Links and News

Comic Book Resources reports that DC is pulling the plug on Minx. This is too bad. In fact, it sucks. Brian Wood agrees with me.

In lighter news, A Japanese comic is responsible for wild increases in the sales of specific wines.

Also, XKCD continues to rule.

The Spirit #7 - DC (2007)

Darwyn Cooke drew the excellent cover but otherwise he took this month off. Fill-in issues are always a crapshoot but when your backup team includes Walt Simonson, Chris Sprouse and Jimmy Palmiotti you're doing something right.

This issue is divided into three stories. The first is by Simonson, Sprouse and Karl Story. It captures the feel of The Spirit in the same manner Cooke does. It features a socialite who reports the theft of a HUGE diamond. The Spirit investigates the crime in his usual manner and it's a blast to read.

Next up are Palmiotti and Jordi Bernet with my favorite story of the three. The Spirit chases a crook into an apartment building which is straight out of Batteries Not Included. As he chases the crook around, our hero inadvertently improves the lives of the residents. It's so much fun I read it twice.

Kyle Baker's story is a mess. Normally, I really like Baker's art and writing but I was turned off by both in this story. I read this one twice, too, in an attempt to figure out what was going on but it's so disjointed that I wonder if the panels were arranged in the right order.

This Summer Special was entertaining and you don't even have to know anything about The Spirit to enjoy it. If you like any of the creators mentioned above, (maybe you'll even like the Baker story) give it a look.

A Mess O' Reviews

World War Hulk #1 - Marvel (2007)

Lot's of smashing. Lots of yelling. Hulk vs. Black Bolt followed by Hulk vs. Iron Man. If you came here for explosions and fighting you're in the right place. Hulk's Warbound are cool. I'm already tired of Amadeus Cho. This one stays in my hold box.

Incredible Hulk #107 & Invincible Iron Man #19 - Marvel (2007)



I'm listing these together because they're effectively the SAME DAMN COMIC! Of the two, the Hulk issue has more story in it. The Iron Man issue tries to make Tony seem heroic again but it's too little too late. They're gonna have to reboot the entire character to make him something I want to read again. Too bad the Ultimate version isn't any better. Anyway, I'll pick up the next issue of Hulk but if it's just going to show us stuff that happened in WWH I'll save my money.

The Brave and the Bold #4 - DC (2007)



I was actually surprised to discover that this series is only up to issue 4. The first three issues had so much story crammed into them that I figured we were up to at least #6. The interactions between Supergirl and Lobo are worth the price of admission. We learn more about the maguffin everyone's chasing and we are left with a hell of a setup for next issue's Legion of Super-Heroes appearance. Also, George Pérez drawing Lobo! Out-freaking-standing! This is what I read comics for.

Black Summer #0 - Avatar (2007)



Warren Ellis has come up with a very good story about a superhero who kills the president and then says, "I've got fucking superpowers. Come and get me." The characters are good and the story is off to a great start. Unfortunately, I can't stand Juan Jose Ryp's art. There's no depth to it and there are these distracting, squiggly lines everywhere. I'll flip through issue #1 when it comes out but Ryp's art is what kept me from reading past the second issue of Wolfskin.

Dynamo 5 #4 - Image (2007)



This comic is about five people who discover that their real father is a superhero who just died. This makes for a bummer of a Fathers Day. The characters with adoptive fathers have just as awkward a time as the ones who grew up in orphanages. Jay Faerber and Mahmud A. Asrar turn in another excellent issue. This one is low key and well told.

Stormwatch Post Human Division #8 - Wildstorm (2007)



This one's another low-key issue. The PHD crew get some downtime in the form of a visit to Skywatch. The exposition is well done which makes this issue a good jumping-on point if you haven't read any of the previous issues. The character interactions are fun to read and each character gets a chance to shine. The PHD team are a bunch of badasses and this issue shows us why along with delving further into Stormwatch history. Also, the cliffhanger at the end has me waiting breathlessly for issue #9.

