By Cristian Casares
Journey Into Mystery #624
Marvel Comics
«««½
After Loki sacrificed himself in Siege, he is now reborn in the body of a child, but appears to be more of an ally then the evil god we have grown to know. A Fear Itself tie-in book, the first page takes some time to recap his part in helping Thor escape and breaking out the Hel-Wolf for his own use.
Kieron Gillen's run on Thor is some of my favorite work. Over all, I think he's a great writer. In this particular issue we get to see him explore these almighty gods a little more. Something that is growing out of this series is the relationship between Volstagg and young Loki. I've never know Volstagg to be one of the deeper characters and Gillen gives us a different side to him, doing a terrific job just exploring his character and, as I mentioned before, his growing relationship with Loki.
Gillen is able to give every character on the page a very distinct feel and voice. I found it very easy to imagine Odin's booming voice as I read his lines of dialogue, for example. Loki is the star of this book however, and some interesting things are being put on the table for him, and elements from his previous Thor run are also being brought back in the picture in a way that makes perfect sense. Even as a kid, we are beginning to get these moment where we aren't so sure if Loki will stay on his path to help his brother, or if he's already planning something completely on his own agenda. He still is the God of Mischief and definitely shows his cunning and conniving ways
Every line of dialogue is written so poetically and every page looks outstanding. This is a really heavy tie-in to Fear Itself, and is definitely recommended, especially if you're reading Marvel's big event.
Batman and Robin #24
DC Comics
«½
Judd Winick returns with the 2nd part of a 3 part story arc. Jason Todd is broken out of jail on his way back to Arkham by the Menagerie, a team of half animal and half human beings.
First off, I am not a huge Jason Todd fan, but I really enjoyed the last issue this one, however, not so much. The first thing that kind of threw me off was the switch in artists. Last issue we had some really great art by Guillem March and Andrei Bresson, in this issue Greg Tucchini takes over. I didn't like it at all, it just looks really messy, things are hard to make out, and he's just not too good with the human anatomy. The art altogether just seemed kind of bland to me.
This issue isn't a complete disaster though. The first few pages do a terrific job capturing who Jason is and seeing what goes on in his head, very much like the previous issue did. I actually kind of forgot this was a Batman & Robin title, which isn't a bad thing necessarily. However, once they Dynamic Duo appear, it just sank for me. Again, referencing to the previous issue, we had so little of Batman and Robin, and seeing them here, because it is their book and not a Red Hood title, felt kind of forced. They had to appear in their own title, or else it wouldn't be Batman & Robin.
Now, I am a huge fan of Damian Wayne and I love seeing him along with Dick, but I don't think Winick has the right handle on him. When a writer doesn't particularly know how to use Damian, they tend to lean towards making him more of a jerk then anything, and this bothers me because he's developed so much in the past 23 issues.
I was really excited for this story arc, and now I just could not really care less. I liked that we have the return of a certain character which makes things interesting with Jason Todd, and I think that the more we get into Jason's head, the better the story is. But with how messy the book looks and how bad a character that I enjoy a lot is being handled, again, I've lost the excitement I had after last issue. I enjoy Judd Winick's work for the most part (Red Hood: The Lost Days, Justice League: Generation Lost, and Power Girl), but this didn't do it for me. Here's to hopes that next issue will go out with a BANG!
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