The Good, Bad, Ugly Reviews 08/17/2006, thecallahan's review post #10

[bat_collector]

While many of the big guns were MIA, we still had plenty of good comics to read, much more for me than last week.

Lets get right to it.

52 Week 15
Wow, 15 weeks without let up. How can this be on time and Wonder Woman and JLA so behind???
Anyway, this issue bring us the apparent death of 52's whipping boy, Booster Gold. I was serious a few weeks ago when I said that if it wasn't for Tony Stark, Booster would be prime canidate for Worst Hero of the Year. Selfishly seeing an opportunity to make a name for himself in Metropolis with Superman gone, Booster did anything and everything to gain public approval along with corportate sponsorship along the way. This included stooping to paying an actor to pretend to be a villain. When word got out, his rep was ruined.

Week 15 finds Booster trying to do the one big heroic act that would put him back in good graces with everyone, and at the same time outshine Supernova (the mysterious new hero everyone is in love with). Out of nowhere a submarine is in the middle of metroplics, and with it an gigantic underwater creature. Booster goes to stop it, but unfortantely, his plan backfires, as not only is his attempt an utter failure, but Supernova again saves the day. In a jealous rage, Booster attacks Supernova, each clearly showing their disdain for each other. During the scuffle though, Skeets warns Booster that the Submarine is radioactive and needs to be removed. Booster tries to use his suit to absorb the radiation and carry the submarine into space away from the crowd in a last ditch effort to restore his name. An explosion occurs, and as Supernova goes to rescue him, all he brings back is the skeletal remains of Booster. While I'm pretty sure Booster will come back, I'm wondering how they'll explain this one.

While this issue is devoted almost entirely to Booster and Supernova, we do find out that the Question and Montoya do escape from prison in Kahndaq after several beatings. Montoya has really bonded well to the Question, even considering him a sort of partner in this whole affair.

Over all, pretty good issue. I'm still enjoying it.

Civil War: X-men #2
The Good: Honestly, this mini is so tepid I don't think I can describe much of it as good. Once again the O*N*E is upping the ante with the human-controlled Sentinal (each one having a psi-shield to protect from telepaths), and they intend to catch the escaped 198 plus the original X-men. Domino and Warpath have taken them to a secret bunker Fury has, and Cap reveals their location to Cyclops, Angel, Beast, and Iceman, who intend to return them to the school so they aren't killed. Bishop, on the other hand, has joined the Registration's side, and has a group of mutants of his own to try to get the 198 themselves. It seems the President may even give a full pardon to the 198 once they are found. However, mutant hating leader of the O*N*E starts using the mutant Johnny G (a mutant who can control others) to try to stop this from happening.
The Bad: Pretty much the whole issue. Much like H.O.M., Marvel seems to have no idea what to do with the mutants in this event. Just read Astonishing, Uncanny, or even X-men instead.
The Ugly: The series, avoid avoid.

Fell #6
The Good: Lets try something new!!!!
Fell is written by fan favorite Warren Ellis and drawn by Ben Templesmith (of 30 Days of Night fame). Its about Richard Fell, a detective who comes to Snowtown on a transfer. Snowtown is the city nobody wants to live in, a city which is dangerous, monstrous, and where everyone has a secret (including Fell himself). Every sort of scum live here, and people die all the time. The police force, outside of Fell, has only 3.5 detectives (the .5 being one detecitve who lost his legs). With each issue it just seems everyone in the city is messed up and that the City itself has swallowed them up. Very interesting stuff!
Each issue is self-contained story of 16 pages (only 1.99), but boy do those pages count. Fell is as sharp and tough a detective as they come, and each issue deals with whatever case or situation he may happen upon at that time. This one deals with a domestic disturbance call that turns out to be way much more than bargained for. While actually one of the weaker issues, you still can't find a better deal on the market at 1.99 for a solid story. My advice, pick this up. If you like it, go back and pick up all the back issues if you can find em. If you are looking for a crime detective story in a creepy setting (where Templesmith's art shines) this is it! And just what is up with that evil-looking nun that appears in every issue?????
The Bad: As I said before, a weaker issue, espeically compared to the last two. Still a great read.
The Ugly: At $1.99 for 16 packed pages with no ad interuptions, what more do you want?

