Incredible Hulk #1 – Review

By: Jason Aaron (writer), Marc Silvestri & Michael Broussard (pencils), Joe Weems, Rick Basaldua & Sal Regla (inks), Sunny Gho (colors), Ed Dukeshire (letters), Jake Thomas (assistant editor) & Mark Paniccia (editor)

The Story: Can the Hulk get some peace and quiet?

Five Things: 

1.  Hulk and Banner split up.  The dual nature of the Hulk does make him interesting, but I personally think that these stories where Hulk and Banner are physically separated causes too many “How do they do that?” problems for me to have much fun with the story.  I mean, where does the actual matter that composes the second body come from?  How does the separation work?  Does Hulk vomit Banner or something?  I know I should just roll with it and enjoy the story (and I largely DO), but it is a little bothersome.

2. Energetic art.  It doesn’t really matter who draws the Hulk as long as they can make him energetic and powerful and this team is up to the task.  In the panels where Hulk needs to look fast and powerful, he looks….well….fast and powerful.  They also do an nice job on the quieter scenes where Hulk is contemplating his seclusion.  It could be a minor art red flag that on this #1 issue we have a person credited as “penciling assist” and three inkers.  That’s the kind of thing you usually see on the last issue of an arc where the primary penciller can’t quite make it to the finish line on time.  BUT, it doesn’t affect the quality of art, so it’s just worth a raised eyebrow for now.

3. Sunny Gho does a great job coloring.  One of my favorite comic art performances recently was the duo of Kenneth Rocafort and Sunny Gho on Velocity.  At the time, I gave most of the credit to Rocafort and while I still really enjoy his art, seeing Gho’s performance in this issue makes me realize what an important part of Velocity Gho was as well.  If you’re familiar with Silvestri’s art, you know that it isn’t clean art….he’s got a LOT of lines and shading going on in a page.  Gho’s art matching this complexity as the coloring is just as intricate as the linework.  It almost looks like watercolors.  Beautiful!

Artifacts #4 – Review

By Ron Marz (writer), Michael Broussard (pencils), Chris Johnson (background assist), Rick Basaldua, Joe Wee,s. Jason Gorder and Sal Regla (inks), Sunny Gho and Felix Serrano (colors) and Troy Peteri (letters)

The Story: Events are happening quickly now that (nearly) all the Artifact Bearers have chosen sides. All that remains is the discovery and recruitment of the unknown Thirteenth Bearer, on whom the outcome of the fast-approaching final confrontation hinges.

What’s Good: Marz and company continue to deliver the goods as the slow-burn buildup of Artifacts gets set to explode in the second act. This is not a big, flashy issue, however–its beauty (and meat) lies in smaller character moments and confrontations (Magdalena coming face to face with Tom Judge was easily the highlight for me), and that works very well indeed. Although the looming fear of Armageddon still hangs over every word and action, its nice to see the characters interacting on a more personal level, and doing something besides fret about the fate of creation. It was a much-needed break, and very well handled. It also goes to show the tenuous nature of the alliances on both sides (although our heroes do seem to be in a slightly worse spot than the villains on that count.)

All the discussion about the Thirteenth Artifact Bearer has me very, very curious as well. Fan speculation right now is leaning towards the notion that Sara’s daughter Hope is the Thirteenth Artifact…but not only would that be a little TOO clichéd and convenient (I hope) for what Marz seems to have in mind, it also seems to be, if not disproved, at least made far less likely by the fact that the villains do currently posses her. If Hope does turn out to be the Thirteenth Artifact itself (or something similarly important), it’s going to make the villains look awfully, awfully stupid. Like I said though, I don’t think that’s the direction this is heading…. at least I hope it isn’t.

Also: art is still outstanding. Feel free to cut and paste the gushing from my previous reviews here. Broussard and company are continuing to knock this thing out of the park.

Artifacts #3 – Review

By Ron Marz (writer), Michael Broussard (pencils), Facundo Percio, Stjepan Sejic, Paolo Pantalena, Sheldon Mitchell and Nelson Blake II (additional pencils), Rick Basaldua, Joe Weems, Sal Regla (inks), Sunny Gho and IFS (colors), Troy Peteri (letters)

The Story: The prolog is over, and the two sides of the great battle are starting to take shape as both Aphrodite and Tom Judge start recruiting. Sara finds herself caught in the middle of this great war to come, when all she wants is to get her daughter back.

