Skyman 1 (January 2014)

Skyman 1 cover dark horse comics fialkov garcia Skyman is real close to being in my “why would I want to read this” stack. It’s generally okay. The art is strange–mainstream superhero with angst; it’s unclear if Manuel Garcia isn’t doing enough on the pencils and Bit has to fill in on the inks or if Bit is inking in the Sturm und Drang.

But the art isn’t why Skyman is unpleasant. Joshua Hale Fialkov–presumably under instruction (I didn’t realize Skyman was actually part of some existing superhero continuity)–is doing a lot with race. Racist white guys in the military, about a week from staging a Neo-Nazi coup–these are all the white guys in the military, by the way–give hell to the nation’s official superhero, who’s a black guy.

So it’s mostly Skyman’s supervisor being sneakily racist and not-so sneakily racist around him. It’s cynical and realistic. But why read it?

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CREDITS

Writer, Joshua Hale Fialkov; penciller, Manuel Garcia; inker, Bit; colorist, Marta Martínez García; letterer, Nate Piekos; editors, Spencer Cushing and Jim Gibbons; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Widowmaker (2011) #4

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Swierczynski tries a little Mockingbird and Hawkeye romantic banter moment or two and he fails. It’s all right though, because he’s not really hinging much on it. In fact, he’s hinging almost nothing on those two this issue–Black Widow narrates the issue.

There are still the problems with Garcia and Ruggiero. Lots of eyes getting completely inked over, lots of faces being inconsistent when going from close-up to medium shot (and vice versa). There are some mediocre panels and some awful ones, but there’s at least a decent sense of movement to carry it along.

Swierczynski writes Widow and Hawkeye well together (at one point, positioning them against Dominic Fortune and Mockingbird) but the issue is mostly Widow’s. He can’t quite sell his trick ending though–in fact I had to read it twice because it doesn’t make sense.

Widowmaker limps overall, never retaining that first issue enthusiasm.

Widowmaker (2011) #2

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So Marvel is now alternating creative teams on limited series? I’m only mildly complaining–mostly about Ruggiero and Bit’s inks on Garcia, who I thought did better work. Maybe I’m wrong. There’s a lot of problems with faces here (and eyes being totally inked over). It’s not terrible art, but it looks very rushed.

As for Swierczynski taking over writing chores, it’s hard to say. About half the issue is a battle with the Supreme Soviets, with some revelations at the end. It’s a boring fight, partially due to the art, but also because it seems out of place. It’s this big battle scene, not dynamically rendered, and it serves no purpose except to fill pages.

When he gets to the espionage angle, Swierczynski does a lot better. He shows Mockingbird and Dominic Fortune out of the comic halfway through, which helps, to bore elsewhere. His Widow and Hawkeye work.