Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands (2018) #1

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Black Lightning is back. Both in the series and as a hero. He’s returned to Cleveland to bury his father. He still narrates the book talking to his father, but whatever. Writer (and Black Lightning creator) Tony Isabella has a lot of exposition to get out. Including one-liners name-dropping other heroes. Though only two of them are big time. The others… well, whatever.

Isabella doesn’t lay out the ground situation straightforward, he tries to bake information into the scene, which sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t. Artist Clayton Henry doesn’t have the right visual pacing for the script. He doesn’t do well with a lot of dialogue (and there’s often a lot of it).

Some of the series is ostensibly going to have to do with cops not liking vigilantes and especially black ones (or women, the white male cops don’t like women either). It’s nearly ambitious. Then the issue ends with Black Lightning framed for murder and on the run. Giving the cops an excuse.

There’s no character stuff for Black Lightning past the talking to dead dad.

There doesn’t seem to be much point to Cold Dead Hands, except maybe to have a Black Lightning comic out when the TV show premieres.

Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands 1 (January 2018)

Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands #1 Black Lightning is back. Both in the series and as a hero. He’s returned to Cleveland to bury his father. He still narrates the book talking to his father, but whatever. Writer (and Black Lightning creator) Tony Isabella has a lot of exposition to get out. Including one-liners name-dropping other heroes. Though only two of them are big time. The others… well, whatever.

There’s no character stuff for Black Lightning past the talking to dead dad.

There doesn’t seem to be much point to Cold Dead Hands, except maybe to have a Black Lightning comic out when the TV show premieres.

CREDITS

Ready To Do It All Over; writer, Tony Isabella; artist, Clayton Henry; colorist, Pete Pantazis; letterer, Josh Reed; editors, Rob Levin, Harvey Richards, and Jim Chadwick; publisher, DC Comics.

Harbinger Wars 4 (July 2013)

Harbinger Wars 4 Dysart brings Harbinger Wars into the station and it’s entirely unclear why they bothered with the trip at all. Besides–apparently–cutting down on cast members, the crossover event did very little. Dysart doesn’t even seem to pretend it did anything. He leaves a lot unresolved so readers have to keep going with the main series (the point of a crossover book after all); it means there’s nothing to do the story itself. Dysart can’t fake it and make Wars seem worth it.

There’s some decent art; it’s a whole lot of action. There’s not even time for character moments, especially since Dysart only gives his regular Harbinger cast the slightest attention. Even the idiotic H.A.R.D Corps guys get more attention and they’re indistinguishable, despite codenames and different physical characteristics.

Dysart tries hard to keep the battlefronts clear, but it still doesn’t work.

I’m just glad the series’s finally over.

CREDITS

The Battle for Las Vegas; writers, Duane Swierczynski and Joshua Dysart; artists, Clayton Henry, Pere Perez and Mico Suayan; colorist, Brian Reber; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editors, Josh Johns Warren Simons; publisher, Valiant Entertainment.

Harbinger Wars 3 (May 2013)

274815 20130728195002 large 1 Why am I reading this comic book? I mean, Dysart does script a good issue. It’s a little light, he’s split between way too many things and the issue isn’t oversized, but why am I reading it? It’s not escapism. It’s painfully realistic superhero comics. Introduce this likable character to kill them–seeing terribly abused kids murdered by paramilitary, blood hungry goons–fun times.

Dysart’s relentless with it too. He gets in one joke, from Bloodshot. Otherwise it’s all set up for something terrible to come, with the bad guys revealing in their badness, then showing it off as they kill kids. Then there’s the regular Harbinger duped into attacking Bloodshot and his gang of kids. Awesome.

But there isn’t an inherent seriousness to the series. It’s still kind of an X-Men knockoff, just a desperately upsetting one. Bad corporations killing dumb teenagers. Rock on.

It’s just too much.

CREDITS

Writers, Duane Swierczynski and Joshua Dysart; artists, Clayton Henry and Pere Perez; colorist, Brian Reber; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Warren Simons; publisher, Valiant Entertainment.

Harbinger Wars 2 (May 2013)

271802 20130524225152 large I love how Dysart makes sly jabs at the Valiant Universe (or whatever they call it), pointing out how bad ideas are from the nineties. It’s a weird thing, which doesn’t break the story–possibly because he’s already got the debriefing framing and it allows for a lot of colorful commentary.

