Reviews

Supergirl #18 — Writer: Joe Kelly; Pencillers: Adam Archer and Ale Garza; Inker: Sandra Hope Supergirl vs. an idealized, Silver-Ageish version of herself, which lets Kelly make his case against all the people who’ve been agitating for that version of the character to come back. That part’s good — he gets in some good arguments, after all — but the art is sometimes distracting. The faces, especially, are often distorted, and even ugly, and the ending is a “Hey — what th–?” affair that feels like Kelly is rushing to wrap things up before the next creative team takes over … Continue reading →

Hellboy: Darkness Calls #2 (of 6) — Writer: Mike Mignola; Art: Duncan Fegredo Best book of the week. Fegredo continues to do a great, spooky job on the art (one assumes Mignola is looking obsessively over his shoulder, especially because the end product is so close to Mignola’s own style, and that can’t be fun for Fegredo, but the result is one nice-looking book). The plot looks back to lots of previous Hellboy continuity, too, so it’s a treat for longtime fans, and it really seems as though this storyline will move the character forward; when an independent creator promises … Continue reading →

The Irredeemable Ant-Man #8 — Writer: Robert Kirkman; Art: Cory Walker The cover shows the tiny main character perched on a shower head, about to watch an unsuspecting woman take a shower; I’m surprised that it hasn’t gotten pulled into the current Internet debate about degradation of women in comics, although next to tentacle hentai it’s almost innocent, in a 13-year-old-male spy-on-the-girls’-locker-room kind of way. The problem is that the character’s an adult, although the joke is supposed to be that he acts like an adolescent, an immoral slacker using the powers of the costume he’s stolen to get chicks … Continue reading →

Criminal #6 — Writer: Ed Brunaker; Artist: Sean Phillips Best comic of the week, and a great jumping-on point for new readers, since it’s the start of a completely new story, with new characters. Settle into the seedy story of Tracy Lawless, AWOL from the military and looking for revenge for the death of his kid brother, a petty criminal who died under mysterious circumstances. He’s the protagonist of the story; “hero” would be pushing it, since the first time we see him he’s killing a man who, while far from innocent, probably doesn’t deserve it. Phillips’ art is effectively … Continue reading →

Wisdom #6 (of 6) — Writer: Paul Cornell; Pencils: Manuel Garcia; Inks: Mark Farmer The final issue of a mini-series that could never quite find an audience — maybe because of the obscure character, or the British setting (although it was one of the few series set in England that actually felt like it was England, as an actual place), or just because it kept throwing out so many concepts and ideas that it was hard to follow. That’s true here at the end, too, as it’s revealed that one of the character’s sons is destined to become Killraven, from … Continue reading →