Rocket Raccoon is cute. Part of its cuteness is how it’s not supposed to be cute, even though it’s Skottie Young and he does cute stuff.
Raccoon isn’t supposed to be cute because it’s all about how Rocket is actually a dangerous space rogue and Casanova. The ladies can’t get enough of him. Why would be the first question? It’s funny, of course, because he’s a raccoon or whatever but it would have been nice for Young to pay it some attention.
Unless no one can figure it out, other than he’s a cute little critter and the ladies just can’t resist.
The issue moves pretty well from joke to joke. One problem would be the sitting and talking on the phone sequence. Young tries to keep it lively with Star-Lord having an action sequence but it’s not enough.
Young’s the right Raccoon artist, but maybe not the right writer.
B-
CREDITS
A Chasing Tale, Part One; writer and artist, Skottie Young; colorist, Jean-Francois Beaulieu; letterer, Jeff Eckleberry; editors, Devin Lewis, Sana Amanat and Nick Lowe; publisher, Marvel Comics.
Conway has got his plotting down again with this issue. He gives Broderick a lot of varied action–it’s an all action issue, but set over a few hours (they just skip the quiet moments)–and Broderick’s ambitious in visualizing the different scenes. There’s the battles in a frozen New York, a fight between Firestorm and the Justice League, a visit to Hollywood and then a stop-off at the JLA satellite.
I’m not a big “X-Files” fan; I have not watched many episodes but I have seen the movies. And I do not recall atrocious banter being part of the formula. Karl Kesel writes inane dialogue for his protagonists, who artist Greg Scott questionably visualize. They aren’t going for photo-reference–there’s a decided lack of detail–but everything is so static they might as well have done it.
Glass has a lot to deliver with the resolution to this series and he knows it. This issue is just he and Santos upping the ante over and over. They already have a difficult setup and they try for more.
I was having trouble keeping track of what happened this issue until I realized the problem–nothing happens this issue. Didio and Giffen aren’t good at the banter with the marooned New Gods–or are they New Gods on their pilgrimage to Earth; it doesn’t matter. The banter’s lame. Four of the five leads are lame. And the last one is apparently a werewolf with some Wolverine influences.
Conway lays on the melodrama a little thick this issue with Ronnie getting cut from the team, slapped by his dad (in front of his best friend) and dumped. Why? The same reason every other superhero got dumped at one time or another–significant others just don’t understand a person disappearing in the middle of a crisis. Well, for the last of that list. The other two are just the time constraints.
It’s kind of a fill-in issue, with Williamson doing the origin of Agent Anderson (I think her name’s Anderson), only it has original artist Goran Sudzuka. So it’s not exactly a fill-in. It’s definitely filler, with Williamson spending most of the issue telling the story of an utterly unlikable character.
It’s hard to know where to start with this one because Glass comes up with a monster cliffhanger. Big twist and some interesting ramifications for what Glass has already revealed, not to mention whatever his explanation will be. It sort of overshadows everything else.
It would be so much easier to read Vampirella if her costume weren’t so atrocious. I mean, come on–Collins writes her as an espionage agent for the Vatican. She should have appropriate attire.
★★
This issue of Firestorm is a perfect example of how to do superhero action. Even with Broderick’s questionable handling of the human, male cast–he does a lot better with the female characters–he does great with the superhero action. There are some really ambitious fight compositions at the end and Broderick and Conway open with a fantastic visualization to recap the previous issue.
I’m having a hard time trying to figure out how to talk about this issue of Star Trek. Not because the comic is all of a sudden doing well or good–and not because new artist Tony Shasteen is doing anything special–but because the comic has finally given in to itself.
Glass continues the series on its way, with some subtle observations from Karic about his lot in life. Having Karic the more mature, thoughtful one–especially as he finds himself amongst old Templars–is still a bit of a surprise. It’s a fine transition, it just changes the series more than I was expecting. With it, Mice Templar loses a number of its similarities to other works.
Until the cliffhangers, Fraction has Sam back on course for the most part. Sure, he doesn’t know what to do with Michael, but everything else is going well enough as long as he has something, it’ll be enough. Or so one would think, because instead it’s just Fraction trying to inch the murder mystery forward without much commitment.
Writer Gerry Conway oscillates between serious and sort of bemusing throughout the first issue of the second Firestorm series. He’s got to recap a bunch–the original series, then the backups in The Flash–and he comes up with a few narrative devices to get it done with brevity.
It’s a strange issue. There’s this romantic interlude between Karic and a girl mouse; they go swimming together. Glass writes the heck of the scene, showing Karic as a youth while simultaneously establishing his maturity. Not to mention Santos gets to draw a fight scene between the two mice and attacking crayfish. It’s an awesome sequence.
It’s funny what doesn’t work in Thomas Alsop. Again, by not working I mean Miskiewicz’s script. Schmidt’s art is always on it. Even with the severely problematic cliffhanger.
I think Bates must have just learned the word “erg” before writing this issue because he uses it ostentatiously.
It’s all action but it’s all very good action. I kept waiting for Jolley to slow down and explain some things but he never takes his foot off the gas. He’s missing character moments mostly; he’s definitely not going the lovable T–800 route but he’s falling into the Dark Horse Terminator pitfall… the personalities.
Just before the issue ended, I realized Glass had finally delivered what I’ve been waiting for on Destiny–the full forward motion. He’s done with the exposition–even his third person narration is sparse; it immediately informs the reader of the setting. The scenes and characters do the rest.
I’m all for some manipulation for the sake of narrative effectiveness, but Brisson takes this issue too far. He’s got his two plots going–the kids in the compound and then the freight delivery guy trying to get to civilization–and he tries to have his cake and eat it too.
It’s a good issue for Bates and Infantino. Bates comes up with a lot of set pieces, but doesn’t hurry them. Infantino actually has time to make them visually interesting.
So what’s the Spread? Well, the monster in Spread is a mix of The Thing and maybe Crossed. It killing you turns you into a shape-shifting zombie monster. But the hero of Spread is a mix of Lone Wolf (with the requisite messiah baby for Cub) and Wolverine. Except, of course, Wolverine’s already a riff on Lone Wolf.
The Stop Button 