What’s Good: It’s redundant to say it at this point—and I have a feeling this redundancy will continue through all 13 issues of Artifacts–but Marz and Broussard continue to put out a fantastic product. Broussard (and company’s) pencils are beautiful and evocative, and Marz’s writing is dynamic and immensely satisfying. Marz’s expertise is well documented at this point, but special kudos need to go to the penciling team who not only helped things get back on track in terms of release dates, they do a fantastic job not of copying Broussard’s style exactly, but creating extremely complementary styles that mesh well and create an excellent story and a very visually appealing product.

This is a particularly important issue, in that it ends the setup for the Artifacts event, and begins the action that will drive the story forward. This is a delicate transition, because rather than focusing on the singular emotional event of Hope’s abduction, or reviewing the motivations of a few characters, the series must now shift into dealing with huge, globally-scaled events and dozens of characters. This issue makes a good start, even throwing in one final review of the 12 known Artifacts and their bearers, but it does remain to be seen how such an all-encompassing event will unfold in subsequent issues.

Artifacts #2 – Review

By Ron Marz (writer), Michael Broussard (pencils), Rick Basaldua, Joe Weems and Sal Regla (inks), Sunny Gho of IFS (colors) and Troy Peteri (letters)

The Story: The bearers of the thirteen Artifacts begin to take their place and forage alliances as Armageddon approaches. In the meantime, two bearers in particular—Sara Pezzini, wielder of the Witchblade and Jackie Estacado who contains the Darkness—must deal with an additional, and very personal, crisis: their daughter has been kidnapped.

What’s Good: What a fantastic story Ron Marz is building here. Well written, perfectly paced, and new-reader friendly without insulting the intelligence and knowledge of people who have been following the Top Cow Universe for some time. This is what a major comic book event should look like. I don’t need a bunch of crossovers, I don’t need every single huge big-name character in the company worked into the first issue, and I don’t need the entire plot spelled out for me. Especially in issue two of a 13-issue event, all you need to do is hook me with good storytelling, and give me a general sketch of where you’re going with the event. This is exactly what Marz delivers. He doesn’t flood us with information, but he doesn’t hold back and play coy either. It is very, very effective, and falls squarely within my own personal Goldilocks Zone.

Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia #1

By Matt Fraction (Writer), Marc Silvestri (Pencils), Michael Broussard, Eric Basaldua, Tyler Kirkham, & Sheldon Mitchell (Pencil Assists), Joe Weems w/ Marco Galli, Eric Basaldua, Rick Basaldua, Jason Gorder, Jay Leisten, Sal Regla, Jon Sibal, and Ryan Winn (Inks), and Frank D’Armata (Colors)

The Story: A riot breaks out as the March for Humanity (led by Simon Trask and his Humanity Now! coalition) reaches San Francisco’s mutant population. The confrontation sparks a wave of violence between mutants and humans that spreads throughout the streets of San Francisco and other nearby cities. With chaos reigning, Norman Osborn sends his Avengers in to restore some order by any means necessary. There is also another plan at work, something far more sinister…

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: The best thing about the first chapter of Utopia is its strong ending. It’s genuinely surprising and it brings to mind a number of interesting possibilities. What’s disappointing though, is how long it feels like it takes to get the ending that makes the Utopia one-shot worth reading.

While Matt Fraction does a very nice job of ramping up the tension in San Francisco and establishing a sense of scale to the mutant/ human conflict, too much of Utopia #1 feels like fluff. What Fraction establishes in over thirty pages could have easily been taken care of with less than twenty-five. Now, with that said, just because it’s padding, doesn’t mean it’s bad.

Fraction does a lot of great things with the various characters he is allowed to play with. Fluff or not, there’s no denying how well written Utopia is. The scene between Cyclops and Toad is absolutely fantastic, as is the short Hawkeye/ Bullseye appearance. The page showing how others are reacting to the San Francisco mess is also very effective in a “short, but sweet” way.

