the tweets
Modified:
Comics Fondle used to be twitter powered. Below are those tweets.
- The Unwritten 5. Carey hurls the comic somewhere somewhat unexpected. He starts fleshing it out in a grand manner. It’s a spectacular issue.
Fri Oct 09 03:24:00 +0000 2009 - The Unwritten 4. The conclusion is better as an exercise than as a satisfying read. Carey does a nice setup, but I feel like it is too fast.
Thu Oct 08 00:51:15 +0000 2009 - The Unwritten 3. Hmm… Carey paces this issue over maybe an hour, which is a big difference from before. Still great, but it feels strange.
Thu Oct 08 00:34:04 +0000 2009 - The Unwritten 2. Carey continues his story, which manages to eschew convention while still staying almost predictable. It’s like a drumroll.
Thu Oct 08 00:22:55 +0000 2009 - The Unwritten 1. It is amazing. Even if the concept wasn’t genius, Carey’s writing would put it over on a scene level. Gross’s art is great.
Wed Oct 07 00:34:25 +0000 2009 - Incognito 5. Brubaker put a lot of thought into these characters; he could have done sustained an ongoing. Owes a lot to Alan Moore, really.
Sun Sep 20 04:53:37 +0000 2009 - Incognito 6. It is technically perfect and all, but damn if Brubaker doesn’t tonally rip off The Matrix for his ending. A sequel would rock.
Sun Sep 20 04:52:36 +0000 2009 - Incognito 4. It’s getting too big. Brubaker’s introducing, still, so much information his protagonist is getting lost in the book. But good.
Sun Sep 20 04:24:17 +0000 2009 - Incognito 3. So Brubaker backs away from doing any background here, instead he goes with the all action issue? But great Phillips art on it.
Sun Sep 20 04:10:12 +0000 2009 - Incognito 2. I’m not confused–it is not complicated, but it is so full. Brubaker has more setup, but also tons of story. It’s overwhelming.
Sun Sep 20 04:03:38 +0000 2009 - Incognito 1. Brubaker’s got to set up another “universe” and still do a story. It is impressive how much he does, but the it feels recycled.
Sun Sep 20 03:53:53 +0000 2009 - The Spirit 32. A fine finish for the story, but not an appropriate send-off for the series. Ploog gets it, should have been on it all along.
Sun Sep 20 03:10:05 +0000 2009 - The Spirit 31. I can’t decide what I love more, Ploog’s writing or his art. He does fantastic work here, creating a packed, hilarious issue.
Sun Sep 20 03:01:02 +0000 2009 - Batman and Robin 3. It’s called, Batman and Robin, right? Not the Gotham supporting cast? I do love it, but Morrison’s especially unfocused.
Sun Sep 20 02:05:58 +0000 2009 - Batman and Robin 2. Again with the abbreviated pacing–still lovely (even if Morrison’s Dick Grayson is a bit too whiny), with great action.
Sun Sep 20 01:51:54 +0000 2009 - Batman and Robin 1. Morrison is off to a solid start–with wonderful art–but it feels more a tease for the next issue than an issue itself.
Sun Sep 20 01:44:59 +0000 2009 - Giant-Size Dracula 2. Don Heck is really not the artist for Dracula. His people look fine, British even, but Dracula looks completely awful.
Sun Sep 13 15:10:43 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 25. Wolfman’s hard-boiled narration is goofy, but Colan’s art and a solid plot save it. Plus, the new character is good.
Sun Sep 13 14:53:30 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 24. Aha, Wolfman’s doing a soft reset here, which is discreet–since Colan’s still doing the (beautiful) art. Fine work.
Sun Sep 13 14:42:40 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 23. Wolfman’s on his way to turning Dracula into something of the hero more concentratedly. Fantastic art, fine writing.
Sun Sep 13 06:00:57 +0000 2009 - Giant-Size Chillers 1. Could Wolfman be more verbose? It’d be hard. He really fills the pages with a lot of rambling here. It’s fine enough.
Wed Sep 09 00:38:21 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 22. It is sort of an unconnected done in one–Dracula in Russia–it is confusing, but well-produced with some great art.
Tue Sep 08 12:26:53 +0000 2009 - Battlefields: The Tankies 3. Amazing stuff. It’s Ennis’s finest war comic to date, no doubt. Can’t believe I was iffy on it. Fantastic work.
Wed Sep 02 03:48:37 +0000 2009 - Battlefields: The Tankies 2. Okay, I’m starting to get it. It’s sort of great, even if it is totally confusing. Maybe Ennis’s best war work.
Wed Sep 02 03:37:56 +0000 2009 - Battlefields: The Tankies 1. I hate to say it: I have no idea what’s going on. It’s really confusing due to the accents and so on. Nice art.
Wed Sep 02 03:24:50 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 8. A fine close, if a little off in the end. Shanower fumbles in not explaining anything about Dorothy’s absence.
Sat Aug 29 15:43:47 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 7. It’s back on track. Shanower has a great time with the Scarecrow this issue. Lots of content again. Excellent.
Sat Aug 29 15:30:27 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 6. As the story veers into more familiar territory, it goes too fast. Nice open, weaker finish. Still good stuff.
Sat Aug 29 15:00:38 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 5. The pacing is good–the issue’s packed with story–but I wish it had more time to meander; great art, writing.
Sat Aug 29 15:00:03 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 4. More great art and Shanower getting to do some really neat fable-esque plotting. Packed with story this issue.
Sat Aug 29 13:24:59 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 3. Excellent stuff–there are a lot of new creatures introduced, yet it’s all clearly told. Wondrous art in here.
Fri Aug 28 22:46:50 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 2. They are in the forest the whole time so the most impressive thing about the art is the design. Lots of story.
Fri Aug 28 01:43:05 +0000 2009 - The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 1. Almost every single panel is exquisite; I’m not sure if the writing matters. It is fine writing but magic art.
Wed Aug 26 05:04:50 +0000 2009 - Bang! Tango 6. It is a depressing ending, but not the way I was expecting. Kelly plays with the noir genre very well here, perfectly really.
Thu Aug 20 04:54:13 +0000 2009 - Bang! Tango 5. Yeah, it’s going to end bad. For the best people too. Wow. Kelly really spins it. Super-fast read, this issue. Superior pulp.
Thu Aug 20 04:47:28 +0000 2009 - Bang! Tango 4. It’s going to end badly for the cast and I don’t like worrying. It is a much better series than I thought it’d be. But rough.
Thu Aug 20 04:41:29 +0000 2009 - Bang! Tango 3. I’m getting confused; totally enthralled, just because Kelly is setting things up so interesting; but it is a lot to process.
Thu Aug 20 04:30:25 +0000 2009 - Bang! Tango 2. It’s amazing how much atmosphere Kelly and Sibar get into this comic book. Even with the exaggerated bad guys, it works well.
Thu Aug 20 04:16:34 +0000 2009 - Bang! Tango 1. Now there’s a twist ending I wasn’t expecting at all. It is a rough comic, with some obvious (but nice) Casablanca overtones.
Thu Aug 20 02:06:29 +0000 2009 - Captain America 601. I love Gene Colan and he and Brube doing a vampire issue set in WWII is great. But ink him. His art’s nice, but ink it.
Tue Aug 18 02:23:10 +0000 2009 - The Muppet Show 4. It’s a fine closing. Maybe not as dynamic as the previous ones (it has a more straightforward narrative), but quite good.
Sun Aug 09 17:02:54 +0000 2009 - The Muppet Show 3. The inevitable(?) Gonzo issue. Landridge doesn’t reveal anything new about the Great Gonzo, but it’s a fine quest. Great.
Sun Aug 09 16:43:23 +0000 2009 - The Muppet Show 2. Okay, it’s a Fozzie issue and I’m a Fozzie guy, but I got confused. Was the talking cheese helping him with his material?
Sun Aug 09 02:09:25 +0000 2009 - The Muppet Show 1. Amazing stuff. Landridge perfectly translates a TV show into a comic book. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, it is the Muppets.
Sat Aug 08 02:49:16 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 21. The big fight scene is something out of a James Bond film; it doesn’t matter. Colan’s art is beautiful and it moves.
Fri Aug 07 04:10:26 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 20. Superb issue. It is stunning how much Wolfman gets into it. The fullness makes up for Dr. Sun being a talking brain.
Fri Aug 07 00:26:25 +0000 2009 - Potter’s Field: Stone Cold. What a terrible comic book. Seriously, I get why Boom! has to publish it, but wow. This one is completely awful.
Thu Aug 06 21:38:30 +0000 2009 - Potter’s Field 3. I’m confused as to the point of this series. It reveals Mr. Big and he is a dime novel gangster? Waid is better than this.
Thu Aug 06 21:25:44 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 19. Not to be a stickler, but how about some continuity to the previous issue? It’s got beautiful art, but a holey plot.
Thu Aug 06 03:36:25 +0000 2009 - Werewolf by Night 15. It’s a weak issue. Wolfman makes Dracula into a caricature and Ploog’s art assists him. It’s a misfire. Disappointing.
Thu Aug 06 03:26:26 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 18. More a Werewolf issue than a Dracula. Who cares? The fight scenes are amazing; Wolfman is unintentionally hilarious.
Thu Aug 06 03:14:05 +0000 2009 - Irredeemable 4. And now it hits–not so much the big reveal at the end, which is silly, but the big action scene–it’s amazing stuff. Great.
Wed Aug 05 17:54:36 +0000 2009 - Irredeemable 3. These are great little issues. Emphasis on little. Waid’s not exactly packing the pages with content. The end is too abrupt.
Wed Aug 05 17:44:06 +0000 2009 - Irredeemable 2. Waid’s revamping of the Superman mythos is fantastic. Not sure what I’m supposed to get out of the cliffhanger. Solid issue.
Wed Aug 05 17:33:28 +0000 2009 - Irredeemable 1. It’s a neat idea (and seeing Superman take out Batman is fun). I just hate all the new names for the analogs. It’s annoying.
Wed Aug 05 17:24:15 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 17. Another fine issue, but this time Wolfman really plays with the pacing. It is rather successful, a full three acts.
Wed Aug 05 01:17:33 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 16. Dracula’s such an interesting protagonist. He’s a complete egoist who, without trying, leans toward the right thing.
Thu Jul 30 06:02:16 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 15. Wolfman retcons the issues before his here, with Dracula recalling some adventures for the reader. Memorable scenes.
Thu Jul 30 05:50:59 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 14. Now that’s a talky book. It’s decently paced but kind of lackluster (Dracula stays dead half an issue). It’s solid.
Tue Jul 28 23:35:01 +0000 2009 - Potter’s Field 2. The second issue is a tad better than the first, but only because the story moves. It’s mediocre at best. Still, nice art.
Tue Jul 28 22:39:22 +0000 2009 - Potter’s Field 1. It’s okay. I mean, it’s not, but it is. Waid’s story is this innocuous well-meaning, saccharine stuff. But gory. Nice art.
Tue Jul 28 02:55:05 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 13. Wolfman’s got some problems with the passing of time this issue, but he gets a lot of story told. Art’s a tad loose.
Mon Jul 27 05:35:03 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 12. Beautiful art. Dracula’s haunted house trap’s a bit goofy though. I don’t like how we never see his vampire legions.
Mon Jul 27 05:24:45 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 11. Wolfman goes in for some weird stuff–Dracula versus the Mr. Big behind a motorcycle gang. Dracula is quite likable.
Sun Jul 26 09:13:20 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 10. Jack Abel’s inking mars the first appearance of Blade. Wolfman is a bit too wordy, but he’s claiming the characters.
Fri Jul 24 04:39:00 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 9. Fantastic issue. Wolfman shows some real chops here, setting Dracula up as a three dimensional character. Great work.
Mon Jul 20 04:04:02 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 8. Wolfman breaks continuity–how could Dracula have known the doctor if he was asleep for a hundred years? Still, good.
Mon Jul 20 03:54:44 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 7. Wolfman’s first issue, with his talky but somewhat likable Dracula getting established. Really neat idea for a story.
Mon Jul 20 03:07:08 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 6. More bad Fox, more good Colan. The story’s so absurd, it’s kind of startling Colan is able to draw it so beautifully.
Mon Jul 20 02:35:22 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 5. Really, Tom Palmer inked this one? It seemed off. Fox’s script’s atrocious. It’s all expository dialogue; a disaster.
Mon Jul 20 02:13:59 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 4. Colan starts to hit his stride here. Some amazing panels. The story’s solid too, but it’s all about the fine artwork.
Mon Jul 20 01:39:58 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 3. Fine work, no doubt. The strength lies in the tone Colan’s art creates. Even with a change in writer, it feels right.
Mon Jul 20 00:09:39 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 2. Some great Colan panels and superb pacing (not to mention atmosphere) make this issue more successful than the first.
Sun Jul 19 23:06:31 +0000 2009 - The Tomb of Dracula 1. Conway fits a lot in–backstory, dialogue–in what’s basically a lift of the old Universal movies modernized. Decent.
Sun Jul 19 19:59:58 +0000 2009 - Captain America 600. Decent anniversary issue. Probably would have been better if Brubaker had gotten all the pages to himself. Still, good.
Sun Jul 19 03:10:41 +0000 2009 - Captain America 50. Great writing; maybe the worst Lule Ross art so far on the series. The bonus material is solid, but the writing’s great.
Sun Jul 19 02:49:59 +0000 2009 - Captain America 49. Brubaker takes a calm episode and turns it into a solid event comic. Another great issue. Hard to believe it is so good.
Sun Jul 19 01:14:35 +0000 2009 - Mysterius the Unfathomable 6. Great finish. Embarrassed I wasn’t buying it from the start for the wonderful Fowler art alone. Superior book.
Sun Jul 12 17:12:58 +0000 2009 - Mysterius the Unfathomable 5. Everything begins to wrap up in the first issue where Parker’s cliffhanger does not really work. Still superb.
Sun Jul 12 17:01:37 +0000 2009 - Mysterius the Unfathomable 4. Parker seems to have paced this for a single sitting; every time an issue ends I have to race to the next one.
Sun Jul 12 16:39:48 +0000 2009 - Mysterius the Unfathomable 3. There’re so many great parts, I can’t pick my favorite. Parker keeps the mood dangerous and ominous but funny.
Sun Jul 12 16:23:26 +0000 2009 - Mysterius the Unfathomable 2. Not what I was expecting–instead of a case an issue, Parker’s setting up a fully interwoven narrative. Great.
Sun Jul 12 16:06:29 +0000 2009 - Mysterius the Unfathomable 1. I’ve been looking forward to this for a while. Doesn’t disappoint. Fowler’s art’s great as is Parker’s script.
Sun Jul 12 15:55:26 +0000 2009 - Captain America 48. Brubaker resists any standard scenes; he writes a thoughtful issue. The handful of Ross art compares poorly to the rest.
Sat Jul 11 19:38:10 +0000 2009 - Captain America 47. Brubaker’s rushing himself here a little; maybe the Guice art, while nice, throws it a little. He’s plotting too clever.
Sat Jul 11 19:33:22 +0000 2009 - Captain America 46. As obscenely good as usual–the Bucky scene with Namor’s one of the high points, as is the assault scene. Superior work.
Sat Jul 11 19:21:03 +0000 2009 - Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye 3. Morrison learned his lesson last times, brings Seaguy his reward. Again, somehow fast but packed. Great.
Sat Jul 11 18:15:16 +0000 2009 - Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye 2. It’s amazing how much Morrison fits into what’s still a quick read. The art’s a tad inconstant at times.
