Tales From The Crypt #1 — Writer: Marc Bilgrey; Artist: “Mr. Exes” (1st story); Writer: Rob Vollmar; Artist: Tim Smith 3 (2nd story)
First, the good news: this has a wonderful Kyle Baker cover, fusing the catch phrase of EC’ s other star, Mad Magazine‘s Alfred E. Newman, with the Crypt Keeper crawling out of a grave. Nice idea, and nicely (you should pardon the expression) executed.
Unfortunately, the rest is all bad news, since the two inside stories are pedestrian at best, nowhere close to offering the kind of thrills or chills that the “real” EC creators could deliver. The first uses the old creepy-paintings-come-to-life bit, while the second uses the equally-old creepy-toys-come-to-life routine. The latter has only-average art, while the former uses an exaggeratedly cartoony style, sort of a cross between Evan Dorkin and Dean Haspiel, that is at least interesting, although so distancing that the reader can’t really care about the characters. What’s worse is that each story is 20 pages long. Guys, c’mon: the essence of EC’s appeal was the way they could contract a plot into eight pages, and within that small space establish character, set up the situation, and come up with a macabre (but logical) twist to gut-punch the reader; even when you knew the formula, the twists happened so quickly that it was hard to see them coming. At 20 pages, you don’t have impact; you have bloat, predictability, and boring storytelling. What, me cancelled?
Heroes For Hire #11 — Writer: Zeb Wells; Penciler: Clay Mann; Inker: Terry Pallot
A World War Hulk tie-in. It’s a good move not to have the heroes try to fight the Hulk himself (seriously, how long would that fight last?), but instead investigate the schemes of his two insectoid allies. That’s right up the new Humbug’s alley (he’s now creepy-insecty instead of creepy-nerdy, another good move), and the result is an intriguing setup for next issue. If the art were a little more attractive, or if I cared a little more about any of these characters, I’d move it to the “buy” list.
The Flash #13 — Writer: Marc Guggenheim; Penciller: Tony Daniel; Inkers: Glapion, Alquiza and Daniels
Spoiler Warning: I’m about to reveal major plot developments in this book (and in the JLA book in the following review, come to think of it), so let’s wait until after the jump, even though most of you already know that….
…The Flash (i.e., Impulse/Bart Allen, if you haven’t been keeping up) dies in this issue. Not only that, but the book is now cancelled, although apparently it will relaunch in the fall (picking up the numbering of the previous Flash series), with scripts by Mark Waid and The Flash being played by Wally West again. Gosh, my heart is overcome with the tragedy of Bart’s death — or would be, I guess, if this had any sense of poignancy or drama, and didn’t just seem like a soulless corporate reaction to the current lack of interest or sales to this version of the character. Let’s face it — Bart’s high point was the Waid/Ramos team that did most of the first year or two of Impulse, ten years ago, and that’s been it (more recently, the Gail Simone/Geoff Johns “Kid Flash” thing was at least interesting, but in making the character grow up they also took away his one character quirk — the impulsiveness — and so left him pretty much an empty suit). Now, DC’s cut their losses and decided to reset the game. Will Bart eventually be back, too? He was Waid’s character to begin with, and there’s no shortage of ways it could be done — but, right now, does anyone care?
Justice League of America #10 — Writer: Brad Meltzer; Penciller: Ed Benes; Inker: Sandra Hope
More spoilers, since this offers the conclusion to the JLA/JSA/LSH crossover, and it turns out the Legion was trying to bring back… Wally West. Um, OK. This makes no actual sense, since West has never had any connection to the Legion (where bringing back Barry Allen, say, would at least have had the tangential connection offered by the Tornado Twins — and hey, isn’t it kind of sad that I even know the name “Tornado Twins,” and that when I close my eyes I can see that Neal Adams Adventure cover when they were introduced?), and the feel is that West is back because… well, because DC wanted him back; no other reason. This whole crossover just sputters to a close, and it’s convinced me to drop this title — Meltzer’s had ten issues, and the last five or six, especially, just haven’t had much magic, or even interest, to them.
While I’m here, though, what’s up with the cover to this issue (you know, the Michael Turner one where Power Girl looks like she has two beach balls taped to her chest)? When the cover image was circulated a month ago, I was sure it was a joke by DC, a sly comment about the current Internet debate on degrading and stupid female images in comics. Nope — it was, instead, an actual degrading and stupid image of women in comics. Go ahead, experiment: leave that comic lying around where your girlfriend, or wife, or mother, or sister can look at it, and see what reaction it gets. I dare you. Then tell me it isn’t an embarrassing and adolescent mistake.
Ghost Rider #12 — Writer: Daniel Way; Penciler: Javier Saltares; Inker: Scott Hanna
Way’s often good with small scenes and lines of dialogue, but I’ve yet to see him deliver a satisfying story over the long haul — his plots and overall character development don’t seem to work as well. Here, the first half of the story is the regular Ghost-Rider-fighting-Satan stuff, which mostly consists of (a) Johnny being an idiot, and (b) Satan being able to do any damn thing he wants, neither of which are very satisfying dramatically. Then, Johnny hears about the Hulk in New York, and decides to go there to “help.” That makes sense on no level at all; it’s just to justify the WWHulk tie-in, apparently. The last page is GR confronting the Big Green Guy himself. Now: we know nothing in this C-level book is going to impact the actual WWH continuity, and we know that the Hulk could burp and wipe out GR, so what possible reason is there to care about what happens next issue?
Iron Man #19 — Writer: Christos N. Gage; Artist: Butch Guice
Yet another Big Crossover Tie-in, this is mostly a remake of the first issue of World War Hulk, but told from Tony’s perspective instead. There’s a little extra fill-in-the-blanks with Shield’s response to the threat, and the Guice art is OK, but it has nowhere near the power that Romita Jr.’s pencils did, and there’s no real reason to buy this comic.
Annihilation: Conquest: Prologue — Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Artist: Mike Perkins
The first Annihilation series was apparently enough of a hit to justify a sequel, so here we go. Giffin’s snarkiness is missed, although it’s kind of cool the way Abnett and Lanning make this into a nostalgia-fest of Marvel’s space and sf characters, including the Spaceknights (and a cameo from Bug of the Micronauts, just to complete the toy tie-ins), the Priests of Pama, Star-Lord, Moondragon, (the new) Quasar, and the Phalanx, who apparently are going to be the Big New Villains. I don’t care enough about any of those characters to buy this, but I won’t make fun of you if you do, and if you liked the first Annihilation you’ll probably like this too.
Phil Mateer
