Amazing Spider-Man #665 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), John Rauch (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Ellie Pyle (assistant editor), Stephen Wacker (senior editor)

Aunt May back-up by: Slott (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (artist), Marte Gracia (colors), Caramagna (letters), Pyle & Wacker (editors)

The Story: Peter is again put into a position where he has to choose between fighting crime and being there for his family.

What’s Good: This issue really captures everything that is tragic about Peter Parker.  We (the readers) all know what a big hero he is, but to his friends and family he’s always the guy who wasn’t there when they needed him.  You know the type of scene: Peter is hanging with some friends when Doc Ock attacks the Coffee Bean and Peter slips away to change into costume and battle Doc Ock, Harry is left to bravely shield the girls with his body.  And then afterwards, after Ock has been captured, you see Peter’s girlfriend with a thought balloon, “Where was Peter?  Did he run away in fear?  Is he a coward? I wish he could be a brave man like Harry!!!  Come to think of it, Harry is kinda cute and sexy!”  Peter’s family and friends don’t know what a hero he is and they get very angry when he isn’t there for them.

With that aside, you can probably tell what basic kind of issue this is going to be.  The good thing is that Slott and Stegman really nail it.  Even though the basic plot is pretty classic Spidey, this issue could have really fallen on its face.  It all comes down to execution.  Does the writer come up with an interesting twist on this conflict between Spidey’s sense of responsibility and his desire for justice?  Does the artist visually show us the story in a way that is interesting and does the artist really sell the emotional beats?  The answer to both is “yes” and that’s a testament to the creative talent on this issue because if either Slott or Stegman did slightly sub-par work, you could read this issue and think, “Ugh….  Do we have to read this story again?”

X-23 #8 – Review

By: Marjorie Liu (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), John Rauch (colors), Cory Petit (letters), Jody Leheup (assistant editor) & Jeanine Schaefer (editor)

The Story: X-23 goes to Madripoor to talk to Daken, who she thinks has some clues about a “new” restart to the Weapon X program.

Importance of art in comics: What a difference really stellar art makes!  I’ve been following X-23 from the beginning and haven’t loved it.  In out internet world where everything has to be an extreme statement of some sort, not “loving something” often is taken to mean that something “sucks”, but that isn’t the case at all.  X-23 has been “okay”.  But, when you have a pull list that never gets below 60 titles and sometimes inches into the 80s, you’re always looking for titles you can drop to try out that sexy-looking new creator-owned title or all those Fear Itself tie-ins.  But, when you put a really stellar artist like Stegman on the title, I suddenly care about the entire X-23 story more than I did before and I might keep getting it after he moves of just to see if I still like it.

What’s Good: When you feel the need to have a separate aside in the review about the art, obviously the art is good.  Stegman’s storytelling is impeccable and that is something that gets overlooked when reviewing comics.  His degree of difficulty is pretty high on a story like this with much of the action being cat-and-mouse stuff going on in the darkness of Madripoor.  It is very easy for those scenes to get away from an artist and have it suddenly be unclear which characters are in a panel or what they are doing.  Stegman even ratchets up the degree of difficulty by doing lots of really tight shots in these panels.  It’s also nice to see Stegman handing material that is a little darker.  Most of his earlier Marvel work had a light-hearted tone to it (Sif, She-Hulks, etc.), so it’s neat to see that he can do something gritty too.  And, of course, it goes without saying that Stegman draws very pretty women (great eyes).  I’m sure we all can tell what kind of scribbles were in his notebooks in high school!

The story is pretty fun too.  It makes a lot of sense that X-23 and Daken would come into conflict as X is continuing her struggle against forces trying to restart the Weapon X program (more on that below) and thinks that Daken knows something about it.  At times, both are in the midst of full-blown identify crises due to their clone/son relationships with Wolverine and are both trying to escape his shadow and become their own person.  Daken is kinda like X’s slightly evil and much older step-brother.  It’ll be fun to watch these two interact as the story unfolds.

She-Hulks #4 – Review

By: Harrison Wilcox (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), Guru eFX (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: She-Hulks comes to a close in an issue that is alternately fun and sad.

