This Week's Comic Reviews
Sep. 12th, 2005 12:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileA fairly light week for comics this week, so I finished reading a little earlier than usual. Or perhaps the current batch appealed to me more. Either way, this week I read:
Authority: The Magnificent Kevin 1
House of M 6
Ghost Rider 1
Uncanny X-men 464
Daredevil: Father 1/2
Ultimates 7
Ghost Rider 1
Johnny Blaze is in hell. The demons that pursued him on Earth finally caught up with him and dragged him to hell, where he is cured with the Promethean task of trying to escape the massed demons of hell and night after night failing and being rendered limb from limb, bone from bone, before the cycle begins again.
That's the setup here, but plans are afoot to rescue Blaze from his hellish torment. The focus of this issue is to set up Blaze's past history and explain it to the reader. This it does admirably with the use of the heavenly host - Daniel and Malachi, whose purpose on Earth seems to be to cover their own asses after one of their demonic informants goes AWOL.
Hyper-violent and dark, this book has echoes of stuff like Good Omens and Dogma, with humans just pawns in a war between Heaven and Hell, and neither side as black and white as they should be. There are some exceptionally dark moments. There's a little black humour. There's stuff that seems to be ripped out of Spawn, until you realise Spawn ripped it out of Ghost Rider in the first place. Ennis' writing here is much darker than on Kev: a lot closer to his Preacher books with added supernatural and religious iconography.
Perhaps the crowning glory of this book is the art, which is utterly gorgeous. Painted art always impresses me, but the richness of Clayton Crain's art here is a joy to behold. It's incredible and I haven't seen anything so beautiful for a long while, when he's on form, particularly on his shots of Ghost Rider himself. Some of the other characters look a little stiff, but over all it's an experience to read this comic and just ogle at the art.
I hope most of this six issue series is completed already, however. I can't imagine how Crain will keep a regular monthly schedule.
Not having been a fan of Ghost Rider before, this might be enough to convert me.
RATING - *****
Authority: The Magnificent Kevin 1
Garth Ennis's other book this week is a completely different affair. Do not pick this book up expecting untouchable heroes keeping their dignity. Whether it's Kev (the unluckiest ex-special ops soldier in the world) or The Authority themselves, everyone is set up for humiliation and embarrassment. Whether you find this cringeworthy or hysterical is down to your sensibilities.
I'm firmly in the latter camp. This is incredibly crude and incredibly funny stuff. Oral sex, masturbation, custard pies, aliens, suicide, man eating tigers, the IRA, homosexuality, drug abuse and a musical number from Swift - it's all in there somewhere.
And sorry, an alien taking out the Authority by tossing face hugger custard pies at their faces, while shouting "I'M A VAGINA!" is just funny. Not clever, but funny.
That's not to say it's all lowbrow stuff. It's lowbrow humour with brains. The suicide of one of Kev's old comrades is handled excellently, coarse but with heart, sounding truly like professional soldiers mourning a comrade.
There is a little sense of repetition here in Kev's third outing, and none of the loath at first sight banter between Kev and the Midnighter that was the highlight of the previous volumes, but that is doubtless to come.
However, it's still better than the majority of the books out there and a darn sight funnier.
RATING - ****
House of M 6
This issue:
NOTHING HAPPENS.
Well, okay, there's a few minutes of fight at the very end of the issue, and a revelation that's not really that revelatory, but beside that, there's not a lot going for this issue. Nice art, I guess. The dialogue's solid as ever, but so many double page splashes of people just arriving at Magneto's anniversary party is a snoozefest.
A filler issue, nothing more, and after the last couple of solid issues that's a disappointment.
RATING - **
Uncanny X-men 464
Chris Bachelo returns to the pages of Uncanny with this issue and that's probably the most notable thing here. Bachelo's new art style can be hit and miss - gone are the days when his female characters all looked different. Now they're all the same with different hairstyles. Welcome to the new millennium where every male X-man looks like Popeye.
That said, those annoyances are kept to a minimum here and the art on the book was, for me, almost wholly enjoyable. Bachelo's beautiful Psylocke, warped and twisted Black Tom Cassidy and light hearted moments such as the supersonic chase through London's streets where all handled with aplomb. The backgrounds were lush and rich. The characters were, sadly, fairly generic and sometimes the action simply over-cluttered. But over all, I enjoyed the return of Bachelo to an X book and found the annoyances fairly minimal.
The story's fairly slight and there's some leaps of logic, as is often the case with Claremont's stories. But it's all good fun and there's little to be offended by and plenty to enjoy if you don't over-think things and just enjoy it for what it is. The only slight problem is that this issue doesn't really advance the main plot much, but things start to come together in the final page and this is one of the most light hearted and simply fun of the House of M tie ins, unlike the New X-men title, which I've actively disliked.
