Comics reviews 2/9/11 (and some 2/2)

Figured I'd get into the habit of talking about the books I'm picking up every week, but since this is the first week I'm getting back to it, I might throw a couple of honorable mentions from last week as well. Otherwise, I notice I pick up about ten books a week, so that should provide ample material to write about. The majority of those are going to be from the Big Two publishers, and we can further simplify that down to mostly Batman- and Spider-man-family titles. I do read my share of Image and Dark Horse and the smaller publishing houses, though, and on rare occasion I'll even venture to pick up an indie title. I'll concede there often time a lot better than the mass-produced stuff being churned out, but usually I wait until they've already been out and recommended to me to read them. Anyway, presented in no particular order aside from how they're piled in front of me, here's my pull this week and my write-ups on them beyond the cut:

2/9
Infestation: Star Trek #1 (of 2)
Power Man and Iron First #1
Batman and Robin #20
Batgirl #18
Knight & Squire #5 (of 6)
Atomic Robo: The Deadly Art of Science #3 (of 5)
BPRD: Hell On Earth: Gods #2 (of 3)
Carnage #3 (of 5)
Amazing Spider-Man #654


and from 2/2
Weird Worlds #2 (of 6)
Daomu #1
Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #1 (of 5)
Amazing Spider-Man #653


Infestation: Star Trek #1 (of 2) from IDW
Written by Scott and David Tipton, pencils/inks by Gary Erksine, layouts by Casey Maloney, colors by Luis Antonio Delgado
"He's dead, Jim."

Now, I am at this point committed to reading all ten issues of Infestation. I could tell three issues ago, though, it isn't very good. Or, more accurately, it's very simplistic. However, I do approach it with the same thinking I do most movies, and like a lot of my favorites they aren't good but they're still entertaining, which Infestation has managed to pull off so far. For those not familiar, Infestation is IDW's massive crossover event in which magic zombies (from Zombies Vs. Robots, which I am personally not familiar with but have gathered since that it predated this event by at least a few years) escape into four different dimensions: Transformers, Star Trek, GI Joe and Ghostbusters. As such, and I know it's been observed ad naseum, this project is essentially a massive graphic undertaking of what every child of the 80s did with their action figures. Each universe is getting a two-part mini with a general Infestation title at the start and end to introduce the concept and tie everything up, respectively. This issue, specifically, deals with the Star Trek universe's first encounter with the zombies. Kirk, Spock and Bones, along with a few generic crewmen, land on a planet where Bones is meant to be given a medal for his recent medical work there. They, of course, find the entire population zombified and most of this issue is spent either a) figuring out what's going on or b) running away. Overall, this issue was basically the most boring part of a horror film with the stock dialog coming from Star Trek characters rather than Sexy Teens. This is salvaged by some excellent action pieces and a couple of strong scenes, one of which (I'd say the best of which) was spoiled by the preview that's been in both previous issues of the crossover (and further spoiled by my quote up top, sorry). I think this is going to be a fun two issues, but the first issue by itself didn't have a lot to stand on. I surprise even myself by saying this, but I think the first Transformers issue actually had more depth than Star Trek in quickly setting up what was going on and moving the plot forward, even though it had about twice as many characters to deal with. Aside from the content inside, I do want to positively mention John K. Snyder III and Jason Wright's cover ("Cover A") featuring some beautiful, stylized art, with the separated zombie waiting below, giving off a kind of Jaws-poster vibe.
One thing that bugged me, though, maybe someone a little more knowledgeable about Star Trek could explain to me why (or why it's in correct that) phasers set on stun have no effect on the zombies. Is it a nervous system thing? Just a result of the zombies being "magic"?



Power Man and Iron Fist #1 from Marvel
Written by Fred Van Lente, pencils by Wellington Alves, inks by Nelson Pereira, colors by Bruno Hang
"Now don't go blackin' out and forget how AWESOME that was!"

