What If? Wolverine: Father #1 – Review

By: Rob Williams (writer), Greg Tocchini (art), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Jody Leheup (editor)

The Story: What if Wolverine had been around to raise Daken and be a father to him?  Would things have turned out differently?

What’s Good: Greg Tocchini’s art is good…. real good.  The presence of Tocchini is the entire reason I picked this book up because he has an art style that you just don’t see that often in comics.  It is also one that I doubt you’d ever see on a monthly comic because the art is too painstaking and emotional to be grunted out every four weeks.  Not being an artist myself, I have to sometimes grope for words to describe something like Tocchini, but what I love is that the art is that it is both highly detailed and loose at the same time.  He seems to have a sense of what parts of the panel really need to be fussed with and which are less important, and in doing that, he is directing where he wants your eyes to linger on the panel.  His characters are also just dynamic as hell.  You really need to pick up this comic to appreciate his work.

I won’t spoil the story for you, but if you enjoy the aspect of Logan’s character where he is trying to be the “honorable man”, this will be right up your alley as we see him appreciating that his son is mentally damaged, but trying to instill enough honor in him to make him a functioning human.  It is a well told What If and (honestly) I wish the regular continuity had ended this way.  🙂

There is also a very fun little back-up in this issue as Rick Remender is exploring “What If” Deadpool and the Venom symbiote got together.

Superman: The Last Family of New Krypton #1 – Review

By: Cary Bates (writer), Renato Arlem (artist), Allen Passalaqua (colorist), Rachel Gluckstern (assistant editor), Mike Carlin (editor)

The Story: What would have happened if Jor-El, Lara and Kal-El all escaped the destruction of Krypton?

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: Right off, I really enjoyed Arlem’s art. He puts rich texture and detail onto the page. Even with a computer, Arlem must have spent hours and hours and hours to stipple (put down little dots to denote texture and/or shadow) on the bedspread, wallpaper and chair on the last page (to say nothing of the people). Or, check out the panel where Lara tells Jor-El she wants to be alone. The Quitely-like level of detail is worth the price of admission. Arlem’s expressions evoke emotion and the action, and even the environments, are dynamic. Arlem is hereby invited to draw any book I buy.

On the writing, I want to split the technical, tactical telling of the story (the dialogue, the panel-by-panel unfolding, the character choices) from the strategic, editorial choice (the premise and the DC’s decision to tell this story over some other one).

On Bates’ telling of the story, I’m mostly pleased, with one significant exception. Bates delivers crisp dialogue and a well-paced story; although the jury is still out for me on whether to buy the motivations he’s selling for the characters, especially the all-important choice to foster Kal-El to the Kents. There’s obviously conflict there, between Lara and Jor-El, but also within Jor-El, but Bates takes the easy way out (for the writer) by dismissing the characters’ doubts without showing us why they would do that. To me, it seemed patently obvious that the decisions deserved more explanation. Still, if I forgive his tactical short-cut, I’m left to enjoy the execution of the story.