Archive
Recent Reviews: August 31 Releases
It was a small week for new comics, but I still got in a few reviews. Here are the August 31 comics I talked about at CXPulp…
Recent Reviews: July 27 Releases
I went to town on the reviews at CX Pulp this week, guys. Here’s everything I chimed in on…
- Action Comics #903
- Archie #623
- Avengers Academy #16
- Brightest Day Aftermath: The Search For Swamp Thing #2
- DC Retroactive: Justice League of America-The 70s #1
- DC Retroactive: Superman-The 70s #1
- DuckTales #3
- Fables #107
- Flashpoint: Hal Jordan #2
- Flashpoint: Kid Flash Lost #2
- Flashpoint: Lois Lane and the Resistance #2
- Flashpoint: Project Superman #2
- Green Lantern Corps #62
- Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #12
- Invincible #81
- Teen Titans #98
- Terminator/Robocop: Kill Human #1
- X-Men: Schism #2
- Young Justice #6
Recent Reviews: June 15 Releases
Hey, look, I remembered! Here’s my roundup of the June 15 comics I reviewed over at CX Pulp!
Invincible Returns #1
April 10, 2010
Invincible Returns #1 (Image Comics)
By Robert Kirkman, Ryan Ottley, Cory Walker & David Finch
With Invincible getting ready to head into space to fight the Viltrumite War, Kirkman gives us this one-shot to get all the pieces in place. The book does an excellent job of recapping the series to date, advancing all the main characters, and giving us a big revelation about Atom Eve. Very often, a book that’s intended as a good “jumping-on point” is just recap or just setting the stage without giving you anything for the devoted reader that’s been with the title for years. This is one of the exceptions, this is a book that genuinely will work for the reader, no matter if it’s the first issue of Invincible you’ve ever read or the seventy-first. Also, as you may have gauged from the cover, this issue features the return of Invincible’s original costume. I couldn’t be happier about that. The blue-and-blacks weren’t bad, but I always felt like it was missing something. That splash of yellow really makes the costume stand out, makes it look like a classic uniform. If you’ve never read Invincible before and you’ve always wondered what the fuss was about, this is the issue to get.
Rating: 4.5/5
Image United #2
December 25, 2009
Image United #2 (Image Comics)
By Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Whilce Portacio, Marc Silvestri & Jim Valentino
After a lackluster first issue, I was willing to give this event series one more shot before calling it quits, and I think this is pretty much going to do it. We start things off with Jim Downing, the new Spawn, facing Al Simmons, the original Spawn. Al, apparently mad with power, has decided that he’s sick of being a pawn in the game between Heaven and Hell, and he’s going to just take control of the world himself. So far, so good, but after this we get drawn into another sequence of seemingly random attacks, with villains and other heroes from the six participating creators’ personal stables brought in to fill things out, all while Youngblood sits around and debates whether they should trust Fortress. It doesn’t really amount to much, and the conflicting art styles are far more noticable this month than they were before. Image has announced a spin-off one-shot that’s going to focus on Image heroes outside of the founders’ stable (Invincible, for example), and since I’m far more interested in those characters than the ones we see here, I may pick that up. But as far as the main series goes, I don’t know if I’ll have it in me to bother with issue three.
Rating: 4/10
Wildguard: Fool’s Gold #2
July 23, 2005
Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Fool’s Gold Part Two
WildGuard and Laserwolf – against the forces of magic!
Writer: Todd Nauck
Art: Todd Nauck & Sanford Greene
Colors: Todd Nauck & Francisco Perez
Letters: Todd Nauck & M-Crusade
Cover Art: Todd Nauck
Publisher: Image Comics
Last issue, WildGuard teamed up with Laserwolf to track down a group of teenagers whose capricious use of a magical book was swiping valuables from people all over the city. As they faced them, the teens summoned up a swarm of monsters, but that wasn’t enough. This issue, they summon up something… bigger.
Nauck had to conjure up (no pun intended) a huge number of characters for the first miniseries in this line, and he doesn’t stop now, dropping in a lot of other characters, both his own and guests from the pages of Noble Causes and Invincible. (Incidentally, I must say I’m really happy to see the creators at Image making more of an effort to create a real “universe” from their titles these days – a far cry from the Image of the past.) He even shows that Four, the leader of the team, is willing to call in help if she thinks they need it.
This issue actually is a bit more somber than this lighthearted title usually is. In addition to a particularly nasty moment in battle, we see more of Shonda McKay this time around. While she’s always come across as kind of a shallow character, tagging along with Snapback to leech off his fame, this issue you start to get the impression that she has some issues that go even beyond that.
I must say, I’m glad that Nauck has decided to start the “Where Are They Now” back-up features with the “rejects” from the first series. After a surprisingly dark look at American Icon last issue, this issue we get a more lighthearted look at Travel Agent (with art by Sanford Greene. For being one of the more innocuous characters in the original series, he’s got some of the most potential, and it’s nice to see him getting used.
