Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Bought #44

Comic Strip Masterpieces #1 — Creators: Various
For a buck, you get four-color, oversized, one-page reprints of 14 of the greatest comic strips of all time, including Popeye, Krazy Kat, Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, and Peanuts, with short historical summaries of each strip and its creator. Sure, it’s basically an ad for the reprint versions of each creation, but it doesn’t matter: this is primal American storytelling, and if you know comics but not about “the comics,” you need this to get an idea of the rich heritage you’re missing.

Jonah Hex #25 — Writers: Justin Gray & Jimmy Palmiotti;  Art: Russ Heath
Jonah toward the end of his life, as he fights some bandits and has a meeting with his son, which goes just about as sentimentally as you’d expect. Why do you care? Dude: Russ Heath. New art by one of the greatest western/adventure artists of all time. As with John Severin on Marvel’s Rawhide Kid a few years ago, DC somehow lured him out of retirement to do this book; the least you can do is buy it.

Astonishing X-Men #23 — Writer: Joss Whedon;  Artist: John Cassaday
Nearing the end of the arc, the good guys turn the tables on the bad guys, and not from dumb luck, either: they reveal the advantages of teamwork, psychic linkages and lowered expectations. If you’ve been following this story faithfully for the last few years, it’s got a number of satisfying payoff moments, both in the art and in the characterization, all leading up to the big fight next issue, and you’ll be glad you read it; it’ll make you feel like a 12-year-old X-fan again.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight #8 — Script: Brian K. Vaughan;  Pencils: Georges Jeanty;  Inks: Andy Owens
Part three of Vaughan’s four-parter focusing on Faith, and well-done as always; he understands her character as the one who’s always misunderstood, and who despite her good intentions is always going to battle her personal demons and never quite going to win, because that’s Buffy’s job. That makes for both a tragic character and, fortunately for us, a good story.

New Avengers: Illuminati #5 (of 5) — Writer: Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed;  Penciler: Jim Cheung;  Inker: Mark Morales
I understand the temptation to have the Guy Who Doesn’t Talk turn out to be a Skrull, because then when he does talk it’s such a startling, “gotcha” moment (which I’ve now just ruined, although I’m trying to be careful about it, and anyway anyone who cares has already read this comic, right?), but isn’t this really bad tactics? I mean, your enemies were just arguing that maybe the Electra-Skrull was an outlier, not part of a pattern, and that side seemed to be winning the argument, and now you reveal yourself? Now they know that they really can’t detect you, and that there are a bunch of you, and that they need a defense against the Big Energy Beam From the Sky that powers you up? Still, just the fact that I’m taking up all this space talking about the comic shows that it did its job, I suppose, and there are a couple of ways around the objections, and I am now looking forward to what happens next…. *sigh* — there’s the eternal maybe-they-do-have-a-plan optimism of the fanboy for you, Marvel — please don’t screw this one up.

Groo: Hell on Earth #1 (of 4) — Concept/Art: Sergio Aragones;  Script: Mark Evanier
Whelp, the Big Theme this issue is global warming, and it’s a tad preachier than usual, and it’s got more of the minstrel than I’d like. Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Fine, actually: the art and story are as dependably entertaining as always, and the satire is sharp enough to leaven the preaching; besides, with a topic like that, I suppose a little moralizing doesn’t hurt (and it’s definitely more fun to watch Groo with his swords than Al Gore with his Powerpoint).

Criminal #10 — Writer: Ed Brubaker;  Art: Sean Phillips
The end of the second arc, as things end badly — not quite as badly as for the hero of the first story, mind you, but still. The usual well-done noirish entertainment, and now they get to trumpet their Eisner awards for best writer and best new series on the cover, so hopefully that will attract some well-deserved new readers to this clever, nasty little series.

Fantastic Four #551 — Writer: Dwayne McDuffie;  Penciler: Paul Pelletier;  Inker: Rick Magyar
The future-versions-of-the-characters-who-come-back-to-warn-of-disaster bit was presented well, but still made me wince (it’s too reminiscent of that Defalco run when Reed was “dead” and Franklin was a grown-up that seemed to drag on for ten years). Still, there’s a good last-page WTF? moment, and McDuffie’s earned some leeway, so I trust him to make this work — unless they play the Reed’s-a-Skrull card, in which case I take it all back, and will in fact deny ever recommending this title.

Hellboy: Darkness Calls #6 (of 6) — Writer: Mike Mignola;  Art: Duncan Fegredo
You know, Fegredo really did a great job on the art, and I’m not sorry I bought this, but the last few arcs of this book have had a disturbing pattern of promising Big Changes that then trail off into inconclusive, then-he-punched-him-and-it-was-over endings (which then promise that the actual Big Changes will come with the next story). OK, it’s an ongoing saga, and it isn’t going to end any time soon: I get that, and I’m still entertained, but maybe a tad less hype would leave the readers feeling a tad less conned.

Phil Mateer