Batman #699

Too bad comics aren’t worth more when they have errors like baseball cards, because the artist on the cover is not the artist that drew the book.  Sandu Florea’s name is on the cover but it’s Guillem March on the inside, which is a good thing from my perspective.  March draws some really original ‘bat-poses’ but overall the issue feels like a rushed second half to a two-part story that only serves to eleveate Firebug and possible redirect for the Riddler.  If you have been holding off like I have on Batman (I started again at #697 in anticipation of #700, but there really is no lead-in) then holding off here won’t hurt.

Siege #4

Wow, what the hell.  I think Marvel learned it’s lesson that having a super powerful Superman-like character doesn’t work well in the Marvel U, and not to state the obvious by now, but there is one less Sentry to worry about now.  It most of these event comics, especially the Bendis’ one, there seems to be a strong build up with a limp, quick finish.  It’s like they just flipped a switch an now everything is OK.  I understand that they are setting the stage to mine this material for years until they move to the next phase, but this whole event seemed unnecessary and poorly thought out.

Black Widow #2

I picked up the first two issues on a whim and have to say they have been pretty enjoyable.  Props to Marjorie Liu for crafting a sharp opening act that showcases the alter egos of some of the Marvel U’s biggest names and weaving a mystery that draws you in.  The art by Daniel Acuna fits the story and with the thick lines it pops off the page.  I suggest picking this up and giving at least the first arc a try.

Thor #609

I picked up the Iron Man By Design variant which says “Iron Man does not appear in this Issue” on the back.  Neither does Thor.  Much like Gillen’s ‘Loki’ one-shot, he shows a deft touch and dealing with the god of mischief and finally resolving story arcs set up by JMS.  Recent previews have shown the Fractions debut on Thor has been pushed by a an issue or two, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

The Walking Dead #71

Again, I have to heap more praise on this book.  Kirkman delivers a pretty wicked twist and not one zombie appears in the issue.  Evil really is in the eye of the beholder and we finally enter a phase were we get a new perspective on the crew we’ve been following and  just what sort of toll these people have paid.  For the first time you realize just how deeply affected Rick and his son really are, and it’s a brutal scene.  TWD is easily my second favorite title after Scalped, do yourself a favor and don’t miss this issue.

Iron Man #25

As much as I love what Matt Fraction did with this volume of Invincible Iron Man, it seems a bit odd that what took several issues to undo is practically redone in a few pages.  Worse, the best part, the new armor (Mark MMXVIII?) is all a ‘secret’, Tony just has an epiphany and rolls to Reed Richard’s lab and now has Super Extremis Armor, but we are invited to keep reading to see all the new capabilities of the armor.  As a huge Iron Man fan, new armor is something you look forward to, and I feel shortchanged on what we are given in this oversized issue.  Stark’s new company direction (I like the fact that Stark turns down an Asgardian bail-out) harkens back to the Circuit Maximus days and the whole issue feels like an homage to the late 80′s Invincible.  Hopefully, Fraction is only using some of these rehashed beats to set the table before he sets off in a new and fresh direction.

Secret Six #20 (DC)

Man, Gail Simone is no joke, flirting ever so close with the limits of a non VERTIGO title.  After the cliffhanger ending of #19, the premise plays out in a sort of Mel-Gibson-Witness “Give me back my son!” (or for you youngins, Liam-Neeson-Taken) style, and it is very well done.  Catman is front and center and like the legend of Keyser Soze, he shows these men of will what will is.  Highly recommened.

Powers #4 (Icon)

Brian Michael Bendis decides to turn in his David Mamet (or Garth Ennis) issue of Powers (count the ‘number of f-bombs) and it’s actually a pretty gripping read.  The premise here, one that seems tangentially related to Marvel’s current retelling of the WWII era Marvel, is where do you go for thrills when you have already saved the world from war.  Bendis’ is weaving a noir mystery that streches back a centrury using the newly revealed immortal status of Walker.  This book is going bi-monthly, which is a shame as it starting to really get interesting.  Also recommended.

