Nightwing #27 – Review

By: Kyle Higgins (writer), Will Conrad & Cliff Richards (art), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Nightwing juggles a manic mimic, a tea-crazed hatter, and a micro-managing roommate as life in Chicago continues.

The Review: One of the prime problems of Nightwing’s character is that he’s not Batman. Batman is the best and Nightwing is not him. Q.E.D Nightwing is not the best. Now many of us know better, but defining what qualities make Nightwing more than Batman-lite shows us another problem. Batman is driven, simple, and universally likable from the safe distance of readership. You don’t need to give Batman relatable problems, you just need him to be grizzled and spout a great one-liner now and again and that saves pages. The sane among us may champion the supreme interpersonal skills that make Nightwing the core of the DCU, but it’s actually his strengths that have often caused him to struggle.

Consider Nightwing #27, for instance. This is a terrible Batman story. Sure, it would be easy enough to replace Marionette with Catwoman and return the Mad Hatter to Gotham City, but the stakes are nowhere near high enough. One cop, one friend, and a hot thief? Batman saves that many people over breakfast! A Batman story like that could never survive in a world of “The Court of Owls” or “Death of the Family”s, but Nightwing? Nightwing could pull it off, if handled right. Enter Kyle Higgins, who continues to demonstrate that he understands Dick Grayson at least as well as he does Nightwing.

Part of what makes Higgins’ Nightwing so true to the character is how clearly you can hear both Batman and Robin rattling around in his head. One minor artistic misstep from Will Conrad on the opening page combines with Higgins’ writing to show us something that looks and sounds a lot like a Robin-era Dick in the Nightwing suit. From there Higgins adds some playful flirtation, a touch of self-deprecation, and a dash of honest-to-goodness nerdiness to positively nail Dick Grayson’s voice, and all in the first six pages.

Nightwing #26 – Review

By: Kyle Higgins (writer), Will Conrad with Cliff Richards (art), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Dick Grayson: Acrobat. Superhero. Cruddy roommate.

The Review: Perhaps wisely after last month’s detour into the past, Kyle Higgins chooses to distance this story from the now concluded Prankster arc. New readers will probably appreciate the fairly minimal references to past adventures, with this issue dropping us straight into a new case.

Luckily for us, Higgins hasn’t abandoned Dick’s personal life. Far from it, we actually get one of the most charming conundrums I’ve encountered in a superhero comic in some time. Whether Master Grayson’s further struggles are tedious or entertaining will depend on your temperament, but it worked for me. He also gets a low-paying job and embarrasses himself in front of a girl. Oh, Nightwing, never change.

On the superhero side of things, Nightwing finds himself chasing down a cat burglar with a taste for expensive drugs. The plot is honestly fairly pedestrian. Theft, especially non-violent theft, doesn’t feel quite up to Nightwing’s level, having just saved Chicago two months ago. Still, let it not be said that Higgins doesn’t do his best with it. The acrobatic stunts and witty repartee make the pair’s duel plenty easy to read and, happy with that, it wisely doesn’t overstay its welcome.

Nightwing #25 – Review

By: Kyle Higgins (writer), Will Conrad & Cliff Richards (art), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Dick Grayson sneaks out to the movies, only to find himself in the middle of a thriller of his own.

The Review: At the start of The Black Mirror, Dick Grayson remembered how his father always marked upcoming shows with different colored pins on the calendar to represent how dangerous the tricks needed to be. They were marked red or blue, except for Gotham. A trip to Gotham meant that the audience demanded real danger. For his part in the Zero Year crossover, Kyle Higgins gives us a glimpse at one of those trips. It was properly marked.

That danger comes in two forms. The first is the Riddler’s power outage and the mob mentality that follows. Some of the best pages of the issue are those immediately following the blackout. The slow build towards chaos, the mundanity of it, Higgins hits beats that have been drilled into our collective unconscious over the past decade and a half with resounding clarity.

The other danger is our villain. Though he’s not likely to convince anyone to buy this comic when they otherwise wouldn’t, Amygdala’s appearance makes surprising sense in the context of Zero Year, even if his proximity to the future Robin seems a tad contrived. He also presents a clear danger for Dick, who would probably be capable of getting home. Unfortunately, Amygdala has never been a particularly chatty villain and he doesn’t bring much to the story beyond a sense of menace.

Nightwing #24 – Review

by Kyle Higgins (writer), Will Conrad (art)

The Story: One’s the world’s greatest acrobat; the other’s the variably important racketeer who killed his parents, together THEY FIGHT CRIME!

The Review: It’s a strange time to be a Nightwing fan. On one hand, Kyle Higgins has finally found his groove on this title and is giving us some of the best Nightwing we’ve gotten in years. On the other hand, the spectre of Forever Evil hangs over this title, promising to mess with things down the line. Like a child yelling at the screen, we all know that bad things lurk in Dick Grayson’s future, but the world goes on, as if everything’s fine.

