Welcome to another week of reviews from your’s truly, back from a week off with a weird blend of comics with some surprising hits and even more shocking misses. Before we get into that, our ever present scoring system.
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
This week my reviews star SHIELD #3, Captain America #608, Secret Six #24, and Marvel Universe vs. The Punisher #1. Some very surprising reviews coming from me this week, I’d wager.
Check out all the reviews after the jump.
SHIELD #3
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
Illustrated by: Dustin Weaver
I love me some Jonathan Hickman. I’ve been greatly enjoying his work in the Marvel Universe, as I think his Secret Warriors has been a very solid book and that Fantastic Four has been even better. But in terms of his Marvel work, it was widely assumed that SHIELD would be his first work that becomes transcendant and his first real classic. Early teasers exhibited artist Dustin Weaver’s just phenomenal work, while the idea itself had fanboys in a tizzy. The reviews of the first two issues have been strong, but something hasn’t sat right with me. With this issue, I figured out what it is.
I genuinely do not enjoy reading this book.
To me, the plot is a convoluted mess, with this issue only making sense when we get to the very end. Even at that, that doesn’t clear up the time shifts and leaps of logic the story takes at various points. As we follow Isaac (or Issac as Marvel likes to call him) Newton on his ascension in the world of the Shield, we swim back and forth in time with Newton himself. Except I honestly can’t track what is happening in the story – he’s meeting Gallileo, he’s killing Gallileo, he’s unveiling the “Five-Fold Understanding”, he’s recounting old tales in the world of the Shield, he’s…impregnating a monster in a secret arctic city? I just honestly do not even know what is going on here anymore, nor do I really care. The only reason why I care is it quickly is becoming evident that Hickman himself is a grand architect and will be using this book to bolster the mythology of the MU itself, starting with his own Fantastic Four.
But I simply do not enjoy the story or the script. I find it to be a wayward ship on a sea of infinite possibilities, and it feels as if even Hickman doesn’t know where it is going.
Which is a shame because Dustin Weaver picks it up again in this issue. I thought his work on the first issue was completely enrapturing, the second issue was a bit rushed feeling, and this issue was a return to the first issue’s form. To me, the more lush vistas he has to illustrate for us, the better. This issue features a number of them as well as a lot of really nice character work (which I found him lacking in on issue 2). He’s putting out some damn good looking work that achieves a scope most artists simply can’t handle, but he continues to match up well to whatever Hickman’s script throws at him.
No matter how much I like the art and want to like this comic though, it ultimately fails at what it sets out to do: tell a story in a fulfilling manner. I simply do not enjoy this book, and I don’t know if I can carry on as a reader. Which is a shame because I had very, very high expectations for it.
Continued belowFinal Verdict: 5.2 – Browse
Captain America #608
Written by: Ed Brubaker
Illustrated by: Butch Guice
Back around a month or so ago, I was on the verge of dropping Captain America. After loving it for so long, the plots were beginning to feel a bit stodgy and it all seemed to be a bit past its prime. I didn’t have hopes for a turn around, as both #606 and #607 rested on my nightstand for way past their street date gathering dust.
Finally, I decided to grin and bear it, and to my surprise I found the book revitalized, refreshed and reinvigorated. With the threat of Steve Rogers taking over the book gone, with Captain America: Reborn and Siege past us, Bucky Barnes and his non-traditional Captain America-ing were back as the entree on the menu and I was all the happier for it. Even better? We were given the return of Baron Helmut Zero, the sometimes good (Thunderbolts), sometimes bad (being an evil Nazi son) wannabe despot who had a hankering to take down Bucky.
All was right in the world.
Now, that plot thread continues as Zero assails Bucky from multiple fronts: straightforward with a new version of The Beetle and from the sides by ruining his reputation and destroying his secret identity. Brubaker scripts this issue superbly, giving us both an excellent action sequence as well as a lot of clever behind-the-scenes machinations. He also gets back to doing one of my favorite Brubaker trademarks: the usage of the media to convey messages within the story. Bru has always done a great job with that, and this issue has the biggest plot turn entirely revealed via a newscast.
I think the interesting thing about this arc is we really do not know what Zemo’s end game is. Brubaker is playing his cards very close to his chest throughout and it enhances the tension of the story. All will be revealed soon, but the way he’s handled it so far makes it all the more exciting.
One of my major issues with the comic had also become the dip in art quality since Steve Epting’s departure, and I’m happy to say Butch Guice taking over has regulated the quality of art. There are some moments in the book that Guice’s art looks shockingly Kirby-esque in the way he illustrates characters, but overall he just does a solid job of telling the story. It’s nothing flashy, it’s the meat and potatoes of art. But in this case, meat and potatoes is what the book needs.
Overall, I’m glad to say that this book has taken another creative upswing after a tough run of things. Brubaker is getting the momentum going and I’m fully enjoying it once again, just when I thought he was running out of steam. Way to go Bru on pulling another rabbit out of your hat.
