On comic reviews again!
Aug. 7th, 2009 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angelophileNot much reaction to my comics reviews, I see. I suspect that producing them at least a week after the issues have come out is likely to suck the appeal out of that feature, yes? I don't usually get to the comic store until the weekend after comics have come out... another few days to read them...
I think I might stick to reviewing the collected volumes I pick up or complete story arcs, over individual issues. What do people think? Is there more appeal in that?
Time for a poll!
[Poll #1440932]
Under the cut: Reviews for UNCANNY X-MEN: FIRST CLASS GIANT SIZED SPECIAL and #1, TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHTS: CLIFFJUMPER AND METROPLEX and RUNAWAYS #12.
UNCANNY X-MEN: FIRST CLASS GIANT SIZED SPECIAL and #1
I read the Giant Sized Special, which launches the First Class series into a new direction, a few weeks back, but I'm lumping it in with my review of the first issue of the ongoing. Going back in time to the beginning of Claremont's run on Uncanny X-men, the book focuses on the then new team of Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Banshee and Cyclops back in more innocent days.
The Giant Sized Special was essentially a collection of short stories giving each of these characters a moment in the spotlight, collected by a linking story. The Banshee story was particularly welcome, after years of neglect and eventual pointless death for the character. It was an attractive story, presented as an epic ballad as Banshee encountered all sorts of mythical creatures. It was probably my personal favourite in the book as it delivered something different, artwise and through poetry. The rest of the issue was more run of the mill, although there was comedy to be had in Wolverine's creative retelling of his origins. That absurdist story and Banshee's lyrical tale rather stood out against the light comedy of the linking story, which deliberately played up the clichéd characteristics of the time, before these characters developed, and the rather bland stories about Storm, Colossus and Storm, which didn't really add anything new.
And that's rather a problem with this type of "untold tales" title - you know how he stories play out, so you can't retrospectively make big developments. Every story has to end with the characters in the same place as they started, no real developments can take place.
All in all, a harmless distraction, but not really adding anything fresh into the mix. But the Banshee story was worth the price of admission.
RATING - 6/10 ★
The first issue of the ongoing is rather less successful. Although there's some fun moments (who can't enjoy Wolverine getting punched into orbit?) the grasp on the characters at the time doesn't seem so complete (that moment's gunny, but Wolverine wasn't so indestructible at the time, so the characters being so blasé about his fate is funny, but doesn't really ring true. Likewise, god is Kurt emo, and I don't recall him being such a little bitch at this point in time). That's a problem I've found with the First Class stuff. While they're fun stories, I find it hard to buy stuff like Jean and the Scarlett Witch of that period being BFFs.
Viewed as a new continuity, it's not so bad, I guess, but it somewhat saps my enjoyment when the book's trying to be two things - both in continuity and something new. I don't mind so much when the result's something fun (who couldn't love the Colleen Coover stories), but here Kurt's put in the spotlight and, frankly, instead of a fun-loving elf we get lumbered with whiney, appearance obsessed Kurt in a story with the Inhumans and it's not a particularly attractive prospect. There's half a story here, presumably, in which Kurt's obsessing about fitting in and after a short story in the Giant Sized Special in which Kurt was doing the exact same thing, it's repetitious and Kurt's more irritating than charming. Overtly melodramatic and angsty, it's missing all the fun which made a lot of the First Class stuff appealing and has gone a long way to putting me off the title. Couldn't we have got Kurt fighting pirates or something?
Roger Cruz's art is vibrant, but sometimes off-putting as faces seem distorted or change from panel to panel. Not bad but not special enough to stand out, although he clearly has fun drawing the outlandish world of the Inhumans.
But at the end of the day, not really nostalgic enough and simply not fun enough either.
RATING - 4/10 ★
TRANSFORMER SPOTLIGHT: CLIFFJUMPER
The Transformers Spotlight series tends to be a mixed bag. Sometimes they've been solid vignettes of characters, some little known, whilst other times they've a terrific waste of time.
