The Amazing Spider-Man #648
Marvel
Dan Slott has unabashedly taken over The Amazing Spider-Man and he seems to have lifted every corner of the Spider-Man universe to include it in the beginning of his much hyped run on the series.
I wondered why there was so little crossover between Amazing and the Avengers books. After all, he’s been a part of that series for years now; I liked that they joined him in the opener to stop Doc Ock and several of his other villains. Spider-Man may save the day, but it looks as though he played right into the Doctor’s tentacles.
The storyline is called “Big Time” and that’s an understatement. Slott includes all the major players in Spidey and Peter Parker’s lives, but it doesn’t feel jumbled. The story unfolds nicely as Peter looks for new work and a new place to live. Our down and out hero finally lands an appropriate job that conveniently has no scheduled hours (however, as readers, I believe this is something we turn a blind eye to anyway).
Humberto Ramos is a favorite of mine and he knocks every page out of the park. His style may be best described as “cartoony”, but I love his interpretations of the characters. He gets to take a stab at the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, and a host of Spider-Man’s most famous rogues. As for the web-slinger himself, Ramos seems born to draw him (and his very gooey looking webs).
Avengers: The Children's Crusade #3
Marvel
After being wowed by the first two issues, I was left a little disappointed by the slowness of the action in this issue. Writer Allan Heinberg seems to know where he wants the characters at the start and end of the story, but the middle plods along.
That is not to say that this is a bad issue necessarily, but it doesn’t live up to the strength that we’ve come to expect from this mini-series. Quicksilver questions the sincerity of Magneto’s intentions as the somewhat reformed villain joins the Young Avengers in their search for the Scarlet Witch.
Wiccan decides to search for his mother on his own which leads to an excellent climax. I would have rather had more time spent having Wiccan infiltrating Dr. Doom’s castle than all of the arguing between Magneto and Quicksilver for the first third of the book.
As usual Jim Cheung has provided beautifully rendered pages and Justin Ponsor has exquisitely colored Cheung’s artwork. Though the story was the weakest of the series, the art is as good as it’s ever been.
Ant-Man & Wasp #1 (of 3)
Marvel
Possibly there are few people who got excited about an Ant-Man & Wasp mini, but knowing that Tim Seeley (HACK/slash) was scripting and drawing it should have been enough to raise the excitement quotient.
And there’s reason. It’s a good book. Seeley brings great humor to the piece, as there is humor to be mined with the newest Ant-Man, the morally ambiguous Eric O’Grady. We begin with Eric who has just cashed in on his Secret Avengers gig with one in a string of one night stands.
Soon we learn that Eric has been used in a ploy by A.I.M. to steal technology from Hank Pym that Hank has used to house the soul of his deceased friend Bill Foster. Not one to enjoy being duped, Eric joins Hank in reacquiring his equipment.
Ant-Man & Wasp was a better book than many might expect. Seeley’ art is as excellent as his script, which is both funny and dramatic. When Eric refers to A.I.M. as “evil nerds in yellow beekeeper costumes” I thought, “Well someone had to finally say it.”
Halcyon #1
Image
I was excited by the premise of this book: what happens to the heroes when the never-ending fight for justice ends.
Written by Marc Guggenheim and Tara Butters, the first issue serves to introduce us to this Earth’s heroes as they begin to realize that the criminals have finally come to their senses and stopped criminalizing.
Halcyon (the name of the super team chronicled in this series) opens strong and introduces us to a group of characters that appear to have potential, but I think a misstep was to include both a Superman and a Batman archetype (Zenith and Sabre respectively). It’s been done enough that I question how much of a purpose this will serve. That is, unless Guggenheim and Butters give their characters identical backgrounds to their DC counterparts to explore what it would be like is Superman had all of this power and nothing to do with it and Batman had nothing left to avenge.
There’s another twist to Zenith and Sabre that has also already been explored elsewhere, but I’m not going to spoil it. Regardless, Halcyon #1 was a good opener and the series has potential for greatness. I’ll assume that with little in the way of derring-do left in the world these heroes inhabit, this book is going to focus more on character-driven stories. I would have preferred a bit more development.
Ryan Bodenheim does a lot of impressive work in this first issue. All of his characters have a distinctive look and his work is clean and dynamic; Bodenheim draws a lot of nice wide shots so it’s clear exactly what is going on. Mark Englert’s colors are also great; strongest in a scene at the Halcyon underwater HQ where Zenith is conducting a team meeting.
Chew #15
Image
Robert Guillory is an amazingly fine artist. The opening sequence of this issue (not to mention the striking tri-fold cover) is absolutely fantastic. The story opens with Savoy
We are then introduced to Tony’s family; he’s arrived for the holidays and he’s greeted like any other loved one at a holiday gathering: with adoration and consternation. John Layman’s script is as sharp as always. Tony’s attempt at saying grace before the family digs into their illegal turkey was very amusing.
The story ends with a pretty significant cliffhanger. Make sure to pull out issue #4 to remind yourself what is happening.
Ultimate Thor #2
Marvel
Ultimate Thor #1 made it to my “buy” pile last month because I only had two comics on my pull list. Thankfully I did, because it was a really strong opener for a character that hasn’t had anything to do on his own in this universe. Because of this, writer Jonathan Hickman has more room to expand on the character un-established background.
The series has been taking place in three timelines: the present where Thor is under mental observation (they think he’s a loon), World War II where Baron Zemo is readying to take on Asgard, and the far past where Thor is coming into his own as the God of Thunder.
There are no weak points in Hickman’s storytelling and series artist Carlos Pacheco and inker Dexter Vines have produced a feast for the eyes. There’s a fantastic coliseum fight scene between the sons of Odin that is really dazzling.
I thought this book was a mini to package before the Thor movie is released next summer, but if Ultimate Thor is going to continue being produced with this quality, I’d like to see it live on.
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