16 titles (7 Marvel, 5 DC and 4 Indies) made it home this week, including a second trip to the Shop to pick-up some back-issues of the Secret Six. In this week’s haul, two first issues got a try out (Baltimore & Magnus, Robot Fighter) and were good enough comics, but didn’t stand out enough to crack the Pull-List (or even manage a review). But if you take nothing else from this review this week, go pick-up Superman: The Last Family of Krypton. You won’t be disappointed!
The Pull List (in Reading Order)
SECRET SIX 24 ★★★☆☆
BRIGHTEST DAY #7 ★★☆☆☆
AVENGERS PRIME #2 ★★★☆☆
SUPERMAN: LAST FAMILY OF KYRPTON #1 ★★★★★
CAPTAIN AMERICA #608 ★★★★☆
HAWKEYE AND MOCKINGBIRD #3 ★★☆☆☆
AVENGERS ORIGIN #5 ★★★★☆
ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 2 #6 ★★★★☆
AMAZING SPIDERMAN #639 ★★☆☆☆
HELLBOY: THE STORM #2 ★★★★★
Bonus Coverage
THE SPIRIT #4 ★★★☆☆
SECRET SIX #23 ★★★☆☆
SECRET SIX #15 ★★★☆☆
Reviewed without commentary
BALTIMORE PLAGUE SHIPS #1 ★★★☆☆
MAGNUS ROBOT FIGHTER #1 ★★★☆☆
Unread
MARVELMAN: FAMILY’S FINEST #2
IRREEDEMABLE #16
★★★★★ = Really, really good.
★★★★☆ = Better than average.
★★★☆☆ = Average.
★★☆☆☆ = Below average.
★☆☆☆☆ = Not good.
☢ = Unreadable.
Pick of the Week
SUPERMAN: LAST FAMILY OF KYRPTON #1 ★★★★★
w: Carey Bates
a: Renato Arlem
Story: ★★★★★
Art: ★★★★★
Cover: ★★★★★
Overall Rating: ★★★★★
Legendary comic scribe Cary Bates returns to the DCU (well sort of… in an Elseworld story anyway). You might think a creator like Bates, who was prolific through the 60’s and 70’s might be stale or out of touch, but with Superman: The Last Family of Krypton, he stands up and delivers a story that re-invents the legacy of the titular dying planet, re-shapes Metropolis and even revisits some otherwise familiar elements in Smallville.
The concept of this mini-series doesn’t sound like a new story, but Bates and Arlem deliver a very unique twist on one of the oldest tales in comics. There have been very, very few Krpton-based stories (Elseworld or otherwise) that have held up respectably. So far, this mini-series is off to a great start.
The Rest
SECRET SIX #24
w: Gail Simone
a: J. Califore
Story: ★★★☆☆
Art: ★★☆☆☆
Cover: ★★★★★
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆
Every once in a while a title will get enough “buzz”, a Preview blurb might sound interesting or a cover might catch my eye and I’m drawn to pick up an issue of an on-going title that isn’t usually on the Pull-List. Secret Six #24 had all of three of those elements.
A fan of Westerns (and good Western comics), the setting of this issue piqued my curiosity. Yes, the story is set in the “Wild West” (don’t ask me how), and you don’t really need to be caught up on Secret Six continuity to enjoy the tale. It might help, as some characters aren’t clearly identified as anyone I recognized, but my deficit didn’t detract from the enjoyment of the story.
Aside from the actual on-panel sex scene (really… in a mainstream comic? Where have I been?) the issue is pretty good. Califore’s artwork isn’t bad and suits the “Western feel” of the story, but wanders a bit too much in consistency for my taste.
This stand-alone issue was good enough, in fact, for me to make a second trip to the Shop to pick up two more issues of the Secret Six. Check out the reviews for SS #15 and SS#23, both written by one-time great Suicide Squad writer John Ostrander.
BRIGHTEST DAY #7
w: Geoff Johns & Peter Tomasi
a: Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark & Joe Pardo
Story: ★☆☆☆☆
Art: ★★★★☆
Cover: ★★★☆☆
Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆
All of the Brightest Day storylines are featured in this key issue for the series, which finally tries to pull it all together and put some cohesive direction to these otherwise, unrelated story arcs. While that might sound like a good idea, it really isn’t.
The bad stories (Hawkman/Hawkwoman & Aquaman/Mera) get worse, dragging down the sometimes good-sometimes bad story (Deadman/Hawk & Dove) and even the good arcs (Martian Manhunter & Firestorm) with them. In fairness, the “Brightest Day” story actually starts to take shape in the Deadman arc, which really goes from kind of interesting to ridiculous (a cheeseburger, really?).
