Batman: Cacophony #1 (of 3) — Writer: Kevin Smith; Penciller: Walt Flanagan; Inker: Sandra Hope
Jokes about lateness aside, I’m normally a Kevin Smith fan — his ear for dialogue, and for the psychopathology of super-villains, makes bits like the opening scene between an Arkham-dwelling Joker and Deadshot, who’s broken in to kill him, smoothly entertaining. Yes, the Green Arrow bad-guy-who-repeats-sound-effects is annoying, and Smith probably pushes the sex-and-violence envelope too much for this to be an unrated book, but let’s call it a guilty pleasure and acknowledge it for the fun comic that it is.
JSA Kingdom Come Special: Superman #1 (of 1) — Writer/Artist: Alex Ross
For $3.99, you get just 23 pages of story, but another 12 pages of layouts, pencils, and explanations from Ross about how he created the art; anyone who likes to study illustration will find that worth it. The story itself is probably too entangled in old Kingdom Come mythology for its own good (and isn’t helped by Ross’s self-congratulatory, almost smug tone in the supplemental material, but hey: he’s one of the premier artists of his generation, who’s taken photorealism in comics art about as far as it could possibly go, so he’s earned it).
B.P.R.D.: The Warning #5 (of 5) — Writers: Mike Mignola and John Arcudi; Art: Guy Davis
The conclusion to the current mini-series, as the good guys clean up after “winning.” There’s plenty of rubble for Davis to draw, along with various spirits, mages, burning mansions and assorted portents of vast Lovecraftian destruction to come, and he gets some generously-large panels to do it in; little by little, through Sandman Mystery Theater and Nevermen to here, he’s become an accomplished, confident draftsman, and this book has some gorgeous art. The story, too, keeps getting broader and richer and raising the stakes; readers who haven’t looked at the title in a while should pick this up and see just how much they’ve been missing.
Amazing Spider-Man #577 — Writer: Zeb Wells; Art: Paulo Rivera
Guest-starring the Punisher. Still decent, although Rivera’s art takes some getting used to after the last few Chris Bachalo issues (that’s the price you pay for a weekly title with rotating art teams, I suppose); his faces have a nice sense of caricature to them sometimes, and his Punisher is suitable grim and gritty, but he has some trouble with Spidey’s mask — arguably one of the hardest costume pieces in comics to draw expressively — so Wells’s script has to take up the slack, and fortunately can do it (“We’re on a boat, you moron” –heh).
Gold Digger #100 — Writer/Artist: Fred Perry
This book defines both “acquired taste” and “under the radar” — altogether, it’s been around for over 150 issues by Perry (and over 200 if you count assorted specials and mini-series), putting it in rarified company — but I’ll bet a good 90% of comics fans have never heard of it. This anniversary issue’s the culmination of a two-year storyline, so new readers will be hopelessly lost, but they can still check it out and get a sense of Perry’s shiny colors, sly humor, and clever plotting (his grasp of super-powered/magical strategy and tactics rivals Akira Toriyama’s in Dragonball and Dragonball Z).
Wolverine #69 — Writer: Mark Millar; Penciler: Steve McNiven; Inker: Dexter Vines
Part 4 of “Old Man Logan”; they’re only halfway across the country, too, so at this rate the story may go on for years. Things continue to happen without much rhyme or reason, but there’s a lull by the end, and next issue we get the “So what actually happened to Logan?” story. I’m not optimistic — Millar’s typically much better at setups and situations than explanations or conclusions — but there’s enough high-concept, fan-service stuff going on here that I can’t help but keep reading, even knowing that I might feel like a sucker later.
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:
Fables #78 — Writer: Bill Willingham; Penciller: Mark Buckingham; Inker: Andrew Pepoy
Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves #3 (of 6) — Writer: Kevin Van Hook; Art: Tom Mandrake
Phil Mateer
