Locke & Key (2008) #1

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 up the rest of the book and there’s where he runs into problems.

He correctly assumes he can introduce characters in dialogue and later bring them in to be recognized in action. Only they aren’t the right characters for the scene. It’s forced and he wastes a couple pages on it.

Then there’s the hurried pacing. At one point, we get three pages to cover three or four minutes of present action. Later, Hill skips through at least a week without mention.

And I’m not sure Rodriguez fits the material. He does try hard though.

Phonogram: The Singles Club (2008) #1

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 easily effective subject. Gillen needs to get himself that blog instead of trying to turn it into a narrative. McCubbin’s art isn’t bad though.

The feature–with McKelvie in color and he looks great in color–has problems of its own. It’s all about some self-centered girl realizing she shouldn’t be so self-centered, she realizes it after her friends and acquaintances are mean to her. The problem is Gillen doesn’t write any likable characters so asking the reader to dislike his protagonist is problematic.

The art makes up for it though.

Superman: New Krypton Special (2008) #1

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. It doesn’t make me want to read the series, however. Oh, another moronic move—a bad guy named “Agent Assassin?” I mean, that one’s worse than the Image stuff.

There’s some great art. I love the way reading Frank’s pages feels like one’s reading a sequel to the Christopher Reeve movies. It’s too bad Johns’s plotting on everything else is goofy. Woods and Guedes are good too, Woods being better.

It’s too bad Johns shoved New Krypton into a nice memorial to Jonathan Kent. It sort of undoes that whole sequence, the subsequent nonsense.

Supergirl (2005) #34

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 heads sequences of Superman and Supergirl on a skyscraper, Lana Lang and Supergirl on the farm in Smallville–his Clark Kent even has some Christopher Reeve mannerisms. He’s also handles the action ably.

Gates does write first person female narration, which I question, but it’s mostly action oriented so it’s not a major pratfall. The issue’s full, he’s able to move between emphasized characters really well and he personalizes Supergirl’s dilemma.

It’s an impressive superhero book, great looking, inventive and thoughtful. Much better than I expected.

Though, I guess I don’t know what I expected.

The Damned: Prodigal Sons (2008) #3

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 utter waste of time. This issue, in particular, is pointless. It’s action scenes punctuated with hints at some further secret, undoubtedly to be revealed in a subsequent series.

The problem’s Bunn’s handling of such an inconsequential followup. Instead of just doing a nice standalone sequel, he brings in all sorts of contrived elements. I mean, the demon girl is scary—but where’s her mom? Where are the other demon girls? And how interesting is the story behind Morgan’s tattoos?

These questions may go forever unanswered, but Prodigal Sons doesn’t make me care about them.

The Damned: Prodigal Sons (2008) #2

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 full of action. It’s so full of action, it’s the first time I’ve seen Hurtt get a little light on the facial details. The entire issue feels perfunctory, like Bunn and Hurtt agreed to do Prodigal Sons then realized they didn’t want to do it anymore.

What’s so funny about the issue is how little happens. Eddie travels the underworld or wherever while Morgan fights demons. Morgan doesn’t do anything else, doesn’t get a character, he just fights demons.

I remember this series being a real disappointment, but I’d forgotten just how much of one.

The Damned: Prodigal Sons (2008) #1

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 little kid. Sins of the father it turns out.

Bunn’s story explores a little of Eddie’s past, but mostly it’s just one surprise after the other (the demon and Eddie’s father, the demon’s daughter eating a dove, Eddie killing himself, the singer at the club about to touch him). There’s no thought to the pacing.

There’s very little story here. The first series had all sorts of layers. This issue suggests there will be none in the sequel.

Hurtt’s art is still fantastic… even if he isn’t illustrating as engaging of a script this time.

The Immortal Iron Fist: The Origin of Danny Rand (2008) #1

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 Kano–I think that opening must be Fraction’s last work on Iron Fist–and Kano does his own, non-glossy colors.

The origin issues hold up pretty well. Both Thomas and Wein write in the second person, which makes the whole experience–learning about K’un-L’un, Iron Fist’s origin, Danny Rand’s traumatic childhood–palatable. Kane pencils the first part, Hama the second, Giordano inks them both smoothly. Even the silly coloring can’t mess up Giordano inks on a kung fu comic.

The reprinted stories aren’t classics in the quality sense, but they’re solid seventies stuff.

Fantastic Four: True Story (2008) #3

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 would just screw it up anyway).

Cornell reveals the villain to be Nightmare, who through some complicated sounding way is all of a sudden able to invade fiction. What’s idiotic about this detail is the timing. Cornell ties it to a particular book being written. Only… no one’s done it until now? No one’s ever written about the conceptual idea of the character Nightmare (who gives people nightmares) until now? Given the intelligence Cornell writes with (most of the time, at least, excepting his scenes between Sue and Reed), it’s a tad contrived.

Fantastic Four: True Story (2008) #2

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 at the least) and almost entirely thoughtless. True Story, this issue shows, needs a visual tone. Domingues can’t bring it.

This issue excels past the first (it’ll probably be the best issue of the series, given the events) as Cornell starts teaming the Fantastic Four with the heroes of Pride and Prejudice. At least, I think it’s Pride and Prejudice, it’s an Austen novel for sure. But it lets Cornell be funny–he’s got a great sense of humor (Dante bickering with an Austen hero).

The end has issues, but it’s a fun read.