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.

Dean’s Drive-by Reviews

My pull list is way too long (even after a fairly vigorous pruning recently), so just about every week I read a few comics that don’t get the full review treatment from us here at WCBR.  But, it still seems fair to give the comic a quick thumbs up/thumbs down…

Iron Man – Thor #2 – Sometimes I wonder why I have such a long pull list.  Rhetorically, why do I take so many chances on comic books when I know that most will be mediocre?  Well….comics like this one are the reason.  The #1 issue (of 4) was nothing special.  Not bad, but nothing good either.  But, this comic was just all kinds of kick ass.  It features Thor and Iron Man immediately after the events of Siege.  They get pulled into a scheme by the High Evolutionary (who I love) to create a “new god for the 21st century” on the premise that the current gods are old and archaic.  In his mind a new god must incorporate diving power AND technology and get this…..[SPOILER WARNING]…..he wants Tony Stark to be the new god.  Cool, huh?  It also features Volstagg loaning out a pet dragon to Thor to serve as bloodhound.  Scott Eaton’s art is great and Veronica Gandini’s color just pop.  My only complaint is that continuity….how does this happen right after Seige?  I thought that is what Avengers Prime was?  Oh well.  It is funny how a good comic makes continuity problems wash away.  Grade: A-

I, Zombie #8 – This title took ~5 issues to get its feet under it because Chris Roberson had a LOT of groundwork to lay for his world, but this comic is really working now.  His neat world has friendly zombies, vampire, ghosts, possessed animals and ancient monster hunters and there is a lot to like.  And of course Mike and Laura Allred’s art is really impressive.  I love how they can draw attractive women without having them look like skanks.  Grade: B

She-Hulks #2 – This is just a whacky fun comic.  It isn’t central to the Marvel universe, but if you’re a She-Hulk fan, it is not to be missed.  It’s also a good comic for those trying to find a good comic with heroic women (something in short supply in comics sometimes).  The basic story is that Jen She-Hulk and Lyra, the Savage She-Hulk, are fighting the Intelligencia.  That leads to enough shenanigans, but when you mix in that Lyra is also trying to deal with the rigors of high school, the fun just ratchets up a notch.  Ryan Stegman’s art is not to be missed.  Grade: B

Wolverine: The Best There Is #1 – I’m not sure if it is “the best there is”, but it does have some promise.  The main draw here (for me) is Juan Jose Ryp’s art.  I’m all about artists who “go for it” and Ryp does that in a few places in this comic.  The story is just okay.  It’s a little derivative since we’ve all seen stories where someone is trying to do kidnap or otherwise twist Wolverine to their own purposes.  And, the story was a little disjointed and didn’t really come together for me.  Charlie Huston (the writer) could also have fed Ryp a few more scantily clad women and blood/guts since that is where he excels (and not as much with talking heads).  Editorially, I wonder what is up with this title.  Really…another Wolverine title that seems to be only partially related to continuity in either the X-books or the other Wolverine books?  Why not just call it Wolverine-Max and just turn Ryp loose to do his thing?  THAT would be awesome.  Despite the story/editorial challenges, I’ll be sticking around for Ryp’s art.  Grade: C+

Batman 80-Page Giant 2010 #1 – This was okay and solid.  The problem is that it is 80-pages long and that is a LOT of “okay and solid” to read.  Nothing in this comic was remotely “bad”, but the overall comic commits the cardinal sin for an anthology of not having a single superlative story.  The best story is Peter Miriani and Szymon Kudranski’s harrowing Joker story, but it is first story of the issue.  Then you get your energy sapped by a few of the middle stories and have to limp to the finish.  I hate to say bad things about it, because no single story was dreadful, but I was glad when it was over.  I also generally want to see anthologies take more risks from a storytelling standpoint and these were all pretty standard short stories with Batman’s villains.  Hard to recommend at $5.99.  Grade: C-

Generation Hope #2 – I preorder my comics, so even if #1 is bad (which happened with Generation Hope) I am usually still stuck with issue #2.  Sometimes that gives the comic a chance to find its feet, but not in this case.  This was a confused mess.  I spent a lot of my time confused about what was going on in the story and I didn’t like how a lot of the action in this comic was handled by Cyclops and Wolverine.  There are ~20 comics to see Cyclops and Wolverine…..I wanted this comic to star Hope, but she spends most of this issue knocked out of action.  Not an auspicious start to her semi-solo title.  Espin’s art is fine.  But….  Grade: D

– Dean Stell

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.