Ultimate Spider-Man 128 (January 2009)

537590 It’s funny how Immonen isn’t very good at fight scenes. It’s like he gets bored with them too fast. Venom versus Carnage, Super Venom, boring. Aunt May pulling a gun on Eddie Brock–awesome.

This issue finishes Bendis bringing Gwen Stacy back to life. Hopefully. She’s fine at the end of the issue, following an entirely unrealistic scene where Tony Stark is able to talk down Director Danvers.

Bendis also returns to Eddie on the park bench. Turns out it was in the future, kind of. Or the present of this issue, which doesn’t work with how the previous issue was set in the present too.

Like I said before, he should stick to his strengths. Aunt May having a gun for protection, strength. Competent multi-layered plotting… oh, come now, Bendis can’t even competently plot when he’s not working in flashbacks.

Hopefully he’ll get the series moving forward again.

CREDITS

Writer, Brian Michael Bendis; penciller, Stuart Immonen; inker, Wade von Grawbadger; colorist, Justin Ponsor; letterer, Cory Petit; editors, Lauren Sankovitch and Mark Paniccia; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Tom Strong and the Planet of Peril 3 (November 2013)

284812 20130926011944 large Hogan continues his leisurely, pleasant pace. Tom Strong might be the one with his name in the title but Hogan’s really having fun doing his Terra Obscura sequel. He introduces the cast from that series again, going through all their changes. He has so much fun with their interplay, the whole plague thing is in the back burner.

There are some action scenes–Val, Tom’s son-in-law, spends the issue getting more and more aggravated, but Hogan’s clearly making him wait. Tom and Val are just explorers on this strange world. A strange world where Hogan and Sprouse have time to make a cute Watchmen reference too.

Anyway, the setting is an Egyptian encampment where two science heroes have become Egyptian gods reincarnated. It sounds weirder than it plays. Hogan and Sprouse do very well with the gradual storytelling.

Peril is so well executed, it doesn’t need forced thrills.

A-

CREDITS

The New Egyptian Book of the Dead; writer, Peter Hogan; penciller, Chris Sprouse; inker, Karl Story; colorist, Jordie Bellaire; letterer, Todd Klein; editors, Jessica Chen, Kristy Quinn, Ben Abernathy and Shelly Bond; publisher, Vertigo.

Predator 3 (November 1989)

252435 So Schaefer gets kidnapped by a drug lord and has to break out. Meanwhile his partner is trying to let everyone know there’s an alien invasion coming. Lots of warships cloaked in Manhattan, you know… the norm.

Occasionally Verheiden will give Warner some awesome scene to draw–the Pam Am building being a meeting place for the aliens and the military–but a lot of the comic is the South American stuff. It’s a bridging issue is all and a four issue series shouldn’t need one.

Especially not since Verheiden contrives the whole thing with the drug lords. It would have been more natural if Schaefer had stumbled across them instead of being their nemesis.

The genial readability quality is going too. Verheiden has used up his good will. He’s stopped doing anything interesting and is now just trotting through a lame plot.

Hopefully the next (and last) issue’ll succeed.

CREDITS

Writer, Mark Verheiden; artists, Ron Randall and Chris Warner; colorist, Chris Chalenor; letterer, Jim Massara; editor, Randy Stradley; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Epiphany (2012, Darin McLeod)

I really hope Epiphany is supposed to be a pitch black comedy. If so, director McLeod gets kudos. If not, he deserves hisses.

The short opens with a clock. Ophelia Lovibond is in a therapy session, she’s talking–it’s unclear but she’s at the end of her session. McLeod goes through a lot of familiar tropes and Lovibond delivers the line’s well, they’re just trite.

Mark Bazeley does fine as the therapist. McLeod gives him way too much to do for three minutes when he’s just supposed to be listening. Still, it’s fine.

Once Lovibond gets up to go–at the end of the session–things become predictable and either good or bad. I’m going to give McLeod the benefit of the doubt and assume he knew how to play things.

If it were a commercial, it’d be perfect. It’s hilarious stuff. Lovibond’s performance is better than her dialogue deserves.

2/3 Recommended

CREDITS

Directed by Darin McLeod; screenplay by McLeod, based on a story by Dustin Barron; director of photography, Benedict Spence; edited by Oliver Parker; production designer, Alexis Hamilton; produced by Mary Hare.

Starring Ophelia Lovibond (Jenny) and Mark Bazeley (Psychiatrist).


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OTHER 2012 RELEASES

Ultimate Spider-Man 127 (December 2008)

529624 Oh, come on, Bendis. If you can’t plot a full arc–even when you’re doing a bad one like this arc–don’t do a pad issue, just cut the number of issues down a little.

Here’s what happens this issue. Eddie threatens Peter in the present. He wants the suit back–now, let’s not forget Bendis opened this arc with Eddie having the suit and then got confused in his flashbacks. Peter tries to find Eddie and can’t. Gwen comes to see Peter because she’s got the Carnage face stuck on her body.

There’s the comic. Oh, and apparently Mary Jane isn’t reading for French kissing. Peter should have asked if she ever French kissed Harry, but he doesn’t.

It’s a shame Bendis can’t sustain this book for any length of time anymore. He gets better, then he falls off. Even the Immonen art is padded with artificial panel breaks.