Spotlight Cliffjumper leans towards the former rather than the latter, but perhaps doesn't quite justify the rather high cover charge. Unlike a lot of the other Spotlights, I does make good on its promise and focuses purely on Cliffjumper as he crash lands on an alien planet and makes contact with an utterly adorablely innocent alien girl and her baby brother who have no conception of war and violence. She's just so damn cute and the rest of the story so heavily signposted, you can almost hear the fridge door slamming shut the moment her hopelessly optimistic smile appears on the page.
Even so, it's hard not to get drawn into the unfolding tragedy even when it's pretty obvious what's coming and Cliffjumper's a likable protagonist. The only issue is that he's a little bland - he could be just about any Autobot and we don't really get to see any of the eagerness that defined his character in the cartoon, substituted instead for a generic badassery which is talked about and then demonstrated off panel, but there's never really any reasoning given why this little, seemingly innocuous Autobot is so feared and deadly.
As it is there's not really enough here to seem fresh and new (lost solider ends up with a pacifist, wide-eyed innocent young girl is pretty much a trope and has been done better before) and it's pretty obvious how it's going to end, but the art's colourful and attractive, the alien elf girl almost sickeningly cute (and probably fodder for smutfit, truth be told). It's mostly the desire to make Cliffjumper already badass rather than him finding it within himself to fight against overwhelming odds which takes away from the story, but even taking that into account, it's enjoyable enough. Not a must-have but there's certainly worse out there.
RATING - 6/10 ★
TRANSFORMER SPOTLIGHT: METROPLEX
At the other end of the spectrum is this Spotlight, which is pretty much entirely worthless. There's a vague mystery, a few nice big splashes of the biggest Transformer out there and, really, that's it. There's no insight into Metroplex as a character at all, who just turns up, transforms, steps on someone and then buggers off, and the issue's other characters - Sixshot and the Throttlebots, are generic even by Transformers standards. If you come away from the book having the slightest interest in any of these characters, their motivations or the point of the story at all, you're a better man than I, Bungdit Din.
The one highlight is the art by the ever reliable Guido Guidi, which earns this issue a couple of points, but even taking that into account, this is one of the few comics where I feel positively ripped off. In terms of story and characterisation, it's 22 pages of nothing.
RATING: 3/10 ★
RUNAWAYS #12
Finally we come to Runaways #12, the second issue in Kathryn Immonen's run. Two issues in, it's clear that Immonen has a solid grasp of the character's voices, moreso than Whedon or Moore, and the characters feel more like themselves than they have done since BKV left the book. I do have a few issues, however. Notably that while the characters sound like themselves and teenagers reacting to a crisis situation, they also sound… well, frankly, whiny. It's good characterization, but not particularly attractive characterization and I have to say, I joined Chase in wanting to give the screaming and hysterical Klara a ding round the ear.
On the other hand, Immonen's restored the sense of danger that's been missing lately as well as providing another reason why the Runaways might want to go underground. The team have been a little too cozy since BKV left the book and some inner conflict certainly stirs things up a bit. However, as a stand alone issue there's little more than backbiting and no character steps up to take control, leaving the Runaways moping in a crisis zone. There's little reason for that either - they've just been attacked and yet the group just spend the whole issue sat around arguing instead of attempting to defend themselves or make gone on their name and get the hell out of there.
The problem here is that it's inferred that the Runaways are trapped, but they do little to get out of their situation and the art doesn't really convey any immediate sense of danger or claustrophobia. Given their normal fight-or-flee approach, it's unclear why this time the group sit around waiting for danger to come to them. Which, inevitably, it appears to do.
That aside, the art's pleasant and closer to Adrian Alphona's take on the kids than anything we've seen in a while, the characters natural, if frustrating - the focus on the flaws of their personalities and how they work as a unit rather than their strengths is natural, but still makes me want to bang their heads together - and a step in the right direction to recapturing the magic from the original BKV run. The big revelations this issue seem a little forced, even if one of them is tied to a long established plot point, but there's a freshness to the book that's been missing for a while.
Whether this is enough to rebuild a readership knocked by an oft delayed and weak run from Whedon and an indifferent one from Terry Moore, I'm not sure, but I'm interested to see where Immonen takes the kids. As long as they don't just sit around and mope for too many more issues and get proactive soon.
