Final Crisis #6 (of 7) — Writer: Grant Morrison; Art: JG Jones, Carlos Pacheco, Doug Mahnke, Marco Rudy, Christian Alamy and Jesus Merino
Well, you can’t accuse Morrison of scrimping on the action: between Superman and Brainiac-5 accessing the Miracle Machine in the future, the two Atoms scouting out alternate universes, Black Canary and the resistance fighters on the JLA satellite, the Flashes, Checkmate, the Green Lanterns… all those heroes, all working independently, almost make the reader feel sorry for Darkseid even before his final confrontation with Batman (and, by the way, has that Omega-beam thing ever actually taken someone out permanently? Somehow, they all come back, so even with a charred body I’m not too worried about anyone’s ultimate fate…). The tag-team artists don’t help, although it’s hard to see how any one person could have handled all the characters and slam-bang events featured here; it’ll be interesting to take the final issue in a few weeks, put it together with the others, and see if this whole sprawling explosion of a story actually makes sense when read all in one setting.
Fables #80 — Writer: Bill Willingham; Penciller: Mark Buckingham; Inker: Andrew Pepoy
Rock-solid as ever: a perfect example of how to present one episode of an ongoing fantasy series and create suspense, move the various subplots along, and, despite the large cast, make everything accessible enough for new readers to pick up and enjoy. I hope Vertigo is paying Willingham and Co. a bunch of money, because they’re the franchise right now (especially with 100 Bullets about to end), and should be selling both trades and new issues of this wonderful series for years to come.
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #2 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Eric Shanower; Artist: Skottie Young
Young continues to show a casual, skillful facility for this kind of child-fantasy storytelling (although his Dorothy is virtually indistinguishable from his Alice in Wonderland), and Shanower — who knows a thing or two about Oz adaptations — does a precise, focused (and legally untouchable) job of ignoring the movie and focusing purely on the now-out-of-copyright original novel. This gives it a Victorian tone that in other hands could have been overly precious, but somehow Shanower and Young conspire to make it charming instead, the kind of all-ages offering that can be enjoyed by both kids and their parents.
Young Liars #11 — Writer/Artist: David Lapham
Damn it — I knew that spider thing was going to be trouble, and now it’s taken over what was a perfectly enjoyable slice-of-life story and turned it into weirdo space entomology. I think this has always been Lapham’s big problem — he doesn’t trust the true stuff to be exciting enough, and so goes off on the wildest imaginable fantasy tangents; they jazz it up (unnecessarily), but at the same time yank the reader right out of the story. I suspect there’s only an issue or two left, and there have been enough good parts to justify keeping the set, but it’s disappointing that something so promising turned out to be so flawed too.
Stuff I read and liked enough to buy, but don’t have much to say about, so read previous reviews in the archives if you’re interested:
Punisher War Zone #5 (of 6) — Writer: Garth Ennis; Artist: Steve Dillon
DMZ #38 — Writer: Brian Wood; Artist: Riccardo Burchielli
B.P.R.D.: The Black Goddess #1 (of 5) — Story: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi; Art: Guy Davis
Phil Mateer
