Three Grant Morrison books. Joss Whedon’s big X-Men finale. A new Mark Millar miniseries at Marvel. Another Bendis-written Secret Invasion tie-in.
So why do I feel so let down overall? Maybe it’s just sleep deprivation.
۞ Final Crisis #1 is a tough one to discuss. Morrison tends to write his arcs as a whole, which can lead to some seriously inscrutable first issues. (And, sometimes, second and third and even fourth issues -- I remember how completely befuddled everyone was almost all the way through the Rock Of Ages arc in his JLA run, and that reads fabulously in collection.) He has a real knack for tying things up satisfyingly, though, so I’m going to reserve final judgment, even though I found this opening salvo to be something less than I had hoped.
۞ All Star Superman #11 and Batman #677, however, are both terrific. Morrison is doing a much better job accommodating the somewhat limited talents of his Batman artists in his scripts, and All-Star Superman sets up the climactic issue with style. God, do I love All-Star Superman. (Also, apropos of my comments on Final Crisis, Morrison’s Batman run thus far reads MUCH better as a chunk than it did as it was being released. Still a shame about the art on those early issues, though.)
۞ Giant Size Astonishing X-Men #1 is a really well-executed book that’s a victim of its enormous lateness. If this had been a normal comic, not something that represented the culmination of a storyline spanning (almost exactly) FOUR YEARS, it would be fabulous. If many of the dramatic reveals hadn’t been spoiled during the wait for this last issue, it would be great. As it stands, it’s a very competently done comic that -- like so many late books before it -- will be much better for people reading it collected in the future, when they can get the whole story without waiting three months between chapters.
۞ Green Lantern #31 is still very good. Not really much to say about it beyond that, but you should be reading if you’re not already -- the upcoming Blackest Night crossover looks terrific, and you’re going to regret not being around for the whole buildup if you miss this.
۞ Brian Michael Bendis has quite a few annoying writing tics, and New Avengers #41 indulges one of my least favorite: the scene we’ve already seen, this time from a different perspective that reveals a tiny bit of new information. This comic could’ve been condensed down to two word balloons from Shanna in a much livelier, tighter-written, NON-FLASHBACK-Y comic. I really think Bendis would benefit from more severe limiting of his storytelling space -- the more room he has to spread out into, the more he bloats to fill it.
۞ Mark Millar has a history of being able to write surprisingly good stories about young kids growing up, when he wants to -- the first two issues of
Unfortunately, he also has a habit of shoehorning in something complete asinine in the last issue that completely undermines and ignores the strongest parts of what preceded it, so let’s hope he avoids that temptation here. I don’t think he is -- I think this is an updating of a an old Twilight Zone riff, although it’s being telegraphed awfully early if it is -- but you can never tell when Millar is going to think that a clever little story would be improved by some sort of incestuous zombie rape scene or something.
At the very least, he nails PRECISELY how awesome Secret Wars #10 was for a kid at the time. (And how awesome it remains, in fact. There’s a lot of ridiculous junk in that miniseries, but the scene under discussion here is still Dr. Doom at his finest. That and the cover of the Hulk holding up a mountain forgive a lot of silliness.)
۞ And speaking of silliness, we have Helen Killer #2, which answers the question “How long can a mash-up of Daredevil, the Hulk, and The Miracle Worker sustain my attention?” (Hint: not even two issues.) That said, the pun in the title is terrific, and the whole thing is obviously a labor of love for the creators. So they have that going for them, at least.
Also, I reviewed some of this week’s other books in preview format a few days ago, so go see if any of my warnings or suggestions would’ve helped your purchasing this week.
1 comment:
I totally forgot about 1985 when reviewing. It was cute. Apparently it's the same plot as an old issue of DC Showcase as well as a Twilight Zone episode. But, if stopped reading every book that was somewhat derivative of something or other, you get the point.
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