What’s today again… yeah sorry about that… stupid daylight savings time. So I’m a little late, but I did add a few extra books to the mix to make up for it. This week’s reviews are for Captain America, Justice League of America, Civil War: The Initiative, 52, The Incredible Hulk, Shazam: The Monster Society of Evil, The Mighty Avengers, Superman/Batman, & The Helmet of Fate: Zauriel.
Full Reviews:
Captain America #25
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Steve Epting
Spoilers away….
God bless pull boxes huh…America *$#% Yeah! Sorry. This issue, in case you haven’t noticed any sort of online or print media lately, is the “Death of Captain America” issue, currently sold out and being gouged for extravagant amounts on eBay.
This one’s a Civil War epilogue but miraculously there’s very little Civil War here, in fact this is just a progression of current events and storylines right outta Cap’s own book. Thank you comic book god! To sum it up, Cap’s being arraigned in court meanwhile Fury, Agent 13, and the Winter Soldier are going to break him out. Unbeknownst to everyone though, the Red Skull and Faustus already have a plan in place and they go for it. Now assassination plans are right up the Skull’s alley, but in some ways they seem to be martyring him here, and that I can’t really understand. Anyways, the shooter is one of those sorely neglected Marvel Legends characters Crossbones. I would just like to go on the fwoosh record here to state that Crossbones and Sin are pure awesome…that is all. Crossbones manages to take down Cap, which is no big deal because immediately off panel another shooter puts a few more in his gut. Cut to a hospital scene (after the Falcon stops Winter Soldier from almost killing Crossbones) and Cap dies. Sin has infiltrated the hospital with the sole task of telling Sharon that she was the real trigger man (thanks to Dr. Faustus’ subtle psychobabble influence). Along the way there are flashbacks galore that should hopefully make this book as accessible as can be to everyone that picks it up.
Now I know the obvious comparison that will be made is to Superman. This however is faulty. Superman went out like a champ facing a monster more powerful than he was, no moral dilemmas, just straight up trying to save Metropolis bad-assery. Cap doesn’t have that luxury. There’s no monsters here just the sneaky machinations of the Red Skull and it works, in fact it works real well for a death issue as well as a turning point to a story that’s been hatching since issue one of this volume. Is it sad? Yes, but let’s keep in mind that Brubaker in this series alone has already resurrected Bucky and killed the Red Skull (well his body anyways) so big groundshaking events like this are not new to this volume of Captain America and really shouldn’t come as that big of a shock to anyone keeping up since issue one. He’ll be back in due time. Hell, he might not even be dead. We’ll just have to wait and see and in the meantime enjoy what is arguably one of the best Captain America runs ever done.
Epting’s art rocks this book. The flashback sequences are handled beautifully and Sharon’s realization breakdown is truly tragic. He manages to portray the true hero Cap has been throughout time while juxtaposing those images with his current arrest and “traitorous” status. Well done, and I specifically enjoyed the media segment overlays too.
Shifting gears for a bit, I’ve been having a great time reading all the news stories about this issue. Here’s a little fact about me: I don’t watch the news. If it’s not Sportscenter, I just don’t care. The news bores and depresses me, not to mention I find the slant of it to be a bit worrisome. News stories about Captain America’s death though, are pure gold. Most of them have been well done but there are a few exceptions such as the ones here, here, and here. I don’t care what anyone says, if there’s a cover of you punching Hitler you can never for any reason be called anti-American period. Which brings me to my next point, Paul Jenkins, I owe you an apology. I though you were out of line with your ridiculous Sally Floyd rant in Frontline, but after seeing some of the news stories put out about this I’ve learned that journalists really can be that stupid. So you win, sir, excellent portrayal of our own media’s idiot behavior. They really are that dumb sometimes.
To get back on topic, if you can find this book then buy it. If you can’t find one then wait for the second printing and buy it. This has been a solid series for all 25 issues and I highly doubt Brubaker is going to disappoint with this arc so get ready because I have a feeling the ride is just beginning.
