52 #10 (DC Comics) Black Adam flirts, Booster Gold rants and super-scientists chat, but powerless Clark Kent gets the spotlight this issue, tearing a page out of his wife’s playbook to land an exclusive interview with Supernova. Plus, what did Will Magnus find in Dr. Sivana’s lab…an empty cocoon? Hmm, what's the tag line for next issue? “You’ll believe a Venusian worm can fly”? In the back-up that just won’t die, the “History of the DCU” continues, covering the beginnings of Infinite Crisis. When can we expect it to cover weeks one through ten of 52?
A Man Called Kev #1 (WildStorm/DC) Another week, another WildStorm series debut from Garth Ennis, this one drawn by his longtime collaborator Carlos Ezquerra.
Civil War: Frontline #3 (Marvel Comics) Sally interviews a bunch of nobodies, Ben interviews Reed Richards, Thunderclap and Bantam fight. That’s the lead story, which is decent enough if unremarkable. There are no less than three back-ups, which makes this particular issue the most anthlology-esque of the series. In the strongest, we continue to follow the de-powered Speedball’s harrowing prison experience—the kid may have the lamest codename in the entire Marvel Universe (even lamer than Thunderclap and Bantam), but he’s got balls. As for the back-est of the back-ups, the ill-conceived Let’s Compare This Fictional Marvel Comics Event To Some Real Life Tragedy Thus Trivializing It And Making The Comic Seem Crass And Exploitive In The Process story, I didn’t even understand it this time around. Please Marvel, stop these.
The Escapists #1 (Dark Horse Comics) I may just be biased because of the love letter to Cleveland that this inspired-by-Michael-Chabon’s-novel-about-the-Golden-Age-comics-industry miniseries opens with, but this was a great start to what promises to be a great series. Not only can writer Brian K. Vaughan apparently do no wrong, he can’t even do anything less than totally right, either.
Green Lantern #12 (DC) Better extremely late than never. Geoff Johns continues to undo much of what happened to the Green Lantern franchise since “Reign of the Supermen” (here a half-dozen Lanterns Parallax iced in “Emerald Twilight are found alive), but at least he’s doing it well. Johns is a veritable superhero repair man. Love what he and penciller Ivan Reis did with the Cyborg Superman’s costume, too (Too bad Simone Bianchi’s otherwise cool cover didn’t reflect the new black and red color scheme).
JLA: Classified #24 (DC) I really wanted and (continue to want) to like this story arc, in which Martian Manhunter and Aquaman train the fledgling members of the short-lived Detroit-based iteration of the League and run afoul of two warring Royal Flush Gangs, but Steve Englehart’s script is just too sub-par to enjoy. It’s certainly not the worst JLA story since the Morrison/Porter/Dell relaunch—it’s still head and shoulders above “The Tenth Circle” or “Pain of the Gods”—but it is terribly weak, and full of accidentally hilarious moments. Exhibit A? See Aquaman’s conversation with the fish that sticks its head out of the water to talk to him. Confidential to Amos Fortune: Spandex is a thin man’s material.
Shaolin Cowboy #6 (Burlyman Entertainment) Line of the week: “You might be nature’s perfect eating machine, but you are sadly lacking in fencing skills whitey.” I’ve long since forgotten exactly why that disembodied demon head is trying to kill S.C., but I could care less. Geoff Darrow draws the best damn fight between a school of sharks and a kung fu cowboy wielding staff-mounted chainsaws inside the belly of a behemoth I’ve ever seen.
Superman #654 (DC) Hmm, so this is what an absolutely perfect issue of a Superman comic book is like, huh?
Ultimate Fantastic Four #31 (Marvel) Wow, I should get a job doing security for the Baxter Building in Ultimate New York City—apparently, you can be a complete fucking idiot and still be considered qualified for the job. I love what artist Greg Land has done with Zombie Reed Richards, but dislike just about everything else about his art in this series of late. I’m really looking forward to his and writer Mark Millar’s last issue next month.
Ultimate Spider-Man #97 (Marvel) The inks seem a little off this week—fess up, John Sibal—resulting in pretty fuzzy art on a title that has earned a rep for being one of the most consistent titles in comics history (Soon to become the most consistent, when penciller Mark Bagley breaks Jack Kirby’s record). At least Bagley’s new design for the Ultimized Scropion is awesome. Major props to he and writer Brian Michael Bendis for taking the title of the most controversial and reviled story arc in Spider-Man history and using it for their record-making, record-breaking arc. If anyone can redeem the words “Clone Saga,” it’s Bendis and Bagley.
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