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The Life and Times of Savior 28 (2009) #4
You know the all-action issue, where it’s just a fight scene dragged out to twenty-four story pages? This issue of Savior 28 is a mostly-torture issue. I can’t remember much of what happens except the narrator–Dennis, the government stooge–and Savior 28 finally talk. But there’s the whole backstory thing still going on, with more of… 📖
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The Life and Times of Savior 28 (2009) #3
It does seem a little like the comic everyone wants to write is the one where Superman goes batshit crazy and flips out. Mark Waid’s doing it now, DC kind of did it with Superboy, I can’t think of a Marvel example, but maybe the Sentry did it during “Civil War,” but doesn’t anyone remember… 📖
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The Life and Times of Savior 28 (2009) #2
Yeah, no, DeMatteis isn’t backing down. He’s got Dick Cheney killing Captain America here or Superman (or, what is it, Super-Soldier). It’s stunning, especially given how DeMatteis has got his ultra-liberal heroine (who’s been off panel so far, at least in a speaking role) and his narrator slash murderer slash Cheney flunky commenting on her… 📖
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The Life and Times of Savior 28 (2009) #1
Well, yeah, I didn’t see that ending coming. Usually 9/11 shows up as a gut shot in comics–Ex Machina, Morales’s awesome Captain America run, Conway’s recent Animal Man–but DeMatteis brings it out here front and center. I have no idea where he’s going with it but it certainly seems a heck of a lot more… 📖
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Sherlock Holmes (2009) #5
Oh, good grief. I almost feel silly reading it. I’m really hoping Leah Moore and John Reppion’s foreshadowing of Mycroft being Moriarty is inadvertent or just silly business instead of their actual plans for the series. I imagine it’ll be back, with more lame references to World War I possibly. The book actually saddens me… 📖
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Sherlock Holmes (2009) #4
This issue’s lettering has a particular understanding of punctuation. It’s rather annoying, while also being incorrect. Worse, in a terribly paced series overall, this issue serves no purpose but to promise us the final issue–but I find it unlikely it’ll deliver the promised “Trial of Sherlock Holmes.” Instead, I’m guessing it’ll be some speedy and… 📖
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Sherlock Holmes (2009) #3
Perhaps I’m just a little worn down, but I found this issue a lot better. Unfortunately, I know it really isn’t much better–Holmes is still a minor character in his own book and the thing’s way too full with lots of foreshadowing, cameos and sensationalism. But I’ve come to accept the book’s not going to… 📖
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Sherlock Holmes (2009) #2
The second issue is an improvement overall, but there are still a lot of problems. Aaron Campbell’s period art is good (if static) and better when he’s not illustrating the principles. There’s something boring about his art during the scenes with Watson or Lestrade, but exciting when it’s absolute strangers. Leah Moore and John Reppion… 📖
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Sherlock Holmes (2009) #1
Ok, so, already I have problems. The visual storytelling is complicated, too complicated for a drunkard like me. I’m supposed to read letters characters are reading, not rely on their reading of said letters to impart all the necessary information. Reading said letter revealed it’s a “man dies when the clock strikes seven” mystery, which,… 📖
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The Last Days of Animal Man (2009) #6
Umm. Huh. I really don’t know where to start, given how Last Days of Animal Man ends. Conway, at the end, makes it something incredibly different, even for an imaginary story, inserting a lot of reality into it, raising a lot of questions, even if the life and death stuff seems like it’s out of… 📖
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The Last Days of Animal Man (2009) #5
No way, there’s a surprise in store for the last issue? Conway really hypes his new villains here, as they take out the League of Titans–or is it the League or Justice–lots of typos in Animal Man, apparently, as the year keeps jumping around (from 2018 to 2024 with something in between). I’m almost wondering… 📖
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The Last Days of Animal Man (2009) #4
One of those way too quick issues, with Conway resolving his Animal Man and Starfire making out cliffhanger in a couple pages to give the reader a long action issue. It’s not a bad action issue–though I imagine if I were reading it monthly I’d be a little upset I got done reading it in… 📖
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The Last Days of Animal Man (2009) #3
Okay, with issue three, Conway gives us the full ground situation–2018, sort of sequel to the Infinite Crisis spin-off tie-in thing with Animal Man and Starfire (I don’t know, I’m guessing), with the Justice League replaced by the League of Titans, which is a lame name, but does it mean Superman is a grown-up Superboy?… 📖
