Fantastic Four: Isla de la Muerte! — Writer: Tom Beland; Artist: Juan Doe
Not bad — it shows a lot of affection for the characters, and nails their voices; I was pleasantly surprised to get to the end credits and find out it was from Beland, who’s best known for his indy/autobiographical True Story, Swear to God (I thought “Huh. Good for him…”). The art comes off as too cartoony at first, but every character has a consistent, well-thought-out presence, from the looming Thing to manga-eyed Sue to the Darwyn Cookeish squinty-eyed Reed and beady-eyed Johnny. The earlier Grimmcentric scenes move along nicely, and the menace is introduced well; things stall at the Big Villain Reveal for a while, and a couple of pages feel like padding, but the unusual art and bright colors carry it through to a decent conclusion. You get a 38-page story for $4, and I was tempted; if I saw it in a 99-cent bin a year from now, I’d snap it up.
Giant-Size Avengers #1 — Credits: Various
A bunch of what look like inventory/try-out short stories, strung together through the plot device of some of the Avengers women chatting, rounded out with a reprint of Avengers #58 (the second Vision story, by Thomas/Buscema), and a Jarvis short by Michelinie/Stern/Perez from Avengers #201. With the exception of a mildly amusing “Fin Fang Four” story that wandered over from FF, it’s all generic, and there’s no particular reason to buy this book.
Zombie: Simon Garth #2 (of 4) — Writer/Artist: Kyle Hotz (“Dialogue assists” from Eric Powell, it says.)
Better than the first mini-series, although that’s damning with faint praise. Hotz, who’s taken over from Kelly Jones in the Bernie Wrightson disciple sweepstakes, knows how to deliver atmospheric horror; that, and the idea of a vaguely “good” (if still mostly mindless) zombie, help to set this slightly above the mass of current walking-dead books — assuming that you have any interest in that sort of thing.
Countdown to Final Crisis #18 — Writers: Paul Dini with Sean McKeever (and Keith Giffen); Art: Scott Kolins
A few pages of Mary Marvel/Eclipso, and everything else is an update on Ray Palmer, who’s been hiding out in an alternate-Earth corner of the multiverse where he can live a “normal” life — until Bob the Monitor and crew finally catch up to him. That’s where it ends, without any big revelations to make this worth buying yet. Maybe next issue….
Countdown to Adventure #5 ( of 8 ) — (First Story) — Writer: Adam Beechen; Pencils: Allan Goldman; Inks: Julio Ferreira; (Second Story) — Writer: Justin Gray; Pencils: Fabrizio Fiorentino; Inks: Adam DeKraker
More pointless punching and running and general fighting, in both stories, and there are still three issues to go. You know, at least Countdown: Arena kept it to four issues, and was released weekly to help generate some momentum; this one just sits there, utterly average in concept and execution, and wants readers to commit $32 and 2/3 of a year to it? Pass.
JLA Classified #49 — Writer: Andrew Kreisberg; Pencils: Paulo Siqueira; Inks: Amilton Santos
Not a bad one-issue story, as we look at an early JLA space battle (how early? Lois and Superman know one another, but haven’t developed a relationship yet — although the Green Lantern is John Stewart, so go figure) through the reactions of the civilians and friends back on Earth. It’s a decent example of how to craft a tryout story — pick an unusual angle, keep it simple, have a solid theme — and if it doesn’t knock the reader’s head off at least it doesn’t embarrass itself.
Captain Marvel #2 (of 5) — Writer: Brian Reed; Penciler: Lee Weeks; Inks: Stefano Gaudiano with Rob Campanella
This continues to benefit from the reduced expectations of that terrible “The Return” one-shot; it feels like it’s pretty good just because it’s not particularly bad. As with the first issue, the use of a Charles Lebrun Louvre painting as a Maguffin lets Weeks pull off some interesting art effects, and there’s a Carol Danvers/Mar-Vell reunion that’s OK. Still, most of the book is the main character wandering around not knowing why he’s there or what he’s doing, which doesn’t exactly lend itself to dynamic narrative; maybe the Big Fight that looks to be brewing for the next issue will goose things along a little more.
Brawl #3 (of 3) — (First story) — Creator: Dean Haspiel; (Second story) — Creator: Michel Fiffe
Both stories kind of rattled off the rails in this conclusion — Haspiel’s Kirby pastiche ends with a “space god” who looks like the Mad Thinker’s android coming to life and then leaving, while the Fiffe story ditches the main antagonist quickly, and ends in an extended sex scene. Both creators have their interesting moments, but this ends up feeling like a random ’70s underground comic: heavy on the sex and flashy effects, but light on the plot mechanics or the kind of narrative juice that would really make the readers care about the characters.
Phil Mateer
