wktf
06-09-2005, 12:10 PM
Sam Wilson’s Reviews
This week was really sparse for me. Two Ultimate titles, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, always a sure bet. JLA promises more fallout from Identity Crisis (boy, they really are gonna milk that one out for all it’s worth) and Marvel takes a third stab at New Warriors (no, the third time is not the charm, as I will get into shortly). My pick of the week this week is The Pulse, which I think I will review now.
The Pulse #9
Marvel Comics
Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn By: Michael Lark
For those of you who don’t know, Marvel’s The Pulse stars Jessica Jones, everyone’s favorite fallen Avenger/private eye from the Marvel MAX series Alias. She now works for the “Daily Bugle” as an insider to the super hero community, for the paper’s new section “The Pulse”. Oh yeah, she is also pregnant with Luke Cage’s child and they are now living together as a couple. This is the last part of a four-issue arc that is tied in the Marvel’s Secret War limited series. Okay, so someone attacked and destroyed Jessica and Cage’s apartment. Luke is now missing, and SHIELD, Nick Fury, and Captain America are up to their eyeballs in this muck, which is apparently all fallout from the events in Secret War.
And now we take a break from our regularly scheduled review so I can rant about Secret War…
Okay, seriously, is this series coming out or what? The crossover with The Pulse is now done. Finished, and they are always hinting to the “horrific” and “disturbing” events that transpired in Secret War, events so messed Fury is in deep sh$% with pretty much everyone. WHAT EVENTS? WHAT HAPPENED? WHY CAN’T THIS BOOK COME OUT ON TIME? THE ART ISN’T THAT GOOD! MARVEL, BENDIS, and WHOEVER the HECK DECIDED this GRANDIOUSE project was a GREAT idea needs to stop with that CRAP. GET A BOOK OUT ON TIME, TELL A STORY, stop trying to make everything as significant as THE BILL OF RIGHTS or the bleedin’ MAGNA CARTA. Man, damn. Seriously though.
... and now I’m done ranting so we can go back to our regularly scheduled review.
So this issue wraps the crossover up nicely. Oh yeah, and we get to see Misty, Danny and Colleen, all the old crew from Hero’s For Hire. Thank you Brian Michael Bendis, for making my day. Love those characters. There is a great interaction between Iron Fist and Jessica. Great I tell you. Bendis should totally pitch a new Hero’s For Hire series. I would buy it in a heartbeat. Michael Lark’s art is excellent. It’s not flashy, but it is very detailed and he conveys emotion well. This is a great series, and I wish it committed to a monthly schedule (it is currently bi-monthly). Oh yeah, and why is Wolverine on the cover? He makes a little appearance, but it’s really nothing significant. Don’t buy this book because Wolverine is on the cover. Buy it because it is well written and well drawn and has great characters.
The New Warriors #1 (of 6)
Marvel Comics
Written By: Zeb Wells
Drawn By: Skottie Young
Speedball: Still a douche
Back in 1989 the New Warriors exploded onto the comic scene with Fabian Nicieza handling the writing and Mark Bagley on pencils. To be technical though, the New Warriors first appeared in the pages of Thor (issues 411 and 412). There was one of those nifty (not) company wide crossovers happening called Acts of Vengeance where all of Marvel’s hero’s swapped villains in some inane massive super-villain conspiracy to get vengeance on their enemies once and for all. During this, the Juggernaught went after Thor, but the New Warriors popped up to lend a hand. These New Warriors were about the same age as the Perez/Wolfman Teen Titans and consisted of: Night Thrasher (their benefactor and a rich Batman type self made street vigilante), Nova (space spanning hero to give the book some old school credibility), Namorita (the Sub Mariners cousin, half human and half Atlantean and all hottie), Justice (a mutant with tk powers), Firestar (another mutant, yes the same chick from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends), and Speedball (a total douche).
