Category: 2009
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Doesn’t Nick Fury want his flying car back? Incognito ends with an abbreviated fight scene (if only Brubaker and Phillips had abbreviated the one in the third issue, when everything started to go bad) and no real resolution to any of the subplots. In fact, it introduces some kind of romance between protagonist Zach Overkill…
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Wow, did Mark Waid read Incognito before starting Incorruptible or what? I think Brubaker ought to say something–the underage girl villain sidekick is just too much. That pithy opening, unfortunately, is the most enthusiasm I can get with this one. I could really care less at this point, so when Brubaker turns in an issue…
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Ok, so for whatever reason, I thought Zoe Zeppelin was Black (or half-Black) and so I was going to do another Tom Strong reference (since Zeppelin’s dad was the one who started the whole science-hero thing in the Incognito universe) and maybe even point out back in the good old (pre-Marvel exclusive) days, Brubaker did…
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I’ve read Incognito before so I know it eventually falls apart. I just didn’t remember where it started crumbling. Apparently, it’s this issue. Instead of his delicately paced narrative, here Brubaker dedicates the majority of the issue to a superpowered fight scene in a mall. Then he brings in Zoe Zeppelin, a superhero (with a…
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The way Brubaker weaves his plot and subplots (he uses a modified Levitz Paradigm) is beautiful. There’s so much nuance to it, little things being introduced, percolating gradually then rapidly (this issue introduces a Plot C and heats it to a Plot A, all while keeping other subplots cooking steadily). Brubaker’s “independent” work is so…
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In what universe couldn’t Brubaker tell this story in five issues? There’s an undue amount of padding going on here and it had better be worth it when I get to the sixth issue. I don’t like how Steve’s message to the future is going to be hung over my head for at least another…
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And now for my next issue–with the series, I mean. We’re reading about Steve getting unstuck in time and reliving his life (kind of like that Flash Secret Origins where Barry’s death is really being unstuck in time, but getting to see it) as Bucky and the Black Widow try to resurrect him. Wouldn’t Steve…
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One of the most fun things about Brubaker’s Captain America run has been how he updates the old seventies style Cap stories for the modern era. Reborn runs into a problem with this bit, however. Brubaker’s devise for bringing Cap “back,” is a very complicated time machine–the malfunction of this machine, no less, has left…
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Ok, so the whole thing was all about the Professor paying more attention to Hellboy? I mean, obviously, it can’t have been, what with little Hellboy only appearing in four of the five issues… oh, wait. The final issue features an utterly useless battle between a priest and the two vampires who messed up the…
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It’s almost over. I’m going to make it! (I never thought I’d be making that comment about something Dysart wrote). This issue has less to recommend it than the previous one and it moves even faster. The pacing is accelerating. There’s even a lot of little Hellboy in this one and, while he’s cute and…
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I wish I’d timed how long it took to read that issue. I’m sure I’d be disappointed. Here, at the end of issue three, I’m to where the first issue should have been ending. Now the actual story can kick off. Maybe. This issue kind of ends the story’s dramatic vehicle, so I guess maybe…
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There’s no setting. It’s messing up the pacing. As much as I dislike comparing one thing to another for the purpose of a “review,” it’s pretty clear this series is breezing by because there’s no setting. It’s some guys in France. There’s nothing to the town–nothing about the French recovering from the war, for example;…
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I don’t have an opinion yet. Of the story, I mean. The art is wonderful, obviously, it’s Bá and Moon. But the story… is a pickle. It’s not the Professor’s story, it’s the story of his agents, his agents who are very likely expendable. So we open this new story knowing the four men we…
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The Men Who Stare at Goats, as a film about men–their relationships with each other, in an Iron John sort of way–comes up lacking. There really isn’t any personality in the friendship between Ewan McGregor and George Clooney and there would have to be for it to work. In a lot of ways, Goats is…
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Ok, what? I’m a little groggy or whatever, but why can Jason Todd’s untrained sidekick beat up Damian? Wasn’t he trained by the League of Assassins? It just seems silly. This issue is the first one in the series where it doesn’t feel like Morrison’s got a hold of what he’s doing–Batman and Robin is…
