Monkeybrain Comics – Lauch titles Quick Review

Background: You may or may not have noticed something trending on Twitter the other day called Monkeybrain comics.  What is this?  Well, it is a new publisher founded by writer Mike Roberson and his wife Allison Baker.  You might remember Roberson as the writer who picked up the pieces after J. Michael Straczynski’s run on Superman fell apart or as the writer of a some Fables spin offs or the Vertigo title I Zombie (which I’ve mostly enjoyed).  A month or so ago, Roberson had a public falling out with DC over the issue of creator rights.  He basically said he could no longer work for a company that had so little respect for creator rights (now and in the past) and DC responded by taking him off all their comics.  I Zombie had already been announced as ending, but I suspect it was probably related to this disagreement.

My assumption at the time was that Roberson would go back to writing novels or we’d see his name attached to something like a new Fathom miniseries.  But it turns out that Roberson had something much more ambitious in mind: MonkeyBrain Comics.  MonkeyBrain is a new publisher of digital-first, creator-owned comics that are available through Comixology (on any smart phone, tablet or PC).

Twitter went atwitter and Comixology and MonkeyBrain decided to make their launch titles available on Monday, July 2 (a few days earlier than expected).  And….why not?  They’re digital-first.  There’s no reason to be beholden to the “new books on Wednesday” comic shop model.  With FIVE titles launching and prices at either $0.99 or $1.99, it was worth checking out.

So, how were the comics?

Bandette #1 – Written by Paul Tobin with art by Colleen Coover, this was a charming first issue.  At 99 cents for a 13-page reading experience, it was just enough to introduce the central character: Bandette.  She’s a young French (Belgian?) woman who is a cat-burglar with a heart.  We meet her as she’s robbing some nasty, arms-dealer dude’s home and also learn that she is a bit of a problem solver for the local police.  The whole thing is light-hearted and sweet.  Coover’s art is delectable.  It looks a lot like her traditional watercolors, but I’d bet she did this digitally.  Everything is sweet, soft and happy in her art.  I’m definitely looking forward to MORE of this title.

Amelia Cole and the Unknown World #1 – Written by Adam P. Knave & DJ Kirkbride with art by Nick Brokenshire, Amelia Cole is a story about magic.  We meet Amelia; she’s a young woman with magical powers who bounces back and forth between the “magic world” and the “normal world.”  Trouble ensues.  Amelia is the star and you feel like you know her character pretty well at the end of the first issue’s 28 pages (this title was $1.99).  The art isn’t anything I want to be buried with, but it is perfectly fine and communicates the story well.  This is a quality title.  Probably not something I’ll stick with because I’m not such a fan of magic, but there are a lot of people who feel differently.

Edison Rex #1 – Checking in at 13 pages for 99 cents is this entry written by Roberson with art by Dennis Culver.  This introductory issue shows us Edison Rex, who was once the world’s greatest scientist but has become the world’s greatest villain.  We see him outwitting a Superman-like character in this issue and you can’t help but think that THIS is something Roberson would have enjoyed doing with Lex Luthor and Superman if he’d continued with DC.  It’s a fresh spin on superheroing with good art and it’s 99 cents!

There are two other titles that I haven’t checked out yet, but will: Aesop’s Ark #1 by J. Torres and Jennifer Meyer claims to be stories that the animals told to each other on Noah’s Ark to pass the time.  The art looks divine.  The October Girl #1 by Matthew Dow Smith and the teaser says it’s a fantasy story about a young girl working at a coffee shop who learns that the world is not what she thought it was.  Both are 99 cents for 13 pages.

Quick-Hit Reviews – Week of May 25, 2011

A whole LOT of very solid comics last week.  We can’t review everything in-depth, so the least we can do is give you a quick-hit letting you know what we thought of an issue and whether it is worth picking up.

Astonishing Spider-Man & Wolverine #6 – Talk about not being what I expected!  I was honestly starting to lose the narrative in issues #4 and #5 of this series once Spider/Wolvie ran into that Luke Cage-looking guy with the diamond-encrusted baseball bat.  So, I really wasn’t looking forward to this issue at all, but it really came together nicely.  Silly me, how could I doubt Jason Aaron?  The guy still hasn’t told me a bad story.  This issue dispenses with the diamond-encrusted baseball bats and Mojo and finds Peter and Logan stranded in the Wild West where Peter finds love and Logan comes to realize how much he likes Peter.  I’ll need to reread this entire series, but I think it might just be one of those modern classics that you could just hand to people as a good Spider-Man/Wolverine story.  Really nice art by Adam Kubert.  Grade: A-