While we may be waiting for the future to catch up with Nightwing, Kyle Higgins clearly wants us to know that no matter what Forever Evil holds for Dick, he’s not done with him yet.

This somewhat front heavy issue is the last chapter in the rather impressive Prankster storyline that Higgins has been building over the past few months. Unfortunately, for all the excellent work he’s done with the character, Higgins’ final reveal is somewhat lacking. The Pranksters origin is casually tossed off in the early pages and his plan, which follows soon after, requires the most twisted logic to make sense. That being said, I think that may be the point.

Nightwing #23 – Review

By: Kyle Higgins (writer), Will Conrad (artist), Andrew Dalhouse (colorist)

The Story: Chicago burns…except when there are hot red-head. Even terrorism will stop for hot red-heads.

The Review: With Chicago being torn apart by the Prankster, Kyle Higgins takes some time to move things into position for October’s finale. There are really only one or two scenes that seem important to the arc as a whole, but they’re strong ones, and Higgins fills the rest of the issue with old-school Nightwing heroics.

While Higgins takes the opportunity to bring a little fun into the rather dark situation he’s thrown Nightwing into, it can’t be said that his writing is as strong as it has been in recent months. That’s not because of any fault of his as a writer of dialogue, but merely that this issue is lacking opportunities for him to flex his dramatic muscles.

The lone exception to this is a scene between Tony Zucco and his wife. While I could see some calling it out for melodrama, I thought that the scene had a definite kick to it. It’s been a slow build, but the work that Higgins has done with Zucco’s character is coming to bear and I, for one, am impressed.

The other scene that bears mentioning is the first one, which really shows how much fun this character can be. Little things, like Dick knowing the hostage’s name and talking to her throughout combat, get across just how breezy and decent Grayson can be. Not to mention Danny, “the guy with the impractical dreads”. Particularly with an ill-wind on the horizon, scenes like this remind why Nightwing is so loved, and why so many are worried about what Forever Evil will bring for the former Robin.

Nightwing #22 – Review

By: Kyle Higgins (Writer), Will Conrad (Artist), Andrew Dalhouse (Colorist)

The Story: Nightwing and the Prankster up the ante in their respective vendettas. Featuring none of the plots from the cover.

The Review: Nightwing has really been improving as of late, but it’s only this month that it feels like the former Robin is working a Batman-level case. Kyle Higgins is really firing on all cylinders. The plot may not dash forward, but in return we get some really nice character work. Nightwing’s banter is thankfully up to par and that balance of humor and terror that he can bring to a scene is excellently rendered.

Likewise, perhaps essentially, we get a couple of scenes with Dick’s new roommates. Michael’s struggle is lingered on just long enough to be sympathetic and feels much more believable than I might have expected. I also have to admit that I’m coming to like Joey, who will likely make more than one programmer happy this month.

If there’s a serious issue with the writing, it’s probably in the pacing. While there’s something to be said for the sense of time slowing as the trouble starts, the book is literally bisected by a lengthy villain speech and its slightly predictable fallout. The writing remains strong, but it feels a little like Higgins wrote the second half just because the story demanded it, and no amount of craft can fully mask a writer’s disinterest.

Higgins is joined by a new artist, Will Conrad, this month. Conrad is clearly talented, but his style dips into the uncanny valley here and there. I will say that his style of realism sits better with me than most and that there are whole pages where the book is simply beautiful. Still, it’s just too often that we get a weird expression or some shading you know should be there but your brain won’t accept as anything but bizarre neck fat.

New Avengers #25 – Review

By: Brian Michael Bendis (writers), Mike Deodato & Will Conrad (art), Rain Beredo (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: The ancient, until now unknown ties between K’un Lun, the Iron Fist, and the Phoenix Force are revealed.

The Review: I imagine a lot of people are going to be pretty upset about this issue and would probably demand that it get no better than a D, if not lower.  Aside from the fact that it’s written by Bendis (an almost automatic F in some readers’ eyes), it’s a tie-in, it doesn’t feature a single Avenger in it, and it centers on one big old retcon of the history of the Iron Fist.

Of course, as regular readers may know, I’m not all that opposed to writers playing fast and loose with it or bending it to better suit their aims, provided it means a good story.  Of course, those that feel differently will despise this book.

New Avengers #23 – Review

by Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato & Will Conrad (art), Rain Beredo (colors), and Joe Caramagna (letters)

The Story: Norman’s latest Dark Avengers get their come-uppance.

The Review:  There’s really not much to this comic, which I suppose means that it can’t be any worse than strictly mediocre though converse, that it also means that it can’t be much better.

The entire issue is composed of action scenes and they’re really well done.  Mike Deodato and Will Conrad’s illustrations of the action are dynamic, exciting, and a pleasure to read and Bendis does a solid job scripting it; every character gets a chance to shine and are often paired off quite well with an opposing Dark Avenger.  It makes for a breezy read and this “pairing off” has a classic, Saturday morning feel to it.  Furthermore, despite art duties being split between two artists, I honestly wasn’t able to tell.  Deodato and Conrad have remarkably similar styles.