What bothers me about Fraction’s story is that it makes Cyclops look rather foolish early on. The March for Humanity had apparently been marching hundreds of miles for quite sometime before reaching San Francisco. I find it hard to believe that a character like Cyclops (or any other “X” leader) would not be on top of things regarding how to deal with Trask’s march. Yeah, I know, that complaint is a bit of a nitpick in the larger scheme of things, but after all the character rehab Cyclops has gone through…

By now you’ve probably noticed that I have yet to mention Utopia’s artwork. There’s a reason for that. You know that phrase “Too many cooks in the kitchen?” Yeah… The artwork in Utopia #1 brings that phrase to mind quite often.

Now I’ll leave the “Top Cow” style stuff for you to decide on (expect subtle scenes to look anything but subtle…poses aplenty). What I will discuss, however, is the fact that the first issue of Utopia has visuals that are, when taken as a whole, quite disappointing. For every great looking scene, there is one that serves as a terrible reminder that the art team is made up of fourteen different people. Simply put, Utopia #1 is wildly inconsistent– visually. At least the whole thing has a cohesive look to it though. It really could have been so much worse considering how many people had a hand in creating the artwork.

Conclusion: The Utopia crossover shows a lot of promise, but it takes a while to understand why. If you can deal with the occasionally rough visuals and the sense that things have been stretched out a bit, you’ll find a lot to like about the Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia one-shot.

Grade: C+

-Kyle Posluszny

Witchblade Annual – Review

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I’ve been a fan of Witchblade for a long time. It’s surprising that the annual is the first one the series has ever had. It’ll be interesting to see what one of my favorite writers, Jay Faerber, does with one of my favorite characters.

“If Looks Could Kill” – Jay Faerber (Writer), Eric Basaldua (Pencils), Rick Basaldua (Inks), Dulce Brassea & Alix Minjarez (Ink Assists), and John Starr (Colors)

The Story: A beautiful woman commits murder and then has no recollection of the event. As it turns out, she’s not the only one suffering from a case of the murder and amnesia combo. The only thing the ladies have in common is that they all had work done by the same respected plastic surgeon. Coincidence? Sara Pezzini doesn’t think so.

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: The first story in the Witchblade Annual, “If Looks Could Kill” is a classic Witchblade story in every way. Whether that’s a good or bad thing is something that I’d rather leave up to you, the reader, to decide. If you miss the days when Witchblade was a T and A fest with some action and supernatural mystery thrown in, then you’ll definitely find a lot to like about the first part of the Annual. If you prefer how Witchblade is now, a cop story/supernatural epic that stays in touch with it’s roots thanks to a small side of T and A, then you will probably find “If Looks Could Kill” to be pretty basic (and probably somewhat obnoxious).

Personally, I prefer how Witchblade is now as opposed to how it used to be. That said, I have to give credit where it is due. “If Looks Could Kill” is definitely a success on a technical level. The writing is sharp and the visuals do a nice job of taking advantage of the story being told (even if the all supermodels populating the story do look a bit inconsistent and interchangeable).

“Ned” – Joshua Cozine & Joe Henderson (Writers), Sheldon Mitchell (Pencils), Rick Basaldua (Inks), Dulce Brassea & Alix Minjarez (Ink Assists), and Blond (Colors)

The Story: Number thirteen, that’s how Ned is known in the prison he has been sent to. Why number thirteen? Because Ned is the thirteenth cellmate Mr. Ian Nottingham has had. But all is not as it seems with the timid Ned…

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: “Ned” is an odd story, especially in comparison to “If Looks Could Kill.” The first story works as a standalone read, but “Ned” seems to be all about laying the groundwork for future Witchblade stories. Longtime readers will no doubt recognize the name “Nottingham” and all the rest will no doubt be intrigued by the introduction of the mysterious inmate Ned. So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that “Ned” is an interesting read that features some compelling dialogue and sufficiently moody artwork, but it seems like the story would be better suited as a backup story in a regular issue of Witchblade as opposed to the Annual.

Conclusion: The first Witchblade Annual presents two very different, though quite decent stories in a way that should please both new and longtime fans. I recommend checking it out if you like Witchblade or have wanted to give it a try.

Grade: B

-Kyle Posluszny