What’s Good: This issue really hits the right emotional notes.  First, it has some fun portions, especially some scenes in the immediate aftermath of the She-Hulks battle with Klaw.  A good She-Hulks story should have some fun and witty banter because Jen She-Hulk is a light-hearted character.  Although she is a Hulk she’s also a young woman who just kinda wants to have fun in the city too.

Then (of course) we get some sadness.  C’mon, you knew that was coming, right?  This is a Hulk story and Hulk stories don’t end with everyone loving the Hulks.  That is sad and tragic enough when the Hulk affected is Bruce Banner, but it is sadder to see when it is Lyra who is just an awkward and misunderstood teenage girl.  You will really feel badly for her at one point in this issue.

Wilcox and Stegman capture both ends of the spectrum in this issue.  It isn’t surprising that they could do the “fun” part, because that’s what we’ve gotten for the first 3 issues.  But, it was pretty cool how well they nailed the sad part.  They’re both newer creators at Marvel, so hopefully this demonstration of their dramatic range keeps them from getting typecast onto jaunty girl-books.  While it is very sad that this title didn’t get the support from retailers to become an outstanding ongoing series (along the lines of what DC has with Batgirl), we can take some positives from this.  One is that the creators have left these characters in a good place for the next team.  The other is that these two guys are both really talented and I (for one) would rather see them both on a title that will draw more eyeballs to their talents.

I’ve gushed about Ryan Stegman’s art in these reviews before, but it bears saying again just how talented he is.  If you are familiar with his art, you know that he has a lot of talents doing still life figures that don’t look anything like a She-Hulk blasting some guy in the face.  What I love about the style that Stegman is using is how well it straddles the cartoony/realism line.  The super-realistic guys (like Steve Epting) put themselves in a tough place where they have to bring their A-game to every panel because our eyes see their characters and think “pictures” instead of “cartoons”, so our eyes fixate on every little detail of anatomy that doesn’t conform.  What Stegman has done is find a neat sweet spot where he isn’t hyper-realistic (so he doesn’t have to noodle over body dimensions) but he does so with going to an extreme Chris Bachalo/Humberto Ramos level.  I love it.

She-Hulks #3 – Review

By: Harrison Wilcox (writer), Ryan Stegman (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks), Guru eFX (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: She-Hulks Jen and Lyra continue taking down The Intelligencia while dealing with other important matters… like shopping.

What’s Good: This miniseries has capital F-U-N all over it.  I love it.  The story is quick and funny, it isn’t all bogged down in any of the other Marvel Universe continuity and the art is just greatly awesome.

This story is very new-reader-friendly and doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It also strikes me as something that Marvel could sell the hell out of to girls or sell digitally.  Jen and Lyra have a great chemistry together.  It’s a kinda spunky-yet-misunderstood teenage girl with her “cool” aunt vibe.   It is enjoyable watching Jen teach Lyra the superhero basics of busting criminals, maintaining your secret identity and also finding to time go shopping with Bruce Banner’s credit card (leading to one funny scene where a holographic Hulk on the communicator is craning his neck trying to see all the shopping bags).  Love it.

Here’s a name for you comic fans to keep an eye on: Ryan Stegman.  The art in this issue is just incredible.  The only thing that worries me is that Stegman draws attractive women SOOOOO well that he’s going to get “stuck” on books like She-Hulk or his upcoming story arc on X-23.  If you follow the guy on twitter, you see his sketches and he can draw just about anything.  Stegman doesn’t just draw the pretty ladies either, you’ve got good story telling, great panel layouts, backgrounds, some creative panel design, etc.  It’s just a very complete effort and I really didn’t mind that Stegman didn’t ink his own work here.  I think he’s a good inker and this IS a different look, but it still works just fine for me.  And kudos also to those nameless colorists at Guru eFX.  You can’t have a She-Hulk comic without doing a good job on green skin and they nail it.

Incorruptible #10 – Review

By: Mark Waid (writer/creator), Horacio Domingues (pencils), Juan Castro & Michael Babinski (inks), Nolan Woodard (colors) & Ed Dukeshire (letters)

The Story: Max Damage and sidekick confront a group of white supremacists inspired by the Plutonian.

What’s Good: For a series that is supposed to be about Max Damage, it is interesting that the most interesting characters are the young women in his life.  So it was welcome this month to see that Annie, the “new” Jailbait, gets her own nickname: Hardcase.  Of course it makes the job of the lowly comics reviewer easier to not have to refer to new/old Jailbaits but it also helps to establish Annie as her own character.  It also seems to settle whether Annie will be remaining as a character.

