Skaar, Son Of Hulk #1 — Writer: Greg Pak; Pencils: Ron Garney
Surprisingly good; if Planet Hulk was all about the big green guy playing King Conan, here we have Young Conan, with the ruined, barbarian planet of Sakaar standing in for Cimmeria. The savage alien settings and fights (with antagonists with names like “Axeman Bone”) aren’t exactly subtle, but they play to Garney’s strengths; fans of Conan, Tarzan, Frazetta, etc. should give this a look.
Titans #3 — Writer: Judd Winick; Pencils: Joe Benitez; Inks: Llamas, Hope, Fridolfs and Weems
After a horrible first issue, and a not-quite-so-horrible second one, this offers yet another small improvement. It’s not at “good” yet, mind you (the art just can’t quite deliver, although the musical-chairs inking provided by DC doesn’t give it much of a chance), but at least the script is clever, making the title characters act like parodies of themselves to get the reader irritated, and then providing an interesting last-page explanation of it to lead into the next issue.
Secret Invasion: Who Do You Trust? — Writers: Brian Reed, Mike Carey, Christos Gage, Zeb Wells, Jeff Parker; Artists: Lee Weeks, Timothy Green III, Mike Perkins, Steve Kurth, Leonard Kirk
Um, hey, Marvel: it’s “whom” when there’s no verb to connect with it, you know? Anyway, beyond the ungrammatical title, this offers five short stories (eight-pagers, mostly) involving, in order, Captain Marvel, Agent Brand, Wonder Man and the Beast, Marvel Boy, and the Agents of Atlas, all dealing with Skrulls in some way. Most lead into Secret Invasion #1 (which is a mild problem, considering we’re currently on #3), so it’s partially a $3.99 promo piece, but scan that list of writer and artist credits to see if there’s enough to tempt you to buy it.
Salvation Run #7 (of 7) — Writer: Matthew Sturges; Penciller: Sean Chen; Inkers: Walden Wong and Wayne Furcher
OK: everyone who figured, at the start of this series, that Luthor would eventually cobble up some way to get everybody back on Earth (involving ruthless sacrifice of anyone necessary), raise your hands. The lateness of this book works against it, especially since we already saw all of these villains back in Final Crisis last week (which also makes the last-page character cliffhanger of this issue particularly confusing/unfortunate), but the uneven quality of the art and script, and its utter predictability, made this whole series a waste of $20 to those readers optimistic enough to take a chance on it. That’ll teach ’em when they’re trying to decide whether to buy your next mini-series, eh, DC?
Captain Britain and MI13 #2 (of 4) — Writer: Paul Cornell; Penciller: Leonard Kirk; Inker: Jesse Delperdang
Focusing on Great Britain’s heroes’ responses to the Skrull Invasion. Not bad; the first issue certainly upped the ante, with its death of a major character (well, major for Great Britain), although the “previously” box on this issue is suspiciously careful with its wording on that (“seemingly” die?). Fans of Pete Wisdom (both of you, ta-dump bump) will like it, too, since it’s basically a continuation of the previous Wisdom mini-series.
Charlatan Ball #1 — Writer: Joe Casey; Art: Andy Suriano
A guy with a not-very-good strip-club magic act gets transported to a world where magic actually works, as the pawn of much more powerful forces, and he and his now-mutated, talking pet rabbit try to survive. Reasonably fun in tone, with lots of concepts being thrown against the wall to see if they’ll stick (see: Godland), and art that’s reminiscent of Keith Giffen in his early Kirby-imitator phase. It all feels too dashed-off to last long, but they probably said that about Fantastic Four #1 too, so you never can tell… but probably not.
Booster Gold #10 — Writers: Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz; Pencils: Dan Jurgens; Finishes: Norm Rapmund
The penultimate issue of the Blue Beetle story, and, after toying with us for a while, it looks like it’s ending just about as you’d expect. At least Booster gets some closure, after Ted’s off-handed death a few years ago (hmm: killing off a beloved-but-minor character to start a big crossover event; where have we seen that pattern recently?).
B.P.R.D.: War on Frogs #1 (#44 in the indicia) — Writer: John Arcudi; Pencils: Herb Trimpe; Inks: Guy Davis
Just a one-shot, although it’s worth noting for those credits: Trimpe inked by Davis? The result is a lot more Davis than Trimpe, although the layouts contribute a refreshing late-Silver-Age clarity to the storytelling, and it’s nice to see HT getting some work.
Phil Mateer
