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Over the Edge (1979, Jonathan Kaplan)
Over the Edge is explosive. Sorry, maybe that statement is a little glib–but it is literally explosive. More cars blow up in Over the Edge than a season of “The A-Team.” I think Kaplan was going for dramatic effect, but it’s hard to say. Kaplan’s actually the least interesting technical component of the film. Whenever… 📖
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Phonogram (2006) #4
It’s got a cliffhanger. A genuine cliffhanger. It’s like Gillen’s writing a serialized narrative. How exciting. Before I actually start saying nice things about Gillen (for a change), let me keep with the standard of saying something nasty. Gillen makes a big reference to Dante’s Inferno—the protagonist’s guide is Virgil, same as Dante. Well, I’ve… 📖
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Phonogram (2006) #3
In this issue, Gillen introduces time travel. Well, it’s not exactly time travel and I shouldn’t say Gillen introduces it. It’s basically the time travel device out of Somewhere in Time. Has anyone else noticed I keep coming up with movie references to describe plot points in Phonogram? It’s possibly because Gillen doesn’t have a… 📖
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Phonogram (2006) #2
Gillen describes Phonogram—in his pointless, self-indulgent essay at the end—as “modern fantasy.” Meaning, presumably, there really are ghosts of people who aren’t supposed to be dead and the protagonist is really haunted by an ex-girlfriend who’s become “the goddess.” She possesses people and sends him on missions. It’s kind of like a lamer Sixth Sense,… 📖
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Phonogram (2006) #1
Calling Phonogram pretentious would be a little like calling the sun hot when asked for its exact temperature in Kelvin. Between the endless glossary (which features some of Gillen’s best writing in the issue) and the story itself, Phonogram reads a little like that friend who knows oh so much more about music than you… 📖
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Within the Woods (1978, Sam Raimi)
While Within the Woods is well-known as a precursor to The Evil Dead—Raimi has a number of sequences he uses again, once he’s got a budget—it’s more significant for its differences. First, it’s a monster movie. While gory, it has more in common with an old Universal horror picture than it does Evil Dead. Second… 📖
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Starborn (2010) #3
Huh. What to say. It’s very hard to say anything about this issue of Starborn because Roberson’s script is so padded, he only has about six pages of story here. There are maybe three double-page spreads (so twenty-seven percent of the issue) and then it ends on a full-page spread. The pacing is awful. Maybe… 📖
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The Traveler (2010) #3
Well, Waid has his big reveal… and it’s utterly predictable, which might have been his point. More importantly, the ending seems to be setting up the next issue to finally reveal what all the characters have to do with one another. It’s a brief read–Waid has a lot of pointless conversation and it fills pages… 📖
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Soldier Zero (2010) #3
I think Cornell fell asleep here. It might explain why he thinks the alien soldier fused with the protagonist mentioning Tony Danza is a good joke. The mistake seems to be having the alien soldier talk through the whole issue–he calls the protagonist “marine” and everyone else calls the protagonist “soldier.” It makes for some… 📖
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Tom Strong (1999) #7
Moore finishes the story with an unexpected conclusion, one he hadn’t hinted at earlier and should have. Tom Strong’s birthday was coming up. It ends at his birthday party (and the Millennium City Y2K party). It’s a great scene, but it’s sort of tacked on. This issue is significant for one major reason. Moore talks… 📖
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Tom Strong (1999) #6
It’s appropriate Gibbons draws the flashback story here, given the villain–Saveen–reminds a great deal of the villains in Watchmen. Moore doesn’t suggest a lot of superheroes in Tom Strong, it’s all a lot more science-based. The issue is, for a large part, a walk through Tom Strong’s past. Saveen’s set up a little museum to… 📖
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Tom Strong (1999) #5
The backup this issue is from Jerry Ordway, so the art’s good. It’s not really a backup, it’s more an aside to give the reader some more information. But Moore and Ordway present it as a fifties or sixties sci-fi comic, albeit with better dialogue. Tom Strong gives Moore a nice opportunity to do revisionist… 📖
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Hotwire: Deep Cut (2010) #3