It’s pretty much an all action issue, only split between the two different groups. There are the New Mutants–or whatever the kid-lead group of escaped psiots should be called–and Bloodshot and his charges. There’s also the big fight scene with Harada, which proves more entertaining than one might expect. Maybe I’m just not familiar enough with Bloodshot to know his powers are specifically designed to provide for awesome comic book action scenes. Odd science that.

The stuff with the renegade kids has more depth, but only a little.

Good stuff; Dysart ably handles a huge cast.

CREDITS

Writers, Duane Swierczynski and Joshua Dysart; artists, Clayton Henry and Pere Perez; colorist, Brian Reber; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editor, Warren Simons; publisher, Valiant Entertainment.

Harbinger Wars 1 (April 2013)

270206 20130524224949 large I’m not sure what I should be getting out of Harbinger Wars. Dysart thinks things out–he structures the issue around some government types interrogating some bad corporation types. Some psiot kids got free or something, kind of has to do with Harbinger–oh, right, the good guys from Harbinger need to protect the kids from the bad guy. Bloodshot is in it too, working for the bad guy right now but I’ll bet he switches sides eventually.

It’s all prologue to something, which is pretty much the problem. It’s all setup. The Bleeding Monk tells Peter to save the kids, there’s a lot of flashbacks with the kids being mistreated, Harada pops in, but it’s mostly exposition scenes. Exposition scenes under an already expository structure.

Dysart’s writing is good, the art’s all generally fine, but there’s nothing going on yet. The first issue grabber is missing, which is unfortunate.

CREDITS

Writers, Duane Swierczynski and Joshua Dysart; artists, Clayton Crain, Clayton Henry and Mico Suayan; colorist, Brian Reber; letterer, Dave Lanphear; editors, Josh Johns and Warren Simons; publisher, Valiant Entertainment.

Spider-Man & the Secret Wars (2010) #4

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On the other hand, Tobin seems to think the last issue is a useful place to totally waste not just the reader’s time but his or her money as well.

This issue is an imaginary story. It’s a few pages of Spider-Man having the power of the Beyonder, then it’s all about how Doctor Doom set Spider-Man up to have that power for a brief instant (Tobin apparently got tired of trying to set actual Secret Wars scenes around Spider-Man and just went for making up his own stuff). Wolverine got the powers too but we don’t get to see Wolverine’s dream life (Peter just keeps bringing Uncle Ben back, though he’s apparently destined to die multiple times a page).

Until now, the comic wasn’t earth-shattering, but it was decent. But this issue is a complete waste of time. Tobin clearly ran out of story ideas.

Spider-Man & the Secret Wars 4 (May 2010)

On the other hand, Tobin seems to think the last issue is a useful place to totally waste not just the reader’s time but his or her money as well.

Until now, the comic wasn’t earth-shattering, but it was decent. But this issue is a complete waste of time. Tobin clearly ran out of story ideas.

CREDITS

Writer, Paul Tobin; pencillers, Patrick Scherberger and Clayton Henry; inkers, Terry Pallot, Scherberger and Henry; colorist, Brad Anderson; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editors, Michael Horwitz and Nathan Cosby; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Agents of Atlas (2009) #4

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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 two stories together with a nod toward Brubaker’s recent Captain America flashbacks–seeing Gorillaman in a Brubaker and Epting Cap scene is a little nutty and not at all played for humor, Parker’s way too subtle for it (which makes him a little different from Marvel’s last wunderkind, Dan Slott)–but also with a hint at the depth of the future stories. It’s Levitz’s ABC method, only applied to Marvel (but in a very pre-Didio DC way).

The issue ends with everything brought modern, which gives it a lovely feel. Parker’s just fantastic.

Agents of Atlas (2009) #3

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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.

Thankfully, Gabriel Hardman is still doing the flashback art and the flashback is the primary story this issue. The split is basically the same–the flashback has this intriguing compelling story, the present day one does some “Dark Reign” lip service but also does some real character moments (this time between Namora and Venus).

There’s some momentum on the “Dark Reign” tie-in building, along with the title tying into the bigger Marvel Universe (is a Bucky Captain America cameo the Marvel equivalent of a Superman cameo or a Batman cameo? Wolverine’s Batman, right?).