So far, the whole White Lantern has been a seven issue swing and a miss. Johns & company seem to be torn between telling the “BD” story in the separate plots (with each set of characters) or trying to tell one cohesive story and neither is really working very well. Just when you start to get invested in the separate plots, you get this issue which force-feeds the White Lantern story into current arcs as well as lays out “Lost-like” clairvoyant glimpses into the future that promise to entwine these characters even further.
DC used a similar, “look ahead” spread of pages a few years ago in one of their titles (it was either JSA or JLA, I forget which), that gave a one-panel glimpse of what was in store for each particular character. That was kind of interesting, sort of a preview of things to come. Unfortunately because the groundwork is so fragile for the White Lantern arc, the “look ahead” two-page spread (which has almost nothing to do with the current stories we’ve been reading in these pages) comes off more as lazy storytelling than, foreshadowing.
AVENGERS PRIME #2
w: Brian Michael Bendis
a: Alan Davis (inks: Mark Farmer)
Story: ★★★☆☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★★☆☆
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆
Last month, Avengers Prime was the weakest of the Heroic Age Avengers titles. With a $3.99 price tag, even (especially?) a five-issue mini-series has to wow right off the bat and frankly, the first issue didn’t wow. That being said, Prime was one click away from falling off the Pull List.
Avengers Prime #2 is probably not going to be the best Avengers title you read all month, but it was enjoyable. It was fun because the characters were so familiar and the Davis’ art even stepped it up a notch from last month. It is safe to say that the actual plot isn’t getting any better (it’s still kind of a hokey premise), but how the story is told is improving. And that could have something to do with (last issue) having to wedge this story into the beginnings of the Heroic Age, but with this issue Bendis is able to just run with the characters.
Avengers Prime definitely is not on the same level of the amazing Iron Man/Doctor Doom Camelot story of the 80s, but it’s running on a similar track and is showing improvement.
CAPTAIN AMERICA #608
w: Ed Brubaker
a: Butch Guice
Story: ★★★★☆
Art: ★★☆☆☆
Cover: ★★★★☆
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
The first two issues of Brubaker & Guice’s Baron Zemo story arc were okay, but were disappointing given the caliber of quality of that Captain America has been delivering over the past few years. That changes in Captain America #608 as the plot kicks into high gear, sub-plots take flight and things go from bad to worse for Bucky-Cap.
The one criticism is that Guice’s artwork seems to be rushed and inconsistent throughout the issue. I’ve been a fan of Guice all the way back to his Mirconauts work and this isn’t his best work. Now, it could be the inkers (Rick Magyar & Mark Pennington), regardless the artwork doesn’t live up to expectations.
HAWKEYE AND MOCKINGBIRD #3
w: Jim McCann
a: David Lopez
Story: ★★☆☆☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★★★☆
Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Mockingbird was gone, prisoner of the Skrulls for (insert duration here)… and has come back and all of a sudden is in charge of a well-stocked, well-established espionage agency that we’ve never heard of before. Okay, that was all established in issue #1, so why bring it up here?
If the rest of the first story arc were better, or if Mockingbird (or any of the supporting cast) were at all likeable, you could over look that first paragraph up there. Unfortunately the Phantom Rider story is kind of blah and while Crossfire is a nice throwback to the 80’s Hawkeye/Mockingbird series, he isn’t very interesting either. And that leaves Hawkeye, who is almost always fun to read.
In some regard it is kind of juxtaposition for the Archer and the Lady Bird, when compared to Green Arrow and Black Canary. While GA is the crusty curmudgeon and the Canary is the “straight man (person)” of the duo, in this case Mockingbird spends most of the last two issues railing at people (mostly Hawkeye).
H&M get one more issue to improve, or they fall off the Pull List.
AVENGERS ORIGIN #5
w: Joe Casey
a: Phil Noto
Story: ★★☆☆☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★★★☆
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
This has been a fun mini-series. With this final issue, Casey & Noto deliver a very satisfying re-telling/re-imagining (let’s go with updating) of the Avenger’s Origin.
Noto’s artwork is still the highlight, even though Casey did a good job of stretching the story into five fun-to-read comics. Towards the end of Avengers: The Origin #5, readers are also in for a treat as we get single-panel “look aheads” at classic Avengers moments.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing if Casey and Noto came back to tell another chapter in the Avengers’ history.
