Comic mini-reviews (7/6/02)
Posted: Sat Jul 06, 2002 2:00 am
GREEN ARROW #14
Writer: Kevin Smith, Penciller: Phil Hester, Inker: Ande Parks
Seriously, Hester, the Black Canary and the teenage girl that is hanging around the Green Arrow these days look exactly the same. I've said that every time I've mentioned the GA book and it's not getting any better. WTF?
This is Smith's second-to-last issue on the book and he has the Green Arrow up against a villain called Onomatopoeia. It's that dude's second issue and nobody's clued us into whether or not he has powers. What happens is this -- Onomatopoeia says, for instance "blam." Then his gun goes off. Right? It's unclear if he has powers, and his powers are the ability to affect his environment by saying a sound effect and then having reality shift around so that whatever WOULD cause that sound effect happens. Or if he's just some jerk with a gun who only speaks in sound effects. I guess... the latter? I have no idea. This is the first book I've seen in a long, long time where the editor has let it down so much. How hard is it to write a memo saying, "Yo, Smith, make your new teenager character have any other hair color than Black Canary's. Oh, and explain what the deal is with your villain's powers, if any. Oh, and Hester -- learn how to draw a different "blonde female face."
Course, none of this really matters because the arc(s) have been good on Green Arrow. We get a "New York Times Best-Selling Author" by the name of Brad Meltzer writing the book starting on issue #16, so we'll see where it goes from here.
UNCANNY X-MEN #408
Writer, Penciller, Inker: Take your pick between Joe Casey, Sean Phillips -- they are listed as the "storytellers."
Great issue. Haven't enjoyed any kind of X-Men comic in any form for as long as I can remember, and I picked this one up on a whim. The principle characters in this particular issue were Angel, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Iceman, someone named "Stacy" and some guy who seemed to have the sun coming out of his chest. As always, Wolverine works best when he's part of a team book. He's had -- apparently -- a string of lousy writers on his solo book for the longest time now, according to the net.nerds, but his appearance was solid here. I guess I can say that I enjoy stories featuring characters that I have some clue about, and I get how books like the X-Men need to have new and exciting characters dreamt up and placed in the book all the time, but this one seemed more... familiar. To an old-schooler like me, anyway.
Also -- last panel. Right? A guy makes this sort of "shocking appearance" at the very end. You're supposed to go -- Oh! Wow! So-and-So is back!! Next ish, can't wait!
OK, I have no idea if the person represented at the end is supposed to be some sort of evil version of Professor X or the Vanisher. Both are bald guys. And I'm only slightly sure that the guy wasn't the Vulture. Professor X has been run through the ringer so many times that who knows if he should be smiling deviously at the end of an issue or not? Anyway, I'm going to make it a point to pick up #409 because this one was such a good read (I haven't mentioned the "story" contained within, but it was something I had never seen before, so props to that) but it really bugs me how there are less faces to go around in the Marvel Universe than at an undermanned Cabbage Patch factory.
ALIAS #11
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis. Artist: Michael Gaydos
More of the same. This or Daredevil is in my opinion the best comic book out there right now. It's always good and I hope Bendis never leaves the thing. Rock and roll.
Also -- comics have gone, for the longest time, right about their business with hardly a decent run with a female lead character. I don't know how Wonder Woman has been, but it had been pretty sparse for Marvel. Then, suddenly, we get a great book that has, really, nothing to do with the main character's gender. This world will probably collapse upon itself via nuclear armageddon in a few short months, but at least while we're all being processed for damnation or paradise we as a race can take some pride in finally having that previously-thought-to-be-impossible task ticked off. So thanks on that one, Bendis.
Did not bother to pick up --
CAPTAIN AMERICA #3
Cap is probably my favorite super hero. But it seems like it's been years since his book has been remotely readable. Oh, they started the numbering over again? Wow, that's pretty fresh. I can see why they would want to do that, what with them no-doubt updating his origin or what the comic will be about again. Let's see:
o He fights the Red Skull
o He has a supporting cast which is oftentimes more charismatic than he is due to the sheer number of shitty writers that get their hands on Cap
o New writer gives an answer on whether he killed anyone in WWII that is utterly opposite of what the previous writer indicated
o Brother doesn't get laid
I guess, what, they went public with his identity or something? So that makes Daredevil, Cap and Iron Man in the space of about three months. That's pretty cool, nothing like irrecovable damage to the character's mythos that will require a laughable explaination when it is ultimately reversed. Here's the deal:
1) Changing costume? For any of these guys. Fucking retarded. They will ALWAYS go back to the one they got famous with
2) Changing "the man behind the mask"? Fucking retarded. They will ALWAYS go back to the one that got famous. *Maybe* Barry Allen as the Flash is the exception to this, but I daresay if that tv show had more than one season's worth of episodes that they would have reverted. Ben Reilly, John Walker, James Rhodes, Connor Hawke... give me a break.
3) Killing off a character that was either in the origin story or else present for the majority of the books run? Fucking retarded. CLONES! ACTRESSES! Ha-ha!
It's enough to spoil your continental breakfast. Anyway, seriously, this weak-minded shock value garbage needs to stop. We'll see if Bendis can make it entertaining before Daredevil reverts back to status quo, but it's otherwise been pointless.
PROTIP: Remove the masks for all these heroes, too, so that the mewling whiney whinies who will play them in movies can have their faces on the screen all the time. Keen!
