Kyle's Comic Review Backlog, Part 2.

[dewinged]

I'm going to try my damnedest to get what I can done, here. People pick the worst time to 'call out sick' from work, I swear to God.

Anyways, there's reviews to be done. Now with Less X! Not X-less, but not as much as the last one. :)


New X-men: Academy X #7: We kick off the new Academy X story arc with a visit by David/Prodigy's little sister, Kim. After reading it a few times, I've picked up on the underlying theme of family in this issue: David has an accepting family, Nori does not, and clashes with Josh/Jay, who doesn't realize how lucky he has it with his own family.

There is a Danger Room sequence, and since this issue would be the first issue in the next TPB, you get a very clear sense of what Dani's Squad's characters are capable of, with a potential ghost story tying the issue together. Ryan's art does well here, whether it's the kinetic energy behind the DR scene, or the contrasts between Nori in America at Xavier's and her Traditional family home back in Japan (in one of the more heart-touching scenes, I might add), or a brooding Josh perched on top of the b-ball backboard outside in the cold, naked from the waist up.

(Kyle sees what he wrote last, sits back and cheerily brings that image up in memory.)

*cough*

Um...

Anyway.

Look...the deal it, it's the same vibe I got from the previous issue. It's good. Just good. There's something missing from it; some little tiny thing that I can't quantify that will push this book up some serious levels. The writing is good, the art is good, the concept of Xavier's School as Mutant Hogwarts is good, but there's something lacking that I am unable to put my finger on. And it irks me because I want this group to succeed where Morrison's Special Class failed on almost every level.


New Thunderbolts #2:
New Thunderbolts #3: Didn't issue #1 hit the stands about six weeks ago? Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is service! :) Anyways, we have Busiek and Nicieza on the writing chores, with Grummett, known for a clean, honest, inobtrusive art style on the pencils. Rememebr when comics were fun? New Warriors...the first fifty issues? Thunderbolts...around the same first 50 issues? And wow, there's a trend. Now, the plus on this is that Busiek and Nicieza are not trying to recreate what originally happened in the first series: they're moving forward, letting new characters in semi-slowly...okay, not that slowly. Speed Demon, Joystick, Radioactive Man, all of them show up between these two issues, while the Bolts with some help in the inside from the FF and Namor, and with Spider-Man outside the building, try and stop the UN building from collapsing on itself after a bomb implanted in the suits of players/villains in some private 'game' contest goes off. Captain Marvel/Genis is still missing, Melissa seems to care and Abe has yet to notice, Blizzard suffers from serious confidence issues, the Purple Man is plotting in the wings (which was in T-bolts #2, which hit the shelves before New Avengers #1, where he was shown in prison, making Bendis full of teh shitzor) the Evil Atlantean faction is on the move with a new bearer for the freaking /Serpent Crown/, and Strucker gets a pointed arguement (i.e. pointed through his chest and out his back) by someone calling themselves the Swordsman.

And that's in just two issues.

Yeah. Like that.


Exiles #55:
Exiles #56: The summary is this: The Exiled end up in an alternate Manhattan, which is Medieval Manhattan, because Kulan Gath did a spell that turned it into Medieval Times Square, save for Spider Man who knows what's really going on. The Exiles pop in, and get affected by the spell immediately, becoming all 'more garbed than thou' until they get led to the sewers by Pete, where they get hit by the Soulsword which breaks the spell's hold on them.

Sadly, we see it implied, but we don't get an actual visual of Illyana striking Beak with the Soulsword, which would have been so emotionally satisfying, you have NO idea.

And why does it seem Illyana can survive in any reality save our own?

Anyways, why is Kulan Gath in the sewers? Because the chump got trumped: he goes to start controlling all the supernatural Marvel types: Werewolf by Night, Morbius, and the like? When he gets to Ghost Rider, he unleashes Zarathos by accident, who kicks his bony ass out and takes over. Oops.

See...I'd like Exiles more if it was like this? It's a bunch of X and X-conntected characters (Save for, maybe, Namora-of-the-no-real-point), when it doesn't have to be. I'd love to see an alternate version of Wolfman John Jameson, or a Rick Jones Hulk, just something to show the infinite possibilities of realities like the original gang (Blink, Morph, Mimic, Nocturne, War, and Magnus) came from. Tony Bedard, considering the concept, shouldn't have to rely on the X so much, and I think the book suffers because he does.


Supreme Power #14: So long as I keep repeating the mantra, "It's an alternate reality, it's not the real Squadron," this actually kinda works. The heroes are starting to assemble, though where it'a going to go in the long-term is not really clear, as Nighthawk, Hyperion, and Whizzer (I forgot Leroy's other name, so I use the original version) hunt a super-powered serial killer on their own initiative, preying on prostitutes in a Jack-the-Rip-them-Limb-from-Limb kinda fashion. I mean, the artwork is pretty spiff, with a storyline that is only now starting to gain any momentum. Not one of my favorite books, and I'm not sure why I'm picking up this 'anti-heroic' comic, but I still do.


The Intimates #2: I think it's a little too early for me to judge this book. Read the first two issues. Now, the concept is Superhero High School, vaguely kinda-sorta based in the Wildstorm Universe. And the writer has admitted it's not going to be typical heroics and such...but there's not much of anything, really. A lot of little tidbits, and...well, I think stuff happened, but it's a lot of talking, and not much in the way of 'forward' as a direction. But two issues in, in a book that is not supposed to be there for the action sequences, and I really don't have the knowledge base to form a good opinion here. I want to like it for what it is, and not because Fandom tells me that if I don't like it, there's something inherently wrong with me.

Sorry. They do that. A lot.


Fables #32: There's a certain trend with some current writers: give them their own world to play in as they see fit, and they do well. Have them do Mainstream, and it doesn't quite work out. Considering half the crap I hear about the Robin comic (don't read it, my comic budget can't sustain bats, blue tights, or spiders), I keep wondering if it's the same Bill Willingham that writed Fables, here. I don't read Robin, so I can't judge there, but this series is one of my favorites. And considering I'm someone who has an allergy to Vertigo, that's a feat in and of itself.

Mark Buckingham, whom I remember from Generation X back in the day, actually has an art style that fits the book. Light, almost cartoonish and whimsical at one end, but can switch to a rather grisly murder scene on the next page. And the appearance of Grandpa on the last page is mystical and imposing all at the same time, keeping the 'Grimm' in this modern-day fairy tale.

As for Willingham? His writing shines here, even in the 'Autumn' phase of his seasonal story. Charming has won the election on empty promises and without a general clue how things work. His new cabinet has their own agendas, and with Snow on the Farm, Bigby on leave, and Blue gone off to the Old Lands on his own (kid's got balls, man. Pure balls), everyone who knew jack about what was really going on has left, and the rest of Fabletown are sitting ducks.

Still, fun.

Okay, that's enough for now. The rest...are some doozies.

Comments

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Well.... I like Robin these days. Now that he's in Bludhaven with Batgirl... I really like it. A lot. Batgirl has improved for it as well.

[occamsnailfile.livejournal.com]

I want to love Exiles. I loved the first, oh, twenty issues or so? It has some good ideas and some absolutely neat characters... but they never do anything with them beyond "What IF? LIZARD TOOK OVER THE WORLD!" ...That's fine, now and again- but they have a cool metaplot waiting in the wings (what is the Timebroker _really_?) that they never advance. I wouldn't mind seeing a few other less X-Centric characters either- they had some in the Weapon X teams (Scarlet Spider, Hyperion, She Hulk I think? Evil Warbird, a few others) but that idea got tossed at least for the present.

...

I still have the entire run of course. Bah! ;)