ULTIMATE COMICS AVENGERS 2 #6
w: Mark Millar
a: Leinil Francis Yu
Story: ★★★☆☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★★☆☆
Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
The whole of Ultimate Comics: Avengers 2 #6 is better than its parts (and definitely better than that long title!). That is to say that the whole Ghost Rider plot was just kind of okay. The real appeal to this series was the introduction of the new Avengers (particularly Cash and surprisingly, the Punisher).
The Ultimates (vol. 1 and vol. 2) were so good, that for many people they became the “face” of the Ultimate universe: more gritty, more like they were real-world heroes. It was hard to remember that the Ultimate Spider-man and X-men had come before, and they were just a “new take” on old comic characters. Not really gritty, not really more “real-world”… kind of like the the Ultimates eventually became under Jeph Loeb’s watch.
The Ultimate: Avengers still aren’t “that”, they are still (more) gritty and have (more of) a real-world feel to them. The short plot and revolving cast distract from that theme a bit, but overall this is still the kind of Ultimate comic that I prefer.
AMAZING SPIDERMAN #639
w: Mark Millar
a: Leinil Francis Yu
Story: ★☆☆☆☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★☆☆☆
Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆
There is a lot of talking and not in a good “Bendis-way” in Amazing Spider-Man #639. The plot of “One Moment in Time” is not well executed. It is so poorly put together it is hard to follow (in a “Lost” sort of way, but worse).
To make matters worse, One Moment in Time goes back and re-hashes probably one of the worst Spider-man decisions ever and the absolute worst thing Joe Queseda has done since beginning his tenure as Editor-in-Chief, “One More Day”.
It would be hard to argue with the product (the very long “Brand New Day”) of One More Day. The (mostly) weekly re-launch of Spider-man was, for the most part, wildly entertaining and sometimes brilliant. But you could make the argument (and I would) that Joey Q didn’t need to go and wreck what already was to fix what was wrong.
And that brings us to One Moment in Time, which is at best, confusing and at worst, pointless. And if it undoes “One More Day”… oy vey.
HELLBOY: THE STORM #2
w: Mike Mignola
a: Duncan Fegredo
Story: ★★★★☆
Art: ★★★★☆
Cover: ★★★★☆
Overall Rating: ★★★★★
Hellboy: The Storm is the real deal, Hellboy at his best. The story is nice and complicated and steeped in a mythology or two. The monster-bad guy of issue #2 looks like something right out of the Lord of the Rings (visually that is, not derivatively). Good stuff!
THE SPIRIT #4
w: David Hines
a: Moritat
Story: ★★★☆☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★★☆☆
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆
The Spirit’s second story-arc begins, Hines takes over the writing duties for Mark Schultz and Moritat stays on to handle the art chores – though you might be hard pressed to notice that. One of the most attractive things about the first three-issue story arc was Moritat’s Miller-esque rendering of the Spirit and his world. Moritat’s still around, but his art style is different. Good, but different.
Hines’ “Frostbite” story arc is less-pulp style and a slightly more “modern” feel to it. All-in-all, while I enjoyed Schultz work, Hines’ story is a little easier to follow.
SECRET SIX #23
w: John Ostrander
a: RB Silva
Story: ★★★☆☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★★☆☆
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆
The plot isn’t new, you’ve seen before on the big screen in movies like “the Dangerous Game” and “Hard Target”, but the execution of the story is admirable. Ostrander returns to the “Suicide Squad” re-branded as the Secret Six for this special stand-alone issue.
The familiar story is set-up nicely and moves quickly (maybe too quickly) through to the inevitable conclusion. If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if men with way more money than sense got to try to hunt down super villains on a very cool sounding island, this is the book you’ve been waiting for.
As a stand-alone, if you’re looking for an intro into the Six, this probably isn’t it. This isn’t a bad book, and it is better than Secret Six #24 (which was good enough to get me to go back and look for more issues). But if you’re looking for a “hook” to draw you into sinking more cash into the Secret Six, this is not the sample you’re looking for.
SECRET SIX #15
w: John Ostrander
a: J. Calafiore
Story: ★★★★☆
Art: ★★★☆☆
Cover: ★★★★★
Overall Rating: ★★★☆☆
Take a walk through the dead of a Gotham night with Deadshot and his reverend. Ostrander and Calafiore deliver a very “Rescue Me” (spiraling out of control) peek into the psyche of Deadshot.
This is an interesting way to look at Deadshot, as a character, through his origin and his connection to the Batman. The one-shot, character-centric story is also linked to a very specific event in the current DC universe, that gives the story a very relevant background to be playing-out in.
This really a Deadshot book, as none of the other Six appear in the issue, but seriously, you won’t miss them.
