2004-10-13
Capsule Comic Reviews - 10/13
By: Harold Bloomfield
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Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | ||
This issue packs quite a wallop. There’s some brutal stuff going on and long stretches of this book are hard to take. If this were a movie it would be a hard R. That doesn’t mean it’s bad, in fact it means just the opposite. Bendis doesn’t hold anything back or leave much to the imagination. He’s brave enough to have one of the major characters on the receiving end of some horrific, cringe inducing torture. That of course, makes it all the more powerful. He even sets up a possible momentous change for the character in question and with Bendis don’t be so sure it’s a temporary change. Oeming, not know for the most realistic of art work, shows he can get down and dirty with the best of them as the scenes of depravity and brutality draw their intensity and emotional impact from his pencils. Another terrific issue.
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(preview pages)
Writer: Dan Slott | ||
This two part story is probably my least favorite of this series to date. But all that means is it’s not quite as excellent as what’s come before. It is, however, very good. For a while it seems this is going to be the first issue that’s truly a conventional superhero comic but we should know to expect the unexpected from writer Dan Slott by now and he delivers with a resolution that’s both satisfying and in keeping with the offbeat tone he’s established previously. She-Hulk deals with the Champion of the Universe relying both on her legal skills and the super strength available to her all the while continuing the evolution of her understanding of the relationship and interdependence between her two selves, Jennifer Walters and She-Hulk. Of course the writing is smart and funny with plenty of chuckles and laugh out loud moments. Slott weaves the laughs in seamlessly and while the humor is one of the chief attractions of the series it flows out of the characters and the situations not the other way around. Juan Bobillo finishes up his time on this book with a strong effort even though this type of story, with its cosmic settings and large contingent of super powered beings doesn’t play to his strengths. His renditions of the Thing and Adam Warlock’s cocoon are truly bizarre but his She-Hulk is unique and I’ve grown to appreciate how it reflected and added to the whole tenor of the series.
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(preview pages)
Writer: Warren Ellis | ||
My main complaint with this limited series has been the snail’s pace of the story. This issue is a little better in that department but I still can’t get past the feeling it’s taken three issues to get this far. Unknown to the each other, both the Ultimates and the X-Men have traced the source of the deadly alien broadcast to an underground compound in Russia that they’ve now entered from opposite sides. As each team journeys through the fortress we get the first bit of real action in the series. The Ultimates fare a little better in the action department as Ellis provides them with a more interesting adversary and comes up with a distinctive and cool use of the Falcon’s wings. Ellis also seems more at ease with the characters as they don’t seem to be missing a beat as they did in the first two issues. Steve Epting subs for Trevor Hairsine on the pencils. His work benefits greatly from Frank D’Armata’s colors and the use of glossy paper but a lot of it seems generic, especially his depiction of Wolverine, Jean Grey and the Black Widow. The action sequences make this a better read than the first two issues and things seem headed to real plot movement and substance. Let’s hope so.
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(preview pages)
Writers: Jonathan & Joshua Luna | ||
This engaging series has been likened to “Sex in the City” with superheroes. This issue, however, is more like the movie, “Notting Hill.” You remember the film where Julia Roberts plays a movie star dating just a regular guy played by Hugh Grant. As such the issue plays as a meditation on fame, those who have it and those who seek it. The opening scene in the super hero’s agent’s office is a hoot as is the scene with the girls discussing Pearl’s upcoming date. The rest, basically the date is rather sweet to the point where it’s almost too precious. The Brothers Luna show a real gift for dialogue and gentle skewering of pop culture. Gentle in particular in this issue which could use a bit more bite in places. I’m still adjusting to the fact that Pearl is the main character in this book as I thought the other two women would also be leading characters, not the clearly supporting ones they’ve turned out to be. In Pearl, the Lunas have developed a layered and appealing character. The artwork is just as impressive as the writing with the pastels and soft tones fitting the mood perfectly. All this goodness and I haven’t even mentioned the dead on parodies of magazines and their ads. This series is scheduled for seven issues; let’s hope the Luna Brothers and Image Comics have an appetite for more, as I sure do.
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Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #184 & Nightwing # 98 | ||
Act 3, Part 2 is one big free for all knockdown drag out and Part 3 is basically a showdown between Nightwing and Firefly. Things go from bad to worse between the Gotham police and the Bat-Family in what I think in addition to the casualties will be the major repercussion to come out of this. Batman learns he has been played by Black Mask (don’t know why in other reviews I kept referring to him as Death Mask) and resolves to end things immediately. The art in both these issues is a cut above most that’s appeared in this crossover but the best of it is still in “Batman” and “Catwoman” respectively. Speaking of art, has Killer Croc been drawn the same way twice in any of his appearances over the last year of two? Over in “Nightwing” at least the main character is the central focus of his book for a change in this thing and we finally get movement in the Spoiler area. It was really a mistake to put her predicament front and center and then drop it for so many issues.
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