The Amazing Spider-Man #624
Mark Waid with Tom Peyer (w), Paul Azaceta with Javier Rodriguez (a), Andres Mossa (c). Marvel Comics.
After reading this issue I couldn’t help but wonder what fellow MONDOreviewer Isaac Mills thought of it. I believe that man loves Spider-Man more than I will ever love anything. Here the titular does the wrong thing, for the right reason, with good reason, but it blows up in Peter’s face. It’s classic Spider-Man, but did Peter go too far? I could see Isaac falling either way on the issue. It’s an interesting question and I think the creative team doesn’t have an answer for us, and I like that. It’s a point of debate and there aren’t any right answers, and that’s how I like my comics. – Miles Baker
Miles’ rating: 4 out of 5
Batgirl #8
Bryan Q. Miller (w), Talent Caldwell, Yvel Guichet, John Stanisci (a), Guy Majoy (c). DC Comics.
The art is really bad in this book, no two ways about it, and it only gets worse when the second art team take over the last few pages. They may not have had all of Caldwell’s early pages to know how to emulate it, but I’m sure he’s done earlier issues, his style can’t come as too much of a surprise. They cram a lot of story in this single book, and as always, I prefer that to the alternative. That said, Red Robin’s sudden acceptance of the new Batgirl could have used some more inner monologue explanation on his part. Having Batgirl always think “Onward and upward” was pretty annoying, by the way. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 2.5 out of 5
Batman and Robin #10
Grant Morrison (w), Andy Clarke (p), Scott Hanna (i) Alex Sinclair (c). DC Comics.
The problem I had with Clarke’s pencils over on the R.E.B.E.L.S. title was that everything was drawn with these broken up horizontal lines, like it was digitally created by some printer back in 1993. While that element is still present here, it’s far more subdued, thanks in part to the heavy shadows inhabiting a Batman atmosphere. The story has to do with the fallout in realizing that Bruce Wayne may be alive in the past, and so Batman and Robin are looking for clues he may have left (I’m a little concerned that they don’t consider the possibility of him being in the future, but okay, they just jump to the past conclusion, I guess I have to live with that.). The best part is Damien — he’s questioning what will happen to him once Bruce Wayne returns. It’ll change the current dynamic, and he’s worried he’ll get booted out of the club. That, and it just may be the little guy has warmed up to Dick Grayson. It’s a heart warming idea, we’ll see how it pans out. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Criminal: The Sinners #5
Ed Brubaker (w), Sean Phillips (a), Val Staples (c). ICON.
So many endings this week! It will probably be another year before we get a new Criminal comic (Phillips is taking some time to draw the next Dark Tower series while Brubaker writes Secret Avengers, and then the pair will return to the Incognito universe before coming back to Criminal) so I’m happy to say that this is a damn fine comic. I think the guys have created a really fantastic character in Tracy Lawless and have the testicles to bring him to situations he can’t escape from. In Brubaker’s introduction to the second Scalped trade he talked about noir as a sense of impending dread – something you know the characters can’t escape from. The Sinners was a testament to that definition of noir. From the first page you knew that afterwards nothing was going to be the same and it couldn’t possibly end well. I can’t wait for them to get back into this universe because things are going to be very, very different. And that’s a very, very good thing. – Miles Baker.
Miles’ rating: 4.5 out of 5
Dark X-Men #5
Paul Cornell (w), Leonard Kirk (a), Brian Reber (c). Marvel Comics.
Oh, that’s why they called it Dark X-Men – because the ending hits you like a bulldozer driven by a rhinoceros. It’s dark and totally surprising. But this whole miniseries has been a total surprise. I’m going to miss having Norman Osborn in charge of the Marvel U. It creates interesting and morally complex situations like this book. Great work throughout from Cornell, Kirk and Reber. Even though the status quo is about to change and this series will be a footnote, this is a book worth reading for its interesting characters, fantastic art and sucker punch of an ending. – Miles Baker.