That said, all of this basically makes for a shallow issue – essentially, all that happens is that the Dark Avengers sustain a beating from Skaar, and then sustain another beating from the New Avengers.  We just see the same team of C-listers, who we’ve never become invested in, get embarrassed and beaten down not once, but twice, in quick succession.  Sure, there’s an innate satisfaction to seeing the bad guys get their asses kicked in humiliating fashion, but it’s also sort of vapid, particularly when that’s all the issue is composed of and said bad guys really haven’t been well developed.

X-Men #22 – Review

By: Victor Gischler (writer), Will Conrad & Steve Kurth (pencils), Conrad & Jay Leisten (inkers), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Jordan D. White (assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (associate editor) & Nick Lowe (editor)

The Story: A team of X-Men plus War Machine try to stop a Balkan leader from siccing a bunch of Sentinels on her neighbors.

Five Things: 

1. This is a well-scripted issue. – This is an issue where you really have to differentiate between the concept/script and the art because one is good and the other is not.  The idea of one of these wacko Balkan leaders modifying Sentinels so that they’ll attack neighbors is pretty interesting.  It’s also nice to see that the X-Men don’t moralize over it too much: They’re heroes so there is no drippy discussion of, “It would be wrong, but if we let the Sentinels kill those normal humans, maybe everyone will realize how dangerous the Sentinels are.”  Nope, Gischler is a better writer than to patronize us that way.  He also has a really good handle on all of the characters and works a lot of humor into this issue.  It’s a shame that Gischler is working with some inconsistent artists because I think he could do some really big things.

2. Hard to support this art. – I generally like Will Conrad.  I don’t think he’s “awesome”, but he does a page now and then that I wouldn’t mind owning.  He’s a very capable (if unflashy) artist and he draws an incredible Domino!  But, I got a few pages into this issue and said, “WTF?  Has Conrad lost it?”  I mean, there’s a fight between the heroes and a Sentinel that makes zero sense.  Look at the bottom panel of Page 1, what is Colossus doing?  Is the Sentinel sitting on the ground or has Colossus somehow grabbed it by the ankle and jumped into the air with it?  Does Colossus have enough mass to jump the Sentinel into the air?  Why isn’t the ground shown in the background to clarify the perspective?  If Colossus has merely tripped the Sentinel to the ground, why is Storm flying under its shoulder?  And if he tripped the Sentinel, what is the Sentinel doing on the next page (the epitome of an unnecessary splash page, btw) where it is falling down again?  So the storytelling of the art is all kinds of fucked up.  And we’ve got problems galore with depth in the splash page.  Or page 4 where Storm and War Machine are blasting the Sentinel in the face/neck and Colossus is punching him– in the ankle?  What’s with the ankles?  Then I turned the page and knew what happened.  I recognized these faces as the work of Steve Kurth, so I flipped back to the credits and saw Kurth’s name.  I hate to blast the guy too much (although I just did) because I’m sure he’s a nice guy and working hard AND he might have been working on a really tight deadline to fill in on this issue, but I really don’t care for his art.  Don’t like how we’re looking down on everyone’s face in these tight shots.  Don’t like the odd mixture of heavy blacks with overly highlighted color art.  Don’t like that Jubilee has breasts larger than her head (and is back in her thong uniform).  Heck, Storm also has breasts larger than her head.  I can’t believe that a cheesecake fan like me is complaining about breasts, but I don’t like it.  And the color art isn’t doing any favors either.  The depth is really screwed up in almost every panel and I’d expect a colorist as experienced as Sotomayor to be able to fix some of those problems coming from the inker.  Anyway, art is not great.

3. Fun to see the X-Men interacting with other heroes – It is fun to see the X-Men playing with War Machine.  I don’t know if that’s ever happened before, but sometimes it get’s a little dull to just see the mutants dealing with their own little cast of characters.  This is also a great use of War Machine.  Since he can’t sustain his own series, he might as well serve as a kinda linkage between various parts of the Marvel Universe.

X-Men #21 – Review

By: Victor Gischler (writer), Will Conrad (artist), Chris Sotomayor (colorist)

The Story: Storm and Colossus sort out their differences with War Machine, as circumstances shift. There is stuff afoot in Puternicstan. But, will they be able to save Domino?

The Review: I don’t recall having seen Will Conrad’s work before, but I love it. His Colossus is powerful, big and intimidating. His War Machine is efficient and professional. His Storm is smart and attractive. Moreover, the Eastern European world of ex-Soviet countries is evocative and even the weather does its job with him at the pen (check out War Machine and Colossus surprised by the war jets for what I’m saying about moody weather). The colors are equally clean, evocative, and fall into narrow palettes in the half-light and darkness that pervades most of this issue. Check out the color scope when the covert team gets a little too much company. The blue shades, purples and grays blend beautifully and that kind of color subtly is at play throughout the issue.