Siege Loki One-Shot (Marvel)

One thing I didn’t like about Siege was that it seems a sudden and unoriginal way to end Osborn’s Dark Reign.  All of a sudden, an Asgardian blows up a football game (didn’t we do that to kick off Civil War?  Stamford, anyone?) and Loki decides to tell Osbourne to take on Asgard.  Just seemed very forced to me.  Well, thank Odin that Marvel has Kieron Gillen on the payroll, because this guy just made the whole thing seem plausible.  While I dig Matt Fraction, I don’t think they should pull Gillen off Thor for him.  Gillen really gets the tone of these gods and all I can say is that if you were on the fence about Siege, this book goes a long way to making that sudden swerve way more plausible and sets the stage for what could be the most insane version of Loki yet.

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Justice League of America #43

I feel sorry for the latest incarnation of this book.  Meltzer got it started and right away it came of the tracks.  McDuffie tried to save it, but because of all the upheaval in the trinity’s status (Supes leaving Earth, Batman leaving time), this book has become a pale version of what it was supposed to be.  This latest issue, again, tries to follow up on ‘Cry For Justice’ and give us some frame of reference to the who and what everyone is supposed to be doing and what the motivation is going forward, but it feels like awkward fixes made after the fact like what you are seeing in the Fall of the Hulks storyline.  The goal here is to send Green Arrow back to the Mike Grell longbow hunters era, which I’m not sure anyone was really asking for.  Someone wake me up when this book has a solid roster and direction again.

Nemesis #1 (Mark Millar & Steve McNiven)

Jury is still out on exactly why this will be as cool as Millar thinks it is as we are dropped in mid story with the protagonist causing all kinds of mayhem.  Apparently he likes to find the ‘Commissioner Gordons’ of this universe and put them through some extreme humiliation and then a gruesome death.  This is a very brief read and does not reveal much, and it will be interesting to see how long it takes the remaining issues to come out.  What is here looks very good, as McNiven is certainly no lightweight, but it almost feels like a first draft of a stroryboard for a John McTiernan movie. (Man, if he came back to direct this, we could really have something here.)  Don’t expect much depth but do expect a bit of the old ‘ultra-violence’.  You do have to admire Millar for shitting on his latest ‘hit’ on the front cover of his new book.  The good news here is that Mark Millar seems to be on this ‘creator-owned’ kick now so at least we should see a slew of his sociopathic creations in the next few years.

Amazing Spider-Man #624

As we get deeper into the ‘Gauntlet’ event, it is now clear this storyline turned out to be a tad different than I original imagined.  Unlike a 6-issue Sinister-Six storyline, this methodical approach to redefining Spidey’s classic list of villains is starting to feel a bit overly decompressed.  Waid is one of the better Spider-man writers and does a great job of handling this very special “they took our jobs” issue where Parker gets a taste of that 10% unemployment.  While you may or may not care for the 2.0 versions of these classic arch-enemies (and for the most part I do not), it’s the handling of the everyman Parker that makes this book work and has really been the saving grace since the OMD reboot.  The throw-back art by Paul Azaceta is very stylish and works well in most areas.

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Ultimate Comics New Ultimates #1

Talk about putting a silk hat on a pig, what a waste of incredibly rendered Frank Cho art.  This guy is one of my favorite artists working today and his ability to draw T & A is legendary.  So much so, in fact, it seems that Jeff “I used to be a good writer” Loeb is relegating his script to serving Cho fastballs right across the plate and letting him draw everything in his wheelhouse.  Unfortunately, other than that, there is nothing here of note.  Same old dysfunctional group we saw Loeb do in Ultimates 3 and Ultimatum with the same lazy soap opera plots and navel gazing narrative that is just not entertaining.  If Ultimatum was supposed to wipe the slate clean for a new start, it’s ironic that the very author of that series doesn’t seem to get that point.  It’s sad that Marvel has seen fit to give the worst writer in comics two of the best artists (Cho & Adams).  If this was just a pin-up book, I would rate it higher.