But first, I want to talk about the art a little. Pugh has some really stunning panels this issue, even better than usual. There’s a lot of action and it’s all very well executed, but there are these occasional, amazing panels. It’s like he knew he didn’t have enough space and used particular panels to… 📖
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Tom Strong (1999) #4
It’s the first two-parter (or multi-part, I have no idea) story. I sort of figured Moore would do Tom Strong as done-in-ones, just because it fits. Though he does get to a good hard cliffhanger–I’m going to start using the terms hard and soft cliffhanger, sort of like hard sci-fi–I just wish I hadn’t been… 📖
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Armored (2009, Nimród Antal)
Antal’s composition is so strong, I would have thought Armored could get away with almost anything and still be a solid diversion. The action direction is good but not anything special–the chase sequences are boring, for example. But Antal’s composition for conversations? It’s amazing; sort of a cross between Michael Mann and seventies Steven Spielberg.… 📖
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Tom Strong (1999) #3
Tom Strong is the main character this issue, the third in the series, Tom Strong, and the first issue where he is that main character. Moore even does a bunch of first person narration, which gives the reader the first insight into him. The story is fairly straightforward (especially for a Tom Strong). Aztecs from… 📖
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Tom Strong (1999) #2
It’s the second issue and Moore’s confident enough he has the reader’s attention he doesn’t even bring Tom Strong in until the last five or six pages. And then it’s as something of a deus ex machina. It’s interesting how in the present action, Tom Strong is more thoughtful, when ten years before (in 1987),… 📖
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Tom Strong (1999) #1
I read Tom Strong when it came out (some of it, anyway); I didn’t remember much about this first issue until I got to the end. I sort of remembered the big smile at the end of the issue, which—at the time I first read it—I thought was a little strange. Here’s Alan Moore—the Watchmen… 📖
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Acme Novelty Library (1993) #1
Wow, what an exceptionally depressing piece of work. Ware has little Jimmy Corrigan stories and bigger ones. The bigger ones tend to be more affecting. There’s a Big Tex story in here too and it’s the closest thing to played for laughs Acme Novelty Library gets. Having heard about it for years, but not read… 📖
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Just About Famous (2010, Jason Kovacsev and Matt Mamula)
Just About Famous is about celebrity impersonators, but not really “about” them. The closest the viewer gets to any revealing look is with the Dame Edna impersonator, Scott Mason, who lets the film crew in when he’s getting ready. His buddy, Bettina Williams’s Whoopi Goldberg impersonator, constantly gives the impression of the actual Goldberg pulling… 📖
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Predators (2010, Nimród Antal)
How’s this one for a double standard? When director Robert Rodriguez made Desperado, he demanded a Mexican actress (Salma Hayek) play a Mexican character (against studio wishes). When producer Robert Rodriguez made Predators, he cast a Brazilian actress (Alice Braga) as an Israeli character… Braga’s fantastic in Predators, but really… why isn’t anyone crying foul?… 📖
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Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010) #6
And here’s where the Lopezes just can’t hack it. The issue is all about Clint’s angst. And Jessica Drew coming on to him a little. But mostly it’s about his angst. The Lopezes drawing an angst-ridden Clint bellyflops. It’s not their style (Javier Pulido, Cliff Chiang, Cameron Stewart all could have done it). It’s like… 📖
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Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010) #5
Well. Again, McCann knows how to get his reader back for the next issue. What he does here—before revealing the issue has been contrived to path story out a couple more issues—is a “things go wrong” all-action issue. There’s a plan and it falls apart. The present action of the first twenty pages is about… 📖
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Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010) #4
Nice surprise ending. McCann’s rather good at them. He’s also good incorporating the series into the Marvel Universe without a lot of guest stars. But the way he builds to the surprise ending is the nicest part. He takes his time, informing the reader there will be one, but doesn’t show his hand and then… 📖