Sat Jul 11 17:40:57 +0000 2009 - Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye 1. It’s a solid return, with Morrison getting right back into the gradual, passive pacing. Still wonderful.
Sat Jul 11 16:41:54 +0000 2009 - Uncanny X-Men 509. Whatever. It is probably impossible to care, given Land’s terrible art, what’s going on. But it seems confusing and lame.
Sat Jul 11 02:03:32 +0000 2009 - Uncanny X-Men 508. Maybe the worst thing I’ve ever seen. Land’s getting worse by the minute. Devolving into cut and paste. Incomprehensible.
Sat Jul 11 01:55:34 +0000 2009 - Uncanny X-Men 507. Maybe the first issue in a while where Fraction’s pure writing talent shines through. Great surprises and great dialogue.
Sat Jul 11 01:42:53 +0000 2009 - Birds of Prey 1. I always forgot how Greg Land used to be able to draw. It’s an okay read, with Dixon getting in some solid moments. Decent.
Wed Jul 08 21:27:04 +0000 2009 - Seaguy 3. I’m thoroughly depressed. Forgot how rough Morrison ends it. A fantastic amount of content. Morrison and Stewart sync beautifully.
Wed Jul 08 20:10:26 +0000 2009 - Seaguy 2. It’s so good. Morrison fits a lot into the issue, sure, but he has these amazing big action sequences then devastating quiet ones.
Wed Jul 08 19:57:55 +0000 2009 - Harker 0. Sure, it is just a five pager (plus an excerpt from the first issue), but it is hilarious. A shame Diamond doesn’t carry the book.
Mon Jul 06 03:47:10 +0000 2009 - Seaguy 1. Da fug! A great book. It’s funny, but also strange enough to be thought-provoking. Stewart’s art is a perfect fit. Just fantastic.
Sun Jul 05 17:30:03 +0000 2009 - Uncanny X-Men 506. Really, a Godzilla gag? Fraction is phoning it in, competently sure, but why care about it? He clearly doesn’t. Ugly art.
Sun Jul 05 06:18:34 +0000 2009 - Uncanny X-Men 505. Is it possible for this issue to be more confusing? Probably, but not likely. The art’s loose and bad. Some good moments.
Sun Jul 05 06:10:55 +0000 2009 - Uncanny X-Men 504. The writing is solid, but there are way too many reveals. The Dodson art drives me nuts. Nightcrawler is a bigotted jerk.
Sun Jul 05 06:09:52 +0000 2009 - The Age of the Sentry 6. A full length “imaginary” story, but it’s really this profound look at Silver Age superhero dynamics. Amazing read.
Sat Jul 04 15:47:43 +0000 2009 - The Age of the Sentry 5. Could anything top the ad? The LSH stuff is fun and nice. The second story’s much better, a 1960s Lois Lane homage
Fri Jul 03 16:48:22 +0000 2009 - The Age of the Sentry 4. The Golden Age Sentry story is a Marvel remix of all the DC Earth Two stories of the 1970s. Second story’s fun too.
Fri Jul 03 13:41:30 +0000 2009 - The Age of the Sentry 3. Great stuff, but the second story, being so peculiar, overpowers the first. It is just a lovely book, perfect tone.
Fri Jul 03 05:52:41 +0000 2009 - The Age of the Sentry 2. The first story is perfect, with the Superman parallels. But the second one gets a little too continuity conscious.
Fri Jul 03 00:56:30 +0000 2009 - @comicsfondle: Y the Last Man 23. See, here BKV finishes his damn story before he does his cute little cliffhanger; all of sudden, it works.
Wed Jul 01 23:17:11 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 22. Maybe I am just drunk, but Vaughan really brings it here. He gets a lot in–non-Yorick revelations, etc. Parlov is solid.
Wed Jul 01 23:13:32 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 21. And now we’re back on track. Again, not a lot of present action (maybe five hours) but there is something very nice here.
Wed Jul 01 23:01:57 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 20. I get it now: Vaughan is trying to get a TV job. Yawn. Forgot he was the most predictable writer working in comics. Crap.
Sun Jun 28 22:26:14 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 19. The pacing’s better, I guess, but Vaughan is either just showing off his psych 101 class or he’s completely lost control.
Sun Jun 28 22:21:07 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 18. Ew. The non-Yorick stuff was so much better than this. What the hell is Vaughan doing? It’s like he ad-libbed the script.
Sun Jun 28 22:16:00 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 17. It’s supposed to be a cute little filler story? Yuck. They should’ve just waited for the regular artist to get caught up.
Sun Jun 28 22:04:27 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 16. What the heck is this? Tales from the world of Y? And the end is totally confusing. Nice art though. But it’s all filler.
Sun Jun 28 21:58:46 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 15. I wonder how it’d read without the atrocious cliffhanger. But some rather nice scenes. Even if it’s a tangential subplot.
Sun Jun 28 15:10:15 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 14. Damn it, Vaughan, slow down. He’s pacing out an action sequence here, not writing a comic. Dreading the cliffhangers now.
Sun Jun 28 15:01:59 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 13. It’s okay. Maybe I’m just not enjoying the ride enough; am I paying too much attention to Vaughan’s political commentary?
Sun Jun 28 07:51:06 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 12. More of the same bad pacing. Vaughan’s trying way too hard and Yorick’s beard doesn’t make any sense. A real rough patch.
Sun Jun 28 07:42:28 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 11. I don’t know what to call the pacing except hideous. Seems like a sequel rather than a serial. Was Vaughan trade-writing?
Sun Jun 28 07:34:45 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 10. Vaughan’s set up something here not many others have: the sibling nemeses. Excellent stuff. But another lame cliffhanger?
Sat Jun 27 18:57:29 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 9. Vaughan recovers immediately. Getting sick of the constant cliffhangers though. Not a 1970s Marvel book, after all. Great.
Sat Jun 27 18:47:35 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 8. Vaughan’s inane sense of morality (very Transformers) pops up here. It’s what ruined Ex Machina. Hope it doesn’t continue.
Sat Jun 27 18:46:57 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 7. The pacing isn’t off, but something is… Vaughan’s spreading himself thin again, lots of ominous foreshadowing this time.
Sat Jun 27 18:39:01 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 6. And now he’s back on track. Works a lot better with two threads instead of three. Pacing is not perfect. Fantastic though.
Sat Jun 27 17:44:28 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 5. More iffy pacing as Vaughan ties the threads together. It would’ve been smoother as an A and B plot. Solid, but a decline.
Sat Jun 27 17:33:54 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 4. The pacing is off again, with Vaughan’s going for scenic effect more than narrative. Some outstanding moments in this one.
Sat Jun 27 17:22:44 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 3. Good grief, it’s good. Vaughan can work stats into dialogue without make it seem expository. Great pacing too. Fantastic.
Sat Jun 27 17:15:57 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 2. He can’t top the first issue, doesn’t try. The pacing’s a little wonky, it’s only a couple scenes. But he delivers; great.
Mon Jun 22 01:36:45 +0000 2009 - Y the Last Man 1. Is there a better first issue? I don’t think there is. I love how Vaughan still works in his pseudo-liberalism. Fantastic.
Sun Jun 21 22:58:54 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 13. It’s an occasionally goofy issue, but incredibly well-paced. Seems to be Wein’s swan song to the series and it is good worm.
Sun Jun 21 07:44:33 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 12. And now we’re back to the Wein standard–Swampy a supporting character in his own book. But it is pretty well paced. Decent.
Wed Jun 17 02:46:41 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 11. Wein makes a solid shift for the new artist, it’d be impossible to imagine Wrightson drawing this script. Redondo does well.
Wed Jun 17 01:00:47 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 10. Wein comes up with good some good material, certainly writes well to Wrightson’s strengths, but his Swamp Thing’s so boring.
Sun Jun 14 23:40:24 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 9. Who cares if Wein’s story is incredibly contrived (they only had so many scripts to reuse in the 1970s), the art is wondrous.
Sun Jun 14 19:34:40 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 8. Yuck. Wein gives us an earth-shattering villain but resolves it by the close. The beautiful Wrightson art makes it tolerable.
Sun Jun 14 18:38:58 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 7. Batman cameos were always a DC device to sell comics? It’s okay, really more a Batman comic than a Swamp Thing. Art is great.
Sun Jun 14 06:26:34 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 6. Ok… so Wein resolves his cliffhanger, brings everyone (including the Conclave) together. It’s good, with some solid scenes.
Sun Jun 14 06:17:55 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 5. Wein writes better without involving Cable and Abby. Swamp has a nice little adventure, some great Wrightson art. Good issue.
Sun Jun 14 01:58:37 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 4. Does Wein have any sort of formula he’s following? Swamp Thing has a horror of the month thing going, but with a static cast.
Sun Jun 14 01:45:47 +0000 2009 - Echo 3. It should be good, it seems like, but there’s something awkward about it. It is too confused in telling, basically, an origin story.
Fri Jun 12 20:46:25 +0000 2009 - Echo 2. The second issue introduces more characters and hints at troubled relationships, but it doesn’t really explain anything. It is okay.
Fri Jun 12 20:37:18 +0000 2009 - Echo 1. You know, there’s some good scenes in it, but it’s way too soon to tell. The art’s nice, very non-superhero–and great static shots.
Fri Jun 12 20:36:19 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 3. Here Wein basically remakes an old Universal horror film, but with Swamp Thing and Berni Wrightson art. Beautiful to look at.
Fri Jun 12 01:16:28 +0000 2009 - Hero Squared: Love and Death 3. Really busy final issue–should’ve been double-sized. Lots of comic commentary, but real human conflict too.
Thu Jun 11 01:39:09 +0000 2009 - Hero Squared: Love and Death 2. Great talking heads stuff, some good action, but… it’s a planned “final” story, which hurts the potential.
Thu Jun 11 01:29:09 +0000 2009 - Hero Squared: Love and Death 1. The art’s not as strong, but the writing’s just as great. The end requires a bit of trust, but they earn it.
Thu Jun 11 01:18:41 +0000 2009 - Green Lantern/Green Lantern 1. I know people love hating Winick but it’s a nice issue, well-done, fine concept. The Randy Green art is iffy.
Wed Jun 10 19:46:11 +0000 2009 - Green Lantern/Firestorm 1. As a Firestorm fan, I like the emphasis–nice art too–but a pointless as an event tie-in if a solid pilot issue.
Wed Jun 10 19:38:23 +0000 2009 - Green Lantern/Adam Strange 1. Beautiful Cary Nord art and the decent handle on Adam Strange make all the difference. The plot’s a tad short.
Wed Jun 10 19:32:06 +0000 2009 - Green Lantern/Power Girl 1. Technically, I suppose it’s an issue. The sort of thing a JLA annual would have done in a chapter. Woods is raw.
Wed Jun 10 19:26:56 +0000 2009 - Green Lantern/Atom 1. It’s like a pilot for an Atom with kids around sitcom. It’s not totally terrible, but the jokes are painfully unfunny.
Wed Jun 10 19:22:02 +0000 2009 - Green Lantern: Circle of Fire 1. Breyfogle drawing superheroes might be the lamest, most action figure box looking art I’ve ever seen. Blah.
Tue Jun 09 20:12:23 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 2. It’s odd how Wein can write a reasonable subplot but still plot out an ludicrous, well-paced main. Amazing, wondrous artwork.
Tue Jun 09 03:54:56 +0000 2009 - Special Forces 4. It’s the pacing, the pacing is what’s off. It doesn’t matter since Baker’s new style for this issue is so damn compelling.
Mon Jun 08 22:10:43 +0000 2009 - Special Forces 3. There’s something definitely off this one. Baker goes a little too Weekly World News, a tad too far out. It’s still solid.
Mon Jun 08 21:39:07 +0000 2009 - Special Forces 2. I find it amusing I can’t fault Baker’s pacing, even though it is about five minutes of action, nothing else. Art’s great.
Mon Jun 08 19:16:13 +0000 2009 - Special Forces 1. Is Baker really drawing? It looks like he’s really drawing. Can’t tell if the line work is digital. Good comic, great art.
Mon Jun 08 18:54:45 +0000 2009 - Swamp Thing 1. Wrightson’s art makes up for Wein’s verbosity. The plotting’s good too, lots of story covered. Just too much wordy narration.
Sun Jun 07 18:34:44 +0000 2009 - Mister X: Condemned 4. It’s kind of like Ultimate Mister X. It works, certainly relaunches the series–but it easily could have been longer.
Sun Jun 07 16:02:09 +0000 2009 - Mister X: Condemned 3. Misstep is probably too strong a word. The scenes are still good; Motter works best when he’s space. He doesn’t here.
Sun Jun 07 15:40:15 +0000 2009 - Mister X: Condemned 2. The “homages” to the original series are a little strange to see but it’s still strong. Motter’s new art style works.
Sun Jun 07 14:47:36 +0000 2009 - Mister X: Condemned 1. It’s early to get excited but Motter seems to have a good handle on it this time. Kind of a remake, kind of a sequel.
Sun Jun 07 14:26:44 +0000 2009 - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man 32. Wow, what a short one. It passes in a few minutes. I’m not sure if the writing’s fast or lazy. Unimpressed.
Sun Jun 07 05:35:26 +0000 2009 - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man 31. Mhan’s Peter Parker is still girly, but it is a nice issue featuring the Human Torch showing up at Midtown.
Sun Jun 07 05:28:37 +0000 2009 - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man 30. A decent “holiday” issue, though Pop Mhan’s Peter Parker looks like a girl. Awkwardly, a cute girl. Decent.
Sun Jun 07 05:20:06 +0000 2009 - Marvel Adventures Spider-Man 29. This one must be the laziest Peter David comic I’ve read. It is two scenes and endless expository dialogue.
Sat Jun 06 14:38:56 +0000 2009 - Birds of Prey: Manhunt 2. Dixon’s Catwoman stinks. Like, really, really bad. I imagine it has something to do with the era, but… icky bad.
Thu Jun 04 20:51:12 +0000 2009 - Birds of Prey: Manhunt 1. Dixon’s got some good moments, but some really bad ones too (the constant Joker allusions or the lousy girl talk).
Thu Jun 04 20:20:24 +0000 2009 - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk 6. And then Lindelof ends it perfectly, with the kind of thing they should launch an ongoing off. Stupid Marvel.
Thu Jun 04 19:55:07 +0000 2009 - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk 5. And now it is just a Wolverine comic and a decent one. It’s funny, but a tad hip. Yu’s good on talking heads.
Thu Jun 04 19:49:41 +0000 2009 - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk 4. You know, this would have been a lot better if they’d just told it straight. It’s a Hulk comic, nothing else.
Thu Jun 04 19:43:14 +0000 2009 - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk 3. Oh, it’s so cute. Lindelof fits right in at Marvel. He uses weak narration to “hide” weak plotting. Nice art.
Thu Jun 04 19:37:27 +0000 2009 - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk 2. What am I supposed to think of Bruce Banner? He is a bad guy, right? Fun storytelling of dark subject matter.
Thu Jun 04 19:30:15 +0000 2009 - Ultimate Wolverine vs. Hulk 1. Hmm. It’s good in the everything Ultimate was at least interesting way. But it’s all flash so far. All fluff.
Thu Jun 04 19:22:59 +0000 2009 - Birds of Prey: Revolution 1. There’s some good stuff to it. The art is a little off. But it’s all right. The cliffhanger’s just dumb though.
Tue Jun 02 19:14:15 +0000 2009 - Black Canary/Oracle: Birds of Prey 1. It is a strong concept, but a strange start. Dixon relies on the Bond elements too much; they’re weak.