The Savage Brothers #1

The Good: Ok, so its a comic about two red-neck zombie hunters! How could I resist? Meet Otis and Dale, two brothers trying to make an honest living during the apoclypse. Many have turned to zombies, frogs rain from the heavens on Wednesdays, and most of the big cities are a mess you would rather avoid. Otis (the big, burly brother with a heart) and Dale (the brains of the operation) make their living bringing back (or killing) loved ones who have joined the undead.

Well, wouldn't you know it, someone offers them a bundle of cash to bring back a zombified doctor from Atlanta (zombie heaven). The boys of course take the job, but soon find many problems along the wya. Will the brothers find the zombie in the crowd? Will they get him back safely? And just what is up with the zombie ceremony where a virgin stripper will be sacrificed? Read and find out.

The Bad: Ok this isn't a classic zombie comic (like the Walking Dead) or even a particularly scary one (like Zombie). This is just your average post-zombie-apocalyse story with a twist. If you aint a genre fan, nothing here to really recommend itself to it.

The Ugly: I'm still trying to find out why money is needed so much when it does'nt look like there are stores to sell anything.

Thanks again, and read post 10 for thecallahan's review of The Boys and a Gotham Central TBP

[devlinboy]

great reviews bc, im gonna start reading my run of 52 soon

[bat_collector]

Originally Posted by devlinboy

great reviews bc, im gonna start reading my run of 52 soon

Let me know what you think. I think you'll find it much better with 15 issues to read through.

[Aarrgghh!!]

Only got/read 52, I agree it's still got me tuning in each week.

[RichBamf]

Originally Posted by bat_collector

Much like H.O.M., Marvel seems to have no idea what to do with the mutants in this event.

This sounds like Marvel's attitude towards the X-men for the last 15 years or so. They just fit in any old way around the rest of the heroes.

Being a long time X-men fan, this really annoys me. Thank heaven for Whedon and Brubaker

[thecallahan]

Damnit, you usually don't post until later today! Gotta get writing!

[cblakey1]

Good reviews!

I think you're bring a little hard on the X-Men CW however. I think they are trying to make up for HOM/198 and bring some closure to the stories while rolling them into CW. HOM ended with mutants losing their powers and 198 ended with Mercator turning into butterflies and they basically left readers saying WTF???

In this story, Bishop and a few others have been selected by Iron Man to round up the 198 and now that the president seems to want to pardon the mutants from the Mutant Registration Act (how convenient), the stories will nicely transition into CW and end the big HOM flop. Now we just have to see if anything ever comes of the "Michael" thing from New Avengers and see if any "key" mutants ever get their powers back. My only gripe now is, I wish they'd get rid of the lame Johnny G thing. Kind'a fun to see Bishop get f*&#ed up though! Hope it's permanent.

I think you should read it if you want to see how X-Men gets rolled into CW and tie up loose HOM/198 ends. Oh, and there's a great panel of a rear shot with that spicy little vixen Domino in it!

[Bullseye]

So X-men Civil War is not up to scratch. Whats you feelings on the other comics within that series?

[bat_collector]

Originally Posted by cblakey1

Kind'a fun to see Bishop get f*&#ed up though! Hope it's permanent.

Yeah, Bishop has officialy joined ms marvel and iron man as the heroes you love to hate in civil war if you ask me.

ANd yes I really agree with you, johnny g must die!!!!! I can't believe Mercator was killed off so we could see more of this guy.

I'll probably still read the next two issues to see what happens, but I think non-mutant fans should pass.

