Pull Review 3/12/2008

Astounding Wolfman #5 - This was a much more mixed bag than I expected. The series has been running at a breakneck pace since the beginning. Kirkman explains in the letters of this issue that it was designed as such to soften the blow of the bi-monthly shipping schedule, though I feel it has the opposite effect. It certainly makes it feel like things are happening every issue, and therefore a year's worth of issues will have accomplished more than, say, Ultimate Spider-Man where you need the next issue as soon as possible to recompress the story into a useful chunk. However, it also means you're flipping through the pages absurdly fast and the end creeps up on you, leaving you with another two months until you can see what happens next. This issue takes that and makes things worse by devoting a number of pages to exposition. Don't get me wrong, I was wondering about the mystery cleared up within as well, but it cut down on the amount of plot movement, or even character building that we had available, and there simply isn't enough. Jason Howard's art, however, is still fantastic, so it's a joy to look over the panels even when nothing is happening, to say nothing of when there's actual action. Apparently 1-4 are going to be the first trade, so if you're not on board yet look that over, and see if you can handle that much story over an eight month span. If you can, this is Recommended. If not, wait for the trade.

Mighty Avengers #10 - This was a very fun book this month, if a bit fillery. Tony and Victor got sucked back in time last issue, and as a result so did the comic itself. The coloring, the tiny blurbs advertising old comics, the "CONTINUED AFTER NEXT PAGE" blurbs before ads, even the style of the narrator, they're all perfect little throw-backs to sell the overall effect. The banter between Tony and Victor is similarly perfect, and Bagley's art is quite nice. It's definitely worth a look. Recommended.

Green Arrow and Black Canary #6 - Let's start with the good: Cliff Chiang is a fantastic artist, and there are very few books I would not like to see him work on. Sadly, he's leaving this one after this issue, and didn't do the last one, but the five he gave us were gorgeous. Also, Winick really seems to get these characters. He's not so hot with most of the rest of the DCU he's played with on occasion, but GA and company he's got down pretty well. Now for the bad: the plot. We start mid-investigation with no real indication of how we got there, even after the fact. Worse, from the introduction, the plot takes a turn for the incomprehensibly stupid. Seriously, I don't know what the fuck anyone involved with this book was thinking. If you love Ollie and company this is Mildly Recommended, but if you're not already highly invested, stay the hell away.

Annihilation: Conquest #5 - The series is wrapping up and we're finally getting some answers, not only about how this all came about (and this would feel less weird if Cho didn't spend months crafting each ass drawn in Mighty Avengers during his run), but about what the hell he's doing. It definitely makes a certain amount of sense too, everything is properly connected in good ways. Also, things finally go well for Star-Lord and his buddies just long enough for them to get a whole lot worse, which is par for the course really. Wraith isn't given an opportunity to speak, and Phyla has very little, so the anchors that were dragging down the event are lightened significantly, though they'll obviously be around for the finale. I'm definitely more interested in that than I was in this beforehand, but overall the series is not living up to its predecessor. Grab the trade if you liked the first event, otherwise don't even bother.

Booster Gold #7 - I find it so hard to believe that the man who is writing this wrote Infinite Crisis. This is good in pretty much all the ways that was terrible. Michael and Ted back together is a glorious thing, even though we all know it will never last. Their banter is fantastic, and the plot is full of callbacks to old events that mire the story in the need to understand them, but rather just bring a smile to the face of anyone who knows what's being mentioned. I can say this firmly because I didn't know what the hell they were talking about for most of it, and was not mired in that lack of knowledge. Finally too we're getting some answers about who's behind all of the events of the book thus far. Jurgens' art reminds me of some terrible comics, but not because it's bad but rather because so many of his old ones were. It's pretty passable, if nothing particularly special. Highly recommended.

Fantastic Four #555 - I really wanted to like this book. I liked Ultimates 1, and I like the idea of the Fantastic Four more than some of the execution thereof, but this just isn't working out that well. It's basically all focused on the main of the three stories introduced last issue, which is good because I didn't find myself caring about the other two. The one that does show up again is somehow less interesting now, to the point that I really would rather Johnny not show up again, possibly ever. Also, don't judge this book by its cover, as it's misleading in ways I can barely describe. Sixties level misleading. Hitch's art is mostly pretty good sure, though I'd swear I saw some of Land's favorite faces in there at times. That is most definitely not a compliment. Well, the ending of this issue promises some actual action in our future, which may be exactly what Millar needs to make the book interesting. God knows something has to. Not Recommended.

