Category: 2009
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Kryptonian society really isn’t thought out enough. This issue is about Kara going from guild to guild (a guild is basically a career path–I’m assuming it’s all for the greater Kryptonian good, dirty socialists) and seeing what they’re like. Gates frighteningly frames it in a letter to her dead father. Because he’s using it for…
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I love how Kara’s got a backpack for traveling between New Krypton and Earth. It’s a fantastic detail. The issue opens on a low point—the revelation Sam Lane served under Sergeant Rock—but it quickly recovers. First it’s Kara telling Lois about killing Superwoman. It’s an excellent scene, even if Lois is being a bit of…
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It’s another fast issue. Gates doesn’t reveal all about Lucy Lane being Superwoman (she dies so I figure it’s safe to spoil) but it’s pretty clear Sam Lane was having his daughter murder people in order to frame Superman. Did Thunderbolt Ross ever go that far? The problem with Supergirl so far is the villains,…
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Okay, I did not expect that reveal for Superwoman’s identity. Gates does manage to reduce his supporting cast by at least two and maybe three here, so it’ll be interesting to see if he uses that opportunity to finally get Supergirl running on its own. But what he does with the Superwoman reveal is nice…
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This issue is a very fast read. It’s solid, because it should be a fast read–it starts with Superwoman revealed to be a villain and continues to get Supergirl up to speed on that point. Gates manages to get in some decent moments. The way he establishes Lucy Lane isn’t particularly bad, just a jerk.…
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Some revelations this issue. Well, for me anyway. First, Superwoman works for Thunderbolt Ross (sorry, Sam Lane–again, who ever said Johns’s Superman: Secret Origin was better in terms of continuity revising than Byrne’s Man of Steel? Not me). Second, she’s not Kryptonian. Do these revelations have anything do with Supergirl? I mean, the book’s called…
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This issue’s a little bit better. There’s a lot of down time with Supergirl (why she wears make-up, I’m not sure–it’s a big Gates is a guy writing a female character moment) hanging out with Superwoman. The development of Supergirl being her mother’s pawn is a little weak and Gates doesn’t spend any time trying…
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Ah, so it’s Supergirl’s mother who’s a psycho nut… Interesting choice. There’s some very nice Igle art this issue. He’s got a lot to do here–battle scenes, talking heads scenes, a memorial service. He does fine work. Maybe a little fast on Supergirl’s father dying, but still… nice work. As for the writing, Gates is…
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Did anyone complain about Cat Grant being revised into a mean-spirited harpy? I mean, she’s the villain of this series. Well, maybe her and Supergirl’s parents. I’m not sure if Gates is going for it, but it’s very difficult to assume they’re benevolent. Being a New Krypton crossover, Gates has some goofy stuff in a…
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Who’s this Rick Spears guy and why have I never heard of him before? His origin of Dog Brother #1 is fantastic. He opens it in late nineteenth century Hong Kong, where Dog Brother is something of a myth. Spears’s protagonists are these two orphans, trying to navigate the gangs, the British and the poverty.…
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What a stinker. The whole thing plays like a bad Marvel horror comic from the seventies, with a team of mercenaries (they have matching outfits, of course) out to retrieve a spider. It’s not any spider, it’s one of the Bride of Nine Spiders’s spiders. There’s a bit of a continuity break, showing the Bride…
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Could this story be more depressing? Aaron does a decent job on Fat Cobra’s backstory—though he doesn’t go enough into defining Fat Cobra’s Heavenly City. He buys his way back into it at one point and buying one’s way back into a Heavenly City seems a little common. Then there’s all the retconning of Fat…
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And it’s a happy ending for everyone not looking at Domingues’s art. Seriously, it’s really bad. But the final issue has a lot of charm–even if the ending is too short and Cornell wastes the cast of The Wind and the Willows. Having Toad run around with Johnny Storm seems somehow perfect and Cornell only…
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Swierczynski’s Iron Fist goes out with a whimper. He mimics Fraction’s last issue on the title. I’m not sure Swierczynski should have gotten to close, since he was just following Brubaker and Fraction–not to say his writing wasn’t occasionally quite good, it was just never original. Foreman goes back to inking himself (I think) and…
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Oh, come on. I think Foreman’s the bigger problem, but Swierczynski really does completely fail when it comes to a good conclusion. He has a dramatic cliffhanger, but it’s a confusing one (one the previous page implies is unlikely). But worse, he fails to deal with K’un-L’un. He changes the status quo again and abandons…
