Deadpool #1 — Writer: Daniel Way; Pencils: Paco Medina; Inks: Juan Vlasco
Secret Invasion tie-in (although, oddly, it’s not given the normal crossover logo on the cover), as Wade plays Bugs Bunny and the Skrulls are just so many green, super-powered Elmer Fudds. Way’s solid on the character, as he demonstrated during his recent Wolverine: Origins guest-shot, so Deadpool fanatics should be pleased; somehow, I’ve never been able to warm up to Deadpool (his breaking of the fourth wall, and invulnerability, make him seem like a Marvelized, more-deadly-but-less-amusing version of Ambush Bug), so, while this was amusing, it wasn’t quite amusing enough to buy.
Patsy Walker: Hellcat #3 (of 5) — Writer: Kathryn Immonen; Art: David Lafuente
This has gotten better with each issue — the art’s been attractive from the beginning, and the story’s mythological, dream-time roots are used surprisingly well. Immonen’s got a solid handle on the character, too — the plot-summary page at the beginning says of her that “wit and charm are your most powerful weapons (along with a mean right hook),” and her self-confidence and style are a lot more appealing than angst or grim-and-grittiness would have been — and I hope that Marvel’s going to market the trade version of this to all the young female readers who’ve been buying all that manga for the last few years.
The Stand: Captain Trips #1 (of 5) — “Creative Director”: Stephen King; Scripts: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa; Art: Mike Perkins
Not badly done, but taken by itself this first issue has the problem that nothing really happens — a few people start getting sick and dying, and we’re given glimpses of our future cast, but that’s about it (the one mild jolt is a full-page splash of two dead-by-the-virus people in a car, but in a comics world where the mainstream Marvel characters can turn into brain-eating zombies, that ain’t much). Since I’ve read the book (albeit a long time ago), but am not so much of a King fanatic that I’m compelled to buy everything with his name on it, there just doesn’t seem to be any good reason to follow this adaptation.
Star Trek: Romulans: The Hollow Crown #1 (of 5?) — Writer/Artist: John Byrne
This is much like Byrne’s recent Assignment: Earth mini-series, in that we get a story that works around classic Star Trek continuity (in this case, The Tholian Web), but is coy about ever actually showing the franchise characters. Its advantage over the earlier story is its setting: the heart of the Romulan Empire is considerably more interesting than the ’60s-TV version of Earth that Gary Seven and his friends inhabited. As with Deadpool and King, I’m not such a big Trek fan that I need this comic, but if the phrases “Tholian Web,” “Gary Seven” and “Romulan” just made your heart beat faster, here you go.
Wolverine: Saudade #1 (of 1) — Writer: Jean-David Morvan; Translation: Alexandra Hain-Cole; Adaptation: Larry Hama; Artist: Philippe Bouchet
Talk about multinational: we have a Wolvie story set in Brazil, written and drawn by a French creative team (and, apparently, originally published in Europe), now translated into English and adapted for the American X-market. The story’s kind of standard for one of these (Wolvie encounters various street youths, faith healers and other assorted mutants and bad guys), and the art’s in the kind of indie-looking, Heavy-Metal-ish style you might expect from a Paul Pope or a Vasilis Lolos. Interesting enough to check out, although whether it’s worth the $5 price tag depends on how quirky you’re willing to take the art in your otherwise-average Logan stories.
Secret Invasion: Runaways/Young Avengers #3 (of 3) — Writer: Chris Yost; Art: Takeshi Miyazawa
Another book with a multinational flavor: Miyazawa brings the manga to a bunch of kid characters battling the Skrull invasion. There’s an appealing light touch to the whole thing, despite the threats of war and death: fans of the various Power Pack series might find it worthwhile.
King-Size Cable #1 — Writer: Duane Swierczynski; Pencils: Ken Lashley; Inks: Paul Neary
More of the same damn boring Bishop-stalks-Cable-through-the-timestream stuff we’ve been getting in the regular title, with no resolution or point. If you’ve got $5 to blow, get the French Wolverine: Saudade book instead; at least that has an actual beginning and conclusion, and the art’s more fun to look at.
Dead, She Said #3 (of 3) — Writer: Steve Niles; Art: Bernie Wrightson
Reminiscent of Niles’s Cal McDonald stories, if Cal was an able-to-think zombie detective instead of a live one, and if it were drawn by Wrightson instead of Kelly Jones (honestly, I find Jones’s horror art more interesting than Wrightson’s nowadays: it’s jazzier, and less calcified). Kind of standard for an origin, even one where the main character gets pumped full of embalming fluid and fights a mad scientist with giant ants for servants.
Phil Mateer