This is a great example of how to do a first issue. I didn't read Shadowland, so my only experience with this new Power Man has been his appearance in FVL's Amazing Spider-Man back-ups. I was initially hesitant, but at this point I've learned to trust Fred Van Lente knows what he's doing. By the end of the back-ups, I was totally sold on the character at least to the extent that I was willing to pick up this issue when I probably wouldn't have been too interested otherwise. Van Lente had tweeted that he was subconsciously writing the Power Man character with Donald Glover in mind, and I don't doubt this because it comes through absolutely. Occasionally a character's voice comes through in the writing, and I can totally hear Vic as Trey from Community sometimes. Most importantly, he's the infusion of fun in what could otherwise be a fairly dark book, with a stoic lead character like Rand/Iron Fist and a few storylines coming together to ostensibly form a murder-mystery. And it's one that Van Lente writes very intelligently and realistically, not falling on a lot of mystery tropes, even silently, subtly calling some out. Conversely, there is a character named Noir who seems to be an over-the-top embodiment of some of those tropes. It all balances well, and becomes an excellent introduction to drag you in to what's going to be coming next. And this, at least for me personally, was absolutely vital as I wasn't sure I wanted to pick this book up in the first place, let alone keep reading it next month. Now, I'll definitely be back. And anyone who read Van Lente's excellent Taskmaster series last year (unquestioningly in the top five of 2010 for me), a nice little bonus as Don of the Dead returns in the titular characters' establishing scene.



Weird Worlds #2 (of 6) from DC
Lobo segment written by Kevin Vanhook, art by Jerry Ordway, colors by Pete Pantazis; Garbage Man segment written and pencilled by Aaron Lopresti, inks by Matt Ryan, colors by Dave McCaig; Tanga segment written and art by Kevin Maguire, colors by Rosemary Cheetham
"I saw that... going... differently..."

Honestly, I threw this on because I liked pretty much everything this week and wanted at least one thing to hate on. I liked the first issue, at least the Lobo and Tanga segments, the Garbage Man felt rather middling and derivative, albeit somewhat self-aware of that derivativeness so I was really left unclear on how serious I was meant to take it. This second issue came off as middling and mediocre all around. Lobo did what Lobo does, and actually wrapped up the story of the first issue with no real clue where this is going in the next four or if I want to keep reading. Garbage Man, a Toxic Avenger/Swamp-Thing-like character this time damn near repeated what happened in the first issue, aside from a character dying and one scene that tied Batman into the whole thing. Additionally, and I didn't think of it the first time around, but the whole "weird worlds" motif doesn't really fit, with the other two stories being space-themed, Garbage Man doesn't seem to tie into that at all, and if it's going that way I'm not seeing any indication of it in what we've seen so far; it's really the odd-man-out of the book. And if Lobo was why I picked up the title in the first place, Tanga was what kept me reading, and perhaps was the only real saving grace in this issue. I really liked the character playing off herself in the isolation of space and how we were dumped in the middle of her story without any clue to what was actually going on. This issue we see her actually interacting with other characters in a Mos Eisley Cantina-style location, and I didn't find it quite as sharp for some reason. And of the three stories, this is the only one that particularly deepened the story and left it open to see where it's going.

If there's anything in here I can't complain about, it's the art. Over three stories, there's really no bad art. Oddly, Maguire's in Tanga is my favorite but also my only real complaint: a lot of Tanga's expressions come off as... photo-referencey. Not as bad as a Horn or Land but you can kind of feel like there's a real person underneath the art and I find it a bit distracting. Otherwise, some great work on there and solid work on all three stories.

I may go back and pick up the rest of the series when a collection drops, but I'm pretty sure after this one I'm dropping the single issues from my pull.

Daomu #1 from Image

Written by Colin Johnson based on a story by Kennedy Xu, art by Ken Chou
"If your father was murdered right in front of you, you'd understand what I had to do."

This was picked up on a complete whim, I'd never heard of it or its franchise before the day this came out, and for that reason I'm occasionally glad I have such an impulsive nature. I really liked this book, apparently based on a crazy-popular novel series over in China (I trust they're not lying, but seriously I have no sense of what's going on in China's pop culture scene). The opening scrawl hints that this is set in a world of tombs filled with riches and artifacts, and competing factions of "grave robbers"; the good, the bad and the Daomu ("Daomu" translating literally as "tomb-robbers"), although never clearly stating what these mystical factors are and what the factions are doing with them. The Daomu are, in present day, left leaderless and corrupt and at odds with a government-funded corporation regarding the contents of the tomb. This is all the set-up, and I'm sure I'm butchering the telling as it actually dragged me right into the story proper, which is of a son and his estranged father. This issue looks at their first meeting in twenty years, a meeting which leaves the father dead and throwing the son into the world of these grave-robbers. There are solid elements of mystery, intrigue and the supernatural but left enough in the dark that I want to know what the hell's going on. Nothing in this issue is ever particularly cleared up to the main character any more than the reader, and with a cliffhanger ending I definitely want to see where this is going in the next issue. Additionally, this is all accompanied by some beautiful art, a bit painted and a bit of tighter Templesmith style and some absolutely beautiful use of color; the use of heavy blues in the rain scenes, the red bits of the assassin, the whites and jade in China, all really stand out in a way I don't see too often.