I read the New Warriors back then and thought they were really cool. Marvel didn’t have a team of youngins who weren’t mutants, and these guys were all right. They hung out in their “crash pad” and fought cool bad guys and Namorita wore tiny little costumes… anyway their popularity faded, the quality declined, and then they were cancelled. Marvel brought them back a few years ago, but that effort was a joke. So now we get a third effort. This new book opens with some TV producers talking about their newest reality show, about heroes who actually adventure outside of New York to take care of super-villain problems in po-dunk, America. Cause they have huge super villain problems I guess. We get the old team of “Warriors” back, and some new freak whose power is to communicate with germs. Seriously, he communicates with germs. So our heroes are at the whim of reality TV producers who want to produce a good show and get high ratings, and our hero’s are just looking for someone to bankroll their team again. As you can guess, wacky antics ensue.
This first issue has the “Warriors” going after Tiger Shark and Armadillo in bumble fu$# Alabama or something like that. Yeah, whoopee. It really sucks. Skottie young is horrible. His style may turn someone else’s crank, but it’s to cartoony for me. Reality TV is lame enough, but why bring it to the comic world? If I could have attended the pitch meeting for this book I would slap the sh$# out of Zeb Wells for proposing such lunacy. This book is some serious crap, and you should be reimbursed for even looking at the cover. Don’t waste your money or your time. Just another wasted effort by Marvel to bring in some more of those MTV generation dollars. Yeah, well good job, y’all have produced some total crap. If you want to read a cool story with the New Warriors dig up back issues of the Nicieza/Bagley series. Just stay away from this one.
Wktf’s Reviews
OK, before I start, I took some friendly heat for leaving out some key elements to last week’s Superman/Batman #20 in my review. Like, for instance, completely neglecting to draw the similarities between The Maximums and The Avengers/Ultimates, or not throwing in a mention of the completely weird Batzarro and Bizarro. Here we go…Man, can you believe the nod to The Avengers that Loeb and McGuineess give with The Maximums? The Soldier, clearly Captain America. The Hornet, the Wasp! Skyscraper sure looks like a Giant Man play. Robot is probably a cross between Iron Man and The Vision. Looks like Bonk is a poor man’s Hulk. And Viking? C’mon….Thor, right? Plus, does The Axis of Evil look like the Masters of Evil to you? Is Godiva an Enchantress rip-off? Or Rapier the old Black Knight? Oh, and the mention that Soldier’s son, Lucky, died but came back clearly is a tip of the hat to Cap’s current story line, and the ghost of Bowman must refer to the now-dead Hawkeye, I think. And Batzarro? What’s up with him? Regardless, this issue was totally inaccessible to new readers and I’d drop the title if I hadn’t learned by now that there’s definitely a payoff in these convoluted S/B storylines Loeb weaves.
Sorry. Moving on to this week’s comics…
Gotham Central #32
DC Comics
Written by: Greg Rucka
Drawn by: Steve Lieber
This issue is my pick of the week. Here we have a stand-alone issue that is just a total stand out comic book! What a great read! This one has everything I like about this title, including (ironically) no Batman. In fact, there are practically no good guys. At the center of this book is the reason Gotham is the cesspool of the DCU, corrupt cops. In fact, the comic fools us into believing the dialogue at the book’s beginning comes from a homeless teen age girl when it, in fact comes from one of two cops, Munroe and DeCarlo, who kill the girl for witnessing their shaking down a drug dealer for their cut of his profits. These two cops hate Detectives Allen and Montoya and the entire MCU whom they believe aren’t real cops. These guys are on the take and looking to perpetuate and profit from the crime in Gotham to the point of using and beating prostitutes and giving them no money for their troubles.
This comic follows these two cops into the world of other corrupt cops, such as Corrigan whom Montoya beat senseless in a prior issue for selling a bullet on eBay she needed to make her case. Their travels lead them to a cop bar where they find other cops who are willing to cover for them in regards to their shake down and the killing of the teen age girl. We desperately want to see these two get their punishment. And they do, but not through any strong detective work or superhero-ing. In fact, the good guys come up empty this issue. And that’s one of the appealing elements of this story. Leiber’s art work is of the same vein as Michael Lark’s, minimalist, not as strong, but still effective. You definitely feel like you’re among Gotham’s underworld in this issue. Rucka’s story is engrossing and beautifully played out. I felt like I needed a shower after reading it and while I was glad to see the two bad cops get theirs in the end I felt unsatisfied that this also represented a crime, and the death of a young girl, that will essentially go unsolved.
