Uncle Scrooge #372 — Writer/Artists: Carl Barks, Don Rosa
Offering reprints of “Christmas on Bear Mountain” (the first Uncle Scrooge story), by Carl Barks, and a collected three-parter by Don Rosa, “The Treasury of Croesus.” There’s also a back-cover poster by Rosa spotlighting the ways that Scrooge’s appearance changed in his early years, and a one-page essay from Rosa about the poster. All of this will set you back $8, but it’s worth it: better than 50 pages of great, great storytelling, and if you have young kids and read these to them, you’ll create comics fans for life.
Astro City: Beautie #1 — Writer: Kurt Busiek; Artist: Brent Anderson
Busiek is, of course, a good writer, and Astro City is his own personal sandbox, where he does his best work. That’s easy to forget, because this series doesn’t come out very often, but check out this one-shot, a story whose title character is a robot, a sort of lifesize Barbie doll with identity issues. In lesser hands it would be maudlin or silly, but Busiek’s able to make us care about the character, show us everyone’s viewpoint, and deliver a very well-constructed, literate tale about both parent-daughter relationships and friendship (it’s also, maybe without even meaning to be, a gentle, knowing story about what it’s like to have Asperger’s Syndrome). Well-done, literate superhero stuff, with no background knowledge required, so there’s no excuse not to pick this up.
Fantastic Four #554 — Writer: Mark Millar; Penciller: Bryan Hitch; Inker: Paul Neary
More well-done superhero storytelling, with an appropriately cosmic/big concept feel. This is certainly worth buying, but maybe it doesn’t feel like much of an event just because the FF has, from Mark Waid through to J. Michael Straczynski and, just recently, Dwayne McDuffie, benefited from a lot of great writing over the last few years; it’s not like the book needed rescuing from mediocrity. That positions Millar/Hitch, not as rescuers, but just as the latest in a long line of topnotch creators, and next to those others this first effort seems a little too by-the-numbers to get excited about yet.
Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure #1 — Writer: Stan Lee; Pencils: Jack Kirby, John Buscema; Inks: Joe Sinnott
The story is that, by FF #102, in 1969, Jack Kirby had become increasingly disillusioned with Marvel, for any number of reasons (some likely just because he’d been working on the same characters for close to ten years, an eternity in monthly comics). When he turned in the art for that issue, with his notes in the margins, Stan Lee didn’t find it “dialogueable,” which is to say that he thought it didn’t make a lot of sense and kind of sucked. The story was pulled, Kirby resigned, and the only creative team the FF had ever had was dissolved. The Lost Adventure pulls together Kirby’s original pencils for that story, with Ron Frenz filling in some missing panels, Joe Sinnott inking it, and Lee, after 35 years, finally adding the words (for comparison’s sake, we also get the story the way it originally ran, with the panels chopped up and with a completely different framing sequence/ending, in FF #108). So, did it originally suck? Well, it’s a pretty mild dose of Lee/Kirby late-period FF, not exactly the Galactus Trilogy, but that still puts it considerably ahead of most modern books, it’s an interesting historical artifact, and there’s still a bit of a thrill at seeing a “new” Kirby story, from just before he created the New Gods for DC.
New Avengers #38 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Art: Michael Gaydos
Jessica, fearing for her baby’s safety after a super-villain attack, has sought asylum at Avengers Tower, and when Luke finds out they talk about it. That’s it — it’s the kind of superhero-soap-opera stuff Bendis is good at, especially with these characters, but it’s more an issue of Alias than Avengers, and fans looking for punching or costumes will be disappointed (some of the edge is also taken off by the fact that any one of the three principals — including the kid — might actually be a Skrull). It’s not a satisfying story by itself, but I liked it for what it is, a quiet piece of the overall story arc, and if the resolution of Secret Invasion eventually gets them back together, happy and non-Skrully, then it’ll be even better.
B.P.R.D.: 1946 #2 — Writers: Mike Mignola and Joshua Dysart; Art: Paul Azaceta
The usual creepy goodness, as it tells the tale of one of the group’s pre-Hellboy adventures, worth mentioning for the way Nick Falardi’s colors enhance the story, for its connections to mythic Russian history, and for the little girl who’s much more than she seems.
Tiny Titans #1 — Writers: Art Baltazar and Franco; Art: Art Baltazar
The Titans get the little-kid treatment, much like Chris Giarrusso’s Mini-Marvels does for the competition. Unaccountably, I liked this; maybe it’s the creators’ obvious affection and knowledge about Titans history, and the way they mash it all together so that Bumblebee gets to play with Starfire, Raven, Rose and even the original Batgirl; maybe it’s the fact that their substitute teacher is Trigon, and the way his little bifocals only cover two of his four eyes; maybe it’s just that it’s a lighthearted, fun little diversion, and a good way to indoctrinate your little sister, cousin or own small child into the Titans universe.
Punisher War Journal #16 — Writer: Matt Fraction; Artist: Howard Chaykin
More like an issue of Super-Villain Team-Up (with the Gibbon and Princess Python, of all characters), than an actual Punisher comic, since Frank only shows up for two pages. Fraction’s shown some talent with this seedy, hard-scrabble end of the Marvel Universe, though, and the Chaykin art is a nice surprise, a good fit for the story, and enough to push this into the “buy” category.
Stuff I read and bought, but don’t have anything new to say about, so go look up previous reviews in the archives if you want to know:
Bat Lash #3 (of 6) — Writers: Peter Brandvold and Sergio Aragones; Artist: John Severin
DMZ #28 — Writer: Brian Wood; Art: Ricardo Burchielle
The Goon #21 — Writer/Artist: Eric Powell
Ultimate Iron Man II #3 (of 4) — Writer: Orson Scott Card; Artist: Pasqual Ferry
Amazing Spider-Man #550 — Writer: Marc Guggenheim; Artist: Salvador Larroca
