Category: 2014
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Soule does an agitating bridging issue–sort of a ramping up of certain things. He resolves a storyline–the two soldiers in Afghanistan–while teasing things to come. There’s a bit with the First Lady, less with the President, a little bit with Germany (in his only conceptual misstep, Soule writes the German chancellor as a power hungry…
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How do you follow up Nazi zombies? Nazi zombies fighting Russian zombies. Sort of. That aspect of Dead Snow 2 comes near the end, with director Wirkola first having to deal with the fallout from the first movie. But Russian zombies don’t really have the bite of Nazi zombies, so Wirkola just amps up everything…
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From the first page, there’s something off about this issue of Copperhead. Godlewski goes with a full page spread but of a really bland situation–actually, it’s supposed to be a tense situation but the full page spread makes it bland. Then the scene itself is bland, with Faerber eschewing logic and character. The issue itself…
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Williamson does a Powers homage, with Brian Michael Bendis guest starring as himself. I think the Warren Ellis Powers issue is number seven too (yep, thanks Google). Bendis is in town researching a book and Williamson uses him as the protagonist. It’s a way to delay a return to norm for the comic–only the epilogue…
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All of a sudden, Nailbiter is something different. Williamson changes protagonists and gives the issue a narrator in Alice, the teenager (or slightly older) possible future serial killer. She teams up with the sheriff to track down some crazy woman. It feels very distinct and separate from everything else in the series so far–even though…
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I guess Brubaker has seen The Rock. Maybe he’s hoping no one else remembers it…. It’s a bridging issue, which I suppose is to be expected–it is midway through an arc after all–but the places where one would expect Brubaker to excel, he fumbles. He wraps a flashback into the narrative and switches perspective to…
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It’s the best issue of Nailbiter in a while as Williamson wraps up his first arc. He’s set up the series now–Finch, the visitor, isn’t just staying but now there’s new shocking new information about him. Williamson, for better or worse, seems to be positioning the series–with its variety of characters but relatively few locations–for…
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The first half or so of this issue is worrisome. Williamson brings in a whole bunch of fantasy world vocabulary for a flashback–the structure is fairly simple, present day on Earth with Conan grown-up, the fantasy world in flashback when he’s still an Earth kid adjusting. And while Bressan’s art is fine–his action is better–there’s…
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There’s something slightly off about the second issue of War Stories. Keith Burns’s art isn’t great, but it’s all right and Ennis’s script is strong enough to get over any visual bumps. Except the effort Burns puts into the aerial battles–there’s a lot of detail, but there’s no narrative to the illustration. So it contributes…
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It’s hard to imagine how Our RoboCop Remake would play for someone who doesn’t only love the original Robocop, but has seen it quite a few times. A lot of the humor in Remake is broad, but enough of the choices are subtle and incisive (while sometimes still maintaining a wink), one has to be…
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If you had told me twelve issues in, Lazarus would be a comic I just had to read first the week it came out, I never would have believed it. You can go back and read the rather negative posts about the first five issues. But Rucka has found the series. Especially with this arc…
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For Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa takes a very serious approach. It works well with artist Robert Hack, who does horror well, but also does creepiness and the period–Sabrina is set in the fifties and sixties–well too. So while there's that classic horror look from Hack, Aguirre-Sacasa works in just enough humorous reference…
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Garth Ennis is back with more war stories–this time appropriately titled War Stories–and he’s off to an excellent start. The first arc of the new series has him covering an American flier in Britain in a bomber; well, the flier doesn’t actually get into a mission yet, with Ennis instead concentrating on his experiences before…
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How can this comic be so good? Faerber keeps up the fantastic mix of sci-fi and Western in the second issue, with a couple plots. The sheriff's son is in trouble in the desert from giant bugs, with the neighbor girl, and a mysterious protector (calling him Ishmael is a cute touch from Faerber). So…
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If the first issue is an indication, Birthright is going to be a trip. Writer Joshua Williamson has a big twist at the end–the story of a missing child who returns as a grown, savage warrior out of a fantasy world–but the better stuff is how he’s handling the regular characters. The back and forth…
