Savage Dragon #144 — Writer/Artist: Erik Larsen
An interesting storytelling experiment by Larsen — each panel in the story represents one scene from one day, and so the 121 panels follow just that many consecutive days in the cast’s lives (talk about your compressed narrative…). It’s fun, and although it’s challenging to read it works: the story hangs together and everything makes sense. It’s still a derivative book, though, almost solely dependent on Silver-Age Marvel Lee-Kirby conventions (which is why it was so amusing to hear Larsen complaining that, dammit, Marvel stole his idea of having a hero meet up with Obama — sure, Erik, because you’re Mr. Originality…).
Faces of Evil: Kobra #1 (of 1) — Writer: Ivan Brandon; Penciller: Julian Lopez; Inker: mark Farmer
Another one-shot attempting to rehabilitate an old DC villain. The cover doesn’t help — he’s supposed to look scary, but merely looks constipated — and the story’s… OK, I guess; it has a few good effects, although it’s dependent on one of those seemingly-impregnable-fortress set-ups where, when a character boasts that “This precious cargo’s in good hands,” you just know that everything’s going to go horribly wrong. The real problem is that it follows the pattern of every other “Faces of Evil” one-shot — brief biography, demonstration of how new, improved and badass the character is now, and a vow for the world to watch out. Potential world dominators get boring when there’s, like, eight of them running around at once.
X-Force #11 — Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost; Art: Alina Urosov and Clayton Crain
Is this still depressing, murkily-colored, violent and impenetrable? You bet, kids! See people hacked at with swords and set on fire! Thrill to dialogue like “I do not know what foul science has given you these slaves, but I have no need of them”! Cringe at Zombie Caliban!
Or, you know, don’t.
Mister X: Condemned #2 (of 4) — Creator: Dean Motter
Motter’s been flogging this dead horse for 20 years, and while the basic concept (a city whose architecture drives its citizens insane, sort of feng shui gone bad), is interesting, he’s never been able to construct an interesting story out of it. Here, it’s the same damn thing as always, without even a Hernandez Brother (or a Seth) to enliven the art, and it’s like that uncle at family reunions who always tells the same anecdotes every year. Edge away slowly, readers, and find someone else to talk to.
Scourge of the Gods #1 (of 3) — Writer: Valerie Mangin; Artist: Aleksa Gajik
Another Soleil book from Marvel, and just like the others it’s European creators doing Heavy Metal riffs. Well-constructed and elaborate stories, sure, and you can see the care in the craftsmanship, but it’s just more Galactic Roman Empire stuff, swordplay in space, and who cares? Readers who like this kind of story, and have $18 to spend on the three issues of this first episode, might as well wait for a trade version: they can read it all at once, with better binding and production values, and maybe the coloring will reproduce better than the blurry soup that’s offered in these pamphlet versions.
Blue Beetle #35 — Writer: Matthew Sturges; Artists: Carlo Barberi and Jacob Eguren
Sturges has the title character and his supporting cast down cold, and the plot’s suitably interesting, and the whole thing is a pleasant enough read (the Tracy Thirteen/Jaime relationship continues to be refreshing in its matter-of-fact, mutual affection and snarkiness), but it’s always hard to read a book whose cancellation has been announced: no matter what happens in the story, you know these characters are going away soon, so it doesn’t really matter. It’s too bad this title never quite found its audience; like its ’80s counterpart, it offered dependable, competent all-ages superhero storytelling, something the comics world could always use more of.
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #1 — Writer: Matt Wayne; Penciller: Andy Suriano; Inker: Dan Davis
This book, based on the new cartoon series, tries to do the same thing: it’s an entry-level comic, with simplified stories and an exaggeratedly-cartoony style. Readers over the age of, oh, ten aren’t likely to warm to it; it’s difficult to pull this style off if your name isn’t Bruce Timm or Mike Parobeck. (It’s hard to blame Suriano, since presumably he’s working with the studio’s character designs, but Power Girl just looks weird — and that chest is still problematic. I kinda like the Fleischer-era, mad-scientist-jacketed version of Luthor, though….)
Phil Mateer
