review: Supermarket #1-4 (2006)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Brian Wood
Artist: Kristian

Rating: 2/10

I noticed that the trade paperback for this series is out, so here's hoping I can save someone the injustice of spending 18 bucks on this garbage.

The story starts out OK, with a good, if not terribly compelling or original, "capitalist future gone awry" premise, and some amusingly quirky characters and situations. Unfortunately, it never gets beyond that point, and it doesn't even attempt to explore the depths of the social issues implied by the premise.

For the first three issues, the story got by as a mildly entertaining cat-and-mouse chase, but much of the interest was in the expectation that the chase was heading somewhere meaningful. And then the final issue arrived. To say that this was a pathetic resolution to everything that happened up to this point is ridiculously generous. It's as if Mr. Wood just gave up, like he didn't know how to say what he wanted to say, or how to make it interesting, so he just ended it in the most expedient, unimaginative way possible. I'd call it predictable, but I don't think Mr. Wood is three years old, and I would have never predicted that a capable, adult writer would resort to such a simplistic, fairy-tale ending.

It's possible that the shallowness of the story is meant to coyly reflect the society portrayed in the story, and that this was Mr. Wood's intent all along. But even if that's not giving him too much credit, which I suspect it is, it still doesn't make it a good idea. The last thing a superficial, materialistic society needs is more superficial material.

Overall, an entirely pointless, unsatisfying, throw-away story, redeemed only slightly by fun, vibrant art and an occasional chuckle.

review: X-Men #188-189 (2006)

Publish: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Mike Carey
Artists: Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Antonio Fabela

Rating: 7/10

Mike Carey is another new writer for me, and another good find. I may be the only one, but I think this is much more interesting so far than the Uncanny X-Men relaunch. There's a good deal of action, some mysterious, powerful bad guys, some surprise and controversy, deft handling of existing storylines, good characterization and dialogue -- what more could you want in a superhero book?

I've seen other reviews dismiss this series mainly for the Chris Bachalo art, with criticisms about consistency and proportions, but I disagree. Personally, I don't see the lack of consistency, at least not any more than with any other artist, so I can't address that. As for the proportions, well, it's a much more cartoony style, more along the lines of Arthur Adams than Neal Adams, so sure, it doesn't look like your artist's anatomy book, but that doesn't make it bad. It's a stylistic thing, which reasonable people can like or not, but I don't think you can criticize the style for what it is. Of course, the art's not perfect, and I would fault him for, on almost every book I've seen of his, drawing at least a couple of completely inscrutable panels, where I literally have no idea what I'm looking at. And there's also a tendency for ultra-heavy shadows, which can further make some scenes hard to read. But in general, I find Bachalo's art fun and dynamic, and a nice change from all the "realistic" stuff out there.

Overall, fun, well-done superhero fare. I'll definitely see it through.

review: Uncanny X-Men #475-476 (2006)

Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Billy Tan, Danny Miki, Frank D'Armata

Rating: 4/10

Considering how much I'm enjoying Brubaker's work on Daredevil, I had high hopes that this new team was going to give me a reason to be interested in the X-books again. Unfortunately, that hasn't happened. The first two issues of the twelve issue "The Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire" story arc were a complete borefest.

The first issue in particular was a complete mess. It seemed to be just a series of excuses for why Brubaker's pet characters, many of whom are appearing totally out of the blue, need to be part of the team. I'm not opposed to switching up the team, and when you have so many good characters at your disposal, it's arguably worse to not use them enough, rather than to swap them around too often. However, this switch up felt too forced, a feeling which was reinforced by the lame explanations for why these characters were suddenly showing up. It would have been better to not try to explain it at all; just bring all the X-Men into a room and assemble a team like you're picking players for a pick-up basketball game. It's just as reasonable, without the downside of wasting a whole issue on tedious justifications.

On the art side, I can't quite put my finger on the problem, but it just doesn't come together for me. I've tried to like Billy Tan before, and he's done some good stuff, even in these issues, but he doesn't do it consistently. I think the problem is that it feels like Image-lite. It's as if it wants to be Lee or Silvestri, but it misses the mark just enough that it becomes distracting, and thus maybe seems worse than it actually is.

I also can't stand the coloring style D'Armata is using here. I'm sure this is a conscious decision, since he doesn't always color this way (his coloring on Daredevil is completely different, and I even cited it as an asset on that book). Everything looks way too shiny, particularly the people. It's as if they all just took a bath in baby oil. It's downright disturbing. The coloring alone is almost reason enough for me to stay away from this book.