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Philip Tan’s an interesting choice for Batman and Robin. He’s absent any personality, which actually doesn’t hurt the book during the Red Hood’s scenes. Morrison’s characterization of Jason Todd is as a complete nutjob lamer, which works pretty well. He also seems like he’s ready to get creepy with his underage sidekick. There are two…
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This issue’s strange. Not strange creepy, strange it doesn’t fit the first two. It’s like Morrison realized he wasn’t going to have Quitely forever and so he better get some things done. More happens in the third issue than happens in the first two (times two). Damian doesn’t just form an emotional attachment to a…
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Reading this arc–I know, I know, the circus stuff makes it perfectly suited for Dick Grayson–I can’t help but think of Batman Returns and the evil circus in it. Again, this issue is Morrison decompressed. Seeing Quitely do an extended action sequence–the issue is basically just the action scene, with some bookends with Dick and…
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How can Morrison infuse so much humor, so much idealism, in such a nasty story? The book’s full of that buoyant Dick Grayson positivity, which is what makes his scenes with Damian so funny, but it’s juxtaposed with the serious negativity of the Pyg story. See, the issue opens with the Toad and his threats…
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Compared to the previous three issues, the series ends on a weak note. It’s still awesome and all, but it’s a kinda cliffhanger and kinda cliffhangers are damned annoying when it comes to limited series. The letters column even opens with talk about another series, instead of giving this one any kind of closure. In…
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As a rat owner, I’m horrified Dorkin uses them as these master villains, the animal kingdom’s equivalent of Al Queda or something; however, as a reader, I have to admit, it’s a darn good book–though I’m not sure I like getting done with it without the mystery being solved. This issue’s a romance issue, at…
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I certainly hope no one ever sells this issue to a kid. It’s–wow. Let’s see. It’s about a dog with two missing puppies. The team (do they have a team name?) investigates and ends up in the forest where they try calling the puppies spirits. That attempt works, but has the unintended side effect of…
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Here’s an idea: dogs and cats who fight the supernatural (animals). It sounds Disney on paper, but the execution of Beasts of Burden has a lot of darkness and a lot of oomph. Dorkin’s killing off animals left and right here; admittedly, they’re all off-panel deaths (at least of the cute animals), but the survivors…
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If they’d released this issue without any text, just Maleev’s awesome art, it would have been much, much better. The issue opens with Jessica in jail (no costume) and probably has a present action of fifteen minutes. Maybe ten. It’s inanely pointless. I haven’t read a Bendis comic in a while, at least not one…
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All right, I’m clearly missing something here. Not only does my android question go unresolved, so does the two major questions the series raised–why are these aliens different than those previously encountered and what’s the deal with the mystical alien canyon? The letters page this issue tells the reader to stick with the comic continuity,…
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Ok, so, a little more information–there was an alien invasion of earth, which I kind of remember from the old Dark Horse comics. Old as in before Alien³. Still, not sure what’s going on here. The android’s a weak lead, but there aren’t any other good options. The supporting cast is all weak too (they’re…
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Thought balloons. Arcudi uses thought balloons. I haven’t seen a thought balloon in a new comic in so long, I thought it was some kind of stylizing error (the character also talks to himself so it’s possible). Um. Otherwise. Huh. Aliens is a competent book. Arcudi doesn’t do a bad job, but it’s all in…
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Wow, Zach Howard’s good. Never heard of him before (or maybe I have), but he’s great. Seems a little bit wasted on an Aliens relaunch (seeing as how the first issue is mostly people, just a couple xenomorphs and Howard clearly is putting more into the composition of the people panels). The rest of it,…
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I’ve heard two things about Spider-Woman. Bendis’s dialogue is laughable and Maleev’s art makes up for it. I generally agree. I mean, sure, Bendis’s writing leaves a lot to be desired, but Jessica’s dialogue is nowhere near as bad as Abigail Brand’s. Bendis writes Brand like she’s Christopher Walken or something. It’s terrible. Jessica (Spider-Woman…
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The second issue meshes a lot better. Moench has calmed his whole, “no one’s afraid of Batman anymore” subplot (it’s still present, but he’s not drawing attention to it anymore), and he’s mostly letting Jones do an invisible man story. Batman’s all supporting in this issue, which instead concerns itself with the invisible mad scientist…
The Stop Button 