blogging by Andrew Wickliffe and friends
Paul Cornell
Demon Knights 3 (January 2012)
Previously, I thought I could at least rely on the art in Demon Knights to be good, but Neves and Albert are slipping. Too much detail here, too little there. Some of it appears positively disjointed–one page looks like George Perez and the final page (the super soft cliffhanger) looks rushed. I wonder if they […]
MoreStormwatch 3 (January 2012)
Seeing as how Cornell’s pacing of the comic is so obvious–he tries and fails to make it feel like a big action movie–it’s boring. The only compelling element is the appearance of the personification of the city of Gotham. Guess what? It’s a Bat-man. But Cornell tries all these jokes and then the rousing action […]
MoreSoldier Zero 2 (November 2010)
It’s actually kind of impressive how substantial a read Cornell makes this issue… especially since it takes place over about an hour. Unfortunately, Cornell’s writing failures here are the kind of thing…. A big part of the issue is what voice Soldier Zero is talking to the protagonist with. The Soldier Zero part (which goes […]
MoreFantastic Four: True Story 4 (January 2009)
And it’s a happy ending for everyone not looking at Domingues’s art. Seriously, it’s really bad. But the final issue has a lot of charm–even if the ending is too short and Cornell wastes the cast of The Wind and the Willows. Having Toad run around with Johnny Storm seems somehow perfect and Cornell only […]
MoreFantastic Four: True Story 3 (November 2008)
The third issue has some very weak moments–oh, the Austen characters are from Sense and Sensibility–but it ends with the Fantastic Four all dead, shot by firing squad. Along with the little kid from Sense and Sensibility. So Cornell gets some respect for shooting a little kid. Even if it’s not shown on panel (Domingues […]
MoreFantastic Four: True Story 2 (October 2008)
Well, if it weren’t for Domingues, Cornell might really have something this issue. Cornell tasks Domingues with drawing various literary figures and he comes up with something out of a “Scooby Doo” cartoon. The artwork here does not cut it–Marvel should be embarrassed. Domingues’s style is unfinished (they should have given him an experienced inker […]
MoreFantastic Four: True Story 1 (September 2008)
I really wanted to love Fantastic Four: True Story, but Cornell just isn’t able to make it precious enough. The concept is somewhat complex–Sue is suffering from melancholy and discovers it has to do with not wanting to read fiction. It turns out the whole world is suffering from a similar melancholy (a major problem […]
MoreSoldier Zero 1 (October 2010)
You know, I liked it. I dislike gimmicks as a principle, but Boom! allowed advance reviews of Soldier Zero so I figured they must think it’ll get good ones. You don’t see a lot of advance comic reviews from any superhero publisher. It succeeds because of Paul Cornell, near as I can tell, and because […]
MoreAvengers vs. Atlas 3 (May 2010)
Once again, I’m opening with a comment about Hardman, because the comic really leaves no other choice. While Parker constructs this elaborate and complicated story (I don’t even know how complicated yet, but it’s the kind of story–a sequel to a forty-year old story–Brubaker does pretty well and Bendis fails on but does try and […]
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