Aquaman Annual #2 – Review

By: Jeff Parker (story), Yvel Guichet & Alvaro Martinez (pencils), Jason Gorder, Wayne Faucher, Raul Fernandez (inks), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Aquaman and Wonder Woman’s not-so-excellent European road trip.

The Review: Since I didn’t finish taking the Bar until Thursday, I was a couple days late in picking up my weekly load of comics. I didn’t think it’d be a problem, though; my favorite shop usually carried more than enough copies of every issue. Certainly I didn’t think Aquaman Annual #2 was in danger of selling out. And yet would you believe that I had to call around to four different shops before I found a spare copy for myself? Everything else I got on Friday, but this one wasn’t in my hands until yesterday.

After reading the issue, I don’t even begin to understand what drove the droves to pick it up. I get the initial attraction: who doesn’t like the idea of an Aquaman-Wonder Woman team-up? They’re both major Leaguers; they both have royal bearing; and they both have roots in ancient mythology. Talk about a match made in heaven—you know, if Arthur hadn’t already hooked up with Mera first. But even if a romance was out of the question, the two still have plenty to bond over. Bizarrely, instead of talking over any of the things they have in common, they spend the time either politely or aggressively confronting each other’s priorities to their respective cultures.

Justice League of America #7 – Review

By: Geoff Johns & Jeff Lemire (story), Doug Mahnke (art), Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Marc Deering, Walden Wong (inks), Nathan Eyring, Pete Pantazis, Gabe Eltaeb (colors)

The Story: A broken mirror brings bad luck.  What about one with a dead man inside?

The Review: I’ll have you know that in my original draft for this review, I started off by saying something like, “As Trinity War rages on…”  But then I realized that “rages” really overstated the kind of tension we’ve been getting in this storyline.  Aside from a brief, breathless skirmish between Justice Leagues early on, there hasn’t been as much direct conflict as you might expect.  If there’s an actual war to be had, it’s being fought guerilla style.

While you may appreciate how Trinity War has been admirably restrained in its use of mindlessly brawny battles so far, you can’t help itching for some real action.  Thankfully, the multiple cliffhangers of the final pages set you up for just that—in the next issue.  In the meantime, you’ll have to bear with a lot of stringing along and dead ends as our heroes try to figure out who caused all this trouble in the first place.

The sad part is they’re about several steps behind on the trail than you are, since you’ve known for quite a while now that the Secret Society has been pulling the strings since day one.*  And it is really some remarkable string-pulling, given the divisions among the Leagues, the various conspiracies at work, the involvement of figures who exist beyond time and ordinary worldly affairs.  Where all this is leading to remains unclear; if the goal is simply to rid the world of its heroes (as all the promotional materials claim), this is a highly elaborate way of going about it.

Justice League #17 – Review

By: Geoff Johns (story), Ivan Reis & Paul Pelletier (pencils), Joe Prado, Oclair Albert, Sean Parsons (inks), Rod Reis & Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Arthur has no choice but to force his brother to dry out.

The Review: Whether it’s just something clicking into place in Johns’ head or finding a story that really resonates with him, it’s pretty clear that he has finally found his groove on this series.  Not only does Throne of Atlantis give us his most viable rendering of the League yet, it also highlights all of Johns’ strengths as a writer: a sincere focus on the characters’ personal relationships, bold plot developments, and a pure joy in playing with the DC Universe.

While The Villain’s Journey was easily the most discouraging arc of this title, it did call attention to the fact that the League up to that point was nothing more than a band of superpowers who did their job together amiably enough, but without much personal investment.  The League’s run-in with the Cheetah exposed their bonds with each other a little bit, but only here, with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman trying to soothe Aquaman’s guilt over Atlantis’ attack, do you get the sense that these people can and will be friends.

Young Romance #1 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Superhero love is a many-splendored thing…

The Review: Young Romance is one of those titles that a proper reviewer probably should feel a little bit of embarrassment about reading, given its hopelessly gimmicky nature.  Even so, I do kind of like the grab-bag format of these things, and I appreciate that DC has enough of a sense of humor to do something this cheesy.  Besides, with the mix of talent involved, you never know if you might run into a gem of a feature, promising better things from the creators involved.

Team Seven #4 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Jesús Merino (art), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: The difference between Slade and Eclipso is like night and later that night.

The Review: For any of you interested in the reviewing experience, let me just say the obvious that you never want to be in the awkward position of recognizing a writer’s talents, but concluding that his story is kind of lame anyway.  While you can definitely appreciate the rhythm and flow of Jordan’s writing, the plot itself has been less than inspired, with definite shades of editorial mandate.

It’s very, very hard for me to believe, given the mission statement and tone Jordan set up for this series at the start, that he ever intended to feature the Black Diamond and Eclipso as the primary plot device and antagonist for his first arc.  After all, Team Seven is a gang of highly skilled fighters and shooters; what do they really know about fighting demonic possession or demons themselves?  How can they use their mercenary know-how to defeat things that bullets can’t touch or simply bounce off of?

Team Seven #3 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Julius Gopez & Jimbo Salgado (art), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: This isn’t Zelda, Slade; big shiny gems aren’t always a good thing.

The Review: Sometimes, I just don’t get how the Big Two make their publishing and editing decisions.  Granted, I’m no businessman, nor do I know the ins and outs of the comic book biz, and obviously there are a lot of politics that I have no awareness of, but the goal shouldn’t be that hard to grasp: produce the best story premises with the most suitable and talented creative teams possible.  Settling for less only creates more problems in the long term.

Case in point: I would like to know who gave the green light for Team Seven to go to market when it is so clearly not ready for mass consumption.  The book clearly has a good pitch—put a number of DC’s toughest non-powered heroes on one team and unleash them on some crazy missions—but from what I’ve read, it seems clear the series could have used a lot more time in the development tank before it could truly stand on its own.