Uncanny X-Men #537 – Kieron Gillen has got a nice little story going on in Uncanny and it is making me very optimistic about how his run on Uncanny might turn out.  The story in this issue follows the deposed Powerlord Kruun from Breakworld as he attempts to exact revenge upon the X-Men who caused him to lose power during Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men run.  What makes this story work so nicely is that Gillen is only playing with a few of the X-Men at one time.  Less is always more when doing an X-Men story!  Most of the action in this issue is Kitty-centric as she has to find a way to get help when no one can hear her.  Her solution is pretty darn clever.  I wish the Dodson’s could do all the art on Uncanny and it should be a law that every issue that the Dodson’s do illustrate feature Kitty and Emma Frost because they draw the hell out of those two characters.  Grade: B

The Tattered Man – This one-shot from Image by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray is a very straightforward.  It’s Halloween and some druggie kids take advantage of the holiday to get an old man to open his door, they bust in wanting drug money and get a little more than they bargained for.  There are some parts of this story that are a little familiar, but the execution is really tight and the creators bring it home by not being afraid to kill a few characters who you would usually think are “safe”.  The highlight of the issue was probably the old man recounting his background as a Holocaust survivor (just going to show that you can tread familiar ground if you do it well).  Nice art, especially on the design of the supernatural force of vengeance that shows up.  Palmiotti & Gray could have a nice creator-owned winner with this and this could easily become an ongoing series.  Grade: B

The Incredible Hulks #629 – This was a very good conclusion to a pretty good story arc that teamed up Bruce Banner/Hulk his ex-wife Betty/Red She Hulk.  The story has lots of good Hulk moments.  What Pak does really well is sell the “Oh no!  Now you’ve made him mad!” moment.  You know, the scene where the bad guy whacks the hell out of the Hulk, Hulk goes flying 15 miles through the air and smashes into the ground, but when Hulk climbs out of the crater you just know that the other dude is in HUGE trouble.  It’s hard to capture that moment, but Pak does it really well.  We also get some really good Banner/Betty stuff in this issue.  Betty wants to be with Bruce, but as Red She Hulk, she has other plans.  The only downer in this issue is that I don’t see how the ending jibes at all with what happened in Fear Itself #2 where Banner and Betty are working out their issues in a rain forest.  Is there a writer who cares less about that sort of contemporaneous action than Matt Fraction?  Great art by Tom Grummett too.  Grade: B

Spider-Girl #7 – There are some good elements in this issue, but the negatives kinda balance things out.  The good is seeing Spider-Girl teaming up with Spider-Man to take down some bad guys.  We’re so used to Spider-Man being “the kid” who is always the one being childish and inappropriate and annoying the piss out of the other heroes, that it is kinda fun to see the role reversal and Tobin handles that really well.  There is also a very creative moment when Spider-Girl overwrites the code of a murderous robot’s AI with the game Angry Birds to keep the robot from attacking (unless someone acts like a pig, of course).  But, the downsides are here too.  For one, I don’t want Spider-Man in this book.  Nothing screams, “This character cannot carry his/her own title!” like having Wolverine or Spider-Man co-star.  The other problem I’m having is that this issue is full of Spider-Girl punching out room’s full of commando guys.  Spider-Girl has no powers and is a ~80 pound teenage girl.  I don’t care if she was “trained by Captain America”, she just can’t hit hard enough to have her main attack being punching and kicking 230-pound guys.  Watch some MMA and get creative with how these undersized characters can take down a bigger dude!  And we have a classic Marvel cover fail that shows Spider-Girl punching Screwball (who isn’t even mentioned in the issue).  Grade: C  

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of April 27, 2011

The last Wednesday of the month is also know as “The Week When Marvel Tries to Kill Us” by releasing everything they possibly can so that we can all throw our backs out as we leave the comic shop.

New York Five #4 – Here is an early contender for “miniseries of the year” and I’m going to be highly pissed when it gets left off those lists in favor of a bunch of miniseries that end in December because comic fans have the attention span of a mosquito.  This whole series has been a really touching slice-of-life drama as we follow these young ladies in the spring semester of their freshman year at NYU.  This issue brought things home in a major way.  For one thing, someone dies and the characters are left to ponder on the transitory nature of their lives: They’re all moving on in life and the little group of friends is moving apart.  We’ve all been there and had friends who seemed like the most important things in our lives before something changed because someone took a new job or moved or signed up for classes at a different time of day from you, and you just drift apart.  That’s life and Brian Wood really nails that sentiment.  I’ve gushed on Ryan Kelly’s art before (and own an original page from issue #1), but not only does he do a tremendous job on the young ladies who are the center of this book, but he also makes “The City” a co-starring character itself.  This is a “must read” for everyone and especially so for anyone with any affinity for New York.  Grade: A 

