Comic Reviews - Three Weeks Late
Miah wanted me to review my comics, and since most of these are his, I had to go ahead and do it.
Saga #1 - Saga is brilliant, making a sci-fi Romeo and Juliet story with some fantasy-type people. It manages to be funny and touching and has a little bit of action while efficiently introducing all the characters in 44 pages (for $3 and no ads!). More comics need to be this good.
Batwoman #7 - Batwoman finds out that the resent Crying Lady killings are tied in with a guy who is bringing together nightmares of the city to reign terror, which is kinda interesting, leading to a bigger story. There's a couple of scenes with her personal life and Bette in the hospital. Mostly an info dump of an issue. Jumping around in time tries to make this more interesting, but I don't think it's working here (or in issue #6). Amy Reeder's art is better here, not trying to ape Williams III too much this time.
Kick-Ass 2 #7 - The second Kick-Ass story ends with a big battle in Time Square between The Mother Fucker's men and all the heroes that Kick-Ass recruited on the Internet. Of course, the cops come and arrest everybody. Kick-Ass beats up The Mother Fucker, who tries to get Kick-Ass to run away from the cops with him, still thinking it's all a game after all the horrible things he did (Kick-Ass doesn't let him). Hit Girl takes on that Russian woman in an actually interesting fight where Hit Girl isn't guaranteed to win. In the end, Kick-Ass runs off with his friends, but Hit Girl steals a cop car, drives recklessly, and gets arrested in the end. There's a bit in there between her cop friend and the police chief getting into it because the cop friend knew everything and didn't tell. Kind of predictable ending to the story, obviously ending on a cliffhanger for the next series. Pretty much what I expected out of the book, but Millar charging $5 for this issue has left a bad taste in my mouth, so I don't know if I will buy more.
Prophet #23 - Seems like Prophet's journey is at an end, with a jump in time and Prophet's final climb up a mountain. At the top, he snags a ride on a satellite, finds more of himself aboard, and sends out a call throughout the universe, awakening and calling home even more Prophets. I'm kind of happy for the journey to be at an end; it was starting to seem kind of aimless. I like that a point to all this is starting to emerge.
The Twelve #11 - This was little more than a fight issue, with the guys that are left fighting off Dynamic Man. Well, the heavy hitters and Phantom Reporter because he's the main character. I like Fiery Mask giving up his powers to PR in the end, but the rest of the issue was a little ho-hum. The kiss from Black Widow was also a little weird. She and PR have been making eyes at each other, but have hardly interacted at all throughout the series. Everything seems to have wrapped up, but there's one issue left to go.
Wonder Woman #7 - WW goes to a weapon smith hoping for help to get Zola back, but learns some uncomfortable truths about the Amazons, namely that they rape sailors and kill the male children. The weapon smith has taken to adopting these boys and using them in her forge. WW tries to free them, thinking them slaves, but the men refuse to go, thanking the smith for saving their lives. A lot of people have hated this revelation about the Amazons, that they are raping, infanticiding people, but it doesn't really go against any preconceived notions that I have. I guess it doesn't make much sense that WW wouldn't have known about this, though.
King City TPB - This book is full of puns! It started off slow, I thought, sparse and slow moving with a blank slate of a character, but as the book went on, the characters got fleshed out, the relationships were traced, and the artwork (and city) got more dense and detailed. I like how all the plot threads start to entwine, how the main one is a red herring, and how much more history and back stories is implied. Everything is pretty serious, but the dialog is always jokey. And so many puns!
ASM 681-682 - 681 is the second part of Spider-Man and Human Torch in the space station. Good banter makes up for so-so action. 682 has them coming back to Earth. Then, Doc Oct launches a bunch of satellites to heat up the planet, then cooling it down (magic!) and saying that he has a technological solution to global warming. Of course, everyone believes him except Parker, who is off to stop a would be hero. Interesting issue, especially the beginning where we see all the good Peter's inventions have had in the world, and the possibility of a technology based fight is a good, but the whole global warming plot is kinda stupid and full of holes.
Wolverine & The X-Men: Alpha and Omega 3 - I still don't get how Berserker Wolverine hasn't gotten to Quinn yet, or how no one has noticed him running around. Beyond that, not much to say. I wish there was more focus on the world in Quinn's mind where amnesiac Wolverine and Armor are trying to figure out what's going on.
Conan 2 - Conan fights Belit's boat in a super cool battle. Starts off with shooting arrows, then moves into hand to hand combat. The whole thing takes plenty of pages to play out. Too bad all of Conan's crew dies during it. This is a good, action packed Conan story. Dug it.
Fantastic Four 604 - So the finale to this story is FUCKING AMAZING. Old Franklin battles the Celestials for a little bit, then calls on MOTHER FUCKING GALACTUS to come in and finish the job. It is so much badass packed into this issue. Once the celestials are pushed back, there's a bit of a family reunion. I'm really, really glad how all the plot threads are pulled together here at the end.
Punisher 9 - Punisher and Girl Punisher are on a bit of a mission and get some knowledge that leads to Kingpin, which ties into Punisher and Spider-Man, which makes this issue more of a prequel to a crossover than a continuation of the first eight issues, which is stupid.