The glaring difference between Bachelo's art and Alan Davis' on the previous issue may offend some, but for me, I'd rather have someone with their own style and a similar level of talent, than someone trying to ape Davis.
Good fun, but nothing substantial. But who says comics have to be?
RATING - ***1/2
Daredevil: Father 1/2
Joe Quesada finally managed to get issue 2 of this comic out last week. Unfortunately, in the 18 months between issue 1 and this, I'd lost the first issue. No doubt it's filed away somewhere but I couldn't find it for love nor money. So, I picked up issue 1 at the comic shop and read both in one sitting.
And it's an enjoyable read. As the title suggests, there's much about Matt's relationship with his family here, as well as the peripheral characters who seem to have father issues. There's a rather "Summer of Sam"esque storyline with a heatwave and a serial killer, that's one of the plot threads. Another involves a couple that Matt takes a case from, another a new team of vigilantes, there's a plot with a psychologically damaged renaissance man and another involves Matt himself. Despite a number of splash pages, the plot advances quite a bit and Joe Q is able to demonstrate his talent as both writer and artist. The style here differs notably from his previous Daredevil work, particularly on Kevin Smith's run, falling closer to Tim Sale's art on the Marvel colour series like Daredevil Yellow. Sometimes it works. Often, in fact. Sometimes the style is distracting - shots of Daredevil with an immense, Hulk proportion chest and tiny, ballet dancer legs are enough to make Rob Leifeld look good, but on the whole the art works. The script certainly does and it's a solid read - much more solid than Bendis' recent efforts where plot seemed to be simply abandoned.
If you're a Daredevil fan, for whom Frank Miller's Man of Fear or Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil stories are the highlight, then this book could well end up being another addition to the trio of definitive Daredevil stories.
RATING - ****
Ultimates 7
I read the trade last week and managed to pick up issue 7 of the series, bringing me up to date. Hopefully I won’t find the scheduling as frustrating as I did series one.
A blend of elements this issue, but the main focus is split between a mission and then Hawkeye's betrayal by the traitor amongst the Ultimates. My current money is solidly on Captain America being the traitor, however it seems that is the fairly obvious solution and perhaps Millar has a twist up his sleeve. Although perhaps Cap turning out to be villainous IS the twist. Still, we shall see.
As it is, the bloody betrayal leads to some pretty good and shocking moments and some real drama.
Solid stuff and continuing to be a better read than Ultimates 1 ever was.
RATING - ***1/2
Authority: The Magnificent Kevin 1
House of M 6
Ghost Rider 1
Uncanny X-men 464
Daredevil: Father 1/2
Ultimates 7
Ghost Rider 1
Johnny Blaze is in hell. The demons that pursued him on Earth finally caught up with him and dragged him to hell, where he is cured with the Promethean task of trying to escape the massed demons of hell and night after night failing and being rendered limb from limb, bone from bone, before the cycle begins again.
That's the setup here, but plans are afoot to rescue Blaze from his hellish torment. The focus of this issue is to set up Blaze's past history and explain it to the reader. This it does admirably with the use of the heavenly host - Daniel and Malachi, whose purpose on Earth seems to be to cover their own asses after one of their demonic informants goes AWOL.
Hyper-violent and dark, this book has echoes of stuff like Good Omens and Dogma, with humans just pawns in a war between Heaven and Hell, and neither side as black and white as they should be. There are some exceptionally dark moments. There's a little black humour. There's stuff that seems to be ripped out of Spawn, until you realise Spawn ripped it out of Ghost Rider in the first place. Ennis' writing here is much darker than on Kev: a lot closer to his Preacher books with added supernatural and religious iconography.
Perhaps the crowning glory of this book is the art, which is utterly gorgeous. Painted art always impresses me, but the richness of Clayton Crain's art here is a joy to behold. It's incredible and I haven't seen anything so beautiful for a long while, when he's on form, particularly on his shots of Ghost Rider himself. Some of the other characters look a little stiff, but over all it's an experience to read this comic and just ogle at the art.
I hope most of this six issue series is completed already, however. I can't imagine how Crain will keep a regular monthly schedule.
Not having been a fan of Ghost Rider before, this might be enough to convert me.
RATING - *****
Authority: The Magnificent Kevin 1
Garth Ennis's other book this week is a completely different affair. Do not pick this book up expecting untouchable heroes keeping their dignity. Whether it's Kev (the unluckiest ex-special ops soldier in the world) or The Authority themselves, everyone is set up for humiliation and embarrassment. Whether you find this cringeworthy or hysterical is down to your sensibilities.
I'm firmly in the latter camp. This is incredibly crude and incredibly funny stuff. Oral sex, masturbation, custard pies, aliens, suicide, man eating tigers, the IRA, homosexuality, drug abuse and a musical number from Swift - it's all in there somewhere.