Velocity #4 – Oh la la!  Kenneth Rocafort is a beast!  This series wraps up a very good and straightforward tale of Velocity racing against the clock to save her Cyberforce teammates from a deadly virus.  Every panel that Rocafort draws of Velocity just oozes energy.  She just looks fast even when she is standing still.  He’s got a really powerful understanding of human anatomy and muscle groups.  Sunny Gho does a pretty nice job of coloring too.  Even though the story was really simple, I think Ron Marz deserves some credit.  It’s almost like he knew that this series would take almost a year to come out and kept it simple so that each time all you had to remember was “race against the clock to save teammates.”  If you’re an art fan, this is a must-buy in collected form.  Grade: B+

Morning Glories #9 – This title continues to be confusing, but in a very good way.  Sometimes I get highly annoyed by books that are being mysterious and opaque (see: Batman, Inc.), but I think Nick Spencer is pulling off the confusion because we actually have a hope of learning some answers.  In this issue, we follow one of the students, Jun, and see his back story, how the Morning Glories Academy became interested in him and what lengths they were willing to go to in order to get him as a student.  Yikes!  Once again, I can’t wait for next month.  I’ve heard a lot of folks complain about the art in Morning Glories, but I really don’t get it.  It’s true that it isn’t JH Williams or Mike Kaluta, but I think Eisma is doing a wonderful job with telling the story in terms of his panels and layouts.  Grade: B+

FF #2 – The story here is pretty top notch as the FF has to fix Doom’s brain damage and it has all the moralistic tropes where there are opportunities to kill Doom that are passed upon.  Fortunately, Hickman doesn’t spend too much time dwelling on the morals because the idea of the FF seriously killing Doom is just preposterous.  And, we get a pretty cool cliffhanger ending featuring Valeria who is having a really nice run as a character under Hickman’s pen.  The only thing holding this back for me is Epting’s art.  It isn’t that I think Epting is a poor artist, but I just don’t think his realistic style is suited for FF.  I’d rather see Epting illustrate a crime story and let us have an artist who is more cartoonist on FF.  It doesn’t have to be outlandish cartooning. Let’s just have someone like Dale Eaglesham.  Grade: B

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of March 30, 2011

What a strong week for comics!  Almost everything last week was at least “pretty good” and that makes us happy at WCBR.  Even though we’ll do out duty and tell you when a comic SUCKS, we don’t take any pleasure in doing so and it’s a LOT more fun to talk about what was good.  However, even though we review a TON of books in-full, there are always a few stragglers that get lost in the shuffle.  Thus, the Quick Hit Reviews….

Scarlet #5 – I can see people having two very different sets of thoughts on this title.  If you’re a police officer or otherwise a general believer of the benevolence of the government, you’re going to really hate this comic.  On the other hand, if you’re a more of a free will, distrust of the “man” type of person I can’t see how this doesn’t scratch a Libertarian itch.  I’m in the latter camp and just love Scarlet.  This issue represents the ending of the first story arc that has seen the titular Scarlet go from meting out some justice against dirty cops, to being the sudden leader of a political movements.  All of a sudden she’s Che Guevara, but she isn’t sure that’s what she wants to be OR if she even can be the leader her “people” want.  Meanwhile we are also introduced to some possibly sympathetic heroes within the power structure and that’s good too.  I know some people decry Alex Maleev’s art as “tracing”, but I don’t care.  Even if he is tracing (and he swears he isn’t in interviews), I like the way he’s using it.  He’s just creating art differently than more traditional artists and it is hard to argue with the stylish results.  Grade: A-   — Dean Stell

Captain America #616 – Well, here’s a comic that’ll earn your $4.99, with a main feature and no less than five back-ups.  Better still, for the most part, it’s all pretty good stuff and there are absolutely no reprints or picture galleries to bulk out the package.  This meaty package is all story content and that immediately earns it some points.  The main feature, written by Brubaker and featuring Bucky in a nasty Russian prison, is really dark stuff and a surprising component to an anniversary issue.  That said, if anything, it functions as an effective teaser for what’s to come.  Dark and nasty as it is, it lets Brubaker shine, somehow melding gritty prison drama with giant killer bear deathmatches.  It’s desperate, dire stuff but also a lot of fun and it brings the hard-hitting drama and excitement back to Bucky after a couple of fairly ho-hum arcs.  I hope the actual Gulag story arc keeps this up.  With five back-up features, you know you’re going to get a mixed bag, but Cap #616 actually delivers the goods for the most part.  While the stories by Kyle Higgins/Alec Siegel and Mike Benson/Paul Grist are fairly forgettable, they have the decency to at least look good.  Meanwhile, the Howard Chaykin and Frank Tieri/Paul Azeceta stories are rock solid, really effectively ruminating upon, and making use of, the sense of “history” that is such a big part of who and what Captain America is.  The real barn-burner, however, is the masterpiece delivered by Cullen Bunn and Jason LaTour.  Tremendous artwork and writing deliver a story that not only focuses upon the importance of Captain America, but does so in a manner that relates it to contemporary times and issues in a manner that doesn’t feel preachy or forced.  Bunn and LaTour paint a picture of a troubled modern America that needs a Captain America more than ever.  And it still finds room for AIM spider robots.  It’s the kind of story that has me very intrigued regarding Bunn’s future Marvel work.  Grade: B+   — Alex Evans

Spider-Girl #4 – Review

By: Paul Tobin (writer), Matthew Southworth & Paul Azaceta (art), Chris Sotomayor & Andres Mossa (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Tom Brennan

The Story: Anya Corazon settles into her new life without her Dad and Spider-Girl get’s her first villain.