Miles’ rating: 4.5 out of 5
Justice League: Rise and Fall Special #1
J.T. Krul (w), Various (a), DC Comics
Here’s the thing: I picked up J.T. Krul’s last issue of Green Arrow and I totally dug it. I thought that Krul did a great job with the characterization and did a great job of tying into Blackest Night while still telling a self-contained story. I had high hopes of being able to enjoy Green Arrow again (for the first time since… when was Judd Winick not on the book?). Well, unfortunately this was just a wreck. I don’t place very much of the blame on Krul, though, to be fair. Sure, the story wasn’t great. It was a whole lot of Green Arrow moping and then other people talking about how Green Arrow was moping. Too much time was spent recapping a book that already happened, and any actual EVENTS that happened in this story were extremely predictable. The major culprit, though, was the art. What a mess! Characters were wooden at best or extremely off-model at worst. On page 7 Black Canary looks Asian. Seriously. I expect this is mostly due to this book being rushed to completion (seeing 3 pencillers, 3 inkers and 2 colourists in the credits is never a good sign) but altogether this lead to a really unpleasant reading experience. I want to give Krul another shot, but this issue doesn’t fill me with hope. – Owen Craig
Owen’s rating: 1 out of 5
Punishermax #5
Jason Aaron (w), Steve Dillon (a), Matt Hollingsworth (c), Marvel Comics
Jason Aaron’s secret weapon is his characterization. He can fill his books with all of the badassness and blood you can imagine, but what really makes them sing is the characterization. In this case, it’s not the work done on the Punisher, it’s Kingpin who rules this issue, nay, this storyline. The story is heartbreaking, intense and super-violent. On top of that, the man who draws the super-violent images (Steve Dillon) is an expert at humanizing the characters that the horrible things are happening to. Aaron and Dillon make a great team; I hope they stay together on this title for a while. – Owen Craig
Owen’s rating: 4 out of 5
Red Robin #10
Christopher Yost (w), Marcus To (p), Ray McCarthy (i), Guy Major (c). DC Comics.
Red Robin is so much better than Batgirl — you know, as a comic, putting aside any character preferences you may have. The art is incredibly crisp — I imagine Batgirl is driving a Bat-cycle here instead of her new Bat-pod rip-off is because this is an artist who can draw a motorcycle. Also, sometimes, you just want some nice backgrounds. Backgrounds are hard, I know, but Marcus To does a great job with them. A lot happens in this book as well, we’re juggling the scenes of Ra’s Al Ghul commencing with his evil, and we follow both Tam Fox and Vicki Vale as they look for Tim Drake, both of which add to the flow and legitimacy of the story. Sometimes it’s nice to know there are people existing beyond the main character. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5
Secret Six #19
Gail Simone (w), J. Calafiorne (a), Jason Wright (c), DC Comics
I swear, just when I feel like I may be ready to give up on this series it always seems to pull out an amazing story. I wasn’t so nuts about the Suicide Squad crossover, but this issue is top-notch. Simone is using Ragdoll better than ever, Black Alice is a welcome full-time addition to the team (I hope) and that cliffhanger is incredible. While I do miss Nicola Scott, Calafiorne is great choice to take over. Did I mention that Deadshot and Catman have stealth versions of their uniforms? They do. And it’s awesome. – Owen Craig
Owen’s rating: 4 out of 5
S.W.O.R.D. #5
Kieron Gillen (w), Steven Sanders (p), Craig Yeung (i), Matt Wilson (c). Marvel Comics.
Bittersweet. I’m more than a little sad to see this fantastic new series go after only five fantastic issues, but I am happy to say that its conclusion could not be stronger. Every joke lands, the character moments are fantastic, and it leaves you wanting more — because you don’t want it to end. Here’s hoping that the positive reviews in combination with the media coverage about its cancellation result in a hasty relaunch. If not, thanks for five amazing issues, guys. You’ve all made this reviewer a fan for live. – Miles Baker
Miles’ rating: 5 out of 5
The Unwritten #11
Mike Carey (w), Peter Gross and Jimmy Broxton (a), Chris Chuckry (c), Vertigo Comics
I know I give this book a lot of fives, and I can see how that might appear overly generous, but the thing is that every issue of this series provides me with a completely satisfying read. This month is no exception – Carey does a beautiful job of balancing this storyline with building the mythology of the series and strengthening the characters, meanwhile Gross’ artwork (with the help of finishes by Broxton this issue) is better than it’s ever been. The “Jud Süss” creature is a remarkable piece of illustration. So while it may seem strange to me that I give this book a “5” every time I review it, I assure you that it’s not out of habit and it’s not to be generous. It’s because as far as I’m concerned this has been a solid 5 out of 5 eleven issues in a row and is the best book on the stands.