Team Seven #2 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Ron Frenz (breakdowns), Julius Gopez (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: It’s hard to tell if everyone’s gone crazy because of a Jekyll serum or severe jet lag.

The Review: Even though Jordan gets to work with some pretty recognizable characters, it’s apparent that some intensive work needs to be done to make them stand out in people’s minds. Team Seven ostensibly works within a much more realistic framework of conflicts than, say, the Justice League, and so they tend to come across a little more realistically than their superheroic peers.  However, the closer characters get to reality, the harder it is to make them memorable.

After all, you’re dealing with a whole group of people who are pretty darn smart, intellectually, street, or otherwise.  Not only that, but they are all of them professionals in their field.  Smart, professional people tend to react reasonably in crisis situations, and so has Team Seven.  In such circumstances, there’s no meaningful opportunity to show off your colorful personality.  So even though there are obvious differences between Amanda Waller and Cole Cash, you don’t read this issue and instantly recognize a totally Waller or Cash “moment.”

Team Seven #1 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Ron Frenz (breakdowns), Jesús Merino (pencils), Marlo Alquiza, Drew Geraci, José Marzan Jr. (inks), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Everyone takes a fall sometimes, but only a few do it from five miles up.

The Review: Ever since T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents and Blackhawks got canned, I haven’t felt a DC title that projected the same kind of panache Nick Spencer and Mike Costa brought to their respective series, a quality you might describe as “smart.”  Unlike Scott Snyder’s literary intelligence and Grant Morrison’s conceptual genius, Spencer and Costa had a knack for plots and characters that can confront the mechanics of the real world and deal with them practically.

Jordan has a similar talent, and Team Seven certainly feels like the spiritual successor to both those titles.  Set in a world with a nascent superhuman population, the story plays into every conspiracy theory you’ve ever had about big government.  Lynch lays out the team’s mission with a motivation so nationalistic and ruthless that it can only be credible:

Team Seven #0 – Review

By: Justin Jordan (story), Jesus Merino, Norm Rapmund, Rob Hunter (art) Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Seven extraordinary individuals gathered to save the world from itself—maybe.

The Review: In a lot of ways, comics are a lot like television; you’re always looking for the newest addiction, whether it be a critical darling (Arrested Development), a pop hit (Friends), or a project that works as both (Seinfield).  I don’t pick up every new title I see, but I like looking in each one that comes out, hoping to find the next big thing.  On that level, I really appreciate DC’s “waves” of new titles.  There’s always a chance a great series is around the corner.

The first thing I usually look at in a new title is the rhythm and style of the writing, well before I consider the story’s actual merits.  Blame it on my English major or some quirk in my personality, but I can’t stand artificial, hacky dialogue or narration.  It just reeks of a writer who’s trying too hard or a little too obsessed with his idea of how his story should sound.  Jordan makes good on his DC debut thanks to some carefully constructed, if not exactly inspired, writing.  Given the genre he’s dealing with, he could easily have gone overboard in trying to make the script “edgy,” but he keeps the tone centered, which wears well on the characters.

Earth Two #0 – Review

By: James Robinson (story), Tomás Giorello (art), Nathan Eyring (colors)

The Story: Does it really take the smartest guy on the planet to suggest blowing everything up as a solution?

The Review: Of all the titles that could really use a mandated origin issue, Earth Two probably needed it the most.  True, the current arc is an ongoing origin story of a kind, but obviously, the history of this parallel Earth predates Alan Scott, Jay Garrick, and Al Pratt.  We know the Age of Wonders began on this world as a response to the Apokoliptian invasion, but we don’t know much of the details.

Unfortunately, Terry Sloan, originally the prototype for Mr. Terrific and now known as “‘Mr. 8’—the eighth and final wonder,” seems more interested in the sound of his own voice than actually enlightening us on much of anything.  No one denies that Robinson has a gift for words, and writes some pretty phrases from time to time, but at his worst, he just rambles with dry commentary and exposition.  No other writer churns out language that sounds like it comes from a clinical dissertation: “And since then, my partners in resistance (in this instance Wonder Woman, Superman, and Batman) and myself have been, I think by now, to every country in the world carrying out counterattacks and assaults to keep the invaders at bay.”  Sheesh.

Chaos War: Chaos King #1 – Review

By: Brandon Montclare (writer), Michael William Kaluta (art), Brad Anderson, Nathan Eyring & Jim Charlampidis (colors), Jared Fletcher (letters) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: The Chaos King turns his sights on new targets including Zenn-la, Earth & the devil himself.

What’s Good: Holy cow can Mr. Kaluta draw!  That isn’t exactly a news flash, but I’d had a bad experience with my Chaos War tie-in last week and had considered avoiding the tie-ins this week until I saw that Kaluta was drawing this issue.  With his name attached, I almost cease to care what the story is because I’m willing to plunk down my $3.99 to buy it as a picture book.  There aren’t many artists who hit that level of excellence and virtually none who work in modern monthly comics (JH Williams, III is the closest).

This story is very much written to Kaluta’s strengths.  He really excels at large spreads showing godly or demonic images where you have swirling mists or flames and angels/demons swooping about.  I can’t emphasize enough how visually stunning the comic is.  This review is actually taking an overly long time to write because I keep flipping through the issue again to marvel at the pretty pictures.  Just buy it!

The story is almost incidental (for me).  But, it does what event tie-ins should.  It adds extra flavor to the event without being required reading.  The second and third parts of the story where the Chaos King encounters Impossible Man (which is an interesting concept) and the devil are much stronger than the first chapter.