Writer: Kevin Smith, Penciller: Phil Hester, Inker: Ande Parks
Seriously, Hester, the Black Canary and the teenage girl that is hanging around the Green Arrow these days look exactly the same. I've said that every time I've mentioned the GA book and it's not getting any better. WTF?
This is Smith's second-to-last issue on the book and he has the Green Arrow up against a villain called Onomatopoeia. It's that dude's second issue and nobody's clued us into whether or not he has powers. What happens is this -- Onomatopoeia says, for instance "blam." Then his gun goes off. Right? It's unclear if he has powers, and his powers are the ability to affect his environment by saying a sound effect and then having reality shift around so that whatever WOULD cause that sound effect happens. Or if he's just some jerk with a gun who only speaks in sound effects. I guess... the latter? I have no idea. This is the first book I've seen in a long, long time where the editor has let it down so much. How hard is it to write a memo saying, "Yo, Smith, make your new teenager character have any other hair color than Black Canary's. Oh, and explain what the deal is with your villain's powers, if any. Oh, and Hester -- learn how to draw a different "blonde female face."
Course, none of this really matters because the arc(s) have been good on Green Arrow. We get a "New York Times Best-Selling Author" by the name of Brad Meltzer writing the book starting on issue #16, so we'll see where it goes from here.
UNCANNY X-MEN #408
Writer, Penciller, Inker: Take your pick between Joe Casey, Sean Phillips -- they are listed as the "storytellers."
Great issue. Haven't enjoyed any kind of X-Men comic in any form for as long as I can remember, and I picked this one up on a whim. The principle characters in this particular issue were Angel, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Iceman, someone named "Stacy" and some guy who seemed to have the sun coming out of his chest. As always, Wolverine works best when he's part of a team book. He's had -- apparently -- a string of lousy writers on his solo book for the longest time now, according to the net.nerds, but his appearance was solid here. I guess I can say that I enjoy stories featuring characters that I have some clue about, and I get how books like the X-Men need to have new and exciting characters dreamt up and placed in the book all the time, but this one seemed more... familiar. To an old-schooler like me, anyway.
Also -- last panel. Right? A guy makes this sort of "shocking appearance" at the very end. You're supposed to go -- Oh! Wow! So-and-So is back!! Next ish, can't wait!
OK, I have no idea if the person represented at the end is supposed to be some sort of evil version of Professor X or the Vanisher. Both are bald guys. And I'm only slightly sure that the guy wasn't the Vulture. Professor X has been run through the ringer so many times that who knows if he should be smiling deviously at the end of an issue or not? Anyway, I'm going to make it a point to pick up #409 because this one was such a good read (I haven't mentioned the "story" contained within, but it was something I had never seen before, so props to that) but it really bugs me how there are less faces to go around in the Marvel Universe than at an undermanned Cabbage Patch factory.
ALIAS #11
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis. Artist: Michael Gaydos
More of the same. This or Daredevil is in my opinion the best comic book out there right now. It's always good and I hope Bendis never leaves the thing. Rock and roll.
Also -- comics have gone, for the longest time, right about their business with hardly a decent run with a female lead character. I don't know how Wonder Woman has been, but it had been pretty sparse for Marvel. Then, suddenly, we get a great book that has, really, nothing to do with the main character's gender. This world will probably collapse upon itself via nuclear armageddon in a few short months, but at least while we're all being processed for damnation or paradise we as a race can take some pride in finally having that previously-thought-to-be-impossible task ticked off. So thanks on that one, Bendis.
Did not bother to pick up --
CAPTAIN AMERICA #3
Cap is probably my favorite super hero. But it seems like it's been years since his book has been remotely readable. Oh, they started the numbering over again? Wow, that's pretty fresh. I can see why they would want to do that, what with them no-doubt updating his origin or what the comic will be about again. Let's see:
o He fights the Red Skull
o He has a supporting cast which is oftentimes more charismatic than he is due to the sheer number of shitty writers that get their hands on Cap
o New writer gives an answer on whether he killed anyone in WWII that is utterly opposite of what the previous writer indicated
o Brother doesn't get laid
I guess, what, they went public with his identity or something? So that makes Daredevil, Cap and Iron Man in the space of about three months. That's pretty cool, nothing like irrecovable damage to the character's mythos that will require a laughable explaination when it is ultimately reversed. Here's the deal:
1) Changing costume? For any of these guys. Fucking retarded. They will ALWAYS go back to the one they got famous with
2) Changing "the man behind the mask"? Fucking retarded. They will ALWAYS go back to the one that got famous. *Maybe* Barry Allen as the Flash is the exception to this, but I daresay if that tv show had more than one season's worth of episodes that they would have reverted. Ben Reilly, John Walker, James Rhodes, Connor Hawke... give me a break.
3) Killing off a character that was either in the origin story or else present for the majority of the books run? Fucking retarded. CLONES! ACTRESSES! Ha-ha!
It's enough to spoil your continental breakfast. Anyway, seriously, this weak-minded shock value garbage needs to stop. We'll see if Bendis can make it entertaining before Daredevil reverts back to status quo, but it's otherwise been pointless.
PROTIP: Remove the masks for all these heroes, too, so that the mewling whiney whinies who will play them in movies can have their faces on the screen all the time. Keen!