Strange Adventures #1 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Jim Starlin; Pencils: Manuel Garcia; Inks: Al Milgrom
Starlin offering another in the continuing adventures of his cosmic DC cast: Captain Comet, The Weird, Starman, Bizarro and, of course, the titular Adam Strange. It’s oddly comforting to see him and Al Milgrom still part of the same creative team after close to 40 years; he’s only listed as writer, but those layouts look awfully Starliny, and Garcia just seems to be a middleman between the two old pros. Entertaining, and worth checking out, depending on your tolerance for this sort of thing.
Killer of Demons #1 (of 3) — Writer: Christopher Yost; Art: Scott Wegener
Sort of Office Space for Satanists, as a young cubicle worker is visited by the angel Uriel and given the power to see the demons living among us — and it turns out most of his co-workers (and about a third of the population) fit the bill, and his new mission is to slaughter them (hence the title). It’s mostly tongue in cheek — there’s a little bit of “Is he nuts or not?”, but it’s clear that he isn’t — with the angel a typical wiseass, cigar-smoking cherub, and Wegener’s angular art rendering the demons more funny/grotesque than menacing. The humor and the stylized drawing make it hard to actually connect to the characters and care about them, and it all seems to be going just about where you’d expect, but I didn’t regret the ten minutes I spent reading it (although if I’d actually spent $4 on the thing, my opinion might be different).
Fantastic Four: Dark Reign #1 (of 5) — Writer: Jonathan Hickman; Pencils: Sean Chen; Inks: Lorenzo Ruggiero
What the FF are dong during the Norman Osborne era, since Miller/Hitch over in the main title have their own thing going. Not too bad; Chen and Ruggiero get kind of a Barry Smith vibe going in the art, and Hickman’s ploy of having Reed, guilted by his screwups during the Civil War/Skrull stuff, go off on an alternate-dimension tour to research how parallel realities handles the same events is smart: it takes him off the table when Norman’s goons come calling, making for a more extended battle. This almost made the cut, so give it a look.
Battle for the Cowl #1 (of 1) — Writer: Fabien Nicieza; Art: Dustin Nguyen, Guillem March, ChrisCross; Jamie McKelvie; Alex Konat and Mark McKenna
Tag-team art. with chapters focusing on various B- and C-level members of the Bat-supporting cast like Vickie Vale, Leslie Thompson, Harvey Bullock, Stephanie Thompson and The Veil (whom I’d completely wiped from my memory, probably because she’s an exact ripoff off Dark Horse’s Ghost), and all trying to stir up interest in who’s going to take over for “Dead? Does anyone believe he’s dead?” Batman. It’s the kind of thing you flip through in the comic store, just in case anything happens that’s gong to be important later in books you actually read. Um: no, it doesn’t; even the McKelvie art can’t break out of the deadly cocoon of who cares?
Executive Assistant Iris #0 — Writer: David Wohl; Pencils: Eduardo Francisco; Inks: Jason Gorder and Eduardo Francisco
Aspen continues to hold high the torch of mid-’90s Image comics, with chicks in sexy ninja suits, stereotypical corporate warlords and Russian businessmen, guns and assassination attempts, and utterly generic, interchangeable, forgettable dialog and plot.
Sub-Mariner: The Depths #5 (of 5) — Writer: Peter Milligan; Artist: Esad Ribic
I still have a problem with the truth in advertising on this one: Namor barely shows up even in this last issue, as the story’s really about a skeptical researcher who gradually succumbs to madness in the, you know, maddening depths of the wine-dark sea or some damn thing; it’s all very Peter Milligany. Fair enough, and well-written, I guess, but slapping Sub-Mariner on all the covers, and using him as a come-on to get readers to shell out $20 for this series in which he’s a barely-seen, mythic presence who doesn’t even make any damn sense, just seems a trifle… dishonest?
War of Kings #1 (of 6) — Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Penciler: Paul Pelletier; Inker: Rick Magyar
You couldn’t ask for a more perfect example of a modern corporate superhero comic: all the creators are smooth and professional, experienced at this sort of thing; there’s lots of cosmic fan service (which you’d expect from the writers who brought you Annihilation, et. al.), including the Starjammers, Havok and Polaris, and the Shiar and their superheros from the X-men books, and the Inhumans and Darkhawk and, apparently, a big crossover into Guardians of the Galaxy, Nova, and so on. If you’re followers of these books, you already like the creative teams, so go for it; me, I find them hard to retain — I’m entertained enough when I’m reading them, but they dissolve out of my head minutes after I’ve read them.
Phil Mateer