Tue Jun 02 04:38:03 +0000 2009 - Batman: Jekyll & Hyde 6. If it is not an in-continuity story, please take better advantage of that condition. Jeez. A narrative train wreck.
Tue Jun 02 04:21:19 +0000 2009 - Batman: Jekyll & Hyde 5. Batman’s not very smart in this issue. In fact, he is embarrassingly stupid. And Jenkins’s big revelation? Malarky.
Tue Jun 02 04:16:09 +0000 2009 - Batman: Jekyll & Hyde 4. Did someone actually edit this? Jenkins has awful pacing and lousy first-person narration. The art’s nice, however.
Tue Jun 02 04:15:03 +0000 2009 - Batman: Jekyll & Hyde 3. So, basically, every writer has the same idea for a Batman limited series and they just make the villain different?
Tue Jun 02 04:01:55 +0000 2009 - Batman: Jekyll & Hyde 2. The second issue is better. Two-Face is still a lame villain when used as a primary antagonist. Some great artwork.
Tue Jun 02 03:55:38 +0000 2009 - Transmetropolitian 6. It’s supposed to be Jesus and the moneylenders, right? It’s amazingly well-done. The entire issue’s beautifully paced.
Tue Jun 02 03:23:24 +0000 2009 - Transmetropolitian 5. A nice done in one. Spider watches TV and it is hilarious. Ellis gets in great details, both on TV and for characters.
Tue Jun 02 03:11:56 +0000 2009 - Batman: Jekyll & Hyde 1. A not unreadable bit of Batman tripe. The Jae Lee art adds some atmosphere; Jenkins has some okay (funny) dialogue.
Mon Jun 01 21:14:55 +0000 2009 - Transmetropolitian 4. Kind of a strange issue; it’s a transition issue, setting up the new ground situation. Lots of fun, not much politics.
Sun May 31 03:13:07 +0000 2009 - Transmetropolitian 3. Good issue, not great. Feels hurried, with Ellis leaving some of the most important stuff off page. And the end is eh.
Sat May 30 15:12:17 +0000 2009 - Transmetropolitian 2. I never understood the Warren Ellis thing before. Now I do. It’s a constant, joyous surprise. Can’t wait to read more.
Sat May 30 14:55:00 +0000 2009 - Transmetropolitian 1. How could I never have read this before? Fantastic, funny art paired with Ellis’s wacky protagonist make a fine comic.
Sat May 30 00:17:12 +0000 2009 - X-Men: Legacy 216. It’s interesting how Carey uses the Professor here, because he’s so thoroughly unlikable, but still the hero/protagonist.
Sun May 24 17:44:09 +0000 2009 - X-Men: Legacy 215. A solid issue, but clearly the ship has sailed. Professor X barely has a real role in it. He is not even the protagonist.
Sat May 23 18:59:37 +0000 2009 - X-Men: Legacy 214. There is some elegance to the conclusion; it can’t compete with the more standard elements. Carey ignores the best parts.
Fri May 22 04:28:56 +0000 2009 - X-Men: Legacy 213. Eh. It’s a lot of talking and not very interesting talking at that. Way too much contrived back story. Still okay enough.
Fri May 22 04:19:09 +0000 2009 - Justice League International 7. You know, I admire how much they managed to fit into the issue, but it’s just boring politics with nice art.
Fri May 22 02:06:09 +0000 2009 - Justice League 6. The first issue i’ve been iffy about. It all goes on too long. Way too much emphasis on Dr. Fate, not enough on the group.
Fri May 22 01:44:38 +0000 2009 - Justice League 5. It’s finally moving. The first half is all villain stuff, then there’s some dialogue banter then the cliffhanger. Awesome.
Thu May 21 02:19:06 +0000 2009 - Justice League 4. Reading the series while it’s still finding its feet, introducing its eventual staples, is kind of wild. Great plotting.
Wed May 20 05:01:55 +0000 2009 - Justice League 3. It’s an all action issue, or as close as Giffen and DeMatteis get to one and it does rather well. They juggle it all well.
Mon May 18 22:44:47 +0000 2009 - Justice League 2. So good. Between the plotting and the character relationships, it’s just a joy to read. Not quite goofy yet though. Great.
Mon May 18 12:24:50 +0000 2009 - Justice League 1. I must have read this before, but it’s such a joy. Lots of talk, great dialogue, then lots of solid action. Beautiful art.
Mon May 18 00:57:06 +0000 2009 - Legends of the Dark Knight 49. Eh. Moench goes overboard with the mommy issues and then the Catwoman/Batman can’t commit thing. Okay enough.
Sun May 17 21:46:48 +0000 2009 - Legends of the Dark Knight 48. Does anyone who writes Batman actually like Batman? It’s hard to like him here. Moench writes a great Selina.
Sun May 17 21:38:26 +0000 2009 - Legends of the Dark Knight 47. It’s decent. Moench tries to get serial killing and race relations in and it’s ambitious, which helps. Solid.
Sun May 17 21:30:07 +0000 2009 - Legends of the Dark Knight 46. Moench juggles four narrators well. It is hard to go wrong on Year One-era Batman/Catwoman stories. Nice art.
Sun May 17 19:30:55 +0000 2009 - Green Lantern 1. The recaps of previous stories have lovely art, even if it is a little too familiar. Then a story got recycled… Too much.
Fri May 15 04:30:39 +0000 2009 - Showcase 24. GL versus spies isn’t particularly memorable, which hurts the first story. On the other hand, the second is good. Good art too.
Thu May 14 04:20:01 +0000 2009 - Showcase 23. The first story, featuring GL traveling to Venus for adventure, is a lot of fun. The second one, not so much. It is a tad thin.
Thu May 14 04:07:23 +0000 2009 - Showcase 22. A nice format for superhero stories: three short ones, giving a real sense of weight, making the characters seen more familiar.
Wed May 13 04:19:07 +0000 2009 - Unknown Soldier 6. The first issue to not totally blow me away. It’s still excellent, but feels like it was written to end a limited series.
Mon May 11 01:25:40 +0000 2009 - Unknown Soldier 5. Not where I expected Dysart to take the plot, not this soon. The unexpected turn is in the issue’s favor. Superior work.
Mon May 11 01:16:07 +0000 2009 - Unknown Soldier 4. It seems like an all-action issue, but it’s not. It is deceptive how much work Dysart gets done in during the first half.
Sun Apr 26 18:10:45 +0000 2009 - Unknown Soldier 3. Things start to develop. Dysart’s pace is great. He tells his story; makes social commentary (without drawing attention).
Sat Apr 25 21:44:05 +0000 2009 - Unknown Soldier 2. Amazing second issue–how Dysart manages to tell this one in a big two comic book is beyond me. It is a devastating read.
Sat Apr 25 21:25:11 +0000 2009 - Unknown Soldier 1. After hearing so much about the book, how good it is, I thought it couldn’t live up. Silly me. It excels any expectation.
Sat Apr 25 21:09:42 +0000 2009 - Sub-Mariner: The Depths 5. It’s a good, but not great, last issue. Milligan needed some more pages here, needed a fuller epilogue. But good.
Mon Apr 13 23:53:56 +0000 2009 - Sub-Mariner: The Depths 4. Maybe the pacing is a little off, but it doesn’t matter. Ribic’s hint of Atlantis is great, it works beautifully.
Mon Apr 13 23:49:06 +0000 2009 - Sub-Mariner: The Depths 3. Another fine issue… there is really nothing wrong with it except the ads and the issue ending. Great work here.
Mon Apr 13 23:43:56 +0000 2009 - Sub-Mariner: The Depths 2. Milligan keeps up the tension. It is a fine comic book, but seems more suited as a graphic novel, not serialized.
Mon Apr 13 23:36:00 +0000 2009 - Dead of Night: Werewolf by Night 4. It’s an okay close, decent. Swierczynski could have done wonders with eight issues on it. Sequel please?
Sun Apr 12 23:00:10 +0000 2009 - Dead of Night: Werewolf by Night 3. No idea how they are going to resolve this in one issue, but it really deserves to be an ongoing series.
Sun Apr 12 22:53:52 +0000 2009 - Dead of Night: Werewolf by Night 2. Even if the pacing’s a tad off, Swierczynski does a fine job with the narration. Inks might have helped.
Sun Apr 12 22:46:47 +0000 2009 - Dead of Night: Werewolf by Night 1. Good, solid art even if there aren’t any inks, the colors make up for it. Fine opening with weak pacing.
Sun Apr 12 22:34:43 +0000 2009 - Battlefield: Dear Billy 3. Wow. Ennis pulls off something near impossible here, making his plot succeed. It is startling, fantastic writing.
Sat Apr 11 20:36:43 +0000 2009 - Battlefield: Dear Billy 2. Snejbjerg’s art is amazing here–it’s a beautiful mix of war and romance comics, but distinctive. Great plotting.
Sat Apr 11 20:27:01 +0000 2009 - Battlefield: Dear Billy 1. I love how it is totally impossible to see where Ennis is going with the story. He should write more women leads.
Sat Apr 11 20:17:53 +0000 2009 - Locke & Key 6. Huh. It’s all a set-up for the next series, which is kind of fine, but it doesn’t really resolve anything or answer anything.
Fri Apr 10 22:51:51 +0000 2009 - Locke & Key 5. The pacing’s funny… it’s basically an all-action issue and really dark. Hill set the characters up to show their suffering.
Fri Apr 10 22:46:27 +0000 2009 - Locke & Key 4. Well, what a totally disturbing read. Hill’s protagonist this issue is a psychopath killer (juxtaposed with one of the kids).
Fri Apr 10 22:38:15 +0000 2009 - Locke & Key 3. Better, but the ending, instead of a cliffhanger, tries to give some pat resolution to the protagonist’s conflict. But solid.
Fri Apr 10 22:29:46 +0000 2009 - Locke & Key 2. It’s all intriguing, but using the youngest kid as the protagonist. It’s a little too convenient; again a forced cliffhanger.
Fri Apr 10 22:02:41 +0000 2009 - Locke & Key 1. The plotting is so well-done, so surprising, it doesn’t really matter the cliffhanger’s a little off; the art’s solid enough.
Fri Apr 10 21:54:39 +0000 2009 - he Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 12. Solid, if unexciting. The series doesn’t give Indy’s quests enough weight. Marion is wasted here.
Sun Mar 22 23:35:30 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 11. Thank goodness Gammill’s back. The issue’s a tad mediocre. The poor pacing hurts it quite a bit.
Sun Mar 22 23:26:34 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 10. An even more problematic Raiders follow-up. They should have left it alone… the story’s goofy.
Sat Mar 21 23:25:41 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 9. It’s a direct sequel to Raiders–the movie, not the comic version. Iffy pacing, dialogue and art.
Sat Mar 21 23:16:21 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 8. A whole bunch of story, a filling amount of content. A lost civilization story; a derivative one.
Thu Mar 19 03:50:23 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 7. A tad predictable (again with the Nazis?), but ok. Mostly interesting for the Indy/Marion banter.
Wed Mar 18 03:05:06 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 6. A great done in one. Chaykin’s pencils are solid for the action, not so much for the expressions.
Sun Mar 15 22:53:25 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 5. Again, the pacing’s off. Michelinie uses constant action to fill. It’s varied, but still padding.
Sun Mar 15 02:01:07 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 4. Frenz draws really good expressions. The issue’s pacing is outstanding, but it is a fine episode.
Sun Mar 15 01:51:13 +0000 2009 - Solomon Kane 5. It’s an okay finish. The book should have been better, but decent overall. They never explain why Kane looks like a monster.
Sat Mar 14 03:08:05 +0000 2009 - Soloman Kane 4. And now for the action issue, which the art really does not suit. Plus, Kane’s something of a twit–the Baron has to be bad!
Sat Mar 14 03:00:20 +0000 2009 - Solomon Kane 3. It’s still solid, but the increased pace (another clue would have been nice) is unfortunate; the mystery’s pretty much over.
Sat Mar 14 02:40:46 +0000 2009 - Solomon Kane 2. The gradual pace has won me over, even if the art hasn’t. The story’s basically a haunted house mystery and it’s a good one.
Sat Mar 14 02:31:08 +0000 2009 - Soloman Kane 1. There’s not a lot of dramatic impulse to it, but it is a competent production. Not sure why they didn’t get an inker though.
Sat Mar 14 00:42:51 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 3. Wow, one of those Marvel issues directly following the previous when it really should not. Yucky.
Fri Mar 13 22:15:59 +0000 2009 - Captain Marvel 4. I can identify–easily–David’s A, B and C plots, which takes some of the fun out of the read. Ron Lim’s art’s super-blah.
Fri Mar 13 19:40:23 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 2. Another packed issue. Not sure about some of the story developments, but it is a fine comic book.
Fri Mar 13 04:04:00 +0000 2009 - The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 1. Byrne paces the issue incredibly well and his faces don’t all look alike. A solid, genial effort.
Fri Mar 13 01:43:20 +0000 2009 - Raiders of the Lost Ark 3. It’s hard to imagine how this’d read to someone who’d never seen the movie. It’s a lesson in narrative shortcuts.
Fri Mar 13 01:33:28 +0000 2009 - Raiders of the Lost Ark 2. Simonson fits a bunch of story into a regular-sized issue. Maybe movie adaptations are ideal for pacing examples.
Fri Mar 13 01:20:28 +0000 2009 - Raiders of the Lost Ark 1. You know, it’s not bad (considering). The writing offers some introspective into the characters; the art’s solid.
Fri Mar 13 01:09:47 +0000 2009 - Mister X 14. The series goes out with a whimper. Too many characters, too little story and too much emphasis on secrets ruined it. A downer.
Fri Mar 13 00:59:38 +0000 2009 - Mister X 13. Because he changed styles, it’s impossible to identify Seth’s characters. Motter’s pacing’s all wrong. It’s pointlessly hectic.
Fri Mar 13 00:41:52 +0000 2009 - Mister X 12. I thought I’d get used to the new art style. Nope. Motter expects the reader to remember a whole lot; doesn’t give a reason to.
Fri Mar 13 00:32:06 +0000 2009 - Mister X 11. Seth tries a new style here, looks like he is drawing with a dull Sharpie. Nothing happens in this issue; a narrative disaster.
Fri Mar 13 00:17:25 +0000 2009 - Captain Marvel 3. Once again, a funny (but David’s use of pop culture references are a tad off) if breezy read. The art’s nice, lots of fun.
Thu Mar 12 17:54:27 +0000 2009 - Captain Marvel 2. It is funny–especially since David’s writing is very self-aware–but the pacing is awful. David never finishes a thought.
Thu Mar 12 17:40:50 +0000 2009 - Captain Marvel 1. David writes the witty relationship between Rick and Marv fine, but the Blair Witch reference is lame now, as it was then.
Thu Mar 12 17:31:28 +0000 2009 - Captain Marvel 0. I like how Chrisscross can mix cartoon influence for expressions but still do action art. David has got solid pacing here.
Thu Mar 12 16:29:26 +0000 2009 - The Invincible Iron Man 11. Fraction spends about half the issue on Tony, the rest is the set-up for future issues. Uneven; swell fight art.
Wed Mar 11 18:35:13 +0000 2009 - The Amazing Spider-Man 569. The Marvel Universe, post-Civil War, is just dumb. And seeing Harry go psycho isn’t anything new for the reader.
