52 #9 (DC Comics) Wow, I’m running out of ways to say “This series is really great” every week, and this is only the ninth issue of a planned 52-part series. While the Steel/Natasha/Luthor and the Montoya/Question/Batwoman storylines both make action-packed leaps forward this week, the highlight was probably Devilance the Pursuer keeping the M.I.A. space heroes captive in a cave like a fairytale ogre. While the ten-part “History of the DCU” back up story has been progressively less interesting, this installment, which covers Identity Crisis, is downright infuriating, as this story that exists solely to relay pertinent information to new readers about DC continuity gets several important details wrong.
The All New Atom #1 (DC) This may just be DC’s most promising new series in a long time. Young, Chinese import Dr. Ryan Choi arrives in fictional DC college town Ivy Town to fill the position vacated by his long-time correspondent, Dr. Ray “The Atom” Palmer. Not only will Choi be living in Palmer’s old digs and teaching his old classes, he’ll be wearing his size-changing belt as well, it seems. Writer Gail Simone, who does stellar character work, takes some re-design concepts and ideas from ever forward-thinking Grant Morrison and lays the groundwork for what seems to be an incredibly fun, new series. First conflict: Microscopic aliens who speak in bizarre tenses are infiltrating earth, beginning with the hides of dogs. Only two real flaws that I see (well, three if you count the costume redesign, as the Atom’s costume is one of the best in superhero history): Simone inserts non-sensical, distracting quotes like footnotes attached to dialogue throughout, and having controversial, old school penciller John Byrne drawing anything called “All New” seems a little silly, as he’s one of the few least new artist working in superhero comics today.
Battler Britton #1 (WildStorm/DC) If you’re like me (i.e. not British), chances are you had no idea who Battler Britton was until you heard of this series, but apparently he was a famous British comics hero that has currently come into DC’s possession, akin to Thunberbolt Jaxon. Battler being a World War II character, who better to bring him back to life than Garth Ennis, probably the only writer in mainstream American comics still telling war comics of any kind these days, let alone good ones. Together with artist Colin Wilson, Ennis reintroduces us to BB as he and his Royal Air Force squadron come to North Africa in 1942 to teach the Yanks how to shoot down Jerry proper like. They mix like tea and Coca-Cola. It’s far from Ennis’ best work, and feels a lot like all of his other World War II war comics, but that’s not exactly a bad thing—even mediocre Ennis is better than many writers at their best.
Conan and the Songs of the Dead #1 (Dark Horse) Let’s see, writer Joe R. Lansdale and artist Timothy Truman…on Conan? I can review this in just three words: Best. Conan. Ever.
Detective Comics #821 (DC) Paul Dini is best known for his work on the phenomenal mid-‘90s TV show Batman: The Animated Series, but he’s penned some pretty compelling Batman comics over the years as well, including Batman: Mad Love for Bruce Timm to illustrate and Batman: War On Crime for Alex Ross. He’s also responsible for the other five Ross oversized books and the fun Jingle Belle Christmas comics that Oni and Dark Horse have published. The guy knows Batman, and he knows how to write great comics—so what exactly took DC so long to give him a monthly Batman series? Regardless, he’s here now, and the results couldn’t be more spectacular. He accentuates the “Detective” in Detective Comics, and in the process does two things too rarely done in Batman comics these days. First, he presents an entire story in just one single issue. And second, he invents a new villain, which most Bat-writers have been too reticient to do for a long time, presumably because Batman already has the best rogues gallery in popular fiction. Dini’s collaborator is artist J.H. Williams III of Promethea fame, whose work I won’t even bother trying to compliment here—pictures are worth a thousand words, and Williams’ pictures are worth millions of my words. Suffice it to say that Detective hasn’t been this great since Greg Rucka left it years ago.
Devi #1 (Virgin Comics) Everything I’ve seen from new publisher on the block Virgin Comics so far—#0 preview issue, the ads—has looked promising, and the first issue of their first comic book is no exception. The production values are high, the book and logo design are slick and gorgeous, and the art is eye-popping. The story I’m yet to be convinced of. The title character is, or was, a human being infused with the power of an Indian pantheon to battle a rebel god in human pre-history. The first half of the book is devoted to Devi’s battle with the evil, bat-like god Bala, and it’s pretty cool stuff; Mukesh Singh’s art demands plenty of pauses to stop and simply admire it, and Siddharth Kotian’s cheesy script seems appropriate for the comic book mythology. Then we flash forward to the future, where the Devi character is a scantily-clad assassin with Witchblade-like powers, and Lord Bala has restyled himself as a James Bond villain.
JSA #87 (DC) This is the way JSA ends, not with a bang but a whimper. For years now, it’s been the most reliable team comic on the shelves, but for the series’ final arc its regular writer Geoff Johns turned the reigns over to Paul Levitz, and the result was a so-so two issue story stretched out across five issues. Considering the gigantic conflicts this usually huge team has dealt with over the past few years, this throw down against minor villain The Gentleman Ghost has been an anticlimax to the whole series.
Secret Six #2 (DC) Six villains unite as a team to fight all the other villains in the world for, um, some reason. Honestly, the story end of this series is a little foggy, but no one—myself included—picked up Gail Simone’s return to the team she introduced in last year’s Villains United for the story. It’s the cool characters, and Simone’s way of writing them, that sells this thing, and I continue to be sold, even though Brad Walker and Jimmy Palimiotti’ art leaves a lot to be desired. This issue, I especially enjoyed Catman’s cute little winter outfit, complete with cat ears on the hood, and the fact that Deadshot lights up a cigarette as soon as he finishes climbing up to a peak in the Himalayas—is that his superpower? The ability to smoke under any conditions?
Teen Titans #37 (DC) The new Titans and the new Doom Patrol versus the new Brotherhood of Evil, plus plenty of teen melodrama—a perfect superhero comic, really.
Transformers Evolutions #1 (IDW) After the initial blast of nostalgia wore off, I quickly tired of Dreamwave’s millennial relaunch of Transformers comics (Just as I did with G.I.Joe—both properties ate up a lot of time in my childhood, but I need something more than the fact that I loved something when I was eight to keep reading about it every month). This intriguing series drew me back quite quickly though. After centuries of war on prehistoric Earth, the sentient machine armies of Cybertron retreat to the bowels of the Earth to go into suspended animation and wait out the Ice Age. One awakens to find man mastering the steam engine, and the robots in disguise are primed to adopt Steam Age disguises—so Bumblebee’s a train, Shockwave’s a steamboat, Starscream becomes a biplane, et cetera. It’s a pretty cool idea, but I was a little disappointed in the human characters, which seem a little too League of Extraordinary Gentleman, only not as clever: steel-driving man John Henry, Jules Verne and Mark Twain (Counting The Five Fists of Science and The American Way, that’s the third time Twain’s popped up in a comic book this summer). Still, I’ll stick around to see what forms the steam age Transformers take.
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