2004-11-05
Capsule Comic Reviews for 11/3
By: Harold Bloomfield
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Writer: Joss Whedon | ||
The first arc comes to a close with an issue that bogs down in parts with a little too much exposition from characters who seemed to show up only for that purpose. However all of the strengths displayed by Whedon and Cassaday are present too. The dialogue continues to be great with several references to characters continually returning from the dead the highlights. Cassaday, as usual, provides plenty of beautiful moments that would attract readers even if the story wasn’t so strong. There’s also the usual tip of the hat to long time X-Men fans with the return of a classic battle maneuver. Wolverine’s confrontation with Ord is a short, sweet and great moment. Whedon gives revealing and thoughtful character moments to Beast, Cyclops, Colossus and Kitty and as those familiar with his work would expect he fails to wrap it up with a nice bow instead choosing to leave the larger problem unresolved.
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Writer: Andersen Gabrych, David Lapham | ||
The aftermath of War Games leaves Batman back where he was at the very beginning of his crime fighting career; alone battling the criminals of Gotham with no Bat-Family and no help from the police. Why it took War Games so long to get us to this point is beyond this discussion but it is curious that the point of the Murderer/Fugitive crossover was to reconnect the Batman with his close allies and the point of War Games was to strip them from him. With Black Mask at the head of the Gotham underworld Batman finds his old assumptions no longer apply. He traces a supply of a new drug on the streets and ends up confronting the Mad Hatter and Killer Croc. Along the way he says good-bye to the Gordons, Barbara and Jim, with the latter scene being much more effective. After the rumble with the Hatters group he has a roof top meeting with the Catwoman that is designed to address his emotional distance but doesn’t ring true. The art of Pete Woods is appropriately dark and atmospheric but he fails to draw a convincing Batman or convey any emotion in the scenes that call for it. The back up story by David Lapham, who will take over the book next month is too pretentious, too hard to follow and downbeat, making it seem that Batman, even when saving a young boy, doesn’t make much of a difference.
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Writer: Jeph Loeb | ||
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This book is a lot of stylish fun. Placing Selena in Rome and portraying her as an over the top femme fatale seem to be inspired choices as is using the Riddler as a comic sidekick in a way he’s never been seen before. Artist Tim Sale takes full advantage of the set up and revels in it. Jeph Loeb sets him up so that Selena is almost naked or topless for most of the book. Oh and the story ain’t half bad either with Selena trying to get away from the events in The Long Halloween coming up against more mafia intrigue in Rome and being haunted by dreams of Batman and Bruce Wayne. Again this is fun stuff and seems to be channeling the spirit of a certain vein of late Sixties high spirited and high class movies.
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Writer: Bruce Jones | ||
This limited series has me at a total loss. In three issues Bruce Jones has retold incidents from Fantastic Four number 5 and then 12 which featured the group’s first meetings with Doctor Doom and the Hulk respectively. Is he on his way to issues 25 and 26 when they next encountered the Hulk or maybe he’ll skip over that and move on to their clash in the series early 100’s? If so, why? I don’t know. The Thing is feeling like a monster again and so searches out the Hulk as he is the only other being who knows the feeling? Pretty flimsy excuse for one issue let alone three going on four. The uniqueness of Jae Lee’s art stopped being an attraction after two issues as there’s really no reason to tune into the third issue and beyond just to see what weirdness he’ll bring to the characters this time. As for what Jones is bringing to these two characters I couldn’t begin to tell you other than showing they both seem to have pretty good memories.
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Writer: Jeph Loeb | ||
The Supergirl from Krypton concludes with a plot trick and a heavy dose of smaltz. Along the way we get a neat battle between Superman and Darkseid and some beautiful Michael Turner artwork who gets to draw a large percent of the DC Universes heroes. Loeb aims for some fertile psychological and character driven turf trying to get at the Superman Kara Zor-El relationship as well as Batman’s reaction to it but I think the old fashion plot trick (cheat) is just a little too cheap and goes to the heart of why some frown upon super hero storytelling of this ilk. Such a ploy detracted from what still stands as the best arc of this young book.
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Writer: Warren Ellis | ||
The Doom arc ends with a great big fight between the principals with some moments of international politics, mob violence and fleshing out of Victor’s character thrown in just for good measure. Unlike most of Ellis’ work for Marvel these days this one moves along at a frantic clip and manages to touch all the right bases. Reed does better than physically dispatch Victor he rips his kingdom from him and this version of Doom has been had it literally beat into him since childhood that he is destined to rule. All in all a very good arc that didn’t quite reach the heights it’s subject matter deserved and was padded out to about an issue or two too much.
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Writer: Brian Michael Bendis | ||
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The issues focusing on Peter Parker’s life at home and school have been among the strongest of this series. Sadly that is not the case here. The opening with the Ultimate Fantastic Four is enjoyable but the high school chit chat just goes on too long with too much girl talk, too much Mary Jane resisting to play match maker and then too much Mary Jane trying to play match maker. Dialogue is Bendis strong suit but he needed to cut to the chase here. We really didn’t need all of the minutiae of most of these conversations and Peter and Mary Jane have rarely talked this much to each other and said so little with the exception of Mary Jane stating how she likes these periods when Peter is not Spider-Man. Bendis seems to be laying the ground work for the Ultimate version of the Spidey Torch friendship but he’s spending too much time on the Beverly Hills 90210 part of it.
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