Overall, if you're a die-hard X-Men fan, I don't think there's anything here you will object to, and you may even be excited by the reappearance of some under-utilized characters, but for the rest of us, there's not much here to recommend. I may give it another issue, in case it was just a very poor start, but I'm not looking forward to it.

review: Moon Knight #1-3 (2006)

Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Charlie Huston
Artists: David Finch, Danny Miki, Frank D'Armata

Rating: 7/10

I don't know if I've ever read anything by Charlie Huston before, but I'm quite impressed with this first (for me) showing. He's done an excellent job crafting an interesting, and intense, rebirth of this character. The story is well-written and nicely structured, starting with a lot of intrigue, and then revealing more and more information about where Moon Knight has been and what he's up to now. At the same time, each issue, even the first, where we know almost nothing about the "big picture", stands on its own as a satisfying read.

If I had a story gripe, it might be the "gay thing" in issue #3. Maybe there's some forthcoming storyline where Huston needed to establish that character's sexuality, but I suspect it was just meant to be something shocking or controversial. But really, it's 2006. Are gay characters shocking anymore? And even if they are (e.g. all the Batgirl coverage), it's certainly less so for supporting characters. It feels forced and contrived here. Maybe he just needed something for these characters to talk about for a few pages. But worse than that, it's basically saying Moon Knight is an idiot for not realizing it, even after all these decades, and despite it apparently being obvious to everybody else.

I doubt that was Huston's intent, but that's the trouble with things thrown in just to shock -- they rarely make sense when you look passed their shock-value. I hope Huston isn't one of those writers who thinks these kinds of gimmicks are necessary to tell a "cool" or "realistic" story. The story is plenty interesting already. There's no need to "punch it up" with artificial controversy.

I've seen David Finch on a few other books, and I think his art here is about the best I've seen it. I've heard other people complain about various aspects of his work, but I don't have any serious gripes. It's classic Image-style, highly-rendered, muscle-bulging, butt-kicking, superhero fare, by one of the current best practitioners of that style. If you like that, you'll definitely like this book.

One other point worth mentioning. There is some really gruesome stuff in here. As in, those with weak constitutions might want to keep a barf bag handy when reading. I'm not objecting to it, just warning about it, although personally I think the story would be just as good without being quite so graphic (ugh, I feel so old saying that).

Overall, a very promising start to a hard-edged superhero adventure.

review: Wonder Woman #1 (2006)

Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Allan Heinberg
Artists: Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson

Rating: 4/10

I indicated recently that I would mostly review blocks of books, but I'm making an exception for Wonder Woman because I don't expect to pick up any more of this current storyline. I like this character, and I wanted to like this book, but it was very clearly not aimed at me, and I just don't have the time or inclination to do the fanboy homework required to (maybe) begin to appreciate it.

The problem is, I'm a casual fan (I'm certainly familiar with the character, and I read a bunch of the George Perez relaunch years ago, but I haven't read much of this title in recent years), but this book is not the least bit written for new or casual readers. Other than a very brief history of Donna Troy (which I thought was sufficient), there is almost no background given for any of the characters or events in this book. Unfortunately, it was clear that a lot of these things were significant somehow, so it felt as if somebody had ripped out half the pages of the book on me.

Now, I'm not saying that everything has to be explained as it happens. It gets tedious and boring when a book is all introduction, as many first issues are, so I'm all for slowly revealing information and building suspense or whatever, but you can't explain nothing. Plus, I didn't get the impression that many of these things were meant to be mysterious, with more details forthcoming; I was just supposed to "get it". Well, I didn't, and the story sucked for it.

Also, there are essentially two "dream sequences" in this issue. They weren't quite as blatant as real "it was all just a dream" stories, but they're a similar device wherein you see one thing, which is perhaps shocking or unusual, only to find out later that it didn't really happen, or wasn't really what it appeared. Dream sequences almost always suck. They're a classic cop-out from telling, and dealing with the ramifications of, a story that is actually shocking or unusual. And this issue has two of them. Need I say more?

I was also disappointed by the art. I like the covers I've seen for this title, as well as Terry's covers for the recent Superman storyline, so I was expecting to like this art quite a bit, but I found the interiors predictable and boring. It's not bad by any means, but it's almost the definition of a corporate or "house style" comic. There's just nothing special or distinctive about it. I tend to prefer styles with more personality.

Overall, you might like this (although I'm clearly not able to judge) if you are a big Wonder Woman fan, and you're up on all her recent events and rogues gallery, but otherwise, you'll probably be bored and confused.

review: Daredevil #82-85 (2006)

Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artists: Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Frank D'Armata

Rating: 7/10

I was hesitantly looking forward to this new story arc. Hesitant because the most recent stories by Bendis had just about ruined my interest in this series, and this new arc would be starting from a cliffhanger he left behind. But looking forward because, well, it wasn't Bendis any more.

