The Muppet Show #4 (of 4) — Writer/Artist: Roger Langridge
Those of us who fondly remember The Muppet Show on TV know just how smart it was, and Langridge does, too: he’s handled this mini-series’s huge cast with aplomb, giving characters like Rizzo, Beaker and (especially) Animal their due, and managing to dispense some wisdom along with the hijinx and humor. Points for being able to construct an actual plot, too; the story structure here is better than 90% of the more “sophisticated” comics out there (see the rest of the comics on this list, in fact…).
Batman/Doc Savage Special #1 (of 1) — Writer: Brian Azzarello; Art: Phil Noto
This isn’t the romp you might expect; instead, it’s the introduction to Azzarello’s First Wave project, which seems to be an Elseworlds-type reimagining of the DC Universe set in the ’30s or ’40s, something like Marvel’s Noir books. Here, a rookie Batman encounters Clark Savage, and… well, nothing really happens: they fail to solve a case, thereby setting up later issues in the series. Azzarello rises and falls on the strength of his artistic partners, and here Noto is just OK; he doesn’t bring the visual fizz that someone like Eduardo Risso did to 100 Bullets, and the result is that, for $4.99, readers get a tease, foreplay without any real payoff. Rags Morales seems to be doing the actual First Wave series in the spring, though, so maybe that’ll be better, but this first try isn’t particularly encouraging.
Jon Sable, Freelance: Ashes of Eden #2 (of 4) — Writer/Artist: Mike Grell
Grell continues to hit the exact same beats with this series that he’s done dozens of times in the past, and keeps stopping the action to throw in double-page “reflections” breaks for each supporting character, to show new readers their relationship and history with Sable. Readers already familiar with Sable and his cast will find this both nostalgiac and boring, but what’s most annoying is that Grell isn’t even trying to make this a satisfying comic by itself; he’s just giving us pages 26-50 of the trade. That involves lots of cheesecake in the art, but no action — and a story that ends because the page count ran out, not because it’s at a logical stopping place.
Vengeance of the Moon Knight #3 — Writer: Gregg Hurwitz; Penciler: Jerome Opena
This whole bit with The Hood, where he’s now able to resurrect old bad guys, pulling them right out of their graves and sending them after the heroes again: it’s stupid, right? I mean, most of these villains were killed originally because they were lame and/or overdone, and bringing them back only emphasizes that. Look at Bushmaster, or Bushwacker, or Bushman or whatever his name was: that fact that he’s as close as Moon Knight gets to a “classic” villain just underscores how bad the ’90s version of this character was. At least Opena’s art is better than what Moonie was getting back then, and he and Hurwitz are at least trying to create some of the B-movie cheap thrills that a writer like Jason Aarons is bringing to Ghost Rider (another character with a forgettable ’90s), but it all comes off as derivative and forced, and not very much fun.
Tank Girl: Skidmarks #1 (of 4) — Writer: Alan Martin; Art: Rufus Dayglo
Speaking of the ’90s: if you have fond memories of this character from back then, here she is again, written by one of her creators, but without art by Jamie Hewlett, the other one. This was originally serialized somewhere else, so you get three nine-page story chunks and the narrative is choppy — but, then, Tank Girl was never about plots that were well-constructed (or even, come to think of it, made sense), but about attitude and style. Some of that’s still here, but it’s only an echo of past glories; readers would be better served by buying reprints of the original stories instead.
Green Lantern Corps #42 — Writer: Peter J. Tomasi; Penciller: Patrick Gleason; Inkers: Rebecca Buchman with Tom Nguyen
Booster Gold #26 — Writer: Dan Jurgens; Art: Dan Jurgens and Mike Norton; Inks: Norm Rapmund
R.E.B.E.L.S. #10 — Writer: Tony Bedard; Art: Andy Clarke
X-Force #21 — Writers: Craig Kyle and Christopher Yost; Art: Clayton Crain
Your zombie books of the week: GLC is actually part of the big crossover, so it’s the most substantial (and it features the death of a major character, although “death” is such a slippery concept right now that I wouldn’t get too worked up over it). Buying Booster and R.E.B.E.L.S. will get you rings; Booster is mildly readable (and features a dead Ted Kord), but R.E.B.E.L.S. is best just discarded, like that box of crummy cereal you begged your mom to get just so you could grab the prize inside. Meanwhile, over at Marvel, X-Force continues the Necrosha crossover, and is just as bloody and stupid as ever, with only a couple of decent Crain gore panels to make it worth flipping through..
Batman #693 — Writer/Artist: Tony S. Daniel
You know how sometimes, a mediocre artist will, when given a chance, turn out to be a much more accomplished writer than anyone ever expected, full of clever ideas and witty, dead-on dialogue? That doesn’t happen here.
Phil Mateer