Owen’s rating: 5 out of 5
Web of Spider-Man #6
Fred Van Lente, Tom DeFalco, Zeb Wells (w), Jefte Palo, Ron Frenz, Sal Buscema, Xurxo Penalta (a), Javier Rodriguez, Bruno Hang, Matt Hollingsworth (c). Marvel Comics.
This was a pretty unsatisfying read, but mostly because of the limitations of having the Lizard be the central figure in two of the three stories. Both stories represent him as a fairly mindless animal, but I was expecting some additional depth of some kind after the fantastic treatment the Vulture got in last months issue. Plus the first story was told from the Man-Thing’s perspective (something of a mindless creature himself) and we’re left with a kind of a Memento effect, no lasting effect on either character. It’s an extremely safe way to tell a story set in the past, but again, I was expecting something more daring. The Spider-Girl story was okay… but the Black Tarantula wasn’t as awesome as usual, and that’s a letdown. What, no other big Black Tarantula fans out there? – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 3 out of 5
X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #2
Kathryn Immonen (w), Sara Pichelli (a), Christina Strain (c). Marvel Comics.
This issue is a massive improvement over the debut. Now that some of the set up is over, Immonen has a lot of fun with Pixie’s hallucination powers and some of the dark, dark things that can come out of them. I also think she’s able to find Emma Frost’s voice, which is sadly becoming scarce in Uncanny X-Men. She seems to remember that Emma is funny and not just funny because she’s bitchy. Pichelli’s art remains fantastic. She’s able to make a large cast of characters all look distinctive. That, coupled with her interesting style, make her a talent to watch. – Miles Baker
Miles’ rating: 4 out of 5
I hope Nate Grey stays alive through the end of Dark X-Men. He was probably an hallucination. Please says he’s alive!
As for Unwritten, this was definitely a very strong issue- as excellent as the world making has been throughout the series, from my perspective, not a whole lot has been accomplished story wise, it’s mostly been set up. Beautiful, fantastic setup, but setup. Take for example the side story featuring Kipling, that was a fun tale, great structure, and clearly will be very relelvant to the Unwritten universe in the future… but at this point it could just as well be an entirely different series- and that’s an entire issue taking away from us understanding the journey of Tom Taylor!
Up until now Tom has been VERY reactive to the events going on around him, and it’s how an ordinary person would react in such a crazy set of circumstances, but of course the advantage of any story telling medium is that we can fast forward a bit when necessary.
What is accomplished in #11 is you can get a feeling of Tom taking direction of the story, and we can get a feeling for what Tom’s role may be in the series- perhaps as a healer of stories. It’s a little ghostbusters, and that’s cool. Of course I don’t REALLY get the impression that Tom will be a story ghostbuster, I don’t think the writer would create something quite that formulaic and brutishly satisfying- but it’s like we’re finally given a hypothesis about what may come up in the future issues, and, for me, it’s about time.
Ah, yes, I was really planning on commenting towards the spider-man issue.. and now that I’ve written close to 700 words on the topic… and I was planning on writing a 700 word Spider-Man article for steelbananas.com this evening… and it’s now past 3 in the morning… yyeeeeah I’m going to refine this into an article. Kill two birds with one stone.
But rest assured, it was good and ranty.
Just scanned Amazing Spider Man in the comic book store (yep, I’m THAT guy — but if I’m going to spend 40$ on random trades solely because not enough comics came in for me that week, I’ll rub my grubby little paws on every comic in the store and you’ll watch me do it and LIKE IT, Comic Book Store Owner Guy), and I don’t really agree with what Peter did. I seem to recall Peter taking the moral high ground on far more pathetically inconsequential ethical situations in the past.
However, it doesn’t really bother me because after Brand New Day took everything I knew about Spider Man and skullfucked it in the ear until all the brains ran out its nose just so they could regress the character and tell the same kinds of stories they told twenty years ago, I don’t give a shit about Spider Man titles any more.
Oh, and I liked Batman & Robin quite a bit this week; the art was great, just the kind of style I like, and Damien is growing on me. However, it’s obvious that Grant Morrison has never read a Talia Al Ghul story before, because he’s writing her like a one dimensional heartless super villain. She is completely and totally out of character in Morrison’s hands.
