MONDOmagazine

Amazing Spider-Man #638
Joe Quesada (w), Paolo Rivera, Joe Quesada, Danny Miki, Richard Isanove (a). Marvel Comics.

Basically this is the sequel to “One More Day” that shows how Mephisto changed the past. It’s a pretty cool story so long as we forget that the heroes of the story ASKED for everything they’re getting here. And there’s also Quesada’s weird proclivity towards drawing the chunkiest Peter Parker ever. The inter-splicing of new scenes with the original Spider-Man Annual #21 (the wedding one) is super-cool, if at times a little jarring. There’s a surprisingly bad moment where the hero gets clocked in the head with a cement block. I don’t know about you, but given the option I would have dodged that. – Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

Avengers #3
Brian Michael Bendis (w), John Romita Jr. (p), Klaus Janson (i), Dean White (c), Marvel Comics.

This book is still a blast to read, for sure. I certainly have my complaints about it, such as its slow pacing and Romita’s pencils not being in top form (or is it Janson’s inking? I’m not sure) but I still dig this book. However, this issue being almost entirely fight-scenes means that it’s not a particularly memorable (however fun) issue for me. – Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 4 out of 5

Batman: Streets of Gotham #14
Paul Dini, Ivan Brandon (w), Dustin Nguyen, Ramon Bachs (p), Derek Fridolfs, John Lucas (i), John Kalisz, Nick Filardi (c). DC Comics.

An okay issue. I liked the main story starring Hush far more than the previous “Carpenter” storyline. But this is more of a preview for the next issue, so you can wait for that. The backup, starring Two-Face, is really good. Ramon Bachs is a great new artist (he’s new to me anyway) he gives Two-Face this gross aura on the scarred side of his face that makes for a cool effect. One side character realizes that the psychotic Two-Face only thinks of himself instead of his underlings; I think it’s supposed to be a big revelation, but I can’t take it seriously and it’s really funny to me. – Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3 out of 5

Brightest Day #6
Geoff Johns, Peter J. Tomasi (w), Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Scott Clark, Joe Prado (a), Vicente Cifuentes, David Beaty, Mark Irwin, Christian Alamy (i), Peter Steigerwald, John Starr (c). DC Comics.

Well, you win Brightest Day. I predicted a dumb fight scene this issue due to Mera’s shocking “I was sent to kill you” revelation, but Aquaman actually says, “We’ve been through too much together for me not to (listen to you).” We follow Martian Manhunter as he tries to figure out why vegetation is dying around him and his efforts to figure things out seem like something that could actually pan out to some answers. I have no faith in the Atom and Professor Stein to figure out ANYTHING. The martian-looking villain is immensely scary, and thus I’m starting to detect a pattern in this series: someone on the staff has the ability to design great monsters. No small thing. – Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3 out of 5

Dark Wolverine #88
Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu (w), Stephen Segovia and Paco Diaz (p), Cam Smith and Guillermo Ortego (i), Antonio Fabela (c), Marvel Comics.

Yay! Crossover! So now, because I love Remender’s Frankencastle I get to try a book I don’t normally buy: Dark Wolverine. Why do people like this character? DO people like this character? Maybe this isn’t giving the character a fair shake, but wow. The mohawk, the attitude, the stab-first-ask-questions-later way of doing things and… are his eyes black? Ugh. This is not worth buying just because you’re a Frankencastle fan. If I’m not won over again by the second (Remender-penned) issue of this story then I’m jumping ship until it’s over. – Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 1.5 out of 5

Darkwing Duck #2
Ian Brill (w), James Silvani (a), Andrew Dalhouse (c), Boom Studios.

I love this book. Seriously, the entire time I was reading it I had a giant smile plastered across my face. The sense of humour is fantastic (I loved the guard flamingos), the nods to the TV show are great for fans and the artwork is spot on. This is everything a licensed comic should be. Honestly, Brill and Silvani have created the perfect Darkwing Duck comic. – Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 5 out of 5

DC Universe Legacies #3
Len Wein (w), Scott Kolins, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Dave Gibbons (p), Scott Kolins, Dave Gibbons (i), Mike Atiyeh, Trish Mulvihill, Hi-Fi (c). DC Comics.

