Astro City #12 – Review

By: Kurt Busiek (story), Graham Nolan (art), Wendy Broome (colors)

The Story: Clothes make the villain.

The Review: Every time I read an issue of Astro City, I always think to myself, with no small degree of wonder, this is a superhero series. It gives hope to the entire genre that Busiek can deliver, month after month, a series featuring characters in the same ridiculous costumes as their peers over at the Big Two, engaged in the same endless battles, yet still possessing dignity, originality, and depth that outstrips practically everyone else in the genre. Lavish praise, I know, but mostly deserved, I think.

It’s true most Astro City issues lack the primal thrill of its mainstream peers, but what it does have is longer-lasting. For one thing, you can always count on Busiek to give his characters real motivation, by which I mean they have needs and desires that heroism and villainy only partly fulfills. It’s amazing how often this basic principle of fiction is either neglected or completely ignored by Big Two writers, leaving their characters forgettable from the moment you stop reading. Busiek characters stay with you, even after one issue, memorable as the stranger you spend a bus ride talking to, never to meet again.

Batman #23.4: Bane – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Graham Nolan (art), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: It’s leaders like Bane that make you think twice before criticizing our president.

The Review: With DC producing scads of new characters each year, it’s not surprising that only a few manage to rise to the top.  One of the best floaters of recent years (by which I mean since I was born, some—gah!—twenty-seven years ago) is Bane, one of the only Bat-villain to have truly felled the Dark Knight.  His combination of steroid brawn and razor-sharp mind is what sets him apart, as does his status as a political icon within the DCU.

I’m sure others have done great things with Bane, but the one I always think of is the strangely Byronic man who graced the pages of Gail Simone’s Secret Six.  I’d even say that Simone’s Bane is the gold standard by which all others should be measured.  She not only delivered the perfect balance of Bane’s aforementioned qualities, she gave him a compelling voice and perspective that made him more than the sum of abilities.  You’d think a master character writer like Tomasi would get you similar results, but surprisingly, he falls quite short of the mark.

Justice League Dark #14 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (story), Graham Nolan (layouts), Victor Drujiniu (finishes), Jeromy Cox (colors)

The Story: It’ll be hell for the real estate agent who has to put this house on the market.

The Review: I must apologize for the delay on this one, but my shop actually received this issue late this week.  I’m actually not entirely sure how an entire slew of comics could be delivered on time and one got left out, but such are the vagaries of the modern day shipping system.  I once ordered a book from a seller who lived only two counties over, and another book from a seller across the country.  The cross-country book arrived two weeks before the intra-county one.*

Anyway, I’m not sure anyone really needed to rush-order this particular issue.  One major complaint I’ve had about nearly all of DC’s fantasy offerings is that none have really been very daring, creativity-wise.  I don’t quite understand how, in a setting where literally anything can happen, we can get so very little of novelty.  I’d hoped that Lemire’s chops would move at least this title out of that rut, but I’ve been sadly disappointed so far.

Batman: Gates of Gotham #5 – Review

By: Scott Snyder, Kyle Higgins, Ryan Parrott (writers), Trevor McCarthy & Graham Nolan (artists), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Side-effects may include dizziness, shortness of breath, and murderous rages.

The Review: The tagline on the cover of this issue goes, “The secret history of Gotham revealed!”  Honestly, I don’t see why they even bother.  Every week there’s at least two or three titles on the stands from any company promising to reveal secrets of some kind.  A good many of them wind up obvious, underwhelming, just plain random, or some combination of the three.

You can consider the “secret history of Gotham” a numbing mix of random and underwhelming.  Rather than devise some substantial reason for the Gates’ downfall, Parrott (or Higgins, or Snyder, or whoever is writing this thing now) goes for the ol’ “Turns out, he was crazy!” yarn.  Those diving suits they fashioned may have all sorts of Steampunkery coolness, but spending too much time in them can apparently produce an extreme, mind-bending version of the bends.

If you can take a calming breath, the idea in itself has some interesting possibilities.  Sadly, the story squanders them all by never once laying down the groundwork for this revelation to make sense.  According to Dick, Bradley Gates’ prudent skepticism of his well-to-do employers was really the result of “delusions—hallucinations—and paranoia,” while Nicholas’ homicidal thoughts of revenge (ill-founded to begin with) came from the same, but exacerbated conditions.

But possibly the most tortured stretch of logic in the issue comes from Dick’s defense that Gotham’s first families didn’t cover up what happened to the Gates to destroy them, but to “protect them.”  All so the city-dwellers wouldn’t associate their skyline with “murder” and “madness.”  The premise just assumes a little too much in how seriously people take their architecture.  Five people died constructing the Empire State Building, and no one sees it and thinks, “Look at that.  A constant reminder of the proletariat crushed for social glory.”

Amazing Spider-Man #647 – Review

By: Fred Van Lente, Zeb Wells, Bob Gale, Joe Kelly, Mark Waid, Marc Guggenheim & Dan Slott (writers), Max Fiumara, Michael Del Mundo, Karl Kesel, J.M. Ken Niimura, Paul Azaceta, Graham Nolan, Mark Pennington & Adam Archer (art), Morry Hollowell & Antonio Fabela (colors) & J.M. Ken Niimura & Joe Caramanga (letters)

The Story: Brand New Day and the thrice monthly Amazing Spider-Man goes out with a bang and each of the writers (and many of the artists) who were part of BND get to play.

What’s Good: These oversized ASM issues are just gold.  In addition to the “main story” by Fred Van Lente, there are all sorts of short stories that will scratch just about every itch a Spidey-fan might have.  Of the short stories, the winner is probably the fun Norah Winters story by Joe Kelly with art by the very unique J.M. Ken Niimura.  But, there are all sorts of short stories in this issue and although they are all different, they all show just how central Spider-Man is to Marvel’s NYC and the people who live there.

But, the star of the issue is the main story by FVL.  Van Lente is one of the best writers that Marvel has, that doesn’t seem to be settled into one of the major titles.  The guy is so versatile and funny and never cranks out a stinker.  This story is focused squarely on the love life of Peter Parker and his inability to make a move on Carlie Cooper.  Peter’s love life is so central to the tale of Spider-Man and FVL does a great job of capturing the essence of Peter’s problem.  He has no luck with the ladies, but he never has any shortage of smart, attractive and available women hovering around his life.  If he could just get his act together, he could go far and that is the story of this issue.  FVL also gets bonus points for having Spidey fighting crime in a cheap Spider-Man Halloween costume.  Brilliant!