Black Widow (2001) #3

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Yuck, there’s a lot of design work from Hampton this issue.

A painter shouldn’t do eighties advertising style design. It just doesn’t work out.

Oddly, nothing works in this comic. Well, except some of Hampton’s skies. He has some beautiful upstate New York blue skies with clouds here.

Otherwise, his work is just wrong throughout. It gets even worse when he’s got to do talking heads scenes and relies on the design stuff. I guess it’s not as static as doing paintings, but—combined with Grayson and Rucka’s weak dialogue—the scenes don’t work.

At the end, the writers try a lot to make the Marvel Universe seem really dark and complicated—way too complicated for someone like Daredevil to understand—and it all comes off like Grayson and Rucka are writing a spec script for a bad Bond movie.

The series is a stinker, but the skies are nice.

Black Widow (2001) #2

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Well, the second issue—when Rucka and Grayson reveal the plot (Natasha and S.H.I.E.L.D. are out to discover the blond Black Widow’s boss’s plans to sell weapons to a foreign power)—is a whole lot less compelling than the first.

More annoying Daredevil running around. Hampton doesn’t even try not to make him look silly around the spies.

Hampton’s actually the whole reason to read the comic, it turns out. Not his action scenes, which are still painfully wrong, but his New York location paintings. There are some beautiful, scenic panels in here. It’s a shame he had to have Black Widow and Nick Fury running around in them. They should have just left the characters out and released the issue as a travelogue.

Of course, things don’t go as planned (it’s a spy story), but it’s hard to care. Grayson and Rucka write insipid characters; they waste their MacGuffin.

Black Widow (2001) #1

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Now, I generally like Scott Hampton—well, in theory anyway, I remember he’s done some good Vertigo stuff—but who thought he’d be a good fit on a Black Widow book? All of the art, because he’s not doing fully painted backgrounds, looks way too designed and artificial. There’s zero flow to it. It’s like Marvel hired a painter and asked him not to really paint, just paint by numbers.

Still, it’s sort of impossible not to be interested in the title because it features Natasha and S.H.I.E.L.D. kidnapping the blond Black Widow and doing a Face/Off procedure, switching the Widows’ identities. Grayson and Rucka don’t get to an explanation, just the immediate aftermath of the change. It’s compelling.

Of course, since it’s Grayson, there’s this terrible Daredevil characterization (he’s basically just a horny dimwit who follows Natasha around and works freelance for S.H.I.E.L.D.).

It’s bad, but definitely diverting.

Sounds from a Town I Love (2001, Woody Allen)

Allen did Sounds from a Town I Love quickly, for the “Concert for New York City” benefit. It’s very short clips—about ten seconds—of (uncredited) people walking around New York on their cellphones. The snippets of conversation are all played for comedic effect, while still maintaining a mild sense of reality (some of the snippets are more real than others—the mother worrying her three year-old’s life is over after not getting into a preschool).

There’s a frequent balance between laughing at the conversation and at the speaker. Austin Pendleton’s director whose understanding of the south-central Asia countries is based on their film festivals is a fine example. If it weren’t Pendleton, it wouldn’t work. But he’s likable in his absurdity.

The snippets let Allen make Sounds very memorable very quickly… which then made me wonder how his use of the final snippet would be.

Unsurprisingly perfect.

The Coffin (2000) #4

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Hester spent the almost the entire first issue establishing Ahmad as an unlikable person.

Dying and being resurrected as a plastic superman has been the best thing for him.

But this issue, when Hester’s got to write his dialogue, his narration, as this new good person… he can’t do it convincingly. Instead, he writes all of Ahmad’s lines in short sentences, his narration describing events more than emotions. He’s so detached from the character, Hester gives the epilogue to the villain, avoiding a sincere emotional moment.

Those complaints made, the Coffin ends well. The last issue is the most action oriented of the series and Huddleston illustrates those scenes well. He has to keep the nightmarish elements intact, action or not, and does. With a different artist, the Coffin might have just looked like Iron Man.

Hester’s emphasis on metaphysical hooey seems to have hampered the series, but not significantly.

