Batwoman #25 – Review

By: Marc Andreyko (story), Trevor McCarthy, Andrea Mutti, Pat Olliffe, Jim Fern (art), Jay Leisten & Tom Nguyen (inks), Guy Major (colors)

The Story: Forget the wrath of Mother Nature; there are common criminals to worry about!

The Review: DC’s handling of this title has been so erratic that I didn’t even know that #24 was J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman’s final one until I saw the credits on this issue.  I could have sworn they had at least another issue before departing, but I guess DC was eager to tie Batwoman into all the Zero Year craziness, and Williams-Blackman didn’t feel like being good sports about a crossover given the circumstances of why they left in the first place.

That’s all to say that Andreyko couldn’t have started his run on this series under worse circumstances.  Not only is he coming in while tensions over his predecessors’ departure are still simmering, he has to simultaneously deal with the inconclusive arc left in their wake as well as a tie-in to another storyline altogether.  In this situation, Andreyko is kind of like the hapless stepparent who joins a family that just went through a hideous divorce, leaving the household in debt and forcing them to move.  Unhappiness is nearly guaranteed.

Saucer Country #11 – Review

By: Paul Cornell (story), Mirko Colak & Andrea Mutti (art), Giulia Brusco & Lee Loughridge (colors)

The Story: Aliens versus fairies.  Pretty sure that movie’s not going to be made any time soon.

The Review: I think I have little choice than to start off this review by talking about Saucer Country’s impending cancellation.  While it surely looks as if (as phrased by Dean Stell) DC’s trying to stop indie-lovers from putting any money into the company, and the axing of yet another title from Vertigo’s dwindling offerings does wreck DC’s creative cred some, all you have to do is look at the numbers to see why the title’s cancellation was all but inevitable.

Looking at the Comichron stats for December 2012, Saucer Country #10 was nearly the lowest-selling title for DC that month—bested only by kiddie series Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Scooby Doo: Where Are You? as well as October’s issue of Suicide Squad.  Do I think that’s a crime?  Yes.  Do I think lackluster sales should be a reason to prematurely end a title of great integrity?  No.  But do I think DC is making a reasonable business decision?  Well…

Daken: Dark Wolverine #21

Written by Rob Williams, Art by Matteo Buffagni, Andrea Mutti, & Riley Rossmo

The Cancellation: First, poor Rob Williams. Two titles canceled that were far better than most of the garbage that comes out every month. And with the plot lines he lay out, it’s a shame Daken got the axe. Hopefully Brubaker will pick up the dangling Daken/Winter Soldier fight that has been left in the air. Also, with Moon Knight ending, is the Count Nefaria plot going nowhere? I’ve been enjoying Daken’s schemes. It’s like he filled the void of manipulation that (adult) Loki left behind.

The Writing: At this point, Williams knows his series is ending, and it’s not for creative reasons. Some writers handle this by phoning it in and giving garbage because…why should they care? Williams doesn’t do that. He seems to be the other kind of writer–if you’re going to go out, go out in a blaze of glory. He digs all the way back to the first arc of Daken, back when it was still a Wolverine title with issue 75, and Daken manipulated the Fantastic Four into supporting him. Turns out, he still has them under his thumb and Johnny still thinks he and Daken are best friends. It was an odd scene, but rewarding to those who have followed Daken since he got his own series way back during Dark Reign. The scene also sets up some exposition nicely. Daken has really messed up his healing factor using the Heat drug, and now it’s attacking his body. What was supposed to be a story about a man building something becomes a story about a man facing his own demise. And he handles this exactly as you’d expect Wolverine’s psychopath son to handle it…but I won’t spoil that here. But this is very much a final stand kind of story, and I’m interested in seeing how Williams concludes his run.

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of May 18, 2011

Try as we might, there are always a few comics that slither through the cracks and don’t get the full review treatment here at WCBR.  Still, it probably makes sense to tell you whether we generally liked the issue or not.  Thus, the Quick Hit Reviews….