Serenity: Better Days #1 - Speaking of books I really wanted to like... I'm an unabashed Firefly fan, and I quite liked the movie despite some of the... issues that many people had. Well this is set between the TV series and that movie, undoing all of the changes to move forward. Nevermind that the entire gap was bridged by the last miniseries so this is doing screwy things with continuity, if the story is good you can forgive it. Well sort of, it's much harder to forgive this sort of thing outside of big two comics than it is in them, as Marvel and DC love to play fast and loose with continuity in ways no television show ever really does. This gives us the full cast anyway. Well sort of, several of the characters barely show up, and characterization seems to be set back a bit on a couple that do. The start of the issue is a bit more hard sci-fi than I'm really comfortable with, considering how hard they tried to be a space western in the series. The end though, is quite interesting, if only because it's something that absolutely has never happened to the crew before. Conrad's pencils are good enough to let you pick out the characters by appearance properly. No real complaints about it, unlike the other of Joss' properties come to comics which are sort of okay at best or messy and terrible likenesses at worst. I'm in it for the duration, but mostly because I'm horribly hooked on the series, not so much on this issue's merits. Recommended for Browncoats, neophytes buy the TV series instead.

Nova #11 - Richard's on the Technarchy homeworld and.... things don't go so well. At least not for the character, they go great for the reader. This continues to be very well written and well illustrated, significantly better than Abnett and Lanning's other book. We get the return of an old character that I totally called months ago, though people called me crazy for even thinking of it. Of course I was wrong then, but the reasoning was sound enough that him arriving here still makes sense. Given the revelations of the book, of course, I'm wondering where they plan on taking this, especially with getting Richard less infected. It's damn good though, so it's worth the ride to find out. Highly Recommended.

X-Factor #29 - Remind me to grab the trades for the first few arcs of this book; I've made a huge mistake. The book is very good, dealing well with the human concerns spinning out of Messiah CompleX, and the character breakdowns that were inevitable. I've been reading only since the aforementioned crossover, but I already love the team that's made up entirely of people I never paid the slightest bit of attention to. That's all on the writing, which is a good thing in my book. The art works well too, showcasing the dreary city with the right level of realism. Looks like this is the beginning of the next arc rather than more denouement, though it's going to begin in earnest next month. I already know I'll be there for it. Recommended.

Last Defenders #1 - Didn't intend to grab this, but then I saw Giffen's name on the cover and caved. Sure he's not doing the script, but the man responsible for a large portion of the best Deadpool stories is, and with Giffen doing his thing on breakdowns and co-plotting. This simply could not be a bad thing, and it wasn't. My home state got itself a super-team, and it's quite a doozy. This isn't quite as over-the-top wacky as the last Defenders mini, though it definitely has its moments of hilarity. Art's good and cartoony to compliment the lack of seriousness, which is appreciated. Herein lies the single best or worst (depending on your point of view) team battle cry ever put to paper as well. Recommended for those of you who like the funny in your funnybooks.

Pull Review 3/05/2008

Buffy the Vampire Slayer #12 - Goddard begins a new mini-arc in the overarching Twilight story here, and he's reveling in the unlimited SFX budget of comics. I'm a little ashamed to admit I didn't recognize his name immediately as one of the series writers/producers, though I guessed that was the case given his handle on the characters, particularly their voice. Our new antagonists exhibit some interesting new abilities seen only once before, which should remind series fans of something. Sadly, this does run directly into another bit of last page blast-from-the-past revealing (you will have guessed it before you get there), but it promises to be interesting. The art... is the better of the two currently running Whedon TV continuations. It's generally easy to tell who is who, but it's far from fantastic. See Angel for what it could be, if you need reassurance that it could be worse. Also, if you've missed the world crapping on Buffy in hilarious ways, you're definitely in luck here. Of course, given the nature of this volume, you shouldn't even consider starting here, so all I can really say is Par for the course. Don't flee, but don't run out to grab this if you haven't been bothering.

Cable #1 - Seriously? Cable? I spent money on Cable. If you suggested that even a year ago I probably would have shot you, but here I am. And you know what, I'm happy with my purchase. Unless you're not reading X-books at all you probably know this is spun out of the end of Messiah CompleX, with Cable on the run with the first mutant born since M-Day in the future. There, you now know it either way. Anyway, we start already in the future, setting up the world a bit, and even giving basically the same brief recap I just did. We're moving pretty slow throughout, which could get annoying in the long run, but it mostly serves to establish Cable once again as a solo character (very little of Messiah CompleX was told from his perspective, so unless you read Cable & Deadpool he was either absent or a minor team player for ages), and lead up to the abrupt cliffhanger. This is one of Swierczynski's first comics, so it's possible the slow pace is a transitional issue more than a decompression one. Time will tell here, though he pulls off the workings of Nate's mind pretty well. I didn't have the ending spoiled for me via solicits, so I won't spoil it for any of you, but it certainly worked for me. What didn't work was the art. Most of it was beautiful, don't get me wrong, but it's all overlaid onto filtered photographs, which just feels lazy, and in some cases very jarring. Still, even just on the premise it's interesting enough to warrant a bit of a look, and with the ending I'll have to label it as Recommended. Seriously though, at least filter the photos better to make it less obvious.