X-Men #20 – Review

 

By: Victor Gischler (writer), Will Conrad (artist), Chris Sotomayor (colors), Joe Caramagna (letters), Jordan D. White (assistant editor), Daniel Ketchum (associate editor) & Nick Lowe (editor)

The Story: Folks are still trying to acquire Sentinels.  The X-Men can’t have that.

Five Things: 

1. A unique team.  The team we get in this issue consists of Storm, Psylocke, Jubilee, Warpath, Colossus and Domino.  Other than Psylocke (and to a lesser extent Colossus), these are X-Men who we haven’t seen a lot of recently.  Sure, they pop up from time to time, but they usually haven’t been too central over the last few years.  This title is also notable for who isn’t in it.  There’s no Wolverine in this title.  No Emma Frost.  Even Cyclops’ appearance is limited to his sending the team on a mission.  If you keep this team line-up, this title really can have a purpose and not just another excuse to see the same cluster of X-Men every month.  One of the great things about the X-Men of my youth was the concept of the team.  You could point to an issue where Rogue or Psylocke “joined” the team.  Too often today’s stories descend into a gaggle of mutants who get forced into a mission.

2. A team with an attitude.  The attitude for the Team Cyclops in this Regenesis time is really great.  They’re willing to be heroes, but they’re also going to look out for mutant issues and they aren’t too concerned with political correctness or whether they are causing an international incident.  So, in this issue when they find some people trafficking in Sentinel technology, they send the team to take care of things.  Along the way, they run into War Machine who wants the X-Men to lay back, not cause an international incident and allow diplomatic channels to have their chance.  In the past, the X-Men might have walked away at that point to avoid pissing off the Avengers, but not now.  Nope. Their attitude is that they’re on a mission and War Machine can help or get out of the way.  Bonus that they pounded on War Machine who has been turned into such an unlikeable character recently.

3. Pretty nice art.  No one is winning an Eisner for this issue, but this is pretty solid art.  Good storytelling.  Good characters.  There are a few really nice panels in here too (the early half-splash of Domino is very nice).  Now, there are also a few panels that kinda get away from Conrad where the faces start to look like modern Deodato, Jr. (and that isn’t a good thing).  But, overall I think Conrad did a very solid job.  I’m not quite as on board with the coloring choices.  Conrad’s art is very heavily inked and he’s already indicated his shading with his blacks.  I just don’t think it’s necessary to also add highlights to this type of art.  It just looks wrong, like the coloring is too bright for the linework.  But, that doesn’t make the overall art experience “bad”.  Just not as good as it could be.

X-Men #15.1 – Review

By: Victor Gischler (writer), Will Conrad (art), Brian Reber (color)

The Story: The X-Men go to a small town in the southern US to help out a shaman who is going to get rid of some demons. Not all goes according to plan, but a curvier Ghost Rider than the last shows up for an assist.

What’s Good: I don’t recall having seen the Conrad/Reber art combo before, but I liked it. Ghost Riderette riding in was a visual treat, and the opening sequence with Dani was beautifully detailed. The static poses seemed competent (although mildly artificial), but the action sequences, from the arrival of the demons onward, worked much better. Some artists make it hard to figure out what’s going on when the do the action sequence zoom-ins, but Conrad kept his panels clean and filled with momentum. Writing-wise, this was a quick, simple story with some dialogue gems and clever trash talk that had me laughing.

What’s Not So Good: While this is a complete little story in a single book, I don’t feel that it was a particularly powerful story. The biggest thing holding this book back was that no one grew or developed (other than Ghost Rider’s target and (a) he’s not a key cast member and (b) you could argue he already felt bad). This sapped meaning from the story, and I would go further and say this issue had no emotional heart. The X-Men are on a mission to help people they have no real investment in (not even Dani, despite the family connection…she shows no emotions in the book, only a bit of trivial irony) and in the end, they walk away unchanged. Even the commercial addition of Ghost Rider (I would think that this was an embedded marketing attempt to boost sales on the new Ghost Rider series) didn’t generate any genuine interactions or conflict. I small measure of how the story didn’t hold me was that I was more excited about two adds in the book: Marvel’s Princess of Mars series and the cover for X-Men #16 featuring Doctor Doom and the X-Men.

X-Men: Prelude to Schism #3 – Review

By: Paul Jenkins (writer), Will Conrad (art), Lee Loughridge (colors), Rob Steen (letters), Sebastian Girner (assistant editor) & Nick Lowe (senior editor)

The Story: Cyclops recollects a special woman in his life as he grapples with a momentous decision regarding the future of the X-Men.

What’s Good: By now, it’s pretty obvious what this miniseries is, so wishing for it to be more is unrealistic (although we’ll get into that below).  This issue feeds us a pretty strong dose of Cyclops and him missing his mother as he’s grappling with this HUGE decision that the X-Men are facing.  It shows how his mother was with him as a young boy who was starting to have issues with his mutant powers (nasty headaches) and how she sacrificed herself so that Scott and his brother could survive after the small plane they were flying in developed problems and they only had one parachute.

