Posted in: Comics | Tagged: avengers, Batman, Comics, x-men

Last Week's Comics In Twenty-Five Panels

Published Tue, 15 May 2012 19:00:45 -0500

Dr Manolis Vamvounis writes for Bleeding Cool.

Last week in comics:

WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #10 alone makes up for everything that's sucked in AVX so far. The major mutant players come together at the Jean Grey school and actually behave like the characters we know for a change. Cyclops and Wolvie have an insightful discussion about the events so far, illuminating both sides of the argument – heck, INTRODUCING the argument for the first time, beyond the snikts and zakts, since the start of this crossover.

Wolvie's X-Men pick sides that make sense according to each character's history and personal connections. Then I presume they all cross back into the main series where they can once more behave like mindless plot drones. The Rachel / Phoenix connection is finally acknowledged in a way that is organic to the character instead of nerdy. Iceman continues to shine through as the true rock (iceberg?) of the team.

Similarly, X-MEN LEGACY #266 examines the tension between the two "warring factions", the uncomfortable racist undertones, and how easily these can escalate into a full-fledged conflict against the better judgement of either side, while still staying true to these characters and their history. I'd advise people to skip the main series completely and just read these amazing tie-ins from the Wolverine line of X-books.

So this is really happening. In NEW AVENGERS #26, Leonardo Da Vinci is visiting the mythical K'un Lun to meet the young Iron Fist girl who would be the first human host for the Phoenix Force. Bendis is channeling a healthy mix of Hickman and Fraction, but still keeping it woefully slow-paced. And how misleading was that cover? Danny Rand plus Hope equals Iron Finix.

That didn't take long. Agent Coulson and Black Fury (yeah, I'm going with that) are making their first crossover appearance behind SHIELD Director Daisy Johnson (when did THAT happen?) in SCARLET SPIDER #5 of all places. Now if we could retcon poor Kaine out of that ridiculous onesy…

In TRIO #1 John Byrne attempts to introduce his creator-owned/aped version of the Fantastic Four, but takes one too many wrong turns along the way. Being so blunt as to actually name them One, Two and Three or alternatively Rock, Paper and Scissors, after the inspiration for their powers, is the big one. Imagine if the FF had been namedWater, Earth, Fire and Air, or One through Four. The cheap photoshop texture layers used to color the skin of Three/Rock' don't help the situation. I do dig the creepiness of Paper's appearance and powers, Byrne manages to tweak her appearance in very subtle and innovative ways.

In GREEN LANTERN #9, Geoff Johns -finally- reveals the secrets of the Indigo Tribe's language, and their origins. It's a true shocker, packing enough punch to set this series back on track after the meandering past year since the September reboot. No spoilers here, go read for yourselves!

I might be reading too much into things, but Chris Roberson seems to be sneaking in some cheeky meta commentary aimed at DC in the pages of I ZOMBIE #25, as he prepares for his last few issues of the book.

MIND THE SPOILERS…

DEATHSTROKE #9 and GRIFTER #9 mark the first issues of Rob Liefeld's "hostile" takeover as writer/artist and the introduction of Zealot, Deathblow and Lobo into the DCNuverse. We all know Rob can't draw anymore (no use denying it at this point), but can he write? GRIFTER is an ok read and a beautiful book, a vast improvement over the first few issues, surely in no small part thanks to scripter Frank Tieri and the talented Scott Clark on art. DEATHSTROKE… is all Rob.

I'm still baffled why DC would not support one of their best creative teams (Higgins and Bennett) on this book, but choose to replace them with someone like Rob, putting out an infinitely inferior book as a result. It's the same approach as Higgins', but sloppier, less self-aware and more "9-year old playing with crayons". Um, no offense, Rob.

Yes, that is most certainly Thor, God of Thunder, grease monkey. After last week's EXILED #1, kicking off the crossover between NEW MUTANTS and JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY, many Asgardians have once again lost their selves into amnesiac human identities. Some more entertaining than others. This crossover is off to a great start with JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #637, organically weaving together elements from two titles that would have at first glance seemed an ill fit for each other.

DC's various inter-title crossovers aren't faring as well this week. Like whatever that was between SUICIDE SQUAD #9 and RESURRECTION MAN #9. Resurrection Man guest-starring on Suicide Squad provided the assassin team with a mindless, unkillable foe. Suicide Squad's presence however, was very disruptive RM's mystery/horror setting. In the original run of RM any "mainstream" super-hero cameos always served as some snide commentary on the nature of the genre. Here there's no twist, it's all sales- and editorial- driven. What is even more annoying is the lack of coordination between the writers, leading to a character that was freshly killed in the first book, turning up alive in the following part of the crossover. Or are Resurrection Man's powers contagious now?