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The Last Days of Animal Man (2009) #2
Now Conway really gets into that eighties vibe with a lengthy expository origin of the villain (of the issue or of the series, the second Mirror Master’s daughter–I didn’t know there was a second Mirror Master) and abandons Animal Man for a bit. It’s kind of rough going, but taken with a gulp of that… 📖
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The Last Days of Animal Man (2009) #1
Old time hockey. Sorry, Slapshot reference. Animal Man isn’t exactly old time comic books (Conway’s peak was the early-to-mid-eighties, so not exactly old time), but it’s close. It’s a solid DC Comics limited series, something I always used to rely on. Under the Didio administration, they’ve failed for the most part, at least as far… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #11
Parker wraps it all up nicely, answering some half-asked questions (i.e. what was the dragon thinking sending him over to see Jade Claw without a briefing), while not seeming like he’s doing anything abrupt. There’s even something organic about it, since Temugin joined the team at the start and now he’s off on his own,… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #10
Is Parker’s intent to make me cry, to weep for this brilliant comic book in its second-to-last issue of the ongoing? Because he’s close to successful. I mean, wow. Parker turns in maybe the best “team” book issue I can remember reading here. It’s a perfect comic book (even if the coloring on Hardman’s art… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #9
Do I complain too much about artist changes on Agents of Atlas? Because, if I do, I’m going to really seem like I can’t stop as I’m now going to complain about Dan Panosian. He does an adequate job, but he really doesn’t have enough fluidity to his forms, especially given how much action this… 📖
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The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh (2009) #2
Ugh. Okay, on the good side, Waid seems like he’s going to leave Doyle dead (which brings up the further question–why did Waid bother creating the character to kill him on his fifth issue, it’s kind of like what’s her face in The Dark Knight). Additionally, Allingham’s a lot less obnoxious when she’s not all-knowing.… 📖
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The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh (2009) #1
No way, Waid came up with a genuinely compelling mystery? The setting is lame (Italy?) but the way it plays out is like a solid film noir, even if the art’s still problematic. Oosterveer seems to have improved at the beginning, but it’s not long before he’s drawing Doyle like Gorilla Grodd’s albino twin brother… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #8
Maybe I need to take a break from going through these straight because everything’s starting to run together. I’d totally forgotten Suwan (not just the name, but the character), though seeing the team in action against the Hulk is fun. Unfortunately, Pagulayan is back and there’s, once again, something way too finished about his art… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #7
Parker basically undoes what he did in the previous issue–the Namor and Namora romance, at least the impending nuptials–as fast as he can. There are some backstory developments and some supporting cast developments, but it’s really just an excellent exercise in drama. Parker’s undoing of this romance, he does it in one issue instead of… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #6
What am I going to say about him doing a breather issue with the sixth? Ostensibly, it’s another action issue–there’s the cover promised fight between the Agents and the Atlanteans–but it’s really this mellow, relaxing sixty-two year payoff in the story between Namor and Namora. Parker doesn’t miss the opportunity for humor (underseas hillbillies), but… 📖
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The Unknown (2009) #4
I wish Boom! would appropriately label their Christian comics so I don’t read them by mistake again. In this issue, the previously science-happy Allingham becomes Kirk Cameron. The comic should have ended with her boobs being smaller, as to be more Christian. They could have made her look like Melissa Joan Hart or something. If… 📖
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The Unknown (2009) #3
Now it’s Indiana Jones, complete with hopping on a moving truck full of ancient relics and having a showdown with a purportedly three hundred-year-old man who’s on a holy mission. The first issue in the series in no way sets the book up as a mystical, sci-fi thingy; it was a mystery, science comic. Allingham’s… 📖
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The Unknown (2009) #2
Ok, I’m still not sold on the series–it’s way too simplistic and way too contrived–Allingham might be the most obnoxious protagonist to a comic I’ve ever read, Waid seems to be going out of his way to make her unlikable, but it’s not like Doyle (get it, Arthur Conan) is much better. Boom! likes doing… 📖
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The Unknown (2009) #1