The Coffin (2000) #3

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Hester changes it up again this issue, to similarly good results.

This time, he doesn’t just spread the issue out, he actually lets time pass off panel, which he didn’t really do in the second issue. This issue, for example, doesn’t open with a resolution to the previous one’s conclusion. Instead, Hester takes a little time out. He eventually gets to a big scene suggested last issue… but a lot happens before it.

Huddleston’s art lets Hester get away with not having action set pieces. Huddleston doing a talking head scene between Ahmad, looking pretty much like a robot, and another scientist… it has all the action one needs. Maybe it’s because Ahmad’s suit (the titular Coffin) is always giving off steam or smoke, there’s this hint of motion, of action.

But Hester goes even further, coming up with a fantastic plot twist.

I’m sad there’s only one issue left.

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #14

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There’s a scene missing from this issue, the one where Mary Jane and Liz react to Gwen Stacy. Bendis gets in the boys’ reaction, but not the girls. Maybe, as I did, they were admiring her manly physique. Whatever Bagley was trying, he fails on her brief appearance. She looks like an Aryan She-Hulk.

Actually, it’s a fine enough introduction, but Bendis does a lot of other good stuff this issue so Gwen gets lost. Doctor Octopus has his first appearance post-accident here and, wow, do Bendis and Bagley do a good job with it. They make him tragic without having to make him sympathetic–SHIELD has let him suffer as a test subject. Just great stuff.

There’s also a cliffhanger with Kong figuring out Peter is Spider-Man.

Speaking of Spider-Man, Peter doesn’t appear in costume this issue. I hadn’t even realized until typing this response.

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #13

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Who made the Mary decision? Not Mary Jane, not MJ, but Mary.

Was it Bendis or Jemas? I suppose someone’s said something about it online so I could find it, but I don’t care.

I also don’t care about some of Bagley’s worse talking heads in this amazing talking heads comic.

It’s the confession issue. Thirteen issues in and Peter Parker tells Mary Jane Watson he’s Spider-Man.

It’s got to be some kind of a record. It doesn’t really change the book because the way Bendis has paced it, it’s not like it’s a long time. But it’s also not like a dumb teenager thing to do. Maybe it is a little.

But it’s an honest thing. It’s a great issue, easily the best in the series so far–it’s probably hard to top. I’ll try to keep track.

This issue is exactly why I love Ultimate Spider-Man.

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #12

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Where Lee had Peter do his homework for supervillains–research, science stuff–Bendis has his Peter write jokes. It’s a good scene, Spider-Man taunting the Kingpin with a bunch of jokes (did Ultimate Daredevil ever get mad Spider-Man outsmarted him in getting Kingpin in the most mundane way ever–I mean, security tapes? It’s like getting Capone on tax evasion), but it’s a very different Spider-Man.

The issue’s basically a long fight scene. Well, not exactly, it’s a couple long fight sequences, Spider-Man versus Electro and the Enforcers, then Spider-Man versus Kingpin, then an epilogue.

The fight scenes are fine. Bendis’s dialogue is funny and it isn’t clear if Peter knows spilling water on Electro will kill him or not and he just does it (not much narration this issue, not many thought bevels–if any).

Still a quick read, but Bendis makes it fun.

Ultimate Spider-Man (2000) #11

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Bendis wastes two pages on an advertisement for a security system this issue. It’s kind of important to the story, but something we could have picked up along the way. He’s padding. He’s got a forty-five second conversation over three pages and he’s still padding. It’s kind of frustrating here because he’s skipped something.

Mary’s mad at Peter. Why? Well, it’s not clear. In fact, it’s so unclear, I felt like I skipped an issue, because last issue, she was writing him notes in class telling him she wasn’t mad at him and smiling at him.

Little continuity problem there. When you’re pacing a comic like Bendis is pacing this one, that kind of continuity problem is real annoying.

Otherwise, it’s a good issue. The Enforcers are funnier here. Funny, idiot thugs.

This issue is the first time I realized Bendis’s Peter is nowhere near as smart as Lee’s.