Wktf’s Reviews
Unlike the first week of last month, not too slow a comics week this week. My list included the
Civil War Opening Shot Sketchbook, my three reviews below,
The OMAC Project Special,
Moon Knight and the must-have tpb for anyone keeping up on
Marvel Zombies, the
Ultimate Fantastic Four: Crossover trade.
My pick of the week is
Infinite Crisis #6 and, while I’ve never done this before, my
major disappointment of the week is
Moon Knight #1. Having recently read “Already Dead,” Charlie Huston’s gritty urban novel about vampires and zombies in New York City I was looking forward to his comic book debut on this title. Unfortunately, David Finch’s beautiful drawings are paired with a story that’s just, well, thin. I’m not panning it, but it just doesn’t live up to expectations.
Infinite Crisis #6 of 7
DC Comics
Written by: Geoff Johns
Drawn by: Phil Jiminez, Jerry Ordway, George Perez & Ivan Reis
This series is the gift that just keeps on giving. Here we are at the penultimate chapter of the single biggest event going on in comics and there appears to be no letting up. Sadly, the event hinted at in last week’s
Action Comics, and referenced directly in this week’s
Detective Comics and
Teen Titans comes to pass and we witness the heroic end of a character who’s been a mainstay of the DCU since 1993.
We know from the end of the last issue that Superboy Prime freed himself from the Flashs’ speed force where, according to him, he’d been kept for years exposed to a red sun. However, having fashioned armor similar to that of the Antimonitor’s harness designed to feed him yellow sunlight, he’s loose now and possibly the most dangerous being in the universe. And he goes on a warpath against anyone striving to prevent Alex Luthor from bringing back Earth Prime. The combined might of Black Adam and The Martian Manhunter can’t stop him. Meanwhile, the Supermen of Earths 1 & 2 reconcile, with Earth 2’s Superman realizing he’s been manipulated by his friend Alex, and Alex is playing God with the various Earths he’s created to fashion the perfect Earth. However, in order to do that, billions of people across all these Earths must die.
In the end, there’s one climactic battle where all the artists throw everything, including the kitchen sink, into the mix…like what George Perez did in
JLA/Avengers. The different styles of the artists, from Reis’ riff on Jim Lee’s Batman as the Dark Knight strives to take down Brother Eye with the help of his rag-tag team, to Ordway’s Superman work, come together beautifully and Johns begins in this issue, toward the end, to show us a glimmer of how this series will resolve. But we’ll all have to wait until the end of this month to get the final scoop. Two enthusiastic thumb’s up!
Detective Comics #818
DC Comics
Written by: James Robinson
Drawn by: Leonard Kirk with Andy Clarke & Wayne Faucher
The “Face the Face” OYL Batman story arc started off brilliantly in the last issue. We learned that Batman had been away for a full year but now was back and re-partnered with Robin, James Gordon was the commissioner again and Harvey Bullock is back on the force, the reconstructed (see “Hush”) Harvey Dent has been acting as Gotham’s protector in the mean time but, despite his new face, he’s still hearing voices. And, most bizarrely, the once fearsome KGBeast had been thrown off a roof with two (count ‘em, two) bullets in his head. The second part of this arc, in
Batman, petered out a bit with some rather typical Batman & Robin vs. the arch villain to save the hostages stuff. Nothing exceptional other than the applause from the streets when Gordon turned on the Bat Signal. But the end of the issue found Magpie, a villainess I’d not seen since John Byrne’s “Man of Steel” strung up and executed the same way.
