Man, that guy is a tall drink of water. Super nice guy, too--I'm hoping he comes back in and signs my ROCKETEER graphic novel for me (I got Dave Stevens to sign it in San Diego a few years ago, and the signature of the real-life Rocketeer on there would be pretty damn awesome too). Anyway, have some reviews, won't you?
BOOSTER GOLD #1
Now, here’s a book I found myself liking waaaay more than I expected to. Not that I have anything against the character, mind you—as a big fan of the Giffen/DeMatteis JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL, I’m actually pretty fond of him, and his recent usage in 52 was swell, too. I’m just not sure the world needs another ongoing BG title. I’m also really not much of a fan of Dan Jurgens’ art. However, this book has a few aces up its sleeve—namely, a solid writing team (Geoff Johns and newcomer Jeff Katz—I’m not sure how much is done by who, but it reads well regardless), and a cool hook; Booster has to maintain his schmucky façade as a C-list hero while secretly saving the multiverse from a mysterious, time-twisting nemesis. The Jurgens art is…better than expected, although I’m not sure why DC keeps getting Norm Rapmund to ink his stuff when someone like Jerry Ordway does wonders for him. A surprisingly entertaining debut all around, otherwise.
FLASH #231
Man, this book just can’t catch a break. Wally West is back as the Flash, along with a couple of super-powered kids in tow, and it’s more or less back to business as usual. Daniel Acuna’s art is bright and fun, like this book needs (although Karl Kerschl’s work on last month’s ALL-FLASH #1 showed that he is the guy who deserves this gig more than anyone else), but this title just has way too much baggage at this point. We learn (in a sequence of annoying exposition in the form of Wally and Linda recapping their past year or so together TO EACH OTHER) in this issue that Wally and his family have been on another planet with aliens who worship the Flash or something, and now they have a bunch of crazy alien technology to help control the kids’ unstable metabolisms and unnatural growth spurts. I thought they were in the Speed Force or on another Earth or something, but whatever. Anyway, then some monsters show up and there’s a fight, and Mark Waid is reportedly only doing four issues so who cares anyway? This book needs some kind of clean slate, although at this point, yet another relaunch could only hurt it more.
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #12
Meltzer’s run comes to an end here, probably to a lot of people’s relief. They’re not really wrong to be happy to see him go, although I have for the most part enjoyed the series—he pushes a lot of the right geek buttons for me, and he certainly made use of the League’s history and villains in cool and unexpected ways. However, it’s more like he wrote a series bible and a two-hour pilot, as a ton of stuff is set up and subsequently left to be resolved by other people if and whenever they get around to it. IDENTITY CRISIS suffered from a bit of this, but he really kicks it into high gear here. Let’s see, there’s the Black Lightning as super-villain liason subplot, the Vixen’s screwed-up powers subplot, the Red Tornado as emotionless jerk subplot, the Red Arrow/Hawkgirl tryst subplot (which incorporates Red Tornado in a weird, unexplained way this issue), the Per Degaton/Ultra-Humanite thing from a few issues back, and all the Geo-Force nonsense (which finally becomes interesting in this issue, just as Meltzer is packing his bags and heading for the door). Ed Benes’ art, which I’m not all that into anyway, takes a turn for the shaky by this issue’s end, making the conclusion even more sloppy—Martian Manhunter and the current Aquaman sit around reminiscing about the League’s early days, and say that they’ll be there again if they’re needed. Huh? Is this Aquaman even the same guy who helped form the League? I’m pretty sure he’s not. Also, DC pulls the same crap they did with issue seven--there's two covers, by Alex Ross this time--that each make up one-half of a group shot of the team, so you have to buy both if you want the complete picture. What the hell happened to the idea of a gatefold cover? Or a wraparound cover? Oh, wait, there's a variant cover that's a single image on its own--oh, wait, it's by Michael Turner. Never mind.
KILLING GIRL #1
From Glen Brunswick and Frank Espinosa (ROCKETO) comes this new Image mini about a Mafia hitwoman whose past catches up to her at a lousy time. Espinosa’s style stops just short of being an assault on the senses—it’s a flurry of wild brush strokes where you sometimes need to step back to see what you’re supposed to be looking at. This is a compliment, even though it might not sound like it. There isn’t much else to compare it to, unless you can imagine a collaboration between Scott Morse and Leroy Neiman. The story’s not bad either, kind of a cartoon LA FEMME NIKITA with the Mob instead of the CIA.
SUPER-VILLAIN TEAM-UP: MODOK’S ELEVEN #2
I forgot to review the first issue of this new Marvel mini, but this is fun stuff. Balloon-domed baddie MODOK assembles a crew of established super-villains to help him pull off a cosmic heist, namely the theft of an unlimited power source. The script by Fred Van Lente has lots of fun dialogue and characterizations, and the art by Francis Portela is expressive and detailed. In this ish, one of the villains is not who they appear to be, and another one is killed so this can be kept silent. I guess it’s a testament to the quality of the book that the implications of a long-standing Marvel villain getting whacked didn’t even sink in right away. It’s that rare kind of Marvel character death, I suppose—one that isn’t done for shock value, a sales bump, or contempt for the Silver Age, but one that comes naturally out of the story. Well done, guys.
2 comments:
You sorely need to update.
Working on it.
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