Uncanny Avengers #9 – Review

By: Rick Remender (Writer) Daniel Acuña (Artist/Colorist)

The Story: The Apocalypse twin tries to plan for what they want to make happen to the world as the Avengers deals with dissension in their ranks.

The Review: Rick Remender is not a man that is afraid to go big. As he tried and succeeded in creating a big stories with lasting effect with his memorable run on Uncanny X-Force, he tries to go even bigger with this run as he incorporate many elements from the Marvel universe, including some from his own tenure on his previous title. However, does he succeed in this attempt? Is he able to give us something bigger?

In ways, the short time he had on this title seems to indicate that he might just be able to do that, as he almost effortlessly incorporates his own ideas into the larger Marvel universe without making them too weird or even out of place amongst the many strange things that are included in this superhero universe. It is, after all, a book that tries to connect the mutant world of the X-Men with the rest of the Marvel imprint. Now, I am no expert on the X-Men, but from what I read, I had always perceived the mutants characters to be almost in a little universe of their own, as they had their own threats, their own saviors, their own events and their own spinoffs, with most of them completely unrelated to what was happening in the rest of the universe they were supposed to be sharing. It seemed to me that those characters were almost better off being literally given their own universe after all, yet Remender makes for a really good case in the more open connection he gives here.

Killer of Demons #3 – Review

by Christopher Yost (writer), Scott Wegener (pencils and inks), Ronda Pattison (colors), and Thomas Mauer (letters)

The Story: ‘Killer of Demons’ Dave Sloan enters the final battle with his boss Kent/Archduke Astaroth, and a lot of people die.

The Good: The art is a lot of fun in this comic. Bright colors and angular figures lead to a real “cartoon” feel that makes for an easy, pretty read.  The visuals are probably the best thing going for this comic and cuts it a little slack, overall.

The comic’s main concern is humor, and I’ll admit that anything involving Dave’s friend, Flop, or Dave’s supervisor is absolutely hilarious.  Those are two really solid characters and almost anything that comes out of their mouths is funny.  Generally speaking, the comedy is by far at its best when the normal characters are forced to react to abnormal sights.  Flop is again great in this respect and the office-drone’s reactions to the Satanic hypnotist are a definite high-point in this issue.

There’s also a hell of a lot of action and violence this issue, and hey, who doesn’t like that?

The Bad: Unfortunately, this just isn’t a very good comic. Even the comic’s greatest strength, it’s fun, vibrant art, has problems.  The panel layout is incredibly boring and lifeless and it really detracts from the art and the story-telling.  Also, that afore mentioned office-drone looks almost identical to Dave.  I honestly got confused and thought that Dave was in two places at once.

The humor, which the series relies on, fails more than it succeeds.  The problem is that Yost seems to feel that the comic is a lot more clever than it really is.  The “satire” of the book falls completely flat, with the depictions of the “amoral” modern world and the temptations offered by the demons and humanity’s reactions to those lures being so ludicrous that they end up being neither funny nor witty.  It’s just groan-worthy.  Also, any slight commentary that the comic tries to make on religion, such as in the opening pages or the general theme of Christians being obsessed with restricting themselves, comes across as vapid and hollow.  The satire on both the morality and religious fronts is truly done in a ham-fisted fashion and it doesn’t bring anything new, mature, or intelligent to the table.  If you want to do a wacky comic about a guy killing demons, do that, but don’t go for satire unless you really have something unique to say and can do so in a smart fashion. What’s worse, Dave’s brother– perhaps the funniest character in the series and one of the few times where Yost’s satire on society actually works, is not present in this issue; barring a single frame at the end where he says nothing.

Also, the final showdown with Kent is a complete disappointment. The series has been building up to this since issue #1 and this is supposed to be the big climax of the arc.  The actual battle lasts two pages.  Two pages.  That is the definition of underwhelming.  Part of me wonders if this has anything to do with Lucifer’s presence in the issue, which might have taken away from the Kent/Dave conflict.  Certainly, I did feel that Lucifer was in this issue far, far too much, considering the focus was supposed to be on Kent and Dave.  If Kent’s on the phone with Lucifer telling him he’ll take care of things, having Lucifer show up for several pages once the battle starts just doesn’t make sense.

Bottom-line: This just isn’t a very good comic, but it’s one that thinks it’s great.  Unfortunately, it’s just underwhelming overall and is much more miss than it is hit.

Grade: C-

-Alex Evans