There are a ton of books in the Marvel Preview Pack, an absolute TON -- and even more of them on the advance shipping list. It's a HUGE week, Marvel Fans, and a suprising number of the books (the ones I've read, anyhow) are really good. Anyhow, given the volume of books and the always SPOILER-FREE nature of these preview reviews, let's see how quickly we can knock these out.
۞ Uncanny X-Men #499 - Wraps up the SF story and the Russia story adequately, and clears the decks for an interesting run with the updated creative team. Perfectly sound.
۞ X-Men Legacy #213 - Very interesting twists here. I'm really growing to dig this storyline a lot.
۞ Runaways #30 is so late that I have no recollection what's happening, but I get the sense that I would really like it if I did. Stupid late books.... I'm NOT looking forward to the new creative team, though.
۞ Wolverine First Class #4 - Fun. Not my usual cuppa tea, but if you like this sort of thing (Kitty Pryde transformed into a cat warrior, for example), this is a well-executed version of it.
۞ Ultimate Spider-Man #123 - Not quite as appealing to me as last issue, but a suitably creepy introduction to this storyline, and one that has me at least a bit intrigued.
۞ Thor Reign of Blood One-Shot - This is the second of three linked Matt Fraction Thor one-shots, and, like the last one, this one is AWESOME. Captures the violent, sleazy tone of true myth and just goes to town with it.
۞ Captain America #39 - Consistent like the sun, taxes, and traffic. This is good stuff.
۞ Thunderbolts #121 - A lively but slightly rushed wrap-up to the Ellis run. Good, but I was hoping for something sublime.
۞ Fantastic Four #558 - Promising start to the new storyline, this feels like a much denser read than the last one. I hate the fuzzy panel edges, though. Not sure why that drives me so nuts, but it does.
۞ Immortal Iron Fist #16 - Snif. Matt Fraction bids goodbye to Iron Fist the way it deserves. Great stuff. I'll give the new creative team a shot, but they've got a lot to live up to. (And, if there are any other Fraction junkies out there, he's the writer on the Young Avengers Presents issue shipping this week also.)
۞ Wolverine Origins #26 - I'm predisposed to hate this book in general, but replacing the dependable Steve Dillon with a much lesser artist (think Lenil Yu + Mark Texiera + someone who has no clue how to layout a page) really takes it to alarming new lows.
Showing posts with label Fantastic Four. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fantastic Four. Show all posts
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Comics Reviews...From the PAST!
Labor Day or whatever we just celebrated kind of threw me off. Plus, Verizon totally [edit] me over on installing my high-speed interwebs connection, so I still lack the ability to post from home. Because I still have dial-up. Because I have not advanced technologically since 1996, apparently (because, before that I had a 14.4 k modem, so I've moved up). Anyway:
The only DC book I read this week was, apparently, The Spirit #17, a book that continues its swift decent to be a strong competitor for "Worst Book I Read Out of Habit". Much like the other competitors (Game Keeper, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimates 3... actually there's a lot of competition here) it's a book that I used to like, but the bailing of A-List (or at least competent) teams or individuals has absolutely destroyed it. Here, Darwyn Cooke made a terrific, enjoyable, all-ages package that has then been defamed by otherwise competent creators. This issue has Spirit taking a sea cruise and ripping off a plot from "Murder, She Wrote". The art, which had been by Mike Ploog and Paul Smith on previous issues, is by Aluir Amancio, whose cheesecake renditions seem out of place at best.
Indies also had a weak showing: I only picked up Gargoyles: Bad Guys #3, which I enjoyed. It's Gargoyles, so I'll spare you a review. But, it's like the show, but a comic.
Now, on to Marvel. Fun fact, a year ago, I was buying more DC than Marvel.
Amazing Spider-Man #560 continues a string of enjoyable Spidey stories. I had doubts, but really, it's the closest to a kid-friendly in continuity book either Marvel or DC has. People can complain about the violence but, come on, I read Grendel when I was far too young and I'm fine. Ish. Good stuff, really.
Captain America #38 just kind of rules. I don't know why every single comic-reading person is not buying this book. Great cover, awesome art, and the early reveal is just SO good. Brubaker is awesome at pulling off twists that are obvious and surprising all at once (see Criminal, Sleeper, et al). Plus, I am just happy Secret Invasion has not insinuated itself into his grand epic like, say, Civil War did (although, that worked out okay).