Tue Mar 10 20:31:31 +0000 2009 - Mister X 10. More malarky. It’s a shock what a downward spiral the series is in after starting so strong. This art is a particular disaster.
Tue Mar 10 02:37:02 +0000 2009 - Mister X 9. Motter mistakes confusing for compelling. There’s lots of busywork this issue, but it’s all for nothing, an excuse for an issue.
Tue Mar 10 02:30:22 +0000 2009 - Mister X 8. How does this even qualify as an issue? It’s a bunch of scenes, lots of emphasis on the visuals, to distract from its emptiness.
Tue Mar 10 01:44:52 +0000 2009 - Mister X 7. There is a lot of talking this issue, but nothing interesting. Motter is treading water instead of moving the story along. Yawn.
Tue Mar 10 01:33:24 +0000 2009 - The Amazing Spider-Man 568. Romita’s quite iconic on his Spider-Man art; weak on the rest. Decent story, well-paced. Nice Granov backup art.
Mon Mar 09 21:18:06 +0000 2009 - Mister X 6. What the hell? Seth’s art is an awful fit; the action doesn’t work, neither does the talking. The backdrops are fine; that’s it.
Sun Mar 08 07:10:33 +0000 2009 - Mister X 5. The writing’s fine (incredibly confusing but also compelling) and the new artist is okay… But the absence of Los Bros is felt.
Sun Mar 08 06:58:58 +0000 2009 - Mister X 4. The second part of the origin, which gets the reader up to date, is paced wrong. It is way too small. Some great panels in here.
Sun Mar 08 00:44:38 +0000 2009 - Mister X 3. Los Bros tell the origin quickly; it seems like it should be taking longer but it’s quick. Some lovely panels; very Jamie faces.
Sat Mar 07 23:06:52 +0000 2009 - The Invincible Iron Man 10. Fraction makes some good deliberate moves. Lots of character stuff, not a lot of Iron Man. Dark Reign is absurd.
Sat Mar 07 00:28:41 +0000 2009 - The Invincible Iron Man 9. I usually don’t care for Larroca, but this art’s a rushed mess. The colorist works more here. The story’s decent.
Fri Mar 06 22:54:16 +0000 2009 - The Invincible Iron Man 8. What a fun read. Fraction depends too much on first person narration; otherwise it’s great. Larroca’s art is not.
Fri Mar 06 22:08:23 +0000 2009 - Mister X 2. The opening, with the characters describing themselves to the reader, is brilliant. It’s all wonderful; great pacing, great art.
Fri Mar 06 04:34:39 +0000 2009 - Mister X 1. Now that’s how you do a comic. Amazing panels; every page is a masterpiece. It’s almost too much to read it as well as view it.
Fri Mar 06 02:27:16 +0000 2009 - X-Men: Legacy 212. Is Eaton trying to ape Rob Liefeld? His anatomy’s the pits. The Deodato flashback art’s awesome. Story’s a wee contrived.
Thu Mar 05 01:26:21 +0000 2009 - New Tales of Old Palomar 3. This time Beto takes it a little far. He could have done something less flashy and a whole lot better with this.
Thu Mar 05 01:06:53 +0000 2009 - New Tales of Old Palomar 2. Again, Beto’s not straining himself. Is he retconning Love and Rockets? There’s no point to the story. Nice art.
Wed Mar 04 05:04:46 +0000 2009 - New Tales of Old Palomar 1. The art’s lovely–a couple panels would make great prints–but Beto’s just doing someone a favor. It’s pleasant.
Wed Mar 04 04:52:16 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 24. It is an okay close to the arc but the pacing’s still way off and it is rather contrived. Rucka just treaded water here.
Wed Mar 04 04:22:16 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 23. There is something off with the pacing. Rucka spends too much time on the date. It’s not interesting for multiple pages.
Wed Mar 04 04:11:21 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 22. Rucka’s gradual, talky storytelling is great. Strange to see him insert a b-plot though. Does not seem all that cricket.
Wed Mar 04 04:03:02 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 21. An all-character issue. Rucka gives the cast time to reflect on current events. It is like a narrative breather but not.
Wed Mar 04 03:52:45 +0000 2009 - House of Secrets 82. More nice Sparling art–on a decent, if predictable story. All the stories are predictable, really, not uncanny at all.
Mon Mar 02 01:23:03 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 20. It is an awesome payoff issue, no doubt, but almost nothing happens. Rucka’s standard, holding action in reserve, fails.
Sat Feb 28 07:47:11 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 19. Lots of action and McNeil just doesn’t bring it. Rucka’s pacing is back on track now, with three definite acts in place.
Sat Feb 28 07:38:09 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 18. McNeil just can’t convey the location and that’s a problem. The pacing is off this issue. He’s just going for the close.
Sat Feb 28 07:16:36 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 17. What Rucka does in Q&C is kind of simple–it is a TV show, only translated well to a comic book. Only way to explain it.
Sat Feb 28 06:55:31 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 16. I like McNeil’s art but it’s a bad fit for the story. The open–where the art disguises the victim’s identity–is cheap.
Sat Feb 28 06:34:30 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 15. More beautiful art–how did Alexander never hit it big? Rucka’s script is great. The one action scene is pay-off enough.
Sat Feb 28 06:18:39 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 14. More lovely art from Alexander. I love how Rucka can turn six or seven conversations into a suspenseful, engaging issue.
Sat Feb 28 02:45:51 +0000 2009 - Queen & Country 13. I love Alexander’s art; his composition on the page is simply wonderful. Not the fullest issue, but it’s still superior.
Fri Feb 27 02:17:30 +0000 2009 - The Thing 5. Maybe if you really love Ron Wilson’s art, this issue-long battle scene is for you. Byrne overwrites; okay but a waste of time.
Wed Feb 25 22:43:33 +0000 2009 - Agents of Atlas 4. The pacing is rather off. He packs the beginning (the return of Namora!), but then Parker just writes a bunch of summary.
Wed Feb 25 03:39:12 +0000 2009 - House of Secrets 81. The writing os okay–not much uncanny about Conway’s feature though; too much time on the bookends. Great Sparling art.
Wed Feb 25 03:26:47 +0000 2009 - Agents of Atlas 6. Parker pulls off his ending, which is harder than he makes it appear; a well-paced revelation issue. Too good, too short.
Wed Feb 25 02:41:57 +0000 2009 - Agents of Atlas 5. Parker turns a battle scene into a full issue better than anyone else I can think of. This issue’s brimming with content.
Wed Feb 25 02:31:17 +0000 2009 - Agents of Atlas 3. Marvel Boy’s story’s fantastic, as are the character moments. Wonderful Kirk art. Parker’s got a great feel for the book.
Wed Feb 25 02:11:21 +0000 2009 - Agents of Atlas 2. Maybe not as fantastic as the first issue, but still great. Parker’s plot progressions are perfect, the ending’s perfect.
Wed Feb 25 01:51:09 +0000 2009 - Agents of Atlas 1. Awesome comic book. Parker manages to be modern and (reasonably) gritty but also fun. Kirk does not get near enough work.
Tue Feb 24 00:31:13 +0000 2009 - Final Crisis 7. Oh, please. Lois Lane’s writing sucks, I don’t believe she’s ever won a Pulitzer. Morrison gives the illusion of depth. Boo!
Mon Feb 23 18:20:57 +0000 2009 - Final Crisis 6. Huh? How did Superman get back? How did he know where to look for Batman? Batman equates a raygun against a god to a popgun?
Mon Feb 23 18:06:49 +0000 2009 - Final Crisis 5. Morrison may use a lot of scary language to make it all sound foreboding… it is still just a grim and gritty Super Powers.
Mon Feb 23 17:54:18 +0000 2009 - Final Crisis 4. It’s impossible to understand without reading the tie-in issues, yay. The scenes play like they all need more pages. A mess.
Mon Feb 23 17:18:34 +0000 2009 - Battlefields: Night Witches 3. Ennis brings in an amazing conclusion, not just the best of the series; better than he indicated it could be.
Mon Feb 23 05:02:32 +0000 2009 - Battlefields: Night Witches 2. Ennis is very dispassionate about it. He is practically writing a non-fiction comic book here; it captivates.
Sun Feb 22 21:51:47 +0000 2009 - Battlefields: Night Witches 1. Ennis does a fine job juxtaposing the two viewpoints (German and Russian). Hard to tell were he is taking it.
Sat Feb 21 20:23:47 +0000 2009 - Reflections 3. Corona is definitely going for something serious, but his bookends hurt the story. They kill the character’s potential. Okay.
Sat Feb 21 19:28:23 +0000 2009 - Reflections 2. It takes place in a comic book a character reads during the first issue. Lots of atmosphere and not much else going on. Yawn.
Sat Feb 21 19:23:03 +0000 2009 - Reflections 1. Not a bad reminiscence piece, but it’s more of a gesture than an actual story. It is too short to have much impact. Nice art.
Sat Feb 21 16:30:11 +0000 2009 - Rasl 3. Smith packs this issue, backstory and forward momentum. The first issue where the series establishes itself to have great potential.
Fri Feb 20 23:48:22 +0000 2009 - Rasl 2. Still confused–is a sequel to the first issue? Smith nicely mixes formats–talking heads and summary. There’s something edgy to it.
Fri Feb 20 03:06:09 +0000 2009 - Rasl 1. It’s cool, no doubt. Smith’s art is nice; his writing is concise; he knows how to draw action. I’m sure I’m supposed to be confused.
Fri Feb 20 02:52:50 +0000 2009 - Superman Beyond 2. Morrison’s boundless enthusiasm for Superman helps, but it’s clear he’s shrinking three issues into one. Way too jumbled.
Thu Feb 19 22:37:37 +0000 2009 - Superman Beyond 1. What? I’m sorry, I was distracted by the obvious Watchmen universe reference. Confusing, good-looking and generally okay.
Thu Feb 19 22:18:55 +0000 2009 - Final Crisis 3. Not to be a jerk, but Morrison seems like he is aping a Warren Ellis idea here. Way too fast pacing; barely any full scenes.
Wed Feb 18 22:06:51 +0000 2009 - Final Crisis 2. I know people love J.G. Jones, but I’m not particularly impressed. Give me J.H. Williams any time. It’s all intro, but okay.
Wed Feb 18 21:56:27 +0000 2009 - Final Crisis 1. Blah. It feels confused and jumbled, which is probably the point. Why does the Question knowingly send the cop to his death?
Wed Feb 18 21:13:53 +0000 2009 - The Thing 4. Byrne padded the heck out of the story to get it to issue-length. Would have been a fine backup. Barely needed the Thing in it.
Wed Feb 18 20:28:30 +0000 2009 - The Thing 3. Seeing Byrne do a relatively foolproof plot’s interesting, since his wordiness can’t get the better of it throughout. Mediocre.
Wed Feb 18 19:54:16 +0000 2009 - The Thing 2. More of Byrne’s wordy Thing introspection. Without the narration and the endless similes, it might be interesting. Art’s solid.
Wed Feb 18 19:27:39 +0000 2009 - The Thing 1. Wow, is Byrne ever a wordy guy. He just rambles away. Some decent composition. It is an origin retelling. Bad but not terrible.
Wed Feb 18 19:11:03 +0000 2009 - Batman 338. The Batman lead is a dumb, bad, lame one. It couldn’t be lamer. The art’s fine. The Robin backup is okay; good art, decent plot.
Wed Feb 18 05:02:33 +0000 2009 - Batman 337. The globe-spanning Batman feature’s more sci-fi (a villain named The Snowman). A Scooby-Doo Robin backup. Beautiful art on both.
Wed Feb 18 04:50:44 +0000 2009 - The Supernaturals 4. What a piece of crap. It is unintelligible–did Marvel think anyone would buy this nonsense? The good ideas go nowhere.
Tue Feb 17 22:51:35 +0000 2009 - The Supernaturals 3. This might be the most nonsensical comic book I have ever read. If it weren’t for the frantic pace, the art might work.
Tue Feb 17 22:32:33 +0000 2009 - The Supernaturals 2. I’m totally confused. The idea of an alternate, magical Marvel Universe is mildly interesting, but it’s a boring issue.
Tue Feb 17 22:08:07 +0000 2009 - The Supernaturals 1. The script’s got some decent details, but the dialogue knocks off 90210. While Reis’s art isn’t refined yet, it’s good.
Tue Feb 17 21:17:47 +0000 2009 - I Kill Giants 7. While the extra length makes some difference, Kelly’s close is too trite. Maybe it’d be good for Young Adult genre readers.
Sun Feb 15 16:05:08 +0000 2009 - I Kill Giants 6. Too bad. It slips on a banana peel. Kelly cops out, essentially deferring until the last issue. Still, some good fight art.
Sun Feb 15 15:54:25 +0000 2009 - I Kill Giants 5. Kelly gets to where anything can happen, which is fantastic–and difficult, given his various constraints. Lots of tension.
Sun Feb 15 15:49:50 +0000 2009 - I Kill Giants 4. Again, the pacing is off. Kelly actually isn’t going with the standards here, which brings real dread into the book. Solid.
Sun Feb 15 15:39:10 +0000 2009 - I Kill Giants 3. Stuff sort of happens and sort of doesn’t. Kelly’s pacing is off in this issue. Time passes in a confusing way. Still good.
Sun Feb 15 15:31:26 +0000 2009 - I Kill Giants 2. Kelly brings a new take on a standard story. Again, the art confuses at times. It is a rather nice book, quietly ambitious.
Sun Feb 15 15:22:04 +0000 2009 - I Kill Giants 1. The art’s ambitious, but occasionally confusing. It’s a quiet story with a loud scenes; hard to tell what’s coming up next.
Sun Feb 15 15:03:13 +0000 2009 - Superman 675. It is like Busiek finishes telling a different story than he started. But some of it does work well–it is kind of old school.
Sat Feb 14 10:09:00 +0000 2009 - Superman 674. Great art, good story, but Busiek’s pacing’s off again. He tries too hard to give the issue an epical arc instead of episodic.
Sat Feb 14 09:56:49 +0000 2009 - Superman 673. Awesome art from Merino, just great. The pacing’s way off–Busiek either needed another issue or one less. Lots of good stuff.
Sat Feb 14 09:46:40 +0000 2009 - Superman 672. Decent; not worth a three parter. The Lois stuff is far more involving than Superman’s problems with Lana and giant moon bugs.
Sat Feb 14 09:36:43 +0000 2009 - What If? 114. The Secret Wars kids grow up… and they’re boring. The lives of the original characters, 25 years on, would have been better.
Sat Feb 14 04:21:03 +0000 2009 - What If? 4. The black costume stays on Spider-Man. Eh. The Bagley art is nice, but the story leaps from character to character way too much.
Sat Feb 14 03:49:00 +0000 2009 - She-Hulk 10. Slott does a fine secret origin of Titania. A little modern for a 1980s retro, but good. Makes her both stupid and sympathetic.
Sat Feb 14 02:32:49 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 12. Some decent moments, but Ennis resolution to his killer priest subplot is lame. Would have been better to play it straight.
Fri Feb 13 19:58:43 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 11. It is too hurried. Ennis moves the action too fast–the present action of the issue is like four hours–needs to slow down.
Fri Feb 13 19:51:18 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 10. Even though it’s–technically–another all-action issue, Ennis drives the whole thing with conversation. Moves beautifully.
Fri Feb 13 19:45:46 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 9. Bridge issue (again). Ennis has some nice stuff in here, strong scenes, but the pace is off. The series doesn’t have a tone.
Fri Feb 13 19:33:16 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 8. And here Ennis gets the all action pacing right. Manages tension with an indestructible protagonist. Only the end tag’s off.