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As usual, Swierczynski manages to pull the story around after a weak move. Here, he reveals the old impostor to be nothing but a temporary ruse, something to distract Danny (and the reader). Then we get the full story. Then the Immortal Weapons start kicking butt. Swierczynski is best when he utilizes the Immortal Weapons,…
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What a cheat. Swierczynski can write the fill in issues–with the past Iron Fist adventures–just fine. So how does he follow up one of his lamer issues? With a charming fill in issue with Kano art. Genocide aside, it’s delightful. This Iron Fist is a pacifist–whose pacifism eventually costs the lives of millions, so I…
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I think I’ll start with Foreman. He usually does an all right job, but he ends this issue on a terrible full-page panel of the (supposedly) first Iron Fist. He’s got this old guy warped to fit in the panel, his body proportions and perspective a complete mess. It’s terrible finish to the issue because…
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This issue features the second time Swierczynski has taken some leftover Brubaker and Fraction thread and determined everyone knew about it except Danny. The Eighth City? The Thunderer knew about it all the time–he could have told Danny about it, back when Danny told him what he was about to do. This issue Davos shows…
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This issue might be Swierczynski’s best. It’s one of the done in one other Iron Fist issues and Swierczynski does something a little different. He does a future story. It really nicely fits the mythology Brubaker and Fraction established, while some descendant of Danny’s becoming the youngest Iron Fist. But the Iron Fist of the…
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Okay, Swierczynski is finally back on track. Forgetting the special, he’s now written more good issues of The Immortal Iron Fist than mediocre or bad. This issue resolves—maybe a little too conveniently (it should have taken eight)—Danny’s possible death at thirty-three. It also gets the search for the Eighth City back underway and brings in…
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Fraction finally gets himself a great cliffhanger… too bad it’s in the “last” issue of the arc. Apparently, Fraction learned a lot when he was working with Brubaker, including how to make one arc lead directly into the next, to the point the only reason it’s an arc is because you’re calling it an arc.…
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Okay, I was off… Pepper hid Madame Masque in the Crimson Dynamo armor, which means she wasn’t exactly worried about her dying in the explosion. I think Fraction was trying to make Black Widow funny in her appearances this issue–she disappears while at H.A.M.M.E.R. (don’t hurt ‘em) but I imagine she’ll be okay. Incidentally, the…
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Tony gets real stupid this issue. Maybe too stupid. I’m not sure how Fraction’s going to bring this off at the end and keep the character. He might just have Tony restore a backup or something. Anyway, the issue opens with Pepper Potts in Madame Masque’s outfit. Fraction is apparently saving that reveal for next…
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If the Marvel movie guys are reading Fraction’s Iron Man and liking it, I hope they’re telling Gwyneth Paltrow to start working out. Besides turning Maria Hill into a really boring character who PTSD (over the Controller incident, which Fraction resolved in maybe two pages so he’s just filling with her) and making Tony forgetful,…
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There’s the Larroca I know and love–getting Tony’s face inconsistent from panel to panel in the climax. Fraction wastes maybe a third of the issue on Maria and Black Widow this issue. Black Widow’s getting and relying on intel Norman Osborn is planting, which suggests Bucky ought to find himself a better girlfriend. Fraction introduced…
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Okay, I finally understand what’s going on with Tony and the hard drive brain erasing. He needs to go from suit to suit to use their power sources to power the deletion. He can’t just use the stockpile of suits he had in the first or second issue of the arc because Norman Osborn found…
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Whew, lucky timing. The issue ends with Tony having a stroke as he’s erasing his brain and making himself dumber–Fraction did a terrible job explaining the brain as a hard drive thing, I didn’t think it’d started actually erasing yet but apparently it has. He’s on the floor, whimpering for Pepper. Luckily, she’s decided to…
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I can’t help but wonder if Fraction is plotting out this story line based on The Empire Strikes Back. He splits up his triumvirate, gives each their own challenges–this issue being the Han Solo in carbonite issue (Pepper gets arrested, Maria gets captured by the Controller). Fraction once again fails to give the reader necessary…
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Okay, here’s Fraction’s problem–he’s doing too much at once. He’s got Maria doing something, Pepper doing something and Tony doing something. Tony gets the most attention, leaving Pepper and Maria stuck without a lot of space. Fraction follows this formula every issue–it’s like having two backup stories injected into the main narrative. The scenes resonate…
The Stop Button 