Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung-Fu #1 – Review

By: Antony Johnston (writer), Sebastian Fiumara (pencils), John Lucas (inks), Dan Brown (colors), Joe Sabino (letters) & Alejandro Arbona (editor)

The Story: Shang Chi, the Master of Kung Fu, runs into some of the Immortal Weapons for the Iron Fist stories during Spider-Island.

What’s Good: Two reasons to buy this… One, if you’re a Shang Chi fan you’ll want to see what he’s up to.  He’s one of those guys who is a cult favorite, but just cannot carry his own ongoing title.  So, if you want to see him, you have to look out for him in miniseries like this one or when he pops up in the pages of other comics.  This is a pretty good Shang Chi story as he has gotten spider powers (along with the rest of NYC), but is trying to figure out why he has these powers when a few others have been exempted AND why he is having disturbing dreams featuring the Immortal Weapons (who were created during Brubaker and Fraction’s great run on Iron Fist).  It’s fun and quick and features a lot of action.

This is also a comic to get if you like comic art.  I had seen the name Fiumara associated with this title and assumed that meant Max Fiumara.  Then I opened the issue and noticed how completely different this looks than Max’s art and was investigating whether the inker could possibly be having that HUGE of an effect.  Then I noted that this comic was penciled by Sebastian Fiumara.  Different artist (duh!), but really nice nonetheless.  One of the great things about these tie-in miniseries at Marvel is that the editors don’t just farm out art chores to Marvel regulars who aren’t on ongoing books.  Often they give the art chores to up and comers, giving you a chance to see something new and different.  Sebastian is one to keep an eye on because this art kicks ass.  You have wildly energetic characters (important with Shang Chi) that are drawn as if the artist has actually seen someone doing martial arts before (rather than just finding photo reference online).  He has that mix of proper anatomy and rough sketchiness that I so enjoy about artists like Riley Rossmo.  Great panel and page layouts too for those of us who find a bunch of rectangles really boring.  Really nice coloring from Dan Brown too where he matches his coloring to the roughness of the line art.

Spider-Island: Cloak & Dagger #1 – Review

By: Nick Spencer (writer), Emma Rios (artist), Javier Rodriguez (colorist), Joe Caramagna (letterer), Alejandro Arbona (associate editor) & Stephen Wacker (senior editor)

The Story: The Spider-Island spotlight turns onto Cloak and Dagger.

What’s Good: Well, the Spider-Island “event” has 28 items on its checklist.  So, that means we’re getting some serious tie-in miniseries action.  Although we all love to bitch about event tie-ins, this one makes a lot of sense: Cloak and Dagger are characters with a definite cult following, but they’ve never been able to sustain an ongoing series and in this decrepit comic marketplace, if a new C&D ongoing were announced, we’d be lucky get to get 5 issues.  But, a few fans still care, so why not release a 3-issue miniseries in conjunction with an event wherein everyone in NYC get’s spider-powers?  Makes sense, right?
And, it seems like that is the essence of the miniseries.  I worried a little bit when I saw the solicit that this story would be about Dagger turning into some 8-legged spiderhorror, but it’s not that at all.  In this first issue, the linkage to SI is pretty minimal as the events of Amazing Spider-Man #667 are merely a backdrop for us to see what’s going one with our favorite anti-drug heroes.  Spencer does a really nice job of pacing the issue and working some humor into things as well (Cloak scolding Hawkeye for laziness when they want to be transported a mere two blocks).

All-Winners Squad: Band of Heroes #1

By: Paul Jenkins (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Bill Rosemann & Alejandro Arbona (editors)

The Story: This story is split between the events of December 1944, in German territory, and modern-day USA. The characters in 1944 are a squad of superhero soldiers led by Captain America, and in the present, a 93-year-old man and his granddaughter.

The Review: Jenkins offered some fine writing in this first issue of an 8-issue limited series. I was dropped right into the confusion of a running WWII battle, nuanced with gritty, low-powered, wartime superheroing. I think Jenkins did a better-than-fair job of catching some of the peculiar word choices of the time, which helped the art create a feeling of authenticity. And while it would have made the read easier if he’d provided slightly more text on the dramatis personae, I accepted that if his goal was to create in the reader a sense of the chaos of a pitched urban battle, one way to contribute to that is to give the reader less information. I enjoyed the modern setting less, partly because we shift from action and a sequence of micro-cliff-hangers to a sedate character piece. Now, the change in focus isn’t a problem in, but that I felt Jenkins didn’t succeed so much in the establishment of authenticity. The focus on wartime comic books in the beginning seemed to be a bit too meta-fictional for me, and the dialogue felt less honest as the level of exposition-through-dialogue increased. That being said, I think the scenes were effective in connecting the WWII era to the present.

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #38 – Review

By: John Layman (writer), Lee Garbett (pencils), Mark Pennington (inks), Fabio D’Auria (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor), Alejandro Arbona (associate editor) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: It’s alternate universe time as Spidey (and Deadpool and Hulk) are sucked into an alternate universe.