I didn't so much mind the cliffhanger that ended the Bendis run. The whole situation was rather contrived, but the cliffhanger itself was ultimately no worse than any other "shocking" turn of events. My main problem with that story, and several before it, was that it was a one- or two-issue idea that was tediously dragged out for half a year. I don't know if Bendis is so delusional from success that he thinks his every idea is golden, and worth at least six issues, or if he's just so stretched by the dozens of books he writes that he simply can't afford to let a single blip of inspiration go to waste. Either way, after suffering through month after month of that swill, I had had enough. I was more than ready for a new creative team.

Happily, the new team has more than revived my interest in this series. They managed to pick up that disjointed, plodding mess of a storyline, and turn it into something compelling and exciting. The writing and art both contribute to a well-developed, authentic feel for the story. I'm deliberately avoiding the word "realistic" here because I think that is used far too freely, and inaccurately, to describe these types of books. "Intense" might be closer, but still a bit one-dimensional. "Immersive" is probably better. You really understand the characters and situations.

I should point out that one of those situations is a death, which might be controversial. I'm generally in the camp that says, death as a plot device is fine, as long as it's not the entire plot. When the whole point of a story is the shock value of killing a character, that's a cop out. My three-year-old could write that. I want to see the effects of the death, the consequences, the reactions of other characters. That's where storytelling comes in. Fortunately, this story appears to be built around similar values.

As a whole, the story is moving along nicely. Each issue brings a new dimension to the overall story, which is explored and woven into threads from previous issues, while dropping teasers for the next. Even though the issues don't stand on their own, they're still satisfying individual reads, which leave you wanting more. It's classic serial storytelling.

At first, I was a bit disappointed in the art. Not because it looked bad, but because it seemed a little too much like the old Maleev style. I like Maleev, but I was hoping for more of a departure with the new creative team. But I'm over that now, and I think I'm liking this even more than Maleev. Lark has a similar rough quality, but I think his art is more detailed and nuanced. In particular, Lark does a fantastic job creating atmosphere and a feeling of place. Maleev had a similar knack for creating a lot of atmosphere, but I think his tended to be more monotonous -- dark and gritty all the time. D'Armata's more rendered colors are also a departure from the flatter, muted style of previous issues. I could go either way on the coloring style for this sort of drawing, but I think this was a good choice, and a good, subtle way to give this run even more of its own look.

On a related note, I wouldn't mind seeing cover artist Tommy Lee Edwards step in on an issue or two. I've been waiting to see more of his work ever since his The Question limited series last year, and these wonderful Daredevil covers are just a cruel tease.

Overall, a very good start for the new team, and a very good start to a very promising story arc. I'm being a bit conservative again with the 7/10 rating, but if things end up as well as they've been building up, this could easily get another point by the time it's finished.

review: Annihilation: Nova #1-3 (2006)

Publisher: Marvel Entertainment
Writer: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning
Artists: Kev Walker, Rick Magyar

Rating: 5/10

I'm strangely attracted to this series, and I don't know why. I guess it's a subconscious fondness for a character I haven't seen in a long time, but who I remember liking from my childhood. Kind of like hanging out with a dull grade-school friend, and having a good time purely based on the nostalgia value. Given that, I can't really recommend this book for anybody without a similar sentimental attachment.

It's not that it's a terrible read -- I actually like the Annihilation premise, and the execution is perfectly innocuous, cosmic superhero fun. But three-quarters of the way through this series, I still don't have a good idea what the point is, other than to showcase Nova for a while. On the one hand, it's almost refreshing to see an "event" that isn't just a bunch of shock-value gimmicks and contrivances, or isn't just an excuse to have crossovers in a gazillion titles, but on the other hand, something should happen. The story has to be more than just running around space for three issues. I fear that it's being setup to cram a whole bunch of stuff into the final issue, and ultimately, once it gets to the interesting stuff, it still won't be that interesting because it will be short-changed due to space constraints.

The art is decent. I've seen some complaints that it's crude or simplistic, but I disagree. The drawings may be a bit sparse at times, and the inking angular and blocky, but these are all stylistic issues, and I rather like the result. I don't want to place this into unwarranted company, but it reminds me a little of Mike Mignola. It's not on that level, and not that consistent, but it has character, and it's plenty capable of telling the story.

Overall, dumb fun for Nova fans, but not much to recommend it to anybody else. Even if this means Nova will start appearing in more regular titles, it's still probably not required reading, since everything here (at least so far), can be recapped in about three or four panels wherever he shows up.