It is also a very positive sign that Waid has added the Plutonian’s former girlfriend, Alana Patel, to Max’s entourage.  Waid has shown a few deft hand at dealing with emotionally damaged young women in this series, so this should be fertile ground for him to work in for future issues.

Wonder Woman #602 – Review

By J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Don Kramer and Eduardo Panscia (pencils), Jay Leisten, Michael Babinski and Ruy Jose (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors), Travis Lanham (letters)

The Story: Diana joins her people in the Temple of Aphrodite to help them escape from the human assault.

What’s Good: This version of Diana is…taking some getting used to, at least for me. (It probably doesn’t help that I’m currently re-reading my trades of the Rucka and Simone runs…that probably contributes to more perceived character whiplash than is actually necessary.) I’m having trouble adjusting to the new Captain America too, of course, but at least in that case there’s an entirely new person sporting the uniform. I guess there’s no real way to escape this kind of personality shift in Diana, given the drastic change in her experiences that this time…warp…thing has caused (and while we’re on the subject, can we please have some sort of explanation as to why this is happening? We’re two and a half issues in!), but I still have to blink and remind myself that yes, this IS Wonder Woman, and she IS talking like a common street thug.

Why is this not under “what’s not so good?” Because regardless of how any of us feel about the storyline in general (personally I have major reservations, but I’m at least waiting an issue or two more before passing full judgment), both the dramatic change in Diana’s vernacular and her change in costume emphasize that this is NOT the same character we have known for so long. This is to JMS’s credit, although (much like in Superman) he tends to beat the reader over the head with his point. A delicate writer Mr. Straczynski is not.

Wonder Woman #600 – Review

By Gail Simone (writer), George Perez (pencils), Scott Koblish (inks), Amanda Conner (writer and artist), Paul Mounts (colors), Louise Simonson (writer), Eduardo Pansica (pencils), Bob Wiacek (ink), Geoff Johns (writer), Scott Kolins (art), Michael Atiyeh (colors), and J. Michael Straczynski (writer), Don Kramer (pencils), Michael Babinski (inks)

The Stories: Gail Simone (yay!) gives us a nice story about a team up between Diana and most of the other female DC heroes (including Kate Kane’s Batwoman—double yay!), Amanda Conner gives us a fluffy but fun vignette that has Diana helping Power Girl to solve a…relationship problem, Louise Simonson tells us about a disasters nearly averted as Wonder Woman teams up with Superman to take down Aegeus, Geoff Johns (yay again!) gives us a very nice, very classic-feeling Wonder Woman tale that ends up being a prologue to…

…the Big One. Straczynski and company attempt to reinvent everything, from Wonder Woman’s costume to her attitude to her origin, to he very timeline itself. How do they fare? Read on.

The Review: We’ll get to the elephant in the room in a moment, but let’s focus on the non-JMS stories first. They’re all good, mostly because of the caliber of creators (especially writers) they pulled in for this issue. Johns’ story was easily my favorite (full disclosure: I’m a completely unapologetic Johns fangirl, so your mileage could vary), both because of the excellent writing and the story itself (short though it was.) I just love the added meaning he endows the “wonder” of Wonder Woman with. It’s not the first time it has been done of course, but Johns works it in very quietly and elegantly, without overemphasizing it or beating us over the head. I appreciate that. All of the vignettes were worth the time I invested in reading them, honestly; even “Fuzzy Logic,” my least favorite of the group, was harmless enough. It was a bit too cute for my taste, but it really does emphasize that there’s a Wonder Woman story in this issue to suit every kind of fan.

Now, on to ”Couture Shock.” I hate to start off with a complaint when there are a lot of good things to say about this story…but ugh. Worst. Pun. Ever. Yes I know it’s a reference to the new costume, but still. No thank you. It’s just BAD. With such major changes being made to such an iconic character, I really would have appreciated a title that was a little less flippant. Maybe I’m being oversensitive, but it really feels rather disrespectful, especially given how…we’ll say “passionately,” fans tend to react to changes of this magnitude. (Just titling it plain ‘ol “Culture Shock,” while generic, would have been plenty serviceable, and preferable in my opinion.)