Amazing Spider-Man #630
Zeb Wells (w), Chris Bachalo (p), Tim Townsend, Jaime Mendoza (i), Antonio Fabela (c). Marvel Comics.
One complaint you’ll hear about Spidey from non-fans is that he’s whiney. It’s not Spider-Man’s fault, it’s just really hard to write someone’s inner voice, particularly when they are thinking about themselves, and get it to come across as anything but whiney. What’s the solution? Well, if you’re Zeb Wells, you get Spidey to think about what joke he’s going to spring on the hapless bad guys in front of him – and the result is the funniest Spider-Man writing we’ve gotten in a while. Couple that with Bachalo’s pencils that run the gamut from cool to expressive to hilarious and we’ve got a winner. The last scene of the book is of a corporate tool antagonizing Dr. Curt Connors aka the Lizard (whom you also wouldn’t like when he’s angry) and I just kept yelling at the comic “No! You fool! Don’t you know what you’re doing?” He really didn’t, it looks like the Lizard got to eat him, but the important thing is the kind of reaction it got out of me. It was a good kind of yelling at my comic book. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
Batman and Robin #12
Grant Morrison (w), Andy Clarke, Scott Hanna, Dustin Nguyen (a), Alex Sinclair (c). DC Comics.
Well, the art is a little static, but otherwise it’s a great book. We start off with Robin being remote-controlled to attack Batman by Slade Wilson (long time Dick Grayson enemy) so Batman kicks Robin and it hurts Slade. I didn’t expect that, but I liked it. Slade thinks he’s untouchable, that he can just walk up (via Robin) and kill Batman, and BOOM Slade’s in pain. (I think this is what pain feels like.) I’ve just realized that all the “moments” in this book are those “Cool moments” that Geoff Johns is always going for, but these ones are far more subversive and therefore work better. Man, if Ivan Reis was drawing this book… well, it’d be awesome. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Brightest Day #1
Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi (w), Ivan Reis, Pat Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark, Joe Prado (a), Vicente Cifuentes, Mark Irwin, Oclair Albert, David Beaty (i), Peter Steigerwald (c). DC Comics.
You know who I like? Aquaman. He and his wife Mera leap onto a pirate ship and are immediately shot at. Does Aquaman care? No way, bullets bounce right off him. Yeah, he’s bleeding a bit on the forehead, but that just makes it all the more awesome. When the pirates call in backup and Mera says it looks like these scavengers have friends, it’s the perfect setup for Aquaman to say “So do we.” Cut to close up of Aquaman summoning the denizens of the deep in an appropriately epic manner. That’s two pages, and already it’s worth the price of admission, and I didn’t even mention the zombie shark he summoned that leapt ten feet out of the water to eat a pirate. My biggest complaint is that they’re still using this confusing effect that we’re supposed to know means “psychic attack”. It’s like trying to make “fetch” happen. It’s not going to happen. You’re welcome for the Mean Girls reference by the way. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 3.5 out of 5
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #35
Brad Meltzer (w), Georges Jeanty (p), Andy Owens (i), Michelle Madsen (c), Dark Horse Comics.
Have you ever tried to explain the plot of a nerd-show to someone who didn’t know anything about it? You know, like Lost or something? (“They’re on this island, but this smoke thing is attacking them and then they meet these other people called The Others and things are whispering. Then the turn the frozen donkey wheel and…”) Yeah, I felt like Brad Meltzer was the nerd and I was the person having this comic explained to me without knowing anything about it. The only problem is that I’ve read every issue up to this point. That’s not a good thing. – Owen Craig.
Owen’s rating: 2 out of 5
iZombie #1
Chris Roberson (w), Michael Allred (a), Laura Allred (c), Vertigo Comics.
I feel sorry for anyone that didn’t buy this. Seriously, if you didn’t buy this then you missed out on a beautiful first issue (that only cost one dollar). I love the cast, I love the art and I love this book. No wait, more needs to be said about the art. Mike Allred has a clean and expressive style that works beautifully with Roberson’s “horror but not quite” tone. Combined with Laura Allred’s gorgeous colouring (and, honestly, I don’t tend to notice the colouring in books much, so wow) this comic looks fantastic. Vertigo has yet another fantastic title to add to their lineup.
Owen’s rating: 4.5 out of 5
Red Robin #12
Christopher Yost (w), Marcus To (p), Ray McCarthy (i), Guy Major (c). DC Comics.
Well, this is probably the end of Red Robin. No, there are solicits for next months issue, but it’s going to a new writer- Fabian Nicieza. Or make that old writer: Fabian was the writer on Robin just before it was cancelled to become Red Robin. He’s a really nice guy, active with the message board community, but I just can’t get on board with his Robin stuff. And I have tried. Ah… I’ll give him a couple of issues to not lose me. But as far as this issue goes- it was fantastic. They managed to give us a great return for this second story arc and tie everything together so that these 12 issues bound together will be a great collection. There’s one bit of sequel hook at the very end, which is frustrating because I don’t trust Fabian Nicieza to run with it at all. Anticipating the tenor of upcoming issues of Red Robin leaves this one with a bittersweet taste. I should read my comics, not taste them. – Isaac Mills
Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5
Superman: War of the Supermen #1
James Robinson & Sterling Gates (w), Jamal Igle (p), Jon Sibal (i), Blond (c), DC Comics.
Alright, here’s the thing. I thought that this comic was pretty good. But I don’t really want to talk about that here (next month I’ll say more about the actual book, I promise). I want to talk more about some business stuff. I was totally digging James Robinson’s run on Superman. The only problem was that it kept tying into the other Superman books, sometimes tangentially and sometimes crucially. Suddenly if I wanted to read that one book I liked I was dropping upwards of $12 a month, in some cases for books I wasn’t even enjoying. It became increasingly hard to tell what crossovers were mandatory and which were optional, so I dropped it. All of it. So why am I back here trying this again? Because DC made it easy on me. Four books, no tie-ins, $3 each. Sure it’s still $12 for the whole shebang, but I know I’m getting all of it this time. You hear that, Marvel? DC is doing a miniseries for THREE DOLLARS AN ISSUE! And guess what? I’m trying out the first issue because it’s cheaper than most of the books you put out! (Seriously, why does Marvel make so many of their first issues MORE expensive? Those should be impulse buys but I rarely impulse buy a pricier book.) Sorry this was so scattered, I just don’t understand why DC and Marvel keep tying all their books together and/or jacking up the prices, it’s like they don’t want me to buy their books. So yeah, DC made this an appealing book and I bought it. Good call, guys. I liked it, too. – Owen Craig
3.5 out of 5
