MONDOmagazine

Blackest Night: Wonder Woman #2
Greg Rucka (w), Nicola Scott, Eduardo Pansica (p), Jonathan Glapion, Eber Ferreira (i), Nei Ruffino (c). DC Comics.

If you were able to get it, Blackest Night #6 came out last week, and its story would spoil the ending of this issue, so it’s too bad these two books weren’t released simultaneously. Then again, this really isn’t an important issue. A fight breaks out between evil (but struggling to be not evil) Wonder Woman and Mera, aka Mrs. Aquaman. The art is pretty good, though I wish Mera didn’t have such pronounced green eye shadow. It’s just not the time to accessorize. HOWEVER, some kind of dreamscape vision of Batman just shows up and makes out with Wonder Woman, because the ladies love Batman and every comic just needs some Batman in it. It ends with Wonder Woman getting the worst designed Star Sapphire costume ever, which is really saying something. — Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3 out of 5. Crossover rating: Adds nothing

Deadpool Team-Up #897
Adam Glass (w), Chris Staggs (p), Robert Campanella (i), Dan Brown (c). Marvel Comics.

A bearded lady and a midget walk into a bar — and so begins the Deadpool Team-up. This issue features the Ghost Riders (I always thought it was singular… but what do I know). Adam Glass writes a decent one-shot, where a carnival town enlists the help of the Merc with a Mouth. The mayor of the carnival town is possessed by a demon, and looking to form a massive army, or something. By coincidence, the Ghost Riders (insert names here), just so happen to be stopping by for nostalgic reasons, and are thrown into a melee against the demon spawn alongside Deadpool. Glass keeps up the pace with catchy one-liners. Art’s done by Chris Staggs. He seems to be under the impression that Deadpool has a mouth on top of his mask. Which is a little… strange. The panels are a bit busy, though that could probably be better attributed to the textures the colourist frequently layers on top of the colours, and lack of contrast in colours between panels in some pages. I particularly enjoy how the Ghost Riders are portrayed as being a bit campy, outdated. Deadpool sees them as the Ponch and Jon of CHiPs. In general an enjoyable issue that was fun and not heavy, with no long-term plot developments. — Sarah Burt

Sarah’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Donald Duck and Friends #349
Fausto Vitaliano and Marco Bosco (w), Vitalane Mangiatordi and Marco Mazzarello (a), Boom Studios

I always liked the unlikely hero. Seeing them struggle to come to terms with the responsibility shoved on them always makes for interesting conflict. That’s what’s sort of weird about this issue: everything basically goes fine. Donald has a mission to do and he does it, mostly without a hitch. I think that’s the down side to the pacing of this story, that things are rushed through to the extent that they’re being oversimplified. What’s that you say? This is a kid’s comic? Fair enough. — Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 3 out of 5

JSA: All Stars #2
Matthew Sturges (w), Freddie Williams II (a), DC Comics

So after the introductory first issue, here’s the necessary second issue fight-tacular. Usually the weight of a fight issue is put on the artist, and it’s here that Williams has started to annoy me. Why are so many of his characters missing pupils so much of the time? Why is Stargirl drawn with enormous breasts? Hey, at least he draws backgrounds more than many artists can claim to. Ultimately, though, we’re left with a giant fight scene that restores the status quo of last issue very quickly. It’s a fairly unsatisfying issue, really. — Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 2.5 out of 5

Marvel Boy: The Uranian #1
Jeff Parker (w), Felix Fuiz (a). Marvel Comics.

I’m not sure how to review this comic. I’m not sure what it’s trying to do, besides introduce you to Marvel Boy (aka The Uranian) as he was known in the 50s, which is way different than he is now. So, kinda like The Marvels Project, it’s giving you the “full story” behind Marvel Boy’s first trip to Earth and what life was like for him. Maybe that’s it. In that case it’s doing an odd job. For a nostalgia comic they didn’t pick an obvious artist. Fuiz’s art is loose and scratchy. So in someways it’s like scratched up photos or film footage that’s been recovered. That works for me because it’s this “lost story.” But it’s so loose the art is almost weird — but it’s a weird story so that totally matches. Still, there’s something that’s not totally clicking for me. I’ll buy the next one and let you know how it goes. — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 3.5 out of 5

Nation X: X-Factor #1
Peter David (w), Valentine De Landro (p), Pat Davidson (i), Jeromy Cox (c). Marvel Comics.

