Hey, Kids! Comics!

Reviews galore of this week’s stack, for no particular reason whatsoever.

• Way of the Rat #5 (Crossgen)
  Rod Whigham’s guest pencils are okay, but fall far short of the normal penciller. The story progresses, but the large number of house ads in the back of Crossgen books always makes me feel like the book ends prematurely. Still a lot of fun.

• New X-Men #132 (Marvel PG)
  Sic transit Magneto? One of Grant Morrison’s weaker efforts, though the Phil Jimenez art is fine. I’m about half-way to cancelling this title, though I tend to run hot and cold on it from issue to issue.

• The Filth #6/12 (Vertigo)
  Grant Morrison (again) certainly thinks he’s doing something really cool here. I just wish I could see it. Lots of really interesting ideas strung together without anything even beginning to actually put together a plot to go with it. When I keep having to flip back and forth to figure out what’s going on in the issue, and wonder if a page was omitted or inadvertently skipped, I know it’s not a title for me. I’m not sticking around for #7.

• Black Panther #49 (Marvel PG)Priest tries to wrap up all the loose ends of the last couple dozen issues, including laying to rest the whole “two Panthers” story. Unfortunately, too much seems cryptic in a rushed fashion, instead of cryptic in a deliberate fashion, which is what has held this title together. The end of the Velluto/Almond art team, too, along with a “new direction” promised. We’ll see.

• Powers #23 (Image)
  The Kaotic Chic story heats up and Christian Walker gets back into the saddle (kind of). That’s the good news. The bad news is that this felt like a particularly short, sketchy issue, and Oeming’s art seemed rushed. Still, a mediocre Powers is better than 90% of the stuff in the rack.

• Fables #5 (Vertigo)
  Willingham wraps up his first story arc with an honest-to-God “gathering in the parlor” scene. It all ends up feeling a bit pat (I await the TPB to go back and double-check the clues that were provided), but there’s still plenty of good Willingham wryness to go around.

• Power Company #8 (DC)
  Busiek continues to provide solid mid-range action, complete with a visit by Green Arrow at his most self-righteous. This book won’t win any Eisners, but it seems to be humming along just fine. Kudos to Busiek, btw, for waiting eight issues to start seriously upsetting the apple cart; many writers (and some GMs, like myself) wipe out the status quo before we’ve really established what it is, which always robs the storyline of some of its dramatic impact.

• Gen-13, Vol. 2, #2 (Wildstorm)
  Out with the old (mostly), in with the new. It’s not clear yet how this book represents anything more than appropriation of a proven title for a new team book, but that aside, it works, sorta. Chris Claremont hasn’t had enough time (after one issue) to really get things too tangled, though I can see where it’s coming.

• Stormwatch: Team Achilles #3 (Wildstorm)
  This is either a refreshing look at the world of the normal human soldiers who have to clean up after (or take down) metahumans run amok, or it’s an excuse to show people getting killed a lot. The jury is still out.

• JLA #71 (DC)
  A pretty forgettable book full of second-stringers, save for Robin — er, Nightwing — finally coming into his own as Batman’s successor. That part, at least, is nicely written.

• X-Men Unlimited #38 (Marvel PG)
  Kitty Pryde is still mooning after Peter Rasputin, though this time it’s coming to terms with his death (Did you miss Colossus’ death? Me, too. After a while, the X-continuity all became one big blur of melodrama and death.) Rucka does a fine job of it, and even helps us remember the oft-forgotten fact that Kitty’s Jewish.

• Batgirl #32 (DC)
  Chuck Dixon can do better than this, as we wrap up the saga (for the moment) of the Roman Ninth Legion, in which Batgirl, Robin, Green Lantern (Jr.), and Spoiler all {Dave slowly drifts off, muttering about something.}

• Green Lantern #154 (DC)
  The big “Terry gets badly beat up” issue that everyone’s been talking about. More important than that story is what Winick does with GL’s reaction. Every been so angry at a story you read that you wanted to go out and beat up the folks involved? That’s the real story here, and Winnick does it with his usual aplomb.

• Planetary/JLA: Terra Occulta #1/1 (Wildstorm/DC)
  This Elseworlds one-shot posits a world in which Superman, Bat Man and Wonder Woman exist, but which is in turn controlled by the machinations of Planetary and the Fourth Man. Ellis, alas, gives us something of a muddle, with key characters abruptly forgotten about (by him and by the protagonists), coincidences heaped on one another, and things that are the same as our world (Supes, most of Planetary), understandably different (Bruce Wayne), and things with differences that make no sense (WW’s powers, Snow’s hair). In the end, it’s sort of an interesting “How could Planetary be taken down?” tale, but we always assumed Ellis could do that (via his Grand Guignol of Authority). Disappointing, if still worth a read.

• The Griffin TPB (Slave Labor Graphics)
  A human high school jock is recruited by a galactic empire to become a super-hero for their military. He does so, but after twenty years, he’s tired of the killing and goes AWOL back to Earth. The empire demurs regarding his resignation, and mass destruction ensues. It’s a plot that would be almost old hat today, particularly the mass destruction part, but this work was written in the 80s (betrayed only by the consuming) and remains fresh and brilliant. Better yet, the plot above is secondary to the real theme, in which everyone invovled in the story makes decisions, for good reasons and bad, and all those decisions have consequences that they have to live with, for good or for ill. What a concept. A definite must-read.
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