Howard the Duck (2007 Series) #1

October 2, 2007

Quick Rating: Average
Title: The Most Dangerous Game Fowl
Rating: A

Is AIM interested in Howard?

Writer: Ty Templeton
Pencils: Juan Bobillo
Inks: Marcelo Sosa
Colors: Nestor Pereyra
Letters: Nate Piekos
Editor: Aubrey Sitterson
Cover Art: Juan Bobillo
Publisher: Marvel Comics

It’s trademark renewal time (or something), and that means it’s time for a new Howard the Duck miniseries. Last we saw Howard (in the Civil War: Choosing Sides one-shot), he was lining up to register despite the fact that he’s about as far from a superhero as you can get. Now he and Beverly are back in Detroit. Bad dreams are plaguing Howard, Bev is getting her big shot as an actress, and some would-be supervillains are planting their flags.

This issue is a mixed bag, to be blunt. The humor is pretty good – there’s a nice bit where Howard pretty much echoes my feelings for Civil War during a talk radio exchange, for instance – and Beverly’s innocence helps drive the plot along. The rating disturbs me, though – there’s a good bit of implied sex in here, which I don’t have a problem with in general, but I don’t really think should be in a comic with an “All Ages” rating. (Considering that Howard’s last miniseries was a MAX book makes it even more ironic.)

The artwork, similarly, is seriously mixed. I have the same problem with Juan Bobillo here that I did on She-Hulk: he draws people and backgrounds wonderfully, but the non-human characters look consistently off-model and unappealing. The Thing, the Man-Thing, the various monsters Howard plays poker with… just don’t work for me. And I don’t like the redesign for Howard himself at all. The rumor mill has it that the redesign is part of a settlement with Disney, who has never been happy with Howard’s superficial similarities to their own Duck family, but that doesn’t make the new Howard, with his narrow beak and bloodshot eyes, look any better. [2011 Note: This was written before Disney bought Marvel comics. Now they own Howard.]

In the end, the good and bad pretty much counteract each other and make this book a wash.

Rating: 5/10

Recent Reviews: August 17 Releases

So what’d I review over at CX Pulp in the last seven days? Here’s the list…

• Avengers Academy #18
• Batman #713
• Darkwing Duck #15
• DC Retroactive: Batman-The 90s #1
• DC Retroactive: The Flash-The 90s #1
• DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman-The 90s #1
• Fables #108
• Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #3
• Flashpoint: Abin Sur-The Green Lantern #3
• Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies #3
• Green Lantern Corps #63
• Justice League of America #60
• Power Girl #27
• Superboy #11
• Tiny Titans #43
• The Walking Dead #88
• X-Men: Schism #3

Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #2

August 2, 2011

Title: Stranger Bedfellows

Writer: Brandon Montclare
Art: Simon Bisley, Ryan Bodenheim, Ray-Anthony Height, Don Ho
Colorist: Simon Bisley, Tony Avina
Letterer: Nate Piekos
Cover Artist: Michael William Kaluta
Editor: Mark Paniccia
Publisher: Marvel Comics

She-Hulk, Nighthawk, and Frankenstein’s Monster have teamed up with Howard the Duck to stop the rampaging Man-Thing, being fed by the copious amounts of fear floating around thanks to that whole thing that’s happening over in those other comics. After being temporarily swapped with alternate reality versions of themselves, the team gets a recap of Frankenstein’s origin for some reason, then stroll off to face the enemy responsible for Man-Thing’s rampage: Psycho-Man.

And it’s just… a… mess.

The story is all over the lace, the heroes are together for the thinnest of reasons, and the chain of logic is virtually nonexistent. The frequent artistic changes don’t help. While all of the artists working on this book are perfectly competent, their styles are so different from one another that you keep feeling live you’ve spiraled into an entirely different comic book. With the love I have for many of the characters in this book, I was really looking forward to sort of an offbeat Fear Itself tie-in. Halfway through, I’ve felt nothing but disappointment.

Rating: 6/10

Recent Reviews: June 8 Releases

As you may or may not know, in addition to the tons of reviews I post here at the Back Issue Bin, I also write reviews of new comics over at CX Pulp.com. I thought I would start making it a habit to link BIB readers over to those other recent reviews on Tuesdays… y’know… when I remember. And have time. And feel like it.

Anyhoo, here are the comics released on June 8 that I’ve reviewed over at CX. These links (as well as all of my CX reviews) can be found right here on the archive page as well.

• Doctor Who: A Fairytale Life #3
• Donald Duck #367
• Echo #30
• Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #1
• Flashpoint: Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown #1
• Green Lantern Movie Prequel: Kilowog #1
• Green Lantern Movie Prequel: Tomar-Re #1
• Love and Capes: Ever After #5
• Morning Glories #10
• Space Warped #1
• Supergirl #64

Legion of Monsters: Man-Thing #1

April 9, 2007

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: A Flower in Alien Soil & Morgue Amore
Rating: Parental Advisory

The return of Man-Thing and Simon Garth: Zombie.

Writers: Charlie Huston & Ted McKeever
Art: Klaus Janson & Ted McKeever
Colors: Giulia Brusco & Chris Chuckry
Letters: Rus Wooton
Editor: John Barber
Cover Art: Greg Land
Publisher: Marvel Comics

The purpose of Marvel’s Legion of Monsters specials seems to be to re-establish their monster characters as legitimate horror franchises. If this is, indeed, the goal, Simon Garth: Zombie has a bright future. Man-Thing, however, is boring as ever.

