Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint #1 – Review

By: Rex Ogle (writer), Eduardo Francisco & Paulo Siqueira (pencillers), Roland Paris (inker), Stefani Renee (colorist)

The Story: I swear, if I had a dollar every time someone says “The end is near…”

The Review: With the main Flashpoint series driving itself through the plot as fast as it can, there hasn’t actually been much opportunity to get acquainted with this brand new world.  But even the handful of changes shown to us has been pretty juicy, making you (if you’re an altered-universe fan like me) eager to see more.  World of Flashpoint is meant to satisfy that curiosity, while at the same time deliver an important plot of its own.  This first issue delivers neither.

Setting aside the questionable decision to use Traci 13 as our guide, she simply hasn’t done a very good job of it.  She spends the whole issue in an underground bunker, except for a brief teleport to the streets of New York City, which aside from some petty street crime and panic doesn’t seem altogether too different.  Certainly, a couple kids stealing some food doesn’t feel like just cause for Traci to conclude “The world’s gone to hell.”

In fact, Traci spends most of the time repeating how doomed the world seems, without letting you see almost any of it yourself.  Besides, little of what she says goes beyond the major points you’re well aware of (e.g. the destruction of Western Europe and the UK by Aquaman and Wonder Woman, respectively), hardly shedding light on what else went wrong with this world.

Even worse, many of these tidbits (as revealed through a few vague anecdotes by Madame Xanadu) serve only to confuse you further as to how the world got to this state.  For example, she claims the original Justice Society never came together because “they were not powerful enough.  They needed someone…faster.”  Why the lack of a Flash made the JSA fall apart makes no sense; was Dr. Fate and the Spectre insufficient firepower or something?

Amazing Spider-Man #654 – Review

By: Dan Slott (plot), Fred Van Lente (script), Stefano Caselli (art), Marte Garcia (colors), Joe Caramanga (letters) & Stephen Wacker (editor)

Venom back-up: Dan Slott (writer), Paulo Siqueira & Ronan Cliquet de Oliveira (pencils), Siqueira, Roland Paris & Greg Adams (inks), Fabio D’Auria (colors), Caramanga (letters) & Wacker (editor)

The Story: Spidey deals with a threat to his secret identity while fighting the Spider Slayers.  Oh, also  someone dies.

What’s Good: “Another fast paced and romping issue of Amazing Spider-Man”….  That has been a solid descriptor for every issue since Dan Slott took the reins of this title in issue #648.  Again, this issue is action packed and uses a blend of Spidey’s superhero and scientist sides (with a clever twist on the secret identity).  Slott has really embraced this role as hero/scientists and the series is better for it.

Another thing that I love about ASM is how much it feels like New York.  As much as I love fictional places like Gotham, there has always been something neat about being able to imagine a NYC with Spider-Man in it.  Both Slott and Van Lente are New York guys, so it makes sense that they’d nail it.  Perhaps it is “east coast bias” on my part, but I enjoy the authenticity of a NYC setting way more than stories that are vaguely set in the Pacific NW where it rains all the time.

There is also a chance that we’re going to see some lasting change in J.Jonah Jameson.  Something HUGE happens to the guy in this issue and you can’t help but think that it could change how he views the world.  Let’s just hope that it is a change that sticks.  Jonah is such an important supporting character and it would be nice to see him stretch his legs a little bit.

Dark X-Men: The Confession #1 – Review

By Craig Kyle and Chris Yost (writers), Bing Cansino (Penciller), Roland Paris (Inker)

The Story: Secrets that have been eating at both Scott and Emma– secrets that could break them apart and exile them from the X-Men, must surface.

What’s Good: Kyle and Yost deliver some very fine character and relationship work in this one-shot. Shameful secrets are caustic to a relationship. They’re minor betrayals that eat away at the bridges between people in love. The writing team understands that and shows us the cracks between Scott and Emma, as well as the pain it causes them. There are lots of great elements here, served in non-linear, interrupting dialogue, just the way it would be in real life if two people were grasping at a difficult honesty in a last-ditch try to stay together. Scott and Emma, as all the best lovers can be, are experts at denial. They also live in fear of losing each other, and this, more than any love scene Kyle and Yost could have written, really showed the depths of Scott and Emma’s love. And telling the truth, for each of them, is hard, despite how quickly Scott forces it once he’s made up his mind to do so.

One last bit I really liked relates to how every villain looks in the mirror and sees a hero. Every villain justifies himself. That’s a good rule, but it ignores the role of shame, and of people who know the difference between right and wrong, and either through weakness and choices, do not follow the high road. Scott and Emma both suffer from this and it’s poignant stuff.

The art was quite suited to the emotional moments. The art is a very fine-lined style in spots, but the faces are as expressive as they need to be to carry the emotional weight the writing team has put on the story.

What’s Not So Good: The art team’s style was a bit strained in some of the action flashbacks, with occasionally awkward postures, especially around Wolverine and that last splash page. And where the fine lines and light inks made the emotional story work, they kept the action scenes from having the weight and depth they needed to really evoke tension and danger.

Conclusion: Kyle and Yost deliver a really strong boy loses girl character story, tied to everything that’s going on in the Marvel Universe right now. And I have to say, there’s a lot more to this couple than there ever was with Scott’s relationship with Jean.

Grade: B+

-DS Arsenault