Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Read and Put Back #48

OK, kids, there were a lot of books that were good enough to read, but not to buy, this week, so let’s go to the Lightning Round:

The Sword #3 — Creators: The Luna Brothers
Better than the second issue, with plenty of smoothly-told action (and startling violence); I really should be buying this (this is what happened with Girls, too — I’d waver on the series depending on particular issues, and then when the plot heated up and got good again I’d have to scramble to reacquire all of the earlier episodes). The setup so far seems a little too derivative — it reminds me of Roger Zelazny, especially the opening of Nine Princes in Amber, as the protagonist’s seemingly-normal life keeps getting peeled away, onion-like, and she has to come to terms with her true powers and heritage — but if the next installment’s as good as this one, I’ll be right back on board, scrambling to keep up.

Suburban Glamour #2 (of 4) — Story and Art: James McKelvie
Ah — it’s one of those Brit stories about the faerie realm, and “glamour” applies in the magical sense, too. This taps into that powerful adolescent fantasy that your “normal” boring high school life isn’t the true story, that you’re actually a changeling with a cool supernatural background; the problem, so far, is that the regular high-school stuff was more intriguing, in a Blue Monday sort of way, than the fantasy component (Titania? Oberon? Zzzz…).

World War Hulk: Aftersmash! #1 — Writer: Greg Pak; Penciler: Rafa Sandoval; Inker: Vicente Cifuentes
Get this if you liked WWHulk — it really does stand as an epilogue, as the heroes clean up the wreckage and everyone’s new status gets quoed; since Pak’s the writer, it all connects fairly seamlessly, too, and while it’s an extra buck, there’s 34 pages of main story. It’s OK, but without the Hulk actually involved I’m just not quite invested enough in the fates of Misty Knight, Hercules and the “new” Giant-Man to care.

The Twelve #0 — Creators: Various
So, it looks like J. Michael Straczynski and Chris Weston are doing a 1940s-era story with some of Timely/Marvel’s more obscure mystery men, sort of what Agents of Atlas did for the ’50s heroes, and this offers Golden Age reprints of the first appearances of three of them — Rockman, The Laughing Mask and the Phantom Reporter — along with promo pinups and a few pages of the upcoming book. OK if you’re interested in the kind of crude, colorful pulp adventure that Marvel was producing almost 70 years ago — and the first reprint does offer early Basil Wolverton art — but there’s a reason these stories haven’t seen the light of day in all those years: they just aren’t very good.

Countdown to Final Crisis #21 — Writers: Paul Dini with Sean McKeever; Story Consultant: Keith Giffen; Pencils: Jamal Inge; Inks: Mark McKenna
A remarkably ugly Granny Goodness cover leads us to an apparently-dead Trickster, a few pages of the Holly/Harley Amazon stuff, two Monitors fighting, and the Karate Kid plotline leading to a bunch of Omacs (that’s right… DC has decided that the path to greatness for this series involves more Omacs). If all of that is making your fingers twitch in anticipation, then by all means buy this comic.

Resurrection #1 — Writer: Marc Guggenheim; Art: David Dumeer
Earth has (maybe) just defeated an alien invasion, and the surviving civilians, isolated and unsure, start to come out and survey the wreckage. That’s an interesting angle for a new series, and it’s competently told. The references to the aliens as “bugs” reminded me of Robert A. Heinlein, and so did the spunky-but-haunted heroine and some of the political cynicism. Asking $3.50 for 24 black-and-white pages of story seems to be pushing it, though.

The Vinyl Underground #3 — Writer: Si Spencer; Penciller: Simon Gane; Inker: Cameron Stewart
Improving — this is the first issue where the main characters actually seem even partially likeable, and to be working as a team. Not that much actually happens, though, and the supernatural/drugdealing-mobster plot seems to have wandered over from an issue of Hellblazer.

Supergirl #24 — Writer: Kelly Puckett; Pencillers: Drew Johnson & Lee Furguson; Inker: Ray Snyder
The new creative team’s second issue is a letdown — the plot setup from last month gets dismissed in a few pages, and instead there’s an improbable look at Krypton’s past, and at how Kara was supposed to be the babysitter for the then-younger Kal-El. Better than the past where her father implanted killer crystals in her because the Phantom Zone ghosts were going to take over the world, I suppose, but it’s still a confusing new continuity implant. Can’t we stop rewriting the character’s origin and just tell some thrilling, straight-up adventure stories?

Metamorpho #5 — Story: Dan Jurgens; Pencils: Mike Norton; Inks: Jesse Delperdang and Jose Marzan Jr.
This continues to be a standard reworking of the character’s origin, although the fanboy in me is compelled to point out that the weird-looking alien that Rex fights actually did appear back in 1967, in issue #15 of the first series, in one of those surreal Bob Haney/Sal Trapani stories (and that I always wondered whether Trapani borrowed the character design from a Wally Wood drawing).

Annihilation: Conquest #2 ( of 6 ) — Writers: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning; Penciler: Tony Raney; Inker: Scott Hanna
The mystery-villain reveal still doesn’t make a lot of sense, especially given events in Mighty Avengers, but if you like sprawling space-opera action with dozens of characters, and are a big fan of Marvel cosmic continuity, you could do worse than this book.

The Exterminators #24 — Writer: Simon Oliver; Penciller: Tony Moore; Inker: John Lucas
The end of the second big arc, and after being largely unreadable for months, it kind of came together again here at the finale: the blue-butterflies thing led to some nice art effects, the humor mostly worked, and the conclusion was decent.

Northlanders #1 — Writer: Brian Wood; Artist: Davide Gianfelice
Viking-on-Viking action, set around 1000 AD. Wood seems to have done his research, but the reluctant-prodigal-son-vs-evil-usurping-uncle plot isn’t particularly original, and the “hero” is only slightly easier to root for than the villain. That gives him room to grow, of course, and this is only the first issue, and it’s Wood, so things have a good chance of improving, although right now it’s reflecting its setting: it’s a grim, cold-hearted book.

Spotlight On Gen13 #1 — Creators: Various
I got this thinking it was one of those Wildstorm: Apocalypse one-shots (Armageddon? Annihilation? One of those A-words, anyway…). Instead, it’s an art-gallery book, reprinting 32 previous covers from the series. For $3.50? On regular paper? Rip-off city, kids.

Lazurus #2 — Writer: Writers: Diego Cortes & Juan Ferreyra; Art: Juan Ferreyra
Truth in advertising: the cover makes it look like this is a zombie book, but it’s not; it’s just a standard guy-keeps-dying-and-getting-resurrected-good-as-new tale, not horrible but not particularly interesting, either.

Omega the Unknown #3 (of 10) — Writer: Jonathan Lethem with Karl Rusnak; Art: Farel Dalrymple
Starting to move away from its source material a bit — although Steve Gerber, Mary Skrenes and Jim Mooney, the original creative team, don’t get credited at all this issue, even though the framework of the story is still theirs. That leaves a bad taste, and anyone who’s impressed by the way the smart-kid-surviving-high-school plot combines with the dreamlike fantasy elements should really read that first ’70s series, just to confirm where all the heavy lifting on the concept came from.

Brawl #2 (of 3) — Creator (First Story) — Dean Haspiel; Creator (Second Story) — Michel Fiffe
Worth checking out — both of these guys can tell a story, although Haspiel’s more of an original, with his mix of Kirbyish action, college-sophomore-philosophy-major asides, and humor (Fiffe’s sf/monster series wouldn’t have been out of place as a serial in the old Dark Horse Presents, with its black-and-white indy sensibilities). Points off for spelling “Hemingway” wrong on the back-cover pull quote, though.