Final Verdict: 7.8 – Buy
Secret Six #24
Written by: Gail Simone
Illustrated by: J. Calafiore
This issue finds the Secret Six transplanted in the Wild West as a range of different character types. You’ve got the grizzled quickdraw in Deadshot, Jeannette the prostitute, Scandal the Sheriff, Bane the overly protective deputy, Ragdoll as the town freak show (not exactly a reach), and Catman as the dead man back from the dead (that’s right). It’s a very entertaining read, especially as it gives us Ragdoll’s even freakier sister Junior as the main villain and Deathstroke as her hired gun. The whole of the Six get taken out, and we get a quick one-shot, what if story that was just a fun time to read.
But what the hell is the point?! The fun in the story was entirely mitigated by the fact that I was always wondering “when is this going to start to matter…at all?” It never did, and I never really started caring. It was a fun little read, but ultimately an entirely fruitless one that is a completely unnecessary buy, even for someone like me who is a major fan of the Six. Ideally, if I’m going to buy a one-off story, I’d hope that it would at least develop a character or a plot thread that existed in the side. This just comes off as a wasted issue, albeit a fun one.
Continued belowJ. Calafiore does his standard very solid work on this book, albeit with a few storytelling hiccups that kind of flummoxed me. His work has often kind of hit a solid but unspectacular niche with me, and when his storytelling suffers it becomes glaringly apparent as other elements of his art can’t carry the reader past that.
I enjoyed this comic, but I can’t get past the fact that it ultimately doesn’t matter at all. It does nothing, nor does it bolster any aspect of the title. It just…is. Those two sides of me conflict, and we’re left with a…
Final Rating: 5.0 – Browse
Marvel Universe Vs. The Punisher #1
Written by: Jonathan Maberry
Illustrated by: Goran Parlov
Colored by: Lee Loughridge
I picked this book up solely because I enjoyed a previous book that had a similar title: The Punisher Kills the Marvel Universe from Garth Ennis and Doug Braithwaite. In all honesty, I knew nothing about this book though. I wasn’t familiar with the writer or artist, didn’t know the plot, and in fact, hadn’t even seen the cover. I was going in completely sight unseen, which is not something I often do. However, similar to my friend in college who had a freakish run in poker when he’d go all-in without looking at his cards, I found myself coming up smelling like roses.
This book is fantastic.
Fan. Tass. Tick.
The story begins with The Punisher somberly updating his War Journal. We find him on Day 1,813 (nearly five years) of this iteration of his journal, and good ol’ Frank is hunting an unseen foe. An unseen foe that is quickly understood as Deadpool before he even shows up, thanks to the yellow dialogue bubbles and snappy dialogue we’ve grown to know him for. It seems this is the 33rd time The Punisher has hunted and killed Deadpool, and this time he intends to make it stick by first (no look) shooting him in the face and then cutting him into tiny little pieces Dexter style. All of this with brooding, (very) darkly humorous dialogue for The Punisher.
I was hooked from the get go.
Writer Jonathan Maberry, whom I’d never heard of before but quickly found out he’s a renowned writer of “books” or something of that sort, has an incredible grasp on The Punisher. The internal and external dialogue is pitch perfect throughout and his plotting is even better. The central concept of this story is a simple one: it seems that something has infected the world that has made them all ravenous killers (somewhat akin to “28 Days Later” as the script notes), and its The Punisher’s job to hunt down and kill the infected heroes and villains of the world. This is already a tasty enough plot, but good god, the twist that Maberry builds into the plot? It’s the cherry on top of a delicious sundae.
Hell, it’s like putting a whole ‘nother sundae on top of the first sundae.
The story tension is palpable throughout, making it an impossible to put down read. One of the things I was most impressed by in this book was the way Maberry and artist Goran Parlov staged the story. It is so methodical that they control the pacing like a filmmaker does. When reading this story, it has to be taken in at a certain pace – it demands it – and this pace heightens the strength of the story throughout.
Parlov is someone I really should have been familiar with but somehow forgot: he illustrated an arc of Y: The Last Man (which is one of my all-time favorites). Regardless, I was floored by his work on this issue. The man knows how to tell a story and how to stage a scene, two things that are greatly underrated in comics and are sometimes forgotten arts. In a lot of ways, his work from both a storytelling and design standpoint reminds me a of a more roughshod Tim Sale. His work drenches sequences in atmosphere, almost telegraphing to me as a reader from the very beginning that Frank is alone and that something is most definitely not right with this picture. It’s like Parlov’s work is so effective that even within one panel he forces the reader to imagine off panel – it’s an inexplicable quality that cannot be understated by me.
Continued belowPerhaps best yet about Parlov’s art? If the book was entirely wordless, I honestly think it would still work.
Lee Loughridge cannot be left out here. Loughridge’s colors work brilliantly with Parlov’s art, bolstering the power of each and every image and never sparing a detail. I particularly enjoyed the panel where The Punisher shoots Deadpool and the dim night is lit up by his muzzle fire.
I’m unsure if I loved this book this much because it actually was as amazing as I took it as or if I was just so surprised by it that my admiration of it was ratcheted up a few levels. Whatever reason, this book tells a Punisher story that everyone could and should enjoy, and I for one can’t wait for the second issue.
Final Verdict: 9.6 – Buy