X-Men: Prelude to Schism #2  – In the category of “blatant money grabs” we have Prelude to Schism.  The Schism event itself should be pretty hot (written by Jason Aaron and a host of A-list artists), but clearly someone at Marvel figured that if they published a title like Prelude, the hardcore X-fans would buy it even if it wasn’t telling a necessary story.  We are now two issues into Prelude and we still don’t know what is really going on any more than we did at the end of issue #1.  All we know is that something horrible is coming to Utopia and there is a question of whether they should evacuate and that somehow Cyclops and Wolverine will fight over it (although we only “know” that last part for promotional materials/interviews).  It seems that this series will consist of Cyclops getting counseled by his various chief advisors.  Last issue, he got advised by Xavier.  This issue we get Magneto’s advice which comes wrapped in a pretty good story about Magneto’s origins as a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany.  Not bad, but we already knew that.  Art is not great as the wonderful Roberto de la Torre (who drew issue #1) is replaced by Andrea Mutti who I just personally don’t like as much.  Grade: D+ 

Generation Hope #7 – After a really shaky beginning (due to odd publishing decisions), Generation Hope has kinda found its footing as a series.  This second story arc was pretty solid as we saw Hope and her “lights” (with Kitty Pryde along as chaperone) head off on a mission to find yet another new mutant.  If you like stories about new characters, you’ll like this series because we’re still learning who these kids are, how they behave, what their powers can do, etc.  Also, from a sheer conceptual standpoint, there were some winner ideas.  For example, the new mutant is an unborn baby who is so afraid of being born that he is using his power to turn everyone around him into mindless attack drones.  Or you can look at how the good guys avoid this power: by having Kenji extend a meat-tentacle and “plug in” to each of their brains via the back of their heads.  Freaky.  It also led to a moment when they wanted to plug into the unborn baby’s head and my brain quickly said, “NOOOOOO!  They’re not going to show that are they?”  Thank goodness the meat tentacle just plugs into the back of the mother’s head.  Whew!  I thought some tentacle porn was coming!  So, the story in this issue was good and solid.  I still question whether we really need more mutants when there are so many who don’t get enough time in the main X-books.  Salvador Espin’s art is very solid from a storytelling standpoint, but isn’t otherwise good or bad enough to spend much time on.  Grade: B-

Alpha Flight #0.1 – How’s that for stupid numbering?  In theory, the whole point of Marvel’s .1 initiative was to create jumping on points for fans who were maybe afraid of jumping into the middle of a series.  Why you need a .1 issue when #1 is coming out in a few weeks is beyond me.  And, I’m giving the creative team a bit of a pass because this issue stinks of “publishing gimmick”.  The story really isn’t that compelling because I don’t think what we got in this issue is “the story” that we’ll get in the true #1 issue and it doesn’t even do that great of a job of showing new fans who these Alpha Flight characters are and what they can do, nor does it do lots of things to appeal to fans of the original John Byrne Alpha Flight from the early 1980’s.  If I had to guess, Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak had a really cool story for the “real” Alpha Flight series and someone in editorial or publishing said, “Hey!  The fanboys are positively salivating for this series.  Let’s come up with a quick .1 issue because they’ll buy it.”  I didn’t think the art got the job done either.  Alpha Flight needs old-school, superhero art.  Someone like Tom Grummet would be perfect; or Dale Eaglesham who will draw the regular series.  So, this issue wasn’t great, but I still think the regular series is worth checking out.  Grade: C

Astonishing X-Men #38 – Another creative change on this series after we got the much-delayed issue #37 last week.  Now we have Christos Gage writing and Juan Bobillo on art.  The summary is that the story is pretty good: The Astonishing X-Men go into space to rescue Agent Brand from a research facility overrun by the Brood.  It’s fun and jaunty and I LOVE the Brood and they will always have a soft spot in my heart because my first issue of Uncanny X-Men was #162 which was kinda the beginning of the original Brood story.  [God that was a great story!]  The thing holding this issue back from a higher score was the art, so we’re ending up with a pretty average issue.  I generally like stylized art, but this was just not working for me as a lot of faces (especially Beast) just looked bizarre and detracted from my enjoyment of the whole issue.  Nice job on Storm, though.  Grade: C

-Dean Stell

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Franken-Castle #21 – Review

By: Rick Remender (writer), Dan Brereton (art) & Joe Caramanga (letters)

Back-up story: Remender (writer), Andrea Mutti & Luca Malisan (art)

The Story: Franken-Castle turns back into good, old-fashioned Punisher.

