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Columnist Thunder Mod
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Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Denver Area, between Asgard and Krypton
Posts: 21,364
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The Mighty Reviews 4/1/10
We've got a double dose of Blackest Night #8 reviews today!
Wktf’s Reviews
Blackest Night #8 (of 8)
DC Comics
Written by: Geoff Johns
Drawn by: Ivan Reis
Covers by: Ivan Reis & Doug Mahnke
Way back when I was in college my pre-med friends told me they were taking only two courses: organic chemistry and everything else. For roughly the last year in the mainstream superhero comic book world, as good as so many comic books have been, there really have only been two: Blackest Night (and, by proxy, Green Lantern) and everything else. This issue, the final in this mega-event, is the one everyone’s been expecting and about which collectively wondering, “Can Johns really pull this off? Or will the ending, as with so many event-type stories, disappoint compared to what came before it?” Well, as so many readers now know and as I’m here to add my voice to the collective fray, both Johns and Reis delivered the goods.
Telling much more than this would force spoilers so I’ll just say that Johns has choreographed a wondrous cosmic slobber knocker of a story containing hundreds of characters in the greatest melee in comics since Crisis on Infinite Earths while still able to focus on Green Lantern and Flash in particular, the two heroes around whom all the other heroes have rallied almost from the beginning. And speaking of that first Crisis story, and this has been said before, Ivan Reis has earned his rep as the newest George Perez, able to keep every character crisp while delivering dozens of characters per page. And sometimes on double and, in the case of one phenomenal money shot, four page fold out shot.
As many of you know from DC’s Brightest Day promotional art this issue heralds the return of several important heroes and villains. But the story’s equally as powerful for the characters who do not return, much to the confusion and dismay of Barry Allen and Hal Jordan. Johns seems to respect that when a story’s done well, as in the case of Identity Crisis, it doesn’t have to be reversed or overwritten. Kudos to Johns for this. And for a story whose focus has centered on death from the very beginning kudos as well for bringing it full circle, with a powerful line delivered by The Flash, and making its resolution firmly about life. Brightest Day may well be around the corner but comic book fans are entitled to take a well deserved, albeit brief, rest and bask in a story that could not have been told or illustrated better. Most certainly, this book is my pick of the week.
She-Hulk Sensational #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Peter David, Brian Reed, John Byrne
Drawn by: Jonboy Meyers, Iban Coello, John Byrne
So, the premise of this one-shot is that thirty years ago, in 1980, Stan The Man Lee created the Savage yet ever Sensational She-Hulk. And even though Shulkie’s had three different runs at a solo title, and been unable to sustain those runs, Marvel saw this as an opportunity to publish a milestone anniversary issue. Personally, I’ve always been a tremendous fan of the big, green bombshell so picking this issue up was a no-brainer for me. Especially when I learned that Stan would be making an appearance similarly to when he met others of his creations in the now HC-packaged “Stan Lee Meets” series. The premise of the lead story is that Jen is down in the dumps due to her flagging status in the Marvel Universe as well as the fact that she’s getting older. So, smilin’ Stan shows up to tell her, a la A Christmas Carol, that she’ll be visited by three ghosts to help her straighten out her attitude. Sadly, even with some familiar breaking-the-fourth-wall humor, the story quickly deteriorates from there into a throw away mini crisis of faith that then leads to the all-too clichéd confidence of character. Boring.
The following story is a little more interesting, and significantly better illustrated, throw-down/team up between She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman who all managed to get tangled up with each other due to some typical and retro-style heroes-think-heroes-are-villains confusion before setting their sights and collective capabilities on the real menace. Finally, we’re given a reprinting of She-Hulk vol 2 #40, one of John Byrne’s most exploitative and, frankly, insulting stories from his second run on this title. All in all, this issue was a real let down and not at all worth the $4.99 cover price I paid for it. If you haven’t bought this one already just do yourself a favor and leave it on the rack.
Fantastic Four #577
Marvel Comics
Written by: Jonathan Hickman
Drawn by: Dale Eaglesham
Cover by: Alan Davis
This team’s creative run on FF started very strong, when Reed found himself among a collective of Reed Richards’ from alternate universes. That storyline was strong because, ultimately, its focus was reorienting Reed on the core of this book, that the FF is a family. Not new news to any long-time FF lover and reader, but still effectively and emotionally told. These last few issues, though, have felt rather disjointed and cold, lacking both the sense of wonder this book has always, at its best, delivered as well as the emotional core that makes it work. And this issue does little, if anything, to reverse that problem.
A strange craft has landed in the blue area on the dark side of the moon, territory The Inhumans normally call home. Being the imaginauts that they are, the FF decide to investigate. Why not? After all, just last issue they had a one-and-done undersea encounter with the Lost Tribes of Atlantis. Now it’s time to go to the moon. There they find a citadel housing four distinct tribes all stemming from the same Kree origins as do Black Bolt’s Inhumans. Beautifully rendered by Eaglesham, whose work I still miss on JSA, this story has little to hold the reader’s attention. Dry, humorless, and overly cerebral, it’s hard to muster up the energy to acknowledge the threat that’s barely realized on the last page. Sadly, I may be dropping this book once again.