It also had a nice bookend to that situation by showing Cyclops talking with Emma before informing the gathered X-Men of his decision.  I liked how he asked her, “How sure am I?” and she probes his mind to see how many doubts and fears he has.  What an interesting way to spot-check your decision making process!

The art is effective.  It’s nothing awesome, but it tells the story effectively and all the characters look like they should.

Secret Avengers #11 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Will Conrad (art), Rain Beredo & Sotocolor (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: Steve Rogers delves into the mind of John Steele, trying to figure out where it all went wrong.

The Review: This isn’t an Avengers comic.  Hell, it’s not even a team book.  Rather, it seems like in penultimate issue, Ed Brubaker has given up even putting up the pretense, choosing instead to just go ahead and write a Steve Rogers Captain America comic.  I guess Beast is in it, but beyond that, there’s really nothing suggesting otherwise.

Once you get over that though, you end up with a pretty solid comic book.  It’s a Steve Rogers book, sure, but there’s a dark, conspiratorial tone throughout.  I mean, the book either takes place in the dark bowels of a ship, or in the dead of night in a rural village in Nazi Germany.  There’s a constant sense of dark foreboding.

But that’s not just on a superficial level.  Aside from the usual Nazis, there’s human experimentation, Frankenstein’s-monster styled zombies, and a really creepy alien looking thing that we only catch a fleeting glimpse of.  The fact that it all takes place in a castle in a European forest almost lends it all a kind of Mike Mignola-esque feel, especially what with the monsters and Cthulian robed dudes.  Adding to this all is John Steele’s character, a psyche that, even back in WWII, is clearly on the edge of becoming something very nasty, sadistic, and evil.

And really, despite his derivative name and appearance, John Steele continues to be quite the success under Brubaker’s hand.  He’s a highly competent soldier this month, fighting for the right team, but he never seems trustworthy.  That’s not because he’s conspiring or anything like that, but rather because of his obvious dark side.  There’s a continual sense that he’s always about to lose control and certainly he shows some dark tendencies. Seeing him fight alongside Cap is quite the treat.  More than that, Brubaker puts the whole “entering John’s mind” plot into good use, seamlessly integrating John’s mind’s realization and rejection of the psychic intrusion in a manner that’s smart, seamless, and a bit surreal.

Quick Hit Reviews – Week of February 23, 2011

Sometimes there are soooo many comics published in a given week (ahem….I’m looking at you Marvel) that despite the heroic efforts of the WCBR writing staff, we simply can’t give every comic a complete review.  Thus, the Quick Hit Reviews…

New York Five #2 – Wow is Ryan Kelly a great artist!  The story here is solid, slice of life stuff as we follow our four college freshmen as they adapt to life in NYC, but the star of this issue is Kelly’s art.  His character work is really strong as young ladies are all cute and express appropriate emotion, but his attention to the city around them in just incredible.  The city just feels alive. I really need to track down New York Four and I encourage everyone to check out this Vertigo series.  Kelly and Tommy Lee Edwards (on Turf) made a LOT of artist’s backgrounds look like dog food this week.  Grade: A-  — Dean Stell

X-Men: To Serve and Protect #4 – All I ask of an anthology series is to give me one really memorable story.  I almost don’t care if 3/4 of the issue is crap as long as I get that one stellar tale.  This issue has a BIG mission accomplished for Jed MacKay and Sheldon Vella’s story of Dazzler, Misty Knight & Colleen Wing engaged in roller derby death match involved a really wacky version of MODOK (Mental Organism Designed Only for Roller Derby!!).  Vella’s art and colors are just amazing.  Toss in a good finale to the Rockslide/Anole story that has woven through this anthology series and you’ve got a winner.  I love the X-office continues to publish these anthologies.  Grade: B+  — Dean Stell

Secret Avengers #10 – Review

by Ed Brubaker (writer), Mike Deodato & Will Conrad (art), Rain Beredo (colors), and Dave Lanphear (letters)

The Story: Steve Rogers and his Secret Avengers rush to save Shiang-Chi and halt Zheng Zu’s plans for resurrection.

The Review:  Secret Avengers #10 is one of those difficult issues to review in that while it does nothing wrong, it also doesn’t do anything terribly right.

There’s nothing really emotionally powerful, compelling, or witty about this issue.  Frankly, there’s also not a lot here that you’ve not seen before.  It’s ultimately just a giant action scene resolving exactly as you most likely thought it would.  In this sense, it may even be accused of being phoned in a bit.

But once you lower your expectations and realize that you’re getting your average superhero comic, there is stuff to like here.  For starters, the art by Mike Deodato and Will Conrad is very, very strong and truly one of Deodato’s better outings.  The action is superb, feeling incredibly fast and fluid.  Movements are smooth and dynamic and the fights are acrobatic, all-encompassing, and quite a lot of fun.