JLA #115
DC Comics
Written by: Geoff Johns & Allan Heinberg
Drawn by: Chris Batista
I’ve read this title off and on since it was re-launched with the Martian conflict, the Tower of Babel arc and a few story lines since then. But I picked this one up because its cover promised “the unavoidable fallout from Identity Crisis begins here!” And, man does it ever. The League, including Hawkman (is he on the JLA, the JSA, both? I have trouble on this one), has gathered at their tower at Wally West’s request. Hawkman looks appropriately huge, warlike and fit to bust someone in the nose. He’s facing off against Green Arrow and is being restrained by Zatanna and Flash while Green Arrow’s being held back by Black Canary. Wally demands the League come clean to Batman about the fact they’ve mind wiped him, as well as the lobotomy they gave Dr. Light. The League is divided on this one, some agree with Wally but, frankly, it’s hard to find fault with Hawkman’s defiant and unapologetic stance claiming, if he had to do it all over again, he’d kill Light outright for raping Sue Dibny, the Elongated Man’s wife. Carter’s angry with Wally for calling the meeting about something he had no part in and with Hal Jordan who, like Wally, insists they come clean. The Martian Manhunter walks in on this, is told the truth, and goes in search of Batman to “fix” the problem after having informed us that the League has replaced his ravaged homeland. In the mean time, unbeknownst to the League, the Secret Society of Super Villains (a crazy Silver Age DC name, for sure) has banded together again for some League ass-kicking, having regained their memories of the Leaguers’ identities which were erased in “Identity Crisis.”
This is a tense, action packed start to what looks to be everything DC’s PR hype says it will be, a conflict among the heroes that will shake the foundation of the DCU. I’m not much prone to hyperbole, but the anger amongst the League members toward each other and the divide-and-conquer approach of the Secret Society (and the last panel leaves only two League members standing) promises some serious shaking up to come. I’ve always enjoyed John’s writing but I’m really enjoying Batista’s art which really captures the power and tension in this story. Hold on to your hats. It looks like the cover to this issues spoke true!
Batman: Dark Detective #3 (of 6)
DC Comics
Written by: Steve Englehart
Drawn by: Marshall Rogers
Editor Eternally Emeritus: Julie Schwartz
It’s hard not to think of this mini-series as an Elseworld kind of story. The tone and feel of it are just so different than today’s Batman run. And the cover logo brings me right back to when I was a teen ager and Neal Adams was making his name on The Batman. In this issue, Bruce Wayne and Silver have woken up together and are enjoying breakfast. They have decided that they cannot lose this second opportunity at love and vow to each other to make it work. For Silver, this means breaking her engagement with Evan, a man who’s running for Governor (against The Joker, no less!) and not running from Bruce’s life as Batman. For Bruce, it means allowing his boyhood promise to avenge his parents’ murder allow room for the happiness to which he’s entitled as an adult. That these two have sworn devotion to each other and promised to make it work for each other either places this story in some alternate universe or, by definition, foreshadows that their love is doomed to failure. I really have no idea which it will be.
The Scarecrow is lurking in Gotham, the Joker is plotting against Two-Face who threatened his life last issue, and Two-Face squares off twice against Batman who, in turn, was searching for Scarecrow…both times resulting in serious head aches for Batman. The Joker has his way with Two-Face who just got the upper hand on Batman, and Marshall Rogers gives us a scene where we feel Harvey’s intense pain and anguish as a result. We know he’ll be coming after Joker who is out terrorizing the meager citizens of Gotham for their votes. There’s a lot of activity in this issue but, at the end, the three first class super freaks are still on the prowl and we are left with Silver’s being held in Bruce’s loving arms at 3 AM rather than Batman maniacally out searching for the villains. It’s great to see Englehart and Rogers back on Batman! This most definitely is a different kind of Batman story, by today’s standards anyway, that I am really enjoying.
