Wolverine: The Anniversary #1 — (First Story): Writer: William Harms; Art: Jefte Palo; (Second Story): Writer: Jonathan Maberry; Art: Thom Coker
Gee, all these random specials — you’d think there was some kind of special Wolvie event looming on the horizon or something…. This one offers two stories dealing with memories of Mariko, the second great love of Logan’s life (the first being Silver Snail, or whatever her name was, but we only ever got to read about that in flashbacks; Mariko’s story unfolded in real, Claremont-sponsored X-time). The first, main story is a Japanese-gangster deal that tries to be 100 Bullet-y in execution, although Palo doesn’t quite have the chops to pull it off; the second, shorter story is more stylish, moving from a Japanese-woodcut feel at the beginning through to an urban-ginza battle finish; they’re both perfectly OK, if you’re a fan of the Canucklehead in his Nippon/samurai mode. Props to both colorists, Lee Loughridge and Daniel Freedman, for pulling off some evocative, stylish effects.
Tales Designed to Thrizzle #5 — Writer/Artist: Michael Kupperman
Lots of people whose opinions I respect love this every-year-or-so series, with its deadpan humor and appropriations of cheesy old-time comics tropes. I’ve never been able to warm to it — I appreciate Kupperman’s sly sensibilities, and his knowledge of stuff like bad ’50s crime comics, but his art isn’t always up to the task; he doesn’t have the chameleon-like slickness of, say, an Ivan Brunetti, and there’s a fine line between aping bad art, and just being bad art, that he sometimes crosses. Too, he can run a concept into the ground — his Einstein/Mark Twain bromance bits here are good examples: they’re amusing for the first few pages, but end up going on longer than a bad Saturday Night Live sketch, and feeling more like padding than parody.
Ghost Rider #34 — Writer: Jason Aaron; Art: Tony Moore
After the multi-part Big Event stuff of the last couple of issues, this is a one-off, and a good issue for new readers to try. Give it a shot; Aaron’s B-movie horror sensibilities are a good match for the character, and you have to admire a guy who’s enough of a comics fan to sit down, read the entire run of Marvel’s old U.S.1 trucker series in one sitting, and then come up with a way to make that book’s Highwayman villain an 8-track player using, big-rig riding spawn of Satan. Moore’s art is up to the job, too — although any artist who can’t make a motorcycle-riding main character with a flaming skull look cool probably shouldn’t be working in comics.
Hulk #11 — Writer: Jeph Loeb; Pencils: Ed McGuinness; Inks: Dexter Vines
Definitely for fans of ’70s Marvel, especially the Defenders; Loeb throws in everything but the kitchen sink, via one of those time-warping Grandmaster-sponsored multi-character battles: Namor vs. Tiger Shark, Dr. Strange vs. Baron Mordo, Silver Surfer vs. Terrax, and Green vs. Red Hulk (and that’s before the Psycho Man, Galactus and Dormammu show up). You have to wade through some bad dialogue, and you just know that the resolution is going to leave you feeling cheated (Loeb being Loeb), but there’s no denying the cheap fanboy thrills here, too — there’s a sense of fun here that’s been missing since those early Superman/Batman issues.
Fantastic Force #1 (of 5) — Writer: Joe Ahearne; Pencils: Steve Kurth; Inks: Serge LaPointe
What a… puzzling concept for a series — a revival of a title no one cared about in the first place, populated by alternate-Earth versions of characters like a bad Exiles book (although “bad Exiles” has been redundant for the last couple of years — but I digress…), taking place on that pocket world that Millar and Hitch used in their first FF arc, and with creators that no one’s ever heard of. I’d love to report that, despite its unencouraging pedigree, this is actually a quirky, cool little comic — but, sadly, it’s just as bad as you’d think (but not bad enough to be guilty fun). Oh, and it’s $3.99, and padded out with sketches and part of the script. Yeah, that’ll sell; by the last issue, I predict Direct Market sales will be under 7500 copies.
Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum #1 (of 1) — Writer: David Hine; Art: Jeremy Haun
Blah blah blah another Arkham nephew blah blah criminally insane blah blah madness is my birthright blah. At least we get a couple of new characters, and not much of the same seen-’em-already regular inmates, and a blowing up of the old status quo, post-Black Glove and post-“death” of Batman. However, it’s all mood and portent and tragic origin stories, and very little action, and the last page features a spectacularly bad idea, and unless you’re a Gotham City completist I see no reason to buy this comic.
Phil Mateer