NIGHT OF THE OWLS runs through three Bat-titles this week, and it's all the writers can do to try and instill some oomph into stories that are basically paint-by-numbers "bat-character versus owl-character to protect important city figure character" over and over and over again. In BATMAN #9, Bats rocks the new furnace armor in a sub-zero battle in the owl-infested Bat-cave, featuring a good number of interesting twists and action beats. In BATGIRL #9, Babs is pitted against a female Talon (ugh, really now? typecast much) with a fascinating backstory connected to real events. In BATMAN AND ROBIN #9, Damian gets to assert himself over a troop of soldiers in the field in one of his most shining character moments. And they all get to kick some owls. Boo, we hate owls. Yay, bats.

Similarly, the TEEN TITANS/LEGION LOST/SUPERBOY crossover titled "THE CULLING" immediately loses steam after its entertaining opening salvo last week. SUPERBOY #9 and LEGION LOST #9 sort of merge together into one gooey mess of a battle scene. The interesting bits are the little teases about Kid Flash's new origins, and his and the villain Harvest's connection to the 31st century.

She-Hulk gets tailed (that was the best I could come up with on such short notice) in AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #9 by guest-creators, the Immonens, in an issue filled with pussy cats and bad puns. Shulkie seems like a generic choice for a guest-star this issue, the way she was handled, but it's a fun, dense plot that doesn't feel rushed. Who knew we could still get those in 20 pages.

In ULTIMATE COMICS X-MEN #11, the Sentinels go renegade, slaughtering thousands of humans in the greatest terrorist attack on the U.S. in the history of the Ultimate Universe… and it all plays out inside two pages of story. If you're going to bore the reader with such a tragically decompressed (some might say deflated) narrative this whole past year, try to at least make a big splash of it when you need to. Having the President describe the tragedy is not the same as actually showing it. Are we sure it is the real Nick Spencer writing this?

Just look at his other book out this week: MORNING GLORIES #18 outs one of its main cast members in an exquisitely intimate (and steamy!) love scene, the likes of which no one has dared "do" before in mainstream, non-genre comics. No more spoilers here.

DEADPOOL #54, the finale of the DEAD storyline, sees Wade Wilson lose his healing factor but gain back his handsome Brad Pitt-esque looks. Dead Gorgeous!

UNCANNY X-FORCE #25 upgrades the Omega Red concept (Russian albino tentacle porn) for a new generation with "Clan Omega", the genetically engineered clones/kids of the original. "Kid Omega" was already taken, you see.

Oh yeah, and the final page of AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #3 sees the return of Thanos, just in time for a certain tentpole movie tie-in. The character had an amazing run under DnA in their cosmic line of titles, I'm a bit pensive about Bendis' approach, especially after the inane bait-and-switch that launched the most recent Avengers run. Fool me once…

BEST ART THIS WEEK!

Max Fiumara has come a long way since the hatchet job that was his mainstream work in Infinity Inc. Even on an inventory-type fluff story like HULK SMASH AVENGERS #2, he shines through with beautifully stylised and exaggerated figures and a soulful fairytale energy. The little trick Jean-Francois Beaulieu introduces here with the Vision being coloured directly from the pencils is something I hope more artists and books copy, the visual effect is very appropriate to the character's personality and nature.

GOREWATCH!

There's something profoundly disturbing about the way the usually meek and cartoonish style of Paul Pelletier takes to scenes of ghastly splatter in WOLVERINE #306. We've seen Wolvie get his face melted off countless times before, but this eerie attention to detail, the charred flesh patterns, the bit of exposed bone, the regenerating eyeball later on… EEK!

MARVEL ZOMBIES DESTROY #1 does NOT have as much gore. What it lacks in graphic violence, it makes up in obscure Marvel heroes (Battlestar! Red Raven! Blazing Skull! Flexo!??) and the dynamic duo of Howard the Duck and Dum Dum Dugan versus invading Nazi Zombies in World War II!

Going for the "little girl getting graphically eviscerated by wolves" card on the opening sequence of your very first issue is a daring move, and one that NIGHT OF A 1,000 WOLVES #1 milks for every drop of horrific ambience.

DAN THE UNHARMABLE #1 opens up with an even more graphic panel of a mutilated body, a tad too gruesome and detailed for the needs of this humour book. The crotch-punching action of the unflappable and unkillable loser of a protagonist, Dan in the rest of the issue was more appropriately slapstick.

I read over 29 books this week, and TEN of them were part of some crossover or other. DC alone had THREE crossovers in one week. WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #10, along with X-MEN LEGACY #266 are the shining examples of the heart and attention to characters that is needed to make these big events work. NIGHT OF THE OWLS is impressive in the attention to detail needed to coordinate the timeline of events for Batman and his cast during that long night. SUICIDE SQUAD and RESURRECTION MAN were just shameful.

Only one valuable lesson this week:

Keep Rob Liefeld off your favourite book! And go buy the first trade of DEATHSTROKE, it's one of the most action-packed and explosive, fun books of the year.

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