And sorry, an alien taking out the Authority by tossing face hugger custard pies at their faces, while shouting "I'M A VAGINA!" is just funny. Not clever, but funny.
That's not to say it's all lowbrow stuff. It's lowbrow humour with brains. The suicide of one of Kev's old comrades is handled excellently, coarse but with heart, sounding truly like professional soldiers mourning a comrade.
There is a little sense of repetition here in Kev's third outing, and none of the loath at first sight banter between Kev and the Midnighter that was the highlight of the previous volumes, but that is doubtless to come.
However, it's still better than the majority of the books out there and a darn sight funnier.
RATING - ****
House of M 6
This issue:
NOTHING HAPPENS.
Well, okay, there's a few minutes of fight at the very end of the issue, and a revelation that's not really that revelatory, but beside that, there's not a lot going for this issue. Nice art, I guess. The dialogue's solid as ever, but so many double page splashes of people just arriving at Magneto's anniversary party is a snoozefest.
A filler issue, nothing more, and after the last couple of solid issues that's a disappointment.
RATING - **
Uncanny X-men 464
Chris Bachelo returns to the pages of Uncanny with this issue and that's probably the most notable thing here. Bachelo's new art style can be hit and miss - gone are the days when his female characters all looked different. Now they're all the same with different hairstyles. Welcome to the new millennium where every male X-man looks like Popeye.
That said, those annoyances are kept to a minimum here and the art on the book was, for me, almost wholly enjoyable. Bachelo's beautiful Psylocke, warped and twisted Black Tom Cassidy and light hearted moments such as the supersonic chase through London's streets where all handled with aplomb. The backgrounds were lush and rich. The characters were, sadly, fairly generic and sometimes the action simply over-cluttered. But over all, I enjoyed the return of Bachelo to an X book and found the annoyances fairly minimal.
The story's fairly slight and there's some leaps of logic, as is often the case with Claremont's stories. But it's all good fun and there's little to be offended by and plenty to enjoy if you don't over-think things and just enjoy it for what it is. The only slight problem is that this issue doesn't really advance the main plot much, but things start to come together in the final page and this is one of the most light hearted and simply fun of the House of M tie ins, unlike the New X-men title, which I've actively disliked.
The glaring difference between Bachelo's art and Alan Davis' on the previous issue may offend some, but for me, I'd rather have someone with their own style and a similar level of talent, than someone trying to ape Davis.
Good fun, but nothing substantial. But who says comics have to be?
RATING - ***1/2
Daredevil: Father 1/2
Joe Quesada finally managed to get issue 2 of this comic out last week. Unfortunately, in the 18 months between issue 1 and this, I'd lost the first issue. No doubt it's filed away somewhere but I couldn't find it for love nor money. So, I picked up issue 1 at the comic shop and read both in one sitting.
And it's an enjoyable read. As the title suggests, there's much about Matt's relationship with his family here, as well as the peripheral characters who seem to have father issues. There's a rather "Summer of Sam"esque storyline with a heatwave and a serial killer, that's one of the plot threads. Another involves a couple that Matt takes a case from, another a new team of vigilantes, there's a plot with a psychologically damaged renaissance man and another involves Matt himself. Despite a number of splash pages, the plot advances quite a bit and Joe Q is able to demonstrate his talent as both writer and artist. The style here differs notably from his previous Daredevil work, particularly on Kevin Smith's run, falling closer to Tim Sale's art on the Marvel colour series like Daredevil Yellow. Sometimes it works. Often, in fact. Sometimes the style is distracting - shots of Daredevil with an immense, Hulk proportion chest and tiny, ballet dancer legs are enough to make Rob Leifeld look good, but on the whole the art works. The script certainly does and it's a solid read - much more solid than Bendis' recent efforts where plot seemed to be simply abandoned.
If you're a Daredevil fan, for whom Frank Miller's Man of Fear or Kevin Smith's Guardian Devil stories are the highlight, then this book could well end up being another addition to the trio of definitive Daredevil stories.
RATING - ****
Ultimates 7
I read the trade last week and managed to pick up issue 7 of the series, bringing me up to date. Hopefully I won’t find the scheduling as frustrating as I did series one.
A blend of elements this issue, but the main focus is split between a mission and then Hawkeye's betrayal by the traitor amongst the Ultimates. My current money is solidly on Captain America being the traitor, however it seems that is the fairly obvious solution and perhaps Millar has a twist up his sleeve. Although perhaps Cap turning out to be villainous IS the twist. Still, we shall see.
As it is, the bloody betrayal leads to some pretty good and shocking moments and some real drama.
Solid stuff and continuing to be a better read than Ultimates 1 ever was.
RATING - ***1/2
