2/15/09
1/3/09
First Week of 2009
Quick praise first. Scalped was the best monthly book in 2008, don't deny it.
Kick-Ass #5: To be fair I'd enjoy this book no matter what the writing was like just because I think that fondly of the pencil work of JRJR, but I suppose I will discuss it regardless. Unlike the previous issue, this month's installment puts the spotlight back on the main character Dave who has been kind of annoying and predictable at various points in the first four issues. We see Dave with Katie, but unfortunately for only a single page albeit an enjoyable and humorous one. I would have liked to seen more of Dave's interactions with people, particularly his father, when not in his Kick-Ass gear. Obviously his role as Kick-Ass changed the way he interacted with people, and it wold have been nice to see how his decrease in popularity as a costumed hero impacted these interactions. However in regards to Kick-Ass, the introduction of a new costumed character provided the best moments for the Kick-Ass persona since the books first issue. As usual, an enjoyable if flawed issue. Hopefully we don't have too long to wait for #6.
Green Lantern #36: Man am I happy to be caught up on this book because it is AWESOME. Everything about this issue feels simply epic. Geoff Johns continues to write the hell out of this series, but honestly what impressed me even more was the work of Ivan Reis. Not only is every panel of this book drop-dead gorgeous, but Reis draws such a variety of different characters and locales ranging from the beautifully rendered home world of the Blue Lanterns to the bloody mess of Ysmault and the Red Lanterns. Speaking of the Blue Lanterns I can not wait to get more of these folks especially since the Red Lanterns are kind of boring regardless of how cool they look. Its hard to imagine that Johns has to introduce even more colors to this epic saga and I hope things don't become a mess with too many characters being introduced [see New Krypton], but if anybody can do it its Johns.
Captain America #45: This month's issue of Captain America managed to do two things; bring a 3 issue arc to a satisfying conclusion and also set up an interesting continuation of plot threads recently established. I was worried when I saw this arc was only going to be 3 issues that Captain America was going to switch from a long epic story to a bunch of disconnected shorter story arcs. Thankfully I was totally off. What I particularly enjoyed about this arc was the way Brubaker successfully weaved together the various lives of Bucky into one relatively straight-forward story that helps Bucky further separate himself from Steve; we got a story that you could only tell with a character like Bucky who has such a checkered past unlike Steve Rogers. In fact, I think for this title and Bucky's reemergence to remain successful Brubaker needs to continue to tell these types of stories because of how they showcase these differences between Steve and Bucky. I'm confident we'll get exactly that and I couldn't be happier about it.
Wolverine #70: Logan's reason for putting away the claws was fine by me, but I had some problems with how it was written. What I certainly don't have a problem with is how it was drawn, DAMN was this a nice comic to look at. The big shocking double page reveal occurs a little past the halfway point, but I think it would have been much more powerful at the very end. These pages speak for themselves and didn't require any of the conversation between Logan and Hawkeye that came afterwards explaining the impact of what we just saw, so in terms of pacing and plot of the issue it could have easily been placed at the end. I'm always a fan of letting art speak for itself, especially when it looks this good. An entertaining although shallow issue which did a solid job of providing the answer to the question we all had been wondering about since this mini-series got started.
Superman #683: Okay so earlier I mentioned in another review how an arc brought a story to a fitting conclusion and also laid groundwork for future excitement. The next and final issue of New Krypton in Johns' Action Comics is simply not going to be able to do that unless it gets delayed a few months and ends up being a triple or quadruple-sized issue. On to this issue of Superman; the art and writing are both fine the biggest problem is that this is part 9 of a 10 part story and things don't progress at an adequate pace in fact they barely progress at all. After nine issues we are still pretty much in the same place we were when we got started except there are a lot more characters thrown into the mix. Actually, so many characters have been introduced into this cross-over that I can't even count how many were completely ignored in this latest installment. I was really excited about this cross-over, and man have I been let down. The annoying part of it has been the fact that none of the issues have been bad on their own, but in retrospect as part of a cross-over they fall flat. I understand Johns, Robinson, and Gates have a definite place they want the Super-line to get to, but I can't help but feel that they could have gotten there without wasting our time with this convoluted cross-over.
Scalped was amazing as usual not going to bother trying to think of more good things to say there.
Incognito got off to a good start, hopefully it ends up being on par with Criminal.
Hope everyone had happy holidays.
PS Find me a new job.
<3
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