DC Universe Holiday Special #1 (of 1) — Writers: Various, including Dan Didio, Joe Kelly and Paul Dini; Artists: Various, including Ian Churchill, Dustin Nguyen, Rafael Albuquerque and Kevin McGuire
Lots of anthology specials this week; how you feel about them, of course, depends on whether there are enough “good” artists and writers to justify the price. Here, for $6, there’s a beautiful Frank Quitely Christmas cover, a pretty-good JLA 7-pager by McGuire, a Didio Aquaman story whose dialogue you can make fun of (“Back down, Aquaman, or I, Captain Blanco, will kill her where she stands”: who talks like that?), and then tales of the Bat-family, the Titans, the Blue Beetles, the Huntress, etc., etc. — 72 pages in all. Verdict: not particularly worth the money.
Hellblazer #250 — Writers: Various, including Dave Gibbons, Brian Azzarello, Jamie Delano and Peter Milligan; Artsist: Various, including Sean Phillips, David Lloyd and Eddie Campbell
Hellblazer‘s up to #250? Geez, now I’m officially old, since I remember the character’s first appearance in Swamp Thing, back when Alan Moore was the new good writer nobody but Brits had ever heard of; who’d have thought cynicism, mysticism, silk cuts and a bad attitude (plus looking like Sting) would get John Constantine this far? Maybe it’s because you can tell so many different kinds of stories with a character like that: look at the list of creators for this anniversary issue (just about all of whom have done Hellblazer arcs in the past), and it’s undeniably impressive. The stories themselves? All Christmas or holidays-related, which lends them a certain sameness, but five tales/48 pages for $4 isn’t a bad deal, and how often do you get, oh, Eddie Campbell art over a Peter Milligan script? Verdict: maybe worth the money, especially if you’re any kind of fan of the character.
Dark Reign: New Nation #1 (of 1) — Writers: Various, including Brian Michael Bendis , Greg Pak, Jeff Parker and Adam Felber; Artists: Various, including Stefano Caselli, Carlo Pagulayan and Leonardo Manco
Also $4 for 48 pages, but this should really be less, because it’s basically a promo book for Marvel’s 2009 new series, all revolving around Norman Osborne and the aftermath of Secret Invasion. The five stories/titles: Secret Warriors (Nick Fury and those kids he all trained to fight Skrulls), Agents of Atlas, War Machine, Skrull Kill Krew, and New Avengers: The Reunion (which, here, is a Hawkeye/Mockingbird conversation). As with all promo tales, little is revealed; we’re just given enough of a taste to direct us over to the actual titles when they come out. Frankly, there doesn’t seem to be much to get excited about; if anything, the lack of memorable moments or decent character bits makes me less likely to check out the new stuff. Verdict: maybe if it had been free….
Spider-Man: Noir #1 (of 4) — Writer: David Hine with Fabrice Sapolsky; Art: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Now, see, the X-Men: Noir book was interesting, just because it was different, but this is the exact same idea — set the characters in NYC in the ’30s, and no one has any actual powers — and it’s already tiresome. Peter Parker as a pulp Avenger-type character just doesn’t resonate, first because it doesn’t make much sense, and second because with no powers comes not much responsibility, whether Uncle Ben gets killed by mobsters or not. Zzzz….
X-Men: Kingbreaker #1 (of 4) — Writer: Christopher Yost; Penciler: Dustin Weaver; Inker: Jaime Mendoza
Back to Gabriel Summers/Emperor Vulcan of the Shi’ar, with a little Havok and Polaris thrown in; it’s outer-space soap opera, and other than vaguely hoping that Kitty Pryde and her Special Bullet Ship show up by the fourth issue (there’s no indication of that here, but hey, it’s outer space, and I’m already tired of Colossus moping around in the X-books), there doesn’t seem to be any reason to read this.
Ex Machina #40 — Writer: Brian K. Vaughan; Penciller: Tony Harris; Inker: Jim Clark
Beginning the last year of this comic, as Mayor Hundred and his staff interview candidates to produce a biographical comic of him, and Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris show up. Amusing enough, with tons of in-jokes (plus, the credits at the end say “Writer: Garth Ennis; Art: Jim Lee,” and you have to wonder how many readers will get suckered in by that), but I have to admit I lost the thread of this comic about two years ago (nothing ever seemed to actually happen, he said plaintively); now, I check in occasionally, but it’s going to take a blow-your-head off series conclusion to reignite my interest, and it ain’t happening yet.
Phil Mateer
