Comics: 5/15/02
Posted: Tue May 14, 2002 11:07 am
Comics come out on Wednesday. But I usually get over to my store once a month. So all these books shipped anywhere from one to four weeks ago.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK #39
Bruce Jones, John Romita Jr., Tom Palmer
With this... I quit the Hulk. The thing seems to be getting a lot of critical acclaim. Which is good, I guess, because I can never tell if the thing is in danger of cancellation or not. But I've found the latest arc to be extremely slow-moving, and not in the good way due to plenty of dialogue. And I can accept a writer keeping the amount of "Hulk" in the thing to a minimum, but Christ, you have to at least give us plenty of Banner. How many issues concerning a bunch of Reservoir-Dog-desceneded criminals attempting to shoot one another before they shoot Banner can I take? This is it for me for the forseeable future.
POWERS #19
Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming
I'll hand it to Oeming -- the guy does disgusting better than anyone else in the biz. It's funny -- I hated both his pencils and Phil Hester's pencils (on GREEN ARROW) originally. Oeming, however, has managed to give each of his characters a distinct look so I can tell who the hell is talking to who... so the advantage is his. Bendis is setting us up nicely for a conclusion next month, but I have no idea if he'll extend the arc another couple of issues or not. You usually get your money's worth on a Powers comic, and this is the case with #19.
GREEN ARROW #13
Kevin Smith, Phil Hester, Ande Parks
Smith's writing gets better the less he keeps trying to remind us that, yes, he writes screenplays as well. He has managed to re-introduce the squabbles between Hawkman and Green Arrow in this issue, and that's where I think this book's strength has been: Smith is a guy who geniunely likes playing in the DC sandbox, and it shows. You really end up smiling through a GA reading, because the guy is able to add new scenes to previous cherished continuity that DC loves chucking away all the time. On the down side, Hester still draws every blonde in the book to look exactly the frigging same, and Smith doesn't explain why Mr. Terrific (and others) are hanging around the Green Arrow's mansion late at night (I presume the Black Canary and Hawkman are in a new JSA or something?). Hester is able to make his characters look good in costume, so maybe Smith should play around the guy's plain-face weakness that way. Dunno. Nevertheless, this is the most consistently entertaining comic book that I've found.
THE INCREDIBLE HULK #39
Bruce Jones, John Romita Jr., Tom Palmer
With this... I quit the Hulk. The thing seems to be getting a lot of critical acclaim. Which is good, I guess, because I can never tell if the thing is in danger of cancellation or not. But I've found the latest arc to be extremely slow-moving, and not in the good way due to plenty of dialogue. And I can accept a writer keeping the amount of "Hulk" in the thing to a minimum, but Christ, you have to at least give us plenty of Banner. How many issues concerning a bunch of Reservoir-Dog-desceneded criminals attempting to shoot one another before they shoot Banner can I take? This is it for me for the forseeable future.
POWERS #19
Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming
I'll hand it to Oeming -- the guy does disgusting better than anyone else in the biz. It's funny -- I hated both his pencils and Phil Hester's pencils (on GREEN ARROW) originally. Oeming, however, has managed to give each of his characters a distinct look so I can tell who the hell is talking to who... so the advantage is his. Bendis is setting us up nicely for a conclusion next month, but I have no idea if he'll extend the arc another couple of issues or not. You usually get your money's worth on a Powers comic, and this is the case with #19.
GREEN ARROW #13
Kevin Smith, Phil Hester, Ande Parks
Smith's writing gets better the less he keeps trying to remind us that, yes, he writes screenplays as well. He has managed to re-introduce the squabbles between Hawkman and Green Arrow in this issue, and that's where I think this book's strength has been: Smith is a guy who geniunely likes playing in the DC sandbox, and it shows. You really end up smiling through a GA reading, because the guy is able to add new scenes to previous cherished continuity that DC loves chucking away all the time. On the down side, Hester still draws every blonde in the book to look exactly the frigging same, and Smith doesn't explain why Mr. Terrific (and others) are hanging around the Green Arrow's mansion late at night (I presume the Black Canary and Hawkman are in a new JSA or something?). Hester is able to make his characters look good in costume, so maybe Smith should play around the guy's plain-face weakness that way. Dunno. Nevertheless, this is the most consistently entertaining comic book that I've found.