Cape Town Capsule Reviews, 11/10/10 Releases

By Don M. Ventura

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 dining alone and reviewing the origins of everything that strikes his palette. Then he has an old friend for dinner. And he sees, and he sees, and he sees some more until he finally finds something to focus on. When the story concludes we know that Tony Chu’s life may become more difficult.

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.

Wednesday's Finest, 10/6/10 Releases

By Don M. Ventura

Wolverine #2
Marvel

Was there any doubt that Wolverine would end up in Hell? I reckon only Frank Castle has sent more criminals to their early, well deserved graves.

At the end of the last issue, we have learned that Wolverine’s soul has been removed and delivered to Satan himself to toy with. This month we learn how much Satan likes to toy. Logan’s powers are not all there and his bones adamantium-free and the guy goes up against wave after wave of bad guys. But not just any bad guys.

His adversaries are the souls of every person he’s ever murdered. Hydra agents. Hellfire Club soldiers, members of the Hand, Omega Red, and a number of other villains and grunts from our hero’s weathered, bloody past. But this is Wolverine’s soul in hell. His soulless body is still up on Earth and has been doing some really bad things to his loved ones.

I have to say, I normally have a like/hate relationship with this character. I am never swayed to buy a book that has Wolverine on the cover. But indisputably, there is a lot of good to be done with the character, I find though that he is sometimes so overused that writers don’t do much interesting with him.

So here’s Jason Aaron, one of Marvel’s hot new writers, to do something interesting. He gets into Wolverine’s head and stays there as the character tries processing what is happening to him and what he needs to do. Aaron is presenting what appears to lean more towards vivisection than introspection, but there’s good character development going on in this arc.

Last issue opened with Logan and John Wraith discussing their sinful pasts; this issue has some strong inner-monologues where we see that the character is more introspective than his gruff persona would ever indicate. “My sins, at last… have all caught up with me,” he ruminates as his enemies swarm him.

Aaron keeps the pacing strong as we catch up with Mystique, used ably here, who is on the run with Melita to locate help in rescuing Logan’s soul. This leads to the introduction of a few fan-favorite guest stars who know a thing or two about lost souls.

Aaron has taken what would seem a ridiculous story, much like “The Curse of the Mutants” storyline in X-Men, and made it captivating. He presents the title character as the legendary bad-ass he is, but then demonstrates how that can all be turned on its head in an unthinkable conclusion. Aaron has a strong understanding of the Wolverine and his inner strengths and weaknesses.

Renato Guedes is on pencils and is suited perfectly to draw the mayhem that takes place in this issue. There are some very dramatic splash pages in this issue, the first being a waterfall of Hand soldiers falling upon a Wolverine covered in blood with arrows and other weapons clinging to him. It’s gruesome fun.

I’m hopeful that Aaron’s run on Wolverine remains as strong as these first two issues. This is not your run of the mill Wolverine story and based on the events of this issue, Logan may walk away with some scars that don’t heal.

Chaos War #1
Marvel

Oh boy. This was not very good. It actually wasn’t good at all.

Chaos War is an end of the universe tale, written by Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente, reminiscent of the more meaningless cross over events of the 80’s and 90’s (Atlantis Attacks anyone?) and exists for reasons beyond my understanding.

The dialogue is flat and the humor (and there are a lot of attempts at it) falls even flatter. Everything about this feels dated and phoned in. The Thing flying through the sky with an apron on. A bystander is offended that Hercules refers to himself as a god and she says “I’m tweeting about this right now.” Each joke lands harder than the one previous.

I don’t recall Hercules being such a joke of a character, but everyone in the book refers to him as such. But he is never presented as described, so it wasn’t clear to me if he is misunderstood or Pak and Lente don’t know how to demonstrate the character’s supposed lack of heroics.

Khoi Pham does a fine job with the artwork and draws an incredible Herc, but is ultimately wasted on this title. Chaos War is small crossover event (14 tie-ins) in every sense.

Ultimate Thor #1
Marvel

Finally! A new Thor book!

Either Thor has recently become a mutant or he has a movie coming out next year, because there are a lot of new Thor books on the shelves of my local comic shop. While it would be difficult to top Roger Langridge’s work in Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Ultimate Thor by writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Carlos Pacheco is certainly good.