Verdict: In Brubaker I trust
Quick Reviews:
Justice League of America #6: Could this be the most graphic JLA battle ever? Yes, I really think it is. Speaking of which that Comics Code Authority label doesn’t mean jack anymore over at DC. Ever since Black Adam started punching people’s eyes out of the backs of their skulls in Infinite Crisis they’ve been on a steady kick of dishing out the ‘ole ultra violence. I mean just look at the past two weeks of 52…Gah! Anyways I still love it. When graphic violence is drawn this well I don’t think anyone’s going to mind except the squeamish. As far as the plot goes, the Tornado’s Path saga is wrapped up here, and the status quo is resumed. The whole team comes together just in time for the JSA crossover and for an opening arc, Meltzer knows how to lay on the action when it needs it. The pacing was slow earlier on and in hindsight that JLA selection process proved to be an utter waste of time (though it was fun peeking into the minds of the Big Three), but when you get down to it, these past couple of throwdown issues have more than made up for the slowdown from the first parts of this arc.
Verdict: This arc’s skippable if you haven’t been keeping up already, but do not hesitate to jump on board next issue as the JSA and JLA crossover.
Civil War: The Initiative #1: A preview book and nothing more. First up is Bendis with a look at Omega Flight. Want to know who’s in the Guardian armor? Read it to find out. You will be shocked, but not because it’s so cool, but because it’s incredibly lame. Next up is a Thunderbolts side-story by Ellis where the Thunderbolts take down Hurricane II. Lots of fun, simple minded action here but still too short overall. Finally we get a Mighty Avengers preview lead of Ms. Marvel and Iron Man as they overview an encounter Carol had with Spider-Woman earlier (Drew not the Arachne version). Bendis does much better on the second story as Ms. Marvel drops one bomb of a line about Cap, the implications of which should hopefully fallout elsewhere shortly. The back of the book are reprints from other available and soon to be available stories and are not new lead in’s or previews. These include Iron Man #15, Mighty Avengers #1, Captain America #25, Omega Flight #1, and Avengers: The Initiative. Silvestri of Top Cow handles the pencil work and he does a hell of a job here, there’s 34 pages of his pencils and familiar style, though you may notice he seems to be adding some elements of McNiven in here where he can.
Verdict: A $4.99 preview book providing the most limited of set-ups, with the only real draw being the Guardian surprise… but if you plan on picking up most of these new Marvel titles coming out then I do recommend this book specifically to you.
52 Week 44: Violence, violence, violence, and gore. It’s been 2 weeks of literal bone shattering here, though there’s no huge splash shots this week. This week features primarily a straight up battle to the death between Isis & Black Adam versus “The Four Ages of Dread of Apokolips in its Anguished, Bloody, Morning”. Quite a title, but they also go by the “Monster Society”…lightbulb… see now it all makes sense. In fact so much so I can’t believe I didn’t piece the Crocodile Man together earlier. He’s the obvious one, the others aren’t. So kudos to DC for bringing in old concepts and hiding it so well in plain sight, and now it seems that those earlier Mr. Mind throwaway shots will be coming to fruition very soon as well. For this issue’s specifics, the story’s great, you will actually feel for Black Adam at the end of this and will hope that he rains down hell upon Intergang. The art is standard for 52, nothing that’s going to knock your socks off but it’s good enough and the battle scenes which are pretty much the whole book are laid out nicely.
Verdict: 52 has made me love the idea of weekly books, and this issue in particular reminds me of why I do.
The Incredible Hulk #104: It’s a beautiful day on Sakaar. The Hulk and Caiera are out righting wrongs, fixing old injustices, freeing parasitic aliens, and stopping race riots when that dastardly duo Reed Richards and Iron Man once again manage to mess it all up. Those jerks. This time it looks like it’s some sort of fail safe anti-tampering device they stuck in the shuttle. What does this mean for the Hulk. Well it means that it’s about to be on like Donkey Kong. World War Hulk is about to happen and if Marvel deliver’s on just half of the possible smashing than I imagine that the event is going to be a huge success. This comic is a great issue of a great saga. It’s not too late to go hunting down those back-stories either. Oh and the art’s swell too.
Verdict: Highly recommended for everyone, and that includes the whole series so far too.
Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil #2: A prestige format title. Think of it as a mini-trade. Extra pages, nice heavy cardstock covers, and no advertisements. It does cost $5.99 but when it’s all done by Jeff Smith it’s worth every penny. This is a re-imagining of Captain Marvel done in modern times but unlike Winnick’s more forced version, this one sticks strongly to the fun nostalgia of the older comics. This time Captain Marvel meets Talky Tawny in his true form, fights a bunch of Crocodile Men (what a comeback this week is for those guys!), and deals with Billy’s little sister Mary as she too gets a dose of the Marvel legacy. A fun read with the colorful animated style art of Jeff Smith.
Verdict: Pricey, but no Captain Marvel fan should be without this series.