Batman and Robin #20 from DC

Written by Peter Tomasi, pencils by Patrick Gleason, inks by Mick Gray, colors by Alex Sinclair
"The more things change, the more they stay the same."

I was late in getting back into Batman, I've only recently caught up on most of what Morrison had done and was back on active Bat-duty with Batman Inc. kicking off. I had checked out the first non-Morrison issue of B&R and wanted to drop it again pretty quickly, but I think I missed a whole one issue before Tomasi came on and brought me back (no slight against Cornell, who I'm going to praise pretty heavily in a bit, this title just didn't hold me). Really, there was a couple of panel a few blogs had posted that convinced me to pick it up, and it was part of the sequence making up the first three pages that alone made the book worth picking up. One problem I've had off and on with the Bat-books is how dark and grim it is; no matter how dark the character is the book themselves still need something fun to keep the story interesting. Otherwise it's just Daredevil. That's why I appreciate the books with Damian Wayne and Stephanie Brown most of all, usually, although Tomasi here nails Dick Grayson and even Bruce Wayne having a warm streak to them without having it feel uncharacteristic, which is a pitfall a lot of writers fall in. The character work is the real strength of this issue; aside from the first three pages Dick, Damian and Gordon playing off each other in the autopsy room (... is there an actual term for where they do autopsies? I don't watch much CSI) is probably the strongest scene in the book. And it probably doesn't matter a whole lot to anyone who isn't me, but who shows up at the end goes a long way to making me come back to this book.

Batgirl #18 from DC

Written by Bryan Q. Miller, pencils/painted sequence by Dustin Nguyen, inks by Derek Fridolfs, colors by Guy Majors
"ACCIO FIST!"

Despite every blog, news source and friend reading it mentioning how good it is, I only started reading Batgirl at the last issue, and then only because Damian was making a Guest Star appearance in it. And I absolutely loved that issue, to the point that this jumped the priority list and taught me the same lesson I always need to relearn about listening to people. I didn't love this issue quite as much, as Batgirl playing off Klarion (who I am  not more than passingly familiar with) did not play off each other nearly as well as Batgirl and Robin. And not just saying that as a fan of Damian in any given situation, Miller seriously nailed the two playing off each other. Klarion was a weird little kid, which I think obviously he was meant to be, and the chemistry between the two never quite hit the same level. And a lot of the character he did have came infused from Ngyunen's art, who is great at the worst of times but not someone whose character design and expression usually stands out to me this much. Here he carried off so much of the characters in their expressions, it strengthened the rest of the book that might have sagged without it. The thing I'm happiest about this book, though, is the fact that it's a complete, solid story told within one issue, and so was the previous one. Looking over my pile, it's the only book in two weeks I could say this about. And even though I didn't like this as much as its own previous issue, it's still one of the best titles I'm reading right now.

Knight & Squire #5 (of 6) from DC

Written by Paul Cornell, art by Jimmy Broxton, colors by Guy Major
"That's something Britain needs--supervillains who aren't cheap knock-offs of the real thing!"

I was most impressed by this for how different it was from the rest of the series. I have loved this mini so far, but mostly it was the tongue-in-cheek humor, the pastiches, parodies and puns. This issue dragged it firmly into the "real world", at least in the sense of grounding it into the greater DC universe. Up until this, it felt like Cornell was just having fun, with Knight's somewhat laissez-faire attitude and the cute over-arcing story between Squire and Shrike's blossoming relationship. Now we see he was building to something greater. I feel like I was slighting him earlier in my review of Batman & Robin because I dropped his arc, but really that was the exception to the rule, the rule being that I generally love Cornell's writing and K&S continues to exemplify why. I spent less time picking out the easter eggs I understood and the ones I'd have to look up later and more time getting into the story that I didn't even realize had been building up since issue one, and now I can't wait for next month to finish it. Especially with the surprise character who showed up to cause havoc and discord in Great Britain:

WOSSY!!! *shakes fist*

Seriously, though, I didn't see the real character at the end coming, or the turn the whole thing took. Not going to offer anything spoiler-y for this issue.

