Justice League of America Wedding Special #1 — Writer: Dwayne McDuffie; Penciller: Mike McKone; Inker: Andy Lanning
I thought this would be a piece of fluff like last week’s Black Canary Special, but with McDuffie handling the script after years of shepherding the cartoon through its paces, it’s a lot more than that. It turns out to be the first shot in a big fight between the Injustice League and the JLA, continuing into the next regular JLA book, and it’s very good. From the opening, an echo of the first Meltzer JLA except with Luthor, Joker and Cheeta dealing cards to pick their team of villains, McDuffie, McCone and Lanning deliver a taut, whipsawing story with quips, excitement, menace and flair. Make no mistake: after the talented-but-uneven Meltzer run, this should be the future of the JLA; it’s their best story in years, and the book of the week.
Thor #3 — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski; Penciler: Olivier Coipel; Inker: Mark Morales
Well, after the lack of action in the first two issues, this makes up for it: Thor runs into Iron Man in a storm-shattered New Orleans, and expresses his displeasure with certain recent events. Who cares that our hero, with his impossibly-broad body and face, and his helmet jammed down to his eyebrows, still looks like some kind of Bart Sears fantasy? It’s such a satisfying ass-kicking that the reader can even forgive the start of the by-the-numbers search for the Asgardians, as Straczynski indicates that he might actually have a Workable Plan after all.
Groo: 25th Anniversary Special — Writer: Mark Evanier; Creator/Artist: Sergio Aragones
I like everything about this comic, from the cover to the introductions (with Aragones drawing a recently-slimmed Evanier struggling to hold his too-large pants up), to the stories (especially the lead one, with its sly comic analysis of health care and epidemics), to the Six Urban Legends about Groo provided in Evanier’s editorial, to “The Groo Alphabet.” Everyone who’s never read Groo should buy this book and see what they’ve been missing for 25 years.
Potter’s Field — Writer: Mark Waid; Artist: Paul Azaceta
Interesting — it’s reminiscent of those Warren Ellis police procedurals, the ones that look like they’re angling to be TV pilots, and it clicks right along as it introduces its main wrong-righting character and his Doc Savage-like team of operatives, and shows off its indy-friendly, well-composed art. As with the Ellis books, there’s nothing really new here, but it’s a pleasure to watch its easy, professional competency and smooth storytelling.
New Avengers #34 — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis; Artist: Leonil Yu
Yu’s art continues to slowly grow on me (i.e., it no longer gives me a headache) and the whole Bendis Skrull-conspiracy plot has me completely hooked (hey, that Dr. Strange spell that supposedly shows that they’re all good guys — and is the reason behind the what’s-wrong-with-this-picture cover — only works if we assume that he’s not a Skrull, right? And aren’t Night Nurse’s actions a tad… suspicious?). I’m still trying to figure out when The Hood went demonic, and I’m afraid there’s going to be too much water-treading between now and next spring’s Big Skrull Blowout maxi-series, but right now this is generating the most what-comes-next excitement out of all of Marvel and DC’s ongoing series.
Green Lantern #23 — Writer: Geoff Johns; Penciller: Ivan Reis; Inker: Oclair Albert
… and this is generating the second-most excitement. Johns is something of a guilty pleasure, but he’s so good at manipulating WTF? moments and can-you-top-this plot threads, and juggling his cast of hundreds, that you just get swept up in the narrative and happily float downstream with it, marveling at a story with Sinestro and the Anti-Monitor and Mogo and Superboy-Prime, and even those prophecies from the weird demon planet from that Alan Moore Abin Sur story from over 20 years ago.
Justice Society of America #9 — Writer: Geoff Johns; Penciller: Dale Eaglesham; Inker: Ruy Jose
This is the Johns book that isn’t quite that exciting, but it’s still got a number of team character bits that are performed well, and let’s just say that fans with fond memories of Kingdom Come should check out the last page.
Daredevil #100 — Writer: Ed Brubaker; Artists: Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano (with Marko Djurdjevic, John Romita Sr. & Al Milgrom, Gene Colan, Bill Sienkiewicz, Alex Maleev and Lee Bermejo)
100 pages for $3.99 is a bargain, even with half of it being a reprint of two Conway-Colan early-’70s issues with DD and the Black Widow. For the new story, Brubaker crafts one of those fight-through-the-hallucinations plots that lets six previous DD artists strut their stuff for a couple of pages each, and it’s a fun, if contrived, look at some of the different styles that have graced this title through the years (Miller and Janson are the most-obvious living artists not attending, and it’s too bad we couldn’t have seen a pinup or two from them, or from permanently-absent friends like Gil Kane or Wally Wood). The story doesn’t end, and in fact looks to be settling in for a while, but it’s a satisfying package nevertheless.
Fables #65 — Writer: Bill Willingham; Penciller: Mark Buckingham; Inker: Steve Leialoha
After a detour issue or two, the “real” creative team returns to move the current storyline along, and it’s just as compelling a look at heroism and supernatural strategy as always. There’s a reason this is Vertigo’s current franchise title: it’s very well done adventure soap-opera, drawn on a broad and fascinating canvas.
Phil Mateer
