New Comics

Hulk #18 — Writer: Jeph Loeb;  Pencils: Whilce Portacio;  Inks:  Danny Miki Dark Wolverine #81 — Writers: Daniel Way and Marjorie Liu;  Pencils: Guiseppe Camuncoli;  Inks: Onofrio Catacchio Inexplicably, although each of these books has 22 pages of story, with the same paper and packaging, DW is $2.99 and Hulk is $3.99. It’s not just the prices that are puzzling here, though — it’s that Marvel, apparently, thinks you’ll buy just about anything. Superhero comics are supposed to be about flash, excitement, danger and dazzling action, right? In Hulk, we have Doc Samson spending an entire issue being psychoanalyzed; in … Continue reading →

Amazing Spider-Man #614 — Writer: Mark Waid;  Art: Paul Azaceta Invincible Iron Man #21 — Writer: Matt Fraction;  Art: Salvador Larroca New Avengers Annual #3 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis;  Art: Mike Mayhew Your readable mainstream superhero books for the week, linked because the artists on each are solo, doing both pencils and inks. This gives them a consistent, unique style, unlike so many current DC and Marvel books, which use a tag-team inking process that discourages individual flourishes, and reduces the art to a mediocre corporate sameness. Here, though, Azeceta’s indy-influenced work, Larroca’s careful page construction (lots of narrow … Continue reading →

Necrosha: The Gathering #1 (of 1) — Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost;  Artists: Ibraim Roberson, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Leonardo Manco, Kalman Andrasofszky/Cam Smith, and Mateus Santolouco A one-shot anthology, with five stories recounting how the current X-villianess, Selene, recruited the five members of her vampiric inner circle. Lots of lines like “Kill him, my children.” and “Why do you exist, Mortis?” “To kill.” and “My queen. Who would you like me to kill?” “Everyone.” and… well, you get the idea; this is not a subtle comic. If you like the current incarnation of X-Force, with its dark artwork, grim … Continue reading →

Jonah Hex #50 — Writers: Justin Grey and Jimmy Palmiotti;  Art: Darwyn Cooke An anniversary issue, featuring a 37-page story that acts as a coda to the last year or so of adventures, and wraps up the Tallulah/Jonah relationship in typically grim fashion. As always, when Palmiotti and Grey get a good artist (and Cooke, doing his deceptively-simple Toth impression, is one of the best), they turn their storytelling up a notch, and the result is an affecting, understated but blood-soaked tale of insanity, murder, passion, redemption and revenge — not necessarily in that order. Empowered Special — Writer/Artist: Adam … Continue reading →

X-Force Annual #1 — Writer: Robert Kirkman;  Art: Jason Pearson;  (Deadpool story/11 pgs.) — Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost;  Pencils: Carlos Barberi;  Inks: Sandu Florea Kirkman (Invincible)/Pearson (Body Bags) sounds like it would be a winner for this title; both are known for flashy, sometimes-violent action stories, and that’s what this current incarnation of X-Force is all about. The plot mostly involves Wolverine slicing through a number of Hydra goons to kidnap one of them. The “why” is mildly interesting, but it’s an 8-page idea expanded into a 22-page story, insubstantial as smoke, that takes about three minutes to … Continue reading →