Category: 2008
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Ennis brings back the humor for the finale, but it’s different now. The protagonist isn’t a buffoon anymore, so it changes how the humor can play. Most of the story takes place on the ground and Chaykin’s able to handle it (he still screws up a flying sequence at the opening of the issue); it…
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Now, at this issue, Ennis has shed the humor, he’s shed the doofus protagonist, he’s even shed enough of the supporting cast one can discern their identities even with Chaykin’s art… War Is Hell is now just a World War I comic. As such, it’s just an intense, constant tragedy. It makes the issue somewhat…
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I do so wish Chaykin took the time to make the characters look different. If it weren’t for the differences in hair color, I’d be constantly confused. Even with the hair color, it’s still sometimes a challenge to immediately identify the protagonist. After introducing humor into the series last issue, Ennis changes it up again…
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It takes Ennis until the last two or three pages to finally set up War Is Hell. It’s a great use of five issues, because his reveal isn’t particularly extraordinary. it’s just funny. This issue also features the first complicated dogfight and Chaykin fails miserably. The rest of his layouts are fine, good even. But…
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Here’s the thing about Chaykin… no matter how many misshapen heads he draws, he still knows how to compose a panel and a page. Doesn’t remember what to do with it once that task is done (or more likely care to take the time), but he can lay it out right. So while he’s not…
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Hmm. Right after I say something nice about Rodriguez, this issue happens. Actually, it’s not Rodriguez’s fault. Hill gives him something impossible to draw as static images (a transformation) and it just flops. As for the rest of the issue, Hill does a pretty good job wrapping up some of the story and laying the…
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I think this issue is Hill’s first without any narration. It opens with the psycho—Sam—then flip-flops between him and Bode. Bode’s got his friend in the well, who reveals she’s not a friend this issue. Hill and Rodriguez get gratuitously violent when Sam attacks the daughter (still don’t remember her name), to the point it’s…
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Hill really goes all out this issue; it’s a wholly unlikable issue and probably the series’s best in terms of writing. Hill’s not concerned with writing likable characters or even really developing the big mystery behind Locke & Key. Instead, he focuses mostly on the psychotic murderer who’s out to get the family again—there’s some…
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And now Hill dedicated a whole issue to the girl. Again, I like his approach, but it’s just not believable. He’s got the little brother, Bode, I think, showing the sister his out of body experience and the sister thinks he’s playing. Maybe if they were regular kids, but not after the trauma they’d been…
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Hill tells most of the issue from the perspective of a ten year-old. Maybe ten. He might even be younger. Hill’s not particularly good at writing the character, because his vocabulary is way too mature. Still, it’s a likable character (maybe it would work if he were thirteen… or if Hill had established him as…
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Hill sells some of Locke & Key in the first few pages, when it becomes clear something awful is going to happen and he isn’t going to shy away from it. Then the awful thing does happen and Hill and Rodriguez handle to very well. Once the event has occurred though, Hill has to set…
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The issue has three stories in it. The most successful is the two-page one, illustrated by Ellerby. It’s just a little, amusing strip… but it manages not to have the problems the others do. The second back-up should be a blog post discussing the casual misogyny of indie music, using a suffering woman as an…
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Someone has pointed out Johns casting Lois Lane’s dad as a jingoistic, sadistic supervillain really just is… you know, the Hulk, right? I mean, someone besides me. It’s so startlingly uncreative, one has to wonder. This New Krypton Special does raise a couple interesting ideas—one is the People of Kandor being, well, basically stupid jerks.…
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So now Superman has another LL in his life? This issue is my first Supergirl in a while (I wasn’t going to read the Ian Churchill stuff, sorry). Before I get to the writing, a moment on Igle. Igle manages to make the issue feel both iconic and human. He’s got these very cinematic talking…
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Bunn and Hurtt finish up The Damned here (for now). Apparently, Prodigal Sons was nothing but a bridging series to the next storyline, where the demons are at war once more. This series, in some ways, serves its goals—it introduces Eddie’s brother, it introduces Eddie’s parents, it explores the underworld. It’s also a complete and…
