The Avengers #1 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Pencils: John Romita Jr.; Inks: Klaus Janson
I have to admit, reading this book makes me happy: all the Romita Jr./Janson touches, the little offhand dialogue beats, the use of Kang (last used well in that awesome Kurt Busiek arc years ago where he took over the world, put the heroes in concentration camps, and ended up fighting a giant Captain America — what else do you want in a superhero comic?), the “there’s something the matter with your kids” callback to Back To The Future: I can’t get enough of this stuff. Sure, it’s not perfect, but if I were a 12-year-old reading comics for the first time, this book would be fascinating, and would demand that I come back for more. It’s a rare quality for a writer to be able to “get” superhero books the way Bendis and Geoff Johns do, and it’s why they’re the top creators at their respective companies right now.
Legion of Super-Heroes #1 — Writer: Paul Levitz; Pencils: Yildiray Cinar; Inks: Wayne Faucher
Levitz, having “retired” as DC publisher, returns to the book that made his reputation. It’s interesting to compare this with Jim Shooter’s similar “old creator returning to his roots” efforts: Shooter’s writing seemed more modern, and took more chances, but had his sometimes-clunky dialogue and uninspired art, and wasn’t a commercial success (sales on the book went up on the first issue of his run, and then dropped consistently throughout the rest of it, and he left under less-than-amicable circumstances). Levitz offers a story that’s both smoother and more traditional, albeit with similar galactic soap-opera elements; will it strike a better chord with readers? LSH fans, a small but vocal lot, should enjoy it; the trick will be whether this can attract newer readers too. As with Avengers, there’s enough here to keep readers coming back for more, so stay tuned.
Galacta: Daughter of Galactus #1 (of 1) — Writer: Adam Warren; Art: Hector Savilla Lujan
Galactus’s “daughter,” manifesting on Earth as a typical twenty-something obsessed with Twitter, and eating any aliens who try to invade us? Yes, it sounds like a completely stupid concept, but it’s by Adam Warren, one of the brightest and most innovative writers in comics (especially with the kind of techno-alien concepts this story is built around), so give it a shot. This was originally serialized as one of Marvel’s digital comics, although new material has been added, and it’s wildly imaginative, funny, and deeply grounded in Marvel continuity. It’s also 31 pages of story (plus seven pages of Twitter posts) for $4, which, compared to the 24 pages of story/six pages of extra stuff in the Avengers book, isn’t a bad deal (to be fair, though, LSH #1, also $4, has a 39-page story, so based purely on price-per-page, it’s the best buy).
Zatanna #1 — Writer: Paul Dini; Pencils: Stephane Roux; Inks: Karl Story
Dini’s a fan of DC’s fishnet-stockinged, reverse-talking female magician, and works her into his stories whenever he can; now, he’s writing her own ongoing series. This initial issue does a good job of introducing her as a combination stage magician/supernatural detective, giving her an adversary, and keeping things moving. Roux’s art doesn’t have the cartoony fizz of Dini’s (it’s more reminiscent of Tony Harris’s), but offers an effective, more realistic-looking combination of human expression and demonic grotesques; as with many of the first issues this week, it does its job of making readers want to come back for another issue.
X-Men: Legacy #236 — Writer: Mike Carey; Pencils: Greg Land; Inks: Jay Leisten
Chapter eight of 14, as things begin to accelerate. There’s the old unbreakable-sphere trick, although Carey enlivens it with lots of technobabble, and an “uh-oh” moment at the end. At slightly over the halfway mark, it looks like the plotting is tighter on this X-serial than in many from the past, with each episode an important chapter in the narrative — although that’s not to say that there also isn’t some padding (Fraction and Carey, the writers of the two main X-books, seem to be contributing most of the actual characterization and cross-issue continuity). This is definitely not a first issue, so it’s not very friendly to new readers: if you’re buying it because you’ve been getting the rest, it’ll seem fine, but anyone who hasn’t been reading the books anyway wouldn’t be convinced to start by looking at all these people jumping around and saying incomprehensible things.
Invincible Iron Man #26 — Writer: Matt Fraction; Art: Salvador Larocca
More on the new status quo; Fraction, as he’s done for over two years, does a good job of taking the best Iron Man elements from the movies, combining them with the best from the comic continuity, and mixing them to create a book accessible and interesting to both new and old readers. There isn’t a lot of action this time — and, after two issues, more on the damn new suit and its capabilities would help — but as long as that’s balanced out in the next few issues then all will be forgiven.
Stuff I liked enough to buy, but don’t have much new to say about, so read earlier posts about the titles in the archives if you’re interested:
Joe the Barbarian #5 ( of 8 ) — Writer: Grant Morrison; Art: Sean Murphy
Battlefields: Firefly and His Majesty #3 (of 3) — Writer: Garth Ennis; Art: Carlos and Hector Ezquerra
Knights of the Dinner Table #162 — Creators: Jolly Blackburn, Steve Johansson, David Kenzer and Brian Jelke
Phil Mateer
