One other thing. I mentioned in an earlier introductory paragraph how there was only one penciler who drew at least 10 issues of comics I purchased, and that was Paco Medina, 11 issues of Deadpool. The rest of the top 5 would be Nicola Scott (8.5 issues of Secret Six, and yeah I counted pages drawn to estimate that. I was bored that night). Andrea DiVito (8 issues of Nova), Brad Walker (7.5 of Guardians of the Galaxy), and Amanda Conner (7 issues of Power Girl) and Paul Pelletier (6 issues of War of Kings, plus 26 pages - basically 1 issue - of Secret Invasion: War of Kings). Hey, I went to the trouble of tallying those up, I'm not going to pass up the opportunity to toss them out there for kicks.
Power Girl 1-7 - I had my doubts intially about this title. The first arc was not great, as Ultra-Humanite's motivations seemed to change within a single issue, but there was a nice "day in the life of" story, then the alien party girls showed up, and Power Girl got to solve the problem by doing more than just punching, putting the fact she's a trusted super-hero to work. Then Vartox showed up, and I really want to see how that story plays out.The book's had the same creative team for each issue. Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti writing, Amanda Conner taking care of the art. Having a book that can keep the same people on it is wonderful.
High Point: I'm fond of #4, because I like seeing Power Girl and Terra interact. Plus, Power Girl later headbutted a rampaing monster, and sometimes, direct solutions are the best. Or at least the most entertaining. That scene where she tried to wash her cat was pretty funny, too. I have to at least mention #7, because it introduced me to the Blue Snowman, and I'm always up for a villain who has awesome tech and uses it to steal jewels, gold, or money.
Low Point: It seemed as though in the first issue, it went from Ultra-Humanite planning to trade Power Girl in exchange for the city, to him threatening the city so she'd let him transfer his brain into her body. I didn't quite follow the shift. Still, if the low point came right off, then it's only been uphill since then, right.
Secret Invasion; War of Kings - Black Bolt decides it's time for the Inhumans to kick some ass. So they hunt down the remaining Skrulls and, as far as they know, exterminate them. They also destroy some Shi'ar vessels, which gives looney toon Vulcan an excuse to go to war. Meanwhile, the Inhumans are busy conquering the Kree, but not canceling out that marriage between Crystal and Ronan, to Crystal's distress.
It's a space book, so as you might expect, Abnett and Lanning were on the case as writers. Paul Pelletier drew about 2/3rds of the book, and Bong Dazo (who for some reason, didn't get his name on the cover) drew the rest.
Secret Six 5-16 - I don't enjoy this book as much as I think I ought to, and I'm not sure why. I find (or have found at some point) all the characters intriguing or entertaining over the course of the run. There have been particular issues or scenes I really like, but story arcs I felt cold about. Maybe I'm too much of a goody-goody, since the book makes no bones about the fact these are at best, morally ambiguous people who do both good and bad things as they see fit.Gail Simone wrote every issue except #15, which was written by John Ostrander. Peter Nguyen drew #16, Jim Calafiore drew #15, Carlos Rodriguez drew #8 (except for 3 pages by Amanda Gould), and 5 pages in both #13 and #14. Nicola Scott drew everything else, before I assume, being shunted over to that Blackest Night: Wonder Woman mini-series. Bummer.
High Point: There's some competition, but I'm going with #8, the date night issue. I'm a sucker for those "day in the life" issues, I admit it, but it was kind of nice to Liana discussing her view on the world with these three people who have very different experiences from her, and even Deadshot was nice to her. He only promsied not to kill anyone, but he refrained from making fun of Liana's views, which was kind of sweet.
Low Point: There's not a particular moment that leaps out. Oh wait, I just thought of one. The final page of issue #5. That reveal of Junior. Gads, that's going to compete with the old gypsy trying to gumbite that girl in Drag Me To Hell in my nightmares. I never needed to see either of those things.
Shang-Chi Master of Kung Fu - It was a big one shot, with four different pieces to it. There was Jonathan Hickman and Kody Chamberlin's story about Shang-Chi and Deadpool in a crazy bike race. There was the subtitled Mike Benson/Tomm Coker and C.P. Smith where Shang-Chi deals with the sort of stuff that comes with being the Master of Kung Fu. Charlie Huston and Enrique Romero had Shang-Chi meet and old friend. And Robin Furth and Paul Gulacy gave us a story about Shang-Chi completing his training. The whole thing was OK, though the motorcycle story was more about Deadpool and how many crazy ideas Hickman could add, I thought.
Street Fighter Legends: Chun-Li 1-4 - This was my first foray into comics set in the Street Fighter unvierse, and it's not exactly an origin story, more it adds some stuff into the gaps in Chun-Li's history. I'm guessing there hadn't been much exploration of her time as a cop before her father was murdered and she joined Interpol.The comic's well done. Ken Siu-Chong writes, and Omar Dogan draws, and I think they both do good work, but because the comic takes place before certain events that have to happen, it limits what can happen in the story a bit.
