The Immortal Iron Fist (2007) #12

Is there even a fight this issue? Wait, yes. Davos gets beat up for being a tool last issue.

The art chores are apparently getting to be too much for Aja, as Javier Pulido fills in on some of the pages. Pulido covers the stuff with Luke, Misty and Colleen, but also some of the K’un-L’un stuff… so it’s not like there’s any rhyme or reason to it. In fact, at the beginning I just thought it was Aja trying a new style. Pulido’s great… so great one might wish he was doing the whole book.

Kano does the flashbacks, which feature Danny’s father fleeing K’un-L’un.

Brubaker and Fraction give the background on the revolution here. The Thunderer is going up against the ruler, Yu-Ti, who is revealed to be a tyrant. Shame they couldn’t foreshadowed it.

It’s good–there’s some great dialogue–but it’s real jumbled.

The Immortal Iron Fist (2007) #11

I feel like I’m missing something. It seems like Yu-Ti (the “mayor” of K’un-L’un) is secretly bad, but I’m not sure if it’s in the comic or if I’m just remembering it. I mean, he seems really bad. But he could just be a sexist jerk too.

Some more great Kano art for the flashback, this time concentrating on Davos. The flashbacks work differently here, with them being intercut a lot less organically. It’s jarring–it comes in the middle of a tournament fight–but effective.

Danny briefly teams up with Luke, Misty and Colleen to fight some Hydra agents. It’s barely a fight scene, so it’s not clear why he was worried about it. We also get to see the big Hydra plan–to attack K’un-L’un–and apparently Danny’s figured this out too.

It’s a faster read than usual, with Brubaker and Fraction experimenting with tone.

Air (2008) #3

Once again, Wilson has some really significant pacing problems. I imagine she thinks the reader immediately finds her details as interesting as she does, but the reader is just hearing about them or seeing something briefly related to them. They make very little impression.

It’s like she doesn’t quite know how to add personality when writing a comic book. Instead, she overloads on everything else. I don’t think it’s to compensate, but her approach gives that impression. Having a lot of detail doesn’t make something successful. It just means you have a lot of detail (or, in the case of Air, the appearance of detail).

All those statements made, this issue is quite good. The pacing is still off, Wilson not giving the reader time to enjoy any of Perker’s artwork, which is improving.

It also feels like her first story arc should be done this issue, but it isn’t.

Air (2008) #2

The second issue of Air works a lot better than the first. There’s the terribly overwritten letter the protagonist’s boyfriend writes her and it had me mildly upset, but it only lasted about a page.

Instead of forcing the reader to be interested by making things quirky, Wilson is letting the situations she writes engender enthusiasm and imagination. The ending is full of potential, overcoming the silliest thing in the comic (the villain from the first issue surviving a plain crash and becoming Two-Face’s clone).

The pacing is an odd mix of too fast and too slow (there’s only sort of enough plot for an issue, but the way Wilson races through it, the reader doesn’t get a chance to appreciate anything). There are things of interest around–Perker creates a distracting world–but Wilson is too focused on her plot.

Hopefully, the balance between art and text improves.

Air (2008) #1

Air tries pretty hard to get its quirk on. The book’s a fine read, but hardly monumental. Vertigo has put out series just as wacky its entire history as an imprint–I’m thinking of Gerber’s Nevada.

The problem is the Wilson is loading up the quirks at the beginning to generate interest. Maybe the Neil Gaiman blurb comparing it to Pynchon is where I’m having my issue–if all Pynchon does is have conspiracies and quirks, then sure, Air is like Pynchon. But if you think all Pynchon does is have conspiracies and quirks, I really wouldn’t take your recommendation.

But it’s hard to read that blurb and then not see Wilson as trying to make something fit into that “genre.”

It’s a very full first issue though, some nice narrative moves and is definitely worth continuing.

Perker’s art is okay. For every good panel, he has a bland one.

The Incredible Hulk (2008, Louis Leterrier), the extended version

After seeing The Incredible Hulk in theater, I knew a couple things. First, I knew the extended version–the one Edward Norton fought for, that fight costing him the role in future productions–would be better than the theatrical release. Second, I knew its release would be contingent on Norton’s future involvement with the franchise.

