Not very much to make fun of or eviscerate this week — mostly books that are actually pretty good, solid superhero stuff that’s entertaining enough, but for various reasons just doesn’t quite make the cut:
Booster Gold #7 — Writers: Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz; Pencils: Dan Jurgens; Finishes: Norm Rapmund
Take this title, for example — the visual storytelling is smooth without being flashy, and the script moves briskly along, exploring the effects of Ted Kord not dying, and the Booster/Blue Beetle scenes are comfortable and welcome — but we’re in alternate-timeline territory, and much as a permanent Blue/Gold team would be cool, the odds seem slim; this is almost certain to end in a Noble Sacrifice for the Greater Good, blah blah blah, and the status will return to quo, and the overall effect of this story will be a pleasant but frustrating reminder of how much DC has screwed up this character. I’ll read it, but I don’t think I want to actually pay for it.
Batman Confidential #14 — Writer: Tony Bedard; Penciller: Rags Morales; Inker: Mark Farmer
Here, the attraction is the art — Morales achieves some good effects, and channels Gil Kane in a couple of panels, and is always fun to look at — but the plot is hard to get into, with multiple narratives and flashbacks and two versions of a villain that’s hard to care about even once, and the whole thing ends up seeming like more trouble than it’s worth. The unevenness of a tag-team creator title like this works against it, too; it’s hard to get into the habit of buying the book, because you never know who’s going to be doing the storytelling from arc to arc, so the temptation is often to wait, and figure they’ll collect anything good in a sturdier (and, ultimately, cheaper) version later.
Avengers: The Initiative #10 — Writers: Dan Slott and Christos N. Gage; Artist: Stefano Caselli
Sort of a New Warriors book right now (not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially if you were, say, 12 years old in 1990), with Justice, Rage and some others like Slapstick. Here, the writing’s OK — the scene that ends with Taskmaster’s line, “Y’know something, Ant-man, you’re good people,” made me smile — but the art’s just so-so, and as with Booster Gold the nature of this book seems to be to move characters in and out so regularly that there’s no sense of permanence; anybody you care about might be dead (well, you know, comics dead) or gone in another issue, so it’s had to find something solid to commit to.
Wolfman #5 — Writer: Robert Kirkman; Artist: Jason Howard
This book tries very hard to evoke Stan Lee circa 1965 or so, with the breezy action sequences of Spider-Man, the multiple, interacting characters and concepts of Fantastic Four, and the soap-opera plot developments of… well, all of it. Not bad, but it reminds me of Savage Dragon (or, understandably, Invincible), in the way that beneath all the flash there isn’t much of a heart; you can sometimes sense how manipulative (and, ultimately, derivative) it all is, and that takes some of the edge off the fun.
The Last Defenders #1 (of 6) — Writer: Joe Casey; Co-plot and Breakdowns: Keith Giffen; Pencils: Jim Muniz; Inks: Cam Smith
Casey and Giffen both know their Defenders history, but that only comes through at the end, and most of the book is the “new” team — Nighthawk getting assigned the Blazing Skull, She-Hulk and Colossus as part of Tony Stark’s initiative (they’re the “New Jersey Defenders”). I’m pretty sure this is supposed to be stupid (The Sons of the Serpent? Colossus? Eeeshhh….), but, you know, that doesn’t make it any less stupid, and the art’s not good enough to make up for it. Pass.
Annihilation: Conquest #5 (of 6) — Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Penciller: Tom Raney; Inker: Scott Hanna
Penultimate issue, so there’s a lot of information-dumping, as we find out how Ultron got from turning Tony Stark into his shiny woman suit in Mighty Avengers to running the Phalanx here. For all the big developments — the High Evolutionary, a mutated Warlock, Groot with flaming sap, Rocket Raccoon, great civilizations rising and falling, galaxies at risk — it’s weakness is that it’s all curiously unmoving, something to read idly just to see how the game plays out, without much personal reader stake in any of the participants.
Nova # 11 — Writers: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning; Penciller: Paul Pelletier; Inker: Rick Magyar
Well, if you’re going to fight the Phalanx, you might as well bring in the other techno-organic bad guys (something that also occurred at the end of X-Force last week, although I suspect that’s not clever cross-title continuity so much as ’80s nostalgia operating in two different creative teams at once). Better than Annihilation: Conquest, because of its sharper focus, but self doesn’t care enough about this new character to buy this book.
Phil Mateer
