Blue Estate #8 – Review

By: Viktor Kalvachev & Kosta Yanev (story), Andrew Osborne (script), Kalvachev, Nathan Fox, Toby Cypress, Andrew Robinson & Peter Nguyen (art), Kalvachev (cover, colors, design & art coordination)

The Story: Now that Bruce Maddox is dead, the surviving Russian and Italian mafia members are scrambling to connect the pieces.

Five Things: 

1. Art is great. – I’m pretty picky about the art in my comics and I usually hate anything with multiple artists.  BUT, in this case we have FIVE artists on the issue and I’m loving it!  Why does this work when recent cluttered issues like Incredible Hulk #2 and Uncanny X-Men #2 stunk?  Well, for one thing, Viktor Kalvachev has assembled some heavy hitters to work on his comic.  Nathan Fox and Toby Cypress are serious, no-joke talents.  But, what makes it work so nicely is how Kalvachev knits it all together.  He’s clearly gotten a few pages from each artist, but then he colors them in such a way that the book has a very consistent look.  Now, it IS true that some of the characters don’t look exactly the same from page to page.  But, (a) this is a comic that’ll appeal to the art snobs of the world and it’s kinda fun to try to pick out who drew what and (b) someone (Kalvachev, I assume) has made sure that characters have distinct physical features regardless of who draws them.  The end result is a great looking comic, especially those Nathan Fox pages (??) with the police secretary that reminded me of Paul Pope.

2. This is one of the better debut series of 2011. – It’s time for Best of 2011 lists.  And you’re going to see a LOT of “Best new series” lists populated by comics that have released 2-3 issues.  I think that’s bullshit.  Blue Estate is delivering the goods.  Cranking out 8 consecutive “B” or better issues is a MUCH higher accomplishment than giving us 3 “B+/A-“.  It’s a great series: fun, snappy, crime-themed, fun characters, sexy, great art, comes out on time, etc.

3. Fun and entertaining story.  – The story is fun and bouncy.  Never holding still and never retreading old ground.  But, what makes it special for me is how all the characters are caricatures of their “type”.  The bumbling private eye is extra dumpy and goofy.  The Russian thugs all wear track suits.  Lots of big hair.  The Hispanic secretary at the police station who flirts with the lead detective is extra buxom.  And the funniest is the Russian mafia leader.  He’s got a cowboy fetish, so he’s shown watching TV in bed with his mistress he’s wearing a cowboy hat, boots with spurs, while she’s got on a Native American headdress.  But that’s not all, the bed is wagon-themed with big wagon wheels on it and there are gun belts on the floor and suction cup arrows stuck to the walls.  Lots of comics will show a guy with a fetish, but they’d stop at putting him in a cowboy hat– very few will put in the extra bit of creative effort that Blue Estate shows.  It demonstrates that the creators are having a blast and that enthusiasm is contagious to the reader.

Superman/Batman #50 – Review

Michael Green, Mike Johnson, (writers) Ed Benes, Matthew Clark, Allan Goldman, Ian Churchill, (pencils) Matt “Batt” Banning, Norm Rapmund, Marlo Alquiza, Rob Hunter,(inkers) John Rauch, (colors) Andrew Robinson, Greg DiGenti, (Krypton sequence), Rob Leigh, (letters) Ethan Van Sciver, Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines,  Dave McCaig (covers)

This issue has The League rebuilding Smallville and fighting it out with more rogue Kryptonian tech. As great as Superman is he just can’t seem to save us from his planet’s technology. After Brianiac, The Phantom Zone, and a Kryptonian probe, what’s next? But throw in a chance meeting between Thomas Wayne and Jor El and you’ve got a great start to this new arc.

Michael Green and Mike Johnson have done an excellent job with their run on this title. It’s unclear to me if the connection between Thomas and Jor El will carry through, or if it’s just a standalone scene – I’m thinking it’ll probably be the latter – in either case it’s very effective. Personally, I found it a little annoying that Batman and Superman are barely in the issue. Still, learning the details of their fathers meeting is great. It makes me wonder what things would’ve been like if Superman had crashed in Gotham.

A highlight of the book is definitely the pencils. The team is pretty massive, but everyone does a great job. The battle scenes are chaotic, but very detailed and easy to follow. My favorite of which is the fight between Batman, Superman and the crystal projections in The Fortress of Solitude. Not only does it feature their best villains, but awesome action as well. The backgrounds on Krypton during the flashback have a lot less detail, but it still fits really well. I’ve always thought Krypton would have a very streamlined architecture. I’m a big fan of the coloring during this sequence and the use of cool blues is a great choice, definitely better than your standard black and white.

Batman and Superman are like brothers in many ways, and this story reinforces that. Having Thomas Wayne reverse engineer much of Wayne Tech from his time on Krypton is a great touch. That said, I feel my biggest complaint is that it doesn’t seem like much happened; since most of the issue is a flashback it’s hard to really feel that progression. While it remains unclear if we’ll continue to see Thomas Wayne and Jor El in this book it’s still a good read with lots of good stuff for any fan. (Grade: B-)

-Ben Berger