Comic reviews - A week late? So sue me.

[angelophile]

This week I read:

Catwoman 46
Young Avengers 6
Runaways 7
Astonishing X-men 12
New Avengers 9
Wha... Huh?
Ultimates 2 TPB 1 and Ultimates Annual

And didn't read:

Daredevil: Father 2. Because I bought issue 1 18 MONTHS AGO and can't remember what happened in it. So I'm gonna try and find it first.



Catwoman 46
After last issue's cliffhanger where Hush opened up the East End to loads of supervillains, this issue... they all turn up fashionably late. Disappointingly, there's no real threat in this issue. After the suggestion that we'd see hundreds of minor Dc villains turning up to run riot, there's only a few minor hints of their activities and nothing even remotely villainous from the vast majority. The major villain here is Captain Cold. That sys it all really.
A damp squib of an issue that didn't live up to the build up.
However, excellent art and the story IS enjoyable, just not what was expected.
RATING - ***

Young Avengers 6
Winding up the first story arc with a whimper, rather than a bang. The story doesn’t go out on the impressive note you might have expected, there’s no great spectacle here. Iron Lad comes to the same conclusion that everyone else reached three issues ago, which makes the rest feel rather like filler. I’m still unsure what’s happening with The Vision. Is that the real Vision? Is he back good as new? Where did he come from? Can someone explain it to me, please, because I feel like a great chunk of story has been lost.
Overall, though, the book has some nice character moments. I was hoping for a little more subtly and a more drawn out “are they or aren’t they” on the matter of Hulkling and Asgardian’s relationship, but it’s sneaked out with the same lack of drama as the rest of the book. Maybe that’s the right decision, though. Perhaps to drag it on would have been exploiting controversy. The fact that it’s settled in passing, rather than as a big reveal, is maybe treating the subject with the casualness it should be treated with.
Anyway, still an enjoyable read but a rather lacklustre conclusion.
RATING - ***

Runaways 7
Finally, an issue where the Runaways get to be the Runaways. Instead of the focus being on guest stars or the big mystery about Victor’s father, we step back to something closer in style to the original series. And it’s all the better for it. Much as I enjoyed the guest slots, I was a little disappointed by how little focus the regular characters got.
The same can’t be said of this issue, which manages to focus in on each of the characters and give them all a chance to shine. Chase and Gert get to give us a reminder why they’re the cutest couple in comics, Victor and Molly have a superlative scene which sums up why I adore Molly, and Nico and Karolina have the moment that we’ve all been waiting for.
Regular fill in artist Takeshi Miyazawa produces some delightful work this issue, and because of the previous couple of issues in Vol 1. I don’t find it jars. In fact, Molly looks better here than under the regular freakin’ artist.
All in all, less emphasis on the funnies and more on the characters made this a very strong issue.
RATING - ****

Astonishing X-men 12
Whedon, where did it all go wrong?
After a solid first few issues and then the superlative moment with Kitty and Piotr, this book has gone rapidly downhill. The first plot didn’t impress me. The second plot has left me entirely cold, and its resolution here is entirely hurried and makes no logical sense whatsoever. There’s a couple of strong moments with Kitty saving the day, and a couple of lines that are funny, but they end up being funny purely because they’re so out of character.
The end reveal simply has me rolling my eyes and snorting, because it’s clearly going to **** up one of my favourite characters, one way or another. On top of a completely unexpected and undeserved dumping on Charles Xavier, I have to look at Whedon and wonder what the hell he was thinking.
The saving grace is the snappiness of the dialogue. Whedon IS a good dialogue writer. Apparently, though, he’s a lousy plotter. The other saving grace is John Cassaday, whose art is superlative as ever. So much so that I need to give this comic separate ratings.
RATING – Script - ** Art - ****

New Avengers 9
Yay! Sentry. But first, a flashback.
At a meeting of the great minds of the Marvel universe (okay, and Namor), it’s discovered that everyone’s memories are being tampered with in some way, whenever they think about The Sentry. Neatly tying into the original Sentry series, which I found incredibly clever, the forth wall was brought tumbling down in a previous issue. Strangely, this issue works on building it back up again.
Confronted by a mixed bag of heroes, including the X-men, Avengers, Inhumans and others, Bob Reynolds’ memory starts to return. And as soon as the Sentry returns, so does his nemesis – The Void. With the heroes under attack from the ever evolving enemy, Reed Richards and Emma Frost isolate Bob and try and work out the mystery surrounding the Sentry. Cue some delightful moments as Emma infiltrates Bob’s psyche and stumbles across the truth. And cue a guest appearance from a most unexpected villain.
This issue was simply wonderful. For any Sentry fans, at least, although there may have been a moment for everyone else when they wondered what the hell was going on.
After a disappointing first arc, this book finally gets going with the Sentry’s story. With the Avengers themselves pushed onto the back burner this issue, there may be complaints, but who cares? Delightful art, guest artists for some of the flashback scenes, some really strong narrative moments – this was a GREAT comic,
RATING - ****

Wha... Huh?
This book is random.
Plus points – The great Jim Mahfood on art.
Plus points – some really funny jokes.
Plus points – some incredibly random humor.
Minus points – some incredibly unfunny humor.
Okay, it’s a mixed bag this one. On one hand you have incredibly funny stuff like Brian K. Vaughan’s “What if… The Black Panther was White?” or “What if President Andrew Jackson had Taken the Thing’s Place in the Fantastic Four” and the vast majority of Mahfood’s art. Then you have utter crap like Brian Bendis’ “What if the Identity Crisis Happened in the Marvel Universe”, which isn’t even remotely amusing, a couple of Mahfood drawings aside. There’s genus at work here. There’s also huge egos and self obsessed self-hype. Mahfood is the constant talent and makes everything funnier than it should be. His sketch of Galactus on the toilet is mind boggling. But even so, it’s hard to forgive Bendis for some of the self-love on display. Or Ed Brubaker for not being even remotely funny.
RATING - ** (***** for about one fifth of the comic).

Ultimates 2 TPB 1 and Ultimates Annual
A real step up from the original run, which sucked my enthusiasm with its immense delays, hyperbole stories and way too many “Millarisms”. Even here he can’t help but sneak in a few disturbing undertones, like Wanda and Pietro’s semi-incestuous relationship and Jarvis being a pervert of immeasurable proportions, but thankfully the majority have been cut back. It’s hard to accept Banner or Betty Ross as sympathetic characters after their distasteful portrayal in the original book, but thanks to some slick dialogue, it’s just about managed. Reading this book on its own it would actually come across as a pretty good superhero comic. But the shadow of the distasteful moments of the original book kinda hang over me when I read it. Still…
Two stories in the trade – dealing with the trial of Banner and the rebellion of Thor, as well as managing to sneak in a story for Hank Pym. After a million decompressed books, one that manages to cram so much into six issues has to be a good thing.
The underlying undertone of the book is as bleak as ever, but I found this volume a much more enjoyable read and find myself pretty involved with the characters after losing interest in them during the incredibly delayed volume one. The annual nicely adds to the book and I think I may even start picking this up regularly. If it can manage to be regular.
RATING - ****