Incredible Hercules #114

February 19, 2008

Quick Rating: Great
Title: Walls of Troy (Part Three of The Incredible Herc)
Rating: A

As Ares goes on the offensive, a crazed Hercules tears up what’s left of New York!

Writers: Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente
Pencils: Khoi Pham
Inks: Paul Neary
Colors: Stephane Peru
Letters: Joe Caramagna
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Last issue, Ares poisoned his brother with the blood of the fearsome Hydra, sending him into a fit of violent delusions. As Wonder Man searches for Ares, hurled away in the battle, Hercules’ old friend the Black Widow may be the only thing between him and a Hulk-level rampage.

As I’ve come to expect from Greg Pak, this was a highly entertaining, truly exciting issue. He and Fred Van Lente have managed to seamlessly blend Hercules’ classical origins with his status of a superhero, with flashes from everything from a pre-Illiad Troy to Herc’s stint with the Champions of Los Angeles. As he continues his rampage, Amadeus Cho puts another of his own crazy schemes into motion. There’s an interesting bit in this issue where we’re reminded of how Cho doesn’t really have much of a moral compass. He’s loyal to his friends – he demonstrated that during World War Hulk, but that doesn’t necessarily translate to a true sense of right and wrong, and that moral ambiguity makes him a far more interesting character than he was before.

Khoi Pham’s artwork is nice, and I especially appreciate some of the panels that pay homage to the 70s style with the Champions sequence. Arthur Adams, of course, draws a beautiful cover, which is about as obvious as statement as pointing out that the sun is rising in the east tomorrow morning.

I feel like a broken record, but I’ve got to say it again – I’ve quickly fallen in love with this book. It’s one of Marvel’s best.

Rating: 9/10

Action Comics #819

September 5, 2004

Quick Rating: Awful
Title: Sodom and Gomorrah

Clark and Lana have a little heart-to-heart.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis & Joe Prado
Inks: Marc Campos & Jon Sibal
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

The two most frequent complaints you’ll hear about Chuck Austen’s writing is that 1) it is repetitive and 2) his characterization of women is, shall we say, one-sided? People make these complaints over and over again, and I’m a bit reluctant to say it some times. But after this issue, which is a textbook example of everything that could possibly be done wrong with these two characters, I feel that sometimes you’ve just got to call ‘em like you see ‘em, without any effort at sugarcoating.

This issue Superman, still recuperating from the beating he’s taken over the last few issues, is being “nursed back to health” by his old girlfriend, Lana Lang. However, this is not the Lana Lang we have read about in every comic book since the Superman revamp in 1986. This is a Lana Lang who wears short-shorts and belly shirts, takes childish, petty pot-shots at a woman who isn’t around to defend herself, and throws herself at a married man who has made it clear for years that he is not interested. This is the worst part of this issue, Chuck Austen is tearing two decades of characterization to shreds for the sake of a trite, clichéd plotline that would seem dull and redundant in an episode of Days of Our Lives, let alone in a Superman comic book.

Everything touched upon in this issue, every single character point, is something that has been discussed ad nauseum for years now, and has been resolved for a very long time. Lana has grown up, Lana has moved on. Anybody else still obsessing over a high school boyfriend this many years later would be told to go to therapy, not presented as a sympathetic heroine. This smacks of a writer artificially generating storylines by dredging up things that others have already done – and better – because nothing else is coming to mind. Lana in this issue is spiteful and petty, spitting out specious arguments about Lois Lane and putting forth reasoning that anybody who has actually read the storylines where these characters’ relationships were defined would know is completely untrue.

The book is intercut with a fight scene with the two cleverly-named adversaries Sodom and Gomorrah, a fight made more difficult by the fact that Superman’s powers are fluctuating uncontrollably, as predicted by the doctors at S.T.A.R. Labs (which is a pretty impressive feat, seeing as how two issues ago they were complaining that they didn’t know a bloody thing about Kryptonian physiology).

Even the artwork, usually the saving grace of this title suffers this issue under guest-penciller Prado, who seems to handle the Clark/Lana scenes while Reis does the fight scenes. Reis’s scenes are fine, but Prado’s are half cheesecake.

If I wasn’t reviewing this issue, I don’t know if I could have read it through to the end. By the time I got to the eight-page Bionicle ad section in the middle, I was begging for it to be over. These aren’t the characters I love. These aren’t even characters I like. These are boring, petty people, and I’m tired of seeing them in this book month after month.

