Cape Town Capsule Reviews, 11/17/10 Releases

By Don M. Ventura

The Flash #6

DC

Logic has been asked to take a backseat in the final issue of the “Dastardly Death of the Rogues” storyline, the first arc of Geoff Johns’s re-introduction of the Silver Age Flash back into the DCU. This flaw is simply too large a leap to accept.

In this arc the Renegades, a team of Rogue doppelganger police from the future, have traveled through time to arrest the Flash for the future murder of the Mirror Monarch. The B-story involved Barry Allen re-opening of a cold case in which a young man is falsely imprisoned of murder. It turns out the Renegade Top is framing the Flash of Mirror Monarch’s murder so that he can prevent Barry from solving the cold case because the Top’s ancestor was the actual murderer. The Top knows that he will never be able to serve as a police office if an ancestor has a criminal record.

Wait. At no point in the story has Barry altered the past. This means the Top’s ancestor would have always had a criminal record and the Top would have never been able to be a cop in the first place. This took me out of a story that I had been enjoying up until this point.

Plotting aside, Francis Manapul has delivered another issue full of exquisite artwork. The chase scene between the Flash and the top is phenomenal. Manapul never wastes a panel on this book, and the coloring by Brian Buccellato is stunning. The chase scene in particular is phenomenal with all of the lights of the building illuminated in yellows and oranges.

I love Johns, but this ending threw me.

X-Men #5

Marvel

I’m still not sure how Victor Gischler has kept me interested in a storyline about vampires (something to which I admittedly have an aversion) but this book’s inaugural arc has been a fun ride while never becoming silly. Another feat considering the subject matter.

The newly vampired Wolverine and Xarus’s minions have begun their assault on Utopia and Cyclops has the troops ready. This is the action-packed story that this arc has been building up to and it is well paced and offers plenty of good scenes for the main characters.

With the vampires descending on Utopia, Cyclops has the impenetrable charactesr on the frontline and refers to them as “tough skins.”  In typical Emma Frost fashion, we are treated to “How can you possibly look at this glittering form of mine and lump something so glamorous into the category of tough skin?”  I appreciate Gishler’s infusion of humor where it is appropriate and fitting for the character and scene. X-Men is perhaps my favorite of the current long line of X-books.

Superior #2

Icon

While perhaps not “the most important comic book since 1938” as the cover promises, Superior is a fun and sometimes thoughtful book by Mark Millar and Leinil Yu. In the last issue, Simon Pooni was granted the powers of Superior (a movie super hero) and in this issue he seeks the help of his friend Chris to help him figure his powers out.

Millar is has mastered foul language to communicate awe and disbelief. This issue serves as an opportunity to establish Superior’s powers and allow Simon to begin mastering them. Some are easier than others. Superior sight and strength come fairly easy. Heat vision and flight will take some work.

As with the last issue, Millar proves that he can produce incredibly touching work that doesn’t become maudlin in the least. Scenes of Simon in physical therapy are featured between the panels of Simon as Superior trying to pull multiple train cars.

Yu’s work is equally important to this book. His work has continued to grow stronger with each project. The scene with Simon grappling with flight is wonderful as he awkwardly attempt to control his new powers. I have been enjoying Sunny Gho’s colors on Power Girl and her work on Superior is equally as strong.  

Batman: The Return (One-Shot)

DC

Deciding between this book and Batman Incorporated as the best book of the week was difficult. Batman: The Return is another fine piece of work by Grant Morrison who has firmly established an ability to find the distinct voices of the peripheral characters in the Batman universe.

The book opens with beautiful prose by Morrison involving the voyage of the frightening and bloodied bat that inspires Bruce Wayne to don a cape and mask as Gotham City’s protector. If you love Batman, try to avoid goose bumps while reading this opening passage.

The story serves as Batman’s assertion as the general of the Bat-family of characters (specifically Dick Grayson Batman, Robin, Red Robin, Batgirl and Oracle) as he doles out their specific tasks going forward. This book presents an exciting new status quo for these characters as Batman declares “From today on, Batman will be everywhere it’s dark, no place to hide.

While I have not always been an enormous fan of David Finch’s art (I’ve found that the eyes of his characters have been particularly soulless) but this book’s script plays to the artist’s strengths. The guy draws a hell of a batcave.

Supergirl #58

DC

Sterling Gates is closing up shop on Supergirl with this final two-part arc before Nick Spencer takes over the title in January.  The story focuses on Cat Grant who Gates introduced into the book as a foil for Girl of Steel, criticizing her and trying to break her down at every turn.

Three children in Metropolis have gone missing and the modus operandi appears to be that of Winslow Schott, the original Toyman and murderer of Cat’s son. Gates takes his time on this issue presenting some strong character work between Cat and Kara. The writer seems to want to bring some closure to Cat’s arc on this series by the end of his run.

Jamal Igle’s artwork is as strong as always.  His Toyman is creepy and unbalanced and all the toys have a properly haunting quality. The story concludes with the appearance of a character that hasn’t been in the book for sometime, an indication of more resolution to Gates’s run.

Osborn #1 (of 5)

Marvel

I wonder if it might still be a little too soon to return to Norman Osborn stories? Gone since being taken down in Siege about six months ago I opened this book and realized enough time has not passed for me to become nostalgic.

The story involves Frontline Norah Winters who has been assigned to write an expose on Norman Osborn. Norah admits that she feels partially responsible for him getting away (literally) with murder by not exposing him when she had the opportunity. We then get into some business about the legality of Norman’s incarceration and ultimately his move to a special containment center for super villains.

While I never felt invested in the story, Kelly Sue Deconnick moved the story along fine and absolutely has an ear for dialogue—a scene between Norah and Peter Parker was a good example of this as a brash Norah reveals touches of humanity. Also, while I didn’t dislike Emma Rios’s artwork on the book, I did not like her rendition of Peter who seemed a tad too young for the character.

Osborn ends interestingly enough to warrant picking up the second issue of this mini, but I’m not yet committed to the entire run.

Spider-Girl #1

Marvel

I walked away from this book much in the way I did Superboy a few weeks ago. While it wasn’t bad, it doesn’t seem to have enough heart to it.

Writing strong teenage characters can be difficult, and while Paul Tobin is in the right direction, there is something that rings a bit strained in his attempts here. Spider-Girl is part of the “Big Time” relaunching of Spider-Man related titles and it is a pretty average opening. I thought the use of Twitter for Spider-Girl to communicate to her fans was an interesting concept, but it wasn’t well executed.

Spider-Girl is off preventing small crimes from occurring while the Fantastic Four deal with a major baddie off screen (who appears in the final panel). The book’s light approach to Spider-Girl’s crime fighting efforts works tonally, but it doesn’t succeed in a way that Batgirl (by Bryan Q. Miller) does—a title with a similar protagonist.

Clayton Henry’s artwork is quite nice however. Henry’s characters are expressive and he draws strong action sequences.