Wolverine: Killing Made Simple #1 (of 1) — (First story): Writer: Christopher Yost; Penciler: Koi Turnbull; Inker: Sal Regla (Second story): Writer: Todd Dezago; Pencils: Steve Kurth; Inks: Serge LaPointe
One of those inexplicable, occasional one-shots Marvel does with this character; here, it seems to be a couple of inventory stories they had lying around, the first involving Trance (formerly of the New X-Men) and Nanny, certainly one of the most annoying X-Family villains in the repertoire. The second story is a Wolvy-against-an-alien-virus deal, involving an Antarctic research station. None of it’s horrible, but it’s all mediocre and predictable enough that readers who aren’t Wolverine completists should spend their $4 elsewhere.
Hawkman Special — Writer/Penciller: Jim Starlin; Artist: Al Milgrom
The good news is it’s Starlin; the bad news is it’s yet another fix-Hawkman’s-continuity story, this one involving a standard Starlin cosmic deity type who informs him that everything he’s been told about his origins is wrong, and then attempts to set up a less-cluttered new one where he’s one of a group called, God help us, “The Aberrant Six” (no, we don’t find out who the other five are, or what makes them “aberrant”; that might involve action, and this book is too enamored with characters talking to want any of that). It doesn’t help that he’s also given a glimpse of his grim future, involving “chaos… pain… death,” that’s too reminiscent of Starlin’s ’70s Warlock stories. Verdict? This reboot doesn’t show much more potential than any of the dozan or so others that Hawkman’s been given over the last few decades.
Storming Paradise #2 — Writer: Chuck Dixon; Pencils: Butch Guice; Inks: Eduardo Barreto
The first issue of this alternate-future military mini-series, wherein the US didn’t develop the atomic bomb during WW II, and so now is forced to invade and conquer Japan the old-fashioned way, was at least mildly interesting (at least the part where Oppenheimer, et. al., got themselves all blown up real good), but already we’ve devolved into a standard Saving Private Ryan-style D-Day invasion, only this one involving the Pacific theater. There’s the standard blood and guts, the standard American Japanese soldier facing the standard redneck-soldier prejudice, the standard Japanese kamikaze pilots, etc., etc. Except for readers who’ve been pining for old-fashioned war stories, there’s just not much to see here, despite all the flying bullets and piled-up corpses.
Patsy Walker: Hellcat #2 (of 5) — Writer: Kathryn Immonen; Artist: David Lafuente
Like the first issue, this has some gorgeous, manga-y art (oddly, it makes Patsy look better without the mask and costume than with it), and it should get some points for its quirky plot and dialogue, involving Eskimo shaman-women and a mystic quest. However, something just doesn’t work here; maybe it’s the nudge-nudge wink-wink tone, which makes it feel like nothing’s really at stake, or maybe it’s the way the mysticism lets events just kind of happen, without having to make much sense. It’s definitely worth a look, though, to see if your mileage on it vries from mine.
Iron Man: Viva Las Vegas #2 (of 4) — Writer: Jon Favreau; Art: Adi Granov
Here, too, there’s some nice art, but the story makes little sense (three words: Fin Fang Foom), and if you’re going to use Elsa Bloodstone as a Laura Croft-type character, then she needs more to do than dump some plot info and then get hustled back to the hotel. In fairness, maybe that lack of respect for her abilities is a plot point, not a flaw, and it’ll get covered in the last two issues of this series, but the general ramshackle nature of the plot doesn’t make me particularly optimistic.
Venom: Dark Origin #1 (of 5) — Writer: Zeb Wells; Penciler: Angel Medina; Inker: Scott Hanna
The trouble with this as a first issue is that there’s no Venom — we just get lots of L’il Eddie Brock, teen sociopath (Wells makes him an echo of the seemingly-normal-but-actually-creepy Brock from Ultimate Spider-Man), and, frankly, so what? As the first chapter of a trade, maybe OK (depending on what happens next), but as it’s own self-contained comic, meant to attract readers for more, it falls flat.
Hulk #5 — Writer: Jeph Loeb; Penciler: Ed McGuinness; Inker: Mark Farmer
Still stupid, although at least the way they keep returning to the punching-the-Watcher thing indicates that they know it’s stupid. Loeb can deliver those weird fanboy moments OK (watching the normally-stoic Watcher get a fist to the jaw was, admittedly, oddly satisfying, and this issue’s Thor beatdown has the same tone), but none of it makes a lick of sense, and by now the who’s-the-Red-Hulk question just doesn’t seem to matter (given a stray comment or two about military strategy this issue, my money’s now with the Thunderbolt Ross crowd, but given Loeb’s scripts’ only-nodding acquaintance with logic, it’ll probably end up being Betty Brant or something…).
Phil Mateer