Rating: 2/10

Action Comics #816

June 8, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Superman Vs. Gog Part Two: Behold, I Am Against Thee

Superman and Gog tear apart Smallville, with the Teen Titans to pick up the rubble!

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Marc Campos
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

I have to admit, this issue is a far cry better than Chuck Austen’s first two issues of Action Comics, mainly because it is, in fact, 22 pages of straight action. It’s an extended fight scene between Superman, Superboy and Gog, with a little support thrown in by Wonder Girl and Kid Flash, leaving no room for the soap opera subplots or poor characterization that hurt the last two issues.

There are still a few logic gaps, however, the main one being how Superman can be utterly befuddled by Gog despite the fact that, I’m almost certain, they have fought before. (Someone get me the trade paperback of The Kingdom, I need to check on this.) Granted, it was only the one time, but it was during a caper where Superman encountered a possible future version of himself that he also ran across a few months ago in Superman/Batman while Gog was making it a point to keep killing Superman at earlier and earlier points along the timeline, so it’s not exactly like trying to remember the mugger he snatched at Fourth Street and Vine six years ago.

Like last issue, the best thing is Superman’s authoritative nature while dealing with the Titans. He still throws out a few bad one-liners, but not nearly as many as last issue, and there’s one bit I thought was rather clever where Superman and Kid Flash, each acting very rationally and very in-character, accidentally counter each other’s efforts and really amplify the danger.

The book gets a few demerits for the “cliffhanger” ending, which I won’t give away except to say I mark off for any comic book that leaves you asking if something will happen that nobody on the planet actually believes DC Comics would allow to happen. Come back on Wednesday, I’ll get more specific. Superboy also overreacts a bit, saying Superman is like a father to him, while reading virtually any comic book written in the past ten years will paint the picture of their relationship to be more like an older brother/younger brother, but I won’t judge too harshly for that line.

Ivan Reis and Marc Campos, again, knock one out of the park in the art department. They give us one of the proudest, strongest Superman interpretations in a long time, yet he still manages to look joyful even in the middle of a spectacular fight scene. Here’s hoping the artists stay on this title for a long time.

I have to admit, this issue wasn’t too bad. If Austen could stay away from the cookie-cutter subplots and awful characterization of the main character that he showed over the last two months and stick to straight action (as the title implies), this would be an okay, if not spectacular, installment of the Superman titles.

Rating: 6/10

Action Comics #815

May 8, 2004

Quick Rating: Below Average
Title: Superman Versus Gog: End Times

Superman and Gog throw down in Smallville… can the Teen Titans turn the tide?

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Marc Campos
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

And the soap opera begins.

I’ve never made a secret of how dissatisfied I was with Chuck Austen’s work on X-Men and Captain America, but I’ve tried very hard not to let that color my judgment of his Action Comics run. I’ve tried not to let that make me harsher than I ordinarily would be, and I’ve looked very hard at this comic, but there’s no way I can juggle these elements that doesn’t fall apart on every other page.

With the news that Doomsday is on the loose, Superman sends three of the Teen Titans to Smallville to hunt for him. (Problems #1 and #2 right off the bat – why would Doomsday go to Smallville in the first place and why would Superman send three kids, even Superboy, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl, to look for a monster strong enough to kill him? Problem #3 comes in when you realize the Titans are walking around Smallville in costume for no apparent reason. This is all in the first panel, mind you.) Instead of Doomsday, though, another foe inexplicably attacks the small town – Gog.

Back in Metropolis, Clark Kent is in a screaming match with his wife over the phone asking the question everybody else was asking last issue: why didn’t she tell him that Perry White had demoted him? One can accept the premise that she wanted to give Perry the chance to tell him himself, but we learn this issue that she knew it for two weeks – you can’t accept that Lois would keep such a secret for that long without telling Clark or confronting Perry. We then meet Clark’s replacement, a character whose reputation has been built as a sleazy television tabloid reporter, so naturally he’s earned a spot on the Daily Planet staff.

The actual fight scene, in fairness, has a few high points. Superman taking charge of the Titans is a nice bit of characterization, but he then proceeds to throw off one-liners that would have seemed appropriate coming from Spider-Man but are totally out of place for the man of steel. Then, when he’s got his villain on the ropes, he stands there and cracks jokes instead of delivering the knockout blow, behavior one expects from a grade-b supervillain, but not from Superman. It’s also particularly amusing that the same Superman who makes jokes about clichéd villain dialogue is the one who, earlier in the issue, actually shouted the phrase “Don’t start that, okay? Don’t make this my fault,” while arguing with his wife.