This issue returns us to some great Batman storytelling, complete with cerebral as well as physical combat. Some good interplay between Robin, Bullock, Gordon, Bullock and Batman make for some solid entertainment and a touching conversation between Batman and Alfred in the Batcave, one concerning Tim Drake, shows a calmer and more compassionate side to Batman than we’ve seen in years. In fact, Bruce’s realization that his nocturnal crime fighting and detective work has it’s limitations juxtaposed with his conversion with Alfred leads the reader in one direction only to…well, you should read the comic, but there’s a back up story that serves to expand the Bat Universe by one, but not in the historical, more typical way. This could prove very interesting especially if the dynamics here continue to be as strong as they are in this issue. All this and, sorry to say, it seems that Harvey’s still at war with himself. This, though, feels a bit like a throw back to the first issue of Frank Miller’s
Dark Knight Returns. Still, this is an outstanding issue and presents a far more interesting and well rounded Batman than the one I’d given up on prior to
Infinite Crisis.
X-Men: Apocalypse vs. Dracula #3 of 4
Marvel Comics
Written by: Frank Tieri
Drawn by: Clayton Henry
Well, if
Marvel Zombies is the mini-series that’s the sleeper of the year, this has got to be the best Marvel mini-series that practically no one’s talking about. Like nearly everyone else whose reaction to advance news of this title was “What the…?” I had trouble taking it seriously. Until I read the first issue, that it. Then I was hooked. This has been one of he most pleasant comic book surprises I’ve read in a very long time.
Here’s the premise. It’s 19th century England and members of the secret Clan Akkaba have been getting murdered left and right. This clan is made up of descendants of the powerful immortal mutant Apocalypse. The clan’s strongest member, Hamilton Slade, went out looking for the killer but disappeared for three days, after which time the remainder of the clan awoke Apocalypse from his Rejuvenation Chamber. John Starsmore, a clan member and a police officer revealed, with considerable help from Abraham Van Helsing (the same Van Helsing who led the band of vampire slayers against Dracula in Bram Stoker’s novel), divulged that it was the vampire lord who has been murdering their clan. Ozymandias, Apocalypse’s scribe, recalls Dracula as the warrior king Apocalypse slew during the Crusades. Clearly, Dracula is out for revenge.
Not only is he out for revenge but Dracula has moved with surgical precision against Apocalypse without putting himself in harm’s way. And this issue Apocalypse makes a very poor showing of it, indeed. Against his own clan who’ve been turned by the vampire’s curse he is overpowered and, as he takes his battle to Dracula’s home turf, Van Helsing discovers something that may prove the undoing of the great lord Apocalypse and their entire band. While this issue serves mostly to T-up the final confrontation between the two lead characters it proved a great read in–and-of itself. Tieri’s really spinning a hell of a tale here. Henry’s pencils are crisper than I would expect of a pseudo vampire tale and Wil Quintana’s colors likewise seem a bit bright, but the art is clean, well rendered and really works for this grisly tale. For those of you who’ve not been following along, make sure you pick this up when it inevitably hits the trade shelves. Whether you’re a mutant or vampire fan, you should get a real kick out of this book.
Sam Wilson’s Reviews
A decent day today in comic land, a huge week from DC with “One Year Later” titles including
The Outsiders,
Teen Titans and
Detective comics. A quality week from Marvel with
Ultimate X-men,
Punisher and
Young Avengers and a surprisingly good week from DC/Wildstorm with
Winter Men and Warren Ellis’s always late yet never disappointing
Planetary series.
My picks of the week this week are
Teen Titans and
Planetary, and I should also note that DO NOT read any of the DC “One Year Later” books without reading this week’s issue of
Infinite Crisis. Of course that being said, on to the reviews…
Young Avengers #11
Marvel Comics
Written by: Allan Heinberg
Drawn by: Adrea Divito
The Young Avengers rose out of the ashes of “Avengers Disassembled” and consist of the Vision, Patriot, Wiccan, Hulkling, Stature and Kate Bishop. Some of them have ties to the original Avengers, Stature is also known as Cassie Lang daughter of the second Ant Man, who is now deceased, and Patriot is also know as Eli Washington, grandson to Isaiah Washington, the original World War 2 super soldier. Wiccan is a magic practitioner, Hulkling is a shape-shifter and Kate Bishop seems to be skilled with a bow and arrow. The new Vision was Iron Lad, who turned out to be a young can, but that’s really here nor there and I’m not gong to get into it. Thus far the team has been forced to disband by Captain America, Tony Stark and Jessica Jones, but then they sort of came back together after all their parents were talked to (but they are not quite yet a team). Eli was found to be taking the mutant growth hormone (MGH), Iron Lad has become the new Vision and they mixed it up with Mr. Hyde and won (yay!). Then we find out Hulkling really is a Skrull, a really, really important Skrull and things start to get ugly.
