Silver Surfer #5 – Review

By: Dan Slott (story), Michael Allred (art), Laura Allred (colors)

The Story: The Lord of Nightmares has his worst nightmare.

The Review: Of all the new Marvel titles I’ve picked up this year, Silver Surfer is probably the one I find hardest to review. It’s not enough for me to say that I enjoy it, which I do consistently; if my love for chicken nuggets taught me anything, it’s that enjoyment is a poor gauge for quality. My difficulty with Silver Surfer is figuring out what kind of title it wants to be. Is there any depth to be had, or is it just straight sci-fi-adventure?

This issue pushes the series toward the latter. From front to back, the plot is completely self-explanatory and almost childishly simple: the Lord of Nightmares has fallen asleep and must be awaken before the night has ended lest the world sleepwalk in bad dreams forever. That this is a done-in-one should already tell you that Norrin and Dawn have little difficulty with his particular challenge, making the situation seem less dire than everyone hypes it up to be.

Original Sin #2 – Review

Jason Aaron (Writer), Mike Deodato (Artist), Frank Martin (Color Artist).

The Story: Who holds the eye?

The Review: The answer to the above question has more than one answer, as this issue we learn the identities of a trio of characters who hold one of the Watcher’s eyes. The character reveals are seriously out of left field, certainly not the usual suspects  which is a wonderful change of pace from the usual annual event tradition of recognizable heroes, villains and narrowed focus. Much as I delighted at the oddball team-ups that occurred in the first issue, the villain partnership that is presented in #2 feels incredibly fresh and exciting. The mystery angle of this series is quickly displaying how effective it is at throwing curve balls at, and surprising readers. Lets hope that the remaining six issues continue this trend.

The story’s scope continues to grow with this issue as more heroes become involved, Avengers, X-men, street-level heroes and newer faces like Nova join the manhunt for Uatu’s murderer. Not all of the characters play key roles in the issue but their inclusion does give the series the star power it needs for it’s summer blockbuster status. Where the issue does really shine is when it focuses on Nick Fury, clearly the star of the series, taking on a not-so-Mindless One in his flying car above New York. Aaron writes a fantastic Nick Fury, utilizing an array of outlandish spy gadgets to interrogate and later dispatch of his quarry with Steranko-esque style.

Captain Marvel #13 – Review

By: Kelly Sue DeConnick (story), Scott Hepburn & Gerardo Sandoval (art), Jordie Bellaire & Andy Troy (colors)

The Story: That awkward moment when you realize your foe has been spying on you all along.

The Review: You may recall in my review of Avengers: The Enemy Within #1 the thinly veiled irritation I had over DeConnick pointlessly continuing her Captain Marvel storyline in another title altogether.  For an issue that had Avengers in its name, it really had little to do with the Avengers, and for anyone who wasn’t somewhat intimate with the plot already, much of its significance would have been lost.  So yeah, I wasn’t particularly impressed by the issue.

I was even less so when I came in to buy my comics for the week and discovered, upon opening this latest installment of Captain Marvel, that I was reading the third chapter of the “Enemy Within” storyline, not the second.  When I flipped to Enemy Within #1 again, I was nonplussed to find on its final page an announcement that the storyline would continue in Avengers Assemble #16.*  My running thought was, Really?  Has the situation gotten so out of hand that it’s not an Avengers problem and not just a big Carol problem?

Avengers #4 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Dean White (colors), and Cory Petit (letters)

The Story: In the future, the Avengers encounter the Next Avengers and their masters while in the present, the remaining Avengers meet an unlikely ally and struggle against total chaos.

What’s Good: This issue is basically total mayhem and, honestly, the crazier and wackier it is, the better.  Spider-Man bumping into Killraven riding a dinosaur and Thor blowing up War of the Worlds style aliens are just part of the fun.  Really, at times things get so ridiculous that they border upon comedic, and certainly Bendis’ dialogue helps that along.  Much like last month, there’s a strong old school vibe here, but also a slight sense of self-awareness.  While a lot of it has to do with Spider-Man, particularly his conversations with Killraven and Jessica Drew, this is an unexpectantly funny book.  Things are completely insane and the fact that the characters are hyper-aware of it makes for a generally fun read.

That feeling of absolute chaos and insanity also makes for Romita’s best issue thus far as he continues to improve after the first two underwhelming months.  Bendis really lets Romita stretch his legs here and let his imagination run wild.  Pretty much every splash and double-page spread is a lot of fun and all of them had me staring for quite a while.  There’s so much packed into them that it feels like a cosmic Where’s Waldo at times.  It’s as though Romita just through as many random, awesome things onto the page as possible.  His work is, overall, just a lot of fun this month.