To emphasize my point, I recall reading an article about Morrision’s Batman run, where he discusses a part in which Batman states that the only reason he had sex with Talia in the first place was because she drugged him. When the author of the article asks him about that, he admits he never actually read that original story he was referencing, and that Batman wasn’t actually drugged, but he just assumed he was because why else would Batman have sex with a villain, and so wrote things as if he was.
UR AN AWESUM RITER
Batman broke up with Catwoman in the Hush storyline because he thought he may have been influenced by Scarecrow’s fear toxin. Or, to put it another way, he thought he may have been drugged and that’s what led to him hooking up with someone.
I’d say that’s sufficient precedent for Morrison to say that that’s the kind of excuses Batman comes up with when he does something he likes that has nothing to do with warring on crime.
Also, check out Batman: Death and the Maidens, Talia went through some stuff there, and as such it’s very difficult to judge how she shold be portrayed. But the general rule of thumb is she is much colder to Batman
Yeah, but I thought that Scarecrow thing was stupid too. Batman gets drugged with Scarecrow’s fear toxin every third Saturday; if he started second guessing every move he made under the influence of chemicals he wouldn’t evehave time to give himself a good bat-wank (or be able to morally justify it).
Precedent, schmeshident — I have strong doubts that Morrison even read that Hush story arc CONSIDERING HE DIDN’T EVEN READ ONE OF THE PAST STORIES HE WAS DIRECTLY REFERRING TO. Also, at least Batman WAS subjected to fear gas in Azzarello’s story, so there’s some element of credibility there. By contrast, his claim he was drugged by Talia was either an outright bat-lie or, more likely, BAD WRITING.
[Regardless, do you really believe Batman fabricates an "I must have been drugged" excuse every time he makes a bad decision? That's not really in his character. That's the same thing as Peter Parker compromising his almost insanely rigid moral fiber by faking a photograph for the sake of Jameson's mayoral campaign.]
Let’s call that Catwoman thing what it is: Brian Azzarello using a flimsy excuse during his 12-issue run to return Batman to his relationship-less status quo. Better than resorting to magical spells that selectively delete parts of the past I suppose.
I have not read Death and the Maidens, and I have no problem with Talia’s character evolving in a logical manner into a different sort of person. On the contrary, I like it when characters evolve; it’s necessary to prevent them from becoming boring. But a writer needs to put work into it, otherwise it comes off as confusing and looks stupid. I don’t like seeing her suddenly act like a Bond villain, completely reversing her high opinion of her Beloved’s honor and valor, plotting Dick Grayson’s death and spouting lines like “Did they really think I’d let them take my son” to no one in particular for no apparent reason — wait, hold on, something just occurred to me — fucking hell, she’s sipping champagne and sitting on a GODDAMN THRONE when she says it. Super.
Incidentally, one of the best evolutions of character I can recall happened to a character never before seen, in the span of a four (?) issue mini series. I’m referring to Warren White in, what was it, Arkham Asylum: Living Hell. He started as a lily-livered white collar criminal convicted for tax evasion or something, and ended up a horribly disfigured insane kingpin of organized crime. And it was awesome, and made total sense.
Wait a minute, Azzarello didn’t write the Hush storyline, Jeph holy-shit-i’m-a-terrible-writer-now Loeb did. I think I was confusing that run with Azzarello and Jim Lee’s Superman run. My bad.
ah I was only joking when I saw there were now 7 comments on this post and thought to myself “and I bet that spike is all from Caesar”
glad you caught the Azzarello/Loeb mixup before I got back
I’m pretty confident that Morrisson has read Hush- that was a year of Batman comics. He is familiar with the material, that’s part of why the RIP Batman stuff was so complicated, because it was referencing a ton of Batman stories through the ages- for him to say that he hasn’t read ONE Batman comic that for much of its existence was considered either elseworlds or just straight up non canon (however you want to say it) is far more understandable.
Yes, claiming drugging is a lame excuse from Batman, but it actually works for me, it sounds right to me that he’s go there. Also, I have the Batman story in question, “Son of the Demon” and the idea of him being drugged isn’t, in my opinion, out of the question. But I’m not talking like straight up opium or something, but just something subtle to influence his actions, which is readily believable. In that sense you could call candle light dinner and Barry White a “drug”. You know, if that’s your thing.
