2004-09-04
Capsule Comic Reviews - 09/01
By: Harold Bloomfield
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Writer: Gail Simone Art: Ron Adrian, Eric Battle Inks: Rob Lea, Rodney Ramos | ||
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"Between Dark and Dawn" concludes with a slam bang action issue featuring Simone's trade mark humor and sharp dialogue. Once again Huntress steals the show from almost murdering the main adversary in cold blood to having been saved from mind control by her lack of faith. Among the many riches Simone has brought to this book her portrayal of Huntress is her crowning achievement. DC has been publishing this book twice a month over the summer and while the extra issues are welcome the schedule seems to have caught up to the artwork. Ron Adrian continues to sub and closely approximate the work of regular artist Ed Benes on the pages featuring Huntress and Vixen fighting a group of brainwashed metahumans but Eric Battle does the Canary Oracle pages and they're a mess, severely detracting from what's going on. The lines are too heavy and while Benes and Adrian excel at drawing the female face and form Battle's all protruding lips, gazes up nostrils and bug eyes distract slightly from what's a fine finale of Simone's third winning arc in a row.
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(click here for preview scans of this book)
Writers: Andersen Gabrych/Shane McCarthy | ||
"War Games" shambles into the second act much the way it went through the first. For the most part the stories are pretty good but they sorely beg the question of why this gang war is at the center of such a massive crossover. I'm sorry but the Batman getting caught in daylight by television cameras (and unnecessarily at that) is not an earth shattering development to me. The plot of everyone questioning Batman's role in the high school siege also seems off to me. Why does everyone thing he exacerbated the situation when there're plenty of witnesses that can attest to the contrary? And hasn't Spider-Man been through this type of thing for about, say, forty years or so? Again lots of little things go on here that are of mild interest but are not fuel for a story spreading across so many books. And the biggest development in this book really belongs in another title highlighting one of the problems this crossover presents to readers who can't or don't want to buy every issue of this. Pete Woods does well on the art but he needs to work on his Oracle and Dr. Thompkins.
The back up story is a big yawn. Does anyone really care what the other super crazies think about the Riddler in the aftermath of "Hush?" After suffering through an overly long arc on Gotham Knights centering on Hush trying to kill the Riddler why keep this moribund storyline going? Somebody put him and us out of our misery.
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Writer: Tom DeFalco Art: Ron Frenz Inks: Sal Busema | ||
"The Little Book That Could" keeps chugging along with another thoroughly enjoyable arc pitting Spider-Girl against a new crime boss, Tarantula. Tom DeFalco juggles plots and subplots in a style and voice that's no longer in fashion but very effective and pleasing when done right as it is here. His tweaks of regular Marvel continuity for the fifteen years in the future MU2 can be every bit as refreshing and unique as similar makeovers in the Ultimate line. As with the best of some Spider-Man and Daredevil stories of 20 or so years ago Spider-Girl really clicks with plots revolving around organized crime. Throw in groups and players with secret agendas and conflicting alliances, the usual high school problems, some moral grey areas and issues at the home front and you've got just the right mix of melodrama, crime fighting, teen angst and conflicted super hero action to provide a consistently good read month after month. Not too heavy, not too light but usually just right.
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Writers: Michael Avon Oeming with Daniel Berman Art: Andrea DiVito Color Art: Laura Villari | ||
My, what has happened to this book since Dan Jurgens left? While Jurgens could go overboard with the decompressed storytelling he introduced large and thought provoking ideas and met them head on exploring the consequences along the way. Since Oeming and Berman arrived they hit the ground running with death and destruction on a huge scale and went from there. The idea that Ragnarok is an endlessly repeating cycle is both intriguing and self defeating. For reasons of self determination it needed to be stopped but is the cost worth it? And if Thor fails everything will just start again, so what's so terrible about that? A better idea is the thought that Odin Thor in the identity of human Donald Blake (what about his other human identity?) from the Great Gods of old who control the cycle in order to empower him to stop it. The art on the book is beautiful and there are many stunning pages and panels. However for the most part they are lost in a sea of metaphysical mumbo jumbo in one of the wordiest books I've read that wasn't written by Chris Claremont. This is an arc that is supposed to be epic in nature but the early bulldozer effect and the overblown nature of everything that followed robbed the story of its emotional impact and context.
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Writer: Brian Michael Bendis Art: Mark Bagley Inks: Scott Hanna | ||
The aftermath of the Carnage arc is Bendis' version of "The Breakfast Club" as Peter, MJ, Flash Thompson, Kong and Liz Allen end up in detention on a Saturday and the wounds left by Gwen Stacy's death are exposed. This issue represents something of a rebound for Bendis as the last two arcs, "Hollywood" and "Carnage" were two of the most uneven of this entire series. This is Bendis doing what Bendis does best, developing and revealing characters through masterful dialogue. The death of Gwen Stacy lacked the emotional impact of other events in the book but this issue makes the tragedy reverberate a little truer. This is one instance were a reworking of a pivotal event from the Spider-Man mythos failed to match the original or even seem justified in the overall scheme of things. At least Bendis makes quick and neat work of Peter's abandoning his webslinging last issue. On the artwork front Scott Hanna continues as the new inker, replacing Art Thibert and sometimes uses too heavy of a hand for Bagley's pencils lending a harsher feel to some of the figures and faces. I don't know if he will ever jell with Bagley as well as Thibert did.
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