What I Bought 7/13/2012 - Part 2

I got an e-mail telling me there won't be any Earthworm Jim DVDs being released. I'm guessing you all didn't come through for me by putting in your own orders. Or maybe you did, and it's the rest of the world that dropped the ball. Oh well, saves me 20 bucks.
Dial H #3 by, China Mieville (writer), Mateus Santolouco (artist), Tanya and Richard Horie (colorists), Steve Wands (letters) - I hope I'm not mispelling people's names. I wrote my notes down much too small. My father would laugh at that comment, along with every other teacher who ever complained about my tiny handwriting.

So I'm coming in partway, just as the dial gets shot by some goons. But Nelson, who has been using it, gets saved by someone I figured was Element Woman, carried over from Flashpoint, but is actually called Manteau. She ahs her own dial, and knows a lot more about them than Nelson. Something to do with advances in telephones being linked to a mysterious "O". There's also a scientist and a reptilian faced fellow trying to bring someone back from somewhere, using people who are connected to an event as doorways. That seems connected to the dials, or the heroes at least, but I'm not sure how. All the same, it's very intriguing, and surprisingly easy to follow. I know, I'm short on details, but I feel like Mieville covered the broad strokes. Perhaps I showed up just as he decided to start asnwering questions? Mateus Santolouco's art works really well. His people look like real people, Nelson looks like your standard chubby schlub, for example, which makes these heroes, who are all very strange, stand out all the more.

I think I'm going to be very glad I took a chance on this series.

Green Arrow #11 by, Ann Nocenti (writer), Harvey Tolibao (artist), Richard and Tanya Horie (colorists), Rob Leigh - Ivan Reis covers are a major step up from Howard Porter ones. Well, the cover for issue 9 was good, but the others, not so much.

Two people calling themselves Dark Arrows rob a charity function, planning to redistribute the money to the less fortunate. Ollie doesn't agree with robbery, so he stops them, but does have to qusetion if he's really helping the people who need it with the actions he takes. While he chews on that conundrum, he flies to China to try and broker a deal to buy back control of his company and save it. He blows that in about 2 pages, but at least he did so out of principle. That's progress, of a sort.

So Tolibao's back on the art chores, and on the good side, the art's basically easy to follow. I don't agree with some of the choices of which shots should get lots of page space. The one of Ollie being lit on fire really wasn't dynamic enough to justify stretching across two pages, while also getting the most vertical space. I'd have preferred more room for the series of panels at the bottom, which do more to advance the story.

Resurrection Man #11 by, Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Jesus Saiz & Javier Pina (art), Jeromy Cox (color), Rob Leigh (letters) - Mitch and Kim infiltrate the Lab to rerscue the Transhuman. Except the Transhuman's working with the Lab to help trap Mitch. He doesn't manage it, but he slows them down long enough for the Body Doubles to show up and kick Mitch's head in. Again. Mitch needs to learn how to fight. He gets his butt kicked more than Peter Parker did in Ultimate Spider-Man, back when I still read that.

For a book that's ending in 2 months, that's appalingly little forward progress. Which has been the book's biggest weakness, really. That and excessive meandering (the Gotham and Metropolis issues really look like a waste now). Jesus Saiz and Javier Pina are sharing art duties somehow. I don't know who is doing what here, either. No indication they split up the pages, or if it's a breakdowns/finishes thing. It all looks pretty good, that's something the comic has going for it.