Nauck does a usual fantastic job on the artwork. He’s one of the best superhero artists in the business these days, and this is the book where he gets to let himself go the most. I always give credit to guys like George Perez for having the knack for drawing hundreds of characters in a book. Nauck not only does that, but he has to design almost every one himself, give them all a unique and distinctive look, and you can tell he has a heck of a lot of fun doing it.
I’m kind of sorry that this two-issue miniseries came out biweekly – who knows when the next mini will come out? I love these characters, I love this book, and I’m always anxious to see when it will come out next.
Rating: 8/10
PVP (2003 Series) #14
February 26, 2005
Quick Rating: Great
The PVP crew heads to the San Diego Comicon!
Writer: Scott Kurtz
Art: Scott Kurtz
Cover Art: Ryan Ottley
Publisher: Image Comics
What’s more dangerous than a bunch of geeks at a video game magazine? A bunch of video game magazine geeks at the San Diego Comicon. This issue Scott Kurtz packs up his usual gang of loons and sends them to one of the world’s biggest comic conventions. The results are… well… frighteningly true to life.
Kurtz usually works in a few stories per issue, and in fact, before the Comicon strips he does have two short sequences — one with Francis getting a job as live action Spam and one with Cole and Brent teaching him how to drive. They’re both among the funniest of the really short sequences this strip has produced.
Even once he gets the convention storyline rolling, though, Kurtz still has plenty of different tales to tell. Skull needs to raise funds to make more copies of his alternative comic, which turns into a hysterical parody of Fantagraphics’s plea to comic stores and readers to buy their books when it looked like the company may face bankruptcy. (This is a sequel of sorts to issue 6’s “Graphamaximo” story, which was itself a parody of the Fantagraphics mindset).
Kurtz also works in his buddy Robert Kirkman and his partner Ryan Ottley, creators of the Invincible comic book (hence the cover). When Cole’s arch-nemesis Max Power shows up, these two stories collide in a classic comedic misunderstanding.
This issue of PVP may be a little more accessible to the hardcore comic fans than the casual reader, but that’s not a problem once in a while. It’s still a hysterical comic that even a non-Invincible reader like myself can enjoy. (Yes I know, it’s the best superhero comic in the universe. Everyone keeps telling me that. I promise, I’m looking for the first trade paperback.)
Rating: 9/10
Invincible Presents Atom Eve and Rex Splode #3
February 13, 2010
Invincible Presents Atom Eve & Rex Splode #3 (Image Comics)
By Bentio Cereno, Nate Bellegarde & Bill Crabtree
The origin of Rex Splode concludes as he and Eve take aim at a government instillation with secrets they don’t want falling into the wrong hands. This is a high-action issue, and Bellegarde handles it pretty well. While he still has a tendency to have Eve’s back arch at some pretty improbable angles, he does big action and big explosions pretty well. I even like Rex’s short-lived original costume, which has a sort of old-fashioned cheesy flavor to it. The story, of course, is mainly Rex’s, but as he’s dead, the reason the story matters for for the way it puts Eve’s pre-Invincible life into context. Again, it succeeds on that level. Between this and the previous miniseries, we’ve really gotten a good feel for the girl Eve was in the beginning and how she’s evolved into the woman she is today. I like these peeks into the different corners of Robert Kirkman‘s universe, and I hope we’ll see more of them.
Rating: 8/10
Invincible Presents Atom Eve and Rex Splode #2
December 5, 2009
Invincible Presents Atom Eve & Rex Splode #2 (Image Comics)
By Benito Cereno, Nate Bellegarde & Bill Crabtree
Rex Splode’s orign story concludes this issue, as we see his first encounter with Atom Eve. Having fled the man who has raised him (and used him) since childhood, Eve shows Rex what being a superhero is really about. His attempt to cut ties with his previous life, however, proves to be a far bigger disaster than any of the ones he’s intentionally caused. With Rex’s final fate well-known to Invincible readers, this miniseries really just fills in the blanks, although there are some interesting tidbits revealed here that have the potential to play themselves out later. The book gives us some nice, if not essential backstory. The art is okay, although the interiors are much better than the rather clunky cover. Not a great book, but not a bad one.
Rating: 7/10
Invincible Presents Atom Eve and Rex Splode #1
October 30, 2009
Invincible Presents Atom Eve & Rex Splode #1 (Image Comics)
By Benito Cereno & Nate Gellegarde
Following on the heels of last year’s Atom Eve miniseries, the Invincible universe expands a bit more with this new two-parter that picks up on the origins of Rex Splode. Although Rex gets third billing in the title, this is really his show, going back to a pretty sad family life, through his discovery of a place to belong and on to some rather tragic revelations. The end of this issue dovetails with the end of the previous miniseries, so one would assume issue two will pick things up at that point. I’m glad to see Robert Kirkman expanding his universe. While there’s something to be said for a singular vision, I’ve always felt that a comic character can’t become truly iconic until writers and artists beyond its creator begin giving their own take, and even with Kirkman as story editor, this book is a step in the right direction. It’s a good story that fills in some good backstory, and it’s a nice addition for fans of the main comic.
Rating: 8/10
The Back Issue Bin 