The Irredeemable Ant-Man #8 — Writer: Robert Kirkman; Art: Cory Walker
The cover shows the tiny main character perched on a shower head, about to watch an unsuspecting woman take a shower; I’m surprised that it hasn’t gotten pulled into the current Internet debate about degradation of women in comics, although next to tentacle hentai it’s almost innocent, in a 13-year-old-male spy-on-the-girls’-locker-room kind of way. The problem is that the character’s an adult, although the joke is supposed to be that he acts like an adolescent, an immoral slacker using the powers of the costume he’s stolen to get chicks and rip off criminals, and yet somehow he always ends up doing the right thing in spite of himself. After eight issues, though, the joke’s getting old, and since the whole premise of the book depends on him never learning, never getting better (see: “irredeemable”), there doesn’t seem to be anywhere for the story to go — except to cancellation.
Silent War #5 (of 6) — Writer: David Hine; Artist: Frazer Irving
You know, back in my day we didn’t have six- and nine- and 52-issue mini-series; we got three issues, like Contest of Champions or World of Krypton, and were glad to get them. Nowadays, though, it’s all about the trade, and so a story like this, that might have been interesting at half the length, gets stretched out and super-sized so much that it becomes bloated and boring, and parts that would have seemed cool — the thing in Maximus’s head, say — get lost in all the padding. The lesson: bigger isn’t always better.
Countdown #48 — Writers: Paul Dini with Adam Beechen; Pencils: David Lopez; Inks: Don Hillsman with Alvaro Lopez
And… that’s it; I’ve given this title four issues, and it’s just not singing to me, not saying “I’m worth 52 comics’ worth of space in your closet.” It’s not horrible, but it’s just average, and now it’s tying into other DC titles (something that, wisely, 52 didn’t do, because of the whole “One Year Later” thing), and that’s just annoying. Black Adam back with powers? Annoying. The way that, inexplicably, everyone now seems to know who “Jason Todd” is? Annoying. The way the scenes with Karate Kid don’t seem to dovetail with the current Legion/JLA/JSA crossover? Annoying. The way we’re 80 pages into the story and, really, nothing has happened (this issue’s big development: Lightray slams into the ground, and may or may not be dead, although there’s no sign of a Black Racer)? Really annoying. The suspicion that this title is going to worm its way into every DC title this year, and lead to nothing but another Big Series? Pfeh.
Silver Surfer: Requiem #1 (of 4) — Writer: J. Michael Straczynski; Artist: Esad Ribic
Obviously, a book for people who are gonna see the new FF movie and come in looking for a book about the Silver Surfer. On that level, it’s fine: lots of pretty pictures of the Surfer soaring around, in space and on Earth, and a recap of his origin and a plot about how he has silver-skin-coating cancer and is going to die in a month. Here’s guessing that he’s going to soar around for four issues and be philosophical, and then Galactus’ll show up and, boom, no more coating cancer. Ignore the plot holes, and don’t even try to fit this into current Marvel continuity, because it’ll make you crazy — just remember, it’s mostly for new readers, not for longtime fans like us. At least it’s better than that God-awful series from a few years ago where he was all Mr. X-Files Mysterious Alien Abductor Guy, and barely spoke or showed up in his own book.
Amazons Attack #2 (of 6) — Writer: Will Pfeifer; Artist: Pete Woods
*Sigh.* It says “Countdown 48” on the price box on the cover, which is apparently how DC’s going to start tying all the crossover books together. Great, but it actually takes place mostly before (and during) the current Wonder Woman, which came out last week, and then inside it tells the reader to read Countdown #46 “next week.” This gives me a headache, which is not what I’m really looking for in my superhero escapism. Oh, and they’re still going with the graphic violence — a woman fighter pilot gets an arrow through the neck, in loving close-up — and they’re doing things like flattening Washington DC and setting the entire state of Kansas on fire, apparently so all the other DC books will have to acknowledge the events (“Gee, Blue Beetle, what’s that smoke on the horizon?” “Ah, the Amazons set Kansas on fire.” “Huh. Well, whatever. As I was saying…”).
Wolverine #54 — Writer: Jeph Loeb; Pencils: Simon Bianchi; Ink and Washed Halftones: Simone Bianchi and Andrea Sylvestri
Speaking of things that give me a headache: Weapon X stories involving Wolverine’s true/false memory implants. It’s been — what, over 15 years of this crap now? He remembers! Wait: that was an implant! Here’s the real memory! Wait: this is the real “real” memory! No, wait…! Adding to the confusion is the art, since we have a dozen feral characters running around who look pretty much the same, especially because it keeps going for the dim, shadowy lighting. And the layouts — oy, don’t get me started on the layouts. Bianchi keeps warping the panels into weird shapes, sometimes for a reason (a page involving a surprise reveal has the panels forming a big exclamation point), and sometimes just because he can. Too bad for the reader, since this makes it impossible to read the words and pictures in the right order, and completely screws up the flow of the story. Gene Colan could get away with this kind of thing because he’d been drawing comics for 20 years before he tried it, and so knew exactly what he was doing. Simon Bianchi? Not so much; the result is an arty mess.
Teen Titans #47 — Writer: Adam Beechen; Penciller: Chris Batista; Inker: Jonathan Glapion
Beechen does a good job of taking over seamlessly from Geoff Johns, and of juggling a dozen or so characters. He’s also able to keep its continuity straight while connecting it to this week’s Countdown #48 — a trick made easier since he’s writing both books (the cover’s one of those “Death of a Titan” teases with everyone standing around sad, but the Titan turns out to be Duella, who actually died a few weeks ago in Countdown, and was, like, the lamest Titan ever anyway). Points off for a scene with Jason Todd that makes him look like an idiot, although admittedly that’s not exactly a difficult task. Then, by the end, the book’s also crossing over with Amazons Attack, and that’s the point where my eyes glaze over; trying to keep all of these books straight is too much work, when all I’m looking for is one self-contained story, not a small piece of some vast interconnected epic.
Justice Society of America #6 — Writer: Geoff Johns; Penciller: Dale Eaglesham; Inker: Ruy Jose
The Alex Ross covers have been pretty, but I don’t know that they’re doing much of a job of marketing the book — we’re now at a point where only the obscure characters are left, and the one on this cover never even appears in the issue. Worse, there’s no cover copy to indicate that this is part of a huge JLA crossover, and so a new reader opening the book is faced with over two dozen characters to try to keep straight, and the middle part of an ongoing story. Given all that, Johns actually does a competent job of introducing everyone and keeping all the plates spinning, but this is still a comic for serious fans only, the kind who would know who Dawnstar and Sensor Girl are, and care. I know who they are, but don’t care enough about late-period Levitz Legion stories to need to keep this book.
Phil Mateer