In the lead story, a young girl comes to work for a control freak who is as obsessed with his garden as he is with controlling the Florida town where he lives. She uncovers a terrible secret that… well… to be honest, doesn’t make the slightest bit of logical sense.

Too many people dismiss Man-Thing as a Swamp Thing rip-off, which I don’t think is fair. For one thing, Man-Thing was actually the character to premiere first. For another, the characters are actually quite different. Man-Thing’s problem is not that he’s derivative. Man-Thing’s problem is that the writers who have tackled him, almost universally, have tried to overcome the obstacle of having a lead character who can neither speak nor think by overwriting the hell out of the expository captions. It’s like reading an old EC comic without the imagination or black comedy, which essentially leaves a lot of words that just makes you want to put the book down and take a nap.

The only thing that brings this story up from a “poor” rating is a really, really strong Zombie story by Ted McKeever. The story is basically a day in the life of the Zombie – found dead somewhere, taken to a hospital, escaping… living his horrible, empty existence, seeking the one thing he can’t “live” without. As a pure horror story, it works. It’s creepy, it’s disturbing, and McKeever’s art style is perfect for it.

I don’t know if Marvel has plans for the “Monster” characters beyond the one-shots, but if they do, I hope they give the Zombie more weight than Man-Thing, because while I do believe that any character can be made interesting under a good enough writer, I’ve yet to find one that can make Man-Thing interesting to me.

Rating: 6/10

Thunderbolts #147

September 6, 2010

Title: Scared Straight

Writer: Jeff Parker
Art: Kev Walker
Colorist: Frank Martin
Letterer: Albert Deschesne
Cover: Marko Djurdjevic
Editor: Bill Rosemann
Publisher: Marvel Comics

As a tie-in to Avengers Academy #3, the Avengers are bringing some of their young students to the Raft to hopefully shock them out of their more villainous tendencies. When an electromagnetic pulse hits the prison where the Thunderbolts are housed, some of the Avenger Academy kids set out to get revenge against their former torturer, Norman Osborn. As they hunt down the former Green Goblin, Luke Cage sets free the Thunderbolts to keep the rest of the inmates in check.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been a regular reader on this title. Marvel lost me at the same time that the book became part of Norman Osborn’s Initiative and most of the original cast departed, and in fact I only got this book because of its tie-in to the excellent Avengers Academy series. As it is, it’s okay. The book seems to have gotten back to its roots in a way, it’s once again about villains trying to find redemption of a sort. The Juggernaut actually works pretty well as a member of the team, although it’s hard to figure out why anybody would trust Moonstone again in such a capacity, and I’ve got no clue what Man-Thing is doing in this book. It is nice, though, to have original Thunderbolts Songbird, Mach-V and Fixer back in this title.

Kev Walker’s artwork is pretty good. A bit overly-detailed, like he’s trying to do a Leinil Yu riff, but he tells his story well, so I’ll nod and give a thumbs up.

I wish I could say this issue made me want to run out and start buying this comic again, as Thunderbolts was once my favorite Marvel title for a time, but it really is just “okay.” And just “okay” isn’t good enough for a comic book to make it to my pull folder.

Rating: 7/10

Deadpool: Merc With a Mouth #13

August 1, 2010

Writer: Victor Gishler
Penciler (Chapters 1 & 4): Bong Dazo
Inker (Chapters 1 & 4): Jose Pimeltel
Colorist (Chapters 1, 3 & 4): Matt Milla
Artist (Chapter 2): Kyle Baker
Artist (Chapter 3): Matteo Scalera
Letterer: Jeff Eckleberry
Cover: Arthur Suydam
Editor: Axel Alonso
Publisher: Marvel Comics

This issue ends both Deadpool’s adventures in the zombie dimension and this series that was a miniseries, then it wasn’t, then it was again. Deadpool and Headpool (the disembodied head of Zombie Deadpool), along with a few scientists they’ve picked up along the way, are planning to make their run for the portal that will get them out of the zombie dimension and back to good ol’ Marvel Earth-616. Which won’t be easy, considering that there’s an entire universe full of zombies hungry for living flesh out to track them down.

This is the book that made me a fan of writer Victor Gishler. The man manages to mix horror and comedy in a way that’s really only suitable for the likes of Deadpool. Some of the stuff we get in this issue gets into the realm of the grotesque, but still in a wonderfully amusing way. Mixing in some time travel stuff, guest appearances by Brother Voodoo and the Man-Thing, and a deliciously crazy gambit that Deadpool pulls off like nobody else, we get a really fantastic adventure that leads into the current Deadpool Corps series pretty neatly.

One thing that does hurt the book a little, though, is the terribly inconsistent art. Matteo Scalera’s third chapter fits with the Bong Dazo art on chapters one and four pretty well, but Kyle Baker’s chapter two feels like it belongs in a different book entirely. The art isn’t bad, far from it. Baker is an excellent artist and visual storyteller. But his style is so different from the other two artists that it wrenches you completely out of the story as soon as his chapter begins, then does it again when you transition from his work to Scalera’s.

I’m a bit sad to see this series go. It’s been very entertaining, a bit more than the Deadpool Corps book which has already replaced it, but it’s given us a year of amusement. I’ll take what I can get.

Rating: 7/10