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Final Crisis #1
2008-05-30 17:25:00
Ok, well it didn't blow my mind like Seven Soldiers #1, but how often does that happen? People say "there's a lot going on here" about particular comics all the time that it's lost all meaning, but there is A LOT going on here. I'm still unclear about the status of the New Gods. The Newsarama review implies that aspect takes them out of the story, but I think Morrison and co. manage to effectively retcon the recent abortion of a miniseries, "Death of the New Gods," and I couldn't be happier about it. Not quite the rollercoaster of psychedelic superheroism I was expecting, but still, not bad at all.
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Batman #673
2008-02-02 18:22:00
Who the hell is Bat-mite? What's going on? He's in a coma now? This series seems to have lost its way. Let's hope we can pick up the trail next month.
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Captain America #34
2008-02-02 18:21:00
After a few false starts, I think I've finally found a good jumping-on point for this universally-acclaimed series. I've bought a few issues here and there in the past year after the inundation of hype and awards, and they all just kind of left me blank. But this one's good enough, I think, to finally get me to add it to my pull list. If only it had Steve Rogers still. I mean, what kind of name is "Bucky" anyway? "My name's Bucky, and I'm here to rescue you." Doesn't exactly instill a lot of confidence. But I digress.
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New Avengers Annual #2
2008-02-02 18:21:00
Ok, this series is finally going somewhere. After a couple of issues of spinning its wheels with a curtailed Hood story and a lot of monosyllabic fight scenes mixed with ridiculous parenthetical jokes, it seems like New Avengers is at last moving into Secret Invasion territory. Let's have at it.
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Y: The Last Man #60
2008-02-02 18:20:00
And so it ends. Not with a bang, etc. I can say this about it. It didn't make me want to vomit with rage. But I have to think, this is what Vaughan has been planning all this time? He said he always knew how he wanted it to end. I can't help thinking that those quotes were referring to #59, where he employs his usual heartbreaking sadism presumably to alienate and infuriate his fans, who, as the masochists they are, love him for it. Just once I'd like the best character in a BKV book slip through the cracks and escape his doom. It's like being a character from Final Destination, or from the Giffen-era JLA under Dan Didio, or maybe he just likes playing Old Testament, with Vaughn as G-d and his favorite characters as Job.Anyway this issue is anticlimactic, in a good way, because that's what a denouement is supposed to be. And no good-bye from Dr. Mann? The heart of what made this series good was the interplay between Mann, 355 and Yorick, you'd think you'd get a came...

The Amazing Spider-Man #56
2008-01-10 19:19:00
F*** Continuity.The legion of Spidey fans on the internets have proclaimed OMD a massive failure. I read the first and last chapters and it was clearly an editorial deus ex machina to rewrite this character's status quo. But as someone who has tried repeatedly to get into Spider man over the last couple of years (with the Other storyline, Ben Parker's ghostly return, etc., none of which succeeded in getting me hooked on any of the three titles), I say, get over it. It's a sunk cost. Whether these changes needed to be made in the way they were made is irrelevant. What it has led to, in this first issue of Brand New Day, is a great concoction of breezy, down-to-earth storytelling from Dan Sott and absolutely stellar artwork from McNiven & co. They've taken all the things that made the Ultimate spidey work so well, and transported those elements to the 616, AND narrowed it all down to one title that ships thrice-monthly! Under Steve Wacker's steady hand, as evidenced by h...
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Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 4
2007-12-14 04:03:00
Scott just didn't do it for me this time. Yeah, it was entertaining as always, but it seems like O'Malley's heart isn't in it anymore. He's been quoted in interviews as wanting to move on to other things, whereas he's promised us three more volumes of SP's post-adolescent struggles. I say he should make this next volume the last, and go out with a bang before the project gets any more stale.
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Batman #671
2007-12-01 05:58:00
Dear Grant Morrison,You could be better than Alan Moore if you wanted to. Really you could. Your dialogue is just as good. And your ideas, I submit, are even better than his. The problem is in the execution. Seven Soldiers #1 should have been a complete miniseries in itself, instead of a single issue. That computer-generated Joker issue a while back (for those who missed that particular gem, it was 22 pages of text with background illustrations) would have made a really great 3-5 issue story arc, and would have helped pay off on the first few issues of Batman you wrote for those who don't have the patience to read what's essentially an illustrated novella. In fact, all of the arcs on your run so far have felt truncated. I know you've talked about hyper-compressing your stories in interviews, but it comes off, for the reader, like you had a(nother!) great idea, and just didn't take the time to see it through.Case in point: "The Return of Ra's," the current arc. If this h...

