Saturday, August 18, 2007

New comics 8/15/07

Eleven issues this week, with a couple extra-sized. No time to waste!

We begin with The Brave and the Bold #6 (written by Mark Waid, pencilled by George Perez, inked by Scott Koblish), the cracking-good conclusion to the opening "Luck Lords" arc. It stars (deep breath) Batman, Green Lantern, Adam Strange, Supergirl, the Legion, and special surprise guests, but its cameos feature all manner of DC space heroes familiar to me mostly from the old Who's Who book. The big finish hinges on said special surprise guests, and I'm not entirely sure it's a valid plot twist, even within the plot's established logic, but it made me smile. Good work, all!

Next up is Countdown #37 (written by Paul Dini and Adam Beechen, breakdowns by Keith Giffen, pencils by David Lopez and Mike Norton, inks by Don Hillsman and Rodney Ramos). Considering that five people contributed to the art, it's all pretty agreeable. I'm sure that's the result of working from Giffen's breakdowns. Most of the issue deals with Mary Marvel's apprenticeship to Zatanna, with the B-plot apparently the cover-featured encounter between the Rogues and Poison Ivy. Otherwise, Karate Kid is still dying, Holly and Harley are still part of the Amazonian slumber party, and Jimmy's subplot leads into this week's Action Comics. Two-page villain origins start this week, with the first up being (appropriately enough) Poison Ivy, brought to you by Scott Beatty, Stephane Roux, and the Cheesecake Factory.

In the aforementioned Action Comics #854 (written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Brad Walker, inked by Livesay), Jimmy and Superman manage Jimmy's new powers and the new Titano, and it's actually all very sweet in the end, thanks to copious amounts of Krypto. More particularly, though, Busiek jumps back and forth between the "present" Countdown-influenced plot and the evidently-prior Kryptonite Man plot we've been following the past few issues. It might not sound like much of a compliment, but this has been a really good Countdown tie-in, and a very successful test of Busiek's shared-universe mojo.

Checkmate #17 (written by Greg Rucka and Eric S. Trautmann, pencilled by Chris Samnee, inked by Steve Bird) offers a one-off story spotlighting Checkmate's new security chief, the former Master Jailer. It's a fine introduction to the series, encapsulating all the paranoia and much of the politics on display every month. The climactic battle plays out kinda like a video game, but in a good way.

Volume 2 of The Flash picks up after over a year (i.e., after Volume 3) with issue #231, written by Mark Waid and drawn by Daniel Acuna. It's an introduction too, because as we all know, Wally's grooming his kids to be superheroes. Not to cast aspersions on the memory of Bart Allen, but what exactly was keeping this from being the Flash One Year Later storyline back in March '06? Anyway, the kids aren't unappealing, but I'd apparently forgotten that Linda Park had some med-school training on the way to becoming a journalist. I wasn't too high on Acuna's suitability for the title after All-Flash #1, but I was pleasantly surprised here. Because he's splitting his time between the Wests and the necessary exposition, Waid's script isn't as good as the All-Flash issue, but that doesn't mean it can't get better.

I haven't been as repulsed by Amazons Attack! (#5 written by Will Pfeifer, drawn by Pete Woods) as some, so when I say "it's almost over," that's more matter-of-fact than anything. Most of this issue deals with the Outsider Grace receiving overtures from the Bana-Mighdall Amazons, while Batman tries to lower the magic shield keeping the most powerful JLAers out of the decimated Washington. I still say it's not so bad, but if you've bailed on it by this point, I probably won't change your mind.

I really do need to re-read Tad Williams and Shawn McManus' run on Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis, because #55 was an enjoyable installment that could easily be described as "retro-superhero." There's a nice take on the monologuing bad guy (and there are actually a few of them), and Williams and McManus do a good job of building suspense. There are only two issues left in the title, and possibly the "new" Aquaman himself, but it's got me eager to see the wrap-up.

Brad Meltzer says goodbye to Justice League of America, at least for now, with #12 (pencilled by Ed Benes and Eric Wight, inked by Sandra Hope). Of course it's a character-driven ode to the greatness of the team, because that's been Meltzer's approach all along. It focuses on Meltzer's new members, Red Arrow, Hawkgirl, Red Tornado, Black Lightning, Vixen, and Geo-Force, and bonds are formed (in various degrees) between two couples. As with Countdown and Amazons Attack, you've probably made up your mind about this one already.

I didn't believe it when I saw it on his site, but there really is a screenshot of The Invincible Super-Blog on a SHIELD monitor screen in Captain America #29 (written by Ed Brubaker, drawn by Steve Epting and Mike Perkins). More good stuff from this crew, and the shout-out to a comics blogger is just the cherry on top.

I bought Spider-Man Family #4 for the Spidey/Agents of Atlas story (written by Jeff Parker, pencilled by Leonard Kirk, inked by Kris Justice), but I stayed for Chris Eliopolous' Puppet Master story and the entertaining reprints. The new stories were great, and it's 100 pages for $5.00, so what's not to like?

Finally, there's a lot to like about Booster Gold vol. 2 #1 (written by Geoff Johns and Jeff Katz, layouts by Dan Jurgens, finishes by Norm Rapmund). This is a dense book, with lots of story "compressed" into its 31 pages. I had compared this book earlier to the old Chronos series, but it's much more accessible, as you'd expect. It pokes fun at much of what Johns and his colleagues have done at DC the past few years, and as much as I got tired of Johns' continuity-referencing in his JSA work, it's actually more of the point of this series. Thus, it works a lot better here. Jurgens' work is the same as always, not bad but still kind of stiff, and it too plays into the plug-into-DC-history vibe the series clearly wants to evoke. Moreover, Booster's new setup comes with an appropriate, and poignant, emotional foundation. A very promising start to what could be the She-Hulk of DC.

2 comments:

Perplexio said...

I'm not too keen on Jai & Iris, but I'll stick around to see where Waid goes with those West kids.

I do have a "return of Bart" theory: Bart won't be back but he did have a fling with his girlfriend in Vegas... It's entirely possible we'll later find out she got pregnant and Iris spirited her and Bart Jr. off to the 30th century for training and protection from the rogues who killed Bart.

The other thing I wonder about-- in All Flash #1 Wally stole Inertia's speed. That's not a power he previously had was it? However Dark Flash/Walter West (Flash v.2 #152-159) was able to steal speed. Did Wally & Walter meet up for some mentoring and swapping of trade secrets in the year he was absent from the DC Universe? I'd love to see Walter come back for a story-arc. His costume was pretty bad-ass and I'd love to see how that bad-ass costume would look at the talented hands of Acuna.

Tom Bondurant said...

Stealing speed -- expressed originally as stealing an object's momentum -- was one of the powers Waid gave Wally upon the latter's return from the Speed Force in Flash #100. Savitar, an evil speedster the various Flashes fought soon after, used this power to steal their speed.

Wally could also "share" his speed with others, taking Linda running with him at the end of one issue. I'm pretty sure that's how Wally was able to concentrate all the speedsters' energy in Bart during Infinite Crisis.

I bet Walter West shows up in Countdown: Arena, along with the Crime Syndicate's Johnny Quick and "Kid Flash" from the Old West's Justice Riders.