, what many people will take away from this is an angry “THAT’S NOT HOW GAMBIT’S POWERS WORK!” Verdict: 7.5
Deadpool #35
Written by Daniel Way
Penciled by Carlo Barberi
In which Deadpool goes up against Ego the Living Planet’s lunar analogue Ego the Selfish Moon, and ends some kind of space opera adventure involving neon hippopotamuses. The trick with most Deadpool comics — and the reason so few of them are worth a damn — is that it’s really hard to write comedy. Most Deadpool stuff I’ve read in the days since Joe Kelly settle for making him just snarky (in which case, how is he any different from every other snarky character in comics, of which there are nine billion) or LOL SO RANDOM (in which case, he’s just as annoying as half the 15-year-olds on the Internet). Here, though, the comedy isn’t the emphasis: while we get some goofy bits and some slapstick, we also get a marked emphasis on how bitter, selfish, and ultimately hollow ol’ Wade Wilson can be. There’s also a downplaying of the current “Deadpool argues with his narration boxes” gimmick, which earns a whole point in and of itself. As far as being a satisfying conclusion to a space epic, though, it just kind of… happens, a feeling goaded along by Carlo Barberi’s cartoony but strangely featureless art. Verdict: 6.5
Doc Savage #13
Written by J.G. Jones
Penciled by Qing Ping Mui
In which my god what is wrong with these people’s faces. No, seriously, these are some ugly, ugly people. Their heads are big and round and broad like babies’, but their faces are so tiny and pinched… I had a hard time focusing on the story here because the art was so profoundly ugly. Beyond even just those faces (and might I reiterate, those faces), proportions here could best be described as “fluid” and the choices of camera angles seem determined to play that up by utilizing slanted, bizarre camera views. There’s a lot of globe-trotting and two-fisted pulp action, but this is an example of a book’s art just sinking it like a torpedo to a ship’s hull. Verdict: 3.0
Grimm Fairy Tales #58
Written by James Patrick
Penciled by Shamus Beyale
In which pretty girls say stuff and do stuff in between panels of taking their clothes off. While I’m sure the Grimm Fairy Tales product line has a deep and involving mythos, I confess to total ignorance of it; when the opening caption describes the location as “Myst,” I choose to believe that Sela (who is only identified by name halfway through the issue) is here with her sword and her shorts to find pages from a magic book. As far as I can tell, here’s what’s up: Sela and her group have arrived at a new place in a realm not their own, where various intrigues are occurring and dark forces conspire against her. As far as setting up future stuff for the book, fine stuff to work from, even if it’s all a bit conventional fantasy-story stuff. Also, one of the characters is a nudist, apparently, which the art reminds us of as often as possible. Cheesecake aside (and if you’re buying Grimm Fairy Tales you know what you’re getting), Beyale’s art is dependable if not extravagant, providing just enough detail to let the settings breathe but not so much that it swamps the characters. I didn’t expect this book to be so… readable. Shame on me. Verdict: 6.5
Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish
Written by Mike Mignola
Illustrated by Kevin Nowlan
In which Hellboy narrowly avoids the peril of an alien anal probing. This is the sort of Hellboy story that Mignola could write in his sleep — Hellboy dropping himself into a cloud of weirdness and reacting to it with gruff annoyance and punches. Here, he faces down alien cow mutilations and their effect on teenage Satanists, and it’s just as bizarre as you might imagine, while still making time for action and comedy. As a one-shot, its story is far from essential, but what makes it worth your time and money is the gorgeous art from Kevin Nowlan. His style remains unique, and his use of space, darkness, and color are second-to-none; if we can’t have Mignola drawing it, then he’s the silver medal. That’s not to damn him with faint praise, of course, because it’s a long, long way down to bronze. Verdict: 9
John Byrne’s Next Men #5
Written and illustrated by John Byrne
