2004-12-15
Capsule Comic Reviews - 12/15
By: Harold Bloomfield
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Writer: A.J. Lieberman | ||
A.J. Lieberman just can’t seem to get enough of Hush. He began his time on this series with the return of the center piece of Loeb and Lee’s year long uber-arc and now a scant 10 issues later brings him back again. Lieberman’s first Hush arc was a colossal waste of time and this story is better than that but that’s damning with faint praise. Unlike the Riddler, Hush freely uses his knowledge of Batman’s secret identity to plot against him. Here Alfred is the bait and Lieberman’s portrayal of him is a highlight along with a startling revelation about Hush that makes me actually want to him to appear again soon. Javi Pina’s art is a notch above most of what’s been populating the Bat-books lately but there are too many scenes where the action is hard to follow. DC apparently has let writers know they don’t have to work background information on characters and situations into the first few pages of the story and the editors refuse to provide a summary page. This is a deadly combination and makes a lot of the company’s books indecipherable to new readers. The book suffers from that problem as readers not familiar with Hush will be totally lost when it comes to the big reveal here.
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Writer: Gail Simone | ||
Next stop for the now mobile Birds in the search of out of control vigilantes is Kansas where a Grim Reaper type figure seems to be punishing those with murder in their pasts. Gail Simone sets up a clash of cultures between the city slickers and the hicks peppered with her usual sharp characterizations of the leads. The addition of Huntress to this series has been a gold mine and Simone offers an insightful look at her still developing relationships with both Oracle and Canary. I’m betting (and hoping) there’s much more than meets the eye to the main storyline here as it’s a bit run of the mill and two issues in this is shaping up as my least favorite of Simone’s arcs. This arc seems like its going to be constructed unusually featuring smaller somewhat complete stories tied together by an overall theme. Fill in art is supplied by Tom Derenick and the uneven nature of it lessened my enjoyment of the book. Derenick, in what seems to be a requirement for fill ins these days, tries to ape the style of regular artist Ed Benes and is only sporadically successful. He manages to do Oracle well but he misses the mark on the other two.
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Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | ||
While this, the third part of Golden Age, provides more background into the early clash between the yellow costumed Daredevil and the crime lord Bont and a revelation about a secondary character this issue is a classic example of what irritates some about the style of storytelling used by Bendis. For the most part very little happens here. At the end of last issue Mark Murdock was at the mercy of Bont and the Gladiator and at the end of this issue that’s exactly where the story is. Most of this issue is a flashback to Daredevil’s harassment of Bont and to a rather startling development from the day before. That said either I’ve become immune to the pace of this book or I’ve grown to appreciate it because the lack of forward plot movement here doesn’t really bother me. This is a good story and Bendis is still seamlessly intertwining consequences from the precarious nature of Daredevil’s secret identity and tidbits from arcs gone by. He’s even managing to get mileage out of his weakest DD story, the White Tiger trial, by offering up a startling development tied to it. As with the pacing the art of Alex Maleev has grown on me over time to where I don’t think this book would be nearly as good without him and he must be having a blast here using three different styles and color patterns to represent the three time frames of the story.
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Writer: Brad Meltzer | ||
This has to be one of the most disappointing endings to what’s billed as a major status quo changing event. The killer is revealed and it plays right into some of the more dubious aspects of this limited series. Furthermore the killer seems to possess information about the members of the Justice League and their relatives that he or she shouldn’t be privy. And what about all the hype about how these events change things for the heroes of the DC Universe? If there were major changes here I sure missed them. Meltzer is to be commended for avoiding the usual trickery when solving a mystery as there are no mystical forces, time travel, shape shifting, holo-projections and the like at work here. Supposedly this story ushers in a new level of realism to the DC Universe. Now I’m all for super heroes facing every day problems, which is one of the things that made Spider-Man so revolutionary, and I enjoy the somewhat realistic consequences connected with the outing of Daredevil’s secret identity and I’m all for explorations of moral and philosophical repercussions of their actions -- but by presenting a situation where there was little or nothing the super heroes could do and nothing really for them to fight Meltzer has brought the wrong kind of realism to these characters, a realism that strikes at their very reason for being and our reason for enjoying their stories.
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Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | ||
What can you say about a book that features a newly empowered person getting lessons on how super heroes should approach a chase featuring a super powered adversary, a hero fretting about how her butt looks on TV, an ex-hero selling his costume and powers for money to live on, a wicked parody of cable news shows, and cops lying to other cops? You can say that it’s great stuff and this certainly is. A
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Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | ||
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Bendis week continues with the weakest of his three releases this week. Weakest is relative however. Weakest when compared to his other two books but still one of the better of this week’s releases. Peter and Mary Jane finally have an official date at a fancy restaurant but Peter is in the doldrums as his experience as Spider-Man as of late coupled with his dealings as a civilian have him depressed and losing faith in people. Guest stars abound as Spider-Man encounters some of the Ultimates and feels slighted by how they treat him. J. Jonah Jameson, Ben Urich and Dr. Strange also enter the mix and the real heart of the story lies there. Surprisingly Mark Bagley’s art is a distraction here as his depiction of Mary Jane is inconsistent with the 69 issues that have come before and throws off the dinner date scene. There are five distinct sections of this book each with its own tone and texture which is a departure for Bendis and this book and just when you’re scratching your head as to where this all is going Bendis delivers an answer with a surprising cliffhanger.
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Writers: Jonathan and Joshua Luna | ||
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The beat goes on for this series with another thoroughly enjoyable issue. Good-hearted, hard luck heroine Pearl receives her punishment for feeling good about herself and the future as her date sells her out to a tabloid. This is really a story about dealing with celebrity and the people dealing with it just happen to be super heroes. It’s to the Luna Brother’s credit that they’ve created an appealing character in Pearl and because of that you really feel for her here. Two points during the story the art is a bit of a letdown: Right off the bat Pearl shares an elevator ride with a bitchy rival, Liliana, but it’s hard to tell the two apart as their faces look practically identical. Later Pearl joins a standoff featuring two other heroes which ends in grotesque violence that’s presented in a stilted and static way that lessens the impact greatly. Those slips in the art don’t detract significantly from the proceedings which culminate in an unexpected development and comprise another completely entertaining concoction. By the way, be sure to read the tabloid article about Pearl’s date, it’s a hoot.
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