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| Monday, January 14, 2008 09:52 PM |
| The Take |
 by Fëanor |
Usagi Yojimbo #108
I missed this one when it came out a week or so back, but found a lone copy on the shelves this week. This storyline seems about at its end now; probably next issue will finish it up. All the characters have come together and we're set for a final battle. But I can't say I'm particularly excited about this comic anymore. I might pick up the last entry in this storyline, just to see how it turns out, but I think I'll probably drop the series after that.
Dan Dare #2
This is another book that sold out before I got to the shop a week or so back, but that I was able to find a copy of this week. I'm still rather enjoying this series. It's an interesting, well-written, military space adventure with a British accent. It's not my favorite comic ever, but I'll stick with it for now.
B.P.R.D.: 1946 #1
This is just fantastic - about as fantastic as I was hoping it would be. It's Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart writing with Paul Azaceta doing the art and Nick Filardi on the colors. Azaceta is new to the Hellboy universe, as is Filardi; apparently Filardi is Azaceta's regular colorist. Their work is a bit abstract, mostly basic shapes and colors, but it's also quite evocative and effective. And the story is great. It's set a couple of years after the first appearance of Hellboy, and the B.P.R.D. has just been formed. Bruttenholm and an assistant are in Berlin trying to research the weird occult stuff the Nazis were into there, but the Russians got there ahead of them and there's little to find. Still, they manage to follow a paper trail to an abandoned asylum, which just happens to be infested with vampires, although they haven't noticed that yet by the end of this issue. Nice use of dramatic irony! It's already got vampires, Nazis, the occult, and the setting of post-war Berlin to make it great, and on top that it's a fascinating story full of great characters - like the creepy little girl running the Russian occult researchers, and the pack of reject American soldiers who are the only people that can be spared to help Bruttenholm in his work. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this series goes.
Ghost Rider #19
Okay, I'm definitely back to loving this book. Johnny Blaze's plan finally becomes clear, and it's really quite clever. There's a nice, violent, action-packed conclusion to the storyline, and a thrilling suggestion of what's to come next. There's also some redneck humor, and a bit of tragedy. It's good stuff.
The Goon #20
Apparently I picked the right time to start collecting The Goon in issues! The series creator, Eric Powell, came back to the book in this issue, Dave Stewart came on to do colors, and it's switching from bi-monthly to monthly. Also, this story just happens to feature the return of a pair of villains who appeared for the first time in one of the few issues of The Goon that I've already read. And of course, it goes without saying that it's fantastic. The same brilliant combination of humor and violence that I've come to expect.
Green Lantern Corps #20
This is pretty good. We get to see the various Earth Lanterns still trying to figure out what to do in the wake of the Sinestro Corps War. Kyle and Guy decide to head to Oa and open a bar, of all things, which gets off to a bit of a rocky start, but eventually I assume it will turn into Cheers, except with Green Lanterns. Meanwhile, the Guardians are still making their obscure pronouncements about the future and the Book of Oa and so forth. And some dude named Mongul has decided to start collecting Sinestro Corps rings. Interesting. I'll stick with this one for now.
Hulk #1
This is, as I suspected and feared, pretty bad. It opens with a bunch of A and B-list superheroes (including a super-lame and nearly unrecognizable Doc Samson) investigating the scene of a crime in Russia and coming to the rather inescapable conclusion - after a bunch of pointless yammering and bickering - that their number one suspect is the Hulk. Then a group of second-rate Russian super-humans called the Winter Guard shows up and, in a transparent attempt to pad the issue out and get some action into the story, a completely meaningless disagreement escalates rather unbelievably into physical conflict, complete with corny repartee.
It's what happens next that's actually interesting, and might get me to buy at least one more issue of this. (Spoilers ahead!) A witness shows up who can say only one word: red. Then Rick Jones wakes up almost naked on a hill in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. And Doc Samson and General Ross go to see Doctor Banner - who is alive and well and incarcerated in a high security lock-up underground in New Mexico. At which point we learn the very appropriate title of this issue: "Who Is the Hulk?"