Last issue left us with the Super-Skrull killing Hulkling's mom and demanding he (Hulkling) accompany him back to the Skrull homeworld to take his rightful place. Eager to help their friend out the Young Avengers go to Avenger’s Tower to see if they can get some help, but all the Avengers are out, minus the new Vision who is kinda under house arrest until it can be determined he is trustworthy. Of course rather than wait for the Avengers to show up the Young Avengers take the new Vision and decide to save Hulkling on their own, breaking into a maximum security prison on the way to recruit some super powered help (!). In issue #11 we find out that Hulkling also had a really important guy for his father, who just happened to be a Kree. Yes, Hulkling is a Kree/Skrull half-breed and his parents on both sides were really important to their perspective empires. Anyway, the Kree show up and try to take Hulkling away at gunpoint as well. All that and we learn a thing or two about Wiccan (you’ll never guess, well, maybe) and the Avengers, you know, Captain America, Iron Man et al, show up at the end to get in the middle of what is shaping up to be another Kree/Skrull War (for you old schoolers there are many similarities in this storyline and in the original Avengers storyline featuring the Kree/Skrull War, I was pleased by this anyway)…
So this book is a lot better than I initially thought it was. There is some great characterization (Cassie, Eli, even Wiccan and Hulkling, even though Kate Bishop’s story is really lame and contrived) and the art is sharp, real sharp. The first six issues of this series are available in HC form, you can check that out or you can pick up the last couple of issues and jump into this current storyline, either way you are in for a surprisingly good comic.
Y the Last Man #44
DC/Vertigo Comics
Written by: Brian K. Vaughn
Drawn by: Goran Sdzuka
For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Y the Last Man is this century's Preacher for DC/Vertigo. It’s epic, engrossing, and suspenseful and has a definite conclusion, but will definitely go for as long as it has to before it gets there. In a nutshell, “Y” is about Yorick brown, the last man on Earth. See, there was this huge plague, and it killed all male creatures on Earth, except for Yorick and his pet monkey, Ampersand. Yorick isn’t your average Joe though, his mom was a congresswoman, and after the plague she was the highest member of the United States government left alive so she then became the President. After the plague hit (the men died within days) Yorick carefully made his way to DC to figure things out. His mother promptly sent him on a mission to save mankind (no pressure) with Agent 355, a highly trained operative of the US Government who belongs to an agency called “the Culper Ring”. No idea what they’re about, but they’re mysterious. So Yorick makes his way cross-country with Agent 355 to a Dr. Leslie Mann in San Francisco, the Earth’s foremost expert on human cloning, only all her research gets destroyed. She has back up research in Japan, so off they go in hopes to save humanity. Along the way they have run into by Amazons, crazed right-wingers, the Israeli’s and Pirates (yes, Pirates). No one said saving the world would be easy…
Recently in “Y” Yorick has made it to Australia to search for Beth, his girlfriend and didn’t find her. Instead he got his picture taken by a tabloid journalist only to have agent 355 smacks the snot out of her. Then we got the origin of 355 which was, well pretty bad a$#ed quite honestly and in issue #42 we have the origin of Ampersand, Yorick's monkey and thus far the only other male to survive the plague. In issue #43 a new storyline starts and the search for Ampersand resumes with the crew in Japan, 355 and Yorick decide to split up from Dr. Mann and her newfound lady friend Rose (who’s with the Australian Royal Navy). York and 355 decide to follow Ampersand’s trail, and Dr. Mann and Rose go to look for Dr. Mann’s mother, a leading Geneticist whom Ampersand may or may not be on his way too. 355 starts to grow suspicious of Rose and exchanges some witty dialogue with Yorick, Rose and Dr. Mann seem to be falling in love (or are they?) In issue #44 Yorick and 355 come into contact with the Police (?) and the Yakuza, now run by a Canadian pop princess (seriously), Dr. Mann and Rose get into some trouble, and a forgotten side story is resurrected when Hero, Yorick’s sister and Beth (Yorick’s other “Beth” who had a one night stand with, and subsequently made her pregnant) meet up with the Russian Cosmonaughts from earlier in the book to deal with the son (!) of of them had while in orbit. Yeah. Heavy…
So enough already, pick up the book. With a new storyline starting, now is the perfect jumping on point. There are tpb’s collecting all the storylines thus far. It’s a no-brainer. It’s good, well written, well drawn, and damn entertaining.
