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Reading Pile: 5/16/12

Dan The Unharmable #1- It’s sort of like if the Big Lebowski was invulnerable and was a PI. Conceptually there wasn’t much to it but it seems like Lapham and Ortiz just want to have violent fun. The $3.99 cover price is a bit much for twenty-two pages of story, but that’s the usual Avatar package and there are no ads. It seems like it can be a fun run in the wrong sort of way, but I still get wary at that price point. B

Takio #1- Well at least it was twenty-eight pages of story for $3.95, but that price is kind of ridiculous for an all ages title. Then you get the usual five pages of self-promotion in the back as well, and then a bunch of advertisements. I will say that at least the story isn’t interrupted by advertisements. The story itself doesn’t hold my interest, but at least Bendis is keeping himself to a creator owned title so the usual complaints I have on dialogue and so on don’t hold as much. If you didn’t read the original book they released for Takio then you have to sit through some boring recap, and there were chunks of the book that just seemed like a waste of storytelling time. Not really feeling a need to check out #2, but you may want to pass this onto a younger reader as I can see it as being fun and it does star two strong female leads. B-

Frankenstein Alive, Alive! #1- It was real purty, and while I usually complain about the standard $3.99 pricing of all IDW books I can let it slide because it’s a nice story and Wrightson’s art makes the package. There are only nineteen pages of story, so be wary about picking this up issue by issue when there will probably be a nice hardcover on the way soon. When I was growing up I had the nice hardcover release of Frankenstein with all the Wrightson art pages, so this is a great follow up for anyone who is a big Wrightson/Frankenstein fan . A-

Mystery In Space #1- The Vertigo anthologies have been worthwhile so far, and there are plenty of stories in here that make the $7.99 price tag bearable.The seventy pages worth of story also helped. While I wouldn’t say any single one won the book, I will say that I didn’t hate any of them and that’s always a good thing in an anthology package. It’s always nice to see Michael Kaluta artwork as well and I was impressed with David Gianfelice and Sebastian Fiumara. Worth checking out for some solid talent. A-

Featured Artist: Felipe Massafera

You ever get the feeling that the industry gets a little oversaturated by Alex Ross sometimes? Would you like to see a Dynamite cover that’s NOT by Ross at some point in the history of the company? Or would you just like to see a nicely painted cover by someone else? Massafera has a very clean and exciting painterly style that is obviously influenced by Ross, but I actually feel like his layouts and sense of motion are a bit better to a certain degree. Check out more at his DeviantArt page.

Reading Pile: 5/12/12 Pt 2

Transformers Regeneration One #80.5- I ended up remembering to grab only two FCBD books this year because I was just too busy, but one of them was definitely going to be this as I used to read and reread the last dozen issues of the Marvel run when I was a kid. I was just obsessed with the stuff back then, so please understand that I’m fairly biased in a positive light towards anything Transformers. No matter what complaints I may have about IDW at times (EXPENSIVE SINGLE ISSUES), they do have fun with this property and I enjoy the show they put on. Although this makes for like over eight separate Transformers continuities to keep track of, I’m been hotwired by DC and the multiverse to the point where I almost find it fun now to try and figure this crap out. A very nostalgic grade of A.

Mind the Gap #1-A very interesting and well-constructed mystery for a great price. Clocking in at forty-five pages for $2.99, McCann and Esquejo give you your money’s worth and set up a bunch of clues and plots that have a lot of potential. I really like Esquejo’s fine lines and layouts as well as the fantastic coloring. Definitely worth taking a look and it's right up there with Saga as one of the best new releases from Image. A

Daredevil #12- Everytime they fill in the art with someone who is not Marcos Martin or Paulo Rivera I start off a little disappointed, but when they replace them with someone like Chris Samnee I can’t help but be happy. Samnee totally captures the tone and mode that Waid and Co. have been setting down and this is just another fantastic self-contained issue. A

Higher Earth #1- I like Sam Humphries’ work and am glad to see him getting a lot of mainstream gigs. Higher Earth has the potential to be a fun sci-fi story playing with the multiverse concept, and Humphries introduces a good teaser here in this twenty-two page first issue for only a buck. Francesco Biagini’s art is clean and tells a good story, but it is sort of an in-house Boom style and it isn’t overly flashy either so it might not draw in some people. Well worth checking out for the cheap price. B+

New Avengers #26- Really, Bendis? First you borrow the Sentry, then the Hood, and now Hickman’s Leonardo Da Vinci from SHIELD? Can you just leave shit alone? Please? B

Reading Pile: 5/12/12

Epic Kill #1- Kudos to anyone who writes and draws their own comic and gets it published, but this is sort of the type of project that I wish the creator spent some more time on before releasing it. The art, while clean, is very stiff and comes off rushed at times. The anatomy needs some work as well as the back cover seriously has the main character depicted with two left feet. Unless that’s a super secret ninja move we’ve never heard of, that kinda means ‘back to the drawing board’ to me. The story has some potential but at the moment it reeks of the usual ‘sexy killer girl with amnesia on a mission’ scenario we’ve seen so many times, probably most from Image as well. Still, it’s twenty-four pages for $2.99 so it’s doing better than its competitors for content per dollar. C+

