Uncle Scrooge #339

February 27, 2005

Quick Rating: Excellent
Title: The Crown of the Crusader Kings and other stories

Scrooge sets out to find one of the greatest treasures of the Knights Templar!

Writers: Don Rosa, Daniel Branca, W. Gattino, David Gerstein, Carl Barks
Art: Don Rosa, Daniel Branca, Carl Barks
Colors: Egmont, Susan Daigle-Leach, Scott Rockwell, Summer Hinton
Letters: Todd Klein, Willie Schubert
Editor: Arnold T. Blumberg
Cover Art: Branca
Publisher: Gemstone Comics

Whenever Don Rosa gets to headline an issue, you guys get to hear me gush about him. So let me get that out of the way quick. This issue is great. Fantastic. Brilliant. Excellent. Okay, on to the review.

This issue Rosa presents “The Crown of the Crusader Kings,” a sort-of sequel to the Carl Barks story “The Philosopher’s Stone.” Scrooge McDuck discovers that he holds the key to finding an ancient crown, part of the treasure of the Knights Templar, and he and his nephews set out to recover it. This turns into a globe-trotting adventure through arctic wastes and lush jungles as the boys find themselves in a race against remnants of the Knights to find the crown.

The preface to the issue notes that this story was originally published in Europe prior to the book The DaVinci Code and the movie National Treasure, which happen to use some of the same themes. There’s a lot of that feel to this story. Rosa uses a lot of actual history to piece together this story, blending in historical facts about the Knights and Christopher Columbus with his own “Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck” tales and Carl Barks classics to weave the most exciting comic I read all week. His artwork, as always, is wonderful. It’s detailed and exciting, and every page is laced with tiny visual gags that act as tiny bonuses for anyone sharp-eyed enough to find them.

The story isn’t exactly a cliffhanger, but it ends with a tantalizing promise of a sequel (and, in fact, we are promised that it will see publication in Uncle Scrooge #342). That may be the most eagerly anticipated issue of this title I’ve ever waited for.

We also get another treasure hunt story, “In Quest of The Green Hope,” by Branca, Gattino and Gerstein. This time out, Scrooge and his nephews set out to find a treasure that traces back to the founding of the town of Duckburg. This story has a lot of those same treasure hunt elements that make for the best Scrooge stories, and it’s a lot of fun too. We wrap things up with a reprint of Carl Barks’ “The Great Wig Mystery” from 1964. This one hasn’t been reprinted as much as many of his other stories, and it’s easy to see why. While it’s a fun little story, it’s not the Duck Man’s best work. When Scrooge’s planeful of wigs crashes, a rival of his gins up a phony lawsuit to take him for his entire fortune. His only chance is to find a witness who can exonerate him – Donald, who’s lost on a mission of his own.

The Rosa story alone is worth the price of this issue. It’s absolutely fantastic. The others fill things out nicely. One of the better issues of Uncle Scrooge.

Rating: 10/10

Exiles (2001 Series) #52

Sepember 5, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Living Planet Part One

On a Earth infected by Ego, the Exiles must face off against the Avengers and their ally… Doctor Doom!

Writer: Tony Bedard
Pencils: Jim Calafiore
Inks: Mark McKenna
Colors: JC
Letters: Dave Sharpe
Editor: Mike Marts
Cover Art: Mizuki Sakakibara
Publisher: Marvel Comics

While I appreciate the fact that this book doesn’t restrict itself to only X-Men related characters, even with the Avengers and Doctor Doom as the focus of this arc, I can’t help but feel the title is getting a tad repetitive.

This time out, the Exiles are dropped into a universe where Earth is being overwhelmed with “antibodies” from Ego the Living Planet, the Fantastic Four is MIA, and the Avengers and Doctor Doom seem to be the only hope for saving the world.

In a time where most comic books are artificially elongating their storylines, wasting issues and issues on pointless filler, Tony Bedard’s Exiles is a book that suffers from the exact opposite problem – he’s not taking enough time to tell the stories to their utmost potential. The very nature of this title, with heroes that are dropped into one universe after another with imminent dangers to fight against, doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for downtime and character exploration, which is what the book is somewhat lacking. The versions of the Avengers in this world, while incredibly interesting on the surface, are sort of glossed over – a modified Captain America, female versions of Yellowjacket and Iron Man (still inexplicably called “Man”), and a much more classically Nordic Thor than we have in the core Marvel Universe. I’d love to see how “our” heroes got this way, but we don’t in this issue and I don’t suspect we will next issue either.

As Andrea has stated elsewhere, that problem also afflicts the main characters of the series. Namora and Beak have effectively been on the team for eight issues now, but neither have had too much development or too much to do. Bedard needs to find a balance between character development and alternate-reality cookiness.

Jim Calafiore, the “regular” fill-in penciller, does a good job this issue, particularly with all of the character redesigns. The changes made in the looks of existing characters doesn’t seem too capricious, change for change’s sake, but instead leave you wondering exactly what happened to make the characters that way (with the exception of Hawkeye, who looks a bit too “90s,” if you know what I mean).

I’m still enjoying this book, but not as much as I should. I hope that once this storyline wraps, whatever comes next, Bedard will pull it back out.

Rating: 6/10

PS 238 #18

October 17, 2006

Quick Rating: Very Good

Satori takes the staff on a tour of the dead.

Writer: Aaron Williams
Art: Aaron Williams
Cover Art: Aaron Williams
Publisher: Dork Storm Press/Henchman Publishing

The whole “being dead” thing turned out pretty well for Ambriel Valentine. She’s back – alive again – and she’s found a new metaprodigy right upstairs at Excelsior Elementary School. Satori Deacon is a young girl with the power to see the dead. She keeps the secret to herself, though, because the dead are so lonely and desperate for help that when they discover what she can do, they drive her crazy with their thirst for company. Still, with news of the meta in their midst, Vashti introduces herself to the girl.

Satori takes her on a visit to the ghost of an Indian who has lived in front of the school for hundreds of years, his memory erased as part of an old curse. Their visit was supposed to be a simple demonstration of Satori’s power, but instead, it points in the direction of a mission (not to mention some backstory). Then, just to keep things from getting too The Sixth Sense, we find an added twist to her power that could only happen in a superhero universe.

As Satori and Vashti meet the nameless Indian, Tyler continues his investigation into Charles, the bully who has been teleporting students away from school, dropping them into the lake. So far his actions have been a prank, but the threat of further violence is obvious, and it’s up to Tyler – as Moon Shadow – to assemble a team to try to save the school. Tyler seems like kind of an odd choice on Williams’ part – he’s made the major viewpoint character in the series about a superhero school the one student with no powers. That just makes the story more engaging, though, as we see Tyler fighting to become a hero despite the fact that he’s surrounded by students more powerful than he is. We see Tyler beginning to really rise above in this issue, and that makes him all the more intriguing.

This is one of those comics that only real fans read, because no one else knows about them. That’s a crying shame. This is consistently a knockout comic book, a wonderful superhero tale, and a really unique story. All the excitement of the early X-Men without that tiresome teen angst. C’mon. Give it a try.

Rating: 8/10