Uncanny X-Men #492
2007-11-12 22:23:00
Everything leading up to Messiah CompleX has seen each of the core X-titles getting better and better and better. All of which led me to believe this would usher in a new golden age for mutants in the Marvel U. This is it? I'm still waiting for the awesomeness, Brubaker.
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New Avengers: Illuminati #5
2007-11-12 22:22:00
The capper of the Illuminati title is just as good as the previous issues. Only two problems: Secret Invasion, which this leads into, is months away, isn't it? And what's with the five pages of filler included in every comic marvel shipped this week? Seriously, it didn't do anything for me. I would have been ok with five pages of ads, guys. Give me a backup story, or nothing. Don't half-ass it, Marvel.
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Astonishing X-Men #23
2007-11-12 22:20:00
Everyone who will ever be writing comics, movies, cartoons, novelizations, action figure package copy or slash fiction involving Cyclops should read this issue. Joss Whedon takes the biggest tool in any brand of the X-Men (I'm assuming- I don't read Excalibur or anything like that) into a badass and a hero. I don't really care about this tri-monthly-shipping storyline that much, especially given its questionable relationship with continuity, but there was some serious ass-kicking within this issue's pages.

Robin #168
2007-11-12 22:19:00
A Robin vs. Robin rematch that was better the first time during Grant Morrison's "Son of Batman" storyline. The Ra's Al Ghul story could have been handled just as well within the Batman title exclusively, or maybe between that and Detective Comics? Anyway, this is probably the only time I'll buy a copy of Robin in the forseeable future.

Y: The Last Man #59
2007-11-12 22:17:00
I guess what Vaughan is trying to say is, the world is an absurd and tragic place, but we go on because, well, what the hell else are we going to do? Y wraps up on kind of a downer note, but isn't that what life is, a series of down endings? Oh wait, that's a different movie entirely. Not sure why I'm reviewing this, if you've been reading the series, it's essential for wrapping up the storylines, if you haven't, there's no point in reading it.

Justice Society of America #10
2007-11-05 04:48:00
I know this is going to sound blasphemous, but Kingdom Come, while very pretty, was kind of boring. It violated the "show and tell" rule of visual storytelling in several places, i.e., "Don't tell it if you can show it." But in the hands of Geoff Johns & co., Earth-22's Superman makes a great addition to the cast of the always-terrific new JSA. They pull off a number of really clever tricks that exploit the implicit possibilities of the comics medium with style and wit. Also, I never read the sequels to Kingdom Come but a quick Wikipedia search will give you a big hint about that might let you read the "writing on the wall," as it were. (hint- it's a palindrome)
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Death of the New Gods #2
2007-11-05 04:43:00
After a promising start in #1, Starlin's take on Kirby's ultimate creation goes pear-shaped fast. The heroes fight over a misunderstanding and then team up? Is that supposed to be ironic, or what, or does Starlin honestly think that old cliche will fly in this day and age? As invested as I am in the fate of the Fourth World, I might be sitting out the rest of this, I mean, 6 more issues of this nonsense? No thanks.
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Batman #670
2007-11-05 04:40:00
Morrison has yet to really impress me with his current run on Batman , but so far it's all been interesting, at least. This one, not so much. Really, it's no better than that middling Annual Peter Milligan wrote a while back as a lead in to this crossover. Plus, we go from Andy Kubert to this? Color me nonplussed.

