The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy 4 (July 2014)

The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy #4 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.

The Terminator only has personality because of the actor playing the part. A comic book character Terminator loses a lot when it’s just a static killing machine. Comics are already full of those types.

Then Jolley misses another opportunity for some exposition when the Terminator and his human sidekick find the lab. You know, at the end of the level. They immediately get attacked, which kills the chance for some nice exposition and relationship building.

It’s a fairly decent book. There’s some great Igle artwork; his action scenes are phenomenal. The rest… just not phenomenal

C+

CREDITS

Writer, Dan Jolley; penciller, Jamal Igle; inker, Ray Snyder; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Nate Piekos; editors, Ian Tucker and Brendan Wright; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy 3 (May 2014)

The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy #3 Seriously? They team up. A human and a Terminator team up in a Dark Horse comic? Didn’t I read this comic many times as a teenager? I was kind of hoping for something more. Maybe the big problem is the team up comes so late. There’s only one more issue to the series.

Enemy of My Enemy continues to be blandly unimpressive. Jolley’s scripting is competent. His protagonist is annoying but it’s unlikely anyone would be able to make a disgraced CIA agent fighting a Terminator a good character. She’s supposed to be cool, not likable.

Then there’s Igle’s art. He does a great job with it, but there’s nothing to it. There’s a lengthy fight scene and since Igle’s so sturdy in his matter of fact presentation, it’s boring.

The series is getting less and less engaging as it goes on. Then again, The Terminator has rather limited potential.

CREDITS

Writer, Dan Jolley; penciller, Jamal Igle; inker, Ray Snyder; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Nate Piekos; editors, Ian Tucker and Brendan Wright; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy 2 (March 2014)

The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy #2 Okay, the structure confuses me. I think the issue opens and then goes back to an early time and stays there but it also seems like maybe it continues the time from the open. I don’t know.

The confusion aside, it’s a fairly decent comic for a Terminator comic. Igle’s pencils are good–he’s got a fantastic sense of action and how to break out those scenes. And enough nostalgia for the eighties to make tone engaging.

Jolley writes more of a movie script than a comic book one. You can just hear the Brad Fiedel Terminator music at times and it’d make a great scene in a movie. In a comic, it makes an okay one.

The problem with the comic is mostly the pacing. Not enough happens in it; Jolley raises some neat questions about the franchise, but there still needs to be some narrative content… Doesn’t there?

B-

CREDITS

Writer, Dan Jolley; penciller, Jamal Igle; inkers, Ray Snyder and Robin Riggs; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Nate Piekos; editors, Ian Tucker and Brendan Wright; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

The Terminator: Enemy of My Enemy 1 (February 2014)

Dan Jolley and Jamal Igle doing a Terminator series. You know what you get? A decent plot, good characters, some awesome art. The way Jolley and Igle are doing Enemy of My Enemy is very cinematic. Igle does a lot of establishing panels. Part of the book is these guys doing a Terminator book and the reader getting to go along for the ride.

But it’s still a Dark Horse licensed comic. There’s a CIA agent on the run picking up assassination work, she comes across a Terminator, she finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy because, apparently, after the first movie the CIA started investigating.

Or something. It’s a standard Dark Horse licensed trope–there was something hidden plot at the time of the movie; it’s finally revealed here. It’s not too bad as Jolley keeps it contained, but it’s still present.

And the book’s better than it.

B-

CREDITS

Writer, Dan Jolley; penciller, Jamal Igle; inker, Ray Snyder; colorist, Moose Baumann; letterer, Nate Piekos; editors, Aaron Walker, Ian Tucker and Brendan Wright; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Supergirl (2005) #59

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All writers have limits… and it’s too bad Gates’s limit is writing Cat Grant as a likable human being. He just can’t do it. He tries and tries here, but he ends up making Superwoman more likable than Cat. It’s a strange disconnect. There’s just something so hateful about her, he’s gone beyond a point where he can even bring a glimmer of humanity to her.

That statement made, it’s a wonderful issue. It’s a Christmas issue, ending up in Smallville (it’s hard to tell Kara’s supposed to be the one in the glasses—I thought they were still drawing Ma Kent with blonde hair or something). Gates and Igle get in the action, they get in some drama….

