The Reading Order
March 24, 2010
JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE OF ARSENAL # 1
NEMESIS # 1
CAPT AMERICA # 604
THOR # 608
AVENGERS INITIATIVE # 34
March 25, 2010
NEW AVENGERS# 63
MIGHTY AVENGERS # 35
BATMAN: STREETS OF GOTHAM # 10
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #46
GREEN LANTERN # 52
GUILD # 1
The UNREAD (from this week and previous weeks)
AMAZING SPIDERMAN #625
AMAZING SPIDERMAN # 626
GREEN HORNET YEAR ONE #1
SUPERMAN # 698
STAND: SOUL SURVIVORS # 5 OF 5 FINALE
AMERICAN VAMPIRE #1
BRAVE AND BOLD #32
SPIDER WOMAN #7
AZRAEL #6
SHIELD #7
IRREDEEMABLE #12
The Good
STREETS OF GOTHAM #10 (w: Paul Dini/a: Dustin Nguyen) picks up the trail of the Zsasz’s twisted orphan arena. Dini & Nguyen continue to tell the very best Batman (and now Robin) story on the shelves in the last year. A new character is introduced and Robin gets to take center stage for a while. The Manhunter Second-Feature (w: Marc Andreyko/a: Jeremy Haun) also remains the only “second-feature” worth reading in the DC stable. Overall, Streets of Gotham #10 does more with the current Batman Mythos than all the rest of the Bat-titles on sale this month put together. And Batman doesn’t even make an appearance (flashbacks don’t count!) Grade: A+ (story: A/art: A, back-up story: A)
MIGHTY AVENGERS # 35 (w: Dan Slott/a: Koi Pham). When I first picked up Mighty Avengers #35, I quickly remembered the last issue and was heart-stricken. Over the past four months, MA had been a very enjoyable read. Last month, things kind of went south. Quickly, Slott & Pham recovered and put together another excellent issue. Mighty Avengers isn’t for the everyday fan. If you need Deadpool, Spider-man, Wolverine or Iron Man to be in the comic you are going to be disappointed. On the other hand, Mighty Avengers makes more than the best of “supporting” characters (Hank Pym included), and renders a title that is not only enjoyable every month, but holds together across story arcs. Despite the “Siege” banner, this really isn’t a Siege book, unless you call intentionally ignoring the whole thing important to the “Siege-continuity”. Still that doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of Mighty Avengers #35. Grade: B+ (story: B+/art: B+)
CAPTAIN AMERICA #604 (w: Ed Brubaker/ a: Luke Ross & Butch Guice). The Two Captain Americas storyline is a good Captain America story, even if the Cap in costume is the bad guy. When you’ve got three Captain Americas running around, one of them is bound to be a bad seed! Seriously though, the Two Captains storyline is just a good comic story. It isn’t a grand mega-event, it isn’t any kind of Crisis, and it’s just a good comic story. And in Captain America #604, the Watchdog’s plot is unveiled, Cap & Cap face-off (sort of), and Sam Wilson (the Falcon) steals the show. Grade: B+ (story: B+/art: B)
NEMESIS #1 (w: Mark Millar/a: Steve McNiven) Some might say there is a reason why no one has successfully written a story about a villain you’ve never heard of, doing things (even really imaginative things) to people you have no invested interest in. And then attach the names “Millar/McNiven” and suddenly you have a highly-anticipated best seller. A little cross-company rivalry doesn’t hurt (remember when DC got mad because “Nemesis” was described as what if the Joker were Batman? Or something like that?). Nemsis #1 reads like Millar went home after seeing Dark Knight Returns, called McNiven and cooked up these cool storyboards. And then started filling in story. Of course, hot off the heels of his successful film debut (Wanted) and on the precipice of the much-anticipated release of the film version of Millar’s Kick-Ass, can you really blame him? Nemesis is okay. It’s a story about a really cool villain, doing awesome villain stuff to people you barely care about. There’s a plot (sort of), but the story is lacking the “ooh I can’t wait” factor that you’ve probably come to expect from Millar. McNiven’s art, is of course, fabulous. Grade: B (story: B-/art: A)
GUILD # 1 (w: Felicia Day/a: Jim Rugg) is only interesting if you’re a fan of Day’s web-series The Guild, which I suppose goes without saying. It should be mentioned that if you were not a fan of The Guild and picked this up to see what all the hullaballoo was about, stop and go watch The Guild. The mini-series is a prologue to the web-isodes, but really requires the webies to be interesting. Though it is kind of funny that right in the middle of Cyd creating her avatar’s image, there’s this iconic image of Buffy (from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) in an ad where the next panel would be. All in all, if you bought the book because you’re a fan of the Guild (or Day), you’ll like it – if not, you’ll never buy another one. I am a fan of the Guild (and Ms. Day), Grade: B (story: B/art: C)