X-Men: Messiah Complex
2007-11-05 04:29:00
Ed Brubaker wrote this? Really? This is what the almighty Bru came up with for his humungous X-crossover event? A bio-engineered mutant-synching/eating wolf monster? The main event of the book told in second-hand flashbacks? Honestly?I'm going to give Brubaker the benefit of the doubt and assume that editorial left him with such strict parameters to write this story within that he was left with no choice but to phone in this decompressed gasbag.If you've paid even the least attention to any of the hype they've been building for this book for the last year or so, you know exactly what happens in this issue. For anyone who just figured out how to use the internet and decided to go looking for glittering comments to cheer up their new imaginary myspace friends' Wednesday (which is apparently how most people find this site), I'll save you like four bucks or whatever it was. A new mutant is born. You're welcome. I'm still holding out hope that this X-over turns out alrigh...
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X-Men #204
2007-10-22 02:41:00
Mike Carey is still telling great X-Men stories. I think I might stop bothering to review these, at least until the title achieves some new level of greatness, or makes a serious misstep.

Thunderbolts #117
2007-10-22 02:39:00
Nice. Warren Ellis is ramping up this arc, finally pulling the trigger on story elements he's been teasing for several months now. Plus, Doc Samson, when done well, always makes for good comics. Fortunately that is the case in this ish. He pulls some great psychological mumbo jumbo with Penance. It makes a nice counterpoint to Peter David's recent Doc Samson issue of X-Factor, where he was just mostly a silent springboard for various characters' ramblings. Here he takes a decidedly more active role, staging a super-powered intervention. This title is officially back to par.

Green Lantern Corps #17
2007-10-22 02:38:00
Ok, now this is just filler. They held out with original material for a while, but the symptoms of a crossover will always, eventually manifest. Plus, there were like, five artists? I had been pleasantly surprised by the last two issues, but now I'm looking forward to the end of the Sinestro Corps war so I can drop this like a bad habit.
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Death of the New Gods #1
2007-10-22 02:35:00
This was not anywhere near as bad as I thought it was going to be. As much as I wanted to hate it, it was almost kind of good. This issue brings new readers up to speed and set up the central mystery, basically, SOMEBODY (dum dum duhhhhh) is killing off the New Gods , one by one. Starlin's writing, if not his art, is surprisingly true to Kirby's Fourth World characters and settings. It feels practically... reverential. Which begs the question: why the hell does he want to kill them all?
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The Brave and the Bold #7
2007-10-22 02:33:00
Mark Waid gives us a decent done-in-one, with some nice girl-on-girl dialogue between Power Girl and Wonder Woman. Only tangentially related to the continuity of the series, although that's kind of refreshing, given that the last arc was a little bit hard to follow. Granted, having each issue focus on just two characters involved in a larger conflict, hopping between like seven different time periods and several alternate universes is not a formula for a simple read. So this issue was actually kind of refreshing, but at the same time, Waid could probably write comics like this in his sleep. Good, but pretty inconsequential.

Runaways #28
2007-10-10 02:59:00
Well, they sound like the Runaways we know and love. I'm still getting used to the new look, although I doubt it's ever going to feel quite the same as when Adrian Alphona was drawing. But with Whedon in the driver's seat (which would make Michael Ryan the turret gunner, I guess?), these guys definitely have the same voices as during BKV's run (it still pains me to describe it that way, but so be it). What's more, Whedon's set them in a new/old world populated with an abundance or rich, interesting super-characters, both heroes and villains. With this issues revelations about a certain Runaway's time-hopping parents, maybe he can even put Vaughan's tragic genie back in the bottle?

New Avengers #35
2007-10-10 02:59:00
Don't believe the naysayers. Bendis is back in action, and although he isn't juggling the subplots very well (i.e. this issue has nothing to do with the big reveal at the conclusion of last issue, except for maybe a page at the end), this is back into acceptably snarky territory. I think the Hood makes a great godfather of crime, and I wish him the best of luck in making trouble for the various Avenger teams he'll have to contend with.
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X-Factor #24
2007-10-10 02:57:00
And Peter David wraps up another storyline to deal with the next Big Event! Seriously, I thought that's why that last Quicksilver story ended so abruptly, and that this past arc was going to have something interesting to do with the upcoming X-book crossover. Turns out that was not the case. I guess I haven't been reading David very long. Is this the way all his arcs end? It was nevertheless very fun, but also a (very) little bit of a letdown. File this as more evidence of my theory that Alan Moore is the only living funny book writer who can write a satisfying conclusion to a story.
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