Phil's Reviews — Stuff I Read and Put Back #60

Narcopolis #2 — Writer: Jamie Delano;  Art: Jeremy Rock
What is it about the art in Avatar books? They get the good writers, like Ellis and, here, Delano, but the drawing always looks a little… off. Is it the coloring, the way the faces, especially, are shaded? Is it just that the artists are mostly new, and can’t quite make, say the shape of the heads and the eyes look quite realistic enough? (There’s usually something too staticy about the figure posing and the action sequences, too.) This would still be buyable if the story was great, but it’s too dependent on other dystopian sources, like 1984, to really come off as original or compelling. Although the futurespeak is obviously well thought out, and there are some nice bits (the crazy-eyed terrorist, for one), this never quite comes together for me.

Justice Society of America #13 — Writer: Geoff Johns (co-plotter: Alex Ross);  Penciller: Fernando Pasarin;  Inker: Richard Friend
This is a prototypical “read it and put it back” book. It’s got some good moments: the cover, the encounters between the two Supermen (and the Hercules-driven demonstration of their two power levels), and the mystery of the last-page reveal (who is that? My first thought was “J’emm, Son of Saturn,” but that can’t be right. The face and the gem in the forehead look naggingly familiar, but maybe it’s just Generic Godlike Bad Guy after all…?).  On the other hand, the whole book is basically backstory and setup for the big fight next issue, and the huge cast is annoying to try to keep straight, and the whole Kingdom Come/Gog-Magog thing somehow just isn’t that exciting, you know?  Back on the racks it goes — but I’ll be interested to see what happens next issue.

Teen Titans #56 — Writer: Sean McKeever;  Pencils: Eddy Barrows;  Inks: Jimmy Palmiotti with Julio Ferreira
McKeever’s doing a nice job on this title, especially on the characterization: the focus on the misunderstood new guy trying to mesh with the team (in this case, Kid Devil) is a workable basis for a good story, and a lot of action gets packed in here, from the fanboys-in-Titans-Tower comedy to the villain/new group of antagonists reveal at the end. That’s a very familiar plot, though (didn’t we just see the twisted-version-of-the-Titans-led-by-an-adult-super-villain bit? It seems a little early to be playing the Frightful Four card again…). In a slow week, this might have made the cut, but in a week as packed with good books as this one was, there just wasn’t quite enough room in the budget.

Young Avengers Presents: Hulkling #2 (of 6) — Writer: Brian Reed;  Artist: Harvey Tolibao
Another almost-made-it book; Reed knows how to write, and he’s able to take a character that in lesser hands would just be silly (seriously: Hulkling? The name doesn’t even make sense any more…) and make him realistic and understandable. Still, the whole issue’s basically a talk between Teddy and Mar-Vell, and the daddy-issues bits just seem kind of tired and Afterschool-Special-ly, and the unspoken Secret Invasion meta-questions (isn’t there a good chance Mar-Vell’s really a Skrull pretending to be Mar-Vell? But Teddy’s an actual– But he– ) make my head hurt.

Black Panther Annual #1 — Writer:  Reginald Hudlin;  Pencils: Larry Stroman and Ken Lashley;  Inks: Roland Paris, Carlos Cuevas and Jon Sibal
King Solomon’s frogs hang out with the Watcher, and view an alternate-future timeline where Wakanda, attacked by the Tony Stark/Iron Men global police force, has taken them out and essentially now rules the world — benevolently, of course, with an aging T’Challa and Storm dealing with their now-grown children. Stroman’s got a couple of panels where he poses Storm in anatomically-painful positions, but others are strikingly pretty pinup shots, so it balances out (the tag-team inking doesn’t help the art consistency) and the last-page bit with King Solomon shows such a light, beautiful touch that it reminded me of P. Craig Russell.  The story itself is trivial, since it’s not “real,” and although you can tell Hudlin’s affection for the characters (and desire to give them all a good life), the actual plot mechanisms — especially the way Stark is killed — are, um, stupid.

Rogue Angel: Teller of Tall Tales #1 — Writer: Barbara Randall Kesel;  Art: Renae De Liz
OK, but not quite there — the story’s too derivative (let’s see: we’ll take a little Witchblade, and mix it with some Tomb Raider…), and the art, while it shows some good illustrative chops (especially in the Indian sequence), doesn’t seem to be quite sure whether it wants to be manga/cartoony or realistic, and so strikes an uneasy balance between them. It’s nice to see women creators take on women adventurer heroes, and leach the drooling-fanboy elements out, but it looks like it’s going to take a couple of issues to figure out what’s going to take their place, and make this book a compelling comic.

Army @ Love #12 — Writer/Penciller: Rick Veitch;  Inks: Gary Erskine
Ending the “first season,” with a promise of more to come eventually, and while it’s too bad that the book’s being canceled for a while, it’s good in that it forces Veitch to wrap things up. He does it very well, too — all the characters get what they deserve (some in surprising ways) without it seeming forced or rushed (mostly — *cough* Needhawk and Blanche *cough* — although even that seems more sly and scripted than unresolved), and there’s a satisfying last page with no cheap cliffhangers. This book never quite gelled for me, but it got a number of decent reviews, and deserves to do well in the trade market.

Phil Mateer

About Phil

With 40 years of experience in comic reading, collecting and reviewing, English Professor Phil Mateer has an encyclopedic mind for comics. Feel free to ask Phil about storylines, characters, artists or for that matter, any comic book trivia. He will post your questions and answers on the AABC blog. His knowledge is unparalleled! He is also our warehouse manager, so if you are looking for that hard to find comic book, ask Phil!
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