Uncanny Avengers #3 – Review

By: Rick Remender (story), John Cassaday (art), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story:  The Red Skull whips NYC into a mutant hunting frenzy with the Uncanny Avengers caught in the middle.

The Review:  I imagine that this is going to be an incredibly divisive issue.  Remender takes some big stylistic risks that leave this one firmly entrenched in “love it or hate it” grounds.  The difficulty for me reviewing this is that, while I myself fell into the positive side of the equation, I can very much understand the argument from the other side.

The reason for all of this is that Remender has chosen to write this issue in a thoroughly retro, nostalgia-driven manner, filled with expository narration and a LOT of words on the page.  While I’m often put off by that sort of thing, I actually found myself enjoying it this time around.  I had a lot of fun visiting the past, if you will, with Remender seemingly bringing a writing style from decades past, polishing it off, and putting it in a thoroughly modern setting with slick, polished art to match.  Sure, that style is verbose, melodramatic, and maybe even a little bit cheesy, but that’s all part of the fun!  That melodramatic narration lends the book an escapist, soap opera feel, making the book’s universe feel especially comic booky and its characters iconic and larger than life.  It also elevates the stakes and the story into something grander and more timeless.

Uncanny Avengers #1 – Review

By: Rick Remender (story), John Cassaday (art), Laura Martin (colors), and Chris Eliopoulos (letters)

The Story:  Cap tries to form a new team embodying Xavier’s dream of co-habitation as Havok pays a visit to his brother, Wanda and Rogue come to blows, and the Red Skull gets up to some really grotesque stuff.

The Review:  For those familiar with Rick Remender’s work, this title is very different from anything we’ve seen from him prior.  With John Cassaday’s slick, polished artwork, this is the big, flagship Marvel Comic sort of book.  Rest assured, however, that Remender nonetheless nails it, giving us an issue that almost feels like an issue from an event.  That said, while Remender’s usual weirdness takes a backseat, it’s still very much there, giving the book a real edge to it.

Rocketeer Adventures #1 – Review

By: John Cassaday, Laura Martin, Chris Mowry, Mike Mignola, Dave Stewart, Mike Allred, Laura Allred, Jim Silke, Kurt Busiek, Michael Kaluta

The Story: An anthology of stories about Dave Stewart’s Rocketeer by an All-Star cast of creators.

What’s Good: Just look at that list of creators!  I’m not even a huge Rocketeer fan, but when you can get interior pages by Cassaday, Allred and Kaluta along with pin-ups by Mignola and Silke in one package, it is just a no brainer because the art is of such high quality that the writing becomes almost irrelevant.

All three short stories are really quite good.  As I said, the stories don’t matter that much:  “Yeah! Rocketeer saved Betty from criminals!”  But, the art is really the star.  Allred just kinda does his normal outstanding thing where his soft and nuanced lines work so nicely together with Laura Allred’s colors.  They’re a neat team because you can just see the benefits of working together with a colorist on an artistic project rather than working through an editor with a colorist multiple time zones away (as with most modern comics).

Planetary / Batman: Night On Earth – Flash Back Review

By: Warren Ellis (writer), John Cassaday (art), David Baron (colors) & Wes Abbott (letters)

The Story: An investigation takes the Planetary gang into Gotham City.  Guess who they’ll run into?

What’s Good: This one-shot from August 2003 is a mixture of two things that I really like: Planetary and Batman.  But, as we all know, many team-up or cross-over comic titles don’t really work out.  Sometimes the writer clearly understands one of the characters, but completely misses the boat with the other side or there is an editorial failing that allows the writer to trample on an important item of continuity for one of the universes.  Even when those things don’t happen, you usually put the book down with the feeling that the cross-over was fun, but it is hard to take seriously because it was SO obviously an elseworlds-type tale that it clearly doesn’t “matter”.

What makes Planetary/Batman soooooo good is that this cross-over really could happen in either of the two universes.  Part of the entire fun of Planetary was that it explored recognizable alternate versions of super/pulp-heroes that we all know: Fantastic Four, Lone Ranger, Doc Savage, Green Lantern, etc.  In the comics review world, we like to talk about things that “pull us out of the story” like bad art or implausible concepts that make it impossible for us to enjoy an otherwise pretty good story.  You really could see that it made sense that the Planetary gang would run into a masked vigilante dressed as a Bat.

Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1 – Review

By Joss Whedon, John Cassaday, and Laura Martin

Had this book actually come out on time, my emotional response to its finale might have been stronger. But given that Kitty Pride’s fate was tossed out months before this issue hit the stands (in a pathetic attempt to keep continuity) just diminishes the whole point of this book. So how was the issue? Was it worth the wait? Should Joss Whedon be allowed to write comics given his sluggishly slow track records?

Well, I’m not sure who’s to blame for this book’s lateness – Whedon or Cassaday, but if it is Whedon, I say just stick to the television business. Because as much as I enjoy his writing in the funny books, his lack of dedication to keeping a schedule is disrespectful. If this is John Cassaday’s fault, well, congratulations on being another artist who’s excelled at disappointing his fan base with late work. End of rant.

The issue itself is a satisfying one  that would have had a greater impact had the series been released on a timely schedule. Picking up this book, I felt “out of it” from the get-go. I had to reacclimatize myself to the story and the situation before I could get into the book’s “groove”. Being that this is the last issue and lots of lives are at stake, the tension was sadly, offset by my knowledge of what’s already transpired. If you’re not a reader of Uncanny X-Men, you might not know what’s coming and this’ll play out as intended: A sad and jolting conclusion.

As much as the spoilage hurts the book, Whedon’s humor comes across again as clever and funny. This is something the X-Titles need more of. There’s a lot of great character moments – in particular a scene with Spider-Man smacking Storm that’s downright hilarious. The stuff with Beast and the Agent Brand, however? That felt a bit too Whedon-esque (or forced). I just don’t buy it. And frankly, it’s kind of gross.

Cassaday’s art is simple, and not so breathtaking as it used to be. It’s lost some of its luster, and the use of photographic backgrounds from the opening pages is jarring. As a whole, Cassaday’s work gets the job done. keeping the cohesion from the past 24 issues intact. The closure of this storyline is fitting, bringing things full circle, so to speak. I may not have been blown away by its conclusion, but other than maybe X-Men: Legacy,  this title is still miles away better than all the other X-Titles combined. (Grade: B)

– J. Montes

Astonishing X-Men #24 – Review

By: Joss Whendon (Writer), John Cassaday (Pencils)

This story was supposed to conclude this issue. Instead, Joss Whedon keeps us hanging on for a giant sized issue due out who knows when. It’s pretty disappointing too when you consider that virtually nothing forwards the story. What happens at the end of the book is the same as the beginning: The 10 mile long missile is still headed to Earth, the X-Men are still scrambling to stop it. Perhaps the only thing revealed to us is that the missile isn’t exactly a missile and the person Hank thinks may cause trouble for the X-Men is killed off.

The story flounders on all levels. Even Wolverine’s dialogue in this issue (“When do I get to be thrown again.”) comes off as stupid, failing to carry that Whedon charm that we’ve all come to expect. This is the first issue of Astonishing X-Men that I honestly didn’t like. So now what? We have to wait 2-3 more months for the conclusion that was due to us this issue?! Thanks for nothing, Whedon.

Oh, Cassaday’s artwork is lovely as expected. (Grade: D)

-J. Montes