Avengers Assemble #3- I think I finally pinpointed one of my biggest pet peeves with Bendis. It’s not that every character always sounds the same (which they do), but it’s specifically that every villain sounds the same. There are no unique villains in the world of Bendis, and every single one has the same speech patter. That’s especially if they are just basic goons or low level lackeys, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Ultron started talking about his tuchus at some point. Besides that, the last panel reveal in this issue is sort of……really? I get that with the Avengers movie this may seem like a timely thing to do, and I fully realize it’s probably not really who it looks to be since that would be just stupid. But let’s face it, Bendis sometimes fully ignores the work of other creators and messes with what he feels like despite the continuity. Just…..bah. C-

Dial H #1- I don’t really know what I was expecting since I’ve never read any of China Mieville’s novels, but I was sort of hoping for something more. There’s plenty of space to develop I suppose and I want to give it some more time to flesh out, but there wasn’t anything in here that grabbed me and impressed. I was a big fan of the last Dial H iteration, just titled ‘Hero’, so perhaps my expectations were just too high. Nice Bolland cover though. B-

Reading Pile: 5/11/12

Earth 2 #1- While I am infinitely disappointed in how the multiverse has not turned out with this 52 relaunch, I want to give this a chance because I have a little faith in James Robinson as long as he is into what he is currently writing. For example, his current Shade is fantastic while his Cry For Justice and JLA runs just fell apart into a giant heaping mess. One of those projects he was interested, the others you can tell there was some editorial interference. Despite that, this title both vexes and intrigues me as it’s decidedly not what I was hoping for but potentially offers an interesting story. What makes the pill a bit easier to swallow as well is that I really do love Nicola Scott’s art and she brings a lot to the title. I’m looking forward to the possibility of Robinson having a new sandbox to play in with his overly melodramatic style, but secretly hoping this is still all a ruse to us getting back to the previous DCU at some point. A-

The Spider #1- Most of the Dynamite pulp relaunches have fallen pretty short for me, but David Liss impressed me with his Mystery Men series for Marvel and I enjoyed the bulk of his Black Panther run as well. What I really like is that Liss makes it clear that The Spider is not a straight up hero and that he has a few issues that are not entirely mentally healthy. This actually feels like a pulp crime book and it embraces its down and dirty nature. Colton Worley’s art is a little too stiff and photorealistic in some places, but despite that he does capture the atmosphere that Liss is laying down. On top of all that there is the Francavilla cover, which is totally the cover you should have chosen out of the four options. B+

AVX #1- While I suppose it’s a little unrealistic to hope Marvel wouldn’t completely saturate the market with too much Avengers VS X-Men shenanigans, I was at least hoping the expansion into a ‘fight’ book that highlighted the brawling while the other book highlighted the ‘story’ would be at least a little more rewarding. Instead so far we have these quick little tiffs that are a bit unsatisfying because seriously, if you are going to have Iron Man fight Magneto or Thing fight Namor it would hopefully take them each longer than eight to ten pages to do so. You really shouldn’t waste your money and if you care that much just make up some better fights in your head. Honestly, if you’re a good enough comic geek you’re probably wondering if Legolas can beat both Hawkeye or Green Arrow at any given time anyway. C

Reading Pile: 5/10/12

X-O Manowar #1- So far Valiant has done a fairly good job of marketing and pushing their new product, and I actually do hope they have a successful relaunch as long as they don’t oversaturate the market wih too many titles all at once like Virgin or Crossgen. The one thing they do lack is big name talent, and while I personally really like Cary Nord I don’t think his name will draw in a huge amount of people. Robert Venditti’s writing is solid if this issue is any indication and it’s probably best that they went with a complete relaunch and reintroduction of the concept. The $3.99 price tag is a little steep but it does have twenty-nine pages of story, so right there it beats out a lot of Marvel books. Overall I found it well produced but it lacked a certain momentum. It was good when it needed to be great, but hopefully they will build over time and create a solid brand. B

G.I. Combat #1- I’m not much of a JT Krul fan, so while I sometimes enjoy Ariel Olivetti’s art it wasn’t enough to make me really care about the Time That War Forgot opening feature. It was fourteen pages of pretty art with tedious scripts. I was looking forward to Palmiotti and Gray’s Unknown Soldier back-up, but it was another fourteen pages of meh. It strikes me as counter-intuitive to introduce the secret of the Unknow Soldier right off the bat, assuming that’s not just a ruse or badly set up decoy sub-plot. While twenty-eight pages for $3.99 is slightly better a deal than most Marvel comics, this fell short of being truly worthwhile and needs to seriously pick up the slack if it wants to survive any longer than Men of War. C