Additionally, where Cornell usually provides linear notes for the more Anglo-centric references in the comic, this time he begins listing the British heroes and villains he's introduced since this series began. 88 in the first issue alone. As a huge fan of world-building, THAT is impressive.

Atomic Robo #3 (of 5) from Red 5

Written by Brian Clevinger, art by Scott Wegener, colors by Ronda Pattison
"When a manbot loves a woman--"

The hard part of writing these reviews is going to be issues like this, where I have a hard time saying anything about the series without devolving into listing why its awesome. So I'm not going to fight it here. Like a few rare series I could name, there really hasn't been a bad issue of Atomic Robo. That said, there are good issues, and there are great issues, and this one falls firmly in the latter. We have the falling out and eventual reconcillation of father and son, except unlike most scenes like this the father and son are Nikola Tesla and an atomic-powered mechanoid, respectively. We have pulp-hero Jack Tarot reluctantly becoming the mentor Robo wants him to be. We have a last-page villain reveal somewhat spoiled by his being on the cover. We have the robot-human love that Futurama so clearly warned us about that, this being set in the past, assumedly won't end well. Really, this comic is just a series of awesome things happening, bolstered by clever writing and, especially in this issue, some great work on the characters' interpersonal relationships that feels real despite being amidst clanking automatons and super-scientists and gangster-bashing action. And then the art is great on top of all that. Atomic Robo is just a perfect storm of Good Comic.

The single most impressive part of this issue, though, was Jack Tarot's origin was told and done with in one panel.

Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever #1 (of 5) from Dark Horse

Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, art by John Severin, colors by Dave Stewart
"Shouldn't we have gone to the sheriff?" "Greenhorn, you just killed the sheriff."

This was another that almost passed me by initially. I think I've read every issue set in Mignola's Hellboy universe, it is hands-down my favorite comic series, but the first Witchfinder series left me relatively underwhelmed. As such, I was ready to let this one go by in single issues and pick it up as a trade. Then the day it came out, I read an interview with John Arcudi Dark Horse had linked to on Twitter, and learned that this was set in the 1800s American West. So basically learning this was a Hellboy-verse Western shot it immediately up in priority. I'm a fan of westerns in general and a good supernatural western is a rare treat to be sure. This issue is a decent first act; setting up why Sir Edward is in America, introducing us to the town and its history and pretty heavy on the action throughout, ramping up right and the end and leaving us looking forward to issue two. A lot of the western tropes are pretty generic, but given that they're in the middle of a Witchfinder story set them so out of place that it actually works for the story rather than against it. Severin unsurprisingly knocks the art of the park, I feel like he's been on the related titles before but can only find him on one issue of War On Frogs, which is a damn shame because he fits right in with the Hellboy/BPRD style.

BPRD: Hell On Earth: Gods #2 (of 3) from Dark Horse

Written by Mike Mignola and John Arcudi, art by Guy Davis, colors by Dave Stewart
"It's too much. It's too much for anybody."

Speaking of art that fits in with this family of comics, short of Mignola himself there is nothing more welcome to me than seeing Guy Davis' work on BPRD. When I go back and reread some of the old issues, I have a hard time believing he wasn't always on it, the book and he are so intertwined in my mind at this point. Here we're given sweeping Hyperboren vistas, mutated monsters and scenes of urban destruction. The story itself is in a bit of a holding pattern right now, the world and the story still recovering from the Frog arc finally coming to an end, and gearing up now for what's coming next. This issue specifically was heavy on exposition rather than moving anything forward. The team is introduced to Fenix, we're all introduced to some more Hyperborean lore and for now Abe and Devon have resolved their differences and stopped locking horns, although I have no reason to believe that will last. I have a feeling like New World we're not going to move the plot forward too much by the end of Gods, and possibly even into the next Hell On Earth arc, but these are all serving to set-up whatever big thing is coming next.

Carnage #3 (of 5) from Marvel

Written by Zeb Wells, art by Clayton Crain
"I'm basically in my underwear and you're wearing a tank..."