They wrap things up beautifully (it’s their last issue). It’s really too bad they didn’t get a chance to do the comic, instead getting stuck with crossover tripe.

Still, lovely work.

Supergirl (2005) #58

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Gates really humanizes Cat Grant here (I didn’t know she had a dead son, for example) and it comes a little late. If he’d done it earlier, she wouldn’t have seemed so shrill. Besides that delay in characterizing, it’s a good issue.

Igle does a great job with Supergirl, as usual, but something about his approach is a little different. This issue is the first in forever not to be laden with New Krypton scenery or props; it gives Igle a chance just to do the superhero stuff and he does it really well.

Gates’s pacing is a little off too, I suppose. He’s going for dramatic emphasis more than content.

Oh, now I remember how this issue ends… with Lois going to visit her psychopathic sister. It’s undoubtedly a setup for something, but it takes the issue away from Supergirl and Cat.

Regardless, it’s a good little Christmas issue.

Supergirl (2005) #56

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It’s amazing how much I enjoy Supergirl even though the issues read so fast. Gates never leaves the Bizzaro planet this issue either, so there’s no subplot development.

It does open a little weak, with Supergirl telling the unconscious Bizarro-Girl helping her will be a cathartic experience (not in those exact words, but close enough). Gates doesn’t know how to do subtle self-reflection. It’s not a superhero comic standard for a reason—there just isn’t room for it.

But once Supergirl and Bizzaro-Girl land, the issue just gets excellent. There’s space bugs, the DC version of Galactus (oh, wait, didn’t he have bugs in Ultimate Nightmare?) and Bizarro. Gates takes the reader on an abbreviated tour of the planet and its population, which is just a lot of fun (even though some of them don’t make it). It’s strangely good-natured.

And Igle’s art is rather excellent.

Supergirl (2005) #55

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Another very fast read, but it goes very smoothly.

Gates resolves his cliffhanger pretty quickly—all while developing the Bizzaro-Girl character into a sympathetic character (some via flashbacks to her origin on the Bizzaro planet). Supergirl, of course, is the only one who can see her as a misunderstood creature and not a monster.But Gates also has time to bring in a second action sequence, handle some stuff at the Planet (Cat Grant has some subplot of her own going, in addition to the Lana discovery) and then come up with another end sequence.

It’s an excellent issue, the kind of thing one wishes Gates and Igle had been doing all along. It doesn’t develop Supergirl as a character very much, but it is a solidly diverting superhero comic. And it’s not making Supergirl slutty.

Igle has a great time with the art too; he’s got lots of variety.

Supergirl (2005) #54

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Besides one glaring problem (implying there’s a supernatural pedophile out there posing as a Metropolis cop and kidnapping kids), this issue of Supergirl is a great read. It’s a fast read too—really fast, but it all works.

Well, wait… more Cat Grant lameness as she discovers Supergirl and Lana’s relationship/ DC’s unable to produce good new villains.

The issue opens with Jimmy Olsen discovering Bizarro-Girl in a good sequence (so good Gates should do an Olsen series of some kind) then finds Kara (or Linda) moping while Metropolis gets destroyed. Lana has to call her up to motivate her and the scene works well enough. Gates is able to pull it off because the reader wants to see Supergirl in action, not moping. So he gets some slack.

Then there’s a strange one page panel where she pauses to enjoy flying before saving the city.

But, otherwise, great.

Supergirl (2005) #53

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It’s an issue of Supergirl without a bunch of crossover stuff? I mean, there’s still some crossover stuff (and apparently they’re keeping Lucy Lane alive because Superwoman’s just a great villain… eye-roll) but it’s mostly just Lana and Kara talking. Wait, Linda. She wants to be Linda Lang now.

I had to go read up on Wikipedia how the “New Krypton” thing finished up. It’s surprising, with such an iconic cover, the series is totally unconcerned with picking up new readers.

There’s some good stuff between Linda and Lana, but Gates can’t keep it up when he’s got Linda refusing to help people as Supergirl. It’s just too contrived, too forced.

As for his small Metropolis (Dr. Light is testing Superwoman, then goes and discovers the mystery villain), it doesn’t work either. Gates brings charm to Supergirl, but he doesn’t bring charm to the DC Universe as a whole.