Wolverine & The X-Men 7 - I don't remember too many details about this issue besides Broo going nuts and proving himself a killer to stop the threat on Kitty. Everyone is happy and celebrating, not noticing that Broo is, well, brooding about his giving into his violent urges. I'm sure Wolverine was somewhere in here, too. Was this the one where his bones are warped? It was okay, i guess.
Road Rage 2 - Interesting ending of this two-parter where the son runs from the truck while the dad goes around and kicks ass. I was a bit lost, however, on how the truck driver, dad, and son all knew each other. It made the ending a little weird. I think I would have enjoyed it better if I managed to keep the relationships straight in my head.
Wolverine 302-303 - There were ninjas and Yakuza and stuff that I don't remember. Silver Samurai's GF hates him now, Wolverine's GF saw him cheating on her (which is fucking stupid), and it turns out Sabretooth is the brilliant mastermind behind it all, which doesn't make much sense cause he was never known for his plotting, especially compared to Mystique.
FF 16 - This was an epilogue to the previous Fantastic Four issue, mostly told from Val's eyes. We see everyone fixing NYC and getting back to their lives, including having Johnny and Peter become roommates. There were interesting bits and pieces, Doom living in the alternate dimension with an army of lobotomized Dooms being the most interesting, but mostly this issue was mopping up.
Usagi Yojimbo - Neat b&w series following a samurai rabbit. The artwork is super clean lined and expressive, almost reminding me of Bone (but a bit more grown up) at times. The stories themselves jump around, going from touching to action filled to funny, with each story showing off a different side of Usagi. They kind of remind me of Hellboy in this way, jumping around in a consistent universe with recurring characters to telling various stories. This was a big two volume set. I liked the first the bet as everything that came before led up to a big story with all the characters involved. After that, the series gets a little scatter shot without a clear goal in mind. it was a good read, but I'm not that interested in reading the hundreds of other issues available.
Dan also lent me a small color volume where Usagi fights a bunch of ghosts and demons, which helps with the Hellboy comparison.
UCSM vol 3 - This is the final TPB before Peter Parker's death. Everyone is dealing with the fallout of being tricked by the Chameleons, which is something you generally don't see after someone takes over a hero's life. Mostly Peter is ignoring everyone, including Gwen, which causes her to run away. I didn't like this volume too much. The art is uneven (many fill in artists) and too much time is spent avoiding the central character issues. It gets much better when Gwen comes back and confronts Peter, telling him that she can't date him, and leading to Peter and MJ more-or-less getting back together.
Saga #1 - Saga is brilliant, making a sci-fi Romeo and Juliet story with some fantasy-type people. It manages to be funny and touching and has a little bit of action while efficiently introducing all the characters in 44 pages (for $3 and no ads!). More comics need to be this good.
Batwoman #7 - Batwoman finds out that the resent Crying Lady killings are tied in with a guy who is bringing together nightmares of the city to reign terror, which is kinda interesting, leading to a bigger story. There's a couple of scenes with her personal life and Bette in the hospital. Mostly an info dump of an issue. Jumping around in time tries to make this more interesting, but I don't think it's working here (or in issue #6). Amy Reeder's art is better here, not trying to ape Williams III too much this time.
Kick-Ass 2 #7 - The second Kick-Ass story ends with a big battle in Time Square between The Mother Fucker's men and all the heroes that Kick-Ass recruited on the Internet. Of course, the cops come and arrest everybody. Kick-Ass beats up The Mother Fucker, who tries to get Kick-Ass to run away from the cops with him, still thinking it's all a game after all the horrible things he did (Kick-Ass doesn't let him). Hit Girl takes on that Russian woman in an actually interesting fight where Hit Girl isn't guaranteed to win. In the end, Kick-Ass runs off with his friends, but Hit Girl steals a cop car, drives recklessly, and gets arrested in the end. There's a bit in there between her cop friend and the police chief getting into it because the cop friend knew everything and didn't tell. Kind of predictable ending to the story, obviously ending on a cliffhanger for the next series. Pretty much what I expected out of the book, but Millar charging $5 for this issue has left a bad taste in my mouth, so I don't know if I will buy more.
Prophet #23 - Seems like Prophet's journey is at an end, with a jump in time and Prophet's final climb up a mountain. At the top, he snags a ride on a satellite, finds more of himself aboard, and sends out a call throughout the universe, awakening and calling home even more Prophets. I'm kind of happy for the journey to be at an end; it was starting to seem kind of aimless. I like that a point to all this is starting to emerge.
The Twelve #11 - This was little more than a fight issue, with the guys that are left fighting off Dynamic Man. Well, the heavy hitters and Phantom Reporter because he's the main character. I like Fiery Mask giving up his powers to PR in the end, but the rest of the issue was a little ho-hum. The kiss from Black Widow was also a little weird. She and PR have been making eyes at each other, but have hardly interacted at all throughout the series. Everything seems to have wrapped up, but there's one issue left to go.
