Pretty small pull this week, but I think I actually enjoyed every one of them. So, spoiler alert, mostly-positive reviews ahead:
Comics for 3/30
Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1
Secret Avengers #11
Detective Comics #875
Spider-Girl #5
Jimmy Olsen one-shot
Amazing Spider-Man #657
Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #1 from IDW
Written by Eric Powell and Tracy Marsh, pencils by Phil Hester, inks by Bruce McCorkindale, colors by Ronda Pattison, letters by Chris Mowry.
"If I had a real monster, it would be my friend and we would have adventures!"
I think it's a fairly big understatement to say I was a fan of Godzilla growing up, mostly the movies but there be it fighting Devil Dinosaur or Charles Barkley there was always a place in my heart for the comics. So I was especially excited to see a new series announced, especially with talent like Powell and Hester attached. This first issue was a little slow to get going, some pretty heavily-decompressed storytelling going on showing Godzilla's arrival in Tokyo. I'm assuming this isn't the storied Godzilla and something more of a reboot since no one seems to recognize the big guy. Slow as it may be, however, it seems like a fun story is being set up; a lighthearted take on the character and teasing what may be Godzilla's greatest adversary since Barkley (the last page could just be a quick joke and never referenced again but I'm hoping it's merely getting started). The benefit of the decompressed story, though, is that we get plenty of panels of Godzilla stompin' around being all Godzilla-y, which really is why I picked up the book in the first place. And the fact that Hester's art is absolutely beautiful on the book makes it that much better. All members of the art team are doing a great job on this book, leaving a beautiful, clean style that really stands out. Only problem I have with the art is Godzilla seems a bit off-model sometimes, his face changing from panel to panel with a longer, more dinosauric snout on one page and a more ape-like Godzilla Classic face on the next.
I'm assuming this is ongoing, so look forward to picking this up for a while, as well as the Gangsters & Goliaths mini advertised in the back, with John Layman (Chew) writing and Alberto Ponticelli (Unknown Soldier) on art.
Shut up, "dinosauric" is totally a word.
Secret Avengers #11 from Marvel
Written by Ed Brubaker, art by Will Conrad, colors by Rain Beredo, letters by Dave Lanphear.
"As I said, there are pieces missing."
I've been wanting to start this book for a while now, half-heartedly waiting for a good jumping-on point. But seeing Nick Spencer (who I imagine I'll fawn over at length a few entries down) was taking over the writing duties for the series with issue #13, figured this was as good a time as any and grabbed. I didn't really know what was going on, but that's more my own fault and less that of the book, which did an admirable job getting me up to speed with at least what I needed to know. My only major disappointment was that I jumped on a team book, whose compiled members were one of the selling points that got me interested in the book initially, with an issue that pretty much just featured Steve Rogers (and a little bit o' Beast). This is, I imagine, how someone whose favorite character isn't Man-Thing might have felt picking up Thunderbolts #154. Past that, though, it was a fun issue, part flashback and part Source Code, telling a WW2 tale of Nazi Frankensteins and hinting at ancient horrors, possibly somehow relating to Brubaker's work with the Thule society in The Book Of The Skull. Story and art were both wonderful, and I'll have to go back and grab the trades for the first arcs.
Detective Comics #875 from DC
Written by Scott Snyder, art by Francesco Francavilla, letters by Jared K. Fletcher
"Just an old case... something that digs at me, on nights like these."
Now, I think there might have been a mix-up because I thought this issue was supposed to be about a dead whale in a bank? And more importantly a part one (of three)? I had a hard time finding issues of Detective once Batman Inc. started, and I've been thrown off a bit since then. I think I picked up the last issue of the last arc which was the conclusion of the James Jr. back-ups once they had been cut out for the Holding The Line price drop, which according to the solicits should have been #874 and I'm just a bit confused right now. I just wanted a dead whale...
As it is, I was a little lost. Not so much as I could have been, as I've been following reviews of the past few issues in lieu of actually reading them, but I still kind of jumped in the middle of this character's arc. However, it was ostensibly a stand-alone issue about a case Commissioner (then Lieutenant) Gordon had never been able to close and its heretofore unseen ties to his family's sordid history. It told a solid, complete one-off story that exemplifies why Detective Comics is consistently one of the best Bat-family books being put out, all accompanied by Francavilla's art wonderfully complimenting Snyder's writing.