RATING - 7/10 ★
I think I might stick to reviewing the collected volumes I pick up or complete story arcs, over individual issues. What do people think? Is there more appeal in that?
Time for a poll!
[Poll #1440932]
Under the cut: Reviews for UNCANNY X-MEN: FIRST CLASS GIANT SIZED SPECIAL and #1, TRANSFORMERS SPOTLIGHTS: CLIFFJUMPER AND METROPLEX and RUNAWAYS #12.
UNCANNY X-MEN: FIRST CLASS GIANT SIZED SPECIAL and #1
I read the Giant Sized Special, which launches the First Class series into a new direction, a few weeks back, but I'm lumping it in with my review of the first issue of the ongoing. Going back in time to the beginning of Claremont's run on Uncanny X-men, the book focuses on the then new team of Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Storm, Banshee and Cyclops back in more innocent days.
The Giant Sized Special was essentially a collection of short stories giving each of these characters a moment in the spotlight, collected by a linking story. The Banshee story was particularly welcome, after years of neglect and eventual pointless death for the character. It was an attractive story, presented as an epic ballad as Banshee encountered all sorts of mythical creatures. It was probably my personal favourite in the book as it delivered something different, artwise and through poetry. The rest of the issue was more run of the mill, although there was comedy to be had in Wolverine's creative retelling of his origins. That absurdist story and Banshee's lyrical tale rather stood out against the light comedy of the linking story, which deliberately played up the clichéd characteristics of the time, before these characters developed, and the rather bland stories about Storm, Colossus and Storm, which didn't really add anything new.
And that's rather a problem with this type of "untold tales" title - you know how he stories play out, so you can't retrospectively make big developments. Every story has to end with the characters in the same place as they started, no real developments can take place.
All in all, a harmless distraction, but not really adding anything fresh into the mix. But the Banshee story was worth the price of admission.
RATING - 6/10 ★
The first issue of the ongoing is rather less successful. Although there's some fun moments (who can't enjoy Wolverine getting punched into orbit?) the grasp on the characters at the time doesn't seem so complete (that moment's gunny, but Wolverine wasn't so indestructible at the time, so the characters being so blasé about his fate is funny, but doesn't really ring true. Likewise, god is Kurt emo, and I don't recall him being such a little bitch at this point in time). That's a problem I've found with the First Class stuff. While they're fun stories, I find it hard to buy stuff like Jean and the Scarlett Witch of that period being BFFs.
Viewed as a new continuity, it's not so bad, I guess, but it somewhat saps my enjoyment when the book's trying to be two things - both in continuity and something new. I don't mind so much when the result's something fun (who couldn't love the Colleen Coover stories), but here Kurt's put in the spotlight and, frankly, instead of a fun-loving elf we get lumbered with whiney, appearance obsessed Kurt in a story with the Inhumans and it's not a particularly attractive prospect. There's half a story here, presumably, in which Kurt's obsessing about fitting in and after a short story in the Giant Sized Special in which Kurt was doing the exact same thing, it's repetitious and Kurt's more irritating than charming. Overtly melodramatic and angsty, it's missing all the fun which made a lot of the First Class stuff appealing and has gone a long way to putting me off the title. Couldn't we have got Kurt fighting pirates or something?
Roger Cruz's art is vibrant, but sometimes off-putting as faces seem distorted or change from panel to panel. Not bad but not special enough to stand out, although he clearly has fun drawing the outlandish world of the Inhumans.
But at the end of the day, not really nostalgic enough and simply not fun enough either.
RATING - 4/10 ★
TRANSFORMER SPOTLIGHT: CLIFFJUMPER
The Transformers Spotlight series tends to be a mixed bag. Sometimes they've been solid vignettes of characters, some little known, whilst other times they've a terrific waste of time.
