Thunderbolts #114 — Writer: Warren Ellis; Artist: Mike Deodato, Jr.
Three C-list heroes versus the T-Bolts, in the middle of three parts. Ellis is good at showing everyone’s motivations and making them believable, and Deodato delivers clear, action-oriented art. My one major complaint is that the story’s supposed to be set in Phoenix, and apparently no one bothered to do, like, ten minutes of Internet searching for photo references. It looks like Generic NYC Urban Area — there are water towers on top of the building’s, for God’s sake, and a hot dog pushcart that outta be a taco stand. The kicker is the T-Bolt’s plane swooping into town, past the pine-tree-covered mountain with the waterfall. Um, dudes, what part of “Sonoran Desert” didn’t you understand?
Wormwood #3 — Writer: Garth Ennis; Artwork: Jacen Burrows
Ennis’s Inferno (and Paradisio, too), as the sons of the devil and God, plus a talking rabbit, take a roadtrip tour of heaven and hell. Too preachy in places — I was reminded of some of the Alan Moore magic lectures in Promethea — but still fun. Burrows’s art is OK, but kind of basic, especially in the faces — although there’s at least one good reaction shot from the rabbit that helps make up for it. Definitely a book for adults (the Australian pope, “Pope Jacko,” sees to that), but Ennis fans should seek it out.
Marvel Zombies: Dead Days — Writer: Robert Kirkman; Artist: Sean Phillips
A one-shot showing the events that led up to the start of the Marvel Zombies mini-series. There’s a weird reverse inevitability to the plot, since instead of knowing everything’s going to turn out OK, as usual in comics, here we know everyone’s doomed. Kirkman’s gallows humor leavens the proceedings, and there’s a kick-over-the-anthill thrill in seeing the entire Marvel Earth turned into brain-sucking monsters, enough to make this book a guilty pleasure.
Countdown #51 (first issue, of, um, 52? 51?) — Writer: Paul Dini; Pencils: Jesus Saiz; Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
The Dini connection was enough to recommend this, since I trust his creative skills, and this first issue is… OK. Jason Todd and the “Joker’s daughter” fighting a Monitor (or two) is about all that actually happens; the rest is all setup, introductions of characters’ storylines and hints of looming doom. This book has much more of a Crisis on Infinite Earths feel than, say, 52 , which seemed more leisurely, a year’s tour of the DC Universe through the stories of various characters. Here, as the title suggests, we’re moving toward something, counting down to a coming “Great Disaster” that will presumably happen in a year’s time. I’ll come back for the next issue, but I’m reserving judgment; it’s way too early to tell yet whether this’ll be worth it.
New Avengers #30 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Artist: Leinil Yu
Murky, both in the narrative structure (with the duel flashback/flash-forward stories) and in Yu’s art, with its scratchy-lined faces and hard-to-decipher poses; even the coloring is dark and soupy. Maybe that’s partly the point, to show the confusion when you’re fighting about a million ninjas — and the dialogue, as usual with Bendis, is a bright spot — but the whole thing gives me a headache. I’m still buying it, but not much enjoying it right now, just grimly hanging on until this current arc is over and we can get on with better stories.
DMZ #19 — Writer: Brian Wood; Artists: Riccardo Burchielli, Nathan Fox and Viktor Kalvachev
Doing the Rashomon bit with a military slaughter of civilians that helped to escalate this future urban war. We’ve seen the scared PFC’s version, and now we get the career military guy’s one; presumably, we’ll get the civilian version next issue. As someone who grew up 45 miles from Kent State University, I can appreciate Wood’s careful attention to giving all sides their say (and suspect that he’ll leave what actually happened — gun from the civilians, or not? — up in the air). This arc is turning into a meditation on how everyone involved in a military-civilian confrontation like this can have a legitimate point of view, and be doing their best to do what they see as the right thing, and still have it all turn into a deadly screwup.
Nova #2 — Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Penciller: Sean Chen; Inker: Scott Hanna
The theme is “You can’t go home again,” as Richard Rider returns from the Annihilation thingie to find most of the New Warriors dead, the Civil War fought and finished, and the new registration laws and mistrust of superheroes fully in place. Now what? This was better than I thought it would be — I especially like the way that, as a by-now-old soldier with an entire world’s resources inside his head, he’s just looking for a little R&R, and wants to avoid all the decisions and other crap that Tony Stark keeps bugging him about. The last page absolutely makes me want to get the next issue, too; I’ll be really impressed if Abnett and Lanning can salvage something out of the mess that’s been made out of Richard’s former teammate there.
Amazing Spider-Man #540 — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski; Penciler: Ron Garney; Inker: Bill Reinhold
Dark Spidey keeps following clues up the food chain, and finally finds out who ordered the hit on him (and, as collateral damage, his aunt), and then vows to kill him. Uh-huh. I can’t see where this is going to go anywhere other than the “No, but then I’ll be just as evil as he is” route, but I’m willing to be convinced; Straczynski’s six years of good stories have earned him that, Gwen Stacy babies or not.
Phil Mateer