Wolverine Weapon X #11

Ever wonder what The Terminator would be like if Jason Aaron wrote it?  Wonder no more.  Also, you get many pages of Captain America / Wolverine fan service where the recent hero worship WW2 Logan has for Steve Rogers is on display front and center.  I almost felt the wink to the audience as Logan brought Steve up to speed on his comings and goings since Cap was doing the dead thing.  For you evisceration fans out there, know that with a few nipples and f-bombs, this would have been a MAX title.   This issue also has Nightcrawler on designator driver duty during the super hero pub crawl.  And rounding all that out is some nicely embellished Ron Garney artwork and you have a quality offering here.  This was a fun book to read.

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Spawn #196

To be perfectly honest, my interest in comics was already waning when Spawn #1 hit.  I always felt the concept of the character always outpaced the execution.  Great idea but never realized it’s potential.  When I saw that Todd McFarlane was ‘rebooting’ the title at issue #185, I was curious to see if maybe they were going to finally align the theory with actuality.  Short answer, “no”.  This is the same soup, just reheated.  The opening arc meandered for 11 issues that instead of reinventing the character just reset the board with new names and faces.  I have to give Todd some credit, the marketing got me to buy 11 issues, but this clumsy wrap up just gives us a Caucasian hero in the era of an African-American President (how groundbreaking) and re-calibrates the Spawn power set.  See you again at issue #312 when they try again.

The Walking Dead #70 (Image Comics)

Now that there has been some distance from Robert Kirkman’s then-controversial “everyone should go creator-owned” call to arms, I thank all that is Stan Lee that he did.  Walking Dead just seems to be the book Kirkman was born to write and arc after arc new twists keep the book fresh and heart felt.  If you don’t feel anything when Douglas and Rick have their introductory conversation in the middle of the book then you are dead inside.  In another desperate attempt to find normalcy, the group has again hunkered down in what seems like safety, and it will be very interesting to see how Kirkman draws the curtain back on this setup.

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Red Hulk #2

Man, it seems this Fall of the Hulks storyline was designed to simply retcon Jeff Loeb’s initial run on Hulk.  Retcons are not unusal, but after less than 2 years of books is just bizarre.  I give the various writers credit, trying to untangle this mess and give gravitas to a mystery that wasn’t all that interesting to begin with, this can be no easy task.  But the format of “remember this scene from a book you read 6 months ago, this is what REALLY happened” just feels like a double dip.  So far this thing has read like reference material.  Only the Ed McGuiness art saves the book from being completely useless.

Punisher Max #4 (Marvel Comics) Jason Aaron kicks this killer arc into overdrive as the Kingpin (in name only for now) makes his move and in a scenario reminiscent of ‘Brother Mazone’ from HBO’s “The Wire”, we are introduced to an atypical hitman, the appropriately named “Mennonite”.  Steve Dillon does a great job (as usual) of depicting graphic violence and bare breasts, as well as facial expressions that nail the tone of the material.  If you are even a cursory Punisher fan (especially the Ennis Max work) you need to be reading this.

Ultimate Armor Wars #4 (Marvel Comics) Warren Ellis brings this post-Ultimate tale to a bizarre close with a head in a box and some lineage issues for Tony Stark to deal with.  Leading up to this final issue of this limited series, Ellis’ swerves in a direction you don’t really see coming, and it feels a tad too convenient.  The series seems to be a way to establish a direction for the new Ultimate Comics universe’s Tony Stark and while introducing some stereotypical characters types and revealing Stark’s new financial status, the arc wraps up in a very familiar place if you ever read Bob Layton’s Iron Man. Up and comer Steve Kurth does a great job drawing complicated armors and depicting the action and I hope to see him on future Iron Man projects.