Again Legacies succeeds in telling a great, touching story; almost the life story of a comic fan, only it’s what one from a comic universe would look like. This would make fantastic propaganda for joining up with the police force (as opposed to that new show Rookie Blue where the rookies can’t do anything right and spend all their time with the superiors getting told to quit) if that’s what they were trying for. I’m glad that isn’t their goal, but I just wanted to point that out. There are of course lots of Easter eggs for long time fans to pick up on, and the recreation of the first appearance of Superman from the movie is awesome. “Don’t worry, miss. I’ve got you.” “You’ve got me? Who’s got you?” Again I have to point out that if you aren’t buying this comic, you should be buying this comic. – Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 4 out of 5

Death Ship: The Last Voyage of the Demeter #3
Gary Gerani (w), Stuart Sayger (a), Dom Regan, IDW Publishing.

You know the drill by now: story is pretty good, art is fantastic. But no, I kid. This issue us actually a pretty great leap forward. Gerani is really finding his feet in this story now: the characters are really coming into focus as the centre of this story and Sayger is getting some really cool things to draw. I wonder how this reads for hardcore Dracula fans… better? Worse? – Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

Legion of Super-Heroes #3
Paul Levitz (w), Yildiray Cinar, Francis Portela (p), Wayne Faucher, Francis Portela (i), Hi-Fi (c). DC Comics.

We get to see how that crazy xenophobic Earth Man handles being a Green Lantern and instead of learning from the adventure, he gives up the power ring. Just drops it into a swamp. Maybe that won’t be the end of it, maybe he’ll get back to Earth and the ring will be sitting on his book stand or something, but if not, this has been very anti-climactic. Even if that doesn’t float your boat, don’t worry, there’s still a battle with Saturn Queen to tide you over. The art varies a bit, you can definitely tell when the two artists were at bat here, but it’s never bad, it’s just hard to get excited about the stuff that isn’t as amazingly drawn as the Earth Man segments. – Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

New Avengers #2
Brian Michael Bendis (w), Stuart Immonen (p), Wade Von Grawbadger (i), Various (c), Marvel Comics.

I wasn’t as totally thrilled with this issue as I was with issue one. Too much fight scene. So, so much fight scene. I didn’t help that it came out on the same week as Avengers #1. – Owen Craig

Owen’s rating: 3.5 out of 5

Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour
Bryan Lee O’Malley (w), Bryan Lee O’Malley, John Kantz (a), Aaron Ancheta (i). Oni Press.

The highly anticipated final book in the series, if you haven’t heard about it (especially if you live in Toronto), you’ve probably got a very nice rock to live under. But to explain this book I want you to consider the reaction people had to volume 1 way back in the day, specifically the crazy fight scene at the end: for some people it came from nowhere and was totally incongruous with the tone of the rest of the book. A realistic tone became a fantastic one. For me, the 5^th book could easily have been the final one, Scott makes some serious character growth, but still Ramona leaves; it’s bittersweet and a very real kind of ending. But then we need the 6^th so Scott can battle his Negative self and level up and whatnot. It’s the corresponding fantasy for the story. A big plus is some of the fleshing out Ramona gets, to the point where it now makes sense for her to be with Scott… it was always a little bit weird for me before. – Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: Fun times (3.5 out of 5)

Time Masters: Vanishing Point #1
Dan Jurgens (w), Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund (a), Hi-Fi (c). DC Comics.

What’s cool about this book is that it’s the continuation of the Booster Gold series we’ve grown to love by Jurgens and Rapmund (now being excellently handled by Giffen and DeMatteis, you read that review from last week, right?) but with more emphasis on Rip Hunter AND tying into the “Search for Bruce Wayne” stuff. This is of course dangerous ground to tread on, what with the possibility of getting thrown into discontinuity… but still, points for taking the road less travelled. It’s a solid story, great art, but it is still hampered by certain “time travel rules” that they’ve established earlier in Booster Gold. I love that Green Lantern asks whether they can give citrus to some shipwrecked folks. “Maybe even citrus?” how often do you hear that in life? –Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3 out of 5

Web of Spider-Man #10
Fred Van Lente, Marc Guggenheim (w), Nick Dragotta, Sana Takeda (a), Brad Simpson (c). Marvel Comics.

Surprisingly simple credits above here, surprising for a book with two stories in it. The less said about the back-up Jackpot story the better, the art is way too static, and only due to the fact that I’m paying attention do I know that the one guy being alive at the end is a big deal. They should have put him in a Boomerang costume so we’d all be on the same page. (Watch it turns out I’m wrong and that ISN’T Boomerang…) The first story has a bunch of call-backs to old Spider-Man stories, especially Amazing Spider-Man issues #1 and 2, which is always an easy way to get on my good side (even if it’s a little cheesy). Again, my only real complaint is the villain character design, but maybe I can read this with my eyes closed? Nope, worth a shot though. – Isaac Mills

Isaac’s rating: 3.5 out of 5