The Zombies That Ate The World #1 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Jerry Frissen; Art: Guy Davis
This is another one of those aborted Humanoids projects from a couple of years ago, first picked up by DC, abandoned, and now being published by DDP. The story’s pedestrian, although leavened by some satire: the returning dead are exploited as just another commodity, since they’re fairly benign and suggestible — although by the end of this first issue, that begins to change (not much of a spoiler, given the book’s title). The big attraction here is the Davis art: it’s lighter than his work for B.P.R.D., looser and with more exaggerated caricature, but just as carefully rendered and fun to look at; it elevates the entire project, and makes this a book worth buying. Points to DDP for very nice production values, with very high-quality paper and printing, especially for a $3.50 floppy.
Amazing Spider-Man #587 — Writer: Marc Guggenheim; Penciler: John Romita, Jr.; Inker: Klaus Janson
Spider-Man in jail: kind of an “already-done” plot (yes, Matt Murdoch shows up; no, despite the cover, the cops don’t unmask him), but it’s motoring right along, and there’s more consideration of “real” police issues than there might have been; it’s a definite plus that Romita Jr. and Janson continue to be one of the best corporate-superhero art teams in comics right now.
Dark Avengers #2 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Art: Mike Deodato
One of Bendis’s biggest strengths is the quiet little character bits, but this book doesn’t play to those: we don’t care about most of the players, since they’re bad guys, and all the slam-bang action, despite lots of explosions and gore, is just kind of… there (it also makes my head hurt: Morgana La Fay gets killed in the present, but it doesn’t count because she’s actually based in the past, so she can just come back again… what? This is why I’ve never been a big fan of Kang, either: time travel makes up its own rules with every new writer, and never makes much sense). Still, watching Norman Osborne play Avengers leader to a bunch of disguised bad guys is perversely fascinating, and, at least for the moment, hard to resist.
Uncanny X-Men #506 — Writer: Matt Fraction; Penciler: Terry Dodson; Inker: Rachel Dodson
This is another book where the ongoing plot is just kind of there (San Francisco has become, courtesy of the X-Men, a haven for persecuted mutants everywhere; meanwhile, the other half of the team is off encountering Saturday afternoon monster movie cliches like giant crabs, mad scientists and Godzilla); however, the Dodson family art team buffs everything up and makes it all shiny and pleasant to watch, and that’s enough to kick it into the “buy” category.
Justice League America #30 — Writer: Dwayne McDuffie; Pencils: Jose Luys; Inks: JP Mayer
The end of the Milestone-character crossover, although McDuffie takes pains to make clear that they all live on the regular DC Earth, and have all along, making them all now officially part of the DC toybox. I was surprised at how glad I was to see characters like Icon and Rocket again; however, no one gets much screen time, since the already-large JLA cast is effectively doubled by the crossover, and while there’s a lot of fighting, nothing much gets resolved: it all unravels into future plot threads instead. Despite the lack of resolution, I’m still a fan of McDuffie’s deft hand, and obvious knowledge of and affection for all of these characters — fortunately so, since Luys’s static, posed art doesn’t do much for me.
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:
Gold Digger #103 — Writer/Artist: Fred Perry
Phil Mateer
