Comic Mini-Reviews Week of November 30th, 2011

Daredevil #6 – Yesterday, I spent a good bit of time lauding Mark Waid's run on Daredevil, so I will keep it brief here. This IS one of the best superhero books of the year. The art by Marcos Martin is gorgeous and the scripting by Waid is nearly flawless. This issue brings us to the end of the book's first major story arch. Daredevil protects a blind translator who heard too much from five different super-terrorist groups. Along the way he comes into possession of something that will surely be important down the road. If I compared this book to the cream of the crop from DC's New 52, I would have to say it ranks with the upper echelon like Swamp Thing, Wonder Woman and Animal Man. If you are not buying this book, you are missing out.

Legion: Secret Origin #2 – There is a growing trend in comic books to take an origin story and expand upon it. Taken by itself, this is not an inherently good or bad thing. In some cases it adds to an already sparse mythos. In others, it confuses things. After two issues, I am tempted to say that Legion: Secret Origin falls into the latter camp rather than the former. The Legion with its multiple reboots, different re-tellings, and hundreds of members could certainly use a retold origin story, but so far Secret Origin has just served to muddy the water. However, with four issues left, the mysteries that Paul Levitz is playing with might actually pay off. I am however really enjoying Chris Batista's art.

Spaceman #2 – This book is tied with Daredevil for my pick of the week. Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso are crafting a scifi dystopia that becomes more interesting with each page. The grime that covers each page is the kind that only the 100 Bullets duo could produce. Yet, for all of the sickness that the pair foresees in the future, the main character, Orson the Spaceman, is a completely sympathetic character. Genetically crafted in an aborted attempt to carry the human race into deep space, he is left on earth alone and mostly forgotten. In issue 2, it seems that Orson is becoming the unlikely hero in the high profile kidnapping of a reality TV child celebrity.

Uncanny X-men #2 – Well, we knew that Uncanny would be a juggling act. After a promising first issue, issue two loses some momentum. Instead of fleshing out the interesting new multi-team set up of the book, we are treated to an extended fight with Mister Sinister. It's not uninteresting and Carlos Pacheco's art is certainly worth the price of admission, but it does little to fulfill the promise of issue one. Hope is not lost—once the immediate threat is dealt with, perhaps we will be treated to more examination of Cyclop's grand plans for the X-men in action.