So, something of catch-22.

Luckily, there’s an Internet.

The extended version of Hulk runs about thirty minutes longer. It still has the problems the theatrical version does–for example, the big long fight scene at the end is a terrible way to end a movie about three people coming to terms with their actions (Norton, Liv Tyler and William Hurt)–especially when you take into account it boils down to Hurt not liking his daughter’s boyfriend. Simplest is often best and Hulk does get there.

What the extended version improves is everything until that finale. It fleshes out characters–continuing the distilled reading, Norton’s nemesis becomes Ty Burrell (Tyler’s jealous boyfriend), instead of Tim Roth’s creepy but ultimately goofy aging career soldier.

Norton and Tyler–whose relationship anchors the entire film, theatrical cut or extended–becomes even more compelling, the film taking its time with them.

Unfortunately, the added character development makes Hulk‘s competing intentions clash even more. Making a simplistic summer blockbuster out of a tragedy doesn’t work.

Still, the extended version’s a significant improvement. And if Norton and Leterrier ever did get to do a professional revision… I imagine it’d be incredible.

Criminal (2008) #7

Maybe I just put it out of my mind, like I didn’t want to believe Brubaker was capable of writing such a stupid reveal. I mean, I knew he was capable of stupid endings–Sleeper provided that one beyond a shadow of a doubt, but….

Really, Ed? Fight Club? That’s the best you could come up with? Ripping off Fight Club? It might not have been a big hit, but everyone’s seen the damn thing. Not to mention it being in the novel too, so even if someone hasn’t seen the movie, they might have read the book.

Brubaker’s conclusion is so weak, it would have been a far better book if he’d killed the protagonist in the first issue and filled the subsequent three with nature art from Phillips.

It’s sort of fitting all the letter pages to this arc are Brubaker touting his awful direct-to-video movie.

Criminal (2008) #6

Okay, I’m mildly amused–back when I started reading Criminal again, I misremembered the first arc as this arc.

Brubaker’s really running into some pacing issues here. What’s old hat in a film noir–around an eighty minute narrative–does not work in comic book form. Brubaker also doesn’t have enough exposition to keep the reader’s reading speed in check, so this issue just flies past.

He’s got a protagonist who, on the surface, engenders a lot of sympathy but it’s all false sympathy. Brubaker makes the guy more and more tragic to get the reader interested, to divert attention away from there not being anything to the story.

I said before this arc could be done in an issue… at this point, I think it could be done in half an issue. Almost everything is padding here.

But Phillips is getting to draw daytime scenes here, which are pretty.

Criminal (2008) #5

Ah, the five minute read. Nothing like the five minute read.

For a five minute read, this comic isn’t bad. It’s got beautiful Sean Phillips art and it’s not a terrible all action issue. But it’s really light and really boring. Brubaker’s pacing here is for effect, everything is hurried to get the reader anxious.

It also made me remember I have read this arc; there’s really not much to it. It left me then, like it is in the process of doing now, with very little impression.

The arc either takes place entirely at night or inside the protagonist’s house. And his house is dark. The concept–a guy taken hostage and forced to aid in a criminal’s plot–could have been done in a single issue. It doesn’t need four, especially since it’s clear it’s not going anywhere special.

Maybe I’m wrong and it turns around, but I’m not hopeful.

Criminal (2008) #4

This arc of Criminal–I can’t remember if I’ve read it or not, I think I’ve read this issue because it seems familiar, but I’m not sure about the rest–is Brubaker’s first attempt at using a non-criminal as his protagonist. The guy used to be a criminal, but he’s since reformed. And he was never a tough guy. Of the five protagonists so far, all but one (the girl) was a tough guy. Now it’s two of six.

The issue’s got a nice pace to it, introducing the character, moving him through his routine. It’s the same guy who was in the second arc in the first series as a supporting character. I spent the entire issue trying to remember if that connection was correct–the always interconnected cast is getting distracting.

The pace changes in the last few pages, story veering into traditional noir.

Still, quite good.