The Mighty Avengers #1: It’s a heavy week for the Avengers and Bendis for that matter. Overall I really enjoyed the bright colorful battles of this issue and Frank Cho’s art is enough to keep me coming back to this title for quite some time. It’s very clean, colored extremely well, and just a perfect fit for a big superhero smash up. Bendis manages to do action very well when he can actually get to it and he does get to it here and that’s a huge plus for me in these big team books. My biggest complaint is his frequent out of place, forced dialogue “A Wolverine and a Thor?” really now, come on Bendis. Just tone that stuff down. He does bring back thought balloons too but I find his overuse of them or I should say exploitation of them for more forced Bendis speak becomes tiring very fast. This one’s a wash depending on how easily you can stomach Bendis and his dialogue and changes. Personally I’m able to ignore most things and I found myself really enjoying parts of this book.
Verdict: Fan of Bendis? Then you will love this. Not a fan of Bendis? Then you will hate this. No matter which way you care about Bendis though, you will love the Cho art. Recommended in-store reading.
The Loser(s) of the Week:
Superman/Batman #32: One confusing mess of garbage. It’s bad enough this title is delayed and I forget what’s even going on (DC… recap pages please!), but honestly even if it was on time I still couldn’t make sense of it. I’ll sum it up as best I can. There’s some weird alien possession crap going on. It’s not particularly interesting nor does it seem to be very important.
Verdict: How long must I endure this arc?
The Helmet of Fate: Zauriel: This series was hit or miss on several titles. I found Detective Chimp to be the best and I find Zauriel here to be the worst. It’s just going nowhere and there’s not anything done in the slightest to make me even care about this crap. Even the Helm of Fate can’t be put to good use here.
Verdict: Straight Filler.
Roundup:
The Must Buys:
Spawn #165 – A Mandarin Spawn origin tale one-shot and it rocks. After this issue I hope to see a lot more of the Mandarin Spawn very soon.
Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness #1 – More Zombie fun including a large chunk of necessary back-story about how the zombie phenomenon started including Ash’s place in it.
The Still Good:
Fantastic Four #543 – The issue that mends the Four… kind of. Steeped in sappiness yet still enjoyable.
Uncanny X-Men #484 – A large bit of Lilandra’s plan is revealed as things are coming to a head. With only 2 issues left though, times running out for a big extravagant showdown.
Ghost Rider: Trail of Tears #2 – I’ve accepted that the Ghost Rider’s going to be a moot point in this series yet the Clayton Crain art keeps sucking me back in.
Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #18 – PAD continues to have fun with alternate universes and I am too.
Detective Comics #829 – For a fill-in arc this one’s pretty good, it’s not Dini, but it’s definitely not a throwaway story like Grotesk was and Moore outperforms McGraw as well. In fact I think this is the best fill-in job we’ve seen on the Bat books yet.
The All-New Atom #9 – The Atom goes to Hong Kong to help an old crush but along the way gets attacked by supernatural zombies of old his High School bullies. Good back-story for Ryan and Gail’s trademarked style of humor makes this one a good pick for fans of miniature heroes.
Jonah Hex #17 – The Tallulah Black arc concludes and it was a bit of a doozy. I have to say as Jonah Black stories goes, this one wasn’t as good as the one-man show earlier issues but it’s not bad by any stretch of imagination.
Dreadnoks Declassified #2 – I’m a bit biased with this because I’m a big fan of the Dreadnoks but this book seriously rocks. It’s oversized at a price of $4.99 but no Dreadnok fan should overlook this series.
Welcome to Tranquility #4 – My new favorite Wildstorm series. I love Tranquility, the town and the people. Great stuff with one hell of a mystery brewing.
Outsiders #46 – The Outsiders are going to break Black Lightning out of jail, Thunder and Grace’s relationship origins are revealed, and soon Captain Boomerang Jr. will be joining the team in this flashback pre-OYL tale.
Nightwing #130 – The Bride and Groom saga picks up a bit of steam and these new meta villains have their origins further developed. I think Wolfman might actually be getting this ship sailing again.
Manhunter #29 – The Blue Beetle mystery is solved and it’s not as interesting as I’d hoped. On the other hand the rest of the events are real stunners as Kate enlists Superman to help free Wonder Woman when her mystery checkmate evidence proves too much for Diana to go along with.
The Filler:
Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters #8 – This story had its ups and downs. There were a few grand moments but this issue isn’t one of them. I just can’t get behind this ending. It’s too little and none of it is a satisfying conclusion.