Criminal (2008) #3

I’d like to say Brubaker has some kind of magic where he’s able to escape all the traps of a guy writing female narration. But he doesn’t.

It’s still a really good issue and Brubaker doesn’t make the frequent mistakes of female narration–he’s got a really good plot and he sticks to the events and his protagonist’s observations of them. Where it’s wrong is the texture… he never gets inside the character’s head. It’s no more personal a narration than someone giving a speech. There’s not one personal thing in it, other than the events she finds herself experiencing.

This finishes the informal arc of the second series of Criminal and it’s a depressing ending. The protagonist was seen dead in the first issue and seen murdered in the second. Brubaker’s revelations of the story behind her actions is problematic. He’s definitely seen The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.

Criminal (2008) #2

What Brubaker does here–a sort of prequel to the second arc of Criminal and a concurrent, companion story to the previous issue–is even better than the previous issue… which I didn’t think Brubaker could do.

Brubaker had a hard time working out the setting for Criminal in the first arc and wisely left it mostly alone in the second. But here, instead of dealing with the physical setting, he’s dealing with temporal one and he’s doing a lovely job. The protagonist of this issue is the father of the protagonist from the second arc. There are parallels between how the two men end up, but Brubaker doesn’t draw any attention to it. I don’t even think he refers to the protagonist’s sons by name, even though they were just the focus of their own arc.

This issue finally shows Criminal’s full potential as a narrative engine.

Utter perfection.

Criminal (2008) #1

Such a good issue….

Brubaker’s able to get more content in because he’s got an increased page count but also because he’s concentrating on doing a standalone story. It turns out it’s not exactly standalone, but the issue has a beginning, middle and end. There’s no messing around with being deceptive in the narrative, to find something to reveal.

As much as I like Brubaker’s work, his staple of revealing a hidden truth about something in the past gets old. Just having him write a story–a continuous narrative stroke, maybe flashing back to reveal information to the reader but not the protagonist–is nice.

At the core of this issue is the relationship between the characters. The dialogue in their conversations is some of Brubaker’s best; he establishes the characters, their history, their relationship, all in one issue.

The great Phillips art is just a bonus.

An excellent comic.

Solomon Kane (2008) #3

Finally, the comic starts to get interesting. And how does it get interesting? Allie gets as far away from Kane as possible. Instead, he spends almost all of the expository dialogue scenes–and action scenes (there’s really not much action in Solomon Kane, it’s usually just a bunch of people talking, maybe some trickery if the reader’s lucky)–with Kane’s sort of sidekick running around with the lady of the ominous castle.

We also find out it’s an ominous castle because its baron is an immortal devil worshipper. He’s a devout devil worshipper though, so when Kane thought his Muslim bride was evil and he was good… well, Kane can determine whether people worship the devil or not, only if they do it devoutly. Not a great superpower.

The art’s real weak this issue. The baroness (or whatever her title) doesn’t look the same from one panel to the next.

Solomon Kane (2008) #2

I’m not sure I can think of another comic book as reread-unfriendly as Solomon Kane. Allie’s script is all geared for the revealing the mystery. Nothing interesting happens along the way, just the setups for the various cliffhangers.

I suppose Kane not being a particularly dynamic character has something to do with, but he’s also a lame protagonist. He’s a holier-than-thou know-it-all who doesn’t even properly identify the bad guy in the story.

He’d be more interesting as a vampire.

As for the art, Guevara starts the issue a little bit better but it quickly descends into shoddiness. He’s got multiple panels, close-ups on characters, where it’s clear the art work isn’t, first, not inked pencils and, second, not even a complete drawing.

It looks like Dark Horse was trying to find the poverty row Cary Nord.

They succeeded.

Gravity alone moves the book.

Solomon Kane (2008) #1

I’ve read Solomon Kane before, but wanted to reacquaint myself before reading its sequel (I’ve also since seen the movie, which I have an affection for).