Valkyrie fans will also get a real kick out of this issue, as she goes one on one with John Steele.  The resulting fight is a real “hell yeah” where Valkyrie is concerned and shows her for the badass that she really is.  She’s a character that doesn’t often get the love she deserves, so this was pretty awesome.  It also showed some interesting development in Steve Rogers’ place as team leader; unlike last time in his dealings with Steele, Rogers delegates a fight that he has a personal stake in, letting Valkyrie take Steele instead, what with her being more capable of handling the super-soldier than Rogers himself.  It’s a point that’s dwelt on a bit by Brubaker towards issue’s end, and it shows a maturity to Rogers’ character that is probably the smartest part of the issue.

Quick-Hit Reviews: Week of Jan. 26, 2011

Got-dang! There were a lot of comics that came out last week!  Even with all the reviewers at WCBR burning the midnight oil, it’s not always possible to get a full review up on everything when Marvel decides to release all of their Avengers and X-books in one week.  Sheesh!  But, still, we endure….

Uncanny X-Men #532 – We begin the handoff of Uncanny from Matt Fraction to Kieron Gillen.  Fraction had his high moments with the Utopia and Second Coming events, but the rest of his run was pretty uneven and this issue illustrates a lot of the problems that I have.  There are three story lines in this issue, but none feel very important.  First you have Emma, Fantomex & Kitty Pryde fighting with Sebastian Shaw.  I’m very unclear on what this story is supposed to do.  It isn’t interesting and if they just wanted Shaw back in circulation (which is a good idea), there surely are more entertaining ways to do it than this.  Two, we have Lobe and the Sublime Corp who have engineered mutant pills so that regular joes can gain mutant powers.  That just isn’t interesting or threatening and it has a lot of the pseudo-science that Fraction likes to use, but doesn’t pull off very well.  It’s very much what happens when someone who doesn’t know science tries to write something that is very hip about current science topics.  Three we have this Collective Man story that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere.  Unclear why this title can’t copy the formula that makes Uncanny X-Force so kick ass.  And Greg Land’s art is just bad.  I don’t mind his art the first few times I see it, but he’s been on this title for a while and we know his tricks now.  Marvel would be best served to just rotate him around their titles.  Grade: D — Dean Stell

2nd Opinon: There’s a clever idea to be found in the character of Lobe, but I’m not sure that it’s being used to it’s full potential.  A character who genuinely doesn’t hate mutants but merely wants to exploit an untapped natural resource is a nice change of pace, but the entire melodramatic quarantine gambit and the cookie-cutter personalities of his wannabe X-Men are somewhat sabotaging a story with lots of potential.  Throw in the obvious space-filler of the Collective Man sub-plot and the going-on-way-too-long side-plot concerning Emma Frost’s mission to disappear Sebastian Shaw (I’mnotgoingtopickontheGregLandartI’mnotgoingtopickontheGregLandart…) and I unfortunately found myself with a strong urge to go reread this week’s issue of Uncanny X-Force. Grade: C- — Joe Lopez

Ultimate Spider-Man #152 – Bendis continues his great second wind on this title this month as we simultaneously discover just what Black Cat was doing during his battle with Mysterio many months ago and , in the present day, watch as Iron Man nearly outs Peter’s secret identity to all of Forest Hills, Queens.  There are plenty of standout moments in this issue, ranging from Aunt May’s reaction to Stark’s entrance gaff to the “Amazing Friends'” reunion with the just-returned Gwen Stacy.  Peter’s conversation with Gwen was particularly touching and felt honest and real in a way that most complicated relationships in fiction fail at.  While I do have to admit to being slightly annoyed that after three months of teasing, we still haven’t seen any actual super-hero schooling, Bendis hits the rest of the notes wonderfully and has gotten me one more invested in this comic’s cast.  Extra kudos have to go to penciller Sara Pichelli whose work here has improved greatly.  I’m not sure if it’s just a matter of her having become comfortable with the characters and their world, but this felt like an issue of Ultimate Spider-Man in a way that is usually reserved for one produced by a more regular artist.  Great stuff.  Grade: A — Joe Lopez

Thunderbolts #152 – This has been a superstar of a title over the last year.  Jeff Parker always keeps the title clicking along at a swift pace.  No drawn out, overly long 6 issue story arcs from Parker.  Here the action builds on a storyline that has been in Hulk (also by Parker) having to do with some mega-monsters that are escaping from a MODOK island and wreaking havoc on Japan.  I love how the Tbolts are all such a neat team, yet you never know when one of them might turn on the others.  Great action in this one as they fight the mega-monsters and deal with a new threat form Hyperion.  Kev Walker’s art is really tight too and perfect for this book with lots of oversized, hulking characters. Grade: B+ — Dean Stell

