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| Sunday, July 22, 2007 11:25 AM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
So Harry Potter isn't the only thing I've been reading - there's also been plenty of comic books, yay! Below I give my impressions of all the single issues I picked up this week, plus one or two other things. I also got a couple of trade paperbacks that I haven't finished yet; I'll cover them in a later post.
Death Note, Vol. 4
So far this series just keeps getting better. I got interested in it for a whole new reason when the hot goth chick was introduced, because not only was she nice to look at, her character added a whole new level of danger and intrigue to the plot. Still, this book was moving along at a relatively slow pace until right near the end, when suddenly everything went freaking CRAZY and the whole thing nearly came down around Light's ears. Luckily for him, he is one cold-blooded bastard. Definitely still hooked on this one. I feel kind of silly, though, as I rushed to finish this volume so I could get it back to Peccable Wednesday night, and then I totally forgot to give it to him, or to pick up the next volume. Ah, well.
Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil #4
This was fun. Not as much fun as I had been anticipating and hoping it would be, but still fun. The series as a whole is just full of child-like wonder, adventure, and fantasy, all of which is accompanied by some very sly and biting political satire. And the art is gorgeous. This final part of the story didn't blow me away as much as #1-3 did, but again, that might have something to do with my expectations. I should read all four issues through again in a little while and see how I feel about the series then; I have a feeling I'll feel quite good about it.
Green Arrow: Year One #1
This is pretty okay, I guess, storywise, but the dialogue gets really corny in a couple of places. Instead of showing you that Ollie is an empty rich guy with no purpose in his life, risking life and limb just to feel something, Andy Diggle felt it necessary to have other characters in the story *say* that - almost exactly that - out loud. That's called "bad storytelling." You show, you don't tell. Plus, having the guy running the auction say that crap about being dead inside was just stupid and clumsy and obvious.
Other bits of dialogue were better written, but I'm still not too impressed with this one. I might pick up the next issue just to keep following the story, and to see if it picks up, but I'm not exactly excited about it.
World War Hulk: Gamma Corps #1
This was pretty interesting, and pretty well written, although it left me feeling a little confused. There are a number of characters that show up here, and a number of storylines that get mentioned, that I know nothing about, and I'm not entirely sure if your average reader is in the same boat with me, or if someone more familiar with the Hulk and the Marvel Universe in general would know all about all these people and their backgrounds, and would be getting a lot more out of this. Still, I did enjoy the book, and I understood enough of what was going on to get that one of the generals who used to be after the Hulk is going after him again, but sort of off the books this time, and with the help of a squad of super killers who have a personal grudge against the big green guy. And that's cool stuff.
World War Hulk #2
This is quite good; definitely better than WWH #1, mostly because it's ALL SMASHING, ALL THE TIME. The Hulk just bounces through New York, trouncing tons of big-time superheroes, and it is brutal and awesome. And then there's the ending reveal, which is exciting and full of doom. Good stuff! I'm definitely back to loving and looking forward to WWH titles.
Ghost Rider #13
This is - and this was a great surprise to me - definitely my favorite book that I've read so far this week. This is another tie-in issue with WWH, and it's just fantastic. Great action, some great character stuff, fantastic art, and then a devastating ending - and I mean devastating emotionally, not as in full of physical devastation. Although there was plenty of that, too, thank God! I think I'm going to have to start collecting Ghost Rider.
World War Hulk: Front Line #2
This book is actually split into three stories - the first following the reporters who have stayed in New York to cover the Hulk story, the second following the cop who's investigating the murder of one of Hulk's people (well, it's actually a robot, but whatever), and a final two-page gag story that's quite a bit of fun. Obviously, with the book being cut into so many pieces, they don't have a lot of space to tell their stories, but they do pretty well. The reporters' story is definitely getting more interesting, and I like the concept - that this book is telling us what's happening down on the streets, to the regular people, while the super-powered people thrash each other and the city. The murder mystery story is okay, too. And like I said, the little funny bit at the end was very nice.
Word War Hulk: X-Men #2
I was pleasantly surprised to see this on the shelves this week, as I didn't remember reading the title in the release list. It's pretty fun, too. It opens up with Xavier doing some thoughtful self-analysis, which is kind of interesting, but then it gets into the real meat of the story, which consists of the Hulk beating the crap out of truckloads of mutants. Another truckload shows up at the end, though, so I guess he'll have plenty more to fight in the next part. Which will probably be cool, but actually, it's getting a little ridiculous now. Does he seriously have to fight and defeat every X-person ever? I was already getting tired of that by the end of this issue; if that's all the next issue is, too... I just don't know.
Avengers: The Initiative #4
This is a book I didn't know much about, but it appears to be following some of the "real" Avengers, along with a bunch of young trainees. I can't say I like much of the trainee characters. I mean, there's one who looks like a freakish clown and he's called Slapstick. Then there's a Thor Girl (WTF?!), a lizard woman called Komodo, and so forth. LAME. Still, it's not a terribly written comic, and it was definitely interesting to discover why the drug that was supposed to remove the Hulk's superpowers didn't work. Then there's the vaguely intriguing bit where a dead guy ends up alive, and we're introduced to the Shadow Initiative, which appears to be a sort of back-up team composed of former (or current?) villains. So it fills in some of the cracks of the story, introduces us to some new stuff. Not bad.
Cat Woman #69
I really enjoy reading Chris Sims' comic book blog, The Invincible Super-Blog, but I'm beginning to think we just don't have the same taste in comics. He keeps saying how much he's enjoying Cat Woman, but I've just found the last bunch of issues boring and not that great. I even had planned to drop the book, but then decided to pick this latest issue up on the understanding that it was the completion of the latest story arc. However, it actually appears to be the beginning of a new story arc, and it just didn't grab my interest at all. In fact, I was so bored by it that I almost forgot that I hadn't finished it before finally going back to it and reading the last couple of pages. *Yawn* It didn't help that they're trying to tie it in with other big DC story arcs (all of which I hate). This one is definitely dropped for good, now.
Captain America #28
Looking back at it, not a lot happened in this issue, but it was still interesting, and some really intriguing things popped up - like the letter to Tony with Cap's final wishes, and Sin's line at the end about her boyfriend. Who's her boyfriend? Should I know? Hmm... Anyway, definitely ready for the next issue!
The Order #1
I've been looking forward to this one - issue one of Matt Fraction's brand new book about the superhero team that's the crown jewel of Iron Man's new 50-state Initiative. It's a team of people, selected and trained from amongst real-life heroes of various sorts, then given superpowers - via a high tech genetic process - that will last one year. Each member of the team takes on a particular role (the fast guy, the big strong guy with the hammer, etc.), and a code name that's also the name of a Greek God. If any one of them does poorly, or fails to uphold a strict set of laws and regulations, the person is fired, de-powered, and somebody else is brought in to take his/her place.
It's a totally new, totally fascinating idea of what a superhero team can be, and Fraction handles the story with great humor and intelligence, introducing us to a bunch of interesting characters and immediately getting them into serious trouble. Very impressive work. I was not at all let down by this one, and I'm very much looking forward to the next issue, which promises to be action packed.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #22
Well, this one's staying on my list. Peter David's just a good writer. He's captured Spider-Man's sense of humor, and even though the plot is a little silly and over-the-top, it works just fine. This book is just a ton of fun, full of jokes and action, just like a Spider-Man book should be. The only problem is the art, which is pretty terrible. It's by somebody called Todd Nauck, and at one point he draws a woman so poorly I thought maybe she was supposed to be turning into a monster or something. Ugh. |
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