I remember the series goes downhill. Or it goes uphill.

I guess I don’t remember it very well.

I did remember the Mario Guevara artwork pretty well… how it looks like Guevara turned in his pencils and they colored those. They didn’t even up the contrast to fake inking.

It’s a mildly interesting book–oh, wait, now I remember. I thought it was going to be an “old, dark house” story and it doesn’t turn out to be one. There’s a lot of drama, a lot of angst for almost everyone but Kane, who Allie writes as inhuman. The pale coloring only makes him seem more like a zombie.

I think the first time I read it I thought he was a vampire, actually.

The Invincible Iron Man (2008) #6

Aww, the Iron Man helmet on the last page looks so sad.

It’s a bad issue, to be sure, and a terrible way to end this story arc–it’s way too compressed–but it’s only the third worst issue so far in the series (and, I’m hoping, the last bad one in the series).

I think there’s some big fight. I don’t really remember. The comic reads in three minutes.

At the beginning, we quickly discover how Tony Stark outsmarted Zeke Stane. Fraction pulled off the trick by also tricking the reader, which is sort of dishonest given he’s using Tony as a narrator for the series. I mean, when Arthur Conan Doyle used similar devices in Sherlock Holmes stories… it’s not like Holmes was narrating.

I don’t really care, I just think it’s lazy and far beneath a writer of Fraction’s ability.

Like much of the series so far.

The Invincible Iron Man (2008) #5

Well, this issue’s pretty lousy.

Not much in the way of people in it–mostly just Iron Man versus Iron Monger Jr.–so Larroca does all right. The fight scene isn’t exactly exciting or engaging, but it’s a competent action scene.

But the writing–not even the entire issue, just the end–is awful.

See, if Tony Stark’s supposed to be a genius and is supposed to know what Zeke Stane is doing… he should be better prepared.

And all Tony Stark’s prepared for in this issue is to get his butt kicked and set Zeke up for one of the lamest cliffhanger lines I’ve ever read. This issue is a lot like the first in the series, with Fraction’s “movie” writing appealing to the least intelligent reader (or is it viewer) in the audience.

Again, I’m back to counting down to this story arc ending.

It’s getting rather tiresome.

The Invincible Iron Man (2008) #4

I’m of two minds about this issue.

Maybe three.

On one hand, it’s a talking head book. There’s almost no Iron Man armor appearance (with Tony in the armor) and, even when there is an appearance, he’s talking to someone.

In other words, it’s a Salvador Larroca talking heads book. It’s exceptionally ugly. But the dialogue is great, so it’s somehow ugly and passable. Dealing with Larroca as the delivery system for Fraction’s great conversations… unpleasant but necessary.

But then there’s the content itself, the plotting. The way Fraction puts the issue together, he gets a lot done in a relatively speedily paced issue. It feels like time passes and situations progress (it might just be the small things, like Tony taking time to argue hilariously with Maria Hill).

The issue ends with a successful cinematic moment (Fraction’s “romance” between Tony and Pepper is actually really sweet), probably biasing me.

The Invincible Iron Man (2008) #3

Bring on the expository dialogue, I haven’t heard enough from Zeke Stane about his stupid skin getting burnt up by his organic Iron Man setup. Is his name supposed to sound like a synonym for track marks? Because it kind of does; it’s appropriate, because he’s a crap villain.

This issue reads, again, like a sequel to Iron Man, only this time, it’s Pepper Potts who gets to become… Iron Woman? Iron Girl? Iron Lady? Iron Maiden? If Pepper’s a maiden, though…

A lot of it is decently written, so the ending with the expository rant is out of place. It’s also unbelievable SHIELD has due process and they can’t just arrest Zeke Stane. Fraction pushes for a “reasonable” Marvel Universe, post-Civil War and all, but it just doesn’t compute.

I have nothing to say about the Larroca art this issue, which is probably a good thing.

But eh.