Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 2 (February 2010)

Whatever my problems with Leonardi–they go on and on–I have to give him credit. He draws a female character in, basically, a bikini and doesn’t do it with any of the cheesecake objectification most comic book artists would. In fact, I didn’t even realize it; it just seemed the right outfit. (It’s a human wearing a Predator outfit for those who don’t follow Aliens vs. Predator).

This issue follows the same formula as the first one. The beginning is some really dumb action scene, then the actual story starts and it’s good. Stradley gets in some nice homage to Aliens (the movie)–it’s homage because it’s clear what he’s doing and it’s in an Aliens comic, in case anyone’s wondering why I’m in favor of it while I usually use “homage” as a pejorative around here (always with the quotation marks).

Besides the lame action half, it’s decent.

CREDITS

Writer, Randy Stradley; penciller, Rick Leonardi; inker, Mark Pennington; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Blambot!; editors, Samantha Robertson and Chris Warner; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Aliens vs. Predator: Three World War 1 (January 2010)

It has a flashback. It has an actual flashback to explain the events in previous comic books to explain to the reader what’s pertinent.

I tried the Dark Horse relaunches of Aliens and Predator. Both were atrocious on almost every level, but they also didn’t have any flashbacks to explain the ground situation to readers who hadn’t been loyally reading the Dark Horse licensed titles.

Aliens vs. Predator has a flashback. It comes late in the issue, in the narrative even.

The comic turns around, in terms of writing, about halfway through the issue. It opens badly with a big action scene–Rick Leonardi’s artwork is real weak. I’m shocked Dark Horse relaunched these titles (the others have it too) with such weak, cartoonish artwork. There probably isn’t a single good panel in the book… wait, there’s one.

But Randy Stradley can write and he eventually does.

It’s not terrible.

CREDITS

Writer, Randy Stradley; penciller, Rick Leonardi; inker, Mark Pennington; colorist, Wes Dzioba; letterer, Blambot!; editors, Samantha Robertson and Chris Warner; publisher, Dark Horse Comics.

Cloak and Dagger (1985) #4

Cd4

I can’t believe Marvel didn’t relaunch Cloak and Dagger during the Bush years. It’s a neo-con wet dream (complete with discreet racism, with Cloak being the evil black, corrupting Dagger, and cops beating witnesses).

This issue is, I think, my first Cloak and Dagger ever. I wasn’t missing much. They’re both really annoying. She’s holier than thou and he’s, well, nuts too. The whole thing reads like a PSA on acid, which I kind of understand, but not really. I get the intent–superheroes versus drugs–but it’s so utterly simplistic, even when it tries to be complicated, it’s just annoying.

I mean, you want to tell me no comic book creators ever dabble in recreation drugs? Please. I’m sure some blog about it today. Cloak and Dagger lumps them all together because it’s propaganda; it’s not even well-written propaganda.

And Leonardi’s art is super bad at times.