HA HA HA HA HA
I know you didn’t mean this, but in my head I had the image of Batman losing control of his libido because Talia put on “Can’t Get Enough Of Your Love Babe.”
You’re right, Morrison probably read Hush…after all, he read all those god awful old Batman comics where he was fighting creatures made of paper and rainbows just so he could try to bring that all into continuity (WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO DO THAT??). Still, you’d think he’d take the time to read ONE comic that you’re basing a very pivotal plot point on. To be frank, I’d be happier if he skipped Hush entirely and read that instead; it seems to be more relevant to the story he wanted to tell.
Do you remember No-Prizes, Isaac? Stan Lee used to give out what he called ‘no-prizes’ to readers who wrote in their own explanations of mistakes that writers or artists made. It seems to me that you are trying to claim a no-prize from Morrison. You’re making excuses for his laziness, or bias, or mistake or whatever you want to call it. And you don’t need to do that. You’re better than that man! There’s no shame in pointing to an obvious gaffe by a writer and saying, “You fucked up.” Especially when the writer in question has publicly stated, “I fucked up.”
For god’s sake, he even told his artist to draw the flashback scene with Batman still wearing his cowl while he’s about to do it with Talia (who already knows his secret identity anyway). Should I take that to mean then that Batman has some weird mask-in-bed sex fetish? No I should not, because looking at Son of The Demon he is clearly maskless: therefore Morrison made (another) mistake and I can disregard that horrifying image of Batman completely naked except for his mask and utility belt, running around sticking his boner into Arab chicks.
a) of course I have to make explanations- I want my no-prize!
b) if I had a mask as awesome as Batman’s I’d want to wear it all the time too…
I thought Batman had developed an immunity to Fear Gas by innoculating himself with it.
Batman is one classy dude “I had sex with WHO? Damn. Bitch must have drugged me.”
I only wear masks in bed when the ladies demand it…which is often.
Alex: editors suck and don’t pay attention to things like that. I’m sure Batman was immune to fear toxin, for the duration of whatever storyline he mentioned that in.
Owen, I’m surprised at your reaction to Green Arrow. Have you read ANY issue of Green Arrow & Black Canary in the past year or so? They’ve been bloody awful. Like, groin-kickingly, pants-shitting, eye-stabbingly awful. The whole plot with that Cupid chick was stupid, the art was scratchy and ugly, and it ended with the creation of a new “super villain” who is a medical marvel because he has a knife sticking out the back of his head. So basically his super power is he can’t wear hats and he’ll die if someone gives that knife handle a yank. Fan-fucking-tastic.
I liked Krul’s first issue of Green Arrow too, no small feat considering it dealt with the same boring ‘beat the Black Lantern zombie’ story that every DC comic has tried to tell in the past three months. I agree this latest issue wasn’t as good as that, but even though there were three different artists it was still better to look at than 90% of current Green Arrow issues.
Though I admit to being confused to how Prometheus’s corpse ends up without a helmet, considering there was an arrow through his head. Is that an artist/editor miscommunication or am I to believe that someone found Prometheus’ body, pulled the arrow out, removed his helmet, then put the arrow back in its hole? Where’s Isaac? I smell a potential no-prize here.
I think I might be annoyed with this coming Green Arrow plot. I forsee a lot of ‘how could yous’ and ‘you’re a murderers’ coming along, and those all seem very silly things to say considering that Green Arrow has done something like this before and killing Prometheus is a perfectly natural and reasonable response, if not morally repugnant.
Man I’d love to no-prize it, but there’s no way I’ve been reading Green Arrow lately- I stopped when he was getting progressively mean spirited to Black Canary and everyone else for absolutely no reason- right around the time Cupid showed up and killed off a bunch of Green Arrows GOOD (relatively speaking) rogues gallery.
Hard to believe how bad Green Arrow stuff is lately
You know, my friend made an excellent observation: he thinks that this Green Arrow story is going to adopt the script they were tinkering with for the Green Arrow movie that never got made. In said script, he was in prison with a bunch of criminals who hated him and wanted him dead. I can definitely see this going in that direction, which is a cool idea.
Isaac, you were right to quit when you did, it didn’t get any better. Though I wish you stuck around to witness the transformation of Officer Hilton into HILT because I really can’t understand why any intelligent people at DC would let that happen.