Quick Hit Reviews Week of Feb. 16, 2011

Some weeks it is just insane how many comics get published.  Despite the intrepid efforts of our writing staff here at WCBR, we simply can’t do a full review of every comic.  Thus, we bring you the quick-hit reviews where we say a few words about some comics that were pretty darn good and some others that are not so much…

Silver Surfer #1 – The story here is pretty good stuff.  It isn’t the best story ever regarding the Surfer, but a very solid story involving Earthly affairs with a surprising guest starring role from the High Evolutionary.  This action seems to dovetail with the High Evolutionary story occurring in the Iron Man – Thor miniseries from Abnett & Lanning.  What really puts this issue over the top is the art.  Stephen Segovia and Victor Olazaba do an awesome job drawing and inking (especially inking) the Surfer and Wil Quintana contributes great cosmic colors.  I am trying to pare down my “non-essential” Marvel titles, but this display of art will probably have me sticking around.  Grade: A-  — Dean Stell

Wolverine & Jubilee #2 – This is a great series so far that casts Wolverine in his best role: as mentor to a younger hero.  Not only is this my favorite role for Wolverine, but it has always been the best way to bring new members into the X-universe.  Jubilee isn’t new, but she is in a new “role” as she adapts to her vampiric powers (which we learn more about in this issue).  Kathryn Immonen even works in some very funny bits such as Wolverine’s revelation that one can apparently get one’s tongue stuck to Colossus if it is really cold outside.  I DEMAND that that story be in the next Strange Tales!  This issue is also telling a neat story that shows Logan and Jubilee finding zombies in Siberia and it would have gotten a better grade if not for a wholly confusing final page.  Seriously, the final page made me wonder if there was a printing error and I’d missed something.  Phil Noto’s art is again wonderfully pretty.  He draws such pretty eyes on his women.  Grade: B+  — Dean Stell

Venom/Deadpool #1 – No character but Deadpool could pull off a comic like this, and I highly doubt that many writers other than Remender could have written it. This fourth-wall slaughtering romp through the Marvel U is a great deal of fun, with in-jokes, creative references and absurdity to spare. The artwork is big and bold (as well it should be for this kind of a tale) and the story itself–Deadpool is on a quest to find the Continuity Cube, thus making himself the single most relevant character in the Marvel Universe–is a very funny concept that both Remender and Moll execute very well. I must admit, I’m glad I bought the single, $2.99 comic rather than trying to piece together the four mini-chapters that were spread out over four different books. The story is good enough, and fun enough, that $2.99 feels just about right. Any more cost–or effort–than that would be a little much though, even for a ‘Pool-addict like myself.  Grade: B    — SoldierHawk

Justice League of America #54 – What a difference new art makes!  Bagley’s time on this title was pretty drab, but I really, REALLY like the work that Brett Booth is doing in this issue.  Booth’s classic figures (with a beautiful fine line from inker Norm Rapmund) combines really well with Andrew Dalhouse’s understated colors.  I so enjoy this muted color scheme to brilliant and shiny colors.  The story is pretty good too showing Eclipso coming “back” and beginning to recruit shadow-powered villains.  Very little actual JLA in this issue, but that’s fine.  Hopefully this is the arc where James Robinson’s turn on the series finds its footing.  Very promising.  Grade: B  — Dean Stell

Captain America: Man Out of Time #4 – This series continues to be a wonderful character showcase for Steve, and a more overarching look at his current relevance to the Marvel Universe. I especially like Cap’s being forced to face the less-savory parts of American history he’s missed (rather breezily–or perhaps, very calculatingly–passed over by Tony Stark’s version of the temporal tour.) I am and always will be a huge Tony Stark fan, so the contrast we see between his America, and General Simon’s America, was fascinating, and a lot of fun to read. My only complaint is that, in this issue especially (and mostly for the sake of pushing the story along), Steve seems awfully naive. I understand that both he and the 40s are supposed to represent a more innocent and morally straightforward time, but…c’mon. Cap’s a soldier. He fought the Nazis for crying out loud. He’s seen the absolute worst of what humanity has to offer…and he’s really THAT shocked by the fact that, yes, crime and Bad Things still exist in America today? I do understand why he might be disappointed, but Waid and company spend far too much time milking that for the sake of a larger message.  Grade: B-   — SoldierHawk

Daredevil: Reborn #1 – Second Review

by Andy Diggle (writer), Davide Gianfelice (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: A wandering Matt Murdock finds himself in a small town filled with secrets and nasty people.

