Oh, yeah.
Remember, the grades are [ writing / art / tercile of the stack I put it in to for reading ], where the values are 1 (worst) to 3 (best).
- Daredevil: Yellow #6/6 (MarvPG) [3/3/3]
Loeb and Sale wrap up their wonderful nostalgic retrospective of Daredevil while he wore that hideous red-and-yellow circus costume, back in his early days. The character interplay is complex, but in keeping with the original, and the art is both moody and upbeat. I’m planning on picking up the collection when it comes out. - Exiles #8 (MarvPG) [3/2/3]
Judd Winick is having way too much fun with the Marvel Universe, as this set of X-type, themselves drawn from parallel universes, bops through still more, trying to set things right a la Quantum Leap. This time, after throwing out a half-dozen missions they’ve already completed (some of which I’m sorry we missed), we catch up with them some months after arriving on an Earth that was conquered by the Skrulls during the Industrial Age, and now serves as a farm planet where supers are grist for the gladiatorial mill. One of the great things about this series is that Winick can not only play with reality, but can run his characters through major wringers, with no need to guarantee the execs that any individual will survive. This gives him tremendous freedom, and he uses it well. Wizard has named this Best Comic of the Month, and I can believe it. (Oh, and Mike McKone’s art isn’t too shabby, either.) - Alias #5 (MAX) [3/2/3]
Brian Bendis wraps up his first story line, and we discover there’s more to it than just sex, depression, and conspiracies. There’s also, dare I say it, heroism. While I’m not sure I care for his interpretation of Captain America, I plan on buying the collection of this series when it comes out, to share amongst my friends. - Amazing Spider-Man #37 (MarvPG) [3/2/3]
JMS continues to stir in a little new stuff, a lot of old stuff, and gobs of imagination to make this the Must-Buy mainstream title this year. JMS puts in social reality without seeming overly preachy, changes stuff in Peter’s life without seeming arbitrarily revisionist, and draws in one of the hoarist cliches in comics and makes it fresh and exciting and leaving you dying for #38. Wow. This is what comic writing is all about, and John Romita, Jr., is solid on the supporting art. - Titans #36 (DC) [1/1/1]
Why am I still reading this? When did Titans degenerate into soap opera — or, more properly, into bad soap opera. A real shame. Color me gone. - Elektra #6 (MarvPG+) [2/1/2]
Bendis does the “‘Nuff Said” thang, which works fine in this case since most of the action is, well, action. Sadly, Chuck Austin’s art remains wooden and stylized. This is the first case, though, where the excerpt from the script indicates some deviations from what Bendis wrote and Austin drew. Alas, he’s really not a good enough artist to be making those kind of creative decisions. - JLA: Incarnations #7/7 (DC) [2/2/1]
A conclusion of a series set in different eras of the JLA. Not bad, but in retrospect I don’t think it was all worth the sum of the cover prices. - Pantheon #10 (Lone Star) [2/2/3]
Bill Willingham writes his Ragnarok saga with dutiful elan, ably supported by Paul Ryan’s art. I’d like to see this in collection, as the page count in each issue feels awfully short. - Avengers #49 (MarvPG) [2/2/1]
Another “‘Nuff Said” issue, as Kang makes his war on Earth personal — and devastating. I had problems following along some of the action. Busiek does good dialog, and I missed it here. - New X-Men #121 (MarvPG) [2/3/3]
Quitely returns to the art helm, just in time for “‘Nuff Said”. His idiosyncratic interpretations of the X-folk are growing on me, even if Grant Morrison’s writing is becoming more annoyingly iconoclastic. Still, good ’nuff. - X-treme X-Men Savage Land #4/4 (MarvPG) [1/1/1]
Mercifully this hopeless mess of a miniseries comes to an end, with all the traumas Claremont rings the X-folk through ultimately becoming so meaningless, I couldn’t even manage a leer at the nude Storm in the final pages. Feh. - Codename: Knockout #8 (Vertigo) [2/2/1]
Mindless but amusing cheesecake with a Austin Powers sensibility about. What’s not to like? - Adventures of Superman #600 (DC) [2/2/1]
Lex Luthor get amnesia and goes back to his old criminal ways — sort of. A vaguely interesting psychological tale, especially as Supes has to find Lex and get him back in the White House while dealing with the feeling that everyone might be better off if he didn’t. Ho-hum. A mediocre way of dealing with a 600th issue from Casey and Wieringo. - Flash #181 (DC) [2/2/2]
Things get weirder in Keystone City, in this sad tale of an escaped toxic villain who only wants to go home. We can’t feel too sorry for him — except that we know that the stuff going on at Iron Heights Penitentiary is not exactly kosher, either. This is becoming a quirky, but fun, series. - Detective Comics #766 (DC) [2/1/1]
Greg Rucka kicks off the “Bruce Wayne: Murderer?” series with Bruce and his bodyguard Sasha under arrest for the murder of Vesper Fairchild, a girlfriend Bruce dumped recently. Neither arrestee can really talk about what’s going on — presuming they know — and, frankly, things look kind of grim … particularly since Sasha is the only associate that Bats hasn’t driven off in recent months. This cross-over looks like may be worthwhile. - Avengers: Celestial Quest #5/8 (MarvPG) [1/1/1]
Stuff happens. Things blow up. Resolutions get telegraphed. Characters march around like cardboard cut-outs. Who’d have thought that Steve Englehart could write such mediocrity? - Fantastic Four #51 (MarvPG) [2/1/1]
When two guys are plotting and a third is writing dialog, you have to expect something of a muddle, and we kinda-sorta get that. Plus some semi-gratuious evil government conspiracy theories and the return of (ho-hum) the Inhumans. Nice use of the Guardsmen, though. - Iceman #3/4 (MarvPG) [1/1/1]
2cule art ‘n’ mediocre writing. Only one more issue committed to, thank the Maker. Series is sinking fast. - Iron Man #50 (MarvPG) [2/2/1]
Mike Grell takes over the writing helm, and does some interesting pseudo-Bosnia stuff. Why, though, he feels compelled to (once more) update IM’s origin is beyond me. That aside, a decent effort, supported reasonably by Michael Ryan on pencils.71 view(s)