THOR #608 (w: Kieron Gillen/a: Billy Tan & Batt and Rich Elson) isn’t as interesting as Thor has been recently. And Thor #608 doesn’t live up to the on-going Siege storyline. The Asgardians are interesting as support characters, but filling a whole comic with them in the middle of a huge battle where the Avengers and Thor are just around corner makes an intentionally non-interesting comic. Clor (Ragnorok) doesn’t really make the story any better. Overall, if you forgot to read (buy) Thor #608 the only thing that would suffer would be the continuous numbering in your collection (but you’d be $3 richer!). Grade: C (story: C/art: C-)
AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE #34 (w: Christos Gage/a: Jorge Molina). The Initiative has been and continues to be a character-driven ancillary title to the principle events of Dark Reign & Siege. While Initiative #34 takes place mostly around the events of Siege #3, the best parts of the issue are very Initiative-centric. For example the Tigra/Night Thrasher v. Taskmaster battle and Penance subplot pay off nicely (and almost satisfactorily), while the (unfortunate) soap opera-ish romance between Constrictor and Diamondback leaves us with a bit of a cliffhanger. Grade: B (story: B/art: B+)
NEW AVENGERS# 63 (w: Brian Michael Bendis/a: Mike McKone) is one part classic Bendis page-consuming dialogue and one part all-out action. Bendis has mastered the art of writing for Spidey in action (though I think if he ever tried to really write Peter’s personal life we’d end up with 20 pages of twenty-somethings standing in an office or coffee shop and two pages of Spider-man month after month) and Marvel (Bendis?) has done a really good job of taking single issues of Siege and jamming a bunch of monthly titles into the same moment of time without diluting the Siege story or re-telling the exact same thing over and over. The Siege parts of New Avengers #63 is really good. About one half of the Luke Cage/Jessica Drew and one half of the Clint Barton/Bobbi Mockingbird (no, I don’t know/care what her last name is… let’s go with “Barton”) hero-mances is useful, the rest is just “Friends”-sy dialogue and banter that fills up to many panels. Grade: B- (story: C+/art: B+)
The Bad
JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE RISE OF ARSENAL # 1 (w: J.T. Krul/a: Geraldo Borges). There is a lot of recapping still going on in the “Rise and Fall” series. Rise of Arsenal #1 starts with a pretty good recap of Roy’s maiming, but then covers all the ground that all the other R&F issues have, without adding much to the re-telling. Roy’s rough path may seem contrived and predictable, but is also believable. His quick-rebound and back-to-his-feet and fighting exercise is definitely hurried and while maybe a natural reaction, seems shocking after last week the Titans weren’t even sure he was going to make it. Dr. Midnite’s struggles with the “nano-infection” (or whatever) is too much of a stretch too, Roy nails it on the head when he besieges Dinah with accusations that the JLA should be doing more for Lian (and him and Ollie, etc.), like they did with Sue Dinby. The least they could do is conjure up a sorcerer or maybe Mr. Terrrific or Steel or some other super scientist/machinist to look at the nanites, but I’m sure the good Doc will do just fine. Look, he’s already got Roy up and running. Overall, the story is disappointing – more in its execution than its plot and Borges art is unremarkable. Grade: C- (story: C/art: C-)
The Unreadable
Green Lantern Corps #46 (w: Peter Tomasi/a: Patrick Gleason). More meaningless (but colorful) stuff happens. More bad things happen to Green Lanterns that no really needs to care about (think how long Kyle Rayner was dead or Guy was a Red Lantern) and there’s more “sentimental” visits from beloved dead ones (because the last seven months of that wasn’t enough). The Anti-Monitor is back and that is apparently a big deal and then he isn’t (back that is). Guy comes up with a plan and cites the episode from Star Trek (the Original Series) that he got the idea from. Which is kind of appropriate for the Green Lantern series, you remember Star Trek (TOS), the one where they would start somewhere do a bunch of stuff and end up right back at the same place? When all is said and done, you can’t help but imagine that the Green Lantern Corps series is going be more or less in the same place it was before Blackest Night started. At least that’s how far it’s gone so far. On the other hand, Gleason’s art is phenomenal (but not worth $2.99 I paid $3.99!!! For this!!! Now that was a bad idea).
GREEN LANTERN #52 (w: Geoff Johns/a: Doug Mahnke) Don’t miss John’s colorful take on Genesis (of the Biblical sense). Well, okay maybe you want to skip it. So, if you read last year’s (was it last year?) end of Secret Invasion and beginning of Dark Reign, and you saw the classic Spider-Man villain (Norman Osborn aka the Green Goblin) become the “Iron Patriot” and take over S.H.I.E.L.D., you’ve read Green Lantern #52. Of course in this very poorly done drama, the part of Norman Osborn is being played by Sinestro. It would be good to think that DC (or Johns) is going to turn this whole thing around, but there really hasn’t been any recent evidence to support that hare-brained delusion.
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