Secret Avengers #9 – While the kung-fu pulp element is dialed way down this month, this issue is solid if only because it’s one where the Secret Avengers live up to their namesake.  It’s shadowy superhero covert ops stuff with Steve Rogers and John Steele dueling one another.  In other words, it’s a pretty good time.  There’s even a superhero trade that almost seems like a spy-swap of sorts.  More than that though, Rogers looks particularly clever this month and truly feels like the leader of a covert squad.  If anything, the superspy tone makes for an Avengers book that has its own clear identity and, in some ways, it’s own little corner of the Marvel Universe.  It’s a unique read with solid writing and solid art.  The only thing wrong with it is that I’m finding John Steele a bit bland in concept and appearance as a bad guy.  There’s really just not that much to the guy, and certainly not much at all that we haven’t seen before.  Max Fury is far more compelling.  Grade: B — Alex Evans

X-23 #2 – Review

by Marjorie Liu (writer), Will Conrad (artist)

The Story: X-23 awakens at a halfway house in San Francisco that has been set ablaze, surrounded by bodies.  More importantly, the evidence points to her being the murderer.  After returning to Utopia and spending a little time with Cyclops, Storm and Gambit, Hellverine shows up to taunt and attack our heroine.  One bleeding and dying Hellion later (That tends to happen to him often, doesn’t it?), X agrees to take a magical mystery tour within herself to prove that she has a soul.

What’s Good: It seems that Liu is beginning to find X-23 ‘s voice, which is pleasing to this reviewer.  I complained about her lack of consistency with the character’s previous appearances, but she’s definitely finding Laura’s voice, especially in the opening scene where we flashback to a happier time with Wolverine himself.  “I have heard that roller coasters make people scream and vomit…  I want to try it.”  Those lines alone were golden and reminded me of some of the better dialogue given to the character by her creator’s Craig Kyle and Chris Yost.  Liu also smartly establishes the duo’s familial relationship in this scene, making the betrayal towards the end of the book that much more emotionally potent.

I’m happy with the use of Gambit in this issue.  It’s nice to see another, less predictable X-Man paired up with X-23, just as Storm was somewhat in the last issue.  The choice of Gambit works even better as he’s been out of the spotlight of late in most of the X-titles.  I also enjoyed the manner in which the character was introduced into the story.  The use of the word “petite”, the coat and the fingerless gloves, all followed by a close-up of those crimson eyes tells you all you need to know.  It’s a nonchalant manner uncommon to comics and it works.

X-23 #1 – Review

by Marjorie Liu (writer), Will Conrad (artist)

The Story: X-23, the teenaged and female clone of Wolverine, struggles with disapproving former teammates and her own conscience after her secret career as a member of the murderous X-Force is revealed.  As she begins to bond with senior X-Man Storm, she turns away just as quickly from former mentor Wolverine after suffering nightmares concerning a demonic version of the mutant.  Sensing the discontent within our protagonist, Cyclops assigns X-23 to a half-way house for former mutants where he hopes she’ll discover new ways to help people.

What’s Good: There are some great moments for fans of the franchise and the X-23 character to be found here.  Liu smartly mines X’s past relationships and previous status quo before launching her into a new adventure, which serves to remind us of why the character is in so much need of a change in her life and what she’s doing with it.  During the whole X-Force run, where X-23 was a major cast member, never once did I wonder how her former New X-Men classmates would react to the secrets she’d been keeping and the missions she was undertaking as Cyclops’ secret assassin.  Despite that lack of curiosity, I’m glad that Liu decided to answer the question regardless, because the students’ reactions served up a strong scene that made many nods to past continuity that made this reviewer very happy.  Not only did we get a nice confrontation between Surge and X, but a somewhat touching encounter with Hellion, and a laugh-out loud comment from the innocent Dust.  The writer shows, in this scene alone, that she’s done her homework, not only remembering X’s hinted at mutual attraction with Hellion, but also the fact that she and Dust were roommates back at Xavier’s.  The decision to involve Storm in the heroine’s life was also a nice, unexpected touch in the script.  Of the many X-Men hanging their hats on Utopia, Storm was the last one I’d assume to play a mentor role to X-23 but as their conversation continued, I realized that she was a perfect fit for the role.  I’m curious to see where this new relationship takes them.

Secret Avengers #2 – Review

By Ed Brubaker (writer), Mike Deodato and Will Conrad (artists), Rain Beredo (colorist)

The Story: The Secret Avengers search Mars for Nova and answers as to why Roxxon Corporation was in possession of a Serpent Crown.