Fantastic Four #557 continues Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's very decent run on the title. Hopefully, the next storyline will be an improvement, but it is depressing that the book I was looking forward to so much has turned into something so blah. It's better than Stracynski's run (or sprint), though.
X-Factor #31 was perfectly fine. And the Arcade story is done, so that's nice.
Rounding out the week, there were two Ultimate books (an improvement over past months that saw four to five Ultimate books ON THE SAME DAY), Fantastic Four and X-Men, and both were bad for their own, unique reasons. UFF #54 had some terrible Liefeld-meets-Turner art by Tyler Kirkham. Mike Carey's script is fine, though, if a little padded out to set up the "big reveal" (which was lame).
Then, there was Ultimate X-Men #94, which, just, baaah! I'm not going to defend Robert Kirkman here; his run was somewhere between awful and unreadable. He deliberately went against the established Ultimate continuity (how hard is it to pay attention to all of 50 issues of continuity, really). He wrote a spasmodic, borderline-masturbatory version of '90s excess comics. But, I swear, Aron Collete is worse. Because he writes his book like it IS a '90s X-Men book. Men of Mystery! Random violence! Characters spouting non-sense to build mystique! (Note: I don't care who really Sasquatch is, no matter how much you want me to). So, yeah, this is just a bad as Kirkman's run, but different bad.
And that's the week. I realize now that, if I didn't read bad books, I'd read no books at all. Which is depressing.
The only DC book I read this week was, apparently, The Spirit #17, a book that continues its swift decent to be a strong competitor for "Worst Book I Read Out of Habit". Much like the other competitors (Game Keeper, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Ultimates 3... actually there's a lot of competition here) it's a book that I used to like, but the bailing of A-List (or at least competent) teams or individuals has absolutely destroyed it. Here, Darwyn Cooke made a terrific, enjoyable, all-ages package that has then been defamed by otherwise competent creators. This issue has Spirit taking a sea cruise and ripping off a plot from "Murder, She Wrote". The art, which had been by Mike Ploog and Paul Smith on previous issues, is by Aluir Amancio, whose cheesecake renditions seem out of place at best.
Indies also had a weak showing: I only picked up Gargoyles: Bad Guys #3, which I enjoyed. It's Gargoyles, so I'll spare you a review. But, it's like the show, but a comic.
Now, on to Marvel. Fun fact, a year ago, I was buying more DC than Marvel.
Amazing Spider-Man #560 continues a string of enjoyable Spidey stories. I had doubts, but really, it's the closest to a kid-friendly in continuity book either Marvel or DC has. People can complain about the violence but, come on, I read Grendel when I was far too young and I'm fine. Ish. Good stuff, really.
Captain America #38 just kind of rules. I don't know why every single comic-reading person is not buying this book. Great cover, awesome art, and the early reveal is just SO good. Brubaker is awesome at pulling off twists that are obvious and surprising all at once (see Criminal, Sleeper, et al). Plus, I am just happy Secret Invasion has not insinuated itself into his grand epic like, say, Civil War did (although, that worked out okay).
Fantastic Four #557 continues Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's very decent run on the title. Hopefully, the next storyline will be an improvement, but it is depressing that the book I was looking forward to so much has turned into something so blah. It's better than Stracynski's run (or sprint), though.
X-Factor #31 was perfectly fine. And the Arcade story is done, so that's nice.
Rounding out the week, there were two Ultimate books (an improvement over past months that saw four to five Ultimate books ON THE SAME DAY), Fantastic Four and X-Men, and both were bad for their own, unique reasons. UFF #54 had some terrible Liefeld-meets-Turner art by Tyler Kirkham. Mike Carey's script is fine, though, if a little padded out to set up the "big reveal" (which was lame).
Then, there was Ultimate X-Men #94, which, just, baaah! I'm not going to defend Robert Kirkman here; his run was somewhere between awful and unreadable. He deliberately went against the established Ultimate continuity (how hard is it to pay attention to all of 50 issues of continuity, really). He wrote a spasmodic, borderline-masturbatory version of '90s excess comics. But, I swear, Aron Collete is worse. Because he writes his book like it IS a '90s X-Men book. Men of Mystery! Random violence! Characters spouting non-sense to build mystique! (Note: I don't care who really Sasquatch is, no matter how much you want me to). So, yeah, this is just a bad as Kirkman's run, but different bad.
And that's the week. I realize now that, if I didn't read bad books, I'd read no books at all. Which is depressing.
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