What’s Good: Everything comes to an end in comics and Rick Remender has caught a lot of flak from old-time Punisher fans for this Franken-Castle experiment.  That is very unfair as we should applaud comic creators who attempt to do something new and different, even if it is understood that the party must end eventually and the furniture must go back into its starting positions.

The story revolves entirely around how Franken-Castle morphs back into plain, old Frank Castle – The Punisher.  And to make this journey, he gets a huge co-starring role from his League of Monsters compatriots.  That was a lot of fun and almost poignant because you just know that we won’t be seeing The Punisher hanging out with a bunch of monsters that much in the future.  Probably the best part of the story was how Remender handles Franken-Castle losing all the metal and tubes all over him: he just ignores it.  You literally turn the page and that crap is gone which was nice because no one needed to see an unnecessary scene in a surgical suite as the monsters cut away the metal.

And, then if you were wondering whether this “new” Punisher would be the dude you’ve gotten used to over the last 30 years in the Marvel U., Remember gives us a classically styled Punisher short-story that both reestablishes the character AND makes the reader feel that the character is in capable hands with Remender.

DMZ #55 – Review

by Brian Wood (writer), Andrea Mutti (art), Jeromy Cox (colors), and Jared K. Fletcher (letters)

The Story: Forced into close contact with his targets, an undercover commando comes to learn the truth about not just the residents of New York, but also himself.

What’s Good: The first in a series of one-shots, I really enjoyed the concept behind our protagonist.  It makes sense that the US, or the Free States for that matter, would have agents in deep cover in the DMZ; it’s a really cool theme that I’m surprised hasn’t been investigated before.

The writing itself is really well-done, focused on emotional and ideological conflict, juxtaposition, and incomprehension.  The narration provided the protagonist seems sharp, cynical, and contrary to what we’re used to seeing and thinking about the DMZ, and yet, seeing through his eyes, it does make sense why he would see the DMZ and its inhabitants in the manner that he does.  While I can’t say that we ever fully agree with or support his opinions, they certainly do follow a consistent form of logic.  Furthermore, despite his disdain for the DMZ and the war, there’s also a sense of fatigue and war-weariness behind all the cynicism that suggests a commonality that the protagonist shares with the very people he so distrusts.

Wood’s portrayal of Zee and the bunkered down community of the DMZ is also outstanding as ever, yet another testament to the vitality of the living, breathing world of the DMZ.  There’s a sense of togetherness, goodness, and trust that really is touching.  The ease with which one war-wounded character comes to lean on the protagonist, opening up to him wholly was really well-done and a perfect example of the sort of fellowship and inter-reliance fostered by desperation and hard-times.

The high-point of the issue is how this affects, or rather pulls in, the protagonist.  Wood does a fantastic job of showing the commando’s pre-conceptions shattered and, naturally, how this leads to unfavorable and traumatic self-reflection. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this issue is how much Wood made me care about two characters whom I’ve never seen before and who we never even know the names of.  I suppose that’s appropriate, given that this issue is very much about understanding, not only of the DMZ, but also of oneself, and just how interrelated both these arenas can be for Wood’s characters.

Andrea Mutti works very much in the spirit of regular series artist Riccardo Burchielli.  As a result, everything feels business as usual for DMZ.  However, I do have to say that his work on the protagonist’s flashbacks were really stylish and emotionally evocative.

Rescue #1 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (writer), Andrea Mutti (art), Jose Villarrubia (art) & Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story: Pepper Potts gets to play around in her Rescue armor and has a nice, long chat with her dead husband.

What’s Good: This is a nice little story that hits on a lot of the high-notes of what makes Pepper Potts an important character in world of Iron Man.  If I had to think of two words to describe Pepper, it would be “helper” and “competent”.  That really comes across in this issue as we see her flashing back to saving a bunch of folks from a burning building in her newer Rescue armor.

Of course, Pepper also has a lot of self-doubt and kind of idolizes Tony Stark, so she is beating herself up over not being able to finish the rescue job (which Tony would have pulled off) and this doubt manifests itself by seeing her dead husband: Happy Hogan.  This whole sequence is really nicely written.