Dawg’s Reviews
Blackest Night #8 (of 8)
DC Comics
Written by: Geoff Johns
Drawn by: Ivan Reis
Our Leader Joe is also reviewing this title today, but we talked and decided it was built up and epic enough that two opinions just might be necessary for this title in the Mighty Reviews this week.
So for me, the question would be, how will it end?
Damn… what a great comic book. This issue has everything that a great comic book should have in it. Great writing, great characters, a sense of scale, danger, characterization, you name it… this issue has it.
You may notice how I didn’t include “great art” as a category listed in the criteria above. A great comic should have tremendous art… the artist is the director. That is why I have reserved a slot to talk about the art on its own.
Ivan Reis is reedonkulus people. You can clearly see who his influences are, but he has grown into something far beyond that. He is a true superstar. I f you have seen any of his previous work you know what I am talking about, but if you actually look at the pages in this issue, how can you not mutter under your breath “Holy Sh*t”?
From close in shots of facial expressions of Sinestro, Hal and Black Hand, or panning back and being able to see like a hundred characters all clearly a few pages later. Many folks give Geoff Johns all the credit and in truth he deserves all the praise he gets, but I firmly believe that Green Lantern would not be where it is right now, if it weren’t for Ivan Reis art. It is a treat and I cannot wait for whatever it is he does next.
I wondered if Blackest Night was going to come to any sort of worthy resolution given that it has seemed to spiral a bit out of control in the middle months here. I should have known the there would be a nice and tidy little ending to everything and that we would soon be on to the next epic rise and fall of act three. A saw too many thing s I like to mention them all and refuse to spoil it for everyone here. Normally I get annoyed with events that tend to return everything to the way it was before the event started, but somehow Johns and company pulled it all off and I am actually happy about it.
I will be rereading every issue now that I have them all in hand and I bet the story will be even better when it has my full attention with no down time in between.
Congratulations to DC… To say that I am a Marvel guy is an understatement… but with Green Lantern, you have brought me more into the fold that ever and beyond that, it is among my favorite book from any company.
X-Men: Second Coming #1
Marvel Comics
Written by: Craig Kyle, Christ Yost
Drawn by: David Finch
I am definitely reviewing the two prettiest books of the week. David Finch is f*$%ing brilliant. You pair him with Kyle and Yost on an X-Men book and you should expect nothing less than a damn fine product that makes you feel like it’s 1986 all over again and the X-Men are in their best years of storytelling.
No one draws a cooler Cable than David Finch. His Colossus is incredible, his Wolvie is up there with Jim Lee’s and Marc Silvestri’s but is also all Finch. His Cyclops is actually believable as a badass mutant general, and I could go on forever about the way he draws the rest of the X-Characters. It’s a shame that Marvel couldn’t lock him down and actually have him pencil the Uncanny book for a couple of years. Honestly it’s a shame that Yost, Kyle, and Finch all haven’t been on the Uncanny book for a couple of years after the way I feel about this opening salvo to Second Coming.
Cable and Hope are back from the future after finally holding off Bishop and having seen Hope through the most dangerous part of her young life… reaching mutant maturity.
The X-Men have been scrambling to stay alive as a species since Cable again sent his son to the future, but this time to protect precious cargo.
For Cyclops everything has hinged on whether or not his son Cable could complete his mission and keep Hope safe, so that she can save the mutant race, however that is supposed to happen.
There’s a problem though. Many folks out there and many of the X-Men’s most dangerous foes don’t want the mutant race to be saved. They would like to see the extinction of the remaining 181 mutants on the planet. There are also still questions as to whether Hope really is the savior of the race or as Bishop predicted, the destruction.
After reading this I feel like I am just as excited about the X-Men as I was back when Messiah Complex put the X-Men back on the map. To see Finch’s double page spread as they teleport in to protect Cable and Hope is amazing. To see Nightcrawler figure out that Cyclops has a dirty little secret yes not knowing for sure about X-Force is equally cool. Nightcrawler has been getting some play recently and this type of foreshadowing cannot end well. I hope they don’t do what it is rumored they will do to this character.
I feel like we have been waiting to long to get to this moment with the X-Books. I understand that Cable and Hope needed to do their little future crawl and get her grown up, but this is the payoff that we have all been waiting for. So far it’s beyond my expectations and I believe a lot of that is Yost and Kyle getting to use the A-list X-Characters.
If this story can keep up this pace, then perhaps Marvel can capture lightning in a bottle twice with the X-Men in recent years. We’ll find out, but for now I am pumped to say the least.
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