Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Jim Lee
Company: DC Comics
While this book had a solid opener and subsequent issue or two, the pacing of Justice League took a wallop and delved into a very muddled place where people quickly lose interest. This is the finale to the opening six issue story of Darkseid invading the world, which is most definitely a good thing. Johns and Lee focus on the "Widescreen" moments, the larger than life action sequences that fans enjoy, most
notably a moment between Wonder Woman and Darkseid. Lee's artwork hasn't declined any or felt rushed throughout the story arc, which as been nice. His splash pages are very memorable. Still, many of the characters feel the same and there is some squabbling and a few bad jokes in the latter half of the book that elicited a few groans. The back-up story, focusing on the Phantom Stranger and the enigmatic Pandora was much better and I found Carlos D'Anda's artwork to be effective and spiffy looking.
Writers: Dan Slott & Chris Yost
Artist: Giuseppe Camuncoli
Company: Marvel Comics
I have a love/hate relationship with much of Dan Slott's work in comics. He's hit a lot of high notes with things like the Thing mini and She-Hulk, but his stories for Amazing Spider-Man have been extremely hit and miss. This outing, which sees Peter take to the skies (or Outer-Space) with Johnny Storm in tow to save the crew of a damaged space station, is however a solid outing. This may have something to do with Chris (X-Men) Yost joining in on the fun. Anyways, their take on the relationship between our heroes, while heavily dosed in quip-age, feels like it should and the villain is not only a fun idea, but has a twinge of horror in it as well. Camuncoli's artwork is grounded in realism but with a playful edge. Klaus Johnson's inks add to the affair. All in all, a solid jumping on point for people wanting to check out what the famous Wall-Crawler has to offer these days.
Writers: Adam Beechen, Dustin Nguyen, & Derek Fridolfs
Artists: Norm Breyfogle & Dustin Nguyen
Company: DC Comics
Yes, this is the print version of the digital comic. Yes, it is good. Yes, you should probably buy it, especially if you're a fan of the Batman Beyond Universe and all that it entails. Separated into two stories, the first one pits Terry McGinnis against an army of Jokerz while the second involves the Justice League Beyond fighting a huge host of bad guys. There's a lot more going on in each of them and you can tell that a larger story is being built, which is great, but one of the best features of the book is that the writers are able to capture the voice and feel of the show. Plus, I personally love seeing Kai-Ro, the Zen Green Lantern. He's just a great character. On the art side of things, Breyfogle and Nguyen excel in different areas, Nguyen's stuff has more of an animated feel to it while Breyfogle sports a more classic feel. Regardless, they know how to make things exciting and their structures and ability to clearly tell a story help tremendously. The ingredients for a great comic are here and this first outing doesn't skimp on the cool.
Writer: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
Company: Vertigo Comics
Hands down, the best of the week. The ball of spectacular storytelling continues to roll for Azzarello, what with his continued success with Wonder Woman. Spaceman, with it's simple story of a child being kidnapped and a hapless lunk who doesn't mind getting his hands dirty getting involved in something way above his pay-grade, just punches all of the right buttons. With each issue, the characters become more rounded and the sub-plots that have been teased are becoming more cohesive and you can see the beginnings of where they might lead. Risso's work on the book is nothing short of stellar. It's slick, depressing (you'd have to be depressed in you lived in this future), and blasts right off the page with emotion and energy. I had thought that Azzarello's crazy future-speak may quickly become annoying or off putting, but it hasn't. It gives the book a clever gimmick and while you occasionally have to roll the words around in your head a few times, they eventually make sense. Seek this one out!
Justice League-This first arc was good early and looked great but outside of that I'm left yawning. The story lacked a tremendous amount of depth. Johns isn't known for that aspect of his writing but it was nothing more than just a big battle over the last few issues. I will admit getting pumped at seeing Superman attacking Darkseid. I especially thought the line at the end about them being the world's greatest superheroes wasn't that good. It made me chuckle and shake my head. Hopefully with a new villian(s) being introduced it will lift the title up.
ReplyDeleteAmazing Spider-Man-I hate Slott has been hit or miss for you. I've pretty much dug his entire run. Most of it has been loads of fun with some issues being high, high quality of storytelling at times. I would love to see Mark Waid take over the book or be given his own Spidey title. This was another solid fun issue.
Batman Beyond Unlimited-Total agreement. I especially loved the JLB story. Seeing Terry up to league business and what Bruce is going to do with his absence in Gotham left me wanting more. I loved the nods to the episodes of Legacy from Superman:TAS and The Call from Batman Beyond.
Spaceman-Sadly this issue didn't ship for me this week. A bit of a good thing since I've been wanting to read the previous three issues again before jumping back in.