What’s Good: On the art front, this is a comfortable and enjoyable book.  It’s not mind-blowing and some readers may be put off by the cartoony feel, but I’ve been a fan of Davide Gianfelice since his first issues on Northlanders, so seeing him on Daredevil is something of a treat.  Matt Hollingsworth’s colours are also wonderful and work very well with Gianfelice’s art.  If anything, the book ends up looking as different as possible from the Daredevil comics of the past, which I think is thematically appropriate.  Also, thanks largely to Hollingsworth’s fantastic colour choices this month, we get a comic that feels bright, dusty, and a little bleak and, as such, a perfect contrast to Hell’s Kitchen.  While tastes vary, there’s little to complain about on the art front.

As far as the story goes, the best I can say is that I’m glad to see Matt Murdock get back to basics and finally divorced from the larger Marvel Universe after the chaos of Shadowland.  That lack of focus was probably the worst thing about that event, so seeing the old Matt Murdock monologue text-boxes was more than welcome.  Certainly, it’s nice to once again feel connected to, and invested in, Matt.  I’m happy to see him riding solo once again.

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.

Wolverine: Weapon X #16 – Review

by Jason Aaron (writer), Davide Gianfelice (art), Dave McCaig (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: Logan goes on a journey to fulfill Nightcrawler’s last wish.

What’s Good: I remember being pleasantly surprised a few issues back, when Jason Aaron’s Wolverine did a better job of welcoming Steve Rogers back to the Marvel Universe than any Avengers-related title.  Perhaps it’s not as much of a surprise now that with #16, the series’ final issue, Aaron’s Wolverine does a more touching, proper farewell for Nightcrawler than any of the X-books have managed.

Aaron, as he did with Rogers, makes his two characters’ personalities very clear, allowing their natural chemistry to tell the story and deliver the mood and message.  This is about two contrasting personalities more than anything else, and how they remained opposed, yet interlocking, through the years.  Better still, Aaron conveys a real sense of history between the two, but not in a way that requires any real awareness of actual continuity; impact isn’t determined by how many back-issues of Uncanny you’ve got stored in your longboxes.

As expected, much of the book finds itself focused on Logan and Kurt’s opposed religious beliefs.  At first, I was a bit underwhelmed by their dialogue and arguments over this subject due to the simplicity of their stances.  There’s not a lot of nuance to either character’s argument.  As I read on, though, it became obvious that this was rather the point.  Again, the issue isn’t about theology, but who Logan and Kurt are as individuals, and in this sense, their religious beliefs are only meant to represent who they are as people.  Kurt is filled with hope and optimism, while Logan is filled with a sense of doom; thus, this naturally translates to the faithful and the damned.

Similarly effective is Logan’s quest for Kurt, which sees him drag a piano up a mountain to a remote church.  This clear metaphor for the character’s burden, again reflecting on that above difference in stances, is one that’s been used very well in a great many stories, recently in Disney/Pixar’s movie Up, of all things.  There’s a reason for that, which is that it’s an effective one that carries a good deal of resonance, and that’s the case here.

Northlanders #20 – Review

by Brian Wood (writer), Davide Gianfelice (art), Dave McCaig (colors), and Travis Lanham (letters)

The Story: A few naive young warriors hear the tale of Sven the Returned and decide to prove their worth by killing a legend.

What’s Good: As he often does in Northlanders, Wood again makes characters and readers mirror one another. The young warriors who go out to find Sven years after hearing his tale are like us, readers;  seeking Sven out again by buying this issue, exactly one year after the conclusion of “Sven the Returned.”

