WHERE TO LISTEN
It’s an adequate, underwhelming resolution. Michelinie handles the cliffhanger from last issue well then sends Indy off into the jungle. It’s the jungle from the beginning of Raiders, but there’s no fanfare to its return. There is another Raiders connection–the villain has a secret–but it’s lame.
Michelinie also gets history very wrong concerning when the Nazis starting plotting against the United States. Maybe it’s different in the Indiana Jones universe.
Like I said, the opening is fine. Reed does much better with two people in his action panels. So when it’s Indy alone, while the panels are sometimes good, there’s no excitement. It’s just Indiana Jones in another jungle, fighting another couple bad guys.
Michelinie’s steam runs out just after Indy gets back to the jungle too. He figured out how to resolve the issue and wrote the rest of the pages to fit.
Still, it’s not terrible.
CREDITS
The Gold Goddess, Chapter Two: Amazon Death-Ride; writers, Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie; penciller, Dan Reed; inker, Danny Bulanadi; colorist, Bob Sharen; letterer, Joe Rosen; editor, Louise Jones; publisher, Marvel Comics.
More problems. Doll goes back to her old neighborhood and Tomboy shows her how everything has changed.
Only Johnston–and Moore, he doesn’t get off the hook for this one–never showed how it was when Doll was there. There’s no passage of time; Doll could have been a model for a couple weeks, a couple months or a year. Since Johnston and Moore never established the ground situation or how much time has passed since the beginning of Fashion Beast, it’s hard to say.
The lengthy tour with Tomboy explaining why functional fashion is better is trying. It’s Moore’s second big monologue about the place of fashion in the world and not even the first one worked. Fashion Beast isn’t enough about fashion for these monologues.
And then the shocker of an ending. It almost reads like Johnston hadn’t read the whole script when breaking it out to issues.
CREDITS
The Lovers; writers, Malcolm McLaren, Alan Moore and Antony Johnston; artist, Facundo Percio; colorist, Hernan Cabrera; letterer, Jaymes Reed; editor, Jim Kuhoric; publisher, Avatar Press.
Body Count is unexceptionally bad. Theodore Witcher’s script is poorly plotted and stagy; Patton-Spruill’s direction is simply lame. He’s got no personality; it’s a heist gone wrong picture and it’s clear Witcher’s seen Reservoir Dogs, but Patton-Spruill’s apparently incapable of directing scenes with any tension whatsoever. Oddly Curt Sobel’s musical score reminds of seventies American New Wave so… maybe someone else made that decision? With an eighty-five minute run time and no theatrical release, Body Count obviously had its post-production issues.
Still, the acting’s good. Donnie Wahlberg’s probably the best, followed by David Caruso, then John Leguizamo. Body Count has the added problem of having no redeemable characters whatsoever–Ving Rhames is revealed as a religious man late in the picture as a way to endear him. Without a sympathetic lead and with Patton-Spruill’s vapid direction, Count‘s often tedious to watch. But then Witcher will come up with a great line or two (usually for Caruso) and it engages a little again.
Rhames is all right as the de facto lead. There’s not enough to his character (the religion thing is inane) and his arc is unbelievable, but he’s solid.
The film’s about a bunch of robbers on a lousy road trip, with Linda Fiorentino as a hitchhiker who tags along. She’s surprisingly mediocre. It’s not her fault, of course. Witcher’s script frequently reviles in its misogyny.
Good photography from Charles Mills. It could be a lot worse. Like if it were eighty-six minutes.
ⓏⒺⓇⓄ
CREDITS
Directed by Robert Patton-Spruill; written by Theodore Witcher; director of photography, Charles Mills; edited by Joseph Gutowski and Richard Nord; music by Curt Sobel; production designer, Tim Eckel; produced by Mark Burg, George Jackson and Doug McHenry; released by Polygram Filmed Entertainment.
Starring Ving Rhames (Pike), David Caruso (Hobbs), John Leguizamo (Chino), Linda Fiorentino (Natalie), Donnie Wahlberg (Booker) and Forest Whitaker (Crane).
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Umm. Couple things. First, Slott doesn’t have Otto narrate this issue. Maybe the first Superior without some insight from him. Second, Marvel never resolved that “Shadowland” crossover? Wasn’t it like five years ago?
Otto–with an army of spider-robots and spider soldiers–cleans up the Shadowland compound this issue. Apparently Kingpin has had a fortress in New York City and no one did anything about it. I love how Marvel zombies claim 616 is so much more realistic than DC.
Anyway, it’s kind of obvious why Slott doesn’t get into Otto’s head… because it turns out he’s letting crime continue. He might even be in cahoots with the Goblin King, he might even be selling drugs. Or at least employing drug dealers.
I hope Slott’s got something good up his sleeve because otherwise this setup will be for nothing. The issue feels off, like the storyline wrap-up’s starting.
