Alaska wins! It turns out while everyone else in America was waiting for comics to come in, Alaskans were blessed with comics a day early! That means a fresh set of reviews for all of you from yours truly. Before I get into that, our rating system is below:
0: Uwe Boll will direct the adaptation of this comic
0.1 – 1: Burn upon touching
1- 1.9: Abysmal
2.0 – 2.9: Art. Writing. Editing. All bad.
3.0 – 3.9: You’d be a masochist to pick this up.
4.0 – 4.9: “I’ll give it another month…but that was not good.”
5.0 – 5.9: “Really? The Watcher? In the face? I guess it was fun.”
6.0 – 6.9: “Hmm. That was decent.”
7.0 – 7.9: Well made but a few problems
8.0 – 8.9: Nearly flawless
9.0 – 9.9: Outstanding
10: Perfection. Issue of the year contender
So far, this week has been fantastic. The big books have impressed, the little books have surprised, and my reviews have been generous in their rating. My reviews include Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #1, Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1, Scalped #39, and Demo Vol. 2 #6 (that comic didn’t make it in yet – look for that review to be up Thursday or Friday). Check those out after the jump.
Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #1
Written by: Allan Heinberg
Illustrated by: Jim Cheung
This issue marks the triumphant return of one of this past decade’s most esteemed creative duos, albeit one who only worked together for a short period of time: Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung. Both creators are prodigious talents, albeit ones who are perhaps matched in their talent by their shiftiness and odd lack of production. While their work on Young Avengers was universally loved (although oft delayed), Heinberg’s work has been criticized for its delays or complete lack of completion (see: Wonder Woman), while Cheung is a bit of an enigma in that he almost never works on interiors. Reasons why are unknown to me, but I can tell you that this is a collaboration that fans were clamoring for.
The results are in the form of Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, and the initial issue is one that is very good and shows a lot of the reasons why we loved the book so much to begin with. It also is one that has a few odd flaws, but ones that (to me) read as editorial errors, not ones on Cheung or Heinberg.
A lot of the reason why the first run volume of YA is so well loved is because of Heinberg’s writing. These characters truly came to life thanks to Heinberg, as he created a set of characters that were entirely new but felt like they’d been with us all the whole time. While this issue really focuses on Wiccan (as well it should in my mind, as he is the most fully realized of the team), Heinberg gives each character their own little moment. Setting the team up to find Wiccan and Speed’s potential mother with the aid of (if you haven’t read, this is the last page reveal so you shouldn’t go any further!) Magneto is a recipe for a very interesting series, and one that has me even more hyped than before.
Heinberg also weaves in the elder Avengers, as we have Steve Rogers (I think), Iron Man and Ms. Marvel aiding the team after they run into a bit of trouble. As we’ve come to expect in the past, while the team accepts their help for the most part, sometimes the older Avengers are used as a lightning rod for a cause the team will pursue, and Heinberg uses them exceptionally well as a unifying point once again.
This is where my major flaw comes in: why the heck is Iron Man in his old armor and why is Steve/Bucky/whomever in the old Captain America uniform? In literally every non-Siege/non-Reborn appearance of Steve since his return, he is wearing his new “Steve Rogers: Super Soldier” costume. To have him randomly show up in that is very oddly distracting to me, and this editorial faux pas (or whatever it is) feels like a big miss by those involved.
Continued belowJim Cheung does draw a fantastic Captain America though. And Iron Man. And everyone else. Really, everything else. If it can be illustrated, I’d wager Jim Cheung is good at drawing it. The dude is a MASSIVE talent, and I’d put him up almost anyone in the industry in terms of raw talent. However, it is yet to be seen as to whether or not we can rely on him in a monthly (or even bi-monthly, as I think this series is) title, which is likely why he has stuck it out for so long on cover duties. Still, this is a beautiful book that is worth a purchase if only for that reason.
Recently David Brothers from 4th Letter wrote an article about the formula that makes a good comic. It was “Good Writing + Bad Art = Bad Comic. Bad Writing + Good Art = Bad Comic. Good Writing + Good Art = Good Comic.” While I tend to disagree with that to a degree (I don’t love Charlie Adlard’s work on The Walking Dead, but it gets the job done to the point TWD is still one of my favorites), in this case you have a pristine example as to something that is a good comic. Creatively, this book is a stunner, and one that works in most every aspect. While there are a few flaws (some narrative turns by Heinberg feel a bit trite), I feel that this is the start to a very wonderful thing indeed.
