Avengers: The Initiative #13 — Writer: Christos N. Gage; Artist: Steve Uy
In the wake of the conclusion to a big story last issue, this offers a self-contained tale introducing a new class of recruits; the Uy art offers just the right blend of whimsy and drama, and Gage is effective at coloring in the personalities of some of the Initiative personnel, especially Taskmaster. If you haven’t been following this book, here’s a good give-it-a-try example.
The Incredible Hercules #117 — Writers: Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente; Penciler: Rafa Sandoval; Inker: Roger Bonet
A tie-in with Secret Invasion, although Pak and Van Lente are clever enough to set Herc (and Amadeus Cho, who doesn’t get enough screen time this issue), off on his own side-mission, as he rounds up select gods from other Earth pantheons and sets off to take the fight to the Skrulls in space. OK, and suitably paranoiac (especially the last page); if you’re buying the other S.I. stuff, it’s worth a look.
Doktor Sleepless Manual #1 — Writer: Warren Ellis; Art: Ivan Rodriguez
Consumer alert: this isn’t a new issue of the regular comic, but an “expanded” reprint of the first issue, with the same art but ten extra pages of notes and other background material. Get it if you haven’t been following the book (since copies of the actual first issue are fairly hard to find), or if you’re enough of an Ellis obsessive to care about the extra stuff, but otherwise you can skip it.
Dead, She Said #1 — Writer: Steve Niles; Art: Bernie Wrightson
How the mighty have fallen: I read this whole book through (it’s about a hard-boiled private eye who wakes up and realizes that he’s dead, and then has to go about tracking down his killer before his body rots completely), assuming the art was by some standard generic horror-type artist, and it wasn’t until I typed up the credits for this entry that I realized it was by Bernie Wrightson. Thirty-five years ago, that would have been an event, but now, even after a second look, it’s just… OK. Competent, but nothing flashy. Eddie Campbell had a post on his weblog a few weeks ago talking about how he’d never been a big Wrightson fan, because when he started seeing Wrightson’s stuff in the early ’70s he recognized it as just a stylish-but-empty mishmash of various EC artists, with no individual, unique perspective coming through. That seemed harsh when I read it, but maybe it’s true; it would explain why Wrightson’s post-’80s work hasn’t generated any attention, and why this issue seems so anonymous, so solid-but-unspectacular.
Ultimate X-Men #94 — Writer: Aron E. Colette; Penciler: Mark Brooks; Inks: Jaime Mendoza and Troy Hubbs
Regular readers of this title are going to get whiplash, since former writer Robert Kirkman’s gone, characters who had left have suddenly returned, one old character is revealed to have a hidden (and thoroughly unconvincing) drug addiction, and the Ultimate Alpha Flight shows up. Worse, this is cover-advertised as part of “March on Ultimatum,” Marvel’s latest attempt to breath some life back into the Ultimate titles, and it looks like it’s going to be one of those everything’s-a-vast-conspiracy makeovers (see: the last three attempts to revive the Wildstorm titles) that ends up more likely to alienate current readers than to attract any new ones.
Robin #174 — Writer: Chuck Dixon; Penciller: Chris Batista; Inkers: Cam Smith with Rick Ketcham
Stephanie Brown fans should pick this up (as should Dr. Leslie Thompkins fans), as we find out that a number of seemingly-stupid plot developments over the last few years were actually part of a Clever Plan — or, at least, now they are (whether this a retcon or really was planned all along is an interesting question — although, I suppose, if the outcome is a less stupid Bat-universe, then it’s good either way).
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull #1 (of 2) — Adaptation: John Jackson Miller; Pencile: Luke Ross; Inks: Fabio Laguna
Reading this and putting it back had the advantage of indicating to me that I didn’t need to see the movie itself (if you did buy this, at $5.99 each for two issues it would actually cost a bit more than a movie ticket — although, of course, more than one person could read it…); it seems like a predictable rehash of previous installments, updated to the 1950s with all the predictable elements of that era, too (atom bombs, Red scares, motorcycle rebels, UFOs, etc.). The creative team does as well as they can, but a number of places, obviously, needed to be condensed, and the big-screen spectacle that’s such a selling point of the actual films doesn’t come through on the printed page, so the comic’s for Indy completists only.
Tank Girl: Visions of Booga #1 — Writer: Alan Martin; Art: Rufus Dayglo
Martin offers a typically sprawling, slapstick adventure, involving our heroes on the run from crooked cops, the Mafia and other assorted bad guys. As with last year’s TG mini-series, this suffers from not having Jamie Hewlett on the art, and it’s never quite managed to make it out of the ’80s (the backup story is dedicated to Adam Ant, seemingly without irony), but for readers who came of age in that era, too, it’s a suitable souvenir of those anarchic times.
Phil Mateer
