Here I thought Darick Robertson and Tom Palmer on the art would help….
It does help for a while. But the issue’s double-sized and once Doc Samson shows up, maybe a quarter of the way in, the art starts sliding.
Jones reveals the mastermind behind all of Bruce Banner’s troubles. It gets sillier when the villain explains all of it; the ludicrousness of Jones’s conspiracy doesn’t hold up well under examination.
There’s a slightly interesting gimmick, which Jones shuts down so he can bring back the supporting cast. I’m not sure how Nadia–just a regular small business owner in Nevada or somewhere–can get to L.A. in a matter of hours to help save the day. Worse, Tony Stark is around to hang out with Doc Samson. Wouldn’t it make more sense for Tony to help as Iron Man? Or maybe call the Avengers.
It’s a lousy comic.
D-
CREDITS
Wake To Nightmare; writer, Bruce Jones; penciller, Darick Robertson; inker, Tom Palmer; colorist, Raul Trevino; letterer, Randy Gentile; editors, John Miesegaes and Axel Alonso; publisher, Marvel Comics.
I'm really glad Mark Waid cares so much about Daredevil to craft the comic, and Matt Murdock, such a sweet story for the fiftieth anniversary of the character. It's a nice story. It's also completely pointless.
★
The series is definitely back on track. Not only does Conway come up with a way to utilize all seven principal cast members in the issue, he also comes up with a very amusing turn of events.
It’s a decent issue with some great art sequences from Roberts–the explorers are fighting plant zombie wildlife after all–but it moves too fast. Dingess seems too concerned with keeping things moving and keeping to his narration structure to really relax and enjoy.
I don’t like finishing a comic wondering what the heck I’ve just read. Getting through this issue of Hulk isn’t just troublesome because of the incredibly uneven art–Braithwaite and Reinhold spend the least amount of time on the big fight between Hulk and Iron Man–but through the constant stupidity.
There’s a lot of lovely art this issue. It’s a hard story–most of the leads are in jail, the women are being threatened on the outside, but Damian Couceiro–with the able help of colorist Michael Spicer–manages to embrace the hardness while still being stylishly appealing. About the only time the art doesn’t work is when there’s too much artificial pacing to it, like for the cliffhanger.
García-López returns to full duties and Force gets back on track. Mostly. Conway seems to be influenced by Star Wars–and I’m intentionally using the passive voice, because I doubt he really meant to rip-off going on to the Death Star with some plot accouterments.
I wish Lumberjanes was better. The first issue definitely shows promise, but it’s missing something. Unfortunately, what it’s missing seems to be a connection between the writing and the art.
Watching Braithwaite try to do depth in panels gets painful fast. Bruce is pointing at Tony Stark in one panel and the hand is at exactly the same depth as his body. Maybe it’s Bill Reinhold’s inks, but there’s something definitely off with the art.
It isn’t enough for there to be one exorcism this issue, Jones has to flashback to a previous exorcism. The flashback does get some of the back story between the priests out of the way, which is good, but it’s a whole lot of demonic art. Manco has almost nothing to draw except demons in various stages of upset this issue.
There seem to be some pages missing, like the scene where Martin talks his kid into stealing a space craft. His estranged kid.
Shotgun Wedding is “Spy vs. Spy” with hormones. It opens up with a jilted bride, implying she’s just a girl from Nevada who likes her assault rifles. Then writer William Harms jumps forward four years to introduce the jilting bride groom. He’s an international assassin or something. Probably a good guy, based on the accent of his target.
Deodato has some kind of painted thing going on. It’s not good and it’s often unclear what’s going on–and there are real problems with montage–but at least he’s not doing the little panels for big action.
Ennis utilizes a very effective device this issue–he has such a great last scene, it overrides the issue’s problem. What problem? Three things happen the entire issue.
What an odd issue. Not because of Dart making out with her de facto brother–the whiny surfer dude–just after her man has died, but because Conway brings back surfer dude’s dad. Previously, the dad (a main character from the first Atari Force series) has been off to the side. He’s been present, but never the focus. Now Conway reveals he’s basically the protagonist.
The first issue of Real Heroes doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises. It’s Bryan Hitch doing realistic superhero disaster scenes and he’s good at those. He does a lot of photo-referencing, of course, but it fits since he’s doing Hollywood stars.
Bruce is in L.A., no matter why, and he runs across a Tony Stark press conference. So they fight and team up. They fight because Tony can’t recognize Bruce in his sunglasses. Very convenient disguise.
I was expecting a lot more from Starlight. This new development where series totally fall off after strong openings didn’t seem like something Millar would fall for, but this issue suggests otherwise. Duke argues with a kid from the planet he saved about whether he’s going back to save them again.
There are a few big surprises this issue. The non-spoiler one has to do with how adult Conway’s willing to take the comic. He’s not goofing around with it, not just with conjugal relations, but also with implying age differences and responsibilities of older partners. It’s all very subtle, all very clear.
Oh, good, Garth Ennis wants to try his hand at derivative sci-fi. Caliban takes place on a ship traveling through warpspace–which sounds a lot more “realistic” than hyperspace or warp… wait, never mind. It doesn’t.
Deodato is back once again. And, once again, the art is bad. This time there’s a lot Deodato can’t do. He can’t do the talking heads, he can’t handle Bruce willfully turning into the Hulk for a quick emergency.
There's nothing off about this issue of She-Hulk; its problems aren't a mistake. Soule is very deliberate in how he paces out the action, then humor, the set pieces. I assume his scripts are similarly deliberate, so it's not like Pulido chose to stage a lot of big action in small settings.
The second issue follows the same general structure as the first. Open with Dart–she’s the white-haired, good guy mercenary lead–and her boyfriend in some kind of “no win” battle. They eventually beat the odds, because she’s the hero. There’s great García Lopez action art so it looks great too.
DeConnick has a decent finish for the end of the first Pretty Deadly arc. There’s something missing, like she rushed through resolving the showdown in order to get to the next showdown. It’s hurried and there’s little sense of the journey the characters take.
After spending the first third of the book setting up the best Hulk fight since he’s been on the run–the way Jones paces out the banter between Hulk and evil spider-clone Hulk (don’t ask) is perfect–Jones trashes the whole thing. He goes back to his talking heads model. Down to no one really having anything to say to one another.
The first issue of Veil just had present action scenes, no exposition. This issue, Rucka adds exposition. He adds rapist cops–and their compliant partners, he adds fundamentalist Christian preachers who make deals with demon conjurers–and he adds a lot of dialogue.
Alien worlds, lots of different kinds of action… what else goes on in Atari Force. Alien species, lots of different alien species. It’s also got a nice setup story. Gerry Conway frames it around one set of characters’ action sequence, then cuts to other characters. Presumably they’ll come together soon enough as the titular Atari Force.
The Stop Button 