What’s good: After an opening arc that was very ambitious and laid out a lot of groundwork for who Anya Corazon/Spider-Girl is, we see her get her first real villain.  Tobin manages to pack a lot of action into a single issue as we see Spider-Girl taking down regular criminals and having another run-in with Speed Ball before getting to the main course: Ana Kravinoff.  What a good nemesis for Spider-Girl!  One of my biggest complaints with the smaller characters of the Marvel U is that they often are tangling with villains who are way too big for them.  Spider-Girl shouldn’t be fighting Dr. Doom or Doc Ock.  Heck, she shouldn’t even be messing around with Kraven the Hunter, but his nasty and gleefully vicious daughter Ana?  Well, that’s just perfect because Ana is capable enough to be threatening but you also feel like all the other Marvel U heroes in NYC might actually be busy with bigger villains and let Spider-Girl tackle Ana on her own.

There is an art change for this issue as we drop the bevy of artists who worked on the first story arc and pick up Matthew Southworth and Paul Azaceta.  I really enjoyed Southworth’s work on Stumptown with Greg Rucka last year and he’s doing a lot of the same kind of work here.  It is stylistically a big change from last arc, but a change in a good way.  Southworth’s art tends to be a little darker than you might think would be appropriate for a teenage-girl-superhero title, but from all appearances, Tobin isn’t afraid to go to dark places so it should work.  They also continue the practice of keeping Anya/Spider-Girl looking like a small teenage girl and that is so key.  We shouldn’t have any heaving bosoms or curvy hips in this book.  I also really like how well Southworth manages buildings and architecture, which is important for a title, set in NYC.  His art feels like it is in the city.

Superman 80-Page Giant 2011 – Review

By: Too many to list—you’re better off reading the review.

The Story: Jor-El does Mission Impossible; Perry White takes a shot with Wildcat; the many lives of Jimmy Olsen; the inconsistent grammar of Bizarro World; Supergirl’s ten-second boyfriend; Lois Lane’s good deed; and Superboy, the Werewolf Slayer!

The Review: Annuals may be a grab bag of mixed features, they’ve got nothing on these “giants” DC likes to put out now and then.  You can’t always take them too seriously, but they’re often a surprisingly good showcase of unknown or rising talent in DC’s ranks.

Jor-El’s adventure into Krypton’s core starts off strong and has some great thrills, but his stream-of-consciousness narration drags the pace down.  Had Bud Tidwell more page-time, all his Krypton continuity might have paid bigger dividends, but mostly they’re distracting.  Still, you can’t go wrong with Cafu on art duties; from Jor-El’s expression of relief on his successful escape to Krypton’s skyline at night, everything’s just beautiful to look at.  And let’s just agree Bit’s inks and Santiago Arcas’ colors should accompany Cafu’s lines at all times.

Most Daily Planet stories revolve around Lois and Jimmy, the paper’s point men.  But Neil Kleid shows that they’re continuing a journalistic spirit begun by their boss.  Perry White’s boyhood tale of a run-in with Wildcat and the Guardian not only pays tribute to DC’s Golden Age stories, but speaks sentimentally to the bonds between fathers and sons.  Dean Haspiel gives a great retro look to the script that’s appropriate and lively, but also respects the emotional scenes.

In a strange twist, Abhay Khosla and Andy MacDonald’s Jimmy Olsen feature ends up the moodiest story in the issue, sort of discussing the philosophical implications of Jimmy’s multitude of wacky adventures.  It’s narrated and drawn well, and even has some good moments of humor, but lacks grounding.  It feels very Twilight Zone—you sense there’s an important point being made, but the execution is so weird you just wonder how it’s intended to affect or say something about the character.

I have nothing to say about the Bizarro story except it makes little sense—which is fitting, I suppose.  Dan McDaid’s cartoony art is perfect for fun Bizarro hijinks (though the yellowish cast over everything gets nauseating after a while), but Steve Horton doesn’t really offer much in the way of a coherent script, much less one with appreciable humor.

