Quick Hits Reviews – Week of May 11, 2011

Try as we might, there are always a few titles that don’t get the full review treatment here at WCBR.  What can we say…  Those guys publish a LOT of comics and it’s hard to get to them all.

 

The Incredible Hulks #628 – If you’ve followed the news, you’ve probably seen that Greg Pak is ending his LONG run on this title around issue #635 or so.  And, he is really going out with a bang.  This has been a very fun story arc that follows Bruce and Betty Banner as they try to retrieve Pandora’s Box from a bunch of bad guys in a flying fortress.  The Banner’s aren’t getting along all that well, so there is lots of fun, biting banter between the two.  Sometimes it even plays into the story as in one place where Hulk needs to get angrier and she starts telling him that he stinks and when that doesn’t work, she starts telling him about her sexual activities with other men since they broke up. It’s pretty funny, and great superhero action abounds.  It certainly doesn’t hurt to have Tom Grummett drawing the comic.  His classic superhero style doesn’t really have a bad panel in the whole issue and he really nails those scenes when Hulk-action happens and you can almost feel the ground shaking.  Great stuff.  Grade:  A-   

 

X-Men Legacy #248  – A lot happens in this issue as we see the X-Men recovering from Age of X.  Ironically, this mop-up issue ended up being stronger than the actual Age of X story was.  The first part of the issue deals with Emma offering mind-wipes to X-Men who want them, and as you can imagine, not everyone wants the same service: Cannonball wants it all gone, but Frenzy wants to keep her memories of her relationship with Cyclops.  We also dig into Legion a bit and Xavier and Nemesis’s new plan for helping him cope with his personalities.  I’m (personally) not that excited about Legion being a part of ongoing stories, but we’ll see what we get.  There also looks to be some more Rogue/Magneto/Gambit love-triangle stuff going on.   Yawn… But….the big news is that it looks like the X-Men are finally going to go find Rachel, Polaris and Havok who have been missing in space for ~5 years (since the Brubaker run on UXM).  THAT is a story I’m looking forward to seeing.  The art is a bit of a mixed bag.  Jorge Molina has some great panels and some others where characters look funny, but the storytelling is always solid.  Grade: B-

Greek Street Vol. 1: Blood Calls for Blood

by Peter Milligan (writer), David Gianfelice (artist)

All right, so here’s an idea, it’ll completely blow your mind. Let’s take a bunch of classic characters and toss them into a contemporary setting. And all of these classic characters will start to intermingle and have relationships and crazy shit will happen left and right. Sounds awesome, right? Sounds like something you’ve read before called Fables, right? Well, that’s because Greek Street is basically the Greco-Roman version of Fables. Instead of the loveable fairy tale characters, we have figures of Greek mythology like Oedipus, Cassandra, and Agamemnon. But there is one little catch…these characters don’t know that they’re of ancient lore. Well, one might, but that’s still left to be determined.

Blood Calls for Blood primarily follows Eddie, a young Londoner who recently left an orphanage to find his mother. Eddie is the story’s Oedipus—get it? Eddie? Oedipus? How many of you are up on your classical mythology? Well, to refresh, Oedipus is the dude that killed his dad, went all the way with his mom, then, after discovering that that smokin’ hot chick in his bed was said mother, gouged his own eyes out and cut off his little Eddie (castration was so cliché those days). Well, our modern day Eddie doesn’t do much better. He finds his mom, gets stone drunk, and attempts to cut his dick off (but it’s a good thing that doesn’t work). And all of this is within the first issue. Which is something I really admire Milligan for—he doesn’t tease it out or slowly get into the Greek nastiness, he dives right in. Eddie’s giving it to his mom within the first ten pages, which leaves the rest of the story open for fresh ideas.

The actual plot is a little hard to follow. Milligan sets so much time setting up his characters that the mystery gets undercut a little bit—well, it isn’t much of a mystery. It’s actually made quite clear who the undead murderer is. Why she is that way is a bit of mystery that Inspector Dedalus doesn’t even think about and Eddie kind of finds out on accident, and the parties involved kind of don’t really care about from what we can tell so far. Hell, the main culprit takes a vacation to Istanbul while shit’s hitting the fan. Meanwhile, Lord Menon’s (Agamemnon) batshit crazy daughter Sandy (Cassandra) is having all of these visions. See, Cassandra, in the old myths, was cursed to have visions that no one believed. In modern day London, Sandy is a kind of hot kind of crazy girl living in the attic of her parent’s home “Ilium” (seriously).

