Hulk / Wolverine: Six Hours 4 (May 2003)

Hulk / Wolverine: Six Hours #4 Bickering. Jones concludes the series with Bruce and Logan bickering. Why are they bickering? Because Wolverine first appeared in a Hulk comic and Jones is trying to tie into their long history together? Who knows–Wolverine sure isn’t remembered for his Hulk appearance.

The resolution is tightly paced, with Jones first using humor to get through Wolverine’s fight with the Shredder. The Shredder proves disposable–a distraction from the main event of the issue, Wolverine versus the Hulk. Even the resolution to the plane crash takes a backseat to the fight.

And Kolins draws a visceral yet still amusing fight between the two. The Hulk’s foaming at the mouth at one point; Jones wisely doesn’t try for an intelligent Hulk or even a sensible one. It’s just the fight the comic has been promising since the first issue.

It’s jokey, oddly pleasant while still maintaining some toughness. Jones isn’t going for deep.

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Scott Kolins; colorist, Lee Loughridge; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editor, John Miesegaes; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Hulk / Wolverine: Six Hours 3 (April 2003)

Hulk / Wolverine: Six Hours #3 Jones maintains a great pace through Six Hours. He’s got his four plot lines going–Bruce and Logan, the villain (the Shredder, because apparently Eastman and Laird don’t know how to copyright), the captive pilot and the missing boy’s parents back in Florida. It moves really well; Jones doesn’t cover a lot of time, but he does spend just the right amount on each characters’ experiences.

Unfortunately, he also has some really goofy dialogue. And Bruce and Logan barely have anything to do in the comic. They bicker a lot. Jones isn’t big on character development and he’s even less inclined to spend any time developing his two leads. The cliffhanger, with Bruce and Logan versus the Shredder (or at least the first attack), is just silly.

Dialogue aside, it’s also silly because it’s a big action set piece on a tranquil lake. Kolins does fine on art, lake and all.

B-

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Scott Kolins; colorist, Lee Loughridge; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editor, John Miesegaes; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Hulk / Wolverine: Six Hours 2 (March 2003)

Hulk / Wolverine: 6 Hours #2 Kolins goes more into detail this issue than he did in the first. The exterior Canadian mountains are precise and intense; it makes Six Hours a distinct-looking comic, even when Kolins occasionally has problems. He doesn’t deal with movement particularly well.

The story is reasonably successful, although Jones introduces an absurd villain and gives him crappy dialogue. Kolins runs with the art on the guy, who wears a hood and has an extended arm with claws on it. No doubt he’ll get into it with Wolverine one of these issues.

And Wolvering finally gets to come into the issue, but he and Bruce Banner are just around to move the other story. Banner and Logan have no stories (so far) in Six Hours, they’re just caricatures. It’s the supporting cast who Jones most concentrates on, including a worried family and a mob boss.

It’s a peculiar, but reasonably successful, approach.

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Scott Kolins; colorist, Lee Loughridge; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editor, John Miesegaes; publisher, Marvel Comics.

Hulk / Wolverine: Six Hours 1 (March 2003)

Hulk / Wolverine: 6 Hours #1 Writer Bruce Jones takes great care plotting out this first issue. He reveals the significance of the Six Hours title towards the middle of the issue, during the first intense, action set piece. There are a couple of those set pieces, with the beginning of the issue instead dedicated to setting up the supporting cast.

Bruce Banner is on the run and just happens to be at the airport when the men in black are after him so why not hop a flight to Canada. Things don’t go well on that flight, which Jones set into motion during the first quarter of the issue. He also moves between different characters and scenes through similar dialogue; it’s all very deliberate and it definitely creates tension.

The Wolverine appearance so far is inconsequential to the story. Jones is teasing.

Scott Kolins art is an odd fit for a wilderness story, but successful.

B+

CREDITS

Writer, Bruce Jones; artist, Scott Kolins; colorist, Lee Loughridge; letterer, Dave Sharpe; editor, John Miesegaes; publisher, Marvel 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.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #8

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So, if Wein knew he had to cover the whole Green Lantern goes nuts thing, why is an earthling the best narrator for the series? In fact, the earthbound narrator is now the worst possible choice in a variety of ways.

It isn’t enough he wouldn’t know about the Oa stuff or Parallax (oh, Ron Marx created Parallax… things make so much more sense now), the narrator’s also blond. So the colorist is adding these hints of grey at his temples to show his aging. Because, given the series should now be taking place only a few years ago in DC Universe time… the narrator would be in his mid-seventies. His daughter’s age is even more inexplicable.

The issue also shows stupid nineties costume design should be forgotten, not repeated.

The backup—it’s the New Gods finally—is terribly written and makes no sense. Quitely’s efforts appear disinterested too.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #7

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It’s difficult to describe what Jerry Ordway inking Dan Jurgens looks like—Ordway definitely brings his sensibilities to it, but there’s the Jurgens underneath. Unfortunately, neither artist is in his best time, so the result is somewhat less than either on their own (in their prime). It’s like plastic-coated Jurgens and the last thing he needs is plastic-coating.

Wein skips over Millennium and some other crossovers and goes straight to Bane and Doomsday. Now, I never read the Batman storyline, but it seems goofy here. Especially with Bane running away in a mall. Not the most dynamic setting for a fight.

As for the Doomsday stuff… I haven’t read that issue since it came out, it seems like a reprinting. Boring. Lame melodramatics with the narrator too.

The backup, however, with Bolland art, is utterly charming. The Atom goes back to Camelot for a couple minutes. It’s wonderful.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #6

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Perez inking Ordway produces a good result and, even though Wein’s writing has weakened again, the issue is moderately successful. Wein’s basically recapping post-Crisis big events here—mostly Legends and the reforming of the Justice League. As far as a summary, it works pretty well—though I think they’re leaving out Millennium or whatever.

But the narrator again takes center and his story gets even lamer. First, his reformed crook brother-in-law is crippled, making the pair very annoying as they form this homoerotic codependency. Second, the timeline is all messed up again. The character looks like he’s in his mid-thirties, but if he was born in the 1920s… he should be in his sixties.

The backup, with Giffen and Milgrom on the art, is a Legion thing. The writing’s lame and Giffen draws teenage Superboy like he’s fifty. Maybe Giffen should be drawing the series protagonist.

DC Universe: Legacies (2010) #5

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This one’s Crisis issue and easily the best writing Wein has done on the series. It’s hard to decide why it’s his best though. My first thought was because this period—late seventies to mid-eighties—is when Wein was writing comics and he’s able to work well in that period. My next thought had to do with his stupid narrator and his convict brother-in-law. This time, Wein gets it taken care of in the first few pages, so there’s no waiting for it to rear its ugly head.

But maybe it’s even more simple—the majority of the issue is a “new” Crisis sequence. Lots of disaster, lots of superheroes, George Perez drawing. It just works.

The backup, with Simonson art, is some nonsensical space hero team-up thing, but Simonson, even as disinterested as he appears, does a fine job.

Easily the best issue so far.