Joe Caramagna gets the right voice for Supergirl—curious, a bit self-conflicted, but hopeful—but it can’t be said he gives her appealing characters to bounce off of.  They seem like they’re just thrown in to give her people to talk to and some easy conflicts.  Sure, there are some clueless guys out there, but these dudes take the cake (“‘Karalinda.’  Asian, huh?”  Seriously?  She’s totally white and blonde!).  Trevor McCarthy draws it fantastically though—his lines are kinetic and youthful, though colored a bit too darkly by Andre Szymanowicz.

Spider-Girl #3 – Review

By: Paul Tobin (writer), Clayton Henry, Tim Seeley & Sergio Cariello (art), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Tom Brennan (editor)

The Story: Spider-Girl continues to deal with the death of her dad.

What’s Good: Marvel is really doing some ambitious stuff with Spider-Girl.  I would LOVE to know if Marvel has made some kind of 12+ issue commitment to the title because Paul Tobin isn’t starting this story in a very predictable place.  What you might expect given that Anya Corazon/Spider-Girl is a spunky teenage girl hero is a rollicking fun 6-issue fight against some D-list villain like Speedball while she juggles high school and boys.  But, Tobin has tossed both us and the character right into deep waters by having her father (and Anya’s only parent) die in the second issue.  Suddenly, she’s an unpowered hero who is also a teenage girl who will have to be responsible for paying the rent and feeding herself.  This issue watches as we deal with Anya’s issues and her attempts to reach out through her support network to find anything she can hold onto during this trying time.  All you people out there demanding “diversity” in comics should be checking this title out because it promises to be unafraid to deal with some very human issues with a character who is relatively unexplored.

The superhero aspect of the title isn’t neglected either, even if it takes a back seat.  How will Spider-Girl react to seeing Red Hulk again?  She’s clearly going to be very angry with him, but what would a 90 pound teenage girl do when she is angry at a SUPER-level character?  How will Red Hulk react to this?  You’ll have to read to find out but it promises to be an interesting story.

In short, this is a really good series that could become something special if Marvel gives it a chance to grow.

The art works.  I’m not going to gush about it because it does look like the art was done by three different artists.  But, if you want your books to ship monthly, that’s the kind of stuff that’ll happen sometimes.  There’s nothing about the art where you think “bad art” and there are a few really nice panels throughout the issue (e.g. the Red Hulk – Spider-Girl panel on page 5 is really nice).

Spider-Girl #2 – Review

By: Paul Tobin (writer), Clayton Henry (art pps 1-13), Ray Anthony Height, Walden Wong, John Livesay & Paris (?) (art pps 14-24), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Tom Brennan (editor)

The Story: Red Hulk runs amok….what’s a Spider Girl to do?

What’s Good: This comic succeeds mostly at what (I think) it is trying to do: Show what it is like for a teenage girl with no powers to be a super-hero and deal with personal loss.

When we last left Spider-Girl, she was coming to her father’s rescue as the Red Hulk went rampaging through Manhattan.  Mind you, her Dad knew she was Spider-Girl and encouraged that behavior giving her a very different vibe than a young Peter Parker or any number of young heroes/heroines in Gotham City (Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, etc.).  What follows is a pretty big punch in the gut.  I’m just going to SPOIL it and say that……….. her Dad dies as a result of Red Hulk’s rampage.  To say that I was really surprised would be an understatement and I’m very intrigued to see what impact this has on young Anya and her desire to be a superhero.  For starters, where will she even live?

I also thought that Tobin did a good job handling the central conflict between Red Hulk and Spider-Girl.  Red Hulk’s obviously demented and not in his right mind and while it is unclear what he is after, it has something to do with Spider-Girl.  Tobin handles this nicely because she needs to show some spunk (because even unpowered heroes cannot squeal, spoil their pants and run when chased by a Hulk), but you can’t have Spider-Girl taking down Red Hulk in issue #2.  There is a story-arc for these sorts of heroes and they don’t get to take out Hulk-class opponents until around issue 20-30.

Batman Annual #28 – Review

By: David Hine (first story writer), Agustin Padilla, Andres Guinaldo, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Walden Wong (first story artists), Tony Avina (first story colorist), Paul Tobin (second story writer), Ramon Bachs (second story penciller), Mick Gray (second story inker), Trish Mulvihill (second story colorist), Kyle Higgins (third story writer), Trevor McCarthy (third story artist), Andre Szymanowicz (third story colorist)

The Story: In the first feature, The Question works alongside both Batmen and Nightrunner to take down a Parisian cult from the inside.  In the second, Veil helps humanitarian clinician Leslie Thompson find regret and fulfillment in her work.  In the third, Nightrunner finds out how tough it is to wear a controversial icon amidst city riots.

