Hellboy: In the Chapel of Moloch — Writer/Artist: Mike Mignola Mignola handles full art duties on his signature character for the first time in a long while, and offers a mordant commentary on bad art and demonic inspiration, leavened with lots of punching and tough-guy quips. It’s a one-shot, requiring no prior knowledge from the reader, and is thus a perfect try-this-comic comic for those who’ve never picked it up (the rest of us figured out that  Hellboy drawn by Mignola (and, really, most anything else in the Hellboy universe that he has a creative hand in) was worth an … Continue reading →

Ultimate Captain America Annual #1 — Writer: Jeph Loeb;  Art: Marko Djurdjevic If you liked Ultimates 3… well, never mind; it’d be too easy to insult you, but anyway here’s a sort of sequel to it, trying to fill in the Black Panther/Cap relationship that made no sense in the series itself. The cover’s symptomatic of the book: a replay of an earlier Cap Annual cover with Wolverine, only this time with the Panther instead. Why? Because it’s easier than coming up with an original idea, apparently; there’s no story reason to justify it. Loeb plays it straight here, which … Continue reading →

Amazing Spider-Man #574 — Writer: Marc Guggenheim;  Penciler: Barry Kitson;  Inker: Mark Farmer No actual Spider-Man, as we get a “very special issue” involving Flash Thompson in Iraq. Guggenheim’s obviously done a lot of research, and his heart’s in the right place, but this isn’t very good — for one thing, to explain to the readers terms like “cordon and search,” he posits a four-star general who doesn’t know them (so Flash can fill him in). Um, no. Plus, while this story might have worked with an anonymous grunt inspired by Spidey (so it would feel like the “real” world), … Continue reading →

Ms. Marvel #32 — Writer: Brian Reed;  Penciler: Paulo Siqueira;  Inker: Amilton Santos There was some talk about “torture porn” a few weeks ago, when Nightwing #149 came out, and this book ought to continue the debate, as we get a tale of Carol Danvers, pre-super-powers, as a fighter pilot who crashes in Afghanistan, gets captured by rebels, and is, yes, tortured for most of the book: stripped to her bra and panties, tied to a chair, shocked with electrical prods, fingernails pulled out, broken leg abused, forearm smashed into jelly with a sledgehammer… and then, of course, being a … Continue reading →

RASL #3 — Writer/Artist: Jeff Smith Boy, these individual issues just zip along; they’re 32 pages of story, but they’re action-packed and don’t take more than ten minutes to read (it’s not that they’re empty; it’s just that the storytelling is so clear that it pulls you along insistently). The only drawback is that the reader is left wanting more, ready for the next issue (which won’t be along for three more months); when these get collected into trades, all that concentrated narrative in one place, they should be an explosive experience. Madman #11 — Writer/Artist: Michail Allred Frank goes … Continue reading →