Wonder Woman #7 - WW goes to a weapon smith hoping for help to get Zola back, but learns some uncomfortable truths about the Amazons, namely that they rape sailors and kill the male children. The weapon smith has taken to adopting these boys and using them in her forge. WW tries to free them, thinking them slaves, but the men refuse to go, thanking the smith for saving their lives. A lot of people have hated this revelation about the Amazons, that they are raping, infanticiding people, but it doesn't really go against any preconceived notions that I have. I guess it doesn't make much sense that WW wouldn't have known about this, though.
King City TPB - This book is full of puns! It started off slow, I thought, sparse and slow moving with a blank slate of a character, but as the book went on, the characters got fleshed out, the relationships were traced, and the artwork (and city) got more dense and detailed. I like how all the plot threads start to entwine, how the main one is a red herring, and how much more history and back stories is implied. Everything is pretty serious, but the dialog is always jokey. And so many puns!
ASM 681-682 - 681 is the second part of Spider-Man and Human Torch in the space station. Good banter makes up for so-so action. 682 has them coming back to Earth. Then, Doc Oct launches a bunch of satellites to heat up the planet, then cooling it down (magic!) and saying that he has a technological solution to global warming. Of course, everyone believes him except Parker, who is off to stop a would be hero. Interesting issue, especially the beginning where we see all the good Peter's inventions have had in the world, and the possibility of a technology based fight is a good, but the whole global warming plot is kinda stupid and full of holes.
Wolverine & The X-Men: Alpha and Omega 3 - I still don't get how Berserker Wolverine hasn't gotten to Quinn yet, or how no one has noticed him running around. Beyond that, not much to say. I wish there was more focus on the world in Quinn's mind where amnesiac Wolverine and Armor are trying to figure out what's going on.
Conan 2 - Conan fights Belit's boat in a super cool battle. Starts off with shooting arrows, then moves into hand to hand combat. The whole thing takes plenty of pages to play out. Too bad all of Conan's crew dies during it. This is a good, action packed Conan story. Dug it.
Fantastic Four 604 - So the finale to this story is FUCKING AMAZING. Old Franklin battles the Celestials for a little bit, then calls on MOTHER FUCKING GALACTUS to come in and finish the job. It is so much badass packed into this issue. Once the celestials are pushed back, there's a bit of a family reunion. I'm really, really glad how all the plot threads are pulled together here at the end.
Punisher 9 - Punisher and Girl Punisher are on a bit of a mission and get some knowledge that leads to Kingpin, which ties into Punisher and Spider-Man, which makes this issue more of a prequel to a crossover than a continuation of the first eight issues, which is stupid.
Wolverine & The X-Men 7 - I don't remember too many details about this issue besides Broo going nuts and proving himself a killer to stop the threat on Kitty. Everyone is happy and celebrating, not noticing that Broo is, well, brooding about his giving into his violent urges. I'm sure Wolverine was somewhere in here, too. Was this the one where his bones are warped? It was okay, i guess.
Road Rage 2 - Interesting ending of this two-parter where the son runs from the truck while the dad goes around and kicks ass. I was a bit lost, however, on how the truck driver, dad, and son all knew each other. It made the ending a little weird. I think I would have enjoyed it better if I managed to keep the relationships straight in my head.
Wolverine 302-303 - There were ninjas and Yakuza and stuff that I don't remember. Silver Samurai's GF hates him now, Wolverine's GF saw him cheating on her (which is fucking stupid), and it turns out Sabretooth is the brilliant mastermind behind it all, which doesn't make much sense cause he was never known for his plotting, especially compared to Mystique.
FF 16 - This was an epilogue to the previous Fantastic Four issue, mostly told from Val's eyes. We see everyone fixing NYC and getting back to their lives, including having Johnny and Peter become roommates. There were interesting bits and pieces, Doom living in the alternate dimension with an army of lobotomized Dooms being the most interesting, but mostly this issue was mopping up.
Usagi Yojimbo - Neat b&w series following a samurai rabbit. The artwork is super clean lined and expressive, almost reminding me of Bone (but a bit more grown up) at times. The stories themselves jump around, going from touching to action filled to funny, with each story showing off a different side of Usagi. They kind of remind me of Hellboy in this way, jumping around in a consistent universe with recurring characters to telling various stories. This was a big two volume set. I liked the first the bet as everything that came before led up to a big story with all the characters involved. After that, the series gets a little scatter shot without a clear goal in mind. it was a good read, but I'm not that interested in reading the hundreds of other issues available.
Dan also lent me a small color volume where Usagi fights a bunch of ghosts and demons, which helps with the Hellboy comparison.
UCSM vol 3 - This is the final TPB before Peter Parker's death. Everyone is dealing with the fallout of being tricked by the Chameleons, which is something you generally don't see after someone takes over a hero's life. Mostly Peter is ignoring everyone, including Gwen, which causes her to run away. I didn't like this volume too much. The art is uneven (many fill in artists) and too much time is spent avoiding the central character issues. It gets much better when Gwen comes back and confronts Peter, telling him that she can't date him, and leading to Peter and MJ more-or-less getting back together.