In which the recap gets it right when it notes that “confusion piles upon confusion.” I think John Byrne has settled into the same sort of little cottage industry that his former collaborator Chris Claremont has; he’s writing and drawing comics for John Byrne readers, who want another dose of the creator in whatever format they can get it. I can honestly say that this comic is about as clear as a window tinted with tar. I gather that some kind of time travel thing is happening, with characters stranded in various periods and being subjected to horrible things like “being enslaved in the Civil War-era American South” or “contracting plague,” but… beyond that, I don’t know. The sense I get is that this is a comic for people who’ve been following Next Men all along, and the rest of us can just, you know, deal. Well, okay, fine. Verdict: 4
New Avengers #11
Written by Brian Bendis
Illustrated by Mike Deodato, Jr. and Howard Chaykin
In which the present-day team frets over Mockingbird having taken a bullet to the chest, while the heretofore unknown past team goes up against the Red Skull. It comes as a genuine surprise to me how much I’m digging the “secret Avengers who aren’t the Secret Avengers” storyline going on — certainly much moreso than the current-day deal, which in this issue consists of the Avengers standing around, being sad or angry as a scene requires. Meanwhile, in 1959, they’re dropping whales on people and getting Sabretooth run over by trucks. I almost wish that the comic was just the 1959 stuff, because that certainly seems to be holding Bendis’s imagination more tightly. Deodato is doing his best, though; as far as I can tell he’s using some kind of modeling program to block out his pencils, which (along with Rain Beredo’s colors) give his typically hypermuscled figures a sense of weight they often lacked when threatening to blend into one another. Chaykin, too, seems to be having a ball — some panels aren’t the clearest (like the sequence of Sabretooth interrogating a guy), but the fighting is exciting and textures pretty appropriate to the period. Verdict: 7.0
PunisherMAX #12
Written by Jason Aaron
Illustrated by Steve Dillon
In which the Punisher gets in touch with his feelings — no, really. This being a Jason Aaron Punisher comic, of course, that involves a Vietnam flashback and a meditation on what it means to die versus what it means to live, because who knows if the man even has feelings outside of that range anymore. Meanwhile, he’s not only trapped in prison — a setting that, surprisingly, still has some mileage left in it after a zillion years of Punisher stories, perhaps from being so obvious that writers avoid it — with a broken everything, unable to move or defend himself. Seeing the gangs manage to psyche themselves out rather than shank an undefended Punisher is a great series of gags, and Frank’s Nam flashback du jour is a creepy one — where this is going, though, I have absolutely no clue. Something like eleven or twelve years on from “Welcome Back, Frank,” though, it’s hard to imagine a definitive Punisher drawn by anyone but Steve Dillon, and this issue plays to his strengths, giving him wide berth to play with his subtly expressive faces and body language. Verdict: 8.5
Red Sonja: Revenge of the Gods #2
Written by Luke Lieberman
Illustrated by Daniel Sampere
In which Red Sonja somehow fails to die of frostbite, unless that’s the plan for #4 or something. Red Sonja comics are a weird little micro-genre unto themselves, in that they seem locked into an almost syndicated-TV-show structure: Sonja goes somewhere, encounters whatever ancient evil is plaguing that place, meets some friendly warriors who get her back for this particular mission, and then there’s the killing. Then she rides off into the sunset forever until the next time. Here, she’s in some sort of Hyborean pseudo-Scandinavia, with the ancient evil to be dealt with somehow involving the Norse gods. (Next month: Thor! Well-timed, Dynamite.) As far as the story goes, this is standard stuff, with no real aspirations to move past that level. The art, meanwhile, tries to inject a dose of Paul Renaud (particularly with regard to Sonja) into the bulky figures and exciting layouts of Olivier Coipel, and while those influences are a bit too apparent on the sleeve, it actually works pretty well. If nothing else, it’s a well-drawn caper, with lots of people being separated from lots of their parts, if that’s the sort of barbarian kick you go for. Verdict: 6.5