The Tick's 20th Anniversary Special Edition - New England Comics Press (2007)



The various installments in this Tick lovefest range from hilarious to incomprehensible. This is to be expected when over 30 creators are involved in a project. There are more hits than misses, though. If you are a fan of The Tick in any of his incarnations, check this out. The sweet cover by Simon Bisley is worth the price.

The Brave and the Bold #3 - DC (2007)

I mentioned in my review of Immortal Iron Fist #4 that my favorite comics are the fun ones. Mark Waid and George Pérez are obviously having a lot of fun writing and drawing this book and it comes through on the page in spades!

The covers are fun. That's a good start. One of my favorite things about the old-school The Brave and the Bold was how each person in the team-up got his or her own logo on the cover. That simple design choice reflected the primary strength of a team-up title: The comparison and contrast between two superheroes. I'm glad to see that this reboot of the series is sticking with that.

More importantly, however, the stories and art are fun. This story started off in Vegas (and low-Earth orbit) and moved on to a casino planet. This issue brings us back to Batman who is in the Texas desert with Blue Beetle. They're up against the Fatal Five and a dude who has a weapon which alters reality to more effectively wipe out its opponents. That's right. The Legion of Super-Heroes' enemies have traveled from the 31st century and it's up to Batman and Blue Beetle to foil their nefarious schemes. Awesome!

Meanwhile, Supergirl is still on the casino planet trying to recruit Lobo.

See what I mean? Fun!

The entire DC Universe is Waid & Pérez's playground and I can't think of a better team to have put all this wacky stuff together. I can't believe this is only issue #3. There's been enough story and cool stuff for twice that many isses.

A little bit of Helmet, a whole lotta Fate

It turns out that despite its title Helmet of Fate isn't porn. Who knew?

DC's launching a new Dr. Fate monthly and his helmet is zinging around the DC Universe looking for a head to land on. This "event" is a series of one-shots featuring many of the Universe's magic-wielding people as they come in contact with the helmet.

I am a sucker for DC's old-school magic characters. This is one of the reasons I liked Morrison's Zatanna so much. Dr. Fate is among my favorites so I picked up three of the titles:

Sargon The Sorcerer #1 - DC (2007)


Nice work from Steve Niles (writing) and Scott Hampton (arting). There's nothing senses-shattering, here but it's a good story well told. The art and story mesh well. Much like Ibis below, this is an origin story. The original Sargon's grandson takes on the mantle and gets a spiffy new character design for his troubles. A good read with the best final page (in terms of art as well as writing) I have seen in a long time.

Black Alice #1 - DC (2007)


This one has my favorite cover. No, that's not Frazer Irving's work it's Duncan Rouleau's. The character design for Alice is very Klarion-like but she's a goth chick so that works. Alice has the power to steal (or copy) magic from other magicians and use it to her own ends. The Helmet shows up and teaches her a lesson. Good story, good characters and Gail Simone. WooHoo!

Ibis the Invincible - DC (2007)


Ibis was the weakest of the three but it was still enjoyable. The main character is Danny Khalifa, an Egyptian-American teenager who keeps getting the crap kicked out of him by some freelance Homeland Security officers in the form of high-school bullies. It's another origin story but not as well done as Sargon. It was written by Tad Williams whose novels I have enjoyed. The writing's not actually weak, it just comes in third when it's up against the others I bought.

The art by Phil Winslade bothered me at first but once he started drawing Egyptian gods he really kicked ass. If you need a huge, tired, smartass baboon deity in your comic, Winslade's your man!

I'm a hard sell when it comes to origin stories where the protagonist has to learn everything as he goes and he's all "Woah! Yikes! I'm in over my head, dude!" Therefore, I am being harder on thiis than I otherwise would have. Also, I was hoping to learn more about the original Ibis since he's one of the magic guys I haven't seen much.

Last criticism: This story suffers from Too Many Words. Comics are a visual medium. You don't have to literally write everything out. Even Kevin Smith figured that out eventually.

Having said all that, this issue does everything a one-shot should. It tells an interesting, self-contained story and it ties up all of the loose ends.

Plus, big baboon god!