And figuring out the answer to that question is what will keep me reading, at least for a little while longer. I can tell you it's certainly not Jeph Loeb's rather childish writing or Ed McGuinness' rather lame pencils.
Mighty Avengers #7
I'm really not pleased that Marvel is doing the whole Skrull thing again with this Secret Invasion storyline (revealing that a bunch of people have actually been shape-shifting aliens all along is a real cop-out in my opinion), but since it is going to have a huge effect on the Marvel Universe, I thought I should be reading one of the titles at the center of the whole thing, and Mighty Avengers is that title. Unfortunately, I like very few of the characters in this book, and the way Brian Michael Bendis writes their interactions is just irritating. There are way too many thought bubbles that are apparently supposed to be adding humorous, clever subtext to the dialogue, but that actually just take stuff that was already subtext and push it up to the surface in a really repetitive, obvious, and clumsy way. We also get treated to a lot of super-humans bickering and talking about clothes. Some of it's funny, but most of it's just annoying. There are only a couple of interesting bits - the part where at least a block's worth of New York turns into Venom, for instance, and the part where the Sentry's lover asks Tony to find a way to depower him or kill him before he kills everyone. That's deep!
Anyway, I think I'm dropping this one. It's really no good, and I hate the Skrull story, and what I need to know about Secret Invasion I'm sure I can pick up in other titles or on the internet.
Nova #10
A bit of a departure into the belly of an interstellar beast gives Nova and Gamora enough time to work out some old issues, and speeds up the process of Nova's infection. At the end, Nova finally gets back on his way to the birth planet of the Phalanx, now even less prepared to face whatever's there. Although a lot of this issue is just padding, I still rather enjoyed it, as it was interesting to learn more about the prior relationship between Nova and Gamora, and it's great the way they're building the tension and horror as Nova's infection slowly spreads.
Punisher War Journal #15
The Punisher fights his way out of the sinking ship full of super-beasts, faces off against Kraven, who inevitably gets away, and rather predictably decides to let Rhino go, all while G.W. Bridge adds yet another member to his slowly growing team. Besides one moving and effective moment in which the Punisher flashes back to a terrible act he committed in an earlier issue (which is bound to come back to hurt him even more pretty soon), I can't say there's much interesting about this issue, and I'm contemplating dropping the book, which would be sad, as it's one of the first comics I got excited about and decided to collect. The problem is, although there have been a handful of really stellar issues of this title, the great majority have been either mediocre or just plain bad. Ah, well.
The Hood: Blood From Stones
This is a hardcover collection of a MAX miniseries by Brian K. Vaughan which introduces the titular supervillain. Marvel uses its MAX imprint to publish titles that are a little more "extreme" than usual - in other words, titles where the characters can say "shit" and "fuck."
The Hood starts off as a petty crook named Parker Robinson who one day stumbles upon a magic cloak and some magic boots. The magic boots let him walk on air, and the cloak lets him become invisible when he holds his breath. But they seem to be having more lasting effects on him, as well. Anyway, Parker and his buddy John decide to use Parker's new-found powers to steal some diamonds, but they make the mistake of stealing them from the brutal, unforgiving crime lord known as the Golem, who has a deadly swordswoman and three costumed supervillains in his employ. It seems like Parker's in over his head, but he's clever enough to outsmart his opponents pretty effectively in this first book.
The interesting thing about Parker is that he's not that bad a guy. He's loyal to his friend, he has a pregnant girlfriend he wants to protect, and he just wants to make a little cash on the side. Admittedly, he's cheating on his girlfriend with a Russian hooker, and lying to her about what he really does at night. But when he shoots a cop by mistake, he feels really bad about it. He doesn't want to kill people or take over the world; he just wants to live happily ever after. He's just not willing to do it honestly.
It's an interesting, different story with some entertaining moments. But like a lot of Vaughan's work, it's also dark, bitter, depressing, and vaguely distasteful. It doesn't help that the art isn't all that great, either. I enjoyed many parts of it, but I wouldn't have collected any more of it, even if any more of it actually existed. |
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Jim Genzano's books on Goodreads
