Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olson #1 (of 1) — Writer: James Robinson; Pencillers: Jesus Merino, Leno Carvalho and Steve Scott; Inkers: Jesus Merino, Nelson Pereira and Kevin Stokes
I suppose DC has to publish one of these every so often, to maintain rights to the title or something. Robinson can deliver character and dialogue, and he’s OK with Jimmy as an intrepid reporter, but he’s saddled with two major problems: first, he pulls the old show-how-tough-the-villain-is-by-killing-off-minor-characters bit, and uses it to eliminate a number of Jack Kirby creations. Second, after 54 pages of story (and a $5 cover price) he ends the story in the middle, with a blurb urging the reader to wait for the Superman: New Krypton Special, presumably another $5 comic, to find out if the bad guy wins or not. Classic Jimmy Olson was repetitive and often stupid, but it had a weird what-the-hell manic energy and humor, and there’s very little of that here. Pass.
Batman and the Outsiders #12 — Writer: Frank Tieri; Penciller: Ryan Benjamin; Inker: Saleem Crawford
You know, a lot of guys in comics have reputations for being bad writers. I thought Chuck Austen’s War Machine was kind of fun (and his early self-drawn porn comic Stripped had its moments), and I like a lot of Judd Winnick (although less of it lately), and I find much of Chuck Dixon professional and competent, if forgettable, but I have never, ever, read a Frank Tieri story that I liked, and this is no exception (I hadn’t even read the cover credits; I got halfway through the book, thought “Who wrote this crap?”, and then turned to the credits and went “Ahhh… of course”). It’s not even bad enough to be amusing; just tiptoe gingerly past its spot on the stands and pick up something else.
X-Men: Worlds Apart #1 (of 4) — Writer: Christopher Yost; Pencils: Diogenes Neves; Inks: Ed Tadeo
Storm in Wakanda, taking 20 of the book’s 22 pages to figure out that the mystery villain is… maybe the most boring bad guy of the X-Men family, a character whose various reappearances were one of the signals that Chris Claremont had plateaued. I do not want to read the last three issues of this mini-series.
Monster-Size Hulk #1 — Writers/Artists: Jeff Parker/Gabriel Hardman, Steve Niles/Lucio Parrillo, Paul Tobin/Dave Williams, Peter David/Gabriel Hardman
For Hallowe’en: stories involving The Hulk with Frankenstein, Werewolf by Night, and (in a David text-with-Harman-illustration short story), with Dracula. At $4, it’s a buck less than the Jimmy Olson, and its stories all have actual conclusions (some vaguer than others), but they’re slight things, almost weightless, their plots hammered into place solely to set up the meetings with the various creatures; that makes them easy to read and forget.
Superman/Batman: Vampires and Werewolves #1 (of 6) — Writer: Kevin VanHook; Art: Tom Mandrake
Yet another Hallowe’en/monster tie-in. The Mandrake art here was welcome, and made me want to leaf through old Spectre comics, but six issues seems much too long; this would have been much better off as a one-shot in that $5, 54-page Jimmy Olson format, instead of asking readers to commit to half a year and $18 for a presumably-predictable plot.
Star Trek: Romulans: The Hollow Crown #2 (of 2) — Writer/Artist: John Byrne
This is a very carefully-plotted story — maybe too carefully, as its obsessively-precise connection with events from the original Star Trek threatens to distract from the actual narrative. It’s straight-ahead Byrne — which, yes, is a compliment — marred only by its irritatingly-incomplete conclusion (the reader has to know a lot of Trek history to understand just who these characters are, and why what’s happened to them is significant).
Justice Society of America #19 — Writer: Geoff Johns; Penciller: Dale Eaglesham; Inker: Nathan Massengill
OK… way too many characters, doing way too many things, and at this point it’s been going on way too long. Wake me in six months or so, when it’s all finally over.
Phil Mateer