Fri Feb 13 19:11:53 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 7. I just read it but I can’t remember much of what happened. It’s a bridging issue, to move the plot into the third act. Good.
Fri Feb 13 18:39:15 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 6. An (almost) all-action issue. The pacing isn’t particularly great, but a solid issue; good narration, character development.
Fri Feb 13 18:25:27 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 5. An iffy issue… Frank barely makes an appearance. Mostly Ennis’s cast of goofy vigilantes and supporting players. Whatever.
Fri Feb 13 17:28:55 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 4. Argh, the killer priest stuff is so bad. What was Ennis thinking? Everything else is awesome–the poor cop, the polar bears.
Fri Feb 13 16:52:24 +0000 2009 - Thor 383. Mildly entertaining, diverting done in one Secret Wars flashback. Should the Enchantress be a stronger character than Thor though?
Fri Feb 13 04:06:11 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 3. Nice stuff with Daredevil, The killer priest is incredibly weak. Ennis paces it all right, but there’s a real lack of oomph.
Thu Feb 12 22:38:50 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 2. That’s right, there’s the killer priest. Forgot about him. Again, Ennis is going for laughs, some good, some a little cheap.
Thu Feb 12 20:49:23 +0000 2009 - The Punisher 1. Competently written, with great Dillon art–wonderful panels–so it is hard to not like it. Ennis is goofing and having fun.
Thu Feb 12 19:49:46 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 12. Somehow Shooter pulls off a cinematic close. There’s a lot of (uncredited) art fill-ins along the way. There’s weight to it.
Thu Feb 12 03:43:34 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 11. Fine composition for the talking scenes from Zeck. Shooter brings the big silly story into human terms, contrived but human.
Thu Feb 12 03:27:27 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 10. Shooter actually manages to turn Doom into the series protagonist and he does it well. Still, there’s lots of iffy dialogue.
Thu Feb 12 03:11:57 +0000 2009 - The Order 10. An atrocious finish. I know the book got canceled and Fraction had to wrap it, but he could have done better. The art’s lousy.
Wed Feb 11 22:37:43 +0000 2009 - The Order 9. Saltares gets to be a liability as it nears the end. Marvel should’ve given both Fraction and Kitson more time to work on this.
Wed Feb 11 22:28:20 +0000 2009 - The Order 8. Isn’t it slander against Courteney Love? Some decent stuff, but the big villain’s a lame choice. Lukewarm pacing, great ending.
Wed Feb 11 22:18:09 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 9. A big battle issue. Some nice developments, character moments. Shooter constructs it well. Colossus is a bit of a dip though.
Wed Feb 11 06:03:05 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 8. Some weak–super-weak–inking as the issue moves forward but Shooter’s dialogue here is his best in the comic so far. Decent.
Wed Feb 11 05:48:09 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 7. All the Volcana is fat jokes are lame and malicious. Was Shooter trying to make her sympathetic or was he trying to be funny?
Wed Feb 11 05:33:32 +0000 2009 - The Order 7. A great done-in-one. A little off on the pacing, but the Namor scenes make it all worthwhile. Fraction is a deft writer; great.
Tue Feb 10 20:56:14 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 6. Zeck’s back, but it doesn’t actually help. Shooter’s in fast forward here, not taking anywhere near enough time on the story.
Tue Feb 10 05:33:28 +0000 2009 - Secret War 5. What’s with the lame love triangle? Or Galactus’s ship having human-sized platforms? A poor issue with Layton hurting it more.
Tue Feb 10 05:12:57 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 4. Layton leaves a lot to be desired artistically. A few solid plot developments, Too bad Shooter has trouble with the dialogue.
Tue Feb 10 04:58:04 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 3. So it’s cool for the Professor X to mind-zap innocent people? That seems unheroic. Good romance between Magneto and the Wasp.
Tue Feb 10 02:03:59 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 2. The way Shooter writes expository dialogue–for the toy boxes?–is something terrible. But there are a couple honest moments.
Tue Feb 10 01:41:38 +0000 2009 - Secret Wars 1. The strange thing about Zeck’s art is how well-laid out it all is–the details aren’t there, but the composition is superior.
Tue Feb 10 00:01:18 +0000 2009 - Superman 671. Goofy, pseudo-packed pacing, but a fine modern comic issue. Busiek humanizes Superman quite well, lots of first person detail.
Sun Feb 08 04:14:28 +0000 2009 - 5 is the Perfect Number. Amazing, old man returning to violent past story. Great panels, variety of styles. Wonderful close. Just fantastic.
Fri Feb 06 05:30:52 +0000 2009 - The Order 6. Fraction has lost his pacing, like he didn’t outline the plots. He also loses the bookends here. Crumbling a bit, not too much.
Thu Feb 05 22:40:36 +0000 2009 - The Order 5. Fraction writes it an iffy cliffhanger, but a good issue all around. Evans is mostly fine, but way wrong for the talking heads.
Thu Feb 05 22:19:16 +0000 2009 - The Order 4. Fraction’s first misstep. He does not give the issue’s focus her just due–to be fair, she is a boring goody-two-shoes. Whoops.
Thu Feb 05 22:00:57 +0000 2009 - The Order 3. The pacing is off–still packed, but an incomplete plot–and Fraction apparently isn’t going to resolve cliffhangers. But good.
Thu Feb 05 21:46:39 +0000 2009 - The Order 2. Great issue–Fraction is just using Pepper Potts as Oracle, but whatever–an excellent mix of celebrity and superhero. Awesome.
Thu Feb 05 21:35:49 +0000 2009 - The Order 1. It’s solid super-hero stuff, a mix of mainstream norm with the cynical (thanks to it being a post-Civil War book). Good pacing.
Thu Feb 05 20:51:16 +0000 2009 - Legion of Super-Heroes 13. After issues of setup, Timber Wolf’s quest successfully completes. It’s an excellent done in one, with great art.
Tue Feb 03 02:32:41 +0000 2009 - Legion of Super-Heroes 12. What a strange issue. The common people’s reaction to the Legion is best, but the art is off in the second story.
Tue Feb 03 01:56:00 +0000 2009 - Legion of Super-Heroes 11. A two-in-one. The new president seems bad. Fun stuff in the Bouncing Boy backup. The front is for long-time fans.
Tue Feb 03 01:34:41 +0000 2009 - Legion of Super-Heroes 10. Another packed issue. Levitz does wonders with plotting, while also managing to get in lots of character moments.
Tue Feb 03 01:15:46 +0000 2009 - Legion of Super-Heroes 9. A lovely done in one. Levitz packs a full three acts into twenty-two pages. But again, why does everyone dis Blok?
Mon Feb 02 02:17:06 +0000 2009 - Legion of Super-Heroes 8. Levitz has a small panel with four people talking. What happened to pacing like that? Art is a bit iffy at times.
Mon Feb 02 01:58:05 +0000 2009 - Legion of Super-Heroes 7. Is everyone mean to Blok? Levitz has wonderful pacing, lots progresses through the issue. The art is nice as well.
Sun Feb 01 21:02:22 +0000 2009 - Criminal 7. There’s a big dumb twist at the end, as big and dumb as the first arc. It’s even worse, actually; predictable and disappointing.
Sat Jan 31 22:19:23 +0000 2009 - Criminal 6. Brubaker manages a lot of twists and turns with this one; the development feels real but familiar too. The cliffhanger is great.
Sat Jan 31 22:08:22 +0000 2009 - Criminal 5. A little too speedy, considering how much time Brubaker’s covering here. The way he cliffhangs, then adds a page, is always fun.
Sat Jan 31 22:00:47 +0000 2009 - Criminal 4. A great set-up, maybe Brubaker’s first comic book fetishizing. Every development is a good surprise. Great dialogue, characters.
Sat Jan 31 21:51:37 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 7. I can practically hear Ellis talk about how great his comic is… It’s real stupid. It’s like a grim and gritty Superman IV.
Thu Jan 29 21:46:54 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 6. What happened in this issue, besides bad flashbacks? Ellis’s super-liberals are a silly idea. The issue has terrible pacing.
Thu Jan 29 21:36:56 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 5. Ellis writes the worst political dialogue, all exposition. The art’s terrible in the action scenes. It’s a silly comic book.
Thu Jan 29 21:15:43 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 4. Yuck, what an awful pace. Ellis cuts into the fight scene with some nonsense. Making them science heroes kills any metaphor.
Thu Jan 29 21:00:07 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 3. It’s like Watchmen, only backwards! Wow, I am so fooled. It is readable. Ryp’s art is really annoying–his figures are poor.
Thu Jan 29 20:46:04 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 2. It’s an all-action issue, but it is actually fine. The best of the series so far, even if Ryp can’t draw facial expressions.
Thu Jan 29 20:31:45 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 1. Ellis techno-babble aside, it is pretty standard. The action scene’s well-done, but it eats up a bunch of the issue. Boring.
Wed Jan 28 21:14:55 +0000 2009 - Black Summer 0. It’s okay… Ellis’s concepts are neon exploitative, he doesn’t have a nuanced bone in his writing hand. Art’s way too busy.
Wed Jan 28 21:02:47 +0000 2009 - Ancient Joe 3. It’s so rough, in terms of narrative. Morse turns an issue of plot into three. There’s some good art, at least, and dialogue.
Tue Jan 27 22:07:37 +0000 2009 - Ancient Joe 2. There is too much padding, but Morse has some strong dialogue and a couple great scenes. The art finally opens up at the end.
Mon Jan 26 20:25:42 +0000 2009 - Ancient Joe 1. Morse has some great panels–like the drinking one–but the issue is way too static. He is not a talking heads guy. But okay.
Mon Jan 26 18:42:55 +0000 2009 - Anna Mercury 5. Yawn. All the technobabble and the art make it hard to follow. Ellis tries to use filmic tension; it doesn’t work in comics.
Fri Jan 23 16:27:52 +0000 2009 - Anna Mercury 4. Atrocious pacing. Ellis is confused–he seems to think he has a compelling character going on here. Hard to push through it.
Fri Jan 23 16:07:04 +0000 2009 - Anna Mercury 3. Why not just give her superpowers, since all the limitation stuff is padding? The art makes the action impossible to follow.
Fri Jan 23 15:54:43 +0000 2009 - Anna Mercury 2. Ellis’s high concept turns out not to be somewhat low (reminds of Aeon Flux in execution). It is readable, but nothing else.
Tue Jan 20 20:01:18 +0000 2009 - Anna Mercury 1. I’m totally confused, which might be the point. The art is kind of weak–the perspective and so on; lots of phallic symbols.
Mon Jan 19 17:34:52 +0000 2009 - House of M: Civil War 5. Maybe half the issue is okay, the other half confuses the emphasis. It’s a silly series with an exploitative title.
Sun Jan 18 20:07:47 +0000 2009 - House of M: Civil War 4. Is there supposed to be any conflict in House of M? I mean, humans really are complete jerks, right? Nuke them all.
Sun Jan 18 20:02:16 +0000 2009 - House of M: Civil War 3. What a nasty comic book. It’s entirely downbeat and begs the question–does this origin actually make a good story?
Sun Jan 18 19:57:27 +0000 2009 - House of M: Civil War 2. The pacing’s off–it’s an all-action issue for the most part–two action scenes, front and back, with filler. Okay.
Fri Jan 16 21:09:33 +0000 2009 - House of M: Civil War 1. Title hijinks aside, it is a solid Elseworlds from Marvel. They do these better anyhow. The art and pacing is good.
Thu Jan 15 22:49:18 +0000 2009 - Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves 6. VanHook’s got to be one of the worst comic book writers ever. The Mandrake art is superb.
Thu Jan 15 22:21:51 +0000 2009 - Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves 5. Is this comic going to stop without an ending? It sure seems like it. It is crap-tacular.
Thu Jan 15 22:03:24 +0000 2009 - Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves 4. More good art, more lousy writing. Superman isn’t even in the issue. VanHook is the pits.
Thu Jan 15 21:29:32 +0000 2009 - Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves 3. VanHook has a fetish for putting kids in danger. The cameos mean great art, stupid story.
Thu Jan 15 21:11:13 +0000 2009 - Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves 2. Who greenlighted this turkey? Why’s DC wasting Mandrake on this garbage? Writing’s awful.
Thu Jan 15 19:59:07 +0000 2009 - Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and Werewolves 1. Crappy exposition and dialogue (intended for kids?). The art’s great; makes it tolerable.
Tue Jan 13 05:48:37 +0000 2009 - Criminal 3. The last issue of a loose trilogy, it is probably Brubaker’s best work on the series. The contrived setting is a problem though.
Sun Jan 11 20:57:42 +0000 2009 - Criminal 2. Nice done in one, Brubaker and Phillips fit a lot in. Not a fan of the lettering though. It is a sturdy, solid, reliable comic.
Sun Jan 11 20:45:05 +0000 2009 - Charlatan Ball 2. Is it supposed to be so desperately unfunny? It almost seems like lame jokes are Casey’s objective. The pacing’s terrible.
Sun Jan 11 02:34:15 +0000 2009 - Charlatan Ball 1. Casey’s determined to keep doing Kirby-esque, isn’t he? Too soon to tell overall, not the best sign. The dialogue’s goofy.
Sun Jan 11 02:24:18 +0000 2009 - Truth: Red, White & Black 7. Baker absolutely nails one of the two important pages. He only does okay on the other; the momentum carries it.
Sat Jan 10 00:25:58 +0000 2009 - Truth: Red, White & Black 6. What an abject failure. Morales’s script has these wonderful moments; Baker just can’t properly translate them.
Fri Jan 09 23:01:40 +0000 2009 - Truth: Red, White & Black 5. An all new narrative approach does not help and the art still fails. Again, if only the art were the right fit.
Fri Jan 09 22:55:01 +0000 2009 - Truth: Red, White & Black 4. The issue’s art’s a disaster. Most of the reading’s spent trying to imagine how it’d work with appropriate art.
Fri Jan 09 22:51:54 +0000 2009 - Truth: Red, White & Black 3. The pacing’s all wrong but the dialogue is excellent. The art during the experiments works fine, but only then.
Fri Jan 09 22:10:38 +0000 2009 - The Punisher X-Mas Special 1. Aaron gets how to write Frank. Good art, fine plot twists. Marvel needs to make him the regular series writer.
Fri Jan 09 04:21:44 +0000 2009 - Captain America 45. Another one of Brubaker’s fake arcs, just a lead-in to the next big one. I don’t mind; I can’t wait for whatever’s next.
Fri Jan 09 02:14:30 +0000 2009 - Captain America 44. Same art problems, but Brubaker crafts a fine adventure for the new Cap. Both modern and retro, it’s great superheroing.
Fri Jan 09 02:08:08 +0000 2009 - Captain America 43. Brubaker’s comfortable with Bucky in a smaller arc. The art’s iffy, mimicking the regular tone; not doing anything new.
Fri Jan 09 01:53:20 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 12. Is this Moore’s best? He writes a final issue full of wonderment and hope; something the plot certainly doesn’t lend itself to.
Thu Jan 08 06:13:08 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 11. Moore’s homage to Republic serials; ha ha. It’s a beautiful piece of storytelling, with the series neatly tying up for the end.
Thu Jan 08 06:12:42 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 10. This most have been hell as a monthly. Moore fills the issue–and establishes incredible foreshadowing. The anticipation kills.
Thu Jan 08 02:15:33 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 9. Laurie and Dr. Manhattan–what’s his name?–have the talking heads issue of talking heads issues. Awesome movement through time.