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Leave it to Brubaker–my favorite issue of Velvet so far and she isn't even in her own comic. Instead, it's Brubaker chronicling the efforts of two guys working for the agency (and neither seem to be the corrupt faction out for Velvet) trying to find her. There's really good narration from the first guy, Colt,…
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Dingess just can't stop with the cliffhanger problems. Manifest Destiny always has these fake cliffhangers, where Dingess is teasing what ever is going to happen next and it usually is a character's intention, not an outside event. It's an interesting narrative device, but Destiny isn't character driven. If it were, such cliffhangers might make sense.…
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Not a torture issue, thank goodness; instead it's a Lazarus issue with a lot of well-done political intrigue. There's not a lot of fighting, but there are some stylized stand-offs. Lark can do talking heads, he can do stand-offs. The issue's the perfect medium grade Lark–he's not stretching, but he's surpassing all goals. Rucka gets…
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Copperhead is a Western. It has sci-fi and some elements of police procedural, but it’s a Western. It opens with a new sheriff coming to town on a train and having an unhelpful deputy. It’s a Western. And it’s a darned good one. Writer Jay Faerber operates with a “people is people” mentality. Even though…
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There's just enough disgusting creativity to pull the issue through–even if it's far from original. Dingess still has he problems with pacing and plotting, but he does get around to a few characters this issue. He's got Clark and a bunch of people stranded, while Lewis tries to figure out how to get rid of…
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Dark Dungeons is the story of two college freshman, played by Alyssa Kay and Anastasia Higham, who find themselves trying to fit in. Through a combination of peer pressure and just plain wanting to have fun without thinking about the consequences, they discover a role playing game (the titular Dark Dungeons). Soon, the game takes…
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Nailbiter isn’t exactly an incomplete read, it’s just three scenes. There’s the ominous prologue, there’s the main action with the two protagonists and then there’s the titular serial killer in his jail cell. Henderson is getting a little loose with the art, especially during the main action, which doesn’t help things. All in all, the…
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Edge of Tomorrow is high concept masquerading as medium concept… masquerading as mainstream high concept. The gimmick–Tom Cruise finds himself reliving every day as he goes into a battle against alien invaders–turns out not just to have a lot to do with the alien invaders, who director Liman almost entirely avoids, but also with how…
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It's a torture issue. Sure, it's a torture issue where the guy getting tortured is an odious previous villain in Lazarus, but it's still a torture issue. What's most surprising about it is Lark sticking on the art for what's essentially a done-in-one fill-in type issue. The rogue son of the main family goes off…
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It’s not hard to identify Aguirre-Sacasa’s influences for this issue, which tracks the story of Sabrina (the teenage witch) following her brief appearance earlier in the story. The issue is Lovecraftian homage, sort of by way of The Wicker Man, which works out splendidly. In some ways, the issue should be predictable to Lovecraft afficonados,…
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Brubaker starts Velvet’s second arc and it’s just as clear as with the first one, there’s something just a little off about it. Epting doesn’t get much opportunity for the period piece stuff this issue either, which is too bad. There’s a whole bunch of exposition with Velvet explaining her thinking about her investigation–it brings…
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The problem with Manifest Destiny is too little going on in the action issues. This issue takes place over at least two days, but the way Dingess breaks out the scenes–basically two big sections of little scenes run together and then the action sequences–it just feels too fast. Some of the problem might be Roberts’s…
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No, really, where’s the rest of the comic? Williamson is only a few issues in with Nailbiter and he’s already losing some of the sensationalism. Instead of outrageous characters, he’s going for outrageous acts. But not even startling outrageous acts, just kind of average ones. Like there are these constant brownouts in the city and…
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You know, I can’t remember the last time I’ve liked a comic plot–along with how things turn out for the characters–but not liked the comic itself. Until today. Rucka has been making leaps and bounds improvements with Lazarus and they sort of culminate here… at least in terms of character development. The lousy narrative structure…
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Once again, Evanier seems to be running out of ideas–at least for what to do with his titular characters. Even the Dudley Do-Right story has Dudley reduced to a brief walk on appearance. Though the whole horse thing is back, which is awkwardly hilarious. But for the feature, it’s Rocky and Bullwinkle against Boris and…
The Stop Button 