We're back again, to look at all the new comics I bought over the last year. 4 days on that, then the Internet-mandated ranking of stuff on Friday. 17th verse, same as the first.
Avengers Assemble #5: The last issue of Steve Orlando's mini-series about an Avengers "Emergency Response Squad." Which, as pointed out by more than one person, just sounds like the regular Avengers, but what the hell. Anyway, they stop the Serpent Society's plans to turn everybody into snake-people for Mephisto, and then I think the concept continued as one of those online Infinity titles.
Babs #5, 6: Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows' barbarian lady mini-series. Babs and her friends escape from the mines and challenge the jackass that's convincing all the idiot peasants to enslave everyone that isn't a human. It isn't a pretty win, and the peasants are about as ungrateful as you'd expect, but it's still nice to see a stupid dickhead die in embarrassing fashion. And the idiot orc guy sort of comes to his senses, without being rewarded for it, which is good.
High Point - I liked Cass' refusal in issue 3 to deal with Shiva's crap and just start throwing hands at the League of Assassin. I don't think Shiva - or Nyssa, or any of the others - have earned any leeway or benefit of the doubt, so Cass might as well follow her instincts. These are bad people, kick their asses. If Shiva wanted to be a mom, or be treated with respect like one, she should have tried being one in Cass' first however many years of her life.
Miyazawa's got a heavier line than I'm used to seeing in his art, but it gives Cass a more ragged look during the moments where she's losing her grip. And the fight scenes look really nice.
I'm not sure whether Tenji, Cass' half-brother, is a high point or not. There's really not enough of him to tell so far. He's compassionate, but inexperienced, which seems like a bad combination in this story. I'm not saying he's got "sacrificial lamb for angst purposes" stamped on his forehead (because he'd have to be Hector Hammond, or Peyton Manning to fit all that), but I don't like his odds of surviving.
Low Point - I feel like Brombal's going to the surprise reveal or SHOCKING BETRAYAL! well too often. Cass has a brother! Nyssa al'Ghul lied about the history of the city! The Unburied have a mole amid their enemies' ranks! This is why I suspect Shiva's not dead, because it would be another bait and switch.
High Point - Ummmmm, you know, I got nothing. The variant cover I bought for issue 3 was cute? Gleb Melnikov has drawn all the issues so far, so credit for maintaining the same artist for 5 consecutive issues.
Low Point - I could see Black Cat struggling at heroing because unexpected complications keep arising, and people make assumption. Some of that even happens, what with the guys smuggling not furniture, but a vampire. But mostly, Wilson is writing Felicia as kind of an idiot. OK, Tombstone tricked her. Fine. Why is her response to confront him face-to-face and shout schoolyard insults, instead of stealing something important or sabotaging one of his other schemes? It's just idiotic. Also don't like the breaking the 4th wall stuff. Just reinforces my feeling that this was a pitch Wilson originally intended for Harley Quinn.
High Point - Shobo and Shof really took their time with the relationships between Timi, Gbonka and Sango, pulling apart all the different tensions between them, the protective vibe that veers into possessiveness the other two seem to have over Timi. Tefenkgi did some excellent work with the layouts, like doing a double-page spread of a large, circular room for the setting of a conversation between two characters, where the smaller panels progress in a ring around the two pages. Or some of the exaggeration for effect, like Sango being drawn as huge or on fire when she loses her temper.
I also appreciate they didn't skip on showing the heists and how they were pulled off. I know that wasn't necessarily the focus of the mini-series, but I like heist stuff, so it helped scratch that itch when we get to see how Sango pulls it off in issue 5, or the train heist in issue 2.
Low Point - There were times I felt like we needed more focus on the other members of their crew. I could usually pick up on relationships between them - two of the guys are brothers, for example - on the second read-through, but it didn't always feel like I had a grasp on them as individuals. So when one guy decides to grab the money and run, it doesn't exactly come out of left field, but it doesn't have much emotional impact.
Calavera P.I. #3, 4: The final two issues of Marco Finnegan's horror-noir story. Where the revived skeleton manages to save his friend's son from a crazy grief-stricken woman who intended to sacrifice the kid as part of some weird process to resurrect her own child. I'm not clear on how the kid made it back after he fell into the portal, whether it was something he did, or the private investigator managed, but happy ending.
That's it for Day 1. One ongoing I'm still buying, one I'm not, the conclusions of a few mini-series, and one complete mini-series. Tomorrow is pretty evenly split between ongoing and mini-series.
1 comment:
I like the idea of the Avengers Advisory Squad, who don't do any actual Avengering, and in fact, the terms of their insurance prevents them from doing so.
Post a Comment