Comic Reviews 1/7

Well, this week DC took us back to the future but also brought an unnecessary revamp to an icon, Marvel took us to Mars and Image started a war in space. Quiet week, then…

Justice Society of America 40

Wow, here’s a good lesson in how NOT to wrap up your previous year’s worth of stories. This issue sees the climax of the recent Fatherland arc and ties up a lot of the threads that Willingham has been working with for the past year. Unfortunately, this wrap-up involves a big ol’ continuity reset button, retroactively re-writing the past 12 issues. In 22 pages. Right…

Willingham writes Fables, arguably one of the best new books of the past decade and consistently engaging, yet his work on Justice Society of America has been remarkably underwhelming and lacklustre. The sheer fact that he’s used Nazis as the villains, (Nazis!) shows a real lack of ideas. That’s not the best start on what was one of DC’s biggest selling team books. These characters and this franchise are one of my favourite things about the DCU but under Willingham’s stewardship, they’ve seemed bland and uninteresting.

Artwise, Jesus Merino continues to do a good job of detailing the action sequences and the quiet moments. He’s yet to develop a distinctive style of his own, showing glimpses of a lot of other artists. I think a year or two from now, he’s going to be a great artist, but right now, he’s functional without being exceptional. I hope he takes the step up.

It’s a good issue to jump off the title, written as if Willingham isn’t coming back after the two month crossover with Justice League of America. As I said above, that’s probably not a bad thing.

Batman Beyond 1 (of 6)

Wooooo! A new mini-series continuing the adventures of Terry McGinnis, the Batman of the future in Warner Bros “Batman Beyond” cartoon from 1999-2001. As part of the animated DC universe, Batman Beyond shows a futuristic Gotham that, for all its’ progress, still suffers from the same kind of urban crime that plagues it during Bruce Wayne’s tenure as the Dark Knight. Now an elderly recluse, Bruce provides Terry with the high-tech suit and Batmobile he uses to great effect i protecting Gotham from an ever-present number of wackos and supervillains.

This mini-series is set after the end of the animated series, but before the revelatory Justice League Unlimited episode “Epilogue”. Adam Beechen, who has experience of teenage heroes and Gotham from his tenures on Teen Titans and Robin, gives a great first issue. We’re shown the city, the relationship between Bruce and Terry and a mystery villain starts making his presence felt. Ryan Benjamin’s art is very fluid, but his faces are a little too manga for my tastes. The colour palette used here is interesting too, a lot of glowing greens and blues from the neon metropolis, or areas bathed in a red glow from emergency lights.

The pacing works extremely well here, giving us a good cliffhanger that makes me eager for the next issue.

Secret Avengers 2

Ed Brubaker continues to write Steve Rogers, former Captain America, in as many books as possible (this is his third currently ongoing series featuring the character). Leading the equivalent of the Avengers’ black-ops team, Steve and co go to Mars to investigate why contact has been lost with a research dig on the planet. Leading light of Marvel’s cosmic characters, Nova, has previously been dispatched and also gone radio silent.

It’s strange reading Brubaker write such and out of this world tale, involving alien planets, alien artifacts and mystical mind control. I’ve enjoyed his urban tales such as Criminal, his superhero work on Captain America and the grey area between on Sleeper (nothing to do with the lovely Louise Wener, sadly). Seeing him write and plot this story is a real sea-change for his usual content.

While I'm a big fan of Brubaker’s work, I really find it hard to read a book with Mike Deodato on art chores. His style is very dark, faces  seem to only have two expressions, deep consternation or wide-eyed surprise, and everyone stands like they’re posing for a statue. Seriously, It may sound like I’m being excessively harsh here but, in my opinion, his art REALLY doesn’t suit Brubaker’s writing or these characters. His design for the group’s aircraft is clearly the bastard lovechild of an Imperial Shuttle from Star Wars and the SDF-1 from Robotech. Yay for originality, huh?

It’s nice to see him use Nova, Beast and the current Ant-Man. They’re all interesting choices for an Avengers team, especially Nova. I’m indifferent towards Valkyrie and War-Machine right now. Actually I’m struggling to understand why an Asgardian warrior maiden with an attitude problem is even on the team. Unless she’s supposed to the team “Wolverine” what with him being unavailable due to already being on 4(!) different teams. Black Widow fits the team’s mission statement and Brubaker’s written her extremely well in Captain America for the past 5 years.

I’m looking forward to reading the end of the first arc before I decide if I'm sticking with the title. If I do continue reading, i sincerely hope there’s a new (read: better) artist in the wings.

Invincible 73

This issue continues the “Viltrumite War” storyarc and begins the actual war proper. the issue takes place over several months, with the scene shifting back and forth between Invincible’s convalescence on an alien world, watched over by his father and half-brother, and Allen and Tech-Jacket’s efforts with the Coalition of Planets to defeat the Viltrumite Empire. It’s not quite a filler issue, as there are some plot developments of note here. It does however suffer form the same faults that blighted issue 60 of this series: Lots of stuff happens off-panel, or in only one or two panels, and it deserves way more page time.

We get some nice bonding between Omni-Man and his son Oliver, now kid Omni-Man back on Earth. Having not seen him since he was a baby, Nolan’s reactions to him ring true and sound like a father eager to make up for missing out on his son’s childhood.

Allen and Tech-Jacket borrow a leaf out of the “Han Solo Guide to Avoiding Lasery Death in Space” (Good book, I recommend it, perfect for a scruffy looking nerf-herder like me) before leading the effort against the Viltrumites. A lot of battles and campaigns seem to take place out of the readers view, which is a shame as there’s plenty of scope for good stories there. A mini-series please, Mr Kirkman?

Ryan Ottley’s art is awesome as usual. Crisp, expressive, characterful and conveys motion and impact extremely well. I would love to see him on a book at DC or Marvel, but would hate to see him leave this book. :-S

Oh and Battle Beast returns. Roar, I say! Roar!