Thank God for Ivan Reis and Marc Campos. These guys draw, hands-down, the best Superman I’ve seen in years. He looks strong and powerful without lapsing into the cartoonish the way other recent artists have, and they do a fine job with the Titans as well (I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing them do a run on that title sometime). The fight with Gog and the resulting debris look really good. In fact, if one were to review this comic merely on artwork and not on dialogue, it would be easy to give it an almost perfect score.

Unfortunately, the story factors heavily into it, and there are just too many holes in it to possibly recommend. Austen has no grasp on the characters or on logical plotting, and the comic book suffers exponentially because of it. I really do want to enjoy this title. Superman is my favorite character and I want his titles to succeed. But I can’t see that happening in the near future.

Rating: 4/10

Action Comics #814

April 12, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Another Day at the Office

When things are funny at the Daily Planet and Clark can’t get any answers, Superman takes some time away from the office to unwind.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Marc Campos
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

The new Action team takes over this issue with a simple, done-in-one story about a day in the life of the Metropolis Marvel. Superman spends an average day taking down some train hijackers, catching falling cars and fighting Darkseid. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Hiring Chuck Austen to take over the longest-running superhero comic in the world was, to put it lightly, a controversial choice, and in this issue it’s plain to see why. There is some good in this issue – Austen’s Superman is someone who is sure of himself, confident and clearly loves his powers and being who he is, and that’s something this character should have and, frankly, doesn’t always display under other writers. The problem is that Austen frequently goes too far in the other direction, saddling the character with stilted dialogue and going from confident to arrogant, a characteristic that doesn’t befit Superman in any incarnation.

On the artistic side, though, there is no complaint at all. Ivan Reis and Marc Campos were born to do this title, and their bold, powerful Superman is one of the best takes on this character since Stuart Immonen was handling him on a regular basis. Readers who have complained about “manga-style” artwork will have nothing to bemoan here. The fight scenes are great, the facial features are dynamic and expressive, and every page of the comic looks great.

Let’s not forget the cover, either – Arthur Adams, creature artist extraordinaire, gives us a wonderful pin-up of Superman versus Kalibak (a scene that actually appears in the issue, take that, Marvel editors), and to top it off, the title returns to the original logo with this issue. I know I may be the only one who cares about that, but it’s something I really like.

Rating: 6/10

Somebody’s First Comic Book: Badrock Annual #1

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

CREDITS:

Writers: Tom & Mary Bierbaum
Penciller: Todd Nauck
Inker: Jeanette Ubando
Colors: Scott Baumann
Color Separations: In Color
Letterer/Associate Editor: Kurt Hathaway
Editorial Assistant: Tom Reiter
Cover Artist: Arthur Adams
Publisher: Image Comics/Extreme Studios

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: None. Looks like this dude is made out of rock. And… um… he’s “Bad.”

IMPRESSIONS: The story begins in medias res (that means in the middle, for those of you who didn’t pay attention in English class) with the titular Badrock throwing down with some guy with the unlikely name “Re-Coil.” Apparently, the two of them have bounced away from a fight between Badrock’s team Youngblood and Re-Coil and his partner… :chuckle: coil. A second group of superheroes, Freak Force, hears about this on the news and rush out to help their hero, Badrock.

Well, sorta. As it turns out when they arrive, they’re really more bounty hunters than superheroes. And while they are fans of Badrock, they’re apparently not above poaching his collar to get the reward. Badrock gets into a pissing contest with the Freak Force tank, Barbaric, and the two of them decide to trade blows and settle their differences in an “abandoned” neighborhood. You can probably guess how that turns out.

This is, to be frank, a remarkably stupid story. The characters act childish and sophomoric, and the fact that one of the other characters recognizes this and points it out doesn’t really help the situation very much. Some of the characters pop up out of nowhere and have little or no development. In several cases, I don’t think their names are even mentioned at any point in the comic book (the blond dude in the Superman cape, for example).

But we have to be fair to the rules of this little experiment, and that means being honest. As mind-bogglingly stupid as these characters are, can I understand what’s happening? Yes. And with perfect clarity. I don’t exactly know who all the players are, but I know the main characters and the situation itself is presented cleanly, without really requiring massive amounts of backstory knowledge to get the drift. And on that basis, this comic scores relatively high.

GRADE: B