The Invincible Iron Man #25 — Writer: Matt Fraction; Art: Salvador Larroca
Fraction’s starting his third year with this title, and he’s made it into one of Marvel’s best superhero books; now, after the “Most Wanted”/Dark Reign storylines are over, we’ve got a 39-page new beginning. There’s probably more technobabble than absolutely needed (Tony to Reed Richards: “If the Iron Man was the app… extremis was the O.S…. and I was the hardware.” And there’s three more pages of that), but that’s been a function of the character since the beginning, and it’s made up for by the little set pieces (Tony and Reed; Tony and Thor; Tony and Pepper), Larocca’s skillful art, and the cool new armor, which they wait until the end to fully reveal (and then talk about in a four-page coda showing some of its design stages).
New Avengers #64 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Art: Mike McKone
Captain America #605 — Writer: Ed Brubaker; Pencils: Luke Ross; Inks: Butch Guice
Amazing Spider-Man #629 — Writer: Roger Stern; Art: Lee Weeks
Your other three decent mainstream Marvel superhero books for the week. All three have effective enough art, but are driven mostly by their authors, all old pros and at the tops of their games, effective at combining action, soap-opera subplots and heroic themes. New Avengers is more action-oriented, an almost-epilogue to Seige (it gives away some bits and pieces of the still-delayed Seige #4, but only enough to whet reader interest), and jumps around the battlefield like a camera with ADD; it focuses mostly on The Hood and Madame Masque. Captain America wraps up a three-part story involving Bucky Cap and the Falcon versus the nutso ’50s Cap and his Tea Party… um, “nameless ultraconservative posse comitatus-type group,” and offers the most solid characterization (no surprise with Brubaker), and plotline. Amazing is the end of the Juggernaut/Spider-Man/Captain Universe tale, and has Roger Stern hitting on the uber-Spidey themes of power and responsibility. Together, they offer a state-of-the-industry buffet of solid, traditional four-color storytelling.
Ultimate Avengers 2 #1 — Writer: Mark Millar; Pencils: Leonil Francis Yu; Inks: Gerry Alanguilan
This isn’t with the traditional superhero books because (a) it’s set in the now-tattered Ultimate universe, and (b) it’s by Millar, who isn’t traditional (for one thing, he’s never been bothered to include actual themes or similar narrative niceties in his books, preferring to go for a kind of generalized post-modern cynicism instead). It picks up where the last Ultimates series left off, with Nick Fury and the Black Widow assembling a black-ops team of “heroes,” and recruiting the Punisher to be their Cap-style leader. Not that much happens — and Yu’s art, as in New Avengers, is adequate but too sketchy to add much weight to the action — but there’s a typical Millar last-page reveal, and enough going on to make readers come back to see what happens next.
Stumptown #3 — Writer: Greg Rucka; Art: Matthew Southworth
Rucka’s noir detective thriller continues its initial episode, following his gritty female P.I. as she tries to find a runaway and deal with murky family dynamics and hired hoods. It’s as traditional to its own genre as the superhero books are to theirs (much of it is dimly familiar from other works, and it follows the Chandler pulp dictum of “When in doubt, have people with guns show up”), but it’s solidly constructed for all that, and fun to read, as the put-upon heroine struggles to do the right thing, even as everyone misunderstands her motives and hits her on the head with things.
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:
Justice Society of America #38 — Writer: Bill Willingham; Pencils: Jesus Merino; Inks: Jesse Delperdang
Usagi Yojimbo #128 — Writer/Artist: Stan Sakai
Jack of Fables #45 — Writers: Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges; Pencils: Tony Akins; Inks: Andrew Pepoy
Phil Mateer