This week's Classic TPB reviews, this time focusing on The Batman's universe, can be found at http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?p=211976#post211976
This week was really sparse for me. Two Ultimate titles, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, always a sure bet. JLA promises more fallout from Identity Crisis (boy, they really are gonna milk that one out for all it’s worth) and Marvel takes a third stab at New Warriors (no, the third time is not the charm, as I will get into shortly). My pick of the week this week is The Pulse, which I think I will review now.
The Pulse #9
Marvel Comics
Written By: Brian Michael Bendis
Drawn By: Michael Lark
For those of you who don’t know, Marvel’s The Pulse stars Jessica Jones, everyone’s favorite fallen Avenger/private eye from the Marvel MAX series Alias. She now works for the “Daily Bugle” as an insider to the super hero community, for the paper’s new section “The Pulse”. Oh yeah, she is also pregnant with Luke Cage’s child and they are now living together as a couple. This is the last part of a four-issue arc that is tied in the Marvel’s Secret War limited series. Okay, so someone attacked and destroyed Jessica and Cage’s apartment. Luke is now missing, and SHIELD, Nick Fury, and Captain America are up to their eyeballs in this muck, which is apparently all fallout from the events in Secret War.
And now we take a break from our regularly scheduled review so I can rant about Secret War…
Okay, seriously, is this series coming out or what? The crossover with The Pulse is now done. Finished, and they are always hinting to the “horrific” and “disturbing” events that transpired in Secret War, events so messed Fury is in deep sh$% with pretty much everyone. WHAT EVENTS? WHAT HAPPENED? WHY CAN’T THIS BOOK COME OUT ON TIME? THE ART ISN’T THAT GOOD! MARVEL, BENDIS, and WHOEVER the HECK DECIDED this GRANDIOUSE project was a GREAT idea needs to stop with that CRAP. GET A BOOK OUT ON TIME, TELL A STORY, stop trying to make everything as significant as THE BILL OF RIGHTS or the bleedin’ MAGNA CARTA. Man, damn. Seriously though.
... and now I’m done ranting so we can go back to our regularly scheduled review.
So this issue wraps the crossover up nicely. Oh yeah, and we get to see Misty, Danny and Colleen, all the old crew from Hero’s For Hire. Thank you Brian Michael Bendis, for making my day. Love those characters. There is a great interaction between Iron Fist and Jessica. Great I tell you. Bendis should totally pitch a new Hero’s For Hire series. I would buy it in a heartbeat. Michael Lark’s art is excellent. It’s not flashy, but it is very detailed and he conveys emotion well. This is a great series, and I wish it committed to a monthly schedule (it is currently bi-monthly). Oh yeah, and why is Wolverine on the cover? He makes a little appearance, but it’s really nothing significant. Don’t buy this book because Wolverine is on the cover. Buy it because it is well written and well drawn and has great characters.
The New Warriors #1 (of 6)
Marvel Comics
Written By: Zeb Wells
Drawn By: Skottie Young
Speedball: Still a douche
Back in 1989 the New Warriors exploded onto the comic scene with Fabian Nicieza handling the writing and Mark Bagley on pencils. To be technical though, the New Warriors first appeared in the pages of Thor (issues 411 and 412). There was one of those nifty (not) company wide crossovers happening called Acts of Vengeance where all of Marvel’s hero’s swapped villains in some inane massive super-villain conspiracy to get vengeance on their enemies once and for all. During this, the Juggernaught went after Thor, but the New Warriors popped up to lend a hand. These New Warriors were about the same age as the Perez/Wolfman Teen Titans and consisted of: Night Thrasher (their benefactor and a rich Batman type self made street vigilante), Nova (space spanning hero to give the book some old school credibility), Namorita (the Sub Mariners cousin, half human and half Atlantean and all hottie), Justice (a mutant with tk powers), Firestar (another mutant, yes the same chick from Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends), and Speedball (a total douche).