Thu Jan 08 00:17:48 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 8. Things move along; more importantly there is that amazing Moore storytelling. The story enters its third act, a tad early even.
Wed Jan 07 06:04:51 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 7. Dan and Laurie reassert themselves as the main characters here, simply because they are the most human. Moore’s tone is perfect.
Thu Jan 01 21:57:08 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 6. The Rorschach issue. Moore has to do it all in this one issue–convince the reader Rorschach’s philosophy is valid. He succeeds.
Thu Jan 01 21:41:38 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 5. What doesn’t happen in this issue? Moore and Gibbons do narrative wonders in two pages. Still, Gibbons’s shoes don’t look right.
Thu Jan 01 20:56:05 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 4. Amazing issue–Moore gets to run loose with time and space, all while covering some important history for the reader. Fantastic.
Thu Jan 01 07:57:53 +0000 2009 - The Age of the Sentry 1. Awesome retro-homage. I almost forgot it was not actually an old reprint (well, Dragotta’s a tad loose on details).
Thu Jan 01 01:23:57 +0000 2009 - Watchmen 3. Moore takes a breather from the A plot–good scene with the superheroes versus muggers. He juxtaposes everything just perfectly.
Wed Dec 31 06:12:18 +0000 2008 - Watchmen 2. The mystery starts. Moore’s flashbacks devastate. It is such a depressing read, compelling on every page, but a complete downer.
Wed Dec 31 05:34:08 +0000 2008 - Watchmen 1. There is an L&R moment at the end. Really feels like it. Moore is great at character stuff–it’s his unsung quality as a writer.
Wed Dec 31 05:12:41 +0000 2008 - Truth: Red, White & Black 2. There are scenes where the art fits and scenes where it does not. It is iffy–the horrific events play shallow.
Tue Dec 30 22:35:53 +0000 2008 - Truth: Red, White & Black 1. I hate to say it… I’m not wild about Baker’s art as a fit for the story. Maybe I’m overreacting. Solid stuff.
Tue Dec 30 22:24:04 +0000 2008 - Necronomicon 4. The last couple pages are a tad cute; it’s an awesome issue. Still confusing, but who cares? Messner-Loebs does a great job.
Tue Dec 30 21:02:30 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 8. Bride of Frankenstein references. It lessens work, the painfully obvious reference. The art confused the heck out of me.
Tue Dec 30 06:49:29 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 7. And this issue does a Jesus on the cross reference. Seriously, given the pacing and the art, I do not care what goes on.
Tue Dec 30 06:40:35 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 6. Good grief, does it really rip off a line from Alien 4? Still, it is an okay action issue. Even if the pacing is screwy.
Tue Dec 30 06:35:06 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 5. Essentially a filler issue. It asks for a lot of patience, something it doesn’t earn. But, I can think of a good moment.
Tue Dec 30 06:24:33 +0000 2008 - Necronomicon 3. It’s hard to follow–just way too many characters. Messner-Loebs has great details, fine tone–he’s wasted on this material.
Mon Dec 29 22:42:47 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu: Godwar 4. Wow, an exceptional cop-out. A limited series without a complete story, what an original idea. The art is so bad.
Mon Dec 29 21:44:28 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu: Godwar 3. What the heck is this mess? It’s not just the art; the characters don’t even remain consistent from page to page.
Mon Dec 29 21:35:08 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu: Godwar 2. The new artist is drawing Scooby-Doo. Nelson’s got a couple fine moments, but the art’s too bad for them to work.
Mon Dec 29 21:26:34 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu: Godwar 1. The art is too broad (cartoonish) for the morose subject matter. It’s a team-up issue; hard to tell how it’ll go.
Mon Dec 29 21:07:43 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 4. Boo! An all-action issue. Mostly, anyway. Art gets better at the end; Dysart introduces a new character. But it is blah.
Mon Dec 29 05:55:05 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 2. Much better. Even with clichĂ©d character relationships, Dysart’s dialogue prevails. The art’s too slick, too gloom-free.
Mon Dec 29 04:23:08 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 3. And it’s silly again. The visual style–the costumes–it’s like 1990s Image. The pace’s way too quick. Needs to breathe.
Mon Dec 29 04:19:04 +0000 2008 - Violent Messiahs 1. Is it supposed to feel like the introduction to a video game? Hackneyed details; Dysart comes through in smaller scenes.
Mon Dec 29 00:25:28 +0000 2008 - The Boys 22. A bit of a let down, it wraps up instead of presents a full chapter. It’s good and all, but it is definitely missing something.
Sun Dec 28 21:35:49 +0000 2008 - The Boys 21. Ennis is able to get away with the 9/11 stuff because it’s excellent. It is a masterful comment on post-9/11 superhero comics.
Sun Dec 28 21:25:57 +0000 2008 - The Boys 20. The origin continues, with some concurrent character asides. The book doesn’t even need a great origin, but Ennis gives it one.
Sun Dec 28 21:19:39 +0000 2008 - The Boys 19. Ennis turns in a solid, original origin issue. It’s a tad difficult, there are so many origin issues already. Art’s a wee lazy.
Sun Dec 28 20:32:56 +0000 2008 - The Boys 18. There is a fight scene, so the issue has got a faster pace. Ennis has more time for humor, but still gets in some fine moments.
Sun Dec 28 19:55:59 +0000 2008 - The Boys 17. Nice issue. Ennis does his romance thing but also gets in a lot of bite. It’s such an awkward book, non-traditional. I love it.
Sun Dec 28 19:46:14 +0000 2008 - The Boys 16. I love Ennis’s calm, assured pace. It would have been something if DC had kept such an artistically told series. Awesome issue.
Sun Dec 28 16:42:44 +0000 2008 - The Boys 15. A drumroll for future events; it nicely showcases Ennis’s romantic side again. He’s such a sweetheart. Robertson’s art’s great.
Sun Dec 28 16:01:17 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 19. A decent ending, considering cancellation forced it early. But it is obtuse for effect, instead of being clearly told.
Sun Dec 28 01:46:51 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 18. A solid battle issue with the best art in the series. It is too quick, Carey obviously could’ve spend more time on it.
Sun Dec 28 01:32:36 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 17. It took this long to get the right inker. The story is galloping now, but Carey does find the time for little moments.
Sun Dec 28 01:24:38 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 16. I love when characters make absolutely no sense. Carey does the comic version of a clip show here. It is poorly paced.
Fri Dec 26 05:45:42 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 15. I have to hand it to Carey, he doesn’t flinch from making his main characters jerks. It doesn’t help the story though.
Fri Dec 26 05:34:01 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 14. The art is getting slack again. Carey treading water, writing-wise, does not help much either. The cliffhanger stinks.
Fri Dec 26 05:26:36 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 13. Carey’s got way too many cliffhangers in each issue. Once he rounds his characters, he trashes them. It is annoying.
Fri Dec 26 05:19:08 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 12. A decent, if predictable cliffhanger following a rather good issue. Carey turned the side story into a good diversion.
Fri Dec 26 03:43:28 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 11. A solid twist at the end–nicely foreshadowed–makes up for the weak new characters and setting. Way too little Toshi.
Fri Dec 26 03:26:48 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 10. A new A plot, which is fine, but it feels like half of the story’s absent now. Nguyen’s art is unfinished and hurried.
Wed Dec 24 05:01:41 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 9. I can’t follow Carey’s logic here. Just because it’s magic doesn’t mean it shouldn’t make sense too. Lazy or misguided?
Wed Dec 24 04:47:58 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 8. It’s very well-written, but Carey introduces way too much in each issue. He doesn’t give the reader a chance to digest.
Sun Dec 21 20:49:24 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 7. Carey finds a way to balance his cast. Toshi’s better brainwashed than not. Her scissors are the book’s best character.
Sun Dec 21 18:19:14 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 6. Another new narrator–the female twin–and her character is a weak protagonist. Fern’s art is lazy here. Disappointing.
Sun Dec 21 00:01:40 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 5. Another change in narrator but Carey has got a solid structure and great pacing. The art keeps changing, quality-wise.
Sat Dec 20 16:21:00 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 4. Too much action and a change in narration hurts. Carey wants to show off ideas here, explain instead of tell the story.
Sat Dec 20 16:11:31 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 3. Carey’s got some truly surprising moments in this issue, both loud and quiet. The narration keeps it in a passive tone.
Sat Dec 20 16:02:53 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 2. This issue reveals Carey has a plan for the comic, a careful one. It manages to be creepy without actually frightening.
Sat Dec 20 15:52:04 +0000 2008 - Crossing Midnight 1. Sure, it’s extra-sized, but I can’t think of a recent comic with as much content. Carey has got a strong narrator here.
Sat Dec 20 15:43:00 +0000 2008 - The Punisher: The End. Beautiful, humanistic first-person Frank–the first time Ennis uses it? Great Corben. It is better than it should be.
Sat Dec 20 06:43:48 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 14. With Lucifer as the lead, the book feels a lot more grounded (for better or worse). Not much dumb sheriff; a solid read.
Thu Dec 18 22:35:49 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 13. The sheriff’s one of the worst written characters I can think of. His solo scenes are asinine. But a good, creepy issue.
Thu Dec 18 22:30:10 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 12. Art’s good with the girl, bad with the guys. Still more TV cop banter and posturing, but the Lucifer character’s strong.
Thu Dec 18 21:46:53 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 11. The cop banter is a little pat, but the story is real effective. Some undercooked art, but it is on when it’s important.
Thu Dec 18 21:10:58 +0000 2008 - The Punisher: The Cell. Ennis mixes half a good idea for a normal story arc–Frank in prison by Ennis–and a hackneyed “very special” issue.
Thu Dec 18 01:57:27 +0000 2008 - The Punisher: The Tyger. Ennis does better with the flashback than the frame, because the flashback is unique versus traditional. Good read.
Thu Dec 18 00:04:41 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 10. After last issue’s strong art, Quiligotti is suddenly very lazy. He’s also the wrong artist for the content, style-wise.
Tue Dec 16 22:30:48 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 9. The rhyming is annoying–masking the lack of content–but the art’s a detached beautiful, which makes it work as a piece.
Tue Dec 16 22:14:38 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 8. This issue is the lacks humor more than any in the series. Good art. Should the Harlot’s cameo be the most engaging part?
Tue Dec 16 22:02:25 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 7. Disturbing, if predictable, done in one. Nelson’s lack of personality in his writing is a strength. The art is fantastic.
Tue Dec 16 21:46:18 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 6. Nice art from Scott–but it’s hard to tell bearded men apart in low light. Nelson packs the issue with content very well.
Tue Dec 16 20:46:52 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 5. The close is very strong visually, but the story lacks. It’s too fast a wrap-up. The lack of narrative transitions hurts.
Tue Dec 16 20:14:21 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 4. There are some real technical writing problems here (internal narration), but it is an effective issue due to the twists.
Tue Dec 16 20:06:18 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 3. More logic problems with the protagonist’s actions, the girlfirend’s outfit is absurd, but the issue’s still quite solid.
Tue Dec 16 19:51:08 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 2. It’s just amazing how much the issue works without the girlfriend. The lead’s a little too stupid though. Good dream art.
Tue Dec 16 19:25:41 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 1. Some good art in close-ups, not in medium shots. Fine writing, but the girlfriend and pop culture references do not work.
Tue Dec 16 17:43:03 +0000 2008 - Fantastic Four: True Story 4. It’s like Cornell thinks if he can confuse the reader enough, the plot’ll make sense. Still, some fine scenes.
Mon Dec 15 00:20:35 +0000 2008 - Fantastic Four: True Story 3. Again, too much with the supporting players. When it is focused on Johnny, for instance, it works really well.
Sun Dec 14 23:51:02 +0000 2008 - Fantastic Four: True Story 2. Rather cute, to the point it feels like an eighth grade reading PSA. Way too much emphasis on the guest stars.
Sun Dec 14 22:12:48 +0000 2008 - Fantastic Four: True Story 1. A strange book when considered logically, but the tone’s right on. Not thrilled about the art; it’s a tad raw.
Sun Dec 14 21:30:30 +0000 2008 - True Believers 5. I really hope they get a follow-up. Nice close, well-paced for content but fast-moving. Bates writes some nice one liners.
Sun Dec 14 05:56:23 +0000 2008 - True Believers 4. Here we get the rest of the team’s origin stories, which are good (mostly hip and funny). The team dynamics are excellent.
Sun Dec 14 05:45:16 +0000 2008 - True Believers 3. With the electric blue lead, it’s as close to old school Gulacy as we’re going to get. Really good issue, the best so far.
Sun Dec 14 01:48:48 +0000 2008 - True Believers 2. I wish the series was ongoing, but Bates probably couldn’t sustain it. It is like a PG-13 Alias. More great Gulacy panels.
Sat Dec 13 22:56:01 +0000 2008 - True Believers 1. An odd book. It’s a nice combination of serious and fun–an almost homage to the nineties. Gulacy’s got some great panels.
Sat Dec 13 22:44:12 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 503. Land’s photo referencing eventually leads to some confusion. Solid close, with some pacing issues again, but it’s solid.
Sat Dec 13 20:36:20 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 502. It must be Fraction bringing the super-fun tone. The pacing is way off though. It seems like nothing happens; all action.
Sat Dec 13 20:26:42 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 501. Cyclops is a weak narrator. And he and Emma Frost are a creepy couple, not cute. The concept is too PC, but it is decent.
Sat Dec 13 20:15:32 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 500. A nice anniversary issue–without mentioning it’s anniversary status. Shame Dodson did not match Land’s character design.
Sat Dec 13 20:06:18 +0000 2008 - Ultimate Origins 5. Bendis forgoes finishing his story to do an Ultimatum prelude. It’s an asinine finish, right after the series got going.
Sat Dec 13 07:36:14 +0000 2008 - Ultimate Origins 4. With Nick Fury in the central role, it finally gets moving well. The Hulk stuff is good, just wish the issue was longer.
Sat Dec 13 03:40:21 +0000 2008 - Ultimate Origins 3. I get it, the obelisk is the Ultimate Watcher. Whatever. This time Bendis focuses on the X-Men. Big surprise, it’s lame.
Sat Dec 13 00:47:32 +0000 2008 - Ultimate Origins 2. Solid Dum-Dum cameo, but the issue is just a streamlined retelling of Captain America’s normal origin, save the costume.
Sat Dec 13 00:27:21 +0000 2008 - Ultimate Origins 1. Fury was the first super soldier? Bendis’s contrived history would read better as endnotes than a story. His FDR is bad.
Fri Dec 12 04:58:26 +0000 2008 - Fall of Cthulhu 0. Lots of goofy, scary sounding proper nouns muddle the writing–along with intentional opaqueness. The art’s solid though.
Wed Dec 10 22:47:06 +0000 2008 - Journey 16. Messner-Loebs has an almost unmanageably big cast here. Lots of plot development with a nice Wolverine bookend as a cliffhanger.
Wed Dec 10 01:15:17 +0000 2008 - Journey 15. The comic works a lot better without perfunctory Wolverine appearances. Well done tensing of the A plot; a very effective entry.
Tue Dec 09 05:45:36 +0000 2008 - Journey 14. The book has definitely entered into a third phase, where Messner-Loebs’s historical storytelling has taken over from Wolverine.
Mon Dec 08 23:55:34 +0000 2008 - Journey 13. Wolverine meets a time traveler. There is some solid big story stuff, but the time traveler nonsense is too silly. It’s strange.
