I’m back from my temporary hiatus, as I’ve returned from comic book Mecca Portland rejuvenated and loaded up with tons of cool books to review for the site. But for now, I have reviews for you. Before we get into that, familiarize yourself with our rating system 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
This week my reviews include Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #2, The Unwritten #17, X-Factor #209 and New Mutants #17. A nice blend of books including two big time favorites, one newbie, and a book I’m giving a chance due to a nice run from the writer and the addition of a favorite artist. How’d they fair?
Find out after the jump.
Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #2
Written by: Peter Tomasi
Illustrated by: Fernando Pasarin
I hate bringing other books directly into my reviews, but this book makes it really difficult not to: what is happening in Green Lantern Corps that is so important that DC couldn’t have just kept Peter Tomasi on that book and simply exchanged Patrick Gleason for Fernando Pasarin on art? The story that we’re reading in Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors? That’s a story that belongs in Green Lantern Corps, as it is doing what that book used to – focus on a small group of Lanterns in the grand scheme of the Corps. It’s even using Tomasi’s GLC favorites Guy Gardner, Arisia, Kilowog and Sodam Yat (well, will be eventually). If you threw in Kyle Rayner and John Stewart, you would have the cast of that book. I guess what I’m trying to say, adding a third Green Lantern title feels very unnecessary right now, as Tony Bedard’s GLC is positively droppable right now while Tomasi’s Emerald Warriors is a must read.
Why is that? Well, it’s simple: Tomasi gets the characters, Bedard doesn’t. Tomasi has such a perfect voice for these characters, and it is well captured in this issue. Guy’s desire to live up to the honor his three other human Green Lanterns have always shown. Arisia’s ever present guilt about Sodam Yat’s death represented by a rather intense dream. Kilowog’s deep hurt about all of the cadets he’s lost coming out in a meeting with a rather green rook. These moments would be good in most writer’s hands, but Tomasi both formulated them and executed them perfectly. He just gets these characters as well as anyone ever has.
While the plot isn’t exactly moving forward super fast – we know Gardner is being tailed by a rather scary Red Lantern, we know Gardner’s plans involve something to do with his deal with Atrocitus and Ganthet, and we know some rather ugly villain is becoming a psychic hive mind of sorts – it is such a damn enjoyable read it is really hard to care.
One of my biggest complaints originally was separating Tomasi and Gleason, but I’ve gotten over that knowing the two of them will be taking over Batman & Robin and that Fernando Pasarin freaking rocks. His art is beautiful, detailed, powerful emotive…just exceptional from front to back. He really can sell a scene, like the way he amped up the power of Arisia’s dream sequence…that really killed me. It made the scene far more powerful than it had any right to be. Pasarin is a rising star, and just another reason why this book is damn good.
You may have been able to tell from this review, but I’m really digging this book. While I found it hard to really tout its greatness with just one issue being released, I have no problem doing it now: this book rules. Not only that, but it has quickly ascended to being the second best Green Lantern book on the market in my mind. Geoff Johns…I’d be watching my back if I were you. Peter Tomasi has you in his sights.
Continued belowFinal Verdict: 9.2 – Buy
The Unwritten #17
Written by: Mike Carey and Peter Gross
Illustrated by: Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly
When I was little, I used to read “Choose Your Own Adventure” books all of the time. The idea behind them was that you would get to a certain fork in the road in the story and then you would have to choose where the book would go from there. I hadn’t read anything like that in a long time, but I have to say: I always missed them. Evidently Mike Carey and Peter Gross did as well, as they decided to follow up the watershed sixteenth issue of this series with one of the most innovative issues I’ve ever read…the choose your own Lizzie Hexam Adventure story! (To read about Mike Carey and Peter Gross scripting/plotting this book, go to paragraph two. To read about Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly’s art, go to paragraph four.)
This issue is one of the most cleverly plotted stories in comics that I’ve ever read. In what amounts to basically a standard sized comic, Carey and Gross jam pack it with 62 pages of story. 62! The coolest thing is on one side, we’re given Lizzie Hexam’s past told entirely in a choose your own adventure style story. Given the dicey nature of her past, it’s a blast trying to work through the story logically in your own head to make it work properly (first attempt, suckers!), and it reemphasizes the complexity of the growth of the character. Pairing it with the straightforward story of Savoy and Tom trying to the comatose yet mentally active Lizzie (befuddling local doctors) was a masterstroke by Carey and Gross, and both stories are enhanced when combined with the other story. (To read even more about Mike Carey and Peter Gross making it rain awesome, go to paragraph three. To finally read about Peter Gross and Ryan Kelly’s art, go to paragraph four.)
I love the way they manage to fold so much story into this single issue – it works both from an innovative storytelling point but also as a method to just get a ton of content out there in one fell swoop. To me, I feel like the first 17 issues of this series felt like one packed first chapter of The Unwritten’s stories. Now, we have our band of heroes together, ready to go take care of the Cabal who were responsible for all of the badness in their respective worlds. The way Carey and Gross manipulate these characters around the world map is exquisite, and my perpetual amazement only increases with each passing issue. These guys are just phenomenal storytellers, and I’m sure if their fictional Cabal was real, they’d be all over Carey and Gross to start dictating the way comic readers think and feel about life. (To finally get to art, go to paragraph four. If you don’t care any more because I wouldn’t stop writing about writing, go to paragraph five.)
So here is something I find very humorous about this issue: I didn’t even know that Ryan Kelly worked on this issue until I was collecting a copy of the cover for the purpose of this post. Kelly is one of my favorite artists for his work on Brian Wood’s Demo (and other assorted works with Wood), yet I still couldn’t even tell on first run through that he provided finishes over layouts from Gross. Then I read it again, and I was shocked: the art in this issue really, truly looks like an amalgamation of these two exceptional artists styles. Then you notice the telltale signs of their styles – the classic Kelly faces that Tom wears, the lush paneling from Gross – and it really starts to become this rich organism created by these two brilliant illustrators. I was floored by the realization. (Continue on to the next paragraph.)
I’ve often heard creators say the reason they choose to do comics is because the only limits to what you can accomplish is your imagination, yet I rarely saw creators push boundaries in ways that felt truly new. Carey and Gross are unafraid to be pioneers of new directions, and for that reason I feel The Unwritten is a book that captures the potential of the medium of comics as well as any book out there. This issue is a perfect example of that.
Continued belowFinal Verdict: 9.8 – Buy
X-Factor #209
Written by: Peter David
Illustrated by: Emanuela Lupacchino
Patience friends, this review is coming soon.
New Mutants #17
Written by: Zeb Wells
Illustrated by: Leonard Kirk
Patience friends, this review is coming soon.