The Ultimate Universe’s Thor has been thought to be a loon and Hickman continues that here. He is under observation by Captain Britain and his father in Brussels as the story opens. We then move back in time as a World War II Baron Zemo is preparing an attack on Asgard while Thor and his (eventually evil) half-brother Loki demonstrate brotherly machismo as they do battle with snow monsters.

I haven’t been crazy about Pacheco’s work in Avengers Academy, but it looks sleeker here which is assuredly due to strong inks by Dexter Vines. There is nothing to complain about with this book. It feels like an epic and the characters are all being established before the real action kicks in. In fact, I thought this was a much stronger opening than Matt Fraction’s first issue on the non-Ultimate Thor a few weeks ago.

Superman: The Last Family of Krypton #3
DC

 I enjoy a good Elseworlds tale and this was a good one. Elseworlds books have been what I would call a rich man’s What If?, Marvel’s look at alternate conclusions to famous stories.

In The Last Family of Krypton, Jor-El and Lara escaped their doomed planet with Kal-El and have been welcomed by most of Earth over the course of the story. There have been a lot of familiar nods to the Superman mythos (especially Superman: The Movie) but the story has grown organically by asking… ummmm, what if?

In this issue, Superman and his father are barely on speaking terms and his younger twin-siblings have not embraced their super-powered heritage. Lara and Jor-El grow further apart as he becomes consumed with keeping Earth safe through science (and we learn the El’s have done more than just prevent the origins of Batman and Green Lantern).

I thought the first chapter of this title (there are six) was a bit weak, but have grown more and more impressed as the story unfolded into its own universe. Cary Bates is a solid storyteller and he has created a new and believable Superman universe and presented interesting takes on Jor-El and Lara.

Renato Arlem’s work on the art on this book has been a pleasure. The expressions on his characters have a photo-realism reminiscent of Kevin Maguire. My biggest qualm of this book has been the lame puns on each issue’s cover. This month: “War is El!”

Freedom Fighters #2
DC

Co-Writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray remind me a bit of Geoff Johns when he got started; Johns seemed to have a great affection for the B-list characters. DC’s writing team has gone C-list with their take on one of the least-beloved teams in the DCU: The Freedom Fighters.

However, this book is well written and the action is strong as the Freedom Fighters take on the demons unearthed at the conclusion of last month’s issue. The story opens with an introduction of the demons and quickly establishes their forced-to-be-reckoned-withness.

Palmiotti and Gray recognize that the Freedom Fighters are not as well-known as the Justice Leaguers, so there is proper exposition to illustrate what they can do. There is an interesting B-story here as the Vice President is being beat to a pulp by a member of the Arcadians, a shadow society that may have been guiding history for its own means for hundreds of years.

My biggest problem with this team has been Uncle Sam. Gone are the top hat and coat with tails, but the red and white striped pants are still there. Palmiotti and Gray may have come up with a viable solution for handling the character in this issue though.

Travis Moore’s artwork is sensational. C’mon, the guy made Uncle Sam look threatening—no small feat. Seriously though, Moore draws great action and this issue is wall to wall combating.

Batman: Hidden Treasures #1
DC

The story here is that artist, and Swamp Thing co-creator, Bernie Wrightson, came up with this Batman tale 13 years ago and it has finally seen the light of day. Wrightson pencils here and each page packs one unconventional wallop after another. The story is told through single splash pages; all of the text is placed in the margin of the page.

This works to great effect. It feels like a Batman short-story that is narrated by an unknown third party. Marz is an adept storyteller and his words compliment Wrightson’s artwork impeccably. And the artwork is really something. One page has Batman looking over a corpse that is truly stunning and particularly eerie.

Marz’s narration is really wonderful as Batman tracks down Solomon Grundy who looks to be (the man?) responsible for a slate of murders that have taken place on the Dark Knight’s turf. True to any good Batman story, there is a good twist that made me smile and think “Batman’s one smart detective.”

Again, there is much to love about Wrightson’s artwork on each succeeding page. As well, Alex Sinclair’s colors are pitch perfect. Everything is muted in shades of gray and green as the action moves from the sewers to the swamp. Batman: Hidden Treasures is one of the most aptly titled books in recent memory.