Insane-o Review Extravaganza!!
Okay! Mondays are now going to be Review Day, and that’s the
last I’ll hear on the matter until I forget to make Monday Review Day and at
that point feel free to hurl abuse at me like the French hurled boiling oil on
anybody who’d ever attempt to lay siege to one of their castles. I’ve got a
MEGA backlog here, so let’s get through them at some kind of pace shall we?
The Shade #10
James Robinson and Frazer Irving
So here we are, living in a World where James Robinson is
able to complete his 12-issue Shade miniseries. What a great world we live in.
This issue, part 10 of the story, sees Shade tied to a chair, powers muted by
Egyptian Gods and being subjected to lectures by a white-haired ponce. This is
great fun, with Shade’s put-upon retorts making up most of the best moments of
the issue. There’s an initial worry that Irving is doing a series of splash
pages, instead of a comic, but this quickly gets quelled as the story opens up
a little. Shade’s escape plan is perhaps a little bit too obvious by half, but
there’s something really enjoyable about watching somebody smart defeat a group
of idiots.
The First X-Men #1
Christos Gage and Neal Adams
Adams provided the plot for this, which explains a lot of
the problems with the book. Essentially going back into history to rewrite it,
this mini decides that Charles Xavier was not the first to set up a group of
X-Men – Wolverine was. Which, that means Xavier’s legacy is now completely
destroyed, and his character lost. The previous stories featuring him revealed
that he was a jerk and a coward, and now we see that continued alongside the
new idea that he didn’t even bother creating the X-Men. At this point, Xavier
is ruined.
The book isn’t very good, either, with jump-cuts, plot
holes, and mischaracterisation (at one point serial rapist Sabretooth claims
that he isn’t interested in jailbait, for example). Adams’ art is what it is –
if you like his work, you’ll enjoy this. If you find teeth distracting, you’ll
be put off. Gage does his best, but the premise is garbage and the book was
never going to work.
Green Lantern #11
Geoff Johns and Doug Mahnke
This book really didn’t pay any attention to the New 52
reboot whatsoever, offering a continuity-heavy, faintly impenetrable story for
readers. I’m fairly aware of what’s been going on, so could just about wade
through. Sinestro and Hal Jordan and currently co-lanterns, working together to
try and prevent the upcoming crossover ‘The Third Army’ storyline from
happening, and still bickering all the time. Johns’ dialogue can sometimes come
across as too annoying, but he strikes a reasonable balance here and keeps
things somewhat more bearable. Hal Jordan is still pretty unlikeable, but at
least Sinestro calls him on it nowadays. Here we see Black Hand come back as a
threat, although Johns now seems to be treating him more as a dark comedy
character, which takes away any idea that he might be a thread. This is still a
pretty uneven title, with strong points and weak points which tend to mix
between each other. Mahnke’s art is still lovely, and colourists Tony Avina and
Alex Sinclair do great work. This is the most prominent job for colourists in
the industry, and they acquit themselves well.
Blue Beetle #11
Tony Bedard and IG Guara
Here we have an issue which collapses at the end. It’s
fairly fascinating as a study of how not to do a tie-in, because the book
completely loses the reader after first offering a very strong start. Booster
Gold comes for a chat with Blue Beetle this issue, which quickly turns into a
fight as you’d expect. Then, however, the fight gets broken up and the reader
is told “see where this is going in Justice League International Annual!”
We are literally told that the story we’ve been following is
a red herring, and will actually be given to us in a different comic, of a different
series. It’s an absolutely excruciating marketing decision, and
undermines/destroys the good faith readers had in the issue. We then cut to a
last page which has no bearing to anything that happened before, as we see who
the ACTUAL issue #12 villain is going to be.
It’s such an incredible misstep that I can’t believe DC
allowed it to be published. It’s terrible!
X-Factor #241
Peter David and Leonard Kirk
The much hyped (by X-Factor standards) ‘Breaking Point’
storyline begins with this issue, as Peter David decides to bring together as
many of his plots as possible and smash them into one another. This means some
of the more enjoyable stories – Madrox and Havok’s douche-off for leadership,
Siryn’s father issues – have to mix up with the godawful Strong Guy/Monet
relationship. The issue powers through that, though, with another strong piece
which suggests the book is truly starting to shrug off the pacing and plotting
issues it’s had for the past two years or so. Siryn’s single page is by far the
most engaging piece of this story, but hopefully Strong Guy’s defection from
the team will finally lead us into endgame for the character, and he’ll be
killed off soon. He drags this book down so much, you guys.
ROTWORLD!!
Animal Man/Swamp Thing#12
Jeff Lemire, Scott Snyder, Steve Pugh, Marco Rudy.
So the big crossover finally comes together for these two
books, which slow-burnt their way into early cult-favourite status but then
proved to have no momentum whatsoever, and killed off much of the critical
acclaim. This book shows the strengths and weaknesses of the story, as nothing
happens – but the story is utterly polished, totally professional. Lemire and
Snyder know these two heroes completely, but they simply haven’t woven this
story into something big enough to hold interest. There are token subplots but
it looks like the next six or so issues are going to go nowhere, before we
reconvene for the big finale in a few months’ time. These books had a lot of
potential, but the story plods along with no grace, and bores. This is why I
don’t like long-form arcs.
Astonishing X-Men
Marjorie Liu, Mike Perkins, Gabriel Hernandez Walta
Once Walta takes over art duties, the current storyline
immediately transforms into something superior and investing. A rewind issue
which explores Karma’s past few weeks as a brainwash-victim, Liu manages to
finally nail down some characterisation without it seeming treacly. Her pacing
for this arc has been an utter disaster from start to finish – this issue ends
with the exact same cliffhanger as the last issue – but here she thrives. Given
a single story to tell chronologically, she weaves together past continuity
beautifully, and Walta’s art perfectly complements her choices for Karma. It’s a
great issue sandwiched midway through a fairly awful arc.
Batwing #12
Judd Winick and Marcus To
Wrapping up the first year of stories for Africa’s Batman, this
is a fight scene issue. Batwing and the Justice League International work to
try and defeat the amazingly named villain LORD BATTLE. They fight, Marcus To’s
art plays well to the battle, and this issue is fine. It’s standard
comics-making, rather than exceptional work. There are some neat ideas,
including the end, but there’s nothing here to really distinguish Batwing from
any other hero. He doesn’t really seem to show any of the initiative you’d
expect from a member of Batman, Inc, but at least his armour looks cool. A
solid title, if not yet aspiring for more.