CREDITS

Writer, Brian Michael Bendis; penciller, Stuart Immonen; inker, Wade von Grawbadger; colorist, Justin Ponsor; letterer, Cory Petit; editors, Lauren Sankovitch, Lauren Henry and Ralph Macchio; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Planet of the Apes Giant 1 (September 2013)

POTA Giant 01 rev All you need for a last issue is apparently a sole survivor, a big event and a flash forward in time.

Gregory isn’t rewarding his long-time Apes readers with the Giant finale, he’s finishing the story before Boom!’s license runs out. And, for some of the issue, he doesn’t do too bad. That basic quality is why the awful finish is so offending.

He’s in a rush, he’s got a lot of characters, he’s got lots of excuses. But the resolution is as poorly conceived as his use of twentieth century sayings from the humans. Why would anyone have preserved them?

It’s hard to properly talk about the stupidity without spoiling things–and Gregory does at least follow an established Planet of the Apes standard, but it’s a stupid one and the reference is without enthusiasm.

Additionally, the ending is obvious. It’s like someone dictated an uncreative finish.

CREDITS

Writer, Daryl Gregory; artist, Diego Barreto; colorist, Darrin Moore; letterer, Ed Dukeshire; editor, Dafna Pleban; publisher, Boom! Studios.

Predator 2 (September/October 1989)

252434 So even though this Predator takes place in New York, Verheiden thinks it’s got room to go down to the jungle from the first movie. Oddly, it does. Oh, and I think he must have referred to the general by name in the last one because it’s all over the place here.

But, yeah, the pacing. Verheiden pretty much just skips between the two partners, with the family man cop’s narration being a lot more thoughtful. The Schaefer–that’s Arnie’s character’s brother–narration is more forced. Verheiden knows he needs some kind of exposition, goes with it.

There’s some neat time lapses to make things flow better and an excellent confrontation scene between Schaefer and his boss. It’s a shame the fight between Schaefer and the Predator at the end isn’t better. The scenes just before and just after are great, which makes for it.

Besides bad action, it’s good.

CREDITS

Writer, Mark Verheiden; penciller, Chris Warner; inkers, Sam de la Rosa and Warner; colorist, Chris Chalenor; letterer, Jim Massara; editor, Randy Stradley; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Godzilla (1998, Roland Emmerich)

Godzilla is tolerably bad for about the first half, then it takes a turn for the far worse as the characters start having longer conversations. Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich’s dialogue would be hilariously bad if it were in small parts, but they string together these scenes. There’s no action, just a lot of bad dialogue and bad acting. Only Hank Azaria seems immune; giving Godzilla‘s best performance isn’t a difficult achievement however.

Worst performance is a little more difficult to ascertain. Doug Savant’s an easy target, but it isn’t his fault Devlin and Emmerich wrote his character to have stuttering as comic relief (really, they did). Harry Shearer, Michael Lerner and Arabella Field are easier targets, but none are in the picture for very long. Maria Pitillo’s worst of the primary cast, but Matthew Broderick doesn’t trail too far behind.

As for Jean Reno… he’s okay.

Besides the crappy script and the awful CG, Godzilla‘s biggest problem is Emmerich. For the first half hour (only twenty percent of the runtime), Emmerich concentrates on ripping off Spielberg. Close Encounters, Raiders, Jurassic Park, Jaws. Emmerich’s unoriginality is at least distracting. Once he just directs the picture straight… it’s so much worse. He can’t figure out how to shoot a giant monster running through New York. It shouldn’t be hard. An establishing shot or two.

But maybe the CG composites just looked too weak.

The only competent thing in Godzilla is David Arnold’s score. Or half of it. The other half’s lousy.

Ultimate Spider-Man 126 (November 2008)

526970 Why is Bendis making this story arc so confusing? It’s giving me a little headache.

So this issue ends with the Ultimates having the suit and Eddie Brock in the wind. It seems like Bendis has gotten to the present action of the the comic again. But he hasn’t, not unless he forgot about Eddie in the park eating people and telling the story in flashback. We’re still in Eddie’s flashback and Bendis seems to have forgotten.

The guy really should play to his strengths and complicated multi-layered narratives are not his strengths. Good scenes, fun dialogue, occasionally inventive Ultimate versions of characters, those are Bendis’s strengths.

Notice I’m not talking much about the issue’s contents? Because nothing happens except a fight scene and the followup. The followup is Nick Fury talking to Peter and Iron Man asking questions.

Still good Immonen art though. Shame Bendis isn’t matching it.

CREDITS

Predator 1 (June 1989)

252433 Cops, gangs and a Predator… sounds like a movie. Oh, wait, it was a movie. Only Mark Verheiden’s Predator came before Predator 2, probably when they thought Schwarzenegger would play his own brother.

But Verheiden sets the story in New York, narrated by a tired detective with a crazy huge partner (the brother of Schwarzenegger’s character from the first movie). They investigate this weird gang war, which has the general from the movie hanging around (oddly unnamed so far), and get into it with their boss.

It feels a little like Robocop in terms of urban dystopia, but Verheiden does do a fair approximation of a decent cop show. The narrator is extremely likable and there are some great lines. Verheiden has his scene pacing down.

Chris Warner’s composition is better than the actual art. There are some interesting transitions between panels and some effective angles.

It’s totally fine stuff.

CREDITS

The Heat; writer, Mark Verheiden; penciller, Chris Warner; inkers, Sam de la Rosa and Randy Emberlin; colorist, Chris Chalenor; letterer, David Jackson; editor, Randy Stradley; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.