High Point: I liked Li and her partner chasing after the two slightly incompetent crooks in the first issue, with the one guy forgetting to reload his gun after a robbery. It was funny, plus there was kicking, and that's always a plus.
Low Point: The big showdown with Sagat at the end of #4. This is where that problem about certain future events being set is a problem. See, our heroes can't do much more than annoy Sagat. They certainly can't beat him, because he has to suffer his first loss at the hands of Ryu, and that hasn't happened yet, so he can't lose here or he won't be unbeaten when Ryu beats him, you dig? I suppose I should have considered that going in, and the scene's not a bad one, as one of the characters faces a crisis of conscience that's been brewing and that was well done, but I was still annoyed.
Thunderbolts 131, 132, 139 - The first two issues I bought because it was a crossover with Deadpool. I guess I shouldn't have bothered, and should have instead looked at it as a test of how helpful Marvel's recap pages actually are. That's why they're there, right? Andy Diggle wrote those, and Bong Dazo drew them.
The other issue I purchased because it had the Agents of Atlas in it. Which is no surprise since Jeff Parker's writing the book now. The question is whether I'll buy next week's conclusion to the story, because I did not care for Miguel Sepulveda's art, or the coloring for that matter. That may end up keeping me away.
War of Kings 1-6 - The Inhuman/Kree Aliance (plus an assist from the Starjammers) versus the Shi'ar. With bit parts for the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Fraternity of Raptors. Abnett and Lanning doing the writing Pelletier doing the pencils.
This is kind of like the Street Fighter mini-series for me. It was well done, but left me a bit cold. I like that it doesn't play favorites between the sides, that both of them are threatening the unvierse, and both of them are run by people too stubborn or cocky to stop what they're doing. I like the potential that's been set-up for Cosmic Marvel, but then again, I liked the set-up after Annihilation, and to a lesser extent, Annihilation: Conquest too. The question is if they'll let things settle long enough to do something with it. Since this is Marvel, the answer is probably no.
High Point: Single moment is from #3, as the Starjammers and Guardians try to rescue Lilandra. As the fight rages, we have Imperial Schmoe Smasher rushing in, with the line 'Accessing hyper-strength upload from my exospecs.' Then he's greeted with a punch and Drax' 'Accessing fist.', followed by more punching. Hilarious. Also, I enjoyed the interactions between Ronan and Crystal throughout. They cared more about the Kree than any of the other members of the Royal Family, and while I'm not sure about Crystal, I think Ronan came to regard it as more than just a ceremonial marriage.
Low Point: Again, nothing really leaps to mind, though I think it's strange that the Royal Family would make this T-Bomb Contingency, and only tell certain members about it. Medusa and Karnak knew, but not Crystal or Gorgon. Do they not count? But really, the series killed, at least for now, Vulcan. I'm going to be hard-pressed to find fault with it.
War of Kings: Darkhawk 2 - I never received the first issue, but considering how little I enjoyed this one, not much of an issue there. I guess the Fraternity of Raptors is a ncie idea, but the retconning of Darkhawk's origin still annoyed me, along with how hard they push this thing about Chris Powell having anger management problems caused by the amulet apparently.
C.B. Cebulski wrote it, with I assume input from Abnett and Lanning. Harvey Tolibar and Paolo Pantalena drew the issue, and two artist might explain why the armor looks so different from one scene to the next, as they draw things like the helmet and wings very differently. I don't think that's a good thing.
X-Men versus Agents of Atlas 1, 2 - Venus goes missing, so the X-Men try to steal Cerebro so Bob can use it to find her. The X-Men object. Fighting and telepathic wackiness ensue. Namor stops the fighting by being Namor. The Agents locate and rescue Venus, and I think that leads into the backup stories in Incredible Hercules.
Jeff Parker writes both issues, but just because it's only two issues, that doesn't mean they can't use 700 artists. Issue #1, there's Carlos Pagulayan, and Chris Samnee for the backup story that appears (but is not actually) set in the past. Then you get to #2, and in addition to those two, you add Carlos Rodriguez and Gabriel Hardman. OK fine, only 4 artists.
High Point: I like the back-and-forth between Wolverine and M-11. I like Namor being himself, bossing people around in a loud voice, and making sure everyone knows how annoyed he is that they can't do anything without him. I also like Jimmy Woo kicking Cyclops in the head.
Low Point: I wasn't clear on why Xavier was in the infirmary, or how it was his mind seemed to get sucked into the mess of shared memories between members of Atlas and the X-Men.
OK, I have one more part I'm going to do tomorrow, and then we'll see what I can come up with after that.
No comments:
Post a Comment