Teen Titans # 34
DC Comics
Written by: Geoff Johns
Drawn by: Tony Daniel
My love affair with “The Titans” goes back the 1980, with the second incarnation of the Teen Titans helmed by writer Marv Wolfman and artist George Perez. Robin, Kid Flash, Changeling, Starfire, Raven, Wonder Girl and Cyborg. Hell yeah, those guys were where it was at. For awhile they were neck and neck with Marvel’s “All New All Different X-men.” They even crossed over once to take on Phoenix and Darkseid, but that is neither here nor there. I grew up with the Titans, I saw **** Grayson go from Robin to Nightwing, I saw Donna Troy go through many, many changes, I watched Cyborg struggle with his humanity (often proving he was the most “human” of all of them), Raven deal with her “family” issues, sat by while a traitor tore the team apart from the inside (Terra in the now infamous “Judas Contract” storyline) and much, much more. Eventually “The Titans” went away, then came back in a few different incarnations (none of which were any good) and then finally came back to their full glory with writer Geoff Johns. Johns made Cyborg, Beast Boy and Starfire “mentors” to a new generation of “Teen Titans” which included the Tim Drake Robin, Wonder Girl (aka Cassie Sandsmark), a de-aged Raven, Impulse, Green Arrow’s latest protégé (a female “Speedy) and Superboy (a clone made from Lex Luthor and Superman DNA).
This new team of Titan’s has had their fair share of life lessons in the short time they have been around; they’ve faced off against Deathstroke and his daughter, the new Ravenger, a new Brother Blood and even darker, evil future versions of themselves. Before “Infinite Crisis” they mixed it up with a crazed Superboy and Indigo from “The Outsiders” which left both the Outsiders and the Titans devastated, and then “Infinite Crisis” and “One Year Later” happened. Issue #34 opens with a deactivated Cyborg and new team members Ravenger (yes, Deathstroke’s daughter who has recently been seen under **** Grayson’s wing in recent issues of “Nightwing”), Aquagirl, Kid Devil (Eddie Bloomberg, Blue Devil’s sidekick) and Marvin and Wendy. No, not the same Marvin and Wendy from that very first season of the Hanna-Barbara “Superfriends” cartoon but Marvin and Wendy, twins who are caretakers of the Titans Tower and the geniuses who rebuilt Cyborg, apparently they graduated from MIT when they were 16. Yeah. Whatever, but its kinda cool. Hey, they could’ve gone with Zan and Janya and Gleek. Gleek man. Gleek. Also we find out what Supergirl has been up to and well, the rest I can’t say.
Anyway issue 34 leaves a lot of questions unanswered, a few of which I imagine you could find out the answer to by reading “Infinite Crisis.” So rather than spoil things, I’ll just let you guys go ahead and catch up on your own. So yeah, new fans, old fans, pick up this book, it’s shaping up to be something cool…
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And for b_c's good/bad/ugly reviews check out
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