Monday, February 20, 2012

Comic Mini-Reviews Week of February 15th, 2012














This week Uncanny X-men is boring, Batman fights back, and Daredevil descends into the underground.

Batman #6 – After spending all of last issue and most of this issue being kicked around by the Talon, Bruce Wayne finally fights back. It is kind of funny to think back to the first four issues of Batman and realize just how much the series has developed. The very good but traditional start to Scott Snyder's Bat-epic has given way to a psychedelic trip of Gotham size proportions. Last months issue played with the readers perception of reality as Batman stumbled through the Court of Owl's maze-of-death. This issue keeps things a bit more straight forward. Perhaps thanks to the drugged water, an anthropomorphic group of bird-men make an appearance as a literal Court of Owls, judging Bruce's fate. In an issue filled with great imagery, perhaps the best came late in the book. As Batman and the Talon smash their way through the maze, the enter a room with a tiny model of Gotham where the two combatants do their best Godzilla/Mothra impression. As usual Snyder's Batman is an ever thinking warrior. He not only figures out where in Gotham he is being held from the way the water in the fountain tastes but devises an escape using objects from the maze. Greg Capullo continues to impress me with his pencils. If he continues such solid work over a long period of time, he has a chance of becoming one of the legendary Bat-artists.

Birds of Prey #6 – I feel like I say this every month, but Birds of Prey is just plain solid. I would willingly trade the bottom half of the New 52 for just two more books as strong as BoP. Javier Pina fills in for Jesus Saiz on art and does a great job capturing the books look. On a related note, I will be interested to see how the book feels in a few months when Travel Foreman picks up the artistic duties. For now, Birds remains one of my favorite B-level books, easily the equal of a book like The Flash.

Daredevil #9 – After the Spider-man crossover/Black Cat hookup from last month, Matt Murdoch investigates the disappearance of his father's coffin. In doing so, Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera and Daredevil descend into the underworld in search of grave-robbers! Somewhat predictably, he encounters the Fantastic Four villain Mole Man, which leads, also predictably, into an altercation. Daredevil is still the best comic book coming out month-to-month and I eagerly await each issue's arrival. Rivera's art fits the tone of the book perfectly and Waid has that rare ability to capture the essence of a character in just a few lines of dialogue.

Green Lantern Corps #6 – I kid you not, in this issue Guy Gardener and the Green Lantern Commandos defeat the Lantern keepers with more guns than a 1990s Rob Liefeld comic and by blowing up two Sinestro Corps members. For the life of me, I have no idea what to make of this comic. It is not devoid of interesting ideas or characters. Over the last five or so years, Guy Gardener has become a completely serviceable character to read about monthly. Plus, the idea of a group of tough-as-nails, old salt Green Lantern Commando type characters is a fun one. I just can't help but think that there are very few stories where the need for “more guns” is a good development. Maybe I am biased, but even the idea of a group of Lanterns conjuring guns using their power rings seems a little dated to me, so the idea of them using ACTUAL guns is really strange to me. I am hoping the second storyline of GLC will level the series out a bit.

Star Trek/Legion #5 – After four issues of hovering around interesting, issue five finally dives right in to intriguing. No seriously. The fifth issue finally takes an enjoyable novelty mini-series and transforms it by introducing parallel universe logic and an unexpected character. I am really impressed. It is not a great series but, in the space of just one issue, my interest level roughly tripled.

Uncanny X-men #7 – The Tabular Rasa adventure rather predictably devolves into fisticuffs and traditional super-heroics. I can't say that there is anything specifically wrong with Uncanny X, but it's just not terribly interesting. It's a book filled with ideas that have potential, but the characters aren't compelling. The members of the X-men's so-called Extinction Team are boring and wooden, though this might be an effect caused by Land's boring, wooden art.

Winter Soldier #2 – One of the brilliant things about the genre of super-heroics is that it is able to encompass the elements of almost any other genre into its structure. Winter Soldier is a perfect example of this. Ed Brubaker and Butch Guice are crafting a spy thriller using the Marvel Universe as their backdrop and doing a pretty effective job. So far, the story isn't particularly groundbreaking, but Brubaker has a talent for infusing his characters and stories with gravity. I still am not a huge fan of Guice's art, the snow effect that was inserted on top of most of the pages was pretty distracting.

Wonder Woman #6 – Wonder Woman and her motley crew of gods, demi-gods and traveling companions trick pull off the impossible—tricking not one, but three, gods. Brian Azzarello's revamping of the Greek Pantheon continues to be fascinating. The character design and personalities are so distinct that, even though the gods may not always go by their classic names, that there is no question as to who they are meant to be. Tony Akins' second issue filling in but I am looking forward to Cliff Chiang's return.

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