Sometimes I wish comic books just didn’t have fights. Well, I mean, not all comics have fights, but sooner or later people in tights are going to have a throw down with something. It’s a trope or a cliche or whatever else you want to call it — it’s something that happens a lot. And this is a case where it didn’t need to happen. There was already enough going on. The members of X-Factor haven’t seen the X-Men in two years (Our time. It’s probably been about three months for them), and David got to cover a lot of fun emotional ground with that. It was a fantastic issue — until he needed to throw in a fight. David does try to tie the villain thematically, but she’s not even given a name or an exit. She just kinda wonders off panel after saying some ominous stuff. She doesn’t even teleport or fly away or disappear or anything. She literally just walks off panel and then, I guess, she swims back to shore. I imagine and hope that she’ll be back in X-Factor and this was David’s way of trying to get other X-Men junkies to follow him back to X-Factor. I hope some do because X-Factor is generally great. — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 4 out of 5

Red Robin #8
Chris Yost (w), Marcus To (p), Ray McCarthy (i), Guy Major (c). DC Comics.

All of the insecurity that has followed Tim Drake for years has culminated to create this issue. That wasn’t the plan, of course, previous writers just didn’t know what they were doing. But Yost has used it so well that I almost (almost) don’t mind- Tim is just the man here. He takes out like seven super assassins while protecting a standard damsel in distress. He shoots a guy in the face with his grapple gun, and there can be no complaining when that happens. From readers, that is. Tim also pulls the classic move from the first Michael Keaton Batman movie where he has the girl and shoots up into the air with his grapple gun. I keep saying “how much do you weight” even though that wasn’t in the comic. By the way, I apologize for saying “grapple gun” so much, I just like it. Final observation: one assassin uses a laser garrote to fight with, which seems like a really useless weapon in a fight. — Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5

Suicide Squad #67
Gail Simone & John Ostrander (w), J. Calafiore (a), DC Comics

They really should’ve gone ahead and made this an issue of Secret Six. Because… you know, it’s not really an issue of Suicide Squad. Fans of the Squad should be reading Secret Six, for sure, but still… seems kind of like false advertising. The pacing of this issue seemed kind of off to me. We’re introduced to a couple of characters who very rapidly disappear for most of the issue, In fact, the “Blackest Night” storyline, advertised so prominently on the cover is barely even a factor this issue. (See Secret Six #17 – On sale next week! Seriously, check it out, it’s a good comic. Way better than this messy issue, trust me.) That aside, though, this issue WAS messy, lurching from plot point to plot point, scene to scene, fairly inorganically. Not Secret Six at its best. — Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

Siege #1
Brian Michael Bendis (w), Olivier Coipel (p),Mark Morales (i), Marvel Comics

Hey, remember Civil War, when Marvel was so public about the plot of the thing (even showing off the opening in previews) that by the time the first issue came out it was devoid of surprises? Well here we go again. I really don’t know what was supposed to grab my attention here. Was it the story? There’s nothing to see here that hasn’t been shown to us in every Marvel comic for a month. Was it the characterization? I’ve been reading (and enjoying) Dark Avengers for a year now and have seen plenty of Norman’s crazy, thanks. Was it the ending? Yeah… that’s not really anything. The brief intro to the fight scene was kinda cool, but an intro to a fight scene isn’t really anything to hang your hat on. I have high hopes for this event, but I think that this first issue was a misfire. The last thing I should be doing after the first issue of a major event is saying “yep, that’s exactly how I thought it would go.” — Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 2.5 out of 5. Crossover rating: Adds nothing

Siege Embedded #1
Brian Reed (w), Chris Samnee (a), Matthew Wilson (c). Marvel Comics.

This was an impulse buy. I wanted a little more to celebrate the launch of Siege, I really like Samnee’s arc in Queen and Country, and what the hell, why not. And I was totally impressed. Samnee is a fantastic artist who adapts his inking to allow for a colour artist (this the first time I’ve seen his work with colour). Reed writes a pretty funny account of Ben Urich’s journey to Oklahoma where he teams up with a washed-up ex-colleague and the hungry-yet-guilt-riddenVolstagg. It’s an interesting view from the sidelines and I’m really curious to see where it goes next — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 4 out of 5. Crossover rating: A pleasant addition

Sweet Tooth #5
Jeff Lemire (w + a), Jose Villarrubia (c). Vertigo.

Here be the conclusion to “Out of the Woods,” the first arc of Sweet Tooth — and it was a pretty great arc. Lemire made a great choice in giving Gus antlers because he’s a deer in the headlights: doomed, but you feel so bad for him. I really recommend picking up the first trade when it comes out. That’s if you’re not already buying this series. If so, good on ya. It’s pretty good, eh?. — Miles Baker

Miles’ rating: 4.5 out of 5