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Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010) #3
Here’s where the Lopezes’ can’t handle the script with their style. This issue is pretty gritty. It’s Mockingbird and Dominic Fortune getting vicious on the bad guys and Hawkeye being the one who’s trying to calm them down. But it’s impossible to take all Mockingbird’s forceful dialogue seriously when the Lopezes are drawing her a… 📖
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Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010) #2
Wow, what a harsh ending. McCann builds to it rather well, avoiding easy tension-building and getting a real surprise on the last two pages. It’s a good issue, but it does have one major issue—with the Lopezes’ art, it feels like a bunch of overgrown kids. There’s a lot of masks off talking here and… 📖
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Hawkeye & Mockingbird (2010) #1
While Hawkeye & Mockingbird is a lot of fun, McCann doesn’t seem to be having it with Clint and Bobbi. Instead, the book is at its most entertaining when it’s Clint, Steve and Bucky. Bobbi’s off on her own, acting a little weird (not to mention the retcon revelation at the end) and it distances… 📖
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A. Bizarro (1999) #4
Gerber finds his way to a conclusion—an unexpected one, actually. It’s nice how limited series used to be able to build over their run. His excellent pacing has something to do with it. Gerber gets in a lot of story, especially considering he focuses on multiple characters throughout. Unfortunately, Lex is no longer amusing this… 📖
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A. Bizarro (1999) #3
Al heads to Apokolips—after Lex proposes to breed him with some of his female staff—and meets up with a preteen Fury. They form a musical duo. Gerber comes up with some outlandish ideas, but he curbs them in the reality of DC continuity, which just makes the read all the better. I still haven’t really… 📖
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A. Bizarro (1999) #2
Superman shows up this issue and Bright draws him so poorly I want to take back everything complimentary I said about his art on the first issue. Bright can’t draw Superman’s face–he gets the proportions of the head wrong–and he also can’t draw him flying. It’s a disastrous opening for the issue. Thank goodness there’s… 📖
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A. Bizarro (1999) #1
I knew the concept—regular guy gets a Bizarro made of him—but Gerber still does manage to get some surprises out of it. When the issue opens, Al (the Bizarro) is slowly losing his faculties as he turns into a regular Bizarro. It makes him immediately sympathetic, something Gerber keeps up because the character talks to… 📖
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Batman/Catwoman: Follow the Money (2011) #1
Even though it’s still modern, lazy Chaykin, Follow the Money is somewhat better than his usual attempts. I think it’s because—even though he has some rather bad pages in here—he also has a lot more mediocre ones. The mediocre ones sort of even everything out. He does have jump cuts, however, something I’ve never seen… 📖
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West Coast Avengers (1984) #4
Hall hasn’t made much of an impression during West Coast Avengers but during the climatic battle scene here, he does a great job. He’s got Breeding and Berardi inking him (and this issue has no art hiccups like the previous three) but it’s really about his panel composition. Plus, he’s able to bring real drama… 📖
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West Coast Avengers (1984) #3
There’s something weird about Graviton. It’s almost like he’s overcompensating. This issue focuses mostly on Tigra and Wonder Man (Rhodey gets cast aside). First it’s about their insecurities, then it’s them teaming up with the Shroud to go after the bad guy (who’s secretly working with Graviton). The splash page has some weak proportions from… 📖
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West Coast Avengers (1984) #2
Is it possible for Wonder Man to be any more annoying? He spends every moment either bragging about himself or whining. And Stern loves expositional dialogue, so it’s a lot to get through. My favorite line in the book is from him, though–“Who would be crazy enough to rob a bank in broad daylight?” Either… 📖
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West Coast Avengers (1984) #1
Wow, Stern writes some tone-deaf dialogue. Not all of it, but some… there are some lines in here, it’s like he got out the thesaurus. Though I suppose naturalism wasn’t his goal. He goes overboard with the thought balloons too. What he does do—which is actually quite neat—is set the issue up a little like… 📖