Mon Dec 08 03:20:01 +0000 2008 - Journey 12. Wolverine takes a back seat in the canoe while Messner-Loebs lays out the table for an Indian attack. Good if a tad bit lacking.
Sun Dec 07 22:38:04 +0000 2008 - Journey 11. The story opens with a comment about it being too sedentary (so I don’t have to). It’s a pleasant wrap-up of the current A plot.
Sat Dec 06 23:46:59 +0000 2008 - Journey 10. It’s still in the different tone–with Wolverine settled vs. mobile–but there are some nice developments. The book’s changing.
Fri Dec 05 22:46:23 +0000 2008 - Journey 9. Messner-Loebs changes gears, storytelling-wise, here. Still strong, but there’s a sudden emphasis on the larger cast versus lead.
Thu Dec 04 05:23:32 +0000 2008 - Journey 8. Messner-Loebs does his first big close-up in this character development issue. It is a nice break from the norm and a little sad.
Wed Dec 03 06:02:51 +0000 2008 - Journey 7. About half the issue is set in a whiteout–awesome talking heads. The rest is mostly for laughs. Solid, but can’t match the open.
Wed Dec 03 04:39:03 +0000 2008 - Journey 6. A Christmas issue, of sorts. It works in a couple pre-existing narrative concerns well, but it’s mostly just a solid done in one.
Sun Nov 30 02:59:34 +0000 2008 - Journey 5. Messner-Loebs finds a great way to continue the last story, mixing slice of life with whimsical wonderment. It’s a lovely issue.
Sat Nov 29 22:26:39 +0000 2008 - Journey 4. Nice slice of life stuff, along with a funny one. Kind of wish it continued the main narrative, but it’s so solid, I don’t care.
Sat Nov 29 17:21:27 +0000 2008 - Journey 3. I loved the layered narratives. The first issue to go all-out funny; it works very well. Crazy art too. The issue’s a lot of fun.
Fri Nov 28 20:56:45 +0000 2008 - Journey 2. Mystery as an avenue for character storytelling, not to mention period storytelling–I love this comic. Great art’s just a bonus.
Fri Nov 28 16:18:30 +0000 2008 - Journey 1. Fantastic cartooning–with solid storytelling as well; the panel composition astounded me. I had no idea the comic was this good.
Fri Nov 28 00:58:26 +0000 2008 - Madame Xanadu 5. Maybe it’s the combination of the mangaesque art and Wagner’s weak female characterization, but Nimue acts like a teenager.
Wed Nov 26 17:03:16 +0000 2008 - Madame Xanadu 4. Once again I am flummoxed. Wagner pays lip service to women but his protagonist is fatally hung up on the Phantom Stranger.
Wed Nov 26 03:46:37 +0000 2008 - Batman: Outlaws 3. Not as good as the first two issues, but who cares? Some amazing panels. Moench seems like he converted a Batmovie pitch.
Wed Nov 19 03:21:14 +0000 2008 - Batman: Outlaws 2. Strangely topical conspiracy bits from Moench. The art’s still crazy–Gulacy composes some wild pages here–a fine ride.
Tue Nov 18 23:48:32 +0000 2008 - Batman: Outlaws 1. It’s crazy–the inks and colors, especially inks–make Gulacy Eisneresque. Moench’s script’s fine but the art’s the draw.
Tue Nov 18 04:43:00 +0000 2008 - Fallen Angel 28. Blah again–and nice photo-reference of Halle Berry by the way. Too much dumb plot, not enough character or solid activity.
Mon Nov 17 04:26:19 +0000 2008 - Fallen Angel 27. Better than I expected, but it’s an all-action issue–unless you count the jokes. But not as crappy as the series has been.
Mon Nov 17 04:20:29 +0000 2008 - Streets of Glory 6. Ennis fast forward through the finish. Blah action and disastrous epilogue material. A good end was too much to ask for.
Mon Nov 17 03:52:49 +0000 2008 - Streets of Glory 5. Did Ennis really write the first two issues? This one has a great, almost half-issue conversation and a fantastic close.
Sun Nov 16 06:16:29 +0000 2008 - Streets of Glory 4. It finally gets great–well, the writing anyway. Maybe Ennis padded a four issue series into a six. Hope he keeps it up.
Sun Nov 16 05:06:42 +0000 2008 - Streets of Glory 3. The art is certainly no better–the cover’s a threat–but Ennis is finally conscious. It’s the first well-written issue.
Sun Nov 16 03:29:14 +0000 2008 - Streets of Glory 2. Did someone tell Wolfer his endless profile panels are a good idea? At least Ennis’s writing is a bit better this issue.
Sat Nov 15 02:46:45 +0000 2008 - Streets of Glory 1. I think he’s supposed to look like Clint Eastwood, but Wolfer’s art is the pits. Ennis is either bored or cash-strapped.
Sat Nov 15 02:35:53 +0000 2008 - Madame Xanadu 3. Wagner’s got some decent ideas–it’s like Young Indiana Jones, the protagonist in historical events–but his pacing is off.
Fri Nov 14 05:44:09 +0000 2008 - Secret Invasion: Thor 3. Though the art confuses during the fighting, Fraction pulls off a neat trick; his epic storytelling style is great.
Fri Nov 14 05:23:02 +0000 2008 - Secret Invasion: Thor 2. Still love the art, but Super-Skrulls are lame villains for these tie-ins–and Fraction’s dialogue’s a little blah.
Fri Nov 14 05:15:08 +0000 2008 - Secret Invasion: Thor 1. Love the colored Braithwaite pencils, it brings a good tone to the story. Fraction does a very well-written tie-in.
Fri Nov 14 05:05:38 +0000 2008 - Madame Xanadu 2. The Etrigan cameo is kind of neat–does it put the comic in DC continuity; the almost manga art is okay but makes it goofy.
Thu Nov 13 05:48:49 +0000 2008 - Madame Xanadu 1. Way too much thinly veiled Camelot nonsense–the Phantom Stranger’s a neat guest in a Vertigo series–but what’s the point?
Thu Nov 13 05:42:33 +0000 2008 - Invincible Iron Man 7. Fraction writes a bad post-Brand New Day Spidey guest. Larocca’s photo-art is annoying; it is all lame and worthless.
Thu Nov 13 03:55:30 +0000 2008 - Action Comics 847. Kind of cute adventure of Pa Kent and son, but the framework’s weak and Guedes needs a solid inker. He’s goes too slight.
Thu Nov 13 03:38:59 +0000 2008 - Superman 670. In old school annual style, “ruined” by atrocious art–the villain’s a red Lobo. But Busiek has lost his grasp on Superman too
Thu Nov 13 03:32:51 +0000 2008 - Superman Annual 13. Awful art. Old school annual, “ruined” by bad art–the villain’s a red Lobo. But Busiek’s lost his grip on Superman too.
Wed Nov 12 06:35:54 +0000 2008 - Superman 669. First, since when are Kryptonians immortal. Second, why does Busiek’s sci-fi read like a lame Star Wars comic. Disappointing.
Wed Nov 12 06:20:16 +0000 2008 - Superman 668. Superman as foster parent is iffy, but Busiek makes it work. Leonardi does budget cartoon and the art never matches the scope.
Wed Nov 12 00:23:48 +0000 2008 - Demon 1. Early Matt Wagner is more cartoonish than modern–he spends a lot more time on his artwork–but the issue’s dreadfully overwritten.
Tue Nov 11 05:33:05 +0000 2008 - Thicker Than Blood 2. The Ploog art is gorgeous, gets an able assist from the paints; but the story seems inconsequential–a bridging issue.
Tue Nov 11 02:48:50 +0000 2008 - Injury 1. The first half is a solid–if standard–slice of life, but the second half is a strange, almost trippy, super-fun superhero fight.
Tue Nov 11 02:34:39 +0000 2008 - Skyscrapers of the Midwest 4. A hard book to start on the fourth issue, but worth the discomfort. Lovely illustrating and fine storytelling.
Sun Nov 09 05:50:53 +0000 2008 - Ghost Rider 27. It’s all setup, apparently, for the next phase of the book. But why does the big bad guy look like a Transformer with wings?
Sun Nov 09 05:37:08 +0000 2008 - Ghost Rider 26. Too much Ghost Rider history. Aaron tries and makes it mildly interesting. Huat is more concerned with being icky than good.
Sun Nov 09 05:30:46 +0000 2008 - Captain America 42. Awesome close, but Brubaker almost sets the bar too high. This issue finally has the right action slash gab combination.
Sun Nov 09 05:14:57 +0000 2008 - Captain America 41. What’s with the goofy, Jim Lee boot shot at the end? Regardless, a great issue; Brubaker’s Cap work is his current best.
Sun Nov 09 04:51:18 +0000 2008 - Captain America 40. But apparently when Brubaker does an issue-long fight scene, it works. He opens it with tension and never lets up on it.
Sat Nov 08 23:58:59 +0000 2008 - Captain America 39. De La Torre’s art is fantastic–he does well with the fight scenes, even if Brubaker pads a tad much. The twist is neat.
Sat Nov 08 23:47:45 +0000 2008 - Captain America 38. It goes by too quick–Brubaker’s action scenes in Cap always do. The opening revelation is good though. Nice flashbacks.
Sat Nov 08 23:33:59 +0000 2008 - Captain America 37. Brubaker doesn’t miss a beat. But Epting has got some problems with faces–Bucky, Hawkeye and Fake Steve all look alike.
Sat Nov 08 23:27:55 +0000 2008 - X-Men: Legacy 211. Still need background help. Carey has the comic in its “regular” format now–works real well. Professor X is a good lead.
Sat Nov 08 22:37:44 +0000 2008 - X-Men: Legacy 210. I need annotations, not being an X-Men reader. It is well-written. Land just runs filters on photos, he is getting worse.
Sat Nov 08 19:35:00 +0000 2008 - X-Men: Legacy 209. Carey writes a great Magneto and he knows how to pace a mostly tally issue–then give it a big finish. Tan’s art is weak.
Sat Nov 08 18:46:32 +0000 2008 - X-Men: Legacy 208. Super-solid writing from Carey, and the Romita flashback art, make it work. A talking heads issue and a fine one at that.
Sat Nov 08 18:37:54 +0000 2008 - Galveston 1. Written with less historical authenticity than a DeMille picture. The art changeover hurts–Herman’s way too cartoonish for it.
Sat Nov 08 09:18:11 +0000 2008 - Invincible Iron Man 6. Boo! Boo! Terribly paced–the comic was actually better as a movie tie-in–not to mention proto-Iron Fascist. Crappy.
Sat Nov 08 04:11:28 +0000 2008 - Invincible Iron Man 5. It’s an all-action issue, so the goofy writing is somehow better (there aren’t any movie references). But it’s lousy.
Sat Nov 08 03:58:46 +0000 2008 - Invincible Iron Man 4. Fraction’s writing a treatment for the sequel, not a comic. The art gets real ugly in it too. Plus, it is all filler.
Sat Nov 08 03:45:16 +0000 2008 - Invincible Iron Man 3. There’s apparently a formula to how many movie references an issue–three, evenly paced throughout. There’s no story.
Sat Nov 08 03:06:34 +0000 2008 - Invincible Iron Man 2. Even more references to the movie. Larroca’s art is less offensive. The writing’s adroit but hollow–good Thor cameo.
Sat Nov 08 02:55:25 +0000 2008 - Invincible Iron Man 1. Is there a story behind all the movie references? Maybe. Is the story good? Eh… and Larroca’s photo-art is hideous.
Sat Nov 08 02:40:55 +0000 2008 - MySpace Dark Horse Presents 15. Lead story, cute story and last story are weak–last one’s an ad. Dysart’s is an awesome pseudo(?) auto-bio.
Fri Nov 07 18:28:18 +0000 2008 - Station 4. Are you kidding me? It is hard to tell what’s more rushed, the writing or the art–and the art is lousy. An atrocious conclusion.
Fri Nov 07 02:37:07 +0000 2008 - Reich 5. Somehow too big, too hurried. The characters get overlooked for the Nazis. It is solid, but rushed and–for the first time–unsure.
Fri Nov 07 02:28:09 +0000 2008 - Reich 4. Brubaker moves into what appears to be the second act of his narrative, though it’s hard to tell. There’s a definite shift in tone.
Thu Nov 06 02:34:56 +0000 2008 - Reich 3. Or, the origin story. Brubaker goes back to Reich’s youth, revealing some obviously influential incidents. More great construction.
Thu Nov 06 00:16:37 +0000 2008 - Reich 2. Brubaker gets a great cartoonist’s one-panel joke in to close the issue, giving it a light finish. Lots of great storytelling here.
Wed Nov 05 06:05:53 +0000 2008 - Reich 1. A pretense-free biography. The visual conveying of ideas is fantastic; most impressive is the approach to character. A great start.
Wed Nov 05 03:26:26 +0000 2008 - Dan Dare 7. Half fictive historical musings and half rousing action conclusion. It’s Ennis writing, enthused, about heroism; rare and great.
Wed Nov 05 02:45:27 +0000 2008 - Dan Dare 6. Ennis gets in the drumroll–we hear the plans, we’re ready to see their results. But he also gets in the humanizing moments too.
Tue Nov 04 23:39:16 +0000 2008 - Dan Dare 5. Still some pacing issues, but Ennis comes up with more than a few great moments to compensate. I love the Jesus symbolism humor.
Tue Nov 04 23:28:25 +0000 2008 - Dan Dare 4. This issue is lighter than the previous ones. It doesn’t feel padded, but incomplete. It’s good, just does not match the others.
Mon Nov 03 23:48:15 +0000 2008 - Dan Dare 3. Ennis mixes politics and the sci-fi action well. The female character is a strong feature, but the historical warfare kicks ass.
Mon Nov 03 06:29:33 +0000 2008 - Dan Dare 2. Ennis starts out normal–genre standard–enough, but then veers into new territory suddenly. He is not pacing it like a limited.
Mon Nov 03 00:01:55 +0000 2008 - Dan Dare 1. It’s startling how British it is. Ennis usually doesn’t try for that effect, but here he goes lengths for it. The issue’s great.
Sun Nov 02 23:44:13 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 8. I know it’s good, but I don’t understand what happened. How did Gold get rebuilt for the present-day timeline? I’m so confused.
Sat Nov 01 23:20:54 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 7. And now I’m totally confused again. There’s the big fight scene–a scientific fight scene–and the jumbled timelines. I’m lost.
Sat Nov 01 23:07:56 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 6. Another straightforward issue. Strangely, it’s got the series’s first confusing panel. But I guess I can cut Rouleau the slack.
Sat Nov 01 22:50:52 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 5. Somehow, this issue feels more like a first than a fifth; because everything’s revealed? The plot is progressing traditionally.
Sat Nov 01 21:28:01 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 4. Besides the reveal of the unfortunately traditional dilemma, the issue is really confusing. You almost need to be taking notes.
Sat Nov 01 20:38:12 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 3. So one mystery gets revealed while at least another one starts. The issue only has two timelines; it allows for more narrative.
Sat Nov 01 20:21:27 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 2. I think I’m following what’s going on–with a one page delay. Rouleau is superb at creating tension in the multiple time lines.
Sat Nov 01 19:20:00 +0000 2008 - Metal Men 1. Here’s a modern oddity. Intricate, deliberate artwork; the plotting to match. The brief attempt at a fun attitude fails though.
Sat Nov 01 18:39:56 +0000 2008 - Doctor Strange: The Oath 5. The ending is really cute–enough to make up for most of the issue’s talky nonsense. It should have been better.
