Comic Reviews

[angelophile]

Comic review time, since I haven't done it for ages. Only four books this week and it helps pass the time.

This week I read:
New X-men 29
A Man Called Kev 2
Civil War: Frontline 5
Transformers: Stormbringer 2




New X-men 29

There's been a drastic turn around in this book over the last couple of months. The slaughter upon slaughter of characters (background and lead) from the book's previous incarnation had left me frustrated, mostly because the writing was strong but the relentless killings just happened so often they lost all meaning.

Happy, although there was a confirmed death in the last issue, there was plenty of strong character moments with the surviving kids, with the least developed character – Santo – being given some genuinely funny lines and probably the best moment Emma Frost has had in years. Suddenly she was the Emma I knew and loved from Generation X, without Whedon's irritating new direction of turning her into a psycho hose beast.

I'm happy to report this issue is even better. As the X-men depart for Storm's wedding, Scott's less than sympathetic to the students' theory that Nomrod has been behind the recent killings. It's a classic set up as the kids are left to rebel against authority and set out to help Forge, who is being held captive by Nimrod, on their own. All very classic New Mutants. And in that regard, massive extra bonus points for packing the issue with in-jokes and nods to past storylines. Doug Ramsey gets namechecked in a nice piece of graveyard humor as does the uselessness of the new Sentinels, Nimrod's convoluted history, the slaughter of the previous issues and the regularity of the destruction of the mansion these days are all treated to knowing parody.

All in all a very very solid issue with all the characters getting their moment in the sun, Santo becoming a favourite surprisingly, and some decent action. Excellent and I'm glad I didn't drop this book if they can continue in the same vein.

RATING - ****

A Man Called Kev 2

The adventures of Britain's..er… finest, Kev Hawkins, continue. Garth Ennis has managed to create and develop a character I genuinely like and care about, no mean feat considering that during the course a one shot and two four issue limited series, Kev has shared screentime with The Authority and basically provided an excuse for extreme profanity, violence, pitch black humor and a load of knob jokes.

Somewhere in all that Ennis also managed to forge the character of a soldier who's done a lot of terrible things in his life, but is coming to terms with his place in the world and developing some kind of moral ground. Impressive, considering the frequency of the aforementioned knob jokes.

This book sees Kev out on his own at least, out from under the shadow of The Authority and Ennis displaying plenty of the squaddie humor that's infiltrated books like Preacher and Punisher. Although it's even more obvious parody, there's still room this issue for rumination about sexuality, friendship and morality between encounters with mindblowing weed and a man eating tiger. Again.

After the last rather hit and miss mini, Kev seems to be back on top form.

RATING - ****

Civil War: Frontline 5

After two surprisingly strong first issues, this title trailed off a bit, but this issue shows more solid storytelling, but less action. The highlight is the second story focusing on Speedball, the sole survivor of the New Warriors, who could either be seen as avoiding taking responsibility for his actions or standing up for principles, depending on your take on the Superhero Registration Act. In fact, this story has shown more subtlety in balancing both sides of the argument than the majority of Civil War tie ins, although let down a little by Speedball's treatment in prison. Here we see finally whats been happening to all the heroes and villains captured by SHIELD, although the ending promises more revelations.

In another story, Norman Osborn rears his ugly head again, leaving Ben Urich to convince JJ Jameson that the Green Goblin is once again on the loose. It doesn't really develop anything, but sets it up nicely with Daily Bugle staff JJ, Robbie and Ben all getting a chance to shine. The second storyline of Sally Floyd's encounter with one of the shadowy superhero underground is less compelling but still well handled. That leaves another strip starring Wonderman that left me mostly cold as I have no feelings or knowledge of the character and another short story comparing Marvel's Civil War to historical events which, as usual, fell completely flat.

Hit and miss then, but mostly solid.

RATING - ***

Transformers: Stormbringer 2

Simon Furman's new take on the Transformers mythos hasn't really gripped me with the first arc – Infiltration – being achingly slow. Apparently to meet criticism, they moved this story car forwards – stripping out the human element, plunging the story into deep space and dealing with a cataclysmic event years before that left Cybertron a ruined husk. The story flips between flashback to those events and "present day", focusing on obscure fan favourite characters rather than the well known cast. Optimus Prime and Megatron appear, but there's been a big focus on guys like Jetfire, Springer and the Wreckers, Bludgeon, the Technobots and big bad, Thunderwing.

The question is, is it working? Well, fans seems to be lapping it up, but I imaging it's more impenetrable to anyone who's not familiar with those characters. There's a lot of fanwank and too much where you have to understand the mythos and relationships between characters to understand what's going on. However, the pacing is far superior to what's gone before and it felt like a 22 page comic, not a two issue story stretched over six like Infiltration.

The art is solid but there seems to have been a deliberate effort where the story is dark and dingy to make the colouring the same. I find it rather sludgy instead of crisp and that spoils it rather.

In the end this ends up being average instead of reminiscent of Furman's wonder years.

RATING - ***