Birds of Prey 3 (January 2012)

I feel like Saiz must have coordinated with colorist June Chung, like he let her know he was going to go light on detail and she’d need to shade in what he should have otherwise been drawing. The art on Birds of Prey feels rushed and only the occasional Saiz greatness shines through.

It’s upsetting. The book at least had good art.

Swierczynski brings Poison Ivy onto the team–though it’s hard to figure out when everyone votes her in–and it does add some flavor to the story. There’s such a lack of personality, Ivy can’t help but spruce it up.

Get it? Spruce?

Anyway, the standard problem is still extant. Swierczynski’s creation for the series, Starling, is still without personality and just a blah character. Oh, wait, she makes fun of Katana and then Swierczynski chickens out of Katana’s reaction.

Besides the occasional signs of life, it’s lame.

CREDITS

You Might Think; writer, Duane Swiercynski; artist, Jesús Saiz; colorist, June Chung; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editors, Bobbie Chase and Janelle Asselin; publisher, DC Comics.

Birds of Prey 2 (December 2011)

Swierczynski’s Birds of Prey shows exactly why the comic needs two strong leads. Having Dinah partner up with some lame brained new character devoid of personality just shows all the cracks in the concept. Even having Katana, who Swierczynski writes better than anyone else, show up doesn’t help things. Swierczynski’s set the book up with Dinah deceiving everyone, just so he can have soft cliffhangers with Poison Ivy.

But Saiz’s artwork is so great this issue—there aren’t many stupid looking bad guys this time, just one it seems—I’m finding it difficult not to support the book. Saiz has a nice way of not objectifying the characters. Though the costume designs might force him in that direction. Black Canary looks more and more like Brubaker’s Sharon Carter all the time.

There’s no compelling villain, which the book definitely needs. But Swierczynski’s improving and his writing is getting reassuringly mediocre.

CREDITS

Trouble in Mind; writer, Duane Swiercynski; artist, Jesús Saiz; colorist, Allen Passalaqua; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editor, Janelle Asselin; publisher, DC Comics.

Birds of Prey 1 (November 2011)

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Duane Swierczynski comic book, so I forgot how badly he writes dialogue. He should teach a class in verbose declarative statements.

That defect—and his interesting comfort having a female character refer to herself as “bitch”—aside, Birds of Prey isn’t terrible. Jesus Saiz is a good artist. In some ways, of the good artists DC has on these relaunch titles, Saiz is the only one who doesn’t let himself get lazy. He does his work.

There’s a fair amount of new origin stuff here, but Swierczynski’s a deceptive writer—one who doesn’t have enough faith in the material being good so he has to pace out revelations to keep up interest. I mean, Black Canary’s a fugitive. Batgirl doesn’t want to be her partner. Instead, the new partner’s Starling, which is pretty dumb superhero name.

It’s without value, but not worthless.

CREDITS

Let Us Prey; writer, Duane Swiercynski; artist, Jesús Saiz; colorist, Nei Ruffino; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editor, Janelle Asselin; publisher, DC Comics.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #10

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The story ends before Infinite Crisis, with an OMAC showing up and attacking the narrator. The narrator’s nurse at the assisted living place ends the issue suggesting he’s full of crap, which ends Legacies on a decidedly negative note. Not because the reader would believe he’s a loon, but because it’s such a mundane thing, being elderly and dismissed. It’s a defeat. What’s the point of getting all excited about the superheroes if the elderly are being dismissed in the DC Universe? What, is Superman going to deal with nuclear proliferation next?

Saiz only handles a handful of pages then Derenick takes over. It must be at that point DC finally stopped pretending they cared about Legacies being a professional job. Derenick’s expressions get hilarious at times.

The backup is an Infinite Crisis prologue with Blue Beetle. Nice Frank art, I guess, but totally useless.

Kind of like the series.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #9

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Do the editors do anything here? They’ve got a Black Firestorm during the Day of Judgment scenes… about six years too early.

Wein also covers Final Night; the two are connected, but he doesn’t do a very good job of making them flow together. This issue features some of his worst writing in a while. The dialogue just gets terrible and the events he’s showing… he’s just summarizing crossovers. At least the first few issues, they were aping Marvels. Now they’re just wasting paper and ink.

The Jesus Saiz art, tragically, is weak. I like Saiz and I’m not sure if it’s Story’s inks or if he’s just started working less lately… but some of his faces are really lazy.

The Captain Marvel backup—with Sienkiewicz art—is beautiful. It’s also the most convoluted thing I can remember reading. The narration boxes don’t follow any logic, making it a chore.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #155

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Another fine issue. The pleasant surprise is the Angel story finally approaches good. Golden and Sniegoski introduce a lot of humor into this installment (completing the story) and it helps a lot. Also, Horton and Lee are mostly drawing supernatural beings and they do it well. The end’s a bit weak, but it’s something to do with the TV show chemistry, which doesn’t work if one’s reading a comic book.

Iron Reich 3000 finishes too. Land includes a page about the history of the fictional future war for those interested… though it’s hard to believe anyone would care. Even though his script is adequate, it doesn’t intrigue. The art from Saiz and Blanco is quite good, with Saiz really getting in some iconic battle panels.

Then there’s another Full Throttle. Jarvis takes over scripting too and writes a fun, quick little story. His art’s good and the story moves well.

Dark Horse Presents (1986) #154

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Finally… a solidly mediocre issue.

Iron Reich 3000 isn’t bad. Land writes it like an infantry comic set in the future (one has to wonder about Starship Troopers influences) and Saiz and Blanco do a good job with the art. Saiz’s abilities are clear here… but he does draw all his characters like male models. It’s hard to believe they’re grimy soldiers.

The second installment of Full Throttle is better than the first. Sivasubramanian is only confusing when it comes to referring back to that first part, actually. More nice art from Jarvis. It’s a story about robotic gorillas—and a cute little robotic monkey. It’s got to be all right.

The second part of the Angel story is a little bit better than the first, as Golden and Sniegoski complicate the setup a little. Horton and Lee’s artwork of scary forest animals is good, far better than their people.