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And here’s where The Damned falls apart. The entire first series, it was implied if not directly stated people knew the demons lived among them. This issue establishes people do not. Only a select few (namely, all the humans in the first series). Why they don’t tell other people? Bunn doesn’t explain. This issue is…
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I’m not sure when Bunn and Hurtt came up with the idea for Prodigal Sons, but it seems like it was during the last issue of the first Damned series. Here, Eddie’s not the protagonist. Instead, it’s his brother (Morgan, I think). And we find out Eddie was always cursed, ever since he was a…
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Thank goodness Marvel felt the need to recolor the first two appearances of Iron Fist with some terrible glossy digital coloring from Andrew Crossley. Someone with time on his or her hands should do a comparison between Crossley’s “modern” colors here and the originals from Marvel Premiere. Oddly, there’s a classy opening from Fraction and…
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The third issue has some very weak moments–oh, the Austen characters are from Sense and Sensibility–but it ends with the Fantastic Four all dead, shot by firing squad. Along with the little kid from Sense and Sensibility. So Cornell gets some respect for shooting a little kid. Even if it’s not shown on panel (Domingues…
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Well, if it weren’t for Domingues, Cornell might really have something this issue. Cornell tasks Domingues with drawing various literary figures and he comes up with something out of a “Scooby Doo” cartoon. The artwork here does not cut it–Marvel should be embarrassed. Domingues’s style is unfinished (they should have given him an experienced inker…
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I really wanted to love Fantastic Four: True Story, but Cornell just isn’t able to make it precious enough. The concept is somewhat complex–Sue is suffering from melancholy and discovers it has to do with not wanting to read fiction. It turns out the whole world is suffering from a similar melancholy (a major problem…
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Oh, there are other Immortal Weapons? Wonder if their appearance has anything to do with the issue working. Just as Swierczynski gets out of his writing rut—well, I’m not sure if that’s an accurate description—he returns to a decent approximation of Brubaker and Fraction’s run on the title, Foreman just plummets. He goes through maybe…
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So Swierczynski’s take on Orson Randall is basically to take a big steamy crap all over the work Brubaker and Fraction did on the character. Either Swierczynski didn’t read their comics or he just didn’t understand them. I’m sort of leaning toward the latter, just because it’s a meaner sentiment and this comic put me…
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Okay, either Swierczynski is covering for Foreman or Foreman is covering for Swierczynski here. There simply is not enough story this issue. It’s not so much a pacing question, it’s just… almost no story. Luke, Colleen and Misty rescue Danny from the guy who’s out to get him (a demon, I think), Danny recuperates, cliffhanger…
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Swierczynski’s approach to Iron Fist is to continue the Brubaker and Fraction format. We even get Heath doing the flashback art. There’s one big difference. First is how Swierczynski structures the villain in the issue. He’s not mysterious. We get his story right away. And his motivation is pretty straightforward. He’s the guy who kills…
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So as Fraction departs–he leaves the next team with a lovely pickle. All the work he and Brubaker did leading up to this issue, the establishing of the Iron Fist history and all… it equals all Iron Fists dying at thirty-three? Did I mention this issue is a birthday issue? Aja’s back and he does…
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Fraction does another of those untold tales of a previous Iron Fist stories this issue and it works pretty well. He’s got a lot to get in here–he has to establish the Iron Fist (this one uses the power to expand his tactical thinking), set the ground situation (he’s fighting the British in China in…
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This issue basically brings Brubaker and Fraction’s story to its finish (Brubaker leaves after this one, Fraction hangs around for a little coda then is off). It’s an outstanding issue, both fantastic on its own and as a conclusion to the story arc. Brubaker and Fraction have more pages here and the issue shows they…
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It’s not the deepest issue, it’s probably not the best written, but it’s completely awesome. Everything comes together here (with the promise of a big fight next issue). Unfortunately, Aja’s not along for the ride. Instead, it’s Zonjic doing most of the art. He’s a lot like Javier Pulido. He’s fine, but I was used…
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Fraction takes on the writing chores here solo but since it’s an Orson Randall story set in the thirties and forties, it’s kind of hard to tell what not having Brubaker around does to it. The majority of the story feels like it takes place in Germany, when Orson shows up at Frankenstein’s castle. I…
The Stop Button 