Detective Comics #842 - Peter Milligan fills in for Paul Dini with another of this book's customary (of late) done-in-ones, spinning out of the event that brought him to the Bat-books most recently, Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul. Thankfully, this is written vastly better than his contribution to that abortive crossover. The vast majority of the writing here is Bruce's internal monologue, which is in character enough with recent representations, and Robin speaks little enough to avoid another horrible character assassination, in case nobody explained yet that he doesn't act the way he did during RORAG. There is, however, a bit of an irksome continuity gaffe, and I mean within the continuity of the issue here, not the DC universe at large. It's ultimately a forgettable story, but enjoyable for its duration. Dustin Ngyuen, however, can keep drawing Batman books as long as he'd like as far as I'm concerned, I love his vision of pretty much everything involved. Recommended.

Logan #1 - I admit it, I'm a Wolverine fan. Not enough to suffer through most of his solo run mind you. Certainly not enough to buy every book that plasters his face on the front to garner unwarranted sales either. This is different though, because it's Brian K. Vaughn writing. Brian K. Vaughn can essentially do no wrong in my book, and this is no exception. The story takes place in both the present and World War 2 eras, though we are only given a tease of the present day conflict. The past though, gives us a look at one of the many stories that make Logan the loner he is, all without the annoying over-the-top badassery so many writers fall back on with him. It's hard to deal with living forever, doubly so when you have to live with yourself for the amount of crap that's come your way, and the last page of the book promises a shitstorm of epic proportion. It's definitely nice to see Logan being the best at what he does without having to verbally remind everyone of it every thirty seconds to boot. Risso's art is fantastic, and I'm actually torn as to whether I should have grabbed the uncolored version to showcase it better, or stuck with what I got as it is well colored. You really can't go wrong either way though. Highly Recommended.

Uncanny X-Men #496 - Speaking of writers who can do no wrong, here's a book by Ed Brubaker. Sure his first arc was a bit of a mess, the second was kind of enjoyable if not the greatest. Then he got sidetracked by someone else's event, and was more than competent with it, but really it was Carey's show and he just kept the train rolling with quality. Now we're finally into a new arc and it's, frankly, fantastic. The book has split focus once again between Cyke and Emma going to their new base of operations to deal with the summer of love that exists for some reason, and Logan, Piotr, and Kurt in Siberia. All five of these characters are pitch perfect with their dialogue, and the stories are both very interesting. Of course, it would help if Giant-Size Astonishing had shipped, as this spoils the end (though everyone knew about that already) and further references a status quo that we haven't been introduced to yet. Hopefully that's out before 497 since it's going to be more important next issue, but I'm not about to let shipping issues get in the way of enjoying a fantastically written book. Also, Mike Choi's art continues to be utterly fantastic all around. Can't think of a single negative about the book that isn't based on someone else's book being absurdly late. Highly Recommended.

X-Force #2 - Speaking of books I'm shocked to be reading... this one is also pretty good, and utterly unlike its predecessor. Wolverine is not a leader, and nobody knows that more than him, including the fans that balked at the concept of Wolverine being a leader. I'm coming into the series relatively unfamiliar with X-23 outside of the high level concept. Well from here she feels a lot like Wolverine meets Cass Cain, which is a good thing. Also, Kyle and Yost were not kidding when they said despite the powerset similarities of these characters their personalities are very different. With more time to speak here, we're getting to see that more obviously, and it's appreciated. Also, to say the ending was unexpected would be the understatement of the year. I can't say I'm not extremely intrigued with where this is going, but if they get into a cycle of trying to one-up the shock factor issue by issue, it could get tiresome. Definitely not tired of it yet, and in fact can't wait for the next issue. The art is, well, most of it fits in with the Uncharted "Next Gen" mode. For the unfamiliar, it makes everything dark and brown. Of course, that was a joke about a number of early PS3 games, while this is intentional, and about the best possible aesthetic choice they could have made. The art is very dark and sometimes muddy, but attractive nevertheless, and the last thing this group needs is bright and crisp. God help me, I'm quite pleased with an X-Force book outside of the pre-X-Statix run. Recommended.