I read the New Warriors back then and thought they were really cool. Marvel didn’t have a team of youngins who weren’t mutants, and these guys were all right. They hung out in their “crash pad” and fought cool bad guys and Namorita wore tiny little costumes… anyway their popularity faded, the quality declined, and then they were cancelled. Marvel brought them back a few years ago, but that effort was a joke. So now we get a third effort. This new book opens with some TV producers talking about their newest reality show, about heroes who actually adventure outside of New York to take care of super-villain problems in po-dunk, America. Cause they have huge super villain problems I guess. We get the old team of “Warriors” back, and some new freak whose power is to communicate with germs. Seriously, he communicates with germs. So our heroes are at the whim of reality TV producers who want to produce a good show and get high ratings, and our hero’s are just looking for someone to bankroll their team again. As you can guess, wacky antics ensue.
This first issue has the “Warriors” going after Tiger Shark and Armadillo in bumble fu$# Alabama or something like that. Yeah, whoopee. It really sucks. Skottie young is horrible. His style may turn someone else’s crank, but it’s to cartoony for me. Reality TV is lame enough, but why bring it to the comic world? If I could have attended the pitch meeting for this book I would slap the sh$# out of Zeb Wells for proposing such lunacy. This book is some serious crap, and you should be reimbursed for even looking at the cover. Don’t waste your money or your time. Just another wasted effort by Marvel to bring in some more of those MTV generation dollars. Yeah, well good job, y’all have produced some total crap. If you want to read a cool story with the New Warriors dig up back issues of the Nicieza/Bagley series. Just stay away from this one.
Wktf’s Reviews
OK, before I start, I took some friendly heat for leaving out some key elements to last week’s Superman/Batman #20 in my review. Like, for instance, completely neglecting to draw the similarities between The Maximums and The Avengers/Ultimates, or not throwing in a mention of the completely weird Batzarro and Bizarro. Here we go…Man, can you believe the nod to The Avengers that Loeb and McGuineess give with The Maximums? The Soldier, clearly Captain America. The Hornet, the Wasp! Skyscraper sure looks like a Giant Man play. Robot is probably a cross between Iron Man and The Vision. Looks like Bonk is a poor man’s Hulk. And Viking? C’mon….Thor, right? Plus, does The Axis of Evil look like the Masters of Evil to you? Is Godiva an Enchantress rip-off? Or Rapier the old Black Knight? Oh, and the mention that Soldier’s son, Lucky, died but came back clearly is a tip of the hat to Cap’s current story line, and the ghost of Bowman must refer to the now-dead Hawkeye, I think. And Batzarro? What’s up with him? Regardless, this issue was totally inaccessible to new readers and I’d drop the title if I hadn’t learned by now that there’s definitely a payoff in these convoluted S/B storylines Loeb weaves.
Sorry. Moving on to this week’s comics…
Gotham Central #32
DC Comics
Written by: Greg Rucka
Drawn by: Steve Lieber
This issue is my pick of the week. Here we have a stand-alone issue that is just a total stand out comic book! What a great read! This one has everything I like about this title, including (ironically) no Batman. In fact, there are practically no good guys. At the center of this book is the reason Gotham is the cesspool of the DCU, corrupt cops. In fact, the comic fools us into believing the dialogue at the book’s beginning comes from a homeless teen age girl when it, in fact comes from one of two cops, Munroe and DeCarlo, who kill the girl for witnessing their shaking down a drug dealer for their cut of his profits. These two cops hate Detectives Allen and Montoya and the entire MCU whom they believe aren’t real cops. These guys are on the take and looking to perpetuate and profit from the crime in Gotham to the point of using and beating prostitutes and giving them no money for their troubles.
This comic follows these two cops into the world of other corrupt cops, such as Corrigan whom Montoya beat senseless in a prior issue for selling a bullet on eBay she needed to make her case. Their travels lead them to a cop bar where they find other cops who are willing to cover for them in regards to their shake down and the killing of the teen age girl. We desperately want to see these two get their punishment. And they do, but not through any strong detective work or superhero-ing. In fact, the good guys come up empty this issue. And that’s one of the appealing elements of this story. Leiber’s art work is of the same vein as Michael Lark’s, minimalist, not as strong, but still effective. You definitely feel like you’re among Gotham’s underworld in this issue. Rucka’s story is engrossing and beautifully played out. I felt like I needed a shower after reading it and while I was glad to see the two bad cops get theirs in the end I felt unsatisfied that this also represented a crime, and the death of a young girl, that will essentially go unsolved.