Anyway, much as was the case in that first arc, there’s a lot of action here, all of it brutal.  Once again, although he may be older, Sven is the battle-hardened badass, quick-witted, experienced, and both smarter and better trained than his adversaries.  The bloodshed is enjoyable and the narration makes it all the moreso, sharing Sven’s thought process, blow by blow.

Perhaps the coolest thing in this issue though, is Wood’s writing on fiction itself, or rather the formation of legends.  Sven’s final tactic this month is essentially to rewrite himself into “Sven the Immortal.”  It truly is a case where fiction supercedes life, as through establishing his own legend and his own character. Factual or not, Sven transcends reality. This comic is essentially a battle between fiction and reality, where the former overshadows the latter and the writer wields ultimate power.  Sven’s life serves to be nothing more than a series of roles, some real and some told.

This comic also again features an espousal of unity.  Where the first arc centered around the idea of nationhood, this book feels much more intimate, focusing instead on family.  Less grand perhaps, but also a lot tighter and more conducive to a one-shot.

Davide Gianfelice is just as good here as he was earlier on Northlanders. Delivering his patented blend of cartoony and gritty, this is Gianfelice at his best.  His sprawling images of the Orkney landscape are also haunting and sublimely powerful, but this time, he also gets the chance to draw some more urban environments, which prove to be no less daunting or impressive.

What’s Not So Good: On the art front, I found some of Gianfelice’s action scenes later in the book a little confusing.  I understand that he’s attempting to capture Sven’s “battle fury,” but he leaves just enough clarity to make me think that I perhaps I should know exactly what’s going on.  Instead I just get shots of Sven hitting someone or other in some manner that isn’t comprehensible.

At times, I also felt that the book was just a little bit rushed as Wood attempted to cram everything within the 22 pages limit.  In particular, I felt that having no space between the first attack and the boys’ later revenge wasn’t the best idea and would’ve perferred a bit more of a denouement.

Conclusion: A fun revisiting of an old character that can be enjoyed both as an accessible actioner and a more complex take on the nature of myth and legend.

Grade:  B+

-Alex Evans

Greek Street #2 – Review

by Peter Milligan (writer), Davide Gianfelice (art), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), and Clem Robins (letters)

The Story: Eddie gets pulled in with the Fureys, a body goes missing, Lord Menon’s philandering ways come increasingly to light, and a monster stalks the streets.

What’s Good: Davide Gianfelice is the best thing going for this book right now. His artwork is simply gorgeous, animated, and impossible not to love. He has a style all his own, one that is very “cartoony” and affable, and yet paradoxically but undeniably gritty and ugly. It’s a remarkable mix that somehow works and works really, really well. It’s just amazing stuff that just has a really “likable” feel to it, if that makes any sense; likable despite the nasty stuff going on within the panels. His work on the facial expressions is nothing to scoff at either; Eddie’s traumatized expression in the hospital is absolutely haunting

This issue ultimately functions as yet another “stage-setting” book, despite the double-sized first issue.  Still, it is somewhat comforting to see Milligan begin to tie all of these disparate characters together, even if we don’t see the results of these connections just yet. At the very least, the isolation of the characters looks to be broken.

I also really enjoyed the use of the stripper(s) as the Chorus. This was one of the neatest recap pages I’ve seen in a book that isn’t Agents of Atlas. It’s really neat having a character break the fourth wall to give us a series recap in “real time.”

Many of the scenes function almost as tableaux and thanks in no small part to Gianfelice’s artwork, they are really beautifully plotted. From Sandy’s balcony dive, to the break-in at the Morgue, to Eddie’s stumbling into the hospital, many of the scenes have a really lyrical, majestic feel to them. They’re incredibly cool sequences with a hint of the surreal.

What’s No So Good: I’m going to come right out and say it: this book doesn’t make any sense. It’s impossible to read this issue without a lingering sense of incomprehension. As for the plot, it’s still murky at best.

While Milligan is showing moves to tie all of the characters together, right now things are just too damned separated and isolated. This, and the large number of characters, leads to me feeling like I barely know anyone, let alone feel emotionally attached.