The Review: Series annuals are usually a mixed bag.  On the one hand, the bigger page count offers an opportunity to tell big stories outside the continuity of the main ongoing.  Many times, however, you get a bunch of unrelated short stories from various writers and artists, all cobbled together.  This annual definitely falls under the cobbled category.

The editors could have taken a little more care at least in figuring out which story gets placed where.  The obvious connections between the first and third features make them shoo-ins to be companions, since they both involve the Parisian traceur Nightrunner, but they end up bookending the entirely unrelated second feature instead.  This by itself makes the annual a disjointed read.

The sense of disconnect invades the stories themselves.  The first feature jumps around without offering much in the way of what’s going on, or even who some of the characters are.  So much attention gets handed over to The Question (as played by Renee Montoya), it’s easy to forget the story supposedly ties into the Batman Incorporated banner.  Too bad Nightrunner, the candidate to be France’s Batman, doesn’t get more page-time or stuff to do than he does in this issue.  At least he fares better than Leni Urbana, the high-stakes intended victim of the story—at least, you assume so, because never once do you find out exactly who she is or what she does.

If writers want to sell the idea of other heroes taking on Batman’s symbol, then they have to work harder at selling those heroes in the first place.  What little Nightrunner gets to do in this issue is rendered moot by the American heroes.  Even as the focus of the third feature, Nightrunner’s background remains largely mysterious and his personality gets grossly overshadowed by Batman—either one of them.  Kyle Higgins introduces the interesting real-world element of Parisian racial conflicts, then spends too much time talking about them than showing their effects on Nightrunner.  Higgins really would have profited from having more pages to tell his story than he got.

Spider-Girl #1 – Review

By: Paul Tobin (writer), Clayton Henry (artist), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Nate Crosby (editor)

Young Spider-Girl back-up by: Paul Tobin (writer), Dean Haspiel (art), Edgar Delgado (colors) & Joe Caramanga (letters)

The Story: Classic 1st issue fun for a teen-superhero as Spider-Girl starts out dealing with criminals her own size, but gets sucked into a bigger fracas.

What’s Good: I have a hard time getting bored with teenage superhero comic books.  They are often paint-by-numbers as the hero start out tackling smaller villains before gaining mastery over their powers and dealing with some A-list bad guy…. and thus becoming a full-fledged member of the superhero insiders’ club.  But, that is such a classic coming-of-age story that it never feels old (to me).

Spider-Girl #1 hits all the right notes for a series like this as Anya Corazon tries to balance her daily life of school and family with her heroic after hours duties.  In keeping with this type of story, we see her facing off first against Speedball who is a C-list Spider-Man rogue.  That’s fitting.  Anya doesn’t currently have any powers (although she has been combat trained by the Avengers), so Spider-Girl vs. Speedball is a pretty fair fight.

Anya’s personal relationships are also explored and the fun thing is that her Dad knows her secret identity, but when her Dad arranges for Anya to hang out with Sue Richards, Sue has no clue that this teenage girl is swinging around in spandex by night.  That’s just an interesting reversal…usually the teenage hero is trying to conceal their secret identity from their parents not having their Dad be a full-fledged cheerleader for their crime-fighting.

A few writers have used Twitter as a story telling device, but Tobin makes very nice use of it here by letting tweets replace narration boxes.  But, the real bonus for originality is that @The_Spider_Girl is a real Twitter ID and you can follow heron Twitter if you want (I am).  That should be at least moderately interesting for a while.

Henry’s art is spot on.  I didn’t see a single technically unsound panel AND he pulls off the really hard thing for an artist of a young hero: He makes her look like a teenager when she’s in costume.  Anya is a slight teenage girl, so its refreshing to see that she doesn’t suddenly become muscular with a huge chest the second she puts on her costume.  Also, many superheroes are drawn as essentially nude figures with costumes painted on…. not Spider-Girl.  Perhaps the legs and arms are those of a nude figure, but he tones down the “important” parts and that’s appreciated.  I don’t need to see pendulous breasts on a teenage hero!  Nicely done!

The back-up story is also really good, featuring very strong art by Dean Haspiel, it tells the story of young Anya’s first visit with her father to the Baxter building.  Any parent of a precocious little girl will love this!

Amazing Spider-Man #648 – Review

By: Dan Slott (writer), Humberto Ramos (pencils), Carlos Cuevas (inks), Edgar Delgado (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

Spider-Girl back-up by: Paul Tobin (writer), Clayton Henry (art), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Nathan Crosby (editor)

The Story: Spidey enters the Big Time with Avengers action that was better than anything that has been in the actual Avengers comics, science prowess, love and a new job.

What’s Good: This is the perfect Marvel comic book.  It has everything: Iconic character?  Check.  Big action?  Check.  Guest stars that make sense for the story?  Check.  Good characterization?  Check.  Creative use of classic villains?  Check.  Outstanding art?  Check.  Friendly to a new reader while not dumbing it down for long-timers?  Check.   Absence of decompressed storytelling and endless talking heads?  Check.  And this is the biggie…  Feels tied into today’s Marvel Universe?  BIG CHECK.

