BT03 – And Yet More Comics Reviews!

Day’s warming up, and so am I …

(But I notice that the time crunch is such that I’m not able to proofread these things decently. A thousand pardons.)

Review code format: writing (3-1, faboo to mediocre), art (3-1), suitability for jumping on as a new reader (3-1), suitability for giving to a non-comics reader to get them hooked (3-1), and “Eagerly waiting the collected TBP” (Y/N).

Power Company #18 (DC) [1/1/-/1/N]
PC started, like Thunderbolts, as a “different” sort of team book — in this case, a team organized like a law firm, doing work for hire, with partners and associates. It was a team of misfits — an idealist with armor she couldn’t afford to maintain, a diva/mage, an ex-con brute who wanted to go straight, a … well, I don’t remember Striker Z’s background … and the last surviving clone of the Manhunter to not have been hunted down. It was a decent enough book good team action by Busiek, but nothing spectacular (Busiek’s illness during this time didn’t help), and the artwork never lifted it above ordinary. In the end, it just never got a decent audience, and Busiek got other opportunities (including, praise Allah, the resurrection of Astro City), and this final issue hurredly wraps up all the hanging story lines, and leaves the team intact but in DCU limbo. I’m sure we’ll see them again some day, or at least some individuals, but I hate to see that potential wasted.

Trinity #1 of 3 (DC) [2/2/3/2/Y]
Matt Wagner takes on an early tale of the trinity of the DCU — Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman — and how they all met. It’s hard to read something that splashes across continuity like this as anything but an Elseworlds tale, but Wagner does his usual good job of it, both in writing and art, getting a modern-edged Golden Age tale down nicely. I’d intended to buy the collection instead of the individual issues, but MHC’s “facilitated crossovers” program tripped me up. Ah, well. It’s a good tale, and a good one to loan to comics readers and non-readers alike.

New Mutants #3 (Marvel) [2/1/2/2/Y]
As an old-time collector of the NM, I’ve welcomed this new series, which has been taken up so far with Professor X bringing Danielle Moonstar onto the faculty as a recruiter. The tales are low-key, playing on the danger and trauma of coming into one’s mutant powers effectively without dipping into bathos or into rock-em-sock-em action. Keon Grant and Rob Stull’s art gets a bit too manga at times, but the series is starting out well, and seeing the change in relationship between Moonstar and Xavier, as well as the promise of learning Where Are They Now with the rest of the team, make a good read — and a good intro to readers of both sorts.

Batgirl: Year One #8 of 9+ (DC) [2/2/1/2/N]
Scott Beatty and Chuck Dixon are doing a nice job of Babs Gordon’s introduction into the Bat-set. Marcos Martin and Alvaro Lopez’ art is simple and old school. The story gets a bit muddled, and the Batgirl/Robin relationship keeps taking weird zigs and zags. But it’s a decent read, and I’m willing to stick with it to the end.

Enemy Ace: War in Heaven TPB (DC) [3/2/2/2/-]
When Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert in the Viet Nam era created a tale of “war through the eyes of the enemy” in the form of a German fighter ace, they wisely set it in WWI, which everyone knew was a Stupid War with few if any moral components to it. So people could cheer at Hans Von Hammer as he dealt with the horrors and violence of war, killing plenty of French and British along the way. Garth Ennis has taken the dangerous step of moving an older Von Hammer into WWII, recruited into the Luftwaffe on the Eastern Front, flying some of the first jets, confronting the stupidity of the brass and the evil of the Nazis — which evil finally brings him to a dire confrontation, at the end of the war, between duty and honor. Ennis pulls it off, though not pleasantly (of course), and the reader ends up paradoxically rooting for Von Hammer even as you root against his side. The various artists have a good realistic style, neither adding nor detracting from the conflict on the ground or on the air. Very good stuff, and a fine war tale.