[bat_collector]

As promised:


The Boys
Written by Garth Ennis
Art by Darick Robertson (artist from Transmetropoliton)

The Good: I’m not quite sure what’s up with that first page but beyond that, it is a good setup issue for the series. If you thought the Mutant Registration Act or the new Superhero Act (or whatever it’s called from Civil War) was bad, you might not want to read this. The heroes…Wait, that’s not a proper word for them, the protagonists of the book plan on blackmailing, bullying, imprisoning, killing and most likely, knowing Ennis, doing a few more not so pleasant things to the heroes to get them in line. The main man, The Butcher is introduced rather quickly, I’ll go more into him in the bad (not quite bad but he’s not a good either) and I do like how his first recruit (I don’t count the guy he kicks in the balls) was introduced. Lets just say this Simon Pegg look-a-like (Shaun from Shaun of the Dead) was in a very happy place but when a superhero and supervillain get in the way of him and his girl, well, he’s of course distraught! I’m curious to see where this goes though.

The Bad: Ennis has a familiar writing style and unfortunately, that style tends to carry over from book to book and it shows up here. While that’s not a bad thing, it’s easy to recognize how and what certain things will happen. I hope though that this book doesn’t go down the road of Ennis using his “Boys” to take down pseudo-representations of the big names from other comics (I’m hoping the first page was an anomaly) and endlessly mocking big name heroes (it will get old quick, for me at least).

Now, about The Butcher, the man cat in this tale. He’s a Brit and he’s an ultra badass, setup to get all the chicks, can’t be beat and knows almost everything (although his dogs awesome). Now while that’s actually pretty similar to Batman except for the British part, I’m not a big fan of stuff like that and I just hope the Butcher doesn’t go down that road.

The Ugly: Nothing really, I have some reservations about the book but that’s to be expected, it’s only the first release in a new series. I’m cautiously optimistic about the work because I’m a fan of Ennis (except for The Pro) and I would love for this book to continue to improve and come out (on time preferably).




Gotham Central: Unresolved Targets
Written by Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker
Art by Michael Lark and Stefano Gaudiano

The Good: Umm, everything. This might’ve been one of the better series you never read and was a love affair of Rucka’s (Queen and Country amongst other things) and Brubaker (you know, Sleeper, DD, Uncanny X..) that DC at least let live for a few years, despite the poor numbers. The book is like a great cop show, the intensity and well-written side is like, The Wire. While the action is actually kind of like, The Shield. What usually happens, is Rucka will write an arc using one shift, while Brubaker writes the next arc using the another shift (I can’t remember right now which one writes the day, and which writes the night shift). Anyways, this TPB contains two arcs, the first story using the Joker and his wascally ways. He uses a sniper rifle and leaves Gotham City in a panic near Christmas time (kind of reminded me of the DC Sniper scare a few years ago and unfortunately, that just made this story even better in my opinion). Brubaker knows how to write the Joker, especially his insanity but also how deadly and an effective a killer he is. The second story centers around an old (as in, 15 years or so) case that is as of yet, unresolved. And who else was lead Detective on that case? My man, Bullock! This one I can’t talk about, really at all since it’s more of a murder mystery than the first story. Needless to say, Bullocks not taking his retirement too well, drinking, threatening the Penguin and almost killing him at one point. It’s just not going too well you know?

The Bad: Well, nothing really too bad about this, except for the fact that apparently, after all the crap that’s happened to Gotham and the relative calm they’re in right now (no tsunami’s, earthquakes etc.), bad things still happen! Some of the characters in the last few arcs are getting killed at an alarming rate. Now I know they’re cops, and to make things more dangerous, they’re cops in Gotham but Bullock brought up a good point. Even though people might not like him and thought poorly of him, barely any cops were killed when he was running things.

The Ugly: Nothing beyond DC’s treatment of the book and the lack of fan support. Unfortunately, in this day and age of comics, you have to hit just the right spark with fans, otherwise your book is doomed. Great books like this and The Thing and even in a way, Slott’s She-Hulk, are always in danger of being cancelled, despite how good the books are.