This comic really has it all.  What makes Spider-Man special are the contrasts.  In this issue we see him function as an Avenger, issuing orders (in typical “aw shucks” mode) to Thor and Iron-Man and using his genius-level brain to solve a problem that is befuddling Reed Richards and Tony Stark.  But, after this reminder of what a powerful hero Spider-Man is, we see that Peter Parker is broke and has nowhere to sleep.  Not even his friends really want to let him crash because he’s gone to the well too often.

What makes Peter special is that he COULD be Tony Stark and have the riches and women, but his sense of responsibility to be Spider-Man requires him to make sacrifices that make his private life so painful.  When is the last time that Tony Stark stood up a dinner date because he was beating up muggers?  This is why we cheer for Peter Parker and love it when things occasionally go right for him.  And they do start to swing his way in this issue….in a big way.  Not that it’ll last, but we can enjoy the moment.  As we transition from the Spidey “brain trust” of rotating writers to Dan Slott doing all the writing, it is so nice to see how clearly Slott understands why Spidey is special.

Humberto Ramos’ art is up to the task of telling this story with Slott.  Between he and Cuevas (on inks) they have made a really nice looking comic.  The characters are very nicely drawn in a cartooning style that works so much better for superheroes than any sort of photorealism.  There is great variety of line thickness, perspective, panel and layouts.  It is also very nice how they do the little things like not abusing splash pages and breaking panel borders in effective ways.  Bravo.

What We’re Looking Forward To In November

Dean

There is a LOT to look forward to in November. For one thing, there is a lot of neat stuff in the Spider-Man world as Amazing Spider-Man kicks off its new “big” story line Big Time written by Dan Slott with art by Humberto Ramos. This is also the end of the thrice-monthly ASM with a rotating team of creators, so it should be interesting. Also in the Spidey-world, we get Spider-Girl #1 by Paul Tobin. This is not Mayday Parker (who could never find a stable audience) but Arana of Young Allies fame. If you like teenage drama, it should be fun. Finally, we get Osborn #1 by Kelly Sue Deconnick and Emma Rios (who are both really good) to see what Marvel’s favorite villain has been up to since Siege ended.

A few other things in Marvel that I’m looking forward to. She-Hulks #1 launches in November with art from Ryan Stegman. Stegman is a very gifted artist and he draws a mean She-Hulk, so this should be good. Although Invincible Iron Man has had slow pacing, the current story arc, Stark Resilient wraps up this month and Matt Fraction seems to have this title headed to a very good climactic battle. For all those Punisher fans who HATED Franken-Castle, you get plain, old, normal Punisher in the Blood #1 from Rick Remender. And finally, there is yet another X-book with Generation Hope. The idea for this book is to have Hope running around with all the “new mutants” who have had their powers come alive since Second Coming.

Over at DC the big news is in the Bat-books as we get 2 new Bruce Wayne titles: Batman, Inc. by Grant Morrison and Batman: The Dark Knight by David Finch. If you’re into Batman, these are going to be must reads. And….after much waiting and delay, we get Batwoman #0 by JH Williams, III. I am really excited for this book and eager to see if it can maintain the quality that Williams and Greg Rucka established during their run on Detective Comics last year. Also, just to prove it isn’t all about new Bat-books, we also get a whole new creative team on the venerable Detective Comics with Scott Snyder of American Vampire fame teaming up with Jock and Francesco Francavilla on what is sure to be very well done series of Dick Grayson stories.

Not a whole lot going on over at Image, but folks might want to take a look at Utopian #1 by Marc Guggenheim. The story is: “What happens after the heroes win and the world is saved?” Image has become the go-to publisher for many creators to do interesting things, so this has promise.

 

 

Alex

While I’m as excited about all the Grant Morrison stuff as the next guy, the Batman title that really has my eye is Detective Comics #871 by Scott Snyder and Jock. It’s an utterly fantastic creative team and Snyder’s promise of a realistic, CSI type Batman has me curious. Of course, there’s also Batwoman #0 by JH Williams III to consider, which anyone with a pulse should be excited for.

Outside of Batman, I find myself confronted by two relaunches of titles I’m either completely unfamiliar with and/or indifferent to. Yet I’m picking them both up. They are THUNDER Agents #1 by Nick Spencer and CAFU and Superboy #1 by Jeff Lemire and Pier Gallo. In both cases, it’s the creative teams that have me excited, crewed as they are by exciting new talent with writers that have proven track records outside the superhero realm.