Some of the characters are basically speaking in gibberish at this point, perhaps because we just don’t have enough info. We get another scene of Sandy babbling and the mysterious three women aren’t much better, talking to each other in riddles that we can’t understand at the moment.

Also, the strippers don’t work outside of the framing structure. They’re genius outside the direct action, but when Milligan thrusts them into the story, it’s off-putting, especially when mundane conversation gets interrupted by a clumsy, jarring line about “the old stories.”  Milligan basically rams his concept down our throats.

What’s worse, that very pitch, the mixture of Greek mythology and modern day crime-drama, isn’t working like it should. Instead of a cool fusion, I feel like I’m reading a gritty crime noir that has a horribly misplaced set of supernatural figures in it, as though a bunch of characters (the ghostly women and the monster) have accidentally shown up in the wrong comic. The supernatural just isn’t blending with the mundane, feeling very out of place and, yes, incomprehensible as well.

Conclusion: This book is currently confusing, as it reads like an ambiguous mess. There’s just not much here.  Gianfelice’s amazing work saves this from a worse grade.

Grade: C-

-Alex Evans

Greek Street #1 – Review

by Peter Milligan (writer), Davide Gianfelice (art), Patricia Mulvihill (colors), and Clem Robins (letters)

The Story: Milligan introduces us to the world of Greek Street and its various characters.  A mother dies, a body washes up, and two killers are on the loose, one a man and one a monster.

What’s Good: The concept actually doesn’t hit you as hard in the face as you think it would. Rather, this comic just comes across as a gritty new crime comic from Vertigo with a bizarre, almost Morrison-esque surrealism to spice things up. Make no mistake, this isn’t meat and potatoes stuff; it is a smart book, it’s just not overly boastful of its classical base nor is it hopelessly lost in academia.  It’s a balance that I quite enjoy and it makes the book a lot more approachable than one might expect. That said, the mythological element definitely makes it an interesting book, as it bends reality, constantly giving you the feeling that there’s something lurking behind the curtain of realism, something monstrous, magical, or both beneath the hard-boiled surface of strippers and gangsters.

Milligan quickly establishes his Greek Street as a savage, nasty world. Simply put, this book is all about the recurring nature of human brutality.  For this reason, modern crime blends seamlessly with myths that are thousands of years old. It is when the book is at its most brutal that it mostly draws upon its mythological base. In his first issue, Milligan is well on his way to proving his point, with father/mob boss carving up the face of his son, calling forth the very primitivism and ancient pantheism one would think to be long gone.

Art-wise, readers of Northlanders know what to expect here. Gianfelice has an inviting, almost carefree style that carries a grotesque, dark, and ugly tone. It’s solid work all around and a good fit for this book. I especially like his character design of the “insane/ visionary” Sandra. His work on her has me looking forward to seeing what other character designs he has in store.

What’s Not-So-Good: This is a really strange issue in that the first third of it is actually pretty underwhelming. Thankfully, this issue is 30 pages, so I still had another standard comic’s worth of material to go through. That said, for those first ten pages, it’s as though Milligan actually struggles to get this unique book started, as if he isn’t quite comfortable with his own series yet. The textbox narration is scattershot and hard to follow. These first pages also see the death of a character’s mother after he sleeps with her. It’s a hard sequence to pull off and Milligan doesn’t really manage it. Oedipus didn’t KNOW he was sleeping with his mother, but this character does, and Milligan isn’t able to provide a believable explanation. In fact, between this and the aimless textboxes (which are in this character’s voice), I started to wonder if the guy was mentally handicapped.

What’s particularly awful though is the manner in which the mother’s death is depicted. The cause and the sequence are both so ludicrous and so unlikely that it borders on slapstick comedy. Furthermore, the son’s painful reaction is more laughable than excruciating.

Conclusion: A first issue that sees its writer getting comfortable with his new book, this is a worthy addition to the Vertigo crime lineage.

Grade: B-

-Alex Evans