The Brave and the Bold #1 - DC (2007)

Hooboy! A superhero comic. With superheroes doing superhero stuff. I like Mark Waid and George Pérez which is good because they are the real team-up, here. The Brave and the Bold is a resurrection of one of DC's biggest hits. It was best known as a team-up title which introduced lots of new characters. More information can be found here. WARNING: The preceding link goes to Wikipedia so by the time you click on it the article may have been replaced by Alan Greenspan porn or something.

Pérez's art is spectacular in this issue. It's easy not to notice Pérez's stuff because his style is (to me) What Comics Look Like. People throw around the phrase "visual storytelling" a lot (well, people like me) but this issue is a textbook example of how it should be done. Pérez uses the whole damn page to convey the information. He overlaps panels and puts stuff in the gutters. It's artistic without being distracting.

Waid's script is excellent, as well. Batman and the Green Lantern are doing the things I read comics to see those characters doing. Each one gets to shine and the fact that they've known each other for a long time really comes through. Also, their banter during a fight for their lives says a lot about them.

I won't go into the story in great detail other than to say that there are some aliens involved in a murder mystery and it's off to a great start. The next issue has Green Lantern on his way to a planet called Ventura. Aren't Mike and Dorian from there? They'd better watch out.

The Spirit #3 - DC (2007)

The first two issues of Darwyn Cooke's resurrection of The Spirit were outstanding but issue #3 is the first one that felt like the Eisner comics. This is not to say that Cooke (who is writing as well as drawing) is doing Eisner all over again. With this issue, Cooke has made the character his own while building on the original material. It's like a cover of a jazz standard. The same melody is there but the new performer makes it different with his voice and interpretation. The words and images mesh so smoothly that I actually heard voices in my head during the voiceover panels.

J. Bone (inks) and Dave Stewart (colors) build on Cooke's pencils to turn each issue into a travelogue of The Spirit's world. Said world owes as much to Bruce Timm's Gotham City and psychedelia as it does to Eisner. It's a cool, scary, dangerous-looking place. You can keep your Sin Cities, I want to move next door to The Spirit.

The Spirit is the kind of guy who just doesn't get down. Bad things happen to him on a regular basis but he continues to leap into danger with a grin and a wink. The story in this issue is my favorite so far. Issue #2 gave it some stiff competition but I'm a sucker for "Secret Origin" stories. The characters are well-developed and interesting. Even the "Central-Casting" mad scientist has some entertaining quirks.

If you like things that are cool, check out The Spirit.

Also, check out the cover for issue #2. This is one of my favorite covers ever. It's an excellent shorthand for the tone of the series. Other cover artists should pay attention to how effective Cooke's images are. You know what you're getting into but it leaves all kinds of room for surprises.

Green Lantern Corps #9 - DC (2007)

The "Green Lantern Corpse" storyline is over and the ending was pretty cool. Keith Champagne writes Guy Gardner as a better-rounded character than others have. Gardner takes his role as a Green Lantern seriously even if he's the "rogue cop nobody wants to partner with". This storyline has Gardner mixed up with the GLC's black ops division. They're so secret they don't even know they're in it. It's a "plausible deniability" outfit for the Guardians of the Galaxy and you'd think that it would be right up Gardner's alley.

Not entirely.

That conflict is a lot of fun to read and Champagne never lets it get tedious.

Also, we get to see what a badass Durlan can do. For those of you with more of a life than I have, Durlans are shapeshifters. You see, Chameleon from the Legion of Super-Heroes is a Durlan and... Never mind. This Durlan subscribes to the "Disney Magicians' Duel" school of fighting and he kicks ass.

The art (Patrick Gleason on pencils, Prentiss Rollins & Ray Snyder on inks) is not spectacular but it works with the story. There were a couple of action scenes I had to look at twice to get what was going on but there were no major visual hurdles. Moose Baumann did an excellent job on the colors, as usual. The explosions and energy blasts really popped.

I don't care much for the current Green Lantern title but that's because it's not "Corps"-y enough for me. These guys are doing great things with the Corps and I'm looking forward to issue #10.