Spider-Girl #5 from Marvel
Written by Paul Tobin, art by Matthew Southworth and Sergio Cariello, colors by Chris Sotomayor, letters by Joe Caramagna.
"This is MY town. I can use this. New York is my weapon."
I really haven't been enjoying this series too much past the first issue, so of course it figures that immediately following the cancellation of the series comes an issue I really liked. With the death of Anya's father in the second issue, the book has felt like its been in mourning as much as Anya herself, dreadfully dreary and slow, drawn out, especially by the usual Tobin standards. This issue, while basically just a giant fight sequence, was at least instilled with some fun that the series had been bereft of. It was a simple gag, but the banter and near-slapstick in the scene that ends with Anya clocking Ana Kraven with a laptop was fairly hilarious. And not to say the issue was or needed to be a laugh-riot, but it was small moments like that that proved indicative of the life returning to the story, tragically, again, just as the series itself has been given a terminal diagnosis with three more issues to go. Even the art, which has felt a bit sloppy and rushed on the last couple issues, feels tighter and nicer to look at. It really stumbled out of the gate, but the series and the title character especially had a lot of potential and its a damn shame to lose it now that it seems to be finding its footing again.
Jimmy Olsen one-shot from DC
Written by Nick Spencer, art by RB Silva with Amilcar Pinna, inks by Dym with Rob Lean and Amilcar Pinna, colors by Dave McCaig, letters by Rob Leigh.
"This planet is nothing like the Jersey Shore said it was gonna be."
I narrowly grabbed the last copy my shop had of this, and so glad I did; I've been looking forward to this for a while. At 80 pages, a hefty chunk of comic, containing the first four parts of the Jimmy Olsen back-ups from Action Comics plus the remaining three parts that, like Detective Comics, had been cut in the name of Holding The Line and never printed. I don't read Action usually, but I had read the first chapter online when DC and Comixology had posted it online as a free preview (which no longer seems to be available, least so far as I can find it). As I said with my Iron Man 2.0 review, Spencer is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers, and this book is probably my favorite thing of his I've read so far. A quick-witted, funny and sweet week in the life of Jimmy Olsen, ace photographer still coasting on the fame of being besties with a since-departed Superman and recent dumpee by girlfriend Chloe Sulliven, a transplant character from the Smallville TV series whom I can't claim too too much familiarity with but certainly enjoyed in this book. This is the tight meshing of a cute love story and a love letter to the absurdist Silver Age mishaps Jimmy once found himself constantly thrust into. While there are references to be picked out, the story is not one that requires a great knowledge of the characters and can be as accessible to someone who's never read a comic before as to someone who's been reading Superman titles for decades.
A perfect compliment to the story Spencer is telling, Silva's art is absolutely gorgeous; a crisp, stylized look that helps sets this book apart from most anything else on the shelves with it. Add in an Amanda Conner cover and a couple of pages of sketchbook in the back, even at $5.99 this is altogether a perfect storm of a great comic.
Amazing Spider-Man #657 from Marvel
Written by Dan Slott, art by Marcos Martin, Ty Templeton, Nuno Plati and Stefano Caselli, colors by Muntsa Vicente, Javier Rodriguez, Nuno Plati and Marte Gracia, letters by Joe Caramagna.
"He's got Kraven panties!"
As much as I enjoy my Spider books and Slott's run in particular, I was a bit wary of this issue, if only because we just had a funeral in Amazing, and Johnny Storm's already had his own book to be mourned in. However, always welcome to be proven wrong, this issue pulled off something I don't know if I ever thought I'd see: a fun memorial issue for a character. A quick anthology of three tales recounted by Peter and the remaining Fantastic Four, we see a family, if not by blood, remembering the good times rather than dwelling in the dark (which seems a bit at odds with what FF #1 showed us, but that was hardly the only clashing continuity that book presented). In 22 pages, three stories told, plus Martin's bridge sequences, all fun and at the same time touching and actually managed to make me care about the loss of a character who up till now I was fairly ambivalent about. Additionally, the art brought as much character to the story as the writing; the varied styles were a great showcase of talent squeezed into a single issue. For an issue I was looking forward to being on the far side of, I was pleasantly surprised with how good this was.
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