Northlanders #3 – Review

By Brian Wood (writer), Davide Gianfelce (art), Dave McCaig (colors)

The third time’s a charm is what some say. Sometimes you just strike out, is what I say. After reading through the first two issues of Northlanders, I was ready to give up on the series. It’s full of unlikeable characters, awful dialogue, and a plot that’ll make you yawn. Yet, I decided to give this series one last chance before passing it off. After all, Brian Wood is just too talented to not give a benefit of a doubt.

I was wrong. Northlanders #3, while not as dreadful as the previous two issues, just doesn’t contain enough substance for me to spend my money on. Perhaps this 8-part story will be better served as a trade paperback, but on a monthly scale, it’s a waste of money. Like last issue, nothing happens. We see Sven hunt, have more sex, and kill some of his uncle’s men. The plot doesn’t advance and we don’t learn much more about Sven or his motivation for staying in this wasteland. This story is just too decompressed. Perhaps the only notable things worth mentioning are his uncle’s a bit more spooked now and he has somewhat of an unlikely ally. He also likes to wear stag heads (aren’t those heavy?!), while murdering soldiers who’re doing nothing more than hunting.

There’s not much writing in this issue – most of it is a showcase for Davide Gianfelice’s excellent storytelling skills. He does a phenominal job with the script he’s given, but to be honest, he deserves to be working on a better title. Northlanders is just a waste. If you love Brian Wood, support him by picking up DMZ. It’s okay not to like everything he does. No one’s perfect. (Grade: D)

– J. Montes

Northlanders #2 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), David Gianfelice (Pencils)

Northlanders is everything DMZ is not. Where as DMZ issues are, for the most part, self-contained stories, Northlanders stories are decompressed and pointless. DMZ’s art is jam-packed with with attention to details while Northlanders’ is a barren wasteland. However, David Gianfelice’s art in Northlanders isn’t bad. It’s very good. One could easily follow the book without ever reading a single line of dialogue. The problem with this particular issue is nothing happens. Sven, who is still the unlikeable protagonist, spends his days running from an archer, trying to rally oppressed villagers to his cause (uncharismatically), and has meaningless sex with a woman who has had the hots for him since he was a kid. I just can’t read this anymore.

Brian Wood may be trying to show diversity in his work by taking on this title, but it just shows how weak he can be as a storyteller. I can’t, in good faith, put any more money into this title. Maybe I’ll read someone else’s copy or wait for a trade, but there’s no way this book is worth $2.99. (Grade: D)

-J. Montes

Northlanders #1 – Review

By: Brian Wood (Writer), David Gianfelice (Pencils)

I enjoyed DMZ so much that I decided to check out another Brian Wood offering, Northlanders #1. It sounded diverse enough: a Nordic tale of a man named Sven, coming home to his land in the north to reclaim the wealth and lands stolen from him by his ruthless uncle. Despite his motives, Sven, is not a very likable character. I understand that living in 980 AD was a vicious time, but this guy has zero charisma.

He kills messengers for no reason but to skewer them and carries a spoiled brat kind of mentality on his shoulders by claiming that this money is his and he’s entitled to that. Sorry, but I’m not rooting for him. In fact, I kept hoping his uncle would just kill him and the story would move on to another character. Sadly, Sven survives and a new character is brought in for the next issue. I’ll give this book one more issue before I decide whether I want to continue reading or not. Perhaps Northlander’s saving grace is its art which is wonderfully done by Davide Gianfelice. He’s got great storytelling skills and does a good job portraying the barren Viking landscape.

It seems like Brian Wood’s put a lot of research into this book, but I need more than just a revenge tale full of unlikeable characters who use modern curse words just because the author thinks it’ll make the book more edgy. (Grade: C-)

-J. Montes