Spotlight Cliffjumper leans towards the former rather than the latter, but perhaps doesn't quite justify the rather high cover charge. Unlike a lot of the other Spotlights, I does make good on its promise and focuses purely on Cliffjumper as he crash lands on an alien planet and makes contact with an utterly adorablely innocent alien girl and her baby brother who have no conception of war and violence. She's just so damn cute and the rest of the story so heavily signposted, you can almost hear the fridge door slamming shut the moment her hopelessly optimistic smile appears on the page.
Even so, it's hard not to get drawn into the unfolding tragedy even when it's pretty obvious what's coming and Cliffjumper's a likable protagonist. The only issue is that he's a little bland - he could be just about any Autobot and we don't really get to see any of the eagerness that defined his character in the cartoon, substituted instead for a generic badassery which is talked about and then demonstrated off panel, but there's never really any reasoning given why this little, seemingly innocuous Autobot is so feared and deadly.
As it is there's not really enough here to seem fresh and new (lost solider ends up with a pacifist, wide-eyed innocent young girl is pretty much a trope and has been done better before) and it's pretty obvious how it's going to end, but the art's colourful and attractive, the alien elf girl almost sickeningly cute (and probably fodder for smutfit, truth be told). It's mostly the desire to make Cliffjumper already badass rather than him finding it within himself to fight against overwhelming odds which takes away from the story, but even taking that into account, it's enjoyable enough. Not a must-have but there's certainly worse out there.
RATING - 6/10 ★
TRANSFORMER SPOTLIGHT: METROPLEX
At the other end of the spectrum is this Spotlight, which is pretty much entirely worthless. There's a vague mystery, a few nice big splashes of the biggest Transformer out there and, really, that's it. There's no insight into Metroplex as a character at all, who just turns up, transforms, steps on someone and then buggers off, and the issue's other characters - Sixshot and the Throttlebots, are generic even by Transformers standards. If you come away from the book having the slightest interest in any of these characters, their motivations or the point of the story at all, you're a better man than I, Bungdit Din.
The one highlight is the art by the ever reliable Guido Guidi, which earns this issue a couple of points, but even taking that into account, this is one of the few comics where I feel positively ripped off. In terms of story and characterisation, it's 22 pages of nothing.
RATING: 3/10 ★
RUNAWAYS #12
Finally we come to Runaways #12, the second issue in Kathryn Immonen's run. Two issues in, it's clear that Immonen has a solid grasp of the character's voices, moreso than Whedon or Moore, and the characters feel more like themselves than they have done since BKV left the book. I do have a few issues, however. Notably that while the characters sound like themselves and teenagers reacting to a crisis situation, they also sound… well, frankly, whiny. It's good characterization, but not particularly attractive characterization and I have to say, I joined Chase in wanting to give the screaming and hysterical Klara a ding round the ear.
On the other hand, Immonen's restored the sense of danger that's been missing lately as well as providing another reason why the Runaways might want to go underground. The team have been a little too cozy since BKV left the book and some inner conflict certainly stirs things up a bit. However, as a stand alone issue there's little more than backbiting and no character steps up to take control, leaving the Runaways moping in a crisis zone. There's little reason for that either - they've just been attacked and yet the group just spend the whole issue sat around arguing instead of attempting to defend themselves or make gone on their name and get the hell out of there.
The problem here is that it's inferred that the Runaways are trapped, but they do little to get out of their situation and the art doesn't really convey any immediate sense of danger or claustrophobia. Given their normal fight-or-flee approach, it's unclear why this time the group sit around waiting for danger to come to them. Which, inevitably, it appears to do.
That aside, the art's pleasant and closer to Adrian Alphona's take on the kids than anything we've seen in a while, the characters natural, if frustrating - the focus on the flaws of their personalities and how they work as a unit rather than their strengths is natural, but still makes me want to bang their heads together - and a step in the right direction to recapturing the magic from the original BKV run. The big revelations this issue seem a little forced, even if one of them is tied to a long established plot point, but there's a freshness to the book that's been missing for a while.
Whether this is enough to rebuild a readership knocked by an oft delayed and weak run from Whedon and an indifferent one from Terry Moore, I'm not sure, but I'm interested to see where Immonen takes the kids. As long as they don't just sit around and mope for too many more issues and get proactive soon.
RATING - 7/10 ★
