She-Hulk #21 — Writers: Dan Slott and Ty Templeton; Penciler: Rick Burchett; Inker: Cliff Rathburn
Slott and Templeton end their run with a clever get-out-of-continuity-free card (one that other creators can use to explain away stupid or inconsistent previous plots involving their characters, too), and finish giving Jen her powers back and putting all the toys back in the box for Peter David (who gets his own shout-out here). I’m not sure why I never warmed to this series — it’s been funny, with its heart in the right place and a gleeful use of obscure Marvel continuity — except that often too much seemed to be going on, and the art was always a bit too cartoony to make the characters “real.” If you’ve been buying it, though, get this one too — it’s an effective coda, and a fond farewell.
Supergirl #21 — Writer: Tony Bedard; Penciller/Colors: Renato Guedes; Inker: Jose Wilson Magalhaes
The story’s one of those Countdown-entangled, post-Amazons Attack messes, inaccessible to anyone but DC completists, but the real travesty is the cover, with Kara’s costume rendered as a micro-micro miniskirt that manages to be both ugly and exploitive. Blechh.
Sorrow #1 (of 4) — Writers: Rick Remender & Seth Peck; Art: Francesco Francavilla
A horror story involving four travellers who blunder into a Nevada ghost town where Things Are Not What They Seem. Refreshingly, it doesn’t feel the need to spell out its spiritual-possession plot, trusting instead in the readers’ intelligence to figure out what’s going on, and goes for subtle dread rather than blatant gore — at least so far. Remender’s got a cinematic style that practically screams “option me for a movie,” and if I liked this genre better, I’d be buying this comic.
Shanna the She-Devil: Survival of the Fittest #2 (of 4) — Writers: Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti; Pencils: Khari Evans; Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti
The Gray-Palmiotti team, which fits so well over in Jonah Hex, just doesn’t mesh effectively in the Savage Land — Shanna is a cypher, with dialogue and personality different from both the Frank Cho reboot and her previous incarnation; plus, the art is too sketchy and thin-lined for the kind of lush jungle/dinosaur/caveman/babe work that would give the visuals some pizzazz. Shanna herself is, frankly, just weirdly drawn sometimes, especially in the facial features, and saddling her with improbable breasts the size of basketballs doesn’t help. With all that plus a confusing plot involving characters we don’t care about, there’s just no reason to buy this series.
The Incredible Hulk #110 — Writer: Greg Pak; Penciler: Carlo Pagulayan; Inker: Jeffrey Huet
The whole “Renegades” bit, with ex-Champions like Hercules and Angel combining with Namora, the Scorpion and Amadeus Cho to rally to the Hulk’s side, sounds more exciting than it actually is; here, Cho spends the whole issue trying to prove that the big green guy isn’t actually going to kill anyone — and, in fact, never has killed an innocent civilian. That requires a lot of rationalizing and fancy explaining, although since Cho is the “seventh smartest person on the planet” (as everyone keeps reminding us; I’d still like to see that list), he’s the one to do it. It’s not bad, and the art’s serviceable, but it’s been four months since this thing started, and we seem to have entered the marking-time-until-the-big-conclusion phase; isn’t it time to wrap it up?
Black Canary Wedding Planner #1 — Writer: J. Torres; Artists: Lee Ferguson and Karl Story, with additional pages by Christine Norrie
Fairly cute — especially Norrie’s full-page offerings of stuff like wedding-magazine covers, travel brochures, checklists and reception motifs (this last complete with chibi versions of GA and BC). The plot, though, involves generic crimefighting interspersed with the usual wedding-prep discussions and disputes that we’ve seen in lots of other superhero-marriage runups. Unless you’re excited at the prospect of two pages of Vixen and Wonder Woman helping BC try on wedding-night lingerie (yeah, I see you out there), this is just too lightweight to sustain interest (it would have been better as just a regular issue of Green Arrow — but, of course, then it wouldn’t have been a #1 issue, followed by a wedding special, followed by a new #1 issue…).
Iron Man: Enter: The Mandarin #1 (of 6) — Writer: Joe Casey; Artist: Eric Canete
Marvel, obviously, would like a few stand-alone trades ready for the movie, ones that don’t need explanations involving the words “S.H.I.E.L.D” or “Civil War,” and it’s logical to have one with the Mandarin’s origin. Casey is good at this retro-continuity stuff; Tony’s in the Avengers, and everyone still thinks Iron Man is his bodyguard, but the electronics are reasonably current, and the timeline is within the last ten years or so (the Mandarin’s still a Chinese warlord who boosted his rings off of an alien spaceship in the 1950s). Competent, and it moves along well enough, but the art is better at the page design and tech than it is at actual figure drawing (for example: Canete can’t draw feet to save his life — look at the book’s final panel), and I’ve already read versions of this origin a couple of times before, so it’s easy to pass on this one.
Outsiders #50 — Writer: Tony Bedard; Pencillers: Matthew Clark and Ron Randall; Inker: Art Tjobert
Batman wants to position the Outsiders as bad guys, accepted by the underworld. That trick never works, although with Manhunter’s and Metamorpho’s shape-changing, plus Grace’s street cred (not to mention Bruce as “Matches” Malone) maybe it’ll stick for a while this time. The big speech about how the people and the US government distrust superheroes now, and want them controlled more closely, sounds disturbingly like Marvel’s Civil War plotline, but apparently this is where DC has decided to go as part of its leadup to Final Crisis. The art and story are fine, but they’d have to be wonderful to counterbalance a direction this irritating, so I think I’ll just tiptoe away until it all blows over.
Captain America: The Chosen #1 (of 6) — Writer: David Morrell; Artist: Mitch Breitweiser
As a war comic, this shows a good, gritty, sympathetic grasp of what it means to be an American soldier fighting terrorism in the Middle East. Then, Cap (who’s apparently not dead yet in this particular continuity), shows up, and things get surreal. Not a bad beginning (and worth checking out), but my instincts tell me that the rest of the series is now going to become mired in Marvel continuity and Cap-replacement-but-not-really foolishness. Too bad — and I’ll be happy if the creators prove me wrong.
Madame Mirage #2 — Writer: Paul Dini; Artist: Kenneth Rocafort
As a second episode, this is mostly a “show what she can do” issue, as Mirage kills two more bad guys, and runs rings around the opposition. Not really bad (Dini throws in a long-hallway-with-lots-of-doors bit straight out of a Warner Brothers cartoon), but the art is uninspired, and it’s hard to care about the characters or their murky motives. Maybe next issue….
Phil Mateer
Man, you may be one of those frustrated kids that never had the chance to draw comics. Do you still leave with your mother? Canete is a tremendous artist, one of the few out there that is still concerned with thing like composition, mood, energy, and master storytelling. You can read the comic with no wordballon, cause you don’t need, the bodies and faces he draws just tell you all you need. Plus he has a line quality natural and expressive like few. And all you can coment is the feet he drew on the final panel? Man, you should really change your concepts, and maybe try not to be so obtuse. Unless you have foot fetish, then you should get professional help.