Final Crisis: Requiem — Writer: Peter J. Tomasi; Pencils: Doug Mahnke; Inks: Christian Alamy and Rodney Ramos
“Requiem” is apparently Latin for “bait and switch,” since DC has packaged this Martian Manhunter tribute exactly like the Final Crisis main books (with “Final Crisis” in huge letters and “Requiem” in tiny, easy-to-miss ones), so that many fans will pick it up thinking they’re buying the next installment of Morrison and Jones, only to end up with Tomasi and Mahnke instead. That’s unfair to those creators, who’ve done the best they can with this thankless assignment involving a character that (a) no one cares about, and (b) will doubtless be back in a few years anyway.
Detective #846 — Writer: Paul Dini; Penciller: Dustin Nguyen; Inker: Derek Fridolfs
There was a point, just a year or two ago, where I would have automatically bought anything Dini did, especially with the Dark Knight, but Countdown scrubbed most of the bloom off that rose, and now we’re starting a five-part pseudo-tie-in to Batman: RIP involving Hush, a character so annoying (in his illogical origin, in his stupid “costume,” in his profound lack of any abilities that should let him compete with the hero) that his presence actively repels me from this title.
Wolfskin Annual #1 — Story: Warren Ellis; Script: Mike Wolfer; Pencils: Gianluca Pagliarani;
Inks: Chris Dreier
This barbarian character (from a dystopian future? I can’t remember if that was established in the earlier series, and I’m much too lazy to go back to look) wasn’t one of Ellis’s big triumphs — mostly an excuse to do “realistic” blood-and-guts berserker swordplay — and here he’s only contributed the plot. Without his trademark spark (or snark) in the actual words, we’ve got a mildly interesting but predictable Conan episode, and there’s no particular reason to buy that.
Young Liars #5 — Writer/Artist: David Lapham
Huh — after last issue, which was a lot of fun, this one is… well, disastrous; it’s like Lapham got the sales figures for the first few installments, was disappointed, and decided to start wrapping things up early so he could move on to something else. It feels rushed and repetitive, very dark (the main narrator gets permanently mutilated) and careless to boot (the bad guy talks in a stereotypical foreign accent, saying “vide” for “wide,” but then he pronounces “whore” “vore.” Um, no, David, that’s an “h” sound, not a “w” one…). Maybe this is where this series was always going, and maybe it’s all part of a clever plan, but right now it feels like a potentially good book’s gone completely off the rails.
Femme Noir: The Dark City Diaries #1 (of 4) — Writer: Christopher Mills; Pencils: Joe Staton; Inks: Horacio Ottolini
OK: you’ve got your mysterious blonde in a trenchcoat and fedora, smoking a cigarette (in a holder) while she dispenses justice with her twin revolvers. Is she the mob boss’s daughter, the sexy nightclub singer, or the intrepid reporter? It’s nice to see Staton still working, and his style’s a good match for a ’30s hardboiled detective comic, but the story’s just a collection of the usual cliches; it’s like they started with the iconic image of the heroine, and then tried to work backward to fill it in, and ended up with just cardboard and cheap perfume.
Justice Society of America #17 — Writer: Geoff Johns; Penciller: Fernando Pasarin; Inkers: Prentis Rollins and John Stanisci
It’s kind of fun watching the huge eerily-cheerful ultra-powerful alien stomp around and… help people? (kind of like if Galactus came to town, and turned out to be a Mormon missionary instead of a planet-eater), but it all starts to turn south by the end, and it’s clear all of his “gifts” are going to get taken back, as this devolves into a standard superheroes-fight-God (or Gog, or whatever) serial. Note to Alex Ross fans: his name is displayed prominently on the cover, but inside he’s just listed as a co-plotter, so none of the actual words or pictures inside the comic came from him.
Phil Mateer