This is really a golden age for the symbiotes. I'll talk more about where Venom's going coming up (and a lot more after that), but first I am very surprised by how much I'm liking this Carnage book. It's more an ideas book than a functional story, but when everything comes together it's a pretty great read, and subverting a lot of the expectations I had going into it. This issue specifically causes some questions to occur to me about the character of Carnage, specifically who is more predominently in charge, the Venomspawn or Cletus. Parts of this lead me to believe Cletus imprinted more of himself on the symbiote rather than the other way around as it usually works with the Black Costume symbiote, as the new host is getting blasted by Cletus' memories and his madness as the symbiote attempts to bond with her. This issue picks up where the last one left off, with Spider-Man and Iron Man trying to stop a corporation from inadvertently causing a Maximum Carnage family reunion, all leading up to four pages of What The Fuck moments at the end, that I'll resist from spoiling in here for now, though I do want to talk about this series at length at some point. The only thing that threw me off is for some reason this really feels like the second-to-last issue of a mini rather than the middle, it feels like its reached the boiling point and it's all beating-the-bad-guys from here so I have no idea what's in store with two full issues left.

Crain's art is the only real gripe I have; it looks great on covers and such but I've never loved it on interiors, even when he's doing a story with both Stegron and Lizard together, which is not this story. Here, especially, the art is very dark and the action is messy and the symbiote tendrils are all over the place and its hard for the eye to follow everything. It's beautiful, talented work, I can't deny that, but it just doesn't lend itself to sequential art quite as well.

Amazing Spider-Man #653 and #654 from Marvel

Written by Dan Slott and Fred Van Lente, art by Stephen Caselli, colors by Edgar Delgado (653) and Marte Garcia (654)

"We've left the Smythe crazies in the state where they belong... New Jersey."
I'll try and keep this from becoming a slobbery love-letter but I am continually amazed by how good Slott's run on Amazing has been. I didn't notice until writing this that Van Lente was working on this as well, but that only makes the book better. This is exactly what I want my superhero comics should be, Spider-Man especially. Heavy on the action, fun stories that don't shy from the dark side but don't dwell in it either. The story elements Slott has introduced since starting these arcs have been wonderful, with Peter's new job and the shattered-mirror version of Peter's life Phil Urich is currently living, and bringing back Alistair Smythe now is huge for the little ten-year-old Spidey fan in me. The story in this arc specifically is fun and fast but not without suspense and the ending to these issues (starting in #652 as well as backups in earlier issues) is depressing and powerful just where it needs to be. I loved Ramos' art on the Big Time arc, so I hate to say but I think I'm digging Caselli's art here even more. There is a balance to his characters between realism and stylized, cartoonish exaggeration that works so well, plus his work with the Spider-Slayers' armor and the heroes costumes all just looks amazing. Overall, I'm glad this book comes out near-weekly because it's quickly come up as my favorite book of any given week.

One thing I'm especially liking is how the backups have been laid out. While Big Time was still going on, the back-ups in those issues were leading directly into this Revenge of the Spider-Slayers arc, setting up the story without interrupting the main story. The past few back-ups have led into the Power Man and Iron Fist ongoing that I reviewed above that I wouldn't have picked up except for this little story in Spider-Man. Beyond the main comic, #654 introduced us to the new Venom, which is something I've been looking forward to since they announced it. Flash Thompson is kind of a tricky character, but what Remender is doing is, and I say this as a big Venom fan over years, the best thing to happen to the Symbiote ever. It's taking an admittedly weak concept and forcing it to play a role in a really solid high-concept idea. I'll talk about this much much more with the Venom-centric 654.1 next week and when the series itself starts proper, but glad to get a little Slott-fueled taste at the end of this issue.

One side-note after all that, and this applies to both Batgirl and Knight & Squire, was the preview of Batman & Robin in the back of the books. While I prefer this vastly to the DC:UOnline tie in that was in pretty much every one of their book for a month, this seemed like a bit of a waste of space. After the whole Drawing The Line campaign and promoting the addition of the letter pages, what I end up getting is one page of letters (with a quarter of it covered by the logo) and six pages of Batman & Robin. I would rather lose those six pages and  get pro-rated an extra twenty cents or something. Additionally, I don't know how much readership on B&R dropped after Morrison left, but this feels backwards. I'm assuming it's still higher than some of these other titles, who could probably have used a bump from B&R instead of the other way around. If you're reading Knight & Squire, I have to assume you're probably already reading Batman & Robin or you just don't care either way.