At Marvel, it’s all about Spider-Man’s Big Time. Now bi-monthly with a steady, and good, creative team, I’m happy to be back aboard with Amazing Spider Man #648 and #649 with Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos. Hopefully big times are also good times. Meanwhile, Thor #617 by Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry has my attention as well, with its seeming promise of a reincarnated Loki. Fractions other book, Invincible Iron Man #32, also isn’t to be missed as it concludes the excellent slow-burn of “Stark Resilient” in explosive fashion.

Finally, it’s a big, but sad, month at Vertigo as two excellent titles reach their conclusions. Madame Xanadu #29 goes out with a bang as main series artist Amy Reeder returns for the farewell. Meanwhile,  Unknown Soldier #25 is sure to end things in bloody and tragic fashion, as Joshua Dysart’s fictional tale directly collides with a real world villain of the worst kind. On a happier note, Fables #100 is a giant-sized book of excitement featuring a mega-powered duel; it’s also a landmark for Vertigo, an imprint for whom longevity isn’t common.

 

SoldierHawk

So I’ve been harping on it since it was announced months ago, but my pick for November is, without question, Batwoman #0, the prelude to the new Batwoman ongoing series written and illustrated by J.H. Williams III. I’m quite literally X-ing the days off my calendar until this comes out. Kate Kane/Batwoman are fantastic characters and–perhaps even more importantly–she has a fabulous supporting cast surrounding her. Even leaving all that aside… MORE J.H. WILLIAMS III ARTWORK! That alone will be worth the cover price.

I’m also really, really looking forward both to the first Kill Shakespeare Trade (which collects Kill Shakespeare issues #1-6), and to issue #7. This series has been a gem (albeit a slightly rough one in spots) since its launch last April, and issue #6 set some very interesting plot points and characters into motion. I’m waiting with baited breath to see how this is going to play out, and what other famous Shakespeare creations might throw themselves into the mix.

 

World War Hulks #1 – Review

by Jeff Parker, Harrison Wilcox, Scott Reed, & Paul Tobin (writers), Zach Howard, Ben Oliver, Aluir Amancio, Ramon Rosanas, Ryan Stegman, & Ig Guara (artists)

The Story: As Fall of the Hulks transitions into World War Hulks, we pause for a moment to get glimpses into the recent pasts of some of the major players of the story-line.  And no, none of them are the Hulk.

What’s Good: Well, I’ve got to admit that I had low expectations for this one, and I was generally not surprised with what I found.  However, the two stories (out of the six) that I actually got some enjoyment out of were the two that I was convinced would be the worst.  Harrison Wilcox’s Red She-Hulk tale and Jeff Parker’s Deadpool yarn are hardly worth the price of admission, but they succeed at being illuminating and funny, respectively.  Parker’s introduction of Hulkpool in particular induced a few smirks from this reviewer, as did the return of Bob, Agent of… well, you’ll see.

Iron Man/Hulk/Fury #1 – Review

By: Iron Man: Paul Tobin (writer), Ronan Cliquet (pencils), Chris Sotomayor (colors) Hulk: Frank Tieri (writer), Salva Espin (pencils), Guru eFX & Chris Sotomayor (colors) Fury: Joe Caramagna (writer), Hugo Petras (pencils), Chris Sotomayor (colors)

The Story: This comic tells three short stories taking place in the Marvel Film Universe. The Iron Man story shows Tony before events of the film, and shows what happened right before his press conference at the end. The Hulk story details an encounter between Banner and Fury. When exactly it takes place in relation to the movie isn’t totally clear, but Fury has been sent to see if Ross really came across something with the Super-Solider serum. Finally, Nick Fury’s tale is heavy on espionage as Nick attempts to smoke out a traitor within SHIELD.

What’s Good: Iron Man’s portion really nails the tone of the film. The Tony Starks in this book feels so much like the film’s Tony, you can believe that these scenes could’ve served as extra features for the dvd. Also Fury’s inner monologue in the Hulk story also reads very well. He’s smooth, relaxed, and badass without being cliche.

What’s Not So Good: The Hulk-Fury story is inconsistent. Tony’s story wasn’t anything new or groundbreaking, but it also wasn’t a rehash of the movie. Fury could easily be replaced by Ross or anyone else as he tells us how careful and smart Banner is. There’s also a huge tonal shift between each story. That isn’t a problem, but what’s lacking is a clearly defined start/stop point to the stories. Without a title page or something at the start of each, the shift from story to story is very jarring.

Conclusion: The book is a little misleading. I didn’t know it was a movie tie-in upon purchase. Granted movie tie-ins are normally bad, so it’s probably for the best that they didn’t plaster that over the cover. Still, with Ultimate Fury on the cover most people will probably think it’s an Ultimate Universe story which isn’t the case. Decent art and a solid story for about a 3rd of a comic aren’t really compelling arguments to part with your four bucks.

Grade C-

-Ben Berger