Batman Confidential #11 — Writer: Michael Green; Art: Denys Cowan and John Floyd
All right, I understand this: DC’s looking ahead to the next Batman movie, and wants new, modern product featuring the origin of the Joker, so they’ll collect this six-parter (of which this is part five), into a trade, and everyone’ll be happy, right? It might even work; to someone who’d never read a Batman comic, the continuity chasms and sledgehammer characterization wouldn’t be noticeable, and they might even think that the scratchy Cowan art was an effective style choice for the psychotic topic, instead of being merely, um, hideous. Those of us who’ve read the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams versions of the character, or the Englehart/Rogers one, or even The Killing Joke, will just shake our heads and sigh.
Countdown to Final Crisis #23 — Writers: Paul Dini with Keith Giffen; Pencils: Tom Derenick; Inks: Wayne Faucher
Focus on Superman-Prime, who’s caught Mr. Mxyzptlk (or at least one version of him; it isn’t clear if his “5th dimension” cuts across all the alternate Earths), and tortures him to try to steal his magic. We find out (1) DC apparently loves setting up interesting alternate-Earth versions of known characters — in this case, Zatanna — only to immediately kill them off, just like they did with the Jokester, (2) it’s now OK to say “pissed” in a DC all-ages comic, and (3) Derenick can’t draw Mxyzptlk, although to be fair very few artists are able to blend Mxy’s bigfoot style against their more serious “regular” art effectively.
The Lone Ranger #10 — Writer: Brett Matthews; Artist: Sergio Cariello
The conclusion to the title’s second big story arc. OK — it’s a tad deconstructed (it takes about five minutes to read), but the art’s good; Cariello’s faces and general clean style remind me of Frank Quitely, and the coloring (by Marcelo Pinto of Impacto Studio) has a few gorgeous effects. Still, it’s standard Western stuff, a good-but-not-great version of a character who’s been around forever, and doesn’t quite manage, for me, to rise to the gotta-have-it level.
Incredible Hulk #111 — Writers: Greg Pak and Jeff Parker; Artist: Leonard Kirk
A little behind, since it takes place parallel to WWHulk #s 4 and 5, and there’s no actual Hulk in it (except for a few “off in the distance” panels), as the story focuses on the supporting cast instead. It’s basically Hercules, Angel, Namora and Amadeus Cho in a Champions comic (although they’re called the Renegades here, for Marvel-screwed-up-its-trademark-or-copyright-or-whatever reasons), and Kirk supplies clear, reasonably attractive art for it. As with Lone Ranger, it’s a perfectly good story that just wasn’t able to make itself compelling or different enough for me to buy it.
Iron Man Annual #1 — Writer: Christos N. Gage; Artist: Harvey Talibao
Tony as 007, traveling to Madripoor to try to kick Madame Hydra’s butt, since she’s taken over the country. Worth it if you’re nostalgic for those early Claremont-Buscema Wolverine issues where he, as “Patch,” went wandering around the same setting. Stark’s a hard character to buy into right now, because every writer seems to have a different version of him after Civil War — is he a misguided good guy? A legit hero? A villain? A Skrull? Here, he lets an agent die because, basically, he can’t figure out what else to do, and that leaves enough of a bad taste to shoot down the book; heroes are supposed to find a way to keep that stuff from happening, you know?
Thunderbolts: Breaking Point #1 — Writer: Christos N. Gage; Artist: Brian Denham
This one-shot focuses on Melissa/Songbird, and follows the Warren Ellis meme — Norman Osborne’s in charge, Moonstone and he are manipulating everyone and each other, and there’s lots of talking, backstabbing, etc. At 22 pages of story, there’s no reason it couldn’t have been an issue of the regular comic, and there’s surprisingly little actual punching-type action; plus, the introduction of a character from Melissa’s past, and her fate, comes off as silly and unconvincing. Points to Gage for one scene, involving the marketing of Moonstone, where Osborne reveals a “higher-end,” “limited-edition” statue of her that’s a duplicate of the Mary Jane statue that caused such a fuss on the Internet a few months ago.
Ultimate Vision #5 (of 5) — Writer: Mike Carey; Art: Brandon Peterson
Just noting that this concluding issue actually shipped, something like five months after the penultimate one. If you bought into Marvel’s marketing push for this mini-series last Christmas, and have the other issues, you might as well complete the set. Both Carey’s script and the art are in competent-but-not-spectacular mode, and if you can remember enough of what happened in the earlier issues to follow this one, you have more efficient brain cells than I do.
Phil Mateer
