Quick Hit Reviews – Week of March 23, 2011

Amazing what a sneaky heavy week of comics last week was, eh?  But, we here at WCBR endeavor to bring you the broadest coverage possible, even when we can’t get a full review up for every comic on the stands….

Daredevil Reborn #3 – Ugh.  This is really not good!  I hate to be flip at the expense of something that a comic creator put his effort into, but if Diggle’s run on DD were a boxing match, the referee would be stopping the fight and sparing us the final issue of this miniseries.  Let’s just skip ahead to the Mark Waid series coming in a few months and be done with it.  Here we continue seeing Matt Murdock (and his well groomed neck beard….Where does Matt shave btw?) locked into his battle against small-town cops from hell.  The story just isn’t that compelling.  Matt/Daredevil isn’t a creature of the desert…….he’s a man of the shadows and that’s the only place I want to see him.  Did you know he can drive a truck?  Well, he can provided that he kicks out the windshield first so his echolocation works…..  Did you know while driving said truck, he can also tell when he has cars catching up behind the truck?  Don’t know how that one works…..  Grade: D-

Kick Drum Comix #1 – Now this was some electric stuff!  Holy cow did I love this issue that was actually the very LAST off the pile due to his non-standard format (kinda Golden Age height, but not Golden Age width).  Brought to us by Jim Mahfood, Kick Drum Comix offers two stories of urban action that will be loved by anyone with an affinity for 80’s/90’s R&B/Urban/Punk music.  The first story follows the saga of the Popmaster from his roots in early hip-hop music to becoming a take NO prisoners, hard-core music mogul and his eventual struggle with his estranged daughter.  The second story is revolves around two urban youths with a love for Johnny Coltrane.  Mahfood illustrates the whole issue in a crazy style that is really hard to explain.  His panels are SO content-filled that you can just stare at them and continue to notice great new elements.  Just be sure to buy this.  You’ll love it! Grade: A

Echoes #4 – The psychological creepfest keeps chugging into a strong 4th issue.  As if the basic premise of the series wasn’t disturbing enough (whether a 30-ish man has “inherited” from his father a predilection for killing small girls and making tiny dollies out of their skin, bones & hair), now we are teased with a couple of double-reverses to the story that makes me wonder if it is all in the main character’s head.  Joshua Hale Fialkov is really bringing the plot twists in this one!  And Rahsan Ekedal is contributing great B&W art by being the one thing that this series really needs: creepy!  Grade: B+

Marineman #4 – So what if it is a little derivative of Aquaman?  We all wish Aquaman could be this interesting of a character!  Steve Ocean (a.k.a. Marineman) is a really fun character that seems to have all of Aquaman’s abilities, but he isn’t a dick!  In fact, he’s so incredibly likable that you spend most of the issue cheering for him to succeed.  Ian Churchill is doing career-best artwork on this series too.  Everything about his Marineman just screams “larger than life” and I’ve rarely seen more compelling underwater scenes due to the outstanding coloring.  Grade: B+

WCBR Quick Hit Reviews – Week of 12/15/2010

Sometimes we get a few more comics than we can review in full, so here are the balance of the comics read by the WCBR staff, some good, and some pretty bad.

Thunderbolts #151 – This was a great little story that tells the origin of Ghost (for those who care of such things).  Again, Jeff Parker smashes an incredible amount of story into a normal sized comic.  Goodness do I wish he could rub off on some of his fellow Marvel creators (e.g. Fraction, Matt).  At the end, you’re crystal clear on why Ghost hates corporations and you really don’t blame him.  Very nice art by Kev Walker! Grade: B+ — Dean Stell

Doc Macabre #1 – Why buy this odd horror comic from IDW?  Well, it is drawn by Bernie Wrightson and that is reason enough for me.   Wrightson is a Hall of Fame-level comic artist who still has his fastball.  This comic looks great!  As for the story, it is about some young ghost hunter guy (Doc Macabre) who uses his wizardry and gadgets to get rid of ghosts and zombies for money.  Story is entertaining, but nothing spectacular.  Worth buying if you love beautiful sequential art.  Grade: B — Dean Stell

Captain America: Man Out of Time #2 – By Mark Waid (writer), Jorge Molina (pencils), Karl Kesel (inks), Frank D’Armata (colors), VC’s Joe Sabino (letters) I’m already on record as loving the premise of this book, and this issue has me loving the execution right along with it. Although Cap’s wild and rather exaggerated mood swings could have very easily come across as silly or out of character, Waid brings out just the right note in each episode to not only keep them realistic, but to use them to reinforce Steve Rogers’ essential humanity. (After all, who WOULDN’T go just a little bit nuts after being unfrozen, time-traveled, and brought face to face with an alien in the same two or three hour time span!) Special note has to be taken of the short but very sweet scene where Cap discovers his personal proof that he is not trapped in a dream. Moments like that, while possible in other mediums, are what make comics so special. A perfect marriage of a single, powerful static image and piece of dialog that packs (a rather unexpected) emotional punch. Very well done, and well worth picking up.  Grade: B — SoldierHawk

Meta 4 #1 – Review

By: Ted McKeever (writing, art, lettering)

The Story: It’s hard to say…something about an amnesiac astronaut staggering around in his space-suit while running into hookers, pimps and a muscle woman in a Santa Claus suit in a public restroom.

What’s Good: It’s right there in the title…the word “meta”.  It also says right on the cover “A 5-issue allegorical series in Black and White”.  So, if you bought this because it had a spaceman on the cover and you thought he would be fighting aliens and there would be ray-guns…you can’t complain too much.

If you like comics that are different, this might be something for you.  Nothing is shoveled in front of you on a silver platter in this issue.  You’ve gotta work for it.  But, how can you not at least enjoy a little bit a fight between a crazy guy in a space-suit, a large pimp and Santa Claus in this bathroom in what appears to be a town that was abandoned after a 1940’s nuclear bomb test?

I guess my point is that even if you are confused as hell, I want to know where they are?  Why is there a huge muscle woman in the Santa suit?  If it is a nuclear test site, why is Santa there?  And, why are prostitutes and pimps in a place where there aren’t likely to be many customers?  Why is this guy staggering around in a space suit?  When does this take place?

This whole story is told with a very minimal amount of dialog.  In some places, McKeever goes for mere symbols in place of actual text to indicate what the character is saying or emoting.  It’s all very clever.  The art is very simple and straightforward, black and white line work.  It works very well for this subject matter.