JLA #115
DC Comics
Written by: Geoff Johns & Allan Heinberg
Drawn by: Chris Batista
I’ve read this title off and on since it was re-launched with the Martian conflict, the Tower of Babel arc and a few story lines since then. But I picked this one up because its cover promised “the unavoidable fallout from Identity Crisis begins here!” And, man does it ever. The League, including Hawkman (is he on the JLA, the JSA, both? I have trouble on this one), has gathered at their tower at Wally West’s request. Hawkman looks appropriately huge, warlike and fit to bust someone in the nose. He’s facing off against Green Arrow and is being restrained by Zatanna and Flash while Green Arrow’s being held back by Black Canary. Wally demands the League come clean to Batman about the fact they’ve mind wiped him, as well as the lobotomy they gave Dr. Light. The League is divided on this one, some agree with Wally but, frankly, it’s hard to find fault with Hawkman’s defiant and unapologetic stance claiming, if he had to do it all over again, he’d kill Light outright for raping Sue Dibny, the Elongated Man’s wife. Carter’s angry with Wally for calling the meeting about something he had no part in and with Hal Jordan who, like Wally, insists they come clean. The Martian Manhunter walks in on this, is told the truth, and goes in search of Batman to “fix” the problem after having informed us that the League has replaced his ravaged homeland. In the mean time, unbeknownst to the League, the Secret Society of Super Villains (a crazy Silver Age DC name, for sure) has banded together again for some League ass-kicking, having regained their memories of the Leaguers’ identities which were erased in “Identity Crisis.”
This is a tense, action packed start to what looks to be everything DC’s PR hype says it will be, a conflict among the heroes that will shake the foundation of the DCU. I’m not much prone to hyperbole, but the anger amongst the League members toward each other and the divide-and-conquer approach of the Secret Society (and the last panel leaves only two League members standing) promises some serious shaking up to come. I’ve always enjoyed John’s writing but I’m really enjoying Batista’s art which really captures the power and tension in this story. Hold on to your hats. It looks like the cover to this issues spoke true!
Batman: Dark Detective #3 (of 6)
DC Comics
Written by: Steve Englehart
Drawn by: Marshall Rogers
Editor Eternally Emeritus: Julie Schwartz
It’s hard not to think of this mini-series as an Elseworld kind of story. The tone and feel of it are just so different than today’s Batman run. And the cover logo brings me right back to when I was a teen ager and Neal Adams was making his name on The Batman. In this issue, Bruce Wayne and Silver have woken up together and are enjoying breakfast. They have decided that they cannot lose this second opportunity at love and vow to each other to make it work. For Silver, this means breaking her engagement with Evan, a man who’s running for Governor (against The Joker, no less!) and not running from Bruce’s life as Batman. For Bruce, it means allowing his boyhood promise to avenge his parents’ murder allow room for the happiness to which he’s entitled as an adult. That these two have sworn devotion to each other and promised to make it work for each other either places this story in some alternate universe or, by definition, foreshadows that their love is doomed to failure. I really have no idea which it will be.
The Scarecrow is lurking in Gotham, the Joker is plotting against Two-Face who threatened his life last issue, and Two-Face squares off twice against Batman who, in turn, was searching for Scarecrow…both times resulting in serious head aches for Batman. The Joker has his way with Two-Face who just got the upper hand on Batman, and Marshall Rogers gives us a scene where we feel Harvey’s intense pain and anguish as a result. We know he’ll be coming after Joker who is out terrorizing the meager citizens of Gotham for their votes. There’s a lot of activity in this issue but, at the end, the three first class super freaks are still on the prowl and we are left with Silver’s being held in Bruce’s loving arms at 3 AM rather than Batman maniacally out searching for the villains. It’s great to see Englehart and Rogers back on Batman! This most definitely is a different kind of Batman story, by today’s standards anyway, that I am really enjoying.
This week's Classic TPB reviews, this time focusing on The Batman's universe, can be found at http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?p=211976#post211976