Captain Marvel #1 — Writer: Brian Reed; Penciler: Lee Weeks; Inks: Stefano Gaudiano
This reminds me of Young Avengers #1, in that it benefited greatly from reduced expectations: I went in ready to make fun of it, but it’s actually pretty good. Reed’s able to weave an actual theme (we’re here to make a mark, to accomplish something worth remembering) throughout the story, get inside Mar-Vell’s head enough to make us sympathize with him, and even clean up some of the damage from that awful Paul Jenkins one-shot by hinting that it was all a big misunderstanding/mistake. The Weeks art complements the script well, too, with a quiet, effective splash of Mar-Vell’s tomb, a double-page shot in the Louvre that integrates an actual painting into the art seamlessly, and a nice last-page shot of the hero in costume. If the next issue or two are this good, I may even consider buying this book.
Titans East Special #1 — Writer: Judd Winnick; Pencils: Ian Churchill; Inks: Norm Rapmund, Andy Lanning & Jon Sibal
Now, this, on the other hand… I’m not, like some, a Winnick hater (anybody who’s produced Pedro and Me, not to mention Barry Ween, is clearly capable of great work), but sometimes, as here, he just seems to be going through the motions. The extended ’80s New Teen Titans pseudo-flashback at the beginning is mild fun, and the conclusion manages to hit a couple of emotional buttons, but the whole bit where you assemble a team of obscure heroes, only to kill (some? all?) of them off so that the real team can get back together later, is old news (see, most recently, Seven Soldiers of Victory #0). Been there, seen it, don’t really care.
The Unfunnies #3 & 4 — Writer: Mark Millar; Art: Anthony Williams
I’ll admit, I was mildly interested to see this series finally conclude (after, what — three years?), but it was a waste of time — these last two issues don’t offer any plot twists that couldn’t have been predicted from the first two, and the joke (real-world sex and violence transferred to a funny-animal milieu) had already been made; now, it’s just rubbing our noses in it. This kind of nastiness can work if there’s a moral center somewhere, some lifeline for the reader to grasp (as in The Boys), but here everyone loses, the bad guy wins, and it’s nothing but depressing. We’ve seen this from Millar before in his independent work (The Chosen, Wanted), but here it’s distilled to a kind of Ultimate Pointlessness, nihilism as a cheap sales tactic, and for all its attempts to transgress and shock it just comes off as boring and stupid.
Batman and the Outsiders #1 — Writer: Chuck Dixon; Penciller: Julian Lopez; Inker: Bit
With Dixon, you always know what you’re going to get: straight-ahead characterization, a plot that moves right along, a few good bits here and there, and just enough to keep you interested and coming back for the next issue. It’s better than mediocre, and a pleasant enough 15 minutes of reading, but it’s nowhere near great; you’ll buy this for 10 or 12 issues, eventually lose interest, and in a few years find the books in your collection and have no memory of the story. Then you’ll bring them to us, and we’ll offer you a nickel or a dime each for them, and they’ll sit in the discount bins until they turn to dust. Such are the works of man.
Booster Gold #4 — Writers: Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz; Pencils: Dan Jurgens; Finished Art: Norm Rapmund
This continues to hover in the Twilight Zone between “good enough to read” and “good enough to buy” — it’s entertaining, and the time travel plot engine lets the creators cherrypick from fun moments in DC history, but the paradoxes start to multiply after a while, and the reintroduction of elements like Booster’s father (not to mention Rex Hunter) can’t have resonance for more than a handful of readers, and are just going to confuse everyone else.
Green Arrow and Black Canary #2 — Writer: Judd Winnick; Art: Cliff Chiang
Better than the Titans East book — Winnick’s been writing these characters for a while, and his affection for them is clear — but this offers a good example of a principle I first encountered years ago through comics reviewer Dave Von Domelen: when the characters in the comic itself comment on how stupid the plot is, that’s not clever writing — it’s just a stupid plot.
Black Adam #4 (of 6) — Writer: Peter J. Tomasi; Penciller: Doug Mahnke; Inker: Christian Alamy
Pedestrian story, although that isn’t entirely Tomasi’s fault, since filling in the gaps of a story whose outcome we already know is a thankless job. (I’m still wondering: dude, if you don’t know your trigger word, why not just get a good dictionary and go through every entry?) The bright spot here continues to be Mahnke’s moody, just slightly offbeat art, which is always worth a look.
Countdown to Final Crisis #24 — Writers: Paul Dini with Gray & Palmiotti; Penciller: Tom Derenick; Inker: Wayne Fulcher
Still bad, and increasingly pointless as it rains death and destruction on various alternate Earths that we don’t care about. I’ll keep sacrificing my ten minutes to read it every week, and let you all know if anything important happens, or if it ever gets any better.
Phil Mateer