Thu Oct 30 01:57:06 +0000 2008 - Doctor Strange: The Oath 4. There’s a fantastic opening fight scene, but the revelation with the aimless flashback and new villain is goofy.
Thu Oct 30 01:48:53 +0000 2008 - Doctor Strange: The Oath 3. The plot slowly congeals. Vaughan’s long bad corporation scene is pointless. Can’t get enough of the art though.
Wed Oct 29 00:56:14 +0000 2008 - Doctor Strange: The Oath 2. Again, lots of good scenes and good details–Strange flirting rocks; Vaughan’s trying to hide his pacing is off.
Tue Oct 28 01:44:27 +0000 2008 - Doctor Strange: The Oath 1. Beautiful Martin artwork and a solid script from Vaughan. But–though there’s a lot of content–nothing happens.
Mon Oct 27 05:26:07 +0000 2008 - Narcopolis 4. Delano nicely uses hallucinations and the future-speak to avoid needing a literal close. It’s a fine finish, if underwhelming.
Sun Oct 26 23:21:24 +0000 2008 - Narcopolis 3. The vanilla art doesn’t match the creepy content. Delano’s story is progressing well–but it is hard to see a full resolution.
Sun Oct 26 23:11:06 +0000 2008 - Narcopolis 2. Delano gets tons of content into his pages, enough to make up for the slightly generic art. Hope he has room to finish though.
Sun Oct 26 22:57:15 +0000 2008 - Narcopolis 1. If Delano let up at all and made the issue more understandable, it wouldn’t work. He doesn’t and it does. Off to a good start.
Sun Oct 26 22:45:36 +0000 2008 - Halloween: 30 Years of Terror. Lots of good artwork–great in a couple cases–but this anthology of revisionist, fill-in stories is a waste.
Sun Oct 26 20:01:15 +0000 2008 - Detective Comics 504. Newton’s art’s only okay here–his Joker is poor. The writing’s lame–the plot fails at any invention, it’s middling.
Sun Oct 26 17:23:25 +0000 2008 - The Damned: Prodigal Son 3. So it’s nothing but a setup for the third series? It’s barely–barely–even a full plot, much less a real story.
Sun Oct 26 01:59:14 +0000 2008 - The Damned: Prodigal Son 2. Some great Hurtt art–the issue’s basically a long action sequence–but the writing’s stretching to find a plot.
Sat Oct 25 21:58:53 +0000 2008 - The Damned: Prodigal Sons 1. Why does the series use a new lead? It’s like the movie sequels where the original lead does a glorified cameo.
Sat Oct 25 20:47:26 +0000 2008 - Hexed 1. More narration than “Moby Dick.” The characters are boring, the plot’s standard and “all right” is misspelled. But the art is fine.
Fri Oct 24 21:42:38 +0000 2008 - Batman Confidential 21. Catwoman disappears so it’s an all Batgirl issue. Too bad the story is, once again, a standard and poorly paced one.
Fri Oct 24 03:46:20 +0000 2008 - Batman Confidential 20. And here we watch the superior Batman do what the weaker sex cannot, even after they team up. Lousy cliffhanger too.
Fri Oct 24 03:13:46 +0000 2008 - Batman Confidential 19. Not being offensive, it’s leagues ahead of the previous issues. Still, it’s only a standard plot with some good art.
Fri Oct 24 02:58:43 +0000 2008 - Batman Confidential 18. Unbelievably sexist issue. It’s spectacularly sexist in fact. Maguire’s way too good for this kind of trash writing.
Fri Oct 24 02:45:06 +0000 2008 - Batman Confidential 17. The art makes up for a bunch, like Catwoman’s boring costume. But the writing–the plotting–is surprisingly sexist.
Fri Oct 24 01:56:23 +0000 2008 - War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle 5. With the end, Ennis really does something special with this. Shame about the crap art.
Thu Oct 23 03:43:34 +0000 2008 - War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle 4. More lousy Chaykin art and more good Ennis writing. But it is like an issue’s missing.
Wed Oct 22 22:34:50 +0000 2008 - War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle 3. Chaykin’s art is entirely incomphrensible, to the extent it ruins a plot point. Awful.
Mon Oct 20 22:40:05 +0000 2008 - War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle 2. I really can’t tell what’s going on during the dogfights. But the writing’s excellent.
Thu Oct 16 03:10:10 +0000 2008 - War is Hell: The First Flight of the Phantom Eagle 1. Really good, straight WWI writing from Ennis–it is stagy, but fits. The art’s a mess.
Wed Oct 15 03:17:39 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 497. Why’s Angel on the cover if he’s not in the book? Loud action and little story. Wasted pages, all fodder. Bad Marvel Bru.
Wed Oct 15 03:15:01 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 499. Nothing like reading a fight scene set in the almost dark. Truly a waste of time. The entire arc was filler to issue 500.
Wed Oct 15 02:44:10 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 498. Properly paced, this one would run five pages. Wonder if Brubaker padded his script to full length. It’s a waste of time.
Wed Oct 15 01:44:01 +0000 2008 - Halloween: Nightdance 4. Downer of a last issue, Hutchinson goes for a surprise finish and it doesn’t work out. Maybe I’m being sentimental.
Tue Oct 14 06:02:07 +0000 2008 - Halloween: Nightdance 3. I’m a little shocked by the superior scenes in this issue. Hutchinson lifts it from just being a licensed property.
Tue Oct 14 05:56:51 +0000 2008 - Halloween: Nightdance 2. The first person narration from a girl getting killed, albeit mediocre in terms of dialogue writing, is horrifying.
Tue Oct 14 05:47:42 +0000 2008 - Halloween: Nightdance 1. Amateurish, over-produced art and some iffy dialogue aside, it’s not bad. Plotting is good–it is effectively done.
Tue Oct 14 04:27:32 +0000 2008 - Necronomicon 2. The second issue is a bit of a mess–nice hallucinatory sequences–too many characters look alike. Anachronisms hurt it too.
Mon Oct 13 18:41:11 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 496. Why is Choi drawing Wolverine as good-looking? Is it a Choi thing or a new Marvel edict? There’s way too little San Fran.
Sun Oct 12 23:38:06 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 10. A strange and wonderful last issue. Only two lines of dialogue the whole thing. And Lethem just ignores revealing all.
Sun Oct 12 22:19:20 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 9. There’s some wonderful material. But the last act makes the story rigid; it’s hard not to miss the more playful issues.
Sun Oct 12 22:12:12 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 8. Lethem summarizes to fit in a bunch of action. The last act has started so the pace is understandable but unfortunate.
Sun Oct 12 21:59:10 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 7. The plot thickens to the point I can’t see how three more issues will be enough. Not a fan of the young people team-up.
Sun Oct 12 21:45:51 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 6. A bridging issue. It feels strange; there’s a lot of fine material, but it’s a bridging issue. Blah for Omega is weird.
Sun Oct 12 20:35:59 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 5. More brief present action, but there’s a lot of superior scenes. The trip back home, short as it is, really works well.
Sun Oct 12 20:07:46 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 4. A lot more happens this issue than usual. The present action is also very short, just a day. Still excellent but weird.
Sun Oct 12 19:24:48 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 3. More a chapter than an issue. Asks the reader for an incredible amount of attention. Especially with a Big Two release.
Sun Oct 12 16:12:40 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 2. Maybe the most New York comic I’ve ever read. The great pacing continues–a rich, textured issue. I love the lettering.
Sun Oct 12 02:41:18 +0000 2008 - Omega the Unknown 1. Dalrymple’s work is wonderfully emotive and moody; the writing’s tone and pacing are accomplished. A great first issue.
Sun Oct 12 02:30:44 +0000 2008 - Uncanny X-Men 495. Underwhelming but genially solid. It feels familiar and comfortable. Choi’s art occasionally reveals lapses of attention.
Sat Oct 11 22:44:13 +0000 2008 - X-Factor: The Quick and the Dead. Pure functional storytelling–Quicksilver gets his powers back to allow future appearances. Lame but okay.
Sat Oct 11 22:09:04 +0000 2008 - X-Factor 32. David sets the comic up for a nice in-series reset then fouls it with a bad close. He also makes it clear the book needs Layla.
Sat Oct 11 20:54:00 +0000 2008 - X-Factor 31. Maybe I just don’t like Raimondi anymore. Some bumps but a fine action issue, the best David’s written for the series probably.
Sat Oct 11 18:43:35 +0000 2008 - X-Factor 30. Terrible art (it’s impossible to follow the action) and poor writing. David never manages to write it as a standard team comic.
Sat Oct 11 03:22:35 +0000 2008 - X-Factor 29. A badly paced action issue masquerading as a talking heads one. This De Landro guy’s art sucks, particularly for a Marvel book.
Sat Oct 11 02:41:17 +0000 2008 - X-Factor 28. The series standard–lots of character, lots of talk–is very welcome but Raimondi’s art is off. Way too photo-referenced here.
Sat Oct 11 02:32:55 +0000 2008 - Necronomicon 1. A moderate success, mostly due to the incredibly competent scripting and pacing. The art’s iffy, but has a distinctive tone.
Fri Oct 10 15:15:12 +0000 2008 - Crossed 0. Garth Ennis doing zombies often fails. Who knows how he’ll do with post-apocalyptic zombies. But this prologue isn’t a good sign.
Fri Oct 10 01:25:55 +0000 2008 - DC Comics Presents 54. An environmentally conscious issue. The best is Superman warping across the universe. Some wonderful art from Newton.
Thu Oct 09 03:00:53 +0000 2008 - Station 3. The setting’s so indistinct the art needs to enrapture and it doesn’t. As for the mystery, it gets less interesting page by page.
Mon Oct 06 18:30:09 +0000 2008 - Station 2. Art’s still bad–with pre-Renaissance perspective–and the writing’s badly paced and too thin, but it’s an okay read. A low okay.
Mon Oct 06 13:43:02 +0000 2008 - All-Star Superman 12. What is this? Foreboding instead of glorious, a quizzical misstep. Morrison dumps the mythic Superman for some reason.
Sat Oct 04 02:26:00 +0000 2008 - Black Panther 41. A solid if unbelievable close, with Aaron using lots of smoke and mirrors to pull off the twist. The bookends are too pat.
Wed Oct 01 22:38:48 +0000 2008 - Black Panther 40. Aaron’s writing does suggest he’d write the book well–without the crossover–and the art’s a fine fit. But it’s mediocre.
Wed Oct 01 22:32:10 +0000 2008 - Black Panther 39. Doesn’t Black Panther get hot wearing his outfit all the time? Aaron’s Skrull scenes are solid. The rest is too Star Wars.
Wed Oct 01 01:42:55 +0000 2008 - Spider-Man: With Great Power 5. Harris is absent–and missed. Lapham’s racing through the story here. He ends it a tad cheap, but all right.
Tue Sep 30 02:18:44 +0000 2008 - Spider-Man: With Great Power 4. Lapham gets back on track–even if there is almost too much story. Tony Harris draws the Thing and it rocks.
Tue Sep 30 02:12:39 +0000 2008 - Spider-Man: With Great Power 3. Lapham hits a lull. Issue’s fine, but blah. Maybe it’s canon catching up with him or his change in narrator.
Tue Sep 30 02:05:00 +0000 2008 - Spider-Man: With Great Power 2. Lapham maintains his unique, likable humanization of unlikable outcast Peter Parker. Approach fits too well.
Tue Sep 30 01:36:20 +0000 2008 - Spider-Man: With Great Power 1. Peter Parker as the teen sociopath–straight out of Stray Bullets–it works. It engages, makes a connection.
Tue Sep 30 01:28:15 +0000 2008 - Sub-Mariner: The Depths 1. A pleasant surprise. Art matches the retro-futurism, continuity-free setting. Wish something had happened though.
Mon Sep 29 22:41:03 +0000 2008 - Criminal 1. It’s got to be the best of the series (to date), the kind of story Brubaker should have used to open the first volume. Splendid.
Mon Sep 29 01:52:04 +0000 2008 - Batgirl 2. Story’s better than the first issue but the art isn’t. Beechen doesn’t have a good grasp of the character. At best, melodramatic.
Mon Sep 29 01:31:12 +0000 2008 - Batgirl 1. Barely enough story for an issue. Medicore art and Nightwing having the big scene doesn’t help. I’m very disappointed in Beechen.
Mon Sep 29 01:23:50 +0000 2008 - Freedom Formula 1. Surprisingly okay Mad Max and Rollerball mix. Not original but it is still effectively told. The superior art is welcome.
Mon Sep 29 01:17:08 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 16. Fraction doesn’t just end his run solidly (even Aja’s back for it), he makes me want to keep going with the new team.
Sat Sep 27 03:47:31 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 15. Okay(ish) flashback to an ancient Iron Fist. Fraction should tell a fable but does not, putting the issue in trouble.
Sat Sep 27 00:46:03 +0000 2008 - Legends of the Dark Knight 30. Wagner’s writing falls apart as his art–he recycles the same layouts issue to issue–becomes tiresome. Blah.
Fri Sep 26 04:49:06 +0000 2008 - Legends of the Dark Knight 29. Some fine scenes–not many with Batman. Wagner has an tenuous grasp on the character, he’s better with Bruce.
Fri Sep 26 04:42:44 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 14. Awesome finish, even if it is mostly flash; the narrative’s a tad shallow. The art’s okay–Gaudiano inks; I miss Aja.
Fri Sep 26 03:43:56 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 13. Filler with bad art–real cheap, bad art from Zonjic–but some funny Luke Cage dialogue. The art hurts it bad though.
Fri Sep 26 02:55:59 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist: Orson Randall and the Green Mist of Death. Fraction’s writing is like a Marvel Alan Moore. Positively wonderful to read.
Thu Sep 25 03:12:53 +0000 2008 - Legends of the Dark Knight 28. Better writing than I had expected and some creative layouts from Wagner. Still, it starts and finishes weak.
Wed Sep 24 22:42:35 +0000 2008 - Station 1. Questionable art (deformed heads) but Stokes’s writing is compelling. She even waits until the last few pages to reveal the hook.
Wed Sep 24 13:29:46 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 12. Pulido at Marvel is a strange, fine sight. This arc really feels like Brubaker doing his failed Catwoman story right.
Wed Sep 24 03:43:15 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 11. Gorgeous Aja art and story padding. The villain emphasis is fine enough, lovely art, but Iron Fist is barely present.
Wed Sep 24 00:54:56 +0000 2008 - Challenger Deep 1. A crappy rip-off of The Abyss. Somewhat self-aware but whatever. Chee’s art is good. The writer mocks people who stutter.
Tue Sep 23 17:16:41 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 10. Kano’s a great fit for the bookends. But the Iron Fist-free issue reminds a bit too much of G.I. Joe cartoons though.
Tue Sep 23 12:17:14 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist Annual 1. Very UnMarvel Marvel–thanks to Brubaker and Fraction. Chaykin’s art’s sloppy, but Brereton brings a nice tone.
Tue Sep 23 04:29:12 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 9. Good plot development–not expecting the story to veer off Enter the Dragon–but Koblish’s art doesn’t compare to Aja.
Mon Sep 22 22:38:47 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 8. A tad confusing after not reading the book for a year. Still good; but unnecessarily busy, unfocused. Padding perhaps.
Sun Sep 21 21:31:03 +0000 2008 - Immortal Iron Fist 7. A one shot with the last female Iron Fist. Some, modern voice great narration makes the traditional story interesting.
Sun Sep 21 20:07:37 +0000 2008