Number of the Beast #1 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Scott Beatty;  Pencils: Chris Sprouse;  Inks: Karl Story Another long series touting the no-fooling, this-time-it’s-real end of the Wildstorm Universe. Jim, dude, I know you’ve had a good run with these characters, but everyone stopped caring ten years ago. For the love of God, stop trying to reanimate the corpse, and just pull the plug. Batman: Death Mask #1 (of 4) — Writer/Artist: Yoshinori Natsume DC’s teaming up with CMX for this title, and it’s done straight-up manga style: read “backwards,” in black and white, by a currently-hot Japanese … Continue reading →

Omega the Unknown #7 (of 10) — Writers: Jonathan Lethem and Karl Rusnak; Pencils: Farel Dalrymple and Gary Panter; Inks: Farel Dalrymple Panter does the cover and first five pages (the never-before told, no-kidding origin, as drawn in a Basil Wolverton/Fletcher Hanks-cum-medieval-tapestry style), and it’s cooler than anything else you’ll see in a mainstream comic this year. The main story, by the usual team, is skating perilously close to Harry Potter territory — look at the cover for the next issue, which could practically be a chapter illustration in one of the earlier Potter books — but, wow: Gary Panter! … Continue reading →

Trials of Shazam #12 (of 12) — Writer: Judd Winnick; Art: mauro Cascioli Some people find it easy to bring the hate on Winnick. I can’t, because Pedro and Me was an assured, heartbreaking first effort, and The Adventures of Barry Ween was a great, great independent comic, funny and snarky and full of heart. The talent’s clearly there; the problem’s that in corporate comics it doesn’t always shine through. Here, for example, we have a bloated 12-issue serial that repositions the Captain Marvel franchise as Shazam instead (yes, that’s the main character’s name now; there’s no “Captain Marvel” at … Continue reading →

All-Star Superman #10 — Writer: Grant Morrison; Penciller: Frank Quitely;  Inker: Jamie Grant All stories end in death — except that, really, they don’t. Look at comics, and their reboots and resurrections, or look at icons like Sherlock Holmes; maybe pop-culture characters get to live forever. Death and creation seem to be the themes this issue, as various characters get saved, or find new beginnings, or think up ways for their legacies to live on, through DNA or super-powered intervention or sheer creative spark (that last comes courtesy of two high-school kids from Cleveland, in a very Morrisonian touch of … Continue reading →

Countdown to Final Crisis #5 — Writers: Paul Dini with Adam Beechen, consulting with Keith Giffen; Pencils: Jim Starlin; Inks: Rodney Ramos Sort of the secret origin of Earth-Kamandi, as events spiral out of control, collapse, and then dovetail neatly into Kirby’s first issue. The Statue of Liberty on the cover is a nice shout-out to that ’70s series, too. (Now, where’s the tattered Superman suit from Kamandi #29? It’s hard to believe, and disappointing, that Dini would let that pass….) Between the nostalgia and the Starlin/Ramos art, this is the first issue of this series that I’d consider actually … Continue reading →