Reviews

Milestone Forever #1 (of 2) — Writer: Dwayne McDuffie;  Art: John Paul Leon, Mark Bright and Romeo Tanghal The Leon art is a framing sequence wrapped around the main story penciled by Bright, and that stars Icon, Rocket, the Blood Syndicate, Static and a few others — it’s a fun callback to the early Milestone stories, when the imprint’s urban pizzazz was a breath of fresh air, and McDuffie had a Jim Shooter-like creative control over the whole line that brought all the titles together and gave them a consistent, edgy voice. The only criticism here is with the covers, … Continue reading →

Scalped #34 — Writer: Jason Aaron;  Art: R. M. Guerra Ghost Rider: Heaven’s On Fire #6 (of 6) — Writer: Jason Aaron;  Art: Roland Boschi Wolverine: Weapon X #10 — Writer: Jason Aaron;  Art: C. P. Smith Three books by Jason Aaron, who’s very close to being mainstream comics’ Next Big Writer, and while I didn’t actually buy any of them, I wouldn’t make fun of you if you did — they were all entertaining. Scalped was his breakthrough book, a high-concept noir mashup — 100 Bullets on the rez, all hardscrabble lives and casino-fueled menace — and now, three … Continue reading →

Kick-Ass #8 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Mark Millar;  Pencils: John Romita Jr.;  Inks: Tom Palmer Yes, it’s over the top, and it has those annoying Millarisms in the dialog and plot (everyone, no matter their background or personality, has the same little hitches in their sentence phrasing, and his sad-sack characters never, ever catch a romantic break), but hey: it’s also been consistently, gorgeously drawn, and you have to admit that this issue’s finale, wherein two kids take on an army of Mafiosi, is a lot of fun; this might not have been the best comic to come … Continue reading →

Wolverine: Wendigo #1 (of 1) — Writer: Frank Tieri;  Art: Paul Gulacy (First story); Paco Diaz and Guillermo Orega (Second story) Reading the credits for this book made me feel like one of those movie scenes where, when the hero’s tempted, a devil pops up on one of his shoulders, and an angel on the other, and they argue it out. In this case, of course, the angel is the Gulacy art, and the devil is the Frank Tieri script. Sadly, the devil wins this one: in a comic whose cover promises a Wolverine/Wendigo fight, we get a 20-page story … Continue reading →

Joe the Barbarian #1 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Grant Morrison; Art: Sean Murphy After the universe-spanning clash of thousands that was Final Crisis, Morrison has (maybe wisely) gone back to stories that focus on the vastness inside a single human heart and head; Seaguy II had a world at stake, but boiled down to the changes inside its title character as he journeyed on the path to becoming a true hero, and Joe the Barbarian looks like it’s exploring similar territory. It’s a classic fantasy set-up: the lonely, put-upon kid with the creative imagination who crosses over into … Continue reading →