PunisherMax: Butterfly #1 (of 1) — Writer: Valerie D’Orazio; Art: Laurence Campbell
This is one of those stories where the Punisher just does a walk-on or two; he’s a shadowy force of death, but the story isn’t about him: it’s about a hitwoman who’s written a book about her experiences, and her employers who don’t want it published, and the resulting violence. The hitwoman, who’s called “Butterfly” but not otherwise named, is a well-constructed creation — she’s damaged and disassociative, but determined and compelling, too, and her story arc has a chilly but satisfying logic. Campbell’s art has the requisite noir feel, by turns gritty, sexy and violent, and this turns out to be a sophisticated character study, and one of the better Punisher one-shots of the last few years
Demo #2 (of 6) — Writer: Brian Wood; Art: Becky Cloonan
Wood’s series of one-shot tales, about people with strange obsessions, is by its nature hit-or-miss; if you like a particular issue’s story, great, and if not there’s something completely different coming next month. The first issue was about a woman whose recurring dreams drew her to an English cathedral, and was a keeper; next month’s, judging by its preview pages here, is about a girl with memory loss, a la 50 First Dates, and it looks intriguing too. This month? It’s about a cannibal trying to lead an otherwise-“normal” life, and it didn’t work for me: there were some creepy moments, but the ending wasn’t clear (wait… that meat didn’t all come from him, so is he back to killing people? Is it something else? WTF?); plus, I kept reading it and thinking “Dexter.” YMMV, though, as they say on that Internet thing, and Cloonan’s art, as always, hits just the right indy notes, and might be worth the price by itself.
JLA: Cry for Justice #7 (of 7) — Writer: James Robinson; Pencils: Mauro Cascioli, Scott Clark and Ibraim Roberson; Inks: Cascioli, Clark, Roberson and David Beaty
This mini-series started out so badly that it became a joke, improved to sort-of-competent in its middle stages, and now in this last issue has turned back into a joke: Prometheus has these God-like devices stashed within all of DC-USA’s fictional cities (Star City, Central City, Opal City, etc.), and they’re shaking the cities apart; he’s been captured, but the only way he’ll give up the codes to stop the destruction is if the heroes let him go. The entire damn issue is a debate about whether to do this, intercut with the good guys trying various tactics, only to find he’s already thought of them and has a defense (in the super-villain tradition, he’s apparently got access to unlimited time, scientific acumen, and money). Oh, and there’s gratuitous maiming and death, including that of a child who’s an established character, just to make it gritty and realistic. With three artists and four inkers, the art is an inconsistent mess, and the ending is just… stupid, especially given all that’s gone before (and considering that it won’t stick). Just an all-around disaster, and not a good sign for Robinson’s tenure on the regular JLA title.
New Ultimates #1 — Writer: Jeph Loeb; Art: Frank Cho
Speaking of disasters… the startling thing about this first issue isn’t that it’s good (it’s not), but that it isn’t as actively, mind-bendingly repulsive as Ultimates III. That’s actually a disadvantage, since there’s less to make fun of, but between Hawkeye’s opening angst, Hela’s desire to jump Dead Thor’s bones (and her being drawn exactly like Lady Death), Zarda hitting on Cap, Loki returning, and Tony Stark hooking up with yet another character, it continues the Loeb tradition of offering incomprehensible plot twists, dysfunctional relationships, and a horny 12-year-old’s view of grown-up sex (making Cho the perfect artist for it, since he’s built his reputation on exactly that demographic).
Detective Comics #862 — Writer: Greg Rucka; Art: Jock; (Question story): Writer: Rucka; Art: Cully Hamner
This book has moved to the top of most lists because of J. H. Williams III’s astonishingly-designed art — Rucka’s a good-enough storyteller, but his strength is in his love for hard-boiled P. I.’s and police procedurals; he really needs a decent artist to make his superhero stuff work. Here, with no Williams and some one-named guy you’ve never heard of filling in, the whole thing falls flat, and the Bat-characters versus a knife-bristling psycho just comes off as silly and uninspired. J.H.W.III, wherever you are, come back soon….
Stephen King’s N #1 (of 4) — Adaptation: Marc Guggenheim; Art: Alex Maleev
N is an adaptation of a King short story which was originally available as a 25-episode mobile-phone download, which then became available on iTunes, and now has been reconfigured into a mini-series. For all its format changes, it’s an effective yarn (as Guggenheim notes, that’s a tribute to King’s knack for rock-solid story structure), about a psychiatric patient whose OCD is keeping some Very Bad Things from crossing over into our universe. Between the King concepts and the effectively-spooky Maleev art (although he drops the ball once: there’s a big spread where the monster’s supposed to be “a mile” tall, and the scale of the art’s got him at no more than maybe 60 feet), this should have no trouble finding an audience.
Phil Mateer
