Reviews

Secret Invasion #2 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Penciler: Leinil Yu; Inker: Mark Morales Almost all the action takes place in the Savage Land, and it’s… interesting, I suppose, without getting too spoilery about it. I’m not a big fan of Yu’s art — he can draw and pose superhero bodies, but his grasp of concepts like, oh, foreshortening, perspective, backgrounds (you know, the stuff people who’ve actually learned to draw from life are able to use) is slippery at best. The broad sweep of the story, though, and its everything-you-know-is-suspect jolts, have deep fanboy hooks; … Continue reading →

DC Universe Special: Justice League of America #1 — Writers: Len Wein; Gerry Conway; Jack Miller; Artists: Dick Dillon/Dick Giordano; Dillin/Frank McLaughlin; Jor Certa Reprints featuring the first appearances of two of the obscure characters that are part of Final Crisis — Libra and the Human Flame — plus the three-part JLA story from #s166-168 where the super-villains switch places with the heroes, and eventually get mind-wiped (the main hook for Identity Crisis, of course). It’s nostalgiac fun to see so much Dick Dillin art (even though some of the reproduction is too shadowy); he was the JLA for many … Continue reading →

DC Universe #0 — Writers: Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns; Artists: George Perez, Doug Mahnke, Tony Daniel, Ivan Reis, Aaron Lopresti, Philip Tan, Ed Benes, Carlos Pacheco, JG Jones Well this is encouraging: a perfect little promo book, only 50 cents, setting up small tastes of Final Crisis and all its spinoffs (Legion of Three Worlds by Johns and Perez; Batman: RIP by Morrison and Daniel; Wonder Woman: Whom the Gods Forsake by Simone and Lopresti; Green Lantern: The Dead Shall Rise by Johns and Reis; Revelations, by Rucka and Tan; and, of course, Final Crisis by Morrison and Jones) … Continue reading →

Ultimate Human #4 (of 4) — Writer: Warren Ellis; Penciler: Cary Nord; Colorist: Dave Stewart This has probably been the least of the Ellis Ultimate mini-series, since it just doesn’t amount to much: having Pete Wisdom as the bad guy, a sort of Ultimate Leader, came off as self-indulgent and too inbred to make much sense, and there was never a feeling of anything being at stake. The best Ellis offers a prickly back-of-the-neck-hairs weirdness, a glimpse of a world that’s simultaneously harder, stranger, and more fun than the one we’re used to, and this title never achieved that: blah … Continue reading →

Death of the New Gods #8 ( of 8 ) — Writer/Penciller: Jim Starlin; Inks: Art Thibert Starlin manages a suitable conclusion, although the cosmic flash and thunder is tempered by (a) the nagging feeling that the Apokolips/New Genesis planet bit has been done before, and (b) the way that the Darkseid-Orion climax isn’t even in this issue, having already taken place in Countdown a week ago. It’s a tribute to Starlin’s skills that this still works at all, but the Countdown thing is just ham-fisted editorial idiocy, and leaves a bad aftertaste after what otherwise was a surprisingly good … Continue reading →