Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #672

August 24, 2006

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Deep Un-Pact and other stories

Donald Duck and Neighbor Jones’ feud goes to new heights of destruction.

Writer: Daan Jippes, Byron Erickson, F. Gottfredson, M. DeMaris, Pat & Carol McGreal, Bill Walsh, Gil Turner, Pat & Shelly Block
Art: Daan Jippes, F. Gottfredson, B. Wright, Tito Santanach, Paul Murry, Dick Moores, Gil Turner, Noel Van Horn, Santiago Scalabroni
Restoration “Love Trouble”: Ron Stark & S/R Labs
Colors: Egmont, Kneon Transitt, Marie Javins, Michael Kraiger, Barry Grossman
Letters: Willie Schubert, Todd Klein, Jon Babcock, Susie Lee
Cover Art: Daan Jippes
Publisher: Gemstone Comics

With a whopping seven stories this issue, Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories is giving us a lot of bang for our buck. Most of the stories, fortunately, are definitely strong entries in the Disney canon.

First up is Daan Jippes’ “Deep Un-Pact” (with English dialogue by Byron Erickson). Donald Duck’s eons-old feud with Neighbor Jones gets ratcheted up this issue when Donald finds out Jones’ land is sitting over a long-lost bomb, and the slightest tremor could set it off. Donald gets caught between continuing his fight with the neighbor and trying to protect both of their homes. Neighbor Jones has never really reached the popularity of villains like Pete or Magica DeSpell (at least not in America), but I’ve always enjoyed his stories as featuring Donald at his purest. He’s temperamental, over-the-top and just funny – as Donald should be. This issue is a great example of that.

Next is the third and final installment of Floyd Gottfredson’s “Love Trouble” serial, taken from the Mickey Mouse newspaper strips of 1941. When Minnie began dating Montmorency Rodent in an effort to make Mickey jealous, he retaliated by taking up with the new socialite in town, Millicent Van Gilt-Mouse. The two couples are fated to meet at the party of the year, and each has plans for the other. This is a really strong story, funny and very much in keeping with the classic feel of the characters. This last batch of strips didn’t suffer as badly from the repetition of the newspaper format as the second installment did, which makes for a smoother read. The story concludes in as satisfactory a fashion as it would had it been intended as a self-contained story rather than a sequence in an ongoing newspaper strip. Overall, it’s a good strip.

Following in the love theme, Donald and Daisy star in our next story, Pat and Carol McGreal and Tito Santanach’s “A Date With Daisy.” Tired of being taken for granted, Daisy makes up an imaginary suitor to make Donald jealous. Her plan backfires, though, in a pretty amusing romantic entanglement.

“Onerous Odor” is a decent – if not memorable – Panchito one-pager by Bill Walsh, Paul Murry and Dick Moores, and it’s followed up by a Gil Turner Lil’ Bad Wolf story, “Lamb Chaps.” Panchito’s date preparations gone awry and Lil’ Bad’s newest effort to teach his father a lesson are both just okay.

“Reverting Raptors” by Pat and Carol McGreal is a good follow-up to a Mickey Mouse story from the Gladstone Comics days. Mickey visits a scientist friend and a pair of vegetarian Velociraptor clones that are about to launch into a new modeling career. When the raptors appear to begin reverting back to their carnivorous ways, though, Mickey’s got to reign them in. The story is good and the artwork, by Noel Van Horn (son of the Disney legend William Van Horn) is just dandy.

The issue ends with the very cute “Believe!”, a Donald story by Pat and Shelly Block and Santiago Scalabroni. Donald gets frustrated with the boys as they try to chase a rainbow for the pot of gold at the end, blurting out that there is no such thing. His sourpuss attitude puts him under the gun when a real fairy shows up to prove to him that magic exists after all.

The Neighbor Jones story and the Gottfredson strips stand out as the best of this issue’s offerings, but it’s pretty strong overall.

Rating: 8/10

Flashpoint #3

July 11, 2011

Title: Flashpoint Chapter Three

Writer: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Andy Kubert
Inks: Sandra Hope
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Nick J. Napolitano
Cover: Andy Kubert
Editor: Eddie Berganza    
Publisher: DC Comics

In the first two issues of Flashpoint we saw Barry Allen get perplexed at the way the world has changed around him, and we followed him as he encountered this universe’s Batman, Thomas Wayne. We even saw him attempt to restore his own missing superpowers in an experiment that could prove deadly. This issue, despite his injuries, the experiment continues. He needs his power back, he and Batman need allies, and he knows the most important one in the world is the man who, in our world, is called Superman.

The first two issues were a lot of setup, but now that this is mostly done with, this third issue has kicked things into gear. Barry and Thomas’s quest (now with 100 percent more Cyborg) has led to a really interesting place, picking up from the Flashpoint: Project Superman miniseries and not only exploring this world, but using it in a way that we haven’t seen before. It’s not just the history of this world that has changed, but the rules are different as well. Barry is forced to work with a different kind of Batman with a different kind of morality. It’s not something that the heroes of the DCU will always be comfortable with, nor is it something that’s entirely wrong. The world is also expanded further by bringing in more characters that we haven’t seen in Flashpoint or the DC Universe before, which is pretty cool in and of itself.

Andy Kubert is telling a solid story and doing some very cool redesigns. The depiction of Kal-El in this world is so different from anything we’re used to – he doesn’t look anything at all like our hero from the neck-down. But the strength of the art shows in the face. Clearly this is our Kal-El, clearly it’s the same man, but something has happened to him. It’s a great artist that can do that in a series where our Superman hasn’t even appeared.

Very good issue. This story is just getting better.

Rating: 8/10

Ultimate Spider-Man #66

October 8, 2004

Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Even We Don’t Believe This

Spider-Man meets Wolverine in the strangest team-up ever!

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Pencils: Mark Bagley
Inks: Scott Hanna
Colors: J.D. Smith
Letters: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Cover Art: Mark Bagley & Richard Isanove
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This is something I never thought I would see in Ultimate Spider-Man – a really, really funny issue. If you like your heroes dark and brooding – well… you shouldn’t be reading a Spider-Man title in the first place, but you especially shouldn’t read this issue.

Peter Parker and Wolverine each wake up one day to find a pretty amazing surprise. And to say any more would be spoiling it. Thank you, Brian Michael Bendis, for making it so nigh-impossible to be conversant regarding this issue without blowing it for people.

All I really can say is that the book, the first part of a purported two-parter, had me in stitches. It pokes fun at the conventions of both of these characters without trashing either one, and that’s not very easy to do. I feel better about the Wha Huh? one-shot Bendis has coming out in a few months time.

Bagley’s art is great as always. He’s been doing a fantastic Spider-Man for over a decade between this title and his lengthy run on Amazing Spider-Man, and here he gets to have some fun with Wolverine as well. As if that wasn’t enough, we get a quick gag at the beginning starring Bendis and Bagley themselves.

Is this the greatest issue of Ultimate Spider-Man ever written? No. But it’s a a very good one, a very lighthearted one, and I’m not even concerned about how the situation presented herein resolves itself. You know it will.

Rating: 8/10