CREDITS
A Blind Eye; writer, Dan Slott; penciller, Humberto Ramos; inker, Victor Olazab; colorist, Edgar Delgado; letterer, Chris Eliopoulos; editors, Ellie Pyle and Stephen Wacker; publisher, Marvel Comics.
Good issue. Finally. The last few have been trying.
Bendis still has his pacing problems, but at least the comic’s amusing. The scene where Black Cat meets Peter Parker had me laughing out loud, even if Bagley and Hanna’s art for it is weak.
The resolution to the big gang fight works well too, though it’s unclear why Bendis brought in so many new characters for it. None of them get a resolution, which makes the time Bendis spent on them earlier even more pointless.
And the soft cliffhangers are good. There are a couple, one for the Kingpin–Bendis really didn’t use him enough this arc as it turns out–and one for Peter. The Peter one just shows Aunt May should probably get half the comic to herself.
She’s definitely more interesting than Ultimate Moon Knight.
Bendis’s finish makes up for the arc’s weaker issues. Well, pretty much.
CREDITS
Warriors, Part Seven; writer, Brian Michael Bendis; penciller, Mark Bagley; inker, Scott Hanna; colorist, Jonathan D. Smith; letterer, Chris Eliopoulos; editors, John Barber, Nicole Wiley and Ralph Macchio; publisher, Marvel Comics.
Robinson doubles back quite a bit here–the lead (who he’s still calling Tyler, which might be a mislead, might really be the kid’s name) now has to face off against another of the weapon clubs. Only in the previous issue, Robinson established he’d somehow bested the other clubs… just not in a way worth showing.
Here he takes on the archery club. As usual, Robinson saves the big resolution for the next issue. He still has his pacing magic–this issue opens with the fight scene for Tyler beating the staff club, then moves into everything else, but Robinson has now raised more questions than are worth having open.
For example, why’s the principal out to get Tyler? Robinson can only keep so many subplots in the air at once. He’s starting to fumble them.
It’s still a rather good read, it’s just too clear how Robinson’s forcing things.
CREDITS
Joon The Loon and Darryl The Arrow; writer, artist and letterer, Jimmie Robinson; colorist, Paul Little; editor, Laura Tavishati; publisher, Image Comics.
Sort of a lot happens but also not a lot. Rucka really plays up incest between the siblings, which would have been shocking if he hadn’t done it twice.
There’s a lot of suggestions here too about Forever. She was genetically engineered, probably grown or cloned. Rucka treats it like a big deal because she doesn’t know, but it’s not a big deal for the reader.
Not much of Lazarus feels original, which I might have complained about before. The setting–dystopian Western United States–aside. It’s kind of like Dune and probably something set in feudal Italy.
There is a great bit at the end with Forever; it’s the only time she really gets a scene to herself. Rucka does well with it too.
But even though it’s not original, even though it’s repetitive, there’s Lark. And Lark does some beautiful art for it. Great muted action in particular.
I like Day Men. It’s really over-written at times–there’s a lot of narration from Matt Gagnon and Michael Alan Nelson for the protagonist and it’s not particularly neccesary. It’s set in a world with vampires, the lead is a human who does their day work for them.
The real draw is artist Brian Stelfreeze, of course. The script could be pretty much anything and he’d do a good job of it. Great action scenes in particular, even with the pitch black setting. Beautiful composition.
There are some good details, some fantastic character work between the humans and their vampire employers and a really good pace.
The narration goes on and on and on–Gagnon and Nelson go from using it to establish the ground situation to revealing background information about supporting cast–but the other writing compensates.
The end is distressing as they rush into the series’s second act, but Men’s good.
CREDITS
Writers, Matt Gagnon and Michael Alan Nelson; artist, Brian Stelfreeze; colorist, Darrin Moore; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editor, Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.
Does Mark Waid always write Betty so awful? Not poorly awful, but awful to Cliff awful. It’s inexplicable why Cliff would hang around such a terrible human being… makes him a weak character too.
The Spirit and The Rocketeer aren’t exactly a good team-up, but Waid does find a decent connection for Peevy and Dolan–World War I–and the Paul Smith art at least looks really good. But a big airborne fight? Complete waste of time and pages.
Having Ellen appreciate Cliff isn’t a bad move, but unless Waid has them run off together… he’s never going to make up for his Betty characterization.
There’s some organized crime subplot too. It’s not particularly interesting. It’s also unclear how long Cliff’s been the Rocketeer or his current ground situation.
The Smith art has charm and Waid does okay with the Spirit cast, but it feels like a cash grab.
CREDITS
Pulp Friction, Part One; writer, Mark Waid; artist, Paul Smith; colorist, Jordie Bellaire; letterer, Tom B. Long; editors, Scott Dunbier and Chris Ryall; publisher, IDW Publishing.