What’s Good: This is just a fun alternate universe story with the basic premise being that our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man gets pulled into an alternate reality via an accident at his new job at Horizon Labs.  As with any alternate universe story, the fun lies in seeing what’s the same and what’s different as compared to our world.

We learn much of this through the eyes our Peter Parker as he is forced to fill in for his counterpart as The Spider.  The big difference we find is that The Spider is THE superhero of NYC and is beloved by everyone.  As good as Peter’s life is in our reality, he has in WAY better in this other world (including having the companionship of a people who are dead in our reality).  Hmm… Maybe he should just stay there???   Of course, there will end up being a few tiny little problems with this world and you’ll have to discover those yourself, but the plot twist at the end is pretty neat.

Not a whole lot of Deadpool and Hulk action in this issue.  Surely their stories will be front-and-center in their respective annuals.

Daredevil: Reborn #1 – Review

By: Andy Diggle (writer), Davide Gianfelice (artist), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), Alejandro Arbona (associate editor), Stephen Wacker (editor)

The Story: Reborn, Chapter One: Matt Murdock, walking through the desert of New Mexico, a man running from his past, comes upon a town that’s got itself some secrets.

What’s Good: I was completely swept up and immersed in Diggle’s writing and Gianfelice’s pictures from the first panel. Terse, personal monologue hovers over a barren landscape bleached of color and meaning. It’s a landscape that just persists, much like the character himself. Gritty, indistinct birds move in the sky while a lonely road crossing frames the view. And the monologue? Art. Pure art. “Nothing but the hiss of the wind in the needlegrass…” How much more evocative can the writing get? You don’t even need pictures to go with it, but luckily we’ve got Gianfelice. Diggle also pulled some fine work out of his pen with DD talking to the blind kid. I know there’s some symbolism that was planted there, but not yet exposed, so I’m eager to pull out the layers in the later issues.

Invincible Iron Man #32 – Review

By: Matt Fraction (writer), Salvador Larroca (art), Frank D’Armata (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Alejandro Arbona (Associate Editor)

The Story: “Team Iron Man” has to fend off an attack by Detroit Steel and his squadron of iPhone-controlled killer drones.

What’s good: Finally…action!  This story has been brewing for a long time, so it was nice to get the beginning of the pay off battle between Detroit Steel and his drones of death.  There is lots of good action in this battle as both War Machine and Pepper Potts (in her Rescue armor) both get into the action as well.  Maria Hill even picks up the phone to offer some Avengers-style help, which was nice to see since Maria isn’t getting much use over in the Avengers books right now.

But the real-superstar moment of this issue was the ending and what Pepper has to do in order to escape the Drones of Death.  What she does puts her very much at risk and shows her ultimate trust in Tony to fix the situation and save her before time runs out.  However, while she is out, we get a very touching vision of Pepper having a conversation with her dead husband Happy where they discuss Pepper’s possibly budding romance with Tony.  Fraction is writing some very good stuff here.  This is really a relationship comic under all the armor.

Larroca executes very nicely on the art and this issue plays to his strengths.  He illustrates the armor very nicely and he also does a pretty good job with the close-ups on faces.  And the waist-up images that can be his bug-a-boo don’t make many appearances in this issue.  D’Armata also deserves a lot of credit for the metallic look of these armor suits.  I often wonder why all colorists can’t get this same look.

Osborn #1 – Review

By: Kelly Sue Deconnick (writer), Emma Rios (art), Jose Villarrubia & Matt Wilson (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Alejandro Arbona (editor)

June Covington back-up by: Warren Ellis (writer), Jamie McKelvie (art), Matt Wilson (colors), Cowles (letters) & Arbona (editor)

The Story: What will become of Norman Osborn now that he’s locked up on The Raft?  How about start a secret cabal of followers and get moved to a secret holding facility with some really interesting new villains!

What’s Good: The best thing about this issue are the new nasty-folks that Ms. Deconnick establishes and the promise of what might be a new team of super-villains under Norman Osborn’s guidance.  As we watch the story unfold and Norman Osborn is transferred from The Raft to this secret facility for the seriously demented, does anyone even doubt that he will somehow use his calculating charisma to run the roost with the other prisoners and break out with a ready made team of bad dudes?  That will very, very fun to watch because some of these bad dudes seem interesting, including one who is a member of some nasty reptilian alien race that wants to kill all humans (Cool!).

What is also good is Emma Rios’ art.  What sets artists like her apart is that they’re doing complete pencils and inks.  I really like to see an artist do that instead of relying on the colorist to do all the shading.  There are also a few pages in this issue that just have insane amount so detail.  I think prior to this, Ms. Rios has mostly done outstanding back-up work for Marvel and also filled in here or there when an artist didn’t finish their work in time, but this is (I think) her first featured artist role for Marvel and it looks like she just knocked herself out.  It’s always fun to watch a new(er) artist that is still super-hungry!  Not only is their personal work wonderful to look at, but with newcomers like Ms. Rios around, established artists are going to have to stay on their toes.