Fury Max #1- The splash teaser at the start had Barricuda from the original Ennis PunisherMax run, so I’m pretty much hooked on this title. If you’ve read and appreciated the previous Ennis Fury titles then this falls right in line with the style of violent war stories and dark humor you’ll probably enjoy. I also really love Parlov’s art style, so having them work together again is a treat. He has a clean European style with a dirty edge and solid facial emoting, and he totally compliments whatever horrible events are sure to occur throughout the series. Twenty-two pages for $3.99 is kinda sucky, but at least it’s a good twenty-two pages.B+

Featured Artist: Mahmud Asrar

Asrar’s style has some hints of the watercolor style painting of Dustin Nguyen along with the line art of Raphael Alberquerque. His art has impressed me since the 52 relaunch of Supergirl as he has a great sense of storytelling and layouts along with a great style and sense of design. Check out more of his work on his website.

Reading Pile: 4/29/12

Goon #39- While I appreciate what Powell is doing and find his letter at the end of the book interesting, the jokes and focus points of this issue are a bit dated and played out. Maybe it’s because I’ve read too many parodies, so you might possibly enjoy it more depending on just how many funny books you read. Seriously, go read Lethargic Lad if you want something that really mocked the mainstream industry and put its neck out on the line. It even featured a villain that was a direct insult to the main distributor that has a monopoly over the industry. Back to the Goon though,the letter page is a bit ranty and much of the same stuff we’ve heard from Powell before. While I'm all for a good rant, Powell's message may have benefited from a more subtle approach. Powell removed his video satire and released a statement about his goals and the original message, but overall I get the feeling he has a soapbox and is a little miffed about the mixed reactions. I don’t want to complain since we don’t always get to see a new issue of the Goon often, but I felt this was kind of a waste considering the $3.50 price tag. B-

Batman #8- I just realized I haven’t reviewed many DC books in a while and that’s partly because a lot of the 52 titles lost their momentum for me and I’ve been lagging at picking them back up. I will say that of all the Bat titles this one still maintains my interest but I do think they jumped the gun and are oversaturating with the whole Night of Owls crossover. Snyder introduced a neat new concept in his opening arc, something that should have been left alone and developed slowly over time. Now it’s looking like we have to read about the same villain(s) for about a year, and the whole thing is crossing over into other titles so it’s jamming it down our throats. We probably had the most interesting new villain of the entire 52 line up and now I won’t really want to ever see the Court of Owls show up for a good long time. While the book was still well put together and I’m impressed Capullo is still going strong, my interest is sadly beginning to wane. B

New Avengers #25- I’m gonna have to ask someone who has never read Brubaker’s run of Iron Fist what they think of this issue, because while I was ok with the story it didn’t exactly seem reader friendly. It was a big tangent from anything casual readers are familiar with, and while I’m faintly interested in the idea of Iron Fist having a connection with the Phoenix I’m still very standoffish with this crossover. I generally don’t think it’s a great idea to not even have one Avenger in a book titled with the Avengers, but if the sub-plots pay off I’ll shut up. B-

Featured Artist: Elena Casagrande

Casagrande’s style reminds me a bit of a mix of Leonard Kirk, Sean Murphy, and Amy Reeder. She has great linework and a good narrative flow, plus she draws an awesome MODOK and I do believe that should be the true measure of any artist. Check out more of her work on her blogspot page.

Reading Pile: 4/28/12

Star Wars: Blood Ties: Boba Fett Is Dead #1- So there is way too much Star Wars saturating the market and I have little to no interest in any of it, but I figured I would grab a new #1 to review. Plus hey, Boba Fett, right? Kinda hard to screw up a Boba fett story, you would think. Although Lucas sort of always found a way…..Anyways, let’s start with the title. That is far too big a title and when you mix it up with the other four or five Star Wars titles coming out or on the way, that’s just not a great job of marketing the books. Beyond that, I had such a hard time caring about the story because the art was too distracting. While it’s not god-awful, it certainly isn’t great. I spent most of the time trying to figure out if it was digitally painted or just badly painted. Maybe badly digitally painted? It reminded me of the On A Pale Horse comics from a ways back, and that……that is not a good thing. So, once I was able to get past the art and tried to focus on the story, I felt like the story was kind of a big pile of ‘why should I give a crap?’. It would seem I should have read the previous runs that had the ‘Blood Ties’ tag on them, but I’m not feeling tempted to by this story at all. A good story makes you want to backtrack to the previous stuff so you can fill the holes, while this one just left me saying, ‘Ok, shit happened, please make the shit that is happening now more interesting.” This was a twenty-two page story with a price tag of $3.50, and I can’t find a good reason to recommend this to you. Also, I’m calling it right now; the mysterious figure avenging Boba Fett is Boba Fett. I just saved you a bunch of money. D

FF #17- Worth it for the last page alone. A

Wolverine #305- I want to give Cullen Bunn a chance since I love Sixth Gun so much and I do like Pelletier as I feel he is a solid artist who can tell a good story. While the plot seems very basic so far, the overall package of script and art work well and it looks like it can be a fun enough story. B

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