The Good: Brubaker has done a rare, wonderful thing with this book: he’s taken everything we’ve come to expect from an Avengers Comic and, with a generous dose of espionage intrigue, turned it into something different, but no less exciting. For a title with as rich a heritage as the Avengers, this is a rare feat, but Brubaker is pulling it of nicely and making this a priority comic for me to read each month. Reading Secret Avengers, I can’t help but feel like this is what it must have been like to read Steranko’s run on Nick Fury back in the 60s; it has that same, suave aesthetic to it. I like that Marvel has this kind of covert team out there in the field now. Incredibly powerful for a black ops unit, these Avengers are nonetheless a highly surgical strikeforce, and it’s immensely satisfying to watch Steve Rogers take command of these unique personalities and their abilities. Speaking of unique personalities, Brubaker has done a great job this issue of defining who these people are and how well they work together. I loved (and realized how much I have missed) the calm, assured confidence Rogers displays when going into battle, as well as the unspoken trust, forged through years of fighting together, between Rogers, Beast, and Black Widow. Add to that Moon Knight’s desire to be a good soldier and please his commanding officer, War Machine’s refusal to go easy on Ant-Man, and Ant-Man’s quest to get a little respect from his comrades, and I can’t help but see potential in the stories that can be told about these characters.

Kull #1 (of 6) – Review

By Arvid Nelson (writer), Will Conrad (art), Jose Villarrubia (colors)

The Story: Robert E. Howard’s other barbarian makes his home at Dark Horse in this limited series that adapts Howard’s story “The Shadow Kingdom.”  In this first issue, Kull of Atlantis seizes the throne of the ancient kingdom of Valusia and attempts to consolidate his power by defeating Count Areyas, a noble from the old regime who refuses to go down without a fight.  When his defenses are betrayed from within, Areyas unleashes the monster Etrigor in a desperate bid to destroy the barbarian king.

The Good: Fans of Robert Howard will find this to be a solid, faithful adaptation of Kull.  Nelson’s dialogue is every bit as hard edged and spartan as Howard would have written it, while Conrad’s art has a power and detail to it that you don’t see enough of in comics right now; specifically, I’m thinking of a double page spread of Kull in the middle of the comic that I would gladly pay to buy a poster of.

The Not So Good: This was a terrific stand alone issue, but it fails to set up the plot for the rest of the story, or convince me why I even need to buy the next issue.  There was one time where a character mentioned a “shadow kingdom” hidden below Valusia, but the reference was never brought up again, and not given enough weight to make me think that this was important.

Conclusion: A solid, if unevenly paced fantasy adventure that is a great addition to the Robert Howard franchise at Dark Horse.  If you’re looking for something different, you can pick up and enjoy this issue without feeling obligated to buy the entire series.  However, if you want to follow the whole story, you may be better off waiting for the graphic novel instead.

Grade: B-

-Tony Rakittke

A Second Opinion

This is a solid debut and I had a good time reading it. My problem is that there isn’t anything here that sets this apart from other similarly told stories. Perhaps as the book continues we’ll learn more about why Kull’s such a great character, but from what I gathered the only thing that makes him somewhat interesting is his approach to war. The mishandling of the battle near the end provides a possible setup for consequences down the road, but somehow I don’t see politics playing a big role in the storyline. I don’t think I’d want to see it either.

Grade: B-

– J. Montes

Serenity: Better Days #1 – Review

By: Joss Whedon & Brett Matthews (story), Will Conrad (art) & Michelle Madsen (colors)

Once more, I can watch Serenity fly again. It’s been a while, but the wait was worthwhile. Joss Whedon’s involvement makes this story official canon, setting it after the TV series and before the movie. And just like the TV show and movie, it delivers!

The story starts with the government (I presume) presenting an advanced flying robot prototype that can police the streets. It can be used for apprehension or elimination, plus it can nearly adapt to any terrain or situation warranted. This thing reminds me of the now imfamous debut of ED-209 from Robocop. You just know it’s going to get messy and something is going to go wrong.

This flying machine’s first test, is, of course, the Serenity crew after they’ve completed what seems to be a clean art heist. A high speed chasing ensue, leaving it up to Kaylee to save the day (as usual). From here, we get to see a steamy scene with Inara and an Alliance official, which ends in an exchange of steamy and revealing dialog. Later, the crew is doing business trying to sell the flying robot, but they’re forced to do the dirty work and fetch the money from elsewhere, they literally get a lot more than they bargained for.

The book gives a lot of references to the series, which is a good thing for fans. It’s magical how I can still hear the voices of the actors while reading the comic. It’s a testament to how well written the dialog is here. There’s an interesting feature at Dark Horse’s website, showing the different stages of the creation of this issue. Check it out! (Grade: A)

-Daniel Yanez

A Second Opinion

Love the paper stock! It’s thick, vibrant, and heavy. This book screams “high quality”. And that, we get. From the story to the art, everything is pretty much dead on faithful to the Firefly universe. This first issue alone is loads better than the combined entirely of the last series released by Dark Horse. It’s not just the silly predictaments the crew seems to always get themselves into, it’s the subtle traits of their characters that make this book so darn entertaining.

Too bad Adam Hughes didn’t do the interiors, because his cover art is just spot-on perfect.  My only complaint is the coloring. I hate it with a passion! Skin tones are too red, and a lot of the colors seem flat and dull. Someone please get a new colorist on board this series. It’s just painful. (Grade: B+)

– J. Montes