This one’s an almost impossible sell to me. It’s Waid doing “The Mentalist,” only with a female main character and an impossible degree of success. Imagine if Sherlock Holmes were so famous and so successful (and so globetrotting) he didn’t have to do the disguise thing. It’s kind of cute, but in a fake way.… 📖
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Terminator Salvation (2009, Joseph McGinty Nichol), the director’s cut
Ok, no joke, what idiot thought adding Christian Bale to Terminator 4 was a good idea? Was it McG? Without the dumb connection to the previous films–if it had just been the adventures of Anton Yelchin’s Young Kyle Reese–it might have been fine. Nichol’s direction isn’t anything spectacular (it’s solid enough, surprisingly), but he doesn’t… 📖
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Die Hard: Year One (2009) #1
You think Howard Chaykin knows he’s writing poorly or does he just churn out bad material indifferently? Die Hard isn’t a film begging for a comic book adaptation, much less a comic book prequel, but I assume Boom! got the license for a song and figured why not see if anyone gave a shit about… 📖
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Batman (1940) #337
Okay, so the Batman story is about Batman fighting the bastard, half-human offspring of a yeti and the Robin backup is about Robin trying to clear his friend of murder. The Batman story is probably better, but maybe not. I mean, it’s kind of dumber–Gerry Conway overwrites the narration and the dialogue is all exposition… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #5
The “Dark Reign” tie-in, at least the storyline Parker started with, ends here with a rather convenient uncontrollable outburst from killer robot M-11. It ties into the first issue’s backup story, which probably cuts down on Atlas‘s accessibility to new readers, but certainly rewards the faithful. Pagulayan’s return is a double-edged sword, while it does… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #4
Parker brings his two stories together to great success, even if Clayton Henry’s art is uglier this time around (last issue they seemed to be going some kind of connection to Pagulayan’s–here it’s clean and bright, kind of like art on action figure packaging). But, again, Hardman’s art makes up for it. Parker ties his… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #3
Frank Cho likes women with big bottoms, Clayton Henry likes women with big foreheads. To each his own. I thought Henry was one of those CG artists, but maybe not (didn’t he do that Venom/Carnage limited, the awful one by Milligan?). Anyway, I hate saying it, but I really missed Pagulayan’s grandeur this time around.… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #2
Good grief, it’s good. I’m not actually sure what’s going on with Jimmy’s whole Norman Osborn deal (all indications are it’s a fake-out), but Parker gets in a ton of character development. One quibble has to be how much Parker expects his reader to remember the original limited series. I guess it’s been six or… 📖
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Agents of Atlas (2009) #1
So Castro was mind-controlled into being a Communist? Sorry, couldn’t resist. Since I’ve heard about the series, I’ve heard Marvel didn’t know what to do with Agents of Atlas, this incarnation is no different (I think it’s more, Marvel doesn’t know what to do with Jeff Parker–it’s like he’s way too good for them). The… 📖
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Rawbone (2009) #4
Eh, it falls apart. I don’t know much about pirate stories, so I don’t know if Delano’s making some kind of comment on them or if the supernatural element is a genre standard, but whatever the reason, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t help the colorist seemingly forgot La Sirena is supposed to be black or… 📖
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Rawbone (2009) #3
It’s hard to say whether Rawbone is better served by the abbreviation of a four issue series–reading it, one can see it going longer–or if it’s just going too fast. This issue is a mover. It’s an action issue, with the pirates attacking, La Sirena going for her lover (to unexpected result) and Delano does… 📖
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Rawbone (2009) #2
The second issue barely resembles the first. Between the change in artists (from Fiumara to Waterhouse) and Delano’s change in protagonists (still the pirate La Sirena, but this time with her sidekick being Billy Blue, an indentured soldier–it isn’t even until the end the girlfriend comes up; by that time, Delano and Waterhouse have made… 📖
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Rawbone (2009) #1
Why does Delano spell pirates “pyrates”? It’s kind of annoying. Actually, it’s really annoying, because it’s about the only thing I don’t like about Rawbone #1. The comic’s not up to Avatar’s usual graphic extremes, which raises the question–as always–why Delano didn’t try selling Rawbone to Vertigo. It’s a period piece about a star-crossed lesbian… 📖
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The Prestige (2006, Christopher Nolan)
Oh, good grief. The Prestige is in IMDb’s top 250 movies? It’s so bad, I’m actually going to say something nice about Christopher Nolan in a second here. I’ve never heard of source novelist Christopher Priest and no one I know has ever mentioned him to me, so I’m guessing he’s pretty godawful, which probably… 📖