Reviews

Sorrow #3 (0f 4) — Writers: Rick Remender and Seth Peck; Art: Francesco Francavilla The End League #1 — Writer: Rick Remender; Pencils: Mat Broome; Inks: Sean Parsons Of these two books written by Remender, the first is the better — it continues to be a clever horror-in-a-“deserted”-town tale, with a determined heroine, an expanding backstory, and at least two good shocks; readers who like this sort of thing should like it, too. The latter book is a superhero story, involving a JLA-type group whose Superman avatar screws up, and the aftermath (it almost reads like it started life as … Continue reading →

Legion of Super-Heroes #37 — Writer: Jim Shooter; Penciller: Francis Manapul; Inker: Livesay Shooter hasn’t changed that much from when he was writing Avengers for Marvel or Harbinger, etc. for Valiant; he’s pretty much Storytelling 101: He introduces everyone, gives each character one or two attitudes/obvious qualities, and then starts throwing problems at them. The imagination’s there, and he’s done his research (he knows current Legion history, and he’s not just coasting on the fact that he was writing stories about these people 40 years ago) but it can all come off a tad mechanical. Still, he’s almost always compelling … Continue reading →

Fantastic Four: Isla de la Muerte! — Writer: Tom Beland; Artist: Juan Doe Not bad — it shows a lot of affection for the characters, and nails their voices; I was pleasantly surprised to get to the end credits and find out it was from Beland, who’s best known for his indy/autobiographical True Story, Swear to God (I thought “Huh. Good for him…”). The art comes off as too cartoony at first, but every character has a consistent, well-thought-out presence, from the looming Thing to manga-eyed Sue to the Darwyn Cookeish squinty-eyed Reed and beady-eyed Johnny. The earlier Grimmcentric scenes … Continue reading →

Special Forces #2 — Writer/Artist: Kyle Baker Fifteen or 20 minutes of a fire fight, tracking the main character. I think of Baker a lot like I think of Darwyn Cooke (and, come to think of it, Alex Toth): Worth buying just to admire how he’s solved the technical problems, even if he’s not always quite as good at the plots and human stuff. Checkmate #21 — Writers: Greg Rucka and Eric Trautmann; Penciller: Chris Samnee; Inker: Travis Lanham The origins of Mademoiselle Marie, as a kind of Phantom-like one-dies-another-takes-over Spirit of France, and her connections to a Checkmate operative. … Continue reading →

New X-Men #45 — Writers: Craig Kyle and Chris Yost; Penciler: Humberto Ramos; Inker: Carlos Cuevas Part Eight of the “Messiah Complex” crossover series. One of the few pieces of good news about a sprawling event is that it can spotlight good work being done on the lower-tier titles like this one; here, Kyle and Yost show their knack for characterization, and Ramos does his usual tightrope act between cartoony exaggeration and straight-ahead widescreen action, especially in a throwdown between X-23 and Deathstrike. The bad news is that it’s hard to show off your strengths when you’re assigned just one … Continue reading →