Final Verdict: 8.8 — Buy
Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier #1
Written by: Ed Brubaker
Illustrated by: Dale Eaglesham
This series came in with the deck stacked against it from the very beginning for me. It robbed Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four of Dale Eaglesham (aka the evolutionary Jack Kirby), which is an immediate -1.0 on its score in my mind. This severely bummed me out.
Then I read it.
Shit.
So much for that noise. The debut of this issue was massively entertaining, and in a lot of ways revitalizes Steve Rogers far moreso than Brubaker’s run on Captain America ever did. I always perceived Brubaker’s Captain America work as a Bucky Barnes series through and through, even from the very beginning. This issue establishes Brubaker’s incredible feel for Rogers and for the world of spycraft as a whole. Even with expert plotting of this issue, I’d say the actual execution of said plot surpasses it — this book is a blast and a half to read.
There are just so many moments Brubaker handles so well — the meet up between Pete Wisdom (yes!) and Rogers in a local diner to compare spy notes; Rogers entrance into the Nextin meet up; the way Bru weaves Rogers’ past in with his present — it’s all great, and it all propels this issue to another level. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of everything Bendis and Maleev’s Spider-Woman should have been but wasn’t.
My boy Eaglesham really shines here too. It turns out that he isn’t just great at illustrating Kirby classics like the FF, but he also handles Steve Rogers and the cast of characters that surround him ably as well. One of the things that I oddly like the most about Eaglesham is his ability to render characters in accurate proportions and sizes. To me, he displays a super-soldier like Steve Rogers in proper form, while others in the past have either illustrated him as far too lithe or too muscular — Eaglesham gives a nice balance to his look.
He also depicts action sequences like Rogers entrance into the Nextin party incredibly well, giving us a versatile blend of paneling and some really kinetic and acrobatic sequences that really escalate the action for me as a reader. It is just a joy to look at.
This book was a great debut, and something I found to be both surprising and delightful. Sure, I went in expecting to dislike it, but expectations are meant to be defied. Brubaker and Eaglesham did just that with this debut issue.
Final Verdict: 9.2 – Buy
Continued below
Scalped #39
Written by: Jason Aaron
Illustrated by: R.M. Guera
Man. Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera sure make it difficult on me as a reviewer. Scalped is often my least favorite book to review because of how uniformly high quality it is, yet, I cannot in good conscience not let it be reviewed. As I’m the only one at MC who is actually caught up on what I repeatedly announce is the best ongoing comic series in teh industry, the onus falls upon me to reflect upon what we’ve learned and experienced from each offering of this modern classic.
This issue highlights all of the pros we’ve come to expect from this book. Seamless interaction between the past and the present, deftly weaving together to strengthen each other and the story as a whole. Powerful character moments, ranging from Dash Bad Horse’s degrading psyche to Granny’s offer of help to Carol. Impressive and shocking turns, including Carol’s resolution to her current problem (unwanted pregnancy + heroin addiction makes for an interesting nine month stretch) and the final page (which I will not spoil). All of these bits are fantastic, and they show how much the issues between “The Gnawing” and here really mattered. Aaron’s ability to maximize the weight of the present by propagating the stories of the past is something he particularly excels at, and he shows that skill as well as he ever has in this issue.
R.M. Guera is once again given some moments to shine that he doesn’t waste. The first page we see Carol in is particularly superb, as he conveys her tenuous emotional and psychological state not just with her pose and her actions, but with the clutter and chaos and altogether dinginess of the room. For a book so buoyed by its words, Scalped could easily be told strictly visually thanks to Guera’s powerful work. There is so much truth conveyed by Guera – this is not an artist that holds strong to beliefs that characters must be beautiful or idealized. Guera shares every flaw, every blemish, and every bit of despair with us, and he revels in it. While some artists may be more technically impressive in some ways, Guera is so perfectly paired with this title that he is often in a class of his own.
Scalped continues its onslaught of great issues, as the book continues to be greater than the sum of its parts. That is part of what makes this book so amazing – its ability to never have extraneous, throwaway details. Everything matters, every page, every panel, everything. Aaron and Guera are unrivaled right now in my mind, and this issue is yet another great example of why.
Final Verdict: 9.5 – Buy
Demo Vol. 2 #6
Written by: Brian Wood
Illustrated by: Becky Cloonan
Patience young Padawans. The review will be up soon!
